animals, books, Fantasy, TV

Claws for Alarm

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My local library (Washburn) has several little tables and displays at the entrance.  There is a revolving bookcase for the Book Sale, a table with the library’s BookPage publication and other library information (and masks).  Then there is my favorite display curated by the Washburn librarians which they change out every couple of weeks.  There is always an easily discernable theme but they choose books from all genres: fiction, childrens, non-fiction, poetry.  I love seeing what the librarians come up with and I often will pick a book from the display.

The beginning of September was all about bees and honey.  I noticed The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King, which is a favorite of mine.  Last week they put up a new theme – cats.  All kinds of fun stuff and I couldn’t help but be drawn to Claws for Alarm, a cozy mystery that I assume includes a cat.  You all know that I can’t keep away from silly titles so I scooped it up.  

As soon as I got home I looked it up to see how far along in the series it sits – I usually like to start at the beginning but wasn’t sure I wanted to read a bunch of cozies to get to the cat story.  That’s when I found out that “Claws for Alarm” isn’t nearly as original/funny as I thought it was.  I found FOUR books with the same title – all of them fall into the cozy genre.  These were easy to find so I’m guessing there may be more.  I even found this:

So now that I’m not as impressed with a silly title as I was when I was standing in the library, I’m not sure if I’ll read it.  Or maybe I’ll go off the deep end and read all four to see which is best!

What’s the last “unusual” title that you’ve picked up?  Did you finish it?

35 thoughts on “Claws for Alarm”

  4. Rise and Shine, Bsboons,

    It is hard to produce odder names than Alexander McCall Smith. For example that great cozy mystery, “The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency.” That got my attention 20 years ago, and I still pick up that series now and again. The audio version makes for great travel material. His list of books produce all kinds of odd titles. A third or fourth book following that one is “The Kalahari Typing School for Men.”

    We are having a very strange and messy Phoebe-puppy morning. When I let her out this morning she was very distracted by a striped gopher hiding behind a planter. She forgot to pee due to the distraction, came into the house and pee-ed an entire lake on the porch. I let her out again where she chewed on a twig which got caught in her mouth, probably under her tongue, which caused her to drool and foam at the mouth. She then drooled all over everything including me. Lou held her still and I pried her mouth open and was able to dislodge the twig. She has now stopped drooling, but my robe is damp. Now I have to finish the clean up job on the porch which is covered in canine bodily fluids. She is now subdued, curled up on the rug staring daggers of accusation at me. The entire episode must have scared her.

    But I am not thinking about missing Bootsy, the beauty of an overly curious puppy.

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  5. Last night I got home late from Sandy and opened my mailbox and there was my reading for the night: a leter from Blue Earth County Court. You can guess what that was. The success of my anxiety therapy showed. My mind said, “oh, this will all work out.” Yep, call to jury duty. Glanced through it. There was no way to be excused listed. It was for trial jury. Not exciting but still did not throw me. Really, how would I manage that? How would Sandy manage not having me there every day? I started to fill it out. At bottom of first page it said if I was over 70 I could withdraw my name, so I of course did.
    I was called to jury duty across the river 15 years ago in Nicollet county. My number there was three digits long. It is how they communicated. I called on Friday evening and they listed numbers. If my number was listed, I was up for duty the next week.
    Why Choose This Book? written by Read Monague

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    2. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr is the oddest title I’ve read recently. I “read” it on audiobook. I enjoyed it, although not as much as his other book, All the Light We Cannot See. I might read it again sometime in the future. It was very different from All the Light. I liked how all the disparate characters and their stories were connected through thousands of years, and I liked all the little clues that were sprinkled throughout the book.

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        1. I found it under worldwide libraries in MNLink. That doesn’t mean does it I’ll get it — so I might be calling you about this one.

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  11. I’ve always thought A River Runs Through It is an engaging title.
    Up the Down Staircase. My principal wanted to write a book called Sinning in the Secondary. I had an English teacher colleague named Winston who said his book about teaching should be Winnie was Poohed.

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  13. While humorous, punny titles seem to be the domain of cozy mysteries, there have been some authors of non- mysteries that have made a specialty of intriguing titles.

    I’m thinking, for example, of Tom Robbins ( Jitterbug Perfume, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Still Life with Woodpecker ) or Patrick McManus ( Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink, The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, etc. )

    There are others of course.

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  14. There’s a couple books I was told were good theater books. First was “A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Dress”. Well, I never got far into it; just wasn’t working for me. Maybe I had the wrong dress, I don’t know. But I just couldn’t get into the book. Or the dress.
    Second was something about pizza burning the roof of my mouth or something. I can’t find the title. Couldn’t get that one going either.

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