Stockings and Spells by Karen Witemeyer

 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)

The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day

 The Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting in the world, but back in 1910, it was just one of many great artworks in the Louvre Museum in Paris. What catapulted it to world wide fame? It was stolen. This is a children's nonfiction book about the 1911 heist of the Mona Lisa and how it affected the popularity of DaVinci's masterpiece.  It also gives a decent summary of DaVinci's life, and the place of the Mona Lisa in his career. The books ends with the surprising capture of the Mona Lisa thief, and the consequences that befell him. 

When I checked this out I thought it was a children's mystery fiction, but it turned out to be a really well written and entertaining nonfiction.  The tone of the narrative is snappy and informal. Day includes a lot of interesting facts about Paris, the Louvre, and the state of the world in the early 20th Century. He also talks about DaVinci in a not-too-flattering way, that is also engaging and amusing. The reader should beware that Day includes a lot of subjective social commentary in his narrative. This would be a great book for teachers of homeschoolers who want to mix literature with other subjects, like humanities or history, and also have a lot of interesting social questions to discuss. I am not surprised it won the Siebert Medal for children's nonfiction when it came out. (2023, 288 p) 

The JFK Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

 Between the time that J.F. Kennedy was elected, and when he took office, a unhinged anti-Catholic extremist plotted a suicide bombing of the president elect. This sensationalized account reconstructs the plot and also goes into depth about Kennedy's life, his relationship with Jackie Kennedy, and what made Kennedy so successful and controversial. 

Here is another Brad Meltzer/Josh Mensch pseudo history. I think I liked it a little bit more than the Lincoln book, mostly because it was better edited. Although this one had some of the same kind of problem rehashing the same facts over and over, it was much better than the Lincoln one, as the page count suggests.  In modern society JFK is generally revered as one of the great presidents, but in this book Meltzer and Mensch portray him as a thoughtless womanizer who just happened to have a lot of charisma. They focus a lot on Jackie Kennedy and highlight JFK's neglect of her needs and feelings. In full disclosure, I accidentally returned it to Libby with 45 minutes left on the recording so they may have ended the book with a more upbeat assessment of JFK.  I am debating with myself whether I am going to put it on hold again just to listen to the last 45 minutes.  Maybe not. (2025, 304 p)

To Love a Beast by Karen Witemeyer

Here is another of Witemeyer's Texan retellings of fairytales.  Everett Griffin's face is horribly disfigured by a crazy woman, so he leaves the life of a New York socialite, and becomes a recluse in Texas. Calista Rosenfeld and her father have risked all their capital to fill an order for a book rebinding project, but the week before it is to start, Calista's father has and accident and isn't able to go and fulfill the contract.  Calista decides to go alone, and finds herself in the gothic home of the reclusive Mr. Griffin.  Desperate to fulfill the contract and save her family business, Calista resists all Mr. Griffin's attempts to intimidate her. Their initial mistrust turns into respect and then friendship, but there is one in town who doesn't approve of Calista's new friend. His need for revenge threatens to destroy Everett and Calista's new hope for happiness. 

Again Karen Witemeyer.  The story and writing for this one( isn't bad. Calista is maybe a bit too perfect, but it is in keeping with the Fairytale motif.  Witemeyer takes her storyline and characters as much or more from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast as from the original fairytale.  There are some shameless illusions to the Disney version, for example the housekeeper/cook's name is Mrs. Potter, and the butler likes to assemble clocks.  I am a little surprised that Disney doesn't go after her for it.  The one thing that was really disappointing about the recording was the reader.  Her voices were way exaggerated and as a result all the men sound like idiots.  I added her to my narrators to avoid list.  Fortunately, others in the series have different narrators. (2025, 542 p)

The Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

Everyone has heard about Abraham's Lincoln's assassination in Ford's Theater soon after his second inauguration, but few know that there was an earlier plot to assassinate him right before his first inauguration. In this book, Meltzer and Mensch give a highly sensationalized account of the first attempt on Lincoln's life.  They posit that a group of white supremacist southern sympathizers planned to have Lincoln killed as he passed through Baltimore Maryland. Lincoln supporters heard rumors of the plot and hired the Pinkerton Agency to investigate. Not only did they find details about the perpetrators and their plans, but also devised a way to sneak Lincoln through Maryland in disguise earlier than he had been expected. Meltzer and Mensch also include a lot of history about Lincoln, his run for the presidency, and the state of the union at the time of his election. 

I read another in this series about George Washington a number of years ago, and I have a John F. Kennedy one in my cue right now.  This one is very much in the same style as the George Washington one.  It is pretty amazing how Meltzer is able to take ordinary facts and make them sound super dramatic. For example, in one part of the book he talks about how Lincoln was invited to a dinner during his train trip to the capital, and his son, who had been tasked to keep track of his attaché case with his inaugural speech in it, gave the case to the porter to hold during the dinner.  Lincoln became alarmed when he found out that his son no longer had the case, and went to the main desk and searched through the checked bags until he found it. This is a pretty small event. Lincoln had a few moments of panic, but then found his documents and all was well, but the authors made it sound like it was this huge deal that threatened the future of the nation. Still, I enjoyed the book. Although overwritten, it has a lot of interesting facts told in an engaging way. At the end of the book the authors admit that not all historians agree that there was actually a plot to kill Lincoln and that much of the evidence is inconclusive. Of course, they are making the case that there was, and doing it in a way that appeals to a broad audience. (2020, 428p)

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Tolle's The Power of Now is one of the most influential books in the mindfulness trend that has swept the US in the last 20 years.  The book is written as a series of questions and answers, much like the dialogs of Plato.  His main assertion is that thinking about the past or future brings suffering and that pure enlightenment is only possible by staying fully present.  He asserts that there is no suffering in the present because in the present there are no problems, just situations.  You can choose to respond to resolve the situation, or accept the situation.  He also talks about the difference between your mind and your true self.  The mind seeks things that bring pain, like glory, temporary pleasure, or numbing of emotions. To achieve enlightenment one must escape the tyranny of the mind. At a few places in the book Tolle leads the reader through a guided meditation or some other exercise to help them achieve a focus on the present. 

I found this book very interesting and pretty accessible.  I don't agree with all his assertions. For example, he seems to be of the opinion that almost all human relations are bound to fail because for them to succeed both members of the couple must be enlightened, and that almost never happens. I am guessing this pessimistic view of relationships reflects his own experience more than it reflects general human experience.  I do think there are nuggets of truth to be gleaned from his ideas, and plan to apply some of his principles to my personal struggle with excessive worrying. One useful thought about worry from the book is that there is no use spending emotional effort worrying about something you can do nothing about in this moment. Tolle narrates the answers in the book himself, and has a very pleasant calm voice. I think the book is worth the read if only to understand better the  ideas behind meditation and presentism. (2004, 256 p.)