These past six months or so, I’ve really been getting a lot of use out of my library card. Ever since I signed up for Library Elf, that wonderful service that sends out reminder emails about books coming due or overdue, I’ve even managed to keep my library fines down to a minimum (you don’t want to know about the arm and the leg I paid to my library before I discovered Library Elf – and I have no excuse, not really, because there’s a branch of the library within a few blocks of my house).

(If you’re not using Library Elf, I definitely recommend you check it out and see if your library is listed with them.)

I discovered a few months ago that my library offers monthly newsletters that feature their latest acquisitions in a variety of genres. I’ve signed up for several of these newsletters, and always look forward to getting these emails – I’m always sure to add a few more holds to my library account.

Yesterday came with a flurry of these emails. The books listed in them aren’t necessarily new releases – often they are just “new to us” acquisitions. And of course, I placed several holds!

The Crossroads, by Chris Grabenstein. I’m not sure why this showed up in the new books for teens newsletter, actually, as I’d already borrowed it once previously (but then got stuck under an avalanche of deadlines and had to return it unread). It’s by Chris Grabenstein, who writes the John Ceepak mystery series for adults, which I really enjoy.

Zack, his dad, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father’s hometown, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took 40 innocent lives….

The Brightest Star in the Sky, by Marian Keyes. I think I’ve read one Keyes novel in the past – I seem to remember I enjoyed it. The storyline in The Brightest Star in the Sky sounded very intriguing. Since Keyes is such a popular author, it will be a while before I get my hands on this one.

The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives.

But what will this metamorphosis be and who will the sprite choose? There’s Matt and Maeve, the newlyweds struggling to overcome the first obstacle in their storybook romance; Lydia, the brassy but vulnerable cabbie; Katie, the just-turned-forty PR executive searching for a more gratifying life; and the eldest resident, Jemima, currently playing hostess to her son Fionn, who is in town to star as the hunky gardener in a hot new television show.

The Book of Tomorrow, by Cecelia Ahern. I haven’t read Ahern’s P.S. I Love You, but I did enjoy the movie (much more so the second time around, when I knew what had happened – I think I went through a whole box of tissue paper that time). The Book of Tomorrow sounds quite interesting:

Tamara Goodwin has always got everything she’s ever wanted. Born into a family of wealth, she grew up in a mansion with its own private beach, a wardrobe full of designer clothes, a large four poster bed complete with a luxurious bathroom en-suite. She’s always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. But then suddenly her dad is gone and life for Tamara and her mother changes forever. Left with a mountain of debt, they have no choice but to sell everything they own and move to the country to live with Tamara’s Uncle and Aunt. Nestled next to Kilsaney Castle, their gatehouse is a world away from Tamara’s childhood. With her mother shut away with grief, and her aunt busy tending to her, Tamara is lonely and bored and longs to return to Dublin. When a travelling library passes through Kilsaney Demesne, Tamara is intrigued. She needs a distraction. Her eyes rest on a mysterious large leather bound tome locked with a gold clasp and padlock. With some help, Tamara finally manages to open the book. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

Murder at Longbourn, by Tracy Kiely. I couldn’t resist this cozy-sounding murder mystery, although on reading the summary, I’m not sure where Jane Austen comes into play …

A die-hard fan of Jane Austen novels and the traditional English mystery, Tracy Kiely has combined elements of both for this truly delightful and witty debut. Planning New Year’s resolutions to rid her life of all things unhealthy, Elizabeth Parker has dumped fatty foods, processed sugar, and her two-timing boyfriend. Indeed, the invitation to join her Aunt Winnie for a How to Host a Murder Party on New Year’s Eve at Winnie’s new Cape Cod B and B comes just in time. But when the local wealthy miser ends up the unscripted victim, Elizabeth must unearth old secrets and new motives in order to clear her beloved aunt of suspicion.

The Taken, by Inger Ash Wolfe. This is the sequel to The Calling, which I haven’t read yet either – a copy of The Calling is available on the shelves, so I’m going to get a hold of it and get it read before this hold on The Taken comes my way. It was actually the summary of The Calling that made me decide to give this series a try.

From The Calling:

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas, Ontario and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her mother (the former mayor) and her own sharp tongue to buoy her. But when a terminally ill woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. And as one terminally ill victim after another is found, Hazel finds herself tracking a truly terrifying serial killer while everything around her spins out of control.

Through the cacophony of her bickering staff, her unsupportive superiors, a clamoring press, the town’s rumor mill, and her own nagging doubts, Hazel can sense the dead trying to call out. Will she hear them before it’s too late?

From The Taken:

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is having a bad year. After major back surgery, she has no real option but to move into her ex-husband’s basement and suffer the humiliation of his new wife bringing her meals down on a tray. As if that weren’t enough, Hazel’s octogenarian mother secretly flushes Hazel’s stash of painkillers down the toilet.

It’s almost a relief when Hazel gets a call about a body fished up by tourists in one of the lakes near Port Dundas. But what raises the hair on the back of Micallef ’s neck is that the local paper has just published the first installment of a serialized story featuring such a scenario. Even before they head out to the lake with divers to recover the body, she and DC James Wingate, leading the police detachment in Micallef ’s absence, know they are being played. But it’s not clear who is pulling their strings and why, nor is what they find at the lake at all what they expected. It’s Micallef herself who is snared, caught up in a cryptic game devised by someone who knows how to taunt her into opening a cold case, someone who knows that nothing will stop her investigation.

Don’t you love placing holds on books at your library? I like adding to my holds list – it’s like having a guarantee that I’ll always have something good to read. If I’m lucky, the books trickle in at a nice, steady pace … (if I’m not so lucky, I come home with 20+ books and no time to read them all!)

I’m done with this most recent clump of deadlines! I don’t think I’ve worked at quite a pace like this for a long while – it’s been three to four weeks of fourteen hour days. I am very, very thankful for my audiobooks – I think they kept me sane in the midst of all those deadlines.

Audiobook Treasure Trove

I was lucky enough to come down with a head cold for Christmas and Boxing Day, so I had a grand time those two days: I got to loll around while everyone took care of me, and to top it off, on Christmas Day, I discovered a virtual audiobook treasure chest! I spent most of Christmas Day and Boxing Day lying on the couch, listening to some great audiobooks and snacking on the most delicious foods.

If you live in Ontario, you might be able to take advantage of this audiobook treasure chest yourself. The Ontario Library Service Download Centre is available to all library patrons of participating Ontario libraries, and it is just wonderful. There are loads of audiobooks available for download, much like you would for Audible. The files are deleted at the end of your checkout period, but you can checkout each audiobook for one or two weeks, which is nice.

So far, in the past two weeks, I’ve listened to Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent, Ellen Degeneres’ The Funny Thing Is, The Green Witch and The Grey King from Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, and The Bunnicula Collection by James and Deborah Howe.

Other Listens

Over the past three weeks, I also enjoyed the audio versions of Reginald Hill’s The Price of Butcher’s Meat (I listened to the British version, which is called A Cure for All Diseases) and Exit Lines. I’d already read A Cure for All Diseases earlier last year and loved it (my review is here) – it translated superbly into audio.

I also played several Agatha Christie audios while I was working – I find I can do “rereads” in audio, as well as memoirs and nonfiction, while I’m working; I somehow have the ability to follow along while getting my work done at the same time. Audiobooks don’t work well for work if they’re audios of books I haven’t read yet, though.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates and The Big Four helped me get through a lot of otherwise tedious work, so I’m very thankful for them!

And finally, I listened to Rex Stout’s Curtains for Three, a trilogy of three Nero Wolfe novellas. I must admit, the first few times I listened to audiobook renditions of Nero Wolfe novels, I had a hard time getting used to the narrator, Michael Pritchard, because he didn’t sound quite like I always imagined Archie Goodwin would sound. But Pritchard’s voice has grown on me, and now my idea of Archie Goodwin sounds exactly like him! I like the way that worked out.

Coming Up

Thanks to the Ontario Library Service Download Centre, I have some more goodies waiting for my hearing pleasure this coming week:

About Face, by Donna Leon. I’ve been wanting to read a Commissario Guido Brunetti book for a while, and since this one was available for checkout, I decided to give it a try. I only just started listening to it last night, and it promises to be a good story.

Silver on the Tree, by Susan Cooper. This is the final book in The Dark is Rising series. The version I have is narrated by Alex Jennings, and I started listening to a bit of it yesterday as well. I’m looking forward to finishing my reread of the series in audio.

So Long as You Both Shall Live, by Ed McBain. This is my first 87th Precinct mystery; it’s a little bit challenging keeping track of all the names in audio, and the story line behind this one isn’t quite to my taste, but I will definitely be looking into reading more of the 87th Precinct series.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson. I’ve had Bryson’s memoir on my shelf for ages; when I saw it was available at the OLS Download Centre, I decided to check it out, as I really enjoy listening to memoirs in audio.

And from my local library:

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. The audio version of The Thirteenth Tale came highly recommended – I seem to recall lots of people recommending it on Google Wave. So I thought I’d take the plunge and give it a first read in audio instead of in print.

I recently bought the following, which are waiting for me to get to them:

The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan. This is Book 1 of the Wheel of Time series – I began reading the series ages ago, but stopped at around Book 6 or 7. I recently received a review copy of the final book in the series, The Gathering Storm, which is written by Brandon Sanderson based on Robert Jordan’s extensive notes, so I thought it would be a good thing to reread the series. I’ve had so much luck with rereads in audio, I decided to give the audio version a try.

Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris. I have the first seven books in paperback, but haven’t read the Sookie Stackhouse series at all; a while back, I decided to give the first book a try in audio. I haven’t found myself in the mood for it yet, but I know I will soon – from what everyone’s been telling me, I’ll probably be hooked once I give it a try!

I also have two Audible credits to spend, and I’m thinking I’ll probably splurge on more Rex Stout and Reginald Hill.

So there you have it – audiobooks have managed to keep me on the reading track even while I was submerged up to my neck in deadlines! And yes, I’ve been feeling like a kid in a candy store …

Coming up this week: my giveaway winners! No, I haven’t forgotten about my giveaway. The winners post will be coming soon.

Photo credit

I’ve finally pared down my vacation reading list – room is limited, unfortunately, so I had to be very selective. Here’s what I’ll be taking with me on holidays.

Print books:

Audiobooks:

Ebooks:

I’m probably not going to be able to read all of these books, but I figure I’ll have something for nearly every reading mood that strikes me.

What’s on your reading list this summer?

I normally post this as “What’s Up Saturday”, but yesterday kind of flew by really quickly, especially since I was behind on the big giveaways post.

Deadline Alley

I’m heading into Deadline Alley over the next ten days – I have five deadlines to lay to rest and I’d like to get everything finished by next Wednesday. That will leave me a day to help my husband pack for our road trip, get our housesitter settled in, make sure there’s enough pet food on hand to feed the assortment of pets and well, just de-stress a little so I’ll enjoy the 19 hour drive to the beautiful shores of Nova Scotia!

Currently Listening

This past week I’ve been really enjoying listening to Tilt-a-Whirl, by Chris Grabenstein. It’s the first book in a mystery series about part-time beach resort town cop Danny Boyle and his partner, John Ceepak; Beth F. recommended the audio version of the series to me, and I am very grateful (if you love audiobooks, check out Beth F’s blog; she always has great suggestions). The narrator of the series, Jeff Woodman, has now been added to my own personal list of great audiobook narrators (joining Lorelei King, who narrates Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, Hugh Fraser, for his narration of the Agatha Christie novels, and Jim Dale, narrator of the Harry Potter series).

I’ve been actively on the look-out for good audios primarily because of the 19 hour drive (I can’t read in a car, unfortunately); the other day on Twitter Miriam Parker from Hachette Books suggested that I give Bill Bryson a try, and ever since then I’ve been walking around the house sounding rather demented because every now and then I’ll give out a big burst of laughter. Listening to Bill Bryson in audio will do that to you.

Right now, I’m listening to Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself; my version is actually called Notes From a Big Country, which you can buy at Amazon UK. Notes From a Big Country has eight more essays than I’m a Stranger Here Myself (I have both titles in trade paperback, so I counted); otherwise, they contain much the same essays (I didn’t do a title-by-title check, though).

If you have an Audible membership, you’ll be getting Notes From a Big Country if you go for the unabridged version; unfortunately, Bill Bryson only reads the abridged version, but William Roberts, the narrator of the unabridged version, does a pretty good job. This listen is, obviously, a “reread” for me (since I ended up buying both versions of the book, it would be pretty sad if it wasn’t!); Bill Bryson’s books are brilliant and very funny reads whether you get them in print or in audio.

This Week: No Picture, but a Video

Rather sharing a picture from my life this week, I wanted to share the following video, called Validation. I discovered it at my dear friend Bethie’s blog, Simply Blessed. It’s a long video – 16 minutes – but I guarantee, if you have the time, and you’d like something to give you a bit of a lift and put a smile on your face, it’s well worth the watch. It was written and directed by Kurt Kuenne, stars TJ Thyne (of Bones fame), and has won a whole string of very well-deserved short film awards. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Introducing Flash Reviews here at MsBookish.com, in which I will occasionally group together shorter reviews in a courageous attempt to reduce the height of my to-be-reviewed pile (not to be confused with my to-be-read pile, which no amount of derring-do on my part will have any discernable effect on).

I’ve been listening to a LOT of Agatha Christie in audiobook format lately. There’s just something so incredibly comforting about listening to Poirot or Miss Marple demonstrate their brilliance and solve yet another case. It’s the kind of thing that makes you sigh and think, ah, yes, all’s right in the world …

In many ways, the audio version of a book is a great indication of the strength of the story the author is trying to tell. Stephen King has written:

There’s this, too: Audio is merciless. It exposes every bad sentence, half-baked metaphor, and lousy word choice. (Listen to a Tom Clancy novel on CD, and you will never, ever read another. You’ll never be able to look at another one without gibbering.) I can’t remember ever reading a piece of work and wondering how it would look up on the silver screen, but I always wonder how it will sound. Because, all apologies to Mr. Bloom, the spoken word is the acid test. They don’t call it storytelling for nothing.

As it turns out, Dame Christie wrote some very nice dialogue indeed, and she most definitely told a good story. Throw in a skilled narrator like Hugh Fraser, who narrates many of the Christie audiobooks, and what you’re likely to get is pure delight.

The following titles were all titles that qualify as “re-reads” for me (first listens, but re-reads nevertheless); in most cases, I remembered “whodunnit” a while before the actual unveiling of the culprit. I found that this didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all, which is perhaps as good a reason as any to give a Christie novel a re-read.

Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie

It was just Luke Fitzwilliam’s luck to be stuck next to a dotty old woman like Miss Fullerton on the London-bound train-although he found himself quite entertained with her tall tales about a series of perfect murders in the quaint village of Wychwood. But when he reads the next day of the freak accident that killed her, too, Fitzwilliam’s amusement turns to grave concern. A visit to the isolated village confirms his worst fears. For Wychwood seems to be divided by an eccentric lot of locals: those who are in on a dark and dangerous secret-and those who don’t live long enough to share it. (Amazon.com)

My thoughts: This is one of Agatha Christie’s “standalone” mysteries, so don’t expect either Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple to show up (or Tommy & Tuppence or Mr. Quinn or even Superintendent Battle, for that matter). I think once a reader falls in love with a series detective like, say, Poirot, it’s difficult to beat back the flames of expectation that surely, those extravagant black mustaches must show up in the story some time?

Still, this is a nicely crafted story, featuring Christie’s version of a serial-type killer. As is usual with many of Christie’s books, there’s a romance thrown in for good measure and the denouement is quite quick-paced and thrilling (although I couldn’t help but feel that the good Poirot or Miss Marple would not have let things get quite so hairy before stepping in). I listened to the audio version narrated by Hugh Fraser, and he was very good, as always.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, by Agatha Christie

A dentist lies murdered at his Harley Street practice…The dentist was found with a blackened hole below his right temple. A pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand. Later, one of his patients was found dead from a lethal dose of local anaesthetic. A clear case of murder and suicide. But why would a dentist commit a crime in the middle of a busy day of appointments? A shoe buckle holds the key to the mystery. Now — in the words of the rhyme — can Poirot pick up the sticks and lay them straight? (Amazon.co.uk)

My thoughts: This was a marvelous re-read for me, as I continued to wonder “whodunnit” almost right up to the point of Poirot’s unveiling of the murderer. There were quite a few twists and turns, and a rather big red herring that threw me right off the track. Poirot is in on the action from the very beginning; this is something I like very much. Again, the version I listened to was narrated by Hugh Fraser; he really is perfect for the medley of characters encountered throughout the course of this mystery.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie

After wealthy financier Rex Fortescue’ s sudden death, grains of rye are inexplicably found in his pocket. The coroner’s verdict is death by poisoning, yet only one of the dead man’s relatives seems upset. The others all have motives to want the old man dead. When two more members of the Fortescue household are murdered, Miss Marple enters the case. But is one bizarre clue — the pocket full of rye — enough to solve the strangest case of her career? (Chapters.ca)

My thoughts: This Miss Marple mystery is actually reminiscent of a Hercule Poirot mystery that I had listened to earlier in the year, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (not the abridged regular audio version, but the wonderful BBC Radio dramatization). There are quite a few somewhat similar elements, and so perhaps because of my recent re-read/listen of the Hercule Poirot story, I was a little bit muddled. That’s probably just my excuse, of course; the point being, it took me quite a while to remember who the bad guy was.

As can happen with a Christie mystery, Miss Marple showed up later in the scene rather than earlier; I prefer her to show up earlier but still, it’s a great whodunnit for the cozy mystery lover. The audio I listened to was narrated by Rosalind Ayres, who gives Hugh Fraser a run for his money.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

I didn’t get a chance to visit the library last week but fortunately (I think) they keep holds for four days and I managed to squeak in at the last minute and pick up another batch of books.

Then the phone rang with another automated message …

So here’s this week’s library loot:

Mystery: The Language of Bees, by Laurie R. King. I’m already sinking my teeth into this one! The latest Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery, I’ve been looking forward to its release for a while now.

Mystery: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. I stumbled onto this one at another book blog last week and then, when I was at the library picking up my holds, I saw it in the “New in Books” display! Of course I grabbed it with my hot little hands, and I’m already halfway through it. Flavia de Luce, the 11-year-old narrator is really quite a character! I should be finishing this up soon so watch out for the review.

Paranormal: Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead. This is Book One of the series, and has been on my list for a while now.

Paranormal: Frostbite, by Richelle Mead. Book Two of the Vampire Academy series.

Memoir: Heat, by Bill Buford. The subtitle to this one is “An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany”. I’m reading this one for my food blog.

Young adult/Mystery: Dead and Gone, by Norah McClintock. McClintock caught my attention with her Chloe and Levesque mysteries, which I wrote about here. This book is a different series, but I thought I’d like to give it a try.

Young adult: Suite Scarlett, by Maureen Johnson. I can’t remember how this title ended up on my wish list, but now that I have it, it definitely sounds interesting. Here’s the summary from Amazon:

Scarlett Martin has grown up in a most unusual way. Her family owns the Hopewell, a small hotel in the heart of New York City, and Scarlett lives there with her four siblings – Spencer, Lola, and Marlene. When each of the Martins turns fifteen, they are expected to take over the care of a suite in the once elegant, now shabby Art Deco hotel. For Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday, she gets both a room called the Empire Suite, and a permanent guest called Mrs. Amberson. Scarlett doesn’t quite know what to make of this C-list starlet, world traveler, and aspiring autobiographer who wants to take over her life. And when she meets Eric, an astonishingly gorgeous actor who has just moved to the city, her summer takes a second unexpected turn. Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery, Broadway glamour, romantic missteps, and theatrical deceptions. But in the city where anything can happen, she just might be able to pull it off.

Paranormal/Thriller: Running Hot, by Jayne Ann Krentz. An Arcane Society novel. I have read one of these previously – at least, I think I have. I vaguely remember it being entertaining but obviously it wasn’t one of those memorable reads (or I’d remember more of it, right?). Still, this one looks good, and I love the term “Arcane Society”.

Children’s book/Mystery: The Mask on the Cruise Ship, by Melanie Jackson. Dinah Galloway is a budding diva, enthusiastic gourmand and amateur detective. This one sounds like fun.

Mystery/Audiobook: The Big Four, by Agatha Christie and narrated by Hugh Fraser. I’m still on my Agatha Christie audiobooks kick.

I’ve been getting so many books at the library lately, I’m not as tempted as I normally am when I’m at a book store or in the book aisle at Costco. The thing with library books is that you only have a limited time to read them … and that’s a scary thought when all the recent additions to my TBR are library books!

In Ruling Passion, by Reginald Hill, Pascoe and his girlfriend Ellie arrive in Thornton Lacey to spend a weekend with old friends from their student days. They find instead three of their friends dead of shotgun wounds, and a fourth friend at large, sought by the local police as a suspect in the killings. Meanwhile, back at home in Yorkshire, Dalziel wants Pascoe back to investigate a string of unsolved burglaries.

This is an earlier Pascoe and Dalziel mystery, and as with all of Hill’s novels in the series, both continuing characters and the ones brought in specifically for this mystery are finely detailed. Dalziel is Dalziel, bigger than life, insensitive, bigoted and politically incorrect as ever:

“I told you I belonged to the old school. There’s nowt wrong with a woman that can’t be cured by colour telly, wall-to-wall carpeting and a couple of rounds up the spout,” [Dalziel} said with exaggerated coarseness.

Ellie thought of kicking him in the crotch. Then she started laughing. She laughed so much that people turned and stared and the dogs in the nearby kennels started barking wildly as though in reply.

Pascoe, in the meantime, is hit with an emotional bomb – could his old university friend really be the killer? And was he getting more and more confused, or were the two investigations really starting to look linked in some way?

The mystery itself is complex, with lots of fun twists and potential suspects. The motive for the murders is perhaps not as credible as it could be, but Hill’s writing is as rich and intense as ever. The characters live and breathe, and the reader is drawn deep into Pascoe and Dalziel’s world. Even though this was a re-read for me, I was still caught by surprise – caught by each of the twists in the plot, in fact. Which is another reason I like to keep my Reginald Hill books, as I do re-read them, and do so with much pleasure.

Where to buy:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Grafton, 1992, Mass market paperback , 301 pages

It’s Mailbox Monday, when book bloggers talk about the book titles that came to their house that week. Here’s what arrived in the Ms. Bookish household:

Mystery: Long Time No See, by Susan Isaacs. Via Bookmooch. Judith Singer (last seen in Isaacs’ Compromising Positions) is back, this time to investigate the death of Courtney Logan, former investment banker turned suburban mommy.

Memoir: A Circle of Quiet, by Madeleine L’Engle. Via Bookmooch. This is Book 1 of L’Engle’s Crosswicks Journal series. L’Engle is one of my favorite authors, and I’ve been wanting to read her Crosswicks Journal books for quite a while now.

Children’s books: And finally, I bought Books 1 to 3 of The 39 Clues series:

The Maze of Bones (Book One), by Rick Riordan
One False Note (Book Two), by Gordon Korman
The Sword Thief (Book Three), by Peter Lerangis

To check out what other book bloggers received in their mailboxes this past week, make sure to check out The Printed Page!

I’m so excited – it feels like my birthday today!

I just went to the library to pick up some more holds that had come in, and discovered The Language of Bees, by Laurie R. King, waiting for me!

I’m super-thrilled about this. I had been downright envious when I was over at Bookish Ruth’s the other day and discovered that the book has just been released (and lucky Ruth was already curling up with her own copy of it).

And now it’s here, right here in my house!

And then, wandering around the library (because who ever pops into the library for “just a sec”, right?") I discovered The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley, in the “New in Books” display.

I had just blogged about adding this title to my TBR pile in my Friday Finds post this morning!

So I’m on a roll, right? Absolutely. Because when I got home from the library just now, I discovered an email from EcoSalon.com, letting me know that I’ve won this Buddha Bowl in their Mother’s Day giveaway. It’s kind of bookish news since I usually drink tea when I’m reading.

Now I’m off to curl up in a comfy corner and read …

A woman dies in her seat in an airplane en route to London from Paris. If not for Hercule Poirot’s quick eyes, her death may have been attributed to a wasp sting. Luckily, though, Poirot spots a half-hidden venom-tipped dart, and accident turns into murder. A search of the plane reveals a South American blowgun. Suddenly, everyone on board is a suspect.  Surprisingly, however, no-one has seen a thing. How could the sight of a dart blown out from a blowgun have escaped everyone’s eyes?

This audiobook version of Death in the Clouds, by Agatha Christie, is narrated by Hugh Fraser, who is a wonderful narrator for Christie’s Hercule Poirot books. While Fraser has played the part of Captain Hastings, Poirot’s sidekick (who doesn’t appear in this particular mystery) on television, in audio format he is a perfect Poirot, and also handles the voices of all the other characters very well, both male and female.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Christie’s works in audio lately, and it’s very clear that her focus on dialogue in her books translates very well into audio. The mysteries are always entertaining and with a superb narrator like Fraser, the action is easy to follow.

Having read all of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries back when I was a teenager (Christie was a love handed down to me by my mother – I have memories of being sprawled on my mom’s bed, both of us deep into a Christie mystery), I usually remember who-dunnit at some point in the telling of the story, but that never takes away from my enjoyment. In Death in the Clouds, I had a vague intuitive sense about the murderer fairly early on, but even when I was certain of it, I couldn’t remember the how. Christie’s mysteries are great, I find, because of this – even if I remember the who, I don’t always remember the how or the why.

According to the Agatha Christie site, “In 1935, the year this novel was published, a regular London-Paris air service began – using converted bombers for the aircraft.” It was interesting to learn, from the descriptions of the murder scene in the book, that back then airplane interiors were designed more like train compartments, with people seated facing each other – another reason why it was puzzling that not a single person had seen the murderer killing the victim.

Death in the Clouds deals with exotic things like blowguns and venom-tipped darts, but at the core is, as always, Poirot working his little gray cells. Of course, in our day and age, forensics would be miles ahead of Poirot, but sometimes one craves a nice cozy mystery where the detective uses only his brain. The road to the murderer’s identity, motive and means is intricate, with lots of red herrings thrown in. And of course, at the end there’s the famous Poirot denouement scene.

I wouldn’t say that Death in the Clouds is one of Christie’s better Poirot mysteries; some things get a bit too convoluted and credibility is stretched somewhat. If you haven’t read the book before, the unveiling of the murderer will probably come as quite a surprise. All in all, (and especially with Hugh Fraser narrating), this was a very entertaining listen.

Where to buy:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Audio Partners, 2005, CD

After my recent Library Loot post, I really didn’t think I could have that many more hold requests at the library coming in. I haven’t had a chance to read ANY of the books from that batch, with the exception of an audiobook, a BBC Radio Production of Agatha Christie’s The Caribbean Mystery (it helped get me out of work-brain back into me-brain every night before bed).

Frankly, the only reason I haven’t succumbed to temptation is that I know myself too well – I am weak when it comes to books, and if I pick up something and get engrossed in it, I’m in for a 3:00 a.m. night. (Which is why the next Dewey 24-hour Readathon, I may very well be participating … although Beth F. makes cheerleading sound like fun, too.)

But here I am again, so soon after the last Library Loot post, writing up another one. I received a few more automated calls from the library over the weekend, and by my mental count, was up to about four books ready and available for pickup. I asked my husband to stop in at the library and grab the books for me on his way home from doing the groceries, and he returned with an enormous bag.

So here we go again!

Mysteries by Deborah Crombie

A Finer End

Dreaming of the Bones

Now May You Weep

Water Like a Stone

All Shall Be Well

Kissed a Sad Goodbye

I suspect that another library patron was on a Deborah Crombie kick right around the time I was looking for more of the Kinkaid/James mysteries, and had signed all these out at the same time. And now I’ve done the same – only I hope there aren’t any holds for these as I will probably end up needing to renew at least some of them!

I have a book blogger to thank for my addiction to Deborah Crombie works, of course. I’m holding Cathy of Kittling Books responsible for getting me back into these books; I’d read the very first Kinkaid and James last summer but had then forgotten about the series. Until I read one or two posts by Cathy about them, that is! After reading one of her reviews, I picked up a few more, and I was hooked. (You can read my review of In a Dark House here.)

The Rest of the Batch

Mystery: Death by Bikini, by Linda Gerber. I can’t remember where I first came across this book, but I suspect the title probably leaped out at me and grabbed me. However it happened, I promptly put this book on my i-want list, and must have quickly added it to my holds request the last time I oh-so-recklessly went online at my library.

Children’s books/Fantasy: Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. This one is probably self-explanatory. I’d like to read it before I get around to seeing the movie …

Memoir: Growing Up Again, by Mary Tyler Moore. Because I am currently, for some unfathomable (to me) reason, on a celebrity-autobiography kick. Don’t ask me why. All I know is, I’ve also got Julie Andrews, William Shatner and Robert Wagner in a stack here, waiting for me too.

And the Audiobooks:

Of course, my list wouldn’t be complete without some audiobooks. This year is my year of audiobooks – I’ve got a post up my sleeve explaining my reasons why. I like Agatha Christie audiobooks a lot, whether or not they’re those fabulous BBC Radio Production dramatizations:

The Listerdale Mystery and Eleven Other Stories, by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser

The Mysterious Mr. Quin, by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser

And that’s the end of the list … !

I hope to have time during my breaks the next few things to check out everyone else’s Library Loot for this week.

It must be some sort of Murphy’s Law applicable to bibliophiles, I think. Work-wise it’s been quiet around here, which is why I’ve been able to keep up with all my reading even through all the renovations around here, instead of being stuck at my desk pounding on deadline after deadline. I always have a stash of books I’ve requested from the library, and during these past few months, my holds have been trickling in.

And now? Well, on Monday I received a veritable flood of assignments and now have three deadlines all falling due next week. Then I received several automated phone messages from the local library, telling me that books I had requested were now on hold for me.

Today I took a break from work and popped over to the library. I needed two bags to hold everything! An embarrassment of riches indeed – and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that despite my deadlines, I’ll be able to read most of them. I have three weeks, and I can renew books for two additional three-week periods, provided, of course, that no-one else has put in a request for the titles. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll remember to renew any I haven’t read yet online before the due date!

Here’s what I picked up from the library today:

Mystery: Unnatural Fire, by Fidelis Morgan. I think I had this on my list as a result of reading about it at Cathy’s Kittling: Books.

Mystery: Now & Then, by Robert B. Parker. More Spenser!

Mystery/Paranormal: Ghost at Work, by Carolyn Hart. This one wasn’t a request. The library had it in a display, so it’s more of an impulse grab.

Nonfiction: Loch Ness Monsters and Raining Frogs, by Albert Jack. Another one that was on display. Simply couldn’t resist.

Chick Lit: Odd Mom Out, by Jane Porter. By the author of Flirting with Forty, this definitely looks like a good read, although I’m not sure how it ended up on my hold list.

Mystery: In the Woods, by Tana French. I’d heard so much about this book, and I’d like to read it before French’s new novel, The Likeness, comes out in May (in case it’s really good, in which case I’ll have another book to add to my i-want list).

Nonfiction: Himalaya, by Michael Palin. I’ve been wanting to read this for a while; I love travel books, and like Palin’s humor as well.

Memoir: Up Till Now: The Autobiography, by William Shatner. I came across this a while back while on one of my online book-buying sprees; unfortunately, while Amazon has the hardcover version at a bargain price (in anticipation, I think, of the upcoming release of the trade paperback version), Chapters in Canada didn’t. So I checked the library and put myself in the queue for it. I almost picked it as my Audible selection, but the audiobook is abridged, so I thought I’d go for the longer read instead.

Paranormal/Thriller: Blood Sins, by Kay Hooper. I haven’t read Blood Dreams, the first in the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit trilogy, yet, but I’m hoping that it’s the kind of series you can read out of order.

Paranormal/Thriller: Blood Brothers, by Nora Roberts. I haven’t read very many Nora Roberts novels, and this one sounds good. It’s the start of the trilogy, so I may be in for more happy reading with this series …

Young adult/Mystery: Break and Enter, by Norah McClintock. I’ve already raved about this series here.

Children’s fiction: The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken, by Howard Whitehouse. I couldn’t resist typing out the full title. I don’t have a clue how I first came across this book, but I suspect all I had to do was read the title and it was writing itself down on my i-want list.

Fantasy/Erotica: Naughty Paris, by Jina Bacarr. I can’t remember where I came across this title, either, but there it was, on my list of requested books. About a woman living in today’s times, a maverick painter in 1889 and a little bit of black magic and (I gather) a whole lot of sex.

Now, if I could just finish up these deadlines so I can succumb to the lure of this embarrassment of library riches!

Last month while knee deep in spring cleaning mode, I discovered a set of three books by Norah McClintock that I had purchased last year. The Third Degree, Over the Edge, and Double Cross all feature high-school student Chloe Yan and her stepfather Louis Levesque. McClintock has won five Arthur Ellis awards for juvenile crime fiction (her winning titles include two books from this particular series), and it’s easy to see why. I started reading the first book and I was hooked.

Interestingly, the first book in the series, The Third Degree, isn’t really a mystery. In The Third Degree, we meet Chloe and her two half-sisters, Brynn and Phoebe. Their mother is a waitress, a single mother, who in the course of the story meets Louis Levesque, a homicide detective with the Montreal police. Chloe, Brynn and Phoebe all have different fathers; Chloe’s father is Chinese, and lives in Beijing.

The Third Degree revolves around Chloe, who finds herself in a bit of a moral dilemma as a result of hanging out with the wrong crowd. There isn’t much of a mystery, but it does introduce us to Chloe and Levesque, who is to become Chloe’s mother’s husband number four. It’s also the only book in the series that’s written in third person; the rest of the books are all written in first person, with Chloe as the narrator.

Over The Edge is the actual start of the Chloe and Levesque mystery series. Chloe finds herself in the town of East Hastings, Ontario, where her new stepfather, Levesque, is the new Chief of Police. High school loner and astronomy genius Peter Flosnick has been found dead of an apparent suicide, and soon Chloe finds herself knee deep in clues that suggest Peter’s death isn’t a suicide, but murder.

The story is fast-paced and engrossing, and it’s interesting to watch Chloe’s relationship with Levesque develop. Chloe isn’t quite the rebel she was in The Third Degree, but she’s still very independent … and not liking the move from big city Montreal to small town East Hastings very much. it’s a great start to a very good mystery series.

In Double Cross, Chloe meets high school outsider Jonah Shackleton. Jonah is a troubled teenager whose father was convicted of murdering his wife, Jonah’s mother, five years previously. Chloe’s first encounter with Jonah is not particularly pleasant:

“All I said – and I said it nicely – was, ‘Excuse me, but is this seat taken?’

He – a guy I had never seen before – scowled at me as if I were a cockroach that had taken on human form. Then he said – well, let’s just say he came close to making me blush, which isn’t easy. I’m a city kid. I know how to swear with the best of them. Who would have thought some high school kid in piddly little middle-of-nowhere East Hastings could shock me?”

Despite this encounter, Chloe soon finds herself looking into the Shackleton murder case. It’s not easy tracking down events occurring five years ago, and the fact that the Chief of Police at the time is now a politician heading into an election makes things even more difficult.

Double Cross is an intricate murder mystery that had me hooked from the very start. Chloe is an extremely likeable protagonist; she’s persistent to the point of stubbornness, smart about most things, and she’s got a good heart, not that she’d ever want to admit to something like that.

After finishing Double Cross, I wanted more of Chloe and Levesque. McClintock’s books are popular around here; I ended up putting holds at the library on two other titles in the series, Break and Enter (one of the winners of the Arthur Ellis Award) and No Escape, but luckily Scared to Death and Not a Trace were both available.

Scared to Death, which also won the Arthur Ellis Crime Fiction Award, is a great read. Pretty and popular Tessa Nixon is found dead, floating in Elder Pond. Is it an accident? Or murder? Again Chloe finds herself deep in the mystery, and to complicate matters, her friend Ross, editor of the high school newspaper, had been going out with Tessa and is suspected by others.

By the end of the book, I was on the edge of my seat, worried for Chloe’s safety and wondering whodunnit. The events unfolded very credibly, we meet some unsavory characters who might or might not be the killer, and the ending is satisfying.

I moved on from Scared to Death to Not a Trace. Published in 2005, Not a Trace is the last book in the series so far, unfortunately. The book grapples with current events, in the form of a struggle between Native rights and developers looking to build a golf course on what might be Native lands.

This time around, it’s Chloe who finds the body; the victim is Trevor Blake, father of the little girl Chloe’s been babysitting over the summer. Blake works for the people developing the golf course, and the Ontario Provincial Police take over and arrest David Mitchell, a Native protestor. But is he guilty?

Once again, Chloe finds herself in danger – not just once but several times. The ending is hair-raising, although things didn’t work out quite as credibly as the previous mysteries in the series (I found it more challenging to reconcile what happens to Chloe in the end to the way the killer is depicted when the truth comes out). Still, Not a Trace is another great read. McClintock has gone on to write other YA mystery series, so it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing more of Chloe and Levesque, but I’m looking forward to reading the two in the series that I haven’t read yet, Break and Enter (one of the winners of the Arthur Ellis Award) and No Escape.

If you’re interested in a very good YA mystery series, I would definitely recommend the Chloe and Levesque series. A note to U.S. readers, though: Amazon.com doesn’t carry any of the books, so you’ll have to buy them through a third party seller or (my recommendation) buy them from Chapters, the Canadian online bookstore.

Where to Buy: (all links are to Chapters)

The Third Degree

Over the Edge

Double Cross

Scared to Death

Break and Enter

No Escape

Not a Trace

It’s been quite a whirlwind around the MsBookish household – we seem to have plunged right into spring cleaning/home renovations fever, and if that sounds chaotic … it is!

But I’m still reading. I think it’s the only way to stay sane during a renovation. The main problem is that I don’t have much time for reviewing. I’m toying with posting mini-reviews – maybe call them “In A Nutshell” or something like that, to distinguish them from my regular full-length reviews.

I’ve been having a good time, though, renovations and all. Here’s a list of the books I’ve finished the last four weeks (I may be missing some that have gone back to the library – I forgot to keep a “master list”):

The Victoria Vanishes, by Christopher Fowler

Ten Second Staircase, by Christopher Fowler

Jinx, by Meg Cabot

Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You, Book 5), by Meg Cabot

Bones, by Jonathan Kellerman

Pictures of Perfection, by Reginald Hill

Ruling Passion, by Reginald Hill

A Pinch of Snuff, by Reginald Hill

The Third Degree, by Norah McClintock

Over the Edge, by Norah McClintock

Double Cross, by Norah McClintock

A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny (called The Murder Stone in Canada)

The Case of the Left-handed Lady, by Nancy Springer

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, by Nancy Springer

As you can probably see, there’s a definite mystery “theme” going on in my life right now. I’m pretty sure I’m missing some titles as well, but I’ll update the list if/when the missing titles come back to me.

In the course of renovating, and moving furniture around, I’ve also been going through my bookshelves. It’s so difficult, weeding my book collection, but it must be done – we simply don’t have enough space for all my books. I must admit, my heart cries a little with each box of books that leaves this house, headed toward charity book sales! But on the bright side, I’ve been finding a ton of books that I either (1) haven’t read yet or (2) want very much to re-read.

So yes, I’m still reading …!

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Complex plot with lots of twists, and great series characters.

First Line: It took no more than a match, nestled beneath the crumpled paper and foil crisp packets.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: An intricate mystery that’s difficult to put down, In a Dark House is well worth the read.

Read the Full Review of In a Dark House

Here are the books that arrived at the Ms. Bookish household this past week:

Mystery: Bones, by Jonathan Kellerman. I have read all of Kellerman’s previous Alex Delaware books, and I’m definitely looking forward to this latest one – I’ve been waiting and waiting for it to come out in paperback (which it did before my turn came up for the hardcover version at my local library). Kellerman’s mysteries are complex and intricate, and since I know they’re difficult to put down, I’m waiting for a nice chunk of time when I can sit and read this one from cover to cover. (If I don’t, and give in to impulse, I’m almost guaranteed a 3 am bedtime as a result, and I’m getting a little long in the tooth for that kind of thing these days.)

Romance: Married in Seattle, by Debbie Macomber. I actually bought this book by mistake. I’ve been meaning to read Jodi Picoult, but I couldn’t remember her name (that long in the tooth thing again) and when I saw the name Debbie Macomber, I thought, that must be who I was thinking of. Only it wasn’t.

Mystery: In a Dark House, by Deborah Crombie, via Bookmooch. I just finished reading this a few days ago – the review is on my to-do list. I read the first Kinkaid/James mystery last summer and enjoyed it, and after stumbling on a few reviews of other books in the series, I decided to pick up In a Dark House – and I am extremely glad that I did! I am determined now to read all the books in the series. Yes, it was that good.

Update: Forgot this one (not sure why, since I’m actually in the middle of reading it – oh wait, that long in the tooth thing, again, right?): Chick Lit: It Would Be Funny … If It Wasn’t My Life, by Lisa Dow. This one’s a fun one, so far.

Mailbox Mondays is hosted each Monday over at The Printed Page – it’s a great way to see what other book bloggers are adding to their TBR piles.

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Commander Adam Dalgliesh and all the much-loved regulars are back; the suspects and victim are well-characterized as usual; the mystery is complex and intelligent.

First Line: On November the 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: Another Adam Dalgliesh novel from P.D. James is always cause for celebration, and this one definitely does not disappoint.

Read the Full Review of The Private Patient

It’s time for Mailbox Monday again – Mailbox Monday is hosted each Monday by the Printed Page, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to check out the books people have added to their TBR piles in the last week.

Here’s what arrived in my home this week:

Chick lit: Midori by Moonlight, by Wendy Tokunaga. I won this book in a giveaway over at S. Krishna’s Books and I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Mystery: The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz. This one caught my eye while I was out shopping – it looks like a fun quirky mystery kind of like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovitch.

Paranormal: Marked, by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. This is the first in the House of Night series.

Young adult: Family Affairs: Secrets of My Hollywood Life, by Jen Calonita. This isn’t the first in the series, but I bought it anyway – it just looked too interesting to resist.

Non-fiction: The Towering World of Jimmy Choo, by Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira De Rosen. I love shoes – need I say more? ARC courtesy of Bloomsbury.

Children’s Books: Little Skink’s Tail, by Janet Halfmann. This delightful picture book has already reaped a tower of awards; I’m definitely looking forward to reviewing this one. Review copy courtesy of the author and Sylvan Dell Publishing.

What books came into your house this past week? And don’t forget to hop over to the Printed Page to see what treasures have arrived at other book bloggers’ houses, too!

From the back of the book:

Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn’t ready for God, others that God wasn’t ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks’ care under a tender nurse.

Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town.

Sandytown’s principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort- none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all …

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: I loved the epistolary method of story telling that is employed through the first part of the book, especially since it lets Dalziel narrate parts of the novel!

First Line: Hi Cass! Hows things in darkest Africa?

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: My admiration for Reginald Hill has increased – a rather remarkable feat since I already held him in high esteem. He handles the epistolary method well (I especially enjoyed the parts narrated by the lovable politically incorrect Dalziel) and as usual, there are lots of credible plot twists.

Read the Full Review of A Cure for All Diseases

From the jacket flap:

Heidi Bradshaw is wealthy, beautiful, and well connected – and she needs Spenser’s help. In a most unlikely request, Heidi, a notorious gold digger recently separated from her latest husband, recruits the Boston P.I. to accompany her to her private island, Tashtego, for her daughter’s wedding. Spenser is unsure of what his role as personal bodyguard will entail, but he consents when it’s decided that he can bring his beloved Susan Silverman along.

It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances, have some drinks, and spend some quality time with Susan. Yet when his old nemesis Rugar – the Gray Man – arrives on Tashtego, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. With a hurricane-level storm brewing outside, the Gray Man jumps into action, firing fatal shots into the crowd of wedding guests and kidnapping the bride – but Spenser knows that the sloppy guns-for-hire abduction is not Rugar’s style. Unable to prevent the attack, Spenser will stop at nothing to recover the kidnapped bride and figure out how the Gray Man is connected.

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Snappy dialogue, and that great camaraderie between Spenser and Hawk.

The But: Reactions to the murders are a bit unbelievable.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: A good, fast read – Spenser fans should enjoy this one.

Read the Full Review of Rough Weather

Not mine. My husband’s.

He went in for day surgery on Monday, and he’s doing well right now.

I wish I could say the same for me. I didn’t foresee the extra work around here, for some reason.

He’s on crutches and is only supposed to put partial weight on his leg for the next four weeks or so.

He should be off the crutches in a few more days (fingers crossed). In the meantime, I’m suddenly finding myself holding down the fort all by myself – not to mention a good deal of running and fetching – and I’m not liking it very much!

So many things to do. None of which involve blogging, reading other blogs or Twitter. Hardly any email, either. But lots of driving, buying big heavy things (aka “stuff in bulk from Costco that we’ve run out of and really really need right now”), carrying those same big heavy things into the house (SIX trips back and forth, even with teenage help), and breaking up the ice on our way-too-long gravel walkway. (The rainy, warmer weather melted all the snow on the walkway, leaving behind the underlying slippery slabs of ice. This is NOT the way the whole rain and warm weather thing is supposed to work, I know, but there you have it. That’s what happened to our gravel walkway. And that’s why I was out there today, maniacally slashing at the ice with this rather interesting not-shovel that was made for doing just this kind of thing.)

Since my husband usually does the cooking, I’m now also finding myself running out to grab take-out, too. It was either that, or frozen entrées. Because when he discovered he loved cooking a year ago, I in turn forgot how to cook. I think I must have traded in those particular brain cells for more bookish ones or something.

So in light of all this, I’m off to bed early tonight to recuperate and rest up my aching muscles, armed with a good book (Reginald Hill’s latest Dalziel and Pascoe novel, A Cure for All Diseases – which, I think, is published in the States as The Price of Butcher’s Meat). I’m loving this one so far – Dalziel actually narrates part of it, and he is such a fun, politically incorrect, rude and interesting character.

I should be back to regular Ms. Bookish form in a few days.

Here’s what arrived at the MsBookish household this past week:

Mystery: Fatal February, by Barbara Levenson, courtesy of Lance from Hidden Staircase Mystery Books. I will be posting an author interview with Barbara Levenson here on February 17, so stay tuned, everyone!

Chick Lit: Houston, We Have a Problema, by Gwendolyn Zepeda, ARC courtesy of Hachette Book Group. This looks like it will be a super fun read.

Mystery: The Man on the Balcony, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, which came to me via Bookmooch. I read about this series at Meg Cabot’s blog, and it sounded good. This is one of my first Mooches – I think I’m finally figuring out how to use Bookmooch!

Check out what arrived at other book bloggers’ mailboxes this past week, at Marcia’s Printed Page.

Synopsis:

A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half a century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II, when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his irascible old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned … with a killing vengeance.

It was an investigation that plunged the fledgling detectives into a complex and lethal puzzle. It began when a dancer in a risqué new production of Orpheus in Hell was found without her feet. In a city shaken by war, a faceless killer was stalking London’s theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it would take Arthur Bryant’s most unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seemed almost supernatural – a murderer who decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them … and is determined to claim the other.

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Great quirky characters, and wonderfully adroit handling of shifts between the past and present.

First Line: “It really was a hell of a blast.”

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: This book, the debut novel in the Bryant and May series, is a wonderful look at a young Bryant and May.

Read the Full Review of Full Dark House

Something mysterious is happening in Skeleton Creek. Something scary. Something sinister.

Ryan came close to it … and nearly died. Now he’s trapped in his house. He can’t trust anyone – not even himself.

He is forbidden from seeing his best friend, Sarah. So while Ryan is isolated and alone, she plunges back into the mystery, putting her life on the line to get to the truth.

Ryan is desperately trying to write down the full story. And while he does, Sarah takes videos of what she finds, then sends him the links so he can watch.

Together, they discover: The past is dangerous. The present is haunted. And the future is deadly

The Snapshot Review

Here’s the Thing: This is definitely one book you shouldn’t be reading by yourself, in the dead of night, with only your computer monitor for company …

BUT: it is absolutely spine-tinglingly delicious when you do.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: This is a fun, innovative and very suspenseful book that seamlessly marries text with video– a fabulous read!

Read the Full Review of Skeleton Creek

It’s time for Library Loot, where book bloggers share what they brought home from the library this past week.

I love going to the library, although these days, because I’ve been very efficiently using the library’s request holds system, I normally just pop in, grab my on hold books off the hold shelf, take a quick look at the “New” section and come right back home.

I kind of miss just wandering around, not having any goal except finding interesting-looking books. My work schedule will be much easier after the next two weeks, so I will probably be doing more treasure hunting at the library after then. But I did manage to get to the library for an afternoon of browsing this past week, as well as having some requested books come in.

My husband likes to say I’m the library’s biggest financial supporter; he bases this on the amount of library fines I’ve paid in all the time that he’s known me. I actually don’t feel embarrassed about the amounts anymore – not when people are getting charged $1 a day for overdue DVDs!

Here’s what I picked up from the library this past week:

Mystery: A Cure for All Diseases, by Reginald Hill. I actually borrowed this late last year, but wasn’t able to get around to reading it until it was due back. I couldn’t renew it because someone else had it on hold, so I requested it again. I love Dalziel and Pascoe, and have been wanting to read this one ever since finishing up Death Comes for the Fat Man early last year.

Contemporary fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I put in a hold request for this a few months back – it’s a book that I probably would never have discovered if it weren’t for book blogs (I have a lot of books on my TBR and i-want lists that are a direct result of hanging around other book blogs). I’m looking forward to this one.

I only picked up two books this past week, but I took an afternoon to hit the shelves specifically in search of audiobooks. I dislike abridged versions of audiobooks, and will always opt for the unabridged version (or not get the audiobook at all if there is no unabridged version) but there’s an exception to this: BBC Radio Collection (BBC Audio) audiobooks!

These audiobooks are simply wonderful. There’s a full cast of characters, all with rich, plummy British accents, and lots of background sounds to get you right into the mood of the story. When you’re ready for something light and dramatic, but you don’t really want to watch a movie, these are extremely fun listens.

So far I’ve just been listening to mysteries from the collection, but there are audio presentations of lots of other kinds of novels too: see the selection here and here.

I picked up the following BBC Radio Collection audiobooks this past week:

Cover Her Face, by P.D. James, starring Robin Ellis, Siân Phillips, Beatie Edney and Hugh Grant. Yes, Hugh Grant! I don’t know if this is THE Hugh Grant (haven’t listened to the CDs yet), but anyway, this Hugh Grant plays the role of Felix, one of the major characters (not Dalgliesh, so he’s probably one of the main suspects).

Three Act Tragedy, by Agatha Christie, starring John Moffatt (as Hercule Poirot), George Cole, Michael Cochrane and Clive Merrison. I remember the plotline (but not who-done-it) so I know I’ve read this one before, but definitely not under this title (for a brief second there, I was quite ecstatic, thinking here was finally an Agatha Christie title I hadn’t read before).

Peril at End House, by Agatha Christie, starring John Moffatt (as Hercule Poirot, once again). No other actors are listed on the back, and there’s no little booklet inside, so I don’t know who plays the rest of the main characters. I have read Peril at End House numerous times, so I know that by midway I will have remembered who-done-it, but the dramatization will keep it interesting, I’m sure.

Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie, and starring, of course, John Moffatt as Poirot. Other actors include Simon Williams and Nicola Pagett.

Each of these audiobooks runs for about two hours or so, so they don’t require a huge investment of time. And have I mentioned how much fun they are?

What did you get from the library this past week? And have you tried the BBC Audio (BBC Radio Collection) audiobooks? What did you think of them?

From the Back of book:

When Enola Holmes, sister to the detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared, she quickly sets off to find her. Disguising herself as a widow, Enola embarks on a journey to London, but nothing can prepare her for what awaits. For when she arrives, she finds herself involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess, and must fee murderous villains and try to elude her shrewd older brothers – all while attempting to piece together clues to her mother’s strange disappearance. Among all the mayhem, will Enola be able to discover the necessary clues and find her mother?

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Strong, independent and smart, Enola is a very likeable protagonist; pace is fast and intense; the writing paints the world of Sherlock Holmes’ London vividly. Not one, but two mysteries …and there are ciphers!

First Line: "The only light struggles from the few gas street-lamps that remain unbroken, and from pots of fire suspended above the cobblestones, tended by old men selling boiled sea snails outside the public houses." (From the prologue – the rest of the novel is in first person.)

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: A good read, with the action really kicking into high gear as we get further into the story. Very nice wrap-up, too. I finished reading this with a smile, eager to jump into the next book in the series.

Read the Full Review of The Case of the Missing Marquess

This year my husband and I seem to be in a major de-cluttering mode; one result is that I have been going through my books trying to figure out which ones to add to Bookmooch, which ones I should give away and which ones I really want to keep.

And so of course, I’ve been finding books that I own, that I haven’t yet read – and that I actually DO want to read.

Here are the treasures I unearthed from my own book stash this week:

The Mother Trip: Hip Mama’s Guide to Staying Sane in the Chaos of Motherhood, by Ariel Gore. I bought this one back when it first came out (that will give you an idea how LONG it’s been on my shelves!), and when I first came across it the other day, my first thought was to add it to my Bookmooch inventory.

And then I started flipping through the book. I really shouldn’t do that, you know. Because of course I found a few paragraphs here and there that were interesting, and on further investigation, there were lots of essays in it that looked interesting … and now this book is in my TBR pile.

The Manolo Matrix, by Julie Kenner. This is a chick lit mystery, and I’d read and enjoyed the first book by this author (The Givenchy Code). So of course I added this to my TBR pile – and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up picking up a copy of The Prada Paradox when I was online book shopping last week for a great price. Very synchronistic.

And speaking of synchronicities … a few weeks ago, I’d been by Beth Fish’s blog, and loved her review of French Lessons, by Peter Mayle. I decided to put the title in my i-want list – but guess what? Yup. No need to get it, because it turns out I already own it!

De-cluttering is great when you end up getting rid of stuff; it’s not so great when it just swells your TBR pile. And as some of you already know, my TBR pile is really huge already ….

It’s Mailbox Monday again – this is where I get the chance to list all the books that came into the house this past week.

This past week, I more or less made up for the the sparse new arrivals a few Mondays ago

I made the mistake of ambling over to Chapters.ca to buy a few non-fiction titles I’ve been really wanting to read. “Mistake” I say, but of course, my bookish heart doesn’t really mean it! I had a load of fun (I ended up spending a very long time in the bargain section, too), and it was kind of like Christmas all over again when the two big boxes of books were delivered. Then, a little later in the week, my husband and I popped into Sam’s Club for a look, and I couldn’t resist a few more books.

Here’s the list of what I bought this past week:

Non-fiction titles:

Memoir: Yes Man, by Danny Wallace. I just couldn’t resist this one – it sounds like such a happy, fun read.

Spirituality: Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn, by Florence Scovel Shinn. This book, and the following five titles are on the recommended reading list of a course I’m taking.

Spirituality: Awakened Imagination, by Neville Goddard

Spirituality:Bridging Science and Spirit, by Norman Friedman

Spirituality: Miracles of Mind, by Russell Targ and Jane Katra

Spirituality: Three Magic Words, by U.S. Andersen

Spirituality: Your Faith is Your Fortune 1941, by Neville Goddard

Children’s books/Non-fiction: The Cranium Big Book of Outrageous Fun, by Cranium Inc. This was on sale, and I couldn’t resist. (Note: I’m not sure how many more times you’ll read “I just couldn’t resist” in this post. No need to count, though. Seriously. I already know I’m letting my book-a-holic status out in the open with this post.)

Fiction titles:

General fiction: Thanks for the Memories, by Cecelia Ahern (I see that Amazon has this listed as Hardcover, to be released in April 2009, but the copy I have is a UK paperback version, published 2008). I enjoyed the movie PS I Love You (although I haven’t read the book), so I thought I’d give this one a try.

Children’s books/Mystery: The Dollhouse Murders, by Betty Ren Wright. This is a book I talked about in a recent Friday Finds post.

Chick Lit: Diary of a Blues Goddess, by Erica Orloff. Couldn’t resist this one.

Chick lit: My Heart May Be Broken, but My Hair Still Looks Great, by Dixie Cash. Couldn’t resist this one, either.

Chick Lit/Mystery: The Prada Paradox, by Julie Kenner. I read the Givenchy Code and enjoyed it, and this one was listed at a bargain price, so I thought, why not? (Those two little words lead me into trouble a lot). I also recently discovered I had The Manolo Matrix in my stash, unread, so the timing seemed right.

Children’s books: The Private Notebooks of Katie Roberts, by Amy Hest. This book combines the two diaries of Katie Roberts (age 11, and then age 12) set in the years after World War II.

Young adult/Fantasy: The Kingdom Keepers, by Ridley Pearson. I haven’t read this series yet, but it’s been on my i-want list for a while. What exactly happens at Disney after dark? What a great premise!

Young adult: Chloe Leiberman (Sometimes Wong), by Carrie Rosten. I simply could not resist this one.

Children’s books/Mystery: The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas (Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars), by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin. This looked good, and is a great fit for the Baker Street reading challenge I’m doing this year.

But wait! There’s more!

A few weeks ago Michelle from Random Reading and I arranged to do an exchange of books, although it was a lopsided exchange, to say the least, as I got a whole bunch of Ngaio Marsh books plus a Donna Leon book, and Michelle only wanted two of mine in return! As luck would have it, Michelle’s package arrived last week too:

Mystery: A Venetian Reckoning, by Donna Leon – I have read one previous book by Leon and enjoyed it very much, so I’m thrilled to have this one in my stash now.

Mysteries, all by Ngaio Marsh (the links are to the only versions that Amazon has; they aren’t the versions I received): Death in a White Tie,  Vintage Murder, False Scent, Scales of Justice, Died in the Wool and Singing in the Shrouds. If you enjoy British mysteries you’ll probably like Marsh’s Scotland Yard detective, Roderick Alleyn. It’s been a while since I last read a Ngaio Marsh mystery, so I’m definitely looking forward to rereading these.

Last but not least (if you’re getting this vague picture of me drowning in books, you’d be pretty close …) the library also called with a few more holds that I had requested:

Mystery/Suspense: The Pagan Stone, by Nora Roberts. I haven’t read the first two books in the trilogy yet, but this is the one that arrived first, so it looks like this will be the one I’ll read first! I haven’t read a lot of Nora Roberts, but this series sounds interesting.

Mystery: Christmas is Murder, A Rex Graves Mystery, by C.S. Challinor. I can’t remember why I put a request in for this one – I’m sure it was something I read on someone’s blog, somewhere! But now that I have it, It does sound good – kind of Agatha Christie-ish.

Fantasy: Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. This book is huge – 960 pages. I suspect I will dip into the library version, and then if I get into it, I’ll just buy it so I don’t have to rush through it.

Finally, I’m all done! If you’re interested in adding new titles to your own list of books you’d like to read, head on over to the Printed Page for more of other book bloggers’ Monday Mailbox titles.

It’s Friday Finds again! Here are the books I’ve added to my “i-want” list this week:

Mystery: And Justice There is None, by Deborah Crombie. I read a review of this book at Kittling: Books and remembered how much I had enjoyed the first book in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series I had read last summer, A Share in Death. I’ve put the remaining books in the series on my i-want list – I had enjoyed reading A Share in Death very much.

Food Writing: The Language of Baklava, by Diana Abu-Jaber, which I discovered while browsing through Beth Fish’s Weekly Discoveries (this is a wonderful feature at Beth’s blog – she posts her discoveries every Sunday). I’ll likely be getting a copy of this to review at Muse in the Kitchen, the food blog my husband and I have (he cooks, I eat – life’s pretty wonderful, isn’t it?).

World Lit: Family Planning, by Karen Mahajan. This is one of the reasons I love book blogging so much – Family Planning is normally a title I would have passed by, but I read the review of this book at She Is Too Fond of Books, and realized it was a book I’d probably love.

General Fiction: The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington, by Brian Francis. This is another book I would have missed if it weren’t for the book blogosphere – Joanne from Book Zombie has a great review of this book, and I immediately added it to my i-want list.

General Fiction: The End of East, by Jen Sookfong Lee. Joanne from Book Zombie mentions this book in her review of Fruit, and I knew I wanted to read this one too. It’s a generational story about a Chinese family in Vancouver, and since I am a Chinese daughter of immigrants who settled in Vancouver, I knew it was a book that I couldn’t resist adding to my TBR pile.

Urban Fantasy: Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead. I didn’t make a note of where I came across the Vampire Academy series, but it sounds like a whole load of fun – and I’m hoping Bookmooch will come through for me with this one (I find my library isn’t quite as up-to-date as I would like when it comes to urban fantasies).

So these are my finds for the week – make sure to check out what other book bloggers discovered this week at Friday Finds. It’s a great resource when you’re looking to add to your TBR pile. Now that I’ve signed up with Bookmooch – my username is msbookish and I’ve added a short list of books so far and two have been “mooched” already (both going to Germany! so I’ll be weighing the pros and cons of international shipping …) – I’ll probably add whichever titles on my i-want list that my library doesn’t have to my Bookmooch wish list.

It’s Mailbox Monday again, and here’s what arrived at the Ms. Bookish household this past week!

Young adult/Mystery: Skeleton Creek, by Patrick Carman. This one is an ARC courtesy of the author. I’m very excited about this book because of the interactive video component – my daughter isn’t a big reader, but she’s a filmmaker and it’s hard to drag her away from YouTube most days. I’ll be asking her to help me review the video portion of the book.

Young Adult/Fantasy: The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. This one arrived courtesy of the library (I am constantly making full use of it’s requests program). I’ve been looking forward to reading this one, as I’ve come across some nice reviews about it.

World fiction: Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup. I admit, I hadn’t even heard of the movie, but when I saw this at the bookstore, it caught my eye. I read the back cover and I was hooked.

Children’s books, Fantasy: Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. Yes! I finally got my hands on a copy of Inkheart! It is a series that I’ve been wanting to read for a while – I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, “You haven’t read the Inkheart series yet, Belle? You? I can’t believe you haven’t read it yet. It’s exactly the kind of book you love.” Yes, well, true and true, I think. And now when people ask me, I will (soon) be able to say, “Why yes, I have. After all, it’s exactly my kind of book, don’t you think?”

Mystery/Suspense: Last Resort, by Hannah Alexander. I was doing my usual race in/out of the library, my intention being to scoop up the books I had on hold (I’m telling you, requesting books is such a huge time saver), when this book (and the next, actually) caught my eye. To be honest, I’m not too sure why it caught my eye, since it’s a medical suspense thriller, which is not a genre I read a lot of, but there you have it – in my quick dash into the library, I scooped this one up.

Humor: The Queen and I, by Sue Townsend. This is the other book I scooped up in my mad dash in and out of the library. There was, of course, a good reason why this caught my eye – as soon as I saw Sue Townsend’s name on the cover I thought immediately of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, which I loved when I was younger. And how could I resist the one line description on the back cover: “England’s Royals are given the sack and go on the dole.”

Suspense: The Dracula Dossier, by James Reese. Another premise that sounds good: the story of Bram Stoker’s encounter and conquest of Jack the Ripper.

Short story collection: Just After Sunset, by Stephen King. I’ve been lusting after this one ever since I read Joanne’s review of it over at Book Zombie. And now I have it in my hot little hands.

So there you are – all the new book arrivals at my house this past week! For more glimpses into other book bloggers’ mailboxes, check out Mailbox Monday over at The Printed Page.