The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

384 pages

Published June 2026 by Random House Publishing Group

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher’s Summary: 

Feuding Windsor brothers and their wives—some things, it seems, never change. The Windsor Affair recreates the cataclysmic events that nearly toppled the monarchy and incited the power struggle between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Wallis Simpson. Told from the perspective of both women, the novel propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the 1930s, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors. The first novel to be dedicated to this infamous rivalry, The Windsor Affair brings us all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different—yet perhaps more similar than they would admit—wives of royals.

As Queen, Elizabeth would become the symbol of British pluck and courage during World War II and remain a British institution the rest of her long life. Wallis would be forever forced to enact the World’s Greatest Love Story even after it sours, as she goes from being admired to vilified and, ultimately, pitied. Against the backdrop of the Abdication Crisis, World War II, coronations, funerals, births, and deaths, these two women maintain a biting, sharp-tongued feud—until age and the long arm of history bring about a kind of understanding. For the last communication between these bitter rivals was a simple, surprising message: “In friendship, Elizabeth.”

My Thoughts: 

This is the eighth book by Benjamin that I’ve read and it gave me everything I’ve come to expect from her. Benjamin's books are always centered around real women who have played a role in history, two topics I love. Frequently they are women whose place in history has been overlooked; sometimes the women are very well known, as in this case. 

Over time, I've read a fair amount about Edward VIII (later known as the Duke of Windsor) and Wallis Simpson and I long ago gave up the idea that theirs was a great love story that stood the test of time. What I didn't know about was the feud between Simpson and Queen Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth was much beloved in England as the Duchess of York, after marrying Albert "Bertie", the Duke of York and second in line to the throne. Her hope was to remain in those roles for the remainder of their lives. It allowed them to spend a lot of time together and with their daughters and allowed Bertie to remain out of the spotlight, where his stammer would be less noticeable. 

The first in line to the throne, Edward, the Duke of Wales was a known womanizer, particularly when it came to married women. Wallis Simpson was American, once divorced, and, at that time, married woman who loved a good party, wore stylish clothing, and had a biting humor who set her sights on Edward. 

In January of 1936, King George V died and Edward became king. The family felt certain that Edward would do the right thing and walk away from Wallis, as it was inconceivable that he could remain king if he married her. Edward insisted that he could, and would, in fact do just that. In the end, he was not, as we know, allowed to marry her as king, abdicating the throne to Bertie. 

And here's what I didn't know about all of that: 

• Stylish Wallis looked down her nose at Elizabeth, who continued to wear clothing designed by the woman who had designed her mother's clothing, and made no secret of it. Elizabeth looked dowdy and was constrained by doing things the right (the royal) way. 
• Elizabeth had once been the apple of the public's eye; but the public, surprisingly, got caught up in the great love story and adored Wallis. 
• Elizabeth was very unhappy with Edward's abdication, putting Bertie, as it did, into a highly stressful and very public role that vastly changed both their private and public lives. 
• Wallis and Elizabeth publicly avoided each other as much as possible and their "feud" was very much public knowledge. 

And here's what I'm not sure if fact or fiction - was Elizabeth instrumental in making sure that Wallis and Edward were not allowed to marry if he remained king? Was she instrumental in making Bertie (King George VI) forbid the royal family from having any contact with Edward and Wallis? In Benjamin's world she did. Given what I know about the amount of research puts into each book, I can't help but think that there's some truth to those things in this book. Regardless, it makes for a wonderful tale of two strong women, neither of whom got what they ended up wanting out of life. 

The Usual Desire To Kill by Camilla Barnes

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes

256 pages

Published April 2026 by Scribner

Publisher’s Summary: 

Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of decades-old food.

Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”

This wry, propulsive story about an eccentric yet endearing family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.

My Thoughts:

I recently went to pick up library holds that had come available and was surprised to find this title among my books. I had no recollection of requesting it, no idea who might have recommended it, and no idea why I would have requested a book about killing. I was only a few pages into the book when I became even more confused. This certainly didn’t feel like a book that was headed down the path of becoming a murder mystery. So, I did something I almost never do – I looked at the front flap to get the book description. And then I proceeded to race through this book. 

This is the story of how two people who should never have been together maneuver thru a long marriage and the effects that has on their children. Barnes explores marriage, sibling rivalry, truths behind shifting memories, and family secrets as well as examining the decisions people make in life, the long-term effects of those decisions, and how well one truly knows the people they love. 

