Familyhistorian Takes Life (and Reading) as it Comes - Part 7

Well, last year threw a monkey wrench into the works. I don’t know what this year will bring but there will be books and talk about books. That’s something to look forward to.

I didn’t quite meet my goal for reading and sending books from my personal library on their way in 2025. Still 77 recycled out of a goal of 100 is nothing to be sneezed at and it outpaced my acquisitions. Maybe I’ll do better in 2026.



Little Free Library

Books culled in 2026

January - 6

February - 7

March - 4

May - 4

June - 5

July - 4

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I write about genealogy and history on my blog. It helps to have a deadline when there are so many unwriterly tasks to be done. Follow my blog posts as I embark on another year of writing about my genealogical explorations and the information I find out about my ancestors. You can see my latest blog posts at: A Genealogist’s Path to History

Challenges

Nonfiction Challenge

January – Prize Winners - The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale - DONE
February – All That Jazz - Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist - DONE
March – Off the Beaten Path Religious Sects - American Cult: A Graphic History of Religious Cults in America from the Colonial Era to Today by Robyn Chapman (others) - DONE
April – Internal Matters - Everything Tuberculosis by John Green DONE
May – Been there. Bought the t-shirt
June – Who Built that Beautiful Building and Why? - Buildings of Britain by Roger FitzGerald - DONE
July – US revolution years from 1760 to 1788
August – Tweet, Tweet
September – Talk, Talk – Linguistics
October – Diaspora
November – Epistolography
December – Bibliography

Reading Through Time

January – Retellings of Classics - My Fair Brady by Brian D. Kennedy - DONE
February – Agents of change, unexpected events that change the course of lives - The Black Death: A Personal History by John Hatcher - DONE
March – Slavery in the Antebellum South - The House Girl by Tara Conklin - DONE
April – Spring - The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin - DONE
May – It Happened in May - Five Days in London May 1940 by John Lukacs - DONE
June – Love & Marriage - The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
July – The Lives of Wives -
August – Holidays/Vacations
September – Daughters
October –
November –
December –

Quarterly

Jan – March – 19th Century – excluding the Americas - Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas - DONE
April - June - 19th Century Americas - EXCLUDING The Old West - Our Kind of People
July - September - The Old West

List of books for challenges

Nonfiction Challenge

January - Prize Winners - Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford prize The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story

February - All That Jazz - Empires of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist

May - Travel - The Victorian Visitors: Culture Shock in Nineteenth Century Britain by Rupert Christianson (still working my way through that one at the beginning of June)

June - Who Built That Beautiful Building and Why? -

July - US revolution years from 1760 to 1788 - US revolution - The British Are Coming: the Graphic Edition

Reading Through Time

January – Retellings of Classics - My Fair Brady by Brian D. Kennedy

February - Agents of Change - The Black Death: A Personal History by John Hatcher

June - Love and Marriage - The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

July – The Lives of Wives - The Wife of Willesden by Zadie Smith

August – Holidays/Vacations Welcome to My World by Miranda Dickson

July - September - The Old West - Wildcat: The Untold Story of the Canadian Woman Who Became the West's Most Notorious Bandit by John Boessenecker

Shared reads

We Begin at the End April

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - November

Books read in 2026

Books read in June 2026

1. Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington
2. The Corpse with the Ruby Lips by Cathy Ace
3. The Librarians by Sherry Thomas
4. Checkmate to Murder by E.C.R. Lorac
5. Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict
6. The unselected journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1 by Beth Brower
7. The Island by Victoria Hislop
8. Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet by Harry Kemelman
9. Letters from the Dead by Steve Robinson
10. The Violence: My Family’s Columbian War by Adriana E. Ramirez
11. Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon
12. Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn
13. Buildings of Britain by Roger FitzGerald
14. Our Kind of People by Carol Wallace

Books read in July

1. Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us about Living by Peter Jones
2. Bella Vista by Adam Strong

