"In Memoriam" by Alice Winn (re-read)

I haven't been able to stop thinking about "In Memoriam" -- the debut novel by Alice Winn, who was not yet 30 when she wrote it (!) --  and wanting to talk about it with other readers, since I first read it almost three (!) years ago. (Dh also read it, at my behest, and agreed with me that it was a wonderful book.)  It was probably my favourite book that I read that year and, three years after its release, it's still rated very highly (average 4.49 stars) on Goodreads.

So I'm happy to be sharing it with the other members of my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. as our selection for August  (Here's hoping they agree too!)  

"In Memoriam" is the story of two teenaged boys, Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt, and what happens to them and their friends from Preshute (a traditional upper-class English boarding school) when the First World War breaks out in 1914.  The two harbour secret, unrequited passions for each other, at a time and place when same-sex "crushes" were tolerated in the school environment, but homosexuality was a crime in broader society. 

Ellwood is Jewish, handsome and romantic, a budding poet who quotes Tennyson, Shakespeare and Keats at every opportunity. Gaunt is more repressed and introverted, and tormented by his feelings for Ellwood.  Pressured by his family  -- originally from Germany -- to demonstrate their patriotism by enlisting, and confronted by a young woman who hands him a white feather (a symbol of cowardice, presented to young men not in uniform), Gaunt signs up -- followed by Ellwood, and many of their other young classmates.  

None of them has any idea of what they're about to endure. 

This is (still) not an easy book to read.  The carnage of the Great War is graphically described, and horrifying to read about. The casualty lists and "In Memoriams" in the school newspaper, the Preshutian, are still hard to read... such a horrible waste of young life. The toll the war takes on the survivors (those who fought, and those at home) is also hard to read about. 

But it's still incredibly powerful and moving book, on second reading. (Kleenex was still needed.) 

This time around, I found myself taking greater note of the character of Maud, Gaunt's younger sister, a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) hospital volunteer, who is (also!) in love with Ellwood. Although she only plays a supporting role here, she was one reason why I thought this book might be of interest to the group. I was reminded of the book "Singled Out" by Virginia Nicholson (which Winn mentions in the end notes) -- reviewed here, also worth a read.  

I also noticed more clearly this time around how the author used various representative characters to explore some very 21st century themes (outside of Gaunt & Ellwood's forbidden love):  Gaunt's Indian friend Gideon Devi (racism), Ellwood (anti-Semitism), Hayes (class prejudices -- on both sides of the divide), Maud (feminism). Perhaps it was a little obvious, and a little unrealistic that  people within the book would be so understanding/accepting of these things in the early 20th century? (Or maybe they were, and we just haven't heard as much about it?)

(I also noticed the author giving a shoutout to Yael van der Wouden, among other writers who inspired and supported her. Van der Wouden is the author of the more recent novel "The Safekeep" -- reviewed here -- which is also about the trauma of war and its aftermath, and forbidden love.) 

My original review (posted here) gave this book 4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads, "because I really did think it was a wonderful book."  That rating still stands.    

This was Book #13 read to date in 2026 (and Book #3 finished in June), bringing me to 33% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"The Hacienda" by Isabel Canas

"The Hacienda," the first novel by Isabel Canas, is the July selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club.

Beatriz's father was killed during the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21), and she and her mother had to flee their home as it was being torched.  Dependent on the begrudging charity of relatives since then, Beatriz marries Rodolfo, whose family's hacienda, San Isidro, offers the kind of security she craves. 

But Rodolfo is away for long stretches of time -- and San Isidro is not the haven Beatriz imagined.  Someone -- or something -- does not want her there. Desperate for help, she turns to a sympathetic young priest -- who is not quite what he seems either...   

A few Goodreads reviews described this one as " "Rebecca" meets Mexican Gothic."  I've never read any "Mexican Gothic," and horror/supernatural themes are generally not my kind of reading fare.  I will admit I found some of the "haunted house" elements a bit over the top, and the "forbidden romance" trope pretty predictable. 

On the plus side, I did find the historical/cultural context interesting. There's not a very large Latino presence in Canada (although it's been growing in recent years, certainly in the Toronto area), and I don't know as much about the culture as I would if I grew up in, say, Texas or California. (I suspect that what I do know has been absorbed mostly from Hollywood...!)  And despite my reservations about the plot, I did keep turning the pages...!  

If you like this sort of book, and enjoy a good scare, you will probably enjoy this one (its current average rating on Goodreads is a solid 3.84 stars out of 5, and 3.91 on StoryGraph).  As I said, however, not really my thing.   

3 stars. 

Content warning:  Abortion subplot involving a minor character. 

This was Book #11 read to date in 2026 (and Book #1 finished in June), bringing me to 28% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley (re-read)

I was tickled when my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club co-host read "The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley -- one of my favourite books from last year -- and agreed with me that it would be a great choice for the group!  It's our June book (and I hope our fellow members agree with us!).  I recently re-read it in preparation for our discussions. 

I've always loved time travel themes in books and other media, and this is a quirky mixture of genres and themes that include (yes) time travel but also romance, science fiction, history (Canadian history, at that!), social commentary and ethical dilemmas, as well as a healthy dose of comedy/humour.   

