The Mysterious Garden Muse

BINGE I Googled the word binge and this was the top result: " a short period devoted to indulging in an activity to excess, especially drinking alcohol or eating. "he  went on a binge  and was in no shape to drive" synonyms: drinking bout,  debauch ;  In my lexicon, binge-ing almost always refers to a binge of reading. I read all the time, but there's something especially enjoyable and relaxing about reading in summer. I remember when I was a teenager, sprawling in the grass in our background, soaking up the heat as I devoured book after book.  As I've gotten older, bingeing has come to mean focusing on the entire booklist of an author, starting at book one and not stopping until I've read them all. This has always been my preferred way of reading. The luxury of reading ALL the books is a thrill that never grows old. When I was young and first fell in love with Nancy Drew, Bess, George, Ned Nickerson, Hannah Gruen et al, I got through ev...

Mention historical crime in Chicago and most people will think of Al Capone , the St. Valentine's Day Massacre , Eliot Ness and the Untouchables , More recent history brings us to serial killers Richard Speck and John Wayne Gacy , or the all-too-common gangland killings that keep today's death tolls high. And then there is the notorious murderer H.H. Holmes , who terrorized women at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair - the Columbian Exposition, killing and disposing of his victims at his "terror castle." Holmes had faded into obscurity until Erik Larson's brilliant book, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY became a best seller.  (Images and blurbs from Barnes & Noble's BN.com) Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the cou...

Once - in the almost 20 years I lived in Cincinnati - exactly one time I can recall coming across a book set in Clermont County, Ohio, where I lived. (I think it was Susan Donovan's PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION - it's buried somewhere on my many keeper shelves.) Since I moved to Chicago, it's a different story. I already knew of many books set in Chicago, and in the two and a half years I've lived in the city, I've discovered a lot more. For those who love the Windy City - particularly those who also like to read history, mystery, suspense and romance - you might want to give these a shot! Since there are so many good books to choose from, I'm splitting them up by genre. (The book blurbs and book cover images are from Barnes & Noble at Barnesandnoble.com.) Susan Donovan's KNOCK ME OFF MY FEET : Autumn Adams never planned to follow in her mother's footsteps as Chicago's answer to Martha Stewart--she can't cook, doesn't clean, a...

I'm not a fan of winter. It depresses me to see the sun go down in the afternoon, to see endless white and gray where green and colors used to be. No matter how many layers I wear, I'm always cold - or within memory of cold. I can stand in front of a hot radiator, soaking up the heat, but the sound of the wind whistling outside will still make me shiver. I think I'm part bear, primed to hibernate through the long winter and wake up when the bulbs start to bloom. Winter finds me watching more TV than usual (mystery shows, of course), but in winter I always read a lot, too. Even when I'm tired, I'll stay up into the wee hours to finish a book. I'm not a great one for self-analysis, but I've come to realize I respond to winter in specific ways. 1) When it's cold outside, I start compulsively solving Sudokos (sometimes giving myself a headstart by filling in a few blanks with the help of the solved puzzles at the end of the book. It's not a...

I was never in Girl Scouts, but for a short period of time I belonged to a Brownie troop. I think it was while I was a Brownie that I learned this ditty: "Make new friends, but kee-eeep the old. One is silver and the other's gold." At least, that's how I remember the words - not sure how reliable my memory is on song lyrics learned fifty-odd years ago. I bring this up because I recently realized I have a silver-and-gold relationship with books and authors. I'm not sure how it's intended in the song, but I've always taken the lyrics to mean that old friends are precious gold, and new friends are silver. By that token, my golden oldies include Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart, Ngaio Marsh, Doris Miles Disney, Patricia Wentworth, Paul Gallico, Dorothy Eden, Josephine Tey, Martha Grimes, Peter Robinson, P.D. James, Dick Francis, Ian Rankin, Evelyn Anthony, Ray Bradbury and James Thurber. My addiction to the books by many of these authors goes back near...

I don't deny it - when it comes to books, I'm greedy. I want to OWN books. I want them on shelves in my house where I can re-read old favorites whenever the mood strikes. I trace this back to my childhood, when I received books as birthday gifts, and treasured the books my family owned.  I got A.A. Milne's NOW WE ARE SIX for my sixth birthday, along with a penny charm bracelet and days-of-the-week undies. (I have a very random memory!) I've always had a special fondness for that book, especially King John's Christmas : "But, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all, Bring me a big, red India-rubber ball!" I'm not sure how old I was when I got THE LITTLE SISTER DOLL by Laura Bannon. It was published in 1955, so if I got it the year it came out I was three years old. I still have my copy - well-loved, but a little worse for wear. I don't have the Weekly Reader/Scholastic edition of the first mystery I remember reading, but I bought a...

A message from Brenda Novak : Thank you to everyone who has donated to  Brenda Novak's 9th Annual Online  Auction  for  Diabetes Research . We're hoping to make this year our best ever. . .and we couldn't do it without the support of our wonderful donors. If you haven't had a chance to donate yet, it's not too late. We'd love to have you on board. Contact Anna at  tinkabela776@gmail.com  and she'll create a fabulous auction page to showcase your item. Whether you've donated or not, there are some free and easy ways to support this good cause: *Register as a bidder (go to:   www.brendanovak.auctionanything.com  and click on register) *Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaNovakDiabetesAuction . We'll be posting lots of information here in the coming weeks and throughout the auction. Stay up to date on our progress as we strive to hit $2 million! Sharing and liking these posts would be hugely appreciated. *Follo...

Like a shape-shifter, the Dangerous To-Be-Read pile morphs daily. These pictures were taken some time ago, and while I did read almost every book in these pictures, the TBR pile has not gotten any smaller. Instead, the book monster - angry because I gave away nearly 2,000 books when we moved last fall - is getting back at me by sneaking books into every nook and cranny of my new place. No pictures of the current TBR pile exist, because it won't stay in one place. The darn thing keeps growing, and no matter how many books I read the pile never seems to go down.  POP QUIZ! I'll be 61 years old this year. How old will I have to live in order to read all the books waiting-to-be-read in my place, not counting any new releases I might add? My son is the math whiz, so I'm just going to take a wild guess and say I'll need 100 years or so. One hundred MORE years that is, assuming I don't do anything else but read.  And then there's the money. I...

I've shuffled the schedule around this year. For the past couple of years, August was our Month of Suspense & Thrillers. When I realized my grandbaby was likely to be born in August, I bumped this feature up to September. At the time, I didn't realize I'd be moving in September. *bangs head on desk* Okay, you've figured it out by now - this isn't a normal year for me. I hope you'll bear with me as I muddle along! I won't be online as much as I usually am in September, so I'll post an "Introduce Yourself" thread for authors who write Suspense and Thrillers. If that describes you, don't be shy about posting. While spamming is discouraged here, you are more than welcome to promote your suspense novels and thrillers on the "thread" I'll be providing. To add links to your books, open a comment box (click "reply") and then click "Add Product" at the upper right. In addition to the author...