Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michale Bond who created Paddington Bear has written these delightful French mysteries. Monsieur Pamplemousse and his trusty bloodhound Pommes Frites are traveling through out France taking an extended vacation to stay at the famed La Langoustine. Pamplemousse is really undercover working for "Le Guide" France's premier guide to cuisine. But he quickly discovers that nothing is as it appears including himself when he tells one of the other people staying at the hotel who is an amputee that he has two artificial wooden legs. The word travels fast and before he knows it everyone wants to see him without his pants on. So much happens in this first novel of the series that I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it reads really fast.

I have read this series many times but enjoy reading it over and over again. It is so delightful and relaxing. The story takes place from both Pamplemosse and Pommes Frites. I wish it was still in print but at least more still keep coming. The only downside is the French isn't translated but I get the general jist of it.

Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman - It's the early 1960s and Natalie Marx is stunned when her mother inquires about vacation accommodations in Vermont and is refused because their family is Jewish. So begins Natalie's fixation with the Inn and the family who owns it. And when Natalie finagles an invitation to join a friend on vacation there, she sets herself upon a path that will inextricably link her adult life into this peculiar family and their once-restricted hotel.

I listened to this on tape and really enjoyed it. I always loved how people's lives cross and criss-cross over again through-out life.

Goodnight, Irene by Jan Burke introduces Irene Kelly, set in fictional Las Piernas, where Irene Kelly works and lives. The story starts with her discovering her good friend O'Connor has been murded by a bomb left at his own front door. And all because of an unsolved, three-decades-old murder the blustery, big-hearted newspaperman wouldn't let rest in peace. Once Irene Kelly gave up journalism for public relations. Now she decides to take over O'Connor's stories back at the newspaper that she left 3 years ago. But the search for O'Connor's killer may prove fatal for the intrepid reborn reporter. Because a savagely murdered "Jane Doe" corpse from thirty years ago is pointing the way into a lethal maze of blood and politics. And in the blink of any eye it could be "Goodnight, Irene"...forever.

A truely excellent series, I don't know why I waited so long to read it. Several more to read as well, hurray!

Sweet Dreams, Irene 2nd in the series - Jacob Henderson, the sixteen-year-old son of a candidate for District Attorney, comes to Irene seeking help. He claims his father's opponent plans to use an incriminating photograph to accuse Jacob of being a member of a Satanic cult. Whether or not the accusations are true, there are disturbing signs of cult activity in Las Piernas, most of which seem to have some connection to a local runway shelter. The stakes are raised on Halloween night, when the body of Althea Fremont, Frank's next-door neighbor and founder of the shelter, is discovered surrounded by ritual symbols—the same night one of the residents of the shelter goes missing. Irene is soon ensnared in a trap set by violent adversaries and will it be Sweet Dreams Irene?

Books by by Alexander McCall Smith

Professor Dr. von Igelfeld
Portuguese irregular verbs
Von Igelfeld is the world's leading scholar on Portuguese irregular verbs, having written a majestic, nearly 1,200-page book on the subject. As one review says, "There is nothing more to be said on this subject. Nothing." But in other matters, von Igelfeld is not nearly so skilled. Whether haplessly playing tennis against an equally dreadful opponent, or committing his friends to swordfighting duels without their knowledge, von Igelfeld is somewhat naive in the ways of the world. Yet that does not stop him from having a go at life, and the results are always humorous.

Utterly delightful!

Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries
Sunday philosophy club
Isabel is fond of problems, and sometimes she becomes interested in problems that are, quite frankly, none of her business. This may be the case when Isabel sees a young man plunge to his death from the upper circle of a concert hall in Edinburgh. Despite the advice of her housekeeper, Grace, who has been raised in the values of traditional Edinburgh, and her niece, Cat, who, if you ask Isabel, is dating the wrong man, Isabel is determined to find the truth—if indeed there is one—behind the man's death. The resulting moral labyrinth might have stymied even Kant. And then there is the unsatisfactory turn of events of events in Cat's love life that must be attended to.

This series is very different that his other series but equally enjoyable.

Precious Ramotswe Mysteries
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Introduces new female detective named Precious Ramotswe of Gaborone, Botswana in Africa. She inherits money after her father died to start her own business. She is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors. She and her little white van drive all over Africa helping people solve problems in their lives.

Tears of the giraffe
Precious Ramotswe tracks a wayward wife, uncovers an unscrupulous maid, and searches for an American man who disappeared into the plains many years ago. In the midst of resolving uncertainties, pondering her impending marriage to a good, kind man, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, and the promotion of her talented secretary (a graduate of the Botswana Secretarial College, with a mark of 97 per cent), she also finds her family suddenly and unexpectedly increased by two.

Morality for beautiful girls
Precious Ramotswe, founder and owner of the only detective agency for the concerns of both ladies and others, investigates the alleged poisoning of the brother of an important "Government Man," and the moral character of the four finalists of the Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest, the winner of which will almost certainly be a contestant for the title of Miss Botswana. Yet her business is having money problems, and when other difficulties arise at her fiance's Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, she discovers the reliable Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is more complicated then he seems.

Kalahari typing school for men
Now that The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (the only detective agency for ladies and others in Botswana) is established, its founder, Precious Ramotswe, can look upon her life with pride: she's reached her late thirties ("the finest age to be"), has a house, two children, a good fiancé -- Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni -- and many satisfied customers. But life is never without its problems. It turns out that her adopted son is responsible for the dead hoopoe bird in the garden; her assistant, Mma Makutsi, wants a husband and needs help with her idea to open the Kalahari Typing School for Men; yet Mma Ramotswe's sexist rival has no trouble opening his Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency across town. Will Precious Ramotswe's delightfully cunning and profoundly moral methods save the day?

Full Cupboard of Life
Worrying about her upcoming marriage to J. L. B. Matekoni, Precious Ramotswe is confronted by the challenges of running her No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a terrifying request from the matron of the Orphan Farm, and a case involving an investigation into the would-be suitors of a wealthy woman to determine if any are fortune hunters. As usual all ends well but it does not feel like a clicque. I just love re-reading these books and enjoyed this as much as the first one.

This is a lovely series and I cannot wait until a new one in the series will come out. It is such a satisfying read, I think because it more about moral ethical issues that affect all us in life rather than just mysteries. We really see the characters develope.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
We see the return of newly married Precious Ramotswe, with husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, his apprentices, and assistant detective Grace Makutsi in tow. The group embarks on another set of clever and amusing Botswana adventures that kick off with an intruder in Mma Ramotswe's home and proceeds to a succession of other dilemmas: Mr. Matekoni's apprentice Charliekeeps company with a mysterious older woman and quits his position, Mma Ramotswe and her assistant encounters a good-hearted man with a dark past, and Mma Makutsi reluctantly begins dance lessons with a stuttering stranger.

Blue Shoes and Happiness
There is considerable excitement at The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local clinic reveals that faulty blood-pressure readings are being recorded. And Botswana has a new advice columnist, Aunty Emang, whose advice is rather curt for Mma Ramotswe's taste. All this means a lot of work for our heroine and her assistant, Grace Makutsi. But there's trouble brewing in Mma Makutsi's own life. When Phuti Radiphuti misses their customary dinner date, she begins to wonder if he is having second thoughts about their engagement. And while Mma Makutsi may be able to buy that fashionably narrow (and uncomfortable) pair of blue shoes, it may not buy her the happiness that Mma Ramotswe promises her she'll find in the simpler things--in contentment with the world and enough tea to smooth over the occasional bumps in the road.

Good Husband of Zebra Drive
As with the previous novels there are several cases going on at one time. But now the cases are shared with others besides Makutsi. Dr. Cronje, who's half Xhosa and half Afrikaner, consults Smith's sleuth, the gentle and insightful Precious Ramotswe, because patients at his hospital who have occupied a particular bed have been dying mysteriously at the same time of day. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe's recently engaged assistant, Grace Makutsi, threatens to break their longstanding association. Mma Ramotswe must adjust their relationship in order to retain Mma Makutsi's services. J. L. B. Matekoni also tries his hand at the detective business, catering to a rude client who suspects her husband of infidelity. The case prompts Mr. Matekoni to wonder whether he's exciting enough for his cherished wife. Charlie, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's older assistant branches out on his own when he buys a Mercedes from him with disastrous consequences.

Of course, no matter what dramas the day brings, Mma Ramotswe always has time to enjoy a cup of red bush tea and revel in the beauty of her native land.

Delightful as always and so nice to hear it read outloud as the reader is excellent. Plus now I have a better idea of how the names should be pronouced. One of my most favorite series

Holes by Louis Sachar Stanley Yelants IV is wrongly accused of a petty crime and sent to Camp Green Lake juvenial facility to work out his term. At this camp, that is neither green nor has a lake, he finds friendship, self-confidence, and dreams. A wonderful dreamlike quality as you feel like you are digging the holes with Stanley and the other kids. It is tied up very nice and neat but hey it's a children's book. Now I need to see the movie.

The Man Who Turned Into Himself by David Ambrose After losing his wife and son in an accident, Rick Hamilton finds himself inhabiting a parallel universe in which the tragedy has not happened. The trouble is that nobody believes his story when he tells them, not even his wife or his best friend, Harold. They want him to have treatment, to admit that he is mentally sick. Can Rick really trust them? What is really interesting is that the lines blur between whichever reality he thinks he lives in. At the end you wonder what is really real. A very thought provoking book.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati. He along with the dead physicist's daughter Vittoria Vetra discover that the anti-mater that she created with her father has been stolen and placed somewhere in the Vatican. Meanwhile with the Pope's recent death the bishops have gone to the Vatican to vote on the new Pope, but the 4 favored Bishops have been kidnapped and their lives threatened while the clock is ticking. Will Robert find the anti-matter or will he be too late? A very exciting read, it only took me a few days most of which I finished half on the first day. Can't wait to read Da Vinci Code.