"Waiting On" Wednesday: A Red Herring Without Mustard

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

A Red Herring Without Mustard
Written by Alan Bradley
Release date: February 8 or March 8, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey—mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia’s own backyard.

Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse—that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce’s drawing room.

Pedaling Gladys, her faithful bicycle, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers some odd new twists. Most intriguing is her introduction to an elegant artist with a very special object in her possession—a portrait that sheds light on the biggest mystery of all: Who is Flavia?

As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

This is Bradley's third novel featuring the wonderful eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. I was a bit skeptical about the first novel in the series - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Precocious children in adult fiction usually turn me off. But the book turned out to be a great read. Haven't read the second book in the series yet (The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), so I better get busy and do that before I get my hands on this new installment.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Stitch Me Deadly

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

Stitch Me Deadly
Written by Amanda Lee
Signet Books
Release date: February 1, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

Marcy Singer owns The Seven Year Stitch, an embroidery specialty shop in the small town of Tallulah Falls, Oregon. Trouble strikes when an elderly woman brings an antique piece of embroidery into the shop-and promptly dies of unnatural causes. Now Marcy has to stitch together clues to catch a crafty killer.

Amanda Lee is a pseudonym of author Gayle Trent, who also writes as Holly Jordan. This is the second in Lee's Embroidery Mystery series; the first was last year's The Quick and the Thread. Haven't read that one yet, but I love Monica Ferris's Needlecraft Mystery series (featuring amateur sleuth and needlework shop owner Betsy Devonshire), so I thought I'd give these a try.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I didn't finish any books last week, but I did make some progress with two that I'm reading right now. Also didn't get any reviews posted, but I've got several in process, and hope to get them done and on my blog later this week. Also need to write wrap-ups for a few of the reading challenges that are ending this month. But all the Christmas shopping and card-sending is done now, so I should be able to devote most of this week to bookish activities.

• Finished last week:
  Nothing. That's: nothing, nada, zip.
  
  
• Reading this week:
  The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown. (This is an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing, and I really need to finish it up pretty quick. I'm having a little trouble staying with it, which doesn't really bode well.)
  
  
  The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan; and Operation Terror by Murray Leinster. Reading these on my iPad. They're both fairly short books, so I really should be able to zip right through them now that I've got some free time.
  
  
  
  First edition, 1962. Berkley Original; cover by Richard Powers.
  Cover image from Amazon.com.
  
  
  
  
  
• Up Next:
  I've got a number of ARCs that I really want to get to, including The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor, and A Widow's Story the new memoir by Joyce Carol Oates. But those will have to wait until after Christmas and probably until the first of the new year - think I've already got enough to keep me busy for the rest of 2010.
  
  
  
  
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I spent most of last week slogging through the last half of Anne Fortier's Juliet. Finished it over the weekend. Seems like I've been reading that book forever. Haven't done a review yet – I'm still gathering my thoughts.

I've got a few more reading challenges to finish up before the end of the year, so I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done in the next couple of weeks. Also want to get several reviews posted – I'd like to say at least a few words about the books I read this year, but never got around to reviewing. I'll get to those just as soon as I get all these Christmas cards addressed and outta here!

So here's how things look at the moment:

• Finished last week:
  
  Juliet, by Anne Fortier. (Sorry to say I found this largely disappointing, especially after all the early hype. More on that later.)
  
  
  
• Reading this week:
  
  The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown. (This is an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing, so I want to get it finished up asap. I have high hopes, although the first fifty pages aren't setting me a-tingle.)
  
  
  
• Up next:
  
  I've started reading two books on my iPad: John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, and Murray Leinster's Operation Terror. Both were free downloads from Amazon, and both should be pretty fast reads so I'll probably finish them up before moving on to something else. Probably should get back to those ARCs that are sitting there on my shelf, radiating guilt vibes.
  
  
  
  First edition, 1962. Berkley Original; cover by Richard Powers.
  Cover image from Amazon.com.
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Teaser Tuesdays: Operation Terror

This week my teaser lines come from Murray Leinster's sci-fi novel, Operation Terror (my "O" book for the A-Z Challenge). I'm not sure of the exact page number because I'm reading this on my iPad, but it's from the third paragraph of Chapter 6 (Kindle location 897-909).

This snippet is describing the mysterious "something" that has come out of Boulder Lake National Park, causing all humans to flee the area:

No human being could endure being within seven miles of whatever it was. . . . because it swung terror beams before it, and terror beams on either side, and when it was clear of the Park it played terror beams behind it, too. Men who suffered the lightest touch of those sweeping beams of terror and anguish moved frantically to avoid having the experience again.

Sounds pretty awful. Reminds me of my old place of employment in Washington DC.

First edition, 1962. Berkley Original; cover by Richard Powers.
Cover image from Amazon.com.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.