Witch Elm

I read a book a few weeks ago about unsolved murders, and it mentioned an interesting case about a woman's body that was found in a wych elm. At first police thought she had gotten in the hollow of the tree to keep warm one night and got stuck, but later they discovered fabric in her throat, indicating someone killed her. I was really curious about it, but I couldn't find any other books related to the crime. I did come up with this fiction title by Tana French, which was inspired by the case. It was really good and took a lot of twists I wasn't expecting.
Toby admits he's had a lucky life. He dodges a major bullet at work that takes down a co-worker, but then his apartment is broken into one night and the burglars beat him nearly to death. Toby goes to stay with his Uncle Hugo at his house, known as the Ivy House. Uncle Hugo has cancer and doesn't have long to live, so Toby is keeping an eye on him while he recovers. Toby's girlfriend, Melissa, also comes to stay at Ivy House. Things are going quite well for a little while, until Toby's cousin's kids find a skull in the old wych elm in the backyard. I can't say too much else without spoiling it, but she did a great job with not red herrings. I honestly didn't know who I could trust.

Armenian Legionnaires; Inventing American Tradition

"The Armenian Legionnaires" was really heartbreaking. During WWI, France asked for volunteers to fight the Turks. Wanting to avenge the genocide of their people, Armenians from all over the world left their safe, comfortable homes and signed up for the Legionnaires. France and England bowed down to pressure from the Turks after the war and reneged on their promises to the Armenians. It makes me want to read more about WWI in general, I don't really know that much.

"Inventing American Tradition" was a fun look at how so many of our holidays and traditions are not actually what we think they are. For instance, Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer started as a marketing gimmick, and now we can't imagine Christmas without him. I enjoyed learning the fairly recent backstory to so many of the things we take for granted as being long held beliefs.

Suspicious Minds

I'm a big fan of "Stranger Things" on Netflix, in fact, I started reading this book and ended up spending last weekend re-watching the show. The book itself was actually sort of meh. It tells the story of Terry Ives, who is Eleven's biological mother. Terry's roommate is taking part in a weird government test and it's creeping her out, so she decides not to do it anymore. Terry thinks she's silly and goes in her place; after all, it pays good money. Terry and four others meet Dr. Brenner and are put through a series of strange experiments that mostly involve taking acid or being shocked with electricity. The book never really explains how taking acid made Terry's baby telekinetic (not that it could, but you know, she didn't even *try* to make the connection). Terry finds out she is pregnant and wants to leave the experiment, but Dr. Brenner won't let her and actually induces her labor and steals the baby from her. It really didn't do anything for me.

Two Can Keep a Secret

I really enjoyed McManus's previous book, "One of Us is Lying", and I was looking forward to this one. It was pretty good, too. Twins Ellery and Ezra move to back east to Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother after their mother is forced to go to rehab. Sadie, their mother, was a twin as well, and her twin, Sarah, went missing while the girls were in high school. Sadie never talks about it, but Ellery has developed a true crime obsession. Echo Ridge has a surprising number of deaths and disappearances for a small town, and not long after the twins arrive a girl named Brooke goes missing. Ellery befriends Malcolm, whose brother, Duncan, was the chief suspect in his ex-girlfriend Lacey's disappearance four years earlier. Duncan left town after that, but now he's back and the timing seems suspicious. It was very well done, although I did figure out the killer before the end (yay me!). It was still worth the trip.

Blood Oath; I, the Jury

I really enjoyed Linda Fairstein's latest Alexandra Cooper novel. I love how much more respectful and kind Alex and Mike are, now that they're living together. Their "playful" banter before made me uncomfortable, I didn't find it flirty at all.
At any rate, I have to admit, I was disappointed that Alex's boss's death wasn't a plot, I wanted to know who killed Paul and why, but she had a small aside in the book that the murdered was caught and that was that. Okay? Maybe she'll come back to it.
On Alex's first day back at work after recovering from her dramatic kidnapping (and standing next to her boss when he was shot and killed) a young woman shows up in Alex's office, claiming one of the men who is in the running for the D.A. position raped her during a trial he prosecuted. The young lady was underage at the time. Alex is handling a bombshell with this one, because everyone assumes *she's* going to run for D.A. now that Paul is dead, and what better way to get her strongest opponent out of the way then to prosecute him for rape? Alex keeps insisting she's not interested in being D.A., but no one believes that. Not to mention she has zero physical evidence and the young woman has a long history about being deceitful. It was quite a good read.

