So Many Books!

Lately, I've had the great fortune to be able to do a lot of reading and the reading has been quite eclectic.

First, through Wowbrary (new additions to the Hatfield Public Library sent to me in a weekly email) I learned about Hissing Cousins, the story of Eleanor Roosevelt and her first cousin Alice Longworth. U.S. politics and government is so much more interesting when it involves the lives of people. Eleanor and Alice were born the same year (1884). Alice was Teddy Roosevelt's daughter and Eleanor was his niece (as well as Franklin Roosevelt's wife). They spent much of their lives together, but were very different people. Both were quite influential in Washington politics, but in entirely different ways. While I can't be as effusive about Hissing Cousins as I am about Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the story of Eleanor and Alice is very readable (and much shorter).


True history was followed by a thriller by one of my favorite authors, Lisa Scottoline. I love her Rosato and Associates series, but this was a standalone title, Every Fifteen Minutes. The opening chapter made me feel anxious, which kept me reading so that I could get to a resolution. Highly recommended if you like thrillers and don't mind feeling unsettled for several days.

On the lighter side, I learned about Arsenic and Old Books from an AUTOCAT post. It is written by a librarian and the mysteries all take place in a library. Charlie Harris is a librarian with a Maine coon cat named Diesel. While Diesel accompanies Charlie everywhere, he does not solve the mystery like Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy or Lilian Jackson Braun's Koko. Even though I'm a cat lover, I find having an animal so intimately involved a little silly. While Charlie talks to Diesel (and I've always talked to my cats), Charlie solves his mysteries without Diesel's input. The plot is definitely light, but there is an intriguing twist at the end.

Currently, I'm reading an oldie: The Edge by Dick Francis. Whenever I'm at a loss for what to read next, I can depend on Dick Francis. Even though he died in 2010, he was a prolific writer and I can always find something of his that I haven't read, or read such a long time ago that I can't remember the plot.

Happy reading!