From Ash to Stone by Julie Daines

Six years ago Lady Margaret Grey's family was killed by raiders that had crossed the border from Scotland to loot her home. Now she is back to get revenge and try to break a curse that was placed upon her that night. The problem is, she doesn't know the identity of the raiders.  As begins to investigate, she is reunited with a childhood friend Angus Robson, whose family live across the boarder. His intentions to help her seem to be sincere, but can she trust someone who is from the same community that changed her life forever? 

I almost laughed when I saw the cover of this book.  My family makes fun of me for reading so many books that have the back of a lady's fancy dress on the cover. This one adds a twist of the dagger, which, I guess, successfully communicates the theme of the book.  I enjoyed the book.  The characters are not particularly novel, but the setting was interesting and the mystery of the perpetrator of the raid made a good side story, (though the solution to the mystery was not much of a surprise).  I liked the ending, and thought it fit the setting pretty well. The reader of the book does the different accents well.  I mean, who doesn't enjoy a good Scottish brogue? (240 p. 2018)

Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter by Beth McMullen

 Lola loves her eccentric archaeologist father, but sometimes she tires of always moving, never staying on one place long enough to make friends.  Then, one day, her father rushes away on a new treasure hunt and sends her to live with her great-aunt in California.  Soon after, two strange lawyers inform her that her father has been killed.  Lola is convinced that her father is not dead, and goes on a (not so successful) crime spree to try to earn enough money to go looking for him.  Her adventures end with her being sent to a private science school. At the school she meets two other students who are willing to join her in her search for her lost father.  They are pitted against a mysterious legend, an illusive recluse, and an evil criminal mastermind.

Here is a fun mystery/adventure for middle grade readers.  The writing is snappy and the characters are quirky, in an endearing way.  There are plenty of hijinks, near escapes, and kid power. The nicest thing about the book is watching the three kids change from adversaries to friends. I am happy to have another recommendation for kids who like mysteries. (2020, 304p.)

101 Essays that will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest

 As the title suggests, this book contains 101 short essays about life, love, and emotional wellbeing.  Ms Wiest is influenced by Zen Buddhism, but this isn't a Buddhist text.  Instead it is just a collection of wise thoughts and aphorisms.  In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, almost all of the essays contain a list of "truths" or "instructions" on different topics.  Some of these lists are short, only 5 or 10 items, but some are fairly lengthy, like 50, or 100 aphorisms. Her main ideas are that we are responsible for our own lives, thoughts, and emotions, that every aspect of our lives are impermanent so we should embrace change, and that simplicity is more likely to bring contentment than amassing possessions or glory.

This book was very popular when it was first released, and has gone on to be translated into many languages.  I looked up Ms Wiest's bio, and she doesn't seem to have any specific training to produce this kind of a treatise. Her bachelor's degree was in literature and she doesn't have an advanced degree.  The nature of the book makes me think that maybe it is a compellation of blog posts? They are fairly repetitive, and the reader could get as much out of the book reading half of it as in reading the whole thing.  That being said, her ideas, if not definitively true, are at least thought provoking. I took the opportunity while listening to the book to stop a couple of times and do some self-examination, so in that respect, I found the book enlightening. (448 p. 2018)

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

 Mila Pavlichenko is a student, library researcher, and single mother when she decides to take a riflery course.  She finds she has a talent for sharp-shooting so when Russia enters WWII, she enlists to defend her country from the German invaders. She becomes a very effective sniper and rises through the ranks in the Russian military.  Although conflicted about her nickname of Lady Death and in her relationships with her ex-husband, her shooting partner, and her commanding officer, her main focus is in defeating the invaders who have caused so much death and destruction in her beloved Russia. 

Here is another book that I just chose while browsing the available titles.  I figured that I enjoy  WWII historical fiction and I ultimately liked The Rose Code written by Quinn. This turned out to be an interesting book.  It is based on a real person and many of the events in the book are taken from Pavlichenko's own memoir.  I think the author was trying to address the question, "how can a woman kill over 300 men and not lose her soul or her sanity?" The answer the book puts forward is that being a sniper is just one other way to "do your bit" during wartime. Mila seems to rather successfully separate herself from the job she needs to do, though the terrible things she experiences as her battalion is forced back on two different fronts give her PTSD for the rest of her life.  A fascinating part of the story, also based on history, is that after serving as a sniper, Pavlichenko is chosen to be part of an diplomatic envoy to the United States and becomes friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. The author adds some elements to the book, like various romances and the attempt on President Roosevelt's life, which are not part of the historical record, but she weaves them into the historical elements pretty well, and they give the story a thrilling and satisfying ending. (2022, 448 p)

Spy School Goes South by Stuart Gibbs

 In this episode of Spy School, Murry Hill convinces the CIA that he has turned over a new leaf and wants to lead Ben and his friends to the SPYDER lair. Enroute they are double crossed and end up crash landing in the jungle on the Baja Peninsula. Erica is determined to not only find the SPYDER base, but also thwart their latest evil plot. Nothing is as easy and straight forward as they thought, and once again Ben finds himself fighting for his own life and for the safety of millions of others. 

This was a fun installment of the Spy School series. Ben is considering diverting his romantic interest from Erica to Zoey. There are some fun chase scenes and funny plot twists. Gibbs manages to slip in historical and geographical information as well.  I kid could do worse than get stuck on this series. (2018, 352 p) 

Crochet and Cauldrons by Nancy Warren

 In this next installment in the "Vampire Knitting Club" series, Lucy's parents unexpectedly show up, fresh from an archeological dig. Her mother is acting strange when she hands Lucy a mirror that looks to be from ancient Egypt. The mirror turns out to be magic, and when Lucy picks it up it unleashes a series of events that put Lucy and the rest of the magical world at great peril.  Lucy knows that she is out of her depth, and this time her vampire friends are not much help.  She turns to a powerful witch for advice, but the that advice comes at a terrible cost. Now she has both the enchanted mirror and the consequences of the witch's help to deal with, all while trying to entertain her parents who think she should give up the knitting shop and settle down with a certain handsome police officer.  What is a girl to do?

This book departs from the pattern in the first two in the series, in that it doesn't start with a murder.  Warren introduces a lot of new mystical elements that pushes the book from the genre of magical realism into full-out fantasy.  Some reviewers on Goodreads were put off by the shift, but I didn't mind.  It is all so silly anyway, why not jump into the magical deep end?  The series is starting to feel like episodes from one of the after school sit-coms from my childhood, like "I Dream of Genie" or "Bewitched". It is all in good fun and was never intended to be serious. I will probably read more in the series when the mood for something ultralight hits me. (2018, 236 p)

Great Courses: Shocking Psychological Studies and the Lessons They Teach by Thad Polk

 In this short Great Courses offering Dr. Polk explores some of the most notorious psychological studies of the past and what impact they had both on the science of psychology, and on the code of ethics that now protects study subjects from similar abuse.  He discusses how studies of the past preyed on the most vulnerable populations, like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, that ultimately prevented poor black participants from receiving syphilis treatments.  Others crossed boundaries of treating subjects with respect, like the Stanford Prison Experiment that allowed some students to physically and mentally abuse other students for days before outside observers put a stop to it. Others he discusses are not as clearly unethical and he invites the listener to judge for themselves the ethics of the cases. He winds up the series by discussing what the current best practices are for those who design medical or psychological studies. 

This is one I chose on a whim one day when I was tired of my normal fare of clean romances. It was very interesting.  I had heard about several of the studies he discussed, but gained more information and insight about them.  For example, I had heard about the famous Milgram study where one student was told to give another student an electric shock when they couldn't remember a series of numbers. I hadn't realized that that study was conducted by a Jewish researcher in response to the Nuremburg Trials when so many Germans used as their defense that they were "just following orders."  Readers should beware that this lecture series contains adult content, particularly a discussion about a study of men who meet up in restrooms for homosexual intercourse. It is handled clinically, and didn't offend me much, but I can see how it might be offensive to many readers. (2020, 3 hrs.)