Monthly Archives: November 2020

Thanksgiving 2020

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What if today we were grateful for Everything", Charlie Brown and Snoopy | Snoopy quotes, Gratitude quotes, Inspirational quotes
What ‘s really important.

This week we celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, a traditional festival of the harvest going back to the 1600s.  This year, though it is especially difficult for many to remember what we have to be thankful for, when we are faced with a pandemic that robs us of health and life, and forces us into isolation away from friends and families to protect ourselves.

For my family, my daughter doesn’t have enough leave time to join us this year (she’s serving in the Air Force), but my husband and son will be here, and at some point we’ll contact the extended family digitally.

Very few of us are not affected in some way by the current crisis, but what we should try to remember is that this day, Thanksgiving, is not about our problems, but the blessings we have been given.

The early settlers, most notably the ones who settled Plymouth in early 1620, went through a great deal of hardship-starvation, disease, and death, not to mention complete isolation from everything they had known in Europe-before they invited their neighbors for that defining harvest celebration.  However, they persevered.  They survived, they continued, and they prospered.  

We, their heirs to this dream we all share, can do the same.  We can endure: we can outlast this crisis: we can triumph again.    Hopefully by this time next year, this illness will be beaten back and the fear and isolation will be a distant memory.  For now, we go on as best we can, and find new ways to make this holiday memorable, even with the necessary limitations place upon us.

Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you all!  Keep safe, and be strong. 

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : Murder in an Irish Village

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Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O'Connor

Murder in an Irish Village (An Irish Village Mystery, #1) by Carlene O’Connor (Goodreads Author)
Amy Caudill‘s review

When Siobhan O’Sullivan witnesses a suspicious conversation between a family friend and the brother of the man who caused her parents death, she had no way of knowing the next time she saw Niall he would be sitting in her family’s bistro, with a pair of scissors in his chest.

This first book in the An Irish Village Mystery cozy mystery series takes place in Kilbane, Ireland.  The story focuses on Siobhan, the second oldest of six children, dubbed by townsfolk as “The Irish Brady Bunch,” as she tries to solve a murder and save her brother and her family business, all while flirting with the local garda (police officer) Macdara Flannery.

I had a little difficulty getting into the story at first because the author jumped right into the action, and gave explanations/descriptions of characters as she went, which is not really a bad thing, but I felt a little lost for the first third of the book.  I will say kudos to Carlene O’Connor for including a glossary of the most common pronunciations and colloquial terms; this was really invaluable for someone who is not up on Irish terms.

As the story continues, the reader really is able to identify more with the protagonist, a young woman who gave up her dream of going to college in a larger city in order to help her older brother James care for their younger siblings in the wake of their parents’ tragic death a year before the action takes place.

At first the reader is left wondering why the troublesome Niall keeps bringing up the accident that sent his brother to prison and caused the death of the O’Sullivan parents.  Does he really have proof his brother was innocent, or is he just trying to extort money from anyone vulnerable in town?  His murder, near the beginning of the story, leaves many questions that seemingly cannot be answered fast enough to keep James from being accused of the crime, so naturally Siobhan has to help, despite the direct orders of Garda Flannery.

The reader is witness to conflict between the siblings, multiple romantic possibilities for Siobhan, and a number of humorous situations where the siblings play amateur detective and narrowly avoid getting into trouble for their efforts.  All in all, this book had a well-developed plot and entertaining characters.  After the confusing intro, the story really settled into a focus on Siobhan, as she tried to balance caring for the children, running the bistro, and searching for clues without offending her neighbors or angering the handsome detective. 

Overall, I think this book established a great basis for a cozy mystery series, with plenty of secondary characters and a beautiful locale to further plots.  I give it four stars and would recommend it to any fan of cozy mysteries

Happy Veteran’s Day!

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Happy Veteran’s Day!
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Today we in the USA celebrate our veterans, past and present. Today we remember the sacrifices they, and their families have made, to keep us safe, to protect our borders, to prevent incursions from terrorists, and to keep the peace.

A number of members of my extended family have been part of this important group of our citizenry, including my daughter (currently serving in the Air Force,) as well as my husband, father-in-law, stepfather, and several uncles (all former members of the armed forces.)

I am sure you will join me in thanking them for their service, especially those on duty in the current environment of global crisis and political upheaval. May God keep them safe, whether they are serving inside the borders of the US or on foreign soil, and bring them home safely again.

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : Ghost Story

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Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, #13) by Jim Butcher (Goodreads Author)
Amy Caudill‘s review

At the end of the last book, Changes, in The Dresden Files series, Harry Dresden was shot and then fell into Lake Michigan; so he’s dead now, right?  Except his idea of the afterlife never included being shown into a police station in the world” in-between” and meeting Karrin Murphy’s late father, a former Chicago cop. 

Jack Murphy delivers some surprising news: Harry’s stuck in between life and death because some unnamed semi-divine being interfered with his death, three of his friends are in mortal danger if he doesn’t find a way to help them, and he needs to identify his killer if he wants to be able to move on.  And oh, magic doesn’t work the same way here, so it looks like wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden is going to have to solve this case without his powers, without his body, and without being able to communicate with almost everyone he knows.

Fortunately, Harry knows or rather knew, an ectomancer, a person with latent magical ability who can see and talk with ghosts.  Unfortunately, Mortimer Lindquist has a negative impression of Harry because of the danger the late wizard brought into his life while he was still alive.  Persuading Mort to help is hard.  What is even harder is convincing his friends that Harry is actually his own spirit and not a supernatural shapeshifter wearing his face (it’s happened before in this universe.)

Just when Harry has most of them believing, Mort is kidnapped by the evil spirit of a sorceress Harry defeated years before and who wants to use Mort as a stepping stone to acquire a new body for herself.  Harry will not all of his friends and allies, living and dead, to prevent the sorceress from escaping death to rein havoc on the world.

It is interesting to note how author Jim Butcher writes Harry’s change in perspective.  Now that he’s dead, he has time to reflect on his life; his choices, his achievements, and his failures.  They say hindsight is twenty-twenty, but what can Harry do about his past now that he’s dead?  Or is he really?  The other spirits say that Harry is different, he’s dead but not, but exactly what is going on there is a secret the author keeps until the very last chapter, which ingeniously draws other past characters and situations from the larger universe in to set the course for the rest of the series, or at least the next book.

This thirteenth book in the series by author Jim Butcher is full of surprises.  While there is plenty of action, much of the story revolves around solving the mystery at the end of the last book as well as dealing with the consequences of Harry’s absence from being Chicago’s protector from supernatural incursions.  This is one book where I feel the reader will really miss a lot of key points if this is there first venture into this universe.  Still, the story is solid and keeps the reader in suspense and guessing outcomes until the very end, so I give it 4.5 stars and would recommend it, and the series to readers of paranormal and urban fantasy books.