Garment of Shadows

I really like this series by Laurie King, featuring the semi-retired Sherlock Holmes and his young wife, Mary Russell. Mary is a formidable character in her own right and the story is told from her perspective. She wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be in a small room in what she eventually determines is the town of Fez, Morocco. But soldiers are pounding on the downstairs door and she realizes, to her horror, that she has dried blood on her hands. Making her escape, she vanishes into the souk and discovers she has talents that no ordinary woman should have--for picking pockets and locks, for disguise as a man, for Arabic language... Holmes meanwhile has just found out that Mary is missing and is searching frantically for her when he gets embroiled in political intrigues that could cause Morocco, currently administered by the French in the south and the Spanish in the north, to explode in civil war. As always, King delivers up well-drawn characters, well-researched history, fascinating period details, and a great plot. Excerpts are available on Laurie King's web site.

Vulture Peak

Jon Burdett's novels about Thailand and southeast Asia in general are always fascinating, often gruesome, and yet thought provoking. This fifth in a series that features Buddhist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep focuses on the exploding trade in human organs and all the vices that you can imagine--and some you probably would not--in connection with the attaining and selling of same. His common law marriage to former prostitute Chanya is somewhat on the rocks; there are rumors she has a lover and Sonchai himself finds his attentions wandering. He is sorely tempted by one particular woman who seems to be at the heart of two overlapping cases, one involving a serial rapist and the other the organ trafficking empire of some very beautiful and very powerful Chinese twins. I devoured the first three in this series (Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tatoo, and Bangkok Haunts) and when I started this, realized I had missed the fourth (The Godfather of Kathmandu) which I will certainly go back and fill in. I also really like The Last Six Million Seconds--another book outside the series about the handover of Hong Kong. These books are gritting and compelling perspectives of the sex trade and corruption of the police in Thailand, but certainly don't entice me to want to visit. This is definitely armchair travel that will stay in the armchair. Kirkus offers more details of the plot.

The End of Your Life Book Club

Although it sounds a bit grim, this is really a fascinating book about the "book club" formed by author Will Schwalbe and his mother Mary Anne in the last couple years of her life. Both were already avid readers. This is ostensibly about the power of books to change lives--no argument from me there--but is really more an homage to a remarkable woman. There were some things that really struck me about books in general, such as how physical books demand attention, whereas electronic books are essentially invisible; that is, a stack of books on your bedside or living room side table perpetually reminds you of what you intend to read. An electronic book disappears when you turn off the reader. I haven't made the leap to e-books although I gave my husband a Kindle Touch. I just added this to my reasons not to change ;-) Schwalbe also talks about the etiquette of dealing with someone who is dying--how you need to remember the past, celebrate the present and mourn the future all at the same time. How not to be intrusive or dismissive. There is, in fact, some discussion about books and what they took from their shared reading and discussion of them. The book includes a list of all the books discussed, although indexing this to the pages where the book was discussed would have been even better. A longer review from the NYT is here.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally have more Fun

So what's not to like in a book about happiness? Even better, Gretchen Rubin has done her homework, researching the idea of, philosophies about,  and scientific findings regarding happiness from a variety of disciplines across the ages. And she makes lists! Lists of Commandments (to be determined by each individual), lists of "Secrets of Adulthood," lists of resolutions for each month of her year long project, and summary lists of "Tips" at the end. She deals with relationships, money, health/exercise, play, work, goals, and attitude. She is personal in her take on everything but offers plenty for the reader to take away and make his/her own. She started a blog, offers an online Toolbox (www.happinessprojecttoolbox.com), and offers additional resources (discussion guide, starter kits, etc). I liked it a lot and may even undertake to re-read it and start my own project.

