Clue Picks Up Steam in 2020! Page 2

Just 3 more months to read all the "meant to" books for 2020! The year has gone fast and has certainly been one beyond prediction. Aren't we lucky we read and can step out of our own world for awhile?

I've finished the ROOT Challenge but I'm behind on BINGO, I've usually finished it by October and somehow don't feel very motivated to complete it.

Have you started your planning for 2021? My mind is wandering that way but just wandering, no specific plan in place yet. It's fun to think about though isn't it?

FICTION

JANUARY
1. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
3. Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore
4. Leaving Ireland by Ann Moore

FEBRUARY
5. Goodnight From London by Jennifer Robson
6. The Little French Bistro by Nina George
7. The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

MARCH
8. The African Queen by C. S. Forester
9. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
10. The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner
11. Ross Poldark by Winston Graham

APRIL
12. A Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install
13. The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner
14. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

MAY
15. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
16. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
17. The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille
18. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker

JUNE
19. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
20. Ice Brothers by Sloan Wilson
21. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
22. Demelza by Winston Graham

JULY
23. Tales From the City by Armistead Maupin
24. Doc by Mary Doria Russell
25. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

AUGUST
26. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maughm

SEPTEMBER
27. My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
28. Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham
29. Coventry by Helen Humphreys

OCTOBER
30. After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth

DECEMBER
31. Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read
32. Christmas Letters by Tolkein

MYSTERY

JANUARY

1. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
2. Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley
3. Force of Nature by Jane Harper

FEBRUARY
4. The Case of the Caretaker's Cat by Earle Stanley Gardner
5. The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
6. A Killer Collection by Ellery Adams
7. A Soupcon of Poison by Jennifer Ashley

MARCH
8. Death Above Stairs by Jennifer Ashley
9. The Norths Meet Murder by Frances Lockridge

APRIL
10. Murder in the Locked Library by Ellery Adams
11. Poet in the Gutter by John Baker
12. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
13. A Death in Kew Gardens by Jennifer Ashley

MAY
14. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
15. Midsummer Mayhem by Marty Wingate

JUNE
16. Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker
17. One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters

JULY
18. A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie
19. A Quiet Life in the Country by T E Kinsey
20. Camino Winds by John Grisham

AUGUST
21. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
22. In the Market for Murder by T E Kinsey
23. The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker
24. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
25. A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre
26. All the Devil's are Here by Louise Penny

NOVEMBER
27. The Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty
28. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles

DECEMBER
29. Murder Round the Bend by T.E. Kinsey
30. The Mistletoe Murders by P. D. James

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS

MARCH

1. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
2. The Cat Who Went to Paris by Peter Gethers

July

3. Rosa Bonheur, Her Life by Catherine O. Peare

October

4. The Answer Is... by Alex Trebek

November

5. The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life In Nature And The Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims

NONFICTION

JANUARY

1. Tales From the Edge of the Woods by Willem Lange

2. Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland
Island by Will Harlan

3. Making Masterpiece by Rebecca Eaton

DECEMBER

4. A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

ALPHAKIT

A & U January
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley

F & B February
The Little French Bistro by Nina George

G & C March
The African Queen by C. S. Forester
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

S & T April
A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

L & P May
The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurent
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

K & Y June
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

J & R July
Doc by Mary Doria Russell
Camino Winds by John Grisham

O & H August
The Lost Man by Jane Harper


M & E September
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
A Barn in New England by Johm Monninger

D & V October

I & Q November

W & N December

READING THROUGH TIME

January: 19th Century Ireland

Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore, BINGO (Proper Name)

February: Crime & Mystery

The Wife, The Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

March: Mothers and Daughters

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

April: Off With Her Head

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner

May: Explorers

June: Get thee to a nunnery (or a monastery)!

One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters

July:

Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for
Cumberland Island by Will Hardin

August: Epidemics, Famine and Other Health Disasters

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

September: Economics in a Broad Sense

Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham

October: Deception: All Is Not As It Seems

The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker

November: Author Biographies

The Story of Charlotte's Web by Michael Sims

December:

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

BingoDOG


*POSSIBILITIES

1. Title contains a pun

Planned - Moby Duck

2. "Library" or "thing" in title

* >Murder in the Locked Library by Ellery Adams

3. Pen name/anon author

*A Soupcon of Poison by Jennifer Ashley (Ashley Gardner)
* A Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley (Ashley Gardner)

4. Books. bookstores, libraries

*The Secret We Kept by Lara Prescott

5. Non-UK/US female author

* Force of Nature by Jane Harper

6. Epistolary or letters

Planned - What There is to Say We Have Said

7. Periodic Table element in title

8. From a Legacy Library

* Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

9. Mystery or True Crime

*The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

10. 3 letters of BINGO

*The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

11. Mythology or folklore

12. Set in Asia

Planned - Pachinko

13. Read A CAT

*The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah

14. Published in your birth year

Planned - Cry the Beloved Country

15. Red cover

*An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

16. Published in 1820 or 1920

Planned - Dr. Dootlittle

17. Not set on earth

Planned - Billy Higgins book

18. Published in 2020

*Camino Winds by John Grisham

19. About birth or death

* One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker

20. Proper name in title

*Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore

21. Weird book title

22. Small press or self published

*Tales From the Edge of the Woods by Willem Lange

23. Involves historical event

*The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

24. LT author

* The Confessions of Catherine of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner

25. By journalist or about journalism

*Goodnight From London by Jennifer Robson

Happy new thread! It has been a strange year and I, for one, will be happy to see the end of it. With that said, I guess it is time to start thinking about planning my 2021 challenges.

Happy new thread! I'm really struggling to think of a theme for 2021.

Happy new thread! I have a theme in mind for 2021 :)

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2018)
My rating - 4.0

Coventry by Helen Humphreys



This is the second book by Humpreys I've read that takes place in England during WWII. Both are centered on the lives of common women and how they are affected by war experiences. Both are beautifully written.

Harriet Marsh is standing on the roof of Coventry cathedral on the night of Nov 14 working as a fire watcher. While she admires the full moon and glittering frost below, she hears the drone of the first bombers, the prelude to the Luftwtte moving its target from the industrial district of Coventry to the residential.

Also on the roof is a teenager, Jeremy. Both Jeremy and Harriet survive the strikes on the cathedral though they are not unaffected by it. Harriet stays with Jeremy, helping him search through the buring city for his mother.

Happy New Thread! I've already got my idea for next year set and have even started picking out some books.

Happy new thread and lovely to see your comments re: Coventry! I do love Helen Humphreys novels. She really captures time and place.

>14 clue: sounds like a good series I will have to check out.

Happy new thread!

>17 Tess_W: They are good Tess, her writing is really fine, but not a series they are all standalones.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Reading Through Time (Deception)
TBR - Yes (2016)
My rating - 3.0

After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth



Unsworth's writing is so lovely that it was easy to fall into After Hannibal but midway I was thinking of giving it up. It takes place in Tuscany where there are five homes on a rural road. In each case we learn of deceptions that are or have taken place against the occupants. Three of the five are outsiders; Americans, British, and German. And then there is the lawyer who takes advantage of them all.

I eventually browsed the last fifty pages, it was just too cynical for me. Unsworth was British and lived in Umbria late in his life causing some reviewers to claim that this was based on his Tuscan experiences. Maybe so, on the last page he writes "But the real thief of dreams was generally not the one you feared but the one you trusted.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Reading Through Time
TBR - Yes (2020)
My rating - 3.0

The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker



A well known archaeologist brings a group of students to St. Denis to search for Neanderthal remains. Incredibly they find a family of three buried together, but they also find the skeleton of a man murdered just 10 years previously rather than 30,000.

At the same time a political summit is being held near St. Denis between French and Spanish ministers. This all seemed convoluted to me though it may not seem so to those who are knowledgeable in the history of Basques and France.

The ending disappointed me with a fight between the two factions (France and ETA) that could have been dreamed up by an 8 year old boy playing with plastic swords. I love this series and hope that Walker gets back to French cooking, wine making, gardens and the St. Denis characters that have made this series so delightful.

Happy new thread! It has been a strange year, and getting away from it in books has been wonerful. Still is, actually.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2019)
My rating - 3.5

Maigret Hesitates by Simenon



Maigret receives an anonymous letter written in block letters predicting a murder. The paper the letter is written on is of unusually high quality and with help from a stationer quickly traced to the home of a wealthy lawyer, Emile Parendon, whose office is located in his large home.

After interviewing Parendon Maigret feels certain he did not send the letter and begins interviewing the office staff, home staff, and family members. Afterwards Maigret feels most unsettled. Everything about the household seems off kilter and strange, the atmosphere in the home strongly influenced Parendon's high strung wife. When Parendon's devoted secretary is found murdered the victim is clear. But the murderer is still unknown to the great detective.

Well written. Maigret's focus on the psychological health of the family members adds depth to the story and helped hold my attention.

Simenon's Maigret series is one that is on my future reading list. I got hooked on the mysteries and the time period after watching with my dad a couple of the TV adaptations starring Rowan Atkinson.

>23 lkernagh: Lori, I've only read two, the first one and this one. It's number 68 in the series! I picked both of these up at a library sale and I'm going to continue watching for them.

I had read that it is a long series. I anticipate that I will have just as much a challenge tracking down the books. ;-)

Happy new thread!

>26 mstrust: Thanks!

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2020)
My rating - 3.5

The Answer Is... by Alex Trebek



We're big Jeopardy fans in my family so there was no doubt we'd be passing this new book around. It's a quick read but I think most fans will enjoy it.

Trebek covers all of the topics to be expected; childhood, wife and children, education, first jobs, Jeopardy through the years, and comments on some of the guests. While he doesn't cover the specific treatment for cancer, he does discuss his attitude toward a disease that is usually terminal. There are many pictures included. The chapters are very short, usually just a couple of pages. He comes across as a genually nice and "real" person.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2020)
My rating - 4.0



I like the changes Penny made in this book. It takes place in Paris and Amand's whole family is involved. Other than that I won't say anything more because many LTers will be reading it.

>28 clue: I bought the audio because Alex narrates it (well, him and Ken Jennings), but I've requested the print book from the library in hopes of pictures. Glad the book has them! A memoir isn't the same without pictures of the subject.

>30 rabbitprincess: I think you'll like it, it's not a really serious book but I know more now than I did when I started. The first audio book I listened to was one about Jeopardy and how it works and he narrated it very well.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Reading Through Time
TBR - Yes (2020)
My rating - 4.0

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill



Dr. Siri Painboun was appointed the national and only coroner of Laos after it is taken over by the Communist Party, Pathet Lao, in the 1970s. Dr. Siri doesn't want the position but then again, he does want to live so he accepts it. When the body of the wife of a powerful politician is brought for autopsy, he has reason to believe she was murdered. Knowing or even suspecting she could have been killed could mean death to him and his two assistants.

Cotterill has created a cynical, intelligent and unique character in Dr. Siri. Along with him come autocratic and dangerous leaders, visiting spirits from the world beyond, and customs from another part of the world. I've already ordered the second in the series, but particularly look forward to the third, Disco for the Departed.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2019)
My rating - 3.5

The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower



I've been fascinated with the business side of the White House for a long time. Who are the people who go to work there everyday? What do they do and how did they get their job? How do they manage huge formal dinners, the amazing floral displays, and leaders from all over the world? It's all interesting to me and I've read two previous books about the day to day at the White House that I've enjoyed. While other books covered earlier years, this covered the period from the Kennedy administration through the Obamas.

Both of the previous books were written by former employees who were always discreet and stuck to telling about their work. The author of this book covered the Obama White House for Bloomberg News. Although she did a lot of interviewing of former White House employees, this is not quite the same as one with the voice of a person who actually worked there. One of the things I didn't like was that occassionally she includes gossip about the inhabitants. IMO no First Couple should have to be concerned about their personal lives in the White House being exposed in a book.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2020)
My rating - 4.0

A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre



This is the last of the George Smiley series and it catches us up with some of those characters that appeared in the previous thrillers. Here we don't have an operation related to the Cold War, we have an operation looking into a Cold
War operation. I can imagine the comments about that from the Circus.

In this book we no longer have the brash young Peter Guillam of previous books. Here there is a man of advanced age living quietly on the farm where he grew up. He receives a letter that summons him to London. When he arrives he learns he's the subject of an investigation by young turks who have no real understanding of the Cold War or those operations that were part of it. Peter realizes they are a great danger to his current life and all he can do is begin to investigate his own past. As he does, he seeks out former operatives his readers remember well including George Smiley.

Le Carre has not lost his touch and ends the series with heart thumping suspense. I could start right now reading them again.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - Yes (2017)
My rating - 3.0

The Quiet Game by Greg Iles



Penn Cage, a lawyer turned novelist, returns to his parents home with his young daughter after the death of his wife. Cage quickly learns there are dark secrets among the people of Natchez, some of them surrounding the unsolved murder of a black man 30 years past. At the request of the mother and widow of the victum, Cage begins an investigation into the death and learns more than it is safe to know about a powerful local judge and his relationship with the Director of the FBI among others.

The Cage series is very popular and there are gripping pages, but for me there are too many unlikely plot elements and too many twists, turns and guns. This is the first in the series and later books are probably better but I'm not likely to continue.

Origin - Library
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Reading Through Time
TBR - No
My rating - 4.5

The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life In Nature and the Birth of An American Classic by Michael Sims.



Elwyn Brooks White was born into a wealthy family in Mount Vernon, N.Y. in 1899. The family lived on a small farm where E. B. (Andy) showed, even as a small child, a fascination with nature that remained throughout his life and became the basis of much of his writing including Charlotte's Web, published in 1952.

