Gruesome Green Witch by Patricia Coffin

Written in 1969 it features two 11-year-old girls, Puffin and Mole, who meet an assortment of mythical and fictional characters, including the Wizard of Oz, Fafnir (a fearsome dragon of Niebelungenlied), Merlin, King Neptune, a Swedish elf, and the malevolent gruesome green witch. They do their homework in Merlin's concentration cave, where answers are caught as they bounce off walls. (You need to have a license in order to study) . They attend an undersea party presided over by Neptune, with Cinderella, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy among the revellers, then Puffin incurs the wrath of the villainous, gruesome green witch (who turns her enemies into statues) by seeing her back, and Puffin's brother is captured when the girls bring him into the land so he can profit from the concentration cave. But eventually the witch is conquered by a magic brew which Puffin slips into her tea, and melts down into a pile of green rags.

It is even written in green ink with green illustrations.

Fun and entertaining and a great walk down memory lane as they meet storybook characters during their explorations of the Magic Forest.

Biggie Mysteries by Nancy Bell features Biggie Weatherford who is the wealthiest woman in the East Texas town of Job's Crossing. The mysteries are seen through the eyes of her grandson J.R.

Biggie and the Poisoned Politician
Murder, kidnapping, fraud and other skullduggery come to a small East Texas town and usher a young boy toward maturity in this entertaining debut mystery. The narrator, J.R., is living with his eccentric grandmother, Biggie Weatherford, grand dame of Job's Crossing, when routine life is disturbed by strange events. The car belonging to Biggie's boarder, Mr. Crabtree, explodes in the driveway; the town makes plans for a sanitation landfill next to Biggie's family farm; and the mayor dies under mysterious circumstances after a meeting to plan the town's Pioneer Days. Biggie decides to investigate and is aided by J.R.; her maid, Willie Mae, who knows voodoo; and Willie Mae's wise, ne'er-do-well husband, Rosebud Robichaux. A motorcyclist wheels into town and another man dies before Biggie can put a finger on the scheming murderer amidst the carnival atmosphere of the town festival.

Biggie and the Mangled Mortician
The little town of Job's Crossing is abuzz as plans for the upcoming operetta; a monster is roaming the cemetery; and a new mortician has come to town. When the extremely ugly Monk Carter arrives to take up the funerary business, Miss Itha, local hair stylist, takes one look at him and faints dead away. At Miss Biggie's garden party, with mouthwatering food prepared by Willie Mae and Rosebud, who live in a house on Biggie's property, Monk volunteers to join the cast of HMS Pinafore. When he fails to show up for the first rehearsal, Biggie and J.R. go looking and find him dead on the floor of his living room. Ready to seal off the crime scene with yellow silk ribbon printed with "Go Fighting Turkeys" in gold glitter is Butch, the town florist appointed deputy police chief after the previous chief was sent to prison. But soon other players draw Biggie's attention: Miss Itha, who has disappeared with her son, DeWayne; and the new preacher, who has been romancing a local girl. But is anyone really whom they seem to be?

Lots of surprizes in this one. Fun to read while sitting out in the sun sipping iced tea.

Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine)
Arthur Johnson's loneliness has perverted his desire for love and respect into a carefully controlled tendency for violence. One floor below him, a scholar finishing his thesis on psychopathic personalities is about to stumble upon one of Johnson's many secrets. He is also called Johnson and this will give unexpected complications.

We see the story from both their points of view so it is interesting to see how they interpret the same situations. Rendell writes so well and leaves you wanting more. I'm enjoying going back through her older works.

Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Written while England was still firmly in control of India, Forster's novel follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr. Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The idea of true friendship between the races was a radical one in Forster's time, and he makes it abundantly clear that it was not one that either side welcomed. If Aziz's friend, Hamidullah, believed it impossible, the British representatives of the Raj were equally discouraging.

Despite their countrymen's disapproval, Miss Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Mr. Fielding are all eager to meet Indians, and in Dr. Aziz they find a perfect companion: educated, westernized, and open-minded. Slowly, the friendships ripen, especially between Aziz and Fielding. Having created the possibility of esteem based on trust and mutual affection, Forster then subjects it to the crucible of racial hatred: during a visit to the famed Marabar caves, Miss Quested accuses Dr. Aziz of sexually assaulting her, then later recants during the frenzied trial that follows. Under such circumstances, affection proves to be a very fragile commodity indeed. What really happened in the Marabar caves? This is the mystery at the heart of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, the puzzle that sets in motion events highlighting an even larger question: Can an Englishman and an Indian be friends?

This book is so beautifully written and yet difficult to read at the same time. But it brings forth so many emotions and thoughts about oppression of Indians as well as men and women.

Rex Series by Eric Garcia

Anonymous Rex
Meet Vincent Rubio, the latest thing in hard-boiled private detectives. He's a dinosaur--it seems they're still among us, disguising themselves as humans. As a private eye, Rubio finds plenty of problems to solve, among them an arson case, the death of his partner, and the need to keep his true identity concealed. Rubio is a dinosaur. Literally a raptor, he is one of 16 dinosaur species that survived "The Great Showers" 65 million years ago. A whole hidden society exists in his world; dinosaurs scaled down in size and hidden inside complex, latex, human "guises," governed by Councils, recognizing each other by the distinctive odors only dinos can smell.

The mystery involves cross-race and cross-species breedings, a lounge singer who is not what she appears to be, and plenty of clue gathering. It was a very entertaining read. Kind of a strange mystery but it's fun to read something different and this is defintely that!

Casual Rex
Hot & Sweaty Rex