We Have Alaways Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

This is a pretty fun, creepy read. There's a mystery for sure, but you're also not sure what it is, aside from wondering what happened to the now deceased members of the Blackwood family. Everything about it's good and entertaining. If you need a short one for the spooky season to get your yearly book count up to 50, this is one for you.

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts

I found this book at a Goodwill store, very well-loved. For those of you don't know, Noraa Roberts is a big shot in the world of popular fiction. It says so all over the spine, cover, and afterward. From the back cover Nora sneers at us condescendingly in her pearls and power suit. How often should a novelist need to wear a suit, anyway? Does she know that she has more books at Goodwill than every author ever?

In Angel's Fall our protagonist is from Boston, and her love interest is from Chicago. Visualizing the scenes, I failed to give these characters accents. I don't know about you, but books are often more fun for me when I can get a vivid picture of the characters.

That being said, Angel's Fall was an entertaining page turner, and I think it could make a good movie, if you like mystery and romance. It takes place in the mountains of Wyoming, where a runaway chef finds herself working at a little diner, and witnesses a murder. This won't be my last Nora Roberts novel, since her book Year One is on my Goodreads 'want-to-read' list, and it's not like I don't want to read it. Also, I'm very intrigued by the works advertised on the back pages of Angel's Fall. How is she the most successful author of her generation? What can I do to catch 1% of that success?

The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton

Hold onto your hats. This cozy takes place in the quaint English village of Carsely. Agatha Raisin is our detective, who cheats in a quiche baking contest and loses. In fact her quiche is the suspected murder weapon.

Agatha can't let this fly. There's no way she had anything to do with this murder. She has to solve it! Are you curious about life as an old British lady? Do you like cottages, pubs, fairs, morris-men, and bicycle rides in the English countryside? If so, this is the cozy for you.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Since I read a lot this past fall and winter, I decided it was imperative to read some "cozies", and this one sounded the most cozy. It's about a bakery owner in Minnesota who bribes people with cookies, has a big snuggly cat, drives a suburban, drinks jug wine, and solves a murder. For weeks, it inspired me to mix an egg with my coffee grounds and make scandinavian style coffee. What a treat!

The book, though. It was okay. There were cookie recipes accompanying most chapters. I didn't use any of them. The murder didn't have anything to do with chocolate chip cookies. I know I'm supposed to get all excited about figuring it out before the book tells me who did it. Really, you can only ever guess up until a certain, anticipated point. I never thought, "Oh man, if only that guy hadn't been murdered in cold blood."

I think it's wrong to ignore the grave consequences of killing. Joanna Fluke doesn't think it's a big deal to kill innocent people. Murder provides mysteries and in the end, everything is actually better than it ever was before. Cozy!