Just what it says: a 300-page summary of the "significant bits" of the history of the United States. It's a nice basic history in a chatty style that imparts information for those who don't want to do a deeper dive. The only thing that bugged me was that this is the second book of US history that credits the beginning of the textile industry to Francis Lowell, who eventually did found the mill towns in Lowell, Massachusetts. It states that Lowell, a Boston merchant, came from England with plans in his head for the first looms. Rank heresy, says this Rhode Islander! Samuel Slater was the man who first came to the United States (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) with "plans in his head" for spinning machines and looms, way before Lowell.
Hayden Norcross, a prominent Wall Street investment banker, is murdered in his office, and former gangster Jack Robinson soon arrives at the detective agency of Frank Malloy, asking him to investigate the death. Jack is married to Jocelyn, a wealthy young woman who was raped by Norcross and then spurned, and they are now awaiting the birth of the child fathered by her rapist. Robinson believes someone will try to pin the murder on him.
Malloy and his wife Sarah Brandt, who still works as a midwife, are soon embroiled in Norcross' sordid lifestyle, which includes the rape of other women. Helped by Sarah's society parents, who can go places Malloy cannot, they try to untangle the deceit and violence of Norcross' life. There's also an amusing subplot about Frank's partner Gino, still recovering from injuries incurred in the previous mystery, planning to take Maeve, Sarah's part-time nursemaid and Malloy's part-time secretary, to his parents' house for dinner. Usually unflappable Maeve is unsure about what will happen with Gino's volatile family, especially his mother.
A book of short anecdotes from American history, from Presidential trivia to little-known facts about battles, colonial schooling, Western foibles, and others. A perfect "bathroom book" for history lovers.
Considering this is a children's/young adult book, this is a pretty grim but realistic portrayal of a family of "Okies" during the Dust Bowl era. The Jackson family's farm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, is slowly dying from drought and low prices. Finally C.J.'s dad sells out and Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, C.J., and his four brothers and sisters set out in Jackson's old car across the western desert to get to California where they hear there are jobs for farm workers.
The road is hard, they are treated with bigotry, and when they get to California, campsites are dirty and smelly. Think of this as a kid's version of The Grapes of Wrath, although things end up okay for the family. If you want an eye-opening view of life for Dust Bowl farmers, this is a good start.
I particularly waited to read this for the semiquincentennial, since it's about the celebrations of 1826, the semicentennial. I guess I was expecting something different, like a portrait of how people lived. There are aspects of this in this volume, which opens when the Marquis Lafayette returns to the United States for a tour of the country in his old age, having survived the more brutal French Revolution. There are also profiles of John Quincy Adams, the last of the old guard, and of Andrew Jackson, the candidate of the common man, and the last two chapters do focus on how the semicentennial was celebrated and also how the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both on July 4, 1826, were addressed.
The other chapters are a little odd: one about a man named William Wirt, who wrote a popular biography of Patrick Henry and another about Eliza Foster, a writer (and daughter of a writer) who produced two seminal books of what we would now call historical fiction, Saratoga and Yorktown. Another covers the migration to the Ohio country. I gleaned some new information from this history, but it was a bit of a slog.
Sophie Drear and Harriett Fisher were best friends on a mission when they first saw Lilymoor House, a beautiful old home surrounded by marvelous gardens, and fell in love with the place. They promised to come back together another time. Now Sophie is back, at least, helping to revitalize the property after the widow of the original owner grows too old to keep it up. Anchored in her suddenly rocky life by working in gardens, Sophie is enjoying her work, her co-workers who are equally invested in reviving the beautiful grounds, and the unconventional owner, Eula. Then one day she finds a door she's never seen before in one of the walls, and inside is a frustrated man named Rus who can't go beyond the gate.
This is a magical book about friendship, love, clinging to old memories while not going ahead in life, being joyful in old age, fraternal relationships, old wounds, and new love. A lovely riff on Burnett's The Secret Garden. I was in tears by the end.
Thirteen-year-old Piper Davis lives in Seattle with her widowed father, a minister; her older sister Margie; and her older brother Hank. Pastor Davis is the head of a Baptist church where most of the parish is Japanese; the Davises love their Japanese neighbors, and the congregation has perfect trust in Pastor Davis. So it is a blow when, after Hank joins the Navy and is shipped out to the Hawaiian Islands, Pearl Harbor is attacked, and suddenly the family is supposed to consider their friends their enemies. Shocked when all their neighbors, many of them American-born, are shipped off to internment camps, but the biggest shock is Piper's when Reverend Davis moves to one of the camps to care for his flock and brings her with him. Although she loved her friends, Piper is furious when taken away from her school and non-Japanese friends—until she sees what they are up against in the dirty, disorganized camp.
Larson based Pastor Davis on the real-life Reverend Emery Andrews, who did indeed go to serve his Japanese flock in an internment camp. An eye-opener if you've only read one or two lines about internment camps in history class.
What a grand book! Stark's book is part travelogue to four different places: northern Maine, western Pennsylvania, southeast Oregon, and the desert of New Mexico. Using satellite photos, he finds the four darkest spots on a US map, and then explores the areas—in Maine and New Mexico with his wife and kids, and alone in the other places—and the history of the empty places, which turn out not to be so empty at all; in fact, they're all teeming with life, both human and animal, and history. What happened to the French in Canada...in the first frontier in Pennsylvania...on the landscapes of the west that inspired John Muir...and in the Native American settlements of the southwest?
The parts with his family are especially enjoyable, but the entire book is a look at history you never hear about, especially during the French and Indian War. I learned a lot more about the French settlers from this book than in any other. Warning: there is one specific paragraph about a woman being tortured that might disturb a younger reader.
I usually enjoy Rinaldi books (except for her book about Native Residential Schools), and this one was no exception. Cecilia "CeCe" McGill's father died for his abolitionist beliefs, and teen CeCe didn't particularly care about his efforts at all. She finds she may have to care: her new guardian is her Uncle Alex, a doctor and ornithologist, and he's about to take her on a tour of Southern plantations in search of the rare scarlet ibis—the bird enslaved people call "the ever-after bird," because if they see it, they believe they will be set free. In reality, Uncle Alex is also an abolitionist who gives enslaved people advice to get to safety. And CeCe and Uncle Alex's Black assistant Earline are going to take part in Uncle Alex's dangerous game by posing as Alex's selfish ward and her servant to throw the plantation owners off his trail. CeCe is shocked by how easy it is for her to get into the role of being a slave-owner—and too soon she discovers the terrible treatment of the enslaved on the plantations they visit.
Rinaldi based the story on a real-life ornithologist who distributed maps and escape information in the ante-bellum South, and admits that she "whitewashed" the already violent portrayal of plantation slaves' lives so it was fit for a young adult book. What she does portray is pretty graphic as it is: this is not a book for young children.
30 June 2026
Books Completed in June 2026
30 April 2026
Books Completed in April 2026
The fourth of Aaronovitch's seasonal novellas set in the "Rivers of London" universe. But this one has a twist: it's set in the United States, where Englishman Augustus Berrycloth-Young—friends call him "Gussie"—lives in New York City enjoying the delights of the Jazz Age, hiding the fact that he is not only one of those who practices "the love that dare not speak its name," but that his lover is Black. Helped by a talented valet called Maximillian Beauregard, Gussie's living the good life, until Thomas Nightingale shows up on his doorstep, seeking help. Somewhere in the wild, there's an enchanted musical instrument on the loose, and Nightingale wants it confiscated and returned.
Aaronovitch writes a mean Bertie Woosterish romp crossed with magic. Gussie is a gem of a narrator and if you're a "Rivers" fan, you'll want this for your collection.
Big "coffee table book" I found in a thrift shop, reproductions of the British edition of "Good Housekeeping" during World War II. Lots of articles about keeping a stiff upper lip, being thrifty, working your Victory Garden, and ads for conserving food. A snapshot of the times.
A modern take on Anne of Green Gables, with unpredictable Anne Gallegher returning to her home on Mackinac Island after the death of her father, who always understood her ways. She hopes to become closer to her mother, who runs the island fudge shop, but she arrives without her doctor fiancé Chris, who can't leave his pediatric patients, and pretty sure she's lost her teaching job at an exclusive school because she objects to banning certain books in the school library. At the dock to meet her is Joe Miller, an older boy who always teased her, who's also her late father's apprentice in the carpentry business.
As Anne helps her mother, and her "bosom friend" Daanis, married and a new mother, she begins to understand herself, and her mother's special reliance on Joe.
This was sweet, and I cried at the end.
Picked this up at a book sales and glad I found it. Author provides concrete excerpts of writing she considers good examples of descriptions, characterizations, flashbacks, theme, etc. An excellent addition to your writing library.
This story was very popular last year, and the main characters even had a cameo in Hazelwood's Problematic Summer Romance. College student and championship diver, Scarlett Vandermeer is still recovering from a traumatic diving accident and is unable to dive at her best. Her teammate Penelope discovers Scarlett has certain sexual kinks that Pen's boyfriend, the Olympic champion swimmer Lukas Blomqvist, would like to indulge in as well, but she (Pen) doesn't want to. So Pen, who's actually broken up with Lukas drunkenly suggests Scarlett and Lukas get together—just sexually, you understand.
Naturally, it becomes much more than that. As Scarlett works through her trauma, it turns out Lukas' infamous calm actually stabilizes her. But for two people who are trying desperately not to fall in love, they're doing it pretty well.
Still don't get Pen's reluctance to tell people she and Lukas broke up a year earlier, so what she does near the end of the novel really makes me hate her, even if she apologizes for it.
Long ago I read Esther Forbes' Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, which she used as a template for her classic Johnny Tremain young adult novel. It's still as complete a bio of Revere as you can get, but if you're just curious about the famous Ride (which, as even Revere would have told you, he didn't finish; Samuel Prescott did) and what prompted it, this is an enjoyable modern review of the times and the man.
How could I read a book about Paul Revere's ride without re-reading a childhood favorite, the story of Revere's ride told by his faithful horse?
Of course, Revere didn't own the horse he rode that night; she was a borrowed mare named, they think, Brown Bess. But who cares when this delightful story is narrated by Scheherazade—just call her "Sherry"—who was originally a proud British cavalry horse brought over to guard the city of Boston from those terrible Rebels. Brought to ruin by her frankly stupid owner, Sir Cedric Barnstable, Sherry eventually pulls a noisome cart, but is rescued by the Sons of Liberty as a horse for Paul Revere to carry dispatches with.
Full of sly criticisms of stupidity of the British officers (who bought their commissions) and even the local prominent citizens like John Hancock and Samuel Adams, this book is a delight from beginning to end, actually portraying Revere's backbreaking trips in realistic style. Worth reading even by adults.
Apparently, these guys, The Map Men, are famous on YouTube, but I bought this because I've always been a little potty about maps. Would have loved to have been a cartographer. The Map Men talk about...surprise!...maps. Like a global map sold by IKEA which completely left out New Zealand (they apologized). Or trying to complete a map in the 1700s when the world wasn't completely explored. Or trying to navigate London...using a map of Paris (privately I didn't understand the purpose of this).
The problem with this book is when it's good, it's good, but then the authors start goofing around. I guess in an effort to make the Donner Party story less grim, it's told in this terrible style that I found really offputting. Telling the story of the deadly shortcut that led to the Donner downfall needn't have been told in a flip matter. Some other chapters are also depressingly flip. I expected to like this more.
Tempted by this when I saw it at Walmart. Containing maps, vintage images, pullouts containing additional info, modern photography, Miller walks you through each book of the Bible, explains the significance of each, points out any relevance to modern life, and provides other insights. Enjoyed this. Biggest takeaway, however, was: don't get involved with Assyrians. They perfected the art of torture.
Callahan Woods is a wildland firefighter. Since being betrayed by his fiancée, Molly, a former childhood sweetheart, Cal has sworn off permanent relationships and lets any woman he gets involved with know it. Into his life walks Prescott Timmons, new EMT recruit. It's sparks aplenty, and they're not in the wildfires.
But "Scottie" is hiding a very big secret, one Callahan might never get over.
Whew, is it hot in here? Spice aplenty in this firefighter romance, plus you learn about the process of fighting wildfires and how the men and women live during fire seasons. Scottie's past is unique compared to other romances I've read.
This is Stover's 1987 biography/examination of the life and fiction of Robert Heinlein. He certainly
is a Heinlein enthusiast: he compares him to Mark Twain, and states
that Have Spacesuit Will Travel should be as famous as Huckleberry Finn.
(Okay, Have Spacesuit Will Travel was my first Heinlein and probably my favorite, but I'm
also a Finn fan--so, sorry, Leon...no.) Did enjoy reading Stover's POV on characters like Friday, Valentine Michael Smith, Delos Harriman, and more.
Professor Elodie Hughes was a flighty but magically talented geographer at Oxford when she entered into a marriage of convenience (he wanted quieter digs) with stern, grumpy Professor Gabriel Tarrant. Their wedding night turned out to be magical for both of them, except neither knew how to communicate that. So it's been a year since they've seen each other when both Professors Tarrant are summoned to a magical eruption in a small Welsh village. It's growing in power, and if it can't be stopped, the rampant magic may destroy England.
Fighting wild magic, Welsh villagers glad for the business magic brings to their town, bonkers tourists, a pet goat, and their irresistible attraction to each other, Gabriel and Elodie scramble to halt disaster. A comic romantasy period romp.
