Tuesday Book Review

I have read a bunch of books this week because Clyde was gone from Wednesday through Sunday. I don't sleep when he is not here so that leaves reading and playing games on the computer. Games lose their interest really quick. Here are a few.

I read "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it had been made into a movie with Colin Firth as Vermeer (which I could totally see!) but I have no idea who played Griete - the protagonist. I cannot find that a movie had ever been done so it must not have panned out. But the story was great. After having nightmares all week last week because of what I was reading, it was nice to read something that let me sleep easy.

I finished all of the 'Cat Who...' books. The last one was quite dark, Polly moved away and Qwill's house (barn) burned down. It was much darker than her other books. Lilian Jackson Braun is getting up there in years and so it just might be that she is finishing up the series. She is supposed to be publishing a new one this fall.

I read "The Quilter's Kitchen" by Jennifer Chiaverini. That took 30 minutes. It is mostly a short story with recipes running through it. Fun read if you need a quick pick me up.

When my grandson Nathanael was born, I was visiting. Carianne and Carl decided to take Nathanael and Carlye to their family reunion at Lake Buchanan and Pam and I were left alone for a few days. Pam's friend, Erica ran us over to Hastings to buy some books and I found several Carolyn Hart books for 50 cents each. I fell in love with her. (It was a good thing we had gone out when we had because we were flooded in for the next two days!). It was delightful to read in Carianne and Carl's house and just do as we pleased (they have a wonderful home). This last week I read the latest Carolyn Hart book in the Death on Demand series. The book was "Death Walked In". Heidi and I have read them all from the beginning now. This one was a little darker than the others but the reason was the 3 women that cause the comedy relief throughout the other books came in a cluster several times in this book. So instead of getting 'ditsy Laurel' threaded throughout or Henny who is so serious that she can't be real - you got them together with Emma (who is a mystery writer that thinks her protagonist Marigold is real) all at one time. This made the book much darker than most of Carolyn Hart's books. Annie and Max are quite serious people in their own right so without this comedy relief the book had a slightly different flavor. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still recommend Carolyn Hart to anyone but it was just a little darker. Carolyn Hart is still firmly entrenched in my 'fluffy mystery' genre. This book was nothing like John Grisham novel - it just wasn't quite as fluffy as the past novels. I have noticed that quite a few of my writers newest novels are a little darker this year. Must be a sign of the times.