Books Finished Since February 1

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bill in Half, Stephanie Nelson
I hadn't been couponing as much as I used to, so I picked up this volume to kick-start myself again. There are some good strategies here, even for people with busy schedules who can't monitor multiple coupon packets/websites/lists for coupons; she divides couponing strategies into three different groups to facilitate a system for each person's lifestyle. There are even recipes to go along with the foods that most often go on sale/have coupons.

The War Against Miss Winter, Kathryn Miller Haines
Aspiring actress Rosalind Winter's luck is all bad: her boyfriend was shipped out after they had a falling-out, if she can't get a role soon she'll be tossed out of her theatrical boarding house, and when she walks into the office of her part-time job (secretarial work for a private detective), she discovers her boss has (ostensibly) committed suicide. She knows there's something suspicious about the death, odd people keep approaching her, and suddenly she's involved in a production by an offbeat playwright.

I was ambivalent about this one: on one hand I enjoyed the 1940s wartime New York City setting, the behind-the-scene theatrical machinations, the life at Rosie's boarding house, her friendship with the deceptively fragile Jayne, and some of the supporting characters, including Jayne's mobster boyfriend and Rosie's unexpected new friend Al. On the other hand, I wavered back and forth about caring about the plot, which mixed one part of Rosie's life with the other, and Rosie's excessive use of 1940s slang gets really wearing after a while. If you are a fan of 40s noir-ish mystery with a wisecracking heroine, you might enjoy this, but I'm debating going on with the series. I hear the slang is slackened in the sequel.

Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin
Author of Animals in Translation and other animal psychology volumes and a PhD, Grandin is also an autistic person who has managed to learn to cope with the "normal" world. She explains how her thinking differs compared to a non-autistic person, and how it has helped her in her chosen field, designing humane apparatus for slaughterhouses. Grandin's concepts of animal thought are fascinating, but in this book about her, I would have preferred more about her. We get tantalizing glimpses in how she suffered from excessive noise and touch, her difficulty "reading" people and understanding abstract concepts, etc., but never quite hear her story, rather what she suggests would help parents with autistic children and those children themselves.

Silent on the Moor, Deanna Raybourn
When last we met, Heathcliff—oops, Nicholas Brisbane—had gone to Yorkshire to manage an estate, and he had asked Lady Julia Grey's sister Portia to help him with some household problems. Of course headstrong Julia, being a March, and being in love with Heath...I mean Brisbane, decides to accompany her sister. In Yorkshire they find the odd remnants of the family that Brisbane has taken over the estate from: an aristocratic mother, an ethereal older sister, and a practical younger one, not to mention an unusual gypsy woman living on the moor. Julia has come to Yorkshire to find out if her attraction to Brisbane can be resolved, but instead is drawn into old family secrets and hatred. Portia also receives a shocking blow in this third book in the series. The Brontë-ish setting works well with the resolving of the Julia/Brisbane plot, but the publisher should be shot for their new "bodice-ripper" covers. Newcomers to the story should probably start at the beginning of the trilogy to understand the tempestuous March family, and Julia's ongoing relationship to the enigmatic Brisbane.

Vienna Secrets, Frank Tallis
A friend has been reading this series of turn-of-the-20th-century mysteries set in Vienna, involving police detective Oskar Reinhardt and his working relationship/friendship with a young doctor (Max Liebermann) specializing in the new science of psychology, so when this fourth entry in the series presented itself on Amazon Vine, I ordered it, hoping one could pick up on the story without having read the previous three books. The mystery itself initially involves the grisly murder of a Catholic priest, a man killed by decapitation, having had his head yanked forcibly from his body, directly next to a monument of the plague.

Tallis' descriptions of 1903 Vienna bring that venerable city to life. One can see the medieval squares, almost smell and taste the luscious pastries so lovingly described in coffeehouse visits, note the decay in portions of the cities. It is also an excellent portrait of a time where advances in psychiatry go hand-in-hand with virulent anti-Semitism (including a deliberate charge brought against Dr. Leibermann for not allowing a Catholic patient to receive last rites from a priest) in government circles. I think it helps to have read the previous books to discover how Reinhardt and Leibermann became friends, and also to be a fan of police procedurals, which I confess I am not. I enjoyed the mystery, but wasn't fond of the psychiatric musings.

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey Civilizing the West—One City at a Time, Stephen Fried
In 1853 young Englishman Fred Harvey arrived in the United States almost penniless; by the time of his death he had built an empire of eating establishments (and several hotels) that stretched across the Midwest to California. In 1946, ironically as his empire was dying, his "Harvey Houses" were immortalized in the Judy Garland film The Harvey Girls. Harvey elevated railroad eateries, once the nadir of American cooking with slow service and heavily fried and recycled food that required gobbling down during the short station stops, to a European fine dining standard and introduced the "civilizing" element of the Harvey Girl waitress to the West.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Fried uses the westward expansion of the United States and the growth of railroad travel through its golden age as a canvas against which he verbally paints the growth of the Fred Harvey chain in a friendly conversational style that never talks down to its audience. From "bleeding Kansas" to the final victory in World War II, the growth of the Harvey family (both "in triumph and tragedy") and empire takes place against the history of the United States: the Civil War, westward expansion, the development of the National Park system (and Harvey's role in publicizing the Grand Canyon, the Southwest, and Native American crafts), the industrialization of the country, and two world wars.

Fried includes Harvey House recipes and his own experience traveling along the "Harvey route" as a postscript to an already enthralling tale. Highly recommended for history buffs and even those whose previous knowledge of a Harvey House simply consists of knowing the words to "On the Atchinson, Topeka and the Santa Fe."

Time Unincorporated, Volume 1, Lance Parkin
This is a collection of articles that Parkin wrote for various Doctor Who print fanzines over the years, especially in the years between the cancellation of the original series until the revival. Also included is Parkin's overview of the series, year by year. Whether or not you agree with all of Parkin's opinions, this is a fun read for a Who fan, especially one funny essay about the Daleks masquerading as a field report. Especially when he begins talking about the announcements and then buildup to the new series, it brings back the excitement Who fans felt when they first heard the series was coming back. All I remember is when I first saw "Rose," I wanted to shout, like the famous hockey announcer, "Do you believe in miracles?"

Don't Eat This Book, Morgan Spurlock
A follow-on to Spurlock's film, Super Size Me, in which he ate nothing but McDonald's food for an entire month. Between this volume and Fast Food Nation, it's enough to turn you off any of them for the rest of your life. Made me even guilty for the plain junior hamburger and bowl of mandarin oranges I usually get at Wendy's.

Spurlock makes good points about the "healthy" foods that fast food establishments are supposedly putting in their menus that are, with the additives to make them palatable, turn out to be as fattening as the original foods they served. (Check out the books Eat This, Not That and you will learn that sometimes that big bad hamburger has fewer calories and less salt than the "healthy" chicken sandwich some places offer.) He intersperses his experience making the film and eating at McDonald's between chapters on food additives, how some health companies who defend fast food restaurants are actually paid by them, and much other dirt on the fast food industry. While it was nothing I didn't know before, it was—if you'll pardon the pun—food for thought about the additive-and-fat heavy diet we eat these days.

The Tale of Briar Bank, Susan Wittig Albert
How delicious! Miss Beatrix Potter escapes from her stultifying life with her parents at Bolton Gardens for a few days at her farmhouse in the Lake District and is promptly snowed in, which means she can enjoy additional days at her beloved Hill Top Farm with her Sawrey neighbors. In the meantime, a tree has fallen on Hugh Wickstead, a local farmer, killing him, and Lady Longford's barn has burnt down, from what looked like lightning. But the animals of Sawrey know better, for Wickstead's terrier Pickles saw the miscreant...a dragon was the culprit, a dragon guarding the treasure Mr. Wickstead has found!

There is a mystery involved in these pages, but the narrative contains more than usual of the whimsical animal interactions that are the special mark of Albert's Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. The Wind in the Willows-type relationships between the animals are cute, but I could have hoped for a little more of the real-life mystery and encounters between the people, especially as the romance between Beatrix and lawyer William Heelis is beginning to grow. Still, Albert writes in such a lovely approximation of Potter's own style, and describes the little animal nooks with such loving detail that it's hard not to want to visit these little cozy places yourself. But, warning...for cozy fans only!

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, Lauren Willig
I remember saying these books were like peanuts. They are not. If you are in the mood for romance mixed with early 19th century swashbuckling in the Napoleonic era, they are chocolate—quite irresistible.

In this latest chapter of the Pink Carnation saga, Penelope Devereaux, the impulsive best friend of Henrietta Selwick Dorrington, having compromised herself at a Christmas party, is now enroute to her husband's new post in India. Pen, who has already found out that life with Lord Frederick Staines isn't that proverbial bowl of cherries, finds herself curious, and perhaps even a little attracted, by Captain Alex Reid, a straight arrow who nevertheless seems to be hiding secrets. Since Pen knows from Henrietta's missives that there's a "flower operative," the Marigold, operating in the area, she suspects it may be Reid. And what is he to make of this headstrong women who he soon realizes made a bad marriage choice? In the meantime, relations are going badly between the Indian nationals, the British, and the French. Could it be that it's Penelope's callous husband who's the spy? Or someone else? Much romance, much recrimination, much betrayal going on behind the scenes.

The modern framing sequence, with Eloise Kelly learning about Colin Selwick's complicated family relationships, seems more intrusive this time than previously, especially since it's taken on the aspect of a soap opera. Even though we know we're only being allowed access to these Pink Carnation tales through Eloise's "discoveries," the intrusions are getting...well, more intrusive.

Just to note we won't be waiting the usual year for the next installment: there's a Christmas-based book due out in October. In the meantime, when is Jane Wooliston going to get her romance? And might it be with the enigmatic "Moonflower"?

Science Fiction Culture, Camille Bacon-Smith
This is the second in Bacon-Smith's ethnographic study of science fiction fans, but while the first (Enterprising Women) concentrated mostly on fanfiction as written by women and communities of women in science fiction, this opens a broader observation of science fiction fandom: early fandom based on books and pulps through the online communities for SF today (or rather in 2000, when the book was published). Chapters touch on gays/bisexuals in fandom, the Goth movement, how an SF book goes from idea to published volume, children growing up in fandom, and more.

I especially enjoyed the chapter about early online access, specifically GEnie, since James and I used to be on GEnie. That was a fun time.

More Carnationy Goodness

If you're a fan of Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, you will enjoy this original Christmas novella, the framing sequence of which takes place before Temptation of the Night Jasmine:

Ivy and Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas

Books Finished Since January 1

Gwenhwyfar, Mercedes Lackey
In the past, King Arthur's wife has been seen as an empty vessel or even an adulteress, but in recent times, she has been rewritten in film and books as a rather stronger character, even as a warrior. Lackey's Gwen is one of this sort, a young woman who prefers horses and learning the arts of war to embroidery and fashion, or even becoming a wise woman.

It's an intriguing idea which rather falls flat. Gwen chafes against convention and is bored by her sisters' interests. Gwen gets her wish. Gwen trains and finally gets her horses. Gwen becomes an excellent tactician and advisor to her father the king. Gwen meets Lancelin, one of Arthur's knights, and admires his strategies. Gwen then must marry Arthur, who basically treats her as a vessel for his seed. It's that pedestrian. Her bratty little sister Gwyneth, known as "Little Gwen" for always emulating her, lends some conflict to the story, but otherwise it's rather colorless.

The Morning Show Murders, Al Roker and Dick Lochte
Billy Blessing, celebrity chef and host of his own cable show, is also a regular on a network morning show. When the producer of the show, who Billy who has butted heads with once too often, is found dead, poisoned by food from Billy's restaurant, our intrepid hero is naturally the chief suspect. In the meantime, Billy is warned about an assassin nicknamed "Felix the Cat" by a local crime boss.

This is a breezy, fairly complicated mystery that you won't take too seriously, but may enjoy along the way. Roker gives us a peek behind the making of both the Today-like show Billy appears on and cable series, and the wheeling and dealing that goes on in the background, along with the requisite characters: the wisecracking restaurant manager, the female host who's trying to break the glass ceiling, a spurned lover, etc. Although Billy is a chef, food is not a main ingredient in the mystery, so those who love cooking-themed crime novels should look elsewhere.

The Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, adapted by Ken Greenwald from radio scripts by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher
In 1945, a radio series featuring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce was aired as a network offering. Author Greenwald recalled listening, enthralled, to these new adventures, and has adapted the scripts into this collection of "new" Holmes stories. The stories, especially the later ones, are a bit better than the opening few, and Greenwald puts in a good effort, but his occasional use of American phrases and idioms ruins any illusion of recreating a Conan Doyle narrative. The illustrations are delightfully pulpy.

Postcards from Europe, Rick Steves
Just what started Rick Steves on his globetrotting ways? Interspersed between anecdotes of his adventures in Europe, whether on his own or leading a tour, is the story of how 14-year-old Rick reluctantly followed his parents on a European journey and ended up listening rapt while an elderly German gentleman told of being an eyewitness to the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the event that lit the blue touch paper of the first World War. We follow Steves as an ambitious young tour guide, almost too eager to get his tourists out of their comfortable rut, and as an 18-year-old bumming his way across the continent with a friend on three dollars a day, and in between we meet small hotel owners, chefs, teachers, and other colorful friends who give you inside views of Venice, the Italian Riviera, Paris, and Rick's favorite place of all, Gimmelwald in Switzerland. A fun read for Steves' fans or for folks who want to experience Europe outside of museums and monuments.

Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, Charles Leerhsen
Who was the first equine superstar in American sports? If you said "Seabiscuit," you're wrong. At the turn of the 20th century, harness racing was the bigger horse sport, and it found its poster image in the "person" of Dan Patch, the offspring of a violent but astonishingly fast stallion and a lame mare, himself born with a crooked hind leg that almost caused him to be destroyed. The horse with a crooked leg, driven by an unsavory but talented driver, blossomed into a speed powerhouse who finally broke the 2-minute mile and set a record of 1:55 that was not broken for over thirty years. Leerhsen follows the almost-forgotten, personable horse's story from his birth to his death, and his final sad years where he became pretty much a product endorsement name from everything from feed to gasoline engines to sleds, and also gives us a vivid portrait of harness racing in an era where doping was common and men traded horses like stocks. The narrative occasionally gets bogged down in almost too much detail, but the good definitely outraces any dull spots, with a great use of descriptive language.

Murder on Bank Street, Victoria Thompson
Anyone who has followed Thompson's gaslight series about the adventures of midwife Sarah Brandt and the poor but honest Irish detective, Frank Malloy, knows that a longstanding mystery has been who killed Sarah's husband, Dr. Tom Brandt. Malloy, with growing affection for Sarah, has been tracking down his killer with the help of Sarah's aristocratic father, who disapproved of the match and who has been hiding a secret from Sarah. In this volume, Malloy has narrowed down the suspects and is ready to try to find the solution. Sarah doesn't get much detecting time in this one, but rather reacts as facts come to light and her nursemaid Maeve, a former street girl, gets the lion's share of the detecting duties. But as Maeve gets closer to the answer, will it be one Sarah wants to hear? A very suspenseful ending caps this entry in the series.

Diva Without a Clue, Grace Dent
Frankly, it's the title that's clueless...this was published in England as Diary of a Chav, "chav" being a British insult word for what we might call "trailer trash." Fifteen year old Shiraz Bailey Wood gets a diary instead of an iPod for Christmas, and so begins her year-long saga of her schooldays in what's called a "superchav" school and a puzzling new teacher who tells her she's smart and should study for college when all she wants to do is quit school and work at a shop, her up-and-down relationship with her best friend, her older sister, her prickly mother, the "redneck" neighbors, and the other denizens of her life. It's sharply funny and occasionally sad, and well worth reading.

The Story of English: How the English Language Conquered the World, Philip Gooden
I have hosts of linguistics books, but this is one of the few (if the only) overview of the English language I have from a British viewpoint. There's nothing new here, and nothing covered in depth to suit a linguistics instructor, but it's a nice overview of the development of the language and the different civilizations, from the Celts through the Normans, and the contributions each made to the language. As a plus, it's gloriously illustrated and has interesting pull-outs, whether about the derivation of a word or about a personality, book, or concept.

Star Trek, Alan Dean Foster
This is a workmanlike novelization of the "reboot" film by J.J. Abrams, with a few extra details worked in, such as where that ditch in the middle of Iowa came from (it's a quarry) and who the person was walking down the road when little Jimmy Kirk buzzes by in the car (it's his older brother George, who's running away from home and their stepfather). (Sadly, not much insight about why Mrs. Kirk chose such a jerk as a second husband.) Not many other details that the film didn't cover are included, however, although Foster does try to tone down Scotty's uncharacteristic comic relief role in the film. Oh, and you do find out the whereabouts of a missing character at the end. :-)

Rocket Men, Craig Nelson
As a layman reading this retelling of the Apollo 11 mission, I was enjoying the narrative, despite several typographic gaffes, the worst which is stating that 1948 was the date of the Apollo 8 flight (my favorite was the description of the Huntsville that the German rocket scientists first arrived at being a place of "dairy cows and cotton balls"; the lavatory image that it conjured up was very funny). Sadly, after reading many reviews, I now understand that there are many scientific errors in the narrative. So, please do not read this volume to be enlightened about the scientific process of space travel. Rather, read it as a chronicle of the times, of the excitement behind the lunar missions, the day-to-day life of the astronauts and their families, and Nelson's attempts to illuminate the personalities of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. Indeed, one of the things I liked about this book were the numerous quotes from the normally taciturn Neil Armstrong. So, it's an interesting read (IMHO), but don't go to it for accurate scientific information.

Founding Myths, Ray Raphael
From childhood we have heard many myths about the founding of the United States. As we grow older we learn that many of them, like the nursery tale of George Washington and the cherry tree, are just that, myths. However, many myths still exist—the story of Molly Pitcher, for instance, or the "hard winter" in Valley Forge—and these and others Raphael addresses. One of his main assertions is that we give too much credit to a small group of men, and a few women, known collectively as "the founding fathers" and too little to the ordinary people who actually lived and fought the Revolution: the shopkeepers and farmers, rich and poor, Tories and patriots. While he strikes some of the same notes as James W. Loewen, his narrative is less aggressive and hostile. (And he doesn't mention Gone With the Wind once.)

Incidentally, I was very amused by his chapter on Valley Forge, as he hit all of the points as our tour guide did during our vacation stop there in November 2009.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley
Enfant terrible Flavia de Luce, aged eleven, living with her widower father and two annoying older sisters, plus her father's shell-shocked former batman from the war, in a crumbling estate outside the small English village of Bishop's Lacey, is back! Flavia, a devotee of chemistry and interested in poisons, is introduced more slowly to the mystery in this outing, which finds her helping out with a puppet show being held at the church hall by a BBC children's show host and his female assistant. As quickly as you can say nux vomica, our plucky heroine is swept up in a muddle of the vicar's missing bicycle clip, Mad Meg of the forest, a former Land Girl, a former prisoner of war, a farm couple whose young son tragically hanged himself five years earlier, a field of cannabis, and, worst of all, a visit from martinet Aunt Felicity. The actual mystery is slow to begin, then takes off with a gallop, and we even learn more about Flavia's late mother Harriet. Her metaphors have also been reined in, which suits me just fine. A fun "English cozy" with a unique narrative voice.

2009 Favorites

A yearly wrapup. A baker's dozen. Interesting: six fiction, seven nonfic. Of the fiction, three were mysteries, of the nonfiction, all but three were history, and of those three, two were about animals.

A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz (history: what happened between Columbus and the Pilgrims—Borders purchase)
The Cosgrove Report, G.J.A. O'Toole (1865 mystery about the fate of John Wilkes Booth—Borders purchase)
Time Quake, Linda Buckley-Archer (conclusion of the "Gideon" trilogy; really, really, really worth waiting a year for!—Amazon order)
A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman (lush wordplay...loved it—Borders purchase)
The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Before the Storm (manners and morals in pre-WWI England—Borders purchase)
A Duty to the Dead, Charles Todd (post-WWI based mystery with nurse protagonist; first in a series—Amazon Vine offering)
Harlan Ellison's Watching, Harlan Ellison (media essays and criticisms—Borders purchase)
Eleanor Vs. Ike, Robin Gerber (alternative history--what if Adlai Stevenson had died and Eleanor Roosevelt had run for President in 1952?—Borders purchase from bargain table)
Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear (post WWI mystery, latest in the Maisie Dobbs series—Amazon order)
American Road, Pete Davies (cross country by car and "motor truck" in 1919 to publicize the Lincoln Highway project—Amazon Marketplace order after seeing Rick Sebak's Lincoln Highway special)
Wesley the Owl, Stacey O'Brien (IMHO, better than the highly-publicized Dewey—Borders purchase)
A Drowned Maiden's Hair, Laura Amy Schlitz (YA thriller about an orphan adopted by a manipulative woman to take part in a con game—bargan book purchase at Fry's, of all places)
Flyaway, Suzie Gilbert (experiences of a bird rehabber—Borders purchase)

Honorable mention to

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, Linda Lear (Borders purchase)

Books Finished Since December 1

Yep, I did a lot of reading during December: almost two dozen Christmas magazines I had saved up from the moment they had been released until after Thanksgiving—next year I start earlier or buy fewer magazines!—or the Christmas books I bought, which are all reviewed in Holiday Harbour November and December 2009, and January 2010 entries.

However, I did have this non-Yuletide book on reserve at the library, reserved the moment I knew about it:

• Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, Harriet Reisen
     Reisen states in her introduction: "Like so many other girls, I fell under the spell of Louisa May Alcott when my mother presented Little Women to me as if it were the key to a magic kingdom. I was taken into Louisa's story so completely that a book with covers and pages has no place in my memory of the experience. While I was there, by my mother's decree, my life was suspended. Jelly omelets were delivered to my room on bed trays, and sleep was optional. At such a time, school was out of the question. Jo March was coming to take up residence in my heart, a companion for life, to endow me with a little something of Louisa Alcott's own wise, funny, sentimental, and sharply realistic outlook."
     The good news is that this is a lively, very readable biography that presents Alcott in all her moods: jubilant over money earned, depressed over family situations, frank over her juvenile writing (she hated it, and only did so to earn money to make her mother comfortable), envy of her youngest sister's seemingly charmed life. She becomes less the stiff woman in her few portraits and more someone you might know: the lady next door with the charming but offbeat father who couldn't manage to hold a job due to a combination of principles and pig-headedness, the overworked mother, the placid older sister, the sister who died early, and the ladylike, artistic sister.
     I did enjoy it, but Reisen is a lot more charitable to Bronson Alcott than I would have been. I felt last year's Eden's Outcasts gave a more rounded portrait of Bronson and Louisa in relation to Bronson. But then I've always wanted to bonk Bronson Alcott on the nose, yakking about the philosophical while physically his family was always on the brink of penury, if not starvation.
     The one thing that did bother me is that Reisen does that fabulous intro about being a Little Women/Alcott literature fan, then makes two elementary mistakes about events that happened in the March family books! First she states that Bronson taught Louisa her letters by teaching her to mold her body in the shapes of the letters, a sequence that was used "in Little Men" with Demi learning his letters from Mr. March. Uh, no, it's in Little Women, in the chapter "Daisy and Demi." She also states that Daisy and Demi are Jo's children! Er, no, the twins are Meg's. Jo and her professor have two boys, Robert and Theodore, otherwise Rob and Teddy. Beats me why such a strong fan made such silly mistakes.

Another One Bites the Dust!

I didn't realize Doggie Day Care Murder was the last of the Melanie Travis mysteries. Sheesh...no more Amanda Pepper and now Melanie; haven't seen a Holly Winter or Benni Harper story for ages, Amelia Peabody is getting too old for hi-jinks, it looks like the Louisa May Alcott mysteries didn't continue...

Books Finished Since November 1

If the reading seems light this month, it's due to one week's vacation as well as an abundance of fall magazines.

• The History Detectives, Barb Karg
If you enjoy the PBS series, you'll love this compilation of their cases, especially if you have missed any of the programs. I was very happily reading what I thought were "extra" stories when I realized these were from episodes that had not been broadcast in my area. (An episode guide in the back of the book is included.) The only thing a bit off: they use the "this was the last clue so-and-so needed to give this person an answer" gimmick they use on the series. It's okay on TV, but seems cheesy in a book. Also, I wished some of the photos were better. Great for history buffs!

• A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz
"What happened in North America between Columbus's sail in 1492 and the Pilgrims' arrival in 1620? On a visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he doesn't have a clue." Well, either Tony Horwitz went to a really horrible school or he wasn't paying attention. I remember studying most of the explorers Horwitz mentions: DeSoto, Coronado, De Leon, de Vaca, the Roanoke colony, not to mention St. Augustine and something Horwitz doesn't mention, Father Serra and the California missions.

Horwitz's attention span notwithstanding, this is an amusing and informative overview of the European exploration of the area that later became North and Central America. Besides exploring history and having offbeat adventures like encountering Newfoundland's blackflies for the first time, experiencing a sweat lodge, dressing like a conquistador, and more, Horwitz discusses the opposing views of historical sites (i.e. the Protestant founders of Jacksonville, FL, versus the Catholic founders of St. Augustine; the celebration of Thanksgiving in Plymouth, MA, which the native population considers a Day of Mourning), errors at historical sites, theories of other "founding fathers" like the Vikings, the Chinese, the Welsh, and other tantalizing facts. Historical purists may find it a superficial gleaning, but there is a bibliography of further reading, and Horwitz imparts quite a few facts along with his humor.

• When Jessie Came Across the Sea, Amy Hest, illustrated by P.J. Lynch
I first saw this beautiful picture book back when Kudzu, the remaindered book store that had taken over the old Woolworths on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, was still open, but I never did around to buying it. When I saw it at Penn's Landing I couldn't resist finally buying it. It is the story of Jessie, a thirteen-year-old girl at the turn of the last century, who must leave her beloved grandmother when she receives a chance to emigrate from her small village to the United States. We follow Jessie's story from seamstress' apprentice to young lady in text and in wonderful, detailed illustrations that capture the immigrant experience and life in New York. What took me so long to buy this?

• A Test of Wills, Charles Todd
Inspector Ian Rutledge is finally back to work at Scotland Yard after service in World War I, but he is carrying a horrible burden: he is recovering from shell shock after being buried in a trench cave-in, with the mental voice of a fellow soldier still taunting him. He knows if his secret is revealed he will be reviled as a coward. Unbeknownst to him, his superior knows his secret and has deliberately assigned him to a murder case: a Warwickshire colonel possibly murdered by a decorated Army flyer, with the only witness a shell-shocked, despised neighbor.

I had enjoyed Todd's Bess Crawford mystery, also set during "the Great War," and had ordered his latest Rutledge mystery through Amazon Vine, so I decided to try this first in the series. I usually do not like police procedurals, but I enjoyed the combination of country village with secrets and postwar atmosphere, plus the portrait of a man tormented by his past. I assume we expand on Rutledge's past in future books, as his character is sketchy except for his wartime experiences, but in light of modern views of post-traumatic stress syndrome, it was fascinating but depressing seeing how its victims were treated over eighty years ago.

• The Red Door, Charles Todd
In the newest Inspector Rutledge mystery, the police detective is summoned to the home of the Tellers. The family's youngest brother, who was in a hospital suffering from a mysterious paralysis, has vanished. Not only are there no leads, but the family itself, comprised of brothers (included one wounded in the war), sisters, sisters-in-law, and an often-addled grandmother, all seem to be hiding the clues that might tell Rutledge where Walter Teller is. Then, out of nowhere, he reappears, just as Rutledge is handed another mystery: a woman, the wife of a Peter Teller, has been murdered in her home in a country village. Is this Peter Teller related to the formerly missing man, Walter Teller? And why was she murdered?

As in A Test of Wills, the specter of the Great War is keenly felt. Rutledge's search for the truth was absorbing, but I had a hard time caring about the Teller family at all, not to mention the neighbors of the murdered woman. Even she turned out to not be very sympathetic. I'm afraid that at the end, it turned out I didn't really care much who killed who and why.

Books Finished Since October 1

• Tinsel, Hank Stuever
I can ordinarily take or leave humorous Christmas books; some are funny while others are just crass, so I was wary when I ordered this one, as the description made it sound as if the author was going to make fun of the people he was involved with. Instead I found this an imperfect, but entertaining and slightly sad story of Steuver's visit with three families in heartland Texas: a young couple who put up a bravura light display, an earnest but garrulous woman who has developed a small business putting up decorations for wealthy people, and a single mom who is trying to keep the magic of Christmas alive during hard times.

I say "sad" because as a "Christmas nut" I found these folks well-meaning but having completely lost sight of the fun and meaning of Christmas. The man with the light display, for instance, is so into it that he refuses to leave home during the holiday to visit his parents (a sign of deeper familial problems) because "people would miss his lights." The woman who does the home decorating is sweet-natured Christian, but avoids visiting a dying friend except for the day she puts up her decorations for her, and takes inordinate effort into convincing her kids that Santa Claus still exists, including hiring an insipid elf to come visit the home to present them with the news about a skiing trip to Colorado. Even the woman who's trying to make ends meet spends a lot of time searching for bargains on expensive items so she can give "good" presents to the people she loves. Christmas is about family (whether by blood or by choice), friends, simple gatherings and token gifts, but most of all feeling good, whether a deeper religious meaning or just a time of the year to enjoy oneself, and so much of what these folks strive for is artificial or filled with conspicuous consumption, symbolic of the modern "spirit" of Christmas. If these folks had been complete jerks it might have been humorous, but because they were nice people, the result is a little melancholy instead.

Despite that, I enjoyed the telling of the participants' stories and the background info about the American Christmas industry. Just don't be surprised if some parts are more "hmmmm" than "ho-ho-ho."

• Confections of Closet Master Baker, Gesine Bullock-Prado
Once upon a time a young woman whose sister became a movie actress worked for her. She had what many would consider a "dream job," elbow-deep with Hollywood glitz and glam (and all the background tedium that goes with it). As the years progressed she realized how unhappy she was at the work, and she and her husband departed Hollywood for Vermont, where she now runs a bakery/coffee shop and finds herself elbow-deep in pastry dough instead. This is not a how-to about how to leave the "rat race," or start your own business, just a good-natured, frequently hilarious profile of a rather cynical woman who has finally found her place in the world. The nicest part of this book is the memories the author recalls of baking with her mother and grandmother, and what the recipes (supplied in the text) mean to her. These are the portions of the book that struck especially close to my heart, as I remember baking with my mom for holidays, and I was left rather misty-eyed. While this isn't a book that makes one urge "You have to read this," I would recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet (there's that word...) and funny memoir perfect for, dare I say it, reading with a home-made pastry and some coffee.

• The Wizard of Oz: An Illustrated Companion, John Fricke and Jonathan Shirshekan
I wouldn't call myself a Wizard of Oz fanatic, but if you're a fan of the film, this landscape-oriented book about the origins and making of the film is perfect. It covers Oz from its birth from the pen of L. Frank Baum through the early silent presentations through the production of the classic MGM film. Along with informative text are hundreds of photos ranging from early production designs to various tests of Dorothy with different clothing and hairdos to photos from the filming to the premiere. Recommended.

• The Cosgrove Report, G.J.A. O'Toole
While I have always been a history buff, the American Civil War has never been one of my interests, so I was surprised when this book "called my name." I am happy I responded to it, however--wow! Written as if it was a true memoir of the times (Victorian narration, vocabulary and all), the story follows Nicholas Cosgrove, a "secret detective" who works for Allan Pinkerton and his organization. Cosgrove, out of the country when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, returns several years later only to have Pinkerton ask him to determine the whereabouts of John Wilkes Booth's grave, and if the assassin's body is still there, for there are rumors that Booth is still alive. When Cosgrove eventually finds the site, the body is gone, replaced with stones! Thus begins Cosgrove's odyssey, from the office of the Secretary of War to the impeachment controversy over Andrew Johnson, to the home of Matthew Brady and as far north as the streets of Brooklyn and beyond. I can't even express how much I enjoyed this book; it all felt quite real to me, from the unfinished streets of "Washington City" to the swamps of Maryland to the countryside of Rockville—even Cosgrove's feats of derring do near the conclusion of the story. If you enjoy complicated historical mysteries, this is highly recommended!

(Incidentally, one of the things I loved about this book is that all clues are set up for you—if you know where to look! There is an interesting plot development near the end, but somewhere in the first 100 pages of the book, if you pick up one piece of information along with a knowledge of language, you will realize the development was already staring you in the face. Bravo!)

• Special Delivery, Ann M. Martin
In the eighth of Martin's "Main Street" books, the mystery of Aunt Allie's closet is revealed: if you hadn't guessed it by now, she is planning to adopt a baby. The impending adoption forms a wheel around which all the other activities lie in this Thanksgiving-set entry. Egotistical Ruby, who constantly reminds me of Posy in Ballet Shoes, gets a lion's share of the plot this time around, although it feels like a couple of storylines got dropped in mid-book and never were mentioned again, like Ruby's business to earn money to buy Christmas gifts. I like this series because the adults' problems often figure in as much as the four girls': in this installment, Nikki's mother has some startling news for the family, along with the story about Aunt Allie. If I have any complaint it seems as if the character depth was a little shallower in this story compared to the past ones. I wish Martin had had a few more chapters to flesh out everyone.

• Time Quake, Linda Buckley-Archer
I received this book on October 14 after waiting for it for over a year (and what a temptation it was not to order it from the UK, where it had been released in July!), and began reading it immediately. I ate my dinner with it, and stayed buried in it until I had completed it. All I can say is "Wow!" I became completely wrapped up in Lord Luxon's attempt to change history by becoming involved with a modern historian and finding a pivotal point of history to manipulate. His plot, the result, and the growing effect of the time quakes brought about by use of the anti-gravity machine take up only a part of the fabulous series conclusion. In the meantime Kate's tie to the physical world of 1763 grows more tenuous each day; she experiences more of the "fast forward" effect as time goes on and is finally reduced to binding herself to Peter, who she realizes is her "ground." In the present and in the past Peter and Kate's family and friends do their best to recover the children to their own time, and in the end it is Gideon and "the Tar Man" who must make a difficult choice before the time quakes splinter the world.

The entire trilogy (Time Travelers, Time Thief and Time Quake) is highly recommended. The cover blurbs push this as similar to Harry Potter, but please note there is no magic here except for the exciting adventures across past and present which move at a breathless pace, suspense building in each volume. Highly recommended! (Wait, I've said that already—but it's that kind of book.)

• The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives, Michael Buckley
Eighteen months ago the parents of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm disappeared. After a succession of horrible foster homes, the girls are suddenly claimed by their grandmother, a woman their father told them was dead, and her mysterious assistant Mr. Canis. Sabrina, eleven years old and left cynical by the past months, is understandable suspicious and indignant when their grandmother—if she is their grandmother!—tells the girls that their new home of Ferryport is also the home to all the fairy-tale characters of old and they, as Grimms (descended from the Grimm brothers of fairy-tale fame), are fairy-tale detectives. And, oh, yeah, there's a giant on the loose! Buckley has taken all the old familiar characters and turned them on their heads, given it a modern day setting, and come up with the very funny adventures (this is the first in a series) of Sabrina and Daphne coming to terms with their heritage and learning their craft. Suspense and humor blend well. Have I mentioned who Mr. Canis really is? No, wait, you can find out for yourself...

• My FAB Years, Sylvia Anderson
This is a highly-illustrated coffee table book covering Sylvia Anderson's life with husband Gerry, creator of such British children's, and then adults', science fiction classics like Thunderbirds and UFO. The lion's share of the story is given over to Thunderbirds, so if you're a TB fan, this is well worth a grab, especially if it's on the remainder table. I found it for $5!

• Brainiac, Ken Jennings
I quite enjoyed this breezy account by Jennings, uber-Jeopardy! champ, but be warned it is not Jennings' autobiography, an expose on Jeopardy!, or an exhaustive play-by-play of his seventy-plus games. Some folks seemed to have expected it to be one of those. Instead, we get flashes of Jennings' past fascination with trivia and Jeopardy!, his tryout, and appearances along with the history of trivia and trivia competitions, including pub trivia and College Bowl (one of my favorites from childhood!), trivia books, including Fred Worth's seminal Trivia Encyclopedia from the 1970s (which I had), and trivia games, especially "Trivial Pursuit." There's even a town in Wisconsin which hosts a special weekend trivia game each year. Jennings even includes trivia in the text. Much fun.

• The Curse of the Labrador Duck, Glen Chilton
I'm still trying to figure out the audience for this book. Myself, I suppose, as I did enjoy it. But it doesn't strike me as being for ornithologists or birders, as there are little details for either, save the few descriptions of the Labrador Duck specimens Dr. Chilton saw and some description of when it became extinct and of its territory.

Basically, it's about how far an individual will go to fulfill a goal. It is to Dr. Chilton's credit that he takes us on a humorous and occasionally educational tour of portions of Europe, Canada, and the United States to do so. As other reviews have observed, his narration is very akin to Bill Bryson, and it is this that carries the book along with his sometimes unusual destinations, companions, and situations. There are also interesting observations on how different countries treat their museum properties. So if you're looking for an amusing take on different countries in the flavor of Bryson, with some description of extinct birds on the side, this book is recommended. (Some reviews have commented on Chilton's humor becoming tiresome after a while; I found it better to use this as bedtime reading where you experience just a bit each night.)

• Working Life in Britain, 1900-1950, Janice Anderson
This was a bargain book I found at Borders for only $1, a photo-essay of the lives of workers from Edwardian times to post World War II. Photos are in black-and-white, supported with text. I quite enjoyed it.

• A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman
I picked this book up at Borders after a peek inside. Sometimes a book you want can disappoint you; sometimes a serendipitous find can delight you. This one was of the latter persuasion. Ackerman writes vividly about each of the senses, emphasizing descriptions of taste in the chapter about taste, etc., voluble, wonderful, evocative descriptions that brings each sense to life. It is hard not to hear the sounds she describes in the hearing chapter, taste the items she enumerates in her chapter on taste... I had a blast reading this book if just for Ackerman's vivid vocabulary. It reminded me a bit of Victoria Finlay's Color.

• The Serpent's Daughter, Suzanne Arruda
Former World War I nurse and now travel writer, Jade del Cameron has left her usual haunts of East Africa to travel to Morocco, where she will meet with her mother. Their adversarial relationship dates from the time that Inez del Cameron, once a woman who loved life and adventure like her now-adult daughter, changed into staid humorless matron determined to make her daughter into a carbon copy.

Then Inez is kidnapped and Jade sets out on a odyssey across Morocco to help her, eventually befriending a Berber tribesman who will enlighten Jade to his own culture.

This is another Indiana-Jones-ish adventure for Jade in a different setting than the previous two novels. It not only provides insight into Berber society, but solves the mystery of Jade's long-time antagonism to her mother. Inez is indeed as fascinating a character as her daughter, and you will realize how Jade became the woman she is.

Ten Forever

I found a nice hardback copy of Ruth Sawyer's Roller Skates this weekend, with a sort-of impressionist cover, but the original Valenti Angelo illustrations inside. I couldn't resist, but then the inventive, intelligent protagonist of this story is irresistible.

I missed this book as a child due to a fixation on animal stories almost exclusively (okay, there were Danny Dunn and Miss Pickerel and Donna Parker and Johnny Tremain), but found it wonderful when I finally picked it up as an adult. I didn't find out until just recently that this novel and its sequel, The Year of Jubilo, were autobiographical.

Lucinda Wyman is a privileged child growing up in 1890s New York City. She loves to read, play guitar, and invent plays with her tabletop theatre, and is generally lonely, as her four brothers are much older than she is and, it is implied, tend to think of her as a pest (this is revealed in more detail in the sequel). When her mother becomes sick with one of those inevitable Victorian illnesses that sent people off to Italy for warm weather to cure them, instead of being left with her autocratic aunt and her "four docile daughters" ("the gazelles," Lucinda calls them), Lucinda is entrusted to the care of one of her schoolteachers from her private girls-only school, and the teacher's sister.

Lucinda can't help making friends wherever she goes. In her first weeks as a temporary "orphan," she befriends Mr. Gilligan, the hansom cab driver who conveys her to her new home; Patrolman McGonigall, the beat cop outside Bryant Park, where she loves to use the titular roller skates (Lucinda never walks anywhere she can skate!); Tony Coppino, an Italian boy who helps his father run the family fruit stand; "Mr. Night Owl," the evening beat reporter for a local paper; and an impoverished couple with a six-year-old daughter nicknamed "Trinket," whom Lucinda takes to her heart.

The story follows Lucinda's year as an "orphan," celebrating the holidays, befriending yet more people—an exotic woman and a little girl whose parents are actors, attending the circus and having the opportunity to ride the elephant, putting on a Twelfth Night play, and "borrowing" Trinket for tea parties. But tragedy also plays a part in Lucinda's orphan year.

Lucinda is a marvelous child, imaginative and loving, despite her relatives' perception of her as a cold, withdrawn person. Her personality sparkles. She reminds me a little of Addie Mills. While her aunt only insults her looks and tries to make her into a little automaton, her friends as well as her Uncle Earle celebrate her individuality and creativity.

The sequel has more of a Victorian plot: a crisis strikes the family and they must move to their summer home in Maine and try to make ends meet with reduced finances. Lucinda wants desperately to be a contributor to the family income, and her brothers, especially the one closest to her in age, tend to discredit her at first. The tone of this book, predictably, is different from Roller Skates, in which Lucinda finds happines in life despite some emotional setbacks. Year of Jubilo is more a story of having to grow up quickly to survive.

Roller Skates is a joy. I am glad that I made the acquaintance of Miss Lucinda Wyman.

Books Finished Since September 1

• Come Back, Como, Steven Winn
From when she was a small child, Phoebe Winn wanted a dog more than anything. Her parents, both with less-than-pleasant memories of family dogs, tried to fob her off with other pets: goldfish, and then a lovebird who met a sad end. Finally mom and dad relent and adopt a small terrier mix from the animal shelter—a dog with an inherent fear of men. From then on it's waiting for their new dog to adjust to them—or perhaps it's one of the humans that must adjust to the dog.

This is a nice, but unremarkable story of a dog with problems who comes into a family with problems. From the daughter's point of view, her love of "Como" is immediate, and her mother's affection immediately follows. But it's prickly dad who must learn to adjust to a wary Como, and there will be a heart-stopping accident before they accept each other for who they are. I was a bit appalled at the beginning of this book with what happened to the lovebird—what kind of a pet owner doesn't confirm with their pet sitter what dates they will be going on vacation?—and also that the animal shelter worker would be so eager to foist off a dog with a fear of men that she ignored telling the family about it until after their child had fallen in love with the dog. There are some sweet parts, however, especially when Winn realizes how much he has come to love Como.

• The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion, Alice Kimberley
At last! "Kimberley" finally mentions something integrally associated with Rhode Island! But one mention of Del's frozen lemonade does not a Rhode Island setting make.

Penelope Thornton-McClure apparently witnesses her pal Seymour Tarnish, the local mailman, fleeing from a mansion on posh Larchmont Avenue, where a death has happened. When it's determined that the elderly owner died of foul play, Tarnish is the first suspect—especially when it's discovered that the woman left the expensive home to him! As Pen and her ghostly companion Jack Shepard, who is tied to the bookstore which Pen runs by having died there in 1947, try to clear Seymour as well as discover what really happened to Timothea Todd, it turns out the crime is tied to a case Jack had before he died, in which a young boy's mother disappeared.

The jacket summary of this book is a bit of a cheat, as the threat to Jack's existence is laughable. The mystery is the usual folksy one for this stereotypical Yankee town, although the bumpkin police continue to annoy. The Forties flashbacks are neat, though. Maybe in a future book Pen can be in a coma or something and somehow help Jack solve a mystery in the past.

• Death at Epsom Downs, Robin Paige
While Charles Sheridan uses his skill of photography at Derby Day, his American wife Kate becomes involved with the infamous actress Lillie Langtry, formerly the mistress of the king, and now implicated in the murder of a bookie with whom she was in excessive debt. In addition, a horse's behavior in the Derby brings about the growing specter of horse doping, and once again both Charles' and Kate's sleuthing skills are put to the test when Charles is recruited by His Royal Highness King Edward VII to uncover the scandal at the root of the death of a jockey.

Another enjoyable adventure with the sleuthing Sheridans, with a fascinating look at early 20th century horse racing, and the recurring character I wondered about from the previous book finally does return, with happy results.

• Hounding the Pavement, Judi McCoy
Ellie Engleman is finally free of her manipulating, stultifying husband, starting fresh in a new Manhattan apartment with the help of her much-married mother and hoping to make her dog-walking business a success. But when she and her mixed-breed dog Rudy arrive at one of her customer's homes to pick up his pet Bichon Frise, she discovers the man dead and the dog vanished. Enter Sam Ryder, workaholic police detective and also the victim of an unhappy marriage and divorce, who considers Ellie first a suspect, and then a dog-crazy flake.

How much you tolerate this book is how much you can put up with its conventions. I found it kinda cute, but be forewarned that it is not just a mystery, but a romance-mystery crossover, and many romance novel conventions are used, including a big smattering of sexual desires and encounters. Also, the gimmick in this one is that Ellie can communicate telepathically with dogs she is emotionally involved with, so there's a lot of dialog going on between Ellie and her pooch Rudy (who senses that Sam Ryder wants to do "the Big Bang" with her) and a couple of the other dogs she walks, including her best friend's Jack Russell, who idolizes Mr. T from The A-Team. If you are a "cozy" fan, but not particularly enamored of romances or gimmicks, you probably won't like this one.

Some annoying parts: I would have thought Rudy's sense of smell would have twigged Ellie to some things much earlier. It also seems as if McCoy sets up all other dog walkers besides her heroine to be callous, rude people who only care for their profits, not their charges. I find this a perfect discount or coupon book.

• The Big Burn, Timothy Egan
In August 1910, the drought-stricken Bitterroot Mountains and environs caught fire. The tinder-dry environment, coupled with a fierce wind, created a firestorm of unprecedented ferocity. Mountain towns, lumber interests, and the fledgling National Park system had only one defender: the rangers of the newly formed and hopelessly understaffed Forest Service, an organization loathed by the big businesses who thought the only proper thing was to clear and develop the forests. The book begins slowly, with the history of the Forest Service at the hands of its two "fathers," President Theodore Roosevelt and conservation enthusiast Gifford Pinchot, and builds, like the fire itself, painting vivid portraits of the people who would become involved with this monster—woodsman Ed Pulaski, ex-football star and now forester Joe Halm, supervisor Bill Weigle, the independent Ione "Pinkie" Adair, the Buffalo Soldiers who gain the respect of racist whites—until at last it explodes, devouring settlements and settlers alike.

While the fire may not have "saved America," it certainly brought recognition and respect to the Forest Service and created attention to the need for better conservation of our natural resources. My only caveat about this book: don't read the parts about the fire at bedtime; Egan's graphic descriptions of the devouring flames and their results are disturbing, sinister and unnerving.

• Death at Dartmoor, Robin Paige
While his wife Kate soaks up mist-shrouded atmosphere for a new novel (written under her pen-name of Beryl Bardwell), Sir Charles Sheridan embarks on a project to fingerprint all the prisoners at England's notorious Dartmoor Prison. Also visiting Dartmoor are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, also gathering information for a new novel that will eventually become The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Kate's friend Patsy Marsden. When a Scottish physician accused of killing his wife, a man Charles is convinced is innocent, escapes from the prison, he is accused of the murder of a man who was found dead on the moor. But how did the Scotsman escape? Could it have anything to do with the young missionary who delivered Bibles to the prison?

This mystery kept me guessing, although I never doubted Charles was right, and also found out some things I did not know, such as Hound was originally co-written with another author. I am enjoying this cozy series after ignoring it for so long.

• A Fierce Discontent, Michael McGerr
This can be considered a companion volume to Crusader Nation which I bought last year. Both are about the progressive movement in the United States that began in the late 1800s, ran strong for many years, and then took its last gasps during the First World War. The disparity between rich and poor became emphasized in publications of the day, and organizations and movements were created to help the poor and improve living conditions and social conditions, not just among the poor, but for the entire population. Jane Addams sets up settlement houses. Upton Sinclair advises consumers about the horrible state of slaughterhouses. Temperance fighters begin their long crusade to ban alcohol. Millionaires become philanthropists. Chautauqua societies brought education to adults. Conservationists fought for the country's natural resources. In the intervening years, however, Americans also discovered leisure time. Movies, auto touring, and other amusements drew them away from good works. And the progressive movement also had its bad points: it supported the eugenics movement and also segregation. An accessible history of the era.

• Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild
Yes, I'm one of those poor unfortunate adults who had never read this book as a child. Not only wasn't it in the library, but I wouldn't have read it anyway, as I preferred books about animals and hated ballet. Now, of course, I find its 1930s setting delightful and the portrayal of three adopted girls who must learn to perform to be able to earn money to help their guardian—each girl has her own talent: Pauline is a good actress, Petrova a devotee of mechanical items, and Posy a natural dancer—a great read. I must confess that I picked it up because I saw the British telefilm of this story at Christmastime and really loved it. It was picked to pieces by fans of the book who didn't like Emma Watson as Pauline, or thought Posy was portrayed as a brat, or complained they didn't stick exactly to the storyline. Well, Emma Watson didn't exactly fit the description, but I thought she was okay, and Posy much of the time was a bit of a brat, and all I can figure out that they changed was making Winifred into a whiner (which really was a disservice to the poor girl) and having Mr. Simpson be a bachelor to work up a little romantic interest for Garnie, who was shown as possibly being tubercular. But the book is just as wonderful as everyone has always described! I'm glad I bought it.

• DogTown: Tales of Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Redemption, Stefan Bechtel
Whether or not you have ever watched the NatGeo series, if you are a dog-lover you will surely enjoy this volume of stories of individual dogs at DogTown, the unique animal refuge in Utah where no dog is refused (dogs that cannot be "re-homed" are cared for at the facility). You will meet Annie, the exuberant Australian shepherd dog who accidentally attacks a child and is labeled "a biter"; Georgia, one of the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick's dog fighting kennel who had all her teeth removed, probably so she could be bred; Aristotle, a Chihuahua with a puzzling and virulent skin disease; Bingo, the mixed breed dog so abused that he had emotionally shut down; and other troubled or injured dogs. Each chapter follows a dog from his or her arrival in DogTown, the steps that were taken in treatment, and how they came to their forever home. Within chapters you learn about the horror that is a puppy mill or a hoarder's home, how a dog's handler will decide on a treatment for them, what steps are taken if medical care is needed, and other aspects of DogTown's rescue work. There are also interstices between chapters where DogTown workers talk about a dog in their past or in their work that became special to them.

As expected, there are reminders to spay or neuter your dog, warnings against purchase of pet shop puppies, and emphasis on adopting dogs from shelters, but it does not detract from the narrative about amazing people making a difference with abused dogs.

• A Beautiful Blue Death, Charles Finch
I wanted to like this book, but it fell under my expectations. Charles Lenox, a Victorian gentleman and amateur sleuth, is asked by his childhood friend Lady Jane Grey to investigate the "suicide" of a young woman who used to be her maid. The author seems to have tried to go for a Lord Peter Wimsey character in 1865, complete with butler who helps him with his investigations, with a little Sherlock Holmes tossed in (Charles' older brother Edmund works in the government). But after having read so many Victorian-set novels—both those actually written in the Victorian era, like Conan Doyle, and those Victorian homages by Anne Perry, Robin Paige, etc.—the entire narrative is just disappointing, down to the little things like Lenox always complaining about his boots being thin and cold. He's rich—he should be able to buy any boots he wants (or his butler should be able to find him some! Bunter would be horrified)! I suppose it's not unrealistic, due to the common surname Grey, to have a character named "Lady Jane Grey," but anyone with knowledge of English history may wish she had another name. Many times the dialog sounds like "book dialog," nothing someone would actually say. Servants speak to their employers in too familiar a manner.

The title refers to the obscure poison used in the suicide, but sadly, that may be the most interesting thing about the book. I have the sequel and hope there is more promise to it.

• Age 14, Geert Spillebeen
At age 10, Patrick Condon leaves school behind forever. Since he is big for his age, Patrick is able to get a menial job sweeping holds of ships when his father lies about how old he is. After two years of working for a repulsive employer, Patrick has squirreled enough pennies away to fulfill his real dream: join the army. Once again repeating a lie about his age, Patrick is first inducted into the militia under his brother John's name, and then some time later, joins the real army. He loves the duties and regimentation of army life, which is much better than anything in his impoverished Irish neighborhood.

But by now it is 1914 and all Hell is about to break out in Europe.

This would at first glance be a good book to introduce adolescents, especially boys, to the squalid reality of the poverty in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century as well as the horror of the battlefields of "the Great War, but the narrative is really rather poor. The novel was originally published in Belgium; perhaps the translator is at fault—I don't know. Despite the intriguing storyline, everything is rather plodding. Perhaps the problem is that Patrick is not a particularly likeable boy, and, despite his army dreams, we don't really learn much about him.

Other things are bothersome: modern words crop up occasionally, ruining the mood of the era—one that particularly struck me was the use of "macho." At one point, the word "Kraut" is used for Germans. I have read many WWI era stories and the usual term appears to be "Hun" or "Boche." I was under the impression this term was used in WWII. I could be wrong. At the point that war is declared, the narrative changes from past tense to present tense, probably to emphasize the immediacy of the situation, but it happens mid-chapter and is quite jarring (there the author also begins referring to Patrick as John). There are several chapters that are from a different POV than Patrick's, and all are pretty badly done, but the one portraying the German scientist who developed chlorine gas is particularly bad--he comes off as a melodrama villain.

I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Books Finished Since August 1

• Death at Rottingdean, Robin Paige
Lord and Lady Sheridan (formerly Charles Sheridan and Kate Ardleigh), having spent their first season as Baron and Lady Somersworth, retreat to the small coastal village of Rottingdean for a respite after a tragedy, as well as baronial duties, have left them craving quiet and solitude. Alas, it isn't to be after a local boy spots a body being dragged from the sea, and next morning a coast guardsman is found dead on the beach. The Paige mysteries always include a "kiss with history" with a historical figure; in this outing it's Rudyard Kipling, who is a fine accomplice to Charles and Kate's sleuthing (and, if you know a history of Kipling's family, a fine sense of irony is included due to the nature of the crime as well as the birth of his latest child). These are fine "cozies" for those who love the genre and the time period, and the seaside setting is very evocative (and very Dr. Syn!).

• The Harding Affair, James David Robenalt
I usually devour 20th century American history books, so when i saw this volume on Amazon Vine, I was intrigued. The most I knew about Warren G. Harding was that he was a ladies' man, a pretty inadequate President in most estimations, and that his buddies were involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. So I forewent what would have been my obvious choice (a book about Louis Howe and the Roosevelts) to get this instead.

Robenalt has minutely investigated Harding's personal and private life and it shows. And I did learn many things about the man that I did not know before, such as he was much more liberal to the cause of African-American rights in the US than Southerner Woodrow Wilson. (Much later, after his death, an inflammatory book was published that "proved" he had "Negro" blood.) However, in this narrative of Harding's years'-long affair with his Marion, Ohio, neighbor Carrie Phillips, paralleled by the case of a German countess accused during the first World War of being a spy, was sadly, in general, uninteresting. While the occasional "I didn't know that" popped up, Harding's one-sided correspondence (most of Carrie Phillips' letters did not survive) with his inamorata eventually became turgid and difficult to read. YMMV.

• The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Before the Storm, Juliet Nicolson
The summer of 1911 was an anomoly in the British Isles, almost unnaturally sunny and hot. The fine weather presaged the last stand of the old ways: society men and women clinging to old traditions while their servants considered breaking their ties to the past, the wealthy bored with the bleak emptiness of their lives, labor unrest in workers who had earlier accepted their lot in life, Queen Mary's struggle to adjust to being wife to a king and against her own insecurities. This is not an in-depth study of Edwardian society by any means, but it is a fascinating portrait of both sides of "the street" in an era which has been fodder for nostalgia for years, especially following the success of Upstairs, Downstairs. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about the butler torn between his traditional role and trying to make a fresh start, and the glimpses of people who would later become known for their roles in World War I, such as Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon.

• Don't You Know There's a War On?, Avi
This is one of two Avi novels about homefront WWII (that I know about). Fifth-grader Howie Crispers and his classmates, between collecting scrap and paper for the war effort, discover that Miss Gossim, their beloved teacher, was secretly married several months earlier and is now expecting a child, which means she will be fired. Howie, who has a crush on the teacher, finds a way to save her. This is a very simple story for kids. I have read that some people are a bit disturbed the way Howie seems to "stalk" the teacher and is still thinking about her five years later. I have read better WWII stories for kids.

• Doggie Day Care Murder, Laurien Berenson
Melanie Travis can't seem to keep away from murders, even though she has a still fairly new marriage, a new baby, and an ever-growing 9-year-old who her Aunt Peg is steering into junior showmanship classes at local dog shows. She was just supposed to check out a dog day care center for her best friend Alice, who's re-entering the workforce, and at first glance she likes what she sees, but when she returns the next day, she discovers the business brains of the center, Steve Pines, who runs it with his sister Candy, has been shot and killed. Melanie would rather stay out of this one, but since she has such a good track record with chasing down killers, she's persuaded to "look into things." I'm fond of dogs, and of this series; if you were reading this "cold" your mileage might vary.

• The Patriot Witch, C.C. Finlay
I've been looking for a new fantasy series, and this one seems to fit the bill. Proctor Brown is a typical young countryman of the Revolutionary War period: he wishes to expand the family farm and marry his pretty girlfriend Emily. Not only can the course of true love not run true—Emily's father had hoped for a better match than a farmer, and he's an avowed Tory, while Proctor is a Minuteman—but the young man holds a deeper secret: a descendant of John Proctor, who was hung as a witch in old Salem, like his mother Proctor holds otherworldly powers, which she fears revealing. Then Proctor notices that British major Pitcairn is protected by a mysterious, uncanny charm, and later, after his shot begins the fighting at Lexington Green, he is witness to the transport of a witch. Next thing he knows he is embroiled in a hunt for the woman after she escapes, and discovers the presence of others like himself, who know the British cause is being aided by witchcraft. This is a nice alternative history/fantasy, although Proctor and his friends do speak in more modern vernacular than I would have expected (although I'm glad the the author didn't go for the stilted "noble Colonial" narration as would have been used years ago), which is occasionally disconcerting. I intend to continue with the series. YMMV, as always.

• Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding, Scott Weidensaul
Sometimes you buy a book full price and it's a loser; other times you find something on the bargain shelf and it's a winner. The latter is this book, a delightful narrative starting with the first European explorers, through the years with early bird watching and then the years of specimen collecting that decimated species, the crusade to remove bird skins/feathers as ornamentation on 19th century women's hats, and the efforts to publish an effective birder's guide that would still fit in your pocket. In between, stories of individual birders, ornithologists, and even "opera-glass" observers are told, along with the author's own experience. If you love birds or birdwatching, this is the book for you.

• Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway?, Avi
The second of Avi's WWII-set juveniles, with a novel approach: the story is told completely through dialog, like a Golden Age of Radio presentation—appropriate as our hero, Frankie Wattleston, is crazy about radio, specifically the kids' and adults' adventure serials that populate the airwaves. He and his best friend Mario create, through Frankie's vivid imagination, their own misadventures as they spy on Mr. Swerdlow, a medical-school student who is boarding at Frankie's home—and try to help their teacher, whose boyfriend was killed in battle. This is a lively, funny story about a boy addicted to radio series the way kids today are addicted to video games. I'm not sure I can quite believe that Frankie's teacher or parents would be so gullible sometimes, and the ending with Frankie's brother, withdrawn after his return from combat, seems a bit pat, but the dialog and radio series' quotes make up for any shortcomings.

• Death At Whitechapel, Robin Paige
Jennie Jerome Churchill, the American-born mother of the future Winston Churchill, is afraid. Her, and her son's, prolifigate lifestyle has already put them into debt, and now someone is blackmailing her, insinuating her late husband had a part in the "Ripper" murders ten years earlier. If what the blackmailer says is true, it will destroy her life and her son's burgeoning political career. Enter once more Kate Ardleigh Sheridan and her husband Charles, American mystery writer and British peer and amateur criminologist, to help her, especially after the blackmailer is found murdered. I especially enjoyed this outing because it was interesting to see a glimpse of the young Winston Churchill, very much not the old political lion figure at this point, but a callow, often snobby, youth, and also because the Ripper murder theory in this novel is very like the one presented in the Sherlock Holmes film Murder by Decree.

I'm puzzled, though. I was under the impression that a character first presented in the previous book was about to become a regular character...I guess I was wrong!

• Mr. Monk is Miserable, Lee Goldberg
Okay, Mr. Goldberg. There's one gag you've used in one episode and two books now. I'm not sure if it's third time's the charm or three strikes and you're out. But...enough, okay?

That out of the way, this next outing in the Monk novel series immediately follows Mr. Monk Goes to Germany. Natalie has blackmailed Monk into going to Paris for a few days, hoping to get a little bit of vacation out of her enforced trip to Europe, and to hopefully relive the happy memories of a past trip with her late husband. No chance: not only do the memories rattle Natalie, but Monk inexplicable wants to go—in a Hazmat suit, of course!—on a tour of the famous Paris sewers, which he considers the most remarkable thing about the city! Then Monk discovers a skull in the catacombs that is from a recently-deceased body, with signs of foul play about it. Yes, it's another mystery for Monk and his reluctant assistant, in which they meet street cleaners, the Paris constabulary, a group that eschews "the rat race," wonderous sanitizing streetside toilets, and, even more amazingly, food Monk will actually eat!

There's an offbeat tour of Paris along with the usual mystery elements, much fun for the Monk fan. Enjoy the journey, and don't forget your wipes!

• The Day the Falls Stood Still, Cathy Marie Buchanan
This is not the usual type of book I read, but I was intrigued by the time period and the setting: the World War I years and directly thereafter, when the creation of power plants along the Niagara River in both Canada and the United States raised questions in some about the survival of the river ecosystem due to all the water being drawn off.

17-year-old Bess Heath's education is cut short when her father is fired from his executive position at one of the hydroelectric plants. She comes home to find her father drinking more than usual, her mother (a former experienced seamstress) making dresses again to supplant the family income, and her former lively older sister depressed and barely eating. On that fateful trip home, Bess will also meet Tom Cole, a "riverman" whose knowledge of the great Niagara seems almost magical, and will warm to his presence. But a tragedy finds Bess covering up a secret, after which a more critical decision approaches: should Bess make a good match as her family grows more impoverished, or should she go with her heart? The story unfolds against the beautiful landscape of eastern Canada, with lovely details about both the river system and about the lovely clothing both Bess and her mother make, with portraits of the conflict between upper- and lower-class society. I enjoyed the characters, the wonderful setting, the descriptions, even the narrative most of the time, but ultimately I found the whole a bit...eh. My usual forte is either historical/biographical books from the era, or historical mysteries, so the slice-of-life approach seemed rather ordinary. It's more my failing than the book's.

• Where There's a Witch, Madelyn Alt
I've been reading this friendly little "bewitching mystery" series since the first book came out and have enjoyed watching Maggie find out about her empathic talents, get a fulfilling job, and make new—if unusual friends—and have felt indignant about her pushy mother and manipulating sister. In the last story, "little miss perfect" sister let the cat out of the bag about the esoteric activities going on with Maggie's employer and friends. Now, as reaction about the "heathens" spreads, groundbreaking at a new church reveals a hidden room—which soon holds the corpse of a murdered young woman. The buildup to the story was slow, the murderer really obvious, and I really disliked Alt ultimately making Maggie's staid policeman boyfriend "the heavy" in the triangle between Maggie, Tom, and romance-novel-hero wannabe Marcus. I'll keep hanging on hoping Maggie will eventually tell off her mom...and her sister.

For Sherlock Holmes...or Rather Dr. Watson...Fans Everywhere

Sad, But True:

"The Case of the Two Watsons" (PNG image)

Whilst Wandering the Net

A James Keeline paper (in .pdf format) on Trixie Belden, including photos of the homes that were the basis for Crabapple Farm and the Manor House!

If you're a Trixie Belden fan, you might check out this fan page, which includes info about the books, fanfiction, a forum to chat about your favorite schoolgirl shamus, and the hysterically funny nitpicks page, about the continuity errors in the books.

Books Finished Since July 1

• Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, Michael Downing
As an avowed hater of DST, I picked up this volume hoping it would enlighten me on the logical reasons for the practice. The most I knew before reading this book was that DST was instituted during World War I to extend working time in the war plants, that it was rescinded after the war, then returned for the next. How surprising to find out that the threat of DST came even earlier, that it has been contentious for years, with even communities and buildings disagreeing about it, and that it was once blamed on farmers—when farmers hate the practice. Downing keeps you reeling as the the fight goes back and forth and back again. If you are interested in the history of DST, you might find this interesting.

• The Unscratchables, Cornelius Kane
Max "Crusher" McNash is a hard-bitten veteran police officer whose investigation of what looks like a gangland killing arouses the attention of the FBI due to the crime's improbable suspect. The Feds send philosophical, well-dressed Cassius Lap to investigate. Can McNash trust Lap, since he suspects the agent may have sympathies with the killer? And can he trust himself not to grab Lap in his jaws and shake him like a bull terrier shakes a rat?

Jaws? Of course. In this spoof of pulp detective novels, McNash (a bull terrier) lives in the Kennels, the world of dogs (his boss is a German Shepherd and his partner is a borzoi; one of the perps is a whippet and the victims are Rottweilers) and Lap is a Siamese cat, from the feline refuge of Kathattan. I've never been a fan of crime noir, film or book, and I confess the private eye slang was wearying at first. But as I got absorbed in the plot, the characters, and the spoof of human foibles, I began to enjoy it, especially when a Hannibal Lector-like character was introduced (a cat, of course)--a thoroughly delightful homage! And like all the best "shaggy dog" stories, this one even ends appropriately! If you enjoy offbeat fiction, this one's definitely for you.

• The Blackstone Key, Rose Melikan
I've been reading a good deal of these types of novels lately, ranging from the time of the French Revolution to Victorian times, from the romantic romps of the Pink Carnation to the tales of Liberty Lane, Emily Ashton and Lady Julia Grey and have become very familiar with the spunky, well-educated-for-a-woman-of-the-time protagonist who becomes involved in dark doings. At first glance, Key is of that breed.

But heroine Mary Finch is not. While she is intelligent and shows unexpected strengths, she is more timid than the usual heroines of these books and makes several mistakes right until the end of the story. Her spunk is of a milder sort, and so is the story, which spends its own sweet time meandering to the climax as you get a portrait of 18th century life and the intrigues of French spies in England during the latter part of the Revolution through the Napoleonic Wars through the eyes of a young teacher. I found the characters interesting and enjoyed Mary, Captain Robert Holland, Paul Duprez, and the supporting players on both sides, but the story is very slow-moving. People who favor livelier fare will probably not be satisfied by the novel.

• The Counterfeit Guest, Rose Melikan
Now an heiress and living at her late uncle's estate White Ladies with two of her fellow teachers as chaperones, Mary Finch is asked to undertake a clandestine mission: observe Colonel Crosby-Nash, suspected of being a traitor. Since the colonel is married to Mary's friend Susannah Armitage (cousin to Captain Robert Holland, whose acquaintance Mary made in The Blackstone Key), it is fairly easy for Mary to keep tabs on him, and even receive an invitation to their country house. In the meantime Captain Holland, who has abruptly broken off his growing relationship with Mary, finds himself battling internal conflict in the Army, bred by instigating spies who use suggestion and broadsides to spread their revolutionary aims. Eventually Mary's mission and Holland's will mesh, posing danger for both of them.

