Top Ten Tuesday: Me, Myself, and I

This week's prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Book Titles that Describe Me and My Life."  I had a lot of fun figuring out ten picks for this!  Some are fiction and some are non-fiction, and they range all over the genres, so I've included just a smidgeon of info for each of them.

A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer (PG-13) -- murder mystery set during a British Christmas house party (note: this is not Regency-era historical fiction like most of Heyer's books)

Grateful American by Gary Sinese (PG) -- memoir by actor Gary Sinese about his life and the ways that the American military and being an American have impacted him, and how he has chosen to try to give back to his country and its defenders

Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson (G) -- nonfiction book about how to make your home a haven for your family and for others, and how to use that coziness to reflect your faith and share it with others

I'd Rather be Reading by Anne Bogel (PG) -- nonfiction book about what it's like to love books

Imagination Redeemed by Gene Edward Veith and Matthew P. Ristuccia (PG-16) -- nonfiction look at ways that Christians can use their imagination while also glorifying and obeying God

In the Company of Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (PG-13) -- collection of short stories by various modern mystery authors, all of the stories either about or relating somehow to Sherlock Holmes

A Little Persuaded by Kendra E. Ardnek (G) -- last book in the Austen Fairy Tales series, it retells both "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Anderson and Persuasion by Jane Austen

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (PG-16) -- second book in the Thursday Next series of hilarious book-lover fantasy

Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler (PG-13) -- four classic hardboiled mystery novellas starring Philip Marlowe

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (R) -- fictionalized biography of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of England's King Edward IV

How about you?  Did you do a Top Ten Tuesday list this week?  If so, please share a link!  If not, what book titles can you think of that describe you or your life?

Top Ten Tuesday: Go Away and Stay Here

This week, our Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books for Armchair Travelers."  Here are my ten favorite books with vivid settings that really make you feel like you are visiting their locations!

I'm organizing these alphabetically by title this week because I don't feel like putting them in the order of how much I like them.  I've also included where they take place, and linked the titles to my reviews in case you are curious about them.

1. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard-- Pennsylvania

2. The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

3. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim -- Italy

4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- Dartmoor, England

5. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes -- Boston, Massachusetts

6. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson -- Scottish Highlands

7. The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett -- Rocky Mountains

8. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry -- Chincoteague Island, Virginia

9. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster -- Italy

10. Swamp Water by Vareen Bell -- Okeefenokee Swamp, Georgia

What books have you read that have really vivid locations?

"Knave of Diamonds" by Laurie R. King

I really enjoy stories about con artists.  Which means it's a little weird to me that I didn't connect more with this book.  It was fun, but I sometimes felt like I was being subtly told how fun it was, not that I actually was finding it fun?  Maybe I just read it at the wrong time -- I got two holds in from the library and had to quickly read this one before it was due again because someone else had placed a hold on it.  I probably would have enjoyed it more in January or something.  I also think that I probably will enjoy in more if/when I reread it at some point, because I will stop worrying about Holmes and Russell's safety every minute of the story.

I did like it!  I just didn't love it.  Which is okay.  I only love about half of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books by Laurie R. King.  But I like basically all of them :-)

In this one, Mary Russell's uncle resurfaces after being presumed dead for years.  He's a con artist and thief.  He wants Russell to help him find something.  That he stole years ago, and was subsequently stolen from him.  It's complicated.  And it all turns out just fine, whew.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for some discussions of British societal uproars over the uncovering (years previous) of a "homosexual ring" within the upper echelons of society, and some remarkably (for LRK) veiled implications that a side character may have feelings of some kind for someone of the same sex.  Also, some violence and a smattering of light cusswords.

"A Study in Scarlet" (Manga Classics) by Arthur Conan Doyle (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), and Julien Choy (art)

FINALLY!  The Manga Classics folks are releasing new titles again, and the fact that their first new release in several years is a Sherlock Holmes novel fills me with absolute glee.  Especially since they are promising more Holmes mangas to come.

Y'all know I am a devoted Sherlockian.  I've loved the canon since I was in my very early teens, and I have read quite a number of pastiches and watched a lot of movies and shows based on the characters and books.  I can be a bit picky about how Holmes and Watson are portrayed -- Watson needs to be intelligent, Holmes needs to have an inner core of kindness and decency, and their friendship needs to feel genuine.  Happily, this manga version of A Study in Scarlet hits all those notes.

