I read a book written for adults!!!! Don't get too excited. It was a murder mystery. I DO read murder mysteries written for adults. The title is "The Summer Snow". The author is Rebecca Pawel. I stayed up to finish it last night so, obviously, I enjoyed it. (Sleep is VERY important to me. A good book, however, is usually more important.) The mystery was interesting but the solution was...well, it was a character that the reader doesn't know anything about until the accusation. I prefer to be able to say "Yeeah! That's who it was." Rather than "Well, sure but why?" and then get the explanation all at the end.
Still I liked the main characters, Lieutenant Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon, his wife and five-year -old son Tono (There should that little wavy thing over the n in Tono's name.) And I liked the setting very much - Granada Spain in 1945.
Two things upset me about the book.
1. It's the third of fourth book in the series and this means I have to get the other books and catch up.
2. I know absolutely NOTHING about the history of Spain - NOTHING. I mean, I know General Franco was a dictator but I don't know what went before. Though my ignorance was not a huge deterrent to reading and enjoying this book every couple of pages there it was - big as life. "Duh, I didn't know that."
Never mind. The solution was not disappointing. It was actually elucidating. But I realize that I really enjoy mysteries that teach me about a different time or culture or that have characters and relationships that I enjoy. The mystery is just the vehicle for these other things.
It's the same with TV series. Most of the series that I enjoy are mysteries. The BBC mysteries like "Foyle's War" or "Inspector Lynley". (I don't watch Lynley much - I just put him in as an example.) Or "Law & Order" - which I really watch because of the Cha-chung noise or "Monk". A lot of these mysteries are formulae. It's the characters and their relationships that I get addicted to.

Book Two:
Who read the Newbery Award winner "Criss Cross" by Lynn Rae Perkins? I'd like to get a teenager's take on it. I enjoyed it immensely. The book meanders through a summer in the late 1960's or early 1970's and touches on the lives of four to six teenagers -four main characters and two minor characters. No one gets shot or terribly abused or loses a family member or is traumatized. The book is not hilariously funny. But it is fun. Grown-ups, let me know what you think, too.
That's it for tonight.