Books Completed in April 2025

  Re-read: The Call of the Wild, Jack London
I read this first as a Whitman classic, back at a single-digit age. It's not a children's book, but I loved it: it was about a dog, a dog who survives the worst humans and nature can throw at him, and emerges triumphant.

I hadn't read it in a while, but found a lovely, illustrated copy at Barnes & Noble the other day. It's terrible and savage, but beautiful and wonderful, and I had forgotten so many brilliant passages. The story of Buck is timeless.

 The Science of Sherlock Holmes, E.J. Wagner
Sherlock Holmes was one of the first popular detectives to use what we now know as forensics, the science behind the evidence in crimes, from the Great Detective's study of bruising on bodies to his knowledge of tobacco ash. This book discusses real-life Victorian crimes that parallel crimes in the Holmes canon, from poisons to blood evidence, disguises on both sides of the law (the Crippen case is featured, of course) and the examination of crime scenes, ballistics and footprints, and more. For fans of the canon or of the history of forensics.

  Re-read: The Rock That is Higher: Story as Truth, Madeleine L'Engle
This was my Good Friday reading for this year; I usually just read until three o'clock comes, but this year, with the loss of my husband, I had to finish. L'Engle has been my soul-ease in bad times for years.

  Damn Glad to Meet You, Tim Matheson
Matheson, who started his acting career under his real name, Tim Matthieson, is probably best known for being (1) the voice of Jonny Quest and (2) "Otter" in Animal House. This is a jaunty (but occasionally serious) recollection of his career, including his sojourn in the Marines while in the middle of finishing the film Yours, Mine, and Ours.

Matheson, a familiar television face from when he first appeared as one of Beaver's friends on Leave It to Beaver, gives us a bird's-eye-view of the television and movie industry, including behind-the-scenes peeks at how acting, directing, and producing works. It's a lively narrative with lots of name-dropping, and never a bore.

  Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
I was waiting for this book to come out in paperback.

I needn't have wasted my money. Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant scientist, but it's the early 1950s, and the misogynist scientists at the institute where she works want her to go back to the kitchen, get married, and have babies. Luckily, there's one scientist who appreciates her mind, brilliant but absent-minded Calvin Evans. They begin living together without benefit of clergy and Elizabeth is pregnant. A co-worker steals her work plus she's an unwed mother, so for many years she and her child struggle. However, a later, chance encounter at her daughter's school leads a harassed television producer to create a local cooking show for her, Supper at Six, where she not only teaches cooking, but the science behind cooking (kind of a female Alton Brown in the 1960s). It becomes a hit.

So basically it's Elizabeth Zott against the patriarchy of the 1950s at its worst. The absurd plot includes a dog named Six-Thirty who thinks and comments on events in the story, like Cleo the basset hound in The People's Choice, an old 50s television series. This is supposed to be an indictment against the prejudice against women in the workplace in the 1950s. Instead, it's just silly. The only interesting part is about Calvin and his past.

  Last Chance Books, Kelsey Rodkey
I enjoyed this new adult romance about Madeline Moore, who's off to university in the fall, but who looks forward to coming home after her education to run the family bookstore, Books & Moore, owned by her aunt Astrid, who brought up both Maddy and her half-brother Benny. Throwing a wrench in her summer plans: her peripatetic mother, Dahlia, who never stays around very long, is planning to return to town.

And then Prologue, a chain bookstore owned by the Hamada family, opens across the street, and Jasper, the youngest son, starts trying to steal Books & Moore's business. Next thing you know, it's a spite war between Maddy and Jasper, while secretly the two are attracted to each other.

The story not only touches on the romantic rivalry, but touches on the more serious themes of how parental neglect affects children and unlikely expectations.

Books Completed in March 2025

 The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl
This is a beautiful nonfiction book in which Renkl shares her observations of wildlife in her backyard and neighborhood. Renkl's brother contributes the gorgeous cover and interior illustrations.

Oh, the chapter "It's a Mystery" is very funny. I read it to my terminally ill husband and it was one of the few things that made him laugh.

  Scythe & Sparrow, Brynne Weaver
This is the final book in the Ruinous Love trilogy featuring Rowan and Lachlan Kane's younger brother, a doctor, and circus motorcycle daredevil Rose Evans, a previously abused young woman who encourages other abused young women to fight back. Rose is a neat character, but Fionn remains a little dull until the end when he embraces his violent side. Still, you get updates on Rowan and Sloane, and Lachlan and Lark.

 The First Ladies, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
From the authors of The Personal Librarian, the story of the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and famed Black leader Mary McLeond Bethune, although the former's friendship with the latter scandalizes half of the white community. Bethune hasn't been chronicled as much as Roosevelt, so one learns many of her accomplishments, but it's in a way that requires great swaths of dialog to lecture you about them, making some of the talk sound unnecessarily didactic. Those who recoil at the thought of Eleanor possibly being...gasp!...a lesbian will probably want to avoid this book

  Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop, Roselle Lim
Another winner from Lim, about a reluctant fortune teller who hates her fate. Vanessa has always been able to predict the future correctly, but she hates it when she has to give bad news. Predicting a death chills her, so she decides to train under the family fortune teller, Aunt Evelyn, who's setting up a tea shop in Paris, and resign herself to the fact that she will never have a relationship, just like her aunt. But life, and Paris, has a way of changing her.

  Maria, Michelle Moran
This book has some details about the Von Trapps I'd never read, but if you want to know about the family, you'd be better off reading Maria's books, especially the final one where she came clean about several incidents she'd skipped before, and Agathe Von Trapp's book. And the behind-the-scenes of mounting the musical are okay. Fran and her boyfriend, however, exist just as sounding boards to tell Maria's story.

Books Completed in February 2025

 The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Trip, Jeff Guinn
Three odd ducks: buttoned up Henry Ford, famed inventor Thomas Edison, and, for the first few years of the trip, naturalist John Burroughs, took road trips together on the primitive vehicles of the time.

  James, Percival Everett
I was fascinated by the thought of Huckleberry Finn narrated by his companion Jim, until I read the book. Fascinating opening chapters about Jim's relationship with lonely Huck degenerates into a detour that has Jim performing with a minstrel troupe founded by Daniel Decatur Emmett who wrote "Dixie." I was very disappointed.

  Once Smitten, Twice Shy, Chloe Liese
Last book in the Wilmot sisters' trilogy. Juliet Wilmot is in Scotland, having escaped from a controlling fiance. She runs into shy Will Orsino, who turns out to be the best friend of her sister's finance, and tries to give him lessons in romance. The lessons turn into the real thing.

  Hearts of Darkness, Jana Monroe
Nonfiction. The story of a woman working with the Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI.

 The Cliff's Edge, Charles Todd
The latest in the Bess Crawford series has our newly demobbed nursing sister accepting a job taking care of a minor noblewoman after gall bladder surgery. Lady Beatrice receives word that a member of her family has been seriously injured and asks Bess to help him, only for Bess to find out the young man is accused of having killed another man. Can she sort out the mystery before an innocent man is arrested?

The postwar adventures are not quite as taut as the wartime ones, but there is a hint of a different relationship approaching for Bess and her friend Simon Brandon.

  Dry Bones, Craig Johnson
An argument over who owns the bones of a dinosaur dug up on Native American land results in the death of Danny Lone Elk, who owned the property. An assistant district attorney and a passel of FBI agents make solving the crime even more difficult for Sheriff Walt Longmire, who enlists the help of his friends Lucian Connolly and Omar Rhoades. A subplot involving Walt's daughter Cady and her baby daughter Lola also holds repercussions for Longmire.

I love these books, but if I hear one more description about Vic's "tarnished" eyes I think I'm going to scream.

Books Completed in January 2025

  A Warwickshire Christmas, edited by David Green

  A West Country Christmas, edited by Chris Smith

 The Race to the Future, Kassia St. Clair
Enjoyable narrative about a race from Peking to Paris in 1908, set against the history of the time. Annoying, however, were mistakes like these: "...their mud-caked crews in driving coats, hats and googles." And the biggie: "William Penn...who designed Philadelphia...[e]ach of the dwellings in his city—whose name translates to 'Penn's Woods'..." Um, no. Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods." Philadelphia means "city of brotherly love."

  Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI, Candice DeLong
Nonfiction.

  Not Another Love Song, Julie Soto
Professional violinist Gwen Jackson is offered first chair of the Manhattan Pops orchestra to the displeasure of Xander Thorne, cellist extraordinare. However, they're both attracted to each other.

Favorite Books of 2024

Another Baker's Dozen:

 The Boys, Ron and Clint Howard (the Howard boys' breezy story of their careers)

 The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (a novel based on the fascinating story of Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, who was "passing" for white)

  Getting Smarter, Barbara Feldon (Feldon's story of her career and her unusual marriage to Lucien Feldon)

  Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Will Kemmerer (Native American traditions lovingly described and the use of them to combat modern pollution)

 The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang (the first of three novels about romance and neurodivergent characters)

 The Wonderful World of James Herriot, with additions by Emma Marriot (mostly retellings from Herriot's books, but with real-life framing sequences about Alf Wight and his family)

  Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club, Roselle Lim (a Chinese girl who failed matchmaking school comes home determined to make a go of it anyway, despite her mother's criticism)

  Vesper Flights, Helen McDonald (essays by McDonald, author of H is for Hawk; I liked it better)

  American Ramble, Neil King, Jr. (King walks from Washington DC to New York City via back roads to discover "real America")

  Front Desk, Kelly Yang (uplifting book about a Chinese girl and her parents who take over running a motel from a conniving manager)

  A Different Mirror, Ronald Talaki (the history of the United States as seen by the marginalized: enslaved persons, indentured servants, women, immigrants, Irish peasants, Asian workers, Hispanics)

  Sensational: The Hidden History of America's “Girl Stunt Reporters”, Kim Todd (women break away from reporting about society events and cooking by going undercover; the history of Nellie Bly and her sister "stunt reporters")

  Over My Dead Body, Greg Melville (the history of cemeteries in the U.S., from "boneyards" and hidden slave graveyards to regal parks like Mount Auburn Cemetery)

Books Completed Since December 1

  A Staffordshire Christmas, edited by Robin Pearson

 Tales of Christmas, edited by Amy Newmark

  Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost

  Dear America: Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky

 The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel

  Mystery for Christmas, edited by Richard Dalby

  Christmas TV Memories, Herbie J. Pilato

Books Completed Since November 1

Yeah, don't faint. I only read two books in November, and I didn't finish the second one. (I do intend to finish; it is a great book!) Along with desperately searching for any relief for James' tremendous back pain and seeing doctor after doctor and his getting a full MRI and CT scan of his spine on a Saturday night and a bone density test, I was nursing a sick dog for the second half of the month (the vet doesn't know what happened, but Tucker was very ill and could have died and I had to syringe feed him; when this dog won't eat he is sick). I did manage to finish writing a fanfic and start another one for Christmas.

  A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire, Sarah Hawley
This is the third book in a series about a community called Glimmer Falls, where all sort of magical folk live: werewolves, witches, vampires, centaurs, etc. Ben Rosewood who runs the town plant store, is a shy werewolf who hates the full moon, knits, and has panic attacks. To get up the courage to give a speech at his friends' wedding, he gets drunk, and inadvertently buys a 99 cent crystal on e-Bay that supposedly holds an imprisoned succubus. To his surprise, it actually does: Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux, half succubus, half vampire, who was trapped in the crystal by a witch who put a spell on her over 600 years ago. While Ben wonders what he's to do with this stunning young woman, who is now bound to him, Eleonore just thirsts for revenge on her former captor, until she starts to thirst for Ben and soon he does for her as well.

I didn't read the other books in the series, but this is a cute little rom-com about two very different personalities who bond with each other, with a colorful cast of supporting characters, including an uplifting pixie, Ben's sister who's running for mayor, and Ben's very supportive friends.

 The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, James Wilson
This is the book I haven't finished, but want to because it's damned good. It doesn't make Europeans out to be total monsters, just people who don't understand that just because Native American civilizations didn't progress to cities and commerce like Europeans had, that they weren't some sort of ignorant savages, but practiced a sufficient lifestyle that suited them. The Native Americans, in turn, are not all drawn as saints or "Magic Indians" with special spiritual powers; they are people content with their lifestyle who practiced diplomacy and trade within their society; when Europeans came along with trade goods, many of them wished to give up the lifestyle and live as Europeans did, only to be treated with contempt and distrust and finally, and always, driven west as more Europeans swarmed over the "free" land. Even though I'm only three-quarters done with the book, I find it engagingly written, forthright on its subjects, and an illuminating look at the destruction of a working human ecosystem ruined by forcing an unsuitable lifestyle upon the Americans already occupying this continent.

Books Completed Since October 1

  Inventing English, Seth Lerer
I never could resist a good linguistics book, and this was an enjoyable one.

In nineteen chapters, Lerer sketches watershed moments in the English language, from the poetry of Old English to modern vernacular. Indeed, much of the changes discussed relate to poetry, which is different from most of the English language books I have. Once French enters the scene, it becomes the language of politics and of the wealthy. Words not only change, but word order changes as well, and dialects change depending on what region of England you're from. Then along comes the Great Vowel Shift (you didn't think we could talk about the English language without this phenomenon, did you?). Chapters on Samuel Johnson's dictionary and American English and regionalisms are especially interesting.

 The Comfort of Ghosts, Jacqueline Winspear
After seventeen mysteries and several adventures along the way, this is the final novel in the Maisie Dobbs series.

World War II is over. Maisie, consulting detective for several decades, is now married to American Mark Scott, a Federal employee. They have an adopted daughter, Anna. Maisie discovers that four teenagers are living in her old Belgravia house, and that they are nursing a shell-shocked and gravely ill former soldier. As she helps them, she discovers a secret about her late husband James Compton.

In Maisie's final story, her future takes a new turn, and we see somewhat into the future of her family, her friends, and even some new family. In a surprising turn, I learned that, because of fears of invasion by the Nazis, the British recruited and trained orphan teenagers to be assassins.

I will certainly miss Maisie and her extended family. Perhaps Winspear might update their story sometime so that we find out what happened to Anna, Priscilla's sons, and others.

