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One of the first dance books I remember reading was Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. This story of three adopted sisters who studied at a performing arts school in England to help their family by making money acting, singing, and dancing. The adoptions were romantic enoug, as the babies were gathered by G.U.M. (Great Uncle Matthew) as he traveled the world collecting fossils and other specimens. The details of the dance and theater world just add to the romance.

On Stage Please is an autobiographical novel by Victoria Tennant that describes her being accepted and going to study at the ballet school for the National Ballet of Canada.   The details of the young girl leaving home to live at a boarding school that is combined with pursuing the dream of becoming a dancer is also the theme of Listen to the Nightingale by Rumer Godden and The Royal Ballet School Diaries series by Alexandra Moss.

A common theme in some of these books is the pull between wanting to be a normal kid or teen and the life and sacrifices of a dancer.  In Ellie and the Bunheads by Sally Warner, Ellie loves dance but is tired of her mother and teacher putting her down, telling her not eat this or that or not to go out with her friends.  Sometimes she just wants to be a normal teen and wonders if she could give up dancing. A few more older titles that I remember reading and enjoying:  Just Like Jenny by Sandy Asher, Maybe Next Year by Amy Hest, Ballet Fever by Betty Cavanna.

Some books use dance in conjunction with more serious themes.  In A Time For Dancing by Davida Wills Hurwin, best friends and fellow dancers Jules and Sam must come to terms with Jule’s cancer. Vicki, a teen dancer that gets accepted to a prestigious summer ballet intensive, learns that dance is not color blind when it comes to the color of your skin in Martha Southgate’s Another Way to Dance. Some more recent titles include The Melting Season by Celeste Conway where Giselle uses dance to avoid her giref and memories of her dead father, and Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, a novel based on several fairy tales, including The Twelve Dancing Princesses, where sisters use their experiences in the magical Dancing Glade to realize ther worth and declare their independence from their expected roles in life. Finally, while the ton is light and there is quite a bit of humor intertwined in the story, Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone is ultimately the story of Kayla who realizes that she may not have the perfect ballet body, but she has a good heart, a kind soul, and friends who love her for who she is.  In the end, she finds her place in the dance world may not be the one the expected.

Dancers and those obsessed with dance also like to read about other dancers.  One of the first biographies I remember reading was Dancing Star: The Story of Anna Pavlova by Glady Malvern.  It looks like it was reprinted in 2000, but still may be difficult to find.  Well worth the searching though as it reads like a novel rather then a dry discussion of the dancer’s life.  I liked it so much that I borrowed it from the library many times.  Another book read around the same time was Dance to the Piper by Agnes DeMille.  In this first volume of her autobiography, DeMille recounts the story of gorwing up in and around Hollywood and how she first became exposed to and interested in dance.  In college I was exposed to modern dance, lucky enough to take classes from someone who had danced for Martha Graham.  Several great videoes on Martha are out there, and I highly recommend all of them so you can see her dances and artistry.  One that is especially good is Martha Graham: An American Original in Performance.  It includes several full length productions.  I did enjoy Martha Graham: A Dancer’s Life by Russell Freedman for its detail and beautiful pictures.  In those same classes, we were exposed to Paul Taylor’s Esplanade full of light and joy.  I had admired Taylor for years after watching the Houston Ballet perform “Company B.” His autobiography, Private Domain, is well worth seeking out, as is a DVD of Dancemaker.

But Davidson was not really the first. Food had long had a place in mystery and detective fiction. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot appreciated the finer things in life, including a good meal. Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe was a gourmand who loved cooking good food and drinking fine wine. So much so that Rex Stout and his editors created the Nero Wolfe Cookbook. The first writer to include the recipes in her novels was Virginia Rich. She published her first Eugenia Potter book, The Cooking School Murders in 1982. Eugenia was older and widowed and loved cooking and wanted to share her food and recipes with others. This was the first time that recipes were included in the novel itself. Rich only wrote a few entries in the series before she passed away, but Nancy Pickard added a few more, writing from copious notes that Rich had left about future series entries.

Like Davidson’s Goldy, Faith Fairchild first appeared in 1990 in The Body in the Belfry by Katherine Hall Page. Faith was a former caterer from New York City who had married an Episcopal priest and was trying to adjust to life as a pastor’s wife and mother in a quaint New England town when she stumbles over a dead body. The first entry or two in this series did not have recipes, but they were soon added, perhaps to capitalize on the popularity of Davidson.

China Bayles is the heroine of the series by Susan Wittig Albert. She is a former lawyer from Houston who moved to the Texas Hill country and started a shop selling herbs. Often accompanied by her best friend, Ruby, she solves all kinds of murders and in the process finds herself falling in love. (Lots of echoes of Davidson here–kooky friend, later in life romance, and yet I find these have a very different feel.) As I recall, the recipes came later in this series as well. (There are many recipes on Susan’s website.)

It is a shame that Lou Jane Temple is no longer publishing her Heaven Lee series. I have read all of them, and I love her sense of humor and wit. Revenge of the Barbecue Queens is a close look at the world of competitive barbecuing which starts when one of the star chefs is found sticking out of a pot of barbecue sauce.

Lately I have been reading a lot of Joanne Fluke. Unfortunately, I am now caught up with all the entries in the Hannah Swensen series. Hannah is a baker who owns a bakery and coffee shop called the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minnesota. Her first case (Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder) involved proving that her chocolate chippers were not the cause of the milkman’s death. I highly recommend the audio version of these tales, as the reader is excellent, and for some reason, listening to the recipes being read aloud makes them sound especially appetizing. Hannah is younger than many of the other culinary sleuths (just 30 I believe), and is involved in a love triangle which is now a square since a third man has entered the picture. For all those cat lovers, Hannah also has a cat Moishe who makes regular appearances in the series.

Sandra Balzo is fairly new to the culinary mystery scene. In Uncommon Grounds, Maggie Thorsen getting ready to open a gourmet coffee store, except her partner is electrocuted by the espresso machine right before their grand opening. This series has a little more grit than a lot of other cozy series, but was still very enjoyable.

Take a culinary mystery and cross it with chick lit and you’ll get the Gourmet Girl series by Susan Conant and Jessica Conant Park. In the first in the series, Steamed, foodie Chloe thinks maybe she has found the perfect boyfriend when she meets Eric, a restaurateur and investor online.  Unfortunately, when they go on their first date, things do not go so well.  Eric is a selfish boor and Chloe is desperately trying to think of some way to end their date when he turns up dead in the restroom of the restaurant.

There are many new series joining these every year–Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mystery series, Miranda Bliss’ Cooking Class Murder series, Livia Washburn’s Fresh Baked Murder series,  and Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery series, to name just a few.  Try a few bites, you might just discover murder is delicious!