These are three of my library sale scores.

Detective Inspector Huss is the first in a Nordic Noir mystery series which I really expected to enjoy.  Unfortunately, I could not even finish it.  I generally enjoy  Nordic Noir. I picked it up and attempted it multiple times over a two-week period but just couldn’t. At first I thought perhaps it was the translation, I have encountered other books in which the translation has made for a bad read in English but after reading other reviews, I have found that this translator, Steven T. Murray, is excellent and not the cause of the issues.
1 – repetitive sentence structure, often short and choppy.
2 -confusing point of view switches at times
3 – lots of telling, little showing – as in, you find out how the investigation is progressing through the staff meetings where they discuss the investigation.
4- not much in the way of character building so there is little to care about in the characters
5- The writing has a very “freshman” feel to it – lots of adverbs

I almost never DNF but this is one that I could not justify spending any more time on. It is putting me behind on my reading challenge.

Last Respects by Catherine Aird on the other hand was excellent.  The mystery opens with the discover of a floating body by a local fisherman.  We soon discover that the mysterious corpse did not drown and so the hunt for the murderer is on.  Throughout the search, we meet a recently widowed local architect, his young niece whose fiance has just deserted her, DI Sloan, treasure hunters, and local boating men and fisherman.  The crime was well planned out and interesting.  The characters, especially Frank, Elizabeth and Horace are well drawn and engaging.  A quick engaging mystery read in a series that I look forward to reading more in.

A Second Course in Homemaking by Mabel Hyde Kittredge published in 1915 was a fascinating read for me.  I love to read vintage cooking and homemaking books.  There were chapters on preserving food, child care, cooking, laundry, cleaning, health, budgeting, and dealing with household refuse.  It is amazing to think that people were able to consistently cook and bake on ovens that they tested temperature by putting a piece of paper in the oven and  timing how long it took to burn.  It is also makes me wonder how many people today could do half of the modern-day comparable skills, even with the equipment now available, that these young girls were being taught to do.  I think the removal of home economics courses, including the budgeting portions, from curriculums has been a detriment to young people.