Erasing Memory by Scott Thornley

A young woman is found dead in a cottage on the shores of an Ontario lake. Next to her, a portable record player is playing the second Schubert Piano Trio on repeat. The only clue to her identity is a bruise-like mark on her neck that indicates she is a violinist – Detective MacNeice recognizes [...]

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A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

This is the third book in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series. When it opens, young Flavia is at the local fair, having her fortune read. Then the gypsy fortune teller’s tent burns down, and Flavia goes with her in her caravan to show her where on the de Luce’s property she can camp. Later [...]

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Death at the Chateau Bremont, M.L. Longworth

Death at the Château Bremont is about a death, and also a complicated romance, and also French food and wine. The death: local nobleman Étienne de Bremont falls to his death from the family château. It looks like an accident, but Étienne’s cousins ask for an inquiry into his death. That’s how Antoine Verlaque, the [...]

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Too Many Books

I have books all around me, all clamoring for my attention. There are the books I have read and written half-finished posts/reviews of: Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley The books I have read and not yet started writing about: Dog Sense: How the new science of dog behavior can [...]

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The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King

This latest installment of the Mary Russell – Sherlock Holmes mysteries completely passed me by when it was published, so here I am, reading it a year later. It picks up right where The Language of Bees ended, but fortunately there is plenty of background detail for those who, like me, don’t exactly remember what [...]

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Summer Literacy Program

Down the street from me is a subsidized housing complex with many lower-income and immigrant families. Tonight was my first time volunteering with the Summer Literacy Program run by their chaplaincy. What fun! Also exhausting, and noisy, with kids running around and lots of reading out loud going on. There weren’t quite enough volunteers for [...]

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A Few More Mysteries

I’m still catching up on blogging about books I’ve read in the last month or so, and since a number of them were mystery/crime fiction, I thought I’d write about them in one post. So here goes: Among the Departed by Vicky Delany Vicky Delany is a Canadian mystery writer whose books I really quite [...]

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Happy Canada Day!

Happy 144th birthday, Canada! The biggest headline of the day is undoubtedly the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. But since I am not in Ottawa, the best thing about the day for me is the chance to laze around and read. I have a lovely little yard that is the perfect spot [...]

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