Bring Up the Bodies

Apparently Hilary Mantel is only the 3rd author to ever win two Man Booker prizes and the 1st to win with a sequel, as she has done with her first two books of a projected trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. Apparently she took the criticism about her difficult to follow use of pronouns in Wolf Hall to heart, and has endeavored in the sequel to more clearly indicate when Cromwell is the "he" in question. Maybe for this reason, or maybe it's just greater familiarity with the huge cast of characters, but this book, focused on the downfall of Anne Boleyn, was easier to follow. Given Boleyn's scheming and cold-hearted treatment of those who opposed her rise to power, it's hard to be sympathetic, and yet, Henry is so fickle and so able to rationalize his wandering libido, that one does feel a twinge for her. Cromwell--never at the top of Anne's list of favorite people--is quick to recognize the shifting winds of Henry's affections, and to begin crafting the case that will free Henry to marry Jane Seymour. Cromwell must ally himself with old enemies, and thereby place himself at greater risk to bring down the current queen.  Cromwell emerged as a very complex character in Wolf Hall, capable of tremendous compassion and loyalty as well as ruthlessness. Here, the ruthlessness--admittedly in the service of old loyalties--drives the plot, as he focuses on those who wronged Cardinal Wolsey in determining who shall die and who shall live. The title refers to the call used to retrieve the prisoners for trial in the Tower of London, where the Queen and a selected few of her ostensible lovers are housed. There is a slightly longer Author's Note that alludes to the historical record drawn upon, but it still left me feeling like I wanted to know a lot more about her sources. Cromwell continues to develop as a man you can both admire and view with caution; certainly you would never want to get on his bad side.

Deadlocked

In this most recent of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, the focus is definitely shifting towards the fairies. There are still of course plenty of vampires, various were-creatures and assorted other supernatural beings, but the really complex plot has to do with someone making concerted efforts to get at Sookie. The Cluvial Dor, given to her grandmother by her fairy lover, Fintan, plays a key role. Eric is being visited by the King of Louisiana & Nevada, who is pressuring him to honor the marriage arranged for Eric by his creator. Sookie finds Eric feeding on another woman who has been dosed with fairy blood; she later turns up dead on Eric's front lawn. Needless to say, all of this is stressing the "marriage" between Sookie and Eric. Meanwhile, fairy great-grandfather Niall has surfaced again and taken cousin Claude back to Faery with him; Dermot is left in charge of the strip club where all the left-behind fairy types have taken refuge, and they are starting to get restless. Sookie has learned that Sam's girlfriend and Alcide's enforcer, Janalynn, definitely has it in for her, so she is wondering if she might be behind all the things that are going wrong. But the real culprit will surprise you as will Sookie's decision about how to use the magic gift bequeathed to her by her grandmother.  These new twists will fuel the series for a while longer. I personally do NOT like what HBO has done with this series, but I know some friends really like "True Blood." I just felt after watching a couple of episodes that the focus on blood and sex and the changes to some significant characters and relationships diminished the story line. I continue to find the books great fun, though.

Infamous

I really hate coming in at the middle of a series ("The Chronicles of Nick") but I would have to put in some concerted effort to start at the beginning with the set of characters in this book by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Apparently there are multiple series, each with multiple books that share overlapping characters. Even so-- being constantly reminded that there was a lot I didn't know about the history of Nick Gautier, 15-year old New Orleans teenager and potential destroyer or savior of humankind--this was an enjoyable read because Nick is in many ways a wise-cracking teen with all the usual angsts (parents, girls, bullying) but also trying to survive a whole lot of evil creatures (and some not so evil) who want him dead. He is the son of the Malachai, which is the penultimate evil creature and if he matures, his father will die and humanity will suffer. Protectors have been sent to look after him, one being his girlfriend who is also not what she seems. Raised by a poor single mom who was disowned by her own parents when she became pregnant from a violent rape, Nick fights more mundane persecution as well, labelled "white trash" by other kids at school. But now someone is posting horrible claims and pictures about the kids at school on the internet--Nick is getting a fair share of the blame and the fallout. Is this a plot concocted by those seeking to destroy Nick, or just garden variety human evil.  The action is non-stop, characters are complex as well as mostly supernatural. Intriguing enough that I would seek out additional books in this specific series (preceded by Infinity and Invincible) as well as other series by this author.

Shakespeare's Trollop

This is the 4th installment in the Lily Bard series by Charlaine Harris set in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas (preceded by Shakepeare's Landlord, Shakespeare's Champion, Shakespeare's Christmas). Lily originally came here to hide from the publicity and terrible memories of having been kidnapped, tortured and raped as a young woman. She makes her living as a cleaning person which gives her rather unique insight into people's character. Not surprisingly, she is the one to sense something fishy about the apparently sexually motivated murder of the town's "loose woman," Deidre Dean. Deidre may have been careless with her body, but she was fastidious with her belongings and she just would NOT have thrown her clothes and pearl necklace over a  tree branch where they could be damaged, nor, for that matter, would she ever have been likely to have sex in the woods instead of her bedroom. Lily does not want to become involved, but when a fire is started in the home of another one of her clients and eventually he dies, she just can't help trying to figure it all out. Meanwhile, she is sort of, kind of, starting to feel like she belongs in this town and she is sort of, kind of, feeling that her very occasional relationship with Jack is just too important. Apparently he thinks likewise, and the results may surprise followers of the series. Lily is a wonderfully dark but resilient character who is working hard to move on with her life. I really like her and these books are well written; the whole series has been great and this one is no exception. I only have one left (Shakespeare's Counselor) so I hope she writes another one soon!

Wicked Business

This is the 2nd or 3rd installment of the "Lizzie and Diesel" series by Janet Evanovich, a pair with special powers (Diesel  makes an earlier solo appearance in Plum Spooky with Stephanie). The premise of the series is that Lizzie, cupcake baker extraordinaire, is able to sense which things have magical power, so she comes in really handy when trying to locate the seven SALIGIA stones which are charmed/cursed with the deadly sins. Apparently the "lust" stone has now surfaced in Salem and Diesel, his cousin and nemesis Wulf, and a really crazy lady who calls herself Anarchy are all trying to get to it first. Lizzie doesn't particularly care who gets it, but Diesel definitely does--since that's his job. He drags Lizzie reluctantly along as they track the clues because she is the one who will recognize the stone when they find it. Lizzie seems to have some of the same bad luck that Stephanie does with cars and guys, although here the issue is that two people with special powers (i.e., Lizzie and Diesel) can't get "together" without one of them losing their powers. Lizzie would gladly do without her powers, but the results can't be predicted, so lots of teasing but no consummation. Humor is ever present in Evanovich's books, usually provided by quirky characters as well as ridiculous situations. We have Glo, a wannabe witch who takes Broom with her everywhere; Hatchet, who views himself as a medieval minion to his lord and master, Wulf; Carl, the monkey who lives with Diesel; Nina runs the local supply store for witches and other supernaturals in Salem; and Cat 7143 who lives with Lizzie. Fun light read as always with these books.

The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer

Well... the title of this book by Lucy Weston (ostensibly also a vampire) pretty much says it all. Decently written, good plot, and fun read overall for those who like the supernatural stirred into their historical fiction. The timing on reading this was particularly opportune since I had just finished reading Hilary Mantel's fictionalized biography of Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall) and this book takes up with the ascension of Elizabeth to the throne. Elizabeth was the child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, which forms the structure of Mantel's book, and provides the background to this tale. We are to believe that on the day of her coronation, Elizabeth is taken to her mother's tomb (Henry had Anne beheaded because she failed to produce a male heir) and becomes aware that she has special powers and that she is destined to fight off a take-over bid for the kingdom by none other than Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur and now King of the Vampires. Entries are alternately from a "secret journal" of Elizabeth's (discovered by the author) and ruminations by Mordred on his frustrated efforts to convince Elizabeth that they should marry and rule both the Vampire kingdom and England together. It ends with less than a definitive conclusion to the struggle-- leaving open the possibility of a sequel. I still prefer the Gail Carriger vampire/werewolf/soulless books because if you are going to be over the top about the supernatural, do it with your tongue firmly in cheek.  Thanks to my book pal Dale Pehrsson for sending this to me.