The Book of Bill

 

By Alex Hirsch

So there was this TV cartoon show, Gravity Falls. Now I never watched this show. But I was shopping for gifts for a ten year old child who requested books for Christmas. So I decided to get three graphic novels because I wanted to get fun books. But before I got the books ready to gift, I decided to read them to make sure they were appropriate. Two of them were OK, if a bit boring for an adult to read. But looking through The Book of Bill, I decided it was too much for a ten year old. So I read it instead.

It was kind of confusing, since I was not familiar with the TV series. It is copiously illustrated, full color, very artful. There is this thing, Bill, it's shaped like a triangle and is supposed to have escaped from a dimension that only exists in two dimensions which it destroyed while escaping. This Bill thing set its sights on Earth for some reason which had to do with its quest to rule everything? I'm not sure about that. Bill is a confusing thing, often referred to as a demon.

The book recaps, I guess, the story of the series and of Bill's encounters and temptations of the people of Gravity Falls, mainly with the Pines family. Bill is a really negative being and clearly cares nothing about humankind and our little planet. It basically has nothing good to say about us or this planet. It really does have a wicked sense of humor. Although I don't care about the TV series or the characters eventual defeat of Bill, I did enjoy the humor that is one of the best parts of the book. For example:

"What Is a Human? A human is an organic machine made out of blood and anxiety, designed to deliver a random bundle of genetic material into the future and turn to dust."

"Bill, Have You Ever Been In Love? Sure—tell your mom hi for me! By the way, have you taken a DNA test recently? Not asking for any particular reason."

"Remember, pal, at the end of the day, love is just the pupa stage for hate."

"How You Will Die: 4. Shockingly assassinated while simply trying to ride in your motorcade through Dallas with the roof down in the year 1963"

"Life doesn't care about your meaning, so why should you care about its meaning?"

Parts of the book are quite funny but the part that recaps the war between Bill and the humans was not that interesting to me. Not surprising since I never saw the series. It's certainly going to be more interesting to those who enjoyed the series. 

 

A Hummingbird in My House : The Story of Squeak

 

By Arnette Heidcamp

Arnette Heidcamp had a garden full of the kind of flowering plants that hummingbirds like. In late October of 1988, after pruning her plants for winter, she noticed a young male hummingbird in the garden who was obviously looking for something to eat. She could see it was not in good condition for the long trip to its wintering grounds down south. Being fond of hummingbirds, Arnette  was worried about the little bird and managed to lure it into her house. She set him up in her sunroom which was filled with flowering plants that a hummingbird would enjoy. Plus she supplemented his food with a commercial hummingbird food that contained everything the hummer would need to survive until spring in Arnette's sunroom.

So from October 1988 to May 1989, Arnette had the pleasure of getting to know a charming little fellow who spent the winter living in her sunroom and being catered to in every way. She named him Squeak because he was quite the squeaky boy. They became quite close, Squeak even allowed he to stroke his chest and he became quite attached to her and followed her about the sunroom whenever she was in there with him. 

Arnette knew that when spring arrived, she would have to let Squeak go free. She hoped he would make her garden the center of his world and continue to be part of her life. But when he flew out the sunroom door in May, he flew away, never to return. But he went with her best wishes for his wellbeing accompanying him.

This was an enchanting look at the life of a young, male hummingbird who got to spend the winter being pampered indoors instead of facing certain death migrating south. A time the author surely cherishes in her memories and that she generously shared with the rest of us, letting us get to know Squeak too. Lots of color photos of Squeak included.

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

 

By Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough

After finishing school, best friends Cornelia and Emily are given permission by their parents to embark on a trip to Europe, semi-supervised by their parents who are also traveling there but on different transport. This being in the early years after the end of World War I, they're traveling by passenger ship. 

Based on a true story, Cornelia and Emily are two innocents setting out to conquer their innocence and the world, or England and France anyway. Cornelia's parents pop in and out of the picture, just in time to save Cornelia from disaster when she comes down with the measles and when she gets attacked by bedbugs. Cornelia's father, Otis, was a big deal in theater and Cornelia has ambitions in that direction also. His theater connections allow the girls chances to meet some of the more famous players of that time. Plus sightseeing, shopping, dining out, meeting boys, getting to know the locals, Cornelia and Emily are having a trip to remember and a fabulous time!

They conclude the story with this touching paragraph:

"The day before our departure, we blew ourselves to a superb lunch at Prunier's, after which we went on a pilgrimage to say good-bye to some of the places we had loved best . . . the rose window in the transept of Notre Dame, the little garden of St. Julien le Pauvre, the tomb of Ste. Genevieve to thank her for having saved Paris for us, Manet's 'Olympia,' and the lights at dusk coming on up the Champs Elysees. We didn't weep, but we were awfully quiet. The thought that we were leaving it all behind brought a lump into our throats, and the feeling in our stomachs that we were in an elevator descending rapidly . . . not a gay little Paris ascenseur, but a big, grown-up, skyscaper one. It was the end of something and we both knew it. We would come back again but it would never be the same. Our breath would come fast and our eyes would smart when the Eiffel Tower rose again in the evening mist, but that would be because we remembered it from these months. There would never again be a 'first time.' Our hearts were young and gay and we were leaving a part of them forever in Paris."

 

This story is a real gem. First of all, it is hilarious. Two teen girls, taking their first steps into adult independence, trying to follow all the advice given to them by their parents, but failing almost immediately. Both girls were quick to abandon the safety purses given them by their moms, designed to be worn under their clothes and to hold money and passports, etc. But the purses tended to bang into the legs of their dancing partners and explaining to the guys what was happening was out of the question. And the girls had been advised by their moms to make the acquaintance of some older, respectable matronly woman passenger and become part of that woman's party. Instead they made friends among the young male passengers and never got around to getting to know a matronly lady.

Anyway, if you can find a copy of this book which was published in 1942, grab it and dive into another time and into the adventures of two American girls verging on adulthood, out on their own for the first time in their lives.  

Three Times Lucky

 

By Sheila Turnage

Moses Lo Beau was a foundling. As a baby, she was found floating on a makeshift raft in a flooded river. She was adopted by the man who rescued her from the flood, Colonel Lo Beau. Together with his partner, Miss Lana, they raised the baby that Colonel named Moses because of the similarity of the baby's rescue to that of the Bible story of Moses. However, this baby was a little girl, which the Colonel claims he didn't know when he named her Moses. Mostly she goes by Mo.

Apparently Mo's birth mother placed her baby on the raft to save her from the flood. It is a mystery that Mo would dearly love to solve as she writes letters to her "Upstream Mother" and places them in  bottles to be launched into waterways and rivers upstream of where she lives hoping someone will find them and that will lead to finding her birth mother. This is her fantasy, anyway.

But Mo has a good life in the tiny village where she lives. Colonel and Miss Lana are fairly strict parents, but loving and kind and well liked by the local community of which they are a vital part since they have the only eatery in the little town of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina. Their little café is the local gathering place and so Mo knows everyone and all their business too.

When one of the local people is found with his head bashed in, naturally Mo makes it her business to figure out what went wrong in the dead man's life. For this she enlists the help of her best friend, Dale, who is eleven years old just like Mo is. Together she and Dale start snooping around and getting into trouble and getting in the way of the police investigation being run by an out-of-town detective, Joe Starr. 

I enjoyed this story quite a bit even though I usually find stories about precocious children annoying. However, Mo is not quite as mouthy and bratty as fictional precocious children are often portrayed, probably thanks to Colonel Lo Beau, who has raised Mo with military precision. So she is more disciplined than the usual fictional wunderkind. 

The murder mystery is not the most interesting part of the story, it's mainly about Mo's antics and how she gets herself and Dale tangled up in the investigation. Dale even becomes a suspect even though he is just a kid and ends up being arrested. However that is just a ruse to lull the actual murderer into revealing him or herself. 

So this was an entertaining read even though its intended audience is kids in the 12 to 20 year old range, I'm guessing. I'm not sure how I ended up with the book as I don't usually bother with kid lit. But I have nothing bad to say about the story, the characters or the plot. I liked it! 

The Christmas Train

 

By David Baldacci

Tom Langdon used to travel the world, writing stories for newspapers and magazines about the people and events he encountered. His work sometimes took him into dangerous situations but after many years of that, Tom came back home to the US and started writing about much less dangerous subjects, maybe because he was getting older. Or maybe because a failed relationship left him floundering and directionless. 

He had been very much in love with Eleanor Carter and had even bought a ring, intending to ask her to be his wife. But it didn't work out. He never got around to asking and she wearied of waiting for him to speak up. So she gave up and left him.

Because of an unfortunate incident at an airport, Tom is banned from flying. He needs to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast to join his current girl friend for Christmas. So he is taking a train instead, using the train trip as a subject for story for work. 

But a big surprise is awaiting him on the train: Eleanor is on the train. She is still pissed and gives him the cold shoulder. She is doing a script for a big Hollywood movie director, Max. Max and his assistant Kristobal are also passengers on the train.

Tom gets to know some of the passengers and tries to get closer to Eleanor, even as she continues to treat him with contempt. But Max talks Eleanor into working with Tom on the script, forcing the two ex-lovers into spending time together. Tom never understood what happened and Eleanor finds it hard to understand why he doesn't know what went wrong. Just when it seems Eleanor is starting to thaw, it all falls apart again, leaving Tom feeling lower than low. Fortunately for the two former lovers, the weather is going to intervene, in the form of an avalanche that nearly derails the train in Colorado. 

This was an entertaining read. There was some religious mumbo-jumbo that was a tad annoying, but not enough to make me stop reading the book. The plot was a bit contrived, especially with the double avalanche, but whatever. There is a minor mystery on board too, in the form of a thief who is helping themselves to the passengers' money and valuables. I was relieved no one died in the course of the story although I was kind of expecting a corpse a la Murder on the Orient Express.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

The House on Mango Street

 

By Sandra Cisneros

A  collection of poetical short stories about the various people who live on Mango Street, with a young girl named Esperanza as the main character, observing the lives of those around her. Mango Street is located in a rundown part of town with people coming and going, some never staying long and many as immigrants from other countries. 

Many of the chapters are very short, just a paragraph of two. The author is a poet and her chapter on "Four Skinny Trees" is really poetry:

"They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city. From our room we can hear them, but Nenny just sleeps and doesn't appreciate these things. 

Their strength is their secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.

Let one forget his reason for being, they'd all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around the other. Keep, keep, keep, trees say when I sleep. They teach.

When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be." 

And these two chapters about what Esperanza wants out of life. The first in "Beautiful & Cruel":

"I am an ugly daughter. I am the one nobody comes for.

Nenny says she won't wait her whole life for a husband to come and get her, that Minerva's sister left her mother's house by having a baby, but she doesn't want to go that way either. She wants things all her own, to pick and choose. Netty has pretty eyes and it's easy to talk that way if you are pretty.

My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.

In the movies there is always one with red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not give it away.

I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate." 

 

And this one in "A House of My Own":

"Not a flat. Not an apartment in the back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody's garbage to pick up after.

Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem." 

 

An excellent ambition, in my opinion, and one I have yearned for since I was about the age of Esperanza, a young teen. Decades later I am still waiting.  

 

 

Monstrous Regiment

 

By Terry Pratchett

The little country that was Polly's home, Borogravia, was at war. Which was not unusual, it was frequently at war with its neighbors, being very vigilant against any intrusions across its borders. Part of the problem was the river that formed one of the boundaries was prone to change its course and thus creating arguments about the boundary location. The other was that Borogravia's religion was intolerant of other beliefs and its leaders were militant in their protection of the state religion.

What was different about this latest war was the alliance that had formed against Borogravia. Out numbered, Borogravia was on the verge of losing the war. Finding new recruits to fight was becoming increasingly difficult. The more men sent to the front, the more the home front suffered, as the able-bodied  men were swallowed up in the war. One of those men was Polly's brother, Paul.

So when the recruiters came to her town, Polly cut her hair and donned Paul's clothes and joined up, calling herself Oliver. She wasn't really interested in being a soldier, her goal was to find out if Paul was dead or alive and bring him home where he belonged. 

As the recruiters traveled to the various villages looking for new recruits, Polly came to understand that she was not the only female passing for male among the new recruits. Each had joined for different reasons, some to escape unhappy home lives, some looking for a lost lover, some who wanted to practice a profession that was not acceptable for a female. 

The truth about the war is finally revealed when the new recruits reach the front lines: Borogravia is losing and losing badly. They also know that the enemy has captured an important fortress and that it is where they are keeping the prisoners of war. Polly is desperate to get inside the fortress to find out if Paul is among the prisoners. So the small band of raw recruits remove their male disguises and don female clothes, determined to sneak inside the fortress as part of a group of local washerwomen. They manage to get past the first gate but are soon apprehended and locked up. All is not lost however and the women prove that even females can be good soldiers. 

This was an interesting story about women, of various sorts including vampires and trolls, trying be successful in a world that assigns rigid limits on the choices available to women. The humor, of course, comes from females trying to act masculine and how well they succeed or not. Pratchett is on the side of women being whatever they wish to be, without the traditional constraints placed on them by society's expectations. At the end of the story, it is revealed that several of the top military brass are women who have successfully passed as men for years and years. 

When the women find out that their sergeant knew they where women, they ask why he didn't say anything. His response: 

"You ain't the first," he said. "I've seen a few. Mostly by themselves, always frightened . . . and mostly they didn't last long. But one or two of them were bonny soldiers, very bonny soldiers indeed. So I looked at you lot and I thought to myself, well now, I thought, I wonder how they'll do when they find out they're not alone? You know about lions? ... Well, the lion is a big ol' coward, mostly. If you want trouble, you want to tangle with the lioness. They're the killers, and they hunt together. It's the same everywhere. If you want big grief, look to the ladies."

 

One Plus One

 

By Jojo Moyes

Jess Thomas holds down two jobs: she does housecleaning and works in a pub. She also has two kids to take care of, teenager Nicky, her husband's son from a previous relationship and her daughter with her husband, Tanzie, a grade schooler math prodigy. The husband, claiming stress and illness, vanished from their life and moved back into his mother's house. Claiming also to be too ill to hold down a job, he pays no child support. So when Jess found a big wad of money on the floor of a taxi cab, she decided to keep it even though she knew who it belonged to, having just helped a drunk customer home from the pub where she worked. 

You see, an opportunity had come Tanzie's way, a chance to attend an elite school that offered Tanzie a scholarship that covered 90% of the cost of attending. The rest would have to be paid by Jess. And she just didn't have the money. But this opportunity was too good to pass up. So she took the man's money that he unknowingly dropped in the taxi.

The man, Ed Nicholls, was one of Jess's housekeeping customers. Their relationship was casual, as he was never home when she came to his house to clean it. But she knew him by sight and where he lived, of course, and so offered to make sure he got home safely that night when he got sloppy drunk. She got him into the taxi, got him home, used her copy of his key to get him inside, got him laid down on his couch and left. When she got back in the taxi is when she found his money roll. It wasn't a huge amount, 500 pounds British, but when you're as strapped for cash as Jess was, it was just too hard to resist. And Ed lived in a new, luxury home and drove an expensive new car and she figured he would think he just lost it in his drunken haze. Not very ethical of Jess but the temptation was overwhelming. Because that remaining 10% not covered by the scholarship, about 5000 pounds, might be acquired if Tanzie enters a math competition being held in Scotland and the 500 pounds stolen money might be just be enough to Tanzie, Jess, Nicky, and Norman, their oversize dog north from Britain to Scotland. So Jess loads the family into an old junker car of her husband's that he left behind when he split and they head north. 

They don't get far. It's an old car and it breaks down. Ed happens to be driving by at the time and he offers them a ride. Now Ed has problems of his own. He is being investigated for insider trading, which apparently is as illegal in Britain as it is supposed to be here in the USA. Getting away from his troubles for a few days is an attractive idea, so he agrees to drive them all north to Scotland so Tanzie can enter the math competition and win the money that will enable her to attend the elite private school. Complications ensue. And just when it seems Jess and Ed were destined to be together, Ed finds out what happened to his missing 500 pounds! 

I really enjoyed this story as unlikely as the circumstances that brought Ed and Jess together were. I found it very touching at times and even shed a tear or two. 

Here are some excerpts that really spoke to me. This first one from teenager Nicky:

"Mostly, I don't understand how the bullies and the thieves and the people who destroy everything—the arseholes—get away with it. The boys who punch you in your kidneys for your dinner [lunch] money, and the police who think it's funny to treat you like an idiot, and the kids who take the piss out of anyone who isn't just like them. Or the dads who walk right out and just start afresh somewhere new that smells of Febreze with a woman who drives her own Toyota and owns a couch with no marks on it and laughs at all his stupid jokes like he's God's gift and not actually a slimeball who lied to all the people who loved him...I'm sorry if this blog has just got really depressing, but that's how our life is right now. My family, the eternal losers. Mum always told us that good things happen to good people. Guess what? She doesn't say that anymore."

And this description of Nicky, when he first came to live with Jess and her husband:

"And when Nicky turned up two years later, and everyone had told her she was mad to take on someone else's child, a child who was already eight years old and from a troubled background—you know how boys like that turn out—she'd ignored them. Because she could see instantly in the wary little shadow...a little of what she had felt. Because she knew that something happened to you when your mother didn't hold you close, or tell you all the time that you were the best thing ever, or even notice when you were home: a little part of you sealed over. You didn't need her. You didn't need anyone. And without even knowing you were doing it, you waited. You waited to anyone who got close to you to see something they didn't like in you...and to grow cold and disappear, too, like so much sea mist. Because there had to be something wrong, didn't there, if even your own mother didn't love you?"

So it's just a silly and unlikely romance story, but there were parts of it that really hit hard and a bit too close to home. But it all come out like it should in the end because it is a romance and light reading and a break from the reality we all deal with in this life. 

 

 

 

 

Portnoy's Complaint

 

By Philip Roth

The story of a young Jewish boy from about age 13 to 33. Alexander is guilt-ridden and lustful. He doesn't get much emotional support from his parents. His dad works hard and has digestive problems, spends a lot of time in the bathroom. His mom is a bit nuts, using cruel games and tricks to discipline her son, locking him out of the house and threatening him with a knife. 

Alexander manages to survive his teenage years and grows up to become a successful lawyer, doing work he finds important and meaningful. But at age 33, he feels that something is lacking and that maybe he needs to settle down and start raising a family. But instead of doing that, he hooks up with various women, finally ending up with a beautiful New York model that he actually despises. He views her as stupid, ignorant, and slutty, all of which are true, unfortunately. She seriously wants to be his wife but he knows that would be a mistake, for him any way. They travel to Europe and after an adventure with an Italian prostitute, he dumps the  model and runs away to Israel where he tries to rape an Israeli female soldier. Tries. 

The story is told as a session with a therapist but at the end (SPOILER) you find that the session hasn't even started yet: "So [said the doctor]. Now vee may perhaps to begin. Yes?"

I thought this was supposed to be an amusing story but I didn't find it so. It's just 300 pages of Alex whining about his life. He is not a good person, you discover as you read further in the story. He's a dickhead. Does he figure that out in the end? I don't know. Or care. 

How he sees himself, about midway in the story:

"...a brainy, balding, beaky Jew, with a strong social conscience and black hair on his balls, who neither drinks nor gambles nor keeps show girls on the side; a man guaranteed to give them [girls who would like to marry him] kiddies to rear and Kafka to read—a regular domestic Messiah! Sure, he may as a kind of tribute to his rebellious adolescence say shit and fuck a lot around the house—in front of the children even—but the indisputable and heartwarming fact is that he is always around the house. No bars, no brothels, no race tracks, no backgammon all night long at the Racquet Club...or beer till all hours down at the American Legion...what we have before us...is a Jewish boy just dying in his every cell to be Good, Responsible, & Dutiful to a family of his own."

 

So, I found the book kind of dull and Alex's nonstop whining tedious. I would sit down to read a bit of it and within thirty minutes I'd be falling asleep. This happened almost every time I tried to read it. I don't know, maybe I just couldn't identify with Alex Portnoy. 

It does have some amusing moments, like when he molests a piece of raw liver. And when he falls and breaks his leg chasing after a girl. And, this is kind of shitty to say, but his girl friend's note to the lady who cleans her apartment was pretty funny: "dir willa polish the flor by bathrum pleze & dont furget the insies of windose mary jane r"

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See

Set in China in the early to mid 1800s.

When Snow Flower and Lily were kids, their friendship was arranged by Madame Wang. A contract is drawn up and the girls agree to it and it is supposed to last as long as they are alive. It was a way, perhaps, to give women a relationship that was closer and longer lasting than those of the marital relationship. Because marriages were arranged, love was not a factor and men often took concubines when their wives became older or when the man became bored. So the sworn friend provided that long term, loving relationship lacking in marriage. 

The two girls do become good friends and grow up together and when they can't be together, they send each other messages written in the folds of an ornate fan which becomes a simple history of their lives. 

