It's Monday! What are you reading? - January 11

  

No you haven't clicked on the wrong button I'm pretty much still reading the same things I was last week.  The only change is I'm on a new season/story of Phoebe Read's a Mystery and there's a good chance by the time you are reading this post I'm on a completely different store. 

Ever since the Pandemic hit, I just haven't been in the mindset to read.  I did burn through a book this week, Bleachers by John Grisham.  It's a short story and I finished it in two sittings, it was a book club book that I forgot about, but I really enjoyed it and will recommend it to anyone who is interested in sports. 


Currently Reading:

Asher's Garden by Derek Rey
Date Started: January 1, 2021
Goodreads Summary: 
Asher and his best friend, Lucie, are twelve years old and just starting the summer after their sixth grade year. After a horrific accident, Asher’s brother is locked in a coma when a mysterious businessman tries to buy the apartment building where he and Lucie live. While he and Lucie are trying to save their home, Asher discovers a secret about himself that he is afraid to reveal to Lucie; Asher can slip between this world and another world where giant bugs take on human qualities and personalities. Now Asher not only must save his own home, he must help his new friends in the Garden World protect their home from a malevolent, magical being they call the Painting Man.

Little Thoughts: I became friends with Derek on TikTok of all places.  I followed his journey of publishing his book.  I'm only a few chapters in but I'm enjoying the set up and believe I'm about to enter into the world where giant bugs rule!

Black London: Life Before Emancipation by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina  
Date Started: December 31, 2020
Goodreads Summary: 

Gerzina (Vassar Coll.) has written a fascinating account of London blacks, focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Because of a paucity of sources from blacks themselves, Gerzina had to rely primarily on glimpses through white eyes, especially those of antislavery advocate Granville Sharp. Gerzina is quite adept at culling evidence of a rich, complex black life, with significant interaction (and intermarriage) with the white community. Although subjected to much discrimination, London blacks never suffered as much as their American counterparts. The author rightly concludes that blacks have played an important role in the life of London for much of its history. A very valuable work; highly recommended for major libraries.

Little Thoughts: Reading this for the 1st JASNA NJ Book Discussion of 2021. Only a chapter in but really already fascinated by the information on the lives of Black people in London that is left out of so much literature and history. 

Currently Listening:

The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2) by Agatha Christie
Date Started: January 7, 2021
Goodreads Summary: Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property. Meanwhile the millionaire's wife is found bound and gagged in her room. Apparently, it seems that Renauld and his wife were victims of a failed break-in, resulting in Renauld's kidnapping and death. 

There's no lack of suspects: his wife, whose dagger served as the weapon; his embittered son, who would have killed for independence; and his mistress, who refused to be ignored - and each felt deserving of the dead man's fortune. The police think they've found the cumprit. But Poirot has his doubts. Why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that is too big for him? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse...

Little Thoughts: I'm really enjoying this one except for Poirot. I'm finding him a bit full of himself and when he does his whole no no you're wrong thing it bothers me. 

Check out my Goodreads 2021 Challenge to see what I've read this year. 

Check out my Goodreads 2020 Challenge to see what I've read last year.