The Servant by James Hunter

 Mr. Hunter has couched his approach to leadership in a long, rather stilted story of a troubled businessman who attends a retreat at a monastery and, in a group session with five other stock characters, figures out the real road to happiness and success. His theory is based on principles found in the New Testament, specifically in Paul's chapter about charity.  He painstaking shows how living with charity toward both family and co-workers will improve leadership skills. 

I'm sorry,  I probably could have come up with a more positive summary than that.  I actually thought the James Hunter's ideas about being a servant leader where spot on.  In an introduction Hunter explains how happy and amazed he is that his parable has been so successful and well recognized in the business world.  If that is true, he has done a good work in the world. It is a good leadership handbook, but, alas, it is terrible literature. It was super painful to listen to. The conversations between the characters are totally unnatural and stilted. Different characters spontaneously spout quotes from a huge variety of sources, complete with accurate reference, and make wise and witty comments.  The characters, themselves, are paper cutouts: the hardnosed sergeant, the compassionate nurse, the world weary school principal, the cheery priest and the jaded businessman.  I would have enjoyed the book so much more if Hunter had just talked, straight out, about Servant Leadership, rather than trying to couch it in a totally fake story. Sigh. Still, I am not sorry I listened to it.  It gave me food for thought and some ideas about what I want to accomplish as the Management Round Table Vice Chair next year. (1998, 178 p.)

The Lost Letter by Mimi Matthews

 Sylvia Stafford was one of the jewels of London society and Sebastian Conrad was the second son of an earl destined for a career in the military when Sylvia caught his eye. Serious and socially awkward, it was hard for him to pursue Sylvia, but right before he was to ship off to India, it seemed that their relationship had advanced to an understanding.  Soon after he left, Sylvia's father committed suicide and Sylvia was forced to become a governess to support himself.  Meanwhile, Sebastian was seriously wounded in battle, and came back to England with a severely disfigured face. Both were living in quiet unhappiness when Sebastian's nosey sister convinced Sylvia to come and visit at her brother's estate. Can they overcome the tragedies of their past and have a hope for a brighter future?

I chose this as a filler book while I was waiting for some books I have on hold to come in. This is the first book I have read by Mimi Matthews, and I was pretty happy with it.  It is a very standard Victorian romance, but it is clean and decently written. I appreciated the fact that neither main character acted stupidly, though there was some frustrating miscommunications.  The story isn't very complex, a pretty standard Beauty and the Beast motif, but it is short and enjoyable enough that I put Ms. Matthews on my Clean Romance Writer's list and will probably try reading something else by her sometime in the future. (2017, 242 p.)

Great Courses: Charlemagne by Philip Daileader

Charlemagne is one of the historical figures that looms larger than life.  His father was a successful ruler, Pepin,  King of the Franks, but Charlemagne was able to expand his inherited kingdom to include almost all of the continental Europe. After his brilliant military victories, he instituted educational and civil reforms that have positively impacted Europe ever since. In this 12 lecture series, Dr. Daileader looks at Charlemagne's life and impact in several different categories, including his military successes, his leadership in the Carolingian Renaissance, his religious reforms and others. He finishes with a lecture about how Charlemagne's legacy has lived on into the modern day.

I have listened to several different Great Courses lecture series lately about the middle ages in Europe.  This is partly in preparation for my planned trip to Europe in the fall. I have enjoyed all the Great Courses classes I have listened to, but I must admit that is one wasn't my favorite.  It may be that I wasn't really in the mood for it, but it seemed a little more dry than the one I listened to about Italy or the one I listened to about the history of the Levant. I did learn a lot of new facts about Charlemagne and Europe in the Middle Ages.  For instance, I am embarrassed to admit I had always thought of Charlemagne as French since his name sounds French, but he was actually more German than French. I was also interested in the section about how he managed his family and his dynasty.  When I listened to the history of Italy, one of the big problems with Italian medieval leaders was that they had a hard time establishing heirs. Charlemagne seemed to manage his own dynasty better than most. I also found it interesting that one of the reasons Charlemagne was so successful is that Europe just happened to have several years of really good weather during his reign, increasing crop output and decreasing plague. This isn't a bad introduction to an impressive historical figure, but, as I said, a little bit boring in its presentation. (12 hr., 2023)

City Spies by James Ponti

 Sara Martinez is in Juvey because she hacked into the New York City foster care system to expose the corruption and abuse at her foster home. She is about to be sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center when she is saved by a man who recruits her to join a elite group of teens who work for MI6. After a hasty training, Sara, now called Brooklyn, Cat, Rio, Paris and Sydney are off on a mission to protect an eccentric philanthropist from assassination by an powerful terrorist group. Posing as a high school students at an international climate control competition, they soon discover there is much more at risk at the conference than just one man's safety. 

This is a new book on the Battle of the Books list this year.  There have been a lot of "spy school" stories in the past.  It is interesting that Stuart Gibbs gives one of the "blibs" on the cover, since his Spy School series is one of the most well known and one that I liked the most. This one is OK.  The kids are likeable, and the plot has some good twists to it.  Everything is a bit over the top.  I don't think anyone, let alone a 13-year-old girl without any computer education, could do the kind of hacking she is supposed to be able to do.  There are some plot problems, too, but I don't know if kids would pick up on them. The story is fast paced and fun, so I am not that disappointed that it is on the Battle of the Books list this year. I may even read the next in the series some day. (2020, 384 p)

The Many Assassinations of Samir, Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri

 A young orphan flees from some angry monks from a monastery where he had been working as an errand boy.  He is saved by a traveling merchant, Samir, who buys him from the monks for the value of six lengths of cloth. Samir calls the boy Monkey, since he wears a monk's robe, and together they travel along the Silk Road with a caravan of interesting tradesmen and women. Monkey soon figures out that his new master is not always honest in his transactions, and as a result, there are a lot of people who want to kill him.  Monkey has to decide how far he will go to help Samir in hopes of winning his own freedom. 

This is one of the Newbery Honor books this year.  I must give the committee credit for choosing something original and unique.  The setting is interesting; the Silk Road trading route in the middle ages. The author includes a note in the end explaining what the Silk Road was and how much of the setting and the ethnic groups represented were based on history.  The thing that makes the story really work, though,  are the characters of Samir and Monkey. Samir is a trickster character, but a loveable one.  He always has a good story to tell, and sometimes shows surprising willingness to forgo an advantageous trade to help someone out.  It is fun to watch Monkey slowly switch from being a self-righteous monk's apprentice to learning the art of the bargain, and, when needed, the hasty escape. I can't say I was as impressed with this book as I was with the other Newbery Honor I read recently, Simon Sort of Says, but I do appreciate that it wasn't just another social issues book. (2023, 224 p.)

The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake

 When Nora was a small child, she was the only one of her family to survive a pandemic.  Taken home by the doctor who found her, and taken in by his housekeeper, she is raised as the doctor's ward. Dr. Croft is a leader in his field of surgery, and Nora soon learns that the only way she can get his attention is to be helpful to him as he works.  As the years pass, she learns so much from watching him that she becomes useful to him in his clinic, and even during the clandestine dissections he does in the dead of night. Neither Nora or Dr. Croft care that by helping him she is breaking all Victorian convention, and even the law. They don't care, that is, until Dr. Croft takes on a young doctor as an apprentice. Daniel Gibson at first can't understand Nora's role in the household. Once he does, he is at first appalled, then curious, and finally impressed with Nora's knowledge and skill. He understands better than even Croft the need to keep what she does a secret, but a late night emergency forces things out into the open.  Can their budding relationship survive the outrage they face from society?

This is not your Hallmark style historical romance. The author seems to enjoy describing the most gruesome Victorian medical practices she can include with vivid detail. Definitely not for the medically squeamish. If you can stomach descriptions of amputations, and mothers hemorrhaging in child birth than the rest of the book is really quite good.  The characters are fully drawn and the historical setting is fascinating. I was especially interested when the doctor is first introduced to ether as an anesthetic.  He gets very excited about the new substance, but doesn't know what to do with it, so he ends up using himself and Nora as test subjects. I also liked the fierce rivalry between opposing factions in the large teaching hospital. I enjoyed the book, but I must admit all the bloody medical scenes did disrupt my sleep this week.  Nevertheless I am not opposed to reading more from this author. (384, 2021)

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

 Gwenda has moved to England after having grown up in New Zealand.  Her husband, Giles, has tasked her with finding a home for them, and she is drawn to a little town in the country.  She finds a home and is surprised that it feels familiar.  After moving in she starts having memories of that very home.  Some are positive, but a few are very disturbing.  They team up with Miss Marple, and soon discover that Gwenda had actually lived in the very house she has purchased for a year with her father and stepmother. As they dig into Gwenda's past, they begin to believe that Gwenda's stepmother did not run off with a lover, as many believed at the time, but was, instead, murdered.  Which of the men from the poor woman's life committed the evil deed?

I was delighted to find a Miss Marple book that I hadn't read before. Miss Marple is my favorite of the Christie sleuths. The plot is nicely constructed, and the ending decently surprising. Christie is the master of red herrings, and is so good at dropping minor details that end up being major clues. The characters are not very dimensional, but the cleverness of the plot, and Miss Marple's charming personality makes up for it. There are reasons why Christie's books have never gone out of print. (1976, 256 p.)

Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

 Simon and his parents have just moved to Grin and Bear It Nebraska, near the large radio telescope. The town is a national radio quiet zone but Simon is glad none of his class mates have internet.  If they did and if they googled his name, Simon's biggest secret would be out and people would start acting all weird around him.  Simon makes friends with a girl named Agate who wants to fool the scientists at the radio telescope into thinking they are receiving a message from outer space. Simon goes along with her just because it is so nice to have a friends who doesn't know his secret. Simon is still dealing with trauma but Agate seems to understand that some things act as triggers for him and tries to support him when he has a panic attack. How far is Simon willing to go to keep his secret and make Agate happy, and what will it cost him?

This was one of the Newbery Honor books this year, and the award was well earned.  The books is a hearty mix of both humor and tenderness. Bow does a great job of portraying two vulnerable kids who are trying to get through life, and find it is better to do it together.  She also writes some really funny scenes that break up the heaviness of the topic of dealing with trauma. I also liked that fact that both Agate and Simon has two supportive parents.  That is so rare in middle grade fiction.  She also shows how Simon's near death experience traumatized his parents as well as him. I will be recommending this to kids who like stories like Wonder and Fish in a Tree. (2023, 320 p)

A Simple Wedding by Leigh Duncan

Jenny is the personal assistant to a Academy Award winning actress, Kay, who also happens to be her cousin.  When Kay gets engaged to her equally famous co-star, she sends Jenny to make the arrangements  Heart's Landing, a small town dedicated to making every bride get her ideal wedding. Kay makes Jenny promise to pretend to be the bride and hide the identity of the real couple getting married in order to avoid the paparazzi. As Jenny starts to interact with vendors, she develops friendship relationships with many of them, but especially with the baker, Nick, who has agreed to do the wedding cake. Sparks of attraction fly, but both try to suppress their feelings because Nick thinks Jenny is engaged. Things get even more complicated when Kay changes her plans, and Jenny is left to try to make excuses to all the vendors for difficult last minute adjustments. 

After finishing the Great Courses series, I decided to try something much lighter, and went with a contemporary clean romance.  I hadn't read anything from this author before and I didn't realize when I started that this book is published by Hallmark, and is very much like a Hallmark movie. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, I didn't end up liking the book very much.  The main thing that drove me crazy is that, with all Jenny's problems there was such a simple solution, but she wouldn't take it. In my mind I kept shouting, "Just tell the guy the truth, that you are arranging someone else's wedding."  But no, even though her bratty cousin was being totally manipulative and inconsiderate, Jenny stuck to her promise to impersonate a bride and keep her cousin's secret. Not only was it frustrating, it didn't really fit her personality.  It felt like the author was making her character do something out of character in order to make the plot work.  I am afraid Ms Duncan is not making it on my Favorite Clean Romance Writer's list. (2020, 300 p)

Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee

 Sebin (they/them) is a tiger spirit on one of the planets in the Thousand Realms.  He idolizes his uncle who is the commander of a Space Forces, they apply for space academy as soon as they are eligible. On the same day Sebin receives his acceptance letter, the clan leader receives a notice that Sebin's uncle has been accused of treason and is in hiding. Tiger Spirits have fierce loyalty to their clan, but when Sebin is called to choose between loyalty to his family and to his new commander and his new friends in Space Forces, it is not an easy choice to make.  He has always looked up to his uncle and has assumed he was wrongly accuse, but what if his uncle is not as honorable as Sebin always thought he was?

This is the second in the series that began with Dragon Pearl.  I liked that one when I read it clear back in 2022 and had decided to put the next on hold right away, but I guess I didn't.  When I finally listened to this one I must admit I had forgotten much of the story and characters of the first one and was a little lost starting out. B
y the end I had figured everything out and enjoyed the book, if not as much as Dragon Pearl, at least decently well.  The world building is interesting as is the magic structure, which is based on Korean mythology.  Sebin is a believable and sympathetic 13-year-old trying to live up to his family's expectations. That said, I thought the fact that Lee made Sebin non-binary and always referred to them as "them/they" was a little distracting.  Really, their sexual orientation had no bearing in the plot at all.  It seemed like it was only included in the book to pander to a publisher's pressure to create more LGBTQ literature. (256 p. 2022)

Great Courses: Great Minds of the Medieval World by Dorsey Armstrong

Dr. Dorsey is from Purdue University and has done several Great Courses videos on Medieval History.  In this one she focuses on 12 people who made great intellectual contributions during the middle ages. She groups them into categories.  First she talks about the early church fathers like Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory.  She then talks about other great Catholic philosophers like Bede, Thomas Aquinus, and Bernard of Clairvaux.  She spends several lectures talking about Moslem and Jewish scholars of the middle ages, and then finishes up with people who made contributions who were not religious leaders.  She is very knowledgeable, and has a pleasant presentation style. She covers the subject's lives mostly, but also touches on their main ideas and values.  

You who are my regular readers know that I love this kind of stuff.  When I was in college I studied Latin and Greek, but the time period I was most interested in was the early medieval period.  I had heard about almost all the people she talks about in this series, but it was fun to get more details about their lives, and to be reminded about their accomplishments. There were a couple I hadn't heard about before, particularly some of the people in her last section about late medieval nonreligious leaders. I kept hoping she would mention Peter Cantor, who was the person I did my honors thesis about, but no luck. (He was more like a tear two historical personality.) Listening to the Great Courses classes really does take me back to my college years.  (24 1/2 hour lectures, 2014)

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman

 Frances Wynn was an American Heiress who married an English Count in need of her money.  He was unfaithful and eventually died of a heart attack in his mistress's bed. Luckily, the prenuptial agreement allows Frances to keep her inheritance despite all her in-laws' attempts to seize it to bolster their failing finances. With a title and an fortune she decides to move to London where she is enlisted by her mother to host her sister, Lily, and sponsor her first London season.  As Lily starts to acquire potential suitors, there is also a rise of thefts among their social circle.  At the same time, an anonymous letter is sent to the police accusing Frances of murdering her husband. Luckily, she has a dashing next-door neighbor who happens to be her best friend's brother who is willing to help Frances investigate her husband's deaths, her sister's suitors (are they only fortune hunters) and the local thefts. 

After reading a couple of teen and tween fantasies it was fun to get back to my most frequently visited genre, clean historical romance.  This is a new author I haven't read before, and I ended up liking it pretty well.  The pacing is a little slow, and there are not the trilling instances of peril we found in Brentwood's Ward , but it suited the mood I was in.  Frances is clever and doesn't make the stupid mistakes some women characters in historical romances make.  The love interest, George Hazelton, is supportive and protective, but doesn't really play the role of "knight in shining armor."  They are more like a team and he allows Frances to take reasonable risks. This is the first of a series, so they are just starting their relationship.  I also thought Freeman did a decent job with portraying the complex social structure of the Ton. I will certainly be reading the second in the series at some point in the future. (2018, 272 p.)

