A Walk in the Woods

By Bill Bryson

In his middle age, Bill Bryson developed the urge to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Trail runs from Georgia to Maine through the hills and mountains along the East Coast of the USA. It is more than 2000 miles long. In some places it is well maintained and in others, not so much. Most of it is up and down and, although many start out, few complete the whole trail in one trip.
Bryson hiked quite a bit when he lived in England. But the Appalachian Trail is not a pleasant stroll through settled and tamed countryside. It goes through rugged wilderness, with amenities few and far between.
Not wanting to tackle this wilderness alone, Bryson searched in vain for a friend to accompany him. He failed to find anyone until a very old friend from back home in Iowa got in touch with him. Stephen Katz needed to get away from troubles at home and offered to go with Bryson on his hike. Bryson had his doubts as Katz was known to be a drinker and he didn't think Katz was up to it. But Katz was the only one who was willing and so they started out down in Georgia.
Hiking with a loaded pack on steep grades is a real challenge. Both of the men were suffering the first few days, Katz especially. Bryson would often sit alongside the trail, waiting for Katz to catch up. They were frequently passed by younger, fitter hikers but they kept on. They kept on through the rain, through the snow, through the mud and dirt and later on, the clouds of annoying bugs. But at the end of their hike, they asked themselves, "Why?' And that's when they couldn't come up with a good enough answer and went home.
Altogether, Bryson walked about 800 miles, Katz somewhat less. And although they didn't do the whole distance, they still felt like they had accomplished something: they hiked the Appalachian Trail.

This was a fun read. Bryson has a great sense of humor and doesn't mind laughing at himself and the world around him. He also gives the reader a real sense of what it is like to be on the trail and the struggles associated with such a grand undertaking. He gives a bit of history of the Trail and the locale and how development has or hasn't affected not only the Trail but the surrounding area. Particularly interesting is the story of Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town that is perpetually on fire. Bryson has wide ranging interests and is a very intelligent man and his books are always informative without being stuffy and are seasoned nicely with humor.
For another review, see  https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/31/reviews/980531.31garner.html

Is There a Doctor in the Zoo?

By David Taylor

Even as a small child, David Taylor wanted to care for wild animals, to treat their wounds and cure their ills. Encouraged by his loving grandmother, together they launched him on his career as a vet who specializes in exotic animals.
Taylor got his professional start in a small two-man practice with a veterinarian who also had a zoo as a client. This man sort of inherited the zoo as a client and it was not a particularly important part of his practice. In fact, he was often called in as a mere formality so the zoo keepers could claim that the animal was attended to by the vet before it died.
But Taylor wanted to learn how to take proper care of the zoo creatures, not just be there as a last resort when all else had failed the zoo keepers. To that end, he embarked on a course of self-education, learning all he could from the keepers and other experts on the medical care of exotic creatures, everything from irascible parrots, unpredictable monkeys and apes, giant snakes, zebras, camels, seals and even dolphins and porpoises.

This book is the sequel to his first book, Zoo Vet. Although, time wise, it comes first as it details his efforts to become an expert in the care and treatment of zoo animals. Dr. Taylor has an excellent sense of humor and no problem poking fun at himself in his often messy and painful encounters with his animal patients. I especially enjoyed his description of how he freed a dugong that was being held in cruel and inhumane conditions and beaten daily to futilely provoke it into weeping, as its keeper thought that dugong tears were a cure for impotence. Even more amazing was the revenge he enacted on a bunch of drug runners who were torturing a poor animal for their simple-minded amusement. That episode alone made the whole book for me. The rest was just icing on a very tasty cake.

Andy & Don

By Daniel de Visé

Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were both sons of the South. Andy grew up in North Carolina and Don in West Virginia. Andy had a fairly normal childhood, even if his parents weren't wealthy. He was a bit of a momma's boy and remained close to his mother his whole life. Don, on the other hand, had a miserable childhood, tormented by his alcoholic and mentally ill father. He was also plagued by illness and grew up to be a bit of a hypochondriac.
Both boys were drawn to the stage. Andy had a fine singing voice and he played a musical instrument. He also had the gift of storytelling, starting out his show biz career with humorous monologues. His success with the monologues led to jobs in theater and in movies.
Don started out as a ventriloquist and served in the military as an entertainer. After leaving the military, he got work on a radio show and eventually came to work with Andy Griffith, first in the Broadway play, No Time for Sergeants, and went on to also appear in the film version with Griffith.
The two men became close friends and when Griffith was offered his own show, Don called him up and suggested that Sheriff Andy needed a deputy sidekick, namely Don Knotts himself. Andy thought it was a great idea and so Don and Andy embarked on the roles that would win them fame and a lasting audience of enthusiastic fans even decades later.

