Caramellunacy's 2023 Excavations into Mt TBR

Welcome to the 2023 digsite, excavation enthusiasts and backers!

We approach this year's excavations with vigor after an excellent season last year, but with tempered expectations - a great deal of change/upheaval is expected, leaving less time for excavation, though perhaps a significant spoils heap. We shall see.

I will be sticking with a goal of 25 this year (two per month seems workable) and tracking de-accessions, though not with a fixed goal.

2023 Excavations

Artefacts Excavated in 2023
Catalogue Note: Items listed in italics below are exhibits on loan (library) or ephemera (digital) and therefore are not being counted for purposes of this excavation as the intention is to work through the physical digsite. Items listed in bold are the exhibit of the month (favorite read). (Monthly Total/Overall Total). Items with * have Fieldnotes in thread.

January (9/9)
1. Something to Blog About - Shana Norris
*2. Etta and Otto and Russell and James - Emma Hooper
The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary
Murder Most Royal - SJ Bennett
3. Dating Dr. Dil - Nisha Sharma
The Rest of the Story - Sarah Dessen
Yours Cheerfully - A.J. Pearce
*4. Crime Seen - Victoria Laurie
*5. Warm Up - Sara Leach

February (7/16)
*6. Texas Manhunt - Linda Conrad
The Academy - Katie Sise
7. Troy High - Shana Norris
8. Kill the Farm Boy - Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
Shipwrecked - Olivia Dade
Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton
9. My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century - Rachel Harris

March (8/24)
Love & Other Disasters - Anita Kelly
10. Pointe of No Return - Amanda Brice
Donut Fall in Love - Jackie Lau (audio)
11. The Doomsday Key - James Rollins
12. Dead Girls Are Easy - Terri Garey
13. Pas de Death - Amanda Brice
14. The Legend of the Seahawk - Adele Clagett
Jane of Austin - Hillary Manton Lodge

April (6/30)
Conventionally Yours - Annabeth Albert
15. The Appeal - John Grisham
16. Dancing on the Edge - Han Nolan
17. Traitor's Field - Robert Wilton
18. Rosewood - Sayantani DasGupta
19. The Spare Man - Mary Robinette Kowal

May (3/33)
20. The Verifiers - Jane Pek
21. The Search - Nora Roberts
*22. Naked in Death - J.D. Robb

June (11/44)
23. Neither Wolf Nor Dog - Kent Nerburn
Sacred Sins - Nora Roberts
24. The Confession - John Grisham
25. The German Wife - Kelly Rimmer
Murder on Black Swan Lane - Andrea Penrose
26. Identity - Nora Roberts
On Basilisk Station - David Weber (audio)
27. Love Lettering - Kate Clayborn
The Face of a Stranger - Anne Perry
28. The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting
Infamous - Lex Croucher

July (13/57)
Good Night Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian
Smitten with Ravioli - Ellen Jacobson
29. Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies - Heather Fawcett
Girl Gone Viral - Alisha Rai
Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good - Nancy Werlin
The Tea Dragon Society - K. O'Neill
Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz
Jane in Love - Rachel Givney
Luck of the Titanic - Stacey Lee
Long Story Short - Serena Kaylor
How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) - Cristina Fernandez
Love Me to Death - Allison Brennan
30. A Dangerous Mourning - Anne Perry

August
31. Can David Do It? - Sandy Asher
Carolina Moon - Nora Roberts
A Dangerous Mourning - Anne Perry
Defend and Betray - Anne Perry
Loveboat, Taipei - Abigail Hing Wen
Twelfth Grade Night - Molly Horton Booth
Murder in Time - Julie McElwain
The People on Platform 5 - Clare Pooley
Honor's Knight - Rachel Bach
Thank You for Listening - Julia Whelan
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake - Alexis Hall
Heaven's Queen - Rachel Bach
32. Glory in Death - J.D. Robb

September
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Loveboat Reunion - Abigail Hing Wen
The Roughest Draft - Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
Queen of the Tiles - Hanna Alkaf
Escargot - Dashka Slater
Batter Royale - Leisl Adams
Audition - Stasia Ward Kehoe

Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing your reading choices for 2023

Hooray, you're back! Hope you have an excellent year of reading!

Happy New Year and happy reading.

Happy ROOTing!

Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing the fieldnotes from the dig site :)

WELCOME BACK!

Welcome back - I always enjoy your field notes.

Love the archaeology metaphors here! I'm looking forward to seeing what you dig up in 2023.

Welcome back, I so enjoy your field notes!

Oh, another year of digsite reports! How wonderful!

Happy New Year and have a great year of excavations. Keep digging.

Got you starred! I'm another who always enjoys reading about your dig site antics :)

Artefact: Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Trove: Paperback
Status: Wandering across Canada



Fieldnotes:
Saskatchewan, Great Depression/WWII & Present (p.2018)

2 Narratives
3 Perspective Characters
1 Farmer Boy with Difficulty Writing
1 New Arrival on the Neighboring Farm
1 Terrible Farming Accident
1 Pretty Young School Teacher

Saskatchewan
1 Very Long Walk
1 Coyote Companion Singing Cowboy Songs
Papier Mache Menagerie
Unexpected Celebrity

WWII Trauma
1 Love Triangle (ish)
Mental Illness

The Short Version
Told in dual timelines and from different points of view, this is the story of Etta (a schoolteacher), her husband Otto, their neighbor Russell and James (a coyote who may or may not be real). In her 80s, one morning Etta - who has memory issues - sets off walking from their dusty farm in Saskatchewan headed east to the ocean. It is Otto's turn to wait for her - paralleling when she waited for him when he was fighting overseas in WWII.

This is odd but charming, the quirks of the isolated farm folk largely accepted (what else can you do, really, with so little company). In some ways it felt like an updated, grown-up Little House book even though set in the 30s, and the modern trek across the continent was reflective and meditative in a folktale sort of way (with the addition of a coyote who sings cowboy songs). The WWII sections with the letters being sent back and forth in batches were just the sort of thing I like. We cut back and forth between characters, between timelines - just existence. Otto learning to fend for himself through trial and error helped by recipe cards Etta left him. Etta's relationship with the ocean she's seeking as a place that heralds loss (her sister, the many young men sent across to France). Childhood on the farm running around with the neighbor boy. Fierce loyalty. Subtext left as subtext. A colloquial, forthright tone (like Mattie from True Grit though less funny) I was convinced I would love this.

And I did - until the last quarter or so where I felt the story ran out of steam/patience and so heavy-handedly stuck in a message about Etta losing herself/her personality in Otto and his trauma and no longer felt natural, and while I don't mind an ending not tied up in a bow, I disliked the ambiguity of this one.

Still - I'd recommend it to those who don't mind their novels going philosophical and ambiguous.

This sounded very promising, until you mentioned the end. Too bad.

>15 Caramellunacy: Hmm, I own that one as well (bought it on a whim several years ago at a library book sale) and really do not care for my novels going philosophical and ambiguous. Maybe I'll cut my losses and offload it without reading. Plenty of other books in the sea! I do love the title, though, and the first 3/4 sound lovely.

>16 MissWatson: The writing is lovely and quirky - it is a shame it seemed to fall apart

>17 curioussquared: It's a good title! Somehow catches the tone of most of it quite well by virtue of its quirky simplicity. If you decide to give it a try, I'd be interested in what you think, but there are plenty of other options if not for you!

Artefact: Warm Up by Sara Leach
Trove: Paperback
Status: Warming Up



Fieldnotes:
Dance Competition, Contemporary (p.2014)

8 Teenage Girls
1 Overly Competitve Dance Instructor
3rd Place Finish

1 Completely Reworked Dance
with Well Described Moves
Many Hours Hard Work
Anger and Resentment

1 Wise Russian Grandmother
Growing as a Team

The Short Version:
Jasmine is the youngest on a lyrical dance team and when they take 3rd place to their biggest rival's 1st, the teacher and team all become hyper-competitive sucking the joy out of dance until they choose to work together.

A short snack of a book - the plot itself is like an episode from a teen TV show (which is fine). The writing really shines in describing the dance and the emotion behind it that made it easy to get a feel for the dance (even to readers without a dance background).

