ejj's 75 more-or-less book challenge for 2022

Happy New Year!

Continuing with my Miss Marple series:

1. 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple's friend Mrs. McGuillicuddy is on a train after doing some Christmas shopping when another train parallels hers. She briefly sees into a compartment on the other train and is shocked to witness a woman being murdered by a tall man---but she only sees the man from the back, so can say little more about his appearance. She reports what she has seen and meets with skepticism from officials, but Jane knows her friend and believes her. After some thought, Jane hires the young Lucy Eyelesbarrow, a very intelligent woman who has made a career as an exclusive household helper--she works for a short time on contract and organizes all parts of a family's home life as a cook, housekeeper, gardener, etc. Jane directs Lucy to take a position at Rutherford Hall, where Jane has figured that the body must have been thrown from the train. In due course, Lucy finds the body of a woman hidden in an Egyptian sarcophagus in one of the outbuildings of the property. The entire Crackenthorpe family is investigated.

There's a fair amount of speculation about whether the woman could have been Martine, a French woman who the eldest Crackenthorpe son intended to marry during the war--during which he died. But before she's correctly identified, two more murders occur. And I'm still not sure how Miss Marple came to the conclusions she did about "who done it."

Still, a lovely start to a new year.

Happy new year indeed, Your Jewell-ry. No better way to say "hello" to 2022 than to say "right, we're starting this cycle off with some of the very best of what there is in this world."

Spend it splendidly.

Happy reading in 2022, Elizabeth!

Happy new year! May it be a great year for reading.

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group, Elizabeth.

Good reading start to the year. I remember reading that one many, many moons ago.

Hope you have a great year of reading! Looks like you are off to a good start with Agatha Christie!

Bless you all! Thank you for your kind words--I am, once again, resolving to read more this year. Would like to (finally) hit the 75-book goal!

Happy New Year and happy new thread! Ooh, Miss Marple!

>Thank you!

2. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie. I've seen the dramatization of this a number of times, so it was rather in my mind when reading this book. One interesting aspect is that I think every previous Miss Marple concerned a murder (or murders) for which the motivation was money, and that is not the case in this novel. Jane's friend Mrs. Bantry sees the sale of her former home, Gossington Hall, to a film star, Marina Gregg, and her fourth or fifth husband, Jason Rudd. The couple remodels lavishly and then holds a charity event, to which Mrs. Bantry and many locals go--and some famous friends and acquaintances of Marina and Jason turn up, too. At the fete, a self-centered local woman, Heather Badcock, comes up the stairs and begins telling Marina about having met her once before, years earlier, when Heather had to rise from a sickbed and don makeup in order to go and get Marina's autograph. Shortly thereafter, Heather sits down and says she's not feeling well, and soon after is dead. She's been poisoned, it turns out, by the overdose of a sedative found in many of the medicine cabinets in the house.

The assumption is soon made that, because Heather spilled her drink and was handed Marina's (by Marina), Marina was the actual target. She begins receiving threatening notes and refuses to drink coffee one day on the set of the film she's making; the coffee is discovered to have strychnine in it. But who would want to kill the beloved (if mercurial) star?

Jane Marple sits at home, chafing quite a bit under the care of the relentlessly cheery Nurse Knight, who means well but irritates Jane greatly by making most of her comments about "we" rather than "you" or "I"--like saying, "We don't want to get chilled, do we?" while wanting to close a window Jane has opened for fresh air. But Jane is interested in what Mrs. Bantry tells her about the day of the murder, and she's also visited by the Scotland Yard inspector in charge of the case.

And, of course, after several more murders, Jane solves the case!

>9 ejj1955: Such a good story! I can see why They adapted it more often than ordinary for a Marple.

SPOILERS)

3. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. I'm not sure I loved this as much as the other books by her I've read, but I still think it's going to make me think about it for a while. It's a short book (that took me a while to finish) about four people from Earth aboard an exploratory spaceship. They visit several different planets (well, moons, asteroids, planets), each quite different from the others. One is an icy world on which they discover life forms under the ice making a startling visual display. One is a fairly miserable, stormy water world on which they land in a shallow bit of water, and their ship is immediately plastered with creatures they come to think of as "rats"--creatures that cling to the ship and emit shrieks that keep them from sleep for months until they seize the opportunity to leave the planet, knowing that taking off will kill the creatures attached to them. Another planet is a dusty, dry wasteland, but some exploration takes them to a canyon where they find a river and one small, single-molecule organism--that then divides.

The group of four--Ariadne, Elena, Jack, and Chikondi--send reports back to Earth and receive news updates, but they are gone for fifty years, during which the updates from Earth stop. Is it political upheaval, lack of funding, or a natural disaster of some kind? Who is left on Earth and what do they expect from the four explorers they've sent forth? In the face of this silence, Ariadne suggests that instead of returning to Earth as planned, they simply go further and explore more, including a system with habitable planets. The group agrees that they are willing, but that they must take their direction from Earth, whoever might be left there and able to communicate. They decide to go into stasis until they receive a reply, with the risk that they'll simply die without ever hearing.

4. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. Jane's nephew Raymond, now a successful novelist, has sent his elderly aunt on holiday after she's had a bout of pneumonia. Jane sits in the sun and knits, and of course she observes the people around her. The resort is run by a young couple, Molly and Tim Kendal, obviously eager to make a success of the venture. The other guests include two couples, Greg and Lucky Dyson and Edward and Evelyn Hillingdon, who study botanical specimens and birds; an elderly vicar and his unmarried sister; a wealthy elderly man, Mr. Rafiel, who is attended by a widow, Mrs. Walters, who acts as his secretary, and a young man named Jackson.

Miss Marple is listening--not very closely--to the memories of Major Palgrave, who tells her about hunting in Africa and then mentions that he's known a murderer and has a picture he can show her. He's about to pull out the picture when he sees something or someone that makes him pause and abruptly change the subject. Later that night, he dies, and his death is at first presumed to be from natural causes . . . but is it?

Then one of the local women who works at the resort, Victoria, is knifed to death; there's a third murder and a fourth is stopped in the nick of time by Miss Marple--in her role of Nemesis--with the aid of Jackson.

At least two of the marriages presented initially as seeming to be happy on the surface are revealed to be far from that. A third is in the recovery stages after infidelity. Perhaps Miss Marple represents the recent assertion that unmarried women are the happiest people?

