Leaving Everything Most Loved: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear

Leaving Everything Most Loved: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear
Published April 2014 by Harper Collins Publishers
Source: the publishers and TLC Book Tours

Publisher's Summary:
London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal's body is discovered in the waters of a city canal, her brother, newly arrived in England, turns to Maisie Dobbs for help. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, but evidence indicates they failed to conduct a full investigation. Usha had been staying at an ayah's hostel, a refuge for Indian women. As Maisie learns, Usha was different from the hostel's other residents. But with this discovery comes new danger, as a fellow lodger who was close to Usha is found murdered.

As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet captivating subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case, and by a growing desire to see more of the world. At the same time, her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore.

My Thoughts:
I've been enjoying Maisie Dobbs for a few years now, thanks to the ladies at TLC Book Tours, and, since I like to try to read mysteries in March, I didn't hesitate to jump on board for March 2016 Month of Maisie Readalong to celebrate the release of the 12th book in the series. Unfortunately, because of a mailing mixup, I only received the book a few days ago and haven't had time to finish it yet.

Still, I've gotten far enough in to be able to tell you that this one is not only giving me exactly what I want and expect in a Maisie Dobbs mystery, it's got the connection to India and you all know how much I love novels about India. Over the past few years, I've tended to pick up books here and there throughout the series and it can be a little jarring to go backwards in Maisie's story or jump well ahead. This time, though, this one immediately follows one I have read and I'm better able to enjoy the arc of Maisie's life. I'm also impressed by Winspear's ability to pull in just enough of the history of the characters to introduce them to new readers without boring those for whom these characters are already old friends.

All that being said, I'll be back later this week for a full review of the book once I've had time to finish it. Thanks to the ladies of TLC Book Tours for once again including me in the Month of Maisie Readalong! For the full list of the books being reviewed, including a month of reviews for the new book, Journey To Munich, check out the full tour schedule.


Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Leaving Everything Most Loved, Elegy for Eddie, A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, as well as four other national bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. Her standalone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, was also a New York Times bestseller. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was a New York Times Notable Book. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.

Find out more about Jacqueline at her website, www.jacquelinewinspear.com, and find her on Facebook.

13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl by Mona Awad

13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl by Mona Awad
Published February 2016 by Penguin Publishing Group
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley

Publisher's Summary:
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?

My Thoughts:
I'm not really sure what drew me to this book. Having struggled with body image and weight most of my life, I suppose I'm always looking for people who can poke fun at it without being mean, people who seem to really understand what it's like to go through life in a body you're never comfortable in. Somewhere in the pitch for this, I understood there would be humor. In other reviews of the book, they talk about the book being "bitingly" funny.

For me, not so much. The novel is really a series of stories in Lizzie's life. Early on, I did find some humor in some of the stories, oddly when Lizzie was at her heaviest, a time you would expect to feel most sorry for her. But thin Beth (as she later preferred to be called in her effort to redefine herself), was much more painful to read about. As she struggles to lose the weight, she finds less and less to be happy about in life. She stops taking joy in music, she loses touch with the friends who "knew her when," and her marriage suffers because nothing is more important to her than her body.

It's not just Lizzie who is heavy; her mother's weight eventually results in the health problems we're always warned about. When Lizzie's thin and her mother's gone, Lizzie spends a lot of time looking for comfort in heavy women. She also spends a lot of time judging other women and worried that others are still judging her.

Which was all just to hard for me to read. To consider the idea that I could spend the next couple of years fighting my own struggling only to still not be happy with my body, to lose the inability to enjoy food (and, dammit, I really don't want to do that!), to still feel like my weight defines me, perhaps more than ever.

This was, obviously, a tough read for me. I suppose that means Awad struck at truth; she certainly made me have all of the feelings about Lizzie.

Life: It Goes On - March 13

Happy birthday to my Daddy! We're headed into Lincoln shortly to celebrate. Pie will be involved. I'm about to put the second pie into the oven.

Miss H is winging her way to Boston today for the week with a group of friends. Several months ago her friends decided that she should be in Boston to celebrate her first St. Patrick's Day as a legal drinker. They have plans for so many fun things while they're there, including a tour of Fenway Park. Miss H is a Yankees fan but she can't pass up seeing one of the great ballparks. Can't wait for the Snapchats to start coming in!

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, weather-wise. We never get out of winter this easily. But the forecast for the next week is showing only rain and warm temps so I think the only thing that will stop the dinners on the patio we've had this week will be rain, not snow.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: Heading into my final week of The Shoemaker's Wife. I'm enjoying the story but at 15 discs long, this one is easily 3 discs too long. Too much unnecessary description, too much repetition.

