It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading


Books Read Last Week (click on titles for review):
Vane Pursuit by Charlotte MacLeod
Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty
Death of a Chimney Sweep by M. C. Beaton
Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman
The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow
Therapy by David Lodge
The Herring in the Library by L. C. Tyler

Currently Reading:
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words: The Unpublished Recollections of the Kennedy Years by Edwin O. Guthman & Jeffrey Shulman (eds): In these never-before-published transcripts of lively, extensive interviews originally recorded in the mid-1960s for the John F. Kennedy Library, Robert Kennedy explains his own role in his brother's administration, from the Bay of Pigs to the civil rights campaign to the early years of American involvement in Vietnam. This is a crucial document for understanding a turbulent and dramatic period of American history.


Books that spark my interest:
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks by James Anderson
Curious Death of Peter Artedi: A Mystery in the History of Science by Theodor W. Pietsch
The Ghost of Greenwich Village by Lorna Graham
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman

The Herring in the Library: Review

Ethelred and Elsie are at it again--this time taking their sleuthing skills to the old country manor house and investigating The Herring in the Library. L. C. Taylor's third installment in his comic mystery series once again provides readers with a send-up of Agatha Christie and her Golden Age contemporaries. We have a gathering of dear old chums at a dinner party given by Sir Robert "Shagger" Muntham at his newly acquired country home. Nearly everyone on the guest list has a reason to be glad when Muntham mysteriously leaves the dinner table and, quite literally, never returns. Muntham is later found strangled in the library with all the doors and windows locked from the inside. The classic locked room mystery. Given the circumstances and the word of two doctors in the party, the police are all set to list the death as suicide. But the "grieving" widow isn't about to accept that...not with an insurance policy hanging in the balance. She asks Ethelred to use his crime writer's skills to get to the bottom of things and soon he finds that he has more clues than he knows what to do with. Is someone leading him up the garden path? And what about the mysterious notes that Shagger has left for Ethelred? There's one more to be found that just might hold the answer to everything....

The Herring series is an absolutely wonderful take on the Golden Age of mysteries. I love how Tyler takes all the conventions, stands them on their heads, and still manages to make a terrific crime novel out of them. All that was missing from this country house outing was the snow storm to trap them all while the murderer ran amok. But not to worry, Tyler is still on the top of his game and I'm sure he's got the whole deck of vintage cards up his sleeve and ready to produce when the time is right. Again (as with The Ten Little Herrings), if you're looking for a fun and funny mystery novel, this is the one for you. Four stars.

Monthly Mix-up Mania

So....we all know about my challenge habit, right? Okay. Then we won't be surprised to know that I've found another one. This one runs for two years though and I can use books that I've already read. It has its own dedicated site--click on the name to check out the site and sign up.

Here's the scoop on the Monthly Mix-up Mania Challenge sponsored by Book Dragon:


What: To read a book for each letter in the year. That's right, a title for the J in January and the A in January, etc.... 74 books total!

Official Start date: April 1, 2011, because we're fools to try this but any book read since 1-1-11 counts ;)

End date: March 31, 2013, yes, two years, because well, we have other challenges to do ;)

Guidelines:

only one letter per book

books can be moved around if it fits better somewhere else after you've read it

the letter doesn't have to be the first word, just the first letter of a word in the title (a, an, and the do not count)

reviews aren't necessary but a quick "I read for letter... it was about... I did/not like it" would be nice.

if you decide to join in, create a post on your blog telling others then come back and link up (to the actual post, not just your blog's home page)

a blog is not necessary, just comment on that month's post at the Lair

if you get stuck, an author's name will do in a pinch but try to have more titles than names

the most important thing is to have fun!

