A Catered St. Patrick's Day

OK, so admittedly I picked this book just to check off a specific calendar of crime reading challenge : St. Patrick's Day.  When I googled what books specifically would fulfill this challenge, I selected this one from our library and it has been laugh out loud funny.  A Catered St. Patrick's Day, by Isis Crawford is number eight in a *seventeen book (and counting) series, so I feel a bit like I am missing some back story.  But it was pretty easy to get to know Bernie and Libby (the two bakery sisters now turned amateur sleuths), and their dad Sean (a retired cop).  Speaking of their dad, I am pretty sure this a LOT more to Sean's story, but I am not sure if I missed it in books one through seven or if the author is slowly developing it as she goes.  

First of all, I want to know these characters in real life.  I want to plop myself down in their bakery "A Little Taste of Heaven" in the cold month of March in New York, and sip a piping hot cup of coffee while nibbling away at their endless yummies and ease dropping on all of their conversations.  

A local jerk, aka Mike Sweeney, is murdered and from the beginning it is not hard to see why he was on someone's hit list, the harder part is figuring out who didn't have it in for this guy.  The blame lands on the shoulders of an equally jerky guy and the sisters (and their dad) are enlisted to help find the real killer.  

Along the way we meet the supporting cast of characters, Bernie's boyfriend bartender Brandon, meddling and over the top aunt Bree (she is the aunt of a suspect, not of the sisters), Libby's boyfriend Marvin who works at the funeral home and drives around in a hearse!  And we cannot forget the group of buddies that call themselves the "Corned Beef and Cabbage Club", and finally I think the van deserves an honorable mention.  The catering van the girls use to drive around town and pursue leads in is on its last leg so to speak, its top speed is forty miles an hour!  HA!

I (at some point) want to go back and start at the beginning and read this series.  This would make the perfect Hallmark Movies & Mysteries series.  At this point my TBR pike is growing by leaps and bounds as I read new (to me) authors and genres.  

*Book seventeen is due out in June of this year.

The Princess Bride & odds and ends

This week I chose another title from my TBR pile.  The challenge was to read a book that celebrates Spring, I thought immediately of The Princess Bride.  Because, really, how can you not think of spring with a name like Buttercup?  I saw this movie for the first time as a teenager and then again several times with my girls as they have grown up and each time I always ask myself...'is there an actual book?' or was that just part of the movie?  This past fall, for my birthday, my girls surprised me with a copy of the book!  

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the actual story of The Princess Bride, but I did not love the first 32 pages of the book.  I was SO frustrated with the author's narcissistic asides and critical comments regarding his wife and son (and his subsequent struggle not to commit adultery).   I found myself wanting to shout 'PLEASE please for the love of cheese stop talking about yourself and just get to the story'.  

And finally on page 33 he did just that.  

This is one of those rare stories that has something for everyone.  True love, high adventure, shocking treachery, and deepest honor.  My favorite, of course, is the love story between Buttercup and Wesley.  Who, as a young girl, has not dreamed of living such a beautiful love story?  

My favorite lines are found on page 105, after the Sicilian cries "Inconceivable" one too many times:

"He's left his boat behind," the Spaniard said.  "He's jumped onto our rope.  He's starting up after us."

"I can feel him," Fezzik said.  "His body weight on the rope."

"He'll never catch up!" the Sicilian cried.  "Inconceivable!"

"You keep using that word!" the Spaniard snapped.  "I don't think it means what you think it does."

Every single time, this makes me giggle.  When I read it to myself, when I paused the story and read it aloud to my girls, when I typed it up for the blog post.  

I loved this book all the way until pages 331 through 355, when I realized Mr. Goldman was talking again about himself, I happily skipped forward until page 361.  I am not sure how much of his introduction (the first 32 pages) and how much of his epilogue introduction (pages 331 through page 355) are fictional, written to further the story line of his fictional rewriting/editing of the infamous yet fictional S. Morgenstern?  Either way - whether completely fictional or partly autobiographical, I found them to be tedious, frustrating, and very much skip-worthy.

Now for the 'odds and ends' part - I re-read/listened to The Hunger Games for the Brighter Winter challenge in February, so last week I decided to go ahead and listen to Catching Fire and this week Mockingjay.  I love these three books so much, Suzanne Collins wrote an incredible trilogy!!! 

Sermon on the Mount

Many times over the years I've spoken (and posted!) about how much I love Kari Denker's blog (it used to be called Stone Soup for Five, but is now Ordinary Kari) and her Bible studies that she publishes on her blog (or you can find them on Amazon too).  

This past week (or maybe last week?) she did a new post about a workbook companion study/workshop that she created called Studies in the Sermon on the Mount - The Beatitudes.  It is a companion to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, which are expository sermons that he preached on Matthew chapter five through seven.

