Max's 14 Memorable Lines

Movies are one of the favorite things in our house - besides books and board games - and no matter what happens someone always has a movie quote to fit the occasion.

*Change of plan*
I am hoping to read at least 140 books in total - no category minimums. And, I am going to try to have 60% (85), at least, from off my own shelves.




I am hoping that all my reads for the CAT challenges will fit into my 14 sections (my catch-all should make sure of that.)

1. Hard Case Crime Books & Other Pulp Fiction

You know how to whistle don't you, Steve?


1. Jan 15 - The Corpse Wore Pasties by Jonny Porkpie - OMS
2. Jan 17 - Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block - OMS - Really bad ending!
3. Feb 25 - Blood on the Mink by Robert Silverberg - OMS

2. Police Procedurals

Sandwiches for us, for the guests in the front room, but not for the police. The police shall receive no sandwiches.


1. Jan 01 - Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming - OMS
2. Feb 21 - A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson- OMS - MysteryCAT
3. Feb 22 - The Excursion Train by Edward Marston - OMS - MysteryCAT

3. Disasters - Real, or imagined; Man-made, or natural.

I had. A bad. Experience.


1. Jan 25 - Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo - GeoCAT - US and immigrants
2. Feb 23 - Ten Hours Until Dawn by Michael Touglas

4. The Big Con, The Amazing Heist, Thieves to Cheer For

Ten oughta do it, don't you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more."


1. Jan 27 - The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan - OMS

5. Private Eyes

What do you do this crummy job for, anyway?


1. Dec 31 - Three Doors to Death by Rex Stout - library read. Enjoyed the first story the most. January CATtrick
2. Dec 31/Jan 01 - Fer de Lance by Rex Stout - OMS (off my shelf) MysteryCAT
3. Jan 02 - Archie Meets Nero Wolfe by Robert Goldsborough - OMS - MysteryCAT
4. Jan 04 - The Trojan Colt by Mike Resnick - OMS, MysteryCAT
5. Jan 06/07 - The Black Mountain by Rex Stout - OMS, MysteryCAT
6. Jan 08/09 - The Rubber Band by Rex Stout - OMS, MysteryCAT
7. Jan 12 - The Silk Train Murder by Sharon Rowse - MysteryCAT, GeoCAT (Canada)
8. Jan 16 - The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout - MysteryCAT
9. Jan 18 - The Red Box by Rex Stout - MysteryCAT
10. Jan 21 - The Lost Mine Murders by Sharon Rowse - MysteryCAT, GeoCAT (Canada)
11. Jan 22 - Murder in Belleville by Cara Black - MysteryCAT - OMS
13. Jan 28 - The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz - MysteryCAT - OMS

6. Ladies

Never underestimate a man's ability to underestimate a woman.


1. Jan 04 - Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich - OMS
First 2 weeks in Feb - OMS:
2. Murder in the Sentier by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
3. Murder in the Bastille by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
4. Murder in Clichy by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
5. Murder in Montmartre by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
6. Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
7. Murder in the Rue de Paradis by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
8. Murder in the Latin Quarter by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
9. Murder in the Palais Royal by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
10. Murder in Passy by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
11. Murder at the Lanterne Rouge by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
12. Murder Below Montparnasse by Cara Black - MysteryCAT
13. Dakota by Gwen Florio - MysteryCAT
14. The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith - OMS - MysteryCAT

7. Foreign Lands

Moldova? Can we go?


1. Jan 28 - The Last Hand by Eric Wright - Canada - OMS

8. JP, JF, & YA

He's only a kid, Harry, we can take him.


1. Dec 31 - The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater - OMS
2. Jan 01 - In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lond - GeoCAT (US/focus on immigrants)
3. Jan 21 - Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
4. Feb 16 - The Adventures of Robin Hood by Paul Creswick - RandomCAT (Children's Lit) and unofficial AlphaCAT (R & H) - OMS
5. Feb 16 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - RandomCAT (Children's Lit) - OMS
6. Feb 17 - The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum - RandomCAT (Children's Lit) - OMS
7. Feb 18 - Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum - OMS - RandomCAT (Children's Lit)
8. Feb 19 - Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - OMS - RandomCAT (Children's Lit)

9. Spies, Thrillers, Adventures

Whose gonna save the world, Marty? Greenpeace?


1. Jan 05/06 - Ice Cold Kill by Dana Haynes - great read! - OMS

10. Amateur Detectives - the non-professionals, the 'in it by accident' types

Damn, We're in a tight spot.


1. Jan 26 - The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley - OMS
2. Feb 18 - It Was a Very Bad Year by Robert Randisi - OMS - MysteryCAT
3. Feb 18 - You Make Me Feel So Dead by Robert Randisi - OMS - MysteryCAT

11. Steampunk, Fantasy & Sci-fi

How many dragons do you know?


