Books Completed Since July 1

 The Early Life of Walt Disney, Andrew Stanley Kiste
What a total surprise to find this book; I didn't know it existed. Walt's life has been stringently chronicled (I have most of his bios, even the defamatory one), but his early years not in so much detail as this provides. Kiste goes back to the early history of the Disney family (Norman French who later settled in Ireland, then emigrated to Canada and later to the United States. There's a great deal more about Walt's father Elias and mother Flora; their life in Chicago, Marceline, Missouri, and Kansas City; plus about the other adult figures in Walt's short childhood, and the bond with his brother Roy. While there are not many more details about Walt's early life that have not been covered briefly in other biographies, Kiste expands the experience by talking about the historic events going on around Walt at the time: the changing status of the Midwest as the country shifted from an agricultural country to an industrial one, the average life of a farm family at the time, what Walt would have experienced in France as an ambulance driver, and the craft of early animation.

Takes a "deep dive" into what Walt would have experienced. Includes a tour of the reconstructed Disney home on Tripp Avenue in Chicago where Roy, Walt, and Ruth Disney were born.

  Sounds Like Love, Ashley Poston
Joni Lark, celebrated songwriter, with her creations performed by the likes of Willa Gray (think Taylor Swift), has suffered a setback ever since her mother was diagnosed with dementia: she can't write. But after she meets arrogant Sebastian Fell, son of hit rock star Roman Fell (who Joni's mom once performed with), a melody starts running through her head, and a voice begins speaking to her, a wry, lonely guy who claims he keeps hearing her thoughts. After Joni convinces herself she's not going crazy, she starts to warm up to the voice in her head, as he does to hers. It's this companion who's keeping her from losing it when she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, and her parents' business, a music hall called the Revelry, where she hopes to break her writer's block. Instead, she finds out her parents mean to close the venue, and that even her best friend is going through changes she can't talk about.

As in all Poston's romances, a little bit of otherworldly air in this sweet novel, which addresses what happens when stress causes your creativity to dry up, and, most importantly, making the most of the time you have left when medical problems intervene. 

  As Various as Their Land: The Everyday Lives of Eighteenth Century Americans, Stephanie Grauman Wolf
This is part of HarperCollins "Everyday Life in America" series. (I have all the others.) It covers the period from the end of the early colonial period through the Revolutionary War, addressing topics from how (and what style of) homes were built, who lived in them (originally just one room, it wasn't just a nuclear family, but possibly grandparents, grandchildren, adult unmarried siblings, even the hired hand or a servant), what they ate, how their children were treated (as the century went on, even lower-class families cherished their youngsters more) and then how the elderly were treated (they often ended up at the almshouse), how and what they worked at, and how injustices and crimes were handled (yes, men had the upper hand, but a man could still be put to death for murdering his wife). One of those books where you wondered how people survived even the most day-to-day crises.

  Harvest of Hope, Faith Baldwin
Fourth in a series of nonfiction inspirational books by Baldwin, who was a popular "woman's novel" author of the 1920s through the 1970s (she'd be shocked, I think by the "dark romances" currently in vogue). She was also a popular speaker at women's clubs and religious gatherings. I picked up her nonfiction because she was a friend of Gladys Taber, and these books are similar, although not as compelling. A seasonal tour through one year in her life.

  Problematic Summer Romance, Ali Hazelwood
This is a sequel to Hazelwood's Not in Love, about Eli Kilgore's rebellious younger sister Maya. She and Eli's friends and co-workers are in Italy for Rue and Eli's destination wedding in Taormina when almost all of them get food poisoning. This leaves Maya to obsess about her brother's partner Conor Harkness, who's dark and broody due to a really obnoxious family situation, but whom she became friends with years earlier during an emotional crisis.

The "problematic" part of the romance is that Conor is fifteen years older than Maya, and he thinks the gap will ruin her life if he engages with her. For me, the "problematic" bit is that for a mid-twenty-ish professional, Maya acts like a spoiled teenager and constantly flaunts herself in front of Conor thinking that seducing him will change his mind. Very frustrating reading. The protagonists from Deep End, which seems to be very popular, have a cameo.

  The New Girl, Cassandra Calin
I'll read anything that takes my interest, and I have picture books, like The Parakeet Girl, in the library to prove it. The cover of this book immediately caught me. It was only after I bought it that I realized that I'd seen the author's comics shared on Facebook.

Lia is a 12-year-old Romanian girl whose family (mom, dad, and little brother Denis) is moving to Montreal. If it isn't bad enough to be torn from school and her best friend, she gets her first period at the airport! After a summer spent trying to learn French, she starts school where they put her (and other immigrants) in an immersive homeroom to improve her French. Lia thinks she'll never make friends, but slowly she does, and her talent at art eventually gets her a spot on the school newsletter.

One of the reasons I bought this is that Lia is finally an adolescent protagonist I could identify with: she has horrible cramps every month (which, thankfully her parents, like mine, and her school—unlike mine—sympathized with). This was a great graphic novel, and I want a sequel because does her classmate ever tell her about their crush???? I enjoyed this more than Ali Hazelwood's new book!

  A Life Drawing: Reflections of an Illustrator, Shirley Hughes
I found a surfeit of illustrations by Hughes online one day, having loved her art for years, and wondered if there was a book about her career as an illustrator, like existed for Beatrix Potter or Tasha Tudor. Well, yes, there is: this book, from her childhood reading comics through her children's book series like "Alfie."

The book includes the sketches she made in art school, quick little illos in the margins, and beautiful two-page spreads of memories from her lifetime, including a gorgeous one of a railway station during World War II, with families and wives saying farewell to their soldiers. Great stuff for Hughes fans. Can be found used for reasonable prices.

  The Dog Who Followed the Moon, James Norbury
Inspirational book about a lost puppy who learns life lessons from a dying wolf—basically, enjoy your whole life, not just the goals, but the journey itself. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful. 

  Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty
Maybe this was a strange reading choice for a new widow, but it was actually very helpful, if slightlymacabre. Doughty was fascinated by mortality from childhood, and the book chronicles her years working at a crematory, and how it solidified her feelings concerning the deflecting way we treat death in the modern world.

If nothing else, it made me feel better about our decision as a couple to use cremation as a body disposal method. Dead bodies packed in overpriced containers taking up land needed for living people seems selfish, and the descriptions of embalming were just gross, not to mention that embalming fluid and other chemicals contained in coffins are now leaching into our ground water. Let's not even talk about the "extras" they talk you into.

  Cop Talk: True Detective Stories from the NYPD, E.W. Count
I suspect this was published to feed the interest in New York City crime engendered by Law & Order, since it came out four years after the series premiered. It's a collection of stories about NYPD detectives and some of their more interesting cases, from drug busts to murder cases.

  The Cloisters, Katy Hays
My first "dark academia book. Ann Stilwell is eager to get away from Walla Walla, Washington, after the tragic death of her father. Excited by academia, the work of her academic tutor on augury, and the idea of working in New York City, she accepts a summer job at the Met, only to be snapped up by Patrick, a curator at the Cloisters, Manhattan's evocative medieval museum. Here she meets Rachel, sophisticated and with all the connections, and Leo, the earthy but sexy gardener for the institution. Curator Patrick and Rachel enlist Ann to delve into the secrets of a tarot deck from the Renaissance era, but the twisted secrets of the personalities soon make Ann wonder: who should she trust? I enjoyed it.

Books Completed Since June 1

 The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, David McCullough

I listen to the podcast "Travels With Rick Steves" and have bought too many books listening to it; one of them was David McCullough's The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.

In reading it, I can hear McCullough's voice, just as he used to narrate The American Experience. It's a hell of a book, from James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel Morse (they were best friends) heading east on a sailing ship to the ends of the careers of John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt, with the development of the steamship, the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris (where they were reduced to eating rats and zoo animals), and the rise of the Eiffel Tower just a few of the historical milestones within. (Since it's now so iconic to Paris, it's amazing to think that when the Eiffel Tower was erected, famous people of the time hated it and a highly incensed letter was sent to the newspaper signed by notables of the time, including Alexandre Dumas and Guy de Maupassant, condemning it.)

  CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Snake Eyes, Max Allan Collins
This is the last of the original novels written by Collins and based on the CBS series.

In one of two small casinos in the town of Boot Hill, Nevada, two rival biker gangs come to a head and have a shootout. Innocent casino employees die, and the head of one of the gangs. If someone doesn't solve the latter's murder quickly, there will be a gang war that will tear apart the small town. To work the crime quickly, the LVCSU sends Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, and their temporary tech Sofia Curtis there.

In the meantime, Warrick Brown and Greg Sanders are left to handle the rest of the Las Vegas deaths, and they keep coming hot and heavy.

This is the first time the two different case investigations don't merge into one in a Collins book. I think Collins got tired of writing these books, because this one isn't quite up to the others, even if the casino mystery is very twisty.

  The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English, Hana Videen
Ah, there's nothing like a good linguistics book!

When people think of "Old English," usually what comes to mind is Shakespeare or, perhaps a little earlier, Chaucer, and funny word uses like "Ye Olde" somethingorother. Well, surprise, folks: Chaucer is Middle English, and Shakespeare is Early Modern English. "Old English" is the language of Beowulf, and untrained persons can't read it at all. The "wordhord" of the title is the language that poets and singers, and other wordsmiths, drew upon to tell stories.

This is the story of everyday life in Old English, starting with the basics, such as food and drink. Hlaf, for example, was the word for bread, and its descendant is still around: loaf. You might also have your æg with butere. Next come morning chores, then the work of the day, amusements after work and friends to share them with, all the way to the world outside and the animals and curiosities to find there. Much fun if you're into linguistics!

(By the way, "Ye" is pronounced "The." The "Y" in the "Ye" stuff is a stand-in for a letter that doesn't exist any longer, thorn (þ), pronounced as "th.")

  It's OK That You're Not OK, Megan Devine
This was the book about grief that I finally chose for myself; it was better than the religious-based text I was loaned (although I did get a few good things from it). It discusses the things they don't tell you about grief: the anger, the emptiness, the well-meaning people who want to make you feel better and can't, and the clueless people who wonder when "you're going to get over it."

I made notes in it, too. Don't judge me.

  Adventures of Mary Jane, Hope Jahren
I've been waiting for this book to come out in paperback, being a big fan of Huckleberry Finn. It's Jahren's story about Mary Jane Guild, who leaves her home near Lake Winnipeg and eventually travels to Fort Edwards in Illinois to care for her Aunt Evelyn and Uncle George and cousins Susan and Joanna; on the way, she meets an unconventional female steamboat captain and a Mormon family.

Things are tougher from there: Uncle George has suffered a grievous injury, and the family is starving. Mary Jane manages to save them all, until sickness overtakes the adults. Soon, Mary Jane, pretending she is Susan and Joanna's sister, accompanies them to their new legal guardian, Peter Wilks, in Greenville, Mississippi.

Yes, that Peter Wilks. For this is "Mary Jane, the red-headed one" from Huckleberry Finn. So, this is fanfiction, then—well-written fanfic, but fanfic. And Jahren does make it work as a book about a strong, resourceful young woman who tries to do her best. But boy, does she do a hack job on Peter Wilks. You know nothing about him from Finn, just that he died, and he had a bag of gold and a tattoo on his chest. Jahren makes him a reprehensible man even without his slave-owning: a penny-pincher from Yorkshire with really gross habits.

She also introduces a bunch of original characters, like Eddie the Jewish peddler, and a big dog named Cherry, and has Mary Jane fall in love with Huckleberry Finn in his guise of "Joe," the "valley" to "the King" and "the Duke" who are pretending to be Wilks' brothers.

Jahren's narrative style is first-rate; she keeps the story going and introduces side characters based on actual historical characters, but they all seemed to be jam-packed in as if she couldn't bear to leave any out. And once Huck gets the Duke and the King arrested, the ending is kinda Lord of the Rings (the films). I did enjoy it because of Mary Jane herself, but it has its flaws. (One of them is dates: Huck Finn takes place during the reign of William IV; Mary Jane talks about Queen Victoria being on the throne, and her favorite book, in 1846, is Dickens' A Child's History of England, which was written in the mid-1850s.)

  The Little Book of Life Skills, Erin Zammett Ruddy
It was $3 at Half-Price Books. Kind of an edited version of a Bottom Line Personal book.

  The Book of Murder, Matt Murphy
Murphy spent 20 years in the Orange County district attorney's office, and, as they say on Law & Order, these are his stories.

Most of them are grim, although there are anecdotes about stupid criminals as well. One of the most fascinating—and repulsive—chapters was about a sexual predator named Rodney Alcala, who actually appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game! But all the chapters are fascinating, whether about a married couple selling their boat who were never seen again, to the ill-fated partnership of Chris Smith and Ed Shin that boded not well for Chris, who suddenly sold his half of a business and went on walkabout.