Dig Site Report - January

The digsite has had a reasonable start this year with a total of 9 (5 Roots, 4 Library), but I've been jumping around a ton in my reading with 6 currently in progress (2 ROOTS, 1 Digital, 1 Library & 2 Audio). Nevertheless, there has been good progress on the spoils heap with 40 deaccessions (number needs to go up significantly as we are changing digsites soon). Fieldnotes have been completed for 2 reads - a slow start, but de-accessioning is more important at this point than catching up on Fieldnotes.

January
1. Something to Blog About - Shana Norris
*2. Etta and Otto and Russell and James - Emma Hooper
The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary
Murder Most Royal - SJ Bennett
3. Dating Dr. Dil - Nisha Sharma
The Rest of the Story - Sarah Dessen
Yours Cheerfully - A.J. Pearce
4. Crime Seen - Victoria Laurie
*5. Warm Up - Sara Leach

Expeditions took the team to 3 countries - the US, Canada & UK.

In the US, we shadowed a disaster-magnet teenager whose need for Something to Blog About caused more problems than help. We caught up with The Rest of the Story when a privileged teen spent time with her mother's side of the family working at a holiday destination and coming into her own in terms of dealing with her anxiety. We saw a Taming of the Shrew retelling set in the desi community as a young woman intent on saving her mother's house agreed to a fake engagement by Dating Dr. Dil. Then we followed psychic eye Abby Cooper as she investigated a cold case Crime Seen using her visions.

Just over the border in Canada, we started in Saskatchewan with Etta and Otto and Russell and James in dual POV, one present following Etta's walk to the sea from Saskatchewan (with James, the coyote who likes to sing cowboy songs) and the other during the Great Depression and WWII. We also attended a Warm Up with a lyrical dance team who needed to come together as a team to stand a chance of beating their rivals at competition.

In the UK, we watched some shenanigans when The Flat Share turns out to be sharing a bed - which leads to a relationship that starts from post-its and grows into something deeper. We helped Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II investigate a Murder Most Royal when a disembodied hand is found near her home at Sandringham. And finally, we followed intrepid agony aunt and Women at Work reporter Emmy Lake as she does her best to advocate for women on the Home Front in 1941 signing off Yours Cheerfully.

Artefact: Texas Manhunt by Linda Conrad (Chance, Texas, Book 02)
Trove: Paperback
Status: Back To Pasture



Fieldnotes:
Chance, Texas, Contemporary (p.2012)
1 Texas Rancher with a Need to Keep Control
1 Young Woman with a Tragic Backstory
1 Hunt for the Man who Wronged Her

1 Wrecked Car
1 Spoiled 7 Year-Old
1 Convenient Job Opening

1 Saboteur

What I Said Previously

Summer Wheeler's just blown into town in Chance, Texas. Out of money and on some sort of mission to track down a man who wronged her (details yet unclear) when she runs into Travis Chance, local rich dude with a spoiled snotty 7-year-old plot moppet and a tendency to take in strays. I'm interested to see where this is going although the kid is an iffy factor for me.

This was fine - I enjoyed the first in the series more, and Jenna (the Plot Moppet) was a LOT more irritating in this book than the last. She mellowed a bit (though I'm not sure how believably), but she definitely wasn't a bonus factor.

It was also interesting (while also irritating) to see how the sheriff (who previously seemed to be stuck in a difficult situation but doing his job) was seen differently by Travis (who was not in law enforcement like his older brother Sam and who had to stay to deal with the consequences). But I was hoping that there would be a bit more on the through-mystery surrounding the family's missing sister Cami, and there just wasn't.

Travis was the "had to grow up too soon and take responsibility for everyone" brother, and while he was pushing back against his acknowledged need to be in control all the time, I'm not sure that Summer was really what he needs.

Summer has a tragic backstory involving an unfortunate marriage, a mob war and the death of her infant child - which she had to spend years as an in-patient to help overcome. I'm just not sure her drive to find the man who got away was as clear and compelling (nor resolved satisfactorily) as it needed to be.

I'll probably read the next as I'm guessing we'll get more insight into Cami's case with Gage, the PI brother (who doesn't come across well in this installment, to be honest), but on the strength of the first, not this one.

Artefact: Crime Seen by Victoria Laurie (Psychic Eye, Book 05)
Trove: Paperback
Status: Seen Off



Fieldnotes:
Royal Oak, MI, Contemporary (p.2007)

1 New PI Officemate / Partner
2 Significant Cold Cases

1 Nasty Financial Racket
1 Mortgage Business (Sleazy)
3 Visits to Jail

1 Forgotten Promise
Countless Running Away Instead of Talking to Her Romantic Interest
1 (Admittedly Rude) Cat who is Rehomed Just Because a Love Interest Hates Him

The Short Version
Trying to get her psychic groove back, Abby teams up with her PI friend Candice and embroils herself in a cold case involving Milo and Dutch - the murder of Milo's first partner and another involving the death of a CIA operative. Both without Dutch's actual knowledge or consent.

Abby ends up taking a boring (and super sleazy) 9-5 as a mortgage originator for a crooked loan business to snoop for information and, of course, things end up linked (sort of). While the vision from the CIA operative showing how she was killed was interesting, I prefer Abby working from somewhat more cryptic information as it makes it fun to puzzle things out.

The relationship between Dutch and Abby is just...meant to be funny, I guess? Abby takes her commitment-phobia to the point of running away and hiding when she doesn't want to have any sort of unpleasant talk (especially while she's over here jeapordizing Dutch's career) and it's not cute. Just talk to him or break up with him. You're not 14. (He's not really much better, to be fair, but he didn't do much to tick me off in this one - mostly because she ran away from him so often that he wasn't really around).

Also, Dutch's cat hates Abby, which Dutch laughs off...until he doesn't and ends up rehoming the cat and getting a puppy so that Abby stops whining all the time and moves in - umm. No. I'm not a cat person, but NO.

Good month!
>15 Caramellunacy: I might read it just for James the coyote. Also, my maternal grandparents farmed for awhile a little bit earlier, just south in the Dakotas.

>23 detailmuse: I loved that coyote - there wasn't nearly enough possibly mystical coyote to suit me.
Really, though, I loved the book until about the last quarter/20%, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from picking it up who was interested.

Dig Site Report - February 2023

Just realized I hadn't posted a report for February yet!

The digsite went relatively smoothly in Feb with with a total of 7 (4 Roots, 1 Library, 2 Digital) artefacts, which is likely to slow down further with prep for a big move. Significant progress has been made on the spoils heap with 180 deaccessions since the beginning of the year!

February
*6. Texas Manhunt - Linda Conrad
The Academy - Katie Sise
7. Troy High - Shana Norris
8. Kill the Farm Boy - Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
Shipwrecked - Olivia Dade
Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton
9. My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century - Rachel Harris

Expeditions took the team to 4 countries (USA, UK, Ireland and Italy) and a Fantasy realm.

In the US, the expedition helped with a Texas Manhunt for a criminal who helped cause the heroine's tragic backstory and a saboteur. Seeking better education, we observed a fashion-obsessed team learn greater discipline at The Academy in New York, then transferred to Troy High only to find ourselves in a football rivalry retelling of The Iliad.

In the UK, we spent a tense Three Hours caught up in a school shooting in Somerset with eerie echoes to the themes of Macbeth.

We spent several years Shipwrecked on the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland before falling back into 16th Century Florence hoping to avoid My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century party...and failing.

We then traipsed about the Fantasy realm of Pell with a clumsy rogue, a not-so-dark-but-merely-shadowy lord, a talking goat, a warrior in a tiny chainmail bikini and a cursed fluffy rabbit bard to Kill the Farm Boy.

>25 Caramellunacy: Significant progress has been made on the spoils heap with 180 deaccessions since the beginning of the year!
That's fantastic! Good luck with the move.

Seconding -- good luck with the move and wow, that's a lot of deaccessions!

Best of luck with your move! I think I'd be bereft if I got rid of that many books in such a short space of time!

I have definitely been struggling with it...and may have bought 5 new ones to help with my feelings of abandonment

>29 Caramellunacy: That's the spirit! ;)

Dig Site Report - March

The digsite was largely fallow this month due to preparation for a big overseas move and the necessity of both culling a large number of Roots and packing the rest for shipping. Progress for the spoils heap to date this year was 199 deaccessions. Excavations have nevertheless been ongoing with a total of 8 (5 Roots, 2 Library, 1 Audio) with 3 currently in progress.

No Fieldnotes were filed given all the aforementioned insanity.

