kay's week - 1.28.17

Hello bookish friends!  It's Saturday and so that must mean that I should share about my recent week.  Hope all of you have had a good one - peaceful, joyful, restful - or the best you can of those aims.  Me, I'm remembering my 'one word' - BREATHE.  Yes, 'BREATHE, JUST BREATHE'...better now?  Well, let's see what I've been up to...


I've been reading...

I completed 3 books this week - 2 of them read/listen combos and 1 on my Kindle.  They were a bit of a mixed bag and my enjoyment was a little up and a little down.

Our mystery book group selection for next week's February meeting is Redemption Road by John Hart.  I mostly listened to this one, but did pick up a copy at the library to read a bit faster as the story progressed.  The audio was narrated by Scott Shepherd and I'm not sure I've listened to him before.  That being said, he did a really good job, in my opinion.  This is the first book I've read by John Hart, but I know his books have appeared on bestseller lists since his first was published.  And he may be the only author to win back-to-back Edgar Awards.  I'm not going to say too, too much about my experience because I want to write a blog post about our mystery group's discussion.  I will say that I feel this author can write and write well.  The story is grim, but somehow parts of the language are really beautiful and thoughtful.  A story of flawed people and the things they've done or people think they've done.  A story of sacrifice and pain and true evil.  Stay tuned for more perhaps late next week.

Next I read After She Fell by Mary-Jane Riley on my Kindle.  This is (note this part) the 2nd book in the Alex Devlin series and I have not read the 1st book.  Did you note that I skipped a book?  Ha!  The reason why I chose this book was that Cleo, of Cleopatra Loves Books (do you know Cleo - you should), will be starting a 'Put A Book On The Map' feature on her blog.  Mary-Jane Riley's books will be the ones to kick off this new event and I believe that it begins on February 4th.  Keep that in mind and check out Cleo's blog.  OK, in After She Fell, Alex Devlin, an investigative journalist, agrees to help one of her oldest friends, Catriona, find out what happened to Elena, Catriona's teenage daughter.  The police say that Elena threw herself off a seaside cliff because she was depressed and lonely and dealing with an eating disorder.  Her mother disagrees and asks Alex to check out Elena's posh boarding school, the teachers, the students.  What Alex finds is complicated.  I liked this book - somehow books that are set with boarding schools are always appealing to me.  It reminded me a bit of Reconstructing Amelia.  I'll go back and read this author's first book in the series, The Bad Things.

I also did a read/listen combo of Good As Gone by Amy Gentry, a local author for my area.  It was narrated by Karen Peakes, another new-to-me narrator.  Good As Gone, which is set in Houston mostly, relates the story of a kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl, Julie, witnessed by her younger sister, Jane.  Time passes and no trace is found of Julie, despite billboards and exhaustive searches.  Eight years later, a woman shows up at the door who says she is Julie.  The parents are elated, as is Jane.  And then...and then...maybe there are issues.  Is this really Julie?  The author tells the story in an interesting way that makes it a bit difficult to follow on audio.  Several points of view and sometimes I found it tough to know exactly who was speaking.  I don't want to spoil her storytelling method, but may I just say that though the narrator is good, reading this book in print might be the way to go.  I did like it pretty well, though I guessed a lot of what would happen.  Amy Gentry will be doing an event at a library close to me at the end of February and I'm going to try to go if I can.  It's a fundraising event for the library, which is always good, plus I'd like to hear what she has to say about her writing process.


I've watched...

We did finally watch the last episode of Sherlock this week.  All I can say is...so many thoughts....and creeeeeepy.  Don't know if this is the end of this adaptation.  I will say that I love Dr. Watson - no matter if the character is played by Martin Freeman or Lucy Liu or Jude Law.  And I've never really warmed to Mycroft.  We also watched an episode of Bones that we had recorded that included characters that lived in a retirement home.  It was with pleasure that we saw Hal Holbrook (age 91 - wow!) and Ed Asner (who is 87, I believe) guest starring.  And then, of course, this week saw the loss of Mary Tyler Moore, who connects with Asner in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Seeing Hal Holbrook made me think of his late wife, Dixie Carter, a great favorite of mine as Julia Sugarbaker on the series Designing Women.  It makes one want to go back and revisit those wonderful TV shows.


Personally...

Next week will be the February meeting for the Mystery Book Group I attend - and we are 9 years into our journey through mysteries together.  It is so much fun!  One of my better suggestions while working at the library, if I do say so myself.  Ha!  I began my additional duties as volunteer shelver at the library yesterday.  I took it sorta easy - in case you didn't know, book shelving is a bit of a strenuous activity.  Lots of up and down and grasping and shoving books down and bending.  Anyway, I feel fine today and enjoyed myself so much.  I just did 2 hours, but got 4 carts of books emptied.  I only put Purell on my hands 3 times and washed my hands thoroughly at the end.  I had forgotten just how 'dirty' books really are.  I've never worked in a bank, but I've heard the same thing from tellers about money.  It was fun to see a couple of former co-workers and I'll look forward to my weekly duty.

Otherwise, life has been pretty good.  Our weather has not been too cold at all, but it's been cool enough.  Spring is coming, though I know it will be a bit and we may still have some frigid days.  Spring is my favorite season here in Central Texas - the wildflowers, you know.  I'll leave you today with a shot of my beloved bluebonnets from last year, our state flower.