Carol's Notebook – Page 162

Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey

December 18, 2019December 18, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

Apple Cider Slaying is the first book in a new series. I've read a couple books by this author (under her pseudonym) before and enjoyed them well enough, but what drew me to this one was the Christmassy setting. Winnie has returned to her hometown, Blossom Valley, West Virginia to help Granny turn around the family business. She has plans to open a cider shop, allowing Granny's orchard to make money year-round, but she needs a loan. While leading the banker on a tour of the property, she finds the neighbor dead in the cider press, the neighbor who was in a decades-long feud with Granny. Winnie decides she has to do some investigating because she can't bear the thought of her grandmother being accused. She and the sheriff butt heads a bit, but he's the potential love interest, so of course he's mostly concerned with her safety. In the meantime, she decides to go ahead with a Christmas Festival...

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley by Leighann Dobbs

December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley is the second of the Christmas Village Cozies. They're both quick fun reads and I read this one right after the first. Gus is on vacation in Christmas Village, playing jazz piano at the North Pole Lounge. She knows Christmas Village can't be as perfect and cheery as it seems. While she's out and about she watches as a protester keels over, obviously poisoned, and she can't help investigating. The woman was protesting the treatment of the birds in Christmas Village: the partridge, French hens, geese, swans, turtle doves. There are lots of suspects in her death with the birds' caretakers and the philandering husband and his mistress, at the top of the list. The problem, at least for Gus, is that the local detective in charge was one of her teachers at the police academy. They apparently never got along well, and not Detective Winters is insisting Gus stay out of the way. So Gus, and...

Cadaver on Candy Cane Lane by Leighann Dobbs

December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Cadaver on Candy Cane Lane is a fun, quirky mystery novella. Christmas Village is Christmas village. It's where elves make toys, a pear tree grows in the middle of winter, swans swim in the lake, and reindeer talk. A lot of the activities are for tourists, tourism is big business for Christmas village, but so is toy-making and shipping. Alfie, the murdered elf, was the Union Rep at the toy factory and a strike was on the horizon. There are a lot of feelings, and motives, on both sides of the issue. Our amateur detective is Ember from Dobbs' Silver Hollow series, which I haven't read. The idea of the mash-up is cute and I didn't feel like I missed anything from not having read the other. Ember is sweet and trying to prove that she is a good detective too. She's in Christmas village helping her aunt Phoebe, the candy lady, get enough stock ready for the holidays, and one...

Back to the Classics Wrap-up

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 by Carol3 Comments

This year I was intending on reading 12 categories for the Back to the Classics 2019 Reading Challenge, hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate, but I ended up doing 10 because Christmas reading snuck up on me and I couldn't find December books that fit the last two categories. I've earned two entries. 19th Century Classic: Bleak House by Charles Dickens20th Century Classic: The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery AllinghamClassic by a Woman Author: Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. StevensonClassic in Translation: We by Yevgeny AmyatinClassic Comic Novel: Something Fresh by P.G. WodehouseClassic Tragic Novel: The Secret Agent by Joseph ConradVery Long Classic: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre DumasClassic Novella: Double Indemnity by James M. CainClassic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean): The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia HighsmithClassic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia): Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay It's too hard to pick a favorite. I honestly enjoyed all of them this year. ...

Classics Club Spin #22

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 by Carol15 Comments

The Classics Club is holding its 22nd Spin. The idea is to list 20 of the books on your Classics Club list before December 22 when the wheel will turn and reveal the winning number. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by January 31. My Book Spin List – The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar WildThe Red House Mystery by A.A. MilneMoll Flanders by Daniel DefoeTreasure Island by Robert Louis StevensonThe Blue Castle by Lucy Maud MontgomeryThe Odyssey by HomerIn Cold Blood by Truman CapoteOrient Express by Graham GreeneAnatomy of a Murder by Robert TraverThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le CarréGulliver’s Travels by Jonathan SwiftMoll Flanders by Daniel DefoeOrlando by Virginia WoolfWalden by Henry David ThoreauThe 13 Clocks by James ThurberJourney to the Center of the Earth by Jules VerneThe Wind in the Willows by Kenneth GrahameMiddlemarch by George EliotLittle House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls WilderThe Mystery of Edwin...

Mailbox Monday – 12/16

December 16, 2019February 5, 2020 by Carol5 Comments

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Tell us about your new arrivals by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky at mailboxmonday.wordpress.com. I won Splintered Silence at a Kensington Facebook party....