Word Wenches

Armchair Adventuring

Andrea here, As the first day of Spring creeps closer, I’m also musing on a far more sobering mark on the calendar. For me, this week marks the one year anniversary of start of the pandemic lockdown in my local area. And though there are now some glimmers of light—there’s limited indoor dining, schools have re-opened for hybrid learning—most of us still feel restricted in the things we can do.

One of the things I miss most is traveling, especially as the days grow longer and weather warms up, inviting one to get up and go explore! But as hopping on a plane to some faraway place doesn’t yet feel like a good plan, I’ve been doing some fun armchair adventuring instead, traveling to exotic destinations. So, I thought I’d invite to take trip with me down the Nile!

Exploring the Chelsea Physic Garden

Andrea here, Where I live in New England, the weather has been unseasonably chilly, so the unfurling of Spring hasn’t yet burst into full bloom. But the flickers of nascent green and tantalizing hints of color from early flowers in the local gardens give promise that my daily walks will soon be alive with the sights and scents of the natural world cycling into its peak season.
 
Now, I’m not gardener. I’m too impatient to wait for several years for tiny plants mature into the original vision for the space. And weeding, mulching, deadheading feels like drudgery . . . I am much happier appreciating the work of others!
 
Which is to say, I very much enjoy gardens for the pure sensory pleasure of seeing the colors and textures, and savoring the scents and sounds of the bees busy at work pollinating. But I also find that I have a special appreciation for “practical” gardens, like herb gardens. And my very favorite are physic gardens, which are designed for medicinal purposes.
 
So in the spirit of celebrating the start here in the Northern hemisphere of gardens come to life, I thought I'd give a quick look at the history of Chelsea Physic Garden, one of Britain’s oldest gardens devoted to medicinal plants.

The Author's Note—Yes or No?

Andrea here, musing today on that oft-overlooked part of a book: the Author’s Note. I’m one of those readers who really likes getting an inside peek at what information an author thinks will enhance the enjoyment of the main text. The dreaded “info dump” that can often bog down the actual storytelling tends to shine in its own special place, and I, for one, find that understanding elements like the facts behind some of the plot twists, or the inspiration behind the book really does add to my appreciation of the author’s creation.

Guest Author Amanda McCabe dishes on Paris, Jazz . . . and Love!

Andrea here, and today I'm delighted to welcome my good friend Amanda McCabe to the Word Wenches to dish about A Manhattan Heiress in Paris, her new historical romance set in the 1920s. (fluttery sigh.) Amanda and I met many moons ago when we were both writing traditional Regency romances for Signet. She had since branched out into a variety of fabulously interesting time periods . . . so without further ado, let's hear what she has to say about how history inspires her writing!

You’ve started in Regency romance but have also written in a number of other time periods—Renaissance, Elizabethan, Victorian, Gilded Age Edwardian and the 1920s! Tell us a little bit about what draws you to exploring different eras.
 
I admit, I’m Amanda and I’m a history junkie!!  I’ve always been fascinated by the past, ever since I found a stash of Jane Austen and various Gothic romances/Heyer titles on my grandmother’s bookshelf.  (she was a history/book junkie, too!).  One author she collected especially was Barbara Cartland, and while even as a ten year old I had scorn for her whispery, stammering, wide-eyed heroines, I loved the historical settings she used.  Elizabethan, Regency, Victorian India, the theatrical world, Monaco casinos, smugglers in Cornwall, she had a bit of everything, and talked about them in author’s notes I devoured.  They sent me to the library to find non-fiction works where I could learn more.  So, strangely, I owe my love of history to—Barbara Cartland!

The Art of Marbling

Andrea here, talking today about books. No surprise there—we do that a lot here at the Word Wenches! But my topic today isn’t about the words on the printed page, but rather the remarkable art of the decorative papers that were traditionally used to create beautiful cover and endpapers in book.
 
