Books Completed Since May 1

 Star Trek FAQ 2.0: Everything Left to Know About the Next Generation, the Movies and Beyond, Mark Clark
For the Star Trek fan in all of us: Clark, author of Star Trek FAQ, is back with this volume covering the six classic Trek films and the concurrent Star Trek: the Next Generation, and also the Next Generation films, chronicling the development of the films and the then parallel development of the new series—the very idea of which the original series fans appeared to hate—along with the casting of a new crew who would carry on the ideals of Star Trek without its characters being carbon-copies of the original Enterprise crew. TNG eventually surprised everyone, especially the die-hard fans of the original series, despite the bumps of the first season, in becoming a new fan favorite, with the quiet, cerebral Captain Picard garnering a big fan following along with the android Data, who had been originally scoffed at.

Clark also investigates "Treks not taken," like the "Starfleet Academy" idea, and also how Gene Roddenberry, who began suggesting plotlines that others knew were unworkable or repetitious, was gently eased out of the series he created. Chapters cover each season of Next Generation, plus there are offerings on Star Trek foods, guest stars, crossovers, Data's most memorable episodes, notable episodes, Worf and the conversion of Klingons into allies, new enemies like the Ferengi and the Cardassians, amateur Trek productions, Next Generation novels, and even profiles of series producers and directors. A big treat for classic series/Next Gen fans. One wishes for a book like this about the other Star Trek series, especially Deep Space 9.

 The Doggie in the Window, Rory Kress
After seeing a Wheaten terrier for the first time, Rory Kress knew she wanted one of her own. Not wanting to support puppy mills, she did copious research and then adopted a puppy from a store which had papers stating "Izzie" was born at the home of a reputable breeder who was certified by the USDA. Of course as a puppy Izzie had quirks, but they were just that, Rory thought, quirks, like people have, like being afraid of loud noises. But some years later Rory decided to investigate just what a USDA certification entailed—and it let her on a shocking trail.

I thought this book was a bit repetitive once the point was made, which is that a USDA certification doesn't mean squat. Of course they have rules about how animals have to be homed, fed, watered, and enriched, and basically they are bare minimum. Factory farms, where cows and pigs are kept in manure-caked pens all their lives and chickens are crowded into living spaces so small they have to have their beaks clipped so they don't peck each other to death, are also USDA certified. On her journey Rory visits pet shops and laboratories that work with animals; talks to puppy mill investigators, supposed "hoarders" giving up animals who are really puppy mill breeders in disguise, dog psychologists, and even actual responsible breeders; and, finally finds the place where Izzie came from: not the worst of puppy mills, but one nonetheless, despite that "USDA certification."

To be read by anyone who wants to buy a purebred or even one of these silly "designer breeds" (did you know the man who originally bred the "goldendoodle" now regrets doing it, because so many of the dogs are being bred irresponsibly?) to understand the conditions so many of these dogs are produced under.

 Another Man's Moccasins, Craig Johnson
In Absaroka County, Wyoming, Walt Longmire is called in when the body of a dead Vietnamese girl is found. Even more curiously, she has Walt's name among her effects. While investigating the site, Walt turns up Virgil White Buffalo, a member of the Crow nation who has just been released from prison and is living in a cave nearby. Walt soon doesn't believe Virgil has anything to do with the crime, but wants to help him as he works on the puzzle of the young woman, who triggers flashbacks of his time in Vietnam as a Marine investigator, and his friendship with a young prostitute at a run-down bar and gambling joint. Once a Vietnamese man shows up in Absaroka County, searching for a lost granddaughter that he states is the dead woman, it seems part of the mystery might be solved...or does it just make the story more complicated?

Fascinating, but very tough, entry in this already excellent series, touching on past crimes and well as present, and filling in more of Walt Longmire's past. His Vietnam flashbacks are very real: the smells, the heat, the clamor, the squalor, the fear, the innocence destroyed. I grew up during the Vietnam era and watched dead and wounded men nightly on news reports, but Walt's up-front and personal experience have brought that even further to life. The story of Virgil White Buffalo is also well done and a little sad. 

 America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, Gail Collins
Even though today we are hearing more about the contributions of women to world history, we still seem to hear about the same women: the famous (or the kept-from-being-famous, like Caroline Herschel and Dorothy Wordsworth) and the wealthy. In this overflowing summary, Collins tackles 400 years of the lives of mostly ordinary women: indentured servants, slaves, widows who inherited their husbands' businesses, pioneer wives, colonial midwives, Civil War women forced to manage after a husband or brother's death, the first pioneering "working women," war workers from both world wars, and the Milltown-slugging 50s housewives, starting with Eleanor Dare, who gave birth to the historic Virginia before both disappeared from history, to the teen girls of the late 1990s, fixated on their bodies.

I just loved this book, although in 400 pages to cover 400 years naturally nothing really gets studied in depth. You just can't do it. What this book is is a springboard: to finding a period of history or a career type that most interests you and then doing even more reading: women spies in the Revolutionary era? women of color becoming entrepreneurs? pioneer women coping with loneliness and overwork? 1920s flappers? wives of Tories? women of the 1890s hospitalized for nervous complaints? Whatever interested you in this book is out there in more detail, so enjoy the text and then hunt up whatever intrigued you most!

 St. Nicholas, Volume XXV, May - October 1898, Century Publishing Company
This poor volume. It's in the worst shape of all my bound issues, the back completely falling apart. Had I the money, I'd get it rebound, or at least resewn. I ended up reading about half of it via digital copy on Google Books.

The serials are mostly a disappointment: we have "Two Biddicut Boys," begun in a previous volume, about two Connecticut lads duped into paying ten dollars for a trick dog that has one further trick: going back to its owner. They determine to make chase to get the dog or their ten dollars back, but it's a plodding narrative. "The Lakerim Athletic Club" (also joined in progress) is the seemingly endless saga of a dozen sports-obsessed boys who want to build a clubhouse. In the process each of the boys makes good at one sport, detailed in that particular entry, including, in the last part, a very funny entry where the club bookworm bests a professional golf player. The one cute serial (well, tolerable if you like tales about little girls and their ponies) is "Denise and Ned Toodles," the latter who is a clever Welsh pony. A nonfiction serial about pirates is also included.

"In Old Florence," little Japanese children, and weathervanes in Nantucket are covered in just some of the travel articles. "The Bumble Bee," "Tim: a Parrot Story," "Birds of Paradise," and modern diving methods highlight nature and science entries. Benjamin Franklin, Viking ships, the escape of privateer Miguel Pedro, photography landmarks, the at-the-time new queen of Holland, Wilhemina, and the amazing first-person "A Boy's Recollection of the Great Chicago Fire" are just some of the notable historical profiles.

"The Kingdom of Yvetot" tells a unique story about a family in France who have a tiny kingdom bequeathed to them due to an event in 1066. In "A Stamp-Collector's Experience," a man who finds a set of rare stamps and compares them with another set is promptly accused of theft. An etymological article traces the history of flower names, another language offering lists words that came from odd sources. "On Deck," from Carolyn Wells, contains the names of over 90 Shakespeare characters. "Uncle Sam's 'Farm' in Canada" talks about the tiny portion of the U.S. that thrusts up past the Canadian border at "Lake of the Woods." Since this was the time of the Spanish-American war, the July, August, and September issues have numerous articles about the ocean, from seafaring adventures to photos of the latest of US Navy ships to explanations of how storms form on the water. And "O-U-G-H, or the Cross Farmer" notes that the spelling and pronunciation of English words isn't just a modern conundrum!

 The Wonderful Year, Nancy Barnes
The Martin family is moving to an orchard in Colorado!

The doctor says Mr. Martin, an attorney, has overworked himself, and must go do something else out in fresh air for a year or two. So the whole family—Dad, adventurous mother Jo, 12-year-old Ellen, the family horse Billy, the family terrier Bobby, the canaries and the goldfish, and all their furniture—hop a train to Mesa, Colorado, to try their hand at raising fruit for a couple of years. It's the early part of the 20th century (it's after 1912 because Ellen learns to play two currently popular songs on the piano: "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" and "Melancholy Baby") and Ellen eventually overcomes her reluctance to leave home and friends, especially after she befriends fifteen-year-old Ronnie Ferrington on the next farm, for to her surprise he treats her like an equal and doesn't tease like the boys she used to know. When her parents finally buy her a bicycle, Ellen's happiness is complete.

There are some scary adventures when Ellen encounters a snake and gets lost exploring the countryside on her own, but otherwise it's a year of happy discovery, and, as hinted at in the final few chapters, also a year of approaching adulthood.

Very ambling, sweet, slow-moving story about growing up, with a very unconventional mother character and an adventurous girl who's not invulnerable to crushes but who is definitely her own person and not tied to gender expectations of the pre-First World War years. Also, illustrated by Kate Seredy in the sketchy style in which she was known for then.


  Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan
I knew of Joy Davidman Lewis from the film Shadowlands and from the books The Narnian and C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies along with online bios of C.S. "Jack" Lewis, so I was interested in reading this novel of her friendship and then love for Lewis. I mostly enjoyed it, as it clearly illustrated how the pair intellectually stimulated each other through their letters and later through their personal relationship. You really got a feeling for Joy's increasing dismay into her disintegrating marriage (her husband, Bill Gresham, was an alcoholic and adulterer), her love of her two sons, and her admiration, first intellectually and then emotionally, for Lewis. Her descriptions of Oxford make me want to pull up stakes and move there. And the sad discovery of her real cause of chronic illness and its terrible repercussions are all too vivid.

However, it pretty much asks us to admire Joy as an independent woman who chose to make a change in her life when we would have criticized a man for exhibiting the same behavior. She pretty much walks out on her husband and kids, leaving them with her (as described by Joy) much more attractive cousin (and then seems surprised of nowhere that hubby and cousin get cozy together!) while she's enjoying herself in England with Jack Lewis, his brother Warnie, and Jack's friends. Then she does reclaim her sons and brings them to England, but the book glosses over the fact that while the younger, Douglas, loved Jack Lewis, England, and the whole arrangement, the older boy David disliked Lewis and the whole situation, and even today refuses to speak about it. Lewis, despite his eccentricities, seems almost too idealized as well.

 The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy, Jacopo Della Quergia
This has to be the strangest alternative history/steampunk fantasy I've ever read. A couple of times I considered giving up on it, because some of the characters were just so strange, but on the other hand I wanted to know how it came out. Oddly enough, I'm not sure how it did!

Following real historic events, which are footnoted, the story follows President William Howard Taft, his opinionated and intelligent wife Nellie, his Secret Service guard Willkie, his personal friend and assistant Archibald Butt, and Robert Todd Lincoln (plus a supporting cast both historical and fictional) try to solve the riddle of an impossibly-manufactured pocket watch Robert inherited from his father (and which inadvertently may have caused his assassination), mysterious lights from an equally hush-hush mine in Alaska, and an attempt on the life of Nikola Tesla—and that's just for starters.

The book starts out with a crazy bang with the President in London participating in a wrestling match against five opponents, and winning. Then he has to race home because the automaton (a maligned unit created by Thomas Edison) that impersonates him when he's secretly off on Airship One, his state-of-the-art zeppelin, is malfunctioning and wrecking the White House. All this goes on before the mystery of the pocket watch ever starts, and then comes a mysterious Russian, a standoff at a secret lab at Yale, and finally the maiden voyage of the Titanic (with all this other stuff going on, you had to figure Titanic came into it somehow).

I like alternative history stories and historical stories, but this one was just too weird for me

 The Joy of Being Disorganized, Pam Young
I'm disappointed.

So long ago, in the 1990s when one of those temporary overstock book sales lasted for over a year in an old clothing store near my office, I found the first of the organizing books by "the Sidetracked Sisters" Pam Young and Peggy Jones. Pam and Peggy were two untidy sisters, who, to the dismay of their clean-as-a-pin mother, were as kids and grew up to be slobs whose husbands were always late to work (despite working like crazy to help clean up the mess), their kids late to school, and they were late to everything and missed appointments and meetings because they never learned to corral their stuff properly and take charge of their time—until they formed an easily-followed index card-driven system to bring order and calm to their lives.

