Books Completed Since July 1

 The Fake Mate, Lana Ferguson
I bought this because I had read some Omegaverse fanfiction on AO3 (some of it quite rough) and I wondered how it would be handled in a rom-com setting.

Alas, the fanfic was better. Noah Taylor is a gruff alpha wolf shapeshifter cardiologist who's being reported because unmated alphas are usually too aggressive. Mackenzie Carter is an emergency room nurse who's an omega and tired of her custodial grandmother nagging her about relationships. So Mackenzie, on a whim, asks Taylor to pretend to be her boyfriend while she will pretend to be Taylor's mate so the board of directors will leave him alone. Of course it turns out they're both secretly attracted to each other and having sex was a mistake, because they're really, really into each other.

Two-dimensional characters having lots of sex don't make that interesting a story, really. Once again the female lead has a gay best friend. Really, can't she have a het best friend who's male? I've had one. At least her best friend isn't flamboyant and flashy like the others I've encountered. And the last minute villain in this one has all the depth of Frank Burns from M*A*S*H.

Go read an Eames/Goren story called "Zodiac" on AO3, okay? It's in German but Google will translate it for you. Much better use of shifter themes and better characterizations, too.

  Answers in the Form of Questions, Claire McNear
Naturally, it's a book about Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! first saw life as an NBC daytime game show hosted by Art Fleming in the 1960s to early 1970s (you can see a clip of this version in Airplane II). But, brought back in syndication in the 1980s and hosted by Alex Trebek, it reached its zenith. This is the story of Jeopardy, from origins to celebrity tournaments, from favorite quirky players like Austin Rogers and James Holzhauer, from how to find a Daily Double to how that buzzer works.

I found the bits about stats and percentages a bit dull, but there's fun stuff here, I promise.

  Front Desk, Kelly Yang
The cover on this was so appealing I didn't care if it was a kid's book. It's the story of ten-year-old Mia Tang and her parents, Chinese immigrants to California in the 1990s. Even though Mia's parents were professionals in China, here her dad can only find work as a dishwasher, and no one wants to hire her mother, a former scientist. Instead, they are offered an opportunity: running a rather run-down motel in Anaheim. The Tangs are hoping they can save money to buy a home and get better jobs, but the landlord, Mr. Yao, is dishonest and running the motel will take all three of them, except when Mia's in school.

I loved this book: Mia's narrative is both thoughtful and optimistic, and the book is straightforward about the obstacles encountered by immigrants, especially POC, and how they are shortchanged and lied to by employers like Mr. Yao. Also some inside looks about bigotry in the motel industry: most "good" motels were encouraged to tell Blacks that there was no vacancy, as they were considered dangerous.

This is the first in a series of books about Mia and her friends Lupe and Jason.

  Home Sweet Anywhere, Lynne Martin
Tim and Lynne Martin were lovers in the 1970s who separated on riendly terms. Lynne married Guy and was happy until he died; later Tim walked back into her life and they discovered they still were attracted to each other. This time it was for good, but both were restless and wanted to see the world; both had good jobs, but weren't rich enough to take fabulous vacations. They did some planning, sold up nearly everything they owned, and then were off, with a couple of suitcases, two laptops, and a few other items, finding inexpensive cruises and affordable places to live abroad where they could work and be like the locals.

It's a good life if you can do without a homebase. The Martins made it work, and you'll enjoy the travelogue: the go from Turkey to Mexico to Italy to Spain to England and Ireland. I think you'll end up envious in the end but also wondering how they could endure it. Come for the local culture rather than the tourguide's carefully planned route.

  Now You See It, Carol Perry
Thank goodness! I thought Perry had ended this series in favor of one taking place in (yuch!) Florida and am so glad to see a new story. Newly married Lee Barrett, now promoted to historical documentary executive at WICH-TV, and her husband Pete Mondello, police detective, are both involved in a murder investigation as Lee prepares to profile the new Salem International Museum's "Seafaring New England" exhibit. Many valuable historical items will be displayed, and the driver transporting some of the exhibits to the museum has turned up dead.

Lee's "scrying" ability turns up minimally in this story, which is more a straight mystery, with a priceless vase going missing, a ship's model appearing to be haunted, and other skulduggery going on at the museum. The usual supporting cast is afoot: Lee's co-workers, her Aunt Ibby and her girlfriends, Lee and Pete's new neighbor, an ex-con writer, Ibby's "gentleman friend," and of course the magically-inclined O'Ryan, the orange tabby cat. Pleasant and fairly twisty.

 The World is My Home, James A. Michener
This is an atypical memoir by the prolific Michener; don't come to it expecting a biography. He doesn't even address his childhood until the final chapters, where he reveals he was basically brought up in a foundling home by a widow, and was once tormented by another person with the surname "Michener" for claiming to be somebody he wasn't. Instead, he sections the book off into different aspects of his life that built him into a writer, starting with his tour of duty in the South Pacific during World War II (which, of course, inspired his first popular book). This section is an eye-opener about how American officers interacted with the other countries involved in the war and with the Polynesian natives. He talks about the great books he read during his schooling and memorable people he met during his world travels, and then the second half of the book delves more into how he got ideas for his novels and the writing process. Some of it was fascinating, some a little pedestrian, and the chapter on his being involved in politics was pretty dull to me; your mileage may vary, but I found it an enjoyable whole.

