Fiber Fool

It has been a long, long time since I last posted about what I was reading. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading, it means I’m lazy (backed up partly by the silence that tends to follow a book post). With the aid of my library activity record I brought the sidebar up to date a week or so ago, but thought I’d maybe make quick mention of the fiction I’ve been reading lately…

The last fiction read I made note of was back in early March, which was Copper River by William Kent Krueger (who has a new title out the end of this month, BTW). I haven’t been devouring books lately, I’ve just been too busy, but there are still several to mention.

I have been slowly catching up to the most current of the various food/drink niche mystery series…

• The Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joann Fluke - The third in this Minnesota set culinary mystery series. It is typical of the previous books. Nothing earth shattering, but a fun read, especially if you know Minnesotans as Fluke nails her characters. 6/9
• Sticks and Scones by Diane Mott Davidson - Another in the Colorado-set culinary mysteries featuring caterer, Goldy Bear Schultz. 6/9
• Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson - Again, a Goldy Bear mystery. This one had a bit more action to it. 7/9
• Murder Most Frothy by Cleo Coyle - A Coffeehouse Mystery featuring Clare Cosi, a divorced manager of Village Blend. This one mostly takes place in the Hamptons during the summer. 6/7
• Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs - The fifth Teashop mystery featuring Thodosia, teashop entrepreneur and former advertising exec in Charleston. This was her first title to be released in hardcover. A VP of a large medical equipment company is done in at a Ghost Crawl in an historic cemetery. 6/9
• Chamomile Mourning by Laura ChildsAnother Theodosia mystery in Charleston. This time, a Poet’s tea results in a man falling from the balcony to his death. 6/9

I also checked out a few other books/series recommended to me by others:

• One Heart by Jane McCafferty - This one was a book club read for mom’s club. It examines the ebb and flow of the relationship between two sisters who are often in competition without realizing it. I found it an interesting character study. At points it was quite heart wrenching. 6/9
• Weekend Warriors by Fern Michaels - This series was recommended to me by this little Texan in my water aerobics class, Bobbi. The first Revenge of the Sisterhood book in which a group of women whose lives were wrongly impacted by the failure of the justice system seek out their own form of justice. There were some rather graphic descriptions of violence that surprised, given who recommended it to me. It was a fun read. I found myself laughing out loud many times. I think I’ll be giving the others a read as well. 6/9
• Hey Good Looking by Fern Michaels - My mom recommended this one, saying she wanted to call me in the middle of the night to tell me about it. I didn’t find it quite *that* compelling, but it was a good read and again I found myself laughing out loud a few times. It is a story of tragedy turning out for the better in the long run, with some bumps along the way. A fun southern fiction light romance/family drama.

I’ve revisited a few old series I had forgotten about and discovered a new one or two:

• Miss Julia Hits the Road by Ann B. Ross - A fun southern mystery series starring miss prim and proper Julia Spencer who has taken her former husband’s mistress and illegitimate child under her wings. In this one, Julia finds herself on the back of a motorcycle to raise money to save a low-income neighborhood for her housekeeper and her neighbors. This is the 4th book in the series. I had read the first three several years ago and was reminded of them by my MIL. 6/9
• Miss Julia’s School of Beauty by Ann B. Ross - The sixth book in the Miss Julia series. Yes, I accidently skipped the fifth because Stop You’re Killing Me had it listed before book 5 *sob*. This one cracked me up big time a Miss Julia is unsure where she is really married to Sam Murdoch or not. This leads to many euphemisms about “knowing” each other. I have never heard so many way to refer to sex without getting crude and it was made even funnier due to Miss Julia’s proper Southern lady demeanor. 7/9
• Everywhere that Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline - first legal intrique novel from Scottoline featuring an all-women law firm in Philly. I read one book by Scottoline several years ago and decided to look her back up. I’ll give a few more in this series a go. 6/9
• Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell - The first in a Swedish crime fiction series featuring cop, Kurt Wallander. A very intriguing mystery about a brutal murder of an elderly couple and some apparent hate crimes. 7/9
• Sex, Murder, and A Double Latte by Kyra Davis (audio) - A quirky murder mystery featuring a murder mystery author in San Francisco who thinks she is th next target in a series of serial killings. Mom and I picked this out from Audible as being a highly ranked unabridged mystery novel. I tossed it on my Nano and read it while spinning and gardening and such. I’ll be checking out other titles by this author. 7/9
• Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper - A fast paced thriller. The first of the fear trilogy in which psychic investigators are being taunted by a murderer. This was a fantastic book, though I had a feeling that there was a trilogy or something that preceded this one which might have been good to have read first, though certainly not required. 7/9
• Live Bait by PJ Tracy - The second book featuring Magozzi, Rolseth, and the geeks from Monkeewrench. This is not a series I had forgotten about, but I’m trying to pace myself so I’m not caught up, but it only works for so long. I read this one back in February, but I think I forgot to blog about it. I *loved* it! 8/9
• Dead Run by P.J. Tracy - The third in the Minneapolis-based Monkeewrench series from this mother-daughter duo. Another fun read, though not quite as gripping for me as book number 2. I did manage to hold off reading it until April or May if I remember correctly. 7/9
• Iron Orchid by Stuart Woods - The latest in the “Orchid” series featuring ex-MP Holly Barker and her dog, Daisy. Holly has retired from Orchid Beach and shows up in New York. I didn’t find this one as fun as the earlier books set in Florida, perhaps it was the setting or perhaps it was the loss of Ham appearing semi-regular in the escapades. Still a fun read though. Again, I hadn’t forgotten about this series, but was trying to pace myself. Seeing as there isn’t an announcement of a new one in the near future I didn’t pace myself too well. 7/9

I have also revisited some favorite non-series authors and read some new authors as well:

• Child of Light by Diane Bentley Baker - An interesting tale of a time traveling woman who spreads the knowledge of dyeing, spinning, and weaving through out the cultures of space and time. It is a self-published book through Xlibris and suffers a bit because of it, but it was a good read. You can read my thorough review of it in the Summer 2007 issue of Spin-Off. 6/9
• Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs - A debut novel about a single mother in New York who has run a knitting shop while raising her daughter. Don’t read this book if you are suffering from some undiagnosed medical troubles though. It caused me a few sleepless nights. It was well done and is to be in movie form early next summer. 7/9
• The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman - The latest literary suspence in paperback from Goodman. It is a bit different from her previous novels, though it is still very literary. It often takes me a bit to be sucked into her books, but when I’m done reading them I’m always saying “wow, that was a good book.” 8/9
• Irresistible by Susan Mallery (audio) - A feel good romance where single mother, Elissa and Walker Buchanan end up in an unsought romance in Seattle Washington. The second in a series I guess, though I haven’t read the first and it didn’t seem to matter. I think the other books concentrate on various members of the Buchanan family. 6/9
• How to Seduce a Ghost by Hope McIntyre - An interesting romance/suspence novel set in Notting Hill where Ghost Writer, Lee Bartholomew is having a hard time growing up. A new job turns her world upside down while her neighborhood is plagued with arson. I have the follow-up How to Marry a Ghost on hold at the library. 7/9

That catches me up for now. I’ve started the first Anita Blake book by Larrell K. Hamilton, but I’m thinking it just isn’t me. I think I’ll probably grab Harry Potter book 5 here soon so I can have it read before the movie opens next week. But, we’ll see. DH is reading it right now. Other than that I’m waiting for some titles to come into the library.