Gift – Page 3 – Carol's Notebook

The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle by Laura DiSilverio

July 24, 2019August 1, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle is right up my aisle. Amy-Faye is an event planner, but more importantly, she's a member of a mystery book club. This month they're reading Murder on the Orient Express, one of my favorites, so of course when a murder occurs, more than one of the readaholics is thinking it might be a conspiracy. This is the first in the series I've read but I had no trouble jumping right into the characters and their lives. Amy-Faye has organized the grand opening of her brother's new brewery, but his business partner is found dead in the dumpster in the middle of the party—probably not good for business, definitely not good for her brother who gets arrested. Of course, Amy-Faye and the gang have to clear her brother's name and keep the brewery running. Amy-Faye and her friends are fun to hang out with. They each have their own careers and quirks, they're very different from each...

A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper

June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

A Knife in the Dark is a fun mix of fact and fiction. We all know Arthur Conan Doyle as the creator of Sherlock Holmes and many of us know that Homes was based on real-life Professor Joseph Bell. These two, along with Margaret Harkness are hired to help with the Jack the Ripper investigation. I didn't know who Margaret Harkness was, so I looked her up. She was a journalist and writer, was one of many late Victorian emancipated ‘New Women’ and was engaged in lobbying for progressive reform legislation. Harper also includes many other real people in his story, those actually involved in the investigation and those on the periphery. He uses the real clues and shapes his story around them. I'm not particularly fascinated with the Jack the Ripper murders, but Harper does a good job. I enjoyed the characters, especially Professor Bell. As a team, they are smart and not afraid to take risks. And it's...

Murder on Pointe by C. S. McDonald

March 21, 2019March 21, 2019 by Carol9 Comments

C. S. McDonald had a table at a craft fair my mom and I went to before Christmas, and of course, book tables always draw my attention. McDonald told us a little about her Fiona Quinn, a cozy mystery series set in Pittsburgh. Yeah, I was sold. My mom picked up the first two for me, signed, provided she could read the Christmas one (#2) after me. I was hoping to get the Christmas one read in December, but since that didn't happen I decided to go ahead and start with the first, Murder on Pointe. Fiona and her old friend, Silja, a ballerina in the show currently playing at the Benedum, go out for a bite to eat. When they get back, however, they discover that one of the other dancers has been murdered. Silja's not a suspect, but handsome Detective Landy finds out that Fiona used to be a dancer, so he convinces her to join the cast and...

Not a Creature Was Purring by Krista Davis

December 12, 2018December 14, 2018 by Carol10 Comments

This was my first visit to Wagtail, Virginia, but it is an awesome place, a perfect vacation spot to take your pets. My Secret Santa gave me Not a Creature Was Purring last year, but it took me until this December to get around to reading it. Wagtail is a perfect little pet-friendly tourist town. All the stores welcome cats and dogs, as does the inn. Dogs get to go sled-riding and pets can go to the nicest restaurant in town with their people. It really is a pet-centric town, my dog would love it. Holly Maple and her grandmother run the Sugar Maple Inn (and her grandmother is mayor of Wagtail). This year the inn is booked solid for Christmas - the only problem is that it's mostly the family of Holly's best friend/love interest's fiancee. Holly wants to be nice, but fiancee is a pretty terrible person. Thankfully, because clearly Holmes and Holly belong together. But of course, since this...

Twelve Angry Librarians by Miranda James

August 22, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

I'm late to the Cat in the Stacks series. I'm not sure that starting with Twelve Angry Librarians was really the best choice. Maybe I would have enjoyed the story more if I knew Charlie and his family and girlfriend better. And the cat was more of a conversation piece than actual character. The story was fine, just not as good as I expected based on other reviews. Charlie is interim library director and the Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding their convention at the college. When the keynote speaker is killed, it seems like everyone at the conference had a reason to hate him, including Charlie. There's lots of gossip and "we hated him but had to work with him." I don't understand how such a terrible man ended up as the keynote speaker when the audience was full of people who actively disliked him. Maybe I haven't been to enough conferences, but there was so much gossip and the one...

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

January 26, 2018January 26, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

My Kindle needed re-charged last night, so even though I really wanted to finish my current read - I'm ready to be done with it, I had to pick up something else. I'd been planning on reading On Tyranny soon, so I grabbed it off my shelf and settled in. It's a quick read, more of an essay than a full-fledged book, but full of good nuggets. Snyder opens the book with “History does not repeat, but it does instruct,” and goes on to give us 20 mini-lessons we can learn from history, most notably from the Hitler, but also from Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Putin’s Russia. The warnings and lessons are well-presented, easy to read and understand and they're important. Some quotes I want to share: "Take responsibility for what you communicate with others. (72)" "Since in the age of the internet we are all publishers, each of us bears some private responsibility for the public's sense of truth. If we...