Books Completed in July 2025

 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

  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 January 1

  A Hertfordshire Christmas, compiled by Margaret Ashby

  'Twas the Night Before, Jerry B. Jenkins

  A Shropshire Christmas, compiled by Lyn Briggs

  Christmas in Puerto Rico, World Book Encyclopedia

  Ideals Christmas 2023, Ideals Publications

  Obsession, John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
FBI profiler Douglas, author of the popular Mindhunter (made into a Netflix series) once again delves into the criminal mind in this thick paperback filled with true stories of rapists, stalkers, and murderers. The depravity of some of these criminals will nauseate you, especially "big strong men" who murder children. In this volume, Douglas addresses some infamous serial killers like Ted Bundy and celebrity killers like Mark David Chapman, and also stories of celebrities who have been stalked and killed, like Rebecca Shaeffer, a rising young actress who was the front-runner for a role in The Godfather when she was killed by a "fan" obsessed with her. Some of the criminals seem to have been mentally disturbed since childhood (Ted Bundy sounded particularly creepy), others became twisted due to child abuse or mental illness. Some of them work silently, some taunt the police and wish to match wits with them. All are incredibly mind-bending.

There are also touching and painful chapters from the point of view of the victims' families: their grief, certainly, which broke up many of the families, but more importantly their fight for justice. One murderer beat off punishment for several decades because his attorney kept filing appeals. Douglas also speaks to counselors who have tried to help victims' families, who find it a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week avocation.

Not a book to be read at bedtime!

 The Vanderbeekers on the Road, Karina Yan Glaser
Sixth in the series and follows directly after the previous book: the Vanderbeeker kids (twins Isa and Jessie, only boy Oliver, Hyacinth the compulsive knitter, and little Laney), Mama, Mr. Beiderman (their landlord) and his ward Orlando, and the Vanderbeeker pets, including their big Basset hound and the two cats they're taking to Aunt Penny in California, are bundled into a van and making their way cross-country to pick up Papa Vanderbeeker in Indiana where he's helping a friend and then continue to California to take the road trip Papa's father never got to take with him. Along with way they get adopted by a chicken, stay at a spooky campground, make farm friends, see the sites, suffer from summer heat, and have engine trouble.

But something is bothering little Laney: she understands that both Jessie and Orlando are going to try out for a scholarship at a college in California. To fearful Laney, this means breaking up the Vanderbeeker family. So for the rest of the trip, Laney, and soon her helper siblings, are going to try to prevent that from happening!

There's also a subplot with Mr. Beiderman that's nifty for a children's book.

My only puzzle about this book is how you fit six kids (three of them teens!), three adults, a bunch of animals, and all that luggage into "Ludwig Van." It must be a TARDIS!

 The Boys, Ron Howard and Clint Howard
Ron and Clint share their memories of growing up in Hollywood and acting in this fast-moving memoir that always holds your attention. Ron—back then "little Ronny Howard"—experienced mostly positive vibes behind the scenes in the movies and television he did. He became fascinated by "behind the scenes," which eventually led him into directing. He also met his wife (they're still married) as a teenager and his mind never changed about her, despite his practical parents' efforts to dissuade him. Clint also had generally positive experiences, if his parts were a little different: his first role was as an alien on Star Trek and people still recognize him for that. However, where Ron went on to direct, Clint lost direction after parts disappeared and had problems with alcohol and substance abuse, which he finally conquered. We also gain insights into parents Rance (born Harold Beckenholdt) Howard, longtime character actor, and Jean Speegle Howard (she played Jim Lovell's mom in Apollo 13).

Throughout the narrative, the brothers support and tease each other until the end, and the result is a warm, wonderful book.

 The Adventures of Ellery Queen, Ellery Queen
I loved the 1975 retro series and bought a couple of the books, especially those around the character of Inspector Queen, but I'd never read any of the short stories until I received this book as a gift (thanks, Rodney!).

In the beginning, Ellery Queen was the erudite, well-dressed young man-about-town who was usually called in by his practical police inspector father on perplexing cases. Of course young Ellery spots the elusive clue that no one else saw and solves the crime. The stories themselves are snapshots of the 1920s and 1930s in which they were written, and the mysteries suitably confounding. I'm very glad to have met early Ellery! (Note: the last story in this book was adapted as an episode of the 1975 series.)

