Undaunted - My Fight Against America's Enemies, At Home and Abroad

 The holidays seem like an odd time to read John O. Brennan's memoir of his time with the CIA - Undaunted - My Fight Against America's Enemies, at Home and Abroad (#951), but that's when it arrived for me at my local library.

I have to say I found it very accessible, if not fascinating in some sections.  Probably that's because I vividly remember much of what Mr. Brennan covers in his book, especially in the Middle East.  He covers Iraq, Afghanistan, the Saudis and the capture of Osama Bin Laden.  It's interesting to find out what was going on behind the scenes.  Equally fascinating was his take on the Russian interference with our 2016 election and its fallout.

I might not always agree with Mr. Brennan's opinions but I did come away convinced of his sincere devotion to his country and efforts to serve it with integrity.  All public servants should be so dedicated!

The Guest List

I got a little concerned when I saw that the cover blurb for Lucy Foley's best-selling The Guest List (#950) was written by Alex Michaelides, author of another best-seller, The Silent Patient. (See my post of 5/23/20.)  Not a fan of that drivel, but I needn't have worried; The Guest List is trashy, all right, but in a good way.

It features a cast of characters gathered on a remote Irish island for an ultra-exclusive wedding between an attractive power couple.  You know right from the get-go that there's a murder, but that's it.  Who is killed, or why is only gradually unraveled.  In the lead-up to the revelation at the end, there are so many, many people you would like to see as either the a) victim or b) the murderer who will be nailed for the crime.  So many choices...

In the end, it did remind me somewhat of Agatha Christie at the top of her game.  You can't say fairer than that, can you?  Guilty pleasures are often the most fun!

A Wild Winter Swan

Gregory Maguire's latest novel, A Wild Winter Swan (#949) was inspired by the late P.L. Travers (author of the Mary Poppins books) to write about a character in a lesser-known Hans Christian Anderson story.  It concerns an evil stepmother who enchants the noisy boys in her new family and turns them into swans.  Their only sister learns that if she spins and weaves shirts for each of the boys and throws them over the boys when they return for their once-a-year visit in human form, they will remain human forever.  Alas, she isn't able to complete the very last shirt in time; it's minus a sleeve, so one of her youngest brother's arms remains a wing.

Laura Ciardi is a troubled teenager living with her Italian grandparents in a New York City brownstone.  Just before Christmas, she's been expelled from her exclusive school, and her grandparents are at their wits' end trying to cope with her.  They decide to send her to a convent school in Montreal after the holidays.  Of course Laura doesn't want to go.  There's not much she seems to want to do, in fact.  That changes the night a boy with a swan's wing flies onto the ledge outside her attic window.  He's entirely wild and has no idea how he got there.  He just knows he's hungry and he wants out of Laura's room...

I can't decide whether I liked this book or not.  The characters were so unlikeable.  Laura was the root of most her own problems - a typical selfish teenager who can't think beyond her own skin.  Hans, the swan-boy, was mostly repellent.  Personally, I would have pushed him out the window within minutes of meeting him.  The grandparents tried so hard, but were so busy trying to make a go of their imported food business that they neglected Laura and left her to the tender mercies of the Irish cook.  There was no fairy tale ending here, not even for Hans.  At least I read it at the right time of year - it is set in the weeks around Christmas, but frankly I prefer my Christmas stories with a stronger element of redemption.  I guess after re-reading what I've written here, I really didn't like A Wild Winter Swan.

The Man In The High Castle

 I wanted to read Philip K. Dick's The Man In The High Castle (#948) since we've been streaming the adapted show of the same name on Amazon Prime.  Well, the titles of the book and the TV show are the same, and so are the names of the characters Frank Frink, Ed McCarthy, Robert Childan and Trade Minister Tagomi, although their roles are markedly different in the book.  Juliana has morphed from Juliana Frink to Juliana Crane in the series.  Other than the fact that the USA lost World War II, and that the German Reich controls the Eastern States, and the Japanese the Pacific States, all bets are off.  You can recognize a few of the incidents lifted from Dick's novel, but many of the TV series' main characters are entirely missing from the book.  That being said, I have to say I've enjoyed where the script writers have taken the Amazon production.  We're currently watching the fourth and final season, and now I don't have to worry that there were any spoilers in the book because they've diverged so widely.

Philip K. Dick's book originally was published in the 1960s, and it certainly was a different world then in terms of what was acceptable.  Anti-Semitism and racist language are sprinkled throughout the book, playing into the Nazi views.  The Japanese come off as humane (!) in their treatment of the conquered territories, even admirable.  The Man In The High Castle here is the author of a speculative novel in which the US did, in fact, win the war.  The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is sold openly in the Pacific States and read by anyone who is anyone.  In the Reich-controlled East, possessing a copy is a death sentence; they simply haven't been able to impose that on the Man In The High Castle yet.

Usually I think the book version is far superior to the film or TV adaptation, but this is the rare exception for me.  I think the producers have taken an intriguing germ of an idea and fleshed it out more fully, with interesting twists and turns (and great costumes & sets!).  To be honest, I've enjoyed the TV series far more than I did the pedantic novel.  Still, I'm glad I read the original.

Questions About Angels

 I have never been a poetry fan until I ran into the work of Billy Collins via NPR several years ago.  I was in the mood to read some the other day, and luckily, my local library had a few of his volumes.  I picked up Questions About Angels (#947) and have spent the past several weeks savoring one or two at a time, or going back to re-read a few.  My favorites from this volume are Questions About Angels, American Sonnet and Nostalgia.  He grabs you with what at first glance appears to be prosaic bits of life, but as you finish reading with a smile on your lips, or a "Hmm..." you know that the impact of the poem has gone deeper.  Go ahead and treat yourself to dip into Billy Collins' works.  I don't think you'll be sorry.

The Book of Lost Names

 Despite the recent glut of World War II fiction, Kristin Harmel's The Book of Lost Names (#946) stands out for me as an exceptional read.  It was touching, poignant and suspenseful.  Saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied France?  What could be a more noble ambition?  But Eva Traub's heart isn't always in it, torn as it is between her mother's anger over Mr. Traub's deportation, and her perception that Eva is being converted to Catholicism, and a burgeoning romance with a handsome non-Jewish Resistance fighter.  Forging documents for those escaping over the border to Switzerland has become Eva's specialty, but also a chain to a place she doesn't want to be.  Love, danger and betrayal all play a role here.  How  events play out in Paris, a remote French mountain village, and Florida create a page-turning story.

Normally, I would read one novel of this kind and be done with it for a while, but I enjoyed Ms. Harmel's writing so much, I intend to track down some of her other WWII books as well.  What better recommendation can I make for this heartfelt book?

The Empire of Gold

 S.A. Chakraborty's The Empire of Gold (#945) is the third and final volume of her epic science fiction/fantasy Daevebad Trilogy.  I zipped through the The City of Brass (See my post of 8/19/20.) and The Kingdom of Copper (See my post of 9/3/20.) and couldn't wait for The Empire of Gold to show up on my Holds list at the library.  As it turns out, I could have waited.

This engaging Arabian Nights type fantasy series goes back and forth between the human world of Egypt during the Napoleonic and British invasions and the mystical kingdom of Daevebad, shielded from the outside world.  Full of fantastic creatures, magnificent architecture and seething political, religious and cultural divides living uneasily together in the capital city of Daevebad, it is ruled by the Emir Ghasan who wears the Seal of Sulieman on his face as  his magical authority.  Into this mix is dropped Nhari, an Egyptian street girl who accidentally conjured a ghoul in Cairo.  She's rescued by a djinn, Dara, who whisks her off to Daevebad where she is recognized as a Nahid, the beings who founded Daevebad itself. Sought by different factions as a tool to obtain power led to most of the fast-flowing action of the first two volumes, which seems to come to a screeching halt in The Empire of Gold.

Things just seemed to drag on and on here.  I swear it took me a month to finish reading this book, and there were times I wasn't sure I would.  The author keeps going over and over the same psychological and emotional ground with each of the characters as the narrative viewpoint switched from one to another.  The action, when it did take place, was usually gory, but at least it kept the story going until things are more or less resolved at the end according to the ideals of Nahri and her hard-won suitor of choice.  I think this book would have been much better if it had been much shorter.  For what it's worth, my husband agrees with me on this.

I am going to pick a nit here, though.  Chakraborty does a fine job of creating her fantasy world and peopling it with intriguing cultures and languages to match.  I suppose that's the reason that every time she uses the word "okay" (which is often, indeed!) it grated on me, jarring me right out of the fantasy world of Daevebad.  Couldn't she have found a more suitable word?  "Okay" wasn't even used until 1830, but the American adoption of it as a political slogan in 1840 is what cemented its place in our language today.  It made me wonder if Nahri and Jamshid and Alizayd and Dara were going to start Instagramming or Tik-Tokking.  I know it's just me, but I had to say it - I hate anachronisms!

The Evening and the Morning

 I just finished reading Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning (#944), the prequel to one of my all time favorite books, The Pillars of the Earth.  It lived up to and even exceeded my expectations.  In the large print edition, it clocks in at almost a thousand pages (and don't drop this weighty tome on your foot!), but time just sped by while I was absorbed in its pages.  I hated to see this book come to an end.  Of course, the good thing is that I know this story does go on.

Set in the ten years between 997 CE and 1007 CE, the story centers around three main characters; Edgar, son of a boatbuilder in the coastal city of Combe, England, destroyed in a Viking raid; Ragna, the daughter of Count Hubert of Cherbourg; and Aldred, a monk exiled from his chosen priory of Glastonbury to the lesser priory of Shiring.  All three of them have in common a relationship to a trio of powerful brothers who run Southwestern England for their own gain, ignoring the wishes of King Ethelred.  Wilwulf is the ealdorman who holds the political power and marries the beautiful Ragna; Wigelm is his brutal half-brother and reeve of Combe; and Wynstan, the evil genius of the family, is the Bishop of Shiring, so both secular and ecclesiastical power rest in their hands.