Alas, today it’s becoming a lost art, but I recently saw a marvelous exhibit at the Grolier Club (it’s a wonderful society dedicated to the arts of the book and book collecting) in New York City on the art of contemporary marbling, so I thought I would share some of the fabulous creations and give a short explanation of the history and process of marbled paper.

Dutch Treat

Andrea here, I recently saw a very entertaining article in the New York Times on a reality show—not something that would usually catch my fancy. But in this case it was about art, and an artist who fascinates me, so I took a closer read.

 In celebration of a mega-blockbuster exhibit currently on view at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (alas, currently sold out, but more slots may become available) Dutch TV decided to create a challenge for both amateur and professional artists to “reinvent” some of the lost works of the famous painter. The judges are Vermeer experts the Rijksmuseum and the Mauritshuis, in The Hague. The results are absolutely delightful—you can view them here on the station’s website. Isn’t it fun to see such creativity in bloom?

The Simple Joy of Elemental Creativity

Andrea here, Just the other day, I was brainstorming with a good friend about about her elderly mother and the challenges of keeping her spirits up as aging restricts the things she can do. Her mother is an artist, who did very meticulous and detailed (and wonderful!) collages out of found paper throughout her career. But her eyesight and manual dexterity are not what they used to be, and so she doesn’t get up with the same verve to embrace the day as she once did.
 
It got me to thinking . . . and an idea occurred to me. I’m a huge fan of Henri Matisse’s paper cut-out collages, which he began in later life when the rigors of painting became too much of a physical challenge. Their bold colors and exuberant simplicity are wonderful—he called them drawing in paper. So I showed them to my friend and suggested that a simple pair of big scissors and an assortment of bright colored paper might rekindle her mother’s artistic eye—and be easy enough to handle that it wouldn’t be discouraging.

The Long and Winding Rhodes

Andrea here, looking out on another very grey, gloomy and cold day here where I live. January has been a dreary month, so it’s no wonder that I’m in the mood to plot more foreign adventures to sunny climes, especially as this past November I took my first trip abroad since before the pandemic.
 
For me, travel—even if it's done in an armchair—always brightens the spirits. It sparks a sense of wonder as I explore new sights, sounds and tastes. And of course, it  lights a fire to the imagination if I get to visit place that I want to feature in my books. The November trip—an amazing cruise from Istanbul to Athens—was extra special because it did include a fascinating place that I have in mind for upcoming stories . . .

The Smart TV vs the Luddite—Things Did Not Go Well

Andrea here, channeling my inner Grinch today. Along with shopping for family and friends this holiday season, I decided to give myself a present—a new smart TV! My current TVs are, umm, not very smart. And after yesterday, I’ve decided neither am!
 
A very nice team from the Geek Squad at Best Buy showed up—because I wasn't so dumb as to think I might be able to set it up and program it myself, even though I’m fairly good at figuring certain tech things. They bring in the humongous box and eye the current TV in my living room and ask if I want them to haul it away. I explain that no, would they be kind enough to carry it upstairs to the bedroom, where an even older TV is the one that should be recycled. They smile cheerfully and say “No problem!”
 
Up we go. They regard the older TV. “”Wow, says one of them. “I used to sell TVs, and like that’s one of the first flat screens ever made. It’s from 2004, right?”
 
“Yup,” I reply.
 
They chuckle and switch the sets (and bless them, they program the remote as I upgraded my cable boxes in preparation for their visit.) "Okay, all done."

Fresh from the Oven!

Andrea here. The end-of-year holidays are upon us. And wherever and however family and friends gather, that usually means food. Lots of it! Sumptuous sweets abound (did someone say chocolate?) along with all manner of savory dishes and appetizers to tickle the tastebuds. But whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner, one constant that always seems to be on the table, complementing both simple repasts and fancy feasts, is bread, the classic staff of life.

