Author Archives

Melissahttp://www.missmeliss.comWriter, voice actor, dog-lover, and bathtub mermaid, Melissa is the Associate Editor-in-Chief at All Things Girl. To learn more about her, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter (@Melysse) or Facebook. You can also listen to her podcast, "Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub" at Bathtub Mermaid or on iTunes.

Booking Through Thursday: Favorite Unknown

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btt2

On Thursday, October 29th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

I don’t know that any of the authors I read are particularly obscure, but I do think both Kathleen Norris and Lauren Willig are underrated. Kathleen Norris’s most famous work is The Cloister Walk which had quite a lot of media coverage when it originally came out, but her other works, most notably Dakota: a Spiritual Geography tend to be underplayed, and her poetry is just amazing. She’s one of the authors I would most like to meet. If you like poetry, consider a copy of Little Girls in Church.

Lauren Willig, on the other hand, is prolific and amazing. I don’t know what kind of anti aging product she keeps hidden in her bathroom, nor do I understand where she finds the energy to be an attorney and write historical novels, about a book a year, in hardcover, but as a long-time fan of The Scarlet Pimpernel, I was instantly hooked on Willig’s work when I picked up, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation several years ago. The newest book in the series, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is new this month.

Mini-Review: Decaffeinated Corpse

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Decaffeinated Corpse
Decaffeinated Corpse
by Cleo Coyle
Berkley, 288 pages
Get it from Amazon >>

Let’s face it, the recipes in the backs of Cleo Coyle’s coffeehouse mysteries are not exactly keys to quick trim weight loss, but the reality is, as much fun as the recipes are (and I’ve actually tried some of them) it’s the cozy Village Blend coffeehouse and the adventures of cafe manager Clare Cosi that keep us reading.

In Book 5 of the Coffeehouse Mysteries, Clare is investigating her husband’s friend, a coffee grower and playboy from Costa Gravas, who just happens to be the breeder of a decaffeinated coffee plant – as in, no need to water process the beans. There are, of course, corpses in the story, and the mystery this time seemed a bit trickier than the first four novels, but I also read this one out of sequence, since I reviewed another of Ms. Coyle’s books, Holiday Grind in All Things Girl over the holidays.

In that book, the relationship between Clare in NYPD Detective Mike Quinn had become pretty solid; in this one, they shared their first kiss.

As always, Ms. Coyle’s blend of romance, mystery, intrigue, and coffee suits me perfectly when I want light reading.

Mini-Review: The Ghost and the Dead Deb

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Ghost and Dead Deb
The Ghost and the Dead Deb
by Alice Kimberly
Berkley, 272 Pages
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Reading about dead debutante’s is not exactly the way to lose weight fast. I mean, skinny rich girls, even when they’re corpses, are hardly good role models. Fortunately, I don’t read Alice Kimberly’s haunted bookshop novels for fitness inspiration, but to be entertained, and this book succeeded wildly in its humble mission.

In this, the third outing for Penelope McClure and the ghost of Jack Shepherd, we have drug abuse, fickle lovers, fashionistas, and, of course, a mystery of how one pretty rich girl became the latest in a pair of connected murders.

As always, while the mystery is enjoyable, the developing Jack/Pen relationship is why I read, and in this installment the friendship between ghost and bookseller continues to deepen.

Am I the only person wishing a haunted bookshop was in my neighborhood?

Mini-Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

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Art of Racing in the Rain
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
Harper, 321 pages
Get it from Amazon >>

I have such a backlog of books to review that there are likely to be endless days of me sitting up late writing little blurbs until the dark circles under my eyes are permanent. Well, I’ve always had minor goth tendencies.

In any case, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a lovely, sad book by Garth Stein about a dog, his person, and the concept of the souls we love never truly leaving us. It’s told as much from the dog’s perspective as the man’s, and I’ve had to put it down more than once while reading it because it was too close to issues with some of my own dogs.

If you love animals, and can stand a good cry, this novel is worth a read.

In Memoriam: Robert B. Parker

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robert b parker

Photo Credit: John Earle

I confess that my first introduction to the wonderful fictional detective Spenser was not via Robert B. Parker’s books, but through the television show, Spenser: For Hire. which I watched when I was – well, I’m not sure how young I was – definitely before I ever even considered purchasing anti wrinkle eye cream.

By the time I was a sophomore in high school, however, Spenser and I had been more properly introduced, and I was hooked on Parker’s words and images, plots and characters. I’ve always loved mysteries and thrillers, and the Spenser novels were a nice bridge between the cozies I began with and the analyticals I also enjoy. They’re a wonderful mix of poetic rhythms and gritty reality – and their popularity is a testament to the man who wrote them.

A series of novels, isn’t a bad legacy, as things go.

I don’t have the kind of reader’s connection with Mr. Parker that I had with Madeleine L’Engle or Douglas Adams, but I mourn the loss of Robert B. Parker, nevertheless.

Escape into a Good Book

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It’s been so cold lately – and by cold I mean “there’s a sheet of ICE across my swimming pool” – that those advertisements for weekend getaways to cancun mexico are looking awfully tempting. Of course, I still feel kind of, well, craptastic, and I can’t afford a trip right now, anyway, so instead I’ve been reading a lot.