One thing I especially liked was how young they portrayed Holmes and Watson.  They should be in their mid-to-late 20s, and I think they hit that range really well.  Watson should be just a trifle older than Holmes, but less world-weary.  Mrs. Hudson is shown to be younger than I usually see her portrayed, but I don't recall anything in the canon talking about how old she is, so it's entirely possible she's not middle-aged or beyond the way she is usually cast in film adaptations.

Doyle's original novel is basically split into two halves, and I think Crystal S. Chan did a great job here of making the story feel more like one whole narrative instead.

Oh, and this manga is in full color!  The previous Manga Classics books have been black and white, so this is a really interesting and fun change.  I wonder if it's only the Sherlock Holmes titles that will be in color, or if their upcoming release of King Lear will be as well?

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple of old-fashioned cuss words and for discussing murder, including showing dead bodies and people being killed.  Nothing too gory.  Polygamy gets very briefly mentioned too.

"The Lantern's Dance" by Laurie R. King

Another winner from Laurie R. King!  The Lantern's Dance is the eighteenth Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes book, and a thoroughly enjoyable entry into the series.

This review contains SPOILERS for the series, not just for this book, so beware!  Jump to the movie-style rating if you want to avoid spoilage.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes already on their way to France when Holmes's son, Damian Adler, alerts them to the fact his home has been broken into.  Fearing that some of their enemies may try to hurt them through Damian, his young daughter, and his new fiancée, they rush to the rescue.  While Holmes ensures that Damian and company are hidden away safely, Russell investigates the break-in and ends up delving into long-buried family secrets.

Like Locked Rooms, this is one of the more deeply personal books in the series.  This time, it is Holmes who confronts past trauma and woe, as he grapples with remember his mother's suicide when he was a boy. But this book has a very happy ending indeed -- much happier than I expected for a long time!  I found it very satisfying.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for oblique references to the impropriety of a man and his fiancée sharing a house, then a hotel room, and for the unsettlingly modern reaction of most characters to this behavior.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2023

Our first Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl for 2024 is all about looking back over our reading from the past year and picking our top reads.  As usual, I am doing two lists, one of my top ten favorite new reads, and one of my top ten favorite re-reads.  I've linked each title to my review here on my blog, and provided a little info about each book as well, including its publication year.

My Ten Favorite New Reads:

1. Code Name Edelweiss (PG-16) by Stephanie Landsem, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction spy story set in Hollywood during the build-up to WWII

2. A Deed of Dreadful Note (PG) by Patricia Meredith, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction murder mystery based on the life of mystery novelist Anna Katherine Green

3. High Lonesome (PG-16) by Louis L'Amour, 1962 -- western adventure about strangers banding together against terrible foes

4. Murder on Black Swan Lane (PG-13) by Andrea Penrose, 2017 -- historical fiction murder mystery set in Regency England

5. A Right to Die (PG-13) by Rex Stout, 1964 -- a Nero Wolfe murder mystery involving the Civil Rights Movement

6. Beauty (G) by Robin McKinley, 1978 -- gentle and wholesome fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast

7. The Lilies of the Field (G) by William E. Barrett, 1962 -- sweet story of finding common ground despite outward differences

8. And Then There Were None (PG-16) by Agatha Christie, 1939 -- classic murder mystery about people trapped on an island

9. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (PG) by Bette Bao Lord, 1984 -- middle grade book about a Chinese immigrant family in the 1950s

10. The Vanderbeekers on the Road (G) by Karina Yan Glaser, 2022 -- middle grade book about a family road trip

My Ten Favorite Re-reads:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (PG) by A. Conan Doyle, 1902 -- classic Sherlock Holmes mystery

2. The Blue Castle (PG) by L. M. Montgomery, 1926 -- classic about a woman stepping out into life from the shadows

3. Shane (PG) by Jack Schaefer, 1949 -- western about a loner who adopts a family

4. The Black Stallion (PG) by Walter Farley, 1941 -- middle grade classic about a boy and wild horse who rescue each other

5. Playback (R) by Raymond Chandler, 1958 -- hardboiled detective mystery starring Philip Marlowe

6. The Enchanted April (G) by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922 -- classic about four women who discover their true selves in Italy

7. Borden Chantry (PG) by Louis L'Amour, 1977 -- western murder mystery

8. Jane of Austin (PG-13) by Hillary Manton Lodge, 2017 -- Christian fiction retelling of Sense and Sensibility set in modern-day Texas

9. By the Great Horn Spoon! (PG) by Sid Fleischman, 1963 -- middle grade classic tall tale about the Gold Rush

10. Big Red (PG-10) by Jim Kjelgaard, 1945 -- middle grade classic about a boy and the dog he loves

You can see all my lists of favorite reads since 2014 on this page.

