thornton37814's Retro TV 2013 Category Challenge - Thread 3

My theme for the 2013 Category Challenge TV is Retro TV. All my categories will be named for old television programs. In many cases, I'm using a rather broad definition or using more than one aspect of a program to give me more options to fit books into challenges.

Category 1: Starsky & Hutch - Police procedurals (or true crime, if I happen to read one).

Category 2: Murder, She Wrote - Amateur sleuths.

Category 3: M*A*S*H - Military/war or medical. Because most of the Holocaust occurred during World War II, I will likely place any Holocaust books in this category.

Category 4: I Love Lucy - If this show isn't the queen of re-runs, I don't know what is. This category is for re-reads.

Category 5: The Waltons - Families or books I'm reading in support of my family history research. (There may be some odd things in here like books on farming, quilting, or whatever.)

Category 6: Captain Kangaroo - Children's books. (I had a hard time choosing between the Captain and The Flintstones.)

Category 7: Newhart - Who doesn't love a Vermont Inn? This category is for "Comfort Reads." (I suspect the Lumby Series will end up here as well as books by Debbie Macomber, Dorothea Benton Frank, Anne Rivers Siddons, Mary Alice Monroe, etc.)

Category 8: Welcome Back, Kotter - Books about education or books "assigned" to be read. I haven't worked out all the details here on the "assigned" books, but I suspect that I'm going to be asking a few of you to choose a book from a list of a few books related to a school topic, such as literature, social studies, science, etc. that are on my TBR list and asking you to assign one of them to me to read.

Category 9: The Galloping Gourmet - Fiction and non-fiction about food and drink.

Category 10: The Flying Nun - Books involving religion -- fiction and non-fiction.

Category 11: St. Elsewhere - Books set in other countries. I'm capitalizing on the "Elsewhere." I'll define other as other than the U.S. or U.K.

Category 12: Match Game - Shared reads. This can be group reads or TIOLI shared reads from my 75 book group or CAT reads from this group.

Category 13: Tonight Show - Whatever I want to read tonight. (Yes. There has to be a catch-all category, and Johnny Carson seemed like the way to go.)

By the way, I have no maximums per category. I will set a minimum of 5 per category.

Category 1: Starsky & Hutch

1. Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves - completed 26 Jan 2013
2. Orchestrated Murder by Rick Blechta - completed 2 Feb 2013
3. In a Dark House by Deborah Crombie - completed 5 Mar 2013
4. The Likeness by Tana French - completed 21 Mar 2013
5. Back of Beyond by C. J. Box - completed 25 May 2013

Category 2: Murder, She Wrote

1. Hearse and Buggy by Laura Bradford - completed 15 Feb 2013
2. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - completed 26 Feb 2013
3. Brush with Death by Karen MacInerney - completed 12 Mar 2013
4. The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez - completed 17 Mar 2013
5. English Tea Murder by Leslie Meier - completed 18 Mar 2013
6. Dead Men Don't Crochet by Betty Hechtman - completed 28 Mar 2013
7. The Christie Caper by Carolyn G. Hart - completed 29 Mar 2013
8. The Corpse of St. James's by Jeanne M. Dams - completed 5 April 2013
9. Bagpipes, Brides, and Homicides by Kaitlyn Dunnett - completed 11 Apr 2013
10. The Diva Digs Up the Dirt by Krista Davis - completed 17 Apr 2013
11. Murder in the Queen's Armes by Aaron Elkins - completed 10 May 2013
12. The Black Dudley Murder by Margery Allingham - completed 22 May 2013
13. Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay - completed 27 May 2013
14. Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlington - completed 28 May 2013
15. And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris - completed 3 June 2013
16. Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn - completed 8 June 2013
17. A Timely Vision by Joyce Lavene and Jim Lavene - completed 6 July 2013
18. Death Threads by Elizabeth Lynn Casey - completed 1 Aug 2013
19. Rotten to the Core by Sheila Connolly - completed 24 Aug 2013

Category 3: M*A*S*H

1. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas - completed 22 Jan 2013
2. Lotions, Potions, and Deadly Elixirs: Frontier Medicine in the American West by Wayne Bethard - completed 13 Mar 2013
3. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake - completed 23 Mar 2013

Category 4: I Love Lucy

1. Village School by Miss Read - completed 25 Jan 2013
2. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - completed 29 Jan 2013
3. Curious George's Opposites by H. A. Rey - completed 8 May 2013
4. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier - completed 14 May 2013

Category 5: The Waltons

1. The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy by Tim Pat Coogan - completed 7 Jan 2013
2. Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA by Richard Hill - completed 13 Jan 2013
3. Reunion: A Search for Ancestors by Ryan Littrell - completed 23 Feb 2013
4. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart - completed 27 Feb 2013
5. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields - completed 17 May 2013
6. Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon by Warren C. Riess - completed 3 June 2013
7. In the Blood by Fay Sampson - completed 17 July 2013
8. Tempest's Course by Lynette Sowell - completed 19 July 2013
9. Relatively Dead by Sheila Connolly - completed 29 July 2013
10. Six Women of Salem by Marilynne K. Roach - completed 5 Aug 2013
11. Hidden Heritage by Charlotte Hinger - completed 14 Aug 2013

Category 6: Captain Kangaroo

1. The General Store by Bobbie Kalman - completed 30 Jan 2013
2. Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson - completed 30 Jan 2013
3. Sod Houses on the Great Plans by Glen Rounds - completed 30 Jan 2013
4. Civil War Cooking: The Confederacy by Susan Dosier - completed 30 Jan 2013
5. Civil War Cooking: The Union by Susan Dosier - completed 30 Jan 2013
6. The Log Cabin Church by Ellen Howard - completed 31 Jan 2013
7. The Miller by Christine Petersen - completed 31 Jan 2013
8. The Doctor by Katie Marsico - completed 31 Jan 2013
9. Pioneer Farm Cooking by Mary Gunderson - completed 31 Jan 2013
10. The Cats on Ben Yehuda Street by Ann Redisch Stampler - completed 26 Feb 2013
11. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene - completed 18 June 2013

Category 7: Newhart

1. The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini - completed 26 Mar 2013
2. Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson - completed 21 Apr 2013
3. Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank - completed 23 Jun 2013
4. Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons - completed 28 Jun 2013
5. Rose Harbor in Bloom by Debbie Macomber - completed 8 Jul 2013
6. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani - completed 24 July 2013
7. A Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer - completed 25 July 2013

Category 8: Welcome Back, Kotter

1. Murder at Teatime: Mysteries in the Classic Cozy Tradition edited by Cynthia Manson - completed 12 Jan 2013
2. A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos - completed 7 Feb 2013
3. King Richard III by William Shakespeare - completed 23 Apr 2013
4. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - completed 16 May 2013

Category 9: The Galloping Gourmet

1. The Seasons on Henry's Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm by Terra Brockman - completed 21 Feb 2013
2. Cast Iron Cooking with Sisters on the Fly by Irene Rawlings - completed 22 Feb 2013
3. Cooking with Herbs: 50 Simple Recipes for Fresh Flavor by Lynn Alley - completed 23 Feb 2013
4. Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke - completed 22 Mar 2013
5. The Amish Canning Cookbook: Plain and Simple Living at Its Homemade Best by Georgia Varozza - completed 5 Apr 2013
6. Barefoot Contessa Foolproof by Ina Garten - completed 12 Apr 2013
7. Sweet Tea Revenge by Laura Childs - completed 13 Apr 2013
8. The Perfect Peach: Recipes and Stories from the Masumoto Family Farm by David Mas Masumoto, Marcy Masumoto, and Nikika Masumoto - completed 13 Apr 2013
9. An Olive Oil Tour of France by Alice Alech - completed 8 May 2013
10. Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry - completed 8 June 2013
11. Blueberry Blues by Karen MacInerney - completed 5 Aug 2013
12. Fancy a Cuppa by the Cathedral? by Simon Duffin - completed 17 Aug 2013
13. Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck - completed 27 Aug 2013

Not a completion technically since I didn't read every word, but fits the category:
1. Food Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe compiled by the National Geographic Society - completed 5 Apr 2013

Category 10: The Flying Nun

1. Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin - completed 2 Jan 2013
2. A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages by Andrew Jotischky - completed 23 Feb 2013
3. Is Jesus in the Old Testament? by Iain M. Duguid - completed 23 Feb 2013
4. The Church in an Age of Crisis by James Emery White - completed 2 Mar 2013
5. The Eagle Catcher by Margaret Coel - completed 28 Mar 2013
6. How Then Shall We Worship?: Biblical Principles to Guide Us Today by R. C. Sproul - completed 6 Apr 2013
7. God's Favorite Place on Earth by Frank Viola - completed 7 Apr 2013
8. Psalms: The Sunrise of Hope by Bob Saffrin - completed 13 Apr 2013
9. An Unholy Communion by Donna Fletcher Crow - completed 8 May 2013
10. The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas E. Bergler - completed 17 May 2013
11. The Novice's Tale by Margaret Frazer - completed 30 May 2013
12. Broken English by P. L. Gaus - completed 23 Jun 2013
13. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose - completed 24 Jun 2013
14. Your Grown-Up Faith: Blending the Three Elements of Belief by Kenneth L. Parker - completed 11 July 2013
15. Incarnational Humanism: A Philosophy of Culture for the Church in the World by Jens Zimmermann - completed 23 July 2013
16. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth - Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart - completed 6 Aug 2013
17. The Vicar's Wife by Katharine Swartz - completed 8 Aug 2013
18. The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament by Edmund P. Clowney - completed 10 Aug 2013
19. I Never Thought I'd See the Day!: Culture at the Crossroads by David Jeremiah - completed 11 Aug 2013