The two organizing books, a cookbook, and, my favorite, The Sidetracked Sisters' Happiness File (which anticipated Gretchen Rubin by thirty years) written by Pam and Peggy in a lively style were all great. This, written only by Pam (Peggy having retired due to bad health) is...not good. Basically it's a big long pep talk with a motherly narration, tedious folksy stories, and a big dollop of Christianity. The book itself looks self-published and distressingly cheap, with big fat type, wide margins, and widely spaced paragraphs. It's, frankly, dull, and I'm really glad I bought a cheap used copy instead of ordering a new one off Amazon.

 Drop Dead Healthy, A.J. Jacobs
Have I mentioned lately that Julie Jacobs is a saint? (Not to mention their two patient sons!)

Yes, husband and dad A.J.'s on a new quest: to be as perfectly healthy as he can. And he's going to do it from top to toe. He begins with healthy eating, but covers everything from eyes and ears to hands and feet to glands and organs. Of course along the way he hits every health fad, from cleanses to vegetarianism to acupuncture to alternative medicines to that oldie-but-goodie, thoroughly chewing your food, and talks to some very sensible doctors, scientists, and other knowledgeable folks and a few really weird ones.

As I started this book I mused that this might not be as good as the first two books, but A.J. was sneaky: he paralleled his quest for good health with the failing health of his grandfather, a humorous, loveable guy whose deterioration with age as the narrative continues is painful to read. So this entry in A.J.'s experimental adventures is a bittersweet one, and, considering the conflicting health advice he gets from experts, an intriguing tale as well.

 Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders, Jean Lorrah
This was one of the first (#20) of the Pocket Books line of Star Trek novels, and written by Jean Lorrah, a beloved member of the original Trek fan community, author of one of the most well-known of the early fanzines, "Night of the Twin Moons," the first to concentrate on the relationship of Spock's parents. Lorrah later went on to write non-Trek fiction. I picked it up for a dime at a book sale. I think I was overcharged.

Saying that, I didn't find it as terrible as some reviewers did. I did appreciate the effort Lorrah made to further extrapolate the lives of Vulcans and the geography of the planet, not to mention discussing the non-Vulcans who lived and worked on the planet, including physician Daniel Corrigan and instructor Elenya Miller, who have to interact with the stoic (not emotionless) Vulcans every day.

Unfortunately, the book's mystery isn't very mysterious. The assailant is introduced early on, and there are blatant (at least to me) clues that led me to think "This person could be the killer" and then reject the very idea because this person, by their attitude, was absolutely too obvious and just couldn't be the one. Wrong. Then Captain Kirk basically deputizes himself to find the murderer. Jim Kirk is one hell of a captain. He's a terrible detective. He makes lists of suspects. Then lets his suspects see them. Seriously?

I'm also unsure if Lorrah herself put in all the breathless moments and the exclamation points. I've read other Lorrah; she never seemed this ...emotional. The text is sprinkled with !!!!!!!s everywhere. I'm thinking some "helpful" editorial assistant added them later to "add excitement," and all it does is make the story look like Amateur Hour.

Readable as a curiosity. Just don't pay too much!

 St. Nicholas, Volume LVII, May through October 1930, Century Publishing Company, Scholastic Publishing Company
Well, this was it. With the May issue, "St. Nicholas" stepped out of one publishing company (The Century Company was killed by the Depression) and into another. The format of the magazine continued for two more issues, and then the boom really struck: only one serial, fewer stories, "The Watch Tower" and "Keeping Up With Science" halved in pages.

The stories about "boys and girls" were mostly about older teens, and mostly sporting older teens: tales had to do with golf, tennis, football, even a girl training a hound for foxhunting; there was also a teen sister cooking dinner for an uncle, another teen girl entering an art contest. Tommy Dane, the American boy living and working in Mexico, had a couple of outings, one with frantic gunplay; Felix, an older teen working at his first factory job, endures jibes for being slow, but he also has something an quicker employee does not; Hsiao Fu, a teen boy in China, has a return engagement in which he shows that helping others is not bad luck; and the serial is an interesting entry from Hildegarde Hawthorne (a frequent "Nick" contributor who was the granddaughter of Nathaniel), "The Navajo Cañon [note spelling!] Mystery" in which the Native characters are treated with relative respect, for all that they speak in some sort of weird patois where they mix up their "L" and "R" pronunciations, the protagonists two older teens who have driven a jalopy of their own construction across country. There's also "Kin to the Woods: A Story of the Tennessee Cumberlands," whose ecological theme is still current today. The Great War is still a subject in "How Shorty Got the Iron Cross" as well as in "Keewah," the story of a range horse who finds himself on the battlefield.

The nonfiction devotes a good deal of time to aircraft and flying, at least one article in each issue, including one in which both boys and girls are encouraged to get into piloting gliders (oh, I can see helicopter parents blanching about this now; one of the girls they feature is only thirteen!). Another article talks about the fun both sexes can have with a small outboard motor. Several of the nonfiction pieces are nature stories about an animal told from their point of view, including one about a trout named Flash. Richard Byrd is still being lauded for his flight over Antarctica.

Sadly, an excellent article about training your hunting dog is marred at the beginning with a joke about lazy dogs told by "two darkies." Not to mention there's a "Rastus" joke in the "Just for Fun" column in the October issue, showing that "St. Nicholas" unfortunately was not free of the adult bigotry that ran rampant at that time. It's always jarring when these instances come up, because the magazine is otherwise written at such a high level of intelligence.

 World War II Rhode Island, Christian McBurney, Brian L. Wallis, Patrick T. Conley, John W. Kennedy
This is a slim but dense volume of different essays about World War II in the Ocean State (or "Little Rhody," as it was nicknamed back then). Opening and closing pieces address how the citizens of the state received the news of Pearl Harbor and of VJ Day, but the rest talk about war events specific to the state. Most obviously, there is the story of the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point that later gave its name to the utilitarian metal building known in the US as a "Quonset hut," plus the torpedo station and Naval college in Newport. Davisville, near Quonset, was the home of the "Seabees," the Naval engineers. There are also articles on women war workers, plus the daycare workers who watched over their children, and the Liberty Ship shipyards, but the most intriguing pieces are about the prisoner-of-war camps in the state, one which was just a POW camp, the other which was an indoctrination camp which prepared Germans for postwar life: teaching them that Hitler was wrong in his bigotry against Jews, that countries other than Germany were not "decadent" and barbaric (this was particularly necessary for the young soldiers who were brainwashed early as part of the Hitler Youth). Interesting reading for all Rhode Islanders!