Watching these six as their lives intersect, and as they maneuver for power is like following the pattern of an intricate dance, forwards and backwards.  Here are strong characters to root for, and villains to root against.  There's plenty of action and emotion here, too.  It's utterly enthralling and not to be missed.

Florence Adler Swims Forever

 I spent a long time waiting for Rachel Beanland's debut novel Florence Adler Swims Forever (#943) to show up in my library's Holds queue, but it was definitely worth the wait.  It's a family drama with a relatively small cast of characters, but how Ms. Beanland makes them come alive!  Except for the title character, Florence Adler, that is.  

Florence Adler is training for swim across the English Channel in 1937.  Her ticket to France is booked and a coach engaged there for the attempt.  Everyone is convinced that Florence will conquer the Channel, just as she has conquered everything else in her life so far.  Her drowning during a routine swim off the Atlantic City beach comes as a complete shock.  Her mother decides that the news would be too much for Florence's sister Fannie to bear in the midst of a difficult pregnancy, and persuades the rest of the family, including Fannie's shiftless husband, to keep the secret of Florence's death until after she gives birth.  Esther Adler enlists the help of the hospital staff where Fannie is confined to bedrest, the local newspaper editor, and Anna Epstein who is living with them temporarily after escaping Nazi Germany on a student visa.

Florence's swim coach Stuart has to be part of the conspiracy, as well as the Rabbi and the ladies who prepared her body for burial.  But the hardest person to control is Fannie's seven year old daughter Gussie who has a hard time keeping her mouth closed about anything, let alone such an important secret.

The view point shifts from person to person revealing the impact of secret keeping on them all as they try to sort out for themselves what truly matters most in life as they come to terms with Florence's death.  Beautifully told, and emotionally gripping, it's a rewarding read.

There was one thing that surprised me about this book, though.  I don't remember any of the laudatory reviews mentioning that a key component of the book was its Jewishness.  Florence's story wouldn't be the same without it.  It just struck me as odd to leave it out, though.  Maybe that's just me...

The Philosopher's War

 I thought Tom Miller's debut novel, The Philosopher's Flight (See my post of 7/30/20.) was a great read, but the sequel, The Philosopher's War (#942) might be even better!  The action picks up right where Philosopher's Flight left off, with Robert Canderelli finishing his basic training with the Rescue & Evacuation branch of  the all female U.S. Sigilry Corps.

Ordered to France with his unit even before their scheduled graduation ceremony, Robert hits the ground flying, rather than running.  The British and the Americans are not faring so well in WWI's trench warfare, as the number of rescue flights flown by his understaffed division mount astronomically.  The constant danger and deprivation weld the fliers together as a unit, where Robert is accepted as one of the "ladies" by his unhesitating response to help during crises.  In fact, things are going so poorly that there is a mutiny afoot, and Robert is inexorably drawn into it.  When the Germans up the ante, only the mutineers may stand between world-wide devastation and a possibility for a peaceful future.

Lots of action, plotting, flying, wing-and-a-prayer rescues, comradery and romance make for a page-turning read.  There are some hints in War that the next book in the series may jump to pre-WWII China, with its famous Flying Tigers.  I can't wait for the further thrilling adventures of Robert Canderelli Weekes.

Midnight in Peking; How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

 I don't remember where I read about Paul French's true crime book Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China (#941), but it's been on my "To Read" list for a while.  What a fascinating read!

Pamela Werner was only nineteen when she was brutally murdered on a cold January night in 1937.  Brought up by her eccentric widower father, a noted Chinese scholar  and former diplomat who was  more at home with his books than with people, Pamela was independent and equally comfortable with Chinese languages and culture.  She did have problems with school and had already been asked to leave several in Peking before being sent to a boarding school at Tientsin.  She was home in Peking for Christmas on school holiday meeting with friends both male and female.  Her days were a whirl of tiffins, dances, skating and exploring an uneasy city with the Japanese already present, but not yet in control.  Chinese and foreigners alike were living it up while they still could, or preparing to leave Peking permanently before the worst happened.

When Pamela's body was discovered by the iconic Fox Tower not far from the Werner's home, the entire city was on edge.  Despite efforts by both the Chinese and British authorities, her murder was never officially solved.  Her father , E.T. C. Werner, however, was not content to leave matters there...

What Paul French turned up in various newspaper accounts of the time and available reports and interviews with the few people who still remembered Pamela's murder allows the author to lay out a plausible series of events about what actually happened to Pamela that cold winter night.  It's a maddening tale of obstruction, lies and face-saving by the authorities at the expense of Pamela and her grieving father.  If you like true crime books, add Midnight in Peking to your list!

Squeeze Me

Carl Hiaasen has never made a secret of his disdain for politics or the continued destruction of Florida's wild lands enabled by those same politicians.  In Squeeze Me (#940) he skewers the part time rich society crowd of Palm Beach in an especially skin-crawling and funny way.

Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, all eighty-eight pounds of her, has disappeared from a charity affair in a closely-monitored mansion-for-rent.  No one saw her leave, but there is no trace of the ultra-wealthy widow, except for her purse by the koi pond in the gardens.  The next morning the cleaning crew assigned to ready Lipid House for that night's charity ball come across an eighteen foot Burmese python perched in a tree in the gardens with a suspiciously large lump in its middle.  Enter Angie Armstrong of Discreet Creatures, called in to wrangle the huge snake before it can terrify the guests due to attend the event that night.  It's after she announces that she will, per protocol, be taking the python to a state lab for an autopsy that things begin to go wrong...

Clueless thieves, demanding socialites with a a yen for the President currently in residence at his resort property, Casa Bellicosa, illegal immigrants, a mysterious hermit and the Secret Service all play a role in this rollicking novel.  Except there are those pythons that keep showing up in Palm Beach.  Have they already eaten everything else in South Florida?  And where is the missing Kiki?  A really fun read (which you might not appreciate if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Trump fan with no sense of humor).  Enjoy!

The Meat and Potatoes of Life

 I read a review of The Meat and Potatoes of Life (#939) in my local paper.  It's a series of columns written by military wife Lisa Smith Molinari about her twenty plus years of moving and raising a family of three kids and a dog as her naval intelligence officer husband was deployed around the world.

Ms. Molinari started writing as means of saving her sanity as she tells her readers.  It seems to have worked pretty well for her, culminating in a weekly syndicated column and a book.  If you're not in military circles, you may never have heard of her, but her columns are enjoyable, and the essays relatable to anyone who is married and/or has children.

It's an easy book to pick up and put down with each piece running only a couple of pages - perfect for those moments waiting at the doctor's office, or when you know you're so tired at night you won't be able  to manage more than a few pages.  I'm sure Ms. Molinari would be the first to sympathize with that!

In fact, the only thing I didn't like about this book was the cover illustration.  I have to admit, if I had come across this book in a book store, I never would have bothered to pick it up.  Glad I found out about it elsewhere.

Silent Bite

I don't need Christmas as an excuse to read a new David Rosenfelt Andy Carpenter mystery.  That's just the icing on the cake for Silent Bite (#938).

Andy Carpenter is a semiretired lawyer, and he'd like to keep it that way.  But how can he refuse a request from his friend and co-partner in the Tara Foundation, Willie, to defend his old cellmate Tony Birch?  He's been arrested for a brutal murder and the murder weapon was found in Tony's yard.  It sure seems like a slam dunk to the police.  Tony had already been in prison for gang-related violence, and he doesn't quite come clean with Andy at their first interview.  Is Tony really as innocent as he claims?

When Andy finds out that he's going to need a new law partner for the case, he's really not sure he wants to continue, but there are two mitigating factors: he won't have to listen to Laurie playing non-stop Christmas music at home, and Tony is concerned about how well his dog Zoey is going to fare without him.  Bodies keep piling up, but Andy better find the connection he's convinced is there in time for his closing statement at Tony's trial.

With his trademark humor, Silent Bite is a welcome addition to the Andy Carpenter series with his snarky Christmas riffs.  It keeps you guessing right up until the end when it's touch and go that Andy might wind up being the final victim in the case.  Cleverly plotted and entertaining.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue

When I read that The Lions of Fifth Avenue (#937) was set in the New York Public Library's main branch on Fifth Avenue, and that the plot involved rare book thefts eighty years apart which may be connected, I really looked forward to reading Fiona Davis' novel.  Despite that fact that this book was chosen as a Good Morning America Book Club selection, I have to admit to being disappointed.

The sections set in 1913 are about a family of four who live in a seven room apartment located inside the library.  (It really does exist.)  Jack Lyons is the library's Superintendent and is busy writing the Great American Novel.  Meanwhile, his wife Laura yearns to attend the newly-opened Columbia School of Journalism so she, too, can have a career she is passionate about.  Son Harry and daughter Pearl tend to get lost in the shuffle as their mother discovers herself, the Bohemian world of the Village and the true love of her life, Amelia Potter.  But not all is well at the Library, where a book thief is finding his way into a locked cage holding the rare books.  The Lyons are under suspicion...

Fast forward to 1993, when Sadie Donovan, granddaughter of the now famous Laura Lyons, a prominent feminist essayist, is an assistant curator of the Berg Collection of rare Books at the New York Public Library.  The Berg Collection is about to host a major exhibition of books and artifacts in their possession  when things earmarked for the exhibit begin to go missing.   Somehow, Sadie has never found the occasion to mention to her boss that she is related to Laura Lyons, and with the taint of book thefts attached to the Lyons name, now does not seem to be a good time to bring it up.

I did think the ending was telegraphed well in advance, and I was impatient for Sadie to finally catch on to what was happening.  I hardly think that Laura's discovery that she was a lesbian made her into a "New Woman", or that the discovery of her affair eighty years later would produce such a shockwave as the novel implies.  But what I think really annoyed me about this book was the scorn Sadie pours on the tourists who come to visit the New York Public Library.  It is, according to the descriptions here, well worth seeing, yet Sadie makes plain in her attitude that they are not welcome in her library (with the possible exception of an hour or two alternate Wednesdays and Fridays by appointment).  Frankly, I find that insulting.  I'm sure Ms. Davis is happy when your local library buys her novels and lends them out to us, the great unwashed.  She really ought to be encouraging people to use the myriad of resources available at your local library, and when the occasion arises, to visit the great libraries of the world.  

If you really want to read something worthwhile, check out Christina Baker Kline's excellent novel The Exiles.  (See my post of 10/25/20.)

The Exiles

 Christina Baker Kline has done it again with her latest novel, The Exiles (#936).  She's illuminated the lives of female convicts sentenced in the early nineteenth century to transportation to Tasmania for the most trivial of crimes.  She's interwoven the story of an aboriginal girl essentially kidnapped from her family on even more remote Flinders Island on the whim of the Governor's wife.  It makes for a fascinating and disheartening read.  If you're looking for a fairy tale ending to these women's lives, this is not your book, but you'll be very glad read it.

Evangeline Stokes is a young and naïve governess seduced by the son of the family where she is employed.  All alone in the world, she makes an easy target, and is falsely accused of theft while the son is conveniently away.  She is sentenced to fourteen years in Tasmania.  On the converted slave ship used for transporting convicts, she meets Hazel, a teen midwife convicted of stealing a silver spoon, and Olive, a cellmate from Newgate Prison in London.  Not all the prisoners survive the hazardous voyage.  Once in Tasmania, they face a life of servitude until they can earn their ticket of release.

Meanwhile, Mathinna is facing her own trials as the puppet on display as one of Lady Franklin's native curiosities.  She is the sole aboriginal left on Tasmania after the British campaign of extermination.  She may speak English and French, and dress as a European, but she will never, ever fit in with her dark skin and curly hair.  What will happen to her when the Franklins tire of her?

All three of the main characters, Evangeline, Hazel and Mathinna, are so relatable it is easy to be caught up in their joys and woes.  It was hard to put this book down once I started reading.

In the Author's Notes, Ms. Kline mentions that her fascination with Australia began when her father, a history professor, gave her a copy of Robert Hughes 1986 book The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding.  My husband and I read it too before we visited Australia a decade ago, and it sealed our interest in this amazing continent as well.  Although we visited the Port Arthur prison site on Tasmania (a grim place indeed!) when we were there, the Australians were only just beginning to publicly acknowledge and talk about the role the convict transportation system played in their country's development.  The Cascades Women's Prison in Hobart which features in the lives of The Exiles had not yet been opened.  Well, that just gives me another reason to want to go back and revisit this beautiful place.  Highly recommended!

Early Riser

 Hibernation, anyone?  That's the basic subject of Jasper Fforde's 2018 Sci-Fi novel, Early Riser (#935).  As winter approaches in Wales, most residents are preparing to chow down to prepare themselves for the coming winter's sleep, when their bodies will consume those calories to keep their bodies going until Springrise.  For most people to do this safely, however, there are dedicated folks who watch over those tucked away in their Dormitorias, making sure the power and heat remain operational, and that any dangers from Villians, Wintervolk, Womads and the like are kept far away from the defenseless sleepers.

Enter our unlikely hero, Charlie Worthing.  It's his first year as a Winter Consul, yet he's never seen a Winter before.  Nor is he likely to survive his novice year to see another.  The mortality rate for newbies in the Winter Consul is extremely high.  

Charlie and his mentor set off for Sector Twelve to explore disturbing rumors of a viral dream.  The sleepers in their charge aren't supposed to be having any dreams, thanks to HiberTech's revolutionary drug Morphenox.  So why are people dreaming about blue Buicks and oak trees and hands?  What is Charlie to do when he starts dreaming about blue Buicks?  The first and most important step is to stay alive until he can figure out what's going on in the bleak midwinter...

I thought this book was a little slow to start off, but once it picked up speed, it didn't stop.  There are some excellent villains in the book, not just the British ex-aristocrats with their penchant for stamp-collecting and mayhem, but the creatures who may or may not exist out in the impenetrable snow, and HiberTech, the tech giant gone rogue with its colorful cast of characters.  There's a love story which can't possibly end well, and there's always the question of Charlie's continued survival.  It's different and hugely entertaining.

Highly recommended.

The Third Nero

 Somehow I managed to miss The Third Nero (#934) in Lindsey Davis' Flavia Albia mystery series, so it was nice to fill in the gap.

Flavia Albia has just married her aedile husband at a well-attended family wedding.  On the procession to the newlyweds' new home disaster strikes - literally.  Three of the guests are killed by a lightning bolt which skips across and hits Tiberius Manlius Faustus.  Carried home, the wedding night and subsequent entertainments by the married couple will not be happening.  Not that there aren't callers at Flavia's new home.  A spymaster from the palace shows up that evening to recruit her to question the widows of two executed governors.  What do they know of their husbands' political dabblings with a new pretender to Dormitian's throne posing as Nero?  He's the third one to show up in the Empire.  It's clear to some in the inner circles of intelligence at the palace that one of them must be supporting this latest incarnation.  Can Flavia figure out who that might be before Dormitian returns from campaigning abroad to Rome?

Well, it's money and with husband Tiberius in a precarious state of health, it wouldn't be a bad idea to earn some money while she can.  Besides, Flavia isn't given much choice in the matter.  What she turns up is rogue spies, love affairs gone wrong, a Parthian involvement and servant troubles (her own!).  It's an intriguing mix of political intrigue and domestic drama and, as always, Davis' trademark humor.

The Constant Rabbit

 Oh, how I've missed Jasper Fforde's biting and literary satire!  His latest, The Constant Rabbit (#933) does not disappoint.  When a mysterious Event in England and elsewhere suddenly produces anthropomorphized rabbits, the nation is at first astonished, but as time goes on, the rabbits are absorbed into British culture, but never truly accepted by most humans.  In fact, there is a growing backlash against rabbits led by right-wing politicians replete with restrictive policies enforced by foxes and weasels.

Enter Peter Knox, employee of ;government-run RabCot, whose job it is to identify specific rabbits (Honestly, they all look alike!) suspected of illegal activities.  This, of course, is mostly bollocks, as rabbits tend to be very law-abiding.  Back in his university days though, Peter had a crush on the beautiful Constance Rabbit, but she was bounced from the school on a pretext and he hasn't seen her since.  Much to his surprise, she moves in next door with her current husband and two teenagers in the tiny hamlet of Much Hemlock, much to the consternation of the neighbors.  And then things get really interesting... 

What doesn't Fforde savagely satirize here?  He goes after racism, immigration, NIMBY, right-wing politicians, religion, bureaucracy -  you name it, he gets his jabs in effectively.  Yes, you can (and probably should) read a book like White Fragility which soberly lay out some of these issues, but it's so much more fun to read The Constant Rabbit which make these points with humor that sticks.  There was a reason Jesus preached in parables!  People remember the lessons taught there and here.  You go, Jasper Fforde!

What the Dead Leave Behind

I've been meaning to read Rosemary Simpson's debut novel What the Dead Leave Behind (#932) for quite some time.  Set in New York City during the Great Blizzard of 1888, it seemed the perfect antidote to the never-ending heat of a Florida summer.

Heiress Prudence MacKenzie waits in vain for her fiance to arrive at her home with the final legal papers related to their impending marriage.  When instead his body is discovered the next day on a park bench, it is assumed that Charles Linwood was accidentally killed by a falling branch.  Prudence's father was a prominent attorney and judge; his will tied all her legal and financial affairs up contingent on her wedding to Charles taking place within ninety days of his death.  Now her greedy stepmother has total control of both Prudence's fortune and her life.  Charles was never the love of her life, but he was her ticket out of being under her stepmother's thumb.  When his childhood friend arrives in New York to attend the funeral, Charles' father confides in him that his son's death might not have been accidental at all.  Geoffrey Hunter is perfectly positioned to investigate with his law degree and Pinkerton background if only he can speak to the grieving fiancee...

On the whole, I found this mystery to be interesting, but Prudence's character vacillated between almost succumbing to a laudanum addiction to dull her grief and the clear-headed rationality and knowledge of the law her judge/father taught her growing up.  She's eager to join up with Geoffrey's investigation, but somehow she keeps failing to mention the attempts made on her life, and the suspicious deaths around her.  It did seem to drag on a bit with some of her eye-roll inducing decisions, but that's probably just me.

Oh, and did I mention that I found the cover art ridiculous?  Superimposed photos of a dark brunette (when Prudence is repeatedly described as almost blonde) standing out in the snow of what we must assume is a snow-covered New York City park wearing a fur-trimmed velvet jacket, lace summer gloves and twirling a summer parasol.  Turn to the back cover to get a more realistic idea of what New York looked like in the aftermath of that awful 1888 snow storm.

Summer Hours At the Robbers Library

 I only made it ten pages into Summer Hours At the Robbers Library (#931) before I knew that Sue Halpern's novel was not for me.  I rarely reject a book this fast, but it was the right thing to do for me since I didn't like the characters or the few actions they took in the course of the pages I actually did read.  Too many other books waiting to be read to waste my time here.  I did like the cover, though!

The Library of Legends

 Janie Chang's The Library of Legends (#930) was an interesting blend of historical fiction and fantasy inspired by the author's own father's student experiences in pre World War II China.  As the students and professors evacuate Chinese universities before the Japanese arrive, taking with them books and scrolls important to preserving Chinese culture, the celestial gods and spirits guarding the woods, trees, rivers and cities are warned to leave China as well for their heavenly home before the Palace Gates close forever.

Binding the two stories together is the (fictitious) Legend about the Willow Star and the Prince.  Willow Star chooses to live her immortal life watching over the Prince in his many incarnations, while never being able to recapture their love.  Willow in this life is known as Sparrow Chen, servant to the wealthy Liu family.  She accompanies Shaoming (the Prince) to college in Nanking, but few mortals are aware that she is any more than a servant.  Hu Lian is a second year scholarship student at Nanking with secrets of her own.  Both leave Nanking behind along with a group of more than one hundred students, professors and laborers to make the thousand mile trek to safety in Chengtu.  With them they take the Library of Legends, charged with its safe concealment during the war.  Spies and murder pursue them as the Nationalists and Communists clash with each other and the Japanese.

The course of true love never does run smoothly; it's the obstacles put in the couple's way that make the story interesting.  You might even learn a few things along the way.

Anxious People

 Anxious People (#929) might be my favorite Fredrik Backman book so far. (See my posts of 12/9/16, 1/4/17 & 12/24/18.)  It's a wonder to me how he manages to combine humor with such a delicate and poignant attention to the human condition, and leave us wanting more.

The anxious people of the book's title are eight hostages of a bank robber who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so you might initially think the novel is going to be a thriller, but as the story gradually unfolds, it's much more about relationships and what drives people to act the way they do.  Just one bad decision can send a life careening off the rails...

Most of all, I think it's about love, or the lack of it.  It's what motivates the characters in the story.  It's easy to see ourselves reflected in many of the actors here; the bank robber who bungles the job, the father and son police officers assigned to the hostage situation, the old woman waiting for her husband to finish parking the car and come up to the apartment for sale, the couple expecting a baby, the potential apartment flippers and the woman who visits apartments so she can look down on the middle-class folk who can't afford a more exclusive address.  There's something of them in all of us, for better or for worse.

How Mr. Backman weaves the characters' lives together to create such a satisfying whole is magical.  I was sorry to reach the last page of this story, I enjoyed it so much.  Highly recommended.

Sex and Vanity

 Just as I expected, Kevin Kwan's latest novel Sex and Vanity (#928) was the perfect escape for a summer that just won't quit.  And just like his Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, it came complete with snarky footnotes.  New this time were the alma mater lists for each character, from pre-school through grad school.  Ouch! in some cases.

Lucie Churchill is at the center of this novel which begins at an over-the-top weeklong wedding on the Isle of Capri.  Her good friend and former baby-sitter Isabel is marrying into Italian nobility.  Since both families are mega-rich, all the stops are pulled out.   With Lucie a tender nineteen, her mother has insisted her older cousin Charlotte accompany Lucie as a chaperone.  When Adonis-like George Zao and his flamboyant (and ultra-rich!) mother Rosemary enter the picture, things get really interesting.  

Fast forward five years, and when Lucie and George next meet at the Hamptons, she's engaged and he's working as an architect in New York City.  Lucie can't put George out of her mind, but what can she do?  Everything she tries just seems to make matters worse...

Oh, the places, the couture, the fabulous food!  That's what makes reading Kwan's books so much fun.  Personally, I thought Lucie was kind of a wimp who in many ways deserved some of the things that happened to her because she couldn't or wouldn't stand up for herself.  George was too perfect to be true, but don't we all want the total package? - the looks, the smarts, the money...

The descriptions of Capri brought me right back there.  I'm sure the descriptions of NYC and Long Island were spot on, too, but I had to laugh when I read that Lucie's super WASPy Churchill grandmother preferred to spend most of her time in her beach front mansion in Hobe Sound, Florida, in preference to her mansion-sized apartment in NYC, the estate in the Hamptons or the house in Paris.  Not that there aren't plenty of super rich and pretentious people living in Hobe Sound (there are!) but with the exception of a few very modest-sized homes on the ocean between the public Hobe Sound beach and the State Park which occupies the rest of Hobe Sound located on the barrier island, there isn't a mansion in sight.  Now, if Mr. Kwan had just stuck his pin in the map south of Hobe Sound Beach in Jupiter Island, that's the place where the ruling society doyennes will blackball the "wrong kind" by gifting a black cashmere sweater to the new neighbor...  Yep, the rich really are different.  Oh, if only we had that kind of money!

In Five Years

 In Five Years (#927), Rebecca Serle's latest novel, did not take me where I thought it would.  Dannie Kohan, an ambitious lawyer, has had an amazing day; she knows she's aced the interview for her dream job with a high-powered firm of corporate attorneys and her boyfriend of two years has just proposed at the Rainbow Room.  Back at their apartment, Dannie falls asleep.  When she wakes, she's in a different apartment with a different man and a different engagement ring on her hand.  As the news plays on the TV, she realizes that it's five years in the future, and it's not how she planned it!

When she reawakens, everything is back to normal.  But what happened?  Was it just a dream?  Ever practical, Dannie tries to put the experience in the back of her mind and carry on with her carefully-crafted life plan.  Until the day she meets the man in her vision four and a half years later...  Nothing can ever really prepare you for the future.

This didn't turn out to be a conventional romance, although that would have been an easy way to go with this story.  Instead, the author chooses to explore the strength of a life-long friendship and the bonds that connect us to a few special people in our lives, if we're lucky enough to have them.  

It's a fast read, but a satisfying one.  Make sure your box of tissues is nearby!

The Disappearing Spoon

 The Disappearing Spoon - and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (#926)(What a mouthful of a title!) is another book which has been languishing on my "To Read" List for far too long.  Sam Kean is a science writer who was well reviewed when this book originally appeared.  Since my days in chemistry class are only a distant memory, I have to admit I nearly gave up on this book after struggling through the first couple of chapters,  The author may think he was laying out the concepts of the periodic table in a simple, straightforward manner, but honestly, I had a much easier time digesting the concepts in Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (See my post of  8/18/2016.).  I expected more of an anecdotal approach to the subject from the title, and in the latter chapters, I found that to be true.  Being a long-time fan of The Big Bang Theory on TV, at least I recognized some of Kean's references to famous scientists and even a few key equations!  (Thank you, Drs. Hoffsteder and Cooper!)

I'm not sorry I read this book, but I really think it's aimed at the science geeks among us, not the average reader.

Dorchester Terrace

 I finally have time to go way back on my list of "Want to Read" books from the library, and Anne Perry's Dorchester Terrace (#925) was the oldest book on the list and an excellent place to start.  It's from her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series, so I knew I was in for a good read.

It's now 1896 and Thomas has been promoted from his work on the London Police Force to Head of Special Branch, replacing Victor Narraway, forced to resign after ruffling the feathers of the Prince of Wales in a previous operation.  Thomas is still new to the job, and uncomfortable still with some of the social obligations which are part of the post.  There is where Charlotte can help ease his way, even though he cannot discuss his work on behalf of the British Government with her.  When his aide Stoker comes to him with rumors of something unusual happening in Dover, he and Thomas follow up and discover that something troubling is, indeed, afoot.  When Thomas brings his concerns to the Foreign Office, Lord Tregarron refuses at first to see him.  But when it seems that a visit to Britain by a minor Austrian Duke will result in an assassination attempt, Pitt is forced to take his own measures to ensure the Duke's safety at all costs.  

In the meantime, Charlotte's aunt, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, has visited an old friend and revolutionary, Serafina Montserrat, who is dying.  She tells Lady Vespasia that she knows, and has safeguarded many important political and personal secrets over the years.  She is now afraid that her deepening dementia will cause her to inadvertently reveal secrets which can still cause great harm.  Could it be possible that Serafina's fears are real, and that someone is planning to use those secrets?

An interesting read with a background of late Austro-Hungarian Empire politics and betrayals.

The Grove of the Caesars

 Flavia Albia solves not one, but two mysteries in The Grove of the Caesars (#924), the latest outing of Lindsey Davis's consistently entertaining mystery series set in the Rome of Domitian, not an exactly comfortable period of time for the average Roman.

Although Flavia's husband is away on family business, he has casually warned her not to bother to go out to the Grove of the Caesars, a public park, to supervise his work gang dismantling an old grotto site.  That, of course, guarantees that Flavia will be there as soon as she can manage it.  When she does arrive, the work crew has just unearthed a cache of buried scrolls.  Can they be valuable?  It's certainly worth tracking down...

In the nearby Gardens, a huge birthday party is interrupted when the wife of the birthday boy goes missing, only to turn up raped and murdered in the Grove.  As Flavia investigates the disappearance of two dancing boys, a very recent gift from the Emperor, she begins to suspect that they may have been witnesses to the murder.  And, as it turns out, it's not the first by a long shot.

Flavia Albia carries on the amusing legacy of her adoptive parents, Marco Didius Falco and Helena Justina in this spinoff series.  If you haven't been lucky enough to discover these wonderful series yet for yourself, start with the original Marco Didius Falco series to find out just how Flavia Albia became part of this auctioneer/investigator family.

The Fiddler in the Subway

 The Fiddler in the Subway (#923) isn't usually my cup of tea, as they say, but one of the gentlemen in my library book group suggested this collection of previously-published feature articles from the Washington Post by Gene Weingarten.  The hook that pulled me into reading this collection was the fact that Joshua Bell, whom I've had the pleasure of hearing perform live, was the fiddler playing in the Metro station in Washington, D.C.  What happened in this social experiment set up by the Washington Post is reason enough to read these essays, but there's lots more here worth your time.  Weingarten was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this piece, as well as another feature article included here.