("Ellery Queen" the author was a pseudonym adopted by Frederic Dannay and his cousin Manfred Lee. Apparently the cousins had an adversarial relationship, but they sure could write a mystery story!)

  Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime, Val McDermid
Newspaper maven and crime author McDermid offers this very readable book about the different aspects of forensics, from the basic crime scene to specifics like entomology (for you CSI fans, Dr. Gil Grissom's specialty), pathology, fingerprints, DNA, and others, even profiling (which she doesn't seem to be fond of). Well illustrated with British case studies and photographs, and enjoyable if you're a fan of crime series or just curious about how forensic evidence helps law enforcement.

  Business or Pleasure, Rachel Lynn Solomon
Oh, dear God, thank you! A rom-com populated by adults. And three of the four parents are supportive. I may have to get Solomon's other books.

Chandler Cohen is upset after the celebrity "author" of a best seller that she actually ghost wrote for the woman doesn't even recognize her at the book signing (and can't even spell her name correctly). She's just lost her long-term boyfriend, so she takes a chance and has a one-night stand with a handsome guy she meets at a bar. The sexual experience that follows is underwhelming because while her partner is nice, he knows nothing about foreplay or pleasing his partner. So she's at a particular low when her agent offers her a new ghostwriting project: helping former television star Finnegan Walsh write a book. Guess what: Finn is the inexperienced guy who she shared her bed with!

So they strike up a deal: Chandler will write the book and she will also give him seduction lessons with the proviso that said lessons are just business.

Well, this is a rom-com; of course it doesn't stay that way. The two characters are very charming, and it's set against a background of books and science-fiction conventions (Finn's television character was the human friend of some werewolves who attempted to navigate college life). There are thankfully no goofy gay character (there are non-cis characters, but they're real, ordinary people, not funny goofballs) and all the parent characters who appear are not mustache-twirling villains. Both lead characters have weaknesses and problems, but they never drag you down. A plus: Jewish characters!

  Rivers of London: Here Be Dragons, Ben Aaronovitch, James Swallow, Andrew Cartmell, José María Beroy
Always good to have a new "Rivers" story, whether it be written or in graphic form. This one begins with a helicopter crash, and the story only gets wilder from there: elves slumming it in the real world, a police helicopter crew with different outlooks on the supernatural events they're seeing, a rock-music busker and his old friend the roadie—not to mention the "dragon" and Jimi Hendrix! Even Peter Grant's cousin Abigail and one of her fox friends get in the action. Beverley and the twins have a cameo, and Peter even asks his dad for help.

Only thing wrong with this story: No "Tales from the Folly"!

Books Completed Since February 1

  (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living, Mark Greenside
I confess, I read this doing research for a piece of fanfiction. I don't know if I got much information out of it, but it was fun to read, if I thought the anecdotes were overlong, but Greenside inadvertently gave me the title I needed for the story.

Basically it's a fish-out-of-water story of what happens when Greenside decides to spend part of each year in Brittany. He loves the French lifestyle eventually, but has to navigate around different traffic regulations—his story about getting into his first accident in France is rather jaw-dropping—getting permits, renting a car for the part of the year he's in France, getting repairmen to work at his house, etc. Luckily he has some very patient French friends who help him, since the French legal system is legendary for its strictness and complicated procedures (how true that is I don't know, but I have read this in more than one book).

If you've always wanted to live in France but wanted to check out the pitfalls, you might want to read this book if just for some chuckles.

  Crayola: A Visual Biography of the World's Most Famous Crayon, Lisa Solomon and Crayola LLC
This is a book best found half price or on remainder, but if you've been, like me, a Crayola junkie since childhood, it's a delight. It contains the history of the Binney & Smith (now Crayola, LLC) company, who made a product now known around the world (they also created the first dustless chalk). The majority of the book is a history of the current and some of the past colors, and trivia about the older colors ("flesh," of course, became "peach" in the 1970s when some kind souls pointed out that not everyone had pale skin, and "cadet blue" was first called "Prussian blue" but was finally changed because kids didn't know where Prussia (part of Germany) was any longer, etc.).

Of interest are old full-page Crayola advertisements and projects done with Crayola crayons by professional artists. Color junkies, rejoice!

 The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
This looked like a mystery story so I picked it up. And I have to say Perry writes a compelling tale with complex characters. But it's not really a mystery story, it's a psychological one set in 1893 England. There is an old legend on the Essex coast that a monster exists in the shadows, and suddenly dead bodies begin to turn up on the shore. Cora Seaborne, a widow with an intense interest in the growing science of paleontology, believes the "monster" may be a prehistoric life form that still survives, so she arrives at the seaside in the company of her overprotective maid Martha and autistic son Francis to check out the rumors. There she's introduced to William Ransome, the local vicar, and his vivacious wife and their lively children. Ransome insists there's no "serpent" or "monster," and hates that his parishioners believe in the old tales, but a few dead bodies on the shore and a mysterious sound put the whole small town on edge. This turns villager against villager until the mystery of the sound is finally revealed. Ransome and Seaborne have a romantic moment, and at the close of the book it looks like she's about to insinuate her way into his life the way she insinuated herself into the life of a talented surgeon—and then basically forgets him—during the story.

That's all that I took away from the story. There's also a do-gooder rich couple who help the poor, and a medical friend of the talented surgeon who sticks with him through his most difficult hours, and Martha hooks up with a radical protestor. I kept reading because the prose was excellent, but the fact that basically "they discover that ________ is the source of the sound and everything else was just people's imaginations and so we see what rumor and paranoia do to a formerly close-knit community" was rather a letdown.

 The McMasters Guide to Homicide: Murder Your Employer, Rupert Holmes
This is the first in a planned series of mysteries written by the multi-talented Holmes, who has done two previous books, a television series called Remember WENN, Tony- and Edgar-award winning plays like The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Accomplice, and much, much more—but of course he's best known for his bestselling late 70s-early 80s rock song "Escape" (known to most people as "the Pina Colada song").

Think of the McMasters school as Hogwarts for homicide. That's the hook in this delightfully diabolical, tongue-in-cheek novel in which people attend a university to learn how to commit the perfect homicide; the twist is that the person must really need killing and there is no other way to keep them from continuing to ruin other people's lives. You follow our main protagonist Cliff Iverson, the young Englishwoman Gemma Lindley, and Hollywood actress Doria May as they seek to rid the world of an overbearing employer who caused the deaths of two of Cliff's friends, a woman who's building her career by blackmailing Gemma, and the Howard Weinstein-like monster movie producer who holds Doria in servitude for turning him down. Half the story follows their training on the "god only knows where" McMasters campus (which reminds you more than a little of "the Village" in The Prisoner television series, which is no accident), and then they're let free to pursue their final exam: killing their bete noires. Filled with more twists than a Six Flags roller coaster, more clever quips than Bob Hope's stable of writers could manage, and more double crosses than a game of tic-tac-toe, it's a wild ride full of unexpected turns, incredible training sequences, and a big dollop of sly humor, with all sorts of references hidden in the text.

Rupert's almost finished with the second volume, Murder Your Mate, and I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with. But first, a re-read...!

  A Book, Too, Can Be a Star, Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Jennifer Adams
I'm a Madeleine L'Engle completist, which means I had to get a copy of this charming children's picture book that simply tells the story of how L'Engle as a child began to write and dream and eventually published both adult and young adult books, but finally came to fame for writing the now immortal A Wrinkle in Time. The artwork is lovely as well. I have Voiklis' children's biography of her grandmother and wish someone would do an adult version!

  Rivers of London: Deadly Ever After, Ben Aaronovitch, Celeste Bronfman, Andrew Cartmel
In the newest of the graphic novels taking place in Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" universe, Beverley Brook's sisters Olympia and Chelsea, goddesses in their own right, are attending a gathering in the woods when they remove an invisibility charm from a mulberry tree growing there. Unfortunately it frees the angry spirit of a Victorian fairy-tale illustrator named Jeter Day. The next thing they know, Day's spirit is invading people and forcing them to re-enact fairy tales. With the aid of Abigail Kamara and her friends the talking foxes, the pair must rectify this error without letting Thomas Nightingale or his apprentice Peter Grant know what happened.

This is a fanciful, if lesser effort in the "Rivers" series. The story is a little slight and frankly Olympia and Chelsea are not that compelling as main characters. Abigail also seems drawn a bit older than she is and it throws the story off a little. Still, another peek into Aaronovitch's magical world until the next real book comes out.

 True North: Travels in Arctic Europe, Gavin Francis
I knew this was the book for me from the blurb: "In this striking blend of travel writing, history and mythology, Gavin Francis offers a unique portrait of the northern outposts of Europe." And boy, what a book—I thoroughly enjoyed Francis' journey.

He begins in the Shetland Islands, following the stories of the earliest explorers who went north looking for "Ultima Thule," including St. Brendan. He then continues to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, and finally Lapland, telling each region's myths and history, along with a portrait of the people who live there (most of whom long for warmth, but grow homesick and return) and the natural features and native birds and animals. He explores the areas mostly by hiking, but also takes the rare aircraft and travels by ship as well. His writing is beautiful, not flowery but very evocative and descriptive; it's a pleasure to read and certain descriptions, especially of the tough inhabitants who remain living there, stick in your mind long after you're done reading that portion. If you dream of cold weather and Arctic exploration, this is definitely the book for you!

  CSI: Grave Matters, Max Allan Collins
The fifth in Collins' series based on the original CSI series. Once again, the team is working two cases: Rebecca Bennett insists her mother's death was probably foul play on the part of her stepfather, and she convinces the sheriff's department to dig the body up for an autopsy. But when Grissom, Sidle, and Stokes open the casket, a different body is contained in it instead. In the meantime, Catherine and Warrick are summoned to an eldercare facility, where their own assistant coroner, David, feels there's something suspicious about the death of Vivian Elliot, a woman who was recovering quite rapidly from surgery until she was found dead; they also discover from the head of the facility that more deaths of elderly women seem to be occurring than usual.

Collins has the characters down pat—you can hear Petersen in Grissom's dialog, Fox in Sara's, etc.; you could practically convert each of his CSI books into a television movie. And as always, the two cases have a connection to each other, but Collins works it so skillfully that you don't expect it until it happens, and the getting there is suitably complicated. CSI fans should enjoy, and they work well as a forensics mystery as well.

  Beach Read, Emily Henry
January Andrews writes bestselling romance novels, but after her father dies and she learns a terrible family secret, she doesn't believe she can write another "happily ever after" tale again. She retreats to the family lake cottage in order to clean and sell it, only to discover that renting the cottage next door is Augustus Everett, her old college rival, who writes deep, meaningful novels, the kind that make the bestseller lists. Turns out Gus is also suffering from writer's block, and once they begin talking to each other, thanks to the local bookclub, they come to an agreement: Gus will spend the summer writing something with a happy ending and January will write a serious novel, and each will teach the other about the successful ingredients of their craft (so January will take him to fluffy rom-com settings and Gus'll take her on his interviews with a cult member).

This book did make me cry. There are themes of betrayal and secrecy woven through the tale, so it's more than your usual fluffy rom-com stuff. The relationship builds naturally and the supporting characters (even a couple of less savory ones) are realistic. I enjoyed this one.

  Testament of Trust, Faith Baldwin
This is the third of Baldwin's nonfiction books which cover a year in her life, but, rather than only discussing the seasons and her home, she talks about issues of faith, belief, and love. While I don't find these as compelling as Taber's "Stillmeadow" books, they contain much food for thought about relationships, positivity, and the folly of negative thinking.

  Bonk, Mary Roach
After reading Gulp, I wanted to investigate more of Roach's science books. Once again she writes with a light touch while imparting loads of information.

This book is, if you hadn't guessed from the title, is about sexuality, and each chapter focuses on a different study of human sexuality, from impotence ("ED") remedies to analysis of orgasm to the role of the clitoris in sex, all the way to an absurd chapter about how pleasurable sex among pigs produces more piglets. There's an examination of the early research of Alfred Kinsey as well as the later work of Masters and Johnson, how early treatments for "hysteria" were just doctors diddling their patients, and a doctor who reconstructs penises.

Roach has a nice, easygoing way of approaching science topics, People who like their science texts completely serious should avoid, however.