 The National Review Treasury of Children's Literature, edited by William F. Buckley
I first came upon this, and its companion volume via a reference to "St. Nicholas." And indeed, all but two of the stories in this volume are from that magazine. So, since I have all these magazines, why would I order the same stories in these volumes?

Alas, because I am a "St. Nicholas" purist, it  had to be. Luckily I found excellent secondhand copies at low prices. And once again I was seduced by the content: two of Alcott's "Spinning Wheel" stories, one with a plucky girl heroine Tabby Turnbull; two Jack London offerings; several of Palmer Cox's Brownie poems and adorable illustrations (also Carolyn Wells' "Happychaps," which appear to be little insects); a good collection of fairy stories, including a selection from Lewis Carroll's Sylvia and Bruno; two Native American legends; fables like "Noll and Antoonje"; two stories from The Jungle Book (which Rudyard Kipling was encouraged to write by the editors of "St. Nicholas"); even novella-length treats like Tom Sawyer Abroad (which still reads to me like Mark Twain got bored after ten chapters and just abruptly ended it) and Sir Marrok, about Arthurian-era Sherwood Forest.

The one real curiosity here is Buckley's attempt to write a "St. Nicholas"-like story about a boy who learns a lesson, "The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey." It's set modern-day with computers, but has young Wilfred (the son of an impoverished writer nevertheless determined Wilfred get a good education) going to boarding school and, finding he has no funds to treat his fellow wealthy classmates, beginning to steal from them. Then he finds gold: one of the teachers appears to have a computer that grants wishes! One reads it wondering just what Buckley was trying to get at.

 Re-read: Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers
Two years after her trial for murder, Harriet Vane is still unsettled by what happened to her and stuck with a fine case of writer's block. To relax she takes a walking tour of the southwest coast of England, only to find a man with his throat cut by a straight razor on a rock near the surf. By the time she reaches the nearest town, Wilvercombe, the body has been washed away by the tide, but Harriet dutifully reports the crime to the police. The news makes the papers and Lord Peter Wimsey arrives to see if he can be of help solving the crime, something Harriet is both interested and repelled at doing, especially after sad, fortyish widow Mrs. Weldon, staying at the same posh hotel the murdered man worked at, confesses to the mystery writer that the dead man was her young Russian fiance who had escaped the Soviet Union and she feels his death was caused by Bolsheviks.

Lord Peter and Harriet's sleuthing (ably aided by Wimsey's manservant and best friend Mervyn Bunter, the local Inspector Umpelty, Peter's old friend reporter Salcombe Hardy, and even London Inspector Charles Parker) is delightful, with them sharing a repartee along the lines of Nick and Nora Charles, save that Harriet is still firm about refusing Peter's marriage proposals. The evidence is complicated by a hiker, a camper driving a three-wheeled Morris, a woman in a red motorcar with a funny license plate, a drunken itinerant hairdresser (we would call him a barber), a couple of seagoing locals who are acting mysteriously, the other dancers at the hotel, Mrs. Weldon's exasperated farmer son, and even an escaped horse. Tide tables and a secret code make this a suitably complex murder mystery, even if it doesn't advance Lord Peter's "case" much.

 Lord Darcy: Murder and Magic, Too Many Magicians, Lord Darcy Investigates, Randall Garrett
A friend has been recommending these to me for years, so when this omnibus copy showed up for a buck at the book sale, why not? It's the mid-1960s on an alternate Earth where (a) magic works and science is viewed with skeptical amusement and (b) Richard the Lionheart never died from the wound sustained in the Crusades, so England and France never parted ways and a Plantagenet still sits on the combined throne of the Anglo-French Empire. Lord Darcy (his first name unknown) is an investigator for Prince Richard, the brother of John IV, the King. Darcy, who vaguely resembles Sherlock Holmes (and perhaps Heathcliff), partners with an overweight red-haired master magician, Sean O Lochlainn, to investigate crimes. The volume presents eight of the ten Lord Darcy short stories (more like novellas) and the one Darcy novel.

I love the world-building in these stories up to a point. The result of the Plantagenet line continuation through Prince Arthur seems very real. Also the "magic" having definite rules rather than just appearing (forgive the pun) "like magic" makes the situation much more believable. The mysteries themselves are excellent; Garrett loves locked room tales and it shows in his complicated plots (although one seems borrowed from Dorothy Sayers and another from Agatha Christie—but with a twist in the latter).

Darcy is...interesting, but I never get a sense of him as a real person. To me he compares less favorably to someone like Lord Peter Wimsey, who became more fully rounded as each novel was released. Darcy seems more an idealized (handsome, athletic, intelligent yet intuitive) character, very two-dimensional. Master Sean, who operates as his forensic assistant rather than a "Watson," is more interesting, but if Garrett had called him "the tubby Irish sorcerer" one more time I was going to scream. I preferred the short stories to Too Many Magicians, which I felt was overlong, although it does introduce Mary, Dowager Duchess of Cumberland, who seems rather sweet on Darcy and who I enjoyed. Magicians, unfortunately, also introduces a fascinating character, Lord John Quetzal, who's a magician from this universe's version of Mexico, and who disappears halfway through the book, as if Garrett had changed the end and not made accommodation for him. (Also, if the Marquis of London and Lord Bontriumphe are based on Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, I'll guarantee you I'll never read a Wolfe novel. Two more annoying characters I've never read.)

Something else bothered me: I understand that the magic of the Darcy world has basically retarded the development of technology, but they developed some technology—steam trains, a version of the telephone, telegraphs, even a primitive magic-battery-powered flashlight—and then quit. Somehow I can't see 1966 still having horses, carriages, gaslight, etc. Seems odd to reach a level of technology and then just quit

Still, recommended if you like fantasy elements in your mysteries.

