Maggie Pill Mysteries

I've never understood what people get out of meanness. *I get that we disagree on politics, but what does calling other people awful things accomplish? Am I supposed to read your hateful comments on the President and say, "Oh, silly me. Here I've been admiring this man and the things he's accomplished for years but now I see that I was soooo wrong." *I know people dislike some books. I do, too, but I recognize that    A) it takes a lot of effort to write and publish a book and  B) just because I don't enjoy it doesn't mean you won't and C) it isn't necessary for me to express my dislike in a way that is hurtful. *I understand that your experiences are different from mine, but why would that make you the final judge of how things should be? People of intelligence recognize that views differ, and while it's difficult to step outside what you've lived through, it's the only way we can get along on this crowded little planet. *...

It isn't that literary fiction is bad. I would never argue with the Great Minds who hand out Pulitzer Prizes and such. It's just that books that are termed "literary" aren't always what I'm in the mood for. Here's why. Too often, nothing happens. The author is so busy telling the character's thoughts and describing the sunlight on the pines that he/she forgets to put in, um, what shall we call them?  Events that lead somewhere.  When I got to the end of Papertowns , for example, I thought..."So what?" Sometimes something happens, but it's bad. And then it gets worse. I read The Gold Finch . I read All the Light We Cannot See . I even read Anna Karenina. Things happened. Things got worse. And then it was over. The characters are so messed up that I can't find anyone to like. Holden Caulfield. Raskolnikov. Anything I've read by Elmore Leonard. The author seems to have a feeling of god-like superiority to the characters: ...

I'm reading a book by author Alice Duncan, who writes a series I'd call cozy historical with a fake medium as the protagonist. Daisy Gumm needs to earn a living, so she hires out for seances and such, and she always seems to get pulled into solving a crime. I enjoy the books, but that's not why I bring them up here. My topic, guns, cats, and quilting, was suggested by the fact that it's obvious in the series that the author loves dogs. Another friend, Laurie Cass, writes a series in which a cat named Eddie plays a major role. I know for a fact Eddie is real (though his participation in solving mysteries is not), and he's very well-loved by the humans he deigns to associate with. A third author friend, Barbara Graham, writes a series of quilting mysteries, and while you don't have to be a quilter to enjoy them (I'm not), those who are clever enough to quilt like the books even more because of shared insider knowledge. As a reader of a wide range o...