best your library

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Nann H. from Winthrop Harbor, IL will receive The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes . Patty S. from Farmington, NM won A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder. The books are going out in the mail today. There's no contest this week. I'm going to be at Bouchercon next Friday, so I won't be able to mail the packages to the winners. But, I already have the books picked out for next Friday's contest kick-off. I have all kinds of books ready to be reviewed next week. I hope to get pictures at both conferences I'm at this week. Watch for them! Oh, and tomorrow? There's a large Treasures in My Closet post. I hope you'll come back to read it.

You know me. I tend to bounce around, picking something up and trying it, coming back to it later. That's how I do a lot of reading, other than when I'm reading for a review. Right now, I'm sampling a new book called  American Theatre Wing: An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 10 Million Miracle s edited by Patrick Pacheco. It's a beautiful book with historical photos and gorgeous contemporary ones. It's about the 100 years of contributions made to the theatre world by a group that was originally started by playwright Rachel Crothers and six others in 1917, in partnership with the British Stage Women's War Relief. At the time I'm writing this post, I've only read the introduction written by Angela Lansbury. She was one of the beneficiaries of the joint group because the American group took in the children of English actors during the war, and she and her brothers were some of those children. You all know how much I love theatre. I'm going to enjoy...

Rhys Bowen's latest Royal Spyness mystery has been out almost a month, but I just had a chance to read it.   Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding is a fun romp that wraps up the suspense so many readers have been awaiting. Will Lady Georgiana Rannoch finally marry the love of her life, Darcy O'Mara? All along, there have been all kinds of barriers in the way. Georgie was in line for the throne, so the King has to allow her to marry a Catholic, but she'll no long be in the line of succession. And, neither Georgie or Darcy have much money, although she has a title and he'll inherit a castle in Ireland. And, now that the marriage has been approved, Georgie has to get a dress, a trousseau, and the pair have to find a place to live. And, Queen Mary wants the royal family and maybe some of the extended family invited to the wedding, and proposes Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret as bridesmaids. Oh, and don't forget that Georgie's mother and her grandfather both h...

Thank heavens Sandie Herron has a few posts for me to use when I get backed up with reviews or posts. I'm trying to finish a book, and I'm working on the large Treasures in My Closet post for Saturday. Today, Sandie reviews Victoria Laurie's audiobook Vision Impossible. Vision Impossible                                                                    Series:  Psychic Eye Book 9 Written by Victoria Laurie Narrated by Elizabeth Michaels Unabridged Audiobook Listening Length: 11 hours and 55 minutes Publisher: Audible Studios Release Date: July 5, 2011 ASIN: B005ACDTQ0 ***** stars Offered a way to help “save her country,” new civilian profiler for the FBI Abby Cooper does not really want this opportunity, until she hears all the details and learns that her boyfriend Dutch will also be involved.  She...

My Wellness Toolbox by Alison Swift is, without a doubt, the best self-help book that has been written and published in the past couple of decades. By using the techniques that she outlines in her book Alison Swift was able to "banish the blues" and "nuke negativity." It is a very simple book and very easy to read and to follow. It contains 26 tools that you can employ, right now, to make

I thought T. Jefferson Parker's second novel featuring PI Roland Ford was terrific. Swift Vengeance is a fast-paced story that is all too plausible. This was my first one of Parker's books, so I can't compare them to earlier ones. I found the characters well-developed, a little quirky, and fascinating. It was a page turner. Ford first met Lindsey Rakes in a casino when the drone operator for the Air Force was a heavy drinker and gambler, trying to escape her day job. Two and a half years later, when she turns to him for help, she's trying to get her life back together again. She lost custody of her son due to her lifestyle, and now she's desperate to regain her ex-husband's trust and share custody. But, that won't happen if she turns a threatening note over to the FBI. Rakes has received a note signed "Caliphornia" that threatens her with death by decapitation. She's a little worried that a man she once dated is behind the threats. Ford offers...

Jonathan Santolofer's book, The Widower's Notebook, is a memoir. The author of The Death Artist and Anatomy of Fear did not write an instructional manual as to how to survive grief. It's a very personal account of the sudden death of his wife, Joy, and his own struggle with grief and his emotions around her death. Joy Santlofer was "only" scheduled for outpatient surgery on her leg, but a day later she was dying. What caused it is not the focus of the book, although it took her husband over a year to learn what the cause of death was. And, that's an unusual story in itself. But, at the time Joy was dying, her husband could only watch in panic as the paramedics worked on her, rushed her to the hospital, and then she was gone. Jonathan Santlofer needed comfort after she was gone, but he couldn't ask for it. There was "a stance I maintained for months, the strong man who needs no one." He and their daughter, Doria, were united in loss, but neither...

