#Sharon McGowan

[cbjustmusic]

Shane McGowan performing "Rainy Night in Soho" with Sharon Shannon. ______________________ Rainy Night in Soho Songwriter: Shane McGowan

I've been loving you a long time Down all the years, down all the days And I've cried for all your troubles Smiled at your funny little ways We watched our friends grow up together And we saw them as they fell Some of them fell into Heaven Some of them fell into Hell

I took shelter from a shower And I stepped into your arms On a rainy night in Soho The wind was whistling all its charms I sang you all my sorrows You told me all your joys Whatever happened to that old song To all those little girls and boys

Sometimes I wake up in the morning The ginger lady by my bed Covered in a cloak of silence I hear you talking in my head I'm not singing for the future I'm not dreaming of the past I'm not talking of the first time I never think about the last

Now the song is nearly over We may never find out what it means Still there's a light I hold before me You're the measure of my dreams The measure of my dreams

[jaynedolluk]

Last couple of weekends of the Times had interviews w/Sharon Osbourne, Miles Jupp, Tuppence Middleton on playing Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Lee and Victoria Mary Clarke on Shane McGowan.

They also had reviews of Vigil, Slow Horses, and Dr Who plus a piece on Judith Kerr as they're showing Mog's Christmas (an animation based on one of her books) on channel 4. Fave bit of the article was - "Mog's love of eggs came from his father's daily indulgence of his beloved pets. Every morning he would cook each cat its morning egg a different way before turning his attention to the children's breakfasts."

[celtic-cd-releases]

https://www.breenrynnemurray.com/

https://www.facebook.com/breenrynnemurray

https://padraigrynne.bandcamp.com/album/odyssey

https://open.spotify.com/album/7EVVxPmWOBY8mUJ9jbpi0z

[rpg-wiccareborn]

Reservas de FC:

@belajuliana_ - Moon Abigail Cowen - AveFenix Adelaide Kane - Brujita Alvaro Morte - King Ana de Armas - Gun Angelina Jolie - Ms. Smith Antony Starr - Ariakas Brianna Hildebrand - Gun Cailee Spaeny - Willow Colin O'Donoghue - Nómada Cillian Murphy - Ouroboros Daniel Rose Russell - Violence Dominic Sherwood - Lyss Emilio Sakraya - Knight Enzo Vogrincic - Radiohead Eiza González - Kirtash Freya Allan - Spell Hande Erçel - Brujita Henry Cavill - Seraphine Jacob Elordi - Seraphine Jeffrey Dean Morgan - Ariakas Jessica Alexander - Jaloguin Kaden Hammond - Light Lorenzo Zurzolo - Fresh

Leighton Mester - missmyowndream Matthew Dadario - Jaloguin Natalie Dormer - Nómada Nick Bateman - Kirtash Nicole Kidman - Owens Ruby Rose Turner - Morango Scott Speedman - CK Sharon Alexie - Patita Sofia Carson - Morango Phoebe Dynevor - Ouroboros Tamika Fawcett - Fresh Tati Gabrielle - Crisálida Taylor Zakhar Pérez - Yoshi Wagner Moura - Slytherin Zoe Kravitz - Crisálida

NPCs: Alyssa Milano Holy Marie Combs Rose McGowan

[increasinglygeeky]

