Carol's Notebook – Page 168

Ten Extraordinary Book Titles

October 15, 2019October 15, 2019 by Carol11 Comments

Happy Tuesday! I’m linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for Top Ten Tuesday & the topic this week is: “Extraordinary Book Titles.” Extraordinary simply means very unusual or remarkable. They could be ridiculously long or incredibly cute or beautiful. But today, I'm going with punny. Cozy mysteries have some of the best titles. Some I've read, some I haven't, some are on my to be read list....

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

October 15, 2019October 16, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

Up until a few years ago, I was an insurance agent, but not like Walter Huff. Huff is good at his job, hard-working, and knows the insurance business inside-out. Then he meets a married woman who he falls for immediately. Her name is Phyllis and she has a thought, not even a plan, just a thought of what she would like to do about her husband. We don't realize at the time, but Phyllis knows exactly what she's doing, exactly what she's suggesting, and really has no qualms and is perfectly capable of holding up under pressure. She is not a nice girl, no matter how she seems at first. It doesn't take Huff long to come up with full-blown plan. They'll kill the husband and they'll get away with the insurance money. He has been in the insurance game for a long time and he knows about every angle ever thought up by anyone to try and pull one over...

Mailbox Monday – 10/14

October 14, 2019January 6, 2020 by Carol10 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 picked up one of the Audible freebies of the month. It seems too perfect for October and RIP XIV. And I had to get this simply for the novelty value. I'll probably give solving it a shot though. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3YJDgugEAE/...

Sunday Salon – 10/13

October 13, 2019October 21, 2019 by Carol14 Comments

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz for hosting The Sunday Salon. Stop over there or at the Facebook Group to participate. Week’s Highlight: We went up to the lake with some friends for the weekend. We went over to the Conneaut Lake Pumpkin Fest on Saturday where we bought the dog a new scarf and ate a bunch of junk food. We spent the evenings sitting around the fire. Of course, we stopped to feed the fish at the spillway before we left. Reading: I went to my first Silent Reading Club at a local bookstore. It was fun - and odd. I'll probably go next month, maybe get there a little earlier and hang out a little longer afterward. I posted two mystery reviews this week: Beyond a Reasonable Stout by Ellie AlexanderA Better Man by Louise Penny I also finished Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. I should have my comments up in a day or two. Looking forward to: Amber comes home next weekend for Fall Break. It will be nice...

A Better Man by Louise Penny

October 11, 2019October 11, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

With A Better Man, Penny is back to the kind of mystery I enjoy, the small, personal mystery where the fate of Canada is not hanging on the outcome, which I was happy about. When the stories are too big, too political, it makes me think maybe I should step away from the series, but then one like this brings me back. It starts as a missing person case, but quickly changes to a murder investigation, all while the waters are rising around Quebec. The dead woman was abused by her husband, so suspicion quickly and naturally falls on him - and stays there. But proving he's the killer is another matter altogether. I knew the "who" although not necessarily the why or how. That's not the fault of the book, really the mystery was well-done. The trio, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste think they have a decent case against the husband, but it's blown out of the water and they...

Beyond a Reasonable Stout by Ellie Alexander

October 9, 2019October 9, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

I'm not a beer drinker, but my husband and our friends are, so I hear a lot of beer talk. Fall is his favorite time of year for beer, and I think that was part of the reason I was attracted to Beyond a Reasonable Stout. I enjoyed learning a bit more about the brewing process; it's interesting and while I realized a lot had to go into it, I've never really read anything about the process. Oktoberfest is over and Sloan and Garrett are starting to work on their winter beers. Leavenworth is a town whose livelihood is the tourist industry and that centers around their craft breweries and their Bavarian-style town. It actually sounds like it would be a fun place to visit. And then Kristopher Cooper gets killed. Granted, just about everyone in town was angry at the anti-alcohol platform he was running on for re-election to city council, but who took it all the way to...