White had been a professional writer for decades before writing this book that has been loved by children and adults alike all over the world. Sims tells all of White's story though including his writing as a child, his years as a writer and contributing editor at the The New Yorker and other books he authored and co-authored. His personal life is well told too, particularly his relationship with his wife Katherine Angell, who was also at The New Yorker in it's early days.

November Book

Origin - Library
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Random CAT
TBR - No
My rating - 4.0

We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese by Elizabeth M. Norman



This is a remarkable account of the nurses who served in the Army and Navy on Battan and Corregidor during World War II. The book follows some of them after they were liberted from prison camp through the end of their lives. Many never fully recovered from near starvation and disease.

November Book

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Mystery CAT
TBR - Yes
My rating - 4.0

The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty



The first in the Detective Sean Duffy series, it takes place in and around Belfast in 1981 during a period of sectarian violence. Duffy has two murders on his hands, one victim the lover of classical music and the other a high ranking member of the IRA. Duffy's gut tells him the murders are related but at the same time he's not sure how. Among the things making his investigation hard is that he is Catholic and no one trusts him. This one is gritty, even a little brutal, but the setting is really good and the reading fast paced. This is a series I'll continue.

>37 clue: I read We Band of Angels a few years ago and I loved it and I still think about those women and what they went through.

>38 clue: I've had this series on my radar for quite some time. It certainly sounds like something I would like - maybe next year ...

>38 clue: Oh, that sounds really interesting. I'll look for a copy.

>37 clue: That definitely goes on my wish list!

>38 clue: One of the things this did for me was cause me to understand how difficult and violent daily life was during this time in Belfast. I'll be interested to see how you like it.

>37 clue: I think you'll like this Tess, it's right down that "not commonly known" historical alley, or so it was for me. When I was growing up there was a man in our neighborhood who had been on the Bataan Death March. Although he survived, he was affected both mentally and physically for the rest of his life.

I haven't posted since early this month because of busyness and because most of what I planned to read was on my Kindle and it quit working. I had just bought it in October to replace one I'd had 7 years and wasn't charging properly. I really dreaded calling Amazon because when I tried to contact Customer Service previously it took forever to get to an actual person and they were never very helpful.

I am happy to report that has changed. The woman who helped me was slow, clearly she didn't deal with this probelm often, but after her telling me what to do and me doing it, it was up and running in about 45 minutes. She even called back later to see if it was still working properly! Of course then I was sorry I waited for a week to call!

Origin - Library
Bingo - No
CAT - No
TBR - No
My rating - 3.5

The Mistletoe Murders by P. D. James



A collection of four short stories. The first two, The Mistletoe Murders and A Very Commonplace Murder were my favoite. The last two were not bad, they were Adam Dalgleish stories and I just like the books better.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Mystery CAT
TBR - Yes
My rating - 3.5

Death Around the Bend by T E Kinsey



This is the third in the Lady Hardcastle cozy series. Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence Armstrong, are really fun characters and the plots allow the two to show off their eccentricities. This mystery revolves around a death at a private racetrack in the early days of motor car racing. The fun characters, humour, and reasonable mystery make for good light reading.

Origin - Library
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Mystery CAT
TBR - No
My rating - 2.5

Christmas Caramel Murder by Joanne Fluke



There wasn't much to this one. A murder takes place that could have been committed by a jealous wife. The characters were shallow and there was nothing exciting about the investigation or reveal.

Origin - Shelf
Bingo - No
CAT - Yes, Reading Through Time
TBR - Yes
My rating - 4.5

A Life on our Planet: My Witness statement and a vision for the Future
by David Attenborough



The great naturalist and film maker takes us back to his childhood so we understand how he came to be the person he is. He has traveled throughout the world for over 70 years, he's 94 now. Having seen and learned through all of those years about our natual world, he also sees and understands it's decline.

In the first half of the book he tells his personal story, then he writes about what lies ahead if the natural world continues to be disregarded, and the last section is about what has to be done NOW to preserve earth for future habitation. Yes, its arresting but he leaves us with some hope. Written as narrative, it isn't difficult to understand and we do all need to understand what has gone before us and what will come after if there isn't action now.

This is the best and most important book I've read this year.
Touchstones don't seem to be working tonight!

>45 clue: I do adore the Kinsey series. This one is up next for me.

>46 clue: - I recently saw a documentary or news story where he was talking about how he got into this field. I tuned in late so it might have been about the book. (Which I didn't realize). I think I'll take a BB for this.

Glad your Kindle problems worked out. I hate when I have electronic issues. I tend to stall also.

>46 clue: Taking a BB for this book. Thanks for the review.