Post-Holiday Post

As noted a few weeks ago, as a Christmas gift to myself, I hired a professional organizer to help me get rid of the overflow of stuff around the house. (here) So while most people have been dashing about malls and department stores in a shopping frenzy, I have been busy getting rid of things. 

Lori the Organizer and I have had four sessions of two hours each. That's about all I can deal with at one time. We have attacked the clothes closet, the pantry/laundry space, and the kitchen cabinets and drawers. Yesterday, we dealt with what the dust bunnies had been guarding under the bed, and we sorted through a few shelves of notebooks, gift bags, tissue paper, and canvas tote bags. 

Whew. In all, she has carried away two bins of clothes and shoes, five large tote bags of kitchen and pantry stuff, and yesterday, two bags of linens and the other miscellaneous items that had been hiding behind closed doors.

Add to that a trash bag or two and the house does seem to be a bit lighter. 

I decided early on into the process that I wasn't going to worry about sorting out books. They are not clutter. Well, most of them anyway. My one rule - made after I tearfully waved goodbye to a jean jacket from the '80s - was that if it made me cry to get rid of an item then that item stayed! 

I have also spent many hours on my own sorting, organizing, and tossing art and craft supplies. That in itself was a gargantuan task, but I do believe for the moment that area of my life is tidy.

I tell you all this because with the holidays and the clearing out project, I haven't had much time to read - or honestly to even think about reading - except at bedtime.

I did keep warm and cozy under the covers with Alexander McCall Smith's latest No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery The House of Unexpected Sisters. In this adventure, Mma Ramostwe has an unsettling family mystery of her own to solve so she turns over the case of a woman who was allegedly fired from her job for an unjust reason to her agency partner Grace Makutsi. After many cups of tea and a slice or two of Mma Potokwani's delicious fruit cake, both mysteries are solved and all ends well.

Just last night I finished A Fool and His Monet by Sandra Orchard. Serena Jones is an FBI agent with the Art Crime Team. She joined the investigative agency in hopes of one day solving the murder of her grandfather by an art thief during a robbery. The action in the first of this promising series takes place in St. Louis. There are a few stereotypical characters - Serena's mother reminds her often how she would love to have grandchildren; her goofy Aunt Martha loves a good mystery and somehow entangles herself in this one; and, of course, there are two handsome men who could possibly provide romance. But, that said, I enjoyed the puzzle and quite liked Serena.

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On a sad note, a favorite author and fellow Louisvillian Sue Grafton died over the holidays. I have read and enjoyed all of her Kinsey Millhone books up through V is for Vendetta. I once lived near Santa Barbara - her fictional Santa Teresa - and it was fun to read about and recognize those familiar coastal locales in her books. Her last mystery, published in August 2017, was Y is for Yesterday so I do have a few 'letters' left to read. 

As her family said after her death, for them, and many of Ms. Grafton's fans, the alphabet now ends in Y.

I snapped this (somewhat fuzzy) photo of Sue Grafton

in November 2013 at the Kentucky Book Fair.

Faces at the Kentucky Book Fair

The ever-popular Sue Grafton. Fans lined up all day to get her autograph in her latest Kinsey Millhone mystery, W is for Wasted.

Poet, essayist, and novelist Wendell Berry has a faithful following. He was kept busy all day long signing many of his books. I met him at last year's Book Fair. This year I just waved as I walked by.

Mystery writer Duffy Brown looked great in her 'Crime Scene Do Not Cross' scarf. She was signing her entertaining puzzlers set in Savannah, Iced Chiffon and Killer in Crinolines. Her next mystery starring amateur sleuth Reagan Summerside, owner of the consignment shop, The Prissy Fox, is due out in March. This time Reagan will be investigating a crime involving Pearls and Poison. Ms. Brown is very friendly and genuine. I met her last year and have become a fan.

Alecia Whitaker is the author of Queen of Kentucky which I wrote about here. I was delighted and surprised to meet her as she was not listed in the online brochure of authors who would be attending. She was so gracious and like 14-year-old Ricki Jo, the girl on the cover, she had on her cowboy boots. Her new book is Wildflower, a story of a young songwriter/singer's experiences with fame.

Alison Atlee is the author of The Typewriter Girl, the story of Betsey Dobson who is trying to make her way as an independent woman in Victorian England. I wrote a bit about the book here. I spoke with Ms. Atlee about the clever chapter headings in her book concerning the rules of typewriting that she culled from an 1890's book How to Become an Expert in Typewriting. I found the advice to be applicable in life as well as when sitting in front of the typewriter.

 Deidre A. Scaggs is author of The Historic Kentucky Kitchen: Traditional Recipes for Today's Cook. I will be seeing her and her taste-testing co-author, chef Andrew W. McGraw, at another book event tonight. She highly recommended the Parrish Family's Lemon Custard Pie, circa 1850s, and assured me it is a recipe that even I - a non-cook - could follow. "It's super easy!"  Sure enough, the recipe has only five ingredients. I may have to dig out my apron!

This dapper fellow is Dan Andriacco, writer of the Sebastian McCabe-Jeff Cody series. His latest, The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore takes place in London, a favorite location of mine. Mr. Andriacco has been a Sherlock Holmes fan since he was nine and incorporates some of that famous detective's methods in his mysteries. 

Bryan S. Bush is a local historian and lecturer on The Civil War. His book, Louisville and The Civil War, takes a look at the role of my hometown in that conflict. Mr. Bush partipates in reenactment events as a Confederate artillery soldier and leads tours through the portion of historic Cave Hill Cemetery where Union and Confederate soldiers are buried. He told me the fascinating story of accused Confederate spy Elizabeth Temms who died in a Union prison in Louisville. She is the only woman buried with the Confederate soldiers in Cave Hill.

Two Days - Two Book Events

Two literary events on tap for this weekend.

On Saturday, I will be at the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort. Last year I had a blast mingling with the authors and the readers in attendance. For the first time, Kentucky-native Sue Grafton will be there autographing her latest Kinsey Millhone mystery, W is for Wasted. Coincidentally, the book, which has been on my library request list for months, has just now become available for me. 

Also in attendance will be Duffy Brown, whom I met last year and whose Savannah-based mysteries Iced Chiffon and Killer in Crinolines I have very much enjoyed. 

The fair's website lists over 200 authors who will be present including poet, essayist, and novelist Wendell Berry, political reporter Eleanor Clift, and Bobbie Ann Mason. 

My plan, which worked so well last year, is to study the program that is online and choose beforehand the authors I want to meet. The aisles get crowded and it is best to have a strategy so I don't miss anyone. A great day!

Here are links to my posts on last year's Book Fair: here and here.

On Sunday, the award-winning, independent documentary film "Out of Print", produced and directed by Vivienne Roumani, will be shown, for free, at a theater right in my neighborhood.  It asks and debates the question Is the Book Really Dead? I am very much looking forward to seeing this. Here is how the film is described on its website:

Out of Print, narrated by Meryl Streep, draws us into the topsy-turvy world of words, illuminating the turbulent and exciting journey from the book through the digital revolution. Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon.com), Ray Bradbury, Scott Turow, Jeffery Toobin, parents, students, educators, scientists - all highlight how this revolution is changing everything about the printed world - and changing us.

Kentucky Book Fair on My Calendar

The Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort, which I have often attended, is coming up in a couple of weeks. This year I see that some of the regular favorites will be in attendance at this one-day event: Wendell Berry; Bobbie Ann Mason; and, the state's former and only female governor Martha Layne Collins (whom I have had the pleasure of interviewing). Sue Grafton, Louisville native and author of the alphabet mysteries featuring Kinsey Millhone, is scheduled to be there to sign her newest, W is for Wasted.

Also on the list is Duffy Brown who writes the fun mysteries set in Savannah (where I will be next week!). I met her last year, bought her first book, Iced Chiffon, and now, after reading her second, Killer in Crinolines, consider myself to be a fan of hers. 

Here is a link to author photos I took at last year's event.

Even though I am in the midst of getting ready for my Grand Southern Literary Tour 2013, I am definitely going to put this book fair on my calendar. It makes for a fun, literary day. And one that is always full of surprises.

Waiting for "W"

A follow-up to yesterday's post concerning Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton:

I bailed on the Me group of stories. I really didn't want to read about a young Ms. Grafton (under the guise of her character Kit Blue) watch her mother drink herself to death. I read two of the "stories" and then shut the book.

The Kinsey Millhone stories, though, that opened the book were fun to read and Kinsey's humor and good sense come through even in these shorter episodes. I will look forward to the next in Grafton's alphabet series.

Next up: W is for "who knows?".

Greetings from Lompoc

I presented my research paper today for the Monday Afternoon Club. It was well received and I had fun giving it. The paper was on the history of Lompoc, California (pronounced Lom poke). 

I lived there in the seventies and thought that the town had some interesting aspects to it. It was founded as a temperance society. It is the Flower Seed Capital of the World. It was home to the 'country club' prison that housed H.R. Haldeman and other Watergate criminals. Vandenberg Air Force Base is there and is still launching unmanned missiles into the wild blue skies. And, it is the setting of the most completely restored Spanish mission, La Purisima, which is now a state park. 

On a bookish note, Lompoc is mentioned often in Sue Grafton's series of alphabet mysteries. Lompoc is about an hour's drive north of Santa Barbara, which is the real town to Kinsey Millhone's Santa Theresa. Kinsey's mother was from a well-to-do Lompoc family. The town is featured prominently in J is for Judgment and Q is for Quarry.

It amazes me how much time and thought goes into preparing one of these papers. Lots of research and then getting the information down and then the tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, followed by many practice presentations. And then more tweaking. 

I don't know if others spend as much time as I do but for the past two months I have felt that preparing for this 30-minute presentation has been like a second career. 

I will be happy to give my mind a little rest.

V is for Vengeance Complete

Sue Grafton never fails to amaze me. Her writing is clear, her characters are lively and quirky but not in a forced way, her dialogue is witty, and her solutions are clever and come together perfectly.

Oh yes, people get shot, thrown off of bridges, and even Kinsey herself suffers a bloody nose or two, but nothing too gratuitous or too descriptive.

V is for Vengeance does not disappoint. How Grafton weaves her characters' stories and back stories with Kinsey's narrative keeps me turning the pages. I even liked the 'bad' guy in this adventure.

I won't go into the plot because I don't want to spoil the fun. Besides, anyone can read a synopsis in many places on the web.

I love Grafton's way with description. Here is one from the book that sticks in my memory:

The storm clouds were gathered on the horizon like black trash bags against a fence.

Or something close to that. There are more but I in my absorption with the story, I failed to mark them.

I am fascinated with Kinsey's penchant for index cards and the way she records clues and information on them and then mixes them up to get a fresh perspective. I wonder if that is how Grafton keeps her story lines straight.

I have mentioned that Grafton lives part time in my hometown and in Santa Barbara, or Montecito to be exact. I too have lived in that area of California and it is fun for me to read about familiar cities, streets, and beaches. So those are two connections I have with the author.

I also love seeing how Grafton's hair styles change on the book jackets over the course of the years.

There was one little hiccup in the book, however. Kinsey has a conversation with someone and she makes a point of spelling her last name with two Ls. Millhone.  She says, "Most people miss the second L."

I am one of those people and I have since corrected the spelling of Ms. Millhone's name in two blog posts. The funny thing is though, the last chapter of the book is the wrap-up report by Kinsey. She signs off as 'Kinsey Milhone'.

Oops.

V is for Very, Very

Once again I am in thrall of the clever plotting and wicked dialogue as only Sue Grafton can mete out.

V is for Vengeance has me turning pages and trotting to keep up with Kinsey Millhone. At last count there have been at least two murders; who knows how many other bodies will turn up. I am only 150 pages in and breathless.

It has been the perfect Saturday for immersing myself in the shenanigans of Kinsey and her town of Santa Theresa - otherwise known, in the real world, as Santa Barbara. How comfortable to be back in the lives of Rosie and her tavern, Henry and his baking, and William with his hypochondria and penchant for attending funerals of those he doesn't even know.

Kinsey is still tooling around town in her Mustang, comforting herself with junk food, and running in the mornings to counteract the effects of such indulgences as Quarter Pounders and fries.

All's right with the world.

Book Collecting and Sleuthing

Being a book collector and being a detective are surely one in the same thing - only one deals with perhaps more blood than the other although I have heard tell that book collectors can be a ruthless bunch.

I was summoned to the library today to pick up two books on hold for me: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton and The Amenities of Book Collecting and Kindred Affections by my now good friend A. Edward Newton.

The copyright date of V is 2011, the copyright date of Amenities is 1918. Quite a spread.

I have had Grafton's book on hold for months. I am not even sure how long ago I reserved it, but if I were to add my name to the list today I would be 62nd on the list. The library has 75 copies of the book.

Not so amazing as Sue Grafton is a local author with a home here and a home in Santa Barbara.

Anyway, I plan on spending the weekend reading Kinsey Millhone's latest adventures and am glad to get the book before her creator comes out with her next in line: W is for ???

As to Mr. Newton, I am delighted that the library has not discarded this quite ancient volume. The spine has the notation 090 N561 written very carefully in white ink as they used to do. The spine was then shellacked or had some sort of hard, clear coating painted on so that the title and call numbers are forever preserved.

The book is fragile. It has many photos, illustrations, and samples of autographs and handwritings. The photographs all have the library name stamped across a corner. I guess to prevent tearing out and framing?

Anyway, I am happy to have both of these books by my reading chair.