A Christmas Garland

by Anne Perry

It's not too early to pick up a Christmas mystery.  Trust me.  This story is not light and fluffy or covered in tinsel and sparkling lights.

Anne Perry has presented us with a themed mystery every year since 2003.  A Christmas Garland is the 10th.  As is appropriate with each Christmas tale, snuggle up with a warm quilt with a cup of tea.  A crackling fire would be nice, too.

A Christmas Garland is set in 1857 India.  Lieutenant Narraway is a young soldier who is assigned by his superior officer to defend a medical orderly accused of murder.  The court hearing is mostly for show, as all the evidence points to the orderly and yet, the orderly swears to his innocence.  Amid the horrors that war brings, the families of Cownpore who have suffered great loss, strive to maintain a semblance of hope and reason during the holiday season.

I always enjoy Perry's historical novels for both the mysteries and and the historical atmosphere she captures and writes so well.

 ** I received a  copy of A Christmas Garland  from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

Taste of Home Cooking School

I love Taste of Home magazines.  Flipping through the pages and drooling over those delectable pictures and even reading the recipes is a favorite past time of mine.

This is a new cookbook from the people at Taste of Home with pictures of every recipe and lots of good tips and cooking advise.  As the title implies, it's like a cooking school at home.  There are lessons on measuring such items as shortening, shortening, brown sugar, etc.  It identifies different types of cutlery, cookware, and  bakeware and what's the best use of each.

I tried several recipes - some I'll make again and others I wasn't too impressed with.

One I really like was My Take on Mom's Meat Loaf.  It uses fresh mushrooms and turned out excellently.  Cold meatloaf sandwiches the next day were supremely good.     Another keeper is The Gourmet Scrambled Eggs.  I served them for dinner with fried ham slices and fresh fruit.  My husband and I thought they were especially yummy.

I tried two soups, neither of which we liked very well.  Wild Rice Soup intrigued me because it was made with ground beef instead of chicken.  Don't get me wrong - I love chicken and wild rice soup.  After the first try, my husband suggested adding noodles.  That was a big improvement.  I also, sliced up some left over fresh mushrooms that I didn't use in the meatloaf.  I am tempted to make this again, with some modifications, because I loved the ground beef and wild rice together.

Yankee Bean Soup caught my attention because of the addition of molasses.  I love navy bean soup but this recipe was very lackluster, even with the molasses.  Darn, I wanted this to be good.

The last failed recipe was the tantalizing-sounding Pumpkin Creme Brulee.  My husband loves creme brulee so I thought I would spoil him.  I followed the recipe to the tee and it turned out terrible.  I thought maybe it was under cooked so the next day I baked it another 40 minutes.  The taste was okay but the consistency was yucky so we threw the rest out.

Overall, I thought this cookbook was hit and miss.

 ** I received a  copy of Taste of Home: Cooking School  from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

It's Murder Son

by Lauren Carr

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery that has a little bit of everything.  There's the Cinderella story - only in this book it's a deserving police detective that inherits mansions, land, money, a restaurant, and more.  Along with his famous mother's assets is a personal secretary who is cute, fun, and smart.  And then there's the dog - more of a liability, perhaps.

Of course, there is murder, and not just one.   To solve these murders, our police detective must look closely at love triangles, neighborhood animosities, get-rich quick schemes, and even a mob connection.  The story has lots of twists and turns and unexpected elements.

Carr writes well and the story flows easily from beginning to end.  I liked the main characters and hope to see them in a follow-up book.  I would love to read more books by Carr even if  her next book is a stand alone.

I just looked and discovered that this book IS part of a series.  It's book 3 of the Mac Faraday Mysteries.  Hooray, that there are 2 books I am looking forward to reading.  Shucks, why do so often I find myself in the middle of series?

***Note added several hours later:  Thank-you to Lauren Carr for leaving a comment and providing the correct information about her Mac Faraday series.  It's Murder, My Son is book 1.  Next is Old Loves Die Hard, then Shades of Murder.  Out in January is Blast from the Past.   Oh, goody!  I'm in with the first book and have 3 more to look forward to.


 ** I received a  copy of It's Murder, My Son  from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received. 

Heartsick

by Chelsea Cain

I listened to this audio book while cutting fabric and pressing quilt blocks.  When I had to stop to sew, I wished I had earphones so I could continue listening.  *Note to self - get earphones out of drawer in the library and put near the sewing machine.

This is not a book for the faint of heart.  There's nothing cozy about this mystery.  This was a book on my Pinterest "Book Recommendations" board that I was able to find on searchoverdrive.com.

Heart Sick features a beautiful, female serial killer.  Gretchen Lowell may be the scariest villain I've encountered in my reading.  I really liked Archie Sheridan, the investigator that she tortured and let live.  The story starts out with Archie dreaming about the time with Gretchen and the torturing.  It had been over 2 years since she held him captive but he is still obsessed and thinks about her, reliving the nightmare daily.  Archie's partner encourages  him to come back to work and help solve a new serial case involving young girls.

The story shifts between Archie's memories, along with visits to Gretchen in the penitentiary, and working to find the latest serial killer.  I like books that build on two or more story lines at a time.  Earlier tonight I discovered this is book one of a series.  I will probably read the next but I don't understand why.  There's something compelling about Gretchen's psychological hold on Archie and I hope that he is successful in expunging her from his thoughts. 

The Joy of X

by Steven Strogatz

This is a fun, understandable (to a point) book about math.  Before I became a science teacher I considered teaching math or English.  I rejected English because I wasn't sure I had the ability to encourage writing skills.  I can usually tell what's well-written and what's not, but how do I instruct a student to improve his writing?  I took one look at the Theory of Math classes required to teach math and shook my head.  If Strogatz was the teacher of those classes I may have reconsidered.

When I read a book like this I enjoy the feeling of grasping concepts presented in a 'new-to-me' way.  Unfortunately, I don't hold on to those concepts for long and I'm not able to discuss them in any knowledgeable manner.  So writing this book review is harder than writing about fiction.

There is a story line, of sorts.  Strogatz starts with a description of numbers that we learn about in kindergarten - real numbers that made sense to me.  I understood for the first time that numbers are much like the science words my students complained about learning.  A number is a shorthand way to express in one symbol what might take a whole phrase or sentence to explain otherwise.

We are led from what we understand to what flew over our heads in math class.  Imaginary numbers never made sense to me until reading this book.  The day I read about imaginary numbers I talked with my daughter who is taking Calculus 3 in college.  She was complaining about imaginary numbers.  I laughed at the timing.

When you're in a book store pick this book up and read through the chapter titles.  Strogatz is very creative both with his chapter titles and his presentation.  As I read The Joy of X (cute title, huh?) I thought of my math friends and how much they would enjoy this book.  Yes, Raidergirl, I thought of you!  Even if you're not a 'math geek' you may want to excite your synaptic firings by reading an interesting approach to math.  Hmmm, I wonder if I've pushed back the onset of Alzheimer's.

One other good thing - Strogatz talked about several different fictional books that I wrote down.  The first I want to get my hands on is The Housekeeper and the Professor.  Has anyone read it?

 ** I received a  copy of The Joy of X  from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.