Sunday Sum-Up: September 3, 2023

Kim @ Traveling in Books

Sep 3

I had some grand plans to take some long walks and do a bit of shopping before the (hopefully) final heat wave of summer came through, and then I managed to hurt my foot. I don't even know how I did it, but come Monday I could hardly put weight on part of my right foot and spent the day hobbling around. So on those nice days when the temperature was just fine for a walk, I couldn't actually do much walking. Frustrating all around.

Now that my foot is feeling better, it's too hot to go for a long walk outside.

It's supposed to cool off again by the end of the week, so better luck then, I suppose.

Obligatory Mina Photo:

I think Mina has gotten used to the construction noise that's been going on all summer. She doesn't jump at noisy cars as much as she used to, nor does she run and hide whenever a loud truck goes by. I'm curious to see if she'll still be scared of the street cleaner, but given that they're usually around at four o'clock in the morning, It's hard for me to say for sure given that I'm usually asleep by then.

But even though, Mina's getting used to the noise I'm still not a fan of it. We're both looking forward to the day when the construction is over and done with, and the neighborhood gets back to our normal levels of noise.

What I Finished Reading Last Week:

The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves, audiobook narrated by Ben Aldridge
Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich
The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Favereau, audiobook narrated by Anne Flosnik
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill, audiobook narrated by Florence Howard

I checked out The Long Call via Libby because I wanted another mystery novel, and I figured I would read the other one of Cleeves's novels featuring Detective Matthew Venn before the third one comes out this week. In this installment, we're introduced to Venn who, as the book opens, is on the outside looking in as his father's funeral is going on. He was part of a closed religious group when he was young, but lost his faith and was cast out. Now, he is married to a man he loves and is a respected member of the police in Devonshire. In the middle of his father's funeral, Venn is called out to a crime scene on the beach near his home. A man has been murdered. His name is unknown, and no one knows why he was on the beach. Figuring out this basic information will lead Venn into a mess of entanglements that could lead right to his front door. I remembered a lot about this story since I've read it a couple of times before, but there were some details I'd forgotten. And even though I remembered most of what happened, I was still fine with rereading it, since I like Venn and the rest of the characters. At this point, the mystery is beside the point. I'm rereading these books for the characters.

Waltz into Darkness is a suspenseful tale set in 1880s America about Louis Durand, a wealthy but lonely man who decides to marry a woman named Julia after corresponding with her for some time. But when the boat arrives in New Orleans, the woman Louis is expecting is not there. A young, beautiful woman claims to be Julia and says she sent a picture of her much plainer aunt to keep him from seeing her as just another pretty face. Louis accepts the story and marries her, but as the days past he begins to suspect that Julia is not what she seems. He is proven right when she disappears one day and takes his money with her. Angry and depressed, Louis decides he's going to seek her out and get his money, revenge or both. This is billed as a suspenseful story about a femme fatale and the man who can't let go of her, but I didn't find it to be particularly suspenseful. There was quite a lot about the tedium of being on the run and occasionally lacking in money, but between that and the Angelina Jolie/Antonio Banderas film, Original Sin, from twenty years ago, I'll take the movie. Waltz into Darkness was a quick read, but I didn't find it very suspenseful.

I finally got through The Horde via audiobook, but I didn't soak in as much as I'd hoped as it was rather difficult to hear the narrator thanks to her having a voice that just didn't carry. I do have a physical copy, so I may give it another go in the future. Favereau explains how the sections of the Mongolian Empire known as the Horde affected the history of the Middle East and Eastern Europe in ways that have often been overlooked due to the politics of previous regimes. It seems like a very well-written book, but again, the narrator's voice made it difficult to take in a lot of the information.

My hold for Our Hideous Progeny finally came in, so I downloaded the audiobook as soon as it became available and started listening as soon as I could. It is based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and is set in England in the 1850s. Mary is the great-niece of one Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who has been missing for years. She is also scientifically minded, but being a woman in the mid-1800s means that she can't make much progress unless she plays the game right, is unthreatening, and can help her husband- a fellow scientist- maintain his societal connections. Things go wrong for both of them, however, and it seems as though they've reached the end of their rope and can't go any farther until Mary comes across her family's papers and finds Victor's accounts of his experiments. She is inspired by this and comes up with a plan to change her and her husband's fortunes around entirely. I picked this one up on the recommendation of an acquaintance on one of my Discord servers, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. McGill's writing is excellent and conveys the mood and tone of the time, as well as showing Mary's frustration with people's attitudes toward her for being an outspoken woman. If you enjoy books of a more Gothic bent, I would definitely give this one a try.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas (23%)

Néstor and Nena were childhood friends who were as close as could be, until one night when Nena was attacked by some kind of monster. Believing that she is dead and that he is to blame, Néstor flees and keeps running, as though he can outrun his guilt. But Nena survived the attack and grew up to be a healer on her family's ranch in Mexico. They are always under threat from white men from the north who are trying to take their lands one way or another, but when the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, Néstor and Nena are abruptly brought back together. I really enjoyed Cañas's debut novel from last year, The Hacienda, so I've been looking forward to the one since I heard about it last spring. So far, I'm enjoying this story. The writing, pacing, and characters have improved over the last book, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the situations with the vampires, the attack on Mexico, and Néstor and Nena's relationships will all be resolved.