One reviewer called it "tragicomic" and I think that's the perfect description. Barnes' writing is often witty and I found myself chucking frequently. But there is a sadness throughout that builds throughout the book. Miranda's father suffers the aftereffects of WWII and they both suffer the aftereffects of depression that followed it in England. That poverty has turned both parents into hoarders of a sort, which is both sad but also humorous in Barnes' hands. But life has hardened them as well. Which makes visiting them hard on Miranda, who writes to her sister, after one visit, that she left with "the usual desire to kill." 

I believe, in retrospect, that this book came to my attention via The New York Times Book Review and that I immediately requested it from my library just to avoid having to take the time to record it into my TBR list. I must say, it’s not a half bad way to get yourself to read something you might otherwise have put off. That would have been a terrible shame in the case of The Usual Desire To Kill. 

The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell

The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell

400 pages

Published January 2026 by St. Martin's Press

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father’s failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man’s profession. But when she’s given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.

Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit.

Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian’s world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.

My Thoughts: 

As you know, I often don't read the summary of books (although I must have at some point in order for me to choose this book for review); in this case, it meant it took me a while to figure out what time period in which the book was set. I kept thinking it was a century earlier, which made the fact that Lily was a bookbinder in training even more astounding. 

Even so, a woman in a trade in the first part of the 20th century was remarkable and I enjoyed learning about bookbinding through her. I think we can all recognize the difference between a well bound book and a cheaply bound one but knowing what steps make the difference was intriguing. In Lily's case, the books being individually bound meant that the bookbinder chose the design of the cover so it's conceivable that no two copies of any book remaining from that time period would have the same cover. 

The initial mystery of the first book Lily got pulled me into the story, but I will admit that I was a little confused about how Lily became so obsessed with that first book that she was willing to risk her life and her safety because of it. Because someone else wants that book and wants her to find the remaining five books related to it...in fact, they demand that she find them or they will come after her father, who is already fragile. Here's the next point I struggled with - why would the person who wanted the books assume that Lily would be better able to find them than that person would? Overlooking those points, this story takes readers along on Lily's race to find all six of the books while she also races to find out the reason they are so important and what because of the young lovers whose story is told in those hidden pages. Along the way, we learn that Lily is not the good girl so many heroines of books set in this time period are and it makes her a much more interesting person for it. We're also introduced to a cast of interesting characters, some not so savory, most with secrets of their own. 

I haven't been reading as much historical fiction lately as I used to and this one made me wonder why. I'm always fascinated to go back in time so that we can see how far we've come. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for giving me this history lesson. 

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Read by Arthur Darvill and Vanessa Kirby

9 hours, 54 minutes

Published January 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story…

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.

My Thoughts: 

Recently I've had the television to myself more and I've been searching for rom-coms like the ones they made in the 1990's (think Notting Hill, Two Weeks Notice, 10 Things I Hate About You) to no avail. I'm not necessarily looking for that same kind of story; I'm looking for those stories that truly match up romance with comedy, especially those with snappy dialogue. While a movie adaptation of Good Material won't have that same kind of happy ending, there is plenty of heart and humor here that I think would make a great movie. 

I listened to this one and was very much enjoying Andy's side of the story. Sure he's a grown man that needs to accept the fact that it's time to get a big boy job that he can support himself with, notably because his comedy career is going no where and he's unwilling to make any change to his routine. He's grown comfortable with his life and that's part of the problem. In the aftermath of the breakup, he falls into all of the usual traps. But I couldn't help but like him and root for him to grow up...and get over it, to be honest. 

In the back of my mind, as I listened to Andy's story, I kept wondering when that female narrator was going to come in...and then she did, telling us the story from Jen's point of view. And here's the thing, Jen does still love Andy. But Jen can see that, even if Andy changes, theirs is a relationship that simply won't give either of them what they need in life. 

I feel like I may have liked this book more than a lot of other reviewers, many of whom found that Andy was a flat character. But he was surrounded by characters, in my opinion, that helped flesh out his side of the story and make what had happened between Andy and Jen clearer. One reviewer, who read the book in print, felt the switch to Jen's voice was jarring; but, of course, knowing that there were two narrators, I was expecting it and looking forward to hearing her side of the story. Because there are always two sides to a story. 

