Sitting Bull

By Bill Yenne

A look at the life of one of the most famous Native Americans, Sitting Bull, author Bill Yenne reveals the truth about the great Lakota leader, carefully pointing out how terribly Sitting Bull was misrepresented to the American public of that time.
Born in the early 1830s in what is now known as South Dakota, Sitting Bull, or as he was named then, Jumping Badger, grew up in a time when the white man was a very rare sight in Sioux territory. This territory was a vast area including Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and up into Canada. In fact, a treaty had been signed granting these lands to the Sioux, protecting them from being settled by American citizens. Too bad for the Sioux when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Greed always wins out whenever it comes to a choice between gold and respecting native people's sovereignty.
Naturally, Americans wanted access to the gold and naturally the Sioux didn't want foreigners exploiting and destroying their sacred holy Black Hills. And naturally, when the Sioux resisted this violation of the treaty, they were the ones labelled as treaty breakers and they were the one punished for standing up for their right to control their own lands.
Sitting Bull, a visionary who foresaw the massacre of American soldiers at Custer's last stand on the Little Bighorn and who also foresaw his own death at the hands of his own people, tried to save his people from destruction and preserve a way of life that had existed for thousands of years. Ultimately, due to the heartless elimination of the vast herds of bison, Sitting Bull and his people were forced to surrender or starve. Powerless to resist American encroachments, forced on to reservations, stripped of guns and horses, the Sioux could only protest verbally as their vast territory was divided and opened to foreign settlement.
As a result of this despair, many of them turned to a new religious movement, the Ghost Dance, which promised deliverance and a return to life as it was before the white man. Those in charge of the reservation and those in Washington DC mistakenly linked Sitting Bull to this movement. Sitting Bull himself had strong doubts about the Ghost Dancers. But white hysteria demanded something be done to stop the perceived "Indian uprising" so Lakota Sioux police were sent to take Sitting Bull into custody. In the process, Sitting Bull was shot and killed, ending his life just as he had foreseen.

This was an illuminating book about a man who deserves his place in American history. As the book points out Sitting Bull was a man of vision, who struggled to preserve his people even if it ultimately meant surrender. The story of his life as detailed by Bill Yenne is the classic story of Native people's fates all over the world. This was an interesting book about a very interesting man.

By the way, the term Sioux is felt by some to be derogatory. However it is a convenient term for the various tribes that compose the Sioux Nation. It is just easier to use and more familiar to most. So no offense was meant by the use of the word Sioux in this blog.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Sarum

By Edward Rutherfurd

This massive novel tells the story of the area around the British city of Salisbury, starting from early prehistoric times and up to the 1980s. In a series of loosely connected stories, Rutherford lays out the history of this place which includes the famous Stonehenge site, the construction of which is also dealt with in this novel. Also detailed is the construction of Salisbury Cathedral, a famous and beautiful building, dating from the 13th Century.
Rutherford traces this history through a handful of fictional families, running from lowlife river people, through craftsmen and farmers and including the landed gentry. He drops into his character's lives at key moments in history, such as the first appearance of the plague in Britain and Britain's struggles with Napoleon. He also mentions the American revolution as an influence on British attitudes towards the rights of the individual, an idea that didn't have much weight at that time in Britain.

Necessarily, to cover such an immense span of time, the story is somewhat piecemeal. The key families substitute for the characters one would normally follow in a novel. To do so, Rutherford gives these families traits that carry through the centuries, such as big heads, thin faces, or cold dispositions. I doubt that such traits would remain consistent unless the families were totally inbred. Still, it is a device to engage the readers in a bunch of new characters every few chapters. This is the novel's biggest weakness, the lack of identification with characters that are constantly changing despite the author's effort to make them nearly identical to their antecedents. It's a big topic, and, as a kind of mini-history of England it was pretty interesting. Not surprisingly some parts are more engaging than others. I sort of lost interest in the story as it moved up into the later centuries, the 18th, 19th and 20th. For the most part, despite the unavoidable disjointedness of the story, it was an entertaining and informative read.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

New Words
Agger & cambered: An agger is the built-up foundations of a Roman road, sometimes surviving as a long bank of earth. To camber means to give a slight arch to. "This was the famous raised agger. Then on top of this they packed chalk, a handspan deep and cambered down from the centre, to ensure that the road surface would be well drained."
Haruspices: The plural of haruspex, a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, the study and divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice. "What had become of the old values -- the stoicism of the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius, the solid virtues of the Roman gentlemen who read the classics, consulted the haruspices and built shrines for their ancestors?"
Pallium: a woollen vestment conferred on archbishops by the Pope. "New bishoprics were founded and the archbishop received his pallium from Rome."
Decurions: A decurion was an officer in charge of ten men in the ancient Roman army; also a member of local government in the Roman Empire. "For under the late empire it had been possible for decurions to obtain exemption from the financial burdens of holding local offices by taking priestly orders, and many local landowners had entered the priesthood for this reason."
Quartan: A fever whose symptoms recur every four days; recurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms. "As for Bishop Roger, he had hardly been seen since his return, and there were rumours that he was sick with a quartan fever."
Exchequer & chirograph: Exchequer is the financial department of the royal government; the treasury. Chirograph is a writing which, requiring a copy, was engrossed twice on the same piece of parchment, with a space between, in which was written the word chirographum, through which the parchment was cut, and one part given to each party. "There was a separate court and exchequer for the community; and there were a number of towns where the official records of all moneylending transactions were kept in the archae, the great chests for holding these chirograph documents."
Villeins & heriot: A villein is a non-free man, owing heavy labor service to a lord, subject to his manorial court, bound to the land, and subject to certain feudal dues, but better than a serf. The heriot is, in feudal law, the right of a feudal lord to take a tenant's best beast or other chattel on the tenant's death. "For although the villeins and free tenants who should have worked his land had gone, he still had the right to the heriot tax payable when a peasant died."
Demesne: the land on a manor not held by free or villein tenants but directly cultivated for the lord by an agent. "During the previous year he had paid high wages to cultivate at least part of his own demesne lands."
Murrain: any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle and sheep such as anthrax; the word means death. "And he had been hard hit, like many others, by a murrain which had carried off most of his sheep."
Woad: common name of the plant Isatis tinctoria whose leaves are used to make a blue dye; the dye made from the plant Isatis tinctoria. "Only two months before he had imported a load of twenty-five tons of woad for making dye through the port of Southampton on which he had made a handsome profit."
Chequers & close: Close is an enclosed place, especially land surrounding or beside a cathedral or other building; also a narrow lane or alley. Chequer is a square. "'That's the place with the best views,' he would say: for from Harnham you could see the whole city - cathedral, close, market place and chequers laid out as clearly as on one of Speed's maps."
Bye-laws: Bye-law or by-law is a law that is less important than a general law or constitutional provision, and subsidiary to it; a rule relating to a matter of detail; as, civic societies often adopt a constitution and by-laws for the government of their members. "Soon he was familiar with the complex set of bye-laws that regulated the villagers' intense cultivation of their jointly owned flocks and hedged fields."
Prebendary: A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral. A prebend is a type of benefice, which usually consisted of the income from the cathedral estates. A canon is a priest serving a cathedral or collegiate church or a member of a religious community living under common rules and bound by vows. "Many a rector or prebendary lived like a gentleman and at Sarum at least, the dean lived like a lord."
Tractarians: also called the Oxford movement, Tractarians wanted to reform the Anglican church, to go back to the Catholic roots of the English church; their views were expressed in series of tracts, thus the name Tractarians. "I have Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Tractarians, and others who may be anything."
Trenchant: keen, incisive; penetrating; forceful; effective; clear-cut. "Porters nodded absently as Ebenezer Mickelthwaite, agent to Lord Forest, expressed these trenchant views."

Souvenir

By Therese Fowler

Meg married Brian because his family was willing to write off the mortgage his family held against her family, nearly $400,000. She didn't love him but she was willing to wed him to keep her family from foreclosure. But to do so, she had to give up the love of her life, Carson. On her wedding morning, she visited Carson at his shack and they made love one last time. Despite his pleas, she went ahead with her plan to marry Brian. Carson never knew about the mortgage, he just thought Meg was after Brian's money.
Sixteen years later and Meg and Brian have a daughter, Savannah, who is just turning sixteen. Meg and Brian are still together, although their marriage is rather cold and superficial. Brian runs his own business and has a huge passion for golf. Meg has gotten a medical degree and has a thriving medical practice. She and Brian are so busy that Savannah is not supervised closely enough and ends up involved with a shady character online. *SPOILER ALERT* Things go from bad to worse when Megs finds out that she is rapidly dying of an incurable disease. She has to cope with her impending death, her unhappy marriage, Savannah's stupidity and with the reemergence into her life of her old love, Carson.

This is a real soap opera of a novel. I didn't really care much for it. For one thing, I don't like stories about sick people. That's just a personal preference. I also didn't like the ending of the novel, which I thought was the coward's way out.

Review by Darlene on Peeking Between The Pages.

I Feel Bad About My Neck

By Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron's  amusing look at growing older, this book is a collection of essays addressing such topics as ugly necks, finding the right purse, cooking, personal grooming, and so on, but looked at from the perspective of 65 years. Growing old is easy but coping with growing old sure isn't.
Mostly these are humorous essays, not to be taken very seriously, although there is one where she writes about the loss of a very dear friend that points out one of the worst things about growing old, the loss of those who mean so much in our lives. I suppose any book about growing old has to touch on death, has to have that one serious mediation. I could have done without it, though. Mostly, these are just funny essays to make a person chuckle which I enjoyed reading.

For other reviews, see the NY Times and The Guardian.

Ten Days in the Hills

By Jane Smiley

Max, a has-been movie director, has a houseful of people staying with him. There's his lover Elena; Simon, her slutty son; Isabel, Max's daughter; Zoe, Isabel's movie star mom and Max's ex-wife; Delphine, Zoe's mom; Cassie, Delphine's friend, Paul, Zoe's therapist and lover; Stony, Max's agent and Isabel's lover; and Charlie, Max's boyhood friend from back East, ten people all together.
So for ten days these people are together, talking, eating and screwing. Set at the beginning of the Iraq war, Max's girlfriend Elena is distraught about the war. She blames the war for Max's impotence. Most all of Max's guests side with her, except for Charlie who is a Republican and a supporter of the war which causes some conflict with Elena. He feels her doubts about the war are disloyal and calls her on it. Meanwhile the others are having lots of sex and eating vegan meals. Towards the end of the story, they all move from Max's house to a fabulous mansion owned by some rich Russians who want Max to direct a movie about Cossacks. Max isn't really that interested, he wants to make a movie about him and Elena in bed called "My Lovemaking with Elena," which would be kind of like the movie "My Dinner with Andre." The new location is an opportunity for more and different kinds of sex and more talk.

Not much happens in this story, mostly just lots of talk and lots of rather graphic sex. At times, I really couldn't understand why I was reading it. It's not like it has a plot. It's just a bunch of people talking, eating and screwing. Somehow, it roped me in, and despite its length, I kept on reading. I can't say I really liked the characters but somehow I liked reading about them, even their long conversations.

For another review of the book, see the NY Times.

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

By Tony Horwitz

What a wonderful book! Horwitz takes the reader down the little explored avenues of American history, mingling the past and the present in a very intimate and informative way, yet keeping the pace lively and entertaining without bogging the reader down in a dry recitation of boring dates and facts. He makes history personal and living as he travels around gaining a new vision and understanding of the underpinnings of American history and in the process exploding lots of our most dearly held myths. These myths include the first Thanksgiving, the landing at Plymouth Rock, Ponce de Leon's search for the fountain of youth, and Columbus proving the world was round. All false, as false as George Washington chopping down that silly cherry tree and all came to exist in pretty much the same way as the cherry tree story. Some old guys decided that that was the way it should be and so it was, never mind the truth. As Horwitz discovers, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Spanish settlers in Florida; the Pilgrims didn't land at Plymouth Rock, they landed on the beach, Ponce de Leon was not looking for the fountain of youth, that was completely fabricated by later historians, and Columbus and the Catholic Church already knew the world was not flat but round. Still, at the end of the book, Horwitz acknowledges that people need their myths and that myths will outlast the truth every time.

You know you are reading a terrific book (a history book more than 400 pages long) when you can't put the book down and end up reading it in just a few days. Such was the case with Horwitz's engaging history of early American explorers, A Voyage Long and Strange. I had a lot of fun reading this book and it is definitely "a keeper".
The only thing I didn't enjoy was reading of the slaughter of the innocents and the brutality of the Europeans against the native peoples. That was really painful and hard to read about and it made me very sad that American history is built on piles of dead and exploited peoples, native and African. That part was tough to read about yet totally worth it. You don't really know history if you don't know the ugly parts too.

For a review see NPR, which also has an excerpt from the book.

New Words
Yoiking: Yoik, Joik or juoiggus is a traditional Sami (Lapp) form of song. "The show opened with a woman yoiking, then segued to an interview with a Swedish Jew."
Prelapsarian: Of, or relating to the period before the fall of Adam and Eve. "This prelapsarian image helped give rise to the myth of the Noble Savage, which would endure in the Western imagination for centuries."
Cumber: The act of slowing down or hindering. "They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize." (A quote from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary)
Exurb: A residential area beyond the suburbs. "St. Augustine today is almost an exurb of Jacksonville, with a population one one-hundredth the size of the sprawling metropolis."
Lacuna: A blank gap or missing part. See also lacunae. "For Gannon, though, the controversy sparked by his remarks spoke to a more consequential lacuna in our memory of early America."
Cosmography: The creation of maps of the universe; the study of the size and geometry of the universe and changes in those with cosmic time. "Typical was Richard Hore, a leather seller and dabbler in cosmography who sailed in 1536 with thirty gentlemen 'desirous to see the strange things of the world.'"
Pickery: Petty theft. "But she [Elizabeth I] quietly abetted the looting of Spanish treasure by seamen on 'journeys of pickery.'"

True History of the Kelly Gang

By Peter Carey

Who was Ned Kelly? Until I read this book I had never heard of Ned Kelly. The book jacket sounded interesting and so I picked the True History of the Kelly Gang to read.
Ned Kelly was the son of Irish immigrants or deportees to Australia. He was born in 1855 and lived at a time in Australian history when the small farmer or rancher was beaten down by the authorities and the big landowners, making life even more difficult and creating a lot of anger and resentment. The author believes that this resentment and mistreatment was a key role in the creation of the Kelly gang.
Kelly ran afoul of authority at an early age. According to the book, he and his family were singled out somewhat unfairly for police scrutiny. Kelly was imprisoned for three months hard labor for his involvement with the sending of a nasty letter to a woman and shortly after his release he was again imprisoned for holding a stolen horse, this time with a sentence of three years. After his release, in a confrontation with police, Kelly's mother was accused of assaulting a police officer and she was imprisoned for three years and Kelly and associates were on the run.
The cops were tracking Kelly down, when he surprised them. He ended up killing three of the four officers, but one escaped.
After this, Kelly entered whole-heartedly into the bushranger lifestyle as a thief and bank robber. In his last confrontation with the police, Kelly and his pals, dressed in homemade armor, tried to stand off the police but, since they forgot to make armor for their legs, they failed. Only Kelly survived and he was hanged for his crimes in 1880.

Peter Carey's book is a very sympathetic portrayal of Kelly. Personally, even while reading the novel, I had my doubts that Kelly was quite the fine fellow that Carey portrayed him to be. According to the author Kelly was a victim of his times and of the unfair treatment of the Irish and of the small farmer by those in power and Kelly was forced to become an outlaw. On the other hand, lots of young boys suffered similar treatment at the hands of authority and did not end up as rustlers, killers and bank robbers.
This novel won the Booker prize in 2001. Ned Kelly is a hero to a lot of Australians, kind of like Robin Hood. Carey does nothing to knock Kelly off his pedestal, if anything he reinforces Kelly's position as hero. I thought his portrayal a little one-sided, too much to the good guy, the mistreated victim of his times. The book is also written in the first person, using a colloquial style of language, short on punctuation and with lots of run-on sentences that are sometimes difficult to read and follow, as can be seen in the excerpts below. At times, I found the story rather boring and it sat for several days unread. Still, despite these problems, I am glad I read it. The part towards the end where Kelly and his gang decide to armor themselves was worth all the duller stuff that came before. So now I know who Ned Kelly was.

Review by Robert Edric for The Guardian.

New Words
Mopoke: A boobook, a small spotted Australian brown owl. "All the while we expected the doctor but there were no sound from outside not even a mopoke nothing save a steady rain on the bark roof and thumping of flotsam in the flooding waters of Hughes Creek."
Proddy: Slang for Protestant. "Them scholars was all proddies they knew nothing about us save Ned Kelly couldnt spell he had no boots Maggie Kelly had warts Annie Kelly's dress were darned and fretted over like an old man's sock."
Currawong: A bird. "Later I saw my uncle sitting on the front veranda it were that time of evening when my aunts would try a little poteen it were not quite dark and the currawongs was still crying in the mournful gloom."
Lairs and larrikins: A lair is a flashily dressed young man of brash or vulgar behavior. A larrikin is someone with an amused, irreverent, mocking attitude to authority and the norms of propriety. "I were sitting in the outhouse at Fifteen Mile Creek one August morning that is 4 mo. since Uncle James were sentenced I heard a rider spproaching at a gallop but I didnt think much of it for all the Quinns and Lloyds was flashy riders they was lairs and larrikins and they would put on a show or jump a fence as soon as blow their nose."
Battens: A batten is a thin strip of solid material (usually wood). Battens are used for various purposes in building construction, as well as other various fields. "Then we come along by the narrow little creek the blades of sunlight falling through the foliage and there were a hut surrounded by a stand of dead white ringbarked trees and I seen the slab wall and the rough battens and the steam rising off its damp bark roof and I could not know that this were the very site where you would one day be conceived."
Yabby: A small freshwater lobster/crayfish. "Annie should have been busy with her mother but instead called to me she found a yabby in the creek."
Bushranger: Bushrangers were outlaws in the early years of the European settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. "We all had witnessed the bushranger lay his carbine on the table it were a terrifying weapon its bore were almost one inch the stock 1/2 cut away the barrel severely shortened."
Skillion: A part of a building having a lower, especially sloping, roof; a lean-to. "But ma were not unhappy I could hear her dancing step as she come back from the skillion."
Bowyangs: A pair of strings or straps secured round each trouser leg below the knee, worn especially by sheep-shearers and other laborers. "Later I saw him walking towards the hut he had bowyangs tied around his bandy legs."
Waler: A saddle horse of mixed breed, bred in New South Wales, Australia. "Indicating a 3rd horse what they call a WALER he told me it were his and I should mount."
Mia mia: A hut. "He began to make himself a mia mia such as the blackfellows build from saplings and fallen bark but soon lost patience with it kicking it apart so it were left to me to go deep in the bush to peel a great green sheet of stringybark."
Nous: Common sense. "Shut your hole and listen if doubt the Devil then you've no more nous than James Whitty neither did he credit it at 1st."
Offsider: Assistant. "So I were still Harry's offsider when he robbed the Buckland Coach on the 22nd of May and I were that nameless person reported as Power's Mate who dropped the tree across the road I held the horses so Harry could go about his trade."
Skerrick: A very small amount or portion. "Hard days followed the butter money were all taken and not a skerrick of income generated by the alleged 60 bolts of cloth."
Mattock: a kind of pick that is used for digging, looks like a pickaxe. "I had an axe Jem a mattock and when we picked up these implements and made a circle round him he must of thought his end were come."
Rort: A wild party. "Maguire has seen our Bill and reports the man is having a great old rort him and his new sheila Brigit Cotter."
Donah: Woman. "He has a new donah and you know what he is saying about your own self."
Mullock: Rock refuse from which gold, other minerals or other valuable material, for example opal, has been extracted. "The white miners had quit these diggings years before but the celestials was sifting through the leftover mullock they would never rest not even fire could drive them from their labour."
Cobber and lag: Cobber means pal. Lag means to arrest, send to prison; to inform on; a stupid person. "They're looking for your cobber Tom Lloyd but will lag anyone who aggravates them."
Fizgig: A police informant. "But I aint a fizgig and I won't shop no one to you b----rs."
Kelpie: An Australian sheepdog. "That kelpie has a taste for eating horse droppings but I warrant he would prefer a fat policeman's arse."
Shicker: Drunk; a drunkard. "My daughter please understand I am displaying your great uncles in a bad light they was wild and often shicker they thieved and fought and abused me cruelly but you must also remember your ancestors would not kowtow to no one and this were a fine rare thing in a colony made specifically to have poor men bow down to their gaolers."
Shebeen: Illegal establishment which sold alcohol. "Were I a fat squatter with his children safe asleep in bed I would have the time to tell you sentimental stories of the Quinns by birth or marriage and it is true that Wild Pat the Dubliner played the accordion at my ma's shebeen that Uncle Jimmy had a beautiful voice it would make you cry to hear him sing the Shan Van Voght."
Stoush: A fight, brawl. "I went as ordered but didnt wish to miss the spectacle so I come out to the front veranda and I were witness to a mighty stoush."
Shank's pony: To use your own legs, to walk. "I were released out into Ford Street on a sunny March morning I took shanks' pony home to Eleven Mile Creek but I were bound by court order to present myself to the Greta police."
Begob: A mild curse, a euphemism for "by God". "I will begob and ye will be praying to the Virgin that you had relented of your penny."
Myall: Any of various Australian acacias. "Mother always liked a race and now I chased her across the plains into the myall where she veered off heading for the Warby Ranges."
Mufti: Civilian clothes. "At Eleven Mile Creek I were framing out the bedroom when Fitzpatrick arrived in mufti announcing he wished to spend his day off assisting me he had brung his own tools his chisels was worthy of a cabinet maker."
Warrigals: In Australia a wild horse or wild dog. "Strahan slowly lowered his gun so Joe & me moved back into the speargrass retreating quiet as warrigals towards Bullock Creek."
Billabong: Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a smallish lake, and specifically an oxbow lake, a stagnant pool of water attached to a waterway. "The Murray is a maze of swamps and billabongs but in flood you cannot know what can be crossed till you try & try we did for 3 weary days attempting one place then the next driving the police horses up into swamps and lagoons until the water grew too swift and deep."
Crupper: A strap from the back of a saddle passing under the horse's tail; prevents saddle from slipping forward. "I reined in my mare but there were a patch of loose shale & she propped and slid with the crupper hard around her tail as she steadied on the ledge below."
Poddy: hand fed; hand feed. "Harry always knew he must feed the poor he must poddy & flatter them he would be Rob Roy or Robin Hood he would retrieve the widow's cattle from the pound and if the poor selectors ever suffered harassment or threats on his behalf he would make it up with a sheep or barrel of grog or fistful of sovereigns."
Dinky di: The real thing, genuine. "A letter would be read Joe asked you think this Cameron's dinky di?"
Daggy and dag: Dags are clumps of matted wool and dung which hang around a sheep's rear end. "But then poor Jack discovered what it were to be slandered & perjured & he were handcuffed & herded on to Benalla railway station & shoved into a box car like he were nothing but a daggy sheep to be transported up the hill to Beechworth Gaol & held there on remand." "There was spies amongst them that we must accept even the best merino must have it dung & dags but I wd. be no more muzzled by spies than by cowards like Mr Gill."
Gormless: Stupid, dull. "Aaron stayed for 2 nights flattering me that I were of colossal strength and I should be the ruler of the colony etc. he had a gormless wheedling smile he were more annoying that the rats inside the walls I were v. pleased when he returned to his selection."
Palliasse: A mattress consisting of a thin pad filled with straw or sawdust. "Mother sat waiting for me on her crib her palliasse were folded as required."

The Ex-Debutante

By Linda Francis Lee

Carlisle Cushing is a divorce lawyer in Boston, successful in her job and engaged to be married to Phillip, a fellow lawyer at the same firm where she works. There is one tiny problem though. Everyone at work, including Phillip, thinks she is a poor Texas girl who lifted herself up by her bootstraps. Actually she comes from old Texas money and privilege. For some reason she doesn't want anyone to know that she is a rich girl.
Her mother, a wealthy Texas socialite, sends for Carlisle. She needs a divorce and who better to represent her than her own daughter. The mother, oft married and divorced, is very status conscious and worried about becoming the talk of the town as her husband is making outrageous demands on her estate, despite the fact that he signed a prenup.
It's apparent right from the start that Carlisle's pretty little life she built for herself is in peril. Not only is she taking time off from her job to deal with her mother's crisis, but she keeps her engagement secret from her family. Plus, her mom's husband has hired Jack Blair, Carlisle's old boyfriend, to represent him in the divorce and the first time she sees him, her heart leaps. An odd reaction from a woman who is supposed to be in love and ready to get married.
When she first returned to Texas to help her mother, Carlisle had planned to only stay a few days and get her mom a good divorce lawyer. But when she sees that Jack Blair is involved in the case, she abruptly decides to represent her mom herself. Does her sudden change have something to do with Jack? Of course, though she refuses to admit it, citing her mother's need as her justification.
It turns out that mom needs help not only with her divorce. She also needs someone to take over the chore of organizing the debutante ball. This ball is a huge social occasion in their community and the money raised from it supplies the funds for their local symphony orchestra and it has always been organized by Carlisle's family. Last year was her mother's first time to manage it and she messed up so badly that society's A-list strata is refusing to let their daughters make their debuts at the ball. She pleads with Carlisle to take over the debutante ball and Carlisle agrees. This means she will not be returning to Boston for more than three months which doesn't seem to bother her much, despite her claims to herself about how much she loves her life there. It also doesn't seem to bother her too much that Phillip is upset about her absence. In fact, she starts to ignore phone calls from him and her job, finding them intrusive and a nuisance. Who cares about Boston? Carlisle is too wrapped up in the debutante ball, her mom's divorce, and her exciting confrontations with ex-boyfriend and opposing counsel Jack.

Although this is a romance novel, the best and most interesting part is that of Carlisle's efforts to bring her B-list debutantes up to scratch. It is a fascinating glimpse at an event and a strata of society that most people never get to experience. I knew about debutante balls, of course, but only vaguely. It was fun to read about the girls and what was expected of them to be debs. The next best part was the story of Carlisle and her difficult, cold mother and how Carlisle comes to grips with the alienation she has always felt with her mother. The story of the romance between her and Jack was standard romance novel although without the pornographic sex scenes common to many romance novels today. There is one real sex scene in the story, but without anatomical details, which was fine by me. I usually skip over those parts. I liked this novel, though I do wish it had been more about the debs and less about the romance.

Review from Publishers Weekly.

The Fourth Bear

By Jasper Fforde

Jack Spratt, who eats no fat, is a detective and in charge of the Nursery Crime Division in Berkshire, a community filled with escapees from fiction and especially from nursery rhymes. Spratt is in trouble with his superiors due to a couple of flawed investigations (he, Red Ridinghood & her granny were all eaten by the big, bad wolf, which isn't as fatal as it sounds) and he is put on leave. Meanwhile a homicidal goodie, the Gingerbreadman, has escaped from the mental hospital and is on a murderous spree. Spratt, operating without official sanction, is investigating the death of Goldilocks and incidentally becomes involved with the Gingerbreadman case and the exploding cucumber gardeners case. These cases also tie in with the smuggling of the forbidden foodstuffs (porridge, honey, marmalade and buns) to the local talking bear population. Somehow, with the help of his colleagues, Mary Mary and Ashley, an ET type alien, Spratt will tie it all together and save his job in the process.

If you are going to read Fforde's fiction, you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief. If you can, you will probably enjoy this novel. I somewhat enjoyed it, when it wasn't irritating me. I didn't like the way the characters know and comment on the fact they are in a novel. I didn't care for the way bears are portrayed. I found the idea that bears get high on porridge and the other controlled foodstuffs just plain stupid. Many of the jokes in this novel are lame puns, as the writer himself admits. Still, as a detective novel, it was pretty good, except I would like to point out that if cake is immersed in water it also falls apart, which means that the whole cookie vs cake thing is still open to question.

For another review of The Fourth Bear, see USA Today.

New Word
Nobbblers: To nobble is to filch or steal. "Prong's champion might have grown even larger were it not for the attentions of a gang of murderous cucumber nobblers who destroyed the cucumber two days after the record was officially set, an attack that tragically cost Prong his life."

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two, 2008

Edited by Jonathan Strahan

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
A man travels to the past through a magical gate.

"The Last and Only, or Mr. Moskowitz Becomes French" by Peter S. Beagle
A man can't remember how to speak English and can only speak French.

"Trunk and Disorderly" by Charles Stross
A man has to rescue his robot girlfriend from a diabolical plot.

"Glory" by Greg Egan
Two visitors come to a planet searching for the lost theorems of a vanished race only to become embroiled in a power struggle between two rival nations.

"Dead Horse Point" by Daryl Gregory
A woman helps another woman deal with her mental condition.

"The Dreaming Wind" by Jeffrey Ford
Every year a village has to cope with a strange, crazy wind until one year when the wind fails to blow.

"The Coat of Stars" by Holly Black
A costume designer uses his talents to rescue his lover from the faeries.

"The Prophet of Flores" by Ted Kosmatka
A story of creation versus evolution.

"Wizard's Six" by Alex Irvine
A man has to stop an apprentice wizard from becoming a wizard.

"The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham
A money changer runs afoul of an powerful and bored Lord.

"By Fools Like Me" by Nancy Kress
A woman and her granddaughter get in trouble for reading books.

"Kiosk" by Bruce Sterling
An entrepreneur opens a little store with merchandise supplied by his magical duplication machine.

"Singing of Mount Abora" by Theodora Goss
A woman does what it takes to get her man, even though her man is a dragon.

"The Witch's Headstone" by Neil Gaiman
A boy helps a young, dead witch get a headstone for her unmarked grave.

"Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter
The universe is being destroyed and nothing will stop it.

"Jesus Christ, Reanimator" by Ken MacLeod
Jesus Christ returns but it is no big deal.

"Sorrel's Heart" by Susan Palwick
Mutants on the run, hiding from murderous nonmutants.

"Urdumheim" by Michael Swanwick
Demons try to destroy the first people.

"Holiday" by M. Rickert
A man is visited by the ghosts of dead children.

"The Valley of Gardens" by Tony Daniel
In the far future, humanity strikes a blow against an implacable enemy bent on destroying the universe.

"Winter's Wife" by Elizabeth Hand
Mr. Winter gets himself a strange bride from Iceland.

"The Sky is Large and the Earth is Small" by Chris Roberson
An old man is questioned about his knowledge of Mexico, a story of an alternate history.

"Orm the Beautiful" by Elizabeth Bear
A dragon sacrifices himself to save the remains of his ancestors.

"The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link
An odd woman and her daughter can see and capture ghosts.

The nice thing about a collection like this is that there will probably be at least a few stories that will please the reader. The bad thing is that you have to wade through the unappealing ones to get to the goodies. The same is true of this collection. All the stories are interesting, but some I just liked a lot better than the others and some just didn't click with me at all. Though I usually don't care for short stories, reading a collection like this introduces the reader to new authors, which makes it worth while.

For reviews of the individual stories, see Best SF.

New Words
Bimaristan: Bimaristan is a Persian word meaning hospital. "She was taken to the bimaristan, but the physicians could not save her, and she died soon after." ("The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate")
Ablative: Materials that provide fire resistance by gradually eroding to the flame front at a known or predictable rate. "She took in my appearance, from scorched ablative boots to champagne hairstyle." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Hypergolic: A term related to spontaneous ignition upon contact. "For one thing, in a fit of misplaced bonhomie I'd offered Edgestar Wolfblack a lift, and old Edgy wasn't the best company for a post-drop pre-prandial, on account of his preferred tipples being corrosive or hypergolic, or both." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Clade: A group of animals or other organisms derived from a common ancestor species. "'Blackdeath? Is no posthuman of that nomenclature in my clade,' Edgy complained." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Plangently: Plangent means having a loud, mournful sound. "It's hard to remain stressed out while reclining on a bed of silks in a pleasure palace on Mars, with nubile young squishies to drop pre-fermented grapes into your mouth, your very own mouth-boy to keep the hookah smoldering, and a clankie band plangently plucking its various organs in the far corner of the room." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Amanuensis: One employed to take dictation, or copy manuscripts; A clerk, secretary or stenographer. "He said it so emphatically that even my buggy-but-priceless family heirloom amanuensis recognized it for an infoburst and misfiled it somewhere." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Katanas: A type of Japanese sword. "His Excellency Abdul al-Matsumoto, younger sibling of the Emir of Mars, rose from his seat upon the throne; naked eunuch bodyguards, their skins oiled and gleaming, raised their katanas in salute to either side." ("Trunk and Disorderly")
Ontological: Ontology is a study of conceptions of reality and the nature of being. "During the early 1990s Egan published a body of short fiction -- mostly hard science fiction focused on mathematical and quantum ontological themes -- that established him as one of the most important writers working in science fiction." (from the introduction to "Glory" by the editor)
Fullerene: A form of carbon having a large molecule consisting of an empty cage of sixty or more carbon atoms; buckyballs. "The products of this factory sprayed out of the star, riding the last traces of the shockwave's momentum: a few nanograms of elaborate, carbon-rich molecules, sheathed in a protective fullerene weave." ("Glory")
Lemmas: A lemma is a theorem proven only for use in the proof of more important theorems. "Rali was not a mathematician, and he was not offering his own opinion on the theorem the tablet stated; the Niah themselves had had a clear set of typographical conventions which they used to distinguish between everything from minor lemmas to the most celebrated theorems." ("Glory")
Amphioxus: The lancelet, a small translucent lancet-shaped burrowing marine animal; primitive forerunner of the vertebrates. "He studied fruit flies, and amphioxus; and while still an undergraduate, won a prestigious summer internship working under renowned geneticist Michael Poore." ("The Prophet of Flores")
Graupel: Pellets of snow. "Then he climbed, with pain and resignation, up the shiny black stairsteps into this eerie, oversized, grandiose rock-solid black fort, this black-paneled royal closet whose ornate, computer-calligraphic roof would make meteors bounce off it like graupel hail." ("Kiosk")

Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride

By Michael Wallis

What is really known about Billy the Kid? According to author Michael Wallis, not much. The paper trail just doesn't exist. Authorities can't even agree on what his real name was, some arguing for Henry McCarty and some for William Bonney. Cases can be made for both names, the strongest perhaps for Henry McCarty. Even the people who knew Billy in the final years of his life had differing memories about him.
What Billy was is a spirited young lad left to make his own way in the world, without anyone to guide him. After his mother died, Billy turned to his stepfather for help, only to be spurned and driven away. Not even out of his teens and undersized, it is not surprising that Billy turned to the outlaw life to make his way in the world.
Living by stealing and rustling cattle and horses is bound to get a boy into trouble. He fell in with rough characters that helped him refine his life as a rustler and thief. But despite his chosen profession, to those who knew him, Billy was a fun, light hearted boy who loved music and dancing and chasing pretty senoritas. He had an aptitude for languages and quickly learned Spanish, earning himself a home among the Spanish-speaking community of Lincoln County in the New Mexico territory. He was an Anglo who didn't look down on that community, unlike many of the whites who were quickly colonizing the territory and threatening the old, establish communities that had been there for so long.
Lincoln County was a desperate place full of greedy, ambitious men looking to make their fortunes. It was under the control of a gang called the Santa Fe Ring. This powerful group had its web spread all over the territory, stealing land and cattle through its corrupt legal and governmental minions. Billy joined a group of men that were trying to go up against a mercantile association that had lucrative contracts to supply Federal troops in the area with supplies and beef. This mercantile was affiliated with the bosses of the Santa Fe Ring.
Too bad for Billy that he backed the losers in this conflict, known to history as the Lincoln County War. If he was on the side of the winners, he would probably be just another guy. Because, according to this book, Billy was no better and a lot less worse than most of the men of that time and place, who were a ruthless, cruel, greedy and despicable bunch.
After the deaths of his two employers, Billy could have just cleared out and made a new start somewhere else. But Billy and many of his friends and companions just couldn't accept defeat and tried to get justice for the murders of their employers. They continued to confront their enemies, raising the ire of the establishment. Thanks to the local newspapers, public attention began to center on Billy as the leader of the rebels. Things were a lot looser then and printing a bunch of exaggerations and lies was normal practice and Billy's reputation was blackened in the press. In effect, he was tried and convicted before he was ever brought to justice. And, as the book points out, that "among the more than fifty individuals indicted for crimes in the Lincoln County War, only the Kid was ever convicted." In fact, according to the book, the only two murders that it is certain Billy did are the two guards he killed when he escaped from jail after being convicted of a murder that he claimed not to have done.
So Michael Wallis says that Billy pretty much did not deserve the reputation he attained as a bloodthirsty killer. He says that Billy became the bugbear that the winning side used to turn the attention away from their own nefarious deeds during those lawless years. As he points out, Billy's reputation was created by the press and after his death, the press continued to make money and still continues to exploit the name of Billy the Kid, thus the "endless ride" of the title.

I found this book an easy and informative read. It tells you what is known for sure about Billy and points out how few are the facts about the Kid. I felt, after reading this book, that Billy was just a kid who fell into bad ways because he had no one in his life to care for him or look out for him. It is a real tragedy how such a bright and charming young man how no person in his life that tried to save him from his own youthful impetuosity.

Review from the Historical Novel Society.

Good Omens

By Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

This is a story of the end of the world, loosely based on the New Testament book of Revelation. This book should probably not be read by devout Christians unless they have a good sense of humor.
So the bad guys (the devil and his minions) have delivered a baby boy to a hospital run by the nuns of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl. This baby, the Antichrist and the son of Satan, is to be switched with the newborn son of the American Cultural Attaché, where he will be raised to fulfill his satanic destiny. Instead he is mistakenly placed with Mr. & Mrs. Young, a local English couple, the nun in charge of the switch has somehow mistaken Mr. Young for the American Attaché. Neither the good guys or the bad guys realize what has happened for quite some time.
Years pass, neither side aware that the kid being raised to be Antichrist is just and ordinary boy and that the real Antichrist is enjoying the normal, mundane life of the typical active kid. Neither side realizes anything is wrong until the child's eleventh birthday. On that date, a hell hound is to appear at the Antichrist's side to serve him as he wishes. Both sides are watching the Attaché's boy, waiting for the hound to appear. It never does, because it has gone to be with Adam, the real Antichrist, who thinks of himself as just a boy. Because Adam has wanted a little scruffy dog for a long time, that is how the hell hound appears to him and the hound embraces the life of a mutt with a great deal of appreciation, finding chasing cats and rabbits a lot more fun than devouring damned souls:

And then there were cats, thought Dog. He'd surprised the huge ginger cat from next door and had attempted to reduce it to cowering jelly by means of the usual glowing stare and deep-throated growl, which had always worked on the damned in the past. This time they earned him a whack on the nose that had made his eyes water. Cats, Dog considered, were clearly a lot tougher than lost souls. He was looking forward to a further cat experiment, which he'd planned would consist of jumping around and yapping excitedly at it. It was a long shot, but it might just work.

Just as Dog is starting to really enjoy life as a mutt instead of as a hell hound, Adam starts to come into his power and realize he can change the world to please himself and thus bring about Armageddon. The armies of the Lord and the armies of Satan begin to align themselves for the final battle. Maybe the end is inevitable. But two old boys, two old adversaries, have decided they are going to do their damnedest (in one case) and their best (in the other case) to stop it. Because after all these millennia of living among humans, they have decided they quite like it and that they would like very much for thing to just muddle on as they always have. So the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, old enemies and old friends, join together to try to thwart the end of the world. They are helped by a cast of unlikely characters, including Anathema Device, a witch and the descendant of the prophetess, Agnes Nutter, who predicted in exact detail every occurrence of the time of the end; Shadwell and Newton, both witchfinders in the Witchfinders Army; and Madame Tracy, a woman of loose morals and a Medium.

This story is just a whole lot of fun. Every page is jammed packed with originality. There are so many crazy characters like the four horsemen (bikers) of the Apocalypse who are the Real Hell's Angels and who run across the biker gang who call themselves the Hell's Angels. I have read this book several times and I expect I will read it several times more. It is always interesting and fun and irreverent and just one of the best books I have ever read.

