A Stroke of Malice - Anna Lee Huber                                                                                          (Series)

#monopolychallenge - B&O RR - 50 years in the past

How nice to have a series where you feel like you are catching up with old friends.!!

Lady Darby and Sebastian Gage take us on another adventure, in Scotland this time.  We attend a Twelfth Night Party, tour the underground tunnels of a castle and find a semi-decomposed body in the crypt.  And so the adventure begins!

Ms Huber does a great job with  the descriptions of the castle and clothing from this time period. 

Goodreads::Lady Kiera Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage are looking forward to relaxing with new friends at an exciting yearly soiree, but they soon learn that murder never takes a holiday in the latest riveting installment in this national bestselling series.

Scotland 1832. After enjoying a delightful holiday with her family, Lady Kiera Darby is looking forward to finishing her new friend, the Duchess of Bowmont's portrait, as well as attending the duchess' annual Twelfth Night party. Though she normally avoids such fashionable events, Kiera trusts the attention will not be focused on her, but rather her notorious hostess and her family. But upon their arrival at the opulent Scottish estate, Kiera and her husband and fellow investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, swiftly deduce that all is not merry in the duke's household. The family appears to be under a great strain, and someone seems determined to cause mayhem among the guests with a series of forged notes.

 

 At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

Monopoly Book Challenge - Indiana Avenue - Book in which a character is a farmer, gardener or gardens as a hobby.
Historical Fiction

I selected this book for the Monopoly Book Challenge as it was touted to be a historical fiction about Johnny Appleseed. John Chapman (a/k/a Johnny Appleseed) does make an appearance, but he is not a central figure in the book. I would say that it was more a book about the historical figure of William Lobb. Even so, it fit the challenge with orchards, gardens, tree planting, farming, etc.

I struggled at first as the early characters of James and Sadie Goodenough were so unlikeable, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. As we went from Black Swamp, Ohio to California. From apple trees in the midwest to the redwoods and sequoias of the west.

There was even some suspensefulness written in.  Exactly Why was Robert running from Ohio???

        Miss Benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce                                                                                    ( Newest on  TBR)

#monopolychallenge - New York Ave - mostly orange cover

Part adventure - Miss Benson goes to an island on the other side of the world to find an illusive gold beetle.

Part mystery - Who is Enid Pretty and what is she running from?

Part suspense - Who is the man who seems to be following these 2 women.

Goodreads:   It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist--the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

 The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

Monopoly Book Challenge - States Avenue - Mostly Black Cover

As I still have a few of the Hogarth Shakespeare adaptations to complete, I was pleased that this fit the Monopoly Book Challenge.

I enjoyed the modern depictions of the characters from The Winter's Tale, but I could have done without some of the erotica and the overly crass language. Though, in adapting the often bawdy Shakespeare and a tale of a jealous husband I can see why an author would choose this route.

I did particularly like Winterson's take on how Hermione's (MiMi) broken heart effects her.

Quotes: "He was interested in everything, attentive to people, genuinely kind and entirely present when he was present. But he was never sorry to close the door at night or to be alone."

"...the point of time was that it would end - if it went on forever then it wouldn't be time, would it?"

"He doesn't take a photo or a video because he wants to remember - by which he means he wants to misremember because the moment is made up of what the camera can't capture."

"It takes so little time to change a lifetime and it takes a lifetime to understand the change."

"...if you put aside "And They All Lived Happily Ever After", which isn't an ending, but a coda."

 Fever by Mary Beth Keane

New Author

I was hesitant about reading this book about Typhoid Mary while living through a historic pandemic, as I didn't want to add to the anxiety, despair, depression that this year+ long pandemic has wrought. But it was actually interesting to read it during this time.

I had of course heard of the term "Typhoid Mary" but I knew nothing about the real woman. While I appreciated learning about Mary and discovering (or re-discovering) some of the history of NYC (sanitation,  General Slocum disaster, Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, etc.), I do wish the author had spent less time developing the fictionalized love interest, Alfred.

Overall the book was just so-so for me. I do have another book by Ms. Keane (Ask Again, Yes) that has gotten many good reviews. I hope to enjoy it better.

            This I Know - Eldonna Edwards                                                                                   (Guilty Pleasure)

#monoplybookchallenge - Electric Co.- Daytime scene on cover

Coming-of-age story with a slight religious theme.

Grace Carter is a young girl with a gift.  She can sense people's pasts and future's.  Grace knows that it is a gift from God and she calls it "The Knowing". Her father on the other hand, a pastor at the local church, feels that the devil is in Grace. Grace has to balance between helping people with her gift and hiding her gift.

This was a nice, easy read.

Goodreads:  

Eleven-year-old Grace Carter has a talent for hiding things. She's had plenty of practice, burying thoughts and feelings that might anger her strict Evangelical pastor father, and concealing the deep intuition she carries inside. The Knowing, as Grace calls it, offers glimpses of people's pasts and futures. It enables her to see into the depth of her mother's sadness, and even allows Grace to talk to Isaac, her twin brother who died at birth. To her wise, loving Aunt Pearl, the Knowing is a family gift; to her daddy, it's close to witchcraft.

Grace can't see into someone's thoughts without their permission. But it doesn't take her special talent to know that her small community is harboring its share of secrets. A young girl has gone missing. Within Grace's own family too, the cracks are widening, as her sisters Hope, Joy, and Chastity enjoy the normal life that eludes Grace. It's Grace's kinship with other outsiders that keeps her afloat--Lyle, a gentle, homeless man, and Lola, a free-spirited new girl at school. But when her mother lapses into deep depression after bringing home a new baby, Grace will face a life-changing choice--ignore her gift and become the obedient daughter her father demands, or find the courage to make herself heard, even if it means standing apart 

 The Book of Lost Friends - Lisa Wingate                                                                                    (Historical Fiction) 

#Monopoly Book Challenge - Chance - Recommended Book

This story takes place during 2 different time lines. 

One in 1875, after the war but when it was a still difficult time for the people freed from slavery. We meet Hannie, Juneau Jane, & Miss Lavania on a journey to find some stolen inheritance. 

The second timeline is 1987 with a young teacher, Miss Silva who wants to teach the local poor kids about their own history and the importance of keeping the people from the past alive in our hearts.

As with Ms. Wingate's first book,"Before We Were Yours", she brings her characters alive and I found myself in awe of the bravery of the women I met in this book.

Goodreads:Lisa Wingate brings to life stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold off.

Louisiana, 1875 In the tumultuous aftermath of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now-destitute plantation; Juneau Jane, her illegitimate free-born Creole half-sister; and Hannie, Lavinia's former slave. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

 Triangle by Katharine Weber

Monopoly Book Challenge - Oriental Avenue - Book with a mostly white cover
Oldest book on TBR

I'm torn about how I feel about this book. The historical event it is based on was unknown to me before we got this book. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster of NYC and led to much needed legislation for factory safety standards. It is horrific and important history. 

The author has a personal connection to the factory as her paternal grandmother worked at the factory in 1909, but I also think it was a way for the author to talk about another tragedy that took place in NYC - 9/11 (book was published in 2006).

The story read well and there were some interesting subplots, but there was significant repetition. I understand the purpose of the repetition and I cannot say much without giving away "the hidden story in Esther's recollections of the tragedy", but as a reader this became trite.

Fortunately this was not a long book and the importance of the historical background overcame the redundancy.

Quotes: "He wasn't afraid of dying so much as he was afraid of not living long enough."

"It just seems like human nature, if you have a choice. You take the chance, even if it isn't any kind of real chance, because you can. You jump and you hope."