Cemetery John

I read everything I can get my hands on about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Cemetery John" by Robert E. Zorn is a new one that has an interesting take on the crime. Zorn's father, Eugene, grew up in the Bronx, and as a child he knew a man named John Knoll, who he believed he saw conspiring with Bruno Richard Hauptmann one day. Eugene passed away, but his son was determined to continue his father's search for the truth. He researched Knoll, and discusses his theory on how he and his brother and Hauptmann worked together to kidnap Charles Lindbergh Jr. In the beginning, everyone thought the crime was the work of a gang, and only after the authorities arrested Hauptmann did they decide it was a one man operation. Zorn makes a lot of good points, like how John Condon (Jafsie) first identified the man who took the ransom money in the cemetery as having an odd growth near his left thumb. Hauptmann had no such mark, but Knoll did. While I'd like to believe Hauptmann was innocent, Zorn makes a strong case for him at least having a part in the crime. I still think the ladder coming from a piece of wood from Hauptmann's attic is ridiculous, though.

Family Fang

"Family Fang" by Kevin Wilson was pretty interesting. Annie and Buster, known as Children A and B, have been part of their parents' performance art since they were born. As adults, they are less inclined to want to have anything to do with their parents' unique way of creating art out of chaos, until Caleb and Camille go missing and are presumed dead. Annie and Buster know their parents must have set it up, planning on making some grand reentry into the world, and they try to think like them and figure out what to do next in order to force their parents to reveal themselves. It was definitely different.

Notorious Nineteen; The Casual Vacancy

Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum book, "Notorious Nineteen", was pretty good. Ranger hires Stephanie to be a bodyguard for the fiancee of a friends of his from when he was in the war in Afghanistan. It looks like one of the guys in their group faked his own death and is bent of revenge, coming after Ranger and his friend. Meanwhile, Steph is also trying to catch a skip and ends up in a nasty body harvesting ring.

I must admit, I had mixed feelings about J.K. Rowling's latest, "The Casual Vacancy". I read some reviews that said it was good, some said it was bad, some were in between. I felt that it was in between. I admit, I was probably harder on her because she *is* J.K. freakin' Rowling after all. If it had been published anonymously, I might have enjoyed it more. The main problem I had was the sheer number of characters she introduced. I spent at least 2/3 of the book wondering who these people were because I couldn't keep them straight. The plot was interesting, about what happens in a small village when one of the council members die and his seat is up for election. Everyone in town seemed to have an agenda they wanted to push. Mostly, this book made me want to reread Harry Potter.

Killing Kennedy; Rasputin; Thomas Becket; A Dangerous Inheritance; Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone; The ABCs of Gold Investing

"Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly was pretty good. Not a whole lot of new information, even for me (I don't read a lot about the Kennedy assassination, for all my true crime loving tendencies, this one never really appealed to me, but when I went to Dallas several years ago I did visit the Texas Book Depository and the JFK museum there). It was a quick read that definitely wasn't boring.

"Rasputin" by Joseph T. Fuhrmann was a very interesting account of the Mad Monk of Russia that tried to dispel myths built up around him, and I think he did an excellent job of doing that. He explained how his influence over Tsar Nicholas II ultimately helped lead to the downfall of the aristocracy. Russia has always fascinated me, I hope to be able to read more about it in the future.

"Thomas Becket" by John Guy was sort of disappointing. I enjoy reading about Becket, and his relationship with King Henry II, but this one couldn't hold my attention.

"A Dangerous Inheritance" by Alison Weir follows the dual stories of Katherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III, and a hundred years later, Katherine Grey, sister to doomed Queen Jane and cousin to Elizabeth I. Both died young, and in Grey's case rather tragically (not one of Elizabeth's shining moments, the way she treated poor Katherine). I enjoyed it, even if I don't agree with Weir that Richard murdered his nephews in the Tower.

"Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone" by Stefan Kiesbye was a disturbing and very creepy fictional book about a village in Germany where everyone is really horrendous to each other. A group of boys murder their friend by convincing him to dive into a frozen lake, another girl blames her friend for a mistake she made, causing her friend a much needed scholarship, etc. It was pretty good, but damn, these people are cold-hearted.

And finally, "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael J. Kosares. I read so many books for fun, I thought it would be a good idea if I started educating myself about important things, like investing, real estate, and finance, so I'm making an effort to read more of those sort of books. This was a good introductory guide to investing in precious metals that wasn't too far over my head.

The Twelve; Little Women and Werewolves; Can't Quit You, Baby; Tilt; Hard Eight; The Prophet; To the Nines; The Walking Dead: the Road to Woodbury; Total Recall; Trixie Belden and the Mystery Off Glen Road; Trixie Belden and the Gatehouse Mystery

"The Twelve" by Justin Cronin is the second in the Passage trilogy. When I read "The Passage", I didn't realize there would be two more books, which is why I was disappointed with the open ended finish. Of course now I realize why he did it that way and it makes sense. I'd like to go back and reread the first one, but I'm way too swamped right now. I liked "The Twelve" a lot, even if I didn't understand what was going on a lot of the time. That's an all too common occurrence lately, I'm afraid. I think I have too much I want to read and as a result I don't pay very good attention to what I'm currently reading.

"Little Women and Werewolves" by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand was a fun mashup. I've never been a big fan of "Little Women", but with the addition of werewolves it was fun and playful. I enjoyed it.

"Can't Quit You, Baby" by Ellen Douglas was a great Southern fiction tale examining the complex friendship between a white woman and her black maid in Mississippi in the 1960s. Douglas passed away recently, and when I found out she was influenced by William Faulkner I wanted to read something of hers. I enjoyed this one a lot and can't wait to read more by her.

"Tilt" by Ellen Hopkins is the teenager's side of her adult book "Triangles". Mikayla gets pregnant by her boyfriend Dylan and doesn't want to have an abortion but Dylan doesn't want her to keep it and breaks up with her right when she needs him most. Shane's new boyfriend is HIV positive and his little sister is dying. Harley finds herself being manipulated by Lucas, who rapes her while she's passed out drunk one night. Lots of heavy stuff, told in Hopkin's unique style. Even though I knew what was going to happen after reading the adult's POV, it was still interesting to see it from a different angle.

"Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich is a reread, one of my favorites, where Stephanie and Ranger hook up for the first time. Wowza!

"The Prophet" by Michael Koryta was excellent. Twenty years earlier, Adam Austin skipped giving his younger sister Marie a ride home from school so he could go out with his girlfriend. Marie never made it home, and her body was discovered days later, raped and murdered. Adam lives with the guilt and blames himself, and as a result is estranged from his younger brother, Kent. Kent is the town's high school football coach, and the team is undefeated and going on the the state championships when one of his star players suffers a terrible tragedy when his girlfriend is murdered after going to Adam for advice on how to find her dad. Adam feels the guilt of this murder, too, since he sent the girl to the address where she was killed. Now the killer is after Kent and his family, and Adam isn't going to let anyone else get hurt.

"To the Nines" by Janet Evanovich is another reread, where Steph has to go to Vegas to look for a skip and gets caught up in a brutal game where the other players kill each other off until only one is left.

"The Walking Dead: the Road to Woodbury" by Robert Kirkman is the sequel to "Rise of the Governor". I wasn't crazy about this one. It starts out with a group of survivors and stays with them until about 2/3 of the way through the book, when they find themselves in Woodbury. The Governor is just rising into power, and Lilly wants to get out of Woodbury as fast as she can. She feels the place and the Governor are evil, but her escape attempt is thwarted and even makes Brian Blake more powerful than he was before.

"Total Recall" by Arnold Schwarzenegger was a candid account of his rise to fame as a bodybuilder and movie star who became governor of California. I've always liked him as an actor and thought he did a fairly decent job most of the time as the Governor. The book was a bit shocking in places, at least to me, when he used language and told jokes that were off color. I wasn't expecting that, but at least he didn't try to hide who he really is. That came across loud and clear.

And finally, two Trixie Belden rereads by Julie Campbell, two of my favorites, #5 "The Mystery Off Glen Road" and #3 "The Gatehouse Mystery". "Glen Road" makes me laugh myself silly every time I reread it, it's so funny. I love those Bob Whites of the Glen. "Gatehouse" is where Trixie and Honey find a diamond in the old gatehouse on the Wheeler's property and it turns out the new chauffeur, Dick, is a pickpocket looking to steal the diamond back. I wish there were more than 39 books in the series. I've been reading some great fanfiction online, and it's amazing how good some it is. These writers have really got the personalities and writing styles down. Great fun. Maybe I'll try and reread some of the books I haven't read a million times :)

Castle Rogue; Unwind; Insurgent

"Castle Rogue" by Carole Nelson Douglas picks up where "Chapel Noir" left off. Luckily, Nell is alive! She and Godfrey are being held in a remote castle in Transylvania by Irene's worst enemy, Tatyana, a Russian spy known as Sable. Douglas has a very interesting Ripper suspect, and in the end Nell and Godfrey, who have been joined by Bram Stoker, are rescued by Irene, Pink, and Sherlock Holmes. It was great fun, I really enjoyed having Nell's dry wit back.

"Unwind" by Neal Shusterman was...interesting. I can't say that I really liked it. Set in the future, abortion is illegal but parents can choose to "unwind" their teenagers anytime from 13-17. Unwinding is a process of harvesting them for their parts, so technically they're still alive, but in a different form. Connor discovers his parents are going to have him unwound, so he runs away and ends up with a ward from the state who is also being unwound due to budget cuts, Risa, and Lev, a boy who is actually being tithed (since his parents have 10 kids, 1/10 belongs to the state, so Lev is the tithe). They end up being shuttled through an underground escape network and end up in the desert at an airplane graveyard run by a former Navy Admiral, who helps hide the kids until they turn 18 and can go out on their own. It was an interesting premise, but I just didn't get into it.

"Insurgent" by Veronica Roth is the sequel to "Divergent". It was very good, and the ending nicely set up the third book. Tris and Tobias are working hard to thwart the leader of the Erudite, who is using mind control to make killers out of the other factions. Amity refuses to get involved, and they bounce around in different factions, finally breaking into the Erudite headquarters to take her out.

What You See in the Dark; Pretty Dead

"What You See in the Dark" by Manuel Munoz is about Bakersfield, California in the early 1960s. A young Mexican girl is dating the most handsome white guy in town, and it causes quite the stir. A famous movie star and her director come to town to scout out local motels for inspiration for the movie they're filming. The particular movie (which involves a shower scene) ties into what happens with the girl and her boyfriend. It was interesting and a quick read.

"Pretty Dead" by Francesca Lia Block was an even quicker read. Her books are kind of hit and miss for me: some I like, others not so much. This one was pretty good. Charlotte is a vampire, a beautiful 17 year old girl who befriends Emily. When Emily commits suicide, her boyfriend, Jared, turns to Charlotte and asks her to make him a vampire, too, so he won't feel the pain anymore. It ended up having a neat little twist at the end.

Bones Are Forever; An Apple for the Creature; The Eyre Affair

Kathy Reichs' latest, "Bones Are Forever", was really good, but started off very sad. Brennan is called in to examine the body of an infant, and while searching the apartment of the suspected mother two more infants are found. The mom has disappeared, and Brennan and Ryan go into the wilds of the upper Northwest, where the First Nations live. Brennan uncovers a plot involving diamond mines. It was good, I tried very hard to pay close attention, since her books are so dense with information.

"An Apple for the Creature" is a collection of short stories featuring supernatural beings in a classroom setting edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner. I'm not normally a big short story fan, but this collection had a lot of really good ones in it, and I enjoyed it.

"The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde is his first Thursday Next novel, and it was very clever. It takes place in an alternate reality, where people take their literature very seriously. Thursday Next is a member of S0-27, special investigators dedicated to literature. Thursday's uncle Mycroft invents a machine that allows people to jump into books, and uber-bad guy Acheron Hades kidnaps Mycroft and uses the machine to kidnap Jane Eyre from the original manuscript. Thursday dives into the novel to save not only Jane but the story. It was very charming, I enjoyed it.

Born Together, Reared Apart; Off the Road; Growing Up Dead in Texas; Fate of the Princes; Unfaithful Queen; Mister Pip

"Born Together, Reared Apart" by Nancy L. Segal was an interesting and not too completely over my head scientific look at the fascinating study of twins who are separated while still very young and then raised separately. Segal and the rest of the staff of the Minnesota Twin Studies department looked at how much genetics influences our decisions as far as career, hobbies, tastes in food, religion, politics, etc. It was pretty good, and I was proud that I understood most of it!

"Off the Road" by Carolyn Cassady documents her life married to Neal Cassady, immortalized in Jack Kerouac's books like "On the Road". She put up with a lot of BS while married to Neal, more than I would have put up with, but she did get to hang with Kerouac and Ginsberg, so that's pretty cool. Like most teens, I was profoundly into the Beats and thought I was the first person ever to discover how awesome they were. As I got older, and especially while reading this book, I realized just how immature they really were. Neal was forever running off and fathering babies with random women that he had no way of taking care of. Stuff like that really irritates me. But it was a great read, very interesting.

I was so disappointed by "Growing Up Dead in Texas" by Stephen Graham Jones. I had heard really good things about it, but it fell very flat for me. It was disjointed and confusing (now mind, I read *Faulkner* and understand it) and I had no idea what was going on. Something about a fire? And maybe child molestation? I don't even know.

"Fate of the Princes" by P. C. Doherty was a fictionalized account of King Richard III's close friend and adviser, Francis Lovell. Richard asks Lovell to investigate the disappearance of his nephews from the Tower of London, which Lovell does and comes up with a satisfactory explanation as to what could have happened to the boys. I thought Richard was very nicely portrayed in this. I'm keeping an eye on developments in Leicester as to the possible discovery of his body. Amazing after all these centuries!

"The Unfaithful Queen" by Carolly Erickson was a decent but heavily fictionalized account of Queen Katherine Howard's short life and sad death. It was okay, nothing particularly memorable about it.

"Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones was another disappointment. It came highly recommended but I couldn't really get into it. It was just too sad for my taste. A young lady named Matilda is living on an island in turmoil. The only white man on the island, Mr. Watts, offers to take over the school and reads to the children from Dickens' classic "Great Expectations". Matilda really loves the book and connects with it, which was great, but I'm not a big Dickens fan, so I failed to see the charm of the book. That might have been part of the problem.

Wilderness of Error; Chapel Noir; Dead West; Size 12 and Ready to Rock

There are more, so I'll have to update again later. I've found my memory isn't as good as it used to be. Getting older sucks! :)

"Wilderness of Error" by Errol Morris looks at the travesty of justice that is the Jeffrey MacDonald case. How this man was even convicted in the first place is a mystery to me. Years ago, a coworker who knew my love of true crime recommended "Fatal Vision" by Joe McGinniss. I read it, but I didn't like it, there was just something off about the whole thing to me. At the library I happened to find "Fatal Justice" by Jerry Allen Potter, read that, and went oh my god! Morris presents interviews with key players in the murder investigation and court testimony to show exactly how badly MacDonald was railroaded. It's a shame, it really is.

"Chapel Noir" by Carole Nelson Douglas is the fifth Irene Adler adventure. Irene and Nell are in Paris, and brutal slayings resembling the Jack the Ripper London murders are taking place, leading Irene to think Jack may have moved to Paris. Sherlock Holmes is a major character in this one, and he and Irene team up, with the help of a reporter in disguise, Nellie Bly, to investigate. The book ended on a cliffhanger: Nell was kidnapped by the Ripper suspect! Oh no! Poor Nell. I hope she's okay. If I didn't have so many other books to read right now I would be tearing into the next one, but alas, I'm afraid it will have to wait a bit.

"Dead West" by Rick Spears was a tepid graphic novel about an Indian in the Old West seeking revenge against the white man who killed his entire tribe. I didn't care for it, but at least it was short.

"Size 12 and Ready to Rock" by Meg Cabot is the newest Heather Wells mystery. Tania Trace, the new wife of Heather's ex-boyfriend Jordan, is being threatened by a crazy guy. Tania's getting ready to host a rock camp for teen girls, and decides to have it at Fisher Hall where she feels safe with Heather around, since Heather's so good at catching bad guys. One of the camera crew is murdered when he eats a poisoned cupcake meant for Tania. The teen girls are wild and out of control. Poor Heather. But at least she still has her gorgeous, rich fiance, Cooper, so I can't muster up *too* much sympathy for her.  

Off the Menu; The King's Grace; By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead; The Women of the Cousin's War

So, first up, "Off the Menu" by Stacey Ballis. I was really looking forward to this one since she's a friend of Jen Lancaster, and Jen said it was really good. It was not. What a disappointment. The book is about Alana, a 39 year old single woman who has a great job working for a celebrity chef who is a bit of a pain. He takes advantage of her good nature and calls on her at inconvenient times, etc. She's also been frustrated with the dating scene and hopes not to be spending her 40th birthday alone. She meets the perfect man online through a dating service, and right off the bat they fall madly in love and everything's great, except for her obnoxious over-demanding boss. Then she gets offered the perfect job, only it can't pay her as much as she's used to making and she wants to buy her parents a winter house in Florida. Seriously? That dictates your job choices? Whether or not you can afford to buy your parents a winter house? Are you kidding me? Anyway, it was just ridiculous. I wanted to have Alana live *my* life for a month and see what it's really like to have stuff suck.

"The King's Grace" by Anne Easter Smith was another disappointment. It would have been good if it had been half as long and maybe if she'd not used the same words over and over and over again. The book is about Grace, who is King Edward VI's bastard daughter (who may have actually existed, but nothing is really known about her). Grace becomes Queen Elizabeth's companion after Edward dies and Elizabeth goes into sanctuary to escape Richard III. Later, Grace becomes involved in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy. All in all it wasn't a bad book, it was just way too long.

"By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead" by Julie Anne Peters blew me away. It was really good. It's a YA book about a girl named Daelyn, who has tried several times to commit suicide and failed. She's determined to make it stick this time, with the help of a website called through the light. Just as she's made a commitment and set a date, she meets a strange guy named Santana who won't leave her alone despite her rebuffs. Turns out Santana has cancer and might die, and is fighting to live. Daelyn wishes she could trade places with him. It was very sad, I cried at the end, which was great.

"The Women of the Cousin's War" by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael K. Jones was an interesting look at the fascinating women behind the War of the Roses. Jacquetta was Elizabeth Woodville's mother, and accused of being a witch and using spells to bind King Edward VI to her daughter. Elizabeth married Edward after only knowing him a short time and used her new position as Queen to raise up her large family to high positions, incurring the wrath of many high up nobles in the realm who felt cheated. And then Margaret Beaufort, mother to King Henry VII, who spent her whole life fighting for her son's interests and finally got him on the throne. In an era where men were the leaders, these women certainly had something amazing.

Psycho USA; As I Remember; Fables Vol. 17; Cascade; Cold Dish; Locke & Key Vol. 1; Most Talkative; Divergent

Okay, a bunch of these are from that time period where I couldn't get Blogger to work on my computer. Here we go!

"Psycho USA" by Harold Schechter was a fun collection of little remembered killers. Why is it that some crime stick in our collective consciousness and yet others, equally horrific, are forgotten? Interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Schechter does his best to bring them back to mind. Some truly terrible things in this one.

"As I Remember" by Lillian Gilbreth was a sweet memoir about raising 11 children. She was a kind, humble lady who gave all the credit for her professional success in life to her late husband. I wish this world had more Gilbreths and less reality show trash.

"Fables Vol. 17" by Bill Willingham is his latest in the continuing saga of our storybook friends. Now that North Wind is dead, having taken out the Dark Man, it looks like one of Snow White and Bigby's cubs will have to take his place. A newly slim Ms. Pratt is planning her revenge on the fables as they prepare to move back to Manhattan. I was kind of ambivalent about this one: I think he's taken the series as far as he can and it's sort of time to move on.

"Cascade" by Maryanne O'Hara was a great book that takes places during the Great Depression. Dez married Asa because her father was dying and they were losing their home. She was desperate, and had no where to go and no one to turn to. A few months after the wedding, her father is dead and Dez is stuck married to a man who, while nice enough, wants a family and she doesn't. Dez is an artist, and dreams of going to New York. She feels trapped in Cascade, with only her fellow artist friend Jacob to ease the boredom. Meanwhile, it looks like their town will be destroyed in order to build a reservoir for Boston. Dez takes advantage of the situation and creates a series of postcards celebrating small town life that are picked up by a national magazine. Seizing her chance, Dez moves to New York to work for the magazine full time, after making sure her father's beloved playhouse will be moved to another location before the town of Cascade is flooded. There was a neat twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

"Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson is his first Walt Longmire book. I've been watching the show, mainly because the actor who plays Walt looks like Brett Favre :) The show is actually pretty good, but the book was awful. Johnson writes like you're in his head and starts off in the middle of a thought or a sentence, leaving me to wonder if I missed a page or a paragraph. Very frustrating. And the ending in this one was just ridiculous.

Okay, new ones! "Most Talkative" by Andy Cohen was pretty fun, it was light and breezy. Andy works for Bravo and is responsible for some of the most banal reality shows on TV. I don't watch any of them, but I still enjoyed reading how he developed them and puts the shows together.

"Divergent" by Veronica Roth is the first in a YA dystopian series. I liked it. Beatrice is part of a faction called Abnegation: they are selfless. On Choosing Day, her test results are inconclusive: she is Divergent, and could go into several different factions equally well. She chooses Dauntless because she thinks they are brave, and goes through the brutal initiation process. She makes some friends and a boyfriend, but when her mom comes to visit her she asks Tris (as she's now known) to seek out her older brother, Caleb, who joined Erudite, and ask him to investigate the serum that's used during the tests. Tris soon discovers a plot being hatched by the Erudite leaders to wrest control away from the Abnegation by making the Dauntless their soldiers using drugs and simulation. The book ends with a full on war going down. I'm curious to see where this is headed.

Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Rachel Joyce's first novel, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" was very sweet without being schmaltzy, which is very difficult to do. Harold is recently retired and he and his all but estranged wife, Maureen, live a quiet and dull existence. Maureen blames Harold for their son David breaking off contact with them years earlier. Harold just tries to stay out of Maureen's way. Then one day Harold gets a letter from Queenie, a lady he worked with years earlier. She is dying of cancer, in a hospice 600 miles away. Harold writes a return letter and walks to the mailbox to post it, but instead he just keeps walking and decides as long as he walks, Queenie will live. It was touching and poignant.

On an unrelated note: September 25 marks the anniversary of William Faulkner's birth in 1897. Someday I might even open the Folio Society limited edition of the "Sound and the Fury" that I bought :)

Libriomancer; Killing Lincoln; the Internet is a Playground

There are a lot more, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head. I tried updating on Friday, and Blogger was being difficult, so I'll try again later. But in the meantime...

"Libriomancer" by Jim C. Hines was a fun sci-fi book about a librarian who is also a libriomancer--he can pull magic out of books. So if a book has a magical sword that slays dragons in it, Isaac can pull that sword out of the book to slay a dragon. Nifty. So Johannes Gutenberg, the head of the porters (who are the libriomancers' police) is missing, and Isaac, with the help of his trusty fire spider Smudge and a dryad named Lena, go on the hunt and discover Gutenberg is being help hostage by a guy named Charles, who was angry at basically having his magic and memories stolen from him by the porters. It was fun, but I probably wouldn't read the rest of the series. Sci-fi books are tough for me sometimes. If they're a little too far out there, I can't get in to them. This one was borderline.

"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly was very thrilling but unfortunately there wasn't much new substance here, at least not for me. He examines the last two weeks of President Lincoln's life and the conspiracy surrounding his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. Booth had a group of people he was planning the murder with, and had also planned on killed vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Seward was attacked but lived, and Johnson's killer chickened out and never confronted him. It's a sad chapter in America's history, and he told it very nicely. For someone who has read a lot about Lincoln and his assassination, it was familiar territory.

"The Internet is a Playground" by David Thorne is his first book. I had previously read most of it, but didn't get to all of it, so I took the time to finish. Lots of fun stuff, he's really quite entertaining.

The Kingmaker's Daughter; Game of Thrones; Long Lankin; Gone Girl

A bunch of really great books lately!

Philippa Gregory's latest, "The Kingmaker's Daughter", was a fascinating fictional look at Anne Neville, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, who was responsible for putting Edward IV and the Henry VI on the throne. He was killed in battle when Edward wanted his throne back, and Anne married Edward's youngest brother, Richard, who later became King Richard III and one of history's most interesting and (in my opinion) maligned figures. I can't wait for her next book, which will be from the point of view of Elizabeth Tudor, who married Henry VII and was Henry VIII's mother.

The first in the Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, "Game of Thrones" was very tense and riveting. At the heart is the basic War of the Roses story, so it was familiar to me: King Robert married a woman against the wishes of his advisers, Cersie Lannister. She is part of a large family which rises swiftly in the land, taking important titles and lands from men who feel they deserve it more. There are rumors that Cersie is a witch. When King Robert's hand (his closest adviser) dies, he approaches his longtime friend, Ned Stark, to come and be his new hand. Ned doesn't want to leave his home, Winterfell, but he hardly feels like he can refuse. There is much intrigue and secrets and people are murdered and while all this is going on half a world away the woman who feels Robert stole the throne from her, Dany, is preparing to launch a battle to win her rightful place back. I haven't seen the HBO show yet, but I'm eager to after reading the first book.

"Long Lankin" by Lindsey Barraclough is a genuinely spooky YA book based on a real English ballad. The book is set in the English countryside in the 1950s. Cora and Mimi turn up on their great Aunt Ida's doorstep with nowhere else to go. Ida makes it painfully clear she doesn't want the young girls there, and there is a long list of rules to follow: doors and windows must never be opened, no playing near the marsh, and never, ever go to the old church. Cora meets a young boy named Roger who lives near by, and of course they go to the church to see what all the fuss is about. It slowly comes out that Ida's family has been terrorized for generations by Long Lankin, who steals little children in order to drink their blood. Ida has lost many family members to Lankin, and it looks like Mimi might be next.

And finally, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, and it has long holds list at my library, so I was worried it might not live up to expectations, but it was very good. I can't say too much about the plot because there are several big twists, but the book starts out with Nick coming home and discovering his wife Amy is missing and the living room is torn up. The police don't take very long to determine that there was a great quantity of blood in the kitchen that has been hastily cleaned up, and that the struggle in the living room was staged. In between chapters dealing with Nick, who acts guilty, we read past entries from Amy's diary, as she grows increasingly scared of her husband's escalating violence. So did he do it or not? The ending was very satisfying, a lot of times a book will be very good and the ending will fall flat but not this one. Excellent!

Hide and Seek; Belles on Their Toes; Texasville; Artemis Fowl: the Last Guardian; Duane's Depressed

Sara Shepard's latest Lying Game novel "Hide and Seek" has Emma thinking that Mr. Mercer is Sutton's killer when she discovers he was out in Sabino Canyon the night Thayer was hit by the car and Sutton died. By the end of the book, he is of course cleared and a big twist I didn't see coming is revealed: Becky, the twin's birth mother, is actually Mr. Mercer's daughter, making the twins his grandchildren. Guess who Mr. Mercer was visiting in Sabino Canyon that night? That's right--Becky. Things are getting really interesting!

"Belles on Their Toes" by Frank Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth is a reread, a sequel to "Cheaper By the Dozen", focusing on the wonderful Gilbreth's after their beloved father dies. I love big families.

"Texasville" by Larry McMurtry is another reread, it's one of my go to favorites when I need cheering up. The first time I read this one, I think I was 17 or 18, and I stayed up all night, laughing so hard I was afraid I was going to wake my whole family up. It still makes me laugh.

The last Artemis Fowl book by Eoin Colfer "Artemis Fowl: the Last Guardian" has Opal Koboi and Artemis locked in a final showdown. After Opal manages to escape she unlocks a gate at Fowl Manor, unleashing the souls of the Berserkers, who have been buried there for a thousand years. The souls inhabit human and animal bodies and go after Artemis, Holly, and Butler, who manage to avoid the soul takeover. Opal is working on unlocking a second gate which will unleash a force that will destroy all of humanity, but Artemis has one final, desperate last ditch plan to save the world. Sigh. I'll miss the boy genius. It's been fun.

And finally, another Larry McMurtry reread, the third in the "Last Picture Show" series, and the one that should have been last "Duane's Depressed". Duane certainly does have a lot do be depressed about. It's not funny like "Texasville", but it's still good. I wish he would have ended the series here. Oh well.

Irene At Large; Marilyn; Bad Doings and Big Ideas; Hot Six; My Friend Dahmer; The Score; Walking Dead Book 16; The Hunter; Hello Darlin'

"Irene At Large" by Carole Nelson Douglas is the third Irene Adler mystery, which now brings me up to speed since I read the fourth one first. Nell is amazed when a strange man seems to recognize her on the streets of Paris before fainting dead away. Irene and Godfrey insist on bringing him back to their house so he can recover and Irene can discover who he is. Turns out he is the uncle of one of Nell's charges from her governess days, gone off to war 10 years earlier and never heard from again. He was a spy, and a bad guy is after him. Douglas tied it in very nicely with Conan Doyle's story of the Naval Treaty. Great stuff.

"Marilyn" by Lois Banner is a new biography out about Marilyn Monroe. It was kind of different, but I didn't really care for it. She makes a lot of accusations about Marilyn's supposed lesbianism without any real proof to back it up. One thing that really bothered me was how she went on and on in the book about how much Marilyn loved to be in the nude and never wore underwear, and then in the end of the book, talking about how Marilyn died and was found naked in her bed, she accuses whoever set up the scene (because of course it wasn't a suicide, or even an accidental overdose on Marilyn's part) screwed up because Marilyn always wore a bra to bed. Huh? So, she never wore underwear during the day? Just at night? Sure, that makes sense. Anyway, the book was full of things like this that just made me scratch my head.

"Bad Doings and Big Ideas" by Bill Willingham was a beautiful and fun collection of his comic odds and ends. There were lots of entertaining reads in here, and some really great artwork.

"Hot Six" by Janet Evanovitch was a reread and one of my favorite Stephanie books. Ranger is wanted for questioning by everyone from the police to the mob when Homer Ramos turns up dead and Ranger was the last one seen with him. Ranger has disappeared but everyone assumes Steph is still in contact with him, so everywhere she goes she has several different people tailing her, hoping to catch Ranger.

"The Score" by Richard Stark is a Parker novel I got quite a while ago and never got around to reading it, but it looked interesting, and it was, I liked it a lot. It reminded me of Mickey Spillane, that same sort of hard-boiled genre. Anyway, Parker is a criminal and he agrees to pull off a big heist involving 12 guys who are planning on knocking over a small town called Copper Canyon. Little does Parker know that the mastermind behind the heist, Edgars, holds a personal grudge against the town and is out for revenge because he was the former chief of police and was involved in a big scandal and run out of town. The whole thing is going down beautifully until Edgars starts blowing things up.

"Walking Dead Book 16" by Robert Kirkman continues our survivors' story. A man who calls himself Jesus shows up, claiming to be part of a larger network of survivors who want to arrange supply trades with Rick's group. Rick is naturally suspicious of Jesus, but eventually trusts him enough to take him back to his group so he can see how they function and talk to their man in charge. What Rick sees is amazing: these people are actually living, and not just surviving. They have hope for the future, and for the first time in a long time, so does Rick. I wonder if Kirkman is getting ready to wind the series down? I figured it was inevitable. They've been on the run for 2 years now. It seems like it might be time to finally settle down for good.

"The Hunter" by Darwyn Cooke is a graphic novel adaption of the first Stark Parker novel. Parker is screwed out of a lot of money by a crook named Mal, who convinced Parker's wife Lynn to try to kill him. Lynn fails, and Parker escapes, forges a new identity, has plastic surgery to give him a new face, and shows up bent on revenge. I'm really digging Parker. I can't wait to read more.

"Hello Darlin'" by Larry Hagman is his autobiography he wrote about 10 years ago. He talks about his wild Dallas days and his liver transplant. Larry Hagman is very different from his TV villain counterpart. He seems like a nice guy who loves life.

White Bread; Cheaper By the Dozen; Time Out for Happiness; Storms; Queen's Vow

"White Bread" by Aaron Bobrow-Strain was a short but interesting social history of how white bread came to dominate in America by playing on people's fears about cleanliness and then how, 100 years later, it has now fallen out of vogue for more "rustic" bread.

