Six Books Saturday #9: Favorites from A Century of Books (so far)

#SixBooksSaturday is my personal monthly bookish meme, inspired by Six Words Saturday, which I've stumbled upon @ Travel with Intent. It's basically to list six books of random category, which I'd decided on the spot. Anything is possible according to my whim. I post Six Books Saturday on last Saturday of each month. If you're interested, you are, of course, welcomed to join me. There's no rule, really. You can post six anything about books. 

If you have been following this blog long enough, you've probably noticed that I am doing a personal challenge/project of A Century of Books - reading 100 books in two years, one book for each year. I am following Simon's idea, by the way. Intending to read 50 books this year, I have now up to 19 done. Not bad at all, eh?

So, for this month's Six Saturday Books, I'll do some kind of review of my A Century of Books, by rating six of my most favorites.

SIX FAVORITES FROM A CENTURY OF BOOKS (SO FAR)

6. The Man Who Died Twice (Richard Osman)

My review

5. The Cornish Coast Murder (John Bude)

My review

4. The Easy Life in Kamusari (Shion Miura)

My review

3. Cigarette Girl (Ratih Kumala)

My review

2. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman)

My review

1. Scarlet Feather (Maeve Binchy)

My review

Have you read any of them? Which one is your favorite?

Next Six Books Saturday: 29th June 2024.

In the Market for Murder (2015) by T.E. Kinsey: Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #2

🥧 The duo Lady Hardcastle and her maid Florence Armstrong are back in a new murder mystery. It's 1909, several months has elapsed from the end of 1st book (A Quiet Life in the Country) where Lady Hardcastle was injured. She is now recovered, but is bored and dejected. So, her friend and neighbor in the little village of Littleton Cotterell, Lady Farley-Strouds, brings her and Flo to the cattle market in Chipping Bevington during market day. The fun trip is capped with a visit to the local pub, enjoying its delicious beef and mushroom pie, while at the same time being introduced to the local farmers.

🥧 A week after, also during market day, one of the farmers, a Spencer Carradine, was found dead at the same pub, while eating the same beef and mushroom pie. Inspector Oliver Sunderland requested Lady Hardcastle to help him in the investigation, as he's quite busy at that moment. A request which, of course, was warmly welcomed by our duo.

🥧 A case which seemed at first to be simple, proved otherwise. The deceased made everyone's life miserable, and he quarreled with them often. Everyone could be suspect, then. Moreover, the police couldn't decide on what caused the death. It seemed like poison, but it could also be something else. Being stuck in the investigation, Lady Hardcastle and Flo were by no means idle. Two small mysteries unexpectedly appeared.

🥧 First, the local rugby club lost its precious memento - robbery? Then, a seance, in which Lady Hardcastle and Flo participated for fun, turned nasty when a "spirit" accused one of the guest of committing murder in the past. Who, or "what" caused it? Of course, our duo finally solved the cases nicely, just in time when a revelation from unexpected quarter turned up, and... eureka! Lady Hardcastle solved the murder mystery!

🥧 Just like its predecessor, In the Market for Murder is a light, humorous, charming story. The dynamic and unconventional relationship of the lady and the maid is one unique point of this series, and their everyday life in the countryside village forms a charming backdrop to every crime mystery comes their way. My only complaint is that I feel Flo's rudeness to her boss is a bit too impertinent to my liking. The rest is just refreshing and charming. Now I can't wait to read the third, which, as the end of this book hinted, sounds interesting!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Frenchman's Creek (1941) by Daphne du Maurier

🛶 Frenchman's Creek is set in the 17th century of Cornwall. After my first acquaintance with du Maurier through Rebecca (loved it), I have since read My Cousin Rachel (quite like it, though not as wholesome as Rebecca). I've been wondering what to read next, when I read The Cornwall Sabbatical (a memoir) by Jonathan E. Cox last year, where Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn (both are set in Cornwall) were mentioned. Then I knew what I should pick for next read. I found that Frenchman's Creek is in very different league with Rebecca, though equally entertaining.

🛶 Dona, the Lady St. Columb, was thirty, and mother of two children. Bored with the frivolousness of London's high society, and, partly, with her dull and foolish husband, Dona fled with the children to their ancestors' house in Cornwall, the Navron house.

