Book #83 - Anything Goes by Jill Churchill

When I was in middle school, I read a book called "The Westing Game". It was an interesting mystery where you were introduced to a whole bunch of characters and the main character had to figure out who committed the murder. This book reminded me of that one very much. It is a short, who-done-it set in 1931. The main character and her brother were formerly living large off their father's extravagant wealth are left penniless and skill-less after the stock marked crash. These two find out their long lost uncle has died and has left his home and vast fortune to them, if they can survive 10 years living in his house. As they arrive to this small town outside of NYC, they find out that the uncle may have been murdered, and they set out to find out who did it. I suspected who had done it, but didn't put it all together until the author finally clued us in. Good little short one that is quite entertaining but doesn't require much brain power...just what I need right now.

Book #31 - Blind Side by Catherine Coulter

Don't confuse this one with "The Blind Side" which is now a major motion picture. This is last year's book by Catherine Coulter in her FBI series. I got hooked on this series back in college when my mom's best friend Fran gave me a copy of "The Eleventh Hour." I enjoyed it so much that I caught up on the whole series. This is one of the authors I follow for new books and purchase immediately. When this one came out in paperback, I immediately went to Amazon to order. Just to be sure I hadn't read it, I was reading the synopsis and reviews on Amazon. Interestingly, this book got shredded by the reviewers. As I started the book, I immediately got wrapped into the suspense and action. I thought the reviewer was crazy. However, I have to admit I was very disappointed in the last 50 or so pages. There was tons of buildup but then a very big letdown that the story had no depth. It was kind of like a bad made-for-TV-movie. I stuck with it to the end, and I have to agree with the reviewers, I was disappointed in the level of this work compared to her other books. Almost as though she tried to cram a mediocre book in just because she knew her avid followers would read it anyway. If this is the first book you read by Catherine Coulter, please try another because I did not feel it was telling of her work. On a side note, she does do her homework...it is fact that the Tennessee training center for police officers is in Donelson, TN...just across the street from where I work!

Book #30 - Prime Cut by Diane Mott Davidson

I finally finished the last 50 pages today. I have this unwritten rule when I read: if I'm within 100 pages, I typically finish it before going to bed. I was down to 50 pages on Friday night. So now the logical question is why did it take so long to finish? Well, if you've been watching the news, my home is in a now very wet Nashville, TN, and we have experienced the worst storms followed by flooding in the city's history. I have just finally started to peel myself from the news and activities surrounding the flood. Although our little house on the top of a hill was just fine, the school I teach at had 4 feet of water covering the entire bottom floor. You can imagine the heartache and bedlam of the last few days. But, back to the book. Started really slow and there were too many characters introduced early. But, the mystery finished pretty good. I don't think this was one of her bests, and unless you really like Diane Mott Davidson, I don't recommend it.

Book #17 - The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson

I know all of my avid readers are wondering where in the world I've been. Like the NHL, I took an Olympic break. As I write this, we are waiting for the overtime of the USA/Canada hockey game. The Olympics are fantastic!!! How could I take a break from 2 hours of curling to read? Therefore, my New Year's Project had to take a back seat.

This book was excellent. By far the best of hers I've read. She went a totally different direction in this book than in any of the others. Rather than the main character, Goldy, finding a dead body or needing to prove who did it to save a friend, there was no body...just speculation of foul-play. This book had everything suspense, excitement, rotten cops, several near-death experiences, and of course delicious food. This story resonates the ugliness of people in our world and the triumph of friendship and love.

Book #14 - Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke

So if you haven't figured out the pattern by now, here it is. One heavy, intense book followed by a brainless, forgettable book. It helps me to keep from having emotional meltdowns every book I read. This is the eleventh book of the series starring Hannah, the cookie store owner. She is the ultimate busy body. Every book, there is a murder in their small town, and Hannah is always involved with finding the body and capturing the bad guy. This book was funny because literally every person in the town was coming to her asking her to solve the case (even the local police). It was like the Scooby Doo Gang. She solved another one, managed to dodge having to chose between the two men who have proposed to her, and created a half a dozen new cookie recipies. It was good. Not profound or life changing, but entertaining none-the-less.

Book #4 - The Chocolate Snowman Murders by JoAnna Carl

Today was a "snow" day. I put snow in quotations because they canceled school at dinner time last night just thinking it might snow. The funny part is that it didn't start snowing until 10:00 today and stopped by 2:00. Even funnier than that is that they've already canceled for tomorrow. My theory is that all of the superintendents' of schools wanted to stay up late to watch the National Championship Football game. With it being a "snow" day, I thought that a book with "snowman" in the title would be a sensible choice. JoAnna Carl wrote another entertaining, short, murder mystery. I am stuck on several series like this one (others include Joan Fluke and Diane Davidson Mott) because they are fun, light, easy reads where you never have to worry about the main characters being killed off. What's funny about all of these is that the leading women in each of the series are the chief "investigators" in every murder in their small-town communities. You'd think they'd learn and butt out. As I was reading this, I was thinking about what I would blog and how I could possibly entertain my regulars (led by my Dad) with a no-brainer book. And just as my mind floated to that concern, on page 111, the authors, "soap box" rang out in the voice of Lee Woodyard. When the local, flashy, new-age pastor walked in with an air of narcisism, Lee's thoughts were the following, "I'm not an expert on theology, but I always distrust churches built as personality cults. And the secondhand reports that if we do good and believe in the correct theology, God will reward us with prosperity and happiness. This doesn't jibe with my observation that the most loving and faithful poeple around will still have lots of troubles and woes. They usually just cope with them better." Who says you can't learn a powerful message from a trivial novel.