Death At The Sign Of The Rook by Kate Atkinson

Death At The Sign Of The Rook by Kate Atkinson

320 pages

Published September 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building.

My Thoughts: 

I felt certain, when I began thinking about writing this review, that I first read a Kate Atkinson book when I read Life After Life. That book was one of my favorite books of 2015; it's a book I still think about and one that has kept me returning to Atkinson. In point of fact, though, my first Atkinson book was When Will There Be Good News (which I'd clearly forgotten by this year). That book is actually the third of the Jackson Brody books. 

In 2020, I finally read Cases Histories, the first of the Jackson Brodie books. I had every intention of returning to the Brodie books, but it wasn't until this year that I listened to the second book, One Good Turn, and When Will There Be Good News (again!). I'd hoped to listen to the next two books but it turns out my library doesn't have them on audio. Which is how I went from the third book to this, the sixth. 

Do you have to read them in order? No necessarily. But would it be a good idea to do so? Yes, definitely. When I last encountered Reggie she was a 16-year-old who got caught up in a kidnapping case and ended up helping Jackson; now she is a detective, who is very fed up with Jackson's questionable methods. In this book, Jackson's daughter is now grown up with a child of her own. How did they all get to where they are now? 

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only problem I had with this book. I've grown used to Atkinson filling her books with large casts of characters, with her books hopping away from Jackson's story to delve into other characters' stories. For some reason, in this book, I was really distracted by this and grew a little bored when we got into side stories of two of the characters. To be fair, those characters did play into the story when things really picked up later in the book, but I'm still not entirely sure that we needed to know their full back story to understand their actions in the moment. I don't know if it makes me feel better to know that I'm not alone in feeling this way. 

BUT...I really liked the storyline - the mystery of who stole a small painting, how it came to be in the owner's possession to begin with, how it ties into another art theft. I liked the parts of the book where Jackson was involved, especially his interactions with Reggie. I liked the way things played out once everything began to pick up again. Even a less than her best Atkinson book is still worth reading. And I will read book seven in the series whenever that is released. But first, I'm going back to books four and five. Because I have to know how we got to this point! 

Life: It Goes On - September 15

Happy Sunday! It's another beautiful Sunday morning which finds me about to head outside to water, harvest and work on that dresser that seems to be the never ending project. There's a lot of potential for rain in our forecast this week so I need to get busy on that so I can finally get that piece out of my kitchen! Whenever I eventually get my basement decluttered entirely, I need to create some space where I can work on projects inside so I don't end up with half finished things sitting in my kitchen (or taking up space in my garage) for weeks on end. Work continues on that front - I'll be taking another load of stuff to Mini-him today and more stuff went off to charity this week. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches, which I'll finish this morning. Next up is Griffin Dunne's The Friday Afternoon Club. 

Watched: Lots of volleyball and lots of football and as much of the debate as I could handle. 

Read: Timothy Schaffert's The Titanic Survivor's Book Club. I'm a little over half way finished with it and I would love to find the time this evening to just sit down and devour the rest of it. Not sure what's up next - I have four more library books checked out and several Netgalley books that need to be read soonish. I think this is going to be a quieter week so there should be more time for reading. 

Made: There was a lot of eating out this week and not much cooking, other than the ubiquitous BLTs. 

Enjoyed: Got my hair done, went out to a new place for dinner with friends, won some auction items that I picked up yesterday, and watched a lot of Husker wins. 

You may be wondering why I've posted a picture of the University of Northern Iowa Panthers instead, Nebraska's football opponent yesterday. See #5 right there in the middle? That's our great-nephew. It was so much fun to get to watch him play in Memorial Stadium last night and have a good game. So proud of him and all of his hard work. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On getting that dresser finished, doing a lot of reading, and getting more stuff out of my house. My goal right now is to make a charity drop-off at least once a week until my house feels lighter. 

Thinking About: Campaign commercials are really heating up. It's not just the number of them increasing, but the lies and vitriol. I may have to convince The Big Guy to turn off the t.v. as much as possible in the next couple of months to avoid them. 

Feeling: A little disappointed. I was supposed to have tomorrow off, just because. I had been looking forward to using the day to get a lot done around here. Instead, I'll be going to work primarily for four meetings. I hate Monday meetings almost as much as I hate Friday meetings, especially when they mean I can't have a three-day weekend. 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday. 

