July, August, and September Book Report

Yeah, I know - it occurred to me the other night when I was updating my reading list on Goodreads, that I have failed to give you a post detailing the things I've been reading since June!  So, you'll get this report, and then another in January, covering October, November, and December.  Aren't you glad now that there will be something to look forward to after the holidays???   That's really why I'm doing it this way.  Yep.  And I will stick to this story no matter what ...

Anyway, here are the things I was busy with at the end of the summer.

So Much Pretty, by Cara Hoffman.  This book was an [old] Advance Readers' Edition that I received last year, and never got around to reading.  So I decided the time had come to see what it was all about.

The story's main focus is a young girl, Alice Piper, who moved from Manhattan with her parents Gene and Claire as a baby to upstate New York, where the parents hoped to lead a simpler life, and grow organic vegetables.  From the beginning, you know that something is going to happen that is not pleasant, but it's hard to know what it is.  Another storyline has the people in the town looking for Wendy White, a young girl who disappeared mysteriously.  Alice and Wendy barely know one another, but their stories are incredibly intertwined by the end of the book.

Each chapter of the book is "told" by, or written about, each main character.  At first, it seems jarring, but as the story continues, it is an interesting way of reading about different people's viewpoints about the town, the people in the town, and various events.  It is Alice's story for the most part, but so many other people are involved, and for me at least, it gave me a clearer sense of the place.

I don't want to give anything away, so that's all I'll say about the story.  I can tell you that I was not prepared for the entire story to be as it was.  Other people may say that they had it figured out, but I have to tell you that I was surprised.

This book is disturbing, but well-written.  I would not recommend it for anyone who does not want to be reminded of what can happen in the real world, because though it is a work of fiction, the characters and events are - for better or for worse - familiar types to most everyone.

Canada, by Richard Ford.  I've never read any books by Richard Ford, though I know he has had a lot of well-reviewed books.  My husband brought me an Advanced Readers' Edition a few months ago, but I just got around to this now.

The story is told by Dell Parsons, in flashback form.  Dell and his twin sister Berner move from place to place with their parents.  Their father is in the air force, and once he retires, tries one kind of work project or scheme after another.  Their mother is a woman who is thoughtful and intelligent and appears to have settled - she and the father had to marry each other after making love once and then learning she was pregnant.  The family ends up in Great Falls, Montana, and just as the kids feel they are finally settling in someplace, trouble starts.  One of the father's business plans falls through, and against all odds, their parents end up robbing a bank.

The bulk of the book happens after that, when Berner runs away, and Dell travels with an acquaintance of his mother's to Saskatchewan, where the friend's brother has agreed to take him in.  The brother owns a hotel in a town that is hardly there anymore, but where Americans come up during the season to hunt geese.

Dell's plight is strange, but fortunately, he is not abused or forced to do anything really horrible.  He just lives a life that is lonely and extremely unusual from the time he is fifteen, until he has the chance to go to college.  By the end of the book, he is a university teacher, and happily married.  He never sees either of his parents again, and only meets up with Berner as she is dying.  It's clear that Dell actually ended up having the better life.

I found the book really interesting, not only because of all that happened, but because the family was unlike most others I've encountered in books I've read.  Dell tells the story in a factual, personal, and yet removed manner, but in the end he has survived to adulthood, and made a happy life for himself.

The Stolen Crown, by Susan Higginbotham.  Nope.  No stars.  This may be an amazing book but there's no way I'm going to go any further.  The first eight pages are a list of characters, nearly all of them with the same first names.  Nope.

Borderlands, by Brian McGilloway.  This is a new series to me, I heard about it from a co-worker.  It takes place in Ireland, in an area where the Republic of Ireland is on one side, and Northern Ireland on the other.  The main character, Benedict Devlin, is a police inspector in the Republic, who is working on solving the murder of a young girl in the area known as the Borderlands, literally one side of the street being in a different country.

Devlin is quite an interesting character, in and of himself.  He is married with two young children, and is far from perfect.  His personal flaws make him more realistic than many characters in other series.  In this book, the more he becomes involved in the murder investigation, the more complicated things become, turning out to be related to another murder, as well as the long-ago disappearance of a woman who - as it turns out - had an affair with Devlin's boss.  The story ends up having IRA involvement, even though it takes place in contemporary Ireland, where The Troubles are no longer the everyday violent activities that they once were.

I liked this book.  It's definitely something I had to be in the mood to read, since it is in no way a sugar-coated story, and the characters are not always likable.  But that was part of what also made it readable.  I will definitely read the next one of this series, as I am curious to see if Benedict Devlin's life, both personal and professional, becomes any more complicated.

Women from the Ankle Down : The Story of Shoes and How They Define Us, by Rachelle Bergstein.  I had read a review of this book, and was intrigued, so I borrowed a copy from the library.  I should qualify this by saying that a) I am fascinated with the history of clothing, and b) one of the ways in which I am a stereotypical woman is that I love shoes.

