Dirty Thirty

Hard to believe that Dirty Thirty (#1,199) is Janet Evanovich's thirtieth Stephanie Plum novel!  And she still has the power to surprise us!  

On-and-off boyfriend Joe Morelli is away testifying in a trial, so Stephanie is dog-sitting Bob.  She loves Bob, but let's just say that he's not the best-behaved canine, often leaving chaos and debris in his wake.  Stephanie is running low on money, but when she's out chasing down skips, Bob's a problem.  So when someone stops by the Bail Bonds Office and asks for Stephanie personally for a side job, she decides to look into it.  

It turns out to be a botched robbery in a well-established Trenton jewelry store.  At first it seems routine, but things begin to turn ugly when both Lula and Stephanie's apartments are fire-bombed.  Oh, the horror of having Lula as a roommate!  When Ranger's security firm has a tie to the robbery case, and Ranger starts taking a more personal interest in Stephanie, things begin to heat up on all fronts.  What's a girl to do?

Reliably fun and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Emperor of Rome

I have been wanting to read Mary Beard's non-fiction work Emperor of Rome (#1,198) ever since I read the first review of it.  It did not disappoint.  Rather than one consecutive biography after another of Roman emperors from Julius Caesar (not technically the first emperor, but he might as well have been) through Alexander Severus, Ms. Beard discusses what gave the emperor his power, real and perceived; how and where he lived, what his day-to-day responsibilities might have been, how he entertained himself, and how he was in turn entertained.  How did he die, and what happened next?

It was all very interesting, and presented a way of looking at things that I had not thought about before.  Why were there so many statutes of the emperor all over the Roman world?  Why did the statutes themselves look so much alike, no matter who they were purported to be?  What was acceptable for the emperor to do, and what kind of behavior was frowned upon by the Roman elite - his peers, more or less.

In the roughly two-hundred-and-fifty-year period Ms. Beard covers, the empire and the role of the emperor himself were relatively stable.  Not peaceful, but there were certain expectations of the succession of men who became emperor.  After Alexander Severus, this all changed, but that's beyond the scope of this work.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about this book were the copious illustrations throughout the text and a handsome selection of colored plates.  It's always fun to look at something and think "I've seen that!"  If you've never had the good fortune to travel abroad, it certainly helps to visualize what the author is discussing in her text.  She also provides an interesting timeline at the end, and recommendations for further reading on each chapter, along with places you can visit related to that chapter.

If you're a history buff, especially with an interest in the ancient world, Emperor of Rome should be on your bookshelf!

In The Hot Zone

I read Kevin Sites' non-fiction book In The Hot Zone (#1,197) in preparation for BookMania!, where he will be one of the panelists.  Although we will be discussing his first novel The Ocean Above Us, I wanted to get a feel for his writing.  This was harrowing.  

After being embedded with a combat unit in Afghanistan, he witnessed and videotaped the shooting of a wounded insurgent in a mosque, Mr. Sites ran afoul of both the military and his own NBC network by taping what he felt was important to document.  He parted ways with the network and subsequently proposed a project to Yahoo!; to spend an entire year covering war-torn areas all around the globe.  He interviewed combatants and innocents in these Hot Zones, documenting the effects of war not just on the soldiers, but on the civilians and their environment.

He came away from the experience shaken and angry.  Not just by the fact that so much violence and destruction was taking place in so many different places around the world, but that Americans have mainly chosen not to see or acknowledge it.

Even though he undertook the project almost twenty years ago, in 2005, so much of what he wrote then could be ripped from today's headlines.  So little has changed.

Assistant To The Villain

I really think Hannah Nicole Maehrer's fantasy novel, Assistant To The Villain (#1,196) should be titled Assistant To The Villain Part I.  I was amused by the goings-on in the book until I got almost to the end and realized that it couldn't possibly be brought to a satisfying end in the number of pages remaining.  I was right.  Cliffhanger.  Aargh!

Will I read the sequel(s) when they come out?  Probably not.  I went into it with the expectation that this was a self-contained book.  That's what I had the time to read.  Not going to make that mistake again.  Can I also mention that the repeated use of the verb "busted" instead of "burst" annoyed me no end?  That's just me being picky, but at this point, why not?

If you choose to read Assistant To The Villain, at least go into it with the knowledge it's going to be a bigger investment of your time than a single book.

Journey On The James

Journey On The James (#1,195) by Earl Swift is background reading for as I prepare for the upcoming BookMania author event.  It also marks a first for me!  It's the very first book I've read on my brand-new Kindle which I got for Christmas.  I have to admit I really, really miss being able to see the colorful book covers, but the Kindle does have its conveniences.  For instance, I would not have been able to borrow Journey On The James from my local library in paper format, but they do have electronic versions of a number of books I have been wanting to read, so I'm sure I'll get more than my money's worth from this excellent gift.