MY HOLLYWOOD LIVE ACTION ATTACK ON TITAN FANCAST

Alex Storm as Eren Yeager

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Grisha Yeager

Holly Marie Combs as Carla Yeager

Kitty Chicha Amatayakul as Mikasa Ackerman

Sonoya Mizuno as Mikasa’s Mother

Tom Felton as Mikasa’s Father

Otto Farrant as Armin Arlert

Robert Englund as Armin’s Grandfather

Archie Renaux as Connie Springer

Cierra Ramirez as Sasha Braus

Julian Haig as Jean Kirshstein

Dane DeHaan as Levi Ackerman

Lizzy Caplan as Hange Zoe

Chris Evans as Erwin Smith

Shane Harper as Marco Bodt

Alexander Ludwig as Reiner Braun

Gus Birney as Annie Leonhart

Kathryn Newton as Historia “Christa Lenz” Reiss

Kawani Prenter as Ymir

Théodore Pellerin as Bertolt Hoover

Matthias Schoenarts as Erwin’s Father

Patrick Stewart as Commander Dot Pyxis

Elizabeth Debicki as Rico Brzenska

Emily Browning as Petra Raal

Misha Collins as Eld Guinn

Timothy Odmundson as Oluo Bozado

Ian Bohen as Gunther Schultz

Virginia Gardner as Isabel Magnolia

Leo Howard as Furlan Church

Johnny Depp as Kenny Ackerman

Rose McGowan as Kuchel Ackerman

William Zabka as Hannes

Jk Simmons as Keith Shadis

Joel Kinnaman as Mike Zacharias

Kristen Stewart as Nanaba

Camren Bicondova as Hitch Dreyse

Jason Mantzoukas as Gelgar

Peter Scanavino as Henning

Nathalie Emmanuel as Lynne

Andrew Garfield as Moblit Berner

John Boyega as Onyankopon

Mackenzie Davis as Yelena

Charlie Hunnam as Zeke Yeager

Harriet Cains as Pieck Finger

Tamlyn Tomita as Kiyomi Azumabito

Lou Wegner as Colt Grice

Flynn Curry as Falco Grice

Douglas Booth as Porco Galliard

Louis Partridge as Marcel Galliard

Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Gabi Braun

Hudson Yang as Udo

Miya Cech as Zofia

Matthew Gray Gubler as Uri Reiss

John Goodman as Rod Reiss

Alexxis Lemire as Frieda Reiss

Iain Armitage as Dirk Reiss

Zackary Arthur as Urklyn Reiss

Reagan Revord as Florian Reiss

Kitty Peterkin as Abel Reiss

Michelle Pfeiffer as Rod’s Wife

Will Poulter as Floch Forster

Isabella Gomez as Kaya

Skeet Ulrich as Eren Kruger

BD Wong as Tom Ksaver

Elizabeth Moss as Dina Fritz

Jeff Bridges as The Fake King Fritz

Brad Pitt as Willy Tybur

Helena Bonham Carter as Lara Tybur

Jason Beghe as Kitz Woermann

Jashaun St. John as Mina Carolina

Chuku Modu as Milieus Zeremski

Diego Tinoco as Nack Tierce

Ted Levine as Darius Zackly

Grant Show as Pastor Nick

Rudy Pankow as Thomas Wagner

Jacob Anderson as Marlowe Freudenberg

William Moseley as Daz

Kit Young as Samuel

Melissa Fumero as Nifa

Ramy Youssef as Rashad

Alia Shawkat as Lauda

Tony Thornburg as Keiji

Nico Mirallegro as Abel

Liza Soberano as Black-Haired Soldier

Brandon Flynn as Lima

Cillian Murphy as Dirk

Fo Porter as Marlene

Alan Ritchson as Klaus

Manish Dayal as Darius Baer-Varbrun

Neels Visser as Dita Ness

Barry Sloane as 11th Commander

Austin Bitikofer as Claude Duvalier

Jodie Comer as Traute Caven

Charlie Cox as Duran

Devon Sawa as Nile Dok

Drew Tanner as Franz Kafka

Abigail Cowen as Hannah Diamant

Till Lindemann ad Djel Sannes

Tim Curry as Wald

Veronica Ngo as Ilse Langnar

Kathy Bates as Jean’s Mother

Rob Raco as Flagon

Madelyn Cline as Carly Stratmann

Harish Patel as Annie’s Adopted Father

Dedee Pfeiffer as Karina Braun

Hector Elizondo as Reiner’s Father

Jessica Rothe as Louise

Oliver Platt as Reeves

Jason Genao as Lou

Javier Bardem as Magath

Lucas Till as Niccolo

Brad William Henke as Lobov

David Cross as Griez

Aryan Simhadri as Ramzi

Ritvik Sahore as Halil

Martin Sensmeier as Sumra

Alfred Molina as Koslow

Sonam Kapoor as Connie’s Mother

Nasser Hussain as Connie’s Father

Namit Shah as Martin Springer

Swayam Bhatia as Sunny Springer

Robert Patrick as Elliot Gurnberg Stratmann

Mia Talerico as Maria Fritz

Jophielle Love as Sina Fritz

Alyvia Alyn Lind as Rose Fritz

Jorge Enrique Abello as Artur Braus

Angie Cepeda as Lisa Braus

Lilian Bowden as Gabi’s Mother

Trent Garrett as Gabi’s Father

Sharon Stone as Grice Mother

Craig Fairbass as Muller

Lily Tomlin as Zeke's Grandma

Kevin Kline as Zeke's Grandpa

Ian Mckellen as 145th King Karl Fritz

Michael Fassbender as Karl Fritz

Amanda Seyfried as Adult Ymir Fritz

Brec Bassinger as Ymir Fritz

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

A Look at the slate of Countdown to Christmas Movies airing this year on the Hallmark Channel

Jingle Bell Bride  Premieres: Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Julie Gonzalo, Ronnie Rowe Jr.  Official synopsis: “Wedding planner Jessica Perez (Gonzalo) travels to a remote town in Alaska to find a rare flower for a celebrity client and is charmed by the small town during Christmas, as well as the handsome local (Rowe Jr.) helping her. 

Chateau Christmas  Premieres: Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Merritt Patterson, Luke Macfarlane  Official synopsis: “Margot (Patterson), a world-renowned pianist, returns to Chateau Newhaus to spend the holidays with her family and is reunited with an ex (Macfarlane) who helps her rediscover her passion for music.” 

Christmas With the Darlings Premieres: Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Katrina Law, Carlo Marks  Official synopsis: “Just before the holidays Jessica Lew (Law) is ending her tenure as the assistant to her wealthy boss to use her recently earned law degree within his company, but offers to help his charming, younger brother (Marks) as he looks after his orphaned nieces and nephew over Christmas.”

One Royal Holiday  Premieres: Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Laura Osnes, Aaron Tveit, Krystal Joy Brown, Victoria Clark, Tom McGowan  Official synopsis: “When Anna (Osnes) offers a stranded mother (Clark) and son (Tveit) shelter in a blizzard, she learns that they are the Royal Family of Galwick. Anna shows the Prince how they do Christmas in her hometown, encouraging him to open his heart and be true to himself.” 

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater  Premieres: Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Ashley Williams, Niall Matter  Official synopsis: “Single mom Maggie (Williams) is facing Christmas alone until Lucas (Matter) crashes into her life and becomes an unexpected houseguest. Together they overcome Christmas while finding comfort in their growing bond.” 

On the 12th Date of Christmas  Premieres: Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Mallory Jansen, Tyler Hynes  Official synopsis: “Two seemingly incompatible game designers team up to create a romantic, city-wide scavenger hunt themed for The 12 Days of Christmas.” 

Christmas in Vienna  Premieres: Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Sarah Drew, Brennan Elliott  Official synopsis: “Jess (Drew), a concert violinist whose heart just isn’t in it anymore, goes to Vienna for a performance. While there, she finds the inspiration she has been missing, and a new love.” 

A Timeless Christmas  Premieres: Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Ryan Paevey, Erin Cahill Official synopsis: “Charles Whitley (Paevey) travels from 1903 to 2020 where he meets Megan Turner (Cahill), a tour guide at his historic mansion, and experiences a 21st century Christmas. 

A Nashville Christmas Carol  Premieres: Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Jessy Schram, Wes Brown, Wynonna Judd, Sara Evans, RaeLynn, Kix Brooks, Kimberly Williams-Paisley  Official synopsis: “Vivienne Wake (Schram), a workaholic television producer in charge of a country music Christmas special showcasing newcomer Alexis (Raelynn), never lets personal feelings get in the way of business. On the verge of accepting a job in L.A., and with the return of Gavin Chase (Brown) — her childhood sweetheart and manager to the special’s headliner, Belinda (Evans) — she receives a visit from the ghost of her recently deceased mentor, Marilyn (Judd). Her mentor warns her current path leads to a dark future and has recruited both the Spirit of Christmas Past (Brooks) and the Spirit of Christmas Present (Williams-Paisley) to help her get back on track. The Spirits’ time-jumping adventures force Vivienne to take hold of her life." 

The Christmas House  Premieres: Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Robert Buckley, Jonathan Bennett, Ana Ayora, Treat Williams, Sharon Lawrence, Brad Harder  Official synopsis: “Working through some difficult decisions, Wade family matriarch Phylis (Lawrence) and patriarch Bill (Williams), have summoned their two grown sons — TV star Mike Wade (Buckley) and Brandon Wade (Bennett) — home for the holidays. It is their hope that bringing the family together to recreate the Christmas house will help them find resolution and make a memorable holiday for the entire family and community. As Brandon and his husband Jake (Harder) make the trip home, they are anxiously awaiting a call about the adoption of their first child. Meanwhile, Mike reconnects with Andi (Ayora), his high school sweetheart.” 

New movie to be Announced  Premieres: Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: TBD Official synopsis: TBD 

A Christmas Tree Grows in Brooklyn  Premieres: Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Rochelle Aytes, Mark Taylor  Official synopsis: “Erin (Aytes) is planning the town’s Christmas celebration and must win over firefighter Kevin (Taylor) in order to obtain the beautiful spruce tree from his property for the celebration.” 

