The great majority of the time, I approach writing the book column with a sense of adventure and--I hope--humor "until", that is, I am about to leave town for a period of time. That will happen again on the last of April and I shall return (echoes of Douglas MacArthur's famous line) May 25, after which I will be getting a dog--or two--or seven! No, just one will do 'cause I have to then get my Maine Koon Cat (which is not, I don't believe, descended from the Coon family).

Anyway, when about to leave town, I become suddenly aware that I won't be doing a couple of columns and worry that you won't be informed of the newest in Fiction  and Non-Fiction for a short while, so may I suggest coming in to look them over--remember that we have Fiction and Non-Fiction shelves just past the New York Times bookrack for new titles in both genres. 

This Spring/Summer season, we seem to be getting quite an eclectic mix of titles from those dealing with the worries of the Baby Boomers, to the beginning life-is-real problems of the "new kids" in the business world, to vampires, mysteries involving dogs and cats, to harking back to stories that took place 600 years ago!  And I haven/t even gotten to the Non-Fiction titles. 

Kim Harrison seems to hit the New York Times Bestseller list every so often, and writes about vampires and makes them understandable and empathetic as in her new one, "The Outlaw Demon Wails."  Rachel Morgan is a witch and a bounty hunter and "to save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable--she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic and now her sins are coming home to haunt her."

There's a demon, Algaliarept, who is determined to claim her, a family secret which Rachel feels she has to find the answer to and she "must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after " to find her answer and gain some ancient long-lost knowledge.  Now, when I first read this description, I almost--almost--skidded to a stop and thoughts of putting it back on the New York Times rack intruded but, playing fair for the column and having heard for this author, I opened the book and began my usual reading of paragraphs in different parts of the book. I found, to my amusement and amazement, that the storyline rolled easily along and the main characters--including Rachel--were easy to believe and be interested in and let me add, loudly, that I am not a Sci-Fi fan (except for dragons!) So, please come in and check it over and see if it might just be your "cup of witch's brew ". 

One of my perennial favorite authors is Jeffrey Archer--I like his subject lines, dialogue, and twists--and his new one, "A Prisoner of Birth" will be another good read. Let me tell you, very briefly, that Archer, an Englishman, was educated at Oxford College there, served five years in the House of Commons, 14 years in the House of Lords--"and two in Her Majesty's prisons!." Our knowlege of his last stay came in three volumes of an excellent works called "Prison Diaries" (I never maintained that the Brits have a lot of imagination in naming either their kids or their books.)

Anyway, this title tells about an interesting  puzzle i.e. what would have happened if Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before--or the day after.  Would he have have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend?  He faced an uphill battle when the four witnesses for the prosecution were a barrister (English-speak for "attorney"), a popular actor, an aristocrat, and "the youngest partner in an established law firm's history". Who, faced against those four "honest witnesses" is going to believe Danny?

So, he's sentenced to 22 years in Belmarsh prison--"from which no inmate has ever escaped"--and all seems at an end. Justice has been done--we'll never see him again.  WRONG???? RIGHT!!!! Beth works tirelessly to free him and it has the four "gentlemen" witnesses, fighting for their lives. Danny, in prison, and with the help of his two friends, Nick and Big Al, learns lessons of survival and begins to formulate a plan for escape and, ultimately, being able to prove his innocence.While I was "checking out the story", I read for 20 straight minutes and hated to put the book down to continue this column You'll like Archer's story, trust me!

I am a tea aficionado--means I drink it out of preference over coffee for energy, also it's a soothing and reflective drink to consume. The one invitation I'm likely to always appreciate and accept is "Come over for a cup tea." With one caveat--do not heat the water in the microwave!  Please find a pan to do that in and do it only as I walk in the door--keeping it hot for 15 minutes is not the same as "getting the kettle when it boils", as Foof used to say.

But to go on--this charming "cozy mystery" (as the Brits call them, meaning no overt descriptions of violence and/or sex is in the story) is "The Silver Needle Murder", by Laura Childs, and it involves Theodosia Browning and the staff of the Indigo Tea Shop.  It's Charleston Film Festival time and the opening night at the historic Belvedere Theater. The audience gets more than their ticket's worth as they see the silhouette of the director, Jordan Cole, being murdered on his way to the podium. Then, two of the judges quit; the festival's organizer, a Mr. Timothy Neville, learns his granddaughter is being suspected and Theodosia is asked to clear her of charges; the Devonshire cream is not cold enough to put on the Key Lime Scones (horrors! ) and so on and so on! 

The names in this story fascinate me--all sort of in "a village tone"--i.e.Drayton, Miss Dimple, Insp.Tidwell, Delaine Dish, and her dog, Earl Grey. But even more than the humor and murder in the Tea Room group there are the wonderful sounding recipes. There's Lemon Tea Bread, Apple and Cheese Bruschetta, Chilled Strawberry Soup, Devonshire Cream and something called Cat Head Biscuits--the latter being very simple i.e.

Place 2 cups self-rising flour in bowl, make small "well" and add 2 tbsp.soft butter and small amountt out of 1 cup buttermilk and begin mixing (not beating!). When butter is well blended, add rest of the cup of buttermilk and mix "just until blended and the dough forms a ball" (I betcha she means to use a wooden spoon with this) .  Place dough on floured surface and pat out 'GENTLY' to an inch and a half thickness. cut out 6 biscuits, place on greased pan, bake at 400 degrees for 14-16 minutes. Remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter.

Cute, entertaining book that won't tax the brain or offer any unpleasant mental images. So, come in and take it home and enjoy over a slice of Lemon Tea Bread and "a cuppa". You're welcome.

Can you believe that between the ending of that sentence and the beginning of the next I'm going to have traveled to Kansas City to see my daughter and back? Tune in!

I'm baa-ck! Kansas City is such a pretty city and so bright and colorful in the Spring--and great food! So, the next book is by Michael Gruber, "The Forgery of Venus", a mystery set in the art world but not a mystery set in the classical sense of a dead body and detectives but one concerning Chaz Wilmot, a painter "born beyond his time. He possesses a fantastic command of the techniques of the old masters, such as Goya, Leonardo--artists whose real works sell for millions--" but those painters are not in style today and he won't use his skills to imitate them.

So, Chaz makes his living doing ads and magazine covers in a "style" that mimics them. Enter, Werner Krebs, "an art dealer with a dark past and a shadier present" who becomes his friend and he persuades Chaz to paint in the old master's style and an incredible thing begins to happen--he finds he is no longer reliving memories from his past but as if they are happening to him in reality!. He comes to believe that he is in the 17th century where he was the Spanish artist, Diego Velaquez, who was one of the most famous painters in art history and that he, as this artist, painted a masterpiece--"a stunning portrait of a nude." Was  this a fact?

His life becomes a mirror hall of illusions and questions and--always--at the heart of it is Werner Krebs and it is left to his family and his sense of what happened --his reality-- to provide the ending. Come in and look through it and see what you think.

So many more of the books, nowadays, are dealing with the lives of women--their thoughts, their responsibilities, their raising a family (or deciding not to), and their decisions and the results of those decisions on them and their friends and family.  Sometimes it's with the "Y generation", the older "Yuppies", the this-is-my-last-chance Baby Boomers or those who are already retired. Enter "The Ten Year Nap", by Meg Wolitzer, who has written seven other novels, all to praise and excellent sales and, after looking carefully through her book, I can understand why.  She writes as though she's  talking to you, or musing out loud, over a cuppa and you find yourself nodding your head in agreement.

This novelist turns a practiced--even sympathetic--eye on four friends, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen, who were always told by their mothers that "you girls will be able to do just about anything you want" concerning their decisions on career, marriage, leaving the job to raise children, etc. and at first it was true. They got good educations. One became a lawyer, one a film producer, one a bank executive, and one an artist  and all successful. So far, so good. Then, for whatever thought-out or impulsive reasons, they pulled back from their self-determined careers and decided to stay home and raise families and leave the rat race. They did. So far, so good. 

Now, 10 years later, in their forties, their children no longer need their constant presence/assistance/advice/counseling/family vacations and the friend's questions begin--i.e. what did they give up, what comes next, how did their present lives end up so differently what they were brought up to expect, and what are they going to do next and how do they even set about deciding this question?  So far--not so good.

Amy begins a friendship with a brilliant, charismatic businesswoman , glamorous mother of three and "a refusal to compromise" in that she's plans to "have it all, thank you very much."

Roberta, the artist, muses--thinking of all the years of art projects she'd done with the kids that had absolutely nothing to do with real art; "she has enjoyed it, it had been blissful, it had been worth it , but now she felt bitterly yet again that she should have been out in the world doing real art. " She had a distinct feeling that the male artists hadn't stayed home cutting Clorox bottles into pigs or stringing macaroni on thread and spray painting them! 

The four friends, through Amy's new friend and her life, have decisions to make and confront and this is a book you will start reading and not want to put down till it's finished! I guarantee it! 

If you have a poem to turn in to our Poetry Contest, please do do by the 14th and come to the Coffeehouse (think Beatniks) at the Coronado Museum, May 2, Friday, at 6:30 and feel free to bring a poem you've written or have always liked to read to the Coffeehouse. We'll have refreshments and it's always been a really fun time for judges, contestants, and "coffeehouse regulars."

A really big thing for us here at the library--and for Liberal-- is the Bernice Stipe Memorial Rose Garden that we are putting in this Spring on a section of our pretty rock wall facing Kansass Ave. Those of us who knew, loved, and worked with Bernice here in the library wanted to honor her and her years of dedication. We have been asked what others who knew her but didn't work with her could do as a memorial and the planting of many of her favorite flowers, roses, seemed to be the best, most colorful answer.

If you would like to donate to this Rose Garden Fund, even if you just love the color and fragrance of roses and think they'd look lovely against our cream wall (you can see where the flower bed has already been dug out), please mail or leave a donation for the present plantings and the future care of the roses. Several people have seen  the rose garden bed already, asked about it and said although they didn't know Bernice personally, they'd certainly love to see a rose garden there and could they contribute? Absolutely --and someone who would approve of those sentiments would be Bernice herself--she'd say, "Roses are roses, no matter how they got planted there!" So, please --everybody--join us in the Memorial Rose Garden project and help in beautifying Liberal! 

Love you all!  Enjoy the effects of our recent rain, walk the dogs, give the horses their West Nile Virus shot, and remember Life ain't all about you--it's all of us. Bye!