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Cozy Mysteries Recommendations – September 2013

Happy Fall! I hope you are all enjoying the beauty of autumn, or at least some cooler weather. It is the time when some of us have to start playing tricks to “get us in the autumnal” mood. One of my tricks is to immerse myself in mysteries that take place in either cold locations or during the holiday seasons. With Halloween right around the corner, it’s easy enough to find some cold weather books to set the mood. Another one of my tricks is to start using scented wax that “smells like fall.” Even though I don’t bake, that doesn’t mean I can’t fill the house with the aroma of cinnamon apples.

It’s also that time of the month when I ask you all to tell us about your monthly favorite Cozy Mystery books. Please tell us about the one Cozy Mystery (or possibly more than one) that you read during September which you enjoyed so much you want the rest of us to know about. Of course, if you read more than one great mystery book this month, tell us about the others, too. Please include why you enjoyed each book so that we can read your reason and then determine if it sounds like a good book for us to try reading.

[As usual, I ask that you don’t tell us about the books you read that you didn’t like.]

[Also, if you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to their page on the Cozy Mystery site. Their page has all of the author’s books listed chronologically.]

What Cozy Mystery book (or author) have you read during September 2013, and why did you enjoy it (or him/her)?

Here are the current recommended authors who some of you have read this past month:

Ellery Adams (aka J.B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Books by the Bay Mystery Series

Ellery Adams (aka J.B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery Series

Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower): Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series

Robin Allen: Poppy Markham Culinary Cop Mystery Series

Margery Allingham: Albert Campion Mystery Series

Annie’s Attic Mystery Series

Kate Atkinson: Case Histories (Jackson Brodie Mystery Series) 

Lori Avocato: Pauline Sokol Mystery Series

Ella Barrick (aka Lila Dare & Laura DiSilverio): Ballroom Dance Mystery Series

Jessica Beck (aka Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, Casey Mayes, Chris Cavender, & Tim Myers): Donut Shop Mystery Series

Mike Befeler: Paul Jacobson Geezer-Lit Mystery Series

C.A. Belmond: Penny Nichols Mystery Series

Laurien  Berenson: Melanie Travis Mystery Series

Cindy Blackburn: Playing with Poison (Cue Ball Mystery Series, book #1)

Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness Mystery Series

Mollie Cox Bryan: Cumberland Creek Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Death al Dente (Food Lovers’ Village Mystery Series, book #1)

Ellen Byerrum: Crime of Passion Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series

Erika Chase Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery Series

Laura Childs: Cackleberry Club Mystery Series

Barbara Cleverly: Joe Sandilands Mystery Series

Philip R. Craig: Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series

Bill Crider: Dan Rhodes Mystery Series

Ellen Crosby: Multiple Exposure (Sophie Medina Mystery Series)

Mary Daheim: Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast Mystery Series

Lila Dare (aka Joanna Campbell Slan): Southern Beauty Shop Mystery Series

Diane Mott Davidson: Goldy Bear Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series

Julianna Deering: Rules of Murder (Drew Farthering Mystery Series, book #1)

Jana DeLeon: The Accused (Mystere Parish: Family Inheritance Mystery Series)

Caroline Dunford: A Death in the Family (Euphemia Martins Mystery Series, book #1)

Carola Dunn: Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series

Kaitlyn Dunnett (aka Kathy Lynn Emerson): Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series

Dawn Eastman: Pall in the Family (Family Fortune Mystery Series, book #1)

Joanne Fluke: Hannah Swensen Mystery Series

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): Cookbook Nook Mystery Series

Marni Graff: The Blue Virgin (Nora Tierney Mystery Series, book #1)

Sue Grafton: Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series

Ellie Grant (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene & J.J. Cook): Pie in the Sky Mystery Series

Kerry Greenwood: Phryne Fisher Mystery Series

Jane Haddam: Gregor Demarkian Mystery Series

Victoria Hamilton: Merry Muffin Mystery Series

Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Mystery Series

B.B. Haywood: Candy Holliday Mystery Series

Hazel Holt: Mrs. Malory Mystery Series

Maddy Hunter: Passport to Peril Mystery Series

Julie Hyzy: Manor House Mystery Series

J.A. Jance: J.P. Beaumont Mystery Series

Diane Kelly: Tara Holloway Death and Taxes Mystery Series

Allison Kingsley (aka Kate Kingsbury & Rebecca Kent): Raven’s Nest Bookstore Mystery Series

Kylie Logan (aka Miranda Bliss & Casey Daniels): League of Literary Ladies Mystery Series

Molly MacRae: Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series

Carol Ann Martin: Weaving Mystery Series

Catriona McPherson: Dandy Gilver Mystery Series

Gladys Mitchell: Mrs. Bradley Mystery Series

Liz Mugavero: Pawsitively Organic Gourmet Pet Food Mystery Series 

Clare O’Donohue: Someday Quilts Mystery Series

Sharon Pape: Portrait of a Crime Mystery Series

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Leigh Perry: A Skeleton in the Family (Skeleton in the Family Mystery Series, book #1)

Barbara Ross: Clammed Up

Connie Shelton: Samantha Sweet Mystery Series

Paige Shelton: Country Cooking Mystery Series

Denise Swanson: Scumble River Mystery Series

Charles Todd:Bess Crawford Mystery Series

Betty Webb: Gunn Zoo Mystery Series

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

Nine Hundred Miles, but Who’s Counting?