Question of the week: What are you reading? Anything you'd recommend? 

***This week's books are tied together by both being from Netgalley for review and both having a mystery/thriller element***

The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home by Shea McGee

The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home by Shea McGee

408 pages

Published September 2023 by Harper Horizon

Publisher's Summary: 

Whether it's through her thriving design business, Studio McGee, her popular Netflix series, Dream Home Makeover, or her online community of over five million followers, Shea McGee has shown the world how the principles of high-end design can be applied to any home. As the title of her new book suggests, designing rooms for maximum impact while also remaining approachable to any who enter is an art. But it's also a skill that can be learned because it's inside each one of us.

In The Art of Home, Shea takes us through every room of the house, starting with an explanation of process and then guiding our entryways, living rooms, kitchens, offices, kids' rooms, and even our utility rooms. With step-by-step guides paired with her own design projects and the power of her personal stories, Shea helps us transform the most important parts of our lives and how we live.

What I love about design is the opportunity to dream and then will that vision into existence.

Join Shea as she teaches us to dream and then shows us how to make it reality. Her new book, The Art of Home, is as functional as it is heart-stoppingly beautiful and it will maintain a presence in your home for years to come.

My Thoughts: 

You may have heard of the Studio McGee line of home goods at Target.  I mostly became aware of it there because of influencers on Instagram, who go nuts every time a new collection is released, causing so many of the pieces to sell out quickly. But it wasn’t until I was browsing Netflix for something to watch and came across Dream Home Makeover that I actually became aware that the Studio McGee was created by Shea McGee as part of a company she and her husband own (of course it was – Target isn’t collaborating with just anyone!). Think Chip and Joanna Gaines and you’ll understand how McGee’s efforts have expanded into television, both higher end and more affordable product lines, and now books. 

I learned about the book while watching Myquillin Smith (the Nester) in a Cozy Minimalist community video. The community had a summer reading group - best I could do was try to read a couple of the books (success on that score!). I expected not to be able to get this book for a long while so was surprised to have gotten it in time to participate in the discussion. 

The Art of Home is very much a book designed on the outside to live on the coffee table of a room designed by McGee. Neutral, uncluttered, and yet, somehow, eye catching. And that’s just the outside. It’s equally beautiful inside, filled with two-page spreads of full-color photographs of rooms McGee has created in the past ten years and her own home. Are they all my style? No. McGee has a distinctive style and uses a lot of neutrals (something I always find beautiful but can’t make myself do in my own home). But are they all beautifully done? Yes, yes, they are. Which makes me want to read what McGee has to say about why the spaces were created they way they were and why they work. 

McGee walks readers through the full process, from the very earliest stages architecturally designing the room to the finishing touches. She demonstrates how to mix patterns, provides definitions, guidelines, and tips for a variety of design and décor topics. If you’re not formally trained or haven’t been doing room renovations for years, there is a lot to learn here. I think it would be really useful to have as a resource if you were contemplating renovations. One day, hopefully in the not so distant future, we’ll be doing some renovations and I can definitely see myself purchasing a copy of this book to help walk me through the process. 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Read by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

45 minutes

Published 2014 by Fourth Estate

Publisher's Summary: 

In this personal, eloquently-argued essay-adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author's exploration of what it means to be a woman now-and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

My Thoughts: 

• Why has it taken me 10 years to read this? Especially given that I've owned it for at least half of that time and it's only 45 minutes long in audio version (to be fair, I had no idea it was quite that short, but still). 
• I'm very glad that I own a copy of this one because I will definitely be rereading it. But I highly recommend listening to it. 
• I may very well put a copy of this into all of my children's hands. Not that any of them need the lesson, but it's nice to have for ammunition when someone tries to say that we don't need to worry about feminism. 
• A big piece of that is Adichie's statement that to argue only for "human rights" is to deny the very specific problems of gender. 
• Adichie challenges all men to recognize that the problems women face actually limit all people. 
• Despite some very heavy examples, Adichie also manages to work in some humor. 
• Adichie includes a lot of examples from her home of Nigeria, but the reader will recognize that these same problems occur in the United States - world wild, in fact. 

Feminist: a person who believes in feminism, and tries to achieve change that helps women to get equal opportunities and treatment.

Feminism: belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes 

Given those definitions, wouldn't you agree with Adichie that we should all be feminists?