Maupin is back with a new installment of the ever-beloved Tales of the City series. I have loved this series so much and was so excited for another visit with my friends from Barbary Lane. Mona of the Manor focuses mainly on Mona, but we get Michael and Anna, too. If you liked the rest of series, this new installment is every bit as good and while there's no Jonestown, Womyn's festival, or cannibal cults, the plot is just as intriguing and the backdrop of the English Manor as enchanting as Barbary Lane.

Content Warnings: Spousal Abuse / Intimate Partner Violence; Transphobia; Homophobia; Use of ‘Gypsy’ for Romani people

This book had excellent and varied representation of LGBTQ+ characters, and that was the main highlight I took from the book. Note that the book takes place in 1993, so there are a lot of discussions of the AIDs epidemic, homosexuality is still illegal in England, and trans folks are barely acknowledged (culturally).

The plot is all over the place, literally. Readers follow multiple characters and their experiences, with only a loose connection between them. That leaves a lot of weird spaces. For example, it’s the early few chapters where Rhonda (with the help of Mona and Wilfred) tricks her abusive husband into leaving – except, he doesn’t, and is hiding on the grounds. This plot point then sits for almost the entire rest of the book, only appearing at the end for a rushed conclusion. Pretty much all the narratives feel like this, unnaturally spaced out.

Now, this book is the 10th in a series, and I haven’t read any of the previous books. Technically, no former events are referenced here, but the characters all feel like people with other experiences that readers are supposed to know. That, combined with the weird plot pacing, made me not enjoy this book as some others might.

Reading Armistead Maupin’s Mona of the Manor is like reuniting with an old friend. Fans of Tales of the City series will love taking a trip back in time to the 90’s, as Lady Roughton, the delightfully brash Mona, rules her English Manor in the way only Mona can.

Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

A joyful re-connection with old friends who I think kindly of and missed. It has been too long since I shared time with my old San Francisco friends I met in "Tales of the City", the serial in the Chronicle and the following novels. They introduced me to life in San Francisco in the 70's and I met them (real and in my mine). Barbary Lane will always be a place I want to go back to. Thank you for sharing another story of the gang and their history. I remembered, belly laughed and cried reading about Mona;s life and her companions. Brought back good and sad memories.

Well written and a quick read. I did not want to put it down once I started. I did not want to go back after I had taken a break knowing that I that much closer to finishing and running out of more story to read. Armistead still has it. A joy to read and connect again with the family - from a different perspective - Mona's. The novel filled in a part of the story that had not been told and harked back to all that came before it in the preceding books.

The book is great on it's own and is better if you have read the previous books in the series, especially the original 3 books. It will make the story more understandable and richer by having knowledge of about the "historical" vignettes referred to in the story. I have read the series multiple times and was smiling at each scene from the previous novels that was mentioned and referred to in this novel.

Read the who series in order. You are in for a great time, if a bit dated at time. The original series was written in the 70;s.

Armistead Maupin once again visits the residents of 28 Barbery Lane, San Francisco, but it's now the early 1990's, and Mona has built a life as the Lady of Easley Manor in England. With the wit and bittersweet humor that the Tales of the City serials are known for, this slim volume doesn't disappoint and make me want to reread the whole series.

With thanks to Net Galley, the Author, and Harper Publishing for the advanced reader copy.

This is another entry in the Tales of the City series. It is the 1990s. Mona Ramsey, Anna's daughter, is living in England in a country manor, Easley House. She owns it. Keeping up an old manor takes money. Mona's solution is to take in paying guests who are looking for an English Manor Experience. When an American couple arrive Anna it feel like something is "off". Mona and her staff get involved and the story gets interesting.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eGalley of this title.

Mona of the Manor retains all of Maupin's signature style and charm. It's my favorite of all of the novels that have followed the original six novels in the "Tales of the City" series. A must read!

