A Good Yarn

 I love these books. They are so sweet and innocent and even though you know that whatever troubles the characters go through during the book, things always work out in the, its still a good read.

This is the second book in the Blossom Street series. It continues to tell the tale of Lydia who opened up a yarn shop in Seattle. She has knitting classes, and meets 3 new people who are so different, but help each other out and become good friends.

Call me bitter, and I know I am, but some of the things these people do for almost complete strangers seems pretty far fetched. Would you really give $500 to a teen in your wife's knitting class just so she can buy a dress for Homecoming? Not likely, but wouldn't that be nice?

The main character, Lydia is started to annoy me. In the last book she dumped her boyfriend because she thought that she had cancer again, and when she found out she didn't, she begged him to take her back. In this book, she suspects that he's getting back together with his ex wife, so she breaks it off without even listening to his side of the story, and of course when she found out it wasn't true, she begged him to take her back. Geez woman, insecure much?

But they are still good books and I'm eager to read the third one.

The Cluttered Corpse

 I hate stupid characters, and the chick in this mystery just annoyed me. This book caught my eye because Charlotte is a professional organizer who solves crimes. I love organizing, and each chapter gives a little tip. It was good up until she started sticking her nose where it didn't belong. Her client gets accused of murder so of course Charlotte decides to figure out who really did it, only to get herself into more trouble with each chapter. When will people learn that when your tires get slashed, your house gets broken into, your friend get run over, etc that you should back off. And the thing that really annoyed me is how she kept being nice to this girl who she used to be friends with. The whole time, the girl was a bitch to her and yet Charlotte goes off and risks her life to save her. The girl is a cop, a bitchy one, so I'm sure she would know what to do. I thought I might read the other book in this series, but now I'm not to sure. Something tells me she just as stupid in that one as she was in this one.

The Manual

 This book was a load of crap. All these tips he gives to give to get us to be able to weed out the bad guys and find the good guys, or just to get a guy to notice us just didn't make sense. He says that he often uses another girl to help him get the girl hes interested in. If I see a guy with a girl, I'm not going to hit on him. For all I know she's his girlfriend. No point in starting a cat fight. He also talked about playing games and following rules, which just sounds like a recipe for disaster. Yes, I believe that you should flirt and tease a guy a little, but I think that they like it, but don't do it to the point where the guy is just confused about who you are and what you want. Most of the advice he gave, I swear, if I did it in the real world, would just backfire.

I don't want to be all negative, some of it seemed helpful. He says that any time you are out in public there is always at least one guy checking you out. That kind of makes me feel exposed. I don't doubt that yeah, there probably is, because I often look around at people when I go to the store or whatever. But when he talks about it, he always makes it seem like the person is going to come over and start chatting with you. That has NEVER happened to me. I go to the store and library all the time, and never has a random guy come up to me and started a conversation.

Why would I want to take advice from a Player. Maybe if he had been a player, but then got married, it would be a little more believable. Like I said, this book was BS, but that doesn't mean that you won't take it a different way. So read it. Maybe you'll get more out of it than I did.

Back To School Murder

 I don't really have any thoughts on this book. It wasn't super exciting, but it wasn't super boring. Just kind of average. Not my favorite of hers, but also, not my least favorite. This is not a very good review, but really, it was just a average book. The apple on the cover is super creepy. This will probably be my last mystery for a while. At least until I start reading the books I own, but I need to get through the library books first.

Enter Whining

 I've been a Fran Drescher fan for years. I used to love The Nanny and would try to imitate her nasal laugh for some reason. I thought that she was funny and stylish. I few years ago I read her other book Cancer Schmancer, probably because the bookstore didn't have this one. A few weeks ago I found out that they replay episodes of her show at 4 am, which of course I'm awake, and was reminded of this book so I checked it out from the library.

It doesn't go through her whole life, mostly this book is just about her life as an actor, how she got started, and all the ups and downs it takes trying to make it in the showbiz world. It had lots of a pictures, which I loved. Most books about stars never have enough pics. She even put in ones from back when she was chubby. It was good. The chapters are short and it was funny enough that I read like half of it last night and the rest of it just now. If you are a fan of hers, I say read this.

Bake Sale Murder

 Ok, I promise that I only have one more of her books that I want to read, and then I will stop. But I like the character, so whatever. This book seemed darker than the other ones. And seeing as how I haven't been sleeping well due to unwanted movie scenes that keep popping up in my head when I do try to sleep, reading this was not such a good idea. But her books are quick reads and I'm trying to get through my giant stack of library books.

The story line for this one wasn't that great. When I found out how the person was murdered, I thought it was kind of lame. If you are going to kill someone, it better be for a darn good reason. But the cupcakes on the cover look yummy. I might have to go eat some now.

New Year's Eve Murder

 Once again, this book was titled wrong. New York Murder would have made more sense, since that's what happened. Lucy and her daughter win a mother-daughter make over in NYC and get to experience the behind the scenes at a magazine. But then someone drops dead from anthrax and Lucy daughter also got exposed, so Lucy wants to find out what happened. I was kind of surprised that the author used anthrax seeing as how I think this was written around the time there was the scare. The first half of this book was really interesting, but the second got kinda boring, but that might just be because I was getting sleepy. Elisa, you might like this one because it takes place in NYC and at a fashion magazine.

Valentine Murder

 This book really should have been called Library Murder since someone gets murdered at the library. And most of the book takes place at the library, but whatever. It wasn't as interesting as some of the other books that I've read, but it wasn't the worst. So I kind of feel so-so about this book.

The Shop On Blossom Street

 I'm starting to enjoy Debbie Macomber's books. This is the second one that I've read by her and am eager to read more. This book was super cute and makes me want to learn how to knit. Again. Lydia opens a yarn shop and starts a beginner class, where three different women sign up and become friends. Each has something going on in their life and this novel tells the story of all of them. Parts of the book made me a little mad because bad things kept happening to good people, but in the end, everything worked out well. Read it. You'll love it.

Trick Or Treat Murder

 This book was a little bit creepy. Halloween alone is creepy, add a crazy person setting fires all around town makes it even worse. Fires scare me. They can get out of hand a ruin everything. As usual, I had no idea who the fire starter was until Lucy figured it out. lol. I really suck at solving mysteries. Remind me to never become a dectective.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

 I really don't know why the library keeps putting these books in the mystery section. The first one in the series was a mystery, the second one-this one had very little mystery to it, and the third one should have been in the romance section. We'll see what the fourth one brings when I get to it. I like these books because they are full of philosophy and questions and ethics, and I actually kind of like that sort of thing. Its fun to have a conversation with someone about what is ethical and such. And this book stays true to that. It makes me feel smart.

The Money Book

 Reading this book was a good and bad mistake. Bad in the sense that it made me even more scared about money than I already was. Bottom line is, that I pretty much don't have any and that freaks me out, especially since my parents who are helping me out aren't getting any younger and won't always be there to help me. Good in the sense that someday when I do get money again, I can go back to this book and look up the things that I need to know. In the right hands, this book can be really helpful. It talks about credit cards, debt, buying a home, school, car, relationships. And it was easy to follow. Most finance books put me to sleep, but she set up a layout that kept the readers attention. And in each chapter she has questions that people have asked her and answers. I mostly just skimmed this, because not all of it applies to me. I would recommend it to people. So if you are having money issues, check out this book.

Where Angels Go

 I love Christmas books, and must have been feeling the need to read one when I saw this at the library. The story follows 3 angels who are on different missions to get done before Christmas. It was cute, and I almost cried at that end. Being an angel isn't as easy as people think it is.

Coming Out

 I've read a few books by Danielle Steel before, and never really liked them. When I was at the library yesterday stocking up on to many books, I decided to give her another try. So I picked out the shortest most interesting looking one there. As I was reading it, I remembered why I don't like her books. First, the chapters are so long. Ten pages is long enough for a chapter, her's are like thirty. Second, that there isn't a whole lot of excitement in her books. Or at least not in the one's I've read. It was a decent novel, about a mother dealing with her two twin girls who are 'coming out' meaning a debtante cotillion which apparently the rich people have. I don't really get the point of it, but there was an episode of The OC where they had one. So it was an okay book, glad I checked it out instead of bought it.

Turkey Day Murder

 I love turkey and this book made me crave some. To bad I ate my turkey and mashed potato frozen dinner yesterday when I was reading it, now I have none. Oh well. It's 5:30 am I shouldn't be eating turkey, and I should probably be asleep, but I wanted finish this because I was almost done and was awake. Now I'm sleepy and a Fergie song just started to play on my itunes and will get stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Dang it. I might have to go read something else to get my mind elsewhere.

Back to the book. It's Thanksgiving time in Tinker's Cove, but it wouldn't be a holiday without a murder. It's a small town, if she keeps killing people off, there isn't going to be anyone left. Typical Lucy Stone mystery, filled with her sticking her nose where it doesn't belong while taking care of 4 kids and a husband who had a beard in this one and needs to shave. There were a lot of Indians involved which makes sense since its Thanksgiving. They wanted people to respect them and their culture, and there was a plan to make a casino. Why do Indians always want to make casinos? Casinos are tacky in every place but Vegas. A casino in Maine? That just doesn't seem right.

In other words: Not my favorite, but decent.

Mistletoe Murder

 Out of all the Lucy Stone series that I've read, the Christmas ones are the best. But I also love Christmas. This is the first book the in Lucy Stone series and the characters are just as loving in this one as they are in the newer books. Lucy is a mother of 3, works for a call center, and is busy, busy, busy. She's kind of the type of person I would have wanted to be. Get married to a sweet guy, have a family, live in Maine, solve mysteries. Maybe that's why I like these series so much. I'm not say that they are all great, I started one and just couldn't get into it, but so far the Chirstmas ones seem to be the best.

How To Be Happy, Dammit.

 This book was super cute. And helpful. Its got 44 Life Lessons that make sense. Its one of those books that is handy to keep around for those days when you are feeling down and hating life and need a little reminder of how to be positive and happy. Its a quick little read and something you should check out.

Star Spangled Murder

 So this one wasn't as good as the Christmas one, but it had enough action going on to keep my attention. It was one of those mysteries where there were so many suspects that I had no idea who the killer was. It will kind of surprise you. The ending was kinda lame, but the book made me laugh at parts. Makes me kind of excited for the Fourth of July.