Amari and the Great Game by B.B. Alston

 Amari Peters is back for her second summer at the Bureau of Supernatural Investigations, this time as a Junior Agent.  Her hopes for a fun summer with friends is soon dashed when a Merlin and other Bureau leaders are caught in a time bubble, and a magician hating wraith takes his place. Soon Amari is suspected of causing the time freeze, and turns to the illegal League of Magicians for help. She is dismayed when they divulge their plans to go to war with the Bureau and want her to be their leader. When she refuses, they choose someone much more dangerous, and to prevent all out war, she must compete against him in the Great Game. Meanwhile time is running out for her brother who is still under a curse, and for all the "unwanted" magical beings being targeted under the new Bureau leadership.  What is a 13 year old magician to do?

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but was a little disappointed that this one was so much like that one.  The plot was almost the same.  She is still trying to save her brother. She is still fighting against prejudice from above and below, and she still has to try to pass a series of magical tests in order to get what she wants.  It is an interesting magic system and the characters are drawn well enough that I finished the book.  Now I am trying to decide if I will read the next in the series when it comes out.  I am in the same place with this series as with the Spoken Mage series by Melanie Cellier.  Actually, they are very similar books, both about a girl with unusual powers overcoming prejudice to save the world. I don't feel super compelled to finish either series, but I probably will. (432 p. 2022)

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

 Tress lives as a window washer on an island surrounded by a green sea of spores. Her best friend, Charlie, is the son of a duke who pretends to be a gardener.  Her home is not perfect but she is content, until one day the Duke sees Tress and Charlie together and fears they are falling in love. The Duke whisks Charlie away to find him a royal bride, but when the Duke returns, he reports that Charlie has been taken by the Sorceress of the Black Sea. Although timid and polite, Tress decides she must try to rescue Charlie. She stows away on a ship and then falls in with some pirates. Faced with challenges including a cruel captain, dangerous spores, and mutinous shipmates, Tress gradually changes from a timid maiden to a force to be reconned with. 

Brandon Sanderson is hugely popular and successful as an author, and I am a little embarrassed to admit that up until this week I had only read his Alcatraz series. When this book came out with his four secret books that he wrote during the pandemic, I decided it would be a good first to try of his books written for teens-adults.  It was a lot of fun, and had a little of the same flavor as the Alcatraz series.  There was a big dose of silliness, and quite a bit of philosophizing, but that just made it more entertaining. The characters were diverse and interesting and the world and magic system were totally original. There were some characters in the book that were clearly from other books he had written in the same literary universe, and I felt a little adrift because I didn't know their backstory. He did include enough information that it didn't ruin the story not to know where they came from. My daughter assures me that some of his books from the Cosmere are more serious and gritty than this one.  Maybe some day I will read them.  As for now I am well pleased with this first taste of the Sanderson legacy.  (384 p. 2023)

Chalice by Robin McKinley

Mirasol lived a quiet life, keeping her forest and tending her bees until the day she was called upon to be Chalice to the new master of the Willowlands.  The new master had been human once, the second son of the old master, but had been sent away by his brother to train as a fire elemental priest. Now that he has returned, he lives partially in fire and partially in the world.  Most of the people are afraid of him, but Mirasol can sense that he is slowly making connections with the land lines that run under and through the Willowlands and they are starting to heal after years of neglect from his older brother.  It is now the Chalice's job to help the circle of elders to see that the new master is not only the best, but the only choice they have to make their home whole again. 

After reading What the River Knows, this book was a breath of fresh air.  The characters are interesting and sympathetic,  and they grow and develop over the course of the story. The magic system is also interesting, original, and stays (mostly) consistent through the story.  The characters succeed because they are trying their hardest to do what is right, even when their tasks seem hopeless. There is nobility, friendship, and sacrifice for the greater good. My only complaint is that I think she tied the end up a little too fast. She maybe needed one more chapter to show that the happy ending we were all hoping for made sense in the world she had built.  Still, I really enjoyed this book and affirm my belief that Robin McKinley is one of the great clean fantasy writers. (2009, 272 p.)

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez

 17 year old Inez lives with her aunt and cousin in Buenos Aires half of the year while her archeologist parents work at digs in Egypt. Inez's aunt tries to raise her as a proper 1800's aristocrat, but Inez is too interested in the magical objects her parents bring back from their excavations. When Inez receives word that her parents have disappeared, she abandons all propriety and boards a steam ship to Egypt.  Once there, she confronts her uncle and his infuriatingly handsome but often inebriated assistant Wit. They try to send her home on the next boat, but she evades their efforts and is soon caught up in the shadowy world of the Egyptian artifact trade. Her uncle is sometimes harsh, and sometimes kind. Wit is both annoying and charming, and they are both hiding something. Inez does not know whom to trust. 

I can't remember why I put this book on hold.  I think a patron recommended it to me because she knew I read historical romances.  On Good Reads people either hate this book or love this book.  I must admit I am on the "hate" side of the scale.  I didn't hate it, but I thought it was a bit of a slog.  For one thing, it is ridiculously long.  It would have been a better book if it had about 1/3 edited out.  Secondly, there was absolutely no character development.  The author was clearly caught up in the setting and plot, and forgot to make the characters interesting. Third, the magic system was a bit shaky.  Ibanez seems to be making it up as she goes along, and it isn't internally consistent. Lastly, the ending, after 17 hours of meandering narrative, was a totally unsatisfying cliffhanger.  I considered giving up on the book 4 hours in, but I didn't have anything else in my cue that was available. I kind of wish I had.  (416 p. 2023)

Brentwood's Ward by Michelle Griep

Nicholas Brentwood is a Bow Street Runner who is desperate to earn enough money to get proper medical treatment for his sick sister.  It is only for this reason that he accepts a job as a guardian for a spoiled debutant, Emily Payne, while her father makes a hasty trip to the Americas.  Brentwood thinks the most difficult part of the job will be putting up with the pampered girl and her equally pampered pug dog, but he soon starts to realize there is more intrigue in his job than he had suspected.  When Emily's father's partner is found dead, Brentwood goes on high alert.  Emily, has her own secrets, and as she struggles to keep up appearances and right the wrongs of her past she puts herself and Brentwood in even deeper peril. Could the danger surrounding them bring two people together who come from such different worlds?

Here is a new clean romance writer one of my patrons recommended.  Actually this is the second book I have read by Griep, but the other was a Christmas one so it will show up on my blog next November.  Griep takes a slightly different approach to the genre of Victorian romance.  Instead of focusing on the ladies and gentlemen of the ton, her protagonists are from the middle class. There is much more in her books about the underbelly of Victorian England, a kind of Dickensian view. I liked the book, but it is a little more gritty than some I have read.  For example, at one point Emily is accosted by a villain and the description of the attack, though not "R" rated, is PG-13.  Also, I didn't think the writing in this book was a good as the Christmas one I read earlier.  This is a Christian romance, and the religious element is a little heavy handed. Still, I enjoyed it and will be willing to try Ms Griep again. (320 p, 2015)

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

In this fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series, Kuldesh, a friend we met in the previous book, is murdered during an exchange with a drug ring. The police are focused on finding the valuable shipment of heroin that disappeared when Kuldesh died, but the Thursday Murder Club wants to find Kuldesh's murderer. Meanwhile, Donna and Chris are pulled from the case when a outside investigator is brought in.  Why is this case so important to the national police? Why are all the crime bosses in England involved, and what does it have to do with the art forgery business. As the pensioners of Cooper's Chase start looking into the mystery, pitting one criminal element against another, the body count rises. Who will be the last devil to die? 

I waited in hold for a long time for this book but it was worth it.  Although Osman is pretty good at his mystery plots, it is the interactions between the characters that are so engaging. Even the villains are three dimensional. He does an amazing job balancing funny and touching. I don't know for sure if the over 70 crowd really think like he portrays, but I bet a lot of them wish they could be like Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron and Joyce. I was excited to hear that they are making a movie of the first book.  I hope they do a good job.  (368 p. 2023)

Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen

 Valdez Jones VIII calls himself "Wrecker" because his ancestors worked as wreckers, salvaging shipwrecks in the Florida Keys. Wrecker has inherited his ancestor's love of the sea and spends his free time fishing in his own little skiff in the bay.  One day he comes across a fancy speed boat that has become stranded on a sandbar.  The boat belongs to smugglers, and Wrecker unwittingly gets caught up in their nefarious deeds. He has also recently become reacquainted with a girl from his school, Willi, who is dealing with her own issues, but is willing to help Wrecker in his attempts to free himself from his entanglement with the smugglers. Meanwhile, Wrecker's step sister, Suzanna, is leading a campaign to prevent cruise ships from returning to Key West after they stopped during the pandemic. It will take all Wreckers courage and sea smarts to help his step-sister, win the trust and friendship of Willi, and keep himself from being killed by cold hearted crooks. 

Hiaasen does a good job with his middle grade environmental novels. I have enjoyed his earlier ones like "Hoot" and "Scat" and I enjoyed this one.  All the main characters of this story are complex and interesting.  Valdez is smart, but also acts like a real teenager and both he and Willi have authentic teen voices. Hiaasen adds interesting messages about history and environmentalism, but they are not so heavy handed that they overpower the plot and characters. This is a good choice for kids who like action and adventure, but enjoy realistic fiction instead of fantasy. (2023, 336 p.) 

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

 Beatrice Steel lives in Swampshire where the rules of etiquette are all important.  Beatrice, however, has a guilty secret; she loves to read about unsolved murders in the newspaper.  When her sister's prospective fiancée drops dead at a ball, Beatrice can't help but jump in and try help a broody investigator solve the crime. As a plethora of unsavory clues start to come to the surface, it begins to be clear that the high society of Swampshire is not nearly as proper as they appear. Can Beatrice and the inspector solve the case before anyone else dies?

One of my patrons recommended this one to me, and it was a delight. It pokes fun at all the proper regency romances and their emphasis on etiquette. I saw the play, "Clue" this week at the Hale Center Theater in Sandy, and this book has a similar vibe--silly, fun, but also suspenseful. Even the character's names are funny.  The murder victim is called, "Mr. Croaksworth" and the unwanted suitor is "Mr. Grub" and his coat of arms features a cockroach. There are a lot of good one-liners, and funny physical humor. There are some really random elements, like the glowing frogs, the very "emo" young sister that is alarmingly hairy, and the mud holes that swallow people. It kept me chucking all the way through. I need to make sure my library has a physical copy of this because I am going to be recommending it to a bunch of people I know. (2023, 352 p)

Mixed Up by Gordon Korman

 Reef is an orphan who was taken in by his mother's best friend.  Although she has welcomed Reef into the home, her children have not.  One, in particular, is fairly abusive.  Theo still has both his parents, but he seems to constantly disappoint his father.  Theo's dad had "ruled the school" when he was a kid, but Theo would rather tend his garden than take karate lessons. Then, one day, memories start showing up in Theo's mind, memories of things that happened to someone else.  The same thing starts happening to Reef.  The two middle school boys figure out that they are experiencing each other's memories, and once a memory goes to the other boy, it is gone from the original owner's mind. It gets so bad that both boys are finding it hard to function in daily life. They have to find a way to stop the "phenomenon" before both boys sink into a confused stupor. 

Gordon Korman is a good writer and has really figured out an authentic tween voice.  He also recognizes that 12-year-olds can have deep, poignant and complex emotions. As a result, I enjoyed listening to this book.  That said, the premise and plot are kind of weak. It was just too improbable for me.  It felt like a realistic fiction that wasn't at all realistic.  It made me wonder if the author, who is 60, is starting to have occasional memory loss, and that prompted the premise.  Or maybe his parents are struggling with dementia and he is dealing with that.  Kids that are Korman fans will probably like the book, but I thought ReStart, which is also by Korman and deals with memory loss, had a much stronger plot and premise. (256, 2023)

The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom

 A glittering party on a luxury yacht ends in tragedy when the boat explodes.  All hands are presumed dead, but a few survive by crowding on a life raft. After drifting for a few days a new passenger joins the raft, a man who claims to be "The Lord".  He asserts that as soon as everyone on the life raft believes he is who he says he is, they will be saved. As days stretch into weeks on the raft tragedies happen, but so do miracles.  Some of the passengers come to believe in "The Lord" while others remain very skeptical. A year later, a police investigator is led to a life raft of the yacht, and finds, in a waterproof pouch, a journal of one of the initial survivors on the raft.  As the inspector tries to piece together what happened on the raft, he comes to understand his own grief better.

This is by the same author as Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  It is a new-age Christian parable. It is a little heavy handed in its theological agenda, but I liked it anyway.  Albom is a good writer and his primary characters are fully formed and sympathetic. He is also pretty good a describing the physical experience of having 13 people crammed on a rubber life boat. Even though some horrendous things happen in the narrative, it is, over all, a "feel good" story that fed my soul.  It would be a good book club title because it is short, well written, and suggests a lot of philosophical questions. (249 p. 2021)

Portrait of Lies by Clair M Poulson

Trey Shotwell's parents were both world famous artists, but all his life Trey wanted to be a police officer.  The desire is only strengthened when his mother is killed during an art robbery and the teenage Trey vows to eventually find his mother's killer. Years later he is a police detective in Australia when he and his father go on a cruise where some of his father's paintings are going to be auctioned.  On board he meets a woman, Ariah, who enchants him, and also finds a painting he is pretty sure is one that was stolen the night his mother was killed.   As Trey investigates the stolen artwork, things heat up and more crimes occur.  Soon both his, his father's and Ariah's lives are threatened. Trey must decide how much she wants to pursue finding his mother's killer when doing so risks the safety of the woman he is growing to love. 

This is my second or third Clair Poulson novel. It isn't great writing, and it draggs at places, but in the end had a decent mystery plot.  It is interesting to me how not PC the book is.  The love interest, Ariah, and her mother primarily exist in the story to give moral support to the main character, and cook him good meals. They also play the role of damsel in distress several times.  Poulson is a Latter-Day Saint author and there is a very unsubtle subplot of him sharing his religion with Ariah and their other friend, Hans.  The characters are two dimensional, the writing is stilted, the pacing is less than perfect, and I still enjoyed it. Clair Poulson is not a bad go-to author while I am waiting for other holds to come in. (2015, 272 p)

Great Courses: The Italians before Italy by Kenneth Bartlett

 In this Great Courses series, Dr. Bartlett focuses on the history of Italy from the 11th century until the unification of Italy in the 1800's, with extra focus on the Italian renaissance.  There are 24, 1/2 hour lectures.  In the first few he does an overview of what happened to Italy after the fall of Rome, and the major political and economic forces that held sway in the different city states. Then he dedicates one or two lectures to each of the major city states, highlighting their history, economy and cultural contribution and introducing influential figures. He spends a couple of chapters talking about the papacy, and more than two chapters of Florence. 

I checked out this series because I hope to travel to Italy this year.  I had studied a lot about Rome and Italy in college because I was a Humanities major with a classics emphasis. In my humanities classes I got a pretty thorough introduction to the Italian Renaissance, focusing on the great masters and their patrons. I gained some new insights into this period by listening to this series.  I hadn't ever connected the reign of the Medici Popes with Martin Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation before, but they were contemporary. I also hadn't realized that all the city states were allied with either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor and the two factions were the main cause of strife in the regions.  I also hadn't realized how long the Medici dynasty ruled in Florence. I was interested to see that the lecturer had a distinct measurement of the success or greatness of a particular ruler:  If they patronized the arts, Dr Bartlett thought they were great.  If they didn't, he was much less complimentary.  He only mentioned tangentially whether any leader helped their subjects in humanitarian ways.  It reminded me of an observation I had as a student...it is usually decadent and corrupt rulers that create great monuments of art or architecture. Even though I enjoyed the series, I must admit it was pretty dry and I don't think that it would have a wide popular appeal. (12 hrs, 2007)

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

 Amari's brother, Quinton disappeared after he started working for a mysterious secret agency after graduating from college.  Since his disappearance, Amari has had trouble controlling her temper at the private school where she attends as a scholarship student.  Then Amari gets a mysterious invitation to go to the same "leadership summer camp" her brother attended when he was her age.  Both Amari and her mother are excited about this new opportunity, and Amari hopes at the camp she will discover more about her brother's disappearance. When she arrives at camp, she discovers that her brother had been part of a Bureau of Magic that moderates the interaction between magical beings and humans and that the summer camp is a training camp for future Bureau agents.  She also discovers the same kind of prejudice that she experienced at school.  As she looks for clues about her brother's disappearance, she has to fight hard to stay in the program while other students and teachers try to drive her away.

