Middle Sister's March 2013 Books

The Alpine Xanadu by Mary Daheim  I prefer Daheim's other mystery series to this one, but thought maybe it was time I revisited Alpine. I almost wish I hadn't. I'd forgotten how annoying some of the characters are, how the author doesn't explain relationships or introduce people, assuming the reader will remember from previous books who everyone is, their history, and everything that makes characters leap from the page and become someone you care about. If you like a long-running soap opera with a little murder thrown in, you'll enjoy this series. If you like a clever or unusual crime, enough backstory to keep characters and their relationships and histories straight, this may not be the series for you. (NetGalley)

Crochet One Skein Wonders by Judith Durant and Edie Eckman Lovely crochet pattern book for one skein, quick projects. Unique arrangement by yarn weight, not pattern type, which I loved, as sometimes you don't want to search through an entire book to find a pattern for that sport weight yarn in your hand. Great little projects, lovely photographs, nice layout--all crocheters will want this book. (NetGalley)

Glimpses of the Moon by Edmund Crispin You know that Gervase Fen is one of my fictional crushes, so of course I'm over the moon to see him back in print. Late Golden Age of Mystery series with the most erudite amateur detective (an Oxford don) and some of the funniest, laugh-out-loud scenes ever put to page in a mystery. Who else can incorporate the words stridulating and paynimry and pleonasm and scybalum in a mystery? Who else can write sentences like ""She wallowed in Routh's respectfulness like a hippopotamus in a mud-bank?" This is the last of series, so if you've never read Crispin, start with the first and make your way through all nine stories. You will not regret it. And you, too, will become a FenFan. (NetGalley)

A Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim Charming short novel that will be enjoyed by all lovers of gardens and books. I adore that she calls her husband the Man of Wrath and yet so clearly loves him and is loved and respected in return. "Books have their idiosyncrasies as well as people, and will not show me their full beauties unless the place and time in which they are read suits them." "What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden." If you can read this in a beautiful garden, so much the better. (Kindle)