Friday 5ive- January 10, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. It's back to NYC and work for us this week, so it's been all about catching up- with mail, bills, taking down our Christmas tree and decorations- you know, the fun stuff.

1) Last year, our family all got Peleton bikes- between our family and friends, we have nine bikes! It's fun to ride together and it keeps everyone on their toes (if they are out of the saddle, as it's called.) This year, everyone got Nixplay digital photo frames. Years ago we had a digital photo frame that you had to put a memory card in. The new technology uses WiFi, and the great feature is that you can instantly send a photo to other people's Nixplay. It's fun to see a photo pop up from a family member, and we get so much enjoyment from watching ours and remembering all the good times. We got my mom one for Christmas and I had a blast loading up family photos- it's so easy too, just click on your desired photo on your Iphone and the option to send it to the Nixplay app pops right up. Our extended family now has ten of them. You can find more information at their website here.

A Nixplay photo from our son's wedding

2) A new year means setting new goals, and readers are big on doing that. TaviaReads (the host of the BookClubGirl podcast) on Instagram posted this graphic where people can share their #TBR2020 (To Be Read) goals, and mine is below. So far I have read 5 books, including the first Elena Ferrante Neapolitan series, My Brilliant Friend. I'm off to a good start, I'll keep you posted on my progress. You can go here to get your copy of it on Instagram, just follow the instructions.

3) The royal family of Great Britain is in the news this week, so I guess we may have been prescient when we created a royal family display at the Book Cellar two weeks ago. (Thanks to the people who donated the three beautiful royal family photo books.) Now I have to catch up on The Crown on Netflix, I'm only in the middle of season two.

4) My husband and I are big fans of CBS' Bob (Hearts) Abishola. It's a funny sitcom about a 50 year-old man who owns a family-run compression sock business. When he has a heart attack, his nurse is a younger Nigerian woman, Abishola. Bob (played by Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly) is smitten with Abishola (played by Folake Olowofoyeku, with a fabulous sense of timing and deadpan humor), and she likes him too. Their romance is sweet, and the supporting characters are wonderful, including the amazing Christine Ebersole as Bob's mother, a woman who speaks her mind. In trying times, it's good to have a little lightness. Give it a try, it's on Mondays. 

5) I finished two books this week- Matt Norman's Last Couple Standing, about a group of eight friends from college, who all paired up and married. Now years later, three of the couples are divorced, and Jessica and Mitch are the last couple standing. They fear for their marriage and decide that the best way to avoid divorce is to have sex with other people- with strict rules. You can imagine it doesn't work out quite the way they hoped. I liked Norman's novel, Domestic Violets, and had high hopes for this one that he more than lived up to. It publishes in March, I'll post a full review then. 

I also finished the first book in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, My Brilliant Friend, the first of four books about a lifelong friendship between two women- Lila and Elena, in Naples, Italy. Everyone I know has read this series, so I thought I'd better catch up. It took me along time to get into this book, but about 100 pages in and I was hooked. The characters are indelible and the writing is superb. I hope to finish all four this year. (It's also an HBO series.)

One of the most highly promoted books at the Book Expo this past May was Jeanine Cummins' American Dirt, about a woman who has to leave her native Mexico for the United States with her young son after her family is killed by a drug cartel. Stephen King blurbed that "I defy anyone to read the first seven pages and not finish it" and he nailed it. The first chapter is so harrowing, and 100 pages in and it is heart-pounding and heartbreaking. This book lives up to the hype so far, I can't wait to finish it. It publishes January 21.

Have a good week, I hope your 2020 is off to a great start.

Summer of Agatha Christie #3- After The Funeral

After the Funeral by Agatha Christie
Published by William Morrow ISBN 979-0-06-235731-1
Trade paperback, $12.99, 286 pages

For those of you following along, you know that bookclubgirl is hosting a Summer of Agatha Christie, culminating with the publication of a new Hercule Poirot mystery by Sophie Hannah, The Monogram Murders, publishing in October.

We are on book number three, After the Funeral, which I enjoyed thoroughly. On September 2nd, bookclubgirl will post some discussion questions, so feel free to join in the fun.

