Books bought, books read, book quoted

 Eight added to my Kindle

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread ~ by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, 2003, children's fantasy, 272 pages

Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea.  It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light.  And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish.  These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives.  What happens then?  As Kate DiCamillo would say:  Reader, it is your destiny to find out.

(See what Kate DiCamillo posted this week on Facebook by clicking HERE.)

The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth (The Irish Heart Series Book 1) ~ by Juliet Gauvin, 2014, fiction (Ireland), 349 pages

Elizabeth Lara built a perfect life as San Francisco’s top divorce attorney, but when she loses her great-aunt Mags, the woman who raised her, she boards a plane and leaves it all behind.  The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for thirty-five years.  Devastated and now alone in the world, Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon . . . but peace isn’t what fate had in mind.  Almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon.  A man with light brown hair, ice blue eyes, and a secret.  With the help of Mags’ letters, the colorful townspeople of Dingle, and Connor, Elizabeth might just find a way back to the girl she lost long ago and become the woman she always wanted to be.

The Storyteller of Casablanca ~ by Fiona Valpy, 2021, historical fiction, 305 pages

Morocco, 1941.  With France having fallen to Nazi occupation, twelve-year-old Josie has fled with her family to Casablanca, where they await safe passage to America.  Life here is as intense as the sun, every sight, smell and sound overwhelming to the senses in a city filled with extraordinary characters.  It’s a world away from the trouble back home — and Josie loves it.

Seventy years later, another new arrival in the intoxicating port city, Zoe, is struggling — with her marriage, her baby daughter, and her new life as an expat in an unfamiliar place.  But when she discovers a small wooden box and a diary from the 1940s beneath the floorboards of her daughter’s bedroom, Zoe enters the inner world of young Josie, who once looked out on the same view of the Atlantic Ocean, but who knew a very different Casablanca.

It’s not long before Zoe begins to see her adopted city through Josie’s eyes.  But can a new perspective help her turn tragedy into hope, and find the comfort she needs to heal her broken heart?

The Sister Joan Mysteries, Books 1-5 ~ by Veronica Black, 2021 (box set), cozy mysteries, 827 pages

1. A Vow of Silence (Book 1, first published in 1990) ~ The Daughters of Compassion share a chilling secret they cannot confess:  Sister Sophia is dead.  Another nun is missing.  What’s going on with them?  It’s up to newcomer Sister Joan to uncover the truth.  She’s faced her own demons, but can she save her sisters from theirs?
2. A Vow of Chastity (Book 2, first published in 1991) ~ Evil.  Temptation.  Mystery.  Dark doings are afoot in the sisters’ quiet corner of Cornwall.  A teenager vanishes and Sister Joan feels compelled to lead the search to find him.  But is it out of duty?  Or some other motive that is decidedly less pure of heart?
3. A Vow of Sanctity (Book 3, first published in 1993) ~ Sister Joan heads to the shores of Loch Morag for a retreat.  But trouble has a way of finding her, even in the middle of nowhere.  After a storm, a body surfaces in the loch.  Who was he?  The villagers close ranks in the face of Joan’s questions.  But she won’t rest until she unearths the truth.
4. A Vow of Obedience (Book 4, first published in 1993) ~ A teen girl vanishes from home in the night.  Days on, Sister Joan finds her body in the schoolhouse, dressed in wedding white.  A second young girl turns up strangled, and Joan realizes a killer is stalking the moors.  Can she catch up to him before more innocent victims die?
5. A Vow of Penance (Book 5, first published in 1995) ~ When the rectory housekeeper is found dead, everyone assumes it’s suicide. But Sister Joan is not so sure. Then a John Doe turns up dead, mutilated — and his killing leads Sister Joan back to a much older crime. What if the key to this mystery lies buried twenty years in the past?

Books completed so far in 2022

1. From the Dark We Rise ~ by Marion Kummerow, 2021, historical fiction (Germany), 281 pages, 7/10
2. A Light in the Window ~ by Marion Kummerow, 2021, historical fiction (Germany), 280 pages, 6/10
3. War Girl Lotte ~ by Marion Kummerow, 2017, historical fiction (Germany), 180 pages, 7/10
4. Croissants and Corruption ~ by Danielle Collins, 2017, cozy mystery (Virginia), 164 pages, 8/10
5. Mrs. Peachtree and the Eighth Avenue Cat ~ by Erica Silverman, illustrations by Ellen Beier, 1994, children's picture book, 32 pages, 8/10
6. Caterpillar Kisses: Lessons My Kindergarten Class Taught Me About Life ~ by Christine Pisera Naman, 2005, anecdotes, 100 pages, 9/10
7. West with Giraffes ~ by Linda Rutledge, 2021, historical fiction, 381 pages, 7/10
8. Wish You Were Here ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2021, fiction, (New York and Galápagos), 325 pages, 9.5/10
9. Chester's Way ~ by Kevin Henkes, 1988, children's picture book, 32 pages, 10/10
10. The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread ~ by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, 2003, children's fantasy, 272 pages, 8/10

Here are my favorite quotes from Jodi Picoult's Wish You Were Here (#8 above):

• "There is a profound difference between knowing your situation is temporary and not knowing what's coming next" (p. 74).
• "Isolation, I think, is the worst thing in the world" (p. 78).
• "In the grand scheme of things, losing dollars is nothing compared to losing time" (p. 104).
• "There aren't clocks in hospital rooms, and your sleep keeps getting disturbed, and the lights never really go out fully, so it's hard to get a sense of time passing.  Sometimes I'm not sure if hours have gone by, or days" (p. 203).
• "Okay . . . what if death wasn't the ending you've been told it is?  What if time is like fabric, a bolt that's so long you can't see where it starts or it ends? . . . Maybe at the moment a person dies, that life gets compressed so small and dense it's like a pinprick in the cloth.  It may be that at that point, you enter a new reality.  A new stitch in time, basically" (p. 270).

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon,

a place for us to link up and share what

we have read and done during this week.