Christmas reading.

[Carol Dickinson]

I keep all the series author's Christmas themed books
set aside to the holiday season. I read them starting
on Thanksgiving weekend.

But this year, I misjudged the time I needed to reread
Outlander before season 4, and didn't get through that.
I decided to stop and go ahead with Christmas reading
only to discover that last year, I finished most of
the series ones but didn't acquire new ones, money was
tight, and a trip to the store didn't find any either.

SO I reread Patrick Taylor's "An Irish Country Christmas"
because I liked it so much and I haven't given away
any of his series having read them, so he's an author
I must intend to take with me to reread in the old
folks home when the cart me off and won't let me take
my whole library. And I haven't read all of the series.
I should have saved it for later in the season though.

After that I went back to the Outlander series, but
nothing Christmasy in the volumes in the later part
of the series.

Also had trouble with the Christmas movies. Didn't get
to watch most of them. Not many aired this year, or that
I could find on this new TIVO box which I HATE I HATE I
HATE. Not nearly as user friendly as my cable box that
died. I couldn't find most of my personal video/DVD copies
until the 23rd, and of course with the multiple first
responder visits on the 24th that didn't help. I only
found "Christmas in the Clouds" 2 days ago in the wrong
pile. And that I will watch in the next couple days.

Hadn't been able to find time for email this month
with the earthquake cleanup. But when I finally got to
reading them today, Amazon sent a bunch of messages
about Christmas titles, so I'll see which of them
I can find through local source. I don't do Amazon.

Hopefully next year I'll be organized. I do intend
to make a note of which series books by my favorite
authors I need to read before November so I can read
their Christmas ones in sequence next year.

I wouldn't mind hearing from some of you who have
read some Christmas themed ones I may not have read,
leaning toward the cozy side. Most of you probably
still know I don't do hard boiled, thriller, procedurals,
lawyers, or blood and guts, or abused women and
children. Not that I'm "picky". <G>

Carol

I miss you guys, who is still out there?

[Nyssa]

Post by Carol Dickinson
I keep all the series author's Christmas themed books
set aside to the holiday season. I read them starting
on Thanksgiving weekend.
But this year, I misjudged the time I needed to reread
Outlander before season 4, and didn't get through that.
I decided to stop and go ahead with Christmas reading
only to discover that last year, I finished most of
the series ones but didn't acquire new ones, money was
tight, and a trip to the store didn't find any either.
SO I reread Patrick Taylor's "An Irish Country Christmas"
because I liked it so much and I haven't given away
any of his series having read them, so he's an author
I must intend to take with me to reread in the old
folks home when the cart me off and won't let me take
my whole library. And I haven't read all of the series.
I should have saved it for later in the season though.
After that I went back to the Outlander series, but
nothing Christmasy in the volumes in the later part
of the series.
Also had trouble with the Christmas movies. Didn't get
to watch most of them. Not many aired this year, or that
I could find on this new TIVO box which I HATE I HATE I
HATE. Not nearly as user friendly as my cable box that
died. I couldn't find most of my personal video/DVD copies
until the 23rd, and of course with the multiple first
responder visits on the 24th that didn't help. I only
found "Christmas in the Clouds" 2 days ago in the wrong
pile. And that I will watch in the next couple days.
Hadn't been able to find time for email this month
with the earthquake cleanup. But when I finally got to
reading them today, Amazon sent a bunch of messages
about Christmas titles, so I'll see which of them
I can find through local source. I don't do Amazon.
Hopefully next year I'll be organized. I do intend
to make a note of which series books by my favorite
authors I need to read before November so I can read
their Christmas ones in sequence next year.
I wouldn't mind hearing from some of you who have
read some Christmas themed ones I may not have read,
leaning toward the cozy side. Most of you probably
still know I don't do hard boiled, thriller, procedurals,
lawyers, or blood and guts, or abused women and
children. Not that I'm "picky". <G>
Carol
I miss you guys, who is still out there?

Wow, you've really been through the wringer, Carol.

My Christmas Eve wasn't so dramatic. I ended up spending
five and a half hours sitting in Firestone waiting for them
to fix something they broke back in September by using
the wrong part for the job. The wrong part kept draining
my battery where I never knew from day-to-day whether or
not the truck would start, and I traced the problem down
to their replacement of a left-turn signal bulb socket.
No charge for the re-work, but I really had other things
I would have preferred doing all day.

Yes, I'm still alive and still reading. My plans for the
fall and winter got sidetracked though which will explain
my lurking-only status in the newsgroup.

Originally I had hoped to spend the fall stripping and
refinishing a small chest of drawers I had build decades
ago and spending winter knitting socks. That was before
friends got me to working on a new website for our amateur
radio net. All else fell by the wayside.

I got a chunk of the design and development done on the
radio net site, but hit a wall when I had to wait for
information that didn't come. So one of my friends and I
decided to use the other domain name she had registered
(for our email -- note new email address) for a "fun" site
to cover a host of topics we were interested in. I've been
working on that ever since.

The new site will include book reviews, although not all
mysteries. I'll share the URL here when it's time for the
Grand Opening. I've done my part by creating 20 pages of
content and now am just waiting for my partner in crime
(or website) to scan for typos and test before uploading
it all to the server.

As for reading, my count for 2018 ended up at 127 books
read, a mixture of Kindle ebooks and DTBs. An eclectic
mix of genres and topics, not all mysteries.

I did read one non-mystery Christmas-themed book that was
a nice change: "The Peaceful Season" by Melanie Lageschulte,
number three in her Seasons series set in contemporary rural
Iowa. It's one of those books that makes you go "Ahhh, that
was nice" at the end. It helps to have read the first two
books in order to know the characters and situation better,
but can be read as a stand-alone.

Lots of thrillers and mysteries read, including finally
finishing the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series. Sorry, Carol,
it won't meet your guidelines since Tubby is a lawyer and
it gets messy in New Orleans fairly often when he's in the
middle of things.

I read a passel of first books in several cozy series, but
there were only a few that interested me enough to consider
looking for the next in the series.

The Kiki Lowenstein (by Joanna Campbell Slan) series is a cozy
with the a tie-in to scrapbooking. I'll admit that the whole
scrapbooking craze doesn't register with me (I enjoyed making
scrapbooks when I was four or five years old, but can't say I
haven't been interested in re-visiting it since). I just skim
though the sections on helpful hints and move along.

I've read the first in the series plus six short stories that
were bundled in two collections and the characters and writing
hold up. Nice mysteries (not always murders) and none of the
cliches we're used to in the cookie cutters.

Another first in series was "The Hydrogen Murder" by Camille
Minichino. They say to write what you know, and the author
is a PhD in Chemistry writing about a character who is a
retired Phd Chem Professor who consults with the police on
science issues at crime scenes. Nice cozy, no gore, and
grown-ups in charge. I haven't found the next in the series
yet, but I'll on the lookout.

Another series I started is the Black Sheep Knitting one by
Anne Canadeo. Set in Massachusetts, about two hours from Boston
in a small town, the owner of the local knitting shop is a
widowed, retired art teacher. Along with members of her
Thursday knitting group they come across an occasional dead
body to go along with the dropped stitches. The other characters
in focus include a psychologist, a realtor, and a freelance
graphics artist along with the shop's college student part-timer.
My one complaint is that instead of the shopowner being the
PoV of a lot of the action, the graphics artist, Lucy seems
to take the stage. I find her much less interesting than
the others, but luckily the others get a bit of face time with
the reader too, so it's not too big a deal.

That's enough from me for now. I don't want everyone falling
asleep and face-planting on their keyboards.

Nyssa, who also read several cookie cutter cozies that aren't
worth mentioning

[Nancy Spera]

Post by Nyssa
Originally I had hoped to spend the fall stripping and
refinishing a small chest of drawers I had build decades
ago and spending winter knitting socks. That was before
friends got me to working on a new website for our amateur
radio net. All else fell by the wayside.
I got a chunk of the design and development done on the
radio net site, but hit a wall when I had to wait for
information that didn't come. So one of my friends and I
decided to use the other domain name she had registered
(for our email -- note new email address) for a "fun" site
to cover a host of topics we were interested in. I've been
working on that ever since.
The new site will include book reviews, although not all
mysteries. I'll share the URL here when it's time for the
Grand Opening. I've done my part by creating 20 pages of
content and now am just waiting for my partner in crime
(or website) to scan for typos and test before uploading
it all to the server.

Sounds interesting. Looking forward to the unveiling.

Post by Nyssa
As for reading, my count for 2018 ended up at 127 books
read, a mixture of Kindle ebooks and DTBs. An eclectic
mix of genres and topics, not all mysteries.

Hmm...I don't keep track. Maybe I should.

Post by Nyssa
I did read one non-mystery Christmas-themed book that was
a nice change: "The Peaceful Season" by Melanie Lageschulte,
number three in her Seasons series set in contemporary rural
Iowa. It's one of those books that makes you go "Ahhh, that
was nice" at the end. It helps to have read the first two
books in order to know the characters and situation better,
but can be read as a stand-alone.

This sounds interesting.

Post by Nyssa
Lots of thrillers and mysteries read, including finally
finishing the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series. Sorry, Carol,
it won't meet your guidelines since Tubby is a lawyer and
it gets messy in New Orleans fairly often when he's in the
middle of things.
I read a passel of first books in several cozy series, but
there were only a few that interested me enough to consider
looking for the next in the series.
Another first in series was "The Hydrogen Murder" by Camille
Minichino. They say to write what you know, and the author
is a PhD in Chemistry writing about a character who is a
retired Phd Chem Professor who consults with the police on
science issues at crime scenes. Nice cozy, no gore, and
grown-ups in charge. I haven't found the next in the series
yet, but I'll on the lookout.

I've read several of these and enjoyed them.

Post by Nyssa
That's enough from me for now. I don't want everyone falling
asleep and face-planting on their keyboards.

I almost always find something new to try in your lists.

Post by Nyssa
Nyssa, who also read several cookie cutter cozies that aren't
worth mentioning

I've got to the point that I pretty much stick to the tried and
true for cozies unless there is something that strikes my fancy
or you give it a really good review.

Nancy


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

[Nyssa]

Post by Nancy Spera

Post by Nyssa
Originally I had hoped to spend the fall stripping and
refinishing a small chest of drawers I had build decades
ago and spending winter knitting socks. That was before
friends got me to working on a new website for our
amateur radio net. All else fell by the wayside.
I got a chunk of the design and development done on the
radio net site, but hit a wall when I had to wait for
information that didn't come. So one of my friends and I
decided to use the other domain name she had registered
(for our email -- note new email address) for a "fun"
site to cover a host of topics we were interested in.
I've been working on that ever since.
The new site will include book reviews, although not all
mysteries. I'll share the URL here when it's time for the
Grand Opening. I've done my part by creating 20 pages of
content and now am just waiting for my partner in crime
(or website) to scan for typos and test before uploading
it all to the server.

Sounds interesting. Looking forward to the unveiling.

Post by Nyssa
As for reading, my count for 2018 ended up at 127 books
read, a mixture of Kindle ebooks and DTBs. An eclectic
mix of genres and topics, not all mysteries.

Hmm...I don't keep track. Maybe I should.

Post by Nyssa
I did read one non-mystery Christmas-themed book that was
a nice change: "The Peaceful Season" by Melanie
Lageschulte, number three in her Seasons series set in
contemporary rural Iowa. It's one of those books that
makes you go "Ahhh, that was nice" at the end. It helps
to have read the first two books in order to know the
characters and situation better, but can be read as a
stand-alone.

This sounds interesting.

Post by Nyssa
Lots of thrillers and mysteries read, including finally
finishing the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series. Sorry,
Carol, it won't meet your guidelines since Tubby is a
lawyer and it gets messy in New Orleans fairly often when
he's in the middle of things.
I read a passel of first books in several cozy series,
but there were only a few that interested me enough to
consider looking for the next in the series.
Another first in series was "The Hydrogen Murder" by
Camille Minichino. They say to write what you know, and
the author is a PhD in Chemistry writing about a
character who is a retired Phd Chem Professor who
consults with the police on science issues at crime
scenes. Nice cozy, no gore, and grown-ups in charge. I
haven't found the next in the series yet, but I'll on the
lookout.

I've read several of these and enjoyed them.

Post by Nyssa
That's enough from me for now. I don't want everyone
falling asleep and face-planting on their keyboards.

I almost always find something new to try in your lists.

Post by Nyssa
Nyssa, who also read several cookie cutter cozies that
aren't worth mentioning

I've got to the point that I pretty much stick to the
tried and true for cozies unless there is something that
strikes my fancy or you give it a really good review.
Nancy
---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

I've been keeping lists of what I've read for over 25 years.

I can tell whenever work got in the way of my reading because
the numbers drop to a few dozen rather than getting anywhere
near triple digits. A nice walk down memory lane too when I
go back to see if a title looks familiar.

It's good to know that my ramblings here help people find
new authors or series. There were a couple of others that
I found over the past couple of months that are promising.
I'll see if I can dig those out of the lists and mention
them in another post in a day or two.

Nyssa, who is currently reading the third book in the Persied
series which is more thriller/science fiction/apocalypse than
any sort of a mystery

[Carol Dickinson]

Post by Nyssa
Another first in series was "The Hydrogen Murder" by Camille
Minichino. They say to write what you know, and the author
is a PhD in Chemistry writing about a character who is a
retired Phd Chem Professor who consults with the police on
science issues at crime scenes. Nice cozy, no gore, and
grown-ups in charge. I haven't found the next in the series
yet, but I'll on the lookout.

I will look for that. Sounds like its not cookie cutter.

Took so long to read this because hubby fell flat on his face
again and was carted off by ambulance for the 3rd time in 6 weeks.
I took advantage of his absence to have my minion help me
dig trash out hubby's man cave. I'm not allowed in there,
and its really a scary place like you see on those TV shows
where hoarders need to be dug out. We took an entire dumpster
size pile of garbage (and still I have only a foot wide path
to the computer in there).

They next day, project one was to
haul the garbage to the dump. (Its $17 to drop it off but they
charge $200 a month to pick it up) So I gave him $20 to pay
the dump fee and he took the truck and left at 11:00. Its a
20 minute trip to the garbage transfer station, and maybe 20
minutes depending on how many cars in line, to get it dumped.
So he should have been back by 12:30. He finally called me
at 3:00 and told me there had been an accident and he had to
help and transport somebody to the hospital and he forgot to
call me but he was at a certain intersection on the way back.
So he should have arrived within 20 - 15 minutes. He finally
showed up at 6:00.

So he told me he'd worked at dumping the garbage until 12:30.
SO I paid him for that time but he said he couldn't talk about
the accident. Which seemed odd for 2 reasons, the main one being
in a city of 200,000 with multiple responders why did he have to
transport somebody to the hospital. The other isn't really
relevant. He has no car so when he works for me I have to pick
him up and take him home. If I have to take a pain pill I have
to send him home in a taxi.

Anyway, coming home I knew my blood sugar was getting low and
I had no juice with me but I got safely home. When I pulled in
to my driveway, the car behind me on the highway pulled too. A
man got out asked me if I was Carol Dickinson. And he told me
that he witness my husband (no it was my minion) dumping a pile
of garbage by the side of the road a mile from my house. SHOCKED.
So I called the minion and confronted him and he hung up on me.
I thanked the man for letting me know (the garbage was identified
as mine by some papers inside and its a criminal offense to dump
trash) and while I was physically unable to deal with it that
evening but I would have it removed by noon the next day.

So the next day, I was hurting a lot from overdoing the day before
but I went and got him and made him pick it all up and take it
to the dump. I went with him, because I couldn't trust him to
do it and this was the 3rd time he had used our truck to do
things he was not supposed to do. I pulled a muscle in the back
of my leg that day, and have spent the last week babying the leg.

Thursday I see a surgeon about operating on my knee. Just one
thing after another lately. My sister became a Grandmother for
the first time on Dec 14. I have yet to see the baby, even
though they live 2 miles from me, because while I had the
whooping cough vaccination, I have not had the measles one.
And nobody is allowed to see the kid without that one, even
before the measles outbreak here. There is no supply of vaccine
here for that. I want to see him soooo much.

Carol

[Carol Dickinson]

Post by Nyssa
My Christmas Eve wasn't so dramatic. I ended up spending
five and a half hours sitting in Firestone waiting for them
to fix something they broke back in September by using
the wrong part for the job. The wrong part kept draining
my battery where I never knew from day-to-day whether or
not the truck would start, and I traced the problem down
to their replacement of a left-turn signal bulb socket.
No charge for the re-work, but I really had other things
I would have preferred doing all day.
Nyssa, who also read several cookie cutter cozies that aren't
worth mentioning

That does sound like a Christmas Eve I would have hated. I
think yours was worse than mine. At least I was home while
dealing with multiple visits from paramedics.

And that Christmas Eve was the 50th anniversary of the most
memorable Christmas Eve of my life. I was the only civilian
on the flight from Seattle to Chicago, because I made the
reservation early and then the military reserved the flight
for returning servicemen from Vietnam. I had planned to
sleep going cross country overnight. But being the only
female on the plane, and 20, and still curvy, I had a
rotating group of boys talking to me all night. I don't
remember a single one of them or what we talked about, but
I do remember it was the only time in my life I was
considered "beautiful". I've always been plain. Every
girl should experience something like that once in her
life. And once is enough.


And then
when I landed in Saginaw, my luggage wasn't with me. SO
my Uncle took me home to Grandma (30 miles) and then had
to do another trip later in the day to get my luggage when
it showed up. And it was very snowy that day.

And it was the Christmas without presents because all the
money went to getting 2 people from Alaska and 3 people
from West Virginia to my Grandmothers house in Michigan.
It was the year the astronauts were in space and read
the Christmas story from the bible on a TV broadcast.
And there were some other wonderful things about that
day. That was the last day I ever spent with my Grandfather.
Best Christmas ever. And on ones like the one we had
this year, I remember that one and everything is fine.

Carol