Howling Frog Books

Murder Most Persuasive , by Tracy Kiely This is the third mystery in the Elizabeth Parker series, but I've never read the others.  Elizabeth is a Jane Austen-loving gal who accidentally gets embroiled in mysteries and solves them while her friends warn her not to meddle. Elizabeth's family gets involved this time, though, when a body is discovered under the swimming pool of their former property.  The body turns out to be Michael, who disappeared 8 years ago after embezzling a million dollars from the family business.  Or, maybe he didn't, since he seems to have been dead the whole time after all.  Police investigation brings Elizabeth's cousin's former love back into her life, but the cousin is a suspect.  Enter Elizabeth and her knack for putting clues together! It's a reasonably good mystery, with a bunch of complicated family connections.  All the cousins and aunts and stepmothers had me confused some of the time, but most of the characters are ea...

I enjoyed the 2013 Chunkster Challenge so much that I've just got to sign up again.  This time, Vasilly is hosting the 2014 Challenge , and she has changed the rules a little bit: Welcome to the 2014 Chunkster Challenge! I’m your host, Vasilly .  Wondering what’s a chunkster? A chunkster is an adult or YA book, non-fiction or fiction, that’s 450 pages or more.   Rules for this challenge: Audio books and e-books are now allowed . You want to listen to a chunkster on audio? Be my guest.   Essay, short story, and poetry collections are allowed but they have to be read in their entirety to count. Books may crossover with other challenges. Anyone can join. You don’t have to list your book ahead of time. Graphic novels don’t count. Sorry guys but reading a chunkster graphic novel isn’t the same as reading a non-graphic chunkster. I’ve been thinking long and hard about the levels of participation that have always been a part of this chal...

Far From the Madding Crowd , by Thomas Hardy I finished my Spin title ! At first I was not any too sure about this novel ; I felt that it got off to an awfully slow start , and I was at least 100 pages in before I got interested in the characters . Pretty soon , though, I couldn't wait to find out what would happen , and I read the second half much faster than the first half . The story starts with a young farmer , Gabriel Oak, who falls in love with a beautiful neighbor girl , Bathsheba. She refuses him and leaves the area . Some time later , Gabriel loses his farm and looks for work as a shepherd , which he finds at the farm that Bathsheba has just inherited . While he works for her, two other men fall in love with her: a respectable and established neighbor , and a charming , dashing soldier . The consequences of Bathsheba's decisions reach far out , but she does at least...

I couldn't resist this read-along of Eugene Onegin to kick off 2014.  What's one more January event, right?  So I'll be joining Marian at Tanglewood for a read-along.  You'll find the schedule here and it's completely doable if you want to join up too!  Plus she has a bunch of really pretty buttons. The first time I read Pushkin's verse novel, I read Babette Deutsch's translation-- here are my thoughts on that .  This time I would like to try a different translation, hopefully the Falen.  Does anyone know anything about the Mitchell version?

I thought I had pretty much decided on all my challenges for 2014, and that I was going to be pretty minimal about them (by my standards anyway).  BUT THEN o went and started a Russian Literature Challenge at her new blog.  AND Tom the Amateur Reader has been talking about Turgenev and literary debates in 19th century Russia and it all sounds so fascinating that I have to find out about it.  Not to mention the Eugene Onegin readalong in January that I am so tempted to join, even though my January is now ludicrously stuffed with reading events (I would like to try out the Falen translation instead of the Deutsch I read before, but that will require either a purchase or an ILL).  So here I am, signing up for just one more challenge. o says: Because this is a classics blog, I would limit it to classic literature. It can be a novel by a Russian author or a novel set in Russia, and how you choose to define "classic" is up to you. And, of course, you can use ...

The Chunkster Challenge people say: It’s December which means this year’s Chunkster Challenge is coming to an end. If you wrote a wrap-up post or plan to, please use Mr. Linky below to link up to your post. If you don’t have a blog, leave a comment in the comments section telling us how you did with this challenge. We would all love to know what your favorite chunkster was this year. Was there a chunkster you didn’t enjoy? Let us know that too.  I think this may be my best challenge of the year, in that it got me to read some of the most rewarding books.  I said a couple of days ago that Anna Karenina, A Suitable Boy, and In the First Circle were some of my best books for 2013.  I also really enjoyed nearly all my other picks, except for one.  Pamela started off well but went downhill, especially in the second volume.  I should have just read the first one. Here are the books I read:   Anna Karenina, b y Lev Tolstoy (963 pages)   Po...

Happy December!  I am in the middle of my annual chocolate frenzy, and I'm doing pretty well at it.  Last night was very very cold, so I made sure to do cherry cordials,which are the trickiest.  It's been very cold here, cold enough that some people are having trouble with their pipes freezing, and they are even saying it might snow tonight.  Certainly the sky has gone from crystal clear (this morning) to heavily clouded over now (after lunch).  I was going to do toffee today but I think it will be too damp to do anything tonight.  Maybe I can read a book instead. No reason--I just like this picture today. I have some wonderful books going, but chocolate and Christmas do get in the way.  I've gotten well into N. K. Jemisin's fantasy, The Killing Moon , which is really cool.  I've also started Frans Bengtsson's classic tale of the Vikings, The Long Ships , and it is fantastic.  (I just now realized that both of those titles are ones I pi...