Quintessentially Highland

Sometimes you have to grab hold and celebrate the small things in life.  Actually I’m not sure if a perfect weekend is a small thing, but I recently experienced such a weekend, and it was a quintessential Highland weekend.  Of course I realize what is great for me might be less pleasant for you. I accept that, just indulge me for now.

It’s the second weekend in September, and it starts on Friday with books—and not just any books, but tens of thousands of books at the Centenary College Book Bazaar.  I LOVE books, I don’t need any more books, I don’t have room for any more books, I don’t have time to read any more books, but that’s beside the point. When it’s time for the Centenary Book Bazaar, my husband Ricky and I are in line at 4:00 Friday afternoon waiting for the Book Bazaar to open its doors. Ricky always heads upstairs to look through the vinyl, a.k.a. record albums, while I move slowly, shoulder to shoulder with other book lovers, along rows of tables crammed with books. I look for books that call to me, “Buy me, take me home with you, I’m a bargain.”

Some of the books I bought at Centenary Book Bazaar

After a decent interval, I decide I probably have enough books---my rolling backpack is full and the overflow bag I’m carrying is cutting into my shoulder. I check out and less than $50 later, I go home with a couple dozen books.

Music Room featuring some of Ricky's albums

By then I’d worked up an appetite, so Ricky and I drive a couple blocks out of our neighborhood for Friday night Tex-Mex at Tacomania. We could have gone to El Compadre, another good Tex-Mex restaurant, and stayed closer to home, but we alternate food venues and it was Tacomania’s night.

Saturday morning we are up early for the 2nd Saturday Highland Clean-up (a monthly event) with members of the Highland Restoration Association, Highland Jazz and Blues folks, and Fairfield Neighborhood Association. In truth, very few members of these groups show up but I enjoy the early morning clean-ups. It’s not like I enjoy picking up other people’s trash (a pox on all litterers and their kin), but I feel like I’m making a positive statement—showing appreciation for the beauty of the earth and for our neighborhood by removing what “less evolved” people throw down. This time we’re cleaning the area around Columbia Park in preparation for the Highland Jazz and Blues Festival. I’m often still out picking up trash after the allotted time for the clean-up, because I like to stop and talk to people. It’s a great way to see what’s going on and meet neighbors.

After lunch at Strawn’s, home of the famous strawberry pies, I stop by the Enchanted Garden Gift Shop on Line Avenue, a couple blocks from my house. While I’m there, I run into store proprietor Debbie Cockrell. I always enjoy talking to Deb and the subject of books came up.  (We have a Little Free Library and Deb has some books for me.) Laughing, I tell Deb I’m suffering from a book-related injury. By Saturday afternoon, my lower back is hurting from carrying books around the Book Bazaar the day before, plus carrying full garbage bags during the morning clean-up. Before I know it, I’m in one of those massaging chairs in the store’s back room.  Deb shows me how to adjust the chair’s massage options, and she leaves me there. I might be there yet, but other customers come into the room shopping, so eventually I decide it’s time to pay for my purchases and go home. As I check out, Debbie brings a tin of homemade sweets to the counter and offers me and other customers a sample. A massage chair and homemade cookies—it’s a wonder I didn’t take up residence at the store right then.

Capping off the weekend on Sunday evening, Ricky and I attend the Shreveport House Concert to hear Shreveport’s own Dirtfoot. The Shreveport House Concerts take place at Fairfield Studios located, not surprisingly, on Fairfield Avenue. We’re big fans of the house concerts with their listening room ambience, perfect for enjoying the singer/songwriters featured each month. And the fact that September’s offering is Dirtfoot, a band with Highland origins, makes it extra special. In my experience, Dirtfoot (accompanied by Pig Stilts) always put on a good show. (See a clip from song below.)

Dirtfoot at Shreveport House Concert

So, my weekend came to a close. It offered a little bit of this, a little of that, but to me, it was a winning combination. I went to bed Sunday night with a smile on my face.

Running Away

Ricky and I are running away from home, heading to Guatemala for two weeks with our friend Bruce.  Don’t get me wrong, we love our home and our animals. It’s hard to leave them. When I told Ricky tonight that I was going to mist the bromeliads, he told me he was going to miss them, too.  Always ready with a quip, that’s my husband!

We are extremely fortunate to have two excellent house/dog/cat/plant sitters who will be living in our house and taking care of everything. One has a dog that our dog Treble is slowly warming to as long as the smaller dog stays away from Treble’s food bowl. 

Daisy Boy

The pack of cats will still be around to keep Treble company. One of our cats, the long-limbed, very vocal Loquacious “Loco” is elderly. We hope he hangs in there until we return.  Another neighborhood favorite, a male cat named Daisy, is such a sweet boy but he is losing weight and acting puny. Luckily another neighbor is as invested in him as we are, so she will monitor him. The tiny cat Lips has a skin allergy that we’ve been treating with a soothing spray, and she has been improving. Katrina, the only cat that is really ours, barely tolerates people and would be happy if all the cats except her disappeared—plus she really glares at her nemesis Treble who took over her laundry room sanctuary when he arrived at our house as a small stray puppy.

Suffice it to say that all the critters will be well cared for is our absence.

Moving along to my summer reading....

Four Michael Connelly novels showed up in the Little Free Library, and I’ve read three of them in July:

 1) The Fifth Witness, a Lincoln lawyer mystery, featuring Mickey Haller, bogged down for me in the details of the daily trial testimony, but was well-paced generally. Connelly develops his characters convincingly, and they continue to draw me in.

2) The Reversal, another mystery featuring Mickey Haller, but Harry Bosch serves as his half-brother’s investigator in this novel so I got a little Harry Bosch fix.

3) A Darkness More Than Night where Harry initially is considered a suspect in a series of murders.  Retired criminal profiler Terry McCaleb has the primary investigative role in the novel, but Harry helps solves the case.

I also read Quiet Until the Thaw, by Alexandra Fuller, one of my favorite authors.  This book, a novel, is a departure for Fuller because she generally has written autobiographical books with intriguing titles. I’ve read Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight; Scribbling the Cat; Cocktails Under the Tree of Forgetfulness; and Leaving Before the Rains Come.  The first three titles are about her growing up in Africa, while the last, Leaving Before the Rains Come, is set in Wyoming and details the end of her marriage.

Quiet Until the Thaw takes place on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a Sioux reservation, in South Dakota. It requires a separate blog post since I spent two years on the Rosebud Reservation, the Sioux Reservation next to Pine Ridge, and I have quite a bit I want to say about this book.

The other mystery I read this month is one of the Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, Something Rotten, published in 2004.  Fflorde, a Welsh author, creates an alternative universe where people move in and out of books, into “real life,” usually creating havoc of one sort or another until they are back where they belong—in the covers of a book.  Thursday Next, a Literary Detective with the policing agency Jurisfiction, is currently trying to protect the planet from an egomaniac politician who escaped from an obscure novel and is striving for world domination in the real world. 

Fforde seems almost clairvoyant in Something Rotten as he describes the politician Yorrick Kaine: He was a B character in an A role and had been elevated far beyond his capabilities—a child in control of a nation.  

And that, dear readers, is why Ricky and I are running away from home for a couple weeks—to escape the B character and his ilk who are currently in charge of the United States.

Tomatoes, Neuroses, and Books

I’ve been away from this blog now for a couple months, and I’ve missed it. I still want to change the format but not to one of the preset choices, so I’m currently at a standstill. I need more young, techno-savvy friends, but I like the photo of the cottage I posted and that will suffice for now. We don’t have sparkly lights around the cottage porch at the moment, but we have them elsewhere on the patio. Ricky is always tweaking things in our “compound.” 

We’re in the midst of summer here in Louisiana, but thankfully it’s not yet been unmercifully hot and dry. I’m sure we’ll get a taste of both before summer is done with us. Storm systems rolling in toward Shreveport tend to divide when they get near and hit north, south and east of us.

Gardens seem to be flourishing at the moment. Between the cherry tomatoes that we grow in containers scattered over half of our backyard and our neighbors sharing their large tomatoes with us, we have been in tomato heaven. Luscious BLT’s with crispy bacon, green salads where there is no need to skimp on tomatoes, tomatoes and cottage cheese, Caprese salads, okra and tomatoes, a tomato tart--there are endless possibilities.

Despite being officially retired, I’ve worked some this summer, providing training for the Early Head Start (EHS) that serves infants, toddlers and twos before they attend preschool Head Start. I drew from training modules I'd used in the past and provided an overview of some principles of early learning and teaching. The best part was getting to visit with my former colleagues whom I love. They presented me with the sweetest thank you note and a scented candle. They definitely own a piece of my heart.

I also got to indulge one of my neuroses. I have a penchant for office supplies. When I plan a training or a big project for my neighborhood, I love to organize everything in a three-ring binder when I finish. I get out my label machine and print out labels for dividers, then stand back and admire my handiwork.  It compensates somehow for the total wreck I make of my library during the planning process.

I haven’t been reading as much as usual but I have been accumulating books to read. They are stacked everywhere. I get them from friends, from the Little Free Library, from my library shelves, and I purchased one stack at Half Price Books during a recent trip to Dallas.

At the half way point in the year, I’ve read the following:

•         17 mysteries, mostly Michael Connelly's books featuring Harry Bosch but I’ve come to the end of the road on these. I may need to try a few of Connelly’s other protagonists that I pulled from the LFL.
•      3 contemporary novels
•         3 autobiographies
•         1 non-fiction/natural history
•         1 young adult novel

I’ve partially completed at least a dozen other books. A persistent voice tells me I need to finish what I start, but time flies. I wonder if other retired people find themselves wondering where the hours go each day.

The First Book Review of 2017: The Memory of Running

My goal each year is to average reading at least a book a week over the course of twelve months. Last year I only wrote down 44 books, but I didn't log a couple Youth Adult novels that I read before placing them in the Little Free Library (LFL).

My favorite genre was mysteries with 28 books read, no surprise there. Other genre included: 5 biographical; 3 historic fiction; 1 self-help; 1 nonfiction essays; 2 fantasy; 2 chick lit; 1 mainstream fiction; and 1 (or more) children’s literature.

So far this year I’ve completed four books, almost finished two more, and I’m about a fourth of the way through the massive John Adams, by David McCullough.

Our LFL continues to tempt me with titles, such as this book, my first review of 2017.

 Viking Press, 1999; Penguin paperback, 2004

Character actor and playwright Ron McLarty's first novel, The Memory of Running, is about love, loss, and redemption—a modern day Hero’s Quest.  While McLarty wrote this book years ago, but I’m just now reading it, having discovered it in our Little Free Library. 

Smithson “Smithy” Ide is an overweight, alcoholic, but dutiful son and brother. He is blindsided when his parents are in a horrific automobile accident. His only sibling, the beautiful Bethany, suffered from debilitating mental illness her entire life and disappeared years before. The family never stopped loving or searching for Bethany, and Smithy is determined to bring her home. 

One evening Smithy hops on his beloved, childhood Raleigh bicycle and starts pedaling. He initially has no plan. He’s drunk as usual and what seemed like a good idea at the time eventually becomes something greater. After a few days on the road, Smithy thinks to call his family’s next-door-neighbor, Norma, to tell her he is making a trip by bicycle across the country. He asks her to notify his employer. Years before, the younger Norma was the pesky kid who followed Smithy around and loved hanging out with the Ide family. After Norma was hit by a car and paralyzed, Smithy rarely saw her anymore except through the window of her home. 

Norma tells Smithy she has been frantic since he disappeared, and the police are searching for him. Smithy assures her he is fine, and she makes him promise to keep calling her so she will know he is alive.  Soon their phone calls become a lifeline while he pedals across the country. It's Norma who tells Smithy that he is on an important quest.

Smithy alternately is the most unlucky man on earth, or the luckiest one, as adventures and mishaps follow him.  He somehow survives relatively unscathed.  This novel is both outrageous and heartwarming.  By the end of his journey, Smithy is looking more like a hero than a fool.

When McLarty wrote this book, he couldn’t find a publisher.  Since McLarty was also a voice actor, he published it himself as a book on tape.  Author Stephen King heard it and described it in Entertainment Today as “the best book you can’t read.” He helped McLarty connect with Viking Press, and The Memory of Running  was published to critical acclaim. In 2014 Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone acquired the rights to The Memory of Running for a possible movie.

McLarty has written three more books, continues his acting career, and records audio books for various authors, including David Baldacci and former President George W. Bush.  

Reading and Recuperating, Part I

The backdrop to my knee surgery recovery for the first two weeks was the Summer Olympics, paired with channel surfing, The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.  I’m not a television watcher but I didn’t feel up to reading, so I was doubly glad when I felt better and got off the pain pills.  I began to read again and gave myself permission to read purely for fun and escape.  Therefore, I was delighted when two friends with whom I regularly share books dropped by for a visit, bringing cozy mysteries and box lunches from Heavenly Ham.

The Cracked Spine, by Paige Shelton

Minotaur Books, 2016

A cozy Scottish mystery set in an Edinborough bookshop where Kansas native Delaney Nichols has agreed to work, sight unseen.  She applied for the job and was hired while she was still in the states.  Her eccentric boss Edwin McAlister has two other employees, Rosie and Hamlet.   Shortly after her arrival, Delaney is able to rent a cottage owned by a taxi driver and his wife who befriend her, and a local pub keeper provides romantic interest.  The setting was fun, the mystery was forgettable.  The author gives Delaney special powers that seem unnecessary.  The plot also strains credulity when an heretofore unknown copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio of plays is uncovered, then disappears,  The last person to have it is found dead and Delaney is determined to find the murderer because the police investigators seem to suspect her new colleagues.

Mrs. Jeffries Wins the Prize, by Emily Brightwell

Berkley Prime Crime, 2016

The ladies of the Mayfair Orchid and Exotic Plant Society play for keeps in this latest installment of the Victorian Mystery series featuring Mrs. Jeffries, the housekeeper for Scotland Yard Police Inspector Witherspoon.  Mrs. Jeffries, assisted by the entire downstairs staff and a few neighbors, helps her boss investigate his murder cases unbeknownst to him.  Mrs. Jeffries must determine which society matron stabbed to death a dealer in rare flowers and then subtly guide Inspector Witherspoon to reach the same conclusion.  It’s the recurring characters that make this cozy mystery entertaining.

These mysteries my friend loaned me provided comfort and entertainment as I recuperated, a pleasant escape from being a patient.  I raid my library book shelves for mysteries to read in tomorrow's post.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation, or Surgery Countdown

It’s been awhile since I updated my blog.  Basically my entire summer centered around my mental countdown to July 27 when I was scheduled to have a total right knee replacement.

My last post featured my husband’s trip to Guatemala.  When he got back in town, we hosted a retirement party for one of his former colleagues from the V.A. Hospital.  Our home, cottage and backyard filled with people, stories and laughter while our stomachs filled with food and drink.  This was to be the first of several summer gatherings with people that we used to work with and still enjoy.

Retirement party for one of the V.A. docs at the Great Raft Brewery

Support supper for one of the Early Head Start teachers as she faced breast cancer surgery

It wouldn’t be summer without a beach trip.  Less than a week after Ricky's return from Guatemala, he and I drove to South Carolina to meet my sisters and their husbands in Myrtle Beach.  Ricky and I learned the hard way that there is a difference between 2^nd Street North, Myrtle Beach and 2^nd Street, North Myrtle Beach, but we eventually found the condo.  Sun bathing, exploring, relaxing, visiting, and eating were the preferred activities for the week.

Celebrating our last night at the beach

Ricky and I celebrated the Fourth of July with lots of bangs and flashes, beer and burgers at my friend Melissa’s house.  The men enjoyed the fireworks as much as the children. 

Fourth of July Fireworks in Suburbia

Another special summer treat was a visit with my long-time friend Emmilee in her gorgeous, rambling house beside the Ouachita River.  Several times over the years, family members have added on to the old family home place, which makes the floor plan unique.  It was easy to take a wrong turn in the morning and end up in the old kitchen instead of the current kitchen, or at one of five outside doors but not the one you were looking for. 

Brunch at Emmilee's

Deck and Screened Porch

Ricky and I loved sitting on one of the screened-in porches overlooking the river, drinking coffee, and visiting with Emmilee.  Ricky fished from the river bank and explored the property, while I gravitated to the extensive libraries in the home.  Emmilee has a wall of cookbooks in her study, while her late husband’s library takes up multiple rooms.  I knew her late husband well from my days as adjunct instructor at LSU-Shreveport where he was a philosophy of education professor. 

His home library reflects his life and contains multiple book shelves devoted to different philosophers—John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, a general Social Foundations of Education section, plus a book case of Louisiana books.  I was both in heaven and overwhelmed as I looked through all the shelves.  Emmilee had generously offered for me to take any books that I wanted for my library.  Ultimately I selected books that would remind me of Joe and those that I would enjoy reading.   It was hard not to take bring home boxes and boxes of books but I restrained myself.  The books I selected now occupy a prominent spot in my library, and a framed print Emmilee gave me from the library hangs on the wall.  I can look around my library and relive this trip any time I want.

Tomorrow's post--I Get a New Knee!

 

January Reading: Five Books

HOLLOW CITY, by Ransom Riggs.  (Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2014)

This is the sequel to MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, and Riggs continues to use strange and unusual photographs to illustrate and drive the plot.  The safe loop of Miss Peregrine and her charges has been destroyed, Miss Peregrine has been turned into a bird, and the surviving children desperately seek another safe loop where they can take refuge and find someone who can turn Miss Peregrine back into a woman.  The peculiar children are chased by their mortal enemies, the wights and hollowgasts, and faced with almost insurmountable obstacles at every turn.  The characters are well-drawn, the plot continues to be fast paced and, when you finish reading this book, you're going to have to pick up book 3 immediately because book 2 leaves you hanging.

 

 

  

 

      SHOPAHOLIC  TIES THE KNOT, by Sophie Kinsella.  (New York: Bantam/Dell, 2003)

I don’t know how the children who read HOLLOW CITY feel after they finish the book, but I went to my book case looking for something humorous and so light, it would float off the shelf to me. I found it with Sophie Kinsella and read it in one sitting.  Becky Bloomwood is an outrageous heroine who, more than most brides, must juggle competing family expectations.  Somehow, with incredible chutzpah, she manages to keep everyone happy.

 

  

 

      THE GIFTS OF IMPERFECTION: LET GO OF WHO YOU THINK YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE AND EMBRACE WHO YOU ARE, by Brene’ Brown.   (Center City, MN: Hazelton, 2010)
 

This book was in a stash of books a friend donated to the Little Free Library, and I snatched it to read first.  While I was familiar with Brown, I've never read one of her books.  Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, studies people who live life “wholeheartedly” in this book written for the nonacademic audience.  She defines wholehearted living as “engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness.” Over the course of eight years, she interviews over 1,000 people and collects 10,000 stories.  She then analyzes the stories for commonalities and comes up with ten guideposts to help individuals move toward wholehearted living.  Her ten guideposts are helpful constructs, and examples include #1 Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think; #4 Cultivating Gratitude and Joy: Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark;  #5 Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty; and #6 Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison.  Her research perspective is called “Grounded Theory,” a form of qualitative research methodology. I enjoyed the book and may have to hang onto it for a while longer to absorb it all.

 

 

 

      A KILLER COLLECTION, by J. B. Stanley. (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2006)
 

This is a mildly interesting cozy mystery, with characters that aren’t that well-defined, but I persevered and got caught up in the milieu of the Carolina Pottery world near Seagrove, North Carolina.  In the book, a pottery collector is killed and no one seems unduly sad about it, but, in the end, the killer is brought to justice.  The reader learns more about pottery than necessary for the plot of the mystery.  A KILLER COLLECTION is the first book in the “Collectible Mystery” series.  I became curious about the author and discovered this book appears to be her first published mystery, and when this book and others in the series were published in an e-series, they were revised and she used another nom de plume.  Stanley now writes multiple series under different names: J. B. Stanley (2 series); Jennifer Stanley (1 series); Ellery Adams (3 series); and she is half of the writing team, Lucy Arlington (1 series).  Obviously, Stanley is a hard-working author whose works others enjoy.

 

 

 

 

MURDER IN THE WHITE HOUSE, by Margaret Truman (New York: Fawcett Popular Library, 1980)

A friend recently gave me all of Truman’s mysteries.  This is the first one Truman wrote.  Robert Lang Webster is President.  He, his wife Catherine, and adult daughter Lynne occupy the White House residence.  Ron Fairbanks is Special Counsel to the President.  When the President’s long- time family friend and Secretary of State is murdered one night on the second floor of the White House, the President asks his Special Counsel to head the team, working with the FBI and Secret Service, to find the murderer.  The problem is only a few people had access to this floor, and they are all family members or close associates of the President, so Fairbanks must tread carefully but work quickly.  Although there are elements of the plot that don’t seem feasible to me, plot twists and a surprise ending keep the reader interested.

 

 

 

A sixth book I read in January will get a separate post, and I have a couple more books that are partially read, so stay tuned.  What did you read to start off your year?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Bargains: Centenary College Book Bazaar

It seems like temperatures in September should be cooler as my husband and I join the queue that snakes down the sidewalk and around the Gold Dome at Centenary College, the small liberal arts school in our neighborhood.  The sun beats down on all the early birds who are waiting for the doors to open for the 28^th annual Centenary College Book Bazaar.  Over 70,000 books are donated for this two-day event, and prices for most books range from 25 cents to $5.00.  The gym is lined with tables of books, all generally organized according to type of book and price, e.g., hard back fiction, paperbacks under $1.00, non-fiction, Louisiana books, nature, children’s books, etc.  An upstairs area holds vintage record albums and CDs. 


Gym filled with tables of books before a previous book sale.

As soon as the doors open, book lovers cluster around and slowly circle the tables of books.  Some people have rolling suitcases or carts with them, almost everyone carries bags of some description to carry their bargains as they shop.  It is orderly, although crowded at many tables.  Bargain hunters may have a plan or specific books they are looking for.  I shop randomly, looking for books that seem interesting (and one has to make that decision rather quickly as there are always people near you wanting to be where you are).  I pick up books by familiar authors and topics that I want to read about. 

To me the book bazaar always has a festive air, and it isn’t as crowded now that they open at 4:00, instead of 5:00 on Friday evenings.  We retirees can get in early!



 People shopping at book sale.
(Centenary College file photo)

Ricky and I each came away with purchases that pleased us.  I decided to play with the new Ollo fisheye lens for our iphones so I could admire all our bargains!



I laid out all the books & records on the dining room table so we could see what we purchased!

 

 

The book sale actually continues on Saturday with books going to half price after 1:00, but I'm going to show restraint and read some of these books I already own.

 

Books Purchased 2014 Centenary College Book Bazaar

 

1.  Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. (Pocket Books, 1988)

2.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. (Europe Editions, 2008)

3.  A Royal Pain, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime, 2008)

4.  Evans to Betsy, by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2002)

5.  Royal Blood, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime, 2010)

6.  A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books, 1999)

7.  Must Love Dogs, by Claire Cook (New American Library, 2002)

8.  Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat (Vintage Books, 1994)

9.  A Country Herbal, by Lesley Gordon (Gallery Books, 1980)

10.  A Bone to Pick, by Charlaine Harris (Berkley Prime Crime, 1992)

11.  Last Scene Alive, by Charlaine Harris (Berkley Prime Crime, 2002)

12.  Shopaholic Ties the Knot, by Sophie Kinsella (Delta Fiction, 2003)

13.  Telex from Cuba, by Rachel Kushner (Scribner, 2008)

14.  A Monk Swimming, by Malachy McCourt (Hyperion, 1998)

15.  Cesar's Way, by Cesar Millan (Three Rivers Press, 2006)

16.  New York Days, by Willie Morris (Little, Brown & Co., 1993)

17.  One Foot in the Gravy, by Delia Rosen (Kensington Press, 2011)

18.  The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler (Ballantine Books, 2004)

19.  A Killer Collection, by J. B. Stanley (Berkley Prime Crime, 2006)

20.  I Married Adventure, by Luci Swindoll (W Publishing Group, 2002

 

No doubt some of the above will be mistakes, but I got them all for the price of one new hardcover, so I'm not worried.

 

Other Media Purchased at Book Sale

 

Movie: Chocolat DVD

 

Albums:

1.  Poco, Pickin' Up the Pieces

2.  Poco, Legend

3.  The Complete Lionel Hampton, 1937-1941 (6 record set)

4.  Ethel Water's Greatest Hits (2 record set)

5.  Louis Prima, The Wildest Show at Tahoe

 

Ricky is happy adding to his vintage vinyl collection at bargain prices. 

