Listen to me,” Clytemnestra says. “Gods do not care about us. They have other concerns. That is why you should never live in the shadow of their anger. It is men you must fear. It is men who will be angry with you if you rise too high, if you are too much loved. The stronger you are, the more they will try to take you down.”
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“We have left our slippers and balled-up stockings under a bush. When the mud gets too deep, Molly said we should turn back, but the blackberries are turning and will be gone soon, shriveled up or pecked away by birds. And I want them. So I nagged and pulled at her dress and called her boring and begged until she came too. It is always me who pulls us into trouble, one way or another.”
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“Murder cases are like cancer cells. Once they get their hooks into you, the pain and misery just keep on spreading. Whether the killer gets caught or the investigation is brought to a successful conclusion doesn‘t make any difference; it‘s almost impossible to stop the advance of the disease.”
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“Why do you seek to make enemies of everyone who matters in London?”
“You and your friends are not everyone, Lord March. And if I make enemies by hiring a man to look into a brutal murder, then I have to ask myself why that is.”

Where there is guilt, there is rage…even those at the top of the tree don‘t have impunity from murder, and their fall…is the furthest of all.
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“Protecting a museum can feel paradoxical because its mission isn‘t to conceal valuables but to share in a way that makes you feel as close to a piece as possible, unencumbered by any security apparatus. Permanently ending nearly all museum crime would be easy: lock the works in vaults and hire armed guards. Of course this would also mean the end of museums. They‘d now be called banks.”
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“Blood was streaming now, dripping down her white nightgown…Lilith draped her arm over my shoulder. Her eyes were glazed. I would practically have to carry her to the dressing room…What had happened to her on that stage? I couldn‘t get the image out of my head: Lady MacBeth, asking demons to fill her. Was it some invocation to her beloved Melpomene? Whatever she‘d done, it had worked. And that terrified me most of all.”
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“There‘s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I‘m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn‘t be half so interesting.”
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I tried…I really tried. But after accidentally learning about not ONE but TWO spoilers that just turned me off, the multiple times I was told something rather than shown it and the severe case of “your research is showing” I just couldn‘t continue—and I made it pretty far. After realizing I had completely avoided reading ANYTHING for three days, it was time to add this one to the donation box.📦

“She saw clearly that she would never get a chance like this again, so she took it. Cal‘s heart is a heavy relentless force in his chest, making it hard to breathe. When he worried that Trey‘s childhood had left cracks in her, he had it wrong. Those aren‘t cracks, those are fault lines.”
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“I think New York was the perfect place for Toby to live because it was maybe the only place he would never run out of new restaurants. With Finn you had places. Horn & Hardart, The Cloisters. Places we went back to so many times that they started to feel like home. Toby was loose. Attached to nothing. Except maybe to Finn. That's what I started to figure out. Without Finn, Toby was like a kite with nobody holding the string.“
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“They will defend her, if they can,” said Athene quickly. “She is much loved.”
“Why would they love a monster?” asked Perseus.
“Who are you to decide who is worthy of love?” said Hermes….”and who are you to decide who is a monster?”
“She called them monsters” said Perseus, pointing at Athene.
“No, I didn‘t, I called them dangerous creatures…You‘re the one who thinks anything that doesn‘t look like you must be a monster.”
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“If you keep talking like that you‘ll end up with no husband to love you. Alone in that house you want to buy so badly, surrounded by books and cats.” I snort and cast my eyes on the steeple of a cathedral that reminds me of home. He may think this is some great threat to me but….there are worse things. I see him looking at me out of the corner of his eye and I turn to him and give him a bright smile.
“Love is fickle. Books are eternal.”
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“Sunanda‘s whispered words were haunting—and all too realistic. Suddenly, Perveen hated the world they lived in—where men could violate women with impunity because they knew women were too ashamed to report them.”
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Just starting this title, a retelling of the story of Medusa…definitely seems promising! 📖

“How will he do it? Part of her would like to ask him this. The knife in a dark corridor? His hands about her throat? A tumble from a horse made to look like an accident? She has no doubt that all of these would fall within his repertoire. It had better be done well….her father is not someone who will take a lenient view of his daughter‘s murder.”
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“The plot thickens,” he said, and wished he hadn‘t said that because it sounded like something from a bad detective novel. “I think we have a suspect.” That didn‘t sound much better. “My house has just exploded, by the way.” At least that was novel.
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“The point is, Billy, that Duchess is full of energy and enthusiasm and good intentions too. But sometimes, his energy and enthusiasm get in the way of his good intentions, and when that happens the consequences often fall on someone else.”
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Finally getting my reading life back on track and happy to have read 3 books in January!!! Looks like February will be a busy reading month too … 6/10 of my library holds came in today, isn‘t that always the way?!? 😸

