The Baby Dragon Bookshop

I read and really enjoyed the first book in this series The Baby Dragon Cafe, so I looked forward to reading the second one, The Baby Dragon Bookshop (#1,352) by A. T. Qureshi.  I must admit I was disappointed.  Too much steam and not enough baby dragons for my taste.

It's a classic frenemies set up with two coffee-roasting company entrepreneurs asked to bid on creating a coffee shop within an existing and beloved book store, just down the street from the Baby Dragon Cafe.  At first Emmeline and Luke refuse to work together, but of course you know the rest.  Emmeline uses dragons to roast her coffee, Luke uses chimeras.  There was a perfect opportunity to explore a whole new interesting set of mythic creatures, but it never really happened.  Neither did any details really emerge about how each of the competitors envisioned the coffee shop fitting in and adding to the bookshop's appeal.  Plenty of inappropriate business wear, though!

Steamy romances really aren't my thing; I was really after the fantasy element.  Won't be checking out any further books in this series.

The Waiting Game - The Untold Story of the Women who Served the Tudor Queens

I've read many books on Tudor history - it's a favorite period of mine - but Nicola Clark's The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens (#1,351) breaks new and fascinating ground.  However, a clarification is necessary.  The Tudor queens of the title are solely the wives of Henry VIII, not his two daughters who ruled after him although they, too, are Tudor queens.

If you read much Tudor history a few of the ladies-in-waiting's names will be familiar to you, but they tend to be generally lumped together in history as an amorphous mass, only filling in background spaces.  In truth, these spots were coveted by the gentry and nobility as steppingstones for their own and their families' ambitions.  Along with the spot came duties as well as allowances for bed, board and dress.  Not too shabby, especially as the position put the women in a prominent position in the most serious marriage market in the country.

Ms. Clark chronicles the court service of as many of these unseen women as she can pull from official records and correspondence to put together how exciting, and yet increasingly dangerous being a maid of honor became over the course of Henry's reign.  These women had to play the court games more skillfully than anyone else in order to keep their positions, not to mention their heads! 

A splendid addition to your history shelf!

The House of Mirth

Our book club decided to read Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth (#1,350) after two of us had recently visited her home in the Berkshires, The Mount.  Although many had a hard time getting into the novel with its expanded vocabulary (thank goodness for Kindle imbedded dictionaries!) and unfamiliar social mores, by the end of the book Lily Bart had our sympathy, and a few were upset by the ending.

If you've never read it, Lily Bart lives in New York society, spending the social seasons moving from house to house and activity to activity.  Although Lily has the breeding and the perfect looks to succeed in this hothouse atmosphere, she has never been able to settle down to marrying for money alone.  Dependent on her old-fashioned aunt for a home and meager allowance, she is left on her own after her aunt disowns her over a financial flutter orchestrated by one of her "friend's" husband.  Lily is left penniless and with a tattered reputation.  The reader is left to watch her slide into "dinginess" beyond her control.

There's much to talk about in this classic novel, and our book club enjoyed it immensely.  Now it's on to reading The Age of Innocence, the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a female author.  

The Librarians

Just another ordinary day at the Austin Public Library branch where four librarians all harbor their own secrets.  The Librarians (#1,349) by Sherry Thomas is a delightfully twisted work by the author of the Lady Sherlock series.

Nothing seems different the day new parttime page Hazel starts at the busy suburban branch of the Austin Public Library.  Things are gearing up for Halloween and there are the usual problems of not enough money to do everything Director Sophie wants to include in her programming.  Astrid has recently had her heart broken by a patron and it has cast a pall over her normally bouncy personality.  Jonathan tries gamely to help her along but when a body is discovered in a parked car, it sets off a series of events which will put all of the librarians in peril as they try to protect their own secrets.

Who knew the chain of events would bounce all over the globe as the intrepid four try to get to the heart of the matter and save what matters most to them?

Highly recommended!

The Star From Calcutta

The Star From Calcutta (#1,348) by Sujata Massey follows Perveen Mistry and her father as they take on new clients from the growing Indian movie business in the 1920s in the fourth entry in this popular series.

The Mistry Law Firm has an appointment with the owner of a newly opened movie studio and his glamorous wife, the former star of a rival Calcutta movie company.  They are anxious to have their paperwork in order before their new film can be released to the public.  That means passing the British Censor's Office exam.  Since Perveen and her best friend Alice are avid film buffs, Mr. Mistry allows Perveen to take the lead on working out the details.  

Perveen is delighted when her work includes an invitation to an exclusive preview showing at the couples' estate.  It's also a chance for Alice to meet one of her particular film idols.  Their meeting goes so well Alice persuades a reluctant Perveen to spend the night at the estate.  Of course, Perveen is the one to find the body in the morning, and it seems there is a whole cast of characters with motive and means to have committed the crime.  Even Alice is holding onto secrets and shutting Perveen out.  Will she ever be able to get to the bottom of things and prove her clients' innocence?

If you're a mystery buff and haven't come across the Perveen Mistry series set in 1920s Bombay, do yourself a favor and start with the first book in this intriguing series: The Widows of Malabar Hill.  You can read each book as a standalone, but you'll miss the nuances which make this series so special.

The Astral Library

Kate Quinn has said that The Astral Library (#1,347) is the book she has always wanted to write, but that her publishers pushed her to write more of her outstanding historical fiction.  Well, I for one, am glad that they did because I've enjoyed those novels so much.  But, with that being said, this is the novel I've been waiting for her to write!

"Have you ever wanted to live inside a book?"  The Astral Library offers that chance to those who are desperate to escape their lives in the real world.  If you are invited in, sanctuary in your favorite book is possible.  There are, of course, some restrictions, as Alix Watson finds out when she tumbles into the Library from the Boston Public Library Reading Room.

A foster child, Alix is barely eking out a dreary existence with three part-time minimum wage jobs when her roommate tells her she is being booted off the couch in their shared apartment. Desperate to find a place where she can safely stay the night a door opens for her in one of her favorite haunts - the Boston Public Library Reading Room.  Just as the Librarian (with a capital L) is about to help Alix into her chosen novel, warnings arrive that the Astral Library is under siege.  Alix is determined that this final sanctuary will not be ripped away from her and the others who have found refuge there, so she clings to the Librarian's elbow as she sets off to save the Library.  It's Alix's very first quest!  And it only gets better from there.  Once the true enemies behind the Library attack are revealed, it's not surprising that the same forces threaten our own libraries in the real world.

This book has everything: a hero to root for, humor, a quest, a believable Foe, and yes, even a dragon!  Not to mention a champion for all our libraries in the real world in Kate Quinn!  

I know several of my friends did not care for this book; they just want more of the same historical fiction (which I would actually like, too!), but honestly, if I rate those books as 5 stars, The Astral Library gets a 10+ from me.  More, please!

Hole In The Sky

I saw my husband reading Hole In The Sky (#1,346) by Daniel H. Wilson, and the cover intrigued me.  Think alien contact, but from an indigenous point of view.  Dr. Wilson, who has quite the impressive resume and is a Cherokee member himself posits the idea that the Mound Builders who populated the North American continent with many of their strategically located sites had some connection to a race beyond our stars.  Where did they go when an obviously thriving culture to when it mysteriously vanished centuries ago?

There's code breaking, family drama and mayhem enough to keep the reader glued to the book through the last page.  I don't want to give away the book's ending.  Let me just say that I personally am not planning to visit Oklahoma any time soon!  An unexpected find.