Review: The Hearts of Horses
The Hearts of Horses
Molly Gloss
Mariner Books
ISBN 0547085753
Trade Paperback, 2008
Based on oral histories from real cowgirls, the book should feel real. The story’s about Martha Lessen, a young woman who just wants to be with her horses. She leaves an abusive family situation in 1917 to travel Oregon breaking horses.
‘Breaking’ is a man’s term though. Martha would appreciate ‘horse whisperer’ Monty Roberts’s more mutualistic relationship. Martha gentles horses using their own desire to be part of the herd to work with them.
The prose in this book is as comfortable as an old pair of cowboy boots and beautiful as an Oregon vista. The story’s suitable for horse-loving young adults to the red-hat crew and beyond. I believe we’re going to see this story on the shelves alongside “Black Beauty” and the other classics for years to come. It’s certainly earned a place among the greats.
Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle.
February 8, 2010
Tags: general fiction, historical Posted in: Full Reviews 
No Comments
#Snowpocalypse2 From My Windows
February 6, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller One Comment
Bits & Pieces
Julia Spencer-Fleming’s new mystery, One Was a Soldier, has been delayed for the second time and my sales rep doesn’t know why. It looks like it may not be out till 2012. That means the #1 vote-getter on the poll over there to the right of your screen is, well, wishful thinking.
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Another fine author passed away the other day. Among his many accomplishments, Ralph McInerny was a Notre Dame professor for over 50 years and directed the Medieval Institute. He was the prolific author of more than 100 diversified works including philosophy and French poetry but was most widely known for his crime fiction, including the series featuring the beloved Father Dowling. He will be greatly missed.
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A picture I can’t resist—
Smiley Fish
I want one!
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#snOMG is hitting #RVA again this weekend. In many parts of the country, that would rate a “so?” but, here in Richmond, some of us (me) have HAD ENOUGH! And there are two more storms on the way in the next week. Doing my part to save humanity, I promise to never complain again about not getting snow. At least this year.
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Sort of makes me think of patting a little kid on the head.
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I generally update the upcoming title lists over there on the right side of the page several times a week but I can never get them all. I don’t have enough hours in the day for one thing but I also don’t get catalogs or other advance notification of everything. I’m concentrating only on mystery, science fiction, fantasy and horror but there are still gaps. Are there authors you’d like me to check on and add to the list? Just leave a comment and I’ll get right on it. I’d be happy to check on non-genre authors, too.
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Authors! If you’d like us to consider reviewing your book, send it to us at:
Creatures ‘n Crooks Books & Sundries
2519 Professional Road, Suite A
Richmond, VA 23235
No promises that we will publish a review (or that it will be glowing) but your book will get a fair look.
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Hey, have you wanted to try writing for a blog but haven’t had the opportunity? You don’t have to be an author, published or otherwise (although authors are certainly very welcome); all you need is something you’d like to say. I’d prefer you avoid religion and/or politics unless it has something to do with a book but, otherwise, I’d love to have you visit and I have available openings in the late spring and summer. Contact me at cncbooks1@gmail.com and we’ll talk about it.
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And, finally, in support of budding artists everywhere, allow me
to introduce this fine fellow—
Till next time!
February 6, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Review: Eggs Benedict Arnold
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Laura Childs
Berkley, 2009
ISBN 0425231550
Mass Market (ARC)
Eggs Benedict Arnold
When I think of this book, I think first about Petra, Suzanne and Toni. These women joined their talents to create one fabulous eating, reading and knitting place of comfort where one can hang in peace. At least that was the plan.
Add to the mix Carmen, the neighborhood shop owner and author and the woman who wants what everyone else has. I would pity her if she wasnât so mean to everyone. She has to win the cake competition but doesnât do the work. She has to bully her salesgirl and insult her no matter how good of a job she does to make Carmenâs shopâs opening day a success. You would think this would make the perfect victim, wouldnât you? Yet she stays alive to hurt others throughout the story. Funny, I prefer Carmen. She may be tough but she doesnât hide it. Who is hiding her or his true self? Thank goodness for Doogie. He really found the winning entry in the end. Yeah Doogie Hooray!
The much beloved Ozzie is the one who is found murdered instead. It is baffling everyone to figure out who killed him. It could be his business partner? Is it? Could a business that is trying to control other businesses be responsible? Maybe. Could it be for a personal reason? No one is exactly sure and the local sheriff, Doogie is getting pressure from all sides to sift through the suspects and catch the chloroforming crook.
Everything comes to a head when the Cackleberry Club hosts the Cake Party. There is a surprise winner and a new friend is made when some cake is eaten when it is supposed to be saved and Nadine supplies a replacement. That was so sweet⌠Ozzie could tell you that the sweeter that icing can appear, that sweetness can prove deadly.
I love all of the characters and how well they jell together probably even more than I loved the plot. The plot was well written and kept me guessing and that always makes a good mystery, right?
One last fun note, doesnât Suzanne look yummy thanks to the hairdresser and make-up artist that Carmen hires for her opening day?
Reviewed by Wendi Chapman.
February 5, 2010
Tags: cozy, mystery Posted in: Full Reviews No Comments
Review: The Enchantment Emporium
The Enchantment Emporium
Tanya Huff
Daw Books
ISBN 0756405556
Hardcover, 2009
Allie Gale is wallowing in gloom after her job ended and there are no prospects of friendship or employment forthcoming. Her multi-member family of witches is about to take some action when Allie receives a letter from her Grandmother which opens with:
If you are reading this, I am dead…
The Enchantment Emporium
Grandma’s left her Calgary-based shop to Allie and says it’s essential that she care for the emporium because it’s critical to the local residents. Allie quickly comes to realize caring for the shop includes stewardship over some pretty dangerous artifacts including a monkey’s paw as well as non-human residents including a leprechaun who’s hiding out from an assassin.
If the situation wasn’t interesting enough, there’s a new man in her life and dragons are invading the town. Allie and her family are going to have to fight it out to keep Calgary safe.
“Enchantment Emporium” is an interesting entrance into a new world and family for Huff, who does a splendid job of serial urban fantasies. This story is not as action-packed as the “Blood” books or as witty as the “Keeper” stories, but the foundation is laid for a lot of strong characters to emerge.
Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle.
February 4, 2010
Tags: dark fantasy Posted in: Full Reviews, Uncategorized No Comments
We’re Having a (Murder) Party
Penny Warner has published over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction, for adults and children, including over a dozen party books. Her latest book, HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY, is the first in a new mystery series. Her books have won national awards, garnered excellent reviews, and have been printed in 14 countries. Her first mystery, DEAD BODY LANGUAGE, in her Connor Westphal series featuring a deaf reporter in the California Gold Country, won a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery and was nominated for an Agatha Award. Her non-fiction book, THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK, was nominated for an Agatha Award. Warner writes for party sites such as OrientalTradingCompany.com, BirthdaysRUs.com, iParty.com, and BalloonTime.com, and with her husband Tom creates interactive murder mystery fundraisers for libraries across the country. She can be reached at http://www.pennywarner.com.
âHOST A DIY âGET A CLUEâ PARTYâ
As a party hostess and author of HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY, I find murder mystery parties to be among the most popular. Maybe itâs a result of playing the Game of Clue when we were kids. Remember when Mrs. Peacock got caught holding a candlestick in the conservatory? Well, you can bring back your favorite childhood mystery game with my âGet a Clueâ Party. Just pull out your magnifying glasses, don your trench coats, and put your heads together to solve an intriguingâand entertainingâmystery, based on the board game, Clue!
Intriguing Invitations. Make mysterious invitations by cutting out letters from magazines or using your computer to create a Ransom Note with a fancy font. Add specific details from the board game, such as pictures of the weapons, names of the rooms, and so on. Assign each guest a suspect role from the Clue game
Cool Costumes. After you assign the guests their roles, suggest they color coordinate their outfits to match their charactersâMrs. Peacock in blue, Colonel Mustard in yellow, Miss Scarlett in red, and so on. If you have more guests than you have roles, ask the rest to come dressed as their favorite sleuths.
Set the Stage. Cordon off areas in the house or party room and label them like the board game: The Library, Study, Conservatory, Kitchen, Dining Room, Lounge, Billiards Room, Ballroom, Hall. Lay out the âbodyâ using a taped body outline and place the weapons on a table in the center of the room, such as a rubber knife, a candlestick, a toy revolver, a rope, a lead pipe, and a wrench.
Play the Game. Like the board game, choose one suspect to be the killer, match him or her with a weapon, and set it in one of the Clue rooms. Decide on a victim, set up the crimes scene, then place clues in each of the âroomâ for sleuths to discover. Hereâs how to set it up:
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- Select enough black cards from a deck of cards to equal the number of players, then replace one of the black cards with a red card, and mix them up. Pass out the cards to the suspects. The one who gets the red card is the murderer and must keep this a secret until the end.
- Have each player make up a reason why they could be guilty. Let them use their creative imaginations to come up with a motive. For example, Ms. Scarlett might have a motive to kill the victim because she was jealous of her. Have them also choose a weapon and the room where the murder occurred.
- Then have each suspect share an alibi that prevents him or her from being the murdererâif innocentâsuch as, âI was having an affair with Mr. Green at the time of the murder.â
- The one who is the murderer can stretch the truth but cannot lie.
- Take turns questioning each of the suspectsâexcept âAre you the murderer?â
- At the end of a timed session, have detectives try to guess whodunit, along with motive, weapon, and opportunity, based on what theyâve learned from the suspects.
- If no one guesses correctly, continue the game until someone identifies the guilty party.
Break for Refreshments. Serve colorful foods that represent each character and give them a creative name. For example, you might prepare Plumâs Plum Jam ânâ Toast, Peacockâs Blue Hurricane Blast, Mustardâs Mustard Green Salad, Greenâs Green Beans, Whiteâs Mashed Potatoes, and Scarlettâs Strawberry Dessert.
Pass out Prizes. Send everyone home with a Clue board game, a murder mystery novel, a copy of âMurder By Death,â a magnifying glass, or a flashlight.
February 3, 2010
Posted in: Guest Blogs One Comment
Kage Baker
We lost Kage Baker today. She fought uterine cancer very privately but then, earlier in January, her sister and caregiver, Kathleen, let the public know that she was ill and that the cancer had spread to her brain. Treatment was aggressive but the cancer was more so. The world of speculative fiction has lost someone very, very special.
If you’ve never read anything by this wonderful author, I urge you to do so—you don’t need to be a big fan of science fiction or fantasy to enjoy her work. Start with In the Garden of Iden for science fiction or, if you want to try fantasy, The Anvil of the World. You won’t be sorry you did, I promise.
Kage Baker
1952-2010
January 31, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Review: Grave Secret
Grave Secret
Grave Secret
Charlaine Harris
Berkley, 2009
ISBN 0425230155
Hardcover
Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang are going back home to Texas to salve a rich rancher’s curiosity. Harper is to read Rich Joyce’s remains to tell his granddaughter how he really died. What she discovers is nothing the family actually wanted to know.
Someone Rich knew greeted him on the road and flung a rattler at him. The shock caused his death.
But, while doing that job, Harper also uncovers that a household servant died in childbirth rather than complications from peritonitis from an infected appendix as they all believed. This sets the family looking for the child, who Harper thinks must be alive since she can only locate and read the dead–and there is no child in the cemetery.
Oddly, while Harper and Tolliver are there, a call comes in to the Texarkana police that their sister Cameron has been sighted at a local mall. The pair has never given up looking for their sister all the eight years she’s been gone and this whets their curiosity anew.
Not such good news–Tolliver’s father Matthew is finally out of jail. Matthew wants to reconnect with his kids and he certainly does not approve of Harper and Tolliver being together.
Thus begins the latest and most complicated of the Harper Connelly stories. Harper and Tolliver not only have to deal with the newness of their romance and their family’s reaction to what they consider incest (The pair was raised together but are not blood kin), they may have new leads on Cameron’s death, and someone’s trying to kill Harper and actually does manage to shoot Tolliver.
If you enjoy mysteries with a good supernatural twist, this story is going to be one you will want to pick up. I have enjoyed the Harper Connelly stories since the beginning, you do not have to start with the first book to comprehend what is going on here.
Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle.
January 30, 2010
Tags: dark fantasy, mystery Posted in: Full Reviews No Comments
Review: Broken Places
Broken Places
Sandra Parshall
Poisoned Pen Press, February 2010
ISBN 1590586530
Hardcover (ARC)–Also Available in Trade Paperback
When I began this book, I thought that I had remembered that I had read both previous Dr. Rachel Goddard books. I was wrong and I believe it influenced my reading of this book. I will have to go back and read the second book in the series, Disturbing the Dead. Donât get me wrong. I loved this book! Once I started I could not stop until I finished.
I remembered Dr. Rachel Goddard, the neighborhood veterinarian. She loves animals and is extremely loyal to her friends and family, which includes Ben. Ben is an old friend of Rachel and when he is accused of murdering Cam and Meredith Taylor, she stands by him but at times she wonders if she really knows him. Does she?
Tom, her boyfriend and the local law, says that she doesnât but is that jealousy or the fact that there are secrets in Benâs past that Rachel doesnât know everything about? Tom admits that he is jealous but is not sure if he really knows Rachel since she has secrets too. Enter LindsayâŚ
Lindsay is Cam and Meredithâs daughter and holds a serious crush on Tom. She does whatever possible to put herself in between Tom and Rachel and create doubts in each otherâs minds while tempting Tom every chance she gets. Meanwhile there is another murder and new suspects and attempts on Rachelâs life.
The two main things I enjoyed best about this book are the secondary characters and how they interact with each other and the main characters and the continued twists and turns. What will Lindsay pull next? Benâs mom disappearsâwhere is she? Did Meredith really die in the fire? What is Meredithâs friend hiding? What is the real truth behind Benâs secrets and what did Cam know? AndâŚ.
Who dun it? I challenge you to figure it out before the end of the bookâthe answer will amaze you, for it certainly did me and I always love that in a mystery.
Reviewed by Wendi Chapman.
January 29, 2010
Tags: mystery, suspense Posted in: Full Reviews 2 Comments
#Snowpocalypse in #RVA
We’re supposed to get snow this weekend, most likely a really big one, maybe as much as 10 or 12 inches. It’s time to panic.
OK, I hear sniggering from up there in Minnesota and North Dakota and over there in Michigan. Stop that—anybody who chooses to live where you get 4 feet at a time and you have to plug your car in has no understanding of what it’s like down here. We freak out over an inch or two, much less a foot.
A local journalist, Karri Peifer, wrote about the phenomenon Wednesday and she got it exactly right. Check it out at http://tiny.cc/jgX6u . The only thing I would add to her expose’ is that there will always be one critical thing you forget to buy at the store, even after four trips, cat food or something. And a hungry cat is not amused when you’re oohing and aahing at the window while the bowl is half full of food that’s been there for about an hour so it’s completely stale and not worth a discriminating cat’s notice.
Because we Richmonders are so obsessed with approaching snowstorms, we glue ourselves to the TV weather reports and the internet weather reports and, when we need companionship on our search for the perfect forecast, we go to Twitter. #Snowpocalypse and #RVA are our go-to spots where we get the latest accumulation predictions and, naturally, we’re compelled to keep checking every 10 minutes. After all, some new forecast model could change our weekend plans at any moment and, besides, we have to share our angst with each other, don’t we?
What I really loved as a kid was the way the schools would decide to close before any snow actually started to fall. One might think that won’t happen this weekend since the white stuff isn’t expected until late afternoon on Friday but I can almost guarantee one county or another will decide to close at noon just because it LOOKS like it could start at any moment. This time, at least the kids have a chance of getting some snow days—the storm in December hit just after schools closed for the holidays so they got no extra days off. Bummer!
Now, when it comes to being on the road, I don’t really think we’re much worse than folks up north. I mean, really, why does anybody need to be on the highway in a blizzard? Me, I just park my car at the end of the driveway, nose out, and hunker down for the next few days. Might as well, because it’ll be three days minimum before a snowplow comes and then they’ll push a two-foot embankment in front of my car so I can’t get out on that nice plowed road anyway. This is why it’s so necessary to stock the larder for at least the next week.
And that’s OK—I have my milk and cocoa mix for snow cream so I’m all set for the duration.
January 28, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller One Comment
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