#dianne freeman

[lakecountylibrary]

I have been enjoying A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. I love a good murder mystery but have surprisingly enjoyed the setting of Regency-era Britain. Would you be able to provide any recommendations for other novels similar to this?

Certainly! We too love a good historical murder mystery, so several of us have recs for you.

Brenna: The Wrexford & Sloane series by Andrea Penrose takes place in Regency London and is murder mystery on a more cozy-ish scale. Audiobook narrator is excellent! I've listened to them all.

Start with Murder on Black Swan Lake

Sarah: There is Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, which is a sort of sequel to Pride and Prejudice. It was well-received enough to get its own adaptation on BBC.

Chris (who literally just checked out the audiobook for A Most Agreeable Murder): I would suggest the Dianne Freeman series "Countess of Harleigh Mysteries", starting with A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder.

Happy reading!

[sheilajsn]

Series, series, series – 2024 update

Si ustedes llevan algún tiempo en Nuestro Rincón de Lectura, ya deben saber que yo tengo un problema empezando a leer series que luego se quedan sin terminar. Hace algunos año, después de darme cuenta de que tenía una cantidad absurda de series empezadas, yo empecé un proyecto de terminar series que había tenido olvidadas, algunas por años. Y, poco a poco, me he dado a la tarea de terminar esas…

[rachel-sylvan-author]

"A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder" by Dianne Freeman book recommendation by Rachel Sylvan

[sparklycupcakegladiator]

Eine Leiche statt Hochzeitstorte

Der fünfte Fall für die Countess of Harleigh Dieser Text kann Werbung enthalten Die Geschichte: Frances, die Countess of Harleigh, heiratet. Doch kaum ist der offizielle Teil vorbei, wird im Nachbarhaus eine Leiche entdeckt. Und der erste Verdächtige ist ausgerechnet ihr Bruder Alonzo. Für Frances und ihren Mann George, der als Rechtsanwalt die Vertretung seines Schwagers übernimmt, heißt es…

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you have a list of good sex ed books to read?

BOY DO I

please bear in mind that some of these books are a little old (10+ years) by research standards now, and that even the newer ones are all flawed in some way. the thing about research on human beings, and especially research on something as nebulous and huge as sex, is that people are Always going to miss something or fail to account for every possible experience, and that's just something that we have to accept in good faith. I think all of these books have something interesting to say, but that doesn't mean any of them are the only book you'll ever need.

related to that: it's been A While since I've read some of these so sorry if anything in them has aged poorly (I don't THINK SO but like, I was not as discerning a reader when I was 19) but I am still including them as books that have been important to my personal journey as a sex educator.

additionally, a caveat that very few of these books are, like, instructional sex ed books in the sense of like "here's how the penis works, here's where the clit is, etc." those books exist and they're great but they're also not very interesting to me; my studies on sex are much more in the social aspect (shout out to my sociology degree) and the way people learn to think about sex and societal factors that shape those trends. these books reflect that. I would genuinely love to have the time to check out some 101 books to see how they fare, but alas - sex ed is not my day job and I don't have the time to dedicate to that, so it happens slowly when it happens at all. I've been meaning to read Dr. Gunter's Vagina Bible since it came out in 2019, for fucks sake.

and finally an acknowledgement that this is a fairly white list, which has as much to do with biases with academia and publishing as my own unchecked biases especially early in my academic career and the limitations of my university library.

ANYWAY here's some books about sex that have been influential/informative to me in one way or another:

The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (Michael Warner, 1999)

Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences (Laura M. Carpenter, 2005)

Virgin: The Untouched History (Hanne Blank, 2007)

Sex Goes to School: Girls and Sex Education Before the 1960s (Susan K. Freeman, 2008)

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (Mary Roach, 2008)

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution (Revised Edition) (Susan Stryker, 2008)

The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women (Jessica Valenti, 2009)

Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex (Amy T. Schalet, 2011)

Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (Hanne Blank, 2012)

Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships (Meg-John Barker, 2013)

The Sex Myth: The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Realities (Rachel Hills, 2015)

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Tranform Your Sex Life (Emily Nagoski, 2015)

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (Jane Ward, 2015)

Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education (Jonathan Zimmerman, 2015)

American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus (Lisa Wade, 2017)

Histories of the Transgender Child (Jules Gill-Peterson, 2018)

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights (Juno Mac and Molly Smith, 2018)

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen, 2020)

Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press (Kim Gallon, 2020)

A Curious History of Sex (Kate Lister, 2020)

Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity (Peggy Orenstein, 2020)

Black Women, Black Love: America's War on Africa American Marriage (Dianne M. Stewart, 2020)

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (Jane Ward, 2020)

Hurts So Good: The Science and Pleasure of Pain on Purpose (Leigh Cowart, 2021)

Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs (Ina Park, 2021)

The Right to Sex: Feminist in the Twenty-First Century (Amia Srinivasan, 2021)

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021)

Superfreaks: Kink, Pleasure, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Arielle Greenberg, 2023)

[operachristine]

Holiday Gifting Day 5

Day 5 of 5 features a few Wicked audios with Nessarose understudies!

Idina Menzel (Elphaba), Helen Dallimore (Glinda), Adam Garcia (Fiyero), Nigel Planer (The Wizard), Miriam Margolyes (Madame Morrible), Caroline Keiff (u/s Nessarose), James Gillan (Boq), Martin Ball (Doctor Dillamond) October 28, 2006; London Matinee

Link

Ashleigh Gray (s/b Elphaba), Dianne Pilkington (Glinda), Pharic Scott (u/s Fiyero), Sam Kelly (The Wizard), Harriet Thorpe (Madame Morrible), Emily Tierney (u/s Nessarose), Alex Jessop (Boq), David Stoller (Doctor Dillamond) February 6, 2010; London

Link

Idina Menzel (Elphaba), Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda), Kristoffer Cusick (u/s Fiyero), Joel Grey (The Wizard), Carole Shelley (Madame Morrible), Eden Espinosa (u/s Nessarose), Christopher Fitzgerald (Boq), William Youmans (Doctor Dillamond) December 21, 2003; Broadway || Notes: This is the only known recording of Eden as Nessarose! Missing No Good Deed and March of the Witch Hunters.

Link

Shoshana Bean (Elphaba), Megan Hilty (Glinda), David Ayers (Fiyero), Ben Vereen (The Wizard), Adinah Alexander (u/s Madame Morrible), Stacie Morgain Lewis (u/s Nessarose), Jeffrey Kuhn (Boq), Sean McCourt (Doctor Dillamond) September 24, 2005; Broadway

Link

Dee Roscioli (Elphaba), Erin Mackey (Glinda), Derrick Williams (Fiyero), Gene Weygandt (The Wizard), Rondi Reed (Madame Morrible), Kate Fahrner (u/s Nessarose), Adam Fleming (Boq), K. Todd Freeman (Doctor Dillamond) March 21, 2007; Chicago

Link

Jenna Leigh Green (u/s Elphaba), Kendra Kassebaum (Glinda), Derrick Williams (Fiyero), David Garrison (The Wizard), Carol Kane (Madame Morrible), Lori Holmes (u/s Nessarose), Logan Lipton (Boq), Timothy Britten Parker (Doctor Dillamond) April 9, 2005; First National Tour

Link

Willemijn Verkaik (Elphaba), Valerie Link (u/s Glinda), Jens Simon Petersen (u/s Fiyero), Carlo Lauber (The Wizard), Angelika Wedekind (Madame Morrible), Maike Switzer (u/s Nessarose), Stefan Stara (Boq), Michael Günther (Doctor Dillamond) December 22, 2007; Stuttgart Matinee || Notes: Valerie's first show as Glinda.

Link

Eden Espinosa (Elphaba), Kendra Kassebaum (Glinda), Nicolas Dromard (Fiyero), Tom McGowan (The Wizard), Jody Gelb (Madame Morrible), Neka Zang (u/s Nessarose), Etai BenShlomo (Boq), Paul Slade Smith (Doctor Dillamond), Gregory Haney (Chistery), Samantha Zack (u/s Witch's Mother), Tim Talman (Witch's Father / Ozian Official) April 6, 2010; San Francisco || Notes: Neka's first show as Nessarose.

