Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

In 1972 a mother of 10 children, Jean McConville, was dragged from her home in Belfast Ireland and never seen again.  Keefe uses the murder of McConville as the center piece of his carefully researched history of "the Troubles" in Ireland that began with strife between Catholics and Protestants, and continued as a conflict between the "Republicans" who wanted to reunify North Ireland and Ireland, and the British government who wanted to maintain control in the region. Keefe also goes into a lot of detail about what happened to the main players in the conflict after the Good Friday agreement of 1998 that ended hostilities, and how their story eventually was revealed through an oral history project undertaken by Boston College.  

I was a young girl when many of the events in this book took place.  I remember hearing about bombings in Ireland in the news and vaguely understanding that religious conflict was at its root.  I decided to read this book so I could better understand what I barely understood as a kid.  This is a gripping tale and Keefe puts the reader right into the time, place, and events. The book is kind of divided into halves.  The first half tells the story of the conflict and the second half tells how the facts of the story came to light. It was interesting to see how the different leaders of the IRA dealt with the trauma of their past.  Some, like Delours Price,
gradually self-destructed because of guilt over what she had done, while others, like Gerry Adams, went on to live full and successful lives seemingly unaffected by the trauma. If you are interested in this book I highly recommend you listen to it as an audiobook.  The reader is the actor Matthew Blaney and he knows how to render the Irish colloquialisms with the right inflection to make them understandable. The book is long, and I am not sure I would have gotten through the second half if I hadn't enjoyed Blaney's accent so much. (464 p. 2019)

An Awakening Heart by Jody Hedlund

 Christine Pendleton is a wealthy spinster in late 19th century New York.  Her mother has recently died, and she is looking for a way to find meaning in life.  She volunteers at a ministry that serves the city's poor immigrants.  There she meet Pastor Badell, a widower who has a good heart, but hasn't really figured out how to help the people he preaches to.  Christine sees that the women in the congregation need jobs that pay enough so they won't have to rely on prostitution in order to feed their families.  As she tries to convince Pastor Badell to feed their bodies as well as their souls, she and the Pastor's regard for each other turns into affection, and eventually love.  

This is a short novella that I listened to to give myself a break after the heavier nonfiction history I just listened to.  It is sentimental and cheesy, but I enjoyed it.  It had a more satisfying ending than the last Hedlund book I read , A Reluctant Bride.  I felt like the couple in this story could actually work out a "happily ever after" for themselves.  The religious element was a little heavier than in the last book, but I did appreciate that they were able to look back in the end and see that their challenges were actually pushing them to accomplish a greater goal. To my faithful readers, I am sorry I keep reading this B-level sentimental nonsense.  My only defense is that I have always maintained that you should read what you want to read, and I happen to enjoy sentimental nonsense once in a while.  (2017, 139p.)

The Ghost of Wyvern Lake by Sheila Nielson

 Jayne is the biggest girl in her junior high, maybe the biggest kid, boy or girl.  She also has a reputation of being tough and pugnacious. Her best (and practically only) friend is cute petite girl named Tamille.  One Halloween night Jayne is pursuing a bully who had stolen a little kid's candy, when she chases him into a flat area that used to be under a lake, which had recently been drained.  Jayne is surprise to realized the lake water had been concealing an old grave yard, complete with a small chapel.  Jayne's quarry, Seth, runs into the deserted chapel and unwittingly releases a malevolent spirit that starts terrorizing the town.  Jayne feels responsible, and with the help of Tamille and the "new kid," a boy, Haddon, she sets out to find a way to rid the town of the evil ghost. 

This is a cute ghost story/tween romance written by my dear friend, Sheila Nielson.  I have really enjoyed her previous books, and I liked this one as well. Jayne is a delightful character with a lot of attitude and wit. I also was a size XL in junior high, and I can relate with Jayne's experience of being stereotyped by your size. I also thought the setting was fun; a town were everyone is just used to seeing gargoyles, will-o'-the-wisps, and UFO's.  Having Haddon be the outsider, getting used to his new whacky home was a clever choice.  The story is creepy enough to make it a fun spooky read, without causing nightmares. The book ended in a satisfying way, but with the door wide open for a sequel, or even a series.  I will look forward for the next one to be released. (223 p. 2022)

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blackman

 Valentina is Jewish, and is often the victim of the cruelty of the class bully, Oksana.  Then one day the sky over their Ukrainian town, Chernobyl, the sky turned red.  For the first day, the Russian military said that there was a "fire" at the powerplant, but people in town started to get sick.  After three days the evacuation order came. Oksana's father was killed in the initial explosion, and her mother was too sick to be evacuated, so Valentina's mother brought Oksana into her care. They traveled to a nearby town, but were only able to get two tickets to Moscow where Valentina's grandmother lived.  The two girls had to go on alone.  As they travel alone, and then live in a small flat with Valentina's grandmother, they learn to look past their prejudices and become real friends. 

This well written story is more about overcoming prejudice than it is about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  The main characters are well drawn and there are a lot of good details about the difficulties of being Jewish in the USSR.  That being said, the portrayal of what it was like when the disaster happened are interesting and authentic. The author got a lot of the details about the disaster from a friend who had experienced it. This is a great choice for kids who like to read historical fiction with heroic young characters. (2020, 352 p.)

Great Courses: Influence by Kenneth Brown

 In this twelve lecture series, Brown discusses how people are able to influence others, for good or bad, and how people can recognize and resist predatory influence.  He starts out by identifying four elements that factor into an interaction, and how these factors can be tweaked to improve the chance of influence. He also discusses how to recognize con-artists and how they use the same elements to trick people.  Professor brown quotes different studies throughout and also takes examples from both research and popular media.  He ends each lecture with suggested exercises to reinforce the principles taught.

