Here is a lovely, thoughtful read from Tall Reader: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It's how nature works, keeps itself in balance, and how humans have really messed that up. It also offers a way to get that balance back, a world where we are not using everything up in a way that will eventually destroy everything. It wouldn't be easy, and is (sadly) unlikely to happen. Good new is, though, that some folks are trying!

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If you want a non-fiction book that reads like high adventure, pick up The Art Thief: a True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, by Michael Finkel. Stephane Breitwieser stole art, lots of it, in broad daylight. His girlfriend was his lookout. The thefts were thoughtful, and planned, and sometimes, they even stopped and chatted with museum staff on their way out! Thefts were not for monetary gain, he kept the art in their apartment where he could be surrounded by it every day. How he did this, and how he was caught made for a grand adventure on a cold, winter day. :-)

Author Peggy Orenstein had a busy life, one where she traveled a lot to talk about her books ... then Covid happened, and the lock down. She already knew how to knit, but some how took it into her head to learn about the entire process, from shearing a sheep, to spinning and dyeing the wool (all with natural things) to knitting a sweater. She found someone who would teach her how to shear a sheep (all masked and at the proper distance) and so it began ... Unraveling: How I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater was a most engaging read, and I don't knit! There are some life lessons, and some history about knitting which were very interesting. There are no pictures so consider going on-line to look up the final result. :-)

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Just how might an author incorporate a xylophone into a story line? Very nicely if that author is Diana Xarissa! Fenella's niece, Margaret, is back on the island. They go for a late night stroll when Fenella trips and breaks her arm. The ER doc, knowing Fenella has worked on other mysteries on the island, asks for help in finding her missing boyfriend. This relationship is new, maybe he's just avoiding the ER doc? The plot thickens, as they say, when they check his apartment and find a strange man dead on the floor. Xylophones and X-rays is another delightful entry into the Isle of Man Ghostly Series.

Here is a mystery unlike most of the ones I read. Not only are those doing the investigating younger than the usual sleuths in the stories I like, they are also pregnant! Alice and Joe have moved from London to a small town, where they can afford to rent a small house instead of a very tiny apartment. Alice is about eight months pregnant and has signed up for a pre-birthing class to meet the local midwife as well as others in the same condition she's in. A local business owner dies that night. Investigating proves to be a way to not only walk her dog (so she can go ask folks questions) but also to make friends in her new location. The Expectant Detectives, by Kat Ailes was different (for this reader anyway), for sure!

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There is a theme to my choices today ... cemeteries! Both authors like to wander through them, especially the older ones. Both had experiences when young with them.

Greg Melville considers them to be overlooked and underused historical resources. You can learn a lot from them. His first summer job was as seasonal help, mowing around the tombstones in his local cemetery. He was young and energetic and mowing quickly when one of the full time employees took him aside, told him to slow down, look around, pay attention to what he was doing. He did so and started to recognize some of the names in the old part of the graveyard as names he saw on streets and buildings and parks downtown. Then there was a section with similar death dates for those died during an epidemic. There were sections for veterans of the two World Wars, and so on. This would spark a life long interest in history! In some cemeteries, he learned, discrimination is still evident, those where blacks and whites were divided, and even now one will get care, one won't (it's getting better). Many city parks are built over old ones with little care given as to who lies beneath. Chinese could not be buried, even in the local potters field, or they had to pay a fee when no one else did. Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries is an interesting read and includes discussions on word origins and changes ... undertaker to mortician to funeral director, or coffin to casket (it's the shape), or when embalming began (there were scams here!). At some point cemeteries became separate from churches and an industry was born. This changed the layout (think flat, easy to mow) and using the cemetery. for weddings and concerts. Interesting note: those planned communities, where everything looks the same? That design came from cemeteries! A really engaging read.

That took me to A Tomb With a View: the Stories & Glories of Graveyards, by Peter Ross. These are graveyards in the UK. Here, the author spends time learning about who is buried in various graveyards, and how they ended up where they did. Why are flowers still left at a centuries old marker? There is a familiar story here, too, for some of us anyway, about Greyfriars Bobby, a small dog who returned to his masters grave every morning for years. And an interesting story of a small graveyard, wedged between two busy roads that is unmarked, with no names ... everyone there died of a plague when there was concern that the body could transmit the disease, so they were buried far away (at that time). What happens when a graveyard fills up? There is some concern too, over the trend for cremation and the scattering of ashes. If a graveyard is no longer used, it will fall into disrepair, and, without markers for the deceased, we're losing bits of history. Food for thought, as they say!

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It begins with a book signing in Gemma's bookstore in the small town of Derbyshire, which ends abruptly with the death of the guest author ... and that's where the mystery begins. It looks to be an accidental overdose, but Gemma and Mavis (her assistant) are not so sure. The author was always very careful with his medication, and there are those who may have a motive. A Bitter Pill is the first in the Bookshop Mysteries by S.A. Reeves. It was an excellent start!

Another good start to a new series is The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, by C.L. Miller. The author's mother is Judith Miller who has written several books about antiques, many of which her daughter helped on, so, she is well versed in the subject. :-) Freya has been out of the antique market for a long time and now she learns that the man who was her mentor, and the one who kicked her out of the profession is dead, murdered. There are hints and clues that he left behind, obviously designed for her ... but why? And what happened all those years ago where he treated her so poorly? He also left her (and her rather quirky aunt) his business and old house. She can see immediately that many of the things that were once real are now reproductions ... what's up with that? Then there are the threatening notes. Be on the lookout for more by this author.

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Warning! This book could keep you up late, very late! It is a nod to Jane Austen, in fact, one of the reviews (from Alexander McCall Smith) says it is exactly the sort of mystery she would have written, if she wrote mysteries. :-) A grand party is being held, one where the guests will come and stay the month. It has been carefully planned, until an unexpected, uninvited and unwanted guest shows up. Mr. Wickam has some hold on everyone and is not afraid to use it. Proper manners mean he has to be invited to stay (the weather takes a turn for the worse), but it puts a damper on the party. When he is found dead, everyone is a suspect. How will they figure it all out? The Murder of Mr. Wickam is by Claudia Gray (a pseudonym of Amy Vincent). Well written, and in an older, more ... reflective style ... take your time, enjoy the read, but don't expect to get much else done! It is the first in the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney series.

Here's a book, as a musician, I could not resist (even though I never had the chance to play in the pit) ... Tales from the Pit, by Peter Neville! Each chapter focuses on a different instrument and that musicians experience playing in the small group below the stage. Note, it takes place in smaller towns, this is not the pit orchestra of a large Broadway type show! One curious thing is that it is often called a band (which to me always meant no strings), and Wandering Reader who HAS played in the pit agrees with me. The book is from Scotland so I am guessing it might be a local turn of phrase. :-) Once I got past that I quite enjoyed this, but it might make more sense if you are a musician, too. :-)

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From Canadian Reader came a recommendation for the first in a new (to us) series: The Case of the Missing Marquess, by Nancy Springer. It is the first in her Enola Holmes Mystery series. Enola is the (much) younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, and, given the era, a bit of a scandal given that it means she is a child of an older mother! It is written for 8 - 12 year olds, but at least four of us agree that it is more fun if you know the characters and a bit about that time era. Enola's mother has gone missing. Her brothers come to check out things and discover that while Enola is well educated, she has not ever been sent to finishing school and so does not know (gasp) how to act like a proper young lady. Mycroft plans to remedy that, but Enola does not want to go to such a school ... so she runs away. Her hunt for her mother, and the clues that she finds make for a most enjoyable read, one that won't take you long. :-)

The Witch is Back, by Angela M. Sanders in the sixth book in her Witch Way Librarian Mystery Series, and another excellent read! Wilfred, Oregon, is usually a quiet little town, folks all get along, and so on ... until poison pen letters start arriving, each with a threat to 'tell all'. Who is sending them? The monetary demands to keep quiet are small, the secrets old, some decades old, so how are they being found out? And what about the body at the bottom of the cliff? And why is Josie's magic feeling ... blocked?

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When I learned that there will be a new Miss Fortune Mystery in the new year I decided to read the one that's been sitting on my shelf for a while: Marsh Madness, by Jana Deleon. There is a reunion coming up, a 10 year (from high school) reunion and one group, who were friends back then (or where they?) decides to meet up early at a local B&B for a 'pre-reunion' gathering. When one of them turns up dead, evidence points to one of the owners of that B&B and an accidental poisoning. This is something that could ruin the business and he and his wife would lose the house they love. He asks Fortune to look into it since the local policeman (it's a small town, there's just the one) is a total idiot (he really is). Follow along as Fortune, Ida Belle, and of course, Gertie work on solving what actually happened. Another great entry in this series!

Canadian Reader was here over the holidays, and brought the last of the Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy books by Diana Xarissa so I felt I could read Weddings and Witnesses knowing that I had them on my shelf. :-) Plans are going well as the wedding day for Shelly Quirk draws closer. Her Aunt has arrived (a most interesting new character) and the wedding party has moved to the Seaview Hotel for the last few days. The hotel is transitionally closed during the colder months, but opened for this wedding. Prior to that closing was a group of women celebrating a divorce. As far as any one knows, they'd all checked out, and yet, a body was found in one of the rooms, with evidence that she had been living in that room for some time. How did she get in? Who knew she was there? And why was she murdered then, and not some time earlier? Can this be solved before the wedding?

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Something that might have been more common before Ancestry.com was that folks liked to brag that they were related to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or one of the other more illustrious presidents. Alas, my family is related to Warren G. Harding. He's on the list of 'worst' presidents. However, I learned something new when I went to look for a book about him, there have some historians who have worked at exonerating him from that list! The one I read was The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding, by Ryan S. Walters. Turns out, Harding wasn't all that bad, there were some issues, yes, but he also created the Veteran’s Bureau, revived the economy, reduced taxes and government spending, and urged for equal rights for Blacks. Unemployment went from 15% to 3%. All in less than three years (he died in office). Now, about those scandals, yes, they did happen, but he was unaware of them and benefited in no way, however, he did take responsibility because he put those men in those positions. And the affairs, there were some (as with FDR, JFK, LBJ and Clinton), but none in the White House, and the women mentioned never existed. (The stories of these affairs came out four years after his death). So, while he is not a candidate for Mt. Rushmore, he does not deserve to be on the 'worst' list, either.

Here is a book of tales from a small animal vet, one who made house calls. Tales of a Pet Vet: Stories From the Clinic and House Calls, by Dr. Dawn Filos. House calls for vet visits is a good idea in many ways ... the animal and owner are more comfortable, and the vet can check on things ... like the "cup" measurement one owner was using to feed her (very) overweight dog was from a Big Gulp! :-) In addition to her anecdotes about being a vet the author also included some thoughtful chapters on end of life decisions, setting up a trust for the pet(s) should the owner die first, and alternative medicines and treatments. Nicely done.

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