Review: No Strangers Here, Carlene O’Connor

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Review: No Strangers Here, Carlene O’ConnorNo Strangers Here by Carlene O'Connor
Narrator: Emily O'Mahony
Published by Kensington on October 25, 2022
Genres: Mystery
Length: 12 hours 26 minutes
Format: Audio, Audiobook
Source: Audible
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-half-stars

In the powerful tradition of Ann Cleeves and Louise Penny, USA Today bestselling author Carlene O'Connor’s new series set in Ireland brings together complex characters and a fascinating setting, focusing on a female vet who returns home to the village where she grew up and must reckon with her past while untangling mysteries in the present.

On a rocky beach in the southwest of Ireland, the body of Jimmy O’Reilly, sixty-nine years old and dressed in a suit and his dancing shoes, is propped on a boulder, staring sightlessly out to sea. A cryptic message is spelled out next to the body with sixty-nine polished black stones and a discarded vial of deadly veterinarian medication lies nearby. Jimmy was a wealthy racehorse owner, known far and wide as The Dancing Man. In a town like Dingle, everyone knows a little something about everyone else. But dig a bit deeper, and there’s always much more to find. And when Detective Inspector Cormac O'Brien is dispatched out of Killarney to lead the murder inquiry, he's determined to unearth every last buried secret.

Dimpna Wilde hasn’t been home in years. As picturesque as Dingle may be for tourists in search of their roots and the perfect jumper, to her it means family drama and personal complications. In fairness, Dublin hasn’t worked out quite as she hoped either. Faced with a triple bombshell—her mother rumored to be in a relationship with Jimmy, her father’s dementia is escalating, and her brother is avoiding her calls—Dimpna moves back to clear her family of suspicion.

Despite plenty of other suspects, the guards are crawling over the Wildes. But the horse business can be a brutal one, and as Dimpna becomes more involved with her old acquaintances and haunts, the depth of lingering grudges becomes clear. Theft, extortion, jealousy and greed. As Dimpna takes over the family practice, she's in a race with the detective inspector to uncover the dark, twisting truth, no matter how close to home it strikes . . .

I discovered Carlene O’Connor’s cozy mysteries set in County Cork (but based on a town in Limerick) last year, and I really enjoyed them. Some of the stories were better than others, but O’Connor shines in developing characters and evoking a setting. My sister and I traveled to the UK and Ireland in June last year, and we had the best time everywhere we went, but a place that I think will stick with me forever was County Kerry. I didn’t make it to Dingle, but I definitely would like to in the future. My sister and I stayed in Tralee, near Dingle, and rode the Ring of Kerry in a bus. It’s absolutely breathtaking in its beauty. I suppose I’ve been reading books set in Ireland ever since just to travel back in my mind.

No Strangers Here is not a cozy mystery. It’s similar to the Shetland series, and indeed, it seems her publisher sees the connection as well in stating that this book is in the tradition of Ann Cleeves. O’Connor proves she can write in a straightforward mystery/thriller genre. I thought the ending was too pat. Without divulging spoilers, let’s just say the murderer should be a bit less obvious from the get-go. However, I enjoyed the character development, plotting, and setting enough that I will read the other books in the series.

four-half-stars

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Review: What the Wind Knows, Amy Harmon

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Review: What the Wind Knows, Amy HarmonWhat the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
Published by Lake Union on March 1, 2019
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages: 418
Format: E-Book, eBook
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
five-stars

In an unforgettable love story, a woman’s impossible journey through the ages could change everything…

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar. Mistaken for the boy’s long-missing mother, Anne adopts her identity, convinced the woman’s disappearance is connected to her own.

As tensions rise, Thomas joins the struggle for Ireland’s independence and Anne is drawn into the conflict beside him. Caught between history and her heart, she must decide whether she’s willing to let go of the life she knew for a love she never thought she’d find. But in the end, is the choice actually hers to make?

What an excellent book! It delivers in so many ways:

  • An intriguing mystery
  • Loving father figure (seriously, think really hard about how many good fathers you find in books)
  • Time travel romance
  • History
  • Ireland!

I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, and I especially liked that the chapters were bookended with poetry by W. B. Yeats and Thomas’s journal entries. I don’t know nearly as much about the Easter Uprising and the Irish Civil War as I would like, but the book seemed well-researched. I think it would appeal to fans of the Outlander series, but this book tells a much more taut story. (How many books is Diana Gabaldon up to? And they’re each over 1,000 pages!) The characters are all likable and well-drawn. The setting is appropriately mystical. I was glad to see the references to Oisín and Niamh, which made me want to revisit Irish mythology. Amy Harmon renders the setting beautifully. Loved it!

five-stars

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2025 Reading Challenges

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I am not planning to participate in many reading challenges this year, but here is a roundup of the ones I’ve joined.

