Month: November 2019

Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can See

Black Friday has dawned exactly as its name suggests. Gloomy, dark, drizzle…uh.

It has been a horrible week and I am so glad it is over! In the continuing saga of ‘Is it the flu or pneumonia?’ I can now tell you officially it is pneumonia. OU Boy came in Wednesday afternoon and promptly passed out. Literally, passed the F out on the floor! So it was off to OU Med, where I explained to the E.R. nurse that we had been sick for days but now he was much worse. The nurse said, “Where is he? “I said, “Propped against the wall on the bench over there. And can I please have a face mask. There are germs in here.”

Turns out he was severely dehydrated to the point of his blood work being ‘wonky’. That is a medical term. So bags of fluids and antibiotics were given and in a few hours, we were sent on our way by the lovely doctor who wanted us home for Thanksgiving.

At least now he was no longer throwing up and felt stronger. He ate a cracker. I drank tea. Then we looked up the antibiotic she had prescribed and found out it has been taken off the market! 30,000 deaths and it’s still on store shelves! It has a Black Box Warning and must be off all shelves by 2020. WHAT??? Just go ahead and use it all up? Nope. The side effects were horrible. Basically, it said you could just lay there for 5 days and if you didn’t die, well, you were better. The doctor was appalled and we are not taking that one.

Turkey Day I put the bird in the oven and we spent the day in bed whining and coughing and spitting into cups while blowing our noses. It was disgusting. By the time I remembered there was a bird in the oven, it was done. That was when we realized that we had roasted it upside down and left the icky bits inside. That went to the trash bin quickly. After that, we gave up and went back to crackers and tea.

Hold on, it gets worse! Just after midnight OU Boy gets a call that the police are at one of our hotels and a woman is dead and a man in the hospital. Still not clear on all the details of how he got in their room, he was a Bounty Hunter and I can’t believe they just let him in. So he shot the woman on the loveseat and the man in the room somewhere. This is Oklahoma so that guy was just an idiot. He is so lucky the managers on duty didn’t pull out their own guns and shoot him. He never checked in to let us or the police know what was going down. Now he’s in jail.

So Black Friday, can you top that? I don’t think so. OU Boy is waiting for the scene to clear and I am hacking up a lung in bed wondering why The View is still on when all they do is yell at each other. On the good side, I’ve read 4 books in two days. 2019 reviews are in the draft folder.

I hope you all enjoy your long weekend and be kind, you really never know how much one act of kindness could mean to someone. Let someone else have the parking spot by the door, be thankful you can walk. Smile at the cashiers! Don’t be an asshat.

xx P

WORD TO THE WISE by JENN McKINLAY

Word to the Wise (Library Lover's Mystery, #10)

A Library Lover’s Mystery Number 10

This is the tenth book in this series and it just keeps getting better!

In Briar Creek, Lindsey Norris, library director, and part-time sleuth should be happily planning her wedding to Sully. Instead, she is dealing with a newcomer to town who has the ladies feeling a bit prickly! Aaron Grady is one of those guys who just can’t take a hint. Inappropriate and pretty much unwelcome in the library or in the garden club where his roses are to die for!

When he turns his full attention on Lindsey, Sully is not happy. When Aaron is found dead outside of the library, all signs point to Sully. Now instead of planning her wedding, she is investigating and trying to make sure her groom won’t be in prison!

But this is a complicated one and Aaron has made a lot of enemies and one of them will have no problem taking out Lindsey should it come to that!

Full of secrets, lies and a few very unlikeable characters, this tenth book in the series is only getting stronger!

Well Done!

September 3rd, 2019 by Berkley

Gratitude turns what we have into enough. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Wednesday! I’m sure the markets are packed with last-minute shoppers for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feasts!

Since OU Boy has the flu and it is awful, we aren’t doing any huge thing this year. Being grateful that the Native Americans gave us refugees dinner that one time before we slaughtered them all and now will feed us at their casinos.

This year has been up and down. Much like everyone’s I imagine. The good, the bad and the oh so ugly! One thing I have learned is that you should believe people when they show you who they are the first time. I am thankful for the community of support for Crohn’s Disease and Anxiety Disorders. I am thankful for a husband who loves me faults and all and shows me every day!

I’m thankful for all of the book bloggers and authors we support. And Free Speech! I am thankful that I have created a family that I need and didn’t just accept the one they gave me. Whoever ‘they’ are. And we are all thankful for pie. And tea. And books. And Kindness. Sprinkle that shit liberally on all of your holiday celebrations.

And share. Whether it’s a plate of turkey or a slice of pie, share with someone. And my final piece of advice, you are now an adult, which means you can eat Thanksgiving food any time of the year you want! Yes!!

What did one turkey say to the other? “What are you thankful for?” “Vegetarians”.

Gobble, Gobble.

xx P

THE KILL CLUB by WENDY HEARD

The Kill Club

Jazz is a bad-ass. She’s had a hard life and now she is doing everything in her power to protect her little brother from their foster mother, Carol, a religious nutjob who decides the boy doesn’t need his diabetic medication as God is going to heal him.

As Jazz takes on beatings and sneaks the boys’ meds to his teacher or through the bars of his window, things are getting worse. Then she gets a call from an unknown number and learns that she isn’t alone and there could be an end to Carol’s reign of terror.

All she has to do is kill someone. Can she do that? Learning about an underground group calling themselves The Blackbirds, they kill a stranger and a stranger kills their problem. Sound familiar?  Strangers on a Train?

There is a lot at stake in this thriller and the author has made Jazz very real and vulnerable, but also very brave.

Heard is so great at the build-up that by the end of the book you hope you have a fingernail left!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ December 17th, 2019 by MIRA

 

 

 

 

 

 

BROKE: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises by Jodie Adams Kirshner

Release Day!

Pirate Patty Reviews

Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises

The author has taken a hard look at the state of affairs in Detroit. Through the voices of seven people whose lives have been changed forever by the mismanagement of the city and its eventual bankruptcy.

I visited Detroit regularly during the late ’80s and through the ’90s. It was a huge, sprawling place and going downtown was heartbreaking. To see block after block of neglected and abandoned homes and businesses.

There is enough blame to go around in this look at how cities are not getting the support they need to provide the services people need to survive and thrive. Everything is broken. The real estate market, the banks, the inept leadership, the lack of state and federal support.

About 40 percent of the city lives below the poverty level. Where is the investment in creating new jobs? How do these opportunists get by with paying $1000 for a…

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THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB by DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS

The Dead Girls Club

 

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face…

It’s 1991 and Heather, her best friend Becca and their two other friends are obsessed with serial killers, and all things macabre.
Becca is the storyteller of the group and comes up with some seriously scary tales. But the one keeps coming back. The Red Lady. Once a witch murdered by her own town while not one of her friends speaks up for her. Revenge quickly follows with the entire town dying.

Becca believes the story and even makes a believer out of Rachel and Gia, the other girls in the Dead Girls Club. But Heather is sure there is no such thing. Until something happens and she begins to doubt herself and Becca.

With Becca believing all she needs is her best friends help her to prove the Red Lady is real, Heather swears to help her. And then Becca is dead and Heather will never be the same.

Fast forward 30 years and strange things are happening. Heather is sure she is being followed. When half of a BFF necklace shows up in the mail, Heather is sure of one thing. Someone knows what she did. Someone knows she killed her best friend and now they are coming for her.

This was a ghost story in the best way! A group of young girls, obsessed with Stephen King and Ted Bundy equally, mess with magic and a long-dead witch when the real horror is much closer and alive than they know.

I love a good ghost tale! And this one I read in 3 hours even eating dinner while reading. I had to know what was real and what wasn’t. And I never saw that ending coming at all! I suspected everyone and all for good reasons, but wow, that ending!

NetGalley/December 10th, 2019 by Crooked Lane Books

 

 

 

DEATH with DOSTOEVSKY by KATHERINE BOLGER HYDE

Death with Dostoevsky (Crime with the Classics Book 4)

A Crime with the Classics Mystery #4

Professor Emily Cavanaugh is back at Bede College, not as a Professor, but on sabbatical and trying to work on her book on Dostoevsky.

On her first day in the library, Emily runs into a former student, Daniel Razumov, and his girlfriend Sveta. Daniel is also researching Dostoevsky but from a different point of view than Emily. Emily has always thought Daniel was one of her more promising students, but he seems unwell and distracted.

Emily’s new brother, Oscar is here as well as Richard McClintock, the sketchy chair of her division. And the fabulous Marguerite, one of my favorites!

When Emily finds out the reason for Daniel’s misery, she confronts fellow professor Taylor Curzon. Taylor is a predator and a very unlikeable person! Taylor could care less about what Emily or anyone else has to say about her shady behavior. She has dirt on everyone and uses it as a weapon.

But someone is tired of her wicked games and soon her job is open! Emily finds her dead on the floor of her office. And the shady people start coming out of the woodwork.

There was no shortage of suspects in this one. Some pretty nasty folks. But also some new characters! Luke’s nephew, Colin, also a cop and Oscar’s girlfriend Lauren.

When Daniel is arrested for the crime, Emily will try her best to figure out who the real killer is. Hopefully, before he/she realizes that Emily is on to them.

Another great one from this author. Always a pleasure and there is always something to learn!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ Severn House Release December 03,2019