March (8/24)
Love & Other Disasters - Anita Kelly
10. Pointe of No Return - Amanda Brice
Donut Fall in Love - Jackie Lau (audio)
11. The Doomsday Key - James Rollins
12. Dead Girls Are Easy - Terri Garey
13. Pas de Death - Amanda Brice
14. The Legend of the Seahawk - Adele Clagett
Jane of Austin - Hillary Manton Lodge

Expeditions took the team to 7 countries - US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Norway (including Svalbard) & Mali.

In the US, we watched Love & Other Disasters take shape on the set of a cooking show in California. We cheered for a trio of sisters having to uproot their lives (and teashop) and relocate to become Jane of Austin in Texas for a sweet-tea-infused retelling of Sense & Sensibility. We passed the Pointe of No Return and watched a Pas de Death in the company of teen sleuth Dani Spevak at her Arizona ballet school and in NYC, respectively.

In the more paranormal circles, we learned about The Legend of the Seahawk - a ship lost off the coast of Connecticut when the lighthouse had been shut off, and after a near-death experience, we discovered psychic powers and that Dead Girls Are Easy - at least compared to romantic troubles involving a long-lost identical twin - for Atlanta vintage fashion boutique owner Nicki Styx.

Despite our best intentions to Donut Fall in Love that is exactly what happened over baking lessons with handsome and sweet celebrity Ryan Kwok (famous mostly for his abs).

Finally, in pursuit of a MacGuffin called The Doomsday Key, we accompanied Sigma Force members from their DC headquarters to a lab at Princeton, NJ to investigate murders in Mali, on a motorcycle chase through the Colisseum in Rome, seeking clues in a peat bog and the ancient cherished apples of Bardsey Island before leading a charge of angry, hungry polar bears on Svalbard to protect the Global Seed Vault (NOT MAKING THIS UP) and scheming to gain access to a puzzle-filled vault in a French high security prison.

Big overseas move!! Exciting and stressful -- I hope it all goes well! When are you moving?

I enjoyed Jane in Austin a lot when I read it -- super fun.

>31 Caramellunacy: Oh yikes, as if moving isn't stressful enough already, you're heading overseas? Best of luck!

>32 curioussquared: We just landed end of March, no clue when any of our stuff will join us. But we're trying our best to figure out all the paperwork/lay of the land stuff.

I had a great time with Jane of Austin - would love to try some of the recipes when I have access to an oven again.

>33 Jackie_K: Thank you! We can use all the luck we can muster.

>31 Caramellunacy: Wow, that's quite the endeavour! Good luck for your new home!

Dig Site Report - April

Somewhat belated, but first digsite report from Terra Nova! Managed to read 6 total (5 physical artefacts). No fieldnotes or deaccessions for this month (quite the opposite as we visited my favorite used book store...)

April (6/30)
Conventionally Yours - Annabeth Albert
15. The Appeal - John Grisham
16. Dancing on the Edge - Han Nolan
17. Traitor's Field - Robert Wilton
18. Rosewood - Sayantani DasGupta
19. The Spare Man - Mary Robinette Kowal

Expeditions took the team to 2 countries (US and UK) and outer space!
First the excavators followed card gaming rivals on a cross-US road trip to a convention in Las Vegas where they ended up being anything but Conventionally Yours. In Mississippi, the Appeal showed the corruption surrounding judicial elections and the ugliness in toxic tort litigation. In Alabama and Georgia, teenager Miracle McCloy is Dancing on the Edge of sanity with her dysfunctional family causing more and more problems. Regency murder mystery drama Rosewood hosts a Regency camp looking for teens to play non-principal roles in a Shakespeare/Austen/Bridgerton mashup highlighting sisters Eila and Mallika Das.

In England and Scotland, Cromwell's Roundheads battle it out Cavaliers as spymasters for the respective sides fight on Traitor's Field.

Finally, a honeymoon cruise from Earth to Mars finds robotics celebrity Tesla Crane, her new spouse Shal and her adorable (but stubborn) service Westie Gimlet investigating a murder and The Spare Man in a Thin Man inspired mystery set on a space cruise.

