Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was excellent.  Young Katniss Everdeen lives in a country called Panem which is surrounded by 12 districts.  The Capitol rules over the districts by requiring that they send two teenagers every year to the Hunger Games in which they compete to the death while the people of the country watch on live TV.  There are people who create the games and are able to create even more difficult challenges at will, pitting the children of one district against other districts and their own partner.

Katniss volunteered when her 12 year old sister was chosen and she was allowed to take her place.  She accepted the challenge as a death sentence, but could not bear to see her sweet and sensitive sister go to her certain death.  It turns out that the survival skills Katniss' father taught her helped her to do much better in the games than she ever believed possible.


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The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great book for kids and interesting for adults.


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The Romanov Conspiracy: A Thriller"

The Romanov Conspiracy: A Thriller by Glenn Meade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating book about some bones buried outside the place where the Romanovs were brutally killed.  It is a mixture of fact and fiction.  Even though we know the outcome of the DNA tests, the book was still fascinating.


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Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)

Still Life by Louise Penny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book at a time when my life was so busy and complicated, I can't, for the life of me remember what this book was about.  I am writing this review 3 months later and I don't have a clue.

Interestingly, I do remember that I liked it pretty well and would like to read more with the same characters.  The detective was likable and the village charming.  I enjoyed learning more about Quebec and I will probably reread this one before starting the rest of the series.


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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have read this series so many times, I've stopped putting in the dates.  Usually I listen to the audio tapes when I have some work to do that doesn't use all my senses,  but keeps my attention only partially.  While the story is one I know by heart, I am always amazed as another of the numerous incidence of the series plot is laid down to be harvested in a later book.

In this book we see our three heros as teenagers, and they really are!  I think they are bickering and quarreling through the whole book!  I found it annoying, but so totally accurate for their age that it made me smile.  They are constantly at cross purposes and cross with each other.  In this book, the writing takes a much darker turn and younger kids who enjoyed the first four books may find this one a little too dark and dangerous.

The story starts with Ron and Hermoine knowing about the Order of the Phoenix and Harry being kept in the dark.  The problem is that Voldemort is back and he wants to kill Harry. The Order members know how much danger Harry is in and they want to protect him.  The Ministry of Magic is no help because they are determined to believe that Voldemort is not back despite all the evidence.

Voldemort also wants the prophecy concerning Harry Potter which is held at the Ministry of Magic down a dark corridor.  Harry is getting glimpses of what Voldemort sees as he works his evil.  This is helpful when the snake, Nagini, bites Mr. Weasley and leaves him is dying.  Harry is able to alert Professor Dumbledore and someone is at the Ministery of Magic immediately.  Since Harry is being kept out of a lot of the business of the Order, he is determined to find the prophecy himself.

The best part of this book is Delores Umbridge.  The Ministry of Magic is trying to squelch all rumors that Voldemort has returned and so they install Umbridge as the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher.  The Ministry doesn't believe the children should actually practice defensive spells because there is no need.  They believe that the students should read carefully edited text books about dark arts in the past.  Delores, however, in her fluffy pink everything, is just pure evil.  She's a villan you love to hate.  Every time Harry and crew do something, she has poor old Filch hammer up another decree on the wall.  Eventually, just about everything is banned, but the kids, of course, have found a way around the rules.

(Just a little note, the casting in the movie for the part of Delores Umbridge, I think, was wrong.  It would have been better to cast someone whose character was evil posing as someone who is good rather than the other way around.  Delores doesn't ring true until you have seen the movie a couple of times and have already identified with her as an evil person.)  


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Death on the Downs

Death on the Downs by Simon Brett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another adventure from the village of Fethering featuring the odd couple of sleuths, Carol Seddon and her friend, Jude.  Carol stumbles on some bones in a barn while sheltering from a storm.  She has to try to find out who the bones belonged to and, unfortunately, who murdered the victim.  This sets up the amateur detective scenario in which the two friends bumble into the clues and then the solution.

The book is charming because of the characters and environment.  The mystery is just the vehicle to propel us through the charming village of Fethering and the Weldisham Downs.  While the mystery is interesting, the lives of the main characters is what brings me back to these books, that and the probably non-existent village life of the English countryside.





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The House of Velvet and Glass

The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was very interesting.  A young woman finds that under certain circumstances, she is able to see the future.  As she begins to work to change some events by interfering, she finds that changing the future has some unexpected and unpleasant consequences.


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Kissing Christmas Goodbye

Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M.C. Beaton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was one of the better books in this series.  Agatha Raisin is still irritating as usual and obsessed about James Lacy and the perfect Christmas, but she shows compassion for her young detective, Toni, whom she rescues from and abusive home.  Toni is a wonderful addition to the Agatha Raisin stories and breathes new life into the series.  She is talented and personable...a perfect foil for Agatha.  James is his usual wooden self and Agatha's obsession with him is irritation as usual.  In some ways, I keep coming back to Agatha just like she keeps coming back to him.  She irritates me with her shallowness and grousing, but I find myself looking at the library shelves for the latest in the series.


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The Hidden Gallery (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, #2)

The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book in this wonderful series and the governess, Miss Penelope Lumley, has managed to somewhat tame her young charges and help them deal with the constrictions placed on young children of wealthy and socially prominent parents.  It hasn't been easy though.  For one thing, their mother has absolutely no idea how to raise a child, in fact, she is often more of a child than her children.

As the children come to the city, more and more things don't seem to add up.  There is some connection to them and a mysterious society and it involves a hidden room in the Art Gallery.

There are also some disturbing questions about Miss Lumley's parents and the roll of her mentor and teacher at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females.  Why is her hair turning the same color as that of the children?  Why does her mentor require her to use a special conditioner for her hair that changes the color and texture.  What has really happened to her parents.


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Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this in a Ravelry book group and we all enjoyed it immensely.  It was set in the time of the Gordon Riots of 1780.  Barnaby is simple minded and lives with his mother.  He gets drawn into the Gordon Riots by bad companions who use him and then abandon him.  As is usual with Dickens, there are several other plots going on at the same time and they eventually connect.  It is just a delightful book and well worth the time it takes to read it.


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The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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Legacy: A Novel by Danielle Steel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't read any of Danielle Steel's books for a very long time, but someone told me that this book was different and it was.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is a story viewed by characters in the present and past and I like those.  One is a young woman who is working on an advanced degree and living with her boyfriend who is an aspiring archeologist.  Here life is like treading water only there is no shore even being looked for.  Suddenly, the boyfriend leaves to direct a dig and she goes home with virtualy nothing.

While reassising her life at her mother's apartment in the city she agrees to help her mother search for an Indian ancestor who marries a marquis and moves to France.  The genealogy project helps her get her bearings and gives her the strength to change to a life of purpose instead of staying on the same treadmill she has been on.


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The Retribution by Val McDermid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




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Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




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Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has been a long time since I read this and it definitely is a book that you don't want to know the ending before you read it.  The suspense adds a lot to the story and helps to counteract the long philosophical passages. I read this in a book group and we all agreed that the house was a character in the book.  It's brooding menace fills the early chapters and you get the feeling that it wants to exact revenge for the crimes done on that spot of earth.


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Hard Row by Margaret Maron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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Winter's Child by Margaret Maron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars




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