Books I’ve been enjoying

The Unkept Woman and A Rogue’s Company, by Allison Montclair. A mystery series set in post-WWII London, featuring two women who opened a matchmaking service. (First book is actually The Right Sort.)

Lilith’s Brood aka the Xenogenesis trilogy, by Octavia Butler. Lilth awakens after the war that destroyed most of humanity. Someone has rescued Lilth and other survivors. Why? If finding the books separately, look for Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.

The Labors Of Hercules by Agatha Christie. Short story collection. Sometime in the 1930s Agatha Christie decided to give Hercule Poirot modern versions of the Labors. The book is all 12 stories with a framing chapter at the start.

What Moves The Dead by T Kingfisher. 1890s horror. A new version of The Fall Of The House Of Usher complete with new characters.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal, who describes it as “The Thin Man in space.” Like The Thin Man, it’s mystery. Instead of Manhattan it’s set on a space liner headed to Mars. There’s an author’s note that talks about going on a book event on a cruise and how over-the-top ocean cruise ships are here on earth, and why a spacegoing cruise ship would be similar.

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. I’d seen the movie but not actually read Hammett, and naturally the county library has a copy. A bit grim, but does have it’s share of smiles. Very much the urban, hard-drinking, hard-boiled detective story.

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie. It reads a bit like she wrote down her favorite memories of her archeology trips to Syria with her second husband, Max Mallowan, so that she could hand the book to friends and tell them which chapter to read. If you go to Google Max, you’ll find he later became Sir Max in recognition of his archeology contributions. Because he was Sir Max, Mrs Mallowan became also Lady Mallowan. Eventually she became Dame Agatha in her own right. (Being a Dame didn’t give Max a bonus title.) Anyway, the author credit for Come, Tell Me How You Live was originally Agatha Christie Mallowan. So if you look for it at the library, be aware it may be under “Mallowan” instead of “Christie” depending on how you look.

Also: I didn’t decide to read through all of Christie until I had setup ebook borrowing on my phone. My county library uses the Libby app for search, checkout, and reading, so that’s on my Android phone. I can often send the book to my Android Kindle app as well.