Change of Pace

I have written fifty posts about my favorite books. Fifty is a lot. I have decided that the time has come for a change of pace. I’ll still write the occasional book review post, including a “best of [year]” and “research in [year],” but mostly, I’m going to switch to posts about writing.

My old book review posts will remain up for reading inspiration. You are still welcome to comment on them and let me know what you liked or what you would recommend.

Besides the yearly posts, I might add the occasional guest post or random review, as I feel like it. 🙂

If you’ve been loving my book reviews, I apologize for the change, but I hope you grow to love my other posts just as much. That’s all for now, but I’ll have a new writing post in three weeks.

See you then!
Marty C. Lee

© 2023 M. C. Lee LLC. All rights reserved.

Robert Newman’s Mystery Series

Just for the fun of it, I’m doing an in-depth review of an old favorite today. Robert Newman wrote one of my favorite fantasy books, The Shattered Stone, but he also wrote a whole series of young adult mysteries that all start The Case of

Be warned, these are old books, from the 70’s and 80’s. Granted, that makes me feel old, too… But I just looked them up, and they are available in ebook now, which means you don’t have to hunt them down in old print copies the way I did. (Although the print copies have way nicer covers.)

The series is sort of a Sherlock Holmes off-shoot, in that Sherlock is in a few of the books, but mostly the books are about a young boy and his friends.

In the first book, Andrew’s guardian is kidnapped in London, leaving him all alone. He’s rescued by a girl nicknamed Screamer and her family. Screamer’s brother works for Sherlock as a Baker Street Irregular, and so Andrew starts working for him, too. After helping Sherlock solve some big crimes, Andrew also finds out what happened to his guardian.

Later in the series, a policeman does more of the detecting than Sherlock does, but Andrew and Screamer remain involved.

Why do I like it so much?

The writing is good. (And you shouldn’t take that for granted.)

The mysteries are exciting but still logical and possible to solve yourself, though you don’t have to. And you don’t have to know stuff that’s impossible to know *cough Agatha Christie cough*.

But especially, the characters are very well done. I love Andrew and Screamer and the other characters. And even though the kids do a lot of the mystery-solving, they do it by helping the adults who are actually in charge (unlike some unrealistic young detective stories). The adults, in another plus, are generally loving and intelligent instead of cruel idiots.

The kids in the story are FRIENDS, above all else, and you can tell it when you read the stories. They treasure their friendship and stick together, and that makes for a delightful read.

So, there you go. If you like mysteries with young detectives, try Robert Newman’s The Case of series. Leave a comment to tell me what you think.

Happy reading,
Marty C. Lee

© 2023 M. C. Lee LLC. All rights reserved.

Favorite Books of 2022

Here are my new (not reread) four and five star reads for 2022.

Nonfiction

Surrounded by Idiots, by Thomas Erikson (personality/behavior)
Strengths Finder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Tom Rath
Expanding Your Strengths, by Curt Liesveld (personality/behavior)
The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back from Setbacks, by Al Siebert (behavior)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari (history)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach (science)
Depression, Anxiety, and Other Things We Don’t Want to Talk About, by Ryan Casey Waller (mental health)
The Astronaut’s Wife: How Launching My Husband into Outer Space Changed the Way I Live on Earth, by Stacey Morgan (memoir)
The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, by Dorie Clark (philosophy?)
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson (philosophy, behavior)
The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over, by Jack Schafer (behavior)
The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness, by Kelli Harding (health, behavior)
Unbearable Burden, by Krista M. Isaacson (memoir)

Writing Books

Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means), by Janice Hardy
Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It), by Janice Hardy
Writing Unforgettable Characters: How to Create Story People Who Jump Off the Page (Bell on Writing Book 12), by James Scott Bell 
Dialogue: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Effective Dialogue, by Gloria Kempton
The Heroine’s Journey, by Gail Carriger
Revising Your Novel, by Janice Hardy

Fiction

Earl on the Run, by Jane Ashford (Regency romance. Book 1 was okay, but not as good)
Lily of the Valley, by Sarah M. Eden (Georgian romance)
An Unfamiliar Duke, by Sian Ann Bessey (Georgian romance)
Spirits of Hastings: Terrifying Tales from Hastings, East Sussex, United Kingdom, by The Untruth Seekers (very mild horror)
Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, by Jonathan Auxier (middle grade historical magical realism)
Dreams of Gold, by Traci Hunter Abramson (contemporary sports romance)
Chances Are, by Traci Hunter Abramson (contemporary romance)
Farilane, by Michael J. Sullivan (epic fantasy)
Bastille vs the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson
Mystery and More Mystery, by Robert Arthur (mystery short stories)
The Chronicles of Avonlea (historical)
The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (sci fi mystery)

© 2023 M. C. Lee LLC. All rights reserved.


Historical Mysteries Guest Post

I thought it would be fun to have some guest writers on my blog, so I asked a couple of other authors to write me some “favorite books” posts. I know I write fantasy, but I READ a lot of different things, and my first guest is a mystery writer.

Carol Malone writes historical mysteries, frequently with a sports tie-in and a romantic subplot. And here she is to tell us how she got started. 🙂

***

Why I love historical mysteries.

By Carol Malone

I found a copy of Agatha Christie’s “Black Coffee,” written in 1929, at a used bookstore. I was a mystery fan and a wannabe mystery writer and wanted to study the way a master mystery writer tells a story. So, for a buck, I delved into the fascinating world of the little Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, the curious man with the egg-shaped head and the passion— no, more like obsession—with order. Can you say Obsessive Compulsive?

He liked to mention that he used his “little grey cells” to solve mysteries so complex the reader just scratches his/her head and stares wide-eyed as the intrepid little man solves the crime with aplomb.

