mysteries with a touch of history

I've always enjoyed novels with a strong historic setting. If they involve historic figures as main characters, that is even better. For example, I love Sharon Kay Penman's novels. When I stumbled onto Ariana Franklin's "Mistress of the Art of Death" series, I was a very happy reader. She combines the amateur sleuth protagonist along with a historic setting in a seamless way.

When the hubby and I were in B&N after Christmas, I found one of Franklin's novels in the discount bin. It went home with me, of course. Franklin was actually Diana Norman and died in 2011. The title I found, "A Murderous Procession," was her last book in this series. If you want to learn more about the author and this series featuring a wonderful woman named Adelia, visit here: http://www.arianafranklin.com/franklin-bio.htm.

Up next will be Lois Lowry's "The Giver." Hard to believe, but I've never read this classic, award winning book.

Happy Monday.

stirring the pot

I unintentionally stirred a rather large pot yesterday. Oops. You just never know sometimes and when I forwarded the 'bounce' report from our last email campaign to the database manager, I really didn't intend for it to become such a large issue.

Well, it did. Okay, fine.

I'm sure the fall out from that one will continue over the next few weeks.

But, it is Thursday and that is a very good thing. And we were approved to purchase new chairs for work! Yeah! So, off to Office D. we will go to try a few on for size. When you sit on your fanny as much as we do, a nice chair is important.

Enough work stuff. Time to enjoy that first cup of coffee, the newspaper, and a bit of conversation with the hubby.

Enjoy your day.

off to school they go

The youngest and his sisters start classes today. Good Luck, kids!! The youngest almost had another day of vacation as the main water pipe at the high school burst. Yikes. They got the plumbers out and everything was fixed and cleaned up by early this morning. School is on!

I watched the season four premiere episode of Downton Abbey last night. Oh how I've missed Maggie Smith! She is amazing. The writers who give her those great lines are amazing. Superb. Simply superb. I feared that with O'Brien's departure for the warmer climes of India, the nasty baggage factor would be diminished. But, the  new lady's maid seems quite up to the task with the help of Thomas and they are already stirring up trouble both upstairs and down.

Fun, fun, fun.

We are setting up a coffee bar at work....in my boss' office. Ha. We will no longer drink the swill they call coffee (Folgers) and will now only enjoy freshly ground Starbucks! The things we do to keep our morale up. Oh, and during lunch the two Indiana girls are teaching our boss to play euchre. That was a hoot yesterday.

So, all in all, good stuff going on. Happy Wednesday.

brrrrr

It is 10 outside right now. The county closed the schools today due to the temperature. Too cold for these kids to walk or wait for the bus. To my northern self, that seems a bit crazy, but many kids don't have winter gear.

So, the boy gets an extra day of vacation. He was thrilled.

I took a blanket into work with me yesterday. It helped. The office is always cold, but it was chilly yesterday. I'm sure it will be even more chilly today since it never warmed up while we were all there.

The good news is that it should be 57 here by Saturday.

Got to love it.

Happy Tuesday.

here we go

Today is the first full work week of 2014 for me. The middle kid went back to school yesterday. The oldest will leave for campus today. The youngest starts his second semester tomorrow.

And we have some record breaking cold temps in the area, but none of the white stuff that many hoped would fall from they sky.

I think they have plenty of snow in other parts of the country.

So, happy Monday to you! Here we go.

1

My first book of 2014 is one that I began on my Christmas vacation, but set aside in order to start and finish reading "Hild."

"The Demon King" is book one in the Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima. I began reading Chima back when I worked for the library as I purchased her first series for the collection. Her YA fantasy titles are always popular and with this newer series, I can see why she continues to do well.

She has three other titles out in this series, I just stumbled across the first one on the library's ebook site. Like her Warrior Heir series, she does a great job with epic fantasy, action, world building, and tosses in interesting characters to propel the whole plot along at a nice pace.

So, book number one is officially completed and I have started number two. Yes, I will have my 52 book goal again in 2014. I'd like to surpass it, but will commit to at least my one a week average for now.

Off to work I go. It was a wonderful holiday, couldn't have asked for anything better.

52

I finished book number 52 last night, "Hild" by Nicola Griffith!! Goodbye 2013, it was a good year for us and we are looking forward to 2014.

May your New Year be filled with goodness.