Agatha Awards

I just saw that Malice Domestic has announced the list of nominees for the 2007 Agatha Awards. Here are some of the mysteries nominated:

Best First Novel:
Consigned to Death by Jane Cleland
Feint of Art by Hailey Lind
Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerney
The Chef Who Died Sauteing by Honora Finkelstein
The Heat of the Moon by Sandra Parshall

Best Novel:
All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
The Saddlemaker’s Wife by Earlene Fowler
The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard
Why Casey Had to Die by L.C. Hayden

I’ve only read Messenger of Truth and really enjoyed that one, after all it’s a Maisie Dobbs book. You can read the full list of nominees here.

In honor of the awards, and most importantly that Our Coffee Rings has chosen an Agatha Christie novel for the March discussion, today I started reading Murder on the Orient Express. So far so good but that Mrs. Hubbard is really getting on my nerves. This is only my second Agatha mystery. How about you? Are you an Agatha Christie fan? If so, which books are your favorites?

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Current Books

I still need to tell you about the three books I’ve recently finished, but I may save that for my February recap. I can’t believe it’s almost time for that. In the meantime, these are the books I’ve been dipping into lately.

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin
A lot of good stuff there.

Finally, I have a book to show off. To see what was the first bookbinding project I ever made, check out my Star Book. Hope you enjoy that.

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Introduction to Poetry

Inspired by Heather’s Poetry Thursday posts I had to share this one with you.

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins.

Ah who hasn’t felt that way about poetry sometimes right? I’ve been reading Poetry 180 and 180 More lately and am enjoying poems from the playful to the thoughtful to the provocative. You can find a lot more poems at the Poetry 180 web site. Enjoy.

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