Sew Good, Part III

Dewey enrolls in a high-priced quilting symposium in order to expand her quilting skills and maybe win the respect of the traditional quilters at her shop, Quilter Paradiso. The Sewing-by-the-Sea Symposium seems to be the perfect choice for a place to mix business and pleasure. Located in Asilomar, CA where her older brother Tony has recently been transferred as a park ranger, it's an ideal spot to work and play a bit at the same time. She gets to reconnect with her oldest brother, enjoy the ocean air and learn a bit more about creating an art quilt. Plus she gets to rub shoulders with some of the big names in the quilting world and make some contacts that could help business.

All is not going well. Dewey resents the conference's organizer, a quilting star named Mercedes Madsen, who is part artist and part Simon Legree. Dewey leans more toward the Simon Legree view, whereas most of the other quilters adore the hard-nosed organizer. Mercedes confiscates all cell phones the first day and only allows quilters to use the pay phone in the evening hours. Plus attendees are to stay on site for the entire week, 24-7. No visits to the local tourist trap town, no mochas or pizza stops in the town, no shopping, no exceptions. Of course, this does not set well with Dewey, who has to break the rules the very first evening at the conference by sneaking out to call her boyfriend Buster. She gets busted by Mercedes, however, and banished to her quarters. She makes a coffee date in town with her brother for the next day in spite of the rule forbidding quilters from leaving the premises. On her way back, she brings a man she met in town who had been looking for his wife at the conference. When they arrive, to Dewey's surprise, Mercedes pulls a gun on the man and orders him off the premises. It seems he is a spouse abuser and Mercedes refuses to allow him to see his wife.

Things only get worse when Dewey joins Tony and a group of quilters for an early morning tour of the park. Bored by the lecture Tony is giving, Dewey leaves the group and wanders off by herself. She sees a woman standing atop a very dangerous boulder. No one is around to help either of them and the wind keeps her shouts for help from being heard by Tony or the group. When she glances back toward the woman, the rock is empty, as if the woman had completely disappeared. Dewey rushes as best she can over the treacherous rocks to the spot where the woman had been standing and peeks over the edge. The crazy quilt cloak the woman had been wearing was floating atop the water below and the woman's body was nowhere in sight.  It appears the woman has committed suicide.

Sew Very Good, Part II

Old Maid's Puzzle, the second book in Terri Thayer's Quilting Mysteries series, was every bit as good as the first. After the trauma of Wild Goose Chase, Dewey Pellicano has settled down and is working hard at making a go of the quilt shop she inherited from her quilter mom, Quilter Paradiso. All is not going well. As a matter of fact, Quilter Paradiso is on the verge of having to declare bankruptcy and close. Of course, that is stressful for Dewey for numerous reasons, not the least of which is losing the shop with her mother started and grew into a successful business and which is now the primary link she still has to her mom. Knowing that you can't run a successful quilt shop without knowing at least the basics of quilting, Dewey is taking a quilt class from one of Quilter Paradiso's teachers. To make matters more difficult, Dewey is continuing to have problems with her sister-in-law Kym who is also her employee. Kym feels she could run the shop better than Dewey and does everything within her power to sabotage Dewey's efforts. Since Kym is family, Dewey is reluctant to fire her for fear of upsetting the family, especially after her mother's sudden death.

And then, of course, there's a murder to be solved. It happened in the alleyway behind the store and threatens customers' sense of safety and they start pulling out of the quilting classes, one of the main sources of income for Quilter Paradiso.  Which, naturally, doesn't help the bottom line any.

To save the shop Dewey has planned a make or break gigantic sale. When Kym finally screws up so badly that Dewey can tolerate her sabotaging efforts no longer, she is fired on the spot in front of friends, family and loyal customers. Kym's sudden departure right before the blowout sale further complicates the situation simply because Dewey needs all the physical help she can scrounge just to get the store ready. The fact that so many of Kym's customers start some online chatter through the local quilt guild about how unfair Dewey was and vow never to shop at Quilter Paradiso again doesn't help matters either.

I liked the role of the older women in this novel, being an older woman myself. I am quite sensitive to how women are treated in novels and particularly these days to how retirees are portrayed. Thayer's quilt teachers and customers are a joy to observe. Each is an individual and each makes it perfectly clear to Dewey that they don't need help running their own lives, including their love lives. When two of her regulars have a falling out about a man, Dewey tries to make peace between them but is brought up short by each woman. That doesn't stop her from trying to protect one's life savings, however, and in the process Dewey discovers the truth about the man who came between them and solves the murder.

I have to say, I never saw the ending coming. The character I suspected turned out to be a victim himself. And the revelation of the real murderer was quite surprising to me. It made sense, however, even though it made me quite sad.

As with the first book, I loved all the references to quilting, quilt blocks, quilting tools, quilting classes, etc. I felt right at home in Quilter Paradiso and in Dewey's world. It is quite obvious that Terri Thayer is a quilter, and I bet she's much better than her fictional shop owner! Some of the other quilt related mysteries I've read just don't ring quite as true as this one. But I knew from the beginning of Wild Goose Chase that this author knew all about rotary cutters from experience, not just reading about them. She was so good at describing the experiences that I am now inspired to clean up my sewing room and start yet another UFO (that's an UnFinished Object for you non-quilters out there)! Already I'm thinking about what pattern I'll use. As usual, my problem is choosing a pattern and sticking with it.

Sew Very Good!

Bad pun! But I love puns, the "badder," the better. And the first three novels in Terri Thayer's Quilting Mystery series are all "sew" good! (You can read her blog at Killer Hobbies.)  I loved each and every one of them! Hated to see the last one end and can't wait for the next one to come out. I may just have to pay full price for it. That's high praise from Ms. Penny Pincher here. Normally I would wait until I could get the book via PaperBack Swap or at least from the library. But I don't think I can wait that long to read the next in the series. I'll have to, however, since it won't be released until after Christmas. The good news, though, is that I can pre-order Monkey Wrench from Amazon. I put it on my Christmas wish list there. Here's hoping Santa pays attention.

I had heard such good things about the Quilting Mystery series that I was willing to wait for a very long time to get them from PaperBack Swap. I put the first three books on my wish list and eventually my wishes were granted, although they didn't get to me in the order in which they were published. I put them in my towering TBR pile and only recently got around to reading them. I decided that since I finally had all three, I would just read them one after the other. I like reading series books in the proper order. Most of the time, the individual books stand alone, as these did, but reading them in order does make certain aspects of character development and back story make a bit more sense. And that was the case with these books, too, but reading them in order is more satisfying to me. And I liked being able to read one immediately after the other. That's not always possible when you read the books as they are published, obviously.  I frequently forget key elements in the back stories of the characters.

In Wild Goose Chase, Dewey Pellicano is attending her first quilt conference since inheriting her mother's quilt shop. Before her mother's sudden death, Dewey worked with computers. But when the economy went bust, Dewey found herself unemployed. Mom to the rescue with a job offer--work for Quilter Paradiso setting up a computerized accounting and inventory control program, something right up Dewey's alley. But her career plans are changed when her mom is killed by a hit and run drunk driver. Dewey inherits the shop and is trying her best to learn more than she had ever planned to about running her own small business and the art of quilting. To make matters more difficult, Terri's sister-in-law Kym does her best to undermine Dewey at every turn, starting with sabotaging the computerized sales program on the very first day of the quilt conference. Matters get more complicated when Dewey finds famous quilt artist Claire Armstrong dead, killed with one of those deadly rotary cutters. And more complicated when she falls in love with former childhood friend turned hunky cop, Buster Healy. Healy is helping investigate Armstrong's murder, a complication for their budding romance. When Dewey stumbles upon a second body, Dewey feels compelled to hurry and find the murderer before anyone else winds up dead.

I'm Ba-a-ack! For now.

It's been quite a while since I last wrote about a book I've read. And I've read quite a few in the intervening time. Too many to recall right off the top of my head right now. But I've been stewing over not writing in this blog and my writing prompts blog, not to mention working on my own cozy novel. Supposedly those are things that are most important to me. You wouldn't know it by the lack of writing, would you? But I've been doing other things and a whole lot of nothing.I'm fighting depression and poor health -- a deadly combo -- to boot, so I'm much slower than usual.

At any rate, I'm back and I decided that Dec. 1 was a good date to start my latest self-improvement project. I had read somewhere that some writers used a calendar to keep them motivated to meet their daily writing goals. Since I always liked the "gold star" method in school and Sunday school, I think this might work for me. It's a visual approach that serves as not only a daily reminder, but also a reminder during the day that will hopefully keep my mind on my goals. I'm feeling hopeful, so why not take advantage of the mood.

I'm going to post a large calendar on the wall behind my computer and each day that I meet a minimal writing goal, I'll put a big X in the square. I may even buy some colorful stars at the Dollar Store! The point is never to have a blank space on the calendar. I think that could work.

My minimal writing goal: write something, anything, fiction or prose, in any of my blogs or using my writing software to work on my mystery. I have yet to decide the minimal number of words. I want it to be low, but not ridiculously so. I usually go way overboard and promise to write 1500+ words a day. That pace is hard to keep up. So I'm thinking if I start with at least 250 words, I'll most likely go beyond on most days. I usually do. It's the getting started that's the problem most times. But at least 250 word means I worked at it a bit, put some effort into something productive. That's for those days when I'm either so depressed I have to look up to see the bottom, as the saying goes, or so busy I don't have time for anything more.

Today I'll just list some of the books sitting here on the computer desk or on my Kindle-PC app that I've read over the last few months. I know there are others, but these are a good place to start.

In no particular order:
Pushing Up Daisies, Rosemary Harris
Hanging by a Thread, Monica Ferris
Wild Goose Chase, Terri Thayer
Old Maid's Puzzle, Terri Thayer
Ocean Waves, Terri Thayer
Murder Past Due, Miranda James (aka Dean James)
Murder on the Mind, L. L. Bartlett
Dead in Red, L. L. Bartlett
Cheated by Death, L. L. Bartlett
Bound by Suggestion, L. L. Bartlett
Trouble in Mudbug, Jana DeLeon

Mischief in Mudbug, Jana DeLeon
Showdown in Mudbug, Jana DeLeon
Rumble on the Bayou, Jana DeLeon


That list is a bit overwhelming, but I enjoyed most of the books so much, I can actually hardly wait to write about them.

Cat Sitter

Of course I enjoyed Blaize Clement's Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof, Book 4 of the Dixie Hemingway series! I love this series. Blaize does such a wonderful job of looking into the human heart, especially exploring issues of pain, loss, grief, and most importantly, recovery from devastating loss and trauma. Dixie is one fictional person I'd love to know in reality. Her sensitivity and dedication to the needs of her animal charges makes her, in my opinion, a better sleuth. She instinctively knows when something is not quite right about both her animal clients as well as the humans who pay for her services. It's not one bit surprising to me to learn that Blaize Clement was a family therapist before she became a professional writer. I knew from the very first book in the Dixie Hemingway series that Blaize had to have at least majored in psychology once upon a time, if not had actual experience as a psychotherapist. I bet she was a cracker jack therapist and families were lucky to have found her.

In this novel, Dixie is presented as a bit lonely and in need of a friend, so much so that she jumps at the chance to claim as a friend a woman she literally runs into. Once they get past the unpleasantness of their abrupt encounter, Dixie finds that this newcomer to the Siesta Key seems to be a kindred spirit. After the devastating loss of her husband and child, Dixie has been hibernating, only gradually coming out of her hiding place and rejoining the world via her pet sitting services. We can see her growth and change through each novel in the series. She has been dealing with her feelings for a couple of good looking men in her life, but in this book, the opening pages show us how desperately she simply needs a friend, not a client or acquaintance. Just someone to kick around with, chat over silly things with, compare likes and dislikes, share your family history and stories, hopes and dreams. Despite being back out in the land of the living and dealing with clients each day, solving local murders, interacting with the police, Dixie has been lonely for simple friendship. Now that really touched a rather sensitive nerve in me and at times reading this book was difficult for that reason. But I kept reading because I knew that, as always, I would learn a good bit about myself through Clement's analysis of Dixie by Dixie. And I was right.

When Laura, the new friend, ends up brutally butchered after she and Dixie have a great girls' night in at Laura's home, Dixie naturally wants to investigate. But as she does her investigation, she finds out that much of what Laura told her was not true and then feels let down and foolish.  But as she unravels Laura's mysteries, she also begins to unravel as few of her own inner mysteries and questions about friendship. I love how the two are so gracefully and soundly intertwined. Wish I could write like that.

I suspected the particular family situation revealed at the end of the book, but not everybody would, and knowing whodunit pages before the police arrested the culprit did not spoil the reveal for me at all. The ending was quite satisfying. Particularly her friend Pete's creative use of a saxophone. Loved it!

There is so much to this book to love and much to think about once the covers have been closed.

Starting Over --- Again!

I've got a stack of books by the computer, as well as a stack or two in my bedroom, of books I've read and have been intending to write about. You know the old saying about the road to hell, pavement and good intentions? Well, my road is first class all the way! Well paved indeed. 

It is late tonight and my brain is dead, so I'm going to bed. But here's hoping that when I get up a little later today, I'll stop back by the Book Nook and jot down a few notes about some of the books I've read since the last entry. Some I've loved, some I've liked well enough and one or two I simply couldn't finish for various reasons.

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter

Well, curiosity almost killed the cat sitter! I had to order this book if for no other reason than the title intrigued me. As a budding author who can't come up with any decent titles myself, I am always drawn to books with titles that attract my attention, make promises that I sincerely hope the books will deliver on and play with words and phrases. As a language student and teacher with a weird sense of humor, I love playing with words and phrases. Always have from as far back as I can remember. So I appreciate titles that play with words and phrases and I especially appreciate books that live up to the title's promises.

When Dixie shows up at a client's house to care for her spoiled Abyssinian, she discovers a corpse in the kitchen, his face in the cat's water bowl and his head taped down to the floor. She discovers that her now missing client has a shocking past that gave many people good reason to want her dead and now that Dixie is onto their trail, she's in danger herself. When she herself becomes a suspect, she has to find the real killer before the killer finds her.

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter delivered quite nicely on its promises for the most part. I had thought, judging by the title, that there would be a bit more humor in the book than there actually was. But still, I was not in the least disappointed and I will definitely be adding more books by Blaize Clement to my TBR pile.  I like her writing style and I really enjoyed getting to know the main character, former Sheriff's deputy Dixie Hemingway who's been through life's emotional wringer and has emerged, scathed but healing and hopeful. And, as in the case of so many other walking wounded, Dixie uses her pain to help others heal, too. I wish I were more like her than I am. Maybe after another book or two, a smidgen of Dixie's strength of spirit will rub off on me!

Death of a Saint Maker by Allana Martin

I have to love an author who is skilled enough to make me actually want to visit once again a part of the US I always thought of as desolate, empty and boring! Allana Martin made the Big Bend region come alive, complete with all the intricacies and cultural differences of life on the Texas/Mexico border.

