I really like these books from the Very Short Introduction series from the OUP. They're usually very well-written and are great for quickly filling in gaps in my knowledge. Thank goodness they've done a lot of them.

I've just started this overview of political and economic conditions in what would be key players leading up to and in WW II, including the US, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia. Very readable style with revealing, and in the case of Mussolini, bizarre anecdotes. At close to 900 pages, it's a real door stopper though.

I wouldn't normally read a war memoir but I heard the author on On Point and became interested, especially as he's been picked to be Obama's undersecretary for Central Asia.

Billed as an homage to the golden age mysteries, Death of a Cozy Writer certainly has plot twists and turns worthy of Agatha Christie. Maillet doesn't miss a trick - the English country house, an inheritance, a family of vipers, people who aren't who they seem, secrets and blackmails all culminating in murder. Added to the mix is her sly humor and the occasional literary reference and you have a light, enjoyable but well-written read.

Lukacs makes the case that May 24-28, 1940 were the turning point when Hitler lost his war, ie the plan to control all of Europe. The focus is on Churchill and his cabinet - can Churchill overcome strong opposition to his position that Britain will go on fighting alone, even if they lose the BEF in France. Lukacs is clearly an admirer of Churchill, no revisionist he. He does recreate the sense of danger and urgency of the moment.

What I particularly liked were the sections at the end of each chapter describing the mood of the country by looking at newspapers, diaries, and quotations from the ongoing Mood-Observations captured by the government. A momentous five days but as a reader I wanted to go on beyond those days.

I've been listening to this one and enjoying it. It's read by Susan Lyons, who does an excellent job. I'm near the end and have no idea how this one is going to wrap up.

I just finished listening to this. I enjoy the Wexford novels and Tim Curry is a great reader. But this one was very slow starting. And then it seemed impossible that Wexford didn't see the solution. He actually says, after realizing the connections between various characters, something about how obvious it seems once you see it. How about how obvious it seemed about 50 pages before you got there, Reg?

Why not? 'Tis the season. With an amusing piece of froth like this, it's easy to overlook just how clever Mitford is. And how very scathing her humor can be.

Right up to close to the end I thought that this was going to one of her better books of the last few. But about 75 (?) pages or so from the end, the plotting and even the writing seemed to get sloppy. The murderer didn't have just one secret motive but two completely unrelated secret motives. And the diversions into Dagliesh's personal life seemed to be just that - diversions. I found the contrast between the first 3/4s and the last 1/4 of the book to be striking.

I had expected The Lighthouse to be James's last novel and was pleased to see this one. I do find when I read her now how very bleak her view of human nature is. Her characters almost inevitably exhibit some degree of isolation - by choice, geography or circumstances.
But I feel as if I am in her capable hands right now.

Not nearly as twee as the title. The subject of the book is the impact of the Nazi occupation on the lives of the islanders. Because the islanders and the occupiers were dependent upon one other in various ways, their relationships were very complex. Maybe someday some one will write a book about those relationships. This isn't it. It's a quick and easy read, despite its subject matter. Why the authors wanted to tell this story through the correspondence of a English woman in London mystifies me. It's a device that trivializes the story and too much time is spent on her mostly insipid romantic entanglements. And yet I kept reading because there is a story here I want to read even though it was treated mostly on a superficial level

Well written and interesting mystery set in small Scottish town during the recent British foot and mouth disaster. The detective inspector, known to her subordinates as "Big Marge" (I love that), is also a farmer's wife and mother. Templeton does a nice job exploring her conflicted loyalties between her job and her family while not overwhelming the mystery. Good secondary characters and local flavor. I would have liked even more information on the epidemic and its impact. I will definitely look for others in this series

Picked this up in as a cheap remainder and it called out to my pre-election monkey brain. Not her worst. Certainly not her best. But the house on the Cornwall coast is always an intriguing location. The house reminds Melrose Plant of the movie, The Uninvited, which has although not a great movie, has always been one of my favorites. That's what probably kept me reading even though it wasn't really gripping as a story.

Enjoyable but no more. Although the backstory is finally revealed in this installment, elements of that story are rather unbelievable.

I finished Howards End. I read it aloud, an hour a week on my radio show. It took about 13-14 weeks to finish. It worked very well for that format - two or three chapters a week, with very natural breaks in the story.

The third installment in her series. Off to a good start although as usual with village mysteries one has to suspend disbelief about the murder rate in small towns. And she finally seems to be getting down to the continuing plot line that she has only hinted at before. I hope so.

One of the best novels I've read in a long time. Funny, clever, frightening and thought-provoking - all in a slim 200+ pages. I was so caught up in the quest of the main characters that it was only when I finished that the moral and societal implications hit me. hard.

She almost doesn't pull off the ending - but then she does. A good solid mystery and I'm looking forward to the next one.

I'm about half way through this one and really enjoying it. Of course the fact that it's set on the Shetland Islands makes it almost irresistible for me. And it came recommended by both Sarah and Kat. Cleeves manages to create a strong sense of place without making it read like a travelogue or a Wikipedia entry. So far the mystery is good, tangled enough that I don't know where we're going or who might be involved. Fingers crossed it won't disappoint in the end.