I was in the mood for some old-school Mickey Spillane, so I reread an oldie but a goodie: "I, the Jury". It was so short, I'd forgotten how short it was. He managed to cram quite a lot in there, though. One of Mike's good friends from the war, Jack, has been brutally murdered. Mike vows vengeance and proceeds to investigate. More people are murdered with the same .45, and someone is even dumb enough to take a shot at Mike. He actually becomes engaged to a doctor named Charlotte Manning (TEAM VELDA!) but it doesn't work out for reasons I don't want to spoil. All in all it was just perfect Mike Hammer. It's funny how controversial these books were when they were first published, it seems so quaint and tame now.

Chocolate Cream Pie Murder

Ugh, these books. I don't know why I keep reading them, I truly don't. I can't eat any of the food, because I'm vegan and her recipes definitely are not. There wasn't even a murder in this one until about 10 pages before the end, and Hannah solved it two seconds later.
It started out with her *apologizing* to her church for being taken in by that scumbag Ross. Um, what? Girl, that is so not your fault. Don't apologize for that jerk. Her friends rally around her and promise to make Ross sorry if he ever dares set foot in Lake Eden again.
Those are some good friends.
Ross actually does have the audacity to get in touch with Hannah, showing up at the Cookie Jar and scaring her half to death, threatening her if she doesn't get him the money he gave her. Hannah is more than willing to give him the money, but it ends up turning into a weird cat and mouse game with the bank. All the while, Hannah is busy making (and eating) enough food to feed three armies. I'm sorry, but if someone was threatening my life, I think I might actually lose my appetite.
The ending was completely predictable and totally made me lose it. She kept dropping hints, so I knew it was coming. I really hoped I was wrong, but no. Fluke isn't that clever to plant red herrings.
Oh well. I'm still solidly Team Norman. He was a total sweetheart in this book, even sleeping on her couch so she wouldn't be alone at night. You should have married Norman, Hannah. Or hell, even Mike. At this point, anything would have been preferable to this Ross storyline.

Fins; Moitessier: a Sailing Legend

I'm a car person. I love classic American cars. I hope to someday own a '55 Bel Air, I think they're the coolest looking cars. I have a Camaro and a Challenger, so I really don't have room for more cars at the moment, but maybe someday. "Fins" told the story of Harley Earl and the glory days of GM. Earl was head of design during the golden years of the 1920s, through the Depression of the '30s, the war years of the '40s, and the post-war era of the '50s. He's responsible for fins on cars and the Corvette, as well as many other iconic classics. I enjoyed it, I just wish there would have been more car pictures :)

After reading "A Voyage for Madmen" a few months ago, I was eager to read more about Bernard Moitessier, the sailor who would have finished the race first but decided instead to keep sailing because he was so at peace on the water. He led a very interesting, vagabond sort of life, but he seemed happy. It made me eager to get back out on a boat!

Coddling of the American Mind; Unsolved Murders

I enjoyed "The Coddling of the American Mind". They examine the fairly recent phenomenon of people believing that they should be kept "safe" from other people's opinions. I admit I'm not a fan of being forced to listen to other people's opinions, especially when I'm trapped (i.e. at work and can't respond with my own), but at the same time I understand I'm in no danger from them, something that is lost on a lot of people nowadays. They make a good argument that it's been decades in the making, with the rise of 24 hour news cycles, people started to believe that crime was much higher than it actually is and the result was parents terrified to let their children do things they themselves did, like walk to school or play outside without an adult. Kids grew up being told the world was dangerous, and now they are woefully unprepared for a world in which other people live and have opinions that don't line up with theirs. I saw it starting myself when I was in college nearly (gulp) 20 years ago, so I can only imagine how much worse it is now. They make some good, common sense suggestions about how parents can better prepare their kids for the real world.

"Unsolved Murders" was a quick read, full of photographs, about various unsolved murder cases. Some were pretty well known, like the Black Dahlia, while others were more obscure, like the woman whose husband was convicted of killing her but many believe she was attacked by an owl, which caused her to hit her head and die.