The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Miss Marple’ Nemesis in NOLA…

We had a great time in New Orleans visiting our daughter and are currently working our way through the first leg of our Appalachian trail. Right before we left I had mentioned that we would be accompanied by Lisette Lecat’s narration of Alexander McCall Smith‘s The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café. Not so >>> instead we decided on having Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple unravel Mr. Rafiel’s cryptic message: Nemesis. Although both of us have read this Cozy Mystery before, as with all of Agatha Christie‘s work, we never tire of reading/hearing it again.

Coming from the arid plains of Texas, and the over-crowded I-10 route to New Orleans, we have both been enjoying the lush, green trees along the sides of I-59 through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Not to mention that so far I-59 has been a nostalgic throw-back to the days when the interstate highways were light on traffic. (Knock on wood!)

Back to New Orleans. We spent the weekend with our daughter. She took us to the World War II Museum (a place she had already visited) and I’m here to say: I know when people think of NOLA (New Orleans, LA) they think of Mardis Gras, food and drink, but the WW II Museum really should be a must-stop for any visitor, although I wouldn’t recommend it for little children.

My Mother’s Day included a Grey Line tour of the city with our daughter and a phone call from our son assuring me that all is well with our house.

On to D.C. tomorrow!

Happy Mother’s, Daughter’s, Grandmother’s, Sister’s, Aunt’s, & Girlfriend’s Day!

19876823[1]My best friend sent me a letter which I posted a couple of Mother’s Days ago. I’m going to share it with you again. (Unfortunately I am still unable to find the original author of this letter.)

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot and humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter.

“Don’t forget your sisters,” she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. “They’ll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them.”

“Remember that ‘sisters’ means ALL the women… Your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. You’ll need other women. Women always do.”

“What a funny piece of advice!” the young woman thought. “Haven’t I just gotten married? Haven’t I just joined the couple-world? I’m now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup! Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!”

But she listened to her mother. She kept contact with her sisters and made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another, she gradually came to understand that her mother really knew what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman, sisters are the mainstays of her life.

After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I’ve learned:

THIS SAYS IT ALL:

Time passes. Life happens. Distance separates. Children grow up. Jobs come and go. Love waxes and wanes. Men don’t do what they’re supposed to do. Hearts break. Parents die. Colleagues forget favors. Careers end.

BUT………

Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away than needing her can reach. When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life will be on the valley’s rim, cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley’s’ end. Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you….Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended family – all bless our life!

The world wouldn’t be the same without women, and neither would I. When we began this adventure called Womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other. Every day, we need each other still.

Pass this on to all the women who help make your life meaningful. I just did.

Whichever “category” you fall under, I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Let’s See Those Apartments, Oh, and Our Daughter!)

DC5I’ve been busy doing the wash, getting the house tidied up, stocking the freezer, in short, getting ready to head out to New Orleans, followed by Washington D.C. I know stocking the freezer sounds like an odd thing to do right before you head out on a trip, but that’s because our son will be here taking care of our house while we are gone. So the freezer being full is just what a mom does!

We had planned on going last month, but my husband became ill, so we postponed our trip. We had wanted to get this “apartment fact-finding trip to D.C.” done before the capitol gets too over-crowded with families taking their vacations. (And also to avoid the D.C. summer humid heat!)

This time, however, we won’t be flying. We’ll be driving to New Orleans to visit our daughter for a few days, and then heading out east. We have some things we want to deliver to her so that she can take them with her to D.C., since this will be her permanent place of residence. (For the last three years she has been in one-year clerkships.)

She has finally zeroed in on the areas she wants us to focus on, with a few apartment buildings in each of those areas. Hopefully we will find a few that are perfect, rather than have to look at all 26 complexes. They are located in different communities, in and around D.C.

Well, so much for my break. I’ve got to get back to my wash. I won’t be doing a whole lot of Cozy Mystery reading today!

Two (or More!) Cozy Mysteries at the Same Time?

I stayed up reading last night. I am currently reading one of my favorite Cozy Mystery authors, so this isn’t uncommon. Unfortunately, I had a very early dental appointment this morning. Hmmm… What’s a gal to do! Reading a favorite author VS sleeping…

Getting back to my reading:

I am currently reading a Sally Goldenbaum Seaside Knitters Cozy. I don’t knit but I did as a child. For years I supplied everyone in my family with their too-bulky, too-long, too-heavy knit scarves. I do, however, crochet >>> which is pretty similar to me. Nothing fancy, but I love to crochet.

So this morning, I rushed to get ready, made sure I had my Kindle in tow, and drove myself to my dentist’s office. As I got back to listening to the audio book I have going in my car, I was sort of confused. Who is this character? What’s this person doing in this book? OK, I recognized needlecrafting references being talked about. OK, I knew the characters in this close-knit “village”. But good grief, what’s Monica Ferris‘ Betsy Devonshire (who lives in Minnesota) doing in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts?

That’s when it dawned on me. I was currently reading two of my favorite Cozy Mystery series and they both have needlecrafting themes. I usually try to avoid this sort of thing, but I had decided I wanted to take a break from trying new-to-me authors and focus on two of my favorite Cozy Mystery authors.

How about you? Do you read just one Cozy Mystery at a time, or do you ever have a few Cozies going simultaneously? If you do read more than one Cozy Mystery at a time, do you ever confuse their plots for just a few tiny moments, or am I the only one who does that?

 

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