1. Jan 03 - In the Cube by David Alexander Smith - MysteryCAT -
2. Jan 14 - Old Man's War by John Scalzi
3. Jan 20 - To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
4. Jan 24 - The Doctor and the Dinosaurs by Mike Resnick - OMS
5. Jan 30 - The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi by Mark Hodder - OMS

12. New Releases - books by authors I'm already reading

I'm the player to be named later.


1. Jan 13 - Blind Justice by Anne Perry

13. Unread Authors on the Library shelves - All those mystery authors I haven't even sampled yet!

I think it only fair to warn you. I am a librarian.


1. Jan 05 - Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson - GeoCAT

14. The Miscellaneous Catch-All Basket

You're gonna need a bigger boat.


1. Jan 10 - Diary of a Village Library by Caroline M. Lord - January Unofficial ALPHACAT - OMS
2. Jan 31 - The Old Man Mad About Drawing by Francois Place - OMS
3. Feb 28 - Measuring Eternity by Martin Gorst - OMS

Love the picture and quote from O Brother Where Art Thou? Such a good movie.

Great theme! I like the quote for your catchall category -- substitute "house" for "boat" and it describes my book situation ;)

Happy to see The Italian Job above!

It HAD to be there - one of my favorites and that was such a good moment. We use that line a lot.

I love your theme! It's so funny my brother and I do movie quotes all the time; our most used are just about every line from
The Godfather, and Dirty Harry.

You've 'made my day'! One time in the car we carried on an entire 'conversation' using just quotes...

Lots of interesting categories here, I'm looking forward to following along for another year. Am I giving my age away when I say that Paul Newman still looks pretty yummy to me!

Great theme - I'm another one who annoys my surroundings by quoting movies at them. :)

Great theme - got you starred.

Your movie quotes made me smile. Have fun next year!

Thanks, you too!

The movie quotes are fabulous!

I had. A bad. Experience.

I so want to re-watch that movie, right now! :-)

I know! I have given up trying to keep track of how many times I have seen it. And there are soooo many good lines in it.

"Home Alone"!!! That was my brother's favorite movie as a kid, so I have seen it a ridiculous number of times.

My favorite scene was when he went shopping...

Love this theme.

Looking forward to seeing which mysteries you read!

Cool theme, so many possibilities of books to read!

Two books by Rex Stout and a JF book have started my year. Three Doors to Death serves as a Cattrick as Wolfe is an immigrant, it takes place in the US, 'door' is in the title and Wolfe and Archie are private detectives.

Sounds like you have a good start to your 2014 reading.

Well, I am by myself for yesterday and today and with no tele reading seemed to be a good way to start the year. Just had some 11's (tea and toast) and am going back to finish the new Spencer-Fleming book.

Happy New Year

I'm having tea too! And cookies. But they are oatmeal chocolate chip so I am pretending that that is a valid breakfast choice ;) (I did also have cereal.) You're off to a great start in 2014!

Good grief girlfriend, that's the excuse I use when I have pie for breakfast (my fruit for the day)!



Just finished Through the Evil Days. It's a four star book, but my favorite is still One Was A Soldier. I met Julia Spencer-Fleming at Bouchercon and she's one very nice lady.

I have set aside so many books to read this month and I want to read them all - just can't figure out which one should be next.

That whole series is great. I'm always afraid that the latest book will be the last.

Well this one ended with a lot of loose ends so I am looking forward to the next one. I wish they weren't so far apart.



My other entry for today is the junior fiction book In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, one of the books I chose for the GeoCat's focus on immigrants. This book tells the story of a ten-yr-old girl that comes from China with her mother to join her father. It is 1947.

LOL! Great lines! I'll be stopping in to see what you're up to from time to time. What did you thing of In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson? Was it sort of sweet, or did it have teeth?

It was sweet. 'Shirley' (the American name she chose to use) is only 10 so it basically covers the pains of not fitting in at first, missing those back in China, etc. She becomes "American" through baseball - played at school as stickball, and as a Dodger and Jackie Robinson fan.

Archie Meets Nero Wolfe is a good Nero Wolfe pastiche, but you would not mistake it for the real thing. The plot is good, well-crafted, the characters are all there, but there is a mysterious 'something' missing. Archie's wise-acre attitude, maybe. Goldsborough has other Wolfe stories, but I think if you are looking for the 'feel' of a Wolfe story you should try the four novels by William F. Love. His characters are different, but they are closer to the real thing.

Ah, that's what I thought. Sweet, so probably appropriate for the younger crowd and an entertaining read, but not deep.

Right, a good junior fiction, although I found it interesting that the 'adult' books that deal with immigrants never show the children's experience.

And the children must experience it so differently! A lot of kids seem to adapt quicker than their parents, but they've also can have a more raw experience. We all remember how cruel kids can be to other kids.

I'm still catching up on threads so thought I'd stop and wish you a happy New Year.

In the Cube by David Alexander Smith could go under private eyes, ladies or sci-fi since it all three.

Beverly O'Meare is a licensed private detective in a very different future Boston. She is investigating a disappearance which appears to be a kidnapping. As with a lot of science fiction the story involves deeper issues; in this case, family relationships, memories both personal and racial.

Excellent character development, very interesting aliens (especially Bevs partner) and a good mystery to boot.

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich was my next read. I put her in my 'ladies' category as I really don't feel she fits as a 'detective'. Love how after twenty books I still laugh out loud.

I love her too - I think #18 is next for me (I think I have her plugged in for the series CAT)

ETA: she's one of the few that I will actually laugh out loud

Well #20 is a hoot!



The Trojan Horse by Mike Resnick is the second Eli Paxton mystery. Eli is an 'old-school' hard-boiled private eye. I quite enjoy him, but the key to the mystery was pretty clear quite early on. Not the details, just the key.

One of those many mystery authors I hadn't read before was Victoria Thompson. I chose her Murder in Little Italy to start with as it focused on an Italian immigrant family in NYC and would work for a GeoCAT. One of the sons marries an Irish girl and when she is killed riots break out between the Irish and the Italians. The uncle in the Italian family is the leader of the "Black Hands" and Tammany Hall is leading the Irish cause. It is part of a series called 'A Gaslight Mystery' which I may go back to later.

I love the Gaslight Series by Victoria Thompson, Max. It's one of the better American historical mystery series.

Great thriller read - Ice Cold Kill by Dana Haynes. Complex, action packed, a kick-ass lady heroine.

I thought Nero Wolf had a bungee cord attached to him that kept him from getting too far away from his brownstone. But in The Black Mountain Nero packs up and goes off to Montenegro with Archie in tow. Not only does he go - he hikes, rides and flies.

>55 mysterymax: And, if memory serves, not once did he ever get out of breath :)

Well, his feet did hurt quite a bit at one point.

No reading today, it's been a bad day. This morning I had to have the vet come out and put my dog to sleep.

And yesterday our pump froze and cracked (it was -20F) and I had water in the basement. So today I also had to find a plumber and get a new pump put in.

So, I think I am going to eat something and go to bed. Tomorrow will be better and I can finish The Rubber Band then.

Sincere condolences. So sorry to hear about your dog, it is such a very sad event.

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. Sending hugs and hoping tomorrow is better.

Sorry to hear about your dog, I also hope tomorrow is better.

I'm sorry, Max. The pump is a pain, but it's so hard to say good-bye to an old friend.

Thanks, all. She was a wonderful dog. She was found in the woods by some friends who lived in NJ most the year and didn't feel they could keep her. If I was in the house she wouldn't leave my side. Sometimes it was a bother because if I sat down to work on the computer she would sleep right up against the chair and then I couldn't get up! If I went to get a cup of coffee she get up and follow me to the kitchen, lay down and then get back up again and follow me to my chair. We called her our '45 mph couch potato' If she was in the house she was laying down but get her outside and she was running. She loved to run. You would go for a 'walk' with her up the hill and she would run around near you, but when you turned to go home she would wait until you were almost to the driveway and then come running full speed, pass you, slowing down with the uphill driveway and be waiting at the door. Almost laughing like she had fooled you. The next little while is going to be painful. And - the pump got fixed.

And I finished Rex Stout's The Rubber Band when I woke up in the middle of the night and was wide awake.

I have been where you are and my heart goes out to you. Glad the pipes are fixed. That was a totally unfair complication for you.

I'm so sorry about your dog. Our's is getting older and I dread the day I'll have to say good bye.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I know how hard it is to lose our furry friends.

Lovely story about your dog - now we will all remember her fondly. What a great character.

Thanks again everyone, it is amazing how just having the thoughts of you all makes some moments easier.

Oh, it's so hard to lose a dog, and so hard to decide it's that time. My thoughts are with you.

So sorry to hear about the pup - such a difficult thing to go through.

It's so sad that pets always live much shorter than we do... You know they won't survive forever, and yet it's always a shock when they pass away :( Given the fact that she had to be put to sleep I'm guessing she was sick or injured? Maybe it's a bit of a comfort that she's not suffering anymore now, that's for the best in a way.

She was really old and deteriorating neurologically. She often could not get to her feet and if she was up she fell down, she was confused, didn't seem to hear and wasn't very interested in eating. Every morning she seemed better than the night before so I would put off calling the vet but by evening she would be in a very bad way. She was too big for me to lift and didn't really want to be touched around the middle. The night before she was really in a bad way, she peed on the floor because she couldn't get up and was very distressed and my heart was breaking to see her so I steeled myself and resolved that I would call the vet first thing in the morning. We have the most incredible vet in this town. My husband is away usually all week and just here on the weekends so she has been my companion in a real sense. She wasn't a good conversationalist,(!) but other than that she was a perfect dog.

aww, so sad when they get so old that they can't do anything anymore. It's best for her, now she has peace... Hope you don't get too lonely during the week, I can imagine that makes it even harder. At least it's almost weekend, so your husband will be around :) I wish you lots of strength the coming weeks, you'll be in my thoughts :)

Thanks Britt. This is probably a question that was answered years ago - but where did you get the elephant?

Haha, well, it's not my elephant of course (wish it was, I'd like a pet elephant, but they eat too much ;)); the picture was taken in Thailand when I was on vacation there a couple of years ago. Lovely country, and they have reserves there for the tame elephants that used to work in the foresting business and are now out of work since cutting down the rainforests has stopped. You can visit the reserves and since the elephants are used to working with humans they're very tame and you can ride them, feed them and play with them, it's so much fun!

Nice. My youngest daughter - now married with three kids - spent one summer during her college days working in an orphanage in Thailand. She really liked the people - and the food!

Stopping by and getting caught up here. Glad to see the pipe issue has been dealt with and very sorry to read about the loss of your canine friend.

>76 mysterymax: Yes, Thailand really is a great country. The people are so kind and hospitable, the nature and wildlife are gorgeous, there's lovely temples to visit, and the food is amazing. And there's tame elephants. Really, what more could a person want in a country ;)

Catching up on threads and wanted to add my condolences. So sad when you have to say goodbye to a family pet. She sounded like a good friend. {{Hugs}}

Thank you.

Another entry for the GeoCAT challenge. The Silk Train Murder by Sharon Rowse is a historical mystery set in the late 1800s in Vancouver, BC, Canada. John Lansdowne Granville undertakes to clear his friend of murder, gets a client who will pay for him to do so (making him a private detective even though detectives probably weren't licensed at that time), and at the end forms a private detective agency.

This book is not strong on historical atmosphere, but this is Rowse's first book and as such it was quite strong. I intend to read her other one in this series as well.

Adding The Silk Train Murder to my future reading list.... I am a huge sucker for historical fictions set on the islands or lower mainland of BC.

Lori, would you do me a favor, I tried to load the image for The Silk Train Murder, but it isn't showing. I must have forgotten something but I can't figure out what. Can you take a look? (Into #81)

I took a glance at the source code and it looks like the book image location information is missing from the image code - I see img src="" with nothing between the quotations. Below is the URL image location information for the cover I saw displayed on the book page:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/078671946X.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Insert this URL information (or the URL for the cover for your copy if it looks different) between the "", and you should get the image to display, like this



---------

I took a look again an realized I looked at the wrong section. Is this the text below (minus the pointy arrows)?

img src="http://pics.cdn.librarything.com//pics/tt2.png" height="16px" width="16px" alt="Top"/>

If yes, that appears to be a URL location for a link launcher, not for the image itself.

Hmmm, I "is" confused. I never had problems getting images in before. We have a library board trustees meeting tonight, so I am going to put this effort on hold until tomorrow!

Also finished Blind Justice by Anne Perry. It was more about their friend Rathbone than the Monks. Very good as always with Perry.

>81 mysterymax:+ I had the same problem when trying to post images recently of the books I was currently reading. Some worked, some did not. I checked everything thoroughly and could see no error. In the end I gave up thinking it may be a temporary thing and will work later.

Good to know that I'm not going nuts!



Just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I enjoyed the concept, the action, the suspense, the humor. As with Redshirts I found that there were parts that made me ponder facts of our real lives.

hmm, somehow I must of put the wrong number in my ticker without noticing. So it will just sit there at 29 until I really get there. Has anyone ever subtracted numbers on their ticker?

Yes, you can edit the ticker to subtract numbers.

Darn... no luck on the book cover image fix?

>90 virginiahomeschooler: Thanks, I will give it a try. How embarrasing!

>91 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori, it worked! Now I will try to do it for all my 2014CC and hope I have the kinks out.

The Corpse Wore Pasties was lots of fun. The killer's identity was not that hard to figure out, but the dialogue and atmosphere made up for that.

"So here's how I wound up running at top speed across the Brooklyn Bridge, half-naked, in the middle of the night, pursued by all five members of a heavy metal band."

Now that is a most interesting sentence! Great title, too. I saw that book at the library a while ago and told my BF about it, except when I said the title I pronounced "pasties" with a short "a", like the Cornish delicacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty). (The pasties of the title are of course pronounced with an "ay" sound.) Hilarity ensued.

LOL! My imagination is running wild with the possible implications.

I can see Stout's book get better with each new one. This was much better than Fer-de-Lance, but not quite as sharp as The Rubber Band. Cramer has switched to cigars, but he is smoking them.

>94 rabbitprincess: Useful if she gets hungry during all that running around, though. And an honest mistake given that the author's name is Jonny Porkpie.

Very good!

Haha! I didn't even (consciously) notice the author's name! And yes I imagine running across the Brooklyn Bridge would help one work up an appetite.

It was Jonny that was running across the bridge, so it's even funnier.

The Red Box by Rex Stout was the next in line. I am quite enjoying reading them in order. At the end of this one is a description by Stout of Wolfe's office and he says there are only three paintings and lists them. The one of Sherlock Holmes is not there, however in one of the first three (I forgot which) Archie mentions the painting as being above his desk.

Maybe Wolfe had the paintings switched between books.

WHO would give up a painting of Sherlock Holmes??????

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is either a quiet, gentle science fiction book with a bit of a mystery (a missing Bishop's bird stump), or it's a cozy, humorous mystery with a bit of science fiction (time travel).

The search for the missing bird stump involves several intrepid time travelers, Ned and Verity especially - three men in a boat, to say nothing of the dog - a cat that has time traveled - Wilkie Collins book, The Moonstone - Agatha Christie's Piorot - Lord Peter Whimsey - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - spiritualism - jumble sales - two great butlers - the Magna Carta - the Battle of Waterloo - the bombing of London and most important of all (as all science fiction lovers, or Back to the Future fans know) - the space-time continium!.

Oh yes, and it is also several love stories.

The Lost Mine Murders is another historical mystery set in the Klondike during the Gold Rush Era. Granville and Scott are hired to help a miner get to his mine and bring back some gold. It's winter, not the best time to go into the mountains. Their client is shot and killed and both Scott and Granville are wounded.

It is sad that so far there are only the two books in this series. I would enjoy more of them. This is another book set in Canada for the January GeoCAT and well as the detectives category for MysteryCAT.

This was a fun junior fiction book. Mystery, puzzles, mazes, clues, teamwork, friends and best of all - it makes the library a truly fun and remarkable place to be.

@ 104 -- Aww, I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog! Sounds like you enjoyed it as well -- I hope so!

I did enjoy it! Nearly laughed out loud every time they talked about the 'space-time continium' Great Scott! It was kind of slow at the beginning and I was wondering why I kept reading it, but I couldn't stop. All the references to our favorite sleuths ... too good.

Set in Paris, this series features private detective Aimee Leduc. It has good plots, a strong female lead character and the city of Paris described in such a way as to make you feel you are a native of the city. This is the second books in the series. Each of the books takes place in a different area of Paris. Belleville is the area where the Algerian refugees live and they are at the heart of this one.

I'll be reading more of Aimee while we focus on Series in the MysteryCAT.

>109 mysterymax: Nice, a Soho Crime edition! I love the colored spines & own a bunch of them for that reason. I might have to track this one down.

I didn't like the first of the Aimee Leduc series. I did buy several of them before finding that out though - which led to my resolution to never buy a book by an author if I already have one of their books on my TBR. Usually, I keep this resolution.

I did like that each book is set in a different quartier of Paris and I learned things I hadn't known about the Marais when I read the first one.

edited to add that I love the Soho Crime imprint.

That Klondike mystery and that one for younger readers look interesting. I have a Cara Black novel languishing on my TBR pile. I may have to dig it out for February series month.

I liked the Klondike. It was second in the series; the first one only had the Klondike and the gold mines as background as itt actually takes place in Vancouver. This one revolved around a mine - much more atmosphere.

The junior ficiton book had a Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory feel to it.

Yahoo! Whoopie! Oh, Happy Day! My copy of The Doctor and the Dinosaurs by Mike Resnick just arrived! I am half way through Dark Tide but I have to put it down, climb into my chair and treat myself! I was so afraid that Doc Holliday wouldn't make it to another book, but it looks like Geronimo has offered him a year of restored health for a favor. Good ole Geronimo. I am off to not emerge until the book is done!

So glad that you liked To Say Nothing of the Dog - such a fun book! I just gave a copy to my parents to read and they looked at me kind of strangely as I tried to explain what it was about. :) Hope they give it a chance.

And here I thought the Doctor in question was Doctor Who ;) Enjoy!

>116 rabbitprincess: You would! I forgot to tell you that I saw an artists work a week ago. She does artistic owls, each had a name and the owl I liked best was, of course - Doctor Who. Next time I go up there I will try to get a photo. You would probably enjoy this series, best enjoyed if you start with the first - The Buntline Special.

Another crazy tale. All the regulars are there - Doc Holliday, Geronimo, Teddy Roosevelt, Ned Buntline, Thomas Edison. Wyatt Earp is absent, however.

Doc is about to die and Geronimo appears at his bedside to offer him a deal. One year of recovered health if Doc will take on a task for him. Sounds like a good deal to Doc, not realizing that 'recovered health' means how he was when he first met Geronimo and that he would have to deal with dinosaurs called forth by some Comanche medicine men and two rival paleontologists. Buntline and Edison are there to invent a weapon that might bring down a whooping big dinosaur.

I give it only 3.5 stars instead of my usual 4 for two reasons - There were illustrations that I felt did not live up to the story or the cover art, very disappointing and Doc didn't say 'huckleberry' even once. But I still loved it and hope that Geronimo still needs Doc.

It's amazing how books, seemingly unrelated, can be linked. Last year I read a junior fiction book, 13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau. In it, through time travel, a boy in Boston meets other boys of his age who lived in his room over a long period of history. One of those boys relates the story of the Molasses Flood. I couldn't believe I had never heard of this event. And neither had anyone I talked to.

Dark Tide tells the story, beginning in December,1915, when a company is underway in its plans to build a 50 foot tall storage tank to hold molasses. It discusses at length the situation regarding the Italian immigrants that lived in Boston's North End, where the tank was being built. It talks about the molasses and Rum and Boston's participation and role in the slave trade, the move to needing molasses to make industrial alcohol to be used in munitions due to the beginning of WWI. It also discusses the unrest by anarchists who made frequent use of bombs throughout the country.

On January 15, 1919, the tank collapsed sending out a 15 feet high wave of 2.3 million gallons of molasses, weighing 26 million pounds, at 35 mph to sweep away houses, railroad elevated rails and a police station not to mention men, women, children and horses.

The rest of the book concerns the hearing that finally (in 1925) found United States Industrial Alcohol, one of America's biggest companies, guilty of negligence. USIA contended that the collapse was due to an anarchist's bomb, a claim that was shown to be faulty.

The book is well researched and well written. It flows in an easy manner. There are photographs taken in 1919 and it isn't easy to see details in them.

Max, that one has been on my wish list for awhile. I was just told that it's a Nook deal today for $2.99 so I may get it if I have my gift card with me and enabled before it expires. I don't think I have it with me at the moment.

Great string of reviews and love the book covers that accompany them! Great job! I really need to get around to reading Connie Willis... good thing there is a group read planned for later this year. ;-)

Who knew that molasses could do so much damage - or that so much of it was stored. Dark Tide is a book to watch for. Thanks for the great review.

I saw that deal for the nook yesterday and mentioned it to my husband because I thought he'd like it. But I don't think he did anything about it. Maybe I'll just sign on as him and see if it's still a deal today and order it.

Nope, it's not

Maybe your library has a copy or can get one through inter-library loan. It is well worth the read. I had no idea that there had been so many bombing in the US at that time. It was also a surprise to me to find the reasons behind the feeling of distrust towards Italian immigrants. In fact, anyone who wants to follow up on the GeoCAT focus would learn a lot. Politically they had no power as they didn't take out citizenship (at the time) and so had no voice in where the tower was built.

This was the most serious, so far, in the series. There is a murder but Flavia is focused on the return of her mother's body and only realizes who the murder must have been at the last moment. Fortunately, Insp. Hewitt is one step ahead of her this time.

The book also marks a big change in Flavia's life. I have no idea where the series is going to go after the twist at the end. I only hope that we will still see all the elements of Flavia's life that we have come to love - like Dogger.

When my family first moved to the Caribbean, there was a rum factory right in town on the waterfront. Every so often they would release effluent into the bay turning it horribly brown and sickly sweet smelling. Soon after we moved there they opened a sewage treatment plant and stopped dumping in the harbor. After a few years it was clean enough to swim in.

I finished TDiTVA this morning and loved, loved, loved it. I hope Flavia will be able to get out of that decision in the end. I have faith in her!

Flavia is my favourite series since I started reading mysteries when I was a kid. My library has had The Dead in their Vaulted Arches on order for ages. I may have to buy my own copy.

I put a request for it a couple of months ago when I first learned it was coming! So glad I did.

Plugging my ears re: Flavia...I have The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches on my shelf right now (got it from the library), but I'm saving it until February for the series MysteryCAT. It's very hard to wait!

It's only a few more days!

Was going to put this into my "con" category but after finishing it I decided to put it in the 'hard case crime' section.

It started off pretty okay - a con man that you can see is being conned himself. The middle was very good. But the ending is so awful, so noir that it is too black to be 'noir'. It seemed too over the top for the character. Basically a bad ending.

Too bad as I have enjoyed all the other Block books I have read so far.

TWO STARS

After my last read I needed to treat myself to one I knew I would enjoy. The Good Thief series became one of my favorite after reading just one. Chris Ewan is one of my favorite writers - a charming, charming man.

And enjoy it I did. This is the first book in the series. Charlie is a burglar, he is also a writer of mystery novels so he has the talent of looking a various scenes and putting two and two together.

This one involves an old diamond heist, a new murder and three monkeys that 'hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil'. I loved it.

The Last Hand by Eric Wright was the 11th, and I guess the last, of the Inspector Charlie Salter series. Charlies is now almost 60 and facing mandatory retirement but he has been one last big, sensitive case.

A prominent, upstanding attorney has been killed, knifed in his apartment. It is believed that the last person to have seen him was a hooker in silver books, but she can't be found. The case has gone cold with the other policeman working the case and Charlie is called in.

I've read several of this series over the years and they never fail to be a good read.

Putting this in the 'foreign lands' category means that this month I managed to read at least one book for each of my categories.

Nice work on balancing the categories! And I should see if my parents have The Last Hand. They have a few Charlie Salters.

I'm go have my other-half look for some. I had one from the library where he and his wife have gone to PEI for holiday and one other one so I would like some more as well.

The Spellman Files is the first in the series and the first one I have read. I enjoyed it, and might read more. I have to say though that I like Evanovich's Stephanie Plum more.

This rounded up my MysteryCat books to an even dozen.

I know you like mysteries, but that is impressive. Can you keep the streak going next month? That'll be an easy one for mysteries since they are usually part of a series!

You're right! And I am so glad that we have a mysterycat! Makes filling goals soooo much easier! I have several 'last one' of a series' that I am hoping to clean up and I want to make a series dent in my Cara Black pile. (I know she's not your favoite) :)

The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi is another chapter in the steampunk lives of Sir Richard Francis Burton (of Nile fame) and poet Swinburne. Adventure from beginning to end.

Oooohhhh..... a Mark Hodder! I seriously need to get started reading his books.

Read them in order. There was so much time between the third and the fourth that at times I felt I should have gone back and reread the third first! I also found it interesting that - not being British - I didn't recognize that the Clockwork Man and Spring Heeled Jack were actual people. I love the way he has taken people from the era and made them different than they were in real life. He has a section at the back where he tells a short 'real' story of the real people. Great adventures, imaginative characters and all sorts of wonderful steampunk mechanical creatures.

The Old Man Mad About Drawing was a wonderful way to end the month. A simple tale of a young boy who becomes an assistant to the great Japanese artist Hokusai. This was a BB that I got sometime back and I thank whoever it was that recommended it. Without LT I might never have known about this book. How lucky I am!

Definitely intrigued by The Old Man Mad About Drawing. On the wishlist it goes.

I am way behind. Have been sick with pneumonia -again. Went to the doctor and have been on meds for two weeks, going back today. Since I had to be up I thought I would try to get a few things in here. The amount of 'unread' threads is too much to deal with so I will just say hi to everyone and get my lists somewhat up to date.

January In Review

Books Read: 33
Reviews Written: 13
Categories Read: 14
Off My Shelves: 20
New Authors: 11

Book That Left Me Breathless: Ice Cold Kill by Dana Haynes
Mystery I Enjoyed the Most: The Red Box by Rex Stout
Biggest Disappointment: Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block
Honorable Mention: The Corpse Wore Pasties by Jonny Porkpie - a fun read

MysteryCAT reads: 13
GeoCAT reads: 5
RandomCAT reads: 1
CATtrick: 1
Unofficial AlphaCAT: 1

For Feb reads I have been in hubby's recliner - reading and coughing until the meds put me to sleep. I have devoured the Cara Black series and will enter them when I feel up to doing another entry. Next I have to read my ER book, which is also part of a series.

Talk to y'all later.

Get well soon!

Take care of yourself and let the reviews slide.

Hope you're better soon.

Maybe you should avoid those "books that left me breathless." tee hee

Get well soon.

So sorry to hear how ill you've been, rest up and hopefully you'll be back on your feet soon.

Feel better soon!

So sorry to hear about the pneumonia - hope you feel better soon!!

I've been given two new meds for the next week. I do think these are starting to work.



I finished up all the books I have on my shelf in Cara Black's Aimee Leduc series. Even though the series has some shortcomings I do enjoy them. Each takes place in a different part of Paris and you actually come to learn a lot of the tensions that exist in the different quarters due to the influence of different immigrants in each. (Sort of taking one into that 'immigrantion' focus of last month),

The main thing that I don't like is Aimee's fixation on her 'missing mother'. This is a theme that is in too many characters where the lead is a female... Aimee takes it to such an extreme that she endangers her business, and her life and sometimes the lives of her friends.

What I do like though are the characters and I will probably continue to read the series.

Dakota by Gwen Florio was an ER book. I wasn't surprised when I won it as I have so many mysteries in my collection and the only LT copy of A History of the North Dakota Geological Survey which deals with the regulation of the oil and gas industry in North Dakota.

Given the topic and the outstanding history of the author I expected to like the book. But I didn't. I really could not like the main character, Lola. She is self-centered, and acts without thinking about the results of her actions. I found it hard to believe that someone who acted as rashly as she did would come out of her foreign assignments alive. Her actions in this book not only endanger herself but bring about the deaths of three people.

I didn't like the fact that the only women being held were the missing Blackfeet women. I didn't think that would have been the case. I think there would have been others as well, but that wouldn't have fit in with the plot.

I didn't like the picture she paints of having no 'honest' police anywhere near the camp. While the boom has brought in thousands of workers and there is an increase in crime, there is also a big increase in the number of law enforcement people and a big increase in the cooperation of different forces. So I found it hard to believe that this situation could exist so totally in isolation that no one would have reported it or aroused some suspicions about the camp.

I also found the ending unbelievable.

I saw a Cara Black novel that has been around the house waiting to be read for a long time the other day. I need to read it this year!

I've been a bit behind myself. Hope you're feeling better soon.

A good reread of a classic story. Robin Hood is like King Arthur and Sherlock Holmes - he must have been real!

Another for the RandomCAT for this month. The complete original illustrations made this a delight.

Max> When I saw your cover, I immediately began singing "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz . . ." from the movie I watched as a child.

>160 thornton37814:
I've finished the second and am now on the third. When I was a kid my Dad used to read aloud on Sunday afternoon and we went through all the Oz books, but I haven't read one since and really didn't remember any except the first (because of the movie). Great fun. Biggest difference between the movie and the book - the slippers were silver, not ruby!

Oz books will also go in the RandomCAT for Feb! This one had Jack Pumpkinhead, the Saw-Horse and the Gump as well as the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman.

Catching up on the Rat Pack series - In this one Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped. I enjoy this series for the memories and the characters of Eddie G, Jerry and the rest.

Eddie G's detective friend, Danny, is arrested for murder. Elvis, Dino and Frank all pitch in to help Eddie G and Jerry clear him. Fun read.

Okay - how did I not know that there was a Rat Pack series? Anything involving Dean Martin, or a fictionalized version is a must read.

What is the first book in the series?

Ditto LittleTaiko, though for me the biggest draw is Elvis...

The first one is Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime. Enjoy!!

This third book was the first that was meant as part of a 'series', the ending providing a means for Dorothy to return to Oz. Here she also meets Tik-Tok.

Here Dorothy is reunited with the Wizard of Oz. The portrait of him shows him very different from how he appeared in the film version.

I enjoyed this installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective series. My only complaint was that we didn't learn how they resolved the two cases they were working on. I would liked to have seen the culprits get their 'come-uppence'.

This is part of the Walt Longmire series. It matches the rest of the series in having a good plot, great dialogue, great creation of the country, and characters that are 110% alive.

One thing that sets a well done historical mystery above others in its genre is when the crime really fits the period. Too often you can take the crime and put away the period trimmings and you have a story that could be a modern day story. The crimes in Edward Marston's Detective Inspector Colbeck mysteries really fit the Victorian period. Nothing is out of place in his books. While this is the second in the series, it is the third one I have read and they are excellent. Colbeck is known as the 'Railway Detective'. He is a Scotland Yard detective, but his love of trains and his ability to solve the crimes committed on the railways sets him apart. The Excursion Trainwas excellent, and you could easily read it without having read the first one.

I keep seeing Edward Marston's books around and meaning to try them. Good to know that The Excursion Train can stand alone.

I have never heard of Marston's Detective Inspector Colbeck series before but you caught my interest with mention that it is set in the Victorian period! I will be keeping an eye for this series.

I hope you both enjoy the series!

Extremely well written, Ten Hours Until Dawn grips you, even though you know the outcome. Tougias includes stories beyond the one pilot boat, the Can Do; those of the Coast Guard vessels and other ships in peril during the terrible storm. A very good read.

Blood on the Mink is a pulp crime story (novella) by the great SF writer, Robert Silverberg. An undercover agent is sent to Philadelphia to break up a ring making phoney money. The story moves quickly; there is beautiful dame, several dead bodies and twists and trouble enough. Fun read.

Love that vintage cover!

Me too! I think that's one of the reasons I enjoy the Hard Case Crime label.

What an excellent read! Measuring Eternity traces the search for the time the Earth was created, a search that began as early as 400+ years AD, and ultimately the birth of the universe as well.

It covers the scientists we are all familiar with and those we have probably never heard of. It covers the exciting 'real' discoveries and the amusing 'mistakes'. It shows the great scientists, such as Newton and Einstein, making 'right' discoveries and their heartbreak when they were sometimes glaringly wrong.

The books shows the wide range of disciplines that were involved. The early naturalists - working to find answers through biology, fossils, geology and later the chemists and physicists.

The book is well written, telling you a tale of search, rather than being pages of data and formulas. It is a tale of people.

It's even fun. At the end of the 1600s, people were trying to explain how fossils were buried in so many layers of the earth, - if they had been deposited by the Flood. One explanation was that 'the water for the Flood came from an interior ocean hidden beneath the Earth's crust. In the normal state this was held in place by gravity, but at the time of the Flood, God had momentarily suspended the full force of gravity and the water had spilled out.' Later when God restored the gravity the fossils were sank by their density - therefore the heavier ones being lowest.

A nice ending to February's reading.

February In Review

Books Read: 26
Reviews Written: 3
Categories Read: 7
Off My Shelves: 26
New Authors: 4

Book That Left Me Breathless: Ten Hours Until Dawn by Michael Tougias
Mystery I Enjoyed the Most: You Make Me Feel So Dead by Robert Randisi
Biggest Disappointment: Dakota by Gwen Florio
Honorable Mention: Measuring Eternity by Martin Gorst

MysteryCAT reads: 17
GeoCAT reads: 0
RandomCAT reads: 5
CATtrick: 0
Unofficial AlphaCAT: 1

>180 mysterymax: Hi, great review and I'm always looking for good books about popular science, meaning accessible and fun, so thanks ! Oh, the title is Measuring Eternity.

Yes, it is... a mental senior moment! Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for the catch.

Looks like a good February! I love the titles of the Randisi series. I read the first one and found it amusing.

You had an amazing month of reading, and all of them off your own shelves!

I am making a real effort to read my own books, and being confined to home this month kept me from the temptation of our library's collection!

I think it is time to start a new thread, a new month being a good break.