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October 2023


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

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Canadian Book Challenge: 2024-2025

Beat the Backlist 2024

Ozathon: 12/2023-01/2025

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Murder at the Taffy Shop: 10/31/23

Murder at the Taffy Shop

Murder at the Taffy Shop by Maddie Day and Rachel Dulude (Narrator) (2020) is second volume of the Cozy Capers Book Group mystery series. Mac and her walking partner find contentious genealogist Beverly Ruchart dead by the Taffy Shop.

Although Mac is absolutely swamped with business at her bike shop she realizes that someone is taking too much interest in her and her shop. Figuring it has something to do with Beverly's death, she calls on the help of her friends of the Cozy Capers Book Group.

Maddie manages well at balancing the day to day hustle and bustle of Mac's business life, her personal life, and the investigation. There are clues dropped for the observant reader, making the mystery solving both fun and tense.

Finally, there's Belle, Mac's African gray parrot. Here she becomes more of a fully realized character in away that she wasn't in the first book. She also gets to highlight her intelligence and usefulness in a way that most cozy mystery pets don't, unless they are magical.

The third book is Murder at the Lobstah Shack (2021).

Five stars

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Karl the Fog: San Francisco's Most Mysterious Resident by Karl the Fog: 10/29/23

Karl the Fog: San Francisco's Most Mysterious Resident by Karl the Fog

Karl the Fog: San Francisco's Most Mysterious Resident by Karl the Fog (2019) is a photo book set in and around San Francisco on primarily foggy days. While the black and white photos used in the introduction are credited to Fred Lyon (1924-2022), the remaining photos are uncredited.

The gag is that Karl, the fog bank that comes out from the Farallons and can cover the entire Bay Area on especially dark, cold days, has written a memoir. The pictures show scenes of San Francisco and surrounds, sometimes on foggy days and sometimes on clear days. The clear days are labeled as horrible days, and honestly, given how hot it can get without Karl, they often are.

The cover art is credited to Lizzie Vaughan and the interior design to Alma Kamal. Presumably that means the layout, choice of typeface and type color. I wish, though, that the photos themselves were credited somewhere because they are quite artistic. I hope these pieces were licensed and not just taken for use by Chronicle Books for a gag book.

Three stars

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Star Spangled Murder: 10/28/23

Star Spangled Murder

Star Spangled Murder by Leslie Meier and Karen White (Narrator) (2005) is the eleventh Lucy Stone mystery. Two things have put Tinker Cove's annual Independence Day celebrations on hold: endangered purple lichen and nudists at the local pond. To complicate matters, the Stone's horrible next door neighbor is dead, run over by some yet to be identified vehicle.

We're twelve years into this series both in terms of publication dates and story time. The youngest of the children was born in one of the books and is now the age that the oldest ones were in the earliest books. We should by now have a fairly good idea of how the Stones spend their time and how the annual events go.

And yet, we're told hold cloth that the pond near the Stone home is a popular place to swim and that skinny dipping has been something villagers have done on a semi regular basis. But this book is the first time this nearby pond is mentioned. Likewise the skinny dipping.

Meanwhile we have the same disregard for pets from the first book with a new pet brought in at the end. Will this new one fair any better? Will they bother to train it? Care about it when it's injured? Or will she be another convenient plot device?

Finally there's the mystery itself. It's hardly even part of the book. Yes, the neighbor is dead, clearing up a bunch of problems. But her death comes at 51% completion of the book. Lucy barely does any investigating, and even quits her job at the paper. This particular murderer could absolutely have gotten away with it had they kept their mouth shut. Instead they give a full confession, for reasons, meaning the resolution of this book is entirely in the hands of the murderer.

The next book is New Year Eve's Murder (2005).

Three stars

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Dressed to Kill: 10/27/23

Dressed to Kill

Dressed to Kill by Lynn Cahoon and Susan Boyce (Narrator) is the fourth book in the Tourist Trap mystery series. Jill Gardener is a reluctant participant in a dinner theater mystery being hosted for charity. On the night of the first rehearsal the bank manager is murdered.

The murder is set against a couple of other mysteries. One involves the bank's new security system being incredibly glitchy. The other involves a friend of Jill's aunt who has been conned out a bunch of money.

