Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season - Merry Christmas!

 

Wow, December has been quick or so it seems to me!  I'm sharing a couple of holiday photos from my walks.  Have I said before that I love snowmen?  I do!

I wanted to go ahead and send my holiday greetings and best wishes to all of you, my book-ish friends.  Hope you each have a very Merry Christmas full of love and joy and peace and family and goodies!  I've been busy with a bunch of things.  Helped with the library 'gingerbread house' event.  I also helped with our 'Friends of the Library' Christmas Sale.  Have picked up a few small things from my new area to share with family.  We'll be in Austin for the weekend.  Happily, the weather seems like it will cooperate and be very pleasant.  I see some great outdoor visiting.  

I'll try to get back around before the end of the year to share 'favorites', etc., but in case I don't - I wish all of you a Happy New Year - 2022!  Take care, be sensible, but have fun.  Virtual hugs to all!    

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Wishing everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving a very special day today.  I'm thankful for each one of you that I've met through talking about books and reading and life.  The picture above is from one of my early morning walks.  Take care and I'll be back around soon to talk about what I've been reading.

November is here and I'm loving the fall tree colors...and reading...

 

Hello book friends!  Just checking in here to say that I'm enjoying November in our new location so far.  My walks have gotten quite a bit cooler for the most part, but the fall tree colors are so much more vivid in this area than where we lived before.  There are some fall leaves in Austin, but most of the trees that we had were live oaks and they are not pretty in the fall.  They turn brown in the winter and the leaves fall off.  Not very fun.  Ha!  I took the picture above yesterday.  Love it!  It's amazing how you move only a couple of hours west and there you go - beauty in the fall.

As I said, it's quite a bit cooler in the early mornings and I've been considering tweaking my walking time or location a bit.  We'll see how it goes.  I could walk at our local mall, but they don't open until 8:30.  Or I guess I could wear a coat - ha!  Or walk in the afternoons.  We shall see.  Late morning seems to be the time that the temps moderate, but I'm usually a bit busy then.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  We're planning on going to Austin and sharing that meal with our daughter and son-in-law.  They are cooking and have told us we don't have to bring a thing.  How fun!  It will just be the 4 of us and their 2 pups, but we'll enjoy it a lot.  We may see a few other family members on that Friday, but we'll see how it goes. 

We met with a couple of contractors and are slowly moving forward with the renovations we're planning for our house.  It will likely be spring before any work can start, but it's good to get some estimates and also to start doing some selections of materials.  In other news, my husband and I both have had our booster shots and we're good to go there.   

My volunteering and reading go on as usual.  I've finished 5 books so far this month and have listed them below.  I'm not really feeling the 'review' vibe right now, so just know that if I finished the book, I enjoyed it.  I did put down a couple of books that weren't working for me.  I'm going to the Talking Texas Book Club later today and will enjoy that meeting I'm sure.  I didn't read the book - it was Lonesome Dove - but I always enjoy hearing what others have to share.  The library here is considering starting two more book groups or so I've heard.  One is a mystery group (YAY!) and one will be historical fiction.  Think I can handle a book group a week?  Possibly.  Here's my books read list and I'll try to stop by next week to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  Let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought.  Take care!

1. One Fatal Flaw - Anne Perry - 3rd in the Daniel Pitt series

2. Playing Nice - J.P. Delaney - domestic suspense about two families dealing with an infant-switch situation

3. Red Widow - Alma Katsu - spy thriller written by an author who was a CIA analyst for over 30 years

4. Death With A Double Edge - Anne Perry - 4th in the Daniel Pitt series

5. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig - read for a January book group - quite interesting and thought-provoking themes - for me anyway - look forward to the discussion

RIP XVI Wraps up...loved it!

Reader's Imbibing Peril #16 (aka RIP XVI) wraps up for 2021.  So happy that I took part in this annual reading event.  I read 23 books for this challenge in September and October.  You may see my list here on my original post.  Maybe some are asking if all the books I read in the last two months counted for RIP.  Yes, I think they did.  All were mysteries in some way.  Most of you know that crime novels make up the bulk of my reading.  

I know that many will be moving on to the Non-Fiction November Challenge.  Good luck to everyone who is participating in that one.  Me, I'm going to continue down my 'mystery-lover' path.  For now anyway.  Whatever works for each of us and keeps us content and happy with our reading journey.  Take care and I'll be back around soon to tell about what I've read, what I've seen, or share some pictures of my new hometown.  

Book groups and author events and reading...lots of fun!

Hey everyone!  Hope you are all well and enjoying fall weather and reading.  R.I.P. XVI is almost at an end and I'll have a final post about that probably Monday or so.  However, today I'm going to share a bit about some book related things that I've been able to happily participate in.  

First of all, I attended the 'Talking Texas' Book Group this last Thursday and enjoyed a nice discussion with several members about Attica Locke's first Highway 59 mystery, Bluebird, Bluebird.  Set in East Texas, this book has an African American Texas Ranger protagonist, Darren Mathews.  There are two murders that Darren investigates and I think you can probably imagine that race relations, rural mindsets, and other complications play a part.  This Ranger is from East Texas and so he understands a lot of things that others might not, but he also learns things that he didn't know.  

The 'Talking Texas' group had an interesting discussion of the book and I enjoyed hearing opinions and thoughts from everyone.  A couple couldn't finish the book because the issues made them so sad or upset, but we all agreed that those feelings were not necessarily a bad thing.  There is a second book featuring Ranger Mathews, also set in East Texas, and including some legends and info regarding the Native American Caddo tribe.  That book is Heaven, My Home, and I read that one as well.  Both books gave me a lot to think about.  Not easy reads.  Good crime novels.  

Next, I attended a Zoom event with an Australian author, Virginia King.  She had been in contact with Gayle from the mystery group I attended while in Austin and they were able to set up a meeting with those of us who wanted to talk about Virginia's newest book, Planting Pearls.  This book is a prequel to Virginia's series featuring Selkie Moon.  It is a mystery, but with some metaphysical things included.  Set in Hawaii, there are legends and lore that come from the South Pacific part of the world.  I liked the book and enjoyed our talk with the author a lot.

I've also gone to several author events at my local library here in Kerrville in the last few weeks.  One I'll mention was with a local author, Joanne Kukanza Easley.  She has written a couple of books, one recently published called Just One Look and another previously published called Sweet Jane.  I got a copy of Sweet Jane and really enjoyed Joanne's talk about writing her books and also writing tips for those in the audience who asked questions.  I spoke with her after her talk and said that I'd love to have her share a guest post here if she'd like to.  We'll see if she and I can arrange that.  

There will be another author event in November that I'll talk about if I'm able to attend.  A mystery author no less!  Yay!  Her name is Skye Alexander and I've met and enjoyed talking with her at the library already.  Her book, which she will be featuring, is Never Try To Catch A Falling Knife.  More about that in a few weeks.

In other reading, I have finished the second book in Anne Perry's Daniel Pitt series, Triple Jeopardy.  I read the first book in the series for the mystery group November meeting.  I'll put together my thoughts on those books to send to the group by email.  I liked both books and enjoyed this 'second generation' Pitt protagonist.  There are a couple more books in this series so far and I suspect I'll be reading those soon.  By the way, Daniel Pitt is the son of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, protagonists of Perry's long-running series.  Daniel is a lawyer, so comes at things a little differently than his father, a policeman.

I just started Karen Cleveland's latest book, You Can Run.  I've read other books by this author and am hoping this one will be a good one.  And that's about all I have for today.  Have a good weekend and Happy Halloween!!              

Kerrville Chalk Festival 2021 and a bit of reading...

I was delighted that the Kerrville Chalk Festival was able to be held this year.  It had to be cancelled last year.  I had shared a post with my experience in 2019 here.  My husband and I took a stroll through the downtown square where these artists express themselves through chalk and we had a great time.  A couple of differences - last time I went early on the Sunday of the festival and we attended this time late Saturday afternoon.  More of the artists are in these pictures as they were mostly still in 'creation' mode.  I think it's quite interesting to see how they plan what they will draw - some with grids and some freehand.  The artists are all ages and some come from our area and some are from out of town or even out of state.  Hope you enjoy this look at the chalk art.

This artist was just in the beginning of her creation.  If you enlarge the picture you can see what the final goal is - just to the right of the grid.

  

It was a bit difficult to determine what this creation would actually look like in the end until one looked over the artist's shoulder and saw the rooster shot in his lap.  One little boy near us kept telling his Dad that this one was too weird.  Ha!  That eye was a bit creepy!

Since we're in October, a little Morticia and Gomez Addams seems appropriate, right?

And a little Ghostbusters as well!

This artist was younger than most though there was a 'kids' area for children to create.  She seemed to be about middle school.  I thought her creation was great - a longhorn, a roadrunner and an armadillo - Texas creatures!

    

Each festival has one creation that is '3D' and these flowers and butterflies are this year's 3D art.  Can you see the effect?  It was actually better looking at it through the lens of a camera or on your phone.  Very nice!

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Hope you had fun seeing the chalk art.  Yes, I'm still reading and my latest reads are listed below.  I enjoyed all and am continuing my R.I.P. reading.  Only a couple of weeks left!

Twenty-one Days by Anne Perry - 1st in her Daniel Pitt series and mystery book group selection for November.

The Stranger Behind You by Carol Goodman

The Sanitorium by Sarah Pearse

Have a good week and I'll be back soon.  Take care!

A gorgeous sunrise on my morning walk and more R.I.P. reading...

 

I'll start this update post by sharing a picture of a sunrise I enjoyed last Wednesday morning.  My walks are starting later because the days are getting shorter, but that means I'm getting to enjoy being out there when these wonderful sunrise colors are right in front of me.  I find that quite, quite pleasant - cool mornings, pretty skies, good audiobooks, enjoyable walks.  It's all good.  Hope life is good in your part of the world.

We took a quick overnight to Austin this week and had a nice birthday dinner with our daughter and son-in-law.  My husband had a couple of appointments the next day and then we headed back to Kerrville.  It's nice to be able to do that and the drive is only a couple of hours.  Otherwise, my reading is still going well as is my volunteering.  We have a new roof on our house and will soon have the trim and fascia painted and then the new gutters will be installed.  Progress!

As to reading, I'll list a bit about 4 books I completed since I last shared here.  All fit in with the R.I.P. theme, but then we all know that almost all of what I read falls in the mystery/crime novel world.

The Sun Down Motel is by Simone St. James and I liked it a lot.  Set in upstate New York and told partly in 1982 and partly in 2017, this is a 'deliciously creepy' (according to Riley Sager) story with many Gothic themes.  It tells of the disappearance of Viv Delaney in 1982 and the very odd happenings at The Sun Down Motel where Viv worked as a night clerk.  Carly Kirk is Viv's niece and she's heard about her mother's sister all her life.  Carly goes to Fell, New York to try to figure out what happened to her Aunt Viv.  I found the book and it's ghostly aspects quite absorbing and I am looking forward to discussing it with a new book group later this week.  This is a book group that I haven't tried yet so we shall see how it works and what the other members think of it.  A good October selection I think.

My next book was Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens.  I liked it a lot too.  I think I've only read one other book by this author, but I do remember seeing her at a mystery conference a few years ago and getting to meet her.  Dark Roads is set in British Columbia and the author grew up on Vancouver Island and still lives on the island.  The story tells of the Cold Creek Highway and the girls that have gone missing there over many, many years.  It's also based in part on actual events and Stevens shares some thoughts on that at the end of the book.  Hailey McBride grew up in Cold Creek and her father taught her how to survive in the woods.  He is killed in an accident and Hailey must live with her aunt and uncle and then Hailey goes missing as does another local woman, Amber.  A year later, Amber's sister comes to find out what happened and things really start heating up.  Lots of twists and turns and secrets here.  Pretty scary stuff, so maybe not a story for those who prefer more gentle tales.  FYI.

The Fiancee' by Kate White was my next selection.  I've read several books by Kate White who used to be the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.  I liked this one well enough, but not as much as the previous two books.  This was about a family that gets together annually for a week at the parents' house - 4 brothers and their wives.  Well, 3 wives and 1 wife-to-be.  We see things from Summer's perspective.  She's married to Gabe.  When Nick introduces the family to his new 'flame' Hannah, Summer is sure she's met her before, but Hannah says not.  Later there's a death and then maybe another.  Secrets, lies, all the usual.  As I said, I liked it but it didn't break 'new ground' with me.  On to the next.

Lastly, I finished My Sister's Bones yesterday.  This one was written by Nuala Ellwood in 2017 and it was her debut novel.  I 'discovered' it on my Kindle and dove in.  Do you ever have books that you've forgotten you even owned?  I do.  Ha!  Nuala Ellwood is from a family of journalists and her main protagonist here is also a journalist.  Kate is a well-known war reporter and she's spent a lot of time in Syria.  She's witnessed many awful things and then told the stories of the people involved to her readers.  After her mother dies, Kate comes home.  She's not well herself and suffers from PTSD which causes her to have bad dreams and possible hallucinations.  Kate has a sister named Sally, but Sally too is unwell.  They had a tough childhood.  Sally's husband Paul tries to help out, but when Kate becomes convinced that bad things are happening next door it's hard to tell if there is really a problem or if it's all in Kate's mind.  It took me a while to get wholly involved in this story, but I hit a point where I couldn't put it down.  I'll be looking for more books by this author.

That's all I have for this post.  I've started Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry.  It's the first book in her Daniel Pitt series and is the November selection for my former mystery group.  I think this one will suit me very well - not quite as grim.  Take care and I'll be around again soon to let you know what I've been reading.  Happy Fall!!          

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, In Her Tracks by Robert Dugoni, and The Sea Of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman - R.I.P. Reading

I'm back with more R.I.P. Reading thoughts.  I've been delighted to fall down the 'rabbit hole' of read/listens for September.  And I've completed 11 books.  My 'reading mojo' seems to be back and it's been quite a treat.  All the books I'll talk about today are by authors that I've very much enjoyed in the past.  That being said, I'm not sure a couple of these are their 'most loved' works - for me anyway.  Let me tell you about them.

Apples Never Fall is the latest by Liane Moriarty, a very popular author.  I'm always excited to see a new book by this Australian writer.  However, I don't think this one will be my favorite.  I remember years ago reading The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies, loving both of them.  Later books have been not as favored by me.  Apples Never Fall - I'm afraid it falls in the 'I liked it OK but didn't love it' category.  This story is about a family, the Delaney's, who all play tennis.  There are the parents, Stan and Joy, and four grown children, Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke.  The parents were tennis coaches and ran a noted tennis academy.  Everyone in the family plays well, just not well enough to be world famous.  The kids grew up and all moved away from the sport.  The parents have sold their business and are now trying to adjust to retirement.  One night, a young woman, Savannah, knocks on their door and says she needs help - her boyfriend has attacked her.  Stan and Joy take her in and offer their support and help for a time.  Then Joy goes missing.  No one knows where she is.  Savannah also can't be found.  The police get involved and the Delaney siblings don't know what to think.  Secrets abound with all the family members.  Lots and lots of arguing, talking, hiding things and endless back and forth.  I wanted to shake all the characters and tell them to grow up.  It sort of felt like everyone was in middle school.  As I said, liked it well enough, but won't be a favorite.  Has anyone else read this?  Reactions?

Next, I moved on to the latest book in a favorite crime series, Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite books.  The title is In Her Tracks and it's the 8th book (I've read them all).  Tracy Crosswhite is a police detective with the Seattle PD.  She's been on an extended leave after having a baby and spending some time in her hometown of Cedar Grove.  After returning to work, she's told that she's being assigned away from her regular team in the Violent Crimes Division and will be working on cold cases.  Tracy and her boss do not get along well and haven't since they were at the police academy many years ago.  She's taken aback with this new assignment, but it turns out that this is right where her skills and determination are needed.  She starts looking into the case of a missing child from 5 years ago and then gets drawn into a current case of a young woman jogging, also going missing.  I've really liked this series and recommend it.  I've talked about previous books here on the blog.  If you want to try it, I'd start with the first book, My Sister's Grave, which tells of Tracy's background and why she became a cop.  I'll be watching for #9 in the series, coming out next summer.

Lastly, I just finished Carol Goodman's book entitled The Sea Of Lost Girls.  I've read several books by this author and liked all of them a lot.  She's a good pick for this season as her books are usually set in the woods or at an old school or in the fall or winter - a bunch of Gothic themes.  This particular book does includes shades of The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, and also maidens lost at sea.  Tess works at a well-known prep school and lives with her husband, also a teacher, and her 17-year-old son, Rudy.  The school had been a place where 'wayward' girls were sent before it became a co-ed academy and there's a lot of history here.  Not all of it good.  Rudy texts his mother late one night for help and Tess goes to get him.  He's wet and shivering and there's blood on his shirt.  Later, his girlfriend, Lila, is found dead.  What is going on and how far will Tess go to protect her son and what she thinks might have happened?  As I said, lots of themes that relate to legends and literature.  I liked the story, but Tess about drove me crazy with her 'nutty' thinking and her way of 'helping' those she 'loves'.  She wanted to protect her son, but her way of doing so involved way too much lying for my liking.  I will continue to read this author's books and I have several more on her list to try.  This particular one was just not my favorite.  Ah well.  

I'm now reading The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James.  Will be discussing this one with a 'new-to-me' book group here at my library.  Can't wait!  Have you read any of these books I've mentioned?  I'd love to know your reaction to them.  Do tell!         

Catching up and more RIP reading...

Hello everyone!  Hope you've had a good week and your life and reading are going well enough.  I've just gotten back in from my morning walk and it was quite comfortable if not a little cool.  Without a jacket anyway.  Our first fall cold front came a couple of days ago and our morning temps were in the high 40's yesterday and it was maybe 50 or 51 this morning.  This too shall pass, but I think I can wave the humid mid-70's goodbye for this year - early morning anyway.

I'm continuing to get connected in my new community and have begun my book-shelving volunteer work at the library.  I enjoy that job and it's peaceful and quiet in this new library.  I worked at the 'Friends of the Library' bookstore on Wednesday and that venture has become such a fun time.  I went to the 'Talking Texas' Book Group yesterday and I'll share a bit about that time.  I'm also planning on going to an author event on Saturday afternoon that I'll talk about next week.

For the 'Talking Texas' Book Group, we discussed water.  Ha!  The book we read was A Thirsty Land: The Fight For Water In Texas by Seamus McGraw.  I found the book more interesting than I imagined when I first started it and the discussion was brisk.  Lots of talk about conservation among the members and people sharing their favorite parts.  I'm not the biggest fan of non-fiction, but I think that doing some reading with book groups here will be informative.  Next month this group will switch to a fiction book (a mystery, yay!), Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke.  I've had this one on my TBR for a long time and look forward to reading it.

As to my RIP reading, I've finished another couple of books.  I enjoyed both, but maybe not as much as the Joanna Schaffhausen books.  I read The Wonder Test by Michelle Richmond.  In this book, widowed FBI Agent Lina Connerly is in Silicon Valley with her teenage son, Rory, to clear out her late father's house.  She's on leave from her FBI position for several reasons and her son is going to a new school while they are in California.  Yes, a new school with some very odd rules, tests, classmates and parents.  Kids have gone missing and then returned very different.  Lina ends up getting involved and with help from various contacts and also Rory, she discovers secrets galore.  I found this book held my interest for sure, but it was a curious blend of themes.  I don't think I've read anything else by this author, but I'd try more of her work.

I also read The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda.  This book is the October selection for the Mystery Book Group that I had to leave behind when I moved.  Left behind my 'in-person' attendance anyway.  I'll likely try to keep up with what they are reading and send my thoughts to Gayle, the new leader, by email.  We had several former members that did that after they relocated.  Anyway, I had read a couple of books by this author in the past and liked them.  I also enjoyed The Girl From Widow Hills, though I think I would have liked it more if I had not recently read the 'missing girl' storyline from the Ellery Hathaway series.  This book is a standalone and the situation is quite different.  Arden Mayor was a little girl of 6 when she went missing while sleepwalking during a storm.  She was discovered days later and she became 'The Girl From Widow Hills'.  With all the hoopla and publicity of the 10-year-anniversary of her rescue, Arden changes her name when she goes to college and becomes Olivia.  Now the 20-year marker is coming and again, Olivia/Arden fears the press and what they might bring up.  No one in her current life knows that she's 'The Girl...'.  Things begin to happen, someone might be watching her, her sleepwalking is back, and then someone dies.  As I said, I did like this book but the protagonist's repetitive thinking about people and events annoyed me a bit.  I do think the mystery group will have a good time discussing this one and I'll be reading more by this author in the future.

That's about all I have to share.  I'm in the middle of Liane Moriarty's new book, Apples Never Fall, right now.  More to say about that one next week.            

Gone For Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

Hello everyone!  So, can I mention that I think have a new author to add to my 'favorites' list?  Yes, I'm really pleased with the 5 books I've now read by Joanna Schaffhausen.  Four of them were her current Ellery Hathaway series, fifth to come in early 2022.  And I very, very quickly made my way through the first book in this author's new series featuring Detective Annalisa Vega.  The second book is scheduled for late summer of 2022.  Cannot wait!

Gone For Good is set in Chicago with Detective Annalisa Vega as the protagonist.  Annalisa is the daughter of a retired Chicago police officer and she's also the ex-wife of a policeman.  She doesn't date much, but naturally while on a date with a man who is clearly not going to get a second 'yes' to a date request, her work phone pings and she finds herself at a crime scene with a murdered woman.  Oh, and who should come striding up to the scene as well - her ex-husband Nick.  Complications ensue.  

The storyline features the Lovelorn Killer, someone who murdered 7 women over a decade ago.  This new murder seems like it might be related - same killer or a copycat?  We also meet an amateur crime-solving group called The Grave Diggers.  Annalisa has a large family and they play a part as well.  

I was totally involved in this tale and I really like Annalisa, though she does have tendency to place herself in harm's way a bit.  However, she is also a professional law enforcement officer and I think that is different than an amateur sleuth doing the same.  Joanna Schaffhausen is a talented writer in my opinion and her female protagonists are strong, but with 'cracks' in their armor because of what life has thrown at them.  This one and really all this author's books are recommended by me.  Note though that these are not 'cozy' crime scenes with the violence or the result of violence 'off the screen'.  

One more to add to my R.I.P. reading.  And now I've started a new book, The Wonder Test by Michelle Redmond.  I'll be back soon to talk about that one.  Hope all have a good weekend!