 The Happy Hollisters at Pony Hill Farm, Jerry West
A wooden horse leads to a real one in this complicated (well, for a kids' book) entry in the Hollister series. The kids—12-year-old Pete, 10-year-old Pam, Ricky (age 7), Holly (age 6), and 4-year-old Sue—wish to buy an Appaloosa (not capitalized in the story) rocking horse at an auction of a recently-deceased Shoreham resident. At the auction they meet Chuck, the dead man's nephew, who never knew his uncle and was hoping to find out something more about him. The kids later find a clue in the rocking horse of a possible inheritance for Chuck, but by then the boy has left town. Soon they're preoccupied with an invitation to visit a place called Pony Hill Farm—where, presto, a lost Appaloosa filly shows up. Could she have something to do with the rocking horse the kids bought?

If you say "no," you haven't read enough Happy Hollisters books!

How you react to this one depends on your tolerances for one whopping coincidence. It's nonstop action (and Joey Brill gets his at least once, praise the Lord!) in which the girls shine, especially Holly, who handles a big quarter horse and some trick riding with ease. If you've read a couple of the few stories where only the boys go on ahead to track the bad guys and the girls stay back where it's "safe," this one has a great rib-tickling high-five of a denouement!

Books Completed Since July 1

 The Rise of the Rocket Girls, Nathalia Holt
Of all the science-related books I read in July, this was one of my favorites.

In the early part of the 20th century, the last place you would have found a woman working would be in scientific endeavors. Oh, there were a few "odd" women ("bluestockings," they were called, usually "repressed spinsters" who couldn't find a husband) who worked in the sciences, but young, attractive women who excelled in mathematics or sciences usually took more "womanly" jobs like teaching (or just surrendered and married). Then a few young ladies found employment at what would later be the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, like Barby Canright, Macie Roberts, and Barbara Lewis, performing manual calculations for rocket trajectories (or using a newfangled adding machine called a Friden). These "rocket girls," and other "computers" like them, formed the backbone of later rocket research—but the male engineers got all the glory.

This is a super profile of Canright, Roberts, Lewis, and the women who followed, women who juggled motherhood and marriage with 12-hour days and launch deadlines, and managed to balance being "all-American girls" while performing mathematical calculations that some men said were impossible for women to even understand. Even more amazing, most of the "rocket girls"'s husbands understood their dedication to their work and didn't mind their long hours, taking over "womanly" chores like caring for the children and keeping house. I felt like I really got to know all of them, and cheered them on each time one of their projects succeeded, or when they finally got newer computers to make easier calculations for their ever-more-complicated space vehicles. Their expertise sent us from simple rockets adapted from the German designs to spacecraft that orbited the planets and finally headed out into the solar system.

A scientific book that doesn't talk down, but makes each new challenge understandable. Highly recommended!

 Death in the Stars, Frances Brody
Kate Shackleton is requested to escort a famous singer  to the event of the century: a total eclipse of the sun. She's unsure why the woman is so afraid to go on her own, especially when a good friend of the singer's, a beloved comedian, is accompanying her to the event as well. The trip will be by air, but there seems to be something deeper in Selina Fellini's fear. Of course it's cloudy the day of the eclipse, but the clouds part just in time for everyone to view the spectacular. It's only after the event is over that they notice comedian Billy Moffatt is gone—and then he's found unconscious and later dies. Kate doesn't find this suspicious, only odd, until it's found out two others in Selina and Billy's performing troupe died of odd causes, a dog trainer named Douglas Dougan, and a ventriloquist, Floyd Lloyd. Could Selina's war-changed husband have caused one of or all of the deaths? Or someone in her family?

This is a enjoyable combination of behind-the-scenes at a music hall and the lives of its performers combined with an astronomical event and the repercussions of the aftermath of the first World War. I love the language and the narration of all of the Kate Shackleton books, and also the supporting characters like Mrs. Sugden and Jim Sykes. In this story, Mrs. Sugden reveals another piece of her past—one that is rather novel!—that eventually helps with the investigation, and there's also an unusual young character who provides a rather eerie clue via an odd means of communication.

Plus, Harriet's back, so am looking forward to the next book to see how Kate deals with having her niece aboard.

 Missions to the Moon, Rod Pyle
This is an interactive coffee table book about NASA and the moon missions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings. Already chock full of photographs, diagrams, artwork, and original correspondence (a page from the FBI's investigation of Wernher von Braun, von Braun's original sketch of a space station concept from 1964, George Low's letter changing the name of the first space effort to "Project Mercury" (it was originally "Project Astronaut"), a hand-drawing of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, etc.), there is also an app you can download so you can click links in the text with your phone or tablet and see further artifacts and video.

A nice, basic look at man's interest in the moon, the first steps with rockets, and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions (the latter which forms the bulk of the second half of the book), perfect for thos who were born after the wonder had happened.

 Shoot for the Moon, James Donovan
This was one of several books released for the moon landing anniversary, and we ended up buying most of them. I have books about the space program going back to the late 60s (John Noble Wilford's We Reach the Moon and Richard Lewis' Appointment on the Moon), and appreciated these fresh looks at the space program. This one is enjoyably narrated and focuses on some of the flight controllers and other participants who were never mentioned in previous books, like Steve Bales and Max Faget. It also took the time to focus on Wernher von Braun and his connection with the Nazis, and also a little of the history of the Soviet space program (I had no idea Valentina Tereshkova was not a trained astronaut; instead she was a skydiver who was given a chance to go up in space as a stunt and then given honors afterwards—she had no control of the spacecraft at all).

One review of this book on Amazon by someone who worked for NASA says the text is riddled with numerous small scientific errors and some mistakes of detail. I believe I did find a mistake but can no longer remember what it was. It's a shame because otherwise the text is a page turner. I would still recommend it for the story of the accomplishments of the engineers and the astronauts who made going to the moon a reality.

