Buster Midnight's Cafe

Buster Midnight's Cafe by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have read three other books by Sandra Dallas and I really loved them, but this one seems a little contrived. The characters are more caricatures, and from the wrong part of the country. I could easily believe that May Anna, Effa Commander and Whippy Bird came from a small town in Texas rather than Montana. The names, grammar and some of the actions seem more like the deep South. On the other hand, the fact that May Anna's mother has "gentlemen callers" and May Anna quits high school to become a hooker, and this is accepted by the circle of friends is really bizarre. That could happen, but not in the way it is portrayed in this book. Parts of it just don't ring true. I found it hard to relate to the characters and their attitudes. The author actually seems to glamorize the "sex trade" in a way that is not realistic, and I can hardly see Hollywood accepting this background for a major star as a simple matter of choice.

Still, there is a lot about the story that is interesting. The characters do get better as the book goes on and the way their lives turn out is not completely predictable. I don't know...I just can't put my finger on what is wrong with this book, but it just didn't ring true to me and nothing in me resonated with it. Her other books are MUCH better.

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The Persian Pickle Club

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have become very fond of these books by Sandra Dallas. This was one of her best. It involves a quilting circle in a small Kansas town during the depression. As the women meet together to quilt and discuss the details of their lives, they become so bonded to one another that they are able to share intense secrets almost as one person.

Into this mix comes the son and brother of two of the members and his new wife, Rita. Tom has gone to college in Denver and he and his young wife intended to continue to live in the city until unemployment and the need of his family force him back to the farm. His wife has her heart set on becoming a reporter and life in the small Kansas town is difficult even though she is welcomed into the Persian Pickle Club by virtue of the membership of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. When bones are dug up in a local field, she attacks the mystery as an investigative reporter, not understanding the ways of these rural people.

There is enough tension in the book to make it not just another sewing/knitting circle book. The characters are well drawn and compelling. There is also a great variety in the characters in the group which provides an interesting mix. I will be reading all of Sandra Dallas' books.
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The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was harder to read than most of Chesterton's work. His sleuth, Horne Fisher, is not as compelling as Father Brown and most of the mysteries are very short and end without the lawbreakers being brought to justice formally, although in many cases, justice ends up being served anyway.

The other problem I had with the book was the amount of British politics in it. Since I don't recognize the titles for various political offices, it was often hard to get an understanding of the issues. That being said, the stories did make sense and the solutions of the mystery were amazingly clever, especially the one about Prince Michael and the tower.

As usual, Chesterton writes beautifully and has such a wonderful power of description that most of the characters became very real with the exception of Horne Fisher. For most of the stories, he is more of an observer, so the lack of personal details makes some sense, but I would have liked it more if he had been better drawn.
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been years since I have read this. I was looking for a book to use for homeschool for my 9 year old granddaughter and I thought this might be what I was looking for. The interest level is right and it has the kind of challenging vocabulary and sentence length found in most classics. I knew that the book differed some from the movie, but I couldn't remember how much. While there are a number of story lines not developed in the movie, it does follow the book fairly well.

This is simply a wonderful tale and every child should read it. It is not only a fun story, but there is a spirit of empowerment that runs all the way through. Whatever our intrepid four need to do, they "gird up their loins" and do it. Without being preachy, the book conveys the idea of meeting challenges step by step, loyalty, courage, integrity and friendship. Baum's imagination was so rich and creative that even adults will find this enjoyable.

I read, years ago, that the head librarian of the New York Public Library was totally against this book when it was first published and did everything she could to convey the idea that it was not literature and shouldn't be found in libraries. Fortunately, children and adults had more sense and the book has been popular ever since it was written.

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The Cincinnati Red Stalkings

The Cincinnati Red Stalkings by Troy Soos

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Troy Soos writes a great story for baseball fans, of which I am one. I love the stories about the earlier days of baseball when the salaries weren't so high and players weren't so removed from the fans. This mystery takes place in 1921, the year that the Chicago "Black Socks" were supposed to have thrown the world series. I had always heard about it and felt that Shoeless Joe Jackson got a raw deal, but I never understood all the mysteries surrounding the scandal. While that isn't the the major theme in this book, a great deal of information is given, especially about the extreme actions of the Commissioner of Baseball and the feelings of the fans.

I also enjoyed the cameo appearances of Eppa Rixey who was from Rixeyville, just up the road from where I lived in Virginia. I had heard about him and saw a plaque dedicated to him, but never had any other information. Troy Soos fleshes out his character and gives some details about a few games he played in.

This book centers around the murder of a man who was gathering memorabilia from the earliest players and games. It is how the Baseball Hall of Fame must have started. Unfortunately, this young man was murdered and Mickey Rawlings is determined to find out how and why after his own house is broken into. Mickey was given some of the material that wasn't going to end up in the museum and he figures that the killer did not get the thing he sought when he broke into the museum.


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Death of the other self

Death of the other self by Peter Packer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this a long time ago and was fascinated with it. The story is about identical twins, Todd and Tim Nicholson, heirs to the Pullman fortune. The boys were brought up by two seemingly totally self centered parents and were left to raise themselves. They were so close that they seemed as one person. In fact, their mother gave up trying to tell them apart and called each one Tim/Todd. This is really sad because you could tell them apart fairly easily. Tim was left-handed and like many identical twins, his hair grew in the opposite direction from his brother's. I just looked through the photos in the book and got them correct each time. In some photos, both boys hair is combed the same way, but one of the twin's hair flops over the forehead because the part is on the wrong side from the way the hair grows naturally. It seemed like the ultimate neglect for the parents to not make an effort to call them by their right names when just a little attention would give them their individuality.

The boys were uncontrollable and even spent some time at a military school at a very early age because no one could make them behave or stop fighting. This competition and fighting kept up their whole lives, but they were also so close they could not stand to be separated. They were all each other had.

As time went on, this uncontrolled nature began to be serious, especially for Todd. According to the book, he went into incredible rages and often targeted anyone around, but especially, Tim. Ultimately it was in one of those rages that Todd was shot by his brother. The defense claimed that it was self-defense even though two shots were fired and I believe it happened the way Tim said it did. It doesn't actually matter if Tim seemed to have gotten off lightly; for someone who has had only one person in his life to love and count on, jail could not have been worse than living without his brother.

I felt like this was a story about what happens to children who are spoiled and yet neglected, undisciplined and left without responsible role models. These boys raised themselves and because they were not getting the attention they needed from either of their parents, they were in constant competition. The same brother who was the only one to love and be loved by was also the major competitor for the drips and dregs of his parents attention. This was a fascinating story.

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Death of the other self

Death of the other self by Peter Packer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this a long time ago and was fascinated with it. The story is about identical twins, Todd and Tim Nicholson, heirs to the Pullman fortune. The boys were brought up by two seemingly totally self centered parents and were left to raise themselves. They were so close that they seemed as one person. In fact, their mother gave up trying to tell them apart and called each one Tim/Todd. This is really sad because you could tell them apart fairly easily. Tim was left-handed and like many identical twins, his hair grew in the opposite direction from his brother's. I just looked through the photos in the book and got them correct each time. In some photos, both boys hair is combed the same way, but one of the twin's hair flops over the forehead because the part is on the wrong side from the way the hair grows naturally. It seemed like the ultimate neglect for the parents to not make an effort to call them by their right names when just a little attention would give them their individuality.

The boys were uncontrollable and even spent some time at a military school at a very early age because no one could make them behave or stop fighting. This competition and fighting kept up their whole lives, but they were also so close they could not stand to be separated. They were all each other had.

As time went on, this uncontrolled nature began to be serious, especially for Todd. According to the book, he went into incredible rages and often targeted anyone around, but especially, Tim. Ultimately it was in one of those rages that Todd was shot by his brother. The defense claimed that it was self-defense even though two shots were fired and I believe it happened the way Tim said it did. It doesn't actually matter if Tim seemed to have gotten off lightly; for someone who has had only one person in his life to love and count on, jail could not have been worse than living without his brother.

I felt like this was a story about what happens to children who are spoiled and yet neglected, undisciplined and left without responsible role models. These boys raised themselves and because they were not getting the attention they needed from either of their parents, they were in constant competition. The same brother who was the only one to love and be loved by was also the major competitor for the drips and dregs of his parents attention. This was a fascinating story.

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Murder at a Vineyard Mansion by Philip R. Craig

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book and it kept my attention, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The main character, JW Jackson, a former Boston detective, loves his family and life on Martha's Vineyard. When he is asked by the female version of and "old curmudgeon" to investigate a murder, JW finds himself investigating some of the old line aristocracy of the island whose lives are intertwined. At the same time, there is a different kind of criminal...kind of a high tech Robin Hood on the island. This Robin Hood robs from the loud and gives peace and quiet to the multitude. He has found a way to electronically silence the loud car speakers and stereo systems so that they can never break ear drums again. Do we really want to see this guy caught and stopped? He sounds like a public benefactor to me, but JW makes the point that he might decide that Mozart needed to go also and that wouldn't sit too well. This is a good easy read.
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Murder at a Vineyard Mansion by Philip R. Craig

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book and it kept my attention, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The main character, JW Jackson, a former Boston detective, loves his family and life on Martha's Vineyard. When he is asked by the female version of and "old curmudgeon" to investigate a murder, JW finds himself investigation some of the old line aristocracy of the island whose lives are intertwined. At the same time, there is a different kind of criminal...kind of a high tech Robin Hood on the island. This Robin Hood robs from the loud and gives peace and quiet to the multitude. He has found a way to electronically silence the loud car speakers and stereo systems electronically so that they can never break ear drums again. Do we really want to see this guy caught and stopped? He sounds like a public benefactor to me, but JW makes the point that he might decide that Mozart needed to go also and that wouldn't sit too well. This is a good easy read.
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Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory

Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory by Kimberly L. Craft

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was incredibly interesting. It took me a while to read it because of the subject, but I am glad that I read it. Countess Erzsebet Bathory was a wealthy woman from Hungary who murdered countless young woman brutally. Using her position, she brought in somewhere around 300 girls from about 10-14 and brutalized them until they died.

The book style is a little hard to get into because it is a compilation of actual records, testimonies, and documents. She was aided by 5 of her servants, four of whom were active participants and one who was ordered to torture the girls or be tortured herself. No one is exactly sure how many girls died, but even if the estimate is low, she is still one of the worst serial killers in history and the only woman to have killed so many.

I was interested in the book because it seems almost impossible for someone to have done this and I wanted some confirmation before I accepted it as true and this book has done that. Like The Nazi Doctors, this was hard to read, but important in understanding what makes people behave like this and what a human being is capable of.
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The Wise Woman

The Wise Woman by George MacDonald

George MacDonald is one of my favorite authors. I love his imagination and his ability to tell a story that feels like a folk tale which has come down through the ages.

This tale is about two little girls, one a spoiled princess, and one a vain and selfish shepherdess. The Wise Woman steals them from their homes and attempts to teach them what their neglectful parents have not. While some would call the tale moralizing, it is totally appropriate for today's parents and children. Just about every time I go to a store like WalMart, I see badly behaved children and I feel like it is just as much abuse to allow them to grow up to be obnoxious teens and adults as it is to beat them, and unfortunately, may be even worse.

The Wise Woman attempts to teach the girls by putting them in situations we would call behavior management or conditioning. She is really quite clever, but the reader is never certain if the girls can be changed. My favorite part of the book came at the end when she had a few things to say to the parents of these girls. She makes certain that they understand that they have neglected their responsibility as parents:>)


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The Children's Blizzard

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is similar to The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. It tells of a freak blizzard that hit the northern plains states in 1888. Scores of immigrants had sold everything and come to the rich lands of the American prairie only to find that the harsh climate could destroy those dreams in a day. The blizzard was called "the children's blizzard" because it struct about the time that children were going or returning from school. The weather bureau was in its infancy and the politics of the government agency and the conflicting claims of the railroad made it difficult to get what little warning there was out to the people. Actually, while there were problems with the weather bureau, this storm was so huge, so freakish and moving so rapidly that it was probably unpredictable with the weather instruments of the day and impossible to get word to the people on the prairie who had no phones or radios. This storm stands out like the 1935 hurricane in the Florida Keys and the Galveston hurricane of 1909 and the perfect storm of 1991...perfect, but sinister storms where every variable added more fuel to the raging tempests.

I remember a storm a little like this from my childhood in St. Louis. The weather of the morning of the storm was very mild and, like the children in the book, we went to school without boots, gloves or even hats. Out of nowhere came an incredible drop in temperature...in the case of the 1888 storm of even 30 degrees in less than half an hour. In our case, traffic came to a standstill and our buses couldn't run. We were kept at school for hours and hours watching the snow build and wondering if someone could come and get us. The nuns played games with us and allowed us to slide on the hall floors, something totally forbidden, in order to keep us from panicking, but the snow continued to rage. Finally a neighbor walked home from his work and then walked the 2 miles to the school bringing winter hats, boots and mittens for us and we set out for home. I will always be grateful for those wonderful nuns whose faith and good nature made our wait more of an adventure than anxiety. I remember standing at the window, realizing that it was possible than no one could get through and I remember one of the nuns calling us to slide on the perfectly waxed floors and making a game of who could slide the furthest. The incredible novelty of being encouraged to break such a hard fast rule made me leave my fears at the window and revel in such an unexpected pleasure.

The teachers and students of 1888 didn't have paved roads lined with houses to follow as we did. Teachers faced the decision to keep the children at school and hope their firewood held out or was enough to keep them freezing in temperatures of -30 degrees, or to lead them home as quickly as possible. In some cases, the decision didn't matter. They were doomed no matter what they chose. In other cases, some children miraculously were found alive where they seemingly had little chance of making it and others were found dead all huddled together on the bare prairie.

