Rhine Journey (1980) by Ann Schlee #SpinsterSeptember

🚢 Rhine Journey is not only a journey on a steamer through the river Rhine in Germany. More than that, it is also an internal journey of an unmarried 19th century woman, from repressed spinsterhood, to independence. Charlotte is the spinster, and she is the reason Nora @ pear.jelly_ picked this book for a group read during #SpinsterSeptember.

🚢 Charlotte is an English woman, and she goes on the journey to Germany with her brother's family - Reverend Charles Morisson, his wife Marion, and their teenager daughter Ellie. On board the steamer Charlotte sees a man who resembles and reminds her of her youth lover, from whom she was separated by her brother and sister in law because they felt he didn't suit her. The man was Charlotte's only passport to happiness. Instead, she was forced to live as a retainer of the family - someone invisible and whom no one ever noticed.

🚢 It turns out the man isn't her ex lover, but a husband and a father. She begins to be infatuated with the man, even fantasizing and dreaming about making love with him, whom, in her dream, reciprocates her feeling, and treats her like how she had wanted to be treated. Then something happens that ends those fantasies, and it is at that point that Charlotte's change begins.

🚢 Charlotte had actually received a fortune, bequeathed by a Mr. Ransome, to whom she had been a caretaker. She could have had her independence then, but I think the repression of her brother and sister-in-law had been too much that she felt helpless to start an independent life. Charlotte's life had been regulated to the family's needs for too long for her to begin a new one which is her own. Loneliness is also an issue she's afraid to face.

🚢 On the whole, it's an intriguing novel, without much plot or action, as the biggest "turmoil" is happening inside Charlotte's mind. It's not an easy read for me as sometimes the line between reality and fantasy or dream is blurred. I think that's what the writer had intended it to be, and it worked. Ann Schlee captured the Victorian spinsterhood repression beautifully, though the story feels more like in the late 1910s or even 1920s.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye (1928) by Brian Flynn

💎 It all began at the Hunt Ball at Westhampton, where it was rumored that a royal personage would attend. A mysterious man, wanted to be known as Mr. X, arrived, danced, and infatuated by the pretty Sheila Delaney. Then a string of incidents took place.

💎 Private Investigator Anthony Bathurst was hired by the Crown Prince of Clorania to solve a blackmail case. While almost at the same time, Chief Detective-Inspector Bannister - only months before retirement - abruptly ended his holiday over a murder of a girl at a dentist office. One thing that connects the three events is that the parties concerned were all related to more than one of the events. It also means that Bathurst and Bannister must work together to solve both cases.

💎 This is a classic Golden Age mystery, ingeniously crafted by Brian Flynn. At first it seemed like a simple case, a murder by injecting cyanide to a dentist patient while the dentist was locked at another room. But with each revelation, the case got more complicated. First of all, the murdered girl wasn't the girl they supposed at first, but another. On what purpose did the murderer use the false identity? Then there's the bank notes the murdered girl withdrew from the bank, which were missing.

💎 What about the titular Peacock's Eye? You've guessed that it has something to do with some Oriental jewelry, right? That made up the final complication of the case. And the murderer? That's the beautiful plot twist of this book. You'll have several suspects along the way, but I doubt it if you'll ever guessed it correctly. Unlike Christie, who often scattered clues and hints blatantly throughout a book, Flynn put it there so subtly that you mightn't have noticed it at all. On the whole, it's a totally engrossing story with a clever and satisfying twist.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Miss Buncle's Book (1934) by D.E. Stevenson #SpinsterSeptember

✍🏼 September is the month dedicated for #SpinsterSeptember, a Twitter and Instagram reading event created by Nora @pearjelly_. The idea is to read books in which the main characters are spinsters. My first contribution is a brilliantly written novel by D.E. Stevenson. In Miss Buncle's Book, Stevenson wrote a book about a woman who writes a book about a woman who writes a book. Confused? Let me elaborate...

✍🏼 Miss Barbara Buncle is a spinster in her late thirties, who lives in a small town of Silverstream. When the dividend, on which she was depended her financials, was decreased in both quantity and frequency, Miss Buncle was forced to do something. This something turned out to be writing a book. But Miss Buncle has a handicap - she doesn't have imagination. Thus, she wrote a book about what she knows well - Silverstream and its residents.

✍🏼 Mr. Abbott, the publisher, read Miss Buncle's manuscript, and loved it. He agreed to publish it under title of Disturber of the Peace. The title became a prophecy when, intrigued by this new book penned by John Smith (Miss Buncle's pseudonym), the Silverstreamers procured and read the book, and.... found themselves in it! Peace has been disturbed alright. And it is the chaos the book has stirred that forms the center of this amusing book.

✍🏼 The best part of the book is learning how different each individual's reaction is towards the Disturber of the Peace. Yet, it is easy to remark that their reactions are always in accordance with their personal characters. It can be said that their reactions reflect their true characters. Mrs. Featherstone-Hogg is the strongest opponent of Disturber of the Peace. She hated both the book and the writer, John Smith. So much so, that she went to London to bully Mr. Abbott into withdrawing the book from publication - which at this point had become a bestseller - and regarded it as libel. Of course Mr. Abbott refused to do that and there's no lawyer willing to take the case. Mrs. Featherstone-Hogg was so adamant, that she decided to take the matter by herself. She invited some residents whose name were included in the book, to gather and discuss the real identity of John Smith - for they realized that he/she must be their fellow resident - and what they'd do to punish this person. 

✍🏼 This action only revealed Mrs. Featherstone-Hogg's true personality: hypocrite. She recognized the character in the book as herself, but she denied vehemently that there is any similarity between the character and herself. Funny, right? But there are also those who saw the book as amusing, like Colonel Weatherhead. The book even inspired him to do something he would have never thought possible, but in the end it actually made him happier. To another male character, the book had opened his eyes of his wrongdoings towards his family, that he tried further to correct it.

✍🏼 In short, this is a hilarious story that satirized the hypocrisy in any society in our world. What we see outside is not always the same with what lays inside. People see Miss Buncle as a rather foolish or stupid woman, that they never suspect her as John Smith. Among the Silverstreamers, only Sally Walker, the 17 years granddaughter of Miss Buncle's neighbour, who really appreciate Miss Buncle as she is. Interestingly, Sally is the only one who could describe Disturber of the Peace in accordance with its literary merit. The moral of the story is, that sometimes it's good to see one's reflection from other's mirror - there might lay the truth one doesn't often realize about one self. However, only they who are conscientious enough who can see it as it is. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

Six Degrees of Separation, from After Story to The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I haven't read, but one I'd love to someday:

0. After Story by Larissa Behrendt

Summary from Goodreads:
"When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past.

Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols – including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf – Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear."



I started the chain with another book I've read this year, where the main characters are dealing with disappearance of a family member:

1. Sunbirds by Penelope Slocombe

Excerpt from my review:

"This is not a book about birds, but about people. People who long for freedom that seems to be possessed only by birds. People who, just like birds, fly high, leaving the present place to another, whenever it likes to, without responsibility, without reserve. The question is, is it possible for human being to take the same way of life as of birds?"

It's about a disintegrated family when the 18 year-old son left home for a spiritual journey to Himalayan, and never returned. You can read more about it on my review.

The long for freedom in this books' characters reminded me of a similar kind of longing in the next book of the chain...

2. Blue Hawk by Chloe Turner

Excerpt from my review: "It is a wonderful journey of a woman's struggles in the men's world, it is also an insightful story of family, jealousy, pettiness, and friendship. All is beautifully written and thoroughly well researched."

If you love historical fiction, Blue Hawk will amuse you with its vivid description of clothier and dyeing business in the 17th century of England. The protagonist is a wonderfully strong and courageous young woman who loved the color blue.

My next link is another book that also centers around the color blue.

3. The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

Summary from Goodreads:
"Meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin—two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy. When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own. Village life turns out to be less idyllic than she expected, however, and a peculiar dream of the color blue propels her on a quest to uncover her family’s French ancestry. As the novel unfolds—alternating between Ella’s story and that of Isabelle du Moulin four hundred years earlier—a common thread emerges that unexpectedly links the two women. Part detective story, part historical fiction, The Virgin Blue is a novel of passion and intrigue that compels readers to the very last page."

Another book with the Virgin in the title is..

4. Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick

Summary from Goodreads:
"Abandoned as an infant, fourteen-year-old Anna Maria Dal Violin is one of the elite musicians living in the foundling home where the "Red Priest," Antonio Vivaldi, is maestro and composer. Fiercely determined to find out where she came from, Anna Maria embarks on a journey of self-discovery that carries her into a wondrous and haunting world of music and spectacle, bringing eighteenth-century Venice magically to life."

Another historical fiction from the author (Barbara Quick) I've enjoyed is...

5. A Golden Web by Barbara Quick

Summary from Goodreads:

"Alessandra is desperate to escape.

Desperate to escape her stepmother, who's locked her away for a year; to escape the cloister that awaits her and the marriage plans that have been made for her; to escape the expectations that limit her and every other girl in fourteenth-century Italy. There's no tolerance in her quiet village for Alessandra and her keen intelligence and unconventional ideas.

In defiant pursuit of her dreams, Alessandra undertakes an audacious quest, her bravery equaled only by the dangers she faces. Disguised and alone in a city of spies and scholars, Alessandra will find a love she could not foresee -- and an enduring fame."

This chain will be closed with another historical fiction about extraordinary struggle put up by a strong intelligent courageous young woman...

6. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Summary from Goodreads:

"Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger.

As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century."

Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegrees, how it worked out for you this time?

Where Are You Now? (2008) by Mary Higgins Clark

📞 Ten years ago "Mack" Mackenzie walked out of his apartment without a word and has never been seen again. However, on every Mother's Day after that, there's been always a short phone call from Mack to his mother, saying that he's OK. Before anyone receiving the call has time to ask anything, however, he'd ring off. Thus, his family "accepted" that Mack is alright; he just wants to be left alone.

📞 On the tenth Mother's Day after he's been missing, however, his little sister Caroline couldn't take it anymore. She shouted over the phone that she will search and find Mack no matter what. After that, a piece of paper was found inside the collection bag at a church. It's a message to Caroline from Mack, to leave him alone. She brought this evidence to the police, but the detective in charge wasn't interested.

📞 When a girl called Lissie Andrew was missing after leaving a bar alone at night, the same detective found out that Caroline lives at the same apartment building with her, and suspected that there's probably a connection somehow of these two missing cases. The police then connected Lissie's case with other missing cases of young girls, one of them only days after Mack had gone missing ten years ago. Did Mack has something to do with the crime, then? When the police suspected him, Caroline is determined now more than ever, to seek the truth and to clear her brother's name.

📞 This is my second Mary Higgins Clark of the year - the first was Pretend You Don't See Her, which I liked. Where Are You Now? might not as fascinating as Pretend You Don't See Her, but it's equally highly entertaining. I can see similarity in tropes from both novels. The main characters are young women. There are always a long list of suspects. They are usually connected to one another or are acquainted with the heroine, either relatives or professional acquaintances. I guess these connections enabled the author to throw curfews and red herrings on the plot. I have no complain, because that is what makes a good suspense novel, doesn't it? Needless to say, I was enjoying this much. Same as the first read, I have also listened to the audiobook. I found it both soothing and exciting at the same time, which was what I've needed after a tedious time.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024: SEPTEMBER #AgathaChristieSS24

There are only four months left of this year, can you believe it? Time flies too fast! Reading is the only thing to keep me calm amidst these whirling things in this world. And I've been enjoying these little stories from Agatha Christie to "catch my breath" before plunging to another... hundreds of stuffs that seem to always await me every morning! This month we will return to Miss Marple, Mr. Satterthwaite, and the elusive Mr. Quin.

THE HERB OF DEATH

A lovely young woman dies after being poisoned at dinner. But everyone else was also taken ill, so was she really the intended victim. Dolly Bantry tells the story of the case and Miss Marple thinks she knows the solution.

It was originally published in 1930 in The Story-Teller magazine, and was included in the first Miss Marple short story collection as one of The Thirteen Problems. Elements of the story were also woven into an adaptation of The Secret of Chimneys as part of the series Agatha Christie's Marple, starring Julia McKenzie.

THE BIRD WITH THE BROKEN WING

Mr. Satterthwaite is staying with his young friends the Keeleys, when a séance pulls up two clear messages: LAIDELL and QUIN. Before long there is a tragic death in the house and Satterthwaite, with the help of a message from Mr. Quin, correctly determines whether it was suicide or... murder.

The story was first published in the collection The Mysterious Mr Quin, Collins 1930. Unlike the other stories in the collection it did not appear in a magazine beforehand.

I can't wait to read them! Which one interested you most?