Hi! I was out of town all day yesterday, so there's no blog today. Check back tomorrow, please!

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Lisa W. from Rochester, IN won The Night of the Flood . Daniel M. from Weymouth, MA will receive Ten Year Stretch . The books will go out in the mail on Saturday. This week, I'm giving away two mysteries set in London. Let's start with a fun Victorian mystery, Dianne Freeman's  A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder . Frances Wynn, an American-born wealthy young widow encounters the pleasures and scandals of a London social season. She's been accused of Killing her philandering husband, although he died in his lover's bed. But, together with the neighbor who helped her move the body, she's caught up in the investigation of a mysterious burglar who's stealing from London's elite. It's a fun mystery that is so good it calls for a sequel. The second mystery is set in 1914 when Joanna Black and her son witness a man fall from a building.   Leonard Goldberg's The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes  intr...

That's Christmas: A guaranteed, easy way to make extra money for Chr...: We can all do with some extra money at Christmas, whether it is for spending on Christmas gifts, Christmas foods or decorations. Several...

I've met this month's deadline for mystery reviews, so I'm doing a little reading for myself at the end of the week. I haven't finished The Widower's Notebook by Jonathan Santlofer yet, but I will shortly. I have a few books to pick from, of course (ha - a few). I did pick up a debut novel today at the library.  Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson is written in the form of letters between a professor in Denmark and a farm wife on an English farm. They're brought together by a shared interest in the Tollund Man. Because I looked it up, I'll share a link with you. (Yes, I know it's Wikipedia, but I find that a good place to start, and then I can branch out.)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tollund_Man We'll see if that's really where I end up. What are you reading this week? What books or audiobooks have caught you're attention? We'd love to know.

I'm not into creepy characters and thrillers. Occasionally, I read one, sometimes by accident. And, I don't like women and children in jeopardy books. If you like books with menacing atmospheres and intense scenes, you might want to try Edwin Hill's debut mystery, Little Comfort . Hester Thursby is a librarian at Harvard, but she's on leave right now. Her best friend, Daphne, took off one night while Hester and her partner, Morgan, Daphne's brother, were out with friends. And, Daphne left her three-year-old, Kate, with Hester and Morgan, saying she'd be back in an hour or so. Months later, Hester is still acting as stay-at-home mom, a job she doesn't feel up to handling. She does have a little side business though. Hester, using her skills as a librarian, is very good at tracking down missing people. When Lila Blaine shows up, Hester assumes it will be easy to track down Lila's brother, Sam. He ran away from home twelve years earlier. Despite the lack of...

Are you a fan of older sleuths? If you like Rita Lakin's Gladdy Gold mysteries or J.C. Eaton's Sophie Kimball ones, you might want to try  Poppy Harmon Investigates by Lee Hollis. When Poppy Harmon's fourth husband, Chester, dies, the retired actress is stunned to learn he left her penniless. She has no practical skills. Once, though, she did assist a private investigator turned screenwriter with some of his plot ideas. Maybe that qualifies her to be a PI? Poppy gets her California license, and together with her best friends, Iris and Violet, she opens The Desert Flowers Detective Agency. Then they discover no one wants to hire three sixty-year-old women as PIs. But, Poppy's daughter is dating an actor, and she asks him if they can put his face on the website. However, Matt wants to be more than the face of the agency. He becomes "Matt Flowers" detective, which only enrages Poppy's daughter. With Matt's face as the face of the agency, though, business...

I know it was actually a joke when a friend gave me The Feckin' Book of Everything Irish . He said he saw it, and thought of me. But, it really is a fun, informative book, filled with quotes, definitions of Irish words and phrases, jokes, cartoons, recipes, and even the words to traditional Irish songs. It's great craic (fun). The authors "translate" Irish slang, and tell readers how it's traditionally used in conversation. Of course, they could be putting us all on, but I recognize enough of the words and phrases to doubt it. The definitions are fun, especially when they then use the words to make fun of the government. For instance, let's take the word "bowsie". According to the authors, it's a noun, "Person (esp. male) of very disreputable character. A useless good-for-nothing. (usage) 'Is there anyone in the government who isn't a bleedin' bowsie?'" Or take the phrase "If he went to a wedding, he'd stay for ...

