A book haul is the best medicine for a late winter cold

I know we're supposed to be getting ready for spring but that seems like a long ways off at the moment, due to the up and down temperatures along with the flurry of sudden snow storms within the last two weeks.

All of that has brought on a bit of a head cold for me, which thankfully is minor but still draining my batteries somewhat there. However, with the combo of rest, hot cups of tea(plus a touch of modern medicine) and a few books to read, my brief illness will be just that, brief.

Yes, I did some online book buying as there are sales aplenty this time of year, and snagged myself a nice quartet of new books. I've already finished one of them, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the memoir by Lee Israel that was the basis of the same titled movie which earned Melissa McCarthy a Best Actress Oscar nom recently.

Lee was a celebrity biographer back in the early 1970s and 80s who fell out of favor with the literary world(partly due to a battle with Estee Lauder over an unauthorized bio of the cosmetics queen) and found herself struggling to make ends meet. With rent to pay and a sick cat to care for, she turned to forging letters from literary legends such as Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward and Edna Ferber.

With a mix of factual information and well honed invention, Lee made a tidy profit with various booksellers and memorabilia dealers who sold her letters for rather high prices, with a couple of them even winding up cited in a published biography or two.

While she did take pride in her work, those shady dealing lead to a fall as the validity of a Noel Coward letter came into question, leading to an investigation by the FBI who were able to get one of Lee's late in the game cohorts to point the finger at her. She did get a reduced sentence(no actual jail time) yet was permanently banned from all research libraries and archives.

 I did see the movie before reading this(McCarthy gave a great performance) and while the book is less sentimental, Lee's sharp wit echoes through the pages as she recounts the ways in which she crafted many of the letters that are reproduced within the memoir. Her no holds barred approach to story telling does make her an engaging,although not completely trustworthy, character that you do wish to know better.

Lee Israel passed away in 2014 and I think she would find it a real hoot to have this resurgence of interest in her creative capers. It's too bad that she went down the path that she did but no one can accuse her of not having the last word on her literary legacy:

 I also picked up the first two books in a cozy mystery series by Ellery Adams, the first being The Secret, Book & Scone Society. Set in the small town of Miracle Springs, a book club made up of four women get together not only to talk about good books and food but to solve a local murder as well.

Headed up by Nora, a former librarian who now runs a bookstore in town, the ladies are determined that the death of Neil Parrish, who they all had contact with before his fatal encounter with an incoming train, was not an intended event as Sheriff Todd insists that it is.

With another sudden demise and one of their own being accused of the crime, Nora and friends are out to smartly save the day. I like the idea of a book club banding together for some detective work and that each member has to share a deep secret with the others as a sign of trust makes everything all the more intriguing.

The next book in this series is The Whispered Word and despite not having read Adams before, it felt right to take a chance on this set of bibliophile sleuths. I might add these books to my Series-ous Reading project, we shall see.

Last but far from least, Kendare Blake's Three Dark Crowns rounded off my  buying spree. The crowns of the title are destined for a trio of sisters, each of whom is gifted with a specific magical talent.

Mirabella  has the power to control the elements while Katherine is able to bear the pain of poison with ease. Their third sister can call upon plants and animals alike but only one of them is allowed to rule the realm.

They must battle to the death, with the lone survivor taking the role as Queen Crowned as her brutal prize. While Mirabella has displayed some of her ability, the other two girls have not and the question is, can they or be destroyed each in her turn? Another dilemma is can Mirabella bring herself to slay the only family she has and is the crown worth such gruesome trouble?

I know that this is the beginning of a longer series and I've heard many good things about it from fantasy fans, so this feels like the right time to give this wickedly wild tale of sinister sisterhood a chance there:

Hopefully, we will all feel the joys of spring time weather soon and that my bout with a seasonal cold comes to an end well before then. Granted, a cold can be inconvenient at it's worst and best yet it's never truly welcome at any time. Sure, it does allow you some extra reading time but not in great shape for a good old school literary debate,especially of a Austenesque nature: