Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: Weekly Reset 3

The first full workweek of the new year is about to begin! Although I worked through most of the holiday break, today still feels like a return to reality, probably because I can expect to start hearing from my clients.

I spent the early part of last week prepping for our annual New Year's Eve dinner and movie-watching night and the second half on a kind of yearly reset: changing out calendars, thinking about goals for the coming year, straightening the house, and putting away the holiday decor.

This week's reset: I organized some incoming books, outlined this week's blog posts, and took stock of my e-galleys. Yes, I am serious about increasing the percentage of books I read digitally and spent some time going through Edelweiss+ and NetGalley to pick a few January titles.

I also took note of a few bookish shows to watch on television this month, including Anne with a E, Tolkien, Dracula, Dare Me, and Jane Austen's Sanditon. We watched the first episode of Netflix's Dracula: I have mixed feelings because it dragged a bit and doesn't follow the book. Sill, it seems worth watching. We also watched the first episode of Dare Me, which we really liked.

What I Read Last Week

I decided I couldn't wait to get to the newest Karen M. McManus book, One of Us Is Next (Delacorte Press, Jan. 7), the second in the Bayview High series. This mystery, like the first in the series, has a strong foundation in social media and modern forms of communication. Although this story focuses on a new batch of students, we get to revisit characters we met in book one. The mystery involves a truth or dare game, which is a thinly veiled method of bullying. The questions for us readers are who is setting up the game, who is threatening to reveal secrets (the truths) if a student fails to take the dare, why are only certain students tapped to play, and what is the game master's end plan? As in the first book, the story is told via multiple viewpoints and there's a death. While I enjoyed the mystery (and didn't figure it out before the reveal) and appreciated the multilayered plotting, I wasn't as invested in One of Us Is Next as I was in One of Us Is Lying. Part of the issue may lie in the general setup of the mystery. I liked the closed-room premise of the first book more than the open-ended setting of this one. Regardless, I would happily read more about these characters if McManus writes another in the series. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Listening Library; 10 hr, 24 min), read by Maria Liatis, Holly Linneman, Fred Berman, and Karissa Vacker. All the narrators were good in terms of pacing and building tension and dramatic impact, but the characterizations didn't blend quite as nicely as they did on the first audiobook. (audiobook provided by the publisher)

Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart (Hodder & Stoughton, 2019, 6 hr, 11 min) was originally published in the 1990s and is a standalone mystery set in the Hebrides. When a Cambridge professor and author takes a holiday cottage on an isolated island, she is looking forward to a peaceful couple of weeks to finish her latest novel. She hopes her doctor brother will be able to join her, as the island is the perfect place for him to get in some bird watching and photography. On a rainy night before her brother arrives, Rose is visited by a young man who says he grew up in the cottage and didn't know anyone was staying there. Soon thereafter, another man knocks on the door seeking shelter after his campsite became drenched. Both men are charming, but each seems to be harboring secrets. Whom should Rose trust and what do these men really want? Stewart creates believable characters and makes the Hebridean landscape an integral part of the plot. Fun escape reading. I listened to the unabridged audiobook, which was published last fall and read by Eilidh Beaton, for a freelance assignment. Beaton did a fine job keeping me engaged throughout. My full thoughts about the audiobook production will be available via AudioFile magazine.

New to My Bookshelves

I'm grateful to have had a nice variety of books arrive on my doorstep in the last couple of weeks. Here are a few that caught my attention; all come out this month:

• The Vineyards of Champagne is about how the Champagne region of France survived the German Occupation. (Berkley)
• Hope in the Mail is "part writing guide and part memoir" and is geared to young teens. (Knopf)
• House on Fire is Finder's latest thriller; this one is set in the pharmaceutical industry. (Dutton)
• Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a dual-time-period story of two marriages. (Dutton)
• A Good Man is a mix of domestic thriller and psychological suspense set in New York. (Penguin)
• Kidnapped on Safari is a thriller, set in Africa, that addresses the all-to-serious business of illegal logging of public lands. (Skyhorse)
• The New Improved Sorceress is the second in a portal fantasy series set in Richmond, Virginia, as well as in a magical realm. (Ace)
• The Secret Chapter is the sixth book in the Invisible Library series, which is a very adult alternative world(s) fantasy with many bookish themes. I love these books, but I'm one behind. Time to catch up! (DAW)