Review: Seeking Justice

Seeking Justice (A Sam Mason Mystery #7)

by LA Dobbs

 I like the series pretty much, but I find each book to be awfully weak.  The characters are likeable, with great backstories and amusing idiosyncracies; the plots are pretty good; the action riveting. But each book leaves me feeling unsatisfied.  It's hard to pinpoint it.

 And I will note that although she calls this a "K-9" series, or at least her publisher does, the dog doesn't really play all that much of a role in the investigation.  It's there, but it doesn't seem to be all that well-trained or important to the solving of a mystery.  Lucy is nice to have around but never does much of importance other than to growl at people she doesn't like or have amusing battles with the cat.

I'll go on reading them. But not as happily as I'd like to.

Review: Lawns Into Meadows

Lawns Into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape

by Owen Wormser

 Very good information in general, and very inspiring, but not nearly enough information. The beginning and the end include a bunch of "success stories" (and a failure) that are good to read, but I expected a lot more meat in the middle.  And then he went into a descriptions of 21 meadow plants that, he says, are good for starter meadows anywhere.  I don't think half of them would thrive in my North Texas hot and dry clay soil.  They were nice for examples, but not useful for me.

 
If the book had been twice the length with a lot for information, it would have been well worth a purchase. As it is, getting it from the library suited me just fine.

Review: The Birds That Audubon Missed

The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness

by Kenn Kaufman

Absolutely a hundred stars in every regard!   Even the narrator was brilliant.

I can only guess that the reason some people gave it less than 5 stars on Goodreads (it averaged 4.13) was that they wanted him to hate on Audubon for his failures--racism, plagiarizing, theft, giving different names to different specimens of the same bird, and other lapses of science--and he didn't.  He didn't gloss over them either, simply explained what happened and put it in perspective for the times in which Audubon lived and the state of science at the time.

For example, Audubon's naming a bird in honor of a prospective sponsor, even though he'd already named the same yellow warbler something else (several times!), could have been a deliberate deception or a minor failure of memory, spurred by the strong desire to get his work published.  Owning and selling slaves, well, that's what white guys did back then. We could wish he'd "risen above the norm", as Kaufman suggests, but not blacklist his entire life's work on that account.

Kaufman goes off topic a lot, talking about topics like the science of bird study and how it has changed; the patterns of bird movement and extinction; island fauna; and his own attempts to draw Audubon-style paintings of some of the missed birds.  And lots of other stuff.  Some people may have griped that he didn't stick to the topic, but he did--this was all important to understanding what Audubon saw and what he didn't. (Except maybe Kaufman's art attempts, but I found that to be an amusing sideline)

 

Great writing; great research; great, great book!

Review: Desperate Creed

 by Alex Kava

 Even better than the last four books in the series!  In this one there's a mystery about a woman who was talking to her coworker on a video call when he was murdered--and she sees the culprits!  Plus they take possession of her coworker's phone, and they see her!

But the real villain in this adventure is mean ol' Mother Nature.  She showers a series of tornadoes on southern Alabama just as the woman is heading south to meet with FBI agent Maggie O'Dell.  Guess where they end up?

Gardening: late January

 In my little mini-greenhouses, the tiny lettuce sprigs and spinach leaves are still alive. I can't say they're growing at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zooming way in:

 

 

 

 

 

But I also found this huge lettuce out all alone by itself, in the location where I planted tons of seed last fall and the armadillos dug pretty much everything up.

Very cool.  I wonder if I should eat it or just admire the beauty?

Review: Driving Home Naked

 And Other Misadventures of a Country Veterinarian

by Melinda G. McCall

Memoir of a woman large animal veterinarian rural Virginia. It reminded me much of James Herriot's stories, with an endearing mix of personal anecdotes and animal disorders. Less funny, but still heartwarming.

 It started off slow, though. I came close (about 25%) to giving up early on. But it got better and better and by the time she started describing a massive animal rescue it was hard to put down. It went all the way up through the Covid year and shortly after.

 About the only thing I could have asked for was a little more detail in the descriptions. There's plenty of detail, but I wanted more. Like about how she felt, or about the animal issues. All the diagnoses seem to be short and sure--if she ever made any mistakes, I don't remember reading them. I would have enjoyed hearing her thought process as she came up with a treatment.

Birds of 2025 continued

 

Mourning Dove

                                                

 Eastern Phoebe

             Carolina Chickadee

American Robin

Review: Murder Crossed Her Mind

 

Intriguing developments in the ongoing stories, while the current case is more than enough to make a mystery novel complete...and then some. Better and better.  It starts out with action as Will gets bludgeoned with her own blackjack, but the real mystery unfolds back at the office and includes Nazis, FBI, missing persons, the mob and, of course, murder.

 

The next one is coming out in February. If I can wait that long.

 

Review: the Ryder Creed series #2 and #3

 

Silent Creed by Alex Kava, and

Reckless Creed (book #3)

 
Just as good as, and possibly better, than the first in the series.  A little gross in a serial killer sort of way, but I bleeped over that to get to the personalities, action and intrigue that made the mystery a mystery, not just a thriller.

And still a few more New Year's birds

 White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Cedar Waxwing

There are robins all over, too, but I can't seem to get a picture of one.

Review: Alex Rider #1

 

Breaking Creed by Alex Kava

I could not put this book down. Honestly. Well...almost. I did put it down a couple of times, to eat and sleep and do those necessary things of a civilized life in the 21st century. But only when I had to!

 This was despite it being really gross and depressing in the imaginary killer's methodology. Usually that sort of thriller material puts me off in a mystery novel. And also the use of very short chapters and alternating POV--I tend to dislike those both.

 But somehow he pulls it off and made a series that I'm going to race through at breakneck speed and be sad when it's over.  The characters are very interesting and seem to have an ability to come to life with very little description and even less self-rumination. They have a backstory, clearly, but it's not shoved in your face or dragged over the ground. It's just there, teasing the present.  Very good writing.