LIBRARY LOOT

This is an enticing new meme (for me) that showcases the books we’ve found at the library this week.

Hosted by Eva and Marg, this week’s host is Marg, at Reading Adventures.

For years I’d gone to the library regularly, but then I lost the habit.

A newly rediscovered practice, I’m finding it an exciting event.  Especially the part about going online and requesting books.  Then when I get there to pick up the book I’ve reserved, I find other books.

I try not to go overboard, because I’m still working my way through my TBR stacks, and now I have a few other books to review from authors and Amazon Vine.

First we have Patricia Cornwell’s At Risk, which is the one I’d requested.  I’ve been seeing her books everywhere, and now that I’m participating in the Awesome Authors Challenge, I thought she would be another great author to explore.

On Amazon, we read:

A Massachusetts state investigator is called home from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is completing a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, attractive but hard-charging, is planning to run for governor, and as a showcase she’s planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk-its motto: “Any crime, any time.” In particular, she’s been looking for a way to employ cutting-edge DNA technology, and she thinks she’s found the perfect subject in an unsolved twenty-year-old murder-in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, it ought to make them all look pretty good, right?

Her investigator is not so sure-not sure about anything to do with this woman, really-but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only both their lives but the lives of everyone around them. It’s not a random event. Is it personal? Is it professional? Whatever it is, the implications are very, very bad indeed . . . and they’re about to get much worse.

Sparks fly, traps spring, twists abound-this is the master working at the top of her game.

Next, I discovered another Evanovich novel, having read my first Stephanie Plum adventure last week.   Plum Lovin’ is described as a “between-the-numbers” tale, and this is the Amazon blurb:

A perfect Valentine’s Day bonbon, a dreamy comma in the numbered series that features Stephanie Plum of Trenton, bounty hunter and gal from the Burg. A few years ago at Christmas, Diesel appeared in Stephanie’s apartment. He’s back, still blond, disheveled, and now hiding matchmaker Annie Hart. Stephanie is looking for Annie because she’s wanted on assault. Diesel wants Stephanie to do the matchmaking in Annie’s place and then he will hand her over so Stephanie can collect the bond. Is Diesel an angel? He does have a few interesting abilities, and he doesn’t seem bothered by walls and doors. There is a hint of sweet magic as this odd couple bring together a butcher and a barista, a woman with too many kids and pets and a lonely veterinarian, and even Lula, Stephanie’s plus-sized colleague, and Tank (longtime readers will know the silent Tank as Ranger’s second in command). Evanovich keeps the language light and sweet and the action nonstop, filling a few plot holes in the main series and finally getting Stephanie’s sister, Valerie, married to the ill-named Albert Kloughn on Valentine’s Day. Adorable. GraceAnne DeCandido

Great!  I didn’t even know the part about Valentine’s Day when I checked it out.  I just grabbed it, because it was the only Evanovich book that was on the shelves!

And last, but not least, a Fannie Flagg.  I’ve enjoyed her books since “Fried Green Tomatoes.” The one I picked was Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven.

So what does Amazon say about this one?

Life is the strangest thing. One minute, Mrs. Elner Shimfissle is up in her tree, picking figs, and the next thing she knows, she is off on an adventure she never dreamed of, running into people she never in a million years expected to meet. Meanwhile, back home, Elner’s nervous, high-strung niece Norma faints and winds up in bed with a cold rag on her head; Elner’s neighbor Verbena rushes immediately to the Bible; her truck driver friend, Luther Griggs, runs his eighteen-wheeler into a ditch–and the entire town is thrown for a loop and left wondering, “What is life all about, anyway?” Except for Tot Whooten, who owns Tot’s Tell It Like It Is Beauty Shop. Her main concern is that the end of the world might come before she can collect her social security.

In this comedy-mystery, those near and dear to Elner discover something wonderful: Heaven is actually right here, right now, with people you love, neighbors you help, friendships you keep. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven is proof once more that Fannie Flagg “was put on this earth to write” (Southern Living), spinning tales as sweet and refreshing as iced tea on a summer day, with a little extra kick thrown in.

So that’s my haul…manageable, I hope, since I’m going to be reading from my stacks as well.  In fact, I still have a book left from the last library haul.

Hope you’ll stop by, share your comments and links, and enjoy your reading week.