Little Pixie

Thank you. I just can`t shift the flu - I think I`m over it, then I`m bleah for a couple of days again. I `had` to get some more books..... More Mr and Mrs North books - Key to Death ( £4.56), A Pinch of Poison ( £4.77 ) , Death has a small Voice ( £.4.58 ) Dekok and the Sorrowing Tomcat - Baantjer ( £4.35 ) The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett ( £2.81) No Deals, Mr Bond - John Gardner ( £2.93 ) And more Elizabeth Peters books - The Last Camel died at Noon (£2.54 ), Seeing a Large Cat ( £2.23 ) , The Snake, the crocodile and the Dog ( £2.56 ) , Lord of the Silent ( £1.92 ) , Thunder in the Sky (£1.78 ), The Hippopotamus Pool ( £2.58 ), The Golden One ( £1.90 ), The Ape who guards the Balance ( £2.05 ), Falcon at the Portals ( £2.65 ). 15 books - £44.21.

Hurray for the new books ! Have you tried Spiral ( Engrenages ) on Netflix ( don`t know if it`s available.. ) I recently saw S5 on TV here - `twas excellent. It`s a French language cop drama.

Yep, I had to look up cicatrice the other day, too.

I wonder if that`s a standalone, or from one of his other series ; I can`t find out much about it. Ah well. See, that`s what putting me off moving my ` dining room table pile` , the thought of having to break up the collection to fit into other places somewhere and nor being able to recall which book has ended up in which bit of the house. Could I have too many books, perchance ? Nooooooo.

Oooh, The Guest Cat. Is it good, is it good ? Should I buy it ?

Thanks so much for the info, Kylie - I`m really excited that there`ll be another Nursery Crimes, and another Thursday Next to look forward to ! Oh, and his other books too ; I pre-ordered Early Riser - * I think, must check * - and that`s the first time I`ve seen any info on it. Sounds intriguing.

I remember there was one on a pic you posted ; a pile of books ( I know, I expect that doesn`t narrow it down for anyone on this board ) near a sofa with reading glasses on top ? There were some Rome books too, and maybe a book by that NY lawyer ? Quite tempted by the DVDs, they look quite cheap over here.

It`s not butting in at all. I can read a whole string of cozy mysteries, then suddenly feel the need for something completely different, like a heavily lauded novel translated into English and running to 800 pages.

Erm, if `international` people can access it for free, then how is it being funded ? Are there adverts on the site which Brits aren`t allowed to see ?

Thank you for posting it - I got a message saying it was only available to readers of BBC Worldwide ( International site ).

Boo, not accessible from the UK.

Thank you ! Do push your Mr and Mrs North book up in your reading list* ; I`ll be interested to see if you like it as much. Though , you need to be the mood for particular genres, I find. * I`ll read something which you`ve picked from my TBR too ?

Thank you ! I must find a new place for them ( current dumping place is the dining room table ).

Ah, thanks. I`ve put Philippa G. on my ` get to at some point` list. I read The Drowning Pool a few years ago, can`t recall it at all at this stage, but hope you like it.

More Mr and Mrs North books ( Frances and Richard Lockridge ) Curtain for a Jester £3.14 Dishonest Murder £3.39 Dead as a Dinosaur £4.14 Norths meet Murder £6.29 Hanged for a Sheep £.4.59 Books read : 11 TBR 820 New Books Bought : 65 Total Cost : £ 163.05

I`ve had some lovely ` cat` reads lately. I`m really enjoying the Mr and Mrs North books, they have some cat descriptions which are so concise and exact.

