Filling up my Library Haul spring basket

Spring has finally sprung, as they say, with this being a fine time to check out what’s in bloom at my local library.

My most recent trip started off with a cozy cat mystery that caught my eye quickly. Mimi Lee Cracks the Code is the third book in Jennifer J. Chow’s 
 Sassy Cat series and the lady of the title runs a pet grooming service called Hollywoof (guess you can tell where this story is located by that moniker!).

When her friend and mentor Pixie is accused of doing away with a former tenant at her rental house on Catalina Island, Mimi is more than ready to help solve the case with her trusty cat Marshmallow ready to do his part. As it turns out, Marshmallow is telepathic and can read, making him the purrfect detective (couldn’t resist the pun, sorry) indeed.

I don’t usually read animal centric cozies but I’ve heard good word of mouth about this series and the whole telepathic cat angle reminds me of a fun Disney movie from way back when, The Cat From Outer Space.

While I don’t think Marshmallow can do any science fiction style tricks, he’d probably enjoy this film at the very least as much I’m enjoying this book so far:

The next page turning posy to add to my book bouquet was Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot, which has a literary teacher trapped by success that is not his own.

At first, Jake Bonner doesn’t see the problem with using the story outlines of former student Evan Parker, who boasted about the instant bestseller potential of his intended novel.

After all, Evan died before getting officially started on the book(under mysterious circumstances) and three years later, Jake has become a major author, thanks to Evan’s idea, with a potential new love interest as well.

However, all is not well as Jake gets an email calling him out on his new found fame and to make matters worse, Evan’s story may not have been just a figment of his imagination. Rather, it’s an all too real tale that someone never wanted to be told and will do what they can to take revenge.

This sounds amazing and I believe it’s going to become a TV adaptation pretty soon, much like Korelitz’s prior novel You Should Have Known( called The Undoing on HBO) was. 

A good literary thriller like this is also prime book club bait as Jimmy Fallon discovered last year for his Summer Reading segment on the Tonight Show and it’s nice to see some late show love there:

For a final flourish, I was able to add a historical fiction thriller hybrid from Beatriz Williams.

Our Woman in Moscow begins with Ruth, who gets a postcard from her twin sister Iris that she hasn’t heard from for over a decade.

Iris joined her diplomat husband Sasha in Russia after WWII ended and now that government suspects him of being a double agent. Ruth is then recruited by FBI operative Sumner Fox to help him get Iris and Sasha out of the country by visiting her newly pregnant sister with Sumner posing as her spouse.

Williams is good at making the world of the past come alive on the page and with the bonus of some spy games in the mix, this blend of historical storytelling with James Bond elements promises to be most entertainingly engaging fare:

I am so grateful for having an available library and it’s so sad to see the numerous calls for book bans these days that are clearly meant to score pathetic  political points instead of promoting actual  free speech and thought as libraries were created for in the first place.

Hopefully, the more that we support our libraries and those who work in them, the more these terrible forces of oppression will be defeated in the long run.

Meanwhile, let us try to rejoice in the garden of great reads that our libraries grow for the benefit of all. 

During this spring holiday season, I like to think of my library visits as Easter egg hunts, finding those hidden gems to mentally snack on and savor as much as can be and with any luck , you can too: