Author: Sent Jeter Naslund

I bought this book at a Texada Library book sale and it was a real gamble on my part. If you recall I thought that Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick was one of the worst books I’d ever read.

I’m so glad I picked this up. Ahab’s wife, Una, lived a very interesting life before she ever met Ahab. She too had a brief encounter with Moby Dick and several other whales while she worked aboard a whaling ship (as usual as that sounds). And it is a nice twist that Una, who is narrating this story, ends up with Ishmael, who was the narrator in Moby Dick.

I’m giving this one four stars but to be honest I don’t know if the high rating is because it was so much better than Moby Dick. I wonder if, on its own, I would have enjoyed it as much.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Carol Wyer

This is book one in a new series; I will often get a book that is further into a series (and it doesn’t usually matter) but it was nice to be in on the first one.

It took some time to introduce all the characters and I was confused at first. If you read it pay attention to the names of everyone and their connections. It doesn’t help that one of the characters is posing as another of the characters and a second character has changed her name from the beginning of the story. I thought I knew who the unidentified narrator was but more than half-way through I realized I was wrong. Even after learning who the villain was it didn’t spoil the ending.

I’d be tempted to read another one in the series but the library doesn’t have any of them.

Author: Diane Chamberlain

I’m a fan of Diane Chamberlain and this book didn’t change my opinion.

Tess is training to be a nurse while her fiancé is a doctor working away from home during the polio epidemic. On a trip away with her best friend she takes part in a one-night stand. While Tess is tormented by how to tell her fiancé about her unfaithfulness she realizes that she is pregnant. Determined to keep her child she contacts the father to ask for financial support and he immediately proposes. But the marriage is odd to say the least.

The story was very good but what I found most interesting was that it was set during the polio epidemic in the early forties. Families of the infected were put into quarantine, no visitors were allowed in the hospitals and the methods of treatment were changing all the time. Sound familiar? The scary part is that there was no vaccine until 1955. Yikes – even if they cut that time in half for the Covid virus we are still in for a long haul.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Louise Penny

UPDATE: September 2, 2023

I very seldom look at the shelves when I go to the library as any books I want I usually have set aside for me. But when I returned my last book I was ready for a new one so started looking for books by some of my favourite authors. I haven’t read a lot of books by Louise Penny but I’ve enjoyed the ones I have read.

I didn’t recognize anything in the write-up but as I go into the book things started seeming familiar so I checked my book list and found that I’d already read this one. It didn’t spoil the story for me and I enjoyed it a second time.

I have now made a list of my favourite authors and the books that I’ve read and the other ones in their series so I’ll be prepared for another library visit.

July 23, 2020

A Louise Penny mystery is somewhat like an Ann Cleeves mystery – you really care about the characters but you don’t feel the need to read-ahead or binge read to find out what happens.

This is another in the Gamache series. I’ve read a few of them but not in any particular order and it doesn’t seem to matter. This one refers back to the reason why Chief Inspector Gamache has been suspended but it really doesn’t matter to the current story. And like most of the books in the series there is both a murder and a sub-plot.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *