Front-2-Back ~ Library 25 Cent Booksale Buys

I started to not even write about this, but what the hell.  So a week ago–on a nice pre-fall Saturday–my best friend and went to the public library’s 25 cent book sale.  Excitedly, of course.  We had some authors in mind, and felt like this was the perfect opportunity to dig into the shopping fray.  Nonetheless, you know how these sales go; lots of books pulled from the library’s attic, and crammed on a stream of folding tables like a flea market.  Perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Even so, I walked in with three authors on my mind: Susan Wittig Albert, Nevada Barr, and Rita Mae Brown.  And I lucked out–and then some.  So let me share what I’ve found and why (more or less) I got them.

(I’m not going to talk too much about some of the authors, but will link their websites via their names.)

At the time I went to the sale I was in the middle of reading Doris Mortman’s True Colors.  I haven’t picked up her books in years–after spending the summer of 2011 engrossed in her second novel, First Born.  So when I found a cleaner copy of The Wild Rose at the sale, I grabbed it to replace the unread copy I bought at a thrift store a couple of years ago.  Hard to believe the copy is from the mid-80’s and in such pristine condition.  For 25 cents it was a no-brainer.  As for the copy of Mortman’s Rightfully Mine, it’s a discarded library book in decent condition.  But hey, I was enjoying True Colors so why not another Mortman book to add.  

Mortman writes what I would sum as the literary version of an 80’s mini-series.  Think Deceptions, Voice of the Heart, and Scruples.  Romance, drama, melodrama, family secrets.  You get it.  Oh, and of course stuck-up bitches with loads of money and attitude.  Love it!

Jackie Collins' Hollywood Husbands is finally off my Amazon wish list.  I placed it there immediately after reading Collins’ Hollywood Wives some summers ago.  Never got around to ordering the sequel, Hollywood Husbands.  But when this copy sprang up from the pile of books, I didn’t hesitate.  I’m an on/off Collins reader.  And from that experience, I don’t believe any of her titles I’ve read can top Hollywood Wives.  Here’s to hoping Hollywood Husbands can second it.  (Currently reading it and it’s selling me, but not in a “hot cakes” capacity.)

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Delilah West: One Female Private-Eye You May Or May Not Have Heard Of

I have got to admit that I love female private-eye series pre the 2000’s.  And from the 70’s on into the early 90’s is where I often find the best stories.  Unless an author has established him or herself during those periods; post 2000 female private-eye series always seem to have this distracted flavor to them.  If I could put it into words, I would say there’s hard-boiled then there’s hard-boiled just to “look cute.“  Or, to be a lot more transparent, the rash of relationship drama and sex to maintain an audience tends to kill my vibe.  (Here’s to you Stephanie Plum.)  

Though I can’t speak on this with any totality of thought (if that makes sense).  Still, hardly have I experienced the whole “once to bed, twice is enough” experience in series built in the two decades following Maria Muller’s genre-shaking debut.  You know, of her 1977-birthing of female private-eye, Sharon McCone.  And Sharon was a great protagonist to flush in writers serving the world female-led hard-boiled stories during the 80’s and 90’s.  Of course without characters tip-toeing pass hotel wallpaper to slide into bed for a clue.  Usually with the unbeknownst killer.  

Muller gave writers a model of a female private-eye, and in turn, those writers served their special and unique versions of what translated as a woman detective carrying hard-boiled stories.  Plus, stories back then knew how to fill the pages with actual words–and procedural work.

But, incidentally, Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone wasn't the first contemporary American woman taking lead as a fictional private investigator.  Apparently, Maxine O'Callaghan's Delilah West came first.  Had it not been for a recent trip to a used bookstore, where I discovered West tucked in a stack, I never would've known.

As For Delilah West Herself

First, I have got to say that while researching O'Callaghan, I noticed she has newer reprints of her series.  And I have got to say I do not like the covers.  At all.  No shade to young adult books, but that’s precisely what the new covers of her Delilah West mystery books look like; some angst-filled YA book about vampires and love gone bloody.  Thank God I ran across her original paperback covers first.  And I’ll be sure to hunt for the original covers to this series here forward.  As dated as they may appear, it’s always best to keep to the classics in cases such as this.  I really, really can’t believe how awful the new covers are.

But I digress...

As I mentioned, the character of Delilah West pre-dates Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone.  West first appeared in a short story featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine back in 1974 (three years before McCone debuted with Edwin and the Iron Shoes).  I suppose the short story break sort of did a strange disservice O’Callaghan’s protagonist, as Muller’s Sharon rose to attention and commercial success three years later.  While continuing to publish yearly releases to this day.  

Nonetheless, Orange County resident and ex-cop private-eye, Delilah West, broke into her first full-length book in 1981 with Death is Forever.  From 1981 until 1997, O’Callaghan released six Delilah West mysteries and a short story collection.

I say it’s high-time we catch up with Delilah West and keep her in mind when we’re talking about the beginning of the contemporary female private-eye. 

       

Free Amazon Kindle Mysteries!

Everybody likes free stuff, right?  Well, looks like Amazon Kindle has a number of free mysteries available for download.  Many of them are the first in their respective series.  I picked out a few–with the intent of using my Kindle a little more.  Download and enjoy!

Links are Amazon affiliate.

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MORE BOOKS! And Scrapbook Project Paper

Saturday has been pretty good to me; the books just keep coming.  And I had a good swing this go-'round.  First, and finally, I've found a copy of the first book in Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott mystery series, Bootlegger's Daughter.  A really, really pleasant surprise.  Once bought, I turned around and found a $1 copy of the first book in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, Maisie Dobbs.  Trepidation is running rampant after my horror experience with Susan Elia MacNeal's Mr. Churchill's Secretary.  Though not the same, the two series have something in common.  A "common" I dare not get into to save any possible jinxing of Winspear's series.

And check this out.  14 pieces of scrapbook paper for $2 at Michael's.  So much a boy can do with this! 

Book Buying Bargaining ~ With No Self-Control

Got rid of a lot, and brought plenty back in.  Oh course, through store credits and bargain-area shopping.  Kind of a strange mix–but not really.  The Susan Wittig Albert books were simple enough to pick up.  Toni Braxton memoir I found tucked in a low shelf in a bookstore bargain section for $5.  I went ahead and grabbed Laurell K Hamilton's A Shiver of Light, because I'm compulsive when it comes to completing series.  Even those I've grown to dislike.  And, because I want more fantasy in my life, I decided to go back to my initiation into fantasy via a T. A Barron novel.

Apprentice in Death came out on September 6th.  I moved heavy and earth to get to it.  (Currently reading it.  This is only the dust-jacket.)  Salvage the Bones and Speaking from Among the Bones I got for $2.50 apiece.  Both easily crossed off that Amazon wishlist.

Now.  Will this book craving stop?

Hell, no.

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Random End-of-Summer Book Haul Continues...

Well, damn.  Just when I hauled one set of books, here comes another.  Friday, it appears, I lost control with book hauling.  No worries.  All this was less than $7.

Since I’m suddenly on a “replenishing my love of fantasy” kick, I finagled my way to books #3 [Phoenix and Ashes] and #4 [The Wizard of London] in Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series.  I bought them in the same place (public library used bookstore) for the same $1 price.  Apiece.  I figured why the hell not, before someone gets to them first.  After all, I noticed book #5 had suddenly went missing after my previous visit.  So I hurriedly grabbed these two.  

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Random Mini Book Haul (SO RANDOM)

After reading The Serpent’s Shadow, I was still in the air about how quickly I wanted to pick up another Mercedes Lackey Elemental Masters book.  Removing this post from all the details on that hesitation, I’ll just link to my video thoughts on the book.  Nevertheless, it goes without saying that if you find a book you’re even slightly interested in nudged on a shelf for a $1, you may as well get it.  So, as luck would have it, I got this pristine copy of the second book in Lackey’s Elemental Masters series, The Gates of Sleep.  Why the hell not, eh?  Might as well for the future.

(Goodreads info on the book is linked HERE!)

Now this next book was one that had me gasping when I uncovered it during the whole browsing process.  Seriously, I was that surprised and pumped with glee.  A Cold Day for Murder is the first book in Dana Stabenow’s Alaska-based Kate Shugak mystery series.  I bought the third book back in March.  Needless to say, it’s been sitting around waiting on the first.  But, no lie, I really couldn’t believe my eyes when this book struck me.

LUCKYYYYY!

(Goodreads info on the book is linked HERE!)

Well, that’s it.  Not really intentional, but hey.  When you’re in the stacks, you’re in the stacks!

Carry on.

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Elizabeth Peters' Laughing Mummy Case

By this book we’ve established that British socialite turn Egyptologist, Amelia Peabody, is a wife and mother.  A series told in her first-person narrative, it's clear this life change is an adjustment of sorts.  Especially from the solitary life she led in the first book.  Now Amelia, her husband Radcliffe, and their four-year-old son heighten the thrill of her adventures.  As well as comedy.

As for the third book, The Mummy Case, Amelia’s infamous archaeologist and Egyptologist husband has been invited to a pyramid excavation.  Or, to be clear, he’s prompted dispatched to sniffle among the rubble of an abandoned excavation.  Somewhat at arms length, archaeologist in his profession never really wants him around.  He’s known as the “Father of Curses,” and is thus better left on the outskirts of any great discovery.  

Angered by this, Amelia’s husband decides to take on the "rubble" task anyway.  Gathering his wife and son, he ships his family out of England and into Egypt.  There may be nothing in and on this barren excavation handed to him, but he’ll make do to prove something to the rejecters of his talents as an archaeologist.  He has his pride and dignity after all, as well as a crew of shaky–but fiercely loyal–crewmen.  

But matters get choppy when his wife starts snooping around the crime scene of an antiques dealer she recently visited, for a scrap of papyrus.  Then an excavated Mummy case goes missing.  A suspicious Christian fellowship begins banning citizens together in the nearby village, but with their own secrets of abuse to hide.  An equally suspicious gang made up of Egyptian men are boiling for a fight to kick the fellowship out of their village.  And, eventually, Emerson, Amelia, and Ramses find themselves buried in the well of a pyramid.  While a killer runs loose covering his tracks.

Sounds like a lot, right?  Well, it’s an adventure that shouldn’t be missed!

Catch Rita Mae Brown's Cat

So what exactly is going on in Rita Mae Brown’s Cat as Cat Can, book #10 in her popular Mrs. Murphy pet detective cozy series?  Well, as always with these books, the story opens up with the change of seasons; in this particular entry, it’s finally spring again.  And with spring comes the blossoming of special events in the small town of Crozet, Virginia.  This spring, it’s time for the residents to get dolled up for the annual Dogwood Festival.  Meanwhile, strange occurrences are happening around town.  And with Crozet’s postmistress, Minor “Harry” Haristeen, somewhere in the middle of said occurrences. 

It started with a dead woodpecker found on her back porch.  Before one of her cats could take the bird’s corpse into its claws, Harry snatches it up.  Because of the bird's uniqueness, she plans to take it to a local taxidermist.  And, while going about her business, Harry then finds her friend, Miranda Hogendobber, in the midst of a hubcap robbery.  Miranda walked into a local grocery store, and walked out to find someone swiped her hubcaps in a blink.  Considering the hubcaps' worth, Miranda, Harry, and Deputy Cynthia Cooper make way to the local salvage yard first.

But then the bodies start piling up.  It began with one of the owners of the salvage yard turning up dead, and follows with the taxidermist Harry visited only days before with her dead woodpecker.

Believing the two deaths are connected, Harry investigates.  And as she gets closer to the killer, her team of pets have to stay miles ahead of her to keep her safe.

Library Reserves Came Through. Too Soon, Though?

So what do you do when you’ve put together this amazing monthly TBR (video and all) to keep you reading, while you wait on your library reserves to come in?  And what do you do when the catch is that the waiting time was shorter than you anticipated?  Talk about my inexperience with the whole reserving books thing.  

I just happened to stop by the library to get some blog posts drafts done, when I realized the books I placed on reserve Tuesday were in (didn’t exactly receive that email notification I, ahem, signed for).  What’s a guy to do?  Stick to the TBR and take breaks between planned reading?

Anyway, per my recent rash of Anna Pigeon obsessed posts, I finally got a copy of Barr’s latest Pigeon book, Boar Island (Anna Pigeon #19).  After this, I’ll be done with Anna Pigeon for another two years.  At least I believe Barr's next book is due in 2018.  Anyway, not exactly impressed with the turn out of Pigeon’s 18th adventure, Destroyer Angel, I have to admit that I’m kind of ready to finish this up and go on hiatus.  The last few books in the series were hit-or-miss.  And the worse yet was book #16, Burn.  I haven’t been hearing a lot of good reviews on Boar Island; some reviewers citing there is less Anna and too much returning characters from her previous adventure.  One reviewer even suggested readers skip to the last 50 pages and call it a day.  We’ll see.  Knowing this book will involve a few characters from the previous book, I have to say I’m not exactly excited to revisit them either.  You know how it is, when the star of the show isn’t present.

And finally another China Bayles book.  Haven’t read her since mid-May, when I finished book #6 in the series, Love Lies Bleeding.  Literally been waiting around for a copy of book #7, Chile Death.  And now it’s in my hands.  Rented, but present.  Looks like China will be attending an annual chili cook-off in her home of Pecan Springs, Texas.  Evidently a cook-off judge dies from an allergic reaction to peanuts.  But who puts peanuts in a pot of chili?  Somebody who knew exactly what he or she were doing.  That’s who!

Anyway, here’s to more fun summer reads.

Do you reserve library books often?  And when they come in, do you drop what you're reading to get into your reserves?

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BOOKS MENTIONED (All links Amazon affiliate)

1.  Boar Island by Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon #19) 

2.  A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison (The Hollows #10) 

3.  The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #1)

4.  Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

5.  Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia Macneal (Maggie Hope #1)

6.  Pawper to Pedigree by Angel M.

Angel M. on the Twitter  

Angel M.'s Website

3 Moments (Among Many) Ruth Pointer's Autobiography Gave Feels

Often an autobiographer’s life story is what it is.  Aside from vague descriptions, missing stamps in its chronological makeup, and the ever so unhelpful broken grammar; what can I say about someone’s personal story at the end of the day?  I guess I could go in deep on why I’ve chosen to read an individual’s autobiography.  But in this matter there’s no fuss; I’m a fan of Ruth Pointer.  And, well, I wanted to get to know her story beyond tabloids and news bulletins of days past.  So here arrives her autobiography, Still So Excited.  

Though, given, she’s not the type of celebrity to draw that much attention to herself.  At least not beyond her and her group’s heydays during the 1980’s.  Nonetheless, I’m here–as a fan of this melodic contralto voice.  And instead of running down her story with a boring review, I wanted to share what hit me most within her journey.  It’s my way of delving into the death of her sister and band mate, June.  And on into Ruth’s upbringing, stardom, addictions, and eventual change in life.  All while playing my favorite Pointer numbers in my ear buds as I type away.

Ruth On Individuality and Authority

“My resentment of authority and those who wielded it manifested itself in different ways.  I remember the first time was when I was in third grade at Cole Elementary School.  My teacher was Mrs. Bolin, an elderly white woman who didn’t bother checking her obvious distaste for people of color at the schoolhouse door.  One day she was conducting a reading group in front of the class.  I was sitting in the back row reading a book and eating an apple when all of a sudden Mrs. Bolin charged up and yelled, ‘I said no talking!’  Then she slapped me hard in the face. 

“Turning the other check never even occurred to me.  Instead, I stood up, yelled ‘I wasn’t talking!’ and slapped her back.”

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No Rest for the Alt

Okay.  So let’s get a little into Madelyn Alt’s No Rest for the Wiccan, book #4 in her A Bewitching Mystery series.  For starters, it took me reading the third book two years ago to finally say, “Hey, I’m interested in this.”  But to be clear, I picked the series up in the fall of 2008.  So I’m a hot mess when it comes to consistency.  But, dammit, for whatever reason I want to read this cozy mystery series.

But enough of that.

No Rest for the Wiccan has the series witchy sleuth, Maggie O’Neill stuck in many situations.  Outside of her back-and-forth love triangle drama, it appears her older sister, Mel, and nieces have found themselves tormented by a ghost inhabiting their home.  And with Mel, the beautiful and overly-spoiled sister, attempts to employee her peculiar sister (who happens to work in a magic shop) to exorcise said ghost.  A reluctant Maggie more or less entertains her “amazing” sister.  It isn’t until an accident crushes the family does Maggie step in with the help of the N.I.G.H.T.S. ghost-hunting team she belongs to.

Now if that wasn’t enough, Maggie also finds herself unraveling a local murder.  During another rubber-necking session with her cop boyfriend, Tom, an interruption call comes in on his raid.  Considering he’s on call, Tom takes the message.  It appears a body is hanging from one of the conveyor systems inside of a local grainier.  Disobedient of Tom’s orders, Maggie takes it upon herself to ask the wrong questions at the wrong time.  Leading her into the throats of marriage, insurance, family, and murder.  Oh, and fire!

But you know what?  FORGET THE MYSTERY AND LET'S JUST GET INTO THE REAL ISSUE!  (Probably best for those who've read the series.)

Barbara Neely Colors Blanche

So let’s talk a bit about Barbara Neely’s second book in her Blanche White series, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, for just a hot second.  Jumping from her first murder investigation; amateur sleuth and black domestic worker, Blanche White, finds herself in Maine this time.  She's invited to an all-black resort, by a wealthy black couple introduced in her previous adventure.  It's both a work/play situation for Blanche.  Still, the resort is a place where Blanche spends her time tucking her feet in sand, while chatting with a slew of uppity black folk’.  And of the likes she's never seen!  Yet, in response to her reception, Blanche will also find the opportunity to teach her pseudo-adopted niece and nephew about race and inner discrimination.  Otherwise, involving herself in solving a local murder and suicide takes presidence to all her troubles.  

While conscientious–but highly unafraid–of those side-eyeing her in the resort as she snoops, there’s some romance swirling in the mix of Blanche’s vacation.  And it's a romance that may or may not have a tie to the death of an antagonistic resort guest, who found herself dead after a live stereo slipped into her bath.  But who knows?  Right?  With a wealth of secrets abound, Blanche will get to the bottom of everything with whatever trick and connection she has available to pump information from.

Now Let's Talk a Little

While the mystery aspect of the book suffers, I have to reiterate how much I appreciate black female authors writing in this genre.  Rarely will you find an honest, sincere character such as Blanche.  If that alone.  And no other place will you find an author using her character’s voice to not only solve murders, but also give conversation to issues forever stuck in the black community.  In Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, such conversations involved black colorism and inner prejudices.  Particularly prejudices understood in those who uphold the “one drop” phrase as a source of privilege.

#SaveOurCozies | BOOK UNBOXING (Video)

Wittig's Witches!

Okay.  So in China’s second investigation, Witches' Bane, rumors of witches and devil worshipers have taken over the small town of Pecan Springs, Texas.  These rumors are exacerbated by the suicide of a local teenager and homeless individual.  So the townsfolk are on edge and, most sincerely, this includes a local religious group led by Reverend Billy Lee Harbuck.  Harbuck has taken it upon himself to put an end to the madness, beginning with rounding up his followers to picket the local metaphysical gift shop propertied by China Bayles’ best friend, Ruby Wilcox.  The hitch is that the gift shop and China’s herb shop are connected.  Thus, of course, infecting both Ruby and China's businesses.  The situation and local stirrings get worse when a wealthy socialite named Sybil Rand is found murdered in her home.  The catch, one of Ruby’s athame blades are stuck in her body.  Further investigation uncovers the Death tarot card and a voodoo doll in Sybil’s possession.  With the walls closing in on Ruby, China, alongside her ex-cop boyfriend Mike McQuaid, set out to prove Ruby’s innocence.  Particularly before the whole town loses its damned mind!

What? Some Fantasy Novels...?

I told myself “what the hell” today and grabbed these two fantasy novels out of the library used bookstore for a $1 apiece.  As mentioned in the past, the fantasy genre isn’t my strong suit; Urban Fantasy I can nail, given the right ingredients.  Nonetheless, high fantasy–as I’ve learned in the past–takes me an unbelievable amount of energy to focus and survey my way through.  Seriously, with high fantasy you’re thrown into a whole different world of concepts, systems, and ecospheres that allows you little to no reference points to consider.  So I find it troublesome when I attempt to unfold the author’s imagination through my own–at the same time.  Or at least that’s how it feels to me when an author is pounding descriptive exposition of a fantasy empire built onto a water way; congregated by humanoids and humans with varied ascetics not remitting my needing a visual clue.  So it always feels like a gamble when I take on these books.  A gamble of cohesion and comprehension of the events and narrative flow through an author's particular style.

Yet, there’s a wall I want to break to get into these alien and fantasy worlds.  And that’s how I browsed my way to Jude Fisher’s Sorcery Rising (Book One of Fool’s Gold) and the infamous Mercedes Lackey’s The Serpent’s Shadow.  Both their selling points: they feature female leads.  Nonetheless, The Serpent's Shadow's lead is a half-Indian woman named, Maya Witherspoon.  Which really caught my attention.  Other than that, both leads partake in an adventure of some sort.  Oh, and magic will be had.

So it’s going to take some patience keeping up with their respective world-building, politics, and rules of etiquette.  As well as the patience I’ll need to roll my tongue/mind in attempts to correctly pronounce names like “Sanctuarii”, “Arahai”, and “Fotheringay.”

Oh, boy.

But here goes!

Should I jump ship for whatever reason, everyone will be the first to know.

Share your thoughts on high fantasy and these authors.

7/15/2016 LIVE STREAM: Resident Evil 5 HD

Let's get to it!  Resident Evil 5 has finally come to PS4–in HD and 60fps.

Why I'm SUDDENLY in Love with China, Herbs, Wittig Albert...

So listen (err, read) to this: I’m addicted to Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles cozy mystery series.  (Say that three times fast.)  Such revelations shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though.  Those who frequent this blog has seen me profusing this through a few past posts, since picking up the second book in Albert's series for #MarchMysteryMadness.  

Nonetheless, my infatuation happened kind of incidentally.  I just happened to pick up China's first case, Thyme of Death, at a used bookstore.  The purchase was a recourse to another on-going series I was reading.  But I was missing an entry, and it wasn't available in store.  However, seeing Albert’s sleuth is a herbalist/ex-lawyer located in the syrupy Southern town of the fictional Pecan Spring, Texas; I really wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into as I stood there reading the blurb, after the book caught my attention a stack high from where I stood.  

Approaching middle-aged woman with an interesting name.  "China Bayles" has a kick-ass ring to it.  Ex-lawyer now herbalist.  Hmm, I sniff some interesting parallels.  No children.  Little family to call upon.  Dating.  

Rubbing my chin and deep in thought, I asked myself: Was China going to give me cool lady tease?  Will she serve me candor and dry wit with an "over it all" attitude about life (my spirit was calling for this, by the way)?  Or was she going to be a stuffy planter?  Someone stuck in a straw hat while carrying a basket as she pooh-pooh'ed around keeping her hands marginally clean while solving murders (I need a girl who's willing to break glass to get into an office)?  In either case–given the series' herbalist hook–I kind of suspected finding a body in somebody's kitchen garden would eventually ramp up the fun.  So I took the bait and went to McDonald's for some fries.

Friday Reads ~ #SaveOurCozies

“Harper Connelly heads to Doraville, North Carolina, to find a missing boy–one of several teenage boys who have disappeared over the last five years.  And all of them are calling for Harper.  She finds them–buried in the frozen ground.  All Harper wants is to get out of town before she’s caught in the media storm, until she herself is attacked.  Soon, Harper will learn more than she cared to about the dark mysteries and long-hidden secrets of Doraville–knowledge of the dead that makes her the next in line to end up in an ice cold grave…”

~ An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris

Let’s see.  In 2009 I stopped reading this book on page 61.  Last I remember, dead-body-‘voyant-finding Harper Connelly (per finding herself struck by lightning to gain her abilities) was left in the hospital of the small town of Doraville.  As mentioned in the blurb, she was attacked.  I’ve never figured out what happened on forward, and can’t exactly recall why I stopped on page 61 and never came back.  Until now, I’ve never picked up the book since.  But, going along with the #SaveOurCozies readathon (from midnight today till midnight tomorrow), it appears I’ll finally get the answers I abandoned seven years ago.  That’ll be my Friday Reading.

Any hints as to what's in store?

#SaveOurCozies | Extended Haul

Because I’m so excited about #SaveOurCozies, I had to stock up on a few new titles.  Many listed has always been on my radar, but never quite made it home.  These are books I’ve noticed time and time again in stores, but have yet to slide into.  Until now!  But to be extra, extra clear, I had to be sure they were each the first in their respective reading order.  Never trusting the read order placed inside the first few pages of any given series, I took my time investigating these suckers.  Nothing’ll piss me off more than picking up a new series midway through; a personal aggravation of mine, if you will.  So let me list and share what each series (as well as their individual hooks) is about.  At least for those who are new to them like myself.  And no, the Nora Roberts Public Secrets (1990) book isn’t a cozy.  Though there is a kidnapping and possible murder involved.  I’ve just always wanted to read the damn book and found it for 25 cents!  (For those who have read it, please share your thoughts.  I’m an on/off Roberts reader outside of her J. D. Robb series.)

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#SaveOurCozies | Video TBR & Campaign Links

#SaveOurCozies

Campaign Website

#SaveOurCozies on Twitter

#SaveOurCozies Goodreads Group 

Channels/Supporters Mentioned

Elizabeth (Youtube Channel)

Angie (Blog)

 Charlaine Harris Books Mentioned (Amazon Affiliate Links)

An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly #3)

Aurora Teagarden Series

Maya Angelou & Toni Morrison Quotes Worth Considering

Surprising Spreadshirt Design Sale

Funny surprises around every corner.  I just wanted to share this Spreadshirt related post to remind those who partake in its use to never give up.  And to also remind one another that anything can happen, so don’t underestimate your designs and products.

It’s really interesting; I recently sold this particular design on Spreadshirt’s marketplace–times two.  I say “interesting” because I dislike the design out of all available.  And, literally, pulled it up from scratch just to find another means to fit the theme of my Kdrama/K-Pop store.  I weighted and weighted whether to keep the design, and just left it alone.

And here it is the one sold first off the marketplace–twice.

You just never know.  Which is why I always suggest those starting a Spreadshirt store to try different things out.  Even the most ludicrous (but tasteful) ideas deserve a go.  You just never, never know.  I'm beyond grateful for the surprises.

Any surprising Spreadshirt stores you want to inspire others with?  Please share the details below.

Final Leg of the Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Summer Tour | Library Haul

I’m four books away from the ending of my Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Park Ranger Mystery tour.  Whew.  That’s a whole sentence and a half.  Anyway, this has been a fun spring/summer finding my joy of National Parks, strong female leads, and murder underneath the rugged atmospheric prose of Nevada Barr’s series.