Total Books Read: 4 Total Pages Read: 1277 Longest Read: 406 Shortest Read: 104
Total Books Skimmed: 2 Total Pages Skimmed: 2610
Genres: 5 (Fiction – 1, History – 1, Mystery – 1, Thriller – 1, Travel – 2)
If you’ve previously read my Notes on my monthly reading, you may have noticed that my header is different this month distinguishing between books “read” and books “skimmed”. I didn’t want to give myself full credit for reading cover to cover the massive Lonely Planet travel books when I really only read the sections pertaining to the regions we were visiting on our Eastern Europe trip. So, let’s start there.
Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe and Lonely Planet: Romania & Bulgaria
In preparation for our recently completed trip to Eastern Europe, I guess you could say that I perused these two books – only reading in detail the sections pertaining to the cities or regions that we would be visiting. These two tomes helped me to confirm that the tours which we had already selected to take with Viking and what we had booked privately would give us the best overviews of the region.
The Balkans: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Balkan Peninsula, Starting from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages to the Modern Period
On the other hand, The Balkans: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Balkan Peninsula, Starting from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages to the Modern Period, part of the Captivating History series, a quick read at only 104 pages, reinforced before we left on our Eastern Europe trip that the history of the area was extremely complicated! We (Dave read it, too) also realized how little we knew of the geography, history, and geo-politics of the region.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Believe it or not, neither Dave nor I had ever read Dracula. I can’t even say that I ever watched more than a few clips from any of the movies. The horror genre doesn’t generally appeal to me. But visions of Bela Lugosi’s quintessential Count Dracula appear in my head whenever I hear the name! Anyway, since we would be visiting Transylvania on our trip and going to Bran Castle (supposedly the basis for the Count’s Transylvanian home in Stoker’s novel although he even visited Romania), we both read the original novel.
I have to admit that it wasn’t what I expected as I realized that I previously knew nothing of the overall plot to the story. Stoker chose to tell the story from the point of view of several of the main characters (but not Count Dracula) using entries in their diaries. I actually enjoyed reading it and it made our visit to Bran Castle more interesting as well as helping to separate fact from fiction. There is a whole industry promoting the Dracula myth via tours and souvenirs in Transylvania.
Tess Gerritsen’s The Summer Guests
Tess Gerritsen, who wrote the Rizzolli and Isles book series which became a hit TV show, is back with a new series – The Martini Club. The Summer Guests is the second in the series. The Martini Club are a group of retired spies now living in a quiet community along the Maine coast. The first book, The Spy Coast, was one of my favorite reads from 2023 (Note 27).
The title refers to the owners of summer “cottages” along a nearby lake who are often at odds with the local year-round residents. When a young “summer guest” girl goes missing and circumstantial evidence points to a local, the Martini Club find themselves investigating behind the scenes to the chagrin, but eventual acceptance, of the young police chief. I loved the Rizzolli and Isles series and am developing a fondness for the characters in The Martini Club as well. Gerritsen’s background as a medical doctor enables her to provide interesting medical and forensic details in her novels.
Louise Penny’s The Nature of the Beast
My final read of April found me returning to Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series and the 11th book, The Nature of the Beast. Gamache is still retired and living with his wife, Reine-Marie, in the quaint community of Three Pines with its quirky but lovable denizens – cranky poet Ruth, disheveled artist Claire, wise psychologist turned bookstore owner Myrna, and the enterprising gay owners of the town bistro and B&B, Gabri and Olivier.
When a young local boy, Laurent, known for a vivid imagination, comes running into the bistro claiming to have found a huge beast in the forest bigger than a house, it is dismissed as just another of his tall tales. Then, he is found dead in a ditch with his mangled bicycle nearby and Gamache suspects it wasn’t the accident it appeared.
New Chief Inspector Isabelle Lacoste (Gamache’s protégé) and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir (Gamache’s former right-hand man and now son-in-law) arrive to take control of the investigation at Gamache’s request. At first, they suspect that he is becoming bored in retirement and making more of the incident than needed. But the evidence, especially the lack of a key piece of evidence, leads everyone to realize that the boy was murdered.
What did he find in the forest? Who in the town may be more than they appear and know the secret long hidden in the forest and want to keep it that way? If Gamache has learned nothing else over the years, it’s that everyone in Three Pines has a secret.
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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