MILK GLASS MOON - Adriana Trigiani

I don't know my reasoning for starting MILK GLASS MOON, setting it aside for so long, then picking it up again at this time. I only know I am so very glad that I picked it up again and finished it. It is now my favorite of the series...at least until I read HOME TO BIG STONE GAP.
The book is in wonderful segments of home, New York City, home, Italy, home, Italy. It flows quickly in years skipped, but events are highlighted.
Ave is still alternately aggravating and endearing in her worries over her relationship with her husband, Jack, and her daughter, Etta. I see a lot of myself in the character in her concerns and the way she handles (and mishandles) situations. Etta is growing up and going through the teenage years in her own way. She acts out in the beginning of the book and loses her chance of going to New York with Ave to visit Ave's lifelong best friend, Theodore. Ave is definitely blessed in her friends as well as her family. Theodore helps her work through her issues with Etta and Ave's past love, Pete, who is also in New York. Is Ave still attracted to Pete? Yes, but won't act on it. She knows she is deeply in love and in like with Jack and always will be.
The next segments have all of the characters older and wiser. Ave's best girlfriend, Iva Lou (my favorite character of the series), is diagnosed with breast cancer. Everyone concerned goes through growing pains with this news. Years go by again and there is a trip to Italy to Ave's father's home for a long visit. Etta also sees her crush, Stefano, but is older and wiser in how she is with him. Stefano appears several times throughout the book and is part of Etta's maturing into a fine young woman. And the consternation of Ave. She is reluctant to have her little girl grow up any quicker than she should, but Etta has always been her own person, rather strongwilled, but very intelligent and full of common sense.
This is such a warm and wonderful book and a great addition to the series. It is staying on my keeper shelf.
I know a part of my enamour for the series is that Big Stone Gap exists and this area is where my husband grew up. I had the chance to see many of the locations this summer when we went back to his home area for his nephew's graduation from University of Virginia at Wise. I smiled each time I read a familiar place name.
Five enthusiastic Appalachian beans!

Lady K-ism of the Day

"Oh I know where the Specific Ocean is! It's in Paris!"

(still working on geography....)

A KISS GONE BAD - Jeff Abbott

I really like this author, but I LOVE this title! I am a sucker for a fab title and this one did it for me. Even more groovy, the smart dialogue, intriguing characters and steamy storyline is fab, too.

Whit Mosley is my kinda guy. He's trying to redeem himself with the career path his father chose for him. Whit is a judge in Port Leo, Texas. Under the robes he dresses like a beach bum. He can be found reading court law documents and books to help him become a better justice of the peace and investigator. He really is trying hard to make the right choices and it really comes home when the son of a state senator is found dead of apparent suicide and Whit finds himself on the path to discover the truth. He also finds more than he bargained for...drug traffic, pornography, con jobs.
My favorite character is Gooch....you'll have to read the book to meet him, but he is someone you'd want on your side in any kind of altercation. I have a crush....
Four gritty Texan beans...

ANY GIVEN DOOMSDAY - Lori Handeland

There is not much better than a well written, FREE, paranormal mystery. Hey! That's what ANY GIVEN DOOMSDAY is! I signed up for the possibility to review Lori Handeland's new series to be released in November and I was lucky to be a recipient a week ago. Thankfully, I was at the tail end of a book and could begin almost immediately.
Elizabeth Phoenix knows she's different, has always known this. She just didn't know how different. She was raised in the foster care system, found and lost and found her soulmate, found a career in law enforcement....lost that too. Lost the woman, Ruthie, who Liz thought of as a mother. Ruthie handed over her power to Liz. This is the power to lead the good guys against the bad in the coming Doomsday.
Yeah, Liz isn't so thrilled to have this power, but she'll do what she needs to do (and with whom) to find out more about her growing powers and the creatures that she always thought were myth....werewolves, vampires, witches....

I liked the book's different variations on were-creatures, witches, vampires. I liked how strong Liz was through the story. I like how Liz adds to her powers....YOWZAH! No spoilers.....
Four hottie paranormal beans!

Eezy Cheezy Challenge!!!

Check out this challenge! It's at MyFriendAmy' blog and it challenges us to get a nonreader to read and us already readers to read more! Here are Amy's ROE!