I watched the movie "Cheaper By the Dozen" a few weeks ago (the original with Myrna Low and Clifton Webb, of course) and it put me in the mood to reread Frank Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth's happy memoirs of their youth. I actually (much to my surprise) own "Cheaper By the Dozen", so I was able to pull it off the shelf and reread it. Alas, I don't own the sequel, so I'll have to get it from work. But if you've never read their books, they are good fun. Frank and Lillie Gilbreth married and had 12 children. Frank was a time management engineer, and Lillie was a psychologist. Together, they combined their amazing talents and ideas into making businesses and families more efficient. Some of their methods are still being used today. I weep like a baby every time I get to the point in the book (and the movie) when Frank Sr. dies.

"Time Out for Happiness" by Frank Gilbreth Jr. was a book I didn't know existed but my library had. Awesome :) He apparently wrote a few other books after "Belles on Their Toes" with his sister. This book was a loving tribute to his parents, detailing how they met and married and started their family. After their father's untimely death, he tells of how his amazing mother carried on their work single-handedly while finishing to raise their brood, how she amassed honors and degrees the world over for her tireless efforts, and how she was still going strong at 80. Frank clearly saw his mother as an amazing, fearless woman and it was a lovely book.

Carol Ann Harris, Lindsey Buckingham's ex-girlfriend, dishes the dirt about Fleetwood Mac during the "Rumours" and "Tusk" years in "Storms". Now this was what I wanted to read about when I read Ken's book on making Rumours. She talks about the partying and the craziness and how Lindsey's physical abuse finally forced her to leave after being with him for 8 years. It was definitely interesting.

"The Queen's Vow" by C. W. Gortner was very dense. It took me awhile to get through it. It's a novel about Queen Isabella of Castile, someone I know very little about, other than being Queen Catherine of Aragon's mother. Isabella certainly doesn't come off looking very good, since she expelled the Jews from her kingdom in 1492 (the same year she financed Christopher Columbus's expedition to the Americas) after centuries of peaceful co-existence (oh, and after she borrowed money from them to finance her costly crusades to expel the Moors). Not cool, Isabella. Just not cool. I know, I can't judge someone based on the mores of our day, but still, it's hard not to.

Killing Mr. Griffin; Eat and Run; The Other Side of Suffering; Fat, Drunk, and Stupid; Night Watch; Sandcastle Girls

"Killing Mr. Griffin" by Lois Duncan is one of those old YA books I've always meant to read and never got around to, so I finally did. It was pretty good, about a group of high school kids who are tired of how mean and unfair their English teacher, Mr. Griffin, is so they decide to kidnap him and scare him, thinking he'll be nicer once they let him go. Unfortunately, Mr. Griffin has a heart condition and he dies. The kids manage to cover up their crime for a little bit, but in the end the truth comes out.

"Eat and Run" by Scott Jurek was very informative and inspirational. Jurek is an ultramarathoner--he frequently runs (and wins) races that exceed 100 miles. I'd settle for being able to run a 5k in under 45 minutes :) Jurek is also a vegan, and a defender of the lifestyle and diet that so many see as being in direct opposition to a healthy athlete. He has some good recipes in there, too!

I cried the whole time I was reading John Ramsey's "The Other Side of Suffering". For 12 long years he and his late wife, Patsy, were vilified in the press and court of public opinion for having something to do with the horrific murder of their little girl, JonBenet, in 1996. Patsy, sadly, died in 2006 before the Boulder DA's office officially cleared the Ramsey's of any wrongdoing. John has been through so much, and yet he maintains his hope and his faith in God. It was very moving and very emotional.

So something a little lighter after all these heavy books! "Fat, Drunk, and Stupid" by Matty Simmons is the story of how the movie "Animal House" came to be. It's such a great film, I crack up every time I watch it, and I've see it dozens of times. It launched so many careers and made stars out of a lot of the people involved. Plus it sounds like they had a hell of a good time while making it.

"Night Watch" is Linda Fairstein's latest Alex Cooper book. I was trying to pay very close attention, because there is usually so much going on in her books that I get utterly lost. This time I think I got it, though, and it was very good. Alex's boyfriend from France, Luc (I can't use the word "lover" like Fairstein does. That just seems so cold and impersonal to me. Everytime I read it I just shudder) seems to be a prime suspect for murder when two people turn up murdered with the business cards to his new restaurant on them. Meanwhile, Alex has to cut her vacation to short to deal with a high profile rape case involving the head of an international economic organization. It was tight and taunt and very suspensful, I really enjoyed it.


Several months ago I got an advanced reader copy of "Sandcastle Girls" by Chris Bohjalian. The book came out last month, and I've been meaning to write about how much I enjoyed it ever since. It was heartbreaking, about the Turkish slaughter of Armenians during the first world war. Elizabeth, a recent Mt. Holyoke grad, has traveled to the desert with an American aid mission. She sees atrocities she didn't even imagine existed. She also meets Armen, whose wife and infant daughter were slaughtered. Armen leaves to join the British Army so he can fight the Turks. Elizabeth despairs of ever seeing him again, but he does return and they marry and raise a family. The story goes back and forth between Armen and Elizabeth in 1915 and their granddaughter in the present, as she's discovering her heritage. It was a beautifully written book with a lot of heart wrenching moments.

Along the Way; Good Morning, Irene; Little Altars Everywhere; Secret Keeper; Reformed Vampire Support Group

Martin Sheen and his oldest son, Emilio Estevez, teamed up to chronicle their father/son journey through life and Hollywood in "Along the Way". It was very nicely done and I enjoyed it. Martin was only 21 when Emilio was born, so they kind of grew up together.

"Good Morning, Irene" is another Irene Adler mystery by Carole Nelson Douglas. I really like these books. Irene and Nell get pulled into investigating the mysterious suicides of a sailor when his dead body washes up with the same strange markings as another body that Irene examined several years before, who also died by drowning. Then Godfrey rescues a young girl who is trying to drown herself, and she has the same strange tattoo. What on earth could a nice, well brought up young girl have in common with two crusty old sailors? Why, buried treasure of course!

I reread Rebecca Wells' magnificent "Little Altars Everywhere". When I first read it, back in 1994, before it was incredibly popular, I fell in love with the name Siddalee and decided when I finally got a dog she would be red and I would name her Siddalee.

Meet Siddalee, my little dachshund, who suffers from none of the same low self esteem issues her namesake deals with. My Sidda is fabulous and she knows it!

Sandra Boyd's "Secret Keeper" was pretty good. It was about a young lady serving in Queen Kathryn Parr's household, and she has an interesting theory on what happened to Kathryn and Thomas Seymour's daughter, Mary, who was born shortly before Kathryn died of childbed fever, and six months before Thomas was executed for treason. There is no historical record of little Mary Seymour after the age of two. She was destitute, since all her father's wealth went to the crown after his execution, and no one in her family wanted the expense of caring for a child who was cousin to the king. Many historians believe young Mary died and her burial spot is lost to history. Boyd theorizes that Juliana, the young lady so close to the Queen, smuggled Mary out of the country to Ireland and raised her as her own. It's a nice thought.

And finally, a funny twist on vampire books, Catherine Jinks' "Reformed Vampire Support Group". The life of a vampire is not nearly as glamorous as Nina makes it out to be in her fiction. Due to their limited diets of guinea pigs, they are always sick and weak but Nina and her fellow reformed vampires are determined not to lose control and feast on humans. When one of their own is staked, Nina and her friends decide to find out who's on the hunt and end up getting mixed up in an underground werewolf fighting ring. It was definitely different!

Case of the Postponed Murder; Below Stairs; Off Balance; Curses!; Cruising Atitude

Another Perry Mason! Don't worry, this is the last one for awhile, I had a *ton* of holds come in for me all at once at work.
"Case of the Postponed Murder" has Perry defending a woman accused of killing wealthy Penn Wentworth on his yacht. The police and prosecution think the murder happened at one time, when Perry's client was on board. Perry however thinks the murder actually occurred later, once his client had left. Guess who is right? :)

"Below Stairs" by Magaret Powell is one I've been waiting for for a long time now; the hold list at my library has been insane. She inspired the shows "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" with her memoirs about working in domestic service right after World War I. It was funny and witty and she had a great dry sense of humor about her low station in life.

The summer Olympics are coming up again, and gymnastics has always been my favorite. I remember watching the '84 Olympics at my grandparents' house: they drug the TV outside on an extension cord and set it up out there so my sister and I could watch without having to get out of the pool. I was so thrilled in '96 when the U.S. ladies gymnastics team won the first team gold, and of course Kerri Strug's amazing vault landing the second time around still gives me chills. So I read "Off Balance" by Dominique Moceanu, the youngest member of that '96 team. She tells of abuse at the hands of Bela and Marta Karoyli, the famous Romanaian coaches, and how her overbearing, domineering father ruled over their family with an iron first, forcing Dominique's mother to give up a daughter for adoption when she was born without legs. Twenty years later Dominique's sister, Jennifer, got in touch with her just as Dominique was getting ready to give birth to her first child. It was a good story and I enjoyed it, but it did get a bit repetitive at times. I sometimes felt like I was reading the same thing over and over. Still, she went through quite a bit but at least now it looks like she's in a good place in her life.

"Curses!" by J. A. Kazimer is an interesting twist on fairy tales. R.J. is a villain on leave from the union when Asia, one of Cinderella's stepsisters, approaches and asks for his help solving Cinderella's murder. R.J. agrees and the bodies start piling up and the list of suspects narrows until it looks bad for Asia. It was pretty funny, and different.

"Cruising Attitude" by Heather Poole is about her adventures as a flight attendant. Even though I've worked in customer service my whole life, people's bad behavior never fails to amaze and astound me, and shockingly the way people behave on an airplane is no different than how they behave in a library or a bookstore. I wonder when it became okay in our society to go out and act like an asshole in public. I don't think people would have behaved that way when my grandparents were my age. People had class and manners and a sense of shame back then. It's unfortunate that it's come to what we have now, but at least Poole is able to laugh about (most of) it.

Case of the Perjured Parrot; Case of the Rolling Bones; Case of the Mischievous Doll; Case of the Reluctant Model; Elsewhere, California; Good Night, Mr. Holmes; Making Rumours

Some more Perry Mason rereads by Erle Stanley Gardner.
"Case of the Perjured Parrot" -- someone has gone to a lot of trouble to teach Casanova the parrot a new phrase, either implicating the ex-wife or the girlfriend (both conveniently named Helen) in a multimillionaire's murder. I liked this one because Helen the girlfriend is a librarian. Whoo hoo!
"Case of the Rolling Bones" has Perry defending a man who is accused of killing the same man twice.
"Case of the Mischievous Doll" has Perry defending a woman who is accused of killing herself, or rather, a fake identity she created.
"Case of the Reluctant Model" -- what starts as a simple libel suit in the case of a piece of artwork escalates into murder.