A Bright and Merry Christmas  Premieres: Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Alison Sweeney, Marc Blucas  Official synopsis: “Two competing TV hosts (Sweeney and Blucas) are sent to a festive small town over Christmas. While pretending to get along for the sake of appearances, they discover that there’s more to each other than they thought. 

Five Star Christmas (Working Title)  Premieres: Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Bethany Joy Lenz, Victor Webster  Official synopsis: “After moving back to her hometown, Lisa (Lenz) plots with her siblings and grandparents to help her father’s new bed and breakfast get a five-star review from an incognito travel critic (Webster), but ends up falling for him, not knowing he is the real critic.” 

Christmas by Starlight (Working Title)  Premieres: Nov. 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Kimberley Sustad, Paul Campbell  Official synopsis: “Annie (Sustad), a lawyer, must help her loved ones this holiday season. Her family’s restaurant, the Starlight Café, is slated for demolition. The heir to the development firm responsible, William (Campbell), makes her an unlikely proposition: He’ll spare the café if Annie spends the week ‘appearing’ as the legal counsel his father is demanding he hire in the wake of some costly mistakes.” 

Christmas Waltz  Premieres: Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Lacey Chabert, Will Kemp, JT Church  Official synopsis: “After Avery’s (Chabert) storybook Christmas wedding is canceled unexpectedly, dance instructor Roman (Kemp) helps her rebuild her dreams.” 

If I Only Had Christmas  Premieres: Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Candace Cameron Bure, Warren Christie Official synopsis: “At Christmas, a cheerful publicist (Bure) teams up with a cynical business owner (Christie) and his team to help a charity in need.” 

Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing  Premieres: Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Holly Robinson Peete, Colin Lawrence, Rukiya Bernard, Antonio Cayonne, Barbara Niven  Official synopsis: “As Michelle’s (Peete) wedding approaches, Hannah (Bernard) steps up to help finish the launch of the new Evergreen museum while questioning her relationship and future with Elliot (Cayonne).” 

Christmas She Wrote  Premieres: Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Danica McKellar, Dylan Neal  Official synopsis: “When Kayleigh (McKellar), a romance writer, has her column canceled right before Christmas, she heads home to reconnect with her family. Kayleigh gets an unexpected visit from the man (Neal) who canceled her column who fights not only to bring her back to the publisher but also for her heart.” 

Cross Country Christmas  Premieres: Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Rachael Leigh Cook, Greyston Holt  Official synopsis: “Former classmates Lina (Cook) and Max (Holt) are traveling home for the holidays, until a storm hits and they have to work together to make it home in time, no matter the mode of transportation.” 

Christmas Carnival  Premieres: Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Stars: Tamera Mowry-Housley, Antonio Cupo  Official synopsis: “Emily (Mowry-Housley) is a top newscaster who has achieved her career dreams but still has regrets about the guy (Xavier) who got away five years earlier. When the Christmas carnival comes to town, a ride around the carousel takes her magically back in time to the carnival five years before... giving her a second chance at love before she must return to Christmas present.” 

A Christmas Carousel  Premieres: Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Rachel Boston, Neal Bledsoe  Official synopsis: “When Lila (Boston) is hired by the Royal Family of Marcadia to repair a carousel, she must work with the Prince (Bledsoe) to complete it by Christmas.” 

Love, Lights, Hanukkah!  Premieres: Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel Stars: Mia Kirshner, Ben Savage, Marilu Henner  Official synopsis: “As Christina (Kirshner) prepares her restaurant for its busiest time of year, she gets back a DNA test revealing that she’s Jewish. The discovery leads her to a new family and an unlikely romance over eight nights.” 

Info from the ew.com article, Link HERE 

[bookjotter6865]

Winding up the Week #59

Winding up the Week #59

An end of week recap

For the second week on the trot, WUTW is a tad late but nevertheless appears on schedule: Saturday – just!

As ever, this is a weekly post in which I summarize books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the night-stand and keep readers abreast of various book-related…

[yerbevan]

--------------------------

'Sharon McGowan, legal director of the LGBTQ civil rights organization Lambda Legal, said the group was particularly concerned about one of Trump’s top picks to replace Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett. When Barrett was nominated for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017, Lambda Legal wrote a letter opposing her nomination, citing her decision to deliver a lecture paid for by the conservative Christian organization Alliance Defending Freedom as well as a letter she signed publicly supporting “marriage and family founded on the indissoluble commitment of a man and a woman." '

----------------------------

Redefining 'religious freedom' as a right and obligation to harm fellow Americans, people in your neighborhood, your community, your home, has a negative and toxic ripple effect that results in all manner of discrimination, unfair practices, and even violence.

Want your car repaired? Pay double the normal rate to get it back. Up for a raise or promotion? Forget it and get stuck in your position and pay rate indefinitely, while your coworkers advance.

Maybe a career in the military looks like an attractive option. Prepare to be discharged. Your local county clerk may refuse to issue a marriage license with impunity. Youths in America are still being disowned and kicked out of the family home with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  

Abuses extend through all ethnic classes and socioeconomic strata. 

Many 'protections' are already compromised and ignored, and mistreatment can only get worse. --Bevan  

---------------------------------

[lesbian-books]