The young female narrator -- known to us only as "the bridge" -- is a civil servant who gets promoted to work on a top-secret project involving a mysterious "door" that makes time travel possible. Using the door, the Ministry of Time has extracted a small group of "expats" -- people from various eras across British history, who were on the verge of an untimely death -- and brought them into present day to observe. As a "bridge," our narrator serves as an observer as well as a live-in guide/interpreter to life in modern-day London for one of the expats -- Commander Graham Gore (a real-life person!), who died (in one version of history, anyway...!) in 1847 in the Arctic while serving on the doomed Franklin Expedition. 

Despite their vastly different backgrounds, it's no surprise when this odd couple eventually falls in love.  Midway through the book, however, the book shifts into thriller territory, and the tone becomes increasingly tense. Plot twist follows plot twist follows plot twist. The ending is slightly ambiguous, which I don't mind, but I know drives some people nuts.  ;)  

It might also irk some readers that (as I noted in my original review), "there's a lot about the whole time travel project, its purpose and its goals, and how time travel actually works, that's rather vague -- we just have to accept what we're told and go with the flow of the story --  especially in the final chapters."  T

Nevertheless, despite its flaws, I enjoyed this book immensely, as much the second time around as the first. My original review from last October rated it 4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads, and I'm keeping those ratings this time around too. 

The BBC is working on a six-part adaptation, written by Alice Birch, who also adapted Sally Rooney's novel "Normal People" (another favourite of mine -- both book and TV adaptation). Filming is scheduled to begin later this year, and I will look forward to watching it someday!  

This was Book #10 read to date in 2026 (and Book #2 finished in May), bringing me to 25% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"The Bandit Queens" by Parini Shroff

I just finished "The Bandit Queens" by Parini Shroff, the May selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. It's been recommended to me by a couple of other childless women and book review sites.  

Reading it, I was vaguely reminded of "How To Kill Your Family" by Bella Mackie, another book club selection from earlier this year.  Both are darkly funny novels about women murdering despicable family members. 

Geeta's no-good husband Ramesh disappeared five years ago -- and now everyone in the village thinks she killed him. They also think that she's a witch.  (As if they needed further proof of that, Geeta is childless.)  

But although Geeta is shunned and isolated, the villagers are also afraid enough of provoking her displeasure to support her small business, making wedding jewelry.  (She's saving money to buy herself a refrigerator.)  Geeta received money to fund her work from a local microlender, which brings her into regular contact with other women in the village who are part of her lending circle -- all mothers who talk endlessly about their children (hmmm, this sounds familiar...). The women meet each week to make payments on their loans and keep each other accountable:  if one person doesn't pay up, the others will be on the hook for the money.  

Then, one by one, other women in the circle start enlisting Geeta's help to kill their own husbands (!). Moreover, some of them are using blackmail to get her to do it.  I'm sure it's not a spoiler to say there are complications...!  

Interwoven throughout the narrative is the story of Phoolan Devi, "the Bandit Queen," who is something of an inspiration and role model to Geeta.  I thought Devi was a mythical or historical figure, but (as the author's note at the end of the book reveals) she was actually a real-life figure, born in 1963 (just a few years after me!) into a poor, low-caste family. In a nutshell, Devi was famous as a bandit-turned-politician (!) who punished the men who abused her. She was assassinated in 2001 at age 37.   

As in "How to Kills Your Family," the violence made me a bit queasy at times (both the murders and the domestic violence some of the men inflicted on their wives and others).  The book was also a sobering reminder of the poverty and extreme patriarchy some women continue to live under. It was a little long, and I had to stop from time to time to look up unfamiliar Indian terms.

But I loved how the women ultimately set aside their differences and came together to support each other and advocate for change and justice in their community. As the NoMo Book Club said in their Goodreads review of this book:  

Ultimately, the takeaway message from the book is that the unbearable burdens of life are made tolerable by the comradeship that can be found within true female friendship. Once the women stop turning on each other, but stand as a unified whole, they are an unstoppable force - something that any non-mother who has known the strength of joining a community of other childless women can understand all too well.

And I enjoyed the humour that helped to alleviate some of the tension. There were some truly ridiculous situations depicted (I could picture them like a movie in my mind), and some lines that made me chuckle (or laugh out loud outright). For example:  

• "Never send a god to do a goddess's job."
• "We can't just knock off everyone we don't like. This isn't Indian Idol." 
• "Shooting people makes me a don; killing a dog just makes me a psychopath.” (The dog doesn't get killed, although animal abuse and its effects are briefly depicted earlier in the book.)   
• "We’re happy to be accessories. Like jewelry, but way more dangerous." 

The last few chapters were tense -- but the last line of the book left me with a smile on my face.  : ) 

4 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph. 

Shroff's next novel, "Some People" will be released in July. 

I was interested to learn that Shroff is/was a student and protegee of Elizabeth McCracken, who wrote one of my all-time favourite pregnancy loss memoirs, "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" (which I wrote about here as part of Mel's Barren B*tches Book Club), which contains one of my all-time favourite lines:  "Closure is bullshit."  

This was Book #7 read to date in 2026 (and Book #1 finished in April), bringing me to 18% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind schedule to meet my goal.  :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"You Are Here" by David Nicholls (re-read)

The April book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club is one of my recent favourites, and one I thought would be perfect for the group: "You Are Here" by David Nicholls, who's written several other books I've enjoyed. I first read this one in June/July 2024 (reviewed here).  