Now, as I happened to see an article this week saying that the classic French baguette had just been given UNESCO World Heritage status, and given that history and bread is a truly scrumptuous combination, I thought it might be fun to take a quick peek at the history of the baguette.

The bread has a simple but sublime elegance. It’s made of four ingredients—flour, water salt and yeast. Stick-shaped loaves were around in the early 18th century, but the baguette as we know it began to take shape around the time of the French Revolution. Bread, or rather the lack of a decent loaf, helped spark the uprising, and after the Republicans seized power, one of the new government’s decrees said, “There will no longer be a bread of wheat for the rich and a bread of bran for the poor. All bakers will be held, under the penalty of imprisonment, to make only one type of bread: The Bread of Equality.”

East Meets West

Andrea here. As you may have noticed, some of the Wenches have recently been gallivanting around the globe, as the world begins to open up to exploration. I’m adding to the exotic travelogue, as I’ve just returned from an amazing journey through the ancient treasures of the Mediterranean, starting in Istanbul and ending in Athens.

Istanbul has always been at the top of of my To-Do List, as its exotic allure of East meets West, and its place as  such a special crossroads of history have always fascinated me. So I’m going to talk a little bit about the city, and my whirlwind impressions, though that won’t begin to do justice to the rich tapestry of its past and present.

One of the pleasures about taking a cruise on a Viking ship (the modern-day cruise line, NOT the longboat of one of Pia's fabulous heroes!) are the resident historians, who give evening talks on each destination. One of the basic points our professor made was that the city’s has three distinct “personalities,” reflected in its three different names throughout history. Though the site has been inhabited since Neolithic times, the first great city was said to be founded by by a Greek king named Byzas around 660 BC and became known as Byzantium. (Its acropolis was on the site of today’s Topkapi Palace. (Left: Hagia Sophia; Right: Islamic astrolabe from the Museum of Islamic Arts.)

 

Saddle up!

Andrea here, My current work-in-progress—a fictional biography of Lady Hester Stanhope—has called for me to think about riding a horse—or more specifically, about how ladies of the Regency era rode a horse. Lady Hester was a “neck and leather” rider, which in Regency cant means she was a superb horsewoman who loved galloping at a devil-may-care pace across the countryside.

And that was no easy feat, considering that it was considered scandalous for a lady to ride astride. Lady Hester, who broke  most every rule in the book regarding feminine deportment, didn’t pay much attention to that limitation. And the fact that she had a special skill for breaking ornery horses to saddle made the neighboring gentlemen very willing to turn a blind eye on her wearing breeches and boots because she helped them with their difficult mounts.

But most ladies of the era didn’t possess such skills, or such practical neighbors, and so were consigned to perching themselves on a side-saddle. So I thought I would do a quick dive down the research rabbit hole to look at the history of this contraption.

The Simple Joys of a Daily Walk

Andrea here, inspired by Anne’s recent post on “Simple Pleasures” I, too, have been thinking more about the small things in my everyday life that make me stop and smile, and appreciate my blessings.

I have a daily ritual of taking a long walk, usually in the late afternoon. I call it my plotting walk, as I use it to think about the pages I’ve written that day . . . and how to untangle any kinks that crept into the story or character development. It’s something I really look forward to, not only for story aspects, but because it’s also—quite literally—a breath of fresh air. After sitting in my writing room for hours, it resets my perspective. I’m a very visual person, and there is so much outdoors that catches my eye and reminds me of all the little unexpected beauties in the “ordinary.”

Lady Arianna is back in a Swirl of Shadows

Andrea here, welcoming a guest interviewer to the Word Wenches today! C. P. Lesley, a historian, is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel and two series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible. She also hosts New Books in Historical Fiction, a podcast channel on the New Books Network and interviews historical fiction authors on her website. (You can hear her podcast with me on my latest Wrexford & Sloane mystery, Murder at the Royal Botanic gardens, here. And she has also interviewed Nicola.)