Link

[floripire]

After losing Slater, Alice Adams, younger sister of Deputy Adams, continued her quest of being turned into a vampire. At an unspecified point in time, she runs into Marty Hammond and has a one night stand with him before he takes off in his truck again. Nine months later, she sticks around long enough to name her daughter Beula Hammond (M/allory B/echtel) and leaves her in the permanent care of Sophia Alpert.

Beula is a human cheerleader and runs in the same group as the late Dana Lilien, Sasha Stoteraux, Jill Freeman and Sophia's granddaughter Jayneela. And after Dana's unfortunate passing, she's gunning to become the new queen bee. Though she had a brief moment with Kaleb in which he fed from her, compelled her to forget and cover up her neck wounds with a scarf, the fact of the matter remains that she is currently still unaware of the world of the supernatural and thinks that the Salvatore Boarding School is just that: a fancy boarding school for fucked up rich kids.

Jill Freeman (Z/aria S/imone) is a human cheerleader, the half-sister of Dennis and the daughter of the late Dianne Freeman, former head of security at Whitmore College and a member of the secret society Augustine. Both of her children were unaware of their mother's involvement with Augustine and they are still unaware to this day.

She'd never say it aloud but Jill feels herself going through the motions and subtly pulling away from Beula and the rest of the group and she doesn't quite know what to do with that or with herself.

Cheryl Ares (M/aia R/eficco) is a human cheerleader, former track star and student at Mystic Falls High. She is also Penelope "Penny" Ares' relative. Penny's death on the 8th of February 2015 fractured the entire Ares family. While most wouldn't fault her for blaming Penny's fiance, Cheryl has never once blamed Matt for Penny's death and tries her best to keep an ear to the ground in regards to what he's up to. After graduation, Cheryl wants to go pro in regards to cheerleading.

Jayneela Alpert (C/handler K/inney) is the very human granddaughter of Sophia Alpert and the younger sister of Tyrone Alpert. A star student, she's not really into the whole popularity contest thing but seeing as Beula lives with her, Jayneela is kind of dragged into the madness anyway. She used to cheer but she quit in favor of doing her own thing. Jayneela wants to become a doctor like her grandmother.

Cecil Barnes (J/ordan G/onzalez) never really fit in with the aforementioned people, despite knowing them all for years now. That's okay, though. He's much more comfortable with the way things are right now: he's branded a nerd and all of the girls (and most of the jocks) are highly allergic to those, so he's left alone more often than not. Dangerously smart and funny when you get to know him, Cecil spends most of his free time avoiding making connections. Well, he spends most of his free time avoiding making connections in real life. Online, he's quite popular. Cecil spends his time in the Mystic Falls High computer lab, gaming and making little stop motion videos. And if he's not at school, you can find him at More Games, the one and only game store in town. And if he's not there, he's at home watching horror movies.

Originally hailing from Finn Creek (near Chance Harbor), Cecil's single father Wade packed up their things and moved them to Mystic Falls after the death of his sister because Finn Creak as well as Chance Harbor held too many memories.

Though he's not aware of the full story, Cecil was close to his aunt Heather and he's clever enough to know that whatever happened to her wasn't just an accident at the Boatyard and one of these days, he's going to figure out what happened. Getting in touch with Zachary Larson is a good place to start.

One of his fondest memories is showing his dad, as well as aunt Heather all of his creations, despite her comatose state, in the hopes of somehow getting her back.

After he came out as trans to his dad (and aunt) - he named himself after her. It's one of the few times he'd seen his dad cry happy tears.

Cecil doesn't know what to think about the Salvatore Boarding School and it's, let's be honest, weird as fuck residents but he does have a noticable crush on Floribeth (who he calls 'Beth' because he needs something to differentiate himself from everybody else) - which she, ironically, has no idea about at all - and holds out the hope that she'll get chosen for one of those Mystic Falls High slash Salvatore School swaps so he can show her around.

(You know, those days during which both groups "walk a mile in each other's shoes". One group of students from Mystic Falls High spends a day at the boarding school and vice versa.)

psd, template, credit.

[its-suanneschafer-author]

ICYMI BOOK REVIEW: #AnArtLoversGuideTo ParisAndMurder by #DianneFreeman. Book #7 in the Countess of Harleigh cozy mystery series set at the Paris World’s Fair of 1900.