At first, it is clear to Lily that Snow Flower comes from a higher status family than her own. Snow Flower's clothes are nicer, her speech and manners more refined and her ignorance of household chores indicates those chores are taken care of by servants. Lily teaches Snow Flower the tasks that Lily performs every day, cooking, cleaning, caring for the elderly and the little kids. And Snow Flower teaches Lily the refinements she has been taught in turn. 

Foot binding was common in China at the time. I am not going to discuss a custom that I feel is depraved and barbaric except to say it was part of a young woman's appeal to a potential husband. Because Lily's bound feet were considered particularly appealing, she became the wife of man of higher status and privilege than her humble farming family.

However, even though Snow Flower's bound feet were also considered beautiful, she did not find a high status spouse but instead was married to a butcher. Snow Flower's father was a drug addict and a gambler and he bankrupted his family and a butcher was the best Snow Flower could do for a mate. 

It's not surprising that Lily and Snow Flower were not that close, given the disparity in their adult lives. As Lily's fortunes rose, Snow Flower's declined. Add to that the stress of a war that sent the people fleeing for their lives from their villages to shelter in the distant hills. Lily and Snow Flower became more dissatisfied with each other. While Lily wanted Snow Flower to try harder to improve her life and the lives of her family, Snow Flower wanted Lily to accept her and her life for what it was without nagging her to do better. Lily became distraught and cut Snow Flower out of her life. It was only as Snow Flower was dying that Lily came to understand how she had failed her lifelong friend.

This was a fairly interesting story. I have to admit that I hated the way women were treated in it, everything about the coldness and cruelty made me angry and distressed. On the other hand, the Chinese civilization is thousands of years old and apparently that system worked for them, as vile as it seems to me. 

This is not a happy story, the lives of the women as described in the book are miserable. They are hemmed about by rules and traditions and limited in every way, even the better off women have very little freedom and very little choice in how they live their lives. Throughout the story, we are reminded that women were viewed as evil and as a burden to the families unfortunate enough to produce them. Such sad, miserable lives and I was not sorry to be finished with the story.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Savannah or A Gift for Mr. Lincoln

 

By John Jakes

Set in late 1874, this is the story of the citizens of Savannah, Georgia on the eve of the takeover of the town by General Sherman, the Union general famous for the trail of destruction he left behind as he and his army advanced across Georgia in 1864.

The main character is spunky Hattie Lester, twelve, the only child of an landowning widow whose spouse died in the war. Hattie is an ardent supporter of the Southern cause, mainly because her father died for it. 

As Sherman draws closer, the citizens of Savannah are understandably nervous, given the destruction for which he is famous. As the Union forces draw nearer, Hattie and her mother leave their rice plantation and move in with a family friend, Vee, a spinster piano teacher in Savannah. Vee lives in constant fear of being attacked by looters, thieves or Union troops. That is until she makes the acquaintance of a wounded Yankee soldier, who was shot defending her and her home from Yankee looters. 

Meanwhile, Hattie gets into a confrontation with General Sherman and kicks him in the ankle. At the time, she did not know who he was. But whether that would have made a difference in her actions is debatable. The General becomes a benefactor to Hattie because he is missing his own family and she reminds him of his daughter. (I believe this part of the story is entirely made up.)

In the end, the fearful citizens of Savannah had little to fear from Sherman and his arrival ended the Northern blockade of the city, which enabled food and goods to once again enter the city at a time when resources had grown very thin for many people there.

This was a pretty good read, if a bit pat in its handing of the different plots in the story. I did find the first part of the book much less interesting than the later part where the Union Army took over the city. 

Here is a review by the Historical Novel Society.

The Last Kids on Earth

 

By Max Brallier, Art by Brian Churilla

It's an ordinary day and four kids are on their way to school when everything falls apart. Most humans suddenly become zombies and giant, vicious monsters appear everywhere. 

The four kids scatter and thirteen-year-old Jack ends up living in a tree house alone. After struggling to survive for several weeks, he manages to contact his good friend, Quint, the science nerd. Later on Jack and Quint bring the school bully into their gang. Dirk, the bully, is just trying to survive like Jack and Quint and he is strong and brave and a good man to have on your side in a brawl. 

Jack has a crush on a girl, June, and he is determined to see if she has survived the monster/zombie apocalypse and he and his pals head out into a monster plagued world to locate June. Or die trying?

A child, 10 to 13 years old, might enjoy this graphic novel. It's nicely illustrated in full color. Jack and his friends are intrepid and manage to take care of themselves all by themselves. 

I read the book to make sure it was OK to give as a Christmas present. And it is OK. But, wow, was it boring! Kids might not find it so, but I sure did.

FGTeeV Blasts Off

 

By the YouTube stars known as FGTeeV and FV Family; Illustrated by Miguel Díaz Rívas

The FV family, Duddy, Moomy, Lexi, Mike, Chase and Shawn visits the National Space Center and end up taking an unauthorized trip in an experimental space ship. They get tricked into going on an intergalactic trip to find several vital artifacts that are crucial to the survival of humankind, or so they are led to believe. Turns out that was a lie put forth by a conniving little troll known as Xyle, the game store owner with whom the family is very familiar.

Anyways, they have exciting and improbable adventures on exciting and improbable planets and end up bringing a disaster back to Earth where the truth is revealed about Xyle. But the family steps up and counters his evil plans through a variety of video game challenges. 

This was a fairly interesting story, even though meant to entertain kids, which I expect it does. I enjoyed it and was surprised by the Xyle plot.  

I must admit that I have no idea who these YouTubers are. The book claims they are very popular which I suppose is true. I don't watch YouTube for kids. I bought this book as a gift and read it to make sure it was appropriate for the person I am giving it to. Which it is. It's pretty good, really.

Living in the Country Growing Weird

 

By Dennis Parks

From the University of Nevada Press:

"In 1972, Dennis Parks, a young potter with a promising academic career ahead of him, decided to move to Tuscarora, a near-abandoned mining town in remote northeastern Nevada. Parks and his wife were attracted to Tuscarora's isolation and beautiful setting, and they believed that it might be a healthy environment in which to raise their two small sons. This is Parks' account of his family's life in Tuscarora, a tiny settlement whose population even forty years later numbers fewer than twenty permanent residents.
Parks created a pottery school that attracts students from around the world and developed for himself an international reputation as the creator of powerful, innovative works in clay. Meanwhile, he and his family had to master the skills required of those who choose to live in the back country--growing and hunting their own food, renovating or building from scratch the structures they needed for residences or studios, resolving conflicts with neighbors, inventing their own amusements. The transformation from middle-class urbanity to small-town simplicity is, as Parks reveals, a lurching and sometimes hilarious process, and the achievement of self-sufficiency is similarly fraught with unexpected challenges."



Dennis and his wife Julie made a good life for themselves and their two boys in the very isolated town of Tuscarora. They managed to make ends meet without feeling too deprived of the finer things in life, according to what he writes in his book. One of his sons, Ben, joined his dad at the pottery school and continued on with it after Parks passed in 2021.

You can find out more about his life in this obituary on the Legacy.com website.

This was an inspiring read and makes the simple life seem very appealing. It has lots of black and white photos in it but their quality is rather poor.

The First Eagle

 

By Tony Hillerman

A policeman, Benny Kinsman, is investigating a tip he received that a man known for poaching is back at it again. So Officer Kinsman heads out into the wilds of northern Arizona to catch the poacher, Robert Jano, in the act of capturing an eagle, a protected species. 

Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is expecting Kinsman in his office for a meeting and when Kinsman doesn't show up, Chee goes looking for him. He finds the poacher, Jano, standing over Kinsman's body and immediately arrests Jano.

Meanwhile retired policeman Joe Leaphorn has been hired by a woman to find her missing niece, Catherine Pollard. Pollard went missing the same day as Officer Kinsman was attacked. Leaphorn doesn't believe in coincidences and agrees to try to find the missing woman. He seeks out Officer Chee, seeking to speak to Jano to find out if he noticed Pollard when he was in the area or if he had seen the jeep she was driving. Leaphorn finds out that a jeep was seen by a local not too far from the area where Kinsman was killed. And Chee finds out that Jano also saw a jeep while he was out poaching eagles. Using this information, the jeep is located and there is blood on the driver's seat. It begins to look like Kinsman's murder is possibly connected to Pollard's disappearance. And that Jano is not the killer.

This was an OK read. There is some rather technical stuff about scientists investigating diseases carried by animals that can spread to humans, namely bubonic plague and hantavirus. Of course this figures into the plot and it is not a red herring. But the killer's motive came as a complete surprise to me and made sense in a sad way. One can only hope that the killer's conclusion about the fate of humankind doesn't happen.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

These Old Shades

 

By Georgette Heyer

The story is summarized by the author herself towards the end of the novel:

'"Once upon a time—there were two brothers. I have forgotten their names, but since they detested each other, I will call them Cain and—er—Abel ... The hatred grew and flourished until I believe there was nothing one brother would not do to spite the other."

"Cain, being the elder of these two brothers, succeeded in due course to his father ... Cain's succession but added fuel to the fire of hatred, and whereas our friend Abel was consumed of a desire to stand in his brother's shoes, Cain was consumed of a like desire to keep him out of them ... Cain took a wife unto himself and doubtless thought himself secure ... But ... the years went by, and still there came no son to gladden Cain's heart ... Abel ... grew more and more jubilant, and I fear he did not hesitate to make—er—a jest of his brother's ill-luck. [Cain's wife] raised her husband's hope once more. This time Cain determined that there should be no mistake. When madame's time was upon her, he carried her off to his estates, where she was delivered of—a daughter." ... Now observe the cunning of Cain. On his estate ... there dwelt a farm-labourer ... whose wife had just presented him with a second son ... [Cain] bribed this peasant to give him his lusty son in exchange for his daughter."

"Cain presently brought his family back to Paris ... leaving instructions that his daughter's foster-father was to leave his estate for some remote spot ... For twelve years [Cain's daughter] remained in the heart of the country, with her foster-parents, and was reared as their own child ... A plague struck down both foster-father and mother, but my heroine escaped, as did also her foster-brother ... She ... was taken to Paris by her foster-brother, a youth many years her senior ... He bought a tavern in one of the meanest and most noisome of your [Paris] streets. And since it was inconvenient for him to have a girl of my heroine's tender years upon his hands, he dressed her as a boy ... I shall not discompose you by telling you of her life in this guise ... Further, he married a slut whose care was to ill-use my heroine in every conceivable way. At this woman's hands she suffered for seven long years ... During those years she learned to know Vice, to Fear, and to know the meaning of that ugly word Hunger. I do not know how she survived."

"Then ... Fate stepped in again, and cast my heroine across the path of a man who had never had cause to love our friend Cain. Into this man's life came my heroine. He was struck by her likeness to Cain, and of impulse he bought her from her foster-brother. He had waited for many years to pay in full a debt he owed Cain; in this child he saw a possible means to do so..."'

So there you have it, pretty much the whole plot of the story. The girl, Leonie, is found by the Duke of Avon, an English lord visiting Paris. Her unusual coloring, bright red hair and striking black eyebrows and lashes grabs his attention. At first, the Duke believes she is a by-blow of his enemy, the Comte de Saint-Vire, a French nobleman that the Duke had a run-in with years ago. Comte too has bright red hear and striking black eyebrows. Doesn't take the Duke long to figure out that the person he thought was a teenage boy is in fact a young woman. Being an intelligent man, he realizes that Leonie was given up by the Comte as described above. This knowledge is the weapon the Duke will use to bring the Comte to his doom. And in the process the Duke will lose his heart to a beautiful, wild young woman who is twenty years younger than he is.

This is a very interesting tale. In the first part Leonie serves the Duke as a page, but eventually he sends her to Britain to learn to be a young noblewoman. Then he brings her back to Paris and introduces her to Paris high society as his adopted daughter. Let the fun begin!

Wikipedia has an entry about These Old Shades. 

Legacy

 

By Jeanne C. Stein

Book Four of the Anna Strong Chronicles

Anna is a human turned vampire unwillingly and who has been having a hard time accepting her new reality. For example, she has not shared her new status with her parents.

 She fell in with a vampire who promised to help her adjust but Avery turned out to be a complete nightmare. Eventually they had a showdown and Anna killed him, saving her business partner David's life, all of which occurred in previous books. 

David is in love with Gloria, a woman that Anna despises and she has been trying to convince David to dump. So it was quite unexpected when Gloria came to Anna for help because she was being blackmailed. Gloria's business partner has been pressuring her and now he has been murdered and Gloria is the main suspect, thanks to his vengeful wife's lies. 

Meanwhile, Anna has encountered a gang of werewolves and their leader, Sandra, has sparked a strange and inexplicable lust in Anna. Anna suspects some kind of spell or dark magic and so she agrees to meet Sandra at Avery's old mansion. Sandra and Avery used to be together and for some reason, Anna inherited his estate, which Sandra doesn't like. During their meeting, Anna sees Avery has possessed Sandra and she flees the mansion. She is completely unprepared to deal an Avery that is somehow still alive and living inside Sandra.  

This was an interesting story and easy to follow even without having read any of the earlier Anna Strong novels. The author gives you the data you need to understand the backstory without being boring or longwinded. The story is well written and held my interest all the way through. 

A Taste of Magic

 

By Tracy Madison

Life has not been going well for Liz lately. Her divorce has been finalized and her ex is happily settled into his new life with his new wife. Liz was blindsided by his sudden decision to end their marriage and has been feeling empty and lonely ever since.

Life is about to get more interesting though. Because her grandmother is giving Liz a very special birthday present: magic. According to the grandmother, Liz is descended from a long line of gypsy women with magical powers. Grandmother is in her eighties, so Liz doesn't take her claims about magic too seriously. That is until she accidently casts a spell on to some desserts she has made. And sees the results of those spells on the people who ate the magical desserts. Too bad that the spells were just wishful thinking and not well thought out. Liz's next attempts are more on target, but still with unplanned for side effects that are messing with some of her closest friends' lives in way she never intended. Including the ex-husband who Liz was trying to punish but instead seems to have revived his interest in her, the last thing she wants now that she has a hunky, single policeman living right next door who is as interested in Liz as she is in him.