Our main characters are two lonely, awkward people: geography teacher Michael, 42, has recently separated from his wife (Natasha), and is avoiding their empty home in York by taking longer and longer solo walks in the English countryside.  By contrast, Marnie, 38, a freelance editor and proofreader who works from home, spends her days holed up in her small London apartment, increasingly isolated since the departure of her husband Neil, as well as the pandemic lockdowns. All her friends are married and busy with their families. (Hmm, this sounds familiar...) 

Both Marnie and Michael are invited by their mutual friend Cleo to accompany her and a group of friends to hike a section of the Coast-to-Coast Walk through the scenic English countryside. Michael agrees -- but he intends to keep walking the entire 192 miles -- a journey that will take about 10 days to complete (and will end close to where Natasha is now living).  And Marnie finds herself deciding to walk "just one more day" along with him -- day after day after day...  

It's obvious these two are destined to fall in love (despite Cleo's plans to matchmake them both with other members of the group!). But there are plenty of twists and turns and unexpected stumbles and disappointments and discoveries along the way.  

I loved following Michael and Marnie on their journey together (physical and otherwise).  (I imagine there's been an uptick in people walking this trail since the book came out -- and I think a movie, properly done and filmed on location, would be wonderful!)  I loved that Marnie was an editor/proofreader (echoes of my previous life in the corporate world...), and some of her observations about the job made me laugh out loud.  :) 

And as someone who is childless not by choice, I very much appreciated the revelations that both Marnie and Michael are too.  As I said in my original review, "This is one of those rare novels where we CNBCers see our stories clearly and sympathetically reflected." Beyond the childless angle, it was nice to see two middle-aged characters gradually awakening to the possibility of second chances and new possibilities. 

My original rating for this book stands -- 4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #3 read to date in 2026 (and Book #2 finished in February), bringing me to 8% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott (re-read)

"Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott is the February choice for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. I first read this book in November 2023, when Lyz Lenz (an ex-wife herself) chose it for the book club she ran as part of her Men Yell at Me Substack newsletter (which has since moved over to Patreon). You can find my original review here (which includes more background and some interesting links about the book & the author).  . 

I'd never heard of this book, but it was a best-seller when it was first published -- anonymously -- in 1929, and actually more successful at the time than "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald!  It was republished in 1989, and again more recently, along with a new biography of Parrott, "Becoming the Ex-Wife" by Marsha Gordon. 

The plot:  Patricia and her husband Peter, both in their early/mid-20s, live and work in New York City. They have a busy social life, and an open marriage -- but when Patricia sleeps with Peter's friend, he (hypocritically) calls her a slut and leaves her for another woman. Patricia moves in with another "ex-wife," Lucia, and embarks on a life filled with parties, cocktails, speakeasies and men, all the while hoping to win Peter back. 

"Ex-Wife" is both dated -- a portrait of a very specific time and place -- and yet strangely familiar to modern readers.(In some ways, it made me think of "Sex and the City."). It was considered shocking/scandalous in 1929, with its frank depictions of "career women" indulging in smoking, drinking, extra-marital sex and one-night stands, as well as miscarriage and baby loss, abortion, rape and domestic violence. It won't appeal to everyone, but it's worth a read if you're interested in the period, or in forgotten/ignored books written by female authors, showing the complexities of women's lives. I appreciated the honest portrayal of a woman learning to roll with the unexpected punches of life, and the way the women support each other throughout the book. And, needless to say, the story of a woman who is suddenly faced with rebuilding her life and finding new meaning and purpose, certainly resonated with me!  

3.5 stars on StoryGraph, and (after some internal debate) rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. 

ALI alert: abortion, baby loss and coping with other women's pregnancies. 

This was Book #1 read to date in 2026 (and Book #1 finished in January), bringing me to 3% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"How to Kill Your Family" by Bella Mackie

Reading a book with the provocative title "How to Kill Your Family" (by Bella Mackie), while spending two weeks mostly housebound with two demanding elderly parents who adore watching annoying game shows (!) (plus my sister and her partner, on & off), in frigid Manitoba, might not have been the best choice (lololol...). But it's the January pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club, and I decided to get a head start! 

Our narrator, Grace Bernard, breezily admits to killing six members of her extended family -- and getting away with it. But she's still in prison -- for a murder she did NOT commit.  The book bounces back in forth in time, from the present (Grace in prison, awaiting an appeal), and the past (why Grace decided to murder her relatives, and how she carried out each crime). 

I'll admit, Grace's family seemed pretty despicable, for the most part, and I can understand her motivation.  But that's still no excuse for murder.  And the details were sometimes a bit gruesome. I was thinking 3 stars, maybe 3.5, as a rating.  

BUT!  There's a major, clever plot twist in the last few chapters that redeemed the book for me somewhat, and boosted my rating. 

4 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph.

This was Book #37 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in December), bringing me to ?% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am 6 books behind  schedule to meet my goal (and not likely to do that at this point...!), but this matches my 2025 total of books read, which makes me happy. :)   

You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"I Am Half-Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley

It's always fun to read a Christmas/holiday-themed book during the holiday season... something not too taxing at a busy and sometimes stressful time of year -- and when my co-host at the Childless Collective NoMo Book Club. and I were planning books for the rest of 2025, I thought of "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley, the fourth book in the delightful Flavia de Luce mystery series, for December. We'd read Flavia #1, "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" two years ago  (my review here) and it was very well received. Happily, my co-host agreed it would be a good choice to wind up the year! 

