I enjoy reading trivia books, and Canadian history books (well, some of them), so All 'Bout Canada: a Compendium of Canadiana by Elizabeth F. Hill with art by Alex Macaskill was a natural! Full of fun tidbits about inventions (the zipper!), words from so many different languages,(learn when to use 'eh'!), jokes, poems, as well as short biographies of men and women of Canada and it's history, this was an enjoyable read.

A fun (and somewhat silly) email conversation with Constant Reader led me to one of the Imponderables books by David Feldman. If you've not read any of these yet, do give them a try, they are great fun and strive to answer some of those strange questions in life. (Do fish sleep?) Since our emails dealt with knees (I said it was silly!) I went with Do Penguins Have Knees? Lots of fun things here, such as why peanuts are listed in the ingredient of plain M&M's, why is the home plate in baseball such an odd shape, and, of course, the answer to do penguins have knees.

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Bryant & May: England's Finest: More Lost Cases From the Peculiar Crimes Unit is the second collection of short stories by Christopher Fowler. There is a corner in London that is prone to odd accidents, a missing reindeer (display, not real), footsteps, and a possible connection with Dracula ... just another fun collection of crimes and mysteries solved but these two most unusual detectives. Be sure to read the brief history of the PCU at the start!

In World War I the main means of communication was a letter, letters which could be censored, letters which could take weeks or even months to reach their destination. For an interesting (and sometimes sad and/or frustrating) look at that war read Dear Miss Kopp, by Amy Stewart, one of the Kopp Sisters novels. One has worked hard to provide the pigeons that could carry messages for the troops, only to be thwarted by someone higher up, and male. One is traveling to entertain the troops and is arrested one night by the Moral Police while walking home after dark. With a soldier. (He said he had volunteered to see her safely home, but he was sent on his way and she was taken into custody). When meds go missing at the Field Hospital where the third sister is a nurse, it's the nurses that are accused of the theft. These stories are all as historically accurate as possible, don't miss the author's notes.

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Do you like to swim? Why We Swim, by Bonnie Tsui was one of those curious little books you pick up but aren't sure why. It proved a most interesting read! From prehistoric times to present day all types of swimming are discussed: open swims, pool swims, challenging swims (in the Arctic!), as well as competition and races. What makes someone want to do, well, whatever type of swimming they prefer? And at first, when it was considered 'public bathing' anyone was welcome (although men and women had to come on different days) it wasn't until they became public 'pools' that only whites were allowed. Just one of those nicely written social history books.

Blooming Flowers: a Seasonal History of Plants and People, by Kasia Boddy, was an interesting (but sometimes a bit dry) read. I loved the idea of combining the history of flowers, what they meant in the past and present, with artwork and poetry, how they are used in the design of clothing and buildings, and of course, names! The illustrations were a great help, but I wish songs had been included as well.

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The Spice Shop Mystery series, by Leslie Budewitz, is new to me, and I seem to be jumping into it about five books in with The Solace of Bay Leaves. It's set in Seattle, and that's what caught my attention. Main character, Pepper Reece owns a spice shop in the Pike Street Market, and lives not too far away. She is known for her spice blends (which cannot be trademarked, it seems, which is the basis for one of the mysteries), and her dog 'Arf'. Wonderful descriptions of the market, and the area (hills, rain, clouds), and the views now available that the Seattle Way Viaduct is gone. Nice sense of history and community and a good mystery, too. :-)

The Bodies in the Library is a nod to Agatha Christie, and the traditional 'locked room' mystery (and possibly others that I missed). It's the first in a new series by Marty Wingate, A First Edition Library Mystery. It was fun! New to her job, and with a literary background, but not one involving mystery books, (something she's trying to keep a secret for now), Hayley is working to make The First Edition Society a success. She's not off to a good start as a body is found ... in the library ... behind a locked door. This was a fun read, keep an eye on the cat.

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It's 1956, summer, and Rosa is looking forward to a concert with a new (!) and up and coming singer named Elvis Presley. The concert was wonderful (and what a difference from the music her parents enjoyed) until the closing curtain when a body falls from the catwalks above the stage. It is a photographer for one of the local newspapers. It is deemed a suicide by the local police, but a family member is not so sure and hires Rosa to investigate. Could it be something from his past (think WWII)? Look for the mention of other musicians new to the scene: the Everly Brothers. Murder and Rock 'n' Roll, by Lee Strauss and Norm Strauss is another fun read in the Rosa Reed Mystery series.

Here it is (drum roll, please), the newest Iona Whishaw Lane Winslow Mystery: Lethal Lesson! It's winter, there is snow on the ground (except for Christmas, of course). There is a change over at the school with one teacher leaving, and another taking over ... except that one is found dead and the other missing. Lane steps in as the substitute during the investigation. Someone was searching for one of the teachers, but why? Is the missing teacher part of that search? Warning here ... clear your schedule, have food on hand, this book is hard to put down!

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If you like dogs and movies, then you should enjoy Citizen Canine: Dogs in the Movies, by Wendy Mitchell. Lots of dogs, from the silent films to present day (2018). Some times the dogs were paid more than the trainers. One dog learned all his commands for a second time, this time via hand signals when 'talkies' made voice commands unusable. Fun pictures, just the right amount of information.

Language is an ever evolving thing ... for proof try Made in America: an Informal History of American English by Bill Bryson. It is a twisted, convoluted (sometimes brutal) history. There were new ... well, everything from plants to animals that needed names. And when we moved west there were vast areas that needed names. New fangled inventions such as trains and cars needed new words for how they were used (depots, motels, etc.) Some names had no meaning but sounded nice, others were slurrings of foreign words. Airplanes and that industry needed words, so did the space age. Some times words were made to sound foreign even when they weren't! Kid's from the 1950's had their own language, and don't even get going on advertising lingo! Not my favorite book by Bryson, but he's done a good job here.

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It's been less than 48 hours since Kate has arrived in England for her new job ... and in that time there's been a fire (that destroyed unique and one-of-a-kind documents), a body was found stuffed under the stairs of the house that burned, someone is shooting at Kate, and she's been fired! (She has yet to recover from jet lag since flying in from California, too). Is there a connection, and if so, what, or how? Death in an English Cottage, the second Murder on Location book, by Sara Rosett was a one day read!

In A Wicked Conceit, one of the Lady Darby Mystery books, by Anna Lee Huber, Kiera is expecting, and very near her due date. A book has been published, a 'tell all' sort of book written as fiction. It has been made into a play. At that time, there was no such thing as copyright so books could be made into plays, songs, skits, etc., without any money or recognition going to the original author. It contains some untrue things about Kiera and her husband, and a known crook, but there is not much they can do about it. And, a sequel is in the works! Then, the publisher is found dead. To clear their names, and oddly, help out the crook, an investigation ensues. :-) This book takes place during the cholera pandemic. Author mentions how she wrote about one pandemic while living during another!

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Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel is another series by Emily Organ and since I enjoyed that other one so much I was eager to give the first A Churchill and Pemberley Mystery a try. I must say I did not enjoy it nearly as much. The main character, the widow of a London detective has moved to a small town where she has bought an existing detective agency. She figures she must have picked up some skills as a detective since she was married to one for so long. The business comes with a secretary. They have two cases: a cat that is not eating well and therefore must be getting food elsewhere, where (owner is quite worried), and the death of the town busybody, which (of course) was not an accident. ;-) It was a good story line, I just did not warm up to the characters, but another reader might, so give it a try.

Tall Reader passed on a fantasy book to me, a genre I've not read for a while. It is the second in the Throne of Glass series, and, oddly enough, is called just that: Throne of Glass. Don't miss the conversation with author, Sarah Maas, at the back where she explains how she was inspired by Cinderella! While this is the second in the series, the author did an excellent job of informing the reader has to what happened earlier, I never felt that I had missed too much. The ruling king (a nasty guy) is holding a competition for the King's Champion. Interesting participants have been gathered from around the country. And while magic has been officially banned (books burned, people imprisoned, etc). there's 'something' killing off the competitors. A word of warning (although this could just be me), the final battle scene is extremely violent.

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Where were napkins first used? What do citrus fruits and windows have in common? For an interesting look at lots of things we use everyday (a few we don't even think about), try The Elements of a Home: Curious Histories Behind Everyday Household Objects, from Pillows to Forks, by Amy Azzarito. There are chapters on desks, chairs, the ice bucket, teapots, tassels ... The short entries make this a good book to read while watching TV. ;-)

A box was found in the basement of the New York Public Library. A file box. It was filled with cards of reference questions from the 1940's to the 1980's. All kinds of questions from the silly to the serious ... and the librarians took it upon themselves to answer them and put them in a book: Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers: a Little Book of Whimsy and Wisdom from the Files of the New York Public Library, with illustrations by Barry Blitt. The cards must have had just the questions because I think I was expecting answer to be from the time of the question rather than a modern day reference to a link ... but that could just be me. :-)

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