I’m busy getting ready for another trip up to Colorado Springs. My sister has visited my mother two times since I went out the last time, so it’s my turn to hit the trail.

Our son will be taking care of our house, so at least I don’t have to worry about that. But as usual, there are a lot of things to get done before we leave in a few days.

We have been very fortunate that my father thought to buy long term care for my mother many years ago. A few years ago I was able to hire an agency to come in for a few hours two days a week to take her to doctors’ appointments, shopping, etc. From there, the hours and days have increased. She now has someone with her all of the time. This has certainly helped assuage my guilt about not being able to talk her into moving down here. (Her response to that is always that we should move up there to take care of her. When I remind her that would mean we would have to leave our home and not be able to live near both our son or daughter, her response is always that we could visit them.)

Here I go again >>> off topic!

I wish time hadn’t passed so quickly, and that we were getting ready for the four of us (my husband, son, daughter, and me) making our yearly summer trip up to Colorado to visit my father, mother, and younger brother. We would always leave early in the morning so that we could stop by late afternoon. Our son and daughter always looked forward to swimming in the hotels’ pools.  We would wake up the next morning, really early, so that we could make it to Colorado Springs as early as possible, since both our son and daughter couldn’t wait to see Gramps and Maya, Uncle Stephen, and Aspen (my dad’s Cocker Spaniel). Our yearly trips would always include a trip to up to the Denver Zoo, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, putt-putt golf, swimming at the neighborhood pool, and barbecues. In short, fun!

Our trips these days are very different, in many ways. Time has a habit of changing things whether we want them changed, or not.

MahJong and Sudoku are My Favorite Kindle Distractions…

I have been a little distracted the past two weeks. It seems that when I am really enjoying reading my Cozy Mystery book, I am content to simply read. But when I find myself struggling to like an author, then I find other things to occupy me while on my Kindle.

I made the mistake of buying a few games for my Kindle, thinking they would come in handy on trips. When I bought them, I had no idea that I would find myself playing them in lieu of reading! Well, maybe I thought I would occasionally, but certainly I had no idea that when I didn’t quite care for an author, I would find myself so easily distracted. (These distractions mean that it sometimes takes me a rather long time to get to my 50-page-rule cut-off!)

My very favorite distraction is Mahjong Solitaire. I  don’t play regular Mahjong, but I have a feeling that this version is very different than the “real Mahjong” game. This is more of a matching game, in which you try to beat your best time. (I have actually been able to succeed “solving” the matching in a little over three minutes, but that has only happened one time.) It’s a pretty mindless game, but I enjoy it… a lot. (Not at all anything like the games either of my computer savvy children would have ever liked!)

My other game is Sudoku Works. This is just like the “real Sudoku” that you can find in most major newspapers. It’s another game that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, but I am really enjoy it, also. (There are a lot worse things to be addicted to!)

Do you have distractions that you find yourself doing when you sit down to read your mysteries? Does it matter whether you really like the author or are you like me, easily distracted when you aren’t particularly enjoying an author?

How Lucky Are the Canadians? (Louise Penny’s Still Life Television Movie)

Wendy sent me a note (Thank you, Wendy!) telling me something that, well, might bring out the green-eyed monster in some of us. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Television aired the two hour movie Still Life last Sunday night.

Most of you know that Still Life is the first of multi-award-winning Louise Penny‘s Chief Inspector Gamache (Three Pines) mysteries. And as if that isn’t enough to make those of us who didn’t have access to this movie utter “Harumph!”, it is set in a beautiful Quebec village featuring the beauty of autumn’s colors. Sorry, Cozy Mystery Readers, but it just keeps getting more Harumph-able: It stars Nathaniel Parker as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. (Most of you know Parker’s work as Inspector Lynley in that television series. And if you saw the latest BBC Bleak House, you know just how terrific an actor he is.)

So, for all of our Canadian friends up there, I hope Still Life is a terrific mystery movie and also, that you all were able to watch it. As for all of us down here, let’s hope Still Life makes it down our way soon!

(Here is the link to the CBC Media Centre’s About the Show page.) (This link is no longer available.)

(P.S. Wendy actually sent me the note telling me about Still Life BEFORE they aired the movie on television. When I was writing this entry, I thought it was going to air this Sunday night. My mistake!)

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