It's Christmastime in early 1950s/post-war Britain, but the festivities this year are somewhat muted: financial precarity has forced Flavia's reluctant father to lease the family's crumbling mansion, Buckshaw, to a film company for a movie shoot -- much to the delight of Flavia and her two sisters.  

The two stars of the movie agree to stage a benefit performance for the local church. Most of the villagers attend -- and, conveniently, get snowed in by a blizzard. While they are trapped in the big house together, there is (of course!) a murder (midway through the book), and Flavia -- a precocious 11-year-old amateur detective and chemist, with a penchant for poison -- goes to work trying to untangle the mystery and identify the killer. Meanwhile, she is determined to solve an even bigger mystery: whether Father Christmas (Santa Claus) is real.

While I would highly recommend reading the entire series -- and while I think you'd probably benefit from reading at least the first book first to acquaint yourself with Flavia, her family and her world -- you could probably read this one as a standalone and still enjoy it. :)  

Weirdly, although I KNOW I've read this book before (and briefly reviewed it on this blog back in January 2012 (!), here), I have no previous record of reading it, on Goodreads. The book came out in 2011, and I did not join Goodreads until 2016, but I did add some books that I'd reviewed on my blog retroactively. Oh well...!  

4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph.  

ALI notes:  I'd forgotten that there's a very pregnant minor character who makes an appearance.  

Also, Flavia recalls impulsively quizzing a childless woman about her lack of children -- and (to her credit) feeling enormously guilty about it afterwards. 

Previous Flavia-related posts here. 

This was Book #35 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in November), bringing me to 78% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman (re-read)

It doesn't seem like that long ago that I read "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman -- maybe because it wasn't (it was in mid-June, 3+ months ago -- my review here).  It's the November book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club, and I decided a re-read was in order to refresh my memory -- especially since I'll be leading the discussion! (Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club book, which just came out -- "The Impossible Fortune" -- has had to wait...!)  

"We Solve Murders" is the first volume in a new series from Osman (he promises there will be more). It's a lot faster-paced/action-oriented than the Thursday Murder Club books -- but still a lot of fun.  The main characters are Amy Wheeler, a professional bodyguard for the rich and famous;  Rosie D'Antonio, an eccentric, best-selling author, and Amy's latest client;  and Amy's father-in-law Steve Wheeler, a widowed, retired police detective, a homebody and creature of habit whose idea of excitement is the weekly quiz night at the local pub and who dotes on a cat named Trouble. (I'll admit that, since a cat -- presumably Trouble -- appears on the book's cover, I expected it to be more of a presence in the book than it was. But, a minor quibble.) 

Amy is holed up on an island off the coast of South Carolina with Rosie, who's been receiving death threats from a Russian oligarch she wrote into one of her latest books.  But now someone is trying to kill Amy too, and implicate her in the murders of several small-scale social media influencers. The only person Amy trusts to help her is Steve. Reluctantly, Steve joins Amy and Rosie in America -- and together, they hop around the globe on Rosie's private jet (!), to St. Lucia, Ireland, England and Dubai (where Amy's husband/Steve's son, Adam, is working), with their mysterious enemies in hot pursuit. 

Even on second reading, knowing the outcome of the story and who was behind the murders, this was a fast, fun read with a lot of memorable major and minor characters, and I still laughed out loud, a lot. It's slightly ridiculous/over-the-top, perhaps, but if you enjoy TTMC, you will likely enjoy this one too.   

(One detail I hadn't noticed, on first reading: Rosie reveals she's English, in the first few pages of the chapter where we meet her. I had pictured her as an American, and had to completely reimagine how I envisioned her, especially her voice...!) 

The TTMC books have been consistent 5 star reads for me. I originally gave this one 4.5 stars on StoryGraph. As I said in my original review, "I debated whether that should be rounded up or down, and decided that while TTMC is still my favourite, this wound up being too irresistible not to give it full props. So, 5 stars on Goodreads." Those ratings still stand.   

ALI/CNBC notes:  Amy & Adam are childfree by choice. Grief/loss is also a theme here (widowed Steve holds regular conversations with his dead wife Debbie). 

This was Book #28 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in October), bringing me to 62% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan

"The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan is the October selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. We read another novel by Sheridan two years ago, "The Fair Botanists" (reviewed here).

Like "The Fair Botanists," "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" is set in Victorian-era Scotland -- (mostly) Glasgow, 1846 -- and involves the stories of two women from very different backgrounds:  Ellory Mann, a working-class girl who -- thanks to a generous benefactor -- leaves her job as a photographer's assistant in Edinburgh and comes to Glasgow to set up shop for herself;  and Charlotte Nicholl, the sheltered daughter of a Glasgow businessman, who is left alone in a big house on Blythswood Square -- and less well off than she anticipated -- after he dies.  