29 February 2024
Books Completed Since February 1
The FBI, Ronald KesslerThis 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 MurrayThis 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 HenryNora 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 LewisI 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. MillerThis 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 McGuireYeah, 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 HazelwoodMallory 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 GrannThis 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.
31 July 2022
Books Completed Since July 1
I really, really loved this book! It combines a varied cast of characters including Moe Berg, a talented baseball player who loved playing spy and whose sorties into Japan provided the only intelligence the US had at the beginning of World War II; Irene Curie (daughter of Marie) and her husband Frederic Joliot, attempting to keep radioactive elements out of the hands of the Nazis; Samuel Goudsmit who was trying to get his Jewish parents out of Europe and his good friend Werner Heisenberg (he of the Uncertainty Principle); Boris Pash, who escaped Europe early and worked for US Army intelligence; and a pilot named Joe Kennedy Jr, whose younger brother eventually ended up capturing all the glory. Jumping from France to Germany to the U.S. and Norway and more, this is the complex tale of the escapades and dangerous lives of the Alsos team, who were determined to keep the secrets of fission from the Nazis. One of the most mind-boggling narratives is about the continued efforts to destroy the Vemork power plant in Norway; it had been captured by the Nazis and was the only place in Europe that made heavy water. The team ran into numerous obstacles in trying to breach the place and the eventual raid was awe-inspiring.
This is a very bad review of a very good book; the chapters are so intertwined that the story is hard to describe, a combination of World War II history and the history of the development of the nuclear bomb. Moe Berg is an especially interesting character; I'd like to read a whole book about Berg, even though I hate baseball!
Florence Day grew up in the family funeral home in the small town of Mairmont, South Carolina, with her parents, her sister Alice, and her brother Carver, and like her loving father, she's always had a special talent: she can talk to ghosts and is not afraid of them. She now lives in New York City, ghostwriting (naturally) for the famous romance author Ann Nichols, and her books are well received. But now, a year after her breakup with fellow author Lee Marlow, who abused her trust, Florence seems incapable of writing the final ghostwritten Ann Nichols book she was hired to pen. But her new editor, the tall and gorgeous Ben Andor, says she needs to finish it.
The final straw is a phone call from her mother, telling her that her father has died, and Florence returns to Mairmont in mourning for both her dad and her career. She's not home a day before she gets the shock of her life when opening the front door: Ben Andor is standing in ghostly form before her.
This was a delightful paranormal romance; I thoroughly enjoyed Florence's home town, the family funeral parlor that to her was a warm loving home, her neighbors, and her efforts to help Ben, whom she believes she is supposed to help to get to "the other side" just as she starts to fall in love with him. The only thing I didn't like was that Lee Marlow didn't get called on the despicable thing he did to Florence. I won't give it away, but it was thoroughly loathsome and he deserves to be horsewhipped.
This was my first "Robert Goren made me do it" (from Law & Order: Criminal Intent) book about John Douglas, an early FBI profiler, the basis for the character Scott Glenn played in the film The Silence of the Lambs, courtesy the remainder shelves at Books-a-Million.
It's kind of a goofy title for the book, I think, and makes it sound not serious, but the contents are dead-on, especially when Douglas talks about the horrifying case of Suzanne Collins, a Marine trainee ready to go out on her first assignment who was brutally beaten and then raped with a tree branch by a sadistic jerk who felt diminished by his Marine wife, who then led the courts a lengthy trail of appeals before he was finally put to death. Douglas also talks about other cases he has personally worked on, plus weighs in on famous cases like the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder and the O.J. Simpson case, the Amanda Knox case in Italy and also a set of murders that were branded as "Satanic" because simply because one of the suspects doodled pentagrams on his notebooks.
If you watch crime series like Criminal Minds, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and even NCIS, you'll probably like this look behind how real profilers work.
Read this as an e-book and immediately wanted a "real" copy, the second in Graves' delightful "Olive Bright" series, which I
enjoyed much more than the Barnes & Noble-pushed "Poppy Redfern"
series, which has a similar theme (young British woman during the second
World War who wants to do her bit).
Nathan Raab's father was an attorney, but his real love was collecting historical memorabilia, especially autographs, letters, and other papers written/signed by figures from American history. Eventually he quit his law practice and instead founded the Raab Collection, a premier collection of historical documents for acquisition or sale. Raab at first had no intention to go into his father's business, but eventually he joined him.
