mstrust Invites You to Pick Your Poison - Third One Is Always Trouble

Back for more, I see. I'm buying, so let me throw my arm around you and tell you a little about myself.
I'm Jennifer and I've been an LTer since 2008. I live in Phoenix with my husband Mike and an anxious boxer named Coral. I have about 3500 books taking over my house. I like baking, traveling, gardening and Halloween. We spend a lot of time in Las Vegas as my mom lives there, and we visit tiki bars and events. I'm the author of a maple guidebook/cookbook, and a bio of author Dorothy B. Hughes.

I'm doing 10 categories and shooting for at least five books in each category. Some will end up with more, I'm being loosey-goosey about it. But I'll probably drop in some cocktail recipes throughout the year, so hopefully you'll see something you want to try yourself. This lounge is politics-free but we have an abundance of maraschino cherries. Admit it, you'd love to eat a handful.


My hosting duties for 2022:
April- MysteryKit- Noir/Hardboiled. Join. Don't make me break your kneecaps. https://www.librarything.com/topic/340322#unread
August- ShakespeareKit- The less celebrated works. Hamlet's taking some time off.
September- ScaredyKit- Haunted or Unhinged?

My Favorite Authors

The Sea Hag- a rum, Cherry Heering and blackberry brandy tiki concoction that I always return to.

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox- 4 stars
2. James and the Giant Peach- 4
3. The Magic Finger- 3.5
4. Danny the Champion of the World- 3
5. Jamie at Home- 4
Done!
6. Welcome to Night Vale- 5
7. The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe- 4.2
8. Al Capone Throws Me A Curve- 4
9. Esio Trot- 3.5
10. Every Living Thing- 4

Fresh, New Authors (To Me)
>

The Orange Blossom- What could be fresher?

1. The Icepick Surgeon- 4
2. Winter's Bone- 4
3. The Storied Life of A.J. Firky- 4.5
4. Patty Jane's House of Curl- 4
5. Floors- 3.5

World Reading


The Navy Grog- It gets around.

1. Diary of a Bookseller- 4
2. The Geography of Bliss- 4
3. Blood on Snow- 4.2
4. Cream Teas, Traffic Jams and Sunburn- 3
5. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed- 4
Done!

Mystery, Crime and Noir


Bloody Mary-Tomato juice or something else?

1. Murder at Melrose Court- 4.5
2. Murder at Teal's Pond- 3
3. Farewell, My Lovely- 4.5
4. When the Mob Ran Vegas- 4
5. The Praying Mantis Bride- 3
6. The Case of the Terrified Typist- 2.5

Horror


The Corpse Reviver- It's coming for you, Barbara...

1. Horrorstor- 4.5
2. Nothing But Blackened Teeth- 2
3. Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas's Most Notorious Female Killer- 3.5
4. Fat Vampire 2: Tastes Like Chicken- 4

Autumn/Halloween

Zombie- They leave you unable to move

1. Halloween Merrymaking- 2.5

Classics


Martini- There's a reason they've been around so long.

1. The Giver- 4.5
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God- 4
3. Winesburg, Ohio-4
4. The Cricket in Times Square- 3.5
5. The Martian Chronicles- 4
DONE!

6. True Grit- 5
7. Pericles, Prince of Tyre- 3.5

Food, Drink & Home


Planters Punch- Order this and you'll get a drink stuffed with a fruit salad and you ain't going anywhere.

1. Foodheim- 2.5
2. Gastro Obscura- 5
3. Best Wishes, Warmest Regards- 4
4. Vintage Cocktails- 3.5
5. Cocktail Hour- 3.5
Done!
6. Jamie's Food Revolution- 4
7. Disney Villains: Devilishly Delicious Cookbook- 3.5
8. What's the Difference?
9. Cape Cod: Gardens and Houses- 3
10. Gin Made Me Do It- 4.5
11. Shake Strain Done- 5
12. Vacationland- 3

All The Rest


Sangrias- There's just no telling what will end up in here.

1. 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet- 3.5
2. Elvis in Vegas- 4.5
3. Travel Hacks- 3
4. Las Vegas Then and Now- 4
5. A Taste for Poison- 4.5
6. Don't Applaud. Either Laugh Or Don't- 3.5
7. The Big Blueberry Barf-Off- 3.5
8. The Tricky Art of Co-Existing- 3

Happy new thread, Jennifer. I am looking forward to the refreshments, the books and the chatter!

Hi, Judy!
You've arrived first, which means you get to pound as many cocktails as you can get. And grab the tacos, fill your pockets!

Happy new thread! I'll have whatever's on offer! One of those days...

Happy new thread! I'm craving that fresh fruit with the drinks!

Happy new thread!

>14 Helenliz: I hear ya! Thanks for coming over!

>15 thornton37814: Thank you, and that tray of grapefruit margaritas look good to me too!

>16 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie!

Okay, first one of the new thread is...


The Welcome Stranger

1/4 oz Swedish Punsch
1/4 oz brandy
1/4 oz gin
1/4 oz grenadine
1/4 oz orange juice
1/4 oz lemon juice

Put all into an ice filled shaker and give a good shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread! Love the title!

>19 Tess_W: Thank you, Tess!
>20 MissWatson: Thanks, and isn't it true!

Happy new thread! Here's hoping sangria drinking weather is just around the corner!

Ok, I looked at the temperature in Phoenix now and I just wonder if you're getting 96 degrees in the beginning of April, what will July be like?

Thank you!
... what will July be like? Brutal. We'll be between 115-120 most days, but I've seen 122F for several days in a row. Phoenix becomes a ghost town in the summer in that people aren't walking the streets and anyone who can leave, does.

Hi and happy new thread! My husband and I are still laughing about the graphic with which you started this thread. I enjoyed a margarita flight at our local fave authentic Mexican restaurant on Friday evening--lime, guava, raspberry.

Happy new thread! Love sampling the treats you offer!

>24 LadyoftheLodge: Hi and thank you!
The lovely lady in my topper seems to be having a good time, so she made me laugh too.
A margarita flight sounds fantastic! I have two favorite flavors, mango and prickly pear. And there's a small spice company in Scottsdale where I buy small packets of margarita rimming sugar in lime, strawberry, lemon or mango habanero. That one has a kick.
>25 VivienneR: Thank you, and I'm glad you're enjoying my recipes!

We went out of our way this morning to visit a plant nursery off Black Canyon Highway that carries more unusual stuff, like many types of grape vines, hackberry, unusual seeds...I was hoping to buy some kind of citrus or a desert willow shade tree. It's a large nursery that's been there for years, but hardly anything was marked with the name and even fewer plants had prices. I had to keep asking the only employee for information before getting so annoyed and giving up on buying a tree. I did get another strawberry plant, which makes five altogether, a jalapeno, a red pepper, a purple gomphrena, a packet of Texas bluebonnet seeds, and more cactus soil. I tried to buy a tall ginger plant too but at the register the guy said it wasn't ginger and had been mislabeled. So not that impressed with the place.

37. Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. Private detective Philip Marlowe can't walk down the street without finding trouble. He meets recently released sociopath Moose Malloy while just standing on the sidewalk, with the giant ex-con dragging Marlowe into a bar to watch him bust the place up and murder the owner. Now Marlowe is a witness and tries to help the police find Malloy, but he's quickly sidetracked to a paying job, hired to escort a strange man paying a big ransom for a stolen rare jade necklace. Because nothing goes smoothly for Marlowe, no matter how much he does his research, the trade doesn't happen and he's involved in another murder. Things get more complex and dangerous from there.
This is a wild ride through L.A. and the surrounding cities. It's a true hardboiled novel. Published in 1940. I finally read this for the MysteryKit this month. 4.5 stars

>27 mstrust: I haven't yet read Farewell My Lovely so it sounds like I have a good one ahead of me!

It's one of the main books in the hardboiled genre, which is why I couldn't believe I hadn't read it yet. I'm glad I did.

>27 mstrust: I'll probably read this one once I've finished Red Harvest so that I can compare Hammett with Chandler. I have read Chandler before, but a long time ago.

>27 mstrust: My brain is not working very well. I have read Farewell My Lovely and quite enjoyed it as well. I have The Lady in the Lake and The High Window of his left to read.

>27 mstrust: Glad to see you enjoyed this one! I really liked Chandler's The Big Sleep but have yet to try more by him.