The temptation to write about a magic school is just too good to pass up for many middle grade authors.  That being said, this was a better than average magic school book.  The magic system is interesting, and the author does a good job with both plot and characterization. I admit I wasn't sure who the bad guy was until the very end. I put the second book on hold right away.  (2021, 416 p)

P.S. I was amused that the author used his initials.  Usually, a woman author uses her initials instead of her given name for a middle grade novel when the main character of her book is male. The assumption is that some boys won't read a book with a female author. The opposite happened here. The author is male but has a female main character.  It is less common, and it made me smile. 

The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson

 Two women, Ida and Louise Cook work as secretaries on a minimum wage in England in 1929.  One day, on a whim, Louise buys a phonograph with some records of opera. They love the music and start saving money to attend a live opera. Soon they are hooked and start saving to travel to Vienna to see the most famous musicians of their time.  The ardency of their appreciation comes to the attention of some of the performers, and they get to meet some of the greats. Then Hitler starts to move against other countries.  On one of the Cook's trips to Austria, one of their opera friends asks them if they will smuggle out some valuables and hold them for them in England.  The friends are Jewish and are trying to get out of Austria but are afraid all of their belongings will be seized. The sisters agree to help and that is the beginning of their efforts to help dozens of German Jews escape Germany and Austria before and during the Nazi occupation. Their efforts come to a halt when Hitler starts bombing London, but each finds other ways to serve. 

This is a great fictionalized account based on a true story.  In the end the two women end up helping 29 families and individuals escape from occupied territories. The story is interesting and the woman are portrayed very sympathetically.  They grow in confidence in their efforts, while at the same time being worn down emotionally by all they cannot save. The writing is good and their are some really lovely descriptions of both the beauty of Germany and Austria, and the horrors of war.  The only fault is that the book is paced a little bit slowly and could have used some editing.  There are chapters that recount important events of the war without reference to Ida and Louise.  I think the author should have assumed the reader knew what happened, for example, at Dunkirk. If the author had left out those historical chapters,(there were maybe eight or ten of them) the book would have been better paced and easier to get through. Still, it is a really good book that I recommend to people who like WWII fiction and nonfiction. (2022, 352 p.)

Beauty by Robin McKinley

 Beauty's family falls on hard times when her father's ships are lost at sea.  They move to a small village on the edge of an enchanted wood, where Beauty's brother-in-law works as a blacksmith. When news comes that one of Beauty's father's ships has arrived at last, he goes to see what of their fortune might be recovered.  When he returns he tells a fantastic tale of an enchanted castle and a horrible beast.  Beauty, the youngest of her sisters, agrees to return to the castle with her father. There she finds strange invisible servants, changing castle halls, and a beast that is nothing like she would have expected. 

This is probably my favorite retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story.  It is actually very similar to the original story, just fleshed out and gentled.  It was written written in 1993 and would never have been published if it was written today.  It is too straight forward and devoid of controversy or social commentary.  There is no attempt to be PC or inclusive. I know it is very entitled of me, but I really enjoyed it.  The writing is good and the relationship between Beauty and the Beast is sweet.  I always thought the Disney company drew on it heavily when they made their animated version. This is a good choice if you want to curl up on a cold night with a classic fairytale. (256, 1993)

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

 This is the latest book from a popular blogger and best selling author about finding power within yourself to make your life awesome. The author became a bulimic and alcoholic as a teen but was able to overcome her addictions when she found out she was pregnant.  She married and expanded her family and seemed to be living the American dream until her husband confessed he was cheating on her. She tried to hang on to her marriage for the sake of her children, but then fell in love with a female soccer player. Her marriage ended and she established a new life with her new love, Abby, but still sharing parenting responsibilities with her ex-husband. This book chronicles the emotional process she went through to accept herself and her new life. She also gives advice and encouragement to other women to throw off the confines of the modern misogynistic society and societal institutions, like organized religion, and seek self gratification above all else. 

This book was very popular when it was released in 2020. It is a collection of short anecdotes and reflections on life. Doyle writes honestly and passionately, and is willing to show her own vulnerabilities and weakness. I agreed with some of the things she said, but a lot of it went very counter to my view of life. As I read I kept thinking to myself, I wonder what kind of book she will be writing in five years. Will her new life style and philosophy still hold of will something else have happened to make her do another drastic turn around in her beliefs? The philosophy she advocates sounds really appealing and even seductive and I can see how a lot of women could feel temporarily gratified by the kind of life style this book advocates, but is what she saying really true? I don't think so.  I don't agree with about 70% of the ideas she promotes and about 10% even offensive to me.  It was hard to keep reading the book for that reason, but I decided it was a good exercise of trying to see another's point of view. It did give me some new perspectives and caused me to do some introspection. I don't think, however, I will be recommending it to anyone else. (352 p. 2020)

Northwind By Gary Paulsen

 Leif was orphaned very young in a small Viking port town.  He was raised by various townspeople until he was old enough to work on a ship and then went to sea. His ship is stranded in a 

northern village where the crew got along alright catching and smoking salmon and eating local berries and plants.  Then one day a ghost ship comes, bringing death and plague.  Leif and another boy escape the village in a canoe but fall ill as well.  Finally, Leif finds himself alone in the northern wilds and has to figure out how to feed himself and avoid being killed by the fierce nature around him. As he does, he discovers unspeakable beauty and peace, and the strength that lives within himself. 