Watching: Movies: the latest James Bond movie, Spectre; a gem that The Big Guy found starring Ben Kingsley called Learning To Drive; and an independent movie called Trivia Night which we saw at the Omaha Film Festival.

Reading: Trying to finish a book for review for this week (a Maisie Dobbs mystery) and this month's book club choice, The Sandcastle Girls.

Making: A killer beef stroganoff - one of my faves that I don't make nearly often enough. Also, did I mention pie? Tried a lattice top for the first time on raspberry pie; lesson learned - make the lattice on the counter and then transfer to the pie. Also, making Ree Drummond's chocolate french silk pie which was a big hit last year when I made it for my dad's birthday.

Planning: The 40 Bags In 40 Days work continues. I'm diving into closets - the coat closet, linen closet, etc. I spent a lot of time sorting papers this week. Every time I do this, I realize how much of it I don't need to keep any more with the internet.

Thinking About: All of the new-to-me books that came into my house this week. A box of six books arrived from Better World Books on Friday. Everything I ordered has been on my list of books I want to read for at least a year. Also, I downloaded West With the Night by Beryl Markham (you'd know her from Paula McLain's Circling The Sun), Notorious RBG, and Behind The Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley (you'd know her form Jennifer Chiavarini's Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.

Enjoying: A lot of time this weekend with friends and family - drinks with Miss H and friends on Tuesday, happy hour Friday night with Miss H and BG that stretched out for more than two hours, movie and reverse happy hour with friends last night, and birthday dinner for my dad today. Wow - that looks bad. Honestly, I don't usually drink this much!

Feeling:  Tired. Stayed up late last night, lost that hour, and then BG accidentally set his alarm clock so that it went off an hour earlier than I had planned to get up. It's going to be an early bedtime for this girl!

Looking forward to: Book club this week.

Question of the week: What's the best movie you've seen lately?

Book Gems

This week I'd like to share a couple of quotes from Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton. The book is not long and the writing is spare, every phrase and sentence needs to be meaningful. These were two of my favorites:

"It interests me how we find ways to feel superior to another person, another group of people. It happens everywhere, and all the time. Whatever we call it, I think it's the lowest part of who we are, this need to find someone else to put down."

I find this doesn't just apply to our daily lives but really seems to be something I'm seeing a lot of in this presidential campaign season. As she so often is, Strout is spot on with this one. Right alongside that idea of a political connection comes this:

"It has been my experience throughout life that the people who have been given the most by our government - education, food, rent subsidies - are the ones who are most apt to find fault with the whole idea of government."

Hmm, reminds me of some of my customers, who, strangely, feel we need to discuss politics sometimes when they call.

This is, I think, my favorite gem from the book:

"I have sometimes been sad that Tennessee Williams wrote that line for Blanche DuBois, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Many of us have been saved many times by the kindness of strangers, but after a while it sounds trite, like a bumper sticker. And that's what makes me sad, that a beautiful and true line comes to be used so often that it takes on the superficial sound of a bumper sticker." 

Shouldn't we always be able to count on the kindness of strangers, shouldn't that be a good thing? It's something of a way of life here, yet I know there are those that mock the kindness of people in the  Midwest.

What book gems have you come across lately?

Wait For Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories by Craig Johnson - Guest Review

Wait For Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories by Craig Johnson
Published October 2015 by Penguin Books
Source: our copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award–winning “Old Indian Trick.” This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson’s bestselling, award-winning novels and the hit television series Longmire, now streaming on Netflix. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt’s life that doesn’t appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can’t buy the stories in book form.


*Oops - the hubby read this one for review before Christmas but Christmas being Christmas, we both completely forgot to have him write his review. Sorry, Penguin!*

The Big Guy's Thoughts:
I have read a couple of other Longmire books and both were a fun read and having been a fan of the show for the past few years I have become invested in the characters.  The only problem is, having seen the shows first, I couldn't help but compare the people in the book to the people in the show.  It took a bit of reprogramming, but I was able to reconcile the Longmire family.

Being attention deficit this was a good read for me, new story every 20 pages and 'look a squirrel'!  Despite being short stories they had a lot of commonality: the usual setting, characters and diverse personalities of the series.

For Longmire fans, Western fans, mystery fans or anyone that likes a good series of stories, I highly recommend Wait For Signs.  What's not to love about a guy who has a character recommend the assisted living facility as the place to ring in the New Year or uses the phrase "boy howdy?"

Thanks for the review, honey! Now we just need to get caught up on the newest season of Longmire on Netflix! Thank goodness Johnson has given the show's writers plenty to work with for a good long while - we'd had to get stuck with another show where the show had outpaced the author's ability to write source material (I'm looking at you, George R. R. Martin!).