I can’t wait to adventure by book to the island nation of Singapore especially since one of the books I really wanted to read won the popular vote this month!
This book happens to be one which I had been going back & forth on whether I should include or not as my suggestion. I had decided to include another book & then was starting to regret my decision yet again when a club member sent in the book…so it was fate!
But before we get to that winning book, here’s a poetic interlude from the author who also wrote Kappa Quartet, one of the Singapore books in our list this month.
“The problem I suppose
is that I have nothing left
to say. Nobody is keeping track of me,
and I have stopped keeping track
of strangers. I break the line here
because I have to. And I break the line here
because I know not what else
to do. I feel
like a wanderer when I am still,
a beast in the desert, holding his heart
in his own hands, wondering why
it beats still. I am in
a dark part of town –
where night is noon, and noon
is night, and somewhere along
the early evening, a brown stem brings forth
a bloom. ”
SO WHAT BOOK ARE WE READING NEXT?
“No mere whodunnit—Aunty Lee’s Delights sparkles with insight…Rosie Lee is a terrifically originally heroine.”
“This delectable and witty mystery introduces Rosie ‘Aunty’ Lee, feisty widow, amateur sleuth, and proprietor of Singapore's best-loved home-cooking restaurant.
After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could have become one of Singapore's ‘tai tai,’ an idle rich lady. Instead, she is building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee's Delights, where spicy Singaporean meals are graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore's tourist havens and one of her guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two events are likely connected.
The murder and disappearance throws together Aunty Lee's henpecked stepson, Mark, his social-climbing wife, Selina, a gay couple whose love is still illegal in Singapore, and an elderly Australian tourist couple whose visit may mask a deeper purpose. Investigating the murder are Police Commissioner Raja and Senior Staff Sergeant Salim, who quickly discover that Aunty Lee's sharp nose for intrigue can sniff out clues that elude law enforcers.
Wise, witty, and charming, Aunty Lee's Delights is a spicy mystery about love, friendship, and food in Singapore, where money flows freely and people of many religions and ethnicities coexist peacefully, but where tensions lurk just below the surface, sometimes with deadly consequences.”
(A special thank you to book club member, Ester Elbert for the suggestion.)
Happy reading!