This is a very readable social history of women's shoes, and I found it to be really interesting.  For instance, I didn't know that until the mid-nineteenth century, only well-to-do people had shoes that we made for one foot or the other.  I also didn't know that for a while in France, only members of the royal family were allowed to wear shoes with red heels.  And numerous other factoids such as those.

But the book is more than a listing of interesting items that are fact.  It's actually a history of shoes, divided by time period, comparing the types 0f shoes that were popular to the events going on in the world at the time.  Granted, it is small in scope, concentrating on the U. S., with a few forays to England, particularly during the 1960s, but since it does not claim to be a definitive work, that's fine with me.

Bergstein is a good writer, and though I don't agree with some of her ideas and opinions, I really enjoyed reading this book.  It gave me a real appreciation for what goes into a shoe, and how in today's world, there are an overabundance of disposable, cheap shoes, but also ridiculously priced shoes like those made by Charles Laboutin.  I think if you enjoy social histories, written for the average reader, you will like this book.  It could have been incredibly dull and academic, but instead is simply engaging.

Old Filth, by Jane Gardam.  I have had this book on my Amazon wishlist for years, but only got around to reading it now, on my Nook.

Sir Edward Feathers (known to the members of the London Bar as "Old Filth" - "FILTH = Failed In London Try Hong Kong"), has had what seems like a successful life, having become famous in his field, living in luxury, with a wonderful wife.  But in this book Filth's life is outlined, starting with his reminiscences once he is retired and back in England, where he really never lived much as an adult.  His mother having died in childbirth, his father sent him from their colonial post, back to England to be raised by aunts.  "Raj Orphans" these children were called.  We learn that Filth's aunts had very little to do with him.  That his father pretty much abandoned him altogether.   That he had few true friends, and that once his wife dies, he realizes things about her that he never knew.  Still, after her death, his loneliness leads him to retrace some of the steps of his earlier life in England, and when things are not what he expects, he decides to return to the place he thinks of as his real home, having lived there longer than anywhere else.

The book is sad, poignant, funny, and well-written.  Filth is a complex man, not terribly likable, but once we learn his deepest secret, he becomes more understandable.  The main characters are memorable, and the descriptions of life in England before World War II - when Edward is a young man - are a sharp contrast to life in England when he returns upon retirement.

If you enjoy character studies, I would recommend Old Filth.

Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley.  I decided to give this book a try after reading a blog friend's review of it, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The story is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, but with a twist - the young princess is taken as a baby to a small village by a fairy who has attended her naming ceremony, and seen the evil witch put the spell on her.

The young fairy, Katriona, and her Aunt raise the princess (whose one of many names is Briar Rose) as just simply Rosie, a girl who grows up like any other child in the area.  Rosie's life goes along without incident until right before her 21st birthday - which is when the witch has vowed to return and have her final battle for the kingdom.  The problem is, when the time comes, Rosie has no desire to be a princess.  But she ends up doing battle anyway, to save the kingdom, the people she loves, and the chance to have a happy life.

This book was an interesting and enjoyable read for me.  Rosie is an engaging character, because she is not perfect or too "princess-y" as one might expect, being that it is a fairy tale.  The story is familiar but different, and the author manages to make it all seem so very probable.

One characteristic that Rosie has that I would love to have is the ability to speak to, and understand, the animals.  But she speaks to them and understands them as they are, not as humans might want to make them seem, which adds another level of interest, at least to me.

I recommend this book.  Sometimes it's a bit wordy, but overall, it's a good read!

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness.  This book had amazing potential.  But good Lord, it was just toooooo long.  The main character, Diana Bishop, is a young woman who is taking a sabbatical from her teaching job at Yale to study in the Bodleian Library.  She is also descended from a long line of well-known witches, and has made a conscious decision to try and do most things in a non-magic way.  While studying ancient alchemical texts, she does use magic to pull an old book from the shelf in the Library.  She notices someone is watching her, and her witch-ly sense (?) tells her the viewer is a vampire.

Sadly, her encounter turns into a love affair with the vampire, named Matthew.  That is one thing, but oh my God there are HUNDREDS of pages where it is nothing except descriptions of their love for each other, their longing, the problem of a witch and a vampire being in love, etc., etc., etc.  Ad nauseum.

This book could have been so much better, had an editor really trimmed it.  The premise is interesting, there are some really interesting passages, and it could have been so much more.  Unfortunately, the middle of the book turns into barely average chick-lit.

I finished it because I wanted to see if it ever returned to the interesting aspects of the beginning.  It nearly did, but I'm not sure if I'll read the next one or not.  Maybe I'll let some time pass and give it a try.  But nope, not right now.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I have to admit that I was predisposed to like this book.  When I was a teenager, and my mother and I were visiting her cousin in Boston, we went to see the movie version with Robert Redford.  I actually didn't pay much attention to the story, but I found it to be an aesthetically pleasing movie - the costumes, the locations, the houses.  I love that kind of stuff.

But one impression that it made on me that I do remember is the ending was not happy.  I think it was the first time I ever saw a movie and the ending didn't somehow end on a good note.  I was impressed to be honest.  But I never got around to reading the book until now.

The story of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Blake fascinates me.  I think it's because they are so real.  Imperfect, not necessarily likable - or at least not all of the time - they are, I think, pretty unique in American literature.

In the event that you haven't read this book, and thought you might, I don't want to give away the specifics of the ending.  But I have to say that reading the last part made me sad to think that there are people every day who leave for their final journey with few, and often none, there to tell them goodbye.

I'm so glad I finally sat down and read this book.

Crusoe's Daughter, by Jane Gardam.  This is the story of Polly Flint, a young girl whose mother is dead, and whose father - a sea captain - leaves her in "The Yellow House" with two aunts, older sisters of her mother.  They live in a marshy area of England, and the house is somewhat remote from the nearby town.  Polly ends up spending the entire book except for a small amount of time in this house, and lives an extremely sheltered and lonely life.  Her one "friend" - Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe - a book she read as a young girl, and which gets her through her life.

This book is an interesting slice of life in England starting shortly before the first World War, and ending after the second.  Though many changes take place, Polly's life remains somewhat the same, and things that others would take for granted often surprise or puzzle her.

I liked this book, though it was somewhat sad.  Well, sad for the reader - Polly seems to accept her lot in life, and though she is not an overly active character in the sense of traveling the world, and having new experiences, she leads an  active life of the mind.  She clings to Robinson Crusoe as if he is flesh and blood, the one constant in her life.  From what I read in the preface, this book is the author's favorite, and is loosely inspired by the years growing up that her own mother told her about.  It is a very well-written book, and in some ways fascinating.  In other ways, though, it makes you realize how many womens' lives probably were in this time and place, when women were perhaps schoolteachers, but certainly wives and mothers.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I liked this book quite a bit.  I did spend a lot of time wishing Polly would *react* to her situation, but then again, that is likely because I was looking at it from the outside, whereas she was experiencing it.

Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde.  Well, this one was not my favorite Thursday Next book so far, but it had its moments, and I've been reassured from those who have read beyond this that they pick up again.

In this installment, Thursday has taken leave from her post in Jurisfiction, and returns with her son Friday in tow to her mother's house in Swindon.  She has two things that she ends up doing:  1)trying to locate and catch Yorrick Kaine, a character from fiction who has escaped and is close to taking over the government of England, and 2) trying to get Hamlet - who has accompanied her to her mother's house - back into Shakespeare, after changes in the story have caused problems.  Of course, she also ends up coaching the town's croquet team in a championship they must win, because otherwise there will be dire consequences for the whole world, and she is continuing to try and bring back her husband, who was previously eradicated.

Oh, also - an assassin is after her.

So, the story takes its twists and turns and there are plenty of amusing events, and by the end, things are much improved.

Like I said, this wasn't my favorite, but it was enjoyable enough.

Unfortunately, I don't have any of these to offer to my blog readers, since some were Nook books, and some I have already given away to interested parties.  The rest I took to the public library for their book sale, in a fit of decluttering!

In any event, there are some here that are new-ish, and shouldn't be hard to find, and others that are likely at your public library.  Let me know if you read, or have read any of these, and just what you thought about them.

May and June Book Report

It's that time again, when I bore regale you with my thoughts on the books I've read recently.  I came across a couple of authors who were new to me, and continued with others who are favorites.  I have to admit that at the end of any month or months, when I see what I've read to put the information in this post, I am always surprised by one or two things that I've read.  Not because they were necessarily bad, but because I'll think I read them longer ago than earlier in any given month.  Times like that, I wonder just how much of a sieve my brain actually is ...

Just Run, by Chris Culver.  This was either a freebie or a 99-cent-er for my Nook.  The descriptive blurb made it sound interesting, so I figured what the heck.  Turns out, it was quite a read!

Dr. Renee Carter is a math professor at a small Ohio college.  We learn that she has written a research paper proving that online poker games are rigged.  As the book begins, she is going to her colleague's office and when she arrives, finds the colleague dead, and she herself is attacked.  Detective Trent Schaefer is called in from Cincinnati to help the small-town police force investigate.  Turn out, the men who attacked  her are with the Russian mob.  

Needless  to say, things start moving pretty fast after this.  When Renee's life is threatened, she and Schaefer hit the road.  They try to keep a few steps ahead of the Russians and an FBI agent who are trying to find them.  Schaefer turns out to be quite resourceful, and though Renee is suspicious, she sticks with him since he is the only person who seems to be interested in saving her life.

I'm not going to say much more, because if you are going to read this book, I don't want to ruin any of the suspense.  The book is fast-paced, and covers a lot of ground (literally and figuratively), while also making the reader wonder how good their own instincts are.  

If you like suspense, I can recommend this book.

Trouble in Spades, by Heather Webber.  In this second installment of the Nina Quinn series, Nina is in the throes of implementing the design for her baby sister's garden as a wedding present, when her brother-in-law to be goes missing.  Between her dread of dealing with her sister, wearing the bridesmaid's dress chosen for her, and the problems of a dead body turning up in the koi pond of her sister's backyard, Nina has her hands full.

I enjoyed reading this book - a  nice break in my reading and a fun set of characters.  So OK it's not Tolstoy, but it doesn't need to be.

The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde.  Well, Thursday Next is at it again.  Trying to lay low until her baby is born, and trying to figure out how to get her husband back from being eradicated, she is sent by the Jurisfiction office to the Well of Lost Plots - where unpublished books and characters live.  

She has made arrangements to live in a plot of a not-that-great-book and keep the story going for as long as she is there.  But as usual, things get complicated when she finds out a secret about a new product that will supposedly improve and revolutionize the reading experience for "Outlanders" - real people who do not exist only as characters in books.

This installment was just as amusing and fun to read as the previous two in the series.  Some old characters are still around, while other new ones are introduced.  I keep thinking that Jasper Fforde must have an incredible imagination to create these other universes that seem truly real.  I am generally not fond of alternate universes, or fantasy, or science fiction but these books are ones that I truly enjoy.  It might be due to the literary references, but mostly it is because the writing is so good.

If you haven't met Thursday Next yet, I think you really should.

The Air We Breathe, by Andrea Barrett.  This story, which takes place as World War I is underway at a sanitorium in the Adirondacks, was one I wanted to read after reading a blurb about it on a "Book of the Day" calendar a co-worker gave me for Christmas.  The time period is one of my favorites, and I was intrigued that the action all occurred at the sanitorium.  The story focuses from the beginning on one of the patients, Leo Marburg, who we meet as he is first arriving after being diagnosed with tuberculosis.  The narrator remains somewhat mysterious throughout the book - by the end, you do not know if the narrator was a patient, doctor, employee, or townsperson.  That, added to the overall story, kept me reading.

The Tamarack Lake Sanitorium is a small universe of its own.  Though some of those who work there are residents of the town, most everyone is from someplace else.  When a patient staying at another house in the town suggests a weekly get-together at the sanitorium, it seems like a chance for the patients to have something new and interesting in their lives.  And for a while, that's the case.  But as World War I rages on, and more people become suspicious of immigrants in general and Germans in particular, the group and personal dynamics begin to change.  Add in teenage unrequited love, and Leo's interest in chemistry, and things start to become complicated and frankly, kind of scary.

I don't want to give away any details other than those above, because this is a book that I think is well worth reading.  But what happens to people due to their perceptions of others, and the actions they take are not just disturbing, but much like some of the suspicion and rhetoric about people of Middle Eastern descent and/or Muslims in today's world.

This is a good book.

To Fetch a Thief, by Spencer Quinn.  Another outing of the Little Detective Agency, with Bernie (guy) and his partner, Chet (dog).  This time, they are hired to find a missing trainer and elephant from a down-and-out circus.  In another storyline, Bernie's ex-wife Leda announces her engagement, which is good news for Bernie - no more alimony payments.  But then they see Leda's intended leave a cheapo desert motel with a woman whose husband has hired them, because he thinks his wife is cheating.

As usual, the story is narrated by Chet, in his usual entertaining fashion.  They end up in Mexico, involved with people who are involved with the smuggling of rare animals for sale, and Bernie is arrested by the Mexican police.

That's all I'm saying, because if you are a Bernie and Chet fan and haven't read this one yet, I don't want to ruin it for you.  Once again, though, I found the story to be a good read, and would recommend the book to anyone interested in crime mysteries.  Especially if they are also animal lovers.

Oh - and the ex-wife's fiance?  Well, that gets cleared up too.

I'll definitely keep reading in this series.

City of  Women, by David R. Gillham.  I received an Advanced Readers' Edition of this, and decided to give it a try.  The title refers to the fact that during the Second World War, most of the men were away fighting, so Berlin had an overabundance of women, children, and elderly men.

The main character, Sigrid, works at the patent office, and is living with her disagreeable mother-in-law while her husband is away fighting the war in Russia.  She becomes involved with the young woman who is the nanny/babysitter/au pair for the woman living across the hall, and as a result, becomes involved in hiding Jews from the Gestapo and Nazi officers who randomly search homes and businesses.  The experience changes her life, and at  one point, she suspects that she is helping to hide the wife and children of her lover.

I kept reading this book because I wanted to see how it would end (the book, I know how the war ended).  But though I didn't really like it, I also didn't really *not* like it.  It was written pretty well in my opinion, but there were parts that seemed to go on forever, with no real additional impact, in my opinion.  The characters were OK, but I felt no real investment in Sigrid.  She changed in the course of the story, and I think she started to understand herself and her place in the world better, but she just didn't really appeal to me.

I can't say that the second this is published, you should run out, buy a copy, and read it.  But as I said, it is, for the most part, a good enough read.

An Irish Country Wedding, by Patrick Taylor.  Admittedly, I was primed to like this book - I've truly enjoyed the other books in this series, so when I had a chance to read an Advance Readers' Edition, I jumped at it.  I was not disappointed.

The main event in this installment is the wedding and plans for Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly and his first love, Kitty O'Halloran.   Besides all of the wedding plans, the various inhabitants of Ballybucklebo are, as usual, having their own problems, successes, and life events that Drs. O'Reilly and Laverty have to deal with.  First among them is the sudden illness of their housekeeper, Kinky Kincaid.  

As usual, the stories all blend together seemlessly, and the characters are consistent - meaning that if you have read any of the previous books, you will feel like you are visiting with some old friends.  For the first time, though, Patrick Taylor has referenced the fighting and civil rights issues that have been part of Ireland's history for so long.  Dr. Barry Laverty begins dating the local schooteacher Sue Nolan, who is active in the movement to give Catholic residents equal rights in Northern Ireland.   It becomes a bit of a conflict for the two of them, as she does not understand Barry's unwillingness to "take sides."  I will admit to being intrigued to find out if their relationship develops more in later stories, and how they deal with it.

I did realize while reading this that I missed the book right before this one, so I'll be poking around to find that one and read it.  I don't want to miss anything that happened in Ballybucklebo!

Out of the Deep I Cry, by Julia Spencer-Fleming.  This is one of my favorite mystery series, and this book did not disappoint.  In this installment, Reverend Clare Fergusson is faced with expensive repairs to her church, and makes arrangements with one of the parishioners to use money usually used for a free clinic to make the repairs.  The doctor at the free clinic is very upset, not just about this issue, but because he is being harrassed by a local woman who claims that the vaccination the he gave to her son led to the son's autism.

But then the doctor is missing, and the last person to see him alive was the woman picketing his clinic.  Add to that a long-ago family mystery that is tangentially related, and you have a story with a lot going on that move pretty quickly between the past and the present.  Clare and the local police chief, Russ Van Alstyne work together once again to see what happened.  Their attraction to each other reaches a turning point in this story.

I'm not going to say more, because I think if you are reading this series, you'll find what happens between them pretty interesting.

One of the things I like best about Clare Fergusson is that she is a priest, who is more than human.  She fights with the same kinds of feelings, doubts, and problems that most of us do.  Though I am not an overly religious person, I do consider myself to be a spiritual person, and Clare's real-ness makes me like this series more than many others.

Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman.  I may be the only person in the world who, until I read this book, had not read anything by Alice Hoffman.  When I saw this available as a Nook Book, I figured I'd try it, since I knew people who had seen the movie made of it and really enjoyed it.

It's the story of Sally and Gillian Owens, two sisters raised by their aunts after the parents were killed in a fire.  The aunts house, their activities, and everything about the family has always been the subject of much conjecture in the Massachusetts town where they live.  The sisters are outsiders to practically every person in the town, and as soon as they become adults, they begin living their lives not just in independent ways, but independently of their aunts.

Over the years, Sally has built a reputation for herself in a town on Long Island, where she moved with her young daughters after her husband was run over by a car of teenagers.  Gillian had left long before, and was never in one place for very long, or with one partner for any great length of time.  One night she shows up on Sally's front porch, with her latest boyfriend in the car, and she is fearful his death is her fault.  She and Sally bury the body under the lilac tree in Sally's back yard, and consider that the end of it.  

Time goes by, and life seems to change pretty drastically for Sally, her daughters, and Gillian, who now lives with them.  When a law enforcement agent comes to town looking for Gillian's boyfriend's disappearance, things really start to take a turn for the worse.  Finally, Sally and Gillian call on the aunts for help.

This is of course, a very stripped-down version of the story.  I enjoyed it overall, though I found the writing style a little bit difficult to hold on to some of the time.  The characters were interesting, if somewhat frustrating, and I would have enjoyed finding out more about the aunts, rather than suddenly knowing about them at the end of the book.

At the moment, I can't offer any of these books for those who might be interested.  Some were library books, some I read on my Nook, and the couple that were my own copies have been borrowed.  But I may have some books that include these to offer down the road, so I'll keep you posted.

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"To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company"

 -- Andre Gide

March and April Book Report

March and April were weird months for me, as far as reading goes.  For a little while, I just felt out of it and didn't even want to read.  Then I started feeling like reading, but spent most of my time on magazines that had piled up.  (After which I decided many of them will not be renewed, which is a good thing, and a kind of cleaning up on its own.)  Then I got frustrated with a couple of health issues, and though they had nothing to do with being able to read, I obsessed over them to the point of not doing much else.  But in the end, I got back on track with myself, so I'm hoping I can keep up with that.

