Meet Me at the Museum

Meet Me at the MuseumMeet Me at the Museum
by Anne Youngson
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9780857525529
Publication Date: December 26, 2019
Pages: 207
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Transworld

This story begins with a letter
From a housewife
to the gentle curator
Of an extraordinary museum
Where lies peacefully
An ancient exhibit
That holds the key
To Everything
We are.

Meet Me at the Museum tells of a connection made across oceans and against all the odds. Through intimate stories of joy, despair, and discovery, two people are drawn inexorably towards each other, until a shattering revelation pushes their friendship to the very edge.


Another winner from LT!  I loved this book and I’m going to buy a copy to have on my shelves.

I really enjoy epistolary novels, and this one tugged at me harder than most because one of my closest friends lives in Denmark and he and I have been corresponding for years, so the parallel pushed it up that extra half star.

If you don’t have a friend in Denmark you correspond with, it’s still a good book.  I’m not sure how to describe it really, except to say it feels like a very realistic correspondence between two people who have never met, yet have become close.  There’s a hesitation, a caution, in the sharing of opinions that rings true and the storylines that slowly and subtly unfold are the storylines that unfold everyday, everywhere.

There’s no happy ending, but there’s no unhappy ending either.  It ends with hope.  A genuinely lovely story.

Away with the Penguins

Away with the PenguinsAway with the Penguins
by Hazel Prior
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781787630949
Publication Date: March 19, 2020
Pages: 341
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica’s closed heart starts to open.

Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.


LT is on a roll.  This was, mostly, a delightful read, with a side salad of melancholy, regret and loneliness.  Mostly, thank goodness, delight.  The story is told with a dual POV between Veronica and James.

Veronica is a cranky old bird, but wealthy enough that most people would just call in imperious.  She comes by it honestly, as events in her life have served to sever her from who she used to be and who she might have turned out to be.

James is a hot mess, living off the dole and occasionally self-medicating and just trying to get through it all.  He, too, comes by his dysfunction honestly, though he seems to have a very good heart.

When Veronica and James meet for the first time, it’s not a success, and Veronica walks away from her only relative in the world.  It’s her trip to Antartica, her resulting precarious friendship with one of the scientists, and a small fluff ball of a baby penguin that finally cracks Veronica’s shell, and that crack brings James to Antartica and together again with Veronica.

The reunion happens relatively late in the book, so the resolution is a bit … not rushed, but not strung out either.  It mostly works.  What I enjoyed most was – ok, it was the penguin, totally and completely the penguin – but what I enjoyed second most was that the author wrote a story about an 86 year old woman travelling to Antartica, alone, and she did it unapologetically, without caveats, or explanations.  Almost as though people on the top end of the age spectrum still had agency; imagine that.

An easy read that isn’t an empty one; a book to be enjoyed while still leaving the reader with a few things to chew over afterwards.

The Boardwalk Bookshop

The Boardwalk BookshopThe Boardwalk Bookshop
by Susan Mallery
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9781867254027
Publication Date: June 1, 2022
Pages: 332
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins

When fate brings three strangers to a charming space for lease on the California coast, the Boardwalk Bookshop is born. Part bookstore, part gift shop, part bakery, it’s a dream come true for Bree, Mikki and Ashley. But while their business is thriving, their personal lives are...not.

Bree, wounded by brilliant but cold parents and her late husband’s ultimate betrayal, has sworn to protect her heart at all costs. Even from Ashley’s brother, a writer and adventurer who has inspired millions. He’s the first man to see past Bree’s barricades to her true self, which terrifies her. Mikki has this divorce thing all figured out — somehow, she’s stayed friends with her ex and her in-laws...until a new man changes how everyone looks at her, and how she sees herself. Meanwhile, Ashley discovers that the love of her life never intends to marry. Can she live without being a wife if it means she can have everything else she’s ever wanted?

At sunset every Friday on the beach in front of the Boardwalk Bookshop, the three friends share a champagne toast. As their bond grows closer, they challenge one another to become the best versions of themselves in this heartachingly beautiful story of friendship, sisterhood and the transformative power of love.


Another LT Recommendation and another average-ish read.  It would have been better but …

In my own categorisation system, I’ve got this under ‘chick-lit’, a term that offends many but I have no problem with.  It’s a book written by a woman, about young women and their issues.  My best comparison would be to Mary Kay Andrews, except these women (and their men) all talk very explicitly about sex.  Why is this weird?  Well, because the story itself has no explicit sex scenes, or even any implicit sex scenes – it’s all very vanilla.  Except for these random conversations where they start throwing around language and topics that are usually reserved for actual sex scenes.  I like to think I have a wide variety of acquaintances and I no no-one who talks like this, although maybe they do in the privacy of their own home.  Either way, it was jarring and felt out of sync with the rest of the story’s style.

Putting that aside, the story was good.  All three of the females are confronted with challenges, and one of them is pretty broken.  I found her annoying.  Not because I didn’t like her (she’s very together for someone so broken), but because the author harped on about her broken-ness and by about 75% in, it felt way over played.

I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m unlikely to seek out any more of her work.  I genuinely enjoy a good chick-lit once in awhile, but this one felt like it was trying a little bit too hard to be something else, and I have no idea what.

The Book Haters’ Book Club

The Book Haters' Book ClubThe Book Haters' Book Club
by Gretchen Anthony
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781867260110
Publication Date: October 10, 2022
Pages: 335
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins

All it takes is the right book to turn a Book Hater into a Book Lover...

That was what Elliott – the beloved co-owner of the Over the Rainbow Bookshop – believed before his untimely passing. He always had the perfect book suggestion for the self-proclaimed ‘book hater.’ Now, his grief-ridden business partner, Irma, has agreed to sell the cozy Over the Rainbow to condo developers.

But others won’t give up the bookshop without a fight. When Irma breaks the news to her daughters, Bree and Laney, and Elliott’s romantic partner, Thom, they are aghast. Over the Rainbow has been Bree and Laney’s sanctuary since childhood, and Thom would do anything to preserve Elliott’s legacy. Together they conspire to save the bookshop, even if it takes some snooping, gossip and minor sabotage.

Filled with humor, family hijinks and actual reading recommendations, The Book Haters’ Book Club is the ideal feel-good read. It’s a love letter to everyday heroes – those booksellers and librarians dedicated to putting the right books in the right hands every day.


Ding ding ding!  LibraryThing has served up a winner!  I loved this book, and have ordered up a copy for my library.  Gretchen Anthony serves up a great story, well written, with delightful interludes between chapters, that for me, elevated this book from ‘good’ to ‘really, I’m enjoying the heck out of this’.   Some of the interludes add a bit of backstory to what’s going on, as well as a bit of depth.  Truly, without these, I think the book would still be good, but average, and I’d argue that Anthony’s best writing is found here.

The dynamics between the mother and her daughters here hits close to home for me, so I enjoyed the dip into the familiar, and I loved watching how they conspired to save the bookstore.  Laney has all the best lines, and I’ll admit I found Bree a bit too fragile for my tastes, but she finds her own in the end.  The conflict at the beginning of the story isn’t the real conflict of the book, but even so its resolution was stunningly anticlimactic.  Making it more realistic wouldn’t have really added anything to the real story, so I have no problem over looking it.

It’s just a fun book and well worth investigating if you’re in the mood for some heartfelt entertainment.

Flying Solo

Flying SoloFlying Solo
by Linda Holmes
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9781399707787
Publication Date: June 28, 2022
Pages: 304
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Hachette Books

Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety-three.

Alongside boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie's curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line "And anyway, if you're ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling."

When the mysterious duck disappears under suspicious circumstances, Laurie feels compelled to figure out why anyone would steal something worth so little -and why Dot kept it hidden away in the first place.

Suddenly Laurie finds herself swept up in a righteous caper that has her negotiating with antiques dealers and con artists, going on after-hours dates at the local library, and reconnecting with her oldest friend and her first love .

Desperate to uncover her great-aunt's secrets, Laurie must reckon with her own past and her future-and ultimately embrace her own vision of flying solo.