C.P. was kind enough to interview me recently on my new Lady Arianna Regency mystery, A Swirl of Shadows, which released last week, and graciously offered to let me share it here. (As luck would have it, the setting aligns very well with her historical expertise, as you shall soon discover!) So without further ado, here’s some tidbits on Lady Arianna and Saybrook—and their latest adventure!

Hats off to an American Fashion Icon

Andrea here, musing today about hats. Not just any hats, but one particular style that has transcended passing fads or whims to become a cultural icon in and of itself. I happened to stumble across a vintage photo of a group of cowboys from the 1880s the other day while researching a completely different topic, and and it made me pause to study the faces—and the hats!

Between the Sheets

Andrea here, musing—not snoozing—today on the subject of sleep. Or rather, the bedsheets on which I sleep. As with most common items these days, there is a mind-boggling assortment of bedsheets, starting with the stuff of which they are made.

Linen, cotton, microfiber, bamboo, polyester, and an array of high tech synthetics that sound way too nerving. And then there is the weave and finish—sateen, percale, flannel . . . And thread count. (I’ve never taken my microscope out to check it, but do you honestly do you believe the ones that claim to have a 1,000 thread count?)

The Art of the Book

Andrea here, thinking about books today. Okay, that’s nothing new. I think about books a LOT! But I’m thinking specifically about the art of books today. These days, more and more of us are reading digitally, and while that’s a wonderful convenience—having loads of books on a tablet or phone is a godsend for travel or being stuck in a waiting room or grocery line—we do lose some of the elemental essence of what makes reading such a visceral pleasure.

What got me to thinking about this was an article I came across the other on modern-day artists in Tuscany who are keeping the age-old crafts of fine bookmaking alive and well. (You can read the the story and feast on the pictures here.

The Art of Letterlocking

Andrea here, musing today about privacy and our personal correspondences. I think that most of us would prefer that our words are only read by the person or persons for whom they are intended. Thus we’re paying more attention to having passwords and two-step notifications set up to keep “snoopers” away from our e-mails.

But the wish for privacy is nothing new when it comes to personal correspondences. Apparently historical figures like Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, Galileo, Marie Antoinette, and Albrecht Dürer, just to name a few, were equally worried about people snooping through their mail! Recently, I happened to come across a fascinating article in the New York Times about historical “letterlocking” in Western Europe and thought I would share some of what I learned on the subject.

Traveling to St. Petersburg

Andrea here, The new year is bringing—huff, puff—not one but TWO new books from me! I’m excited to announce that A Swirl of Shadows, the latest Lady Arianna adventure is finally finished and will release on March 22! (You can pre-order here.) The story was particularly fun for me to write as a good deal of the action takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

I took a number of Russian history courses in college and have always found the country and its history fascinating. And I was lucky enough to visit during grad school and spend some time in St Petersburg—in the dead of winter, I might add, which seemed only fitting, as snow and cold weather seem a part of the Russian soul!

That Russian history intertwines so closely with Britain during the Regency era gave me the perfect opportunity to weave a plotline that would take Lady Arianna and Saybrook to the Imperial Court of Alexander I, which was a hotbed of international intrigue and scheming right after Napoleon’s exile as the rulers of Europe jockeyed for power and influence.

How Stories Come to Life

Andrea here, musing about how my stories come to life. The Wenches were chatting the other day among ourselves about great teachers we had in school (look for that “Ask A Wench” blog on Wednesday!) and that’s what got me to thinking about it . . .

I have a very vivid memory of a school assignment that was my first “formal” introduction to the challenge of storytelling. It was sixth grade English class and our teacher gave each of us a random picture that he had cut out from old books and magazines—mine was a vintage engraving of a young Masai warrior facing down a ferocious lion—and told us to write a short story about

Granted, as a kid I had fooled around drawing crayon pictures and making up little vignettes about them. (And yes, I'm still a very bad speller!) But this demanded that I think of a real story—a beginning, a middle and an end. (I’m not sure my brain thought it through quite that clearly, but I do remember that the assignment really sparked my imagination.)

