Ashley, Jen, and Sara describe—in the bookish check-in—some summer reads they loved this summer, including Diana Gabaldon's Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone, Alexis Hall's A Lady for a Duke, Peter Swanson's Before She Knew Him, and Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Golden Couple. Sara shares a big announcement: she's signing off, so we send her off with so much love. And they offer some of their favorite ice cream flavors and places.
Bookish Check-in / Summer Reads
Ashley - Alexis Hall’s A Lady for a Duke (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Sara - Peter Swanson’s Before She Knew Him (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Golden Couple (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Other Mentions
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm - book 1 only)
Alexis Hall's Boyfriend Material (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
*Correction: Jen says in the episode that the first Outlander book begins in the 1920s, but it begins in the 1940s.
Give Me One - Favorite Ice Cream Flavor & Place
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Bookish Check-in / Summer Reads
Ashley recommends . . .
Alexis Hall’s A Lady for a Duke (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"When Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood.
"Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was. Shattered without her, Gracewood has retreated so far into grief that Viola barely recognises her old friend in the lonely, brooding man he has become.
"As Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to himself, fresh desires give new names to old feelings. Feelings that would have been impossible once and may be impossible still, but which Viola cannot deny. Even if they cost her everything, all over again."
Jen recommends . . .
Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"War leaves nobody alone. Neither the past, the present, nor the future offers true safety, and the only refuge is what you can protect: your family, your friends, your home.
"Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years of loss and heartbreak to find each other again. Now it's 1779, and Claire and Jamie are finally reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children, and are rebuilding their home on Fraser's Ridge--a fortress that may shelter them against the winds of war as well as weather.
"But tensions in the Colonies are great: Battles rage from New York to Georgia and, even in the mountains of the backcountry, feelings run hot enough to boil Hell's teakettle. Jamie knows that loyalties among his tenants are split and it won't be long before the war is on his doorstep.
"Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s--among them disease, starvation, and an impending war--was indeed the safer choice for their family.
"Not so far away, young William Ransom is coming to terms with the mysteries of his identity, his future, and the family he's never known. His erstwhile father, Lord John Grey, has reconciliations to make and dangers to meet on his son's behalf and on his own, and far to the north, Young Ian Murray fights his own battle between past and future, and the two women he's loved.
"Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser's Ridge. Jamie sharpens his sword, while Claire whets her surgeon's blade: It is a time for steel."
Sara recommends . . .
Peter Swanson’s Before She Knew Him (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she's found some stability and peace.
"But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband's office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she's long had a fascination with this unsolved murder--an obsession she doesn't talk about anymore, but can't fully shake either.
"Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?
"The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he's planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she's been watching him, that she's really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . ."
Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Golden Couple (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all--until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.
"Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn't stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.
When they glide through Avery's door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it's no longer simply a marriage that's in danger."
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