Texana Jones runs a trading post and her husband has a veterinary business not too far from the Mexican border in the Big Bend area of southwest Texas. When Texana crosses the border to attend the dedication of a statue in a small village church, she and the villagers find that the church is locked. Villagers force the door open only to find the brutally murdered body of the itinerant saint maker, the man who had carved the church's new statue, and a neighbor's pit bull standing over the bloody corpse. The dog escapes before the villagers can grasp what has happened and capture the dog. While the villagers want to believe the dog is the culprit since it would lessen likelihood of police intervention, Texana has her doubts. When someone breaks into her trading post and steals her own statue carved by the saint maker, Texana's suspicion that the roaming artist was involved in something more than carving statues and figurines grows. When she joins her husband at the home of a wealthy Mexican landowner who is rumored to be a gun runner, she discovers that this shady character also happens to own a number of the saint maker's wood carvings. She is convinced there is a connection and is determined to find the truth. Death of a Saint Maker was a very satisfying well told story. I may not make Big Bend my next vacation spot, but I will definitely see it in a much different light.

Artifacts by Mary Anna Evans

This was a very well plotted, well written, enjoyable mystery with strong female characters and colorful settings. Though the plot was quite complicated, Mary Anna Evans handled it so well that I almost never got confused - which isn't always the case when novels change point of view or slip back and forth between the past and the present. Evans handled the historical story of how Faye's mixed race foremothers acquired and managed to keep and pass Joyeuse planation through the generations down to Faye by means of a journal Faye founds hidden away in the plantation's cupola. I had a little trouble believing Faye didn't just sit down and read the journal all at once; I know I would have. But despite that quibble, the bits of history revealed in the journal entries gave some excellent insight into not only Faye's family history, but also the social history of Florida. The stories helped Faye understand herself as she discovered answers to many of the questions she had been asking for as long as she could remember about her foremothers' history. Evans didn't finch in the face of the realities of slavery and racial prejudice from the ante-bellum South to modern times.

Faye Longchamp lives in a run-down mansion named Joyeuse, a plantation belonging to a former slave owner who actually owned Faye's great-great-grandmother Cally. Somehow Cally got ownership of the plantation around the time of the end of the Civil War and it remained in the family ever since. At least until the property taxes got so high Faye worries she will lose Joyeuse. To save her inheritance Faye, an avid former student of archaelogy who had to quit her studies due to a lack of funds, decides she has no choice but to excavate her own property and the nearby national preserve to find items she can sell on the black market. She abhors pothunters and hates having to be one. But she can't accept the loss of Joyeuse. Her whole identity is wrapped up in the dilapidated plantation. What she finds, however, on her latest excavation is not pottery or arrow heads, but the skeleton of a girl who died a mere 40 years before. Faced with the prospect of anyone finding out about her illegal deeds and the sure loss of Joyeuse, Faye investigates on her own. On the heels of the discovery of the skeleton, Faye and her fellow student archaeologists doing a legitimate dig on an island nearby discover the bodies of two of their own. Faye is convinced the students were killed by the same person who killed the woman she found only the day before, even though the murders were separated by several decades.

I did not guess who the villain was until nearly the end of the book. I was so engrossed in the story I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish it.

Two Cozies

The Stolen Blue by Judith Van Gieson was touted by none other than Tony Hillerman as a book not to miss. So, of course, when Hillerman speaks, I listen very carefully. And I was not disappointed. I'm going to have to hunt up some more of Van Giesen's work because I loved this book. Claire reynier introduced me to the job of a rare book expert and if I had my life to do over again (God forbid!), I'm pretty sure that would be an area I'd love. Frustrating work, to be sure. But fascinating.

Claire's former professor and mentor calls her to his spread in The Blue, a virtually unspoiled area of New Mexico. He wants to donate his entire collection of books to University of New Mexico's Center for Southwest Research. Claire has a special fondness for the old curmudgeon, who is not in good health. He had hired her for her first job as librarian after graduate school and after her marriage ended recently, helped ensure she got hired at UNM as the head of library collection, responsible for buying rare books for the CSR. Claire is excited both about seeing her mentor and looking over his extensive collection. The joy ends soon, however. The day after Burke signs his will giving the collection to the Center, he is found dead in the snow outside his home. His daughter Mariah, who has only recently discovered Burke was her father, is not only named the principal heir of the Burke estate, but she also admits to helping the man commit suicide. To make matters more convoluted, when Claire returns to the university after Burke's death, one box of the books she had in her truck is stolen. Claire has to discover why the books were stolen, who took them and what they had to do with Burke's death.

Margaret Coel (another favorite author) said this book was an intricate puzzle that kept her guessing. Me, too. It was very well written. Claire is a character I liked and would like to read more about. So maybe in the next day or two, I'll be searching St. Tammany Parish Library for more books by Judith Van Giesen.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross was an absolutely delightful book! Here's yet another favorite to add to my list. I've got to get supper going now, so will postpone writing anything more. I have to have more time to do justice to Miss Julia.

Long time, no write

I've failed. Surprised, aren't you? LOL! I've just kept putting off writing in my blogs for various reasons, some good, some not. I meant well. I always do. But doing well... Well, that's not my best thing. Follow-through has always been one of my many, many shortcomings.

I have been reading a bit, though. Not so much as I would have liked, but reading a bit here and there, nonetheless. I didn't write down every single title I've read since the last blog entry, unfortunately. But since I'm the only one who gives a hoot, it really doesn't matter. Except to me. That failure thing, you know.

What I've Read:
In August and September, I managed to read some of the Star Trek Gateway series novels. These are crossover novels - there's one for each of the Star Trek series, including a novel focusing on the USS Challenger, a ship introduced in a series of novels taking place between the times between the first two Star Trek movies. The unifying theme involves the sudden activation of interstellar gate planted millenia ago by the Iconians, a species we meet in one episode of the original Star Trek show.

• First, the Kirk novel: One Small Step. Typical Kirk hero stuff. A fun read.
• Second, Challenger, Chain Mail. This one was very frustrating to me, because I had not read all the novels in the New Earth/Challenger series and so was unfamiliar with the characters and the situation.
• Third, Picard in Doors into Chaos. Despite the fact that I adore Jean Luc, this one was not nearly so satisfying as the Kirk book. Troi does get command of a ship, however, and that was nice.
• Fourth, Deep Space Nine, Demons of Air and Darkness. Another disappointment. I liked DS9, but I did not care for this novel.
  
  The last three in the series that I hope to read soon:
  
• No Man's Land, featuring Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew. I liked the Voyager series a lot. Hope this novel is not disappointing.
• Cold Wars, the only novel series with characters not be based on an actual Star Trek show. It's part of a series introducing a new ship, The Challenger, and a new cast of characters. I've not read any of these novels yet. I'm sure I'll be lost when I read this one in the Gateway series, but I'll probably read it anyway.
• What Lay Beyond, which is supposed to tie everything up quite neatly. A long damned time in coming, my friends! Not sure I care any more.
  

I liked the original concept - at least as I thought it was going to be before I started reading. But I was very frustrated with some of the individual books for various reasons. And frustrated that I had to wait for the last book in the series to wrap it all up. And I STILL don't own that last book!

The Law vs Justice

Dixie Flannigan is another new favorite character for me. She's a former assistant district attorney who had been dedicated to bringing about justice. But, of course, in real life in court, law does not always equate with justice. As a matter of fact, too often legal battles leave a lot of justice still to be desired. So, when she gets fed up with the lack of jsut in the justice system from the prosecutor's perspective, Dixie decides to take another tack and becomes a bounty hunter. Having developed and nurtured a reputation as a hard-ass attorney, she takes that bitch factor and now applies it to rounding up those trying to outrun the long arm of the law.

The story begins two days before Christmas and Dixie is in no mood for hunting down yet another criminal making a run for it. But when she finds out that Parker Dann, on trial for killing a child in a drunk driving accident and not even remembering the event, may well be on the run during the holiday court break, she decides to make the trek from Houston to North Dakota in a blizzard to bring him back to finish his trial. Dixie has a serious axe to grind with child predators and she is eager to get this one back to Houston to face the jury and his receive justice for the little girl he allegedly mowed down.

When she does her own investigation before court resumes, however, Dixie is shaken to her core. Could it be that Parker Dann is not guilty of hit and run drunk driving? Is Betsy Keyes' accidental death is linked to the accidental drowning death of her sister Courtney? Is the baby sister Ellie is in danger as well? Dixie has to act quickly to save not only an innocent man, but possibly an innocent child.


I like Dixie. She's doesn't come across to me as a simplistic cardboard character, but is complex and intriguing. She is hard as nails when it comes to criminals and bail jumpers. But she has a soft side for her family and for abused children in general, having been abused herself as a child before having been adopted by a loving family she credits with having saved her life. Dixie's sister, brother-in-law and nephew are fun to read about, too, and I got a kick out of their interactions. They're about the only people on the planet who can get under Dixie's skin. But in spite of that weakness, or maybe because of that love and support, Dixie is a strong woman with a singular devotion to the truth, no matter how painful and unsettling it might be. Besides, I can't help liking anybody willing to stand up for abused children.

Bitch Factor was a little intense, so I'm probably going to wait a bit before getting the next one. But I'm pretty sure I'll be reading Rage Factor and Chill Factor before too long.

More Wanda Nell

In Bring Your Own Poison, Wanda Nell Culpepper, waitress and overworked, overstressed single mom, gets involved in yet another murder in Tullahoma. This time she is eyewitness to the death of police officer Travis Blakely at his own bachelor party attended by virtually every other police officer in the area. No one is truly surprised that Travis met a grisly end. He is a very unpleasant, misogynistic jackass who was suspected of having killed his first two wives, although no one could ever prove anything. But that history did not seem to stop one of the town's most beautiful young women from agreeing to marry the cop. Travis' younger brother Gerald becomes the prime suspect for two reasons. One, he had dated the bride and objected loudly to Travis' lewd comments about her at the party. Two, he was found holding an empty vial right after Travis keeled over.

This particular story was a bit complicated. There is a lot going on in Wanda Nell's life besides investigating a murder. She meets an old flame who has changed most unpleasantly, she has to confront homophobic attacks against her son and his partner that cause her pain and worry, one daughter is sick and the other pregnant again and unmarried, Jack propsed to her, and Jack's sister claims she is being stalked by a homicidal cop.

When state police Master Sergeant Bill Warren arrives at the Kountry Kitchen to investigate Officer Blakely's sudden death, Wanda Nell is surprised and pleased to recognize the shy boy she dated back in high school. But Bill is no longer the nice kid Wanda Nell used to know. He bullies Gerald from the get-go and Wanda Nell feels compelled to come to Gerald's aid. She calls Tuck, the lawyer who is also her son T.J.'s life partner. When he arrives at the Kountry Kitchen, Bill makes a vile homophobic comment and Wanda Nell decks him. Later Bill uses that incident, plus threats to her son, to try to intimidate Wanda Nell into changing her testimony to incriminate Gerald. Wanda Nell knows something is fishy with Bill's obsession, so she feels compelled to invetigate that part of the mystery as well.

To complicate matters, Wanda Nell's boyfriend Jack Pemberton pops the question and Wanda Nell surprises everybody, but mostly herself, by saying yes right away. Then she discovers that her daughter Miranda, who has a toddler whose daddy is unknown and long gone, is pregnant again. As if there's not enough things for Wanda Nell to be worried about, Bill Warren starts to threaten her family. Plus Jack's sister turns to Wanda Nell and Jack to help her stop the cop she claims is stalking her.

Wanda Nell Culpepper's life is never easy even in the best of circumstances. She's a widowed single mom who works two jobs as she struggles to make ends meet while raising two daughters and a grandson in a small town in Mississippi. Folks who live on the edge of financial disaster can relate to her constant problems and worries. But Wanda Nell always meets life headon, with courage and wit. I like Wanda Nell. She's somebody I'd want as a next door neighbor and friend. She has a good heart and a good head on her shoulders.

String of Lies

I just finished reading Mary Ellen Hughes String of Lies, the second book in her Craft Corner Mystery series, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I usually like to read series in order, but somehow I missed the first in this series, Wreath of Deception. I plan to rectify that as soon as possible so I can move on to the third book, Paper-Thin Alibi. The books obviously can be read separately since I don't feel as though I missed anything by not having read the books in order. But still, I'll have to read the first one before I can move on to the third. I'm anal like that, unfortunately.

After Jo McCallister's husband died in an automobile accident, she moved to a small town in Maryland and opened an arts and craft store. In this book Jo's Craft Corner is beginning to prosper and Jo is feeling a little more secure. But then she finds that a local developer has been buying up some of the stores on her block. Is hers one of them? Her landlord is out of state and try as she might, she can't get in touch with her landlord to find out. Her attempts to contact the developer personally get nowhere, so she decides she has no choice but to try to catch him at one of his work sites. She finds him there, but unfortunately, the man has been murdered. And to complicate Jo's life further, her contractor friend Dan and his employee Xavier are both suspects. Xavier, a legal immigrant with a pregnant wife who's due to deliver just any day, becomes the scapegoat. If Xavier is arrested and prosecuted, her friend Dan's business will suffer even more as more people cancel their jobs. So Jo enlists the aid of her regular craft group to ferret out the truth.

This is a cozy, so we aren't really expecting terribly complex characters, but Jo and her fellow crafters felt real and they reminded me of some of the folks I knew from my own small hometown. I especially enjoyed her portrayal of folks my age (60+) and older! We're witty, smart, caring, and still involved in our communities. Sounds about right to me!

One of my pet peeves regarding mysteries is the portrayal of a vicious adversarial relationship between the police and the amateur sleuth. Disagreement on the case is believable and mutual disapproval is expected. After all, we know very well that our heroine is not a detective. That's the whole point of a cozy, isn't it? But sometimes the fighting between amateurs and professionals gets downright nasty and not only becomes tiresome and irritating, it interferes with the story. If that happens, I usually quit reading and sometimes drop the author from by TBR list.

That was not a problem with String of Lies, I am very happy to report. I appreciated the fact that Jo wasn't constantly being harangued and/or belittled and demeaned by the police for her investigative efforts. There were the obligatory comments about letting the police do their job, but no serious rancor or disrespect in either direction.

On the other hand, since my dad was a state trooper, I appreciate that the police didn't come off as bumbling idiots, either. I thought this book had a nice balance and I'm looking forward to reading the others in the series.

Pre-Printing Press Challenge

Pre-Printing Press Challenge

As I said yesterday, this Pre-Printing Press Challenge really resonates with me and I'm so glad I came across it. Here are the rules:

1. All books must have come out before 1440, when the printing press was first invented.
2. Books chosen for this challenge can overlap with other challenges.
3. Books can be translated into the language of your choice.
4. All the books you've chosen must be read by April 30th 2010.
5. You can read 1-3 books, 4-6 books, 7-9 books or 10 or more books if you're feeling particularly ambitious.
6. The choice of books is up to you. There are no set reading lists, and you don't have to set one when you join.
   
7. Post your blog address where you'll be posting your comments on your choice of books in the comments of this post when you join, and tell me how many books you've chosen. I'll set up a link to participating blogs from here.
8. Above all, Have fun.

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I'm going to start with Eusebius' The History of the Church. A couple of weeks ago I pulled it off my bookshelf and put it in my TBR pile with the firm intention of actually reading the whole thing this summer. I read bits and pieces for various classes when I was working on the master's in religious studies I never got to finish at KU. So now I hope to cross that one off my list.

At the same time, I also pulled out books containing translations of the works of Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich for the TBR pile. My master's focus was women in monasticism, so this challenge should help inspire me to get back to reading and studying. I'm excited about the prospects.

If I were more ambitious, I'd try to read a couple of manuscripts in Greek. But my Greek is a bit rusty! Still, I may put one or two Greek texts on the list at some point even if it takes me til the 2010 deadline to finish even one short document, let alone a complete book. I may be retired, but the brain still works reasonably well. And research has shown that language study keeps the brain agile.

100+ Book Challenge

100+ Book Challenge
I'm definitely looking forward to this 100+ Book Challenge. I read a lot of fiction, especially mysteries, but I read a lot of other types books, too: history, spirituality, theology, politics, etc. I feel as though I'm getting 'credit', so to speak, for all the books I read, especially the nonfiction books, even if I don't blog about them or review them.

Here are the rules from J. Kaye's blog:
The 100+ Reading Challenge will be hosted here this year. Here are the guidelines:

1) You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.

2) This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3) You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4) If you don’t have a blog, please join our Yahoo Groups.

5) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your 100+ books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed.

6) All books count: children’s, YA, adults, fiction, non-fiction, how-tos, etc.

7) Feel free to post in the comment section or on Yahoo Groups your monthly progress as well as your favorite books that month.

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Here's my starting list. They're mostly mysteries since those are already listed on this Book Nook blog.

1. The Clovis Incident, Pari Noskin Taichert
2. Assassin: A Lady Grace Mystery, Patricia Finney
3. Best Served Cold, Jimmie Ruth Evans
4. Beware False Profits, Emilie Richards
5. Blessed Is the Busybody, Emilie Richards
6. Dead in the Water, Connie Fedderson
7. A Dilly of a Death, Susan Wittig Albert
8. Dragon's Lair, Sharon Kay Penman
9. Dying to Sing, Margaret Chittendon
10. Endless Chain, Emilie Richards
11. Keepsake Crimes, Laura Childs
12. Let There Be Suspects, Emilie Richards
13. Lincoln's Dreams, Connie Willis
14. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
15. Queen's Ransom, Fiona Buckley
16. Roman Blood, Steven Saylor
17. Shadows in Bronze, Lindsey Davis
18. Silver Pigs, Lindsey Davis
19. Some Like It Hot-Buttered, Jeffrey Cohen
20. The Sunne in Splendour, Sharon Kay Penman
21. Tilt-a-Whirl, Chris Grabenstein
22. Wedding Ring, Emilie Richards
23. Wildcat Wine, Claire Matturro
24. Windows on a Lost World, V. E. Mitchell
25. The Way of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer, Brian Bates
26. Work of the Angels, Kat Goldring
27. String of Lies, Mary Ellen Hughes
28. Crime Brulee, Nancy Fairbanks
29. Bring Your Own Poison, Jimmie Ruth Evans
30. Bitch Factor, Chris Rogers
31. Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith
32. Mew Is for Murder, Clea Simon
33. The Dark Interval: Toward a Theology of Story, John Dominic Crossan
    

More Reading Challenges!

I came across a lot of intriguing and very tempting reading challenges while browsing through book blogs. You know how it goes; one link leads to another and then that one to another .... and on and on. I'm having fun reading all the blogs, getting ideas for my own and being challenged to read more!

100+ Book Challenge

I can't remember where I first saw the link to the 100+ Book Challenge, but I clicked on it, got all excited and decided to join in the fun. On this blog I talk mostly about mysteries and other fiction, but I read a lot of other books, too. I like that in joining the 100+ Book Challenge, I feel as though I'm getting 'credit', so to speak, for all the books I read, especially the nonfiction books, even if I don't blog about them or review them.



Pre-Printing Press Challenge

Another challenge I came across that really resonates with me is the Pre-Printing Press Challenge at the All Booked Up blog by Elena, another person who loves medieval history. The challenge started May 1, so I'm behind -- as usual. Nothing new there, sad to say. But at least I have through 2010 to finish however many books I choose. I'm not sure how many will go on my list, but I've got three in mind already to start with. I've been wanting to get back to studying the history of the early church in particular and women in religion in general. I think this challenge will help keep me a bit better on track.

I'm not really sure how to set up my challenge lists, though. For now I'll just make a separate blog entries in a day or two and then keep updating them. Until I come up with a better idea. I may start a new blog devoted to challenges. Haven't decided. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be thrilled to read them.

Thanks Elena and J. Kaye. These challenges will be great reading.

Summer Lovin' Challenge

Julie D of Jules' Book Reviews has come up with a summer reading challenge that I really like. She's set up a blog called Summer Lovin' Challenge to encourage folks to re-read books we fell in love with and always said we want to visit again some day. Well, this challenge gives us that chance and we get to have a little support and friendship into the bargain. It's always fun to find out what books other people love and adore.

Now to choose my books. Good grief! There are so many to choose from. The first books that leap into my mind are all the Tony Hillerman Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee novels. I dearly love those books and have been wanting to read them again in order. There are 18 Hillerman books. I'll never get them all read by the end of September, so I have to choose, don't I? Well, what about the first three: The Blessing Way, Dance Hall of the Dead, and Listening Woman. They may well lead to reading the other 15, but that's a chance I'm willing to take! I own most all of Hillerman's novels, but I still have so many books packed away after our last move, that I don't know where they all are. So after I scour my bookshelves to see what I can find, I'll make a trip to the library.

I had already planned to re-read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this summer since the movie will be coming out in July. I'd like to read it before the movie is released, but if I don't finish it before then, I will definitely read it this summer. That's been my summer plan all along.

Thanks, Jules, for the great summer reading challenge!

UFOs, Alien Abductions and Murder

Well, now I have yet another new favorite author after reading The Clovis Incident by Pari Noskin Taichert. I am not exactly a believer in UFOs, but I do love all things science fiction and generally enjoy stories dealing with aliens, UFOs and abductions. I've been watching UFO type movies since the 1950's and still get a kick out of them. In addition, I'm a big fan of Tony Hillerman and Betty Webb and mysteries set in the Southwest. So when I saw this book on PaperBack Swap, read the blurb about the story, saw that Tony Hillerman said really good things ... well, I just had to order it. And I was not disappointed

When PR professional Sasha Solomon is fired from her job, she's sent scrambling to line up a new one in short order. She decides to interview for a PR position in Clovis, NM and catch up with her old college buddy Mae King, a Clovis area dairy farmer, at the same time. And she'll save money by staying with Mae. But as soon as the two meet, Sasha finds that there is something terribly wrong. Her old friend has changed dramatically. After Mae takes Sasha on a midnight run out to the dairy farm and shows her a body in one of her stock tanks, Sasha is horrified and worried. Mae not only has no idea who the dead man is or how he got there, she steadfastly and adamantly refuses to call the police. The two go back to Mae's motel room where they argue, drink and pass out. When Sasha awakens the next morning, Mae is gone. So Sasha is left to call the police and try to explain the situation. She now faces possible charges for not having reported the body as soon as she found out about it.

To make matters more complicated, we find out that the murdered man was a Singaporean aviator who had been a stationed at the nearby Cannon Air Force Base. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the murder, no obvious connection between the aviator and Mae or her dairy operations. And things get even more mysterious when Mae reveals to Sasha that she believes she was abducted by aliens and beamed aboard a spaceship. Add to the mix Mae's strangely behaving children and Sasha's apparent hallucinations concerning the dead man and you've got more questions than most mysteries can handle at one time. But Taichert handles them all beautifully, tying everything up quite satisfactorily by the end of the book.

Sasha is an intelligent, witty sleuth. I gotta go get the next two in the series: The Belen Hitch and The Socorro Blast.

The Miss Marple of Botswana

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith was an absolutely delightful book! I adore Mma Precious Ramotswe and can't wait for the second book in the series by Alexander McCall Smith, The Tears of the Giraffes, to arrive in my mail box.

This was not the typical whodunnit. There was no single overarching murder or crime spree that had to be solved before the book was finished. There was, however, a cast of delightful characters, some of whom I am sure will be resurfacing in future books (I've not read any in this series - a failing I intend to rectify ASAP!). And there were plenty of red herrings.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was a wonderful introduction to Mma Precious Remotswe and the country she obviously loves deeply. After an abusive marriage and the death of her baby, Mma Ramotswe returns to her father's home and settles into a pleasant routine, happily spending her days tending to her father and working for her brother-in-law. When her father dies, Mma Ramotswe decides to use her inheritance to establish the first detective agency in all of Botswana to be run by a woman. She knows nothing about being a private investigator, but she has a deep desire to help people with their problems. With her sound common sense and insight into human nature, she becomes a resounding success and gradually builds her little business.

Her first cases are pretty run-of-the-mill PI stuff: wayward husbands, an over controlling father trying to keep tabs on his willful daughter, an ex-employee suing his former employer for the loss of a finger, and the mysterious case of a doctor who is competent one day but a medical disaster the next. While following the advice of a PI how-to book to solve these cases, Mma learns to rely upon her own instincts and powers of observation.

The one case that runs through the book and touches Mma Remotswe most deeply is the tragic disappearance of a child who is thought to have been the captured and killed by a witch doctor. Although she has not been solicited to look for the child or solve the mystery of his disappearance, Mma Ramotswe is haunted by the tale and investigates the matter, despite people's reluctance to even admit that this evil sort of magic exists, let alone talk about the particulars.