Six Cozy Mystery Books

Cozy mystery series, new books out in November 2011:

Dangerous Alterations (A Southern Sewing Circle Mystery) by Elizabeth Lynn Casey
Paperback: 272 pages; Berkley

"When librarian Tori Sinclair's philandering ex turns up dead, the police chief believes Tori may have been involved. Only the girls from the sewing circle will be able to help keep her life from coming apart at the seams..."  (publisher)

Title: To Catch a Leaf: A Flower Shop Mystery by Kate Collins
Paperback, 336 pages; Signet

"Flower shop owner Abby Knight is happily engaged to her longtime beau, Marco Salvare. But when wealthy dowager Virginia Newport is killed and Abby's assistant is the prime suspect, Abby 'll have to save her friend and throw a killer and a thief in jail..." (publisher)

Title: Who Do, Voodoo? (A Mind for Murder Mystery) by Rochelle Staab
Paperback: 304 pages; Berkley
 
"Clinical psychologist Liz Cooper doesn't believe in ghosts. But when her best friend finds a tarot card tacked to her front door-and is then accused of murder-Liz will have to find a way to embrace the occult if she wants to outwit the real killer..." (publisher)

 Title: Behind the Seams: A Crochet Mystery by Betty Hechtman
Hardcover: 304 pages; Berkley Hardcover
 
"The crochet group's informal leader, actress CeeCee Collins, has a movie out, and is to appear on the Barbara Olive Overton Show. When CeeCee's niece is accused of poisoning one of the producers, the Tarzana Hookers crochet group must clear her name before someone else dies..." (publisher)

Title: Death on a Platter: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper by Elaine Viets
Paperback: 304 pages; Signet
 
"Josie Marcus plans to sample the local St. Louis cuisine for a City Eats food tour. But at Tillie's Off the Hill Italian Restaurant, another customer is poisoned. It's up to Josie to find a killer who has no reservations about preparing a dish to die for..." (publisher)

Title: Mrs. Jeffries and the Mistletoe Mix-Up: A Victorian Mystery by Emily Brightwell
Hardcover: 272 pages; Berkley Hardcover
 
"Under a bundle of mistletoe, art collector Daniel McCourt lies with his throat slit, a bloody sword next to his body. Inspector Witherspoon is determined to solve the case before Christmas Eve, with the help of the sharp-witted housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, who has her own theories on why McCourt had to die by the sword." (publisher)

Sunday Salon: 1Q84

Welcome to the Sunday Salon. Click on the logo to join in.

Thanks to Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, I reviewed more books in the past seven days than I normally do. It was a good feeling to get six books down, about three more than I usually do.

I posted comments on three books: Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes by David Accord; Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows, and The Guilded Shroud  by Elizabeth Bailey. I also reviewed:
The Last Blind Date by Linda Yellin, a memoir
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones, a novel
The Economics of Ego Surplus by Paul McDonnold, a crime thriller

I  hope to get through a brand new book - Haruki Murakami's long awaited new novel, 1Q84, which I 'm reading on Kindle since the hardcover book is so thick and heavy! It's almost 1,000 pages long, but worth the read, I've heard. Here's a very concise book description from an article by the Associated Press entitled Murakami's '1Q84' offers clues to literature's future: Two story lines converge gracefully, one of them in an alternate reality. Fantasy lovers and literature lovers alike might enjoy this.

Everything's on hold while I read 1Q84, except for a Nov. 14 book tour for The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, a novel about African American homesteaders in the early 1900s.

Update: I've just signed up for a Murakami challenge to read at least one of his books in 2011, and 1Q84 is it! For more information, visit Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge

What have you been reading and what are you planning to read this week?

Book Review: The Economics of Ego Surplus, a Novel of Economic Terrorism by Paul McDonnold

Title: The Economics of Ego Surplus: A Novel of Economic Terrorism
Author: Paul McDonnold
Starving Analyst Press, September 15, 2010
Genre: crime thriller
Objective rating: 4/5

"My name is Marshall Adams. I'm with the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

"Okay. Call me Kyle. Am I in some kind of trouble?" (p. 17)

Kyle Linwood,  a teacher and doctoral student of economics, is approached by the FBI to help  find out about recent internet "chatter" on possible economic terrorism aimed at the U.S. and ultimately the global market. Kyle had escaped from kidnappers in Libya years before by a terrorist group. His knowledge of Africa and economics is called on when the U.S.stock market suddenly began crashing with massive sell-offs, then leveling out very soon after.

The FBI are concerned about economic warfare aimed at the stock market and the U.S. currency. Kyle goes to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to investigate a private banking corporation possibly linked to the stock market manipulation. There he gets some answers but barely escapes with his life.

My comments: I know a little bit about economics and found the book fun to read. It was like reliving Econ 101 and 102 classes, with an update on the workings of the global market. The author explains supply and demand, recession and inflation, the history of economics and Adam Smith, Keynes economic theory, the theory of contemporary neoclassical economists, and does so in a way that even high school students would understand how the global economy works. In between, he describes the opulence of Dubai, its fantastic malls and hotel complexes, and touches on the poverty of the people in its deserts. I enjoyed the mini tour and armchair travel as well as the bit of thriller action that comes at the end of the book.

The book is a comment on the possible downside of the global economy, when countries tramp around in each other's backyards and leave their footprints there - desirable or undesirable consequences. Besides being a thriller, the final aim of his book is to show "the shortage of humility and the surplus of ego" that can rule or ruin the global market.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.

Book Review: The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones

"I love that you got it about the food," he said, "that you understood it, that maybe - I hope I'm not projecting - you might even be on your way to loving it." (ch. 14)

Title: The Last Chinese Chef: a Novel by Nicole Mones
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 4, 2007
Genre: culinary history, fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

My comments: Maggie McElroy, a food writer in America, is on personal mission to Beijing, where her deceased husband Matt worked on and off as a lawyer. Someone has filed a suit against his estate and she must find out the truth. She is also sent by her editor to interview chef Sam Liang in Beijing for an article. Liang is translating a culinary book with his father from the old Mandarin - The Last Chinese Chef.

In Beijing, Maggie's personal problems are balanced by her new interest in the history of Chinese cuisine as she learns about food used as a way to develop community as well as a way to ease heart and mind. She learns about the combinations of texture and flavor to provide various meals categorized as extravagant, rustic, or elegant. She also discovers the difference between Chinese American food, meant to be familiar yet exotic, and true Chinese food, with each dish different and unique.

I found the book very informative and learnt to appreciate the time, skill, and thought that goes into classical Chinese cooking. The special dishes that were once created exclusively for the Imperial family are now enjoyed by all. I myself am a great fan of dim sum, the little dishes of amazing variety that once only the Imperial family were privileged to eat.

Book description: Nicole Mones takes readers inside the hidden world of elite cuisine in modern China through the story of an American food writer in Beijing. When recently widowed Maggie McElroy is called to China to settle a claim against her late husband’s estate, she is blindsided by the discovery that he may have led a double life. Since work is all that will keep her sane, her magazine editor assigns her to profile Sam, a half-Chinese American who is the last in a line of gifted chefs tracing back to the imperial palace. As she watches Sam gear up for China’s Olympic culinary competition by planning the banquet of a lifetime, she begins to see past the cuisine’s artistry to glimpse its coherent expression of Chinese civilization. It is here, amid lessons of tradition, obligation, and human connection that she finds the secret ingredient that may yet heal her heart. (Amazon)

About the author: Mones, award-winning author of Lost in Translation and A Cup of Light, and a contributor to Gourmet magazine, ran a textile business in China for 18 years at the end of the Cultural Revolution. She lives in Portland, Oregon. For more about her books, visit her at Nicole Mones.

© Harvee Lau 2011

Book Review: The Last Blind Date by Linda Yellin

He had a policy. "My kids have had enough disruption. I don't want them meeting someone, getting attahced, and then she goes away."
Goes away? Goes where? My stomach hurt, but not from seasickness.
He said,"It'd be too confusing for them." (p. 30)

Title: The Last Blind Date: A Real-Life Love Story by Linda Yellin
Paperback: 336 pages, Gallery Books, October 4, 2011
Genre: memoir, romance
Objective rating: 3.5/5

About the book: Linda and Randy are matched by their friends, even though Linda lives in Chicago and Randy in New York, and their match-making friends live in California. Randy makes the first contact with Linda by calling her and chatting for 45 minutes, during which time they interview each other about their lives and their likes and dislikes, to see if they would be a good "match."
 
They sleep together on their first date, but show their cautiousness about one another by sleeping with their underwear on. Randy and Linda go out for more than two years before Randy will let her meet his two children from a previous marriage. Linda is told she has to make little "sacrifices" to please the kids once they do meet, sacrifices such as throwing a game they are playing so the kids win. Linda also has to deal with the children's mother Susan, both before and after Randy and Linda do marry.  After their marriage, Linda has to get used to New York, find a new job and new friends and fit into her new life. The marriage survives, and things seem to be happy ever after.
 
Comments: The book is well written but reads like a private diary, a love story told chronologically. The romance and marriage do not have any of the really serious or strong conflicts that make a book challenging, or perhaps the author was being selective in what she wrote. I felt that this relatively uneventful story was probably the story of thousands of contemporary couples, people who get together and marry the second time around.
 
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher.  

The Ronin's Mistress, a Novel by Laura Joh Rowland

Title: The Ronin's Mistress: A Novel (Sano Ichiro Novels)
Hardcover: 336 pages, Minotaur Books; September 13, 2011
Genre: historical mystery

A servant knelt at the threshold of the bedchamber. "There's a message from the sosakan-sama. He wants your help with a new case." Hirata was intrigued and excited. He said to Midori, "Maybe this is what we've been waiting for." (ch. 2)

Book description: The Ronin's Mistress is set in 18th century Japan and draws on the story of the fabled 47 Ronin. Japan, 1703. On a snowy night, 47 warriors murder the man at the center of the scandal that turned them from samurai into masterless ronin two years before. Clearly this was an act of revenge--but why did they wait so long? And is there any reason they should not immediately be ordered to commit ritual suicide? Sano Ichiro, demoted from Chamberlain to his old post as Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, has mere days to solve the greatest mystery of samurai legend--while his own fortunes hang in the balance. (amazon)

About the author: Laura Joh Rowland lives in New York. This is the 15th novel in the award-winning series set in feudal Japan. Her website is at Laura Joh Rowland.

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Book Reviews : Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes; Dreaming in Chinese; The Guilded Shroud

What did you think of the books you read on Saturday for the Read-a-Thon?

Here are my comments on the ones I read:

Title: Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes: Life Lessons from the Master Detective by David Acord
Paperback: 208 pages, Perigee Trade
Publication date: November 1, 2011
Rating: 4/5

I liked the descriptions of the working habits and methods of the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, that made him so famous. Acord applies Holmes' rules for detecting to general success in life in this remarkable little self-help manual on how to reach your goals. There were also a lot of very interesting tidbits about the character Holmes and his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Title: Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by Deborah Fallows.
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company (September 13, 2011)
Rating: 5/5

I didn't expect to be chuckling and laughing out loud reading this book on language and linguistics. Deborah Fallows writes about the three years she spent in China, diligently learning more about Mandarin and other Chinese languages and  about the culture - linguistic and otherwise. Misunderstandings because of pronunciation problems put her in amusing situations, such as when she asked for takeout in Chinese at a restaurant but mistakenly told the waiter she wanted a big hug. A brief overview of the history of Chinese language, oral and written, past and present, given in an easy and down to earth way, for the general reader.



Title: A Gilded Shroud (A Lady Fan Mystery) by Elizabeth Bailey
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (September 6, 2011)
Rating: 3/5

The book started out with a promising situation - a young woman  in Georgian England is hired as a temporary companion to Dowager Lady Pollsbrook and is urged to solve the murder of her employer's daughter-in-law and the disappearance of a valuable jeweled fan. However, the archaic language used at the beginning of the book made it hard to read. The unusual names of the main characters also were a distraction. The lady's companion Ottilia, the butler Cattawade, Mr. Triplow, and Lady Pollsbrook all triggered blips in my mind each time their names appeared on a page. I wanted to change Ottilia to Lia and Cattawade to Wade, or something much simpler. I also thought the book was a little too long.

Review copies of the books were sent to me by the publishers. A review copy of Dreaming in Chinese was sent by LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.