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Brief mentions, May 2020 (Books no. 27, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37, 38)


No.  27: Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie. Frequent reread. This is my favourite book by Crusie, and one of the books I reach for when I need the comfort of a familiar read.

No. 30: A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (audiobook read by Stephen Thorne). Second reread, first listen. Liked the reader, but am looking forward to listening to the books read by Derek Jacobi, whom I still see in my mind's eye when I read or listen to the books.

No. 31: A Boy at the Hogarth Press by Richard Kennedy. An interesting little book with delightful drawings by the author, containing scattered diary entries and letters describing his 5 years working at the Hogarth Press when it was being run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Non-fiction.

No. 34: The Potter's Field by Ellis Peters (The Cadfael Chronicles no. 17). Another enjoyable outing from Ellis Peters. Peters was a pretty good writer of mysteries, but if truth be told, one reads the Cadfael books just as much for the rich world-building and characters, which is just as good in this case, because the story is on the predictable side and the solution is based on hearsay, something I don't much like to see in mysteries.

No. 35: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. Not one of Greene's greatest novels, but it is a funny and satirical take on spy novels and quite possibly real-world espionage as well. I didn't feel like writing a whole lot about it, but I did enjoy it, although not enough to keep it

No. 37. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. Reread. One of Heyer's frothier concoctions, Cotillion concerns a young woman who has to marry one of her guardian's nephews or else lose a large inheritance. She thinks herself in love with one, but he seems disinclined to offer for her hand, so she pulls the most amiable of the others into a false enagaement and starts a scheme to get the one she wants to step up and offer for her. Entanglements ensue.

No. 38. Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer. Reread. A romantic thriller about a pair of siblings who were on the losing side of the Jacobite rebellion and have disguised themselves as the opposite sex to avoid recognition and capture and, instead of sensibly leaving England, instead have obeyed the instructions of their scheming father and come to London, where they are soon swept into the social season. Shenanigans ensue.

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