Review: Parasite by Darcy Coates

I haven’t read a good oldfashioned creepy bodysnatcher
book in quite a while but Ami’s review has convinced
me it’s high time and this is the right book 😉.

Creature From The Book Lagoon

A guard discovers an unusual lifeform on her remote moon outpost. She disregards protocol to investigate it, with catastrophic consequences.

The parasitic alien wears its victims’ skins and adopts their personalities. It’s a perfect disguise, and allows the creature to spread without being detected. By the time humanity realises it’s facing extinction, a third of its six hundred space stations have already gone dark.

As the alien’s ruthless progress collapses communication networks, wipes out defences, and leaves hundreds of stations to fend for themselves, a handful of remarkable individuals must find a way to battle the greatest threat the universe has ever encountered.

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The Language of Food By Annabel Abbs

This is not a book I would automatically pick up
or even notice but…I am a foodie, of the homegrown
variety, and I actually make many of the recipes I
collect so, yes, this piques my interest. My thanks to
Hannah for bringing it to my attention!

Echoes In An Empty Room

England 1835. Eliza Acton is a poet who dreams of seeing her words in print. But when she takes her new manuscript to a publisher, she’s told that ‘poetry is not the business of a lady’. Instead, they want her to write a cookery book. England is awash with exciting new ingredients, from spices to exotic fruits. That’s what readers really want from women.

Eliza leaves the offices appalled. But when her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy, she has no choice but to consider the proposal. Never having cooked before in her life, she is determined to learn and to discover, if she can, the poetry in recipe writing. To assist her, she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby, the impoverished daughter of a war-crippled father and a mother with dementia.

Over the course of ten years, Eliza and Ann developed an unusual friendship – one that…

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Review of Show Me The Bunny

Laurien Berenson is an author whose books I’ve greatly
enjoyed in the past but who fell off my radar for no
particular reason other than “so many books, so little
time”. My thanks to Mary for reminding me 😉.

mjbreviewers

Show Me The Bunny

A Melanie Travis Mystery Book #29

Laurien Berenson

5 Stars

Synopsis:

Melanie Travis is gifted at raising prize-winning Standard Poodles, not standing in as the Easter Bunny. But when March in Connecticut brings daffodils and dead bodies, she’ll need to hop into action—and fast . . .

Aunt Rose already has a strike against her for not being too fond of dogs—or Aunt Peg. But Melanie still agrees to organize Easter festivities at Gallagher House, the new women’s shelter opened by the stern former nun, even if it takes all the jellybeans in Greenwich to sweeten the arrangement. No sooner does Melanie arrive to dye multicolor eggs and stuff baskets, than she learns devasting news about Beatrice Gallagher, the respected benefactor of the estate. Beatrice has fallen to her death, and the circumstances are shocking . . .

No one can say why or how charitable…

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it’s Tea Time

It’s going to be on the chilly side for the next few
days here in NE Florida and I do believe a nice cuppa
like this and a good book are just what I’ll need ☺️

Lisa s Everyday Life

Hi Sunday readers : Today is wet and hot in South Louisiana . And tomorrow will probably be Cold. Just another January in Louisiana. The perfect time to have a pot of tea. So grab your favorite tea and enjoy a cup with Me this Sunday…. Lisa

Perfect Pot of Tea:

• fresh cold water to fill pot
• 5 tspl oose tea (1 tsp. per person and one for the pot) or 4 teabags
• sweetener, to taste
• option: cream or milk

Start with enough fresh cold water to fill the teapot. Place water in tea kettle on top of stove, or in electric kettle and bring just to a boil. Pour a small amount of the hot water into your teapot and swish around; then discard. (You may also do the same with your teacups, to avoid shocking the loose tea or bags.) Add the loose tea or teabags. Pour hot…

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Review: Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer

Ami, thank you for the heads up—this sounds like
just the thing to fit my mood right now 😉

Creature From The Book Lagoon

Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It’s the ’80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre.

But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her co-workers’ mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn’t understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure…

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Odd Writers #8: Hemingway the Crazy Cat Lady

Hemingway’s cats have always fascinated
me. Thank you, Jo, for this charming essay!

Jo Danilo | Writer

‘Papa’ Hemingway was as tough as old boots, devilishly handsome, and as macho as they come. It seems the die was cast in his early years with a mother who dressed him as a little girl and called him ‘Ernestine’, and a broken heart that coloured his whole romantic life. Perhaps to (over)compensate, he filled his life with masculine pursuits and many wives…

Amongst other extreme life experiences, Hemingway was peppered with shrapnel during the first world war, brawled in bars with James Joyce, survived two plane crashes, caught seven marlin in one day (a world record in 1938), hung around in war zones, developed a bullfighting obsession, and hunted bears, lions, elephants and many other unfortunate creatures.

Most macho men have a hidden softness, though, and Hemingway was mad about cats…

He was basically a crazy cat lady.

“One cat just leads to another. . . . The place…

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Book Review: Date with Death by Julia Chapman

I’m not familiar with Julia Chapman but I have been
entranced with the Yorkshire Dales ever since
my first visit way too many years ago. Thank you,
Book Club Mom, for tipping me off to this series!

Book Club Mom

Date with Death
by
Julia Chapman

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery to read during the holidays, take a look at Date with Death by Julia Chapman. Set in England in the Yorkshire Dales, it’s the first in the Dales Detective series in which the author introduces Samson O’Brien, Delilah Metcalf and a host of characters who live in the small town/village of Bruncliffe. Bruncliffe is the type of place where everyone knows everyone’s business, and has strong opinions about all things, giving the setting a colorful backdrop.

The story opens with Richard Hargreaves’ murder on the tracks of the local train station as well as Samson’s return to Bruncliffe after a fourteen-year absence. There’s a lot of beef between Samson and the people in town as well as a mystery behind why he’s back from a top detective position in London. Samson’s boss has advised him to lie…

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