Books Completed in October 2026

 The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors, Erika Howsare
Wow. I picked this up thinking this would be a good read for autumn.

It was a great read for autumn! I loved it. It was about all aspects of how human beings have interacted with deer over the epochs and eras and centuries: from the deer being food and clothing for prehistoric culture all the way down to being sustenance for Native Americans (Howsare actually takes a course from a Native American woman about preparing a deerskin for use as clothing using traditional methods), to deer being used in mythology—especially the use of deer as enchanted women being hunted down by men, and magical deer—to modern-day hunting to addressing culling the deer population due to human urban spread to deer diseases and road kills.

I was very surprised that this book even approached the concept of modern-day hunting; most nature books eschew the very idea. The author's family hunts and she takes part in a hunt. I don't believe in trophy hunting, but this family actually does use the meat and hunts as humanely as possible; they don't just go out there for a day of drinking and shooting up the forest. I especially like the idea of hunters contributing their kills to food banks.

I really, really loved this book.

 Controlled Burn, L.V. Brooks
I bought this book because it was a spicy romance.

Boy, is a spicy romance. It's pretty much...well, let's put it frankly...lots of smut.

Yes, there is plot with all the porn: Dr. Wren Harrison is a scientist studying endangered red wolves in North Carolina. A pregnant red wolf and her mate unfortunately wander into a woodland area scheduled for a controlled burn to prevent wildfires. Cyrus Langston is the guy in charge of the burn, and he's going to let nothing deter him—even the fact that he's actually a wolf shifter, and his instinct is telling him Wren is The One. His one true mate.

You want smut? You got smut. Oh, the characters are likeable, too, but mostly it's the smut.

  Re-read: Where the Truth Lies, Rupert Holmes
Simon and Schuster is re-releasing all of Holmes' books with uniform covers, and, even though I already had an autographed ARC of this book and the original hardback, I had to get the re-release since Rupert had made a very significant change from the first edition: he gave our protagonist O'Connor (we only knew her as "K. O'Connor" in the original edition) a first name: Kerry.

I have no idea why, but I re-read with just as much gusto as the first time: O'Connor, a journalist, is excited at the prospect of interviewing the former entertainment team of Vince Collins and Lanny Morris, who broke up after an appearance on a 1950s telethon and the discovery of a dead woman in their hotel suite. Collins and Morris are very loosely based on Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but this is a totally original and twisty mystery in the best Holmes tradition with wonderful period details of both the 1950s and the 1970s.

 The Anatomy of Motive, John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
What's better Hallowe'en reading than true crime? This entry from Douglas and Olshaker chronicles motives in different types of crime, not just murders and rapes, but arson, poisoners, shooters, bombers, fugitives, and even seeming "normal" people who just snap due to life stresses. Douglas even does a profile of Othello!

 These Dreaming Spires, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane
I bought this because I enjoyed the previous volume, In These Hallowed Halls, a collection of dark academia short stories. I didn't enjoy this collection as much; some of the stories were too bizarre, like the self-love one.

 Bound and Unbound, Ali Hazelwood
These are two novellas bound (there's that word) into one volume like the old Ace doubles, both concerning human characters who become involved with vampires and taking place in the same universe. Bound involves a con artist named Vanessa who is enlisted to reproduce a rare book by the very reserved Dr. Ashworth, who she discovers is a vampire trying to stop another vampire from ravaging mankind. Unbound's Lilet (who has lived for thousands of years as a vampire) has become enamored of self-sacrificing physician Roman Martin—but first she has to solve the murder of a prominent vampire. So, paranormal love stories with murderous interruptions.

I enjoyed both books as Hallowe'en reads, but thought the endings were pretty predictable.

 A Calendar of Festivals: Traditional Celebrations, songs, Season Recipes & Things to Make, Marian Green
Found this nifty book at a book sale; it was written in Great Britain and mostly concentrates on British holidays and old British feast days, which suits this Anglophile just fine. I love learning about the old harvest and spring festivals, the ways of celebrating Midsummer and Yule, etc. Begins in February, with the first hints of spring, includes Zodiac profiles, seasonal recipes, and charming line drawings. If you like almanac and calendar-type books, this will do very well for you.

 Grim Tidings, B.K. Borison
I ugly-cried at the end of this book.

Gabriel Aetos works in a small, informal bar near the waterfront. He's immediately attracted to Darcy Moore, the beautiful woman who walks in one night. But there's a problem: Gabriel isn't a regular guy, he's a Guardian Angel, dedicated to saving the innocent, and Darcy is a Grim Reaper, the emissary of death. And once he finds out, he's determined she won't take anyone he cares about, or even someone he doesn't.

Because he doesn't trust her, he doesn't realize Darcy is a Reaper tired of death. In fact, on this "mission," she's determined to save the person she's assigned to pick up, even if it gets her punished. She has already started on the "road to ruin" by saving a German Shepherd from death and adopting it as a pet.

Borison wrote the book in tribute to the work of her husband, who works in pallative care. Yeah, it got to me. Hard. As in her previous "Spirits" book, Good Spirits (there is a cameo by one of the protagonists of that book), there are plot twists that work well in the end.

 They Were Here Before Us, Ran Barkai and Eyal Halfon
Most of the anthropology books I've read have been written by Americans/British/Europeans concentrating on those areas, but this book was written concentrating on prehistoric sites in the Middle East, where man's earliest ancestors passed on their way from Africa to Europe and to Asia. Addresses how the human mind developed—both protein and fat were necessary; I knew they killed mammoths, but apparently elephants were used as well, as they had a good deal of fat—where and how remains were found, when use of fire and tools first entered the picture, etc. Enjoyed this different POV and locale.

  Re-read: Lord Peter, Dorothy L. Sayers
I joined a Peter Wimsey Facebook group and someone was reading their way through the short stories, and I couldn't resist grabbing this volume to reread all these wonderful pieces of Lord Peter's life. There's his partnership with his young nephew in "Dragon's Head," the singular mystery of a death coach in "Bone of Contention," a grisly find in "Copper Fingers," and so many more, especially the last story, "Talboys," which shows Peter as a father of three boys, including the mischievous elder, Bredon. Better understood if you've read the novels, but still a good show all around.

Books Completed in September 2026

I'm sorry I'm so lagged on these. I have so much other stuff to do, and I'm tired more these days.

 The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity, Timothy C. Winegard
Basically the history of human civilization as chronicled by the taming and use of the horse, starting as a food item and then use as a riding and work animal. Broadly and interestingly told.

The second book I've read that has made me glad that I never ran into any Assyrians and Scythians. Bloodthirsty civilizations.

 The Muse of Maiden Lane, Mimi Matthews
Fourth and final of the "Belles of London" series, featuring Stella Hobhouse, whose hair went grey when she was quite young. In an art gallery, she comes to the attention of artist Teddy Hayes, who has been confined to a wheelchair after a severe case of scarlet fever. Hayes wants to paint her; Stella knows her straitlaced minister brother would never allow it. Even worse, her brother's trying to marry her off now that he's engaged to a woman who despises Stella.

Matthews writes a happy ending for the last single lady in her Victorian quartet.

Stella's brother is singularly infuriating, and I hoped he and his fiance would drive off a bridge.

 Route 1: New England, Dan Tobyne
A beautiful color gift book of the six New England states, and interesting tourist attractions and places to eat along the old Route 1, "the Boston Post Road" in some areas. I grew up off Route 1 and still dream of home.

 Mrs. Porter Calling, A.J. Pearce
In this third of the Emmy Lake chronicles, Emmy is still working at "Women's Friend" magazine and sharing a home with her best friend Bunty while her husband Charles serves during World War II. Shortly after the story begins, Emmy and Bunty take in Thelma, a woman whose husband is also in Europe fighting, and her three children, George, Margaret, and Stanley. They have a Victory Garden and start raising chickens.

Then the publisher of "Women's Friend" dies, and the management goes to Mrs. Cressida Porter. At first the staff is thrilled that Mrs. Porter is bringing new ideas, until the "new ideas" turn out to be fashion articles and stories about wealthy garden parties rather than the advice needed to endure the war.

I loved the story, but selfish and self-absorbed Mrs. Porter made me so angry I found it hard to endure the book.

 Galloping Around the Cosmos: Memories of TV's "Wagon Train to the Stars" from Today's Grown-Up Kids, edited by Jim Beard
Short essays from 25 writers about how they found the Star Trek universe and how it influenced them. Especially if you are an original fan of the series from back in the 1960s, this will be nostalgic and bring back fond memories of evenings in front of the television.

 The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos, Kami Garcia
This is one of two young adult novels about Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in their younger years. In this one, Mulder, age 18, just having moved to Virginia and in a contentious relationship with his unforgiving father, teams up with his best friend "Gimble," a neglected boy whose Air Force officer father has gone off the deep end after the death of his wife, delving deep into conspiracy theories. A missing little girl, taken just like his sister Samantha, piques his interest, and soon his best friend from home, Phoebe, arrives to help the two boys track down the kidnapper.

The book is nonstop action, although I was skeptical how Phoebe's parents just allowed her to fly to Virginia and spend time alone with an 18-year-old boy with no supervision!

