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Flower Power Trip–flowers at the heart of a mystery
Flower Power Trip
by James J. Cudney
The third cozy in the Braxton Campus Mystery series does not disappoint its fans nor leave out new readers. It begins with a helpful Who’s Who briefly describing the characters in the series. The first chapter follows up with a summary of the action in the first two books as told by the main character Kellan, while getting the plot for the new book underway.
Kellan discovers a dead body and again finds himself in the middle of a homicide investigation. Flower Power Trip swirls delightfully with interesting characters, a multitude of clues, and humorous repartee. Several threads continue on from previous books: Kellan’s rocky relationships with his boss Myriam and Sheriff April Montague, Nana D’s bid for the mayoral seat, and Kellan’s presumed dead wife Francesca with ties to a mob family. There are also romantic conflicts and more than a little danger.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #3 in the Braxton Campus Mystery Series but works quite well as a standalone
Publication: March 30, 2019—Creativia
Memorable Lines:
Helena recently celebrated her birthday by doing a pub crawl across all four villages in Wharton County. Eight hours, eight bars, eight different drinks. I wouldn’t have survived that level of commitment.
…”you are nothing but a nosy, interfering, non-stop questioning, painful wart on the tip of my pinky toe that has aggravated me beyond any reasonable expectation.”
…you must always have more physical books than e-books. I wanted Emma to experience a multitude of technology at her fingertips from an early age, but she also needed to respect and cherish all that our country had accomplished in the history of bookmaking and printing.
Bad Pick–goat yoga?
Bad Pick
by Linda Lovely
Brie Hooker, a South Carolina aspiring vegan chef, teams up with her yoga instructor and a few friends to start a goat yoga class. That’s a perfect match because Brie is also helping her aunt with 500 goats on her goat farm where they make and sell goat cheese. Also Brie is trying to open a vegan B&B in a semi-dilapidated mansion her aunts bought for her fulfilling a long time dream.
You’ll just have to read this fast-paced cozy mystery to discover how goat yoga and a B&B can be essential components of a mystery with murders, arson, and blackmail. Throw in family relationships, a quirky best friend, and two competing bachelors, and you have Bad Pick, Linda Lovely’s latest humorous cozy you won’t want to put down.
I would like to extend my thanks to Edelweiss and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. I had no idea “goat yoga” is actually a type of yoga. A quick Internet search convinced me that it is something people actually pay money to do. Are any of you goat yoga aficionados?
2. #3 in the Brie Hooker Mystery Series. It works as a standalone, but I think I enjoyed it more having read the other two books in the series.
Publication: April 16, 2019—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
“There’s more to yoga than meditation. What the goats provide is important—closeness to nature and unbridled joy. all part of being present in the moment.”
Eva’s crusty exterior poorly camouflaged her generous heart.
Mollye’s baby-faced beau always had an eager puppy-dog look about him. Yet his demeanor tonight made me sense he was a quite capable of barking and growling if the need arose.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
The Poetry of Mister Rogers
Lyrics by Fred Rogers and Josie Carey
Music by Fred Rogers
Illustrations by Luke Flowers
Mr. Rogers (Fred McFeeley Rogers) influenced several generations of children with his kind and gentle ways in his television neighborhood. He understood that children need routines to feel safe so he started and ended his show the same way each day. Now we have a compilation of his poetry which, as a trained composer, he put to music as well.
I enjoyed reading his poems. They have a wide range of topics, but contain reassuring verses to help children understand their feelings, and the world around them. He is not shy about sharing his love and encouraging children to do the same. Other topics he addresses include positivity, doing your best, feeling good about yourself just the way you are, and parents. One poem that I think particularly demonstrates his understanding of childhood fears is “You Can Never Go Down the Drain.”
I think this would be a fun book to share with children, choosing poems at random or when a child has a particular need. The illustrations are colorful and reflect the magic of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. This book ends with a brief biography for adults of a fascinating man who has influenced so many in a positive way.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Quirk Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Children’s Nonfiction, Poetry
Publication: March 19, 2019—Quirk Books
Memorable Lines:
You’ve made this day a special day by just your being here.
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
It is the people you like the most
Who can make you feel the maddest.
It’s you I like.
It’s not the things you wear.
It’s not the way you do your hair.
But it’s you I like.
Benchmark Assessments: Weighing the Pig More Often?
As a practicing teacher, I always thought benchmark assessments were worthless and that I had more in-depth knowledge about a child’s progress than would be demonstrated on an exam. Boots on the ground are so important! This is an excellent blog post to explain the effectiveness of benchmark assessments.
There is an old saying about educational assessment: “If you want to fatten a pig, it doesn’t help to weigh it more often.”
To be fair, it may actually help to weigh pigs more often, so the farmer knows whether they are gaining weight at the expected levels. Then they can do something in time if this is not the case.
It is surely correct that weighing pigs does no good in itself, but it may serve a diagnostic purpose. What matters is not the weighing, but rather what the farmer or veterinarian does based on the information provided by the weighing.
This blog is not, however, about porcine policy, but educational policy. In schools, districts, and even whole states, most American children take “benchmark assessments” roughly three to six times a year. These assessments are intended to tell teachers, principals, and other school leaders how students are doing, especially in…
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Corned Beef and Casualties–St. Paddy’s Day novella
Corned Beef and Casualties
by Lynn Cahoon
How about a quick and easy read? Corned Beef and Casualties is good for St. Patrick’s Day or any day you want a brief distraction. It is a fun little novella from one of my favorite cozy mystery authors Lynn Cahoon. It is part of the extensive Tourist Trap Mystery Series.
Cahoon does a great job of making the novella into a standalone with necessary information about the characters relayed succinctly. We witness unusual cooperation between the main character, Jill, who owns a bookstore/coffee shop and Darla, the proprietor of a winery and also a reporter for the local paper. Be ready for a surprise ending!
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Lyrical Underground (Kensington Press) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. A Tourist Trap Novella
2. Cheesecake recipe included
Publication: February 5, 2019—Kensington Press (Lyrical Underground)
Memorable Lines:
“You need to stop worrying about her and get on with your life.” The look he gave me was filled with such love and sadness I almost teared up. “Miss Gardner, that sounds like a perfectly logical thing to do. Unfortunately, the heart isn’t logical.”
“Some couples just fight…I see couples at their worse. They get a few too many into them, and every slight becomes a big deal.”
Darla was always preaching about the free press and her responsibility to the newspaper-reading public, but deep down, she knew not to release something that might ruin someone’s life. Especially if he was innocent.
FREE Download: Academic Curveball (1st in Braxton Campus Mystery Series)
Free Cozy Mystery! Jump right into this series with this opportunity to get #1 FREE. I’m excited that the third book in the series will be published soon. #1 is a delight!
Academic Curveball, the first book in my new series, Braxton Campus Mysteries, is FREE for 5 days from 2/7 thru 2/11. You can buy the CRITTER AWARD-WINNING Kindle e-read version via Amazon — SHARE everywhere you can to help promote the book.
Tomorrow we launch the pre-sale for the third book in the series, Flower Power Trip. We will also reveal the cover with over 25 bloggers sharing the first look. Stay tuned for more information on the launch date and blog tour!
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The Lost Traveller–a mysterious victim
The Lost Traveller
by Sheila Connolly
I was delighted to have an opportunity to get my first taste of Sheila Connolly’s mysteries as she has a number of books and series to her credit. I don’t usually start a series this far in (#7), but Connolly does a good job of introducing her characters. She starts The Lost Traveller off with a nervous American family, first time travelers abroad, visiting Sullivan’s Pub, giving the author a natural opportunity to explore the setting with the reader and present Maura, the American owner of the pub. The pace continues briskly as Maura, on lunch break, spots what appears to be a trash bag down a ravine on her property. It isn’t trash caught by a bridge pier, however, but something more ominous. Next we are introduced to the local gardaí (police). The plot pace moderates as Maura struggles with various types of issues—relationship, crime, business, and legal. It picks up again at the end with the resolution of some of those problems.
I enjoyed the Irish brogue and sprinkling of Irish words and names throughout. I learned more about Ireland and the Travellers, a sort of Irish version of gypsies, but they are not Romani. More information about the Travellers would have been welcome along with some character development of Peter, the father of the Traveller family that Maura meets. In fact, character development is a weak link in the book. For example, there are a group of men who frequent the pub and try to help Maura discover the identity of the victim and who murdered him. This group stands as a Greek chorus, with little revealed about any of them. They serve to reflect Maura’s progress involving the murder mystery. Although I am not thoroughly taken by the book, I enjoyed the intricacies of the plot well enough to try another book in the series.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #7 in the County Cork Mysteries, but works as a standalone.
Publication: January 8, 2019—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
Was she getting soft? She’d always been independent, mostly out of necessity. She hated to ask people for help, much less emotional support. Now she had someone in her life who offered both, although cautiously.
This was ridiculous: she was being bossed around by a child. Well, one who could definitely cook, and who knew more about computers than she did.
What had Ireland done to her? She’d gone soft. And, she realized, she kind of liked it.
