Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Another smaller stack but not all of my requests came in at the same time.

Scent of Danger a man runs a perfume company and is in search of a child he fathered many years ago after donating sperm to a sperm bank. What do father and daughter have in common? A sensitive nose!

Crimes and Covers, the latest of the Magical Bookshop mysteries and from what I can tell it is the last of the series. Violet gets married!

Treacherous is the Night is the second Verity Kent mystery. Now back with her husband they search for a former colleague of Verity's from her clandestine work during World War One.

What Happened to the Bennetts a family is carjacked and one of them killed. The aftermath of crime and corruption. This was a bit too violent for me, I read the first few chapters and then the end. Didn't need all the mayhem in between.

Let's Not Do That Again contains a story of things that are messy, family and politics and this book has both.

The Younger Wife involves family secrets, dementia, a large stash of hidden money and a respected doctor marrying a much younger woman. Can the secret be disclosed and resolved?

 

Happy Reading.

Memorial Day

 

Honor and Remembrance 

to those who gave the 

ultimate sacrifice for our country

Mini-ManCat Monday will return.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

A short stack of books, two of which were books shipped from other libraries that I had to wait on. The last a book on the lucky day shelf.

The No-Show is a book of three women who are stood up by the same guy on Valentine's Day. A romance book and not one I wanted to read and didn't finish.

Sea of Tranquility is the latest by this author and it includes time travel, pandemic and a story that arcs over multiple centuries.

Courtiers is a book about the people who are the staff of the British Royal family. Who they are, what they do and don't do. Years ago these people stayed for years, now it seems that the jobs are revolving doors. Hire someone to do specific PR work or something like that. Then when done they are gone, or if you get pissed at them you fire them. Lots of clashing personalities.

 Happy Reading.

Mini-ManCat Monday

You know it's time to shave your legs when the cat uses them for scratching behind its ears.

I don't do that, mum doesn't have scratchy hairs! She tries to make sure she looks good. 

Mum stayed home this past weekend. No trips, no racy cars, just hanging out with me. I sit on her and purr, she reads her books or watches the moving picture box.  It was a nice weekend, the windows are open and nice warm breezes coming in the house.

 Me sitting on mum, making sure she gets her rest. She was bizzy getting her outside new flowers planted. It didn't take her long, she didn't buy that much. Just enuf for the planters.

 So once that was done mum got out her leftover yarns and started to crow-shay and make hats. It doesn't take her long to make a hat.

All this snoopervising makes me tired. I needed a nap! I could still be near mum but not having to actually keep my eyes on her!

 Have a wonderful week everyone. 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Getting back on track to reading this week. Busy with a few things and out of town, tip toeing through tulips in Holland Michigan. A friend and I took a three day bus tour to see the tulips and all the other stuff going on for their tulip festival. By the end I was tulip'd out!

A few of my favorites, the number matches the little catalog you get so you can record what you like and then order them. I do need more tulips in my yard!

 The three pictures below are about half of what the farm had planted. Left, ahead and to the right of me. If I remember right they have about a million tulips planted here each  year.

Found this first one the lucky day shelf when in the library for trivia night. It was on my list of books I wanted to read so I picked it up.

During the years 1986-1991 Newman sat down to do extensive recorded interviews with the intent to write a memoir. Also interviewed were family, friends and colleagues. He then shelved the idea, had the audio tapes destroyed. After his death in 2008 over 14,000 pages of transcripts of these interviews were discovered, in the past couple of years also. Then the material sat until his daughters looked to get a publishing deal. FYI, wife Joanne Woodward is still living but has Alzheimer's since 2007. Interesting reading and I have met him back in the 1980's when he would race at Road America.

A View to a Kilt the latest Liss MacCrimmons mystery. A dead man is found in her backyard. It turns out to be her uncle, whom she believed to have been killed in Vietnam before she was even born. Where has he been for 50+ years and why was he back now in his hometown?

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, author tells of her journey with her husband who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and who chose to have accompanied suicide in Zurich Switzerland. The book doesn't make it clear but both parties were in their 60's when this happened.

Finding Me a memoir by Viola Davis. A memoir by the EGOT winner, she concentrates more on her early life and not as much on her later professional life. What occurs in her life to give her the drive to be a successful actor.

The Candy House was a story I couldn't get into, so I didn't finish the book. I guess it is a follow-up to another book which I hadn't read. Bounced around a lot with characters.

The Lioness is a bit of a thriller and page turner. Set in November 1964 a Hollywood star and her new husband go on a safari honeymoon with some friends. Add in some Russian kidnappers and lots of chaos. Each chapter is written in the eyes of one of the main characters. They advance the narrative and reflect back on how their lives have been and how the people know each other.

Portrait of a Thief five Chinese American college students are recruited to help return, by whatever means necessary, five priceless works of Chinese art that were looted or stolen from China by the West. Can these five use their varied skills to complete this tasks? Can they succeed? Will they succeed? What will this mean for their futures? An intriguing tale of art heists and history. 

Happy Reading.

Mini-ManCat Monday

Cats instinctively know the exact moment their owners will wake up. Then they wake them 10 minutes sooner.

HA! I'll show mum today and wake her up early. Heck she got up really early on Friday morning. It was still way dark and then she left me for ages and ages! Something like 60 hours in a row!

Not to worry, Auntie Kellie came over to give me love and make sure I was all fed. She even took a couple of selfies with me!

 Mum got back on Sunday night, she was off chasing tulips. Lots and lots of tulips in the mitten state. Here are just a few of the rows upon rows of flowers, some of the ones mum liked best. She might order some to plant in our yard.

The number identifies the tulip to order.

Plus she got to see lots of these things. Mum says they are windmills. 

This one is the real thing. It got brought over from Holland to Holland and it still is used for milling grain. They did make one change, the area on the bottom is brick to keep the windmill from rotting since the place where it is is wet. 

Anyway, super happy mum is home. I sat on her and purred lots when she got here. 

Have a happy week.

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Yes, only one check out, a book that I had requested finally came in. Newly released, back in February, book of the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series. 

Some knife attacks that are seemingly and strangely related. Usually I can figure out the perpetrator, but not in this case. Kept me guessing. Plus the other characters are getting fleshed out, relationship, families etc. Makes for better rounded characters.

The bad thing? It will be 12-18 months, maybe longer before the next book will be out. There are now 19 books in this series. I started reading them in early 2021 at a clip up about one a month until I caught up with them all. 

During all of the coronation stuff they mentioned that Camilla has a new website for reading. The Queen's Reading Room same format it appears as before when it was the Duchess of Cornwall Reading Room.

Happy Reading.

Mini-ManCat Monday

A cat is a tiger that is fed by hand. -  Vakaoka Genrin 

Mum has used up all of one of her files with cat quotes. So on to the next file. This file has 25 pages of stuff, so I don't think we will run out. 

King Chuckie the Three got crowned on Caturday. Mum recorded it and watched it at a sensible hour.

Caturday was Derby Day too, for the horsies to run. Plus yesterday would have been Derby's 18th gotcha day. We miss the big guy.  

We didn't get any white stuff falling from the sky last week and then later in the week it actually got nice enuf to have open windows. Yipee. Although as it gets warmer mum doesn't do much crow-shay but she needs to finish this last blankie. You can see I am trying to help by sitting on her!

Plus we did lots of fevver watching this past week. Still waiting for the hummers, but our orinch orioles and rose breasted grosbeaks showed up. Mum got new pics.

With all the moving picture box watching and fevver watching I need a nice long nap!

Have a good week everyone.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

 A slightly larger stack.This one has a few authors who are new to me. So checking them out.

Flipped for Murder is the first book of a series. Single woman comes to an area, sets up her business and is then accused of murder. Of course, then helping to bring the true culprit to justice. I have read so many books like this that I don't intend to read the rest of the series.

Fatal Facinator is the latest installment in the Hat Shop Mysteries. Invited to a wedding in a castle with a ghost, our hat makers need to figure out why a member of the wedding party dies.

Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-Kings Daughter a newer series from Simon Brett, the two main characters are brother and sister with strange nicknames! They are the son and daughter of a duke and someone has the audacity to kill a person invited to a dinner party given by their mother. Set in the 1920s, I found the story to be cute, but the way it was written was hard to read. No going to read the later books in the series.

In A Dark, Dark Wood new author to me and this was her first book. A psychological thriller, page turner. Set in the UK a small group goes to a remote cottage for a hen party (bachelorette). One of the invitees hasn't seen the bride in ten years and wonders why she was invited. Within 48 hours people are dead. Why and who done it?

The Haunting of Maddy Clare set shortly after World War One, Sarah joins two veterans who are out to investigate a ghost or haunting. It seems the ghost likes Sarah and is willing to communicate through her since the ghost hates men. Will they figure out why Maddy Clare is haunting the area and why she hates men?

A Study in Murder is the first book of the Victorian Book Club Mysteries series. Our heroine writes murder mysteries under a pen name. When her fiancé is killed, oh, make that ex-fiancé, she is the main suspect. So she has to use her sleuthing skills to find a real murderer.

Ghost At Work I didn't get into this one. Author is one of the long winded description type who I can't abide. Premise is that the person solving the crime is a ghost. Didn't even get through the first chapter!

The Plantagenets is a book on the early kings and queens of England from 1120 to 1399. Including people like Richard the Lionheart, Eleanor of Aquitaine, King John of Magna Carta fame. Also how much of the territory they ruled in these early years was actually in what is now modern western France due to holdings of Aquitaine, Normandy and other places. Lots of wars, infighting, intrigue, mayhem and murder. Also how much time they didn't spend in England too. The age of crusades, chivalry, Thomas Becket, the Black Death Author is a historian of the Middle Ages and has additional books that continue the saga of the English rulers.

Well actually I do have a few fancy bookmarks, but I rarely use them. One was a gift, the other I bought cuz it had a kitty on it that reminded me of Ducky.

 Happy Reading.