Category: Books

Otis is an adorable little tractor. I just read the third book featuring him earlier today. I read the first a while ago (my review) and even though it's a picture book it put tears in my eyes, so I was expecting this one, Otis and the Puppy to be good too, and I was right. Title: Otis and the Puppy Author: Loren Long Category: Picture Book Published: March 12, 2013 by Philomel Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository Otis and his farm friends love to play hide-and-seek. Otis especially loves to be "It," finding his friends as they hide. Yet when the newest addition to the farm—a bounding puppy who can't sit still and has a habit of licking faces—tries to hide, he finds his attention wandering and is soon lost in the forest. Night falls and Otis, knowing his new friend is afraid of the dark, sets out to find him. There's just one problem: Otis...

Nele Neuhaus is a new author for me, which is reasonable, since Snow White Must Die is the first of her novels translated into English. According to her website, Neuhaus is a German writer who currently lives in the Vordertaunus region, where her crime thriller series featureing investigators Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchhoff is set. Her series was originally self-published then the large Berlin publisher Ullstein discovered her and took her under contract. The series made her one of the most widely read crime writers in Germany. Her Taunus crime thrillers have so far reached a total circulation of 3.5 million copies, the rights have been sold to 20 countries, including Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Korea, Russia, Brazil, Poland, China, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece and the USA. There are currently six books in the series, and, based on Snow White Must Die, I'm hoping more of them are translated soon. Title: Snow White Must Die Author: Nele Neuhaus Translated by : Steven T. Murray Read by: Robert Fass Category: Mystery- Police Procedural Audio published: January 15,...

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and though I've never been there, the photos I've seen are just gorgeous. It's an area of gorgeous scenery, wild creatures, trails, festivals, and music. It's also the setting for Wayne Zurl's series featuring Prospect, Tennessee's Police Chief, Sam Jenkins.   Title: The Great Smoky Mountain Bank Job (Sam Jenkins Mystery) Author: Wayne Zurl Read by: David Colacci Category: Mystery- Police Procedural Audio published: July 28, 2012 by Mind Wings Audio Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Purchase: Amazon MP3  Sam Jenkins’ law enforcement colleagues know he’s quick to ask a professional favor. But when a beautiful Treasury agent asks for his assistance, he balks. Special Agent Lucy Frobisher wants Sam to re-open a forty-three year old investigation and find her father’s killers. Reluctantly, the ex-New York detective turned Tennessee police chief delves into the robbery-homicide and finds himself back-tracking events in the 1960s, chasing down a group of...

Fiesta - a celebration Fiasco - a humiliating failure A party that turns into a fiasco can't be good, can it? Title: Fiesta Fiasco Author: Ann Whitford Paul Illustrator: Ethan Long Category: Picture Book Published: March 1, 2007 Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | IndieBound | Book Depository There is a desert party in the works in this spicy book. It is Snake's birthday, and Iguana, Tortoise, and Rabbit are shopping for birthday gifts to bring to his fiesta. But what presents should they buy for Snake? In a sneaky twist, Rabbit convinces them to buy gifts that aren't for Snake at all--but for him! This is a cute little story. It's funny and teaches a lesson that can be hard for kids. When you're picking out gifts, think about what your friend/brother/sister would actually want, not what you want. (Hmm, maybe I should rethink what I ordered for my husband's birthday.) I like the desert animals and how whimsically they're drawn. The warm colors and cartoonish animals...

Conspiracy - a secret plan or agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal or subversive act Conspiracy theories abound. I actually mentioned one on Monday, that aliens crash-landed in Roswell and the US military covered it up. Some folks think Princess Diana was killed by MI6 at the orders of a member of the Royal Family. Others are convinced NASA faked the moon landings. More recently, the 9/11 attacks sparked all sorts of conspiracies, from the US government had prior warning of the attacks but did not do enough to stop them to the government being active in the destruction of the towers, that the airliners couldn't have brought them down alone, and the US air force was deliberately stood down or sent on exercises. And then there are some conspiracies that actually turned out to be true. First on the list, of course, is Watergate, when Republican officials spied on the Democratic National Headquarters from the Watergate Hotel in 1972. While conspiracy theories suggested...

It's A to Z April!! Such a fun event. The plan is that each day in April, aside from Sundays, is dedicated to a letter in the alphabet. Last year I had a great time, so here we go again. My plan is to stay pretty much with my usual style posts, book reviews, Thursday's Tales, but adding the alphabet twist. Of course, some posts will probably be off-topic, but that's okay, right. And a special thanks to Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out for starting this challenge. A is for Aliens You know the kind, the glowing green humanoid aliens that arrive in space ships, abduct people and carry them off to experiment on. And in America, one of the major toursits stops for alien and UFO seekers has to be Roswell, New Mexico. In the summer of 1947, an object crashed near Roswell. Some believe it was a spacecraft containing extraterrestrial life,  but the Armed Forces maintain what was recovered was debris from...