Tag Archive for: books

Reading the Same Book Twice

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Reading the Same Book Twice

by Saralyn Richard

 

 

I’m always surprised when a reader tells me he’s read one of my books multiple times. As a voracious lifelong reader, I find myself muttering, “So many books, so little time.” I’m on a personal mission to read as many new books as I can, and I don’t take the time to re-read any of them.

I feel the same way about movies. I’m stunned by the number of times my husband can watch a classic movie favorite. I recently asked him how many times he thought he’d seen “Casablanca,” and he estimated more than 100. “Do you continue to see new things in it each time?” I asked. “Absolutely,” he said, and, as a viewer, he is moved by the story in different ways each time, too.

 

That thought gave me pause. I wonder if I re-read Gone with the Wind today, would I have a whole different take on it than I did when I read it at the age of sixteen? Or how about Catcher in the Rye, or To Kill a Mockingbird?

One of my loyal readers, a dear friend, makes it a point to read my books three times. I’m honored that she spends so much time with my characters, and I’m intrigued, too. I asked her over lunch if she would elaborate as to why she does this, and what she gets out of it. Her answer was enlightening.

She said, “The first reading is a light, quick skip through the story, mainly following the plot. The second reading is more intense. That’s where I pay close attention to the clues and the path on which they are leading me. The second reading is more process oriented. The third reading is more holistic. By this time, I’m able to enjoy the whole package of the story. I can see how the setting, characters, plot, and theme work together to form a perfect whole.”

“Wow,” I said, flattered that she has taken the time to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate each of my books. Her higher-level thinking makes my heart sing.

And it makes me re-think what it means to be a reader, rather than a consumer of books. For many years I taught a literature course entitled, “Literary Tapas.” The class read short pieces of literature and analyzed them using Socratic questioning. Through the questioning, we were able to get at some incredible insights and meanings, no matter what genre or time period the literature came from. And we always read it twice.

Now that I think about it, I might enjoy reading a few favorite books again, savoring the journey as I go. How about you? Are there any books you’ve read or would like to read twice?

 

Saralyn Richard writes award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries that pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Her works include the Detective Parrott mystery series, two standalone mysteries, a children’s book, and various short stories published in anthologies. She also edited the nonfiction book, Burn Survivors. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. If you would like to subscribe to Saralyn’s monthly newsletter and receive information, giveaways, opportunities, surveys, freebies, and more, sign up at https://saralynrichard.com.

 

‘Tis the Season with Catriona McPherson

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With Sparkle Abbey‘s Special Guest Catriona McPherson

Is HOP SCOT a seasonal romance? I’m going to say yes. Okay Lexy and Taylor are already engaged when they go to Scotland to let him meet the parents, the rest of the regular cast are all coupled up already, and there’s a mouldering semi-skeleton bricked up in the basement.

BUT –

A. after writing about a Scot out of water in California for five books, this time I get to write a Christmas love letter to Scotland.

And B. there’s an actual romance. Honest. You just need to keep reading. I don’t think I meant it to happen but who doesn’t love a Christmas love story? I know I do and I even love some of my favourites the way you love an elderly flatulent cat, or your beloved aunt’s terrible cooking. Tell me what you think of my list and let me know what’s on yours.

 

White Christmas Movie photo with characters from the movie.

5. WHITE CHRISTMAS

No bad cooking or feline flatulence here. In my opinion, this is the best Christmas film of any type and the best musical too. I watch it every year. When I was a wee girl, my sister Wendy and I thought Judy (Vera Ellen) was perfection, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) didn’t belong in a film because she looked like our mum, Phil (Danny Kaye) was weird, and Bob (Bing Crosby) was an old man. Now I think Judy needs a good meal, Betty is impossibly gorgeous because she looks like our mum, Phil is a poppet and Bob . . . yeah, he’s still an old man. And the plot is bonkers and Betty’s gloves in the nightclub scene look like she stole them from a welder. But it’s joyous for all that and I wouldn’t change a thing. Even the titles are beautiful.

