Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell (2017)

The 2018 Caldecott Medal winner was just one of those 5 minute reads that makes you say "Awwwwwwww." A little girl gets lost in the snow and finds a wolf puppy. She returns him to his mother and the wolf pack helps her family find her in return. Just a delightful picture book.

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy (2012)

This was a reread. I go to a branch library almost every Monday to help a refugee girl with her homework, and since I just renewed my public library card, I realized I could start checking out books. I remembered I liked Binchy and this just jumped out at me, though it looked familiar. Sure enough, I read it only five years ago - http://mairasbooks.blogspot.com/2013/07/ (Thus the need for this blog.) I enjoyed it anyway, seems like I am reading a lot set on the British Isles.

I won't repeat the story, it is in the previous post, but I did not remember that Chicky Starr actually spent time in the U.S. and earned enough money to do something with the Stone House when given the chance. I enjoyed the Swedish accountant more this time - who was expected to take over his father's accounting firm, but it took coming to Ireland to realize that really is not what he wants to do. Definitely time for more - life is not easy, but when working together and following you heart, it can be good - Binchy books.

A Rather Remarkable Homecoming by C.A. Belmond (2011)

Well, it looks like this is the last one, as this is already seven years old, though it ends on the potential of another case to come. I could have kept reading these gentle mysteries where historical artifacts that I know little about play an important role in our charming couple's adventures. I was so happy with the last book that I tried to get this on my list for audio books, but my store did not have it, so I had to renew my long unused local public library card and check it out there. Read it over Thanksgiving weekend, so a few chores did not get done.

Penny and Jeremy got married in the last book and promised to not take on any cases involving family members, but when H.R.H. asks them to look into Penny's grandmother's cottage in Cornwall (I had to look it up and now know where it is), they could not resist. It was the place they met as children and both have fond memories of this house on the cliffs overlooking the sea. (I just recently finished the Library at the Edge of the World, which is on the coast of Ireland, but faced similar developer issues.) A historical society had tried maintaining the house, and should have first dibs on purchasing it, but developers have convinced the council that the cottage should be torn down and developed into a huge resort for tourists, so they have made life hard for the historical society. They turn to Penny and Jeremy to find some reason not to overdevelop the place. For a while they think Shakespeare might have lived there for a while, as no one knows where he was for certain years. I loved following Penny in her research through archives and old records, though some fell into her hands way too easily. When that didn't pan out, they followed other leads that took them to Madeira and a few other interesting places, but mostly they explored Cornwall, with its rich history. (I had to look up Madeira - had hear of the wine, but not of the island way off the coast of Morocco, but belonging to Portugal. Not exactly for my main bucket list, but if my health and money hold out, this would not be a bad place to check out.) In the process of saving the cottage, and the livelihoods and lifestyles of many of the townsfolk, they discover a notes from Great-Aunt Penelope's childhood that reflect her adventurous spirit even back then, and rescue Simon Thorne, a friend of Aunt Penelope we met in the first book, from a squalid nursing home. Rollo gets kidnapped while helping them, but all turns out well for everyone, except the bad guys. As a friend said, must be getting sentimental as we age.

A Rather Charming Invitation by C.A. Belmond (2010)

Another enjoyable Penny Nichols story. They are getting ready for their wedding and there are factions of Jeremy's family - his grandmother - and Penny's French side of the family vying for their attention and wanting to control the wedding. The French family offers a tapestry of a wedding for the ceremony and that sets off a hunt into the past of both the family and French royalty. So Penny's historical knowledge and sleuthing come into play again. We see some of the family members from the previous books and are introduced to new ones. I liked Honorine, who wants to get away from her family and the perfume business, so she knocks on Penny and Jeremy's door in London and ends up being their assistant for a while. When she goes on to her own life at the end of the book, I realize how much they need an assistant. Looks like there is one more book in this series.

The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (2017)

Obviously I chose this book because it was about libraries. This is about Hanna, whose marriage in London did not work out and she returns back home to Crossarra and works as a librarian in Lissbeg. These are small towns on the fictional Finfarran Peninsula, though there are plenty of peninsula's on the western coast of Ireland, with names very similar to the ones mentioned in the book. I of course like any librarian, especially those that work with under-served populations, so I love reading about her weekly trips into the countryside with her mobile library van. Unfortunately she seems not to have heard the current day library conversation about libraries being more than sources of books, but become community centers. I have seen that in my travels across the country. Her enthusiastic assistant Conor seems to realize this instinctively.

The story is about the usual developers wanting to develop a beautiful area to line their own pockets, but don't think about population it will affect. In helping her community unite to fight the developers, Hanna finds her own center and where she belongs. Her mother Mary Casey in her neon pink bungalow drives her nuts. Her daughter Jazz comes home occasionally and that is good while it lasts. Her ex-husband Malcolm still upsets her. One thing that helps is an old cabin left to her by aunt Maggie and Fury, the builder with his dog Divil, who helps her restore it. Conor and his friends, Sister Michael, Brian from the planning office - all help.

Maybe worth looking up some more books by Feliciey Hayes-McCoy.

My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer (2008)

Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War (Bloody Jack Adventures Book 6)

Another fun series of adventures in the life of Jacky Faber. This time she supposedly gets beheaded by the French, but is actually forced to be a spy, first as a dancer who entertains gentlemen, which leads her to be a messenger in the French army, where she follows Napoleon to a great battle in the east. She again shows her smarts and leadership talent and I get a glimpse into the workings of moving a huge army over long distances. The logistics of feeding, clothing, housing and entertaining armies has fascinated me for a long time, and this was a great description. Jacky's motley crew of farm boys joining the army was an interesting example. The set of skills she learns in each adventure come in handy in the next - like her riding a horse skills were useful here. Though staying technically true to Jaimey - and it is a constant challenge to maintain her maidenhood in these times and in the roles she ends up playing - she always finds someone to be sweet on and who comes to her rescue when needed.

A Rather Curious Engagement by C.A. Belmond (2008)

I like these cozy mysteries. Penny Nichols and Jeremy continue to get to know each other and try to figure out how to spend their newly acquired inheritance. They are advised to do one splurge for themselves, and this leads to a purchase of a boat that leads to their first engagement as amateur sleuths for finding stolen art. This time it was a specific aquamanile, something I had never heard of, though I may have seen some in museums. They are jug-type vessels in the form of an animal or human usually used for water for washing hands. Anyway, interesting romp through southern France, Corsica, Italy, and England. I had to look up Lake Como and realized it was close to Lake Lugano of Rainis and Aspazija fame. Again, I like the research being done in libraries and archives, following family trees. Just fun.

The Other Woman by Daniel Silva (2018)

I do not tire of these Gabriel Allon books. I was taking a long drive with an artist friend and was hoping there was something about art in this one, but this time the mentions of art were brief. This book was set in today's world, with all the weirdness that surrounds that and the influence of Russia again at the forefront. This time we learn more about the historic double agent Kim Philby who worked for British intelligence, but was actually working for the Soviets. Of course Allon is there to unearth another double agent, which seemingly would not affect Israel, but it all starts out with the murder of an agent that was finding it was time to quit, and the Israeli's went to pick him up in Vienna, where he was killed by a Russian. So Allon, even though he is head of Israeli intelligence, goes looking for the culprit.

At one point we jumped to an old woman in a village on a crag in Spain, and my friend was going - What! Did I miss something? - I just had to calm her and say, there will be lots of pieces to this story, but they will all come together eventually. And of course, they did.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (2010)

This Inspector Armand Gamache novel has three stories going at once.We start out with a tense moment, when Gamache leads his team into a dangerous situation, hopefully to rescue a hostage. We quickly understand that this did not go well and that Gamache has gone off to heal and recuperate in Quebec with his old mentor and Jean Guy Beauvior gets sent off to Three Pines, supposedly to also recuperate, though he is not fond of the town. This novel follows The Brutal Telling, where Olivier gets convicted of murdering a hermit in the woods. Olivier's partner Gabri keeps sending Gamache notes asking "Why did he move the body?" Gamache keeps mulling it over an finally sends Beauvior out to Three Pines to look into it - unofficially. So Three Pines gets barely a third of the story, but we still get to see our favorite characters, and it is interesting to see the effect Three Pines has on Beauvior. We also see that the health spa seems to be doing well.

Most of the book centers around Gamache in Quebec. He is doing research in the English Literary and Historical Society library (the Lit & Hiss for short), when a body is found in their basement, the body of a fanatic, looking for the bones of the founder of Quebec - Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635). It took me a while to realize they were talking about Champlain, as in the audio book the pronunciation in French is quite different than English and didn't get it until they mentioned the lake in Vermont. It was interesting to hear a bit about Canada's history, a topic I am sorry to say I know nothing about. Gamache is fascinated with some battle that was won by the British. Anyway, Gamache gets pulled into the investigation of this murder and we learn about the uncomfortable relations between the English speaking community and the French. Of course I loved the fact that much of the action was happening in a library and that clues were looked for in old books.

The third and more horrifying story gets woven between these other two, as Gamache and Beauvior remember the events that led up to their getting injured, and not just physically. Gamache keeps hearing Paul Moran's voice, as he was responsible for keeping him talking for hours, as there was some bomb set up to go off if the conversation stopped. Gamache is racked with guilt that he made mistakes, though as the story unfolds, it seems he still was the hero and did all he could in spite of being thwarted by a superior officer, avoiding a major catastrophe, far beyond the lives of a few good officers.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (2008)

Another wonderful Inspector Gamache mystery. This time, we have Madeline die of fright in a seance at the awful Hadley house. The theme of this book is close friendship and envy, which gets played out by various couples in various ways.

(Obviously I did not have time to finish this review, but I do want all my Louise Penny books in the blog, though I read this back in the summer of 2016.

The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg (2017)

This was sent to me by my audio book store as a bonus, and I am always up for a strong female character. I read some Sherlock Holmes in my day, and though his deductive reasoning was fascinating, I found the books plodding and preferred Agatha Christie back in the day when there were so many fewer choices. This book takes on the same plodding style and I almost gave up on it, but was in the car a bit this past weekend and got through it. 

I am going to cheat and just copy the plot line from Amazon, just so I remember it: "... a new thrilling tale of the great detective's daughter and her companion Dr. John Watson, Jr. as they investigate a murder at the highest levels of British society. Set in 1914, Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely-tuned brain. But when she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic skills, they invite her to become the third member of their investigative team."

Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer (2007)

Fifth delightful book in the Bloody Jack series. Our dear Jacky Faber is taken by the British at the end of the last book, as she returns a hero with the all of her classmates back to Boston after being kidnapped. Her classmates try to save her, but it is actually Higgins who saves her by engaging his actor friends to run a scam. Realizing she can't stay in Boston, she heads west with Higgins and Jim Tanner (she picked him up in Boston, a street kid, that she hired to mind her boat). The head to the Allegheny, where she has heard it runs into the Mississippi and down to New Orleans.

They are first joined by Katy, one of the servant girls at the school that was from a farm in Ohio, but just did not belong in the city and was heading west herself. Along the way they run into Mike Fink, a huge, tall tale telling, obnoxious drunk on a flatboat, but he does know the rivers. They steal his boat, pick up Clementine, Crow Jane, a Native American woman as cook, the Hawkes boys as crew, Yancy Cantrell (card shark) and his "slave"Chloe, Lightfoot and Chee-a-Quat, Reverand Clawson, Daniel, the Honeys, Solomon. You get the gist. Some start out as paying customers and then end up as part of Jacky's band. Others they rescue from nasty fathers, river pirates, and Solomon is a runaway slave. They spruce up the flatboat - Belle of the Golden West, make it a traveling entertainment boat. They arm it with small cannons that Jacky know how to use, as it is dangerous territory and those come in handy more than once.

So here we get a good history lesson on the life along the rivers of the US in 1806. The travel along the Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi. They stop off in towns that are major cities now - Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, etc. I was surprised to recognize all the street names in New Orleans, so the French Quarter really is the old part of town. Slavery continues to be an issue that varies from state to state, individual to individual.

A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C.A. Belmond (2007)

 A pleasant book about New Yorker Penny Nichols, a historical researcher (my kind of person) for movies finds out she has inherited something from her Aunt Penelope - an apartment in London and a garage with its contents next to a villa in southern France. But she has to do quite a bit of research to figure out what she really has inherited. She is helped along by cousin Jeremy, a lawyer, with whom she got along with quite well in a childhood summer holiday. Looks like they are still getting along... Of course they have the nasty ne'er do wells in the family who want to take away their inheritances, but it all works out in the end. Lovely romp through England, France and Italy.

Looks like there are more of these "Rather" books and it looks like they will continue with Penny and Jeremy, so I have another series to look forward to.

In the Belly of the Bloodhoutnd by L.A. Meyer (2006)

In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber

Jacky escapes from the Battle of Trafalgar, and as she is wanted by the British, she heads back to Boston to hide in the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls until things cool down. She finds that her friend Amy does not hate her, that Jaimy still loves her and all seems to settle down until the girls are taken on a school excursion to an island, but end up being kidnapped to be sold as slaves to African sheiks. I would say I learned less about history from this one, but it was a great psychological book on how this diverse group of girls that are used to having servants come together under Jacky's leadership to survive the voyage in the slave ship Bloodhound. They learn to work together and come up with some ingenious ways to keep their minds busy, spirits up, make their life on the ship tolerable, and even hatch escape plans. Many of them are made to reflect on what they think of slavery and the role of women in the early 19th century society. As Jacky thinks to herself at the end - those girls will go home much changed.

Four down, eight to go.

End Game by David Baldacci (2017)

These books keep me awake on the road and though the number of bodies at the end is horrendous, I still enjoy them. This time, Will Robie's and Jessica Reel's boss Blueman goes missing while on vacation in Colorado, so they go to investigate and find gun toting Coloradans with numerous cult like groups hiding away in the desolate plains of eastern Colorado.

As usual, we have an interesting cast of characters - Sheriff Malloy, who has come out from New York to be near her sister Holly who has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Then there is deputy Bender, who's mother Clare used to go out with Blueman and now runs a legal medical marijuana business. His sister Patty is one of the gun toting ones. Then there are the various cults - the skinheads, run by a guy named Dolf, another group run by King, and some other group that we don't really see. We also have a rich guy Lambert, who has catered to the rich survivalists and built luxury doomsday apartments in a decommissioned missile silo. Robie and Reel come into this chaotic world and try to make sense of it, getting almost killed at least a dozen times, but leaving a lot of dead bodies in their wake. They also seemed to have a thing going between the at the end of the last book, but that seems to have fallen apart. They do seem made for each other.

A Day in the Life or Marlon Bando by (2018)

I don't think I have ever just bought a book for political reasons, but when I heard John Oliver advertise this, I just had to go and order it. Of course it was sold out, so it took a while to get it. Cute and funny, VP Mike Pence's bunny falls in love with another male bunny and goes hopping off together with him. Wonderful. There is even a Wikipedia article out there explaining that this is a parody of a book written by Pence's daughter and wife - A Day in the Life of  the Vice President.

Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer (2005)

Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber

I can't get enough of those books so wonderfully read by Katherine Kellgren. I just don't have time to describe them all.

From Amazon: "After leaving the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston—under dire circumstances, of course—Jacky Faber boards a whaling ship bound for London, where she hopes to find her beloved Jaimy. But things don’t go as planned, and soon Jacky is off on a wild misadventure at sea."

Jacky is again her spunky self and ends up running a ship or two - and gets promoted to lieutenant (pronounced "leftenant" in the book). I liked that she got back to London and reconnected with some of her old mates from the streets and puts her gains to good use by setting up an orphanage. I think that I learned more about the actual running of a ship from this one - especially how they were used in war, how they had do prepare the canons. We've all seen pictures or movies of smoking canons on ships, but it is a lot of hard coordinated work, and then the possibility of major destruction and sinking of another ship - or your own. At the end of the book Jacky ends up in the Battle of Trafalgar, a real naval battle between the British and a combination of French and Spanish on October 21, 1805. And though this young girl is courageous and strong and talented, all the destruction does affect her, and she does have nightmares throughout these books.

Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (2009)

There are certain series of books I never tire of or feel I need a rest from a character or story line. Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries in supposedly peaceful Three Pines is one of those that grabs my interest, but at the same time I just love hanging out with all the townsfolk and Gamache's team - well there is one I highly dislike, but I can put up with him.

We have another murder. For a quiet town, there sure are a lot of murders. This body lands on the floor of the beloved bistro owner, Olivier. We have a new couple that has moved into the cursed house on the hill with mother-in-law. We get a bit of a side story about them and the wife getting horses up there. We find that the murdered man was living in a cottage behind the cursed house deep in the woods. Turns out he was East European (I no longer have the book, so can't easily check back on the exact country) and that community is questioned. Olivier's past is covered. I always wondered how he could afford to offer such amazing food in a small town. Then there are all these clues around the name Charlotte. One leads Gamache to go visit a first nations village in Western Canada and follow the work of an artist that was influenced by the native art. And of course there is Ruth, the crude poet and her duck, Clara and Peter, as Peter starts envying the success of his wife - I liked how that one turned out. 

I agree with other comments on Amazon about this book, that it is darker than the others, but at the same time there is still a lot of kindness behind it. I keep running into that word - kindness. Something we need much more of in these times.

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (2017)

Some Stories,

I like Tom Hanks and was delighted to find that he was reading his own book in the audio version. I took me a while, but I started realizing there was an old typewriter in many of the stories so I was assuming Hanks has a thing for old typewriters and then I looked at the title of the book - Uncommon Type - and said "Oh" to myself. I no longer have the book, so guessing at some of the typewriter mentions.

Three Exhausting Weeks - we get introduced to some characters that appear in a couple other stories. Two good friends since high school try dating each other. Not sure where the typewriter came in, maybe as this was sorta being typed up by the narrator.

Christmas Eve 1953 - touching story of a man coming home to his family for Christmas eve and getting an annual phone call from a war buddy.

A Junket in the City of Light - A young actor has a hectic press tour as he plays the love interest of a famous star. He'd get a typed (crazy) itinerary every day.

Our Town Today with Hank Fiset - An Elephant in the Pressroom - The elephant in the room is a huge bolted typewriter used by a classical reporter that even lifted up, so he could continue editing on the desk underneath.

Welcome to Mars - this was a disfunctional father - son story, where the son agrees to go surfing with his dad for his 19th birthday, but it all goes wrong. 

A Month on Greene Street - a single woman and her kids move to Greene Street. She is weary of the single male neighbor, who makes his own telescopes and show the neighborhood kids wonders in the sky. He also has things like old typewriters in his garage.

Alan Bean Plus Four - our original cast from the first story figure out a way to orbit the moon - each has his specialty.

Our Town Today with Hank Fiset - At Loose in the Big Apple

Who's Who?

A Special Weekend

These Are the Meditations of My Heart - this was the one story that was completely focused on an old typewriter. A woman buys an old typewriter for $5 but it needs some repair and finds a repair shop that really understands the beauty of manual typewriters, so that she can eventually start writing her "meditations of her heart."

Our Town Today with Hank Fiset - Back From Back in Time

The Past Is Important to Us

Go See Costas - an immigrant story where a Bulgarian gets a job on a ship to cross to America and how he starts making his way. In this story the wife of one of the people that helps our our immigrant is learning to type from a record, so that sound in the background adds an interesting texture to the story.

Our Town Today with Hank Fiset - Your Evangelista Esperanza - a woman sits in a cafe of today with a small portable manual typewriter and types things up for people when they want something that is one of a kind.

Steve Wong is Perfect - we return to the characters from the first story. The narrator, Anna, M-Dash and Steve Wong, who turns out to be a great bowler. I think the only typewriter appears when the narrator helps him find his special bowling ball behind an old typewriter in a closet.

Stay With Us - this is written like a movie script with fade ins and outs. FXR is a rich guy who wants to buy up and develop some forsaken part of the country. He is charmed by the old couple running the Olympia motel that asks us to "Stay with us." I think the only typing in this story is the clicking of the assistant's phone as she texts.

Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva (2011)

Silva manages to capture the issues of the times, so I had to figure out when he had written this, as the situation was a bit different than today, plus Gabriel Allon and Chiara don't not have the twins yet. This was published in 2011 and I am not sure how Obamaish the US president is supposed to be. It will be interesting to see what Silva does with the current political climate.

The global story in Portrait of a Spy - Islamic terrorism - where suicide bombers blow up people in large European cities. (Unfortunately there seems to be a wave of this again.) The spy agencies of England, US and Israel work together on this one to find a charismatic Islamic leader that was born in the U.S. and his network. Their plot is to convince a rich Saudi Arabian woman - Nadia - raised mostly in the West, who's father was killed for his terrorist activities, but who is trying to help Islamic women, to donate large sums, so the spies can follow the money and destroy the terrorist network.

The art - a Titian thought originally to be by the studio of another, that Allon restores and it is used to transfer an enormous sum. Plus Nadia and her father were art collectors, and the "portrait of a spy" plays a pivotal role at the very end of the book, helping Allon get back to life.

The setting - Cornwall (Gabriel & Chiara's retirement cottage on the sea), London (Gabriel tries to stop a bombing), to Paris, Washington, Spain, Switzerland and the Saudi dessert. From Silva's website: "this deeply entertaining story is also a breathtaking portrait of courage in the face of unspeakable evil." Agreed.

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (2014)

I don't remember if I ever rated books on how much they made me cry, but that used to be a criteria for movies. This book made me cry more than once, so it got me to empathize. This book brings together something from Barkskins, a novel of the deforestation of America and the last book I listened to - Love and Other Consolation Prizes, about Seattle in the early 20th century.

The main character is Trevor, the bright 14 year old great, great grandson of Elija Riddell, a timber baron. Trevor and his father Jones return to the family home in North Estate outside Seattle, after Jones goes bankrupt and his wife, Trevors mom, goes to spend a summer with her parents in England.

The majestic wood house is haunted, full of tragic lives and secret rooms and stairways. Trevor gets attuned to the house quickly and it starts sharing its secrets with him as he starts piecing together the family history. Elijah is the timber baron who has a son Ben, who convinces Elijah that he has done a lot of harm to nature and people, so he protects the old great forest around the estate from at least the next generation. Ben dies young without heirs, but his brother Abraham comes to live there and squanders away most of the fortune. He has a son Sam, who continues to protect the forest, marries a dancer Isabelle, and has two children - Jones and Serena. Sam's life turns tragic when Isabelle dies when Serena is only 11 and Jones is 16. Sam sends Jones away and Serena is left taking care of her father.

So many years later Jones returns, Serena is still taking care of Sam, now demented, and she hopes that she and Jones can develop the land to get financially stable. But the spirits of the past turn to Trevor to save the forest and their legacy.

I really liked the Trevor character, his brilliance (I was pretty bright at his age too, wonder what happened), curious, brave, but understands his own lack of life experience. Do I believe in spirits? Sorta. I'd like to think that if I encountered powerful spirits like these, I would be open enough to hear them.

A bit of history, but more of a family connections and tragedies through generations. I liked the supposed phrase from Muir - "My peace I give unto you." A brief search did not turn it up, but at least I can go take a look at Muir's book The Mountains of California.

Radio Free Vermont by Bill McKibben (2017)

Subtitle: A Fable of Resistance.
First Trump era novel I have read and just loved that radio personality Vern Braclay decides to incite Vermonters to secede from the United States to keep things small, local, environmentally sound and not be overrun by huge corporations and many of the negative trends we see in the US today. As I have good friends living in Vermont and I try to visit them every so often, I totally get the sentiment. When checking lists on how states are doing, I am always proud of Vermonters being at the forefront of those issues that are important to me.

Since all the radio stations have been taken over by corporate interests, there are none that still speak to local news and needs, so Vern has set up Radio Free Vermont - "underground, underpowered and underfoot." He has found a way to broadcast with the help of computer wiz Perry and create disruptions here and there, like taking over a Starbucks sound system and remind people to visit locally owned coffee shops. Another stunt pulled off by Sylvia, they reroute a beer truck, pour out all the out of state beer and replace it with local beer. She  runs classes for those moving to Vermont on how to be a Vermonter. I loved the last class we see her run. She has them sit on uncomfortable folding chairs, as that is how town meetings are held every year the first Tuesday in March -where locals gather to discuss the needs and budgets and issues for their community for the upcoming year. She tells them to sit and be quiet in the first few, as they may learn to adapt to the Vermont way of thinking instead of them trying to change Vermonters. Later they are joined by Trance Harper, an Olympic gold medalist in the biathlon. Loved it.

Curse of the Blue Tatoo by L.A. Meyer (2004)

We return to the delightful adventures of Jacky Gaber, who has been set ashore in Boston by her shipmates once they discovered she is a girl, and deposited in the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls, run by headmistress Pimm. Obviously she doesn't fit in and her only friend is Amy, though she gets along with the staff. Her nemesis is Clarissa, the daughter of a Virginia slave owner. Jacky is constantly trying to write letters to her true love Jamie and he to her, but they keep being intercepted. Jacky can't resist playing music and gets in plenty of trouble for it, though for a while she strikes up a partnership with a drunk, but good fiddle player Gully. She makes friends - and enemies - all over town, helping people out in her unusual way. she also picks up a whole new set of skills - horseback riding, cooking, cleaning, plus she learns french and more music at the school, so all in all, becoming more well rounded.

I found out these are classified young adult as well as historical fiction, but they are great on the detail. I got a real sense of early Boston, what a girls school was all about (including how the men who married these educated ladies thought about it and them), the class system, the gender system, bars, ports, legal systems in those day. Lots of colorful characters made this a delight once again.

First Family by David Baldacci (2009)

Seemed appropriate to read about the first family now that we are so focused on the current administration. 12 year old Willa gets kidnapped, her mother killed and the First Lady asks Sean King to investigate on his own, even though the FBI and other agencies are already involved. He and Michelle Maxwell floow various leads and end up in Alabama, where Sam Quarry has been brooding on the tragedies that have befallen his family. How are these connected? We really only find out in the end. Sam Quarry is an interesting "bad guy" with a lot of good traits. He supports and saves numerous people along the way - Fred - the Native American living on his land, Gabriel and his mom, whom he took in to his house. He even saves Willa in a way.

Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett (2014)

One of the biggies I read this year and didn't have time to enter my reaction. I just found some vague notes I started so they will have to do. But I needed to check on the names before I could publish this.

This is the third of Follett's Century Trilogy, this time covering the Cold War, an era I lived through myself, but maybe did not always understand. I have always liked the fact that Follett set engaging characters in the U.S., Germany, England and Russia, giving us the different angles to the story, the world events.

In the U.S. we have George Jakes, a black lawyer that went to Harvard who ends up working for Bobby Kennedy. He like Verena, who also goes to Harvard and works for Martin Luther King. Hugo works for J Edgar Hoover. Larry back from the army and atrocities in Nam. Cameraon Dewar is conservative and works for Nixon, eventually becoming a CIA agent in Poland.

In Germany, Maud and her family end up in East Berlin. Rebecca, her granddaughter, marries Hans, who turns out to be Stasi. When she finds out, they divorce and she falls for Bernd, her boss in school. Walli, her brother, is a musician who escapes to West Germany, leaving Karolin, his love, behind. Lili is his sister, Carla & Werner are the parents.

In England we have Dave Williams, whose father is Lloyd Williams, MP and mother is Daisy Peshkov from the US. Dave who becomes a pop star with his cousin Walli. 

In Russia we have Dinka Dvorkin, who works for Khrushchev. His sister Tonya works for a newspaper and printed samizdat publications.

I vaguely remember Kennedy facing off with Khrushchev. The Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis is well depicted. I remember when we were taught to hide under our desks in class and had bomb drills in school. There was a tense moment when everyone was waiting whether the world (or at least major cities) would be blown up on both sides of the Atlantic. Thank goodness they did not.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz (2017)

I don't know why Lizabeth Salendar and Michael Blomquist are such appealing characters, but they are and though they too are fighting some incredible evil, it never gets as dark as in some of the other Scandinavian authored books. I thought Lagercrantz was only going to follow Steig Larrson's series for one more books, which is why I was happy to see this.

Salendar is in jail from the last adventure - not for long, but still. The resident bully can't quite figure her out, but does make life miserable for a young Muslim woman, who is in for killing her brother. Salander steps in and chaos ensues. 

Blomquist spends time researching Leo ??? per Salendar's request and finds the remnants of a scientific experiment on twins turned evil and some of those responsible for Lizabeth's life traumas. The author references the Minnesota twin studies just to give this a sense of possibility. Blomquist speaks with enough of the players from the experiment to start getting the picture and one of the players is bent on eliminating anyone who would shed light on the past.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (2015)

Subtitle: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Parts of my house are very cluttered, and I hope to move to smaller quarters in a few years when I retire, so I need some help. This sounded interesting and though there are cultural differences between Japan and the U.S., there was a lot to learn from Marie Kondo. The main difference was the size of our houses, though the same principles apply. I did not hear her mention basements, garages and attics. We always collect memorabilia of our lives and there is something cool about finding grandma's wedding dress, etc.

Her system is simple in its basics - throw things out, then organize. She has a set order for doing this - clothing, books, papers, stuff (she had another name), and then memorabilia like photos. The throwing out part is pulling together everything of one type of thing, then handling each item and asking yourself it it gives you joy. I really think I could do this with my clothing. Then she has an interesting folding technique where most clothes are folded and stored upright in drawers. Handling you clothing and other things with care and appreciation makes them look better.

I do have an issue with her approach to books and papers. She did mention that there might be an exception for academics, but for most normal people, they should just keep a few books that give them information (like cookbooks) and joy. Her approach to papers was to throw them all out, except for a small folder of important warranties, etc.

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson (2004)

I must have ordered this audio book when I returned from Wyoming, as Johnson writes about the area where my cousin lives. The sheriff's town and county are fictional, but Sheridan, Cheyenne, the reservations, Lake Desmet, Powder River, Piney Creek and of course the Big Horns are all really there. I had to get used to the actor's voice, as I have heard him read other books and it took me a while to forget the voice and get into the character.

Walt Longmire has been the sheriff for 25 years. He's depressed since his wife died, lives in an unfinished house, has a great secretary Ruby, spunky deputy Victoria, who he hopes will take over after him, but she may choose to go back to big city detective work, a lousy deputy Turk, an old friend who may be a potential love interest, and a great best friend, Henry Standing Bear. 

The title comes from the expression "revenge is a dish best served cold." Walt doesn't believe it when someone calls in a dead body, but it is Cody Pritchard, one of the four boys that raped a young Native American girl with fetal alcohol syndrome, a case Walt can't get out of his head. So it may not be a hunting accident, but murder. As he goes about solving this murder, we meet even more entertaining characters and I have to say I like Johnson's writing style. I found myself liking a phrase or smiling at something the characters said or did more than usual. Like: "fuses that looked as if they hadn't been changed since Edison was a child." I also like his respect for Native American ways and beliefs. There is a point where even Walt needs help from the old spirits and gets it. I have to remember to read more of the Walt Longmire series when next I head out there, maybe even sooner.

Bloody Jack bu L.A. Meyer (2002)

Bloody Jack: Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy is considered a historical novel. I originally thought it was young adult, but though in this book Jacky is a kid, my sense is she grows up throughout the series, and I plan to get through much of the series, though 12 is a lot.

Mary loses her parents to the plague, lives out on the streets for a while, and then puts on a dead boys clothes and gets taken on a ship as a ship's boy- Jack. Here she hangs out with the other ship boys, but likes Jaimy the best. When she starts showing womanly characteristics, she has to work to hide them. She gets her nickname because she is brave and ends up killing a couple of people during the course of this book. The character of Jacky is great, I love her spunk, her curiosity (she can read and reads whatever she can find), her conversations with God or fate.

As a historical novel of the 1790's, I enjoyed getting a better sense of what it was like on a big ship with hundreds of men - how they occupied themselves, the different roles on the ship, what happens when their ship is damaged. It is like a village in an of itself with various tradesmen. They spend a lot of time practicing war maneuvers, so when they actually have to face pirates, everyone knows their place. I did not realize that there would be a school on the ship for the midshipmen, where Jacky would help out, but that the teacher was also into experimentation - with a kite of some sort.

Looking forward to the next, though my audio store doesn't have it, so I ordered it in print.

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema (1975)

A West Africa Tale retold by Verna Aardema, pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon - Caldecott Medal winner.

One of those delightful... the mosquito annoys the iguana, the iguana ignores the python, who crawls into the rabbit hole and scares the rabbit, who runs off and startles the crow, who alarms the monkey, who kills an owlet. The lion king is called to determine who is to be punished, and then we go back up the line till we get to the mosquito with the guilty conscience who goes whining about it in people's ears.