The Gift of Friendship

Andrea here, As we head into the holiday season, with its festive gatherings replete with oodles of sweets treats and bubbly libations, I find myself thinking not only of all the scrumptious ways in which I can consume chocolate (okay, okay, I tend to think of that in any season) but also of the far more important meaning of the season. It's a time to reflect on the gifts we have in our lives. And one of the gifts for which I'm most grateful are my friendships.

Friendships lie at the heart of the books I write. My plots deal with solving a conundrum—usually one that starts with a murder—in order to ensure that Good triumphs over Evil. But one of the major threads that weaves through all the stories is how friendship—love, loyalty, trust, camaraderie—is key to giving my main protagonists the strength and courage to overcome daunting challenges and solve the crime. They can’t do it alone . . .

But I am digressing slightly from my main topic, since what sparked my musing today is not fiction, but real life.

Just recently, I went away on a long weekend with my college roommates. We’ve known each other since the first day of freshman year. It’s been a long time since then—don’t ask!— and while so many things have changed in our lives, what is an elemental source of joy that we are still the best of friends.

An Artist Extraordinaire

Andrea here, As some of you might know, I occasionally enjoy weaving real-life people into my historical mystery novels when I feel their presence adds depth and texture to the story. Sometimes they are prominent in the plot, and sometimes they are merely used as a passing reference to add a flash of color.

I have a new Arianna mystery nearly finished. It’s set in St. Petersburg, and my research into detail about the glittering Russian Imperial Court turned up the fact that Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, the French portrait artist, was hugely popular with the Russian aristocracy. Indeed, it was considered a status symbol to have one’s portrait painted by her. So I threw this in as a tiny detail . . . (see portraits below)

Medicine and Mayhem!

Andrea here, busy polishing up promo material for the release of MURDER AT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, my new Wrexford & Sloane mystery, which hits the shelves (virtual and real) on September 28th. I’m thrilled that Publishers Weekly gave it a lovely shout-out, saying, “Swashbuckling…Roars to an exciting climax, followed by a sweet denouement. Historical fans will have fun.”

Here’s the cover blurb: (And you can read an excerpt here!) The upcoming marriage of the Earl of Wrexford and Lady Charlotte Sloane promises to be a highlight of the season, if they can first untangle—and survive—a web of intrigue and murder involving the most brilliant scientific minds in Regency London . . .
The plot of the book revolves around a “wonder drug” botanical medicine that will save countless lives. I started on it before the pandemic, but in a strange “Life imitates Art” twist, I wrote last half of the book during the height of the lockdown here in the U. S. Naturally, it made me think a lot about the terrors of getting sick, and how in our modern world, we’re so extraordinarily lucky that modern medicine can cure so many things that were fatal during the Regency.

When Natures Erupts . . .

Andrea here, writing this while hurricane warnings are flying fast and furious where I live in New England as Tropical Storm Henri bears down on us. I don’t take this stuff lightly as I was at Ground Zero when Hurricane Sandy and experienced first-hand how devastating Nature can be.

Climate threats seem to be intensifying all over the world, from the terrible fires in Australia and the Western United States to catastrophic flooding in Europe and Asia, as well as droughts and dangerous heat waves in areas that haven’t suffered such things before. It’s terrifying, but it got me to thinking about the history, and how natural disasters had a profound effect on past eras, too.

Going Down the (Research) Rabbit Hole

Andrea here, musing on the stories we authors tell, and what sparks them. I get asked a lot about how I come up with ideas, and it’s impossible to give a simple answer. Inspiration comes in an infinite number of ways—many of them totally unexpected! And those serendipitous discoveries of fun things to weave into a plot often come from what many of us authors call the “Rabbit Hole” effect.

