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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Apr 9, 2021  
Cozy mystery fans, sneak a peek at STIFF LIZARD by Lisa Haneberg on my blog. (How amazing is that book cover!?!)

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/04/book-blitz-stiff-lizard-spy-shop.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Rodent Roger, a popular Galveston Island exterminator, goes missing the day after he tells private investigator and spy shop owner Xena Cali about a concerning uptick in green iguana sightings on the island. They’re crapping in people’s boats and falling from trees. Are the lizards swimming over from Florida to escape the pythons, or is it something more nefarious? Can Xena help untangle the mess before the raucous reptiles take over Galveston?

Ultima Penelope Roger is a best-selling writer of romance novels. The Lizard Liquidators have set up shop on Galveston Island. Herpetologist Quintana Flores, PhD, works on a bizarre cruise ship that sails out of the Port of Galveston. Sasha Barlow is a driven junior reporter who’ll do anything to get the story. Ned “The Pelican Man” Quinn writes a column about bird necropsies. Captain Ethan Slaughter is the head of the Major Crimes team at the Galveston Police Department. Xena and her team will have to partner with and/or battle this cast of characters and others to solve what becomes a disturbing murder investigation.

Stiff Lizard is the third full-length book in the Spy Shop Mystery series. If you like fast-paced crime novels, clever satire, and gritty beach towns, then you’ll love Lisa Haneberg’s humorous and contemporary cozy caper.
     
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Gruff Rhys recommended India by Gal Costa in Music (curated)

 
India by Gal Costa
India by Gal Costa
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The more I read about the Tropicalia movement, the more it influenced me. I admired the way they worked against a military dictatorship. The official artists, playwrights and poets got together and put on full-on shows rather than just play gigs. They'd put on theatrical events with a theme or have a provocative backdrop that would get them arrested! It's a portal into so many worlds, like when Rogério Duprat had been studying with Stockhausen in Germany and bringing this back to Brazil, Can would also have influenced him in Germany and maybe someone like Cornelius Cardew who was like a British outpost. There's an amazing story about Cardew touring when he eventually turned against Stockhausen and wanted to bring his music to the people. He decided to tour the Isle of Anglesey in 1970 with the Scratch Orchestra and he got kids throwing stones at him during his gigs. Anyway, they ended up recording a few records in Brazil and this is one I play quite a lot, especially a song called 'Relance'. It's a few years after the Tropicalia explosion but Costa comes across really powerfully; it's like the artwork almost points to the Slits artwork but a few years beforehand. She comes across like a really powerful personality and there's a really unusual musicality on the record. This song ['Relance'] has a really heavy rhythm but it's driven by an accordion, which I usually find really off-putting but it seems to make sense here."

Source
  
Pineapple Street
Pineapple Street
Jenny Jackson | 2023 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I love a character driven novel, and Pineapple Street is packed full of interesting people.
The Stockton family are amongst the 1 Percenters - they’re unimaginably wealthy and live in a New York inhabited by few, very wealthy people. Pineapple Street looks at some of the issues that these very wealthy people face.

Tilda and Chip have 3 children: Darley, the eldest, decides to sign her money over to her children rather than have her husband, Malcolm, sign a prenup. This doesn’t seem to be an important decision with them both having good jobs. Things get a little tighter financially when Darley gives up her job at Goldman Sachs to be with her two young children, and even more so when Malcolm loses his job.

Cord, the middle child, finds it hard to cut the family ties even when he marries Sasha. She does sign the prenup, and has to live in Cords family house (his parents do however, move out) with all of his parents furniture still in it - and his younger sisters bedroom still intact.

Georgiana, the youngest, has a difficult relationship with the family money, and struggles when she enters into an affair with a completely unsuitable man.

All of the younger Stocktons start to look at their lives with a critical eye, and changer are afoot.

I loved this fun read about family, money, class, and with the story told from the points of view of the women - a woman’s place in this affluent world.