CBL Reads 75+ in 2012

Last year was my first year in the 75 book group, and I'm back again for 2012. My 2011 threads are here (1st) and here (2nd).




I'll be starting off 2012 with Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely (unless I don't finish my current read before midnight tomorrow), as well as Lady Vernon and Her Daughter on audio. Both are for my Jane Austen book club.

Edited to add ticker.

Welcome back!

There were so many members on the 2011 challenge. I did not see your thread. Hope to watch this year I may find a new author to read.

Thanks, Jim!

Cindy, I think I lost your thread at some point in 2011. I've got your thread starred so hopefully I can keep up with you, too!

Glad to see you back with us again, Carrie!

Congratulations on considering a dog this year! Good luck selecting the right breed and individual dog! There is a group (LTers with dogs) that has some threads about dog books if you'd like to join the conversations.

My personal recommendations for training and behavior are Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor (although I absolutely hate the title and cover design), How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves by Sophia Yin, The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson, Canine Body Language by Brenda Aloff, and every booklet by Patricia McConnell (eg How to Be the Leader of the Pack, I'll Be Home Soon, The Other End of the Leash, etc). Ian Dunbar, Pat Miller, Sarah Wilson, and Brian Kilcommons are some great trainer/writers as well. While Cesar Milan is well known, his methods are controversial and are not approved by veterinary behaviorists.

As for selecting the right dog and right breed/mix for you, Sue Sternberg's Successful Dog Adoption, Stanley Coren's Why We Love the Dogs We Do, and Sam Stall's book (alternatively known as The Good, the Bad, and the Furry or Choosing the Dog That's Right for You) are some good ones.

Good luck and happy reading!

Happy to find another 12 in 12 Challenge member here! Starred!

>6 alsvidur: Lots of great suggestions here, and happily my local public library has many of them. I already have several on hold.

>7 lkernagh: Glad to see you here Lori! Off to locate your thread...

Found you, starred you, Carrie.
Happy reading & "happy dog-hunting"!

For a fascinating read on dog behavior, I recommend Inside of a Dog... I read it last year, and it's a combination of scientific observation and personal anecdotes from the author... some fascinating stuff in there, and a very enjoyable read!

>10 dk_phoenix: Thanks for the suggestion! The public library has this one, too, so I've added it to my library TBR list.

I've seen this meme on other threads today and thought I'd give it a shot.

Using books read in 2011:

Describe yourself: A Common Life

Describe how you feel: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

Describe where you currently live: Knoxville: This Obscure Prismatic City

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Around the World in 80 Days

Your favorite form of transportation: The Excursion Train

Your best friend is: A Christmas Visitor

You and your friends are: A Study in Scarlet

What’s the weather like: The Whistling Season

You fear: The Great Fire

What is the best advice you have to give: Caveat Emptor

Thought for the day: When Will There Be Good News?

How I would like to die: Death by Deep Dish Pie

My soul’s present condition: A Great Deliverance

Hi Carrie, and Happy New Year. Just came by to drop a star.

Hi Judy! Happy New Year to you, too!

I finished my first book of the year: Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely. Since it's late and I have to work tomorrow, I think I'll leave the review until tomorrow.

Next up: Rebel Fire by Andy Lane. I'm also listening to the audio version of Lady Vernon and Her Daughter.

I love the title you chose for how you'd like to die, Carrie!

Love the answers to the meme, Carrie, and I agree with Micky!

I didn't have to think too long about that one! Preferably, it would be rhubarb (or strawberry rhubarb).

My grandmother used to make the best rhubarb pies, so going that way sounds wonderful to me! :)

1. Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely
TIOLI #8 - Title word can be used as a verb & as another part of speech (Murder)

After the break-up of her relationship, Elizabeth Parker accepts an invitation from her aunt to spend New Year's at her new Bed & Breakfast, named “Longbourn” after the Bennet's residence in Pride and Prejudice. Aunt Winnie has planned a murder dinner mystery for New Year's Eve for both B&B guests and local residents. After a real murder disrupts the party, Elizabeth is determined to do whatever it takes to clear her aunt of suspicion of murder and restore her reputation, to the dismay of the investigator in charge. She reluctantly accepts the help of her childhood antagonist, Peter McGowan.

It was no surprise that the book is inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but I wasn't expecting the allusions to Agatha Christie. Kiely does a nice job of sprinkling red herrings throughout the book. She offers plenty of credible suspects and motives. However, readers familiar with Agatha Christie's work will have an advantage in solving the mystery. This cozy mystery will have cross-over appeal for chick-lit readers and Jane Austen fans. Although I generally avoid chick-lit, I enjoyed this book, and I plan to continue with this series.

4 stars

#19: I will have to look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Carrie. Glad to see that your reading year is off to a good start.

Wishing you a Happy Reading Year in 2012!

Thanks Genny!

I just put my trash outside and was surprised to see our first snow of the season. We didn't get a lot - just enough to cover the ground. I was expecting temperatures in the teens, but I wasn't expecting the snow. The mountains should be beautiful today.

This time last week, I was making sure I had enough sunscreen and running the AC indoors. There's quite a difference in the weather this time of year between Yucatan and East Tennessee!

Hello, I've found you and starred you and will also find your 12 in 12 thread :-)

Hi Susan! I think I found and starred both of your threads, too.

I finished Rebel Fire and, since it's a work night again, I'll leave the review for tomorrow. I liked it, but not quite as well as I liked the first one in the series. Next up: Improbable Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger (a November ER book).

So far this year I'm acquiring books faster than I can read them. The good news is, for the most part, they've been either bargain-priced or free. This week's acquisitions:

Don Quixote (Modern Library edition, for the group read)
Successful Dog Adoption by Sue Sternberg

Bargain books:
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt
How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn
Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters

Free ebooks:
Dead Angler by Victoria Houston
Clues to Christie : the definitive guide to Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy & Tuppence, and all of Agatha Christie's mysteries
Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich
I Used to Know That : Stuff You Forgot from School by Caroline Taggart

I got that Victoria Houston book too! I hope we both like it.

Well, that makes 3 of us who got Dead Angler. Surely one of us will like it! I will have to look for Clues to Christie since it looks like one I need to read too.

Nice haul, Carrie!

Hi Carrie, as a dedicated Agatha Christie-fan, I'd love to read Clues to Christie too.

Clues to Christie was a free download from the Sony Reader Store. I just checked and it's also available as a free download from Google Books and from Amazon's Kindle store. I imagine there's probably a free Nook version, too, although I didn't check.

There is a free Nook version. I downloaded it after I saw it on your thread, Carrie.

And also a free version from Kobo. Looks interesting!

2. Rebel Fire by Andy Lane (published in the UK as Red Leech)
TIOLI #8 - Word can be used as both a verb & another part of speech

What if John Wilkes Booth was not the man shot and killed by a Union soldier within days after Lincoln's assassination, and that he showed up in England years later under an assumed name? This is the premise for the second book in Andy Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes series. Holmes's tutor, Amyus Crowe, learns of Booth's possible reappearance through his ties to the Pinkerton detective agency. Young Sherlock's curiosity gets the better of him, and it triggers a chain of events that eventually takes him across the Atlantic to the United States.

Although Sherlock is developing his trademark skills of observation and deduction, this series leans much more toward action and adventure than detection. No sooner do Sherlock and his friends escape from deadly peril than they face another equally dangerous situation. The villains and dilemmas in this series remind me very much of the old TV series Wild, Wild West, a long-time favorite.

One aspect of the book troubles me. While the adult Sherlock Holmes acts at the request of clients, and James West of the similar TV series acts on government orders, the Sherlock in this series acts on his own impulse and isn't entirely accountable to others for his actions. His brother, Mycroft, and his tutor, Amyus Crowe, all but neglect his moral education. Both men seem to expect Sherlock to develop his own sense of morality without their guidance. Mycroft gives Sherlock a copy of Plato's Republic in Greek to work through on his own. After Sherlock kills a man in self-defense, the only counsel he receives from Crowe is that until he reaches the point where death doesn't bother him and it's no longer a last resort, he's still on the right side of the line. Even though Sherlock must work through these moral questions largely on his own, that doesn't mean that younger readers must be in the same position. The book may provide parents with an opportunity to discuss these issues with their children.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3 stars

Next up: Improbable Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger

I downloaded Clues to Christie back in October.

Happy Dog Hunting! I will tell you that it's not an exact science! :) I had a book many years ago that helped you decide what breed might suit you , on the basis of things like - do you have young children, do you exercise a lot, how much grooming are you will to do / pay for etc. I 'd always grown up with Terriers and we had a Border Terrier for 15 year and he was just a darling! However, after he passed away, I went to the shelter several times and I was convinced that I would want another Terrier or Terrier mix. Well, the most scruffy looking Bichon Friese caught my heart. We've had her for 3 1/2 year now and she's the smartest most affectionate little thing I could imagine. And yet no book could have told me that she would make such an excellent companion. Your heart will guide you more than anything!

I am going to have to look into the Andy Lane books. I love the character of Sherlock Holmes, so I would be interested in seeing his spin on the character.

3. Lady Vernon and Her Daughter by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

A mother/daughter writing team have taken Jane Austen's epistolary novella, Lady Susan, filled in a back story, and turned it into a novel worthy of Jane Austen herself. It's not like some Austen-inspired fiction, where Austen's beloved characters speak and behave according to 21st century standards. I didn't notice any anachronisms in the story. The authors do engage in a bit of name-dropping. Sir Walter Elliot's family is mentioned a couple of times, including his middle daughter. Mrs. Ferrars also gets a shout-out. Although I have a print copy, I ended up listening to the audio download from the public library. The narrator is outstanding. The only thing missing from the audio version is the genealogical table at the front of the book. My only quibble with the story is that it changes Susan Vernon's character from one that readers love to hate to one that readers will root for. Highly recommended for fans of regency novels.

4 1/2 stars

Next up on audio: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Thanks or the lead on the Christie book....there are a lot of freebies for e-books out there that aren't worth the bandwidth, but this one looks like it will be a good addition to any mystery library.

4. Improbable Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger
TIOLI #Book with acknowledgements section of 6 or less paragraphs

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais may be the most famous person I never heard of in American History class. Although he was a commoner, his skills and personality provided an entry into the Bourbon court of France. He was a skilled clockmaker, and he charmed members of the royal family with his new invention, the wristwatch. He was the playwright who created the character Figaro. Thanks to Mozart, Rossini, and Bugs Bunny, I think of Figaro as an operatic character. However, he was already famous before Mozart or Rossini set his stories to music.

The ideals that inspired the American Revolution appealed to Beaumarchais. He followed the news from America, and he used his access to powerful members of the French government to promote recognition of and aid to the Americans as being in France's best interest. He devised a plan to provide military supplies to the revolutionists in exchange for American goods. Although the arms supplied by Beaumarchais allowed the colonists to continue the war with Great Britain, through a probably willful misunderstanding of the terms of the deal, the colonists did not fulfill their side of the bargain.

Despite his financial loss from the arms trade and his disappointment with the American leaders, Beaumarchais remained committed to the ideals that inspired the revolution. He was generous with the wealth he accumulated. He lived well, but he also provided for the physical needs of his less fortunate neighbors. When the French Revolution broke out a decade later, Beaumarchais, a commoner comfortable in the royal court, survived the worst of the Terror largely because he was loved and respected for his creation of Figaro (who regularly out-witted nobility) and for his philanthropy.

This engaging biography is a good introduction to a man who deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and character. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, and theater history.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 1/2 stars

Next up: The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

Tina, glad I could help! I try to keep an eye out for the freebies that seem like they might be worthwhile.

Victoria Houston is one of my favorite mystery authors. I hope you like her. For me, in part, I think it's due to the fact that she writes about a locale I visit often.

This is the second free novel I've downloaded from Victoria Houston's series. I also have a print book that I picked up at a sale somewhere. I haven't read any of them yet, though. I like mysteries in unusual locations, and from my perspective these qualify!

A few weeks ago, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition announced that Knoxville would be the location for one of their last shows. Filming started today with a surprise visit to the family whose home will be rebuilt. I was surprised to learn that I actually know the couple who were selected, and I'm very happy for them.

http://www.wate.com/story/16480852/2012/01/09/extreme-makeover-home-edition-choo...

5. The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney
TIOLI #19 - Book with a beverage on p. 10

Leon Wood hasn't seen or heard from his daughter, Rose, since her arranged marriage to Ivo Janko several years ago. This won't be a typical missing person investigation since the Woods and Jankos are Gypsy families without fixed addresses. Leon hires Ray Lovell, a private investigator with family ties to the Gypsy community, hoping that potential witnesses will talk to him more freely than they would to a complete outsider. When Ray locates the Janko family, instead of providing answers, they raise more questions. Are they as ignorant of Rose's whereabouts as they claim to be?

The characters and setting were strong enough to pull me into the world of the novel and keep me there until the end. The story is alternately narrated by Lovell and JJ Smith, a teenaged member of the Janko family. JJ also has an investigative role in the novel. He's young enough to be excluded from adult conversations, but old enough to realize that the adults have secrets. Although he's perceptive, he doesn't have enough experience to interpret the oddities he notices. He wants to understand his family, yet he's afraid of what he might learn about them.

I figured out where the story was heading about halfway through the book, which might have been disappointing had the characters and setting not been so appealing. Even though I wanted to find out how the mystery would resolve, I was a little sad when I reached the end of the book. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters.

In some ways, this book reminds me of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, particularly When Will There Be Good News?. It would be a good choice for Jackson Brodie fans.

This review is based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 stars

Next up: The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn

I really enjoyed The Lost - hope you do too! (I think you either like his style or you don't. I did.)

I've read the first chapter and a bit more and I'm liking it very well so far!

I'm beginning to get a little ansty - I was supposed to get an ER copy of The Invisible Ones and was really looking forward to it. I read her first one Tenderness of Wolves and loved it. I'm going to have to contact the ER people and find out why everyone else got theirs and see where mine went astray. I'm so glad to hear it's worth tracking down!

>46 tututhefirst: My copy arrived before Christmas. I'm not 100% certain, but I think it came via UPS. If that's the case, your copy probably wasn't lost in the mail. It seems like they might have run out of ARC copies before they got to you. Maybe you'll end up with a hardcover version!

I have Tenderness of Wolves on my wishlist, and now I am adding The Invisible Ones.

It looks like I might get a lot of reading done this weekend. I stubbed my toes while getting ready for work this morning and I'm pretty sure I broke one of them. I'm staying off my feet as much as possible. My December ER book arrived earlier this week and I picked up a couple of books from the library last night. I think I've got plenty of reading to keep me occupied!

6. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (audio version)

Leo Demidov has everything. He's an MGB officer in Stalin-era Russia with a beautiful wife and enough influence to provide his parents with a comfortable home. He's never thought much about the system he's a part of, until he's confronted by circumstances that cause him to question everything he thought he believed in. When he realizes that a serial killer is brutally murdering children in various parts of the country and that the authorities are covering up the murders for ideological and political reasons, he launches his own secret investigation. At this point, he has little left to lose. Will he be able to stay under the state's radar long enough to track down the killer?

The atmosphere of Stalin's Russia that Tom Rob Smith recreates in this novel is as much psychological as physical. Paranoia is essential for survival. It's dangerous to trust anyone, including spouses, parents, children, and siblings. Leo's transformation seems too abrupt to be believable, as is the connection between the murderer and other characters in the book. Readers willing to suspend their disbelief will be rewarded with a suspenseful thriller filled with memorable characters.

This is the first book of a series. Based on the descriptions I've read of subsequent books, I think readers will want to start at the beginning of the series rather than somewhere in the middle.

3 1/2 stars

Next up on audio: Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

My acquisitions this week didn't cost me anything - two free ebooks, an ER book from the publisher, and a couple of library books:

Penrod by Booth Tarkington and The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura, both free downloads from Project Gutenberg

Before Sherlock Holmes by LeRoy Lad Panek (December ER book)

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo (audio download from the public library)

Twelve Drummers Drumming by C. C. Benison and The Emperor's Last Soldiers by Ito Masashi, both checked out from the library

7. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn
TIOLI #11 - Book of narrative non-fiction

My interest in family history came from listening to my paternal grandmother's stories, which were often sparked by one of the objects that belonged to one of the relatives – a plate, a piece of jewelry, a photo album, a scrapbook, a diary. Daniel Mendelsohn's interest in his family's history seems to have developed in much the same way. His maternal grandfather told stories of the Jäger relatives who had emigrated from Bolechow, at the time a Polish town, to the U.S. His grandfather treasured the pictures and letters that were the only reminders left of his oldest brother, Shmiel, and Shmiel's wife and four daughters. While the rest of the family made new lives in the U.S., Shmiel decided to stay in Bolechow, where he was a “big fish in a little pond”. Shmiel and his family perished in the Holocaust along with almost all of Bolechow's Jewish residents.