Category 11: St. Elsewhere

1. A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua - completed 20 Jan 2013
2. The Beach at Galle Road: Stories of Sri Lanka by Joanna Luloff - completed 4 Feb 2013
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - completed 9 Feb 2013
4. The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri - completed 9 Mar 2013
5. The Golden Egg by Donna Leon - completed 9 Mar 2013
6. Yokohama Yankee: My Family's Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan by Leslie Helm - completed 12 Mar 2013
7. The Family Mansion by Anthony C. Winkler - completed 4 May 2013
8. My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon - completed 11 May 2013
9. The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau - completed 1 June 2013
10. Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri - completed 6 June 2013
11. Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly - completed 16 June 2013
12. Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion - completed 21 Aug 2013

Category 12: Match Game

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - completed 12 Jan 2013
2. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - completed 8 Mar 2013
3. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - completed 11 May 2013
4. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope - completed 8 June 2013
5. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver - completed 11 June 2013

Category 13: Tonight Show

1. A Spoonful of Poison by M. C. Beaton - completed 2 January 2013
2. The Most Beautiful Country Towns of England by Hugh Palmer - completed 31 Jan 2013
3. The Most Beautiful Villages of Ireland by Christopher Fitz-Simon - completed 31 Jan 2013
4. The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout - completed 19 Feb 2013
5. Colonial Days: Discover the Past With Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes by David C. King - completed 21 Feb 2013
6. Cotswold Landscapes by Rob Talbot and Robin Whiteman - completed 21 Feb 2013
7. Sorry I Barfed On Your Bed: (And Other Heartwarming Letters from Kitty) by Jeremy Greenberg - completed 22 Feb 2013
8. A Murder in Passing by Mark De Castrique - completed 4 April 2013
9. Live Free or Die by Jessie Crockett - completed 21 Apr 2013
10. Harbor Ice by K. D. Mason - completed 25 Apr 2013
11. Daughter of the Loom by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller - completed 30 Apr 2013
12. An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear - completed 3 May 2013
13. How Not to RV by Jennifer Flower - completed 7 May 2013
14. Death at Glamis Castle by Robin Paige - completed 21 May 2013
15. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman - completed 26 May 2013
16. North Sea Requiem by A. D. Scott - completed 29 May 2013
17. The Angola Horror by Charity Vogel - completed 29 May 2013
18. Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - completed 30 Jun 2013
19. The Accidental Law Librarian by Anthony Aycock - completed 11 Aug 2013

Abandoned Reads:

1. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
2. Pigs in Clover by Simon Dawson

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Category: Match Game

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - E & AwardsCAT - Kitschies & RandomCAT - Keeping Up with the Joneses

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Set mostly in the 1890s and early 1900s, this work pits the students of two illusionists against one another. Celia is the daughter of Prospero the Great. Marco is the student of Alexander, whom he views almost as a father. The students know it is a game and that it is against a single competitor, but they are not told whom the competitor will be. They only know that the venue is the night circus . . . a circus like no other which is open only at night. The circus colors are black and white. Jim Dale is a fabulous narrator for this work, and his wonderful narration is what really kept me listening. This is a book that is outside my normal choices in reading genres. I found that parts of the book seemed to really drag. As the book began to approach its denouement, I found that I became more interested as the tension began to build. Jim Dale's narration deserves 5 stars, but the book was really overall not that interesting to me.

My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon

Category: St. Elsewhere

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: Donna Leon, author of the Commissario Brunetti series, has assembled some of her short non-fiction "essays" into a volume. They are grouped into themes such as Venice, animals, America, and books with a few to many essays of varying lengths under each topic. In most volumes of this nature, there are a few stellar essays and several that are less spectacular and fail to maintain one's interest. This holds true for this volume as well. Overall, I probably enjoyed the essays on Venice and the ones on books the most of all. I loved her musings on canal and foot transportation as being preferable to automobile traffic. I enjoyed reading about her search for the perfect place to live and the problems encountered once she'd found it. My favorite essay, however, was one which detailed a conversation she had with Barbara Vines in a cafe. I'm glad I read the volume for that essay alone! There were many essays which did not hold my attention as well. My biggest problem with the book, however, was the writing. There were sentence fragments in the essays. There were many sentences that began with the word "and." This was an advance e-galley, so I'm hopeful that an editor will take care of these grammatical errors before it is sold in stores. In spite of its problems, I still found many of the essays enjoyable. This review was based on advance e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes over 6 months in advance of the publication date.

At one time, Night Circus was at the top of my TBR pile but it keeps sliding down. Someday, I'll get to it...

>17 thornton37814: - Hmmm. That sounds interesting. Think I'll put it on the " sometime in the future" list. Not exactly a BB yet.

Checking in to your nice new thread! :)

Linda> I can certainly understand that.

Betty> It's one of those things to read if the mood strikes you. You may want to wait until it actually comes out to see if they fix the problems.

rabbitprincess> Thanks for dropping by.

Like Linda, I found that The Night Circus never seems to be the book I want to pick up. One of these days....

And congratulations on the new thread!

Dejah> I probably would not have picked it up had it not been that it seemed like a good time to do so. Everyone kept talking about the book. It fit the AwardsCAT for the month as well as the RandomCAT. It also matched Carrie who had already signed up to read it. I don't think it is a bad book. It's just not my type of book.

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

Category: I Love Lucy

CAT Challenges: AlphaCat - R and RandomCat - Keeping Up with the Joneses

Rating: 5 stars

Review: The narrator is the second wife of Maxim de Winter. It tells the story of how they met in Monte Carlo and of how she ended up becoming his wife and moving to his home Manderley. The story then focuses on his first wife Rebecca in a past sense and how she influenced and still influences the household from the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers to Maxim himself. It's a wonderfully told tale with very descriptive language. This is my third time to read this masterpiece, and it holds up as well today as it did when I first read it in the 1970s.

So glad to hear that Rebecca held up for you, Lori. I noticed over on the Group Read Thread that Terri is struggling with her re-read. I first read this book at a young age and fell in love with it. I consider it one of my five all time top reads, but I have been afraid to give it a re-read as I didn't want to be disappointed.

Judy> Terri thinks it may be the narrator who is annoying her. If you re-read it, get the book like I did!

I'm going to be behind for a few days on thread reading. I've had a headache all day. It's finally beginning to let up, but it's not gone. Even though I'm not officially scheduled to work, I've got to run in for a bit tomorrow to adjust an Excel spreadsheet that we use to track the number of people using the library. The provost approved reduced hours for us so I've got to black out some hours on the spreadsheet and adjust the formulas accordingly. We're also hosting an event for librarians on campus, and I need to make an appearance for that. Then I anticipate a shipment of books arriving Friday (or Monday at the latest) that I'll need to process quickly. (It's the new fiction.)

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Category: Welcome Back, Kotter

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 5 stars

Review: A pair of French priests, one having been in Ohio and the other in Michigan, are assigned to work in New Mexico in the early 1850s. Father Latour becomes the bishop; Father Vaillant is his right-hand man as they attempt to reestablish proper church practices in a land which had been allowed to lapse under Mexican clergy. Latour eventually becomes the Archbishop. This is a well-written historical novel that has held up well over the years since it was first written. The reader is drawn into the setting by the vivid descriptions. One is also able to see the changes that took place over time as roads and railroads came into place. The reader appreciates the dedication to God that Latour and Vaillant demonstrated in their lives. This is truly a masterpiece that I wish I had read years ago.

I haven't read any Willa Cather books. *hangs head in shame.* Death Comes for the Archbishop sounds like more my speed and maybe a good place to start with Cather's works, as I do love well written historical novels.

Her descriptions of landscapes are without equal.

I've started Death comes for the archbishop twice. The first time I gave it up I simply didn't have any time to devote to reading. The second time was interesting. I was reading it in a collection that included 3 Cather novels. I started Death comes for the archbishop and then got sidetracked by The Professor's House I liked both; the second just fit my mood better.

My Antonia is a book that everyone speaks well of on these threads. I'm planning to read O pioneers later this year.

Hope you are feeling better! Yet another nudge to get Rebecca on my TBR pile. And I'll also have to add Death Comes to the Archbishop. I've only read two of her books, but really enjoyed them.

I am definitely in the minority when it comes to Death Comes for the Archbishop - read it a couple of years ago and found it unbelievably boring. If I remember correctly, I started skimming towards the end because I just couldn't take it anymore. Ah well, can't always like everything, right?

Lori> I hope you enjoy it.

mamzel> They truly are wonderful descriptions. You could almost feel that you were there.

Beth> I think O Pioneers was my first Cather book and My Antonia was my second.

Alicia> They are both worth reading!

Stacy> Everyone has different tastes in books. I have always been interested in church history too so the book may have worked better for me than for some on that basis alone. I think what I liked best were her descriptions of the West at that time though.

The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas E. Bergler

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - E

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Bergler has taken time to study publications of the Methodist Church, Catholic Church, Youth for Christ, and the National Baptist Convention written for youth leaders or for young people from their inception in the late 1940s to the present. He presents his research in the light of what is going on in American culture at the same time. The result is a rather interesting and informative book about a trend in American Christianity to adapt to the culture which, during the 1960s to 1970s, was somewhat youth-driven and which, from the 1980s to present, has become somewhat seeker-oriented. Bergler was probably correct in limiting his research to those groups, but it would be interesting to see a similar study done for other denominations such as Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Church of God, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, etc. As I looked through the author's footnotes, I thought he must have had an interesting time just sitting down with some of those publications and reading through them cover to cover from volume 1, issue 1 until the periodical ceased publication (or through the latest issue). I can see a lot of persons in other denominations asking themselves if this applies to their church and trying to decide what, if anything, to do about it. I do have one major criticism with the book. There are several "sentences" which begin with conjunctions which are in reality not sentences, but sentence fragments. An editor should have corrected this grammatical problem before the book was published. Otherwise, this was a very interesting read.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: AwardsCAT - Pulitzer

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: The Stone Diaries presents the fictional biography of Daisy Goodwill Flett whose mother died at birth. She was reared by a neighbor who left her husband and moved away to her son's home to rear Daisy. The story is told through narrative and through letters. It is also told in many voices. While I can understand why the book won the Pulitzer Prize, it's not a book that was particularly meaningful or absorbing for me. The author does include a family tree to help readers understand the family and relationships. There are also photographs included. I did, however, check the 1911 Canadian census at Ancestry.com and if the main characters of Daisy Goodwill and the Flett family are real persons, it appears their names have been changed.

