<center>![Sourdough.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmVj6NzBK4bzmCsonCr1KKkk1udbXxZfeSYDgPLjFNDDkW/Sourdough.png)</center>


For the last couple of years, the most excellent librarians of my local library have been doing a **Blind Date With A Book** campaign around Valentine's Day. I know about said campaign because I used to be one of those librarians, although I never really did much to organize the promotion, other than help wrap a few of the books up.

And really, you have to admit that wrapping books up like a present, placing a valentine that contains a little *Don't you want to read this?* teaser on it, and displaying them like presents for one's Imagination Tree is rather delightful. As an employee though, I already knew what books were on that end cap display, so I never bothered on going on a Blind Date With A Book.

However, now I am a patron, and I am most definitely about six years old when it comes the prospect of presents and surprises. So on a recent trip the library I walked over and snagged one of the books from the display. 

Now, I have zero experience dating. I married my delightful hubs almost 23 years ago less than four months after graduating high school. That said, I didn't peruse the choices, rather I just walked up and grabbed the first one my eyes alighted on. It's probably a good thing I don't date, just the Tinder horror stories from my assortment of friends and acquaintances gives me shudders of aghastness..eeee...but that is fodder for another post.


![IMG_4577.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmRLChTXdAqaEjJ7yDFUudid5AaM4Z9NnBL1y9ES7UDhLL/IMG_4577.jpg)


Anyway, upon arriving home I studied my book date. Itss plain white wrapper was neither off-putting or excitement-inducing, rather the word *cozy* struck me in the anticipation bone. You see, I am more than fond of cozy mysteries. Some of my favorite shows as a kid were *Scooby Doo*, *Columbo*, and *Murder She Wrote*, and Agatha Raisin, Hamish Macbeth, and the Joanne Fluke Hannah Swensen books are some of my favorite light reads. 

That said, when it comes to themed cozy's, I tend to swim in the food end of the cozy pool, so when I unwrapped my blind date book and saw that it was a needle arts cozy, well, I had to say I was a bit intrigued. 


![IMG_4578_LI.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmcqHcLCsVcL8SwejeSrbmfYUtaTPwHSBjEZ4SR5onbRHT/IMG_4578_LI.jpg)



Needlework cozy mysteries are super popular. I have shelved many of them over the years. However, I am not much of a crocheter, tatter, or knitter. I can crochet a chain, knit an ugly non-uniform scarf, and tatted a bit of lace that a asymmetrical loving goth person would turn their nose up at. It's not that I wouldn't love to be able to crochet a cowl or knit a Fair Isle type sweater, I just haven't learned how to...yet...

That said, as I lounged in bed one night and read my Blind Date Book, I became immersed in the decade ago So Cal needle work scene. Betty Hechtman, the author of my night's interlude, definitely has an understanding of the way Cali culture works. The book quickly gets you caught up in the whole, people, places, and stuff to be with, at, and adorned with. The culture of that world bleeds through in every scene.

Instead of just a group of people who knit and crochet, you have a group of people who also have film crews using their property/homes for sets, you have super complicated relationship dynamics of yours, mine, and ours for kids, houses, and cars. There is a lot of focus on eating in the most happening places and driving down roads to haunts of trendy importance. Well, at least to ten years ago Cali folks.

I have driven down Mulholland Drive. I've eaten in the original In and Out Burger in Hollywood. The noise of So Cal doesn't delight me in any way, as all I can see is the anxiety the striving costs those who chase it. That said, I did enjoy this book.

The author has an interesting sense of nobility and ethics that bleeds through in the protagonist Pink and the supporting characters. She even shows the human side of the *annoying* character that every cozy seems to have. She paints the settings in a way that you can envision being there and part of the game. And the mystery itself was pretty solid, although lifelong mystery buffs will know who did it by around the halfway mark of the book, if not sooner.

Still though, it was a fun read. Not so much for the narrative for me, but rather for the immersive cultural field trip. This tale really made me pause and think about my biases and have a moment of gratitude for the simple life I am blessed to live.

And it also made me want to learn to crochet better because I really want a cap sleeve purple baby-doll top for summer. So, it's a win all the way around.


![IMG_4620.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmbSpEQAewXsda1EDuddKjKPtcoEhSBEXLg2iikCh2xUC5/IMG_4620.jpg)<center>#katstyle😁</center>



So, if you are in the market for a read that makes you ponder all things Cali culture, laugh at how fast trends fade, and enjoy a well-crafted needle arts mystery, then I totally recommend my blind date book, *"If Hooks Could Kill"* by Betty Hechtman.

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*<center>And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still in a state of Puritanical shock over the fact that she went on a date with someone other than the hubs after over two decades of married bliss iPhone. The cover image was edited in Canva.</center>

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