Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Books I Plan to Read This Summer
/48 Comments/by SuzanneTop Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Books to Read By the Pool/At the Beach (This can also serve as your summer TBR). My plans for summer reading are a combination of cleaning out the old and getting a jump on the new. I have several ARCs that I would like to get to this summer, but I also have several older releases that I’ve been wanting to read for months and in some cases, even a year or more. (I think one or two of these books were probably on last year’s summer TBR too, but shhhhhh.) I’m sure I’ll read more than these 10, but as of this moment (subject to change based on my mood), these are my ten priority reads for this summer.
Top 10 Books I Plan to Read This Summer
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1. RUIN AND RISING by Leigh Bardugo
(I flew through the first two books in the Grishaverse trilogy but then got distracted by others books. I need to get moving again and wrap up this fabulous series.)
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2. VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab
(The second book in this series comes out soon, so I really need to get this one read before then. I’ve adored every book of Schwab’s that I’ve read so I don’t even know what I’m waiting for.)
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3. IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware
(This book has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now. I read and loved my first Ruth Ware book last month, so this is now a priority.)
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4. LETTING GO OF GRAVITY by Meg Leder
(A summer 2018 release that I’m looking forward to starting soon.)
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5. THE MERMAID by Christina Henry
(Another Summer 2018 release that I was just approved for and can’t wait to start.)
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6. CHARLOTTE WALSH LIKES TO WIN by Jo Piazza
(And one more Summer 2018 release that I can’t wait to get to.)
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7. DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING by Tricia Levenseller
(This has been on my TBR for well over a year now and I just keep putting it off. I’m determined to get it off my backlist this summer.)
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8. TO KILL A KINGDOM by Alexandra Christo
(One of my most anticipated releases of 2018 and yet somehow I still haven’t read it 3 months after it was published. Time to do something about that.)
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9. CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi
(Another of my most anticipated 2018 reads that has been sitting on my shelf for 3 months now.)
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10. LETTERS TO THE LOST by Brigid Kemmerer
(After falling in love with More Than We Can Tell, I really want to backtrack and read Letters to the Lost, which has been on my TBR for over a year now.)
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Question: What are your priority reads for this summer?
Review: A STUDY IN TREASON
/18 Comments/by SuzanneSeries: The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mystery #2
Published by Minotaur Books on June 12, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
Leonard Goldberg’s A Study in Treason is the second book in the popular series, The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. These books feature Joanna Blalock, daughter of Sherlock Holmes, and her husband, John Watson, Jr., who is (you guessed it), the son of Holmes’ sidekick, Dr. John Watson, Sr. as they follow in their parents’ footsteps and solve mysteries that are so tough they stump both local law enforcement and the finest detectives at Scotland Yard. I’ve always been a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries so I thought this would be a fun read
In this second book in the series, there is an imminent threat of war (WWI) and England and France have entered into a secret treaty that details strategies on how they will work together to defeat Germany if they actually do go to war. The treaty is sent to the country estate of Lord Halifax so that copies of it can be produced, and even though the document is kept under lock and key and the room it is stored in is guarded at all times, somehow the document is still stolen. The local police and Scotland Yard are called in immediately, but when they can’t determine how the document was stolen from a locked and guarded room, Joanna and the Watsons are called in to lend their assistance.
My favorite part about A Study in Treason was actually the mystery itself. It’s a cleverly crafted locked door mystery, filled with plenty of suspense and twists and turns that kept me guessing as to who the culprit was and how they did it, all the way to the very end.
I also loved the feeling of nostalgia that I got while reading because Goldberg does such a fine job of writing the story in the style of the original Sherlock mysteries and in capturing the atmosphere of pre-WWI England. In that sense, I think this series makes for a great complement to the original series. It was like meeting up with an old friend after many years.
Speaking of meeting up with old friends after many years, I also really loved seeing Dr. Watson again. Sherlock has unfortunately passed away by the time this story is set, but Watson is still with us and it just warmed my heart to see him and especially to see how wonderful his relationship with his son is.
I also liked Joanna, well most of the time anyway. She’s quite the feminist and doesn’t put up with anyone treating her as less than capable because of her gender. She is also truly a chip off the old block, both in terms of her personality and her investigative skills. She’s like Sherlock in a dress and is quite a fun character to follow around, as many of her mannerisms even mimic dear old dad’s.
As much as I liked Joanna, I unfortunately also had some issues with her as well. Some of the clues Joanna found while investigating seemed like clues that any trained member of law enforcement should have also been able to locate. In that sense it almost felt like other characters were being “dumbed down” to make Joanna appear more superior.
I also wasn’t a big fan of the way she would micro-manage everyone around her as if they were dimwits who couldn’t think for themselves at all. There was one scene in particular where she wants her husband John to observe what one of their suspects is doing, but to do so without being seen. She actually instructs him to hold his hand up next to his face to shield his face from view, as if he doesn’t have enough common sense on his own to figure out how not to be recognized. She speaks in a similarly condescending tone to Dr. Watson at times, as if he’s a child, and I found it annoying. Then, if they did something well or came up with an idea on their own, she would praise them as if they were pets. I half expected her to reward them with treats every time they did something that pleased her. That same arrogance used to occasionally annoy me about Sherlock, so I guess it’s not surprising that it annoys me with his daughter as well, lol.
Overall, I found A Study in Treason to be an entertaining read. If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes or even just a fan of mysteries, in particular, locked door mysteries, I’d definitely say to give it a try.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
A continuation of USA TODAY bestselling author Leonard Goldberg’s The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Treason is a new intriguing locked room mystery for Joanna and the Watsons to solve.
The following case has not previously been disclosed to the public due to the sensitive information on foreign affairs. All those involved were previously bound by the Official Secrets Act. With the passage of time and the onset of the Great War, these impediments have been removed and the story can now be safely told.
When an executed original of a secret treaty between England and France, known as the French Treaty, is stolen from the country estate of Lord Halifax, Scotland Yard asks Joanna, Dr. John Watson, Jr., and Dr. John Watson, Sr. to use their keen detective skills to participate in the hunt for the missing treaty. As the government becomes more restless to find the missing document and traditional investigative means fail to turn up the culprit, Joanna is forced to devise a clever plan to trap the thief and recover the missing treaty.
Told from the point of view of Dr. John Watson, Jr. in a style similar to the original Sherlock Holmes stories, A Study in Treason is based partly on facts in our world and partly on the facts left to us by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Full of excitement and intrigue, this mystery is sure to be enjoyed by fans of Sherlock Holmes as well as the works of Laurie R. King and Charles Finch
About Leonard Goldberg
Leonard Goldberg is an American physicist, professor of medicine, and the author of the Joanna Blalock series of medical thrillers.
His novels have been translated into a dozen languages and sold more than a million copies worldwide. Leonard Goldberg is himself a consulting physician affiliated with the UCLA Medical Center, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine. A sought-after expert witness in medical malpractice trials, he is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and rheumatology, and has published over a hundred scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals.
Leonard Goldberg’s writing career began with a clinical interest in blood disorders. While involved in a research project at UCLA, he encountered a most unusual blood type. The patient’s red blood cells were O-Rh null, indicating they were totally deficient in A, B and Rh factors and could be administered to virtually anyone without fear of a transfusion reaction. In essence, the patient was the proverbial “universal” blood donor. This finding spurred the idea for a story in which an individual was born without a tissue type, making that person’s organs transplantable into anyone without worry of rejection. His first novel, Transplant, revolved around a young woman who is discovered to be a universal organ donor and is hounded by a wealthy, powerful man in desperate need of a new kidney. The book quickly went through multiple printings and was optioned by a major Hollywood studio.
Dr. Goldberg is a native of Charleston and a long-time California resident. He currently divides his time between Los Angeles and an island off the coast of South Carolina.
Weekly Recap #57: Week of 6/10 – 6/16
/24 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
Happy Father’s Day weekend to all who are celebrating! I’ll be keeping this post short and sweet since I’m taking a break from our Father’s Day activities to write it. We’re celebrating not only Father’s Day but also my son graduating from elementary school this past week. He finished up with straight A’s and achievement awards in Math and Social Studies. so we’re very proud of him.
Aside from that it has been a fairly quiet week. I took off 2 1/2 days from work this week and was thrilled to have good enough weather to actually get outside and enjoy my days off. We’re in the midst of a major landscaping project at the moment and have ripped out all of the overgrown bushes that were planted in front of our house. It looks naked out there now as we decide what we’re planting in their place, but the bushes were just so out of control that they had to go. As we learned when we pulled them up, they also had snakes (yes, plural) living under them. We think they were baby copperheads but regardless, I don’t do snakes so they had to go. Once we finish our new planting, we’ll also be painting our shutters and doors a new color. Nothing screams I’m middle aged like being super excited to put shutters and doors, right? LOL!
I didn’t get quite as much reading done this week as I had hoped with those days off, so A Boy Made of Blocks and Letting Go of Gravity are still on my TBR. I did start A Boy Made of Blocks last night though so I’m hoping to get through both of these and at least one more during the upcoming week.
I think that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week! 🙂
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [10 Jun] Weekly Recap #56: Week of 6/3 – 6/9
- [11 Jun] Little Big Love by Katy Regan ★★★★
- [12 Jun] Top Ten Tuesday, the Wanderlust edition: Top 10 Books That Make Me Want to Pack a Bag & Grab My Passport
- [13 Jun] Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on THE POINT by John Dixon
- [15 Jun] Furyborn by Claire Legrand ★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM