Mouth to Mouth

In some romancees, the raciest thing in the book is a first kiss. Or they can get a little "H and H". That is Hot and Heavy for you new kids out there. Erin McCarthy's book Mouth to Mouth is definitely "H and H." But it is not just a steamy contemporary romance. It actually has some thought provoking story lines.

Our heroine, Laurel, is deaf. For readers not aware of the struggles of the deaf in the speaking world, it is an entry point into the conditions they face on a daily basis. She is meeting a guy in a coffee shop. She met him online. The problem is the police officer who shows up - has the right name - but he's the wrong guy. Russ is investigating an identity thief who also cons women. Laurel's meeting came up in a note in the garbage that the thief left behind.

He thinks she's naive. She's thinks he's hot but - is not looking to be lectured on identity theft. They keep seeing each other - to further the case. Much to his surprise, the good girl has a naughty streak (I can not believe I just wrote that...kinda cheesy - but descriptive in this case).

All sorts of issues are woven in this book. The concept of responsibility - to yourself and others, not taking first impressions for granted, making sure you don't get conned by a online romeo, and the importance of communication at all levels. And how to get a fat cat to loose weight. See not all of them are serious!

A fun read. A fun author. I would pick up another to see if she keeps up the quality of the story. Have a frothy good time.

Take the Cannoli

Sarah Vowell's book, Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World is another collection of essays by the talented writer. My favorite selections include an essay on the Michigan and Wacker bridge in downtown Chicago. Vowell makes and proves her claim that she can "tell the whole history of America standing on that bridge." And she manages to do just that.

Other offerings are her story of how she and her sister traveled the Trail of Tears that her Cherokee Nation ancestors did. And the tale of the struggles that took place along the way and once they finally reached Oklahoma. The comparison of the Cheerokee and modern day car trips are an interesting diorama of garishness in modern America.

So join the Sarah Vowell bandwagon. You will enjoy the humor and the viewpoint on modern society. A very good read.

Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank

Okay - if that title doesn't grab you - or if you do not think it is funny - then this is NOT the book for you. However if that title makes you laugh, come on down and read Celia Rivenbark's Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank and Other Delicate Words of Southern Women.

Rivenbank is a syndicated newspaper columnist from North Carolina. And dang is she funny! Most of these humorous essays are from her columns where she tackles motherhood, wacky celebrities, marriage and plain ol' southern oddities. I haven't swallowed so many laughs in a long time ( I was trying to read this in a quiet environment.) She has a way of getting to the heart of the absurdities of modern day life. She's definitely a laugh out loud kind of gal.

I was so excited about her and this book - that I promptly ordered her other ones to read. My new "funny author" discovery. A very fun read!

Satisfaction

When you first pick up a book - something must catch your eye to draw it in. Maybe it's the title. Or colors on the cover, 0r the cover design. Then if you're a bit more particular, you check out the flyleaf or the backcover for more information on this book that is drawing you in. But every so often, even after you have read all the particulars, and you think you are just getting a typical book in your favorite genre, you get a surprise. Who the hell wrote the backcover copy anyway? Did they read this book? Sometimes it is even a pleasant surprise like Satisfaction by Marianne Stillings.

The back cover says that Georgiana is a tv show personality like Martha Stewart. Ethan is a private eye. Okay, it starts out as a cute romance. He has to protect her on her set where there are a lot of accidents lately. She then cooks her way into his heart.

Maybe in some other book!

The back cover left out the blackmail, the date rape, the secret family, the ties to the mafia, and a murder. Yeah. He is not what he seems. She is tougher than she looks and together they learn to trust each other and solve the mysteries that surround them. Stillings has written some good characters and a driving, fast paced book. Could of fooled me! A fun read.

The Boys of Winter

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey is a book about a hockey game. But it was a game, that represented more than just a group of amateur young Americans taking the ice. It became a symbol of the country's daring do in a rather bleak point of our history. Coffey does some excellent research and interviews and he takes us along for the ride.

If you are an fan of the Olympics, you will enjoy this book. If you remember the game or the era - you will enjoy it even more. Coffey does a period by period breakdown of the game and brings in the backgrounds of all the players, coaches, and officials in the book. He even manages to make the former Soviet players human. He manages to bring vibrancy and life to an event that is over 25 years old. And he does so with a journalist's eye and perspective, so that the book is not just a puff piece. It made me eager to watch the game (not the glamorized movie version) all over again. A very good read.

Black Orchids

Rex Stout's novella Black Orchids has a bit of everything from his classic books. The setup - Nero Wolfe hears about certain black colored orchids that are featured at the New York City flower show. The progression - he sends Archie Goodwin to scout them out and report back. He then must see these amazing plants for himself. The death - was at the flower show. One of the people who was featured in a grower's display is killed while Wolfe and Archie are there. It happened in front of an audience. The dame - happens to be the other person featured in the display. The victim - was a blackmailer. There were a few people who would not mind seeing him dead. The mystery - can Wolfe figure it out? Of course he can. But the real question may be: will Wolfe end up with the black orchids?

One has to love the way Stout aptly mixes snappy dialog, clues and characters into one lively story. I really loved the way he planned the murder at the flower show - having just been to one - it was pretty perfect. A very fun read.

The Amateurs - an Olympic story

The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal by David Halberstam is an intense story of the sport of amateur rowing. This is not a glamour sport. Only a few colleges compete in it, at the time of the story, and besides the Olympics, there is really no sporting "afterlife".

So what pushes these people? Glory? Fame ? Self worth? Their Coach? Perhaps all of the above. As he concentrates on his four main athletes, we find that each of them have a different reason to achieve their goal of making it into the Olympics. Halberstam focuses on the 1984 single scull trails but we also learn how rowing is a sport of conditions, so that scores and times can not be trusted past a day's workout or competition. This is also a study of the psychology of sports - before it became a standard part of the athletic training process.

So who will win? The older guy, who was the back up on one Olympic team and also on the team that had to boycott the Olympics - is this his last chance? The one from Seattle, recovering from a bad back, and not really part of the Eastern group? But what about the guy who has been known to pull an upset on any given day? Or that moody California guy who is determined to beat out the Ivy Leaguers? You will have to read it yourself - because I'm not telling! A good read.

"Perhaps in our society the true madness in the search for excellence is left for the amateur."

Cooking for Mr. Latte

She's a foodie. Can she find love, happiness and a good meal in New York? Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser is her memoir of her relationship with food and her courtship of her future husband. When they first meet, she is dismayed by his ordering a Latte as an after dinner drink. (Apparently that is not hip - who knew?) She has found that food can be a make or break thing in her relationships. She is a New York Times food writer and restaurant critic after all, and food plays a big part of her life. Will this blind date guy last?

Join Hesser on her adventure, and in the meantime we discover more about her work, her friends, family, the food culture in the U.S. and we get a view of the growth of a long term relationship in 21st century New York.

Not just for foodies. Great for fans of Sex in the City and ChickLit too. And some good recipes as well. A fun read.

Assassination Vacation

I got the chance to see Sarah Vowell give a lecture of her work. Meeting a favorite author in person usually makes one feel like a bit of a geek. Standing in a autographing line makes one race, to think up something pithy and witty to say to the author in the 2 minutes you may get, to converse with her. Then nerves take over - you give her your name and you say something about how you love her work and you just went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, yadda, yadda, yadda... And when the moment is over and you move on- you realize you really can't remember if you came off like a knowledgable citizen of the world or as a provincial rube. Sigh. But you percieve that this author is a bit of a geek herself in some ways - at least that is how you feel from reading her work - so in the end, you feel she may understand. We, history geeks have to stick together.

Have you been always wanting to take a relaxing tour of presidential assassination sites? Sure ya do. Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation does just that. And while entertaining us with her travels via the Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley assassination sites, she makes pithy statements and parallels about the modern presidency.

The book focuses mostly on the Lincoln assassination - but the others were all interconnected. Vowell points out that Robert Todd Lincoln was there for all of them. She refers to him as Jinxy McDeath. Always popping up near the appointed assignation time. Talk about being cursed. She also goes into great detail about the lives of those involved, so this book is definitely not just history lite.

With humor and irony, Vowell leads us on the path of discovery. We see how these men's lives affected their times and the policies that the United States still has today. And how the dedication of local historians and small museums keeps this history alive and that the truth truly can be weirder than fiction. And she makes the history geeks want to hitchhike along for the ride. An excellent read.

If you get a chance - try and listen to a bit of the book on audio. Vowell is a commentator on NPR's This American Life, and this shows in the audio book version. Can't wait until her next book - it is supposed to be on the Pilgrims.

Death at the Spring Plant Sale

Ann Ripley's Death at the Spring Plant Sale is a another book with her series character Louise Eldridge. Louise is now a host of a garden show for her local Virginia PBS station. She gets a request from her friend, Emily, to feature her Bethesda Maryland, gardening club on the show. She decides it may be worth while, and she is eager to visit with her old college pal. What starts out as a good filming day at the plant sale, turns into a case of murder when the club president is shot and killed in her own driveway later that evening.

Emily wants Louise to investigate and is willing to be her sidekick over the objections of her husband. Husbands become a bit of a sticky issue when they try to investigate - for the victims's husband is a big whig at the Federal Reserve. Just who was the shooter trying to kill?

Louise is an engaging character and I am encouraged to read more books in this series. In a bit of local humor - I found it ironic that one of the more annoying suspects had been involved in a gardening club in Winnetka! A fun mystery.

Gardens Can be Murder

The Garden Plot by J.S. Borthwick is a book in the Sarah Deane mystery series. And it has a great concept. Sarah is going on a gardening travel tour with her Aunt Julia. Aunt Julia got the trip for free because someone else could not go. A free trip to England to visit the famous gardens - what a deal! Sarah could use a rest after teaching this last semester in Maine. And she is curious to see her colleague Ellen lead the group as the gardening expert.

But on the way to airport to catch their flight - things begin to happen. Ellen doesn't make her flight. When they arrive in England - no one can get in touch with her. Where is she? When her stabbed body is found on the side of the road, Sarah starts to get a bit nervous. It is beginning to look like the murderer made the flight and is on the tour. So just who is it? Just try to enjoy your vacation with that hanging over you!

Borthwick deftly takes us to England, Maine and back again as the investigation becomes trans-Atlantic. Sarah and Aunt Jane are great characters and bring us into the story. The author makes the English trip come alive - if you have been there - it will bring you back. And you definitely will look at gardening tools a little different from now on. This was a great introduction to a series I was not familiar with. I am looking forward to reading some more books from the series. A fun read.

Summer of the Big Bachi

Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara is not your typical mystery. This book does not start out with a bang or a murder. It starts very slowly by showing us Mas Arai, who is a 69 year old gardener. As we learn more about him and his place within the Japanese-American Community in the L.A. area, we discover that there are secrets. Secrets from the war. Secrets that people want left behind. Secrets and money that people would kill for.

Strangers are coming around asking questions. Mas who is an ornery character, doesn't want anyone knowing his business or background. Why do they want to know about Mas' old friends? Who sent them? What does this have to do with a piece of land in Hiroshima? He does not want any more trouble headed his way. To get himself and his friends out of this mess, Mas needs to ask some questions of his own.

Hirahara takes her time with her character study of Mas and his social environment. But by doing this, she also manages to create a ominous feeling that something bad is really going to happen. She allows the reader to experience the growing pressure surrounding Mas. Is he going to tell what he knows - can he tell it? Will they let him? In creating this amoral character she leaves the reader in suspense of what he is going to do.

A great study of a character who is a survivor. Survivors are not always the "heroic people" Hollywood makes them out to be. They are as real as the next person. I am interested in seeing where Hirahara's sequels take him. A little different, but a good read.

Pushing Up Daisies

With a first book in a mystery series, you never know quite what you going to get. Does it set up a character in a way that you really want to revisit them again? Does it leave you eager for the next "installment?" And more importantly, does it have a decent mystery? In Pushing Up Daisies: a Dirty Business Mystery by Rosemary Harris, she takes on those challenges and does it very well.

Harris' lead character Paula Holliday is busy trying to get her own gardening business off the ground. She has a few regular clients, but money is tight in establishing this second career of hers. She gets the opportunity to bid on a project to restore a once grand garden whose owners have recently died. On her first day of the job, she finds a buried metal object - which just happens to have a dead baby inside. Paula finds herself in the midst of a local mystery - whose child it is? The property owners were unmarried spinsters - or were they? What is the significance of the Spanish medal wrapped around the child? Does this have anything to do with a old case of a missing Hispanic girl ? Paula, being the new kid in town, has to rely on some of her new friends and neighbors to bring the truth to light. It also helps if the local police Sergeant takes an interest in the case.

Harris also does a great job of incorporating the topic of Spanish speaking day laborers in to the story. In a major metropolitan area like this locale - the Connecticut suburbs near New York City - the chance that your gardening workers are Hispanic, is a very high one. And with that sub theme, Harris grounds her tale with the realities of the landscaping and gardening business.

It is a great start for a promising new series. I really enjoyed the character, and the surrounding quirky cast, and I am truly interested to read the next book! A very fun read.

A Hoe Lot of Trouble

A Hoe Lot of Trouble by Heather Webber is a quick and easy book that goes down fast while serving up some fun characters and a decent mystery. When we meet Nina Quinn, owner of a landscaping firm, she is still reeling from the fact that her husband, a cop, cheated on her. She is having issues with her teenage step-son, and she is hoping his snake is found soon. Her Italian mother is hounding on her to get her dress fitted for her sister's wedding. And then she finds out that the man who inspired her to become a landscaper has been found dead. And his family thinks it was murder.

Nina definitely rises to the challenge, with humor and resolve. When she says she is tired - we believe her! She also has someone stealing tools from her job sites - and she is determined to figure out who it is - and it is not going to be easy when most of your staff is on probabtion. (That's what happens when your cousin is a probation officer.)

Nina is an engaging character and it will be interesting to see where her author takes her. A fun read.