The book includes some familiar cliches -- with a few twists. For one thing, there are quite a few decidedly un-Victorian characters and attitudes portrayed.  The two unconventional and independent protagonists, for example, may not be typical of women of this period -- but they do make for a good story, overall. ;)  There's a large cast of supporting characters, whose storylines all become intertwined with Charlotte's & Ellory's, including real-life American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who spent time in the United Kingdom, speaking out against slavery. There's also Ellory's assistant-turned-model, Jane;   a mysterious stranger who shows up at Charlotte's father's funeral, an actress, her gay dresser, a father-son team of lawyers, and a very proper neighbour who tries to take charge of Charlotte's life. 

There's a plot twist relatively early on -- a discovery that Charlotte makes about her father -- that I did not see coming (despite the "scandal" hinted at in the cover blurb!). The plot becomes increasingly complex, and it seems like everyone is keeping secrets from each other. I did guess one of the other plot twists, near the end of the book, as well as another twist revealed in the closing pages. Despite the cliches, the writing is good, the characters (while perhaps unrealistically modern in some ways) are interesting and overall, the book held my attention, especially the further I got into it. 

The author has done her research:  in an afterword, she reveals what was real in the book, what wasn't, and what was fiction but inspired by real-life people and events. 

I gave "The Fair Botanists" a rating of 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 stars on Goodreads. Initially, I gave this book the same, but after sleeping on it, I've decided to upgrade the Goodreads rating to 4 stars. :)  

This was Book #27 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in September), bringing me to 60% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands' by Mary Seacole

"Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole -- the September book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club -- was first published in 1857. It was out of print for decades, but was rediscovered and republished in 1984. My Penguin Books edition was published in 2005, edited with an introduction by Sara Salih -- who, I was amused to read, is/was an assistant professor at the University of Toronto! My copy also contained a lot of helpful explanatory footnotes, and an appendix of contemporary news articles about Mrs. Seacole. 

Mrs. Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Scottish father and Creole mother. Her marriage was a short one, ending in her husband's death. She later went into business with one of his relatives (a certain "Mr. Day," about whom she doesn't have much to say -- and I would have loved to know more about the exact nature of their relationship...!). 

At a time when women lived rather restricted, sheltered lives, she had a zest for travel and adventure, and was trotting around the globe -- often unescorted -- back and forth from Jamaica to Panama, England and the Crimea (during the Crimean War!), running hotels/dining rooms, stores and other businesses, providing food and drinks and nursing the sick and wounded (on and off the battlefield), and even prospecting for gold. I found the Crimean War chapters particularly interesting -- I don't know a lot about that particular conflict (perhaps British readers would know more than those of us in North America?) -- but I learned, a few years back, that my great-great-grandmother's older brother served there and died in a hospital in Scutari -- perhaps the one run by the famous Florence Nightingale, described here. 

Not all of Mrs. Seacole's adventures were "wonderful," although she tends to put a positive spin on her experiences, and glosses over or omits certain parts of her story altogether.  There is illness and injury, and distressing descriptions of violence and death, including the deaths of children. Some of the conditions she lived in were pretty primitive -- the passage where she describes eating exotic animals during her time in Panama gave me pause...!  And while her business flourished as the war raged on, it collapsed into bankruptcy after the armistice was signed and the soldiers began returning home to Britain. The book appears to have been part of an effort to raise money to support her in her "old age," including a fund set up and donated to by some of the officers she had served. 

The somewhat florid and self-effacing Victorian prose may be a little challenging for some modern readers, although it's not an overly difficult read. The attitudes and language of the day -- racist, colonialist, nationalist, sexist -- are reflected both casually and overtly in Mrs. Seacole's words, attitudes, experiences and memories (particularly in the first part of the book). Be forewarned: the infamous "N word" makes a few appearances. There is some pronatalism too: although she had no children herself, she regarded the soldiers she nursed as her "sons," and many of them referred to her as "Aunty" and "Mother Seacole." Her dislike of the Americans she encounters in Panama is abundantly clear, and she dubs her Jewish Greek guide "Jew Johnny" (!) (although she also calls him "the best and faithfullest servant I had in the Crimea").  

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Mrs. Seacole's obvious zest for life and adventure, and her apparent ability to roll with the punches and deal with whatever challenges life presented her. She was quite an amazing lady, and she's regarded as a national heroine in Jamaica today. It's fascinating to learn more about these unsung/forgotten figures from the past, and I am glad this book was rediscovered for us to learn from and enjoy. 

3.5 stars on StoryGraph. I struggled with the question of whether to round that up or down on Goodreads;  I initially gave it 4 stars there but changed the rating to 3 stars after sleeping on it. ;)  An interesting and entertaining read overall, although not without its flaws. 

This was Book #24 read to date in 2025 (and Book #3 finished in August), bringing me to 53% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" by Olga Tokarczuk

The August choice for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club is "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" -- a somewhat quirky/offbeat noir-ish mystery/thriller by Olga Tokarczuk (translated from the original Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), first published in 2009. 

Janina Duszejko leads a reclusive life in a remote corner of Poland near the Czech border, eking out a living by taking care of the summer cottages in the area during the winter months for their wealthy owners in the city, and teaching English one day a week to the local students. She also studies astrology and plots out horoscopes for the people around her, and is helping a former student translate the works of William Blake into Polish. And she's a passionate advocate for vegetarianism, animals and nature. The locals regard her as a bit of a crank, and she's a thorn in the side of the local hunting community.  

