A History of the World in 6 Glasses

A History of the World in 6 Glasses is a great book by Tom Standage. Who realized that beverages were so important? Beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola are what Standage focuses on and he brings us the history of the drink’s prime era.

Some fun facts:

Beer was drunk by everyone because it was not as poisonous as the water was. And it used to be drunk with straws so that the drinkers would not drink the floating grains.

Greeks and Romans drank wine that was mixed with water.

Coffee houses were promoted as the new intellectual hangout of their era - in the 1700s!

The East India Company practically started a war in China so that they could get more tea imports.

Coca-Cola started as a medicine and was created by a patent medicine chemist.

With this book, beverages join the group of goods that the historical and modern world has bartered for and fought for. The irony is, he says, the next struggle will be for access for the most basic drink of all - water. Something to look forward to. Hmmm.

An entertaining and informative read. You don't have to be a history junkie to enjoy this.

Book of True Desires

The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn is a fun adventure from the first page. Cordelia O' Keefe is an adventuress/traveler/author who has come to her wayward tycoon grandfather for a loan for her next expedition. The crafty coot - has conditions for his funding. She must embark first on a trek to find the Gift of the Jaguar from a rubbing of Mayan stones, and she must take his butler who will hold on the purse strings. The butler in question is Hartford Goodnight who has a mysterious past of his own. Together with her aunt and a Mayan expert, they embark on a trip to Cuba (just before the Spanish American war) and Mexico. Once in Mexico, they end up hunting through the jungle for what the natives call the "hills with doors".

This trip is loaded with adventure, and Krahn takes you on a great journey, with flora and fauna abounding, evil bad guys chasing them for the "gift" and an occasional jaguar or two. Along the way Cordelia learns that Goodnight is more than he seems, and he learns that she does really know a thing or two about adventuring. A roll coaster ride done very well. Come for the adventure, stay for the romance! Lots of fun.

Trixie and Evangeline: Aging Film Stars Who Sleuth

Want a mysteries series that is fast - under 200 pages per book - humorous, and starring some fun aging film stars? Check out the Marian Babson series featuring Trixie Dolan and Evangeline Sinclair - two grand dames of the American cinema.

Reel Murder
Encore Murder
Shadows in their Blood
Even Yuppies Die
Break a Leg, Darlings
The Cat Who Wasn’t a Dog

They start out by traveling to London for a special retrospective of Evangeline's films. Trixie has come along for the ride. They end up running into old rivals and flames from film days, and are shown ' the respect they deserve' , by eager young fans. Their housing leaves a bit much to be desired - a house that has been split into flats - and it becomes less desirable when they discover a body in the building. Thus they take it upon themselves to solve the crime - they did it in the movies didn't they?

The mysteries are not great puzzlers, but with these characters you really don't care. Trixie is the slightly maternal one, who was the hoofer with the heart of gold in all of her films. Evangeline is the diva who will battle her perceived rivals and tell it like it is, but only the way she thinks it is. Their dialogue is fun and it is a stitch when other people take them for just naive old ladies - when they could tell folks a thing or two about surviving in the cutthroat world of Hollywood. And they make sure there's always a brandy or two waiting.

Babson moves the stories along and is very good about the continuity in the stories considering that they are written several years apart - I'm finding that this is becoming a bit rare now days! ( The book where they make a cheesy vampire movie - they are the vampire aunts - is a hoot!)

Lots of fun - I hope she writes some more.

Italian Art Mysteries

Jonathan Argyll, an English art dealer, and Flavia di Stefano, of the Art Theft Squad, in Rome, Italy, are featured in: The Raphael Affair (1991) and The Titian Committee (1992) by Iain Pears. This is a fun series that can only go places.

The author brings us in depth into the world of art and Italy. Jonathan becomes enamored of Flavia who is a modern woman stuck in the non-modern Italian Police. The realities and/or cliches of Italian life are featured as they travel from place to place (in these - Rome and Venice) to solve their crime and bring the art or situation back to where it belongs. Pears creates characters that you want to revisit again. I particularly like Flavia's superior officer who has the love of good Italian foot ware. I am looking forward to reading more in the series. This would be great reading before a trip to Italy!

Nerds Like It Hot

Nerds Like it Hot by Vicki Lewis Thompson is another fun book in her nerd series. (My favorite about this is you really do not need to read them in any order really.) This time a makeup artist Gillian hears and sees a murder on the set of her latest movie job. She knows the murderer is rumored to have shady mob ties and goes for help from her friend Cleo, an aging actress who once was buddies with Marilyn Monroe. Cleo decided that Gillian needs to have a makeover for a disguise and gets her to go on a singles nerd cruise so that she can escape to Mexico. Cleo enlists the help of P.I. friends Lex and his partner Dante to be bodyguards.

Lex is attracted to Gillian – but she just thinks it is the new Marilyn makeover. He keeps trying to protect her from odd incidents on the ship and make sure she stays alive.

Thompson once again builds a fun cast of characters who provide Gillian with her “family”. The murderer is kinda creepy, but we know that the nerds will prevail. Definitely fun and frothy.

The River Knows

Everytime I hear the title The River Knows by Amanda Quick, I am reminded of the Gordon Lightfoot song about Lake Superior - with the line "never gives up her dead". In this case however, body of water is the river Thames, and it does give up it's dead - but they are listed as suicides. Not very acceptable in Victorian times. The book starts out with the death of three respectable women and it becomes clearer that their cases are indeed related.

Louisa Bryce and Anthony Stalbridge run into each other at a high society party. Sounds lovely? Did I mention the fact that they are both snooping into their host Elwin Hastings's bedroom? In order to escape the bodyguard - they feign a lover's kiss. Stalbridge wants to know why he keeps running into Louisa while he's investigating, what is she up to? She believes that Hastings has connections to a brothel and she is trying to dig up the truth to expose him - she is a secret newspaper correspondent. It turns out Stalbridge thinks that Hastings has a connection to his fiance' s death. The authorities said it was a suicide - but Anthony does not believe it.

They join as partners in this investigation. Anthony has a bad reputation since his fiance died - and he is noted to be from an eccentric family. Louisa is supposed to a be a quiet dull widow - but Anthony learns that there is much more to her than meets the eye. As they discover more clues and questions, they learn more about each other, and their hidden pasts and their attraction grows.

Come join the adventure - with a stalwart "modern" heroine and a hero worth cheering for.
Another one of Quick's finest. A very fun read.

Audio Books and Mysteries

I went on a road trip and needed something to entertain me. So I got an audio book. Usually I read faster than an audio book, but driving through Indiana is fairly dull. So I grabbed a CD mystery, one in series my mystery buff friend had suggested to me in the past.

Cherry Cheesecake Murder
by Joanne Fluke

Hannah Swensen is the owner of the Cookie Jar shop. In this small town, she has two beaus, a cat with personality and a mother who hovers. And then on the side she solves murders. Yes, this is a cozy mystery with recipes. (And when you are listening to the recipes - believe me - you get hungry!) Yes, this book will not change the world, and I figured out who the murderer was before the end. But she writes with such humor and fun with this cast of town characters who seem like people you know. The personalities will keep you moving along in this series. Now I just have to find the first book, and start from there. Enjoy the fun!