“Murder in the Bookshop” by Anita Davison

My daughter (formerly known as Bookworm Child, though she is now no longer a child) gave me a great experience for my birthday: she ordered me a Blind Date With a Book from @TheMysteriousBookcase on Etsy. I got a package in the mail, wrapped in brown paper and twine, that included a mystery novel and a Galaxy bar! You can see photos here. What a great idea for a Bookworm Mom!

Unfortunately, the book itself was not . . . my cup of tea. (Groan. If you've read Murder in the Bookshop, or anything remotely like it, you get the reference.) I mean, you know I love Agatha Christie, and I love a good cozy mystery, so it wouldn't be a stretch to think I would like a murder mystery set in WWI-era London. But this one . . . the characters were all over the place. Was the protagonist a feisty heroine, or a brat? Was her aunt a feminist living on the fringes of society or was she a femme fatale? Was Hannah's love interest a cardboard cutout of Superman, his conspicuously broad shoulders dressed in Edwardian extravagance? 

The writing, generally, was not good. In the Acknowledgements, the author thanks her editors "for smoothing out of my clumsy phrasing" which makes me wonder how bad it must have been before said smoothing. I could not sink into the story because I was constantly re-writing in my head. And the plot was such a jarring mixture of pearl-clutching and tongue-in-cheek. Not to mention that on every other page, someone was making tea! (Gosh, I'm tired, I'll make a pot of tea. Oh, I just woke up, would you make me a pot of tea? Dancing makes me thirsty, let's make a pot of tea. Gracious, there's a dead body in my bookstore. This calls for a pot of tea. Oh, and it's my best friend . . . might as well start a second pot!) It honestly crossed the line from cozy to ridiculous.

Still, it was a mystery! And I remain afflicted by the inability to abandon a book once I've started reading it. So of course I read the whole thing, and overall it was a positive experience. I mean, some books are so bad that they actually make me angry. This one wasn't that bad. 

“Beautifully Organized” by Nikki Boyd

My lovely husband gave me this beautiful book as a birthday gift. He knows me so well. If not a novel, this is exactly the sort of book that appeals to me. I've been slowly but surely working my way through our home, trying to organize and declutter, throwing some style at it along the way . . . Unfortunately, the  part of that last sentence that is most true is the word "slowly". I'm always on the hunt for some help, and for new ideas, but things are not progressing in leaps and bounds. 

I enjoyed reading through Beautifully Organized, but it wasn't the shortcut I was hoping for. I don't feel like I came away from it with tons of ideas (although I did note a few: I'm definitely going to try putting a few drops of essential oil on the cardboard tube inside a toilet paper roll, and maybe I'll put a sprig of rosemary in one of our clear soap dispensers). But as for the big picture: I still have a lot of work to do, and it's going to continue to take a lot of time as I focus on making improvements in small areas, bit by bit. 

The book itself was fun in the same way as How to Wear Everything. I may not have come away with a lot of specifics, but I was motivated to unload excess and organize what remains. And Boyd does provide a solid five-step framework for home decorating: Assess, Declutter, Clean, Organize, Beautify. The book doesn't include an overabundance of photographs (though there are enough to illustrate the main points), but that’s ok because my style does not match the author's (which consists mostly of white, grey, and silver--a palette I can appreciate, but a far cry from my colorful house). For me, the words were more inspiring than the photos.