Odds on favorites

The first book I ever bought with my own money was Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. It was just the first of many books about horses that crowded my shelves.  On any given day as a kid, I rode what other people saw as a blue bicycle but what was to me my favorite horse [...]

Read Full Post »

Mischief by design

Martha Grimes has a grand time toying with readers in The Black Cat, a playful tale of murder, mistaken identity, designer shoes and a talented mongrel named Mungo. There are also three black cats (four if you count the pub that gives its book the title), and, naturally, one is called Schrodinger. That cat, who [...]

Read Full Post »

Beneath the surface

You never know. On the surface, Holly LeCraw’s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, appears to have all the elements of a good beach book, an intriguing summer tale. “A heartbreaking affair, an unsolved murder, an explosive romance,” touts the publisher. “Welcome to summer on the Cape.” Actually, two summers, seven years apart. LeCraw glides easily between [...]

Read Full Post »

Dogs to the Rescue

Central Florida sometimes seems like ground zero for missing persons. There are the Amber alerts that make the national news (Caylee Anthony, Haleigh Cummings) but also the local searches for elderly folk who have wandered away or the guy who went fishing and fell in a lake. And sadly, there are cold cases, like that of Jennifer [...]

Read Full Post »

Barbie, Rheta (and me)

I don’t know Rheta Grimsley Johnson, but I’ve been reading her feature stories and columns for years in Southern newspapers. In fact, there was a time when I wanted to be Rheta Grimsley Johnson when I grew up. I was a feature writer at a small Southern daily, and I dearly loved finding “human interest” [...]

Read Full Post »

In a Fog

Shortly after I started writing this blog in January, someone suggested I write about lupus more.  No, I replied, the whole point of the blog was to get away from lupus. Having lupus is boring. I’ve been foggy and lightheaded and achy the last few days. Not surprising since I’d been going full-tilt boogie for [...]

Read Full Post »

Triple Dare

At one point in Cornelia Read’s third Madeline Dare novel, Invisible Boy, Maddie is goaded by a defense attorney as she testifies in a child abuse/murder case. He notes that she has stumbled across three suspicious deaths in as many years, then asks, “So what are you, Ms. Dare, some kind of murder groupie?” “No,” [...]

Read Full Post »

Good Ol’ Girls

It was one of those magic nights of words and music and laughter. I can close my eyes and I’m right back at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, listening to writer Lee Smith and songwriters Marshall Chapman and Matraca Berg play around with the beginnings of a musical based on Smith’s short stories and those of [...]

Read Full Post »

So Far, So Good

I may have been a tad ambitious on my vacation reading. I fly home tonight, but I picked up another book to reread not on my original list, Leah Stewart’s The Myth of You and Me. Stewart has a new book coming in May, Husband and Wife, that I’m eager to get my hands on, [...]

Read Full Post »