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The Cozy Owlet’s favorite 2022 reads, Pt. 3: Fantasy
Happy New Year’s Eve! And welcome back to my end-of-year roundup of my favorite books of the year. Today, we’re taking a look at fantasy novels – a genre I hope to write about more in 2023 – and highlighting my favorite book of the year. My favorite fantasies: holding up a magic mirror to…
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The Cozy Owlet’s favorite 2022 reads, Pt. 2: Mystery & crime
Welcome back to my end-of-year roundup of my favorite books of the year. Yesterday, we covered one of my favorite voyeuristic, meta-fictional genres, the epistolary. Today, we’re going to dive deeper into my “home base” genre – mystery and crime novels. These are: My favorite mystery & crime novels: clever protagonists making sense of our…
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The Cozy Owlet’s favorite 2022 reads, Pt. 1: Epistolary novels
It’s the end of the year, which means it’s time to spend a moment reflecting. 2022 has been such a whirlwind of events – the war in Ukraine, Roe v. Wade, the Iranian protests, Elon Musk (sigh), a memorable midterm election… And it’s been a memorable year for me personally – in the last 12…
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Breaking cover: a celebration of 2022’s most exciting book covers
You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I just can’t help myself. There are times when you look at a book and think to yourself, “I need that on my shelf.” These are book covers that tantalize, that intrigue, that promise adventure and emotion. They are the covers that get me…
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Wrapping the Advent of Mystery: one final bow
We have made it through a week of Golden-Age murder mysteries together. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. This has been the most ambitious series I’ve created so far, and it’s been such a treat to read and write. I started this series hoping to find some new authors and stories,…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 7: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
And so we’ve made it to Christmas Eve, to Nochebuena. Later today, my family will be gathered around the Christmas tree, sharing cocoa and buñuelos and laughing as the family unwraps my husband’s prank gift boxes, But before we get there, it’s time for one last Christmas mystery to wrap up 2022. And of course,…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 6: An English Murder by Cyril Hare
As we’ve read through Christmas mysteries this week, things have stayed on the reasonably light-hearted side. (At least, as light-hearted as you could expect with murder in the mix). Because house parties often involve friends and family, the genre is a great way to explore family tension. most of these stories limit their suspect pool…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 5: Murder for Christmas
Continuing our exploration of Christmas Manor House Mysteries, we’re looking at Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan, featuring aging amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine. Before we get into the details, let’s take a moment to admire the immaculate cover art for this one. It’s the perfect design to evoke a Manor House Christmas in the Golden…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 4: The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay
So far, many of the the stories this week have been Christmas-adjacent. (Somehow, even having Christmas in the title is not enough to guarantee a Christmas-centric timeline.) That ends today. From here on out, it is straight manor house closed-circle mysteries that take place on Christmas. Some poor unfortunate soul invites a bunch of friends…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 3: Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie
The holidays are a busy time for everyone, and it can be tricky to find the time to read a full-length novel. Luckily, we have short stories to fill that gap – bite-sized wintry puzzles that can fulfill your mystery fix. Recently, the folks at William Morrow have pulled together a new collection of Agatha…