Now or Never

 Thirty-One on the Run by Janet Evanovich. 2024. A Good one and her apartment doesn't get firebombed.

Cup of Holiday Fear

 A Bakeshop Mystery, no. 10 by Ellie Alexander. 2019. The Bookshop.mysteries are "Delicious" -RT Book reviews. "Marvelous" -Fresh Fiction. "Charming" -Kirkus Reviews. Filled with the descriptions of a busy holiday  madhouse at Torte, a bakeshop in Ashland, Oregon, this is a fun cozy mystery for the Christmas Season. It was a fast read that left me interested in more of this series. 

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

 By Mannie Murphy. 2021 Published by Fantagraphics. YouTube Book Launch: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden with Mannie Murphy and Stephen R. Bissette. A live conversation on March 23, 2021. Posted by Fantagraphics.

Highest Duty

 My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. With Jeffrey Zaslow. 2009.

Sometimes you find a really good book that you want to share with everybody. This book is it. The best I've read in a long time.

Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy, the movie

 Watched it again. Loved it. Loved seeing some of the same actors, and some new ones. Highly recommended! I also love the music.

One Poison Pie

 By Lynn Cahoon. A Kitchen Witch Mystery. 2021

Chili Cauldron Curse

 By Lynn Cahoon. A Kitchen Witch Mystery. 2020

Honeymoon with Murder

 Death on Demand mystery by Carolyn Hart. 1988. Narrated by Kate Redding.

The God of the Woods

 By Liz Moore. 2024. Literary Mystery. Historical Fiction. Police Procedural. Her other books are The Words of Every Song, Heft, The Unseen World, and Long Bright River.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

 By Helen Fielding. Book 2 of the Bridget Jones series. 1999

Spent my birthday night watching Bridget Jones's Diary

 The end to a perfect day. Sunny and 55 degrees. Went to lunch with my brother and his friend. Many phone visits over the course of the day. Received a birthday surprise from my sister. And calls from all my siblings.

Bridget Jones's Diary

 By Helen Fielding. 1996. Brought in the chick-lit genre to fiction. First read in the Independent in the UK.

Killer Pancake

 By Diane Mott Davidson. A Goldy Schulz mystery, book 5. 1995. Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat on the LibbyApp.

Peach Clobbered

 By Anna Gerard, a pseudonym used by Diane A. S. Stuckart. 2019. Georgia B&B Mystery, book 1

The Confession Club

 By Elizabeth Berg. 2019. Book 3 of the Mason series. A re-read for me, but this time I listened to the audio version. Narrated by Elizabeth Berg, the author. Accessed by the library through the Libby app.

The Year of Pleasures

 By Elizabeth Berg. 2005 This is a revisit of a novel I read years ago. It seems more relevant now that I can relate as a widow. It is the story of a middle-aged woman who decided to move to the Midwest as soon as her husband passes away from cancer. She drives into a small town in the end of October and buys the first house she sees. The friends she makes provide the story with interesting observations. 

The Woman in Me

 By Britney Spears.2023. This is a sad story of how Britney's family locked her up and spent her money. It's hard to believe this could go on in our society. I'm glad she got free. And everything she did while under the "conservancy" was just so she could see her kids. i only wish her love.

Bury Your Dead

 A Chief Inspector Gamache mystery by Louise Penny. 2010

2010 Agatha Award for best novel

2011 Anthony Award for best novel

2011 Macavity Award for best novel

2011 Dilys Award for best book

i gave up Louise Penny when I read The Brutal Telling. But this one was like part 2 of that novel. I'm glad I read this, and at this time of year. We're in the middle of a cold snap, with snow. I always like to read about snow-themed stories in the middle of winter. This story took place in Three Pines and Quebec City. There was a lot of history in this novel,  especially Canadian history. This is a good read it you like detailed description in your story. I liked the characters, especially the character of Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the second in command. Gamache sends Beauvoir to Three Pines to investigate a previous crime while Gamache himself is in Quebec City. This past Christmas I gifted a new Louise Penny novel to my daughter's boyfriend. He was set to travel to Toronto for a couple of weeks. I hope he took it along and enjoyed it. Maybe this one would have been better. 

Lady in the Lake

 By Laura Lippman. 2019

Reading Up a Storm

 A Lighthouse Library Mystery. Book 2 by Eva Gates. 2016

By Book or By Crook

 A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates. 2012

The Many Lives of Mama Love

 A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin. An Oprah's Book Club choice. 2023. I didn't want to read this book. It was a book club choice. After I started it, I put it down and re-read " Cereal Murders" by Diane Mott Davidson, only this time I read the Large Print edition after I listened to the audio. Lara Love Hardin narrated the audio of her book. I finished it after our book discussion meeting. We couldn't relate. But sometimes that's why we read books. To understand other points of view and expand our compassion. I don't want to understand heroin addiction. I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid of drug adfiction. I'm afraid of drug addicts, because I'm afraid of the actions of drug addicts. Her story tries to help others have compassion. I understand that people need a second chance. I'm glad that Lara Love Hardin was given a second chance. But that's because I'm a reader, a lover of books, and books are her saving grace. I can relate to that. I can accept her value for her ability to write. I need to accept her for her value as a human being, someone with flaws who has a right to live, a right to being human on this planet. Just as I need to accept all people who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

2025