Wild Magic

 Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce, 260 pages

I had been reading a lot of dense nonfiction recently, so I thought a nice jaunt into nostalgic fantasy would be a nice break. "A nice jaunt into nostalgic fantasy" is also the best way to describe this book. This is the first book of The Immortals quartet, and follows Daine, who has a magical connection to animals.

A young girl with animal powers in a magical kingdom is a whole genre for girls, and this novel is really a perfect embodiment. It's a fun little adventure to help save the kingdom, learn magic, and make animal friends, and I would definitely recommend it as a light read.

Just Eat

 

Just Eat: One reporter's search for a weight-loss regimen that works / Barry Estabrook, 242 pgs.

Estabrook got the word from his doc, all his numbers were bad and changes had to be made.  Needing to lose 40 pounds, Estabrook started a round-robin trial of diets and learning more about how to improve his health.  After losing the pounds SEVERAL times but always gaining them back, he finally found a method that worked for him.  As expected, a restrictive diet can certainly improve health and lead to losing pounds, the restrictions are often too difficult for people to keep indefinitely.  Life-style changes that are sustainable are more likely to have a better effect.  It was interesting learning about Estabrook's journey and how well he could follow just about any diet...for a couple of months. He really has a great way of telling his story and is very honest about his struggles while filling us in on the history of diets and taking you through the current fads and why there is less obesity in some other countries.

Outer Darkness: Volume 2

 

Outer Darkness: Volume 2: Castrophany of Hate / John Layman and Afu Chan, 144 pgs.

Continuing on the mission, the spaceship Charon faces a lot of setbacks including aliens hauntings, sorcery and hatred.  This leads to a lot of fighting, backstabbing and scheming.  In other words, an awesome ride.  Captain Riggs is perhaps the only thing that brings the crew together.  They all agree that they hate him and want him gone.  This isn't kept from him.  Everyone is plotting or supporting someone else's plan, it is sometimes hard to follow. You always get the basic meaning...everyone wants the captain gone.  Chan's artwork is fabulous.

Inclusify

 

Inclusify: the power of uniquness and belonging to build innovative teams / Stefanie K. Johnson, 288 pgs.

There are many good points in this book about how we might think we are conscious about including everyone and working towards a more diverse work place but then there are lots of examples of leaders who aren't quite there yet. The book starts out telling why we should be striving for diversity then moves to specific leadership types who are on the path but need a little more work.  She gives strategies and examples and has done the research. Important for leaders in all areas to be aware of these issues, especially those in the work place.

The Ex Talk

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon (2021) 338 pages

Shay Goldstein is twenty-nine and has worked as a producer in public radio for 10 years. Dominic Yun, twenty-five, has joined the station after receiving his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern. He seems a bit full of himself, always mentioning his degree. She is competent, but feels that he looks down on her. 

When the cash-strapped station decides it needs a new program to draw in more listeners, their boss has them create a fake former relationship for a weekly show which they will co-host, where they will talk about what failed in their relationship. It's a lie, but the show is a success. When Shay and Dominic begin to actually experience interest in each other, everything gets topsy-turvy. They want to continue their careers, but not lose their budding relationship. Every time I thought I knew where this story was going, the author threw another wrench in it!

Lab Girl

 Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (2016) 290 pages

Hope Jahren's book, Lab Girl, takes us through her life from the time she was a small child playing in her father's lab in Minnesota until more recent times as a scientist in Hawaii. Her successes, failures, humor and vulnerability are all depicted, as is her long collaboration/friendship with Bill, whom she met while they were students at Berkeley, where she earned her PhD.

Just as fascinating as her life are her stories about trees, leaves, soils and more. Her words flow as she describes biological wonders that are all around us, in words that a non-scientist can appreciate.

Girl A, by Abigail Dean

This debut novel is in the spirit of a couple of other books with “girl” in the title – Gone girl, by Gillian Flynn, and The girl on the train, by Paula Hawkins.  It also draws from the recent case of a family whose many children were kept in captivity for years without detection, and reminiscent of Room, by Emma Donoghue.  Girl A is Alexandria Gracie, now known as Lex.  She is the eldest girl in a family of six, perhaps seven, children, and when she escapes her chains and finds help from a neighbor, the whole horror of the Gracie household comes to light.  The father, a self-proclaimed pastor of his own church and driving force behind their captivity, commits suicide, but the mother is caught and imprisoned.  As the book opens, the mother has just died in prison and named Lex as executor of her estate -- $20,000 dollars and the abandoned house at 11 Moorwoods Road, which are to be divided among the siblings.  This duty will force Lex to revisit not only her awful past, but contact her older brother and younger siblings who have complicated relationships, alliances, and residual trauma.  The book is well-written and very involving, but those troubled by cruelty to children and the long term effects may find it a disturbing read.  342 pp.

The last detective, by Peter Lovesey

Written in 1991, this mystery’s protagonist, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, has recently been transferred to a bit of a backwater near Bristol after being tarnished by criticism that he had forced a confession from a murder suspect.  Diamond is old school at a time when technology is beginning to take over much of the work formerly done with hard work and shoe leather and he’s not happy about the change.  When the naked body of a young woman is found in a lake after a few weeks of submersion, it takes some time to identify her as the former star of a popular BBC series.  She and her husband live together but have largely separate lives, so the fact that she’d gone missing hadn’t been reported.  As Diamond seeks to unravel what happened to her and why, he is drawn into a complicated web including the husband, an Austin scholar recently appointed as head of the newly formed English Department of a local college; a boy the husband saves from an accidental drowning and his single mother; skullduggery in the city of Bath’s famous Roman baths; cocaine dealing, newly discovered letters written by Jane Austin, and more.  In the end, old school triumphs – sort of.  An interesting period piece.  I hadn’t read this prolific author’s works previously.  331 pp.

The best of me, by David Sedaris

 A big collection of Sedaris’s writing which includes a lot of essays I hadn’t read before.  Missing is the famous one about him as a Santa’s elf at Christmastime.  Some are hilarious, some sad, and some – this is the Sedaris family after all – disturbing.  If you enjoy his writing, this is a treat.  400 pp.

A Promised Land

 

A Promised Land / Barack Obama, read by the author, 751 pgs.

Yes, it is LONG but once I started, I could not stop.  Listening to Obama's voice with all of the correct emphasis was mesmerizing.  I enjoyed all of the 29 hours and 10 minutes of it. Looking forward to the next volume.