>30 rabbitprincess: I have Red Harvest! I haven't read it yet but it's nice to know I have it. Looking forward to you review!

>31 DeltaQueen50: I do that too, where I have to look it up to make sure. It's worse when it's a book in a series.
I have both the books you mentioned and haven't read either. I haven't picked my next noir/hardboiled yet because I have so many to choose from.

>32 christina_reads: The Big Sleep was my first Chandler and I loved it. Farewell, My Lovely is just as good.

In The Long Goodbye, Chandler had Marlowe drinking Gimlets, which usually calls for fresh lime juice, but Chandler preferred Rose's instead.


Chandler's Gimlet

2 oz gin
1 oz Rose's Lime Juice

Add ingredients to an ice-filled mixing glass and stir well. Strain into a chilled gimlet glass and garnish with lime.

>34 mstrust: One of my fave drinks, although not all bartenders can do it justice. Better if using fresh lime and the lime is muddled. I also like a cucumber gimlet, but again, muddle the cucumber. Cheers!

I would prefer fresh lime too, but maybe Chandler wanted fast over fresh ;-D.
I like a Gimlet, but I also like a G&T during the hot months, and if I have it, I like a sprig of mint muddled with the lime.

>36 mstrust: Oh yeah, G & T is my go-to drink, only with Bombay Sapphire. The first one I ever had was on a cruise ship at happy hour about three years ago. My husband let me taste his G & T, and that's how it all began.

My sister told me about switching to G&Ts in the summer, and now that's my hot weather go-to. It's really refreshing.
But we went for German food last night, so I had a 32 oz. mug of Ayinger Pilsner. Nope, couldn't finish it.

38. Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office by Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman. This looks at everything that went on behind the cameras, from the negotiations to create an American version of the U.K. hit, to getting a little network interest, casting, the writer's room, and what was happening throughout each of the nine seasons of what has turned out to be one of the most popular shows ever made.
Baumgartner played Kevin on the show while Silverman was a producer, so this book includes interviews with many of the people who worked on the show, along with the authors own memories and recollections. And there are some surprises, such as learning that their first two seasons were greenlighted in drips, with orders for one or two episodes at a time because the ratings were so bad. That producer/director Greg Daniels fought to have Dwight ride a horse over Niagara Falls in the Jim & Pam wedding episode, or that the season of James Spader playing Robert California wasn't a favorite with the cast. While this book doesn't explore everything that went on in nine seasons (no discussion at all of my favorite episode, "Threat Level Midnight", or of some long-time cast members) it comes close and features the thoughts of the main cast, producers and directors. 4 stars

39. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. Chester the cricket jumps into a picnic basket near his home in Connecticut and is mistakenly brought to Times Square, a place he'd only heard of. He quickly makes friends with locals Harry the cat and Tucker Mouse, and adopted by Mario, a little boy who helps his parents run their newsstand. Though Chester has a hard time adjusting to city life, his amazing musical talent eventually makes him a star.
Published in 1960, it's a children's book that doesn't talk down to the reader. Chester plays opera and classical music.
3.5 stars

Happy Easter!

40. The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. These are the episodes from the second season of Welcome to Night Vale, along with commentary for each episode by the writers or guest writers.
In this season, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your House is running for public office, and Dana the Intern, who has been lost in the dog park for months, is able to make sporadic contact with Cecil at the radio station. Also, Megan, the little girl whose body is the severed hand of an adult man, is determined to find a way to communicate, and Tamika Flynn leads a child uprising against the librarians. 4.2 stars

The Leatherneck
A recipe from 1951.

2 oz blended whiskey, such as Crown Royal
3/4 oz blue curacao
1/2 oz fresh lime juice

Shake all together in an ice-filled shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lime.

>43 mstrust: Ooh, I want one of those! Although to be honest, I'm mostly swayed by the color.

Isn't it an intriguing color? Like tropical ocean water. An actual Leatherneck will be a blue-green, but a less intense color because of the brown whiskey. For many of these long-forgotten cocktails I can only get close to what it looks like on Google.

Hi Jennifer. When I was finally old enough to order a cocktail, I went with a Pink Lady. Attracted by the lovely color but disappointed with the flavor. I guess I was expecting a fruity drink but the flavor was actually quite dry and not sweet or fruity at all!

I expected a Pink Lady to be sweet too, but the ingredients (gin, applejack, lemon juice, egg white and pomegranate grenadine) provide little sugar. I can see how that would be very disappointing to a young lady, especially when it was pushed as a feminine drink. This Fizz would have hit the spot as a first drink, as it contains both lemonade and simple syrup.


Fred Collins Fizz

2 oz bourbon or rye
1/2 oz simple syrup
juice of i lemon
1 tsp orange curacao
6 oz lemonade

Pour the whiskey, syrup and lemon juice in and ice-filled shaker and shake. Strain into a large glass that is half filled with ice.
Float the curacao.
Pour the lemonade into a Collins glass and pour the contents of the bar glass over it.

We tried to get in to several local restaurants on Friday evening and all were packed. We ended up at a place new to us, which turned out to be a neat little cocktail bar on a side street. I think we were the oldest ones there, and things were getting busy about the time we were leaving later in the evening. The place reminded me of an old time neighborhood tavern--low lighting, lots of dark panelling. Pages and pages of cocktails and different whiskies, bourbons, and beers, plus a long list of cocktails and some bar food items. The server described the place as "an upscale dive bar" which sounds about right.

That sounds like a great place! Maybe you were meant to find a new go-to.

Showing off my little Argentinian cactus, called a "spider cactus" or "dwarf chin". It's the first cactus I've ever owned that bloomed.

>50 mstrust: What a lovely bloom for a cactus!

>50 mstrust: Beautiful!

>51 thornton37814: Thank you! When cactus bloom, they really are showy. You'll see huge flowers in white, yellow, pink. I think red is less common, but my cactus here isn't a local.
>52 Tess_W: Thanks, I think so too!

Okay, I had to share this anecdote here. We were eating dinner at a local pub and in came the Blues Brothers and the nun. It was hilarious! They were there as a publicity stunt for the theater next door that shows older movies, and of course the show that night was The Blues Brothers. They got a lot of comments and attention, but left after just one drink in the bar.

Of course they couldn't stick around, they were on a mission from God to visit every business in a three block radius ;-)

We attended the AZ Tiki Oasis this weekend, a four day tiki festival. Saw this little vintage car in the parking lot that had been turned into a mobile cocktail.

41. Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas's Most Notorious Female Killer by Glenn Puit. In 2001, North Las Vegas police were called to a storage facility, which had been opened by employees because of the terrible smell. When the police discovered the source, a trash bin that had been duct taped shut, they removed the bin to their forensic lab. Inside, they discovered the jellied remains of sixty-five year old Christine Smith, a Texan who had resided in Central California for decades.
Learning that the storage unit belonged to Smith's middle-aged daughter, Brookey Lee West, the detectives began unraveling the history of a remarkably dysfunctional and dangerous family.
The title says this is a Las Vegas story, though very little of it actually took place there, the Smith/West family lives most of the time in Bakersfield and other small central cities. 3.5 stars

Read two short stories that I'll lump together as -

42. Murder in Wax by Cornell Woolrich. A noir tale of a woman whose husband punches her in the face, then leaves her for a femme fatale, who is promptly found dead. The husband is arrested, but his wife is determined to prove him innocent and get him back. Engaging story about a smart, determined woman wasting her wits on a bum.

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood. We meet the narrator at fifteen years-old, enduring the embarrassment of having a mother who is known for practicing witchcraft, making money by placing curses and blessings. While the daughter believes her mother has no real gift, over the years she does acknowledge that coincidences tend to happen when her mother is involved. This is a story of a complicated mother-daughter relationship more than witchcraft.
I read this for this month's ScaredyKit short story theme.

Little gardening chat:


A few weeks ago I bought some cheap zinnia and hummingbird plant seeds. I didn't know if they would sprout at all and I was running low on containers. So I cut the lid off a plastic lined bakery box, poked some drainage holes and spread the seeds. It worked! I also cut a few slits in one of those thick plastic bags that they pile oranges in at Sprouts, and that worked too, I had a bunch of little sprouts in the bag and several in the box until last week when a huge wind blew them both off the plant stand and into the yard. I scooped as much up as I could but this sturdy zinnia sprout was the only one that survived. I repotted it into a container this morning.
I have many little Roma tomatoes and Boxcar Willie tomatoes that will be turning red soon. I picked one red Roma this morning. I have many bell peppers growing, about four jalapenos that are halfway grown, and one single carrot that is thriving. I don't know why only one carrot seeds grew. I dug up the ginger root I planted three weeks ago and was going to toss it, but then I saw a tiny shoot forming so I replanted it. A few days ago I used my own banana pepper, white onion, parsley and mint in a tabbouleh salad.

>59 mstrust: Thanks for sharing your gardening! I had help from a friend who bought and planted knockout roses and some other perennials and boxwood, lilac bushes, and a burning bush. My home is looking much less naked and forlorn now. I am ready to plant annuals and some pansies.

>50 mstrust:, >59 mstrust: You have a real green thumb, Jennifer. I saved seeds from my neighbour's marigolds that were particularly nice and they are sprouting successfully, if slowly but it's still too cold to put them outside. And I took cuttings of my rose bush that was also grown from a cutting. It will take some time to find out if they are successful. I wish I was as proficient as you are.

>60 LadyoftheLodge: I'd love to have lilacs, they are beautiful but they aren't a good choice for Phoenix.
I'll be re-potting an aloe in a few weeks. I had it planted in my yard, getting full sun all day, but it barely grew in a year and was a deep,deep purple. I finally looked into it and found that it was getting too much sun. Didn't know that was a thing with some aloe. After just a few weeks in a pot on the porch, getting maybe three hours of sun a day, it's back to a healthy green and growing bigger.
Good luck with your gardening. Your plants sound like you'll have a beautiful yard.

>61 VivienneR: I'm using my new skills! The internet is great for giving me answers to specific questions. Yesterday I looked up "bee that moves like a hummingbird" because I'd noticed over a few days that there was a dull gray bee that hovered and dove around my flowers. It's not a bee, but a hover fly, something I'd never heard of. It's a pollinator and eats aphids.
I didn't have much knowledge about gardening in the desert. I grew up in California, where you stick something in the dirt and it grows with little help.

>62 mstrust: I hadn't heard of hover flies either but my son often scolds when I swat at them (it's instinctive). Once he got a 3-minute video of a hummingbird moth because I didn't believe him that there was such a beast. At first glance it looks like a hummingbird but the video proved otherwise. I have a horror of moths.

Wanna hear something really surprising? We had a friend doing a little work on the back of the house, and when he finished he said that he'd been stung by a wasp. We thought it was just bad luck. Then we hired a new gardener about a week later, and his helper said that he was stung by a wasp. They said the wasps were living in a big established clump of pampass grass back there. Mike and I had never been stung and Coral naps in the backyard all the time.
So when I started putting out pots of flowers and vegetables in the backyard, I started seeing wasps drinking at the flowers and I googled. Turns out that yes, wasps are pollinators that go for flower nectar just like bees. But the weird part is that they recognize faces, other wasp faces but human faces too. And, I guess, dog faces also, because she's never been bothered. So it seems that these wasps were behaving like guards and only stinging strangers.

I dropped by the nursery this morning. They were selling big bags of red onion bulbs at 40% off, so I got that and planted a bunch already. I also bought two different types of marigolds, two containers of cucumbers and one container of summer crookneck squash.

>64 mstrust: That's really interesting. I had to Google how long a wasp lived, and it's only a few weeks, so now I have a picture of parent wasps teaching the little ones to recognise you and your family.

Nice to think that we're on a Don't Attack list!

43. Al Capone Throws Me A Curve by Gennifer Choldenko. In the last book of the "Tales from Alcatraz" series, Moose is now thirteen and his autistic sister Natalie turns seventeen. Their mother is forced to face the fact that Natalie is maturing and wants to look her age, and she has a crush on a boy. But when Moose is forced to keep watch over both Natalie and the prison warden's bratty daughter one afternoon, Moose and all the other kids on the baseball field discover that Natalie picks up on bits of conversation that make Moose's life as her brother even harder.
I like this series a whole lot as it's written with historical accuracy and realism. It's partly about growing up on Alcatraz and following the many rules for safety and dealing with the prisoners, but it's also placed during the Depression, and Moose's family also has the issue of Natalie's autism in a time when the understanding about this was rare. 4 stars

Here's one you probably have never heard of, but it's simple and sounds perfect for warm weather.

The Astor Cocktail

2 oz gin
1 tsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
ice cubes
Stir all ingredients in a chilled cocktail glass.

>68 mstrust: Sounds like a winner! Yesterday we went to a local establishment for dinner and a few drinks since it was my husband's birthday and our anniversary. He got a free cocktail. Then the people at the table next to us asked to join us and bought us a round for our celebration. I think they had been drinking for awhile as it was a wild conversation. The place was getting very crowded when we left. It was a fun evening all around.

:-D That sounds like a good evening! How nice to run into snockered strangers who want to buy you celebrate your day. Happy birthday to hubby and happy anniversary!
Let me send over a scorpion for you two:

Happy Mother's Day!

On Saturday I ordered seeds from Baker Creek in Montana, which specializes in heirloom seeds and has reviews from buyers that lists their zone and the results, making it really handy for me to choose things that gardeners in the Southwest have had success with. I bought Black Strawberry tomatoes, which are about the size of Romas but are purple streaked dark red, Blush Tiger Tomato, a yellow-orange cherry, Black Seeded lettuce, which is green leaves streaked with black, and Texas Early Grano onions, which is an heirloom from the 40's. Also bought Madhu Ras honey melon seeds, a small dusty blue melon from India that does well in the heat.

>72 mstrust: Thanks for the scorpion and the good wishes! Today we went out to buy plants for the garden--best to wait until after Derby Day/Mother's Day here in the Midwest to avoid freezes. I bought two containers of pansies, four geraniums for my little porch pots, a large planter of assorted pink, white, and purple flowers, and a smaller large container (does that make sense?) of starry night petunias (purple with white dots). I also trimmed the long grass on the side of our house (which the mowing maintenance guy is supposed to get but does not) and transplanted all my little herb plants from their jiffy pots to larger pots. I love my flowers and I am so happy to get the garden going here. This is our first spring here at this house, so I am loving starting from scratch.

Good luck in your new place! Sounds like you're jumping right in.

I just repotted two cucumber plants and a crookneck squash this morning. I'm hoping I can get them to thrive as I've never grown a vine vegetable before. I have a little trellis and a tomato cage if I need them.
I pulled out both my French and Spanish lavenders from their pots a few days ago as they were both looking weak. I'd read up about their soil preference, so I made a mixture of sandy cactus soil and flower soil and repotted them. The Spanish is perking right up but the French looks about done.

I'm impressed with your willingness to garden in the desert!

I know it's a dicey hobby. So far, most everything is doing well but I don't know what will happen over the summer. I'm focusing on heat tolerant plants and seeds.

And here's my tomato harvest:

My first Boxcar Willie. I made a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad last night.

This morning, one itty Roma and a cherry:


I have four tomato plants and all have tomatoes growing. Sorry the pics are huge, I did resize them!

Look wonderful. I'm transplanting my seedlings sometime after the 15th. I've got 3 types of tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, and pumpkins. I hope to can or dehydrate them all, after eating them fresh, of course!

Good luck with the seedlings. I did my first flower transplant this morning along the back wall where it gets partial sun and dropping in the French lavender. Sink or swim, it just looked unhappy in the pot.
And I've encountered my first pest. I saw that one of my two new cucumbers was ravaged overnight, several big leaves chewed off, and I happened to pick up my trough of radishes and the culprit landed on my hand. Cucumber beetle. I'm fighting back with coffee grounds, eggshells and surrounded both cucumbers with marigolds. If there's more damage tonight the first plant will likely die. If it's okay I can also try garlic and vaseline on the pot.

44. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo. The hitman for a crime boss is given an assignment that doesn't sit well with him. The boss wants his own wife killed, an order that the hitman finds so strange that he decides to observe his target for a while and find out why this woman is to die.
This is well-written and excellently translated, a character driven story of a hitman who is smarter than he claims and more humane than he wants to be. My first Nesbo, I read this for the "Detectives in Translation" MysteryKit theme, and it's a ROOT to boot.4.2 stars

Congrats on some produce already! I ended up not planting anything this year, and I'll probably regret it. We kept having cold weekends so I would have been covering plants--then we had a really wet weekend. I just had too many other things on my agenda. I'm feeling "behind" all the time.

