Another Lovejoy Mystery

I just finished Firefly Gadroon.  Lovejoy is forced into finding and rescuing a cache of stolen antiques in the North Sea before they are shipped off to Europe.  Will he succeed?  Can he rescue these prizes?  Would he give them to their rightful owners?  Can he manage all this, save his skin, and avoid killing the bad guys? Oh, and what is a gadroon, anyway?

Sandra Cisneros

WOW!  I just read The House on Mango Street.  It is considered a teen book, but I would certainly not limit it to teens.  Sandra Cisneros tells a story in a series of vignettes of growing up Latina in Chicago.  I want to go and read everything she has written.  I will look into what the library owns and see what will be next.  I put a hold on Caramelo and on Woman Hollering Creek.  The other things she has are poetry and I do not know if I am ready for poetry at this time.

The Vatican Rip

I just finished The Vatican Rip by Jonathan Gash. Lovejoy is blackmailed into stealing a valuable antique from the Vatican museum. A good book, but a bit more confusing than his others. I am still waiting for a copy of his book The Spend Game to arrive. I skipped it for this title.

Now I have to work on homework. To begin with I have to compare the second week Ignatian Spiritual Exercise on The Kingdom, with the exercise The Two Standards. There is a whole bunch more, but I take it one piece at a time.

More Murder and Mayhem

I just finished reading The Merry Wives of Maggody by Joan Hess, an "Arly Hanks" mystery. These take place in the inbred town of Maggody, Arkansas. To get a true picture of the relationships among the characters you really have to start with Malice in Maggody. The cast of characters can get confusing when Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanon, aka Barbara Jean Buchanon Buchanon and others are interrelated.

Simon's Cat

One of my favorite internet videos is the cartoon "Cat Man Do." Now, Simon Tofield has his own website with several Simon's cat videos. Check it out. http://www.simonscat.com/index.html

Murder in the Highlands

If you feel like reading a cozy mystery, take a look at the Hamish Macbeth series by M. C. Beaton. The latest is Death of a Valentine. I finished this one the other day and it was just as lovely and mindless as all the rest. They are worth reading for your entertainment. The victim is never anyone you care about, the criminal is always an outsider or no one you have become familiar with in any other books in the series, there's never any blood and guts to wade through. If you feel like some fun, start with the first in the series Death of a Gossip.

I Love to Read

In case you hadn't noticed, I love to read. I just finished Weighed in the Balance by Anne Perry and Silencer by James W. Hall. The Anne Perry is another book in the Inspector Monk series of detective fiction. I still have quite a few to go before I re-read or listen to them all.

Silencer is a book in a series about a guy named Thorn. I used to read these and saw the new one and figured it was time to read another one. Now I am not so sure. It was much grittier than the reading I currently do. I was almost afraid of having nightmares because the bad guys were so evil.