Artefact: Naked in Death by J.D. Robb (In Death, Book 01)
Trove: Paperback
Status: Retain in Archive



Fieldnotes:
New York City, 2058

1 Hard-nosed Police Lieutenant
1 Charming But Dangerous Reclusive Billionaire
4 Licensed Companions
Real Coffee

1 Serial Killer
6 Planned Victims
3 "Antique" Weapons
Disturbing Communications from the Culprit
1 Leaky Investigation

1 Overly Involved Senator (& Staff)
Morality Bills
Family Secrets (Ugly Variety)

The FUTURE

The Not-So-Very-Short Version
Eve Dallas is the best detective in her department - driven, discreet and with a sense for investigation. So when the granddaughter of a sitting senator turns up dead - murdered by one of the clients she took as a "licensed companion", Dallas is the one called in to solve the case before the killer can make good on the threat inherent in a note left with the body promising she is "One of Six".

Juggling the investigation with only a computer tech Feeney to help track down leads, Dallas doesn't have time to play politics with the Senator hounding her about her methods and determined to use the tragedy to further his morality bill, nor does she really have time to explore her connection with the enigmatic, reclusive billionaire Roarke who keeps coming up in the investigation...but one of these is worth making time for...

This is a re-read for me - I'd read it many years ago and always meant to carry on with the series, but was likely scared off by the sheer number of books (which has, of course, only grown with time).

One of the things that appealed to me last read - and again this time - is the depiction of NYC in the future which reminds me of nothing so much as the beginning of The Fifth Element and Corbin Dallas's (no relation) apartment - including the flying food trucks (although the fashion seems to be more sedate).

It was a bit of a tough read due to the subject matter and Eve's traumatic backstory, but I enjoyed following along in Dallas' investigation - and especially her less-than-above-board help from Roarke. These two make a great team and I am hoping to spend more time with them in the near future (see what I did there?).

Dig Site Report - May

The digsite was quiet this month with a total of 3 artefacts (all 3 ROOTS) with 3 currently in various stages of progress.

May (3/33)
20. The Verifiers - Jane Pek
21. The Search - Nora Roberts
22. Naked in Death - J.D. Robb

Expeditions took the team to only 1 country, the US and two states, New York and Washington. In New York, the team tagged along with a young woman working for The Verifiers to ensure dating profiles are accurate and stumbled on a conspiracy. We also discovered a victim Naked in Death and worked our first case with futuristic detective Eve Dallas. It won't be our last.

We also spent some time with The Search and rescue dogs on Orcas Island helping to find lost children and hikers, but also to track down a serial killer.

It's been quiet around the digsite, but the team did manage to post one set of fieldnotes despite the travels. Case notes are important before moving on in a series this size just to make sure I can keep track!

Artefact: The Search by Nora Roberts
Trove: Paperback
Status: To be rescued by someone else



Fieldnotes:
Orcas Island, Washington, Contemporary (p.2010)

1 Pack Leader Dog Trainer with Tragic History (but So Much Competence)
3 Search and Rescue Labradors named after Classic Movie Stars
Obedience Classes
4 On-Page Searches

1 Grouchy Woodwork Artist (Overbearing Variety)
1 Terribly Behaved Puppy
1 Stump Turned into a Sink

1 Serial Killer (Incarcerated Variety)
The One that Got Away
1 Copycat/Protege
4 New Victims
2 Taunting Red Scarves

1 Overzealous Reporter
2 FBI Agents (Competent Variety)

The Short Version:
I didn't love the balance between the suspense and the romance on this one. Simon is overbearing, bossy and inflexible and because Fiona is actually in danger he doesn't get called out on it in a meaningful way.

I really enjoyed watching Fiona work her search and rescues, her innate profiling of the serial killer she escaped to flip the interview he demands into closure for her, her dog training tips. Fiona is delightful. What she sees in crotchety idiot Simon is a mystery to me.

There are some very jarring (though short) sections with the new killer and his victims that I found ugly and distressing. This one isn't going to make the keeper shelf for me.

Dig Site Report - June

The digsite was very active his month with a total of 11 artefacts reviewed (6 Roots, 4 Library, 1 Audio) with 2 currently in progress.

June (11/44)
23. Neither Wolf Nor Dog - Kent Nerburn
Sacred Sins - Nora Roberts
24. The Confession - John Grisham
25. The German Wife - Kelly Rimmer
Murder on Black Swan Lane - Andrea Penrose
26. Identity - Nora Roberts
On Basilisk Station - David Weber (audio)
27. Love Lettering - Kate Clayborn
The Face of a Stranger - Anne Perry
28. The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting
Infamous - Lex Croucher

Expeditions took the team to 3 countries (US, UK and Germany) and deep into Outer Space.