Books acquired in 2026

Books acquired in June 2026

The Secrets of Our DNA: How Genetics Has Changed the World by Turi King
Remember Me by Mary Balogh
The League of Lady Poisoners by Lisa Perrin
How to Fake It in Society by KJ Charles
Last One Out by Jane Harper
The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, volume 1 by Nora Neus and Federico Pietrobon
A Victorian’s Inheritance (Who Do You Think You Were) by Helen Parker-Drabble

June stats

Books read: 14
Pages read: 4,142
Read pages counted in 2026: 35,020
Male authors: 4
Female authors: 10
Multiple authors: 0
Owned books: 5
Borrowed books: 9

Happy July 4 to all my American visitors. Happy 250! This year I added to my collection of books about the American Revolution adding the graphic novel The British Are Coming. I also added Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution. I heard the author, Denise Kiernan interviewed on The Book Cougars. As a family historian I was surprised to find that I had ancestors who fought especially as they fought on the American side!

112. Bella Vista by Adam Strong





Length: 316 pages

Was Frank Pershall right to take his son from his mother and start a new life for them in Florida? Granted the mother was an artist who had fallen off the edge of acceptability, the accolades and drug habit making her far from nurturing. But, once he had him where he wanted him, that was it, Frank was no more nurturing himself. Instead the father’s limo driver stepped into the role taking Jay, the son in question, under his wing and into his limo but at the same time supporting Jay more than any other adult in his life.

But children have the habit of growing up and making their own choices, for good or for bad. Predictably, things didn’t go that well for Jay which was also part of the story of Bella Vista.

Happy New Thread, Meg. How fun to see a buck on your walk.

>17 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah, actually there were two different bucks hanging around. A lot of walkers stopped to take photos!

Happy new thread, Meg.

Happy new thread, Meg. Those photos are impressive.

Happy Sunday, Meg. Happy New Thread. I love the young buck topper. Did you ever finish Villain or did you quit it?

Happy new thread Meg. Those bucks are amazng photos! Maybe we still are the "Wild West"!

>19 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!

>20 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It was a surprise to see the deer and there were many people taking photos because I was on a popular walking trail.

Happy new one, Meg. Cool siting on your walk!

>21 msf59: Hi Mark, thanks re the thread. I'm still working my way through Villain but it's not holding my attention like Hench did.

>22 mdoris: Thanks Mary, well it is the Wild West in that there is a lot of wild life around here.

>24 jessibud2: Thanks Shelley, the siting made a lot of the people hiking up the Crunch pull out their phones to take pictures. It's nice when the wildlife poses and is relatively benign.

113. Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin



Length: 303 pages

Smith’s life in New York had started unravelling, a process begun by the substances he imbibed, the never ending party he was party to. Then his roomie, Elle ended up dead by an unknown hand, a casualty of the life style they were a part of maybe.

Great Black Hope followed Smith’s journey from failing representative of the upper echelon of Black Culture, through New York’s underworld, with the court system thrown in for good measure. All the while, trying to find answers about what happened to Elle as he tried to figure out where he fit.

Meg--I think I'm somewhat caught up with reading your posts. Just a comment from a couple of threads back. Someone in our Sunday school class on the row in front of me was talking about how much she enjoyed Theo of Golden today. She loaned it to another class member who is going to loan it to another one. I read the synopsis on Amazon, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much as they did.

Dave saw a marmot at Garry Point Park today with Muffin. He was quite excited about that, as was Muffin, Meg. Not as exciting as seeing a couple of bucks though. Muffin chased a muskrat into the rocks around the dyke with me a few days ago. She is on leash, of course, but she has a real prey drive. She was just after Dave's ankles a little while ago as they left for a walk. She just growls and pretends to snap at his heels and ankles, no actual biting. She actually very gentle.

Happy new thread Meg! How lovely that you saw two bucks on your walk.

