Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: Weekly Reset 2

I'm kind of in denial that Christmas is next week. We still have a couple of gifts to buy and have made a shopping date to get them taken care of. I hate waiting until the last minute, but that's what this year has been like.

We haven't been watching too much television and have fallen behind in a few series we used to follow on the various streaming services. I can't believe I haven't yet watched the new version of His Dark Materials on HBO. I loved those books, so I really need to make time for the series.

We're caught up with the Dublin Murders on STARZ. I like the screenplay and the acting, but I wish the producers had stuck with only one story at a time instead of combining two of the Tana French books into a single season. Still a good show.

Reading / Read

Death of a Witch by M. C. Beaton (Grand Central, 2009): I went for total fluff this week and listened to the 24th Hamish Macbeth mystery. I love the characters and the Highland setting of this cozy mystery series. In this outing, Hamish has to solve a series of murders that start with a shifty newcomer who lures men to her remote cottage with promises of an herbal Viagra. As Hamish is trying to figure out who the killer is and the body count starts to rack up, he is also trying to sort out his love life, with three women on his radar. Meanwhile, he's determined to avoid the dreaded promotion that would change his comfortable lifestyle. Good humor mixed with a good mystery equals great entertainment. The audiobook (Blackstone, 5 hr, 37 min) was wonderfully read by Graeme Malcolm, who is the voice of the series. (personal collection)

This week's main book is Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt (Flatiron, Jan. 21, 2020), which I hope lives up to its hype. This is a story of a mother and her young son who are forced to flee their middle-class life in Acapulco for the safety of the United States after they catch the eye of a violent drug lord. A new land, new language, new economic circumstance, and a new fear drive them north, but there's no guarantee the journey will end happily. This timely book about immigrants seeking asylum in the United States has been on my list for a while, especially because it tells a story of how an educated family with resources can find themselves on the run when lawlessness takes over their home town. I can't wait to get started. (print and digital copies provided by the publisher)

New to Me in Print

• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (Picador Dec. 31 [paperback]): What happens when a modern-day family who has been living as Iron Age Britons in the bog lands allow a group of anthropology students to join the experiment?
• Beginning with Cannonballs by Jill McCroskey Coupe (She Writes, May 2020): This book follows 50 years in the lives of two girls whose deep childhood friendship is torn apart by segregation in 1950s Tennessee.
• Cook, Taste, Learn by Guy Crosby (Columbia University Press, Dec. 10): The subtitle of this book tells it all: 'How the Evolution of Science Transformed the Art of Cooking."
• The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood (Penguin, Jan., 14, 2020): A psychological thriller set  in an isolated cult community in Wales.
• Eat for the Planet Cookbook by Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone (Abrams, Jan 7): Recipes and information about switching to a plant-based diet.