We traveled to a ski resort and beautiful bar in Vermont with a victim of stolen Identity who escaped a serial killer. We tracked another killer attempting to commit or atone for Sacred Sins in DC with a psychiatrist/profiler and a cranky beat cop. We discovered in Kansas that The Confession of murder made by a young football player was coerced and raced to try to stop an execution in Texas by producing the real killer, and in Washington, we followed a teenager with talent as The Body Finder as she tracked the imprints of violent killings to unmask a murderer in her area.

The team listened to an Indian elder discuss how Native Americans were deemed Neither Wolf Nor Dog as they traveled with the author (including to Sitting Bull's grave and to Wounded Knee) in South Dakota. In NYC we followed calligrapher on a quest around the city to re-discover inspiration and to Love Lettering as well as atone for a mistake in a handsome analyst's wedding program.

We examined the difficult situations and awful repercussions of decisions faced in The Great Depression in Texas, Nazi Germany and the aftermath of WWII as The German Wife attempts to acclimate to the US rocket program in Alabama.

In the UK, we spent time in the Regency with Infamous poet Nash Nicholson as he attempts to refind inspiration at a house party in a dilapidated mansion while admirer Eddie tries her hand at her own novel...and tries to come to terms with her best friend Rose's wedding to a man she considers a terrible bore (he raises rabbits!). Then we turned to more murderous pursuits attempting to make sense of the Murder on Black Swan Lane with satirical caricaturist Mrs. Sloane and aristocratic chemist the Earl of Wrexford in a mystery of alchemy and art. We also spent time examining The Face of a Stranger when detective William Monk finds himself beset with amnesia while attempting to solve the case of a murdered aristocrat and Crimean war hero.

Finally, we spent time On Basilisk Station on picket duty as the Republic of Haven attempted to foment a rebellion among the indigenous peoples to further their political agenda.

Dig Site Report - July

The digsite was tricky this month - a number of excavations, no brain for fieldnotes, but a fair number of (uncounted) deaccessions. We unearthed a total of 13 Artefacts (2 Roots, 10 Library, 1 Digital).

July (13/57)
Good Night Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian
Smitten with Ravioli - Ellen Jacobson
29. Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies - Heather Fawcett
Girl Gone Viral - Alisha Rai
Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good - Nancy Werlin
The Tea Dragon Society - K. O'Neill
Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz
Jane in Love - Rachel Givney
Luck of the Titanic - Stacey Lee
Long Story Short - Serena Kaylor
How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) - Cristina Fernandez
Love Me to Death - Allison Brennan
30. A Dangerous Mourning - Anne Perry

Expeditions took the team to 3 countries (UK, US and Italy), aboard 1 famously ill-fated ship (Titanic) and 2 Fantasylands.

Our excavations in the UK were largely historical (or related). A stunted and abused evacuee from the Blitz learned to say Good Night Mr Tom as he grew into his own in a small village rather than the slums of Deptford. A Victorian family was thrown into A Dangerous Mourning when a young woman was found dead and the police determined that no outsider made it to the house. We followed a time-traveling Jane Austen deciding between her writing and romance with Jane in Love with a rather useless modern English teacher with a shocking disregard for UNESCO World Heritage sites.
We left Greece with editor Susan Ryeland to solve the Moonflower Murders involving a death at a country hotel and clues hidden in another Atticus Pund novel.

We followed young Chinese acrobat Luck of the Titanic as she wore high fashion and attempted to convince her twin brother to join the circus in America - only to find themselves tangled in prejudice and tragedy.

In Ravenna, Italy, an ancient history grad student found herself Smitten with Ravioli when her cooking class partnered her with a handsome young history professor.

In the US, Lucy Kincaid helped identify backsliding sexual assault parolees becomes embroiled in murder as a stalker wanted to Love Me to Death. We followed a Girl Gone Viral as she hid in the fascinating Yuba City, California on land belonging to her bodyguard. A precocious young statistics prodigy checked off a list of "normal teenage experiences" at Shakespeare summer camp in rural Connecticut to make a Long Story Short. We learned that Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good as she bent the rules and the truth to indulge her fandom of the underappreciated sci-fi TV show Bleeders at a series of conventions, including in her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, and we attended classes on How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) along with a host of other labs and activities with hyper-organized pre-med Astrid.