  A Novel Love Story, Ashley Poston
Once a year Elsy Merriwether and her friends get together for a book retreat, except maybe this year it isn't going to happen: her friends, including her best friend Pru, all have conflicts. This year Elsy really needs them: her fiance deserted her just days before their wedding and she's feeling depressed and bruised. But the cabin has been reserved, so she decides to go there even if she has to be alone—but her old car breaks down in a little New York village before she can arrive.

As she discovers with surprise, it's Eloraton, the village in her favorite romance novel series. And all the occupants of this village are the people she's been reading about in the series. Except for the grumpy blond man she almost runs down on the bridge, Anders. He doesn't seem to belong there at all.

As always, Poston mixes a little bit of magical whimsy in with her romantic plot, this time it's the little town of Eloraton, which is a big like Brigadoon. What happens when Elsy begins mixing with these fictional characters? She's afraid she might make them stray from their original happy endings. And where does Anders fit in? Who is he, besides the town bookshop owner? Again, not quite up to The Dead Romantics, but a sweet read.

 The Alps: A Human History from Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond, Stephen O'Shea
This is a fun and also historically fascinating travel book about O'Shea's drive along the length of the Alps, discovering that there isn't one "Alpine" culture, but many, due to the countries spanned by the mountain range. He starts in France at Chamonix, the through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, encountering the dreaded "Dutch campers," who apparently drive like snails and hog rest areas. In a fascinating chapter, he visits Hitler's World War II aerie near Berchtesgaden (and I wish he wouldn't be so apologetic about it; we need to learn about despots like Hitler and the cruelties they performed on their fellow human beings). There's also his enjoyable chatter about the differences between the Italian (Dolomites) and German Alps, including the attitudes of the people and especially the food (lots of discussion about the lard/olive oil "line"), and exploration of how the mountains were feared until they suddenly became a tourist destination. As enjoyable as his WWI odyssey, Back to the Front.

Books Completed Since June 1

  Butcher & Blackbird, Brynne Weaver
Our friends' daughters were passing this around at a birthday dinner at a Korean steakhouse. I bit more than the delicious dinner.

The protagonists are Sloane Sutherland and Rowan Kane. Both are serial killers who only kill serial killers. Rowan's known as the Boston Butcher, Sloane as the Orb Weaver (because after she kills she creates a "map" of the serial killer's victim's locations with thread and the victim's flesh and eyeballs). They meet when Rowan rescues her from a cage in which she's trapped with her latest victim. There's no denying the sexual attraction, or the competition between the two, so once a year they meet up to see who can take down a serial killer first, a game arranged by Rowan's older brother, who's a hit man. (In the real world, Sloane is a data scientist and Rowan is a chef.)

You're right if you think this is a dark romance. Very, very dark. Both have their demons—in Sloane and her best friend Lark's case, it was a school at which they were abused—and their sex and their romance and the text is all very rough. Not for kids or people who get nightmares easily.

  Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, Richard Adams, James Sturm and Joe Sutphin
I've read the book, but the graphic novel looked so beautiful...there are wonderful watercolor-looking drawings of the English countryside and the little farms and nature scenes. The rabbits are slightly anthropomorphized (the big eyes, especially the blue eyes on Fiver and Pipkin), but they don't look cartoonish, and the other animals are beautifully drawn.

   Re-read: Enterprising Women, Camille Bacon-Smith
Two seminal texts on (mostly) fanfiction came out in 1992; I snapped both of them up at Magicon (the 59th World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, FL) and re-read them every so often, because it was so novel to see serious writing, indeed serious educational writing, about a subject much-maligned: fanfiction ("All written," detractors jibe, "by hormonal teenagers who want to have sex with Spock").

Bacon-Smith, an ethnographer (studying of cultural norms in individual groups), became interested in the mostly female fans of Star Trek, Blake's 7, other science fiction shows, and also non-science fiction series (mainly Starsky and Hutch and The Professionals) who, for entertainment purposes only, wrote further tales involving the characters from their favorites in various themes: hurt/comfort tales, continuing adventures, psychological thrillers, and sexual encounters both hetero- and homosexual. As she became friends with the participants, she found that they bonded through these stories, worked out emotional disruptions in their lives, and took a far more realistic look into the emotional lives of the characters and the original characters created to interact with them than the source material, since the source material had to "play it safe" within boundaries set by the producers.

As indicated by the title, the text concentrates on women in (mostly SF) fandom, a place where many times they have been unwelcome, and how they made a society for themselves. While the shows and also the media (fanzines and story sharing) have aged, the themes have not (women worrying about sexual harassment, for example). Pair with Textual Poachers for a wide view of fandom.

  Re-read: Textual Poachers, Henry Jenkins
This was the other academic study of fandom and, by extension, fanfiction that came out in 1992. Jenkins' text takes off from William Shatner's infamous "Get a Life" Saturday Night Live skit, in which incensed fans responded that they did have a life; that interest in science fiction/detective series/British programming was just as legitimate as sports fandom or any other intense interest. It also takes the time to define "fan" and "fandom," and note how fans have been portrayed as distorted crazies.

The following chapters address much more than fanfiction: one discusses how the fans of the fantasy drama Beauty and the Beast felt betrayed by the network's choice to turn the romantic/action storyline to just action. Another discusses fanfiction, while a third addresses slash fanfiction, and there is also a chapter about music videos and another about filksongs, something rare in the online fandom today. Although the author in this case is male, there is still much discussion about women being the primary "makers" in fandom and how they react to female characters being marginalized in programming at that time.

Fan art is scattered throughout the book.

Again, much academic vocabulary, but the fan studies are fascinating.

  Not in Love, Ali Hazelwood
Rue Siebert grew up in an uncertain world: her mother was chronically underemployed and she and her brother often had to shift for themselves. Now she has a stable job in the food science industry under an clever woman who has fought her way up in the business world, and she feels safe for the first time in her life.

Then she finds out her boss started Kline, the business, with a big loan, and the Harkness Group has taken over that loan. Is the Harkness Group also going to buy out Kline? For Rue, this fact is almost as bad as when representatives of Harkness come to talk to Kline's scientists, it turns out she knows one of them: it's Eli Killgore, the man she unsuccessfully hooked up with on a dating app, only to have her brother horn in on their meetup.

As it works out, Rue and Eli are much more than rivals; they're rivals with an undeniable attraction for each other which they give into—surely two adults who are not in love can have kick-ass sex and not get emotionally involved? Outside of the hot sex, there's a duplicitous co-worker lurking at Kline and an injustice trying to be resolved. Much more sex that Hazelwood's usual mix and a sniffly HEA but still not quite up to Love Hypothesis.

  American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, Neil King Jr.
King had, for some time, toyed with an idea to walk from Washington, DC, where he lived, to New York City, but after a cancer scare and treatments, decided to make the dream real. So in the spring of 2021, with a backpack and arrangements to stay at small bed and breakfasts or alternative lodging (and not averse to sleeping wild), King did just that, traveling the back roads from his home "nine blocks east of the U.S. Capitol" to the Ramble in Central Park. What follows are his adventures along the road, including incredulous people who can't believe he's walking the whole way (he does, except for a couple of minimal car rides), encounters with curious people along the way, including Amish and Mennonite communities, stops at tiny museums (like one which holds only tools that early Americans would have used) and historical spots, meeting people of all philosophies from MAGA stalwarts to offbeat rebels, enjoying spring blossoming over the countryside (he walks north just in time to follow the flowers blooming), crossing through historic sites (like the crossing of the Delaware and also Valley Forge), and other diverse adventures.

One interesting part is his endeavor to use only old roads and ways to travel, so he doesn't wish to cross modern bridges. This leads him to being lent a kayak to cross a river gap only otherwise accessible through a major highway. He also accepts a ferry ride from the New Jersey shore to Staten Island.

I enjoyed hell out of this, although I could never emulate him!

  Winter's Gifts, Ben Aaronovitch
FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds, who was introduced in Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" in Whispers Under Ground, is the focus of this short novella with a seasonal theme (after The October Man and What Abigail Did That Summer). A retired FBI agent calls in an alarm about a mysterious event in Eloise, Wisconsin, that no one understands until Reynolds finds out about it. She travels to Eloise to find that portions of the town have been destroyed by an "ice tornado," the FBI agent is missing, and some ominous creatures are wandering the shore of the nearby lake.

This starts out slowly, with Reynolds narrating her involvement due to her knowledge of esoteric activity that she learned from Peter Grant during his involvement in the previous case and talking about her past. However, the pace picks up very quickly as odd "monsters" creep out of a blizzard and wreak havoc in the town. The end is a tense chase straight out of a horror film as a long-buried curse has been unearthed involving Native American spirits.

I enjoyed this although it was a different narrative from the British-set books. Some British-isms do creep in, but I don't find them all that distracting. Reynolds herself is an interesting character because she was brought up as a strict Christian, but is now dealing with otherworldly events with no relation to the beliefs her mother tried to instill in her. I also liked the slow-attraction romance that is very peripherally part of the story (the ending is particularly sweet).

  Any Other Name, Craig Johnson
The tenth book in the Longmire series. Longmire's daughter Cady, now married to the brother of Walt's undersheriff Victoria Moretti, is expecting her first child and expecting Walt to be there at the birth. And he expected to be there, until his friend and former boss Lucian Connally asks if he will help out in the case of a fellow law-enforcement officer in the next county who apparently committed suicide. He figures it will only take a day or two.

If you believe that, you haven't read a Longmire book. Vic Moretti and Walt's best friend Henry Standing Bear end up helping in the investigation, which comes to involve a missing woman from a strip club, sending Walt from a casino to a lodge on the trail of what made Gerald Holman kill himself.

Slow build with a frantically tense ending involving a railroad spur line that will leave you gasping.

Does Longmire make the birth? It's Walt—you figure it out.

 The Joy of Independent Living for Seniors, FC&A Publishing
From the book sale. Really nothing I didn't know. I got some tips from it, though. Worth the $1.50 I paid for it.

Books Completed Since May 1

  Bitter Medicine, Mia Tsai
This was my first read for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month; the cover caught my eye immediately. Elle Mei is a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine. She's laying low because she has done an unspeakable thing in her society: taken away her brother's magic. Everyone believes Tony is dead, but Elle seeks to protect him. Instead, Elle works as a calligrapher at an agency that provides magical glyphs to anyone who pays. One of Elle's customers is Luc Villois, a half-elf who always seeks out Elle's glyphs, not only because he knows she's good, but because he is drawn to her. However, Luc has his own problems, including being held in servitude by a tyrannical boss who knows a secret about his past.

But Elle's hidden magic and Luc's talents are not going to shield them for long: larger forces are at work. And if Elle wants to protect Tony, she's going to have to risk her own talents to do so.

Slow-building, gentle romance with a magical system I've not seen used in any other book. Elle and Luc are unique (at least to me) leads, and Tsai only slowly unravels what ties hold both of them captive. The action shifts from Raleigh, NC, to London, to San Francisco in the course of the story.

 The Wonderful World of James Herriot, James Herriot, edited by Emma Marriott
I bought a copy of this despite the fact that I have all of the Herriot books and have since their original paperback American releases in the 1970s and 1980s. This is a good way to introduce fans of the new All Creatures Great and Small series to the real story of James Herriot rather than the fictional soap-opera stuff they toss into the new series (the actors on the new series are wonderful, I have to admit, and Samuel West is a treat to look at). The volume is chiefly memorable excerpts from all the Herriot books, but I bought it because, between the stories, Emma Marriott narrates the true story of Scotsman Alfred Wight and his wife Joan (James and Helen) and Donald and Brian Sinclair (Siegfried and Tristan Farnon), as names and locations were changed for the Herriot's veterinary memoirs. This also contains two introductions by Wight's son and daughter to their father's life which are illuminating and worthwhile. A photo insert of the family and the area is included; worth the "double buy" if you're already a Herriot fan.

  Misfortune Cookie, Vivien Chien
This is the ninth in Chien's "Noodle House" mysteries, and protagonist Lana Lee is far from Lee's restaurant; she and her attorney sister Anna May are headed for Irvine, California, where Lana will be attending a restaurant convention and the sisters will reconnect with their Aunt Grace, their mother's sister. At the first day of the convention, Lana witnesses a vendor and a journalist having a loud argument; she discovers at a cocktail party she attends with her aunt and sister that the journalist is a friend of Aunt Grace. During the party, this woman is killed. Despite the fact that Anna May wants Lana to stay far away from mysteries, Aunt Grace enlists Lana's help in ferreting out who killed her friend, as she can't believe Nora Blackwell committed suicide as the police believe.

So here's Lana with her nose in crime again. This time she can't ask help from her best friend Megan or work friend Kimmy, or even her cop boyfriend Adam, and she has a disapproving Anna May at her side, but Aunt Grace is definitely in her corner. Sunny California sights await as Lana once again puts her observational clues to the test. (And, needless to say, doesn't attend much of the restaurant convention!)

  Raising Cubby, John Elder Robison
Robison, author of Look Me In the Eye, a memoir of his Asperger's syndrome (and brother of Augusten Burroughs, who wrote Running With Scissors), addresses parenthood on the autism spectrum in this story of raising an autistic son. He opens with his son Jack's impending trial for being dangerous ("Cubby," Robison's nickname for his son, was fascinated with chemistry, especially explosives, and was accused by investigators of being a potential terrorist after his chem lab was raided, even though it contained no explosives and the chemicals were stored safely), and then flashes back to his courtship, marriage, and the birth and childhood of his son.

I know it's Robison's unique narrative, but he's so flip sometimes it irritates me, and the narrative diverges wildly on occasion. The part of the memoir about the trial is truly scary: that these little bits of "evidence" the police and FBI gathered could send this curious and obviously harmless kid to prison for the rest of his life! I found the rest of the book "so-so," but a still intriguing look at how a neurodivergent father and son navigate the neurotypical world.

 The Heart Principle, Helen Hoang
This is the third in Hoang's trilogy (The Kiss Quotent and The Bride Test precede it) where the protagonists are on the autism spectrum.

Anna Sun is a violinist who became famous due to a viral YouTube video, and a composer was so taken with her performance that he wrote a song for her to perform. Unfortunately Anna is now so self-conscious that she can hardly play anything, let alone the song; she decides she's not playing well enough and just plays and replays pieces until it frustrates her. She's also tormented by her ambitious sister Priscilla and an impeccably groomed, handsome fiance that her family loves but who just told her he wanted an open relationship. In revenge Anna goes on a dating app and finds Quan Diep (brother of Khai in Bride Test and partners with Michael in Kiss Quotient), a tattooed motorcycling maverick who, amazingly, makes her feel comfortable. Then her father has a stroke and Anna is expected to pitch in on his care.

Like Sophie Go (scroll down), poor Anna has this family who devalues her at every step. She's seen as "weird," "wrong," "selfish," and other negatives; when it turns out she's on the autism spectrum, a fact Anna can't initially wrap her mind around when her therapist introduces her to the idea, she keeps going back to her family's assessment, especially since the family rejects the whole idea that they have someone "imperfect" in their midst and that she's not just "lazy" and "odd." Anna, too, doubts herself so much she rejects the diagnosis and keeps saying "Yes" to her creepy family. Quan and his friends are the only ones who treat her decently. Keep that in mind when you read the book, because you'll want to cancel most of Anna's family, especially when you see how they treat her father during his "recovery.'

  Beaverland, Leila Philip
Beavers made the first American millionaire: Johann (later John) Jacob Astor. The fashion in those days was the beaver top hat, and every gentleman, especially every English gentleman, wanted one. Thereupon became the run on beaver fur on the North American continent.

Philip takes us on the journey with the beaver and the tragic history in which their numbers diminish due to overtrapping and farming, which changes the landscape of the North American continent. She talks to trappers and fur sellers, asking why they still participate in the lifestyle, and to scientists who have proven that reintroduction of beavers into ecosystems improves them and returns the land to a better state, even when it has been tragically polluted.

The trapping/fur chapters seem rather overextended as she tries to make sense of why ecologically-minded modern men and women would still participate in the activity (most of the trappers are actually game wardens who deal with overpopulation or beavers who are encroaching on farm areas). There's also an odd chapter about iconic New England stone walls in which she...gasp!...realizes were probably built by enslaved Africans or Native Americans and spends the entire chapter apologizing for liking them. This isn't a surprise for anyone who's studied American history—marginalized minorities (African slaves, Native Americans, Chinese/Asians, etc.) always provided brute labor—and discounts the undisclosed artistry with which the enslaved persons built and maintained the walls.

All-in-all the beaver lore is great to read, especially her observations of beavers themselves and the stories of people who interacted with them, like the "Beaver Lady."

  Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club, Roselle Lim
The last of my reads for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Sophie Go has just returned from Singapore having finished her training in traditional matchmaking, and has moved into an apartment in Toronto to start her career. But Sophie has a secret: she never completed the course due to one of her clients, a foolish girl who committed suicide over love. She's determined to work past this event: if her demanding mother and doormat father will allow it. Unfortunately, Sophie's no sooner started to network customers than her selfish mother drops the bomb in public about her not finishing the course. So Sophie proposes to an unofficial club of elderly Chinese men at her apartment building that she can find each of them a match, and that she'll do the first one for free. She also inadvertently acquires a very particular younger male client who seems impossible to match.

Based on the Chinese belief that there is a red thread that binds soulmates, this is a magical little book that follows Sophie's efforts and how she becomes friends with each of her elderly clients and struggles against her family. Her mother is truly a gruesome, grasping, selfish woman and her father just rolls over on his back like a submissive dog to make her happy, choosing his wife over his child to keep the peace, and she is the only fly in the ointment in this delightful story, with Sophie discovering there is a red thread for everyone.

Of course I cried.

 The Women's History of the Modern World, Rosalind Miles
I really need to get Miles' first book Who Cooked the Last Supper?, but this was one of my leftovers from Women's History Month.

Where are the women in history? Oh, we hear about some of them: Madame Curie, Harriet Tubman, Grace Hopper, Emmeline Pankhurst, Susan B. Anthony. But so many others have been buried by the "party line" of history that puts men first. Did you know many musical pieces credited to Felix Mendelsohn were actually composed by his sister Fanny? That women were at that wall striving for freedom during the French Revolution, not just men? That Katharine Wright was an integral part of the Wright Brothers' partnership? That women actually crossed over Niagara Falls on high wires? Notable women, intellectual lights hidden by the patriarchy, like Mary Wollstonecraft, the women of the Seneca Falls convention like Lucy Stone, the stalwarts of the women's lib movement. Chapter after chapter chronicles women's achievements that were left behind, or rights that were toppled by ignorant male beliefs.

A lot of people I knew. Many I didn't. Entertaining narrative that occasionally skitters off track, but it works.

  Re-read: The Case of the Missing Auntie, Michael Hutchinson
This second in the "Mighty Muskrats" series revolves around four children, Samuel, Chickadee, Atin, and Otter, cousins in the Cree nation who call themselves "the Mighty Muskrats," and live at the Windy Lake reservation. Chickadee's grandfather admits to her that his younger sister Charlotte was taken away from his family in the late 1950s in what they called "scoops"—native children who were adopted (mostly to act as servants) for white people. Now with the Muskrats heading into the big city to go to an exhibition fair, a disturbed Chickadee thinks their first mission should be to try to track down their missing aunt, but the boys are full of anticipation about visiting cousins, going to the fair, and Otter just wants to see his favorite Native band perform. No sooner are the kids at the much vaunted mall in the crowded, confusing city that they run into Brett, a boy who used to live on the "rez" and who Chickadee secretly had a crush on., and things start to go a little haywire. But Chickadee is still determined, no matter what, to find missing Auntie Charlotte.

This reads like an old-fashioned kids' adventure—the covers even look like a Happy Hollisters book—with modern sensibilities (internet, cell phones, etc.), real-life problems (Native people still coping with terrible laws once enacted by white settlers), a boy who's ended up in "the wrong crowd" after a move to the city, and the problems of a usually-overlooked culture. The kids meet good and bad people of all cultures, cope with bureaucracy, find out some hard truths about their past, but also are confident that they can help overcome it.

Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald
This is a series of chiefly nature essays, mostly about birds, by the author of H is for Hawk. While a few address Macdonald's fear about the future of natural places—as we all should!—most of them are lyrical, lovely tales of meadows, discovering nature, the habits of birds and other wild creatures. Her beautiful talent with language infuses every piece with wonder. Her essay about the vanished "Tekels Park" is heartrending; "Eclipse" is stunning and captured all the feelings I had in 2017 watching the total eclipse of the sun in North Georgia. "Swan Upping," about the custom of tagging swans for the Crown, is fascinating. She even talks about Wicken Fen, where the Godolphin Arabian is banished in Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind.

For everyone who loves nature and beautiful essays.

Books Completed Since April 1

 The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang
I read the second book in this trilogy, The Bride Test, first. It made me cry. This one did, too.

Stella Lane is a whiz at her job—she configures algorithms to predict customer purchases, which is perfect for someone with high-functioning autism—but her social skills are low and at thirty her parents are nagging her about getting married. Her sexual experiences so far haven't been sterling because she really has no idea how to react. So she decides to hire a professional escort to teach her the ropes.

Michael Tran is quite good at what he does, but he doesn't do it because he wants to—he has debts he needs to pay off. He figures he'll take on Stella's project; what he doesn't count on is Stella becoming special to him. Nor does socially awkward Stella realize until she meets Michael that maybe she doesn't need "lessons," she just needs someone to understand her.

All of Helen Hoang's books that I've read so far involve neurodivergent people navigating living in a neurotypical world. I've especially enjoyed them since I've always suspected I'm slightly on the spectrum.

I have what looks like the final book in this trilogy, The Heart Principle, to read next month. I'm whipping out the hankies in advance.

 The Road From the Past: Traveling Through History in France, Ina Caro
I loved Caro's Paris to the Past (day trips you could take on the road or railway to French historic sites from Paris) so much that I had to pick up this earlier book I found at the library sale. The watercolor cover of an old French village was so compelling. And indeed, Caro's chronological history of France, told from its first Roman ruins in Orange through the residences of Louis XIV takes us through some picturesque places indeed: castles, fortresses, palaces, aqueducts, monuments, all set among the lovely French countryside where Caro and husband Bob enjoy the food (sometimes—tourist traps seem to undo them) and roll their eyes at the rude tourguides who don't like people who don't speak French.

But it's a lot of French history, so as much as I like history and old buildings, this was rather a slog to get through. If you're a Francophile historian, come here first!

 The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
What I would have done without the school libraries at Stadium Elementary and Hugh B. Bain Junior High? We were over a mile from both the Arlington and the Auburn libraries and Mom didn't drive; the books at Arlington were so old that the most recently published volumes still had cars with running boards. Stadium and Bain gave me wonderful adventures like Miss Pickerill, Johnny Tremain, The Green Poodles, my first Heinlein juveniles, A Wrinkle in Time (thank you, Judy Martini, for recommending it!), and so many more. And it gave me The Phantom Tollbooth, a daft-looking book with scrawly illustrations by cartoonist Jules Feiffer, whose work I saw in the newspaper. I'd never read a book like Tollbooth, with its literal use of idioms, its fantastic wordplay, the ideas of infinity and bravery and other concepts it put into my brain. Milo, the boy who didn't know what to do with himself; Tock, the Watchdog (literally); the braggart Humbug; Chroma, the conductor who directed the colors of the universe; Dr. Dischord and the Terrible Dynn—they all lived now in my head as beloved friends.

What a joy to find this annotated edition and so much information on the illusive Norton Juster, the things that almost made it into the story (a chocolate moose?), and how he edited unceasingly until every word made The Phantom Tollbooth, like Mary Poppins, "practically perfect in every way."

  On Writing, Stephen King
This is King's memoir about growing up almost from the beginning with stories in his head, and having to tell the tales. Between great writing and editing tips—he got some of his best advice writing for the school paper—you get some glimpses of his childhood and his teen years—including the time he almost got expelled for insulting a teacher in a "humor" magazine he printed and brought to school in which he cruelly skewered each of his teachers—and then his meeting Tabitha Spruce, who later became his wife.

Unfortunately, you have to get through his alcohol and drug addiction. That part was very distasteful.

 The Dead Guy Next Door, Lucy Score
This book looked like such fun. And parts of it were fun. But a good comedy should be short and sweet. Four hundred and sixty pages of cute retorts, car chases, weird goings on, and strange characters was about 200 pages too much.

Riley Thorn's goofy mom is psychic, and so is she, but she suppresses and denies her visions of the future. She married a well-known television anchor, then he divorced her and for some reason she has to pay alimony. Broke, she lives in this appallingly awful rooming house with a bunch of elderly people who I guess are supposed to be funny and adorable, but are neither. She has to share a bathroom with a disgusting guy named Dick who flashes her and leaves his dirty underwear out for her to find. One day she has a vision of him being shot. But who's she going to report it to? When she tries to hint about the threat to the police obliquely, she becomes the prime suspect when he is killed. Then a friend asks ex-police detective Nick Santiago to investigate further. Gorgeous and handsome Nick sees sexy and flaky Riley and the attraction is on.

The story just goes on, and on, with witty banter after witty banter, almost sexual encounters, Riley's totally irritating elderly neighbors, her dippy mother...I couldn't wait to finish this one. Will not go on with the series.

  In the Form of a Question, Amy Schneider
In general, I enjoyed this book. I have trans friends and I was especially interested in Amy's narrative of being born in a male body but never feeling as if she belonged there. (I was quite surprised that she was so open with her "dead name," as so many trans people are reluctant to reveal that information, although I can understand why.) That was the best part of this book, also finding out that she was a Daria fan, her interest in tarot, etc. I was less fond of the parts where she talks about open marriages—of course, if it works for the couple, it's fine, it just made me uncomfortable, and that's my problem—and where she talks about using drugs. I don't even like taking prescription drugs, and mind-altering drugs or sedatives/uppers creep me out, so I was happy to leave that chapter behind, too.

And, after awhile, the cutesy little footnotes in every single chapter got on my nerves.

  Weather Girl, Rachel Lynn Solomon
Ari Abrams has loved the weather since she was a child, and she almost has her dream job at Seattle's KSEA television, where she's the "weather girl"  under the aegis of Torrance Hale, her idol and the station's chief meteorologist. "Almost perfect" because Hale isn't giving Ari much direction and also because her feud with station owner—and ex-husband—Seth Hasegawa makes working conditions at KSEA a little rocky—even though it's clear the couple still love each other. After an inebriated December holiday party in which Hale throws one of Hasegawa's awards out a hotel window, Ari and her buddy from the sports department, Russell Barringer, decide to start doing little, anonymous things to bring their bosses' together, and perhaps make them think about having a fresh start.