Mary has become a bit less naive in this second novel, although she is certainly shyer than similar heroines like Liberty Lane and the "Pink Carnation" ladies, and her spying mission takes a certain nerve--there are several tense moments that are quite breathtaking. Holland, too, sees more action in this second novel, including a foray into preventing an explosive situation, accompanied by his faithful batsman Drake. The suspense builds nicely, but slowly, in the manner of 19th century novels of this genre. If you like nonstop action, this is not the novel for you.

We also learn more about Mary's new life and Holland's past, and that certain "wise" decisions don't always work out that way.

I found this novel thoroughly enjoyable and am looking forward to Melikan's sequel.

• Planet Dog: A Doglopedia, Harry Choron and Sandra Choron
A great bathroom book! All about man's best friend in short bites: movie dogs, literary dogs, dog shows, dog books, people in dog history, dogs in people history, and other lists. Much fun if you are a dog lover.

• Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, Rhys Bowen
After living hand-to-mouth for so long, Irish transplant Molly Murphy has her hands full in turn of the century New York City: she's following one man to see if he is a good marriage prospect, and accepts two other puzzling cases: the disappearance of a rich college boy who has been accused of a heinous murder and the haunting of a Broadway theatre where a slightly long-in-the-tooth actress is making a comeback. If that isn't all, Molly and her beau Daniel, still on suspension from the New York police force, stumble over a nearly frozen young woman in Central Park, clad only in a light dress and dancing slippers, one who can not even utter her own name. As Molly hops from theatre to street to Yale and back again, the facets of each mystery only become more perplexing. A dandy period mystery starring a feisty heroine.

• Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State
What a great history of Rhode Island; I learned more from this volume than I ever did about the history of the state in school. It makes one want to grab the book and go back to see all these sites—that is, if most of them are there any longer. For this is the 1937 WPA guide to the state, a fascinating combination of history, survey, Native American portrait, and Baedeker, with "auto tours" along the main roads...which, of course, were the secondary roads of my own childhood. So many things aren't there anymore: the numerous fabric mills, the ferries that existed before the bridges, and historical buildings destroyed by neglect, time, and progress. The saddest part of this book: a photo of Napatree Point (in a photo insert six pages after page 396). One year later all 22 homes were wiped out in the Hurricane of 1938.

Read the whole book (and see the photo) here.

• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, Vicki Myron
In 1988, on a freezing winter night, a small orange kitten was left in the book drop in the Spencer, Iowa, library. Rescued by Vicki Myron and her fellow librarians, Dewey became not only a library fixture, but a minor celebrity after his story was told in magazines like Country.

This is such a good-natured little book about a small farming town and the people who were enriched Dewey's companionship, I hate to say anything negative about it, but it was not as good as Marley and Me or Wesley the Owl or Flyaway. Some understanding of the author's personal life and of the town of Spencer is necessary to the story, but there was almost too much biographical information about Myron herself and not enough stories about the cat. I'm glad I met Dewey, and his human friends, but I can't say I was really overwhelmed by the narrative.

• A Fatal Waltz, Tasha Alexander
I read this one in a whole "gulp." It is the third in Alexander's series about Emily Ashton, a well-bred Victorian lady whose interests also run to Greek antiquities and drinking port rather than sherry after dinner like a "normal" woman of the time. Emily is attending a house party at the request of her best friend Ivy, even though she would rather avoid the owner of the house, the sarcastic, vindictive Lord Fortescue, who would prefer that Emily not marry her fiance Colin Hargreaves. Before the weekend is over, Fortescue is murdered and Ivy's husband Robert accused of the crime. Before the book is over, in her search for justice for Robert, Emily will be threatened by Fortescue's colleague, visit Vienna and become involved with anarchists, and worry over Colin's being reunited with his old lover, now an Austrian countess and still determined to get Colin back despite being married. The suspense builds until one must keep turning the pages or wonder just what happens next.

• Consequences of Sin, Clare Langley-Hawthorne
I'm pretty sure this story was recommended by Dani on "A Work in Progress"; I was lucky enough to find it in the bargain bin in Borders at some point. Ursula Marlow is the privileged daughter of a self-made, now wealthy, factory owner, in England in 1910, but is beginning to break out of the straitlaced role of women in that era: having attended Oxford, instead of preparing for marriage as her father wishes, she is helping in the suffragette movement along with a newfound friend, Winifred Stanford-Jones. Then "Freddie" telephones her early one morning with the horrifying news that her lover, Laura, has been murdered in their bed, after they were seen quarreling at a risque club. Ursula asks her father's adviser, Lord Wrotham, to help defend Winifred, but she has no idea when she does so that she is about to discover an ugly family secret and not only put her reputation in danger, but her life.

I enjoyed this book, even if the lead characters are the usual lovely, intelligent but a bit naive young woman, and the handsome, enigmatic and troubled slightly older man (I mean, honestly, don't any ordinary people ever solve mysteries?). Ursula's upbringing causes her to make errors which may irritate some, but seem natural for the time. It's an easy read, and I'm looking forward to finding the sequel, although it appears to take place mostly in Egypt; I would have preferred pre-war England.

• Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Television Christmas Special, Darryl Von Citters
This book is reviewed in July's "Rudolph Day" post in Holiday Harbour.

• A Duty to the Dead, Charles Todd
Bess Crawford, daughter of a British Army officer and a nurse serving aboard the hospital ship Britannic, is invalided home after the ship is torpedoed and her arm is broken. This gives her the chance to fulfill a soldier's dying wish; Arthur Graham's cryptic deathbed message is to be delivered directly--no letters will do--to his brother Jonathan: "Tell Jonathan I lied. I did it for Mother's sake. But it has to be set right." Bess' letter to the family results in an invitation to the Graham home, but to her surprise, there is no reaction when she delivers the message. Jonathan and Mrs. Graham even question if Arthur was in pain or drugged when he said it. But the longer Bess remains in the Graham home, the more questions begin to arise: what did the message mean and why was it so important to Arthur but not to his family? How did Arthur's oldest brother Peregrine become confined to an insane asylum when he was only fourteen? And when Bess is called on to nurse Peregrine through a bout of pneumonia, why isn't he the dimwitted man he has been described to be?

I really enjoyed reading this book and finished it in one long session. Since I have read similar books taking place during or concerning nursing sisters of WWI, most of which have been mentioned here (Anne Perry's WWI mysteries, the Maisie Dobbs stories, Gifts of War), the subject was of interest to me, and I liked this the most except for the Maisie Dobbs novels. Bess is one of the strong women that emerged at the time of the war, no longer willing to be treated as sweet flowers who were rewards to men. If I have one quibble with the book it is that I would have liked more descriptions of Bess and of some of the supporting characters, but perhaps the author did so on purpose so we could imagine Bess as we wanted her to be. Also, a certain amount of coincidence creeps into the story: how convenient that someone should be sick just as Bess was visiting, or the fact that the minister so willingly offers Bess the late vicar's journals to read. However, these small things did nothing to deter my enjoyment of the novel. I will be interested to read more about this character.

• Cesar's Way, Cesar Millan
Millan, the host of The Dog Whisper, explains his dog psychology methods. If you're a dog owner or lover, you will find this quite interesting.

• A Dangerous Affair, Caro Peacock
Liberty Lane, the independent heroine of Peacock's A Foreign Affair, has set herself up as a music teacher to support herself and is living in genteel poverty in an old mews with an older woman as chaperone, and faithful Amos Legge works nearby in a stable caring for horses including Liberty's mare, Esperance. One morning as she is riding "Rancie," she is overtaken by Benjamin Disraeli, who asks her to look into a flamboyant ballerina named Columbine. Liberty reluctantly does so, just as Columbine is murdered and a country girl, Jenny Jarvis, is accused of her murder. To complicate matters, Liberty's best friend, musician Daniel Suter, has fallen deeply in love with Jenny. As always fired against any injustice, Liberty is determined to find Columbine's murderer.

This is a more traditional-type 19th century murder mystery, as opposed to the politically charged conundrum of the first novel, with suspects including Columbine's co-stars, her wealthy gentleman friend, and even her French dresser. In the meantime Liberty faces the loss of her living space, of her beautiful mare, and even her best friend. Due to its more conventional plot, I didn't find this story as compelling as the first, but it was enjoyable nevertheless due to the presence of Liberty and her companions.

• Tears of Pearl, Tasha Alexander
I was so delighted when this fourth installment of the Lady Emily mystery stories turned up as one of the available books in Amazon Vine! I read it the moment it arrived in the mail and was quite taken by the setting: 19th century Constantinople. Alexander describes the area so well that I felt like I was in the bazaars and the different palaces, could smell the spices and see the intricate tilework, and feel the chop of the Bosphorus.

Emily and her new husband, the dashing spy Colin Hargreaves, have no sooner arrived in their honeymoon setting when a young woman from the Sultan's harem is murdered. The girl turns out to be the long-lost daughter of Richard St. Clare, employee at the English embassy. St. Clare, who seems to have ruined his health, and perhaps his sanity, in searching for the girl all these years, is determined to find out who killed her. It becomes Emily's task then, since Colin cannot do so, to infiltrate the harem and see if she was under threat in any way. But she cannot know the political machinations she will need to circumvent and understand to finally solve the mystery.

I felt that the actual perpetrator of the crime was a little obvious and that, at least for me, Emily and Colin's cooing over each other got a bit much (but they were on their honeymoon, after all). I believe I liked the characters in the previous novel a bit more. But the setting and mystery nicely overshadow these slight shortcomings. I can't wait to see what this pair tackles next.