Just A Second

What's Been On My November Calendar

WQ - Helping Hands

Tell Us About . . . Confidence: The Story Behind "Gaining Confidence"

WQ - Gaining Confidence

10 on the 10th - The Best of November

Currently . . . November 8, 2024

Reflecting on October's Rhythms

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot; and at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.

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Recent Reads - The Sentence is Death

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz - Investigator Daniel Hawthorne is back to investigate another tricky murder case, and he insists that the reluctant author Anthony comes along to record all of it for a second book in the series. Anthony doesn't have time―he's busy working on the set of the TV show he writes―but Hawthorne is hard to dissuade, and soon Anthony is intrigued and involved enough that he is determined to find out the answer to who killed a wealthy divorce lawyer and why. Of course, he'd also like to know more about Hawthorne as a character, but he doesn't give up his own secrets easily.

The murder victim is Richard Pryce, bludgeoned to death with a very expensive wine bottle in his own home. It's clear he knew the killer and wasn't expecting to be attacked, but once Hawthorne and Horowitz start digging into the case, they discover that there are several potential murderers who had motive and opportunity. They will have to follow the threads to Pryce's past and to his most recent divorce case to figure out all the reasons and narrow down the field of suspects.

Once again, Horowitz delivers a clever mystery with some unexpected twists and at least a couple of red herrings. Like Horowitz (the character), I really wanted to test my wit against Hawthorne's and see if I could pick out the murderer on my own. As narrator, Anthony mentions early on that he missed and misconstrued clues that are included in his descriptions, and I guess I missed them too. I picked out my own suspect and was quite convinced I knew who did it, although I wasn't sure exactly how or why. When Anthony pitches his solution and they take it to the unpleasant police detecctive, I figured I was wrong . . . until that solution was shown to be a red herring . . . so maybe I was right after all? I was, and I'm pretty proud of myself for it.

I chose to use this for the 52 Book Club prompt "an author everyone except me has read" because it seemed I was seeing Horowitz's titles on so many of the book blogs I follow, but prior to reading the first in this series, The Word Is Murder, I actually hadn't read him. Now I'm hooked. Thanks, book bloggers!

From the publisher:

Death, deception, and a detective with quite a lot to hide stalk the pages of Anthony Horowitz's brilliant murder mystery, the second in the bestselling series starring Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne.

"You shouldn't be here. It's too late . . . "

These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine―a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.

Odd, considering he didn't drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man's many, many enemies did the deed?

Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who's really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.

But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realizes that these secrets must be exposed―even at the risk of death . . .

By the same author: The Word Is Murder

This is a book by an author "everyone" besides me has read (#25) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Monday, November 18

What I'm Reading - November 18, 2024

This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! Although the Book Date link-up happens weekly, I don't update that often, because what I'm reading doesn't change a great deal from week to week, and I seldom find time any more to participate in book-related link-ups. I do try to do this summary around the middle of the month but it's been a minute since I did! Here's what I'm currently working on and what I think might be next:

I'm currently reading . . .

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz - Detective Daniel Hawthorne has been called in to work on a new case, and author Horowitz is helping and turning the investigation into another book. This is the follow-up to The Word is Murder which I read last month and really enjoyed.

Harvest of Gold by Tessa Afshar - I started this on my Kindle awhile ago and haven't got very far with it. It's the sequel to Harvest of Rubies, a story about a Jewish woman married to a Persian nobleman, and it takes place during the Biblical time period of Nehemiah.

Up Next . . . On the TBR stack . . .

The stack grows faster than my ability to read it, especially lately! No guarantees, but these are the top contenders for me to pick up next:

Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means, MD with Calley Means - It was just brought to my attention that this is Non-fiction November, so I should probably at least start on a non-fiction. This will probably be the one.

The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa

A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber - Next in the Lady Darby series and on the top of my TBR pile.

And to catch up a bit, here are the books (not too many of them, I'm afraid!) I've finished since my last update:

I finished reading . . .

Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber - a historical novel that follows a wealthy Canadian family wrapping up their grand tour by sailing home on the Titanic. (Read my review HERE.)

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz - The author inserts himself as a character in this clever crime novel, as he follows enigmatic detective Daniel Hawthorne in solving a strange murder case. (Read my review HERE.)

Blood of Adam by Rachel S. Neal - A novel centering on an imagined name and character for Japheth's wife, and what life may have been like for Noah's family in the years leading up to the flood. (Read my review HERE.)

On my blogs recently . . .

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:

Monthly Bookshelf Review - October 2024

Monthly Bookshelf Review - September 2024

On my main coffee break project, A Fresh Cup of Coffee:

10 on the 10th - The Best of November

WQ - Gaining Confidence

Currently . . . November 8, 2024

Reflecting on October's Rhythms

WQ - Superstitious

Share Four Somethings - October 2024

WQ - Celebrating the Harvest

10 on the 10th - Celebrating Birthdays

Currently . . . October 5, 2024

WQ - Showing Love and Kindness

The Steady Rhythm of September

Share Four Somethings - September 2024

Wednesday Quotes Returns!

