The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Mystery Book Series I Would Dearly Love to Catch Up With…

Do you have any favorite authors you aren’t caught up with? I DO!!! (Notice that I use the word “favorite” to describe the authors. I am finding that as I get older, I simply will not spend time reading a mystery book that I don’t thoroughly enjoy. Thus the word “favorite!”)

I have several authors right now who I absolutely would love to catch up with, my problem is that I now read more slowly than I did before. By trying to focus on just those favorite mystery authors with whom I want to catch up, I won’t have time to try reading an author with whom I’m not familiar, or even have time to slip in a book my another favorite author. (I sure wish that all of my life’s “dilemnas” were like this!)

I would love to make a 2010 resolution: “I will catch up with the following authors!” But I hate to make a new year’s resolution that I know I won’t be able to meet. My intentions are good… I am going to try, try, try to catch up with the following favorite authors of mine: Susan Albert Wittig, Carola Dunn, Monica Ferris, and Hazel Holt. They are all authors who I really (really!) enjoy, but somehow I just didn’t keep up to date with their heroines/sleuths.

This is not to say that I don’t have other favorite authors who I am (also) not caught up with. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t have other favorite authors who I am already caught up with.

For example, I love Patricia Moyes… but I am so far behind with her mysteries that I am slowly making my way through her Inspector Tibbett mystery series, one book at a time. I slip the Inspector Tibbett books into my reading queue whenever I feel like I miss the Inspector. I do the same with Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford mystery series.

I’m caught up with authors like Alexander McCall Smith (I know he’s not technically a mystery author), Dorothy Gilman, Ann Granger, the Charlaine Harris series that I follow… and the list goes on and on.

I am, however, caught up with a lot of authors. Of course this means that any time one of them puts out a new book, I simply have to read it. There lays the problem… Too many books, too little reading time! (And what very little time is left over: housework!)

So>>> Hopefully I won’t start out 2011 with the same problem of being way behind with some of my favorite authors… and if I do (since this isn’t a commitment like a “real” resolution would be!), at least two of my 2010 chosen favorite authors (Susan Albert Wittig, Carola Dunn, Monica Ferris, and Hazel Holt) won’t make that list!

An Entry That Isn't about Mystery Books or Mystery Book Authors, AGAIN!?!?!

I received an e-card from a friend a few years ago, and I have loved this site ever since. The artist’s name is Jacquie Lawson, and her work is absolutely fantastic. You can go to her site and preview the cards before you send them. Make sure that you have the sound turned up on your computer. She also provides music for the cards.

I love her black Lab (Chudleigh) >>> He is absolutely a treat to watch! Bertie (the Golden Lab puppy) and Fluff (the black kitten) are also delightful. And, the artwork is spellbindingly beautiful.

I know this has nothing to do with mystery books or mystery book authors, but love this site so much that I thought I would tell you about it… in case you’re thinking about sending an e-card, or simply want to see some phenomenally fantastic computer artwork.

Sprite is Becoming a Little More Demanding as the Years Pass On…

It’s sort of odd how our “puppy” Sprite seems to feel most comfortable when all four of us are home. She really seems to relax. She sort of has that “all is well in the world” behavior when all four of her humans are home. Of course, now that she is fifteen, it is like having a very old person living with us. We have to plan all of our excursions so that someone is home after being away for four hours… Someone has to be around to pick her up and let her sit in her favorite places… namely my seat of the couch and our bed.

Sprite seems to have an internal clock going on at all hours of the day… Unfortunately, her internal clock is moving everything up earlier and earlier. She now wants to eat her dinner at 3:30. She lets us know when it is 3:30 (almost on the dot!) She also expects to go up to bed no later than 7:00, and when that time isn’t met, she whines and complains until we carry her upstairs to her throne (our bed.)

And, she has become very interested in geometry… always wanting to lay perpendicular to my husband and me… wanting both of us to sleep on our respective edges of the bed.

Sprite does indeed rule our home… with her demands and expectations. But, we all love her, so we “Make it so.”

P.S. Our daughter left yesterday, and already I can see how much Sprite misses her!

Happy New Year ~ 2010!

I hope all of you have terrific  2010s!

Can you believe that it’s been a whole ten years since the worry-mongers were trying to convince everyone that all of the computers in the world would go crazy/awry when the clocks rang in 2000!?! “Y2K” was being touted as the end of all computerized clocks, calendars,  ETC. I even remember reading that some people were actually stock-piling goods because of the worry-mongers’ predictions!

I am still reading my current books from my last entry. I don’t make much headway with my reading when all five (Yes, Sprite – our puppy – is included in that count!) of us are together.

Besides our holiday movie-viewing, we have taken in several of David Suchet’s Poirot shows during the last two weeks, as well as some Murder She Wrote episodes. I love seeing all of the guest stars from the (late) 30s, 40s and 50s movies. (Most of the movies were made before I was born, but since I grew up during the time when those movies were televised during the late night hours, I got to know the Golden Age of Hollywood “stars” as if I had grown up with them.)

Happy New Year to all of you!

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