Happy December!
Hello! I hope you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as I did. I ate fried turkey (this is the only way to eat turkey), more pie than was good for me, and my absolute favorite Thanksgiving concoction: mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce mixed in. Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! My […]
Family Fridays – Virginia Lee Burton
A good friend from my grad school days is coming to visit this weekend, and I’m so excited to see her. I don’t have very many close friends in my area, so I cherish the times I get to have girl time – lots of tea drinking, sugar eating, laughing ourselves silly, and generally not […]
Family Fridays – Moms, You’re Doing It Wrong
This post is going to be a little different than my usual Family Fridays posts, where I talk about, you know, books – this is after all a book blog. As of writing this, I’ve just entered the third trimester of my pregnancy (THE END IS NEAR!), so I’ve been thinking alot about being a […]
Review of The Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes (1981) (Richard Jury Series)
Bottom line: A pleasant and intriguing read with a few murders thrown in for good measure. Rating: Recommended Blurb: At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pub’s sign, […]
10 books I’ve carried with me
This post originally came from a Facebook meme that’s been going around: name 10 books that have you’ve carried with you and don’t take too long to think about it. Normally I ignore stuff like this (“If you don’t forward this post, you’re a terrorist!” “If you don’t copy and paste this post, I’m going […]
Why is it so hard to write a good cozy mystery?
Why is it so hard to write a good cozy mystery? I asked this first out of frustration – it seems that every new series I try is just not that good – and then out of genuine curiosity. Cozies are one of my favorite genres, and I feel like I’m running out of new […]
Tools of the Trade: Magazines
Last year for my birthday/Christmas (they’re very close) I was given some gift cards and some cash (sweeeeet), and I did something different with it: I bought two magazine subscriptions: National Geographic Traveler and Real Simple. I LOVE magazines, and getting them in the mail every month or so is like getting another present all […]
Review of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (1969)
Bottom line: Meh. Rating: Recommended if: you’re doing a tour of classic sci fi authors. Blurb: When the human ambassador Genly Ai is sent to Gethen, the planet known as Winter by those outsiders who have experienced its arctic climate, he thinks that his mission will be a standard one of making peace between warring […]
Review of A Fine Romance (2013) by Susan Branch
Bottom line: A peaceful armchair journey for a rainy afternoon. Rating: Recommended If you’re in the mood for a vicarious wander through southern England. Review: The full title of this book is, “A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside” and you will do just that, I promise you. For anyone who has […]
Book Review: Matt Archer: Monster Hunter by Kendra Highley
Bottom Line: A gritty YA fantasy definitely worth the read. Rating: Strongly Recommended Blurb: Fourteen-year-old Matt Archer spends his days studying Algebra, hanging out with his best friend and crushing on the Goddess of Greenhill High, Ella Mitchell. To be honest, he thinks his life is pretty lame until he discovers something terrifying on a […]
