Thursday’s Tale: The Chocolate Hills of Bohol

by Carol4 Comments
Those of you who follow me on Instagram or are my friend on Facebook may have noticed we spent a few days this week at Hershey, PA. I'll probably post some photos Saturday, but I wanted to share a chocolatey folk tale today. This one is from the Visayan people of the Philippines. Many years ago, at the foot of Happy Mountain, there lived a wealthy couple who had an only daughter.  The daughter was good-looking, but she was arrogant, mean, and lazy.  She was called Amada.   The couple had a neighbor, a wise woman and mother of twins.  The twins were called Ruben and Teresa.   They were kind to everyone, and they grew to love God's creatures around them.  Everyday they knelt and bowed their heads to pray. One bright morning Amada, Ruben, and Teresa were playing in Amada's garden when an old woman came by and begged for alms. Ruben and Teresa dug into their pockets but did not find anything.  So...
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Book Blast: Sun, Sand & Seances by Kathleen Ann Gallagher

by CarolNo Comments
ABOUT SUN, SAND, AND SEANCES Bobbi Collins is a caring and devoted kindergarten teacher who had her world turned upside down when her fiancé died after a lover’s quarrel. Five years later, she still struggles with acceptance. Her role as an educator fills up her week, but on weekends, she longs for something more. When she stumbles across a newspaper ad for a psychic fair in the historic town of Cape May, New Jersey, it seems like the answer. Bobbi is determined to revive her once vibrant life. Kevin Carlton a successful realtor is tired of the dating game. He doesn’t remember buying a raffle ticket, but when his co-worker announces he holds the winning number, he decides to take a chance and attend the all expense paid weekend in Cape May, at the Lady of the Sea's Psychic Fair. He hopes to find a spiritualist who has the ability to contact his late father and prove he has become a...
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Audiobook Review: Murder Song by Jon Cleary

Audiobook Review: Murder Song by Jon Cleary

by Carol2 Comments
Title: Murder Song (Scobie Malone #7) Author: Jon Cleary Reader: Shaun Grindell Category: Mystery Audio published: June 1, 2013 by AudioGo (First published 1990) Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | AudioGo A young woman named Mardi Jack is killed by a sniper's bullet in a Sydney apartment apparently owned by a wealthy businessman, Boru O'Brien, who has ties to seedy goings-on and to the Prime Minister's wife. O'Brien, the real target of the assassin, had been a cadet with Detective Inspector Scobie Malone two decades earlier, and after Jim Knoble, another police academy classmate, is also professionally shot, the mantle falls to Malone to investigate the case. Forced into hiding and afraid for the safety of his family, Malone must find a psychopathic serial killer before he, too, is stopped by a gun's explosion. Sometimes it can be difficult to review books in series, especially when they mostly fall along the same lines - good guy Malone has to solve a murder and it gets a little...
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Thursday’s Tale: Thumbelina

by Carol4 Comments
I have mixed feelings about Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Some are just so moralistic and some just too sad. "Thumbelina," however, has a happy ending and though there are a few sad moments it's overall an enjoyable story. The version I read was from Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Mrs. Henry H. B. Paull, 1875. The tale opens in a rather traditional way with a woman who desperately wants a child. She goes to a fairy for help and the fairy sells her a barleycorn which she plants in a flower pot. It grows a lovely flower and when the flower opens, a tiny girl, Thumbelina, also called Tiny, emerges. Thumbelina has a lovely life with the woman until one night, when she is asleep in her walnut-shell cradle, she gets carried off by a toad who wants the miniature maiden as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina...
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Guest Post: Elizabeth Buhmann, author of Lay Death at Her Door

Guest Post: Elizabeth Buhmann, author of Lay Death at Her Door

by Carol6 Comments
Today, I'm happy to welcome Elizabeth Buhmann, author of Lay Death at Her Door, to Carol's Notebook. She's talking about beach reads today, a perfect topic for this time of year. The Search for the Great Summer Beach Read Guest Post by Elizabeth Buhmann, Author of Lay Death at Her Door (Red Adept Publishing, May 2013) Imagine you are sitting in the shade of a palm tree on Maui. The sun sparkles on the sea, a light breeze keeps you cool, and you’re in the middle of a great book… Or maybe you’re just sitting in a glider on the back porch drinking sassy water. But you’ve gotta have that great book! What makes a great summer beach read? For me, partly it’s a great setting, with a touch of the exotic. Did you know that MM Kaye (Far Pavillions) wrote a series of romantic suspense novels? Death in Kenya, Death in Kashmir, Death in Zanzibar, and so on.  She lived in all of these...
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