2025 Audiobook Challenge: Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me) 15-20 level

 

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: Medieval reader (15 books)

 

2025 Motif Reading Challenge: 12 books, one for each motif

 


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Review: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Nikki Giovanni

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Review: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Nikki GiovanniQuilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Published by William Morrow on January 1, 2002
Genres: Poetry
Pages: 110
Format: Paperback
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
five-stars

“One of her best collections to date.” — Essence

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is a tour de force from Nikki Giovanni, one of the most powerful voices in American poetry and African American literature today. From Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgment in the 1960s to Bicycles in 2010, Giovanni’s poetry has influenced literary figures from James Baldwin to Blackalicious, and touched millions of readers worldwide. In Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea , Giovanni turns her gaze toward the state of the world around her, and offers a daring, resonant look inside her own self as well.

Every year on New Year’s Day, my grandmother used to try to get me to eat at least one black-eyed pea. “For luck,” she would say. I wouldn’t. I have to admit I didn’t really like peas or beans until I was in my 50s.

Shrug Gif

How fitting that I finished Nikki Giovanni’s collection, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea , on New Year’s Day. I’ll consider it fortuitous that I finally consumed a “black-eyed pea”… for luck.

What a wonderful collection it is. I thought often of Nikki Giovanni, whom we just lost in December. She was the first poet who made me realize the places you could take poetry. How I wish I had “met” her sooner.

I actually did meet Nikki Giovanni twice, and she was so kind and gracious both times. I am so glad I could tell her that I loved her poetry and that I was a Virginia Tech student (albeit online).

I also thought of my grandmother as I read this collection, particularly the poem “I Think of Meatloaf.” Meatloaf is quite honestly another thing I don’t like, but the sentiment in the poem was very familiar to me. Substitute, perhaps, fried chicken. Or maybe cornbread. One lasting visual I have of my grandmother is how she would crumble cornbread into a glass and pour buttermilk over it. She was born in Oklahoma and lived in Texas for a time also. But she spent most of her life living outside the South, even living in two European countries for a time. But she was Southern, through and through. Nikki Giovanni’s grandparents were from Knoxville, Tennessee. I think that’s why I recognized my own grandmother in hers.

I loved this collection. It made me cry a couple of times, both for the loss of Nikki Giovanni and the loss of my grandmother. “Cal Johnson Park in Knoxville, Tennessee” made me think about the fact that the house my grandparents lived in for 50+ years was sold and immediately transformed into something I didn’t recognize by house flippers who didn’t appreciate the history or know anything about the people who lived there. Giovanni writes, “My favorite spot is no longer there. Just the memory / of a Street that has the same name but none of the same / memories.” She wonders “if the people living on Mulvaney Street have any idea / of the history they are living over.”

The poetry in the collection addresses subjects as wide-ranging as her fear after a cancer diagnosis, Susan Smith, Richard Williams, and teaching. Several of the poems evoke her fondness for birds. I particularly loved “A Miracle for Me.”

If you haven’t seen it, you really must watch this wonderful conversation Nikki Giovanni had with James Baldwin in 1971. The year I was born.

Rest in peace, Nikki Giovanni. Thank you for the poetry.

five-stars

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2024 Year in Review

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My book reviews went entirely off the rails this year, but a new year offers a chance to start fresh. I learned it’s important for me to review books after I read them because I remember the stories so much better. In looking over the books I read this year, I noticed that I don’t remember them as well as I usually do. I was shocked to log in and prepare to post my annual round-up and to realize I hadn’t written a blog post since January!

Best Books of 2024 (listed in the blog post)

My favorite read of the year was Percival Everett’s novel, James. It is subversive and smart, managing to make something brand new out of a classic and critiquing it simultaneously.

I read a lot of poetry and am glad I did that. I picked up more books after the election because the news started to feel too difficult to face. I habitually listened to the local NPR station on my commutes to and from work, but I started listening to audiobooks instead.

I discovered cozy mysteries set in Ireland. I would never say they’re great literature, but they are fun to read. I realized a lifelong dream of traveling to the UK and Ireland with my sister. We had the best time, and I kept a written junk journal of the trip. So much of the reading I did after was set in Ireland.

I also bought a house this year, which was another lifelong dream. It’s a charming, extremely cute colonial near the end of a dirt road at the top of a hill. We have a lovely yard, and our roses bloomed until November. This year has included so many firsts!

I haven’t decided on any reading challenges yet. I will probably do a historical fiction challenge, but I am not sure about others.

I’m going to try to be better about posting my reviews this year. It was an eventful year!

Here is a link to my Goodreads Year in Books.


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Review: Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead

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Review: Crook Manifesto, Colson WhiteheadCrook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Narrator: Dion Graham
Series: Ray Carney #2
Published by Random House Audio on July 18, 2023
Genres: Historical Fiction
Length: 10 hours 47 minutes
Format: Audio, Audiobook
Source: Library
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This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Goodreads
four-stars

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It's strictly the straight-and-narrow for him—until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated—and deadly.

1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney's endearingly violent partner in crime. It's getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook—to their regret.

1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole county is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. (Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A. and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney's tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.

CROOK MANIFESTO is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead's kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.

I really enjoyed this second book in the Ray Carney series. It is decidedly NOT The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys, but I think that’s the point. It feels like Colson Whitehead wanted to write something fun and interesting but not as heavy. This is not to say there are not heavy moments—crime, crooked cops, murder, arson. There is a thread of dark humor underneath all the violence, and as a reader, it was easy for me to see how much Whitehead enjoyed bringing this world of 1970s Harlem to life. I actually think this book was a bit better than the first in the series, Harlem ShuffleIt’s the second in a planned trilogy, but it’s not really necessary to read Harlem Shuffle to enjoy this book. However, as the second of three, it does feel like it ends with unfinished business. My favorite character was probably Pepper. Whitehead seems to enjoy Pepper enough to let him run away with the book. 

four-stars

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2023 Reading Year in Review

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Favorite books of 2023 covers; titles are in the post below.

I read 61 books this year, but I cannot claim it was a standout year in terms of reading. Many of the books I read were not all that memorable, and some were not very good.

I usually like to compile some statistics about my reading. According to my Goodreads Year in Books, I read 19,146. I don’t know how it figures in audiobooks, so that may be pretty inaccurate. The average length of the books I read was 313 pages. My average rating was 4.4 stars, which surprised me since I didn’t feel like it was all that memorable a reading year. Here is a breakdown of genres:

  • 38 works of fiction (novels)
  • 3 poetry collections
  • 19 works of nonfiction, including 5 memoirs
  • 1 graphic nonfiction
  • 3 re-reads
  • 9 books that had been on my TBR for more than a year

Probably my favorite book this year was Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of TranquilityHowever, the following books also made my favorites list:

  • To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
  • Country by Michael Hughes
  • Weyward by Emilia Hart
  • The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
  • How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
  • The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
  • Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
  • Above Ground by Clint Smith


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New Year’s Resolution… A Fun One

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I hate New Year’s resolutions. In a few days, the gym will be packed whenever I have to use the treadmill because I can’t walk outside for some reason or another. Of course, by February, it won’t be packed anymore. And that’s why I hate New Year’s resolutions. Most of them are too hard to keep. They’re almost always something we don’t want to do but think we should.

A few days ago, a friend of mine posted the following screengrab from social media:

every time i ask people if they do any new years resolutions its all oooo i dont like making them bc i fail or ohhhhh no i couldnt keep up with that and then when they ask me and i tell them about Pasta Quest (i am eating as many different pasta shapes as possible in the space of a year or when i did Fruit Adventures (every time i saw a fruit i had never eaten before id get one and eat it and read the wikipedia article about it) theyre like hang on i forgot you can make Fun Ones i want a fun one

I love the idea of having a fun New Year’s resolution. I’m not sure about Pasta Quest, but I think it could be fun for me to cook one new dish each week to try some new recipes, practice my cooking skills, and use my cookbook collection.

I didn’t see any reason to wait until the new year officially starts in a few days, so I started tonight.Milk Street: Tuesday Nights Mediterranean: 125 Simple Weeknight Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine

I love Milk Street for taking me outside my comfort zone; their dishes are always much more exotic than I’d usually cook. I bought this cookbook a couple of months ago to add to my collection. I decided to find something in the cookbook to try for dinner tonight and wound up picking the Sumac-Spiced Chicken Cutlets with Tomato-Onion Salad, mainly because I knew I already had all the spices and pomegranate molasses (thanks to Helen Rennie). It’s a secret ingredient in a lot of my sauces now) and would only need to pick up the chicken and produce from the grocery store. I liked it so much that I will definitely add it to my repertoire. I was recently watching Helen Rennie’s YouTube channel, and she has a video for Salmorejo. Helen doesn’t live very far from me, so when she has tips about shopping, I find them more helpful than her viewers who live farther away might. She mentioned in this video that Campari tomatoes are pretty good year-round in New England, so I bought those. In-season summer tomatoes would probably be heavenly in this dish. I found it pretty easy to make as well. I can’t print the recipe here for copyright reasons, but I highly recommend anything by Milk Street, so check out the book. I was really pleased with the results. I rarely take pictures of meals I cook (baked goods are another matter), but I had to take a picture of this meal. It was so pretty.

Sumac-Spiced Chicken Cutlets with Tomato-Onion Salad

This is a New Year’s resolution I can get behind.


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2024 Reading Challenges: Goals and Plans

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I got busy toward the end of the year and stopped reviewing my books. As of today, I’ve finished 60 books, surpassing my goal of 50. I have not yet completed any of the 2023 Reading Challenges, but that’s okay?I usually don’t really even participate beyond challenging myself to read.

I love Chapter Adventure for collecting the reading challenges in one place. It makes it so much easier to find interesting reading challenges. Starting on January 1, you’ll be able to see my 2024 challenge progress; the new link will replace the 2023 Reading Challenges link above. I plan to try the following challenges:

As I always do, I’ll create a map to track settings for the books I read.


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