Books Read:

J Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes by Loren D Estleman
A The Ampersand Papers by Michael Innes
N Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty
U Use Trouble: Poems by Michael S Harper
A We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
R Rope's End, Rogue's End by E. C. R. Lorac
Y The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon

F Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
E Emma by Jane Austen
B The Caravaggio Books by Bernard Peterson
R The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippmann
U All Booked Up by Terrie Curran
A Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: An American Woman's Life by Linda Wagner-Martin
R Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Y The Yellow Room Conspiracy by Peter Dickinson

M Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
A The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
R The Trail of the Red Diamonds by Ron L Hubbard
C The Wyndham Case by Jill Paton Walsh
H Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse

A An Author Bites the Dust by Arthur W. Upfield
P The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
R Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
I The Innocent Bottle by Anthony Gilbert
L Ten Little Herrings by L. C. Tyler

M The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
A The New Adventures of Ellery Queen by Ellery Queen
Y The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

J Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes
U How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
N Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
E Howards End Is on the Landing by Susan Hill

J The Detections of Dr. Sam: Johnson by Lillian de la Torre
U Blood Upon the Snow by Hilda Lawrence
L The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David L Ulin
Y You Can Die Laughing by A. A. Fair

A The After House by Mary Roberts Rinehart
U The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer
G Third Girl by Agatha Christie
U Unnatural Death by Dorothy L Sayers
S The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
T The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

S Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
E The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
P The Porcupine by Julian Barnes
T Scorpions: The Battles & Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman
E The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
M The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
B Burial Deferred by Jonathan Ross
E Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro
R The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Richard L Boyer

O My Foe Outstretch'd Beneath the Tree by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley
C Panic in Box C by John Dickson Carr
T Time to Be in Earnest: a fragment of biography by P. D. James
O Oscar Wilde & the Vampire Murders by Gyles Brandreth
B Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
E Evvie by Vera Caspary
R The Religious Body by Catherine Aird

N No Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer
O The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen
V Victorian Tales of Mystery & Detection by Michael Cox (ed)
E The Elberg Collection by Anthony Oliver
M The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow
B Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
E Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb
R The Rim of the Pit by Hake Talbot

D Death of a Doxy by Rex Stout
E Savage Beauty: the Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
C Death of a Chimney Sweep by M. C. Beaton
E In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L Sayers
M Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
B The Bloody Wood by Michael Innes
E Electric City by K. K. Beck
R Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words by Edwin O. Guthman & Jeffrey Shulman, eds.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter Y

Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise sponsors The Alphabet in Crime Fiction community meme. your post MUST be related to the first letter of the book's title, the first letter of the author's first name or the first letter of the author's surname. You can write a book review or a bio of an author so long as it fits the rules somehow.

Here we are at the end of the alphabet and this week we are featuring one of those most difficult letters--Y! Y is for Jane Yarrow and the mystery I just read by her (for the A-Z Mystery Author Challenge): The Last Matryoshka.

This is an American mystery starring Jo Epstein, a performance poet and private investigator. She uses her New York street smarts to outmaneuver a master Russian criminal on his own turf. The story begins with her Russian-born stepfather, Nikolai, who needs help escaping a blackmailer who can frame him for a particularly brutal murder committed in the elevator of Nikolai's building. It soon becomes clear that there is more to the plan than simple blackmail as threats arrive inside not-so-traditional Matryoshka (nesting) dolls. The dolls have been altered and contain symbols from the honor code of the vory (Russian criminal caste). Jo and her stepfather have never been bosom buddies--but she is willing to help him for her mother's sake. But can she trust him? It doesn't help that it is obvious that he is keeping information from her. Jo's investigation will take her from the height of fashion in NYC to the Vladimir Central Prison in Russia. From a lonely backroom knock-off shop to the dark Russian forest and from the Moscow Criminal Police headquarters to the monasteries of Suzdal. In the end she will race the clock to solve crimes committed on two continents.

I have to say that in the normal course of things this isn't a book that I would have picked up and brought home with me from the library. A. It's current--published in 2010. B. It's American (I'm a Brit Lit girl). C. It's about the Russian underworld and I'm not all that into organized crime. This is a decent mystery. A nicely done plot about long-term revenge. I really like Jo Epstein as a character. She's well-rounded and she is very believable as a private investigator. I do wonder a bit about her actions in Russia, however. Without giving too much away, I just think that as a PI with her experience that her alarm bells should have been going off on several occasions. But maybe we should chalk that up to her inexperience with the culture. And to be really honest, my favorite part of the whole book is the poem that appears at the front of the book (untitled) about detectives and poets.