But it also brings Ari and Russ together in ways they couldn't have imagined, to the point Ari thinks there might be a future between them—if she can keep her "bad days" covered up. For Ari, like her mother, suffers from depression, and believes she's unlovable if she doesn't keep the fact covered up.

A nice love story entwined with Ari's struggle to "be her sunny self" rather than letting her dark side show.

  Whoever Fights Monsters, Robert K. Ressler and Tom Shactman
If you watch Mindhunter on Netflix, Ressler is the person that Bill Tench, played by Holt McCallany, is based on. He was the man who coined "serial killer" as a name for repeat murderers with similar pathologies, and served as an advisor on Silence of the Lambs. In this volume he talks about how behavioral crime analysts form profiles, and some of the serial killers he has encountered, including Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz, Ed Kemper, etc. While most of these men—serial killers are almost exclusively men—are spur-of-the-moment, disorganized, and unprepossessing, there are also some very cunning ones who view their killings as "games" with the police.

Worth reading for the reality behind television series like Criminal Minds and other psychological-based crime dramas.

  Georgie, All Along, Kate Clayborn
Georgie Mulcahy is suddenly floundering; her high-powered Hollywood boss Nadia has retreated to enjoy the simple life and personal assistant Georgie is out of a job. To collect her thoughts, she goes back to her east coast small-town birthplace to spend some time with her best friend Bel and her husband Harry, who are expecting their first child. Georgie plans to stay at her peripatetic hippie parents' empty house while she gets her life together, only to find town bad boy Levi Fanning housesitting. Georgie and Levi settle into an uneasy truce, and George finds among her childhood things a "friendfic" she and Bel wrote together before going to high school about all the things she planned to do in high school and then in the future. To cheer herself up, Georgie decides to do a few of the things in the fic that she wrote about, and, to her surprise, grumpy Levi, who seems to figure he owes her one after she allows him to stay at her parents' house, volunteers to help her.

Yeah, it's a love story, so it goes where you think. It's a nice story, nothing special, but sweet. Levi's unforgiving father hangs like a big dark cloud over the whole story—I dare you to get through the story without wanting to slap the jerk—and the jokes about Hank (Levi's dog) farting got old fast. But a nice summer read about two old friends, a new one, and facing the future.

  Life in an Old New England Country Village: An Old Sturbridge Village Book, Catherine Fennelly
Found this at a book sale only to discover it was about Old Sturbridge Village. It's from 1969, and the first chapter talks about what it was like to live in New England following the Revolutionary War until shortly before the Civil War, and then the rest of the book enumerates the current buildings and displays at SV and how they fit into life 1776-1840. The Village, which we visited for the first time in 2015, as very much expanded since then, but it was fun to read the inception of Sturbridge and the histories of the first buildings on the site. Totally still worth picking up at a book sale if you're an OSV fan or a fan of early American history.

Books Completed Since March 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books Completed Since February 1

 The FBI, Ronald Kessler
This isn't a history of the agency, but a book about the different departments of the Bureau and what each is responsible for (and sometimes not responsible for), with alternating chapters about each of the field offices and how they differ depending on the region of the country they're in. It's also pretty much the story of how the Bureau operates now, rather than during the reign of its first famous Director, J. Edgar Hoover.

You'll find some great stories about FBI busts, but a lot more about eccentricities, including a director so thick he was known as "Cement Head" and a New York agent who expected discounts for everything. You'll discover that the Miami office is known as "the Super Bowl of crime," that the famous BAU is hideously understaffed despite the popularity of television shows like Criminal Minds, and  that there's a London field office everyone would like to be assigned to.

A large part of the end of the book recounts Kessler's investigation into irregularities in the business dealings of FBI director William Sessions and how it brought about his eventual resignation.

 The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
This is a novel based on the fascinating life of Belle da Costa Greene, who for most of her life was the personal librarian for the banker/collector J. P. Morgan, who was obsessed with creating a personal library that contained the rare manuscripts of the world, including a jewel-encrusted Gutenberg Bible and an extremely rare Caxton Bible. But Belle had an amazing secret kept all her life: her real name was Belle Marion Greener. Her father Richard Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard and tireless fighter for civil rights. However, both he and his wife were light-skinned and she decided that she did not want her children being discriminated against. So Belle and her sisters and brother were brought up in a white world (Belle and her brother's slightly darker skin was explained by "a Portuguese grandmother"), "passing," and wondering every day would be the day they would be outed to a world of hatred and distrust.

Benedict and Murray have written an incredible tale about a talented and forward-looking woman who was a self-made expert in rare books and who bought some incredible treasures for the Morgan library—indeed, Morgan and several members of his family considered Belle a treasure and an asset—one of the finest private libraries ever assembled.

For Belle's true story: An Illuminated Life.

  Book Lovers, Emily Henry
Nora Stephens loves books, but she loves her sister (who she's cared for since their mother died, despite the fact that Libby is married and already the mother of two) more. So she's kept her job as literary agent and taken no chances with a personal life. When she sends a favorite client's new manuscript to one of the best editors in the business, the icy Charlie Lastra, he tells her the book is unrealistic. It's set in Sunshine Falls, NC, a sweet little small town that just happens to be the place her sister wants to spend a little "sisters only" time. The protagonist of the new book is also based on Nora.

Indeed, the sisters find out Sunshine Falls is a lot different, but the same, as it was portrayed in the manuscript. For one, guess who's working there: Charlie Lastra: it's his hometown and he's trying to keep his ill father's bookstore afloat. And she finds out Libby is trying to make a perfect Hallmark romance for her.

And that maybe Libby and her husband are keeping secrets from her.

This book reminds me of Check & Mate, which I read later in the month: a woman protagonist who makes the decision to take all the family responsibilities on herself, putting her life on hold for the sake of everyone else. Charlie does the same thing. It's irritating. So is Libby's habit of calling Nora "Sissy." However, Sunshine Falls is kinda charming. But...no wifi? Not going.

  The Improbable "Meet Cute" Collection:
The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez
Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne
Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory
With Any Luck by Ashley Poston
Royal Valentine by Sariah Wilson
Six novelettes for Valentine's Day. My favorite was the Jimenez piece involving a woman nursing her terminally ill grandmother, and the man who starts leaving her notes after leaving her the wrong note. Rosie was my next favorite, even if it did involve someone being trapped in a sensory deprivation tank! I wish there had been a warning involved. My least favorite was probably the princess one because it was a cliche.

  Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy, Damien Lewis
I knew Josephine Baker only as a talented African-American singer and dancer who fled the racism of the United States and adopted France as her home, where she was lauded and lionized in the 1920s-1930s.

I had no idea of her role in the war effort during World War II! Teamed chiefly with Maurice Abtey, a daring and fearless veteran of the previous war, Baker not only used her own funds to keep fellow French citizens alive with food and clothing, but ran spy missions as she gave performances around Europe for morale purposes. Secret messages were hidden in her musical scores, and sometimes she was just hours ahead of enemy forces. At one point she almost dies while on a mission.

This book is fascinating when it concentrates on Josephine's life and spy work. However, the author admits there is limited material about this, and many facts are repeated multiple times. So only half the book is about Josephine, the rest is about France's spy network, how it worked, all the agents involved, etc. If a person involved in the spy network is introduced as part of Josephine's story, you learn their entire history, what they did for the resistance, and what happened to them. All these facts formed an interesting framework to Baker's story, but if you're reading the book just for Baker herself, the story could have been told in half the pages.

  Be Still My Heart, Emily McIntire and Sav R. Miller
This is a mystery thriller co-written by the author of Hooked, and while the romance isn't as dark, it's a pretty intense ride both plotwise and sexually.

Lincoln Porter is a lobsterman trying to keep the family business on Skelm Island, Maine, afloat, still embittered by the death of his best friend when he was eleven years old. He's also busy trying to referee between his sister and her police officer husband, who helps Lincoln on his boat. But when Lincoln finds a dead body in one of his lobster traps, two mainland police officers are dispatched to the island to assist the understaffed Skelm police force: Andy Lopez and his partner Sloane, a profiler who's still under psychiatric care after being kidnapped by a serial killer. Lincoln and Sloane immediately start striking sparks off each other, and not just because she's investigating him as a murderer.

Sex and suspense whet off each other as Sloane tries to piece out the string of murders that occur, as well as bringing some very nasty Skelm secrets to the fore. Enjoyable as both a dark mystery and steamy romance.

  Zero Through Lazy Eight: The Romance of Numbers, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, Joseph McGuire
Yeah, I do occasionally read math books. This one is about numbers, from zero through thirteen and then the "lazy eight"=infinity, and how each of them have effected literature and history. What did they do before zero was a placeholder? Why is seven a "lucky number"? What's special about prime numbers, Fibonacci series, pi, and more?

Yes, some of the text wanders into algebra and other mathematics concepts that make my eyes cross. Still a lot of fun to read.

  Check & Mate, Ali Hazelwood
Mallory Greenleaf's father taught her chess at an early age, and she was outstanding at it. But at age 14 she gave up chess and her winning streak after her father left home, instead concentrating on her family. Since her mother is ill, she gives up college to work to support them. But when she has a chance to win some badly-needed money to keep the family afloat, she returns to play one more chess match—ends up beating the current young rising star chess champion Nolan Sawyer. The money is too good, her family needy, so Mal is back in competition, trying to keep her participation secret from her mother and younger sisters.

I guess I don't understand the obsession with chess. I was also a bit infuriated with Mallory's mother. Yes, I understood she was chronically ill with arthritis, but couldn't she notice how Mallory was stressed? It's only at the end she admits she noticed! And her sisters are totally obnoxious. Why doesn't her mom discipline them? Just because she has RA doesn't mean she can't keep them in line. They harass Mallory and the older of the two is a complete brat. Nolan, who's supposed to be "the enemy," is the nicest person of the bunch, as well as Mallory's offbeat mentor Oz.

 The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, David Grann
This is a collection of factual stories about people whose interests often bordered on obsession. The opening story gives the collection its title: about the mysterious death of a Sherlock Holmes aficionado whose massive collection lacked one particular item. One of the oddest stories is about Steve O'Shea, a marine biologist who continues (at least at the time of Grann's article) to look for a young giant squid to observe in captivity. He spends most of his time searching for baby squid or diving for them. Another is a very scary story about the sandhogs digging a third water supply for New York City since the first two cannot be turned off any longer due to the age of the equipment!

The creepiest story in the collection may be the one about the Aryan Brotherhood, which began in maximum security prisons as a racist organization, but which is now a well-organized association for protecting—and punishing—prisoners and their families. All of them are worth reading, about twelve very different people/groups in a dozen different situations.