I seem to get in book moods. I will go through a phase where I read a bunch of non-fiction and biographies, then it will be mysteries and Victorian literature. I’m not sure if this is a conscious tick but I do know that whether I’m enjoying a book or not has a lot to do with my current mental state. So I’m guessing I needed a bit of a mood lifter this week because of the two lighter titles I read.
The Cinnamon Bun Murder is Joanne Fluke‘s 15th Hannah Swensen murder mystery. Hannah is a full-time cookie baker and part-time sleuth in the small town of Lake Eden, Minnesota. Lucky for Hannah the town has a huge sweet tooth and a propensity for murder!
Hannah has two sisters, is involved in a sweet little love triangle, and has a bit of a meddling mother in these lighthearted mysteries . The murder mysteries in this series are sometimes almost secondary to the cookie recipes that Fluke sprinkles throughout the narrative. I always get so hungry when I read these books!
The Trail of the Spellmans is the fifth book in a series written by Lisa Lutz. This hysterical series about Isabelle “Izzy” Spellman and her family’s detective agency is one of the most original I’ve ever read. This family of quirky, lovable and at times annoying gumshoes deal more with mundane detecting than murder. And a lot of their time is spent trailing and snooping on each other!
Lisa Lutz has a great sense of humor and that is apparently obvious by these characters, their snappy dialogue and their smart aleck personalities. I love the way she footnotes the book with hilarious asides and has an appendix in the back with documents that pertain to the characters and the cases. Laugh out loud funny and so darn unique.
Picking up the new book in a favorite series is such a comfortable feeling. You don’t have to hope you’re going to like it or wait for the author to grab your attention you can just dive right in and enjoy. And a really great series author knows how to give new readers the background of the characters without boring the regular readers with cold hard facts.
It was a real treat this week to not only get to read the newest book in two series I love, but to also get a little book levity to boot!
jottingswithjasmine 
Great blog entry. I love Hannah Swensen’s series, and have been reading them since paperback first appeared in Border Books Stores. I miss Borders.
I included a link to this post to my blog today: http://terrysthoughtsandthreads.blogspot.com. Come visit, and enjoy!
I miss Border’s too. Every time I drive by our empty store front it makes me sad.