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.

Summer of the Big Bachi

This is the first in a series of books by Naomi Hirahara that feature protagonist Mas Arai. I would almost say, the anti-hero, Mas Arai, because at least in this first book, I did not find much to like about him. He was 15 years old and living in Hiroshima the day the bomb was dropped. He survived physically but many around him did not and he lives with the images of the dead and dying and with the things the survivors did that are hard to reconcile. Some people did overtly bad things, others--like Mas--just failed to do things that in retrospect they wish they had. Bachi is a little like karma and Mas' has come back to bite him one fateful summer in his 69th year. He lives in Altadena and has made his living as a gardener, marrying Chizuko, and then sending their only daughter, Mari, to Columbia. But he is neither a very good husband or father, since he keeps secrets, hides his earnings and spends them on the races, and is generally emotionally unavailable to either spouse or child. His wife has since died of stomach cancer and he hasn't heard from his daughter in a long time. In fact, it is only through a friend, who has a daughter the same age, that he learns his daughter is married and pregnant. The big secret that Mas has kept all these years is that his pal Riki Kimura left their friend, Joji Haneda, to die and stole his papers so he could escape to the U.S. at the end of the war, and has been living under that name ever since. Now someone is looking for Joji Haneda and bad things are starting to happen. When a young Japanese man, claiming to be the grandson of Riki Kimura and Haneda's sister, Akemi, also comes to town and starts snooping around, Mas is reluctantly dragged into sorting things out to prevent an even greater miscarriage of justice. This is an intriguing glimpse into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation Japanese American culture in southern California.

Wolf Hall

Aside from being a provocative name for a book, not sure why Hilary Mantel called this book Wolf Hall.  Jane Seymour's family resides there, but they are really fairly minor characters in this densely populated tome. My leisure reading tends to go fairly quickly. It seldom takes me more than a few days--a week at the outside--to finish a book, but this one took me about a month. Every single page is THICK with conversations that reveal relationships, intrigues and implications for the whole of Europe. Even with the help of a 5-page "cast of characters" and two royal family trees at the front of the book, I'm sure it would take me three readings to get everything that goes on. And I was really pissed to find that the author provided virtually no overview of the actual historical events that are the setting for the book, nor does she indicate her sources, except for one book by Cavendish about Thomas Wolsey. One can certainly find interviews that make clear she did her research! Nevertheless, the critics love this book, which won both the Man Booker and the National Book Critics Circle awards. The author certainly creates a compelling portrait of the main character, Thomas Cromwell, who rose from--according to this author--an abusive and impoverished life as a blacksmith's son to become the 2nd most powerful man in England during the reign of Henry VIII. Henry, Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Cardinal Wolsey and several more minor characters are also well enough drawn to become distinct figures. It was often hard to keep the rest of the cast sorted out. Cromwell is portrayed as the consummate politician in a time when a miscalculation meant at least a fall from grace and at worst a horrible death. Mantel turns the common portrayals of Cromwell upside down by portraying him as compassionate, loyal and loving as well as strategic. It is a fascinating and challenging read for those who relish historical fiction. I will almost certainly read the sequels--one already published (Bring up the Bodies) and one still to come. There a more formal review of the book in the Wall Street Journal that works for me.