But you really didn't care about or need to know that, did you?  If you are reading this, it's likely because you are just curious to know what I actually did read.  So here you go.

An Irish Country Girl, by Patrick Taylor.  Another installment in the Irish Country series.  In this one, the housekeeper for Doctors O'Flahertie and Laverty, "Kinky" Kincaid, fills us in on her life before she came to Ballybucklebo.   She is recalling her life on the same Christmas Day that ended the previous book.  Home on her own to prepare the holiday dinner, she is reminded of the past, growing up in County Cork, which is like another country to her current home.

We meet a young Maureen O'Hanlon, growing up on a farm with her parents, sisters, and brother, and realizing that she has "the sight" at a young age.  Maureen is a happy young woman, but also one who longs for more in her life than just marriage and motherhood.  More specifically, she wants to become a teacher.  Not a big deal for those of us reading the book today, but in Ireland during the late 1920s, a married woman who worked outside the home was not just unusual, but an embarrassment to her husband.

I found the description of life in Ireland during this time period really interesting.  Young Maureen's hopes and dreams seem very reasonable today, but back then, it was shocking - not just because married women generally didn't work outside the home, but because she is afraid that as a farmer's daughter wanting to become a teacher, people will think that she is putting on airs above her station.  

Another interesting thing is that when you really think about it, the 1920s were not that long ago, in the span of time.  Yet life is so much more basic, slower, and even harder, it could be centuries ago compared to what we are used to today.

The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz.  I was looking forward to reading this first installment in "The Spellman Files" series after reading reviews of the latest book.

Izzy Spellman has always worked for her parents in the family business, private investigation.  In this book, she decides to try and quit the PI business, and live a "normal" life.  Her parents negotiate with her to take one last case, a twelve yaer old missing persons case.  It's this case, an introduction to all of the Spellmans, and another chapter of Izzy's love life that constitutes this book.

An enjoyable read, but I was not dying for more.  It was neither as funny nor as interesting as I'd hoped.  Not bad, but also not a book that makes you want to drop everything else and finish reading others in the series.

Mr. Dixon Disappears, by Ian Sansom.  I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago, and though it was amusing enough, I didn't go out of my way to find any others.  When I came across this one, I thought well I'd give it a try.  It was an enjoyable read.  

London-born Israel Armstrong is still in the small Northern Ireland town where he is the librarian, and responsible for the mobile library (bookmobiles, in the U.S.).  When this book begins, Israel is looking forward to putting up his display of the history of Dixon's Department Store during their celebration.  He arrives early on the day the event is supposed to kick off, so that he can take his time getting things just perfect before the store opens.   However, one of the store employees runs to him and says that someone must have broken in because the store safe is wide open and empty, and Mr. Dixon has completely disappeared!  When the police arrive, they assume that since Israel seems to know so much about the crime and the store, he must be the perpetrator!

The story follows Israel's attempts to clear his name, and deal with the townspeople who are now suspicious of anything and everything he says or ever has said or done.  The parts that amused me the most would be those where close friends or family would find out he was under suspicion, and they would say, "But you're a librarian!"  

Israel's plight is told in an amusing and fast-paced manner, and it's a fun way to spend a few hours.  

Come Home, by Lisa Scottoline.  I received this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.  I am a fan of Lisa Scottoline, and have read most of her books.   In this story, a woman with a young daughter and a fiance suddenly gets sucked back into the affairs of her ex-husband, when he dies, and one of his daughters contacts the woman, Jill, to let her know and also to ask for her help proving that her father was murdered.  The former stepdaughter, Abby, shows up one night drunk to give Jill the news, and from that point on, she is involved with Abby and looking into her ex-husband's death.  

This is happening at a time when she is also concerned about one of her patients (Jill is a pediatrician), a baby who keeps getting sick, and whose mother thinks he just needs tubes place in his ears because her family members have convinced her that will take care of it.  Meanwhile, at home, Megan - Jill's young daugher - and Jill's fiance, Sam, are facing their own challenges.  Sam in particular tries to convince Jill to leave things alone and pay more attention to her own daughter, rather than two stepdaughters from a previous marriage where her husband walked out on her with the stepdaughers. As the story goes on, Jill and Sam grow apart, Abby's sister Victoria tries to keep Jill out of their lives, and Jill begins to have serious problems with her office manager at work.  Towards the end of the book, the FBI even shows up!

I liked this book well enough, but not as much as I have liked some of Lisa Scottoline's other work.   I did find the relationship between Jill and her former stepdaughters to be interesting, though, since they did have feelings for each other.  

The book is well-written, and the characters are interesting and entertaining enough, but it just didn't have the appeal for me that a lot of the others have had.

The Cove, by Ron Rash,  I had an Advance Reader's Edition of this book, and just got around to reading it in the past week.  I had read a couple of very brief reviews of it, and wasn't sure if I'd like it.  But here it was, and it was worth trying.