Okay, something new! "Elsewhere, California" by Dana Johnson is about Avery, growing up in West Covina in the 1970s after her parents move from crime ridden L.A. It flips back and forth between the past and the present. I enjoyed it, I thought she did an excellent job of capturing the vibe and feel of the 70s, from the music Avery was listening to to the clothes she was wearing and whose posters she would have had hanging in her room.

"Good Night, Mr. Holmes" is Carole Nelson Douglas's first Irene Adler adventure, and I really enjoyed it. The characters of Irene and Nell are so beautifully done, and she throws in just enough Sherlock and Watson to keep it interesting but not so much that she intrudes on Conan Doyle. In this book we learn how Irene and Nell first meet, and try to solve their first case together. Investigating this case leads to meeting Godfrey Norton, whom Irene later marries, but not until she returns from Bohemia after running from the King.

"Making Rumours" by Ken Caillat is the inside story of producing the iconic Fleetwood Mac album (and one of my all time favorites). It was a bit too technical for my taste (being a sound engineer in the 1970s sounds like it was *a lot* of work), but now I understand why bands rarely sound the same live as they do on their albums, after all the manipulation that goes into it. Boy, what a process! Plus Caillat comes off a bit arrogant for my taste. I also think he downplayed the drugs and alcohol influence at the time, but hey, whatever. I was more interested in how the band was interacting with each other, and instead I got a lesson on microphones, speakers, and consoles. At least I learned something new, I guess :)

I'll Go Home Then: It's Warm and Has Chairs; China Study; Taco USA; Gone; Divorced, Beheaded, Survived; Lady, Go Die!; Jeneration X; Case of the Runaway Corpse; Case of the Horrified Heirs; Case of the Dangerous Dowager

Whew, okay. I guess I've been reading a lot :)
"I'll Go Home Then; It's Warm and Has Chairs" is David Thorne's second book. I've read most of his first, and I keep up with him on his website. He is hilarious, and this book is full of his email dealings with people who just don't get his sense of humor.

"The China Study" by Dr. T. Colin Campbell was an amazing eye opener about the dangers of eating the typical Western diet and how, by introducing animal products into the rest of the world, we're starting to see rise in chronic illnesses that the native people didn't suffer from before. He certainly knows his stuff: his credentials are impeccable and he's been studying the topic for decades. On an unrelated side note: how frustrating is it to rent a library book and discover some moron has penciled or penned their idiotic remarks all through it? Seriously? Take 20 seconds and Google Dr. Campbell. If you don't realize that he's a prominent vegetarian author and don't agree with his views, then stop reading his book. Don't write your half-assed, unintelligent commentary all over his book. Do you think you're going to persuade me? I'm going to listen to some anonymous idiot with a pencil over a renowned medical doctor?. Luckily it was all in pencil (this time) and I have a big eraser :)

"Taco USA" by Gustavo Arellano looked at the rise of Mexican food in the US and the debate over what is authentic and what isn't (basically all of it). It was interesting and fun, he has a good sense of humor.

"Gone" by Michael Grant was really great. It's a YA dystopian novel I've been meaning to read for years and haven't gotten to until now. In the tiny coastal town of Perdido Beach, one day everyone over the age of 15 disappears. Left alone to their own devices, the bullies start picking on the weaker kids and everyone in town turns to Sam, who has always been sort of a natural leader, to help them figure out what to do. Then the kids from Coates' Academy up the hill show up and their charismatic leader, Caine, starts taking over. Like Sam and many of the other kids, Caine has special powers that have magnified since the adults disappeared. It doesn't take long before chaos ensues, fights break out, and Sam and his group are just trying to stay alive long enough to figure out what happened, if they can reverse it, and if they can keep Sam from disappearing on his 15th birthday in a few days.

"Divorced, Beheaded, Survived" by Karen Lindsey toted itself as a "feminist" interpretation of Henry VIII's six wives. Well, not really, and no new information for me here, but it was still well written and would be a good introduction for someone who hasn't read as much as I have. The problem I have with interpreting behavior based on our social mores is that things were different back then. You can't look at Kathryn Howard and say "oh, she just liked sex and Henry was an impotent old man". Yes, that's true and nowadays most of us wouldn't judge her too harshly, but Kathryn was a product of the 16th century and how they were brought up to think is very different. Not that I'm making excuses for Henry, because Lord knows I'm not, I'm just saying.

"Lady, Go Die!" by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins was good Hammer fun. Mike and Velda are on vacation in Sidon, Long Island, when they run across a group of cops beating up a little defenseless guy. Mike makes quick work of those punks and discovers the guy is a local beachcomber a little on the slow side named Poochie. Mike and Velda take him under their wings and get him the medical help he needs. Mike starts digging and discovers that the cops are up in a twist about a local wealthy widow who has gone missing, Sharron Weasley, and since Poochie is the closest person to her house they thought he might have seen something. Sharron turns up dead, and with the local corrupt police force in way over their heads, Mike dives in to sort things out. He kind of lost me when he introduced some other murders that were supposedly related, but the ending was great.

"Jeneration X" by Jen Lancaster was a bit disappointing. Most of the book seems to have been already discussed on her blog, which I read, so a lot of it wasn't new. It was funny the first time I read it, but rereading it a few months later had me wondering why she put it on the blog first. The new stuff was incredibly funny, as usual, and I enjoyed the overall snarky tone that she's so great at. I just wish there would have been more original stuff.

Reading Mickey Spillane put me in the mood to reread some Perry Mason mysteries. I don't know why, but it did, so since they're short I polished off three yesterday while relaxing in the sun. Can't think of a better way to spend a day off!
"Case of the Runaway Corpse" by Erle Stanley Gardner involved a presumed dead man crawling out his motel room window and escaping to parts unknown, leaving behind a letter supposedly implicating his wife as his murderer.
In "The Case of the Horrified Heirs", it looks like Lauretta Trent's greedy relatives are trying to poison the old girl by slipping arsenic into the spicy Mexican food she loves so much. When that doesn't seem to work quickly enough, they stage a road accident that leaves Lauretta's car in the ocean and Virginia Baxter holding the keys to the car that ran Lauretta off the road.
"The Case of the Dangerous Dowager" has Matilda Benson hiring Perry to pay off her granddaughter's IOUs with the shady businessmen running a gambling boat off the coast. Perry tries, but dealing with Duncan and Grieb isn't going so well. Dealing with them gets even worse when Grieb turns up shot dead with Sylvia Oxman's fingerprints all over his desk.

Okay, well that's it for now! Glad I got caught up and hope I don't get this far behind again anytime soon :)

My Extraordinary Ordinary Life; Death in the Air; Ice Harvest; Stunning

I like Sissy Spacek, and I liked her autobiography "My Extraordinary Ordinary Life". She's not likely to win over too many fans of women who had trouble losing the baby weight, though, as she brags about fitting into her blue jeans a few hours after giving birth to her second daughter and then going home, but other than that, I found her writing to be very down to earth and likeable.

"Death in the Air" by Shane Peacock is the second in his boy Sherlock series. I didn't really care for it too much. There was just a lot going on and I was having a hard time following the plot. And this is a children's book, which makes it even worse! From what I was able to figure out, Sherlock witnesses a trapeze artist fall to his death and determines the bar was sabotaged. While investigating who could have wanted him dead, Sherlock discovers that a large sum of money is missing from a vault in the adjoining room to where the trapeze artist was performing, and decides the dead guy saw the crime and that's why he was killed--because the thieves realized in advance he's be able to see them and cut his bar? I think? Yeah...I'm not too sure. Also, a gang was involved somehow. Anyway, I couldn't figure it out.

"Ice Harvest" by Scott Phillips was great, dark humor and lots of fun, a quick read. I've been wanted to read it even since I saw the movie (BBT whoop whoop!!). I'll have to watch the movie again (damn :) ) because I think the book was different. Anyway, Vic and Charlie have been stealing from their boss Bill for awhile now and have decided to blow town on Christmas, 1979. Everyone is double-crossing everyone else in this deal, and no one knows who to trust. Eventually Charlie ends up just killing everyone because he can't be bothered to sort the mess out. The ending was absolutely perfect, and I discovered there's a sequel. Great!
And finally, the next to the last PLL book, "Stunning" by Sara Shepard. Damn, I'll be sad when these books are done, as much as I'm dying to know who A is. I really have no idea! In this one, the girls thought that Gayle, Tom Martin's new wealthy benefactor, was A, after Emily told them about how Gayle tried to buy her baby from her over the summer. Turns out it wasn't Gayle, though, and now the girls are back to square one.

The Seven Per-Cent Solution; Another Scandal in Bohemia

So my Sherlock Holmes kick continues. Despite having about a billion (I could be exaggerating ever so slightly) library books with due dates stacked up, I pulled two books I own off the shelf to read. They were both very good, so I can't get too angry at myself for ignoring the others.

"The Seven Per-Cent Solution" by Nicholas Meyer is written in the style of a lost Watson epistle with Meyer serving as the editor. Watson comes clean, saying he lied in "The Final Problem" (in which Holmes and Moriarty are presumed dead after a fall from Reichenbach Falls) and "The Empty House" (in which Holmes returns to London and explains he faked his own death). Watson admits he made these stories up to cover up what was really going on at the time. He and Mycroft, Sherlock's brother, coerced Sherlock into following Moriarty to Vienna so Watson could get Sherlock to see Dr. Sigmund Freud. Watson is concerned over Sherlock's growing cocaine addiction, and implores Dr. Freud to cure him. Freud successfully treats Sherlock, and then asks a favor of him: he has a patient who cannot speak, and under hypnosis is giving very odd answers to questions about her identity. Sherlock questions the girl after Freud puts her under hypnosis again, and determines she is the wife of a recently deceased Baron whose son, the new Baron, is determined to get out of the way so he can take over his father's vast business interests. The book was a thrill ride at the end, complete with a rollicking train chase that had Holmes and the Baron dueling with swords on top of a car, going through tunnels. It was a great read.

Carole Nelson Douglas writes a series of books with Irene Adler as the main character. Irene, you will remember, was the woman who bested Holmes in "A Scandal in Bohemia". Afterwards, Holmes always refers to her as "the woman". In Douglas's fourth Irene Adler book, "Another Scandal in Bohemia", Irene and her trusty sidekick Nell are going back to Bohemia, to Prague, to help the King's new wife Clotilde, with a rather personal problem, as well as seeing if they can shed some light on the Golem that has been terrorizing the city. I love Nell, she is full of completely deadpan, dry humor that had me laughing out loud. Irene is charming, Douglas does an excellent job portraying these characters. The plot was a bit thick for me, but I did enjoy it, especially when Sherlock himself made a guest appearance. I didn't know this was the fourth one until I started reading it (and how I managed to buy the fourth without buying any of the others, I have no idea) and unfortunately my library doesn't own the first, so I have a friend getting one from another library for me. Looking forward to it!

L.A. '56; Wentworth Hall; The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes; Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?