This was a really interesting book, a story of a lifelong friendship with a bit of ego and rivalry thrown in for leavening. The Andy Griffith Show wasn't on TV for a really long time, about eight years, but the characters of Andy Taylor and Barney Fife are part of American history now. However, this book isn't about just the TV show. It covers the span of both men's lives, their ups and downs, their failures and successes, personal and professional.
It was quite an enthralling read and I appreciate the amount of research the author put into the work, even taking the time to note discrepancies in different versions of events. Fan of Andy and Don and of their work will surely enjoy this quite engaging biography of these two giants of Show Business.

Red Rising

By Pierce Brown

Darrow is a miner on Mars. Just a teen, he is really good at his job. His people are the Reds. Their society is divided into classes labeled by colors. Reds are at the bottom, Golds are at the top.
The miners are working to terraform Mars for colonists from Earth. They have been at this task for several hundred years. What they have not been told is that Mars has been terraformed. It now has cities, farms, forests, rivers, lakes, rain, all the good stuff. For some reason, the Reds are kept as virtual slaves in the mines, starved and deprived and deceived.
Darrow's young wife Eo wants better for her people. She tries to inspire Darrow but he is not interested in rebellion until Eo is put to death.
Darrow ends up in the hands of Ares, a rebel group. Since he is one of the best of the Red class, their plan is to transform him into a Gold and place him in Gold society to hopefully bring justice to the downtrodden Reds.
He undergoes extensive surgeries and education and is given a phony background and is placed for an entrance exam to the most elite Gold school. He passes all the tests and is admitted to the school.
School is not what he expected. Instead of classes and tests and books, he and his fellow students are set up in castles in a wilderness and told they have to rule and conquer each other. So Darrow and his classmates go to war against each other in a struggle for dominance and survival.
Darrow's goal is to succeed and go on to be a force for good for his people. He feels to accomplish this he has to come out on top. But he is up against very stiff competition, Gold students who are as athletic, ruthless, intelligent and driven as he is. May the best man win, eh?

This is another entry in the science fiction teen vs teen genre, i.e. Hunger Games and Divergent and Maze Runner, none of which I have read because teenage dystopian novels don't interest me. And now I wish I hadn't read this entry to the genre because, once Darrow enters the "school," it is just battles and brutality. Lots of people love that sort of thing. Not me.
It's a pretty good story, even if I hated it. My problem is the subject matter, not the writing itself. He tells a good story, exciting and engaging and surprising. But I got so tired of the constant battles that I started skipping past those parts. It's not a bad read or even just a fair read but I will not be reading the next book in the series. It's just not for me.

For another review, see http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/Pierce-Brown/Red-Rising.html.

Sphere

By Michael Crichton

A large object has been discovered on the ocean floor. Based on the build up of corals, it has been there for at least three hundred years. Yet it has the appearance of an airplane fuselage or of a spacecraft.
An expedition to examine the object is hastily put together, consisting of Navy personnel and four civilian scientists: a biologist, a psychologist, a mathematician, and an astrophysicist. The main character is Norman Johnson, the psychologist.
Some time ago, Johnson was hired by the government to put together an advisory study detailing the proper steps to take if humans should come into contact with extraterrestrials. So, even though Norman Johnson is a bit past it for underwater adventures, he was included in the team as the best expert to deal with possible alien contact.
The team heads down to the underwater base, about 1000 feet underwater, to study the "spacecraft." Once the overlay of coral and debris is removed, it is apparent that the craft couldn't have crashed as it is completely undamaged. Even closer examination reveals markings in English.
They get the entryway opened and get inside the craft. It is obviously an American vehicle, designed for deep space, with heavy-duty radiation shielding. There is no one on board, not even any bodies. But there is the sphere.
What the sphere is, what it is designed to do, where it is from, these are the questions, questions with no easy answers. They can't even figure out how to open it.
But then Harry, the mathematician, opens the sphere and goes inside. He stays there for several hours. When he comes back out, he seems fine. But something is a bit off. And that's when the team gets its first contact from the dweller in the sphere, whom they decide must be an alien being. The being, who wants to be called Jerry, is a bonafide jerk. Selfish, uncaring and intransigent, he seems not to understand or care about human fragility. And he seems be responsible for all the bad stuff that starts to happen soon after Harry returns from the sphere.

Always, when starting a Michael Crichton novel, I wonder, as I encounter the various characters in the book, which is fated to die and which to survive until the end. Because lots of people will die, they always do in his stories. By the end, only three people out of the original team of ten are left alive. The other seven die in various imaginative ways.
But never mind that. As for the story itself, it was interesting and posed some very challenging questions about our ability to understand or appreciate the alien mind.  I also enjoyed his descriptions of life in the underground base although I am in no position to judge the accuracy of what he says. The ending is quite exciting and even a bit open-ended. Perhaps Crichton was thinking of a sequel?
I think one of the marks of a good read is if it is memorable. Sphere is certainly memorable, one of the books I doubt I will ever forget.

Winterwood

By Jacey Bedford

In a different England, at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, magic is reality. Among the people of Great Britain dwell the Rowankind, a created people that live only to serve humanity, working in menial positions and doing the scut work no one else wants to do. It has been this way for about two hundred years.
Rossalinde Tremayne is a young widow. Due to family complications, she ran away with a pirate captain only to lose him to death after a few short years. At which point she donned men's attire and became the captain of her husband's ship. Since then she has been privateering for the British government, capturing French ships and claiming their cargo. It's been a profitable life and she is now a wealthy young woman.
Called to her dying mother's bed, Rossalinde is burdened with the Winterwood Box. It can only be opened under the right conditions, but Rossalinde doesn't know what those conditions are. She learns, during her visit, that her younger brother Philip has died. She also soon discovers that she has a half-brother, David, the last servant left in her mother's household. David is her mother's youngest child, only fourteen years old, and the result of an alliance between the mother and a Rowankind servant.
Rossalinde's mother had powerful magic and her daughter and her son David inherited it. The mother's family, the Sumners have history with the British royals and their ancester, Martyn the Summoner, called up the storm that sunk the Spanish Armada back in the days of Queen Elizabeth I. But in order gather that much magical power, Martyn stole the powers of the Rowankind and doomed them to servitude. Now, with the Winterwood Box, Rossalinde has the tools needed, with the help of her siblings, to restore the Rowandkind to their power and magic. However, the British government is dead set against the Rowankind being set free and loosing their wild magic upon the kingdom and will do whatever it takes to stop the Winterwood Box from being opened.
But Rossalinde is torn. If she opens the box, it could be bloody rebellion and chaos for Britain, with the Rowankind uprising and their wild, untamed magic running rampant. But if she doesn't, the Rowankind remain unfairly trapped in the servant, laborer class.  It all rests on her to decide the fate of her people and her homeland, that is, if British government agents don't kill her first!

This was an okay read. Rossalinde and her allies get beat up a lot and she, or someone else, is constantly recovering from their injuries. That got a bit tedious after awhile. Also I found the last quarter of the book more interesting than the first three quarters, which just didn't grab my attention as I would like.
When they finally open the Winterwood Box, it really doesn't matter at all what is inside it, because she and her allies have already figured out virtually everything they needed to know. That was quite disappointing. She just conjures up an old ghost who reviews the past with them and really doesn't add much at all to their knowledge.  So that seemed rather pointless. All that trouble and death for nothing.
I did enjoy the ending, when Rossalinde makes her decision about whether to restore the Rowankind to their power or leave them as servants to humanity. The ending was quite dramatic and quite satisfactory.

For another review, see http://www.speculativeherald.com/2016/01/26/review-winterwood-by-jacey-bedford/.

Something Borrowed

By Paul Magrs

Poison pen letters: someone is writing nasty, mean letters to people in the seaside resort of Whitby, England. Brenda and Effie, two older ladies, have developed a reputation for helping people and they are asked to investigate the poison pen situation.
Sheila Manchu, widow of the notorious master criminal Mu Mu Manchu, was the first victim of the poison pen writer. Sheila owns a hotel and has always been the subject of gossip in Whitby, but she is very upset by the letter she received.
It is while visiting with Sheila at her hotel that Brenda sees someone from her past, one Henry Cleavis.
Professionally, Henry is a history professor. But in actuality, he hunts and kills monsters. Brenda's memory is pretty foggy, and although Henry seems quite pleased to see her again, she can't help but wonder if he is going to target her, since she is the "Bride of Frankenstein". But if Henry is not after her, then who has he set his sights on in Whitby?

This book was a bit of a disappointment after all the fun and zaniness of the first book in the series, Never the Bride. It's not a bad read, but it just doesn't compare well to the first book. Aunt Jessie makes brief appearances but it ends badly for her, as if being a Australopithecus zombie was not punishment enough for her original vanity. About the only thing that really made me smile was who the poison pen writer is but, on the other hand, I didn't understand the motive behind the letter writing.
The book ends with a note from Brenda's "husband." He is coming to claim his bride, which I suppose is the premise for the next book in the series.

A Darker Shade of Magic

By V.E. Schwab

Four Londons: Black London, White London, Red London, Grey London, existing in separate universes with few similarities. Doors connect these Londons but only special people, antari, can access the doors by using magic.
Black London has been overrun by magic and to protect the other Londons, it was sealed off. White London is starving for magic and, as a consequence, its people are twisted and corrupt. Red London has bountiful magic and people are happy and prosperous. Grey London is ordinary and not magical, although magic is available to those with talent.
Kell is from Red London and he is an antari. He serves as a messenger, traveling between the Londons, enabling the rulers of each London to stay in contact.  But Kell, who is a bit resentful of his fate, has turned smuggler too, bringing trinkets from one London to another, although this is forbidden. It is his smuggling that brings him to grief in Grey London, when he falls into a trap and is nearly killed but is saved in the nick of time by Lila Bard.
Lila is a thief and a pickpocket. She stole a stone from Kell, an stone that the rulers of White London desperately want. It is a stone from Black London and it is saturated with powerful magic, magic so strong even Lila is able to conjure using it. When she stole it from Kell, he tracked her down and retrieved the stone. Holland, who is the antari for the rulers of White London, takes advantage of Kell's sympathetic nature and tortures Lila, expecting that Kell will come to her rescue, which he does. Holland then nearly kills Kell, trying to get him to give up the stone and Lila simply bonks Holland on the head and knocks him out and saves Kell from certain death.
Now it is up to Kell to figure out why Holland and his White London bosses are ready to commit murder to possess the stone. Together he and Lila will discover a vile and sneaky plot that threatens to destroy Red London.

This was a good read, if a bit convoluted at times. The only thing I found disappointing was that we never get to see Black London for ourselves, even though it is constantly referred to in the story. This book seems like the first in a new series, so perhaps the author is saving Black London for a later book.
I also think the book is aimed at young adult readers more than a general audience. Both the main characters are quite young, Lila is nineteen and Kell is in his early twenties. And there is no "mature content," just a couple of chaste kisses.

Amish Confidential

By Levi Stoltzfus and Ellis Henican

Levi Stoltzfus was born and raised in the world of the Amish in Pennsylvania. So he knows Amish.
Not everyone born Amish stays Amish. When Amish youngsters become teens, the parental reins are loosened and they are given the freedom to learn more about the wide world beyond Amish-land. Most return to the fold and settle down into the traditional Amish life, get married, go to church, follow all the Amish rules and have as many kids as humanely possible.
Levi Stoltzfus rejected this path. He was always a bit of a rebel. He didn't like the black hat. He didn't like the bowl-style haircuts. He liked cars. He liked music, even learned to play bass guitar. He even went on to star in a TV series about the Amish, Amish Mafia. So when he became an adult, he was baptized in the New Amish Church and not in the Old Amish Church in which he was raised. (New Amish Church is a modernized version of the Old Amish Church.)
So when it comes to telling the truth about the Amish, good and bad, Stoltzfus knows it all.

People are curious about these throwbacks to the 18th Century. The Amish are a huge tourist attraction in Pennsylvania, with visitors spending billions of dollars while there to gawk at them. So keeping the reputation of the Amish gleaming white is very important to the tourist industry. But Levi Stoltzfus doesn't pull any punches, he doesn't whitewash the Amish community. He also is quick to point out the many virtues of his people, a people he clearly loves and appreciates, warts and all. A worthy, inspiring and revealing look at the Amish by one of their own, this book was an informative and enjoyable read.

Left Bank

By Kate Muir

Olivier and Madison are a Paris power couple with a young daughter, Sabine. Madison is a beautiful, tall movie star and Olivier is a famous author and philospher.
As a special treat for Sabine, they take her to an amusement park, something like the Paris Disneyland. Part of the reason for the treat is that Madison and Olivier have not been getting along well and little Sabine has been stressed because of all the tension in the home. But while waiting to go on a ride at the park, Madison and Olivier begin to argue and Sabine goes off on the ride by herself and vanishes.
Naturally, being rich and famous, the two parents assume the worst, that Sabine has been kidnapped.
At this point, the story leaves the distraught parents and delves into the events leading up to this moment. We start to learn about the home life of Madison, Olivier and Sabine.
Madison, who is from Texas, is aging and concerned about maintaining her looks. She also desires to be the classic Parisian wife, whatever that is, and wants to set up her own "salon." (It's a social gathering, kind of like a cocktail party? I don't really know.)
Olivier is a horndog, something Madison suspects but doesn't know for certain. He chases after all the young, pretty women who cross his path, including the new nanny, Anna. He also enjoys being famous and being known as an intellectual. He thinks he is a deep thinker but he's really quite shallow.
Anna is from Britain but her father was French. He abandoned his British family when Anna was a kid and returned to France. But because of him, Anna is fluent in French and came to Paris to work and (maybe) try to locate her estranged father. When Olivier comes sniffing around, she doesn't have the moral fiber to send him packing and falls into an affair with him.
Sabine is used to being cared for by outsiders. Before Anna came to take care of her, she was cared for by the housekeeper Luiza from the time Sabine was a baby. But like any child, however much she may love her caretakers, she still craves the attention of her parents, both of whom are too busy to spend much time with her. Olivier tends to be indulgent with Sabine and Madison tends to be a bit harsh, and nags Sabine about what the child eats.
After the Sabine kidnapping crisis is resolved, Madison takes stock of her and Sabine's lives and makes some drastic changes, changes that she hopes help her child have a happier and less stressful life and will also help Madison herself have a happier and less stressful life. But will the changes benefit Olivier?

At first, I didn't care for this story because of the ickiness of Madison and Olivier. Olivier cheats on his wife and Madison is self-absorbed. Even the secondary characters are unappealing. Anna has an affair with Olivier and Luiza is hostile and unfriendly. And poor Sabine is a bit spoiled. (It's easier for her parents to buy her presents than it is to actually spend time with her.)
But when Madison takes stock of her life after the crisis with Sabine, she starts to become less of a caricature of an aging actress and more of a real person, more sympathetic and relatable. And that is when I really started to enjoy the novel and care about the characters.

Never the Bride

By Paul Magrs

Brenda is a bit different. She has no last name. She is very much older than she looks. She doesn't seem to have any old friends or any relatives. Her past is murky. But she loves running her little bed & breakfast in the British seaside resort town of Whitby.
Brenda's best friend is her next door neighbor, Effie, who runs an antique shop out of her house. Even though Effie is her best friend, they don't intrude on each other's privacy, which Brenda really appreciates. So hard to answer those awkward questions.
A new addition to Whitby is The Deadly Boutique. It's a day spa that gives its customers remarkable makeovers. Effie and Brenda first become aware of it by the extraordinary change in their server at the Christmas Hotel. Jessie, who is in her sixties, now looks thirty years younger! Effie and Brenda are immediately leery of this new business in town. So they begin a surreptitious investigation of The Deadly Boutique. And so the story of Brenda and Effie starts off, with this book the first in a series of six books so far.

Brenda and Effie are priceless and I really enjoyed reading this first book of the series. I just stumbled across this gem accidentally and I am so glad I did. I already have the second book in the series, Something Borrowed, and I am looking forward to reading it!
By the way, Whitby is a real town in England.

Wolf in the Shadows

By Marcia Muller

Sharon McCone works as an investigator for a small law firm. She also has a budding relationship with a man of mystery, Hy Ripinsky. But Hy has disappeared, and the security firm that hired him is very angry because the ransom, a Letter of Credit for $2,000,000, has disappeared along with him.
The ransom is for the founder of a biotech firm that is on the cusp on developing a new cancer drug, a drug derived from the tissue of dolphins. An environmental group is claiming to be holding the man as retaliation for the company's use of dolphins in their research.
Hy was hired by the company's security firm to exchange the ransom for the missing man because he knows one of the leaders of the eco-terrorists.
But something goes wrong during the exchange. Hy's rental car is found wrecked and a dead man matching Hy's description is discovered at the site of the exchange. Now the security firm's people think Hy was part of the kidnapping scheme.
So Sharon leaves her job and sets out to track down her lost lover and clear his good name. She will have to get to know a  set of very iffy and nervous individuals and will travel to Baja Mexico, to the home of a dangerous Mexican criminal. In the process, she will discover the truth about this kidnapping and learn a bit more about the man she loves.

This was a good read. I enjoyed the author's writing style, it is clean and clear and comprehensible. It's a good mystery story too, and her hero, the investigator Sharon McCone, doesn't disappoint and doesn't get her ass handed to her like so many women detectives in stories nowadays seem to do.
This is my first experience with this series. And based on this book, I am looking forward to reading more about the admirable, redoubtable Sharon McCone.

For another review, see http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-89296-525-0.

Inherit the Stars

By Tony Peak

Kivita loves her space ship that she inherited from her father. She makes her living collecting space junk and selling it. Not a good living, but it pays her expenses and lets her keep her ship repaired.
She is hired to find the Juxj Star, a large jewel that is a data storage device filled with ancient knowledge. Certain people, Savants, can access this data mentally. The worlds inhabited by humans and humanoids are in crisis and people need new planets. The Juxj Star could contain the locations of habitable planets, so it is vital that it is recovered and its data revealed.
What Kivita doesn't know is that she is a Savant, one of the most powerful that has come along in generations. But although she doesn't know she is a Savant, powerful people do know and they are determined to gain control not only of the Juxj Star but also of Kivita. She finds herself fleeing and fighting for her life across the universe and in alliance with the last person she expected, her ex-boyfriend.

