Fran's 50 in 2009

[Fran]

#84 Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris

[Fran]

#85 Real Murders, Charlaine Harris

[Fran]

#86 Dark Fire, C.J.Sansom, love this author

[Fran]

#87 A Bone to Pick, Charlaine Harris

[Fran]

#88 Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, Susan Gregg Gilmore
#89 Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Charlaine Harris

[Fran]

#90 Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House, M.C.Beaton

[Fran]

#91 Revelation, C.J.Sansom

[Carol]

Fran...Yay! Another Agatha Raisin fan? I don't remember 'Haunted House', I think it must have been at the beginning of the last half of Beaton's Agatha Raisin series...have you read any others? Oh, never mind, I just read some of the rest of your list and see that you have...Aggie is one of my favorite characters, the scene in one of the early books where she and James are in a neighboring little town to interview someone and stop in at a pub to eat lunch is hilarious. She wants to look nice for James, so goes back to the car to get makeup and lipstick then brushes past James already sitting at a table and goes into the restroom. The overhead light is a bulb that is too dim to see to put on makeup so goes to a nearby store to buy a light bulb. Back into the restaurant, again past James and back into the restroom, she climbs onto the sink in order to reach the socket with the bulb, which she intends to unscrew and replace with the new one. The sink detaches from the wall, breaking the pipe and causing water to rush out. She hurries out of the restroom, and out of the restaurant, making James (who is torn from his lunch) come with her with no explanation. And to top it off, her young policeman friend confronts her later with the damage saying she will have to pay for it. He always seems to know when Aggie gets into trouble, she always tries to cover it up and remain anonymous. She was really annoying when I read my first AR story, but by the end of the second one, I was warming up and by the third, I started seeing her as campy and hilarious. Quite a different personality than Hamish MacBeth (also by Beaton).

[Arlene]

I love Agatha too. I just have 2 on my list but I am in the process of creating a "life list" by going back to the book shelves in the basement! I am sure I have read several more of them. I think that this series is an homage to Agatha Christi's Miss Marple, but our Agatha is very campy!

[Fran]

She (Aggie) is so much fun, isn't she. I really wish I would have had the foresight to read them in order. It gets confusing to jump around, but I read them as I find them.

[Carol]

Fran wrote: "She (Aggie) is so much fun, isn't she. I really wish I would have had the foresight to read them in order. It gets confusing to jump around, but I read them as I find them." It's very hard to find the first few, even in hardback. It would probably take going to a big-city library. I think Quiche Of Death is the first one, and not that hard, but the next two...I had to resort to buying my own. I think she's (Beaton) up to 22 or 23 in the series now. The early ones paint Aggie as so co-dependent! I guess that's why I fell in love with her, I can see myself in her so much. The other characters are easy to read also.

[Fran]

#92 South of Broad, Pat Conroy

[Fran]

#93 Dead Over Heels, Charlaine Harris

[Fran]

#94, You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning, Celia Rivenbark, Love, love, love this woman!

[Fran]

#95 Bloodprint, Kitty Sewell

[Fran]

#96 Company of Liars, Karen Maitland

[Fran]

#97 Cleopatra's Daughter, Michelle Moran

[Fran]

#98 Sweet Revenge, Diane Mott Davidson
#99 We' Just Like You, Only Prettier, Celia Rivenbark

[Fran]

#100 The Handmaid and The Carpenter, Elizabeth Berg,

[Fran]

#101 The Zookeeper's Wife, Diane Ackerman

[Fran]

#102 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

[Fran]

#103 Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich

[Fran]

#104 The White Queen, Phillipa Gregory

[Fran]

#105 Last book of 2009 Last Night In Twisted River, John Irving