Coincidentally Dressed to Kill at the nuts and bolts level of mystery is very similar to Danger at the Iron Dragon by Carolyn Keene (2021). Having read the two books almost back to back, it made figuring out how all the pieces fit together here all the more easy.

The fifth book is Killer Run (2015).

Four stars

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Danger at the Iron Dragon: 10/25/23

Danger at the Iron Dragon

Danger at the Iron Dragon by Carolyn Keene (2021) is the 22nd book in the Nancy Drew Diaries series. On the way home Nancy is mugged but she's rescued by Carly, a student of jiu-jitsu at the Iron Dragon. On her father's encouragement, Nancy and her two BFFs, Bess and George sign up for lessons.

Of course Nancy's not just there to learn how to defend herself. Carly is her client too. Someone is trying to intimidate her out of the upcoming competition. She suspects her old MMA.

This mystery uses a bunch of misdirection. The case Nancy is hired for isn't the case she ends up solving. It's a book that is especially fun for the attentive reader. With a lifetime of reading mysteries, I caught the twist but I can see it being a satisfying surprise to younger readers.

On the character front, I absolutely delighted in Bess excelling at jiu-jitsu despite being the girlie one of the bunch. It was a nice reminder that one can be both athletic and into fashion. Bess buying a pink gi is also pure Bess but also shows the welcoming nature of the Iron Dragon MMA.

The next book in the series is A Capitol Crime (2021).

Five stars

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A Wrench in the Works: 10/23/23

A Wrench in the Works

A Wrench in the Works by Kate Carlisle and Eileen Stevens (Narrator) (2018) is the sixth book in the Fixer-Upper mystery series. Shannon's sister Chloe is back in town to film the refurb of one of the neglected Victorians in Lighthouse Cove. Chloe comes with a film and production crew and before they even begin filming, someone is murdered.

The most interesting part of this book was the house as is the case in all the volumes so far in this series. This one is a classic Queen Anne but it hasn't seen any upkeep in about a century. There's a lot of time spent on describing both how the building should look and how weather and neglect has warped and rotted the exterior.

The murder though isn't especially mysterious. The numerous attacks on Chloe that come after the first murder and continue after the second murder only serves to point out how obvious the solution is.

The seventh book in the series is Shot Through the Hearth (2019).

Four stars

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My Mother Was a Nanny: 10/22/23

My Mother Was a Nanny

My Mother Was a Nanny by Laura James (2023) is inspired by the author's childhood in Brooklyn New York. Using the days of the week and other basic markers of time, the narrator describes all the ways her mother was kept busy.

With each new thing Mummy does readers get an expanded view of life in Brooklyn. There are children to care for. There are things to men. There are things to clean and vacuum.

The illustrations are colorful and detailed. Great attention to detail shows in the intricate patterns throughout the book. The pictures are visually interesting.

Five stars

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DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test: 10/20/23

DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test

DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test by Hamish Steele (2018) is the first half of a duology about demons, angels, and an amusement park. DeadEndia was a pilot, then a webcomic, then a graphic novel, and a brief series on Netflix (as Dead End: Paranormal Park). Each version is different but they share some key similarities: Norma, Barney, Pugsley, and Courtney.

The four of them all want a place where they can be themselves and be comfortable doing it. For Norma it's the one place she's not afraid (despite all the supernatural stuff). For Barney it's where he can be himself without being deadnamed or misgendered, for Pugsley, it's a place where he can be a talking dog (and former demon), and for Courtney, it's a place away from both sides who want to judge her.

But it's not just a slice of life set in a supernaturally charged amusement park. It's also the mystery of what happened to the founder of the park (though that is more the plot of the Netflix series than here). And it's the portents of the end of the world showdown with some time travel shenanigans.

While the time travel / end of days plot is interesting, I'll admit that I was mostly hooked by the slice of life aspects.

The second book is The Broken Halo (2019).

Five stars

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How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?: 10/19/23

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague (Illustrator) (2009) is the tenth book in the How Do Dinosaurs picture book series. I've reviewed a few others but it's been years since I've read any. But it was in the doctor's office and it was the most entertaining book on offer.

As with the previous books in the series, each page offers a situation that can be stressful for young children and their parents. Each situation is beautifully illustrated in a 1950's inspired style by Mark Teague.