This book has some interesting ideas and memorable characters and creepy villains. I enjoyed that part. What I didn't care for was all the fighting and battles, which especially dominated the latter part of the book. Descriptions of battles and fights just don't interest me. Too much of this book was all about that.

For another review, see http://thebooknympho.com/2015/11/inherit-the-stars-by-tony-peak/.

Nop's Trials

By Donald McCaig

Nop is a border collie. He is a working dog, helping his owner with herding sheep on the farm. Lewis, Nop's owner, also entered Nop in sheep dog trial, which is a contest for sheep-herding dogs. Nop won the last local trial which angered one of the contestants. This man, Doug, when he was drunk, said he would pay anyone who took care of Nop $500. Two men who heard him believed him and snatched Nop one night when the dog was running loose.
But Nop is a very valuable dog. His owner was offered $5000 for Nop, which he declined. When the thieves discover this, they panic and sell the dog to a man who works for the rodeo. This man puts Nop in the rodeo with a monkey riding him and they herd calves for the amusement of the crowds.
Doug sees Nop on TV and buys him from the rodeo man, intending to breed Nop to his prize-winning bitch, also a border collie. But he becomes worried when the police and Nop's owner come looking for Nop and he gives Nop to two thugs to dispose of.
One of the thugs has a soft heart for dogs and just dumps him in the city where he is briefly adopted by a bag lady. She doesn't have him long, though, because the shelter where she wants to live doesn't allow pets. Nop is then destined for an animal shelter.
The custodian who was instructed to take Nop to the shelter instead sells him to a lab that uses animals to test drugs. Nop's future looks very bleak, indeed, and his faith in humans will be tested to the maximum.

This was an OK book. It was a very depressing read, as Nop goes from one bad situation to another, as Nop encounters one bad person after the other. The only one who treats kindly, other than his owner, Lewis, is the bag lady. But she only has him for a few days.
However, it works out in the end. I don't know if wading through all the cruelty is worth it though.

Empire of the Ants

By Bernard Werber

A man gets stung to death by wasps and, in his will, his nephew inherits his apartment. The apartment has a cellar but there is a sign on the cellar door to never go into the cellar. But then the family dog gets in and the man goes in search of the dog.
He is gone for hours and finally returns with the body of the dog, which killed by the rats inhabiting the cellar. His wife and son are upset, the son because of the loss of his pet and the wife because of living above a cellar full of rats.
The man puts a new door on the cellar and then returns to it. He never comes back. The wife calls the police, they go into the cellar and vanish. The wife goes into the cellar and vanishes. The son goes to an orphanage but runs away, and, of course, goes into the cellar and vanishes. Once more the police go into the cellar and vanish, as before.
Meanwhile, in the nearby woods, a colony of russet ants are coping with the usual ant crises of their own: invader ants, mysterious deaths of fellow ants, political intrigue, gathering supplies and food, and just being ants.

This was kind of a strange book. The whole "people disappearing in the cellar thing" turns out to be something rather stupid and unbelievable and it brings about the ending of the story and really has very little to do with the ant story other than the stupid plot twist at the end. I think the book would have been just fine without the human part of the story.
The story of the ants was, compared to the drama in the cellar, more interesting and more believable, if somewhat fantastic. These ants do things that no ant has ever done, like using beetles as aircraft. But that is just part of the fantasy and actually more believable than the cellar story.
But the book was not originally written in English, I assume it was written in French since that is its locale. It was translated by Margaret Rocques and maybe it lost something in the translation.
It was an OK read.

Ghost Light

By Frank Rich

Frank Rich's memoir of growing up in Washington DC in the 1950s and 60s.

Frank's parents divorced when he and his younger sister were quite young. The children didn't handle the divorce well, especially Frank, who was beset by night terrors and sleeplessness.
Not too long after the divorce was finalized, Frank's mother started dating the man who would become her two children's step-father, Joel. It wasn't apparent right away, but Joel was abusive. Not only to his own kids but later on, after the marriage, to Frank, his sister and even his mother.
But Frank had an escape from the torments of home: the theater. At a young age, he developed a passion for theater plays. He spent as much time as he could at the National Theater in DC, and, when opportunity presented, at the mecca of American theater, Broadway in New York City. In fact, that was about the only good thing about Joel, their shared passion for theatrical productions. Joel paid for many trips to NYC for his new family. And, since he had connections to the theater business, could often get his family in to view plays that were already sold out.
The book follows Frank through to his going off to college, about the girls he loved, the show folk he became friends with and his puzzlement over his mother's acquiescence to Joel's brutality. Towards the end, he decides that the benefits that Joel brought to the family outweighed, in his mother's eyes, the negativity.

Before I read this book, I had no idea who Frank Rich was or why I decided to get the book. I still don't know much about him except that he had a rough childhood and loved theater. I enjoyed the book but found the last part a bit slow, a bit of a slog to get through. Although it is always fun and comforting to read about someone else's miserable childhood.

On a side note, I was totally puzzled by this section, where Frank is talking about his bar mitzvah:

"It was a relief when the rabbi decided to perform a radical circumcision on my Haftorah portion because, he said, 'It's not the kind of thing our congregation should be exposed to before lunch.' I wasn't quite sure what he meant until one of my more knowing religious-school classmates looked over the unexpurgate version and cried out: 'Hey, they've given you a rape!'" [Italics are mine.]

I looked up bar mitzvah and rape and all I got was just rape, the assault. I don't what he means here and he doesn't explain the term.

Saville

By David Storey

This is the story of Colin Saville. Colin is the second son of his parents. His older brother died shortly before he was born. This brother was a talented artist even at a very young age. His parents had high hopes for him.
Colin is a bright lad, egged on especially by his father. The father is a coal miner and wants his children to have a better, less arduous life. So he pushes Colin to do well in school, even though he himself is very poorly educated. Colin's feelings about this are not part of the discussion, either with the parents or with the reader.
Colin succeeds in passing his exams and graduates to another school. At this point, I must admit I know nothing about how England structures its school system. I gather, from the book, that how well you did on your exams dictates what school you will be attending. Colin is now attending a better school and maintains his grades and eventually qualifies to attend college or university. Here, again, I don't understand the distinction between college and university in the British system. I'm guessing university is considered a better education than college, at least that is what the novel seems to indicate. Colin chooses to attend college and become a teacher.
At this point, and for the first time in the story, the reader is finally included in Colin's desires. Up until that point, he has been a bit of a cypher, with no hints given about how he feels about his life, his parents, his younger brothers, his dreams, his future. We are told, a couple times, that he writes poetry but not what he is thinking. He gets involved with a girl only to lose her to a rich friend. This grieves him, as he was pretty sure they would eventually marry. At last, Colin seems to have some actual feelings about something.
Colin goes on to be a teacher, and, at this point in the story he turns into a real stinker. He bullies his younger brothers, he argues with his parents, he starts dating a married woman, he gets into arguments with his boss and gets fired. He has an off again, on again relationship with the woman and eventually he leaves it all behind for a new life abroad. What happens after that we are not told.

Colin as a kid is a zero and Colin as an adult is a jerk. For some reason, he feels no obligation to anyone and seems to believe that he has the only true answers to the big questions. This transformation from quiet, obedient child to major pill seemed hard to understand to me. Towards the end of the book, I was kind of hoping the married woman's husband would show up and shoot him.
This was a hard book to like. Like I said before, Colin's interior life his hidden from the reader until the end when he turns out to be a prick. I usually don't care for a book if I don't care for the main character and I really didn't care for Colin at the end.
However, as a look at life in the 1930s to early 1950s for a working class family in northern England, it was very interesting. Too bad all the characters are rather repulsive and disagreeable, especially Colin the jerk.
I see that it won the Booker prize, which seems to usually pick books featuring repulsive and unpleasant characters. If I had know that beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read it.
For another review, see http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/nov/18/david-storey-monty-python.

If You Were Here

By Jen Lancaster

Mia and Mack got tired of dealing with life in the city and decided to look for a place in a smaller town, specifically, Abington Cambs. (I'm confused about this, if it is a real town or just an area in Lake Forest, Illinois. Apparently it was the location of several John Hughes movies and the main character is a huge fan of his work, as is the author, Jen Lancaster.) So, relating to Mia's affection for John Hughes movies, a mansion where some of the scenes were filmed is on the market. It's a huge house, near the lake, but it is within their price range and it passes inspection. It is a bit of a fixer-upper, having stood vacant for several years and has out-dated fixtures but that is not a problem. Mack wants to try his hand at doing some remodeling and Mia is anxious to redecorate.
But it turns out the building inspector was incompetent and nearly everything that could go wrong does go wrong. To start off, the neighbors are hostile and complaints keep flooding in about everything Mia and Mack are trying to do. The police even show up one day with one of the cats under arrest for peeing outdoors.
Then after Mack gets the master bedroom all fixed up beautifully, the ceiling falls in on Mia, raining scummy water and carpenter ants all over her and the new bedroom. That's when they discover they have a serious infestation problem of carpenter ants and termites.
As far as problems go, though, the house problems pale in comparison to their marital problems. Mia is getting more and more frustrated with Mack's efforts at remodeling and their communication is suffering. And the bills are piling up to the point where they have to take out a second mortgage on the house and Mack has quit his job to focus on fixing the house. Mia has become the main source of income (she writes young adult zombie romances) and the working conditions at the house are ruining her concentration. If she isn't able to get her newest novel finished by the deadline, things could get real bad real fast
And then the contractor they hired disappears with the money they paid him.

This is Lancaster's first published fiction story and it is funny and entertaining. Although the building repair disasters seem a little unlikely, with remodeling I guess it can be one thing after the other. Mia certainly gets herself into situations, including being arrested twice, but it was all quite amusing and more than a little scary, if you are ever thinking about doing some remodeling. Or buying a fixer-upper house. Be warned by Mia and Mack's struggles!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Sherman Alexie

Arnold, or as he is known on the Reservation, Junior, has had a lot of trouble in his life. He had a lot of illnesses as a young child but his health has improved quite a bit. His parents, Spokane Indians, have problems too. His dad drinks too much. His mother used to drink a lot too but she is better. Money is always tight or nonexistent.
Junior is a bright boy who loves to draw cartoons to poke fun at life and to help him cope with stress. In his last year of classes before starting high school, Junior throws a book at a teacher. Later the teacher stops by his house to talk to him and tells Junior that he needs to make a life for himself and not be limited by the his circumstances. He needs to leave the Reservation.
Inspired, Junior decides to attend high school in a nearby town, Reardan. Since he is pretty good at basketball, he hopes to be on the team too. It will be a great hardship for Junior to attend a school so far away from his house. His parents can sometimes take him but often he has to walk it or hitchhike.
The rest of the tribe turns against him for leaving the local school. His best friend turns against him too. But his family respects and admires him for his choice and he struggles on.
The Reardan kids are cold at first, but he gradually makes friends and becomes accepted and he does get a position on the basketball team.
Seems like all is going well for Junior. Then tragedy strikes his family, not once, not twice, but three times. Has the world turned against them? Is it his fault for daring to do something different? His questions and depression mounts as tragedy after tragedy slams down on those he loves the most.

This was a pretty good story. Junior has a lot of strikes against him but he also has the intelligence and drive to rise above. The book is mildly amusing at times but also very sad and depressing too, especially the last third of the book. A strike against it, for me, was the emphasis on sports. One whole chapter, twenty pages long, is a description of a basketball game. I just skimmed that chapter.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, although it is most definitely not the laugh-fest as portrayed by the blurbs on the back of the book. To me, it was much more sad than amusing, so that was misleading. Because of that and the boring sports descriptions, I rate it a fair read.

Quail in My Bed

By Burley Packwood

The true story of three tiny quail chicks who accidentally entered the lives of Packwood and his wife Betsi.
A few days before they were scheduled to leave on an extended camping trip, Betsi found an abandoned baby quail. She named the quail Pedro and assured her husband that the chick would not interfere with the trip. Amazingly, a few days later, she found another chick, this time wandering the aisles of a store. This one she named Pedra.
So both chicks came with them on the camping trip, coddled and cuddled by Betsi. Packwood hardened his heart against the quail but gradually came to admit that they added a lot to the trip, being entertaining little birds.
Unfortunately, Pedro managed to escape and they never found him. Native to the desert southwest, Pedro got loose in the northern United States into a habitat ill-suited to his breed, the Gambels quail. He most certainly perished when winter arrived.
Pedra remained with them on their trip although they promised to free her when they returned home to Arizona. Meanwhile, she wormed her way into the author's affections and he came to cherish the little bird as she did him, regarding him as the love of her life.
Upon returning home, they gave Pedra her freedom but she refused to go. She stayed with them, sleeping inside and have free range in their house. She also had free access to the outdoors and she spent a lot of time out there but never strayed away from their patio area.
She had quite a few ailments, possibly a result of her domesticated lifestyle. She nearly died of a lung ailment, and, on the road to recovery, was bitten by a poisonous spider. Her recovery from that and a subsequent fall was slow and painful but she eventually pulled through.
Betsi soon found another lost quail chick and Pablito joined Pedra. Pablito was a ball of fire compared to Pedra and his antics kept the two people very well entertained. Pedra pretty much ignored the new addition except when the chick tried to nestle under her feathers. Pedra refused to adopt the little orphan and usually gave him a good pecking for his efforts.
Even though he totally opposed the addition of quail to his home, the author soon came to realize that their life was much richer for the presence of the little birds.

I thoroughly enjoy this story of raising young orphan quail. I personally have never seen a wild quail where I live, but from what the author says, they must be quite common in Arizona. From this book and the previous quail book I recently read, That Quail, Robert, quail sound like very interesting and amusing little birds. Although I don't suppose the author is promoting the adoption of wild quail as pets.