Quick Trip Before Summer is Over! And A Classic Cozy Mystery!

 

Today we are heading to the mountains of North Georgia to celebrate my dad's birthday! We are driving and staying at a VRBO by a creek. I'll be sure to take and share some pictures because Appalachia is beautiful.  It's also an extremely old area, so I assume there are ghosts around every turn. 

While we are there I'm hoping to go to the bookstore on the square and also pick up some preserves and local honey. Speaking of food, when we drove down in the spring we stopped at a Bojangles and I had the most delicious fried ham and pimento cheese biscuit. I still haven't recovered. 

One of our kiddos has to work and is missing the party. I hope that they don't put my iron skillet in the dishwasher like they did the last time I wasn't home...

Now on to a cozy mystery. Recently I listened to the audio version of Death in Castle Dark by Veronica Bond. It was the book of the month for the Cozy Mystery Book Club. If you want to hear Angela and her guest discuss this book you can watch the live stream on YouTube. I thought the book was pretty good. If someone asked me to recommend a cozy mystery book to someone who doesn't read the genre, this would be a good pick. It has all the classic cozy mystery elements. You've got a murder, of course, a potential love interest, a quirky new friend and cats. Plus there's a castle! 

3.5 stars for Death in Castle Dark!

The August book club book is Death and Gondola. I'm waiting til I have an audible credit to listen to it this month!  How about you?Any August vacations or books you are looking forward to reading before the month is over? 

Slight Hiccup, "Murder Most Fowl" by Donna Andrews

 Murder Most Fowl by Donna Andrews is the 29th book in her long-running cozy mystery series. Isn't that amazing?  The Meg Laslow Mystery series is one I enjoy popping in and out of as the mood strikes. I picked it up to listen to because I was looking for books with witchy and/or Halloween vibes and this book delivered. 

If you like Shakespeare and cozy mysteries, you really have to read this book because so much of it revolves around an ill-fated production of Macbeth. In this series, it can take so long before someone is murdered that you might think this is the book where she doesn't have a murder--and just when you've given up on the Murder part of Murder Mystery, Donna will knock someone off. 

The cast of characters in this series is very eclectic and I am sure that is part of what makes the series so popular.  This book is a solid 4 stars.  Give it a try! 

The slight hiccup is that I am not writing about any of the books I was planning on finishing and writing about this week. Yesterday I had my annual physical and as part of it I was asked by my doctor if I wanted to get the shingles vaccine. This is the only shot I have not gotten around to getting, I even had my flu shot already. I explained that I have a strong immune response when I get vaccines and would this vaccine leave me with flu-ish symptoms.  The doctor said no, there should just be maybe some pain around the injection site. So I said sure, let's do it.

Joke is on me! I'm exhausted, achy, and my nose is stuffy. Sigh.  I'm not complaining too much, partly because I'm too tired to complain and also I'd much rather have this than actual shingles. 

I'm too tired to read today, my fingers are crossed this is the worst of it, and also it's good to have a strong immune response for the most part!