Fonduing Fathers by Julie Hyzy is the latest outing for the Head Chef at the White House.  And it is head and shoulders above the others in the series.  Less ridiculous in its plot line and more believable and readable.  This time, rather than searching for terrorist in the meatloaf Ollie is looking for some answers about her father and his death.  Check it out. But let me add that I did find the ending rushed and unsatisfying.  After a lot of talking, threats and counters, everything gets wrapped up under the general umbrella of 'national security'  'cannot tell anyone' and a sense of "what just happened."  I feel Ms. Hyzy did an otherwise good read a disservice.  Maybe she herself didn't know how to end it in a more finished manner or maybe she opted to save herself 5 -- 10 more pages of writing.  Anyway, decent book, better than previous ones but really 'national security concerns' coming out of a food supplement corporation?  Nice scenes with the 'First Son' and Sergeant.

My do's and don'ts

Just like a boyfriend/girlfriend/soulmate/BFF or other relationship don't let anyone else tell what's right for you as far as a good book. Despite the title of my blog I AM NOT trying to tell anyone what a good book is.  Everyone has to figure that out for themselves.  Your taste may run to blood and gore, light chick lit, westerns, Harlequins, how-tos, spiritual offerings or simply the latest magazine or newspaper.  As I used to tell my children, I don't care what you read....just read.  The advent of e-books and portable e-readers in the past few years have made it easier and easier to always have a good book to read and many of the more popular e-readers have a lot of free classics to download and they all have a rotating list of free or very cheap books that are not Jane Eyre or Jane Austin.  Lots of authors out there are trying to build up their readership by allowing e-sellers to offer the first in a series to be offered free or priced below $3.00, figuring (rightly so) that once a reader reads a good book he or she will return to purchase everything else possible by that author. 

So start reading...you might just discover you like it and unlike so many other habits you could pick up, reading is good for you!

Good book/ok movie; so-so book/great movie

I did something this morning I have never done before in my life.....as you probably know Angels and Demons premiered at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning. While I didn't feel like staying up till afte three in the morning for the premiere I did want to see the movie and didn't particularly want to fight the Friday night 'date night' crowd or sit in a theatre filled with teenagers trying to act cool.  I ended up seeing the movie in the theater 3 times (taking a different person as my plus one each time).  And I got more out of it each time I watched and each person going along with me enjoyed it as well.

2 book recommendations

The first one is by a new author (new to me anyway and she didn't list any other books published in the foreward).....Katherine Howe "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane". Action in this jumps from the times of the Salem Witch Trials and 1991 Harvard Yard, Marblehead and Salem, Massachusetts. Unknown to Connie (Constance) Goodwin she is a direct of Deliverance Dane, a previously unknown victim of the mass hysteria of the witch trials. She is asked by her mother (Grace) to clean out her grandmother Sophia's overrun home in Marblehead. Connie is also working to find original source material for her PhD, as she has also just passed her oral exams at Harvard and has been admitted to candidacy. As she searches for clues to the physick book which she hopes will provide the original material she requires, Connie uncovers the links which bind her to the tiny cottage in Marblehead, the power (or will or intention) which ties her to a long line of strong New England women, dating back to Deliverance.

My second recommendation is Dark Horse by Craig Johnson. The book is, I believe, the fourth or fifth in the Walt Longmire series. If you want to read a book which not only is a thinking mystery, an insight into the mind of a true lawman and describes the aching physical beauty and majesty of the West, read this one. Longmire is by turns comical, deadly, intelligent, and blindly loyal. Do yourself a favor, read the entire series, you will find it worth your time.

The new Abby and Ophelia Seventh Witch

While a bit tedious at times, this series has managed to stay fresh-light (not too much overkill on the who and what of the setting and characterizations) and more effort spent on advancing the current story. Well that's starting to change a bit in this latest offering. Abby and Ophelia have moved location (sometimes not a good idea) and are visiting their family of southern mountain witches...okay that could be good but instead of a story there are merely hints of something bad to come, a rival family of bad witches, some generations old hidden witch problems. Everyone seems to know a part of the story, noone wants to tell all of it...so instead of a book we have bits and pieces of what should be a good story combined with hints and is turning into just an exercise in reading frustration. I hope this isn't the end of what has been a strong B+ series.

Avenging Angels by Mary Stanton

This is the third in the Beaufort and Company series. The first one I picked up on a whim---I thought it looked off-beat enough to be interesting and it was. The second also was pretty good but this third offering is a mess. I kept picking it up, reading a few chapters and deciding I had better things to do. Not that it's bad, just that there doesn't seem to be much of a story-line. I don't like books where the author feels the need to set the stage for the characters in each book (hey if the reader can't follow the story, here's a thought, buy or borrow the original book)

I was nearly 2/3 of the way through Avenging Angels before the real 'mystery' came to light. And I really think that if this author doesn't get busy and resolve or at least reveal some of the backstory, a lot of readers, me included, will stop reading. I understand not wanting to reveal EVERYTHING, particularly in a series like this, largely based on mystery, paranormal, and just plain weird, but in this series, each book piles more and more and more on until the reader has difficulty determining what is plot, what is setting and what is really the point. When reading becomes floundering, it becomes not fun. And when reading is not fun, then I stop reading (after all this isn't school!)