[coffeeinkblog]

#BookReview #TheArtLover'sGuideToParisAndMurder by Dianne Freeman #AustenProse

Description Filled with Victorian-era intrigue for readers of Rhys Bowen, Deanna Raybourn, Tasha Alexander, and Julia Seales, Dianne Freeman’s Agatha Award-winning series takes a delightful jaunt to the City of Light as Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, encounters a murder scene at the Paris Exposition. Frances and her husband, George, have two points of interest in Paris.…

[diaryoftruequotes]

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman

 I wasn’t sure how the historical side would mix with the leading lady going about investigating on her own, but the author worked it all into the mix quite nicely keeping the feel of those times. With this being the first of a new series, I’m excited to see what happened next for Frances and the rest of the characters.

[sheilajsn]

Series, series, series - update

Si ustedes llevan algún tiempo en Nuestro Rincón de Lectura, ya deben saber que yo tengo un problema empezando a leer series que luego se quedan sin terminar. Hace algunos año, después de darme cuenta de que tenía una cantidad absurda de series empezadas, yo empecé un proyecto de terminar series que había tenido olvidadas, algunas por años. Hice un inventario con spread dedicado en mi bullet…

[rachel-sylvan-author]

"A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder" by Dianne Freeman book recommendation by Rachel Sylvan

[cartograffiti]

August '23 reading diary

I finished 9 books in August, and unfortunately several of them were disappointments. I'm looking forward to doing some rereads in September, one with friends of Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series (which, actually, will include books I never got my hands on the first time), and one solo canon review of a favorite KJ Charles novel to edit a fic for an exchange. No fear of a reading slump being set off, is what I'm saying.

I continued reading the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk, this time getting through Necropolis, which was a very enjoyable Egyptology adventure jaunt introducing new characters, and Bloodline, which had lower lows (very frustrating argument and lying plot thread between the main couple) and higher highs (great developments in the ongoing storylines of Whyborne's family and the colony of fish people off the coast of Massachusetts.) I continue to enjoy these books, and it's fun to see both the characters and Hawk's writing develop, but sometimes I am awfully glad they're short, so issues get resolved or at least "parked" quickly.

Snow Place Like LA is the #1.5 novella in the Christmas Notch romance series by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy, the first of which (A Merry Little Meet Cute) I absolutely adored. This was merely fine. I like Angel and Luca, and animator and costumer who do work for Angel's dad's porn-and-movies-for-a-spoof-of-the-Hallmark-Channel studio; they're lively characters who contribute a lot of humor and charm. But this novella had much less going on than the first novel did, and I kept feeling like I wasn't learning anything about them or their relationship that couldn't have been incorporated into the main series entries. It was a bit like reading a pleasant, well-done fanfiction, not because it felt inauthentic, but just because it felt...extra.

I did read another of Agatha Christie's books, which always stick the landing. Sleeping Murder is a Miss Marple case about a young woman who has bought a house for herself and her new husband, only to be plagued by a sense that she's been in this house before, and seen someone killed there. This has a really wonderful portrait of what we understood about childhood memories and the unconscious in the mid-70s (as I've said before, it's a shame to strip Christie's social commentary by resetting her late works in the interwar period), and a thrilling finale moment of Miss Marple saving a life via gardening equipment.

One really fabulous nonfiction book this month was Zaria Ware's Blk Art, an image-heavy exploration of historical black artists and models working in the West. Many of the works featured are very striking and completely new to me, and the text is succinct and clear enough to be recommended to friends without a lot of art history background. When possible, Ware also gives bio sketches, which provide peeks into the lives of black professionals from businessmen to trapeze artists. Broad rather than deep, and excellent.

I always look forward to new installments of the Countess of Harleigh mysteries by Dianne Freeman, but A Newlywed's Guide to Fortune and Murder wasn't her tightest case. I finished the book still not clear on the culprit's motive. Still, I like the detective Frances, who is a widowed dollar princess (one of the wealthy Americans who married into English nobility). This series deals to an unusual degree with the realities of money and the law. Frances's cases usually come into her lap not through seeking out mysteries, but through assisting debutantes in a low-key pursuit of income, and the differences between consequences for her snooping, compared to what her friends in the secret service and police force can do, are very marked. I'm sure I'll enjoy the next more.