  My Name is America: The Journal of Brian Doyle, A Greenhorn on an Alaskan Whaling Ship, Jim Murphy
This is actually one of the better of the "Dear America" books devoted to male historical characters. Brian Doyle has run away to sea to make life easier for his older but sickly brother Sean Michael; their hard-working father often comes home drunk and Brian argues with him instead of keeping silent, so he leaves to give his brother peace. He signs on the whale ship "Florence" and is thrown bodily into shipboard life. Onboard he meets all sorts of people, from York the profane one and Nathaniel, who is devoted to his Bible. The captain has very bad luck in locating whales in warm Hawai'ian waters (this takes place in 1874, when whales were starting to be overfished), so they head north into the Arctic, only to be caught in the winter ice.

The story is grim and uncompromising, but never reaches the level of despair that proliferates when Barry Denenberg writes one of these books. Instead it is realistic in that even in despair it retains some small bit of hope. Recommended with the usual warnings about mature (death, etc.) subjects.

Books Completed Since September 1

  The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day, David A. Goodman, David Cabeza, Michael Atiyeh

Imagine comics that make you think!

 

These two stories set in The Orville universe are apparently a bridge between second season as aired on the Fox network and the upcoming third season which we'll see at the end of the year (we hope) on Hulu. Both are thought-provoking: the first "Launch Day" has some of the crew investigating a society that turned its back on the Union years earlier. A society consumed by paranoid leaders, the Alibar are now planning something that may send other systems to war—certainly the Krill are ready to fight them already. In the second, "Heroes," Lieutenant Keyali returns to a pastoral society she visited years ago, only to find the population under subjugation. She must find a way to free them, but even freedom won't bring back the innocence the society has lost...

 

I was skeptical about Orville when it first premiered, but it soon seduced me with its mixture of good stories and offbeat characters. The comic issues just add more good material to a great source.

 

  Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks

I've heard of Oliver Sacks, neurologist and writer, but had never read one of his books until the title of this one caught my eye. Sacks, born in northwest London, grew up as the precocious child of physicians and loving, not biology, but chemistry; the elements fascinated him. From a large family (his grandfather married twice, so he had many uncles and aunts, some almost two generations older than him) in which some sort of science or manufacturing played a part in their lives, Sacks grew up in a scientific environment, but his favorite uncle was David, the titular "Uncle Tungsten" because he ran a factory that made tungsten light bulbs. Uncle Tungsten fascinated him with chemical experiments, which Sacks duplicated in his own home laboratory, and gave him chemicals back in those days that would horrify adults today. (He regularly set things afire and burned fingers and eyebrows.) For Sacks it would have been paradise, except for it was World War II and he was evacuated to a horrible boarding school where he was bullied and beaten. Only his visits home and his experiments kept him from unraveling.

 

I am not a science person, but this book was so fascinating and so readable (except for poor Sacks' terrible stories about Braefield School!) that it kept me glued to its pages until the end. It's part an account of growing up during the Blitz, part the story of being Jewish in a chiefly Christian society (where you were forced to say Christian prayers in school), and all about his fascination with the elements, which he conveys in such an interesting fashion you can't help learning a little in the process.

 

  Exploring Space: 1999, John Kenneth Muir

This is Muir's episode-by-episode commentary of the 1970s series Space: 1999, created by Gerry Anderson after his groundbreaking work in children's adventure series starring marionettes, like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. Space: 1999 was initially conceived as being the second season of Anderson's space thriller UFO (it was the same moonbase), but eventually morphed into a series of its own, one in which nuclear waste (a hot subject in the 1970s) stored on the moon causes it to blast out of orbit and head into space. The residents of Moonbase Alpha must then survive and also seek out a new place to live. In the second season, Fred Freiberger (the guy who ruined Star Trek) was brought in to make the stories more action packed and less cerebral. Well, we know how that worked out!

 

Muir generally has good points to make on each episode, but he seems to need to run down Star Trek (and sometimes other sci-fi series) to do so; there are times he seems downright scornful. Plus he gives a lot better reviews to second season that I ever would, seemingly convinced that shape-shifting Maya was a brilliant character (I love Catherine Schell, but Maya never seemed very real to me, and her romance with Tony Verdeschi was a real turn-off). Your mileage will definitely vary, and Muir as always writes very well. 

 

  Doctor Who: Deadly Reunion, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts

I picked this up used because there's nothing better than I like a story involving the Brigadier, and this one has it in spades: the whole first part of the book involves maneuvers performed by the Brig when he was a second lieutenant in the second World War, assigned to the Greek islands. He meets and falls in love with Sephie, a beautiful Greek girl, who is, with her younger brother Hermy, under the care of her grandmother Mrs. Demeter—only to realize "Sephie" is really Persephone, the goddess doomed to live in Hades six months of the year, and he's the only one who can rescue her. Years later, the Doctor and Jo Grant are in the British village of Hob's Haven, where a massive rock concert is due to take place, when evil things begin to happen. As the Brigadier and Captain Yates struggle to get to the town and help them, the Doctor is approached by the Master...who pleads with the Doctor to help him; he's gotten in over his head with someone he's discovered is Hades, god of the underworld! Need I mention Sephie, now known as "Sophie," and her family reappear?

 

Reminiscent of "The Daemons" in places, you have to have some patience to get through the World War II bits as the authors get really into making the British Naval manuevers sound realistic, to the point where it's more like a British war film than a Doctor Who story. But it's nice to see the Brig in his salad days, before the mustache and the swagger stick, when he was a young man capable of falling in love. And with a threat big enough to make the Master fearful, anything can happen...

 

  A Valiant Deceit, Stephanie Graves

I was delighted to be offered this as an advance reader copy, the second book in the Olive Bright series, which I enjoyed much more than the Barnes & Noble-marketed "Poppy Redfern" series, which has a similar theme (young British woman during the second World War who wants to do her bit).

In this entry, Olive must pick out three pigeons to accompany three Belgian informants being smuggled into occupied Europe; the birds will be vital in sending back information about the Belgians' efforts to mislead and sabotage the Nazi war effort. The Belgians are all pigeon fanciers, reassuring Olive that even though the birds will be in danger from enemy fire, they will be well cared for. She also has to cope with the pretend romance she's set up with her superior, Captain Jameson Aldridge, which she feels doesn't look realistic enough. Then one of the officers at the top-secret Station XVII facility is found murdered in a nearby wood. Olive can't help wondering who killed the young man, although Aldridge warns her off.

If anything, this is better than the first book because the storyline is now established and the missions involving the pigeons can be begun. There's also an affecting subplot involving RAF officers who have been disfigured in plane crashes undergoing rehabilitation at what once was Miss Husslebee's home (she was the victim in the first book). Olive befriends one of the pilots and is determined that these men be reintroduced into society without people making unkind comments about their appearance. Even though Olive makes one serious mistake, her instincts are sound, especially about the pigeons and their handlers.

 

  Doctor Who: Celebrating Fifty Years, Alan Kistler

You would think that with all the Doctor Who books I have, I couldn't possibly get anything of use out of another one, but this was a very enjoyable history of the series up until the departure of Matt Smith (Peter Capaldi had not yet been chosen for the role when it was published). There are some facts here still that I didn't know, and interesting interstitial chapters that talk in depth about the comics (including the Doctor's in-print grandchildren, John and Gillian, who are often forgotten) and the music (while Ron Granier is usually acknowledged as the creator of the iconic theme song, this is the first book I've read that credits Delia Derbyshire as adding the effects that make the music so memorable) and even whether the "new adventures" and the "continuing adventures" books are canon or not, and why non-television characters like Benny and Frobisher have their fans just as much as Sarah Jane and Leela have theirs. Everyone's favorite humanoid villain, the Master, gets his due as well—none of this almost sole emphasis on Daleks and Cybermen!—which is fine with me as I hate Daleks and love the Master!

 

  Murder on Trinity Place, Victoria Thompson

It's New Year's Eve 1899 and Frank and Sarah Malloy are sitting in their new motorcar near Trinity Church waiting for the church's famous bells to ring in the new year. They recognize their neighbor Mrs. Ellsworth's in-law Mr. Pritchard, a dairy owner, wandering around belligerently trying to convince people they should be celebrating the new millennium (a particular hobbyhorse of his), and try to stop him, but he wanders off. Next morning they find out he has been strangled. Theda Ellsworth pleads with Frank and his assistant Gino to find out who killed her father.

 

I found this entry in Thompson's Gaslight series to be full of twists and turns, with things going on that Mr. Pritchard and most of his family had no knowledge of. You also learn about the horrible conditions under which New York City received "fresh milk" in those days, with "swill dairies" operating in disgusting barns where cows were fed spoiled garbage and gave milk so thin it was bulked up with things like plaster of paris!!!

 

Plus there is an interesting subplot in this entry about a "ruined" wealthy girl who has taken refuge at the maternity clinic Sarah Malloy has established. She can't go home, but can Sarah find her a new one with an unexpected character who will respect her? This subplot is equally as interesting as the murder mystery.

 

  The Shepherd's Life, James Rebanks

This is an offbeat book about Rebanks' life, in which he at first resisted higher education in order to live the life he really wanted: to be a Lakes Country shepherd like his father and grandfather. A difficult teen who rejected school always to work on the farm, Rebanks later did go to Oxford and discovered he was more intelligent than anyone had ever given him credit for, including himself. Still, like the Herdwick sheep he raised (the breed preferred by Beatrix Potter, whose royalties preserved so many unspoiled areas of the Lakes District), he found himself "heefed" to the land.

The Lakes District is now a great tourist area, and Rebanks took quite a few years to figure out why these "silly people" invaded the land where he worked and struggled to prosper. Now that he is older he has acknowledged that tourism has profited the area, but he spends much of the book, especially in the part of the memoir of his growing up, speaking disparagingly of travelers who come for the scenery. For him, the land is all about his work with the sheep.

An interesting read because, unlike a tourist brochure, Rebanks is not trying to lure you with scenery; instead you read of the hard life of the sheep farmer and of the disasters, especially during lambing time, that can hit at any moment. After reading this, perhaps you will think of the people who actually work in the area you are visiting on vacation, and realize how differently they view the place where you're having fun.

 

 The Moment of Tenderness, Madeleine L'Engle

This is a recent publication by L'Engle's granddaughters of manuscripts they found in L'Engle's "Ivory Tower," her writing room at her Connecticut home, Crosswicks. Some of them had been sold to magazines, some have never been published, many are autobiographical, and they all show her progress as a writer. Several of the stories, like "The Birthday" and "The Mountains Shall Stand Forever" were revised and incorporated into two different novels, two other stories were incorporated into her nonfiction.

 

The stories vary in quality; some are merely vignettes that reflect aspects of L'Engle's life, from when she lived in Europe to when she went to boarding school and was bullied. "Summer Camp" talks about the difficulty of peer pressure. Then there's "Madame, or...", which is a very surprising story for L'Engle to write, about a young woman living at a residence for young ladies. "A Room in Baltimore" recounts L'Engle's real-life adventure of being on the road with a theatrical troupe and having difficulty finding a place to stay due to the fact that she took care of a miniature poodle that appeared in the play. "Julio at the Party" I found very strange.

 

"The Moment of Tenderness" of the book title is actually a very sweet story about a long-married woman who develops an attachment (but nothing physical) with the family physician. The one story I had read in this collection was "Poor Little Saturday," which was included in a Newbery Winners book of short stories with a Hallowe'en theme, about a young man who meets a "witch woman" and a sympathetic girl in the woods.

 

The one really big surprise in this collection is "That Which is Left," about a son returning to his home for the first time in years, which really, really packed a punch.

 

  Emily Makes A Difference: 1893, A Time of Progress and Problems, JoAnn A. Grote

This is part of the "Sisters in Time" series by a Christian publisher recounting the adventures of girls around age twelve in different points of American history. Emily Allerton lives in Minneapolis in 1893, just as two big events occur: the Chicago World's Fair (the World Columbian Exposition, to be official) and the Panic of 1893, which was a smaller, less dire version of the Great Depression. Emily and her best friend and cousin Ted Kerr witness a run on the bank, and then she has to be rescued from the trolley tracks by a poor boy named Erik Moe, who's had to go to work because his brakeman father lost his job after losing fingers operating the dangerous couplings on railroad cars. Emily, who is rather heedless, runs into one scrape after another as the cousins struggle to make sense of the Panic and also negotiate the World's Fair.

 

This is not a great entry in the series. Emily is really scatterbrained and never thinks about the consequences of her actions, and even though she ends up doing good in the end, it takes her a long time to mend her ways. Ted is much more sensible, and it makes Emily look even worse. The other problem is the info dump the author does about the time: this is not a period of history very much covered in history, so we get great quantities of information about railroads (specifically a certain railroad that runs from Minneapolis to the west coast for lumber), the Fair, and the Panic. I love books that explain historical details, but this one has almost too many, and the ending comes off as sappy as a Hallmark Christmas film.