🛶 She felt peaceful at first, but began to notice mysterious things like a jar of tobacco and a poetry book inside her bedroom's drawer, whom do they belong to? William, the butler? Very unlikely... Then, there's a secret meeting between William and a man at night outside the house. Who is he, and what they're discussing? Then one day Dona took a walk along the stream towards the river, and accidentally found a beautiful and secluded little creek. And there, totally hidden from outsiders' sight, a ship was anchored - a pirate ship!

🛶 There had been concern among the gentries in the village. A group of French pirates had been robbing their belongings for sometimes, but they failed to catch them. But they had had enough, and now, helped by some soldiers, they intended to capture and hang the pirates, especially the captain, a Frenchman called Jean-Benoit Aubéry.

🛶 The same Frenchman captured Dona during her walk, but rather than afraid, she was fascinated by the ship, the captain (a cultured and pleasant man), and by the overall idea of freedom, adventure, a bit of danger, and excitement of pirating. Moreover, she began to fall in love with the Frenchman - a feeling reciprocated by the other.

🛶 Now, what will Dona do - will she let her foolish husband and his peers capture and hang her lover, keep her love affair a secret, then be back to her London life as a wife and mother? Or will she throw her former life away, fight against the hypocrite landlords, and embrace the Frenchman's offer of a new life of love and freedom she really wanted? Whichever option she'd pick, it shows how unfortunate to be born as a woman in that era!

🛶 If you think this is a pure romance story, you're wrong. There's still the trace of du Maurier's remarkable quality of gothic-thriller writing, and vivid story-telling in this book. The romance and adventures just made this book more entertaining, with a touch of deeper subject of women's constraint versus men's freedom.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

But Not for Me (Kay Schiffner Mysteries #1) by Allison A. Davis #NetGalley

Thanks to Bronzeville Books and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

🎷 1958 - what was happening in that year? Elvis Presley, Andy Williams, Rock 'n' Roll, Cha-cha dance? For some of the Baby Boomers of that era, like my parents, they were. But for Kay Schiffner, it's the Jazz. And the only place where a jazz pianist could play in public at that time was at the clubs or restaurants for coloured people. Yes, segregation would have been ended by then in San Beatniks, Eisenhower, Fillmore District, but for white people like Kay, to mingle with coloured people would be highly frowned upon.

🎷 Kay Schiffner was a lawyer. For a woman to be independent was also to be frowned upon at that time. Men didn't like women to have career, let alone be prosperous in her own business like Leitisha Boone. Her club, The Blue Moon, where Kay often played, was threatened by redevelopment.

🎷 When a prominent black businessman who opposed the redevelopment was murdered, Leitisha was accused and imprisoned. It's up to Kay and Thursday Zimpel, a white Detective Inspector who was concerned with injustice against black people, to reveal the truth and bring justice.

🎷 This is a combination of a murder mystery and a poignant tale of racial injustice and prejudices, of women's struggles for freedom and recognition. Add the unique atmosphere and pop culture of the 1950s into it, and you'll be entertained as well as inspired. A series I can't wait to read through!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2


**But Not for Me will be published in September 17th, 2024**

20 Books of Summer (but not really summer) 2024 #20BooksOfSummer24

Yay, #20BooksofSummer24 is back! I have first joined last year, and it’s a blast. After a long monsoon season that felt like forever (I hate humidity!!), and then the transition to dry season with its heat, I can’t wait to get to June. June and July are usually the best weather of the year here, the air is cooler with gentle breeze. When August come, it usually begins to be drafty and drier. Therefore, June always feels like a new life to me. With it, a new excitement, reading wise. I thank Cathy @ 746 Books to host yet another 20 Books of Summer (but not really summer for me) – and it’s the 10th year (bravo, Cathy!) Here’s my list:

My 20 Books of Summer:

