Saturday, August 30, 2014

Librarian D.O.A. Booknotes


 
 
 
 
City of Darkness and Light: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen

Molly is happily settled in with Daniel at her Patchin Place home.  Baby Liam enjoys life as only a baby can.

Two letters arrive.  Daniel’s mother is unexpectedly going on a trip across country with a friend.   Molly’s beloved friends and neighbors Sid and Gus are in Paris hoping to persuade the circle of artists there to promote Gus and her paintings in the community.  Impossibly, they invite her to join them there.
 
 

This isn’t something that could be managed on Daniel’s police captain salary, but what a lovely dream, eh?

At dinner there is the sound of a window breaking.  As Daniel and Molly head towards the front of the house there is a tremendous explosion and then fire.  Molly is knocked out for a few moments then finds and digs Daniel free. 

The steps to the upper level where baby Liam and nursemaid Aggie are have disappeared into rubble.

Desperately they go into the street calling for the fire brigade.  Daniel climbs to the second story window of Liam’s room, returning with a small bundle.

The New York Police have decided to crack down on a new group called the Cosa Nostra.  Daniel, who is leading the effort no longer has a safe place for his family in New York.

With his mother out west, there is no safe place to send Molly.  Unless they can go to Paris with Sid and Gus for a visit.

Sid and Gus pay for passage and Molly begins a long voyage with a baby and a rather ratty fellow passenger in tight ships quarters, nearly deathly ill herself for the length of the voyage.

Arriving in Paris, Molly and Liam aren’t met by Sid and Gus.  Making their way to the address the women gave her, Molly finds they have been missing for several days.  She talks her way into using their apartment until they return, but there she is, in a foreign country, with a tiny baby and no money or friends.
Somehow she will need to talk to the denizens of the artistic community to see if she can recover her lost friends.

 

Bulbs in the Basement Geraniums on the Windowsill: How to Grow and Overwinter 165 tender plants by Alice and Brian McGowan
 
 

Every year about this time I bring in my houseplants. There are always a few tender perennials that look so nice yet that I think I’d like to bring them in too.  And how about this plant over here…could I overwinter that inside?  As I was looking up plants that overwinter well again last year (a yearly search) I saw a reference to this book, and found it via Amazon’s used book service.

It has a huge list of plants that will do nicely inside, or that can take in and keep through the winter, bringing them back into bloom in early winter.

All the information you need is here, including what a tender perennial is, and a nice chapter called “Overwintering 101” which talks about the environments indoors that will suit plants.  Find out how to take cuttings, how to prepapre and entire plant to come indoors and what to do about pests.
Wonderful watercolor drawings show you how to do everything.

 

Simply Beautiful Rubber Stamping 50 Quick and Easy Projects by Kathie Seaverns

I’ve managed to do Christmas Cards each year for the last couple of years and I have fun and really like them.  I haven’t managed to do birthdays though, and some of it stems from lack of design inspiration.

I think my cards may be a little busy.  It takes me several hours to do each one.  Tons of thought.  With no artistic sensibilities.
 
 

This is where rubber stamping comes in.   If you have the stamps you can make wonderful little scenes or features and just color them in with all the pleasure of a five year old who didn’t know they had no talent, but how they did love a crayon and coloring book.

Simply Beautiful Rubber Stamping has fifty projects with ideas simple and more complex.  You can easily adapt any of the projects to your own needs.   I love her color choices and layouts.

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