Lesbian Authors

A.J. Adaire  Pat Adams-Wright  Dorothy Allison  S.W. Anderson  Elizabeth Andre  Mavis Applewater  Ann Aptaker  J.A. Armstrong  Michelle Arnold  Clare Ashton  K. Aten  Victoria Avilan  Darla Baker  Roslyn Bane  Ann Bannon  Solia Panche Bealti  Alison Bechdel  Georgia Beers  Sharon Marie Bence  Bridget Birdsall  Harper Bliss  Andrea Bramhall  Jaye Robin Brown  Anna Burke  Amalie Cantor  Brandee Carbo  Suzie Carr  Dawn Carter  C.L. Cattano  Becky Chambers  Kate Charlton  Sharon Cho  Barbara L. Clanton  Hannah Abigail Clarke  Shelby Cochran  Helen Corcoran  Jeanne Córdova  Audrey Coulthurst  Delores Cremm  Maggie Dane  Emily M. Danforth  Sandra de Helen  Barbara Dennis  Nicole Dennis-Benn Stefani Deoul  K.E. DePalmenary  T.L. Dickerson  Jennifer Diemer  Sarah Diemer * Jane DiLucchio  J.M. Dragon  Moondancer Drake  K.B. Draper  Cassandra Duffy  A.L. Duncan  Nann Dunne  Sarah Ettritch  Lillian Faderman  Sara Farizan  Leslie Feinberg  Anna Ferrara  Fannie Flagg  Jane Fletcher  Laura Foley  Katherine V. Forrest  Diane Fortier  Giselle Fox  Anna Furtado  Elisa M. Galbreath  Lynn Galli  S.L. Gape  Nancy Garden  Lyn Gardner  S. Anne Gardner  Pauline George  Ana B. Good  Parker Gordon  Erin Gough  Kimberly Cooper Griffin  Nicola Griffith  Agnes H. Hagadus  Anne Hagan  Radclyffe Hall  S.M. Harding  Ellen Hart  Nancy Ann Healy  Fran Heckrotte  Natasja Hellenthal  Dotti Henderson  Claire Highton-Stevenson  Gerri Hill  E.M. Hodge  Dayna Ingram  Isabella  Jae  Adiba Jaigirdar  Jo Jennings  Heather Rose Jones  E.A. Kafkalas  Karin Kallmaker  Riley LaShea  Stacey-Leanne  Lez Lee  Malinda Lo  Ann-Marie MacDonald  Renee MacKenzie  Prudence MacLeod  Lise MacTague  Lucy J. Madison  Rachel Maldonado  Siera Maley  Laurie J. Marks  Julie Maroh  Michelle Marra  Paula Martinac  Arkady Martine  Q.C. Masters  Andi Marquette  Pamela Mauldin  Robbi McCoy  M.K. McGowan  Gill McKnight  Ann McMan  Heather McVea  Mary Meriam  Ronni Meyrick  Martha Miller  Rogena Mitchell-Jones  K.A. Moll  Sallyanne Monti  Annette Mori  Bonnie J. Morris  Jaycie Morrison  Niamh Murphy  Charlene Neil  Natasha Ngan  Nik Nicholson  Baren Nix  Ocean  Paula Offutt Chinelo Okparanta  Chris Parsons  Angela Peach  Julie Anne Peters  B.J. Phillips  Ashley Quinn  Radclyffe  Cheryl Rainfield  Adan Ramie  Nina Revoyr  Rhavensfyre  Julia Diana Robertson  Nita Round  Morgan Routh  Joanna Russ  Laurie Salzler  Shamim Sarif  Lacey Schmidt  Sarah Schulman  Tina Sears  Cass Sellars  Merry Shannon  Fiona Shaw ** Kaden Shay  Djuna Shellam  Jen Silver  Jennis Slaughter  Adrian J. Smith  E.H. Smith  Vanessa Snyder  Alison R. Solomon  Raven J. Spencer  Ali Spooner  Rose Stone  Carren Strock  Rebecca Sullivan  Leandra Summers  Mariko Tamaki  Michelle L. Teichman  Keira Michelle Telford  Rae Theodore  M.E. Tudor  Vanda  Elle Vaughn  Missouri Vaun  Anastasia Vitsky  Tillie Walden  Sarah Waters  HollyAnne Weaver  Laney Webber  Louise Welsh  Caren J. Werlinger  K.D. Williamson  B.L. Wilson  Catherine M. Wilson  Barbara Winkes  Lee Winter  Jeanette Winterson  Chris Anne Wolfe  T.J. Wolfe  Jacqueline Woodson  Fiona Zedde  Kristen Zimmer 

* Also writes under the pen names Elora Bishop and Bridget Essex

** Not to be confused with the Irish actress of the same name

This list is subject to changes. Compiling a list of lesbian authors is a challenge because not all authors are out and my sources of information are limited. I had to rely on finding author bios, interviews, tweets, etc. in which an author mentions her sexual orientation. I also got many of these names from the Lesbian Authors Guild. 

[maddie-grove]

The Top Twenty Books I Read in 2019

My main takeaways from the past year’s reading:

Sometimes you think something is happening because of magic, but then it turns out to have a non-magical explanation so weird that you find yourself saying, “You know what? I wish faeries or God were responsible for this. I’d honestly feel less disturbed.”

Stop bathing and changing your clothes and shaving for three years, three months, and three days. You’ll find out who your real friends are. I promise you that.

I want more books about bisexual ladies!!! Give them to me!!!

Anyway...

20. The Prodigal Duke by Theresa Romain (2017)

Childhood sweethearts Poppy Hayworth and Leo Billingsley were separated when his older brother, a duke, sent him away to make his fortune. Years later, the duke is dead, a financially successful Leo has come back to England to take his place, and Poppy has become a rope dancer at Vauxhall Gardens after a life-shattering event. New sparks are flying between them, but is love possible when so much else has changed? Leo and Poppy are believable and charming as old friends, Romain makes great use of obscure historical details from the oft-depicted Regency period, and I loved Leo’s difficult but caring elderly uncle.

19. Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi (1996)

Althea Winsloe, a young widow in 1900s Arkansas, has no interest in remarrying, but almost everyone in her small Ozarks community is pressuring her to remarry, and she still needs someone to help farm her land. Enter Jesse Best, a strong young man with cognitive disabilities who’s happy to take on the work. As he makes improvements to her farm and bonds with her three-year-old son, Althea gets to know him better and starts to see him in a new light. This earthy romance could’ve been a disaster, but instead it illustrates how people with disabilities are often...uh...simplified and de-sexualized in a way that denies them autonomy. Morsi has a similarly nuanced take on Althea and Jesse’s community, which is claustrophobic and supportive all at once.

18. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (2018)

Outspoken and insecure, bisexual high school senior Leah Burke is having a tough year. Her friend group is in turmoil, her single mom is seriously dating someone, and she’s caught between a sweet boy she’s not sure about and a pretty, perfect straight girl who couldn’t possibly be into her...right??? The sequel to the very cute Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Leah on the Offbeat pulls a The Godfather: Part II with its messy protagonist, sweetly surprising romance, and masterful comic set piece involving the Atlanta American Girl Doll restaurant.

17. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper (2006)

Kidnapped from her home in eighteenth-century Ghana, fifteen-year-old Amari is sold into slavery and winds up on a South Carolina plantation, where she faces terrible cruelty but finds friends in an enslaved cook, her little son, and eventually a sulky white indentured servant around her age. When their master escalates his already-atrocious behavior, the three young people flee south to the Spanish Fort Mose in search of freedom. Draper’s complicated characters, vivid descriptions, and deft handling of heavy subjects makes for top-notch historical YA fiction.