I enjoyed the story very much.  It tells of Laurel Shelton and her brother Hank, who live in the family cabin in a cove that is supposedly cursed.  Hank has returned from WWII after losing an arm, and he is more accepted by the people in the nearby town.  Laurel, though, has a large purple birthmark which the townspeople claim makes her a witch, so she is either avoided altogether or made fun of by others.

One day while doing laundry by the river, Laurel hears beautiful music, and sees from a hiding place a poorly dressed, dirty man, who she would think was a bum if he didn't have such a gorgeous silver flute.  She returns to the spot a couple of times, and when she finds him dying, takes him back to the cabin to save his life.  He survives, and hands her a card saying that he is a mute.  Laurel, and eventually Hank, bring him back to health, and he begins working with Hank on the small family farm.  Laurel becomes increasingly fond of him.  The mute - named Walter - has written a story telling them that he was on his way to NYC to become a musician.

The story develops further, and we eventually learn the truth about Walter.  Woven into the backstory of soldiers from the town returning from war, and the feeling of the townspeople about foreigners in general and Germans in particular, a series of events changes the lives of everyone involved.  I don't want to go into detail here, because I do think the book is worth a read, but I have to say that it kept me reading, and the ending was not what I was expecting.

I would recommend it if you enjoy books evocative of time and place.  

So there you have it.  The only book I have to offer anyone interested is The Cove,  as the others were either books I read on my Nook, or that I've already given away to a co-worker who was interested.  But it you are interested in The Cove, let me know in the comments by the end of the day on Saturday, May 5.  If more than one person is interested, I'll pick names out of a hat, or something similar, yet random.

Now, I just have to decide what I want to read next ...

January and February Book Report

Looking over the books I've read so far this year, I'm amused by their variety.  Lots of the time I tend to get on a roll with certain things - mysteries, biographies, etc., and I am primarily drawn to reading those one after another.  Apparently the past couple of months have not fallen into that pattern.  But I have read some things I've really liked.

A Hoe Lot of Trouble, by Heather Webber.  Since I came down with pneumonia shortly after Christmas, I haven't really been able to concentrate well enough to read anything.  I am slowly but surely feeling better, and I saw this book was available (inexpensively) for my Nook Tablet, so I thought what the heck.

The main character is Nina Quinn, a landscape gardener who owns her own business, Taken By Surprise.  Their specialty is one-day makeovers of peoples' yards and gardens.  As the book opens, Nina has just found out that her police officer husband Kevin, is having an affair with his partner, and has kicked him out of the house.  Her stepson Riley (a teenage boy) is even more surly than usual, and she learns that he is involved with a gang at his high school called the Skinz, who seem to be pretty serious troublemakers.

As if that isn't enough going on, her friend Bridget (!) contacts her.  Bridget's father-in-law recently died, and the family is beginning to think it was murder, because the family would not sell the family farm to a developer.  Bridget asks Nina to investigate.  Things get confused right away, as Bridget's husband Tim (!) tries to demand that she step away from the investigation.

Between the cheating husband, the surly stepson, and her investigation, there is plenty going on.  But there's also a problem at her business, where tools have been mysteriously disappearing - so Nina is also trying to figure out which one of her employees is stealing from her.  Oh, and the stepson's pet boa constrictor has escaped from its tank, and is someplace in their house!

This was a really enjoyable read.  It moved along quickly, and the characters were both amusing and realistic.  Nina is a pretty amusing heroine, and her friends, neighbors, and family were all interesting.  I think this was just the sort of thing I needed as I was recovering, and I really want to read another book in this series to see if I still enjoy it.

Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde.  This is the second installment in the Thursday Next series, and another enjoyable read.  Just as Thursday and Landen, the love of her life, and the father of their unborn baby, are able to have a life together, the Goliath Corporation eradicates him.  So Thursday has to become a Prose Resource Operative (PRO) in a section called Jurisfiction, where the inside of books is regulated.  She becomes a protege of Miss Havisham, who here is shown as a real man-hater, and a crazy driver!  Thursday is - at the same time - trying to prevent coincidences, using a tool her time-traveling father gives her, and trying to find authentication for a newly discovered play by William Shakespeare.

Once again, the story goes back and forth in time, book titles, and the weirdness that is the daily life of Thursday Next.  Again there is a lot of amusing wordplay, and of course Thursday's family and her pet dodo, Pickwick.  I'm pretty sure that there were things I missed in this book, but there were enough things that I understood to make it interesting and amusing.  At one point, Thursday even finds herself in "The Raven," after a series of events leads her to agree to try and rescue Jack Schitt from spending eternity there.

Oh, and the villain from the last book, Acheron Hades, has a sibling show up who is trying to kill Thursday.  Plus, she has to try to remember to not allow a pink, gooey substance to end life on earth.

It's all very ridiculous, but so much fun!  I will definitely read another one in this series.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See.  Well.  I don't know what to say exactly about this book.  I've been meaning to read it for a while, and finally got around to it.  It is very well-written, and evocative of 19th-century China.  But between the constant reminders that women and girls were useless, and the footbinding, it just about did me and my sensibilities in!