 Mayhem & Mass, Olivia Matthews
This is a pleasant mystery series starring Sister Louise LaSalle, who lives in the religious community of St. Hermione of Ephesus in Briar Coast, New York. Her nephew Chris LaSalle works as an official for the college connected with the congregation. Sister Lou has invited her old friend Maurice Jordan to speak at St. Hermione's, an unpopular decision with some of the community because of his controversial views. When he's late for his speaking engagement, Sister Lou hurries to his hotel room, and finds him dead by violence. A shaken Sister Lou is determined to find justice for him, just as a cynical newspaper reporter named Sharelle Henson thinks following the murder investigation will gain her some points at her new job, even though her editor is dead set against it.

I like the story characters, but the author's storytelling skills are occasionally amateurish. She introduces her characters as Full Name "Nickname" Last Name, which comes off as stilted. Although I appreciate her describing rooms and other locations by citing vivid colors, styles and architectural details, she vastly overdoes it; for instance we are introduced to Sister Lou's office with its bright blue chairs early in the story, and then they are described again and again and again. Yes, we know her chairs are blue. Enough already.

On the other hand, I've seen reviews saying that the ending "wasn't fair" because the killer isn't introduced into the plot until almost halfway through the book. Actually, most of the suspects aren't introduced until the story is well enough on its way; the beginning of the book is used to introduce Sister Lou, Chris, Shari, Lou's nemesis Sister Marianna, the other sisters, the two police officers on the case, and even the murder victim. And when all the suspects are introduced, there's also a big fat clue that leads you to the solution.

I'm going to stick with this series because I like Sister Lou and the idea of a sister sleuth, but I hope the author's writing improves. (And, swelp me, I was brought up Catholic, but had no idea there was a difference between a sister and a nun!)

 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
I think an American child psychologist reading about Marie Kondo's childhood would have sent her off to therapy. She's the middle child, with an older brother who barely looks up from his video games, and her mother is absorbed with attending a younger sister. She started reading books about organization at age 5. She was always the kid who tidied up the classroom, then she'd run home and tidy her room. If it got untidy again she cried. To her tidying was not only fun, but personally fulfilling.

To live Marie Kondo's way, you must live very simply. She aspires to this, and it is a tenant of her Shinto beliefs as well. Many people like an austere lifestyle, most don't. But that works for "KonMari," as she's known. She realizes it won't work for everyone.

What she's saying at her most basic is that you should quit weighing yourself down with things you don't need. Maybe you can't cut your books down to thirty like she has—but are you hanging on to books you read ten years ago, don't recall the plot, and don't think you'll ever re-read? Why? If you really lose that thirty pounds like you've been promising yourself the last fifteen years, will you really pull those musty old size twelve skirts and pants out of a drawer and wear them? Aren't they all out of style? And why cook with dried up spices with no more flavor, or possibly give yourself food poisoning eating that outdated can of soup? You should look at a book and exclaim, "Oh, I love that; I'm going to re-read it!" or "This is a great reference book for my writing!" Look at an outfit and say, "This looks so good on me. I'm going to wear it tomorrow." These are the things that "spark joy." These you keep.

Of course there are certain things you have to keep even though they don't "spark joy." Even if you live in Florida, you keep a heavy coat in case of a cold spell. You are required to keep things like tax returns, business papers, medical records, etc. But those actually "spark joy" when you know you have them when you need them. Everything else is lagniappe.

I doubt if I'll ever get rid of all my clutter, but this is what I've been doing for the past seventeen months. I saved a whole bunch of autumn and winter magazines for the pictures. I pulled them down, tore out the prettiest leaf and snow pictures, but discovered I couldn't figure out why I kept half of them! Out they went. Clothes I didn't want got donated, tattered clothes went in the trash, gifts I had no room for went bye-bye to Goodwill so someone will love them as I don't.

I do like Kondo's method of not tidying by room, but by category. You pull your clothes out from wherever they are living and check them all. Are you wearing them? If so, why not? If you don't like them, let go. She even has a ceremony where you say farewell to the things you are giving away, thanking them for their service, and sending them off to make someone else happy. Could change your thinking about clutter.

 The Mercury 13, Martha Ackmann
In 1961, Randy Lovelace of the Lovelace Clinic, which provided the medical testing needed for the original astronaut corps, secretly tested thirteen women with the object of seeing if women as well as men were fit for space travel. There was then, and still is, a great deal of misinformation about physical differences in women making it impossible for them to travel in space (even though we now have female astronauts). It should be no surprise that the women tested, mostly trained pilots, passed all the medical tests with flying colors, as well as the psychological ones. In fact, there were certain advantages to women astronauts: they weighed less, used less oxygen, and some even dealt with solitary duty better than men.

However, of course it was 1961, NASA wasn't looking for women, and there was a requirement that astronauts be jet test pilots, a job which a woman was not allowed to perform.

This is the story of the women who volunteered for these tests, even though they knew the testing was not official. They hoped that if they did well NASA might change their minds about accepting women to the program, if not then, perhaps in the future. The women included Jerrie Cobb, who sought to break altitude records while reporters asked her inane questions like "Why does a pretty young girl like you want to spend her time around the dirt and grime and noise of airplanes?" And also Jacqueline Cochran, an orphan from Florida who fell in love with air racing and whose husband supported her dream. There was also Ruth Nichols (who is portrayed in Fly Girls), an air racer and competitor for flying awards; Betty Skelton, who'd flown with the Blue Angels, and Dorothy Anderson, who risked losing her job to participate in the tests.

I wasn't as taken by the writing in this one as in, say, Hidden Figures or Rise of the Rocket Girls, and was disappointed to hear about Jackie Cochran's actions. According to the author, she seemed determined to hog any glory that came from women's involvement in the space program. But it was interesting to find out that the women did have "the right stuff" medically and psychologically, and it would have been intriguing to see how they stacked up with the rest of the requirements had they only been allowed to participate.

 Murder Go Round, Carol J. Perry
In this fifth book in the "Witch City" mysteries, Lee Barrett goes to a storage auction with her elderly Aunt Ibbie, who raised Lee after her parents died, after Ibbie becomes a fan of a television series about them (clearly based on Storage Wars). The two bid on a lackluster unit, and most of what's in it is junk, but one item stands out: a vintage carousel horse that Lee loves and immediately takes to be restored. Next thing she knows her police detective boyfriend reports that the restoration shop was burgled and someone prised apart her carousel horse, evidently looking for something, and Lee's unwanted ESP has reared its ugly head again, showing her the vision of a dead man with a bleeding neck in the reflective surface of the silver samovar also discovered in the storage unit.

