is never done.  Thank goodness!  I'm glad Peter and Bee enjoy reading as much as I do; we are not sure yet if Jasper reads or not.  He's still a bit standoffish about sitting in the living room with us - I guess it will be a while before he finds a spot on the ottoman.

I just finished two great books - a new series by Victoria Abbott.  The Christie Curse is the first in the new Book Collectors' series about a researcher trying to earn grad school tuition named Jordan Kelly.  Set in a small town in New York, Jordan takes a job with the most hated woman in town; her first assignment is to track down a "lost" Agatha Christie play.  The characters are quirky and the story is fast-paced.  Jordan's uncles, who operate somewhat outside the law, are a hoot.  Our heroine returns in The Sayers Swindle, in which she tracks down some missing Dorothy Sayers first editions. 

We can't wait for the next book in the series: The Wolfe Widow!

Since I'm a big Nero Wolfe / Rex Stout fan, I'm excited about this one!

is the first mystery in a great cozy series from Miranda James.  Set in the small, but colorful college town of Athena, Mississippi, Charlie Harris is a fifty-something widower who works as a special collections librarian at Athena College.  His constant companion is an enormous Maine Coon cat named Diesel, who charms everyone he meets.  The cat, I mean - although Charlie is pretty charming, too.  Together they solve crimes assisted by a cast of colorful characters.  It would seem that Athena is Mississippi's answer to Maine's Cabot Cove: people drop like flies and whether they like to admit it or not, the local police can always use Charlie's timely assistance in tracking down the killer.   For continuity, it's a good idea to read the books in order: Murder Past Due, Classified as Murder, File M for Murder, Out of Circulation and The Silence of the Library.  I can't wait for the next installment of the adventures of Charlie and Diesel!  Now let's see which series I want to tackle next...

So many books, so little time!

So let's rewind and start over again here.  It's not July - it's August already and I've just finished a big project that I've been working on for far too long.  Aside from working like crazy on tax returns and client bookkeeping, I've also let my fears and worries get the best of me - leading me to procrastinate on just about everything else.  Including housework.  And writing.  And blogging.  So let me reiterate, I'm excited about my new blog and the new design - can you tell? I began writing my first blog over at Dawn & Aggie back in 2009 - and well, life happens, and my posts dwindled over time until last year I wrote a grand total of seven posts.  Down from three-hundred-twenty-nine in 2010 - my verbosity was at an all time high that year, apparently.  Anyhow, I need to start writing again - and focusing on the positive.  I had a rocky start this year, but I am happy to report that 2014 has improved considerably over the past few months.

Life continues to improve because I choose happiness.

Sadly, I lost my sweet little cairn terrier, Aggie, on December first last year.  She had just turned fifteen in September - complete with a cake and a celebration with her kitty cat brothers.  Needless to say, December was not a good month and I was not prepared for tax season when it arrived in mid-January.  The last eight months have been one long whirlwind of activity and catch-up.  I miss Aggie still and home is quiet and a little empty without my girl.  The lads do their best to keep my company, but you know how cats are: they have staff, not owners.

But I'm staying busy with lots of steady work for clients, catching up on my reading (finally!), and working on a few new home improvement projects and some little decorating changes.  The latest project is enlarging the foyer floor - we removed a piece of carpet that was constantly dirty from client traffic - and squared up the laminate in front of the desk where the client chair is located.  Much better!  And more projects to come...

See you tomorrow!