Carrie and I went to the used bookstore (Knoxville McKays) today. I managed to trade in more than I purchased so I still have store credit.

I purchased one non-fiction book which somehow I managed to not delete from a wish list when I'd purchased it. I knew I had just entered it over on my new wishlist account here. I checked, and I had it down to read in the library. However, at 75 cents it wasn't too bad of a duplicate purchase, I suppose. It was David McCullough's Johnstown Flood.

The fiction I purchased this time was mostly cozy mysteries with one historical one. They didn't have some of the ones I wanted otherwise or they were overpriced IMHO. Here's my haul:

Death Threads by Elizabeth Lynn Casey - 2nd in series
Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James
A Killer Read by Erika Chase
Precious Blood by Jane Haddam
Roots of Murder by Janis Harrison
Rotten to the Core by Sheila Connolly - 2nd in series
A Timely Vision by Joyce & Jim Lavene

These were all titles not available at my library. I was really disappointed that a few of my "priority" times were not available or almost full price! I decided that I would either try the Goodwill store when I go to Mississippi or that I'll try either White Pine Books or the Chattanooga or Nashville McKays.

I've not read any Willa Cather, but will have to add this to my list of authors to try. I'm glad to hear you liked Rebecca. I didn't join the group read, as I've already read this book twice, but now I'm thinking that I ought to do another re-read. I loved the movie too. Sorry you didn't like The Night Circus. I actually enjoyed it very much, but I can understand that it wouldn't necessarily appeal to everybody.

Paulina> I persevered on The Night Circus. I didn't absolutely hate it, but it won't be a favorite or one I'll go back and re-read. You are in for a treat with Cather. It was my 3rd time to read Rebecca so you would not have been alone if you'd read it again.

Hope you like the Erika Chase book, Lori. I started the second one and don't like it as much as I did the first. I've been meaning to read Flowerbed of State so I'll be curious to hear what you think of that one.

Jim and Joyce Lavene wrote that Tenn fire chief series I started the other day but I haven't read anything else by them.

Linda> They were charging full price for that fire chief mystery at the used bookstore. I passed it up. Hopefully, they'll drop the price before long. I thought I'd give the Erika Chase series a try. I only got the one book. I've seen people say they liked Flowerbed of State so I wanted to try it. You probably noticed that 2 or 3 of those were gardening series. I thought summer might be a good time for gardening!

I've been thinking about that and I wonder if they're charging more for used copies of that series because of its local connection. It would be interesting to see if it's cheaper at the Chattanooga and Nashville stores.

However, they were also charging full price for Stake and Eggs which does not have a local connection.

Death at Glamis Castle by Robin Paige

Category: Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - R

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Sir Charles Sheridan and his wife Kate are vacation when he is summoned by the King to investigate what has happened to his son who is supposedly dead but residing at Glamis Castle under the name Lord Osborne. Sheridan's men are supposed to pretend to be training on bicycle maneuvers on a new folding bicycle as they are searching. There's a cozy version of espionage taking place in the novel between Germany and Great Britain. The novel is set in 1901. Kate and Charles are not at the top of my list of fictional detectives, and this book did nothing to promote them any higher or lower on the list. It's a somewhat mediocre series whose main draw is the historical setting. The author team (Susan Wittig Albert and her husband Bill) have done some research into the setting, and I appreciated the bibliography of historical sources.

The Black Dudley Murder by Margery Allingham Also known as The Crime at Black Dudley

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: A cast of characters is gathered at the Black Dudley country house where they are playing a game of pass the dagger. When the dagger ends up in the hands of one guest, she notes there is blood on it, but it quickly disappears from her hand before she can raise an alarm. A bit later a man is dead. They try to pass it off as a heart attack, but the examining doctor gets a glimpse of the corpse before signing the death certificate with a false cause of death. He knows the man has been murdered. The players are then held hostage in the home until a German man gets what he wants. It leaves them plenty of time to try to determine what transpired. Although this is the first in the author's Albert Campion series, he is a minor player. The sleuth in this one is Dr. George Abbershaw. There were moments when I had difficulty following the plot in the course of the novel, but it was a somewhat interesting "locked room" puzzle with lots of twists and turns.

I'll have very limited Internet access for the next week or so since I'm headed to visit my dad. He lives with my brother, and reliable high-speed options are not yet available where he lives. I'll have to go find wireless in town at the library or fast food restaurants. I'm going to try to make sure everything that I'm taking with me is added to the wiki if it fits a CAT challenge before I leave. I'll try to mark it completed on my iPhone, but I certainly don't want to have to do everything on it. I'll just post reviews when I get back home and have more reliable access.

Have a wonderful time with your dad. We'll be here when you get back.

Have a great trip and wonderful visit with your dad (and brother)!

Enjoy your visit with Dad and brother, Lori. A few days break from the routine can work wonders and I think I am due for the same!

I'm back from my trip to see my father. He was in better spirits while I was there, but we don't know how long it will last. Hopefully for awhile! I did take him back to his hometown a couple of days. We went to church there on Sunday so he was able to visit with some friends, and they did wonders in making him feel missed! I'll begin posting reviews of things I read or listened to on my trip. I have 8 completions to post, so I'm not sure if I'll get them all posted tonight or not.

Back of Beyond by C. J. Box

Category: Starsky & Hutch

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Cody Mitchell's AA mentor dies under suspicious circumstances. He and his partner Larry uncover a pattern and a threat to the Yellowstone horse pack trip of which his son is a participant. Before he can get there, an attempt is made on his life. Cody loses trust in just about everyone including his partner. The author does a good job building the tension in this installment. The characters are vividly drawn. The setting is well-depicted. While there is background to this story in the first novel in the series, readers can appreciate this second installment without having read the first. There was overuse of profanity in the opening and concluding portions of the book, but the heart of the story is relatively free of cursing. I listened to this one via audiobook.

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

Category: Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 1 star

Review: 16-year-old Sally Lockhart's father has died. She must fend for herself among some of the seediest and most unsavory characters of London. The book centers on a ruby which brings trouble and on opium dens. I hated this book. I hated the plot and the characters. I will not be reading the second installment of the series even though I have it on hand.

Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Lindsey Norris, former archivist and now library director at Briar Creek Public Library in Connecticut, sets out to prove that her children's librarian and friend from library school days, Beth Stanley, is not the murderer the local police chief wants to believe she is. With a charming cast of local characters, a book discussion of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca in the book's opening chapters, a pleasant setting, and a state investigator who appears to have more intelligence than the local chief, this cozy has a lot going for it. It is one of my favorite discoveries of 2013, and I look forward to the next installment.

Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlington

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Lila Wilkins is downsized from her newspaper job and immediately takes a position as an intern for a literary agency. On her first day on the job, a man dies in the reception area. It is determined to be murder. Lila, of course, has to pursue the story. There are quite a few other stories that all fit into the narrative, some better than others. Most of the characters are interesting. The relationship with the detective felt as though it developed a bit too quickly. In spite of its flaws, this was an enjoyable debut novel.

->16 thornton37814:
I enjoyed Night Circus a lot because of the beautiful imagery - I imagine it would make a breathtaking movie. The characters are kept at a bit of a distance, though, which is a shame.

->24 thornton37814:
I missed the group read, but it's high on Mt. TBR!!

->37 thornton37814:
"I managed to trade in more than I purchased"
Congratulations. LOL!

->52 thornton37814:
Oh dear, that's a shame. It's on my Mt. TBR along with the next two in the series, so I do hope I like it a lot more than you did.

Eva> I hope you enjoy the Pullman book more than I did. It may have been more of it not fitting my personal preferences than anything else. Other reviews were certainly more favorable than mine.

North Sea Requiem by A. D. Scott

Category: Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - R

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: Opening with the discovery of a bloody human foot in shinty uniforms and proceeding to the murder of the woman who made the discovery, Nurse Urquhart, the wife of the shinty coach, more goes awry before the culprits are found in this mystery set in Scotland. The setting is perhaps the best thing this novel has going for it. I failed to connect with any of the characters. I am not certain if this is because I have not read the previous installments of the series or not, but I feel certain that was one of the reasons. The opening showed promise. I was unsure if I was reading a horror novel or a mystery as events began unfolding. The middle part of the story did not maintain my interest. The pace in the ending picked up, but I felt that it went on a little too long. I am not interested in reading earlier or future installments of the series. This review is based on an advance e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Note: This book will be released 3 Sept 2013.

The Angola Horror by Charity Vogel

Category: Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - R

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review: Vogel provides readers with a detailed look at the passengers aboard a horrible train accident that occurred outside Angola, New York shortly before Christmas in 1867. She describes the tragedy itself, the reaction of the townspeople, the findings of a jury regarding the railroad's responsibility in the disaster, and the impetus for change it sparked. Vogel conducted extensive research at a large number of repositories studying a wide range of newspapers, archival materials, and other resources. I am impressed by her notes and bibliography of resources utilized in writing this volume. The narrative itself is readable and engaging. This review is based on an advance e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Note: This book is to be released 10 Sept 2013.

The Novice's Tale by Margaret Frazer

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: The aunt of a novice at St. Frideswide convent in 15th century England is determined to break her out before she takes her vows. When a pair of suspicious deaths takes place, Sister Frevisse must prove Thomasine, the novice, innocent so that she is not taken into custody by the incompetent man in charge of the investigation. It is a promising start to a long-running series that I am just discovering. I hope future installments give a better sense of the medieval time period than this one did. I did enjoy the mystery in spite of its flaws.

