Books Completed Since March 1

  Getting Smarter: A Memoir, Barbara Feldon
Agent 99 was my first heroine (well, after Lassie...). At age 9, I fell head-over-heels in love with Maxwell Smart, and "shipped" Max and 99 with all my heart.

Barbara Hall grew up in Pittsburgh, From childhood she wanted to go on the stage, and as soon as she was old enough, she moved to Manhattan to try to make her living at acting. She became a model and in an accident of fate, was about to be interviewed for the big television program of the 1950s, the game show $64,000 Question. It was as she was deciding whether to do this or not, she meets suave, French-accented Lucien Feldon. He tells her he's about to be divorced and that he's a commercial airline pilot. Later she finds out he survived the Occupation of France.

Alas, that wasn't the only untrue thing he ended up telling her during their relationship. In fact, at one point he even convinces her he's a spy.

While this memoir talks about her career, the years on Get Smart (she and Don Adams didn't become close friends until after the series ended, but she enjoyed working with him) and afterwards, most of the narrative has to do with her relationship with the enigmatic and ultimately duplicitous Lucien. He made things sound so real she automatically believed him; only as years passed did she become suspicious and then finally realize he was playing her.

At my age, I read it and wonder how she could have been so naïve, but then I remember: once upon a time, so was I.

This is a book I'll hold close to my heart.

(Don Adams loved history books! And read and wrote poetry! Damn, I wish he'd also written something.)

 The Love Con, Seressia Glass
I picked this up at Books-a-Million because (1) cosplay, (2) mentions of DragonCon, and (3) it takes place in Atlanta. Kenya Davenport is a talented cosplayer and gamer; while she has a degree in engineering, what she really wants to do with her life, to her parents' dismay, is become a professional costume designer. Her close friend Cameron Lassiter, who she's known since he was a neglected boy in grade school, owns a maker shop in which she works.

Now she has the chance of a lifetime, winning a prize in a televised cosplay contest—except her last project has to be done with her romantic partner! Kenya doesn't have one, but she hopes that Cameron will cooperate and pretend to be her boyfriend. He knows her dreams and she's sure he'll be supportive, but can they make a pretend relationship work? She doesn't know that Cam is already in love with her...or that the producers of the series Cosplay or No Way will stoop to everything sordid to create a little conflict!

Boy, did I want to whack the producers of the television series, not to mention the one judge who seems to hate Kenya. She's so blatant about not liking a plus-sized Black girl that I wondered how the producers would permit it to continue. This was a fun read having to do with conventions, cosplaying, and friends to lovers.

  Flâneuse, Lauren Elkin
Cool! I said when I saw this at Barnes & Noble, a woman walks through Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London and explores their history and observes society in each urban area. Instead I'm treated to depressing essays about writers like Jean Rhys, how terrible Tokyo is for women walkers--although her main complaint seems to be she wants to go back to Paris while her boyfriend X is having a grand time (well, either leave the idiot, stupid, or quit complaining), a chapter where she describes an entire film about a woman named Cléo, a history of protests in Paris, and other snooze-worthy topics. Some interesting observations about how Paris neighborhoods are homey, and a too short chapter on Martha Gellhorn (after she goes on and on about George Sand). About halfway through I just sped up my reading because I was bored, except in the Gellhorn chapter.

I have lots of wonderful travel books, many written by women. This one is not a keeper.

  Half Sick of Shadows, Laura Sebastian
You've heard the saying "Behind every great man is a good woman"? This is the story of Elaine of Astolot, a very different woman from the one who inhabits Lord Tennyson's brooding poem, and who dies from viewing the real world. In this Arthurian retelling, Elaine, along with Guinevere of Lyonesse, Lancelot, and Arthur's half-sister Morgana, are basically the support from which Arthur, destined to be the king of England, derives his strength. When the time finally comes, Arthur and his friends journey to Camelot, only to find that Merlin the magician is ready to declare the evil Mordred king. If Arthur wants to be king, he will be required to carry out three tasks, including marching into Lyonesse to ask permission to marry Gwen. And Lyonesse is a treacherous place indeed.

This is a reworking of the Arthurian legend with women on an equal footing with men. Elaine particularly carries a heavy load, as she can see the future, and, in no future she foresees does Arthur not end up betrayed by his sister, despite how hard she tries.

I'm picky about my Arthurian tales ever since I read Mary Stewart's Merlin books. This one kept my attention.

 The Defense is Ready, Leslie Abramson
I don't follow true crime stuff, so I had no idea the author was the attorney for the Menendez brothers. I just watch so much Law & Order I wanted to see some criminal law from the POV of the defense attorney rather than from the district attorney.

So she's defended a lot of people, some absolutely clueless, others badass, some who were just mixed up in the wrong thing. Some she liked, some she was happy to get away from. She also talks about the different personalities of judges and how they often make convictions based on their own prejudices, and also about her opponents: the district attorneys and other prosecutors, some who are doing their best and others who are just lazy.

It was an interesting read. I don't have any opinion if she was right or wrong about the Menendez brothers.

  Bride, Ali Hazelwood
Hazelwood, known for her rom-coms involving STEM couples, branches out in a new direction in this paranormal romance.

Vampyres, werewolves, and humans have an uneasy alliance in Misery Lark's world. Many of the alliances hinge on the keeping of hostages. For years Misery, who's never been her father's favorite person, has been keeping a low profile in human society. Now her father calls upon her to marry the alpha male of of the werewolves, Lowe Moreland, to cement another agreement. She does so reluctantly, but in order to achieve another goal. What she didn't count on was becoming fond of a member of Moreland's family, or...fond of Lowe himself.

Enjoyable dynamics and a twist at the end, and Ana is cute.

  Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
I enjoyed this so much. Kimmerer is a botanist and also a member of the Potawatomi Nation, so her narrative about her interactions with plants, nature, her students, and the earth is infused with both botanical knowledge and indigenous wisdom. Some of the chapters are sobering, such as the one about how chemical plants not only polluted a lake but poisoned the land around it, and how they are trying to revive both, and in various parts of the texts where she described how Native American children were sent to schools which tried to "rip the Indian out of them." Other chapters relate how she tries to bring her technologically-addicted students back to thinking about and relating to the earth.

Scattered within the text are Native wisdom, founding myths of the Potawatomi and other Native nations, and some of the loveliest descriptions of nature that I've ever read. Well worth your time as a nature read or for Native lore.