Hoorah – my favorite hard-boiled NY PI, Matthew Scudder, is back in the latest entry from Lawrence Block – “A Drop of the Hard Stuff.”  I should state that Matt is not as hard-boiled since he quit drinking, and the struggle to do so is partly chronicled in this book.  This is sort of a prequel as it opens with Matt sitting with his old friend Mick Ballou and reminiscing about the past, when Matt was still shy of a year sober.  He had met with an old childhood acquaintance turned criminal at an AA meeting.  His now-sober friend, Jack Ellery, is working on the 12 steps of

Just Desserts Mystery Book Club

Meets every 2^nd Thursday of the month @ the

The Jane Austen Book & Movie Club will be continuing the discussion of "Drums of Autumn," the fourth book in the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon for our next meeting on June 13th.  We will meet in the International Room at 6:00 pm in the Carnegie Building, 244 W. Michigan Ave.

"Though Not Dead" is the 18th book by Alaskan native Dana Stabenow featuring Kate Shugak.  If you like mysteries, especially those who feature a main character who grows through her experiences, you can't get better than this series, set in Alaska with Kate, a trained investigator who battles her past, her Aleut Native heritage and murderers aplenty.  In recent books, Kate has mellowed and come to terms, mostly, with the machinations of her dead Emaa (grandmother) and her Aunties, who are living legends in the Park, a generi

Those of us who love Jane Austen are frustrated that our beloved authoress only wrote six complete novels.  However, with access to the Internet, you can quickly discover the world of fan fiction, books written by fans that involve the characters of Jane's novels.  Biographies of Jane also abound, and, as an avid "Janeite," I have read more than my share.  So I was cautious about approaching the book, "Cassandra & Jane," by Jill Pitkeathley.  It's non-abashedly fiction, but surprisingly accurate, filling in the facts with fictional dialogue between the sisters, while