An action-packed mystery. Well-written and an interesting back story for the characters. Not my usual cup of tea...but I'll give it three stars for a good, solid read.

Vintage Mystery Sunday: The Mystery of Hunting's End

It's Vintage Mystery Sunday and time to step into my vault of classic mysteries and choose one to feature that I read and loved before blogging took over my life and I began reviewing everything I read. This week's featured book takes me back again to my early days of vintage reading. The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon Eberhart showed up in a boxful of books that my Grandma had decided to send to her eager reader granddaughter. I'm not certain if the books were hers or if she had just found them at a garage sale and thought of me. Either way, I was already deep enough in my bibliomania that I wasn't going to look a gift book in the covers (or some odd mangling of a proverb). Among the other books were a couple of Man From U.N.C.L.E. adaptations, the book version of the Hayley Mills film The Parent Trap, and several others that I can't recall.

By far, the favorite was the mystery. It was a Crime Club hardback with the man with the gun logo. I reread it I don't know how many times. And then, sometime between junior high and marriage, it disappeared. It's the only book I used to own that went astray and I have no idea what happened. A few have gone missing when borrowed....but Hunting's End? That one's a real mystery. It then became my mission in life to hunt up another copy. A few years ago I got my hands on a paperback copy, but I'm still on the lookout for a replacement Crime Club edition.

I think one of the reasons I liked Hunting's End so much was that it was my first locked room mystery. I also enjoyed the atmosphere--one of Eberhart's strong suits. Set in the rolling and desolate landscape of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, this 1930 mystery revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She has come to believe that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party.

Among the guests is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an acquaintance of Matil's. At his recommendation Matil has also engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to take care of Aunt Lucy while they're at the lodge—a fairly unpleasant assignment, as it turns out. Aunt Lucy is a crotchety old woman with a tongue as sharp as Nurse Keate's and who seems to know more than is good for her. In the course of the weekend, a November snowstorm hits the area and the group is stranded. The atmosphere is not made any cheerier by a jittery collie named Jericho and a stray cat who seems to able to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. As the storm continues, nerves get frayed,the cook starts drinking heavily, secrets start leaking out, and the death toll continues to rise.
Nurse Keate is the same eagle-eyed, sharp-tongued, strong-stomached angel of mercy and sleuth who was introduced to mystery lovers in The Patient in Room 18. Her popularity helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction. The Mystery of Hunting's End, her third novel, received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931 and by the end of the 1930s, Eberhart was one of the leading American detective novelists. In 1971, she received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. She was also a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Therapy: Review

Therapy by David Lodge is basically one middle-aged man's journey through a mid-life crisis. As far anyone else can see Laurence "Tubby" Passmore has it all. The good life. He may be almost bald and shaped like a pear, but he writes for a TV sitcom that keeps the money "rolling in like [he's] discovered oil in the backyard." He's got a beautiful house in Rummidge, the car of his dreams, a flat in London, a sexy wife with a healthy libido, and a platonic mistress with whom he can discuss anything and everything. So what's wrong? He Doesn't Know. (This becomes the little theme chant for the book.)

He's depressed and he doesn't know why. Ironically, he knows he has it made and has no reason to be depressed, but he constantly doubts his decisions and is just sure that things are going to go wrong--even though he hopes they won't. He is, as his most recently descovered favorite philosopher Kierkergaard puts it, an unhappiest man. The unhappiest man is one who has gratifying disappointment. What is gratifying disappointment, you might ask. It's when you worry about making decisions and try to guard against things turning out badly. You hope they'll turn out well, but even if they do you don't really notice because you've made yourself too miserable worrying that they won't. And when they don't turn out well, it proves you were right all along. Which is gratifying--so, in essence it makes you happier when you're disappointed.

The more depressed he becomes, the more his life falls apart. He already has mysterious pain in his knee that keeps him from being as active in sports as he had been. His wife decides she can't take it anymore and asks for a divorce. He's asked to write a beloved character out of the TV sitcom and when he refuses to do it in the manner the powers-that-be require a small-print contract clause is waived at him. If he refuses, they can bring in another writer. He finally decides that all of his troubles come from the way he treated his first girlfriend and he goes on a pilgrimage to find her and put things right.

This is not David Lodge at his best. Lodge at his best is witty and literate and laugh-out-loud funny. He can take serious subjects and make you think seriously about them even as you're laughing at the characters--or sometimes even at yourself. He can make you interested in the characters even when they're not particularly likeable. If you'd like to give him a try, go for Paradise News or Small World or Changing Places. Give this one a miss. Tubby is a whiny, self-absorbed man. He's not funny and his situation is not funny. I didn't really care if he figured out why he was depressed or even what was wrong with his knee. That's what I missed most in this novel--the connection to the characters. Two stars--mainly because, overall, Lodge is such a favorite of mine.

Challenge Addict Checkpoint

YES !!! I AM A CHALLENGE ADDICT AND PROUD OF IT!!!

Now that we are half-way through the year, I thought I would take a moment and see where I'm at with all these challenges that my addiction has led me to sign up for. Here's the scoop on where things stand at the beginning of July:

Signed up for a total of 28 Challenges....so far. (Including the Challenge Addict Challenge) Yes, I said "so far"--I'm sure that there will be future challenges come along that will sing their siren song and lure me in.

I have completed 11 of them and have finished my initial commitment to a 12th. But I decided I hadn't had enough of Victorian Literature and upgraded to the next level. So I'm not officially done with that one yet.

The standings on the remaining challenges:

Gothic Challenge 70% complete
Take a Chance 3 70% complete
TBR 2011 58% complete
Outdo Yourself & Goodreads (same goal) 50% complete
Victorian Literature 70% complete (on upgraded level)
Georgette Heyer 67% complete
Off the Shelf 44% complete
P. G. Wodehouse 25% complete
Chunkster 50% complete
Baker Street 40% complete
A-Z Reading Challenge 77% complete
As My Whimsey Takes Me 20% complete
Books Won 25% complete
Classic Bribe 13% complete
Follow That Blurb 10% complete

Looks like I've still got plenty of reading to do for the rest of the year....

The Last Matryoshka: Review

I picked up The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow purely because her last name starts with a "Y" and I needed a "Y" mystery author to help me complete the alphabet in the A-Z Mystery Author Challenge. I'm also using it as a launching pad for the Follow That Blurb Challenge and one of the Take a Chance 3 categories.

This is an American mystery starring Jo Epstein, a performance poet and private investigator. She uses her New York street smarts to outmaneuver a master Russian criminal on his own turf. The story begins with her Russian-born stepfather, Nikolai, who needs help escaping a blackmailer who can frame him for a particularly brutal murder committed in the elevator of Nikolai's building. It soon becomes clear that there is more to the plan than simple blackmail as threats arrive inside not-so-traditional Matryoshka (nesting) dolls. The dolls have been altered and contain symbols from the honor code of the vory (Russian criminal caste). Jo and her stepfather have never been bosom buddies--but she is willing to help him for her mother's sake. But can she trust him? It doesn't help that it is obvious that he is keeping information from her. Jo's investigation will take her from the height of fashion in NYC to the Vladimir Central Prison in Russia. From a lonely backroom knock-off shop to the dark Russian forest and from the Moscow Criminal Police headquarters to the monasteries of Suzdal. In the end she will race the clock to solve crimes committed on two continents.

I have to say that in the normal course of things this isn't a book that I would have picked up and brought home with me from the library. A. It's current--published in 2010. B. It's American (I'm a Brit Lit girl). C. It's about the Russian underworld and I'm not all that into organized crime. This is a decent mystery. A nicely done plot about long-term revenge. I really like Jo Epstein as a character. She's well-rounded and she is very believable as a private investigator. I do wonder a bit about her actions in Russia, however. Without giving too much away, I just think that as a PI with her experience that her alarm bells should have been going off on several occasions. But maybe we should chalk that up to her inexperience with the culture. And to be really honest, my favorite part of the whole book is the poem that appears at the front of the book (untitled) about detectives and poets.

An action-packed mystery. Well-written and an interesting back story for the characters. Not my usual cup of tea...but I'll give it three stars for a good, solid read.

Saturday Snapshot: July 2

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online.

For the 4th of July...some pictures of my son's Boy Scout Troop raising, saluting and then lowering the flag at a Court of Honor in July of 2006.

Birthday Book Loot!!!

Image source

Today was my birthday! And...as should be the case for all book-lovers, I got books. My husband let me treat myself to some goodies from Amazon (which arrived this past week) and then today we went on a bookstore trip and I picked up some more. Here's what I got:

Official B-day presents from the Hubby:
1. Phi Beta Murder by C. S. Challinor (academic mystery--I can't resist those)
2. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers (some of her Christian writings)
3. From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley, Star Trek's Dr. McCoy by Terry Lee Rioux (McCoy is my favorite!)

Bookstore hopping trip (yes, I meant to leave off the "s"):
1. The Finishing Stroke by Ellery Queen (Pocket size edition!!)
2. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer (classic edition of her Regency Romance)
3. Powder & Patch by Georgette Heyer (classic edition of her Regency Romance)
4. A First Class Murder by Elliott Roosevelt (An Eleanor Roosevelt mystery with JFK!)
5. Thank You, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
6. The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse
7. The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken (Gothic Suspense/Mystery)
8. More Holmes for the Holidays by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L Lellenberg & Carol-Lynn Waugh (eds)
9. Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard

Scorpions: The Battles & Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices

Thanks to the marvelous Cheryl over at CMash Loves to Read, I won this very interesting historical book: Scorpions: The Battles & Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman. In a nutshell, this book tells the story of four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself, exploring the constitutional battles of the Roosevelt era (1940s and 1950s) and their contemporary relevance. A great deal of the interest in this book is in Feldman's thesis that each of the four justices developed their own unique constitutional theory and that this fueled their battles, but also spurred them to greatness. The first section of the book gives the histories of Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Robert Jackson, and William O. Douglas. It follows them from their home towns, through their law training, finally sees them to the bench of the Supreme Court. Frankfurter was Jewish and began as America's leading liberal, but with the changing tide in politics he ended his career with the legacy as its most famous judicial conservative. Black started out as a Klansman--primarily to gain the votes of his home state that would give him a place in Congress--and wound up as an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights. Jackson was a back-country lawyer who started his career trying cases about cows and became the lead prosecutor in one of the most important international trials ever. Douglas was a self-made man, a Westerner and teller of tall tales who narrowly missed the presidency but led the way to expand individual freedoms beyond what had ever been done before.

This is a densely packed book full of information. Information about the inner workings of the Supreme Court. A peek into the power struggles between the branches of government. A glance at what a soap opera political life really can be. I learned a lot about the history of some of the most famous court cases--from the internment of Japanese Americans to Brown vs. the Board of Education to the constitutionality of forcing school children to salute the flag. There is more detail and information than I could possibly gloss for you here in a review. I also learned a lot about the maneuvering that takes place to try and win swing votes. And how just a little change in language can allow the Court to appear to overturn past Supreme Court decisions without really saying, "Those guys before. They were wrong. NOW we got it right." I sort of thought that once the Supreme Court ruled on it, there it was. Final say. Can't change that. Well, actually they can--as long as they figure out the right way to say it.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in history--particularly in the years just prior to WWII through the early 70s when the last of the four passed away. But be prepared to invest some time. As I said, it's a densely packed book and to get the full benefit of all that Feldman has to offer it will eat a chunk out of your reading time. Three and a half stars.

June Reading Wrap Up

I'm still keeping up with my love of lists and keeping track of all sorts of things (especially bookish things), so here are the vital statistics for the month of June:

Total Books Read: 14 (that's way down...gonna have to pick up the pace to make my goal!)
Total Pages: 3099
Percentage by Female Authors: 43%
Percentage by US Authors: 43%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors: 14%
Percentage Fiction: 85%
Percentage written 2000+: 43% (this may be an all-time high for me)
Percentage of Rereads: 0%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100%
Percentage Mystery: 43%

Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: Eleven!

I have also posted a couple of Best of 2011 (so far) lists:
Best Books of 2011 (so far)
Best Crime Fiction of 2011 (so far)

Best Crime Novels of 2011 (so far)

Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise wants to know: What are the best crime fiction titles you've read in 2011? She asks for a list up to 15 books.

So far I have read 107 books, of those 62 have been mysteries. Here are my favorites:

1. Shroud of Darkness by E. C. R. Lorac (five stars)
2. Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers (five stars)
3. What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James & Jack the Ripper by Paula Marantz Cohen (five stars)
4. The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen (4 1/2 stars)
5. Cordially Invited to Meet Death by Rex Stout (4 1/2 stars)
6. Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside (4 1/2 stars)
7. Ten Little Herrings by L. C. Tyler (4 1/2 stars)
8. An Author Bites the Dust by Arthur W Upfield (4 1/2 stars)
9. Dancers in Morning by Margery Allingham (5/11/11) (4 stars)
10. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green (4 stars)
11. The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippmann (4 stars)
12. Victorian Tales of Mystery & Detection by Michael Cox, ed. (4 stars)
13. The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (4stars)
14. Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood (5/9/11) [4 stars]

Library Loot:: June 29 to July 5

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire (The Captive Reader) and Marg (The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader) that encourages bloggers to share the books they've checked out of the library. If you'd like to participate, just write up your post, feel free to steal button, and link up using the Mr. Linky on Marg's site this week. And, of course, check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

I somehow skipped a week...so here is my loot for two weeks:

1. The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow: A fast-paced, suspenseful mystery, starring Jo Epstein, a performance poet and private investigator. She uses her New York street smarts to outmaneuver a master Russian criminal on his own turf.

2. The Curious Death of Peter Artedi by Theodore W. Pietsch: 18th Century contemporaries saw only a tragic accident when the promising ichthyologist Peter Artedi himself joined the fishes as he tumbled to his 1735 death in an Amsterdam canal. But in this fascinating and impeccably researched novel, Pietsch opens a more sinister possibility....A truly highbrow whodunit that will be of interest to readers of historical fiction, literary thrillers, and scientific history. (Bryce Christensen, Booklist)

3. The Ghost of Greenwich Village by Lorna Graham: A young woman moves to Manhattan seeking romance and excitement, only to find that her apartment is haunted by the ghost of a cantankerous Beat Generation writer in need of a rather huge favor.

4. The Herring in the Library by L. C. Tyler: Ethelred Tressider, the mediocre mystery author we first met in The Herring Seller's Apprentice and Ten Little Herrings, and his bossy, chocolate-loving agent, Elsie, are to dine with Ethelred's old friend, Sir Robert (known to his friends as Shagger) and Lady Muntham. Elsie doesn't think much of her hosts, but she is very much interested in figuring out who killed Sir Robert once he turns up dead in his locked library. A delightful parody of the country house mystery. - (Natl Book Network)

5. The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman: Summoned by William Cecil to address dangerous questions about Elizabeth I's legitimacy, royal astrologer John Dee teams up with Robert Dudley to retrieve the bones of King Arthur, a mission that is complicated by magic, a first love, and a complex plot against the queen.

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme sponsored by Katy at A Few More Pages. Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Katy's place.


Here's mine from The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow:

Ishkhan estimated four seconds before the boy passed out.

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate.

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link up at Freda's site.

Here's mine from The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow:

We've all seen better days, I thought, and the chances for their return are slim.