It wasn't just children. Farmers got lost going to the barn and froze to death just feet from their homes. Cattle froze standing up and toppled over when it began to thaw. Some communities lost dozens of members and some families lost almost all their children in just one day. Little decisions, easily made, spelled life or death.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a glimpse into the tremendous power of nature an a reminder that no matter how advanced we become, we can never control nature. It is also an excellent glimpse into the life of early immigrants and the prairie they lost so much to tame.
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The Art of Detection (Kate Martinelli, #5)

The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know how it happened, but I have read two books in a row in which the gay/lesbian secondary theme in the book has been heavy handed and off putting. I am getting very tired of it. The detective, Kate Martinelli has her perfect little lesbian family with her partner's all too perfect and wise 3 year old child. About half the book is devoted to these side issues and, predictably, all the gays are wonderful, misunderstood, and discriminated against and the rest of the characters are either wildly supportive of their lifestyle or complete jerks. There is preaching, dogmatism and intolerance on the alternative lifestyle proponents that is every bit as nauseating as the morality plays of the past. Kate has an attitude that is every bit as prejudiced, bigoted and sanctimonious as the people she demeans. Please, authors, give it a rest!! This has nothing to do with a fairly decent mystery so why include it?

The setting involves a group of people who are Sherlock Holmes aficionados and the murder of one of their members. When his body is found in a gun emplacement on the Marin headlands Kate and her partner, Al Hawkins, believe the murder has been committed elsewhere and the body has been staged. They trace the murder victim to his home which is awesome as well as eerie. On the bottom two floors, the house is a replica of a San Francisco home at the time of Sherlock Holmes even down to the gas lights and heat. On the third floor, where Philip Gilbert mainly lives, he has a computer, security system with a nanny camera and even an elevator, but the rest of the house allows him to immerse himself in the life and times of Sherlock Holmes.

The crux of the story involves a newly found manuscript supposedly written by Arthur Conan Doyle while he was visiting San Francisco and it involves a complicated murder which was similar to the staging of Philip Gilbert's murder. The detective work is quite good and the solution is interesting and plausible. The addition of all the Sherlock Holmes information makes the book work slogging through despite all the gay/lesbian posturing.
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Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter (Dixie Hemingway Mystery #1)

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wasn't as fond of this book as I thought I might be. The plot is simple and fits the cozy mystery genre, but I got tired of all of the posturing the author does throughout the book. Dixie was a Sarasota Sheriff's Deputy until her husband and daughter were killed and she became emotionally unstable. She gets embroiled in an investigation when one of the cats she cares for is found cowering in a corner and a man is found duck taped to the cat's water bowl. Dixie has an uneasy feeling about the whole set-up and she has a hard time explaining to Lieutenant Guidry what is going on.

The part I got very tired of was Dixie's gay brother, Michael and his partner. It is very heavy handed to make all the gay people incredibly handsome, mature and wise and the people who are uneasy about the relationship stupid, intolerant and homophobic. Enough, all ready! This is exactly like the old morality plays except the roles have been reversed and the PC proponents are just as prejudiced and sanctimonious as the people they vilify. Wouldn't it be better to just treat people, gay and straight, as simply people, sometimes bigoted and sometimes wonderful, sometimes handsome, sometimes plain etc.? Isn't that what being inclusive is all about. Just because you are gay doesn't make you handsome, wise and charming and everyone else jerks.
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The Tale of Hawthorn House (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #4)

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




Fairies take center stage in this book also and we get to know them even better as they interact with the “big people.” During the village fete, a baby is deposited on Beatrix Potter’s doorstep with a sprig of hawthorn on it. Beatrix would love to care for it herself, but the care of her demanding parents and her work as an author seem to make it impossible. Still, she lives with regret, which is made even more poignant, by her work as a children’s author and her instinctive understanding of them and the magical world they inhabit.

Keeping the baby is no problem for her friend, Dimity though. All thoughts of having children seem to have gone from Dimity’s life with the marriage of the Boer War hero from the last book. Dimity has loved him all her life and she has never married, content to keep house for her brother and make herself respected and useful in the village.
But where did the baby come from? The only clue is the hawthorn sprig tucked in with the baby. It apparently has come from Hawthorn Manor, an unfortunate old mansion cursed by the spirits in the Hawthorn trees ruthlessly chopped down to improve the view of the lake. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the trees had been informed and treated with reverence. Part of the curse put on the house is that no babies will fill its walls. An old crone was seen running to Beatrix’s house with a bundle and many of the villagers think she was the spirit of the hawthorns or a fairy in disguise.

This book was especially good, I thought. There was a little more of a mystery in this one and it took some research and more active sleuthing on the part of Beatrix to solve. The development of the children is richer in this book also and they are becoming characters with a following as well as Beatrix and her friends.
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The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #3)

The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this third book of the series, the local children are attempting to get the fairies to help them and they find a true believer in Beatrix Potter. Susan Wittig Albert writes about fairies with the same mix of awe, reverence and fear that Tolkien does. The quest for the fairies help and the plight of the children is by far, the most important thread in the book. We are led into a world where fairies do get involved with the life of the “big people,” but they can never be taken for granted or controlled. They come and go as they please and are only visible to the young at heart.

In contrast, the “big people” are embroiled in their own problems and most don’t see how fairies could possible be a part of them. The local Boer war hero, has returned dreadfully wounded, but with a new bride who sets the village’s teeth on edge. What in the world could he be thinking of? She is totally inappropriate for village life and she isn’t even nice. To add to it, there is something suspicious in her relationship to a new man who appears to be a relative of the vicar’s and has come to stay, and stay, and stay.

One of the things I like about this series is that it follows the life of Beatrix Potter and weaves known attitudes and events into a beautifully crafted historical and yet fanciful--- tale. It is a wonderful series to curl up with on a rainy day and enjoy to the fullest. There is just enough mystery to keep you engaged while you enjoy life in a kinder and gentler time.
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The Tale of Holly How (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #2)

The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this second tale of life in the village, Bearix Potter is beginning to fit in better because of her kind manner and quiet ways. The villagers don’t know what to make of her determination to run her farm by herself though, but they like the fact that she is attempting to build up a herd of local sheep which are in danger of dying out. When she goes to look over some sheep she has bought, she finds the body of the elderly shepherd and it appears that he has been murdered.

At the same time, she is struggling to build an addition to her farm so that she can keep on the family who have worked the farm for so long and yet give her the privacy of her own home. Working with the local builder is a daunting task, but Beatrix is proving to be tougher than she looks.

