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🥂🥳Farewell 2022 and thanks for the lovely reads you brought me!
#jessreads2022

The struggle of one man to reclaim order to his holiday season beginning in October was quite humorously written. Mr Baxter endeavors to have his wife stick to a budget, trim down the Christmas card addressee list, and attempts to resist the “machinery” of the holiday. Despite his intentions, he remains a sentimentalist and gamely finds himself embroiled in holiday predicaments such as office parties and gift buying.
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I wanted to love this one, especially as a few of these authors are favorites. But some stories read a bit bleak or didn‘t have a strong festive theme. The blurb statement “these stories are sure to fortify you over the Christmas period” didn‘t quite ring true for me. I did very much enjoy Audrey Burton‘s “Ticket for a Carol Concert”🎄

#BritishLibraryWomenWriters #JessReads2022

“Nothing much changes in Nettleford, darling. We just get a little older…”

🎄Loving this seasonal read while (finally) starting a small holiday break from work.

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This one was completely absorbing. Acland tells the story of Henry Aspen of Templeford Park and Mildred Charing of Blagdon Manor. Two neighbors and their friends coming of age in the English countryside makes for a relaxing beginning. However pride, ego, and a series of misunderstandings leads to life altering choices. Acland brings us to a resolution and lesson in her ending.
Terrific book albeit a bit rushed in the end.

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Dear reader, I order the sequel and promptly followed the author on Twitter (her only social media, I believe, without being too stalkerish) halfway through this wonderful mystery. I loved the writing, the characters, the plot. I might have guessed at one plot line but was surprised in the end when the case tidily wrapped up. A post WW1 mystery dealing with “shell shock” and the lives left in the aftermath of it all.
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The September Raising the Middlebrow Book Club selection on Goodreads. My second Whipple and I rather enjoyed it! I couldn‘t stop myself from some comparison to the play/movie “The Women”. I kept picturing the main character Ellen as Norma Shearer. It‘s a look at a happy family and marriage where infidelity takes place. The ending was unsatisfactory but I might say the same for “The Women” depending where your sympathies lie.

I believe this was the first biography I‘ve read that I couldn‘t put down! Worsley‘s conversational yet educational tone made this incredibly enjoyable. The confiding manner in which she writes has moments shared that show how relatable Christie can be. A rather brilliant life led with problematic moments thoughtfully addressed. Highly recommend this one! #jessreads2022

I enjoyed this quite a bit, being drawn in by the rural spell as the tenants were. I couldn‘t shake the feeling of melancholy that sat with me while reading. I think because the narrator sets the reader up for the inevitable departure? The domestic burden placed on the mother was overwhelming. I‘d be haunted by the scullery maid‘s ghost too! It felt like a social experiment at times bridging the gap between the old and new post war world.

It‘s a mark of a good author, in my humble opinion, that keeps me buying each 400+ page book in a mystery series that is now nine books and counting. I have come to adore Lane Winslow and the characters I‘ve met in King‘s Cove. Just a brilliantly and thoughtfully written whodunnit series.

#jessreads2022