Check back later this week for a more fulsome look at my 2023 reading, including how I did with various challenges and so on!

"Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles" by John S. Fitzpatrick

This was an enjoyable collection of short stories about Holmes and Watson having four adventures in Montana in the 1890s.  While I didn't fully love any of the stories, I did have fun reading them, especially since I took this book along on vacation and read it while in Montana!

Of the four stories, I liked "The Mysterious Woman" best because it felt most like a story from the canon, with Holmes uncovering the reason behind a woman's sudden and inexplicable behavioral changes.  

The places and many of the people in this book are historically accurate, which was nifty.  The book contains lots of photos of locations from around the time the stories take place.  However, the writing sometimes dragged because the author often hared off on tangents about how various bits of mining machinery and apparatus operated.  Where one paragraph would have sufficed, we got a page or two, and so on.  Great if you're fascinated by 1890s mining methods in Montana, I suppose, but I eventually began to skim them.

Also, the author repeatedly portrays Holmes as using cocaine to keep alert while on a stakeout, and I am pretty sure (though I admit it has been a few years since I read the whole canon) that he canonically only uses cocaine when he is between cases and suffering from extreme ennui, never while on a case.  That bugged me.

So... it was a fun read, but not one I'll be rereading.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some mentions of husbandly "urges," some alcohol and drug use, and some violence.

This is my 33rd book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

Top Ten Tuesday: And Then a Heroine Comes Along

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Favorite Heroines."  I've decided to list mine in alphabetical order by first name because I am late getting this post finished and I don't want to take the time and mental energy to figure out whom I like best.  I'm also going to list a few attributes I associate with each of them, though, so you can get an idea of what they are like!

Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Jane Austen -- shy, quiet, sensible, loyal, kind, tenacious, bookish

Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery -- quirky, imaginative, bookish, starry-eyed, stubborn

Constance Kopp from Girl Waits with Gun and the rest of the Kopp Sisters series by Amy Stewart -- sensible, down-to-earth, brave, stalwart, capable, determined

Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling -- intelligent, loyal, courageous, level-headed, resourceful, curious, bookish

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- strong-willed, strong-minded, indomitable, resilient, affectionate

Jo March from Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott -- independent, smart, imaginative, bookish, understanding, stubborn, resourceful, dependable

Mary Russell from The Beekeeper's Apprentice and the rest of the series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King -- willful, intelligent, gutsy, bookish, indomitable, skillful

Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series by Jasper Fforde -- trustworthy, diligent, determined, curious, strong-willed

Trixie Belden from the Trixie Belden series by Kathryn Kenny -- smart, loyal, curious, pugnacious, determined

Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- bright, vibrant, bookish, diligent, kind, forthright

Well, from my listing of random character traits and descriptions, I think we can see the sorts of traits I value in fictional characters!  There are a lot of similarities here, aren't there?

Top Ten Tuesday: Old and Loving It

I missed the August 16 Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl, so I'm doing it for this week's freebie.  It was "Books I love that were written over ten years ago."  Ahem.  That's actually ALL of my top ten favorite books of all time!  So, here they are, with their publication dates in case you are curious:

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- published in 1847

2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- published in 1844

3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- published in 1955

4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- published in 1902

5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton -- published in 1967

6. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery -- published in 1926

7. Persuasion by Jane Austen -- published in 1817

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows -- published in 2008

9. Shane by Jack Schaefer -- published in 1949

10. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley -- published in 1941

I think it's rather cool that my top ten favorite books basically span 200 years, from 1817 to 2008!

Top Ten Tuesday: Mine, all mine!

Have you ever borrowed a book from the library or a friend, or read an e-copy, and loved the book so much you just had to buy a physical copy for your shelves?

I definitely have done this!  If I love a book, that means I'll want to reread it, and that means I want a copy on my shelves so I can reread it at any moment.  