Years of research allowed Mendelsohn to fill in many details on his family tree. As he filled in more and more details about other family members, Mendelsohn began to feel that he needed to learn more about his great-uncle Shmiel to complete the family tree. In order to find what could still be known about Shmiel's family and their fate, Mendelsohn needed to talk with the surviving remnant of Bolechow's Jews who were old enough to remember the Jäger family from before the war. Accompanied most of the way by his photographer brother Matt, Mendelsohn traveled to Australia, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, and Ukraine to meet people who had been there and to find out what they knew and what stories they had heard.

I was particularly struck by this passage:
It's different to write the story of people who survived, because there's someone to interview, and they can tell you these amazing stories. As I said these words, I thought of Mrs. Begley, who had once looked coldly at me and said, 'If you didn't have an amazing story, you didn't survive.'

My problem, I went on..., is that I want to write the story of people who didn't survive. People who had no story, anymore.

That passage sums up how this book differs from other books I've read about the Holocaust. It's not a survival account. It's about six individuals who didn't survive.

This is an inspirational book despite the grim subject matter. Mendelsohn frames his journey with meditation and commentary on weekly Torah readings (parashat) from Genesis. Along the way, he develops a stronger bond with his brother, forms new friendships, and discovers long-lost relatives. The journey is as meaningful as the destination. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in family history, Jewish genealogy, the Holocaust, and the history of Ukraine (formerly eastern Poland), particularly the town of Bolechow/Bolekhiv.

5 stars

8. Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie
TIOLI #8 - Title includes a word that can be both a verb & another part of speech

When Erika Rosenthal learns that a valuable brooch that once belonged to her has been entered in an auction at a London firm, she turns to friend and neighbor Gemma James for help. Gemma makes an unofficial inquiry on Erika's behalf. When one of the auction house employees dies suddenly, requiring Scotland Yard to investigate, Gemma talks her domestic partner, Duncan Kincaid, into requesting the case. Duncan, Gemma, and their current working partners work together to solve a crime with roots in Germany's Holocaust.

Although this is one of my favorite series, this book seemed a little flat to me. Maybe it was the fact that I read it right after reading a non-fiction book about the Holocaust, and fiction can't compare to the reality of what happened during those years. I had trouble identifying with Gemma, who took personal leave to spend time with her seriously ill and hospitalized mother and then spent most of that time working on Duncan's case. I've been through serious illnesses and hospitalizations with both of my parents, and I spent as much time as possible at the hospital with them, particularly at the beginning of the hospitalization when they were undergoing tests and we were waiting for word from doctors about the prognosis and course of treatment.

I think this book would work as a stand-alone. However, most readers will want to read the books in this series in sequence, since the main characters' personal lives are as important as the crimes they investigate.

3 1/2 stars

Next up:
Twelve Drummers Drumming by C. C. Benison & Before Sherlock Holmes by LeRoy Lad Panek

Beautiful, beautiful review of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, Carrie.

Fantastic review of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million Carrie. It's one of the best books about the Holocaust I've read.

Ps - I hope your toes are getting better! OW.

Thanks, Cindy & Cushla! It's one of the best books on the Holocaust that I've read, too. Reading it was time well spent.

I'm heading out in a while for a Burns Night dinner. The organizer was looking for someone to give a short talk (3-4 minutes) on Burns' patriotism. I offered to do it since I work in a library and have access to reference sources. I'm not sure what possessed me. I don't mind speaking in public on topics I'm familiar with, but I'm definitely not an expert on this topic! At least I won't have to field questions in this setting. I'd be terrified right now if that was the case!

This will be the first Burns Night dinner I've attended without my father. He shares a birthday with Robert Burns - Jan. 25.

Strength of spirit and power of words to you, my friend. Your father would be so pleased!

Oh! It was LAST night! How did your Burns Night dinner go?

52: Wow, and an excellent review. Onto the wishlist.

I've got Child 44 arriving by mail from a second hand bookstore. I read The Siege and someone else on LT recommended it to me. I don't know that the books will be at all similar, but it sounds like an interesting book via your excellent review! Hope you had a great Robbie Burns Night.

>58 countrylife: It went well. I was nervous and I think I spoke too fast, but I stayed within the allotted time. The most interesting part of the evening was a reading of a Burns poem in translation - to Portuguese! One of the tables was bilingual (or, in some cases, multilingual). One of the men at the table is an American with Scottish heritage, but he's spent most of his adult life as a missionary in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Portugal. He read My Love's Like a Red, Red Rose in Portuguese.

>59 qebo: Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

>60 vancouverdeb: Thanks for the kind words! I'll be interested to read your comments on Child 44 after you read it. I think it's a book that will work equally well in print and audio.

9. Twelve Drummers Drumming by C. C. Benison
TIOLI #23 - 1st in a series by an author I haven't read before

After his wife's murder, Vicar Tom Christmas (please don't call him Father) moves from Bristol to the village of Thornford Regis. The village is in need of a new vicar after the previous vicar disappeared without a trace. Tom's wife's sister and her husband live in the village, and he thinks it will be a safer place to raise his 9-year-old daughter, Miranda. It's just wishful thinking. Barely two months after his arrival, in the midst of the May Fayre, the vicar discovers the body of a local teenager inside a large Japanese drum that was to be used during the festival. The suspects include the girl's ex-con employer, a verger with a mysterious past, and someone with a possible motive who appears to have been physically incapable of committing the murder.

The plot was full of surprises, and it kept me guessing until the end. A couple of aspects didn't work for me. There seem to be too many characters to keep track of, even with the list of characters provided at the beginning of the book. The drums seem more like a gimmick to fulfill the requirements of the title rather than an essential part of the plot. On the other hand, the vicar's prior career as a magician was mentioned several times throughout the story, and his skills ended up being useful for the plot.

Vicar Christmas isn't much like other fictional clergymen I've spent time with. His deceased wife was Jewish, and with his sister-in-law's help, he's raising his daughter in the Jewish faith. He also seems to spend a lot of time either ogling or trying not to ogle just about every woman who crosses his path. It got to be a bit much after a while.

I think most readers who like English village cozies will enjoy this one. Readers who have enjoyed the author's other series (Her Majesty Investigates) will be pleased to know that one of the characters from that series makes an appearance in this book.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: The Emperor's Last Soldiers by Ito Masashi

I liked the Benison book, but, like you, thought there were too many characters. I found it hard to keep track. I think it's a good start to a series and hope it continues.

10. Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
TIOLI #23 - 1st book in a series by an author I haven't read before

After the discovery of the mutilated body of a young woman, the residents of Painter's Mill, Ohio are fearful that a serial killer has returned after a 16-year hiatus. Police chief Kate Burkholder is one of three people who know differently. When she was a 14-year-old Amish girl, Kate killed the serial killer. Her family covered up the death and they haven't spoken of it since. Although the small town police department is too small to handle a murder investigation of this nature, Kate is reluctant to ask for assistance from either the Holmes County Sheriff's Department or the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Eventually the three agencies join forces, and Kate works hard to meet everyone's expectations while secretly trying to confirm that she had, in fact, killed the serial killer. Perhaps her family only thought he was dead, and he's returned to take up where he left off?

I had trouble getting into the story in the first half of the book. Once I reached the last third of the book, I stayed up well past my bedtime in order to finish it. The suspense was too great to stop listening. One of my biggest problems in the first half of the book was trying to figure out the jurisdictional boundary of the Painter's Mill police department. The bodies were found in areas that, from their descriptions, were isolated and rural. I would have thought that the County Sheriff would have had jurisdiction rather than the police department. That question troubled me all the way to the end of the book. Also, I had a slight problem with Tomasetti's sudden transformation from alcoholic prescription drug addict to romantic hero. I think it would have worked better for Tomasetti's psychological state to have been more ambiguous when his character was introduced.

I like Kate, and her relationship to the Amish community creates some interesting tensions for a crime series. She's a bit of an outsider as a relatively young female in a traditionally male-dominated profession, and she's an outsider among the Amish community she chose to leave. This book reminded me of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series, so her readers might want to give this one a try.

4 stars

Next up in audio: The Flower Net by Lisa See (abridged version)

11. The Emperor's Last Soldiers by Ito Masashi
TIOLI #12 - Book with an imperial title

Ito Masashi arrived on Guam with the Japanese Army in 1944. After the Americans arrived and the battle began, Ito and a few others became separated from the main unit. Following their commander's instructions, they hid themselves in the jungle to await reinforcements from Japan. He stayed hidden for 16 years, long after the war had ended. Ito and other stragglers organized themselves into small units, and their activities were completely focused by survival. They were able to gather useful material from American rubbish dumps, and they fashioned tools for catching, killing, and cooking live animals, implements to collect water, needles and scraps of material to sew clothes, and tires to make shoes.

When Ito and his remaining companion were discovered in 1960, they had difficulty adjusting to life outside the jungle. They believed they had walked into a trap, and that the Americans intended to kill them. Ito continued to believe this until he landed on Japanese soil after spending several days in a Guam hospital. Ito continued to talk to his jungle companion in the low voice that had been necessary for their survival in the jungle, even though he was aware that there was no longer a need to do so. After their years of isolation, they were overwhelmed by the crowds and the media attention. Ito was aware that his withdrawal was probably hurting his mother, but he continued to prefer solitude to company. He had trouble sleeping since he had spent years listening for the slightest noise that might signal that he was in danger of being discovered. Ito concluded his story shortly after his return to Japan. I would like to know more about his life since then. Was he able to re-integrate into Japanese society and culture? How did his experience in the jungles of Guam continue to impact his life?

Ito and his companion, Minakawa, believed that they were the last Japanese stragglers on Guam. By 1960, it had been several years since they had encountered any other stragglers in the jungle. They both believed that it would have been impossible for either of them to survive in the jungle on their own. However, another Japanese straggler was discovered in 1972 after 28 years in the jungle.

This is strictly a survival story. He doesn't address political issues, causes of the war, or military strategy. It will probably be of more interest to readers of survival adventures than to readers of military history.

4 stars

Next up: Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

This week's acquisitions - only 1 book purchased: Necessary as Blood by Deborah Crombie.

Audio downloads from the public library: The Flower Net by Lisa See (abridged ed.); Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

Free ebook download: The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson

Carrie - I hope you enjoy the Millard as much as I did!

12. The Copyright Handbook by Stephen Fishman

Although this book is subtitled “What Every Writer Needs to Know”, this copyright handbook will be useful to anyone who has questions or needs information about copyright law. The clear explanations and numerous examples make this book a good starting point for non-specialists. The sample forms will help readers handle simple copyright matters on their own. Readers with more complex copyright problems will find information that will help them develop a strategy to address their problems, including who to contact (a copyright attorney, an organization, or an agency), what information to provide, and what questions to ask.

As a librarian, I've read works about copyright targeted specifically for librarians. This book allowed me to look at a familiar topic from a different perspective. It's a useful addition to a copyright reference collection, and it's a source I'll consult in the future whenever I deal with copyright issues.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 1/2 stars

65: I've vaguely heard of this, did not know there was a book. I gather it was published in the 1960s. What inspired you to read it?

>69 qebo: I finished the 50 states challenge last year and decided I wanted to read a book set in each of the U.S. territories. I found this one while searching my local public library's catalog for books about Guam and I thought it sounded interesting. I remember an episode of Gilligan's Island with a Japanese soldier or sailor who didn't know that the war was over. I had no idea that this was something that had really happened.

13. Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland
TIOLI #17 - Title word has 3 of the same vowel (i)

Inspired by the books she loves so much and encouraged by her success with canine matchmaking, 12-year-old Polly Madassa vows to spend her summer finding matches for the special people in her life. She's as effective as the boy scout who drags the elderly woman across the street only to learn that she didn't want to cross the street in the first place.

This was an interesting idea that didn't live up to its promise. Polly uses Pride and Prejudice as the pattern for her speech and behavior. It was cute for a while, but the charm wore off well before I reached the end of the book's 300 pages. The device would have worked better in a shorter book. I doubt that many of the tweens in the book's target audience will have read Pride and Prejudice. Teen readers are more likely to have read that book, but they probably wouldn't want to read a book with a 12-year-old heroine.

2 stars

Next up: Hearts of Darkness by Dave Thompson

>71 cbl_tn: Admittedly, I was a bit of an oddity as a tween, but I read Emma when I was 12 or 13, so I wouldn't count out that the target audience would be entirely unfamiliar. That said, the book doesn't sound too impressive so I'll be skipping it.

All I have to go on is my own experience, but by the time I was 12, I was reading YA and adult books rather than middle grade books. I'm thinking that 12-year-olds who are reading at or below grade level probably aren't reading P&P, at least not as Jane Austen wrote it. Maybe there is an adaptation that's popular with middle grade readers?

Well, there are some graphic novel adaptations out there which might have some appeal...

14. Flower Net by Lisa See

The murders of the son of the U.S. Ambassador to China and the son of a powerful Chinese family launch a joint investigation between the U.S. and China. U.S. Attorney David Stark works with Chinese counterpart, Inspector Liu Hulan to uncover the series of events that led to the murders. This isn't the first meeting for the pair. A decade ago, David and Hulan worked for the same U.S. law firm and were much more than co-workers.

David seems more naive than someone in his position should be. After each conversation with potential suspects, Hulan has to explain the cultural nuances to David (and thus to the reader). Although the web of criminal activity is complex, the narrative is easy to follow. A few too many of the threads are explained briefly after the climactic scene, and it seems a little awkward. (I did listen to the abridged version, but I think I would have had the same reaction to the unabridged novel.)

The setting and plot are similar to Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen crime novels. Readers who like that series may want to give this one a try.

3 1/2 stars

Next up in audio: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

15. My Name Is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell
TIOLI #10 - Book with a 1st person title

In the transition period after their leader's death, Raisha and many others from Barato were tricked, captured, and sold into slavery. Separated forever from her parents and sister, Raisha travels on a slave ship with others from her village to the island of St. Thomas, where she is sold to a Danish plantation owner from the island of St. John. As was the custom, her master's wife gave her a new name, Angelica.

When Raisha arrived on St. John, the island was suffering the effects of a drought and a hurricane earlier in the year that had destroyed the crops. Food was scarce among both white and slave populations, and already harsh laws became even harsher in an attempt to intimidate the slave population. Many slaves had escaped to a hard-to-reach spot on the island, where they planned a rebellion. Raisha's fiance, Konje, soon joined the colony and became its leader. As the time for the planned revolution approaches, Raisha is forced to make some difficult choices.

Before I read this historical novel, I had no idea that the Danish were involved in the Caribbean slave trade. The author describes the difficult conditions on the island while building toward the climax of the rebellion. The ending was the only flaw in this well-told story. I thought it was too abrupt, and I wanted a little more resolution. It also left me questioning which, if any, of the characters were historical and which were fictional. This book has piqued my interest in the topic, and I'll have to look for more books on the experience of slaves in the Caribbean.

4 stars

Next up: Continuing with Hearts of Darkness by Dave Thompson

I've listened to about 1/4 of The Destiny of the Republic and one thing has me puzzled. Garfield is still remembered as a Disciples of Christ preacher, but this hasn't been mentioned at all in the book. Not even in the section that talked about his public speaking skills and his love of public speaking. That seems like a natural place to have at least mentioned this aspect of Garfield's background.

>77 cbl_tn:

Since I have Destiny of the Republic on the shelf waiting to be read, I thought I'd check the index for the Disciples of Christ. On page 119 there is a paragraph that mentions he was a member since childhood, a minister, and an active churchgoer in D.C.

I guess you haven't gotten there yet!

Thanks for checking! I'm glad to know that it's coming up. That's one of the drawbacks of audiobooks. No index, and it's hard to go back to check for things you might have missed. I still think that Garfield's preaching experience should have been mentioned in the section discussing his public speaking skills. He preached regularly for several years before he became involved in politics.

I have Destiny of the Republic loaded on my MP3, and as soon as I get a bunch of annual reports done for the town, the state and the feds (all for the library) and get my plantar fasciitis under control AND change pools (the one I've been going to is just too darn COLD), I'm going to get back to some regular swimming and listening.

Tina, I hope you enjoy it! I've already learned a lot, and I'm not even halfway through.

I made it through a week without purchasing a book. The few I picked up this week didn't cost me anything:

My Name Is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell (library book)
Unhallowed Ground by Mel Starr (January ER book)
Nocturne by Deborah Crombie (short story, free download)
Finger of Guilt by Paul Grossman (short story, free download)

16. Hearts of Darkness by Dave Thompson
TIOLI #3 - Title has a 5+ letter word that has an anagram (hearts/haters)

Hearts of Darkness focuses on three singer-songwriters who came to prominence in the early 1970s: Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, and James Taylor. The author sticks mainly to a chronological account of their lives and careers, switching back and forth among the three singers. Their stories often overlapped, since, although none of the three worked together during the time period, they had mutual friends and worked with several of the same musicians. For instance, James Taylor and Jackson Browne were both romantically involved with Joni Mitchell, and Cat Stevens dated Carly Simon before she married James Taylor.

The book was often hard for me to follow. The author would go off on tangents about other musicians who worked with one of the three men who were the book's primary focus. So many names entered the narrative so quickly that it was very easy to lose track of which person was the focus of that section of the book. It was easy to start the book since all three singers began their careers at about the same time. The ending doesn't work well. The author seemed to pick a date and just stopped at 1972.

Technically I'm a baby boomer, but I'm too young to remember the pop music world in the years covered in this book. My favorite albums at the time were a collection of Disney songs, Mickey and the Beanstalk, and Peter and the Wolf. My first exposure to Carly Simon's “Anticipation” (written while waiting for Cat Stevens to show up for their first date) was as a ketchup jingle. I was in my twenties before I learned that the jingle came from a real song. I'm familiar with the hits that are now considered classics, but I wasn't familiar with a lot of the other songs mentioned in the book. This book is probably best suited for the serious music fan on the other end of the baby boom generation.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

2 1/2 stars

Next up: Unhallowed Ground by Mel Starr

I'm still listening to Destiny of the Republic and I just got to the point where Garfield was shot. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I had found myself hoping that Guiteau would lose his nerve, then that the bullet would miss its mark, then that the doctors would at the very least sterilize their hands before treating the wounded president. Alas, things are progressing exactly as they did on that fateful day.

17. Unhallowed Ground by Mel Starr
TIOLI #15: Title includes a word with a double letter found in TIOLI

Hugh de Singleton, bailiff of Lord Gilbert Talbot, receives a summons when a suicide is discovered on land belonging to Lord Gilbert. The dead man was a troublemaker with criminal tendencies who at some point had harmed almost everyone in Bampton. His death would not be mourned. He would be buried where the body was found, for the tree from which he hung was at the crossroads where suicides were buried since they could not be laid to rest in hallowed ground. Master Hugh has no wish to question the suicide verdict, yet he is troubled by evidence that points to murder rather than suicide. Hugh has too much integrity to let the matter rest, even as he worries that the murderer may well be someone he looks upon as a friend.

No words or scenes are wasted in this well-written book. The author creates well-rounded suspects, reasonable motives and in a plausible 14th century setting in a book that can be easily read in a single evening. The only flaw, in my opinion, is the author's reliance on coincidence to create a couple of red herrings. The book could be read as a stand-alone, but readers who think they might want to read the whole series will want to start from the beginning. This book includes spoilers that reveal the culprits and outcomes of previous books in the series.

This series reminds me of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series. Hugh de Singleton has had some medical training, and he occasionally provides treatment for sick or wounded people. Like Cadfael, Hugh also wrestles with religious and ethical questions as he considers which course of action he should pursue.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 stars

Next up: The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed

I dreamed last night that I was on a cruise. It must have been a Mediterranean cruise because when I woke up we had docked at Gibraltar for a day excursion. I've never been on a cruise before, and I've never been to Gibraltar, either. I'll have to look into it. A European cruise might be fun!

Nice dream! Do you go on cruises (in real life) often? I've only been on a cruise twice - both the same destination - Alaska's inside passage. And if I ever got another chance at a cruise, I'd choose the same one again! I keep TadAD's thread starred in the hope that there'll be some more talk about the 2014 Alaska cruise that some LTers are hoping to make happen.

I've never been on a cruise. I'd love to go on either a European river cruise or a cruise of the Norwegian fjords. I think the Alaska cruise might be similar to the Norwegian cruise. I have several friends who have been on Alaskan cruises more than once and have loved it.

18. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
TIOLI #3 - Book with a 5+ letter title word with an anagram (destiny/density)

Destiny of the Republic is the story of both an event – the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield – and the individuals whose lives were connected to this tragic event. The “cast of characters” includes Garfield; his assassin, Charles Guiteau; Garfield's wife, Lucretia; Garfield's children; inventor Alexander Graham Bell; physician Dr. D(octor) Willard Bliss; surgeon Joseph Lister; a host of politicians including New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, Vice President (and Conkling puppet) Chester Arthur, Maine Senator James G. Blaine, and Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, who made the fateful decision to summon Dr. Bliss to attend the wounded president.

For most people, Garfield is probably one of the lesser-known presidents because his term in office was so short. I was probably more familiar with Garfield through our common heritage in the Restoration (or Stone-Campbell) Movement. Garfield attended a Disciples of Christ school, Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College) and later served as its president. He also preached in Disciples of Christ churches during his Hiram College years.

Discussions of Garfield's biography within Restoration Movement circles tend to stick to his public life as a college president, lay preacher, Civil War general, and politician. The gorilla in the corner is safely avoided that way, the “gorilla” being Garfield's affair with reporter Lucia Calhoun. I already knew about the affair, but Millard's account put it into context for me. Letters exchanged by Garfield and his wife reveal Garfield's early reservations about their marriage. As Millard described it, I was reminded of Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. Garfield was demonstrative like Marianne, while his wife was reserved like Elinor. Early in their relationship, Garfield mistook Lucretia's reticence for lack of feeling, much like Marianne's accusation against Elinor in Sense and Sensibility. In her defense, Lucretia finally resorted to showing Garfield her diary, which revealed the depth of her emotions. I was glad to learn that after weathering the rocky early years of marriage, Garfield and Lucretia had many happy years together. Garfield was a great reader and frequented the Library of Congress during his years in Washington. I couldn't help thinking that the Garfields might have avoided some of their early misunderstandings if he had only read Jane Austen!

As a librarian, I was interested to learn that Lucretia Garfield established what was essentially the first presidential library after her husband's death. She included the letters the couple exchanged during their courtship and marriage without succumbing to the temptation to remove letters that exposed the rough edges of their personalities and flaws in their characters. That's quite a contrast to the behavior of the survivors and descendants of other presidents who have attempted to control their relative's legacy by removing documents from their relative's personal papers before depositing them in a library or archive.

While the account of the events surrounding Garfield's assassination is spellbinding, I have some reservations about the biographical sketches of the people involved in the incident. For instance, Millard discusses Garfield's talent for and enjoyment of public speaking without mentioning the years he spent preaching. Debates were common among the Disciples of Christ in the 19th century (e.g., the debate between Alexander Campbell and Robert Owen), and Garfield did his share of debating. It's a curious omission, since these experiences surely must have contributed to Garfield's public speaking skills.

Recommended for readers looking for a popular history of an event that changed the course of U.S. history.

4 stars

Next up in audio: Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

89: Excellent review, and your perspective re Disciples of Christ adds to it. I'll read this book when the paperback appears.

I agree with Katherine - your perspective adds a lot I wasn't aware of. I think I liked the book a bit more than you did, but would probably have had the same quibbles if I had known more about Garfield to begin with!!

By the way, Millard spoke at last year's National Book Fest. There's a webcast of her talk here: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5279

Thanks for the link to the webcast! I'll look forward to listening to it - probably tomorrow since this is Downton Abbey night.

>90 qebo: I hope you enjoy it when you get the chance to read it!

>91 katiekrug: I did like the book, but I don't think it will be among my top reads of the year. The audio version was well done and I'm glad I listened to it. At some point I'd like to see the print version and look at the reference list. I'd like to explore some of the book's topics in a little more depth.

This week's additions:

Friendship Bread by Darien Gee (audio download via the public library)

NetGalley electronic ARCs:
Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh
Plunder by Mary Anna Evans
Unfair to Genius by Gary A. Rosen

I ordered some used books from Amazon with a gift card, but I'm not counting them until they arrive!

This week has been unusually busy, and it won't slow down for the next few days. The 90-year-old mother of one of my co-workers died yesterday and I've been asked to play for her funeral on Saturday. Our church is also providing a meal for the family and friends after the funeral. Between now and Saturday morning, if I'm not working, I'll be practicing and cooking, with time out for the annual church outing to a minor league hockey game tomorrow night.

I did manage to finish The Hemingses of Monticello a couple of days ago before things got really hectic, but the review will have to wait for the weekend. Most of my "reading" during the rest of the week will actually be listening to audiobooks while I work in the kitchen. I'm almost finished with the audio of Friendship Bread and I've downloaded Condoleezza Rice's family memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People, for my next audio selection.

19. The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
TIOLI #9 - Someone of somewhere challenge

Although stories about Thomas Jefferson's children by his slave, Sally Hemings, have been in circulation for over 200 years, new attention has been given to Sally and her children in the last decade following the publication of the results of a DNA analysis of descendants of Jefferson's father's brother, Jefferson's Carr nephews, and Sally Hemings' son, Eston. Annette Gordon-Reed reconstructs the lives, not just of Sally and her children, but also of Sally's mother, Sally's siblings and half-siblings, and other slave families who were integral to life at Monticello.

Sally's mother, Elizabeth Hemings, was the daughter of an apparently full-blooded African slave and an English sea captain named Hemings. Captain Hemings tried to buy his daughter, but her owner refused to sell her to her father. Elizabeth was part of the marriage settlement of Martha Eppes and John Wayles, parents of Martha Wayles Jefferson. After Wayles was widowed for the third time, he did not remarry, but had several children by Elizabeth Hemings. The youngest, Sally, was born the same year that Wayles died. When John Wayles' estate was divided, Elizabeth and her children were included in Martha Wayles Jefferson's portion of the estate, the beginning of their decades long association with Thomas Jefferson and Monticello.

Gordon-Reed presents evidence that Jefferson treated Elizabeth Hemings and her children and grandchildren differently than he treated his slaves who were not related to her. A succession of Hemings males served as Jefferson's personal attendants. The Hemings women had fewer duties than other slave women, and were spared the rigors of field work. The few slaves that Jefferson freed during his life or upon his death were all descended from Elizabeth Hemings.

Inevitably, Gordon-Reed's book is as much about Thomas Jefferson as about the Hemings family. The inescapable reality of slavery is that much of what is known about Elizabeth Hemings and her children comes from Jefferson's records and correspondence. The Jefferson that the Hemings knew was a man who desired to be liked by those around him and who hated confrontation and interpersonal conflict. He seems to have kept promises he made. No matter how agreeably Jefferson tried to conduct himself, he was still the master and controlled the lives and destinies of the slaves.

The main flaw in the book is perhaps its repetitiveness. Since there are many people who are not convinced that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children, or who just refuse to believe it, maybe Gordon-Reed thought the repetition was necessary. However, the readability of the author's prose makes it a quick read for a book of its size, so potential readers shouldn't be discouraged by its length.

4 1/2 stars

20. Friendship Bread by Darien Gee
TIOLI #11 - 2 word title with 1st word alphabetically after the 2nd

I first heard of Amish friendship bread in the summer of 1990, when I received a starter from a source I no longer remember. I made it several times that summer and shared it with shut-ins from church. I probably stopped making it when I started graduate school that fall and no longer had time to bake.

In Darien Gee's novel, Friendship Bread, the bread is a catalyst for change in a small Illinois town. Julia Evarts is a wife and mother who has been consumed by grief for the last five years. Her grief is associated with the death of her son. Julia is clearly depressed, with little interest in personal interaction with anyone but her daughter, Grace. When Julia and Grace discover several slices of the friendship bread and a bag of starter on their doorstep, Grace's enthusiasm prompts Julia to bake bread from the starter, and to find people to share it with. She forms friendships with two women who have recently moved to the town and who have their own sorrows. A local reporter hears about the bread and thinks she can turn it into a story that would gain national attention. Her investigation leads to surprising results.

Having recently experienced a bereavement, I found myself more annoyed with Julia than sympathetic toward her. Granted, I lost a parent rather than a child, but I still think 5 years is much too long for Julia's family and friends to give her “space” and not insist that she seek professional help. I also had a hard time accepting that Julia would pursue new friendships rather than seek the company of long-time friends. That's the opposite of my experience, although I do realize that everyone grieves differently. I also found it a little odd that Julia was more worried about her new friend Hannah's marriage than about her own. I'm not sure I would have reacted to Julia so critically if I had read the book at a different point in my life.

As a story about a small town, family, friendship, and baked goods, this is definitely a comfort read. I listened to the audio version, and the reader's voice reminded me so much of Lauren Holly (NCIS fans will recognize her as Director Shepard) that I checked to see if she and Nancy Linari might be the same person. (They're not.) The seeming familiarity of her voice added to the ambiance of comfort.

3 1/2 stars

Next up in audio: Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice

21. Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh
TIOLI #3 - Book with an anagram in the title (rising/siring)

In a small Georgia town, Miss Anne's Asian gardener with a mysterious past is content to admire her neighbor, Miss Sophie, from afar. At least, he's content until he sees a crane from his father's homeland that he recognizes only from his father's description. What can its appearance mean? Soon after its appearance, an unexpected encounter with Sophie begins a new friendship, but it is soon interrupted by news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Is a happy ending possible for them?

The story adds another dimension to the theme of racial discrimination often found in Southern literature. It's more novella than novel, and the author seems to rely primarily on stereotypes for character development. One chronological error should have been caught by editors if not by the author herself. The author talks about a meeting that took place on the first Sunday of December. The next Sunday after that was December 7, 1941, the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing. When December 7 is a Sunday, it is the first Sunday of December. The preceding Sunday would be November 30, not December 1. Although I read an electronic galley of the book, the recently-released publication is a reprint of a book first published a decade ago. That's more than enough time for the error to have been caught and corrected.

This gentle middle-aged romance will appeal to many readers who prefer reading romances without graphic sexual content. However, those who primarily read Christian fiction might be put off by the attitudes of the main characters toward church membership and attendance.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

I'm finally caught up with reviews for the books I finished early last week. The intense schedule of the last half of the week caught up with me yesterday. I woke up with an earache and a fever. Staying home in bed wasn't an option. There wasn't anyone else to play for the funeral yesterday morning. One of our pianists was out of town, another pianist would have been uncomfortable playing so many piano solos, and the remaining pianist is the daughter of the woman whose funeral it was. Thanks to prayer and Tylenol, I made it through the service and spent the rest of the day watching videos.

I probably shouldn't have gone to the hockey game Friday night, but I didn't want to miss our church's annual group visit to the game. I might have regretted going if our team lost, but we won 5-3. The end of the game was fun. We were up 4-3 with less than 2 minutes to go. The other team took out their goalie so they could put in another shooter. One of our players hit the puck away from one of their shooters, and it slowly slid across the floor straight into the other team's undefended goal. I'm sure that's happened before, but it's the first time I'd seen it!

Who is your team, Carrie? The Predators?

A friend and I go to about 6 or 8 Chicago Blackhawks games every day. Today's was an 11:30 am special--it was nice getting home with daylight. When we go to baseball games, we chat and watch the games and do other things. At hockey games, we're very intense. The Blackhawks beat St Louis 3 to 1 today.

Knoxville has a minor league team, the Knoxville Ice Bears. The games are usually a lot of fun.

Every once in awhile, we go to a Chicago Wolves, which is the minor league team. It might be in that same league.

Knoxville is in the Southern Professional Hockey League. I think they're an affiliate of the Cincinnati Cyclones. I'm a bit fuzzy on the structure of minor league hockey. I'm a lot more familiar with minor league baseball.

Carrie --

Congratulations on catching up on your reviews! I've been thinking about reading The Hemingses of Monticello for some time now - thanks for your encouraging review.

I hope you're back to full health now!

All three books I ordered with my Amazon gift card arrived last week:

A secret gift : how one man's kindness--and a trove of letters--revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup
Scrapbooks : an American history by Jessica Helfand
Objects of our affection : uncovering my family's past, one chair, pistol, and pickle fork at a time by Lisa Tracy

I also picked up a couple of items from the public library:
Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice (audio download)
Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov

Dejah, I've wanted to read The Hemingses of Monticello ever since it came out. I'm glad I finally made the time to do it!

My earache was gone yesterday. I'm still debating whether or not to make a doctor's appointment. I have chronic problems with that ear. Not severe, but enough to be annoying. I suspect I need to see an ENT specialist.

>19 cbl_tn:. I've not read The Hemingses of Monticello, although I recall the news stories some time back about the DNA tests. And yet I'm afraid that I never gave it much thought. Did you come away from the book convinced that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally's children?

>20 alcottacre:. Isn't it funny how different books touch us differently? I liked Friendship Bread a LOT more than you did!

I was already convinced before I read the book that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children, and the book reinforced this. Gordon-Reed doesn't even mention the DNA testing. She is actually a lawyer rather than a historian, and she shows how circumstantial evidence points to Thomas Jefferson as the father of Sally's children.

One new thing I learned in the book is that on her deathbed Martha Jefferson is said to have asked her husband not to marry again so that her daughters would not have a stepmother. She had to have known what this promise would lead to based on personal experience from her father's household. After the death of his 3rd wife, Martha's father didn't remarry, and he went on to have several children by his slave, Elizabeth Hemings. Several slaves, including Sally, were said to be present in the room when Martha made this request.

I think I would have liked Friendship Bread more if I had read/listened to it at a different point in my life. My reaction to the characters was colored by my experience with the recent loss of my father, and by my co-worker's experience during the final illness and death of her mother that occurred while I was listening to the book.

I've got the Ted Gup book on Kindle. Had it for awhile, in fact. At some point, I will get to it.

I think I might save it for one of this year's Christmas reads.

I made a trip to my local used bookstore this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't make it out without an armload of books. Fortunately it didn't cost me anything out of pocket as I had enough trade credit to cover the entire cost. Even better, everything I came home with was on my wishlist. Today's haul:

The Dutchman's Dilemma by Maan Meyers
Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson
The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
Work Song by Ivan Doig
Searching for Pemberley by Mary Simonsen
The Winding Ways Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman

I've long meant to read something by Maan Meyers. I met them (Marty and Annette) at a mystery conference once. I think she was the president of Sisters in Crime or some such. Victoria Thompson's are ok.

I read The Dutchman last summer and liked it well enough. My interest is as much in the time period as in the mystery. My ancestry in my father's line is Dutch and they lived in New Amsterdam/New York during that time period.

The last two or three of Victoria Thompson's books haven't been as enjoyable for me as some of the earlier books in the series. At this point I'm reading it as much for the characters as for the mystery.

I've read only the first two Victoria Thompson's. When I read them, I like them well enough but I don't often seek them out, unless someone's doing a TIOLI and it fits.

If that Mignon Ballard is the first one, and I think it is, I've got that one and may read it for my new author/series category.

Yes, it's the first one. I'm thinking about saving it for this year's holiday reads. It appears to be set around Thanksgiving time.

I got my Agatha category into the March TIOLI

It's up already? Heading off to check...

22. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
TIOLI #6 - Author's last name has a Scrabble value > 12

The Eyre Affair is so different from what I usually read that it's hard for me to describe it. The best I can do is to say that Thursday Next and company remind me of the heroes in the Saturday morning cartoons I used to watch in the 70s. I'm also a little envious of Ms. Next. Who hasn't dreamed about living within the pages of a favorite novel?

The idea of rewriting literature by altering the original manuscript isn't as far-fetched as it used to be. With the proliferation of e-readers and e-texts that has occurred since this book was published, it's not such a stretch to think that there might be a day when every existing copy of a work could be rewritten in an instant. I wonder how many of us would notice if that happened?

4 stars

23. The Professor's Assassin by Matthew Pearl

This short story is based on a true crime that occurred at the University of Virginia in its early years. Several nights of student rioting culminate in the shooting of a professor. When the professor later dies from his wound, fellow professor William Barton Rogers uses his scientific knowledge to catch the killer. A number of years later, Rogers would go on to found M.I.T., the setting for Pearl's novel, The Technologists.

I wish that this had been a novel rather than a short story so that there could have been more character development. I felt like I had arrived late to the party and everyone else had been introduced to each other before I arrived. I hadn't heard of this event before, and I'd be interested in reading more about it.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3 stars

24. Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice's family memoir covers the period of time from her childhood to her father's death, which occurred shortly after the 2000 presidential election as Rice prepared to join the President's staff as National Security Advisor. I listened to the audio version read by the author and I felt like she was in the room having a conversation with me. I liked what I knew of her before I listened to the book, and I like her even more now. She's still relatively young, and she has already participated in so many historic events during her childhood in segregated Birmingham, in her academic career at Stanford, and in her service in Washington under both Bushes.

Some parts of the book were difficult for me to listen to. I have a lot in common with Dr. Rice. Our mothers were musicians, our fathers were preachers who left full-time ministry for careers in college and university administration, we both began piano lessons at an early age, we both work in academia, we both love football, we both lost our mothers to cancer, and we both lost our fathers several years later. The episodes surrounding her parents' final illnesses and deaths brought back painful memories, particularly since my father's illness and death was so recent.

I wish more government officials were like Dr. Rice. She is able to disagree with others' ideas and opinions without being disagreeable. This book should appeal to readers across the political spectrum. Readers will find a lot to admire, and not much, if anything, to cause offense.

4 1/2 stars

Next up in audio: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Carrie the Condi looks a good memoir. Didn't really care for her politics but views honestly held should not be a bar to enjoying their exposition.

25. Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov
TIOLI #6 - Author's name has a Scrabble value >12 cbl_tn:

The cover of the library edition I read calls this a “Bulgarian classic”. Written about a decade after the events, this novel tells of the months leading to the uprising of 1876. The book ends with the Ottoman defeat of the Bulgarian rebels in 1876. However, news reports of the Turkish massacre of Bulgarian villages swayed public sympathy toward the Bulgarians, ending to Bulgarian autonomy just a couple of years later.

The conflict was both ethnic and religious, with Bulgarian Christians and Turkish Muslims occupying neighboring villages. Not all Bulgarians supported the rebellion. Some Bulgarians were content with their lives and were sympathetic toward the Turkish officials, and some were even willing to spy on and betray their Bulgarian neighbors. There are no sympathetic Turkish characters in the story. In fact, the Turkish characters don't have much personality at all. They're just violent and cruel. The heroes, cowards, and villains are all Bulgarian.

Most of the characters were identified at various times by different forms of their names. Some of the characters also assumed aliases, and the aliases also had different forms. It was hard for me to keep all of the characters straight, although I had worked out who was who pretty well by the time I reached the end of the book.

Recommended for readers who enjoy 19th century Russian literature, historical fiction, and adventure novels.

4 stars

Next up: Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson

Paul, if the book interests you, it's worth a try. It seems to me that Dr. Rice thinks of herself as an educator rather than a politician, and there's much more emphasis on education than on politics in the book.

26. Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson
TIOLI #6 - Author's name has a Scrabble value >12 cbl_tn:

Sarah Brandt reluctantly agrees to accompany her mother, Mrs. Felix Decker, to a séance. Mrs. Decker wants to contact Sarah's older sister, who died while estranged from her parents. Unbeknownst to Sarah, her mother goes back for a second séance. When one of the attendees is murdered during the session, Mrs. Decker requests that Sarah's friend, officer Frank Malloy, be assigned to the case.

This variation on a locked room plot is a refreshing change for the series. Sarah's career as a midwife gives her access to women and families from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. While Sarah has often assisted Malloy with murder investigations, the necessity of a having a pregnant woman as one of the central characters of the mystery has its limitations in a long-running series. The murder during a séance and Sarah's mother's involvement provides a good reason for Sarah to become involved with the investigation without a need for her professional services. It wasn't too difficult to spot the murderer. However, the cast of characters and the new revelations about Sarah's nanny, Maeve, made up for any weaknesses in the mystery.

4 stars

Next up: Good Morning, Irene by Carole Nelson Douglas

I'm going to try to read while I keep one eye on the weather channel. We've got severe storms in our area, but so far they seem to be going either to the north or to the south of where I am. I've got my battery-powered lights ready in case the power goes out. I think I've got the weather radio set to come on with weather alerts. It was my father's and I'm not sure where he put the manual.

My weather radio app on my phone has been going off intermittently to remind me of the tornado watches. I've just been thankful that so far none of them have turned into warnings for us. I have friends in Branson from whom I'm waiting to hear. I was also saddened to hear of the tornado much closer to home--the one in Rinnie, near Crossville. My cousin Terry lived there several years before moving back to Mississippi where he eventually died. Every time I hear something about Rinnie, I still think of him and tonight I momentarily forgot he was gone and wondered if he and his family were safe.

We've got bad storms again this afternoon. We're technically still under a tornado warning where I am, but the storm has already moved east of us and it stayed to our north. However, it's now heading straight for Lori. The radar shows some rotation in the storm but I don't know if any spotters have seen a funnel cloud.

27. Good Morning, Irene by Carole Nelson Douglas
TIOLI #19: Mystery over 300 pages long

Rumored dead in a train accident, Irene Adler and her husband, Godfrey Norton, are alive and well and lying low in Paris. Irene is suffering from boredom since her “death” means the end of her opera career. She finds a new outlet for her creative energy in the unraveling of a mystery that spans several years and at least two countries. When Irene and her friend, Penelope Huxleigh, view the body of a drowned sailor recently pulled from the Seine they immediately notice similarities to the body of a drowned sailor they had viewed in England years earlier. Both men had unusual tattoos and were missing one finger. Irene and company encounter a missing girl, mysterious pursuers, a famous actress, the royal family of Monaco, rumors of hidden treasure, and the renowned Sherlock Holmes in their quest to solve the mystery.

Irene, Godfrey, and Penelope work well as an investigative team, with each contributing valuable skills and talents to the group effort. While Irene Adler's character is borrowed from one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, the characters in Douglas's novel are strong enough to stand on their own. The competition between Irene and Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery is a distraction rather than a help to the plot. Penelope compares favorably to Watson as a first-person narrator. Although she might miss some of the clues that Irene spots, she's not often very far behind, and she doesn't necessarily jump to the wrong conclusion. However, there were a few places where I felt like I had missed something because Penelope hadn't been present to describe an event as it happened.

This book will appeal to many fans of historical mysteries, particularly those with husband and wife investigators like Robin Paige's Sir Charles and Lady Kathryn Sheridan or Tasha Alexander's Colin Hargreaves and Lady Emily Ashton. However, Sherlock Holmes aficionados might be disappointed.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Precinct Puerto Rico by Steven Torres

The worst of the weather seems to have moved past my area. Most of the bad storms went around us, but I did hunker down in the bathroom for about 15 minutes when a very large storm seemed to be headed in my general direction. I lost power for a couple of minutes, and my cable and Internet were out for about 30-45 minutes. Things seem to be back to normal now.

I haven't heard yet what happened at the Brad Paisley concert at the arena near downtown. The powers that be decided not to cancel it even though the bad storms were expected. I assume the arena has generators in case of power outages.

Glad to hear that the storms went through. Our library chose the Condi Rice book as a monthly group discussion read for later in the year. I was thinking of joining them and, after reading your review, feel more likely to join them.

We had some scary moments there at the end of the storm, but I felt pretty safe after about 11 p.m. also even though we were still under a tornado watch and had 15 minutes left of the severe thunderstorm warning. I'd been reading the radar and could see we were in the clear on my side of the county. I don't want another afternoon and evening like yesterday's anytime soon.

We've been really lucky where I am in GA - lots of rain (which we needed) and very, very strong winds, but no thunderstorms. I'm hoping today is quiet, if damp. It's good to see everyone on LT reporting in that they're safe!

I'm glad you got some rain without the bad storms! The NWS's preliminary report doesn't show any storm damage in my county or in Lori's county. There are still quite a few people without power this morning, though.

28. Precinct Puerto Rico by Steven Torres
TIOLI #1 - Author born in New York (has an R from "March")

While Sheriff Luis Gonzalo of Angustias and his wife are visiting her family in Rincón, a boat filled with Dominican illegal residents crashes near a local beach. Even though he is out of his jurisdiction, Gonzalo rushes to the scene to help search for survivors. One body among the dozens on the beach catches his attention. The young man's fatal injury appears to be the result of murder. Before Gonzalo can do anything about it, a police sergeant arrives and orders him to leave. Soon Gonzalo begins to receive telephone threats against his family. When he tries to find out more about the dead man, he discovers that the body is not among those taken to any of the morgues. Gonzalo has unknowingly stumbled onto a conspiracy involving police corruption. He must work fast to identify and capture the conspirators before he, his family, or his deputies come to harm.

The unusual Puerto Rican setting initially drew me to this series. Gonzalo and his family will have me coming back for more. Gonzalo is a good man who loves his family, cares about his co-workers, takes his responsibilities seriously, and tries not to allow his years in law enforcement to harden him. That won't be easy after the events of this book, which resulted in more than enough physical violence and serious injuries to haunt its witnesses for the rest of their lives. The denouement is the book's main weakness. The suspense built nicely toward a final confrontation, but the ending was flat. The author allowed readers inside the hero's head throughout most of the book, then left us to observe the after-effects from outside. I hope this is just first novel awkwardness that won't affect future books in the series.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Man Overboard! by Curtis Parkinson

I started listening to The Lost Painting last night and after the first few words I thought "That sounds like Boris!" (Any other Royal Pains fans out there?) I checked the reader's name against IMDB and, sure enough, it's "Boris"/Campbell Scott. I've always liked the actor whenever I've seen him in something, but I've never paid attention to the credits to find out his real name. I discovered from IMDB that he's the son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, who was one of my favorite actresses.

29. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
TIOLI #15: Author's last name divisible by 3

A British couple on vacation in Nigeria and a Nigerian girl meet under horrifying conditions that none of them will ever forget. A couple of years later, the three are reunited in England with unexpected consequences.

The advance publicity and marketing for this book didn't provide many details about the plot or themes of the book so I had little idea what to expect from it. The book addresses important themes and some situations I wasn't familiar with in a way that arouses sympathy for the plight of the characters. Besides Little Bee, the character with the most appeal for me was 4-year-old Charlie, who imagines he is a superhero and divides the world into two categories: “goodies” and “baddies.” Upon reflection, the book doesn't seem to analyze the issues at its heart any more deeply than Charlie analyzes his world. The book has its moving passages, but ultimately it's not a novel that will linger in my thoughts for days or weeks.

3 stars

Next up in audio: The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr

30. Man Overboard! by Curtis Parkinson
TIOLI #7: March Madness 2-word title

In the summer of 1943, teenage friends Scott and Adam have jobs aboard the Rapids Prince on Canada's St. Lawrence River. Before one of the ship's runs, Scott overhears a suspicious conversation. Remembering the conversation after a man disappears overboard during the trip, Scott realizes that German agents were among the passengers. Revealing what Scott had overheard might cost Scott and Adam their jobs, so they tackle the situation on their own, with the help of Scott's girlfriend and another young girl in close proximity to the German agents.

In adult novels, I find this kind of situation unbelievable. However, it works in this YA novel. Teenagers worry about getting in trouble with parents, teachers, and other authority figures, and sometimes they don't seek help when they should. When they finally do alert adults to the threat, the adults don't believe their story, which is also realistic. The adventure reminds me of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books I read in my early teen years. The book provided an enjoyable escape for a couple of weekend hours, as well as exposure to unfamiliar aspects of geography and history.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Red Station by Adrian Magson

I like your review of Little Bee - your comments about situations that "arouse sympathy" and the failure to analyze issues beyond the surface would be appropriate for many recent books that use shocking or horrifying events to move the story along but don't go much further than that. Thanks - thumbs up from me.

Wow, Carrie, it's only March 4th and you've read four books already. It looks like your reading month came in like a lion...along with some lion-like weather. Hope the rest of the month is calmer. But you can keep reading up a storm!

Thanks Dejah!

Donna, the circumstances were just unusual. I didn't quite manage to finish Good Morning, Irene in February because of the storms that came through our region Friday evening. I spent the evening glued to our local TV meteorologists instead of reading. I also listened to most of Little Bee in February and finished it while I did household chores yesterday. The other two books were both pretty short.

I see. Well, I won't expect to see 31 books listed for March now!

I may end up with a little higher total for March than my usual monthly total. I've got several cozies on my list for Mystery March and they tend to be fairly short and pretty quick reads.

31. Red Station by Adrian Magson
TIOLI #7: March Madness 2-word title

After an operation gone wrong, MI5 agent Harry Tate becomes the fall guy for the agency. He's sent to a remote outpost in the nation of Georgia known as Red Station. He joins a small crew of other agents in exile. It gradually becomes apparent that the powers that sent them to Red Station don't intend for them to leave it alive. Meanwhile, Russian troops are on the move heading south across the border with Georgia.

The story and characters were good enough to make me regret the few problems that intruded on my reading experience. I never quite understood what made Harry so dangerous to the agency that he had to be removed, and why the same reasoning didn't apply to another character who had been involved in the same failed operation. The unusual location was intriguing, but I wish the sense of place had been stronger. Most of the characters in the book were part of the international community of intelligence operatives, engineers, and journalists. The book could have been set in any number of countries in eastern Europe. Nevertheless, I had trouble putting the book down, and book two of the series is already on my TBR list.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Haunted Ground by Erin Hart

32. Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
TIOLI #3 - Book nominated for Agatha Award for best 1st novel

The discovery of a woman's head in an Irish bog brings together archaeologist Cormac Maguire and forensic pathologist Nora Gavin. As they conduct their archaeological investigation, they're forced to deal with a much more recent mystery. Cormac's client for the archaeological survey, Hugh Osborne, has become a controversial figure in the small community. His wife and young son disappeared without a trace two years earlier, and the police investigation is still open. For personal reasons, Nora, like many, believes that Osborne must have murdered his wife and child. However, other people are behaving oddly, including Osborne's cousin's widow, her teenage son, and an angry neighbor.

While I enjoyed the characters and the setting, neither the historical nor the modern mystery captured my interest. The combination of archaeology and pathology is one that appeals to me, but there wasn’t enough of either one in this book. Nora and Cormac spent more time on their developing romance than on a systematic investigation of either mystery. The breaks in the mysteries seemed almost effortless on their part, the result of luck or convenient confessions. If I continue with the next book in the series, I'll borrow it from the library rather than purchase it.

3 stars

Next up: Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr

>144 cbl_tn: It was disappointing, wasn't it? I thought the archaeology / pathology combination would be a sure fire winner, but it didn't really grab me either. It sounds as though I liked the historical mystery more than you did. I got both Haunted Ground and Lake of Sorrows from the library -- I'm cheap!

>145 Dejah_Thoris: I liked the historical mystery - just not the way they found the answers so easily.

>147 cbl_tn: Exactly! I think I mentioned that in my review - would that all my genealogical brick walls could be broken down so easily....

I borrowed Haunted Ground from the library last year and abandoned it about 50 pages in. I found it poorly written and full of one dimensional characters and stereotypes.

>149 katiekrug: It certainly has its problems. It sounds like a book I should like. It has a lot of elements that appeal to me. Unfortunately they weren't put together very well.

33. The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
TIOLI #11 Book from my Recommendations list filtered by authors held

The Lost Painting referred to in the title is Caravaggio's Taking of Christ, one of three Caravaggio paintings commissioned by wealthy Roman Ciriaco Mattei. The painting wasn't lost in the sense of having been misplaced. Although it never left the possession of the Mattei family during its first 200 years, by the time it was sold in 1802, its identity as a Caravaggio had been lost to the passage of time and memories that weren't passed on to subsequent generations. Harr tells the story of the painting's rediscovery in the late 1990s through the research of two Italian students of art history and the educated eye of an art restorer.

I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book describing the research of Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa, two graduate students in art history. Because of her friendship with a Mattei relative, Francesca was able to gain access to the Mattei family archives, where the women examined Ciriaco Mattei's account books and the periodic inventories of the family's possessions over the centuries. They also used government archives and conducted a thorough literature search, examining exhibition and auction catalogs and following footnote trails from the journal literature. I have used the same kinds of documents for family history research, and the thrill I felt when Francesca and Laura made their discoveries was similar to the thrill of discovering a link to another generation on my family tree.

The audio recording included a bonus interview with the author, in which the author revealed that he learned Italian in order to conduct the interviews that form the basis for the book. Because the book is so reliant on the personal stories of the art experts and researchers involved in the rediscovery of the painting, Harr didn't want to conduct his interviews through an interpreter. The time he spent in language study was well spent. Harr's account is as thorough as an eye witness's. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone with an interest in art history or archival research.

4 1/2 stars

Next up in audio: Murder Is Easy by Agatha Christie

34. Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr
TIOLI #19 - Mystery more than 300 pages in length

In the fall of 1941, Berlin policeman Bernie Gunther is called upon to investigate a locked room murder at a country “house party” outside Prague. While borrowing plot elements and setting from crime novels from the Golden Era of detective fiction, this is anything but a cozy mystery. The guests are all high ranking officials in the Nazi party. Each one has already proven himself capable of murder through participation in torture and the mass murder of Jews.

Gunther doesn't try very hard to disguise his loathing of the Nazi party. However, he doesn't seem to consider himself morally superior to the Nazis. He loathes himself as much as he does anyone else. Even though he is not a party member, his superiors are, and he has been forced to carry out unspeakable acts that have driven him to the brink of suicide.

The book presents an interesting view of Nazi-era Germany. While Gunther airs his anti-Nazi views more outspokenly than other characters in the novel, he isn't the only disaffected German character. Most of the characters who show signs of disapproval of the Nazi regime also seem resigned to its power.

I've been avoiding this series because I was afraid the atmosphere and tone would be too heavy for me. However, the book's dark humor and my knowledge of the eventual downfall of the Nazi regime kept the book from being too depressing to read.

This review is based on an advance reader's edition provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 stars

Next up: The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan

35. Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie

When Luke Fitzwilliam meets Lavinia Fullerton on a train on his first day back in England, he is charmed by this imaginative elderly lady who reminds him of his aunt. She's on her way to consult Scotland Yard about a string of accidental deaths in her village. He dismisses her belief that the “accidents” were actually murders – until he reads about her death in a hit-and-run accident in the next day's paper. Luke heads for the village to finish what Miss Fullerton started, claiming to be writing a book on local superstitions about death so that his questions about the deadly “accidents” wouldn't raise too much suspicion.

While Luke isn't quite as clueless as Hastings, he's definitely not Hercule Poirot. Had Poirot been on the case, this might have been a short story rather than a novel. Luke's process is logical and methodical, but he overlooks some important clues. The local knowledge and insight of his host, his supposed “cousin” Bridget Conway, keeps Luke from getting too far off track.

As in most of Christie's Superintendent Battle books, the superintendent has only a minor role in the book, while young people do most of the detecting. I've always liked Christie's Tommy and Tuppence novels and have regretted that she didn't write more of them. Murder Is Easy, The Secret of Chimneys, and The Seven Dials Mystery have a similar feel to the Tommy and Tuppence books and are almost as much fun.

4 stars

Next up in audio: Dead Man's Ransom by Ellis Peters

I'm in the middle of March Violets, book 1 of that Philip Kerr series. I know what you mean by a heavy tone and atmosphere, and the dark humor. It's not cozy, but so far it's an interesting story. Have you read the previous titles in the series?

No, this is the first one I've read from the series. I'd like to read some of the earlier books, but I'll probably borrow them from the library rather than borrow them. I don't think I'll want to re-read them after I've read them once.

Hi, cbl. I liked The Lost Painting a lot, too. Good review! It was interesting to find out that Harr learned Italian so he could do the interviews in that language. Impressive commitment by the author!

Hi Carrie, Murder Is Easy sounds like a fun read.

I laughed out loud at your comment:

Had Poirot been on the case, this might have been short story rather than a novel.

It was a lot of fun. As much as I like Poirot and Miss Marple, I enjoy the books without them, too. It gave Christie the freedom to try new things that wouldn't suit either one.

36. The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan
TIOLI #3 - Book nominated for Agatha Award for best 1st novel

When bride-to-be Meg Wynne Thompson disappears on her wedding day, it soon becomes apparent that manicurist Penny Brannigan was the last person to see her. Penny's observations provide helpful leads for DCI Gareth Davies and DS Bethan Morgan. As the police draw close to a solution with Penny's help, DCI Davies begins to develop more than a professional interest in Penny.

The clues weren't subtle enough to fool me, and I correctly pegged the guilty party very early on. However, I was charmed by the small Welsh town and its residents, including Penny and her new friend, harpist Victoria; the vicar and his wife with their secret (and harmless) vices, the gossipy retired postmistress, and the DCI and his younger partner. Llanelen is a town I'd like to visit. There are plenty of other series that I read for the puzzle. This is one I'll read for the setting and characters.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: The Black Mountain by Rex Stout

Ooh ooh, I lurve The Black Mountain! Well, all of the Archie Goodwin books, but that one is special for being so far out of the normal environment. Enjoy!

I read the first 3 chapters of The Black Mountain last night and it's great so far. I'm not sure I've read any of the Nero Wolfe books before, but I loved the A&E series that ran for a couple of seasons about a decade ago. The series seems to have been pretty faithful to the books. The characters in the book have a familiar feel. I hear Timothy Hutton's voice in my head while I'm reading.

I should get to The Cold Light of Mourning this week. It sounds nice!

The Cold Light of Mourning is another series that is calling out to me. When I get involved in a series, I find it is usually the characters and settings that lure me in more often than the actual mystery itself.

I'm planning on reading The Black Mountain for Montenegro. There really aren't a lot of choices for that country. I'm glad to hear it's good thus far.

>162 Dejah_Thoris:, 163 One of the things that appeals to me about the setting is that I've been to that part of Wales. It's beautiful!

>164 thornton37814: I'm about halfway through now and it's still holding my interest. I wonder how accurate the description is, though. I'm not sure that Rex Stout ever visited Montenegro.

#161 by @cbl_tn> I read my first Stout book in the 5th grade; If Death Ever Slept, and I was instantly captivated by Archie's voice and the whole setup. Later when I saw the A&E series on DVD I thought they did a terrific job. It was faithful to the books in all the right ways. Of course, I love Timothy Hutton so I'm a bit biased.

I'm finding more and more mysteries that I like for character and setting. Not as many, anymore, for great plots.

>159 cbl_tn:, cbl_tn: "There are plenty of other series that I read for the puzzle. This is one I'll read for the setting and characters.
>163 DeltaQueen50:, DeltaQueen: "...I find it is usually the characters and settings that lure me in more often than the actual mystery itself.
>167 lindapanzo:, lindapanzo: "I'm finding more and more mysteries that I like for character and setting. Not as many, anymore, for great plots.

I confess that I never really sought out mysteries before joining 75 and reading so many great reviews here. I've made it a point to read as many as possible for Mystery March and have to say that I'm truly enjoying them. I still don't find myself necessarily trying to solve the puzzle, just enjoying the characters as they do so. Characters and setting are uppermost for me. At this point in my mystery journey, the intricacy of the puzzle doesn't sway me either way, though I want a good story to go along with it.

That was really a good element to have in your review, Carrie.

I'm heading out of town after work this afternoon to celebrate Christmas with some very good friends. I often spend Christmas with them, but this past Christmas we were all out of the country on different continents. We decided that if we waited until after our trips to celebrate, we could do some of our shopping internationally. We've been trying to find a weekend to do this since the beginning of the year, but every time we'd make plans something would come up at the last minute. (Last time it was a funeral.) Unfortunately we've landed on a race weekend and my friends live in Bristol. I'll have to time my travel carefully to avoid the race traffic.

Merry Christ-mas!

Have fun with your Christmas in March.

Thanks for the "Christmas" wishes! I came home with a new book for my TBR stash - Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale. I'm saving it for holiday reading, maybe during our upcoming spring break.

My friend is a wonderful cook. Last night's dinner was chicken adobo, breakfast this morning included her wonderful cheese biscuits, and for lunch we had the traditional Christmas on St. Patrick's Day corned beef & cabbage. I love corned beef but rarely cook it at home since I don't have an army to feed.

I managed to miss all of the race traffic. In fact, the traffic seemed lighter than it usually is when I make this trip.

37. The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
TIOLI #8: Book featuring a pair of protagonists

Nero Wolfe becomes his own client when his lifelong friend, Marko Vukcic, is killed. Wolfe's search for Vukcic's killer takes him back to his native Montenegro and to Vukcic's connections in an underground political movement. Since it would be dangerous for Wolfe to appear in Montenegro as himself, he and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, use assumed names and identities. Between the physically demanding terrain and the risk of discovery of their true purpose and identities, will Wolfe and Archie survive their adventure?

I am a huge fan of the Nero Wolfe series starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton, but I hadn't read any of the books until now. If one book is anything to judge by, the TV series captured the essence of the books. Archie Goodwin is the first-person narrator, and I heard Timothy Hutton's voice in my head as I read. In this book, Archie was dependent on Wolfe as a translator since he doesn't speak a language other than English. Archie's thoughts during conversations he couldn't understand provide comic relief in some tense situations.

It never occurred to Wolfe or Danilo to give a damn whether I had any notion of what they were talking about, which I hadn't, but Meta couldn't stand a guest at her table feeling out of it, so about once a minute she turned her black eyes to me just to include me in. I was reminded of a dinner party Lily Rowan had once thrown at Rusterman's where one of the guests was an Eskimo, and I tried to remember whether she had been as gracious to him as Meta Vukcic was being to me, but I couldn't, probably because I had completely ignored him myself. I resolved that if I ever got back to New York and was invited to a meal where someone like an Eskimo was present, I would smile at him or her at least every fifth bite.

This might have been my first Nero Wolfe novel, but it won't be my last!

4 1/2 stars

38. Dead Man's Ransom by Ellis Peters
TIOLI #15: # of letters in author's last name divisible by 3

When sheriff Gilbert Prescott is captured during the battle of Lincoln, Hugh Beringar arranges for an exchange of prisoners. Before the exchange is complete, one of the prisoners dies. Although he was wounded, his battle wounds were not considered fatal, and his death came as a surprise. Brother Cadfael examines the dead man's body and discovers evidence of murder. The circumstances seem to leave little hope for the much-desired reconciliation or for two pairs of young lovers kept apart by the tragic circumstances.

I was afraid I knew where the story was heading, but I was wrong. I didn't see the end coming, and it was better than the ending I had imagined for the book. I was pleased by the appearance of one of my favorite characters in The Leper of St. Giles, the best of all the Cadfael books I've read so far. The book does have an uncharacteristic flaw. Fairly early in the book Peters introduces a character with a potential motive for murder, but then doesn't follow up on the character or the motive. I kept waiting for him to reappear but he didn't. I listened to this one in audio, so I might have been confused by unfamiliar names that sounded similar.

4 stars

Next up on audio: Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis

39. Goodbye, Nanny Gray by Susannah Stacey
TIOLI #3: Nominated for Agatha Award for best 1st novel

While former nanny Phoebe Gray was loved by the many children she had cared for in the small English village, not all adults felt the same way about her. Nanny had Parkinson's and was prone to falls, so when her body was discovered in a wooded area, it was assumed that she had fallen and hit her head. However, the Superintendent Bone and his partner are unable to find anything in her home that matches the fatal injury. Nanny had recently inherited a large sum of money from a former charge. Was this the motive for her murder? Or did she know a secret that one of her families would kill to keep?

There were several things I liked about this debut mystery, but it had a few problems. The development of characters and motives wasn't consistent. A few suspects received a lot of attention, while a few others weren't developed very well. I frequently felt like something was missing from a description or a conversation. I think the book needed a little more detail. There was a nice balance between the investigation and Superintendent Bone's personal life. I liked his relationship with his daughter Charlotte, who is recovering from a serious brain injury from the accident that killed Bone's wife and young son. The book's good points outweigh its flaws, and I'll be on the lookout for more books in this series.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Those all look like interesting books. I keep thinking one day I'll start the Ellis Peters series. So many books...

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this series. There is so much more to the Cadfael series than the mysteries. The books do have similar plot elements, so when you do finally start the series, you might want to space the books out a bit. I think all of the books I've read so far have a young couple in love with an obstacle that is keeping them apart.

40. Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
TIOLI #7 - March Madness (2 word title)

During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 14-year-old Mattie Cook and her mother become separated. Mattie must grow up quickly if she is to survive disease and the shortage of food in the city.

While Mattie and her family are fictional, the story of her survival is filled with historical characters like Dr. Benjamin Rush, painter Charles Willson Peale, and my favorite Philadelphian, financier and philanthropist Stephen Girard. (My family benefited directly from Stephen Girard's legacy. After my grandfather lost his father at age 5, he was eventually admitted to Girard College, a boarding school founded by Girard for the education of fatherless boys.) Historical details about the yellow fever epidemic support the plot without dominating it. Mattie's attitude and behavior may occasionally seem too modern for her time, but they probably make her more of a kindred spirit for today's young readers. Recommended for readers of all ages who enjoy historical fiction.

4 1/2 stars

41. Plunder by Mary Anna Evans
TIOLI #12 - Newly-released series continuation

Dr. Faye Longchamp-Mantooth and her husband, Joe, are racing against time to complete an archaeological inventory/survey of the Louisiana coastal area as oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill approaches the coast. Faye and Joe are distracted from their work by the plight of Amande, a bright teenager with an interest in antiquities and a difficult family situation. When two of Amande's relatives are murdered, Faye and Joe become fearful for Amande's safety. Will they figure out the source of danger before something happens to Amande?

Faye and Joe are the kind of amateur sleuths I admire. They're observant and savvy, and they work with the police, not against them. When they end up in physical danger, it's not due to their own stupidity. They assess risk before acting. If I was in trouble, I'd feel confident in my chances of success if I knew they were on my side.

This series has been on my radar for a while, so I was happy to have an opportunity to read this book. Likeable characters, a strong sense of place, and a well-plotted mystery have me looking forward to the continuation of the series. While I wait for the next installment, I can go back and pick up the earlier books that I've missed.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

4 stars

42. Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis
TIOLI #15 - Number of letters in author's last name is divisible by 3

A serial killer is at work in Vienna in 1902. As he investigates the brutal murders, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt enlists the help of his friend, Dr. Max Liebermann, whose training in psychoanalysis may be useful for creating a psychological profile of the murderer. The friends share a love of music, and their knowledge of music will come in handy during the investigation. The fictional characters rub shoulders with historical figures including Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, and Guido List.

I don't think audio is the ideal format for this book. The narrator does a decent job. However, the plot is complex, and it's not at first clear how some scenes are connected to the plot. The narrative frequently includes untranslated German words. Since I couldn't see the words, I didn't know how to spell them and couldn't look up their meanings. The cast of characters includes some obscure historical figures. Since I didn't know how to spell many of the names, I wasn't able to check to see which characters were real and which were fictional. The book could have been tightened up by leaving out many of the scenes about Liebermann's personal life, which don't do much to advance the plot, and by eliminating repetitive information. The same events are described multiple times – as they occur, and as the details are repeated to various characters who weren't present when the event happened or when the discovery was made. This aspect of the book worked well for the audio version, since I occasionally miss bits of the story while I'm doing something that requires my full attention (like driving!), but I would have found it annoying had I read it in print. I'll probably continue the series at some point, but I don't feel a sense of urgency about it.

3 stars

Next up on audio: Heresy by S. J. Parris

Love your review of Fever 1793! My favorite reviews show a reader's personal connection with elements of the story.

Thanks Cindy! My father bought a biography of Stephen Girard a few years ago and we both read it. I knew about his involvement in the yellow fever epidemic from reading the biography. He chose to stay in Philadelphia to do what he could to help when most people with the means to do so left the city until the epidemic was over. I don't know why it should have surprised me when he was mentioned in this book, but it did.

43. Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo
March TIOLI #3 - Book nominated for Agatha Award for best first novel

When Seneca Falls librarian Glynis Tryon discovers a body in the canal behind the library, it's assumed the woman's death was a tragic accident. After the woman's injuries have been examined, it becomes apparent that she was murdered. The woman, a stranger in town, claimed to be an heir of a recently-deceased local man, one of the wealthiest farmers in the area. Is the woman's death related to her potential inheritance? While the sheriff, Glynis's good friend Cullen Stuart, is away on business, Glynis conducts an unofficial investigation with his blessing. Meanwhile, Glynis's friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, has roped her into canvassing the town's women to see if they would be willing to attend a public meeting on women's rights. Glynis worries that her involvement with Stanton's project may cause her to lose her job as the town's librarian.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I was troubled by some logical inconsistencies and historical anachronisms. The book was set in 1848, the year of the Seneca Falls Convention. This was almost a decade before the first female librarian on record. Melvil Dewey wasn't even born yet, and female librarians didn't become common until he founded his school for the education and training of librarians.

SPOILERS
Elizabeth Cady Stanton had urged the mother of the dead woman to reveal her father's identity to her daughter after his death. She was said to be a friend of the mother's, yet she was contemporary in age to the daughter. It never made sense to me that the mother would have revealed this secret to Stanton and not to her daughter. Also, everyone assumed that the only way to prove the daughter's claim was to find the missing family Bible to see if her birth was recorded there. Her parents had been married and the marriage was later annulled. Both of these events would have generated records, but no one suggested looking for them. These records and her mother's testimony would have supported the daughter's claim. When the dead woman's husband made a claim as her heir, he was asked for and produced their marriage certificate. It didn't seem logical to me that they would look for a marriage record in one instance but not in the other.

2 1/2 stars

44. Frontier Medicine by David Dary
March TIOLI #6 - Heterograph/homonym in the title (tier/tear)

I had hoped that I might learn something from this book that would provide historical context for my family history. I thought I might find information about common illnesses, diseases, and epidemics that affected people living in frontier regions. Instead, I found a rather dull biographical survey of doctors in various eras and locations. The errors I was able to spot without specialized knowledge of the field (e.g., “omitted” used for “emitted”; a person referred to as “Roberts” and “Robertson” in the same paragraph) made me concerned that there might be factual errors that only a subject specialist would recognize. I did glean a few useful tidbits from the book, but not enough to recommend it to other readers.

2 1/2 stars

Next up: The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers

Seneca Falls Inheritance sounds like it could have had potential. That's too bad.

A book that I really enjoyed about frontier medicine was The Horse and Buggy Doctor by Arthur Hertzler, which is a memoir of his days as a doctor in frontier Kansas. Starting as low in life as he did, it was astonishing how he managed to educate himself and what influence he came to have in the state of Kansas; his writings and possessions are now in a museum there. Not your neck of the woods, but very interesting reading on the kinds of situations he encountered as a country doctor.

The Horse and Buggy Doctor was mentioned in Frontier Medicine. I thought it sounded interesting and I remembered seeing a positive review here on LT. (I guess it was yours!) My public library has it so I've added it to my library TBR list. The author of Frontier Medicine has Kansas roots so Kansas doctors were well represented in the book.

I'm pretty sure I read Seneca Falls Inheritance a number of years ago and it didn't do much for me either. Here's hoping that your next books are much, much better!

45. The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers
TIOLI #10 - Book featuring people of differing cultures coming into contact with each other

In a kidnapping plot gone wrong, a white infant is abandoned in a deserted area of the Belgian Congo, where she is discovered by a young boy of the Bashilele tribe. Not knowing what else to do, the boy takes the baby home. The boys' parents adopt her and raise her as a member of their tribe. Thirteen years later, missionary Amanda Brown accompanies the local police chief to find the white girl rumored to live among the Bashilele, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to tragedy.

Issues of race and culture are at the heart of this story. The white population of the Belgian Congo, whether Catholic or Protestant, Belgian or American, see only the girl's white skin. They don't think it's suitable for a white girl to live as an African – never mind that the European culture is completely foreign to her and she can't speak any of its languages. In addition to the racial and cultural tensions between the black and white communities, there are tensions between cultural groups within each community. The Americans don't completely trust the Belgians, and the Flemish Belgians and Walloon Belgians are wary of each other. Amanda's head housekeeper, Protruding Navel, and his assistant, Cripple, are of different tribes that despise each other, but are united in their dislike of the Bashilele. With independence looming in the not-too-distant future, there are hints that things are going to become a lot worse.

The humor in the novel frequently made me uncomfortable. It's the kind of humor that comes at others' expense, far different from the affectionate humor of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. Amanda is the kindest of the characters, yet even she is often motivated by self-interest rather than a desire to help others. It's an interesting place and time to read about, but it's not somewhere I want to linger.

3 1/2 stars

Next up: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

I have the day off tomorrow and I'm starting out by going to a friend's house to see her llamas being sheared. I hope she got them in the barn before it started raining! Then I'll be going on an outing with a couple of friends. I might even find some time to read when I get home!

>188 cbl_tn:

I've got the first in the series The Witch Doctor's Wife coming from another branch - the setting sounds fascinating.

I love llamas - have a great time!

I hope to get caught up on reviews this evening. I fell behind over the holiday weekend!

46. Heresy by S. J. Parris
TIOLI #11 - 1st-person narrative written by a person of the opposite sex

After fleeing from an Italian monastery to escape the Inquisition, former monk Giordano Bruno eventually ends up in Oxford during Elizabeth I's reign. Before making a trip to Oxford with his friend, Philip Sidney, Bruno is enlisted by Sir Francis Walsingham to provide information on the underground Catholic movement in Oxford. Bruno is a guest at Lincoln College, where he is to engage in a disputation with its rector, John Underhill. Before the disputation, the college is thrown into turmoil by the death of one of its members. Both Bruno and the rector suspect murder. Despite Underhill's undisguised dislike of Bruno, he tasks Bruno with undertaking a quiet investigation of the murder. Soon, there is another death, and another, and the circumstances seem to have a strange literary connection.

Even though the plot, characters, and setting were all interesting, I didn't have any trouble when I had to stop at a climactic point in the story. Something about the book didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the reader on the audio version, who I thought read a little too fast and with too little expression. Maybe it was the forcing of fictional events (the murders) and characters into the framework of a real event (the disputation). I wondered as I listened what the purpose of the disputation was. It seemed to be a distraction from the plot, and I thought the story would have worked better without it. I found out afterward that the disputation was an actual historic event. I'll give this series another try before I give up on it. Next time I'll try the print (or ebook) version rather than the audio and see if that makes a difference.

3 stars

I don't tend to go for this period when reading historical fiction, but I have to admit I brightened at the mention of Walsingham. That man was fascinating. Hopefully the series works better for with the next one. :)

Walsingham only appears briefly, although he's mentioned throughout the book. He's shown up in several historical novels I've read, and he always adds an interesting dimension to a story!

I didn't get caught up like I hoped to the other day, and now I'm even farther behind on reviews. I had to drive to a town about 4 1/2 hours away for a meeting at the end of the week and I finished a couple of audiobooks during my 9 hours in the car. I haven't been reading as much over the last couple of weeks. I've been distracted by Scarecrow and Mrs. King, which I discovered streams free with my Amazon Prime membership. It's one of my favorite TV series.

Stopping by to say Hi!. I remember watching Scarecrow and Mrs. King.... a fun show!

47. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
TIOLI #1 - Last letter of title in rolling alphabetical order

The Gentlemen of the Road in this medieval adventure story are an odd couple of Jewish soldiers of fortune – a smallish Frank with some medical knowledge and a large Abyssinian with a tragic loss in his past. Following a chance encounter at an inn, the pair end up with a young Khazar prince in their charge. They have been commissioned to escort the prince, who has survived an attack on his family's home, to safety with relatives. However, the young prince would rather pursue the attackers and avenge the destruction of his home and family. The adventures that follow require as much wit as physical strength. There are plenty of surprises in store for the pair as they discover more about the young stranger whose fate has become entwined with their own.

This pairing of characters and setting is unusual, but it works. The audio version was a little difficult to follow because of the unusual vocabulary of the time period and geographic setting. However, actor Andre Braugher's narration was as good as I had hoped it would be, and it was worth the extra effort required for listening to this tale.

4 stars

That sounds interesting. I notice one of the tags is "fantasy". Was there much of that element and did it work well in the story? I don't read much fantasy, (and actually don't know exactly what all it encompasses), but I do enjoy Sarah Addison Allen's stories, which also have that tag.

The fantasy tag is puzzling for this one because it's anything but fantasy. Some of Chabon's novels fit in that genre, so maybe the fantasy tag is an assumption by people who haven't yet read the book?

48. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
TIOLI #9 - Title uses only the vowels found in the word "April"

Okonkwo is an Igbo man whose greatest desire is to be the successful man his father wasn't. Tragically for Okonkwo, the rules for success change during his lifetime with the arrival of British colonial government and the influence of Christian missionaries.

Achebe gives the reader an insider's perspective on the culture of Umuofia, Okonkwo's Nigerian village. Viewed from the inside, one can discern the source of many of the traditions and values of Okonkwo's world. The life and stability of the community takes precedence over individual rights, and men take precedence over women and children. In Umuofia, an entire village bears the weight of guilt for one man's crime, and it is considered just to execute an innocent man as payment for this collective guilt. Under such circumstances a clash with Western/European culture is inevitable.

Achebe's novel addresses universal themes of family, generational conflict, fear of failure, fear of change, friendship, religion, and social conflict. It's a must-read for anyone preparing to live and work in a cross cultural setting.

4 stars

49. Night by Elie Wiesel
TIOLI #9 - Title uses only the vowels found in the word "April"

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel recalls the horrors of life in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. If you've read other Holocaust memoirs, many of the details will be familiar, yet each survivor's story is unique and each tragedy is personal. One of the themes of Night is God's silence in the face of extreme suffering, a theme echoed in Shusako Endo's Silence. Wiesel experienced a crisis of faith due to the unspeakable things he witnessed and the suffering he endured. This is probably the most widely known Holocaust memoir, and it should be on everyone's “books to read before you die” list. As the number of Holocaust survivors shrinks with the passage of time, books such as this will be increasingly important for preserving the memory of this great tragedy and making sure that it never happens again.

4 1/2 stars

That's a succinctly powerful review for Night. Can't believe I haven't read it yet, though its been on my wishlist quite a while. Just checked my library - Elie Wiesel wrote many books; I did not know that.

*waving* at Carrie

Good to see you around Stasia!

50. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
TIOLI #12 - A "Sherlockian" work

Michael Chabon has done a favor for all of us who can't get enough Sherlock Holmes. Chabon imagines “the old man” at the end of his life, outwardly feeble but still mentally sharp, although not as quick as he once was. The old man's routine is disturbed by a mute Jewish boy with a pet parrot and an aura of sadness. The boy, a refugee from Nazi Germany, is lodging with the local vicar. When a fellow lodger is murdered and the parrot disappears, the old man gathers his strength and his wits to tackle one last case. He's driven not so much by solving the murder as he is by his desire to reunite the forlorn boy with his beloved pet.

I've noticed that young children and elderly people often have a special affinity. It's as if they recognize their limitations and join forces to do things that neither one could accomplish alone. The boy and the old man seem to have this kind of relationship, and the pair upstage the other characters in the story. I probably won't remember much about most of the characters in the book, but I'll never forget the boy or the old man.

I listened to the audio version on a road trip. Michael York's narration is perfectly pitched and paced for this story. Warmly recommended!

4 stars

#204: I like that one too, although I read the book rather than listening to the audio version. I might have to give it a try though!

>205 alcottacre: It's hard to go wrong with Michael York...

Abandoned book: I'm giving up on Birdsong after about 50 pages. There hasn't been enough character development to make me care what happens to any of these people. The protagonist and his host's wife don't know each other well enough to do the things they're doing, and I don't know them well enough to have the least desire to read about it. I think I'll probably skip the PBS adaptation this weekend, too.

Sorry that one didn't work for you, Carrie. I read it several years ago and liked it. I didn't realize PBS was doing an adaptation. I might have to check it out.

I liked Birdsong as well, but didn't love it. I can certainly understand why anyone would not like it. I would definitely say it wasn't as good (in my opinion) as Charlotte Gray by the same author.

Katie, Birdsong is supposed to be on Masterpiece Theater this Sunday and next Sunday.

I'm thinking about joining the 12 in 12 group read of Charlotte Gray later this year. Even though this one didn't work for me, it sounds like Faulks is an author who is worth another try.

51. The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd
TIOLI #21 - Book acquired between Jan & Mar that I needed to read in April to meet a deadline

Ex-policeman Charles Maddox went into business as a private investigator after his dismissal from the police force. While working on a case involving the disappearance from a workhouse of a woman and her newborn sixteen years earlier, he takes on a second case at the request of a prominent lawyer. The case is one of apparent blackmail, and Maddox's client wants to identify the author of some threatening letters. Maddox gets more than he bargained for when he learns that his client has been holding something back. Maddox's investigations take him all over Victorian London. Meanwhile, Maddox's domestic situation becomes complicated when he moves in with his uncle and mentor, who is suffering from what appears to be Alzheimer's.

This is just the sort of historical mystery I ought to like with its Victorian London setting, but it didn't work for me. I couldn't read for more than a short stretch of time without switching to something different. Maybe it was the author's unusual choice of third person present for the narrative. The resolution to Maddox's cases relied too heavily on coincidence. I can tolerate coincidence in Dickens, but not in his emulators (with occasional exceptions). I seem to be the exception rather than the rule in my lack of enthusiasm for the book, so if you like atmospheric historical mysteries you might want to give this one a try.

This review is based on an advanced electronic reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

A generous 2 1/2 stars.

52. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
TIOLI #20 - At least one edition has a flower on the cover

Convinced he's near death, Matthew Penicuik determines to leave his fortune to his ward, Kitty Charing, on one condition: that she marry one of his great-nephews. Kitty has no interest in any of them except for Jack Westruther, who also happens to be his uncle's favorite despite his wild nature. When Jack doesn't show up with the rest of his cousins in answer to their uncle's summons, Kitty convinces cousin Freddy to pretend to be engaged to her. As Freddy's fiancee, Kitty will have an excuse to travel to London and make Jack jealous enough to offer for her. However, Kitty's plan soon escapes her control.

I've read several of Heyer's mysteries, but this was my first experience with the historical romances she's primarily known for. I found Kitty to be a charming heroine, even though her naivety occasionally annoyed me. The story doesn't read like a Jane Austen novel, yet I can see Kitty fitting comfortably into one of Austen's works. She reminds me most of Emma with her well-intentioned impulsiveness that more often than not gets her into trouble. This is a sweet, funny romance that had me alternately laughing and crying. Enthusiastically recommended.

