#Elizabeth C. Bunce books

[hayleythesugarbowl]

╰┈➤ if you enjoyed these books growing up then 1) your sense of humor is immaculate and 2) you’re either in pre-med or you’re a detective there’s no in between

#premeditated myrtle #a series of unfortunate events #murder most unladylike #they lost their heads! #don’t read this book before bed #the mysterious benedict society #elizabeth c bunce #lemony snicket #trenton lee stewart #robin stevens #carlyn beccia #anna claybourne #literature #children’s book #children’s literature

[kajaono]

Took me until the second novel to realize that Miss Judson is a reference to Mrs Hudson

This book is not the most well written book I might have ever read but beautiful nerdy. Especially because it doesnnot pretend to be the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes (or to be better then Sherlock Holmes) instead Myrtel is also a Sherlock holmes fan. If he really exists in her universe… we do not know

#Sherlock holmes #A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #Elizabeth c bunce #holla kaja is live blogging books again

[roseunspindle]

Books with “B” Authors that I Own and Need to Read Part 6

* That Lass o' Lowrie's

#booklr #tbr shelf shaming #authors #books #Roseanne A. Brown #Tobias S. Buckell #E.A. Wallis Budge #Lois McMaster Bujold #Laura Bulbeck #editor* #Elizabeth C. Bunce #Chris Bunch #Peter Burke #Ben Lucien Burman #frances hodgson burnett #edgar rice burroughs #Jim Butcher #image heavy #long post

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Premeditated Myrtle | Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce | Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers (2020)

#books #Premeditated Myrtle #Elizabeth C. Bunce

[snckt]

how to get away with myrtle by elizabeth c bunce is officially my first read of the new year and !!! i simply adored it. as a middle grade mystery it was very engaging, and the last fifty pages left me guessing, despite whatever attempts i had made to build my case aha! i like myrtle and her quips about the world, from opinions on petticoats, to her adoration of her cat, peony, to books she’s liked, to morbid facts she’s picked up one way or another, she’s a rather charming twelve year old, who would believably get caught up in mystery and murder. her governess, miss judson, is the firm hand on her shoulder, but is quick to encourage and even quicker to jump in herself, if it be sketching a murder scene or facing off with a most disliked detective inspector, she balances myrtle’s excitement and inexperience in way only victorian governesses can!!

also, a train murder ✨🚂✂️🥸❗️10/10

#i’m a reviewer now ahaha #and reader beware this is the second book in the series — the library didn’t have the first but they’re stand alone #enough that it didn’t matter too terribly much !!! but again i really did enjoy it #i like middle grade mysteries generally because they’re 1) quick reads 2) not so complicated of a plot that you can solve the mystery too #3) because of a simpler plot . you have the development of your main protagonist who generally believes in the good of the world ! #(also final note . brett helquest did the art work so … 👀)(judge those books by their covers)

[sabraeal]

I hope you will take this as a fun opportunity and not an annoyance but I was wondering if you had any book recs? I generally read fantasy and have been trying to break into Adult Lit over YA (while still liking YA and hoping to find adult novels with the same engaging settings and brisk pacing but with more advanced prose). Really liked Spinning Silver and Uprooted by Naomi Novik this year, and my favorites of your fics are Seven Suitors (obligatory), pacific rim au, and the snow queen one. I’ve never really read romance before but I’m willing to give it a try, especially if there’s other genre elements at play as well. Do you have any directions you could point me? I appreciate it!

Oh, I always love giving book recs, and thank you so much for giving me some preferences because it's so much easier to direct people when I know what they already like!

My current favorite YA author right now is Frances Hardinge, who writes truly magnificent prose and absolutely amazing worlds. If you like All That Remains, you will probably love the emotional devastation that is The Lie Tree, and a few of my other favorites are Gullstruck Island and Cuckoo Song. If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett, you also can't go wrong with her Fly By Night duology. Genevieve Valentine is another YA author I highly recommend; Mechanique is probably my favorite, but the Persona series is also top notch, and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club has a vibe that cannot be beat.

I haven't yet read Spinning Silver but Uprooted is also a fav of mine; I have a deep love of fairy tale retellings, or stories written to be like fairy tales. On that thread I definitely recommend the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden (I have a few quibbles with the story, but the writing is solid and the first book had me captivated for a good 3/4ths of it), The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M Valente, plus A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C Bunce (her Thief Errant series also lives RENT FREE in my head at all times).

Seven Suitors was fleshed out with Regency mores in mind, inspired by by historical mystery novels I read in that time period, plus some fantasy with more rigid social structure. The Crown & Court duet by Sherwood Smith is something I would consider formative for my writing in that quarter. For something actually regency set, though definitely not the same genre, I would recommend the Sebastian St Cyr series by CS Harris, which are mysteries set in Georgian London, featuring a brooding hero who starts off with an equally brooding, star-crossed actress as a lover...only to have the rug pulled out beneath him by the daughter of his father's long-standing political rival.

My scifi chops are rather thin-- I love the genre but I find lots of the deeper cuts here get too info-dumpy for me on the hard science level-- but I can definitely recommend The Expanse series by James SA Corey (as well as pretty much anything Daniel Abraham writes in the fantasy genre)

As for All That Remains, there are several extremely painful fantasy series I could recommend, because I love having my heart torn out, stamped on, and then taped back in. Guy Gavriel Kay is a great writer for that-- I suggest starting at Lions of Al-Rassan and then working your way forward through that setting by publishing date. The aforementioned Daniel Abraham also is amazing at this; The Seasons Quartet is a decades-spanning series that will truly make your tear out your hair at the end of each book. NK Jemisin is also amazing, The Broken Earth trilogy is where I would start out for intense heart-stomping.

#asks #recs #YA is such a hard genre because so much of what is pushed is like...dystopian trilogies with love triangles #but there's SO MUCH MORE out there #you just hafta REALLY DIG #i tried very hard not to make this like. HERE ARE ALL MY FAVORITE BOOKS #but since you chose the three fics taht i feel like showcase a lot of the writing chops i've picked up from reading #it was HARD

[booksformks]

Book Review: Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity (Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery 5)by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Goodreads Author) 5 out of 5 stars Myrtle and Miss Judson are traveling to Scotland to inspect the estate which Miss Judson has just inherited from her great-uncle. There are rumors of ghosts around the estate, and a long-lost treasure of the MacJudd clan. Myrtle’s detective skills are called upon when a man is…

View On WordPress

#book #book review #books #middle grade book #read #reading #review #YA book

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Middle School Monday: Premeditated Myrtle: A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery by Elizabeth C. Bunce 

12-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle is naturally curious about the world around her, and she wants to follow in her parents’ footsteps of law and medicine. Sometimes her curiosity gets her into trouble, like when she notices some Mysterious Circumstances at her neighbor’s house (by observing it with a telescope), and then contacts the police. It turns out that Myrtle’s neighbor Miss Woodhouse died overnight, from what appear to be natural causes. But Myrtle doesn’t believe it, and neither does her governess Miss Judson. 

Together, Myrtle and Miss Judson will work to prove that Miss Woodhouse was, in fact, murdered. But that will be an uphill battle since nobody else believes them, not even the town prosecutor … Myrtle’s father.

This book, the first in the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series set in Victorian England, will keep readers hooked with Myrtle’s quick wits and hilarious sarcasm. Readers will also keep turning the pages to find out if Myrtle and Miss Judson can stay out of trouble long enough to solve this murder.

Give this book to older kids and younger teens who enjoy historical mysteries and smart girls who love science!

#Middle School Monday #Premeditated Myrtle #Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #Elizabeth C. Bunce #Kid Lit #mystery #STEM #STEAM #Kingsbridge Library #NYPL

[libraryleopard]

I have not actually read StarCrossed and Liar’s Moon by Elizabeth C. Bunce for like a decade but I WILL die on the hill that the third book in the Thief’s Errant trilogy being cancelled was a heinous crime against me personally and I will carry a grudge against Arthur A. Levine Books to my grave Like, man, imagine an alternate universe where the Thief’s Errant trilogy got the kind of fandom and success that Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series got…

#especially since liar's moon ended on a HELL of a cliffhanger that haunts me TO THIS DAY #I'm so sad that the third book was never published #either traditionally or just self-published after the series was cancelled #thief errant #books #lulu speaks #lulu reads thief errant #elizabeth c bunce #lulu reads

[friendly-neighbourhood-librarian]

Though the calendar read April, winter still had us in her grip and was slow to let go.

—Elizabeth C. Bunce, A Curse Dark as Gold

#book quotes #elizabeth c. bunce #a curse dark as gold #seasonal quotes #april #wintertime

[aliteraryprincess]

November Challenge Your Shelf

Day 19: Currently Reading

#challenge your shelf #booklr #book photography #books #the name of the wind #patrick rothfuss #kingkiller chronicle #a curse dark as gold #elizabeth c bunce

[kajaono]

I love how the „A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery“-book are a perfect mix of:

I completely forgot to describe my main characters appearance, I put nothing I researched about the Victorian time into context… actually I completely forgot to mention it is set in the Victorian age, because I forgot to write an introduction

And:

Of course she is reading the strand magazine

#A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #Elizabeth c bunce #holla kaja is live blogging books again

[lover-of-the-starkindler]

Fortnight of Books: 2021

Day 1:

Overall - best books read in 2021?

Piranesi by Suzannah Clarke was good; and I suspect it’ll be even better on rereads. I also enjoyed A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (part memoir, part cookbook which made a delectable read), The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder, and Moonscript by H. S. J. Williams

Best series you discovered in 2021?

The problem here is that the books I want to use for this answer are not actually a series, nor do they pretend to be one. O. Douglas (pen name of Anna Buchan) wrote contemporary fiction around WWI, and many of her scenes and characters were drawn from her own family experiences and the style is charming and the characters feel like people.

I do have a list of series I liked, but none of them feel like they’re contenders for the title of best.

Billabong by Mary Grant Bruce is from the same era as O. Douglas, so reading the two authors around the same time was a treat. I tried out Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series for the first time (Napoleonic hi-fi), found Tara Grayce's Elven Alliance series (fantasy hurt/comfort romance), Sheila Simonson's Latouche County mysteries (modern small town), the Myrtle Hardcastle mysteries by Elizabeth C. Bunce (middle-grade historical adjacent), and Legendary Magic by Stella Dorthwany (fantasy)

Best reread of the year?

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. Highly recommended for anyone wanting a witty protagonist who gets himself into trouble more often than not while living through the French Revolution. Also, I reread the Tales of the Kingdom series by David and Karen Mains and it was just as good as I remembered

(template for this year’s questions can be found here)

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Spinning Silver

Author: Naomi Novik.

Publication Date: 2018.

Genre: Fantasy YA.

Premise: After her family is driven to the brink of poverty, young Miryem Mandelstam takes over her father's moneylending business and makes a success of it. Unfortunately, the Staryk, a parallel civilization of wintry fae folk, are listening when she tells her mom that she can turn silver into gold...and they are a literal bunch. Now Miryem's on the hook to turn their large quantities of silver into gold, and that's just the beginning. Can Miryem deal with these difficult ice people, garden-variety bigots, and a complicated political situation involving a fire demon?

Thoughts: I went into this book more or less cold (pun intended). I knew that it was inspired by "Rumpelstiltskin," that the heroine was Jewish, and that @forthegothicheroine liked it. The first two elements intrigued me, but, more important, I'd already discovered two terrific books in 2021 because @forthegothicheroine spoke well of them. As a result, I wasn't prepared for just how much great stuff is packed into this novel.

Most notably, it's a fascinating exploration of economics; that is, the complex web of resources, transactions, favors, and debts that exist in a society. Miryem has multiple irons in the fire even before she finds herself making high-stakes deals with the Staryks: lending money, taking the villagers' goods to the city to sell, and bringing back goods to sell in the village. (The gentile villagers, of course, see their own role in this economy as necessary and natural, yet resent the Mandlestams' participation regardless of their financial status; such is the nature of scapegoating.) The two secondary heroines make their own deals; Wanda, the Mandlestams' stoic hired girl, always arranges her affairs to avoid financial exploitation by her drunken father, while mousy boyar's daughter Irina must navigate the ever-shifting ways in which she's used as a marriage pawn. Everyone trades: peasant girls and tsars, ice kings and fire demons. I often thought of Margaret Atwood's Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth while I was reading.

I also really loved the novel as a riff on "Rumpelstiltskin," one of the more peculiar well-known fairy tales. Like the excellent A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, the novel takes bargains and debts more seriously than the original. (I don't think that Rumpelstiltskin should've gotten that baby--enforcing such a contract would be unconscionable--but he kind of gets jerked around.) While A Curse Dark as Gold concentrates on righting past wrongs, though, Spinning Silver focuses on the important of integrity. Miryem can look after herself, but she doesn't leave others behind. In this way, she gets to know the Staryk world, an icy, alien realm that still has its own complex needs and values, and grows to care about its people. Something similar happens to Irina; initially a scared girl whose only obligations are to herself and to her old nursemaid, she ends up saving countless people, including one who seems beyond all help. The story is full of fairy tale logic of the best kind: reversals and renewals everywhere.

