I waited for "Apple Turnover Murder" by Joanne Fluke with happy anticipation only to want to wring her neck at the end. The mystery was lame and she left a new mystery to be solved in the next book and Hannah being confronted by Norman appearing with a new woman - AT THE VERY END OF THE BOOK. Some fun recipes but no mystery.
Sad to say that "Pretty in Ink" by Karen E. Olson was really good - especially after the Fluke book. I enjoy Brett Kavanaugh, the tattoo artist with the smart mouth who owns her own shop in Las Vegas - The Painted Lady. This mystery involved drag queens and a champagne cork that brought one queen down. A nasty cop with a grudge against Brett's brother, also a cop and another tattoo artist who just might be the answer to Brett's prayers, or drive her crazy.
"Ghouls Gone Wild" by Victoria Laurie features M.J. Holliday with her ability to communicate with the dead. She and her new partner, Heath, have gone to Scotland to film their new television show and may be up against more than the two of them can handle - not. I enjoy this series but like her psychic series better.
I truly wish that Peter May would have a new Chinese mystery out at least every other month. "The Runner" proceeds "Chinese Whispers" but just got published in the U.S. It's centered around the athletes preparing for the Olympics. Unfortunately, several of them have died in what seems to be accidents or natural causes - until the number of deaths becomes apparent. Li Yan is preparing for his marriage to Margaret Campbell, the American pathologist who is pregnant with his baby. With his angry, estranged father and her pretentious, estranged father meeting for the first time during this touchy investigation the future doesn't look particularly bright. Now I have to re-read "Chinese Whispers".
Add to this the beading and needlepoint I'm doing, cleaning up my craft area and my plate is full and retirement is indeed, good!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
What a good week this has been!
I've had three books that I've been excited about this week. The first was "Blackout" by Connie Willis. I've read her other titles about time travel and this one was fantastic. I'm almost sorry to tell people that it involves time travel because they tend to get glassy eyed and impatient but this was such a wonderful book I want to smack them alongside the head and say "Get over yourself and give this book a chance." This one is set during World War II Great Britain and is really about how the ordinary people got along in the midst of daily turmoil and nightly bombings - all before the United States got involved. The whole Dunkirk rescue by just about anyone with a boat, the people who made due in London with the underground stations serving as bomb shelters and the country people who took in the children evacuated from London - including two of the most annoying, bratty children who still managed to tug at my heart strings.The only thing that was dismaying was to get to the end of this huge book and discover that we have to wait until the next book to find out how everyone's problems turn out!!
I've loved Liz Williams' books involving Detective Inspector Chen that are set in Shanghai Three where everyone is now getting used to demons and gods and magic. Chen's partner, the demon, Zhu Irzh, and the badger familiar of Chen's wife, Inari, who is also a demon, have been taken hostage in a strange jungle hell. Meanwhile, Chen is dealing with a Bollywood actress who is a tiger demon and on a killing spree. Mhara, the new Lord of Heaven, is being stalked by an assassin hired by his mother - oh, things get really exciting in these books. Beings die - sort of and there is lots of action and quite a bit of humor. Terrific book.
Lastly, I savored the newest book from Lorna Freeman. I thought for a while that we were never going to have another book about Lord Rabbit and the Borderlands but finally the publisher, ROC, came through. Rabbit is still trying to learn about his various gifts of magic and still reeling from the rebellion that he helped put down when one of the lords of the land demand that he marry his daughter since Rabbit's mother had jilted him to run away with Rabbit's dad. King Jusson takes his royal entourage off to Mearden for a diplomatic mission and to assess the situation with the demands for Rabbit's marriage. Wow, does the shit hit the fan. The entire House of Mearden seems to be full of intrigue and cranky people. There is the daughter of Captain Suiden who has arrived with a war wizard, the wolf, Kveta, who Rabbit knew from his home in the Borderlands and a strange "Watcher" of the local forest. Oh, I want to read this book again and savor all of the bits I missed because I wanted to see what would happen next. Please, please, let there be more.
I've loved Liz Williams' books involving Detective Inspector Chen that are set in Shanghai Three where everyone is now getting used to demons and gods and magic. Chen's partner, the demon, Zhu Irzh, and the badger familiar of Chen's wife, Inari, who is also a demon, have been taken hostage in a strange jungle hell. Meanwhile, Chen is dealing with a Bollywood actress who is a tiger demon and on a killing spree. Mhara, the new Lord of Heaven, is being stalked by an assassin hired by his mother - oh, things get really exciting in these books. Beings die - sort of and there is lots of action and quite a bit of humor. Terrific book.
Lastly, I savored the newest book from Lorna Freeman. I thought for a while that we were never going to have another book about Lord Rabbit and the Borderlands but finally the publisher, ROC, came through. Rabbit is still trying to learn about his various gifts of magic and still reeling from the rebellion that he helped put down when one of the lords of the land demand that he marry his daughter since Rabbit's mother had jilted him to run away with Rabbit's dad. King Jusson takes his royal entourage off to Mearden for a diplomatic mission and to assess the situation with the demands for Rabbit's marriage. Wow, does the shit hit the fan. The entire House of Mearden seems to be full of intrigue and cranky people. There is the daughter of Captain Suiden who has arrived with a war wizard, the wolf, Kveta, who Rabbit knew from his home in the Borderlands and a strange "Watcher" of the local forest. Oh, I want to read this book again and savor all of the bits I missed because I wanted to see what would happen next. Please, please, let there be more.