16. A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole (2019)

After her controlling politician father was jailed for poisoning a bunch of people in their small, prosperous African country, Nya Jerami gained unprecedented freedom but also became the subject of vicious gossip. Johan von Braustein, the hard-partying stepson of a European monarch, wants to help her, partly because he sympathizes and partly because he has a crush, but she thinks he’s too frivolous and horny (if wildly attractive). After an embarrassing misunderstanding compels them to enter a fake engagement, though, she begins to wonder if there’s more to him. I’m not a huge fan of contemporary romance, but this novel has the perfect combination of heartfelt emotion, delicious melodrama, and adorable fluff. 

15. One Perfect Rose by Mary Jo Putney (1997)

Stephen, the Duke of Ashburton, has always done the proper and responsible thing, but that all changes when he learns that he’s terminally ill. Wandering the countryside in the guise of an ordinary gentleman, he ends up joining an acting troupe and falling in love with Rosalind, the sensible adopted daughter of the two lead actors. Like another Regency romance on this list, this novel celebrates love in many forms: there’s the love story between Stephen and Rosalind, yes, but there’s also Rosalind’s loving relationship with her adopted family, the new bonds she forms with her long-lost blood relatives, the way her two families embrace the increasingly frightened Stephen, and the healing rifts between Stephen and his well-meaning but distant siblings. Stephen’s reconciliation with his mortality is also moving.

14. My One and Only Duke by Grace Burrowes (2018)

Facing a death sentence in Newgate, footman-turned-prosperous banker Quinton Wentworth decides to do one last good thing: marry Jane McGowan, a poor pregnant widow, so she and the baby will be financially set. Then he receives a pardon and a dukedom at the literal last minute, meaning that he and Jane have a more permanent arrangement than either intended. I fell in love with the kind-but-difficult protagonists almost at once, and with Burrowes’s gorgeous prose even faster. 

13. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

It’s 1986, and comics-loving, post-punk-listening, half-Korean Park and bright, weird, constantly bullied Eleanor are just trying to get through high school in their rough Omaha neighborhood. He’s only grudgingly willing to let her share his bus seat at first, but this barely civil acquaintance slowly thaws into friendship and blossoms into love. Far from being the whimsical eighties-nostalgia-fest I expected, this is a bittersweet love story about two isolated young people who find love, belonging, and a chance for self-expression with each other in an often-hostile environment (a small miracle pre-Internet).

12. Shrill by Lindy West (2016)

In this memoir, Lindy West talks about the difficulties of being a fat woman, the thankless task of being vocally less-than-enthused about rape jokes, the joys of moving past self-doubt, and the very real possibility that Little John from Disney’s Robin Hood was played by “bear actor” Baloo, among other subjects. I was having a hard time during my last semester of law school this past spring, and this book’s giddy humor and inspiring messages really helped me in my hour of need.

11. Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth (2018)

In 1925, very young businessman Howard Hughes breezed into Hollywood with nothing but tons of family wealth, a soon-to-be-divorced wife, and a simple dream: make movies about fast planes and big bosoms. He got increasingly weird and reactionary over the next thirty years, then retired from public life. More a history of 1920s-1950s Hollywood than a biography, this book has the same sharp writing and in-depth film analysis that makes me love Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This.

10. The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan (1966)

In Civil-War-era Virginia, iron-willed Martha Farnsworth and her nervous younger sister try to run their nearly empty girls’ boarding school within earshot of a battlefield. When one girl finds Union soldier John McBurney injured in the woods, she brings him back to the house, where he exploits every conflict and secret among the eight girls and women (five students, two sisters, and one enslaved cook). Charming and manipulative, he nevertheless finds himself in over his head. Cullinan makes great use of the eight POVs and the deliciously claustrophobic setting; it’s fascinating to watch the power dynamics and allegiances shift from scene to scene.

9. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian (2018)

Reserved tavern keeper Sam Fox wants to help out his brother’s sweetheart by finding and destroying a nude portrait she once sat for; disgraced gentleman Hartley Sedgwick isn’t sure what he wants after having his life ruined twice over, but he happened to inherit his house from the man who commissioned the painting...plus he’s not exactly reluctant to assist kind, handsome Sam in his quest. I wrote about this heart-melting romance two times last year; suffice it to say that it’s not only one of the best Regencies I’ve ever read, but also possibly the best romance I’ve ever read about the creation of a found family.

8. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (2014)

Blanche Beunon, a French-born burlesque dancer in 1876 San Francisco, has a lot going on: her mooching boyfriend has turned on her, her sick baby is missing, and her cross-dressing, frog-hunting friend Jenny Bonnet was just shot dead right next to her. In the middle of a heat wave, a smallpox epidemic, and a little bit of mob violence, she must locate her son and solve Jenny’s murder. This is a glorious work of historical fiction; you can see, hear, smell, and feel the chaotic world of 1870s San Francisco, plus Blanche’s character arc is amazing.

7. The Patrick Melrose novels (Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother’s Milk, and At Last) by Edward St. Aubyn (1992, 1992, 1994, 2005, and 2012, respectively)

Born to an embittered English aristocrat and an idealistic American heiress, Patrick Melrose lives through his father’s sadistic abuse and his mother’s willful blindness (Never Mind),  does a truly staggering amount of drugs in early adulthood (Bad News), and makes a good-faith effort at leading a normal life (Some Hope). Years later, the life he’s built with his wife and two sons is threatened by his alcoholism and reemerging resentment of his mother (Mother’s Milk), but there may be a chance to salvage something (At Last). Despite the suffering and cruelty on display, these novels were the farthest thing from a dismaying experience, thanks to the sharp characterization, grim humor, and great sense of setting. Also, I love little Robert Melrose, an anxious eldest child after my own heart. 

6. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1974)

In 1550s England, no-nonsense Kate Sutton is exiled to the Perilous Gard, a remote castle occupied by suspicious characters, including the lord’s guilt-ridden younger brother Christopher. Troubled by the holes she sees in the story of the tragedy that haunts him, she does some problem-solving and ends up in a world of weird shit. Cleverly plotted, deliciously spooky, and featuring an all-time-great heroine, this book was an absolute treat. The beautiful Richard Cuffari illustrations in my edition didn’t hurt, either.

5. An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole (2019)

Daniel Cumberland, a free black man from New England traumatized from being sold into slavery, and Janeta Sanchez, a mixed-race Cuban-Floridian lady from a white Confederate family, have been sent on a mission to the Deep South by the Loyal League, a pro-Union spy organization. Initially hostile to everyone (but particularly to somewhat naive Janeta), Daniel warms to his colleague, but will her secrets, his shattered faith in justice, and the various dangers they face prevent them from falling in love? Nah. Alyssa Cole’s historical romances deliver both on the history and the romance, and this is one of her strongest entries.

4. The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite (2019)

Heartbroken by the death of her father and the marriage of her ex-girlfriend, Lucy Muchelney decides she needs a change of scenery and takes a live-in position translating a French astronomy text for Catherine St. Day, the recently widowed Countess of Moth. Catherine, used to putting her interests on hold for an uncaring spouse, is intrigued by this awkward, independent lady. I’ve read f/f romances before, but this sparkling Regency was the first to really blow me away with its fun banter, neat historical details, and perfect sexual tension.

3. The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli (2010)

After losing his entire fortune to a tidal wave, Sicilian nineteen-year-old Don Giovanni de la Fortuna sinks into poverty and near-starvation. Then Devil makes him an offer: all the money he wants for as long as he lives if he doesn’t bathe, cut his hair, shave, or change his clothes for three years, three months, and three days. This fairy-tale retelling is an extraordinarily moving fable about someone who learns to acknowledge his own suffering, recognize it in others, and extend compassion to all. 

2. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (2013)

In this collection, Russell weaves strange tales of silkworm-women hybrids in Japan, seagulls who collect objects from the past and future, and, yes, vampires in the lemon grove. She also posits the very important question: “What if most (but not all) U.S. presidents were reincarnated as horses in the same stable and had a lot of drama going on?” My favorite stories were “Proving Up” (about a nineteenth-century Nebraska boy who encounters death and horror on the prairie), “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis” (about a disadvantaged high school student who discovers an effigy of the even more hapless boy he tormented), and “The Barn at the End of the Term” (the horse-president story). 

1. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (2016)

Lib Wright, an Englishwoman who has floundered since her days working for Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, is hired to observe Anna O’Donnell, an eleven-year-old Irish girl famous for not eating for four straight months. With a jaundiced attitude towards the Irish and Catholicism, Lib is confident that she’ll quickly expose Anna as a fraud, but she finds herself liking the girl and getting increasingly drawn into the disturbing mystery of her fast. Like The Perilous Gard, this novel masterfully plays with the possibility of the supernatural, then introduces a technically mundane explanation that’s somehow much more eerie. Donoghue balances the horror and waste that surrounds Anna, though, with the clear, bright prose and the moving relationship that develops between her and Lib, who grows beyond her narrow-mindedness and emotional numbness. I stayed up half the night to finish this novel, which cemented Emma Donoghue’s status as my new favorite author.

[astrologym0od]

Female celebrities and their venus signs 🌹

Venus in aries: Marilyn Monroe, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Mariah Carey, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gigi Hadid, Charlotte Brontë, Melanie Martinez, Gal Gadot, Rooney Mara, Sofia Coppola, Sophie Turner.

Venus in taurus: Princess Diana, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Jessica Alba, Fergie, Liv Tyler, Jessie J, Jessica Lange, Debbie Harry, Linda Evangelista, Leighton Meester, Léa Seydoux, Jamie Lynn Spears, Grimes, Saoirse Ronan.

Venus in gemini: Jennifer Lopez, Uma Thurman, Megan Fox, Gisele Bündchen, Adele, Jacqueline Kennedy, Heidi Klum, Courtney Love, Naomi Campbell, Cher, Frida Kahlo, Eva Green, Sofia Vergara, Margot Robbie, Brooke Shields.

Venus in cancer: Lily-Rose Depp, Devon Aoki, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, Adriana Lima, Courtney Cox, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Zendaya, Judy Garland, Iman, Anna Kendrick, Lucy Hale.

Venus in leo: Madonna, Solange Knowles, Nicole Kidman, Monica Bellucci, Selena Gomez, Amy Winehouse, Jennifer Lawrence, Marion Cotillard, Pamela Anderson, Whitney Houston, Lindsay Lohan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Greta Garbo, Fiona Apple, Dua Lipa, Emily Ratajkowski.

Venus in virgo: Barbara Palvin, Blake Lively, Cara Delevingne, Kim Kardashian, Julia Roberts, Brigitte Bardot, Bella Hadid, Gwen Stefani, Kylie Jenner, Mila Kunis, Charlize Theron, Kate Winslet, Demi Lovato, Audrey Tautou, Carrie Fisher, Natalie Wood, Sylvia Plath, Gillian Anderson, Ingrid Bergman.

Venus in libra: Beyoncé Knowles, Grace Kelly, Emma Stone, Lorde, Claudia Schiffer, France Gall, Shania Twain, Jada Pinkett Smith, Ciara, Anna Nicole Smith, Rose McGowan, Florence Welch, Lisa Bonet, Lea Michele, Hailey Baldwin.

Venus in scorpio: Winona Ryder, Twiggy, Zoë Kravitz, Alicia Silverstone, Carla Bruni, Jodie Foster, Mila Jovovich, Romy Schneider, Rachel McAdams, Ava Gardner, Jennifer Connelly, Jane Birkin, Emilia Clarke, Chrissy Teigen, Dakota Johnson.

Venus in sagittarius: Vanessa Paradis, Christina Aguilera, Alyssa Milano, Kendall Jenner, Tina Turner, Jane Fonda, Nina Dobrev, Rita Ora, Amanda Seyfried, Farrah Fawcett, Whoopi Goldberg, Willow Smith, Tilda Swinton, Anna Wintour, AnnaSophia Robb.

Venus in capricorn: Björk, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Miley Cyrus, Tyra Banks, Cindy Crawford, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kesha, Gia Carangi, Ellen Page, Irina Shayk, Lucy Liu, Lisa Marie Presley, Natalia Vodianova.

Venus in aquarius: Krysten Ritter, Chloë Grace Moretz, Taylor Swift, Sharon Tate, Oprah Winfrey, Sharon Stone, Paris Hilton, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, Yoko Ono, Simone de Beauvoir, Aretha Franklin, Paris Jackson, Marlene Dietrich, Nina Simone.

Venus in pisces: Lily Collins, Michelle Obama, Emma Watson, Kristen Stewart, Victoria Beckham, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kourtney Kardashian, Emma Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Dakota and Elle Fanning, Reese Witherspoon, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Shannen Doherty, Penélope Cruz.

[arthropooda]

[newscultofficial]

Four Former Civil Servants Open up About Their Decision to Leave the Trump Administration

Four former civil servants met at a bar in Washington, DC. for an open interview with the Huffington Post’s Lydia Polgreen.

Polgreen reported:

The vibe was as convivial and familiar as a reunion, except for the fact that they had been strangers five minutes before. They hailed from different parts of the bureaucracy, they ranged widely in age and background, but they had undergone such similar…

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

2020 Countdown to Christmas Preview Special - Films Covered

Jingle Bell Bride starring Julie Gonzalo and Ronnie Rowe Jr. Premiering Saturday, October 24, at 8pm/7c

Christmas Waltz starring Lacey Chabert and Will Kemp. Premiering Saturday, November 28, 8pm/7c.

Christmas with the Darlings starring Katrina Law and Carlo Marks. Premiering Sunday, November 8, 8pm/7c.

One Royal Holiday starring Laura Osnes, Aaron Tveit, Krystal Joy Brown, Bradley Rose, Victoria Clark, and Tom McGowan. Premiering Saturday, October 31, 8pm/7c.

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater starring Ashley Williams and Niall Matter. Premiering Saturday, November 7, 8pm/7c.

A Nashville Christmas Carol starring Jessy Schram, Wes Brown, Wynonna Judd, Sara Evans, RaeLynn, Kix Brooks, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Premiering Saturday, November 21, 8pm/7c.

Christmas in Vienna starring Sarah Drew and Brennan Elliott. Premiering Saturday, November 4, 8pm/7c.

A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado starring Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor. Premiering Tuesday, November 24, 8pm/7c. 

A Timeless Christmas starring Erin Cahill and Ryan Paevey. Premiering Sunday, November 15, 8pm/7c.

The Christmas House starring Robert Buckley, Any Ayora, Jonathan Bennett, Treat Williams, and Sharon Lawrence. Premiering Sunday, November 22, 8pm/7c. 

On the 12th Date of Christmas starring Mallory Jansen and Tyler Hynes. Premiering Sunday, November 1, 8pm/7c. 

Good Morning Christmas starring Alison Sweeney and Marc Blucas. Premiering Wednesday, November 25, 8pm/7c. 

Chateau Christmas starring Merritt Patterson and Luke Macfarlane. Premiering Sunday, October 25, 8pm/7c. 

If I Only Had Christmas starring Candace Cameron Bure and Warren Christie. Premiering Sunday, November 29, 8pm/7c. 

[heavyarethecrowns]

A Kent Fact

Lady Frederick Windsor’s television acting credits include recurring roles in series including Big Suze in Peep Show, numerous roles in Harry & Paul, Joely in White Teeth, Fiona in The Trial of Tony Blair, Abby in Plus One, Katerina in Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, Donna in Lead Balloon, Prudence in Keen Eddie, Elle Kensington in Chasing Alice, Angela Warren in Poirot (in the episode "Five Little Pigs"), Princess Eleanor in The Palace, Ghislaine in Robin Hood, Alice Shadwell in Dalziel and Pascoe, Ann Hamilton in Death in Paradise, Jill in NBC's Hot in Cleveland, Sharon Kirby in CSI Miami and Dorothy Gibson in Titanic.

Winkleman was nominated for Best Newcomer by the BBC for her performance as Clara Gold in Waking the Dead.

She made her debut on American television as the star of the NBC sitcom 100 Questions as main character Charlotte Payne and also appeared as a recurring guest on the hit series Two and a Half Men as Zoey, the English girlfriend of Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher).

She has also appeared on the stage, she joined the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain in 1997. She had numerous roles while at Cambridge University included the Bride in García Lorca's Blood Wedding, which toured the amphitheatres of Greece, Elizabeth in Six Degrees of Separation, which played at the Edinburgh Festival, Abigail in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Dockdaisy in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Kate in Alan Ayckbourn's Confusions, Madame de Merteuil in Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Fraulein Kost in Kander and Ebb's Cabaret all at the ADC. Her stage career after Cambridge includes a season at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played Veronique in Laurence Boswell's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and a summer in Bath with the Peter Hall Company playing a variety of roles including Archangela in Galileo's Daughter directed by Peter Hall, a new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Violet in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman directed by Peter Hall, and Charlotte in Molière's Don Juan, directed by Thea Sharrock. In 2012 she played Helena in Eric Idle's musical What About Dick at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, alongside Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand and Billy Connolly

Lady Frederick’s film credits include the lead roles in the films Shattered and Love Live Long, written and directed by Mike Figgis. She also played the comic role of Debbie Levine in Pathe's romantic comedy Suzie Gold and the older Susan Pevensie in the Disney film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.Other film roles include the leads in the shorts Seared, Love Letters, and The Lost Domain, a cinematic take on Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes, and Post, directed by Debs Gardner-Paterson

She is a regular in BBC Radio 4 comedy and drama. She is among the cast of comedy programmes such as Marcus Brigstocke's Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off, and such afternoon plays as Tea for Two. She played Polly Pot in P.G. Wodehouse's Uncle Fred in the Springtime with Alfred Molina and Rufus Sewell, Gloria in Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell, and Zoe in Alan Ayckbourn's Henceforward, alongside Jared Harris, all for Radio 4.She also played the role of Sasha in Von Ribbentrop's Watch, a historical drama, Anna Freud in the play Dr. Freud Will See You Now, Mrs. Hitler, by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, and the Amazon warrior princess Penthiselea alongside Alistair McGowan and Stephen Mangan in the Radio 4 comic fantasy series ElvenQuest, by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto. She has also starred in several Dr Who plays for Radio 4.

[papapiusxiii]

50 Great Thrillers by Women, as recommended by 10 of the UK’s female crime writers

Sophie Hannah:

Summertime by Liz Rigbey. Follows a woman who loses her baby and whose father unexpectedly drowns. When her husband and sister close ranks against her, she begins to suspect they are lying to her.

The Spider’s House by Sarah Diamond. Also published as In the Spider’s House. When Anna Howell discovers that a 1960s child murderess was the previous resident of her old cottage, her marriage, sanity and life come under threat.

Hidden by Katy Gardner. When a young mother’s seven-year-old daughter disappears, she finds herself questioning everything in her life. Then a police officer starts asking about the murder of a woman 14 months earlier …

A Shred of Evidence by Jill McGown. DI Judy Hill and DCI Lloyd investigate the murder of a 15-year-old girl on a patch of open parkland in the centre of town.

Searching for Shona by Margaret Jean Anderson

The wealthy Marjorie Malcolm-Scott trades suitcases, destinations and identities with orphan Shona McInnes, as children are evacuated from Edinburgh at the start of the second world war.

Val McDermid:

The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey. A teenage war orphan accuses two women of kidnap and abuse, but something about her story doesn’t add up.

Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer. The Booker-longlisted author of Snap follows it up with the tale of a medical student with Asperger’s who attempts to solve a murder.

The Field of Blood by Denise Mina. The first in the Paddy Meehan series sees the reporter looking into the disappearance of a child from his Glasgow home, with evidence pointing the police towards two young boys.

A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. Writing under her pen name, Ruth Rendell tells of the discovery of a woman and child in the animal cemetery at Wyvis Hall, 10 years after a group of young people spent the summer there.