I have listened to several Great Courses series before and this one was neither my favorite or my least favorite.  A lot of the things he talks about are part of common wisdom, like the importance of wearing a smile, using a firm handshake, and being genuine. As I was listening I thought that his suggestions were just as likely to help people manipulate others as to legitimately influence others.  I found it useful to think about his main points, and the series did remind me of some things I could do better with as a manager and government employee. (12 lectures, 6 hrs total, 2014)

A Reluctant Bride by Jodie Hedlund

Mercy Jenkins takes care of her many siblings while her mom works picking rags and her dad works in a factory.  Then her mom loses her job, and Mercy knows they won't be able to feed all the children anymore.  Mercy hears of opportunity for women who are willing to immigrate to Oregon Territory.  Even though Mercy had long since decided to never get married and become a baby factory like her mother, she hopes she might be able to get a job and send money back home.  It is only when she is on the ship that she realizes the women are intended to be brides for single men in Oregon.  On the ship she starts helping a young ship's doctor as a nurse and assistant.  He is a nobleman running away from an unhappy past.  Both know that they should not get romantically involved, but when has that ever stopped anyone?

Here is a new historical Christian romance writer I hadn't tried.  The book is pretty good.  The pacing is a bit slow, and Hedlund doesn't really explain how the couple are going to overcome the obvious obstacles that they face, but the characters are well drawn and there are enough interesting side plots to keep a reader engaged.  The Christian element isn't too heavy handed and probably appropriate to the time period. The audiobook reader handles Mercy's cockney accent well. I will probably try reading either more in this series or something else written by Hedlund again. (352 p. 2019)

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

 Melinda Gates has been the driving force behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's charitable projects.  In this book Gates tells about her journey as she entered into humanitarian aid and what experiences guided her direction.  She has mainly focused on projects that will help women in underprivileged communities. In the book she has chapters about some of the main challenges women face, including having access to birth control, having access to education, having options to work outside the home, having control over who and when to marry. She also discusses issues women face in developed countries, like the lack of women in leadership and tech jobs, creating partnership in marriage, and dealing with religious beliefs that support male dominance.

I chose this book because I felt like, in a time of year so often focused on materialism, it is good to be reminded that not everyone enjoys the advantages we do in the United States.  The stories Ms Gates recounts are heartrending, and it is hard to internalized that there are so many places still left in the world where women lack basic rights.  I also appreciated her discussion about how she, as a devout Catholic, has dealt with reconciling the Catholic Church's prohibition of contraceptives with the reality of their importance in lifting women from poverty and oppression.  I must admit, I was having similar feelings of conflict when I read the chapter about male dominant religions and how they perpetuate the idea the women are somehow "less" than men.  The audiobook is read by Ms Gates, and was written in 2019.  It is a little sad to hear the enthusiasm in her voice as she discusses how she and Bill managed to establish a relationship of true partnership, knowing that just two years later they divorced because of Bill's involvement with the Jeffery Epstein sex scandal. Still, the book is worthwhile  and a reminder of all that still needs to be done to create a completely equitable society. (2019, 288p)

Spider's Web by Agatha Christie, Novelization by Charles Osborne

 Clarissa loves her quiet life with her diplomat husband, but sometimes longs for a little adventure.  It arrives in the form of the new husband of Clarissa's husband's druggy ex-wife.  He wants to gain custody of Clarissa's step daughter, Pippa, something Clarissa cannot allow.  After an argument the ex leaves in a huff, but a little while later Clarissa finds his dead body in the drawing room.  Fearing the impact the murder investigation will have on her husband's career, she convinces three friends to help her move the body.  Before their plan can be enacted the police arrive. Clarissa has to use all her wits to discover who killed the despicable man before she or others she loves are implicated. 

This story was originally written as a stage play which has run continually in London's West side since 1953.  Charles Osborne adapted it as a short novel, and the sound recording by Harper Audio is really well done.  Agatha Christie was such a master.  The plot was intricate, and the ending was surprising enough to be satisfying. Christie included enough clues in the story that you think, "Oh, yeah, I should have seen that."  I have seen Mouse Trap two times on the stage (Christie's only play that has run longer than this one) and I think I like this one better.  It didn't have the cliché final scene where everyone's secrets are revealed like Mouse Trap does. This would be a great audiobook to listen to on a car ride with a spouse. (4 hrs, 2012)

The Sheriffs of Savage Wells by Sarah Eden

 Paisley Bell had been working as the unofficial assistant to the sheriff of their sleepy Wyoming town before he left to become a logger in Oregon. She kept on acting as sheriff until the city council decided to advertise for a replacement. The other four candidates scoff when Paisley applies for the position, especially a famous lawman, Cade O'Brien.  Cade is tired of killing bad guys, first in the Civil War and later as a sheriff.  He wants a job in a quiet town where he can settle down. At first he finds Paisley's stubbornness frustrating, and the two butt heads.  But as the competition for the position advances, they come to secretly respect each other and realize that they enjoy their verbal sparring matches. Sparks start flying of a different nature, but will their ambition to land the same job prove to be a permanent wedge between them?

After my two failed book attempts, I just wanted something to read that I knew wouldn't contain any smut. This is one of Shadow Mountain's "Proper Romances"  and although they are full of romance, they don't contain bad language or sex. This book ended up being so cliché that it made me laugh out loud.  It was like Louis Lamour meets Georgette Heyer. The characters were bigger than life, and there is no real attempt to make the setting authentic. Still, it was just what I was in the mood for at the time and I really enjoyed it.  I am glad I have a few authors I can return to for refuge with the I need a break from modern amorality.  (336, 2016)

Two books I didn't finish by Emily Henry

I discovered this week that Emily Henry is not the author for me.  I started with Book Lovers and really liked it in the beginning.  The dialog was clever and snappy, but two hours in the description of their sexual attraction got too much for me.  I just don't want to hear over and over which body parts were throbbing and what each was touching when they lost control around each other. 

It just so happened that the next book on my hold list was also by Henry.  I actually didn't realize it was by the same author in the beginning but when I figured it out I was instantly on my guard.  People We Meet on Vacation was less steamy than Book Lovers, and I liked the characters a little better.  I actually listened to 8 of the 11 hours of the recording, but then got bored.  The reader learns early on that the main characters had spent 10 summers vacationing together. I had listened to the descriptions of 4 of them. They involved a lot of drinking and being silly together, and I thought, "do I really want to listen to the last  6 vacations for three more hours?" and the answer was "No."  Plus, their relationship in the "present" was heating up and I was afraid it would be as descriptive as in the Book Lovers book.

It is interesting that I put them on hold because they were some of the top requested titles on our library's e-books server.  Other people are clearly liking them better than I did.  

The Candy Cane Caper by Josi Kilpack

 Sadie is getting ready for her children, her husband's children and all the grandchildren to come to visit for Christmas.  In the midst of her busy preparations, she takes time to visit an elderly friend, Mary, who is in a care center and dying of cancer.  During the visit Mary tells Sadie about the vintage ornaments on her Christmas tree and Sadie is astounded to find out how valuable they are.  The next day some of the ornaments are stollen, and Sadie, who used to be a private invistigator, sets aside her busy Christmas preparations to try to find them before Mary discovers that they are missing and it ruins her last earthly Christmas. 

Here is a very mild cozy mystery to start off your Christmas reading.  Nobody get's killed, nobody even yells at another person.  Kilpack sprinkles the story with some funny scenes, and some touching family reunions. Of course, there are recipes at the end of each chapter, but the audio book doesn't read through them. They are suposedly available from an attached pdf but I didn't try to find them.  This isn't the first book about Sadie, and I would be willing to read the first one, but sadly it is not available in audio on Libby. (sigh) (2019, 320 pages)

Who Was Isaac Newton by Janet Pascal

 Isaac Newton was born to an illiterate farmer couple but when his parents wanted him to take over the farm, he purposely failed miserably.  One of his teachers recognized his academic talent and worked to get him ready for admission to Cambridge. He was accepted, but didn't get very good grades because he wasn't interested in learning Latin, Greek, and religion. Then a plague hit, and he went back home for two years to get away from the contagion.  It was during these two years that he came up with the amazing scientific ideas that he would work out the rest of his life.  He was not very easy to get along with and mostly worked as a loner, but his scientific ideas have been the foundation of macro physics ever since. 

I read this book because I was considering including it in a science kit about optics. He was the person that figured out that white light is a combination of all the other light colors. There was a chapter about that, and I will probably use it.  My main response to the book was that Isaac Newton was amazingly awesome!  He excelled in so many different things.  He was clearly aspie, but his intelligence was off the chart.  People like him and Mozart, and DaVinci are always fascinating to me.  Like the other books in this series, the writing is accessible and age appropriate. This is a good introduction to an amazing scientist for middle grade readers. (2014,112 p.)

Quiet Power by Susan Cain

 This is the "young reader" version of "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking" (why do nonfictions always have to have long titles?).  I didn't read the adult one, but this one is excellent.  It gives both introverted and shy kids tips on how to survive, cope, and thrive in a world that often rewards extroverts.   There are different sections on dealing with teachers, peers, taking leadership roles, doing sports, and dealing with family members.  Cain doesn't portray introversion as a challenge to be overcome, but as a strength to be exercised. As I read the author's advice, I kept thinking of myself as a child, but also about the children I know who struggle with shyness.  I especially liked the part at the end when the author gives ideas to parents and teachers how to make subtle changes in home and class management to help introverted children thrive.  (2016, 288 p)

Playing the Cards You're Dealt by Varian Johnson

 Ant (short for Anthony) is excited to compete in a Spades card game tournament. His performance in the tournament the previous year was not so great, and he is eager to do better and live up to his family legacy of Spades winners. The tournament is not the only thing on his mind.  His mom is extra stressed and his father is acting oddly.  His best friend and Spades partner is acting up too, and manages to get himself expelled and grounded for fighting.  The only bright spot in Ant's life is a new girl in school, who is not only pretty and smart, but can play Spades and trash talk with the best of them.  As the competition approaches, things at home get worse, and Ant finds himself dealing with way more than he ever imagined. His dad keeps telling him to man up, and keep his secrets, but Anthony can't ignore the feeling in his gut that keeping secrets that could harm his family is not what a real man does.

I checked this book out because I was waiting for another hold and it was short, plus really liked The Parker Inheritance by the same author.  I am so glad I did.  I don't know how much I would have enjoyed reading the book in print, but the narrator of the recorded book, Dion Graham, was fantastic.  The author does a great job of depicting the different people in a closely knit urban neighborhood.  Then Graham gives each one a pitch perfect voice.  The three old men at the convenience store were my favorite.  I could imagine and picture them just as if I were standing there in person.  Johnson addresses a lot of issues about what it means to be a pre-teen male in modern society; including respecting girls, what it means to be strong, and what "consent" looks like to a 10 year old. I was impressed with how Johnson was able to bring up and address these difficult ideas in a totally age appropriate way. The sad thing is that I don't think many people in my community would even pick up this book.  The title and the cover are a little unfortunate. Our library doesn't own a physical copy. Even though I loved the book, I am not sure it would be worth while to purchase one because I don't know who would read it. (2021, 320 p)

The Last Musketeer by Stuart Gibbs

 Gregory has grown up in a large historic estate, and has always attended private schools.  Now his family's inherited wealth has run out and his parents have decided to sell many of the antiques in their mansion to an interested buyer in France. When they get there they find that the man purchasing their heirlooms is mostly interested in his mother's necklace, a broken piece of crystal. When he gets his hands on it, a time portal opens up and he, Gregory's parents, and Gregory himself are sucked into 17th century France where Greg meets Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the Three Musketeers, as teenagers.  Greg enlists their help to try to free his parents who have been imprisoned in La Mort. 

I am almost always up for a new book by Stuart Gibbs.  I liked his Moon Base Alpha series, his Spy School series, and his Charlie Thorne series.  This one was OK, but I didn't like it as well and some other Gibbs books I have read.  For one thing, the story loses a lot if you are not familiar with the Three Musketeers by Dumas, or at least seen one of the movie adaptations.  How many middle grade readers are? Also, Gibbs falls back on a lot of slap-stick type physical humor. A ten-year-old boy might laugh at the schtick, but I found it a bit too cliché. I did appreciate the realistic portrayal of some of the less appealing aspects of 17th century France, like the lack of sanitation, high levels of pollution, and the intense smells that must have permeated city life in the past. Even though I didn't like this book as much of some of Gibb's others, I will still recommend it to readers looking for historical action and adventure. (2018, 272 p)

Present Danger by Elizabeth Goddard

 Jack Tanner is former FBI but is now working as a detective in Montana.  Terra Connors is a US Forest Service special agent.  When a dead body is found in a national forest the two, who are estranged high school sweethearts, find themselves working together on the case.  The investigation leads to artifact trafficking, more bodies, and danger close to home for Terra.  Her danger triggers protective feelings in Jack and the beginnings of hope that, even though Jack and Terra have a difficult past, maybe they could have some kind of future together.