I am a huge Gary Paulsen fan and with this short survival story he did not disappoint.  The writing is so good!  Is it narrative or free verse poetry?  I would say poetry. The descriptions of nature are transcendent and I just know, having met Gary Paulsen and knowing a little about him, that he personally experienced all the things that Leif experienced. That is why he can write them so well. I know a couple of years ago he was doing a long stint living on a boat and traveling around the world. I am guessing this story arose out of experiences he had on that trip. I think that Leif's description of writing on the piece of bark also explains why Paulsen, himself, writes. I am just glad he has an agent that keeps bugging him to turn in his writing so that he can get it published so the rest of us can see the world through the author's eyes. I am eager to give this book to teen boys who like Hatchet but also the Ranger's Apprentice series. (256, 2022)

Grace by Beverly Watts

Nicholas Sinclair, the new Duke of Shackleton, was wounded in the battle of Trafalga in both body and spirit.  The Duke understands he has a responsibility to marry and produce an heir, but has no emotional energy to conduct a courtship. He approaches the local reverend and asks if he can have one of his eight daughters to marry by the end of the week. The reverend, understanding how such a marriage will elevate his family's prospects, agrees and offers Grace, his oldest daughter, to the Duke. Grace is independent and headstrong but smart enough to know how much her marriage will help her family.  She is determined to be a good wife to the Duke, but her efforts to get to know him are met with icy indifference. Nicholas is surprised by how much he is drawn to his new wife, but is determined to keep her at a distance. A battle of will and wits ensues, as both struggle to make their marriage of convenience a marriage of love.

I don't remember why I put this one on hold.  I think my idea was to try a new historical romance writer.  I ended up enjoying 98% of the book. The plot is not super original, but the characters fine and there are some truly amusing scenes with Grace's father who acts in the book as a kind of comic relief. So what of the other 2%? (spoiler alert) About half way through the book the couple decide to consummate their marriage and the author goes into way too much detail about that event. Why? I ask myself. The scene only lasts a few pages, which I skipped over, buy why add it in at all?  Why not just have him carry her into the room, and then skip to the morning when they wake up smiling in each other's arms?  I guess Ms Watts is not going on my clean romance writer's list. I need to start a new list.  An "uhhh, no" list of historical romance writers. (184 p, 2020)

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

 In the 12th century in France, Dolssa is the teenage daughter of a devout mother and a wealthy father.  Her father wants her to marry well, but her mother hopes she will join a nunnery and devout herself to God.  Then, one day she has a spiritual experience and is converted to Christ.  She sees him as her "beloved" and begins teaching others of his love. Wind of her teaching reaches the ears of the local inquisitors and she is accused of heresy. Her mother defends her and is executed, but Dolssa miraculously escapes and goes on the run.  She is taken in by three sisters, young women of dubious background who run a tavern and public house. The contrast between the four young women couldn't be greater, but they come to love and care for each other.  The officers of the Inquisition are searching for Dolssa, however, and the sisters need to be ever more creative to try to keep her safe.

I put this book on hold because it was a Printz award winner.  It was very different and I didn't love it. I had a couple of problems with it.  One is that the book is set in France, but the narrators are British and I am pretty sure they were slaughtering all the French words in the book. The second is that the book was so serious the whole time I wasn't sure if it would have a happy ending or not. It certainly wasn't one of my fluffy historical romances.  With a title containing the word, "passion" which, in this context, means "suffering death," I suspected it wouldn't end well for poor Dolssa.  The fact that I was concerned, shows that the writing was very good, and the characters were well drawn and sympathetic. It was also interesting to get of taste of what life was like under the shadow of the Inquisition. At the end of the book is an author's note that explains which parts of the book are based on real events and which are fiction.  Sometimes I am put off when someone calls the middle ages, the Dark Ages, but this book rather confirms that title.  It is amazing the atrocities humanity has committed in the name of Christianity. (512 p. 2017)

Voice of Dominion by Melanie Cellier

 Elena is starting her third year at the mage academy with a determination to avoid Prince Lucas and master the intricacies of Mage life. All of her plans are disrupted when a new threat is detected on the border, and her class is called there to "observe" the fighting.  Elena knows they are really going so that the troops will see her, the spoken mage, and get a boost in morale they dearly need. A brush with death bring Elena and Lucas back together but Elena is more sure than ever that there is a traitor in the highest levels of the government. Lucas is not convinced and that and other obstacles still stand in the way of their Happily Ever After.

I started a book this week that I have been waiting for on hold for a couple of months, but by a 1/4 of the way through it I realized it had more adult content than I wanted to deal with. So I returned it and turned back to Melanie Cellier once more, for a book I knew would be clean and entertaining.  It was, until right near the end when (spoiler alert) Elena makes a hasty and, I believe, stupid decision.  There was literally 15 minutes left in the book, and I almost turned it off right there, determined to be finished with the book and the series.  I hate it when otherwise smart characters make stupid decisions.  I did listen on, and Cellier recovered a little.  Still, I am not sure I will finish the series.... Who am I kidding, I probably will, but I will probably wait a while before I do. (316 p. 2019)