Welcome back, everyone!
I surprisingly only have one non-fiction recommendation. I can hardly believe it. However, I have two mysteries below and they are very different from one another.
Any recommendations you’d like to pass along? Leave a comment below!
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Colton Gentry’s Third Act
For readers who prefer their romantic plots to be fraught with emotions! An aging country music star moves back to his hometown to deal with his grief.
“A story of love, healing, and second chances ” (Emily Henry) following a down on his luck country musician who, in the throes of grief after a shocking loss, moves back home and rekindles a relationship with his high school sweetheart, from award-winning author Jeff Zentner.
Colton Gentry is riding high. His first hit in nearly a decade has caught fire, he’s opening for country megastar Brant Lucas, and he’s married to one of the hottest acts in the country. But he’s hurting. Only a few weeks earlier, his best friend, Duane, was murdered onstage by a mass shooter at a country music festival. One night, with his trauma festering and Jim Beam flowing through his veins, Colton stands before a sold-out arena crowd of country music fans and offers his unfiltered opinion on guns. It goes over poorly.
Immediately, his career and marriage implode. Left with few choices or funds, he retreats to his rural Kentucky hometown. He’s resigned himself to has-been-dom, until a chance encounter at his town’s new farm-to-table restaurant gives him a second shot at a job working in the kitchen with Luann, his first love, who has undergone her own reinvention. Told through perspectives alternating between his senior year of high school, his time coming up with Duane as hungry musicians in Nashville, and the present, COLTON GENTRY’S THIRD ACT is a story of coming home, undoing past heartbreaks, and navigating grief, and is a reminder that there are next acts in life, no matter how unlikely they may seem.
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Glamorous Notions
If you read and enjoyed Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews and love an Old Hollywood setting, check this one out.
A costume designer’s past casts a long shadow over her well-constructed lies in this intriguing story about stolen identities, friendship, and betrayal from the author of A Splendid Ruin and A Dangerous Education.
Hollywood, 1955. As head costume designer for Lux Pictures, Lena Taylor hears startling confessions from the biggest movie stars. She knows how to keep their secrets—after all, none of their scandals can match her own.
Lena was once Elsie Gruner, the daughter of an Ohio dressmaker. Her gift for fashion design helped her win a coveted spot at an art academy in Rome. While in Italy, she became enthralled by the charismatic Julia, who drew her into a shadowy world of jazz clubs, code words, and mysterious deliveries. When one of Julia’s intrigues ended in murder, Elsie found herself in the middle of a bewildering sinister international plot. So she ran.
After fleeing to LA, Elsie became Lena—but she’s never stopped looking over her shoulder. Now, as her engagement to a screenwriter throws her into the spotlight, she’s terrified her façade won’t hold up. Will she figure out the truth about her past before everything falls apart?
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Inventing the Renaissance
This was another Kelly Faircloth IG recommendation. If you aren’t following her yet, I highly suggest it.
An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age.
From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian Ada Palmer. In Inventing the Renaissance, Palmer turns her witty and irreverent eye on the fantasies we’ve told ourselves about Europe’s not-so-golden age, myths she sets right with sharp clarity.
Palmer’s Renaissance is altogether desperate. Troubled by centuries of conflict, she argues, Europe looked to a long-lost Roman Empire (even its education practices) to save them from unending war. Later historians met their own political challenges with a similarly nostalgic vision, only now they looked to the Renaissance and told a partial story. To right this wrong, Palmer offers fifteen provocative portraits of Renaissance men and women (some famous, some obscure) whose lives reveal a far more diverse, fragile, and wild Renaissance than its glowing reputation suggests.
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Three Bags Full
We’ve had a string of mysteries with animal POVs lately and this mystery (originally published in German) is getting a fancy new US paperback release. Apparently an adaptation with Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson is in the works. Will they be voicing the sheep?
This funny, surprising, and internationally bestselling mystery features a new breed of detectives you’ve got to read to baaaaa-lieve.
The deluxe edition paperback will feature bonus content and hits shelves 20 years after its original release.
Something is not right with George the shepherd. His sheep have gathered around him on a hill outside the cozy Irish village of Glennkill to assess the situation. George has cared for the sheep, reading them books every night, and now he lies pinned to the ground with a spade. His flock, far savvier about the workings of the human mind than your average sheep, set out to find George’s killer, led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world).
Her team of investigators includes Othello, the “bad-boy” of the group; Mopple the Whale, a merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a thoughtful, if gloomy, ewe—just to name a few. Together, the sheep engage in nightlong discussions about the crime and their speculations vary wildly. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, they embark on furtive missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. There’s Ham, the terrifying butcher; Rebecca, the secretive village newcomer; Gabriel, the shady shepherd of a strange flock; and Father Will, a sinister priest.
With wit and heart, this clever international bestseller is a mystery to chew on—and savor.
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
I used to travel around working on sheep farms (I have made a lot of terrible decisions in my life) and I am having a difficult time envisioning sheep detectives. They are really quite phenomenally stupid. But curious. And guaranteed to go where one wishes they wouldn’t. Oh god, I have to know. I’ve put a hold on it. Look, I said sheep were phenomenally stupid – and they truly, truly are. I never meant to imply I was any better.
@kkw: Please report back!
@kkw
My dad grew up on a sheep ranch, and told us stories when we were growing up of how dumb they were – like fall over and then forget they could stand up kind of dumb. That being said, I read this book and really enjoyed it! The sheep are smart in some ways and completely not smart in others, but their questions and assumptions about how people think are quite funny. And I love when they talk about their work (eating grass) and how it went that day and how well certain of them did or didn’t do, made me smile 🙂
I ADORED Miss Maple and her flock of sheep. I stumbled on the audiobook at the library a while back and pre-ordered this new edition. The different sheep personalities are endearing as well as their perspective. For example: they don’t understand why humans ‘plant’ people in the ground like you plant seeds (ie why the graveyard).
The documentary “Let It Snow” says that sheep (in the Alps, at least) get so freaked out and confused when they’re surprised by a snowstorm that their keepers not only have to shovel paths for them but also urge them to actually use the paths.
> To right this wrong, Palmer offers fifteen provocative portraits of Renaissance men and women
This made me think this was one of those books where the author wrote on a handful of topics that interested them and then they (or the publisher) offer it as something more than it is. But after checking reviews and the table of contents, I see that the 15 profiles are only 1 section of the book. Phew! Bad blurb!
Jo Walton recommended Inventing the Renaissance in a reading post in Reactor.com. I generally find her reading lists intriguing, as her tastes are extremely eclectic.
I also read Three Bags Full back in the day and found it very entertaining. Not being familiar with sheep, I had no trouble suspending disbelief. Besides, a book wherein a species considered terminally stupid works together to solve the mystery should be considered a comfort, no?
Three Bags Full is delightful and well-done! Highly recommend.
I’ve also worked with sheep (free housing at University to live and work on the sheep farm) but I love them. I also worked on the pig farm at the same time, and I very much appreciated how easy sheep are to move compared to pigs. You get one sheep going in the right direction, and the rest will follow. Plus they were much lighter so easier to lift 🙂
I will be reading about sheep detectives, for sure!
I have placed a hold on Three Bags Full because I am intrigued. But also, I cannot stop thinking of the book Sheep in a Jeep that I used to read to my kids.
I am halfway through Inventing the Renaissance and it’s a delight to read. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish before my library wanted the ebook back for the next person to read, so I have to wait to finish it. I have put a hold on the sheep mystery though.
@Karen D ~ Sheep in a Jeep was well loved here!