Reading the "In Death" Series

Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors -- I've probably read everything she's written. In fact, I'm finishing one of her trilogies right now. But she also writes under the pseudonym J.D. Robb and I'm absolutely hooked on the "In Death" series. I've never been a fan of science fiction and the series is set in the late 2050s, complete with interplanetary travel and hover cars, but they're more about the people, their relationships and the murders to be solved.

I think I picked up my first book, which was actually book #7, "Holiday in Death," in 1999 at the used  bookstore -- because it had the word Holiday in the title, right? I enjoyed it so much, I went back and got books 1 through 6 and have been buying them ever since. Two per year are released and I generally prefer paperbacks so I've collected them all as the paperback editions come out.

I was thinking this morning that it must be about time for the next paperback release and I started gathering up my copies. They were all over the place, on different bookshelves and in different rooms. When I got done, here's what I had ...

28 books containing murder, mayhem, bad guys and good sex.  The main character is New York City Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas. She never had a childhood, which fine tuned her street smarts and made her tough as nails. In the first book, "Naked in Death," she encounters Roarke, billionaire owner of Roarke Industries, who had a rough and tumble childhood in Ireland, now lives in New York and is single-handedly working on owning just about everything on multiple planets. The sparks flew and they're still flying!

All I can say is I love these books and someday I'm planning to read every one of them again, one after the other.

• Naked in Death
• Glory in Death
• Immortal in Death
• Rapture in Death
• Ceremony in Death
• Vengeance in Death
• Holiday in Death
• Conspiracy in Death
• Loyalty in Death
• Witness in Death
• Judgment in Death
• Betrayal in Death
• Seduction in Death
• Reunion in Death
• Purity in Death
• Portrait in Death
• Imitation in Death
• Divided in Death
• Visions in Death
• Survivor in Death
• Origin in Death
• Memory in Death
• Born in Death
• Innocent in Death
• Creation in Death
• Strangers in Death
• Salvation in Death
• Promises in Death

"Kindred in Death" will be released in paperback on March 30th. Yay!

http://www.jdrobb.com/index.html

Bigger?

Turned on the TV and this was on the screen. Is this a cosmic sign?

Wordless Wednesday - Ostrich Mug Shots

Wordless Wednesday

Lemon Fresh

Been dragging around with a little flu bug this last week, but managed to make it outside the house a few times. We have had so much Spring rain, the wildflowers are ... wild! Driving to the grocery store, I passed this house:

Isn't that a gorgeous yard full of colorful wildflowers?

Hubby and I stripped all of our citrus trees of fruit and pruned them back for the season. The lemons are enormous and juicy. I need some new lemon recipes beyond the lemon meringue pie and lemonade.



And didja know that lemon trees have enormous thorns on the branches? I picked a cut branch up off the ground and it was kind of stuck in a pile so I yanked it. Darn thing whipped around and poked me in the backside.



The upside to all this was our whole yard smelled lemon fresh. No wonder they make furniture polish and cleaning products lemon scented!

Wordless Wednesday - Taliesin West Artwork

Wordless Wednesday

Reading "The School of Essential Ingredients"

I received this book as a gift from a dear friend recently and it was such a pleasure to read.

Lillian, who owns and operates Lillian's restaurant, holds a cooking class on Monday nights. She had an unusual childhood. Her father left them when she was only 4 and her mother's method of coping was to read. Non-stop, constant reading, one book after another. Although she was there physically, reading aloud, spiritually and mentally she left Lillian as well. Lillian learned to take care of the household or nothing would get done. This included cooking, which became her passion.

Lillian has an uncanny sense for understanding people, for making sure that the people who can support and relate to each other come together. Her latest cooking class at "The School of Essential Ingredients" has a number of students who don't even realize they're looking for more than just cooking lessons. A young mother who doesn't know who she is without her children and husband; a couple who have been married for many years and withstood a potential relationship shattering episode; a widower whose wife had been a chef; and more.

In this first novel by Erica Bauermeister, the writing is so lyrical, the food sounds so amazing and the characters feel like people you know. Here are a few wonderful excerpts:

• Helen would groan good-naturedly and roll over, telling Carl all she wanted for Christmas was a good night's sleep, and he would pull the children close and whisper the story of the Night Before Christmas until they would slowly, one by one, fall asleep, their bodies draped across each other like laundry in the basket.
• The frosting was a thick butter-cream, rich as a satin dress laid against the firm, fragile texture of the cake. With each bite, the cake melted first, then the frosting, one after another, like lovers tumbling into bed.
• The first time he had kissed her--it had taken six weeks--was over hamburgers, two inches thick, juices running. He had leaned over and licked the grease off her arm without thinking.
• The chicken was soft, delicate, the broccoli crisp and distinctly alive, ginger seasoning the mix like the provocative flip of a short skirt.

This was a sweet, delightful read (258 pages) and a wonderful lesson in how food affects our senses and triggers memories.

http://ericabauermeister.com/

Drip No More

Our exciting Saturday home improvement project was installing new faucets in the master bathroom. We actually painted and retiled our bathroom about 5 years ago, but didn't replace any hardware. Our water in Phoenix is very hard and tends to leave a lot of mineral build-up. Just recently, both faucets in our double sinks have started leaking. We went from this ...



with a relatively small amount of fussing and cussing (at least on my part) -- to this ...



One thing our Oldest Daughter has told us about is the Simple Green cleaning product. It really does loosen and remove a lot of the gunk and it's earth, kid and pet friendly. Buy the large concentrate bottles at the home improvement store, then dilute it into spray bottles. Works great!

Many years ago when the girls were young, we rented a house from a wonderful Italian couple. They had a large family and treated us like part of it. We would go over in person to pay rent and they would always have a bag of home-baked treats for us and little gifts for the girls for every holiday. They were so nice! The husband was a plumber by trade and, Murphy's Law says, the house we rented had continuous plumbing issues. He would come over to fix things like the shower head or the kitchen sink and his Italian-accented comment that we still use to this day is ...

"It's the got-dam spigot, the got-dam spigot!"

You know, it's a darn good thing that hubby can do these fix-ups around the house because it's a man's job! Have you watched the new show "The Marriage Ref?" The episode from last week had Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld and Eva Longoria-Parker as judges, refereeing disputes sent in by married couples.

The one that really got to us was a couple who had only been married for 8 months. She has the formal dining room set up with all the fancy trappings (including the place settings) for Thanksgiving and that is the only time of the year that anyone is allowed to use that table! No kidding ... she actually has a couple of chairs set up near the table so she can sit and reflect on the Thanksgiving holiday all year round. Her husband suggested that he might play cards with friends on it and she nearly popped a vein.

Another issue with the same couple was that the wife felt the husband should handle everything outside the house, including building a porch. She said that since he is a man, he should just know how to do this stuff. She even bought him a porch kit but he said the instructions were in Japanese so he couldn't read them.

Tina Fey and Jerry Seinfeld sided with the husband and Eva Longoria-Parker sided with the wife. It was hysterical. We laughed so hard, we had to keep rewinding and playing it over so we could catch all that they were saying. Definitely a show we'll keep watching!

Secret Project

I've started knitting a secret project this week. Here's a preview ...



Finished my Knitted Neck Scarf - this is a great little pattern and a fun, easy project ...



... and I dropped one of my most favorite coffee cups in the sink the other night and it broke. SIGH ...



Makes me so sad! When I last visited Middle Sister and her family -- over the 4th of July weekend in the mid-West so it was toasty out -- I used this adorable snowman coffee mug. I love any and all things Christmas-y so this coffee cup made me smile the whole time I was there. Then after I got back home to Arizona, I received in the mail this coffee cup full of chocolates. That is so sweet and will forever bring a tear to my eyes. And it just slipped out of my soapy hands and cracked in the sink. I will never do dishes again!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Teddy Pile

Wordless Wednesday

Reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire"

This is the March selection for our book club, the second in the Millennium series written by Stieg Larsson who passed away in 2004. It's the follow up to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and is pretty darned exciting. I would definitely recommend first reading Dragon Tattoo so you have the lay of the land and who all the characters are.

This story is all about European sex trafficking and the scumbags who run the operation. Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist who writes about true crimes and corporate creeps, has an employee who is set to publish a book about the sex trafficking trade - and name names. When he and his girl (who has in tandem written her thesis on sex trafficking and organized crime) are both murdered, it is a blow to Blomkvist and the others at Millenium. A third murder has occurred nearby with the same weapon and forensic evidence points to Lisbeth Salander - she with the Dragon Tattoo who now Plays with Fire.

There are some very good, unexpected twists in this book and the excitement runs strong right to the very last page. Larsson did an excellent job of setting this story up as a lead in to the third installment, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest."

I think the premise for the story can be found in one sentence on page 463 (hardback edition):

Salander was the woman who hated men who hate women.

I am anxious to read the next one.