In the more Fantastical realms, we joined The Tea Dragon Society to learn how to care for these charming and adorable (but sensitive) magical creatures, and in Ljosland (reminiscent of Iceland or the Faroe Islands), we helped research Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries.

>41 Caramellunacy: That sounds fun! Hope you're feeling settled ... seems your new library is meeting your needs.

>42 detailmuse: I'm very pleased with the selection so far! A lot more choices in genres I like to read, so I've been a bit grabby-hands while our things make their way to us!

I always enjoy your dig site reports :) What did you think of Emily Wilde? My best friend just read and loved it and I want to get to it soon.

>44 curioussquared: I really enjoyed Emily Wilde! She had a great narrative voice I enjoyed her interactions with her insufferably handsome rival. Plus, the fae were sufficiently varied and different from humans for me to be suitably invested. Similar in tone to the Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan.

>45 Caramellunacy: Oooh, I loved a Natural History of Dragons when I read it earlier this year :)

Hi CL, I'm hopelessly behind with threads. I will try to de better in future. I hope you are doing fine!

Hi Connie, always nice to have you drop by. Hope your reading is going well!

>48 Caramellunacy: Thanks, CL. My reading is doing great, or so I think.

Dig Site Report - August

The digsite has been busy this month, but mostly with exhibits on loan from other institutions rather than physical artefacts. Excavations have been ongoing with a total of 13 (2 Roots, 2 Borrowed, 8 Library, 1 Digital) with several others currently in progress. No significant progress on deaccessions, though aiming to pick that back up in September.

August
31. Can David Do It? - Sandy Asher
Carolina Moon - Nora Roberts
A Dangerous Mourning - Anne Perry
Defend and Betray - Anne Perry
Loveboat, Taipei - Abigail Hing Wen
Twelfth Grade Night - Molly Horton Booth
Murder in Time - Julie McElwain
The People on Platform 5 - Clare Pooley
Honor's Knight - Rachel Bach
Thank You for Listening - Julia Whelan
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake - Alexis Hall
Heaven's Queen - Rachel Bach
32. Glory in Death - J.D. Robb

Expeditions took the team to 4 countries (US, UK, Italy and Taiwan) as well as a stint in Fantasyland and Outer Space.

In the US, the team researched Can David Do It? to determine whether a boy who struggled with being in the shadow of his smart older siblings could find his own place to shine. We followed the South Carolina Moon to discover the identity of a serial killer using a young woman's psychic gift. We Thank You for Listening to the romantic escapades of two audiobook narrators working to record a romance work and sort through their own emotions after a chance meeting in Vegas, an awards ceremony in Los Angeles and a trip to Venice, Italy. Similarly straddling the US and Italy (though New York City and Rome, specifically), we struggled to find Glory in Death when prominent women were being murdered in a futuristic NYC and the media continued feeding the frenzy.

In the UK, we followed detective William Monk as he followed the consequences of A Dangerous Mourning when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead and no outsider entered the house. He and Hester Latterly work tirelessly to Defend and Betray a mother whose confession to a murder simply doesn't ring true and in the process uncover sordid family secrets. We solved A Murder in Time when an FBI agent somehow finds herself in the Regency era with a serial killer on the loose at the resident duke's estate.

In a more contemporary vein, we spent time with The People on Platform 5 when breaking the rules of commuting leads to friendship amongst an odd set of train passengers. And we spent some time in the great tent as Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and also finds a boyfriend...

A re-read of the shenanigans at Loveboat, Taipei had us following the escapades of college-bound youth as they learn more about themselves and their heritage.

At Arden High, we followed Vi - the first time away from twin Sebastian - as they navigate their crush on emo poet Instagram influencer Orsino and the plot of Twelfth Night in a high school amalgamation of Shakespeare's plays. (the hall monitor is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father!)

Then we followed Paradoxian mercenary Deviana Morris as she made her way from being Honor's Knight to taking on Heaven's Queen with a terrifying virus, plasmex powers and her beloved suit of armor. Not to mention a lovestricken symbiont.