This was an ok read. Actually found it dull, for the most part. I suppose all Liz's mistakes with her magic are supposed to be funny but I didn't find them to be so. Halfway through, I got pretty bored with it and was ready for it to be done. I kept thinking, given her first failures, that Liz should stop messing with peoples lives with her fumbling spells and just leave magic alone. 

Also, the vibe was coming through that it is the first book in a series, which it is, the second book, A Stroke of Magic, is about Liz's sister, Alice, with whom Liz shares her magical abilities. 

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

 

By Dorothy L. Sayers

A Lord Peter Wimsey Novel

A man is discovered dead at the gentlemen's club that has Lord Peter as one of its members. As the man, General Fentiman, was quite elderly and known to have a weak heart, it is assumed that he died of natural causes.

But Lord Peter has his doubts. Something about the corpse seems off. 

One of the puzzles surrounding Fentiman's death is exactly when he died. Fentiman had a wealthy sister whose will stated that he would inherit her fortune if she died before him. Amazingly, the sister, Lady Dormer, died at approximately the same time as her brother. The time of her death is known. But the time of the Fentiman's passing can only be estimated. 

Lord Peter takes on the chore to pinning down Fentiman's movements the day before he died and the day he died. Talking to everyone at the club who might have seen him the day before or the next day, patrons and employees, all he can discover is that no one saw Fentiman arrive at the club the morning of his death. So the body is exhumed and an autopsy done which might help establish the death time. What is does reveal is poison, in the form of a drug that can cause a person's heart to stop beating. Clearly it is not a case of natural causes but is a murder. And clearly it is all about the money. One of  Lady Dormer's heirs is a greedy killer. Lord Peter is on the case.

This was a pretty good read. At one point in the story, Lord Peter gets punched in the face, which he probably deserved. Also, the author includes a domestic spat that reads so true to life, it's amazing. 

This book dates from 1928. It is now old enough now that it is in the public domain (in the USA). It is free to read online at Project Gutenberg.

What's a Girl Gotta Do?

 

By Sparkle Hayter

Book One in the Robin Hudson series

Robin Hudson works in the news department of a large New York network. So far, her career and life have been less than stellar. Her work life due to a couple of embarrassing incidents on camera and her personal life due to her soon-to-be ex-husband's infidelity. 

New Year's Eve and Robin gets a phone call from an unknown person who reveals that he knows a lot of intimate details about her life, including Red Knobby. He instructs her to meet him at the networks New Year's Eve party that night if she wants to know more. 

She was thinking she wouldn't go before she got the phone call because she was concerned her cheating spouse would be there with his new lover, who also works of the same network. But curiosity about this mysterious call makes her change her mind.

Once there, she has to witness the painful scene of watching the hubby and his jezebel canoodling on the dance floor. Plus the false and the sincere sympathy she has to endure from coworkers at the party. Finally, she is passed a note instructing her to go to a room in the hotel at exactly 11 PM. Meanwhile, the reader gets to meet the cast of hundreds that fill the novel. So many characters and so many introductions. 

Anyway, Robin does as instructed and knocks on the door and no one answers. She waits a decent amount of time, but no one shows up and no one ever answers. She only encounters one other person, one of her coworkers in the hallway where the room is located.

Naturally, the guy she was supposed to meet is dead in the hotel room and naturally Robin is the prime suspect. We know she didn't do it and it doesn't take much talking on her part to convince the police that she is an unlikely suspect. So being a reporter and having her freedom on the line, she does a little investigating of her own. It doesn't take her long to discover that she was not the only target of the dead man, Jerry Spurdle, a P.I. with a nasty reputation. A few other women at the network have also been blackmailed by him and certainly had reason to want him dead. Did they have the time and the opportunity though, while attending a New Year's party, to beat his head in until he was very much dead?

This was an OK read. Too many characters to keep track of though. I also didn't find the plot that engaging. Or the main characters that interesting. 

Here are reviews by Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.

Family Reunion

 

By Caroline B. Cooney

Shelley is a young teen who is on summer vacation with her father, her younger brother Angus and her step-mother Annette. Her mom has moved to France, a move that Shelley has been having a hard time accepting. She feels that her mother abandoned her children to be with her lover in France, across the ocean from her children in the US.

Shelley's family spends their summers at a vacation home in rural Vermont. Her father, Charlie, commutes between there and the city. Annette, who has only been married to Charlie for a couple years, has charge of Shelley and Angus. A third child, the oldest, is spending the summer in France with the mother. 

Charlie's sister, Maggie, has invited their family and friends to a family reunion to be held at Maggie's home in the Midwestern US. Maggie is known for her perfectionism, which has earned her family the nickname of the Perfects, a play on their last name, Preffyn. She and her spouse have two kids, Brett and Carolyn. Brett in sixteen and Carolyn is the same age as Shelley, fourteen.

Shelley rather envies the Preffyns organized lifestyles. Maggie always seems to have everything organized and in control, including her kids. Whereas Shelley's family seems to be rather lost and disconnected, with the three kids giving their step-mother a bit of a hard time. Nonetheless, Shelley is looking forward to spending time with her aunt and uncle and their kids, along with her dad and Annette and Angus.

Of course, things are not quite as nice as expected when they arrive for the family reunion. Brett had an unfortunate incident while driving his vehicle and got into a big fight with his mom and has left home as a result. And it turns out the family reunion was actually supposed to be a surprise party for brother Charlie, with lots of guests from Charlie's school days. But Charlie wasn't able to come, he has to attend a mandatory work event instead. All Maggie's party plans fall apart, with no guest of honor attending.

Shelley has always been a bit intimidated by her cousin Carolyn. But the two girls have a lot of fun together and Shelley finds that Carolyn is just a teen girl like herself. As the days go by, she also realizes the Preffyns are not Perfect, but an ordinary family like her own. 

This was an OK read if rather boring. I'm not sure how I came to own it, but after finishing it, I looked it up and discovered it was intended for kids, 10 to 15, or there about. So, not surprising I found it rather dull. Also no surprise that all the family problems are resolved by the end of the story. 

However, it started out much more interesting than it ended, thanks to the little brother, Angus who is quite the mad lad. Unfortunately, most of his hijinks tapered off a bit once they were visiting the relatives in the Midwest. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Vita Nostra

 

By Marina & Sergey Dyachenko

Book One of the Vita Nostra trilogy

Sasha was a promising young high school student when she noticed a strange man is watching her whenever she is outside. Eventually the man approached her and gave her a task to perform. Every morning she had to get up early and go to the beach, strip off her clothes and go for a nude swim. If she didn't do as he said, there would be bad consequences to her family: "You will, Sasha. You will. Because the world around you is very fragile. Every day people fall down, break their bones, die under the wheels of a car, drown..." 

Sasha only has one person that she loves in her life, her mom. Sasha's dad is not a part of her life and she has no siblings. It's just Sasha and her mom. So she does what the strange man orders her to do. Of course, it doesn't end with the nude swimming. As graduation approaches, he forces her into attending a small college in a distant town, the Institute of Special Technologies.

Once she gets settled into the college, she comes to understand that all the students attending are there under the same threats she is. She gets to know one male student who stood up against the strange man. This kid, Kostya, reveals that the man is his father. Kostya did not want to attend this college either and as a consequence, his beloved grandmother died. And his father made it clear it was because Kostya was defying him. The two kids vow to kill the man, Kostya's father, if they ever are able to do so.

The texts and the rules of when and how to study them are different and strange and perplexing. But Sasha begins to absorb them and her perceptions of reality become affected. She is such a good student that she gets into trouble for reading ahead and experiencing frightening consequences. On one hand, her instructors applaud her achievements but then get angry when she gets too far ahead. She is constantly getting into trouble for that.

But outside of the studies and the feeling of oppression that envelopes the students, life there is typical of any college. Kids form cliques, kids pair up, kids test the boundaries, drink too much, smoke too much, hook up too much. Sasha is no different from the kids when it comes to college kid behavior. She gets involved with Kostya but then dumps him and finds a new boyfriend. But she and Kostya never lose their connection of their hatred of his father. 

As the college years pass and Sasha becomes an adult, she begins to understand just what the teachers are and what she is becoming. This is where the story gets even more strange. I would like to explain it but it sounds so ridiculous. All I can say is everything is words. Sasha is a word, Kostya is a word, all humans are words or parts of words. And that Kostya's father, the man who forced her into this situation, is not human. He is a text file? A program? A book disguised as a person?  It was all rather murky to me.

The book was really interesting even though the transformations the students are enduring are hard to comprehend. It's kind of a combination of Harry Potter and The Matrix. The students' understanding of the true nature of reality gives them powers, including the ability to manipulate time itself. But they don't perform spells (at least not in this book), their abilities arise from the perception of the true nature of things. Quite a start to a new series! 

The next book in the series is Assassin of Reality. 

Here is a review by Kirkus.

Sisters of the Confederacy

 

By Lauraine Snelling

Book Two of the A Secret Refuge series, a three-part series.

The story of two young women, Jesselynn Highwood, who goes by Jesse, and Louisa Highwood. Jesse, in Missouri, is passing as a teenage boy, trying to lead her people to Oregon to start a new life away from the Civil War and to freedom for the black members of her group. Louisa is in Virginia, helping her brother take care of several wounded Rebel soldiers in their home. The brother, Zachary, was gravely wounded in the war, having lost an eye and two limbs, but has recovered and has also put a stop to Louisa helping take care of the wounded at the army hospital. 

Jesse has all the weight of trying to shepherd her people and animals safely to Oregon while Louisa has all the irritation of being limited in what she is allowed to do since her brother returned home and put a stop to her work at the army hospital. Her situation is the opposite of that of Jesse's, who is overburdened, while Louisa is feeling put aside.

It takes the story quite a while to get Jesse's group headed west. Bored Louisa spends most of the story being upset at her brother but finally turns, with his help, to smuggling opium, a pain reliever that the army hospital has run out of and sorely needs but is no longer available. When Jesse finally gets her group attached to a wagon train and headed west, her masquerade as a boy is quickly discovered, not surprisingly. And back at Louisa's tale, her disabled brother has vanished without an explanation. Will it turn out ok for the two young women? The reader will have to read the third book in the series, The Long Way Home, to find out.

It's a good story although it gets off to a slow start. It has a lot of religious stuff in it though. I picked this book to read from a recommendation online and it did not mention how much of the book was about the main character's religion. I also did not notice that the publisher is Bethany House, a publisher that specializes in Christian publications. 

I'm not going to blame the book for being too religious. But most of the way through the story, it felt to me like it was a Christian tract disguised as a novel. That was before I noticed the publisher was Bethany House.

Also, the book is the second in the series of three. Probably should read the first book, Daughter of Twin Oaks, before starting on this one. I didn't and there is a lot that happens in the first book that is touched on in this story and that makes it sound much more exciting and dramatic than this one. Like how Twin Oaks burned and how Zachary nearly died. And how they got their horses away and safely hidden away from being taken by the military. 

Cold Mountain

 

By Charles Frazier

The story of Inman and Ada, two lovers separated by the US Civil War, who manage to find each other after years apart.

Inman, who fought on the Confederate side, was seriously wounded and had not yet recovered from his injury when he decided he was leaving the war and heading home. He wanted to see Ada again, even though he was not sure she cared for him. He set forth on a perilous journey from Raleigh, North Carolina to Cold Mountain, North Carolina, which is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a distance of about 290 miles. He has many dangerous encounters and ends up captured by a criminal gang. Things go from bad to worse for Inman.

Meanwhile, back on Cold Mountain, Ada, the only child of her wealthy and indulgent father finds herself in charge of her father's large farm due to his sudden death. Pampered all her life and all alone, as local farmhands have all gone off to the war, Ada is wallowing in depression and loneliness barely able to survive until a caring neighbor sends young Ruby to help out. Motherless and deserted by her worthless father when she was only eight, Ruby is a graduate of the school of hard knocks and has learned how to live off the land and raise crops and livestock. Together, Ruby and Ada turn the farm into a productive enterprise, in the process giving each other the companionship neither woman really wants to admit they need. 

As for Inman, Ada thinks about him occasionally. The attraction between the two was certainly felt more strongly by Inman than by Ada. But as time passes, Ada begins to think more about him and the way he touched her hair and neck that one time. If Inman makes it back to Cold Mountain, Ada won't be turning him away. If he makes it back.

This was a pretty good story. But two thirds of the way through it, I stopped reading it after I read the part where Inman beats another man's head in. The man deserved it, but I just got tired of all Inman's struggles. I had to take a break. The book sat unread for nearly three weeks before I picked it back up again. It's not a fun book to read. And I enjoyed the story of Ada and Ruby much more than I did that of poor Inman. 

The book won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1997. It was the author's first published novel. It was also made into a movie that was nominated for several awards in 2003.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters

 

By Jean Shepherd

A collection of humorous short stories by Jean Shepherd, mainly based on his years growing up in an industrial town in Indiana, eight stories altogether.

• The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds — A large family of 'hillbillies' moves in next door to the author's family. Between the packs of angry dogs, the drunken parties, the shouting and the piles of junk and trash, the author's dad is almost at his wit's end when the Bumpus folks vanish in the night.
• County Fair! — a trip to the county fair in the 1930s which revealed to me that county fairs haven't changed much in almost 100 years. One of the best stories and the most realistic story in the collection, I think.
• Scut Farkas and the Murderous Mariah — a top battle, top as in the spinning toy. This one was a struggle for me, because I had no idea what the author was talking about, top battles? Also, basically a sports story of scant interest to  me who cares not for sports.
• Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss — loading up the family car for a trip to Clear Lake to spend a couple of weeks in a rustic cabin. An ordeal that many of us have had to endure in our lives. 
• The Star-crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski — a Polish family moves into the neighborhood and one of the kids is a teenage girl about the same age as the author and she is undeniably attractive. Author asks her out on a date finds out a lot about the girl and her family and he gets cold feet.
• Daphne Bigelow and the Spine-chilling Saga of the Snail-encrusted Tinfoil Noose — the author has a crush on his biology lab partner, Daphne, and works up the courage to ask her out on a date. He realizes he is out of his league when he arrives at Daphne's home and it is a mansion, with servants and a Cadillac and driver. 
• The Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll — the author, now an adult and living far from his childhood home, receives a package from his mom containing his childhood toys and he has a blast rediscovering these treasures from his youth. A really sweet story that made me sad because all my childhood mementos were thrown away by my mom when she moved and it never occurred to her to ask if I wanted any of it. 
• Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories — returning to the author's childhood and it is time for his high school's Junior Prom. Time for fancy clothes and figuring out who to date and how to get there and all the fun before and after Prom. A bittersweet story, as I never attended a Prom or a high school dance. 

