The Churchgoer

By Patrick Coleman

Mark Haines used to be a Christian pastor. But then life kicked him in the ass, as it is apt to do, and he lost his faith. Now he is working as a night watchman and trying to stay clean and sober. Unfortunately his carefully constructed new life falls to pieces when a fellow night watchman is murdered and Mark loses his job.
Meanwhile, Mark has befriended a young, vagrant woman, Cindy Liu. He invites her to stay at his place but comes home to find she has vanished. He then pursues a quest to track her down, unable to accept that she has moved on.
He ferrets out she might be staying at the home of a drug dealer who used to attend Mark's former church. He finds her there and she seems to be under the influence. But the drug dealer quickly sends Mark packing and shortly after Mark leaves the man's house, the police raid it and sweep up Mark in the raid too. But in those few minutes between the time Mark caught a glimpse of Cindy and when the police arrive, Cindy has vanished once again.
Mark, still obsessed with the girl, tracks down her former church and talks to the pastor. He soon discovers that events that transpired at the church were the trigger that sent Cindy on her downward spiral into drugs, prostitution and homelessness.

This was an OK read. The main character, Mark, seemed to me to be a very unpleasant and out-of-control person. He strange attachment to Cindy is tied into his guilt over the death of his sister and his estrangement from his daughter. Cindy certainly doesn't give him any encouragement and pretty much refuses to be rescued. But he still won't let it go, even to beating up a man at one point.
He is a weird person and as a character, not very sympathetic.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Lost History of Dreams

By Kris Waldherr

A poet dies, author of a popular book of poems, The Lost History of Dreams. He wanted to be buried beside his dead wife in the glass chapel he built for her. But his heir and current resident of the property is unwilling. She has issues with the dead man.
So a relative is sent off, with the dead man's corpse, to try to talk the woman into changing her mind and fulfilling the poet's wishes. However, the relative has a lot of mental baggage of his own to deal with, all centering on the tragic death of his bride a few years earlier.

This book was pretty good. It lagged a bit in the middle as it went through the history of the poet and his wife, as retold by the recalcitrant woman who is the heir. This woman's identity is becomes one of the mysteries of the story. Is she who she claims? Is she, perhaps, the dead poet's wife? Or is she just an opportunist and an impostor, as her enemies claim? The other mysteries are the story of the poet's wife and her death and the truth about the death of the relative's bride.
I thought the latter part of the book was a bit silly and not in a good, amusing way. Too many identity switches.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Galactic Gourmet

By James White

Gurronsevas is renowned throughout the galactic Federation for his skills as a chef. He has amassed great wealth and success and fame. But now he is desiring a new challenge and the giant hospital, Sector General, is in his sights. Because, according to the reports, although the food served at the huge hospital is nutritious, it is famously bland and unenticing. So, with the right connections, Gurronsevas is now in charge of the Sector General kitchens.
But working in a hospital is not the same as working in a hotel. Gurronsevas has a lot to learn and he makes some serious mistakes. One mistake so serious, he is fired and ordered to immediately leave the hospital on the next available transport. However, chief shrink Major O'Mara believes Gurronsevas could be a real asset to the hospital and he arranges for the chef to accompany the hospital ambulance ship, the Rhabwar, on a mission to rescue the few remaining sentient inhabitants of a blighted planet, Wemar.
The Wemar have pollutated their planet almost unto death. In consequence, their population has been decimated, along with the planet's vegetation and animals. The Rhabwar lands next to a small Wemar community, offering help to the struggling locals. But the natives are not very welcoming and regard the strangers with suspicion.
The Wemar have long believed that meat is necessary  to health and fertility of adult Wemar. So able-bodied adults set out on hunts, looking for what little wildlife is left to harvest. Young Wemar and elderly Wemar subsist on a bland vegetable stew, leaving what little the meat the hunters bring home to the healthy adults. So the crew of the ambulance ship has to try to change the Wemars' misconception that adult Wemar need to have meat in their diet. Luckily, they have Gurronsevas, the most talented and most skilled chef in the galaxy, to help them in this effort.

This was an OK read. I really enjoyed the first part of the story as Gurronsevas brings his culinary talents to benefit the staff and patients of Sector General. But when the story changes location to the planet of Wemar, it wasn't nearly as interesting. I also found the idea that the Wemar are more ignorant about their local sources of food than some alien off-worlder silly.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

By Hank Green

Going home late one night, April May finds a large robot on a street in New York City. She thinks it is a new art installation, and, seeking internet fame, she calls a friend, Andy, who comes down and videos April and her discovery, which she names Carl.
It soon is clear that April's Carl is not unique. Carls have appeared on the streets of many of the major cities of the world. But since April was the first to document the phenomenon, she becomes the de facto expert.
Soon April and Andy are making the media rounds and have hired an agent and April is writing a book about the Carls. The money and fame accelerate and April finds herself addicted to the attention, even to the point of dumping her best friend and lover, Maya. The media frenzy grows and grows when scientists declare the Carls to be extraterrestrial in origin. With the media attention, April becomes a target of hate groups who accuse her of being an E.T. or a traitor to the human race. She has to take the hate and threats seriously when someone takes a shot at her through her apartment window.

This was an OK read. It seemed to me that the Carl plot becomes secondary to the internet fame plot. The author, Hank Green, is quite active online and very familiar, I suppose, with the benefits and liabilities of internet fame. So much of the novel is concerned with this subject, which to me, being an older person, is not so engrossing. Very little actual action occurs in the story until nearly the end as April deals with the consequences of attracting the notice of the whack jobs and haters that infest online communities.

Review by the New York Times.

There's a Word for That

By Sloane Tanen

Janine Kessler started out life as the daughter of a successful Hollywood producer. In her teens, she became a sitcom star, much to the disappointment of her father, her mother Pamela and her younger sister Amanda.
Marty Kessler knew from experience that Hollywood fame ruined people and he didn't want his daughter exposed to stardom. Pamela preferred her prettier, younger daughter and expected Janine's fame for Amanda, as did Amanda.
But the sitcom ended after a few seasons and Pamela, who suffered from depression, killed herself, leaving her two teen daughters struggling to understand. Janine ended up in treatment and vanished from the spotlight.
Now in her forties and living on the income from reruns of the her old sitcom and on her rich daddy's generosity, Janine has just drifted through life. She shuns her former fame and lives a secluded life in New York City.
But her father, Marty, is in trouble again, for the umpteenth time. He has long struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and he is, once again, in rehab. Janine travels to Los Angeles to be with him. While there she reconnects with her sister Amanda and her two teen daughters, both of whom have dreams of fame and fortune, very much against Amanda's wishes.
While in rehab, Marty runs into his first wife, Bunny. Bunny, a superstar children's author (think J.K. Rowling) is also at the rehab to deal with her alcoholism. Attendant on Bunny is her son Henry, who has a strained relationship with his mother. Marty rediscovers exactly why he fell for Bunny as a young man and they make plans to travel together, which is an unpleasant surprise for everyone involved, especially for Marty's live-in girlfriend, Gail, who is more attached to Marty's bank account than she is to Marty.

Janine, Marty, Bunny and Henry are the main characters in the story, with the largest part concerned with Janine. In the beginning, it centers on the Kesslers and then abruptly switches to Bunny, without a clue as to how she connects to the Kesslers. We don't find out she is Marty's ex until quite late in the story when she and Marty bump into each other at rehab. I enjoyed that.
It's a pretty good story, although the ending is a bit cliché and deus ex machina. It wasn't all that amusing and certainly not hilarious as described in three of the blurbs on the back cover. Take the blurbs with a grain of salt.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

They Rang Up the Police

By Joanna Cannan

A British Detective story, first published in 1939 and recently republished in 2017. The detective is Guy Northeast, Detective Inspector of the CID. He is in a bit of a disgrace with his bosses, due to having bungled a previous investigation. He feels he has been sidelined to this missing persons investigation as a punishment. If he doesn't want to end up permanently sidelined, he dare not bungle this investigation.
A well-to-do, middle-aged spinster has suddenly vanished during the night. Her bed has been slept in and her suitcase and some clothing are missing. Has she finally grown tired of the single life and run off with a man? Coincidentally, a local married man with whom she had a connection has gone missing the same night. Did they run off together? Or is something more sinister going on? Her family (two spinster sisters and their elderly mother) are sure Delia would never just run off like that. Or if she did, surely she would telephone or leave a message?
But in a family where everyone calls each other "darling," it's pretty clear to the detective that there is something rotten in the heart of Marley Grange. And it turns out that Delia didn't run very far when her body is discovered hidden in the manure pile.

For an old book written 80 years ago, this was quite an enjoyable read and holds up very well. At one point the detective, Guy Northeast, remarks that, "It's the little things that matter when investigating a murder." Even truer today when DNA plays such a key role in most serious investigations. At the end of the story, he sits alone and meditates on the killer, thinking, "And it's true that it is worse to spoil a person's life than to kill someone, and it's true that freedom is a splendid thing."
It is said that the second (and only other book to feature Guy Northeast) is even better that this one. It's Death at the Dog and I am looking forward to reading it.

Gitchie Girl Uncovered

By Phil Hamman and Sandy Hamman

In November of 1973, a group of five teens jumped into a van and headed off to Gitchie Manitou State Park located in northwest Iowa. It's a popular location for hiking and camping. 
The kids consisted of four boys and one girl. The van belonged to Stewart Baade (18). His younger brother, Dana (14) accompanied his brother along with Mike Hadrath (15) and Roger Essem (17). The lone girl, Sandra Cheskey, was the youngest, only thirteen. The kids were at the park to enjoy a campfire and to smoke some weed.
But they were not alone. They were being observed by three men, all brothers, who had been in the park to do some poaching. The brothers, Allen, James and David, thought the group consisted of three boys and two girls, mistaking young Dana for a girl because of his long hair. They decided to attack the kids and take the girls and the weed. But for some reason, they shot and killed Roger and shot Stewart. Sandra was taken away by Allen and the other two men, David and James, stayed behind and killed the remaining two boys, Mike and Dana. Sandra was raped by James but was taken to Sioux Falls and released by Allen.
Sandra's testimony is the reason why the three brothers were captured, convicted and remain in prison in the Iowa State Pen to this day.
This is the story of the investigation into the murders of the four boys, Stewart, Dana, Mike and Roger, and the kidnapping and rape of the young girl, Sandra.

This was a very interesting story. I have been to Gitchie Manitou but I didn't know the park was the scene of a mass murder. I just happened upon this book at the library. I was afraid it would be a little boring but it is not. It is well written and quite griping.

Kindred

By Octavia E. Butler

A graphic novel adaptation by Damian Duffy and  John Jennings

A young black woman finds herself magically transported back in time to the days of southern plantations and slavery, summoned to save the young life of her distant ancestor.
Dana and her husband had just moved into a new place when she felt dizzy and abruptly found herself on a riverbank, arriving just in time to rescue a little boy who was drowning. The boy was Rufus, the son of the man who owned the plantation and Dana's great-something grandfather. As Rufus told her later, as he was drowning he had a vision of Dana and somehow called her to him and to his time, 1810.
Time and again Rufus would call Dana back to the past and she was forced to experience the terrible reality of being a black person in the time of slavery, even to the point of enduring a whipping and being forced to work in the fields. And even though she tries her best to educate Rufus, his white privilege and selfishness prevents him from taking it to heart and he, when he is grown, he forces himself on the woman who would become Dana's great-something grandmother. But once the child of that rape is born, Dana's ancestor, Dana is at last free to end Rufus' domination over her life and return to the future where she belongs.

What the author wants to do here is look at the life and hardships of a slave from the view point of a modern educated woman and she uses the gimmick of time travel to achieve that end.
This is a depressing story and brings home the terrible tragedy of slavery in all of its cruelty, selfishness and ignorance. It's a disturbing read and lays bare one of the ugly truths of America's past.

The Swords of Lankhmar

By Fritz Leiber

Rat insurrection! The rats of Lankhmar are plotting to take over the world, starting with Lankhmar. Their first step, destroy Lankhmar's alliances by scuttling their grain shipments to their allies. This is where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser come in.
The two adventurers are hired by the overlord of Lankhmar to ensure the latest shipments make it to their destinations. No one is quite sure what has been causing the previous shipments to be lost at sea.
On board the ship is the chief Lankhmarian grain merchant's daughter, Hisvet, and her twelve trained white rats. The rats wear clothes, use weapons and perform on command.
Just as with the previous shipment, the grain convoy is attacked. But the attackers turn out to be hundreds of rats, launched from the enemy ship, and intent on gnawing holes in the hull of the grain ship causing it to founder. But the attack is thwarted by the fortunate arrival of a two headed dragon with a huge appetite for rats.
With the grain successfully delivered, the two heroes split up, with Fafhrd staying at their destination and the Gray Mouser heading back to Lankhmar. But when he gets back, he finds that Hisvet and her father have been badmouthing him to the overlord. It has become quite clear to the Gray Mouser that Hisvet and her father are behind the grain shipment sabotage, for reasons not yet clear to him. Seeking help, he visits his patron wizard who gives him a magic potion.
This potion, when consumed, shrinks the Gray Mouser down to rat size and he sneaks into the city of rats that exists under Lankhmar. There he stumbles upon the vicious rat plot to enslave humankind and make themselves rulers of the world.

Next to the short story, Lean Times in Lankhmar, this is my favorite Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story, only this is a full length novel. Like most of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, it is a combination of action, adventure, magic, drunkenness and the strangeness typical of Nehwon.

True Detectives

By William Parkhurst

A look at the working lives of several New York area private detectives.
Vincent Parco helps a man find out if his wife is cheating on him with his business partner.
Joe Howard, president of Carney Detective Agency, which he named after his uncle, helps a small museum discover who among the staff has been stealing items from the museum.
Peter Castillo, bounty hunter, has the unenviable job of tracking a bail skip wanted for rape.
And finally, there is Barry Silver, who is helping a young man find his biological mother.

