March '23 Book List

Wow! Twelve books read in March. That's the most in one month for quite awhile. But when I find a new author I really like, I tend to devour all her/his books that I can. Jeffrey Archer books are hard to put down.

Hidden In Plain Sight, Turn A Blind Eye and Over My Dead Body completed the William Warwick series by Jeffrey Archer that I began at the end of February. 

Peril In Paris by Rhys Bowen is the sixteenth in Her Royal Spyness Mysteries. These are always quick, fun little mysteries to read. 

The Sins Of The Father, Best Kept Secret, and Be Careful What You Wish For are the first three books in The Clifton Chronicles Series by Jeffrey Archer. I thought his Warwick series was good but these are really good! It is interesting that one of the main characters in this series is the author of the Warwick novels. Adds an interesting twist and storyline to this series.

The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson is the follow up to her first novel, The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek. It too is a historical novel based on the real packhorse librarians, mostly women, who took books to people in the remote areas of the Appalachians in Eastern Kentucky from 1935 to 1943 as part of the Works Progress Administration. 

I really enjoyed both of Richardson's books and learning something new about the Depression era. In addition to the packhorse project, the Frontier Nursing Service which was founded by Mary Breckinridge in 1925, was also featured. Reading about the nurses who took medicines and care into the isolated areas sparked a memory for me. 

When I worked in Des Moines in the 1970's, I met a young woman who had been a traveling nurse in Kentucky. I can't remember where/how I knew her nor her name, but I can still picture her. It may have been when I worked at Home Federal S&L or maybe at a women's retreat I attended, but I recall being so surprised that there were still visiting nurses going into the mountains of Kentucky at that time and that some homes were still without electricity and piped water. I assumed 'everyone' had entered the 20th Century. 

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes is a story about two very different women who accidently get one another's gym bags and end up with very different shoes. Moyes always tells excellent stories about everyday lives. This one, about women from opposite ends of the social strata becoming friends, was a very satisfying read.

Two more of Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles, Mightier Than The Sword and Cometh The Hour, completed my reading for the month of March. I only have one more in this series to read and I am really going to hate seeing it end. But I do see that he has two more William Warwick novels - one scheduled for this coming October and one for October 2024. 

In the interim, I'm once again going to be hunting for new authors to read.