After the Funeral begins with Mr. Entwhistle, a lawyer attending a funeral for one of his oldest clients and friends, Richard Abernethie. Mr. Abernethie ran a successful family business and with the death of only son occurring years earlier, the heirs to the family money include Richard's hypochondriac brother Timothy, his sister Cora, whom no one has seen in twenty years after she married a man considered 'unsuitable', nieces Susan, a businesswoman, Rosamund, an actress, and nephew George, in finance.

At the home after the funeral, Cora carelessly tosses off a comment about Richard being murdered. Most of the family chalked it up to Cora just stirring up the pot, as she is wont to do. But the next day, Cora is brutally murdered in her home, and now Mr. Entwhistle is concerned that perhaps Richard was murdered.

He goes to Hercule Poirot to investigate and find out if Richard was murdered and who killed Cora. I found it amusing when Poirot turns to Mr. Goby, a man "famous for the acquiring of information." Goby calls government snooping "God's gift to investigators." Given what we know about the NSA, one could infer that government's spying on their citizens is a time- honored practice.

The family members all have money issues: Timothy hasn't worked due to his "illnesses", and his house and car are falling apart. Susan wishes to buy a pharmacy for her husband. Rosamund wants to use the money to support her and her husband's dreams of staging a play. George apparently has a gambling problem and has been using clients' funds to cover his losses.

They all have motives for wanting the money, and Poirot discovers that many of them had opportunity as well. It's great fun following the clues and trying to put the puzzle pieces together to discover the murderer. (I confess that I was wrong.)

It's interesting that Poirot does not dominate the story. He comes into the story late and stays in the background for the most part. In today's mystery/thriller series books, the protagonist (a cop, investigator, medical examiner) tends to dominate the stories of the books, with the crime relegated to equal or lesser plotlines.

I also found it interesting the lengths that people will go to when money is involved. Like government spying, greed appears to be something that has been with humans for a long time, and probably will be for a long time to come.

Now that I have read three Agatha Christie novels, two of them featuring M. Poirot, I'm curious to read Sophie Hannah's take on the iconic character in The Monogram Murders.

rating 5 of 5
My review of And Then Were None is here.
My review of Dead Man's Folly is here.

Circles of Time by Phillip Rock

Circles of Time by Phillip Rock
Published by William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-222933-5
Trade paperback, $14.99, 425 pages

For fans of Downton Abbey going through withdrawal, the rerelease of Phillip Rock's Abingdon Pryory trilogy is a welcome relief. The first novel, The Passing Bells, introduced us to the Greville family, owners of Abingdon Pryory, which is very similar to Downton. Sir Anthony has the title and his German-American wife Hannah has the money.

The first novel took us deep into WWI- the politics of war, the horrors of the fighting, the loss of vibrant young men and women. The second novel, Circles of Time, deals with the aftermath of the war, both personally and nationally.

Charles Greville is suffering from post-traumatic stress, as well as the effects of a tragedy he caused. Charles begins the novel living in a mental hospital and his family fears there may be no reaching him.

Charles' sister Alexandra is back home after losing her doctor husband to a heart attack. She brings their young son Colin back to Abingdon, but she too is lost in a cloud of sadness.

Jamie Ross is the Greville's former chauffeur who worked for a tank manufacturer during the war. Ross  moved to America, started his own company building airplane engines and became wealthy. He returns to England on business and befriends Colin and Alexandra.

American cousin Martin lost his wife Ivy during the war and has thrown himself into his work as a journalist. He has written articles on how generals made bad decisions during the war that cost many British men their lives needlessly, and his views are riling feathers.

The first novel had more of a sense of urgency and drama to it because of the war. This second novel deals with the aftermath of the war on its participants and the society at large. So many changes came to  Britain; the rigid class system was loosened. People from the working class, like Jamie, were able to use their skills and knowledge to advance their lot, something unheard of before the war.

The war also brought changes to the ruling class. Sir Anthony came to accept that his sons would not follow the career paths he laid out for them; they would follow their own ambitions and dreams. He even came to accept the path that Alexandra chooses to follow much more readily that the usually more practical Hannah. For goodness sake, Sir Anthony is even driving his own car by the end of the story!