My Ántonia

      I have always believed that a real benefit of book groups is reading things that are outside one's regular reading routine; so, although I am not in a book group, my friend Dee Stefanelli is and, thanks to her, I have read 3 books I might not have picked up on my own. I have already written about Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Caleb's Crossing. My Ántonia by Willa Cather is the 3rd. One of the things I said I would do when I retired was read some of the classics I had previously missed and now I've started. This is an incredibly moving and heartfelt love story for the land in the middle of America and the immigrants who settled it. These were the first generation Scandinavians and Europeans who homesteaded an often harsh land and brought it under the plow to become the breadbasket of America. The story of Ántonia is told from the adult viewpoint of Jim Burden, now a successful lawyer in New York City,  who came to Black Hawk, Nebraska as an orphaned 10-year old on the same train as 14-year old  Ántonia and her family in the late 1800's. Jim was fortunate in that he came to live with his grandparents who were already successful farmers with a real house. The Shimerda family, of Czech or "Bohemian" nationality, came to live in a large hole in the ground. Due to the dishonesty of their agent, their money bought them only broken down farming equipment and animals and they knew nothing about farming, the father having been a professional musician. They would have starved except for the generosity of neighbors like Jim's grandparents, and yet Mrs. Shimerda and even Ántonia were haughty and critical of these efforts. Mr. Shimerda killed himself out of grief for all he had lost and  Ántonia mourned him all her life. She and Jim were, in spite of their age difference, nearly constant companions and Jim adored her.  After his grandparents leased out the farm and moved to town, some of the "country girls" came to town to work and help out their families financially.  Ántonia became the live-in maid/cook/nanny for the family next door to the Burdens and, although always a hard and cheerful worker, became enamored of the town life and eventually lost her position. After Jim had gone away to college, he no longer saw  Ántonia but kept tabs and learned that she had been engaged, then deserted and left with an illegitimate child. Broken-hearted, she returns to the family farm to work and raise her child, then soon marries a fellow "Bohemian" with whom she builds a successful farm and large family. Twenty years later, Jim reluctantly goes to see her, fearing that circumstances have beaten her down and changed the girl/woman he has idolized through the decades. But  Ántonia has preserved her love of life and restores Jim's faith in the future. 

     Part of what I reflected upon while reading this book is that this has always been a country of immigrants, those whose first language and history and customs are not of this country; they have built America. It dismays me that we continue, as a people, to disregard this truth and discriminate against whichever group is the newest to seek refuge here. The language and passion of this book will vividly recreate the people and the places for the reader and it's well worth taking the trip to Black Hawk.  

The Beautiful Mystery

     I always awaits the next Louise Penny with delicious anticipation and pre-ordered The Beautiful Mystery so as not to have to wait an extra minute. Right away I was immersed in her masterful ability to make her characters come alive and create the place for the story. She has delivered another bombshell with this installment in the Inspector Gamache series, and this time it hits even closer to home than when one of our favorite innkeepers was arrested for murder. Two parallel tales unwind here, both dealing with fraternal orders, both dealing with power and how it can be used for good or ill, specifically how some will use their power to try (and sometimes fail) to protect, while others will twist the less powerless to their will. She is so effective at conveying this, that I was even led to doubt...
     The Gilbertine monks have hidden in the backwoods of Quebec for hundreds of years, first escaping the Inquisition and later just the world. They have taken a vow of silence, but ironically are known for their exquisite renditions of Gregorian chants. And now the world knows where they are, for the Prior and choirmaster persuaded them to release a recording and it has rocked the world. People have come seeking them and been repeatedly sent away from this isolated and fortress-like monastery.  But the Prior has been murdered and the Abbot is in crisis because he failed to foresee how the growing rift in his community could come to this. Gamache and Beauvoir come to stay and find out who committed this crime against God and man. The conflict among the monks centered around whether or not they should make another recording. The Abbot wants to preserve the community as it has been, while the Prior wanted to make the recording...and perhaps had another agenda as well.
     We can rely on Gamache, who is in thrall to the chants, to find the killer no matter how painful it will be to the community. But the sabot thrown into the works is when his arch enemy, Superintendent Francoeur, shows up. So begins a game of cat and mouse with the highest stakes in play. I usually don't hesitate to reveal the ending, and indeed the murderer is caught, but I can't bring myself to talk about the really important things that transpire here. If you haven't read the previous 7 books, you can still read this...it will stand on its own. But you will miss some of the nuance and gut-wrenching significance of the conclusion.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

     Prejudice comes in all forms and this is a book about some of the terrible consequences of the stereotypes, ignorance, cruelty and discrimination that can be engendered by such prejudices. This novel by Jamie Ford tells the story of Henry Lee from the perspective of two times in his life--one when he was 12 years old, at the beginning of WWII, and involved in a forbidden relationship with a Japanese friend, Keiko Okabe, and the second when he is a widower in 1986. In 1942, Henry is enrolled in an all-white school in Seattle because his parents want him to integrate and get ahead in a way that wouldn't happen if he stayed in the all-Chinese schools. They don't seem to understand the daily torments and bullying he must endure not only from the students but also from the teachers. And then one day, a Japanese girl also come to the school, and because she is also a "special student," she is  put to work in the cafeteria at lunch times alongside Henry and they soon become fast friends. Henry's parents, and especially his father, hate the Japanese based on the historical transgressions of the Japanese against China, so they are pleased when the entire population of Japantown, including Keiko's family, are loaded onto trains and shipped to prison camps. Henry finds a way to visit Keiko's family at Camp Minidoka but then loses touch with her until decades later when the basement of the Panama Hotel is opened by a new owner and Henry is confronted with memories of his lost love.
     I am to this day amazed that I graduated from high school in California and never read a word in any of the history books about the internment of Japanese American citizens, most of which took place on the west coast. It wasn't until I started reading children's and YA books that I learned about this shameful episode in our history. Cynthia Kadohata's Kira Kira won the Newbery in 2005 with its account of the continuing prejudices against Japanese Americans after the war and seemingly the floodgates opened for numerous other accounts targeted to children and teens: Kadohata's Weedflower, Allen Say's Home of the Brave, Virginia Euwer Wolff's Bat 6 are some of my favorites.
     This book was enjoyable to me partly because it was set in Seattle, where I lived for 18 years, so I recognized many of the landmarks. The Panama Hotel, which was bought up and renovated in the 1980's, actually existed and was really found to contain the belongings of dozen of Japanese families who had been summarily imprisoned and lost their homes and businesses.  Pioneer Square and Bud's Jazz Records are also real places. The "Author's Note" at the end details the factual elements of her story. 

Caleb's Crossing

A long time ago, when I joined my first book group in Seattle, we read a book called Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks, a Jewish author writing about the lived experience of Muslim women in different parts of the world. It was an eye-opener. So my curiosity was piqued when friend Deanna Stefanelli loaned me her copy of Brook's new novel about the first Native American to have graduated from Harvard. Although based on the actual life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a Wampanoag Indian born around 1646 on what is now known as Martha' Vineyard, the main character of this fictionalized account is Bethia Mayhew, a girl born to a Puritan minister and raised on the Vineyard. While young, she roams the island and meets and then befriends Caleb--her name for him because she doesn't like his Indian name, which means "hated one." Bethia is a rebel at heart, constantly running up against the constraints of the time and her parents' beliefs about women's role. Although she knows it is "wrong" to be friends with a "salvage" --especially a boy who doesn't believe in her God--she eagerly teaches him everything she "overhears" in her father's tutoring of her older brother. When her mother dies in childbirth, Bethia is sure it is God's punishment of her and she renounces her friendship with Caleb and takes on the duties of mother to her infant sister and housekeeper to her father and brother. But her father has made it his mission to educate and convert the local Indians and brings Caleb to live with them in order to prepare him to go to school on the mainland. When her father dies suddenly in a storm at sea, Bethia is signed into indentured servitude at a prep school on the mainland in order to fund her brother's continuing education there. Caleb and his fellow Native American Joel are also sent there and so Bethia keeps an eye on their painful progress; both are academically gifted, but constantly challenged by people's prejudices.  Bethia is a compelling character and the sense of time and place are well conveyed by Brooks' eloquent account. Brook's story also confirmed some of my earlier learning about the different philosophies and world views of Native Americans in contrast to those of Europeans. This is historical fiction at its finest with an author's "Afterword" which recounts the factual information available about Caleb. I recently bought another book by Brooks that I am eager to start called People of the Book...

