Five Light & Funny Book Series

Five book series that are fun, easy to read, and and just might make you laugh out loud.


Holmes On The Range By Steve Hockensmith
Not only is this series of mysteries light, offbeat, and funny, it is also historical fiction, covering the Worlds Fair, the popularity of Sherlock Holmes, and western life in the 1890's
Two cowboys, one addicted to the Sherlock Holmes stories that ran in the monthly strand magazine.  As the men travel across the west in search of work, they stumble on to mysteries, getting in the way of the new Pinkerton Detective Agency as they solve them using Sherlock Holmes methods.

Look to see if you can borrow the  audio books from your  local library through the Libby app - this is a series that is great for the whole family to listen to together.

The Rosie Project By Graeme Simsion
A 3 book series, these are a romantic comedy.   Not my normal genre, but these are a unique, quirky, read that was both funny, and charming.
The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

The Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt

My problem with cozy mysteries is that they are often so ridiculous that it becomes annoying.  The main characters are often so inept that it can be hard to keep reading.  That is not the case with this series.  

Andy Carpenter is a lawyer, who is surprised to inherit a great deal of money, but doesn't particularly need the money and doesn't change his lifestyle too much at all, other than to only take cases when he truly wants to.  He uses some of his money to fund a dog rescue, and most of his cases revolve around dogs, although it's almost always the owners he defends.  (at least once, it's actually the dog - but it manages to not be silly and even comes across as reasonable, as unbelievable as that may seem.)  The books are smart and well written, with twists I frequently don't see coming.  But they are also light, full of dry humor, and do not require a lot of heavy thought.  There's a large number of characters that appear in every book over and over, and they are all well written and well developed characters.

If you read too many of them back to back, some of the themes can become a bit repetitive.  But even that hasn't hampered our enjoyment of them.


Agatha Raisin  by M.C. Beaton
The Agatha Raisin books are a 30 book series by M.C. Beaton. In 2018, these were the "light reads" I defaulted to between the thrillers and historical fiction that  I typically read.

 After selling her successful PR firm in London, Agatha moves to village life in the Cotswalds, where she stumbles into murder after murder, before, in book 15, finally opening her own detective agency. Middle aged, acerbic, and constantly making poor decisions, the books are both funny, and charming.

For those who love Stephanie Plum books, these are the older, classier, British version.  (They are also  a bit more PG - although Agatha does her fair share of bed hopping, the details are left to your imagination)


Miss Fortune Series by Jana DeLeon

 With a leak in the CIA and a price on her head, CIA Assassin Fortune Redding needs to lay low.  She's sent to the Bayou, where she poses as a former beauty queen and librarian - her most difficult assignment to date. 

This series gets better and better as it goes - with lots of comedy. Very quick reads.

Years ago I listed to a podcast - the only podcast I've ever really enjoyed - Book Tour With  John Grisham.  He went to small independent book stores, with other big name authors and interviewed them about their books and writing process.  It was fantastic.  In it [and it's been quite a few years, so forgive me if I get this wrong] he mentioned he was "challenged" to write a beach read.  I think someone said he couldn't do it.  So..  he did.  Camino Island was the first, and it was REALLY good.  Then Camino Wind, which I also loved.  Light, beach reads.  The 3rd in the series is Camino Ghosts, and I think it might be a bit heavier of a read, considering the subject matter - but I'm very much looking forward to it.


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For the purposes of this list, I'm going to assume you have already heard of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.  Laugh out loud funny, I admit that I read these as soon as they come out each fall.  A guilty pleasure for sure, as Evanovich is at heart a romance author, of the smutty variety, and that does carry over to these books.  Stephanie is a slut who regularly lives with one man while sleeping with another, something I can't imagine any series getting away with for 30 books if the main character was male.  Then to add a layer of disbelief, these two strong, handsome men who could have their pick of any woman and yet choose to share this one, both work together on many occasions to keep her safe. It's so despicable really, that you shouldn't like her -and yet its truly difficult to not love this bumbling, incompetent, bonds agent, and all of the great characters, and family,  she surrounds herself with.  (Reading this description, even I can't believe this is a series I love.  It's really that funny, that you can overlook this, even though normally it would completely ruin a series for me)
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The situations Stephanie runs into  are hysterical, and her grandmother is an absolute riot.    It's hard to think of another series that has made me laugh out loud as frequently as this one.   

 Evanovich has three other humorous detective series that are also very  funny, and all three are lighter on the "graphic romance" scenes -  

 The Fox & O'Hare series teams a female FBI agent up with a Con man to break up crime rings.  

 The Lizzie & Diesel Series teams up an unlikely pair as treasure hunters.  Funny and light, there's a bit more of the fantasy/magical element in these books, but not completely, just in the peripheral, and still in a humorous way.

 The Knight & Moon series pairs up a socially awkward,  eccentric, genius with a practical minded junior analyst. 

 And if you like these series by Evanovich, here are more to try:
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2014/04/if-you-like-stephanie-plum-novels-try.html
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Peek A Boo Clothespin Chicks - With Free SVG

Make a peek a boo Chick Clothespin Craft - with a free printable, and a free svg for those who want to use a cricut to make them.

The Download includes two files
DOWNLOAD HERE
A PNG file - which can be printed on any printer and cut by hand, 
OR upload it to Design Space, delete the white background, and use the print and cut option with cricut.

And it includes the svg, which you can upload to design space to cut.
When you upload the svg, change the size first.
You want the entire group to be 3.115 tall.

Once you have it resized, click on ungroup, and change the colors

I made the egg white so that kids can color and decorate them, but you could use colors too!
I cut the egg and chick out of paper, and the face out of vinyl, so the face is stickers
BUT - the face is tiny.  It may be much easier to just draw the face on!

You can also use the shapes tool to add shapes to the egg, then change them to draw, so that kids have shapes to color in and around.


Glue the chick on to the bottom first, then the egg over top.  Work as close to the end of the clothespin as you can, so that is opens as wide as possible.  On the very edge of the chick and egg are glued fast.  I used e600 glue because it was laying out from my last project.  It worked great, but it does not dry super fast.



If you want to cut a bunch all at once, 25 fit on one 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper.

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Dollar Tree Cookie Sheet Metal Flowers

This Flower made from Dollar Tree cookie sheets held up for nearly three years outdoors - one year on the porch, and two out in the open on a fence, before a storm blew it down and it was mangled under the trampoline.  I hadn't really expected it to hold up that well   - I was impressed!  
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Six Cricut Projects To Try This Week-End

Six Cricut Projects To Try This Week-End - A pillow, A 3d Paper Truck, A Puzzle, Converting a photo to an svg on an Easter Basket, Making a Charger Plate sign from the Dollar Tree, and A Rolled Paper Flower Wreath (maybe make it in a variety of pastels for Easter?)
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Ten Books To Read While Facing A Pandemic

Ten books, including fiction, historical fiction, and non fiction, about pandemics through the centuries.

 The Stand, by Stephen King, was already a best seller and a classic, but these days, many book clubs are pulling it back off the shelves to read it again.  The book has been referenced so many times in recent weeks, that King himself responded on twitter with "“No, corona-virus is NOT like THE STAND. It’s not anywhere near as serious. It’s eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions".  

 But for those of us who like to read based on current events and themes. The Stand is hard to skip over right now.  Here are ten books, including fiction, historical fiction, and non fiction, about pandemics through the centuries.
The Stand By Stephen King
In the Stand, one man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. It's a classic tale of good versus evil.
Historical Fiction - based on true events
A Year Of Wonders By Geraldine Brooks
Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history

Set in 17th century England, of a village that quarantines itself to arrest the spread of the plague When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Fiction
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.

Historical Fiction
Fever by Mary Beth Keene
Mary Beth Keane has written a spectacularly bold and intriguing novel about the woman known as “Typhoid Mary,” the first person in America identified as a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever.

On the eve of the twentieth century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen, and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she’d aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Then one determined “medical engineer” noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked, and identified her as an “asymptomatic carrier” of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.

The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was kept in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary—proud of her former status and passionate about cooking—the alternatives were abhorrent. She defied the edict.

Bringing early-twentieth-century New York alive—the neighborhoods, the bars, the park carved out of upper Manhattan, the boat traffic, the mansions and sweatshops and emerging skyscrapers—Fever is an ambitious retelling of a forgotten life. In the imagination of Mary Beth Keane, Mary Mallon becomes a fiercely compelling, dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising, and unforgettable heroine.

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History By John M. Barry
The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic.
At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.
"The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."  
 
Non Fiction
Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It
By Gina Kolata
 A national bestseller, the fast-paced and gripping account of the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 from acclaimed science journalist Gina Kolata, now featuring a new epilogue about avian flu. 
When we think of plagues, we think of AIDS, Ebola, anthrax spores, and, of course, the Black Death. But in 1918 the Great Flu Epidemic killed an estimated forty million people virtually overnight. If such a plague returned today, taking a comparable percentage of the US population with it, 1.5 million Americans would die.
In Flu, Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. From Alaska to Norway, from the streets of Hong Kong to the corridors of the White House, Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen and probes the fear that has impelled government policy.


Hot Zone - The Terrifying True Origins Of The Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Also a mini-series drama starring Julianna Margulies, Topher Grace, Liam Cunningham, James D'Arcy, and Noah Emmerich, on National Geographic.
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.

Non Fiction

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah

In Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, Shah interweaves history, original reportage, and personal narrative to explore the origins of epidemics, drawing parallels between cholera, one of history’s most deadly and disruptive pandemic-causing pathogens, and the new diseases that stalk humankind today.
To reveal how a new pandemic might develop, she tracks each stage of cholera’s dramatic journey, from its emergence in the South Asian hinterlands as a harmless microbe to its rapid dispersal across the nineteenth-century world, all the way to its latest beachhead in Haiti. Along the way she reports on the pathogens now following in cholera’s footsteps, from the MRSA bacterium that besieges her own family to the never-before-seen killers coming out of China’s wet markets, the surgical wards of New Delhi, and the suburban backyards of the East Coast.
By delving into the convoluted science, strange politics, and checkered history of one of the world’s deadliest diseases, Pandemic reveals what the next global contagion might look like―and what we can do to prevent it.
Non Fiction
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts
 And The Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigative reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, And the Band Played On remains one of the essential books of our time.
A Journal Of The Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, also wrote a book about the plague.  Read it for free online here:https://www.gutenberg.org/files/376/376-h/376-h.htm
Or find it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2II1taY
an account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague or the bubonic plague struck the city of London. The book is told somewhat chronologically, though without sections or chapter headings.
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Ten Books To Read This St Patricks Day

Are you looking for a seasonal read this March?  From a Leprechaun's tale, to a real life memoir, from a a sweeping history of Ireland, to a cozy mystery set there - here are 10 books to read this St Patrick's Day:

For a charming, light, fun read, try
The Gold-Son By Carrie Anne Noble
This is not only a fun St Patricks Day read, starring a leprechaun, but it's by an award winning local author.
All sixteen-year-old Tommin wants is to make beautiful shoes and care for his beloved grandmother, but his insatiable need to steal threatens to destroy everything. Driven by a curse that demands more and more gold, he’s sure to get caught eventually.
When mysterious Lorcan Reilly arrives in town with his “niece,” Eve, Tommin believes the fellow wants to help him. Instead, Lorcan whisks him off to the underground realm of the Leprechauns, where, alongside Eve, he’s forced to prepare to become one of them.
As Lorcan’s plans for his “gold-children” are slowly revealed, Tommin and Eve plan their escape. But with Tommin’s humanity slipping away, the fate-crossed pair has everything to lose unless they can find a way to outsmart a magical curse centuries in the making.



For an epic novel of history and storytelling, try the 560 page
Ireland, by Frank Delaney
In the winter of 1951, a storyteller, the last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. For three wonderful evenings, the old gentleman enthralls his assembled local audience with narratives of foolish kings, fabled saints, and Ireland's enduring accomplishments before moving on. But these nights change young Ronan forever, setting him on a years-long pursuit of the elusive, itinerant storyteller and the glorious tales that are no less than the saga of his tenacious and extraordinary isle.

For Historical Fiction, Try Book One In the Irish Century Series
1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn
At age fifteen, Ned Halloran lost both of his parents--and almost his own life--when the Titanic sank. Determined to keep what little he has, he returns to his homeland of Ireland and enrolls at Saint Edna's school in Dublin. Saint Edna's headmaster is the renowned scholar and poet, Patrick Pearse--who is soon to gain greater fame as a rebel and patriot. Ned becomes deeply involved with the growing revolution . . . and the sacrifices it will demand.
Through Ned's eyes, Morgan Llywelyn's 1916 examines the Irish fight for freedom--inspired by poets and schoolteachers, fueled by a desperate desire for independence, and played out in the historic streets of Dublin against the background of World War I. It is a story of the brave men and heroic women who, for a few unforgettable days, managed to hold out against the might of the British Empire.

For a little more in depth Historical Fiction, try 
The Princes Of Ireland by Edward Rutherford

From the bestselling author of London and Sarum—a magnificent epic about love and battle, family life and political intrigue in Ireland over the course of eleven centuries. The Princes of Ireland brilliantly weaves impeccable historical research and mesmerizing storytelling in capturing the essence of a place and its people

While vividly and movingly conveying the passions and struggles that shaped the character of Dublin, Rutherfurd portrays the major events in Irish history: The tribal culture of pagan Ireland; the mission of St. Patrick; the coming of the Vikings and the founding of Dublin; the glories of the great nearby monastery of Glendalough and the making of treasures like the Book of Kells; the extraordinary career of Brian Boru; the trickery of Henry II, which gave England its first foothold in Medieval Ireland. The stage is then set for the great conflict between the English kings and the princes of Ireland, and the disastrous Irish invasion of England, which incurred the wrath of Henry VIII and where this book, the first of the two part Dublin Saga, draws to a close, as the path of Irish history takes a dramatic and irrevocable turn.


For history, try the non fiction
All Standing By Kathryn Miles

The enthralling, true tale of a celebrated “coffin ship” that ran between Ireland and America in the 1840s: “By turns harrowing and heartwarming…All Standing salvages the treasure of a history lost at sea” (J.C. Hallman, author of The Devil Is a Gentleman).

More than one million immigrants fled the Irish famine for North America—and more than one hundred thousand of them perished aboard the “coffin ships” that crossed the Atlantic. But one small ship never lost a passenger.

All Standing recounts the remarkable tale of the Jeanie Johnston and her ingenious crew, whose eleven voyages are the stuff of legend. Why did these individuals succeed while so many others failed? And what new lives in America were the ship’s passengers seeking?

In this deeply researched and powerfully told story, acclaimed author Kathryn Miles re-creates life aboard this amazing vessel, richly depicting the bravery and defiance of its shipwright, captain, and doctor—and one Irish family’s search for the American dream.


And for more about the potato famine, the non fiction

The Graves Are Walking: 

The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People by John Kelly

Based on extensive research and written with novelistic flair, The Graves Are Walking draws a portrait that is both intimate and panoramic, that captures the drama of individual lives caught up in an unimaginable tragedy, while imparting a new understanding of the famine's causes and consequences.


For A Feel Good Fiction Novel, Try
The Lacemakers Of Glenmara

Set in the small Irish town, Glenmara,  a heartbroken American tourist, Kate Robinson, finds her one-night stay extended with the help of some motherly role models. Kate's hostess, chronically grieving widow Bernie, draws the young Seattleite into a gossipy ring of lace makers. Kate, a former fashion designer, takes to them perfectly , inspiring them to take on an empowering but controversial project.

For a Cozy Mystery set in Ireland, try the
County Cork Series By Sheila Connolly
New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly introduces the first novel in the County Cork mystery series—set in a small village in Ireland where buried secrets are about to rise to the surface...

Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born—though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.  

In the pub, she’s swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly one-hundred-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body’s connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she’s about to become mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head...


For a Murder Series that is not quite as cozy, try
The Dublin Murder Squad Series by Tana French
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Richly atmospheric, stunning in its complexity, and utterly convincing and surprising to the end, In the Woods is sure to enthrall fans of Mystic River and The Lovely Bones.

For a Memoir, Try
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland.

 Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.

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