In the village a crisis has arisen when the job of head teacher is vacant and the hiring of a new head is suddenly called into question. Everyone favors the primary teacher, but the lady of the manor has suddenly brought in a new candidate with much better credentials. Something seems wrong about him though and it is not just his credentials. The Lady’s personal assistant seems to be wielding more and more power and things just smell funny to Beatrix.

This is a delightful book to just sit back and read or, even better, listen to as an audiobook. The people are engaging and the animals keep up enough chatter to push the plot ahead and sometimes get through to their owners.


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The Tale of Hill Top Farm (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, #1

The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a delightful tale based loosely on the life of Beatrix Potter while she was staying on a village farm in the lakes district which she bought with the proceeds of her books. It is a combination of the Miss Read tales with The First Ladies Detective Agency books. There is a mystery here, but it is secondary to the goings on of the village. This is especially charming because the village animals and Ms Potter's pets also talk to each other to move the plot along and provide commentary.

In her description of village life, I could hear the echoes of Miss Read as she describes the little puzzles of life in Thrush Green. Many of these seem like mysteries because the reader is unsure of how the problems can be resolved in a way that is good for all the people involved.

This is definitely a cozy mystery and a comfort book, wonderful to read when you are tired of the complexity of your life and the plights or our modern world. The book is a far cry from Osama bin Laden and the Japanese earthquake and will definitely recharge your batteries.
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Folly

Folly by Laurie R. King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a very compelling look at madness and healing. I found it different from anything else I have read by Laurie R. King. The main character is a woman, Rae Newborn, in her 50's, who has been subject to severe depression and several suicide attempts, and who has come to a deserted island in the Juan de Fuga straits. She was attempting to reconstruct the house left by her mysterious Great Uncle Desmond. The house burned and Desmond disappeared many years before and for some reason, she has an odd connection to both the house and her Uncle Desmond. Rae had been a successful artist whose worked with wood brought her fame and wealth, but after the tragic death of her husband and small daughter, and the madness it drove her to, has turned to building as a form of healing and finding herself again.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the intersection between paranoid madness and the possibility of actual physical danger from a real person who is stalking and intent on killing her. Rae struggles to differentiate between the two and to heal herself by reacting appropriately to the very real danger she is in.

Laurie R. King's skill at creating characters is never stronger than in this novel. The complexities of Rae, her daughter Tamara, and their relationship is the best of all her books. In Rae, she has given a window into madness and the struggle to reach beyond the chaotic thoughts of the insane to sanity. I have a relative who is mentally ill and I found real insight into the self-destructive impulses that can not be controlled despite a true desire to be sane.


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Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book while I was visiting in Mississippi about 60 miles from Holly Springs. I was there for a funeral and I experienced so many of the things mentioned in the book. Some have criticized it because of the number of questions that were answered in seemingly miraculous ways, but when you visit a place after a number of years, word gets around and people come to visit and talk and many of the mysteries of your childhood are explained or understood. We know that God does act in human events and just because the time in this book is telescoped, does not make the events outside possibility.

Father Tim began his journey because of a cryptic note that told him to "come home." Sensing that there is something important in the request, he takes his dog and heads South. He visits a hardware store and meets people there who catapult him into his boyhood. Word is spread that he is visiting and old friends and enemies contact him. Some of the information he receives is very difficult for him to hear, but he accepts what he hears as something that God wants him to know and act on.

This is a good story with enough mystery to keep the reader wondering, but it is also inspirational. As Father Tim learns things about his past, he has to change his view of many people he knew and to be both forgiving and forgiven. The courage that he exhibits is an inspiration and a reminder that we are not put on this earth for our own happiness, but to do the will of the One who sent us.

I was amazed to find that Jan Karon was not from Mississippi. She has managed to capture the language and customs of the Deep South with amazing accuracy. I was especially pleased when she added a little known custom of asking the person you are visiting to “come along with me.” To me that has always meant that you were having such a good time visiting that even though you had to go, you wanted the person to go with you and continue the visit.




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Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that this is my least favorite of Jane Austen's novels. Her character, Fanny Price, is just a little too humble and nice. I think everyone would like her better if she just got angry with the way she was treated from time to time. She was a niece of her mother's sister who was taken in by the family when she was about 11. Her own mother did not marry well and the poverty of her home and the large number of siblings prompt her Aunt Norris to suggest to her sister that Fanny come to live at Mansfield Park. Fanny begins her life with the four Bertram cousins, and while she is educated, she lives a life of a half-servant, waiting on her Aunt Bertram.

As the novel progresses, we see the superficiality of her cousins and their parents as well as the interfering hypocrisy of her Aunt Norris. Sir Thomas has made his wealth by dealing in slavery, his wife is so indolent and self-absorbed that she neglects her children and does not seem at all interested in developing their character, which leads to disastrous consequences as the book progresses. As with most of Jane Austen's books, the main focus of the book is marrying someone wealthy.

Fanny somehow has managed to have a deep moral sense and spirit of humility and stands in contrast to her cousins. The only one whom she has a relationship is her cousin, Edmond, the youngest son. His desire is to take Holy Orders and, unlike most wealthy young men of his class, does it from a true desire to minister to the people he is called to serve.

Into this mix come a brother and sister who are visiting the local Vicar. While they are superficially charming, they are extremely shallow and amoral. Edmond falls in love with Mary and while she tells him that she will never be a clergyman's wife as there is no prestige or income, she flirts with him outrageously and tries to change his position. Her brother is very attached to the two older sisters, but eventually decides to flirt with Fanny to amuse himself and ends up falling in love with her.

I have to admit that this is my least favorite of Jane Austen's novels. Her character, Fanny Price, is just a little too humble and nice. I think everyone would like her better if she just got angry with the way she was treated from time to time. She was a niece of her mother's sister who was taken in by the family when she was about 11. Her own mother did not marry well and the poverty of her home and the large number of siblings prompt her Aunt Norris to suggest to her sister that Fanny come to live at Mansfield Park. Fanny begins her life with the four Bertram cousins, and while she is educated, she lives a life of a half-servant, waiting on her Aunt Bertram.

As the novel progresses, we see the superficiality of her cousins and their parents as well as the interfering hypocrisy of her Aunt Norris. Sir Thomas has made his wealth by dealing in slavery, his wife is so indolent and self-absorbed that she neglects her children and does not seem at all interested in developing their character, which leads to disastrous consequences as the book progresses. As with most of Jane Austen's books, the main focus of the book is marrying someone wealthy.

My objections to the book are that it sags in the middle under the weight of too many examples of the superficial details of the main characters lives. Fanny is appalled at their behavior and that redeems her, not because she is a prig, but because she stands alone against overwhelming derision. Her own background in her parents home is chaotic at best and she could hardly have learned such virtues there or at Mansfield Park. I think it is this strength of character that keeps her from being a simple character in a morality play. While this is a harder book to read that any of Austen's other works, it is still filled with the kinds of things we expect from her works.