"L.A. '56" by Joel Engel was brilliant true crime that read like a thriller. During the summer of 1956, a serial rapist is on the loose in Los Angeles. The LAPD is convinced they have the right suspect in custody: a former officer named Todd Roark. However, one of the detectives, Danny Galindo, isn't so sure and takes it upon himself to hunt down the real rapist. Powerful and edgy, it just goes to show that when you think things can't get any worse, they sure can.

"Wentworth Hall" by Abby Grahame was supposed to be like "Downton Abbey" for the YA crowd. I thought it overshot the mark. Grahame tried way too hard to copy the show and it came through and just struck me as silly.

"The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" edited by Leslie Klinger is sort of a reread. I've read all the stories within (from "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes") I just hadn't read the annotated version. I've been wanting to, ever since it first came out, I just haven't gotten around to it. Since I've gotten into the new BBC version of Sherlock Holmes on TV (amazing!!!) I've been itching to reread the stories, so I checked out the annotated version. It was fun, very clever footnotes and quite interesting. I learned a lot :)

Jeanette Winterson's memoir "Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?" was very good. She is a positive, optimistic individual that triumphed in the face of adversity. Jeanette was adopted when she was six weeks old by an older couple. The wife, who she refers to as "Mrs Winterson" was very religious and cold, and things only got worse when teenaged Jeanette started a relationship with a girl. She went on to become a well regarded author and eventually met her biological mother. I haven't read any of her fiction, but I've been meaning to ("Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit", her first, is on my list 1,001 books to read before I die). I loved her positive attitude toward life. It was very refreshing.

Hanging Hill; Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

"Hanging Hill" by Mo Hayder blew me away. The ending was WOW x 10. I can't wait to read some more of her books! A young girl is raped and murdered, and detective Zoe is on the case. While everyone else on the police force thinks the murderer is Lorne's boyfriend, Zoe doesn't buy it and goes digging deeper, into a world of illegal pornography, and discovers a likely suspect, David Goldrab. Zoe's long estranged sister, Sally, who is recently divorced and in deep financial straights because of it, is working for Goldrab. The twists and turns that follow are suspenseful and shocking and like I said, the ending floored me. It was perfect, brilliant.

"Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey" by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon, was an interesting look at the real life inspiration for the TV show. Lady Almina was the rich bastard offspring of Alfred de Rothschild, who married into nobility and used her father's fortune to restore the title and Highclere Castle (as seen on the TV show, that's where the exterior shots are filmed for "Downton Abbey") to its glory days. During WWI she turned the house into a hospital until a more permanent one could be built, and nursed soldiers back to health. Lady Almina seems like a nice person who did a lot of good with what she had to offer.

The Good Father; In One Person; Zombie Blondes

Diane Chamberlain's latest, "The Good Father", was pretty good until about 3/4 of the way through, and then it got pretty ridiculous. But I was really enjoying it up until then, and wondering how she was going to resolve things. Not the way I would have, but that's okay. Travis is a young dad to Bella, who is his whole life. When their modest home burns down, killing his mom, Travis is left with no money, no home, no job, and no one to watch Bella while he looks for work. Things go downhill for him pretty quickly, and he ends up deciding to take someone up on a shady offer to do something illegal. He leaves Bella with Erin, a lady he met at a coffee shop who is going through some grieving of her own: her own young daughter died recently. As if all this isn't enough, Bella's biological mother Robin is discovering she regrets agreeing to give up her child for adoption and misses her. When Travis doesn't return when he promised Erin he would, she decides to take Bella and try to find Robin. Hmm...okay. That's when the book fell apart for me. But still, it wasn't bad, just not her best.

I've only read one other John Irving book, "Prayer for Owen Meany", and while I liked it, I thought he kind of beat us over the head with his political agenda. In his latest, "In One Person", he basically does the exact same thing and I was irritated by it. I did like the characters well enough, but I thought the whole storyline was kind of exaggerated.  The book is about the main character, Bill, who is raised by his single mom, his domineering grandmother, and his cross dressing grandfather. Bill determines fairly early on in life that he is attracted to both men and women, and while he realizes liking men is wrong he feels powerless to stop it. The majority of the book takes place in Vermont in the 1950s and 60s, at an all male prep school. Bill's first sexual encounter is with a transsexual, and he ends up meeting a lot of other people who are bi or gay in some way. This stretched believability for me just a smidge. It reminded me of a Perry Mason book I read where there were like, 25 different people in this one guy's pool during the course of night. It was just like what? That's not possible. I think Irving is just one of those authors I'm not cut out for.

"Zombie Blondes" by Brian James was an interesting YA take on the zombie phenomenon. Hannah and her dad move a lot, ever since her dad lost his job as a cop he's had a hard time finding decent work and they're always skipping out on bill collectors. They end up in Maplecrest, and it doesn't take Hannah long to discover who the popular kids in school are: the picture perfect blonde clones that make up the cheerleading squad. One of the boys she meets, Lukas, warns her about the girls on the squad. He says they're all zombies who recruit normal girls and change them. Hannah thinks he is exaggerating, and is excited when one of the girls, Meredith, takes a liking to her and suggests she try out for the squad. Hannah makes it and the process of changing her begins: she loses weight from the nonstop practices, they bleach her hair blonde, etc. She then discovers Lukas was right--they really are dead and are using the blood from people they've killed off to keep themselves from rotting. It had an open ending leaving way for a sequel, if he wants, but either way it was definitely different and I liked it.

A Teeny Bit of Trouble

Michael Lee West's sequel to "Gone with a Handsomer Man" did not disappoint, and I think I liked it better than the first one. Teeny returns in "A Teeny Bit of Trouble". When she witnesses the murder of her boyfriend Coop's ex-girlfriend, Barb, she is suddenly in danger. Coop wants to keep her safe, but Teeny is obsessed with discovering the truth and lands herself smack in the middle of a nasty organ harvesting ring. It was fun and I actually figured some things out before the author spelled them out for me (a real rarity!!).

The Princess Bride

I've never seen the movie "The Princess Bride" based on William Goldman's book, but now I want to. The book was very cute and funny. Goldman tells it as if he's abridging it from a longer version by an author named S. Morgenstern, which made for some interesting commentary. It is a story of love and adventure: Buttercup and Westley fall in love, but when Buttercup believes Westley's been killed by a pirate she vows never to love again, and agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck. Westley returns before the wedding to save Buttercup, after learning Humperdinck's evil plan to murder her and blame it on a neighboring country as an excuse to start a war. It was funny and sweet and very charming.

World of Downton Abbey; Vegan Freak

So in addition to loving "Mad Men", I also watch "Downton Abbey" (I actually don't watch much TV, in case you hadn't guessed, I prefer reading ;-) ) and I love the costumes and the characters and the whole society. Jessica Fellowes writes about it in "World of Downton Abbey", which is filled with the most beautiful color photos and behind the scenes look at filming and tidbits from the actors. If you enjoy "Downton Abbey" you really ought to check this book out, it's marvelous.

"Vegan Freak" by Bob and Jenna Torres needs a little backstory about some personal changes. I went vegan three months ago after reading (most of, anyway) Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet" and "Skinny Bitch" by Kim Barnouin. I didn't blog about them because I didn't read every word and I don't think it's fair to include it in the blog unless I read all of it. Plus, I was just deciding whether or not I should try out veganism, and didn't feel like advertising it. At any rate, I couldn't be happier with the way this lifestyle is working for me. My allergies are all but gone, I'm losing weight, and I feel great. I've always been incredibly blessed when it comes to my complexion and hair, but I'm getting more compliments on how I seem to be glowing. The problem with "Vegan Freak" is that the authors are convinced (and they make no bones about telling the reader) that the only legitimate reason to go vegan is because you are against animal cruelty. Now, don't get me wrong. I love the animals. I think testing makeup and whatnot on them is horrible. But I personally have no problems with eating animals if it were still done the way it was done before the rise of meat packing plants. I think the way animals are treated now before being consumed is not only sad for them, but dangerous for us. They are pumped up so full of chemicals and live practically on top of each other. It used to be very expensive to own a cow because you had to have so much land for it to graze on and space. Nowadays the ranchers pack them in so tight and force feed them grain. And the poor chickens never get a chance to run around in the sunshine to peck. So for me going vegan was more for health issues. I want to be aware of what I am putting in my body, and with meat and dairy and other food derived in some way from animals you can never be sure. I've started reading labels at the grocery store, and buying a lot more fresh vegetables and fruit and less packaged and canned items. I'm eating better than I ever have in my life, and so what if I didn't come to veganism the way the Torres's feel is the "only" acceptable way? The end result is the same, right? I'm not eating animal products anymore. I tell everyone who asks how great I feel and I highly recommend at least *trying* to eat less meat, if you can't give it up completely. Instead of making the veggies the side dish of a meal, make them the star, and you'll be amazed at all the great meals you can make. I've been having the most fun trying new recipes and foods these last three months. It really has been amazing. I do feel sorry for some of the people who the authors are trying to help in this book. They discuss how to deal with family and friends who tease and won't accept your lifestyle choice. I have been so fortunate that first of all, I live in a very vegan friendly area here in Southern California. I'm not even the only vegan at my workplace. Secondly, my family and friends have all been wonderfully supportive and curious about my new lifestyle change. I actually got my mom and my sister to try fried tofu, and they both loved it! The main message I got from this book was to be a positive vegan, a role model, so others can look to you and say "It can't be that hard. Look how happy she is!". So if you're thinking of making a lifestyle change like this, do it for whatever reason works for you. And good luck!

Stardust; Deadlocked; Walking Dead Vol. 15; Cave Full of Ghosts

"Stardust" by Carla Stewart is a Christian fiction title but it isn't overly preachy and full of praying like some of the other recent Christian fiction I've read, so that was nice. It just didn't have a lot of bad language, which I sometimes want. Anyway, there was a lot going on in this book, but it didn't feel overdone and ridiculous. Sometimes life throws a whole lot at us and we have to respond even if we're worn out from dealing with other bad things. Georgia is a young mother to two little girls and her husband has run off with another woman. He turns up dead and Georgia worries about how she is going to support her girls. Her aunt Cora, who raised her after her parents dumped her off with Cora and left when she was just a little girl, is dying for Georgia to move in with her, but Georgia is determined to make her own way. A distant relative dies and leaves her the motel he owned, the Stardust, which Georgia has fond memories of because that's the last place she saw her parents before they disappeared from her life. Georgia is determined to fix it up and make a living off of it. The book takes place in Texas in the 1950s, and there is also a polio scare going on, since it's summer. When a heavily pregnant woman shows up at the Stardust with her little girl in tow, delirious from fever, everyone fears the worse, and their fears are justified: the pregnant woman has polio. Just as the Stardust is finally starting to get off the ground and running, fears of catching the disease keep people away and Georgia finds herself caring for the woman's little girl and her newborn son while she's in the hospital fighting the polio. There was a lot of predictable bits, but it didn't diminish from the message of the book. Georgia is a sweet lady, and I'm glad things finally started to work out for her and her family. It was a nice book.

"Deadlocked" by Charlaine Harris it the latest Sookie Stackhouse book. Sookie and Eric are on the rocks, spending too much time apart and not communicating. Sookie has the added problem of having Dermot and Claude, her fairy relatives, staying with her since Niall closed the portal to Faery. Sookie's grandmother left her a bit of fairy magic in the form of a cluviel dor (I think that's how it's spelled, I don't have the book in front of me). All of the supernatural beings in and around Bon Temps seem to know she has it, so they're all after her. I really liked the ending, I think this is the next to the last book, so I'm curious as to how Harris is going to wrap it all up. It seems like Sookie and Sam might end up together while Eric is forced to marry the Queen of Oklahoma, but who knows for sure? Either way, I will miss Sookie and her crazy paranormal love life and adventures.

"Walking Dead Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves" by Robert Kirkman picks off where 14 ended: Carl is recovering from his devastating gun wound to the head and the survivors of the zombie overrun on their community are trying to pick up the pieces and move on. There is a small faction of disgruntled people, led by Nicholas, who are convinced Rick is just going to kill them to take over their homes for his own people. The book builds up the this showdown, which has a nice conclusion, but I'm thinking we haven't seen the last of the disgruntled original residents of their new town. Vol 16 is due out next month, so hopefully I can get my hands on it quicker than I could with this one.

It's no secret how much I adore Billy Bob Thornton. I think he's brilliant and amazing and incredibly, incredibly hot. When he refers to himself as Quasimodo in his new book "Cave Full of Ghosts", it makes me wonder if he owns a mirror. How Angelina Jolie went from him to Brad Pitt is a mystery to me. What a downgrade. But I digress. "Cave Full of Ghosts" is co-written with Kinky Friedman, whom I also adore. Basically Billy Bob sat down and started telling stories of his life and how he thinks and Kinky recorded it and transcribed it. At any rate, it's fun stuff, seeing into the mind of a genius. I wish there would have been more pictures. That would have made me a happy camper, but it was still pretty awesome :)

That Woman

"That Woman" by Anne Sebba was interesting. I didn't know anything about Wallis Simpson before reading this book, other than of course that Edward VIII abdicated for her, which I always thought was incredibly romantic. The reason I was curious to read it was that I bought a huge biography on the Queen Mother a few weeks ago that I'm afraid I'm never going to get to. It's actually very sad, the number of books I own and never read because I always have library books with pending due dates that I'm trying to finish. A few years I made a vow to read at least one book I own that I've never read once a month. Yeah, not so much. At any rate, back to Wallis Simpson. I did wonder how this woman, who wasn't terribly attractive, managed to land not one but three husbands, one of whom was a king. At any rate, Sebba has a theory as to why Wallis was barren, but luckily she didn't belabor the issue. The book was a bit odd towards the end though: for the first 3/4 she is pretty detailed and then it was like she was in a big rush to get through with it. In one paragraph she is talking about a party the Duke and Duchess were attending, and then the next paragraph is 6 years later and Edward is dead. Wait, what? What happened? Still, it was a nice overall look at someone I was unfamiliar with.

Real Mad Men; Midnight Dreary; Why We Broke Up; Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics

Okay, so I'm obsessed with the TV show "Mad Men". And, I think, for good reasons. It's a fantastic show, the characters are awesome, and I wish I could afford Joan's wardrobe. I read Andrew Cracknell's "Real Mad Men", about the real life men and women of Madison Avenue during the 1960s. It was neat to see all the old advertisements and hear about how they used to work back then. I love thumbing through old magazines to see the old ads. It was an interesting look back at how things used to be. I saw the new John Cusak movie "The Raven" a few weeks ago, about Edgar Allan Poe. It's getting absolutely slaughtered by critics and moviegoers alike, but what can I say? I must have terrible taste because I actually thought it was very good. So I was curious as to what sort of theories were bounding about as to his death, and I read John Evanglist Walsh's "Midnight Dreary". Walsh's theory is that Poe was beaten up and made to drink until he was completely drunk by the three brothers of the woman he was planning on marrying, Elmira Shelton. Apparently her brothers and her own children so disapproved of their relation marrying Poe that drastic measures were taken and the brothers followed him on a trip from Richmond to Philadelphia, waylaying him in Baltimore, where he died from his injuries. It was an interesting theory, but I'm not totally convinced. You know I love a good real life mystery! I'll have to read more on the subject as soon as I have time (hahahaha...) "Why We Broke Up" by Daniel Handler is a YA novel told in note form from Min to her ex-boyfriend Ed. She has put together a box of all the mementos of their relationship and writes him to explain exactly why they broke up. It was very sentimental, and worked about 3/4 of the way through. The ending was disappointing, to say the least. All along Min is saying they broke up because they were so different, etc., but in the end it turns out Ed was cheating on her. Um...okay, well, sure. Side note: this book is super heavy. It's got pretty color illustrations throughout. I think if I were younger I'd probably like it more, but now I'm too far removed from the high emotions of teenagers. "Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics" by Loretta Lynn chronicles her life through her song lyrics. It's definitely for the hardcore Loretta fan; while I like most of her greatest hits, a lot of these songs I had never heard. But it was interesting to learn the back story to her lyrics. I must say, of all the songwriters out there, Loretta really stands out as one who pours her heart into her music, and it shows.

Las Vegas: an Irreverent History; Unholy Night; Dead Zone

"Las Vegas: an Irreverent History" by Michelle Ferrari was a fun look at Sin City that included some beautiful old pictures. I love old pictures, especially of a place like Vegas, which started out as a barren, dusty, desert town and exploded into the light filled city with the oddly shaped, rising buildings that it is today. "Unholy Night" by Seth Grahame-Smith was hilarious good fun. He imagines that the three wise men who attended Jesus' birth were not actually holy men but three thieves on the run from Herod. It was clever and very nicely done. And I finished rereading another Stephen King this morning, "Dead Zone". It was never one of my favorites as a kid, so I don't think I've read it in over 20 years. I remembered a lot of it, but not how *good* it really is. John Smith is in a bad car accident, in a coma for over four years. When he awakens, he has the disturbing ability to see things, things in the future. He is labeled a psychic, and called a huckster by many, but he just wants to be left alone. There is a great little section where Sheriff George Bannerman of Castle Rock calls and asks him to help him catch the strangler who has been preying on women and young girls in Castle Rock for six years. John reluctantly goes and when he tells Bannerman that the killer is one of his own deputies, Frank Dodd, Bannerman is stunned and doesn't want to believe it. John persuades him to go to Dodd's house, and they find Dodd has committed suicide. When I read it last, I didn't like the whole Greg Stillson storyline, it bored me, but now, 20 years older and hopefully a little wiser, I can appreciate the brilliance of it. The ending was so great, just spot on, how John doesn't actually kill Stillson like he wants but still is able to discredit him and make him look like a fool. I have a million library books to read that are all due within the next few weeks, so I might take a short break from SK rereads for a bit. Plus I have his newest "Wind Through the Keyhole" to get through, but I think I'll pick up with "Dark Half" next. I remember liking that one quite a bit when I was younger.

Recipes and Wooden Spoons; Needful Things; Lunatics; Cujo

Gah, I'm sure I'm forgetting one. Anyway... "Recipes and Wooden Spoons" by Judy Baer is a Grace Chapel Inn story. Jane is thrilled when she finds an old cookbook that belonged to her mother. She cherishes the notes her mother left in it and finds it to be a way to connect to the women she never knew. But her sisters are on her case about the operating expenses of the Inn, and things are tense until of course it all works out. There was a lot more praying in this one, I think maybe Baer is more keen on it than Melody Carlson. I'm rereading some Stephen King books I haven't read in a long time. I reread "IT" and "The Stand" fairly often, but I hardly ever dive into the others. I decided to make some time to do it, and grabbed "Needful Things". Man, is it good! There were a lot of things I'd forgotten about. In case you haven't read it (and why haven't you? Why are you reading this? Go read "Needful Things", I'll wait...) it's about Castle Rock, Maine. A new store comes to town called Needful Things. Its proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is all about making deals, and he seems to have a little something for everyone. Of course, things aren't really what they seem and the good citizens of Castle Rock are paying a heck of a lot more than they bargained for for those innocent little baubles and trinkets. "Lunatics" by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel was hilarious. Through a series of mishaps, Jeffrey and Philip (who hate each other) end up starting a revolution in Cuba, feeding starving refugees in Africa, and running for President of the United States under two different tickets. It was zany and wacky and lots of fun. I've always enjoyed Dave Barry's novels. "Cujo", another one in the parade of Stephen King masterpieces. I'd forgotten how good this one is. You know why it's good? Because there's nothing supernatural about it. It is something that very well could have happened (not today, probably, what with cell phones and all, but still). "Cujo" is about a rabid dog holding a woman and her little boy hostage in a Pinto. He times the tension perfectly in this, from having Donna gain hope that the mailman will save them, only to find out the Joe Cambers stopped the mail service. Then the arrival of Sheriff Bannerman, only to have the dog kill him, too. Every time a glimmer of hope pops up, rabid Cujo is there to snap it away. Brilliant.

Sugar Rush; The Midwife's Confession; A River Runs Through It; Sweet Stuff

"Sugar Rush" by Donna Kaufamann is a bit outside my normal reading tastes. It's chick lit/romance, but it was fun and harmless fluff. Leilani has left behind fast paced New York to open her own cupcake bakery on the small Georgia island of Sugarberry, where her mother grew up. Part of her reason for leaving New York was Baxter Dunne, her boss and wildly successful celebrity chef. Lani had a big crush on him and thought distancing herself would make it go away. But then Baxter shows up on the island, filming an episode of his TV show and wanting Lani's help. Baxter has decided he can't live without her and is determined to break down her defenses.
"The Midwife's Confession" by Diane Chamberlain was very good. She reminds me of Jodi Picoult with the way she makes you see both sides of a difficult issue. Noelle, a midwife, commits suicide and her two best friends, Tara and Emerson, are stunned and go about trying to determine why Noelle would do such a thing. Noelle was hiding a dark secret, well several actually, and as each one comes to light Tara and Emerson find it hard to believe they ever even knew Noelle. It had a big twist at the end that I didn't see coming but I liked a lot.
"A River Runs Through It and Other Stories" by Norman Maclean was a group of three novellas set in Montana with common themes of a preacher's son looking to strike out on his own in the world. They had some interesting dry, dark humor but all and all they didn't really hold my interest.
"Sweet Stuff" by Donna Kaufmann is her second cupcake book. Riley moved to Sugarberry two years earlier after she caught her fiance cheating on her. She has sworn off men, until gorgeous author Quinn Brannigan comes to the island, looking for peace and quiet to finish his latest novel. They are both instantly attracted to one another, but Riley is wary of letting another man into her heart and Quinn has never really had a long term successful relationship. They finally do get together though and it is very hot and steamy.