This was a pretty interesting book, written back in the 1980s but a bit dated because of that.

An interesting side note, one of the detectives in the book, Vincent Parco, was recently convicted (June 2019) of try to blackmail a witness in a child sex abuse case.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser : The Cloud of Hate and Other Stories

By Fritz Leiber and Denny O'Neil

A comic book collection of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. Some of the stories are adaptations of ones written by Fritz Leiber. Other stories were new additions written by Denny O'Neil.
No. 1 is an adaptation of the story, The Price of Pain Ease where the two adventurers get involved with a man who wants to kill death.
No. 2 is an adaptation of Theives' House where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser get tangled up with a jeweled skull.
No. 3 is a new story, Betrayal, and finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser off to rescue a princess in distress who, it turns out, doesn't want to be rescued.
No. 4 has two stories. One is based on Leiber's story, The Cloud of Hate. The other, The Prophecy, is by Denny O'Neil and is the story of young Fafhrd before he joined up with the Gray Mouser.
No. 5 also has two stores: an adaptation of The Sunken Land where Fafhrd falls in with doomed treasure hunters and a story by O'Neil, The Mouse Alone, which is a story of the Gray Mouser when he was just a young Mouse.

It was interesting to see the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in full color. But I really prefer the original stories more than these adapted ones and the new ones by O'Neil. Partially because I have always had a sort of mind's eye image of Lankhmar and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser which was much grungier than in these drawings. One thing I truly disliked was how every woman is drawn nearly nude. That is just plain stupid and disgusting.

Swords in the Mist

By Fritz Leiber

Another collection of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories.
The Cloud of Hate — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are broke and hanging out in an alley on a night when an evil mist calls forth the hate in men's hearts. They are minding their own business when they are attacked by some thugs who were goaded by the evil fog.
Lean Times in Lankhmar — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser go their separate ways. Fafhrd becomes an devotee of Issek of the Jug, a very minor god in Lankhmar. And the Gray Mouser goes to work for a gangster who specializes in shaking down temples and churches.
Their Mistress, the Sea — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser leave Lankhmar after the Issek debacle and voyage off to new adventures. Just over 3 pages long, it's not really a story, it mainly serves to link the next story to the previous story.
When the Sea-King's Away — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are lured into the depths of the sea by a magical tunnel that leads to the home of the absent sea king and to the sea king's women and treasure.
The Wrong Branch — Another story that serves to link the previous story to the next story. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have a streak of bad luck they blame on the sea king's curse.
Adept's Gambit  — A complete change of scenery finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser no longer on Nehwon but on Earth at about 300 to 200 BC in the region of Tyre. A strange curse has been placed on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. When they try to get intimate with a woman, the woman turns into an animal. So the two set out on a quest to understand why this is happening and to get the curse lifted.

This collection has one of my favorite Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, Lean Times in Lankhmar. But the last story in the collection is one of my least favorite, it doesn't make much sense and I really don't care for the change of location from Nehwon to Earth.

Swords Against Death

By Fritz Leiber

Another collection of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, published about 1970.

The Circle Curse (1970) introduces the reader to the two wizards that would intersect with the two heroes in later stories, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. This story is a set up to the rest of the stories.

The Jewels in the Forest (1939) Rumors of an unbreachable treasure house send the two adventurers off to challenge the legend only to discover the treasure is guarded by the house itself.

Thieves' House (1943) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are hired by the Thieves' Guild to steal the jeweled skull of a long dead thief.

The Bleak Shore (1940) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are put under a spell that sends them on a journey to meet their promised doom.

The Howling Tower (1941) What is the source of mysterious howling? A tale of justice long delayed.

The Sunken Land (1942) Fafhrd finds a ring in the belly of a fish and he ends up on a voyage to a land of myth, held captive by a gang of his fellow countrymen on the search for long lost treasure.

The Seven Black Priests (1953) Once again the two are on the hunt for treasure. Their target this time, a fabulous diamond guarded by seven fanatical priests willing to die protecting it.

Claws From the Night (1951) Someone is using trained birds to steal jewels from the wealthy women of Lankhmar. Fafhrd has a plan to use his own trained eagle to attack the bird thieves and get their booty for himself. But it turns out to be much more complicated than he and the Gray Mouser supposed.

The Price of Pain-Ease (1970) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser steal a small house and end up in a battle against Death itself.

Bazaar of the Bizarre (1963) The two wizards send the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd to take down a new merchant in Lankhmar who is up to no good. But the Gray Mouser becomes ensnared in the merchant's enchantments and needs rescuing.

A good collection of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser adventures in Nehwon which ties together the older tales with the story of the two men's first loves.

Swords and Deviltry

By Fritz Leiber

Once upon a time there was an author, Fritz Leiber. He and a friend created two characters, as a kind of counter to the Conan and Tarzar characters that were popular at the time (1930s & 40s). Fafhrd, a tall barbarian swordsman and the Gray Mouser, a smaller man, also adept with a sword and with a little knowledge of magic, a couple of "heroes" out for a bit of adventure and good times.
Leiber eventually tells the backstory of how the two came to be partners in the Swords and Deviltry short story, Ill Met in Lankhmar. The other stories in the book detail the two rogues lives as young men before they came to know each other. In The Snow Women, we learn how Fafhrd barely escaped with his life, fleeing from his vengeful and controlling mother. And in The Unholy Grail, how Mouse (as he was called then) was almost tortured to death at the hands of a vicious nobleman, escaping only with the help of the man's downtrodden daughter.
The two wizards, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face,  that Fafhrd and Gray Mouser later become involved with do not make an appearance in these three stories.

It's a nice introduction to the two characters and to the city of Lankhmar. I read the book back in the 1970s when it first came out and the description of the Gray Mouser's lair stuck with me all these many years. I didn't remember its ultimate fate, but I did remember the description of luxury piled on luxury, silks and velvets, cushions and furs everywhere, hiding rat holes and roaches.

Mad Girls in Love

By Michael Lee West

Bitsy is a newlywed with a baby when she figures out that her spouse is cheating on her. They get into an argument and he tries to drown her in the kitchen sink but she saves herself by smashing him in the face with a package of frozen meat. Frightened by the possible consequences (her spouse belongs to a wealthy and powerful family), she leaves him unconscious on the floor and grabs her baby and his car and flees town.
She soon ditches his car and buys a used one. But unknown to her, she has a stowaway. The seller's ward has hidden in the back of the used car and is demanding that Bitsy take her to find her mom (who is probably dead) and threatens to turn Bitsy in if she refuses. Bitsy's in-laws have splashed the story all over the media and so she gives into the brat's blackmail. They end up in a resort town where Bitsy gets a job at a restaurant. But it all comes to pieces when she runs afoul of a coworker's jealous girlfriend. Bitsy decides to leave town, but during the panic of leaving, she drives off with her baby on the roof of the car and is, fortunately for the baby, is quickly stopped by the police. She goes to prison and her spouse is awarded sole custody of baby Jennifer.

And so begins one of the most boring stories of a boring family of boring women and their boring, disfunctional lives, that is supposed to be funny, engaging and witty but is mostly just boring.
The abusive spouse never gets exposed for nearly killing Bitsy, the foul in-laws are never forced to give Bitsy back her child, the child is spoiled rotten and turns into a repulsive bitch.
By the end of the story, I was sick of the whole lot of them. What a bunch of gutless wonders. And I was totally tired of Dorothy's stupid, deluded letters to the various First Ladies of the time.
Also the book is way too long, 528 pages in the hardcover edition. It just goes on and on and on. Ugh!

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Neverness

By David Zindell

A science fiction story about a dysfunctional family and the search for immortality.

Mallory Ringess is a young graduate from space pilot school and he is full of pride and ambition. He has declared he will solve one of the great mysteries of space, one that many other pilots have died trying to solve, the Solid State Entity.
The Solid State Entity is a sentient nebula and every pilot who has penetrated its borders has never come back out again. So for Mallory to chose exploring the Solid State Entity was the height of foolishness.
The Timekeeper, ruler of the pilots, gave Mallory a book of poetry and told him to memorize the poems. Because, according to the Timekeeper, the Solid State Entity appreciated poetry. How the Timekeeper would know that, he didn't explain. It worked, too, and Mallory became the first pilot to enter the nebula and return. And he returned with a message from the nebula that the secret to immortality is written in the ancient DNA of mankind.
Back home, Mallory again states a rash quest. He will infiltrate the tribes of primitive humans and obtain their ancient DNA. At first the Timekeeper refuses to allow the expedition but suddenly changes his mind, with certain conditions.
Namely, that Mallory will not lead the expedition. Instead the leader would be Leopold Soli. And included in the expedition would be Mallory's mother, his aunt Justine (Soli's estranged wife), Katharine (Soli and Justine's adult daughter and Mallory's secret girl friend) and Mallory's best friend, Bardo. But Mallory and Soli really, really disliked each other.
Things don't go well. Katharine gets accused by the primitives of witchcraft and is murdered. A fight breaks out and Mallory receives a fatal wound. The remaining members of the expedition barely manage to escape.
Mallory's mother takes his body to a water-world who denizens have the skill to rebuild dead people, including damaged brains. They resurrect Mallory but they add enhancements (the godseed) to his brain that will give him abilities beyond normal people.
Mallory returns home only to find out that the DNA of the primitive people wasn't any more ancient than anyone's. He also realizes that someone has hired an assassin to kill Soli. In the midst of trying to stop the assassination, Mallory himself is accused of being the killer. The Timekeeper throws him into a dungeon without a trial and he languishes there for weeks. Bardo, his friend, engineers a jail break and he and Mallory and many other pilots flee the Timekeeper and head into space. But the Timekeeper is not willing to let them escape and sends pilots after them, resulting in a war between the two factions.

This was a long book, 458 pages. And it was pretty boring, for the most part. I skipped a lot of the philosophical and mathematical stuff. I also found the part where Mallory and company live with the primitives to be not to my taste. I just wasn't interested in the lives of the cavemen.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Perfect Host : Volume V

By Theodore Sturgeon

A collection of stories, mostly science fiction, some fantasy and one cowboy story.

• Quietly A girl is raised by her anarchist father and abandoned by him when she turns 18.
• The Music Lunatic in a hospital eats a nurse.
• Unite and Conquer Scientist fakes an alien invasion to unite mankind.
• The Love of Heaven An evolved human race wants to return to the home world but discover they are poison to all life on Earth.
• Till Death Do Us Join A man who thinks he has an evil twin comes up with a plan to kill the twin.
• The Perfect Host  A string of mysterious deaths are caused by a "thing" that attaches itself to people it finds interesting and sympathetic. 
• The Martian and the Moron An empty-headed girl makes contact with Mars. Humorous story.
• Die, Maestro, Die!  Band announcer is deadly jealous of the band leader.
• The Dark Goddess  Woman wants her brother's common-law wife to make the marriage legal. Story has a good, brief description of life in the 1920s.
• Scars Cowboy rescues a woman.
• Messenger A rich inventor is planning to give all his wealth away. But his daughter's fiance tries to kill the rich man before he can do that.
• Minority Report A spaceship goes on on a mission and never returns. So another ship goes after it to figure out what happened.
• Prodigy After multiple wars and pollution, humans have developed many mutations. In order to stop these mutations from being passed on, children are put to death if they don't fit the standard norm.
• Farewell to Eden Two people escape Earth for a new world but it doesn't end well.
• One Foot and the Grave A man and a woman both have one of their feet change into a hoof. They are told it was caused by magic emanating from an ancient being chained in the nearby hills.
• What Dead Men Tell A guy stumbles upon a secret society of immortals and has to pass a deadly test to become one of them.
• The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast Story of an invasive species, only this species is an extraterrestrial. Humorous story.

This is a pretty good collection of stories. The author is very fond of the twist ending. For example, in Scars, the main character claims to be a gentleman because he rescued a woman and declined to take advantage of her, even though she indicated she was interested. [Spoiler]Turns out he is impotent.

Walkabout Woman

By Michaela Roessner

Raba is a young Australian aboriginal girl who has just turned old enough to attend the white man's missionary school. But Raba is not the typical little girl, she has a special connection to the land. She is going to be the link for the people to return to Dreamtime. Dreamtime is the story of the creation of life and its meaning and of mankind's place in the world, past and present and future. (Dreamtime is the white man's term for it.)
Anyway, Raba's path is not straightforward. First, there is interference by a well-meaning missionary teacher. Then when Raba is a teen, her chosen lover is being controlled by his malignant father, who wants to keep his son for his own purposes. Tragedy then sends Raba into a mental hospital for many months. After recovery, Raba goes off to college and into the teaching profession where she runs afoul of a student who is determined to use Raba's mystical abilities for her own ends.

The first part of the story was really good and very engrossing. But the last part, where Raba is a college professor just wasn't anywhere near as interesting and Raba comes off as weak and ineffective, in my opinion.

Review from Black Gate.

Guard of Honor

By James Gould Cozzens

This book is the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 1949.

Set in a military base in Florida, 1943, this is the story of three days in the life of that base.
General Beal, base commander, is flying into the base when his plane is involved in a near miss with another plane. After the two planes land, one of the men that was riding in the plane with Beal punches the pilot of the other pilot, sending him to the hospital with a broken nose. The other pilot was a young black man, Lt. Willis, and a group of black officers takes umbrage at his treatment. So when the black officers are not allowed the use regular officer club, they become even more upset and a confrontation at the officer club occurs.
Meanwhile, the local newspaper is sniffing around and it soon becomes apparent that someone has been leaking information to the news that should not be in the public eye. Plus, a big celebration is being planned for General Beal's birthday and two generals from higher up the chain of command are flying into the base for the occasion and for other reasons, some relating to the incidents with Lt. Willis and the black officers. All this adds up to a lot of people stressing about a lot of different things, with lots of meetings and lots of memos. But in the end, it all pales in the face of a genuine tragedy.

What a pain in the neck this book was to read. I started reading it last year (2018) and I just now finished it in June 2019. The main problem was the huge number of characters to keep track of, their military ranks, their jobs & their personal stories. It was just too much to keep track of.
Also, the plot just wasn't that engaging.

Review from Kirkus Reviews. This review is from 1948.

The Divide

By Nicholas Evans

Ben decided his wife, Sarah, was frigid. So when he met beautiful, young Eve, he was ready. Ready for a new love, a new life and a new family. Never mind that his request for a divorce tore his family apart. Never mind that his wife loved him very much. Never mind that it especially threw his daughter, Abbie, into a tailspin that took her down a dark path that ended in her death on a remote mountain in Montana.
It all started at the dude ranch, The Divide. Ben and Sarah and their two kids Josh and Abbie had been vacationing there for years. They loved it. But that is where Ben first saw Eve. He was smitten. He couldn't stop thinking about her. He even visited her at her home in Santa Fe. When she said she wouldn't date a married man, Ben took it as encouragement to end his marriage.
Sarah was devastated. Perhaps her obvious distress affected her teenage daughter too. Anyway, Abbie was very angry at her father and seemed to channel that rage into environmental activism. She was at a protest where the protesters were teargassed when she was rescued by another activist, Rolf. He tended her wounds and bathed her eyes and he seemed so caring and committed to the cause of environmental activism. Abbie was completely won over and became his lover and co-conspirator. They set fires and spray painted slogans and Rolf led her deeper and deeper down the path to destruction.  Then they accidentally killed a young man when they tried to set fire to his father's house and he caught them. In the confrontation and struggle, the man was killed. Abbie and Rolf went into hiding and Abbie cut off almost all communication with her family, per Rolf's instructions.
And then her body was found, frozen in ice on that remote mountainside by two back country skiers.

This was an OK story. It starts out as a mystery. But it is mostly about the end of the marriage of Ben and Sarah. And about Abbie's conversion from college student to eco-terrorist.
The thing is, I thought I was reading a mystery story. I kept waiting for the investigation but was wading through chapter after chapter of the family's back story. Frankly, I skipped a lot of that, thinking the investigation was sure to start soon. But it never did.
So this is not a murder mystery. It is the story of a family that went off the rails, primarily because of one selfish man, Ben. Beyond the death of his daughter, Ben never really pays much of a price either. He is pleased with his new life in Santa Fe, his new love, Eve and is a second father to her young son. He has a successful new career, his girl friend is young and beautiful and his teenage son has forgiven him and likes his new family. Meanwhile the ex-wife is still reeling from the abrupt and unexpected end of their over twenty years of marriage. She is still carrying a torch for her faithless husband. She is depressed, alone and lonely. The author finally throws her a bone and gets her a new boy friend at the very end of the story. Easy to see where his sympathies lie: with the cheating husband.

A review by Kirkus Reviews.

Goodnight Nobody

By Jennifer Weiner

Raising kids in the city can be difficult. Kate and her husband Ben were trying to do so when Kate was robbed while taking her young children out for a stroll. The thief even stole the stroller.  So that was that. Goodbye, NYC. Hello, Upchurch.
Now a suburban mom, Kate is feeling alienated from the other women of her new community. They seem so much more put together, more organized, more in control. Kate has casual acquaintances among the Upchurch moms but no real friends. So when one of the moms calls and asks Kate to stop by, it's unusual and unexpected. Even more unexpected is the woman's dead body laying on the floor with a knife in her back.
Since she is the one who found the victim, Kitty Cavanaugh, Kate feels more than a little involved. The cops seem to have given up on the investigation and so Kate dives into the perfect life of perfect mom, perfect wife, perfect hostess, perfect everything, Kitty Cavanaugh. Doesn't take her long to understand that no one in Upchurch has the perfect lives they all work so hard to present to the world.

This was an OK read. Much of the story is about Kate's relationship with her husband and an old crush from before her marriage who broke her heart. As Kate's investigation proceeds, her relationship with Ben becomes rockier and rockier and the old crush showing up doesn't make it any easier. Kate doesn't make a real decision about Ben vs the crush, Evan:

I waved, then flipped onto my back and floated in the pale green ocean water, looking up at the sky. Come home to me, said Ben. Come back to me, said Evan. I closed my eyes, listening for my answer. My hair trembled in the water. My body rose and fell. The waves rolled in and out, saying nothing at all.

The Kate and Ben story feels unfinished and the murder motive is more than a little weak and disappointing.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Moon-Spinners

By Mary Stewart

Nicola is on spring vacation to Crete. Arriving at her destination a day early, she decides to take a hike up into the hills. It's warm out and after awhile, she takes a break beside a mountain stream. But she is not alone, a strange man is spying upon her from the bushes. Alarmed, she tries to leave only to be set upon by the man and dragged off to a dingy shepherds hut.
Things are not as they seem, though, as soon as they enter the hut. For laying on a rough bed of hay is a young Englishman who quickly instructs the other man to release Nicola. She discovers the Englishman is suffering from a gunshot wound and the other man hid him in the hut to conceal him from the murderous locals.
The two men, Lambis & Mark were out for a harmless ocean cruise and came ashore for a break from being on the water. They were accompanied by Mark's younger brother Colin who is only thirteen. Lambis, who owns the boat, stayed at the boat to make some minor repairs and Colin and Mark went for a hike. But they unfortunately witnessed some locals get into an argument which ended up in murder. And when the locals discovered the two witnesses, they shot Mark and left him for dead and carried off young Colin.
When the two tourists didn't return to the boat, Lambis went looking for them and found Mark, still alive but not in good condition. And now Nicola has stumbled upon the two and she becomes tangled up in whatever bad business is going on in the hills of Crete.

I first read this book back in the 1960s and I found it quite exciting and the descriptions of Crete enchanting. I have since read at least three or four more times and enjoyed it very much, though not as much as the first time. And I still find the writer's descriptions of Crete captivating and enticing.  Although the Crete of the early 1960s probably bears little resemblance to the Crete of 2019. It still makes me wish to visit there even though it is likely overrun with tourists these days.
As for the mystery story, it is thrilling and enjoyable even after several re-readings and fifty years later.

Review by Dear Author.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

By Dorothy Gilman

Book 7 in the Mrs. Pollifax series finds the matronly spy off on another adventure, this time in Hong Kong.
A young man she befriended on a previous trip to China, Sheng Ti, works for an importer, Feng Imports. Tom Detwiler also works for Feng Imports but he has a side job: he provides information to the CIA. But lately it has become apparent that Detwiler is compromised. The CIA wants Mrs. Pollifax to use her friendship with Sheng Ti to get inside Feng Imports and figure out what is going on with Detwiler.
Nothing is ever that simple in a Pollifax story and complications soon arise once she is in Hong Kong. But with the help of a new friend and of an old friend and at the risk of her neck, Mrs. Pollifax will come shining through.

This was a good story. Mrs. Pollifax is a little less active than she usually is in one of these stories, which I thought was way more believable than some of the stunts she pulls in so many of the stories. She travels around Hong Kong and views the many sights and spends much of her time at her hotel, acting like a normal woman in her fifties or sixties.

Lady

By Thomas Tryon

Lady and her husband were one of the best families of the small town where she lived. Lady was beautiful, kind and gracious and lived the good life. Widowed after just a few years of marriage, she lived the rest of her life alone except for her two faithful servants.
Everyone in town knew the story of Lady and Edward. Wealthy, handsome, young Edward was looking for a wife and Lady, so young, lovely and innocent, daughter of an impoverished seamstress, was just the girl he was looking for. So they quickly married and soon a baby was on the way. Then the luck turned against them. Lady fell and lost the baby. She became quite ill and spent months in the hospital. Her mind was affected by her illness and she was afterward subject to periods of depression.
World War I started and Edward went off to serve. He was wounded and came home to recuperate but his health was severely affected and he died of the influenza. Lady was left alone and never seemed interested in finding a new love.
Across the street was another young woman who lost her husband too soon. She is raising her large family all alone, working full time and leaving much of the care of the kids to her oldest daughter.
The middle boy, Woody, becomes fast friends with Lady and he spends as much time as possible with her. He basks in the love and attention she gives him and he suffers when she shuts herself away in the grip of one of her black moods, which can last for weeks and weeks. He would love to help but, a mere child, he doesn't understand her suffering.
Everyone in the small town knows about Lady's bouts of depression where she shuts herself away from the outside world. They all attribute it to her grief over the loss of her husband, Edward. She even keeps a shrine dedicated to Edward in the front room of her house, with photos of him and other mementos. She keeps his clothes locked away in their bedroom and refuses to get rid of them.  To all appearances, she never got over losing Edward.
Then Woody stumbles upon Lady's long hidden secret and he is shocked to his core. So shocked that he cuts off all contact with her. However, Woody isn't the only one who has discovered Lady's secret. Before much longer the whole town in privy to the secret and all but her closest friends turn their backs on her.
Eventually Woody and Lady reconcile and, in her old age, Lady finally reveals the details of her marriage to Edward and the truth of what she sacrificed to continue to live in the house across the street.

This was a pretty good story. It sort of bogged down in the middle of the book and didn't really pick up until Lady's big secret is revealed. All throughout the first part, we are given hints that Lady has some huge secret and it takes way too long to get to the big reveal. I admit I got impatient and wanted the author to stop dragging it out and dragging it out. But other than that, it was an enjoyable novel.

The Genocidal Healer

By James White

Lioren was a capable young surgeon in the Monitor Corps when he and the space ship he served on were called to attend an emergency situation on a newly discovered and civilized planet. The population of this planet are in crisis, being decimated by a planet-wide plague. If something isn't done, and quickly, there will be no one left alive.
Seized by a sense of urgency, Lioren makes a tragic mistake that results in the deaths of nearly all the inhabitants of the planet. As punishment, Lioren is stripped of his rank and kicked out of the Corps. He is then assigned to the position of trainee in the psychology department of Sector General Hospital, a hospital that specializes in treating beings from all over the galaxy, manned by beings from all over the galaxy.
But this is not what Lioren wants. His overwhelming feelings of guilt causes him to crave a much harsher penalty: a death sentence. Working at Sector General in the psychiatric department is the last thing he wants. But it just might be exactly what he needs.

This was an okay story. But towards the last third, a lot of the book is discussions about religion and guilt and god and the meaning of existence.  So not anything I care about. That part was boring, just boring.

Back When We Were Grownups

By Anne Tyler

Rebecca was pretty sure she was going to marry Will Allenby. He was a nice, solid young man and they had been dating for quite a while. But then she met Joe Davitch, a much older man with three little girls he was raising on his own. Something about Joe just captured her heart and she dumped Will with hardly a word of explanation beyond just goodbye:

'Will set an index finger on his page and raised his head. "Goodbye, Will," she told him.
"Huh?" he asked. "You're leaving? So soon? I still have work to do!"
"That's all right; stay where you are."
"Oh. Well. Okay. So, um . . . au revoir, I guess."
"No," she said. "Goodbye."
And then she walked out the door and into Joe Davitch's arms.' 

After a few years of marriage, Joe died in a crash. And Rebecca was alone and responsible for now four young girls (she and Joe had a little girl) and the family business. Joe's ex-wife was no help and lived overseas.
Now all the girls are adults and one of them is getting married and Rebecca is looking back on her life and thinking that she missed out. Thinking that she kind of got trapped in a life and marriage she never envisioned. And her thoughts turn to her old beau, Will. She constructs a what-might-have-been fantasy, complete with a fantasy son. The fantasy becomes so compelling that Rebecca tracks down Will and reignites a relationship with him.
But her fantasy family of Will and son turns to ashes in the face of reality. Even though her fantasy was way off base, maybe she and Will can have a second chance together. Or will she suddenly remember how easy it was to walk away from him the first time?

This was an OK read. What I didn't like about the story is the main character, Rebecca. She just didn't appeal to me. I thought her fantasy about Will was stupid and I thought her image of herself was deluded and I frankly hated the messed up way she treated poor Will.
It's hard to like a story when you can't stand the main character.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Double Contact

By James White

Sector General Hospital serves any living being that needs medical care. It is not based on a planet but is a massive space-based hospital. It has doctors and nurses, human and nonhuman, all working together to treat any intelligent being that needs it, no matter how bizarre or different they may be.
As a hospital, they naturally provide ambulance and rescue vehicles, designed to respond quickly to whatever emergency comes their way. Sometimes those distress calls come from creatures never before encountered and of totally unfamiliar biology.
In this story, Dr. Prilicla, the Cinrusskin, is sent out with a crew to locate and attend the unknown beings who have launched distress beacons. Dr. Prilicla possesses a highly developed empathic ability. He is able to read the emotions of those around him. Plus he is a skilled surgeon. On the other hand, he is not a courageous being, like other Cinrusskins, who are known for their timidity and fragility.
Upon arrival at the location of the distress beacon, the doctor and his team find an alien vessel and a Monitor Corps vessel, both vessels disabled and in distress. The Monitor Corps vessel was in the area doing surveys and responded to the beacon, only to be attacked by the alien vessel. The Monitor Corps crew has to be rescued first, as they are in the most danger and several crew members are seriously wounded.
Once their are dealt with, Dr. Prilicla turns his attention to the beings on board the alien ship. The ship contains only two beings, both of which are surgically attached to the ship and both of which are suffering from injuries acquired during what turned out to be an accident or malfunction.
But why did they attack the first ship to respond to the distress beacon? And how can they be successfully treated for their injuries when the mere sight of a human being put them into hysterical panic? Because of this unreasoning fear of the human medical personnel, almost all the weight of their treatment will thus fall upon Dr. Prilicla's puny "shoulders." (Does Prilicla even have shoulders?)

This was an okay story. A little boring. Towards the end of the story, another new alien race is introduced, a spider people who kidnaps one of the human medical personnel with plans to eat her. But even the introduction of this new element does little to liven up the story.
It probably helps if the reader is familiar with the Sector General stories before reading this one.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about Sector General.

And here is Wikipedia's description of Dr. Prilicla:

A large but fragile winged insect-like being from the very low-gravity planet Cinruss. In addition to being highly skilled in the more delicate types of surgery, Prilicla is an empath and therefore can sense the emotions of most other lifeforms including many non-intelligent animals. Its tact and the desire of colleagues to avoid distressing it by displaying negative emotions generally makes others willing to follow its advice – a pattern that one reviewer described as "a pleasant Machiavellian streak." Despite its natural timidity and the distress that other beings' anger, fear and pain cause it, Prilicla uses its empathic ability in prolonged searches for survivors of space combat and accidents.

Last Writes

By Laura Levine

Book Two in the Jaine Austen mystery series.

Jaine has a new job as a comedy writer on a sitcom, thanks to her friend Kandi. Kandi is also working as a writer on the sitcom, having quit her previous writing job.
Now that Jaine is on the job, murder is not far behind. The teenage star of the show is caught having sex with the man who plays her uncle. This actor is soon revealed to be involved with nearly every female at the studio, including Jaine's friend Kandi.
Having broken so many hearts with his fling with the teenager, it is no surprise when he ends up poisoned. Too bad for Kandi that she was overheard threatening to kill him. Now she is suspect number one. Of course Jaine is not going to let her friend go to jail without trying to discover the real killer.

This was an OK read. Jaine's character still can't pass up any sweets that cross her path, a fact that she laments all the time. It was kind of cute and funny in the first two books I read. But a bit of a tired joke the third time around. Honestly, the amount of food and drink Jaine packs away in this story, she ought to weigh over 200 pounds instead of being, I'm guessing, a size 12.
Anyways, it was an fair read with kind of a weird ending. Slightly amusing but not laugh-out-loud funny.

Review from Publishers Weekly.

Potato Queen

By Rafaelito V. Sy

Juancho is an immigrant from the Philippines. But unlike a lot of immigrants, he is not escaping poverty. He grew up in a mansion with servants. He attended the best schools and went to college in the States. After college he got a job working for a travel agency that specializes in tours of the Far East. He parents love him and his siblings are successful in their own right.
So why has he left his family and settled in San Francisco? As he explains at the end of the book, "I would rather be alone in America than to be a freak in my own country." He says that in the Philippines, homosexuals are perceived as, "aberrations of nature no different from Barnum and Bailey's circus of freaks."
Juancho knew from a young age that he was attracted to men. His first crush was the maid's boyfriend, James Cagney Alejandro. The boyfriend was half-American and had fair skin. Ever after, Juancho would be attracted to white men. Thus the title of the book, Potato Queen. As I understand it, which I admit is not well, a potato queen is an non-white male attracted to white, European-looking men. Where a rice queen is a white man attracted to Asians, especially to young, boyish Asians.
Juancho longs for true love. But every man he thinks is the beginning of something wonderful turns out to be just a one-night-stand. Gerald, the man he becomes closest too, isn't interested in continuing their relationship beyond friendship. He and Juancho spend a lot of time together, they go on hikes, they go to the gym, they meet friends for dinner and they go clubbing together. But Gerald won't take it any further.
The other men Juancho falls hard for also are not interested in anything beyond casual relationships. They seem happy to be with him for one night and then move on. Poor Juancho is left heartbroken, yearning and lonely.

I knew this story had gay characters. But I bought it because the blurb on the front said, "Very funny! It's what Desperate Housewives would be if it were set in The Castro." And "J'adorable!"
I found it to be neither funny nor adorable. That doesn't mean I disliked it though. I totally identified with Juancho's feelings as he chased after the ever-elusive lovers. His doubts and questions were so familiar to me, as a straight woman. Love makes fools of us all, no matter our sexual orientation, I guess.
There is a lot of gay sex in this book, but it is not explicit. It is touched upon but not in pornographic detail.

The Dirty Girls Social Club

By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

It's not really a club. It's just a group of women who became friends in college and still keep in touch even though they no longer live near each other.
Lauren writes a column about her ordinary life for a Boston newspaper. She has a boyfriend, but she suspects he is unfaithful. She is bulimic and tends to drink too much.
Usnavys is successful and self-employed and loves the finer things in life. Her serious boyfriend is the opposite and never seems to have two pennies to rub together.
Sara is the devoted wife and mother but seems unable to accept the truth about her husband, an abusive brute who ends up putting her in the hospital and causing her to lose her unborn baby.
Rebecca is the successful owner of a magazine for women. She is also unhappily married when a handsome and available new man enters her life.
Together they are the dirty girls and together they help each other cope with the ups and downs of just being alive.

This was an OK read. Kind of boring at times. Predictable too.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Playing With Boys

By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Sometimes things just come together. It did for Alexis when she met two strangers. One was an unemployed actress and the other was a writer with a story that needed to be told. And Alexis was just the one who could bring these two together and change all three of their lives for the better.
The actress, Marcella, is beautiful, talented but has been stuck playing the hot Latina rolls. Rolls she is getting too old for and that no longer appeal to her.
The writer, Olivia, needs to tell the story of her father's murder by the Salvadoran death squads. But she is a beginner writer and Alexis is just the professional she needs to bring her vision to the world.
As for Alexis, she manages a Mexican pop band and she is itching to start her own management company and Marcella and Olivia are just the people she needs to stretch her wings. Together, the skies the limit.

This was a pretty good read. Alexis is the main character, and she has the typical romance novel love story where the girl is involved with the wrong guy and that guy treats her badly and then she finds a new guy but the new guy is either taken or oblivious but eventually he wakes up and discovers his true feelings for the girl. The usual.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.

Venus Plus X

By Theodore Sturgeon

Charlie Johns woke up to find himself among people who looked human but preferred to think of themselves as the next step beyond homo sapiens. They call themselves the Ledom. They appear to be neither male nor female. But as Charlie Johns finds out, the key word is appear.
They live in peace and harmony and close to nature in an enclave hidden from the rest of the world. They are not aliens, they are fully human, but they live a lifestyle alien to accepted norms. They have set themselves aside in an attempt to create a society free of war and division and hate. Any their ultimate goal is to renew humanity when the rest of us manage to destroy ourselves.
But what are the Ledom, really? Charlie is charmed by them and agrees to help with their little project. They claim to have brought him there to weigh them in the balance and give them his true impressions of what they have created and of their genderless society. But Charlie senses he is not getting the full truth of the matter. And then he happens upon a little hidden family of Ledom: two fathers and their grown daughter. And the lie is exposed. The Ledom are not natural hermaphrodites. They are surgically altered to become so:

—of man with grafted uterus coupling with man with grafted uterus.

—of the knives and needles stitching a manmade and inhuman newness into the bodies of babes.

The story is interspersed with flashbacks to a group of regular Americans living their everyday lives with their kids, their jobs and their friends, a sort of contrast to the everyday lives of the Ledom.

What a boring story. The Ledom are boring. The regular folks back home were boring and their story was pointless, came across as filler to make the book longer. The big surprise at the end, that the Ledom were not a natural mutation but were the result of surgical intervention wasn't surprising or shocking.
What the author totally fails to address is where do they get all those grafted uteruses? One assumes from female babies. So what happens to those baby girls after their uteruses have been removed? The Charlie character is more outraged at boys with grafted uteruses than he is at the probable murder of every female baby born to the Ledom males. Oh, and he is also upset about men loving men.

 

 

The Synthetic Man aka The Dreaming Jewels

By Theodore Sturgeon

Horty is just a grade school kid when he gets in trouble for eating ants at school. When his adoptive father finds out, he punishes Horty by shoving him into a closet but accidentally catches the boy's hand in the hinge, severing three of the Horty's fingers. After the man leaves the room, Horty grabs his favorite toy, a jack-in-the-box called Junky and runs away.
Junky is just a toy but the toy has two eyes made of crystal. The crystals look like ordinary glass but are something else entirely. And Horty is bonded to the crystals, as becomes apparent when a thief unknowingly damages the toy and Horty cries out in pain.
Fortunately for Horty, he has fallen in with a small group of carnival people, one of whom recognizes Horty for what he really is, something that Horty himself does not know. And she makes it her duty to protect and educate Horty and hopefully turn him into the human being that he truly is not.

This is such a gratifying story. Horty starts out a weak and defenseless child but he takes satisfying revenge on those who harmed him and those he cares about. It's always nice to see justice rain down on those who deserve it.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.

The Risk Pool

By Richard Russo

The story of a boy and his dad. Ned's dad Sam is unreliable. At one point he was gone for years. He drinks too much and gambles too much and chases women. He can't keep a job. He is jealous and refuses to give Ned's mom, Jenny, a divorce.
But when Jenny ends up in a mental hospital, Ned ends up with Sam, who is an indifferent parent at best. From his dad, Ned learns all about drinking, gambling and shady business.
Jenny eventually is well enough to return home and continue raising her son. Life becomes more predictable but certainly less exciting for Ned once Sam is no longer in charge of him. Though he wasn't well cared for under his father's wings, it certainly was an education in the ways of the world. And Ned becomes quite familiar with some of the more "colorful" characters that inhabit his father's world.

This was a engaging story of a boy learning to understand his errant father and his troubled mother. And of learning how to avoid the missteps that blighted his father's life in so many ways. Good read. And not without its humorous moments:

It was a rare night that did not generate at least one fight in the pool room, and while most of the combatants were either too drunk or too inept to hurt each other much, bystanders were sometimes mangled hideously. My father said if it was just him, he'd let me stay and shoot  to my heart's content, but there was one thing he never wanted to do, and that was report to my mother that I'd been killed in the pool hall.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Chisellers

By Brendan O'Carroll

A continuation of the story of Agnes Browne and her family, begun in The Mammy. 
The two oldest children are more of a focus in this story than in the first. The oldest son, Mark, is doing quite well in his job at the furniture factory. But his younger brother, Frankie, has fallen in with a gang of skinheads and eventually steals his mother's money she won playing bingo and runs away to London.
Agnes and the kids have a new home, as the place where they were living is slated to be torn down. So even though problems still have to be dealt with, overall, things seem to be getting better for Agnes and her brood.

This was a pretty good read, a lovely story of a son who stands by his mother and of a son who does the exact opposite and comes to his just desserts.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The 5th Wave

By Rick Yancey

So aliens have decided to attack humanity. So far they have released four waves of strikes. The first wave took out technology. The second wave was huge tsunamis that attacked coastal populations. The third wave was plague. The fourth wave was assassins whose job is to hunt down the survivors. The fifth wave is to turn the remaining humans against one another. This is done by capturing survivor children and turning them into an army of killers, fooled into believing any survivors they find are either the aliens or are pawns of the aliens and must be destroyed.

This another entry in the teen dystopian novel genre. Our brave young teen heroes are the only ones capable of standing up against the aliens, especially since the author quickly kills off any adults who are left alive.
This is also another entry in the "everyone is a suspect and no one knows who can or cannot be trusted" genre, a common theme in fiction these days.
This is also another entry in the "alien falls in. love with the human" genre.
Nothing that new here, really.

Review from The Guardian.

The Infinite Sea

By Rick Yancey

Book 2 in 5th Wave trilogy.

This book finds the ragged band of human escapees from the alien's training camp living in a deserted hotel in Ohio. Cassie, Ben, Ringer and the other kids are just barely surviving and living in fear of being spotted by the aliens and their human/alien hybrid killers known as the Silencers.
Meanwhile, Evan Walker, due to his alien enhancements, survived the destruction of the training camp, Camp Haven, and has been rescued by a fellow Silencer, Grace, a girl who actually knew Evan before the alien attack. Evan strings Grace along, trying not to reveal that his sympathies now lie humankind and not the alien overlords. He bides his time for as long as he can but finally  escapes, headed to Ohio and the rest of the kids.
Ringer, one of the more capable kids in the group, is sent out on a mission to find a cave system they read about as a possible refuge for the winter, as the Ohio location is too dangerous. She is followed by Teacup, who was supposed to stay behind. They are both captured by the aliens and Teacup is used as a tool to break Ringer, both physically and mentally.
Evan shows up at the hotel, just in time to warn the remaining kids that the latest arrival, a little girl named Megan, is actually a walking time bomb. Unfortunately, Grace shows up and she is focused on killing everyone in the hotel, including Evan. The kids fight for their survival and manage to escape just as Evan detonates the bomb that was attached to Megan and the whole building is destroyed, including anyone left inside.
Back at the alien base, Ringer is getting to know her attendant, Alex, who she calls Razor. She gradually converts Alex to her side and together they plot their escape. Which will be made much easier by the biological implants the aliens have installed in Ringer's body, against her will. Together she and Razor bust out of captivity and steal a helicopter and little Teacup.
But you can't trust anyone and Ringer soon finds herself betrayed and captive once again.

The first book was depressing. This one is even more so. There is a lot of brutality and people getting beat up and hurt and killed. I found it to be way too violent for me to enjoy. I also find combat uninteresting and usually skip those parts, of which there are so many in this story. I doubt very much that I will read the third book in the series. I only read this one because I bought it when I bought  the first book. My mistake.

See also a review by The Guardian.