Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

 An old man shows up in a small southern town. He calls himself Theo and has a charming Portuguese accent.  He finds a coffee shop and notices some beautiful portraits, done in pencil and charcoal on the walls of the shop. Intrigued, he discovers that they were drawn by a local artist and depict local residents.  Impressed by the emotional depth of the art, he decides to purchase the portraits one by one and give them to the people they depict. Thus begins a magical year during which Theo's gentle charm and big heart blesses the people of Golden, and helps unite them as a community. 

It is ironic that the last book I listen to in 2025 might be my favorite of the whole year.  This is the most charming and heartwarming book I have listened to in a long time.  Theo is an amazingly likeable character, as are almost all the characters the reader comes to know in the small town of Golden.  Even though Theo is amazing, the author wisely doesn't make him flawless. We see him get angry, tired and impatient some times.  Throughout the book we get to hear stories of the errors of his youth. All the main characters have checkered backgrounds, which is maybe why the book feels so hopeful.  They all receive a little bit of redemption by seeing themselves through Theo's kind eyes.  I can imagine that some readers might think the story slow or boring, but I loved it and savored it like rich chocolate ganache. If you want to listen to a book that will set your feet on the right path for the new year, this is the one for you. (2023, 399 p.)
 

I am going back to Pinners!

 I just found out this week that I will be presenting at the Pinner's Convention in St. George Utah in March!  In honor of my second Pinner's Convention I have started a new blog about book art.  I am starting with the book folding that I will be teaching at the convention, but plan to add other crafts you can do with old books. 

Here is a link to my new blog Dee Book Art.

Snow Angel Cove by RaeAnne Thayne

A young widow, Eliza, is hopeful for a new life for her and her five-year-old daughter with new job as a hotel manager a small town in Idaho. When she arrives she discovers that the hotel as burnt down. An unexpected accident brings her in contact with the town's most eligible bachelor, Aiden Caine.  He feels bad that she is stranded in an unfamiliar town just weeks before Christmas and offers her a job preparing his new lodge for his family's Christmas visit. Eliza is skeptical that the gorgeous tech mogul could actually be a nice person, but as she works in his home she can't deny the growing attraction between them. Can a homeless widow with a child really hope for a future with a man like Aiden?

Here is my last Christmas themed rom-com of the season.  It is a little bit over-the-top wish fulfillment, like the Richard Paul Evans books I don't like, but somehow this one is more palatable. One difference is that Aiden isn't showering Eliza with outrageous gifts during the whole book. Thayne does a good job making both characters seem vulnerable, and they have good chemistry. Their make-out scenes are maybe a little more spicy than in my normal fare, but they do stay out of the bedroom, so that's good. Overall, not a bad example of a Hallmark Christmas Special in print. (384, 2014)

Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose by Nancy Springer

 Enola Holmes is settles in the women's club and at peace with her two older brothers.  When an up-and-coming author, Rudyard Kipling, asks Enola's imaginary employer to find his missing friend, an American, Wolcott Balestier, Enola is happy to take on the case. Kipling, however, is not willing to let a mere woman assist him, and turns, instead to Sherlock for help. Head to head again, the two brilliant siblings dive into the mystery.  Sherlock suspects that international book pirates are behind the deed, but Enola begins to suspect the culprits are much more local, and deadly.

This is the most recent of the Enola Holmes series, though another is due to come out in 2026.  I have very much enjoyed reading through the whole series. This one is much like the others, though Springer included some interesting cameos in this one: Kipling and Balestier, and also Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister. None their actions in the story are very historically accurate, but they are all based on real people. Once again, the interaction between Sherlock and Enola is charming. I look forward for the release of the next in the series.  (2023, 304 p)

My Fair Gentleman by Nancy Campbell Allen

Jack was not happy to find that the grandfather who had disowned his father, had now named him as his heir.  When said grandfather passes away, Jack is taken from his career as a seaman and thrown into the restrictive expectations of the ton. To help him in the transition, Jack's grandmother's dear friend recruits her own granddaughter, Ivy Carlisle to teach the uncultured and reluctant Jack all he needs to know to smooth his and his mother and sister's way into London society. Jack has no desire to be a gentleman "man of leisure" but as he begins etiquette lessons with Ivy, he is fascinated by the way she meets all society's requirements for politeness, while at the same time putting down those who would disparage Jack and his family. Ivy bears the burden of a family scandal so had long since resigned herself to spinsterhood, but her unconventional student lights a new hope that, perhaps, she might one day marry for love. 

