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A cozy mystery lover’s gift list, Part 1: For the love of cozy reading
Every year, around this time, I find myself trying to decide what presents I want for the holidays. Inevitably, I end up searching through lists of gift recommendations to see whether anything catches my eye. Inevitably, I can’t find any list of presents that speaks to my personal tastes in reading paraphernalia. Plus, most lists…
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Wandering Stars traces the roots of Native pain – and freedom
Sometimes, you read a book that makes you reevaluate your perspective entirely. These books take you outside of your every day and remind you of how diverse the human experience can be. Or, they connect you more firmly to some aspect of your identity. And sometimes, you run across the rare book – written by…
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Jill Paton Walsh, Peter Wimsey, and the perils of ghostwriting
Generally speaking, I’d consider myself a Golden Age mystery purist. I find it very hard to believe that modern authors can replicate the particular charm of the genre-starters. Modern authors have tried to expand the Holmes and Poirot canons, even officially – but with limited success. Such adaptations frequently stick too closely to the “original”…
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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…