Books books books...
I'll do the easy ones first...
Death at Buckingham Palace by C.C. Benson; a little hard to read until I got into the swing of the British/Canadian English the author was using, but an entertaining read involving QEII as a bit of an amateur sleuth, albeit vicariously through one of the Buckingham Palace maids.
Check-Out Time by Kate Kingsbury; it's odd to read earlier books in the series when I know things that happened later, but still an entertaining story.
The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross; it is very entertaining to read books set not only in a particular time period but also written in that time period. The Kate Fansler mysteries by Cross are set and written in the 70s in NYC, so the speech patterns are different, the habits are different; many things are different. People are still people, though, so mysteries (but in this case, not murder, not really) still happen. I think it might be time to collect Amanda Cross books.
Fonduing Fathers by Julie Hyzy; another fun and slightly different White House mystery, in which one of the characters discovers things about her father that turn up to impact national security.
Chocolate Covered Murder by Leslie Meier; fluff but entertaining. At least it seems that her heroine is starting to be a little less of a doormat to her husband and kids, but maybe it's just because I didn't read a ton of these all at once. When I did that I got annoyed with her. And watch out for chocolate; it doesn't make a good substance to go swimming in.
The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister
I am blissfully baffled at how two books by the same author can be at once so strikingly similar and yet so delightfully different. The Lost Art of Mixing and The School of Essential Ingredients are both by Erica Bauermeister, both include some of the same characters, and both revolve around food. Yet...there's a slightly darker, slightly bittersweet flavor to Mixing that didn't seem to be in School. The language is still beautiful (EB has simply wonderful turns of phrase) but there's a very different tone to the story. Food is still present, but in a different way than it was in School. I also knew I wouldn't want to come out of the book and I didn't. I still haven't read Joy for Beginners because I know I won't want to put it down. I made the mistake of starting Mixing when I needed to not be immersed in a story. (Darn that whole having to work thing.) Again, though, I find myself eagerly anticipating whatever story Ms. Bauermeister chooses to publish next. And as with School, which I reread just before reading Mixing, I can see myself reading Mixing roughly once a year. In spite of - or perhaps because of - the differences, I liked it very much.
Death at Buckingham Palace by C.C. Benson; a little hard to read until I got into the swing of the British/Canadian English the author was using, but an entertaining read involving QEII as a bit of an amateur sleuth, albeit vicariously through one of the Buckingham Palace maids.
Check-Out Time by Kate Kingsbury; it's odd to read earlier books in the series when I know things that happened later, but still an entertaining story.
The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross; it is very entertaining to read books set not only in a particular time period but also written in that time period. The Kate Fansler mysteries by Cross are set and written in the 70s in NYC, so the speech patterns are different, the habits are different; many things are different. People are still people, though, so mysteries (but in this case, not murder, not really) still happen. I think it might be time to collect Amanda Cross books.
Fonduing Fathers by Julie Hyzy; another fun and slightly different White House mystery, in which one of the characters discovers things about her father that turn up to impact national security.
Chocolate Covered Murder by Leslie Meier; fluff but entertaining. At least it seems that her heroine is starting to be a little less of a doormat to her husband and kids, but maybe it's just because I didn't read a ton of these all at once. When I did that I got annoyed with her. And watch out for chocolate; it doesn't make a good substance to go swimming in.
The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister
I am blissfully baffled at how two books by the same author can be at once so strikingly similar and yet so delightfully different. The Lost Art of Mixing and The School of Essential Ingredients are both by Erica Bauermeister, both include some of the same characters, and both revolve around food. Yet...there's a slightly darker, slightly bittersweet flavor to Mixing that didn't seem to be in School. The language is still beautiful (EB has simply wonderful turns of phrase) but there's a very different tone to the story. Food is still present, but in a different way than it was in School. I also knew I wouldn't want to come out of the book and I didn't. I still haven't read Joy for Beginners because I know I won't want to put it down. I made the mistake of starting Mixing when I needed to not be immersed in a story. (Darn that whole having to work thing.) Again, though, I find myself eagerly anticipating whatever story Ms. Bauermeister chooses to publish next. And as with School, which I reread just before reading Mixing, I can see myself reading Mixing roughly once a year. In spite of - or perhaps because of - the differences, I liked it very much.