I chose this book because it had an intriguing genre description; murder mystery Christian romance.  It turned out to be mostly a murder mystery romance, with only a few token Christian elements, like prayers during life threatening moments.  I would say it was a B level read overall.  The dialog was a little stilted, though may have been accentuated by the recorded book reader.  Her reading style was a little stiff.  Still, it began to bug me that every time they talked about a car, they said "vehicle" instead of car.  Every. Single. Time.  I get it that they are supposed to be law enforcement talking in police jargon, but really?  Also, even though this is the first book in a series, I kept thinking, "did I miss a prequel?"  There is a lot of back story, and it was rolled out so slowly that I kept feeling like I had missed something. 

Ok, my commentary sounds harsh.  It really wasn't bad.  On the positive side, it was very clean and I don't think there was any swearing. I enjoyed it enough that I finished the whole 11 hours of the recorded book without turning the playback speed up to 1.25. Still, I am not really planning on reading the rest in the series. (394 p. 2021)

A Tale of Beauty and the Beast by Melanie Cellier

Because Princess Sophia won the Princess Tourney, she is now betrothed to cursed Prince Dominic of Palinar.  When she arrives all alone at his palace, she is dismayed to discover she no longer has a mental link with her twin sister Princess Lily.  Her betrothed is frightening and rude, but Sophia learns to hear the invisible servants who try their best to make her stay at the castle tolerable. Sophie tries desperately to find a way to break the curse over the castle and free herself from the betrothal, but none of her ramblings around the castle, nor her conversations with the servants bring her closer to a solution. When something happens and the prince is injured trying to save Sophie from some wolves, the hearts of the two lost souls start to turn toward each other instead of away. Time is running out for the prince, and Sophie must decide whether to follow her heart or continue trying to save the kingdom.

After the last book, I was eager to read this one and see how Cellier handles the story of Beauty and the Beast.  In the end I was a little disappointed.  Cellier borrows too much from the Disney version of the story, and only makes a few nods to the original fairytale. I am a little surprised she could draw so much from the Disney version and not have their legal department come down on her.  The scene where the Prince is battling wolves and the description of Sophie's hair and dress at the ball are straight from Disney.  There is the secret library that the Prince makes for Sophie, and the handsome bad guy who asks the princess to marry him, and then ends up fighting with the prince.  I am perhaps being too critical.  It was an okay book and if I wasn't comparing it to the Disney version, I probably would have enjoyed it more. Still, I might wait a while before I read another in the series. (296 p. 2017)

I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day

 Edie's mother is part Native American but was adopted by a white couple as an infant.  Edie doesn't know much about her Native heritage, but one day she finds a box in the attic that has pictures of someone named Edith who looks a lot like her.  Edie and her friends decide to try to figure out who the woman is and how she is connected with Edie. When Edie begins to ask her parents about her family history they always dodge her questions.  Gradually Edie comes to learn about the mysterious Edith and about how Native peoples where treated in the past.

I read this book in honor of Native American Heritage Month in November, and also because I was featuring it in a display at work, and I never like to put anything in a display that I haven't read yet. It is the first book written by the author and is based on elements from her own family history.  The book is well written and Edie is a sympathetic character.  It is a good introduction for young people about some of the injustices of history.  (spoiler alert) I didn't know that for decades about 1/3 of children of Native people in the US were taken without their parent's consent and put in foster care or up for adoption. The justification was that the homes they were born into were in "indigent" conditions. It seems horrifying to us today, but I can see how people then considered it the right thing to do because poverty was a major issue among Native people. It is ironic that the government condemned them for their poverty, when a generation or two before that same government drove them off of good prosperous lands and forced them onto reservations that were in the worst, least productive regions of the country.  (288 p. 2020)

A Dance of Silver and Shadow by Melanie Cellier

Princess Lily and her twin sister Sophia are off to make diplomatic alliances with the Duchy of Marin. Upon their arrival they discover that they are being forced to participate in a magical princess tournament to establish who will marry a cursed prince in a neighboring kingdom.  The 12 participants range from ages 13-18, and have to descend into a magical underground realm every three days to compete in various feats of whit and skill. None of the princesses really wants to wed the cursed prince, but if they do not try their best one of their loved ones will suffer.  As the oldest, Lily and Sophia know they are most likely to win, but Lily has a secret plan to protect her sister by trying her best to surpass her.  The prince of Marin comes to first admire, then love Lily, so he doesn't want her to win.  On the other hand, his own three sisters are competing as well, so he can understand Lily's determination to try to save the other girls. The couple also face political treachery within the land of Marin., Torn between duty and love, both know that following their hearts might bring ruin on their friends and family.

I was sick all this week, and this book was just the thing to get me through the worst times.  The 12 Dancing Princesses has long been one of my favorite fairytales, and this is probably my favorite novel adaptation of the story I have read so far. Maybe because I was sick, I couldn't see how the author would resolve the conflict until right before the end. Lily is a charmingly human protagonist, who, although she knows she must not get to attached to Prince John, nevertheless, keeps finding herself unable to resist his comfort, support, and embraces. I liked this book enough that I put the second in the series on hold right away, and have already checked it out to read next. (2017, 444 p.)

Pahua and the Soul Stealer by Lori Lee

 Pahua is the only Hmong girl at her school and she feels like she will never fit in.  Her best friend is a spirit cat named Miv whom only she can see. In fact, Pahua has the unusual gift to be able to see all spirits, both nature and human.  One day, she sees the spirit of a girl who died tragically on a bridge decades before. Feeling sorry for the girl, she accidently releases it, causing a host of problems including a threat to her little brother's life.  To try to fix her mistake, Pahua follows a young cocky shaman apprentice, Zhong, into the spirit world to try to save her brother's soul. She soon finds that there is much more to her ability to see spirits than she could have imagined.

Here is yet another in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.  I ended up liking this one pretty much.  I met some Hmong people when I was in California, but I know very little about their culture and mythology.  I feel like I have a better understanding after reading this book.  Gardner does a good job making Pahua and Zhong well rounded and appealing characters. The pacing of the story is very much like Rick Riordan's books, where every chapter has a challenge or a opponent for the hero's to face, and as they complete each challenge it leads them to the next. I have wondered before how heavily Riordan influences the books in his imprint.  It totally works for this book, and I am sure I will be recommending this to kids who like the other Rick Riordan Presents books, especially the Aru Shah books. (2021, 320 p.)