For more reviews of Good Omens see Booklore.

Curse of the Blue Tattoo

By L. A. Meyer

Second in the series, in this story Jacky Faber finds herself in a proper school for young ladies in Boston. Not too surprisingly, she doesn't fit in. Life as a beggar on the streets of London, England then as a ship's boy doesn't exactly prepare a girl for a school like the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. But Jacky's prize money has gotten her a place at this prestigious and select institution.
Well, it doesn't take her long to run afoul of the school's and Boston's strict requirements for the behavior of a young lady. After being arrested for dancing in the streets, Jacky is demoted by the head mistress from student to servant. Now instead of sharing in with the other girls and their studies, Jacky has to fetch and carry for them. However, life as a servant is pretty soft compared to life as a ship's boy and Jacky quickly makes herself to home with downstairs contingent. She even finds she has more freedom to explore Boston as she runs errands around town. She joins up with a drunken fiddler and sings and plays at a local tavern, earning herself a little spending money. As soon as she has enough, she plans to buy passage on a ship to England in search of her love, the boy she meant on board the Dolphin, Jaimie, who hasn't answered the many letters she has sent him. Of course, Jacky being Jacky and as prone to trouble as can be, nothing works out the way she plans.

The setting of this story, Jacky in proper Boston, was not as interesting as the first novel where she was a ship's boy on the Dolphin. For one thing, as Jacky finds out, life at the school is very controlled and restricted, with little opportunity for hijinks. So the author makes her a servant, giving her more freedom to move about on her own and more scope for mischief. I think the author gave her more freedom than servants of her day and gender were really allowed. So I found her activities as a servant rather unbelievable. I just don't think a young girl her age would have been given the freedom she had, even if she was just a servant. I also found the misadventures she got herself into unlikely. The minute the race horse was introduced to the story, I knew Jacky would end up riding it in the big race. Oh, and winning of course, even though riding a race horse is a highly skilled occupation and Jacky just learned to ride a few months previously. Frankly, I found Jacky Faber more than just a little tiresome in this story. Maybe she has more appeal for a young adult reader who can embrace her shenanigans more easily than I could.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit

By Jill Conner Browne

Another in the Sweet Potato Queens series, this is a humorous look at child rearing. Though meant to be amusing, it still offers sound advice on how to cope with the problems of parenthood, written by a woman who has been there and done that. Browne's amusing and acerbic take on parenting is a good read even if you don't have kids yourself. Lots of fun to read, just like the other Sweet Potato Queen books and with a few killer recipes thrown in to boot. Although in this book, the talk of bribing men with BJs is significantly absent. Maybe Browne has finally realized that all this talk of BJs is just not a good thing. It has been one of the only things about her books that I never liked. In this book, they are only mentioned as one of the problems parents of boy have to face, teaching their boys how to handle today's sexually aggressive girls.

I enjoyed this book a lot, just as I have enjoyed all the Sweet Potato Queen books. In fact, I think I liked it best of all the books and it has some real down to earth advice for parents. It took me just a couple days to read it, which is the sign of a good book.

Bloody Jack

By L.A. Meyer

Mary Faber is a street kid in 1790s London, England. Her mom and dad, who taught her to read, died in an epidemic, leaving Mary to fend for herself. She falls in with a street gang and spends her days begging. She is frequently hungry and always dirty. Still it is better than being alone.
One day, the gang leader is killed. He was bigger and older than the other kids and without his protection, the gang can't survive. Mary sets off on her own, using the leader's old clothes, she passes herself off as a boy. Because she can read, she lands a position as a ship's boy, calling herself Jacky.
Together, she and the other ship boys form a new fraternity. Mary is thrilled with her new life. Not only does she get plenty to eat, but she is clean for the first time in many years. Her only problem is keeping her gender a secret. That is until she runs afoul of a nasty pederast who is determined to have his way with what he believes is a young boy.
Consequences of that run in divide the ship and divide Mary from her ship boy pals. Plus Mary, who is a young teen, finds her body betraying her as she fights to hide her maturing figure and deal with her monthly cycle. She begins to tire of the deception and comes to realize that it must soon end. She just hopes the captain puts her down at a nice port and doesn't just dump her overboard. Then the ship has a devastating encounter with a nest of pirates and Mary finds herself all alone on a strange and frightening shore.

This was a fun and enlightening look at life on board a British ship set in the years just before the turn of the century from the 1700s to the 1800s. Somehow, Mary manages to keep her secret, which was kind of hard to believe. Still, I enjoyed reading about her and her growing maturity and her blossoming love for one of her fellow ship boys.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

A Confederacy of Dunces

By John Kennedy Toole

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.

Ignatius J. Reilly is a character, no doubt. No dummy, Ignatius has a master's degree and a razor sharp intellect, yet he spends his days wallowing in bed, jotting in his collections of note pads and watching movies that he hates just so he can criticize them. Ignatius lives with his mom and off his mom and when his mom crashes her car into a building while drunk, Ignatius is forced to go to work to help Mom pay for the damages or her home will be seized to pay what she owes.
Ignatius tried to work for a living before, but, according to what he says, the bus ride nearly did him in. He is just too sensitive for his own good. Still, with his master's degree in hand, he lands a job as a file clerk for Levy Pants. He quickly solves the filing problem by tossing the files in the trash and then he rouses the factory workers into rebellion against the owner of Levy Pants. The rebellion is very brief and Ignatius soon finds himself looking for another job.
His next job is as a hot dog vendor. He just kind of lucks into the hot dog job. He pushes a hot dog cart through the city streets, humiliating his poor mother to death. Apparently, hot dog vendor is just about the lowest kind of job a man can have in New Orleans of the 1960s. Plus Ignatius isn't making much money since he eats most of the hot dogs himself. His mom is further humiliated when his boss requires that Ignatius dress as a pirate while selling the dogs. Surprisingly, Ignatius rather enjoys dressing as a pirate. Since he is too fat to fit in most of the costume, it consists merely of a sash, a hoop earring and a plastic saber. Ignatius has lots of adventures while pushing the dog cart but makes almost no money and eventually flees New Orleans to escape his vengeful mother.

I don't think I will ever forget Ignatius J. Reilly. He is an amazing, funny, crazy, loony and smart character. Although he is not the kind of person you would actually want in your life, he was a tremendous amount of fun to read about. I truly enjoyed this prize-winning novel and look forward to reading it again sometime.

Review by Danny Heitman in The Wall Street Journal.

New Words:
Hexerei: Witchery, sorcery, wizardry, witchcraft. "'Never in my life have I seen a shop filled with so much religious hererei.'"
Recherché: Sought out with care; choice. Hence, of rare quality, elegance, or attractiveness; peculiar and refined in kind, especially with an artificial or pretentious effect. "Ignatius filmed the scene before him for a minute of two more, then he followed a post upward to the ceiling for what he imagined would be an interesting and rather recherché bit of cinematography suggesting aspiration."
Vibrissae: Long whiskers specialized as tactile receptors, commonly located in the facial region. "'I thought that the vibrissae about my nostrils detected something unique while I was outside.'"
Daube: A classic French stew or pot roast consisting of a single piece of meat such as a shoulder or joint , stewed in a rich, wine laden broth. "'I'm trying to cook her some spaghettis and daube, and she keeps on playing in my pot.'"
Banquette: Sidewalk. "'Irene!' Santa screamed when she opened the door and saw the hesitant Mrs. Reilly on the front steps and her nephew, Patrolman Mancuso, standing down on the banquette.
Sodality: Companionship; a fraternity, society, an association. '"You probly belong to a ladies' sodality or something.'"
Onanism: Masturbation. "The suggested onanism with the piece of chalk intrigued Ignatius."

Twilight

By Stephenie Meyer

Bella Swan has made the hard choice to leave the city she loves, Phoenix, Arizona, for rainy, dark, gloomy Forks, Washington. Her mom has just gotten remarried and wants to go on the road with her new husband. So Bella, who is just seventeen, volunteered to move to Forks to stay with her father, Charlie.
Bella doesn't expect to be happy in Forks. It's not that her dad is hard to live with. In fact, he bought her a truck to get back and forth to school with, which was pretty nice since Bella had been saving money to buy a vehicle. It's just that Forks is a small town with a depressing climate and not much going on. It doesn't even have a decent library! (Horrors!)
Her first day at her new high school goes OK until biology class. She has to share a lab table with a strikingly good looking boy, Edward Cullen. But Edward seems to despise Bella at first sight, scowling and moving away from her as if she has head lice or something. Bella finds his behavior inexplicable and humiliating. Bella isn't vain, but she knows she isn't a troll so Edward is either a kook or jerk, she is not sure which.
Turns out Edward has several siblings attending this high school too. They are all very attractive yet very aloof. They sit together at lunch and they don't socialize with the other kids. They are all very pale with shadows under their eyes.
One morning, after a storm, Bella wakes up to a world covered in ice. She manages to drive herself to school safely. While standing in the parking lot next to her truck, another student loses control of his car and skids towards Bella. She has no time to flee and faces being crushed between her truck and the car when, out of nowhere, impossibly, Edward snatches her to safety. This is the beginning of the thaw in Edward's attitude to Bella.
Bella comes to realize that Edward is not human. He and his family are all vampires. She also finds out that Edward and his family are reformed vampires, refusing to prey on humans. Instead they go after deer, bears, mountain lions and other big game. However, there are vampires who do prey on humans and, as her relationship with Edward and his family grows, Bella has the misfortune to run afoul of one of these dangerous vampires.

This was a pretty interesting story. It is the first in a series, which, as I understand it, extends to five novels, which is a rather long series. Meyer's vampires are not the stereotypical vampire, they don't sleep in coffins (they don't sleep at all), and they can go out in the sun (but they glitter in the light so that is why they stay out of the sun). In this story she doesn't say if they are sensitive to garlic, don't appear in mirrors or photos and are burned by holy water. They are definitely not the typical vampire. I did have a few problems with Bella falling so hard for a guy who, besides being gorgeous, according to the author, feels cold and hard to the touch, like a corpse. Who would want to cuddle with a guy who feels dead when you touch him? Ewww! To necrophiliac for my taste. Also, since Edward finds Bella mouthwatering, they have to be careful not to get too close in case Edward turns Bella into a snack in spite of himself. So the romance in the book is very tame and low key. Still it was pretty interesting, reading about the author's version of the vampire life.

Review from Loves Vampires.

New Word
Dight: To prepare; to dress, array and put on things; to adorn. "Throughout the vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both."

The Executioner's Song

By Norman Mailer

This book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1980.

Back in the mid 1970s, a recently released convict named Gary Gilmore killed two men during the commission of two robberies. He was caught and convicted and sentenced to die. Gilmore, who had spent many years in prison, decided that he couldn't bear to be in jail any longer and so he declined to appeal his conviction and he demanded to be executed as per his sentence. This decision launched an uproar over the death sentence as a form of punishment and many people tried to prevent the execution through legal means even though they went against Gilmore's wishes. They failed though and Gilmore was executed by firing squad. This novel is Mailer's presentation of those events.
When I found out what the novel was about I really wasn't that keen on reading it. Plus, the book is huge, more than 1000 pages. So I made a schedule, planning to read so many pages a day till I was finished. But I didn't need the schedule. This book, despite its nasty main character and ugly subject matter, is very readable and absorbing. It is very detailed but still manages to avoid being boring. It examines Gilmore's life after his last prison release, takes us through the trial and the furor generated by his wish to be executed and his two suicide attempts and to the fulfillment of the death sentence. You certainly learn a lot about Gilmore who was a very angry, irresponsible, selfish and childish person. He was so selfish that he talked the gullible woman who thought she loved him into committing suicide with him (they both survived). He was never really able to explain why he shot two men who put up no resistance during the robberies. Both men were solid citizens, married with young children, who were complete strangers to Gilmore. About the only explanation is that Gilmore was angry at his girlfriend and took his anger out on his two victims.
Gilmore got what he deserved, he was a manipulative, selfish creep, but he died like a man. I guess that's something.

As a portrait of a killer, The Executioner's Song is top-notch. As a look at how the media operates, the book is a revelation, a real insider's view. I thought I would hate this book. I won't say I loved it, but I will say it was well worth reading.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.

New Words:
Rotogravure: a printing process by which the paper is rolled through intaglio cylinders; a print made by such a method; the portion of a printed work produced by this method. "Bessie studied dresses in the rotogravure before sewing her own, and went ballroom dancing at the Utahma Dance Hall in Provo when they brought orchestras in."
Tautologic: repetition of same sense in different words: 'a true fact' and `a free gift' for example. "The reason you couldn't find the word in the dictionary is because you read it wrong -- or I didn't write it right -- anyhow it's TAUTOLOGIC not TANTOLOGIC."

The Resurrectionist

By Jack O'Connell

One sad day a terrible thing happened and a little boy, Danny, ended up in a coma from which he has never awoken. His father, Sweeney, has gotten his son a place at the Peck Clinic, a clinic devoted to victims of coma and which is doing cutting edge research on coma. Sweeney has also gotten a job in the clinic's pharmacy, working nights. The Peck Clinic has been in the Peck family for generations and is currently run by Dr. Peck and his physician daughter, Alice.
Before his illness, Danny was a huge fan of a comic book, Limbo, the tales of a set of runaway circus freaks, the main character of the comic being Chicken Boy, a young man covered with feathers and with beak instead of lips. He is the kind of leader of the freaks, guiding them on their travel through the visions he receives during his episodes of epilepsy. Supposedly, Chicken Boy is leading the little band to safety in a world that generally makes life hard for such as them.
Sweeney spends a lot of time with his son Danny, reading to him from the Limbo comics. Other than that, Sweeney doesn't have much of a life. He is eaten up with guilt and anger.
Sweeney gets kidnapped by a group of drug addled bikers. The bikers want to help Danny and they claim they have a drug brewed with Danny's own brain fluid that enables them to enter Danny's world. For they claim Danny has recreated in his own coma brain the comic world of Limbo and Danny is the Chicken Boy. They offer Sweeney the chance to take the drug and be with Danny if he will join their gang.

The story of Chicken Boy and the freaks in the Limbo comic is more interesting and makes more sense than that of Danny, Sweeney and the outlaw bikers. Sweeney, the Peck Clinic, the bikers and their clinic accomplice, the nurse Nadia (the brain behind the bikers), were weirder and stranger than the freaks and the cruel, heartless world of Limbo. The conclusion of the story is just creepy and unappealing. The depths that Sweeney allows himself to be drawn into don't make sense for a man who claims to love his son as much as he does. Nonetheless, this is an unforgettable story and Chicken Boy and his freak friends captured my heart. Though I didn't like the ending of the story, I did enjoy reading this book.

Review by Cathi Unsworth for The Guardian.

New Words:
Autodidact: a self-taught person. "An autodidact, he had a well-known passion for the Bible and the Bard, and Bruno hoped he wouldn't have to endure a reading from the Song of Solomon."
Gazonie: itinerant carnival and circus laborers. "The legend was that the Bedlam Brothers had started out as ordinary gazonies, signing on with a lower tier show when it passed through their hometown of Mt. Seir one summer's day."
Donniker: a rest room or toilet. "They had labored as concessionaires and cleaned up the most gruesome donnikers in the land."

Beginner's Greek

By James Collins

This is a story of star-crossed lovers that, despite a plethora of obstacles, manage to find true love, a modern romance with an old-fashioned happy ending.
Peter Russell falls in love at first sight when he meets Holly on board an airliner. The attraction is mutual and he leaves the plane with Holly's phone number in his shirt pocket. In his hotel room later on, Peter is dismayed to discover he has lost the phone number and he doesn't know Holly's last name or where she lives.
Years later and Peter's best friend Jonathan shows up with a new girl friend. Surprise, the new girl friend is Peter's Holly. Too late for Peter because Holly is now involved with his best friend and they end up getting married. Peter gives up and marries Charlotte, a woman he doesn't really love but he does care for her and figures they will have a good life together. At their wedding reception, Jonathan is killed by a bolt of lightning. Now Holly is a widow and Peter is a newlywed. Once again it seems the fates are against them. As much as he would like to, Peter doesn't abandon his new bride and run after Holly. He feels it would be too cruel to treat Charlotte thus.
Meanwhile, things are not going well for Peter at work. He unknowingly ticks off his boss and his boss goes after him for it. He forces Peter to assist a marginal employee's nutty plan to turn cereal box tops into the new worldwide currency. To make things worse for Peter, the wealthy owner of the business starts dating Peter's true love, Holly. Seems like Peter just can't get a break.

This is fun story, and you find yourself pulling for all the many decent characters that populate the book. It's hard watching Peter and Holly just miss each other all the time. Will Peter stand by his wife? Will Holly find love with another man? Will poor Charlotte discover that her husband is in love with another woman? Will Peter's rat bastard boss succeed in destroying Peter's career? Will Holly let herself be swept away by a rich man's charm and wealth? It's really enjoyable reading about these charming people and their struggles to find true love and to do the right thing.

Review by Amy Scribner on BookPage.

New Words
Cicatrix: a scar; an elevated, rigid spot. "All the while that Jonathan spoke, Peter had been staring at a tear in the back of the taxi's front seat...The cab, making the usual sudden starts and stops, jounced Peter around, but he kept staring at this cicatrix.
Trig: clean-cut; neat and smart in appearance. "Jonathan managed to look both more trig and less stiff than Peter."
Démarche: a diplomatic representation or protest. "M. Becqx denied it and threatened an angry démarche from his government."
Soignée: polished and well-groomed; showing sophisticated elegance. "She was dressed and made up, and she looked soignée, Peter thought."
Dolmen: a prehistoric megalithic tomb typically having two large upright stones and a capstone. "She loved the nearby castles, villages, churches, ruins, dolmens, and caves."
Putti: winged cherubs. "A painting or fresco containing innumerable gods and putti, all twisting and turning dramatically, covered the ceiling."
Epigone: an heir, descendant, or successor, frequently an inferior successor. "'I thought that after so many generations of having so much money, families were supposed to decline and produce weak, effete, coupon-clipping, zillionth-copy epigones of the founding titan.'"
Apposite: being of striking appropriateness and pertinence; an apt reply. "Having gone shooting once in his life, he was able to discuss with Thorndale the tricks of working setters and retreivers together; he made an apposite comment when Bernard, a philatelist, mentioned that he had just acquired a misprint from the Kingdom of Naples."
Predella: Spanish footstool or kneeling stool. Also foot of an altarpiece for kneeling. "Holly and Arthur talked about a couple of people at their table; Holly asked Arthur about the predella she and Peter had admired earlier, and he said that it was funny she should have noticed it because it had always been on of his favorite pieces."

Darkfever

By Karen Marie Moning

MacKayla is a typical young American woman, enjoying life, working on her tan, when it all changes with the murder of her sister in Ireland. When the police investigation bogs down for lack of evidence, Mac goes off to Ireland to try to convince the police to not give up. But the police just don't have the time or resources as they are dealing with an epidemic of murders and disappearances.
Mac has a message on her phone from her sister, telling her that she must find the Sinsar Dubh. Not only does Mac not know what the Sinsar Dubh is, she doesn't even know how to spell it. Trying to discover just what it is, she runs into Jericho Barrons, a shady and threatening character with a bunch of secrets. He knows what the Sinsar Dubh is. In fact, he wants to find it for himself.
As she stays in Ireland, trying to chase down her sister's killer for herself, she starts seeing strange, terrifying creatures, creatures that apparently no one else can see. Jericho enlightens her as to what she is seeing and enlists her reluctant help in his efforts to contain these creatures by finding the Sinsar Dubh.

This is a romance story, although it is also a horror story. I don't read romance novels for the most part as they just don't appeal to me. So I wasn't familiar with a branch of romance fiction known as paranormal romance. It was kind of disconcerting to be in the middle of a horror story, only come across a detailed description of the outfits Mac and Jericho are wearing. Despite these typical romance novel aspects, this is a pretty creepy story full of scary monsters and vile characters. I found the story rather depressing and I don't know if I will read the next in the series. This is not surprising since I don't generally enjoy either romances or horror. People who like paranormal romances will probably like reading this series which is exciting and inventive although a bit too much for me.

Review by Chelsea on Vampire Book Club.

New Word:
Metempsychosis: a philosophical term in the Greek language referring to the belief of transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. "They believed day followed night, and held to a credo of metempsychosis in which the human soul does not die but is reborn in different forms."

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

By Joshilyn Jackson

Laurel loves her life. She loves her beautiful home, her teen daughter Shelby, her sometimes distant husband David, and her work designing and sewing artistic quilts. She especially loves the fact that since she moved to her new house in Victorianna, she never sees the ghost of her Uncle Marty anymore.
Her cozy life is turned upside down the night she sees a new ghost, Molly, a friend of her daughter. Turns out Molly is dead, drowned in Laurel's backyard swimming pool. Drastic times call for drastic actions, and Laurel undertakes the drastic action of inviting her sister Thalia to visit to help Laurel cope with the death of Shelby's friend Molly. The trouble with Thalia is that she is trouble. She criticizes Laurel's life, as she feels Laurel is stifled by her marriage, and Laurel's husband, who Thalia refers to as a robot, a guy that is all brain and no heart. Thalia really doesn't have room to criticize though, she comes off as supremely selfish, as evidenced by the night Laurel was sleep walking and Thalia let her walk out of the house and into a rain storm just so Thalia could follow her and observe how a sleepwalker behaves. Thalia is a serious actor and will do anything for her art, including endangering her sister's life. This episode caused a serious rift between the two sisters and put Thalia on David's shit list.
As Laurel looks into Molly's death, which has been ruled accidental by the authorities, she is certain there is more to the story. She suspects her daughter knows more than she is saying and she also suspects the local creepy guy may be involved too. But as she looks closer, with Thalia's prickly help, she finds that many of the things she assumed were true are not, past and present.

Although I did enjoy this story, I can't say that liked most of the characters, especially Thalia, Laurel and Shelby. About the only character that made sense to me was the husband David, and Shelby's cousin, Bet. I thought Laurel was a flake, Thalia is just mean and Shelby seemed pissed off all the time for no good reason. David was the real rock in the story and all my sympathy was with him and the pathetic hanger-on, Bet. Despite not caring much for the main characters, I still liked the book, which is really the story of two deaths, that of Uncle Marty and the teen girl, Molly.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.

Adam

By Ted Dekker

FBI agent Daniel Clark is on the trail of an unusual serial killer known as Eve. Eve didn't stab, shoot, torture or abuse any of his sixteen victims, he infected them with an unknown form of meningitis. The FBI knows very little about Eve, yet Daniel Clark is determined to stop him, anyway he can.
They finally get the break they are looking for and manage to get to Eve's latest victim before she has died. Daniel and a coworker, Lori Ames, are driving the woman to the hospital when their vehicle is waylaid by a man with a gun. The man, Eve, shoots Daniel and tries to shoot Lori but only wings her. He then grabs the victim and makes off with her. Lori starts CPR on Daniel and he is revived later at the hospital. Lori didn't get a look at Eve, as she was trying to give medical aid to the victim, who was already dying of the meningitis-like illness. Daniel was the only one who saw Eve's face, but he cannot remember it due to the trauma of his near-death experience.
Eve knows Daniel Clark is on his case and starts leaving scary messages with Daniel's ex-wife, Heather. Daniel must be getting closer to catching him and Eve snatches Heather, knowing Daniel will come after her. Daniel falls into his trap and finds himself locked in a cellar with the very creepy killer, a killer who demands that Daniel open himself to the same dark spirit that has possessed Eve for so many years, a spirit named Eve.

I did enjoy this story, although I found the unprofessional behavior of the two FBI agents, Daniel and Lori, a bit unbelievable. Also, although I didn't know this when I picked up the book, it is a story about demon possession, which is a subject I generally avoid due to a folk saying I read long ago, "Touch the devil and you can't let go." That's my philosophy, don't mess with the devil and hopefully the devil won't mess with you. Nonetheless, by the time I realized where the book was heading, I wanted to see how it came out. Like I said, I did enjoy the story, which I found compelling and involving. I think I read this book in two days, which says a lot about it.