I've actually had Dr. Lloyd-Jones book in my Amazon cart for a loooong time.  It is a large book (it originally was published as two volumes) and I felt fairly overwhelmed thinking of how to tackle it.  I am SO glad I waited and SO thankful that Kari and her friends went before - reading, discussing, and  writing/editing the companion workbook study to pave the way.  

I just completed chapter one which was just the General Introduction and was blown away.  This is going to be a life changing study, and the most exciting part?  When I get done, I will be very clear on what exactly it means to live the "Christian life" and exactly how I am equipped by God.  

Here is a link to check out her study and find out more details.  

The Snow Queen by K.M. Shea & Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff

I recently read Shakespeare for Brighter Winter challenge, so I chose a different direction to go in this week and pulled another two books from my TBR stack.  

First up was The Snow Queen by K.M. Shea (I actually have the trilogy - but finished book one for this week's challenge).  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story of Princess Rakel.  She has been neglected, punished, and ostracized for her magical abilities.  Starving for love, not knowing how to connect to people drives this story straight to your heart.  I love her noble quest, her unselfish pursuit of justice and freedom for her country of Verglas.  My favorite character is Phile (hilarious!!!) and of course Rakel.  I got so wrapped up in the story a few times, I had to read under the covers because I was so cold 😅.  I do recommend if you start the book, go ahead and get the trilogy because book one does leave you wanting to read more. 

Next up, I selected Nory Ryan's Song because of St. Patrick's Day (it is set in Ireland).  This is a story that I've wanted to read for a long time. 

My husband had to unexpectedly travel out of state this week, one of our pets was sick, and we had some medication adjustments.  All of these together made for a pretty stressful week...so I am not sure how much of that affected what I am about to say.  

For better or for worse though, I have to say I do not like Patricia Reilly Giff's writing style, I found myself getting confused between characters and it took me a long time to bond to Nory's story.  I didn't find myself getting lost in the moments, nor did I find myself feeling anything beyond the absolute wonder that Ireland ever forgave England for their absolute horrible treatment.  I expected to feel the hunger and fear that they must have felt wondering if Da would ever return, if they would be turned out of their homes like their neighbors, and if the potato blight would take their hope for a better tomorrow, but I found myself thumbing through each chapter just to let myself know how many more pages I had to read before I got through it.  I will try this again in the future I am sure and I am interested to see what my girls think when they read it/hear it.  

Well - hope you guys are having a great weekend 💝. I am so happy that my husband is home and we had so much fun watching two Martha Vineyard's Mysteries with our girls today.  

The Kremlin Conspiracy by Joel Rosenberg

This book!  It is like reading from the current headlines, in fact a couple of times I even stopped and read some lines aloud to my husband and it was almost word for word what the President of Ukraine said recently...only this book was published in 2018.  

I think Joel Rosenberg is such a good Christian mystery/suspense writer.  I have read several of his books before and have enjoyed every single one.  I originally planned to check out a book by Josephine Tey, but none were available, so I decided to pull one from my TBR again and this seemed like a good choice, given the current state of affairs.  

Favorite character:  well there were many - I really have to say I wish I had Marcus Ryker's church family 

Favorite moment: I can't share that without giving away major plot points and spoiling several parts - this is SUCH a worthy read though.  I read the kindle version, but honestly would have rather held this book in my hand.

*edited to add* I completely forgot to say this is Book One - I am not sure how many total will be (or are) in the series and as far as I know he is still writing this series.  I only intended to read The Kremlin Conspiracy, maybe someday I will read further?  I have so many good books waiting already for this year and discovering more along the way of the challenges 💗 that my piles are overflowing right now.

Murder on the Orient Express

My first Agatha Christie!!  I read my first Agatha Christie this week and I LOVED it.  Actually, I forgot all about the reading challenge until Wednesday 😕...oopsy!  But on Wednesday, I pulled out my copy of Murder on the Orient Express that I got in January and finally met the infamous Hercules Poirot.

My favorite line - pg. 71 "Tout de meme, it is not necessary that he should be killed on the Orient Express. There are other places."  Ha!!

I loved the mystery, I loved Hercules Poirot, and I loved the intrigue and unraveling of the mystery of who in the world was the murderer on the Orient Express.

*I completely forgot* I completed Lysa Terkeurst's book I'll Start Again on Monday.  This is a rework of her Made to Crave book.  I did not read Made to Crave so I cannot tell you if the content was original or not - but this book is SO worth reading!!  I took about four pages of notes - so worth the time I spent taking the notes and for it to be a short book (only 160 pgs) it was packed with a lot of good stuff.