Sleep in Heavenly Pizza: 11/28/24

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley and Holly Adams (Narrator) (2024) is the fourth book in the Deep Dish mystery series. Delilah O'Leary and her crew have been hired to cater a large Chrismukkah celebration near the golf course.

By the end of the event, Rabbit will have run off, Delilah's niece and brother in law will be unexpected guests, a woman will be missing, and there will be a dead body found at the location for the snow carving event.

These December holidays bring up a lot of hurt feelings for Delilah. She hasn't been close to her older sister since their Mom died. Now she and her family are suddenly here and their perfect family seems to be falling apart.

The mystery itself was easy to solve. An observant reader who knows a thing or two will see how things are going to play out before they do. Delilah not having that information takes longer to arrive at the answer. It takes finding the right person to ask the right questions.

Five stars

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A Very Woodsy Murder: 11/28/24

A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron and Daniela Acitelli (2024) is the start of the Golden Motel mystery series. The Golden Motel is situated between two rival towns and a National Park. An ex-TV sitcom writer and her ex-husband have bought the 1940s era business to bring it back to life one room at a time.

Unfortunately for Dee and Jeff their hotel seems to be the target of bad luck and sabotage. There's the murder of their first guest (a writer with ties to the area), a fire, and a bear.

As with other Ellen Byron mysteries, this one brings together an old building, eager and overworked owners, and a found family of well meaning oddballs. I love that it's set in California and that the two main characters are ex-Angelinos. The chemistry between the two reminds me of Lily and Lester Marton from The Band Wagon (1953).

Five stars

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The Rocky Road: to Ruin 11/27/24

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen and Senn Annis (Narrator) (2021) is the start of the Ice Cream Shop mystery series. Riley Rhodes is back home at Penniman Connecticut after a disastrous encounter in Rome as a CIA librarian. Now she's hoping to keep the Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop afloat after the proprietor's death.

This cozy's beginning is clearly aware of conventions and decides to subvert them. First the main character is over qualified for the role of amateur sleuth with her CIA training. She reads like the more typical strong independent female lead from the thrillers written for women that came out of the 1990s and early 2000s: Kinsey Milhone and Constable Molly Smith by Vicki Delany, for example.

The second subversion is the inheritance/ownership of the shop in a small town. Typically the sleuth owns the shop which serves as home base for her sleuthing or she's part of the family who owns it. This time she's the friend of the woman who inherits it. The actual owner is a woman named Caroline.

But the mystery does have the requisite pet. There are two: Sprinkles, a retired show cat, and Rocky. Rocky is black kitten with a mind of his own and a desire to be an indoor/outdoor. I love the dynamic between the two cats being reminded of my two crusty old lady cats and the recent (also all black) kitten I rescued in May.

The second book is Mint Chocolate Murder (2022).

Four stars

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Spy x Family, Volume 11: 11/26/24

Spy x Family, Volume 11 Tatsuya Endo (2023) is a heart-stopping volume. What begins as a field trip for Anya and her classmates ends up being a kidnapping by terrorists.

Let's face it, the country Anya lives in isn't utopia. It's fascist. It's where my country is rapidly headed. But it's a smaller scale country and it's fictional so psychic powers, extremely convincing disguises as spies, and hyper powerful assassins who are sweeties can be sent to the rescue.

I read this volume at a more hopeful time. I'm writing this review is a very dark mood. I find myself sympathizing more with the kidnappers than I did when I read the volume.

Five stars

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Sandwich: 11/25/24

Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024) is about a summer of summers in Cape Cod. Twenty years Rocky and her family have been coming to his same cottage for a week at the beach. This year her aging parents and adult son's girlfriend are also joining them. That confluence of people brings up memories and some soul searching for Rocky.

The book is sectioned off by days, leading up to the two days Rocky's parents will be staying. Although the things Rocky and her family do are relatively mundane, each thing gives rise to a memory overlapped onto the present of similar events in different years.

In the present stay at the cottage Rocky is in the throws of menopause. She's grumpy. She's emotional. She's randomly hot. Etc. Rocky's description of what she's going through is the most seen I've felt in a book. She describes things I've never seen in any other novel about a perimenopausal woman.

The dialog with her adult children is also believable. It's frank and sometimes goofy. It hits on things that can be awkward to talk about with newly minted adults.