Hot Goodreads Take: "If you are a part of the [J]ewish faith who understood the holidays the main character was celebrating, or the prayers she was saying, the power to you! I was reading this book for fun, and, therefore, didn't want to run to my phone to figure out what exactly was happening every time an instance like this occurred." I'm also not Jewish, but I'd be ashamed of myself if I whined about having to learn some basic facts about another religion, culture, country, etc., to understand a YA book.

#little book review #spinning silver #naomi novik #i have seen more intellectually curious mushrooms

[ninja-muse]

April 2021 Wrap-Up

Books read, in rough order of personal worth-it-ness: 

Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe (One family, Big Pharma, legal shenanigans, and OxyContin.)
 - Jewish subjects and minor 🏳️‍🌈 subjects — but most are terrible people

Ace - Angela Chen (Asexuality 201)
 - 🏳️‍🌈, BIPOC, author of colour, #ownvoices

Fred Gets Dressed - Peter Brown (Fred finds his parents’ closet.) - 🏳️‍🌈-adjacent

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr (An Ancient Greek story, and hope, unite disparate characters across time.)
 Out in September. - 🏳️‍🌈 character, autistic (?) character, Muslim characters

The Book of the City of Ladies - Christine de Pizan, Rosalind Brown-Grant (Translator) (Medieval proto-feminism.)

The Hidden Palace - Helene Wecker (The Golem and Jinni, and their compatriots, struggle with change.) Out in June. - Jewish characters, POC

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson (A woman from the slums travels the multiverse and discovers a murder.) 
- BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈, #ownvoices

Return of the Trickster - Eden Robinson (Jared vs. the Monsters, Take Three: Electric Boogaloo.) BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character, #ownvoices, 🇨🇦

Premeditated Myrtle - Elizabeth C. Bunce (Can a 12-year-old detective solve a murder that everyone thinks was old age?) - BIPOC secondary characters

The Memory Theater - Karin Tidbeck (A boy and girl escape the eternal Gardens in search of a name.)
 - 🏳️‍🌈 adjacent, 🏳️‍🌈 author

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider, Vol. 2: The Impossible Year - Seanan McGuire (Who is Gwen Stacy, when everyone knows she’s a Spider?) - 
BIPOC side characters, 🏳️‍🌈 author

Julián at the Wedding - Jessica Love (Julián goes to a wedding and makes a friend.) - 🏳️‍🌈, BIPOC

Serpentine - Philip Pullman (Lyra has questions about daemons.)

One to Watch - Kate Stayman-London (A fat fashion blogger gets talked into being a Bachelorette.) - 
fat characters, BIPOC and 🏳️‍🌈 side characters

We Could Be Heroes - Mike Chen (A hero and villain meet in a support group and team up to find their lost memories.)
 - BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈 (but almost footnote), #ownvoices

The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner (A secretive apothecary, a housemaid, and the almost-historian who intersects their story 200 years later.) - disabled MC

The Paris Library - Janet Skeslien Charles (A librarian in WWII Paris, and the teen who meets her in the 1980s.) - Jewish side character

Currently Reading

Jay’s Gay Agenda - Jason June (New year + new city = gayer life?) Out in June. - 🏳️‍🌈, #ownvoices

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (Victorian detective stories)
 - disabled character

Stats


Monthly total: 17 + 0

 Yearly total: 57 + 2

 Queer books: 8 #ownvoices POC books: 3.5

 Canadian authors: 1


Read any of these? Interested in them? I’m happy to talk about my thoughts further!


January February March

#books #booklr #bookblr #reading wrap-ups #read in 2021 #book recommendations #rec lists

[oiforfoxsake]

Fairytale Retellings and Other Books Inspired by Childhood Stories

1. Beauty by Robin McKinley

2. Heartless by Marissa Meyer

3. Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes

4. Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire

5. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

6. When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai (Kitsune)

7. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan (Indonesian Folklore)

8. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

9. Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

10. The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

11. Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman

12. A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Honorable Mention - Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

#books #book #oi for fox sake read #fairytale #fairytale retellings #dorothy must die #Jane yolen #colleen oaks #booklr #fairytales #marissa meyer #eka kurniawan #briar rose #cinder