Thank you lovely Litsy friends for your kind messages on my last post…Litsy has always been and continues to be such a supportive and caring place to be!!! I want to recommend this title for gift giving. My granddaughter loves it! She becomes fascinated by one thing after another (right now it‘s sharks lol) and I imagine she‘ll look up her latest interests in this volume for years to come. Highly recommend!!! :)

Omg, just looked at my Litsy and my last post was 6 months ago! What the heck!! The main reason is because I‘ve been in a major reading slump due to depression. As many of you dealing with depression and/or anxiety issues know, it often leads to struggles with focus and concentration. Anyway, I hope you are thriving and enjoying your books! In other news, my favorite person. my granddaughter, turned 3 on Sunday. Where does the time go??!!??

My daughter-in-law recently sent me these special bookmarks that I will treasure always…

I‘ve been avoiding books that include Covid but was finally able to get brave and trust this author, a particular favorite of mine, to handle the topic and it‘s ramifications for her characters with grace. This story also takes place in Minneapolis in the wake of the murder of George Floyd but in Erdrich‘s hands nothing becomes maudlin or preachy, the narrative of the lives of extraordinarily ordinary people just becomes comforting. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I continue to enjoy this series and its funny, fiery protagonist, Flavia Albia. I‘m also enjoying the evolution of her relationship with her love interest, as well as the fleshing out of some of the minor characters from the previous books. Definitely recommend visiting Ancient Rome with these books for an enjoyable afternoon. 📕💕

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I enjoyed this romance, it was just what I needed to get me out of my reading slump…Ahmad and Evie were just lovely to root for and I‘m looking forward to the next in this Belles of London series…Favorite Quote: “It‘s lately seemed to me that we ladies are dropped into a churning sea and forbidden from revealing that we know how to swim.”⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Evelyn entered the shop alone. She was at once assailed by the scent of fresh ink, paper and new leather bindings. A delicious fragrance. She breathed it in, feeling at once both excited and oddly at peace. For a reader, a bookshop was rather like a church.”

I‘ve recently identified a new category of books in my reading life…the “I know this is a good book but it‘s overwhelming me to read it right now” category. Real life issues are interfering with my attention span; gone are the days where I‘d sit down and read for hours. Yesterday I gave up on a 700 page book at 40% because of its length but also because it‘s book one of a trilogy. Anyone else experiencing real life affecting reading life??

At first glance, you might be tempted to think of this as a cozy mystery. But after having read a couple of the more recent titles in this series and deciding to go back to the beginning with this one, I‘d say the only cozy aspects are the descriptions of food and the rural French setting. The mystery itself is gritty and morally challenging for our hero and the first in a very very good series. Oui! 🇫🇷
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FYI: CURRENTLY ON SALE FOR YOUR KINDLE $2.99 🇺🇸

I enjoyed being in Molly‘s world for awhile. Through her first person narrative You, the Reader, understand things she does not but, at the same time, she often takes your breath away with her insight, especially where it relates to how others perceive her. Like others I‘m not a huge fan of the reveal in the epilogue, it felt unsupported by the rest of the story and as if the author just couldn‘t let us enjoy a happy unambiguous ending. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Had such a lovely visit with my son, DIL and granddaughter last month. Must admit that so far she seems to share my love of Art more than my love of Reading…I had several toys here for her to play with during her visit and her absolutely favorite things were the coloring book and crayons. 🧒🏻🖍 ❤️

Picked this one for the Cover…Stayed for the Story ✍️

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As a teenager I loved hard boiled detective fiction. The policemen of McBain‘s 87th Precinct, Travis McGee, Lew Archer all intrigued me just as their predecessors like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. When I saw the old school cover and premise of Five Decembers I added it to my TBR. When it won the Edgar, I started reading. Is it good? Let‘s just say Hammett, Chandler and both MacDonalds would be very impressed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘m beginning to think I have a penchant for historical novels featuring women in unconventional roles. This series featuring Charlotte Holmes and Mrs Watson solving mysteries and tangling with the so far elusive Moriarty is very good. I‘ll be continuing, especially considering not one but two surprises I did not come close to guessing. I love when an author makes me gasp! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Someone sweet is coming to visit me in May! 🧒🏻💕

Beautiful 🥺

(From Good News Movement via Instagram)