Gene Weingarten is principally known as a humor writer, although I was not familiar with his work; perhaps many of you may be.  However, many of these features are thought-provoking as well as amusing.  I was very pleased to be able to spend some time thinking about these essays even after I finished the book.  I'm happy to pass along a recommendation to read The Fiddler on the Subway as it came to me by chance.  It's worthwhile reading at its best.

The Kingdom of Copper

 The Kingdom of Copper (#922) is the second volume in S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy.  In picks up the action from The City of Brass five years later, but nothing will make sense unless you've read the first book.

The central characters are the same - Nahri, the last of the Nahids, Prince Alizayd al Qhatani opposed to his father, the king of Daevabad, and Dara, the genie-like enslaved daeva.  Their relationships have shifted and changed as political upheaval grows throughout the kingdom.  Enchantments and fantastical beasts abound as factions struggle for power and unlikely alliances are struck up.  Again, The Kingdom of Copper ends on a cliffhanger.

I really haven't wanted to put down either of these two Arabian Nights type fantasy novels, grounded in the human world of late eighteen century Cairo.  There are a lot of people ahead of me on the list to read the concluding volume of this enthralling series, The Empire of Gold.  I'll try to be patient as I await my turn!  Highly recommended!

Mother Land

 Rachel Meyer thought she had enough to cope with - a new husband, a move from New York City to Mumbai, a new language and not having a job of her own after years of working.  That was until the doorbell rang one evening, and there was her mother-in-law, Swati, standing on the doorstep with a suitcase almost as large as she is.  Mother Land (#921) by Leah Franqui explores the cultural clash between these two very different women (Or are they really so different?) in a novel that is, in turn, maddening, biting, funny and poignant.

Rachel is beginning to sense that Dhruv is not the man she married in New York.  Happy with his work, he expects her to accept things here in Mumbai without question.  That is the way things are done.  If his mother chooses to move in with them, so be it.  It's Rachel's job to get on with things as Swati takes over the household.

Swati, on the other hand, has done the unthinkable; she has left her husband behind in Kolkata, and she has no intention of returning to the marital home.  She's not sure what she does want, but living with her son will give her time to figure things out or not.

When Dhruv's company assigns him to a project in Kolkata, Rachel and Swati are thrown together on their own while Dhruv tries to fix the shocking and shameful situation between his parents.  The outcome is not what anyone expected...

I loved Leah Franqui's first novel, America for Beginners (See my post of  8/28/2018.)  It's the difference in cultures seen from the opposite side; an Indian woman sees the America beloved by her only son for herself.  I enjoyed this book equally.  Franqui makes Mumbai come alive in Mother Land.  You can hear the noise, feel the heat and the constant press of the crowds.  But mostly, it's a book about relationships.  Things aren't really so different no matter where you come from. Highly recommended.

The City of Brass

 I could hardly put down S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass (#920) once I started reading it.  The first book in her Daevan fantasy trilogy, it whisks the reader off across burning sands and magical kingdoms like the flying carpet in the Arabian Nights stories.  

Nahri is just a young healer and con woman barely eking out a living in the slums of Cairo while Napoleon's soldiers roam the streets.  Targeting wealthy marks is her main strategy, but it's not enough, so she's turned to performing zars to cast out demons.  When she accidentally summons a djinni in a ceremony, everything she believes in is turned on its head while she struggles to survive the army of ghouls now pursuing her.  They're just stories - the djinns and the ghouls and demons - so how can this be happening to her?  The djinni reluctantly comes to Nahri's aid, but they must escape Cairo, and so the adventure begins...

Enchantments, princes, and concealed identities all play a role as Nahri must walk a fine line in Daeva, The City of Brass.  Nothing is as it seems and danger is a constant companion.

The characters are well-developed and the action is non-stop as personal and political complications unfold.  The exotic locales and creatures are enthralling.  If you are looking for an escape from your humdrum existence, try The City of Brass.  I cannot wait to get started on volume two, The Kingdom of Copper!

Muzzled

 I couldn't believe my luck when my library notified me that both of my favorite dog mystery series' latest books were waiting to be picked up!  I've already blogged about Spencer Quinn's Of Mutts and Men.  This time I'm writing about David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series' Muzzled (#919).

Andy Carpenter doesn't need to work as a lawyer; he's wealthy enough to spend his days however he chooses.  But when Beth Morris calls to ask for his help with a stray dog she's trying to reunite with its owner, he's intrigued.   Lucy's owner has called Beth and arranged to come and pick her up.  The only problem is that Lucy's owner was killed quite spectacularly in a boat explosion, along with two colleagues.  To Andy's mind, the fact that Alex Vogel would be concerned enough about Lucy's welfare to come out of hiding and fetch her says a lot about his character.  When they meet at Andy's Tara Foundation where Lucy is being held, Alex asks Andy to represent him.  He claims he's innocent of the murder of his friends.  Andy agrees to get him through his arraignment, but no way will Andy take on Alex's case.  He has too much not to do on his calendar!

You know it's not going to end there, and of course it doesn't.  Why was Alex targeted in the first place?  Does it have anything to do with his work at a pharmacy start up, or was he dating the wrong person?  Andy and his team will pull at all the threads they can find to get at the answers.  I have to say, I did not see the end of this one coming!

Andy's snarky humor never fails to amuse while leading the reader artfully astray.  One of my all-time favorite series!

 

Of Mutts and Men

 The PI team Chet and Bernie are back in Spencer Quinn's latest mystery Of Mutts and Men (#918).  After a casual meeting at a client's house party, Bernie is invited to consult with Wendell Nero, a hydrologist.  When Chet and Bernie show up at the site of his latest project to meet with him, Wendell has been murdered.  What could he have found in this remote canyon that would have caused his death?  Although the police dismiss it as simple robbery-gone-wrong, whatever the real reason is, it puts Chet and Bernie right in the crosshairs of whoever is behind the killing as they continue to investigate.

Chet the Jet is dognapped, and Bernie is caught up in pursuing leads that Wendell's project might have to do with the aquifer which supplies The Valley, long one of his concerns.  Add in a sexy lawyer from a high-powered firm, a family vineyard and an Ivy League college Endowment Fund and you have the makings of a gripping mystery.  Oh, and former girlfriend Susie is back!

Love this series!  But my husband did have a question after reading Of Mutts and Men; since Chet seems to go missing thanks to the bad guys in each book, why on earth doesn't Bernie just have Chet microchipped?  To which I replied, "But where would be the fun in that?"

The Fever Tree

 Since our trip to South Africa was cancelled this spring due to COVID19, I decided to visit it via The Fever Tree (#917), a historical fiction novel set there by Jennifer McVeigh.  I had rather mixed feelings about this book.  The descriptions of South Africa and the life there in the late nineteenth century, especially on the veldt for Boer farming families and the utter greed and lawlessness by the English in the diamond mining center of Kimberley were fascinating and just what I had hoped to find.  The principal characters - not so much.

The plot revolves around Frances Irvine, a gently-brought up young English woman of marriageable age who learns after her wealthy father dies that he has lost his fortune in stock speculation (Shades of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now!).  Unfortunately, he made no provision for Frances.  Her choice is to become an unpaid nursemaid/drudge for her aunt's growing family in Manchester, or marry Edwin Matthews, a doctor making his way in South Africa.  Although she has never liked Edwin, she opts to marry him.  On the voyage out from London, she falls hard for William Westbrook, a charming first class passenger.  Should she cast in her lot with William, or remain true to Edwin, who has financed her passage out to South Africa?  You'll have to read it to find out, but I found Frances to be incredibly stupid.  Maybe it was her naivete, or her inflated sense of self-worth, but I wondered how either man could tolerate her.  Suffice it to say that it takes almost the entire novel before she finally snaps out of it after nearly succumbing to the smallpox Edwin Matthews claimed was ravaging Kimberley. 

This book came out several years ago, but I was still shocked by the Oxford-educated author's use of a number of derogatory terms for the indigenous population.  My, how times have changed!  She does add in her notes at the end that her idea for the novel came from research she was doing which revealed the deliberate suppression of any information pertaining to the outbreak of smallpox in Kimberley by Cecil Rhodes (Yes, that Cecil Rhodes of the scholarship!) lest the diamond mining industry collapse, taking British wealth with it.  If you're wearing a diamond engagement ring, you know how that enterprise turned out!

This Tender Land

I really hated to come to the end of William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land (#916), I was so caught up in the perils and adventures of a group of four orphans escaping their pursuers in a canoe in the upper Midwest.  It's a worthy companion to his extraordinary novel Ordinary Grace (See my post of 11/3/2016) which I discovered with one of my book clubs.

Odie O'Banion and his brother Albert find themselves the only white boys at the Lincoln School in Minnesota after the death of their father.  An Indian training school, misery is a way of life under the harsh governance of the Brickmans in the midst of the Great Depression in 1932.  Odie seems to be a special target for Mrs. Brickman's wrath, so when a devastating storm lays waste to the area, Odie and Albert escape in a canoe along with six year old Emmy and their mute friend Mose.  The authorities are after them, accusing the three boys of kidnapping Emmy, a capital offense.  With no one to rely on but themselves, the quartet must make their way to St. Louis, where there is a promise of a home with the O'Banion's aunt Julia.