The story is narrated by Lily, who is the second daughter of rural family in 19th-century China.  As a young girl, she is matched up with Snow Flower, a "laotang" or "same" - meaning they share a birthday and several other characteristics.  Lily and Snow Flower become like sisters, and share a lifelong love.  They experience footbinding together, preparing for marriage, becoming wives and mothers together, and seem like they will never lose touch.  They also learn "nu shu" which is a secret writing used by women.  They exchange notes using this secret writing system on a fan that goes back and forth between them throughout the story.

As I said, I wanted to keep reading, because the story was overall very good and so well-written.  But Lily and Snow Flower had pretty depressing existences and there were times when it was especially hard to take.   I know that the writer was portraying life as it was at that time, but it was often so disturbing and/or depressing, I'd have to put the book down for a while.

The whole process/meaning/practice of footbinding itself can send you into a whirl.  I remember reading several very graphic descriptions of what was involved in the whole practice, and that was bad enough.  But then a few years ago, I went to a program at a local museum, where they had an actual shoe on display that a woman whose feet had been bound would wear, and seeing it actually made me sick to my stomach.  As mentioned in the story, the "ideal" lotus flower foot was about the length of a human thumb!  Lily's younger sister dies from an infection that is a result of footbinding in the book, and apparently this was not that unusual.

Anyway, it is a good read, and when Lily learns something that sends all of her thoughts/ideas/beliefs about Snow Flower out the window, you really want to find out what will happen to their intensely strong relationship.

I don't know that I "enjoyed" the book - but I am glad that I read it.

Birds of a Lesser Paradise : Stories, by Megan Mayhew Bergman.  I gave this book a two-star rating, because a) I didn't finish it, but b) it is nicely written.  I had a completely different idea of what to expect, or maybe it just wasn't the right phase of the moon to read it.  Who knows.

The biggest reason I didn't finish this book is because after reading the first four stories, I just found it too depressing.  None of the characters was really that likable, and the stories themselves were just far too sad for me to keep reading.

As I said in the first paragraph, the writing is quite nice, and I can see plenty of people I know really liking this book.  It's just not for me, so I'm stopping now and moving on.

The Mill River Recluse, by Darcie Chan.  I read a short review of this book a month or so ago, and it sounded interesting, so when I saw it was on sale for the Nook, I decided to give it a try.  

Mill River is a small town in Vermont - one of those places where everybody knows everybody else.  Mary Hayes McAlister grew up there, on a horse farm with her father.  A traumatic experience when she was in high school caused her to suffer such severe anxiety attacks, that she never finished high school.  Patrick McAlister comes to the horse farm one day to purchase a horse, spies Mary, and determines that she will be his wife.  Because he is a privileged, obnoxious lout with a plan, he manages to gain Mary's trust to the point where she marries him.

When the book begins, Mary is in her big marble house on a hill overlooking Mill Run, dying of cancer.  She hasn't left the house in years, and few people have ever seen her.  Through chapters of flashbacks told by her lifelong friend Father O'Brien (one of the very few people she would ever see in her adult life), and current-day chapters about the various townspeople, we learn about Mary's life over the years, and how being able to see the town from her window in the house on the hill has sustained her.  

The book is really a good read, and though it's not the most amazing thing ever written in the history of the universe, it is a good study of characters, and portrays the life of someone with extreme anxiety but a desire to be part of something larger really well.  Mary is not a saint, nor is Father O'Brien, or anyone else in the town; but you come to know them and accept them because they are all just human.  I also liked it because it is a story of generosity of spirit and kindness to others under difficult conditions.

A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick.  I enjoyed this book.  It takes place at the turn-of-the-20th-century, when Ralph Truitt, an extremely wealthy businessman living in remote Wisconsin, meets his future wife, Catherine Land, at the train station in the town, after she answered an ad he placed for a companion/wife.  Truitt has had an unfortunate and somewhat violent past.  Catherine's past has been not quite on the up and up we suspect (and eventually learn).  Right from the start, Ralph Truitt is in a violent, life-threatening accident, and Catherine decides to take care of him.  But she keeps mentioning "the plan," and making sure she has "the blue bottle in her luggage."

I found this book not just very readable, but full of twists and turns that I just was not expecting.  The writing is very evocative of time and place, not just in the Wisconsin farmland, but also in St. Louis and Chicago when they are important to the story.  I tend to forget that many cities were pretty rough-and-tumble when they first started having large populations, and Goolrick manages to make you feel like you are witnessing events at the time they actually happen.  

Each of the characters has an interesting - and to some degree, mysterious - history, and none of them are 100% percent right/wrong/likable.  Which is one of the things that appealed to me - they were like real people.  

Now ... what to read next???

Let me know if you try any of these, or if you've read them - I'd like to know what you think!