 Enchantment, Katherine May
This was May's story of breaking away from her personal fears during and following the COVID lockdown. She had trouble sleeping, couldn't concentrate to read, and had difficulties with relationships while she raised a young son and supported an ill husband.

Personally, I liked Wintering better.

 The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
I had never read this book. It's sweet and imaginative, but I probably came to it too late. I did like the Little Prince's friendship with the Fox.

Books Completed in August 2026

 The Painted Queen, Elizabeth Peters & Joan Hess
Elizabeth Peters (in real life Barbara Mertz) had just begun to write her latest Amelia Peabody novel and had a partial manuscript and an outline written when she passed away. In 2017, after Joan Hess had been asked to finish the manuscript, with help from an Egyptologist, this book was published. I was crazy about the Peabody books and bought it the moment it came out.

And am ashamed to admit that it took me this long to read, due to family health crises, other real-life interruptions, and just plain other books coming up--and perhaps just a little fear that a Joan Hess-completed Amelia couldn't be as good as a total Peters authorship. I wasn't totally disappointed; the story cracks with action, Nefret is back to her normal self (after a disastrous first marriage to the odious Geoffrey Godwin), and everyone is back (this is one of Peters' "fill in" novels after actually completing the Emersons' saga in Tomb of the Golden Bird) including David and the indomitable Fatima. They are back at Armana, and what they seek is the famed painted head of Queen Nefertiti, which has vanished and already dozens of fake versions are being produced.

SPOILERS (if there can be spoilers on a nine-year-old book): But, I thought the idea of Geoffrey's five maniac brothers all having the name of famed assassins (apparently this was their mother's idea) and being taken down in the same fashion as the person they're named after was absolutely absurd. If this was Peters' notion—I'm sorry, it took me out of the story. The ending is also rather abrupt.

 Grammatically Correct, 2nd edition (Writer's Digest Books), Anne Stilman
I saw this, passed it up, and then drove back out to get it. One of the best books on grammar and writing I've ever seen, with examples from actual published books rather than invented examples to show you how its done. I learned all this stuff years ago and still took notes. A valuable edition to any writer's library.

 Album of Dogs, Marguerite Henry
I've wanted this book ever since I read Album of Horses. Marguerite Henry talks dogs? And with 23 full-page color drawings (as well as sketches) by Wesley Dennis? Count me in. But it was out of print.

Until recently. Yes, it's as beautiful as I expected, even if I'm not the age for it any longer.

 Sisters in Crime, edited by Marilyn Wallace
Another booksale find and another good collection of crime short stories written by and mostly featuring women protagonists (the first story was about a man and a teenage boy, which I didn't quite like so much, and the story about the man trying to write the perfect sentence was just plain strange). The second story is a corker, though, about a female cop's first time at a crime scene. Best yet, there are stories from Gillian Roberts (the Amanda Pepper mysteries), Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels (the same person, author Barbara Mertz), Sue Grafton, and even a V.I. Warshawski story by Sara Peretsky.

 Amazon to Zodiac: 101 Scientific Curiosities Across Time and Space, Barry Evans
Mix science and history and you have a book I love! Everything from our past—Neanderthal man, anyone?—to space exploration, and everything in between: Galileo and his moons, ancient maps, insomnia, the long history of anti-vaxxers, the Latin—and Runic—alphabets, Otzi the iceman, the Number of the Beast (is it really 616?), and more.

Reading the table of contents again makes me just want to re-read this.

 The Western Star, Craig Johnson
Thirteenth in the Longmire series, this is a flashback story to when Walt was a newly-appointed deputy to Absaroka County Sheriff Lucien Connally, unsure that he really wanted to be in law enforcement and smarting from a recent argument with his new—and newly pregnant—wife Martha. He and Connally board a train on the annual sheriff's junket, the cars pulled by the vintage steam engine "Western Star." Somewhere along the way one of the sheriffs is murdered, and Walt is suspected of the crime after someone knocks him out at one of the stops, making it look as if he ran away.

So, this is a Longmire mystery, and y'all know Walt is innocent—the fun is in watching his dogged pursuit of the truth, and figuring out how the crime was done, especially after the dead man's coffin turns up empty. It's also enjoyable seeing him as a young man just back from his service in Vietnam, and as an inexperienced husband and father-to-be. Yes, Henry Standing Bear shows up!

 Writers of the 21st Century Series: Robert A. Heinlein, edited by Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg
A series of nine essays about Heinlein's works. My favorite was the first, because it addressed the juveniles, which have always been my favorite (my first Heinlein was Have Spacesuit, Will Travel). Another chapter addresses Stranger in a Strange Land, the book I had to buy behind my mother's back because she objected to the description of it as "an underground classic."

While the essays address different aspects of Heinlein's books, there is a clear emphasis in several of them about Time Enough for Love and Lazarus Long. Also discussed are the Future Histories, politics and social Darwinism, and lots about sexuality, since "Woody" takes up a good deal of discussion. Glad I bought it, even if a couple of them dragged.

 The Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Loren D. Estleman
Some Holmes pastiches are great, this one is just okay, but then I found it at a book sale and didn't expend much money on it. It contains some stories I'd already read, like Doyle's own parody of his Holmes stories, and an effort by J.M. Barrie. There are some interesting bits, including Holmes on the Titanic, where he meets Jacques Futrelle, who created a 19th century "Sherlock" nicknamed "The Thinking Machine." One doesn't even involve Holmes, but is about a man who solves a mystery ala Holmes. The titular adventure has Holmes teaming up with the American action detective Nick Carter. Good for some hours of amusement, but not top-notch pastiche.

Books Completed in July 2026

 These Truths, Jill Lepore
An in-depth look at American history less from the cliche points of view from past history texts, but from the history of those in the background: Native Americans killed deliberately or turned into servants, Black men and women shipped in from Africa and treated like beasts of burden as they did work increasingly taken away from indentured servants, women who were confined to the kitchen and considered only fit for motherhood and nursing, the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the "Gilded Age" and the Japanese internment camps of World War II, even minorities like Catholics and Quakers marginalized and kept down.

The emphasis in the book is on the long-term affect of "the peculiar institution," as the slave-owners called it to downplay what it really was, and how it still effects today's society.

Thought provoking, a book made to send you into further research about real events.

 Thurber on Crime, stories by James Thurber, edited by Robert Lopresti
A collection of mystery and crime short stories, and of course of Thurber's absurd and entertaining cartoons, and historical essays by Thurber, from his diabolical "The Catbird Seat" to the humor of "The Topaz Cufflinks Mystery" (do human eyes shine like cats' eyes?) to his commentaries on real-life criminals Willie Stevens, involved in the infamous Hall-Mills murder case that was such a sensation in the newspapers of the 1920s and Harold Winney, who worked for Thurber's beloved "New Yorker" and stole over $71 thousand from its editor Harold Ross.

There are also two "Mr. and Mrs. Monroe" stories, as well as Thurber's spirited defense of the bloodhound, which, Thurber asserts, is hardly bloody or bloodthirsty.

 Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, Thomas Halliday
How would you like to time travel and see what it was like in different epochs of the Earth's history? That's the joy of this book by Halliday, which begins with the world of the Pleistocene 20,000 years ago, among horses suspected of coming over a land bridge at the Bering Sea, early humans, mammoths, and short-faced bears all the way back to 350 million years ago in the Ediacaran period, where the land-masses were radically different from the present—even the constellations were different back then!—and multicelled bacteria flourished in the sea and on land.

Perfect for the geology/palentological fan.

 A Pretender's Murder, Christopher Huang
This second of the Eric Peterkin mysteries takes place almost directly after the first, while Eric is still adjusting to his new job as secretary at the Britannia Club, after having solved the murder of Bradshaw, the previous secretary. Eric is welcomed into the club due to his father's name and his service in the Great war, but still feels out of place due to his heritage: his father was married to a Chinese woman.

Then yet another murder happens at the Britannia: Colonel Hadrian Russell is shot and pushed out the front window. His four sons all dead in the war, his four daughters-in-law want the truth in his death found quickly, so Eric is once again dispatched to investigate.

Huang once again provides a twisty, complicated mystery against the mores of the mid-1920s. We also see more of Eric's sister Penny, who is a force of her own.

 Strange Red Cow (and Other Curious Classified Ads from the Past, Sara Bader
This is an unusual little book I picked up for a dollar in a used book store, about classified ads over the years. The notable thing about this book is that it was written only 20 years ago, when classifieds still flourished, and now they are virtually dead, replaced by Facebook Marketplace and social media.

The other thing that makes this volume worth reading is that it addresses the subject of "runaway slave" ads in a very honest way. It is sobering to read about enslaved persons being described in the same way as one would inquire over a lost dog or a misplaced item. Many examples are given, and it is a sobering reminder of the past.

Books Completed in June 2026

 A Little History of the United States, James West Davidson
Just what it says: a 300-page summary of the "significant bits" of the history of the United States. It's a nice basic history in a chatty style that imparts information for those who don't want to do a deeper dive. The only thing that bugged me was that this is the second book of US history that credits the beginning of the textile industry to Francis Lowell, who eventually did found the mill towns in Lowell, Massachusetts. It states that Lowell, a Boston merchant, came from England with plans in his head for the first looms. Rank heresy, says this Rhode Islander! Samuel Slater was the man who first came to the United States (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) with "plans in his head" for spinning machines and looms, way before Lowell.

 Murder on Wall Street, Victoria Thompson
Hayden Norcross, a prominent Wall Street investment banker, is murdered in his office, and former gangster Jack Robinson soon arrives at the detective agency of Frank Malloy, asking him to investigate the death. Jack is married to Jocelyn, a wealthy young woman who was raped by Norcross and then spurned, and they are now awaiting the birth of the child fathered by her rapist. Robinson believes someone will try to pin the murder on him.

Malloy and his wife Sarah Brandt, who still works as a midwife, are soon embroiled in Norcross' sordid lifestyle, which includes the rape of other women. Helped by Sarah's society parents, who can go places Malloy cannot, they try to untangle the deceit and violence of Norcross' life. There's also an amusing subplot about Frank's partner Gino, still recovering from injuries incurred in the previous mystery, planning to take Maeve, Sarah's part-time nursemaid and Malloy's part-time secretary, to his parents' house for dinner. Usually unflappable Maeve is unsure about what will happen with Gino's volatile family, especially his mother.

 Oh Say Can You See: Unexpected Anecdotes About American History, John Whitcomb & Claire Whitcomb
A book of short anecdotes from American history, from Presidential trivia to little-known facts about battles, colonial schooling, Western foibles, and others. A perfect "bathroom book" for history lovers.

 The Journal of C.J. Jackson, A Dust Bowl Migrant (My Name is America), William Durbin
Considering this is a children's/young adult book, this is a pretty grim but realistic portrayal of a family of "Okies" during the Dust Bowl era. The Jackson family's farm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, is slowly dying from drought and low prices. Finally C.J.'s dad sells out and Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, C.J., and his four brothers and sisters set out in Jackson's old car across the western desert to get to California where they hear there are jobs for farm workers.

The road is hard, they are treated with bigotry, and when they get to California, campsites are dirty and smelly. Think of this as a kid's version of The Grapes of Wrath, although things end up okay for the family. If you want an eye-opening view of life for Dust Bowl farmers, this is a good start.

 America's Jubilee, Andrew Burstein
I particularly waited to read this for the semiquincentennial, since it's about the celebrations of 1826, the semicentennial. I guess I was expecting something different, like a portrait of how people lived. There are aspects of this in this volume, which opens when the Marquis Lafayette returns to the United States for a tour of the country in his old age, having survived the more brutal French Revolution. There are also profiles of John Quincy Adams, the last of the old guard, and of Andrew Jackson, the candidate of the common man, and the last two chapters do focus on how the semicentennial was celebrated and also how the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both on July 4, 1826, were addressed.

The other chapters are a little odd: one about a man named William Wirt, who wrote a popular biography of Patrick Henry and another about Eliza Foster, a writer (and daughter  of a writer) who produced two seminal books of what we would now call historical fiction, Saratoga and Yorktown. Another covers the migration to the Ohio country. I gleaned some new information from this history, but it was a bit of a slog.

 The Someday Garden, Ashley Poston
Sophie Drear and Harriett Fisher were best friends on a mission when they first saw Lilymoor House, a beautiful old home surrounded by marvelous gardens, and fell in love with the place. They promised to come back together another time. Now Sophie is back, at least, helping to revitalize the property after the widow of the original owner grows too old to keep it up. Anchored in her suddenly rocky life by working in gardens, Sophie is enjoying her work, her co-workers who are equally invested in reviving the beautiful grounds, and the unconventional owner, Eula. Then one day she finds a door she's never seen before in one of the walls, and inside is a frustrated man named Rus who can't go beyond the gate.

This is a magical book about friendship, love, clinging to old memories while not going ahead in life, being joyful in old age, fraternal relationships, old wounds, and new love. A lovely riff on Burnett's The Secret Garden. I was in tears by the end.

 The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Kirby Larson
Thirteen-year-old Piper Davis lives in Seattle with her widowed father, a minister; her older sister Margie; and her older brother Hank. Pastor Davis is the head of a Baptist church where most of the parish is Japanese; the Davises love their Japanese neighbors, and the congregation has perfect trust in Pastor Davis. So it is a blow when, after Hank joins the Navy and is shipped out to the Hawaiian Islands, Pearl Harbor is attacked, and suddenly the family is supposed to consider their friends their enemies. Shocked when all their neighbors, many of them American-born, are shipped off to internment camps, but the biggest shock is Piper's when Reverend Davis moves to one of the camps to care for his flock and brings her with him. Although she loved her friends, Piper is furious when taken away from her school and non-Japanese friends—until she sees what they are up against in the dirty, disorganized camp.

Larson based Pastor Davis on the real-life Reverend Emery Andrews, who did indeed go to serve his Japanese flock in an internment camp. An eye-opener if you've only read one or two lines about internment camps in history class.

 The Last Empty Places, Peter Stark
What a grand book! Stark's book is part travelogue to four different places: northern Maine, western Pennsylvania, southeast Oregon, and the desert of New Mexico. Using satellite photos, he finds the four darkest spots on a US map, and then explores the areas—in Maine and New Mexico with his wife and kids, and alone in the other places—and the history of the empty places, which turn out not to be so empty at all; in fact, they're all teeming with life, both human and animal, and history. What happened to the French in Canada...in the first frontier in Pennsylvania...on the landscapes of the west that inspired John Muir...and in the Native American settlements of the southwest?

The parts with his family are especially enjoyable, but the entire book is a look at history you never hear about, especially during the French and Indian War. I learned a lot more about the French settlers from this book than in any other. Warning: there is one specific paragraph about a woman being tortured that might disturb a younger reader.

 The Ever-After Bird, Ann Rinaldi
I usually enjoy Rinaldi books (except for her book about Native Residential Schools), and this one was no exception. Cecilia "CeCe" McGill's father died for his abolitionist beliefs, and teen CeCe didn't particularly care about his efforts at all. She finds she may have to care: her new guardian is her Uncle Alex, a doctor and ornithologist, and he's about to take her on a tour of Southern plantations in search of the rare scarlet ibis—the bird enslaved people call "the ever-after bird," because if they see it, they believe they will be set free. In reality, Uncle Alex is also an abolitionist who gives enslaved people advice to get to safety. And CeCe and Uncle Alex's Black assistant Earline are going to take part in Uncle Alex's dangerous game by posing as Alex's selfish ward and her servant to throw the plantation owners off his trail. CeCe is shocked by how easy it is for her to get into the role of being a slave-owner—and too soon she discovers the terrible treatment of the enslaved on the plantations they visit.

Rinaldi based the story on a real-life ornithologist who distributed maps and escape information in the ante-bellum South, and admits that she "whitewashed" the already violent portrayal of plantation slaves' lives so it was fit for a young adult book. What she does portray is pretty graphic as it is: this is not a book for young children.

Books Completed in May 2026

 Merry Hall, Beverley Nichols
Picked this up at a book sale; it's supposed to be a classic of "gardening literature." Why, since I hate the thought of gardening with all the loathing of my soul?

Well, because I love gardens, and English ones at that, and Nichols, a noted British playwright, writer, and, apparently, someone of a gadfly, was known to love gardening. As this begins, he had sold a previous estate where he had a garden and buys, imprudently per his friend Bob, a run-down country house with room for a traditional English garden. It's kept, now that the owner has passed, by the imperious Oldfield, who Nichols finds a superb gardener, if often disapproving, and, with Oldfield's help, Nichols works to turn "Merry Hall" into his dream English estate/garden, despite the criticisms of his neighbor Miss Emily and a floral "designer" named Rose who Nichols despises.

While his indispensable butler takes care of the renovation of the inside, with the soothing presence of the cats "One" and "Four," we follow the adventure of Nichols in trying to create his dream garden. It's very funny and old-fashioned and I'd love to read the sequels some day if I could find them cheap.

 Deadly Heat, Richard Castle
In the previous book, Frozen Heat, New York City detective Nikki Heat (who out-Mary Sues SVU's Olivia Benson), received more clues to the mysterious death of her mother, and in this fifth book in "Castle's" Nikki Heat series, she and her lover Jameson Rook (Rook = Castle, get it?), Pulitzer-Prize-winning magazine journalist, hunt down fresh clues. But there's a new threat in town, a serial killer who's definitely after Heat's attention—if not after her life! What with threats from the past and a new one about a biological threat to the city, it's pretty busy even for the perpetual motion team of Heat and Rook.

The Nikki Heat books are Castle stories under a different name and a couple of tweaks. Kate Beckett = sexy Nikki Heat, Castle = Jameson Rook, Ryan and Esposito = Raley and Ochoa, Laney Parish = Lauren Parry. Rook's mom is an actress; changes: no Alexis, and Captain "Montrose" has been replaced by the ineffective Captain Irons. Castle fans will probably enjoy, but they're written so that even a person who's never seen the series can follow.

(Oh, once again the two detectives Malcolm and Reynolds are featured! And, thank goodness, an annoying regular character is disposed of!)

 Brave Companions, David McCullough
This is a collection of essays McCullough wrote for various history magazines about the famous and infamous—Harriet Beecher Stowe, for instance, Theodore Roosevelt, artist Frederic Remington—and those who were once household names, like Louis Agassiz and the Roeblings (builders of the Brooklyn Bridge), and those not familiar: Henry Caudhill, Miriam Rothschild, David Plowden. There are even a couple of essays about places, like Washington DC, and even one about a clock.

David McCullough is always good reading, and I can hear his voice when he writes. Enough said. Go read!

 The New Girl: First Crush, Cassandra Calin
This is Calin's graphic novel sequel to The New Girl, which I enjoyed so much.

Christmas vacation is over, and Lia Lordache is back to school, juggling learning French so she can pass "Welcome Class," reuniting with her group of friends in the class, and dealing with her crush on Julien, the blue-eyed boy from the school magazine to which Lia contributes. At the end of The New Girl, it was left hanging that someone had a crush on Lia, but had not found the courage to tell her. That all comes to fruition in this sequel, in which Lia really makes a mess of things several times, but also manages to have good times, such as during the winter activity period where she and her friends learn to ice skate.

I so love Lia. She's so me, always putting her foot in her mouth and saying the wrong thing, and I so get her horrible troubles with her period. In this volume, Lia's mom even takes her to see a doctor about her terrible cramps and nausea, and the doctor basically just says it's very early in her period yet, and it may "settle down," then writes a prescription for what's basically over the counter pain meds (that don't work). I wanted to smack him.

  Re-read: Fannie's Last Supper, Christopher Kimball
I hate to cook, but there was nothing better that I liked than to read Christopher Kimball's column that used to run in each issue of Cooks Illustrated. His articles about Vermont always put me in mind of Gladys Taber.

In this book, Kimball has brought his desire to cook a 12-course dinner from the original Fannie Farmer cookbook to life. We follow Kimball and his assistants as they plan the meal and attempt—as closely as possible—to cook it in period style. Of course (if you're familiar with Cooks, you know they always change recipes to improve flavor), Kimball and the Cooks folks play with the recipes and actually reject some of them for not being all that tasty. This has apparently disturbed some of the folks who read this book, and it is a bit ironic that Kimball wrote a book about cooking à la Farmer and then did not follow her recipes precisely, but instead used better-tasting ones from other chefs. But since I have no interest in the actual cooking part and just read this for the historical perspective on cooking, I quite enjoyed the narrative as a whole. The revelations about cooking over the wood stove were especially "eye-opening." I knew they made the kitchen hot, but I never imagined things melted!

Warning: the chapter about the calves' brains may be a bit much for the modern person who gets everything packaged in plastic.

 Meet Claudie and Adventures With Claudie, Brit Bennett
I've grouped these together because they form a whole novel in that way. Claudie Wells is growing up in New York City's Harlem during the 1920's Harlem Renaissance, where jazz musicians and poets and painters are flourishing, yet she and her family and friends are restricted by societal bigotry. In the first book, Claudie discovers Miss Amelia, who owns the boardinghouse the Wells family lives in, is behind in the rent and they may all be evicted. She decides to organize a variety show as a "rent party" to make up the difference. In the sequel, Claudie takes time off to travel to her mother's home town in Georgia with Mrs. Wells and her cousin Sidney to meet her grandmother and cousins for the first time. Here she learns some hard truths about "sundown towns," white bigotry, and fighting back.

And, upon returning to Harlem, will Claudie's variety show succeed and save Miss Amelia's boardinghouse?

I was impressed that they addressed lynchings—subtly so not to terrify kids, but not to whitewash them, either—and other things like sundown towns and bullying by white racists. I'm also glad they're including the historical notes at the back of the books again, too!

 Erased, Anna Malaka Tubbs
This is Tubbs' examination of how the patriarchy has negatively affected the lives of women—chiefly minority women, but in truth women of all races—from self-respect down to medical decisions about women's bodies.

I enjoyed reading this and nodded a lot in agreement so much, especially when she talks about medical decisions (so much of that made my blood boil), but it would have been a much better book if she had not kept summarizing what was written in previous chapters in the next chapter. It was as if it was written as a doctoral thesis, where these summaries are standard. I don't believe your average reader needed them.

 The Lily of Ludgate Hill, Mimi Matthews
This is the third book in Matthews' quartet of "The Belles of London," a group of four young women who are also equestriennes. This time the story centers around Lady Anne Deveril, whose only emotional attachments seem to be to her horse Saffron, and her mother, who has been in mourning for ten years, consults spiritualists, and doesn't show signs of stopping any time soon. Anne lives in mourning with her mother, but is worried about her friend Julia Wychwood (her story is told in Belle of Belgrave Square). So she reluctantly enlists the aid of "Hart," Felix Hartwood, the man who would have married her if she was not so attached at the hip to her mother, to escort the two of them to check on Julia.