I honestly didn't appreciate these books as much when I was a mother of young children. Dinosaurs as "children" seemed ridiculous to me. Now as an artist who has been painting chickens in human situations, I can see now how the dinosaurs stand in for behaviors that would be shaming if realistic children were depicted instead.

Five stars

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Sunshine: 10/16/23

Sunshine

Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (2023) is the follow up to Hey, Kiddo (2020). This one covers a week in September where Jarrett volunteered at Camp Sunshine, a camp for children with cancer, and their families.

Jarrett presents his younger self as finally comfortable with his situation. As he and his classmates who are also volunteering, he learns that he's not the only one with an unusual family.

While his classmates get what he considers the easy assignments — little kids or at least groups of kids — he's assigned to a boy with terminal brain cancer. He's a kid who needs a team of caregivers and Jarretts been chosen to be his buddy for the week.

Although two of Jarrett's favorite campers end up dying young, this book isn't maudlin. It's hopeful and honest. It's corny sometimes too. It's about living in the moment, about taking joy in the little things, about being accepted as is, rather than one's illness or limitations being the focus.

Five stars

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Spy x Family, Volume 9: 10/14/23

Spy x Family, Volume 9

Spy x Family, Volume 9 by Tatsuya Endo (2022) wraps up the cruise ship plot and then takes a break from the heart-wrenching drama for some lighter fare.

Tucked in the middle is a Bond and Loid story. Loid wants to improve Bond's training but realizes that dogs need downtime, just like spies. So they go on walkies and it's during the walk that Bond tries, fails, tries again, and ultimately succeeds in proving his worth. That adventure involves an arson set fire and a puppy trapped in the burning building.

At school Anya has a moment of triumph which is dashed away by her own enthusiasm. There's also more unfairness too, teachers who are more taken in on wielding power than on being decent human beings.

Volume 10 in English translation releases October 17, 2023.

Five stars

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A Shareware Heroes: 10/13/23

A Shareware Heroe

Shareware Heroes by Richard Moss (2022) is a history of shareware development from the late 1970s through the early 2000s. The book is focused on men in America and the UK.

For the nuts and bolts of how shareware developed as a business model for games and software development in the first couple decades of the personal computer, it's an interesting and informative read. To revisit one's favorite old shareware game, it's also fun.

As a larger discourse on computer history and software development it falls a little flat. Programmers who aren't men are pretty much absent from this book. Gamers and computer users who aren't men are also pretty much absent too. The two exceptions are a non-binary developer and a developer's mother.

I realize the personal computer era was a huge paradigm shift where computers became "boy toys" and women were often actively discouraged from building one or developing programs for them despite the earliest decades having women "typists" who were programmers of the mainframes.

It also has almost no mention of software development in places other than the United States and the United Kingdom. There was a small software development cottage industry in Australia too and I suspect other places too.

Finally, as the book peters out with the slow extinction of the classic shareware model of distributing software, there's not look at the present day marker where small developers have various streaming services as their distribution method.

three stars

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A Good Day to Pie: 10/11/23

A Good Day to Pie

A Good Day to Pie by Misha Popp and Tanya Eby (Narrator) (2023) is the second book in the Pies Before Guys series. Daisy is taking a break from baking murder pies to compete in a televised baking competition. While competing two people are murdered: a contestant and a judge and Daisy didn't kill either of them. She decides she should figure out who did.

In my review of the first book, Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies (2022) I argued that this series isn't a cozy mystery series. It's at best, a thriller. The second book tries harder by having the murders be done by someone else.

But the series has a long way to go before being the cozy mystery series it's advertised as. Yes, there was murder and yes, the timing for the deaths were within the usual places in the plot. But... the vast majority of this book is the cooking contest. Of all the cooking contest based mysteries I've read I learned more about baking in this one (without even listening to the recipes at the end) than I have in all the previous books combined.

Here's the thing. I wanted to read about baking or learn new recipes, I'd read a cook book. If I wanted to sit through a season of a baking competition, I'd watch one.

Four stars

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The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again, Today Volume 3: 10/09/23

The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again, Today Volume 3

The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, Volume 3 by Hitsuji Yamada (2020) deals with separation anxiety. Specifically, Saku's going on the biennial company retreat, a trip she skipped when Yukichi was a kitten.

Yukichi has the place to himself. He can do what he wants and get the apartment perfect. He accomplishes that but without also having to care for Saku, he's done with his chores in record time. And he just doesn't know how to cat because he's always been so focused on the apartment and Saku's wellbeing.

Saku, meanwhile, does her usual binge drinking with her coworkers. Bu without Yukichi there to care for her, she's not as quick to recover. She also has to rely on her boss who will probably someday be a love interest.

There's also more looks at Yukichi's kittenhood where we learn just how much he's had to accomplish to have the comfortable life he and Saku now have. Although Saku isn't working for a black company, her hours are still longer than they should be, especially when the afterwork drinking seems to be regular event too. It's no surprise that she'd be too tired and distracted to remember garbage day or do other basic chores around the home.

Five stars

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Hope Springs: 10/08/23

Hope Springs

Hope Springs by Lynne Hinton (2003) is the sequel to Friendship Cake (2000). The first one was a collection of interconnected stories tied further together over the church cookbook. This book tries to do the same thing but doesn't manage to pull it off.

The theme this time is gardening. The interconnected stories are more heavy hitting time. One deals with grief and suicidal thoughts. Another character is diagnosed with breast cancer. The other characters rally around these two and support them with their unbridled enthusiasm.

It's all so wholesomely grim dark. I wanted to lose myself into the characters like I had twice with the first book. I just couldn't. The direction the story was taken was obvious, though, I can say it does manage to pull off a happy-ish ending.

The third book is Forever Friends (2003)

Three stars

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A Half-Baked Murder: 10/06/23

A Half-Baked Murder

A Half-Baked Murder by Emily George and Chelsea Stephens (Narrator) (2023) is the start of the Cannabis Café mystery series. Chloe Barns returns to her small coastal California town after crashing and burning in her quest to be a pastry chef in a Michelin-stared restaurant. Her aunt convinces her to open the town's first cannabis bakeshop.

Before they can even begin the paperwork, Chloe's aunt is a person of interest in the murder of the town bully. Determined to clear her aunt's name and save the business she decides to investigate the murder.

Save for the cannabis angle, A Half-Baked Murder is a typical cozy mystery first volume written for an older Gen-Z audience. We have the main character returning home with skills, no job, and no immediate prospects for a job. We have her supportive family (something not present in earlier versions of this genre). We have her opening up a new shop, often a food based one. And we have the death of someone who everyone can agree deserved and the police being interested in absolutely the wrong person.

What sets this book apart is the inclusion of cannabis. There are long passages with advice on how to work with it, different strains and their uses, and dispensary culture. The back of book even includes recipes, starting with the all important butter infusion.

Younger me would have been scandalized and probably embarrassed to read the book but times have changed and I have changed. I live adjacent to a city that has two dispensaries and they've been here long enough I can't recall when they first opened.

My four star review isn't penalizing the book for the frank discussion of cannabis. Nope, I've dinged it for the choice of murderer and their motivations. The murderer feels like a character from a much earlier cozy, one written in the early 2000s. Specifically I'm thinking of Star Spangled Murder by Leslie Meier (2005).

The book hinges on the hackneyed trope of a bullied or abused person being driven to murder. The reality is abused people most often turn to self harm rather than revenge. It's especially frustrating in this otherwise excellent book when there are a good half dozen other people who have been hurt by the victim but haven't spent a lifetime of being a direct target.

The second book is A High Tide Murder and releases in 2024.

Four stars

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Pink, Blue, and You!: Questions for Kids about Gender Stereotypes: 10/05/23

Pink, Blue, and You!: Questions for Kids about Gender Stereotypes

Pink, Blue, and You!: Questions for Kids about Gender Stereotypes by Elise Gravel with Mykaell Blais (Contributor) (2022) is a picture book about gender and sexual orientation for children. It's straight forward and easy to understand and is colorfully illustrated.

The book begins with a list of different interests and asks the reader if these things can be divided up into boy and girl things. Then it goes one step further to ask if those things should be divided up that way. From there it asks the reader if they have any interests on the list that don't "fit."

To back up the idea that gender stereotypes are counterproductive, the book includes a short timeline of careers that are currently still very gendered and ones that were illegal for certain genders.