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

 Neil Gaiman takes diverse tales of Norse Mythology and weaves them into a single narrative. He starts with creation myths, and then focuses on the adventures of Odin, Thor and Loki. He includes origin stories, trickster tales, and battles with various giants. He finishes the books with the traditional predictions of Ragnarak with its portent of utter destruction followed by rebirth. 

It is hard to think of anyone better to retell Norse Mythology than Neil Gaiman. He is is an amazing storyteller and never shies away from gruesome or shocking details.  He does a great job portraying the personalities of the various gods as he sees them.  Odin, is obsessed with obtaining knowledge is will to sacrifice anything to get it.  Thor is basically good hearted, but brutish and not very bright.  Loki is the most clever, but is without morals.  He is as likely to kill another god as to help him/her. Gaiman includes a lot of humor, some of it very irreverent.  In fact, I had a hard time deciding for what age group this book would be appropriate. Much of it would be super engaging to upper elementary and middle school readers, but there is some open discussion of adultery and sexual promiscuity. They are, after all, essential elements of the mythology.  I think I would probably put the book in the teen nonfiction section, but I would be willing to suggest it to less sheltered 6th or 7th graders.(2017, 304p.)

The Secret Princess by Malanie Cellier

 Princess Giselle is traveling with a delegation to Eliam to strengthen diplomatic ties and maybe even make a match with Prince Percy.  Her plans and hopes are derailed when her ship hits a storm and starts to take on water.  The crew decides to let her ashore with her immediate staff and her magic talking horse, Arvin, while they go for repairs. She has barely lost her sea legs, when the group is under attack, and she narrowly escapes with her maid Sierra and Arvin.  Sierra convinces her to trade places, "for her own safety" and pretend to be the maid, while Sierra takes the role of princess. Of course, it is a trick, and Giselle finds herself relegated to serving as a goose girl while her maid pretends to be her.  A magic spell keeps her from telling her true identity, but nothing can stop her from trying to save both the kingdom of Eliam and her own kingdom's reputation by putting a stop to Sierra's plan.  With the help of the handsome and mysterious Philip and her ever faithful Arvin, she hopes to earn her place as a real princess.

After reading the much heavier Speak novel, I was ready for something light, so I chose this title, thinking it was the next in the Four Kingdoms saga.  It turns out I missed a whole intermediate series, (Beyond the Four Kingdoms) so I was a bit lost with the backstory on this one. It didn't ruin the book.  It is still a good story with likeable characters and a decently complex plot.  It is classic Cellier.  Her heroines and heroes are all pretty similar, but it had been long enough since I read one of her books that I was able to enjoy one again.  I read Shannon Hale's Goose Girl recently enough that it was fun to compare how they treated the original fairytale. Hale's was probably the better book overall, but I was happy about a few of the changes Cellier made.  It was just about at the right level of teen fantasy fluff to sooth my mind and soul after the heartrending Speak. (370 p. 2020) 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

 In junior high Melinda was a good student with lots of friends.  Three months later she starts high school as an outcast who is on her way to fail most of her classes.  Her classmates have shunned her because she called the cops on a keg party at the end of the last school year.  None of them know what really happened to Melinda at the party and she cannot find a way to tell anyone.  As she becomes more and more withdrawn, she stops speaking to most people. As an outsider she sees the emptiness of the social games at her school, and the struggles of the teachers to deal with their own lives while restraining hundreds of adolescence.  Her parents' marriage is in trouble, and they are too wrapped up in their own troubles to ask themselves why their daughter has lost interest in life. The only teacher that seems to care about Melinda and wonder what she is going through is her art teacher. Her interactions with him and the others in her art class give her the first clues about how she might start to communicate and heal.

Right now in the Alpine School District, there are several books that are being challenged by parents.  This is one that is part of the curriculum at the high school, which the parents want removed from the curriculum because they say it is "pornography".  I had a parent urge me to read part of the book that the parents find objectionable, but I decided to read the whole thing. The book came out years ago and was very controversial then, but also won tons of awards.  I didn't read it when it came out because it was YA and I was mostly reading Middle Grade back then.  As I started it this week, I was a little bit dreading it because it deals with such a heavy topic.  It was a heavy read, but really well done.  It is hard to imagine a book dealing with the rape of a 13-year-old that would be better written than this one.  Melinda is a sweet girl struggling to deal with what happened to her.  She instinctively knows she must let go of what others expect of her and do some self-care.  A reader can't help but cheer for her as she takes baby steps out of the darkness into a more hopeful future.  The scene where she finally describes what happened to her at the party had much less degree of discription than I expected. It clearly describes that she was raped, but in the most minimal prose. When I finished it I thought, "That is it? That is what all the parents are complaining about?  They must not read much."  I thought the descriptions were very age appropriate for a high school student.  

That being said, I am not sure it should be required reading in a class.  I do believe people should be able to choose their level of exposure to difficult topics.  I think it would be completely appropriate to be one of several on an approved list.  Maybe that is all the parents are asking for.  I don't know enough about the debate.  Still, I saw no reason to consider removing the book from a public library, or even for moving it from the YA section to the adult section.  (224 p. 1999)

Great Courses: Biology of Human Behavior by Robert Sapolsky

In this series of 24 lectures, Dr Sapolsky walks the listeners through many the physiological of human behavior.  He starts with a simple explanation about how a neuron works.  Then he talks about neuro-networks, and the chemicals that function as neuro- transmitters.  He talks about the structure of the brain and which parts have the biggest roles in influencing Human Behavior.  Then he shifts gears and explores several "buckets" or ways that people have approached the study of human behavior, including evolution, environment, heredity and environment. 

Dr. Sapolsky is a very engaging speaker with an obvious enthusiasm for his subject matter.  He has some bias in which theories about human behavior he thinks are worthwhile and which he thinks are ridiculous, but he is always careful to acknowledge his personal bias.  He often refers to diagrams in this lecture, and I stopped the recording a couple of times to look up similar diagrams, like the structure of the brain and the parts of a neuron, but I felt like he described most of his diagrams well enough that I could picture them in my head without actually seeing them.  I found the lecture series very interesting and it answered some of my personal questions about how different systems in the body work.  It was well worth the 12 hour listening time. (2005, 12 hrs)

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

William, Edmund and Anna were orphaned when Anna was just a baby.  Since then they have lived with a not-very-nurturing grandmother.  Their grandmother dies just at the beginning of WWII and now the three children have an inheritance, but no caregiver.  Their lawyer suggests that they go with other children who are being evacuated from London to the countryside.  The hope is that they will find a family who, having taken them in temporarily, would be willing to keep them indefinitely. They are assigned to one family after another without great results. The one person in town who seems to actually care about them is considered by others in the town as "unsuitable."

The promotional blib on Amazon for this book starts out "For fans of The War That Saved My Life".  It is a brave thing to start out by comparing yourself to such an amazing book, and I was a bit skeptical, especially given the cover art.  In the end I was pleasantly surprised.  It is similar to "The War..." in that it is a story of an adult growing to love a child, and visa versa.  I think this one is better suited for a younger audience.  It lacks the most bitter elements of  "The War..." because the children and Nora hit it off from the very beginning. The children's challenges come from their experience with other people in the environment.  There are some harsh situations, but overall, I think this is a kinder, gentler historical fiction.  The three children are both sympathetic and heroic.  The oldest is always looking out for the younger, often taking on more responsibility than any child should have to.  The younger boy is the most socially adept, but also struggles with his feelings of anger and sensibility of injustice. Anna is sweet and innocent, but at times has surprising insight. I really enjoyed the book and am glad to have another title in my arsenal for kids who are required to read a historical fiction. (2021, 320 p)

Merci Suares Changes Gears by Med Medina

 Merci is starting her first year of junior high at a private school.  She misses the nurturing support of her 6th grade teacher, but looks forward to getting to play on the junior high soccer team.  Merci lives in Florida, in a row of three houses occupied by her extended family.  She is especially close to her grandfather whom she calls Lolo.  As the school year progresses, Merci begins to notice that her Lolo is struggling with some things that never bothered him before.  Merci has her own struggles at school as she repeated finds herself at the mercy of a bossy queen bee, Edna. Then there is the new kid, Michael, from Montana, that seems to want to spend more time with Merci, who definitely does not have a crush on him, than Edna, who definitely does. Could life ever be more complicated?

This book won the Newbery in 2019, but I had never "read" it because, for some unknown reason, it is not available in audio.  I finally bit the bullet and checked out a text based version.  It received a lot of attention and awards when it came out, and it was good, but I didn't think it was amazing.  It is one of the books that tries to pack in a bunch of social issues. I thought the way Medina handled Merci's grandfather's decline was well done.  Her relationship with her brother is sweet, and her challenges with her "friends" believable.  It was worth reading, but I don't know if I would have given it a Newbery. (2018, 368 p)

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

 Beatrice Nash has recently lost her father and has moved to a small town in Sussex in 1914.  She has a small inheritance, but it is held in trust, so she is trying to be independant by working as a Latin teacher.  The town has a complex social structure, and Beatrice is befriended by one of the leading women, Agatha Kent, and by her two nephews, Hugh and Daniel.  It is a beautiful summer, but there are rumblings about war with the Kaiser.  When Belgium falls, the whole town is caught up in a patriotic frenzie, but it slowly and inexerably gives way to the grim realities of living with war. As things spiral out of control, both Beatrice and Agatha put asside social convention to follow their hearts, with mixed results.

I picked this book because it was written by the same author as Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, which I loved. I ended up really likeing this one as well.  Not only is Simonson a brilliant word crafter, but she has such a delicate touch with characters and relationships.  She does a good job of balancing the heart wrenching realities with light hearted jabs at small town social wrangling. The story unfolds like a rose bud, a little at a time until it reaches full bloom. This is another historical fiction that I will be recommending to a lot of friends. (2016, 512 p.) 

Great Courses: Augustine: Philosopher and Saint by Phillip Cary

 Saint Augustine is now considered one of the theological fathers of the Catholic Church, but he didn't start out that way.  As a youth he was trained as a philosopher and rhetorician, and for a time he followed the heretical sect of the Manicheans. In twelve lectures, the author discusses Augustine's life and theology, and the impact he had on modern Christian thought. His lectures are based on the major writings of the Saint, including the Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, and the The City of God.  Cary emphasizes how Augustine adapted the teachings of the Neoplatonists to Christian theology.

Of course, having been a humanities major focusing on the middle ages, I had heard of Augustine, but listening to this lecture series, I realized how little I really knew about him and his teachings.  Professor Cary gives interesting and rather animated lectures and seems to be well informed on his topic. I enjoyed listening to the lectures, but I didn't gain a lot of respect for Augustine.  He really does seem to have ignored much of what we know about God and Christ from the Bible, and instead tried to God into the philosophies popular at the time in Rome. Augustine was clearly brilliant, but, in my opinion, misguided. 

(1998, 6 hrs)

The Fix by David Baldacci

 Amos Decker, Alex, and the other members of their FBI team are living in Washington DC.  One day as Amos is walking to the Hoover Building, he sees a man shoot a woman right in front of him. At first it seems like the man and the woman have no connection.  The man is a respected owner of a company that does government contracts.  The woman is a teacher at a catholic school and visits a hospice as a volunteer. As Decker's team digs deeper into the mystery they learn that not everything, or everyone, are as they seem. As Decker uses his amazing memory and the rest of the teem use their unique abilities, to get to the root of the case, people keep showing up who want to kill them.

This is the third in the Memory Man series.  I really like this series.  It is intellectual, and Decker is an interesting character. Alex is also a good character, and the new character introduced in this book, Harper Brown, also has promise. There is action, but it isn't all action.  There are enough clues that the reader can try to figure things out, but the ending isn't totally predictable.  As I have said about this series before, I am glad it doesn't have some of the more distasteful elements you find in other "thriller" type mysteries. (2017, 434 p)

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

The jungle at the interior of Honduras are said to be some of the most dangerous and most inhospitable in the world.  For centuries, Hondurans have retold a legend of a Ciudad Blanco, or White City, in the middle of the jungle area, and for decades different explorers and scientists have tried to locate ruins in the region, without much success.  Then in 2012, a new technology, lidar, gave proof that there were ruins under the dense canopy of the jungle.  A team of scientists and explorers undertook an expedition to find and study the site, with startling results. 

This is fairly sensationalized nonfiction about a modern day explorers. It was very interesting and written in an engaging style.  Preston captures the contrasts of the thrill of seeing a completely unspoiled jungle environment, with the terror of being surrounded by animals and insects that could kill you with one bite. The end of the book took an unexpected turn.  (spoiler alert) with a discussion about the role contagious diseases have played in world history, and specifically, in the devastation of populations of indigenous peoples of the Americas. I knew that great numbers of natives were killed by small pox and other diseases but I had no idea how many. It was interesting to have him end with dire predictions that the world could face another global pandemic like the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Of course this was written before 2020.  Um. Been there. Done that. (2017, 448 p.)

P.S.

I was a little bit delighted with how this tied in with the last Charlie Thorne book I read.  I didn't realize the Charlie Thorne book was based on a real legend.

Still the One by Susan May Warren

 Megan Carter is a wedding planner in her home town of Deep Haven.  Cole Barrett used to visit his grandfather in Deep Haven each summer, and Megan and Cole were childhood friends.  Tragedy struck Cole's family and sent him into the foster care system and then into the Army.  When Cole, having finished his tour of duty, returns to Deep Haven to settle his grandfather's affairs he doesn't plan to stay for long.  Then he see Megan again. She is now a single mom, still wounded that her son's father didn't want to stay and help raise their son.  Neither Cole or Megan think that renewing their childhood relationship would work, but both are inexplicably drawn to each other against their best intentions.

I am always on the lookout for new source for good clean romance.  I hadn't read anything from this author before so I thought I would give her a try.  There were some things I liked.  I thought Cole's voice was very charming.  He sounded, in my head, like I would imagine a handsome x-Army Ranger would sound.  The host of secondary characters were also decent, making Deep Haven seem like an inviting Halmark-movie-type setting. The weakness of the book was the pacing.  Ugh! it was so slow.  I kept thinking, "come on, we need something to happen here."  I almost didn't finish the book.  Finally, I skipped an entire hour of the recording and jumped to the last 1/2 to see how it would end.  I found, by doing that, that I didn't actually miss any important plot points. So maybe Ms. Warren isn't going on my favorite Christian romance writers list.   (248 p. 2021)

The Merchant and the Rogue by Sarah Eden

 Vera Sorokina is a political refugee from Russia and helps run a printing shop owned by her father.  Brogan Donnelly is a writer of Penny Dreadfuls and is part of the secret Dread Penny Society that tries to help the less fortunate people in London.  When Brogan is sent by the Dread Master on a secret mission to discover a plot against the Russian ambasador, he takes a job as a man-of-all-work in Vera's shop.  She is impressed by his kindness and charmed by his quick smile, but concerned at the scars on his knuckles that suggest he has been in more than his share of fist fights. As time goes on Brogan's interest in Vera becomes a conflict of interest in he search to discover if her father is part of the plot against the ambassador.  Meanwhile, an unknown entity is extorting money from the merchants in Vera's neighborhood, and Brogan wants to help, but doesn't know how.

Here is another in the Dread Penny Society series.  I enjoyed it, but have to admit that the books in this series are starting to all sound alike. I guess it would be normal for an author to use the same turn of phrase and discriptors in all their books. The heroines and heroes have very similar personalities, and  they have been fighting against the same crime lord in all the books. I think I just read them too close to each other and would have enjoyed this one a little more if I had waited a few months. There is one more in the series, and the summary sounds pretty good, but I think I will wait a while before I read it. (368 p. 2021)

The Higgs Boson and Beyond by Great Courses

 In 2012 the CERN scientists announced that a Higgs Boson had been created in the Large Hadron Collider. At the time I wondered what it was all about.  This week, in the mood for some nonfiction, I happened on this Great Courses offering about the Higgs Boson and checked it out on Libby.  The course has 12 1/2 hour lectures by Sean Carroll that cover some basic physics, the history of the Higgs Boson, and where physicists want to go from here.  It assumes about a high-school level of physics understanding and covers the current (as of the creation of the lectures) state of the wave theory of elementary particles and how the Higgs Boson is similar and different from other bosons.  It was a good level for me, though I did occasionally get lost in lingo.  I was happy to get updated on current physical science, since I hadn't had a class in it in 30 years. The lecturer is engaging and not at all condescending even though he seems to be a leader in the field.  I talked about the course enough to my husband who got an undergraduate degree in physics, that he put it on hold.  Not all the "Great Courses" offerings are well done, but many are, including this one.  I am glad so many are now available on Libby. (2013, 6 hours 20 minutes)

Lost Girl by Chanda Hahn

 Wendy doesn't remember her early childhood, but is plagued by nightmares of drowning and loss. She also see shadows that other people don't see.  Peter is a member of a group of children and teens who were genetically altered in a science experiment gone wrong.  Peter's group has the task to hunt down the shadow creatures Wendy can see. When Peter and Wendy come together, sparks fly, and both begin to see that their destiny's were intertwined long ago.

I decided I hadn't read a YA novel in a long time, and this one came highly recommended.  I was a little leery since the last Peter Pan remake I read wasn't that great.  This one turned out to be much better.  I thought Ms Hahn did a great job with both Peter's and Tinkerbell's personalities, and also with working in a lot of details from the original book into the new setting.  Wendy is pretty emotional--in love one minute, in despair the next--but that is kind of how it is with YA heroines. It is the first in the series, and I am not sure I will read the rest, but I might, (which is pretty high praise for me when it comes to YA).  (320 p. 2016)

The Pioneers by David McCullough

 After the Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris gave the United States the Northwest Territory, a large fertile area east of the Ohio River. A group of New England men formed a society with the purpose of settling the new area in an organized and profitable manner.  This book follows the lives of some of the earliest settlers as they struggle to set up a civilization in the wild terrain, and then grow that settlement into thriving communities.

