Seekers of the Fox by Kevin Sands

 In this second installment of the "Thieves of Shadow" series Callan is the only one that sees the Chaos magic growing within his friend, Lachlan.  He knows that if he doesn't heal his friend, the Chaos will eventually take over and cheerful, child like Lachlan will turn into something much darker and more powerful. The only way he knows to help his friend is to seek the Dragon's Teeth, another magical artifact.  With the help of his new team, Callan goes to the depths, literally, to unravel a millennium-old secret and face their most powerful opponents yet.

I enjoyed the first in this series so much I put the next on hold right away.  This one was also a fun read.  I can tell the writer had a great time imagining the different exotic settings. As in the first book, the magic system is a little weak,  and the reader can't help but ask themself if five kids could really solve a mystery that had been unsolvable for 1000 years in just two days?  The warm comradery between the main characters makes up for the other shortcomings and I will look forward to reading more in the series. (416 p. 2023)

The Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

 This is a tell-all autobiography of the second son of King Charles and Lady Diana.  It follows Harry's life from the time that his mother was killed in a car accident while being chased by paparazzi until the time of his grandmother's death in 2022.  He speaks candidly about his struggles in school, his rivalry with William, and the constant harassment he and later Meghan received from the press. 

This book was hugely popular when it came out two years ago.  I am not usually interested in celebrity biographies, but when I found it available on Libby, and because it was so popular, I decided to give it a try.  It is read by Prince Harry himself, and is very interesting.  It made me look at the royal family in a totally different way.  It does come off a little whiny, but I appreciated that it seems the whole book is written to defend his wife.  The first part tells how Harry sunk gradually into depression and anxiety because of his mother's death and into PTS after his service in Afghanistan. Then it shows how Meghan's love and strength pulled him out of his emotional pit and sets him on the track to become a responsible husband and father. The book makes me wonder how long England will keep the monarchy.  They do a lot of good through their different charities, but it is also really expensive to support the royal family. It is also a lot to ask of a family to endure such public scrutiny and media intrusion. I don't know how any family could have healthy relationships under that kind of pressure. (416, p. 2023)

The Thief of Blackfriars Lane My Michelle Griep

 Constable Jackson Forge is so excited to start his first day as an officer on the streets of London.  On his way to work bumps into a young woman, Kit, who tricks him into handing over so cash to help a young street urchin. Later they find that they have a common interest in finding a cabby that has gone missing.  As the cop and the con start working together, their mutual attraction is undeniable.  Soon they find that the mystery they are seeking to solve runs deep into the underside and the upper-crust of London, and both sides don't want them to find out the truth.

I have read several books by Griep and I enjoy her Dickensian twist on the period romance. These are not the ladies in mansions, but the lower classes trudging through sewers.  Of course, Griep manages to fit in a ballroom scene with a beautiful dress, but can we blame her? If you have a beautiful heroine, you have to figure out how to get her into a lovey dress as some point. The characters are fun and the descriptions of the shadier side of Victorian England are interesting.  I am sure I will be revisiting Griep again in the future. (2021, 320 p.)

Children of the Fox by Kevin Sands

 Callan was trained by a master con man. Then one day his master disappeared and ever since he had been planning and carrying out his own little gaffs, trying to save enough money to give him a hope of a respectable life. One day he receives an invitation he can't resist--pull off one job, and be paid more money than he had ever imagined.  He recognizes it for what it is, a trick, but he still can't resist looking into it. His benefactor teams him up with other young teens and tasks them to steel a magical item from the head magician himself. Little do they know that by succeeding they might lose everything.

I put this book on hold after reading the last Blackthorn Key book. I was not disappointed.  This is an exciting and intriguing story with interesting characters. The setting and the magic system are a little fuzzy but I don't think most readers will be too disturbed by that. You can tell that the author is well established, because the book ends on a cliffhanger. They never let new authors do that, but here it works. I put the second book on hold right away, and it is already waiting in my cue. (416 p. 2021)

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The SecUnit likes the small team of scientists it has been tasked with protecting as they investigate the possible assets of an uninhabited planet. The SecUnit, which calls itself, MurderBot, has secretly disabled its management program, and has downloads hours of action sitcoms to review while in stasis between its daily patrols and other responsibilities. It doesn't feel comfortable around the humans and always keeps its visor down around them.  Then one day something goes wrong. There is an attack on a base, and the team begins to wonder if there is more to it than the undocumented large fauna which injured one of the crewmen.  It is up to MurderBot to keep its unit safe as they investigate the unknown.

I can't remember who recommended this book to me but I really enjoyed it. The MurderBot has an interesting personality, both interaction-averse and highly protective of the scientists. It is querky in a kind of Asperger's way that is endearing. There is some language, but the book is otherwise clean for a YA SciFi. It is also really short and I think it would be a good choice for a teen reluctant reader. I enjoyed it enough I put the second on hold right away. (2017, 160 p)

P.S. As I was looking up the page count and publication date, I discovered it won a boatload of awards the year it came out. 

The Call of the Wraith by Kevin Sands

 In this forth book in the Blackthorn Key series, Christopher Rowe wakes up in a peasant's shed not knowing who he is or how he got there. The kind farmer tells him the was washed ashore after a shipwreck. As he starts to search for clues about his identity, he meets Tom and Sally, but even though they recognize him, he doesn't recognize them. They team up to try to figure out what happened, but also to solve a mystery.  Children in the village have been disappearing, and locals blame it on a ghost called the White Lady. As they investigate Christopher's past and the mystery of the missing children, Christopher's memories slowly return. 

When I was looking for what to read next, I found this book. I felt like I had read it before, but I didn't have it on my blog.  I started to listen to it, and realized I had listened to it before. It had been long enough that I didn't really remember the plot and I enjoyed listening to it again. I have really enjoyed all of the Blackthorn Key series. The characters are well drawn and the plots are clever.  I don't know how authentic the setting is, but the author does address a real middle-ages issue with each book.  This book deals with the problem of the Barbary Pirates.  I read book 3 in 2018, and I don't know why I waited so long to continue the series, but it won't be as long before I read the next book. (2018, 512 p)

Great Courses: Identity in the Age of Ancestral DNA by Anita Foeman

 Many people base a lot of their personal identity on their race and family narrative. What happens, then, if you take a DNA Ancestry test and discover that your race or family narrative is not what you thought it was? This is the guiding question of this 12-part Great Courses Lecture Series.  The presenter has spent 18 years doing research on this topic.  She finds volunteers that are interested in doing a DNA test, interviews them, and then gives them the test. When the results come back she interviews them again. She spends the beginning of the lectures talking about different ways people can deal with the results emotionally.  Then she does a couple of lectures talking about ethical issues surrounds DNA results, especially related to medical issues that might arise. Finally she talks philosophically about the different elements of personal identity and their importance in our lives.  

Sometimes when I finish a book and don't know what to listen to next, but I don't want to spend a lot of time selecting a new book, I just look at what Great Courses are available.  I don't know why I chose this one this week. It didn't turn out to be what I expected. I thought they would go into more of the science of how ancestral DNA tests determine where someone's ancestors are from, but this course dealt with that only tangentially. Instead it mostly dealt with how people feel when they get unexpected results.  It was a little amazing to me that the lecturer could find enough to fill six hours of lectures on this topic. After listening to it, though, I realized that because I am from a religion that encourages members to know their genealogy, I know much more about my ancestry than the common American. When I did an Ancestry DNA test it was no surprise at all that 97% of my ancestors came from the British Isles. Listening to these lectures opened my eyes to the plight of mixed racial people who might not know if their great grandparents were white, African, middle eastern, or American indigenous. I guess it could be a little disorienting if you have always identified as African American and then your Ancestry DNA test shows that you are only 1/4 African, 1/2 Asian and 1/4 white.  Do you then stop seeing yourself as African American and instead start identifying as Asian?  Or what if you do the test and find out that your parents used a sperm donor, and you have a dozen people who are your biological half siblings? It ended up being an interesting topic, though one I probably won't have occasion to apply to my personal life. (6 hrs, 2022)