Cooling Weather – Time to Read

As soon as October arrived with relief from the heat wave, I turned to my very tall stack of TBR (To Be Read) books. Soon I was curled up in my reading chair wrapped in a blanket, lost in The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont, the Calabasas Library Evening Book Club selection for this month. The author of this book imagined the events taking place during the 11 days Agatha Christie disappeared from view in December 1926.  Even though the story is entirely fiction, the mystery of Christie’s disappearance was plausible and kept me entertained for several days.

Here Comes the Bookmobile

Next, I dove into a very different book – Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. This book was recommended by a member of the Sisters in Crime Mystery Book Club that I moderate for SinC, and I checked a hardcover copy out of the Calabasas Public Library. On the very first page, I realized that this is not a book I would have chosen for myself – the foul language alone would have discouraged me, Within a few more minutes and a few more chapters, I found myself cringing at the violence the two main characters perpetrated. However, the characters’ language and behavior are consistent with the plot, so I am persisting.

Reading with Others

Belonging to a book group leads its members to read books they might not read otherwise.  My long-term book club back in Santa Cruz closed during the pandemic and shows no signs of opening up again, so I have joined these two groups to push me once again to explore different genres and different authors, and most of the time I have enjoyed the journey.

Last month I read Thursday Murder Club, which is quite funny, actually, and challenged my memory to keep up with a large cast of characters. My son-in-law had suggested the book a year ago, and so I chose it for our SinC Mystery Book Club’s first selection. The members had varying views on the book, and our discussion of it was lively and eye-opening.

Are you in a book club?  Do you read for pleasure?  If so, I hope you’ll share your experiences by posting in the Comments section.

Happy Reading!

Topics to come during October:

Baking Pumpkin Pie from Scratchpumpkin pie

 

decorated pumpkin

Visiting a Pumpkin Patch with Children

Persimmons!

Marlene Anne Bumgarner writes primarily about food, family, and traditions. Her 2020 memoir, Back to the Land in Silicon Valley, is about raising children, animals, and vegetables on a rural plot of land in the 1970s.   Organic Cooking for (not-so-organic ) Families will be out before Christmas. Her next project is a book about Grandparenting, and in her spare time, she is plotting a cozy mystery.

 

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