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Read by Cynthia Erivo 

12 hours, 24 minutes

Published May 2023 by Atria Books

Publisher's Summary: 

1939: Fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora evacuate their London home for a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the Aberdeen family in a charming stone cottage, Hazel distracts her young sister with a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own: Whisperwood.

But the unthinkable happens when Flora suddenly vanishes after playing near the banks of the River Thames. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, carrying the guilt into adulthood.

Twenty years later, Hazel is back in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore for a career at Sotheby’s. With a cherished boyfriend and an upcoming Paris getaway, Hazel’s future seems set. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing a picture book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the storybook world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years? Or is something sinister at play?

My Thoughts: 

This book was suggested by a friend to whom it was recommended. You know, lately if someone recommends a book, I immediately request it from the library, knowing that if I don't, it will live on the TBR list for, perhaps, decades. Because I seem to be able to "read" a book much faster if it's audio these days, that's what I requested and I'm glad that I did because it's the perfect kind of book for listening. Cynthia Erivo is an excellent reader and her being British made that much more of a connection to the book. 

What Didn't Work for Me:

• That "cherished" boyfriend? It takes readers almost no time at all to figure out that he's going to be left behind, although he seems to have no flaws right up until the time that it's essential that he have them. And I didn't buy into the relationship that caused Hazel to leave him. 
• Aberdeen seems to have made such a deep impression on Hazel that she cannot let it go. But while Flora seemed equally attached to the people there, Hazel had to continually tell her that she could not go to Whisperwood (aka the river nearby) because Flora was so eager to get away. 
• Some things felt predictable, others a bit forced.
• Although the ending is unexpected, it is also a little disappointing, in that it doesn't tie together with the book that suddenly appeared other than having the book inspire Hazel to begin her search again. 

What I Liked: 

• The setting and the time frame. While I often feel I'm over reading WWII books, how the British survived still fascinates me, particularly the idea of Londoners sending their children off to the countryside to live with strangers. 
• The world of Whisperwood that Hazel created to help help both Hazel and herself survive the upheaval in their lives. It felt so natural that she would do that to protect her sister's peace and fit in so well with the world they were living in at that time. 
• Life in Aberdeen. There were plenty of interesting characters that felt just right for a small, countryside town and the descriptions of the land made me want to visit. 
• The story of the author of the book that Hazel discovers who has her own battles to fight. 
• Yes, I know I said the ending was a little disappointing, it was satisfying in other ways. The truth behind Flora's disappearance was a surprise to me and I appreciated the way that the characters involved in that piece reacted to the reveal. Things didn't end too tidily. 

It's not great literature but, as Kirkus Reviews said, it was enchanting for the most part. Book clubs would find plenty to talk about and, as I said, the reading is very good. 

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

Read by Zadie Smith

12 hours, 26 minutes

Published September 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper-and cousin by marriage-of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.

Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.

Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.

The “Tichborne Trial”-wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title-captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .

My Thoughts: 

From an article in The Millions: 

"In 2009, first edition of Charles Dickens’s The Christmas Carol was sold at auction for $290,500. The book had been inscribed by Dickens himself to one “Mrs Touchet.” This Eliza Touchet was cousin by marriage to a novelist named William Harrison Ainsworth, and served as his housekeeper and as a witty hostess for literary parties at his home in Kensal Green, many of which Dickens attended. "

You know how much I love when an author, especially one of Smith's skills, manages to create a novel that ties real life people and events together in a way that really makes me think and that makes those people and events relevant to the world today. 

But that's not what drew me to this book. In fact, I had no idea what this book was about when I requested it from the library. I requested it because it was Smith's latest. This is the fourth book I've read by Smith and she always challenges me. Twice I've commented that I should have read the book in print but had listened to it. Didn't learn my lesson. While this one was easier to follow while listening than were the other books I've listened to by Smith, it does bounce around quite a bit and I think it would have been easier to track with it if I had looked at the book instead of listened to it. 

Still...I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I loved the history, I loved the references to the authors I'm familiar with and the story of the one I wasn't. I found the hoopla surrounding the trial fascinating and how timely it felt. Truly, a man who some people so passionately believed in while so many others could clearly see that he was a fraud? Can you get any more tied in to current events? Eliza was such an interesting character, as was her relationship with the Bogles. 

I've always found plenty to like about Smith's books but this one might be my favorite yet. 

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

Read by Dion Graham

8 hours, 28 minutes

Published April 2023 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. 

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

My Thoughts: 

I hadn't really considered that it's, in the blogging world, Nonfiction November. But I've managed to read a couple of nonfiction books this month, one of which is David Grann's latest, The Wager, which is being widely touted as one of the best books of 2023. I actually started it almost six weeks ago, when the Big Guy and I were on a road trip; I knew it was the kind of thing that would appeal to both of us. But this was another one of those books that BG found hard to listening because he found it so troubling. So we didn't actually listen to more than about three hours of it on that trip; while waiting for another opportunity for the two of us to listen to it, my loan expired and it took weeks for me to get it back. 

We hadn't even gotten to the worst of it. In any review of this book that you'll read, they will inevitably start at the point where life was hard on the journey around Cape Horn but the trials of tribulations of the crew aboard The Wager, and the other ships with which it set sail, began long before then. 

We're accustomed to thinking of the British navy as one of the greatest military forces in history. What we don't read about it how difficult it was to maintain a wooden ship of that size, how prone they were to rot and hard it was to find sufficient crew to man such enormous vessels. It was, in fact, so difficult that many of the 2000 men in the squadron of ships that included The Wager, were impressed and either in poor health, elderly, or had no sailing or military experience. Before the squadron had even left the coast of Europe, typhus began to reduce their numbers. Life on the ships was miserable, especially if you were a regular seaman, and not an officer and the journey dragged on much longer than expected. Rations were already running low when The Wager became separated from the squadron as it was rounding Cape Horn so that when The Wager ran aground, the men were already feeling the effects of it. The island they landed on made it difficult to fish and offered little in the way of edible vegetation or animals. Almost as soon as the ship wrecked, there were men who began to defy the officer who had become captain when the original captain died at sea. 

Yes, things just kept getting worse and worse. Men went off hunting and died. Men died of starvation and disease. One man died when the captain shot him. And when help, in the form of natives of the area who were experts in finding food, arrived, the men managed to frighten them off. Finally, the remaining group decided that they must make an effort to leave the island and the divide in loyalties reached a mutinous level. Some stayed with the captain, others left with a sailor who, it seemed, had a much safer plan, one more likely to get the men home. Most of both parties perished before they were finally able to return to England and face what had happened on the island. 

It was, to say the least, a big deal, at the time. Which makes the fact that none of us have really heard of The Wager before surprising. Grann tells readers up front that The Wager will be shipwrecked, that there will be a mutiny, and that some of the sailors will return home, telling very different stories. We know all of that and it it still shocking to read about what happened to these men and how terribly they suffered. It's truly amazing that any of them survived at all. For my money, that isn't the most stunning part of the book. The highlight for me is in learning why The Wager is not a story any of us have heard before and it ties in so well with what we know about how the military, the press, and governments work today. 

It's a tough read. BG wasn't wrong in his assessment that it was hard to listen to too much at once. Any book about human suffering is difficult to read, particularly one where the suffering was so unnecessary. But it's certainly a book that readers will sink into and not be able to pull themselves out of until you find out what happened to these men. 

All The Broken Places by John Boyne

All The Broken Places by John Boyne

Read by Kristin Ahterton and Helen Lloyd 

12 hours 42 minutes

Published November 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn’t talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn’t talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn’t talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich’s most notorious extermination camps. 

Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can’t help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry’s beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel’s hard-won, self-contained existence. 

All The Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel’s girlhood in Germany to present-day London as a woman whose life has been haunted by the past. Now, Gretel faces a similar crossroads to one she encountered long ago. Back then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before—whatever the cost to herself….

My Thoughts: 

I did that thing again, the thing where I don't finish listening to a book before my loan expires and then months later, when I finally get it back again, I can't remember a thing I listened to before and I have to go back aways into the book to refresh my memory. In no time, though, I was once again swept into this book and everything it made me feel. 

In 2006, Boyne wrote the bestseller The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Readers of that book will recognize the main character in this book. Gretel Fernsby was 12 years old in that first book. Almost 80 years later, she is still living with the guilt of what she did then and what her father (and, by extension, her family) did and stood for. 

Here we are centered on present-day Gretel, but Boyne drops us back in to different times in Gretel's life. First to the time she and her mother spent in Paris, then to the time she spent in Australia, then to her early life with her late husband and son. In all of those places, Gretel is faced with the repercussions of what her father did, of her own feelings about it, of her implicate others who were guilty of heinous acts. But Gretel has been living for a long time with the past buried, in no small part because she keeps so much to herself. But young Henry has brought back the memory of what Gretel did to her brother and she finally sees a way to at least partially redeem herself. 

Like The German Wife, this book left me with mixed feelings about the main character. How much of what happened in those camps is she complicit in? What is her responsibility to those who died and those who suffered? Are we meant to feel sorry for her or should she be punished for what she did (or didn't) do? To be fair, Gretel was a young girl, not able to stop anything. But she could, in later years, have done more and it's hard to forgive her for that. Especially in light of the fact that she seems to feel much greater guilt for what happened to her brother than what happened to the millions of others who died. I wanted her to make things right in some way and here Boyne did not disappoint. 

I definitely recommend the audiobook (although I'm sure it's great in print, as well) and can imagine that this book would give book clubs a lot to talk about. 

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

Read by

Published by June 2023 by Scout Press

Publisher's Summary: 

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her. 

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer in this unputdownable and heart-pounding mystery from an author whose “propulsive prose keeps readers on the hook and refuses to let anyone off until all has been revealed”

My Thoughts: 

Zero Days is the seventh book by Ware that I've read, which makes her a rarity in Lisa's world. There aren't many writers who work I've devoured so voraciously. So finding that Ware had a new book out was exciting news; and, as happens so often with my go-to authors, I didn't even look at the book's summary before I requested it. Had I done that, I still would have requested this one; I just would have known that this book wasn't in Ware's usual vein. There is nearly always a locked-room component to Ware's books and, generally, an unreliable narrator. Neither of those features in this one. 

The book started off with a bang (had I read that summary, the first chapter would not have been nearly as exciting). Jack is in the process of breaking into a building, in search of the server room. In her ear, Gabe is directing her from their home, as he explores floor plans and attempts to hack further into the building's security. Of course, we're meant to believe that these two are criminals and I bought into it, except for that part of my brain that couldn't imagine that the main characters of the book would be criminals. It made for an exciting opening scene - akin to those high energy starts to action movies that don't always entirely tie into the rest of the movie, other than to introduce us to the characters and give us some background. 

And then things kind of went awry to me, even as I raced through the book. 

What worked for me: 

• Technology playing a big part, especially having a female lead who was savvy enough to use it to stay one step ahead of her pursuers. 
• The fast pace of the book. 
• Thanks to another of Ware's books, I was never entirely sure that our heroine was going to solve the mystery...or even survive.
• The ending. 

What didn't work for me: 

• Fairly early on in her run, Jack injures herself. You and I both know that this injury is going to continue to get worse and worse and that, in the end, it will be a race against that injury to solve the mystery of who killed Gabe. 
• Also, that injury was, very early on, causing Jack excruciating pain. I don't know about you, but when I've experienced excruciating pain, it's laid me low. But somehow Jack just keeps pushing on. Even as the pain gets even more excruciating. We know because Ware tells us again and again and again how bad the pain is. 
• We learn early on that Jack's sister is a journalist and her brother-in-law is a lawyer. I 100% assumed they were given these careers because that was going to come into play. It doesn't and I can't imagine why not. 
• Jack's skills don't seem to help all that much throughout the chase, except for a couple of times. 
• Ware tries to point us in the direction of a man we're meant to believe killed Gabe because he and Jack were once in an abusive relationship. He had told her that if he couldn't have her, no one could. But I never for a minute bought that he was the killer. Except that I'm usually so bad at predicting the actual killer that I wondered if Ware was intentionally making it too obvious. 
• Along the chase, Jack meets a person who I was certain was going to come back to play a part in the plot, but he entirely disappeared. In a book with so few characters, this seems an odd waste. 
• Something happens about half way through the book that should have tipped Jack off immediately as to a person she couldn't trust, but she never made the connection. 
• AND I figured out who was behind the killing almost immediately, it was just a matter of figuring out why. And even that I had figured out well before the end of the book. You all know how rare that is for me. So rare that I began to wonder if I had read too much into some things. I hadn't. 
• Also, the ending. Yes, I know I said it worked for me; part of it did, the part where somethings were left unsettled. But other things were tied up too neatly. 

For Ware, this one was a disappointment. Even so, I did race through it, wanting to see if I was right in my assumption of who the killer was and wanting to see how Jack might survive the loss of Gabe. If I scored books, this one would probably come in at a shaky three. Still, I'm not giving up on Ware. 

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico

First published January 1958

157 pages

Publisher's Summary: 

Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life - a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps, saves and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris. When she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever. Always kind, always cheery and always winsome, the indomitable Mrs Harris takes Paris by storm and learns one of life's greatest lessons along the way. This treasure from the 1950s introduces the irrepressible Mrs Harris, part charlady, part fairy-godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour.

My Thoughts:

A couple of weeks ago I watched a movie adaptation of this book, starring Leslie Manville, and so thoroughly enjoyed it that when I found out it was based on a book, I decided to read it. 

You and I both well know that's not always the best idea - movie adaptations, no matter how good, are often so different that it's like you're reading a book that has no relationship to the movie. And I'll be honest, there are some big differences between the book and the movie. Mrs. Harris in book form is somewhat older than Manville, less warm, hasn't just recently discovered she's a war widow, has no potential romantic interests, and is certainly more London "salt-of-the-earth." A character that served as the antagonist in the movie almost immediately becomes an ally in the book, how Mrs. Harris raised the money for her Dior gown is different, and the ending is different. 

And yet the heart of the book remains. Here we have a woman who has lived a quiet life, content with her life, who one day has a dream and does everything in her power to make that dream come true. Along the way, through her own personality, she helps people and makes new friends. She doesn't help to save the House of Dior, as she does in the movie; but she saves herself. She will never again be the same person; she is now a woman who has had the courage to fulfill a dream and have a great adventure. 

The book I checked out actually has another Mrs. Harris story in it but I had to return it before I got a chance to read the second story. But I'm happy to know that there are other Mrs. Harris books waiting for me out there, for when I need a story about the kind of woman who changes people's lives just by being herself. 

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

10 hours, 19 minutes

Read by Emma Fielding

Published February 2015 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

This is what was on bn.com: 

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

This is what was on Goodreads: 

Make them laugh, and they're yours forever . . . 

Barbara Parker is Miss Blackpool of 1964, but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen. She wants to make people laugh. So she leaves her hometown behind, takes herself to London, and overnight she becomes the lead in a new BBC comedy, Sophie Straw: charming, gorgeous, destined to win the nation's hearts.

My Thoughts: 

I've loved the movies that have been adapted from Hornby's novels but it's been tough to go back to the source material. So I decided to pick up one of Hornby's books that hasn't been made into a movie yet so I could read his work without comparing it to the movie. As it turns out, the book has been made into a movie, which will be released in Great Britain next month. Sometime after that, I suppose, I'll be watching it here, making the reverse comparison. 

Barbara longs to become the next Lucille Ball but when she lands an agent in London, he doesn't take her seriously. He's looking to make her a sexy girl on calendars and such and, when she pushes for acting jobs, he only sends her out to auditions that she's unlikely to land. So when she shows up to audition for a television show, neither he nor she is expecting much. With that thought in her head, Barbara (now Sophie) decides she's got nothing to lose and gives the writers her honest opinion of their pilot. 

They are charmed and, along with the producer, push to create the kind of show that will launch her career (and theirs, of course). She charms the nation and the show's a big hit. But, as shows that become mega hits do, there's only one direction to go from there. During that time, we become in involved in Sophie's life as well as the lives of writers (Tony and Bill), producer Dennis, and co-star Clive. Eventually, we jump forward twenty-five years, when all of those involved have died or died out, left only with the faint glow of that former glory.

I couldn't quite put my finger onto where this book fell short for me. One thing I did know right away was that the title is misleading, for several reasons. It implies, that this is a book about Sophie; but there are great swathes where Sophie entirely disappears. In fact, she may have the least interesting of all the lives we read about in the book. And then there's the question as to whether or not she's actually funny. Hornby tells us she is. But we never really see it. Much of what causes the writers and producer to want her for the part is her northern England way of speaking, her brutal honesty, her naïveté. But that doesn't make her funny and we never really get to see her be funny. 

In fact, there's not a whole lot of funny in the book. There are moments and Hornby certainly takes his satirical stab at the times. But it's not what the title of the book would suggest. Could a different title have made a difference in how I felt about this book? Yes, actually. And then Hornby would have had to cut back on all of the talk about how funny Sophie is and left the focus on the ensemble cast of characters and cut back on the often jarring cuts between focus on one character and then another. Of course, my opinion matters not a whit; I'm not a published author, whose books have been made into movies. My opinion is just that - my opinion as one reader. One who just wants you to know that Funny Girl isn't all that funny. Or entirely about a girl. 

The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake

The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake 

Read by Susan Lyons

13 hours, 24 minutes

Published May 2022 by Sourcebooks

Publisher's Summary: 

Women's work is a matter of life and death.

Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her.

Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is grueling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care.

Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything: precious lives, Nora's career, and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine.

My Thoughts: 
This is Blake's follow up to The Girl In His Shadow (my review here). When last we left her, Nora Beady was boarding a ship, headed for Italy to study medicine, eager to be in a place where people allowed women to become doctors. 

Unfortunately for Nora, things aren't that easy (of course). It turns out that, while women are allowed to study medicine, the men still show them no respect and make life as difficult as possible for them. Although she finally begins to make friends and allies, Nora is eager to complete her studies early and return home. But the help she receives from a mentor puts her in an even more difficult situation, leaving her more eager than ever to complete her coursework and return home to Horace Croft, the man who raised her, and Daniel, the man she loves. 

But those men are facing their own battles. Horace has always raised hackles for his unorthodox methods and has made an enemy of the head of the hospital where he does paying work. When he decides to expand his own home to create his own hospital, he finds himself deep in financial trouble, trouble he can't get himself out of because of health issues. It's left to Daniel to try to save Horace's dream, the only home Nora remembers, and his own career. 

Like the first book, this one is loaded with high drama and as the troubles mounted, I begin to tire of yet another obstacle placed in the paths of our heroes. Because, let's be honest, we know how this is going to come out in the end, even if we can't imagine how Blake will possibly get us there. Still, I enjoyed the ride, appreciated female characters who fought back against those obstacles, and reading a book that read a little bit like a 19th-century medical thriller. 

Susan Lyons is again the reader and I quite enjoy her reading and her ability to give each of the characters a unique voice. Will there be another book in the series? It's almost certain. After all, Nora and Daniel have not married yet when we end this book and there are no end to the medical situations the group of doctors running the new hospital can battle. If I'm right, it's a given that I'll pick it up. 

Mini-Reviews: People Person and Demon Copperhead

Honestly, both of these books deserve more than just a mini-review but here we are at the end of the year and I want to get the books I read in 2022 reviewed in 2022. Except for the two that I hope to finish before midnight on the 31st! 

People Person by Candice Carty-Williams

Read by Danielle Vitalis

10 hours, 4 minutes

Published September 2022 by Gallery/Scout Press

Publisher's Summary: 

If you could choose your family...you wouldn’t choose the Penningtons.

Dimple Pennington knows of her half siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about.

She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie, and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

My Thoughts:

• I'd previously read Carty-Williams' Queenie and was impressed with her unique voice and was eager to see what she'd do next. 
• Carty-Williams ups her game, as far a unique goes, with this book. 
• Those half siblings of Dimple's have three different mothers. Prior to the night Dimple kills her boyfriend, she's only ever met each of them once, when their father picked them all up so they could meet each other. But when she needed help, and had nowhere else to turn, Dimple knew she had to turn to family. These young people have all kinds of issues individually and as a family. 
• Carty-Williams writes about people I don't normally find in books, broadening my world. If you've been around very long, you know I'm always looking for books that can do that. 
• Danielle Vitalis does a terrific job and I highly recommend this book in audio.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

560 pages

Published October 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers

Publisher's Summary: 

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

My Thoughts: 

• Barbara Kingsolver rewriting Charles Dickens? Yes, please.
• It's been a long, long time since I read David Copperfield or watched any of the adaptations. Still, I had some recollection of the characters and plot and went in knowing that things were just going to keep getting worse and worse for young Demon. 
• I appreciated that, while Kingsolver sets the book in an entirely different time and place, she keeps much of what makes Dickens' book so memorable, including many of the characters (although, thank God, she doesn't have nearly so many characters!). 
• As bad as life was for David Copperfield, life is even worse for Demon, with fewer bright spots. It makes a very long book feel even longer. 
• Like Dickens, Kingsolver writes about big issues in ways that educate and enlighten. And, here, feel a little bit guilty about the way I've always thought of poor mountain people.
• Like Dickens, Kingsolver's books are often quite long and they frequently feel to me as though they could well be shorter without losing a thing. Here I got to the point where I start skimming and thinking "I get, he's an addict; the life of an addict is terrible." This coming from someone who believes that we don't paint that life nearly dark enough as general rule. 
• Except for that last bit, this would have been a five-star read for me (assuming I gave stars out for books). Kingsolver brilliantly writes in voice that sound very believably like that of a bright young man of poor education, who has grown up in the impoverished mountains of southern Virginia. Her descriptions are vivid - I could easily visualize the squalor, the people, and, most vividly, the land that Demon so loved. 

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

432 pages

Published July 2022 by Gallery/Scout Press

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

Publisher's Summary: 

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

My Thoughts: 

Kirkus Reviews: "...the mystery disappoints." 

The Wall Street Journal: "...may well be her best book yet." 

Guys, I'm sad to say that I fall closer to that first comment than the second. What I've come to expect from Ware is a book with a fish out of water heroine, a constant sense of danger, and a book that keeps me spellbound from maybe 100 pages in on to the ending. 

This one has the first. 

But, I'm sad to say, I didn't feel much of a sense of danger until nearly the end and the suspense only arrived, for me, about one hundred pages before that. And, in the end, the "why" of April's murder fell flat. 

I didn't care much for April or Hannah. Oh, heck, I didn't care much for any of the characters but that just called to mind Donna Tart's The Secret History which is the predecessor of all murders/college setting thrillers. Tart pulls that off better. 

And I'm really sort of over dual timeline stories. 

And yet...

I still raced through this book. Because Ware writes terrific settings and the question of who can you trust was compelling. Every one of Hannah's friends seemed to have some potential motivation for killing April and you couldn't be too quick to write any of them off. So, for me, not Ware's best work (that still remains The Turn of the Key) but it was worth the reading and just what I needed in a book when I read it. 

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Read by Barbara Rosenblat, John Franklyn-Robbins, Jill Tanner

1 Hour 55 Minutes

Published 

Publisher's Summary: 

When Helene Hanff makes an innocent inquiry about the possibility of purchasing hard-to-find books through Marks and Co., Booksellers, she begins a twenty-year love affair with Frank Doel, the proper English bookseller who answers her letter and sends along her first order in the fall of 1949. 

They are two very unlikely correspondents: she a cranky Jewish New Yorker who writes TV scripts and lives in a messy apartment on East 95th Street; he a determinedly courteous middle-class Englishman who sends her beautifully bound and often obscure antiquarian books from the shop he manages on Charing Cross Road in London. 

The letters, written between 1949 and 1969, capture the period and pay tribute to the special kind of reader who treasures a well-worn classic.

My Thoughts:

84, Charing Cross Road is one of those books I've been meaning to read for years. But I didn't own it, couldn't find it from my library book on audiobook and always had so many other books that popped up ahead of it. And then the other day I was looking for audiobooks that would be good for the hubby and me to listen to on road trips and there it was, 84, Charing Cross Road, not only available but also less than 2 hours long. Fewer than 24 hours later, I was finished with it. And now I'm a little sad that I can never "read" it again for the first time. 

Helene Hanff is a no-nonsense writer living in a studio apartment with a penchant for obscure, mostly nonfiction books. When her first request to Marks and Co booksellers in London is a success, the store quickly becomes her go-to for book acquisitions. She can't be bothered to go out into New York to search for the books and she can't be bothered to convert the pounds into dollars and she often complains about the books that are sent to her. But it is equally clear that she is, at least partially, teasing and soon such a deep affection grows between Frank and Helene that others in the store begin writing to Helene as well. Getting to know them, Helene begins sending packages of foodstuffs to the store employees, knowing, as she does that so many things are in such low supply in London and finding the cost to herself to be quite reasonable. Soon Helene is also carrying on a correspondence with Frank's wife, a neighbor, and, eventually Frank's daughter. 

Helene is witty and fun; I adored the way Helene described things. Frank is ceaselessly patient and warm. I so wanted Helene to make it across the ocean so that they could meet. I so wanted to meet each of them. The best part was knowing that these people were real, that these letters were real. And those letters provide a marvelous glimpse of what life was like as a writer in New York and for the people of England following the war. It almost seems trite to call this book "charming" or "delightful;" but it is, it really is both of those things. It is also moving and thoughtful and makes me want to run to my nearest used book store. 

Helene proclaims that she doesn't like to read a book for the first time, far preferring to read books that bring her comfort. I don't reread often; but, for 84, Charing Cross Road, I will gladly channel Helene. This may be the book I read every year.