Must be an Amazon First Read.  It’s not in Caliber library.  First time reading the author.  I just finished Mike Omer’s “Please Tell Me”.  Starting this book on 1/24/24.  2/4/24 and I finished the book.  12 Days

Rose, the troubled youth (but not really) is in love with one of her teachers.  She’s keeping a diary on the laptop that the teacher loaned her.  Rose loses the laptop and Emily finds it.  Emily publishes the diary as a book.  Rose poses as “Iris” to get the laptop back from Emily.  Rose is scared because she thinks she killed her teachers wife.  Did she?  Read the book and find out.

I liked the book, characters were well written.  I could totally picture Emily and how “crazy” she was.  Rose, I didn’t have a picture in my head of what she looked like, was well written.  I’m giving this book an 8/10.  Kendra is reading it now.

12/1/23 (Day 1)
4 lbs Frozen Strawberries
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1/2 tsp Wine Tannin
1/2 tsp Acid Blend
10 grams Fermaid O
5 lbs Golden Lake Honey
2 tsp Bentonite clay
1 packet D47 yeast
O.G. = 1.080  10.6% ABV (possible if goes dry)
Mixed all ingredients.  It’s a little more than 2 gallons so that when racking I should get 2 full gallons.
(This is made BEFORE we listened to Schneider’s work, but I think she’s gonna be good and I think this mead is going to be good)

12/4/23 (Day 3)
I added 1 tsp Yeast energizer and stirred (with sanitized spoon).

12/28/23 (Day 27) Stabilized
1 oz oak chips
1 tsp Metabisulphite
1 tsp sorbate
1 campden tablet
Racked off strawberries
1 Tbsp Sparkolloid mixed with 1 cup boiling water and stirred
S.G. = 1.000

1/11/24 (Day 45)
Added 4 lbs thawed strawberries in a bag. Not much mouthfeel and not much strawberry flavor at all.  Hoping strawberries in secondary changes that.

1/19/24 (Day 53)
Stirred strawberries.  I think it’s read to rack and clear.
1/24/24 (Day 58)
Racked into new bucket.  Back sweetened to 1.030 with Lehua Honey.  Gonna cold crash outside for a couple of days.  10.6 ABV
Initial results: M: 8.5 K: 7
Labels created at work.  Will print at work.

1/27/24 (Day 61)
Labels printed and bottled today.  It’s really hazy and not even clearing in the bottle.  It’s sweet and tastes like a strawberry.

Amazon First Read.  Started on 1/15/24.  I really like his style of writing so I think this may be a good one. 1/24/24 and I finished the book today.  I couldn’t put it down.  It got to the sweet spot where everything started coming together and just WOW!
Robin, a single woman therapist, is helping a kidnapped victim.  The doll house is giving her clues.  Kathy, the victim, doesn’t speak so all the clues have to come with how she plays with the doll house.  Nathaniel, a cop, is helping Robin with finding the kidnapper.  This one was pretty dark.
I liked the book a LOT!  Giving this one a 9/10.  9 Days to complete.

12/1/23 (Day 1)
2 lbs Golden Lake Honey
2 tsp Sweet orange peel
4 g Fermaid O
DV10 yeast
O.G. = 1.074 9.8% possible
Spring water up to (a little more) a gallon

Mixed all ingredients, shook the bejesus out of it and pitched yeast.

12/4/23 (Day 3)
I added 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient and shook.

12/22/23 (Day 21) Stabilized
1/2 tsp metabisulfite
1/2 tsp Sorbate
1/2 cup Nibs toasted at 350 for 10 minutes
1 campden tablet
Racked

12/28/23 (Day 27)
Chocolate comes through nice.  Needs more orange flavor and sweetening.  Added 1/2 oz more sweet orange peels.

1/4/24 (Day 34)
Racked off orange peels and nibs.  Added about 1 cup orange juice and 1 pound of Trader Joe’s Organic Unfiltered Honey from Uraguay.  Gonna let it oak for about a week.  F.G. = 1.041 after back sweetening.  9.8% ABV.
1/17/24 (Day 47)
Bottled today.  I got 3 full bottles and 5/8 of a small bottle.  Labels printing at work and will label tonight.

Started on 1/1/24.  Back to an old friend. 1/14/24 I finished the book.  14 days.

Billy, Kaz and Big Mike are sent to the Vatican.  There was a murder of a priest.  Billy has to rescue Diana, find the killer and stay alive.  He does a great job of all three of those.  This was a really good book.  There were a lot of names and priests and a lot of talk about Vatican City.  I can’t wait to start the next book.

Giving this a 8/10.

Started this on 12/21/23.  I think I should be able to finish this before the end of the year.  I’ve only been reading one night and I’m already about 15% into the book.  Is she having De Ja Vu or is she a time traveler?

I finished on 12/31/23.  10 Days.  Not to shabby but the book was really (and I mean REALLY) good.  Jen watches as her son commits a crime.  Her and Kelly (her husband) are heartbroken.  Jen wakes up the next morning…..in the past.  How far back will she go?  What needs changed in order to save Todd (her son) from committing this crime?  Well it’s a long ways.  Book is very well written.  Had me guessing until the very end.  Ending is great.

Original creation day is 10/16/23.  This is a split from John Handy Traditional

11/5/23 (Day 1 of split)
1 gallon yield

This is the split mead.  I used Lahua honey for a traditional mead and separated a gallon off of it.  I added 2lb frozen black berries and 1 oz American Oak and .5oz whiskey oak chips.  I’m planning on letting the berries go clear.

11/10/23 (Day 6 of split)
I tasted this beast today.  Needs more time on the oak and the berries.  Giving it another couple weeks before racking and back sweetening.  The blackberries really shine nicely though.  It’s gonna be a great one.  Just like Jelly Roll Morton!

12/1/23 (Day 27 of split)
Racked off blackberries and stabilized.
1 crushed campden tablet added as well as 1/2 tsp Potassium Metabisulphite & 1/2 tsp Potassium Sorbate (for stabilization)
Now we just let it clear for a couple of weeks to bottle it.  It’s not close to a full gallon

12/4/23 (Day 30 of split)
This is gonna need cold crashed.  I’d like to bottle this on Friday.  Still floaties and a lot of sediment.

12/22/23 (Day 47 of split)
Back sweetened with Eurthrotyl till I liked it.  It’s still not very sweet and blackberries don’t come through much.  This one will just be kind of OK.
Bottled and labeled.

10/26/23 (Day 1)
3lbs Menards Honey
3 lbs Sam’s club Honey
2 Navel Oranges
2 Cinnamon Sticks
3/4 tsp Ginger
3/4 tsp Clove
2 tsp bread yeas
2 Gallons Spring water

I mixed all the ingredients.  In the original JAOM recipe it says mix and let sit.  No gravity, no swirling, nothing…That’s what I did, but I’ll estimate the gravity to 1.070.  If it goes dry (which it might) it would be around 9.2% ABV.

11/30/29 (36 Days)

I’m entering this for Roland, but it wasn’t created on Roland’s week.  I just needed to wait to get to a good artist to name this.  I’m going to take a gravity reading and taste tomorrow 12/1/23.

12/8/23 (44 Days)
This has been cold crashing outside for about 24 hours.  It’s only about 44 degrees outside.  That should be cold enough.

12/22/23 (58 Days)
Racked into pitcher, back sweetened with 1/2 cup honey and bottled.  There was 2 gallons so there was 2 pitchers full.  Tasted great!  Hope it was stable though.  F.G. = .992 (actually 10.3% ABV)

I started this book on 12/7/23.  Pretty sure this was an Amazon First Read.  It’s an FBI procedural.  This isn’t my first Labuskes book.

Raisa, an FBI linguist looks for patterns in the way people write to catch serial killers.
So I finished on 12/21/23.  14 days.  Not to shabby.  This book wasn’t bad.  There seemed to be a lot of characters.  A family murdered in a small town.  Three girls (sisters) survived.  Then 25 years later another family is murdered along with several other people.  The FBI is there looking into who did it.  Turns out Alex (the son who was accused of the family murder 25 years ago and he committed suicide then) wasn’t the one who did it.

Most chapters were short.  Raisa’s chapters were almost to long and I found myself stopping mid chapter some nights.

Overall I’ll give this book a 7 out of 10.

I’m starting this book on 11/21/23.  I’m also reading Art Pepper’s book during this time so hopefully this is a good story.

This is an Amazon first read book.  Didn’t like it.  I read it fast but the story was kind of bland.

A murder, a news anchor who was a sports star herself.  Best friends husband gets murdered.  He’s a sports super star.  It’s a who done it and there’s just to much going on.  I’m giving this book a 6.  Finished on 12/6/23.  9 Days.