There's a lot of behind-the-scenes of an investigation into a crime, the long hours of work that go into a case (to the point that Murphy gave up on personal relationships altogether), and how the different parts of the investigative team work together to close a case. Murphy sometimes gets a little heavy on "how I gave up my life to prosecute bad guys," but the narrative about the criminals and cases themselves is first-rate.

Books Completed Since May 1

  Novel-in-the-Making, Mary O'Hara
Wyoming Summer is one of my comfort reads, but I didn't realize O'Hara had two more nonfiction books! This one is the story of writing her novel The Son of Adam Wyngate. It begins with her driving east with her collie after her divorce from Helge Sture-Vasa to re-establish herself in Connecticut, and thinking on what she wants to write next, a family drama based on her own father. I was heartened by reading about how many false starts she had! At one point, she envisioned it as a trilogy and began writing the second book first. It was quite encouraging to know that even as an experienced writer, she had so many false starts.

The book also makes me glad I live in the computer age: her talking about having to edit her drafts by cutting and taping multiple pages of typewritten manuscript together made me exhausted.

  Any Trope But You, Victoria Lavine
Margot Bradley's once-flourishing romance writer career has gone down the tubes: someone found her private file, the one the now-cynical author kept to herself because she wrote unhappy endings to all her famous rom-com epics after an epic breakup with her fiancé, and broadcast it to the world. Her sister Savannah, who has chronic autoimmune disease, proposes that she go away for six weeks to a lodge in Alaska and write in a new genre: mystery. But no sooner does Margot arrive in Alaska than she runs afoul of Forrest Wakefield, a former researcher who is now taking care of his invalid father and is guilty because he wasn't there to care for his mother.

Two cynics, in this genre, equal romance, although neither of them will admit it at first. Great fish-out-of-water protagonist who discovers the "cozy lodge" comes with physical challenges, and a hero with heart.

  The Rhine, Ben Coates
The Dutch are different, but then so are the Germans. And the Swiss, and all the other countries along the length of the Rhine River. Starting in Amsterdam, Ben Coates follows the path of the Rhine all the way to its source at Lake Toma, covering the history, sociology, and current political and social customs of the countries he travels through, comparing and contrasting the people, the food, and the treatment of the river.

Sometimes Coates has his tongue more firmly planted in his cheek than perhaps he should have, but I enjoyed his journey up...down?...along one of the most notable rivers in Europe. I bought this book because I was tired of all the good travel narratives being about France!

  Juneau, the Sleigh Dog, West Lathrop
Grosset & Dunlap's "Famous Dog Stories" series. I ate these up as a kid. Nope, didn't want to read about girls dating and gushing over boys, or, when I was younger, little girls simpering over their dollies and having tea parties. Adventures. I wanted adventures! These, along with Albert Payson Terhune's wonderful collie stories, captured my imagination.

Got this from a friend who knew I liked old dog books. It's a corker: an engineer and his son are on vacation in Alaska. Dad is called away unexpectedly for a few daysand wants to take son Pierre with him, but Pierre persuades him to leave him at the cabin with Juneau the husky, knowing a neighbor, Andy, will help him if there's a problem; besides, he's in the care of their Native-American guide Ka-uk, a member of the Tlingit tribe.

Alas, these books were not exactly enlightened: Ka-uk deserts the boy and proves to be treacherous, and Pierre and Juneau are obliged to fend for themselves. Considering when this was written, I was impressed that Ka-uk's problem didn't stem from being "naturally bad" due to his heritage, but because he was an outcast from both his own people and from white people. Pierre gains maturity and experience during his unfortunately long ordeal, and the dog is magnificent.

  Fake Heroes, Otto English
Nobody's perfect.

This is a book about ten heroes--historic and celebrity-- whose lives were not what the public believed. I admit, I bought this book because the first chapter was about Douglas Bader, a World War II pilot whose positive press covered up the fact that he wasn't who he seemed; my husband, the consummate fan of aviation heroes, had read about him and scorned his fame. My mother, the ultimate JFK fan, knew all about his peccadillos and, later in life, knew about his illnesses. Almost everyone knew he didn't write Profiles in Courage; Ted Sorenson did. And once Mother Teresa died, the word about her forcing people to suffer without painkillers because "suffering was good for them" became known. And how many people didn't know Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator?

English offers up as well, in each of ten chapters, people he believes more worthy of the honors.

  The Curse of Penryth Hall, Jess Armstrong
Ruby Vaughn had one chance at a good marriage, but was "ruined" by an in flagrante reveal. After serving in the first World War, she now lives in England working—and sharing a house with—an elderly bookseller, who unexpectedly asks her to travel to Cornwall to deliver some esoteric books to a folk healer. Ruby is reluctant to go because her old friend Tamsyn lives there after marrying an English aristocrat. Mr. Owens' client turns out to be the town Peller, a cross between a healer and, from what Ruby can gather, some type of witch.

When Tamsyn's husband turns up dead, everyone is under suspicion, including Tamsyn.

An atmospheric thriller set in the 1920s with lots of twists (although the characters seem to spend most of the book soaking wet).

  Re-read: The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson
There is some meat to this collection of Wilder letters, including some of the letters she and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane shared about the editing of the "Little House" books. Sadly, Rose burned most of the letters, especially those from the 1940s, so we will never know the full editorial partnership she shared with her mother. There is an impassioned letter of Laura's insisting that The Long Winter be confined to the Ingalls and Wilders with a few supporting characters rather than a full pallet of townspeople as Rose wanted to give full import of the isolation families faced during that hard winter of 1880-1881, which showed she did have the flair for storytelling that some literary scholars have denied her. But most of the letters are banal little responses to schoolchildren, with a few lovely gems.

The trouble is, I've read so many books about Wilder, including the recently published Pioneer Girl, that I've already seen many of these "surprise bits" (like the fact that a young couple and their baby lived with the family during the long winter), so the revelations aren't. It's also sad to read Wilder's last letters with her longing for her late husband clear even in the few paragraphs, and it's also obvious that the sisters did not remain very close after Ma and Pa and Mary died.

I've been a Laura "junkie" since I first saw the television series and wanted to know "the real story," so I'm glad I picked this up, but if you have less of an attachment to her, I would invest in one of the biographies instead.

  The Pocket, Barbara Burman & Ariane Fennetaux
What's the one thing women always complain about in modern clothing? Of course, not enough pockets. From 1660 through 1900, however, most women did have pockets, often capacious ones, which tied around the waist and went under their skirts (the skirts usually had a slit/slits to access the pocket(s).

This is a history of those pockets, most made of cotton, some of wool or leather or linen, some embroidered and many plain, and what women kept in them, from valuable things like coins and keys, to items for beauty (powder compacts, rouge), to things like snacks, books, visiting books, and sentimental objects. Often the pocket(s) were the only private places women had for their cherished items and they were often stolen by cutpurses who cut the tie strings or brazen thieves who reached under a sleeping women's pillow for her stash. Other women used their pockets as shoplifters hide things under their coats, to steal.

This is a scholarly study, but an interesting one.

  Modern Loss, Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner
These are selections from a website called "Modern Loss," where stories of grief are shared. One of the stories from the co-authors sounds like it came out of a Law & Order episode: her father and stepmother were killed by a handyman who, a few weeks earlier, had done repair work at their home. He intended to just rob the house, but when he found them at home, he beat them both to death.

This book made me more depressed, so, obviously not what I needed to be reading at this time.

  A Musical in the Making, Mary O'Hara
This book was interesting to me not only about how she developed, then wrote and re-wrote, her musical play The Catch Colt, but how much work some of the process was. Since she was composing the music and writing the book, she had quite a load on her shoulders, but I never realized how laborious the orchestrations were! Fully half the book is about how she had to work and work on these orchestrations, and then she had to finally sell the play. I've seen behind-the-scenes of play production, but not ones that include the writing and the music. Pretty much just for O'Hara or play fans, though.

  Anything from Nothing, edited by Mercedes Lackey
The 2023 collection of Valdemar short stories. Much better than Shenanigans, which I really didn't like at all. The quality in this volume is pretty solid, from the opening story about a blacksmith's son who feels stifled in his small town and requests that a Herald take him away to Lackey's own tale of a small town under siege. Several of the stories are serial in nature, so we continue the stories of Healer Erenal and Nwah the kyree being held captive. One of my favorites was the story of a traveling carnival, "What a Chosen Family Chooses," and how they help a captive in a stifling village. "Needs Must When Evil Bides" is another good one, about a herbalist who helps a servant rescue a wealthy family taken hostage by bandits.

All the stories are worth reading.

Books Completed Since April 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books Completed Since March 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books Completed Since February 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books Completed Since January 1

  A Warwickshire Christmas, edited by David Green

  A West Country Christmas, edited by Chris Smith

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

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

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