Rocky happens to be bi but in a long term marriage with a man. Her daughter is gay. The conversations they have again make me feel seen.

Although there is some tension with Rocky and her husband, this isn't a book about the last summer trip before a divorce. Nor is it the first summer trip after a divorce (see The Unwedding by Ally Condie). Rocky and her husband have actual discussions in this book. They work through problems before they lead to irreparable damage. It's a healthy relationship.

Five stars

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Someone Is Always Watching: 11/24/24

Someone Is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong (2023) is Saved by the Bell meets The Stepford Wives (1972), set in a town similar to Eureka. Not necessarily in the nuts and bolts of either plot but certainly in general vibes.

Blythe witnessed Gabrielle freak out in high school and murder the principal. She was hit over the head by her friend only to wake with no memory of what happened and Gabrielle away at hospital. Yet there are niggling inconsistencies in everyone's story and she begins to suspect something else is going on.

In her core friend group, there are also the twins: Tucker and Tanya, and Devon and Callum. Together they feel like they have the know how to find Gabrielle and figure out what's really going on. If they can stay alive long enough to solve the mystery.

Of all the Kelley Armstrong novels I've read recently, Someone is Watching reminds me of her earliest works, namely, Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising. This time, though, the big secret isn't paranormal powers. It's children who have witnessed death at a young age and are being used as lab rats by the adults who claim to love and care for them.

This novel also sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Because of the relationship of the teens to the adult scientists, it's a scarecrow/minotaur traveler scenario (99). Their destination is uhoria (CC), both in an unknown past as well as an uncertain future. Their route there is the Blue Highway as represented by the roads that run through their town (33).

Five stars

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Peking Duck and Cover: 11/22/24

Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chien (2024) is the tenth Noodle Shop mystery. It's the lunar new year and the Asia Village is hosting a celebration with food, fire crackers, and lion dancers. Unfortunately one of the lion dancers is murdered before the performance.

There's not much mystery here despite there being footprints leading out of the tent and only so many people that could have done it. Instead of actual clues that an alert reader can have fun putting together, we mostly get pages and pages of Lana and her boyfriend calling each other by their pet names.

We also have pages of Lana forgetting her heritage despite having worked now for years at the family restaurant. I understand that her father is white but she seems extra ignorant this time around especially when it comes to superstitions.

When I came to the realization that this book wasn't going anywhere and wasn't giving me any clues to keep me interested, I skipped to the last few chapters. Sure enough, there's a character I hadn't met yet threatening Lana and others in the dramatic climax. Curious to see if I had somehow missed this person's intro, I went back and carefully re-read the parts I had already spent about a week slowly reading.

They weren't there, and I had gotten to the halfway point of the book before skipping to the end. The murderer doesn't make an appearance until 2/3 of the way through the book. If this were a murder done somewhere remote, somewhere other than the plaza and not during an event that Lana was in charge of planning, I would be fine with a late arrival of the murderer.

Not here. Lana had to have known them, had to have interacted with them. Poor writing and poor pacing however keeps this interaction from us. Oh the irony of wanting an obvious villain of the likes from a Kate Carlisle mystery!

Two stars

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Renewed for Murder: 11/21/24

Renewed for Murder by Victoria Gilbert and Coleen Marlo (2021) is the sixth book in the Blue Ridge Library mystery series. Amy Muir has been helping her dancer husband, Richard, research folk tales and folk music to use in an upcoming dance. She's distracted, though, when a murdered woman is found in a garden gazebo.

The modern day murder seems to have ties to a music festival and competition that regional high schools compete in. The murdered woman and the suspect were participants fifty years ago. Is she seeing a pattern where there is none or is she on the right track?

I liked the bones of the mystery. I liked how the murderer was able to take advantage of opportune moments. I liked how information gets buried as time passes. I even liked how the murderer used modern technology for subterfuge.

But once again a murderer who could have gotten away with the crime if they had just left things alone, ends up feeling compelled to confront Amy and her friend. These types of ending make it feel like the author is taking too heavy a hand with forcing the narrative to conform to certain expectations and timelines.

Although I mention liking how Amy and Richard's relationship has evolved in the most recent book, Murder Checks Out, two volumes back he's still very controlling. His desire to have things just so, including how Amy acts and dresses at times, borders on abusive. If I didn't know he would mellow in later volumes, I would have absolutely hated him in this one.

The seventh book is Death in the Margins (2022).

Four stars

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Paladin's Faith: 11/20/24

Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher (2023) is the fourth book in the Saint of Steel fantasy romance series. Marguerite Florian is a spy who needs to get the Red Sail off her back. To do this she plans to infiltrate the next meeting and devalue the price of salt. To accomplish this she needs help from the White Rat in the form of two paladins: Wren and Shane.

Although Shane and Marguerite are the destined pair for this novel, Marguerite and Wren have so much more chemistry. I feel that Wren, the minor noble turned berserker paladin gets short shrift in this piece. She is by far the more nuanced of the paladins.

Shane is a shaggy himbo who has let himself go because he's still hurt over his chosen god forsaking him and his second god dying. As introduced, he's grown a massive beard that looks like some creature has died on his face. He cleans up for the trip, meaning a shave and a haircut, and he's really good at the Voice.

Mostly Shane is there to look pretty while being protective. He apologizes for everything. He can also provide healing when needed and he can persuade an entire room of folks to do his bidding. But for 80% of the book he's there wondering why he's there, oscillating between jealousy and shame in regards to Marguerite.

The story itself feels bloated. First there's the long trip to get to the conference. I get it, walking and riding takes time. There's the potential for danger along the way. But given how much court intrigue (think Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) in a fantasy setting), it would have been better to jump right into the thick of things.

The court intrigue, though, is also slow to rev up. There are a lot of scenes of both paladins being awkward in their roles but still managing to find things out. There's Marguerite thinking long and hard about her life as a spy.

Throughout all of this is the story that I think T. Kingfisher actually wanted to tell but maybe didn't have enough content to get there. Or maybe the author felt that it would be too similar to other books in the series. Anyway, in the gossip floating around, there's a demon who is jumping from person to person and wreaking havoc. Unfortunately this page turner of a plot doesn't come into focus until the last third or so of the novel.

Like the other books in the series, this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. As with the third book, this one has privileged travelers (00). Their ultimate destination is the wild lands (99) (to confront the demon). Their route there is the labyrinth (99) as represented by the transformation that Shane goes through during the battle to contain the demon.

Three stars

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Do Not Open: 11/18/24

Do Not Open by Brinton Turkle (1981) is a picture book that shares tropes with the paranormal cozy mysteries I read. Miss Moody lives by herself near the ocean in an area prone to flotsam and jetsam. She fills her house with the best things she finds.

When looking for treasure, one runs the risk of finding trouble or danger. If this were a cozy mystery, Miss Moody would have found a dead body. Instead, she finds a bottle with instructions: Do not open. Miss Moody like your typical amateur sleuth, doesn't leave it alone; she opens it.

It's the same as investigating. The amateur sleuth can avoid having the killer go after them by leaving the investigating to the police. For the sleuth, it's a mixture of ethics and distrust of authority. For Miss Moody, I suppose it's curiosity and self reliance.

The bottle contains a wish granting monster who thrives on bringing chaos and strife to the world. Miss Moody does make a wish — a very practical one. It's so practical, so mundane, that the monster doesn't even acknowledge it as a wish.

Miss Moody, like a typical cozy mystery protagonist, has a pet. She has a cat. Captain Kidd is an excellent mouser. It's not much compared to some. He's not Owen, Hercules, or Micah. But he is her cat and he knows how to protect her.

With some ingenuity on Miss Moody's part because being able to out think the villain, or in this case, monster, is part of being a cozy mystery protagonist, she tricks the monster into becoming something manageable. See, one common trait in cozy mystery murderers is their arrogance and their braggadocio. That's always what gets the ones that love to tell all to the amateur sleuth.

And the cat saves the day. Not only for Miss Moody but for the whole world. There's no putting him back in the bottle. There's no risk that he'll get free again. He's gone for good. He's one of those cozy mystery villains who go too far, so far that they end up dead.

Five stars

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The Tin Woodman of Oz: 11/16/24

The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (Illustrator) (1918) is the twelfth book in the original Oz series. Nick Chopper, aka the Tin Woodman, Emperor of the Winkies, goes on a quest to find his fiancée.

Of course no Oz road trip is ever a solo venture. Nick brings along the Scarecrow and later picks up a boy named Woot. And then things go off the rails.

Nick Chopper's story has always had body horror as its underpinnings. Even from the first book he explains how he was in love and how he was cursed for that love and managed to chop himself to pieces over time (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter 5). This book though goes into the details of the process of becoming the Tin Woodman as well as the man who did it.

Before we get to the horror that is Meat Glue we have the journey to Munchkin Land. That involves the usual weird adventures on the road as well as meeting various people along the way. This time though the three are captured by Mrs. Yoop, a giant and sorcerer who transforms them and imprisons them in her home.

Again, revenge against wicked witches / sorcerers is normal behavior in Oz, this whole section of the book draws to light the inconsistencies of the Ozian world and morality.

This book leans hard on the idea that immortality has been introduced to Oz in the recent past. How long ago is hand waved away. Although no one can die (but they can be destroyed or otherwise transformed into something that can't move, talk, etc.) starvation is apparently still a problem for "meat people" as the Scarecrow the Nick Chopper call their traveling companion.

It is Woot's need to eat (and sleep) that causes them to repeated seek out dangerous or suspicious situations, such as wandering into Mrs. Yoop's home. Presumably an immortal "meat person" could just suffer a few days of hunger and thirst to find a safer place to eat and sleep, rather than attempting to squat in Mrs. Yoop's place.

The other example of starvation possibly being still a way of dying in Oz happens after the three transformed traveling companions manage to escape. They take Mrs. Yoop's main magical item with them, effectively trapping her in her home. All the characters comment that she will probably starve in there.

The thing that horrifies me even more than Woot wanting to eat is the explanation that babies who were babies when the immortality went into place remain so. They are happily cared for. By whom? I love my children but damn do I love having them as adults now even if that means I'm older and creakier. How is a perpetual existence sans agency a good thing?

Near the end of the novel, though, we meet not only the man who transformed Nick Chopper into the Tin Woodman piece by piece, but also a tin soldier who was also cursed when he tried to date the same woman. As the two men start comparing their stories and their transformations they realize two things: the tin worker kept their parts (because immortality) and that some of their former body parts are missing.

To distract the reader from the horror of a man keeping body parts (hello reprise of Langwidere's head collection), the two tin men engage in an ontological discussion. Are these parts still parts of themselves or are they now separate entities? This is further explored when the men find of the decapitated heads and question it about their philosophical question.

But Baum can't resist answering all of his own questions. There's still the matter of what happened to Nimmie Amee after both tin men rusted. Further more, who will she want to marry? The answer is it's own horror show with nods to Mary Shelley.

Remember the meat glue? Remember that parts don't decay? Remember that decapitated heads can talk and think? Parts can be glued together to make a new person. Care to guess what happened to this meat glue man? Yup, this book could have been called The Bride of Meat Glue Man.

Like the other Oz books, this horror show sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. The traveler is privileged (00) as he's the Emperor of Winkie Land. The destination is the wildlands (99) in the form of a small house on a remote mountain in Munchkin Land. The route there is the labyrinth (99) as the entire book is about Nick Chopper's many transformations.

The next book is The Magic of Oz (1919).

Four stars

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The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love: 11/15/24

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton (2024) is the start of the Love's Academic series. Beth Pickering has reluctantly teamed up with rival Devon Lockley to find the rare caladrius bird, reported to have been seen in England. The ornithologist who captures the bird will get tenure at their university.

It's vaguely set in the late Victorian era with about as much historical accuracy as Blackadder or Oh Edo Rocket!. Ornithology is its own scientific department at universities which makes sense in a world where birds are magical creatures. The bird everyone is after has magical healing properties.

Tucked into the race to get back to England first and find the caladrius is a slow burn romantic comedy that brings to mind It Happened One Night (1934) but set in 1890 England amongst a bevy of magical birds, many of which can and will kill you given the opportunity.

Language nerds will further enjoy the puns that show up in French, German, and Latin.

The second book is The Geographer's Map to Romance which releases April 8, 2025.

Five stars

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Murder Uncorked: 11/14/24

Murder Uncorked by Maddie Day and Linda Jones (Narrator) (2023) is the first full length novel in the Cece Barton mystery series, following a short story. Cece Barton runs Vino y Vida in Colinas, a small (fictional) town near Cloverdale, California.

After over hearing a contentious argument in her wine bar, one of the men is murdered. Cece ends up being one of a short list of persons of interest. Having already solved a murder (see "Murderous Mittens" in Christmas Mittens Murder (2023)), Cece with help from her twin sister decides to investigate.

I liked the location of the mystery as it's set in an area of Sonoma county I know fairly well. It does put it the series in close proximity to the Cheese Shop mysteries by Korina Moss, making me wish for a crossover.

I like how we're already introduced to Cece's kith and kin. It helps ground her in a believable environment. I like too how she's older, making her a genuine contemporary with me. It's relatable seeing her branch out to a new life now that her daughter is in college.

There are also pieces of Cece's life and goals that feel incredibly personal. Of course I suspect authors put some of themselves into their characters but Cece's details seem almost intimate.

The mystery itself, though, wasn't that hard to figure out. Early on there's a throw away bit of dialog about flower arranging that has a key clue. I knew from that moment onwards who had done the crime. At least the murderer employs a variety techniques to give the hint of a red herring or two. But that wasn't enough to have me suspecting anyone other than the murderer all the way through.

The next book is Deadly Crush which releases November 24, 2024.

Five stars

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Grief Is for People: 11/13/24

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (2024) is a memoir about loss and grief. It begins with Sloan coming home to her apartment having been broken into and jewelry stolen. The loss of items wrapped up in a mixture of good and terrible memories is exacerbated by the suicide of her boss, mentor, and friend, Russell. And the grief runs its course with the COVID pandemic.

I listened to the audio book read by the author. I wasn't sure at first if I would last through this book by having to listen to her recount her grief but she reads through her pain in an oddly soothing voice.

The way she associates Russell's suicide with the loss of her jewelry digs to the heart of the human psyche. Along with recounting her time working with Russell and the good and bad of it is paired with her search and ultimate recovery of some of her pieces. I thought of my own search not for items lost, but for an original, unaltered version of a stuffie my grandmother let me keep as an infant. Because I was rough with it she altered it to give it more durability. I still have the tiger.

Finding an original version meant retracing my grandparents' steps as well as a ton of research. In finding it and buying it, it was sort of like reviving a piece of my grandparents. So I can relate to how Sloan conflates the jewelry with Russell.

Five stars

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I Love You Even If You're Stinky: 11/12/24

I Love You Even If You're Stinky by Lisa Wilkes, Dominique Amerosa, Areeba Haseeb (Illustrator) (2023) is a picture books about Wisp the cat.

Wisp is one of the internet famous cats, this one famous because of how slowly he grew because of digestive issues. He then became a foster fail, meaning he stayed with the woman who fostered him (and his mother).

Picture books about and by internet famous pets is a current trend in publishing. I'm not sure it's a trend that needs to keep going. Each new book seems somewhat worse than the previous.

For this particular volume the powers that be decided that rhyming verse was the way to go. Each spread has an AA BB rhyming scheme to accompany the cute illustration. The meter though is forced and strained to the point of breaking.

The story, rather than being a best of Wisp, it narrowly focuses on his early days before anyone knew of his digestive issues. So we have an always hungry kitten who also perpetually has a stomach ache.

Instead of giving the reader the resolution they'll want (Wisp having surgery and making it to adulthood), they're showing Wisp worrying that he's not perfect enough to be loved. In all of the videos I watched with my youngest, I never once got the impression that Wisp wasn't loved or that he was under the impression that he wasn't being cared for.

I get that the book is trying for a larger message of inclusion, especially for people or creatures with invisible illnesses or disabilities, but that's not what's expected here. The pivot to this message is awkward, sudden, and unsatisfying.

Four stars

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Letters to a Young Muslim: 11/10/24

Letters to a Young Muslim by Omar Saif Ghobash (2017) is a memoir in the form of a series of letters from the author to his son. Each letter covers a different aspect of what it means to be Muslim.

Omar Saif Gobash's letters come from the perspective of a man who had to face his own personal struggle to find his faith and his self identity being the son of an Arab father and a Russian mother. He wasn't as immersed in the culture and religion as he hopes his sons are.

Each letter covers a specific topic. A lot of them involve navigating faith in times of prejudice and violence, from non-Muslims as well as Muslim extremists committing violence.

I come to this book as an outsider. I'm not Muslim. I'm not an Arab. I'm not Russian. I'm not part of his family. I can only say that he writes concisely and passionately. Throughout he suggests common sense, peace, and open-mindedness.

Four stars

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Death of a Mad Hatter: 11/10/24

Death of a Mad Hatter by Jenn McKinlay and Karyn O'Bryant (Narrator) (2014) is the second book in the Hat Shop mystery series. Mim's Whims is busy with an upcoming Alice in Wonderland themed fundraiser tea. As their hats are so well received by the hosts they are invited to attend the tea.

While at the tea, Scarlet stumbles upon the body of Geoff Grisby under a rose bush. She's alerted to him by the blue of his Mad Hatter hat.

The mystery itself wasn't that hard to solve for this reader. All the pieces are laid out in plain sight and it's just a matter of putting them together before Scarlet, et al. It's a fun puzzle even if it's a bit obvious.

It doesn't matter though because the setting is interesting and the characters are fun. I like how Scarlet is on a year long break from dating. It's nice to not be immediately thrust into another romance or worse, love triangle.

The third book is At a Drop of a Hat (2015).

Four stars

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Clara and the Birds: 11/09/24

Clara and the Birds by Emma Simpson (2024) is a picture book about finding your inner strength through your hobbies. Clara loves the quiet of the forest and the birds who live there. She feels more comfortable there and with them than she does amongst people.

Because Clara is quiet and observant, she's called shy by people. She doesn't necessarily feel shy but she begins to internalize the label. That makes her withdraw even more from the playground.

While on one of her many walks, Clara finds a bird who needs her help. This moment of helping a bird and finding a quiet bravery between the two of them, helps her realize she has an inner strength. From that chance encounter she's able to take a new approach at the playground to make some human friends.

The story is simplistic, pared down to its absolute essentials, something that's crucial for picture books. There are no words wasted here and every single one helps to create an emotional hit in a very short amount of time.

The illustrations, also by the author, tie everything together. They have a mixed-media feel to them with Clara and the other children being rendered similarly to Gunilla Wolde's illustrations in Tommy and Sarah Dress Up (1972).

Five stars

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Hooked on a Feline: 11/08/24

Hooked on a Feline by Sofie Kelly and Cassandra Campbell (Narrator) (2021) is the thirteenth book in the Magical Cats mystery series. After a wonderful music festival that reunited band members for a fantastic show, one of the band members is dead.

He was someone everyone seemed to like so his murder comes as a blow to the entire community.

Kathleen had been helping the man with some genealogy. His family has long, deep roots in the town and most of what he needed hadn't been digitized, nor was it available via the usual genealogy websites.

The nuts and bolts of the mystery reminded me of two other mysteries I've read recently With the interest in family trees, I was reminded of Steamed Open by Barbara Ross (2018). With the loud displays of family propriety, I was reminded of Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum (2008).

Of course neither of those books have magical cats. Owen, Hercules and Michal are their usual enigmatic but delightful selves. It's so nice having Marcus in on the secret of the cats. It gives Kathleen more freedom to interact with her cats in the ways that they expect.

The next book is Whiskers and Lies (2022)

Five stars

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Kowloon Generic Romance, Volume 4: 11/06/24

Kowloon Generic Romance, Volume 4 by Jun Mayuzuki and Amanda Haley (Translation) (2021) continues the exploration into Kujirai's past and her connection to the woman she looks like (and who's life she has basically stepped into). Along with her self exploration is a further look into other reported doppelgängers.

With this volume, more of the curtain is pulled aside. Now it's established that yes, this Kowloon is a new one, a recreation of the one that was torn down in the 1990s. Why it's back, how it's back, and when it came back hasn't been established.

The investigations are framed against two long philosophical discussions. One is between the new Kujirai and Yaomay. She thinks new Kujirai should separate herself completely from dead Reiko Kujirai. She should move. She should find a new job. She should seek to be herself. New Kujirai refuses, finding comfort in living in the shadow of the woman who shares her name and appearance.

The other is between the two scientists from Hong Kong. They compare the doppelgängers to luggage. A well loved bag eventually falls apart and can be replaced. They may be identical but they have completely different histories and should be seen as separate entities.

There's also a trip to remove one of the doppelgängers. Here we see how unusual new Kujirai is for how alike she is to her original. The other example may share the same genetics but there is enough of a history between the two for there to be huge differences. It's like how a clone of a calico cat will have a completely different spot pattern.

The series continues to be a page turner. I know I'm about four volumes behind where the newest English translation is.

Like the previous volumes this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Although the original volume started with a couple as travelers, the recent three volumes have had a scarecrow/minotaur dichotomy of travelers (99). This volume continues with the destination being uhoria (the past) (CC). This time though, the route is understood to be more dangerous, moving from cornfield to maze (CC) as Kowloon two is dangerous to outsiders.

Five stars

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Hospitality and Homicide: 11/05/24

Hospitality and Homicide by Lynn Cahoon and Susan Boyce (Narrator) (2017) is the eighth book in the Tourist Trap mystery series. Mystery author Nathan Pike is staying in South Cove to write his next mystery. After he shares a scene involving a murder committed at a nearby heritage farm, and a local B&B owner is later found murdered in the same way at the same place, the author is suspect number one.

Jill, though, has two other things preoccupying her mind before she can focus on the B&B owner's murder. First is her psychic neighbor who is obsessed with finding a boy swept out to sea. The second is Greg's suggestion that he move into her house once his lease is up.

The murder mystery for this reader wasn't much of a mystery. It's a case of obvious villain being obvious, so I was grateful for the distraction of the missing boy. Now I've believed in the neighbor's abilities since the first book, so I was sold on the idea of the boy being alive. I also knew Jill and her dog would be the ones to find him.

Greg, though, I was less sure of. Jill makes some compelling arguments for keeping separate houses. I was surprised by the decision she ultimately makes and I'm curious to see how things play out in future volumes.

The murder though, was clunky. When Jill finally wanders into the main plot after the boy is found and she's taken her finals, I knew it wasn't going to go well. It was going to be another unhinged confrontation and confession. There seem to be a lot of these types of endings in the mysteries I've been reading recently. Thankfully, though, the scene is short and comes to a sensible ending.

The next book in the series is A Killer Party (2017).

Five stars

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The Ghostkeeper: 11/04/24

The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor (2024) is a graphic novel about grief and superstition. While Sloane Crosley's memoir asserts that Grief is for People, Dorian Lieth knows first hand that it's also for ghosts.

Dorian can see ghosts and has made it his life's work to serve as their therapist to help them sleep so they can return to purgatory. There they will find Death's door and open it to the afterlife.

Grief for ghosts takes the form of ghostly fungi or rot that clings to them and robs them of their senses and their sense of well being. It also keeps them awake. Ghosts that can't find rest become banshees.

Dorian is but one person and can only do so much. He's faced with an untenable situation: ghosts who can't crossover and a town that is sick of dealing with an ever increasing population of frantic ghosts.

While the blurb of for the book compares this graphic novel to the Lockwood & Co series by Jonathan Stroud and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959), I am reminded of two other things instead: the film Frighteners (1996) and Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune (2021).

As with so many ghost stories, this graphic novel sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Dorian as he's working with the ghosts is in a scarecrow/minotaur traveler (99) situation in that he is trying to help but is seen as a threat by those he's helping. His destination is utopia (FF), namely the unknown beyond Death's door. His route there is the tkaronto (FF) as represented by the swamp/bog outside the village and the swampy conditions of purgatory.

Five stars

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Sidewalk Flowers: 11/03/24

Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith (Illustrator) (2015) is a Canadian poet who also collaborates with illustrators on wordless picture books. This particular one follows a child and their father as they walk through a quiet city towards home.

Like Loren Long's Yellow School Bus, the majority of the book is rendered in black and white. Color is reserved for the flowers the child picks and the flowers they then give away on their walk. Sometimes interesting things, presumably interesting to the child, are rendered in color.

Besides the flowers, the only other burst of color is the child's red hoodie. Following the hoodie makes for a visual continuity throughout the varying landscapes: walk-ups, bus stations, the park, etc.

This picture book sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Father and child are a family of travelers (33). Their destination is home (66) as represented by the fully colored spreads at the end of the book. Their route there is the Blue Highway as represented by the sidewalks along the streets that they follow.

Five stars

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It's Elementary: 11/02/24

It's Elementary by Elise Bryant and Aure Nash (Narrator) (2024) is the start of a new mystery series. Mavis is a single mom living with her father and working long hours for a nonprofit. One morning after dropping of her daughter, Pearl, late for school again, she's wrangled into heading the DEI committee.

Mavis isn't a PTA mom. She goes reluctantly. The meeting is a mix of what she expected and some surprises. Expected: Trisha Holbrook the PTA president wielding way more power than she should. Unexpected: the new principal standing up to Trisha and shutting down the move to convert the school into a GATE only school.

But it's after the meeting where things get really weird. Mavis sees Trisha dragging heavy bags out of the school. And now new principal is missing. It's only natural to put two and two together and say that Trisha has probably murdered the principal, right?

This book was a delight from the very first word to the very last. Mavis isn't your typical modern amateur sleuth and this isn't your typical modern cozy mystery. As Mavis herself says many times in the book, the mystery is more Nancy Drew than Law and Order.

It's a murder mystery without a murder. There isn't the usual set up where a new person comes into the main character's life and is obnoxious until they end up murdered and invariably found my the main character. Murder isn't the first course of action when characters are presented with terrible or even dangerous situations. But Mavis and the reader have been trained by mysteries to expect murder to be the solution even when there isn't a body.

Despite It's Elementary being very different from most of the mysteries I've read in recent years (save for Nancy Drew), the clues are still expertly laid out. If you're paying attention and you can think outside of the typical mystery box, you can figure out what's actually going on.

Although I expected this book to be a standalone there's an announced sequel. The second book is The Game is Afoot and it's scheduled for release on July 8, 2025.

Five stars

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October 2024 Sources: 11/02/24

October was my solo show and I decided to step down from the Sun Gallery. I spent much of the month working on two 16x20 landscapes.

In October I read 16 TBR books, up from the previous month's 13 TBR. No books were published in October. Seven books were for research. One was a review. Two were from the library. My ROOB score for October was -4.15, down significantly from the previous month's -3.33. It was my best October to date.

I predicted a -3.8 and was too high. For November, I'm going with -4.0.

My average for October improved from -2.53 to -2.64.

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"The Enormous Radio": 11/01/24

"The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever (1947) was published originally in the May 17, 1947 issue of The New Yorker. In it a family buys a new, expensive radio and weird stuff happens that is probably more recognizable to a modern audience than it's original readership.

Radio in 1947 was a major source of public consumption of pop culture in the convenience of one's home or car. Radio back then had music, of course, as well as radio plays (a niche now filled by podcasts).

Radio, though, is primarily a one way communication for the basic consumer. Shows are produced and broadcast either live or as recordings and people listen to them via their radios. If there is communication it's an opt-in sort of thing either via telephone calls or nowadays via texting, email, or social media. One can chose not to give feedback and be an anonymous listener to whatever show is aired.

But this new fangled radio is different. Irene Westcott as a housewife and mother to young children is the primarily user of the radio. She's the one who notices that it doesn't work like the old radio. She's also the one most affected by it.

When it's first installed it catches all the electrical interference of the apartment high rise. It's impossible to hear the classical music she prefers over the sounds of the elevator, vacuum cleaners, etc. As anyone who has heard lightning over AM radio knows, electrical interference is a real thing.

So Jim Wescott has the radio repaired and that's when the modern day horror begins. Now instead of classical music or radio plays, Irene begins to hear the discussions and arguments and day to day lives of her neighbors. As she's in the building most of the them, she recognizes their voices. She understands the dark secrets that her listening reveals. She also begins to worry that other people can hear her family on their radios.

The Wescotts with their new enormous radio have stumbled into the future of social media. They have discovered pictureless reels, stories, shorts, TikToks and the psychological / emotional damage these things can cause. To them these revelations are horrifying. To us, the horror is how commonplace their experiences have become — and ours come with moving pictures.

Like the other John Cheever stories I've read, this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Irene and Jim are a traveling couple (33). Their destination is home (66) (as well as their neighbors' homes). Their route is an offroad (over the airwaves) one (66).

Five stars

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October 2024 Summary: 11/01/24

October was my solo show at the Sun Gallery. It was also the point where I realized I needed to step down from the board for reasons I'm not discussing here. The remainder of the month I spent working on two 16x20 paintings for a show that's happening in Redding. I need to submit my pieces before the 8th.

I read more books in October, 26, up from the previous month's, 21. Of my read books, 17 were diverse and seven were queer. I reviewed 26 books, five more than the previous month. On the reviews front, 13 were diverse and five were queer.

I have 2 books from August, 2 from September, and 19 of the 226 book I've read this year to review.

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