I almost don’t know what to say. I never expected a 10th Tales book. So I made my peace with The Days of Anna Madrigal being the last Tales story. And then whoosh… Armistead releases Mona of the Manor, Book 10 in the Tales of the City series. And here I am having just finished this beautiful new addition already wanting more.

Armistead takes us back in time to the 1990’s when Mona Ramsey lived in an English castle with her adopted son Wilfred, and Micheal Tolliver faces his mortality from HIV. There are a few new characters, a mystery of sorts, and eventually Michael and Mona’s parent, Anna Madrigal make it to England. I laughed, I cried, I want more Tales. I’m so thrilled Armistead gifted us with another story. Such a delight. My feel good book of this year and next!

Thank you Harper and NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy - release date March 5, 2024. Really thank you! In awe.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC. I will always read another installment of Tales of the City even though it's written by a cis man. (I don't read a lot of books by men, but somehow this is my 6th this year of 73 total, or 12%--probably an all-time high since I made the decision to stop reading male authors for the most part)

We're back in the 1990s with Mona (who I thought died of breast cancer, but maybe that's later?), who is Lady of the Manor at an estate in England that she inherited from her Lord of a husband, who also happened to be a queen, who preferred to hang out in San Francisco. Mona, a lesbian, who needed to get away from San Francisco, accepted a payment to marry Teddy keep an eye on Easley House. Teddy is now dead, and Mona together with her 26-year-old adopted son Wilfred (an indigenous Australian, also queer) take in guests to keep up the expensive old house.

We meet their guests, Ernie and Rhonda Blaylock, from North Carolina. Ernie is a crank who works for Jesse Helms, and Rhonda puts up with him, until...she doesn't. Ernie has slapped or otherwise been violent with her, and instead of concealing her bruises with make-up, Rhonda decides to go free. She also plots with Mona to leave her husband of 30something years.

Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Michael Mouse (this book is best if you already know the characters, I assume) is convincing Anna to accompany him to visit Mona. Michael loves Mona like a gay man loves his lesbian best friend, but he's kind of also visiting to see Wilfred again. They've been exchanging letters for the past several years and lusting after one another since before Wilfred was legal.

It's a short, sweet, slightly twisty tale where the surprises are surprising, but the heartwarming bits mostly land. I don't know that Maupin is at his best writing cis women, but it's okay. This isn't a particularly deep book. It's mostly sentimental.

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 3/5

I first read Maupin’s Tales of the City books (the first five) back in the early 80s — a lifetime ago. After a long hiatus, Maupin continued producing additional books, but at a slower pace. Mona of the Manor comes ten years after the last book and my memory for any of these past plots is a little challenged! However, reading this novel was like slipping into a comfy blanket — the same easy and intimate writing style, plenty of familiar (and beloved) characters, and a delightful new locale — Mona’s manor house inherited from her late husband — a fun story on its own. Mona will be a familiar character to Maupin fans — she is the woman who (many, many, novels ago) discovered her long lost father in the form of her landlady — the transformed Anna Madrigal.

Although this is the tenth book in a long series, I think there are enough embedded recaps and hints to make it accessible to new readers. Although written in 2024, it seems to take place in the late 90s when the AIDS epidemic was at its height. Interestingly, in this book, AIDS is referred to as a pandemic, which was not the way I remembered it being referred to at the time but which is obviously correct. Although I lived through it, I admit to having largely forgotten about how horrible it was at the time. I found a thorough timeline here: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline/. While AIDS is not the main point of the story, its continuing destruction has a big impact on our characters and their community.

The book does unsurprisingly include a very clear and outspoken sexual / gender agenda, but primarily the characters are all seeking what most of us seek — love, meaning, and a place in life regardless of their sexually diverse backgrounds. Some positive experiences with the Romani — a group that is rarely portrayed in fiction at all, never mind nicely. Well written and enjoyable — not particularly insightful but perfectly paced, easy to read, and always surprising. I enjoyed it thoroughly.