A new-to-me author in romance, TJ Alexander, put out a book this year that Smart Bitches, Trashy Books noted has two transgender mains, so I grabbed it without having read the first in the series. That was fine, Chef's Choice mostly stands alone, and I had a lot of fun with it! Luna has suddenly lost her job, and wealthy restaurateur Jean-Pierre has, in the process of arranging a culinary test to prove a point to his unsupportive relatives, lied about a nonexistent girlfriend, so he offers her a deal. I love fake dating plots, and this features a lot of my favorite things about them. Luna and Jean-Pierre have had very different experiences in their transitions, which means they sometimes argue about how to handle things, but I found it a refreshing change from more abundant plots where one trans person explains how things are to their cis partner. I was also delighted to see bespoke genitals eroticized; I think bottom surgery is somewhat under-represented in trans sex writing. I had some quibbles with the book as a novel, because the pacing was funky and sometimes the plot keeping Luna and Jean-Pierre interacting didn't really gel, but it's unusual and charming, and I was happy every time I opened it. I think cis readers with an interest should grab it, and trans readers will have the most fun if they can choose a time it won't be frustrating if they run into a pet peeve--the issues raised are varied and sometimes written in a way assuming cis readers need them spelled out. It is, after all, traditionally published.

My least favorite read this month was the nonfiction lifestyle guide Goblin Mode. This is about the Tumblr-popular goblincore aesthetic, and while author McKayla Coyle features inspired crafting ideas and engaging nature writing, they also had some real problems writing about the political values of the scene. In some cases, their attempt at brevity left out key information (like...why they were even bringing up subjects that I knew were important only because I'm already familiar with goblincore), and in particular, passages that touched on matters of race, ethnicity, and religion were objectionably awkward, and needed more revision (if I'm being generous).

But fortunately, I finished August with my favorite read of the month, Baking Yesteryear! This is the new cookbook by B. Dylan Hollis, whom you've probably seen making vintage recipes of highly variable quality in videos originally posted to TikTok. This book compiles many of his favorites from the 1900s through the 1980s, and just a few of the very worst. I found many recipes I'm interested in trying, and I am impressed by the clarity of Dylan's directions and the specificity of his tips to ensure they work. I'm particularly excited by how many of the recipes included are based on unusual techniques or flavors, like no-flour macaroons, which means I'll probably want to own a copy. Although it's not as comedy-dense as the videos, there's a lot of humor and joy in the text, and a it's great showcase of Dylan's ability to inspire.

[marjaystuff]

Newlyweds Guide to Fortune and Murder by Dianne Freeman

Newlyweds Guide to Fortune and Murder by Dianne Freeman is a fun read!  The book follows newlyweds, George and Frances.  They just can’t seem to help themselves as they manage to get dragged into another interesting situation!  

Francess helps many a debutante get ready for society.  This time she is helping Kate, but something just seems off.  Kate’s aunt, VIscountess Winstead, seems to be more incapacitated than expected.  Perhaps something more is going on. However, Frances soldiers on - getting Kate ready with planning and new clothes.  

Meanwhile, George has been called into the home office and asked to help find a missing diary.  The diary should have gone to the museum with all the Egyptian Artifacts.  The diary belonged to Viscount Winstead.  How interesting both of their queries lead to the same house.  What is really happening?  George and Frances will find their answers eventually, but the fun part of the story is how that works out!  

I enjoyed reading Newlyweds Guide to Fortune and Murder by Dianne Freeman.  The book is a good read.

[starspray]

5 and 6 for the reading asks!

-@outofangband

5. What 2023 new releases are you most looking forward to?

A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder, by Dianne Freeman — the 6th Countess of Harleigh book about a countess who, as you might guess, solves a lot of murders. The books take place in late Victorian England in high society and are quite fun. Love a good whodunit.

A Power Unbound, by Freya Marske — the third in the trilogy, takes place in Edwardian England; the overarching plot of the series involves very neat magic and trying to keep some magicians from stealing the power of everyone else, and each book features a new queer romance; the second book had lots of fun hijinks on a steamship, and I’m really excited to see how it all concludes.

6. Do you have any conceptual reading goals? E.g., I plan to read books on food history.

Mmm, not really! I don’t usually set goals like that. Maybe read a bit more nonfiction? But I won’t be disappointed if I don’t manage that.