:(

Itty-bitty Toys: How to Knit Animals, Dolls, and Other Plaything for Kids, by Susan B. Anderson.  I have recently tried out a few patterns for amigurumi, which has really exploded on craft blogs in the last 6 months.  I have made a few, pretty successfully, I thought, and have had requests for more. (at left, the original giraffe, followed by the giraffe of love.)
This book is pretty well written and the patterns look simple enough.  I chose not to do any of them because all the animals are the kind of teddy bear pattern-- big round tummy, spindly appendages, and the head the only thing that looks like the animal actually is.  I am looking for patterns that approximate the actual body of the animal.
Currently I am making a sweater.  I would say that I'm 7/8ths done, but I just figured out why the front left panel doesn't look quite right.  Fixing it will require taking out about 50 stitches.  

Death of a Gossip, by M.C. Beaton.    At my previous library (which I can now name, as I am no longer bound to the Board's terrified knee-jerk reaction policies about the internet.  Look at the scandal at La Porte County Public Library!), I saw this author's name all the time.  (Thought it was a dude, by the way.  Turns out to be a woman.)  She has two very long series, and I was constantly filling holes.  It wasn't until I went to fill holes in this series that I put two and two together.  This is the Hamish MacBeth series! 
I checked out the next two and am going to read them, because I am hoping for a glimpse of the characters I liked.  But this is all the mystery stereotypes we have all come to dread.  There are quite a few characters, pushing "too many" I think.  (The first chapter of the next was included at the end of this one, and there are already 8 new characters.)  Characters are described physically and, with the exception of a few random thoughts, we get no in-depth knowledge or personality for any of them.  They each threaten the soon-to-be-deceased-- and in preposterous ways.
I am not too hopeful.