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Chasing puzzly coziness with The Last Word
Sometimes, you’ve got to just relax and let yourself read. https://www.the52book.clubThis year I’ve been trying the 52 Book Club Challenge, which is a structured way to get a lot more diversity into your reading diet. The challenge has 52 prompts to finish, many of which requiring exploratory reading. When I started the year, I thought…
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I Hope This Finds You Well: Finding the love that’s been there all along
Given my recent two-year anniversary, it feels fitting to write about a book that deals with modern office work. After all, I started this journey as a response to some major professional burnout. And it can be majorly cathartic to read about the universality of white collar work. From HR trainings to the interpersonal dynamics,…
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Two years of coziness later…
I’m a bit late to celebrating two years of The Cozy Owlet, but here we are. It was a little over two years ago that I decided to elevate my reading hobby to a writing one. And I hope you’ll grant me the indulgence of reflecting on that time period – on how much I’ve…
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Masters of multimedia murder in Janice Hallett’s The Examiner
Long-time readers will know that I am an avid reader of everything Janice Hallett writes. Hallett is a master of the modern epistolary, constantly coming up with creative new ways to hide information in plain sight. And so I’m thrilled to wish a Very Happy Book Birthday to her latest and greatest, The Examiner! What…
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Authorial snark and serendipity in The Murders in Great Diddling
Many of the best cozy mysteries take place in an out-of-the-way village. From the earliest days of Miss Marple and Miss Silver, amateur sleuths have been digging up the roots of crime in small hamlets. Inevitably, what seems like a sleepy town is actually full of personal intrigue and even scandal. I assumed The Murders…
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Voyeuristic vignettes in A Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder
As summer winds down and fall inches closer, it’s starting to feel more and more like cozy reading season. And for me, there’s nothing cozier than curling up with a good traditional mystery / crime novel. Where summer is a time for travel and adventure, fall is the season of settling and community. So when…
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Myth, magic, and madness in Hearts that Cut
I have many, many apologies to make to my NetGalley list. Reading and reviewing new releases is one of my favorite parts of having this blog, and yet I’ve been extremely behind in doing my homework. We’ll be making up for that in the next month or two, starting with one of the books I’ve…
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Reading adventures, Pt. 4: Seaside shenanigans in the Côte d’Azur
The last stop on my summer adventures was Nice – and what a treat for a Golden Age mystery fan! The Côte d’Azur was a favorite destination for many of the wealthy class in the Golden Age. There’s a wealth of mysteries that take place in and around that favorite summer playground. While we only…
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Reading adventures, Pt. 3: Luxury rail revival in The Main Character
As the setting for a mystery, there’s nothing as perfect as a train. A mixed cast of characters, scenic views, time pressure, and locked-room constraints make for the perfectly suspenseful read. If you throw in a “vintage” train setting, you also get the vicarious joy of true luxury travel. Stories like Murder on the Orient…
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Reading adventures, Pt. 2: Digging into the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona
I left Madrid in love with Spain – and with the experience of reading location-specific novels while traveling. Reading The Familiar and experiencing a dark, historical angle of Madrid left me craving a similar experience over the rest of my travel. As we hopped on the train to Barcelona, I pulled out The Shadow of…