Listen, It's Wednesday, is set during the vibrant era of the 1960s. Music is of vital importance and blues music was at the zenith of its influence.  Listen, It's Wednesday follows the varied fortunes of a highly talented and very important member of an all woman brass band (a rarity of the day) who is saved from a suicide attempt by the loyal members of her band. She was brought to

Vapi is not doing well at school, to be perfectly honest. But it's not really Vapi's fault. He is a misfit at school, but this seems to be as a result of the fact that he struggles in lessons. The situation is made worse by the fact that poor Vapi is being targeted by the school bully. But Vapi has an escape route that he employs when his day-to-day life threatens to become too unbearably. He

This is an amazing book for children from ages 9 to 11, from Gavin Neale. Siblings Abbey and Chris moved into a new home four summers ago. They learned a number of things including the fact that magic is not a fantasy, it is as very real thing and they met up with a lovely pair of witches who lived just down their road. The children undertook a perilous rescue mission to save their mother

It's time to share another one of Sandie Herron's reviews for those of you who enjoy audiobooks. This time, it's the eighth in Victoria Laurie's Psychic Eye series, A Glimpse of Evil . Thank you, Sandie. A Glimpse of Evil                                                      Series:  Psychic Eye Mystery Book 8 Written by Victoria Laurie Narrated by Eileen Stevens Unabridged Audiobook Listening Length: 8 hours and 28 minutes Publisher: Audible Studios Release Date: July 6, 2010 ASIN: B003VXKC2O **** stars It's almost too much to believe that Abby and her FBI boyfriend Dutch would both find jobs in the same FBI office in Texas as opposed to Michigan AND be followed individually by home contractor Dave, Dutch's old best friend from the police department, while Candace preceded them there and had already bought her ...

I think I'm getting a little tired of the escapades of Stephanie Plum-like characters. Although Kellye Garrett's second Detective By Day mystery, Hollywood Ending , is set in Hollywood, apprentice private eye Dayna Anderson and her best friend, Sienna, are a little too Stephanie and Lulu for me. After solving a hit-and-run case, former commercial spokesperson Dayna Anderson wants to become an apprentice in training to cop turned private investigator Aubrey Adams-Parker. She thinks she’s found the perfect case when Lyla Davis, spokesperson for the upcoming Silver Sphere Awards event, is killed at an ATM. Dayna’s boyfriend, hot actor Omari Grant, had been at that ATM just minutes earlier. Dayna teams up with her best friend, Sienna Hayes, a reality star wannabe, and uses her wiles and connections to probe the social media secrets of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Some people have secrets worth killing for, and Lyla Davis seems to have known them all. Dayna’s soon caught up in Hollywo...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Jane N. from Vashon, WA won These Honored Dead . Suzanne R. of Nashville, TN will receive A Tale of Two Murders . The books will go out in the mail today. This week, I'm giving away two interesting collections - mystery stories. The first one, The Night of the Flood, is a novel told in stories. E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen edited the collection about the night Maggie Wilbourne was to be executed in Pennsylvania. A group of women protesting the execution struck, blowing up a local dam and flooding the town of Everton. Fourteen new authors wrote chapters in this engrossing book, authors such as Jenny Milchman, Wendy Tyson, Alan Orloff and Hilary Davidson. Ten Year Stretch celebrates a decade of crime fiction at CrimeFest in England. Twenty brand new stories were commissioned to celebrate the anniversary. Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller edited the collection. The original stories were written by authors such as Maj Sjowall, Simon...

I really only read the first two pages of this book. I'm reading mysteries again for next Wednesday's deadline. But, I started Jonathan Santlofer's memoir  The Widower's Notebook . It's not going to be easy to read the story of his wife Joy's sudden death, and his attempt to push through the grief. There are eleven quotes from other authors at the front of the book. Andrew Solomon's comments were the ones that summed up the book I'm expecting to read. " The Widower's Notebook is a searing rendition of the complex relationship between men and grief - an intense despair that is too often starved for words. This chronicle of devastation is itself devastating, a deeply powerful and unflinchingly honest report of how painfully and strangely life continues in the wake of a sudden, tragic death." I don't mean to start your day on a somber note. But, that's what I'm starting to read. What are you reading or listening to this week?

I've been waiting to read Paula Matter's debut mystery, Last Call . Readers of the blog know my schedule -  read frantically for deadlines; crash; read for myself for about a week; repeat. I'm looking forward to getting to this book. In the meantime, I asked Paula if she'd answer interview questions. She was kind enough to agree. Thank you, Paula. (And, if you read the entire interview, you'll discover an opportunity to receive a signed copy of Last Call .) Paula, would you introduce yourself to readers?      Hi Lesa, thanks for having me visit your awesome blog! I guess I’ll just offer my official bio: Paula Matter is the author of the Maggie Lewis mysteries which take place in a small town in North Florida. Paula’s short crime fiction stories have been published in USA and German anthologies. After losing her job as a catering server, Paula decided instead of getting yet another job as a waitress/bartender/activities director/etc., she’d tackle her mystery novel a...