 

Book cover for The Christmas Bookshop

4. THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSHOP

Jenny Colgan’s romance about a misfit girl who goes to stay with her annoyingly perfect sister in Edinburgh and transforms the fortunes of a struggling bookshop in the Old Town might have been written especially for me. I adore Edinburgh and bookshop settings (Quiet Neighbors was mine) and, in case you haven’t guessed yet, I’m partial to Christmas too. The follow-up is just out. I’ve told Santa. Incidentally, the one-star reviews of this on Amazon.com are hilarious – mostly concerned with the shocking bad language. I really hope none of these disappointed readers ever goes to Scotland! They’re in for a rude (literally) awakening.

 

The Holiday movie with photos of Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black.

3. THE HOLIDAY

This the first of my love it or hate it favourites. My mum and dad watch this film (in which KateWinslet (Iris) and Cameron Diaz (Amanda) house-swap between England and LA) like I watch White Christmas. When they persuaded me to join them one summer – that’s significant, I sat stony-faced throughout its run-time. Then I watched it again at the right time of year and found it absolutely charming. Jack Black is a riot, the London office is convincing even if the commute to the Cotswolds is nonsense so the LA film-industry stuff might be accurate too, Eli Wallach steals the whole film (from Jack Black!), the two little kids are among the least sickening screen moppets ever, and the rest of it is pretty people doing silly things. What’s wrong with that? At Christmas-time, nothing at all.

 

A Castle for Christmas photo of Cary Elwes and Brooke Shields

2.  A CASTLE FOR CHRISTMAS

Now, if you can take THE HOLIDAY and not throw stuff at the telly, it’s time to move on to this instant classic, from 2021. Sophie (Brooke Shields) is a novelist, who has found success in a publishing world that bears not the slightest, glancing similarity to the real one. So she goes to Scotland to stay in a castle. Of course. The castle is owned by a duke (Cary Elwes) who is broke, grumpy and not interested in a new woman. Guess. What. Happens. But the thing is it doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter, either, that the Christmas decorations at the castle would have bankrupted even a rich duke. It almost doesn’t matter that Cary Elwes’s Scottish accent is worse than Star Trek and his own, real accent is exactly what a Scottish duke would sound like. The village is cute. The knitting club that meets (every day, apparently) in the pub is adorable, and Sophie’s tartan Vivienne Westwood ballgown is every bit as gorgeous as Betty’s fur-trimmed dress at the end of White Christmas.

 

Single All the Way

1. SINGLE ALL THE WAY

And finally we find ourselves at the most-advanced level of seasonal disbelief suspension with this Hallmark-adjacent hokum squarely in the Guess. What. Happens. sub-genre. I am glad I put in the training and can love it without trying. Here’s the deal. Peter (Michael Urie (him off Ugly Betty)) and Nick (Philemon Chambers) are just friends, who share a flat in LA. Got that? They’re just friends. But Nick is tired of his loving family, back in New England (flannel alert), nagging him about being single, so they decide to pretend that they’ve got together as a couple and go east for Christmas. Guess. What. Happens. Ah, it’s lovely. Jennifer Coolidge and Kathy Najimy play the mum and aunt, the mayor’s wife from Schitt’s Creek is a sister and, speaking of Schitt’s Creek, the whole story takes place in a small town that’s homophobia-free. Nick’s a children’s writer in a publishing world that bears not the slightest . . . And so we have to think that being a florist/plant nursery specialist is probably tougher than it looks here too, but come on!

 

 

Photo of author Catriona McPherson with a Santa hat on.

Merry Christmas and, like I say, let me know what you’ve got on your list that I need to add to mine.

~ Catriona

Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes preposterous 1930s private detective stories, realistic 1940s amateur sleuth stories, and contemporary psychological standalones. These are all set in Scotland with a lot of Scottish weather. She also writes  modern comedies about the Last Ditch Motel in a “fictional” college town in Northern California. HOP SCOT is number six in the series. Catriona’s books have won or been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Lefty, the Macavity, the Mary Higgins Clark award and the UK Ellery Queen Dagger. She is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.

 

We’d like to thank Catriona for visiting today. What a fun look at Christmas and some seasonal favorites! We love the Last Ditch series and have already ordered our copy of Hop Scot, but just in case you haven’t, stop by her website for more info: Catriona McPherson

And we’d like to add our own Happy Holidays to you all.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season with peace and good cheer as we head into the new year!

~ Mary Lee & Anita aka Sparkle Abbey

Laguna Beach Photo

A Getaway When You Can’t Get Away

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by Sparkle Abbey

Travel and a change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  – Seneca

Laguna BeachIt’s exciting that travel is opening up and people are once again beginning to plan trips. For some of us that means a road trip to visit family for the holidays or a short vacation to warmer climes. For others it means something bigger. Perhaps booking that trip to a far-away destination that you’ve always wanted to visit.  The wonderful thing about travel is that it not only gives us new perspectives, but it can also offer a much-needed break from the day-to-day routine. Given that, we hope you’ve got some travel plans in your future.

In the meantime, some of us are exploring different locales without leaving home. Books hold a wide variety of places and spaces between their covers. Just among The Stiletto Gang authors we have upstate New York, the San Juan Islands, and Canada. Our books also include New England, the Gulf Coast, the California coast and tons of other places in between. We have big cities and small towns. Real places and others that are completely the product of our imaginations.

What we always hope to do as writers is make the setting an integral part of the story. So that it’s not just “where” the story happens but that it’s part of “why” the story happens. And why it couldn’t happen (at least not in this particular way) somewhere else. Even if the setting for our story is fictional or even in a different time period, we want it to feel real to the reader. As if you’ve traveled there with us. And we hope it’s a place you’d want to spend time if you could.

New England coast photo

 

As readers, we have locations from the books we’ve read that we love and want to visit again and again. Some we’ve been lucky enough to visit in real life and others not yet.

What about you? Is there a particular place you’ve read about and then visited? Or maybe there’s a place you’ve traveled to only in the pages of a book, but you’d love to visit in real life.

If we could gift you with an all-expense paid trip, where would you go?

 

 

 

Sparkle Abbey books

Sparkle Abbey Pampered Pets Series

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.)

They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website

Expectations vs. Reality by Dru Ann Love

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When you pick up the first book in a series, you are introduced to the main protagonist, her friends, the small town that she lives in and the other residents that will come in and out of her daily life. Note: could also be a male protagonist as well.

We love the characters and the small-town atmosphere, and we love that she is probably besting the local police force in solving the crime. And now the murderer has been caught in this delightfully charming town that I want to move to.

Until book two, three, four and so forth. So how many more murders in this small-town that I’ve come to love will happen?

By now, the local cops may or may not seek out our protagonist to help solve the murder. Question of the day, why don’t they put her on retainer as a consultant? Why doesn’t she just join the police force? You know why? Because there would not be a next book.

And yet we continue to hope we see a murder in the early chapters of the book as we along with our favorite amateur sleuth, solve the case while we try to figure it out before she does. And still want to move to that small town.

These are little things I think about when I’m reading books in my favorite long-running series.

What about you? What do you think about when reading your series?

Untitled Post

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Happy Valentine’s Day

by Saralyn Richard

 


Today is Valentine’s Day, and I hope you are spending
the holiday enjoying the people, places, and things you love most. As for me, I can’t help thinking of my most
cherished Valentine’s Day gifts over the years–you guessed it–books.


Unlike the more
traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, books don’t die in five days. They don’t
increase the numbers when you step on the scale. They don’t break or go out of
style.

Instead, they provide
hours of entertainment, improve the mind and spirit, offer topics for
discussion, and connect readers. Also, purchasing books stimulates the economy,
because so many different industries are involved in the creation, production,
and selling of books.

Romances aren’t the
only appropriate Valentine’s Day books. Most mysteries also include love in
their plots, sometimes as motives. Whatever your genre, take yourself on a love-ly
journey of the heart, and snuggle up with a great book!



Not ready to commit to
a deep relationship? How about having a blind date with a good book? You might
just fall in love!

 

Saralyn Richard is the award-winning author of the
Detective Parrott Mystery Series, as well as the standalone mystery, A
Murder of Principal, and the children’s picture book, Naughty Nana.
Her new mystery, Bad Blood Sisters, is up for pre-order and releases on
March 9. Check out Saralyn’s book events and subscribe to her monthly
newsletter for fun content at http://saralynrichard.com.

summer scene with books

Summer time and the livin’ was easy…

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 by Mary Lee Ashford

Summer time and the livin’ was easy… so goes the song.

Here it is – already the first of July and here in the Midwest we are definitely feeling the heat of summer. And the humidity…

I can’t even imagine what it’s like for some of you who are seeing triple-digit temps. I’m thankful every day that my air-conditioning is working and that I’m not relying on a fan like we did when I was a kid. 
Because I grew up in a very small town, my summers were mostly spent hanging out with friends and reading. 
When I think of summers growing up, I think of the sweet tea that my mom would steep in a pot on the stove and then cool and pour over ice.  In my mind I can smell the green grass that cushioned the blanket in the backyard where I’d park myself for hours with the latest book I’d checked out from the library. A comfy spot and usually a  radio along for a little background music. Now, I’m dating myself, aren’t I? 
Different summers, different tastes in reading but always the backyard and a book. One summer I devoured Trixie Belden books. Another time it was Nancy Drew. My mom was an Agatha Christie fan and one summer I started on her collection of mysteries. 
There were chores to do, of course. But in retrospect, life really was pretty slow and easy. Not much rushing about. Time for really diving into a good book. 
What memories come to mind for you when you think about your summers growing up? Were you busy with activities or were your summer days slow and easy like mine? Any favorite reads come to mind? 
Leave a comment below and on Friday, I’ll draw a name to receive a fun summer bag and a copy of my most recent book, Quiche of Death. (Or if you already have that one, thank-you for that, and we’ll figure out a different one.) 
Mary Lee Ashford is a lifelong bibliophile, an avid reader, and supporter of public libraries. In addition to writing the Sugar & Spice mysteries series for Kensington Books, she also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey. Prior to publishing she won first place in the Daphne du Maurier contest sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA. 
She’s the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa and loves encouraging other writers. Mary Lee has a passionate interest in creativity and teaches a university level course on the topic. In her day job, she is a Deputy Chief Information Officer, and is happy to answer technology questions but probably can’t fix your computer. She resides in Iowa with her husband, Tim, and Zoey the cat. Her delights are reading and enjoying her family, especially her six grandchildren. Her family has come to terms with the idea that plotting murders is a frequent topic at family gatherings. 

Quiche of Death – Book 3 in the Sugar & Spice series

When editor
Sugar Calloway and baker Dixie Spicer went into business creating cookbooks,
they found a sideline as amateur sleuths. Now a bitter family grudge could
leave a fatal aftertaste…

At Sugar & Spice Community Cookbooks, the
friends and business partners have secured a tasty new commission: producing a
cookbook for the Arbor family. The Arbors have made their fortune in quiches,
and Sugar and Spice have been invited to a weekend gathering where all the
siblings, along with crusty matriarch Marta, will be in attendance. But it’s
soon clear that this trip will come with a hefty slice of drama.

Theo, the only grandson, arrives with his flaky
fiancée, Collette, who quickly stirs up trouble . . . and is found dead the
next day. As the investigation unfolds, secrets—and recipes—are shared, and
Sugar and Spice realize just how messy and murderous the situation may be. As
another family member falls ill, can they solve the case without getting egg on
their faces . . .and a target on their backs?

Amazonkindle Apple Google Kobo Nook

Anticipation by Dru Ann Love

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The definition of anticipation is an emotion involving pleasure or anxiety in considering or awaiting an expected event.

So, what am I anticipating? How about books?

