Turn the Page...Tuesday

It's time!  Time for Turn the Page...Tuesday hosted by the fantabulous Adrienne over at Some of a Kind  ~

Adrienne has been hosting this monthly book party for awhile now but some of us, me, have taken an unplanned blogging break. I'm so excited to join back in and see what everyone else have been reading!  

(pop over to Adrienne's place and join in the fun!)

I went through my April reads and picked my two favorite of the month.  Ready? Here we go!

The Hound of the Baskervilles

~ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I read this one for the April read of my in-real-life book club at Lucy's Books here in town.   This was actually my pick and voted on by the other members of the group.  I had realized one day that I had never read a Sherlock Holmes so I threw my suggestion in the hat with the others and it was picked! Yay!

I can't believe it took me 47 years to read a Sherlock Holmes book. Crazy. I enjoyed it too no end. Such fun characters and the mystery was super fun as well.  I thought I had it figured out but my hunch was just a hunch and I was wrong...wahoo!  (I like to be wrong in instances like this!)  I will be reading the other Sherlock stories soon!

From Goodreads:

Holmes and Watson are faced with their most terrifying case yet. The legend of the devil-beast that haunts the moors around the Baskerville families home warns the descendants of that ancient clan never to venture out in those dark hours when the power of evil is exalted. Now, the most recent Baskerville, Sir Charles, is dead and the footprints of a giant hound have been found near his body. Will the new heir meet the same fate?

The Lace Reader

~by Brunonia Barry

My sister sent me this book awhile back and it's been hanging around on my to-be-read shelves all that time.  It's not that I wasn't interested, I really really was, but my stacks are so big!  Full of fabulous reading material that is calling me. It's so hard to choose!    The Lace Reader finally made it's way to the top of the stack and I loved it!!

This is another one where I absolutely didn't see the ending coming. I was really confused for a few minutes at some conversations that happened close to the end of the book.  Usually I have a inkling of what is going on but this one totally took me by surprise. (again, I like that!  Really makes for a good book when the twist isn't so predictable!).  

This book is set in Salem, Massachusetts.  Towner Whitney has been gone for many years and has returned when her adored aunt has disappeared. When she comes back into town, before reaching the house, the author does a wonderful job of describing the sites and sounds. It is clear that the protagonist is returning home, instead of just a description of a town that doesn't hold in memories or emotions for her.  What was also more than cool, is the fact that my husbands 9th Great-Grandfather, Roger Conant, was the founder of Salem.  The statue of him that stands in the town square was mentioned several times. (Funny too!  The author puts a disclaimer in the back that Roger was never in peril of being removed from his podium due to lewd behavior! You have to read that book to know what I'm talking about. Very funny!)

Roger Conant ~ 1592 to 1679

Anyway, back to where we were going.   I really liked Towner and could see that we would be friends. She was unreliable, troubled, strange, and had a bit of supernatural abilities.  I would hang out with her. 

Towner came back to Salem to help find her aunt and in the process uncovered all kinds of family secrets.  Good story.  Goodreads can tell you better.  Here's what they have to say:

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light.

The Lace Reader is a mesmerizing tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."

What have you been reading?  Good stuff I hope!  

Here I am on Goodreads if you would like to see what else I'm reading.

Have a great day!