Then one of Janina's neighbours dies under mysterious circumstances -- and then another, and another. Janina has her own theories about who (or rather what) dunnit -- but can she get anyone to listen to her?   

I'll be honest, I didn't quite know what to make of this book or how to rate it -- although there was a lot I liked about it.  The writing/translation was vivid and evocative. The setting seemed oddly familiar to me (as a Ukrainian-Canadian who grew up in isolated rural areas with seasonal cottages and harsh winters, often near the U.S.-Canada border -- minus the mountains, lol).  And I liked that Janina is a strong, independent, older female character -- although she's rather prickly and might be "difficult" to have around as a neighbour...!  (Even so, it was maddening to see the patronizing way she was treated by the local authorities.)  People address her as "Mrs. Duszejko" but there's no mention of a a husband. She does talk about her "Little Girls" throughout the book -- and it took me a while to realize she was referring to her dogs, not children (there's the pronatalist influence for you...!)(although we do specifically choose books for the club where motherhood/children are not a focus). 

As an English major at university, I took a course on the Romantic poets, where I remember studying some William Blake -- although I remember very little about it. I did find Janina's random capitalization of certain words (somewhat like a certain U.S. President, unfortunately...!) rather annoying. And while I respect Janina's concern for animal rights and her revulsion for hunters and hunting -- and share some of those feelings, to a point -- I did find her views on the extreme side.  (I grew up in areas where hunting was common -- several of my uncles hunted, although my dad never did -- but I will admit I could not and cannot relate to their enthusiasm for it at all, and being around guns, even when they're hanging on a rack on the wall, makes me extremely nervous.) 

3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 4 stars (after some internal debate...!)  on Goodreads. 

This was Book #23 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in August), bringing me to 51% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"Rules for Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane

"Rules for Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane is the July pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. It will be deeply relevant to many women without children, who experience what Jody Day has called a "friendship apocalypse" when their friends start having babies and life paths begin to diverge sharply. It's a book about friendship, family, trees and gardening, and the lingering impact of traumatic loss and grief.   

The premise: May Attaway -- a single, 40-year-old gardener and landscape designer, who lives at home with her widowed father -- is unexpectedly granted an extra month of vacation time/leave. May has very few friends, and decides to use her vacation time windfall to visit and reconnect with four once-close friends she hasn't seen in many years, who are scattered across the United States and in London, England. Interspersed between the chapters are some beautiful line drawings of various tree species, along with May's descriptions (which really aren't just about the trees). 

It took me a while to get into this book. May's narration is a little flat, especially at first, and takes a little getting used to. But once May began her round of visits, the story started to get more interesting, and all the various plot points came together in a lovely way by the end. I was a little teary by then.  

I'm glad I read this one. A solid 4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph. 

This was Book #17 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in June), bringing me to 38% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"A Burning" by Megha Majumdar

"A Burning" by Megha Majumdar is the June selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. Our main character is Jivan, an ambitious Muslim girl from an urban Indian slum who lives with her parents and works in a clothing store. At the train station one day, she witnesses a terrorist firebomb attack, in which 100 people die. A provocative, anti-government comment about the event on Facebook brings the authorities to her door:  she is dragged off to jail and accused of carrying out the attack herself.  

Two other characters' lives intertwine with Jivan's -- and with her fate -- in ways that become clearer as the story unfolds:  PT Sir, a phys ed teacher at a girls' school, who becomes involved in local politics, and Lovely, a hijra (a trans person who plays a spiritual role in Indian culture), who has been taking English lessons from Jivan and aspires to be an actress. 

I don't want to give away any more than that. 

This is not a book I would likely have picked up on my own. It's a short (a little more than 200 pages), and fast read, narrated in turn by Jivan, Lovely and PT Sir. It's very well written. It keeps you turning the pages, and it packs a powerful punch, especially near the end. 

I appreciated its merits. But I can't say I loved it. 

As a result, I struggled with how to rate this one. I settled on 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #15 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in May), bringing me to 33% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"Can't We Be Friends" by Denny S. Bryce & Eliza Knight

I was just a toddler when Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose of sleeping pills in August 1962  -- but her fame was such that I grew up steeped in her story (the marriages! the Kennedys! "Candle in the Wind by Elton John!). I know I read a few bios of her, way back when, and I've enjoyed some of her classic movies, including "Bus Stop," "The Seven-Year Itch," and (especially) "Some Like It Hot."  

Ella Fitzgerald was a presence on many of the TV variety shows that I watched back then (not to mention a memorable TV ad -- "is it live, or is it Memorex?"  lol)  -- but I didn't know a whole lot about her, and I didn't truly appreciate her as an artist until I was in my 20s. In the early 1980s, country/rock singer Linda Ronstadt put on a prom dress and recorded an album of standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra. I loved it!  I used to make fun of my mother's love of Frank Sinatra and other such music of the 1940s and 1950s;  now I gobbled it up too -- and it was during that time that I (re)discovered Ella. Many of her classic "songbooks" (focusing on the works of Gershwin, Cole Porter, etc.) were being reissued at the time, and I bought several albums/cassettes of her solo and duet work. Older Nephew has them all now, of course (and I doubt he's listened to any of those), but I still have a few CDs of her music. The Christmas album in particular still gets played every year.    

"Can't We Be Friends" by Denny S. Bryce & Eliza Knight is a novel about the seemingly unlikely decade-long friendship that sprang up between Marilyn and Ella. It's the May book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club.

I'd seen the famous photo of the two women together, taken when Marilyn came to see Ella perform at a Los Angeles nightclub. But I didn't realize their relationship went beyond that one evening and mutual admiration.  

Despite their very different backgrounds, they actually had a lot in common. (ALI note:) Both women struggled with fertility issues. Marilyn had several pregnancy losses during her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller, and Fitzgerald adopted a son -- who lived with her aunt, because she was frequently on tour. 

Both women also struggled with their romantic relationships -- Monroe's tempestuous relationship with baseball player Joe DiMaggio, as well as her marriage to Miller. Fitzgerald was divorced from Ray Brown, a bassist in pianist Oscar Peterson's jazz trio, and later had a brief marriage to Thor Larsen, a much-younger Norwegian gigolo (!). Both were ambitious and driven in their careers, and both struggled to assert control, in the face of powerful managers, record companies, movie studios and executives.

This was an interesting story, and I learned a lot about both women (Ella in particular, who -- while famous in her own right -- is probably the lesser known of the two). But the writing didn't really grab me. And while the story was certainly based in fact and historical record, and while Ella & Marilyn certainly knew each other, I suspected a lot of it was likely fictionalized/speculation, including (obviously) the private conversations between the two women, Marilyn's poetry and the texts of the letters they wrote to each other -- and the authors confirm this in their afterword. Readers should be aware of this, and take what they read with a large grain of salt. While these things *could* have happened and been true, we will likely never know for sure, and I found it hard to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story for what it was. Maybe it's because the events of the story take place within living memory, and both women are still well remembered. 

Perhaps the book also suffers because we all know what happened to Marilyn. It's sad to watch her decline through Ella's eyes. 

3 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph. 

P.S. Even if you don't read the book, the accompanying playlist on Spotify (!)(including songs by both Ella AND Marilyn!) assembled by the authors is worth a listen! ;)  

This was Book #12 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in April), bringing me to 27% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"The Mermaid of Black Conch" by Monique Roffey

"The Mermaid of Black Conch" by Monique Roffey will be the April pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. Fantasy/mythology/etc. are generally not my thing, so this is not something I would have likely chosen to read on my own.   

April is still several weeks away, but I was trying to decide which book to read next, and opened this one on my e-reader, just to see how long it was and adjust the typeface size to my liking. Before I knew it, I had read an entire chapter, and before the evening was over, I was already through the first 100 pages.  ;)  I finished it in three days (with a few interruptions).        

The story is set primarily in 1976 on a small Caribbean island, and told from the viewpoints of several different characters.  David is out in his small boat, fishing and playing his guitar, when he spots a mermaid watching him (!). Soon, he is coming to visit her and play music for her every day -- until she is caught and reeled in by two American fishermen, who are gleeful at the prospect of the huge sums of money they will get for her.  David comes to her rescue and hides her in his home, intending to return her to the sea -- but before he can do that, she begins to transform back into the human woman she once was. Her name is Aycayia.

Of course, this leads to all sorts of complications, as David falls in love with Aycayia, and more and more people learn his secret...  including his nosy neighbour, Priscilla;  Miss Arcadia Rain, a white woman whose family has owned most of the island for more than 100 years; and Arcadia's young son, Reggie, who is deaf (and whose absent father is David's uncle, Life), and who forms a special friendship with Aycayia.  

This was a fast, lyrical read. Parts of it are written in Caribbean dialect, which might take some getting used to!  There's a cinematic quality to the book:  I could see it like a movie in my head. (And was reminded of other mermaid/sea creature-themed movies I've seen -- "Splash" with Tom Hanks & Daryl Hannah, "The Shape of Water" with Sally Hawkins -- and even "Beach Blanket Bingo" from my childhood,  lol.) 

As I said, it's not my usual kind of reading, but I wound up enjoying this very much (although "enjoy" doesn't seem like quite the right word). It surprised me and touched me.  The way Aycayia was (mis)treated, by both men and women (not all of them, but...), made me sad.  :(   I had tears in my eyes near the end. 

4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 4 for Goodreads.  

This was Book #5 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in February), bringing me to 11% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book ahead of schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"The Mad Women's Ball" by Victoria Mas

My Childless Collective Nomo Book Club will be reading and discussing "The Mad Women's Ball" by Victoria Mas (translated from the original French by Frank Wynne) in March.  

The book is based in fact (!), set at Paris's Salpetriere asylum  in 1885. Some of the women who live there are truly mentally ill -- but many are simply "difficult" -- committed by husbands and families who are regard them as a problem, don't know what to do with them, and are anxious to be rid of them. 

They are hidden away and mostly forgotten by respectable society, with two exceptions:  the regular lectures by Dr. Charcot (a real-life figure), who performs public demonstrations of hypnotism on the patients in front of enthralled (male) audiences -- and the annual Lenten Mad Women's Ball, when the patients are allowed to dress up in costumes and mingle with the citizens of Paris, who have been invited to come gawk at them.  

The main story focuses on two women at the Salpetriere: matron Genevieve, who has shunned religion in favour of science and thrown herself into her work since the death of her beloved younger sister; and rebellious teenager Eugenie, whose family committed her when she told her grandmother that she can see the spirits of dead people. She's determined to escape and find other people who believe as she does (she knows they exist;  she visited a spiritualist bookstore) -- but how?  

This was a relatively short, quick read, with a story that builds steadily to the climactic event:  the Mad Women's Ball.  While it's not a book I would have likely picked up on my own, it was interesting (especially since Salpetriere was a real place, and the plot is loosely based on a true story!), and I enjoyed the characters (some of the secondary ones in particular -- young, naive, abused Louise;  Therese, the former prostitute, who knits shawls for the other patients;  and Eugenie's brother Theophile, who can't shake the guilt he feels for his role in having his sister committed). Still, I felt a certain emotional distance from it all. I'm wondering if the fact that it was translated from the French had something to do with that? 

The book was made into a well-received French movie (available for streaming on Amazon Prime), which had its premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) -- written, directed by and starring Melanie Laurent as Genevieve.  I haven't seen it myself, but I suspect it might make a good movie, perhaps (for once!) even better than the book!  

3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads (after some internal debate).  

This was Book #4 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in February), bringing me to 9% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) on track to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang

"Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang is the February pick for our Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. It's very much a novel of our times.  

June Hayward and Athena Liu met several years ago as students at Yale. Since then, they've both published books, but while Athena is now the darling of the literary world, June is struggling. They're both living in Washington DC now and occasionally hang out together -- and they're in Athena's apartment together when Athena dies in a rather bizarre way (!). Sometime between the arrival of the paramedics and her departure from the apartment, June succumbs to curiosity and temptation, and slips the draft of Athena's just-completed new novel into her bag. 

It's a novel about Chinese labourers on the Western Front during the First World War, and June immediately recognizes its potential. After some edits, she submits it to her agent as her own work -- and it becomes a bestseller, under the culturally ambiguous pen name of Juniper Song (June's real first and second names, courtesy of her hippie parents). 

The book becomes a New York Times bestseller. The fame and fortune is everything June ever dreamed of.  

And then it slowly turns into a nightmare... 

"Yellowface" is brilliantly crafted and well-written (with June as narrator, so we see and experience everything from her perspective). It offers up some dagger-sharp observations about the publishing industry, social media, “cancel culture,” culture wars, cultural appropriation and racism, among other hot topics. As a writer myself (although it's been a very long time since I dabbled in fiction), the parts about writing and the writing process are bang on.  But I'll admit that the moral/ethical dilemmas and ambiguities presented, and the sheer nastiness of the characters (including -- especially?? -- June herself!), left me feeling more than a little queasy! 

I don't want to say too much more -- too many potential spoilers!  But if you're looking for a topical novel that's bound to generate a lot of discussion in your book club, "Yellowface" will do the job!   

I really had to think about how to rate this one, and whether the pros of the novel outweighed the cons.  I've settled on 4 stars. (I think! lol)  

This was Book #3 read to date in 2025 (and Book #3 finished in January), bringing me to 7% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) on track to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"The Windsor Knot" by S.J. Bennett (re-read)

"The Windsor Knot" by S.J. Bennett is the January pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club (previously read in May 2021 and reviewed here).  

At first glance, this book might seem like an odd choice for a group of CHILDLESS woman, looking to read about non-motherhood-related topics and childless/free protagonists.  The Queen, of course, was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother before her death in September 2022 at age 96. However, her new Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, is single and has no children, and plays a pivotal role in helping the Queen with more than just her royal duties -- and I enjoyed focusing a little more on Rozie as I read the book this time around.   

The plot:  It's spring 2016, and Queen Elizabeth II is at Windsor Castle, getting ready to celebrate her 90th birthday, when an overnight guest is found dead in his room. Initially it's thought to be suicide, then an accident (with some kinky overtones) -- but it quickly turns into a murder investigation. Dissatisfied with the direction the investigation is taking, Her Majesty enlists Rozie's help to make some discreet enquiries on her behalf. 

I first read this book shortly after Prince Philip's death in April 2021, which gave his appearances here a special poignancy. (Also making appearances: the Obamas! the corgis!! and plenty of horses. :)  )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book the first time I read it. It's still an engaging read (and I had forgotten a lot!), and I loved the behind-the-scenes glimpses of palace life.  :)  

My original rating of 4 stars (on both Goodreads & StoryGraph) stands.   

This was Book #33 read to date in 2024 (and Book #1 finished in December), bringing me to 73%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 9 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."    

*** *** *** 

There are three other books in this series ("Her Majesty the Queen Investigates") -- so far!  Here are the links to my reviews:  Links to my reviews of previous books in this series: 

• #2:  "All the Queen's Men" (alternate title: "A Three-Dog Problem") 
• #3:  "Murder Most Royal" 
• #4:  "A Death in Diamonds" (which takes place in 1957, early in the Queen's long reign, with a different assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, who is also single and childless).  (The author herself actually popped into the comments on my review to address a complaint I had with this one! -- and I wrote about it in another post, here.)  

A fifth book, "The Queen Who Came in from the Cold,"  set in 1961, is expected to make its debut in February (2025) -- in the U.K., anyway;  North American publication date still to be confirmed. I can't wait!  : )