Tell Us About . . . Favorite Things: Coffee, Of Course!

And on my "first cup blog", Homeschool Coffee Break:

Preserving Nature

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What are you reading?

This post will also be linked at What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World.

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Monday, November 11

Recent Reads - Sisters of Fortune

Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber - As much as I enjoy historical fiction, I probably would not have picked up this book except that it's by one of my very favorite authors. Also, the cover is just stunning, so that helped! Reading stories about people who sailed on the Titanic and suffered such a great tragedy is just too uncomfortable for me, so it took me awhile to get started on this one, and as I neared the fatal moment for the ocean liner itself, I found it difficult because I knew that a good number of the characters I'd met in these pages would not survive. So . . . all that said . . .

The story focuses on a family from Winnipeg who had just finished a grand tour that included Egypt and Europe, and were sailing back home on the Titanic. There are three sisters―Flora, Alice, and Mabel Fortune―and their parents and brother. Flora and Alice are both engaged, with plans to marry when they reach home. Mabel is uninterested in a relationship, but wants very badly to attend university, while her parents remain opposed to this course of action. Of course, they interact with many other passengers on the Titanic and strike up some friendships among them. There are descriptions of the ship, its accommodations, and many details of the voyage woven throughout. The younger brother Charlie's exuberant interest in engineering and science provides a seamless way to include the characters talking about what the ship and its voyage were like in a fairly natural way.

Flora and Alice provide a contrast in character, and their expectations of the marriages awaiting them are quite different. Flora is the dutiful and serious older daughter, agreeing to marry according to convention, but beginning to question if there is something more available to her. She knows that she and her fiance do not have any real affection for each other, not the way Alice and Holden do. When Flora meets the dashing and wealthy Chess Kinsey and begins to feel joy and passion, she realizes she will have a bold decision to make if she wishes to embrace this developing romance. Alice has been somewhat coddled because of health problems, and she loves her fiance Holden, but the adventures and new experiences of traveling have raised doubts in her mind about whether she wants to simply settle down to a stolid and respectable life.

The third-person narrative makes use of each of the three sisters as viewpoint characters, and Chess is a fourth viewpoint character. This allows the experiences of the men and the women to be explored, and to my surprise, it was easy to follow and not distracting. When I started reading, I had assumed that the Fortune family was fictional and loosely based on real people that sailed on the Titanic, but at the end there is an author's note explaining that the family is very real, although relatively little is known about them.

From the publisher:

April, 1912: It's the perfect finale to a Grand Tour of Europe―sailing home on the largest, most luxurious ocean liner ever built. For the Fortune sisters, the voyage offers a chance to reflect on the treasures of the past they've seen―magnificent castles and museums in Italy and France, the ruins of Greece and the Middle East―and contemplate the futures that await them.

For Alice, there's foreboding mixed with her excitement. A fortune teller in Egypt gave her a dire warning about traveling at sea. And the freedom she has enjoyed on her travels contrasts with her fiance's plans for her return―a cossetted existence she's no longer sure she wants.

Flora is also returning to a fiance, a well-to-do banker of whom her parents heartily approve, as befits their most dutiful daughter. Yet the closer the wedding looms, the less sure Flora feels. Another man―charming, exasperating, completely unsuitable―occupies her thoughts, daring her to follow her own desires rather than settling for the wishes of others.

Youngest sister Mabel knows her parents arranged this Grand Tour to separate her from a jazz musician. But the secret truth is that Mabel has little interest in marrying at all, preferring to explore ideas of suffrage and reform―even if it forces a rift with her family.

Each sister grapples with the choices before her as the grand vessel glides through the Atlantic waters. Until, on an infamous night, fate intervenes, forever altering their lives.

By the same author: The Anatomist's Wife, Mortal Arts; A Grave Matter, A Study in Death, A Pressing Engagement, This Side of Murder, As Death Draws Near, A Brush With Shadows, Treacherous Is The Night, An Artless Demise, Secrets in the Mist, Penny for Your Secrets, A Stroke of Malice, A Pretty Deceit, A Wicked Conceit, A Perilous Perspective, A Fatal Illusion

This is a book with at least four different points of view (#4) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Friday, November 1

Monthly Bookshelf Review - October

A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet. ~Abraham Lincoln

This turned out to be the case with the Anthony Horowitz book I read this month. He was a new-to-me author, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book and decided to read the next in the series. Since I'm getting those from the library, I do need to focus on getting through them in a couple weeks or so, which means I'm not focusing on other reading much. In addition, October was a busy month with activities, travel, and family visits, so reading wasn't the top priority either.

October's Books Completed and Reviewed

Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber - It took me quite awhile, but I did finish this fascinating novelized version of the Titanic. It follows the Fortune family, particularly the three sisters, on their journey back to North America after a grand tour. Of course the exciting voyage of the Titanic goes horribly wrong, and ended in tragedy, and that's been hard to read, knowing that although this family is fictional, they represent many real people. (Review coming soon)

During October I continued reading:

Harvest of Gold by Tessa Afshar - I got started on this one and meant to get further, but didn't read that far since I had to finish up the library book.

Where My Books Took Me in October . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, along with One Word to sum up the ones I finished.

The Word is Murder is set in England, mostly in London.

One Word: Investigators

Sisters of Fortune is mostly set on the Atlantic Ocean.

One Word: Sorrow

Harvest of Gold is set in ancient Persia.

Coming Up in November!

Last month I said I'd read The Word is Murder next, and that I had to because it was a library book that I didn't expect to renew. I'll do the same thing with the sequel, as I just picked it up from the library and I'm sure I won't have the luxury of renewing that one either.

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means, MD with Calley Means

On my blogs recently . . .

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second it's been very quiet so there's nothing else this month.

Despite having some plans to update a bit, there's nothing new on Homeschool Coffee Break recently either.

And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee:

Share Four Somethings - October 2024

WQ - Superstitious

WQ - Celebrating the Harvest

10 on the 10th - Celebrating Birthdays

Currently . . . October 5, 2024

WQ - Showing Love and Kindness

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot; and at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Friday, October 25

Recent Reads - The Word is Murder

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz - This is one of the cleverest and most entertaining takes on a crime detective novel that I've ever read. Author Anthony Horowitz writes himself into the story, as himself, a best-selling author who is talked into writing a novel about a former police detective working on a murder case. Daniel Hawthorne is a private investigator working on a curious murder case and approaches Horowitz to write about it. Questioning his own judgement, Horowitz is intrigued by the case and by the challenge of writing about Hawthorne's brilliant but unconventional methods and finds himself tagging along and taking notes as Hawthorne visits crime scenes and interviews people associated with the victim.

The story is an account of the investigation, told in first person by Horowitz, interspersed with an account of his writing decisions and reactions to Hawthorne. The murder case itself is an interesting one, with a woman planning her own funeral and then being strangled later the same day. Is it related to an automobile accident years earlier, or to the woman's son who is a well-known actor, or something else? The funeral service turns out to be quite bizarre, and then the son is also murdered, and the whole time Horowitz is trying to help process the clues while also trying to understand enough of Hawthorne's character and methods to make a novel out of the case. And to convince himself and his agent that the story idea is a good one.

From the publisher:

New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.

A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz―a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories―suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistably drawn into the mystery.

But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he's at the center of a story he can't control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own.

This is a book with a self-insert by an author (#47) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Monday, September 30

Monthly Bookshelf Review - September 2024

. . . we must read, not only for what we read but for what it makes us think. ~ Louis L'Amour

I'm still moving slow but steady through the pages of my books, but I feel like this is the new normal for my reading life. At least for the next couple years perhaps. But I will say that what I'm reading is often making me think and wonder and muse about possibilities.

September's Books Completed and Reviewed

Find Momo Across Europe by Andrew Knapp - This interesting photography book presented a pet-friendly trek through Europe. (Read my review HERE.)

Blood of Adam by Rachel S. Neal - This novel painted the picture of a possible background and character for Japheth's wife, and for the other members of Noah's family. (Read my review HERE.)

During September I started reading:

Harvest of Gold by Tessa Afshar - I really enjoyed Harvest of Rubies, so I got started on the follow-up novel just a couple days ago.

During September I continued reading:

Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber - A historical novel about three sisters traveling on the Titanic. Unfortunately, I've been moving very slowly on this, mostly because I've chosen to take my Kindle to work for reading rather than this physical book. I find myself eagerly turning the pages in suspense but with some trepidation because I know what will happen to most of the passengers. I think I struggle to get invested in the characters because at least some of them won't make it.

Where My Books Took Me in September . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, along with One Word to sum up the ones I finished.

Find Momo Across Europe is all over Europe!

One Word: Adventurous

Blood of Adam is set somewhere in ancient pre-flood Mesopotamian region.

One Word: Faith

Harvest of Gold is set in ancient Persia.

Sisters of Fortune is mostly set on the Atlantic Ocean.

Coming Up in October!

Last month I declined to even predict, since I'm reading more slowly these days. All those great books sitting in my To Be Read stack, a couple of favorite authors with new books out that I want to read, but it's taking me a long while to get through the TBR. Well, I will list a couple books that are coming up this time. I feel pretty confident that I will read the novel next because I'm picking it up from the library tomorrow, and I don't think I'll have the luxury of renewing it so I will need to focus! I'm also pretty confident that I'll get started on the other book because I just purchased it and it is on my kindle so it's one I'll be able to easily take with me.

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means, MD with Calley Means

On my blogs recently . . .

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:

What I'm Reading - September 16, 2024

On Homeschool Coffee Break:

From the High School Lesson Book - Labor Day

And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee: