From the library, lately: July round up

I need to get cracking on my August books but the blueberries and raspberries are ripe so I've been playing outside.

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

This was part of Overdrive's Big Library Read but I didn't clue into the BLR until the last day the download was available. The premise is bizarre, like something a marketer dreamed up. As in, people love Downton Abbey and also Blacklist, let's put them together. There's also time travel and DNA splicing. I'm not ashamed to admit I enjoyed it and would read the next one but I'm just not sure there will be one given that it came out as an ebook only.

Before The Fall by Noah Hawley
This was one of those Book of the Month selections from July. I was on the list at the library but ended up purchasing via Bookbub. At first I has a difficult time because some of the characters were so unlikable, but eventually I just decided they were supposed to be. Also, I have a really hard time with modern aggressively hyper - masculine financial types...which is why my husband said I didn't need to watch Wall Street. Anyway, the book was great! The structure of the story just built and built to the final reveal. It would not surprise me if they made this into a movie or TV show.

Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler

Loved this and it made me immediately want to read more about Zelda Fitzgerald. This kind of story makes history come alive for me. If you enjoyed The Paris Wife or Midnight in Paris and think Hemmingway is a jerk you would like this one. 

The Shoemaker's Wife  by Adriana Trigiani

My first Adriana Trigiani and for sure not my last. I love this story! It gave me the same feels as the movie Brooklyn which is far and away the best movie I had seen in years. For sure better than Jason Bourne which we went to last night. Mistake. 

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives of North Koreans by Barbara Demick

I finally finished this one as it was a book club pick from the winter and it was fascinating and sad and amazing all at the same time. It was difficult to wrap my little North American mind around the ways that totalitarianism can be played out and lived and what people will accept as normal when they don't know anything else. 

Also, I read a couple more of the Her Royal Spyness mysteries because I can't help myself including one called Royal Blood which involves a murder at a Transylvanian wedding...