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Doing a lot of web surfing this morning. It's always fun to see where clicks will take you. Sarah Weinman hasn't put up her Sunday roundup yet so I'm exploring.

TV: Cowboys play this afternoon. I don't think there is anything too pressing this evening.

Reading: Finished the Susanna Gregory. I've started two right now: ROMAN BLOOD by Steven Saylor and THE CHARDONNEY CHARADE by Ellen Crosby. Here's the blurb for the Crosby:

A bizarre May frost threatens Lucie Montgomery's Virginia winery operation in this highly enjoyable sequel. After spending the night keeping her vines from freezing, the easily peeved Lucie is less than thrilled to find the pesticide-contaminated body of Georgia Greenwood, a local politician, at the edge of her fields. Lucie leaves the investigating to the police, but is dismayed when her close friend Ross, Georgia's husband, becomes a suspect. What's more, the EPA disapproves of her cavalier handling of pesticides, and her younger sister is on the brink of alcoholism. Crosby illustrates the tension between Virginia old money tradition and the less prosperous newcomers to one of the nation's fastest growing areas.

This is the second of three in series. And here is the first paragraph:

Some days I wish my life ran backward, because then I'd be ready for the catastrophes. Or at least I'd know whether there was a happy ending. I own a small vineyard at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Atoka, Virginia, where our winters are cold, our summers hot, and spring is the blissful season of growth and renewal. But not this year.

It was published in 2007 and has 256 pages.

The Saylor is a histmyst series set in ancient Rome featuring Gordianus the Finder. Here's the blurb:

From the arrival of an articulate slave on the doorstep of sleuth Gordianus to the riveting re-creation of an actual oration by Cicero, Saylor's remarkable first novel takes the reader deep into the political, legal and family arenas of ancient Rome, providing a stirring blend of history and mystery, well seasoned with conspiracy, passion and intrigue. In the steamy spring of 80 B.C. fledgling orator Cicero is preparing the legal defense of Sextus Roscius, a wealthy farmer accused of the murder of his father. Things look grim for Sextus; it is well-known that his father had threatened to disinherit him in favor of his younger half-brother. Cicero engages Gordianus to get at the truth of the matter, and while the orator practices powerful speech-making the investigator proves the aptness of his sobriquet, "the finder." Gordianus soon discovers that truth and mortal danger walk hand-in-hand through the twisting streets and the great forum of Rome. But he is unflinching in his quest for veritas in a story greatly enhanced by its vivid characters, including Cicero's clever slave Tiro; a mute street urchin and his widowed mother; a beautiful, enigmatic whore; Gordianus's spirited slave and lover, Bethesda; the aging dictator Sulla; and a dyspeptic but brilliant Cicero.

It is the first in a series of 12. The first paragraph reads:

The slave who came to fetch me on that unseasonably warm spring morning was a young man, hardly more than twenty.

It was published in 1991 and has 401 pages.

Last night we wound up eating at Cactus Creek because the Chop House was too busy. Then we got some ice cream at Cold Stone. Let me just mention that for some reason Steve always seems to get angry on events like this, I don't know why. And I gave him a card and The Wire DVD and I haven't even received a card. Why do I even bother. I've got to finish laundry and vacuum downstairs today. I need a nap very soon.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster