Phoenix nest, by Margaret Hermes

An average mystery which I read because I enjoyed her recent short story collection.  The plot twist became fairly apparent early on.  She’s gotten better with age!  187 pp.

Black Heart

Black Heart by Holly Black  296 pp.

This is the third (and final?) book in the Curse Workers series. I think I liked this one the best of all. Cassel Sharpe, the rarest kind of curse worker, has been recruited by a special department of the FBI that uses curse workers. Cassel's mother has disappeared after her attempts at stopping the anti-curse worker governor of New Jersey backfires. Lila, the love of Cassel's life, has become a full-time operative in her father's criminal empire. Sam, Cassel's best friend and boarding school roommate is entrenched in his own love troubles. With all this in his life Cassel has to deal with a worker girl/classmate who says she is being blackmailed but is probably working a con, find the Resurrection Diamond that his mother stole from a crime lord, try to get Lila back, help Sam get back together with his girlfriend, and work out how to protect himself against the Feds who have ordered him to participate in a con of their own. He has to accomplish all this while trying not to get kicked out of high school where he has only one demerit left before expulsion. The last part of the story contains quite a few twists, although the very end was pretty much what I thought it would be. The ending leaves an opening for further books if Black decides to expand the beyond a trilogy.   

Mistborn: The Final Empire/Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn:  The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson; fantasy; 544 pages (about 25 hours on CD)

Kelsier has just escaped from the harshest prison in the Empire, and he's determined to get revenge--and for him, revenge means killing the Lord Ruler, and destroying the Final Empire.  Kelsier is a Mistborn--one who can draw power from different metals--and his rare abilities mean that he might be able to pull off his plan.  Then he meets Vin, a common thief who shows Mistborn abilities of her own, and suddenly their crew has a real chance at success. 

I've had half a dozen people tell me to read this series, and after Warbreaker, I was only too happy to dive back into Sanderson's writing.  This story starts out as a crime novel--you have the different players in the crew, and each one has a role to play in what may be the biggest scam in history.  But as the book moves along, and twist after twist interferes with the plan, it becomes a really complex story about loyalty and class issues.  The world-building is amazing:  a thousand years after a legendary battle between the immortal Lord Ruler and the mysterious Deepness, the sky is red, ashes fall like rain, and no one can see the stars.  But there is allomancy--the ability to consume a few specific types of metal, and "burn" them for their magical properties (manipulating emotions, moving objects towards, and seeing the future, to name a few).  Reading Vin's education in allomancy was half the fun of this book. 

The characters are wonderfully drawn, the funny parts are funny, and the scary parts are really, really scary (I had nightmares about the Steel Inquisitors towards the end of this book).  As he did in Warbreaker, Sanderson plays with the idea of divinity:  what does it take for a man to be worshipped as a god?  What would that do to a person?  Of course, there's more to it than that, and there are plenty of loose ends to lead into the next novel (already on request). 

Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth, 544 pages

This is Roth's follow-up to Divergent, a dystopian futuristic YA novel (really, are there any other kind?) in which the residents of what was once Chicago are split into five factions named according to the characteristics prided by each: Erudite, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation. The story centers on Tris, an Abnegation-born girl who chooses, at age 16, to join Dauntless, though she's actually Divergent, meaning she has the qualities of two or more of the factions. Insurgent picks up after Erudite has decimated Abnegation, using mind-controlled members of Dauntless to do the dirty work. The City Formerly Known As Chicago is on the cusp of an all-faction war (well, other than the hippie-ish Amity), with Tris and her boyfriend Four right in the middle of things.

I loved Divergent, and I'm happy to say that Insurgent doesn't disappoint. It's a bit jarring at the beginning, as Roth simply picks up where Divergent left off, with no exposition for you to find your bearings. But Insurgent grabs you and doesn't let go, just like its predecessor. I can't wait to see what Roth has up her sleeve for the next installment in Tris's story.

Castle Waiting vol. 2

Castle Waiting volume 2 by Linda Medley, 384 pages

This is a fun follow-up to the first Castle Waiting. Lady Jain is settling into life in the castle, some Hammerlings (mountain-mining dwarves) swing by to help out with castle renovations, and there's a wonderful bit of bowling fun. This is a really approachable graphic novel and I really enjoyed reading it.

That said, what the heck is up with that ending??? And where in the world is volume 3??? Linda Medley had better get stuff sorted out with her publisher, or whoever is holding this up, because really, that's no way to end a story. The way this ended, I seriously thought there were pages missing at the back of the book. It's that abrupt. But sadly, there's no more Castle Waiting in my (or anyone else's) immediate future. But should a third volume magically appear (like out of Lady Jain's excellent trunk), I'll happily read it.

