Episode 609: Winter Mysteries

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Hi everyone! Welcome back to your book group podcast, Reading With Libraries! We are here to talk about books, to enjoy some beverages, and to have this time together. Thanks for joining us!

It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar area for you!

This week we are celebrating the cold outside with some winter mysteries!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to support all of our 300 member libraries. They all like books, we like to share books with our patrons, and we know you like books too. So let’s jump in here and discuss some books in today’s genre!

And our returning Guest Host is Stephanie Todd! Steph works at the St Cloud Technical and Community College library. Welcome back to the book group!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. You are an important part of this book group, so if you don’t have a beverage go ahead and get one now. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!

This week’s beverages are here to warm us up, to look pretty, and to make everyone feel a little festive. Be sure you try one of these, or something else equally warm and festive as you listen today!

Blueberry Bubbly Sparkler Champagne Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 1 oz blueberry juice
  • 1 oz St. Germain
  • 4 oz brut champagne
  • Fresh blueberries
  • Fresh thyme

Instructions

  1. Pour chilled blueberry juice into a champagne flute
  2. Add chilled St. Germain
  3. Top with chilled champagne or prosecco
  4. Add fresh blueberries and thyme sprigs to garnish

White Hot Chocolate

White chocolate makes this pretty and pink recipe even sweeter.

Ingredients

 Directions

  1. Combine milk, chocolate, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is hot and chocolate is melted and smooth (do not let boil), 6 to 8 minutes.
  2. Add a few drops of food coloring to frosting and stir twice to create a swirl pattern; carefully transfer to a piping bag. Pipe on top of hot chocolate in mugs.

Chai Eggnog

Ingredients   
Instructions   
  1. Combine coconut milk, almond milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt in a large saucepan.  Whisk vigorously for 1 minute until completely combined and slightly frothy.
  2. Heat over medium heat until the mixture just barely reaches a simmer (tiny bubbles popping up), stirring occasionally so that the eggs do not cook on the bottom of the pan.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add the tea bags and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove and discard the tea bags.  Stir in the vanilla until combined.  Taste, and add extra maple syrup to sweeten, if desired.  And if you would like to spike your eggnog, I recommend adding 1.5 ounces of bourbon, rum, or brandy per cup of eggnog.
  3. Transfer to a heat-safe container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.  Serve chilled.

Genre Discussion:

This week we are discussing the genre of Winter mysteries!

Winter is a great time to enjoy some mysteries. It’s cold outside, so it’s good to stay home and inside. It’s dark so early this time of year, it can encourage us to feel like everything is mysterious. Being safe inside, under the warm covers, means that we can enjoy cozy mysteries just that much more! A lot of books in this genre are Christmas-focused, because the holiday season can make crime and mystery seem like just the right thing we can enjoy!.

The dead good books site says: “A classic Christmas crime novel just wouldn’t be complete without the following features: a country house, a cast of secretive, eccentric suspects, peril, dead bodies in unusual places and an amateur-sleuth!”

The Characteristics of a Good Mystery site give us some characteristics of a good mystery:

  • Mystery, crime, or another puzzle to be solved.
  • Main character who is a detective who sets out to solve a mystery.
  • Suspects and their motives; these must be weighed and evaluated.
  • Overt Clues about the crime are presented.
  • Hidden Evidence is presented, i.e., essential details are offered in such a way that they seem unimportant.
  • Inference Gaps—mysteries, by their very nature, do not tell the whole story. It is up to readers to notice the gaps in the story and try to fill these gaps by using and connecting the information that is presented.
  • Suspense—having to hold various possible conclusions at bay as you wait to see what happens; reader is expected to enjoy the suspense, and to read to find out what will happen.
  • Foreshadowing—clues left by the author as to possible outcomes.
  • Red herring—a kind of foreshadowing clue that leads the reader to false conclusions.

Here are a few additional resources for you, to help you find the best winter mystery books for yourself or for your patrons:

Book Discussion

Now we are a little more familiar with this week’s genre, and we have enjoyed some of our special beverages, let’s get to the book discussion!

We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it!

The Vanishing Season, by Jodi Lynn Anderson

A Crafter Quilts a Crime: A Handcrafted Mystery, Holly Quinn 

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4), by Alan Bradley

The Cold is in her Bones, by Peternelle van Arsdale

Murder in the First, Lauren Elliot

 The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Royal Spyness #6)

Echo North, by Joanna Ruth Meyer 

Christmas Crazy, by Kathi Daley

Cat Coming Home: A Joe Grey Mystery, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy 

White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode!

 And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!