4 1/2 stars

Nice review of Cotillion. I'm currently in the middle of my first Georgette Heyer (for your TIOLI to read a book with a title composed of only those vowels found in "April"). I'm reading April Lady; those last two lines of your review fit this book, as well. It is sweet and funny and I'm enjoying it a lot!

53. Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling
TIOLI #19 - Winner of a literary prize not featured previously in TIOLI (Edward Lewis Wallant Award)

Max Berenzon grew up in Paris between the wars as the privileged only son of a well-respected Jewish art dealer. Max's only ambition was to follow in his father's footsteps. However, his father doubted his instinct and ability to succeed as an art dealer and tried to steer him in a different direction. Max is both jealous of and attracted to Rose, a young Louvre employee who has become the latest of his father's live-in assistants. When it appeared that France would fall to the Nazis, the Berenzon's stored their collection for safe keeping and went into hiding. Upon their return to Paris, they discover that their entire collection has been looted. Max becomes fixated on the single goal of finding his father's lost paintings. Will Rose be an ally or a foe?

This is unusual for Holocaust novels in that it skips the war years almost entirely. The focus of the novel is on what was lost during the war. I was surprised by the intensity of the outrage I felt as Max scoured Paris after the war looking for traces of the lost collection. Non-Jewish art dealers had profited from trade in the art works left behind by Jews who had been deported or had gone into hiding. The survival and return of the former Jewish owners was at best inconvenient. Because Max was not in Paris during the Nazi occupation, he had to hear about it from other characters who had lived through and witnessed the events. These long conversational information dumps diluted the novel's emotional impact for me.

This novel may appeal to readers with an interest in art and/or art history, World War II and the Holocaust, Paris, and father/son relationships.

3 1/2 stars

Current audio: The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain

54. The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers
TIOLI #15 - Book with a wild mammal in the title

Tension is high in the Belgian Congo in 1958. Independence is less than two years away, and many indigenous Africans talk of the revenge they'll exact from their Belgian oppressors once the tables are turned. In addition to racial conflicts, there are conflicts between the followers of the Catholic, Protestant, and traditional religions, between Africans of different tribes, and between Europeans of different nationalities. It's October, known locally as the “suicide month” because the oppressive humidity inevitably drives at least one European to suicide. A disagreement over the ownership of a goat partially swallowed by a recently deceased snake is the catalyst for violent conflict.

I'm not sure why the book is marketed as a mystery. Although there is a murder and the identity of the culprit is unknown until near the end of the book, there doesn't seem to be a detective. There is a policeman, but he's got his hands full keeping order after the partial destruction of the bridge linking the Belgian and African sides of the town. None of the characters are likeable. The best you can say of some is that they are less obnoxious than others.

I thought the first book in the series was very good, but I've liked each subsequent book less than the one before. I don't enjoy spending time with the characters, and the setting is someplace I'd rather avoid. I would rather read a memoir about the author's childhood in Africa than another novel featuring these characters.

This review is based on an advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

3 stars

55. My Samoan Chief by Fay G. Calkins
TIOLI #1 - Last letter of title in rolling alphabetical order

While working on her thesis, Fay Calkins obtained a permit for the use of a desk in the Library of Congress. She was happy to be assigned a desk in the stacks. She figured there would be fewer distractions there. She hadn't reckoned on meeting and falling in love with the man at the neighboring desk – a Samoan named Vai. After a short courtship, they married. After Vai finished his thesis, the couple moved to American Samoa, where Vai had a government position waiting for him.

Fay seemed unprepared for what she encountered in Samoa. Since most Samoan homes didn't have walls – just a floor with a roof over it – there was very little privacy, and there was no concept of personal property. Everyone helped themselves to whatever they needed or wanted. However, society was anything but informal. There were strict customs governing almost every social situation. Fay had to learn most of these customs on the fly, usually after making a major faux pas.

Fay tried to establish first a cooperative enterprise, and then a banana plantation, and was often frustrated by the Samoan work ethic that was very different from her own. Every incentive she tried had a different effect than she intended. Her frustration eventually gave way to acceptance as she learned to appreciate the difference between Samoan values and her American values.

This book is similar to Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I. Although the writing lacks MacDonald's sparkle, I think MacDonald's readers would like this book.

3 1/2 stars

Okay - so maybe it wasn't just me on the Myers book. The mystery is so minor that it shouldn't be labeled as such. I think Myers is just wanting to write about her past experiences in Africa, and she should have written a memoir instead of these books. Of course, she was so young when she lived there, that I'm sure her memories were the kind most young children have -- partially fictional anyway. Perhaps that is why she chose to write fiction, but I definitely don't call what I read a mystery.

Ok - I'm caught up - at least with your thread, Carrie!

I'm reading Gentlemen of the Road now, and while I love the language I can understand how it would have been problematic in an audio version. In fact, the language is my favorite thing about the book.

I have the first of the Tamar Myers Belgian Congo series The Witch Doctor's Wife out from the library. Maybe I should read it and skip all the others!

>218 Dejah_Thoris: I have the first of the Tamar Myers Belgian Congo series The Witch Doctor's Wife out from the library. Maybe I should read it and skip all the others!

That sounds like a good plan!

I'm probably going to go back and read that first one and not read any more. (Of course, I've already read #3, and I wouldn't bother to read #1 at all now except that I've heard it's better.)

56. Katarina by Kathryn Winter
TIOLI #9 - Title includes only vowels appearing in the word "April"

8-year-old Katarina's life in 1942 Slovakia is almost perfect. Although her parents died when she was very young, she's being raised by an aunt she adores, and who indulges her love for games and stories. She has a best friend to share her secrets with. Katarina doesn't understand when Aunt Lena tells her they must move. Katarina and her aunt are non-observant Jews, and Aunt Lena has shielded Katarina from most of the rumors about what has been happening to Jews in surrounding countries. Since Katarina's aunt hasn't provided any Jewish religious instruction for Katarina, their Catholic maid fills the void, and Katarina considers herself to be Catholic.

As conditions become more dangerous, the family is forced to go into hiding. Eventually Katarina is separated from her family. Her story becomes one of survival as she moves from place to place, and of a journey home at the end of the war. Katarina's resilience keeps her story from becoming too bleak.

This fictional story is based on the author's experience as a Jewish child in Slovakia during World War II. The recommended reading level is grade 6 and higher. Because of a brief description of sexual activity and another incident describing inappropriate touching of a child by an adult, I would not recommend the book for younger readers who read above their grade level. This well-written novel would be good supplemental reading for social studies, and might also be a good book group selection. It should stimulate some interesting discussions.

4 stars

57. The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
TIOLI #1 - Last letter of title in rolling alphabetical order

If you're planning a trip back in time to 14th century England, this is the book you need to leave before getting into the time machine. In 11 chapters, Ian Mortimer describes the landscape, the people, the medieval character, basic essentials, what to wear, traveling, where to stay, what to eat and drink, health and hygiene, the law, and what to do. I read a chapter a day until I had finished the book. I'm not sure I would have finished the book if I hadn't done that. There isn't a narrative thread to pull the reader from chapter to chapter. I'm glad I stuck to my plan because the last three chapters were the most interesting to me.

The book's organization suits it for use as a reference book. For instance, readers researching medieval dress might want to read just the “what to wear” chapter. The color illustrations have been well selected to complement the text. The 8-page bibliography is more substantial than is often found in works aimed at a general audience. My only disappointment is that, while religion is present in several of the chapters, it didn't get its own chapter.

3 1/2 stars

#221: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Carrie!

>57 countrylife:

Now that sounds like a hoot! I'll have to find that one. Thanks!

58. Godric by Frederick Buechner
April TIOLI #1 - Last letter of title in rolling alphabetical order

Frederick Buechner's biographical novel tells the story of Godric, an Anglo-Saxon hermit who was born just before the Norman Conquest and who died just months before the murder of Thomas à Becket. At the time of the novel, Godric is nearing the end of his life. His biographer, Reginald of Durham, is persuading a somewhat uncooperative Godric to tell his life story. The cadence of his words seems to flow straight from the 12th century to the reader's ear.

In his early adulthood, Godric was an adventurer with few scruples. Whatever comforts he enjoyed in life were usually gained at another's expense. A mystical encounter on the island of Farne eventually led him to repent of his former lifestyle and to withdraw from the world and its temptations. However, a hermit's life couldn't free him from all temptation, for he carried the seeds of temptation in his thoughts and in his dreams.

Godric's words are infused with the wisdom found in contemplation and reflection:

That's five friends, one for each of Jesu's wounds, and Godric bears their mark still on what's left of him as in their time they all bore his on them. What's friendship, when all's done, but the giving and taking of wounds?

This would easily have earned five stars from me had it not been for Buechner's attributing to Godric one great temptation that troubled him throughout his life. It's not a common temptation, and I'm not sure that there is a historical foundation for it. I'm not convinced that the distance of 1000 years is sufficient justification for artistic license of this magnitude.

4 stars

59. The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain
TIOLI #14 - Fits a previous TIOLI challenge I failed to complete (April #8)

The first volume of Thomas B. Costain's 4-volume history of England's Plantagenet dynasty covers the period between the death of Henry I and the death of John. Costain makes the most of the colorful characters and events of the period – the civil war that followed the death of Henry I, when both Stephen and Matilda claimed the throne; Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine; the rise and fall of Thomas à Becket; the bitter rivalry and changing allegiances among Henry's sons; the 3rd Crusade; the Magna Carta. I listened to the audio version, and the reader's sardonic tone and aristocratic voice are a perfect fit for the dramatic nature of this era's history. This book provides historical context for some popular series such as Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries and Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death mysteries, and it would be good background reading for fans of either series.

4 stars

Currently listening to: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I used to read a lot of Thomas Costain as a kid - it may be time to revisit his works.

60. And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi
TIOLI #9 - Nonfiction work set in the first 23 years of my life

Two couples, both seeking solitude on a deserted Pacific Island, arrive at Palmyra Island in close succession. Only one couple survives to tell the story. Fugitive Buck Walker (using alias Roy Allen) and his girlfriend, Jennifer Jenkins, intend to live off the land out of reach of the authorities who are on the lookout for Buck. Avid sailor Mac Graham and his reluctant wife, Muff, aim to spend a year on their well-stocked, well-equipped boat. When Buck and Jennifer are discovered in Hawaii on the Graham's boat with no sign of the Grahams, the pair are tried for theft. Several years later, human remains are discovered on Palmyra Island and Buck and Jennifer are tried for murder.

Much like TV's Matlock, defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi, a former prosecutor, accepts cases only when he believes his client is innocent of the crime(s) with which they have been charged. After hearing Jennifer's story, Bugliosi believes she is innocent of murder. Bugliosi and co-counsel Len Weinglass take on her defense.

The book reveals what I've always suspected about Gilligan's Island. This remote Pacific island is no paradise. There is a sinister aspect to the island itself. The tension builds as other visitors to Palmyra come and go until only two couples are left. The suspense is sustained throughout the trials, first of Buck Walker, then of Jennifer Jenkins. The most appealing aspect of the book for me is the inside look at Bugliosi's legal strategy. Bugliosi starts with his summation and works backwards. He researches the background of every witness statement and piece of evidence. He scripts examinations, cross examinations, and motions. He anticipates what the prosecution will do and stays a step ahead of them. It's a fascinating look at the inner workings of the legal system.

4 1/2 stars

Next up: Under Copp's Hill by Katherine Ayres

I'm officially caught up on reviews now!

61. Under Copp's Hill by Katherine Ayres
TIOLI #19 - Book set in a library

11-year-old Innie Moretti is thrilled when she finds out from her older cousin, Carmela, about the girls' library club at the new settlement house in Boston's North End. Innie and her cousin, Teresa, volunteer to help unpack the books, clean, and do other tasks to get the house ready for business. Smoke from the recent Chelsea fire left lots of soot to be removed. Innie can't resist the temptation to explore as she works. She thinks she hasn't been observed, but when food and other items keep disappearing from the house, Innie's snooping makes her the prime suspect. With the help of her cousin, Teresa, and their new friend, Matela, Innie conducts her own investigation to find the guilty party.

This is just the type of mystery I loved when I was in elementary school. In books, old houses always seem to hide secrets, and I used to dream about exploring old houses with secret passages and hidden rooms. The mystery and its solution are believable, although older readers will probably guess the solution long before it is revealed. Readers of any age will enjoy the friendship between immigrant girls of different ethnic backgrounds (Italian Catholic and Russian Jewish). Readers familiar with Boston will enjoy reading about places and events in the city's past.

3 1/2 stars

Hi Carrie, I read And the Sea Will Tell quite some years ago, but I remember finding it a fascinating read. I know he is/was a great lawyer, but as a writer, he certainly was able to keep his reader glued to the pages as well.

Even though I knew what the verdict was going to be, I still had trouble putting this one down.

62. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
TIOLI #12: ISBN has the same 3 numbers in a row

Ten strangers gather on a deserted island at the invitation of a mysterious host. One by one, they begin to die by means foreshadowed in a nursery rhyme. If the plot sounds familiar, it's because so many authors have borrowed it over the years, most less successfully than the original. Although Christie had already used some of the same character elements in one of the Poirot novels, Cards on the Table, the similarities end there.

This novel was later adapted into a play with a different ending more suited for theatrical performance. I prefer the play's resolution because it isn't as dark as the book. This is one Christie novel that doesn't fit into the cozy genre. It's a psychological thriller with tension that increases as the number of guests dwindles. It's one of the must-reads of Christie's oeuvre.

4 stars

Next up in audio: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Lots of good books to read about here. And all caught up with reviews? I'm green with envy!

>234 countrylife: It was true when I wrote it, but I'm one behind now. I finished another one this afternoon.

63. The Successor by Ismail Kadare
TIOLI #4 - Book derived from a 75er's username

The Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom at dawn on December 14. From this starting point, Kadare moves both backwards and forwards in time, looking dispassionately at the event from multiple perspectives, including that of the Successor's family, the Guide (Albania's aging, blind dictator), the new heir apparent, the architect in charge of the recent renovations of the Successor's house, and various unnamed foreign intelligence agencies. Did the Successor commit suicide, or was he murdered? If he was murdered, who killed him, and who will be blamed? (These are not necessarily the same person.) Is it possible to discover the true facts about the death? What are the implications for the future? It's a fascinating psychological study of Albanian politics in the Cold War era, perhaps best summed up by the anonymous intelligence agency analysts: The only way you can get a grip on a place overcome by paranoia is by becoming a little paranoid yourself.

4 stars

64. The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez
TIOLI #10 - Book with a title word suggesting violent death

Not long after his arrival in Oxford, a Argentinian graduate mathematics student discovers his elderly landlady's murdered body. The murder doesn't appear to be an isolated event. An Oxford mathematics professor arrived at the scene at the same time as the mathematics student, explaining that he had received an anonymous note about the murder. The note included a mathematical symbol and it claimed it was the first in a series. More deaths follow, each one with a new symbol to add to the series. How quickly can the mathematicians solve the code to catch the killer and prevent more deaths?

When I learned fairly early in the book that the mathematics professor had written a book in which he discusses crime in mathematical terms, I thought the plot might develop like an episode of Numbers. Although there are complex mathematical theories and philosophical discussions sprinkled throughout the book, the plot is actually very simple for a mystery novel. I was generous with my rating because I liked the main characters and the Oxford setting. Other readers may find it difficult to overlook the weak mystery and underdeveloped secondary characters.

3 1/2 stars

65. Revelation by C. J. Sansom
TIOLI #2 - Book about the Tudors

When lawyer Matthew Shardlake discovers the murdered body of a dear friend, his determination to find his friend's killer and see justice done brings him once again into the political arena he has tried hard to avoid. Soon more murders are discovered, and it seems that the killer is motivated by religion. The religious and political climate is already tense. The reformers have fallen out of the king's favor and the traditionalists have once again gained in favor. The investigation into the murders will require discretion, diplomacy, and good luck to satisfy one faction without arousing the wrath of the opposing faction.

Religion is often a polarizing topic, but C.J. Sansom handles it in an unoffensive manner. It's not uncommon for religious adherents to be categorized as either “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad”. While it's clear to the reader which views Shardlake approves of and which he disapproves of, he doesn't condemn those with opposing views just because they hold those views. Nor does he approve of people whose opinion he agrees with just because they share the same view. He recognizes that there are sincere, humble people, as well as zealots or calculating opportunists, on all sides.

Matthew Shardlake is an unconventional yet appealing hero. He's professional, a loyal friend, and a gentleman. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake books are among the best historical mysteries available. He brings Tudor London to life. The series is best read in order since each book introduces at least one continuing character and since later books refer to events in earlier books.

