Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment

The book features one long weekend in the life of Ruth and Alex Cohen, an elderly New York couple hoping to sell their East Village apartment of 45 years. Ruth is a retired teacher and Chekhov devotee, and Alex is an artist, currently adding colorful illuminations to the couples' old FBI files. As they ready for an open house, a gas tanker truck gets stuck in the Midtown tunnel, seizing the city with gridlock and fear of a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, the Cohens' beloved dachshund, Dorothy, falls ill and has to be taken to an uptown animal hospital. Since no cabs are running part of the story is them trying to get her to the vet and then trying to get back to visit her. As the real estate market swings in response to the news about the tanker, the Cohens wait for news about their dog and confront the reality of leaving their home.

I picked up this book because it caught my eye as it has an outline of a dachshund on the cover. It is short book, less than 200 pages, but I found myself slowing down to read it almost relishing the story. It isn't a complicated tale yet a lot is happening. We see the story from the couples point of view but some of the most interesting part of the story comes from Dorothy, the couples little dachshund who spends most of the story at the vet recovering from a back operation.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

First of a trilogy "The Millenium-series" introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multi pierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable super hacker.

A 24-year-old computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, sports an assortment of tattoos and body piercings but is oddly emotionally dissociated with others and maybe afflicted with Asperger Syndrome or something of the like. She has been under state guardianship in her native Sweden since she was thirteen. She supports herself by doing deep background investigations for Dragan Armansky, who, in turn, worries the anorexic-looking Lisbeth Salander is "the perfect victim for anyone who wished her ill." Salander may look fourteen and stubbornly shun social norms, but she possesses the inner strength of a determined survivor. She sees more than her word processor page in black and white and despises the users and abusers of this world. She won't hesitate to exact her own unique brand of retribution against small-potatoes bullies, sick predators, and corrupt magnates alike.

Financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. Blomkvist, after a Salander-completed background check, is summoned to a meeting with semi-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger whose far-flung but shrinking corporate empire is wholly family owned. Vanger has brooded for 36 years about the fate of his great niece, Harriet. Blomkvist is expected to live for a year on the island where many Vanger family members still reside and where Harriet was last seen. Under the cover story that he is writing a family history, Blomkvist is to investigate which family member might have done away with the teenager.

On the surface this seems to be a cold-case but quickly develops into layers of hatred and corruption against women and men. Each section has a kind of statistic about crimes against women in Sweden. But we learn so much more. I really found this book fascinating and can't wait to read the other 2. I'm wondering if the 2 other books will hold up to this one.

Interesting side-note. The author, Stieg Larsson died just after submitting all 3 manuscripts in 2004. Already book 1 has been made into a movie under the original title "Man who hated women", interestingly enough in Spanish. Considering the original book was in Swedish, I expected it to have been done in that language first.

Undertaking: life studies of a dismal trade by Thomas Lynch

This is a collection of Thomas Lynch's essays. Lynch is the sole funeral director in Milford, Michigan, a business he became a part of because his father was a funeral director as are several family members. Each essay discusses a topic linked to death. At times this becomes a bit mind numbing has he dwells on the same topics in much detail and likes lists. But at other times there is a flash of almost brilliance and you see the poet come out. I think the most moving were the essays where death is brought home to him personally but I cannot say I personally enjoyed this that much.

It was part of my bookclub so I gave it a try but it will not be on my best book list. I really felt that he liked to read his own work and wish that he had had a better editor to help him be more concise and not dupliate so much. You can tell that these essays were written separately and then just put together. I think I would have enjoyed it more as single essays in the New Yorker versus a whole book put together.

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

The story begins with two young men driving in the country side looking for a particular town. They finally find it and there begins the story of La "short for Lavender". This beginning is nicely tied up in the end as well.

La's life is pretty ordinary. She goes to college at Cambridge where she meets the man that will become her husband. He proposes just a month after they meet, she doesn't love him in a passionate sense but more in a settling for what life gives her. There marriage seems to be alright except that La cannot have children but her husband seems to accept it. Suddenly her life changes when her father-in-law comes to their home to tell her that he has left her for another woman in France. Not long after that he is injured and consequently dies.

La retreats to a small cottage in Suffolk given to her by her mortified in-laws. The isolation and peacefulness suit La, who joins the Women's Land Army soon after the outbreak of war. She is lonely but enjoys the isolation and feels determined to make something of her life. She takes care of hens who belong a local farmer who suffers from arthritis. Through a friend she meets Tim, who is a local military man, who mentions Feliks Dabrowski (Dab), an attractive Polish ex-pat soldier who lost the sight of one eye and needed a job. The farmer she helps needs a worker to do odd jobs on the farm so together they get Dab a job. La finds herself attracted to him, despite her suspicions that Feliks hasn't been fully truthful about his past.

When Tim finds out La used to perform in chamber orchestras in Cambridge he suggests she start an amateur local orchestra to boost morale for both soldiers and locals. This proves an unexpected success and helps give her purpose during the war's darkest days.

This is a quiet almost observant work of life in rural England during WWII. But we see it from La's point of view as she struggles to find herself up until the very end.

I so enjoyed this book. It was the perfect book to read over a weekend. It was a nice change of pace to see the author write outside his series. He has such a way of writing the female voice that one forgets the author is a male. There is no mystery in the true sense as it is more of La's living her life.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent's day is not starting well. He wakes up with a terrible hangover and the realization that his house is about to be torn down to make way for an expressway. Unfortunately it's going to get worse as his friend Ford Prefect convenciences him to go have a drink and then says the world is ending in 6 minutes. Wouldn't you know it, the Earth is going to be blown up for an intergalexic expressway.

Ford Prefect, is actually a researcher for the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and has been stranded on earth for 15 years. Thankfully just moments before the Earth is destroyed Arthur and Ford hitch a ride on the Vogon space cruiser that has just destroyed the planet Earth. Poor Arthur wakes up confused and sick and not able to understand anything being said until he sticks a Babel fish into his ear. After Arthur and Ford are thrown out into space they are picked up by the Heart of Gold stolen by President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and his shipmate Trillian, both of whom Arthur actually met months before at a party. Such impossible coincidences are explained by the fact that the Heart of Gold is powered by the new Infinite Improbability Drive. More considents abound as they zoom through space. The ending leaves it open to the next book "Restaurant at the end of Universe".

I've read this several times but this was my first time hearing it read on CD. The reader was Stephen Fry and it was so well done. I just laughed and laughed and now want to continue the adventures by hopefully another tale online.

Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan

More than two and a half decades ago, Penny Brannigan left Canada to relocate in Llanelen, Wales where she opened a reasonably successful manicure shop. She recently just lost her best friend, Emma the retired school teacher for the area. Emma had been her first friend and was one of the reasons that Penny decided to settle in Llanelen. But life must go on so she continues giving her manicures and silently observing what goes around her. But when she ends up being the last one to see bride-to-be Meg Wynne Thompson the morning of her wedding to the squire's son, she is thrust into the thick of it. During her friend, Emma's, funeral something just doesn't seem right to Penny. So she contacts the local police to report her suspicions.

Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies and his lieutenant Morgan are assigned to the missing persons case but after talking to Penny determine foul play may be afoot. Penny informs Gareth about the strange client whom she now believes was not Meg but someone pretending to be the missing woman. As the police arrest the fiancé whose father suddenly dies Meg and her new friend Victoria Hopkird begin asking questions that bring them to the a startling conclusion.

This starts out as a typical cozy mystery but as the mystery progresses it gets more complicated as Penny peels the layers of the various suspects. I enjoyed this story and found it to have more depth than I originally anticipated. I'm looking forward to other books by the author whether the same series or not.

Dresden Files - # 1 Storm Front (Graphic Novel 1-4)
by Jim Butcher, adapted by Mark Powers and illustrated by Ardian Syaf

This Graphic Novel covers the first part of the book "Storm Front" that introduced Harry Dresden, a modern wizard who's set up shop in downtown Chicago. Dresden is called upon to determine how a double homicide, a bloody murder in which two people's hearts exploded out of their chests! Murphy, a female Chicago police detective needs Dresden to help them figure out if this could have been done supernaturally. Along the way, he runs afoul of a Chicago mob boss, a brothel-owning vampiress, an acid-spewing demon, and ultimately a drug-selling practitioner of the dark arts.