Monday, March 8, 2010
More reading, beading and now - needlepoint!
I've read Shirley Damsgaard's series on Ophelia Jensen since the beginning. I think I missed one but I tend to fall out of "like" with certain genre every now and then. I enjoy the fact that Ophelia is a small town Iowa librarian and a witch. The new title "The Seventh Witch" is set in a Southern town where her grandmother, Abby, grew up. Some of the people here aren't very nice - like the woman claiming to be a dark witch - just plain nasty. Then there's the issue of Great-Aunt Mary who's about to turn 100. She may be family but she's no sweet old dear. She makes no bones about the fact that she doesn't care for Ophelia. Poor Abby isn't dealing real well with being home amongst her nearest and dearest so in the end, Ophelia must come to the rescue.
Lastly, I read "A Catered Birthday Party" by Isis Crawford about the baking, catering sisters, Libby and Bernie. They've been asked to cater a birthday party for the dog of one of the richest women in town. It becomes clear at the party that the dog's owner is using this party as an excuse to be nasty to all of her "best friends" and her husband. Funny - she's poisoned and no one is too upset about it - except Bernie and Libby who have been forced by the woman in her dying moments to agree to find out who killed her. Some funny lines in this one. Loved the crazy young woman with the hair that went from blue to green to purple to...
Finished my beaded needlecase and started right in on another one. I like this type of work right now and I'm also getting geared up to start on some ornaments. Found several patterns that I haven't done yet, plus some others I want to do and these are just the stringing ones - not the peyote panels by Deb Moffat-Hall.
Then, Kathy had seen some needlepoint patterns at a local quilt store that she thought I might like so, we went out and I bought two patterns and the material to do one of them. I'm enjoying this a lot.
Lastly, I read "A Catered Birthday Party" by Isis Crawford about the baking, catering sisters, Libby and Bernie. They've been asked to cater a birthday party for the dog of one of the richest women in town. It becomes clear at the party that the dog's owner is using this party as an excuse to be nasty to all of her "best friends" and her husband. Funny - she's poisoned and no one is too upset about it - except Bernie and Libby who have been forced by the woman in her dying moments to agree to find out who killed her. Some funny lines in this one. Loved the crazy young woman with the hair that went from blue to green to purple to...
Finished my beaded needlecase and started right in on another one. I like this type of work right now and I'm also getting geared up to start on some ornaments. Found several patterns that I haven't done yet, plus some others I want to do and these are just the stringing ones - not the peyote panels by Deb Moffat-Hall.
Then, Kathy had seen some needlepoint patterns at a local quilt store that she thought I might like so, we went out and I bought two patterns and the material to do one of them. I'm enjoying this a lot.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Spring is on the way!
The weather has finally started to turn to the warmer side and I think we are all pretty darned happy about that. I had plenty to read and bead and there were even new episodes of my favorite TV shows - life is good.
I like Betty Hechtman's books about the Tarzana Hookers - a crocheting group. This one was set at a resort along the California coast - not a posh place with spa and many eating establishments - more of a rustic lodge type place where they must have expected their guests to be out and about during the day and too tired at night to worry about the lack of amenities. Molly Pink has been put in charge of the bookstore's yearly crafting retreat and consequently there goes the long weekend with her boyfriend. She will be where the buck stops for any and all problems. The first is the fog that is so thick it keeps attendees unable to get to the resort. Then there is the death of the crochet teacher - this is like a locked room mystery! It had to be someone at the resort.
I also was reading another noir mystery at the time - Death by the Book by a young Australian writer, Lenny Bartulin. I read it because of the title and the fact that it dealt with a used bookstore but I didn't realize that it was a noir and I'm not sure, even after finishing it, that I liked it. The owner of the bookstore gets involved with the daughter of a client who is buying all of the books by an obscure poet, who turns out to be his brother - convoluted and confusing.
I wasn't certain at the end if one person hadn't really died or what was going on. Not sure I care, either
I like Betty Hechtman's books about the Tarzana Hookers - a crocheting group. This one was set at a resort along the California coast - not a posh place with spa and many eating establishments - more of a rustic lodge type place where they must have expected their guests to be out and about during the day and too tired at night to worry about the lack of amenities. Molly Pink has been put in charge of the bookstore's yearly crafting retreat and consequently there goes the long weekend with her boyfriend. She will be where the buck stops for any and all problems. The first is the fog that is so thick it keeps attendees unable to get to the resort. Then there is the death of the crochet teacher - this is like a locked room mystery! It had to be someone at the resort.
I also was reading another noir mystery at the time - Death by the Book by a young Australian writer, Lenny Bartulin. I read it because of the title and the fact that it dealt with a used bookstore but I didn't realize that it was a noir and I'm not sure, even after finishing it, that I liked it. The owner of the bookstore gets involved with the daughter of a client who is buying all of the books by an obscure poet, who turns out to be his brother - convoluted and confusing.
I wasn't certain at the end if one person hadn't really died or what was going on. Not sure I care, either
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