The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Intriguing integration era novel set from the viewpoint of three characters, two maids and Miss Skeeter, the "writer" of their "stories". Once you pick it up, its hard to put it down.

530 pages

Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger

Felicia Barr, the owner of Knit It Up magazine, has few friends and tons of enemies. Still, it is surprising when she winds up dead, having been stabbed in the back with a knitting needle. Since Felicia dies in the arms of our heroine, Ariadne Evans, what can Ari do but try to figure out who did the dastardly deed? A Knitting Mystery. 293 pages.

Mrs. Jeffries Rocks the Boat by Emily Brightwell

Inspector Witherspoon is confronted with a very mysterious death involving a locked garden, an unidentified murder victim and a lack of suspects. Once again, head housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries and her band of co-workers are determined to assist their kindly employer in solving the case. A Mrs. Jeffries Victorian Mystery. (No need to read them in order although there is somewhat of a storyline that threads its way between the books.) 188 pages.

A Carol for a Corpse by Claudia Bishop

Once again it looks like Quill and Meg might have to give up their beloved Inn at Hemlock Falls unless something drastic happens. Enter L'Apertiff gourmet magazine with an offer to lease the Inn, start a new line of food products created by the Inn and feature the Inn on four shows a season on the TV series, Good Taste. Too good to be true? You bet! Especially when the owner of the company that publishes L'Apertiff turns up dead on the Inn's ski slopes. Could it be murder? Well, of course! This is a Hemlock Falls Mystery, afterall. About halfway through the book I realized I had read it before, but finished it anyway since I couldn't quite remember "who dunnit?" 207 pages.

A clash of kings, by George R.R. Martin

This is book 2 of the Song of Ice and Fire series.
I enjoyed this installment almost as much as the first.
Book 2 continues the saga of the 7 kingdoms of Westeros.
There's a lot of military and political positioning, but there's also some magic. Melisandre of Asshai shows a talent for birthing demons that assassinate kings. Lords Stanis, Rob, Renly, Theon, and King Joffrey each position their armies to take the crown. Tyrion bravely leads a group of men into battle.
The lives of Sansa and Arya teeter on the edge of a knife, and I found no relief to my worries for their safety.
The Mother of Dragons makes her way through the East, trying to raise an army and her dragons.
There's plenty of knightly valor and medieval superstition in this series so far, but it avoids tedium by throwing in some unconventional characters, like a female knight, an "onion" knight, and a swashbuckling seawoman. I'm looking forward to book 3.
audio: 37.25 hours
print: 768 pages

Harry Potter 1-7, J K Rowling

I did it! Everyone start singing "We are the champions!". Just Kidding! Well, maybe... Any how I managed my goal of Sorcerer's Stone to the Deathly Hallows. It was wonderful, as it always is.

4,167 pages total

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith

In this twelfth installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Precious Ramotswe must figure out who is hurting a client's cattle while Grace Makutsi is preoccupied with her upcoming wedding. Like usual, the solution is found through quiet perseverance, conversation and observation. I think what I like best about this series is the kindness, gentleness and integrity found in the main characters. The series is as much about human nature and relationships as it is about solving the case. 224 pages.

Here on Earth, a natural history of the planet by Tim Flannery

A fascinating view of how the earth evolved, and how all creatures but especially we humans are rapidly changing the balance of nature. Flannery begins with a review of the theory of evolution, but moves on to a fresh look at Earth as one great ecosystem. He describes how man has upset the balance of nature from the time we began to expand beyond the African plains, by hunting the largest mammals to extinction. Trouble is, those creatures were essential to the balance of some ecosystems, and without them areas like Siberia became frozen wastes. Now of course humans have overrun the planet and have radically changed much of the planet. He concludes with an assessment of the steps humanity needs to take to avoid catastrophe from latent chemical pollution and rapid climate changes, and his hope we will gather the political will to act in time. This is a very readable overview of a very broad topic, recommended. 281 p.

"The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty" by Simon Baron-Cohen

After reading a good review of this book in one of our routed journals, I decided to check it out for myself because I am interested in why some people seem to have a great deal of empathy and others do not.  Baron-Cohen and his colleagues investigated a lack of empathy in relation to cruelty by studying the brain, trying to find those pathways, and how they differ in people with different degrees of empathy.  He also looked at environmental and genetic factors that influence the empathy mechanism.

What he found is that all three influence how empathetic we are.  He also discovered that people who lack empathy are not automatically negative to our society.  People who suffer from Asperberger Syndrome and other forms of autism do not have much empathy but, because of the way their brains process information, they can have special talents.  However, there are immoral people whose lack of empathy leads them to commit cruel and even evil acts.  Baron-Cohen explains three different personality disorders in which this is the case:  borderline, psychopathic, and narcissistic.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in empathy and how the lack of it can lead to destructive behavior.  My favorite parts were about the three personality disorders and how the lack of empathy can be seen in each one.  206 pages including notes.

(The author is an expert on autism and the cousin of comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen.)

Aftershock: The next economy and America's Future by Robert Reich

You've heard or read much of this theory before - how the recession was partly caused by the middle class running out of buying power, going too far into debt, and then having little resource when the tipping point of bad debts and too much leveraging hit. Reich puts his analysis into that context, and compares current conditions to past periods in America's history. He goes one step further to forecast more pending political upheaval as people become more outraged by their declining standard of living, but expresses hope we would be able to address the income disparities at the heart of the problem before that happens. This book was published in April, before the debt ceiling circus, but after the Republican takeover over of the House. Reich also proposes some interesting solutions to evening out the wealth disparity in the country, to get it back to where the economy can grow. A quick read, but definitely with a Democratic, populist viewpoint. 192 p.

Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger

I found this title at a book sale at the Christian County Library in Ozark. Turns out it was a good selection. It is the first in Kruger's Knitting Mystery series. The characters are quickly introduced and the mayhem rapidly ensues. Ariadne Jorgensen finds it hard to believe when she walks into her knitting store one morning and discovers a body. When the authorities suspect her best friend, Diane, as the murderess, Ari is flabbergasted and vows to get to the heart of the matter. I found it a quick read that left me wanting more. (Hence, I will be putting the MRRL courier service to use!) 336 pages.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Yes, I'm not straying far from the vampire fiction, it seems.  Here he is, Bram Stoker, the grandaddy of the genre.  I really didn't think I would have anything new to say, but a classic is always new when you read it with an open mind.  Some things surprised me, some things didn't.  For instance, I've seen the 1992 Coppola-directed adaptation of this novel, and I was very surprised at how closely the film followed the book-with one exception--the romantic interludes between our favorite blood-sucker and Wilhelmina Murray (Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder) were completely manufactured by the screenwriters.

One thing that didn't surprise me was the experience of reading the book was very much colored by all the many Dracula images western culture has dished up over the decades.  I had alternating visions of Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman dancing around in my head while I read this and, unfortunately, I could not get Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker out of my head either.

The most surprising thing, however, came as I read the chapters that detailed the whole vampire hunting gang as they put their many pieces of the puzzle together, with Mina typing up everyone's diaries and creating a narrative.  This is an epistolary, and as such it is made up of letters and journal entries (Dr. Seward uses the "phonograph" for journaling, Mina uses shorthand), so you get a new pov on every other page.  Mina, with her "brain like a man," is at one point cut out of the vampire hunting strategy sessions due to her female delicacy.

This turns out to be a very bad idea, for the Count likes the ladies, and finds his way into her boudoir while all the stodgies are puffing tobacco, swilling brandy, and theorizing in the man-chamber.  After her blood is nearly drained one evening, the men finally learn their lesson and bring Mina back into the fold.  This is good, because Mina's strong intellect is the only thing keeping this ragtag operation one step ahead of the Count.

Could it be that Bram was an early feminist?  I can't help thinking that he had no compunction about showing what boobs the men-folk were for their exclusion of Mina.  Though Van Helsing frequently shines as the man of the moment, he'd be nothing if he didn't recognize what he had in Mina and the two form a partnership of sorts.  Stoker really drove it home over and over again with Mina using maps and her many notes to divine what the Count would do next, using her psychic connection with the Count to track him over land and sea, and fighting the metamorphosis from human to vampire as the Count's blood took hold...it's very clear that Mina is far more worthy, intelligent, and at least as brave as her male companions.  You go, Bram!

448 pages

Broken English by P. L. Gaus

Millersburg, Ohio is rocked by two murders. One victim appears to be someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time; the second might be a coverup for an act of revenge yet to come. Professor Michael Brandon, Sheriff Bruce Robertson and Pastor Cal Troyer return in this second in the Amish Country Mystery series to bring justice and restore order to the community. I again found the writing to be fairly uneven, so I don't plan on reading the next installment. 224 pages.

Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry

It had been a long time since I last read a Harlequin romance, so when this showed up as a free download on the Barnes and Noble site, I decided to give it a whirl. This book is set in an Amish community where the emphasis is on friendship and loyalty. Andrea, on the other hand, has a corporate job in the big city where dreams of promotions and financial security rule her life. Family becomes paramount, however, when her sister Rachel has an accident, so Andrea races to her side. It soon becomes apparent that it is more than Rachel that is in trouble. All is not well at their family home, soon to be bed-and-breakfast, where other accidents keep happening. Could the Amish be behind it, simply because they do not want to have another bed-and-breakfast in their midst or is there more at play than meets the eye? And what of the mysterious tenant, Cal Burke? How does he fit into the mix? An easy, undemanding read. 256 pages.

Dark Lover (a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood) by J.R. Ward

I'm not normally a romance reader, let alone paranormal romance, but I wanted something spicy, so I gave this well-reviewed 1st book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series a shot.  First, I just wanna say, do not start your reading by going over the rather silly glossary placed in the front of the paperback edition.  You will find it confusing and unintentionally comical.  Terms like 'leelan' and 'shellan' and 'hellan' vaguely sound like Celtic-isms or the names people make up for their unfortunate progeny these days.  Still, the author is creating a secret culture complete with its own separate language and customs and you gotta give her props for inventing something that sounds halfway plausible even if it is amusing outside of context of the book.  It will be easy enough to pick up on definition of these terms as you read, so don't worry about the glossary.

Second, I foolishly did not anticipate so much blood, gore, and violence in a paranormal romance.  Maybe I was expecting a brooding ephemeral vampire dude, but what I got instead was a rather unsophisticated and brutish vampire, frequently described in terms of his immense size and black leather wardrobe.  'Wrath' (don't you love the name?) and his brothers are armed to the teeth, have problems expressing themselves, and pump hard core rap on their SUV sound systems.  Yes, these are BAD dudes.  So very, very bad.  Can't you smell the testosterone?  The smelly leather?  Can't you hear the tough locker-room banter?  If you read this book, you will.

Along with the dark and deadly subculture of the brotherhood, we learn of the 'lessers'; soulless former humans turned vampire hunters who have been unleashed by the mysterious 'Omega,' which I am assuming we learn more of later in the series.  Mr. X is the central lesser, or 'fore-lesser' in this novel and I applaud J.R. Ward for bravely depicting, or attempting to depict the inner workings of a soulless psychopath and giving us a first-hand view of what goes on in his mind as he plots his rise within the lesser ranks, his recruitment of a young aspiring sociopath, and his methodical yet cowardly approach to vampire hunting.  While generally distasteful, I found his sections of the book somewhat intriguing.

Finally, to the love story/sex scenes.  The two main characters are Wrath, king of vampires and Beth, the half-vampire daughter of a recently eliminated vampire aristocrat.  These two are supposed to fall in love, but their first scene together is all about lust.  Nary a word transpires between the two before they get to know each other in the most intimate manner.  Lust at first sight.  Tenderness eventually develops and the four or five sex scenes throughout the book, on a scale that ranges from 'missionary' to 'suspended from the ceiling,' I'd rate solidly as missionary.  The sex was extremely unimaginative and the author used a lot of "jolts of lust" and bodies "raging for release" to express the urgency and carnal desires gripping the two characters as they encounter each other.  There are two scenes of oral sex (presumably to demonstrate the give-and-take nature of their relationship), but all in all, pretty missionary in nature.

Ultimately, this book is a page-turner.  You're reading it to find out what happens next, although whether you develop any sympathy for these characters might depend on how well you want to credit a violent brotherhood with qualities worth caring about.  The 'lessers' certainly present you with a foil--a grasping group of power-hungry murderers and psychopaths who smell like baby powder and lack the strict code of honor as followed by the brotherhood.  If anything, they certainly appear to have less redeeming qualities than the vampire brothers.  In fact, we do see Wrath re-engage in the more constructive behaviors required of a true king as he realizes his love for Beth.  And we also see some of the brothers move away from sheer nihilistic behavior to something resembling brotherly love, and that's probably enough to keep turning those pages.

400 pages

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

What... the... he**?
I'm not going to pretend that I understand this one. I'm still scratching my head. This is a work of fiction regarding oneiric detection. If you're a language or word nerd, you might like this just for the expansive use of vocabulary. But then, you might just understand it better than I do. "Walter Mitty", "Twilight Zone" and "Matrix" all came to mind as I listened to this book.
This book is also obsessed with procedures, documentation, protocols and the like. Written (and narrated) much in the style of an old radio play, it had its attractions.
audio: 9.25 hours
print: 288 pages

About Face (A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery) by Donna Leon

Brunetti is called upon to help with an investigation into illegal trash dumping and trade in hazardous substances. What has him truly baffled is a request from his father-in-law to help with a business decision. Though they get on well enough, they don't really talk to each other much. The two problems turn out to be related, and Brunetti solves both, though he doesn't actually catch the criminal. Not that it matters much. The government agencies involved are corrupt and will simply swap out one crime family for another. All this against the backdrop of Venice in Winter.
audio: 9.5 hours
print: 272 pages

A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin

I can't wait for book 2!
I've seen some reviews that compare this to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I see why they make that comparison: a medieval world with magic and mayhem. But Tolkien tends toward dichotomies of good/evil and white/black, whereas Martin's world is comprised of shades of grey. Events are observed from many different perspectives, and seldom are any of the characters truly good or bad. I do have clear favorites, though. Tyrion Lannister may be small in stature and nearly crippled, but his wit and intelligence more than compensate for any physical shortcomings. A self-proclaimed friend to "misfits and bastards", he was instantly my favorite, though he is not exactly a role model. And plucky little Arya, who couldn't bear learning the petty courtesies and fripperies of court life, but derived such satisfaction in learning to wield a blade. (Actually, where Thrones leaves off, Arya was living in a bad section of town with no guardian. I'm worried for her and must know if she fights her way out all right!) Prince Joffrey, however, is cruel, petulant and petty, and I have yet to find any redeeming qualities in him.
There are plots within plots, rogue agents and enough intrigue to leave you wondering which way is up. It is a long book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The audiobook, narrated by Roy Dotrice, was particularly well done.
Toward the end of the book, a princess who has been meek and scared all her life has found her power... and called forth 3 dragons while she was at it. I wonder what she will do now....
Sorry this post is so long, but I found my self pleasantly lost in the world of Westeros, and was hesitant to leave it. I'm not the only one addicted. See what natejmaster from U City PL has to say about it.
audio: 34 hours
print: 704 pages

The Parsifal Mosaic, by Robert Ludlum

Not going to lie, this took me a while to get into. I'm not really sure why. It was very intriguing and kept me interested after I did. If you are NOT into books that feature a lot of foreign words don't pick this one up. Great murder/mystery/CIA book.

704 pages

"Dangerous in Diamonds" by Madeline Hunter

The fourth and final installment of the "Rarest Blooms" series features Daphne Joyes, the proprietor of The Rarest Blooms flower business and the Duke of Castleford, a rich, bored, and unrepentant rake.  He is immediately smitten with the beautiful and ethereal Daphne, but she wants nothing to do with him until her business and home are threatened by his unexpected inheritance of the land on which they sit.

I had been looking forward to this book because the Duke is so spectacularly bold in his delight of being scandalous and Daphne is so upstanding and does not suffer rakes with seduction in mind.  Unfortunately, it moved rather slowly and did not really hold my attention until about 150 pages into it when the two protagonists finally become three dimensional characters.  The evil Duke of Latham, who played a big part in Daphne's secret past, unites the couple in unexpected ways and brings the book to an intriguing and satisfying conclusion.  359 pages.

For my posts of the other three books in this series, see "Ravishing in Red," "Provocative in Pearls," and "Sinful in Satin."

Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith

This book was a free download from the Barnes and Noble site. It promised to be a combination light romance / family saga / Christian fiction novel. I found the writing humorous and gentle, reminiscent of Grace Livingston Hill. The story features middle daughter, Joan, dealing with sibling rivalry, an aging grandparent, a protective mom, questions of faith and a budding romance with the guy-next-door. Book 1 in the Sister-to-Sister series. 336 pages.

Blood of the Prodigal by Paul L. Gaus

When his grandson turns up missing, Bishop Eli Miller (Amish) takes the unusual step of reaching out to Pastor Caleb Troyer and Professor Michael Brandon (both English) for help. As the mystery unfolds, we are introduced to the characters and the community of Holmes County, Ohio. Considering how slowly the book moved initially I was a little surprised by the rushed ending. This is book one in the Amish-Country Mystery series. I'm interested in reading book two just to see what the pace is like now that the characters are established. 256 pages.