By Golly, Ollie!

  • Teas to Sip While Reading Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess
    ,

    Teas to Sip While Reading Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess

    No comments on Teas to Sip While Reading Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess

    Recently, my local library curated a collection of books for a cozy mystery display. Among the books was Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess. I immediately plucked it from the shelf to borrow, barely scanning the inside flap for the summary. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. How do I resist a title like that?

    In Welcome to Murder Week, Cath Little’s stable and reliable life is disrupted by the death of her flighty and mostly absent mother, who apparently had been planning a mother-daughter vacation to a quaint English village that was putting on a town-wide cozy murder mystery simulation. Everything about this trip was the opposite of what her mother liked, which was tropical climates, woo-woo hippie vibes, and handsome men that she would drop everything in her life for (including her own daughter). Cath would rather stay home to work her job at the optometrist’s office and cook batches of lentil soup for her elderly neighbor. Eventually, curiosity wins, and Cath finds herself in Willowthorpe, a picturesque village in England’s Peaks District. There, she meets a cast of memorable characters who help her solve not just Willowthorpe’s fictional Murder of the Week but the mystery of her mother’s attachment to this little village.

    I thought the premise of the book was genuinely clever. It was among a collection of cozy mysteries, but Murder of the Week was actually just contemporary fiction. It was a grief journey where the fake cozy mystery becomes the tool Cath needs to piece together the true story of her mother. It’s a mystery inside a fake mystery, and Dukess weaves the two together masterfully.

    I also adored the characters– both the actors and the real side characters, who seem more interested in helping Cath solve her personal mystery. Cath’s main companions are Amity, a romance writer who is trying to process her recent divorce. She’s full of life and still believes in love despite being hurt, yet she’s struggling to write her next book. And then there is Wyatt, who doesn’t understand why he’s there, just that his husband booked the trip for him…solo. Dukess gave these two their own character growth arc, so I found myself invested in them as much as I was invested in Cath. And of course, I cannot forget Dev, an artisanal gin maker, who unexpectedly sweeps Cath of her feet.

    Welcome to Murder Week was a delightful read. It was full of plucky and often humorous characters, fast-paced plotting, twists and turns, and a swoony romance. But, Cath’s grief and emotional journey still carry the emotional weight it deserves too. This book is curl-up-under-a-blanket-on-a-rainy-Saturday-morning-with-a-cup-of-tea cozy. Speaking of which…

    Teas to Sip While Reading Welcome to Murder Week

    English Breakfast Tea

    Look, you had to expect this one, right? English Breakfast is a quintessential English tea for Willowthorpe, a quintessential English village with cozy store fronts, cottage gardens, deep community that gathers in pubs (and plans village-wide murder mystery simulations), and a sprawling, hilly countryside spotted with manor houses. (I guess I shouldn’t assume this is “quintessential”. This is just how English villages are portrayed over here in the U.S. Basically, it’s the kind of village you might find in an episode of Rosemary and Thyme.) English Breakfast is often a blend of Assam, Ceylon, and Kenyan Black Tea. It’s a full-bodied, malty tea that stands up to milk and sugar. It’s one of my favorite ways to start the day!

    Reading Nook Blend from Plum Deluxe

    Books and stories are very much at the center of this novel. From Amity’s romance novels to the bedtime stories Cath grew up with to references to Agatha Christie mysteries. Which is why the Reading Nook Tea Blend from Plum Deluxe (REVIEW) is perfect. It’s a black tea blended with rose petals, lavender, chamomile, and vanilla essence.

    Coffee for Cath’s American Senses

    Will Cath ever develop a taste for tea? I’d like to think eventually she does, but until then I recommend pairing this book with your favorite coffee that you can prepare easily at home. Cath is pragmatic, so percolated coffee (or even French Press) feels appropriate here.

    Robot’s Garden from Friday Afternoon Tea

    I assume everyone in England has a green thumb and grows gardens, and love-interest Dev reinforces this stereotype. (I am of course, kidding). Nevertheless, it does seem quintessentially English, but more importantly, I think gardening becomes a symbol of Cath’s rootedness later in the novel. For this, I recommend Robot’s Garden from Friday Afternoon Tea. It’s a super earthy blend of green tea and pu’erh (the latter often tasting like autumn leaves on the forest floor, which is not as unappealing as that description sounds, I promise) with deep pink rose petals, golden marigold petals, and fragrant jasmine flowers.

    What kind of tea would you sip while reading a (simulated) cozy mystery set in a quaint, English village?

  • Books My Seven-Year-Old Son Has Enjoyed, Lately

    Books My Seven-Year-Old Son Has Enjoyed, Lately

    No comments on Books My Seven-Year-Old Son Has Enjoyed, Lately

    My son reads above grade level, but he is ever the reluctant reader. It doesn’t matter how often I model the behavior I wish to see (which is quite often), he would just…rather do something other than read. The minute my son expresses any interest in a book though, I make a mental note to find more books like it. Lately, he’s been interested in graphic novels, horror, history, and books that drive discussion.

    These are the books my seven-year-old son has enjoyed lately:

    Scarewaves by Trevor Henderson

    Scarewaves takes place in the small town of Beacon Point, which has a long history of creepy, supernatural occurrences. Strange creatures stalk the woods and streets at night, and people (children!) disappear. The adults are oblivious, but a group of kids, who have come face-to-face with the horrors of Beacon Point, decide to confront the creatures that threaten them.

    We plucked this one from the shelf simply because of the author, Trevor Henderson. Henderson makes horror art that my kid 100% should not be looking at, and for the most part, he hasn’t seen the more grotesque pieces. But Sirenhead is apparently legendary among Minecraft YouTubers pandering to middle schoolers, and alas…here we are.

    Scarewaves is properly spooky– like IT, but for 10-year-olds (R.L. Stine could never). And each chapter includes a creepy illustration (like Stephen Gammell from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark creepy). Am I giving my kid nightmares by reading this to him? Maybe. Is he asking for “just one more chapter”? Definitely.)

    Note: Scarewaves is a middle grade book. This may not be suitable for many seven-year-olds.

    I Survived by Lauren Tarshis

    My kiddo is obsessed with natural disasters. Tornadoes in particular. Seriously, he is an encyclopedia when it comes to tornadoes, and he even watches full-length documentaries on the topic (The Twister: Caught in the Storm, a netflix doc about the Joplin tornado being his favorite so far). So naturally, he has an affinity for the I Survived…series from Lauren Tarshis. We read both chapter books and graphic novels from this series, and so far our favorites have been the books about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, The Black Death of 1348, the Jolin Tornado of 2011, and the Nazi Invasion of 1944.

    A Kid’s Book About…

    We LOVE the A Kids Book About… series. They are short books with bold and creative typographic design, and they are intended to start conversations between parent and child about tough topics.

    My favorite book from the collection so far is A Kid’s Books About Death by Taryn Schuelke (a Grief and Bereavement Specialist on the Pediatric Palliative Care Team at Texas Children’s Hospital). My son plucked this one from the shelf shortly after my husband’s grandmother had passed and shortly before my own grandmother passed. We spent about an hour reading and confronting and discussing the topic of death. For me, the process was kind of healing, and for my son, I think it made the concept of death a little less scary.

    If you’re looking for something a little less morbid, we’ve also enjoyed A Kids Book About… Confidence, Life Online, and Mindfulness!

    The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

    Just so you’re aware, we read books that are not about death and dying, too. Lately my son has been borrowing the Crayons books from his school library. Do these books even need an introduction? (A boy named Duncan finds a stack of letters on his desk from his crayons. Many of them list their concerns and grievances). My son especially loves The Day the Crayons Came Home.

    Pizza and Taco by Stephen Shaskan

    This graphic novel series follows two best friends, Pizza and Taco, as they plan parties, write comic books, or start after school clubs. In each book the two will express differing ideas that creates conflict in their friendship, but inevitably, they work through it and figure out ways to embrace both ideas and celebrate being best friends. The characters and the topics addressed are relatable, the artwork is fun, blending illustration and photorealism, and the theme or main idea is easy to address for young readers.

    I think this is a great series for early readers, especially for those starting to read more independently. My own kiddo is a little beyond that though, so I find myself frustrated that he keeps bringing these home from the school library. This is what excites him to read though, so I roll with it…while also trying to find other graphic novels that are more in line with his reading level.

    Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne

    The Magic Tree House series follows Jack and Annie on their adventures through time after discovering a magical treehouse in their neighborhood. The chapter books have been helpful in transitioning my son from reading picture books to longer chapter books, but he much prefers the graphic novel adaptations. I’ll happily intersperse those into our readings, too. My son has an awful habit of wanting to read this series out of order though, which makes me riot!

    Geronimo Stilton series by Elisabetta Dami

    The Geronimo Stilton stories are fictional memoirs written about the title character, Geronimo Silton. He is a worldly mouse, who is pulled into faraway adventures, but usually very reluctantly.

    Honestly, I kind of hate these books. I never know what is going on, and there are a million characters that I cannot keep track of. My son loves this series though. He has no problem with the multitude of mice and somehow can recall all of the characters and can name which book in the series they appear (sometimes down to the chapter. It’s wild).

    Timelines of Everything produced by DK in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution.

    The illustrated reference books published by DK have been a longtime favorite of mine. I used to pour over the Eyewitness books when I was a child, and I have a mammoth of a book about history at my work desk that I occasionally flip through during lunch. I’m elated that these nonfiction books hold the attention of my son, too. Lately, we’ve been reading through Timelines of Everything, which covers everything from dinosaurs to the Internet, the history of board games to the history of epidemics and vaccines. He’s currently obsessed with the timeline of U.S. Presidents (Teddy Roosevelt is currently his favorite for his work on federal land conservation) and… the French Revolution (the illustration on this page is a guillotine, so like, that tracks).

    If you have/had an elementary aged kid, I’d love to know which books you all have enjoyed!

  • Ohio on my Mind
    ,

    Ohio on my Mind

    No comments on Ohio on my Mind

    The Kiddo spent Spring Break visiting grandparents in Ohio, and last Easter weekend, I drove down to pick him up. When I got into the car at our home in Michigan, it was 38 degrees. When I arrived at my family’s home in Ohio three hours later, it was 70 degrees! We then spent the next hour pulling out warm-weather decorations from the garage and setting them up in their sprawling yard. Birdhouses, rain catchers, flowerpots shaped like cats. At some point, the Kiddo wandered off and just laid on a saucer swing by himself for a good twenty minutes. This felt like a feat because this kid hates solitude.

    I spend a lot of time outdoors when visiting my Ohio family. Summer mornings spent reading on the back porch before the temperature gets too hot. Afternoons spent splashing around in the pool. Vacations spent hiking through Hocking Hills or traipsing through living farms or picking apples in an orchard. I always leave feeling rejuvenated and inspired to embrace nature back home. (This is usually short-lived though. For some reason, my buggy backyard makes me feel anxious while their buggy backyard doesn’t. There is probably something to unpack here, but that’s another post for another day. I digress…).

    I also find myself craving to read nature writing after these visits. I’ve been known to spend hours curating nature writing reading lists (that I of course never actually get around to reading). This week was not much different, except this time, I searched specifically for books rooted in Ohio.

    You might be surprised to learn that my search so far as yielded few results. Or maybe not. Ohio is a state many people complain about driving through while on the way to somewhere else. (Driving 65 mph for an hour down US 23 is a drag.) So, I suppose for the unfamiliar, it’s understandable why this state doesn’t draw the attention of Muir-esque or Thoreau-esque writers. Which is shame because Ohio is much more than rustbelt towns and farmland (and honestly, Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry, has an awful lot to say about farmland). To the north, there is Lake Erie shoreline, the Erie Plain, and Magee Marsh, the Warbler capital of the world. West of that laid one of the largest interior wetland systems in the United States, the Great Black Swamp, until it was nearly entirely drained for agriculture by the late 1800s. To the south is the Appalachian foothills. And bisecting all of it is the glacial boundary stretching diagonally from the northeast to the southwest. Northwest of the boundary, the earth was scraped flat and enriched with glacial till that produced some of the most fertile farmland in the United States. To the southeast of the boundary is the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, which reveals ancient shale walls, deep gorges, and sandstone cliffs.

    A landscape this diverse and historied has to have a trove of creative science and nature writing available somewhere, right? Sadly, the major publishing companies seem to be largely sleeping on Ohio. I had better luck with university presses within the state. I may have to tweak my search terms (or how I search at all. Since when did Google return such bad results?), but this is what I’ve dug up and added to my TBR so far…

    Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio’s Natural Landscape by Deborah Flemming – a collection of essays by Flemming that focuses on natural and human history on the Allegheny Plateau and Ohio’s hill country in the east. Flemming writes about farm life, the impacts of the mining and drilling industries, fox hunting, and naturalists like Louis Bromfield and John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed, that is). This collection of essays won the 2020 PEN/Diamonstein Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

    Ghosts of an Old Forest: Essays on Midwestern Rural Heritage by Deborah Flemming – a collection of essays about Flemming’s farm, Ohio’s agricultural history, and the extraction industries that threaten Ohio’s rural areas.

    Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio edited by Neil Carpathios – an anthology of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction about family, land, industry, and what it means to call Appalachia home. (I’m not entirely sure if this will scratch the nature writing itch).

    A Sanctuary of Trees: Beechnuts, Birdsongs, Baseball Bats, and Benedictions by Gene Logsdon – a tribute to the woods and human connection to trees from the perspective of a lifelong farmer from Upper Sandusky.

    Letters from Eden: a Year at Home in the Woods by Julie Zickefoose – paintings and essays based on Zickfoose’s daily walks and observations in the Ohio Valley.

    The Inland Island: a Year in Nature by Josephine W Johnson – Johnson writes about the year she and her husband tried to revert their 37-acre farm in Ohio back to wilderness, reflecting on social and environmental issues along the way.

    More recently, I spent a morning walk contemplating Ohio nature writing, and really Midwest nature writing as a whole. I thought about someone I followed on instagram ages ago that curated a reading list featuring novels set in Midwest states. I thought it would be cool to do the same, with nature writing, but also with fictional novels too. Maybe not curate but certainly explore.

    Do you have any favorite books, fiction or nonfiction, that are set in the Midwest?

  • What I’ve Been Thinking About, Lately

    No comments on What I’ve Been Thinking About, Lately

    I’ve been thinking about the marble that used to scroll across the top of my Expage back in 1999.

    I’ve been thinking about running.

    I’ve been thinking about hiking. Or rather turning myself into a hiker.

    I’ve been thinking about Antarctica. Both the continent and the one my son and I made from magic clay.

    I’ve been thinking about the Antarctic Treaty System, too. 58 nations participate in it, and it prohibits military activity, nuclear explosions, and the disposal of nuclear waste, while promoting free sharing of scientific data. Why can’t the rest of the world be like Antarctica?

    I’ve been thinking about the upcoming season of youth soccer that my husband and I are going to coach.

    I’ve been thinking about how I want to curate lists to other interesting blog posts that I’ve discovered on the internet. Except that I haven’t discovered blog posts recently, and I really miss that. I miss reading personal blogs. Everything is either a professionally published article or a Substack (which seems like it tries to be the old internet, but it just isn’t, and I can’t really explain why). How do I even find personal blogs in the year of our Lord 2026?

    I’ve been thinking about philosophy. Nothing in particular about it other than I just wish I were well versed in Philosophy. I think about Philosophy like I think about Hiking.

    I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to not post something on the internet that isn’t somehow related to the marketing of some product that can be purchased through an affiliate link.

    I’ve been thinking about painting with watercolors even though I am absolutely terrible at it (and this isn’t me simply being humble. Truly, I am terrible, but it is fun anyway).

    I’ve been thinking about the Medieval Era. Nothing in particular about it other than I just wish I were well versed in the history of the Medieval Era. I think about the Medieval era like I think about Philosophy or about Hiking.

    I’ve been thinking about how Springtime is coming, and I’m so excited for it, but I’m also dreading all of the impending yardwork and home improvement projects we have to tackle this year.

    I’ve been thinking about posting this list for over a week now, but I’ve grown so self-conscious about posting anything on the internet. I definitely didn’t feel this way back in 1999, when I first published my Expage. The one with the marble that scrolled across the top of the page.

  • Teas to Sip While Reading A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong
    ,

    Teas to Sip While Reading A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

    2 comments on Teas to Sip While Reading A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

    I don’t know when or why this changed, but lately I struggle to read fiction novels. These days, it takes actual effort to read beyond 50 pages of most books. By the time I do, the library book is usually overdue. I can’t tell if I’ve suddenly become bad at choosing books or if reading articles online or reading non-fiction has changed the wiring in my brain. But then, I discovered A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong. It checked the boxes for beautifully illustrated setting, clever plotting, and great character chemistry, and it was the first book in years that had me turning on my book light in bed and reading until I could barely keep my eyes open.

    In 280 words or less…

    In this historical mystery with speculative and cozy-adjacent elements, modern-day homicide detective, Mallory Atkinson, is going for an evening jog when she hears a woman in distress. Mallory is then drawn to an alley where she is attacked and loses consciousness. When she awakens, she finds herself trapped in the body of Catriona Mitchell, a housemaid and not-so-reformed thief in 1869 Scotland. Mallory then discovers Catronia was attacked in a similar fashion that same night (some 150 years apart), which created the link needed for time travel. Mallory tries her best to assimilate into Victorian Scotland but when she learns her employer, Dr. Gray, is a medical examiner and undertaker, who works (off the record) with the local police department to solve murders in Edinburgh, she can’t resist temptation. Soon Mallory finds herself involved in solving the case of who tried to murder Catriona (as well as secretly solving the mystery of how to return to her own time period and body.)

    The Review

    Remember when I said lately, it requires effort from me to get passed the first 50 pages of a book? I felt that way at first about A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong. It opens in a way that many cozy mystery fans would be familiar with when starting a new series: the protagonist is in the middle of a major life change and is expressing all of the strong emotions that come along with it. They may be a recent divorcee or widow, they may have just quit their humdrum job and moved to a new town for a fresh start, they may have finally retired and cashed in their life savings to start a hobby farm… In A Rip Through Time, the story opens with Mallory Atkinson, a Vancouver police detective, visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. At first, I didn’t feel anything– no grief, no connection to Mallory’s sadness. I can never tell if it’s me or if it’s the writing, but I almost returned the book to the library unfinished because of it. Once I made it to chapter five though, everything changed.

    Mallory’s personality starts to take shape once she wakes up and finds herself trapped in the body of a housemaid in 1869 Scotland. She’s no longer completely preoccupied by grief now that she’s forced to navigate a culture and society that is foreign to her and is becoming acutely aware of her sudden lack of autonomy and social standing. Then, Armstrong begins to play with the “fish out of temporal water1” and “blithe spirit2” tropes, which was just fun, as modern-day Mallory stuns Dr. Gray and Detective McCreadie with her knowledge of forensics and policing. The interactions between the three are often snarky and comical. Additionally, the contrast of modern-day detective work compared to Victorian era detective work was fascinating since forensic science as a discipline was just beginning in the 1800s. The exploration of murder and forensics in this novel reminded me of a non-fiction book I read a year or two ago: The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders 3. In it, Flanders explores the relationship between murder and society in Victorian England and how, even though murder was relatively rare, it was often sensationalized which led to broadsides and theatrical performances and even laid the groundwork for detective fiction like Sherlock Holmes (and one could even say like A Rip Through Time…?)

    The banter and chemistry between the characters feel all the more alive against the vividly and, at times, grimly painted backdrop of Victorian Scotland. Armstrong’s writing brought 1869 Edinburgh to life, and I found myself time traveling right alongside Mallory– to Gray’s well-kept townhouse in New Town, with penny dreadful scattered on tabletops, to the pubs and pawn shows and seedy back alleys of Grassmarket, to the muddy streets of Old Town congested with small businesses and tenements of questionable stability.

    Armstrong often writes thoughtfully about the social issues of the time period too, which helped ground the story even more firmly in the past. During the story, Mallory develops a strong friendship with Isla, Dr. Gray’s sister. They become each other’s confidant– supporting each other as bold and brilliant women. Their friendship becomes a sort of subtle rebellion against the social hierarchy of the time, one that crosses economic class lines and challenges expectations based on gender. Elsewhere in the story, Armstrong explores racism and colonialism, burgeoning anti-immigrant sentiments, and the morality of scientific progress.

    By the end, A Rip Through Time reminded me of the joys of escape through fiction. I had so much fun exploring a different time and a different country. As the series progresses, I’m looking forward to seeing how the relationships develop between Mallory, Gray, Isla, and McCreadie (I already have my theories!), and I’m looking forward to watching Mallory and Isla challenge gender norms in the Victorian era. About an hour after finishing the final chapter, I sneaked away from the work desk to go to the library where I checked out book two from the series, The Poisoners Ring. THAT is a testament to how much fun I had with this book. I rarely seek out the other books in a series. And if I do, it’s usually years after finishing the first book. I just really want to know what happens next!

    The Teas

    Scottish Breakfast Tea with milk and sugar

    Your favorite Scottish Breakfast blend

    Even though Dr. Gray starts his day with a cup of coffee, I’m recommending a cup of Scottish Breakfast tea instead. The tea is a blend of black teas from Assam and Ceylon, and it sometimes includes black tea from China. Of the traditional breakfast teas from the U.K., Scottish Breakfast tea tends to be the strongest, and it offers malty and oaky aromas. I love sipping this one with milk and sugar.

    Victorian London Fog from Harney & Sons

    I know A Rip Through Time doesn’t take place in London, but it’s does take place in the Victorian Era, which makes Victorian London Fog a lovely companion for this book. It is a blend of black tea, oolong tea, bergamot oil, lavender, and vanilla flavor. In lieu of this particular type of tea, might I recommend reaching for your favorite lavender infused Earl Grey?

    Your favorite Assam

    Mallory, Isla, Detective McCreadie, and Dr. Gray often meet during afternoon tea to discuss the cases, and Assam could certainly have graced the table. This malty cup of tea might give them the caffeine boost they need to keep them alert while they investigate the darkened, back alleys of Grassmarket at night.

    Coffee for Mallory so she doesn’t haven’t to sip Dr. Gray’s dregs

    One comfort Mallory misses from the modern day is a cup of coffee. A good cup of coffee. Mallory is desperate for the brew and the jolt of caffeine (especially since she can’t quite figure out how to wake herself up before dawn without an alarm clock), so she will sneak sips from Dr. Gray’s abandoned coffee cups.

    Footnotes

    1. A “fish out of temporal water” trope results from characters being placed in an unfamiliar time period. ↩︎
    2. In the “blithe spirit” trope, “a free-spirited fish out of water goes to a straight-laced land and shakes things up” ↩︎
    3. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders — it’s well-written and researched but also quite dense, so I only could recommend it to readers who have more than a passing interest in the subject matter ↩︎

About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.