>29 thornton37814: Hi Lori, good to see you here. Theo of Golden is one of those books, I think. A lot of people really like it which is how it got to be published by a regular publisher. It's okay but I not one I would pick to read myself. I read it because of a writing group who picked it to have a look at.

>30 vancouverdeb: I remember seeing something on the news about marmots making a come back. Maybe that's why the excitement. We don't see little critters like that around here much. Just the larger ones. Nice to see wildlife on walks though.

>31 humouress: Thanks Nina, the bucks were a nice distraction while on our walk!

Happy new one, Meg!

It is an impressive topper, Meg, but I have to say that I do not want to see any wildlife on any walk I may partake in Kuala Lumpur!

>35 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

>36 PaulCranswick: Don't you have any nice looking nonthreatening wildlife there, Paul? We have some wildlife to stay clear of here too.

>38 Familyhistorian: I suppose we must have, Meg, but perhaps all the nasty stuff ate them already!

Some of my intrepid friends like to go wandering into the Taman Negara (National Park - pretty much untamed Rainforest) but the fact that Tigers still roam there gives me slight pause in consideration of joining their expeditions!

>39 PaulCranswick: Come to Singapore Paul; the wildlife here is on the smaller scale.

You're reading about as fast as me (if I don't count short chapter books). You should make it to 75, I think.

114. Hysteria by LJ Ross



Length: 308 pages

The second book in the Alexander Gregory series took place in Paris during fashion week. Someone was targeting the models, first slashing one in her room during the night. At least she lived, the next model was not so lucky. There was even a love interest for Gregory in this episode because it was Paris. The plot of Hysteria was a bit convoluted and ended oddly in my view.

>39 PaulCranswick: Roaming tigers would make the walk less idyllic for me as well, Paul. At least there are none of those in these parts. Lots of bears though.

>40 humouress: Hasn't he come to visit you again yet, Nina?

>41 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, I passed 75 books read a few months ago. Might make it to 2 x 75 this year. Best of luck with your reading.

>44 Familyhistorian: Nope. I'm still waiting for that first visit Meg.

>43 Familyhistorian: Meg there might be some roaming cougar about but they are elusive. But I know they are in the North Shore mountains. And cougar might be as big and scary as tigers. For me anyway!

>42 Familyhistorian: Hysteria was a disappointment, I thought, Meg. I looked up marmots and apparently they are quite unusual in Richmond. Supposedly if you find one in Richmond, it may " hitched a ride here" or come by some other unusual mean. I did see coyote on the dyke today on the my walk. I have not seen one since March or April, I think.

>46 humouress: Maybe he's talked about it so much he thinks he's done it already, Nina.

>47 mdoris: I forgot about the cougars, Mary. They are around here too. I remember seeing the news van parked in the cul de sac behind me when there was the story of the cougar stalking a woman and then there was the photo of the two cougars playing on the Skytrain track close to Inlet Station. It happened before Skytrain started up for the day. They scare me more than bears because they sneak up on you before they attack.

>48 vancouverdeb: Hysteria wasn't as good as the first in the series but I still want to continue. I hope the next one is better. It's strange the way certain kinds of wildlife seem to be confined to certain municipalities. I've never seen a rabbit here in Coquitlam but there are lots of them in Surrey. It might have something to do with the bears, of course.

>49 Familyhistorian: Hmmm; let's hope not. He mentioned he might come over soon.

>50 Familyhistorian: YES!!! You are right Meg they attack from behind, a pounce from about 15' away, knock you down and then finish you off. That is why you never ever run. I know about this as I have personal experience and then researched a lot about these stunning animals.

>52 humouress: Fingers crossed, Nina. Give him a hard time if he doesn't follow through with a visit.

>53 mdoris: I've heard that they usually go for the neck too. What kind of personal experience do you have with cougars, Mary?

