Making it Up As I Go

I finished Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood, and in comparison to the book I posted about last, it is my kind of mystery. It’s complicated, there’s lots of potential suspects, everyone has a secret, and by the end, the end… Read more ›

Back ages ago, I posted about my disappointment in Alexander McCall Smith’s series of mysteries set in Africa. Well, technically my disappointment in the first one, since I didn’t go on to read the others. I felt at the time… Read more ›

I love Colette. She has a writing style and voice that are comfortable and comforting, and even translated from French, her words have nuance and poetry. (I’m assuming that’s not just due to the translator; I’m guessing that the nuance… Read more ›

I’m still pondering Nosferatu by Paul Monette. It’s based on the 1979 screenplay of the same name by Werner Herzog, so Monette isn’t the one who came up with the story, which is quite different than Stoker’s original, but he… Read more ›

There was a question posed in the comments of the last post, which I answer here because it strikes me that some guys may not know about this subject. (And because I find it funny.) Sometimes adolescent girls are self… Read more ›

Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb is darling. It’s your typical YA plotline: girl (Jess) underestimates herself, pines after boy (Ben), finds love; but it’s clever and funny and sweet. And it includes minestrone filled falsies exploding at… Read more ›

I finished The Best American NonRequired Reading 2005. I don’t read a lot of short story anthologies- actually that’s a lie. It would be more correct to say that I don’t read many non-themed anthologies. Therefore, when I read one… Read more ›

The first book of the new year has been finished and declared good. Yarn Harlot by Stephanie Pearl McPhee is a series of essays about knitting. I know, it doesn’t sound fascinating, but McPhee is no ordinary knitter. She’s a… Read more ›