Thanks, I'm thrilled that after several months of waiting, I'm finally getting some results.
I'm having the exact opposite issue here, as we've already had 100 degree days here and there, along with some heavy winds. I've been running out and moving all my containers under the carport to protect them. I lost a number of zinnia sprouts. This weekend is expected to be around 104, so my plants will get a couple of hours of morning sun, then go in the shade most of the day.
I sowed carrot seeds a week ago and they're already sprouting.

Yesterday's harvest was three tomatoes, which went into a green salad.

Your weekend cocktail:
The Coconut Kallaloo

1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz Lopez coconut cream
2 1/2 oz rum

Blend with one cup of crushed ice until snowy. Serve in a coconut shell or short mug.

>82 mstrust: That is a cute photo! We ate dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant last night and I had a cucumber margarita. This was my first try for that flavor, and it was refreshing, although the rim was dipped into some kind of spicy crystally stuff, so I did not like that part.

Fancy! I haven't had a cucumber cocktail yet, but I imagine it would be great for summer, especially with spicy food. I love pickle martinis.

My first order from Baker Creek arrived and I've planted the Black Strawberry tomato seeds and the Madhu Ras melon seeds. Two bonuses: they give a free packet of seeds with each order and I received Terra Cotta tomato seeds, and the shipping envelope is the most beautiful I've ever received. The whole back is a drawing of Chinese pink celery.

Love your plant updates! I hope the tomatoes and melons work for you.

Fingers crossed!
I was just out feeding and watering. I have tomatoes on all four of my tomato plants, several jalapenos, a couple of bell peppers, the arugula is about five inches tall, and I have a single carrot that might be ready next week. The banana pepper plant is covered in blossoms, so it's happy. The strawberry mint is starting to bolt so I need to trim it up.
I might sow the black seeded lettuce today. We were 105 yesterday and expected to be 102 today. Ugh.

>87 mstrust: My knockout roses are blooming after a rainfall and sun with cooler temps today. I transplanted some hostas on Saturday, keeping my fingers crossed that the patients survive the operation.

I hope the transplants go well. I've been seeing the phrase "knockout roses" a lot over the past few weeks and had never heard of it before so I had to look into it. I'd love to grow roses.
The Boxcar Willie tomatoes had gotten large enough that it was leaning, so I added a tomato cage and threaded branches through. It's giving stability but this plant is growing very fast. I may end up having to transplant it to a big container by itself. Last week I took out four of the five strawberry plants that were in the same cart and found the tomato plant was pushing its roots into the strawberry roots.
I got a large tomato, a small Roma, and a jalapeno today. I'm going to use them in a tomato cheese tart tonight.

For anyone interested, I've posted a recipe in The Kitchen for a really delicious tomato cheese tart.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337691#unread

45. When the Mob Ran Vegas by Steve Fischer. Though the book is divided into topics, like Sinatra in Vegas or the history of certain casinos, there are lots of names that run all the way through the book, and they're great names: Wingy Grober, Jimmy the Weasel, Icepick Willie, Beldon Katleman and Lucky Luciano. And Bugsy Siegel. There's the story of how long-time mob mover and shaker Johnny Roselli was finally nabbed by the FBI for his very minor involvement in fixed card games at The Friar's Club in L.A., the creative financing that went into places like The Riviera, and the story of casino boss Carl Cohen punching Sinatra so hard that it knocked out his bridgework and ended Sinatra's long relationship with The Sands.
I quibble with some information being a bit off, such as casino boss Gus Greenbaum and his wife were not decapitated in Phoenix as reported here, but this is one of the few books about Vegas that attempts to explain what happened to the Moulin Rouge casino, which if you're familiar, that mention will get you interested. Lots of dirt on mob guys and their casinos, and a look at the city's past. 4 stars

Feeling very envious of your tomato updates. Mine are in the greenhouse and I have a couple of trusses of flowers, but no tomatoes as yet. 6 different varieties, one of each, just for the mixture.

I have four varieties growing, and a fifth that I planted just a few days ago. One Boxcar Willie that produces med-large tomatoes and has done well so far. One little cherry tomato that is maybe nine inches tall and has produced lots of teeny tomatoes, a small Roma that is about six inches tall but bushy and is producing tomatoes no more than three inches long. And one very tall tomato that I've forgotten the variety and it's currently growing a single medium tomato, putting all its energy into that.
I have seeds for a yellow cherry tomato that I haven't planted yet.

46. Esio Trot by Roald Dahl. Mr. Hoppy has been in love with the widowed Mrs. Silver for years. He lives in the apartment above hers and grows plants on his balcony, which gives him the excuse to look down and discuss her beloved pet turtle with her. When Mrs. Silver says that she would love nothing more than to see her little Alfie grow into a big turtle, Mr. Hoppy forms a scheme.
Dahl's gentle yet humorous romantic tale. 3.5 stars

>82 mstrust: That looks good!

It does, and I might whip one up this weekend. Quality control!

My second batch of seeds arrived. Common arugula, Black Nebula carrots, orange bell pepper, Bronze Beauty lettuce, Tip Top nasturtiums, and the free seeds this time are mizuna, which I'd never heard of. It grows in pink stalks like chard, green leafy tops, and the package says it's a "newly developed Japanese heirloom" with a delicate flavor. I've planted just the bell pepper so far.
I should have quite a lot of Roma and cherry tomatoes by Tuesday, a bunch of banana peppers and jalapenos this week.
I harvested all my heirloom arugula a few days ago.


mizuna

>94 mstrust: Esio Trot is my favorite Dahl. We always chanted "worg reggib" at any kittens who moved in with us.

Congratulations on your tomato crop so far! There's nothing to beat the taste of home grown produce - I envy you!

>98 RidgewayGirl: It was a really good one. I wasn't aware that Dahl had written a romance, though one that is still Dahl-esque.

>99 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! And here's more bragging: the black strawberry tomato seeds that I sowed about a week ago have already sprouted, one of the cucumber plants I repotted two weeks ago is covered in little yellow blooms and the crookneck squash plant has clumps of I don't know what, either blooms that will open or maybe tendrils forming.

Cucumber Cooler

6 thin slices of cucumber
1/2 oz vodka
juice of 1/2 lime
3/4 oz agave nectar
5 oz dry sparkling sake

Muddle the cucumber slices and vodka in the bottom of a glass. Add the lime juice and agave and stir thoroughly. Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice. Top with sake and stir gently. Garnish with a cucumber cube.

>100 mstrust: You obviously have a green thumb!

I'm truly flying by the seat of my pants, ha, but I think determination and the internet keep me going! And Mike was nice and ordered me an extra long lightweight hose, splitter and spray nozzle for the back yard so that I don't have to keep going back in the house to refill my watering can multiple times. That's a big improvement.

>90 mstrust: That tart sounds delicious! I've made a note of it. Thanks for sharing.

You're very welcome!

47. Cream Teas, Traffic Jams and Sunburn by Brian Viner. A look at holiday-making Brits, both abroad but especially when they are traveling around the U.K. The author recalls what his childhood vacations with his family were like and the popularity of "holiday camps". He discusses the cream tea, an English tradition more indulged in by foreign tourists now, girl's weekends vs. lads weekends, the worst traffic jam in British history, and how he and his wife travel with three children.
Not as funny as Bryson, but lots of interesting memories about growing up in the 70's in the U.K. 3 stars

This one dates back, in its original form, to a bartender's manual in 1882.

The East India Cocktail

3 oz brandy
1/2 oz raspberry syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 tsp orange curacao
1 tsp maraschino liqueur

Pour all the ingredients in a chilled shaker and shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

>106 mstrust: Sounds like fun! On my list it goes.

It is, and it's a good start to my stack of hot weather reads.

48. Don't Applaud. Either Laugh Or Don't by Andrew Hankinson. An in-depth look at the famous New York club The Comedy Cellar, specifically during the period of the Louis CK scandal. The book works backwards, observing the story as it broke in the news and how it affected other comics, some of the women involved, and the comedy club owner who had a close relationship with the comic.
The book looks at comics and the connections that are formed among themselves, and what it's like to manage a club that employs comics, a group of people who say unexpected things, and sometimes offend the customers and their employers. Which leads to a discussion of the change in audiences as people have become more confrontational, and the difficulty of being a comic in the time of cancel culture.
The author interviews a lot of well-known stand-ups and the owner and employees of The Comedy Cellar. An interesting inside perspective of the industry. 3.5 stars

Little gardening update: I'm still getting a little tomato or two nearly every day, but my Boxcar Willie gave me it's remaining big tomato a few days ago. It has blooms but that's all right now. That tomato was seamed, or zippered, something I'd never seen before. I looked up the cause and it's because the bloom ovaries stuck on when the tomato was growing, resulting in what looked like a zipper around the tomato. Didn't change the size or taste at all.

My banana pepper plant is producing lots, and the jalapeno too, though the jalapenos are pretty small and bright red. They have a real kick.
Black Strawberry and Blush Tiger tomatoes have sprouted, and red onions. The crookneck squash has blooms that may open in a few days. The marigolds have all struggled, most of them have withered in the heat. I'm expecting another seed package tomorrow.

>111 mstrust: "the jalapenos are pretty small and bright red"
My serranos and bell peppers they all came out green and then turn red (or orange or purple) as they continue to ripen -- so I'm a bit shocked that you have red peppers already in May!

Appreciate the gardening and food updates even though I don't have many comments on the books.:)

I'm surprised that the jalapenos and one of my bell pepper plants are producing red peppers because they're all labeled as green. I know they all turn red if left on the plant, but my bells have turned red when they're just two inches big, the jalapeno is turning completely red when they're thumb sized.
We've already had many days of 100 degrees, so we started summer about a month ago. It starts early and stays until October. Halloween is normally somewhere between 80-85. I'll be buying some squash and pumpkin seeds in June to begin Fall planting in July.
So I got fed up with my trough of French radishes. I've been babying them for three months and had big healthy greens but no sign of shouldering, so I pulled one up to see what's happening, and nothing was happening. Not even a sliver of a radish, all roots. So I pulled them all up and it was all the same, long thready roots without any radish at all. I chopped the greens off and I'm going to stir fry them tonight because, damn it, I'm getting something for my efforts. This was the second brand of seeds I'd tried and failed to produce.

A shipment of seeds arrived last night. I bought two packs of ground cherries, one lemon bee balm and one pack of Calima green beans. My free seeds were another pack of mizuna. I've already sown a pot of the bee balm and another of ground cherry.


ground cherry

I pulled my first carrot up yesterday, which turned out to be a mistake. I'd been growing it for about two and a half months and the greens were so big and strong that I dug in there a bit and saw some good carrot shoulders. I covered it again and waited another 24 hours, til I couldn't stand the suspense. I was going to get my first ever carrot!

This is my toddler carrot. Now I know. It was a Red Cored Chantenay, which is stumpier than a regular grocer store carrot. It had a very strong flavor though, so I'll sit on my hands and wait for the others to shoulder before I pull.

49. Every Living Thing by James Herriot. The fifth book in the series, Herriot is still running his Yorkshire veterinary practice along with Siegfried. Tristam has left to start his own practice and has been replaced by other young vets, eventually by Calum. Upon moving into the upstairs flat, this new vet quickly acquires his own menagerie of badgers, dogs, foxes, and even an owl, leading to more outbursts from Siegfried.
James and Helen need to find a more modern house but get outbid at every turn, and James befriends an old man and his cat who have set up their tent along the road.
Funny and gentle despite the graphic depictions of veterinary emergencies, I'd like to read the whole series. 4 stars

Just noting that Lincoln in the Bardo arrived in the mail.

Cute ickle baby carrot!
I have some tomatoes, but none are yet approaching ripeness.

Your garden is doing so well! I'm impressed. Rather than do any planting at all, I signed up for a CSA veg box and now I'm trying to figure out how we are going to eat all of those greens.

>118 Helenliz: It's so hot here that even my tomatoes are struggling. It seems that even a summer crop has problems over 90F, and we've been over 100 and will get to over 110F later this week. My rosemary is loving it though.

>119 RidgewayGirl: It was doing well, but as I told Helen above, the heat is too intense for most of my vegetable plants. My little carrot tops that had just emerged last week have fried, and that's with me moving everything into the shade for the hottest hours of the day.
I'll have to wait until the middle of July to plant anything else.

Well, I'd wondered how things would go in the summer and now I know.

Lavender Lady

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz lavender simple syrup
1 tsp orange liqueur
1 egg white

Pour everything into a cocktail shaker and shake well.
Add a scoop of ice and shake well again. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a fresh edible flower or lavender sprig.

50. The Praying Mantis Bride by Dean Koontz. Nameless, a man who can't remember his past life, makes a good living moving around the country at the behest of Ace, a faceless person who provides Nameless with assignments, cash, hotel rooms and temporary names, all to deliver some justice to horrible strangers. Nameless is tasked with getting a confession from a sociopath black widow by any means.
This is a novella on Kindle, and the first Koontz I've ever read. Not blown away by the writing but it was entertaining enough. 3 stars

51. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Told in a series of short stories that add up to the invasion of Mars by the people of Earth.
Facing the threat of war on Earth, several expeditions arrive to determine if Mars is inhabitable, if the Martians will coexist with people from Earth. The Martians don't want to lose their civilization to the domineering humans who come by the thousands.
I can count on one hand the number of sci-fi novels I've read, it's just not my thing, but this is some of Bradbury's finest writing. 4 stars

52. Gin Made Me Do It by Jassy Davis, illustrations by Ruby Taylor. A very cool guide to the history of gin and its variations, alone with many gin or genever based cocktails, several originals. The fun text and illustrations done in the style of 1920's liquor and travel posters make for a very entertaining book. Here's a cocktail invented in Detroit a hundred years ago.

The Last Word

1/4 oz gin
1/4 oz green chartreuse
1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
1/4 oz fresh lime juice

Pour all into an ice filled shaker and shake well. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a cherry and lime twist.
4.5 stars

>120 mstrust: It's hot where I live but growing tomatoes very popular. The plants have to be given shade and most people just come up with something light they can place over them but moveable structures are easy to build and can be purchased too. The plant roots also have to be protected with mulch. A lot of people use grass clippings but you may not have enough grass to use! It sounds like a lot of trouble but if you grow tomatoes every year it's just part of the process.

I haven't used any actual mulch yet, but I've been piling dry soil all around the roots and trunks. There's only so much that can be done about keeping the plants cool outside, 110-113F is tough. My black strawberry and blush tiger tomato seeds have sprouted, so has the heat tolerant Indian melon, which is also showing a little burn on the leaves even though it's in partial shade.
Here's the big yellow tomato I finally picked the other night. I had actually forgotten that this was a yellow tomato plant and left it so long waiting for it to turn red. It turned a pretty gold and developed a sealed split. I didn't know what I'd find when I cut it open but it was fine and delicious.

53. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. We meet A.J. as he's still in deep mourning, his wife having been killed in a car accident. Hes on auto pilot, barely keeping his Alice Island bookshop afloat, and getting drunk alone in his apartment at night. The one thing he sees value in now is his copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane, which is stolen one night when he drunkenly takes it from its case to admire it. In its place is a toddler.
The change this unexpected gift brings to A.J.'s life is extraordinary, causing him to rethink his expectation that he will remain solitary and run his business into the ground.
This sat on my shelf for a long time, and I think I put it in my summer stack because it takes place on an island. I was hooked very quickly and looked forward to picking it up. I mean, it takes place in a bookshop, with lots of book talk, but it's also funny and heart-breaking. Recommended. 4.5

The Hai Karate

1 oz lime juice
1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1 oz orange juice
1 tsp maple syrup
dash Angostura bitters
2 oz Virgin Islands rum

Shake well with ice cubes and pour into a tall glass. Garnish with lime wedge, orange slice and cherry.
From Intoxica!.

>128 mstrust: Yes, please!

Looks good, huh?

In the past week or so, I've received a few books in the mail.
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home
The Halloween Moon
The Smashed Man of Dread End

And my latest seed order arrived today. Double sunset gaillardia (flowers), Art Combe's ancient watermelon, which was grown by local tribe's in Arizona hundreds of years ago. Or was it thousands of years ago? Red Kuri squash, day choy sum, and my free seeds this time are Uzbek golden carrots. Sweet.
So, I've lost all my marigolds to the heat. The tomatoes are all having a hard time, including something that has spun fine little webs in a few and one of the bell pepper plants that I had to clean off and wipe everything. The banana pepper trunk is turning woody. The Salvia had to be trimmed so extensively that it's just a stalk, but I'm hoping it makes it. I do have tiny cherry tomatoes still producing and the heirloom tomato seeds have sprouted very well.
I'm aerating and fertilizing the soil in several planters so that it will be super rich when I plant these new seeds. I had planned on planting in early July but it will still be too hot. When I hand till the soil it's uncomfortably hot, so a lot of the seeds and bulbs are just being cooked.

>128 mstrust: I'm putting pineapple juice on the shopping list for Monday. This sounds perfect for a sundowner!

I agree! That's an original recipe from tiki cocktail guru Jeff "Beachbum" Berry. Who has lovely dimples.

Just noting that I've started an Autumn & Halloween Substack newsletter. Everything to do with the season: book reviews, recipes, events, monsters and pumpkins, all year long.
Check it: https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here?utm_source=%2Finbox&...

54. Fat Vampire 2: Tastes Like Chicken by Johnny B. Truant. The second in the Fat Vampire series sees Maurice, the small, Goth vampire who illegally turned morbidly obese Reginald into a vampire in order to save his life, as the new leader of the American Vampire Council. He is hated by the majority of the vampire population, but fortunately his second is Reginald, who is also hated but respected because his intellect has become super-charged. Reginald is able to put himself, Maurice and human Nikki one step ahead of plans to take them down.
Their vampire conflict is put aside when a creature who has been scheduled for execution turns out to be something more sinister and powerful than expected. Reginald and his friends travel to the ancient council in Luxembourg to learn more and make a plan that keeps all American vampires from being wiped out.
Still has the humor of the first though not as much action. 4 stars

>134 mstrust: Thanks for the link! I am an autumn girl too, and cannot wait for cooler weather and autumn scents and scenes.

Best time of the year, right? I hope you'll be a regular visitor because I have some cool stuff coming.

Back from four days in Vegas. I visited a brand new Halloween store there and found this:


55. Rotten School: The Big Blueberry Barf-Off by R.L. Stine. I'd never heard of this series by Stine, and it turns out to be pretty fun, especially with the illustrations by Trip Park.
Nine year-old Bernie Bridges is a little sociopath in the making. He lives at the Rotten School, a boarding academy, where he manipulates other kids into bringing him breakfast in bed, competing for prizes he takes, and lying to teachers for him. When one one of the kids shows up with a five hundred dollar watch that plays movies and makes popcorn, Bernie contrives a way to get the watch for himself by suggesting a pie eating contest. Which leads to blueberry barf. 3.5 stars

Gardening blather: I set up a sort of irrigation system for my container plants and it didn't work, so everything went four days without water. Some, like the watermelon and ground cherry sprouts did well, while the tomato sprouts didn't.

I've posted the second volume of my Autumn Substack. Come have fun, and even noticed how to install the comment and subscribe buttons. I'm no genius.
This week is all spooky podcasts, apples and how to find romance. Hope to see you.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-894

Good luck with the substack.
I'm a real summer bunny, born a few degrees latitude too far North. I went with a colleague to Italy to visit a supplier and we were stood in the factory car park and he does a double take and takes a picture of me. I was confused and he said that he had to take it, otherwise no-one would believe that I had taken my cardigan off!

Thanks, I'm having fun with Substack and hope to see lots of you stopping by. Consider it a Summerween read.

56. The Case of the Terrified Typist by Eric Stanley Gardner. The terrified typist is a temp who has been sent by the agency Perry Mason's office usually uses, or so he thinks. The temp is the fastest, most accurate typist Mason and Della Street, his office manager, have ever seen, so they are curious when she leaves her desk and never comes back. Even more curious about her when the gem import office in the same building is burgled around the time she left. Pulling the thread of this woman's life leads Mason and Street into the world of international diamond smuggling.
Honestly, this wasn't that interesting to me, though the courtroom scene was more realistic than others I've read from the same time period, with the lawyers arguing over the most trite statements. It was my first Perry Mason so it could be that I picked a dud in the series. 2.5 stars

>142 mstrust: I loved that series when I was younger. I picked up one two or three years ago, and I didn't like it so much. It may be that they haven't aged well. So much has changed in the intervening years.

It was a remarkably polite mystery, maybe too restrained, but I'm thinking it may be that I picked one of the lesser books in the series. To me, it seemed like the search for the girl took a very long time and the trial was stretched out with lots of boring asides. But this may have been the most realistic sections. Little action, lots of arguing and dead ends.

Vol. 3 of "Autumn Lives Here" is up. An apple maple cocktail recipe and a short story debut.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-be3

Gardening brag:


My tomatoes are barely holding on in 111-113F heat. The squash and cucumber plants have withered and died. But the ground cherries are growing and this is a pic of the Ancient Watermelon. I planted these seeds maybe 12 days ago and they sprouted in four days. Now they're four inches high and sturdy.

You will appreciate some juicy watermelons in your climate!

I would be happy with any results right now! My last cherry tomatoes dehydrated on the branches. I'm looking far forward into our forecasts to find a safe time to plant my fall seeds.

My flowers are struggling here in the 90 degree and higher heat and the lack of rain, which we do not usually get so early in the summer. Interestingly enough, a tomato plant and several squash plants showed up in my backyard, although I did not plant them. They seem to be doing well, so we will see whether any veggies show up. The squashes have blossoms on them.

Wow, how lucky to have such useful crops growing on their own. You know how much effort I've put into my dang tomatoes, ha?!
And I bragged too early, because today is 114. I went out move the watermelon out of the sun and it was already too late, they were curled up.
I've learned that other than cactus and succulents, next to nothing can survive our summers.

And here was I looking enviously at your earlier progress with the planting.
I've been watering the greenhouse everyday and leaving the door open during the main heat of the day to make sure that the tomatoes don't cook.

Yeah, I had some confidence in those watermelons, but all it took was a few hours to kill them. I had wondered if I could get anything to make it through the summer and now I know. I do have a pot of ground cherries that haven't died yet. They're about two inches tall. That's all of my crops.
My cactus is doing well, of course, and I have a pencil plant in the front yard, a succulent, that's thriving and could stand to be cut back.

57. Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik. Sisters Patty Jane and Harriet rely on each other throughout their lives. They have to, as they survive horrible parenting and short-lived happiness with men, eventually finding independence by opening a salon. On cold Minnesota days, three generations of women gather to work in the salon, while nights see the space turned into an informal school where locals can show off their expertise.
My sister passed this onto me, and I liked it too. It's deeper than the title would imply, seeing the sisters through decades. 4 stars

Here's the latest "Autumn Lives Here". It's pumpkin beers, R.L. Stine and a visit to a new Vegas Halloween shop:
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your watermelons - I had high hopes for them! I never thought about how difficult it would be to grow summer crops in the Arizona heat.

I knew that I would lose a lot of my plants in the summer, our heat is just brutal. But I was growing heat tolerant plants and even they couldn't deal. I lost all my peppers and tomatoes. Rosemary grows in Italy and mine is just holding on.
I re-potted my crocodile aloe vera the other day and it's thriving on the front porch. My mammoth jade is about ready for re-potting, the thing has arms growing up, down and climbing the wall, like an octopus.

Anyone who wants to come join the Shakespeare Cat is welcome. I'm hosting this month's theme of "Lesser Works":
https://www.librarything.com/topic/342886

>158 mstrust: Choosing is going to be the difficult thing!

I know, especially as most of the plots are a mystery to me, though I might be choosing Cymbeline.

I've decided to go with Pericles, the Prince of Tyre.

The new edition of Autumn Lives Here is up! Clown phobia, pumpkin carving and the story of music producer Joe Meek:
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

>161 mstrust: Clowns! Oh No!!!

Oh, yes! It's a brief article about coulrophobia. Just the thought of it will make some people sick ;-)

>163 mstrust: I read and enjoy your Autumn Lives Here! Today at the local Kroger I saw dried fall arrangements, mini decorative pumpkins on sticks, and other floral decorations in fall colors! It's coming!!

Thanks! I'm glad you visited and had fun!
Isn't it great to spot the first signs of Autumn? My sister called me this morning to tell me that her Bath & Body Works has it's Autumn stuff up. Their three wick Autumn candles are pretty great.

I went to the library for the first time in about two months and spotted the re-filled seed library, which had been empty the last few times. I picked a packet of Calypso cilantro, but the librarian encouraged me to get more, so I also got sunflower seeds and lemon basil. I know, I keep hoping that the weather will suddenly drop to 90.

The new Autumn Lives Here post is up! Jaws, pumpkin spice and a trip to Hell!
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-ba2

58. True Grit by Charles Portis.
Fourteen year-old Mattie Ross is sent to collect her father's body, his personal property and his horse from Fort Smith, where her father was killed by Tom Chaney. Mattie arrives determined to see that Chaney is held accountable for this deed but discovers that the local lawmen have let the killer slip away and he's rumored to have joined up with notorious Lucky Ned Pepper's gang. Her determination never wavering, Mattie seeks out and hires Rooster Cogburn, the U.S. Marshal with the most "grit", which means a man who gets the job done any way he can. They are joined by a lawman from Texas, who is also after Chaney for a separate murder.
Mattie's calm intelligence, fearlessness, and ability to argue or haggle to the point that the men she's dealing with treat her as an equal, is a joy. She is the catalyst for everything that happens, as it's clear that Chaney would be allowed to escape justice if not for her grit. 5 stars

Have you seen the new Velveeta Martini? *burk*
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/velveeta-martini-blt-restaurants-goldbelly

>168 mstrust: No, thank you. But I'd love to watch you drink one. I'll even buy the first round!

That's one cocktail I don't think I could force down. It just seems...thick.

>167 mstrust: I've had True Grit sitting on my shelves for quite some time. I have seen both movies and I particularly liked the Jeff Bridges version. It's a great story and I have been waiting for the movies to fade from my memory before reading it but I am looking forward to it.

>168 mstrust: I, too, will pass on the Velveeta Cocktail.

We watched the Wayne version last night. I liked him as Rooster, but Kim Darby was too soft-voiced to be Mattie, along with too much smiling, which was not Mattie. And handsome as he was, Glen Campbell was no actor. I'd like to see the Bridges version.
I have a better cocktail coming up.

59. Shake Strain Done: Craft Cocktails At Home by J.M. Hirsch. This is for the home bartender, using the techniques that the amateur would use and employing your more common liquors rather than the obscure, expensive stuff. The author even recommends substituting vodka for gin if that's what's on hand. The majority of the book consists of original recipes, and while not all of them sounded good to me (I have zero interest in a pea, wasabi and vodka cocktail), many of them sound great and I'll try some. This is a good choice if you feel like you've seen all the basics explained a hundred times. 5 stars

The Little Gin Gin That Could

2 thin coins fresh ginger
2 oz gin
1/4 c fresh raspberries
1/2 oz dry vermouth
ice

In a cocktail shaker, aggressively muddle the ginger. Add the gin, raspberries and vermouth and lightly muddle again. Shake with ice cubes. Double strain into a coupe.

>172 mstrust: For me, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby, were what weakened the first "True Grit" movie. I thought the casting was much better in the second version. The young actress who played Mattie received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

They were the two weak links for me too, and I would imagine it would be easy to find better casting. I'll see the Bridges version at some point, but strange that Netflix doesn't have it.
We watched the first episode of "The Outlaws" on Prime last night and we'll continue. Created by Stephan Merchant and starring him and Christopher Walken as members of a court ordered cleaning crew.

The above book, Shake Strain Done mentioned steeping banana chunks in bourbon. I've put the banana in run this morning and will wait a few days to see what happens.

60. Halloween Merrymaking by Diane C. Arkins Covers how Americans celebrated Halloween from about 1910- 1935. Lots of clippings and black and white photos from magazines of this period. Somewhat interesting but more for someone interested in this time period in general. 2.5 stars

The new Autumn Lives Here is up! Halloween shopping and an encounter with a creature.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-588

I like the sound of the practicality in the cocktail book in >173 mstrust:. I'm not a fan of gin, so the idea of swopping it out appeals to me.

I recommend it for the author's encouragement in breaking the "rules" of bartending, but also for the very original recipes. It's a fun book.

>173 mstrust: This sounds like an interesting recipe, especially since it's raspberry season. But what is "muddling" in this context?

Muddling is a bartenders term that means to crush something in the bottom of a glass. There's a tool called a muddler, but you can use the back of a spoon.
When making a mojito, you muddle the mint in the glass.

>181 mstrust: Thanks!

You're welcome!

61. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten. In this follow-up to An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, 89 year-old Maud takes another trip, this time returning to South Africa, a place she loves, for a guided tour. She reminisces about her life and we learn how she's expressed her vindictiveness and sense of fair play throughout her life, whether getting even with childhood bullies who tormented her sister, to getting rid of a colleague who threatened her income, to ensuring that a casual friend wouldn't move in with her. The surprising ending may lead to further stories of Maud. 4 stars

And that's my World Reading category finished!

Little bit of gardening:
We've had rain on and off this week, overcast days, and the temps have come down to right around 100. We've even had a day or two around 90! I had been preparing some containers a few weeks ago in anticipation for being able to get some seeds planted, so over the last three days I've sown melon, onion, carrots, black seeded lettuce, Texas bluebonnets, cilantro, tomato, bell pepper, sunflowers (in the yard), mizuna and beans. My rolling gardening cart is planted out. I've thinned the ground cherry, which has done fine in the heat and is about three inches tall. I planted the lemon basil and one pot of cilantro about five days ago and the basil sprouted after two days and I've already had to thin them.

Basil and rosemary both seem to be very hearty plants.

For most people, they are, but I think they don't like our low desert dryness as I've never had either make it more than a few weeks. My mom in Vegas has had the same thing. But I got these basil seeds from the library, and it's a variety from New Mexico so maybe this time. So far, so good.

The new Autumn Lives Here post is up. Cookies, death rituals and the story of The Candy Man.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com

62. The Tricky Art of Co-Existing by Sandi Toksvig. Directed towards an eight year-old in Toksvig's life but really meant for the young adult (or since Covid, maybe anyone who went feral), this is a book of how to behave amongst others. How to communicate in any medium without coming off as rude, how to live with roommates and still get along, how to behave in a museum, during a job interview and at work among co-workers. It may sound dry but Toksvig is a likable person herself, and a comedian, so the advice is peppered with examples of people who behaved badly and some who learned lessons the hard way.
3 stars

>188 mstrust: I haven't seen those straws in years. We used to get them when I was a child--probably because they were about the cheapest "candy" around.

Yes, a huge sugar high too! I remember that my mom occasionally bought us the small, paper sized Pixy Stix, but not the big plastic sized. We got licorice whips and sesame candy from the health food store :-D Halloween was important.

The new "Autumn Lives Here" post is up! A look at horror host Zacherley and part 2 of the true crime story of "The Candy Man".
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-39c

63. Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare. Pericles, called Prince and King interchangeably, goes to win the hand of a princess and finds that the king is unwilling to let his daughter go because they are in an incestuous relationship. He plays a game with each courting prince, asking them a riddle that ends in the young man's death. Pericles catches on pretty quickly and escapes across the waters, but the king sends a man to follow and kill Pericles to keep him from exposing the king's secret.
Pericles goes on to survive shipwrecks and lost love. His daughter experiences kidnapping and slavery. Yet, because this has a happy ending, it may be included as a comedy. 3.5 stars
Scholars generally agree that Shakespeare probably wrote exactly half of this play.

>192 mstrust: Hobby Lobby is full of autumn glory. I went there yesterday to buy paints and noticed lots of autumn decos, a whole section. I could not take the time to look because my hubby was with me and . . .well, impatient.

I'll have to check it out, thanks for letting me know!
Mike was out this morning and stopped in Kneaders to bring breakfast home, and he got me a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie.

I woke around 4:15 this morning because we were having a massive storm, thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Mike slept, but I threw on some shorts and shoes and Coral came down with me. I pulled the hanging herbs and moved the potted herbs to a corner near the house, then ran out the back door and moved the garden cart and a dozen containers of young sprouts under shelter. Five minutes out there and I came in drenched with squishy shoes. Coral stayed inside and waited.
I know all that thunder and lightening must have woken the whole neighborhood up. It's 8:30 and Mike is just now stirring and our usually noisy neighborhood is quiet.

>196 mstrust: We had one sometime around midnight to one that literally shook my house. The cats all meowed and got closer to me. It scared them!

ETA: Another friend commented on my Facebook post that her cat had been scared too.

It's surprising that Coral isn't bothered by thunder at all, or fireworks, as she's wary of pretty much anything out of the ordinary. But I had to admire here for choosing to stay in the house while I ran outside to move plants. I know she was thinking, "You got this."

>197 thornton37814: We had a large thunderstorm too and the cats joined us in bed. I don't think they like the thunder and flashes of light. They are usually good at predicting the weather, so I suspected a storm was coming when they were running around the house and chasing each other.

My mom's last dog hated storms and fireworks. Nothing calmed her and that's sad to see.

I was all happy that I found an amaranth plant in my back yard, thinking it was a nice little present that would grow to be good salad fixings, but I dove deeper today and found that I don't have red amaranth, I have purple, which makes all the difference. Red is very useful as both a green and a grain, purple is toxic and invasive. And I looked around and found a huge patch of it that I've started ripping up.

Volume 10 of Autumn Lives Here is up! Sweet Autumn viewing and your haunted stuff, along with a blatant demand.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

64. Floors by Patrick Carman. Ten year-old Leo mostly lives the life of an overworked adult. He and his widowed father live in the basement of the Whippet Hotel in Manhattan, an amazingly quirky nine floor structure built by eccentric Merganzer Whippet, who has been missing for several months now. Whippet was a fun boss who was obsessed with ducks, but since he's been gone the hotel has been run by Ms. Sparks, a horrible woman who screams and threatens the employees constantly. She especially hates Leo and his dad, who are the maintenance crew. They're working day and night fixing the plumbing and a/c, and minding the hotel's flock of ducks, because everything has been breaking lately. Leo and the new doorman, also a young boy, find that the hotel holds a deep mystery that has to be solved in order to save it.
A fun story reminiscent of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. 3.5

Gardening talk:
We've had two big storms this week. Lats one woke me at 4am to run out and shelter my little sprouts. The storm this morning woke me at 3am to run out and do it again. But I have tiny flowers on my biggest ground cherry, which may mean it's already going to produce some berries. It's only a foot tall.
The red kuri sprouts are very sturdy and already about four inches tall. The bean sprout, just a single one so far, is two inches tall, and the lemon basil is three inches tall. The pots of cilantro are still young but have many sprouts and the red carrots have sprouted.
I planted the first pot of choy sum yesterday.

Love your gardening stories and I wish you lots of success with the latest seedlings and storms. Despite a late start, our summer has been a very hot one but not like yours. I've given up on tomatoes but my next-door neighbour has great success.

I thought of you yesterday when I saw a Halloween display on the shelves at the dollar store. Christmas is next month.

:-D I love that people always say they think of me when they see the Halloween stuff coming in!
I was at Total Wine on Sunday and they had a few brands of pumpkin beers in, which is what I was hoping for. I bought a 12pk box of Elysian pumpkin variety. I tried the punkaccino flavor so far, a coffee/pumpkin beer blend that I know sounds awful but actually tasted sort of like a hazelnut coffee. It was nutty.

I have such high hopes for these plants! I stopped planting anything around June, I just resigned myself to the fact that our heat in the summer is too brutal. So now I'm in full swing, planting something just about every day.

Hard to believe, but I planted a container of choy sum on Monday, just two days ago, and it's already sprouted.

The new Autumn Lives Here is up! A cringy 70's Halloween special, Alfred Hitchcock books and a chocolate cherry cocktail.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-d4f

I'm rather envious of your storm, we've just had a drought declared. I love a good summer storm, but we could really do with the rain now.

We had three storms in about 10 days, and many days of mostly overcast skies. While some of my plants have loved the break in searing sunlight, I had to put a pot of cilantro under a desk lamp for several hours to save it.

65. Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman. A memoir of the travels and temporary homes of Hodgman and his wife, and then as a family with three kids.
While I had expected laughs, the stories were more pleasant, easy reads with probably the most amusing section when he was giving a speech at an old Southern college and witnessed a strange dynamic among the people who invited him, or his reason for hating fudge. But sprinkled throughout were these weird apologies for his ethnicity and references to his privilege and guilt, and relaying with pride how he chewed out a wealthy woman who was nice to him because he didn't approve of her parenting, and really, because he believed she had too much. He spent a chapter near the end discussing social justice, and it seemed like this was the book he'd really wanted to write but because he made his name in humor, he had to sneak the messaging in. I know I didn't expect that from a book with this title. 3 stars

For anyone interested, I'm hosting September's ScaredyKit: https://www.librarything.com/topic/343544

The new Autumn Lives Here is up! Halloween gardening and lots of candy: https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

I picked up pumpkin flavored mini-scones at the grocery today! Ready for autumn.

Oooh, yum! We were at the store a few days ago and there was just one standing display of Autumn candies back in the deli section. Weird, because that was the only seasonal stuff in the whole store.
But I'm guzzling my pumpkin beers and waiting. Like a ninja.

I'm not quite ready to wish my summer away. I think we'll have an early autumn, due to the hot weather in the last month, a number of trees are already showing signs of shedding leaves to reduce water loss.

People who enjoy summer aren't experiencing 118F :-D I'm done,done,done!
My winter seeds arrived today. Celtuce, fenugreek,chocolate daisy, evil olive tomato, purple broccoli black Hungarian hot pepper and Japanese mustard greens. I'll hold off on planting them until around October or so.

>216 mstrust: What interesting seeds! I can't wait to hear how they all do. We are still having summer days but at least the nights tend to cool off somewhat. I can sense autumn is just around the corner!

I did go for some unusual ones, but I was really focused on winter stuff, so that's what I chose from, the seeds that would be okay in our "chilly" 50 degree winter. The Evil Olive tomato looks just like a big martini olive, the chocolate daisy has edible stamens that smell and taste of cocoa and draw pollinators.
I took a few pics this morning of what's growing on my patio. We hit 105 yesterday but it should be dipping to under 100 now, so I hope the worst of the heat is over.
Sorry, I tried to post pics but for some reason they aren't being captured.

The new Autumn Lives Here is up! Overlooked Halloween viewing, Night Vale and more candy, right this way-
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-81b

Yep, here's the latest Autumn Lives Here! Halloween coffees and a new short story. Come and get it!
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-4ec

Gardening chat: we've had many storms over the last few weeks, which has lowered the temps to the high 90s and made it humid. The plants love it. I had two red kuri plants in one big pot, so I transplanted the smaller one into it's own pot. It lived for over a week before curling up and dying, but the other kuri is thriving and is about eight inches tall.
The biggest ground cherry has formed its lantern husks, so hopefully there's fruit growing inside. I've hand pollinated the two larger ground cherries and it seems to be going well.
I've got two beans growing, they're each about five inches, and two cavilli squash that have shot up. I saved and dried these seeds myself. I planted them in separate containers and each sprouted in three days.
I have a small container of choy sum that is doing very well, and the black nebula carrots have sprouted, though they're still very small. A big surprise has been how quickly the red onion bulbs have grown. I only planted a few here and there, thinking they were too old as I bought them in the spring.
But we're having a very hot week and we're expected to hit 109 in a few days.
I picked up radish and snap pea seeds at the library yesterday.

Autumn Lives Here is new! Maple books, pumpkin bars and a true lottery tragedy.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-2fd

The new Autumn Lives Here is up! Helpful advice from ALH, a visit to Salem, upcoming book releases, and the life of Vampira.
ALH has gone to a $5 a month newsletter, at least for the Halloween season. Just want to be upfront about it ;-D
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/p/autumn-lives-here-e22

My Autumn/Halloween thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/344007#unread

Fall decos are starting to appear in our community, and I am seeing mums for sale at the grocery stores and garden centers. I hung out my autumn garden flag yesterday too.

I've found Autumn displays too, and I've been buying little Halloween updates for my decor...okay, I've bought Halloween candy too.

Come see my new thread!