Any Trixie Belden fans out there?

I'm snowed in, restricted in activity and bored out of my mind so I thought I'd go looking for some Trixie Beldens to complete my collection. One of the later (and probably not better) titles is currently listed on one of the major book sites for $600.00 I nearly fell out of bed. That much money would have bought every book in the collection, in hardback, and probably a weekend with the author!

Oh well, I will keep looking. I have most of the first 38 or 39--the ones that were in print when I was really reading and enjoying them. Now I just want the rest to say that I have ALL OF THEM.

Quick recommendation if you're looking for something new to read

Toni L.P Kelner....has at least two series that I know of. One I believe she no longer is writing (the Laura Fleming series) but the new series (Where Are They Now?) has 2 entries...the first is the Curse of the Kissing Cousins about the former cast members of a Brady Bunch like TV show and the most recent Who Killed the Pinup Queen is a tightly woven and very enjoyable tale intermingling memories of a successful TV western and the world of aging pinup queens (think Bettie Page).

The first book was good the second is even better. My only quibble with this author is that to the best of my knowledge she never concluded the first series and with the second one it's taking a long time between books. Ms. Kelner has also authored several anthologies with other popular mystery authors but, as I may have mentioned a million or so times, I hate short stories.

Ending a long running series

I just found out (by reading an on-line review) that one of the cozy mystery series I have read for a few years is no longer being published by the publishing house that has been offering it. I am actually glad it's being cancelled,the quality of the stories has been going down hill. Initially it was a fresh idea.....a retired on disability San Francisco homicide detective and his teddy bear making wife return to her home town in Virginia. She makes collectible teddies for high end bear shows and he, initially concentrated on rehabbing. Suddenly he is interested in making bears based on TV detectives and has a side job acting as civilian consultant to the local police department. As the books proceed he becomes almost a Svengali to the local sheriff....he directs her in nearly step of the investigations, the sheriff defers to him at every step and finally in this last book, his wife has become a sheriff's deputy. Now Brad Lyon is able to vicariously relive his life as a detective, being deferred to by both the sheriff and his wife. Really time for this to go away.

And let's not forget about the retired Soviet spy who owns a local BBQ joint?????

I've been away a long long time

A lot has changed since my last post. I've separated from my husband ... actually he decided he needed to 'find himself' or 'take a breath' or 'clear his head' or whatever. Bottom line, he left, and one of my first thoughts was "cool, now I won't have to listen to him whine about how much I read". I also have had a knee replaced, lost my job because of the surgery and have inherited a whole lot of problems.

But am I still reading, you bet. Because I haven't been mobile for several weeks and able to either get to the bookstore or the library very easily I find myself re-reading some old favorites.

First, Georgette Heyer....historical and hysterical Regency romances. Read them and learn something.

Then there is Donna Andrews.....her bird series "Murder with Peacocks" is a laugh riot from beginning to end.....the latest is "Swan for the Money". All of the books are good, read them, enter Meg's world.

And finally on my current re-read list are some of the early works of Elizabeth Peters-Barbara Michaels. "Ammie Come Home", "Devil May Care", "The Love Talker", the list is long, the reading enjoyment enormous.

Well, its time for another pain pill and I need to do some exercises.....the doctor, the physical therapist and my home nurse keep telling me it will get better.....

Dan Brown

No more with the Lost Symbol....I've turned my copy over to my daughter...she seems to enjoy it so I guess (as with all books) its a matter of personal opinion. I look forward to the inevitable movie and can only hope its as good as Angels and Demons....I think the secret is keeping Mr. Brown FAR AWAY from the actual screenplan! (Are you listening Tom Hanks and Ron Howard??)

Just found out the title for the new Dan Brown.and immediately forgot it.  But I did put it on reserve at the library.  I cannot for the life of me decide whether I want it to be a DaVinci (great book, so-so movie) or an Angels and Demons (so so book but (IMO) an engrossing, if somewhat predictable, movie.  Haven't seen whether Tom and Ron are planning a Lost Symbol movie...if the previous formula holds, a movie of this clunker would have to be FANTASTIC.  Only time will tell.  I believe I'm about 150 on the library reserve list for the new Brown offering.  Again only time will tell.

The Lost Symbol and Hardball

I am still struggling with Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' and am about ready to give up and return my copy to the library, wait for it in paperback and hope it reads better next summer at the pool. Maybe I will give it one more chance (the sign of a bad read for me is my never ending enthusiasm to find something, anything else to read). I've picked up started stopped and returned to this at least a dozen times.

But Sara Paretsky has returned with a big smash hit in her long running but rarely dull VI Warshawski (as VI's young cousin remembers to spell the family name....a warrior on a rickshaw riding a ski). Taut, tight, compelling a true home run I highly recommend 'Hardball'. A lot of empty spots in VI's past are filled in and maybe just maybe she's found a new man to help fill some of the empty spots in her personal life.

All the favorites are back...Lotty and Max, Mr. Contreras, the dogs, cameos from Bobby and Murray the familiar Chicago of VI. Solid mentions of Boom-Boom, her beloved mother and father as well as the appearance of a new cousin and her father's much younger and much more successful (at least in a worldly sense) brother Peter.

If you've read VI and are a fan, run to pick this one up. If you don't know VI, 'Hardball' could be read as a standalone but do yourself a big favor. Start from the beginning and learn to love her.

Second Spirits

Written by Juliet Blackwell....a pseudonym for sisters working on apparently a couple of mystery series. This is the first in a series whose main character is a witch with a BIG W. In the world of witches her power is off the charts but somewhat untrained, unfocused and definitely not to be messed with.

I picked this up as a throwaway...'well maybe I'll give a new series a try' kind of a whim purchase. And while I am neither a witch (I can't even convince red lights to change for me)0r a believer in a lot of extra sensory 'stuff' I definitely think there are folks among us that have something more than the rest of us do...maybe they're just more aware, more in tune with their surroundings or maybe who knows what.

This book is filled with those people....whether or not witches (wise women, healers, and such exist I leave for you to decide). Well written (I fell in love with Oscar) and given the right amount of suspension of belief, very believable. In fact, given some of the poor quality of mystery writing coming out now, this is one of the better books I've read in a long time. Hopefully the next book due in Summer 2010 is as good.

Dan Brown

I excitedly went to the library on Tuesday to pick up my copy of The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's latest. Didn't know if it would be closer to DaVinci Code and I would stay up all night to read it or Angels and Demons and would have to wait for the movie after trying half a dozen times to finish it.

It seems that 'Symbol' is somewhere in between the two. Despite the fact that I did indeed stay up all night (in the hospital ER with torn ligaments in my knee, waiting for some pain relief) I can't really get into Symbol. It's all about the Masons. Now my grandfathers and my dad are/were all Masons and NONE of them were as creepy/disturbing/downright disgusting as some of the Masons Mr. Brown uses as the hero???villains??? of 'symbol'. Nope never saw my dad drinking wine from a human skull or saw tattoos on his fingertips. (He is living with us and believe me I checked, no tattoos).

So the jury is still out on Mr. Brown's new book. We live near Washington DC and lived in DC for several years so I am very familiar with his setting and sure don't think there is some mysterious portal to the place where the answers for the mysteries of the world anywhere in DC but I'm willing to be open-minded about that.

If only he didn't have to be sooo wordy. I understand Robert Langdon is bright beyond belief but does he have to keep reminding the reader about his eidetic memory? I'm only 182 pages into the book and have no real interest in finishing but I keep thinking that it has to get better. But so far, I don't really care about the kidnap victim, the weird CIA Security Chief was just irritating not threatening and the symbology explanations just seem silly not intriguing. At this point I'm not even sure that Ron Howard/Tom Hanks/et al can save this one! I think maybe Mr. Brown has too much crazy stuff in this one. A mysterious scientist and his sister with a hidden neotic science lab in the Smithsonian storage facility, a tattooed Masonic fanatic masquerading as the scientist's psychiatrist, the strange reluctance and withholding of information on the part of Langdon.....and the never ending wordiness of Dan Brown. This may just combine to be too much for most readers.

I will persevere however. Maybe I'll just ask my dad first if he has a skull hidden in his closet that he now uses to drink his diet coke from. Or maybe he does know where the hidden portal is and will share with me and I won't have to read the next 300 plus pages of 'Symbol'!

Kathy Reichs new book

I just started 206 Bones (the number of bones in the human body). So far it seems up to the standards of her earlier works...I have not been pleased with the series since she became not only an author but the driving force behind the Fox Network's TV series called Bones. Especially in the first few books after the TV deal I felt that she was more writing a TV script than a novel. I have hopes for this book that maybe just maybe she is actually writing for her readers not her viewers.

Not about books but about my puppy's blog

Check out the blog A Tale of Four Paws. (For Whom the Tail Wags). It's written (really he writes every word) by my new mini dachshund puppy. He's 2 1/2 months old and is absolutely one of the smartest dogs I've ever known...I mean he's already authoring his own blog! He's also cute.

Keep reading...I'll be back with some recommendations soon. I am looking forward to Dan Brown's new book...I believe its titled The Lost Symbol. I hope it reads like DaVinci Code and the inevitable movie treatment is as much fun as the movie Angels and Demons.

Three quick recommendations: Cry Mercy by Mariah Stewart (the end of a trilogy), Dust to Dust by Beverly Connor (latest in a series) and The Silent Killer by Beverly Barton....it's first in what is at least 2 involving the same characters--the next installment is due in February 2010.

Pup updated his blog today and I'm going to try and keep his nose to the keyboard as will I try and post every week or so.

Happy reading.  And really there's nothing better than reading a good book with a pup snuggled on your lap.  Try it sometime.  Great for the blood pressure, your stress level and just about everything else!

Another reader in the household

Well he really isn't a reader, he's probably going to be another chewer! I am the proud mama of a 9 week old chocolate and tan dappled mini-daschund. In keeping with his massive and imposing stature of 2 pounds (absolutely soaking wet) and maybe 9 inches of length and about 4 inches to the top of his head, his name is George Augustus the First. (Georgie or Geo for short) His daddy is working on his AKC Champion points and George and I may check out a couple of puppy shows. But he has to work on his distessing habit of falling stone cold asleep in the middle of conversations, his food dish, the latest mystery novel or an exciting movie....he won't win any points if he falls asleep in the show ring. Gotta go, rescue a paperback from George and try and get him to actually take a walk and tuck him back into bed.

Happy reading and happy happy happy new puppy

A few quick summer reading recommendations

NOONE and I mean noone does creepy romantic suspense better these days than Karen Rose. She has a new standalone out and her series books are great as well. Check out this author.

David Rosenfelt just wrote a new one in his dog lawyer series. No the dog isn't a lawyer Andy Carpenter is the lawyer, just made his name and added to his considerable fortune with a case involving a dog and those kinds of cases just keep coming his way. New canine character in this one...a rather lively Burmese Mountain Dog puppy named Waggy (really Bertrand II but wouldn't you rather be called Waggy?) who becomes the target of a crazed killer.

And last but not least, Nora Roberts new stand-alone sort of mystery more of a love story Black Hills is out....it's a great pool or beach book.

Gotta go--but please pick up a book and read!

Readers come in all shapes and sizes!

Here's one of my favorite reading companions....the only problem is he wants to EAT the books rather than read them with me.....

Summer Reading and The Classics

Looking at the calendar and seeing that it's already August reminded me of years past when August meant pulling out summer reading list recommendations (which really means a list of books you MUST read before school starts or be so far behind you will never catch up). And that reminder made me both nostalgic and angry. Nostalgic not only for the dim distant past when I was young enough to look forward to back to school but for the days when August meant running from place to place getting each child their complete back to school list (even though some of the supplies would never be used and most wouldn't be used for months and months and months) and choosing the exact right outfit for that crucial first day of school impression.

But it also makes me angry to realize how many children and young people are turned off reading by these reading lists including the 'classics' and the 'must reads'. Reading should be a pleasure not a requirement. To this day I HATE Shakespeare due to an inept and pompous Sophomore High School English teacher (I won't reveal his name, my luck he's lurking in cyberspace and reading this one blog). Jane Austin, please give me Georgette Heyer instead, Homer, Beowulf, Hemingway, To Kill a Mockingbird---never. The only 'classic' I ever enjoyed throughout my many years of education was Caesar and that was only because I had the privilege to read it in the original Latin (yes I was not only a BandGeek I was also a Latin Club nerd). And I was a child who LOVED to read....just don't tell me what I HAVE to read to become a well-read and educated person. And who makes up these must-read booklists anyway?

What is my point..if you're a parent and you have a child who maybe isn't an avid reader...you know the type, we read until lights out and spent hours trying to convince our parents/grandparents/aunts and uncles and various other caretakers that it wouldn't make us too tired or sick to read all night and no our eyes didn't hurt in the dim light of a flashlight under the covers.....PLEASE don't force your child to read. I have 4 children, one of them took after his Mom and read anything and everything in sight--he even likes some of the classics! I have 2 daughters, one has always been a reader, the other one not so much at first. My youngest son devours books but only of a certain genre and then will wait months for another of his favorites to be published.

My biggest reader success was with my oldest daughter. I would always tell her "read, anything you want...read the back of cereal boxes, ads in the paper, the trailer along the bottom of the TV, anything! Someday you'll discover you actually like to read." And you know what? She does. So, don't push your non-reader. Be patient and one day you will also hear....:hey, let's go to Borders I have a BIG list of books I need to get. "

Happy reading....my bedside stack gets bigger and bigger and now that it's a new month, there will be new treasures being published and more to add to the stack. I LOVE it!