One of the more interesting sections of the novel concerns the rise of the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Martin returns to Germany, where he finds that the monetary reparations that Britain and France have imposed on Germany is impoverishing that country.

The people are starving, inflation is outrageous and certain politicians are exploiting this to further their cause. Martin uncovers information that an assassination is being planned and he tries to stop it. His German cousins are involved in this and he even meets Hitler at his family's home.

History buffs will once again be satisfied with this part of the story. We see how certain people in Britain did not want another war and were willing to ignore the rumblings of trouble in Germany. The generals were reluctant to face their culpability in the slaughters that occurred overseas and still do not want to modernize their equipment or strategy to deal with another possible looming war.

The last novel, Future Arrived, deals with the storm clouds of another war and the next generation's coming of age. I'm looking forward to continuing on this journey.

rating 4 of 5

My review of The Passing Bells  is here.
There is a read along and discussion of these novels at Book Club Girl here.

Can't Wait for Downton Abbey to Return? Join This Read Along!

If you became a fan of PBS' Downton Abbey and like me can't wait until January 6th when season three will be shown in the US, then Book Club Girl has just the thing for you.

The Passing Bells trilogy by Phillip Rock, first published in the 1970s and 80s, is being republished just in time for the return of our beloved Downton Abbey. Set during and after WWI in Britain, these books were frequently mentioned in articles as good books for Downton Abbey fans to read.

I'm joining Book Club Girl's read along of The Passing Bells, Circles of Time and A Future Arrived and I hope that you will join us too.

Readers of my blog know that I am a big fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novels, also set following WWI, and this seems like a good companion to those books as well.

Click on the link below to sign up for the Read Along, and if you are among the first ten people to sign up, you'll get a free copy of The Passing Bells.

BookClubGirl The Passing Bells Read Along

Mad For Maisie- Birds of a Feather

As part of the I'm Mad for Maisie Read Along sponsored by the bookclubgirl, I read the second book in the Maisie Dobbs series, Birds of a Feather.  Although it is set in 1930, and World War I had been over for little more than a decade, the effects of the war are still being felt.

Maisie's assistant Billy, who was badly injured during the war, has become addicted to pain killers. His wife comes to Maisie concerned about her husband, and confirming Maisie's own suspicions that something is wrong with Billy.

The main mystery concerns the disappearance of a young woman whose wealthy father owns many grocery stores. Her disappearance comes on the heels of the deaths of three other women, women whom Maisie discovers were friends of the missing woman.

There are many possible suspects, but when the police narrow it down to one of the dead women's husbands, Maisie believes they have the wrong man. She uses the methods taught to her by her mentor Dr. Blanche, both scientific and intuitive, to find the killer. (Again, it could be a forerunner of the popular TV series CSI crossed with The Mentalist.)


My favorite line in the book is one of Dr. Blanche's teachings to Maisie:

"Coincidence is a messenger sent by truth. (That) there are no accidents of fate."

Maisie still visits Simon, the doctor she fell in love with during the war, at the hospital where he will never recover. Her compassion is touching, but in this book it appears that Maisie is ready to move on to having a romantic relationship with another man. She has two possible suitors: Dr. Dene and Inspector Stratton. It will be interesting to see in future books which man may win her heart, and whether either man can stand up to the memory of Simon.

Again, I loved the description of Maisie's clothes. I would love to see illustrations in the book of Maisie's outfits.

I also found the characters in this book more rounded out. Joseph Waite, the wealthy father of the missing girl, is intriguing. He is overbearing with his daughter, but he is kind to his customers and to the families who lost sons and husbands during the war.  Joseph's relationship with his daughter caused Maisie to reflect more on her own relationship with her father, which seems more distant as the years go by.

The Order of the White Feather was something I had never heard of before this book, and it was incorporated well into the story. Young women tend to be dramatic, and the way in which these young ladies thought they were helping the war effort caused more pain than they could have ever imagined. And in the end, it caused them much pain too.

I'd like to see Maisie become more emotionally open, and hope that in future books in the series, we see her find some happiness.  Perhaps in the next novel in the series, Pardonable Lies.  If you enjoy historical fiction and female protagonists, Maisie is the lady for you.

My review of the first book, Maisie Dobbs, is here.

Rating 4 of 5 stars