This is one of those books that I enjoyed, but should have loved.  It has all sorts of elements that resonate with me, and it was well written to boot.  If I were to use a fishing metaphor (and I am), I’d say the hook caught, but failed to set, leaving me with an enjoyable ride that I was able to shake off when finished, without lasting effects.

The MC is a 40 year old who has always known she doesn’t want kids of her own, and after a cancelled engagement, is coming to realise she doesn’t want to get married either; she cherishes having her own space and not having to share it with anybody else.  But coming back to her hometown reunites her with her high-school boyfriend as they and her BFF try to figure out the mystery behind the wooden duck.

I like what the author was trying to do here, with the romantic dynamic, but I’m not sure … I think she might have written herself into a corner, and her attempt to extricate herself from that corner left the ending unsatisfying.  It’s probably the most realistic ending in Real Life, but in fiction it left me wishing for a better resolution.  The plot about the duck was fun, and I enjoyed how they did the research and followed the clues, though as a long time mystery reader, some of it felt a tad clumsy.  Nothing that made me cringe, but these characters weren’t investigators, so their awkwardness was probably quite realistic.

All in all, it was a great library read; I enjoyed the story, but I’m not going to wish I owned a copy of my own.  I’m glad I read it, but I’ll be happy to return it too.

 

Bookish People

Bookish PeopleBookish People
by Susan Coll
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9781400234103
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
Pages: 336
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Harper Muse

A perfect storm of comedic proportions erupts in a DC bookstore over the course of one soggy summer week—narrated by two very different women and punctuated by political turmoil, a celestial event, and a perpetually broken vacuum cleaner.

Independent bookstore owner Sophie Bernstein is burned out on books. Mourning the death of her husband, the loss of her favorite manager, her only child’s lack of aspiration, and the grim state of the world, she fantasizes about going into hiding in the secret back room of her store.

Meanwhile, renowned poet Raymond Chaucer has published a new collection, and rumors that he’s to blame for his wife’s suicide have led to national cancellations of his publicity tour. He intends to set the record straight—with an ultra-fine-point Sharpie—but only one shop still plans to host him: Sophie’s.

Fearful of potential repercussions from angry customers, Sophie asks Clemi—bookstore events coordinator, aspiring novelist, and daughter of a famed literary agent—to cancel Raymond’s appearance. But Clemi suspects Raymond might be her biological father, and she can’t say no to the chance of finding out for sure.

This big-hearted screwball comedy features an intergenerational cast of oblivious authors and over-qualified booksellers—as well as a Russian tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr.—and captures the endearing quirks of some of the best kinds of people: the ones who love good books.


I don’t know what to say about this one; it’s a departure of sorts, while also being right in my wheelhouse.  I liked it, but I’m not sure why I liked it.  I read it digitally, and I feel like my comprehension suffered a bit too, so that maybe I’d have gotten more out of it if I’d read a printed copy.

Bookish People is a snapshot of one very chaotic week in a DC bookstore.  It’s written in 3rd person present tense, which I found a bit jarring at first, and it centers around 2 female characters, the owner of the store, recently widowed, and the events manager, with occasional forays into the head of a Ted Hughes-like poet who is having his own personal crises.  The rest of the staff orbit around these two women and add their own eccentricities to the mix.

It’s billed as comedy, and it’s definitely humorous, but I didn’t find it to be laugh out loud funny.  There are times that the humor feels tinged with a manic sort of panic that dampened any desire on my part to giggle, although there was a scene with a turtle and a Roomba that made me smile broadly.

If you’re looking for a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, this book will frustrate; there’s very little resolution to any of the conflicts and the only HEA is the turtle’s.  But it is a very well-written vignette of a sort, of a crazy week in a bookshop.

The House on Tradd Street (Tradd Street, #1)

The House on Tradd StreetThe House on Tradd Street
by Karen White
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9781984802163
Series: Tradd Street #1
Publication Date: January 15, 2018
Pages: 374
Genre: Fiction, Paranormal
Publisher: Penguin Random House

The brilliant, chilling debut of Karen White's Tradd Street series, featuring a Charleston real estate agent who loves old houses—and the secret histories inside them.

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog—and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one...

It turns out Jack's search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak—and even murder.


My first Project LibraryThing Recommendations read and from the rating it would seem it’s not off to a great start, but that would be unfair.  While I definitely had problems with the book, I enjoyed it enough to continue on with the series.

A couple of inaccuracies in the book description:  chilling … not so much, and Melanie most certainly does not love historical homes.  The book starts off with her having a passionate hatred for them that is simply childish, and while there are a lot of ghosts and haunted house action, I read this book at night, with the lights off, while alone in my temporary bed and not once did I feel chilled from anything other than the ridiculous weather we’ve been having.  As an example of another ghost story author, Simone St. James’ books manage to put me at the edge of my seat at least once, whereas even the malevolent ghosts in Tradd Street failed to raise even a single goosebump.

I don’t really hold that against the book though.  What I did have a problem with was Melanie’s emotional immaturity and stubborn refusal to grow up.  I’m trying not to judge the book too harshly for this however, because she’s supposed to be emotionally stunted.  Her mother abandoned her at the age of 8 and her father is a raging alcoholic, so she’s text book accurate.  As someone blessed with a happy upbringing, I just found her text book behaviour tedious.  I’d like to think I’d be more patient in RL with Real People.

Now, as to the story itself – it was pretty good!  I enjoyed the plot involving Melanie inheriting an historic mansion and the funds to renovate it – I loved the mystery she was left with, determining what happened to the former mistress of the house, reputed to have run away with another man, and I loved, loved, loved the added search for historic treasure. The ghosts were fun, even if they failed to raise hair, and the story would have been a lot less interesting without them.

So, in spite of the problems – and anecdotal evidence from others’ reviews indicates that Melanie doesn’t grow up in a hurry – I’m looking forward to continuing with this 5 book series, and I’ve already added the first book in the spin off series to the future TBR list.

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-nine (Stephanie Plum, #29)

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-nineGoing Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-nine
by Janet Evanovich
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781035401932
Series: Stephanie Plum #29
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
Pages: 324
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Headline Review

Monday mornings aren't supposed to be fun, but they should be predictable. However, on this particular Monday, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie's Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli, who is as reliable as the tides in Atlantic City, hasn't shown up.

Stephanie's worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie's abductor. He says he will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin that a recently murdered man left as collateral for his bail. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office - just like Connie -is nowhere to be found.

The quest to discover the coin, learn its value, and save Connie will require the help of Stephanie's Grandma Mazur, her best pal Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and hunky security expert Ranger. As they get closer to unravelling the reasons behind Connie's kidnapping, Connie's captor grows more threatening, and soon Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue. She is more shocked by the results than anyone.


I think just about everyone who might possibly read this has read Evanovich’s Plum series, and everyone knows they are the literary equivalent of slapstick comedy, and they can often be hit or miss.  I’ve stuck with the series this long because at least once a year I need slapstick in my life, and because I also appreciate Evanovich’s interesting decision to embrace the status quo when it comes to Plum’s romantic life.  This is a rare case of what I wouldn’t be able to abide in real life, I can enjoy in the fictional one, especially as it’s all above board.

Anyway, this one was a hit for me.  The plot was good, the tension was sharp, and the humor was laugh-out-loud in several spots.  At one point, MT looked over at me and asked it I was going to be ok, because I was gasping with laughter.  For many Lulu is what makes them laugh (and she had at least one moment in this one), but for me it’s the oldies the bring tears of laughter to my eyes.  Evanovich has a way with the oldies, and I can only imagine what her family dinners must be like.

I hope these last two books are a sign of things to come, because it feels like Plum and company (and their author) have found their stride, and I’m already looking forward to #30.

Cat Lady

Cat LadyCat Lady
by Dawn O'Porter
Rating: ★★½
isbn: 9780008385408
Publication Date: November 3, 2022
Pages: 342
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins

CAT LADY [n.]
Single, independent, crazy, aloof, on-the-shelf, lives alone . . .

