Books in Queue

Ever since I learned to read in Kindergarten and discovered the magic of words on a page and the worlds that they opened to me, I have been hooked. I spent my formative years carrying around a book in my coat pocket (the 80's version of a Kindle app on a smartphone) and developed a habit of reading at the lunch table while munching on the bologna and mayonnaise sandwich that my mom always made me on school days (again, it was the 80s). In the summers I was often found in the upper branches of the maple tree in our front yard, along with the books and pillow I had somehow managed to wrangle up the tree with me. 

Yes, I have always loved books. And...I have always loved to collect books. 

Below is a photograph of my real-life nightstand. If I were being really honest, I would have thrown open the doors of the cabinet beneath and let you see the shelves of books, hidden behind closed doors, that have been purchased over the years and are waiting to see the light of day on the top of the cabinet...ever nearer to the hope of possibly being plucked out of line for reading. It's entirely possible that I am a book hoarder. And I'm not sure I'm really apologetic for that. At least...not yet. As you'll see below (if you continue to read), I'm also learning the importance of minimizing and downsizing, so this may change, but for now, books continue to be my friendly vice.

This image is the personal property of C.G. Koens and may not be used without permission

While there is an incredible backlog of physical books awaiting my attention, today I'm sharing just a few books—some I own, some I'd like to own, and some that have come to me in electronic form on my Kindle—that are making their way to the forefront of my interests as I look towards the new year. 

A little background: Ever since I helped my parents clean out this autumn and move the items they had collected over the 28 years they lived in their home, I have been in a purging and simplifying mindset. So many of the books you see on the list are focused on minimizing stuff and maximizing time usage. Life is too short to get bogged down in "woulda, shoulda, coulda" regrets. More on that in a moment. 

From Laura Vanderkam:

• Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done 
• Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters 
• 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

From Joshua Becker:

• Things That Matter: Overcoming Distraction to Pursue a More Meaningful Life
• The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own

From Peter Walsh:

• Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life - This one is actually already in process on my Kindle, and I'm about 50% of the way through it, but I doubt I'll finish it before the year ends, as it is the kind of book that you read a little bit, and then mull over what you've read and decide what to do with that step before moving on.

In addition to these, I still have the front stack on the nightstand to work through. These include:

• What She Ate by Laura Shapiro
• Code Girls by Liza Mundy
• Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee
• 7 Men by Eric Metaxas
• Don't Overthink It by Anne Bogel
• The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith
• Classics Reimagined, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (a re-read, but in a new version)

As one of my "small victory" goals for 2023 is reading one book a month for fun (or learning/personal growth), this list actually gives me 13 to aim for and work through. 

Remember just a minute ago when I said that life was too short to get bogged down by regrets? That includes the regret of buying books with the best of intentions but never ending up reading them. Or worse still, starting them, slogging halfway through the book, and realizing that I really don't like it. Leaving an unread book on my shelves is one thing, but I confess to having a number of books on my Nightstand Stack that are technically "in process" but haven't been touched in years because I just couldn't get into them, but I can't bear to give up. That's a "woulda, shoulda, coulda" regret if I ever saw one, so perhaps learning how to let go of those "thanks, but no thanks" books should be another one of my "small victory" goals in 2023. Either that or just push through them and revel in the feeling of completing something I didn't want to do, and possibly learning something in the process...we'll have to see which one wins out. Which would you choose?

"The Feather Thief" (A #WhatsOnMyNightstand Book Review)

I don't remember who recommended this book to me, but I feel like it was a childhood friend on Facebook, after I mentioned a book I had recently finished reading. Since I'm always up for "stranger than fiction" real-life tales, I added it to my "To Read" list on Goodreads and eventually ordered a copy (used of course) from Amazon, to add to my nightstand reading stack. It's probably been at least 2-3 years since that recommendation, but I finally got around to reading it this year, and since life happened and I didn't get my July post written, I'm hoping that an August 1st book review post will make up for the oversight. 

May I introduce to you, The Feather Thief, by Kirk Wallace Johnson. A story of the most unusual theft, by the most unlikely of characters, with a somewhat unsatisfactory outcome. But still one of my favorite books of 2022 so far. 

When Johnson first heard the story of Edwin Rist, he almost couldn't believe it to be true. It was too far out there. A twenty-something American flautist, studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, obsessed with the rare art of salmon fly-tying and the even rarer (and more illegal) feathers to tie them, breaks into the Tring museum, a branch of the British Museum of Natural History, in the dead of night and waltzes out with a suitcase full of hundreds of bird skins. Using the local train system as his "getaway" vehicle, he made a clean escape, only to be found through his sales on eBay and a loose-lipped buyer. 

Think Oceans 11, The Italian Job, and Jason Bourne, only with a homeschooled American boy who wanted money to buy a nice flute so he could play classical music with a German orchestra. Truth truly is stranger than fiction. Without giving anything away, let me just say that although the long arm of the law did, eventually, catch up to him, justice was not served. In a plot twist that would fit well in Catch Me If You Can, Rist and his feathers are still free in the world, much to the chagrin of Johnson, who slowly became obsessed with this unusual heist, and the man who got away with it.

Available on Amazon, you can buy it new or used, or look it up at your local library. The world truly is a funny place. Happy Reading!

The Stack is Still Clearing (A What's On My Nightstand #WOMNS Post)

Hello friends and fellow bookworms! My last post on here went live on February 16th, and then it seems, just as in years past, despite starting out strong with my blogging goals, life took over. And while I continued to read through my list and follow my No Spend plans for February, I failed to blog about either topic (or anything else, for that matter). But since I had a moment this morning, I thought I'd at least give a quick update about what I've read since the last time I posted. 

As a reminder, here are the list of books that I started out with from the FRONT stack on my nightstand.

1. Boundaries with Teens - Read the Review
2. The Enchanted Hour
3. Agatha: The real life of Agatha Christie - Read the Review
4. Poirot and Me - Read Review Below 👇
5. Sugar Changed the World - Read the Review
6. To the Land of Long Lost Friends - Read the Review
7. Is God anti-gay?
8. The Girls of Atomic City - Read Review Below 👇
9. How to Raise an Elephant
10. Dear Mrs. Bird - Read Review Below 👇
11. The Feather Thief
12. SoulCare
13. Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs
14. What She Ate
15. Hank & Jim
16. Don't Overthink It
17. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (the only one I've read before, but not this version)
18. The Quotable Tozer
19. 7 Men

Over the last couple of months, in addition to reading the official books from my stack (which I'll get to in a minute), and completing Souvenir on my Kindle (you can read my review of it on Goodreads), I also read the following books to the kids: 

• Exploring According to Og the Frog - Read my Goodreads Review
• Haffertee's First Easter - Read my Goodreads Review
• Unbroken (Adapted for Young Adults) - Read my Goodreads Review
• The Hobbit (Illustrated by Michael Hague) - Read my Goodreads Review
• Elisabeth Elliot: Do the Next Thing - Read my Goodreads Review
• Where Is the Colosseum? - Read my Goodreads Review
• Operation Christmas Child: A Story of Simple Gifts - Read my Goodreads Review
• Adoniram Judson: Danger on the Streets of Gold - Read my Goodreads Review

So as you can see, I haven't been lagging on my reading for 2021, they just haven't all been part of my official stack that I'm still working through for the year. But if you're curious about the ones that I have marked off of the list, here's a brief rundown.

👍Poirot and Me by David Suchet has definitely been one of the more enjoyable books from my stack in 2021. As an avid fan of Agatha Christie since I was in junior high, with Poirot as my favorite sleuth, it should come as no surprise that I was also a fan of the British television show. 

Who better to write a book about the show and this lovable Belgian detective than the man who played him for more than two decades? David Suchet threw himself into this role, 110%, and his love for the fictional character comes through in his writing. I'm not even sure Christie herself liked Poirot as much Suchet did and does.

If you are a fan of the books or the show, this is a must read. Two thumbs up from me, and a big thanks to my sweet Hubs for his placement of this under our Christmas tree.

👎Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce. I had high expectations for this book, based on the reviews that I had read on Goodreads. However, once I dug in, I found that I had a hard time getting into the story. I wanted to like the characters, I wanted to like the plot line, but I found that it dragged a bit, and I ended up just wanting the book to be done. 

That being said, I now see that it is planned out to be a series of books, and since the story took a bit of an unexpected upturn at the end, I might be willing to give book #2 a try, if I ever run out of books from my stack to read. The likelihood of that is slim to none, but there's always a chance (especially if I stumble across a used copy of it at some point in time). 

If you have read this book and liked it, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan. Last year I had read her book about the Biltmore House (see my review), and felt that the idea was strong, but the writing could have used some work (and a good editor). Even so, when I saw that she had written a book about the women of Oak Ridge during WWII, it piqued my interest and I went about getting a copy for my stack.

The good news is that it gets a thumbs up 👍 from me. As with The Last Castle (her book on the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC), Oak Ridge is just down the road from me (the opposite direction of Asheville) and contains a fascinating, and often overlooked, part of history. 

Although I was aware that Oak Ridge played a role in the creation of the atomic bomb that eventually brought an end to WWII, I was unaware of the extent of the secrecy surrounding the work and workers during the dark days of the war. This book makes me want to road trip down there one of these days and see what remains of that history before it's completely gone.

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That's what's been going on with my stack of 2021 books. I'll do my best to report in a little more regularly going forward, but...with five kids and homeschooling and working freelance jobs and summer coming...I'm making no promises. 😄

👉 If you haven't already connected with me on Goodreads, I recommend following along there, as I do write reviews as soon as I complete whatever book I'm reading at the moment.

What have YOU been reading?

Notes from The Stack (A "What's On My Night Stand" #WOMNS Post)

This week in the update from The Stack, we feature one book from the actual stack, and one from my virtual shelves, as I work my way through Kindle downloads as well. I resisted ebooks for years, and even after purchasing an actual Kindle several years ago, I never used it for reading books, just for watching BritBox through Amazon Prime. But when the kids came along, I suddenly found myself sitting in car lines, medical offices, and on soccer sidelines, with plenty of time on my hands and no book at the ready. And that's when the Kindle app on my phone became my go to option for all those minutes of unanticipated reading time. 

Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash

These days, I still rely on the phone app for reading ebooks, and my Kindle is still primarily used for music and shows, but I've come to recognize there are benefits to the ebook, specifically price, especially when it's a book I'm not sure I'll want to ever read again, and Amazon loves to throw "$2 digital credits" my way when I opt for a slower shipping time on regular purchases. Many of the books I've got waiting in my Kindle lineup I got for free or pennies on the dollar, which is definitely a price I can get behind! The one downside I've found is that I cannot loan books when I find one I like, and before you tell me that you can, yes, I know. Technically there is a way to do it, but Amazon has definitely NOT made it user friendly! And it will never be the same as pulling a paperback off my shelf and handing it to a friend or family member, after telling them all about how I loved it and they would too. 

Whatever your preference, paperback or ebook, I've got you covered with both today! And my recent Kindle read happens to currently (as of the time of this writing, the first week of February 2021) be available for FREE with Amazon Prime (although it's only getting two stars from me, so do with that what you will). 

Book number one today, the aforementioned freebie on Kindle, is The Little Book of Lykke by Meik Wiking (who, you may recall, also wrote The Little Book of Hygge). Now, considering my take on his first book (read the review if you don't remember), you might be surprised to see him in my Stack again, ebook or not. The key to this one is the FREE aspect, mentioned above. If it's free, I'll occasionally give it a shot, which is what happened in this case. 

Reviewed in a sentence: it's a profanity-laced love letter to Denmark and socialism. 

A slightly longer review of it would include the following positives: I appreciated his take on looking for ways to show kindness to strangers (something that I can get behind as a Christian), and I've even been pondering the idea of planting a neighborhood garden in our side yard this spring, as a way to develop and build community. I also loved that little ol' Knoxville, Tennessee (up in my neck of the woods, as we'd say around here) hit the top of the list in U.S. cities where citizens would go out of their way to help someone they didn't know. But outside of that, I couldn't get over his use of profanity and his deeply held views that socialism is the key to Utopia. Two stars...but if you want to read it and decide for yourself...it's free right now if you have Amazon Prime, so that's right up there in the Utopian world for bookworms. 

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Now the second book of the week came directly off The Stack from my nightstand, and was just one of those "easy read" books that I was looking forward to diving into, and it didn't disappoint. To the Land of Long Lost Friends took me right back to the sunny skies of Botswana, and recalled memories of places I haven't thought of since we lived there (briefly), some 16 years ago. You can't go wrong (most of the time) with the adventures of the Number 1 ladies and their assistant detective in training, Charlie. Poor Charlie, who is always so picked on and never seems to catch a break...got the happy ending in this book, and I couldn't have been happier about that. 

Photo by C.G. Koens, Botswana, Africa

And that's what I've been reading since last week, in addition to continuing to work through Dear Mrs. Bird (which I'm a bit stuck on, as I don't like the direction it's heading), Poirot and Me (currently $3.99 on Kindle, if you're interested in giving it a try), and I just started The Girls of Atomic City, which has been fascinating so far, and I look forward to digging into that more in the coming weeks. On my Kindle, I'm taking a break from Wiking (though I still have one book from him left on my virtual shelf) and diving into Souvenir, which has been on my wish list for a while as a paperback, but I finally purchased the ebook version for free, thanks to all those lovely Amazon credits I mentioned earlier. And so on we go...traveling the world through books. No mask required. 

What's on YOUR nightstand?

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And what would YOU add to my "must read" list?  

Updates from "The Stack" (What's On My Nightstand - #WOMNS)

Another week, another two books down from The Stack! My nightstand is clearing off faster than I expected (of course, having two hours, two days a week, to read in the car is pretty helpful for that - thanks to a new taekwondo schedule for the four kids). But never fear, I've still got some big books to come, and my nightstand happens to be a 4' cabinet, a space that holds more books than I can read in a year...or two, so there will be no shortage of books for the reading goals of 2021! 

The books this week were all about surprises. Neither was what I was expecting, and both were a result of me not reading the description closely enough (or the reviews, as it turns out in the case of the first book). However, I still learned things from both, and will be passing them along to others in my life who are interested in giving them a try. Speaking of giving away...stay tuned, because even though I'm not doing it this week, in future reviews, if I think a book will be a one-time read for me, I'll be offering my copy to one lucky reader who leaves a comment, so keep your eyes open for those giveaways going forward! 

Book #1 this week is Sugar Change the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos. This past summer, our oldest was taking an online high school English class and the teacher was talking about this book. Since I'd never heard of it, I looked it up on Amazon and ended up buying a copy, because it sounded interesting. When the book arrived, I was surprised by the "coffee table" look of it, and thought perhaps I'd ordered the wrong thing. But, as it turns out, I did not...I just didn't catch that it was written for teachers, to be used as part of a classroom curriculum. 

Building off of the experience and history of each of the authors families, Aronson and Budhos follow the trail of sweetness from England through the Americans, from France to Haiti, touching on the enslavement of plantation workers, brought from Africa, to the indentured field hands that were tricked into coming from India. The one thing I can say about this that I appreciated, was the broad overview of slavery around the world. So often, especially in the United States, it seems that we get stuck with being the only country with a history of slavery, but as this book demonstrates, from Brazil to the Caribbean islands, the sad history of slavery is widespread, with greed always being at the core, and not limited to the American south.

The authors did a fair job of following the historical trail of a much sought after sweet, in the form of honey and then sugar cane, and came full circle as the invention of beet sugar began to quell the need for sugar cane and thus, the employment and use of indentured servants and slaves. If you're a teacher, they even have an entire section after the conclusion of the book, on how you can tie this into your lessons, promoting student participation. For that reason, this isn't really a book that I would say, "Oh yes, it's a must read!" I did learn some interesting facts about sugar (although I don't know that I ever needed to know that much about it), and also broadened my view of the world of slavery, outside of the United States, but it's a library read at best. I'm personally giving my copy to a teacher, because that's really who was in the minds of the authors when they wrote it. 

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The second book from my stack this week was yet another surprise. I'd included Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie on my Christmas wish list, after seeing it pop up on someone's Goodreads suggested reading list. My sweet hubs dutifully purchased and wrapped it, and I was stoked when I found it under the tree. Except then I opened it, and got a shock (which was totally my fault), because somehow I failed to see in the description that it was an illustrated, graphic biography. In other words, it was basically the comic book telling of her life. Let's just say that was not what I was expecting. At. All.

Nevertheless, I finally dove into it this last week and read it in an evening. While I am not a fan of the comic book format, I did chuckle over the inclusion of Christie's sleuths, who would, from time to time, pop into the story and torment their creator. I couldn't help but laugh when Christie, thinking about her famous (and apparently annoying) creation, Hercule Poirot, quipped, "If Hercule had his way, all scones would be square." The queen of mystery had a somewhat sad life, in reality, with her father passing away when she was just 11 years old, her first husband (he of the famous Christie name) leaving her for another woman, the death of a series of family members, and even the philandering eyes of husband #2. However, through it all, she seemed to find enjoyment in her writing, her travels, and her time spent on archaeological digs. 

If you enjoy Christie's work as a mystery author, you might also enjoy this colorful telling of her life's story. However, although I haven't read them (yet), I think I will prefer her own autobiographical works, Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir, and An Autobiography. Those aren't currently on the top of my stack, though, so you'll have to wait on those reviews.

What about you? 

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What's the best find out of YOUR stack this week?

2020 Wasn't All Bad... #BookwormsUnite

A bazillion words have been written about 2020, and let's be real, most of them are pretty negative. Never in my thirty-nine years of life have I ever seen the collective world so ready to kick a year to the curb. Even the Bitmojis got into the action. But, as I said earlier, not every year is all bad—or all good—and 2020 was no exception. Along with a whole lot of yuck, there were definitely some highlights, and that's something I've been trying to reflect on as we head into 2021. Because we have no idea what the next twelve months will hold for us, as individuals, or our world, so dwelling solely on the negative of the last year isn't going to help any of us face whatever lies before us. And so I'm spending these first few days of the new year looking for the positive from 2020, and I hope you'll join me. 

One of my positives from 2020 was the fact that I found so much time to read. In fact, after I pulled this graphic from Goodreads, I was able to add an additional book to the year, bringing it up to a grand total of 70, officially, and quite a few more than that, unofficially, as I didn't count all of the books I read aloud to the kids during the year, for nightly reading and school reading. Considering the fact that I barely made my goal of 52 in 2019, I was surprised and pleased with this result, which happened, in part, because I gained extra time in my day by not driving kids to two different schools in another town, and sitting in car lines every afternoon. Thank you, COVID-19. I will never be sorry not to do that drive twice a day (if not more, when someone had an after school activity). 

Since I'm setting a goal for this year to read all of the books on my nightstand, I thought it might be prudent to share my top reads (out of the 70+) from 2020. In no particular order, here are the six that I enjoyed the most—or impacted me the most—over the last twelve months...

1. The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield - this book shook me in ways I didn't expect. I'd read her first book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, and knew that theologically, we didn't agree on everything. However, this book was nothing less than challenging, convicting, and one of my must read recommendations of the year.
2. The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan - I grew up an hour away from the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, so I was excited to read this one. I felt the writing could be confusing, sometimes finding myself in the middle of a story about a friend of the Vanderbilts, with no idea how I got there or who I was reading about. It was also interesting to me that, although Kiernan mentions spending lots of time at the Biltmore House, she apparently had no access to their historical archives, as all of her sources came from other places. 
3. Orchids on Your Budget by Marjorie Hillis - I had absolutely no expectations about this book when I picked it up, but ended up writing half of an unpublished blog post about the financial tips that I agreed with from this little bit of fun. It's all about choices - where you spend your money, how you spend your money, and why you choose to buy orchids while wearing the same old robe for 20 years. I liked it. 
4. The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe - This was a total "just for fun" read, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I'm not usually a fan of these kinds of books, but I enjoy reading what Mike posts on Facebook, so I thought I might like his book. And, for the most part, I did. Disclaimer that the language can be a little rough at times. 
5. 1984 by George Orwell - to be honest, I HATED this book. I gave it a 1-star review on Goodreads, and finished reading it February 15, 2020. Ironically, throughout the remainder of the year, I was continually reminded of the book, and was stunned to realize that I was beginning to live in a world that resembled that found in 1984. God help us all. I still think it's a depressing and disturbing book, but living it out in real life is a lot more scary. So yes, it should be read.
6. A is for Arsenic by Kathryn Harkup - it took me a while to get through this book, picking it up and putting it back down again for a bit of a breather (lots of scientific stuff in this one, which can be overwhelming for an English major!), but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, probably because of the tie-in to all of the Agatha Christie books (I'm a sucker for Christie!). It was fascinating.

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What did YOU read in 2020?

Setting Smaller Goals

If 2020 taught me anything, it's that we need to hold tightly to the lessons of James 4:13-15:

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'"

For most of my adult years, I've set goals, picked words, and dreamed big dreams. When 2020 hit, I was reminded that we're not guaranteed tomorrow, and realized that it might be prudent to spend some time enjoying the smaller accomplishments in 2021 that we would have overlooked prior to this crazy year. For example...reading through the books that are currently on my nightstand.

Yep, those are all sitting on my nightstand, waiting to be read. Some of them have been there for longer than a year...maybe even two. And the stacks keep growing. Which is why, on January 1st, while setting my 2021 Reading Goals on Goodreads, I glanced behind me and saw the stack and decided that would be a good "smaller" challenge for the year: Read through the stack. 

You may recall that back in the day, I used to do regular "What's On My Nightstand" book review posts. If all goes as planned, I'll be bringing a version of those back as I read through this stack. When I shared about this on my Busy Nothings Facebook page, someone made the comment that they wanted to know what was in the stack behind the stack. Well, so do I! So for now I'm going to focus on the front stack, and once it's done...we'll talk about what's behind. For now, here's the list (with Amazon links, in case you're interested in reading along with me)...

1. Boundaries with Teens
2. The Enchanted Hour
3. Agatha: The real life of Agatha Christie
4. Poirot and Me
5. Sugar Changed the World
6. To the Land of Long Lost Friends
7. Is God anti-gay?
8. The Girls of Atomic City
9. How to Raise an Elephant
10. Dear Mrs. Bird
11. The Feather Thief
12. SoulCare
13. Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs
14. What She Ate
15. Hank & Jim
16. Don't Overthink It
17. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (the only one I've read before, but not this version)
18. The Quotable Tozer
19. 7 Men

PLEASE NOTE: There are two rules for this list...

1. Don't judge any book by it's title. 
2. Don't assume because it's on my nightstand, I'm recommending it.

With those rules in mind, and a list a hand, are you ready to start reading along with me, bookworms? I'd love to hear what's on YOUR nightstand, and what smaller goals you're setting for yourself in 2021! Leave a comment and let's use this year to build a community that learns together.

What's On My Nightstand #WOMNS (Summer Mystery Edition)

Summer 2018 seems to have been the season for discovering new (to me) British mystery stories. As stated previously, I've long been a fan of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and their respective detectives, but this summer I not only stumbled across the Death in Paradise books, but a lovely little series called the Lady Hardcastle Mysteries by T.E. Kinsey.

Thanks to our Amazon Prime account (which I love, but hate that they recently raised the yearly fee - again), through the Prime lending library I was able to read A Quiet Life in the Country (Book #1) for free. I will now state that this is a brilliant marketing ploy, because I got sucked in to the series and purchased the second book, In The Market For Murder (albeit with credits that I got on Prime Day). But even if you didn't have credits for a free book, the Kindle editions in this series are currently priced at $1.99, which isn't bad for a new book (but if you insist on paper, those are currently listed for $6.99).

Let's get one thing straight from the start - these are not the best mystery books I've ever read, but they have relatively good character development (I did feel like a book was missing between #1 and #2) and unique plot lines. Set in the early 1900's, Lady Hardcastle and her faithful servant, Armstrong, are unique in their independence and abilities (Lady Hardcastle drives her own car, while Armstrong is trained in martial arts and isn't afraid to use those skills when necessary), and the local police are soon calling on them for a cup of tea and help with the latest murder case. Whether they are chasing jewel thieves or rounding up local poisoners, Lady Hardcastle and Miss Armstrong keep things light and steer clear of the blood and gore.

Although not on par with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, T.E. Kinsey has written an entirely enjoyable series of books, and continues to churn them out (Book #4 - A Picture of Murder - will be released on October 22). For $1.99, they have made a delightful addition to my Kindle bookshelves, and I look forward to more Hardcastle and Armstrong escapades in the future.

What's on YOUR nightstand (or Kindle)?