Pinterest Stole My Brain!!

I have been a bad dog!  I became so excited about discovering Pinterest that I neglected my reading.  Who knew you could just paw in "squirrels" and hundreds of pictures would come up that you could then add to a board for your drooling pleasure at any time?  There were also lots of DIY ideas for dog toys, and sweaters, and homemade biscuits...  You get the idea. 

Finally I had to stop and pull myself away.  I picked up a few small books to ease my way back into the dog-that-reads mode.  It turned out they were quite good!  First, lets examine Alexander McCall Smith's series about his heroine named Precious.  I felt an immediate kinship with her, as my name is equally ridiculous.  Don't tell the author I said that!  I started with The Great Cake Mystery, which appealed to my love of all things edible.  Then I went on to The Mystery of Meerkat Hill, which also appealed to my love of all things edible.  What I soon noticed about this series is that it is beautifully written.  The tone is gentle and melodic, with a hint of Rudyard Kipling.  The characters are likable, and the setting is exotic buy homey.  Precious uses her very good brain to think carefully about the mystery that presents itself and she saves the day in very satisfying ways.      

Link to book in SAILS Network
Link to book in Amazon

I also have discovered that I have a good brain for mysteries.  I kept wondering, what is it that smells so good in that big white bin?  One day I used my snout to flip the top and there were delicious things!  I spread them all over the family room so that I could better separate the smells and taste the delicacies!  My next mystery to solve is why my mystery-solving caused my family to make tooth-gnashing noises.  I was quite delighted by their reaction, but I didn't fully understand it.

Not me, but I wish it were!!!!!!!

The other little book I read was Lulu and the Cat in the Bag by Hilary McKay.  I love a cat in a bag as much as the next person.  This was an especially big cat, too.  The cat caused mixed reactions during the book.  The grandma was unhappy, then happy.  Lulu and her friend kept worrying about the cat and doing crazy things, like taking a wheelbarrow to lunch.  There seemed to be a lot of animals roaming around.  Hilary McKay is a really fun author, there is always chaos and excitement, and then a happy ending.  I know you'll enjoy this book.

Oh, I forgot to tell you what the Alexander McCall Smith books were about!  The first one was about a cake and the second one was about a meerkat.