Hunger Games

I finally got around to reading the much-hyped 1st installment of Suzanne Collins' trilogy about a dystopian future where children are sacrificed in televised games of survival for the entertainment of the refined citizens of the capital city--oh and to serve as a reminder to the Districts never ever to rebel again. I've been reading about this for years in the YA chats and you can't avoid hearing about the new movie based on this book, but I just hadn't put it at the top of the list until my pal Dale Pehrsson sent the book along to me. It was actually an enjoyable break from the string of depressing (human trafficking, bullying) and just ho-hum YA books I have been reviewing of late. The characters are compelling, the plot moves along at a good pace and it seems altogether too possible. I see the movie has already been released to DVD so will move it up the list in my Netflix queue. I will definitely read the sequels--once I work my way through a big stack of review books and books my friends have loaned me. I thought I would be plowing through books at a much faster pace in retirement, but have been too busy with outdoor activities. Maybe when winter comes.

Anyway, for those of you who have not read or heard about this, Katniss is 16 when the story opens and has been  supporting her mom and younger sister with the results of her illegal hunting since her dad died when she was eleven. In the twelve districts which now represent the former United States. people are pretty uniformly poor--certainly in Katniss' home of District 12 which supplies coal to the capital city. Katniss' father taught her to use a bow and arrow and this skill will help her survive the Hunger Games, a nationally televised competition to the death. Each district must send one girl and one boy to the competition each year as a "tribute" to pay for an earlier failed rebellion. Katniss volunteers to take her sister Prim's place when Prim's name is drawn in the lottery. She is joined by Peeta, the baker's son, to whom she owes her survival right after her father died. And yet she does not know whether to trust him--after all, only one of them will come out of this alive--and she certainly is taken aback when he claims in the televised interviews with the game contestants that he has loved her since he was 5 years old. This is right up there with the best of YA fantasy.

The Lock Artist

Yet another book I have my friend Anne Zald to thank for; this book by Steve Hamilton that won an Edgar Award has a most unusual protagonist.  Early on, we are tantalized by William Michael Smith's mysterious and traumatizing past that has left him speechless. By the age of 18, he has not spoken a word in 10 years, ever since....well, you'll have to read it to find out. His parents are dead.   Perpetually the outcast and victim of bullies at school, Mike's being raised by a hapless but well-meaning uncle who runs a small-time liquor store near Detroit. By chance he discovers he has a unique affinity for opening things, like locks without keys, padlocks without combinations, and--with a little training from a master "boxman" --even safes; it is, by Mike's own account, an "unforgivable talent." This makes him a hot commodity with the worst kind of people and so it's no surprise that Michael is writing this "memoir" from jail in an attempt to find his "voice." However, all is not grim. Michael is also a gifted artist which brings him together initially with the love of his life, Amelia. With her help, Michael confronts his past, and--you end up hoping--will eventually walk away from all the darkness.

River of Darkness

I have been remiss in posting my own reading, partly because I have been busy writing reviews for Children's Literature Database and partly because...well....I'm retired and just being lazy. Anyway, heard about this book on Powell's "Daily Dose" and got it from the local library (good for me!) and then tore through it in just about 3 sessions, staying up late into the wee hours to finish. Rennie Airth has apparently written a couple of other mysteries before embarking on this trilogy with the main character being an English WWI veteran, John Madden. In this first of the series, Madden has returned from the war haunted by nightmares and generally experiencing what we now call post-traumatic stress but which was then known as shell shock. He lost his wife and baby to influenza before the war and then saw hundreds of soldiers brutally mown down in the trenches of France. He has given up his dream of farming and returned to being a policeman, actually a detective at Scotland Yard, working for a former colleague, Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair. Madden gets called to a brutal multiple murder in a manor house located in a quiet village of Surrey. It turns out that most of the victims were bayonetted, while the wife had her throat cut. Sinclair and Madden pursue their intuitions that this is not a case of robbery gone wrong, but the work of an organized single individual,  probably a former soldier. They must push against politics at Scotland Yard, a cover up by the military, as well as the unknown motivation of the killer. The character of Madden takes on real form and complexity in this first installment and I am looking forward to reading the next two books to see what he gets up to. Other characters, including Madden's new love interest, Dr. Helen Blackwell, are also well-developed and intriguing in their own right. Dana Stabenow, also a wonderful author, has a nice overview of all 3 books in the trilogy here.

The Borrower

Rebecca Makkai is also a new author for me, but my friend Anne Z. said she was sure I would go for this book. And indeed the characters are very engaging, primarily Lucy Hull, who is filling in on a rather long-term basis as a children's librarian at the public library in Hannibal, Missouri, and her most bibliophilic patron, 10-year old Ian Drake. It turns out that Ian may be exhibiting behavior that leads a lot of people to think he is gay and his parents are so phobic and fundamentalist that they not only forbid his reading of anything to do with wizardry, adult content or evolution but they have signed him up for "Reboot Camp," run by the Reverend Bob Lawson's Glad Hearts Ministry, designed to help strays return to the (heterosexual) fold. Lucy is enraged but limits herself to surreptitiously checking out books for Ian in her own name until one fateful morning. She arrives early at the library to find Ian has spent the night, is running away, and is begging her to drive him to his grandmother's house--even though Lucy knows he does not have a grandmother. Crazily enough, she gets in the car with him and they begin driving, with her thinking at every point that she will take him home, as soon as she has inoculated him, somehow, to stand up to the anti-gay regimen to which he is being subjected. But they never manage to have that conversation and they keep driving--all the way to Vermont and the Canadian border--and it turns out that Lucy is running away as well. Is Lucy a kidnapper or the kidnappee, a savior or an intrusive busybody. Eventually Ian decides to return home. I felt a bit let down at the end. Lucy manages to sneak a list of "must read" books past Ian's mother and then goes on her way, hoping Ian will triumph and most readers will be left hoping, too. Lucy moves on to another job and reconciles herself somehow to a past and a parent she doesn't fully understand. What shines through this narrative is Lucy's faith that books can save people, and since I believe that, too, it wasn't a bad journey to take with Lucy and Ian.

Timeless

It seems like forever since I posted my own reading, partly because I did just a slew of review books and never seemed to get to my own books. But I am doing some catching up and have been reading things passed along by friends. My pal Dale and I love this series "The Parasol Protectorate" by Gail Carriger (see my earlier posts of Soulless, Changless, Blameless, Heartless). This is the 5th and apparently last installment featuring the preternatural Alexia Tarabotti, aka Lady Maccon. Married to the head of a werewolf pack, and now living in the household of a notorious vampire hive (Lord Akeldama) as a condition for her daughter to remain alive, Alexia is again up to her stylish hat brim in adventures. She--or more accurately her daughter, Prudence--has been summoned to Alexandria by the oldest vampire in the world, Queen Matakara. For what purpose is not entirely clear and it would also not be best, politically speaking, for it to be general knowledge in London that Lord & Lady Maccon were abroad at the bidding of the Queen. So Alexia contrives to have Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe, of which she is the patroness, be invited to Alexandria. Other mysteries are afoot. The God-Breaker plague appears to be spreading. The Kingair pack's beta has gone to Egypt to investigate only to return and be immediately shot dead. A secret kept by Lady Maccon and Lord Maccon's beta, Professor Lyall, has been revealed by Alexia's spiteful sister and threatens to significantly damage her marriage to Lord Maccon. The "tongue-in-cheek" tone of this book always makes me laugh as do the ridiculous terms of endearment ( e.g., my darling chamomile bud) showered upon Alexia by Lord Akeldama. Although I think this book would stand on its own, I would strongly recommend starting from the beginning if you are going to partake. I am really sorry this will be the last of the series, because I really enjoy these characters.

When Women Were Birds

This memoir from Terry Tempest Williams was given me by my sister-in-law who is not only a voracious reader but can recite poetry she has read on demand. Never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, she is formidable source and so I started the book right away--my first exposure to Terry Tempest Williams. Perhaps it was not the best place to start. Williams is spurred to write this exploration of women's voices by being bequeathed her mother's journals--three shelves of them--which, when examined, all turned out to be blank. Well that would certainly set you back on your heels. So a significant part of this book is about trying to figure out what her mother meant by this obviously  sustained act of subterfuge. Apparently, it is a primary role of women in Mormon families to be the recorders of history and keep journals. Her mother certainly communicated her thoughts and feelings in other ways and there are excerpts from her letters to Terry--very loving ones--as well as from her church talks. But the book overall feels disjointed and I often did not really know where I was in the chronology of Williams life when reading a particular chapter. The chapters are occasionally polemic about her indignation over the rape of the environment or the limitations placed on women's lives. I can live with that, but it is uncomfortable at times. And discouraging, even though she means, I think to exhort us to action on behalf of our convictions. And there are also moments of shining beauty in her perceptions and descriptions. It felt as though I were sometimes being abraded or scorched--so perhaps she is simply very good at conveying what she experiences. I kept coming back and felt drawn on and had trouble putting the book down. Just be warned before entering.

The Legend

Marie Lu has written a YA novel set in a dystopian future where the United States no longer exists but instead consists of two warring countries, The Republic (west) and The Colonies (east). The 15-year old protagonists are pitted against each other as representatives of the elite military controllers of The Republic (June) and of the controlled and abused masses (Day). June has ostensibly achieved the only perfect score ever seen on The Trial, administered to all 10-year old children in The Republic and is a  bit of a rebel as well as a prodigy. When her older brother Metias is killed, supposedly by Day, she is pulled out of training and put on his trail. While her grief and anger drive her to capture Day--an ultimate death sentence--she discovers that she and most of the population have been manipulated through fear, deception and manufactured plagues. Told alternately from June's and Day's perspective, the ending is ripe for a sequel as we leave June and Day on the run. This book received consistently stellar reviews from even the most critical of sources (e.g., Kirkus) so I felt compelled to read it in my own time. But although it was well executed, it never really grabbed me.

Real Murders

This is the first in the "Aurora Teagarden" series by Charlaine Harris (also writes the Sookie Stackhouse, Lily Bard, and Harper Connelly series). Of particular appeal since Aurora is a librarian in a very small-town-feeling suburb of Atlanta. Real Murders is the name of the club to which Aurora belongs that discusses famous old murder cases. On this particular meeting night, however, she arrives to find one of the members has been murdered in the fashion of the case the group had planned to discuss. And that's just the beginning. The bodies continue to pile up--always group members or those close to them and always copying the details of a famous old murder case. Lily and her new neighbor, a famous mystery writer, can't help but go nosing around and consequently put themselves in the direct path of the killers. But I already told you it was a series, right? BTW, I really like the Lily Bard mysteries--set in the town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. I've been listening to them mostly on CD and haven't written about them yet, but they are very good. Lily has survived a traumatic kidnapping and torture/rape in her youth and now lives and works in a small town where no one knows her past--at least initially. Start with Shakespeare's Landlord.

The Sisters Brothers

Well the title of Patrick DeWitt's black comedy western is suggestive of the book's overall tenor. Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired guns who work for a powerful man in Oregon City known as the Commodore. Eli never really wanted to be in this line of work but has always backed up his older brother who seemed to instigate a lot of fights that ended with somebody being dead. Lately Charlie has been a tad more critical of Eli about everything and Eli is thinking he wants to go run a general store instead of killing people for not very good reasons. The bulk of this tale recounts their (mis)adventures on the trip from Oregon City to California where they are supposed to find a man the Commodore wants dead named Hermann Kermit Warm. Turns out Mr. Warm has invented a formula to make finding gold in the rivers much easier and the Commodore wants the formula before the brothers kills him. Eli just doesn't find that sporting. Along the way they encounter a weeping man, a witch, a grizzly bear, and various people who mean them harm. They get some money and Eli gives some away, usually to any woman who is kind to him. In the end, they manage to lose everything they have stolen, accumulated and saved in a series of unfortunate events, and go home to ...mother! The dialog is reminiscent of Robert Parker's Virgil Cole series (Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone) or perhaps Charles Portis' True Grit, but Eli and Charlie are uniquely their own characters.

Robopocalypse

A slight departure from my usual reading path, although I have been a fan of other sci fi with heavy robot presence (e.g., Asimov) in my youth. This one was recommended on the Powell's Daily Dose blog so I made the leap. Humankind's attempts to create artificial intelligence succeed so well that the creation, which calls itself Archos, outsmarts and escapes its makers and takes over all "smart" technology--from cars to guided missiles to talking dolls--in a concerted effort to get the upper hand. Humans, trusting blindly in their technology, are exterminated by the billions and millions more are placed in "forced labor" camps where they help to build ever-evolving weapons against humanity or are experimented upon in order to find the ideal combination of human and machine.
The book starts at the end, so we know at least some of the humans survive. From various people's viewpoints we read about the early incidents--pre "zero hour"--that alert some to the potential problems, followed by accounts of the time when all the machines turn again humans, and then the "New War," when pockets of resistance fight back. Some of Archos' enemies will turn out to be the hybrid beings he has created--still partly human but with "enhanced" functionality. Others are the original humanoid robots that become "self-aware" and don't want to be controlled by a master robot anymore than they want to be controlled by humans. Other "heroes" are scientists, soldiers, or just those who figure out how to survive and help others survive. An engrossing tale by Daniel H. Wilson, who has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon and, therefore, delivers a believable alternative future.

The Man with the Baltic Stare

This is the 4th of the "Inspector O" series by the pseudonymous James Church and it is as enigmatic as the previous three. Some characters we thought were dead reappear and some new dyanamics are in play. O has apparently gone to live the life of a hermit on a mountain top, crafting wooden toys, when he is brought unwillingly back into play to "solve" a murder in Macau. Someone very high up in the Korean government is all but convicted of murdering a prostitute and O is told to direct attention away from him as prime suspect. It is never entirely clear who the suspect is, but it sounds like the successor to head North Korea, only he is never found. One of the men pulling the strings is a major from South Korea who believes the two countries will be reconciled or at least ruled jointly by the south. But then the Chinese also want to move in as does organized crime. I have never been able to completely follow how O comes up with the solutions to these murky messes he is handed, but I never tire of getting to know O better as he navigates the minefield that is life in North Korea.
Reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

Among Others

Even the title is intriguing for this YA novel by Jo Walton! Morwenna and Maureen were twins who grew up among an extended family in Wales. Dad disappeared from their lives pre-memory and mom was a witch--literally--but there were grandparents and aunts and uncles. Fortunately they also had the fairies, who inhabited the ruins of mining works, to offer some guidance and also to enable their use of magic. When their mother tries to seize control of something we never truly learn about in the book, there is a confrontation which results in the death of Maureen and a crippling injury to Morwenna. Fifteen-year old "Mori," as she now calls herself, has been sent to live with her stranger of a father and his three spinster sisters in England and they in turn have sent her away to a posh boarding school where she feels like an outcast for so many reasons. In an effort to protect herself from her diminished but still dangerous mother, Mori engages in protective magic spells and also wishes for a community of belonging, which comes about in a nearly perfect way. The local librarian tells Mori about the weekly science fiction book group--Mori has always been a voracious consumer of this fare as a primary form of solace and pleasure. Now she has friends and maybe even one special, very handsome friend. The predictable re-confrontation with her mother on a visit home seems a bit short-changed, but the book is very well written in terms of character and setting and I eagerly dove in each night before going to sleep. Maybe you can learn to see fairies, too! Anyone who has ever escaped social exclusion by being a bookworm will identify with this intrepid young woman.

Pretty books about books

I got rather annoyed with the realtor who told us we had too many books and needed to pack some of them away (even some bookcases) before we started showing the house. So the next time we met, I auspiciously placed around the house some lovely coffee table books about decorating with and living with books. Living with Books by Alan Powers even has some plans for constructing bookcases from a variety of materials at the end. At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries (Ellis, Seebohm & Sykes) is much more personal, showing the libraries of artists and writers, titled gentry in elegant stately homes and just ordinary bibliophiles. Resources for restoration of books, furnishing libraries and finding more information on great libraries follow the main pictorially rich text. I still have a couple of similar texts at home to peruse and drool over...trust me, these people ALL have a lot more books than I do!