Rose

Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor by Rosina Harrison  354 pp.


This memoir was originally published in 1975 and recently re-released. Rosina Harrison, known as Rose, was lady's made to Lady Nancy Astor for thirty-five years. She wrote matter-of-factly about her considerable duties to her ladyship and the long hours she put in while in service. However, her story is not one of drudgery. She was devoted to the temperamental and headstrong Viscountess and their relationship developed into one where the maid could frequently be brutally honest with her mistress to which the response was often "Shut up, Rose!" Nancy Astor was quite the character, American born  and the first woman elected to Parliament. She was an outspoken critic when the government wasn't meeting her standards and a thorn in Winston Churchill's side. She was also a tireless worker during the blitz, with her maid and other loyal servants beside her. Rose was in charge of handling the wardrobe, jewels, and getting Lady Astor ready for her multitude of activities. It's clear from her book that Rose enjoyed her thirty-five years in service with all the perks of world travel, meeting royals from different countries and other famous people. Rose was with Lady Astor when she died at age 80. I don't know if there were photos in the original edition but there were none in the paperback version which made it a bit lacking.

A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs / Ellis Peters 192 p.

One of my old favorites, Peters (who also wrote under her real name, Edith Pargeter) wrote the Brother Cadfael mysteries, as well as a series of modern mysteries set in 1960s-ish England with Detective Inspector George Felse.  This is a Felse title, my first 'new' one in a long time.  And somehow, I didn't enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying her in the past.  Dominic Felse, George's son, spies a young man off a rocky coast struggling in the water.  He rescues him, or so he thinks.  Why was he out there alone?  And what does it have to do with a longstanding smuggling tradition in the many rocky coves of this seaside village?

The Dirty Life on farming food and love by Kristin Kimball 276 pages

My grandparents were farm people. After a bad period when they had to put all their cattle down, they came to St Louis and worked as janitorial staff at a  hospital until they earned enough to go back and resume farming. Years later my grandmother told my mother that the St Louis years were her "easiest years". My mother, a Chicago gal, warned my dad that she would never agree to leaving city life for the farm. And now my daughter has bees and an amazing garden, yearns to have her own chickens...and I wonder what my grandmother would think. So, that is why I picked up this book. It is the journal, so to speak, of a journalist, a thirty-something single journalist, who leaves New York City and becomes a farmer. She and her future husband set up a CSI - (they raise produce for families that buy an annual stake in their farm).It is hard work, but she finds a life that she loves and a partner to share a vision.I am not packing up and moving, but I am glad that there are people out there making the commitment to grow organic / local food.

More than you know by Penny Vincenzi 589 pages

I found this title on some recommended list, cause it's not the type of book I would generally read -- a big, fat sudsy read about a group of friends and lovers living in London, way, way, back in time - the 1960's and 1970's ( yeah, historical fiction from when I was a young, young girl). Anyway, either they have money, but no class, or ambition but not class, or lots of class but no money. Mummy has a gorgeous estate out in the country that is starting to show its age -- can she keep it in the family? Eliza is great at her hot fashion job, but her hubby Matt is a Neanderthal and refuses to let her work. So whose fault is it if she has a one night stand? Meanwhile, Matt's sister Scarlett is an airline stewardess with a propensity for married men. Of course when she meets a dishy author at a Greek pension, she assumes that he must be married....This is as fluffy as it comes, but yesterday it was just my cup of tea.

Crossing the Borders of Time: a True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed / Leslie Maitland 494 p.

Journalist Leslie Maitland researched and wrote this story of her mother's flight from Europe during WWII and subsequent life in the United States.  Jeanne, her mother, was born in Germany to a prosperous Jewish family.  With Hitler's rise to power the family moved to Mulhouse, France, then Lyon, and finally to Marseille before boarding a ship to Cuba.  Eventually they were able to join relatives in New York.  During Jeanne's teen years in France she met and fell in love with Roland, a handsome and kind French Catholic.  They were painfully separated in Marseille, and had no contact for 50-ish years.  Their eventual reunion, partially engineered by Leslie herself after her father's death, makes for icky reading.  (As did the descriptions of their adolescent trysts in France; I guess I'm a prude, but I kept wanting to scream "TMI" as I was reading.  Should anyone really write about the sex life of a parent?)

On the other hand, the story of Jeanne's family in Europe was fascinating, and beautifully researched.  As we read about Jewish families during the war, it seems painfully obvious that they should bolt for the New World at the first opportunity.  Jeanne's story highlights how difficult this decision was in real life, and just how much was lost to those who 'successfully' got away.