So, here are ten books and/or series I've done that with, for this week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl.  All titles are linked to my reviews :-)

(All pictures are mine from my Instagram account)

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery (PG)

Corral Nocturne by Elisabeth Grace Foley (G)

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (G)

Girl in Disguise by Greer MacAllister (PG-13)

Laertes by Carly Stevens (PG-16)

The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey (PG)

The Mycroft and Sherlock books by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse 

• Mycroft Holmes (PG-13)
• Mycroft and Sherlock (PG-13)
• Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage (PG-13)

The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo (G)

The Two Blue Doors trilogy by Hillary Manton Lodge 

• A Table by the Window (PG)
• Reservations for Two (PG-13)
• Together at the Table (PG-13)

The Tudor Throne series by Charity Bishop

• The Usurper's Throne (PG-16)
• The Welsh Gambit (PG-13)
• The King's Players (PG-13)
• The Secret in the Tower (PG-16)
• The Queen's Falconer (PG-16)
• The Last Fire-Eater (PG-13)
• Isabella's Daughter (PG-13)

Have you read any of these?  Did you do a TTT this week?  Do share!

"Castle Shade" by Laurie R. King

Well, what do you know?  I greatly liked two of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books in a row!  I very much enjoyed Riviera Gold last year, and I also had a jolly time reading Castle Shade!  That makes me quite happy :-)

Castle Shade picks right up where Riviera Gold left off, with Russell and Holmes on a train heading to Transylvania.  Someone is creating creepy and weird problems for Queen Marie of Roumania, the kinds of problems that make you think of vampires and witches and ancient curses.  Which, Russell and Holmes are convinced, all have very human sources and motivations.

Part of what I liked so much about this book was how escapist it was.  Nothing so suspenseful that I got stressed out on behalf of the characters.  The mystery is solid and entertaining, but even in the most exciting parts, I could read serenely on, confident that all would turn out well in the end.  And I really loved that.

Particularly Good Bits:

In some fairy tales, happily ever after is where things end.

In others, happiness is where the problems begin (p. 29).

I looked at my husband.  "Do you plan on indulging your flair for the dramatic throughout our time here?"

"I expect so," he said complacently (p. 45).  (This part made me stop reading and laugh aloud with delight.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for allusions to historical instances of people bathing in blood, impaling their enemies, and characters wondering if a sexual assault has taken place.  It hadn't, but it does get discussed.

"The Canary Trainer" by Nicholas Meyer

For years, I have wanted to read a book that inserts Sherlock Holmes into The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.  Why?  Because the edition of that book I first read, way back in 1999, mentioned that some people suggest that the "Rat Catcher" character might actually be Sherlock Holmes in disguise.  I have since learned that Leroux was actually a HUGE fan of Sherlock Holmes, and it's very possible that he meant the Rat Catcher to be Holmes in disguise.  

Well, what Holmesian wouldn't want to read a version of it where that's really Holmes?

So, I was excited to learn that Nicholas Meyer had written a book that mashed the two together.  I've long been a fan of Meyer's book The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and hoped he would do the story justice.  And, for the most part, he did.  Holmes was very Holmes-esque, I like that Irene Adler got to play a part that didn't involve her trying to seduce Holmes (because I'm tired of pastiches that use her that way), and I liked seeing the events of The Phantom of the Opera from a different perspective.

But Holmes isn't the Rat Catcher.  In fact, the Rat Catcher never shows up at all.  I mean, I guess you could say Holmes kind of steps in to take his place in a way?  But... it wasn't how I was hoping, so... I will have to reread this sometime without my expectations in the way, and I think I will be even more pleased with it then.  Which doesn't mean I didn't like it now, because I did!  A lot.  Enough to keep it on my shelves.

Particularly Good Bits:

It is often so with human nature; we take for granted and disparage our greatest gifts and years to be accepted in capacities for which others might be better suited.  Clowns long to enact Hamlet, doctors to write novels, and in my case here was a detective determined to play the violin (p. 46).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some mild innuendo, peril to many characters, and several fairly creepy scenes, as befits anything about the Phantom of the Opera.

This is my 17th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

"For the Sake of the Game" edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger

Hmm.  While this book was a fun, fast read, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the earlier collections in this series, A Study in Sherlock, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, and Echoes of Sherlock Holmes.  Like those first three, this is a collection of short stories somehow inspired by the Sherlock Holmes canon, by a very varied group of writers.  Some stories have Holmes and Watson in them, some don't, etc.

I think that a lot of the stories in this collection were less charming and quirky, and more edgy, and that's why I didn't like it as well.  I don't know, it just felt... colder and darker, somehow.  Instead of five favorite stories in it, I only have three:

+ "The Case of the Missing Case" by Alan Gordon, which has a young Sherlock Holmes learning some lessons from a master of disguise and putting his already formidable talents to work.

+ "The Adventure of the Six Sherlocks" by Toni L. P. Kelner, in which a murder at a Sherlock Holmes fan convention gets solved by a reporter and her unexpected sidekick.

+ "Hounded" by Zoe Sharp, which retells The Hound of the Baskervilles in the modern era and inserts an extra character into it, with some surprising results.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13/R -- some stories are decidedly on the R side, with others being much tamer and cleaner.

This is my 4th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

"Riviera Gold" by Laurie R. King

It seems like, for the last few years, I've been loving every-other-one of Laurie R. King's novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.  I loved Garment of Shadows, liked Dreaming Spies pretty well, loved The Murder of Mary Russell, and liked Island of the Mad kind of okay.  I'm happy to announce that Riviera Gold continues this pattern -- I loved it!  It's one I will add to my bookshelf at some point, for sure.

This adventure finds Mary Russell cruising up to Monte Carlo with a bunch of friends, but without her husband, who is sleuthing elsewhere.  Although she appears to be in this just for the fun of learning to sail a yacht, she's actually tracking down Mrs. Hudson, who memorably departed Sussex in The Murder of Mary Russell.  

Russell finds Mrs. Hudson all right, and also a whole lot of trouble.  Smugglers, arms dealers, thieves, swindlers, and many actually nice people rub elbows with each other, and with Russell and Holmes.  Actually nice people including people called Scotty and Zelda and Dos.

And, yes, that's F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitgerald, and John Dos Passos.  They don't appear in this book as much as Cole and Linda Porter did in Island of the Mad, but since I'm a Fitzgerald fan (this blog is named after a line of his, after all), I definitely enjoyed seeing them crop up.

Anyway, I was worried at first that Sherlock Holmes wasn't going to be in this book much, since he was off on another case, but he joined Russell before long.  My favorite parts of this series are usually when they're working together, and this book proved no exception.  They did pursue different clues and work on separate angles of the case, but were a team nonetheless.  

Adding this to my listing of all King's Russell/Holmes books in order of favoriteness:

1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (book 1)
2. The Game (book 7)
3. The Murder of Mary Russell (book 14)
4. O Jerusalem (book 5)
5. Garment of Shadows (book 12)
6. Riviera Gold (book 16)
7. Pirate King (book 11)
8. Locked Rooms (book 8)
9. Dreaming Spies (book 13)
10. Justice Hall (book 6)
11. The God of the Hive (book 10)
12. The Language of Bees (book 9)
13. The Moor (book 4)
14. A Monstrous Regiment of Women (book 2)
15. Island of the Mad (book 15)
16. A Letter of Mary (book 3)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, peril, murder, and a little bad language.

"Mary Russell's War and Other Stories of Suspense" by Laurie R. King

You likely know I'm a fan of Laurie R. King's novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.  I've read all of them.  And now I've also read this perfectly charming collection of short stories that also feature that delightful detective duo.

I'd read about half of the stories in this collection before, as King has released some of them for free or for very low prices as ebooks over the past few years.  But there were several here that were new to me... and even if there weren't, I would have loved this volume anyway because I would always rather read a physical book than an electronic one.  Blame being an old fogey if you want.  But the titular story, "Mary Russell's War," is a collection of journal entries with lots of photographs included, and I really liked being able to see those on paper, and to study them in some detail, instead of peering at them on my phone's tiny screen.

Anyway.  My two favorites in this collection were "The Marriage of Mary Russell," which I'd read before, and "Stately Holmes," which I had not.  The former isn't a mystery so much as an adventure in which Russell and Holmes' wedding plans go a bit awry... but all's well that ends well.  And the latter sees Russell and Holmes interacting with family members at Christmas time, and solving a small mystery about a visit from St. Nicholas while they're at it.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for a lot of stuff about WWI, some moments of suspense and peril, and other detective-story type things.

This is my 11th book read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020

"Murder on the Moor" by Julianna Deering

I've done it!  I've finished all six Drew Farthering Mysteries by Julianna Deering!  I read them all out of order, but now I've read them all.  Huzzah!  I look forward to rereading them one day in the proper order.

I liked this one tons, especially because it kept giving little nods to The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of my favorite books ever.  It even had a massive dog living out on the moor, but not a spectral hound or anything.  And Drew and Nick took aliases from that book sometimes, which was especially amusing.

The book centers around a friend of Drew's from his schoolboy days who's recently married a beautiful woman and moved out to his family's ancestral home by the moor.  It's got a few shades of Rebecca here and there too, but nothing super tragic or awful like what happens in that book.  And there's a handsome, ascerbic Welshman around too, so there are hints of Wuthering Heights too.

Anyway!  The vicar at the little town nearby gets murdered.  Who would want to hurt him, and why?  Also, there are mysterious fires out on the moor, sheep get killed in weird ways, and there are altogether too many odd things going on for anyone to ignore.  Drew and Madeline arrive to help the local police untangle the mysteries, staying with Drew's friend and his new bride, and tensions on all sides keep the amateur detectives plenty busy!

Particularly Good Bits:

Drew shrugged.  "There are always strange happenings on moors, aren't there?  Half the books written in England wouldn't exist if it weren't for that" (p. 87).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for violence, danger, and polite implications that someone's wife might be having an extra-marital affair.

This is my 15th book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR 2019 reading challenge.  Don't think I'll make my goal of 24, but oh well.

"Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage" by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

Um, so I've read the third book now too.  This is so unlike me.  I've read all the books (so far) in this series in like two months.  Usually, I can stretch a good series for YEARS!  Or, if there are only three books, at least for six months.  But... the library had this on the shelf, so I got it.

I still like Mycroft and Sherlock best of the three, but I did like this one better than Mycroft Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes decides he's done with school because he'd rather track down a serial killer.  He leaves his university and, with a little aid from his brother, sets off on his first manhunt.

Meanwhile, Mycroft is trying to find the missing fiance of the girl Mycroft fell in love with in a previous book.  The two cases are tangentially related, but not tied together in an all-too-neat knot by the end, and I appreciated that.  

I'm really hoping this series continues, because I'm enjoying it so much!  

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for murder, suicide, violence, kidnapping, and so on.  Once again, no cussing or smut.  Remarkably clean for a  modern murder mystery!

"Mycroft Holmes" by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

Why yes, I'm on a Sherlock Holmes kick.  Why do you ask?  :-D

I enjoyed Mycroft and Sherlock so very much that I got the first book in the series from the library as fast as I could.  And now that I'm done with it, I'll see if I can get the third one.

I didn't like this one quite as much as Mycroft and Sherlock, and that's mostly because Sherlock Holmes was barely in it.  Now, the Mycroft in these books is very engaging and sympathetic and interesting... but my heart belongs to his brother, and that's that.

Also, Mycroft in this book ends up morphing into kind of an Allan Quatermain-like person, engaging in fights and action sequences and all kinds of escapades in an exotic location.  Which was fun, but... I missed London.

So what happens is, Mycroft follows his fiancee Georgiana to Trinidad, bringing along his friend Cyrus Douglas, because that's where Douglas and Georgiana are both from, though she's white, the daughter of a wealthy planter, and he's black.  Georgiana begs Mycroft not to come because there's been creepy trouble back in Trinidad, with children dying and rumors of evil spirits and so on.  Which is precisely why Mycroft and Douglas want to go there.

A few poisonings, beatings, and violent fights later, and Mycroft begins trying his hand at detective work.  He and Douglas uncover an evil plot and the implications that Georgiana is not who she says she is.  By the time Mycroft returns to London, he's a very different person than the confident, smug, complacent young government worker he'd been when he left.  Also, he acquired muscles, which get mentioned once too often for my taste.

So anyway, this was darker than the second book in the series, and it lacked Sherlock in all but the very beginning and very end, and so... I liked it, but didn't love it.  But I still want to read the third book by Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse, 

I learned something neat and unexpected from both these books, though.  From the bio at the end, anyway ;-)  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar graduated with a degree in English and History from UCLA.  I graduated with minors in English and History!  Who knew I had a little bit of something in common with a famous basketball player who is 19 inches taller than I am?  According to his bio, he's been a Sherlock Holmes fan for many years (me too!) and has written/co-written like nine or ten other books besides these Mycroft books.  Who knew?  I didn't!

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

Holmes resembled their mother, with her strange grey eyes and spun gold hair, whereas Sherlock took after their father, all dark lines and angles, as if he were a Gothic building that, while handsome enough, had a few joints out of alignment (p. 75).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for violence and some mild cussing.  No smut.

