The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Guilty Pleasures: Buying a Box of Good and Plentys…

I was at the grocery store this morning, with everything going fine until I put a 99¢ box of Good and Plentys (should that be “Plenties”?) on the conveyor belt. The “bag-girl” (I’m not sure what the politically correct term is these days… but by this I mean the teenage girl who bags the groceries) started a conversation with me which meant she had to talk rather loudly… since I was still getting the groceries out of my cart and she was at the end of the conveyor belt section.

Anyway…. her conversation was loud enough to elicit the attention of the people in the line next to mine, including the people exiting the store, as well as the people in the customer service section of the store. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am VERY self conscious about my weight. I am not concerned enough to exercise on a regular basis (or if I am truthful… exercise at all!) but I do carry at least thirty pounds more than I should on my frame… and that doesn’t mean thirty pounds more than I would if I were anorexic… but thirty pounds more than if I weighed what a “normal” person weighs.

So, much to my chagrin, my “bag-girl” started a conversation AT me, telling me how she doesn’t like junk food like Good and Plentys… they are bad for your teeth, they are bad for your health, they are just sugar, she eats healthy snacks like apples, etc. I nodded to her, said she was brought up the right way, and tried to go back to my business… Unfortunately, once I made eye contact… she got even louder… not in a rude way, just a matter-of-fact manner… I was somewhat taken aback, and more than embarrassed… But that’s what you get when you try to buy a guilty pleasure like Good and Plentys…

After I paid for my groceries, my cashier (another teenage girl) quietly told me to go enjoy my Good and Plentys… a very sweet gesture, very much appreciated by this “slightly overweight” woman. I have to admit, those Good and Plentys don’t look quite so good right now… perhaps the BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION / PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING that I experienced was enough to  curtail my licorice cravings!

Nope! I think not! Next time I have a licorice craving I’m going to just have to cut out the middle man (in this case the “bag-girl) and go to my local drug store to make my illicit purchases! No “bag-girls” there, and hopefully I won’t get a chatty cashier!

Cozy Mystery Series that Takes Place in Texas, with Bird-Watching Sleuths:

I have another mystery about a mystery author’s identity:

“Help!  I’m trying to find a series which I have read two books of, and really enjoyed, but can’t remember the author’s name or the titles! It takes place in a Texas college town.  The main characters are a middle
aged man and a younger woman (who is a forensic anthropologist).  They are bird watchers and the man is secretly in love with the woman. 
Ring a bell for anyone?
Thanks!”

If anyone has any ideas, please post a comment or send me a note… (I sure will be embarrassed if this turns out to be an author I read!)

Clarissa Watson Anyone?

I received both an email and a blog comment a few days ago from Carolyn asking about Clarissa Watson.  The gist of the letters is as follows:

“I haven’t noticed any mention of an excellent mystery author, CLARISSA WATSON. She wrote a series of books featuring painter and art expert Persis Willum. The books are intelligent and fun, so much so that I re-read them about every 5 years! Please give them a try if you like international intrigue and a heroine who loves art. I only wish she had written more of them.” AND “Do you have any suggestions on finding another author like Clarissa Watson? She wrote a series of sophisticated, witty mysteries featuring portrait painter and art expert Persis Willum in the 80’s. They are great books…”

Unfortunately, I haven’t read any novels written by Clarissa Watson, so I really can’t begin to suggest authors who are similar to her. I will be adding a page dedicated to her on the site, though.

The reason for this blog::: Are any of you familiar with Clarissa Watson, and if so, do you know of any authors who are similar to her? I would love to hear from you… via comment or letter.

Thanks a lot… I know that we can make this a cozier world if we want…

Reading a Mystery Series All the Way Through…

You know, every once in a while I get the feeling that I want to start reading one particular author’s works all the way through, from the first to the last novel. The most recent time I thought that I would do this was Agatha Christie… the time before that was Ruth Rendell, and even before that was Patricia Moyes. All some of my favorite authors, but I’m not sure why I just can’t stick to that plan… of reading all of the series’ novels at one sitting. (I use that term – “sitting” – loosely, since it would take me a rather long time to achieve that feat>>> All of those particular authors have a lot of books in their series.)

Getting back to the point… I truly had thought that I could do that… stick with one author>>> even though the authors in my bookshelves beckon me with their brightly-colored book spines. BUT!!!:::>>> The last time I stuck to the read-the-entire-series-all-the-way-through plan, I became somewhat disappointed/disgruntled with the author.

The last author I succeded reading all the way through was E. V. Cunningham. I had read a few of his Masao Masuto books in the past, before the chronological order of a series was that important to me, and had enjoyed his books immensely. But, maybe it was the fact that I was re-reading some of the novels, or maybe it was the fact that the same day I finished one novel in the series I started reading the next… I really don’t know what it was, but I started getting mildly annoyed at Masuto! Yes, I actually started feeling annoyance toward a fictitious character!

So, it is with that knowledge that I am now going to say this: The next time I say I am going to read a cozy mystery series from the beginning to the end, with no other reading interruptions… It’s not that I am brazenly lying, because I truly am thinking that I will do just that, it is that I won’t be able to carry through with that plan. So, right after I blog about that intention, just think of it as a lapse in my judgement, a foolish mistake on my part… It just ain’t going to happen!

MENU