That is scary, Meg, living in an area with bears and coyotes. I just have to worry about coyotes, but they , knock on wood, stay to themselves for the most part and I don't see them often.

>40 humouress: Ha, you have them all signed up to the night safari at Mandai.

Bears, cougars and coyotes would freak me out I am fairly sure.

>57 PaulCranswick: Those are the bigger animals - lions, tigers, elephants and so on.

I see that you’re ignoring the subtle hints about your upcoming imminent visit to this side of the Causeway.

This morning I saw monkeys, monitor lizards and otters as well as various birds including a fish eagle while out on my walk with Jasper.

I read all the comments about large cats, and just had to say, "Here kitty, kitty!" I might not like them as well in the wild, but the large cats are my favorites at the zoo!

>56 vancouverdeb: I haven't seen cougar signs around for a while, Deborah. The city usually puts a sign on the trails when they've been spotting in the area. There are so many bears any signs are posted permanently and any public garbage cans are bear proof. We have coyotes as well.

>57 PaulCranswick: The coyotes here don't bother me that much. They are smaller than the ones in the east of Canada. The bears are black bears so not as scary as grizzlies which are in the more northern reaches of our province. Cougar sightings are more rare.

One critter that I forgot to mention was the raccoon. In the previous house I lived in I went to get into my car that was parked in the carport but there was a raccoon there sitting on the top of a garbage can eating a cupcake. I went back inside and waiting until he left. Those claws are very long!

>58 humouress: You keep at it, Nina. He's got to come up with a date for a visit sooner or later.

>59 thornton37814: They are much easier to view in a zoo, Lori. They are less predictable in the wild.

Raccoons are ubiquitous here, Meg. I see them all the time. We also have coyotes and they are becoming bolder and are a real danger to people with small children and small pets. There have been several incidents but as the city grows larger, their territories grow smaller so I guess it is to be expected. Still, not fun.

I once had an opposum on my front lawn but only once. I don't think they are dangerous. When I tried to chase it away, it took its sweet time and didn't seem the least scared or bothered by me. Ugly things, those, lol

Raccoons all over the place here, Meg.Usually I only see them after dark but you find them going through garbage sometimes in the day.

They are vicious. When I was young, we had a neighbours with a " pet " raccoon. They were nice people, but had some unique ideas. I would have been around 10 or 11 when they had it. It would go after the toodlers in the neighbourhood and friend of mine says she can still remember my dad bundling the raccoon - alive- into a couple of garbage bags , shouting at the nieghbours parents to get rid after it attacked one of my little brothers once too many. I don't remember that, but I can quite believe it. The mom in the family was sadly not very present due to alcohol problems, so it was left to the dad to work full time and fend for his six kids. Overall, I think my parents were quite understanding of them and liked them. The things you don't realize as a kid, alcohol problems, but I did know that a raccoon was not a pet.

>55 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg, The cougar story! Previously we did ocean canoe trips with a large 24' canoe that P built that also had a motor. We were getting on the ferry as foot passengers im Port Hardy and rolling the canoe on for a trip up to Prince Rupert where we would start our adventure. I decided to walk the dog early morning and got about 1/4 mile away from the ferry terminal when the dog growled and I turned around and a cougar was 6 ' behind us. Time stopped. I thought gorgeous animal, then big cat and then holy smokes it's a cougar and then screamed. The cougar turned tail and went into the nearby woods. It was near a boat launch and I think the fishermen threw the fish guts into the woods so maybe a major attraction for the cougar. i hitch hiked a ride back to the ferry terminal shaken. I did lots of reading about them afterwards. They are stunning animals. Paula Wild The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous and Ghost Walker by R.D. Lawrence.

>64 jessibud2: I don't think I've ever seen an opposum, Shelley. They don't sound like cuddly animals. We do have raccoons though and coyotes. I know that the coyotes here are smaller than some back east. I'm not sure where the cut off is but I remember a story of a woman in Nova Scotia who was killed by a few coyotes. The story also indicated that coyotes in that province were bigger than they are here.