Sooo, what’s a Rabbit Hole? It’s what happens when I do a quick google search, meaning to spend a few minutes checking a simple fact or researching a specific fact . . . and lo and behold, some other detail within the text catches my eye. That results in another search, which leads to more fascinating details that draw me deeper and deeper into—you guessed it—the Rabbit Hole. (It can sometimes take hours to emerge!) (Above: Ernst Hermann Joseph von Münch)

How the Regency Invented Twitter

Andrea here, thinking about communication. Now, all of you are reading this on some sort of electronic device, and no matter where you are in the world, the bytes somehow transport themselves pretty much instantaneously for your reading edification. When you think on it, it’s pretty mind-boggling the amount of information we can access with the press of an electronic key.

More than that, it’s the split-second ability to communicate with each other that has fundamentally changed (for better and for worse) the way we live and think—the rhythms of life, the expectations, the constant need to react and process. And it’s happened SO fast. I remember the the era of no internet, no cellphones . . . and wrestling with whether to spring for the cost of a long-distance telephone call to talk to a faraway pal.

I hate to admit it, but most of us (me included) probably panic when we find that we’ve forgotten to put our cellphone in our purse or pocket when we run out to do an errand. The idea of being “out of the loop”, even for a short while, is disorienting. Our brains seem to have been rewired by the new technology . . .

This is a roundabout intro to what spurred the topic in the first place. I was doing some general Regency research for an idea for one of my future Wrexford & Sloane mysteries the other day when I came across an interesting article on the invention of semaphores—or, as many called the system back then, the visual or optical telegraph—which was really the first, albeit primitive, step in the high-speed communication revolution.

How Stories Come to Life

Andrea here, breathing a happy sigh. It’s always a good feeling to finish a manuscript, fiddle and fret over the last little revisions, and then draw a deep breath and press SEND to my editor. The story is a new Wrexford & Sloane mystery, which is slated to publish in September of 2022. (Publishing schedules gets very disorienting for authors . . . my head is still percolating with the plots of this one, but as I gear up to begin promo for my upcoming September release, I have to return to a previous murder investigation . . .)

So, am I putting my feet and having my editorial assistants bring me melon by the pool? (I wish . . . but they’ve informed me that they are taking a summer vacation, leaving me to fend for myself.) The truth is, I already have snippets of ideas dancing around in my head for the next book . . .This is the time when I collect all those shiny little baubles—a place, a person, a “MacGuffin” that I think would be fun to weave into a plot—and put them in a folder. (That’s the easy part! When I get to the middle of the next manuscript, I’m usually gnashing my teeth and asking “Why did I ever think this was a good idea?”)

But I’m digressing . . .

One of the baubles for my next manuscript is Oxford University’s Merton College, in which I set a scene in the book that I just sent off. Sometimes history is such fun in that it gives an author a perfect plot scenarios from real life. I won’t talk too much about the specifics, since the book won’t be out for over a year, but there was a wonderful gathering of foreign monarchs and dignitaries in Oxford for several days, which allowed for some very fun skullduggery to take place at the actual events that happened within university—especially in Merton College.

Getting Up Close and Personal with History

Andrea here, thinking today about history. Those of you who read our blog regularly know how passionate all the Wenches are about history—not the dull, dry textbook litany of facts and dates that make most students fall asleep in school, but the myriad visceral experiences that make the past really come alive.

Recent posts here showed Christina sitting in a Viking longboat and Nicola exploring an historic castle. Seeing and touching history sparks a sense of wonder and excitement. Getting a glimpse of what people ate and wore . . . what their houses looked like . . . appreciating the details of their timepieces and personal jewelry. I find that helps me imagine what people in past were thinking; what mattered to them; what sparked a sense of wonder for them.

Turning Over a New Leaf . . .

Andrea here. As summer begins to unfurl here where I live in New England, the profusion of colors and textures—both wild and cultivated—coming to life have me thinking about gardens. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am NOT a gardener. Other than the annual rite of planting impatiens in the big urns on my entrance steps and herbs on my deck, I don’t have the patience to dig and weed, and work toward a vision that may take years to come to fruition. But I truly appreciate the artistry, and am grateful to those who have a passion for cultivating the earth.

