-
A cozy mystery lover’s gift list, Part 2: For the joy of the solve
Welcome to the second part of my gift list for the cozy mystery lover. A quick recap: I realized most gift lists “for readers” felt both under-useful and under-explained. So I decided to make my own list of my favorite reading / cozy mystery-related items – and quickly realized I had too many ideas to…
-
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 own personal tastes in reading paraphernalia. Plus, most…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Argylle and the modern marketing menace
So, I succumbed to the hype. It feels like I’ve been hearing about the mystery of Elly Conway for months. The massive bidding war for the book – and then the distribution rights to the film. The mysterious Insta account. The Swift rumors. Underlying it all, a thrilling spy novel that could be the start…
-
2023: A year of reading, writing, and growth
…and that’s it, I suppose, for 2023! It’s the last day of the year and, looking back, I can’t help but be amazed at how far I’ve come. This time last year, I was very much just starting out. I was rushing to write blog posts, find challenges to give myself some structure, and figure…
-
From mystery to epistolary: my best reads in 2023
As we enter the final days of 2023, it’s time to recount my favorite books (and reviews) of the year. I’ve found that (in large part due to my challenges) my reading has been split into 3 major categories: little-old-lady cozies, adventurous epistolaries, and modern updates to traditional mysteries. The following list are my personal…
-
One Year of The Cozy Owlet! Some lessons learned…
It is absolutely bonkers to me that today marks the one-year anniversary of The Cozy Owlet. If you had asked me about the outcome of this experiment one year ago, I would have given myself 50/50 odds of continuing to now. My other hobbies come and go in fits and starts – I’ll go through…
-
Marion Lane and the Character of a Conclusion
It’s probably a good sign when you start out with the audiobook version and get so impatient that you switch to the written word. It’s a rare occurrence for me, because I usually listen to nonfiction that can function as extended podcast. Or, if I’m listening to fiction, it’s of the cozy variety that does…
-
The caricature and the compass: different lenses into crime
I recently came across two explorations of the crime genre that happened to intersect at an interesting time. The first: Kate Jackson (of crossexaminingcrime.com)’s wonderfully funny new release How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel. (Thanks to In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel for this find!) And second, an episode of Revisionist History by…