I have read and enjoyed David McCullough's histories before.  This one was well researched and engaging as his other books have been.  As I read about how the settlement struggled with starvation the first few years, but slowly got a foothold in a new land, I couldn't help but think of my own ancestors who went through the same process, a couple of decades later, in Utah. McCullough ends the book with excepts from the obituaries and tributes given about the men that were the focus of his narrative. He talks about how there were no greater "Christian Gentlemen" to be found than these men.  As I read that, I suddenly realized that this book was written almost entirely from a white male perspective.  There was some mention that the native peoples who were driven out of their ancestral homes by the settlers, but in the end, McCullough portrayed the relief of the main characters when the natives were finally driven to land north and would no longer be a bother. There was very little said about the contribution of women, except in how they had lots of children and supported their husbands.  There were scattered mentions of people of color, but none were the main focus of any sizable part of the book. It reads like a book published 30 years ago and I was a little surprised when I saw that the publish date was so recent.  (352 p., 2019)

A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy

Ottilie Russell is 3/4 British but looks like her mother who is Indian. She has been raised in India in the late 1800's and trained to be expert at beetle wing embroidery. When first her mother dies, and then her grandmother, (her father having died years before) she struggles to keep food on the table for herself and her younger brother, Thaddeus. Then one day a man, Everett Scott, arrives from England and informs Ottilie that her brother is now Baron Sunderson, and has to return to England to assume his title and inheritance.  Ottilie must decide whether she should leave the only home she and her brother have ever known or risk staying in Calcutta where there is a cholera outbreak.  She also needs to decide whether her growing friendship with Everett is developing into something more. 

I started this book because it came up in a search for "Christian Romance" but it had a different setting than many I have read.  It turned out to be a good choice.  The depiction of India was interesting, especially the details about elytra, or beetle wing embroidery.  I looked it up later and it was a real trend for a while during the imperial period in British history. The characterizations were good as well.  Ottilie is a complex and sympathetic heroine, as are the other main characters.  Finally, the Christian element was a little different than many I have read, noteably Roseanna White.  Ottilie doesn't pray for guidance and eventually receive direction. Instead, she prays for patience and that God will resolve things and he does.  She doesn't receive any inspiration per se, she just finds comfort in reading the Bible.  I would imagine that kind of Christianity would resonate with a lot of people.  (432 p. 2021)

The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

 Nola Brown in on the list of casualties in a military transport plane crash in Alaska.  But when her body shows up at the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, the mortician Zig, knows it is not Nola's body he is working on because he knew Nola as a child. Driven by his connection to his diseased daughter's friend, Zig starts investigating what happened to the the real Nola and finds himself caught up in a dark conspiracy that is more dangerous than he could have guessed. 

I checked out this book because it happened to be available when I finished the last one.  I had enjoyed his book The First Conspiracy, and it had been a while since I had read more "masculine" thriller.  This one was interesting in that it had none of the sexual content you often find in thrillers, but it was quite violent and dark. I probably had a lower threshold for that kind of content than a lot of people, but if you choose to read this, beware there is quite a bit of description about different ways people die. That being said, the plot and characterizations were quite good, good enough that I stuck with the book until its end.  I won't be reading any more in the series, though.  After I finished I quickly checked out a Christian Historical Fiction as kind of mental and emotional dental floss. (2018, 434 p)

Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend

 Morrigan Crow now knows she is a Wundersmith and is starting training at the exclusive Wundersmith academy.  Even as she has her first lessons by viewing recordings of Wundersmith teachers from long ago, a terrible sickness starts affecting the Wunamils, changing them into savage and dumb beasts.  Could the new "disease" actually be a wicked plot meant to lure Morrigan into a trap set by the most evil Wundersmith of them all?

This is the third installment in the Wundersmith series.  I have enjoyed the series from the beginning, but this might be my favorite installment yet.  The first book was a fun "magical school" story.  Like the Harry Potter series, each successive book is growing in sophistication as its reader's age. I like the fact that Townsend gives Morrigan hard decisions without easy answers. At the same time, Morrigan behaves like a young teen, trying to do what is right, but not knowing exactly what that is or whom to trust. As soon as I finished the book, I looked to see if the next in the series was out.  It has been a long time since I have gotten that caught up in a middle-grade fantasy. (560 p. 2020)

The Power of Fun by Catherine Price

What is fun and why is it important?  How can we make more fun in our lives?  These are the questions Ms Price tries to answer in this fairly new self-help.  She talks about the difference between real fun and fake fun, and dwells (and dwells, and dwells) on how our modern addition to our electronic devices is antithetical to experiencing more fun.  She give several exercises to enable the reader to discover their "fun magnets" and maximize their chances of having more real fun.  

It is totally ironic that I didn't find reading this very fun.  I actually started the book, read a different book, tried again, read a different book again, and then finally finished this book.  I liked her suggestions for analyzing what each person considers to be fun, and I have even tried some of her suggestions for adding more fun into my life. On the other hand, I really got tired on her hammering on how bad and addictive cell phones are and how evil Facebook is.  I basically agree with her assertions, but the problem is that she makes them over and over and over.  If I wanted a rant about cell phones I would have read her other book, How to Break up with your Phone. In full disclosure, I got to the point that when I saw that she was jumping on the "cell phones are evil" bandwagon again, I just skipped to the end of the chapter.  That was the only way I could get through.  I skipped about 1 1/2 hours of the recorded book and I don't think I missed any of her main points. (2021, 352 p)

The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah Eden

 Elizabeth Black is a very proper headmistress of a respectable girl's school who has a secret.  She is also a writer of cheap "penny dreadful" novels.  She writes under the pseudonym of Mr. King, and her books are very successful.  One day she meets Fletcher Walker, another writer of penny dreadfuls, who has risen from being a street urchin to a level of some social status.  Walker is also the secret leader of a group of men who try to help street children find a better life through sometimes less-than-legal means.  As Elizabeth and Fletcher become more and more attached, both struggle to hide their secrets. 

I think this is probably Ms Eden's most popular series.  I enjoyed it very much.  The story is written from the point of view of both Fletcher and Elizabeth in alternating chapters, but then there are chapters from each of their penny dreadful novels.  The novels within a novel is handled in a clever way that leads to the resolution of the plot.  I started this book because I was fed up with another book I was listening to, The Power of Fun by Catherine Price.  That book wasn't much fun at all (so far it's been a long rant about how cell phones are ruining our lives.  I may still finish it, but I may not), but this one was. (2019, 384 p)