Throughout the tone is informative, positive, and rather lighthearted.

Five stars

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Dyeing Wishes: 10/04/23

Dyeing Wishes

Dyeing Wishes by Molly MacRae and and Emily Durante (Narrator) (2013) is the second book in the Haunted Yarn Shop mystery series. Kath Rutledge is taking a group of knitters to a wool dyeing class out on a sheep ranch. Before class can even start, she and another woman find two bodies amongst the sheep. It looks like murder suicide.

This particular mystery felt like the investigation that could have come after the end of Romeo and Juliet. Kath isn't really interested in investigating either but the reactions of those around her end up pushing her towards investigating.

There's also Geneva, the ghost who follows Kath around. The murder seems to have dredged up memories, perhaps of her own death. Because of the apparent similarities, Kath feels compelled to look into the present day mystery.

At least the cat gets a name by the end of the book and Kath finds her grandmother's missing recipes.

The third book is Spinning Her Grave (2014)

Four stars

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A Questionable Character: 10/03/23

A Questionable Character by Lorna Barrett

A Questionable Character by Lorna Barrett and Casandra Campbell (Narrator) (2023) is the seventeenth book in the Booktown Mystery series. Tricia is co-president of the Chamber of Commerce with her sister Angelica. They've hired a summer intern and he arrives on the heels of the town's latest murder.

The murder happened in a mansion that has been purchased to be the Nigela Ricita Asssociates' headquarters. The murdered man was the foreman for the remodeling project. Although Tricia has no particular interest in investigating, she gets pulled along by her eager intern.

Much of this book is centered on the intern, an LIS grad student named David. He's young enough to be Tricia's son but the two of them develop feelings for each other. I personally found his character off putting and spent a sizable portion of the mystery convinced he was somehow the murderer.

The elephant in the room, though, is Tricia's insistence that she's only lived in town for seven years. With there being seventeen volumes, that means only four of five month gaps between each murder. I personally don't think that timeline works given Jenny's story arc, her marriage, and her two children.

Four stars

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House of El: Book One: The Shadow Threat: 10/02/23

House of El: Book One: The Shadow Threat

House of El: Book One: The Shadow Threat by Claudia Gray and Eric Zawadzki (Illustrator) (2020) is the start of a trilogy about the fall of Krypton. It's told primarily from the point of view of those who end up in the phantom zone.

Krypton stories aren't my favorite part of the Superman universe. Sure he's from there. Sure he's one of a handful of survivors from a catastrophic extinction event. Lots of writers over the decades have thought of reasons why the planet failed and why Kryptonians didn't do more about it.

Gray pulls from the standard version which was an increasing number of force of earthquakes, though she choses to call them groundquakes. Although the planetwide civilization is highly advanced, so much so that they have space travel, something is holding them back from admitting the problem and coming up with a solution. The reason comes down to a eugenics based caste system. Eew.

One of the characters the book follows gets a chance to have her genetic programming undone, or loosened, so that she can think and feel beyond her stated purpose. She ends up caring more for her cohorts and is horrified by that realization.

The Enemy Delusion (2022)

Three stars

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September 2023 Sources: 10/02/23

Previous month's book sources

September was mostly cooler. I was extra busy, meaning less time for reading.

ROOB Score for the last three years

In September I read 17 TBR books, up two from the previous month. No books were published in September. One book was for research and there were no review copies. One was from the library. My ROOB score for September is -4.74, down from -3.95. It is my best September in fourteen years of tracking.

The current year's data is represented by a triangle on the graph below.

ROOB score mapped year after year to compare trends

I predicted a -4.5 for September. My actual score was lower because I didn't read any new books. For October, I'm sticking with a -4.5 prediction as I have a lot of older books I'm interested in getting through.

ROOB monthly averages

My average for September improved, going from -2.81 to -2.95.

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September 2023 Summary: 10/01/23

Reading report

September was deadline month some huge projects. I was painting, filling out paperwork, doing walkthroughs, and all sorts of other things that aren't reading.

I read two fewer books in September as August, 19, down from 21. Of my read books, ten were diverse and one was queer. I reviewed 22 books, up by one from the previous month. On the reviews front, 13 were diverse and five were queer.

I have 23 books left to review of of the 216 I've read.

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