Blitzcat by Robert Westall – for #ReadingtheMeow2024
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun – for #ReadingtheMeow2024
The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency by Mandy Morton – for #ReadingtheMeow2024
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White – for A Century of Books (1936)
Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie – for A Century of Books (1944)
Snow by John Banville – for #johnbanville2024
Madame, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart – for #ParisInJuly2024
Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley – for #ParisInJuly2024
The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Féret-Fleury – for #ParisInJuly2024
The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent – for #ParisInJuly2024
Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson – for #MoominWeek
The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson – for #MoominWeek
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald – for A Century of Books (1978)
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo – for A Century of Books (1982)
Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – for A Century of Books (1953)
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye by Brian Flynn – for A Century of Books (1928)
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark - for #CCSpin

Alternatives – just in case I fail with the original list, or simply change my mind…

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb
The Cat Who Caught a Killer by L.T. Shearer
Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews
The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

Spot a favorite or two from my list? Or books you have read or are in your TBR? Let me know in the comment section!

The Cornish Coast Murder (1935) by John Bude

🔵 Reverend Dodd and his best friend Doctor Pendrill love to spend their Friday evenings together by the fireside, discussing detective novels they had just buddy-read, and each would, alternately, bring some more detective novels to be perused before their next meeting. Some authors they cherish are Edgar Wallace, J.S. Fletcher, Farjeon, Sayer, Freeman-Willscroft, and "my dear old friend Christie". That's one thing I've been dreaming to do after my retirement - hopefully I'd find the perfect friend to do it with when the time comes!

🔵 One stormy night, on one of those meetings, Doctor Pendrill is summoned to the neighboring house, because one Julius Tregarthan, an ill-tempered man who quarreled with everybody, was found dead, with a bullet through his head. A murder! A real one, not in a novel.

🔵 The investigator, Inspector Bigswell from Boskawen police force, puzzled over the case as it has limited clues, besides some of the strangest things that he found. Three bullets were shot from outside the victim's study in three wide ranges of direction - only one of it got through the victim. Then sets of footprints they had found were also inexplicable. Bigswell's suspects are Miss Tregarthen (the deceased's niece), and her lover, a writer who inexplicably left his abode on a hurry on the night of the murder, and seemed just to vanish.

🔵 Inspector Bigswell is fortunate that the local vicar is surprisingly not only good at delivering sermons, but is equally good at deduction. The combination of Bigswell's investigating experience and Reverend Dodd's insight of human nature bring in a beautiful conclusion to this simple-but-complicated mystery.

🔵 It was a super fun read, and a celebration of the Golden Age crime novel. The Cornish coast, with its sea, boats, and all, isn't only the nice background, but it forms an essential character of the crime itself. Bravo!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Danger Calling (1931) by Patricia Wentworth: Benbow Smith Mystery #2

👨‍🦰 This is the second book in the Benbow Smith mystery, a combination of spy, adventure, and charming romance mysteries. After reading the first: Fool Errant last year, I can't wait to dig into this one. I found it almost as entertaining as its predecessor, though with a bit less of exciting and dangerous actions. It's a pity too that the main characters are different from the first one (I loved them more). But we get more appearances of Benbow Smith and his beloved parrot Ananias in this one, so...it's not that bad after all.

👨‍🦰 Lindsay Trevor, a junior partner in a publishing firm and is engaged to be married in two weeks time, met a stranger on board a train, and was asked if he's willing to die for his country. Yes, the stranger is none other than Mr. Benbow Smith, a prominent figure in British intelligent service. Trevor was in the secret service himself during war, but it's twelve years ago. Now he can't be bothered any longer by that kind of activity - or can he?

👨‍🦰 When Lindsay's betrothed called off the wedding only a few days before without reason, the broken-hearted young man didn't think twice when Benbow Smith renewed his offer. Lindsay Trevor is announced dead of accident, and after dyeing his hair red and changed his voice, he impersonates the former agent, secretary to a prominent man who was suspected as the mastermind behind some worldwide unrest (strikes, incendiary newspaper articles, and so on).

👨‍🦰 Lindsay soon plunged into this sinister world, full with blackmail, kidnap, poisonous snakes, and dubious character. But in the center of it, there are some romances going on, and of course, some witty hilarious scenes too. All in all, it made an entertaining read, though the plot is rather farfetched compared to its predecessor.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