Currently, I’m reading:
Decaffeinated Corpse, by Cleo Coyle
and
Whom God Would Destroy, by Commander Pants

I tend to have more than one book going at once, and I promised the Commander I’d read this book in October or November, then lost it in the house, then had food poisoning, and now I think I’m getting the flu, so I’m not reading as quickly as I usually do, and I don’t have a lot of stamina, either. When I AM reading, lately, things that are familiar and formulaic are the easiest. Hence my current addiction to cozy mysteries.

I always have one book in progress that I keep near the tub, strictly for bathtub reading. My bubble book, at the moment, is The Summer Kitchen, by Karen Weinreb, which I bought MONTHS ago – MANY months ago, and just wasn’t in the mood for once I got it home. (Does that happen to anyone else?)

On Deck, I have:
The Ghost and Femme Fatale
and
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion

which are the last two novels (so far) in Alice Kimberly’s Haunted Bookshop series.

And on that note, I’m going to curl up with a good book, and read until I’m ready to sleep.

Happy Reading!

Thursday 13: Winter Tales

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I haven’t done a Thursday 13 in a while, on any of my blogs, and thought I’d challenge myself, as a hard freeze descends across north Texas, by pulling away from my fantasies of beach vacations in Outer Banks rentals, and instead compile a list of thirteen Winter Tales.

  1. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott: a perennial favorite of mine, chock full of cozy fall and winter scenes. And then there’s the moment when Amy falls through the ice.
  2. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino: one of the oddest books I’ve ever read, it’s lingered with me since I was 19. Not for light reading.
  3. My Antonia, by Willa Cather: some people think this is boring, but I love those stories of the prairie…I just don’t want to live there.
  4. Holiday Grind, by Cleo Coyle: the ultimate holiday mystery, with recipes, too.,/li>
  5. Time and Again, by Jack Finney: classic fantasy; pay special attention to scenes like when the young couples are skating in Central Park.
  6. Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson: haunting, and you can re-watch the movie when you’ve finished the book.
  7. Smilla’s Sense of Snow, by Peter Hoeg: a tale of suspense and snow. Gripping!
  8. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin: takes place on a planet called Winter. Must I say more?
  9. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis: always winter, never Christmas, but a classic even so.
  10. The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and To Build a Fire, by Jack London: novellas, really, hence the lumping them together. Light a fire and find a thick blanket before you read these stories.
  11. Icehenge, by Kim Stanley Robinson: what if Mars was under totalitarian law, and there was a Stonehenge like creation made of ice on Pluto? What if?
  12. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida: love, loss, and a night at the ice hotel.
  13. The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder: having lived through a few South Dakota winters, I have a new understanding of what Laura and her family went through.


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Review: The Ghost and the Dead Deb by Alice Kimberly

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The Ghost and the Dead Deb
The Ghost and the Dead Deb
Author: Alice Kimberly
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Berkley (September 6, 2005)
Language: English

Penelope “Pen” McClure, co-owner of the fictional “Buy the Book” in Quindicott, RI, should really consider investing in some sort of business insurance, because in this second installment of the Haunted Bookshop series, another visiting author is murdered.

Alice Kimberly once again weaves a charming romance/mystery pairing Pen with Jack Shepherd, the ghost of a noir private investigator, who himself was gunned down in the store decades before. In this book, we learn a bit more about Pen, and, in the related case from Jack’s memory, we also learn a bit more about Jack.

Young deb-turned-author Angel Stark could easily be ripped by any number of today’s tabloids, but the recurring characters are also as vivid as they were in the first novel – especially the group of business owners affectionately referred to as the Quibblers (which name, I confess, reminds me of another fictional mystery series, Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who…).

What really makes this book sing, however, is the developing relationship between Pen and Jack – they’re clearly friends now – which is heightened when Pen finds a way to take Jack with her (so to speak) when she leaves the store.

Goes well with hot tea and a warm quilt.

2009 in Review

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It’s a new year here at Bibliotica, which means it’s time to take a look at my stats for the old one. If I have any kind of bookish resolution it’s to be better about logging and reviewing everything I read, for my own sake, if nothing else. I like to see how my tastes have changed and evolved over time.

How did I do?

In the year 2009, not including books I forgot to catalogue, I read 85 books, for an average of 1.635 books per week. My best months were January and May, with 12 books each, and my worst was November, when I logged only three.

(As an aside, I must say that if there were any kind of mechanical breakdown insurance for the brain, books would be it. When I was trying to cope with a miscarriage in May, books were my escape, and the savers of my sanity.)

I don’t generally pick favorites – my favorites change too often to keep up! – but Laurie R. King and Cleo Coyle (in her various guises) made up a significant portion of my reading list, and Diane Johnson’s Lulu in Marrakech is the one that most disappointed me.

I’m sort of in book limbo right now. I have stacks of stuff to read, but none of it is really demanding my attention. I have, however logged my first book of the new year already: Alice Kimberly’s The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library.