The interior journeys of this unlikely set of travelers are as compelling as the physical dangers they face.  Along the way they encounter an assortment of characters both good and evil, all with a lesson in survival of the body and heart to teach them.  It's a rich, unforgettable read along the lines of Huckleberry Finn.  It's bound to stay with the reader long after the covers of the book are shut.  Don't miss it.

The Philosopher's Flight

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tom Miller's first novel in a series: The Philosopher's Flight (#915).  It's partly historical fiction - set against a background of World War I-, part science fiction and part fantasy.  It really has everything going for it - a hero to root for in Robert Candarelli Weekes, fighting the stigma of sexism in his desire to serve in the prestigious Rescue and Evacuation Corps in the War against all odds - plus action, adventure, danger, villains, humor and magic.

Robert has inherited his ability to fly from his mother in rural Montana where she works for the county.  But boys aren't supposed to fly at all, so how can he be considered for a spot in the military reserved for females?  By qualifying for a special spot reserved for males at the all-female Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It won't be easy, considering that Boston is also the home base of the Trencher movement, vehemently and violently opposed to Philosophical practitioners.  Facing opposition both on and off campus, Robert still manages to find loyal friends and a way to make his mark.

Something I read in the reviews about this series compared it to L. Frank Baum for adults, and I think that's a good analogy.  There's enough realism to ground it in a world we're familiar with, with enough fantasy to make it somewhat akin to steampunk novels.  It's a really addictive blend.  I can't wait to read the second book in this series, The Philosopher's War.  Highly recommended!

The Bullet

One day you're living an ordinary life - a French professor at Georgetown with boring, but satisfying routines and a close and loving family.  The next, an MRI to diagnosis the source of your wrist pain reveals a bullet embedded in your neck.  There's no scar, so how did it get there?

Mary Louise Kelly's twisty thriller The Bullet (#914) takes the protagonist, Caroline Cashion, on an unexpected journey with the reader along for the wild ride.  Without revealing too much, Caroline's world is turned upside down when she confronts her parents and finds out she's adopted...

I didn't guess the outcome of this book, and the end isn't nicely tied up in with a bow, but the story is stronger for that.  I can't wait to go back and read Kelly's first novel.  I've always admired her reporting on NPR.  It's nice to know she can spin out a longer tale just as skillfully.  If you enjoy thrillers, add this book to your list!

The Amber Room

I finally got around to reading one of Steve Berry's early books, The Amber Room (#913). My battered paperback copy has literally been around the world with me, but somehow I never found the time to read it on a plane or in my hotel room during my jaunts.  If it had its own passport, the visa stamps in it would be quite impressive!

It still contained an intriguing historical mystery about the room literally lined with inlays in amber stolen during World War II by the Nazis when they invaded Russia.  It arrived in Konigsberg, Germany, but then it vanished in 1945.  What ever did happen to that room?  In Berry's book, old connections to the Nazis set off a hunt for the prized remains, with no expense, or lives, spared in the process. 

I admit I was a little surprised when I read it.  There was no Cotton Malone or Magellan Billet here.  The protagonists were a female judge and her ex-husband corporate lawyer.  It's their family connections which draw them deep into the search for the Amber Room themselves.  The other thing which surprised me was that this was obviously written prior to Steve Berry having enough author clout to avoid editor's suggestions to "sex things up" because the sex here was quite graphic; enough so to be noticeably different from his best-selling Cotton Malone series where it is considerably toned down. 

It was still a good read, and it's interesting to see how things have changed in Berry's writing style since then; and that the historical mysteries that make his novels so enjoyable is still the reason I look forward to his next book!

Fall of Poppies - Stories of Love and the Great War

I only recognized two of the nine authors in Fall of Poppies - Stories of Love and the Great War (#912), but Lauren Willig's name alone was enough to convince me to give this anthology a try.

I must admit, I was really disappointed in most of the stories here.  The only thing these novellas seem to have in common was Armistice Day, a much narrower focus.  The end result for me was an entirely forgettable collection of tales vaguely related to World War I.  I just should have re-read Helen Simonson's The Summer Before the War.  (See my post of 4/13/16.)

Leave Only Footprints

If you've ever been to a National Park, Conor Knighton's book Leave Only Footprints - My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park (#911) will bring back fond memories and comparisons of your own visit to his time spent there.  If you've never been to even one (!) this entertaining memoir may inspire you to start planning your trips when we all can travel safely again.

As Mr. Knighton points out, there are only fifty nine officially designated National Parks.  Most of the more four hundred units which the National Park Service manages are national monuments (like Mount Rushmore) or national battlefields, seashores, preserves, recreational areas and the like.  He spent exactly one year roaming the country to visit each and every National Park.  But if you're looking for a guidebook to start planning, this is not that book.  Instead, he groups the National Parks according to characteristics they have in common to his way of thinking - Trees, Water, Ice - to name a few.  And it works wonderfully well.  The experiences and anecdotes which make each park memorable to him may bring a chuckle or a tear to the reader's eye, but Knighton makes the parks come alive in a unique way.

Since some of the parks are so inaccessible, most of us could never duplicate his year of incessant travel, but his book may spur many of us to get off our couches and get out there.  If you go, don't forget your National Parks Passport, so you can record your own visits to some of the most awe-inspiring places our country preserves for us to visit.  After all, they're OUR parks!  Thanks for reminding us, Conor Knighton.

The Last Hours

Minette Walters' medieval novel The Last Hours (#910) might just as well be named The Lost Hours because that's how I feel about the time I wasted on this Black Death book.  It made the rare list for me of "Books I Did Not Bother to Finish".

The plot as sketched on the cover concerns an English manor house which learns from the Bishop's messenger that a deadly plague is consuming the area all around.  The lord of the manor is away arranging for his daughter's dowry to be paid, so his wife herds some of the animals and the serfs onto the man-made island the manor stands on, tears up the bridge across the moat and sits tight with her steward and her daughter, isolated against the disease. 

Sounds kind of like the pandemic we're going through now, doesn't it?  That's what I thought, but this is 1348, so why does Lady Anne sound like a twenty-first century feminist and cultural iconoclast?  She teaches her serfs to read (Her own daughter can't because she's too willful to bother.) and introduces hygiene practices unheard of at the time.  Oh, and did I mention that she does not believe in organized religion, which makes her a heretic in this time period?  All this from a convent-educated teen married off because of her dowry to the first available suitor.  I don't think so.  The handsome, muscular serf with exotic parentage who she relies on to help her run the estate just pushes it all over the top.  I got so tired of mentally rolling my eyes I finally gave up.  I just didn't care what happened to all these people.  I'm sure she probably survived in triumph, but if you're interested enough to find out, you'll have to read it on your own.

In The Bleak Midwinter

It was actually a review in the paper of the latest addition to Julia Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson Mysteries which led me to In The Bleak Midwinter (#909), the first of this awarding-winning series.  I'm looking forward to reading my way through this latest find!

Clare Fergusson is the newly-appointed priest in Millers Kill, New York.  Her background as an Army helicopter pilot hasn't prepared her for the freezing Adirondack winter, but she's determined not to have to give up her beloved red MG sports car, so unsuitable for driving in the snow! 

On the night of the church's reception welcoming her as their new priest, Clare stumbles upon a newborn baby left on the church steps with a note asking that Cody be adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Burns, parishioners of St. Albans.  She meets Russ Van Alstyne, the chief of police, at the hospital where she has taken the infant to be checked out.  Sparks fly between the two as they work towards finding out who Cody's parents are, but it isn't long before a body shows up in a remote park connected to the mystery. 

When the victim is identified, someone is determined to conceal Cody's true parentage at any cost, including anyone who gets too close to the truth.  You won't necessarily see the end of this one coming, but the Christmas carol quoted in the title is an apt choice!

The King at the End of the World

Elizabeth I is dying.  Her most likely heir is James VI of Scotland, but is he at heart a Protestant or a Catholic?  Either answer has huge implications for England.  How to determine the answer is at the heart if Arthur Phillips' new novel, The King at the End of the World (#908).

Some of Elizabeth's extensive spy network hit upon what seems to be the perfect solution: send a Turkish physician stranded in England after a deputation from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire returns to Constantinople without him to Scotland to determine the king's mind.  It's an intriguing premise.

Although I greatly enjoyed the sections dealing with Dr. Mahmoud Ezzedine, in truth the novel is much more about the political maneuverings of one of  spymaster Walsingham's retired operatives, Geoffrey Belloc.  He is the one who sets things in motion and becomes Ezzedine's handler under a different guise.  The question at the end becomes Who is playing whom?  Phillips leaves the conclusion in the readers' hands.

I did find the end of the book rather unsatisfying, but others may really like this open-endedness.  You will have to determine that for yourself.

I will tell you one thing I did not like about this book, and that is the cover art.  The pastiche of monkey, crown and rosary beads was almost enough to put me off reading it.  It smacked too much of fantasy.  Every book of fiction qualifies as fantasy at some level, but this image seemed to have little to do with the contents.  Just my opinion...

The Warsaw Protocol

After reading Steve Berry's latest thriller, The Warsaw Protocol (#907), I've added several new places to my Travel Wishlist - Bruges, Belgium, Krakow, Poland and especially the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine.  They all play an important role in the latest world crisis averted by retired (He wishes!) Magellan Billet agent Cotton Malone.

The subject of the attack here is Polish politics, about which I knew practically nothing, but Berry is able to compress an awful lot of useful and relevant information into the plot line without dragging down the action.  There are plenty of spies, secret documents and World Heritage sites ready for Cotton Malone to wreak havoc on. (Without doing any lasting damage, of course!)

What do stolen Catholic relics have to do with an ultra secret and exclusive auction?  You'll just have to read The Warsaw Protocol to find out.  The most trouble you'll have with this novel is figuring out how to pronounce most of the Polish names - but there again, Steve Berry helps the reader over the relevant names.

And just when you think Cotton Malone is really going to retire this time, a teaser is dropped on the last page.  He'll be back.  Count on it.

The Mirror and the Light

I knew how Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror and the Light (#906) had to end, with Thomas Cromwell's head on the block, but still, I hated to come to the end of this trilogy.  She has managed in Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light to make a reviled Tudor figure sympathetic right up to the last moments of his life.  Not that Thomas Cromwell was a saint, by any means, but rather, she gives us insight into what could have plausibly motivated Cromwell to do what he did, keeping in mind that history is written by the victors and shaped to their ends.

The narrative here begins with the Anne Boleyn's execution and ends with Cromwell's own.  What comes between is a fascinating tale of shifting political alliances, religious strife and of course, Henry the Eighth's ego and libido.  Perilous sands to negotiate indeed.  Yet Thomas managed the court in Henry's favor skillfully for ten years before he was brought down by jealous nobles and enemies both in England and in Europe.  Watching him walk that tightrope you are always expecting him to fall, and yet somehow he finds a way out.  Until he doesn't.

I couldn't help but think as I was reading that the Tudor Court was not very different from today's political scene in America.  I leave the casting of our own drama to you.

I know from hearing her interviewed on NPR that Hilary Mantel is done with Cromwell, but permit me to say that the Cromwell who emerges from her pages will be missed.  Rest in peace, Thomas.

The Splendid and the Vile

Erik Larson presents history in the most interesting ways.  The Splendid and the Vile - A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (#905) is no exception.  He examines one year of Churchill's life: from the moment he becomes Prime Minister in May of 1940 through May of 1941, a time period coinciding with the Blitz in London.

So much happened in that one year it's hard to keep track of everything going on -  from the Germans stepping up their campaign to annihilate Britain after the French were conquered so quickly, to Mr. Churchill's appeals to Franklin Delano Roosevelt to intervene in the war on the side of the Allies, to family dramas and heartbreaks - but not only does Larson manage it, he makes it easy for the reader to follow the separate threads.

History is more than dry facts and figures; it's the human beings behind the events that make history come alive.  Why do they make the choices they do?  What else was going on in their lives at the moment?  The Splendid and the Vile does an excellent job at holding up the curtain of history so we can peek behind it to see what really went on with Churchill.  If your interest is piqued here, there are plenty of sources cited to follow up on what intrigues you the most.  And don't forget to read his footnotes, where he tucks stories he wanted to tell, but didn't have room for in the text!

The Overstory

Well.  I finished reading Richard Powers' novel The Overstory (#904).  I can't say I've ever read anything quite like it before.  Much of his imagery is stunning to the inner eye, much of the authoritarian violence repulsive.  Despite the natural beauty and the marvels described here, though, I couldn't help but feel that the message Powers conveys is essentially bleak: there's nothing useful to be done.

Powers intertwines the stories of a number of characters, all of whom eventually link to each other through their activism about trees, or their connections to it.  I did learn a lot about trees in the course of reading this novel.  But better look fast at the world around you before more species in your vicinity become extinct!

I'm still undecided about whether or not I liked this book.  The writing is powerful, as is defense of the natural world, but the message that we humans are rapidly destroying everything around us through corporate greed is depressing to say the least.  Not sure in today's pandemic and racially-charged world I needed to read yet another pessimistic book if I can't do anything about it...

The K Team

The "K" in the title The K Team (#903) stands for K-9 Simon Garfunkle, retired police dog, and important member of the newly-formed group of private investigators in Paterson, New Jersey.  If "dog" and "Paterson, New Jersey" used together to describe a book seem to strike a chord, you are correct.  The K Team is a spin-off mystery series from David Rosenfelt's popular Andy Carpenter mystery series.  All the familiar members of the team are here - Andy himself (in a cameo role), his wife Laurie, another founding member, Marcus, the muscle for the group, Sam Willis, the hacking genius and Corey Douglas, also a retired cop, who brings Simon into the mix.

Even their very first client is familiar to Andy Carpenter fans - Judge Henry "Hatchet" Henderson.  He's being blackmailed and has hired the K Team to investigate to avoid going public.  Things don't seem to be going particularly well for the newly-fledged PIs, but they're not about to give up even as the body count mounts...

It's a great first outing for this new mystery series and made for an enjoyable read with some new dynamics to liven things up with Corey Douglas taking on the principal role here.

One note about the cover art (Yes, my favorite hobbyhorse!):  Simon Garfunkle, as the newest canine cast member, is described as a beautiful German Shepherd.  Do my eyes deceive me, or is the cover photo actually of a Malinois, NOT a German Shepherd?  Just wondering...

The Silent Patient

My dentist told me I had to read Alex Michaelides' psychological thriller The Silent Patient (#902).  She promised I wouldn't see the final twist coming.  I know it was popular recently, but I never did get around to reading it.

I'm sorry to say that as soon as I finished reading it, my very first thought was "What drivel!"  I wish I had spent the time reading about more worthwhile and likeable characters.  If you're not familiar with the premise of the novel, Alicia is a famous painter who is found standing next to her husband's body within three minutes of a neighbor calling the police after hearing multiple gunshots next door.  Only Alicia's prints are found on the gun, but she refuses to say what happened.  Five years later, she's in a forensic psychiatric unit, still refusing to speak...

Let's just all leave her there.

Really, the most interesting thing about this book was its references to Alcestis of Greek mythology.  There are several versions of her story, but Euripides' play is probably the most well known.  Alcestis' husband Ametus is doomed by the Fates to die unless he can find someone to die in his place.  After an unsuccessful search, Alcestis volunteers, growing ever weaker as her husband regains his health.  After she dies, she is rescued from Hades by either the hero Herakles (Hercules) or Queen Persephone depending on the tale's version, and restored to Ametus.  Ametus cannot understand why she will not speak to him.  The Greeks hold up Alcestis as a model loving, self-sacrificing spouse.  Doesn't that automatically make Ametus a selfish, self-centered dog who would rather sacrifice his aged parents, his subjects or his wife rather than die himself as the Fates decreed?  Who would want to go back to that?  I certainly wouldn't!

The Other Bennet Sister

Poor Mary Bennet!  She gets such short shrift in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and doesn't fare any better in TV and movie versions, where her character is generally played for laughs.  Finally, in Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister (#901) Mary comes into her own as a fully developed and immensely sympathetic character.

The first half of this novel chronicles the Bennet sisters' childhoods leading up to and including the events of Pride and Prejudice.  Much of it is so painful to Mary the reader wonders how she could have endured it in the Bennet household.  It isn't until after Jane and Lizzy's happy endings (and even wayward Lydia's!) that Mary is driven to take refuge in the London home of her aunt and uncle Gardiner.  And that makes all the difference.

I won't say more, but in Janice Hadlow's hands Mary Bennet becomes a character well worth discovering. If you are a Jane Austen fan, and enjoy character-driven novels, do yourself the favor of reading and savoring The Other Bennet Sister.

Just one discordant note about the book: I really loved the cover art used for the Advanced Reader Copy of The Other Bennet Sister.  The portrait of a young nineteenth century woman with an open book in her lap perfectly captured the character of Mary Bennet in this story.  I was dismayed to see in my library catalog that the cover was changed to a vapid-looking young girl.  It doesn't suit the Mary which emerges from these pages nearly as well.  Shame on whoever made that art decision!

Blame the Dead

If you want to get lost in a book, Ed Ruggero's Blame the Dead (#900) is a good choice.  Set in a mobile Army hospital on the front lines during the Allies' invasion of Sicily, MP Eddie Harkins is exhausted from breaking up traffic jams and guarding enemy POWs.  When he's flagged down while passing a field hospital on his way to a much-deserved rest, he never expects to find himself embroiled in a murder.

Back in Philadelphia, he was a beat cop, but he's the best available option for the badly understaffed hospital.  Pressed into service investigating the murder of a surgeon during an air raid, he begins asking questions somebody doesn't want answered. Nurse Donnelly, an old friend from the neighborhood back home, fills in some of the missing blanks for him.  The more he finds out, the more questions he has about how the unit is run, and who had the most to gain by the murder.

It is, as the cover blurb claims, "Riveting".  While I was glued to the book, my husband was busy researching trips to Sicily for a time when travel for pleasure might be possible again, rather than just from your armchair, it was that engaging.  This is Ed Ruggero's first work of fiction.  I certainly hope it's not his last!

Killer Librarian

What a fun cozy mystery series to discover now with  the first book in the series, Killer Librarian (#899) by Mary Lou Kirwin!  When librarian Karen Nash gets a phone call from her boyfriend while she's waiting for him to pick her up for a dream trip to London, she is devastated when he dumps her instead.  Picking herself up mentally from the floor, she calls to book her own ticket on that plane to London.  When she spots Dave at the airport with a much younger women, Karen spends the flight plotting revenge...

Checking into the quaint B&B where she had booked them, she finds herself in the midst of a cozy gathering, reunited there every year for the Chelsea Flower Show.  When one of the guests turns up dead in the sitting room, Karen finds herself in the middle of a mystery, her favorite genre.  What can she do but follow the clues where they lead her, while discovering Caldwell Perkins, the owner of the B&B, is much more to her taste than Dave the plumber ever was!  But has she accidentally sicced an assassin on him and his new girlfriend?

It won't take you long to get to the bottom of this mystery, and I certainly had a good time along the way!

Beheld

Beheld (#898) by TaraShea Nesbit deals in novel form with the first murder of a white colonist by another colonist in 1630 Plymouth Plantation.  Told from a number of viewpoints, it chiefly narrates the story through the perspectives of Alice Bradford, the wife of  Governor William Bradford, and Eleanor Billington, a former indentured servant and an Anglican.