Next thing Lee knows, she's involved with Salem, MA's Russian community, an odd red-headed woman named Stacia, and someone who keeps following her around. After all, what has an old carousel horse got to do with people who were once servants to the Romanovs, not to mention the KGB?

Again, these aren't great art, but I like the combination of Salem, the mild "woo-woo" involved in the plots, the cat O'Ryan, and Lee, Pete, and Aunt Ibbie, not to mention River and the folks at "the Tabby." Lee and Pete's romance isn't intrusive as some cozy mystery romances are, either.

 First on the Moon: The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Experience, Rod Pyle
This is Pyle's more detailed narrative specifically focusing on the flight of Apollo 11 in coffee table format, a companion volume to the more general overview Missions to the Moon. Like that volume, it's crammed with diagrams, black and white and color photographs from the NASA archives, drawings, artwork, and clippings, with a foreward by Buzz Aldrin. If you were born after the event, a visual feast for the eyes and mind, if you do remember the incredible event, a walk down memory lane.

 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery at Missile Town, Jerry West
How fortuitous that I still had this particular Hollisters book to read just as the anniversary of Apollo 11 rolled around!

When this novel takes place, Cape Canaveral was chiefly known as a missile base, but a few monkeys had been launched in rockets and recovered. The Hollisters receive a letter from Elaine Hollister's sister Carol Davis, inviting the family to visit them in Florida, and intrigues the family by enclosing a photo of Lady Rhesus, a monkey who has gone into space. She is owned by Miss Mott, a neighbor of the Davises. So Elaine Hollister and the kids (Pete, 12; Pam, 10; Ricky, 7; Holly, 6; and Sue, 4) are off to Cape Canaveral, where they get involved, of course, in several mysteries, including possible sabotage of the missiles and the disappearance of Lady Rhesus. (Holly also has an adventure on the train—she always was my favorite!)

Again, given when this was written, was surprised and delighted to discover that, when the Hollister kids are playing at a pretend missile launch, and Joey Brill (the resident bully) and his friend taunt the kids that "only men launch missiles" (meaning that Pam and Holly shouldn't be participating in the game), Ricky informs them that "plenty of women have jobs at the missile range"—their Uncle Walt, who works at Cape Canaveral, told them so. This was written in 1961, long before Rise of the Rocket Girls and Hidden Figures brought out the important work women did in the space program! Later in the book they meet Miss Mott, who helped train the monkeys that were shot up in experimental rockets. (Lady Rhesus is clearly modeled on "Able," a rhesus monkey who was shot into space, and her partner "Baker," a squirrel monkey, who lived until age 27.) At the Cape, they meet both women and men reporters. At the end of the book, it is Pam who helps find a missing missile payload. 

A cool entry in the "Happy Hollisters" series!

 Carrying the Fire, Michael Collins
I haven't read all the astronaut biographies, but this is supposed to be one of the best, and I quite concur. Collins relates his early years as an Army brat (he was born in Rome, Italy), but the majority of his story is about his days as a test pilot and then as an astronaut. This is a delightful read because Collins explains everything in an understandable way without being condescending and keeps the tone light except when the situation requires it. He states in his Preface: "I bore easily, and I have written for people who bore easily," and indeed, there is not a boring page in this volume. His narration is engaging, often self-deprecating, and frequently humorous, but always interesting, whether talking about his training at Edwards Air Force Base or narrating some of the negative parts of astronaut life, including stupid and/or repetitive press questions, body rebellion under the pressure of training, and, of course, detailing the rigors of spaceflight and his own views about being "the guy who went to the moon, but didn't get to walk on it." There are also short sketches about each of the astronauts he worked with (Collins has something nice to say about everyone, even if his capsule characterizations hint that a relationship wasn't all gravy), and he's included a poem his wife wrote for him before he left on his moon voyage, which will leave a lump in your throat.

Glad I finally had the time to invest in this book. Highly recommended as an astronaut bio and behind the scenes look at the 1960s Space Program.

 Re-read: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
In 2075, the moon has become a penal colony, but most of the sentences are long over; people have remained on the moon partially because a body used to the moon's gravity suffers on Earth and partially because the "Loonies" have built their own society, pretty much ignored by the corrupt warden and his cadre ("the Authority") so long as no major laws are broken. We join this world via Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis (just call him "Mannie"), who has become the go-to computer repairman for the Authority's computer who runs everything: a HOLMES FOUR that Mannie calls Mycroft or "Mike."

And Mike has become sentient, with Mannie as his first "not-stupid" friend.

With Mike's help, political agitator Wyoming Knott and elderly Professor Bernardo de la Paz, plus an initially-reluctant Mannie, the Loonies decide they are tired of all their profit going to Earth (mmmn, students of US history, does this sound familiar?) and wish to be a sovereign nation. They're not afraid to fight, and that's good, because the Federation on Earth doesn't want to give independence to a bunch of convicts and will do anything to stop them. Mike becomes one of the revolutionaries and concocts an audacious scheme to defend Luna against the overwhelming presence of Earth shock troops.

Heinlein basically recreates the Revolutionary War in space, with Earth as the evil British and Luna as the American colonists, and in the process creates a new society where line marriages are the norm (multiple husbands and wives), the characters speak in a mixed patois that includes Australian English and Russian, and no one is crazy to "go home" since Luna is their home. The characters, especially brainy Mike, who grows from an innocent youngster taking his baby steps in the world of men to one of the leaders of the rebellion, will stick in your mind long after you finish the book, and the end, at least back when the book was written, is a stunner.