Now to catch up with the books I`ve read.... #12 Cream Puff Murder - Joanne Fluke #13 Plum Pudding Murder #14 Apple Turnover Murder #15 Gingerbread Cookie Murder #16 Devil`s Foodcake Murder #17 Cinnamon Roll Murder #18 Red Velvet Cupcake Murder -Joanne Fluke I enjoyed my Hannah Swensen re-read, though the books do tend to blur into one big book when you read them one after the other, and you realise quite how many bodies Hannah manages to stumble across. Some of my favourite lines...From Apple Turnover Murder. Hannah and her cat Moishe have just woken up... .. cat and mistress left their bedroom and padded down the hall. Moishe was wearing his orange and white fur suit, and Hannah was dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved buttercup yellow blouse. Hannah was still wearing her fur-lined slippers and Moishe was doing the same. #19 Hildegarde Withers makes the Scene - Stuart Palmer The last of the series *sniff*. Hildegarde - retired NY schoolmarm - goes amongst the hippies in San Francisco to locate a missing girl and solve a murder. Perhaps not the funniest or most gripping of the books, it was completed after the author`s death, and it`s nice to have one final Hildegarde adventure. They made some lovely films of the books - click. #20 Who is Simon Warwick - Patricia Moyes Another of the Emmy and Henry Tibbett books. A jaw-dropping denouement. #21 Shimura Trouble - Sujata Massey Rei Shimura and her family visit some recently discovered Japanese relatives in Hawaii and solve a mystery. I`ve liked other books in the series more, though I`m not sure I can put my finger on why. #22 The Future falls - Tanya Huff Third in a series. The Earth is doomed by an asteroid and Charlie and her magical family have their work cut out for them in averting disaster. I can`t decide if the ending is really very clever or a cop-out ( though when I first read it, I thought meh... ) #23 Not a creature was Stirring - Jane Haddam Gregor - Armenian-American retired FBI agent - is asked to visit an elderly rich man to help him with an issue ; he doesn`t want to go, but is persuaded to go by his friend, an Orthodox priest. Getting to the big estate, he finds snow everywhere and the man just murdered...The mystery is good, and it was one of those readable enough books, which I might get more of in the future, but it didn`t immediately grab me. #24 Death takes a Bow - Frances and Richard Lockridge Just great fun, and I`ve ordered lots more of these out-of-print books. Pam ( cat mummy and martini drinker ) and Jerry North ( NY book publisher ) keep falling over bodies, to the consternation and amusement of their friends, Dorian and Bill Weigend ( Captain, NYPD ). Starting in the New Yorker in the 1930`s and ending up as a series of 26 books, Broadway play, TV series, the Norths reminded me of Nick and Nora Charles, though with lots of cats instead of Asta the Dog. One of Jerry`s authors drops dead on stage right before giving a lecture, and Pam and Jerry investigate. Fun lines from Death takes a Bow... Pam takes her young nieces out to lunch... Pam had to shake her head again when the waiter suggested cocktails, shaking it in an undertone to match the tone of the suggestion. Pam had a mental picture of a martini, very cold with beads on the glass - because the glass had first been iced - and a lemon peel twisted over it but not dropped in. No olive, Pam told her mental picture. " I think the tomato juice cocktail would be nice, to start with, don`t you , girls ?" Pamela North said, a heroine in her own right. #25 How to talk to your Cat - Patricia Moyes A non-fiction book, more about cute stories of cats than an actual ` how to`. Very funny. #26 The Maltese Goddess - Lyn hamilton Antiques dealer Lara goes to Malta to deliver some furniture and comes across a body. The historical bits of the book are interesting and there are some good scenes of peril, but it reminded me a bit of a sub-par Mary Stewart. #27 Reel Murder - Marian Babson So-so. #28 Home Sweet Homicide - Craig Rice A lovely little mystery. Widowed mother writes detective stories and her children investigate a murder in a near-by house, whilst trying to pair her up with the lead detective. Cute but not cloying. #29 The Girl in the Cellar - Patricia Wentworth A bit meh about this one, though I generally enjoy the Miss Silver mysteries. #30 Austenland - Shannon Hale A really funny read. Jane - New Yorker and maybe a bit too obsessed with Mr Darcy - gets a trip to a Jane Austen role-playing Resort in her Great-Aunt`s will and decides to get over her obsession once and for all, by going all out and embracing the Austen lifestyle. #31 Thus was Adonis murdered - Sarah Caudwell Wryly amusing whodunnit. Julia - tax barrister - goes to Venice and finds a body. The book has letters from Julia from her ongoing Venetian trip interspersed with the adventures of her fellow barristers in trying to prove her innocence from London. Fun quote : “On my first day in London I made an early start. Reaching the Public Record Office not much after ten, I soon secured the papers I needed for my research and settled in my place. I became, as is the way of the scholar, so deeply absorbed as to lose all consciousness of my surroundings or of the passage of time. When at last I came to myself, it was almost eleven and I was quite exhausted: I knew I could not prudently continue without refreshment.” February #32 Sweet Death, Kind Death - Amanda Cross #33 Something the Cat Dragged in - Charlotte Macleod #34 The Corpse in Oozak`s Pond - Charlotte Macleod #35 The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory Fascinating and gripping. Really beings the story to life. #36 The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir #37 The Spellman`s Strike Again - Lisa Lutz #38 No word from Winifred - Amanda Cross This may be my favourite of the Prof. Kate Fansler books. In this one, she investigates the mystery surrounding the missing Winifred, niece of a famous English novelist. Winifred`s letters and anecdotes about her from people Kate is able to trace, are interspersed with the ongoing search for Winifred. March #39 Whispers in the Sand - Barbara Erskine Newly divorced Anna decides to take a trip to Egypt; she takes along the scent bottle and the diary of her great-great-grandmother, a famous illustrator who also took the same trip as Anna is making. Anna`s journey is paralleled with excerpts from the diary; as it goes on, you realise that Anna is experiencing something spooky which her ancestor also experienced...The ending does rather go on and on, but despite that , it`s a real page turner, which brings ancient Egypt to life and made me want to read more books like this , like the Elizabeth Peters` books. #40 Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters The first of the Amelia Peabody books. Victorian spinster Amelia is left a large inheritance to the chagrin of her brothers and sets off to see the world. #41 The Judge is Reversed - Frances and Richard Lockridge #42 Murder in a Hurry - Frances and Richard Lockridge #43 Voyage into Violence - Frances and Richard Lockridge #44 The Long Skeleton - Frances and Richard Lockridge Lots of the Pam and Jerry North books. Huzzah !

It`s a real title ?? I thought that was all a joke. Phew @ the jury service being postponed.

Ooh, lots of new books ; I`ll be interested in the Philippa Gregory one particularly, `cos I recently read The Other Boleyn Girl and was quite taken with it.

It`s coming out in paperback on the 4th of June here, so I`ll hang on a while longer ; I find that the used hardbacks suddenly drop in price once the paperback is out ( though, if the paperback is a good price... ) Glad that you enjoyed it !

I tend to go to the Kitties one and the hospice one ; they`re the easiest to get to when I go into town for acupuncture, and they`re both local charities, which I like.

I find the Oxfam bookshop pretty pricy here ; they have some good books, but at higher-then-used-bookshop prices.

I think that so many people donate to the Save the Kitties charity shop that they`re able to offer some real bargains ; they also have a couple of big bins with 20p books in them, and if they haven`t been able to sell something, they put it outside the shop in a `please take for free` box.

Aw, thank you.

Ditto - are you snowed in, Kate ?