>65 vancouverdeb: That is pretty horrendous, Deborah. I used to see more raccoons around here. There was one time I was walking my dog in the morning and there was a raccoon in a cherry tree throwing ripe fruit at a derelict car parked in the driveway below the tree. I don't see them around much anymore.

>66 mdoris: That is quite the encounter, Mary. Good thing that the cougar left when you screamed.

>62 Familyhistorian: Will do, thanks Meg. Appreciate the support :0)

>66 mdoris: Wow! I'm glad you're here to tell the tale.

My sister, in Sydney, was convinced that the possums in her area used to dance on her roof in hobnail boots, they made so much noise running around. I assumed they were the size of a wombat but they're actually quite small.

Wow. So much wildlife... I am quite happy just to see squirrels! Lovely topper shot, Meg.

Oh Lordy, Raccoons!! When we bought this house the inspector found that raccoons had been living in the crawl space and not only destroyed the vapor barrier but also left a lot of garbage and...um...other stuff under there. Fortunately the previous owners paid to have that all cleaned and fixed and then we had the screens which cover the air openings with heavy duty ones like you find on appliances rather than with wire mesh. So far they haven't returned but I worry if one of them ever finds a screw driver....

>70 humouress: It's surprising the amount of noise a small animal can make. Thinks of cats. They can sound like a herd of elephants.

>71 charl08: I'm not too happy about squirrels either. We had problems with squirrels in the last house that I lived in. One dropped down our chimney and ended up in the fireplace which was covered by folding glass screens, thankfully. We had to get someone in to make sure they weren't getting into our eaves and the wiring up there. It was quite something one day to see one of them climb up the glass of our picture window!

>72 RebaRelishesReading: Raccoons can really mess up a house and other things as well. A friend of mine had them living under her shed. At night they'd come up and dig up her lawn. The babies look cute though. Good thing your raccoon problem got taken care of right away, Reba.

Today I drove my son to an appointment in Surrey. The doctor he was going to see is close to Surrey Memorial Hospital and it was easiest to drop him off at the hospital but I was worried about crossing the nurse's picket line because they've branched out to include SMH as well as VGH. But the drop off and pick up was easier than usual at the entrance on 96th Avenue. All the pickets were on the cross street, King George Boulevard. I'd seen the picket line on the news the night before but I had the impression that it was around the whole hospital - hard since it covers a city block.

Hi Meg, I didn't see any picket lines when i went to the hospital on Thursday. Maybe I am a bad looker!

I think they have appointed a mediator for the nurses, Meg, so I hope the picket lines are down for now. I think you will enjoy The Art of a Lie.

115. Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd



Length: 352 pages

The second book in the Nora Breen series was as good as the first or maybe even better. This time Breen and Rideout were drawn in to the murder of a medium, a reach for a former nun, maybe but then Rideout was one of the people at the séance at the time and that didn’t seem like a healthy proposition as the investigation continued. Murder at the Spirit Lounge was a fun one and the two sleuths are getting used to each other now.

>77 mdoris: The pickets might not have been up in your area yet, Mary. They were at Vancouver General, expanded to Surrey by Friday and were planning on expanding to Island hospitals on the weekend.

>78 vancouverdeb: I saw that they had appointed Vince Ready on the news yesterday, Deborah. That doesn't automatically mean that picket lines stop but might be something that happens going forward.

116. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides



Length: 406 pages

This book took me a while to read. I pulled The Marriage Plot off my shelves to meet a challenge. The title itself was a nod to the female protagonist and English major proposing to write her thesis on “the marriage plot” the underpinning of many great English novels. Her own marriage didn’t follow the general themes of those classic novels as her husband had a more modern day issue, he was a manic depressive. As I read about the struggles of the couple the antics of the sufferer, while over the top, struck a chord. Manic depression in present day terms is bi-polar disorder which, I agree, is challenging to deal with from the point of view of the one not diagnosed. Perhaps the idea was to translate the marriages of those classic novels to the modern day as a caution against romanticizing the classic romantic hero who probably would not make good husband material.