My recent walks reminded me of a fascinating story in botanical history. One of the many books (too many—I really need more bookshelves1) stacked on the overflow table of my TBR and Keeper piles is The Brother Gardeners, by Andrea Wulf. It’s wonderful history revolving around a small group of men who started the movement of trading seeds and specimen plantings between America and Britain, which changed the face of the English landscape.

At the heart of the story is Peter Collinson, who was born into a prosperous English mercantile Quaker family. His father was a cloth merchant, dealing in high quality fabric both in Britain and its American colonies. Collinson, who couldn’t attend university in England because of his religion, took over the family business. But his real passion was botany.

WWR — What We're Reading in May

Anne here, bringing you the latest reading recommendations from the wenches. There's a fair bit of crime — some cozy, some police procedural, some medieval mysteries, there's time slip and WW2, there's a delightful word exploration book, and there's even some romance! 

Pat recommends THIEF OF SOULS  by Brian Klingborg She says: I enjoy the occasional police procedural if the writing is strong and there’s a good hook. The author kept me reading,  and the setting was an unusual hook—a small town in northern China. The protagonist, Lu Fei, is a middle-aged (although they keep calling him young, he’s forty) inspector on the police force, never married, who drinks too much, and is good at martial arts. Okay, raise your hand if you’ve read that before. <G> But it all works. Young women are being murdered, their organs removed, then sewed up again. The author takes us through the workings of the police department, all the petty government hang-ups, the interdepartmental fighting, all the things we normally see in the usual Brit and American police stories, only with a Chinese twist. I had to look up the author to see how he knew these details, and he’s apparently lived in China but isn’t Chinese. Still, it felt authentic.

Inspector Lu has never married because he wants to marry for love. He quotes Confucius but he’s an independent thinker and an honest cop. You really have to like him because he tries so hard. And better yet, the author manages to keep the killer a secret almost to the point that Lu works it out. So we get to feel smart and not too annoyed with our hero when it takes him a few pages more. If you enjoy  a good police procedural and reading about China, you might want to check this out.

Andrea says: this month I seemed to be a WWII state mind, as I read two books set in the era. They were very different in style but I loved both them.

I’m a huge fan of Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network and The Huntress, and her latest novel, The Rose Code, is equally mesmerizing. It’s a heart-thumping dual timeline story set at Bletchley Park, the famous top secret British codebreaking enclave during the war, and several years after as the three heroines are forced to crack one last code . . .

It features three young women from completely different backgrounds and temperaments who find themselves thrown together as roommates after their skills at solving puzzles bring them to be part of the British efforts to crack the enemy codes—an effort that is keeping the country from defeat. Quinn gives readers a fascinating look inside Bletchley Park as she weaves a compelling tale of friendship, heartache, secrets and betrayals as each of the women struggle to define her dreams and deal with her own weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

A shocking betrayal breaks their friendships apart at the end of the war, only to have a coded message several years later force them to reluctantly come together again to catch a traitor. I couldn’t put it down!

Sweatpants Chic!

Andrea here. One thing I’ve noticed during the pandemic shutdown is how many more people I see outdoors exercising—from running, biking, golfing, tennis . . . or just walking the dog or enjoying a leisurely stroll. With so many of our normal activities curtailed (thank heavens things are beginning to open up again) getting outside and moving has been a welcome interlude amid all the hours spent indoors at home.

Seeing all the physical activity got me to thinking about athletic clothing. You know—sneakers, sweatpants, t-shirts, synchilla vests, running tights, and all the other accouterments. And it struck how much the gym look has become our new normal. Admit it—when was the last time you put on a pair of pants with a waistband and zipper? (My answer is a little frightening!) I can’t remember the last time I saw a man in business suit . . .