It's called the Read One Book Challenge.
Here are the rules.
1) Read one book you have never read before by December 31st, 2008.
2) This book must not be a children's book that you are reading to your kids. It must be a book for you.
3) This book may not be part of work related research. This book is for you.
4) It can be fiction or nonfiction.
5) Please leave a comment telling me you're joining in and write a post linking back to this post to invite others to join in as well (if you have a blog, if not just leave a comment!).
6) For bonus points, spend an evening at a Barnes and Noble, Borders, or local independent bookshop browsing through books. (apparently there's a huge percentage of people who don't go to bookstores, either)
7) When you've completed your book write a post about it and I'll link to it here!

If you are like Amy and read 2-4 books a week, please still join in though you'll probably complete the challenge a lot faster than others. One ten dollar Amazon gift card will be awarded through random drawing to a person who signs up and completes the challenge on time.

So get thee over and sign up!!

Lady K-ism of the Day

Mommie, you know what you are? You are a treasure! And I am a treasure. I'd better go tell Daddy he's a treasure too!! I learned that on Blues Clues!

(and they say that watching TV is bad for kids!)

Another Lady K-ism

"WOCK AND WOLL ALWAYS WINS!!!"

(This just now as we are watching Farm Aid on DirectTV live on channel 101...she loves her wock and woll.....)

Lady K-ism of the Day

Mommie, if I keep spinning around, it will make me sick, right? How long will it take, do you think? Let me do an experiment, okay?

RUNNING FROM THE LAW - Lisa Scottoline, narr Barbara Rosenblatt

Oh man! Going without Lisa Scottoline for a long time and then getting back to her books must be close to what a smoker feels when the smoker gives up the cancer sticks for a rather long while then has one with the gang.....NICE RUSH!!
I cannot believe it's been so long since my last Scottoline! Especially listening to one with the uber delightful Barbara Rosenblatt. Love her voice. She is in the top five of my favorite narrators.
Scottoline's main characters are all female lawyers and most, if not all, have a wicked smartass sense of humor. I respect smart smartasses.
This particular smart smartass is Rita Morrone. Or 'Miss Fresh' to her dad the butcher. Rita is hired to represent Fiske Hamilton, a prominent federal judge, when he is accused of sexual harrassment. Fiske is also the father of Rita's live-in boyfriend. And then everything goes to hell.
I love all of the pitch perfect characters, especially Rita and the old guys she plays poker with every Tuesday night.
Four legally smartass beans.

THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM: THE COTTAGE TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER Book 1 - Susan Wittig Albert

I am once again very happy to have read a book that is the start of a series. I already love reading Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series. I like learning about herbal lore and gardening along with the mystery.
In THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM, the reader sees life in a small village in the Lake District through the eyes of the villagers, Beatrix Potter and, my favorite, the animals who live there. There are Miss Potter's pet hedgehog, rabbits, and a mouse; as well as the village cats and dogs, owls, rats, mice and frogs. Almost all have appeared in Miss Potter's children's books as she recollected from previous visits to the Lake District with her family.
The book is a cozy in the gentlest of ways. There is a death and there are mysteries to solve, but all of that is background to the story of the villagers and the countryside.
I cannot wait to read the rest of the series. Four comfy beans.

MURDER TAKES THE CAKE: A Daphne Martin Mystery - Gayle Trent

First of all, thank you to Gayle for asking me to review this! I was honored and thrilled.

This is a fast read and starts and ends with a "What the .....?" The bang starts when Daphne of Daphne's Delectable Cakes brings what she hopes is the cake to win Yodel Watson's approval. Instead she finds the body of Mrs Watson on her couch....the dead body of Mrs Watson.

Daphne calls 911 and her life as she knows it is changed and not for the better. Her credibility is suspect as are her cakes. This is not good since she has moved back to her hometown of Brea Ridge, Virginia to rebuild her life after a failed marriage and a dead-end job.

There was a lot of action that occurred in a small amount of time, but that didn't seem to bother me as it might have in another book. Cozies have to move fast, only so many pages to git'r'dun. I liked all of the nice characters and laughed at the funny ones. There were some shady characters too, that received my dislike. I absolutely was startled to find out whodunnit at the end and it was not one of those lame-o choices so the author could hurry and finish up.

I could identify with Daphne's relationship with her family. I think this was the part I liked best. Daphne has a cautious and teeth gritting relationship with her mother, a loving warm one with her father and her sister.

And the cake baking and decorating!!! I didn't get the recipes in the copy I reviewed, so will get the book just for those. This is one of my criteria for a cozy, it makes me want to learn how to do the activity that's the basis of the character and story......This one makes me want to learn how to decorate cakes.
Four frosted beans!

TUNNELS - Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon, narr Steven Crossley

This is a decent enough story, especially for the YA book that it is. I enjoyed the beginning of it and then slowly became a little annoyed with the story. I did finish it, mostly because of the narrator Steven Crossley. He made the story more interesting with good characterization of voices. I could see the characters in my cranium because his wonderfully talented voice.
Will Burroughs and his father are diggers. They love to dig underground and take joy in all of the treasures they discover. One day they find a tunnel into something quite different. This also brings about the disappearance of Will's father, then Will and his friend Chester. There is a land under the ground, people live there in houses. Rules are different, I guess no natural light will do that for a civilization. Will discovers some surprising information about himself and makes his escape to the 'topsoil' as it's called by the underground dwellers. Life is not what it was and Chester didn't make it out, so Will goes back underground to rescue his friend.
This is obviously setting up for a series or trilogy, not sure yet if I will follow along or not.....
Three questioning beans....

Lady K-ism of the Day

I like Pirates of the Caribbean, tell me when the kissing is done.

BRUSH WITH DEATH - Hailey Lind

A fine third entry for the sister writing team making up Hailey Lind. You get a mystery, some insight into the art world, and cool faux finishing techniques...and for me, an add to my vacation wishlist to visit San Francisco one day.
Annie Kincaid just wants everyone to get over her past as a supremely art forger, a talent she was born with and enhanced with tutoring from her grandfather, who is wanted by the art world (and not in a good way).
Annie is very happy, well..happy...okay reasonably satisfied with her life. She owns her own faux art business, she has good friends and a nice boyfriend. And Frank, Annie's sexy landlord and Michael a hottie art thief. What's a former art forger to do???
She is working on a commission in the Chapel of Chimes, a columbarium, mausoleum and crematorium fixing faded art when she meets Cindy Tanaka at a nearby cemetery. Cindy asks her if the reproduction of La Fornarina by Raphael hanging in the columbarium could actually be the original. The discussion is interrupted by two men in masks, Cindy ends up dead, and the police are calling it suicide. Annie isn't so sure, especially after more suspicious deaths occur. And all of the deaths and mayhem seem to revolve around the mysterious La Fornarina painting.
Four faux gilded beans.....

Becky L Tagged Me!!

My buddy, Becky L, over at NoMoreGrumpyBookseller tagged me!

Here are the rules: I am going to list three categories of books.
3 MUST Read Books,
3 Keep Your Eyes on These
3 Look For These Soon.

Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 3 bloggers. They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 3 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as they go around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing.Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009. So, here goes…[asterisks are next to my additions]

3 Must Read Books:
DUMA KEY - Stephen King
*THE MERMAIDS SINGING - Val McDermid
THE LACE READER - Brunonia Barry

3 Keep Your Eyes on These:
STALKING SUSAN - Julie Kramer
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY - Mary Ann Shaffer
*GREYWALKER - Kat Richardson

3 Look For These Soon:
THE DARK VOLUME - Gordon Dahlquist
*PASTLIFE - Kat Richardson
THE FIRE - Katherine Neville

And I am tagging:
ThoughtsofJoy
BloggingMyBooks
SherrisReadingJubilee

Lady K-ism of the Day

Mommie, if you saw my eyes all squeenched up this morning when I was trying to wake up, you'd know how grumpy I was going to be.

This was a very fun, super fast read! Super fast because it's a YA 120 page book and FUN because it's Gregory Maguire at his finest! It's funny, interesting,funny..wait..I said that. The reader gets the viewpoint of the girls (the Tattletales), boys (the Copycats), their wonderful teacher Miss Earth, nurses, the truck driver, a TV reporter named Meg Snoople, and (best of all) the seven Siberian Snow Spiders found frozen in ice in the Arctic. They escape when the truck they are in crashes. The ice thaws and they make their way to the forest in Vermont where they see the seven girls in the Tattletales and instantly fall in love, one spider per girl.
The problem is that as the spiders get bigger, they get a little cranky and the love turns into revenge as the spider siblings meet their demise, one at a time in various inadvertant silly ways.
This is a fantasy-mystery with outrageously fab elements to exaggerate a tale of spider intrigue.
Four funky arachnid beans...

TRUE BLOOD on HBO!!!!

For me.....'nuff said! I have been waiting for a very long time for this to start and bless DirectTV for giving us free HBO this weekend, so that I could get a taste....so to speak....I'll have to wait til it comes out on DVD since we don't get HBO...yet.....

Lady K-ism of the Day

Mommie, you know it's nice to share with your most favorite daughter....

