Category: Books

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny is a well-done mystery, plenty of suspects, plot twists, even a traditional denouement, but it's more than that. It's about friendships and envy, about love and jealousy. It's about the characters for me, the mystery is almost secondary. We're back in fictional Three Pines, an idyllic Canadian city that happily sees  more than its share of murder. Really, why do people continue to live in these towns, like Cabot Cove and St. Mary Mead? Luckily for us they do. April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. (T. S. Eliott, The Waste Land) It's spring, and amid the Easter celebrations, a psychic arrives, a Wiccan actually, and the townsfolk convince her to hold a séance with them in the old Hadley house to rid the town of its evil. Bad idea, obviously. A local,...

The Thrill Ride Questionnaire What is your favourite genre out of Thriller, Mystery, Suspense and Horror? Why? My favorite is Mystery. I don't really know why, I've just loved mysteries since I was a kid, starting with Nancy Drew and quickly moving up to Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I like the strong personalities the detectives usually have, whether they're professional or amateurs. I like the who dunnit, even if I can never figure it out. Who are your top 3 authors in those genres? It's so hard to choose. I'm picking three  that have stood the test of time. Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ngaio Marsh Tell us who your favorite male and female authors are in the genre? These are my current favorites. This list could look very different at the same time next year. Male: Brian M. Wiprud Greg Iles Female: Louise Penny Kate Wilhelm What book do you remember loving but don't remember the details? Maybe you should read it again now. Dracula. I know I've read it,...

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is  a heart-breaking, but still hopeful novel.  Alice's story is compelling and made me think about how important it is to spend time with those I love. Alice is a brilliant, healthy 50 year-old woman, a Harvard psychology and linguistics professor who is happily married and has three grown children. She notices that she is beginning to forget things, lose words, get lost in her own town. At first, she blames it on menopause, but is soon diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. The novel follows her through that next year as her condition deteriorates. Alice's story is devastating and Genova has made her feel so real. It's an honest portrayal of what it must feel like to have Alzheimer's, to know that you will eventually lose your mind, how scary it can be, how alone you can feel. I can't say I liked Alice. In the beginning of the book, I felt like she put her career...

I can't believe summer is almost over. It just flew past. I'm not much of a planner when it comes to my reading schedule, but here's a list of the top ten books on my fall t-read list. Now whether or not I'll get around to them, we'll just have to wait and see.  This is a mix of books I'm wishing for and ones I already have sitting on the pile at home. I could list more, but I held myself to ten. Between the Thames and the Tiber by Ted Riccardi- I love Holmes! Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite - A ghost story for October. Dragon Blues by Edie Ramer - I have to have a paranormal romance on the list. The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe - The eastern Tennessee setting and the mix of magic and reality call to me. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy - I don't read many historical novels, but Theodora sounds...