It’s safer for Mia to play the part that people expect. She’s a good wife to her husband Tristan, a doting stepmother, she slips on her suit for work each morning like a new skin.

But beneath the surface, there’s another woman just clawing to get out . . .

When a shocking event shatters the conventional life she’s been so careful to build, Mia is faced with a choice. Does she live for a society that’s all too quick to judge, or does she live for herself?

And if that’s as an independent woman with a cat, then the world better get ready . . .


When am I going to learn about impulse buying?  Anyone who knows me knows why I grabbed this book – how could I possibly walk away from a book called the Cat Lady?

I should have.  I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but this was the most gratuitously vulgar book I’ve read in memory and I mean gratuitously, graphically vulgar in that way that British writers can excel at and make it sound like that’s just the way everybody talks.  I realise everybody grows more conservative as they age, but I’d have found this as over the top offensive 30 years ago as I do now.

I really wanted to DNF it after chapter 3, the first time the author wallows in the vulgarity, but I really hoped it was a one-off thing, the way so many author’s will have that one, obligatory explicit sex scene.  In the space between chapter 3 and the next spree of vulgarity there was a compelling and touching story, so I committed myself to the end.

If this book had been written without all the how-disgustingly-explicit-can-I-get; if the author had left all that crap out – this would have possibly been a 4.5, maybe even 5 star read.  One  that required a box of tissues by one’s side.  Because the parts in between are lovely, touching, and so often on-point about how much love and acceptance pets bring to our lives and how important they can become to us.

There’s a character in this book that’s described as a genuinely kind, loving, grieving man who hide his true self behind a wall of angry tattoos that cover his body.  This story is exactly that – a genuinely lovely story hidden behind an almost impenetrable wall of graphic vulgarity.

The Homewreckers

The HomewreckersThe Homewreckers
by Mary Kay Andrews
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9781250278364
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
Pages: 440
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Hattie Kavanaugh went to work restoring homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at eighteen, married the boss’s son at twenty, and became a widow at twenty-five. Now, she’s passionate about her work, but that’s the only passion in her life. “Never love something that can’t love you back,” is advice her father-in-law gives her, but Hattie doesn’t follow it and falls head-over-heels for a money pit of a house. She’s determined to make it work, but disaster after disaster occurs, and Hattie’s dream might cost Kavanaugh & Son their livelihood. Hattie needs money, and fast.

When a slick Hollywood producer shows up in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, she gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: star in a beach house renovation reality show called The Homewreckers, cast against a male lead who may be a love interest, or may be the ultimate antagonist. Soon, there’s more at stake than bad pipes and dry rot: during the demolition, evidence comes to light that points to the mysterious disappearance of a young wife and mother years before.

With a burned out detective investigating the case, an arsonist on the loose, two men playing with her emotions, and layers upon layers of vintage wallpaper causing havoc, it's a question of who will flip, who will flop, and if Hattie will ever get her happily-ever-after.


I know Mary Kay Andrews is hit and miss, and yet I still can’t resist grabbing her new releases – although I’ve gotten better about getting them from the library when I can.  This was, thankfully, a library loan, because it was a very average effort on Andrews’ part.

Overall, it was too long; at 440 pages it would probably would have held my attention better with 100 fewer pages.  There’s a cold case mystery involved that’s actually pretty good, except that the killer was transparent in spite of the myriad suspects and red herrings thrown in. View Spoiler »

There’s also a ‘romance’, which is what the book is mostly marketed for, and it’s terribly contrived and thrown together, with no chemistry, no tension and no build-up.  Almost all the romantic page time was wasted on what every reader knew was the red herring romance: the super gorgeous TV star that’s just pretending to fall for his newbie co-host to bolster buzz.  Andrews’ romances are always low-key, which is why I read them; they’re never front-and-center, but generally the outcome of the real story line, but this one was just flat, even for a low-key romance.

I enjoyed the details about Savannah, watching the house they were restoring come together, and as usual, Andrews’ writes likeable and realistic characters.  These highlights were enough to keep me reading, but overall it was a solidly average read and one I doubt I’d recommend when there are quite a few of her titles that are better reads.