(bein's she's my only daughter...this makes perfect sense)

FOOL MOON - Jim Butcher, Book 2 Harry Dresden series

Yowzah!!! If you like your werewolves and magic in plenty, then this is a definite book for you! Harry Dresden lives in the city of Chicago in a world that does not believe in magic in any way, shapeshifter or form. Harry obviously does, he has his shingle out, Wizard for Hire.
He is called in by his police detective mostly friend, Murphy. She is lead on Special Investigations, the cases no one knows what to do with...usually ending up being magical (that no one believes in) in nature.
The call is to investigate or consult on a particularly gruesome murder scene and the only clues are rather large wolf prints...and there have been other such murder scenes in the past several months..during the full moon....see where this is going?
Harry has to do what he needs to do with his powers and his connections to the magical world to solve the murders and get the bad...um...guys......
Five magical beans!

KILLING FLOOR - Lee Child, book 1 Jack Reacher series

This is the first in the Jack Reacher series and I can't wait to read more of this series or anything else Lee Child may write.

Jack Reacher is a retired military investigator, now a wanderer, even calls himself a hobo to the police who pick him up on suspicion of murder. He is new to the town of Margrave, GA,having just wandered in because he heard a story from his brother that a bluesman they both admired grew up and was killed in the small town.

Jack knows nothing of any murder and discovers that all in the town is not what it appears. Everything is new, people are scarce and the few who are in town are nervous. Jack finds himself investigating the murders he was accused of as well as the mysterious occurrences.

There is plenty of action, all of it colorfully and heart poundingly written.

Five beans!

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

This was Lady K's first 3D flick and she loved it! It was an inadvertant choice, we just wanted to see the movie. Only found out it was 3D when we bought the tickets and they handed us the glasses. Lady K was excited, to say the least. I was a little less so. I don't have good luck with 3D or simulations or spinny rides, so I just knew I'd be in for a long 90-some minutes.
Gotta say, though, that the 3D was easy and totally made the movie superbly fun. Very well done and I really wish that the DVD version could come out in 3D. The movie itself was very loosey-goosey and it helped to just let it flow over you and not get too caught up in the missing bits or how the humans were able to outrun the T Rex....just let it flow over you and you will be fine. And then there is Brendan Fraser....WOOF! Have always enjoyed watching him, especially in movies like this. The Mummy series is a huge part of my 'guilty pleasure' drawer of DVDs...
So go, put on the 3D glasses and enjoy seeing the tape measures, rocks, water, T Rex spit, all that fun schtuff...come at ya!
Four 3D beans!!!

AUGUST BOOK JOURNAL

THE GHOST - Robert Harris, BOCD, super suspense

BONE YARD - Michelle Gagnon, MPB, keeper shelf, superb thriller

QUESTIONABLE REMAINS - Beverly Connor, MPB, good medical mystery

MIDNIGHT ALLEY: Book 3 MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES - Rachel Caine, MPB, Super good!

GHOST OF A CHANCE - Kate Marsh (aka Katie MacAlister), MPB, darn fun

TALES OF A FEMALE NOMAD: LIVING LARGE IN THE WORLD - Rita Golden Gelman, TPB, Keeper Shelf

THE FORGERY OF VENUS - Michael Gruber, BOCD, oddly good and compelling

GREYWALKER - Kat Richardson, TPB, getting for keeper shelf

POLTERGEIST: #2 GREYWALKER series - Kat Richardson, TPB, extraordinary and getting for keeper shelf

MISS JULIA PAINTS THE TOWN - Ann B Ross, BOCD, snort laugh funny and warm

THE CHRISTMAS QUILT - Jennifer Chiaverini, BOCD, pretty good even if not exactly in the mood for it

FLESH AND BONE - Jefferson Bass, HB, not nearly as good as CARVED IN BONE but readable

FLESH AND BONE - Jefferson Bass

I have to admit to being disappointed in this book. The first in the series, CARVED IN BONE, was super and I looked forward to reading this second in the series. Well, both looked forward to and hesitated...that whole sophomore effort hesitancy..and this time I was correct in my wavering. CARVED was strong in story, characters and forensic science (for as much as I know anyway). This one was more about getting Dr Bill into the sack with another forensic pathologist, at least for the first half of the book. Second half was much better and more of why I picked up the book in the first place. Murder, mayhem, suspense kept me reading. It only hinted at this in the first half.
I will look for more, and hope for the best like the first book, of the author team of Jefferson Bass.
Three beans....