 Eight Years to the Moon, Nancy Atkinson
If you are a space program fan and have enjoyed all the television specials and all the new books about NASA and the "Space Race," but are looking for "something different," you might want to try this oversized hardback that turns its back on the politics and the public, and actually does takes you behind the scenes. The astronauts make brief appearances, but the protagonists in this are the folks that built and programmed the computers, tested the spacecraft, managed the companies that built the vehicles. You meet Ken Young, one of the first employees in the new Mission Control location in Houston, TX; chemical engineer Norman Chaffee (no relation to the astronaut Roger Chaffee) who went into building rocket engines; Dottie Lee, who, as a "computer" at Langley Research Center, worked out trajectories for missiles; Earle Kyle, one of the very first African American aerospace engineers; and more.

If you're fascinated most by the the science behind the space missions, this is definitely the book for you. Full of black and white illustrations from NASA files and photographs of the people who made the rockets fire, the capsules work, and the astronauts breathe, with text that covers everything from propulsion to life support.

 Murder by the Book, Lauren Elliott
I'm a sucker for mystery books taking place in New England, not to mention mysteries taking place in bookstores. I need to get suckered in less easily. This book makes me want to throw things. I'm not sure if it's the book or up.

Our protagonist Addison "Addie" Greyborne previously worked with rare books at the Boston Public Library. When a great aunt she doesn't even remember leaves her the old family home in the small New England town of Greyborne Harbor and a great deal of money, Addie takes the opportunity to move there and open her own rare book store. The day she opens the store someone in a dark car tries to run her down, then someone tries to break into her store, and then while she and her new friend Serena (owner of the cute tea shop next door, SerenaTEA [eyeroll]) are cleaning up a mess at the back of the store, someone breaks into the front and creates a mess, but just makes off with a cheap copy of Alice in Wonderland.

This is all in the first chapter. In the next 250 pages, the dark car tries to get her several more times and is seen hanging around her home, someone breaks into her home, someone steals her keys, etc. We also find out that a year earlier Addie lost her fiance David in a home invasion, six months earlier her father died near the Harbor in a terrible car crash, and then she was notified her aunt passed away. For most of the book she is either racing to open her store then back to her house where it takes her ages to get an alarm system installed to the police station or somebody's trying to physically injure her or break into the places she owns...she finally decides she needs an assistant and hires the first person she interviews. (Ironically, the new employee is the daughter of a fellow businessperson on the street, a sour woman named Martha who hates Addie on sight and gets together with a bunch of other Harbor businesspeople to force her to leave town because...well, we don't know why—check next paragraph.) Oh, and then one of the businesspeople is killed and Serena gets accused of the murder, and...

Where do I start? Serena helps Addie clean up an inadvertent mess and suddenly they are besties. Serena's brother Marc is the chief of police, and he and Addie meet eyes and suddenly it's romantic attraction 101. Next thing you know they keep running into each other; no wonder the other businesspeople are all atwitter. I'm shy, but Addie doesn't seem to have that problem, so why in heaven's name doesn't she march up to Martha and ask her, civilly, why all the hate? Apparently someone's been spreading rumors that Addie moved to Greyborne Harbor to escape prosecution on criminal activities in Boston, but even when that is squelched everyone in town hates her and Marc and Serena explain this is because they are jealous of Addie being a Greyborne. Wow, this sounds like a jolly little town. Also, at the time the book opens Addie has been in town a month, remodeling and setting up the store. Do you mean to tell me that at no time has she found a moment to talk to anyone in town, make some friends, go to the local coffee shop, or even notice the tea store next door? She had to eat; didn't she even go grocery shopping? Really?

So you've followed my narration about all the things that happened to Addie: the almost-car accidents, the break-ins at the store and at the house, the other threats to her life, right? So finally she gets the alarm system installed in her house! And what does this ridiculous woman do? She leaves the door open and the alarm off because she's expecting Serena for tea. Seriously? Seriously? In one chapter she wonders if Marc thinks she's a dingbat. Well, I for one, lady, can tell you you are.

(Also, note to the publisher and the writer: the name of the book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. No book expert like Addie would call it just plain "Alice in Wonderland" [the title which is not even italicized in the book either time it's mentioned]. The original copy mentioned in this book would have been entitled Alice's Adventures Underground.)

Please. Find a better book. Even Dr. Seuss created more saavy characters.

 The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols, Nicholas Meyer
Back in the 1970s, Meyer penned The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, about Sherlock Holmes' efforts, with the assistance of Dr. John Watson and the famous "alienist" Sigmund Freud, to wean himself from a cocaine addiction that is making him increasingly ill and paranoid. (The book was later made into a film which kept those essential parts of the plot while changing the rest of the storyline; it too was well-received.) Later Meyer wrote two sequels, The West End Horror and The Canary Trainer. This is his fourth Holmes effort, which opens on Sherlock Holmes' birthday when Mycroft contacts his brother about an unsettling manuscript that has come into his hands. The British intelligence agent bringing it to him was murdered, and it has become essential, in the political climate, to stop its distribution. The manuscript is the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an anti-Semetic screed published in Russia in the late 19th century, purportedly a true report of the "Jewish plot" to take over the world.

In Meyer's novel, it is Watson's new wife, Juliet, who provides the means of translation for the Russian manuscript—she has "bluestocking" family members belonging to the Bloomsbury set who are Russian-language scholars—and discovers it's a plagiarism of a French document criticizing Napoleon III. Holmes, Watson, and a Jewish-American woman named Anna Strunsky head for Russia under assumed names, dodging those who follow them, determined to discover who wrote this calumny and get his (or her) confession, thereby refuting the document if it is distributed.

It's a hair-raising adventure across Europe and into Russia, and all done in Meyer's marvelous voice: he has Conan Doyle's style down cold  and provides a narrative as much like the originals as possible (without the pesky racism). The result comes off as a "real Holmes story"—but there's one fly in the ointment: anyone familiar with history knows that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" continued as a destructive juggernaut, causing the strengthening of anti-Semitism, pogroms, and eventually the Holocaust, and even today the document is taken for real by Holocaust deniers. So there is no triumph at the end for our intrepid pair. Also, Anna Strunsky is introduced as an intelligent, tough woman who gets through all of the hardships Holmes and Watson also suffer, but an event happens that lessens her role in the story. It was rather irritating to have a positive figure come out in such a negative manner. Still worth it for the great Holmes/Watson interaction and Arthur Conan Doyle feel.