4 stars

Currently reading: Oolong Dead by Laura Childs

66. Oolong Dead by Laura Childs
TIOLI #12 - ISBN has the same 3 numbers in a row

When she is first on the scene at a murder, Theodosia Browning is shocked to see that the victim is Abby Davis, a television news anchor as well as Theodosia's ex-boyfriend's sister. After the police decide Theodosia isn't a suspect, she's asked to unofficially help with the investigation because of her familiarity with the family. Ex-boyfriend Jory Davis wants Theodosia's help, too. Abby made a lot of enemies during her short life so there's no shortage of suspects.

It was pretty obvious early on where and how the story would end, no matter who the murderer turned out to be. I think most readers who correctly guess the killer's identity before it's revealed will have inferred it from plot cues (which should not be confused with clues). Many readers will spot the problem with the call sign of Abby Davis's former Savannah television network, KSAV. Savannah is well east of the Mississippi River and is not one of the handful of exceptions to the east/west W/K division of call signs. However, the charm of the Indigo Tea Shop in its historic Charleston setting and the great cast of characters are a great compensation for the plot weaknesses. After all, it's the characters and setting that hooked me on this series in the first place!

3 1/2 stars

Next up: In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

I look forward to seeing what you think of the Pintoff book. It's been on my TBR shelves for a while but I haven't felt compelled to start it...

Katie, I read the third book in the series before the first, and I made the comment in my review of the first one that the author's writing skills had improved. I did enjoy the first installment though. I just liked the third one better.

I just got home from work to find a fairly good sized black snake draped across the rail by my front door. Fortunately my neighbor was home and took care of it for me. I've had a snake phobia since I was 12 and I got stuck in the snake house at the zoo during a tornado warning.

I would have fainted on sight.

I only saw the half with the tail and it wasn't moving. It looked like a strip of rubber insulation. However, since there wasn't any reason for a strip of rubber to be hanging there I realized that it must be a snake and I went to get my neighbor to make it go away.

67. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
TIOLI #5 - Black or white in the title or author's name

The Devil in the White City interweaves the story of Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exposition, from its planning through its aftermath, with the story of H. H. Holmes (an alias), a serial killer who preyed on naive young women and children. Some of the parts about the construction of the buildings and landscaping dragged for me in the audio version. I might have skimmed through those parts more quickly if I had been reading the print version. I lived through the planning and construction of Knoxville's 1982 World's Fair and, although the era and location were different, Knoxville experienced the same sorts of disagreements and controversies regarding the site, building design, expense, etc.

The storyline of H. H. Holmes, his victims, his crimes, and his trial completely captured my attention. I'd like to think that I would have sensed that there was something that wasn't quite right about him if I had met him, yet for years practically everyone he met was taken in by his persona.

A minor storyline about the assassination of Chicago's mayor was included because it affected the Exposition's closing ceremony. Having listened to Destiny of the Republic earlier this year, I was struck by the similarity between the motives for the mayor's assassination and President Garfield's assassination. The murder must have given many of Chicago's adults a feeling of déjà vu.

3 1/2 stars

Currently listening to: Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

68. In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff
TIOLI #3 - Title/author contains all letters from acronym for National Merit Scholarship Program

Detective Simon Ziele left New York City for a job in the small town of Dobson after a tragic accident that killed his fiancée and damaged his right arm. However, his investigation into a shocking murder takes him back to New York and into an uneasy alliance with a Columbia University research institute for the study of criminal behavior. The institute's founder has noticed similarities between details of the murder and the violent fantasies of a missing research subject.

This is a promising start for a historical mystery series. The turn of the 20th century was an era of modernization of forensic science and criminal investigation. The attitudes and dialogue at times seemed a little too modern for that era, though. Even though my top suspect turned out to be the culprit, I questioned my judgment right up to the point of revelation because no one in the story seemed to notice what I thought were clues. The author did a nice job of introducing characters and situations that,while they helped to resolve this mystery, may cause problems for Ziele in future installments of the series. The teasers have already prompted me to add the next book in the series to my TBR list.

3 1/2 stars

#242: I feel faint just reading about the snake! Was it poisonous?

No, it was a "harmless" black snake. I generally don't allow myself to get close enough to snakes find out, though!

There is no such thing as a harmless snake. If it can make me faint, it's harmful.

245: Where did I just see that... ? Oh, yes, countrylife posted photos. I read the book a few years ago, don't remember details but do remember the sense of excitement in presenting the modern world.

Regardless of harmlessness, they make my skin crawl. My sister was busy tearing down an old building on her property last week when she saw a timber rattler, but couldn't get to it before it slithered off into the woods, to live to haunt her again another day. Mine are copperheads. We found a baby copperhead drowned after a heavy rain near our front porch. What I don't like about that is that there must, then, be a whole nest, and very nearby. Someone told us to get an outdoor cat; they bite off the heads of snakes. There are outside cats around my father's place, and he's found snakes with the heads bitten off, so I guess that's true. Can't imagine it working on the poisonous ones, though I'm willing to give it a try.

Thanks for your review of Devil in the White City. I bought this book last weekend and look forward to reading it soon. Your excellent comments prompt me to move it closer to the top of those to read in June.

Re. snakes, for ten years I worked in a mountainous setting. I have snakes stories and two come to mind. I had to take a woman to the hospital who was attending a retreat at the center where I worked.

She was bitten by a cooperhead whose fang went into the eyelet hole of her sneaker as she stepped into a bush while picking wild raspberries. The hospital was five miles away and by the time I got her there her legs was so swollen it looked as though it would burst...

Another time I was carrying a box of fliers from my car into the office. As I picked up the heavy box, a large black snake slithered across my toes. I was wearing sandals. The fliers flew in the air as I screamed. To harm was done, but it was very creepy...

Another time I was carrying a box of fliers from my car into the office. As I picked up the heavy box, a large black snake slithered across my toes. I was wearing sandals.

I think I would have had a heart attack on the spot!

Everyone in my department heard my snake story first thing this morning. Later in the morning, one of my co-workers saw a Facebook post from a co-worker in a different department, who is also a neighbor, about a snake in her yard yesterday. I happened to be on my way to her area when I found out about it so I stopped by to ask her for more details. My house is on a ridge. The downward slope of the ridge is a wooded area, and there's another road with houses at the bottom of the ridge where my co-worker lives. My neighbor released the snake at the back of the house and when he last saw it, it was headed downhill into the wooded area. My co-worker on the road below saw a snake at her house about 20 minutes later. We're hoping it was the same snake. Otherwise, it means we've got two of them in the neighborhood to worry about!

Someone told us to get an outdoor cat; they bite off the heads of snakes.

The neighbor across the street has several outdoor cats that seem to spend more time in my yard than in his. They were nowhere to be seen yesterday afternoon, though.

Well I hope that snake just keeps on travelling, Carrie! I had a cat that loved to bring his catches into the house and present them to me, he also liked to bite the heads off whatever he caught. I was often gifted with headless snakes (and other gross things) that I then had to sneak out of the house when the cat wasn't looking and bury. If I just tossed it out - he would go and get it and bring it right back to me.

What a bunch of wimps! Obviously no plegmatic Australians around here. :)

A few years back, my current cat was going through a phase of "catch it and let it go in the house". (Not really a natural born killer, that girl.) I got used to spending half my spare time re-capturing and releasing lizards and the occasional frog, but the two times she brought in juvenile snakes were a bit of a worry, I admit...

>256 lyzard: I'm definitely a wimp when it comes to snakes. I'm brave when it comes to spiders, though!

And I'm the opposite — brave about snakes and a total wimp about spiders. We'd make a good team if we were ever stuck in a jungle together. :)

>259 cbl_tn: I'll let you know when I plan my next jungle expedition! I have a friend who was a missionary in the Amazon jungle in Brazil for 40 years. They have very large snakes there. She told me that she prayed that she wouldn't see any, and she never did in her 40 years there.

I ran into my neighbor's son on the way home from work. He told me that his father took care of my "little friend" permanently. It must have come back while I wasn't home. I was afraid it might come back. I'm glad I wasn't home when it did.

I had to make several trips between work and home today and didn't encounter any snakes around the outside of the house on any of the trips. Maybe it's safe to relax now?

69. The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue
TIOLI #18 - Title word forms another word when reversed (not/ton)

After a broken engagement, Nell heads to her grandmother's home in small town Archers Rest, New York, for a little TLC. Her grandmother runs a quilt shop, and, although Nell is not a quilter, she soon gets caught up in the expansion of the business and the Friday night quilting club. The local handyman, who has a reputation as a lady's man, is working on projects at Nell's grandmother's house and shop. His attentions to Nell boost her wounded self-esteem, but it leads to trouble when her ex-fiance, Ryan, shows up. Soon the handyman is dead and Ryan is high on the list of suspects.

This series has been compared to Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series, and it's an apt comparison. The quilting theme and the casts of characters are similar, yet it doesn't read like the author is trying to copy Chiaverini's formula to recreate her success. O'Donohue's voice is different. I do think that this series will appeal to Chiaverini's readers, particularly those who are also cozy mystery fans. Nell demonstrated a tendency to interfere with the police investigation, but the young and handsome police chief has tolerated it reasonably well so far. I'll have to see if I can be as tolerant as the police chief. I'll probably lose interest if she keeps up this kind of behavior as the series progresses.

3 1/2 stars

My Thingaversary is coming up soon. Since I'll be at a conference and may not have time that week to shop for books, I decided to go ahead and buy my Thingaversary books for my birthday instead of my mother's. (My Thingaversary falls on my mother's birthday.). It will be my 4th Thingaversary so I ordered 5 books:

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
Preserving Your Family Photographs by Maureen A. Taylor
Harrisburg's Old Eighth Ward by Michael Barton
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

Happy early Thingaversary, Carrie. I loved Lark Rise to Candleford when I read it awhile back.

Happy Thingaversary for your big day! I've read the Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy and loved them. Good news about the snake.

Thanks, Judy & Susan! Lark Rise to Candleford has been on my wish list for a while. I'd also like to watch the TV movie/miniseries, but not until after I've read the books.

This is a holiday weekend in the U.S., and I'm on my way to visit friends who live a couple of hours from here. We're celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this weekend - my birthday and their anniversary today, and their son's 21st coming up in about 10 days. He starts an internship in another state on June 1 so he won't be at home on his birthday.

I'm only staying one night since I have to work on Monday. I'm not taking Memorial Day off this year. Maybe I'll miss the worst of the holiday traffic by traveling on Saturday & Sunday rather than Friday & Monday!

70. Return of the Swallows by Aileen G. Baron

Archaeologist Tamar Saticoy is at work on a small project for a California mission when she uncovers a skeleton at the excavation site. Following protocol, Tamar contacts law enforcement and asks a forensic anthropologist to examine the remains. Although it's logical to assume that the skeleton is an ancient Native American burial, the examination raises serious doubts about the age and ethnicity of the remains. Meanwhile, Tamar accepts a dying colleague's request to fill in for him as an Interpol consultant. Tamar has worked with Interpol in the past, so she agrees to the request. Her assignment takes her to Thailand and into unexpected danger from antiquities smugglers.

I'm familiar enough with archaeology to recognize that the author knows her stuff. The archaeological sites, museums, and conference have an authentic feel. The plot is solid and plausible. However, the story has a bit too much action and not enough description and analysis. I felt like I was watching Tamar, when I really wanted to be inside her head and viewing the world from her perspective. The series has enough strengths that I'd like to try another book in the series to see if I can get to know Tamar better through more exposure to her.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

2 1/2 stars

71. The Black Tower by Betsy Byars

Herculeah Jones' private eye mother gets a job for Herculeah reading to one of her clients who has been paralyzed by a stroke. The client, Mr. Hunt, can answer yes or no questions by blinking his eyes. The book he's selected for Herculeah to read aloud is Terror in the Black Tower. Mr. Hunt's spooky house has a black tower. Is he trying to send Herculeah a message? What secret does the black tower hold?

This is exactly the sort of book I would have loved as a tween, and my adult self enjoyed it almost as much as my younger self would have. Herculeah is precocious, but not too precocious to be believable. Her sidekick, Meat (real name Albert), is a loyal friend who is more cautious than Herculeah. Meat struggles when he has to choose between staying out of danger and joining Herculeah in her adventures. While there is a hint of the supernatural in the book - Herculeah has premonitions that make her hair frizz - the solution of the mystery doesn't rely on a supernatural revelation.

This is a series that will appeal to young mystery lovers and to young at heart mystery readers.

4 stars

72. Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James
TIOLI #4 - Book derived from another 75ers username

Several years after Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage, Wickham still manages to cause trouble for the couple by bringing murder to the Pemberley estate. Darcy can hardly avoid being involved in the inquest and subsequent trial since the murder occurred on his property and he and Colonel Fitzwilliam were among the first on the scene.

The book reminds me more of Anne Perry's William Monk series than either Pride and Prejudice or P. D. James's Adam Dalgliesh mysteries. The book is really Darcy's rather than Elizabeth's. I like James's idea of making Darcy one of the local magistrates. Although he couldn't be involved in this case in his official capacity because of his personal connection to the location and suspect, his position gave him knowledge of the process and possible outcomes that he could share with other characters (and thus with readers). If James had stopped writing when the crime had been solved and the legal process had taken its course, it would have been a 4 star book. I think revisiting Darcy and Elizabeth's courtship in Pride and Prejudice was a mistake. It's hard to improve on Austen's original, and the book would have ended more satisfactorily if James hadn't tried.

3 1/2 stars

Currently listening to: The Regatta Mystery by Agatha Christie

73. The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald
TIOLI #4 - Book derived from another 75ers username

I suppose Travis McGee would be classified as a private eye, but he doesn't advertize. He operates unofficially, only taking cases when he runs out of money. He's usually the last resort for his clients, so his fee is 50% of whatever he recovers for them. After all, 50% is better than nothing. The first Travis McGee novel finds Trav helping a friend of a friend. He's reluctant at first, but something about the trail of damaged women Junior Allen leaves behind gets under his skin.

Travis McGee reminds me of The Equalizer or The A-Team with Jim Rockford's personality. He's also a bit of a philosopher:

These are the playmate years, and they are demonstrably fraudulent. The scene is reputed to be acrawl with adorably amoral bunnies to whom sex is a pleasant social favor. The new culture. And they are indeed present and available, in exhausting quantity, but there is a curious tastelessness about them. A woman who does not guard and treasure herself cannot be of very much value to anyone else. They become a pretty little convenience, like a guest towel.

Although this isn't my usual type of crime novel, the strong sense of place in South Florida and McGee's depth of character will eventually draw me back to the series.

3 1/2 stars

A quick skim through of your recent reads and see a rather steady satisfactory trend - except for Return of the Swallows - of mystery/crime reading!

Yes, it's been a good month!

A group from my church went to the local minor league baseball game this evening. The Tennessee Smokies are currently in last place in the league, but they won this evening. The game was fun, and so were the fireworks after the game. The loud drunk in the row in front of us wasn't so fun, but at least he spent about 6 innings at the bar and we didn't have to listen to him during the 2 hours he was away from his seat.

74. Before Sherlock Holmes by LeRoy Lad Panek
May TIOLI #7 - Book requested for review before 12/31/2011

This history of detective fiction traces the evolution of the genre in the 19th century from serial fiction. Authors like Poe, Dickens, and Collins became and remain popular, while others have been mostly forgotten.

The author credits the availability of digitized 19th century newspapers for making this history possible. His research revealed the surprising extent of plagiarism in 19th century serial publications. In many cases it was difficult for the author to pinpoint the original publication information, and sometimes even the author of a piece of fiction because it had been reprinted so many times with various, or no, attributions.

This is essentially a lengthy bibliographic essay that will be of interest mainly for students in advanced courses on the subject. The inclusion of spoilers for many of the titles mentioned in the text limit its usefulness as a reader's guide.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

3 stars

75. The Regatta Mystery by Agatha Christie
TIOLI #8 - Title has more letters from the 2nd half of the alphabet than the 1st

The Regatta Mystery is a collection of short stories featuring three of Christie's detectives: Hercule Poirot, Parker Pyne, and Miss Marple. One story is a stand-alone suspense story with supernatural elements. The audio version uses various readers, including Hugh Fraser (Hastings in the British TV series), David Suchet (Poirot in the British TV series), and Joan Hickson (my favorite Miss Marple).

This collection would be a good introduction to Christie's works for newbies. Christie was at the top of her game when this collection was first published. The Poirot stories are all classics. The Miss Marple story is delightful, particularly since it is one of her few appearances in Christie's works up to this point in their publication history. Although Parker Pyne isn't my favorite Christie detective, his two stories in this collection are both entertaining. I don't care for supernatural fiction in general, and Christie's works in this genre are no exception. The single story in this collection is more tolerable than most.

4 stars

Next up in audio: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens