The Inn at Lake Devine

By Elinor Lipman

Natalie Marx and her family liked to vacation at a lake in Vermont. On the opposite shore of where they stayed was an inn that looked very inviting. So one year the mother wrote, asking about staying there. The response she received included the line, "Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year,  are Gentiles." In other words, no Jews.
Natalie, a young teen, was challenged and perturbed by this rebuff. The inn and its proprietors became a minor obsession. So at camp later, when one of her bunk mates mentioned that she and her family were going to be staying there, Natalie talked the girl, Robin, into inviting her along. And Natalie finally got to walk on forbidden ground.
The inn was a family-owned and operated concern. The father, Mr Berry, was a very nice, friendly man and his two sons were also personable and friendly. The problem was the wife, Mrs Berry. She was the one who ran the hotel, with Mr Berry and the boys as her assistants. And Mrs Berry was the one who had the no Jews policy. Although her antagonism was very subtle and not overt, still it was there and Natalie felt it.
A decade passes. Natalie lost contact with Robin. Then a camp reunion is proposed and in the course of events, Natalie learns that Robin works at a shoe store close by. She stops in to say hello and the two reconnect. Turns out Robin is getting married and the wedding is to be held at the Inn at Lake Devine and she invites Natalie to attend. So she does and it turns out to be one of the best and worst weeks of Natalie's life.

This story had it good points and its not-so-good points. I liked the Natalie character, she is amusing and smart and determined. I liked the Berrys, except for Mrs Berry. The plot is believable and interesting but I do wish the author could have done something other than kill off one of the characters, it took the story in a dark and unhappy direction. Also, the root of Mrs Berry's prejudice is never explored. And how the rest of the Berry family could not be aware of it, as they claimed: that part didn't ring true. And finally, the book was not as funny as I was hoping it would be. It had some amusing moments, but that is all.

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats

By Mario Acevedo

He used to be a soldier. He used to be normal. But that was before Iraq. He came back changed. Into a vampire, that is. So now Felix Gomez is a private investigator, of course.
A friend from college calls, asking for help. He works for the government at Rocky Flats, a government facility that used to produce nuclear weapons. Seems like there has been a sudden outbreak of nymphomania among the female employees at the facility. The friend asks Felix's help investigating the source of the outbreak, which may have something to do with contamination. He wants Felix to go undercover at the facility and do some snooping for him. He is offering $50,000 dollars if Felix completes the assignment and at that price Felix won't say no, even though he has his doubts about snooping at a heavily guarded federal compound. So Felix moves to nearby Denver and sets himself up in the bogus position his friend has prepared for him.
Things heat up pretty fast. It isn't long before Felix realizes he is being followed and then someone tries to kill him. The local vampire community of Denver discovers a troop of vampire hunters is in the area and have already killed some vampires. As Felix looks into the nymphomania incidents, he finds a tenuous connection between the incidents and Area 51 and the Roswell UFO sighting. Maybe he will get it all figured out if people would just stop constantly trying to kill him.

Felix is a likable character and the action is non-stop as he tumbles from one desperate situation to another.  He is a modern vampire, able to go out in the daytime if he wears protective clothing, heavy makeup and sunscreen and sunglasses. He can also eat regular food, with the addition of blood to make it more digestible. He has the classic vampire powers, like changing into a wolf and hypnotizing humans with his gaze. But even though he is a vampire, he seems like a pretty decent person. And I enjoyed reading about him a lot. This was a good, exciting and interesting read.

The Impossible Bird

By Patrick O'Leary

Two brothers shared an odd, traumatic experience when they were kids. Adults now, they live separate lives. Mike is a world traveler, shooting commercials in exotic locations. Dan is a professor with a wife and child. The two brothers awake to find their lives out of joint, both lost in a fog of forgetfulness and confusion.
Mike is approached by some thugs who have mistaken him for Dan. Then he is told he has to find Dan. Meanwhile, Dan's son has been kidnapped and the ransom is that Dan has to find Mike. In the course of events, it is revealed that Mike and Dan are both dead and are living in an artificial construct created by aliens who find the concept of death abhorrent and have been recreating dead people from the moment of their deaths. But many of the people who have been recreated are not happy to find themselves in this artificial world and have organized against the aliens behind it all. And naturally, there are many recreated people that are perfectly happy to be in this brave new world. So Mike and Dan are drawn into this conflict between the two sides, each side vying for the brothers' allegiance. In the struggle between the two sides, the brothers will find each other and come to terms with the anger and lies that kept them apart for so long.

This story was interesting, surprising, often rather confusing, but at the end, just depressing. I think if it wasn't for the bleak ending, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But I just didn't care for the ending and it kind of spoiled the whole thing for me.

American Fuji

By Sara Backer

Gaby used to be an English professor at Shizuyama University in Japan but she was suddenly and without explanation fired. Now she works for a Japanese fantasy funeral company, selling elaborate funerals to grieving families.
Alex, a psychologist, is in Japan on a book tour, but he is also there to investigate the death of his son in a motorcycle crash. He has a lot of questions about it but was unable to get any answers, especially to the question of why his son's body was missing its heart. He meets Gaby and talks her into helping him with his investigation, to be his interpreter and his liaison between himself and a culture that he is finding very difficult to understand and deal with.

This is a mystery novel and a romance novel, with the defensive and prickly Gaby gradually warming to the hurting and bewildered Alex. She helps him unravel the mystery of his son's death and he helps her unravel the mystery of her sudden firing from her position at the university.
I don't know if it is a fair depiction of the Japanese or not. I don't know anything about Japan. But I did enjoy this story very much. It grabbed me and held my interest from the very start.

Walking in Circles before Lying Down

By Merrill Markoe

Dawn has so far not exactly made a success of her life. She works at a doggy-daycare and does dog-walking on the side. And no one in her life is giving her much encouragment and support, not her parents (divorced), not her sister, and not her boyfriend. Especially not her boyfriend, who has announced that he is leaving her because he has fallen in love with someone else. And that is when Dawn started hearing her dog and all dogs talk.
Is she losing her mind? Has she been blessed by the dog fairy? Well, it really doesn't matter, because even though it may seem she is losing her grip, Dawn is finally starting to take charge of her own life.

This is kind of your typical "chick lit:" girl falls for bad guy, bad guy breaks her heart and her life goes to hell, then girl begins to face reality, meet sweet new guy, and get her life back on track. Yay, girl power!
But what makes this story a little better is the talking to dogs. The dogs are funny and cool and wise (maybe too wise) and very doggy. These dogs say things that you could really think dogs would say. If they could talk. Which they can't. But if they could they would talk like the dogs in this story. The conversations between Dawn and the dogs are the best and most entertaining part. They take just another boring chick lit novel to a whole better and funnier level.

The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action

By Wendy Northcutt

The Darwin Awards commemorate those poor fools who improve the human gene pool by taking themselves out of it. Most of the items in this collection have been verified, a few have not and a few are also included that didn't result in anyone dying but do illustrate human stupidity.

The Darwin Awards started online but is now available in print, with Evolution in Action the first in the series. I know it is not kind to laugh at others misfortunes and tragedies, but some of the things people get up to are just ridiculous and you can't help laughing. This book is about death but nonetheless it is very funny. Very funny indeed.

Ardour

By Lily Proir

Arcadio is a lonely man. So when a new woman arrives in his small community, he decides she is the mate he for whom he has been longing. Unforutnately the woman, Fernanda, is not interested. So Arcadio set out to woo her but nothing works. He falls into a deep depression and is hospitalized in a coma. Meanwhile Fernanda is working in a butcher shop for  Primo, who is also smitten by Fernanda. He also sets his sights on her, but she seems to be just as indiffferent to Primo as she is to Arcadio.
Meanwhile, the district nurse, Concetta is in love with the local physician, Dr. Croce and he with her, but their reticence prevents them from declaring themselves. Also, Concetta's mule, Gezabel, is in love with Arcadio, but of course her love is unrequited. The  mule serves as the narrator of the story.

Well, this was a kind of silly story, with strange nonsense like an angel baby sprouting wings and flying away and other such things. I suppose some folks like that kind of stuff, but I am not one of them. I think I would have enjoyed the story a lot more without all the baloney. But, if you can get past the nonsense, then it is a pretty good story about two men chasing after the same woman, a woman who is probably not worth all the effort put forth on her behalf.

Blade Dancer

By S. L. Viehl

It's the future and humanity takes a dim view of aliens and human/alien crossbreeds. So Jory Rask has been very careful to keep her alien attributes well hidden. A professional ball player, she is famous and popular, as long as no one finds out the truth. Her mother, who is an alien, becomes ill and dies. Her mother was also living on Earth illegally and so Jory tries to hide her body in a grave in the desert, only to be caught in the act and the truth of her birth revealed to the world. She gets deported, sent in to space and out of human territory and she decides to visit her mother's home world, a place Jory has never seen. There she connects with a group of young half-breeds like herself. Although her mother's people are more accepting of crossbreeds than humans, but even so the crossbreeds feel isolated and constrained and decide to travel off-planet with Jory. Because it turns that their mothers were a group of females who were captured by slavers of various breeds, including humans,  and subsequently raped and impregnated by their captors. And after they were rescued, they all returned to their native planet, except for Jory's mother, who chose to take her baby to live in hiding and exile on Earth. So now the group of young people has found each other and have banded together and decided to track down and bring to justice the male creatures who dishonored their mothers. But first they will have to get some training and so they all agree to enroll in a school for elite assassins, the Tana.

I guess my major objection to this story was the idea of alien/human crossbreeds. I just didn't find that whole concept believable.  But if you can put that aside, then it is a pretty good story about a group of outcasts who manage to bond and overcome the obstacles in their way.

Footfall

By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

A new object appears in the night sky and it becomes apparent that it is no natural object and that it is headed to our planet. Humans are excited and fearful, especially as the object does not respond to human efforts to communicate.
Upon arriving, the object, a massive interstellar spaceship, attacks the space station, killing some of the astronauts and capturing several others, mostly Russians and one American congressman.
The aliens are large beings, looking somewhat like a baby elephant, except they have two trunks and their feet are clawed. They are herd animals and have strong herd instincts, even to going insane if separated from their herd for too long.
The alien home world is in trouble, and this ship has been sent out to establish a new home. They intend to conquer Earth, enslave humanity and incorporate them into their herd.
Their weaponry is better than anything humans have and they pretty much rule the sky, blasting anything that they deem offensive. They establish a beachhead in Kansas and force people to surrender to them. Once surrender is accepted, the aliens expect you to stay surrendered. They are shocked and very angry when surrendered humans launch attacks guerrilla attacks against occupying forces. The aliens respond harshly, destroying everyone they consider to be connected to the renegades.
Meanwhile, the captives from the space station and a few more taken from Earth are put to work on the spaceship doing menial chores, mainly cleaning ducts and working in the garden. They use this limited freedom to spy on the aliens and plot against them.
Back on Earth,  the Americans and Russians pool their remaining resources and launch several nuclear bombs on the alien foothold in Kansas. The surprise attack works and the alien base is destroyed. But in response, the aliens launch a large asteroid against the Earth, which smashes into the Indian Ocean and kills millions and throws Earth's climate into chaos.  They promise to send down more asteroids if humans do not stop fighting and surrender. So humans surrender. Or do they? Maybe humanity has one more act of defiance up its sleeve.

This was an OK story. It was very long and had way too many characters to keep track of. Plus I liked the aliens, I thought they were interesting and had a lot to offer. I would have liked a different ending, with the two sides coming together instead of one defeating the other.

 

Sleepwalk with Me and other Painfully True Stories

By Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia is a stand-up comedian and this book covers some of the same ground as his act. He writes about his childhood, about his parents and growing up, his struggles with sleepwalking, his relationships and his efforts to build his career. It was a very enjoyable read, funny and entertaining. I liked it a lot.
Mike has done a movie based on his book and it will be in the theaters in August of this year.  Just viewed the trailer and it looks like it could be a very funny movie.

The Mote in God's Eye

By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Set in the far future, at a time when people have spread out into the galaxy, by virture of the invention of an almost instantaneous starship drive, the Alderson Drive. Another piece of priceless technology is the Langston Field, a kind of energy field used to protect ships and cities from attack.
Humankind had never found intelligent aliens before. So news of an alien ship required careful investigation. Sent out to meet the ship is the MacArthur, a battlecruiser. But the alien ship fires on the MacArthur and the alien ship is then captured, but no one is left alive on board.
So the MacArthur and another ship, the Lenin, are sent to the system where the alien ship originated. The MacArthur is to make contact and the Lenin is to insure that valuable human technology does not fall into alien hands, even to the point of destroying both the MacArthur and itself.
Upon reaching the asteroid belt around the home planet of the Moties, as they are being called, the MacArthur is approached by a Motie mining vessel, manned by a lone Motie Engineer and a bunch of small Moties, called Watchmakers. The Motie engineer consents to board the MacArthur and brings along two of the small Moties. These Watchmaker Moties are tinkerers and have a knack for improving the workings of machinery and tools. The humans mistakenly dismiss the small Moties as mere pets of the engineer and are not too concerned when they get loose on the MacArthur.
Meanwhile the ships move in closer to the Motie home planet and are greeted by a ship carrying a delegation of Moties assigned to communicate with and study the aliens (humans) entering their home territory.
At first, it seems like the Moties are gentle and welcoming and many of the human experts feel they are mostly harmless. But some have reservations, especially when a plague of Watchmaker Moties irrupts aboard the MacArthur.
What the humans don't know and the Moties don't want them to know, is that the Moties have a secret, a secret that could threaten the very survival of the human species.

This was a pretty good story, if rather long. It has a kind of sad ending, as the Moties secret results in the humans blockading the Motie system to keep the Moties penned up. Moties are very appealing aliens and it is too bad the authors couldn't think of a happier ending for them.

Brightness Reef

By David Brin

Book One of Brin's new uplift trilogy.
The planet Jijo used to be inhabited by the Buyur, but they left it long ago and now it is set aside, a forbidden world, not to be colonized, allowed to go fallow. But nonetheless, six groups of refugees, human and nonhuman, have snuck onto Jijo and are living together, in cooperation, trying their best to minimize their impact on the environment and creatures of Jijo. And also trying to hide from the galactic authorities. So when a ship lands on Jijo, the squatters, or sooners as they are called in the book, are sure they are in deep trouble.
Everyone is thrown into turmoil. Some want everything destroyed. Some think all should flee into the wilderness. Some want to just wait and see what will happen next. Beings are frightened and old antagonisms reappear. But wait! This ship is not from the authorities. It is a bunch of criminals, come to Jijo to raid the planet for lifeforms. But is this any better? Perhaps not because criminals don't like to leave any witnesses to their crimes!

This first entry in the new trilogy seems to go off into a dozen different directions. There are five different ETs living on Jijo, plus the humans. So not only does the reader have to keep track of all these characters, you also have to keep in mind their species too. There is the traeki, a pharmacist called Asx. The traeki are a peaceful version of the fanatical Jophur. There is the mixed group of juveniles, Alvin, Huck, Ur-ronn, Pincer-tip, who are building a submersible to explore the sea bottom. There are the three adult children of a human paper maker, Sara, Lark and Dwer, who each have their plot line to follow. Sara is taking the injured, off-world human who was found wandering in a swamp to the people from the spaceship. Lark is helping one of the spaceship people in a survey trek of the area. And Dwer is leading a small group of humans to the back country, hopefully to survive whatever the spaceship people may be planning to cover their tracks. Plus there are the spaceship people and there is the group at the Holy Egg to keep track of and there is a back country girl, Rety, who has joined the ship people for a chance to get off Jijo. There is a lot going on in this story, so much so that at times I felt kind of lost and bewildered.  It was just too much to keep track of!
But despite the confusion, I still enjoyed the book quite a lot. And I am looking forward to the next in the trilogy, Infinity's Shore.

Don of the Dead

By Casey Daniels

Pepper Martin had a pretty easy life. That is until her father was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. Everything Pepper took for granted was gone: loving parents, comfortable family home, wealthy fiancee, secure future. And that's how she ended up as a tour guide for a cemetery.
But after she bumped her head on a tombstone, Pepper's life took a turn for the weird. Because now she is being pursued by a dead man, Augustino Scarpetti, the gangster. He is pestering Pepper to find out who gunned him down back in the 1960s. The police concluded he'd been killed by a rival gang but his murderer was never brought to justice. And until the murderer is revealed Don Scarpetti cannot rest in peace. And he isn't going to give Pepper any peace until she is able to do what the police could not or would not do forty years ago. Only problem is that mobster organizations really don't appreciate strangers poking their noses into their private business, even if that business is forty years in the past.

This was a pretty good story, your basic mystery story with a supernatural twist. It's also obviously the first in what is intended to be a series, as Pepper meets two eligible guys but hooks up with neither. And at the end of the story a new ghost, sent by the dead Don, approaches Pepper for help.

Good in Bed

By Jennifer Weiner

Cannie is a woman in her late twenties and one of the most important things in her life is that she is a tad overweight, about 40 pounds or so. Also she is rather tall, about 5' 10", so she is quite a big person.  Her father made some uncaring remarks just as she was entering her vulnerable teen years and ever since, her weight has mattered a lot more to her than to anyone else, especially the men in her life.
At the start of the story, she has just ended a three year relationship with Bruce because she realized he was not the right guy for her. But then Bruce has a magazine article published describing what is was like to be in love with a larger woman and Cannie gets thrown for a loop and ends up deciding that Bruce is the love of her life. This despite the fact that he has moved on and wants nothing to do with her. And then things get even more complicated for her.

Cannie is her own worse enemy, from her unrealistic view of her own body to her chasing after a man no longer interested to her breakdown towards in the latter part of the story. She consistently fails to appreciate her own qualities and the love that surrounds her. Which sounds pretty depressing, but this is not, for the most part, a depressing story because the Cannie character is witty and often quite amusing. I liked this novel mostly for its humor.

A Free Man of Color

By Barbara Hambly


Benjamin January is a free black man living in New Orleans in the 1830s, where he is a musician. He both teaches and plays music, and one night, while performing in the band at a Mardi Gras ball, a young woman is murdered. And since January was one of the last people to see and to speak to her, he is the number one suspect. The police are happy to blame a black man and are not continuing the investigation. So it is up to Benjamin January to clear his name, if he doesn't want to end up on the gallows.

This was an OK story. I found all the French names rather confusing and thus found it hard to keep track of the characters, especially as they had lots of different forms of their names. Like the main character is sometimes Benjamin, Ben, January, and Janvier. Also, I found the action didn't really pick up until almost the last, when January gets captured and imprisoned and has to escape and flee for his life and freedom. The last part of the book was much more exciting than what came before. So I liked the last part, but the rest was a little boring.

China Mountain Zhang

By Maureen F. McHugh

China Mountain Zhang is the name of this novel and the name of its main character. He is a half-Hispanic, half-Chinese man living in New York City. Set in the not too distant future, in Zhang's world, America had a second revolution and now the country is run by communists and dominated by China. Being a half-breed is a detriment and so Zhang, who is also called Rafael Luis, is passing as full Chinese. He has a two year engineering degree and works as an engineering tech. His boss, who is native Chinese and who has a ugly unwed daughter, thinks Zhang would make a good son-in-law. Zhang knows that if his boss knew the truth about him that not only would he not want him for a son-in-law but he would also be fired. So Zhang takes the ugly daughter out on a date. Of course, nothing results from it, not only because the woman is unattractive but also because Zhang is a homosexual. Homosexuality is not condoned under the Communist regime and is yet one more thing that Zhang is hiding about himself.
Well, he does get fired, which sets him off on a new course and eventually to China to study for his engineering degree. But his is not the only story touched on in the book. It also looks at the life of a pioneer on Mars, and at the boss's ugly daughter, and briefly at the life of professional kite racers.

I enjoyed this story quite a lot. It is a look at a different society but the people are still the same, coping with life and trying to find some measure of peace and happiness and fulfillment. Quite a good read.

Piratica

By Tanith Lee

 Artemis was at a school for young ladies when she took a tumble and hit her head and suddenly started to remember things about her past that she had forgotten. She remembered being a little girl, at her mother's side, as her mother led her crew of pirates in raids. Now obsessed with this memory, she escapes from the school and goes looking for her mother's gang of pirates.  She finds them, but they claim her mother was never a real pirate,  she was an actress, playing the role of pirate captain on stage.
But Artemis knows her memories are not those of someone just playing a part, she remembers in vivid detail the events at sea and the various ports her mother's ship visited. Somehow, she talks her mother's old gang into joining her in returning to the sea and following in her mother's footsteps and into piracy.

Somehow the author wants the reader to believe that piracy is an acceptable occupation if you don't kill anyone or take people's treasured mementos. This is just stupid. It is still thievery and Artemis is not a role model for teenage girls.  The whole book is kind of ridiculous, and not in a good way, although it seemed to me that the author intended Artemis to be a beacon of courage and good sportmanship, the fact is that Artemis is just a thief and a criminal.  And besides that, the book was just not that interesting.

Thale's Folly

By Dorothy Gilman

Andrew Thale has been sent by his father to look over a property in Massachusetts, an old farm house and the 25 acres that go with it. The house has been empty since Andrew's Aunt Harriet died some years ago. Thale's father, a successful New York businessman, was too busy too attend to the matter himself but is now thinking of selling the property to developers. So Andrew is supposed to go there and take a look around, take some photos and report back to his father. But when he gets there, he finds out that the house isn't unoccupied, in fact four people are living there. They were the guests of Aunt Harriet and they just stayed on after she passed. There is the elderly, mysterious Miss L'Hommedieu, Gussie (the witch), Leo (the Communist) and Tarragon, a lovely young woman who Andrew falls for almost at first sight. Naturally, they have no money and no place to go if they lose the old farm house. Andrew falls in with these people and begins to deal with a trauma from the past and starts to feel he is part of a family, something he never had as a child. Then Dad comes looking for his errant son and messes it all up. But maybe it will be all right if they can just find Harriet's lost will.

This was an OK story. The premise is that everything happens for a reason, including Andrew being almost killed in a plane crash. The crash sent him into a funk, and he ended up working for his father which resulted in Andrew going to Massachusetts and there is also a mistaken raincoat that leads to a fortuitous discovery. Plus there are gypsies, long-lost relatives, witchcraft and other contrivances, too many in my opinion. Also there is too much herbal tea in the story.

Gigolo

By Raymond Haigh

Set in Britain, this story starts out with the beautiful Samantha Quest, ex-agent, putting a gun to the head of a handsome, young male escort and forcing him to divulge the names and details of some of his local clients.  It's all part of her new job as a private investigator, and in the course of the story, she will investigate, for a worried father, what is bothering his teen daughter, for a government official why her boss is getting death threats, and a local prostitution ring that has fingers in lots of criminal pies, including arming terrorists. Meanwhile, said terrorists are bombing the rail lines and  synagogues and Samantha's former boss is pressuring her to take up her old job as government agent and assassin.

I really liked this book. It was exciting and it grabbed me from the start and it only took me two days to read it, that's how enthralling I found it. Even though her investigations start out pretty small, exposing straying wives and getting anxious teens to confide in her, it leads to much bigger things. And towards the last part of the book, she is meting out justice to those who deserve it the most. Very satisfying and I wouldn't mind reading more Samantha Quest novels.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

By Seth Grahame-Smith

A novel about Abraham Lincoln which places this real person in a fictitious setting, in an America in which vampires exist and prey upon people, including Lincoln's own family. His father borrows money from a vampire and when he can't repay his debt, the vampire exacts revenge against the Lincoln family, inspiring in the young Lincoln a deep, abiding hatred of the undead. He dedicates himself to the destruction off all vampires, not knowing in his inexperience how very deadly the undead are. He is almost killed in a vampire encounter but falls into the hands of a sympathetic vampire who nurses Lincoln back to health and then gives him tips on how to better deal with vampires and even sends Lincoln on other missions to take out vampires.

As Lincoln gains more knowledge and experience in the craft of vampire hunting, he finds out that one of the reasons slavery is supported in the South is because much of the South is under the secret control of vampires, who view slaves as easy prey, even to buying them just to consume. Lincoln is disgusted and outraged at the willingness of non-vampires to collaborate with vampires in supplying them with their slave victims. He discovers this involvement reaches into the highest levels of American society, North and South. And maybe the best way to bring down the vampire reign is to destroy their source of easy prey and end the peculiar institution of slavery in America....

This was an OK story. An odd blend of history and fantasy, it was more interesting at the beginning, when Lincoln is young and strong. But as he gets older and marries and has kids, he retires from vampire hunting. The story kind of slowed down then as middle aged Presidents are hardly in the position to go out chopping vampire heads off on the weekends.