Read more

Bidding Farewell to a Dear Friend by Debra H. Goldstein

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Bidding Farewell to a Dear
Friend by Debra H. Goldstein

This year, I said good-bye to my personal library. Our
aging physical infirmities and our old house no longer matched. Our new house,
which we can’t believe we built during the pandemic, is perfect for us.
Although there is a guest bedroom and bath upstairs, everything we need is on
the main level.

 

I have a garden room office that lets me have natural light
and look at trees when the writing isn’t going well. My husband, on the other
side of the house, has a man cave that features a television covering an entire
wall. We meet in the middle to eat but have an unspoken rule that those two
rooms are our private sanctuaries – off limits to each other.

 

When we were building this house, I knew from the floor
plans that it lacked the space for me to move my entire library. My library,
which was arranged alphabetically by author, contained sections for biography,
mystery, general literature, children’s, young adult, theater, Judaica and
other religious studies, how-to-books, law books, writing reference books, crime
reference books, cookbooks, and my TBR bookshelf (which usually spread to my
dresser). There were thousands of books. I identified my library as being a
part of me.

 

Giving away my library was akin to giving away one of my
children. I have good memories of when my daughter was 6 and had to count
something for school that would be at least 100. I gave her a pad and pencil
and told her to count books. When I suddenly realized she’d been quiet for too
long, I found her nearing 2000. We decided she could stop counting. My memories
include loaning books to people that introduced them to new authors or answered
questions they posed to me. There were also special

ones that commemorated
events – like the Dr. Seuss one everyone gets for graduation or books that contained
the first published poems of my children.

 

Without flinching, I parted with my dining room furniture
which we’d purchased as a wedding present to ourselves, bedrooms sets, dishes,
pots and pans, and various other pieces of furniture, but the books remained.
It was easy to offer my children any books they wanted to take and to let a
dear friend raid the mystery section. The trouble came with what to do with the
remainder. I vowed to take the children’s books that I might read to my
grandchildren or that they might want to read in the future. I also put aside a
handful of the writing and crime resource books, as well as a few books of
poetry my father and I read together when I was a child. Then, I started making
phone calls. A librarian friend told me about a library in an economically
challenged part of Alabama that had an excess of space, but a limited
collection and a lack of funds. When I called, I knew it was a match made in
heaven.

 

I had movers pack the books I wasn’t keeping in boxes that
could be lifted. Neatly stacked, they filled my dining room and spilled into my
living room. The librarian sent her husband, who owned a flatbed truck, and her
daughter to pick up the books. In the end, most were added to their collection
or were put on a bookmobile. Very few were marked for the Friends of the
Library sale. The empty bookcases found a home, too.

 

It’s been six months and I still feel the loss, but I’m
glad that in a sense, I’m now sharing a part of who I am with others.

The Importance of Pre-Orders

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The Importance of Pre-Orders by Debra H.
Goldstein
Until I
became an author, the only time I thought of pre-ordering a book was when I
knew a new Harry Potter was being released. Once I was published, I heard from
other authors that pre-orders were extremely important. Knowing that the third book
in my Sarah Blair cozy mystery series, Three
Treats Too Many, releases on August 25, but is available for pre-order now,
I decided to research what the importance of pre-orders is.
It turns
out there are several reasons to encourage (beg) for pre-orders:
1)   
If publishers see books are receiving numerous
pre-orders, they will increase the print run. More books being printed means
the publisher will put more advertising help toward the book because it doesn’t
want to get stuck with unsold books. More promotion translates into additional
sales.
2)   
Pre-orders are reported in first week sales.
People often have a surge during their launch parties, but the additional
numbers created by pre-sales may help a book make a national or local
best-seller list. Word of mouth and recognition again translates into more
sales.
3)   
Whether Amazon, other online sources, big box
stores or independent booksellers receive numerous pre-orders, they will tend
to stock more copies of the book. Often, the booksellers will check out and
potentially promote a book that customers are showing an interest in.
4)   
Authors want publishers to accept their next
books. Publishers want to sign authors whose books sell. Pre-order numbers
serve as an indicator to a publisher as to whether there is interest in
additional works by an author.
5)   
Pre-orders are especially important when a
series is debuting its first book. Few know of the existence of the series, so
it is important to use any means possible to build excitement and interest
immediately. One of the best ways to do this is through high numbers of
pre-orders which catch the eye of booksellers and readers.
Now that
I know how important pre-orders are, I hope you will consider pre-ordering Three Treats Too Many or books by your other favorite authors.  The buy links for Three Treats Too Many are listed below.
About Three Treats Too Many:
When a romantic rival opens a competing restaurant in
small-town Wheaton, Alabama, Sarah Blair discovers murder is the specialty of
the house . . . 

 

For someone whose greatest culinary skill is ordering
takeout, Sarah never expected to be co-owner of a restaurant. Even her Siamese
cat, RahRah, seems to be looking at her differently. But while Sarah and her
twin sister, Chef Emily, are tangled up in red tape waiting for the building
inspector to get around to them, an attention-stealing new establishment—run by
none other than Sarah’s late ex-husband’s mistress, Jane—is having its grand
opening across the street. 

 

Jane’s new sous chef, Riley Miller, is the talk of Wheaton
with her delicious vegan specialties. When Riley is found dead outside the
restaurant with Sarah’s friend, Jacob, kneeling over her, the former line
cook—whose infatuation with Riley was no secret—becomes the prime suspect. Now
Sarah must turn up the heat on the real culprit, who has no reservations about
committing cold-blooded murder . . .

 

 Includes
quick and easy recipes!
Pre-Order/Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Treats-Sarah-Blair-Mystery-ebook/dp/B082WRV78G 
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Treats-Sarah-Blair-Mystery/dp/1496719492
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/three-treats-too-many-debra-h-goldstein/1135275342

Breaking the Code of Silence—by T.K. Thorne

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Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        New places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.

We are living History, a moment of angst and hope, of isolation and involvement, a time to look deep.

In the beginning of my novel, House of Rose,
my police officer heroine shoots a man in the back. I deliberately
placed Rose in that situation, because it put her in trauma, and that is
how character is built. I wanted readers to experience that from her
perspective, to be uncomfortable. Having to pull the trigger is not a
comfortable place. I am a former police officer, and, like my fellows, I
always dreaded having to make such a decision and having to live with
it—right or wrong.

My fictional shooting is a circumstance very far from the blatant
lynching of George Floyd, which—along with a dark cloud of other racial
encounters and shootings—have stained the badge that so many wear
proudly and with honor. For the first time in my memory, law enforcement
officers have broken their “code of silence” and stepped forward to
voice their outrage, some to walk and pray with protesters.

I am proud of those voices, but I understand they do not make black people feel safe.

I am not black and not trying to imply I understand what it feels
like to be, but I am listening and trying to imagine that and to relate
it to my own experiences. I am Jewish.

Recently, I watched a documentary on the growth of anti-Semitism in
the world, including the U.S., and it awoke in me something that I try to ignore in my daily life, an underlying fear of being different
and what might happen to me or those I love because of who I am and
what I believe. The outpouring of sympathy and expressions of horror at
the Tree of Life massacre did not make me feel safe either.

How are we not beyond this? I yearn for there to be no need
for police to have to make awful decisions or even to be armed, only to
perform their highest calling—solving problems, protecting and helping
people. I yearn for soldiers to put down their weapons and say, “Ain’t
gonna study war no more.”

I also research and write about history and know we have moved the
needle significantly from the past, but we have not left the darkness
behind. It is a chasm looming before us. I fear we are on a precipice as
a country and world.

What can I do?

I am a writer, so I am doing what I do—writing about my pain,
confusion, my passion for justice. Sometimes I do that through my
characters, but sometimes I just have to struggle for the words in my
own voice.

T.K. is a retired police captain who writes books,
which, like this blog, roam wherever her interest and imagination take
her.  Want a heads up on news about her writing and adventures (and
receive two free short stories)? Click on image below.  Thanks for
stopping by!

https://tkthorne.com/signup/