New Year Read-A-Thon

Kristen at Bookworming in the 21st Century is hosting a New Year Read-a-thon.

I'm going to give this a try, although I don't know how much I'll get read. Even though it has already begun, I probably won't get started until tomorrow afternoon. I probably will just do a wrap up post.

Sunday Salon

 The books I have read in the past week:
 I didn't complete anything this week.

 Books I am currently reading:
I'm reading Asleep by Wendy Raven McNair, which was gifted to me from Color Online.

 Books I plan on reading this week:
A good friend loaned me My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson and Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos.

Sunday Salon

 The books I have read in the past week:
 I read the most recent short story by Laurel Dewey, Anonymous.

 Books I am currently reading:
I don't have anything in progress at the moment.

 Books I plan on reading this week:
I was gifted with the book Asleep by Wendy Raven McNair from Color Online. My teenager and I will read this one together. Given the holiday, I will likely only be reading recipes this week.

Author: Laurel Dewey

I discovered this author via Daily Lit during the ReadAThon. Since I don't have a lot of time to read, I decided to try a couple of short stories. I read An Unfinished Death and You Can't Judge a Book By it's Cover, both by Laurel Dewey. Beginning in October 2009, Laurel Dewey is publishing five short works featuring Jane Perry. These are the first two of these five.

These stories reminded me of how much I enjoy the mystery genre. An Unfinished Death follows Detective Jane Perry as she solves a crime using information that she garners from visits with the deceased. When I read the description, I was sure that I would find this lame (for lack of a better word), but I really enjoyed this short story. Honestly, I found the resolution predictable, but I enjoyed how information from the deceased effected her personal life.

You Can't Judge a Book was set up a blog entry by Perry. In truth, this was far too long to be a blog entry, but it was a nice short story. Perry meets an emotionally disturbed child how guides her in solving an unknown crime.

I enjoyed both of these short stories so much that I plan to add Dewey's novels featuring this character to my holiday reading list. Surprisingly, I enjoyed Perry's faulted character and her gruff nature.