Total Books: 4 Total Pages: 1426 Longest: 445 Shortest: 224
Genres: 4 (Fiction – 1, Humor – 1, Mystery – 2)
Louise Penny – The Madness of the Crowds
Mark Twain popularized the saying, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. All three can be found in abundance in this 17th book of the Inspector Gamache series.
The Gamache extended family has gathered in Three Pines for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday time frame after the pandemic. Gamache is requested to provide security at a local university for a visiting professor of statistics. Curious as to why security is needed for a speech by a statistics professor, Gamache’s research reveals an abhorrent idea she is spreading in the post-pandemic world.
It isn’t surprising when a murder occurs, Gamache is head of homicide after all. Everyone’s moral fibers are put to the test as Gamache and his trusted colleagues, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste, search for the truth among the lies, reality among the damned lies, and facts among the statistics, in the process of finding the killer. As noted in the book, “correct and right were two different things. As were facts and truth.”
Once again, Penny’s depth shines through her characters as innermost thoughts are revealed, hard decisions are made, and darkness is exposed, but ultimately righteousness prevails.
Katherine Center – The Rom-Commers
Following the grittiness of The Madness of the Crowds, I was ready for something more light-hearted and turned to my favorite rom-com author – Katharine Center. A fellow Texan and Houstonian, something about her writing connects with me even though historically rom-coms have been low on my reading list. This is now the sixth book of hers that I’ve read over the past three years, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each one. Thanks to my sister for introducing her books to me!
In The Rom-Commers, Emma longs to be a rom-com screenwriter. However, she has been caring for her dad after a tragic accident and putting her dreams on hold for the past 10 years. When her agent calls with the opportunity for her to write a rom-com with her screenwriting idol, Charlie Yates, there’s just one catch – she has to move from Texas to LA for the six weeks of writing. Well, maybe more than one catch – she needs someone to stay with her dad (her younger sister steps up); Charlie is notorious for writing alone but is in a slump; oh, and he doesn’t believe in love stories, but needs to write one to greenlight his preferred project and what he has written so far gives a new definition to the word “terrible”.
Can Emma convince Charlie that love stories matter and help save his screenplay and reputation?
Ellen Skrmetti – Hey, Jesus, It’s Me
The book is subtitled – I Have Questions, Comments, and Concerns. Ellen Skrmetti’s Southern Christian humor went viral during the pandemic when she started posting short Instagram (@justskrmetti) videos of “phone” calls to Jesus using her remote control or other similar objects.
My sister discovered her and shared the videos with me as we laughed and laughed. An example, “Hey, Jesus, when you say love is patient, love is kind. Is that like an either or? Pick one? … It is not. You need us to do both. Ok. Ok. I’m gonna have to call you back.”. The video that really made her an Instagram hit was “If the Queen had died in the South”.
Post-pandemic she’s been on tour and when she came to Houston last fall, I couldn’t resist getting tickets for my sister, two of our longtime friends, and myself to go see her in person. We all laughed so hard. The laughing-crying emoji was made for this.
Her book, Hey, Jesus, It’s Me, based on those videos with more back stories, was released in 2024. I didn’t get around to buying it until earlier this Spring, when I bought physical copies for my sister (to share with me) and two cousins who were coming to visit. Anyway, my sister finally got around to reading it a few weeks ago and sending me screenshots of pages she couldn’t wait for me to also read! I finally worked it into my reading list this month and laughed all over again. Her next book, Cattywampus: A Southern Woman’s Guide to Laughing When Life Goes Sideways, is coming out in November and I can’t wait!
Anthony Horowitz – Close to Death
This is the 5th book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series. The title is a play on words as a “close” in the UK can also refer to a gated community.
Horowitz is on a deadline to deliver the next book in the series, but former police detective turned consultant, Hawthorne, hasn’t had any recent cases for Horowitz to document. So, he persuades Hawthorne to let him write about an old case in which a resident of Riverview Close was murdered and almost everyone in the upscale, 6-house close is a suspect. The catch, Hawthorne will only provide case documentation to Horowitz in chronological order a little bit at a time until he reviews what Horowitz has written to that point, and he won’t reveal how the case ended in advance.
The series continues to be an interesting premise with Horowitz, the real-life writer, collaborating with Hawthorne, the fictional detective. This one has the added intrigue of Horowitz trying to figure out what happened with Hawthorne’s prior assistant, John Dudley, who recorded all the notes on this old case.
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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