Wendy's Wonderings

Book Review

My sister "J" and "Little Mark" have become avid fans of Hannah Swenson Mysteries by Joanne Fluke. I had never heard of this series or author until they mentioned them. Hannah Swenson is the owner/operator of the Cookie Jar Bakery, and she solves murder mysteries. What a combination!

Actually, I have to give credit to "J" for introducing the books to Little Mark and a particularly long road trip. "J" had the first book on an audio book, and wanted to hear the last hour or so in the car. Little Mark happened to be in the back seat, and even though he didn't hear the beginning of the book HE WAS HOOKED.

I have to say that I have not read any of the books, and have only heard an hour or so of one of the audio books that Little Mark was playing, so I relied on "J" to say whether or not it was appropriate. She equated it with "an episode of Murder She Wrote, only the heroine is a baker instead of an author."

Baker? This could be interesting. :-)

What Little Mark and I both find very interesting is that the books also contain the recipes for the dishes she makes in that particular book. :-) Most of them are desserts (my kind of lady) ;-) but there are recipes of all kinds. All of the titles are named after a food. :-)

Little Mark has always loved a good mystery, and even though it may sound kind of weird that he would pick up on a book about a woman baker who solves murders, it has him READING!! :-) Not only that, the boy has spent HIS OWN MONEY buying the books. He looks for them now when we go to bookstores.

He has actually made one of the recipes for "Cinnamon Crisps", and they were amazing. He did them all by himself. He pretty much memorized the recipe, wrote a shopping list, followed the directions to the letter, and did it all himself. ;-) He has even asked if he could do a "Home Ec." project by creating a cook book from the recipes in the book, and then make dinner one night using only recipes from the book.

Did you catch that? The boy just gave himself a school project, and volunteered to cook!

I think I like this "Hannah Swensen"... :-)

He was also VERY excited to learn that Joanne Fluke is currently working on a cook book using all of the recipes in the book. It's due out October 2011. Future Christmas gift? I think so.

I am all for whatever gets a child to love reading, as long as it is appropriate, and this seems to be the one that Little Mark hooked. It his based on his recommendation, and request, that I give you this book review. :-)

Love,
Wendy Darling