Harry is in bad standing with the White Council that governs wizards because he survived an incident in which he killed someone in self-defense using magic. He is under the Doom of Damocles in which if he breaks any rules, he will be executed. This makes his present situation a bit touchy. He is working a case involving the use of deadly magic that requires Harry to reconstruct the original spell in order to identify the murderer. If his watchdog who loathes him catches him performing an inkling of dark magic, he will be obliterated. Feeling he has no choice, Harry soon finds himself on the abyss by the dark magic he encounters.

Because this is a partial collection of a comic book it will be awhile before we see the conclusion to the story. But it is a decent adaption of the book. I need to go back and re-read it to compare.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. All of her friends are married and having children, leaving Skeeter feeling like an old maid. Her friend Hilly sets her up with a senator's son with mixed results. Her circumstances make her tied to staying with her disapproving mother and feeling like there is no future.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Aibileen is suffering from a silent rage which makes her respond to Miss Skeeter and sets all their lives in motion.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. But Minny has her own problems, a drunk of a husband who beats her, leaving her future uncertain. So she keeps herself pregnant as then her husband usually leaves her alone.

Skeeter wants to be a writer but all she can find is a column about writing household hints, since she knows nothing about running a household she relies on her friend Elizabeth's maid Aibileen to help her out. But until she finds something to really write about she will never become a writer. After a chance conversation with a book editor from NYC Skeeter decides to start writing about the help of the women she are friends with. Aibileen is her first interview and then Minny does too but 2 interviews are not enough and it isn't until Skeeter is herself austersied from her community do other maids decide to step up and tell their stories. Some are happy and some are terrible but all ring true. Skeeter changed the names and the locations but it doesn't take long for the people of Jackson to figure it out. When it finally the truth comes to light what will happen?

It is an interesting mix of historical fiction during a time of tremendous turmoil in the US. JFK had just been assassinated, MLK was stirring things up and you see the different sides of the story from the stories told. I really enjoyed this glimpse into a very exciting time of American history.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

It takes place in an unspecified future time in an anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control. This America is filled with lawlessness in the streets ranging from teenagers crashing cars to firemen who burn books instead of fight fires. Anyone caught reading or possessing books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned by the firemen. It is never really specified what constitutes an illegal book but anything from the bible to works of literature.

One rainy night returning from his job, fireman Guy Montag meets his new neighbor Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit force him to question his life, his ideals, and his own perceived happiness. Clarisse always asked why and never just accepted a pat answer. Later Montag finds out that Clarisse is hit by a car and killed, her family gone.

After the first meeting of Clarisse, Montag returns home to find his wife Mildred asleep with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her bed. He calls for medical help; two technicians respond by proceeding to suck out Mildred's blood with a machine and insert new blood into her. The technicians' utter disregard for Mildred forces Montag to question the state of society.

In the following days, while ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag accidentally reads a line in one of her books: "Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine". This prompts him to steal one of the books. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match she had concealed from the firemen's view, prematurely igniting the flammable kerosene the firemen had sprayed her house with and, in a bizarre act subsequently burns herself alive along with her beloved books. This severely disturbs Montag, who wonders why someone would die for books, which he considers to be without value.

Jarred by the woman's suicide, Montag calls in sick, but gets a visit from his fire chief Captain Beatty, who explains to him the political and social causes which underlie the work they perform. Captain Beatty claims that society, in its search for happiness and in an attempt to minimize cultural offenses through political correctness, brought about the suppression of literature as an act of self-censorship and that the government merely took advantage of the situation. Beatty adds that all firemen eventually steal a book out of curiosity, but all would be well if the book is turned in within 24 hours. Montag argues with his wife, Mildred, over the book he himself has stolen, showing his growing disgust for her and for his society.

After Beatty leaves it is revealed that Montag has, over the course of a year, hidden dozens of books in the ventilation shafts of his own house, and tries to memorize them to preserve their contents, but becomes frustrated that the words seem to simply fall away from his memory. He then remembers a man he had met at one time: Faber, a former English professor. Montag seeks Faber's help, where after Faber begins teaching Montag about the vagaries and ambiguities but overall importance of literature in its attempt to explain human existence. He also tells him what books really mean. He also gives Montag a green bullet-shaped ear-piece so that Faber can offer guidance throughout his daily activities.

After a disastrous encounter with Beatty in which he kills him and severely injures 2 other firefighters, Montag flees to Faber's house. Even though he killed the hound another has been sent after him with television network helicopters in hot pursuit. The newscasters hope to document his escape as a spectacle, and distract the people from the oncoming threat of war, a threat that has been foreshadowed throughout the book via the reader being repeatedly told of planes flying over the buildings that the characters are in, as well as a radio broadcast that says "this country stands ready to defend itself".

Faber tells Montag of vagabond book-lovers in the countryside. Montag then escapes to a local river, floats downstream and meets a group of older men who, to Montag's astonishment, have memorized entire books, preserving them orally until the law against books is overturned. They burn the books they read to prevent discovery, retaining the verbatim content (and possibly valid interpretations) in their minds. The group leader, Granger, discusses the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth, adding that the phoenix must have some relation to mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes.

Meanwhile, the television network helicopters surround and kill another man (who regularly walks about) instead of Montag, to maintain the illusion of a successful hunt for the watching audience. But in the end the war begins. Montag watches helplessly as jet bombers fly overhead and attack the city with nuclear weapons. Montag is sad to think that Mildred has died but he hopes that Faber has left the city. They assume that more cities across the country have been incinerated as well; a bitter irony in that the world that sought to burn thought is burned itself. While the initiation of modern society is clear Montag the survivors strive to create a new world in which literature and intellectual freedom will prevail.

I listened to this story on CD and it included a fascinating prologue that Bradbury wrote in 1979 where he talks about the play he wrote based on the book as well as told the progress he took to write the original story and the censorship he has gotten over the years. It is really incredible how a story from the 1950's could still be relevant in an even more profound way. I read this in college and really enjoyed it even more now.

What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie

Book 1 in the Ghost Hunter Mysteries

Introduces M.J. and her partner Gilley who run a business in which M.J. communicates with ghosts and sends them on their way. M.J. and Gilley have known each other since college and their friendship helped them develop a business together.

They get their first big client, the wealthy, de-lish Dr. Steven Sable, where are at his family's lodge is the ghost of his dead grandfather. His grandfather allegedly jumped to his death from the roof-although Sable says it was foul play. When they arrive at the lodge M.J. contacts three ghosts but none of them seem to want to talk to her. In the meantime they have a bigger problem. Steven's father, who had never acknowledged him, is also in town and it is obvious he wants something and will do anything to get it. Steven and Laurie intend to stop him but they need the help of the ghosts to do it.

Lots of sexual tension between M.J. and Sable but enjoyed the antics of Gilley, who is gay, loves computers and is seriously afraid of ghosts. This was a fun read and I will try another to see if I want to read others by the author, who is known for her supernatural fiction.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

After nearly two decades spent on British soil bestselling author, Bill Bryson, decided to return to the United States. But before departing, he set out one last grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, his venture is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.

Of course being a big fan of any British I had to read this book, well I listened to it on CD during my drive around town. What a great trip down memory lane as I listened to his travels to parts I had visited to parts I know what to venture to. What made this book interesting was his path around the island, most of which was to parts that most tourists never venture. He was intrigued by the names or by things he had read or heard about from friends.

I think that the only part that was annoying to me was the rants he would get on about say Oxford. But I can overlook that as Bryson has such an authentic voice and such a love for Britian. I had not heard of this writer before as I am not a big fan of non-fiction books but I think I'll look for others he has written.

Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin

Annie Colville sees dead people, and the dead wear chocolate brown while inhabiting the "Waiting Room of Heaven World," which overlaps with the everyday "Living Room World" that the rest of us see. The ghosts reach out to Annie to enlist her in tidying up unfinished—and mundane as often as unconventional—business: which niece should get the Wedgwood teapot, which romantic path a lesbian daughter should follow.

But Annie also has problems of her own: her husband, Evan Bees, disappeared seven years ago, and though he's assumed dead, Annie hasn't seen him among the cocoa-clad (the countdown to when Annie can have him declared legally dead provides the book's time line); her quest to discover which of her mother's many lovers is her father is leaden with disappointment; and some ghosts prove to be more haunting than others.

This was kind of strange book, as I was expecting a bit more spookiness to it. It was very matter of fact in many ways. Annie finds ways to use her gift to help others find peace, both the living and the dead. But she is always cut short of finding peace for herself. There are several storylines told from others point of view. Some were more shocking because you discovered they were dead when you thought they were a part of the living. It was almost like watching a play of these different vignettes that I kept hoping would all tie up in the end. There was some closure but left me wanting more.

Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay

After a brief and mostly idyllic (except for some gruesome performance art) honeymoon in Paris, Dexter has returned to Miami as a devoted husband and family man. He's even getting involved with Rita's kids as he signs Cody up for cub scouts and takes him to his first meeting.

He returns to work just in time for a string of gruesome new murders: four people who are eviscerated, filled with weird stuff (fruit and sunscreen, among other things), and artfully arranged. When it causes a media storm, a reluctant Deb asks Dexter to please help her out with the investigation. His own experiences (and the Dark Passenger) tell Dexter that this isn't an ordinary serial killer, but someone who seems to have a strange grudge against the tourist trade of Miami. It just doesn't feel like a serial killer, but where did these bodies come from? Deborah looks into the Miami Tourist commission to see who might have a grudge and surprisingly there are several.

So Deborah and Dexter go investigating together, looking into the list given to them by the Miami Tourist commission. But then things get personal for Dexter when Deb is viciously stabbed, and while Dexter saves her and captures the attacker it looks like they can't prove it. After his relief Dexter decides to take things into his own hands and silently kills him in the night. He knows something is wrong when the man whispers "Smile" as his last word and his dark passenger is whispering to him. He quickly discovers that he because he got the wrong guy! An email shows up in his inbox with a link to Utube (we know that can't be good) and it isn't as there is a video of Dexter killing him!

The other man starts making it personal when Dexter takes Cody to his next cub scout meeting and there is the den master dead on display like the previous 4 bodies. Dexter ends up on a race against time to keep Rita and the kids from being the next round of victims. But Astrid and Cody can hold there own as they defend themselves and Rita from a kidnapping and are instrumental in helping Dexter in the end. There is a kind of surprise cliff-hanger at the end.

I eagerly awaited the latest addition of Dexter, hoping it wouldn't be like the 3rd in the series which was really a disappointment. So I was very happy to read and say "Dexter is back!". The author, Jeff Lindsay, has such a way of writing with dry humor and somehow makes you cheer for someone who would be labeled a sociopath and is a serial killer. But I really can't help it as this character is so conscious of this and still tries to live a normal life. When I read about or see on TV these horrible people who do horrible things I wish there was a Dexter in real life. If that makes me a terrible person, than so be it. I have seen a couple of episodes of the show on Showtime so maybe since this is in print it isn't a graphic to me. But I do appreciate how Lindsay, shows the struggle Dexter goes through to find his place. I think we all have that struggle with finding the appropriate way to show our emotions and react.

Ice House by Minette Walters

Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. After the body has never been found she still live under the umbrella of suspicion of the village. Now Phoebe lives with her two friends, Anne & Diane, and the three reclusive English women have become the subject of censure and speculation during a new murder investigation.

After a rotting corpse is found in the ice house of Streech Grange, Chief Inspector Walsh sets out at once to prove it is the body of David Maybury, whom wife Phoebe was suspected of murdering when he was reported missing years earlier. Since no body was ever found, Walsh deduces that Maybury returned and was killed by Phoebe or one of her friends, Anne and Diane, who live with her at the Grange. Detective Sgt. Alan McLoughlin, however, isn't so sure, especially after the coroner says the dead man was older than David and the local belief that the three women are a lesbian menage a trois turns out to be untrue. But McLoughlin can't understand why the Grange's residents make the investigation so difficult by refusing to answer questions and sometimes openly lying.

I have been meaning to read this book for at least 8 years and finally got around to it. It is Walters first book and while at first is a bit slow, once she gets rolling the book just sucks you in. It is a intelligent, emotionally suspenseful mystery and really not a traditional British murder mystery at all. Yes there is a murder (maybe 2) but there is this suspense in wondering what is the real motive behind all this. At once point Anne is struck and left for dead. She is saved by McLoughlin who while going through his own troubles and spends the first quarter of the book drunk is really the only person who is objective enough to find the truth. McLoughlin's wife has left him for his best friend and former police detective so he isn't the most objective when it comes to women right now. Plus the 3 women seem to relish throwing their "lesbian" relationship in his face. But is it real or just a ruse? Because McLoughlin is starting to have feelings for Anne which offers us some romantic intrigue.

You really have pay attention and there were many times I had to go back and re-read. I originally tried this on CD but found myself getting frustrated with it so went back to reading. I'm really glad that I did as it lived up to what I had read about it and left me wanting to read more of her books. Walters really has a way of writing about subjects that make you uncomfortable and she really delves deep into the souls of the characters she writes about. I'm looking forward to trying her other books soon.

Daddy Long Legs (Manga adapation) Manga Literary Classics series by YKids

Combines this classic novel by Jean Webster with the graphic of a modern manga style. This adaptation of Jean Webster's novel has been beloved by young girls ever since it was published in 1912.

Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone, while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.

One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Jerusha is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Jerusha must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.

Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women's college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast.

The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. While she is at college, she becomes acquainted with Jervis Pendleton, the wealthy uncle of one of her classmates, and they become increasingly attached to each other, but her shame and embarrassment at her humble origins lead her to reject his marriage proposal despite her love for him. Unhappy and depressed, she turns to "Daddy Long-Legs" or John Smith, for advice. At the end of the book the true identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" is revealed.

It was interesting to read a graphic version of this classic story which was one of my personal favorites from my childhood. It is a much more flighty, silly kind of story where from my memory it had a much more serious feel to it. I do want to go back and re-read the original story to see if my memories are accurate. I did enjoy this modern adaptation but wish it had been to keep the feel of the original story.

There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin mystery

Now in her 20th mystery, Agatha Raisin is overrun with cases for her new detective agency. Overworked and needing a rest, Agatha takes a holiday visiting several of Europe's most famous battlefields. She goes to Istanbul to see the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War. However, Agatha is horrified to see her former husband, James Lacey, and his much younger fiancée Felicity Bross-Tilkingtonare. She jumps into a taxi hoping to escape notice but James sees her and assumes that she is stalking him as he also sees her again.

Back in England, Agatha ignores his accusations and but it's difficult since she and her entire detective agency and most of the village have been invited to his wedding. Per usual Agatha buries herself in her work until the wedding. After a disasterous pre-wedding party, James confides in Agatha that he is making a terrible mistake. But as a gentleman he is going throgh with the wedding. On the wedding day as James waits for his bride to walk down the aisle; his bride is found shot dead in her wedding dress. The police suspect Agatha in a crime of passion, but fortunately she has witnesses that place her elsewhere. Olivia Bross-Tilkingtonare, Felicity's stunned distraught mother, hires Agatha to find out who killed her daughter as she distrusts the cops to do an adequate job. However, this case is much more complicated as her investigations seem to stir up more trouble than actual find the murderer.

Agatha becomes enamoured with her new love interest, Sylvan Dubois, a friend of Felicity's father; as she suspects both of them in some dubious activities. But Agatha's confidence is shaken to its core when it seems every new person she meets wants to kill her. She even starts to doubt her own ability to be a detective.

Per usual, I await for the latest Agatha Raisin book to come out. But this one was much more complicated than any I've read so far. She travels more, falls in love with several different men, manages to retire from her own detective agency. Interestingly enough Charles shows himself to be more useful and in a much more positive light in this book than ever which shows promise. All the usual suspects are in the story and Agatha finally seems to finally have some closure with James as at one point describes their relationship as "old friends". So I enjoyed this new addition and appreciate the complexity that Beaton is now giving Agatha so hopefully we'll have many more mysteries to come.

Alone by Lisa Gardner

As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dakota saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning and then Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son. Facing awkward stares and a crippling wrongful death lawsuit, Bobby begins his own investigation into the fateful shooting-and a fight to reclaim the life he holds dear. As the trail takes him into a twisted minefield of sordid wealth and family secrets, he is learning that nothing - and no one - is what they seem.

I listened to this on CD and did find myself rolling my eyes during the scenes focusing on Catherine when she would work herself up into a frenzy. It was hard to feel sorry for her when so much of her problems were self made. Some of the best parts of the book were when Bobby was talking to his shrink - mandated by his forced time off. She really helped him delve into himself to find out what motivates him to helping Catherine. He is forced to explore his own painful childhood and his relationship with his parents.

It was interesting to me that this book was written by a woman as she really made the female characters either very weak or manipulative. It was a good story and honestly I'm still not sure after I finished it how much of this was arranged by Catherine or just happenstance.

Whiteout: Melt by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber

Sequel to the Graphic Novel Whiteout.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko is on much needed vacation in New Zealand, but still stuck in professional exile in McMurdo Station in the South Pole. When a Russian base blows up suspiciously, her bosses promise to bring her back to civilization if she'll cut her vacation short to go poke around the debris.

Although Article I of the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any military use of the continent, the Russians are suspected of using their base as a weapons cache and her bosses want her to see if she can find anything out. Soon, Stetko finds herself pursing a team of elite Spetznaz troops gone mercenary who are fleeing across the ice with stolen nukes. Upping the ante, Stetko teams up with a Russian GRU agent to track the rogue Spetznaz and recover the nukes.

There's even some sexual action about midway through the story that helps connect Carrie with the Russian agent and of course complicates the story. Carrie has to decide what is right for the overall good and what is just right for her. It's always a dilemma.

This story wasn't as complicated as most of it took place on the chase across the ice to catch the Spetznaz troops. But as always the black and white illustrations are haunting as we see the desolation of Antarctica and the people who live there.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson

Inspector Banks Mystery

Introduces Inspector Alan Banks, a police detective who left London to work in Eastvale, a town in Yorkshire, where he lives with his wife and two children. Women are being terrorized in the small English town of Eastvale by a peeping tom who likes to stare at women while they undress. There has also been a series of robberies affecting this small town but the police start taking notice when they find the body of Alice Matlock. The police cannot help themselves to wander if this was the work of outsiders or if the peeping tom passion has gotten to be deadly. Inspector Banks is in charge of the case and is working together with Dr. Jennifer Fuller to try to help him understand the mind of the voyeur and to see if there is possibility that he could be dangerous.

In case you wonder how all these various cases are tied together, it really is all down to Banks as he puzzles about these random cases. He has found a new passion of Opera and listens to his tapes in the car or on his Walkman. He admits that he finds new passions every 6 months and wonders if this new one will stick. He smokes too much and while tempted by a beautiful woman he remains faithful to his wife and family. But most of all he is a dedicated policeman who strives to do the right thing.

While this was a bit more graphic than I liked, it was still an intriguing police procedural. I'll definitely try more of these down the road.

Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn

Chet the "Jet" is a dog with one white ear and one black who failed K-9 school (cats in the open country played a role in his demise), but now he is a dedicated PI and works with Bernie, owner of the Little Detective Agency. The story is told entirely from Chet’s point of view, which gives us an interesting twist on the traditional PI mystery, and it is definitely fun to read.

Wealthy divorcée Cynthia Chambliss hires Bernie, a former cop, to find her missing 15-year-old daughter, Madison, whose father is a real estate developer who smells suspiciously of cat. (Chet's keen sense of smell comes in handy.) When Madison reappears and disappears again, her dad says she's just a runaway, though Bernie thinks otherwise.

Chet may not understand things like maps (he doesn’t need them, as he can sniff his way home), but he is a great sleuth who finds the girl and solves the case. The always upbeat Chet makes us cheer for him and realize that dogs can be detectives too. Bernie is a good detective too but sometimes you need a nose to sniff out the truth.

This was a fun read from start to finish. I now have a new favorite duo to look for next year as I'm sure there are more books to come. The only thing I wish the author would do is actually name where the characters live. It is a generic "Valley" in the desert with former ranches and open land that are now city. I guess since I live in a valley in the desert I'm curious to where this is.