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The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this book in my GPS on the way home from Mississippi. This is a new experience, but it worked very well. The book was fairly well written although it dragged a bit in the middle. One thing I objected to was the language. When you are reading a book, you can skip over it, but in an audiobook, especially in the car, you are forced to just sit there and be assaulted.

The story begins with the murder of a boy who was the ring-leader of a group of 4 boys who raped and abused a Native American girl who suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. They received very light sentences and two of the boys showed very little remorse. Someone has murdered the most obnoxious boy and there is a strong feeling that the murder has taken justice into his/her own hands. When another boy is killed, the sheriff is desperate to protect the two remaining boys.

The book is interesting, but there are some supernatural scenes which become tedious. The ending also could have been foreshadowed or at least some groundwork done to make it fit the book better.


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The Body Snatcher and Other Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of three very different short stories by Robert Lewis Stevenson. The first is a story about medical students and the grim work of the resurrectionists. It is set in the 1800's in Scotland and involves the action of young medical students and their secret work of digging up fresh graves to provide corpses for dissection. The very action of learning often compromises their own morality when the cause of death is suspiciously opportune and the identity of the corpse is known. It reminds me of Burk and Hare trials in 19th century and I think it has been the basis for several movies.

The second tale is completely different and reminds me of something out of Grims' Fairy Tales. It deals with the greed of an old woman and the results of her choices for her family. Like most old tales, there is a strong sense of morality and justice in it.

The last is also a folk story about a shaman/magician and the greed of his son-in-law. The old shaman needs his son-in-law's help and reveals the source of his wealth to be a magic island. The son-in-law returns to the island to steal the money and becomes ensnared in the magic of the island. Again, there is a strong sense of morality and revenge.

All of these tales are similar to those of Hawthorne and feel like they are based in true legends and morality tales. Each is complete and I could feel like I was sitting around a fire listening to an old sage reveal the legends of the ancestors.







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Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been a while since I read this and we were talking about books most re-read and this was mentioned. This has always been one of my favorite books and every time I read it again, I see something new.

The story is set in the 19th century and centers on an extremely proud and wealthy young man, Mr. Darcy and a strong minded, intelligent young woman, Elizabeth Bennett, who forms a strong prejudice against Darcy because of his pride and hurtful manner.

Elizabeth's family is a complete disaster. Her mother flutters over her five daughters and thinks only of getting them married off to wealthy men. She is unbelievable silly and most of the time offensive. She allows her silly and fickle younger daughters to flirt with any prospective young man and when that leads to absolute disaster, she still doesn't see what she has done. Elizabeth's father, while intelligent and kind is no match for his frivolous wife and younger daughters, and rarely interferes, no matter how distastefully they behave. He is only attached to Elizabeth and the kind and lovely oldest daughter, Jane.

Mr. Darcy's friend, Mr. Bingley, has fallen in love with the beautiful Jane, but his snobbish sisters, and Darcy himself are determined that there should be no match which would end in any relationship with the horrible Bennett family no matter how respectable Elizabeth and Jane are. The middle of the book is a saga of offenses, cross purposes, and star-crossed love.

As with all of Jane Austen's books, the plot is not the most important aspect. It is her ability to draw carefully constructed characters who grow and change throughout the book which makes her works classics. Along with the dynamic main characters, there are a number of unforgettable minor characters who are memorable and drawn to perfection. These include, the impossible Mrs. Bennett; the silly and flirtatious sisters, Kitty and Lydia; the supercilious, but somehow redeemable, clergyman, Mr. Collins; the scoundrel Mr. Wickham; and the kind, intelligent, but flawed and lazy Mr. Bennett. Sometimes I think it is the minor characters that draw you in and keep you reading while the more dynamic characters wrestle with their flaws and eventually emerge wiser and more mature; and, since this is Jane Austen, in love with each other. These minor characters are so real, you find yourself trying to figure out who they are reminding you of. Of course, they are an exaggeration, but only in that they are an amalgam of more real traits than are usually found in one person. All their actions ring true and if Mr. Collins would walk into the room, you would know him in an instant.

I know there are many who don't like Jane Austen because there is too much description, too many words and "flowery language," and main characters too concerned with money and getting married, but this is the world she was writing in. Her writing is like a hidden camera on the 19th century. Unfortunately, many people miss learning about this world and human nature because they don't want to do the work necessary to unlock what Jane Austen has to say.
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Emma

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a re-read, probably for about the 5th time. It is always fresh no matter how many times I read it. There are so many things that I find that I have missed.

The story is set in England in the 19th century. While the village is only 17 miles from London, it is deep in the country. Emma, the bright, clever, pretty and beloved daughter of one of the first families in the district, has been spoiled dreadfully in her upbringing. She has no social equals and after the loss of her governess and friend, she sets to work to manipulate the lives of others in the village by attempting to make matches between the people she knows. The only person who has ever not spoiled Emma is the local, most eligible, bachelor, George Knightly. While he cares deeply for Emma and her father, he has always tried to bring some semblance of discipline into Emma's life by speaking the truth plainly to her.

As with almost every book by Jane Austen, there are plots and subplots, innuendo, misinformation, and wrong assumptions. Even though the elements of her stories are similar, the characters stand out almost as real people. In fact, next to Dickens, I believe Jane Austen created the most memorable characters in English Literature. Sometimes I think I re-read this book just to encounter the deliciously obnoxious Mrs. Elton.

Emma is a dynamic character and I found myself very irritated with her for the first half or more of the book. She meddles in people's lives and thinks she knows what is best for them. She has a deep seated snobbishness but a kind heart and, where she has found favor, a lack of class consciousness. In other words, she is a complex character who is basically kind and loving, but the petting and spoiling of her early life has led her to believe that everything she believes is right. She cheerfully meddles in people's lives and then is chagrined when the desired outcome does not work the way she intended.

There are some rough places in the book, especially when listening to an audiobook. The silly, boring and incredibally talkative Mrs. Bates, can be easily be skimmed over in a book, but she is hard to skip in an audiobook. She goes on and on and I am sure Jane Austen meant for her readers to experience just how boring she could be. There is also a lot of description which may irritate some readers, but to me evokes a time when lives moved at a slower pace and the concerns of the people were more mundane and closer to home. The endless discussions of what people should eat, or the superiority of the local doctor by Emma's father were similar to conversations I listened to in the 60's on the isolated Eastern Shore of Virginia. Where there is very little that changes, conversations center on the tiny details of daily life and family and this is what Jane Austen shows us. As with all of Jane Austen's book, in the end the threads are gathered together, all ends well, and dear Emma has come out a wiser and happier young woman.

This is classic #10 for the year. Fifteen more to go.
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Cure

Cure by Robin Cook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not my favorite kind of book. I love the forensics and the medical mystery but I do not like anything to do with Mafia or other crime organizations, spies or anything of that sort. First, they are always callously "bumping people off", and second, they are all such unpleasant people who are usually only two dimensional.

Unfortunately, this not only has New York crime organizations, but two rival organizations from Japan. It seems as if the Mafia has turned over a new leaf, at least in New York. There is sort of a bargain with the police; if they quit murdering people right and left, the city will not look too closely at the drug operations. How cynical is that???

The action picked up in the second half of the book and, while there is still a lot Mafia operation, this part of the book was more about the medical and personal side. The conclusion is good and keeps you turning the pages.


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Cain His Brother (William Monk, #6)

Cain His Brother by Anne Perry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was another good book in this series. William Monk has a case that involves twin brothers who are like Cain and Abel. When Angus, the proper family man, turns up missing, his wife knows that his evil twin, Caleb has murdered him. She engages Monk to find out for certain that Caleb has murdered him and turn up the body, or have him declared dead so that she can either get a new manager for his business or sell it while it is still profitable to provide for herself and her five children. When everything the woman says appears to be true, Monk looks in earnest for the murderer and Angus's body.

At the same time, typhoid fever has broken out in the slums and Hester, Lady Callandra, and the missing man's stepmother work ceaselessly in the same area Monk is searching for Angus and Caleb. As usual, the cases intersect and Hester becomes involved with Monk’s search for Caleb. To add to this mix, Monk has gotten involved with a person who is determined to extract revenge for something that he did early in his career and for which he has no memory.

At one point, the book seems to drag, but then another plot thread begins and the book is takes off again. As usual, Monk runs into his former callous self and has no memory of things he has done and people he has wronged. One of the interesting things about Monk and the way Perry has developed him is that he is still basically the same person he was before he lost his memory, but he has seen himself and wants to change. So, while he does not want to treat people in his old callous way, he finds himself being inconsiderate and thoughtless towards Hester, only now recognizing it and feeling guilty. This is the main reason I like the Monk books better than the Pitt series. I think that Monk is changing in the way a real person would, two steps forward, one step back.


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The Woman in White

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this several times in my life and I am reading it again for a group I belong to. I had forgotten how good it was. It has all of the elements of a Gothic mystery. There is a spooky old mansion with a lovely and rich young girl, an earnest but poor young man who loves the girl but can't marry her, a capable older sister, a weird, reclusive old uncle/guardian, a mysterious suitor/husband, a creepy Count and the mysterious "woman in white" who appears and disappears throughout the story.

Of course, the beautiful young girl, Laura, marries the mysterious suitor, Sir Percival Glyde, who turns out to be a cruel monster, terribly influenced by the Count Fosco and his wife, who happens to be the sister of the reclusive uncle and is bitter about her lack of inheritance. Her sister, Marian Halcombe, comes to live with Laura and tries to protect her from her husband and Count Fosco. Her devotion to Laura knows no bounds and there is a wonderful scene where she proves her mettle by climbing on the roof of the mansion and listening to an important conversation between Sir Percival and Count Fosco in the pouring rain. The poor young lover, Walter, comes back into the picture after he returns from a long time in the jungle in Ecuador, where he attempted to recover from his devastation over the loss of Laura. Walter then attempts to solve the mystery of the Count and Sir Percival and their machinations.

The two best characters in the story are Marian and Walter, and that was one of the things that bothered me about the book. When Walter first meets Marian, he sees her at a distance and she appears to have an especially beautiful figure and presence, but when she turns around, he sees that she is ugly. When he meets Laura, he finds her beautiful and falls in love with her even though, Marian is, by far, stronger, more intelligent and interesting of the two. As the book proceeds, Marian becomes his friend, partner and confidant and yet all his love still goes to Laura. I am sure I am being unfair to Collins, as he was a product of his time, but to my way of thing Marian was a much better candidate for a life companion!


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Gourmet Rhapsody

Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Pierre Athens is a renowned food critic who is givin 48 hours to live. He remembers something that he tasted years ago when he was a youth, long before he became a food critic. The taste was the single thing he has been looking to find again for years and now that his life is ending he is desperate to find it.

After reading The Eloquence of the Hedgehog, I was anxious to read this. The story was written after Eloquence, but it takes place before it in the same apartment building. So far it is pretty good.

You can't read this book very fast. The sentences are complicated and there is an abundant use of metaphors that need to be understood and related to in order to get any meaning. The writing is very precise with each sentence often written to evoke a specific image without which, there is no meaning to the text. I have to stop myself and reread some passages because I realize that I have not kept up with the metaphors and have no idea where the text is going. At first, this seems tiresome because I want to finish the book and then I remind myself that this author is trying to create, for her readers, all of the sensory details of the taste of a food.

I've learned something from this book. Here's an example. When I was a child and visiting Mississippi one year there was a bumper crop of watermelons. There were so many that we went in the fields and broke melons open and only ate the heart. I have since eaten scores of watermelons and none ever tasted that good no matter where I got them. From this book I realized that it wasn't just the melons, it was the combination of sensations that made them the best I would ever taste. I was young and playing in the fields and creeks and I brought to the watermelon a desire for the taste, the wetness and the coolness that I will never have again. The watermelon was at its peak and had just been plucked from the vine. There was a wild abandonment in breaking it open on the sandy ground and digging out the heart that I will never experience again. It wasn't just the taste of the watermelon that I would need to create, it would be the whole experience. That is what Pierre Athens is looking for.

This was extremely interesting. At first, I didn't think the conclusion worked, but after thinking about it, it was perfect. The language was beautiful. There were so many sentences I wanted to read again and again just for the sheer pleasure of the words. This is not a book for everyone, but I enjoyed it and I think it left me changed.


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Mysteries of Winterthurn

Mysteries of Winterthurn by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have read the first two books in this combined novel. I have to say I have been disappointed. There are so many loose ends in the books and so much is left to the reader to explain. I understand that the author started from the idea that crimes do not all have tidy endings, but some major plot elements, even ones that lead to the conclusion are just left dangling. I could write a "locked-room" mystery if I didn't have to explain how the murder was committed or who did it, and I am not a writer. I expected more from this author and I think if this were her first novel, it would never have been published.

There are vivid characters and plot elements that are developed and concluded, so the books are not a total waste, it is just better to go into them prepared that to keep expecting that everything will be revealed.

I have finished the third book in the series and I can't say that I am much more enlightened. I understand the third book and perhaps the ending, but a part of me wants to say, "What was the point?" There may be some who like mysteries written like this, but I am not one of them. This was pretty much a waste of time...and the waste of a good story. By that, I mean that there was a good plot going if it had just come to a better conclusion. I felt like I should give this 3 stars because Oates is such a good writer, but I just can't...so, alas, it's two.


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Little Women

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this when I was a child and loved it. Reading it again at this stage of my life, I still enjoyed it and I can see why it is a classic.

It is the story of the four March sisters and what happens to them as they become young women and adults. It is autobiographical and most of the story elements represent what happened to Louisa and her sisters.

Jo is Louisa and she tells the story of her family and her early writing. Her writing is so vivid that it makes the characters seem to be friends and I found myself identifying with each of them. What happens to Beth seems as poignant today as it was when I read it so many years ago and I found myself crying once again.


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The Double Comfort Safari Club

The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this series so I bumped this up to the top as soon as it was available in an audiobook. It was another beautiful visit with Precious Ramothswe and her friends and family. In this story we learn a little more about Mme Makutsi when her fiance is injured in an accident. When Mme Makutsi meets up with a ferocious Auntie it seems as if she might be defeated.

In the midst of her troubles, Mme Ramothswe decides that the two women need to make a journey to the other side of Bothswana, the Okavango Delta, to a safari camp where they attempt to locate a guide who has done such a good job that an American woman has left him a legacy. The adventures at the safari camp reminds us that the tame and pleasant city life is only a small part of Bothswana.

The 50% Violet Sephotho is back again with another clever scheme to defraud someone and build her life at the expense of another. Without giving away the plot, suffice it to say that Mme Makutsi enjoys her encounter with Violet at the end of the book. Mma Potokwane puts in an entrance to the delight of everyone and helps resolve a very sticky situation.

I enjoy the beauty of the language of Alexander McCall Smith and the common sense he gives to his characters. When I finish the book, I long for the next book so I can visit with these wise and charming people again.
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A Darker Place

A Darker Place by Laurie R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't like this as much as the other books by Laurie King. The premise wasn't as interesting and there were long periods of soul searching by the main character that I found to be very boring. Still, it did have some very interesting twists and turns and was worth reading. King is just such a good author, I think I was expecting too much.

The story is about Professor Anne Waverley, a university religion teacher and expert at infiltrating cults for the FBI. As a young woman, she and her husband and small daughter were in a cult and when she left for some soul searching, all the members committed suicide leaving her with tremendous guilt that has been somewhat assuaged by working with the FBI. She adopts a different persona and infilterates the cult giving the FBI information that helps to establish if the cult is dangerous or not.

Several times throughout the book there are exerpts from books or lectres she has written for the FBI for their training in understanding cults. To me this was the most interesting part of the book. There was a fascinating discussion as to what makes a cult leader explode with violence and what are the danger signals. She also talks about the difference between a small break-away religious group and what we know of as a cult.


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Daddy Long-Legs

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this a long time ago and found it to be so entertaining as is its sequel. It is an old book, written in 1912, but still delightful. Jerusha Abbott has been raised in an orphanage, but one of the trustees noted that she was very bright and arranged for her to go to college to study to become a writer. The only thing he requires of her is that she not know who he is and that she writes to him monthly. He only responds to her through his secretary. The only thing she ever saw of him was his legs which were very long and she took to calling him "Daddy-Long-Legs." She writes letters in a cheerful and engaging way as she details her life in college. Her benefactor is very generous and as she meets young people and is invited places, he provides her with clothes and the things she needs. She doesn't like to take his money and is determined to pay him back, so she writes stories to sell to magazines.

This is such a sweet story and very entertaining. The reader is able to get an idea of who Daddy Long Legs is and watches "Judy," as she calls herself, develop. The ending is never in doubt, but since her benefactor never writes back to her there is still some question as to how it is all going to work out.


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The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (44 Scotland Street, #5)

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Unfortunately this book is finished and I have to wait for the last one to come by Interlibrary Loan. I enjoy being with the people in these books so much and I miss them when they are "gone."

This story sees Bertie joining the "Cub Scouts" much to his mother's dismay. Occasionally Bertie's father prevails, and this is one of them. Alas, girls may join the cubs now and Olive has caught wind of it and she shows up to torment Bertie and Tofu. If you want to know what Bertie's horrid mother was like as a child, just look at Olive.

Bertie's therapist has moved to Aberdeen and he has a new one from Australia and for a while it looks as if Bertie might graduate out of therapy. This new doctor is not a fan of Melanie Klein and not, seemingly, Bertie's mother, but unfortunately, something happens to make him keep Bertie...at least for a time. Personally, I'm glad. Poor Bertie needs a good therapist to help him cope with his mother.

The rest of the neighbors are back in full force. Matt is swept out to sea on his honeymoon and I won't tell what happens next. Angus and Domenica are playing thief and then police which is a new role for them, and narcissistic Bruce undergoes the greatest change of all...but can he truly reform?

These delightful stories are about real people leading everyday lives that Alexander McCall Smith manages to find humor, pathos and comfort in. It is his genius that makes us see them as we hopefully see ourselves with all our faults and all our goodness.


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The World According to Bertie (44 Scotland Street, #4)

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bertie is just about my favorite character and in this book we see a lot of him. His biggest problem in this book is, of course, his mother and we have the addition of a baby brother, Ulysses, who looks suspiciously like Bertie's therapist. Bertie, who doesn't lie, mentions this a couple of times. His mother has decided that he should have his good "friend" Olive over to play with him weekly and he is in despair, not only can he not stand her, but his mother has painted his room pink again.

Pat is having her heart problems again. She and Matt have begun a relationship when the unbeliveably and narcissisticly handsome Bruce is back in Scotland. Matt is sweet and kind and...Pat is confused again.

One of the biggest problems in the book is that Angus Lordie's dog, Cyril, has been arrested for biting people and is in the pound awaiting trial. He is almost sure to be put down and Angus is beside himself. How can he get Cyril out of jail?

Reading this book is like visiting old friends.


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Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street, #3)

Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is another visit with the characters in and around 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh and are introduced to two new and very promising characters; a very shady character from Glasgow who is a special friend of Bertie's and anthropologist Domenica Macdonald's friend who has come to stay in her flat while she is studying pirates. In this book we find Bertie managing to rebel against his horrid mother a little more with the help of his father. He also manages to get loose in Paris to his intense delight, and manages very well. Bruce sells his flat and Pat has to find someplace new to live which manages to usher in the "love" over Scotland Street, but not in the way she imagines.

I love these books because they charming without being trite. Smith has a wonderful way of creating characters that are real and likeable even with all their faults. I feel like I am catching up with old friends and when I finish a book, I feel a real sense of sadness. I find myself wanting to know how they think and feel about my world and I find myself changing because of some of the subtle bits of philosophy that resonate with me.


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Espresso Tales (44 Scotland Street, #2)

Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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I loved 44 Scotland Street and this was just as good. It is the characters that make this series so rich, as it is in all Alexander McCall Smith's books. I feel like I'm visiting people I know. Undoubtedly, Bertie is the best character. He is the not quite 6 year old prodigy who is now ready for the Steiner school, when he really wants to go to a nice Rugby playing school. Bertie wouldn't be Bertie if it wasn't for his awful mother...the character you love to hate. And then there is Lou, the big-hearted coffee-shop owner whose loyal customers fill these pages. And her opposite, the narcissictic Bruce who can't pass a mirror without looking in it. Pat, Matthew, Dominica, Angus and his beer drinking dog Cyril round out the main characters, although Bertie's dad, Stewart, is making himself known. They are wonderful, charming, entertaining and thoroughly real. Like his other series, you don't read the "44 Scotland Street" series for its plot. The books are about the characters and I love them all.


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Deception on His Mind (Inspector Lynley #9)

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I just finished this for the second time. I couldn't remember all the details of the end, so I decided it was time to enjoy it again. I love the books in this series that involve Taymullah Azar and his delightful daughter. They are both very good characters.

The plot of this book, like most of her work, is pretty complex. A Pakistani man was murdered on the beach and the Pakistani community is up in arms because they feel that a white person has done the crime and that the local police will try to pin it on someone from their own community. They call in Taymullah Azar from London, who is a relative of the slain man's brother in law. Barbara Havers is on leave because of a beating she took and she follows Azar to the seaside town thinking the University Professor won't be able to take care of himself. When she gets there she finds a friend is leading the investigation and leads Emily to believe she has been sent from Scotland Yard to give some help. She neglects to mention that she knows Taymullah Azar. Emily gives her the job as liaison between the police and the Asian community leaders led by Azar and his cousin.

This story is filled with twists and turns and a lot of red herrings, and it does slog a little in the middle, but the conclusion is exciting and for the most part satisfying.


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The Fate of Katherine Carr

The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wouldn't call this a mystery book. It is a story within a story. The first is the story of George Gates, whose 8 year old son was kidnapped and murdered. His young wife also died and now he is alone. He was a travel journalist who specialized in places where people disappeared, but after the tragedy, he became a reporter for a small newspaper. A retired detective got him involved in the disappearance of a poet, Katherine Carr who had previously been assalted and left for dead.

So many people have reviewed this that I am not going to add much more to the plot. It is essentially a novel about dealing with tragic deaths, especially with violence. I think the main question posed, after the immediate, "Why?" is "Why do they get by with it?" In an earlier generation it would be the question that the man screams at God with his fists raised. Why does a serial killer die in his bed of old age when his victims died too young and too horribly?

I figured out where the book by the poet was going fairly early and thought that it was a novel ending and fairly satisfying although many would not feel that way. It is a story about people who can't believe in God trying to reconcile the world they find themselves in when faced with atrocities.

I listened to an audiobook for this title and I would not recommend it. There are two different narrations; George Gates and Katherine Carr. Because both deal with abduction and tragedy, it is easy to forget who is speaking and I found myself having to backtrack when I was in the mindset of the wrong character. Other than that, I found it very well written, if disturbing. When dealing with violent deaths the usual practice for most people is to try to keep the details OUT of our minds, but this book dwells on them quite a bit and that was disturbing at times. It is not for the squemish.


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Great Expectations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is at least my 4th reading of this book and each time I see new things in it. Young Pip is orphaned and living with his short-tempered sister and his friend and brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. There are two events in his childhood that shape the rest of his life. While he is out on the moors, he is accosted by an escaped prisoner and made to bring him some food under threat of death. He does this, but the consequences in his home are dire.

The next event comes about when he is summoned to meet Ms. Haversham and her ward, Estella in a setting so creepy that it would take the imagination of Dickens to come up with it. Pip is to come to tea and visit with Estella whenever he is summoned.

Years later, as a young man, he is summoned by a lawyer and told that he has "Great Expectations" and that he is to be sent to London and raised as a gentleman. It seems apparent to Pip that his benefactor must be Ms. Haversham and that he is destined to marry Estella. He feels that this must by why she had him come and visit when he was a child.

The rest of the story revolves around the education of Pip in not only schoolwork, but in life. He makes new friends and loses them and he leaves behind old friends and mourns their passing out of his life too late.

I love Dickens. There is no other author who has given the world such well known and instantly recognizible characters. His books are filled with characters so real that we feel that they must have existed in the flesh. How can Scrooge or Tiny Tim not have existed? There are people who feel that Dickens is too wordy, which may be true if your goal is to just get to the end, but Dickens is to be sipped and savored. His characters need to live in your imagination and act of their own accord. Taking up Great Expectations is like visiting an old friend.


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The Innocence of Father Brown

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Father Brown, that innocent cleric, always has the answer because he is used to dealing with good and evil and is able to see it more quickly than his more jaded companions. It also helps that he has an amazing intellect and keen observation.

These stories are so much fun. A crime is committed and no one can see how it could have been done. Father Brown gives 3 or 4 explanations and his companions are stupefied. He explains that they said there could be no explanation and he has provided 4, none of which is correct. Then this innocent innocuous little priest explains exactly what happened.

As you would expect, he is always completely moral and concerned more about the spiritual condition of the criminal than the offense to society. He has some interesting ways for the criminal to be reconciled to God though and than makes these stories even more interesting.


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The Devil's Half Acre (Mysteries of Winterthurn #2)

The Devil's Half Acre by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second book of the Winterthurn series and is marginally better than the first. The plot centers around a small plot of land with an unrepentant sinner buried on it and a reputation for sinister happenings. Five shop or mill girls end up being murdered there by what they call the "Gentleman Suitor." It is pretty easy to figure out who the murderer is as the reader follows the young detective, Xavier Kilgarvan around his home town of Winterthurn. Even getting the proof of the murders is not too difficult, but the trials are something else. There is a lot that doesn't ring true and while Xavier solves the crime, the reader is left very unsettled.

I found this book to be more satisfying to read than the first one until the end of the trial. From then on, I felt like the book unraveled. As with the first of this series, the book could have been good, but it just doesn't quite make it. The author may want to demonstrate that in real life, crimes don't always wrap themselves up neatly, but if that was what I wanted, I would read true crime, which I also enjoy. The best true crime writers, however, manage find as much background as they possibly can to attempt to explain the workings of the criminal's mind and to present as much of a resolution as is possible. I feel like good fiction should go even further since the murderer is known to the author and has been created with a personality which should follow a kind of logic, even if it is twisted, at least as it applies to the most important aspects of the crime.


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The Virgin in the Rose Bower (Mysteries of Winterthurn #1)

The Virgin in the Rose Bower by Joyce Carol Oates

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was very stange. I have read everything I could find on the web to get an idea of what I was missing. Apparently it was written this way in the misguided idea that rarely in real life to we have all the answers in a mystery. What this means is that the reader is struggling to figure out what the various strange happenings and murders in the Honeymoon bedroom mean, who did them, why, and most importantly, how. Well, you are never quite sure of most of the above, especially the "how."

I also read that is was a parody on the Gothic mystery, but I wasn't really satisfied with that. I agree with one reviewer that it needed to be either a parody or a Gothic mystery, but not both. On the other hand, the book was very interesting. It had the feel of The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and I think it could have been as good if there was an explanation of the mystery. I did like it and I figured out enough of the solution to feel somewhat satisfied, but it could have easily been a great book.


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