just finished: Hawthorne number three! Anthony Horowitz’s third in his Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery series. A Line to Kill. The investigative duo head out to an ex-German island for a small literary festival, and murders ensue. Just like you never want to invite Jessica Fletcher to your dinner party, you don’t want to invite Hawthorne and Horowitz to your literary festival. But again, the investigation was intense, and while i could guess at some of the final answers, I missed a lot of clues along the way. Seeing it all come together is amazing, even though I feel a little foolish for missing so many of the clues.

currently reading: I’m reading a few books that come out this week, including gift book It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherf***ers. It’s based on an essay that author Colin Nissan wrote about fall many years ago and that gets pulled out every year. Now, it’s in book form with lots of lovely photos of fall activities and of decorative gourds, and it’s hilarious. I’m also reading a cozy, A Perfect Bind, about a librarian in a small town in South Carolina who is rebelling against her library’s new no-print-books policy by setting up her own lending library in a basement room. I know who got killed, but I don’t know why or by whom. And I’m reading a rom com, The Matzah Ball, about a Jewish woman who writes Christmas romance novels and a man who plans big events. It’s utterly charming, and I can’t wait to get back to it.

up next: It’s cookbook season, and I’m in. I have a pile of cookbook galleys to read (all electronic, of course*), but there are soups and veggies, baking cookbooks, and watch for several cookbooks out in the next six or so months about the latest fad in cooking—the decorative food board. It’s like a cheese board, but now people are putting them together for all sorts of things, so there are lots of cookbooks coming our way to offer up all sorts of ideas and inspiration.

*Speaking of electronic galleys, have you heard about the trouble that print books are having? Publishers are having trouble getting the books to bookstores on time for release dates. Printers are having staffing problems, there are issues getting the supplies needed (paper may grow on trees, but it still takes a lot of people to get it processed and shipped), and I think everyone knows that there are lots of issues with the supply chain, so there aren’t enough truck drivers and trains to physically get the books where they need to go. I heard one author talk about how his new books are stuck on a ship, waiting. Just waiting. Some release dates are getting pushed back to try to fix the problem. So if you are waiting on new books to show up on bookstore shelves, please be patient. Or you can always get the electronic version or an audio book, to help in the meantime.