The Taylor Swift Book Tag

I am not actually a fan of Taylor Swift.  I'm not exactly anti-Taylor either, I just... enjoy a few of her songs if they pop up on the radio, but have never listened to a full album or really bothered to learn the lyrics to any of her stuff.

Be that as it may, I saw this super-cute tag on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness a while back and felt like answering it myself, so here goes!  Book titles linked to my reviews where applicable.

1. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”: a book/series you thought you’d love but ended up disliking

I quit reading Kathy Reichs' books because they got too repetitive.  But I own all twelve seasons of Bones, the TV show based on them.  Go figure.  (TBH, it's all David Boreanaz' fault.)

2. “Red”: a book with a red cover

I have a wonderful old copy of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe that is bright red and I love it.

(All book photos in this post are mine from Instagram)

3. “The Best Day”: a book that makes you feel nostalgic

I can't read The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King without remembering both the Wisconsin library where I first found it and also a bunch of Veggie Tales silly songs that my first toddler loved -- I would let him watch ten minutes of silly songs on YouTube every day, and I'd read while he watched.  It was often my only chance to read at that time, and so... I clung to it, rereading favorite books in tiny chunks with Bob and Larry in the background.

4. “Love Story”: a book with forbidden love

Speak Easy, Speak Love has several love stories, and most of them are not forbidden.  But the love between John, who is Italian, and Maggie, who is black, is absolutely not acceptable in the 1920s.  And they're two of my favorite characters, and watching them struggle against their own fears and the prejudices of their society is just... so good.  Love that book.  (How could I not?  It's a Much Ado About Nothing retelling!)

5. “I Knew You Were Trouble”: a bad character you can’t help but love

A lot of people seem very appalled that I love Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, but how can I NOT love that damaged, flawed, sad, lonely man?  And he's not totally bad -- he does reform and repent and change and grow.

6. “Innocent”: a book/series someone ruined for you

I'm not sure I've got anything for this.  I don't know that anyone else has ever ruined a book for me.  What kind of a person would do that?

Oh, some person in my life has literally wrecked my physical copies of books, that's true.  But that didn't ruin the story for me, just that particular copy.

7. “Everything Has Changed”: a character who goes through extensive character development

Um, all good characters?  Okay, to pick one I haven't talked about yet, Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  He goes from a simple, uneducated sailor to a man of great learning and exquisite taste; from being consumed with the desire for revenge to an understanding of how ruinous vengeance can be.

8. “You Belong With Me”: your most-anticipated book release

Of Literature and Lattes, Katherine Reay's upcoming follow-up to The Printed Letter Bookshop.

9. “Forever and Always”: your favorite book couple

Valency Stirling and Barney Snaith from The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Both of them are intelligent, quirky, introverted, quiet, secretive, wonderful people, and I love them fiercely.

10. “Come Back . . . Be Here”: the book you would be least likely to lend out

My autographed copy of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Ain't happening.

11. “Teardrops On My Guitar”: a book that made you cry

Many books make me cry.  Most recently, I was finishing reading Caddie Woodlawn aloud to my kids, and I cried over the part where their dog comes back.

12. “Shake It Off”: a book you love that other people hate

Hmm.  Maybe The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?  I know a lot of people aren't into that one.

13. “Stay Stay Stay”: a book you wished could go on forever

Well, I was so reluctant to leave the world of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the first time I read it, I just flipped back to the beginning and started it all over again.

14. “All Too Well”: a series you wished could go on forever

The Sherlock Holmes canon.  It could be four times as long and I'd be ecstatic. That's why I read so many pastiches.  I NEED more!

15. “Ronan”: a book with a tragic character death/death of an innocent

Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery.  If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.  if you haven't... I'm not spoiling it for you here.

16. “Out of the Woods”: a book that had you worried about the characters up to the very end

Even though I've read it a dozen or more times, I still worry about Ponyboy and everyone else in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton the whole book through.

17. “Getaway Car”: a book with a tempestuous romance

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen certainly qualifies for that, I think.  

18. “Clean”: a book that taught you something profound

A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh taught me many things about woman's innate need to create, the importance of alone time, and so on.

19. “Long Live”: a book that transports you every time

The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle never fails to whisk me away to windswept moors.

That's all, folks!  If you had fun with this, feel free to snag it for your own use.  Not tagging anyone today.