All these stories are fun and bring back memories on one's own childhood and teenage days. Really, things haven't changed all that much since the 1930s, in many ways! 

Here is a review of the book by Kirkus Reviews.

Lost & Found

 

By Jacqueline Sheehan

Rocky's husband died of a sudden heart attack and she is having a very hard time coping with her grief. In order to give herself a breathing space, she leaves her home and moves into a rental house on a touristy island off the coast of Maine during the off season. 

Looking to occupy her time, she takes on the part time job of animal control officer. She deals with a lot of stray cats, problem raccoons and pets abandoned by the summer people. One of the animals she deals with is a Labrador retriever who is found seriously ill and crippled by an arrow in his shoulder. 

Rocky fosters the dog, which she names Lloyd. It seems to her, as a person who is dealing with grief, that Lloyd is dealing with grief too. When it turns out that the arrow that was in the dog's shoulder was a rather rare, handmade arrow, Rocky starts trying to track down where it came from, hoping to discover more about Lloyd and what happened to him. 

Meanwhile, Rocky gets to know some of the permanent residents of the island and starts to form some good friendships. If her obsession with tracking down Lloyd's past doesn't get in the way, that is. Oddly, she decides she wants to learn archery, using the same kind of homemade arrows as the one that Lloyd was shot with. This brings her into contact with a man on the mainland who teaches archery part time, Hill, short for Hillary. Is a romance blossoming? Or will poor Hill end up with an arrow in his leg? 

I sympathized with Rocky's grief and her desire to have some time alone to adjust to her new reality. I was happy when she found a friend in poor, wounded Lloyd. I was less interested in the mystery of Lloyd's previous owner. And I was not much interested in the teenager next door who is anorexic. And I was completely uninterested in Rocky's desire to become proficient in archery. Nor was I surprised to read that Rocky's elderly friend on the island didn't have cancer and instead was risking her life by not going to see a doctor about her belly pain. Because everybody in this story is a bit different. So parts of the story I liked but other parts I really didn't.

There is a follow up book, Picture This. 

Darwin's Radio

 

By Greg Bear

A new disease has popped up. Women are having miscarriages, losing extremely deformed fetuses. Further investigation leads researchers to conclude that some ancient component of human DNA has suddenly reactivated and is causing these miscarriages. 

As scientists and the medical community try to figure out what is going wrong, a huge divide emerges, with one group claiming it is some kind of sudden evolution. And the other group claiming it is a disease that must be stopped. 

A small group of the 'it's evolution' scientists go rogue, running from the US government that is tracking pregnant women and performing abortions because they claim the offspring are just disease carriers who pose a terrible risk to human survival. Naturally, since no one seems to know what is really happening, it causes massive social upheaval and riots. 

Greg Bear loves to delve into the science. Unfortunately, a lot of it is hard to follow, especially for a person who does not have fairly high level science knowledge.  I don't need the amount of detail he goes into to understand the story. He just goes on and on about DNA and genetics. It just adds a lot of pretty unreadable bulk to the story. My paperback copy was over 500 pages long. Naturally I did what I always do when authors are suffering from word diarrhea: I skip it. Minutia doesn't interest me.

Anyway, two of the 'it's evolution'  scientists, a man and a woman, get together and have a baby. They want to prove their thesis is correct by giving birth to a new version of human. They spend the rest of the story hiding from the Feds. 

The evolutionary changes that Bear images are odd. How they are suppose to improve the human race in its struggle to cope with overpopulation and environmental degradation are not explained. One of the changes he imagines is people have squid-like skin that changes colors as a form of communication. I expect all that is explained in the sequel, Darwin's Children. Which I will not be reading.

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Right Ho, Jeeves

 

By P.G. Wodehouse

Berti and Jeeves are off to the country to visit Berti's favorite aunt, Dahlia Travers. She needs his help in a little matter of talking her spouse into a small loan, money that is vital to keeping her ladies' magazine going. Uncle Tom already gave her the money but she blew gambling in Cannes, France. She also wanted to enlist Berti as the guest speaker at a local grammar school event. He weaseled out of it by sending an old friend of his in his place, Gussie Fink-Nottle. Gussie, devoted newt fancier, has fallen in love with one Madeline Bassett, who just happens to be visiting at Brinkley Court, the country estate of Tom and Dahlia Travers. Gussie is quite happy to be going to Brinkley Court where he hopes he will be able to overcome his extreme shyness long enough to propose to Madeline. Berti neglected to mention the speech to the grammar school boys though. 

Aunt Dahlia gives Berti some news that sends him to Brinkley Court anyway. She tells him that a friend of his, Tuppy Glossop, who is also visiting at Brinkley, got into an argument with his fiancée, Angela, Dahlia's daughter and the engagement is off. The argument was about whether Angela was pestered by a shark while swimming in the ocean off Cannes. She claims it was definitely a shark but Tuppy holds that it was a submerged log or a flatfish. Angela fired back that Tuppy was a glutton and fat and out of shape. Feelings were hurt and the engagement called off. 

Bertie has a rather high opinion of himself and, instead of laying all these problems at the capable Jeeves' feet, declares he will handle it all by himself, namely Gussie's lack of a backbone, Angela and Tuppy's silly spat and Aunt Dahlia's need of more money from her tightwad husband. Because of Bertie's bungling, he ends up engaged to Madeline. Angela ends up engaged to Gussie. Tuppy, who despite Angela's slurs, is a real bruiser, is out to murder Gussie, for stealing Angela from him. And Anatole, Dahlia's fancy French chef is threatening to quit and go back to France, this also due to Bertie's bungling efforts. Finally Bertie admits the only one who can handle this mess is Jeeves, of course.

Though this plot is the same plot that make up many of Wodehouse's Bertie and Jeeves stories: young lovers unable to find each other or falling apart due to mistakes and misunderstandings, with the young women ending up, at some point, engaged to marry Bertie. And their jilted lovers out for Bertie's blood or a rival's blood, anxious to win back their lover. But not as anxious as Bertie is to escape his entanglements. It's the same basic plot but the complications that always crop up are hilarious and laugh out loud funny! 

Just a quick note to say that this book was first published in the early 1930s. Attitudes towards people of different races is dated compared to what we would like it to be these days. 

Also, this book can be read for free on the Project Gutenberg website. It is now in the public domain in the USA and no longer under copyright.