The book I recommended for the sci fi/fantasy group I read a few years ago, but intended to reread. I returned it to the library and downloaded an electronic version, and what has surprised me is how quickly I'm moving through it reading on my phone. Well, I know I like the book. But it's so easy to read it this way . . . so I have the next Miss Marple on my laptop, the next book for the classics book club, the book on my phone, and one slim hardcover book. I'm a fairly happy unmarried woman myself.

5. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. Oh, what a jumble here! Jane has a holiday in a quiet, luxurious London hotel, one in which the past is lavishly recreated with every comfort. There's a big, ex-military doorman; roaring fireplaces and deep couches; tea with muffins and butter and scones served impeccably. The older clientele includes many titled people, clergymen, and wealthy Americans. Somewhat incongruously, there's a flashy socialite, Bess Sedgwick, known for her daring lifestyle and many marriages. She's visited at the hotel by a young racing driver, Ladislaus Malinowski. Also staying at the hotel is Bess's estranged daughter, Elvira, who is twenty, along with her elderly guardian. Miss Marple, wandering around London in search of good linens and familiar landmarks--mostly very much changed or torn down and replaced entirely--sees Elvira meeting with the racing driver. It's apparent that the young woman is madly in love.

Meanwhile, there's a crime wave in London, consisting of bank robberies and a train robbery and so forth, all apparently well organized by some mastermind. Connections are made with Bertram's Hotel by the police, and the chief inspector comes to know Miss Marple. A clergyman disappears for several days but then is found. A murder is committed in the street outside the hotel. And, by the last chapter, both the thefts and the murder are solved by the pair, with both love and money figuring in the motive of the unlikely killer.

I sort of feel as though if I really thought deeply about it, this one wouldn't make total sense, but I'm not thinking that deeply about it, and any novel with Jane Marple is a good novel. That's my stance, and I'm sticking with it!

6. Nemesis by Agatha Christie. Jane receives a letter in the wake of the death of Mr. Rafiel, the wealthy man she met in the Caribbean. He tells her there's need of her skills and offers her 20,000 pounds if she is successful. She is mystified by receiving so little information, but after a short period, she gets another communication, telling her that Mr. Rafiel paid for her to join a tour of historic houses and gardens. She joins the tour and meets the various other people on it, including the imposing former headmistress, Elizabeth Templeton. After several days, the tour comes to a bit with some strenuous hiking involved, and Miss Marple is invited to stay at a local home by three sisters who also were somewhat acquainted with Mr. Rafiel. She learns that his son, Michael, was imprisoned for killing a girl who was the ward of the three sisters. At about the same time, another girl disappeared.

Elizabeth Templeton is struck by a falling boulder--or was it a pushed boulder? Miss Marple becomes convinced that Michael Rafiel might have been a "bad boy," given to petty crimes, but that he was unlikely to be killer. But who among those she's met could be?

Of course, "Nemesis," as she nicknamed herself to Rafiel, solves the crimes!

I only have one more Miss Marple novel to read (there are also some short stories). Woe! It's been such a good way to start the reading for the year.

7. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple's last case, I'm sorry to say, except for the collection of short stories also included in the downloaded complete series. Quite a few pages of those, so it will take me some time, I suspect. But anyway . . .

Gwenda and Giles Reed are a newlywed couple who buy a house in a small seaside community south of London. Giles is a cousin of Raymond West (Miss Marple's nephew), and, while waiting for her husband to join her, Gwenda visits the Wests, meeting Miss Marple too when the four of them attend the theater. Gwenda hears some words in the play that remind her vividly of something from her distant past--she screams and leaves the theater. Eventually, it becomes clear that she remembers seeing a woman's body in the hallway of the home she's just bought, where she herself lived as a three-year-old child.

She returns home and her husband joins her; they determine that the woman killed must have been her stepmother, who had supposedly run away with another man. The couple, despite Miss Marple's gentle warnings, decide to investigate this eight-year-old murder.

Miss Marple badgers her doctor into prescribing sea air for her and heads down to stay in a local hotel. She befriends elderly shopkeepers and such to ask questions about the crime, while Gwenda and Giles do their investigation and discuss it with her.

There's another murder and then Gwenda is threatened at home, heroically saved by Jane. Later, the three of them go to Torquay, and Miss Marple explains the case to them, reminding them of her adage that she never believes anything anyone says to her!

8. Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie. Ah, now I really have reached the end of Miss Marple. I am wondering if I should start on the complete Poirot? Hmm. Anyway, the short stories are fun, and all serve to show that Miss Marple's tried-and-true methodology of comparing one person to another she's met in her little village works every time. The short stories, I'm happy to say, don't nearly as often refer to her as an "old pussy" or one of the "old pussies" that Christie appears to have simultaneous respect and contempt for. I think, technically, I'm one, but I don't feel like one at all. Well, no fluffy white hair and Victorian sensibility here.

Time for a change of pace, perhaps?

>16 ejj1955: I always liked Poirot a little better than Miss Marple. I can see how you might want a change of pace, though!

>17 foggidawn: Foggidawn . . . I've definitely had a change of pace!

9. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. This was at least my second reading of this book; it's one of the few my mother took away from me (that I got back and finished at whatever tender age I was then--twelve, perhaps?). It's kind of hard to remember how racy this was considered then, in light of the much more explicit sex scenes in thousands of bodice-rippers and other fiction since.

Anyway, the book begins just after WWII when Anne Welles leaves her small New England town for the excitement of New York City. Despite her stunning good looks, she takes a job as a secretary at a law firm that specializes in managing performers. She works for Henry Bellamy and soon meets one of his clients, Broadway great Helen Lawson. She begins dating a man she thinks is an ineffective insurance salesman, Allen Cooper, but then finds out he's actually a multimillionaire who wants to marry her. She meets his widower father, Gino, who Helen Lawson wants--but Gino has a young showgirl as a mistress and isn't interested in the blowzy older woman. This ends Anne's friendship with Helen.

Meanwhile, Henry Bellamy's British partner, Lyon Burke, returns to the office and Anne is bowled over by his looks and charm. She falls hopelessly in love with him. She's gained two new friends, young and talented Neely, and the breathtakingly gorgeous Jennifer North. The book covers the marriages and divorces of Neely and Jennifer, who both become stars--Neely for her singing voice and then as a film star, Jennifer for her fabulous breasts and her acting in racy French films.

