best your library

Mary Ellis, author of the romantic suspense stories in the Secrets of the South series, spins that series off in the first in a new series.  Hiding in Plain Sight introduces the Marked for Retribution mysteries. Her sleuth is young, twenty-five, somewhat awkward at time, and makes some mistakes, but she's likable. Meet Kate Weller, also known as Jill Wyatt. Kate is on probation as a private detective for Price Investigations. If she makes it, she'll become their traveling detective because she has family problems, and she's always on the run. Before she can get off probation, she's run off the road by a couple men who have a warning for her brother, Liam. Liam's in prison in Florida, and for some reason, he's a threat. Despite the loss of a car, and Kate's past, her boss hires her and sends her to Charleston on a case, changing her name to Jill Wyatt. Her job is to find a woman whose sister was adopted, but now is dying, needing a liver transplant. As her b...

Don't be deceived by the cover of David Myles Robinson's novel, Son of Saigon . It does have its dark moments, but the humor more than makes up for it. It's a witty, delightful story, and I was happy to hand it off to a friend. I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did. Hank Reagan is a seventy-year-old, a wealthy man who spends his days playing golf or gin with another retiree, Norm Rothstein. Since Hank's wife died, he's just waiting at the retirement community he calls "the death farm" for his own death. Norm doesn't mind looking for his sixth wife, but Hank isn't interested in all the women who are circling. Then, Tran Xuan Mai showed up to see Hank. Hank, a CIA operative was in Vietnam forty years earlier, and he and Mai were in love. When the Americans evacuated Saigon, he was forced to leave her behind, not knowing she was pregnant. Now, Mai wants Hank to find their son, a man who disappeared after his high school graduation. He'd be in his ...

Just a quick post to let you know I'm okay, but my modem failed on Saturday, so I have no Internet access at home. I'm working at the library, on a desk, so I can't do a blog today. This has messed up the schedule on the blog. There will be a post on Tuesday. Treasures in My Closet will be postponed until Saturday, Aug. 4. Technology failure. It's certainly not easy to blog with no Internet or wifi.

Who would you guess has the best background to write about Appalachia, a writer and historian from East Tennessee with a PhD in public history, or a venture capitalist who wrote his own personal memoir? In  What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia , historian Elizabeth Catte compiles the history and social history of the region to dispute J.D. Vance's role as expert after the success of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy . There are 25 million people in Appalachia, a region stretching for about 700,000 square miles of the eastern United States. The region begins in Alabama, ends in New York, and includes portions of thirteen states, yet we persist in viewing all the residents of "Appalachia" as poor white hillbillies who vote against their own interests. Catte points out that this stereotype suits the interests of politicians and businessmen, and has been used successfully to remove people from their homes, defeat unions, and destroy the environment. In relating the story of ...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Dyeing Up Loose Ends goes to Janice R. from Pittsford, NY. Theresa M. from Milwaukee, WI won On the Hook . The books will go out in the mail today. A Clark Giveaway sounds a little odd, doesn't it? The authors of both mysteries have the last name of Clark. Tracy Clark's debut mystery,  Broken Places , is a Chicago mystery that introduces Cass Raines, cop turned private investigator. When the only father figure she's ever known, Father Ray Heaton, reports vandalism problems at his church, she's upset. But, she's angry and determined to find a killer when she finds his murdered body beside a dead gangbanger. And, she doesn't agree with the police verdict. (One of the best debuts I've read this year.) Becky Clark's Fiction Can Be Murder is also a series debut. Mystery author Charlemagne "Charlee" Russo thought the twisty plots and peculiar murders in her books were only the products of her ima...

This week, I'm finishing a book recommended by two people, columnist Connie Schultz, and my friend, Kaye Wilkinson Barley. Elizabeth Catte is a writer and historian from East Tennessee. She holds a PhD in public history. Her nonfiction title,  What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia , is an alternate view in opposition to J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy . The author writes of Appalachia with its 700,000 square miles, and says it cannot be defined as one ethnicity, one political view, one history. Vance's book is a memoir. Catte's book is history and an analysis. What are you reading this week? I'm finishing my nonfiction book, and I have several fiction titles waiting. We're all curious as to what you're reading or listening to.

Today isn't Thursday. That means I'm not going to discuss the nonfiction title I'm reading after eight days and ten mysteries. I'll discuss that tomorrow with "What Are You Reading?" Instead, I'm going to mention the three books on my "Hope to Read Pile". Most people have a To Be Read Pile. I have piles and piles of those books in three rooms. But, the Hope to Read Pile are the next three books I hope to get to when I finish this nonfiction book. First up is Anne Tyler's Clock Dance . It's next because it's a library book, and there are people on the waiting list. And, let's face it. I don't always finish the literary novels I start, so I need to try this one, and see if it's what I want to read.  Here's the description from Barnes & Noble's page. " A delightful novel of one woman's transformative journey, from the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer." "Willa Drake c...

I'm on deadline this week for book reviews, so it's always helpful when I can turn to one of Sandie Herron's reviews of audiobooks. She reviewed the fourth in Miranda James' Cat in the Stacks mystery series, Out of Circulation . I hope you "check it out." Out of Circulation Series:  Cat in the Stacks, Book 4 Written by Miranda James Narrated by Erin Bennett Unabridged Audiobook Listening Length: 8 hours and 10 minutes Publisher: Tantor Audio Release Date: April 29, 2014 ASIN: B00JPGT6GE Charlie Harris has gotten busier since the last time we visited Athena, Mississippi where he lives with his large Maine coon cat named Diesel.  As this book opens, we learn that Charlie is now on the board of the Friends of the Library organization.   As a last minute favor to the ill member of the board who had promised to host this meeting, Charlie holds the board meeting at his home. A decision on where to orchestrate the annual Christmas fund raising event must be made. ...

J.E. Barnard's debut novel, When the Flood Falls , introduces three troubled women who have to fight past their fears. Despite their initial distrust of each other, they find common ground in their need to find a killer. Lacey McCrae's husband, a fellow officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was abusive. After her divorce, she left the force, and fled. She's hiding out west of Calgary at the edge of the wilderness, working security at a soon-to-be-opened Arts Centre. She's staying with her university roommate, Dee. Dee has money and power, and works with, and runs with barons and hockey stars. However, she's scared to death. She finally admits to Lacey that she hears footsteps at night, yet no one has seen a prowler. Because of Lacey's own past, she believes Dee's ex-husband is terrorizing her. When there are incidents at the Arts Centre, and Dee is the victim in a hit-and-run accident, there doesn't seem to be a connection. Then a hockey star dis...