Buried Bones

Carolyn Haines has a mystery series set in the Mississippi Delta. It is saturated with the essence of the South. Old money, old houses and a small town where everyone knows what everybody is up to. Buried Bones is her second book in the Sarah Booth Delaney series.

Sarah has just saved her family home from being sold by solving a case. Now it looks like she is going to be an investigator. But her investigations come very close to home, when several friends are suspected of murder. The victim, a writer, knew a lot of secrets about everyone. And he was going to put the truth in his biography. Sarah gets to sort out whose secret is whose and who was willing to kill to keep those secrets quiet.

This may sound similar to other mysteries but Haines livens things up with her wild eccentric cast of characters, and her willingness to let Sarah not take things too seriously. Humorously written and very dense - a huge cast of characters- Haines creates a winner. I read in a review that they called this series is a mix of the Ya- Ya Sisterhood meets Nancy Drew - and I think they are right. A fun read. Looking forward to more in the series.

To Go Gray or Not To Go Gray - That Is the Question

Does she dye her hair or doesn't she? That question was asked in an old advertisement for hair coloring. It is not a life and death social issue, but it matters to many people, many of them women. How much is our hair color tied into our self esteem and our vision of ourselves? Is it just one more fashion statement or an example of how our society values age? Or are we just fighting the aging process with all our might? Anne Kreamer brings up these issues and many more in Going Gray: What I Learned About Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity and Everything Else That Really Matters.

Kreamer starts her quest with her own hair. She sees a picture of herself taken by a friend and is appalled by how bad she looks with her dyed hair. She thought it made her look younger but instead she finds it makes her unnatural and she is tired of the constant upkeep it requires. As she makes her decision to go natural, she investigates society's view point of gray hair - from advertising, to Hollywood, the business world, politics and beyond.

Kreamer writes well, and as a result, this is a thought provoking book. So should one go gray? It becomes a very very personal choice. A great read.

Sizzle and Burn

She can touch an item and hear voices. He can touch something and see visions. But what they can see and hear is usually the traces of residual violence. Jayne Anne Krentz's latest, in her Arcane Society series, Sizzle and Burn, has these two people join forces to find out secrets from that past that can effect the Society's future.

Raine Tallentyre is recovering from her Aunt Vella's death and she is trying to get her aunt's affairs in order. Zach Jones is investigating a missing scientific researcher who disappeared the same day that her aunt died. He knows her family history and knows about her "gifts". He offers to join forces with her since she thinks there is something strange about her aunt's death. Raine is soon plunged into a crash course about the Society and it's enemies. As they investigate - it becomes murkier. Are their foes after him? Or her?

This is an excellent sequel to her earlier book, White Lies. Krentz has done some great work with the engaging characters - by balancing their "gifts" with their normal lives. And it is great to have a lead male character who is a hero - but doesn't take himself so seriously. A great read. Looking forward to more in the series.

Witchy Business

Witchy Business is a collection of short stories by Julie Leto, Rhonda Nelson and Mia Zachary. From the title, you can tell that the book does feature paranormal characters. The stories are centered around the fictional Sedona Rehab Center for the Magically Challenged. It is a school for witches to attend, if they have not come into their powers. But the reason they do not have their "gifts" has to do with love. They have either "denied love, never known love, or abused love." And then comes the rest of the story...

All three stories are fun, and the premise makes the stories connect. Perfect for a short burst of romance. A frothy good time.

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant

Do you eat alone? Are you planning gourmet meals for yourself? Or are you regulated to frozen dinners for one? Or are you secretly eating something others might consider a bit wacky? Come join the discussion in the book, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler.

This is a great study of being alone vs being lonely and preparing food for one's self. Some of the writers long for the days they can be alone, some remember times when they were alone, but others rejoice in the simple meals that they make for themselves. And the meals range from normal, to cravings, to obsessions, to grabbing whatever is in the pantry. One of my favorite essays is the one where the author decides to eat asparagus every day during the fresh season - which is two months! She becomes her own asparagus superhero. Personally I hate the vegetable, but I admire her obsession with it - I get that way for zucchini and fresh ripe summer tomatoes - and her desire to experience it at it's peak.

What is also interesting - is how many of these foods are or become comfort foods. Are our taste buds truly formed by our childhood foods? Or are there memories intertwined with these dishes? This book will definitely provoke some thinking about your own comfort foods and the times and the people behind them. An excellent read.

Some favorite bits...

"Dinner alone is one of life's pleasures. Certainly cooking for oneself reveals man at his weirdest. People lie when you ask them what they eat when they are alone. A salad they tell you. But when you persist, they confess to peanut butter and bacon sandwiches deep fried and eaten with hot sauce or spaghetti with butter and grape jam." - Laurie Colwin

"Eating after all, is a matter of taste, and taste cannot always be good taste. The very thought of maintaining high standards meal after meal is exhausting. It discounts all the peanut butter that is available in the world." - Ann Patchett

Bento Box in the Heartland

As much as we like to think that society has changed how it views race, it really depends mostly on the individual - on your environment, your upbringing and sometimes where you live. In the book, Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America, A Food Memoir by Linda Furiya, she points out the situation when telling her story of growing up Japanese American in small town Indiana in the late1960s and 70's.

This book is as much a memoir of her childhood as it is of her family's. Her father was born in the U.S. but was sent back to Japan, in the late 20's, to stay with relatives after his mother's death. He was trapped in Japan when the war started and only made it back to the States in the 1950's. Her mother came to the U.S. in 1961 as an arranged marriage fiance. One of their commonalities was their love of food from their homeland. And it becomes a focus in her book as well - perhaps because she later became a food writer, or perhaps because she realized that their ethnic food brought them together as a family.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the book is when a Japanese family friend in Chicago tells them about the Japanese grocery stores and restaurants they have found in the area. The Furiya family makes a trek to the big city, with coolers for some authentic Japanese supplies. Her father is overwhelmed by the bounty. And her parents decide that if they drive all night home they can spend the money on fresh fish, that they had put aside for a hotel! It was the first of many treks to Chicago.

I was enthralled with her views of her family's life and their struggles. I grew up in an area in the Midwest that had an influx of Asian immigrants, and was curious to see the view from the other side. And her descriptions of the food they ate, made me look up ingredients and recipes. A wonderful book. And it will make you want to go out for some Japanese food.