Reading in the Garden

Annette's 2014 Book Winners Below are the books I have read in 2014. You can read reviews on almost all of them. I’ve noted the ones that stood out as my favorites.  Favorites is a hard game to play, and I wanted to mark so many more that stood out, but in the end I bit the bullet and only chose the top two or three in a category.  As a side note, just because I didn’t write a review on the book, doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Click on the titles to read the reviews. Fiction: Bab ayaga by Toby Barlow  Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Dog On It by Spencer Quinn Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok  A Guide to the Birds of East Africa   by Nicholas Drayson This charming book rocketed up to win my “favorite book of the year award. ”   Heartburn by Nora Ephron The Hundred-FootJourney by Richard C. Morais The J.M. Barrie L

Honeymoon from Hell Death on the Nile   by Agatha Christie is a fun whodunit set on a steamer cruise ship in Egypt. While gliding down the Nile on a luxury seven-day trip, a young, wealthy, beautiful bride on her honeymoon is found dead.  As luck would have it, mustachioed Belgian detective, Hercule Poroit, happens to be vacationing on the same boat and with the help of acquaintance, Colonel Race, they set out to solve the sordid crime.  Some facts, ergo motives, were already all too crystal clear.  Linnet Ridgeway is a woman of means, and means to get whatever she wants.  She’s got the looks and money to spin the world her way.  What she wants is her friend Jacqueline’s fiancé, Simon Doyle.  And although Simon and Jacqueline were madly in love, Linnet manages to peel him away from the defenseless woman.  They marry and head off to exotic Egypt for their honeymoon.  Jacqueline, however, is a woman scorned. As you know, hell hath no fury like that type of female, and Jackie

The Spinster and the Madam The Chili Queen   by Sandra Dallas . Emma is a thirty-something spinster who sets out to marry a man she’s only corresponded with, but never met.  Her brother thinks she’s a twit and minces no words about his opinions of her when he helps Emma board a train to Nalgitas, New Mexico in the late 1800s.  He makes sure she sits next to a respectable woman during the train ride to keep his naïve sister safe.  That woman, however, ain’t no lady. She’s Addie French, a madam at a brothel called The Chili Queen.  When Emma reaches Nalgitas, instead of her dream man waiting for her, she discovers a note calling the whole thing off.  Poor Emma can’t return to her brother with the bad attitude. She does the only thing she can think of and sets off to find Addie at The Chili Queen, which she thinks is a boarding house. Addie agrees to take Emma in and together they develop a plan that involves secrets, deceptions, greed, and justice.  While I liked The Chili Quee

Happy Birthday to Notable Authors born in December! Click on the links to read reviews. December 7, 1873               Willa Cather American author born in Nebraska who wrote stories of the struggles of pioneer life, including O’Pioneers and My Antonia (both are quick reads which I have enjoyed) . She won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours. December 12, 1821             Gustave Flaubert French novelist and playwright, famous for Madame Bovary , his first published novel which was originally printed in a series of articles. Due to the shockingly naughty and immoral theme of adultery, Flaubert was brought to trial along with the printer and the manager of the series. All were acquitted and naturally the sensationalism boosted sales of the book. December 15, 1896             Betty Smith American author born in Brooklyn, NY, known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, about a poor Irish-American family struggling to make ends meet during the ea