 

Tens of thousands of inexpensive books for sale...cheap vinyls available for collectors...what a perfect way to start a weekend!  Energized by our bargain hunting, Ricky and I headed to our local microbrewery for a cold one and tacos prepared on-site by K'Mexico! 

 

 

It doesn't get much better than this, but next weekend will find us heading to New Orleans, and we'll see what the Big Easy dishes up for us.

 

 

 



 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Will I ever read all the books on my TBR list? Duh, No....

The question on a Book Blogger Blog Hop  is:

 

Do you think you will ever read every book in your TBR (To Be Read) stack? 

 

 

 I take comfort in the fact that I could be quarantined in my home library for years and never run out of reading material!  Of course there are also bookcases all over the house and cottage, adding to my TBR list.

 

 





Just a Little Bit OCD

It's back to the British Isles in my reading, and time for another list of books.  Remember I can't seem to let myself give away my books that I've read until I mention them in this blog, and my book shelves are crowded.  The trials of being slightly OCD--did I ever mention that I have to fight the urge to straighten up books in a book store when I'm browsing?  This neatness compulsion stops there unfortunately--no carryover to my home.




Berkley Prime Crime, 2013, 293 pages

If the last mystery I reviewed featured a setting for my Scots ancestors, I now give equal time to a book set in Ireland that a friend gave me.  However, this book is not as good as A. D. Scott's A Double Death on the Black Isle.  It's a bit more romantic in tone--young American, Maura Donovan, is bequeathed money by the grandmother who raised her so she will return to the Irish village where her grandmother was born.  Once Maura gets there, she takes a job in the local pub because there is really nothing waiting for her in the states.  Maura is befriended by some of the locals--the ones who aren't trying to kill her after a decades old body is discovered in a near-by bog.  It becomes a bit far-fetched as newcomer Maura has information that can help identify the body.  If she is right, it opens up a lot of speculation about property ownership and succession.  This is the first of a new County Cork mystery series by author Sheila Connolly who touts her own implacable Irish credentials.




New American Library, 2013, 355 pages

I bought this book using a gift card from Christmas because I loved the cover art.  Set in 1920's seaside England, this book is a Gothic mystery, complete with a couple of ghosts haunting the house where Oxford student Jillian Leigh is staying as she tries to settle the affairs of her eccentric Uncle Toby who has died under mysterious circumstances.  A Scotland Yard detective is also on the scene, there are local villagers with their own eccentricities and secrets, and so many twists and turns that it is difficult to say much more about the book without giving too much away.  The heroine goes from crisis to crisis so one arrives at the climax quite exhausted.

Minotaur Books: A Thomas Dunne Book,
2009, 356 pages

Another piece of cover art that drew me in, so I used my generous gift card from friends to purchase Dying in the Wool, a mystery set in a Yorkshire mill town and featuring young WWI widow, Kate Shackleton who has agreed to investigate the disappearance of the father of a woman with whom she served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the war.  More deaths occur in the mill town as Kate traces the circumstances in the village when the man disappeared.  Suspicion falls first on one person, then another and Kate herself becomes the target of people who don't want this mystery solved.  Kate has been compared to Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, and the book provides the same pleasurable reading experience with a bit less of the horrors lingering from the battlefield.

Author Tasha Alexander

Minotaur Books, 2010,
306 pages

I've read several of the Tasha Alexander's Victorian series featuring Lady Emily Ashton.  In this one, Lady Emily is recovering from a near death experience.  Lady Emily has become a less engaging character in this book and seems newly prone to the vapors.   The mystery is filled with people with familial mental illness. This book was only mildly interesting--I read it but I wouldn't recommend it.  I think Tasha Alexander is a talented author, so I fully expect subsequent works of hers to be of a higher calibre.

Berkley Prime Crime, 2012, 325 pages

I'm not a huge fan of Ann Purser's Lois Meade series, but I read them if they fall into my lap.  This one involves a rich Japanese woman and her missing violin.  Lois gets involves because the young woman is the musical partner of Lois' talented son.  Purser captures village life in working class England.  I read a lot for milieu, and so far Purser hasn't captured my imagination, but I like the cover art!