Reading Log as of June 15, 2025

 

Happy Father's Day to my hubby, dad, my brother's in laws and all the dads out there. 

I unfortunately didn't get to any of the Wuxia reads. One author I really have enjoyed and learned much from is Qiu Xiaolong, author of the inspector detective Chen Cao who is a homicide detective in the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau in China. Inspector Chen Cao was introduced with the publication of Death of a Red Heroine in 2000. Set in the mid 1990’s in China, it was a police procedural blending fact and fiction delving into the politics and culture of the country. The character is in his early thirties and also writes poetry and works as a translator. Inspector Chen must navigate his way through government politics while trying to solve murders. The 13th book in the series Love and Murder in the Time of Covid was released in 2023.

His latest stories are a duology series which takes place in seventh century China called the Judge Dee Investigations. The first book Shadow of the Empire is a companion piece from his 12th novel – Inspector Chen and the Private Kitchen Murder – in which the inspector is reading a Judge Dee novel. The second book was released in 2024: The Conspiracies of the Empire. I have both books in ebook format and I’m looking forward to reading both.  

Currently reading Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life which is good so far. 

“Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century…..

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.”