This is, as the title suggests, a gender swapped version of the Bernard Shaw play, Pygmalion, (better known in its Broadway form, as My Fair Lady).  It only follows that earlier play in the most basic sense. Allen makes no attempt to recreate any of the iconic scenes of the original, only the basic premise of transforming someone from a lower class to an upper class behavior. The characterization and dialog are as good as you might expect, and it was neither much better or much worse than all the other historical romances that I have read. I enjoyed it as light entertainment after reading the much heavier story of the CIA Book Club. I am fond of the story of My Fair Lady (especially in the original Pygmalion form) and found it an amusing adaptation. (2016, 256p.)

The CIA Book Club by Charlie English

After the end of WWII Russia exercised its influence on surrounding Eastern European countries to become the USSR.  The US waged a decades long "cold war" to try to undermine communist influence and power of the USSR. One area they targeted especially was Poland because in some ways the Polish people had resisted the iron grip of the USSR more than other countries. They did this by supporting those who published and distributed printed materials that were banned by the communist regime. This book chronicles the efforts of the CIA to get books and printing materials into Poland and follows the lives of key Polish operatives that championed freedom of the press at great personal risk. The author suggests that even though the cost of supporting clandestine printing and distributing efforts in Poland was much less costly than some of the USA's more overt Cold War anti-communist efforts, it was key to the eventual downfall of the USSR and liberation of Poland. 

This is a new nonfiction that has been getting a lot of attention.  It was interesting for me to read it because much of the action of the account happens in the 1980's, and I remember some of the events, especially those related to Lech Walesa.  I remember the controversy about him in the US, some saying he was a hero, and other that he was just a terrorist. This book really opened my mind about the kinds of propaganda campaigns the CIA conducts in other countries, and how they do it through intermediaries so as to not appear to be doing it. It made me wonder what kinds of similar efforts they are conducting now.  The book is interesting, and the reader does a good job, but it is information dense and slogged a little in the middle.  It was hard for me to keep track of all the players the author mentions, especially because the Polish names sound so foreign to me. Still, it is great, as a librarian, to have confirmed to me once again the power of the printed word and the importance of the freedom to read. (2025, 384 p)

Nature Poems to See By: a comic artist interprets more great poetry (illustrator) Julian Peters (Net Galley)

 This is a collection of 24 famous poems that have been illustrated or presented in the style of a graphic novel. The poems are arranged by seasons, with six poems for each season, and most would be familiar to anyone who has ever studied poetry, like "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" by Shakespeare, and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost.  Peters seems to make an effort to include poems from different time periods and a few different cultures, though most are from Western authors. Some of the illustrations are more like graphic novels, with one frame per each couplet, while other seem more like true illustrations, with a lot of words associated with one picture.  Some of the poems are illustrated literally, and in other cases Peters tries to suggest symbolic meanings implied by the poems. At the end of each graphic novel depiction of a poem, the poem is also printed in  traditional font and format.

I received this book as a pre-print from the publisher, Plough.  It has been a while since I have read a poetry collection and I thought that expressing poetry in graphic novel format is an interesting idea. As it turned out I generally liked the book, but I liked some treatments of the poems better than others. I preferred illustrations that did a literal depiction of the poem instead of trying to tie in symbolic meaning.  If a poem has veiled symbolism, one of the charms of reading the poem is trying to figure out the symbolism, or maybe trying to find personal meaning in the symbolism.  The artist, by depicting his symbolic interpretation of the poem, steals from me the experience of creating my own interpretation. That being said, if I were a high school student and needed to interpret a poem and found this graphic novel version on it, I could be pretty excited about it. I actually think teens, particularly English/reader nerd types, are the perfect target audience for this book.  I could also see a high school teacher using one of these illustrated poems as a springboard for a good discussion. If I were a high school English teacher, I would definitely want a copy on my classroom shelf. (2026, 141 p.)

A Grave Matter by Anna Lee Huber

 In this third in the Lady Darby Mysteries, Lady Darby is back at her childhood home to celebrate their family's traditional Hogmanay (New Year's) Ball. But tragedy hits when a caretaker is murdered, and a body exhumed and stolen. Her family begs her to ask Sebastian Gage to investigate the matter, but having him in her life stirs up a host of emotions that are complicated and confusing. As they investigate the theft and other related crimes together, their relationship travels a rocky road toward an, as yet, unknown destination.

I am glad I revisited this series.  It really is a fun, semi-gothic, mystery/romance series.  Both Lady Darby and Lord Gage are interesting and complex characters, and Huber does a good job with their  relationship.  She is also good with setting and includes bits of actual history in each of these novels related to the long-standing conflicts along the English, Scottish border. Huber presents a wide range of clues to the mystery, some important and others not so, but I thought the solution to this mystery was a little anticlimactic. Still, I enjoyed it and will most likely continue on in the series. (2014, 433 p)

Stockings and Spells by Nancy Warren

 It is Christmas time in Oxford and the Vampire Knitting Club has decided to do a booth at the local holiday market to raise money for charity. Lucy makes friends with another booth clerk, and then is horrified when she finds the woman partially strangled with one of the Knitting Club's long Christmas stockings.  Lucy is determined to find the culprit and her search leads to the dark underbelly of the publishing industry. It is a good thing she has several vampires, an ancient Egyptian witch, and her own burgeoning magical powers to call upon for help.

I am guessing I am not the only one that likes to read Christmas themed books at Christmas time.  This one isn't particularly Christmas-y. There is no warm, fuzzy, holiday cheer moment at the end or anything.  In reality, it is much like the others in the series.  It doesn't really further the overarching plot of the series and could be read out of order without much being lost (in case you want to save it to read at Christmas).  Still, it is a good mystery with fun characters and a decent twist at the end. All the books in this series are reliable cozy mysteries that are good for when I don't want any added angst in my life. (2018, 238 p)

Christmas in Bethel by Richard Paul Evans

 Beth has too many horrific memories, starting with a childhood of abuse from her mother and stepfather, continuing with images from her time working as a EMT and concluding with memories of an abusive marriage.  With no hope of happiness in sight, Beth considers suicide, but is brought out of her despair by a book called Bethel. She clings to the book and other books by the same author as a lifeline while she builds a life free of abuse. Then she gets to meet the author, J.D. Harper. Sparks fly between them and soon they are caught up in a glamorous romance of fancy dinners and national attention.  She can't bring herself to believe that someone like Harper could really love her because of her past and almost sabotages all they are building with each other. When she discovers that he is keeping secrets about his past as well, their tenuous relationship is stretched to a breaking point.

I keep telling myself I should never again read a romance by Richard Paul Evans, but one of the regular patrons of the library recommended this to me, so I put it on hold. It is marginally better than the other ones I have read, but it still suffers from the same problem that I have found objectionable in all of Evan's romances. In all his romances, the men shower the women with expensive gifts and exciting experiences. They have limitless money, stay in lavish hotels,  and live in perfect mansions. I find it insulting that a male author thinks that this is what all women want. It shows a really shallow view of women. That being said, this book is a little bit better because, in the end, Harper is at least as wounded by his past as Beth is by hers.  Still, I did a full eye role with Harper takes Beth to Tiffany's in New York and insists on buying her a $34,000 pearl necklace and earring set. REALLY?  If someone tried to give me a $34,000 piece of jewelry, I would run the other direction.  I guess some people like Evan's flavor of wish fulfillment fantasy because he sells a lot of books, but not I (272 p. 2024)