Though the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom, they denied it to anyone in the colony who was not a dissenter, as they preferred to call themselves.  If you only think of the Pilgrims as godly people dressed in sober clothes and intent on doing right by their neighbors, read this book and think again.  If only the writings of the literate colony leaders survive, who gets to tell the real story of what happened in the bleak wilderness in which the Mayflower put to shore in 1620?  It wasn't what the laborers in the expedition had signed on for, and they felt tricked and betrayed by those at the top of the social scale making the decisions.  The question might be better asked about why it took so long for that first English-on-English murder to occur given the tensions besetting the settlement.  And what really did happen to William Bradford's first wife Dorothy?

Ms. Nesbit sets the scene well in this atmospheric novel.  If you've ever visited present day Plimouth Plantation, you will appreciate how much she gets right, and how it might have felt to have been one of the underclass there.

The Way We Live Now

Anthony Trollope's social satire The Way We Live Now (#897) was listed on some prominent person's all time favorite book list in a way that piqued my interest.  What better time than a "Safer at Home" period to read an eight hundred page literary classic?

In a very tongue-in-cheek way, Trollope regales the reader with a tale centered around a financial wizard lately arrived on the 1870s London scene with apparent barrels of money to support a lavish life style for himself, his wife and his daughter.  No one seems to be able to put a finger on exactly where all that money came from, but rumors abound that Augustus Melmotte has been chased by the law out of Paris and Vienna at the very least.  His target in England are the idle rich with not much else to do with their time then to drink and gamble away their fortunes.  Why shouldn't some of that money make its way into Melmotte's pockets?

A stock venture is proposed to fund a railroad in the New World and prominent Englishmen are duly appointed to its Board in London.  The financial wheeling and dealing is worthy of Bernie Madoff himself with results not so very different.  At the same time Melmotte is dangling the hand of his daughter, rumored to be worth a considerable fortune, as a matrimonial prize for the highest bidder.  Marie is not the most cooperative potential bride-to-be out there, and she is not alone.

It all makes for an entertaining tale.  If that seems to be too much effort for you, The Way We Live Now was apparently made into an Exxon Masterpiece Theater production in the early 2000s.  If I can hunt it down, I will definitely watch it myself.  The paperback edition of the novel I read was reissued in conjunction with that Masterpiece Theater release, complete with a thirty plus page scholarly introduction.  I normally read everything right down to the footnotes, but my eyes crossed as all the juice was sucked right out of the plot before I had even read a single page of the novel itself!  It reminded me of my junior year in high school when we were assigned to read The Scarlet Letter.  I had already read it by then, but our teacher who was currently getting his graduate degrees in English Literature at Harvard marched into our classroom and announced on the very first day, "The minister did it."  Way to ruin the only reason some of my classmates would have somewhat willingly plowed through the book - to find out who got Hester in trouble!  I never forgave him for that, and vowed when I was a teacher (or reviewer!) to never do that to a potential reader.  So my recommendation here is: Skip the intro and get right to the good stuff!

My Brilliant Friend

I finally got around to reading My Brilliant Friend (#896), the first book in Elena Ferrante's celebrated Neapolitan Novels.  To tell the truth, I'm not sure whether I liked it or not.  I confess that I did read it in just a couple of days, but when I noticed that My Brilliant Friend has been made into a series on HBO, I'm equally tempted to just watch an episode or two of the show and then call it quits.

Why am I so ambivalent?  Maybe it's because I really don't like either of the main characters, either Elena or Lila.  These books are supposed to be a celebration of female friendship, but I don't see it.  The girls certainly have a strong emotional hold on each other, but it's marked by such meanness and self-interest that every action comes with a heavy psychic price.  To be honest, the people in the neighborhood reminded me strongly of the neighbors who lived in back of us when I was growing up - they also were from post-WWII Naples, sang and argued loudly, hanging their laundry out to dry.  I wasn't supposed to mix with them much because they weren't quite "nice".  I guess that's why I had more sympathy with the girl dressed in green in downtown Naples whose boyfriend was beat up by Lena and Lila's brother and his friends.

With all the grudges and vendettas ripe to burst at Stefano's and Lila's wedding banquet in the final pages, you know that the next book won't get off to a good start.  The marriage has already been ruined before it's even begun.  Do I really want to read three more books of this?  I don't think so.  I've already happily moved on to Anthony Trollope, who is much more to my taste.

Miss Austen

I kept having the feeling reading Gill Hornby's Miss Austen (#895) that I was reading one of Jane's delectable novels.  The eponymous Miss Austen here however, is not Jane, but her older sister and beloved companion Cassandra.

If you are a Jane Austen fan, you may be familiar with some of the elements of the Austens' lives; that Cassandra was engaged to a young clergyman who was lost at sea and never afterwards married, that Jane herself was once briefly engaged to a neighbor, and that the Austen women lost a permanent home after the Reverend Austen retired from his parish.  With his income and pension to sustain them, they lived a comfortable enough life, moving from lodgings to lodgings.  When he died, so did his income.  Just like the heroines of Jane's novels, the women were forced to rely mainly on the charity of their friends and neighbors for their bed and board.

Miss Austen imagines the task Cassandra takes upon herself many years later to recover and destroy a cache of letters written by herself and her sister Jane to Eliza Fowle, a dear friend who would have been Cassy's sister-in-law had Tom not died in the West Indies.  She wants above all else to preserve Jane's reputation by doing so.  Re-reading those letters from the vantage point of 1840, Cassandra is able to come to terms with the events and patterns of their lives, while still striving to influence the lives of the Fowles for the best.

It is easy to draw comparisons to Sense and Sensibility, to Persuasion and to Emma here, and to imagine what keen observations Jane drew from those around her maneuvering through society to the best of their abilities.  Jane Austen herself would be proud.

Man of War

Since our local library (Bless them!!!) has remained open to check out Reserved Books at the front door when they arrive at your local branch, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to whittle away at my electronic "To Read" list of suspended holds.  As I browsed my list, Charlie Schroeder's book Man of War - My Adventures in the World of Historical Reenactment (#894) piqued my fancy.

A sometime contributor to NPR, and an actor who couldn't make it in LA, Schroeder was chafing at his desk job.  After he and his wife attended an LA area reenactors' festival, Charlie decided to pitch a book about his adventures with groups across the country which reenact different periods of time - WWII, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Vikings and Romans and a few other periods and places as well.  His proposal was accepted, and he was off on a year of participating in Living History.

His experiences are amusing, tedious, terrifying and downright dirty, but through it all, he met a multitude of interesting characters who do what they do for a wide range of reasons; some like the mostly male bonding that goes on, some the dress-up aspects, but many, like Charlie, are hooked on the history.  They want to know everything about the time period they've chosen to reenact - from the weapons to the food to the clothes to how to reconstruct authentic versions of each.  By the end of the year it took to gather materials for this book, he knew that he wanted to reenact something for himself that had happened in the Los Angeles where he currently lives.  How he found his project and what he did to carry it out comprise the last chapter of this entertaining and enlightening book, but you'll have to read it for yourself to find out what he did and why.  You won't be disappointed.

I Will Always Write Back

I can't remember where I heard about I Will Always Write Back (#893), a double memoir by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda with Liz Welch, but after reading it, I'm really glad our library had a copy of this inspiring and eye-opening book.  Its subtitle is How One Letter Changed Two Lives and boy, does it ever live up to that promise!

Caitlin is a twelve year old middle school student when she chooses to write to an unknown pen pal in the most exotic-sounding country her teacher had listed on the board for the assignment: Zimbabwe.   Her letter eventually arrived in a classroom in Zimbabwe where  14 year-old Martin, as the highest-ranked student in his class, was fortunate enough to receive it.  His reply to Caitlin launched a correspondence that lasted well beyond the expectations of any of the adults involved in the project.  As the chapters alternate between Caitlin and Martin telling their stories about the letters - the questions they raised, the sharing of their families and ways of life, even of their misconceptions - paint a picture of two young people eager to reach out and explore a world beyond their reach.  As they grow and learn from each other it is amazing to see how he and she mature and develop as they deepen their understanding of the opportunities offered to them.  When Caitlin finally grasps just how different Martin's life and prospects are from her own comfortable American middle-class life, she becomes determined to make Martin's life and his family's better.

It won't be giving anything away to tell you that Caitlin's efforts and those of her whole family make it possible for Martin to come to America for college and lifts his whole family thereby out of direst poverty in Zimbabwe.  There are plenty of obstacles to overcome along the way, but the simple style of the book makes for gripping reading.  This is the perfect time to read a book which will help restore your faith in humanity!   Hope you are able to get your hands on a copy of this book.

A Crimson Warning

A Crimson Warning (#892) by Tasha Alexander provided just the kind of distraction I was looking for; a late Victorian murder mystery with the plucky Lady Emily Hargreaves and her handsome husband Colin solving murders involving splashes of red paint on the doors of prominent members of society foreshadowing the revelation of scandals within.  Who doesn't have a secret he or she would do anything to keep hidden?

As Lady Emily and Colin begin to investigate on behalf of the crown, political machinations rear their ugly heads.  The violence is all off page, as it were, but there are enough twists and turns and red herrings (sorry, I couldn't help that!) to keep the pages turning.  There's an elaborate set of clues leading to the unmasking of the real villain of the piece.  Lady Emily's knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin, and her fondness for the redoubtable British Museum are key to unraveling the web of deceit.

This is a most enjoyable mystery series.  If you haven't discovered The Lady Emily Mysteries yet, you might want to start with Dangerous to Know where Lady Emily first encounters Colin Hargreaves...