Happy February!
The Super Bowl was fun, and we enjoyed seeing the Seahawks beat the Patriots since the latter kept the Broncos out of the big show. The commercials were mostly lame--I just cannot get excited about AI and was super-disappointed that Matthew Broderick used his Ferris Bueller persona to encourage companies to use AI to do the work real people need and can do better. I also loathe the ads that encourage people to gamble. The best commercial was the Dunkin one with stand-ins for all our favorite TV characters from days gone by. Fun. I may have to go to Dunkin to show that the ad worked!
The Olympics are fun, although it was heartbreaking to see Lindsey Vonn crash. Those winter sports are, on average, so much more dangerous than the summer ones.
Mysteries
Based on Constance's review on Staircase Wit, I read and enjoyed Death Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman. Our heroine, Muriel Blossom, was an assistant to Lippman's main detective, Tess Monaghan, and is now on a vacation in France where she finds herself at the heart of a murder mystery and she has to figure out who to trust and what the heck is going on. I absolutely enjoyed every minute spent with Mrs. Blossom, as the narrator and most of the other characters call her. I thought only my mother preferred the Mrs. moniker, and since Mrs. B is only a year older than I am, this seemed pretty dated, but that's okay.
Visiting Paris with Muriel was fun--she goes shopping, visits art galleries, and dines in wonderful restaurants. I absolutely loved traveling down the Seine with her, stopping at Versailles, Giverny, Rouen, and Normandy. I especially enjoyed learning about the artist Joan Mitchell, whose home near Giverny Muriel makes a pilgrimage to.
The mystery itself is good and kept me guessing until all was revealed, which is the way I like it.
I've only read one Tess Monaghan mystery, but now I am motivated to read more.
Dying in the Wool, by Frances Brody, is the first in the author's Kate Shackleton series, set in Yorkshire in the post WWI years. There are 11 books in the series, so I imagine they lead up to WWII. Anyway, I digress. This one involves a young widow, Kate, who lost her beloved in the Great War and is beginning a career as a private investigator, having proved to herself that she is quite good at finding lost people. She is commissioned by a friend to discover what happened to the friend's father, mill owner and local bigwig who disappeared following his arrest for attempted suicide.
This was interesting primarily because of the setting and time period--the mystery wasn't riveting although it was well told. I have another in the series and plan to read that as well.
Speaking of Sheep
I was speaking of wool, which comes from sheep, so not too great a leap there!
My daughter just told me about an upcoming Hugh Jackman movie, The Sheep Detectives, which is based on the novel Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann. Here's the trailer and it looks so much fun. I know what I want to do for Mother's Day!
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