If you enjoy adventure on the high seas, spies, political intrigue, conspiracies, contraband ... and farce, then give The Further Adventures of the 100 Year Old Man, by Jonas Jonasson (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles) a try. Allan and Julius are running out of money, but before they deal with that, there is a birthday to celebrate. The plan is the celebrate in a hot air balloon. Things go awry when the balloon breaks free with just the two of them aboard. The plot is rather convoluted, and twisted, but it's not to be taken seriously! Think Monty Python here! This is a sequel to The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (see July 12, 2014 post).

Book Six in the Penny Green Mystery series, The Bermondsey Poisoner, by Emily Organ, might just be my favorite (so far). What starts as a simple story for the newspaper becomes rather more complicated when several photographs are discovered ... of the same woman, but with a different (dead) husband in each. This is the era where such photographs were popular (read the historical note). Is she responsible for their deaths, or merely unlucky? And there's a new editor at the newspaper who is, well, awful (he's the nephew of the owner). There were a few unexpected twists so again, I was reading far into the night. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog