Currently Reading
I’m reading a chapter of Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell every morning before work, when my brain is somewhat fresh. It’s a long book, so it’s taking me a long time to read it this way. I may need to borrow it from the library for a third time before I finish it!
I’m reading Mission Hill by Pamela Wechsler on my lunch hours and breaks at work. I bought a signed copy of this book at an author event several years ago; have successfully suggested it to dozens of Massachusetts crime fiction readers; and am just getting around to reading it now. My excuse is that I read a relatively small amount of crime fiction – gravitating towards other genres more – and usually listen to it on audio rather than reading it in print.
Mission Hill is first in a series featuring Suffolk County assistant district attorney Abby Endicott, who comes from old Boston money but prefers prosecuting murderers 24/7 to attending charity galas or family functions.
Tell Me Everything by Cambria Brockman is one of those psychological suspense novels that readers can’t seem to get enough of and I can’t seem to stop borrowing from the library. The Maine private college setting lured me in this time, and the young author (who graduated from Bates College in Maine) is now a Massachusetts resident.
Is the first-person narrator reliable or unreliable? What exactly happened in freshman year that led to the murky events of Senior Day? I’m halfway through the book (which I’m reading at bedtime, when my brain is not fresh) and I have my suspicions but will have to finish the book to find out if I’m right. I usually find this type of book to be a let-down, but I can’t stop picking them up.
For now, though, Tell Me Everything is keeping me reading, while the last one in this genre that I brought home I stopped reading halfway through. So if you like books that keep you guessing about the narrator (sympathetic? sociopathic?) and events in the past (who did what to whom?), this debut novel has an ensemble cast of college friends (frenemies?) and a crisp tone that might hit the mark for you!
Recently Listened To
Ruth Reichl reads the audiobook edition of her memoir (with recipes) about her ten years as editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, Save Me the Plums. While a wonderful food writer, she writes about so much more than food. Highly recommended for both foodies and memoir readers!
Sheer storytelling subterfuge, the Clifton Chronicles novels by Jeffrey Archer each end on a cliffhanger, so I was glad I was able to immediately cue up the fourth one after finishing Best Kept Secret, the third one.
Like Downton Abbey, The Clifton Chronicles (seven in all) are basically English soap operas, verging on the melodramatic more often than not. But the audiobook narrator, Alex Jennings, is perfect, even with the female voices, and the story just keeps barreling forward, with first one person’s life in danger and then another. If you like English family sagas, along the lines of Penny Vincenzi, Rosamunde Pilcher, Susan Howatch, or The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, you might like The Clifton Chronicles.
Currently Listening To
Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer is fourth in The Clifton Chronicles series.
Please let me know what you’ve been reading in the comments!
This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!