Lyon Burke falls for Anne but at a crucial point in their relationship, he reveals that he wants to become a writer and, while Anne encourages him, she isn't willing to live with him in her old hometown, where she's inherited her mother's home. Lyon moves back to England to pursue his dream, and Anne embarks on a fifteen-year period of building her career (eventually becoming the TV star of cosmetic commercials) and having a devoted companion for whom she feels a distant affection. Neely goes through a series of dips into alcoholism and pill-popping, with occasional trips to the hospital as she overdoses.

Eventually, all three of the main female characters take to the little red "dolls," as they nickname the pills that help them sleep. And, ultimately, none of them finds a lasting love relationship in a world of infidelity and disappointments. One might become wealthy and apparently successful, but it's kind of a grim vision of the world that Susann portrays.

I will certainly get at least one more book finished before the end of the month, which gives me a great start toward finally meeting the 75-book goal. Here's hoping . . .

10. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I had an enormous amount of difficulty finishing this book. It was the Classics book club choice for earlier this month, and I was only about halfway through at the time of the meeting. But I persevered, and here I am, having finished it. And still not loving it in the least. I dislike, among other things, the random time in this book--it's not always annoying in fiction, but here it was (for me), mostly because there was zero sense of curiosity about what the ending of the book would be. Although the book is often described as being about the destruction of Dresden, that actually takes a very small part of the story, although I suppose the impact and importance of it permeate the book. I found Vonnegut's repeated "And so it goes" after every mention of death irritating beyond belief--it supposedly is used 106 times in this book, but I would have said many hundreds at the least.

Yes: war is terrible and I'm sure many who served in that and every other war carry horrific memories for the rest of their lives. However, it's a bit difficult to imagine what the Allies were supposed to do in the face of Germany's aggression at the time. Submit? Hardly.

Moving on to something much more pleasant.

11. The Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald. Well, I've found my next series to read. MacDonald sure can write--descriptions of characters, looks, scenery, mood, sounds, you name it--he's vivid. Travis McGee, his main character, is an individual who rejects working a traditional job. He finds things for people and works when he wants to, living on his boat, the 52-foot Busted Flush. One of his female friends convinces him to talk to a woman, Cathy Kerr, who tells Travis about how her late father had had something of value that he'd brought home from his time in WWII and hidden just before his death. A fellow former soldier, Junior Allen, turns up at Cathy's home on Candle Key, where Cathy lives with her son, her sister, and her sister's two children. Junior Allen romances Cathy and then one day takes off, leaving a hole in the ground where he's obviously dug up--something. After a while he comes back to the area with a nice boat and (obviously) a lot of money, and moves in with a local widow, Lois Atkinson.

When Travis goes to ask her about Junior Allen, he finds a woman drinking heavily and strung so tightly she crumbles into tears on the floor when he mentions Allen. Travis takes her under his wing, realizing that she's nearly a complete emotional wreck, and finally realizes what Junior Allen has done to her. He moves her onto the Busted Flush and goes hunting for Junior Allen.

A lot more happens, and all I'll say is that MacDonald can really write, and I'm going to keep reading this series. Gotta keep up my numbers this year!!

I see you read lots of Christie this month. I plan to read one next month!

Happy Year of the Tiger, Author Jewell!

SPOILERS!|

12. Nightmare in Pink by John D. MacDonald. Wow. The second Travis McGee story has him headed to NYC to help the younger sister of a disabled fellow veteran, Mike Gibson. Nina Gibson was engaged to a man who was killed, and who had given her $10,000 she's not sure how he got. McGee begins to ask questions and finds that the dead man worked for a very wealthy man, Charles Armister. Armister has separated from his wife and is living with his lawyer and a woman who is--well, what, exactly, is one of the things McGee tries to find out. Is she Armister's lover, secretary, housekeeper?

It soon becomes apparent that something not-quite-right is going on with Armister's company and fortune. The money is being shifted around and no new investments are being made. Travis finds out that Armister has been seeing expensive prostitutes and makes a date with one of them, hoping to find out more. Shockingly, she drugs him and he wakes up in a private hospital, where he finds a team of doctors doing experiments with psychotropic drugs similar to LSD. He's told he'll be "treated" this way and eventually lobotomized, which is what he realizes has been done to Armister. How to escape?

Parts of this book are horrifying and parts are lovely. But I am, as before, interested in more of what Travis does. Onward!

I enjoyed following along with Miss Marple, Elizabeth as it brought back happy memories of my having read them. I actually preferred her to Poirot who was just a tad too smug.

John D MacDonald is a decent replacement if you are going on a reading splurge. Enjoy!

>24 PaulCranswick: PaulCranswick, yes, I prefer Miss Marple to Poirot, too, although I may go back and read all of his books as well. I'm on a mission this year to read much more, and this approach seems to be working.

13. A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald. Travis travels to Texas to meet with Mona Yeoman, who drives him to a mountain cabin and tells him she wants to divorce her husband, Jasper, and marry a professor. However, she's convinced Jasper stole her inheritance, and she wants that back to take with her. Travis is inclined to turn down her offer to employ him, but when they are out on the porch, she's shot dead. By the time Travis travels down past the rock slide that stopped her car, the car is gone. He calls the police and they return to the cabin, where they find no body, no blood, no trace of Mona.

Travis meets her husband, Jass Yeoman, and comes to like the big, bluff, older man. Jass hires Travis, who goes to meet the repressed (but attractive) sister of the professor, who has also disappeared. The story is that Mona and the professor ran away together, but Travis knows this is not true. So he begins to investigate.

There are plenty more deaths and, finally, a return to Florida and the Busted Flush for Travis. Another good one.

14. The Dancing Defective by D. R. Lowrey. Read for work. Very funny!

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Elizabeth.

>26 PaulCranswick: PaulCranswick It has been quite nice, if chilly and rainy outside. But reading occurred inside, along with some soup-making, so it's all good.

15. The Quick Red Fox by John D. MacDonald. Oh, my. Travis is hired by movie star Lysa Dean to retrieve some racy photographs taken of her during a four-day beachside orgy on a terrace. She paid some blackmail money originally, but is being asked again, and she's very worried the photos will get out and ruin her career. She sends along her personal assistant, the very efficient Dana Holtzer, to help him with this task.

Travis begins investigating the people who were at the orgy, finding that a race-car driver is dead, one young woman is in an alcohol rehab place and seems to be deteriorating mentally; the photographer is murdered, and so on. He and Dana grow closer and closer, and fall in love. SPOILER: It doesn't last. It never does with McGee, does it?

MacDonald has a few scathing words to say about a lot of topics, from lesbians to middle-class Californians, He denigrates their homes, their taste, their education, and says this about them: "For those who still read, they make do, for the most part, with the portentous gruntings of Uris, Wouk, Rand and others of that same witless ilk." (Note: I think I've read each of them, with varying degrees of enjoyment.) But wow, MacDonald!

I'm kind of wondering how many more women McGee can love and lose, though. Lots of books still to read.

16. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. This is a short novel by Chambers, but another lovely, thought-provoking, positive exploration of what it means to be human and what our place in the universe might be. Dex is a monk who lies awake at night, thinking they'd like to fall asleep to the sound of crickets. They (Dex's gender is never specified other than by a plural pronoun) live in a city, working on the monastery's gardens, but decide to change their vocation and visit the surrounding villages, offering a tea service. They acquire a trailer drawn by Dex riding a bicycle and gradually acquire various kinds of tea, mugs, and a few decorative items for a simple tea table. Dex eventually realizes they are good at the new life, that people appreciate their tea and the space needed to relax and tell their troubles to Dex.

At some point, though, Dex realizes they are not satisfied, and they veer off their usual route and head for the mountains and wilderness. Long ago, in a more industrial past, the moon had factories that were staffed by robots. But the robots eventually decided they did not want to work in the factories, and they left, not to be seen again for centuries, while the humans evolved to be more in tune with the natural world around them. So, Dex is understandably taken aback when, while sitting by their fire making dinner one evening, a robot walks out of the woods and approaches.

The robot is Splendid Speckled Mosscap (they name themselves for the first thing they see when they "wake up" from being assembled, and they are assembled from the parts of other robots who have failed in some way). Mosscap has volunteered to contact humans after the long separation and find out what they need. Dex feels inadequate to answer this for all of humanity (or even all of humanity on the moon, Panga, where they live), but Dex gradually accepts Mosscap's company on the road to an old monastery building atop a mountain. The road eventually runs out, destroyed by a rockslide, so they continue onward on foot.

It is not as though a great deal happens in terms of action in this story, but the discussions between Dax and Mosscap become profound, as Dax tries to figure out their purpose in life, and Mosscap asks why a purpose is necessary.

I think there will be more books in this series (oh, yes, Wikipedia says there's another coming out this year). I'll be there for them.

>28 ejj1955: Ooh! A new Becky Chambers? Exciting!

>29 foggidawn: foggidawn: oh, yes, I know. I love her works so much!

19. A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald. Things get very messy for Travis in this one. An old friend, Sam Taggart, comes to Miami with a little ancient obscene gold figurine of a man. Taggart tells McGee that he wants to see his former love, Nora, a woman he cheated on three years ago. Nora is wildly eager to see him again, but when she and McGee go to the cheap hotel, they find Sam's body, horribly murdered. The two of them decide to figure out who committed the crime by going to Mexico. Sam had indicated the little gold piece was one of thirty-four, so McGee takes that as the starting point.

In Mexico, the two travel to a rather remote beachside resort, where they spend some time relaxing by the pool, drinking quite a bit, and eventually becoming lovers. Travis noses around and finds a reclusive, well-protected estate that he breaks into. A number of people are killed, most of them deliberately but one, tragically, by accident.

Travis next heads to Los Angeles and makes some useful connections before heading into the lair of a rich and bizarre man who--among other things--has the collection of gold statues. There is more death and injury before Travis can finally head back to Fort Lauderdale, once again older, wiser, sadder, and more scarred. It's a tough life, but someone's got to do it.

Time to pause on McGee and read a few other things in my queue.

>30 ejj1955: So you're going in publication order? I gave up on Travis at A Tan and Sandy Silence...just ran out of heterosexual tolerance, and he's nothing if not the straightest man in the room. Any room. So I don't remember much past the earliest possible 1970s in his world.

I hope you're enjoying the reads, all of them!

>31 richardderus: richardderus Boy, I know. He's James Bond with a bit of a heart, but the endless supply of sun-drenched females who melt into his bed is a bit much. But yes, I'm going in publication order. We'll see if I make it through the entire lot. Meanwhile . . .

20. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. This was my second reading of this rather long work, an epic fantasy set in a place that's geographically France but, in this fantasy history, known as Terre d'Ange. The heroine is Phèdre, born into the Night Court, a society of professional courtesans divided into houses. She is given up by her parents and trained to be a courtesan, but her future seems to be marred by the red mote in one of her eyes. This mark--Kushiel's dart--is recognized by a gentleman, Anafiel Delaunay, who purchases/adopts her. He recognizes that it is the mark of an anguisette, one who enjoys pain. She and another youngster, the beautiful lad Alciun, are reared in their profession, but Delaunay also trains them as spies, teaching them to observe, to dissemble, and to know languages, history, and genealogy. His pupils know Delaunay has many secrets, and they don't realize exactly what his goals are.

After Alciun is attacked and his guard is killed on the way home after an assignation, Delaunay eventually provides Phèdre with a highly trained guard, a Cassiline brother, Joscelin Verreiul. Alone of the people of Terre d'Ange, the Cassilines are sworn to celibacy.

Phèdre plays Delaunay's dangerous game, and accepts assignations with men and women alike, including the beautiful and magnetic Melisande Shahrizai, who pays Phèdre enough to finish her marque, an elaborate tattoo on her back that symbolizes the completion of her indentured period--she becomes free. She asks Delauney to stay with his household, however.

Phèdre discovers a plot and tragedy strikes; she and Joscelin find themselves sold as slaves to the fierce warriors of Skaldia, the territory to the northeast of Terre d'Ange. Historically a loose confederation of various tribes, the Skaldi have found a leader, Waldemar Selig, to whom Phèdre is eventually given.

I won't detail any more of the plot, though there're a couple of wars, a dangerous journey or two, and plenty of opportunities for extraordinary bravery. This is the first in a trilogy about Phèdre; there's a second trilogy about an adopted son of hers, and a third set a century later in the same world. These are long, convoluted books with plenty of sex and intrigue and strong, individualized characters. I enjoyed all that I read, probably more than the members of the book club for which I recommended this.

So, in less than seven weeks this year, I've read about half what I read in all of last year. On track to meet my goal, I think, and then some.

21. Extraordinary Results by Joe Contrera read for work. Nonfiction business book.

22. The Paid Bridesmaid by Sarah Wilson. I'm not sure why I started this one; I just looked for something on my phone. This was a light and quick romance about a woman, Rachel, who offers a professional service providing bridesmaids and maids of honor for brides who don't have friends to fill that need. It's highly confidential, of course, so she makes up a cover story for how she and the bride became friends. Her current client is a media star whose whole wedding is a mass of goods and services provided by sponsors and camera people streaming every moment of the event. The wedding is taking place in Hawaii, and Rachel and one assistant are there to make everything go smoothly--despite such challenges as the mother of the bride being an alcoholic, divorced from the bride's stepfather, who shows up with his very young new girlfriend. Another complication is the best man, Camden, a handsome and magnetic tech partner of the groom; they are about to take their company public (which will give them enough money to pay for expensive medical treatments for the groom's mother, who is battling cancer).

Camden initially suspects Rachel might be a spy after information about his company's product, and though she denies that, she knows he senses she is hiding something from him--but she's signed a nondisclosure agreement with the bride, so she can't tell him what she's hiding. And, as the boss of a company with about a dozen employees, she's made a rule that they are not to date anyone they meet at a wedding. So she can't break the rule, can she?

Does it all work out? Do they live happily ever after? What do you think?

>33 ejj1955: #22 as this is clearly a retelling of Les Misérables in the stylistic mien of Dostoevsky, I'm goin' with "...and the xenomorphs drop from the aalii trees onto their meaty capitalist faces".

...no?

>34 richardderus: By god, I think you've nailed it!

23. SPOILERS!!
Prudence of the Parsonage by Ethel Hueston. Ah, the sweet innocent stories I read as a child . . . this is one of the books my mother brought back from her home after her mother died, and I, at the age of eight, consumed them greedily. Prudence is the eldest daughter of the Methodist minister; her mother is dead, and she cares for her father and her four younger sisters: Fairy, tall and magnificent and academic; Carol and Lark, the mischievous twins; and Connie, the serious youngest daughter. At the beginning of the book the family is moving into a new town and a new parsonage; they are delighted to have electric lights and an indoor bathroom (the book is from 1915) and a big barn. There are encounters with the Ladies Aid Society and such problems as getting a new coat for Connie and Carol's bout with pneumonia, as well as some excitement when a burglar breaks in while their father is away. Prudence has said she'll never marry, as she feels responsible for her sisters, but while out for a bike ride very early one morning, she rides down a hill and crashes into a mule that has wandered into the road. She's found by a young man (Jerry) who is walking cross-country because his car has broken down, and the two are immediately attracted. Prudence falls in love with him, but sends him away because of her responsibility for her family. An accidental blow to her head puts her to bed for a few days, with anxious prayers from her family, and a telegram from her father to Jerry. It's all very sweet, and there are four or five more books in the series.

Meanwhile, some work to do and back to Travis McGee and some library books . . .

>34 richardderus: That sounds like something to look out for. Dostoevsky meets Hugo equals bravo!

24. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel. This book is a reminder that it's good to start a book one knows nothing about other than the title. I've downloaded dozens of books; this is one of them. It's a highly emotional story of a time of great difficulty and tragedy. Set in Shanghai and starting at the beginning of WWII, it tells of Aiyi Shao, a woman from a wealthy Chinese family, who owns a nightclub, and an recent Jewish immigrant, Ernest Reismann, who has come to Shanghai with his young sister, Miriam.

Aiyi hires Ernest as a pianist for her club, loving the jazz he plays so well (he also plays classical music). A member of a traditional family, she's engaged to a handsome, imperious young Chinese man, Cheng. But she and Ernest fall in love, and eventually she gives herself to him.

The Japanese are a constant presence in Shanghai, eventually taking over completely. Aiyi is locked in her room by her brother after she refuses to marry Cheng, but when she gets out of the room finally, she goes to the bakery Ernest owns to let him know she's pregnant. In the chaos caused by a Japanese soldier who sees her there, Miriam is shot and killed. Ernest is overwrought with grief and Aiyi leaves the bakery, later giving birth to their daughter. The child is taken away from her by her sister-in-law, and she spends much of the rest of the book wanting to find her daughter.

Blaming herself for Miriam's death, Aiyi marries Cheng after all, but it's a brief marriage, as the same Japanese soldier who killed Miriam shoots Cheng on the street one day.

Some of the story is told as a sixty-year-old Aiyi talks to a documentary filmmaker from Texas about Ernest and the events of the war. Aiyi is wealthy; she offers the woman title to the hotel in Shanghai she owns in exchange for the documentary.

There are some more surprises and plenty of action in the war; almost no one ends up living in the same place for long as they try to survive during the crushing occupation.

In addition to the unpredictable story, the book is beautifully written. This is one that I won't soon forget.

25. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It takes me a bit longer to read a book like this, not only because of its length (365 pp. before the hefty notes, so not really long at all) but because of the dense information and serious, sometimes heartbreaking, information. And I'm wondering now why I've only read this and one other of Larson's books, because he's incredibly able to make historical information fascinating and immediate.

The book begins in 1933 when an American academic, William Dodd, accepts the post of ambassador to Germany from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dodd leaves his post as an academic at the University of Chicago and goes to Berlin with his wife and his two adult children, a son, Bill, who attended university there, and his daughter Martha, a petite blonde who was on the verge of divorcing her first husband, Bassett (George Bassett Roberts). Martha was a bit of a flirt, and had quite a few lovers along the way, including Carl Sandberg. She was friends with Thornton Wilder.

Dodd insisted he would live within his salary as an ambassador, one of several things that set him apart and against the traditional "pretty good club" of American upper-class men who expected ambassadors to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in lavish entertainments and luxurious living. Dodd and his family find a very good deal on a large house belonging to a Jewish family, who agree to rent the first three floors while they will live on the fourth. Dodd signs the agreement thinking that only a couple will be living above him, then finds, eventually, that a large family, with children, are above him. But the house is conveniently located near the Tiergarten, a pleasant area in which Dodd not only takes frequent walks but also sometimes meets other ambassadors when he wants their conversations to be assuredly private.

Martha is initially taken with the "new" Germany and the enthusiasm of the rising Nazis; even with signs that Jewish Germans are being systematically mistreated, she shrugs this off, saying that "we don't much like Jews anyway." This is an attitude felt by many Americans at the time; this, and the US conviction that isolationism would protect the country from Europe's squabbles, contributed to the warnings about Hitler's intentions being sent back to the US being largely ignored.

What's most fascinating about this book is the ability to look at the rise of Hitler and the Nazis as if without the benefit of current historical hindsight. Martha and her family initially find a city magical in the warmth of summer, full of loveliness and a lively social scene. Martha becomes involved with quite a few different men, from a French diplomat to one of her more serious lovers, a Russian named Boris. Although she's unaware of his motivations, which were to recruit her as a Soviet agent, she does make several trips to Russia, finding the country more depressed and grim than expected.

Whether Dodd was an effective ambassador is an open question: he was frequently criticized and dismissed at home, and one of his moral stances made him refuse to attend Nazi rallies. He warned of the increasing militarization of German, and correctly predicted that Germany was heading toward a European conflict.

The first year of the Dodds' residence in Germany included the Night of the Long Knives, June 30, 1934, when Hitler and his allies shot--without bothering with a trial or evidence--an unspecified number of people who disagreed with them (or, on at least one case, the wrong man entirely--an art critic whose last name was similar to someone else they sought to kill). Hitler, justifying his actions in a speech in which he said he had quelled an imminent rebellion, claimed that seventy-odd people had been killed; the real number was much higher, possibly reaching five hundred. Dodd, who had loved Germany as a young man when he studied there, was surprised and appalled that this did not cause a horrified reaction from the German people, who appeared to accept Hitler's explanation and adore him more than ever.

Dodd's ambassadorship continued until the end of 1937, when he was recalled by Roosevelt. He returned to the United States and, despite his long-held desire to work on a book about the Old South, he traveled widely, giving speeches about the threat of Nazi Germany and the need to the United States to abandon the idea of isolation. Martha, despite her affair with Boris, rather quickly met another man she soon married, Alfred Stern. She maintained an interest in socialism and communism, and in 1953 came under the scrutiny of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. They fled the country and settled in Prague, where they lived uneasily for years, not knowing the language. When they were cleared, years later, the couple realized they could not return to the United States because they owed a massive debt in back taxes they had not paid during their exile.

Fascinating and meticulously researched, this is another book that won't be forgotten. I really must read more of his work.

MINOR SPOILERS

26. Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald. Back to McGee for a while here. He's lazy and happy on the Busted Flush when an old friend, Arthur Wilkinson, turns up, a thin, sad, penniless wreck of his former self. Arthur tells him that he had married a woman, Wilma, who had, with the help of a crew of several others, convinced him to invest in a property deal that effectively helped them strip him of nearly every cent of a quarter million dollars he'd had. And, after he chased Wilma to the cabin of a particularly brutal member of the crew, Boone Waxwell, Waxwell had beaten Arthur within an inch of his life.

Before Arthur had met Wilma, he'd been involved with Chookie McCall, McGee's dancer friend. He convinces Chookie to come back to the Busted Flush with him, hoping to put Arthur in her care and ignore the story behind how he got into his current state. But Chookie convinces McGee that he has to help Arthur get his money back, and slowly, McGee gets himself into shape and starts Arthur on the road to recovery. Chook and Arthur begin sleeping together again.

McGee hunts down the various men who defrauded Arthur, although he never meets Wilma (and eventually figures out she's been killed by Boone). McGee runs a game on Boone but realizes that Boo has begun to be suspicious of him.

McGee comes up with a plan that will use the lovely wife of the lawyer in the deal (the lawyer has become an alcoholic) to ensnare Boone away from his cabin so McGee can search for the money, which he's convinced is hidden around the cabin. But the plan goes horribly, viciously wrong. There's plenty of violence and death, and McGee gets shot (not too badly) in the head.

There's rape, suicide, murder, and accidental death before it's all over. Somehow, McGee, Arthur, and Chookie make it out alive and well. But it's a rough ride getting there.

SPOILERS

27. Darker Than Amber by John D. MacDonald. I did not intend to read this so quickly, ignoring, for example, actual work I have to do. But so it happened, partly because the book I downloaded did not have chapter divisions clearly indicated. So I was waiting to get to the end of the first chapter, intending to pause, and then realized I was a third of the way through the book, and . . .

Travis and his friend Meyer, an economist, are fishing under a bridge one night when a girl is thrown over the bridge into the water. She is wired to a concrete block at her feet. Travis dives down and frees her. The friends take her back to the Busted Flush, and find that she's a lovely Asian prostitute named Vangie (maybe) involved in something even less legal (and moral). A group of con artists, including this girl and two others, plus some muscle, take well-off single (divorced or widowed) men on a cruise, steal the money they've convinced the men to bring with them, and drown them. Then Vangie tries to go back to her apartment to collect money she has stashed there, and the second attempt succeeds--she's pushed into the street and run down by a car.

Travis heads to her apartment before dawn one morning and figures out where her money is hidden, but as he leaves the apartment, he's clubbed from behind by a neighbor, Cliff, who is one of the gang. Cliff takes Travis to the beach, intending to kill him, but Travis manages to get to the small gun in his pocket and turn the tables.

Travis and Meyer discuss the situation, and Travis realizes that he can't just walk away from the situation, as men are still being killed. So he sets out, with Meyer's help, to make sure the killers are caught by the police. It's all handled in such a way that I'm wondering if he shouldn't have Meyer with him more often--Travis is no dummy, but Meyer has a precisely logical mind that sees many different angles.

Now I really have to get some work done . . .

SPOILERS!

28. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Yikes, what a mind at work. In a big old house in a small town, three surviving members of a family live: Uncle Julian, confined to a wheelchair; Constance, who cooks and keeps a garden; and Mary Catherine, known as Merricat, who twice a week walks into town to get groceries. Mostly because of the rambling recollections of Uncle Julian, we know that six years ago there was a much larger family in the home: Constance's and Merricat's mother and father and brother, and Uncle Julian's wife, but all of them died after being poisoned at dinner one night.

Most unfortunately, I read the preface first, so I knew from the beginning that Constance, who had been tried and acquitted of the crime, did not do it, despite having cooked the dinner that night. Merricat, who (aged twelve) had been sent to bed without her dinner, had left arsenic in the sugar bowl, knowing that the rest of the family would have sugar on their blackberries but that her beloved Constance would not; Uncle Julian's survival was accidental.

Most of the people in town seem to think Constance got away with murder, and she never leaves the house except to go into the garden in the back yard, unseen by villagers. She is very indulgent toward Merricat and she takes tender care of Uncle Julian, cooking him whatever he wants for meals and wrapping him in a shawl when it's chilly. Into this little circle a cousin comes to visit; Charles, who looks like their father, stays despite Merricat's intense desire for him to leave. Charles is very interested in the money they have in their safe--an apparently endless amount, as far as readers can tell. He starts wearing their father's watch and finds that Merricat has buried some gold coins in the yard. Constance merely says, Merricat likes to bury things.

But Constance seems to be torn, as Charles insists on making plans for the future and suggests savagely to Merricat that she will be put somewhere and that Uncle Julian should be hospitalized. Merricat finds his pipe still smoldering in his room and deliberately knocks it into a trash can there. A fire starts to consume the upper floor (and attic) of the house, and the people of the village gather and eventually trash the house after the fire is put out. Uncle Julian dies that night, and Constance and Merricat hide until everyone is gone. They clean up the mess and restore the kitchen as much as possible, while also covering or boarding up the windows so that no one can see into the house. Eventually, the village people start to leave them gifts of food on the porch, and Merricat takes the gifts in after the people have left. Completely cut off from the world, the two sisters decide to be very happy together.

Merricat is the epitome of the unreliable narrator, although she doesn't so much lie as leave out important facts. And we're never given much of an idea of why she did the murders. She lives in her mind, and it's obviously a strange place.

Yes, I really need to get work done!

29. Courage and 30. Legacy of an Outlaw by Jeffrey Poston, two Westerns about Jason Peares, proofread for work.

31. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. This is quite an interesting and violent story, with echoes of the Hunger Games. It begins in the desperately poor society of the Reds, the group of people who mine under Mars' surface in hopes of making the surface of the planet habitable some day. Darrow is a young man, in his teens but already married to his beloved Eo; his job is to operate the clawDrill in the mines. When Eo shows him a higher level accessed through a tunnel, the two make love in the (fake) grass before going back down to the Red level, where they are arrested. Eo defiantly sings a protest song before she is hanged. Darrow is spirited away by his uncle and sent on a mission: to infiltrate the society of the rulers of Mars, the Golds. He learns the surface of Mars is already habitable, with great cities, and he is transformed in every way: given extensive plastic surgery to make him look like a Gold, even to extending his limbs and strength. He is trained in the way Golds talk and act--and then he is sent into the society and accepted into an elite school, the Institute. It's a harsh learning experience: the first step is to be placed into a room with one other student and the knowledge that only one of the two comes out alive.

The survivors are split into twelve houses; Darrow's is Mars; others are Ceres and Apollo and so on. They are placed in castles/forts, some have much better supplies of food and armor than others. Months go by--there is in-house fighting in Darrow's group, as the house splits among four groups.

Through it all, Darrow learns and gains power. He eventually learns that the "game" is not nearly as fair as it's supposed to be, as one powerful leader has bribed others to ensure his son is the winner. Darrow has to figure out a way to subvert these overwhelming odds.

This is the first of a trilogy, and I've already gotten the second book from the library. Have a number of other things to finish first, however.

SPOILERS!

32. Washington Square by Henry James. I have seen the movie based on this book (the one with Olivia de Haviland and Montgomery Clift), but I'm very glad to have read the book now, as it gives me a much better idea of the real personalities portrayed. It's the story of Catherine Sloper, the only daughter of a distinguished and wealthy NYC doctor in the 1850s. Her father mourns her beautiful and accomplished mother; Catherine seems not to have inherited any of her mother's charms, and is a plain, quiet, reserved young woman who likes to dress well and who does embroidery. A widowed aunt lives with them, but Mrs. Penniman is not someone with whom Catherine shares sensibilities: her aunt is a self-centered romantic.

Catherine meets Morris Townsend one evening and is immediately struck by how handsome and charming he is; he begins to call on her regularly and she falls in love with him. In very short order, her father determines that Morris is a fortune-hunter; Catherine has a very respectable legacy left to her by her mother, but her father's fortune is much greater, and her father says that he will not leave it to her if she continues her romance with Morris Townsend. But Catherine stubbornly insists that she is engaged and will marry Townsend, even after her father takes her to Europe for an extended (year-long) trip.

Her aunt, left at home in Washington Square, entertains Morris Townsend frequently. But shortly after Catherine and her father return, Catherine tells him that her father will not change his mind and that there is no convincing him otherwise: that he does not, in fact, care for her at all. Morris realizes the money won't come his way and breaks the engagement, pretending that it's because he doesn't want to deprive Catherine of her father's money.

Catherine settles into spinsterhood and never speaks of Morris. After many years, her father dies, having changed his will to leave her only a fifth of his fortune after she refused to say she would not ever marry Morris Townsend. But when he eventually comes to see her, she tells him he should not have come and they cannot be friends.

Interestingly, the years of the book must have included the Civil War, which is never mentioned; the world portrayed is a very small circle, even with the year-long trip to Europe included.

One question is whether Morris loved Catherine at all. There are suggestions that he had feelings for her, especially after years of a fairly unsuccessful life away from her, but the money seems always to have been much more important. So the reader can conclude that the doctor was right about Morris and Catherine was wrong, but the doctor is so unrelenting and cruel in his stance that one can't admire how he's treated his daughter.

The four main characters are individuals, and James portrays this like the master he is.

>44 ejj1955: I know I read that book in college, but I have no recollection of it.

>45 foggidawn: Well, it's not as though there's a ton of action in it!

33. The Talismans of Teregrin by Katy Metzger. Read (a second time) for work.

34. One Fearful Yellow Eye by John D. MacDonald. Whew. Travis gets asked by an old friend, Glory Doyle, to come to Chicago and help her figure out what her late husband, a well-known doctor, had done with his money, which all disappeared shortly before his death. She lives in a lovely home but figures she'll have to move, as she only has a small(ish) income from an insurance policy. Her late husband had two children, now adults, from his first wife; they both are disdainful of Glory, feeling that she was not good enough for their famous father. Glory's household includes Anna, a German cook. Eventually, Travis discovers that Anna's daughter Gretchen, while still a teenager, seduced the doctor during his first wife's final illness. Gretchen became pregnant, but with Anna's urging, was married off to a young man. The doctor provided income for his daughter but she didn't know him.

Gretchen went through several husbands and mates, having children along the way, so that there were five by the time Travis started wondering where she and the latest man had gone; he suspects that man was the one who had fleeced the doctor.

He recovers a part of the money but finds a dead body, too, and just in time finds Glory on the beach, crazed by an overdose of LSD. She's put in the hospital, and he eventually heads south with the frigid daughter of the doctor, Heidi. Gradually, they become lovers and she finds herself. But then a couple of chance remarks make Travis begin to wonder about where Anna, the cook, has gone, and the discovery is a shocking one.

There is violence and more death, and more money is found. Finally, Travis is back on the Busted Flush, talking it over with Meyer.

