The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (2003)

I reread this book, because I got to see the real Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in Paris last month. I remember loving the book the first time (I read it before I started this blog), but was frustrated that the book did not contain images of the tapestries themselves. When I gave it as a gift to a friend for Christmas, I located images in books and on the Internet, and created a booklet of images for her to go along with the book. The version I now read had at least partial images of all six tapestries.

The tapestries really were amazing. They are hanging in a separate room at the Musee National du Moyen Age - formerly the Musee de Cluny, now the Museum of the Middle Ages. They are quite powerful, each containing a lady, sometimes with a lady in waiting, and a unicorn and a lion. Each tapestry represents one of the senses - sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and the last one is My Soul's Desire. I had a period in life where I loved and collected unicorns and books and stories about unicorns. They are definitely fascinating, phallic, mysterious. I did not remember much about the lions (they are barely mentioned in the book and are not depicted in the partial illustrations of the tapestries in my book), but I was surprised at their docileness, even goofiness.

I remembered really liking this book about the artist, who painted the originals for each tapestry, which would then have to be rendered into large cartoons to place under the looms of the weavers in Belgium, who would then weave the images row by row, never seeing the whole until the tapestry was done. I had forgotten much of the details, and after the convoluted museum brochure that spent most of its energy describing the controversial interpretations of the sixth tapestry, I decided it was just time to reread this book. I knew it was based on as much truth as Chevalier could unearth, and the rest was just a good story about romance and medieval life, and the art of creating tapestries, that I still found intriguing.

The artist Nicolas des Innocents is a portrait painter commissioned to paint the original tapestry paintings, and he convinces the lady of the house Genevieve to ask her husband Jean le Viste for ladies with unicorns instead of battle scenes for the tapestries. Their daughter Claude falls for this rouge of and artist, but of course they must be kept apart. Nicolas goes with the merchant Leon Le Vieux to Brussles, to bring the paintings, get the commission started. He stays a while and helps Philippe work on the cartoons and is fascinated by the blind daughter Alienor of the weavers Georges and Christine. These human encounters give the story of the plot, which otherwise would be simply:  rich lord commissions tapestries and they are woven by a workshop of weavers. What gives the book its richness are the details of making a tapestry - getting the right colored wools, how they are sorted and wound into hanks, how various weavers sit all day at the looms, and then at night the women sew the weaving together. I had heard of guilds in my history of Latvia, and there are still the Big Guild and Little Guild building in old Riga, but now I had more sense of how they functioned. They regulated their members, but also insured quality and supported each other.

And now, 500 years later, I could still feast my eyes on the work of the artists and craftsmen, who are maybe still anonymous, but I have a sense that Chevalier has brought them to life, and I am left with a feeling that Chevalier's characters are the real authors of the tapestries I saw in Paris. Plus fun to keep reading about Paris after visiting it.

Juliet by Ann Fortier (2010)

Wonderful mix of history and today's world, but actually both fiction. Juliet of today finds out that she may be the descendant from the "real" Juliet of Romeo and Juliet, which was supposedly based on a real story of star crossed lovers. Today's Juliet goes to Italy and has wild adventures, follows clues left by her deceased mother, falls in love...

One Day by David Nicholls (2009)

We follow Emma and Dexter through twenty years on one day each year. It starts with their graduation day from college and follows the ups and downs of their lives, as they discover what they really want to do, and as they discover what they mean to each other. Not great, but some good observations on youth, searching for one's place in the world, the power of friendship, not giving up on each other, etc. At times I wanted the book to speed up, but in the end I was quite enamored of both characters.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (2010)

Another amazing historical fiction book by Tracy Chevalier. This time she takes the historical figure of Mary Anning, who discovered many unique fossils on the beaches of Lyme Regis, England in the 19th century. Since she is a woman and not an officially schooled scientist, she is not taken seriously, nor can she participate in scholarly discussions, but her discoveries provide the basis for a lot of work by scientists in her time. The story is partially told from Mary's point of view, and partially from Elizabeth Philpot, a gentlewoman who also is intrigued by fossils and who helps Mary.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok (2010)

Wonderful book about the immigrant spirit. A brilliant young Chinese girl lives in an unheated apartment and works after school in a garment factory, but perseveres in school and proves to all that she can overcome all her circumstances and become successful.

The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco (2000)

Just saw this book lying around the library - by one of my favorite childrens' book authors. Seems like I am still drawn to France, and France during WWII. It seems that Polacco has a never ending supply of relatives, that played an important role in history, but then again, I like getting the history of the world through Polacco's eyes. This is about a girl Monique, whose mother protected Jews from Nazis in France. The butterfly is the symbol of freedom, and a German soldier crushing one symbolizes the way they crushed many a human life.

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (2009)

Just grabbed the latest Caldecott Medal winner and found it was by an old favorite - Pinkney. This worldless book is just gorgeously illustrated - and it too is one of my favorite of Aesop's fables about the tiny mouse saving the lion from the poacher's net.

The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (1992, translation 2001)

This was a good book to read on the plane, and somewhat appropriate for a trip to Europe. Mankell is the Swedish mystery writer with his trusted cop character Kurt Wallender. The interesting part of this book is that it happens in Latvia in early 1991, when the fate of Latvia was unclear and when Riga was still a dark and bleak city. Mankell does a great job of describing that. I remember how weird it was for me to pull into Riga on the eve of December 23, 1987 and find just three pathetic blue stars hanging above the main boulevard - the only Christmas decorations or lights of any kind besides wan street lights.

The story? A life raft with two well dressed dead guys comes ashore in Sweden and Wallender is responsible for finding out what happened. Once they make the search world wide, they find these are two Latvian drug smugglers, and a detective from Latvia gets involved. When the case is returned to Latvia, the Latvian detective is killed and Wallender is asked to come over to Latvia. Here he meets the detective's wife Baiba Liepa, who appears in at least one further Wallender novel. The Latvian police seem to work under alternative procedures and supposedly find the guilty party, so Wallender can go home. Something doesn't feel right to him and some Latvians in the Swedish emigre community help Wallendeer out, though those names no longer sounded Latvian. I thought the smugglers were were meant to be ethnic Russians had very Latvian names - but those are just minor details. This story had more chill to it than the others if I recall correctly, but I definitely intend to read more of his work. I guess there was some controversy in Latvia about the way Latvia was portrayed, but the police really were corrupt, the city really was bleak, and the fate of the country was definitely unclear, so I think he got all those points down. And Hotel Latvia was a weird place to stay - I can attest to that.

Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (2010)

Amazing book, one of my books of the year for 2010. Heavy, but always with a ray of hope. The book begins in 1938 (I think), just at the bring of World War II, when Andras Levi from Hungary, gets the opportunity to study architecture in Paris. (Since I am leaving for Paris in a few days, this just seemed more than a coincidence.) He meets a wonderful woman - Klara, a ballet instructor from Hungary - and falls in love. Luckily the first half of the book is about this fairly pleasant time in Paris, the trials of studying architecture, the friendships of Andres with three other Jewish men, the love story.  We slowly see the growth of antisemitism, and when the war breaks out, Andras and Klara are forced to return to Hungary, where the Jewish men are forced to work in work brigades. We keep seeing the evolution of the Nazi war against the Jews - taking away one privilege after another, executing them, hoarding them into ghettos, sending them off to concentration camps. This was very hard to listen to, and there were times when I just had to stop the book. I even listened to another book in between, this got too heavy for me. I kept trying to remember the exact dates of various parts of the war, and kept hoping the calendar would speed up, so that Germany would be defeated and our heroes be OK. But time kept dragging - not the book itself, it just took its time showing us the various aspects of the Jewish and the general population's suffering in Hungary, how some tried to escape to Palestine, a bit about German officers and some of their proclivities, the corruption. The work in the woods and elsewhere was difficult, the food meager. My parents did not suffer to that extent, but my mother did work in the woods of Germany after the war, and they all suffered major food shortages. I wonder if anyone has written a novel about the Jews in Latvia. I was glad to learn a bit more about Hungary and Budpest and some of the surrounding areas, but it would also be interesting to hear a novelized version of the same time frame in Latvia from a Jewish perspective. I am sure there would be many similarities.

Heat Wave by Richard Castle (2010)

This was a good idea, so I picked it up, but was so poorly executed, I didn't get more than a quarter of the way through.

Richard Castle is a character on the TV show Castle, which I enjoy. On the show, he is a well know mystery novel writer, who got permission to tail Detective Kate Beckett of the NY Police Department. Of course sparks fly between them, they actually work pretty well together, but the relationship doesn't get beyond that, just as between Brennan and Boothe in Bones. Out of the things Castle sees, he gets ideas for more books and publishes one called Heat Wave, where Nikki Heat is a thinly disguised Kate Beckett. Much of the subplot revolves around the publishing of the book, whether Beckett will read it or not, Castle's fame, etc. So, someone had the brilliant idea to actually publish a book called Heat Wave supposedly by Richard Castle. The idea was good, the execution of it very poor. If he was such a famous author, I would hope he would also be a decent writer. This was written like a parody of one of the TV scripts for the series. Nathan Fillion can give one look that says it all, but when they try to put it in words, it comes out all wrong. It might have been better if Fillion had been the one reading the audio book, as he could put some of the feeling into it, but the reader just makes it sound cheap. The other thing I miss is the richness of character. I especially miss Castle's scenes at home with his daughter and mother. He always learns something from them that he can apply to the case at hand. Maybe they showed up later in the book, but I didn't have the energy to go any further with it.

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (2010)

Allende does a wonderful job of bringing to life places and historic times. Haiti, Cuba and New Orleans, and the story of a slave girl who ends her life free. Amazing, may be my book of the year. I think I wrote it up on paper somewhere - just have to find it.

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci (2010)

Baldacci continues to be a great story teller. This one was a bit gruesome for me, as they go after a Nazi torturer.

This is Where We Live by Janelle Brown (2010)

Well, definitely a novel of the times. A young couple run into the current economic crisis, as their mortgage (in LA) balloons and their promising careers stall out. Jeremy the musician, who can't quite finish an album, has a past girlfriend Aoki, an exotic and quirky artist - and you know she will reappear in his life. Claudia, a film director, is crushed when her first film bombs and she is forced to take a job teaching film at an elite private school. I am sorry, for most of the world to get a decent paying job on a moments notice in a great setting would be miracle enough, and she never appreciates it. I spent way too much time during the novel feeling uncomfortable - with the actual economic crisis, the choices the characters were making, the way they were thinking. There were parts I liked, such as Jeremy watching a family with crying kids in a store and hoping he never has kids, and then later seeing a father with his daughter and realizing how wonderful it can be to have a family, but  I will not be looking for more books by this author, thanks.

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Envanovich (2010)

I used to think the titles had something to do with the content of the book, but at this point it is just keeping count of Stephanie Plum's adventures. This time it is cousin Vinnie that has been kidnapped for major gambling debts. Stephanie saves the day with the help of Lula and Connie and Morelli and Ranger, of course. I was glad to see Connie play a bigger role this time. Hobbit con-goers added extra color. Don't want to read too many of these, but once in a while, especially on trips, they work.

Kindered in Death by J.D. Robb (2009)

One more thrilling ride with Lt. Eve Dallas, Roarke and company. This time the first murder victim is the 16 year old daughter of the police captain MacMasters.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (2010)

This book really grew on me. Major Pettigrew is a somewhat pompous English widower, with a new generation son and his fiance. The Major enjoys talking to a shopkeeper of Pakistani descent, Jasmina Ali, who is not accepted in his circles. Very interesting to watch their friendship grow and his strength to stand up to his circle of friends.

Fantasy in Death by JD Robb (2010)

I knew I needed something to keep me awake in some of the long stretches of my trip, so I chose one of the latest JD Robb books. Roberts again amazes me at getting into another world - this time of gamers and their cons (conferences.) Maybe a real gamer would tell me this was all bogus but it seemed quite realistic.

One of four partners in an up and coming gaming company - YouPlay - is killed while playing one of the games they are developing. Though Lt. Eve Dallas and detective Peabody are the main investigators, this time the tech department with Mc Nabb and Feeney and of course involving Roarke, is the focus. Psychologist Mira comes in briefly as does (past death doctor) Morris. There is one social event - Nadine First's book party, where we briefly see Mavis, Leonardo and the hair and make-up artist. Dallas is almost on time for this one.

The pace was different. Usually I can count on 3 murders. There was only one and one attempt. All good to keep one guessing.

The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell (2010)

Fascinating. This book doesn't follow the standard patterns. It starts with a man visiting a small village in northern Sweden and finding everyone murdered. Then we see judge Brigita Roselund realizing her mother's adoptive parents lived in this small village and since she has just been told to take some time off for high blood pressure, so she goes up to check out hte village. She becomes the main character that ties this disparate world wide story all together.

I somehow can't imagine an American novel talking about idealistic youth days when they were all entralled with China's communism and Mao, some even officially joining the communists. This feels very European or Scandinavian. Brigita's friend Karin became so enamored of the Chinese, that she made her life's work out of studying China and attends a conference in Beijing during the novel with Brigit.

This story manages to traverse four continents and teach me something about each. I still know so little about China. This book provided Mankell the opportunity to speculate about conversations happening at the top levels of the Chinese government about the many poor in the rural disctricts, the corruption as money flowed into the country surrounding the Olympics. The different approaches - more traditional Maoist and others with the goal of helping all and the new capitalism. I guess I have heard that the Chinese have developed relationships with Africa, but are they really planning to send massive numbers of Chinese to populate fertile, underdeveloped areas in Africa? Mozambique  and Zambia were visited and we saw a different take on Mugabe.  I should learn more.

Most facinating was the historical flash back to the ancestors of two of the main Chinese characters Hung Cho and Ja Roo, who were forced to flee their rural homes, were dragged to America and put to work on building the railroad across the continent under horibble conditions. The ancestors traveled across America, then to England and then back to China. They befriended some Swedish missionaries and we even get a glimpse into this strange phenomenon of bringing Christianity to China. I felt there were strong parallels to the way they were prostelizing to some other parts of the book - to the early zealousness of the Swedish communists.

I learned a bit more about the criminal courts in Sweden. I also kept wishing for a map, but I now really get how close southern Sweden is to Denmark & Copenjhagen, and that Helsingborg is some place down there.

Brigit was an interesting character - middle aged, grown children, distancing relationship with husband, likes her job though it gets stressful. And then she gets involved in the mass murder story, not realizing she is the one putting it all together. She is not really being the detective, though she does a bit of sleuthing in the beginning and passes it on to not very receptive police.

I know this is a very disjointed review, but these are impressions about the book I scribbled down in the car after listening to it. I think I don't want to give the plot away, by even indicating the connections, but it was a fascinating romp through Sweden, China, US, and Africa mostly in the present, but going back 150 years or so.

I am Morgan leFay by Nancy Springer (2001)

Subtitle: A Tale form Camelot. Reading of this book came out of a reference question, where a professor had written her doctoral dissertation about Morgan le Fay. I wanted to read something simpler about her and found this book by Nancy Springer, who used to be one of my favorite fantasy/science fiction authors.

We see Morgan as a little girl, losing her father, then taken away with her sister by the nurse to be kept safe and raised in magic. She does fall in love, but her lover is destroyed, even though she tries to protect him, which makes her bitter. Plus we learn why she has no love for her half brother Arthur.  

This was great - both seeing some of the well known characters from King Arthur's story from a different angle, plus an explanation of some of the magic behind the stories. I think I want to read the I am Mordred story too.

Sweet Rains (2010): Second Nature(1985) & Lessons Learned (1986) by Nora Roberts

I should look at these more carefully before I buy them. Second Nature I had read a while ago, looks like before I started this blog, but I didn't recognize until almost the end - when we were getting near the surprise I knew what was going to happen, and not because I am good at second guessing plots, but because I had read or heard this before. And Lessons Learned I listened to just a couple of months ago. Oh well. Second nature was about a reporter, who is intrigued by a reclusive horror fiction writer. She finds out he will be at a small writers conference and when they first meet, they do not disclose to each other who they are. Instant attraction. But again, Roberts just tells a good story. I didn't even spend too much time saying to one or the other characters - get on with it stupid, she/he loves you. I am also sensitive to the fact that two people in love who live in very different lifestyles have to make some major changes to be together. I always check the dates, as this was before you could find out everything about somebody on the Internet, these two writers used typewriters, and no cell phones. Wonder if this will seem quaint to the millenials.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2002), graphic novel (2008)

One more eerie tale by Gaiman, which I found in two places in our library - the other copy was a graphic novel form of this story illustrated by P. Craig Russell. I took both out and read one chapter in this book, then reread it in the graphic novel format. Very close. About midway I decided to stop reading the normal book and just go with the visual - it was faster. I realize I have never been into horror and scary tales. Never a Steven King fan. But I liked the Graveyard Book. I really liked hearing Neil Gaiman accept an award, which is why I decided to read some more of his books, but they are not all my type. Interestingly enough, I just reread a Nora Roberts book about a horror fiction writer. She addresses the question - what are horror writers like? Turns out they can be very normal family men.

Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman (2009)

This is a wonderful prayer for a still unborn daughter with beautiful illustrations by Charles Vess. He first asked the fates to be kind, 

"Keep her from spindles and sleeps at 16, 

...

Grant her the wisdom to choose her path right,
Free from unkindness and fear

...

Her joys must be high as her sorrows are deep,
Let her grow like a week in the sun."

What a great prayer to a child!

The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman (2003)

Illustrated by Dave McKean. Another great kids book by Gaiman. He definitely gets kids and has a great imagination. Lucy seems to be hearing wolves in the walls, though no one else believes her. She has her puppet pig, after the pig puppet owned by the illustrator's son. Just enjoy. A bit like Imogene and her antlers (by David Small).

The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman (2008)

Grimly illustrated by Gris Grimly (his name had to influence his artistic style). Two brave kids and their gazelle travel mostly by boat through a dangerous world of trolls, monsters, and other nasty creatures. Seems like many authors are drawn to create an alphabet book, but this one is definitely different. May not be the best way to learn one's alphabet. I liked "C is the way that we find and we look; ... G is for Good as in hero, and morning; ... L is like 'heaven, their last destination; ... U are the reader who shivers with dread;..."

The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman (2001)

Just watched a video clip of Neil Gaiman accepting the Carnegie medal for his Graveyard Book, which I have read, So I thought I would take a look at some of his other books, starting with picture books. This has his wonderful sense of humor and attention to detail. I liked that in his video he had started the Graveyard Book 25 years ago, while watching his todler ride around a graveyard on his tricycle. But he didn't complete the book then, because he didn't have enough experience as a parent. You can see he has plenty of experience as a parent in this book, where a boy swaps his newspaper reading dad for two goldfish. When his mom makes him get back his dad, we get to see many childhoods. Great illustrations by Dave McKean. Wonder who Queen of Malanesia is? Saw her mentioned in one of the other books too.

Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (2010)

Wonderful final volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salender (she calls him Mikael f@#%ing Blomkvist), two of my favorite book characters ever,

The Collectors by David Baldacci (2006)

Had to reread this one after listening to Camel Club. My previous post (can't remember how to get to the individual post URL). Even though it is less than 3 years since I first read this, I had forgotten a lot of details. Enjoyed it again, especially as I know the characters better. Looks like Annabelle's story gets completed in the next book. May need to reread that too.

Camel Club by David Baldacci (2005)

I recently realized I hadn't read the first of the Baldacci Camel Club books, so I picked this up and was not disappointed. This is where we are introduced to those four great characters - Oliver Stone (not his real name, old CIA operative that has gone into hiding by living as a caretaker of a graveyard in the DC area, but who watches over the government by having an official protest tent near the White House), Caleb (works in the Library of Congress rare book room - love him for obvious reasons), Milton (computer whiz with Tourette syndrome and a girlfriend, neither of which is mentioned in later books), and Reuben (the big strong guy.) Secret Service agent Alex Ford also becomes an honorary member and appears in later books. This is a story of terrorism and major governmental corruption. Some people just believe they are above the law. (This parallels nicely with the Stieg Larrson book I listened to next.)  The Camel Club meets regularily to discuss possible conspiracies, and during one of their meetings on Theodore Roosevelt Island (I've actually been there) they witness a murder.

This was a definitely post 9-11 book, trying to understand the Muslim and terrorist mentality. There were some good passages on why some Muslims felt so desperate, why they were willing to sacrifice their lives. I especially like the female nanny and conversations with her inane employer. The event orchestrated by the conspiracy was very surprising - Baldacci sure knows how to spin a tale. I also found it funny, when they needed to send the Secret Service on a trivial task, they were sent to guard the Latvian delegation.

Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Anne Kidd Taylor (2009)

Subtitle: A Mother-Daughter Story. Since I loved Sue Monk Kidd's A Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid's Tale, I picked this up, which turns out to be a highly introspective non-fiction book by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter. Sue is going through menopause (I can relate) and thinking about writing a novel instead of just non-fiction. Ann has just graduated from college, hasn't been accepted in the Antiquities grad program, and is searching for herself at that stage. They take a series of trips together to Greece and France, both journaling along the way, and then some years later they compiled this mother-daughter story. Very compelling, very my kind of spiritual, and as a bonus we learn about where she got the ideas for A Secret Life of Bees. 

I was listening to this book and often realized that this kind of deep contemplation was not suited to short stints on the road. This is a book I will have to reread by actually holding it in my hands. But I also need to purchase a copy and send it to a friend in Latvia.

Big Wolf & Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme & Oliver Tallec (2009)

Just picked up a colorful children's book off a library cart. Big wolf lives alone under a big tree. A little blue wolf comes along, and big wolf reluctantly shares his space and food. I didn't know where this was going. Then little wolf goes away and big wolf discovers he is lonely. I realized this little book is completely hitting home for me. With my son graduating and leaving home soon, I realize that I will be lonely. Though we both have been looking forward to this change, I think there will also be a lot of emptiness.

The Usborne Book of Castles by Lesley Sims (2002)

So I go through the exhibits at the Medieval Congress at Western Michigan, one of the few things that the university is known for internationally, and do I pick up one of the many wonderful scholarly works on the Middle Ages? No, I pick up a kid's book on castles. One of those complex, highly illustrated kid's books that explains a topic by breaking it down into parts and explaining those parts with some text, lots of drawings, photos, plans, side-bars, etc. This one even offers links off of an internet site for the book for more things to look at, and provides downloadable pictures for kids to put into reports. I liked the illustrations from medieval manuscripts, stained glass and other art of the times.

I am fascinated by castles and cathedrals, these large architectural structures built in an age that seems quite primitive to me, but obviously there were many skilled minds and hands back then. This book looks at castles from the early wood castles to the stone and brick ones, mostly from AD950 to 1500. Castles lost their purpose when warfare and political and social structures changed. Many were abandoned and were dismantled or became ruins. There were a couple of more periods in history where castles were built, including romantic castles of the 19th century. Though we have a lot of mansions still being built today, I don't know if any recent architecture could be considered a castle.

Though I know quite a bit about castles and the  lives within - from the many mostly fiction books I have read (all those fantasy books set in alternate medieval times), movies (Lord of the Rings comes to mind), and castles I have visited, this book pulled things together for me and filled in various gaps.  So here are some of the things I learned: I hadn't thought of the layout of rooms in castles and that in the beginning the living space was not very comfortable, but at some point they started focusing more on comfort. I didn't realize the great hall also functioned as a dorm or that when lords moved from castle to castle, they moved everything including furniture and most of the staff. I don't think I ever thought about what it entailed to feed a whole castle full of people. The hierarchy of people (and even birds of prey they were allowed to use for hunting) was neatly delineated, like steward- bailiff - reeve. I got an explanation of why there is a fence between jousters (so the knight knocked off his horse would not be trampled.) Before tournaments were developed they had melees, a free for all with lots of injuries and deaths. I didn't realize there were different types of horses in those days. I liked that the book mentioned castles in Japan and the Middle East too.

I learned some new terms and the origin of words like heraldry, undermine, holiday, villain. I had somehow missed out on terms like fletchers, who fixed feathers to arrows. (I always wondered where they got so many arrows in movies, like Legolas in Lord of the Rings, when he said he had killed huge numbers.) I didn't know falcons lived in mews.

I kept wondering throughout the book how the castles and life described fit into Latvian history. I was taught about the early wooden castles, and know the Latvian countryside is strewn with castles. The book points to only one in Latvia - Rigas pils (built 1340, rebuilt 1515). This is currently the residence of the president of Latvia. Some of the castles in Latvia are ruins, but others still function. My favorite castle in Cesvaine was built in the 1890's as a hunting lodge, so that fits in with the romantic castles built in a later age. I couldn't resist and just looked up Latvian castles and found a map of medieval castles in Latvia.They had identified 17 standing castles, 52 ruins, and 39 places where castles had stood. I have visited at least 10 of these. I would also like to see a Latvian version of the hierarchies of people. I am not ashamed to admit I like kids books.

Lessons Learned by Nora Roberts (1986)

I haven't read a Nora Roberts in three months. She will have written five more books in this time and reissued ten others. I will never catch up - and I don't really plan to either, this is just fluff between more valuable readings.

This is definitely a 1980's book, where the man character Juliet keeps referring to herself as an 80's woman, bent on making a career, no room for a man in her life, etc. (Also, no cell phones or Internet.) She is a publicist for a publisher and has to take the gorgeous Italian chef Carlo Fanconi around the US on a book tour. Again, a glimpse into two careers - the grueling pace of book tours and a bit about being a chef.  Juliet was a bit whiny for my taste, Carlo too unbelievably perfect - sensitive, romantic, heart of gold, etc. but this is a Silhouette romance which tend to be like this. 

When I grasped the situation - career woman in New York with man deeply rooted in Italy, I was afraid that it would end up like the Trigiani book Brava Valentina, where the author doesn't address the huge geographic distance between the couple. Roberts does acknowledge the issue and plants a few seeds throughout the book, so that it doesn't sound implausible at the end that the couple does find a way to bridge the gap.

The Tsar's Dwarf by Peter H. Fogtdal (2006, trans. 2008)

I met the author at the banquet of the Baltic and Scandinavian studies conference in Seattle. When I found out he was a Danish novelist, I told him I had been reading some Swedish authors and what would he suggest I read from the Danes. Well, he had one of his novels translated into English - this one, and he and his companion suggested a couple more, which I hope to review as soon as I read them. We had all of them in our library.

Fogtdal explained that he was fascinated by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great who he considered a psychopath. One of Peter's eccentricities was that he collected dwarfs, had a special house outfitted for them, and had forced many of them to marry each other. In his author's note Fogtdal explains that he had started a book just about Peter the Great and gotten bogged down, but when he thought of telling the story from the point of view of a dwarf, it all fell into place.

Sorine is gifted by the Danish king Frederick to Peter the Great, when he is visiting Denmark, planning military cooperation. She is saucy and intelligent, but the life of a dwarf is difficult. People constantly are laughing at her and treat dwarves as playthings, tossing them about, expecting them to be entertaining. It is a miracle that some of them found ways to be funny, learned songs and dances, but maybe it was just a mechanism for survival. Sorine (renamed Surinka for the Russians) doesn't believe in a God that would give her this fate.

Surinka gives us a glimpse into history, as she travels from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg, spends time in a monastery, in the Tsar's Curiosity Cabinet (museum including live human specimens), and with a Polish wine merchant's family. I am definitely intrigued enough to want to read more about Peter. I do remember him as one of the fascinating characters from history, who built St. Petersburg on a swamp. He influenced Latvian history too, but I no longer recollect how.

Fogtdal's book felt somehow different from an American novel, like European films feel different from American ones. They seem to show more of life's tragedies, and tend to look deeper into people's souls. Though faced with atrocities, poverty, and humiliation, the spirit of the dwarf makes it through and makes my difficulties in life seem trivial.

Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau (2008)

Somehow I had missed this fourth book of the City of Ember series that my son and I enjoyed so much. Actually, we were very disappointed in the third book, which went back and explained how the underground city of Ember had been created, but this book didn't have half the energy and interesting twists we found in the first two books, so I think we gave up. Then the other day I saw this in the audio book shop and it looked like it picked up where the second book left off - and again it was wonderful.

Lina and Doon are two twelve year olds who discovered the secret of the City of Ember and brought the people out of the city into the devastated, but now recovering world. The people of Ember have settled in the town of Sparks, a long day's walk from the cave where they had lived for quite a few generations. They now have to face the elements of changing seasons, without the luxuries of electricity or running water, and they have to grow their own food - wheras in Ember they mostly survived on canned goods and some greenhouse grown foods.

Life is hard in Sparks and when Doon's father gets injured, and he buys a partial book from a traveling vendor, he starts thinking that it may be useful to return to Ember to see if anything of value could be salvaged, especially food and medicine. This leads to an extended adventure that I think would thrill most middle school readers. They end up finding something else that the elders left for the people of Ember to find and help rebuild their civilization. I love the importance of books and the struggle to prove to others that all those squiggly lines could be of some use in a fairly harsh world. That the knowledge of others can be recorded and used by future generations. I have a few quibbles with the logic of the book - why can't they continue to go back to Ember to salvage various goods and even appliances and technology that have been lost in the outside world, but mostly it works.

Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes (2010)

Set in Dublin, Ireland, read with an Irish accent that took a bit of getting used to, and narrated by this unknown spirit, that floats through walls, sees inside people's hearts and sees when they beat in sync. We get the stories from four flats at 66 Star Street - Katie, the one who just turned 40 and works PR with rock stars and her boyfriend Conall, a brilliant, overly busy business shark that reorganizes bought up companies. Andrei and Jan, two poles working in Ireland, who have rented the small third room to feisty Lydia, who drives a taxi and worries about her aging mother. 88 year old Jemima, who has psychic powers and her foster son Fionn, who has just gotten a job filming a gardening show. And on the lower level, Maeve and Matt, a seemingly perfect young married couple. As their lives intertwine and face various hardships and tragedies, we get to know about their lives, their pasts, their concerns, and they all grow on you.

The narrator is a bit disconcerting, as we are not sure if it is death or some more benevolent spirit. And the countdown of days from 60 something, but it all makes sense in the end. I mostly enjoyed the Irish voice of the book, and I grew to care for all the characters.

Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham (1937)

Given to me by my good friend Sniedze, written by one of my aunt's favorite authors. I think the only other thing I have read by Maugham was Razor's Edge. Since I love theater, I enjoy reading about it too. Julia is an aging actress that is very good at observing people and then bringing those observations to the stage. The only problem is, that she continues various roles in her life off stage and has lost a sense of who she really is. Her husband Michael, turns out to be a better manager than actor and manages the theater. Julia takes on a young lover, but this is all just the outer trappings. Maugham is brilliant in showing us the inner thoughts and lives of these people - mostly Julia. Will have to read more Maugham.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave (2008)

I had a couple of hours to kill in the Minneapolis airport, so I hung out in the bookstore. It was fun seeing how many of the books I had already read, but then there was a knowledgeable sales clerk, who made some recommendations based on what I have liked before. This was one of the books she suggested.

This is an incredibly moving book, though very disconcerting. One more of the world's tragedies is presented. Little Bee is a Nigerian girl who lands in an immigration detention center in England. She looks up the only people she know in England and a relationship ensues. Little Bee is an amazing character. Her home world is in turmoil, with the oil companies destroying villages and the people that live in them. England is not open to asylum seekers. But Little Bee survives, with tenacity and a deep intelligence. She learns English from the papers, though makes some foux pas.

Sarah and Andrew are reporters, he is a serious investigative journalist, she manages a fluff woman's magazine to which she tries to bring some serious articles. They have a son Charlie, who will only answer to Batman and constantly wears a Batman outfit. My child too went through that phase, and I had a black hand towel pinned to a black turtleneck that was one of his favorite thing to wear.

A book to pass on to friends that care about injustice in the world.

The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn (1977)

This was one of the plays that the visiting Latvian actors asked for. Thought I'd read it myself. It is about two elderly people at a nursing home, who play gin and talk a bit about their lives. Slowly you see their personalities uncovered and why they are quite alone in life. I am not sure how this will translate into Latvian - the emotions are real and similar, but there are no nursing homes in Latvia, so the setting and circumstances will have to be altered.

Sidetracked by Henning Mankell (1995, trans. 1999)

This was one of the Swedish authors suggested to me in Sweden for good light reading. He has both been on European best seller lists and gotten literary prizes. The only other book I read was a young adult one. This was a mystery from the Kurt Wallander series, and I will definitely read more of them. Two things I liked right away. First there was a map of the southern tip of Sweden, so one could keep track of the action between the towns there and get a sense of distances and relations. I didn't realize how close Denmark and Sweden are at that point. and that Copenhagen is just a ferry ride away. The other thing that I liked, was that detective Wallander (I don't know his official title) has a Latvian girlfriend named Baiba. I liked the Swedish countryside and small towns - and kept thinking of my visit to Nykoping.

Though in some ways a typical mystery - starting out with seemingly unrelated scenes in the Domnican Republic and an awful suicide by a young girl, and then it moves into the murders. They all seem to be pretty despicable men, but did they deserve to be axed and scalped? Kurt Wallander leads the investigative team. I mostly like the way Wallander thinks. He has some sixth sense that some investigators seem to have, and then a thoroughness and lots of sleepless nights. There was a slightly similar feel in Steig Larrson's books. We also see the murderer's thoughts and actions, and as they slowly are brought together with the murder investigation, I felt a growing sense of horror as I realized what was going on. Very well done.

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (2010)

In general, I liked this book about Valentine, a woman of Italian descent, who inherits the family shop making custom shoes for weddings. She goes to Italy to attend her grandmother's wedding, sad about losing her mentor and friend, slightly embarrassed by the family, in love with one of the Italians. Her grandmother leaves the company to her and her brother, with whom she does not get along, but who is good with finances. I liked the author's delving into relationships. Valentine is still friends with her former boyfriend Bret, and has a great friendship with an old roommate Gabe, who is a bit stereotypically gay - redecorating her apartment, etc., but I think the depiction of the friendship is solid. She also has complex relations with the different family members. Interesting to have a branch of the family in Argentina. What I liked most were some of her reflections on committing to someone completely. I totally could relate - she got so engrossed with what she was doing, so that she forget to call or inform the other person. I also loved June, a free-spirited friend of grandma's that works in the shop. I definitely related to her life style and explanation of relationships.

My quibbles with the book are minor. I would have liked a more in depth explanation of how a shoe is constructed. We got to see some of that in the shoe factory in Buenos Aires, but I would have liked to know more. As I was listening to this in April 2010, I did not like the fact that the story was set in 2010 and went through the end of the year. What if something major like 9-11 happens this year that would affect the whole story line? Why set a book in a specific year anyway? People get that it is a current novel from references like texting on cell phones, etc. And the last gripe I have with the story is that (spoiler alert), when Valentine finally decides she wants to commit to her Italian boyfriend, they never talk about the logistics - both own and run family businesses, so how are they going to manage companies in New York and Italy? Again this reflects on my personal life where a few men have been very important to me, but because of living in different parts of the world, I never considered a serious relationship with them.

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz (2004)

I don't think I have ever read anything by Koontz, though the name is familiar. I picked this book up, because it came up randomly when I was searching for books on life expectancy for a patron. It was definitely engaging. I guess Koontz is known for suspense or even horror fiction, which I tend to avoid (like Stephen King).

On the day Jimmy Tock is born, his grandfather dies first predicting Jimmy's time of birth, length, weight, slight deformity and five perilous dates in his life. At the same time a circus clown loses his wife in childbirth and goes on a killing spree. The most time is spent on the first perilous date. The only thing I didn't understand is why Jimmy left the house on that day at all, but he ends up in the library, where the librarian has been killed and a psychopath and his buddies are preparing to blow up the building. A woman and Jimmy end up being hostages and find they have a lot in common throughout the ordeal.

I don't plan on reading any more Koontz, but this was good. I liked the characters, they were well developed, and I liked the power of family and love. I don't know why I like this kind of suspense less than the Baldacci spy/adventure stories or JD Robb mysteries.

This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson (2010)

Subtitle: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All.

Interesting to read a book about my library world by a non-librarian, but one that obviously got into her subject in a big way - attending our conferences, reading librarian blogs, visiting various libraries and, of course, interviewing librarians. Johnson manages to tackle many of the issues and trends facing the library world today. I know I find the library world an exciting one and I am glad that Johnson has also found the excitement in our field, plus she writes engagingly with entertaining chapter titles:

• The Frontier
• Information Sickness
• On the Ground
• The Blog People - Yes we librarians blog, you are reading one now, and I have a few less populated blogs going out to a limited audience. I just hadn't thought of it as such a phenomenon. There are none that I read on a regular basis, but have run into postings of interest.
• Big Brother and the Holdout Company
• How to Change the World
• To the Ramparts!
• Follow that Tatooed Librarian - I love being part of a profession, where you can be tatooed and respected, even as tatoos become more mainstream. Librarians come in such a huge range from mousy to punk. Most of us are pretty practical, but we have a few clothes horses. I like the younger more edgy librarians.
  
• Wizards of Odd- The author goes and immerses herself into Second Life. I tried- made myself an avatar and tried to learn basic ways of moving around in Second Life, but could't find anything interesting and felt I did not have the time to waste to learn to use this better. I do realize there are a lot of virtual libraries out there, so maybe I should check it out again.
  
• Gotham City- this was one of my favorite chapters, as it tells the story of the New York Public Library, and how the sanctuary on 42nd and 5th Ave has lost its research focus because of the economy. That branch of the NYPL has been a Mecca to me for as long as I have been in librarianship, and I thought it was just the Baltic & Slavic section that was closed down- now it turns out all the heavy research reading rooms have been closed in favor of a more general public library atmosphere. I am afraid to go visit it. The author gave some great of examples of amazing information found and activities held in NYPL over the years.
• What's Worth Saving? - good discussion on what to save, especially in an archival sense
  
• The Best Day
  

Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich (2008)

I just needed a fun read while work and life were being difficult and this Stephanie Plum just hit the spot. There were times I broke out into a big smile while listening to this book, a few times even started laughing. This time Stepahnie is going after Munch, who has stolen some equipment from his lab and is hiding out in the New Jersey Pine Barrons. Instead of just two hunks (Morelli and Ranger who seem to be more in the background) in her life, a third shows up - Diesel. Where does Evanovich come up with these names? The bad guy is Wolf, and there are Ranger, Tank, and Flash too. Lula is her usual outrageous self, but I was glad she was in on just some of the action, because she mostly grates on my nerves. There is always a domestic plot line too. This time Stephanie has to help Morelli get rid of his brother Tony, who has moved in since his wife kicked him out.

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli (2004)

I came upon this young adult book when looking to see what we have on Chinese foot binding. I have never read anything by Napoli, but I saw she had a shelf full of interesting young adult books. This is a Chinese version of the Cindarella tale, where the lovely stepdaughter has naturally small feet, but her stepsister has large feet that the mother is binding to get her a husband. The Cindarella part of the story happens relatively quickly in the last few chapters, but most concentrates on the village life, the disability caused by the bound feet, the relationship between the mother, daughter, stepdaughter and spirits of the dead parents.

I also went and looked at some of the foot binding books we have. I knew the feet were deformed by this process, but when I saw some of the photos of the mis-formed feet with very thick heels and tiny scrunched toes, I was quite revolted. And this was supposed to be the height of eroticism? OK, the little slippers were cute, but for guys to swoon over these small feet, even though if they actually saw or touched these mis-formed feet I don't know how they could be called little lotus flowers. I understood that the women kept some bindings on at all times, so the men didn't see these feet bare. Never mind that the women could barely walk and do their chores, plus were in pain much of the time.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2009)

The second book of the Hunger Games was again wonderful. Since Katniss and Peeta won the last hunger games, they now have to travel around to all the districts and be shown off. By saving Peeta and defying the games' rules, Katniss has become a symbol for rebellion throughout the districts. She now has to continue the pretense she started in the first book of being madly in love with Peeta. He IS in love with her, but she loves Gale. Anyway, Collins keeps spinning this complex alternative future world, that never ceases to amaze me.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (2006)

Couldn't stay away from these quick exciting little books, so this is Book 2 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This time we learn of the various sea-faring myths including ones from the Odyssey. We run into Poseidon, Medusa, the Sirens, Cyclops, Golden Fleece , Circe and more.

I again liked the interplay between today's world and the mythological one - like Harry Potter's world, where the regular humans don't really see the magiv and like in Men in Black, hey are helped to forget things.

I liked Percy's new side-kick Tyson and the waves at sea that formed sea creatures that carried them on part of their adventure.

Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (2010)

I picked this up, because I enjoyed Kostova's Historian, but it took me almost half the book to get into it, and then I was totally enthralled. The Kostova entertwines the lives of her characters, both present and in the past, is intriguing, and I really had no clue why artist Robert Oliver attacked a painting in the National Gallery of Art in the very beginning of the book, until the author explained it at the very end. I was ready to return this audio book, when I stopped by to see my artist friend Sniedze, and realized she had to listen to it too. She loved it. Will wait for the paperback to purchase. I hope I have time to describe this in detail at some point.

Manhunt by Janet Evanovich (1989)

Sorry, one of the worst books I have listened to in a long time. I thought Janet Evanovich was better than this - maybe it is one of her first books. Stephanie Plum isn't the most admirable character, but you get to know her quirks, and she just ends up being incredibly funny. This Alex - the executive who lived in Princeton, worked in lower Manhattan (never explained why she was willing to commute 2 hours each way), who trades an expensive condo for a cabin and hardware store in Alaska sight unseen, just doesn't make any sense. Yes, at times she is strong, and I like the idea of transplanted NY exec to Alaska, but she just ended up being stupid. The guy was OK, but I totally didn't get the old style romance novel games. I am afraid I will Evanovich alone, except for the Plum books.

Silli Mommo: An Ethiopian Tale (2002)

This kid's book just grabbed my attention. Interesting that it is in both English and Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. I used to love fairy tales. This one actually hit home for me, as there is this single mom struggling to raise a boy by herself, but she ends of spoiling him and there is question whether he will be able to function in the grown-up world. This boy does absurd things, like not knowing to put money in his pocket, so Mom says, next time put it in your pocket. The next time he gets milk, which he then pours in his pocket, etc.

When Everything Changed by Gail Collins (2009)

Subtitle: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. This book was the common read for our Gender and Women's Studies Department this spring.
A great, wonderful history that put the whole story together for me in a way I never could have myself. Collins is a New York Times op-ed columnist, and was able to pull up pertinent articles from the NYT for the different phases of the women's movement. She has interviewed major players and fills the book with women's stories - both famous and average - showing the variety of beliefs, approaches, life-styles in each era. It also gave me a good sense of why I think and do things the way I do. A few years make a huge difference. One woman a few years older said she had still grown up expecting to get an Mrs. degree. A lot of the battles were fought before I came of age and I took advantage of the liberties women had gained.

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan (2005)

First in a series about Percy Jackson & the Olympians. A little young, but entertaining fantasy where this kid Percy (full name Perseus) is a half-blood - half human, half god. There's a camp for these half-bloods, because those old Greek and Roman gods are still at it, creating kids with mortals. I remember loving Greek mythology back in middle school, but I have to admit I have forgotten a lot of the gods and their traits, especially the smaller gods. So this is an entertaining lesson in mythology, but with a modern day twist. Percy just has weird things happening around him, not realizing that there are gods and their minions out to get him. I love that Mt. Olympus is on the 600th floor of the Empire State building. Don't know if I'll read more of this series, but it was fun.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy (2009)

I ended up liking this book, though the writing jarred me in the beginning. It is obviously a love letter to Charleston, South Carolina, a term I found others have used too.

To get the jarring things out of the way. Conroy made a statement at the very beginning of the book that made me think things were going to go a lot worse than they did, and I kept being surprised that many things went well: "If I knew then what I have come to learn, I would never have made a batch of cookies for the new family across the street, never uttered a single word to the orphans, and never introduced myself to the two students who were kicked out of Porter-Gaud School and quickly enrolled at my own Peninsula High for their senior year." After finishing the book, I still don't know what the narrator Leo meant by this sentence. The people he met on that one day became his best friends for life. Sure there were problems, and tragedies, but these kids bonded within months of that first day of meeting and went through thick and thin throughout their lives.

I was looking for some examples of the overly creative writing that distracted me unpleasantly from the flow of the story. In the very beginning he writes: "I carry the delicate porcelain beauty of Charleston like the hinged shell of some soft-tissuedmollusk. My soul is peninsula-shaped and sun-hardened and river-swollen." Now that I have read the book, those sentences actually make sense (e.g. Charleston is on a peninsula), but in the beginning I just thought "what the ?" Here's another sentence that just seemed too much: "She could freeze me with a gaze that made the dead of winter seem like the best time for planting."

Otherwise, it was a story of a group of kids that were misfits each in their own way, but grew to be tight friends, a friendship that has lasted for years and lets them live through some difficult times together. Leo the narrator writes for a newspaper. One is a movie star, one a musician, one becomes the first black chief of police, his wife also on the force, one a lawyer. The guys all played football together. Three were rich kids that landed in public school for indiscretions. Three sets of brother and sister. Eight of the friends intermarry and stay in Charleston, one of the brother-sister teams goes off to California, but ends up coming home, at least for a while. Bottom line - pretty good book, not one I am going to gift further.

Night Tales by Nora Roberts (2010)

I forget that the short Silhouette books are just not as good. These two reprints are more along the lines of JD Robb, with much more murder mystery or cop thriller in them. These are also tied, about two sisters Cilla and Deb, whose parents are killed when they are young - mom a cop, dad was just there at the wrong time. They both fall in love with these macho cop type guys, who also happen to be rich.

Night Shift (1990)
One of these days I will have to make a spreadsheet of all of the professions of Nora Roberts' heroines, because she does cover quite a range, and gives some insight into the job of each. Cilla is a radio DJ in 'denver into rock and roll, also putting her little sister through college. Cilla starts getting threatening phone calls during her call-in radio hour, and is assigned Boyd, a laid-back cowboy of a cop. Cilla has a sexy voice and is better at relating to people over the airwaves that face to face. I liked that Cilla smokes and Boyd has just kicked the habit. I like that Roberts addresses the fact that some people have lousy first experiences with love making and don't know how to enjoy it until someone teaches them otherwise. All in all, this one was OK, though I wasn't quite looking for the creepy stalker piece and I don't see why Boyd had to inherit wealth from a grandmother and be from an extremely rich family.

Night Shadow (1991)
Deborah is the little sister that has gotten her law degree and is now a D.A. in Urbana, which I am assuming is the one in Illinois, though there was very little other descriptive stuff to place the town. OK, so Deb is brilliant and gorgeous, but also amazingly stupid. I understand people wanting to take walks in the night, but apparently she is taking them in unsafe neighborhoods and going after bad guys without telling anyone where she is going. I don't care how confident a woman is, this is just plain stupid. And it is not like she is a great karate expert or carrying a weapon she knows how to use. OK, so she is going after bad guys, and her witnesses get killed, and she is following leads, and when she gets in a pickle in the middle of the night she is saved by Nemesis- a masked stranger, who is the town's vigilante. She also meets rich guy Gage, who takes an interest in her. You know the story - they work together to find the bad guys and fall in love in the process with a few bumps along the way. But this story did bother me. First of all, Nemesis has a magical aspect to him - he can disappear. In this otherwise logical world, not only does his body disappear, but this power extends to the clothes he is wearing, which seems too much for me. Then this Gage guy is extremely rich again, and the explanation on his wealth doesn't sit well with me. He is orphaned, raised by aunt and uncle, he chooses to be a cop, he and his buddy go undercover, his buddy is killed and he gets seriously injured and is a coma for quite a while. When he wakes up and rehabs, he finds he can disappear (weird, but OK), and that his aunt and uncle have died and left him quite a bit of money. Then in four years he multiplies that wealth many times over, buys up half the town, lives in incredible, tastefully decorated house, learns Roarke style computer skills, and searches for the real man behind the drug deals and his partner's killer. Sorry, too much there for me. Also, when Eve Dallas and Roarke use computers to find something, there is some explanation on what they are looking for. I could not follow the logic of what Gage and Deb were searching for to solve their mystery.

Enough griping. It was a needed break between work and Latvian stuff.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (2007)

A gift from Maria on my birthday, this brought up a very disturbing idea. What if we could "unwind" the kids that we didn't like? If they didn't behave or live up to our expectations, a family could choose to "unwind" a child before their 17th birthday. Not killing them, but using their body parts for others that were ill or had lost a limb or organ. So three kids that are ready to be unwound find themselves running away and find a place for similar youngsters. At times creepy, but some unique ideas being floated.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (2009)

Great stories reflecting Bengali immigrant life in the Boston area. If you switched out the food and customs, you could almost be talking about Latvian Americans. Lahiri has a beautiful style, though all her stories end quite sadly. There is a Latvian term "saldserigs" meaning sweet and melancholy at the same time.

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin (2009)

The third book in this wonderful series of 12th century England where the Bones of that period - Adelia Aguilar, Mistress of the Art of Death - solves another mystery. She is brought in to identify a pair of bones thought to be King Arthur and Guinevere at the abbey in Glastonbury, which has recently burned down (she solves that one too.) Her friend Elen (?) disappears, so she has to save her too. What I liked best about this book was the description of the evolution of the legal system in England, imposed by Henry II. We see the old system, where disputes were settled by fights between champions from both sides. But in the new system involves trials, juries and traveling judges. I also was intrigued by the way they kept the lower classes in check by having each assigned to a cohort of 10 or 12. If any one of them does something unlawful, they all get punished, thus they keep each other in line. Adelia runs into one cohort whose member supposedly burned down the abbey, but makes friends with them.