MORE BOOKS READ (CONTINUED)

I turned in my log sheet for the STDL Winter Reading Program and got a nice lined notebook and attached pen as the prize.

Most of the books I read seem to have been mysteries (including the Native American related ones for STDL). I've taken a liking to the Aaron Elkins mysteries and read three since January:
Curses!--Gideon Oliver takes part in a dig at an ancient Mayan site in the Yucatan Peninsula where a previous scandal at the site 5 years before is revisited when a dig member is killed
Icy Clutches--Gideon Oliver investigates when the remains of victims of an avalanche in Alaska are discovered
A Glancing Light--museum curator Chris Norgren takes on verifying the authenticity of recently recovered art stolen by the Nazis in WWII
I also read a couple of books by Donna Andrews from her Meg Lanslow series (very funny):
We'll Always Have Parrots--when the unpopular star of a fantasy tv series is murdered at a fan convention, Meg must cope with escaped monkeys and parrots, rabid fans, temperamental actors and writers, and a fencing demonstration (in skirts) as she tries to find the culprit
Owls Well that Ends Well--Meg and English professor/actor Michael have bought a house "as is" (full of junk) and hold a gigantic garage sale that becomes a media circus when an antiquarian bookseller is found dead in an antique trunk.
I read, finally, as well, the latest books by several popular authors:
The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lilian Jackson Braun--not much mystery, but still a cozy read as the town of Pickax celebrates its sesquicentenary.
Murder at Five Finger Light by Sue Henry--Jessie Arnold is stranded on a lighthouse island with a few other people while a murderer stalks them; lots of surprises.
S is for Silence by Sue Grafton--Kinsey Milhone investigates the disappearance of a woman and her car that occured in the fifties, 34 years previously.
I also read (and enjoyed) the latest [before March, anyway] in the Blackbird Sisters series, Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die by Nancy Martin--impoverished socialite Nora's obnoxious Society column writer boss is found dead on her porch and her mob-connected boyfriend is a suspect. I liked Veronica Heley's latest, too, Murder by Committee, an English cozy featuring Ellis Quicke, a widow finding her way as an independent person and still trying to rescue her selfish daughter who has been involved with a shady entrepreneur who is murdered. Lastly, I read a first novel by Elizabeth Becka, Trace Evidence--a Cleveland based forensic specialist, Evelyn James, gets personally involved in the deaths of two young girls, one who has been drowned after being thrown in the river with her feet encased in cement and one who has been strangled after escaping her cement shackles; not too gory, but very intense ending.