  Lady of the Silver Skates, Catharine Morris Wright
This is a biography of Mary Mapes Dodge, who wore many hats in her life, especially as the editor of the magazine "St. Nicholas," one of my favorite things, but she is most famous as the author of the children's book Hans Brinker; or The Silver Skates. Known as "Lizzie" in her family, she grew up in a literary family who published magazines. Lizzie later married William Dodge, but when family fortunes started reversing, and one of their children became sick, Dodge abandoned the family and was later found to have committed suicide. Lizzie was forced to support her family and thus became the editor of one of the most famous children's magazines of all time, sharing correspondence with some of the most famous writers of the time.

I was happy to find this book because of my love for "St. Nicholas," and indeed, there is almost as much about the magazine as there is about her most famous book. It's very oddly written; I can't explain totally, but it has sort of a folksy narrative that is very odd in a biography. Sometimes it annoyed me a bit; I would have preferred it more conventionally written. But it was the most I'd ever heard about Mary Mapes Dodge, who was once a household name.

 The Black Bird Oracle, Deborah Harkness
This is the first book in Harkness' sequel to the All Souls trilogy that began with A Discovery of Witches. Matthew de Clermont and Diana Bishop have lived a quiet life since Diana confronted the Congregation, raising their twin children Philip and Rebecca. They are planning to take their usual summer in London when they are summoned: because they are "Bright Born," the children must be tested by the Congregation as they turn seven. Based on her own childhood experiences, Diana is afraid that Pip and Becca will be found wanting or dangerous, and will be spellbound as was.

Diana flees with the children to Ravenswood, her mother's family's home, where a community of witches also stand in judgment toward her. Later some of the community embrace her, and others see her as an enemy. It's here she will learn secrets about her mother's family.

It's not as compelling as Discovery, but I love the universe and the characters. I was a little disappointed that all of a sudden that Diana's father, who has appeared as a nice character in the previous books, seems to become a different person in this one, and not a pleasant one. I fear she might be retconning things to make the female characters more powerful. Still, I'm looking forward to the future of this series.

  London's Secret History, Peter Bushell
I picked this up at a book sale thinking it was about unusual places in London. Instead, it contains anecdotes about the eccentric people who lived in London over the years, including Samuel Johnson, Samuel Pepys, and Sydney Smith. Some of the names are well-known, like the Mountbattens, the Duke of Devonshire, Sir Walter Raleigh, the infamous Nell Gwynn, and more.

I found this to be very funny reading before bed and am glad I spent the $1.50 on tit.

  Spy, Spy Again, Mercedes Lackey
After her awful Eye Spy, which was ruined by her totally obvious hatchet job on an unpopular (yet truly odious) politician (it could have been done so much more subtly, but no, she had to be so obvious about it that it was stupid), this final book in the trilogy about Mags and Amily's brood is a corker. Tory, the youngest, has been the best friend of Prince Kyril "Kee" since babyhood. Neither of them have been Chosen by companions, and their combined Gift (Kee can amplify Tory's farseeing) makes them prime agents to go undercover in Karse to rescue the kidnapped daughter of Bey, Mags' cousin, a professional assassin.

Siratai, however, is holding her own. Being held hostage in a keep with magic baffles, the talented assassin is keeping her Karse captors at bay, but it will take more than the assistance from Earth elementals to get her from her prison.

Tory and Kee take second place in this story to Sira, who is a kick-ass, clever protagonist. You can read this just for her.

  Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries, Greg Melville
This is a fascinating history of the United States from the point of view of the earliest graveyards in Jamestown which show the conditions that first winter were so bad that the remaining explorers resorted to cannibalism through the years of graveyards to cemeteries to memorial parks, and finally the future of cemeteries, given the lack of land and the damage modern burial does to the environment. One chapter talks about how Plymouth settlers' survival depended on robbing Native American graves; another addresses how enslaved persons' graves were relegated to neglected areas of plantations. Fascinating insights into how embalming became popular after the Civil War (and how embalmed bodies are polluting our planet), how cemeteries became parks, military cemeteries, the infamous "Forest Lawn," and more.

Terrific reading.

  From Bad to Cursed, Lana Harper
Part of the "Witches of Thistle Grove" series. Four families live in Thistle Grove, the earth witch Thorns, the Avramovs (who deal with dark magic), the Blackmoores descended from Camelot, and the Harlows. During Beltane celebrations, dark magic attacks Holly Thorn, nearly killing her and halting her magic. Her cousin Rowan Thorn, and Isidora Avramov, who summons demons for fun, are partnered to solve the mystery. Issy has a history with Rowan that isn't pleasant, but she tries to act professional. Naturally, they fall in love with each other.

I found some of the magic intriguing. Isadora and Rowan, not so much.