Finished DEATH BY DIDGERIDOO

 

You don't have to know what a didgeridoo is to understand this book, but I just happened to.  There was a band that played at the Scottish music festival that included the bagpipes and a didgeridoo.  It is an Australian horn about 4 feet long that extends in front of its seated player and rests on the ground.  It has a very deep voice and is loud...one of very few instruments that can hold its own against bagpipes.  That band had a great sound and I've not found anything like it anywhere else.

I enjoyed this short mystery because of its interesting protagonist, Jamie Quinn, who I liked immediately as well as other fun characters, the urgency of solving it, the setting that I'm familiar with, and the roadblock to solving it in the form of a young man on the "spectrum" with Asperger's disease.

I have now barely started The Operator by Kim Harrison which has immediately puzzled me.  It says it is the second in the series and when I read Drafter it said it was the first in the series, but the three books are listed in a different order in front of the book.  So, huh? 

Finished SERPENTINE

 

I thought this was one of her best books.  Yes, lots of relationship stuff, and also a pretty great plot.  New creature discovered.  I also enjoyed the description of the Florida Keys since I have been there and have driven the same roads that are described in the book.

The print became much more readable with my new glasses.  My squinting to see it accounts for how long it has taken me to read it.

I have now started Death by Digeridoo, a Jamie Quinn mystery by Barbara Venkataraman.  As I first started it, I was a bit confused since it is set in Hollywood, FL, a small town between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.  A major character is named Adam.  Problem: the book I just finished was set in the Keys and also had a character named Adam.  A man who is hated by everyone who knows him has been murdered...how do you find a murderer when everyone has a motive?

Finished FEVRE DREAM

 

Wow.  I had no idea George R. R. Martin wrote horror stories.  This had me full of foreboding through the first half and then on the edge of my seat for the last.  Whew.  What an adventure.  Loved it.

I am now starting Serpentine by Laurell K Hamilton, Anita Blake #26.  Have I really read 25 books in this series?  I do enjoy the series, but the size of the books has gotten so large in the last book and this one, that I can hardly see the tiny print.  Luckily I have an eye appointment coming up this week.  Both Anita and Micah have found something they have never seen before which grotesquely disturbing and very sad....

Finished THIS TIME TOGETHER

 

It appears, according to Goodreads, that I have read this before--about 5 years ago.  I remembered none of it and laughed often and loudly.  I believe my review of 5 years ago is as accurate today as it was then.

I have now started Fevre Dream by George RR Martin (of Game of Thrones fame).  Captain Marsh, formally an owner of six river boats plying trade on the Mississippi in the mid-1850s has had 5 of those boats destroyed by weather, when he receives a letter from a Mr. Joshua York who wants to buy a 50% interest in Captain Marsh's fleet at an enormous sum.  This is puzzling, but makes our hero curious.

Finished THE FORGOTTEN

 

This book was a bit different from others in the series as the female protagonist did not join the Krewe, but she was made the offer.  Though I have only been through Miami (on my way to Key West and back), I enjoyed the description of neighborhoods as well as the ocean mammal protection site where she worked as well as the interaction with dolphins.  Another good, if formulaic, story from Heather Graham.

I have now started THIS TIME TOGETHER, LAUGHTER AND REFLECTION, by Carol Burnett and have already laughed out loud several times.  This promises to be a really good one.  It looks like I read this about 5 years ago, but I have no memory of it, so I get to enjoy it all over again.

Finished ALEXANDER HAMILTON

 

The book is very informative, well researched and highly notated, but quite readable.  At times it seemed pedantic, but for the most part, included the bad as well as the good keeping it interesting.  And I was very surprised, I was able to explain some things to friends during political discussions (origins of the two major trains of thought in our politics) as answer a bunch of Jeopardy questions I otherwise would not have had a clue about.

Excellent!

I have now begun The Forgotten by Heather Graham, a Krewe of Hunters book.  Two murders have taken place in the outskirts of Miami's drug underworld that are surrounded by rumors of supernatural involvement.  Of course, this will bring in the FBI elite team especially able to get to the bottom of such things.

Finished HARVEST SEASON

 

Melinda's life is up in the air.  She has been taking care of the farm and working at her uncle's hardware store.  But Horace is moving back into the farm, her friend Susan is doing her best to get Melinda a job at the company Susan works for, and her uncle will return to the store as soon as he is well.  This new life was always meant to be temporary.  How are things going to work out?

I enjoyed the story...it is calm, thoughtful, peaceful, but, surprisingly not uninteresting.  My parents moved out to a farm they had purchased after I went to college.  I spent three years there and abouts while getting my master's degree...one full year living there and the two others near enough to see them a lot.  Ours was an orchard farm, but we had vegetables, pigs, a cow, and chickens, so this triggers memories and nostalgia in me.

I am now starting the last section of Alexander Hamilton.  This started with the preparation for the duel and the duel itself.  I am now reading about its aftermath, the funeral, reactions in New York and the U. S., and Aaron Burr's life afterward.