Virgin's Daughters; Size 14 Is Not Fat Either; Triangles; Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown; Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill; Big Boned

"Virgin's Daughters" by Jeane Westin wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was hoping, by the title, that it was some juicy scandalous fiction about Queen Elizabeth having illegitimate twins with Dudley, but alas, it was referring to her pet name for her ladies in waiting. And Elizabeth was not in her finest hour when dealing with many of her ladies, including her poor cousin Catherine Grey, who only wanted to marry Edward Seymour and live out her life in quiet solitude. Elizabeth was cruel and Catherine's story of imprisonment and exile without ever seeing her husband and sons again always makes me sad.
"Size 14 Is Not Fat, Either" by Meg Cabot is the second Heather Wells mystery, and it was light and fun. A cheerleader's head is found in the cafeteria, and Heather goes on the hunt to find the killer, since it seems like the detectives are looking in all the wrong places. Her crush on Cooper intensifies but goes nowhere, even after she manages to discover the killers are a couple of drug dealing frat boys.
"Triangles" by Ellen Hopkins was very, very good. It made me cry. I love her YA stuff, and this adult novel by her did not disappoint. Three women, mothers, wives, approaching middle age all deal with it in different ways. Holly has the seemingly perfect life: loving husband who has a good job and supports her, three great kids. Holly is bored, and starts writing erotica. Then she decides she needs some hands on research for it, and starts a torrid affair with one of the men in her writing group. Andrea, divorced, single mom, is having no luck finding a decent man until she starts comforting Holly's cuckolded husband, Jace. And Marissa, just trying to hold things together, dealing with a dying daughter, a gay son, and a cheating husband. I love how Hopkins doesn't wrap up everything neatly in a bow at the end because real life doesn't do that, either.
Some Maud Hart Lovelace books I hadn't read before: "Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill" and "Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown". They were sweet and fun. I like their adventures. I wish I would have read them when I was a kid, but oh well. You're never too old to enjoy children's fiction :)
And finally, "Big Boned" by Meg Cabot. The third Heather Wells mystery was very short, so I read it fast. Heather is dating her math professor, Tad, who is outdoorsy and vegan, so you can just about imagine how well that bodes for any long term plans for them. Still, Heather is happy to have someone--she just wishes it were Cooper. Her boss is shot in his office one morning, and Heather sets out to prove the student who was arrested wasn't responsible for the crime. Happy ending: Cooper finally admits he feels the same way about Heather, and they plan on eloping. Well. How nice for her. If only real life worked out the same for everyone. No, I'm not bitter at all. Why do you ask?

Winter Wonders; the Accidental Feminist; We Others; Dangerous Laughter

Another Grace Chapel Inn book by Melody Carlson, "Winter Wonders" has the ladies looking forward to a little winter break in January after the holidays, but it wasn't meant to be. Cynthia, Louise's daughter, is bringing a famous home and garden guru (think Martha Stewart) to the Inn to try to get her the peace and quiet she needs to buckle down and finish her children's book (which Cynthia is editing). Then Alice gets involved in animal rights issues when she discovers deplorable conditions at the local dog racing track. There was actually quite a lot going on in this one.
"The Accidental Feminist" by M. G. Lord took a look at the films of Elizabeth Taylor from a feminist standpoint. It was interesting, although some of them were a bit of a stretch. For instance, she insists that "A Place in the Sun" is a movie about abortion. Well...I think that's just one small part of that film. It's more (at least in my mind) about class struggle. Anyway, Lord admits that she doesn't think Taylor picked her parts specifically to advance any sort of agenda, and it was a different way of looking at familiar films.
I actually read Steven Millhauser's "We Others" a few weeks ago, except for the last story, which I didn't quite get to finish. It was one of his older stories from "Dangerous Laughter", so when I finished that one today I figured I could now in good conscious say I had finished "We Others" as well. It was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award, and I really enjoyed it. Normally I'm not a big short story fan, but I liked almost all of his in both collections. He has a great way of building up tension and making you wonder what comes next. Some of my favorites were "The White Glove", about a boy and a girl who start dating and she starts wearing a white glove on her left hand, which intrigues him. He dreams of sneaking into her bedroom and peeling it off to see what she's hiding. When she finally does reveal her secret, he is so repulsed he never speaks to her again. "The Next Thing" was a treatise on consumerism and just how far we're willing to go and how much we're willing to give up in the name of progress. "Dangerous Laughter" had some really good ones, too, like "The Room in the Attic", about a girl who refuses to be seen in daylight and "The Tower" about a society that, over the course of many generations, builds a tower that pierces heaven. Good stuff.

Artist of Disappearance; Chronicles of Old Las Vegas; Read My Hips; Return to Peyton Place; Peyton Place; Hidden History: Stories from the Grace Chapel Inn

"Artist of Disappearance" by Anita Desai was also nominated this year for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. The winner was announced yesterday, and it went to Julie Otsaku for "Buddha in the Attic". I enjoyed this collection of three novellas set in modern day India as well. Good nominees this year.
"Chronicles of Old Las Vegas" by James Roman took a look at the history of the city and how it started it out. It was quick but thorough and interesting. For instance, I had no idea that the Strip is actually not really in Las Vegas proper, but the nearby towns of Paradise and Winchester. Interesting.
"Read My Hips" by Kim Brittingham was very uplifting and encouraging. She chronicles her journey, how she started dieting as a teen and tried everything under the sun (boy, doesn't *this* sound familiar!!) until finally reaching the point in her life where she is happy and comfortable with who she is. Good for Kim! I hope I get there someday, too.
Years ago I wanted to read Grace Metalious's sequel to "Peyton Place", "Return to Peyton Place", but I could never find it. Well I finally did and read it. It was pretty bad. Metalious didn't want to write it, and I don't blame her, so she really half-assed it. It was pretty unforgettable.
After that I pulled out my worn, tattered, falling apart copy of "Peyton Place" and reread it (perfect for a lonely rainy day weekend, I might add). I bought it years ago for fifty cents at a used bookstore and tore through it, eager to find out what all the fuss about this scandalous book was about. I remember being very disappointed, since it's not terribly graphic to modern day readers. I could see why it made such a scene back in the 50s, but not so much for today. Still, I enjoy Metalious's book. I like her characters, they seem very real.
And finally, a gentle Christian fiction to round out the smut :) "Hidden History: Stories from the Grace Chapel Inn" by Melody Carlson. The three sisters who run the B&B find their father's old journal from when he was a teenager in with some paperwork of his, and they start reading it and discover his journey from atheist teenager to believer after the death of his mother. It was sweet and kind and utterly predictable.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb; Back Home Again; Bright Lights, Big Ass; Betsy Tacy; Betsy Tacy and Tib; Wild Thing; Lone Wolf; Buddha in the Attic; The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

I didn't realize I was so far behind. Okay, here we go!
"The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb" by Melanie Benjamin was very sweet. Lavinia Warren Bump (known as Vinnie) is a dwarf not quite three feet high who dreams of leaving her simple country farm home and seeing the world. She signs on with a riverboat of curiosities, but the Civil War sends them back north in a hurry. After a few more years of boredom on the farm, she writes to P. T. Barnum, asking if he'd like her to join his American Museum in New York. He does, and she goes. Barnum has another dwarf he's made a fortune off of, General Tom Thumb, and he hatches a scheme for Vinnie and Tom to marry, which they do. Vinnie has many happy years with Barnum, although theirs is a love/hate relationship. She loves what opportunities he is able to give her, but at the same time she doesn't like going along with his "humbugs", like pretending she gave birth to a little girl. I'd love to read some nonfiction about General Tom Thumb and his bride, I bet their lives were fascinating.
"Back Home Again" by Melody Carlson is a gentle Christian fiction about three women who inherit a large Victorian home after their father passes away and decide, despite their wildly different personalities, to turn it into a bed and breakfast with predictable results. It was sweet and not too taxing on the brain.
"Bright Lights, Big Ass" by Jen Lancaster is her second book and the only one my library doesn't own, so I had to get it from a different one. It hilariously details why living in the big city is not as glamorous as most people think. Jen's snarky humor is so sharp and so brilliant. I can't wait for her next book.
I reread a few Maud Hart Lovelace books, the first two in the Betsy Tacy series: "Betsy Tacy" and "Betsy Tacy and Tib". I tried reading these when I was younger (not a child, but a 20 something) and my library at the time didn't have all of them, so I've read some but not others. They're sweet (guess I'm in the mood for that all of a sudden!), like the "Little House" and "Anne of Green Gables", but without all the drama and bad stuff. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib live idealized lives in Minnesota, getting into typical children messes but never anything awful.
"Wild Thing" by Josh Bezell was a huge disappointment. I loved his first book, "Beat the Reaper", and was looking forward to this one. But it wasn't funny. It was boring and preachy and I know I've said this before: politics is NOT funny. Making fun and calling people who don't believe the same as you stupid is NOT going to make me laugh. It's so hypocritical, too. It really bugs me.
I liked "Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult quite a lot, because I didn't feel torn on the issue like I usually do with her books. Luke Warren and his daughter, Cara, are in an accident and Luke is in a coma. The doctors don't expect him to recover. His estranged son, Edward, comes home as soon as he hears about his dad and sister, and because Cara is under 18 Edward must be legally responsible and he decides his adventurous, outdoorsy dad (who lived with a pack of wolves for 2 years) wouldn't want to live as a vegetable on life support and decides to pull the plug. Cara is horrified at the thought that Edward isn't even giving their dad a chance to get better and fights him every step of the way. While I understood Cara's distress and desire to cling to hope that her dad would get better, I agreed with Edward solidly on this one. Let him go.
Nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction this year, Julie Otsuka's "Buddha in the Attic" is a novella about the Japanese immigrants experience in California in the years before and during WW2. It was beautifully done, she skillfully weaves everyone's story into one in such a way that makes for compelling reading.
And finally (whew!!) "The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes" by Diane Chamberlain made me cry. CeeCee was only 12 when she watched her Mom die of breast cancer. She bounces around the foster system, working hard and graduating from high school at 16. She gets a job waitressing, hoping to earn money for college, when she meets 22 year old Tim. Tim is suave and charming and they start dating. He tells CeeCee his twin sister, Andie, is on death row, railroaded by the system after she murdered the man who raped her. CeeCee is horrified for Tim and when he asks if she'll help him get Andie out, she wavers but eventually gives in. Tim and his brother Marty have a plan: to kidnap Governor Russell's wife Guinevere and hold her as ransom until the Governor frees Andie. They need CeeCee to babysit Guinevere while they negotiate with the Governor. CeeCee is distraught when they bring Guinevere to the remote mountain cabin and sees she is heavily pregnant. Tim and Marty leave them alone and Guinevere goes into labor. CeeCee delivers the baby girl but Guinevere hemorrhages and dies. Panicked, CeeCee flees and with the help of some underground anti-death penalty crusaders, is able to get a fake identity and start a new life with the baby she has named Corrine. Twenty eight years later Guinevere's body is found and Tim is arrested for murder, tried and convicted. Worried that he will go to death row for a crime he didn't commit, CeeCee turns herself in, stunning her entire family, especially her semi-estranged daughter Cory.