I have found my Halloween book for this year! Having long ago read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, only to read them over again, I was excited to find Tales of Terror and Mystery, a collection of short stories with each one more gruesome than the previous. Each tale averages about 10 pages long, and they have as many twists and surprises that you have come to expect from Mr. Doyle’s writing. A couple of them I had figured out fairly early what was to happen, not due to Mr. Doyle’s writing, but due to the fact that authors after him have fashioned stories with what seems to be very similar plot lines.

There are definitely a few stories in here that I will be sharing with my girls as Halloween approaches. “The Leather Funnel” is a twist on what happens when a person will sleep with an object under their pillow, hoping to affect their dreams in a positive way by doing so.

“The Case of Lady Sannox” is a chilling tale that is not for the squeamish (and I will not be sharing with my younger ones) but definitely a morality lesson on the sins of cheating.

“The Brazilian Cat” is a perfect Halloween story, and I will be reading this one with my girls on Halloween Eve.

I tried to buy my girls out of going trick-or-treating last year, with no success. I may attempt it again this year, but we are still doing the stories!

I have been posting information on random authors; old, new, famous, local, and everything in between. I am curious as to who your favorite author is? I have been reading for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, it was The Boxcar Children, Alfred Hitchcock and the 3 Investigators, and Encyclopedia Brown. Then it was random scary horror paperbacks, and whatever my English College Prep teachers told me I had to read.

Can you believe I was almost 40 years old before I ever read “Of Mice and Men”? My school must have took it off the list, because my older siblings read it.

Then it was history books; mainly the Civil War and anything about Abraham Lincoln. I am obsessed, please do not ask me why because I do not know! (I have a piece of Mary Todd Lincoln’s dress, just so you know).

Then Harry Potter changed my life. Finally, a book that I wanted to read over-and-over again; and I did. Yes, I read Twilight more times than I can count. I have 3 bookshelves of nothing but James Patterson books 🙂 I do not know how he manages to put out a book a month, but it sure seems like he does!

So who is it that you read and cannot put down? I am looking for new books to read, even if they are old books! So let me know what I should pick up next: I would love to read it and see how I felt about it!

This was an excellent story of the younger years of both Jesus and Lazarus, how they met, interacted, and finished out their lives remaining friends through a very difficult time. This story is fiction, but the writing style and descriptions easily had me feeling like I was right in the thick of things.

I appreciate good writing skills, as well as great descriptions, and this story had both. This is a first read of a book by E. Ann McIntyre, and I will definitely be reading more of her work.

If you like religious fiction, or religious books in general, you will not be disappointed with this book!

I finished the 2nd of the 3 books I bought at our yearly art fair a few weeks back. I enjoyed this book as well as the first one I read, Murder in the Choir Loft. This one was “Murder at Tip-Up Town – a Cold Case. This story was set mainly in Houghton Lake, Michigan, and they do have a yearly festival and the town becomes known as Tip-Up Town, due to all of the fishing that goes on. I have been to Houghton Lake a couple times, it is about a 3 hour drive away from me.

It was a good read, easy without overwhelming character connections that have a person confused throughout the whole story. The plot is centered around a young gentleman who asks for Lou’s help in solving the case of his missing grandfather. The characters were well-rounded, and the descriptions of the scenery and locations had you feeling like you were right there watching everything unfold. (I did see one error that I am not sure was intentional or not, but the characters were going to the Grand Traverse Pie Company, and it stated it was located on Apple Avenue. It is actually on Harvey Street).

I will not spoil the plot of this story, but if you are from Michigan, or have visited Michigan, this is a great read. There is not a lot of suspense in this story, but you will definitely be guessing through the whole book who the murderer actually is.

have you read books that are written around your hometown?

I enjoy seeing stories on the importance of reading, and how it benefits not only the reader, but our society as a whole. For a great opinion article on reading to little ones, check out this link: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/08/peg_west_read_early_and_often.html#incart_river