Gradually, during the trip to Yorkshire, and then later when Anne and her mother are driven out of their home by a cousin, their long-dormant romance seems to be reviving.

The grief theme adds an extra texture to this story that others lack.

 Raquel Reyes Saves the Wedding, Angela Cervantes
Raquel is American Girl's "Girl of the Year" for 2026. She lives in Kansas City with her parents, who run a paleta shop (paletas are "a Mexican ice pop made from fresh fruits, natural ingredients, and creamy bases"), but they have traveled east for the wedding of Raquel's cousin Harper, a marine biologist. Raquel loves being a DJ and her skill proves a boon later in the book. She and her favorite cousin Sloan, who's acting a bit distant this summer, also participate in a pickleball tournament and help save a beached dolphin.

The big "catch" in this book is that Raquel is the great-great granddaughter of Samantha Parkington; her Grandma Meg remembers Samantha and they have kept Grandmary's house in Mount Bedford in the family. Raquel even finds Samantha's diary in the old house, all setting the stage for a novel about an adult Samantha being released in October 2026.

It's an enjoyable book, but almost too much plot is piled into one little book! 

 How the Post Office Created America, Winifred Gallagher
This is a mostly cut-and-dried, statistic-dotted narrative of the post office and how it not only delivered letters and parcels, but was part of the network that tied the thirteen colonies together and contributed to the cause of working for independence. Early on, newspapers were delivered for a rock-bottom price, so via those newspapers the arguments for liberty were circulated from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

Of course, emphasized is the terrible state of American roads, which continued for years, and the hardships of the carriers. Even into the 1920s mail wagons (and other goods-carrying vehicles) could be mired up to the axle after it rained. At first the mail was only delivered in cities, but the development of RFD (Rural Free Delivery) brought it to everyone, and when the mail-order catalogs came about, consumerism rose. Plus the fact that everyone seems to "know," but isn't true: the Pony Express was never part of the Unite States Post Office (and it only lasted 18 months, until the transcontinental railroad was finished). The rider that used to be the symbol of the US postal system (until the collapse of the Post Office in the 1960s, to be replaced by the Postal Service, which is a contacted service) was never a Pony Express rider; he went back to the original post riders that existed back to colonial times.

 The Hidden City, Charles Finch
I haven't read a Charles Lenox mystery in five years (since the last book), and I can't tell you how I enjoyed it! In this outing, Lenox is still in pain from the knife attack and subsequent infection he incurred in the United States, although the wound is ostensibly healed. Then a mystery ends up in his lap: his previous housekeeper, retired now, fears that an old murder that happened in the home she now rents may be having repercussions for her.

In addition, Lenox's dear cousin Jasper has died in India, and the family—his wife Lady Jane and their two daughters, Sophia and Clara—are awaiting the arrival of Jasper's 20-year-old daughter Angela and her companion, an Indian girl named Sari, both of whom will cause excitement in the household as the season proceeds from a cold autumn to Christmas.

I was so happy to be back in this universe. I had a rocky start with this series, but came to love it. This had an equally intriguing plot.

 American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed, Isaac Fitzgerald
I'm so on the fence about this book. I enjoyed all the historical input about John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), as I grew up on the Disney cartoon and at least two episodes of Lassie that concerned trees supposedly planted by the man, as well as about Swedenborg and his religious beliefs, and enjoy Fitzgerald's encounters with the many people he meets on his travels (he doesn't walk the whole way as is rather implied by the cover; don't buy this if that fact disappoints you), and even most of his stays with friends.

I just have trouble getting past the drug use and drinking that is part of Fitzgerald's life. I understand it; his childhood was very fractured and I'm not surprised he chose ways of escaping. But according to his narrative, at the time he "followed the trail" he had a fiance and was sort of on friendly terms with his parents, so I don't see the need for him to be passing out drunk or stoned.

Warning that there is a very serious event at the end of the book after he's concluded his "walk."

 An Obvious Fact, Craig Johnson
Tenth book in Johnson's Longmire series (he's writing them faster than I can read them). Ever wonder about the person Henry Standing Bear named his classic 1969 Thunderbird after? Well, here you find out, as Walt and Henry travel to Hulett, Wyoming, at the foot of Devil's Tower, for Henry to participate in the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally—and, oh, yeah, Walt's looking into a suspicious motorcycle accident that left a young man in a coma. It's a clash of motorcycle fanatics, smuggled items that has the ATF prowling the countryside, a force of nature named Lola Wojciechowski, the return of Vic Moretti, and the trio of Walt, Henry, and, of course, Dog, and a page-turner at that. Any Longmire that has more Henry is fine with me. Enjoy!