The story of “Black Coffee,” is a tale about a scientist in the 30s England who has discovered the formula for a massive weapon to kill hundreds of thousands of people. He contacted Detective Poirot with the suspicion that someone in his family wanted to steal his formula. He needed Poirot to hand-carry it to the English version of the Defense Department. But before Poirot arrived with his trusty detecting sidekick, Hastings, the scientist was dispatched.

Little clues were dropped, and the reader is led to believe he/she knows “who-done-it” while being entertained along the way.

The reader follows the little detective with surprise and delight as he charges through his lines of questioning, and the positioning of the suspects, making the reader believe they have solved the crime before Poirot does.

I will not give away anymore of the plot or the list of suspects, but will say this is a short novel, easy to read and understand, but one that will keep the reader on his/her toes until the very end. There were so many false leads and red herrings to keep anyone entertained and fulling involved in the story. Agatha Christie can make anyone fall in love with the genre and cement the reading of mysteries a part of their browsing obsession.

Solving the crime and understanding the intricacies of the mystery is why I love this genre. Even in differing eras of time, Mrs. Christie offers the ability to the reader to act as a silent partner in the world of detecting. She puts you into the character of Poirot to feed some need in a reader’s life.

Our lives are a mystery to be discovered with systematic thoroughness as we live each day not knowing when the next “surprise” will hit us, and we’ll be left figuring out the way to proceed. We all hope we’ll be the detective and not the murderer in our own little adaptation of “Black Coffee.”

Of course, there is the revelation of what makes some people resort to murder and the slap-in-the-face discovery of the sordidness of some human nature as the major stimulant. Christie offers the reader a puzzle of the mind and at the end, the reader can’t help but feel gratified when the plot twists engages and surprise us and eventually, the mystery of the puzzle is solved. I can’t help but feel like I’ve discovered something marvelous at the end of such a book, like I’ve solved a stimulating secret. It’s a heady experience.

All of these are the things that make up historical mysteries are why I adore them so much. I can only hope to do half as well with the mysteries that I produce. I do love me a good whodunit mystery.

***

And that, folks, is Carol Malone, lover of Agatha Christie and other good historical mysteries, and writer in the same genre. But Christie didn’t write much romance, sad to say, and Carol likes to include some in most of her books. Don’t worry—she won’t embarrass you. All her romance is safe-for-work.

If you want to read one of her historical stories, she has a free one available for joining her newsletter. No pressure, honestly.
https://mybookcave.com/direct/ae4a0751/
Or if you want one of her mysteries, they’re available where ebooks are sold.

Happy reading,
Marty C. Lee

Why Should You Read My Book Lists?

I’ll be honest–I think I’ve gone through every category in my Goodreads and given you my favorites. I’ll still post a “favorite books this year” every year, but what else would like from my book review posts? Or should I stop doing them (except the yearly review) and just do writing posts?

While you’re thinking about that, here’s a summary of what sort of books I tend to read, and how I tend to rate books. You know, if you want to know if I like the same things you do. 😉

As of the middle of July, 2022:

2.97 avg stars. Yes, I’m a harsh grader. I don’t actually have very many 1 stars, relatively speaking, but I do give a lot of 2 & 3 star ratings. On the other hand, I consider a 3-star book to be perfectly acceptable. I probably won’t reread it, but I don’t consider it a waste of my time. Two stars were a waste, and one stars get angry rants. Four stars means I really liked it and would reread happily, and five stars means I’m probably going to buy it.

Numbers are rounded. Some categories cross fiction/non-fic lines, but I’ve done my best to sort them by the most common occurrences.

Audience:
children ‎(500)
juv-ya ‎(4000)
adult ‎(4000)

Fiction Genres:
action-adventure ‎(400)
beast-tales ‎(400)
comedy ‎(200)
comics ‎(100)
family-child ‎(600)
fantasy ‎(3000)
fiction ‎(2000)
historical-1700s ‎(100)
historical-1800s ‎(500)
historical-1900s ‎(400)
historical-ancient ‎(100)
historical-medieval-renaissance ‎(300)
historical-pioneer-oldwest ‎(100)
historical-regency ‎(300)
historical-roman-circa ‎(100)
horror ‎(100)
mystery-puzzles ‎(800)
picture-bk ‎(300)
poetry-theatre ‎(50)
romance ‎(1000)
sci-fi ‎(1000)
short-stories ‎(500)
sports ‎(50)
steampunk-gaslamp-flintlock ‎(200)

Non-fiction Genres:
biography ‎(200)
business ‎(100)
camp-hike ‎(20)
cognition ‎(100)
comedy (200)
cooking ‎(50)
craft-sewing ‎(10)
education-homeschool ‎(50)
family-child ‎(600)
finance-economy ‎(50)
health ‎(100)
various historicals (see #s under fiction)
home-garden ‎(60)
literary-linguistic ‎(50)
parenting ‎(100)
personality-behavr ‎(200)
philosophy-psych ‎(100)
politics-law ‎(50)
preparedness ‎(20)
religious ‎(400)
science-math ‎(100)
social-relationship ‎(200)
travel ‎(20)
writing ‎(20)
writing-business ‎(100)
writing-character ‎(50)
writing-conflict ‎(10)
writing-description-prose ‎(20)
writing-dialogue ‎(10)
writing-editing ‎(10)
writing-emotion ‎(10)
writing-plot-structure ‎(50)
writing-productivity ‎(50)
writing-research ‎(10)
writing-worldbuilding ‎(10)

Yes, I read a lot of different things. Always have.

Happy reading,
Marty C. Lee

P.S. Remember to comment to say what you want from future posts!

© 2022 M. C. Lee LLC. All rights reserved.