What I'm Reading on My Winter Vacation

Not surprisingly, Ian Rankin

I'm off tomorrow on a quick winter vacation and, of course, I've got a mystery novel with me. Somehow I missed Ian Rankin's In a House of Lies when it came out in 2018, but luckily found it when I was looking for books to take with me on the library website. It's not my only book, but it's the one that I plan to read on the plane tomorrow. 

 How do you find new books to read? Do you browse the library shelves? I do! I still enjoy spending time looking at the array of books at my local branch library. It's one of my favorite things to do. Until very recently I didn't know that the "open stacks" library system wasn't part of libraries until the beginning of the Twentieth century. Before that it was necessary to know what book you wanted and to request it from the librarian. 

I also find read reviews online, browse my terrific local independent bookstore and read the NY Times book review. What are your favorite ways to find new books?  

Another favorite way to find new books is to chat with friends. Dear book-loving friends, what are you reading these days? 

As ever, thanks for visiting and happy reading!

In Memory of Mary Higgins Clark

It may have been the simplest obituary in today's New York Times. It was succinct, with simply a name, dates of birth and death and the details of the wake and funeral. It was a little lost among the longer obituaries that had a number of paragraphs and a photo.

This was the woman known in life as "The Queen of Suspense," Mary Higgins Clark. Beginning in 1975 with the publication of her first suspense novel, "Where Are the Children," she published over 50 suspense books that sold an amazing cumulative total of over 100 million books. All were bestsellers and all are still in print.  

Mary Higgins Clark left the world and us, her readers, with a legacy of decades of reading pleasure, for which I am most grateful. But it's the final sentence of her obituary that may tell those of us who never met her, her true legacy. We are asked to "perform an act of kindness for someone in need." If the millions of us who read one of Mary Higgins Clark's novels performed just one kind deed in her memory, that kindness would light the world.

My prayers are with Mary Higgins Clark's family and with her family of readers throughout the world.  Is anyone else a fan of her writing?

What is your favorite Mary Higgins Clark novel? I'm going with her first and still my favorite, "Where are the Children?"

As ever, thanks for visiting and happy reading!