Top Ten Tuesday for June 7!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish each week...on...TUESDAY!!

(Although sometimes I actually post on a Wednesday!)

I tend to post when I like the topic and have time to do so!

This week's topic? 

The Top Ten Reasons I love ________!

I am going to give you my reasons for loving Historical Fiction and Mysteries!

First up: Historical Fiction

Here is my Historical Fiction page!

#1 I love to learn! 

I love to read and I love to learn from my reading, but I despise dull boring recitations of FACTS, period! I think the majority of people who read at all have the same opinion. I learn so much history from "historical" fiction!

#2 I mainly read for characterization!

This may seem counter-intuitive when considering historical fiction, however, in my opinion, it is a writer's skill to create well-drawn historically accurate characters that impresses me so much! It is through the characters that so much else is depicted and divulged!

#3 I want to "feel" a setting/environment! 

     (You know. That "Calgon-take-me-away feeling"!)

Historical fiction that is well-written makes me "feel" as if I am right there with the characters! Whether it is in 1920's Kenya, 1920's western United States, or 1945 Eastern Europe. 

#4 I want a 'frame of reference' and/or understanding of others from the past.

I want to understand a person's or people's behavior a bit better, and by placing people in their own place and time from the past, it makes the motivations for their actions much easier to discern. Though many times unpleasant to my current-day sensibilities, I can at least better understand "where they're coming from." Facts alone do not give this much information and many times NO context. 

#5 I want a clearer picture of the whole historical process. 

History is not just a collection of bits and pieces of data, but rather a fluid evolution of ever-changing ideas, opinions, and interpretations, which eventually lead to social/cultural change. I like to try to understand how one thing can lead to another, to another... This knowledge is imparted most effectively through a character's thoughts and feelings than in any listing of facts. 

Last, but by no means least: Mysteries

Here is my 2016 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge Page!

#1 I love a good puzzle, and really, a mystery is just a puzzle to be solved!

As I can recall, the very first mysteries I ever read were Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series. I started reading these at 9 years of age and never looked back! It was always so much fun to try to solve the mystery myself!

#2 I mainly read for characterization!

No, you are not seeing double. Yes, this is the same #2 reason I love historical fiction and I am using it once again as the #2 reason I love mysteries! Why? Mysteries, by definition, are somewhat similar--a puzzle to be solved! But one huge way to set a mystery apart and make it unique is by creating imaginative characters. Some of the series I enjoy most for their characters: the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, and the Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt. And there are so many more I could list...but for once, I will try to restrain myself! :) (And do not get used to it!)

#3 I love a good challenge!

Nothing better than an author who can make me suspect each and every character at least once throughout a mystery book! I enjoy NOT knowing "who did it" until the end, or at least close to it! :)

#4 I enjoy a truly compelling read!

While I don't appreciate being "scared," I do appreciate the tension and suspense of not knowing and wondering...and not wanting to wait much longer to KNOW! Mysteries are more likely to keep me up late at night than any other genre! There is nothing quite so satisfying as just turning the pages...burning right through them...over and over and over again! :)

#5 Mysteries are the books I am most likely to reread.

That might seem strange and not make much sense. (Though we are talking about me, after all! So perhaps that isn't unexpected. :)) After all, if I've read a mystery once I already know "who did it," don't I? Well, frankly, the older I get the less true this becomes. Seriously, I often don't remember right away, and I just have some series that I can pick up and reread at any time and know I'll enjoy myself immensely! I have reread the Stephanie Plum books, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, the Sunday Philosophy Club series featuring Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith, Agatha Christie books, and, of course, although they also involve fantasy, the Harry Potter series! :)

What do YOU love? 

2016 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge

Since I have always been a huge fan of mystery/thriller novels,

this is another of the challenges in which I will enlist for 2016!

And since one of 2016 reading goals is to read/reread mystery series,

this is perfect!!
Click here to follow along on my Cloak and Dagger page!

This is being hosted by Stormi @ Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My!

and Barb @ Booker T's Farm

And since I've already read the first six books in Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, 

plan to finish reading Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series and Albert's China Bayles series, and plan to reread McCall Smith's #1 Ladies' Detectives and Isabel Dalhousie series, I'm in!!

With that list I am definitely aiming for Special Agent: Lynn!

LEVELS:

                                         Amateur Sleuth              1-10 books

                                               Detective                  11-20 books

                                               Inspector                   21-30 books

                                          Special Agent                 31+ books

Twitter hashtag  #2016CloakDaggerChal

Challenge will run from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. 

You can register here until April 15, 2016!

** Monthly link-ups for posting reviews will be provided--here is January's!

RULES:

* You can read any book that is form the mystery/suspense/thriller/crime genres. 

Any sub-genres are welcome as long as they incorporate one of these genres.

* You can participate without a blog! You just need a please to post reviews to which you can link: Goodreads, booklikes, LibraryThing, shelfari, a blog, etc.

* Make a goal post and link it back here with your goal for this challenge.

* Books need to be novellas or novels of at least 100 pages in length--no short stories, please!

* Counting these books for other challenges as well works just fine! 

I will include many of mine in some of these other challenges: #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks (I already own most of the above-listed books!), Classics Club, 2016 Southern Literature Reading Challenge.

* There will be a giveaway for participants at both the mid-point and end. 

If you read mysteries or historical fiction mysteries, this might work for you, too!

What other challenges are you participating in this year?

China Bayles, former Criminal Lawyer, now herbalist/amateur sleuth!

Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert

This was the February 2015 read for our Borders Book Club!

And it was unanimous among the four members participating--
we all really liked it or loved it!

This book was nominated for both an Agatha and an Anthony Award for Best First Mystery!

Honestly, I think it should have won, for so many reasons!

Each of our book club members was really impressed with China's skill at analyzing and evaluating the evidence as she investigated...well, really, she was the first upon the various scenes of death except one! So whether she wanted to know the murderer's identity or not, it was probably the smart thing to do since she was somewhat implicated as the murderer...When asked why she left the practice of law to become an herbalist, China's stock answer is "plants don't argue"! (Very true!) She continues, 

     "They also don't lie, cheat, connive, or hit below the belt. ... I left 
     the law because I stopped believing in the partnership between 
     justice and the legal system. I also left because the practice of law 
     was changing me into somebody I didn't like very much, somebody more arrogant, 
     more competitive, more cutthroat than I knew myself to be. If I stayed in much longer, I 
     knew what I'd become--a carbon copy of the senior partners in our firm, four men who 
     lived for their work, whose lives were empty of anything else." (page 8)

I can certainly understand her need to switch career paths! Why herbs?

     "...because when I was a kid I was crazy about growing things. It was a trait I inherited 
     from my father's mother, who had what was probably the finest herb garden in New 
     Orleans parish. I inherited Gran's name, too. China Bayles." (page 8)

And in comparing these two jobs:

        It gives me a lift to see cellophane packages of Thyme and Seasons basil and rosemary and marjoram displayed in [the] produce section, along with some little ceramic pots of chives I'd sold them a couple of weeks ago. I feel every bit as proud of those chives as I ever felt about a well-done legal brief. I haven't figured out whether that judgment represents an overvaluation of my chives or an undervaluation of my briefs. (page 186)

Albert's sense of humor comes through in this book and makes it an even more enjoyable read. 

How nice that China and Ruby were able to "cover" for each other's business since they were next door to each other, so neither one 

     "is irrevocably tied to her shop. Even if you love what you're doing, some days a one-
     person business feels like a one-ton albatross." (page 10)

Yes, it can... I think too often people go into business for themselves thinking they'll never again NOT want to go into work. But it does happen, hopefully not as often or as intensely as when you're working for "the man"!

Jo, one of China's very closest friends in Pecan Springs is dealing with cancer,  

        "My connection to my own mother is strained, to put it mildly, and Jo filled an empty 
     place in my life." (page 19)

Jo truly took China under her wing when she first moved to Pecan Springs. In so many ways she was the motherly figure in China's life that she'd not had before. I could relate to the thoughts China had immediately after Jo's death about how she thought she'd have so much longer to say her goodbyes, etc. So many times that is how it seems.

China and I share similar relationships with our mothers, although mine was not an alcoholic as hers was. In reviewing Jo's lack of a close relationship with her own daughter, China muses, 

        I wonder whether any of us really knew our mothers, yet whether we could ever be 
     successful in knowing ourselves apart from them. (page 27)

As I become older than "middle-aged" I often feel a bit sad to think none of my three sons really understand who I am in so many ways. Though I wonder if it is possible for our children to know us as our closest friends do... However, it is so sad to realize the true reason Jo shut Meredith (her daughter) our of her life--I believe she may well have underestimated Meredith's ability to accept and appreciate her regardless... Though as China comments to Jo,

        "Maybe she thought you wouldn't approve. Maybe she wanted to protect you. Maybe 
     she wanted you to keep loving her." I stopped, struck by a disconcerting thought. Until I 
     was fifteen or sixteen, Leatha tried to cover up her drinking, keep it a secret from me. I'd 
     thought she hid it because she was ashamed of seeming weak beside my father's 
     towering strength. But maybe my mother, like Jo, had wanted to protect her daughter, 
     wanted her to keep loving her. I slid uneasily away from the thought. I'd built up a 
     reserve of energizing, sustaining anger against Leatha. It was useful. I wanted to hold 
     on to it. (page 148)

I could have written that paragraph, my own feelings toward my mother were so aptly described in those last three sentences! In the aftermath of her death, it is taking years for me to release the negativity and judgement those statements describe. 

Although China and Ruby are best friends, they are very different people in many ways. China is pragmatic and practical and Ruby tends to be a "free thinker" into "New Age alternative therapies"--she had Jo on the "Healing Path"! (In my opinion Ruby is simply a "hippie"!) They complement each other to create an effective team, particularly for investigations. We were all rather surprised at how Jo actually died in the end...It was certainly not what we expected!

In the course of the story, I'm certain I suspected each character of being the murderer at least two different times! (Except for China and Ruby, of course!) Albert masterfully weaves many false leads into the story, while retaining the cohesiveness and flow of the prose. There is a car chase, and a greedy murderer is caught! We all agreed that Albert deserved many kudos for making a lesbian relationship so prominent in this book which was published as long ago as 1992; it added more depth and resonance overall. 

A solid not-so-easily-solved mystery, concise storytelling, and this first book introduces the main (and I assume recurring-throughout-the-series) characters in a way that makes me want to know more about them. There are currently 22 books in this series, and yes...I do intend to read them all. Albert is one of my favorite writers! Pick one up!

Laugh out loud funny every single time!

I keep realizing that I have yet to blog about some of my absolute favorite books of all time! I blame that on the fact that I am so anxious to read more books, it is a task to pull myself away...to do anything else! :)

   

I adore the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich! There is no reading experience that compares to this for me! Each installment makes me laugh out loud...not just once or twice, but many many times. The characters and situations are so crazy and "unbelievable" as to be, well, almost believable! 

There are 21 books in this series at present. They are perhaps easily recognizable by the fact that their titles are sequentially numbered: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly,...all the way to Top Secret Twenty-One. I own each and every one of these books as well as the "between" novels: Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, and Plum Spooky. These latter novels tend to be much shorter. 

Although you most certainly do not have to read these in order, I really like to reread them in order every few years. I just feel it gives me much more appreciation for Stephanie's development (or lack thereof) through all her bizarre experiences. Perhaps the most entertaining part of reading this series is getting to know the "supporting cast" of characters. I find it difficult to believe that one person can create and develop such specifically oddball and unique characters! Evanovich has more than a fertile imagination--it qualifies as out of this world! 

Perhaps the two most scintillating characters are Ranger and Morelli; one the man who took Stephanie's virginity and the other sometimes rescues her and/or employs her. I'm going on record--I never want Stephanie to choose only one of these men! I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of this series is the fact that she has both of them in her life and they both (in their own way) do love her, and she them...

Then there is Stephanie's family: her mother who 'tipples' and irons when she gets extremely upset; her father who rarely speaks, communicating mainly using grunts; her Grandma Mazur who much prefers open casket funerals and will do her darnedest to attend every single funeral held in the Burg and make sure the casket IS open; and her perhaps-not-so-perfect sister, Valerie and her two children and new attorney husband... Morelli's Grandma Bella and "the eye." Don't forget the ex-husband, Dickie Orr, and new arch-nemesis fellow bounty hunter Joyce Barnhardt, the woman Stephanie caught with Dickie about 15 minutes before filing for divorce...

Who could ever forget Lula, the neon-colored 3-sizes-too-small spandex wearing "big-boned" but vertically-challenged ex-hooker, Vinny's file clerk and sometimes Stephanie's personal apprehension assistant! Transvestite rocker Sally Sweet, an obnoxious short person Randy Briggs, the I'll-eat-anything gigantic dog Bob, stoners Mooner and Dougie, office manager Connie, Mr. Jingles the alligator, Salvatore Sunucchi, to name just a few!

Interestingly, I notice readers post disgruntled reviews on Goodreads about this series, complaining that things never seem to change--each book is the same--yada yada yada. However, they keep reading and posting with each new release! Their complaints are exactly what I love about this series...so very predictable, especially the fact that I will laugh as I do at no other writing! 

I can't really pinpoint in detail what makes these books so darned appealing to me--I just know they are! How 'bout you? Have you tried one yet? If not, I suggest you do! Fun, fun, fun...