This is a well-narrated tale of Raab's introduction into the collecting world and the fascinating documents that he collects, and just why he collects them, as instructed by his father. That's the most interesting aspect of this book, how Raab's father taught him to distinguish what are the best historical documents to buy at auction. For instance, all autographed items are not the same, some, even from the most famous historical figures, are a dime a dozen, while others are not only autographed, but have special historical significance. One example I remember was of a Charles Darwin letter in which Darwin, unlike other white men of his time, significantly comments on the intelligence of black men and speaks against slavery, unique from his usual letters addressing scientific subjects, so the letter is more significant.
I found this on a remainder shelf, and sometimes they are the best books!
Well, dammit, now I'm crying...
I knew what happened in this book and didn't want to read it for months, but finally took the dive. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is officially closed, but the members aren't ready to pull themselves apart yet. Arthur Bryant goes searching for a case that can keep them going sometime longer, and finds the odd death of an elderly woman who suddenly "dropped off the radar" and was found starved and dehydrated in her flat. Ironically, this woman and her friends hold ties to the original formation of the PCU, and this brings them into the orbit of Larry Cranston, who has ties to the United States government, and who was just brought down for running over a young woman while driving under the influence of alcohol.
There are always twists in a Bryant and May mystery, but this one seems to have a triple complement of them as the dead woman's friends, all codebreakers during World War I, struggle to survive against an assassin determined to shake a secret from one of them and kill them all. And what about the ugly model of London Bridge each one of them seems to have; it appears to be tied to the important secret. Not to mention that many of Arthur Bryant's eccentric informants seem to be in danger as well.
The twists and turns turn into a satisfying conclusion...but, oh, that ending!
This is the third book by Douglas and Olshaker; Douglas being the former FBI profiler who was the basis for Scott Glenn's character in Silence of the Lambs and who is being portrayed in fictional form in the Netflix series Mindhunter, based on Douglas' first book.
As in Law & Disorder, Douglas tells many different stories about the kinds of serial killers and other criminals he has dealt with. Several of the chapters in this volume talk about pedophiles and how they stalk children (and they don't look sinister or have a "creepy" manner; they generally take the form of friendly neighbors and sometimes even relatives), and several more chapters are devoted to a case which haunted Douglas for years, the murder of a young Marine about to go on her first assignment, Suzanne Collins, who was brutally beaten and then raped with a tree branch by the indolent husband of another Marine. When the man was finally found, he cheated execution for several years by filing appeal after appeal. Douglas also tries to explain how he assembles a profile dossier from the clues left behind at the scene of the crime.
I call this one of my "Robert Goren made me do it" books because I got interested in profiling after watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent. It's certainly not for the fainthearted.
In the ninth Walt Longmire mystery, it's Homecoming time at the local high school when Walt learns his number and his best friend Henry Standing Bear's numbers are about to be retired. Just about this time a Mormon boy who's been kicked out of his compound turns up in Durant, accompanied by an elderly man who says he's the youngster's protector and also over 100 years old. This leads Longmire and his deputy Vic Moretti to investigate in the tiny town of Short Drop and a general store that also operates as a library, run by a woman with a lost daughter who may have ties to a rogue Mormon compound in South Dakota. There's a possibility the Mormon boy, Cord, may be her grandson. Longmire at first thinks the daughter's disappearance is the doing of the religious extremists, but soon it becomes obvious something much more sinister is going on.
Another great one from Johnson, with quirky characters, the growing relationship between Walt and Vic, and a corker of an ending that involves the invasion of a compound by Walt, Henry, and Vic. (Did I mention that Henry was in this book? A lot? Yes, indeed!)
When I saw this book's description, I was intrigued. Then when I finally received it, I rejoiced. Someone basically took my favorite episode of Alistair Cooke's America, "Gone West," in which he traced the path of westward travelers to the California gold fields, expanded it using pioneer journals, and then added geological information to explain how the landscape that the wagon trains crossed was formed. Maps and photos are included to explain some of the more scholarly geologic terms, especially having to do with how landmasses and mountains were formed.
If you love history and love earth sciences, this has got to be the book for you, especially if, way back when, you watched America and were fascinated by the "Gone West" episode. The author even opens with the Humboldt Sink, which Cooke talked about in length in the episode. The road was far more difficult than Cooke could describe in one television episode, and it's still amazing to think that due to the makeup of the rock and soil underneath the westward path you can still stop to see grooves in the rock. (I also don't remember passing so close to the Humboldt Sink on our two cross-country trips! It is due south of I-80 in Nevada.)
Please be warned it is very detailed about the geologic features and processes which built the landscape west of the Mississippi. If you're "not a science person," the narrative may prove daunting.
31 December 2021
My List of Dozen Best Books Read in 2021
Honorable mentions to: