August is flying by–and I’m not even in school this year. I’m in my second year of permanent retirement as a high and middle school English teacher. That has given me the opportunity to read as much (or as little) as I want to read. And since I’ve always loved books and reading, I can say I’m enjoying the time.

So far, I’ve read ten books this month (even though my StoryGraph graphic shows only nine. The novel, The Unquiet Stairs, is not listed in the StoryGraph data base). One of my completed selections is the audio book Killers of the Flower Moon, the basis for the current movie. I was completely interested in that narrative of the murders of several Osage Indians in the late 1920s and early 1930s because of their wealth due to their control over the oil rights under their reservation. The narrative brought out the injustice shown to Native Americans, especially when they had no control over their own wealth. The conspiracy contrived to obtain the rights to the oil underground was complex and chilling. The subtitle, “The Making of the FBI” highlights the role of J. Edgar Hoover in this case, which he uses to build the reputation of the FBI as a law enforcement agency. I have not seen the movie yet, but it will be interesting to compare the book and the movie.

I have always been interested in the tales of King Arthur. I even had a copy of John Steinbeck’s unfinished retelling of the legends, which I lost a long time ago. Who knows what classroom I left it in over my forty-year career? Anyway, The Bright Sword is a new version of the Arthurian legends told from the points of view of some of the lesser known characters. The novel begins after Arthur’s death at the hands of his son Mordred. Among the characters included are Sir Bedivere, Nimue (Merlin’s apprentice), and Morgan le Fay. Guinevere, who according to Sir Thomas Malory, entered a convent and became a nun, re-emerges as a strong female leader in her own right, and Merlin, Arthur’s advisor and magician, becomes a hero. There are the typical tropes of Arthurian stories, including the damsel-in-distress and a holy quest. I enjoyed this novel very much.

I’m also a sucker for a good Gothic novel in the vain of Victoria Holt and Daphne DU Maurier. Return to Wyldecliffe Heights fits the bill. Agnes Corey, who had a troubled past herself and spent time in a school for troubled teenaged girls, has worked as an editor for a small publishing house, best known for the publication of one book which has a cult following. When Agnes writes to the author requesting a sequel, Agnes is sent to the reclusive author’s home to take the novel down. There, she encounters the “ghost story” and some links to her own past. Though set in modern times, the author draws on the history of treatment of mental illness as well as the goth scene of the previous century. It was interesting to see the influence of the Bronte sisters on the author, especially Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I am glad this was not a part of a series, or I may have gone on a reading binge!

The Lord Meets His Lady is pretty typical of the Regency romance genre. The male protagonist is decidedly an anti-hero, banished from society after creating a scandal in a London gaming hell. He thinks he’s rescuing a “damsel-in-distress” who is actually a woman trying to escape an indenture forced upon her. Genevieve and Marcus are both looking to escape their pasts and start over. And they are able to find love and healing and restoration by rescuing horses. There is plenty of political intrigue in this novel as well.

I read two more books in C. Hope Clark’s Edisto Island Mystery series, Edisto Stranger and Tidings in Edisto. Callie continues to serve as the island’s chief of police. In these novels, she is beginning to get her act together and come to terms with her past, the loss of both her husband and her lover in the line of duty, her alcoholism, and the knowledge that the mother she grew up with is not her biological mother. Clark is developing Callie’s character is more depth although most of the characters are somewhat stereotypical. In Tidings, Callie is more stable as she deals with a complicated and twisting case involving the death of her neighbor (the husband of her biological mother) and a series of break-ins by the “Edisto Santa.” A new character is also introduced, a former SLED agent, the state’s law enforcement agency, who helps her solve this complicated case.

J. Courtney Sullivan’s The Cliff is a dive into the history of Maine, the Shakers, and spiritualism. It is Reece Witherspoon’s July book club selections as well. It is also the story of mother-daughter relationships, generational alcoholism and trauma and hurt, and healing. What intrigued me was the question of what one might do if one discovered an old family cemetery in one’s backyard? And what would the consequences be if one removed that cemetery? Although there are ghosts, The Cliffs is not a ghost story but in some ways a story of digging up the bones of one’s past to discovery one’s self. This is a book that is going to stay with me for awhile.

After The Cliffs, I needed something light and “mindless,” The Sapphire Intrigue, another Regency novel fit the bill. Lady Grace and Lord Roland Percy are called upon by the royal family to track down the Sapphire code book before it can fall into the hands of their arch enemy, France, after its keeper is found murdered in the Marine Pavillion in Brighton. These two aristocratic sleuths must determine which one of the guests of the Prince Regent’s guests killed Sir Jonathan without getting themselves killed. This is purely escapist reading for the fun of it.

The Unquiet Stairs is also in the Gothic novel genre with ghosts that haunt a swanky Scottish hotel. Originally, the hotel was a manor house built over the foundations of an ancient monastery-turned-convent. The author moves the narrative back and forth in time to tell the story of the inhabiting ghosts. Present-day Anna escapes from a disastrous wedding day to her Aunt Rita’s home in Scotland to hide from her parents, her husband, and her controlling in-laws. Rita helps her find a job at the hotel, first as a receptionist and then as the manager. When the ghostly inhabitants, Hugh Ferguson and Gideon Corsan, begin showing out and become violent, Anna calls on her aunt to help settle down the spirits. To help understand the ghosts’ actions, the author draws on the history of the Scottish Covenanters and the witch hunts of the mid 1600s. There is so much history in this book that reminds me of our own history of the Salem witch trials. I will be reading the sequel when it’s published to learn more about the history of this time.

There is a thread in this month’s reading–murder, mischief, and mayhem. A Whisper of Death is a murder mystery set in 1868 in London. Female investigator Matilda Wren primarily helps a solicitor investigate for women who want to seek divorces from their unfaithful and abusive husbands. When she begins to investigate the loss of her grandmother’s investment income, which has been managed by her husband’s cousin Sir Henry, Tilda meets Hadrian Becker, Lord Ravenhurst, who is investigating his own near-fatal attack. The two team up when it appears that Sir Henry’s death, the death of another peer, and Hadrian’s attack all appear to be connected. Whisper of Death is a plot-driven novel with little real character development. Hadrian and Tilda are likeable characters, and I did care about each of them. Typical tropes of this genre are present: the divide between social classes (Hadrian is aristocracy while Tilda is middle-class), the lack of rights and agency of women to handle their own financial and legal affairs, and the quest for real justice. There is an upcoming sequel to this novel as well, and I will be reading it to see if Hadrian and Tilda can cross the class lines to develop a relationship.

I am listening to The Boys in the Boat, about the eight-man crew from the Univeristy of Washinton that went to the 1936 Olympics in Germany. I am interested in this story as well. I watched the movie based on the book, and, frankly, I was disappointed in the movie. The movie focuses only on the year 1936 and, therefore, does not develop the characters and their relationships in any depth. Joe Ranse’s struggle with poverty during the Depression years and his estrangement from his family are merely hinted at. Also, the movie does not show the excitement of the various races the crew ran. The movie was rather anti-climatic, even at the end when the boys from America won the gold in a photo finish.

The month isn’t over. I have a whole stack of books on my TBR list to read. I’m not sure which book to open next.