snapshot 8.30

I keep thinking things will get easier, but this may not be the week. Busy week at work, and a sinus infection plus upper respiratory infection, so I am making no promises. Oh yeah, and it’s my birthday this week. I’ll do my best, but I don’t know how much I’ll get written. But this is a good week for books. Happy birthday to me!

Janice Hallett is back with A Silent Appeal. We’re back with the Fairway Players, this time putting on an Agatha Christie play with (I believe) a genuine dead body to add to the excitement. Her books are completely epistolary, told through emails and texts and direct messages, and the reader has to fill in all the gaps that the messages don’t say. Her novels are innovative and creative, and I love every one. I started reading this, but I’m not yet in deep enough to really have my head spinning. But I’ll get there!

Also out this week is new Hank Philippi Ryan, a master thriller writer. Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, about two sisters who lost their parents when they were young. Now they’re young women, and Eliza is starting to think she doesn’t know her sister Bea at all. Bea left her daughter Piper with Eliza for a weekend, but she never shows up to pick her up. Eliza has to figure out where her sister is and why to figure out what may be a secret that has eluded her for her entire life. I’ve just dipped a toe in so far, but it’s compelling, and I’m going to have to find some time this week to spend with this story.

Out next week, finally, is Idle in Provence, about Monty Python’s Eric Idle’s second home in France. It’s an amazing story, and I can’t wait to talk more about it early next week.

Also out next week is this beautiful cookbook, Food Is a Feeling, many thanks to Clarkson Potter for the free copy to review. It’s a story-inspired cookbook, and I love a good story. But know that this means we are leaning into cookbook season, and this holiday season will be filled with delicious cookbooks you can fill my stocking with—um, I mean, fill your stockings with.