Anyway, back to the book.  It's a non-fiction book based on a series of articles journalist Earl Swift filed in 1998 with his Virginia newspaper as he traveled from the very headwaters of the James (or the Jackson River as it starts out as a trickle...)  all the way to the mouth of the mighty James at Hampton Roads.  He was aided and abetted by photojournalist Ian Martin who provided the Volvo for the many portages and camping equipment necessary over the course of following the river.

He relates his journey with humor and plenty of historical anecdotes.  I found myself stopping often to Google for photos of many of the places he describes, both natural sites and structures.  Much of what he found was discouraging about the state of the river itself and the way it is being polluted, but there's encouraging news here, too.

It was an interesting read, and I would especially recommend it to anyone within easy driving distance of the James along its long course.  I'm sure there have been many changes in the quarter century since he wrote his book.  I wonder how Earl Swift would judge the state of the river today?

Up On The Woof Top

Up On The Woof Top (#1,194) by Spencer Quinn is, I promise, the wagging tail end of my holiday reading!  Two of my favorite mystery characters, Chet and Bernie, are on the case of a missing reindeer named Rudy.

It all begins when Chet is approached by a famous writer's personal assistant Chaz - but of course, Bernie has to do the talking since Chet the Jet is a dog.  It seems Dame Ariadne Carlisle, author of multiple best-selling mysteries, all with a Christmas theme, has lost her favorite reindeer and her writing mojo.  Can the Little Detective Agency help?  It means a trip to Kringle Ranch in Colorado where the tree tops glisten and it's always Christmas.  When Chaz is found unconscious in a deep canyon, the Ghost of Christmas Past in the form of an unsolved cold case murder keeps Chet and Bernie on the case.

Meanwhile, Bernie's circumstances (and of course, Chet's!) are about to take a turn for the better, provided they survive their trip to the mountains at Christmas.

Always so much fun to read these books from Chet's unique perspective!

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library

What You are Looking For Is In The Library (#1,193) is certainly well named!  This book by Michiko Aoyama was translated into English by Alison Watts after becoming a huge best seller in Japan.  It's an interconnected series of stories about people in a Tokyo neighborhood who all stumble, for a variety of reasons, into their local Community House.  They are all stuck in their own lives and are searching for something, but none of the characters knows exactly what that might be.

Until they meet the librarian of the Community House Library.  Sayuri Komachi produces a list of the books each of the characters asks for to follow up on a class at the Community House, but on each printout there is a totally unexpected and unrelated title.  Why has Ms. Komachi given them this particular title, along with a tiny, felted bonus gift she has made to go with it?

As they read their suggested titles, things begin to become clearer for each person, and they find, much to their surprise, that what they were looking for was at the library for them.

It's charming, touching and relatable.  No wonder this book was such a hit in Japan!  You'll find your own time well spent perusing this novel.

A Farewell To Arms

My New Years resolution is to read more of the classic literature I've somehow missed.  Starting off with my book club we read Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms (#1,193).  I know after reading it that I will never, ever be a Hemingway fan.  I saw that it was an NEA Big Read selection, and their intro to the book says "it would be hard to find a more tender or rapturous love story than A Farewell To Arms."  I certainly beg to differ.  

If you've never read it either, the plot boils down to an American who drives an ambulance for the Italian army during World War I who meets a British nurse. The war is going badly for the Italians, and Frederic is wounded.  After convalescing from a mortar shell wound in Milan, where Catherine has come to nurse him, the pair wind up escaping to Switzerland after a disastrous Italian Army retreat from the Alps.  Theirs is not to be a happy ending, however.

When Hemingway is describing the action of the war - his work driving the ambulances through the treacherous countryside, the chaos of the Italian retreat from the Alps, the couple's efforts to find a safe haven, it's easy to become engrossed in the book.  But the central part of the plot is the relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley.  Personally, I don't think Hemingway could possibly make his female characters sound more stupid or wooden.  I think calling Catherine one-dimensional is way too generous.  The only reason their relationship goes behind simple sexual satisfaction for Frederic is that when he is wounded, he attaches to Catherine like a limpet, just as Hemingway did with his nurse in WWI in real life.  She's pregnant, but so what?  Frederic has absolutely no attachment to the child, nor is he upset when it dies.  In fact, he resents the fact that the child killed his mother.  So out into the rain he walks, and life rolls on as long as grandfather keeps sending those generous checks every month.

I didn't find either of the main characters admirable.  They did not act out of moral conviction.  Events just sort of happened to Frederic.  I suppose some see this attitude towards life freeing, but it's just not my cup of tea.  Oh, and did I mention that I absolutely hated the cover on the edition I read?  It's surprising to me that on this brutalist cover that it is Catherine who fills the foreground, not Frederic.  Why is that?  I'll consider this my own Farewell To Hemingway.