Here it is a new month and I don't know about you, but the holiday really messed with my head!  Missed doing an article for the Press completely, though maybe that was a good thing since the paper was so full of articles and photos anyway!  So here we are back with new reviews and some news as well.  On last Monday (instead of doing this article as I usually do), we went to see the threshing and tractor pull at Stump Lake.  It was fun, but the news is that I met Mr. Leslie Ferry while there!  He was in the welding/machine shop/electric motor shed and we talked for a few minutes.  That was nice as it put a live face with the photo of him in his book, As I Remember it...., that we have in the library.  Thanks again for thinking of us, Merle.  
 
Still madly working on the book inventory at the library and feeling extra good about the progress we are making.  There is also clean-up work to do on what has been done, i.e., taking off the stickers on the book spines, putting a pink dot on the check-out card pocket and up-dating the inventoried books with such things as series number (if they are) and whether they are signed (like Mr. Ferry's).  Soon we hope to have a separate section for the children's books on the inventory and our web-site.  It was so awesome the other day when someone came in and said that they had checked the web-site for a book!!!  Remember, it is finleypl.org .  We are always getting new books in so come in and check us out!
 
Here's a couple reviews:

Sarah's Quilt by Nancy E. Turner.  (HC/RP) (Sarah Agnes Prine series #2)  Taking place around the turn of the century (about 1906), this book, second in the  series, has several "main events" taking place.  What brings them on is a three-year drought that leaves Sarah Prine's ranch and cattle in desperate need of water.  When one of her windmills is put out of working order and the water in the cattle tank poisoned, the situation worsens.  Then the young son of her long lost brother shows up unannounced (she hopes he will take the place of her grown-up sons), Sarah thinks things will get better, but that is not the case.  The need for another well, the young nephew, the drought, a greedy friend and a new neighbor all help paint the picture of this terrible year!  Remember that this three book series is based on stories and diaries the author heard and read concerning her great-grandmother who came to this area of Arizona as a young girl.  A really good series about a woman who lived through a difficult time and just wouldn't give up!
 
Dead Weight by Steven F. Haville.  (PB)  (Sheriff Bill Gastner series #8)  Sheriff Bill Gastner of Posades County, New Mexico, reminds me a lot of Longmire if you have seen that series on TV.  In this installment it sounds like he is about to retire--there is an election coming up and his name  is not on the ballot.  (The series was previously called Under-Sheriff Bill Gastner until for reasons unknown to the reader of this book he became Sheriff.)  Under-Sheriff Robert Torrez's name is, however, on the ballot and this book helps explain why--intelligence, dedication and honesty top the list.  A man is killed in what looks like an accidental death by back-hoe, but Torrez and Gastner don't think so.  There were marital/children problems in this man's family, but they all have surly attitudes and alibis.  Someone is sending out letters to town counselors that accuse another deputy, Tom Pasquale, of  taking kick-backs or bribes from motorists on the only highway in and out of Mexico.  Also there is a grandmotherly type that wants Pasquale out of her rental property and goes to some lengths to make it happen.  It was an interesting cast of characters and a good crime procedural.  I didn't guess "whodonit" 'til the very end, but maybe you will!