The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau

Category: St. Elsewhere

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Zeeta has had a rather unusual life. Her free-spirited mother Layla has never really settled anywhere so Zeeta has lived all over the world in her 15 years of life. She speaks numerous languages fluently. When they end up in Ecuador, Zeeta befriends Wendell, a 16-year-old boy from Colorado in search of his birth parents. This is a strange book that is a bit outside my usual reading genres. It is a bit too new age for my tastes, but I could see the book appealing to teen girls who enjoy fantasy of the whimsical variety. I listened to the audio version of this book.

Glad to see you had a good trip and you father is doing well. Nice bit of reading! Unfortunate that some of them weren't all that great, but at least you got in some good reading time!

Lori> Without Internet (beyond my iPhone), there were not that many options to pass the time.

Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon by Warren C. Riess

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Author Warren C. Riess provides a history of the Angel Gabriel which sunk off the coast of Pemaquid, Maine while tied up at harbor in the hurricane of 1635. The ship had carried passengers from England to the New World. It was near enough the coast that many of the passengers lived to tell their harrowing tale. While there are a few primary source records that survive to provide support for some of the passengers, the list he provides also includes some whose experience is recounted only through secondary sources. Reiss argues that this ship had been renamed a couple of times before its was named Angel Gabriel and that it was originally part of Sir Walter Raleigh's fleet. The tonage matches that of one of Raleigh's vessels, and he has found no conflicting evidence to suggest otherwise. He gives brief sketches of the passengers. He also details his search for the ship's remains from about 1976 to 1991. He noted that another group was interested in resuming the search as of the date of the book's authorship in 2001. This was an interesting read for me since I'm descended from the Cogswell family, which is one of the three families aboard for which primary sources exist. Now I just need to track down those sources for my own use!

And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - F

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: Betsy Devonshire is asked by a woman who owns a garden center to prove that she did not murder the woman next door. Betsy is not all that comfortable with the investigation because she doesn't really know most of the players. Meanwhile, Goddy's lover wants him to go into business with him selling coins, and Jill contemplates getting a private investigator's license although Lars is opposed to it. This series has lost some of its charm for me. I'm not really all that interested in some of the side things such as numismatics and really don't want them littering the plot of a book that I expect to be mainly about needlework. It seems that the author has perhaps lost her passion for needlework and is more interested in the other topics she explores which really have little to do with the murder at hand. While the dyes did have a bearing on needlework, the overall novel didn't quite hold together as well as her earliest novels in the series where cross stitch was the star.

Sounds like between you and lindapanzo Ferris' series is not holding up. Think I'll not rush o the next one in the series.

Cheli> I was definitely a bit disappointed in this installment. I got pretty excited about one potential development that I would love to see happen, but it became apparent midway through the book that it wasn't going to happen in this installment if ever.

Tomorrow I'm doing a talk at the Cumberland Gap Genealogy Jamboree. It's about 45 minutes to an hour away. I should have time to finish my audiobook on the trip. I'll then have to find another audiobook to download (when I take a break from packing) before I head to the airport on Saturday. I probably won't be able to listen to much of it during the following week, but I'll be able to resume it for the drive home.

What's your topic?

I'm doing my talk on Newspapers entitled "Cousin Harry's Tree Adventure and Other Newspaper Discoveries." Cousin Harry's tree adventure was one of the first interesting family stories I managed to locate in newspapers. I was fortunate that my mother was alive and remembered a little about her first cousin's experience when I found it. I suspect her Aunt Lorene, who was still alive, might have been able to recall some of it as well, but her memory was not as reliable by that time.

I did a class on Using Newspapers for Genealogy last month and will be doing a repeat class this month. We're lucky in that 25 years of our local newspapers are digitized and searchable on Newspaper Archive.

I did mention Newspaper Archive to them as one of the sources. I showed some free and some paid databases. However, I spent quite a bit of time showing the wide variety of information available in them that would be useful for genealogical research.

Sounds good. It's amazing how much information was available in old newspapers. I once found, by accident while looking for something else, a story about my great-grandmother falling down the stairs in her home.

Beth> Amazing what you really can find.

Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri

Category: St. Elsewhere

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Inspector Montalbano suspects something isn't quite right when the police accidentally crash into a car and no one has retrieved the note they left from the windshield. They find a murdered woman in the home. Suspicion falls to a mentally challenged young man who has a crush on the woman, but Montalbano suspects he did not do it even though superficial evidence points to the man. As usual, police corruption is a theme in the book. I found myself enjoying this installment very much as I listened to the excellent reading by Grover Gardner. I was quite amused by some of Montalbano's interactions with one of his men.

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - S

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Lady Julia Gray and her brothers have been summoned back to their country home in England for Christmas. There's a ghost roaming the halls, and it is not long before one of the guests is found dead. Suspicion falls upon most of them, and it is up to Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane to solve the murder as soon as possible to do as little damage as possible to the family name. There are relationship issues and subplots such as thefts that also add to the story and keep the reader interested while giving appropriate clues and red herrings to the mystery. The characters in this series are interesting. The plot held my attention fairly well.

Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry

Category: The Galloping Gourmet

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - F

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Wendell Berry was into sustainable agriculture and the local foods movement long before it became fashionable. Through a series of essays, Berry tells why more Americans should be farmers. I did enjoy some of his thoughts. For example, he believes the decline of the family is related to the decline of farming. Other comments are made to startle readers. For example, he characterizes Americans as lazy because they aspire for retirement ('doing nothing".) The quality of writing is fairly consistent and good throughout the series of essays, but the subject matter of some essays is far more interesting than that of others.

Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

Category: Match Game

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - F

Rating: 3 stars

Review: A young new vicar comes to the village with Lady Lufton's help. His lack of experience causes him to make a deal he will later regret. There are several romances blooming throughout the book as well. As in many Victorian novels, social position is a major plot element. While I had read one other book in the Barchester series of which this book is a part, it had been a long while, and I'm certain that my pleasure was diminished by not having read the other two and by the gap in reading the first.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

The absolutely only thing wrong with Vermont is that it doesn't have an ocean. Wonderful picture.

The cool thing about living on a small island is that you can witness both sunrises and sunsets over the water! Sunsets on the Pacific can be quite dramatic with the fog bank hanging out in the distance.

Max> Vermont does lack an ocean, but it does have Lake Champlain.

Mamzel> Sunrise and sunset would be nice! I get the great sunrises over the Atlantic when I vacation there (if I'm awake).

From Tuesday Night's Braves at the Padres game.

Last night Carrie Beth and I played a game called Bookchase with some of the other librarians. This game was one someone had purchased in the UK. You had to answer questions about books. We didn't win. We lost a book or two when we landed on some spaces on the board in our pursuit of a full bookcart.

That sounds like so much fun!

Stacy> We both enjoyed playing. We've added the game to our wish lists!

What kind of questions do you have to answer?

Stacy> Questions varied. I remember one of the questions asked how many men were in the boat about which Jerome K. Jerome wrote. Another asked which Bronte sister wrote a certain book. There were basically questions from 6 genres -- fantasy/sci-fi, mystery/crime, biography, travel/adventure, poetry/drama, and one more category that I'm not recalling at the moment. Instead of a pie with wedges, you had a bookcase you filled with books.

That game sounds like a lot of fun, Lori, and one that my family would enjoy, I will have to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Agreed - sounds like a great way to spend some time.

Judy & Stacy> I know I was glad to be introduced to it. I'll let Carrie speak for herself but she seemed to enjoy herself, and I think she added it to her wish list too.

Talk about flying nightmares! When I arrived at the San Diego airport yesterday morning, I discovered that my flight to San Francisco was delayed and would cause me to miss my connection to Washington, DC and then to Knoxville. They really had trouble finding another way to get me in but eventually found another flight into Knoxville with an open seat and then began trying to figure out a way to get me to Chicago so that I could end up on the flight (which happened to be the last leg of Carrie's return flight). They eventually found me a seat on a flight from LA to Chicago, but I would have to leave on a commuter flight that was boarding in about 20 minutes in a different terminal to get to LAX. I got on the shuttle to that terminal fine and grabbed a muffin and coffee. The nightmares were mainly at LAX. I found where I was supposed to head a couple of terminals away and got there and sat down. It wasn't long until they announced that our departure would move to the adjacent gate. We discovered that the reason was that after the pilot on the Honolulu flight became sick, they moved everyone from the Honolulu flight to our gate and plane and crew. Then they had to call a crew for our plane. We finally got a pilot for the plane, but the first officer had not shown up. We finally got a message that he was en route from Santa Monica to LAX. We ended up being 2.5 hours delayed in leaving LAX and made up about 30 minutes of that in flight. I'm glad I had a long layover in Chicago, because it allowed me to not miss a flight and thus eventually make it to Knoxville about 11:30 and to home by about 12:45 a.m. Brumley (my cat) has been next to me ever since, insisting that I pet him. My body had a horrible time adjusting to West Coast time, and now all I want to do is sleep because I'm not used to Eastern time any more. Hope I can adjust in the next couple of days.

Ah! The joys and adventures of air travel!

Mamzel> I think it just gets worse all the time. When we got to the gate in Chicago, there was a pilot there. I told him he didn't know how glad I was to see a pilot. It turns out he was just a pilot going along as a passenger on the flight to Knoxville, but he did tell us that there is a nationwide shortage of pilots right now and that he and the other pilots were finally glad to be in demand.

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly

Category: St. Elsewhere

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - S

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: This debut mystery finds Maura Donovan heading to County Cork, Ireland to honor one of her grandma's wishes that she visit the land where her grandmother was born and reared. As she begins visiting persons who may have known her grandmother, she drives by a scene and discovers that a bog body has been found. When it was determined to be under 100 years old, Maura, who has begun working at the local pub, discovers a possible identity for the corpse. There really isn't a whole lot of mystery to this first installment, but I loved the setting and characters. I had recently purchased a Michelin road map of Ireland at the used bookstore for a quarter and used it as I was reading the book to follow Maura along in her adventures in County Cork. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more in this series and am hoping that Maura becomes a bit more involved in sleuthing in future installments. I am glad that the author found a legitimate reason for Maura to remain in Ireland because the setting is quite unique compared to other books in the cozy genre.

What an ordeal on your trip back home. Glad it all got done, in the end. I don't fly that often but I think I take it for granted that I can go nonstop and direct to and from O'Hare. I had no idea about the pilot shortage. Interesting.

Linda> Yes. I'm glad that my return flights are over. I must confess, however, that I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see the Golden Gate Bridge or that they didn't offer to reroute me through Honolulu.

LOL

mamzel> Thanks for dropping by. I told my boss today that I would not have objected to being rerouted through Honolulu when I told him the story of my travel woes. He laughed and agreed that they should have offered that option to me!

Sounds like you had a good time at the conference, even if the trip home was more eventful, and stressful,that the average traveler expects.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see the Golden Gate Bridge or that they didn't offer to reroute me through Honolulu.

Wouldn't that have been nice. ;-)

Not only rerouted to Hawaii, but delayed for at least 48 hours or so!

I am glad that you make it home safely though, Lori.

Lori> It was a good conference.

Judy> You've got the picture on the rerouting through Honolulu part! I'm sure I couldn't have made the next leg and would have had to wait for a few days before the next available flight.

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

Category: Captain Kangaroo

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - S

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Patty Bergen is a young Jewish girl growing up in northeastern Arkansas. Her town is the site of a German POW camp during World War II. Her first encounter with the Germans is in her father's store. She befriends a German soldier in a community filled with prejudice. She realizes that he hates the Nazis just as much as those in the community do. This book was difficult to read, not because of the Nazi element but because of the physical and verbal abuse meted out by Patty's father. One cannot help but sympathize with Patty. I won't reveal too much of the story here so that readers may discover the plot for themselves.

This story has been around for quite a while. We have it in our library and is still checked out.

mamzel> Yes. I knew it was a classic of children's/YA literature, and as I was reading it, I realized that I'd read it before.

I read Summer of My German Soldier when I was in high school. Absolutely loved it.

Linda> I'm not sure when I read it, but I think it was as an adult.

Broken English by P. L. Gaus

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: A man who has just been released from prison begins journeying west. He stops in Ohio where he murders one man and then goes to the town of Millersburg in the heart of Ohio's Amish country. He breaks into a home and kills a young woman who returns home about that time. A local resident tackles the suspect before the sheriff's department arrives on the scene. The home into which he broke was the home of a former sharp shooter. The girl killed was the man's daughter. The father goes missing. The sheriff is convinced the man wants to kill the suspect in revenge. Pastor Cal Troyer is convinced the man has changed as a result of his newly found Amish faith. Professor Brandon believes Troyer at first, but as he continues to investigate, evidence seems to point to the sheriff's theory. Is the man out for revenge or not? This is one that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. This is a mystery that has more to it than meets the eye. I listened to the audio version of the book.

Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank

Category: Newhart

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - F

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Jackie McMullen is an army nurse who had been called back to New York from Afghanistan when her husband Jimmy, a New York firefighter, dies while fighting a fire. Their son Charlie is having trouble adjusting. Jackie decided to take Charlie to visit his grandparents on Sullivan's Island to heal. Her parents have been living separately for eleven years although they are not divorced. Charlie takes on a job tending the next door neighbor's dogs while he's at work. He quickly makes friends with some vacationing children from Greenville. He doesn't want to return home although his mom is determined to return to Brooklyn at the end of the summer. There's some great information on Poe, a touch of romance, and a pivotal hurricane in the plot. It's a perfect summer beach read--a true "comfort reading" book.

White Pine Books in White Pine, Tennessee is having a half-price sale Saturday and Sunday. Half off everything. If you will be in the Smokies, it's pretty easy to find. It's about one mile south of exit 8 on I-81.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat- S

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Kevin Roose, a student at Brown University, decided to take a semester away from Brown to enroll in Liberty University as a student with the purpose of writing a book. To Roose, a professing but barely practicing Quaker, Liberty offered about as opposite of an experience as he could imagine. He decided to enroll in courses that would be typical of Liberty freshmen in order to understand the Liberty culture as much as possible. He joined the choir at Thomas Road Baptist Church and joined in things like the spring mission trip, counseling sessions, Bible studies, and prayer groups. He came to realize that Jerry Falwell was sincere, not a phone, and that LIberty students were similar to college students everywhere, among other things. I really was not certain whether I would enjoy this book. I know many Liberty University students, staff, and faculty members. I was afraid that the book would treat the university much like the liberal media has done through the years. I did, however, find that Roose provided a treatment of the university that wasn't completely judgmental although he disagreed. He also acknowledged things he appreciated about Liberty. All in all, I'm glad I took the time to read this book.

Guess the book by the subject headings on the catalog cards: http://bookriot.com/2013/06/23/guess-these-books-by-their-catalog-cards/.

That was fun! I did pretty well. It helps when you've read the book they're referring to.

Mamzel> I had no problem with ones I'd read either.

Cool game! I couldn't come up with anything for #3 or #8, but otherwise I did well.

Christina> Glad you did so well.

Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons

Category: Newhart

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - S

Rating: 3 stars

Review: A woman from Charleston marries into a New England family that spends at least part of each summer at a colony in Maine called the Retreat. The story follows her from the time she first visits the Retreat until it will be up to her granddaughter to keep the colony safe from those who might destroy what it means to those who have spent time there. While the novel was well-written, I just didn't really care for the characters. Most of them were spoiled rotten and couldn't get along with each other, and I just failed to connect with them. Siddons does a good job depicting the area and portrays that social class well. Book is a bit long to keep most readers interested with the slow pacing of the novel.

I'm not doing very good at reading. I've been a bit distracted by genealogical research, and I haven't really connected with the book I'm reading like I had hoped. I should finish it tomorrow. Hopefully I can read something light and quick after that. My May ER arrived, so maybe I'll pick it up next -- or I may go with a quick mystery first.

The Summer of my German Soldier was one of my favorite books when I was a teen. I even remember the made for tv movie starring Kristie MacNichol.

Kelly> Now that you mention it, I think I do remember Kristy McNichol starring in that movie.

Thornton37814, I had a similar experience last month. I was tracing the genealogy of our local mayor and it wasn't going very well. (He has the nerve to be named Smith.) I couldn't settle on anything all month.

Beth> I ended up picking up the lighter book to break my reading funk. I'm still reading the other one, but I'm not on a schedule now with it. The genealogical research is still calling me though, so I'm not going to complain too much. I just may not manage to read everything I'd wanted to read this month.

A Timely Vision by Joyce Lavene and Jim Lavene

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - T

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Dae O'Donnell, the mayor of Duck, North Carolina, has a gift for finding objects. When finding a watch for an older resident, she discovers the body of her sister. Did a purse snatcher commit the crime? Did the sister of the deceased do it? In the meantime, new resident and former FBI agent Kevin Brickman gets Dae's help finding a missing key in the Blue Goose that he's renovating. She finds the key and another body. Now the police chief and his sidekick who proposes to Dae every chance he gets have two murders to investigate with the help of the SBI. This cozy has a lot going for it. I love the location in the Outer Banks. I like most of the characters that are certain to be recurring and can tolerate the ones I don't like quite as much. There's a bit of romance brewing that will probably pick up in future installments. There were enough red herrings to make the plot interesting. I was a bit surprised that the authors used a real town as their setting instead of making a name up for a town that resembled one of the real towns. The only thing I didn't really enjoy was some of the Occultic elements such as the Ouija Board and a seance. I'm looking forward to another visit to Duck, North Carolina with Dae and Kevin.

Ooh, I have this one on my list for soon...something to look forward to!

It's a fun one, Cheli.

Part of one of the area high schools collapsed today due to rain. Here's a link to the news story: http://www.wate.com/story/22776841/walls-roof-of-jefferson-county-high-school-co....

I hope no one was injured and that they are able to deal with the situation over the summer months, or will they need to consider alternate schooling for the students come September?

School starts back in one month. They'll probably have to use portable classrooms for things in that building would be my guess.

School starts back in one month.... but we just started July! Can you tell it has been a while since I was last in school? Portable classrooms are something I do remember from my school days so I can see how they would work as a temporary solution while the building structure is being dealt with.

I vividly remember portables, especially in the winter! At our school(s) they were often rather more permanent than originally intended.

> 129 - They were cold in the winter! I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it.

Lori> They start school ridiculously early here in East Tennessee. Of course, they get out really early too.

rabbitprincess> I've known several schools that have had portable classrooms far too long.

Lori> BRRRR. I'm glad I never had to endure one of those.

Rose Harbor in Bloom by Debbie Macomber

Category: Newhart

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Jo Marie's guests for this installment include a woman with stage 3 cancer who has traveled across the country when she has little strength and a family in which the grandparents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Jo Marie is hoping to get her roses planted before the open house, but her handyman Mark doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get the job done. She also receives word that the military is now able to access the area where her husband's plane went down to retrieve the bodies. The characters in this installment are well-drawn. I absolutely loved the grandparents who were bickering with one another. The woman with cancer also had an interesting story and reason for being in Cedar Cove. I enjoyed seeing the characters of Jo Marie and Mark grow in this series, particularly Jo Marie as she coped with a wide range of emotions, relating to her husband's "disappearance." This review is based on an uncorrected proof provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program with the expectation that a review would be written.

Additional note: I'm a little disappointed. The note that accompanied the book said that a preview of the upcoming Hallmark Channel's show Cedar Cove and a bookmark were included. Somehow they were missing from my package. I searched high and low for them. They were nowhere to be found.

After reading a couple of lighter things, I've managed to go back to the one book and make decent progress in a single night. If all goes well, you should see the review for it here Thursday as I should manage to complete it tomorrow night.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Category: Match Game

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Dellarobia, a woman living in Appalachia, comes across a large population of monarch butterflies. The story finds its way to a professor from New Mexico who makes his way to Tennessee to study them. We learn a lot about Dellarobia and her life as well as the butterflies, lambs, deforestation, and other biological themes. Kingsolver's writing is stellar, both in terms of plot and characters, but I simply failed to really connect with the plot and characters. Those who are not sympathetic to environmentalism and other causes will probably want to leave this one alone because it tends to champion what are often seen as left-wing causes.

Your Grown-Up Faith: Blending the Three Elements of Belief by Kenneth L. Parker

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: Alpha-Cat - G & T

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Author Kenneth Parker takes a look at the child's way, the youth's way, and the adult's way to belief by examining John Henry Newman's life and teachings. He calls these three aspects the "elements of belief" and shows how each is essential. It's fairly readable, but it is heavily entrenched in Catholicism and is going to be enjoyed most by practicing Catholics.

Christmas in July? I just snagged an ARC of one of this season's Christmas books on NetGalley so I'm going to do a little Christmas reading in July. The best part? The author's surname will fit the AlphaCat for the month.

I'm abandoning an audio book because 30 minutes into it, I really couldn't stand the narrator any more. She was just grating on my nerves. The book was Forsaken Soul by Priscilla Royal. It's the 5th in a mystery series set in a convent, but I decided to give it a try out of order because the audio book was available from my library. I haven't completely given up on the series, but I'll probably try to grab the first one instead of the 5th when I do.

Abandoning an audiobook because of the narrator is a valid reason. I have done that myself.... life is just too darn short to waste time listening to an annoying voice trying to tell you a story. ;-)

Lori> It was only annoying on some characters, but there was no way I was going to put up with it for the entire book.

The wireless at my brother's house has been up and down all week. I'm looking forward to getting home tomorrow or Sunday so I have real Internet. This Dish Network Internet is entirely unreliable. Looking forward to catching up on everyone's threads and reporting on my minimal reading.

In the Blood by Fay Sampson

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: Suzie Fewings's son Thomas Loosemore Fewings appears to be a suspect in the murder of his recent girlfriend. In the meantime, Suzie has uncovered a possible ancestor named Thomas Loosemore from the 17th century who murdered a clergyman. While the investigation is ongoing, Suzie's daughter Millie and her friend are stalked by a sexual predator. It is Millie's quick thinking that gets them out of the situation, but they must exercise caution knowing that he has not been captured. The threads of this story did not work well together. It stretched the reader's imagination to believe that Suzie would even entertain the thought that her son was guilty of the murder of his girlfriend just because some man with the same name who was a potential ancestor was a murderer. While I haven't given up on this author's genealogical mysteries yet, I certainly hope that the next one is more plausible and that the story's threads work better together. I did appreciate the author's listing of genealogical resources for that portion of her novel.

Tempest's Course by Lynette Sowell

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - T

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: Kelly Frost is a textile conservator who has been hired to restore a quilt at Grey House, a home to one of New England's early whalers. Tom Pereira is a veteran who was severely injured and is now keeping the grounds at the home. Both have issues with which they are dealing. Tom's is health-related; Kelly's is something that happened in a relationship in the recent past. Tom is also working other jobs. It's a romance that is growing, particularly when both discover they are both Christians. Of course, the issues from the past can always create problems in a relationship. I enjoyed the characters of Tom and Kelly. The author did a great job portraying them. The setting was interesting as well. Although it is a Christian book, the characters deal with genuine issues, including moral ones, and the book is not preachy in its presentation. The characters simply live out their faith. There is, however, one major flaw in the book. The owner of one place Tom is helping traces Tom's genealogy back about 150 years using census records. The problem is that the gentleman claims to have used both the 1950 and 2010 censuses in his research and that they included names and other information. Any genealogist knows that the latest available census for this type of research is the 1940 census which was released on April 1, 2012. The 1950 census will not be available under current laws until April 1, 2022. The 2010 census would not be available until April 1, 2082. There is a 72-year waiting period. Only demographic/statistical type of information is available for censuses more recent than 1940. I am certain that every genealogist, including me, would love to get our hands on those censuses ahead of schedule, but it isn't going to be happening and should not be depicted as such in a book. Since I read an advance e-galley of this book via NetGalley, I sincerely hope that the author and publishers of this book will correct this very big error prior to publication. It was quite enjoyable otherwise. As mentioned, this review is based on an advance e-galley of the book provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

I'm looking forward to watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" tonight on TLC. I'm so glad that another network picked it up when NBC dropped it. I downloaded tonight's episode from iTunes when it was released, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

I'm planning to read one of the 3 or 4 print books I have in process until it starts. I've got an audio book going too which I hope I can finish before it is "due."

I agree. I'm so glad that someone continued the series.

Incarnational Humanism: A Philosophy of Culture for the Church in the World by Jens Zimmermann

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: The book seems to be aimed at a graduate level audience rather than laity or undergraduates, particularly those who are not philosophy or theology majors. Familiarity with the jargon of both disciplines is essential to following the author's arguments. Sentences were so long that they often required rereading multiple times to understand the author's train of thought. There were some major omissions in the index, particularly of names of theologians whom the author mentioned in the text. While I don't agree with everything the author tried to say (and believe he could have said what he had to say in fewer pages with less jargon), I do think there are points for discussion in this book, particularly in a seminary classroom.

Beth> How did you like last night's episode of WDYTYA, or have you watched it yet?

Haven't seen it yet. I stopped my cable service, so I need to find some alternative way of getting ahold of it.

Beth> Someone said it was available on TLC's web site for viewing. It may still be available at iTunes and Hulu.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Category: Newhart

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - G & T

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Ave Maria Mulligan is the pharmacist in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Her mother was born in Italy which makes her quite different from most of the local population. She is quite active in the community, serving as an EMT, the director of the town's drama, and other things. She loves the bookmobile that runs through the community and considers some of the books as her own since she's about the only one who checks these titles out. Her mother has recently died. She wants to find out more about her Italian father and contacts some of her family in Italy to find out more about him. She's not really interested in marriage, but Jack Mac, a local miner, is interested in her. I expected to like this book more than I did. While the book does a good job depicting the small mining town in its geographical location, I didn't find myself warming to Ave Maria quite as much as I'd expected to do so. I felt the character development was not as full as it should have been. My favorite character was Iva Lou, the bookmobile librarian.

I ended up abandoning that one when I tried to read it a few years ago. It just didn't hold my interest. I've still got it and I may go back to it sometime. Or not.

Carrie> I think that I was expecting something more along the lines of a Jan Karon novel. It definitely was not one of those!

A Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer

Category: Newhart

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - T

Rating: 2.5 stars

Review: I'll have to admit that this book got off to a bad start when the author inaccurately described the winter months of the Nantucket area in the opening paragraphs. It's the story of the daughter of a divorced couple as she tries to come to terms with her father's new wife. While the story was somewhat heartwarming, the writing was somewhat dull. The setting itself and the subplot of her little boy and his love for a lonely pup were the best parts of the book. I received an advance e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley with the expectation of a review being written. Hopefully the description error will be corrected in the final version.

I sometimes enjoy reading Christmas theme stories in July but it doesn't sound like A Nantucket Christmas would work for me either.... I am a sucker for heartwarming stories but it sounds like this one misses the mark a bit.

Lori> I was disappointed in it. Maybe they'll fix the problems before it's published. I didn't include the specific errors in my review because we aren't supposed to quote from the book in case it isn't the final version. I did make remarks in the notes field to the publisher about the specific errors in the description.

Relatively Dead by Sheila Connolly

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 2 stars

Review: Abby Kimball moved to Waltham, Massachusetts with her boyfriend Brad who has taken a job with a Boston firm. She decided to do a tour of historic homes where she meets Ned, the docent, who finds her after she has a paranormal experience in the house. He suggests that she should try to find more about the owners of the house and about her own family history. He helps her get a job at a Concord museum where she gets to work with the schoolchildren who come to visit. Meanwhile, she and Brad seem to be getting along less and less. It's a romance novel so I won't ruin the plot for those who wish to read it. This book was not at all what I expected. I expected this to be a mystery because that's the genre with which I associate Sheila Connolly. I knew that the book had a genealogy angle which I enjoyed. I think I was hoping that it would be a mystery solved through genealogical research. What I didn't enjoy was the paranormal and unfortunately that was central to the book and to the genealogy plot. I would have loved to have seen Abby researching for a reason other than a paranormal experience. Although Abby was using records, never once did she mention citing her sources as she was entering them into her database. In fact, she seemed to be entering her information at a far more rapid pace than could be done if she was doing so. While that's probably typical of a newbie, it seems that Ned or one of the librarians encountered would have emphasized the importance at some point. I also felt that the ending was not wrapped up well. It just kind of ended. While I enjoyed the inclusion of genealogy in the plot, it was not enough to redeem the book for me.

Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Category: Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - T

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Nora Kelly, an archaeologist, wants to follow in her father's footsteps to find the ancient city of Quivira after being attacked by Skinwalkers at her childhood ranch outside of Santa Fe. No one knows the city's location, but a letter she found after the attack and some high-tech mapping from a satellite provide her with enough data to go in search of the city. Her team is an odd mix of people, including her boss' daughter, archaeologists with more experience than she has, a cook, a medicine man, technologists, a journalist, and a man to handle the horses. They know they must get our of the canyon before the floods set in so they must work quickly. Each person has his or her own agenda, and they are in danger from the skinwalkers. It's an archaeological thriller. I listened to the audio version, and the reader did a good job. This is a bit outside my normal genre of books, but it was an interesting setting and plot. It is a bit frightening in places. There's even a bit of romance for those who enjoy that element, although the very nature of the book makes that element take a back seat to everything else.

Now that I finally got that review posted, I'm heading over to Sevierville and Pigeon Forge to do a little shopping. I've got choir rehearsal tonight. I suspect that's my last completion of the month although I may be close to finishing the book I'm reading if I have some time left this afternoon and if I read after I come back from choir. A lot of "if's" there.

