"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us." Franz Kafka
For any author who would like his/her book to be reviewed, contact me. Poetry books too are solicited for reviewing. However, there are some genres I tend to avoid. Feel free to ask me.
gautami.tripathy[at]gmail.com
I must mention here that I read at my own pace and depending on my mood. Don't ask me to hurry.
Meet Paula Holliday, a transplanted media exec who trades her stilettos for garden clogs when she makes the move from the big city to the suburbs to start a gardening business. Paula can handle deer, slugs, and the occasional human pest---but she's not prepared for the mummified body she finds while restoring the gardens at Halcyon, a local landmark.
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27 comments:
I would love to read a few cozy mysteries... they always look good when I see them on other blogs! I need to do this! :)
I read several cozy mysteries over the holidays. This sounds good too.
That's a beautiful looking cover and sounds like a good mystery.
I have never read a cozy mystery. Guess I need to check one out. Have a great week!
I really do like cozy mysteries :)
Pushing Up Daisies sounds like a good one. I hope you love it!
Hmmm I'll have to come back to read your review on If Walls could Talk.
Enjoy 2011 and sending mailman to your neck of the woods. Just send him back once he's done delivering please. :)
Ooh, they sound good. I signed up for a mystery challenge, and I plan to include some cozy mysteries. Enjoy!
Here's my Monday:
(click on my name)
I love Pushing Up Daisies. It's a dozy. Nothing like a dead body.
Not getting any books just gives you the chance to catch up!
I love cozy mysteries! This year I joined a cozy mystery challenge to motivate myself to read more mysteries, and less tedious nonfiction books.
Enjoy your new book! =)
Pushing up Daisies sounds like a fun mystery. I don't generally read very many mysteries, but this one might join my tbr pile. :)
Here's my Mailbox! ~ Wendi
Pushing Up Daisies sounds like a fun read.
Happy New Year
Cozy mysteries are such fun! It's great when you don't feel like other reading.
Happy reading!
Those are rare weeks for me (when I don't receive anything), although sometimes a break is good (especially for my over-crowded shelves).
Happy New Year!!
Here is mine
If you are into watching and listening to some of the horrific family sagas presented on such television shows as Dr. Phil or Oprah, then Alison Johnson's The Eleventh Hour Can't Last Forever will appeal to you.
What we have here is a detailed family memoir where the author unlocks the dreaded skeletons in her family closet. There is an eccentric father, who was a miser and hoarder of gold, silver, books, as well as other items. Johnson's mother was mentally ill, who prior to her illness, enjoyed life but had been stunted by an unhappy marriage. In fact, as the author states, the uneasiness of her parents' relationship and her father's unusual character traits contributed to producing three children who were not happy or well adjusted. There were also two brothers, one who was an alcoholic and the other estranged from his family, and a sister, who mismanaged her father's assets, even turning to the stars for answers to the frustrations of her life. The author appears to be the only sane one of the family, who for the most part seemed to have a happy life.
The Eleventh Hour Can't Last Forever reads more like a work of fiction, however, as mentioned in the introduction, the story is true, nothing has been added or embellished, except some names have been changed of a few people not central to the main action and the first names of the author's daughters to afford them a degree of privacy. Johnson informs us that she wrote the family memoir in 1984-85 but delayed its publication until both her brothers died.
The saga unfolds in Palisade, Nebraska, a tiny enclave, in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Denver and Lincoln, where Johnson was born and, and as she informs us, had a population of 799. Her father was a successful businessman, however, he was obsessed with gathering silver and gold coins and hiding them in kitchen cupboards, attics, bottom of dresser drawers, and in holes in the ground. He was convinced that the total collapse of the American economy and government was just around the corner. Perhaps, if this happened within the past few years with the meltdown of the financial institutions, we might have taken a different view of his eccentricity and economic theories. Nonetheless, it was due to this obsession that had an enormous influence on his family leading to unfortunate repercussions and a family shipwreck, where nothing was resolved happily.
Many will no doubt question why anyone would want to air their family's dirty linen in public? To this, Johnson replies that she had suffered emotional violence at the hands of her siblings, as she was a kind of punching bag for too long and it was time she punched back, particularly that it went as far as her family believing that she was mentally ill. Perhaps, the writing of this book was in fact a cathartic exercise to finally release and cleanse herself of all of the garbage that was in her- a kind of therapeutic experience?
All-in-all, Johnson has written a well-written memoir of a dysfunctional family and the complex workings of human relationships-far more complex than first impressions would suggest. Moreover, she displays a impressive analytic intelligence that makes this work provocative, although nonetheless, quite disturbing.
read mine http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/01/mailbox-monday.html
Pushing Up Daisies sounds like a fun read! I want to read The Heir, too. Thanks for stopping by! Happy reading!
It has been awhile since I've read a cozy mystery. I'll have to remedy that.
Oh no! An empty mailbox! Sorry you got skunked. But thank you for participating in MM anyway.
Rose City Reader
I love cozies! And this sounds like a good one. I like the gardening theme, too - guess I'll have to give it a closer look.
Pushing Up Daisies sounds like a fun read; enjoy.
Don't you miss it when there's a week without books?! I know I do!
My name is linked to my mailbox. Have a great week and Happy New Years!
I haven't read a cozy mystery in ages, and I really do love them! I need to spend a little more time browsing my library's shelves rather than running in to grab something specific; I grab the cozies when I just browse. Enjoy your week!
I dont read many cozy mysteries but the cover on this one draws you in. Have a great week and happy reading :)
Pushing Up Daisies seems like a nice cozy mystery, and most seem to love it. :) I'm off to read your reviews!
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