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. In the third Jackson Brodie book, a man is released from prison 30 years after he butchered the mother and siblings of a six-year-old girl in the Devon countryside.

Ann Cleeves:

Little Deaths by Emma Flint. Inspired by the real case of Alice Crimmins, this tells of a woman whose two children go missing from her apartment in Queens.

The Dry by Jane Harper. During Australia’s worst drought in a century, three members of one family in a small country town are murdered, with the father believed to have killed his wife and son before committing suicide.

Devices and Desires by PD James. Adam Dalgliesh takes on a serial killer terrorising a remote Norfolk community.

The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina. Heavily pregnant DS Alex Morrow investigates the violent death of a wealthy woman in Glasgow.

Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky. The inimitable VI Warshawski takes over coaching duties of the girls’ basketball team at her former high school, and investigates the explosion of the flag manufacturing plant where one of the girl’s mothers works.

Sharon Bolton:

Gone by Mo Hayder. In Hayder’s fifth thriller featuring Bristol DI Jack Caffrey, he goes after a car-jacker who is taking vehicles with children in them.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. A murderous revenge is being plotted against the boys’ grammar school in the north of England where eccentric Latin master Roy Straitley is contemplating retirement.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. A time-travelling, murderous war veteran steps through the decades to murder extraordinary women – his “shining girls” – in Chicago, in this high-concept thriller.

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood. Two women who were sentenced for murdering a six-year-old when they were children meet again as adults, when one discovers the body of a teenager.

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty. Married scientist Yvonne, who is drawn into a passionate affair with a stranger, is on trial for murder.

Sarah Ward:

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid. Journalist Catherine Heathcote investigates the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl in the Peak District village of Scarsdale in 1963.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths. Forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway investigates the discovery of a child’s bones near the site of a prehistoric henge on the north Norfolk salt marshes.

The Ice House by Minette Walters. A decade after Phoebe Maybury’s husband inexplicably vanished, a corpse is found and the police become determined to charge her with murder.

The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard. When a body is found in Dublin’s Grand Canal, police turn to the notorious Canal Killer for help. But the imprisoned murderer will only talk to the woman he was dating when he committed his crimes.

This Night’s Foul Work by Fred Vargas (translated by Sian Reynolds). Commissaire Adamsberg investigates whether there is a connection between the escape of a murderous 75-year-old nurse from prison, and the discovery of two men with their throats cut on the outskirts of Paris.

Elly Griffiths: 

R in the Month by Nancy Spain. Sadly out of print, this is an atmospheric story set in a down-at-heel hotel in a postwar seaside town. The period detail is perfect and jokes and murders abound. This is the fourth book featuring the fantastic Miriam Birdseye, actress and rather slapdash sleuth.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. A gripping crime novel in which the detective never gets out of bed and the murder happened over 500 years ago. Griffith says: “I read this book as a child and was hooked – on Tey, crime fiction and Richard the Third.”

The Detective’s Daughter by Lesley Thomson. Cleaner Stella Darnell finds herself tidying up her detective father’s final, unfinished case, after he dies. It is the first in a series featuring Stella and her sidekick Jack, an underground train driver who can sense murder.

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid. Griffiths says: “I could have chosen any of Val’s novels, but this book, about a journalist revisiting a shocking 1960s murder, is probably my favourite because of its wonderful sense of time and place. It’s also pitch perfect about journalism, police investigation and life in a small community.”

He Said, She Said by Erin Kelly. An account of a rape trial at which nothing is quite as it seems. Griffiths says: “The story centres around a lunar eclipse, which also works wonderfully as a metaphor and image.”

Dreda Say Mitchell: 

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. The Gone Girl author’s debut follows journalist Camille’s investigation into the abduction and murder of two girls in her Missouri home town.

Dangerous Lady by Martina Cole. Cole’s first novel sees 17-year-old Maura Ryan taking on the men of London’s gangland.

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid. Clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill is asked to profile a serial killer when four men are found mutilated and tortured.

Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky. A client tells VI Warshawski he is a prominent banker looking for his son’s missing girlfriend. But VI soon discovers he’s lying, and that the real banker’s son is dead.

The St Cyr series by CS Harris. Mitchell has nominated the whole of this historical mystery series about Sebastian St Cyr, Viscount Devlin – master of disguises, heir to an earldom, and disillusioned army officer. It’s a bit of a cheat but we’ll let her have it.

Erin Kelly:

No Night Is Too Long by Barbara Vine. Tim Cornish thinks he has gotten away with killing his lover in Alaska. But then the letters start to arrive …

Broken Harbour by Tana French. The fourth in French’s sublime Dublin Murder Squad series, this takes place in a ghost estate outside Dublin, where a father and his two children have been found dead, with the mother on her way to intensive care.

Chosen by Lesley Glaister. When Dodie’s mother hangs herself, she has to leave her baby at home and go to bring her brother Jake back from the mysterious Soul Life Centre in New York.

A Savage Hunger by Claire McGowan. Forensic psychologist Paula Maguire investigates the disappearance of a girl, and a holy relic, from a remote religious shrine in the fictional Irish town of Ballyterrin.

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald. Parents Joanna and Alistair start to turn against each other after their baby goes missing from a remote roadside in Australia.

Sarah Hilary:

The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin. A sleep-deprived young mother tries to stay sane while her fears grow about the family’s new lodger, in this 1950s lost classic.

Cruel Acts by Jane Casey. Leo Stone, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two women, is now free and claims he is innocent. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwen want to put him back in jail, but Maeve begins doubting his guilt – until another woman disappears.

Sex Crimes by Jenefer Shute. A lawyer’s New Year’s Eve pick-up spirals into an erotic obsession which leads to graphic cruelty.

Skin Deep by Liz Nugent. Nugent, whom Ian Rankin has compared to Patricia Highsmith, tells the story of a woman who has been passing herself off as an English socialite on the Riviera for 25 years – until the arrival of someone who knows her from her former life prompts an act of violence.

Cuckoo by Julia Crouch. Rose’s home and family start to fall apart when her best friend Polly comes to stay.

Louise Candlish:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. Christie’s classic – with a legendary twist. The best Hercule Poirot?

The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith. A conman on the run with his wife meets a young American who becomes drawn into the crime they commit.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. The author of The Handmaid’s Tale imagines the life of the real 19th-century Canadian killer Grace Marks.

Little Face by Sophie Hannah. Hannah’s thriller debut is about a young mother who becomes convinced that, after spending two hours away from her baby, the infant is not hers.

Alys, Always by Harriet Lane. Newspaper subeditor Frances is drawn into the lives of the Kyte family when she hears the last words of the victim of a car crash, Alys Kyte.