I‘ve been struggling to read lately, just lots on my mind, but downloading this title I purchased years ago was a good jump start to getting back into my books. This author did an excellent job taking the compelling story of real life Pinkerton agent Kate Warne and making it her own. She seamlessly integrates the few known facts about Warne and develops a believable story of dedication, love, loss, bravery and page-turning intensity. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seems fitting that my current read is far as far can be from me on this World Book Day! 🌎 📖 ❤️

#WorldBookDay

My advice if you‘d like to murder someone…
Don‘t move to Coopers Chase, the home of Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce, aka The Thursday Murder Club.
You will be caught, probably because they are way smarter than you and you will underestimate them.
Such a delightful series! My hope is that Mr. Osman will write many many more of their adventures for me to reread in my dotage. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Joyce reminds me of Rose on Golden Girls. #ripbettywhite #WeekendReading

“Every time I walk into a bedroom these days someone has been shot. I was going to plump up the pillows in the spare room earlier but got cold feet.”

“MI5 know who I am now, though, so that‘s one for the Christmas newsletter.”

“I still haven‘t quite worked out how my Instagram works, which is very frustrating, as GreatJoy69 now has over 200 private messages.”

“I felt a lid shift. A lid that I‘d pulled over me after the effects of one war, only to find that another war was trying to prise it off again. I knew I had to hold onto it for as long as I could.”This intense look at the initial days of the Paris Occupation through the eyes of damaged & conflicted Detective Eddie Giral was excellent. Lloyd expertly uses words to give dimension to every character;You, like Giral, don‘t know who to trust. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There‘s a type of historical fiction I‘ve been fascinated by, one I‘ve never actually seen identified as a trope or sub genre. I first became aware of the idea watching the British tv drama Foyle‘s War which features murders being solved during WWII. PI Bernie Gunther does the same in 1930‘s Germany and The Last Policeman trilogy has an ordinary detective solving a murder despite the end of the world countdown clock ticking (cont…) #WeekendReading

Am I the only one who takes a ridiculous amount of time to decide what to read next? Seriously, I‘d be half way through my next read if I didn‘t spend so much time looking at all the books on my shelves and reading apps trying to decide. Yep, I‘m a mood reader who sometimes can‘t decide what mood I‘m in even! 😜 I envy those of you who regularly create TBR piles and stick to them! 📚❤️

The 5th installment in this series continues the adventures of Imperial Police Force Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee in 1920‘s Calcutta, India. Their relationship has evolved until a strong bond has developed, constantly challenged by the moral and political issues always near the surface during the British occupation of India. It is their relationship, more even than the mysteries they solve, that make this series stand out ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reading the newest addition in the Wyndham & Banerjee mystery series and it‘s excellent so far (about 25% in) because for the first time some of the action is narrated by Sergeant Banerjee. This comment made me lol:
“Sam would have cautioned me against trusting her…forgetting the many, many occasions where he had believed a woman more on the strength of her perfume than of her statement.” Such a good series! 🤓
#WeekendReading

Wow. Sometimes you put a book down and think “that was a great story”. Himself is indeed a great story, but my biggest takeaway is “What an incredibly talented writer!” Jess Kidd puts together prose magically. Every word, every turn of phrase, every page is wonderful. I‘ll be reading her backlist and everything she publishes from here on out. Highly recommend Himself. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished Americanah earlier today, so decided to head from Nigeria to Ireland for my next read. HIMSELF has been on my kindle for a long time and I loved THINGS IN JARS so I have high hopes for this title…the description certainly ticks lots of my reading boxes!
#WeekendReading

This is a pick for me even though I can‘t say I loved this book. I found it compelling to see the US through the eyes of a Nigerian woman, especially her experiences and observations on race and gender. The writing is excellent and Adichie seamlessly takes the narrative back and forth between the two main characters. It wasn‘t until I finished that I realized I just didn‘t like Ifemelu. She was selfish, lacked empathy and had a superior ⬇️

My weekend read illustrates something I love about reading: Despite having nothing in common with the characters in a book, there is so much that we all share in the human experience no matter our ethnicity, race, age, country of origin, place or time we live in now…I‘m making a concerted effort in 2022 to read authors who take me completely out of my own life experiences and Americanah is an excellent start.
#WeekendReading

I‘ve been adding my reads to my Goodreads account all year but it was just a few days ago I realized I‘d read 49 books. So, of course, I decided to read just one more to hit 50. This first in a new series by this prolific writer was good, I enjoyed it, but it would have been much better if the book blurb hadn‘t revealed a spoiler about the death of a main character that occurs well into the tale. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy New Year, All 🥳