Blueberry Muffin Murder

Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke
Cozy Mystery
Lake Eden, Minn. is celebrating its first winter carnival. There are sports and activities for the children including hot chocolate and cookies from Hannah's shop, The Cookie Jar. Connie Mac the celebrity cook is coming also.

 The mayor charges Hannah to escort Connie Mac around town but Hannah sees a whole other side to the 'sweet on TV' star. She is condescending, conniving and downright nasty. And she is found dead right in Hannah's kitchen! Since she was abusive to almost all of her staff there are a lot of suspects.

 Hannah's mother seems to be kept busy in this book recreating an historic home instead of trying to marry Hannah off. Hannah gets to spend more time with her sister and the development of their relationship is wonderful.

Another cozy mystery which was a nice comfy read
First Line: "Hannah Swensen awoke to a curious sensation."
Rating:
(3.5/5)

Ishmael

The Analyst by John Katzenbach

The Analyst by John Katzenbach
Thriller

Dr. Ricky Starks is a psychoanalyst. His life is very predictable, always taking the same patients, walks, vacations at the same time. His wife passed away from cancer a few years ago so it's just him. On his 53rd birthday he gets a note saying that unless he finds out who sent him that note, he needs to commit suicide in 15 days or his relatives will start to get picked off. There are a few rules to the game and a lady named Virgil is sent to help "guide him to the gates of Hell" but other than that he is completely on his own to figure this out.

The game moves fairly quickly, since Ricky has only 15 days, but it gets more and more cruel which leaves you wondering why anyone would go to such trouble to try and destroy one person. The question isn't just if Ricky can figure out who is doing this to him, but what he is going to do once he finds out.

This was a captivating thriller that got even more interesting half way through the book when the book gives a twist. I'm not sure what Dr. Starks would say about the fact that I enjoyed reading about revenge. By the end of the novel though, I still wasn't sure why what happened was enough to drive the "bad guy" to ruin a whole bunch of people's lives.

First Line: "In the year he fully expected to die, he spent the majority of his fifty-third birthday as he did most other days, listening to people complain about their mothers."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Miracle at Speedy Motors

The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
Genre of book

This is another enjoyable comfort read from Alexander McCall Smith.

Mma Ramotswe finds herself trying to find the family for a woman who does not know anything about them. Mma Rakutsi and her fiance buy a heart shaped bed . Meanwhile Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni listens to a doctor who promises a miracle cure for his adopted daughter. Mma Ramotswe does not believe the doctor but lets her husband find his own way and deals with the outcomes.

Although I felt the mystery part of this book weaker then others in the series the stories were better. Mma Ramotswe is so compassionate and knows exactly how to deal with her family members. As for the heart-shaped bed, it provided some wonderful comic relief.

Love this series!!

First Line: "The correct address of precious Ramotswe, Botswana's foremost solver of problems - in the sense that this was where she could be found between eight in the morning and five in the afternoon, except when she was not there - was The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, c/o Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, Gaborone, Botswana."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Moon Tiger

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Fiction/Literature

A most interesting book about Claudia as she tells the world's history according to Claudia. Claudia is lying in a bed in a nursing home close to death. She starts with her childhood, proceeds to her war correspondence days in Egypt during WWII and finishes off at the present.

Claudia talks about her brother and worthy adversary, Gordon, her untrustworthy lover, Jasper, her staid and conventional daughter, Lisa and her great love, Tom. Claudia has little patience for people she deems unworthy.

This book is extremely well written and I found the passage about Egypt in WWII to be particularly interesting. Claudia reminds me of an old aunt who likes to keep everyone on their toes.

First Line: "_"

Rating:
(3.5/5)

for one more day

for one more day by Mitch Albom
Fiction/Literature

Chick Benetto has had a troubled life. His father, in his childhood, had told him to be either a father's or mother's boy and to chose. He chose his father only to have him leave when he was eleven. Chick's mother struggled to raise her son but Chick never really knew her and blamed her for his father's absence.

Charley (Chick) has hit the bottom of the barrel with a life of neglect and alcohol. The final straw is being left out of his daughter's wedding. He drives to his hometown to commit suicide but can't even do that right.

He goes back to the old house when he once lived to discover his mother who had died eight years ago doing her regular routine. This gives him one more day to right wrongs and understand himself.

This is a short story which I found okay. There is a small twist which I didn't suspect and raised the story from ho hum to okay.

First Line: "Let me guess."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Wickett's Remedy

Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg
Historical Fiction

Lydia Kilkenny is a South Bostonian Irish. She dreams of better things and gets a shopgirl's job in a downtown department store. Soon Henry Wickett is buying things in the men's department and hanging around.

Lydia and Henry marry and Lydia seems to be on the way up. She has married into a Boston Brahmin family and Henry is in medical school. Henry becomes disenchanted with medical school and quits. He asks Lydia to come up with a formula for a remedy that he can sell along with an encouraging letter which will cure a person's ills. Henry takes on a partner, Quentin Driscoll, when pharmacies wish to stock his product.

Then the 1918 influenza epidemic hits and Henry dies. Quentin basically steals the formula which becomes QD soda and makes himself a pile of money while Lydia is submerged in her grief. Lydia volunteers at a hospital which is overrun with victims of the epidemic. She ends up working as a nurse on an island with an experimental ward. The doctors there are studying how the disease is transmitted.

There are two parallel stories: that of the influenza and that of the soda. Both were interesting and one wonders how much of the soda story is factual. Also included were margin notes. I found these notes made the story more personal and at times a little amusing.

First Line: "On D street there was no need for alarm clocks: the drays, ever punctual, were an army storming the gates of sleep."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Teen

(Spoilers from the first two books)
The final book in the Hunger Games trilogy sees Katniss rescued from another Hunger Games in an attempt by District 13, which everyone thought didn't exist, to overthrow the Capital. The problem is that Peeta was taken by the Capital and Katniss feels completely responsible. District 13 wants her to be the mockingjay and the face of the revolution against the Capital. It doesn't take Katniss long to decide when she sees Peeta show up multiple times on Capital television looking worse and worse. Only one person knows what she's going through, a previous victor who also made it out of the last Hunger Games, Finnick. As they commiserate with each other, District 13 is crafting a plan of how to capture the Capital and Katniss wants President Snow for herself.

The relationship development in this book was great and I would have liked to see it a bit more in the second book. I really enjoyed Finnick, once we got to know him and liked seeing Prim grow in to her own as well. Though not as captivating as the first two books, this still rounded out the series quite nicely. I don't think I fully understood Katniss' final decision of the Hunger Games. Was it for revenge or to save herself from Coin? This was a fabulous story and books I will be keeping in my collection!

First Line: "I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Teen

Spoilers from the first book!
Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire, has survived the arena of the Hunger Games only to be forced on a victory tour with the threat that if she can't make people believe that she loves Peeta, bad things are going to start to happen. Still not entirely sure of her feelings for him, she knows she has to do this because her loved ones are in danger, including her family and Gale. With the Quarter Quell coming up, an even more horrific Hunger Games, Katniss adds to her worries of being a mentor for some other poor children. But when the rules suddenly change, Katniss struggles to figure out how to protect her and her loved ones while determining if she should be for or against the murmurs of uprising against the Capital.

Katniss is such a strong female character but has some obvious flaws which make her such a refreshing character to read about. Some times her reaction to situations annoys me but no character is perfect. I simply couldn't put this book down. I enjoyed book 2 more than book 1 as there was a good mixture of tension with the Capital and another Hunger Games. This was a great second book to the series and I think it'll make an even better movie than the first one.

First Line: "I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached in to the frozen air."

Rating:
(5/5)

Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb

Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb
Mystery

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is back from a relaxing holiday and surprisingly isn't swamped with work. With her aide, Peabody, she opens a cold case and hands it over to Peabody to try and solve. This is Peabody's first case and she's surprised and nervous about solving it. She doesn't get much time when a man is murdered in the middle of his birthday party by poisoning his drink. Dallas knows this M.O. and learns that the person responsible was just released from prison and has started killing again. Setting out to find her, once again puts Dallas' husband Roarke in the way.

I used to have a problem with this set of books always having Dallas find who the killer was by herself and in a dangerous situation. It seems that now Robb likes putting Roarke in the danger seat and I'm getting a bit tired of that too. I believe this is the third or forth book where Roarke has been put in danger simply because Dallas is on officer on the case. This is hardly realistic and is a predictive way of Robb adding tension to the book.

That complaint aside, Robb does a great job of capturing the reader's interest. I breezed through this book and enjoyed it, though you'd think that Eve and Roarke would stop having the same old argument again. Peabody's parents came to visit which added some entertainment to the book. Hopefully we see them again some time in the other books in the series.

First Line: "Murder was work."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Haunted

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Horror

Haunted is a set of 23 short stories interwoven around a theme. Writers have answered an ad for a retreat. Once there they are locked in and the host withholds heat and food. Now the stories get weird as each of the writers tries to suffer more than the next to make themselves the 'star'.

I am not a fan of short stories and still am not. I have read some of Palahniuk's other works and enjoyed them. Not so here. These were just disgusting and vile. Evidently people have fainted at readings. I do not think I would but I would probably walk out as these stories seemed only to be revolting with no other substance. If you want to read horrifying sick shit with no purpose other than to be sickening, be my guest.

First Line: "This was supposed to be a writers' retreat."

Rating:
(3.0/5)