WWW.WEDNESDAY

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1. What are you currently reading? Hercule Poirot's Christmas. An eccentric, wealthy old Brit unexpectedly decides to invite his family (some estranged) and friends for Christmas. Somebody gets dead. I just started it, but I appreciate the way Christie is setting it all up. It's the framework she herself devised, so it's no wonder that she's expert. She's coloring within the lines, but she's doing it masterfully and I'm thoroughly enjoying being in the hands of an old pro.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Till the End of Tom by Gillian Roberts, an installment in the Amanda Pepper series. I'm a fan of this series. I like our heroine, high school English teacher Amanda, her fiance detective CK and best friend Sasha. I also enjoy that, in addition to the mystery, Roberts always uses something more universal and substantial as a backdrop. This time it's eating disorders and how a young girl's self image can be developed, or warped.

BUT the mystery itself in this outing was rather uninvolving. I truly didn't care who killed wealthy, old-money cad Tomas Severin. Also, there's a pretty big hole in the plot. For a family as established as the Severins to have -- and keep -- such a big skeleton closeted is pretty hard to believe. (There! Told without a spoiler! Feeling quite proud of myself.)

3.  What will you read next? A biography from my tall TBR pile.

Happy birthday to me, part 6

A box of books! My friend in Key West, Henry, now works at the library. He loves it. He loves being surrounded by fellow book lovers, loves the enhanced benefits, and loves the unexpected perk of free books. Once every quarter, they go through and pull books that haven't been checked out, not even once, in a long while. This way they have room on the shelves for new books, and they have something to sell at their book sale.

In preparation for the book sale, which was last Saturday, Henry asked if he could check out the books and pull some for me. The result was two biographies of Ted Kennedy, a New Yorker collection of cat cartoons, and a 2003 book about how women have helped shaped American history.

I love hardcover books and was happy to get such a thoughtful gift that really only cost him the price of postage (media mail, at that).  And Connie loved the big box it came in as only a nest-making girlcat can.