Hi Meg. I am back after two weeks of misery. I suddenly started having blackouts and went to the ER at Delta Hospital. As it is just a small community hospital, they ambulanced me over to Surrey Memorial. There they installed a temporary pace maker by inserting a couple of wires into my heart thru my neck while we waited to get an appointment to have a permanent pace maker installed. Finally on July 2nd I was shipped over to the Royal Columbian Hospital for the procedure. It went well but all the time of forced bed
rest weakened me so I couldn't walk. Back to Surrey Memorial and then back to Delta for physio. They finally released me yesterday. After all that hospital time my sympathies lie with the nurses, they gave me excellent care.

>83 DeltaQueen50: Judy that is quite an odyssey and tour of hospitals in the region! I feel like I've been on a related tour but thankfully not as a patient. Hopefully the pacemaker will make recovery of walking stamina quick. I've found the nurses throughout my son's ordeal to be very good, patient and knowledgeable and caring. I can well imagine that they are stretched and overburdened as the hospitals are understaffed and some of the patients and visitors can be volatile.

117. Three in Death by J. D. Robb



Length: 336 pages

Short stories are not my jam but in Death books are so I thought I’d try the first in Death story collection Three in Death. It contained the stories Interlude in Death, Midnight in Death and Haunted in Death all fast cases that lent themselves to this form of storytelling. It was strange to read a story from 2001, followed by one from 1998 and finished off by one from 2006 as the characters were in different stages of growth during that time and the one in the middle harked back to a time when Peabody complained about working with McNab who she found annoying back then.

118. Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots



Length: 452 pages

Following Anna, the Auditor, in Villain was a little harder than in the first book in the series. With the first book I remember devouring it. It was fresh and new. The narrative that follows it was more about consequences. There were some scenes that caused me to put the book down for a while but I finished. I’m glad that I did and happy that there is room for the story to continue now that the reader has a better idea of where the characters stand and the villains need to recoup from the losses realized in this the second outing of super heroes and villains in the world that the author created.

It feels strange not to have my day taken up with hospital visits or drives to various appointments. Preparing low fat suppers is difficult though. Not that I'm not eating regularly the rest of the time but the evening meal is one that we eat together and it needs to be low fat for another week and two days - not that I'm counting or anything.

Good luck with your meal planning. I guess no dairy, no cheese, no butter, no oil. Just lots of veg/fruit I guess.

I am glad you hung in there with Villain, Meg. What a unique and tense world she has created. I hope she doesn't take as long with book 3. 🤞

>88 mdoris: Not quite that drastic, Mary. Low fat milk (1%), low fat cheese (need it with the tomato sauce on the no egg pasta), coconut oil (no butter, we usually eat lots of butter). Lots of repetition of dishes!

>89 msf59: It didn't grab me and pull me through like the first one did, Mark, but it was good. Not sure how she will frame the third in the series but she has set it up to continue.

>87 Familyhistorian: It may feel strange to not have your day taken up by hospital visits and going to appointments , but I am sure it's a big relief, Meg. I guess chicken is okay for Sam on the low fat diet, not that your counting, or anything.

>92 vancouverdeb: It does feel strange to not plan my day around medical things. I feel at a bit of a loss, really. Chicken would be good on the low fat diet as long as it was chicken breast without skin - so stir fry or something like that. We've had a lot of stir fry.

>87 Familyhistorian: Strange but good strange surely? xx

When Hani is here with me we usually plan our meals for 5 days per week. Today I will be having salmon fillet sauteed in olive oil with quinoa based salad and bell peppers.

>94 PaulCranswick: Yes, a good strange but a real change because the appointments and hospital visits have been part of the routine since August.

You are very organized with your meal planning, Paul. We usually figure it out that day.

>95 Familyhistorian: "Since August"....wow Meg that is a long time. I am really hoping there is a big change to that routine now.

Hi Meg, good luck with your meal planning. And congratulations to being able to live your life without hospitals and appointments. I try to plan simple dinners that I can handle but we are ordering in a lot right now.

Re: low fat dinners - one of my go-to meals when I am tired of cooking is a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket (I take the skin off because I think it's gross) and roasted vegetables (a little cooking spray or oil and lots of seasonings). Roast on a sheet pan at 415F for around 10 minutes, depending on the veg and how "done" you like it. It's a bit boring, but so easy and tasty, especially now with all the fresh vegetables available.

>96 mdoris: It has been a long journey, Mary. It's kind of strange not to have multiple appointments or trips to a hospital in a week.

>97 DeltaQueen50: Thanks Judy, our dinners are pretty simple right now. Ordering in would be an option but much of what appeals is not low fat. I hope your recovery is going well.

>98 katiekrug: Thanks for the tip, Katie. That sounds like an easy meal. It would be hard to do without the skin though as it's something I like.

119. A Gentleman of Dubious Reputation by Grace Burrowes



Length: 231 pages

I enjoy historical romances. They are even better when they involve mysteries like they do in the Lord Julian mystery series. In the second outing, A Gentleman of Dubious Reputation, Julian’s brother, the duke, had summoned him home as back up to deal with the determined campaign of a spinster neighbour to get him to the altar. Once there Julian finds an intriguing mystery involving the spinster’s artist brother and, indeed, the whole neighbour family in a quest that had him tracking down the errant brother to the southern port of Portsmouth.

What it is this rain, Meg! It's been so long I have to dig up some rain pants for walking the dog shortly. Transcription by Kate Atkinson is very good.

>103 vancouverdeb: Our rain didn't come until later but we got thunder! Good to see that that Transcription is better than the one you just read.

120. Thumbin’ the Rock by Bernadette Shea





Length: 171 pages

Lately I’ve been successful in getting Early Reviewer books – almost too successful because they’re starting to pile up. The latest one that I read was Thumbin’ the Rock. As the title suggests, the books was about hitchhiking and the place was Newfoundland. But these were not your average hitchhikers, Bernadette always wanted to explore the Rock and thought it was time to do it. At 60 she wasn’t getting any younger so she talked her sister Dolly into exploring Newfoundland for two weeks without definite plans. It was a great tale enthusiastically told showing the friendliness of the people on the Rock and the intrepidness of the two adventurers.

>104 Familyhistorian: Our rain was in full force in the afternoon yesterday, but was not too bad . We had the thunder later that evening - as well as more rain. Today it is supposed to clear up.

Congrats on your ER Wins!

>106 vancouverdeb: What a difference a few miles makes! Our rain showed up much later yesterday and didn't become more enthusiastic until the evening when there was thunder too. It's supposed to clear up later here too but not happening yet.

It's fun to win ER books but hard to fit them in the rotation right away - so kind of a mixed blessing.

This year I signed up for a summer reading challenge at the closest library to me. I received an email that my name was picked to receive a book. They asked what kinds of books I read and if I have favourite authors. So I've been thinking and searching for books I might want to receive.

I know there is a series of mysteries set in historic Scotland that was recommended to me by someone on LT after I read The Bookseller of Inverness. Of course, I didn't make a note of the author of the series thinking I would remember it - duh. I read the book by MacLean in 2024 and a few things have happened since then that pushed the name of the other author out of my mind.

The only ones I can think of set in Scotland: ---by the same author, Alexander Seaton series
-the medical series set in Edinburgh by Ambrose Parry
- St Andrews' set set series by Shirley McKay

The account of travelling by hitchhiking in their sixties >105 Familyhistorian: sounds very brave!