Flowers and bee

Flowers and bee

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Motif for Murder

Laura Childs' latest in her scrapbooking mystery series is Motif for Murder. Carmela is still having problems with her husband, Hurricane Katrina just came through, and then her husband is kidnapped the same day his uncle is killed. What is going on!? As she tries to help her customers repair their waterlogged photos, and tries to be calm waiting for a ransom note, she wonders where is it all going to end.

Ironically as she works in her shop to take her mind off of things, and does something creative, like an altered book in the memory of Uncle Henry, she manages to find a clue! With the help of her best friend, the flamboyant Ava, Carmela sleuths and gets into danger. Childs fills her book with great characters and sidekicks. A quick fun read.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Quiet Gentleman - a classic re-read

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer is a classic regency romance. We have our traditional cast of characters:

Gervase - the new Earl of Stanyon
Martin - the hot headed - younger half brother
The Dowager - the grumpy widow
Miss Morville- the widow's temporary companion and sensible miss
Marianne- the local silly young lady that the young men are interested in
Theo - the cousin who runs the estates
Lord Ulverton - the new Earl's best friend

Take the following and mix it up - an newly made Earl who no one thought would inherit. The younger son who is not thrilledto be replaced by his brother. The sympathizing cousin. The Dowager who will bear having the new Earl in her home if she must. The best friend who comes for support, but stays to woo. And the practical miss who seems to know everything that is going on, but doesn't tell tales. And then there are the accidents that seem to happen just to the new Earl... What is going on???

I am not going to tell you - because there is no way I can reproduce the depth of knowledge that is in a Heyer book. She creates wonderful characters, plots can make you think you have left the twenty-first century, and gives her books dialogue to die for.

Try it - you'll want more...

Instinct to Heal

The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy by David Servan-Schreiber is one of those books that you might pass up in the bookstore. The title promises everything, and who is this guy anyway? - and the cover is very, very bland. This guy, Dr. Servan-Schreiber is a French, award winning psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose background includes directing the Center for Complementary Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh's Shadyside Hospital. And he was the Chief of the Hospital's Division of Psychiatry and Director of the Behavorial Sciences teaching program. So he's got some credentials. (For more on his resume - http://www.instincttoheal.org/) Better yet - he can write well and take complex material and make it more accessable to the layperson.

I read about him and some of his theories in Ode magazine (July 2006 issue.) Their article was focused on the food - mind connection he talks about. In the article, he mentions depression and Omega 3's and how they are bound together. I was curious and read his whole book, enjoyed it, (can you say that about a medical book?) and I am trying some methods out.

I could go on and on about the interesting things he talks about, the whole Omega 3 chapter is an eye-opener (and wouldn't you know it - the Chicago Tribune has an article about Omega 3s, in their Sunday, September 10th paper in the Q section), but this is not a medical blog! And if you don't have any of the symptoms that he talks about ...well aren't you lucky! If you're interested in the topic - his book is a good place to start.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

More about Food and New Orleans...

Did I mention I like Cajun cooking? Here are some more mysteries set in New Orleans in the Pre-Katrina era, for this particular book in their series.

In Crime Brûlée - Nancy Fairbanks features an amateur detective named Carolyn Blue who is the wife of a academic and who in this book is trying to get a foodie writing career off of the ground. She is in New Orleans for a science conference that her husband is attending. She has wonderful dinners and lunches but a somewhat horrible experience in the city - muggings, being threatened, having to view a dead body, etc. If she wasn't trying to track down her best friend who suddenly disappeared after an fight with her husband in front of their group of fellow alums, I think she would have (I know I would have) gone home! She tries to balance her sleuthing with seeking out food experiences and being a good faculty wife at the conference. This is the first of this series and I would be definitely be interested in reading more!

The book, Roux the Day : a gourmet detective mystery by Peter King is a great way to experience his series. The gourmet detective - whose name is never mentioned - since the stories are in the first person, has an unusual career. He looks for rare foods, lost recipes, or food subsitutions for a recipe - he is a all around foodie. He is asked to come to New Orleans to determine if a book up for auction is a famous local restaurant family's chefs' book. The chef's book has the family's famous recipes from their now shuttered restaurant. And he soon finds out that there are many others who want this lost cookbook. And they will kill to get it. He, too, rounds out his visit with dining at New Olreans' finest restaurants. This is a well written, lively book, and I would be curious to see what "case" this detective has next!