Death Threads by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Tori Sinclair, the new librarian in Sweet Briar, South Carolina, accompanies her friend Milo to a town event. While he lines up for the funnel cakes, she gets in line for the newspaper where she discovers that there is a story on page three that has the town rather upset. Colby Calhoun has written an article that revises the town's history. When his wife, the owner of the bakery, returns home one evening with Tori accompanying her, it appears that someone disliked him enough to do bodily harm when Colby is missing, and there is a trail of blood. Other threads in the story focus on people in the town, particularly in the sewing circle. I found the mystery in this one to be very predictable. I liked the project going on at the library to get new books in the hands of nursing home residents better than the mystery thread. Some of the recurring characters are likeable; others are irritating. Tori really had no good reason for involving herself in this investigation, but at least she had the sense to call the police chief to deal with it once she had solved it rather than endangering herself. I'm not in a hurry to read the next installment.

What great timing! I was just notified that I won Death on Lindisfarne from Early Reviewers. I have some friends who are traveling to a lot of historic sites around England and Scotland. This morning, they posted pictures of Lindisfarne. Now I can visualize where the book is set.

Serendipitous indeed! Sounds like a great trip -- the pictures must be nice to look at. Hope the book is good :)

Rabbitprincess> They have had wonderful photos for the last couple of weeks. I'm sure their trip is winding down. I know he was presenting at a conference in Cambridge or Oxford, but they have certainly made the most of the rest of their time in the U.K. I hope the book is good too. I guess I'll find out after it arrives.

It will probably be awhile before I check LibraryThing tomorrow. After church, I'm leaving for a real vacation. I plan to relax, read, enjoy the beach, enjoy historic sites, and enjoy someone else's cooking. I'm headed for the Charleston area and taking the cat along. I will try to post a few pictures as I have time.

Enjoy, Lori!!

Linda> I plan to do just that!

Have a great vacation, Lori!

I just heard from Lori. She made it to Charleston but she doesn't have internet access at the campground where she's staying and she had to drive to the other side of town to get a phone signal. She had hoped to check in some while she was away but it looks like we might not hear from her until she gets back.

I can soooo identify with the lack of signals at campgrounds. Hope she's enjoying herself anyway!

Thanks for the info, Carrie. With schools around here starting two weeks from today (already!!), I figure a lot of people must be on vacation.

Lack of signals in a campground is a good sign for a relaxing, technology free vacation, at least I think it is! ;-)

Lori> I had fun.

Carrie> Thanks for providing the update.

Jean> They said that they had wifi, but it was really only at one building with a little bleed over to nearby places. Apparently, I'd always stayed in one of the closer cabins with the bleed-over signal when I'd been there before. I did, however, let them know that if they advertise that they have wifi available that it really should be available at every site and cabin.

Linda> I was trying to sneak in a last minute vacation.

Lori> Well, the cell phone did eventually have a signal which cut in and out a lot. I could at least do some stuff, but I figured LT wasn't going to work very well.

I have several books to review, but you'll have to wait on them. I'm too tired to think about writing reviews at the moment.

Where were you? I stayed at Edisto Beach once and had a lovely vacation.

MDGentleReader> I stayed in Mount Pleasant. Edisto Beach is lovely though.

Blueberry Blues by Karen MacInerney

Category: The Galloping Gourmet

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Natalie is hosting the clambake at the Gray Whale Inn. Everything is going well until some of the residents begin to clutch at their stomachs. It appears that poisoning may be the culprit, but who would want to mar the event in such a way. Natalie sets out to investigate. It's a very quick read and a decent plot for a mystery short story.

Six Women of Salem by Marilynne K. Roach

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - U (in a subtitle word)

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Roach has taken the lives of six women affiliated with the infamous witch trials of Salem Village and told their story over a longer period of time than just the trials. In telling these six lives, she has also touched on the lives of others who were accused and convicted. The author has done a great deal of research on each of these women (and a few others as well), but I found her method of documentation very annoying. Instead of using footnotes or end notes with numbering at the locations where documentation was needed, she instead chose an unconventional end note method which gave the chapter title and then a rough topic and the source. I disliked this very much because I really did not know if the author was citing her sources or not until I got to the end, since I was reading an electronic version of the book. I am fairly certain that she omitted documenting some pieces of information that needed documentation because of her method. I think that her documentation method makes this most useful for casual readers and sadly, only a marginal read, for more serious students of history and genealogists. I was delighted to find several mentions of my 8th great grand-aunt Mary Perkins Bradbury in the narrative although she was not one of the six subjects. There was not a great deal that I had not learned from other sources, but it was interesting to read about how much her accuser had disliked her. (Her accuser was one of the six.) This review is based on an advance e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth - Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - H

Rating: 3 stars

Review: The authors provides suggestions on reading and studying the Bible, including chapters discussing how to approach the various genres of writing in the Bible. Their efforts, however, were a bit marred by the authors' own personal biases when it comes to matters such as Bible translations and even theological biases. Persons who disagree with specific parts of the faith of the authors will have issues with the authors' approach to certain things. Still, it is overall a good work on how to study the Bible that will be enjoyed by many persons wanting to improve their comprehension of Biblical texts.

The Vicar's Wife by Katharine Swartz

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: The story set forth by author Katharine Swartz has a modern story and a back story. The back story involves a woman who became the vicar's wife in a small seaside village of England in the 1930s, continuing through World War II. The modern story involves a family, and specifically the woman of the family, which purchases the vicarage when the church moves the vicar into a more modern facility. The family includes a man (Andrew) who grew up nearby in England, but has spent the last 16 years of his life in New York City. His wife Jane was the manager of a non-profit in New York City and really has no desire to fit into the community in England. Her children embrace life in the village, although a few are initially hesitant. While she's trying to paint a pantry, she discovers an old shopping list belonging to the former vicar's wife and becomes intrigued by it. She wants to learn as much about the woman who wrote that list as possible. I liked the historic story more than the modern story, but primarily because I just didn't really like the character of Jane that much. I loved her husband and kids and even the other locals, but I never really identified with Jane, probably because I can't imagine even considering doing the horrible things she did to harm her family because of her own selfish desires. This review is based on an electronic galley received by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

I'm caught up for the moment. I'm almost done with an audio book. I have less than an hour left on the one I listened to on the trip. I'm also nearing completion of another NetGalley title. After those, I have an ER book that will be up next, followed by about 4 more NetGalley books.

I will pass on the story Blueberry Blues, but I have to say that muffin/ cake on the cover looks really good!

Congrats on being caught up with your reviews! I like NetGalley but I have stalled on reading any of the books they offer this year. The selection is really good but until I break down and buy an e-reader that is good for reading PDFs on (I don't have any urge to purchase a Kindle), I have to read the NetGalley books on my computer and that just gets annoying and inconvenient after awhile. If only they (meaning all the publishers that offer books through NetGalley) would offer books in ePub format....

I hope you are having a lovely weekend, Lori.

Lori> If I did not have an acceptable e-reader, I wouldn't be enthusiastic about NetGalley either. I have the Keyboard Kindle which has its limitations, but I'm pretty happy with it for what it does. I'm probably going to purchase an iPad as my own Christmas present this year. That will solve some of the problems with the cookbooks that I'm lusting after on NetGalley.

As most of you can imagine, I couldn't leave Charleston without purchasing a new book or two . . . better make that three!

The lucky books that got to come home with me were:

The Circular Church: Three Centuries of Charleston History by Joanne Calhoun
South Carolina and Barbados Connections: Selections from the South Carolina Historical Magazine
Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names by Claude and Irene Neuffer

The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament by Edmund P. Clowney

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - U

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: The author studies characters and passages from the Old Testament and explains to the reader how Christ is revealed through the passage, the character's life, or similar means. This book lends itself well to personal or group Bible studies because of the discussion and application questions accompanying each chapter. If my pastor were not so wonderful at explaining many of the concepts covered in this book, I'm certain I would have gotten much more out of it than I did. There are many other places in the Tanakh that Christ can be discovered. This book is not intended for an academic audience, but more for a lay audience that it is interesting in deepening its knowledge of what the Bible, and specifically the Old Testament books, teach about Christ. The book is also not comprehensive. This review is based on an advance e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Hi Lori, I hope you are enjoying your trip to Chaleston. Even though the main character sounds like a non-desirable, your review of The Vicar's Wife has caught my attention. (And I want to find out about the horrible things she did to her family!)

Judy> I don't want to say too much about the horrible things because I don't want to give away a lot of the plot. I do think there will be a lot of people who will enjoy reading it. I think it comes out November 1.

I Never Thought I'd See the Day!: Culture at the Crossroads by David Jeremiah

Category: The Flying Nun

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 4 stars

Review: Dr. Jeremiah takes a look at cultural trends that he never thought he would see in America but which have come to pass. Most of these trends are at odds with Christian morals or go completely against Biblical teachings. He offers advice to Christians on how to stand firm in these days. He offers a lot of insights into a lot of cultural trends which are basically Satan's war against the church. I have not read three earlier books mentioned which had been written in the years immediately prior to the one in which this was written, but I would be interested in picking these up. This book had been on my radar since it was first released a couple of years ago, and I discovered it was available on audiobook from my local library. I decided to listen to this on a trip. I found that it kept my attention. I found myself nodding and "amening" in several places. Although Dr. Jeremiah read only the introduction, the narrator did a good job delivering the message of Jeremiah's book. The chapters were a bit long for audiobook chapters, but there appeared to be subheadings in those chapters that persons reading the physical book (or e-book) could take a break. Each chapter dealt with one topic so the breaks were logical. I would recommend this book for a series of discussions such as could be made in typical Wednesday evening church classes or other small church or Christian study groups. There's plenty of fodder here to create some great discussion.

The Accidental Law Librarian by Anthony Aycock

Category: The Tonight Show

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Many times librarians find themselves having to field questions for which they've received little training in library school. Aycock, who landed a job in a law firm's library after earning his degree in library science, tries to set forth a few helpful hints for persons who have little experience. He states in the book that his audience is public librarians who are fielding such questions, but it appears he is confused about his own audience because in places it sounds like he is addressing those working in law firms. I found the book to be pretty basic and not as useful as more detailed introductions to law librarianship as those intended for courses on the topic. He makes the remark that law librarianship is only occasionally taught in library schools any more. While I did not have a course in the subject, a significant part of my social sciences reference course dealt with law reference. I discovered that little has really changed in the 20+ years since I took that course. Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw are still the primary databases; most of the standard reference works and types of materials are still the same. A few more things are online than used to be, but as the librarian responsible for government documents in our library, I was already aware of many of these since quite a few are government information sources. If you've had good exposure to legal reference sources in the past, skip this book and refresh your knowledge with a more in-depth book. If you truly have had no exposure to legal reference, this might be a good place to start. This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program with the expectation that a review would be written.

My new grandnephew has made his appearance!

Congratulations!

So cute!

Congrats on the new grandnephew!

Congrats!! :)

Adorable!

Exciting news! Lori, he's gorgeous, definitely a keeper!

Max, Betty, Lori, rabbitprincess, mamzel, Judy> Thanks. He's definitely a keeper.

Today my nephew sent me a text message with a photo of Sawyer's ear. He was proving to me that he was a Thornton because Thornton ears tend to be on the large side! He told me that even the nurses had commented on his ears.

Hidden Heritage by Charlotte Hinger

Category: The Waltons

CAT Challenge: AlphaCat - H

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Lottie is a historian who is employed by the Carlton County Historical Society, but she's also the #2 person at the sheriff's office. Her husband became a deputy just to protect her. They are called to the feedyard when a man's body is discovered there. They call the KBI in as required. The KBI lacks confidence in the abilities of almost all western Kansas law enforcement, but Lottie sets out to prove them wrong. Through her work at the historical society, she uncovers a possible motive. The head of the murdered man's clan is a medicine woman, and Lottie begins to study under her so that she can document the ancient craft for the historical society. I found the historical element to be interesting. There were a few pages near the end of the book that did not hold together well for me, but after I got past those pages, it went back to being the excellent read that I'd found throughout the rest of the book. This review is based on an advance egalley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purchases. It was my first exploration into this series, but it will not be my last. I predict most genealogists will find something to like about this book.

Note: Release date according to NetGalley is December 3; according to Amazon.com, it is November 5.

This week's acquisitions:

From Amazon.com:
Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America by François Weil

I'm excited about the genealogy book. I've seen a couple of folks posting about this one on Facebook. One was asking if anyone had seen it; a couple of folks responded that it's good, but that it's deep.

Gift (at work from a university trustee):
His Parables - published by Integrity Publishers

I'm keeping it at work to read a devotion to start off each morning at work.

Book Haul from White Pine Books' 40% Off Sale:
Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck (Donut Shop Mysteries; #2)
Killer Crullers by Jessica Beck (Donut Shop Mysteries; #6)
Drop Dead Chocolate by Jessica Beck (Donut Shop Mysteries; #7)
A Taste for Murder by Claudia Bishop (Hemlock Falls; #1)
Not a Creature was Stirring by Jane Haddam (Gregor Denmarkian; #1)
Why Mermaids Sing by C. S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr; #3)
The Last Templar by Michael Jecks (Knights Templar Mysteries; #1)
The Dumb Shall Sing by Stephen Lewis (Catherine Williams; #1)
The Merry Devils by Edward Marston (Nicholas Bracewell; #2)
A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow (Kate Shugak; #2)
Killer Mousse by Melinda Wells (Della Cooks; #1)
Virginia's History by Raymond C. Dingledine, Jr., Lena Barksdale, and Marion Belt Nesbitt
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
The Spanish Inquisition by Cecil Roth

I will still have to fill in #3, 4, and 5 in the Donut Shop series, but at least I have #2 now. I bought the others while I could get them at such a great price.

I picked up the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery because of the price, but I haven't begun the series yet. It sounded very good, and I've seen good comments here on the series.

The book on Virginia history is a children's textbook from the 1950s. It was 40% off $1.50. I couldn't pass it up.

I picked up 3 books that were not on my radar at all but which sounded interesting (and were all historical mysteries)--the ones by Jecks, Lewis, and Marston.

Sounds like quite a haul for you. I've got a Wrigley Field weekend and did not make it to our Friends sale.

I'm hoping the touchstones will eventually cooperate up there, Linda. It was a good haul!

Fancy a Cuppa by the Cathedral? by Simon Duffin

Category: The Galloping Gourmet

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: This is a book for tourists to England who want their cup of coffee or tea after visiting the local cathedral. Each entry tells a little about the cathedral, although it does not go into great detail. Sometimes a bit of information about the city is included before giving information on the cathedral itself. If the city or cathedral has been featured on TV (such as Dr. Who) or on film (such as Harry Potter) that information has been included. After the cathedral information, the author first talks about the coffee shop(s) and then the tea room(s). The entries typically tell a little about where the coffee is acquired, how many varieties of tea are offered, types of cakes or baked goods offered, and maybe a bit more. I've always heard that one had difficulty locating a decent cup of coffee in England, but this book makes it seem as though a good cup of tea is more difficult to find. It seemed there were a lot of places where one or more coffee shops were listed and the author had no tea rooms to recommend or where the tea room had recently closed. I only recall one instance of a coffee shop having recently closed in the narrative. There were several tea rooms which only offered tea of the bagged variety. The writing was very informal and did not follow the practices of good grammar. It's a fun take on a travel book, but the shear number of places that had recently closed illustrates how quickly the guide becomes dated, making it a non-essential purchase for most. I received an advance e-galley through NetGalley from the publisher with the expectation that a review would be written.

Meme Fun:

If you could eat dinner with 7 fictional characters, who would you choose and where would they sit? (Picture a circular table where you are situated between guest #1 and guest #7)

I'm following the lead of some of you and using only books read to date in 2013:

1. Father Jean Marie Latour - Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
2. Patty Bergen - Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
3. Iva Lou Wade - bookmobile librarian - Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
4. Professor Michael Brandon - Broken English by P. L. Gaus
5. Sam Blackman - A Murder in Passing by Mark de Castrique
6. Miss Read - Village School by Miss Read
7. Jackie McMullen - an army nurse who had to return stateside to care for her son when her NYFD husband died while fighting a fire - Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank

->199 thornton37814:
Sounds like a great idea - tea after a cathedral is a must, after all - but any travel guide that mentions current shops will get dated very soon. Internet to the rescue. :)

Pity about the datedness, but love the title! The concept might work better as a website/blog.

I agree with Eva and RP, great idea that would probably work better as a website/blog, to keep the information up-to-date.

I see you have a varied guest list for your dinner... a minister, a professor, a nurse and librarian should lead to some interesting conversations!

great haul!

Eva> Yes. It was a fantastic idea.

Rabbit princess> It probably would work better in an online format.

Lori> I'm just sad that I had not read the new Gamache book from Penny so he could be on my list. I might have to revise the list after I've read it next month.

Cheli> I thought so too!

I've had some computer issues the last couple of weeks, and I finally ordered a computer yesterday and got it today. (I decided to pay a whopping $4 for overnight shipping.) I'm still getting things set up, and I've got to transfer stuff, but so far I like the new computer. It's a little lighter than my old one, but the screen is about the same size. The new one is a Dell; the old one was a Sony which has lasted about 3 years longer than I ever expected it to last! Now I have to get accustomed to Windows 8. I haven't reached a verdict on it yet.

Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion

Category: St. Elsewhere

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 1 star

Review: Capucine is a desk lieutenant for the police in Paris, but she's anxious to hit the streets where the action is. Her husband is a food critic. As she seeks a transfer, an opportunity for which she is qualified presents itself. A man has been found dead in the food cooler of a high-end restaurant. She and the team she got from a vacationing officer set out to investigate. I hated this book, and I'm not quite sure why I finished it except to see if the author might pull it off in the end. It was flat from start to finish and the mid-section was absolutely the worst. The author seemed to be confused about his genre. It had elements of a cozier police procedural as well as elements of a thriller. It simply did not work. As much as I love foodie mysteries, this is one series I won't be continuing

Rotten to the Core by Sheila Connolly

Category: Murder, She Wrote

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3 stars

Review: Meg is beginning to figure out what she needs to do to make the orchard productive and has hired Bree, a graduate student recommended by Christopher, to manage the orchard. Then she discovers the body of a young man who was not well-liked in her springhouse. She didn't know him, but he was the advocate for a group that wanted to avoid pesticides. Who wanted him dead enough to kill him? In the midst of this, Meg is learning more and more about orchard management, adopts pets, adjusts to farm life, and begins to find love. I don't think this is great literature, but it is a fun read. I probably learned more about pesticides and their use than I ever wanted to know. The part I loved best was when Meg took a bit of time one day to research the history of her farm. I don't think many readers will be surprised by the identity of the killer, but there are some interesting developments in getting to the revelation.

Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck

Category: 27 Aug 2013

CAT Challenge: None

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Suzanne Hart owns Donut Hearts in the village of April Springs, North Carolina. A demonstration tour is underway in the town when its organizer suddenly turns up dead, holding a donut from Suzanne's shop. The donut has been laced with poison. Who wanted to see Peg Masterson dead? Suzanne doesn't have a lot of faith in the ability of the local police chief, and her boyfriend, state detective Jake Bishop, has a family medical emergency that keeps him back in Raleigh part of the time. She decides that she must investigate if they will get to the bottom of the case. The recurring characters are likeable. I think Suzanne's mom's character could be more fully developed though. I'm not certain that Jake would have been assigned the case with his personal involvement to one of the suspects. It's a fun read in a series that is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I would encourage potential readers to start with the first in the series because this installment definitely builds off the first one as far as character development is concerned.

I started this series earlier this year and will probably read the second one in my challenge next year. Or maybe toward the end of this year. Have to see where I can fit it in.

Betty> Glad you enjoyed the first one. I hope you'll enjoy the second as much as I did.

Yesterday we had a cannon aimed at the library. One of the other librarians and myself had our photo made with the cannon. The ROTC folks actually offered to let us fire it, but we told them we'd take photos instead.