I have slowed down somewhat, but there is a pile of books next to me and plenty of reading to be done. So, onward.

Some Spoilers!

35. The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis. There are two parallel but connected stories told here, both set in the Frick mansion in NYC. One tale is in the early 20th century, and tells of a sculptor's model, Lillian, who inadvertently becomes suspected in a murder inquiry. She finds herself in the Frick mansion being interviewed for a secretarial job by Miss Helen Frick, an awkward woman who adores her powerful father, Henry Frick. The household also includes a sickly, retiring Mrs. Frick and a host of servants, including a musician who plays a massive organ for Mr. Frick's entertainment. The house contains art of every kind, from masterpieces of painting to sculpture and decorative items.

The other story is set in the 1960s, in which a young British model, Veronica, finds herself locked in the house during a snowstorm and power outage after a modeling stint goes awry (she refuses to lie in the snow in a light gown). She discovers a young intern, a black PhD student named Joshua, who is also trapped in the house. They light a fire and find a bit of food in the kitchen. Veronica stumbles across the clues to a treasure hunt originally prepared by Miss Helen for a suitor, and Veronica and Joshua follow them, finding a brooch with a hidden compartment that contains a valuable diamond. The two are eventually discovered by the aged Miss Helen herself, and swept along with her on a drive to upstate NY (once the power has been restored) to find Lillian.

There's a mystery or two to be unraveled in this book, but the real charm is the sharply drawn characters and the sense of place and art so clearly described. Lillian, in particular, is a strong woman who makes her way with ingenuity. It's good to find that she has a long, happy life.

36. FurtureView Startup by Michael Limeski. Read for work. Scientist figures out a way to send short messages through time.

37, Waterman's Foreigner by Campbell Browse is a book I received as an Early Reviewer. It's a fantasy mystery set in the imagined and imaginative world of the City of Bridges, an entrepreneurial free city surrounded by aristocrats on estates who owe allegiance to a king. Within the city there's a walled embassy belonging to the Khalsidi, foreigners whose dress, language, religion, and customs are in sharp contrast to those of the citizens of the City of Bridges. When the body of a Khalsidi woman is pulled from the river, Hanz Waterman and his two assistants, Happy and Goodluck, are asked to investigate and find the killer. They are assigned two Khalsidi, Shalek and Murat, to aid in the investigation.

Waterman, Happy, and Goodluck are members of the Fire Watch, a group originally tasked with firefighting that has evolved to include police duties; Waterman is sometimes identified as a thief-taker. He rents a room from a baker, who has recently been joined by his cousin, Serenity, a woman from out of the city who grew up as the daughter of a shopkeeper. She knew her father's business and is exceedingly accurate with numbers, but was married off to a demanding and brutal man who took over the shop after her father's death. During one argument, she defends herself against her husband's beating with her favorite kitchen knife, so flees to the city when she's convinced she's killed him. Waterman comes to depend on her for her sweet rolls and other foods, for patching him up after fights, and for her advice about who to talk to for information, as women shopping at the bakery tend to confide in her rather than the Watch.

Waterman and his team, together with the two Khalsidi, make their way through the city asking questions and receiving very few answers. Although the murder is eventually solved, the story encompasses a broader political conflict as well.

This isn't the sort of murder mystery in which clues are sprinkled throughout the story and the reader chooses among an array of likely suspects; although the plodding questioning of possible witnesses seems realistic, the mystery becomes less important than the overall picture of this society. That's probably the strongest quality of the story, and the characters are fairly individual. There's a vague hint of a possible romantic attachment, but no more than that. Some of the details of daily life were off-putting--did anyone bathe on a regular basis? Did the Watchmen live on beer, bread, cheese, and sausage? Minor quibbles, perhaps!

Note: the married couple who wrote the book responded to this review, pointing out that in medieval times people rarely bathed (true) and that the diet described was common. I still believe, based on records, that fruit and vegetables were also eaten--those locally grown, at any rate--and, to be honest, I didn't identify the fictional setting as being medieval. A bit dense of me, perhaps.

38. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Not the first time, of course, but it was a nice refresher. I'm a bit older, so I was maybe a bit more aware of the fact that there's exactly one female character with dialog in this book, and she's very minor. Spoiler for anyone who has not seen the series based on this book--a lot more female characters show up, or, to be precise, characters that are male in the book are female in the series. It doesn't matter (there are plenty of other differences as well, which makes sense--these books are much more conversation than action, more about ideas than events).

So, briefly, in a great galactic empire, psychohistorian Hari Seldon predicts that the empire will fall and that, absent some action to prevent it, it will take 30,000 years before civilization again forms an empire. He plans that it should only be a thousand years, and to make that happen, sets up a foundation at the far end of the galaxy to ensure that the shorter time is sufficient. Various crises come along, after fifty years, then thirty years later, then seventy-five years after that, and each is "solved" in ways that men on the spot assume are the correct means. Meanwhile, there's a second foundation, mentioned early on in the book, but then not referred to.

And that's, at least in part, why there are two more books in the series! and I'll be reading them, too, although this is the only one required for one of my book clubs. But why would one stop?

Some spoilers

39. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov. The second in the trilogy, and, finally, one with a significant female character! Bayta is a young woman from the Foundation, newly married to Toran. Toran's uncle is part of a resistance unit of men from the outer worlds of the traders who are tired of the inflexible, overly traditional rule by the mayor of the Foundation on the planet Terminus. A new military threat, the Mule, has begun to conquer nearby planets, and Toran's uncle asks the couple to go to a luxury planet and see what they can find out about the Mule. They run into trouble pretty quickly, but escape the planet in their Foundation-manufactured ship, which is more nimble and fast than those chasing them. But they take with them an odd, thin creature, Magnifico, the Mule's clown. Magnifico is terrified of nearly everything, but he is rather touchingly fond of Bayta.

World after world falls to the forces of the Mule, with his former opponents becoming his lieutenants. Finally, desperately, Bayta, Toran, Magnifico, and a historian named Ebling Mis head for the original Empire's center on Trantor. The formerly powerful central planet has lost most of its population and the remaining emperor, such as he is, has retreated to another planet. Trantor, formerly covered entirely by skyscrapers, has reclaimed some bare land and farmers live simply there, welcoming the four travelers. Ebling Mis goes into the depths of the great library nearby, and Magnifico keeps him company as he studies obsessively. Beyta and Toran wait, settling into a routine. Eventually, Ebling tells them he's figured out not only that the Mule's power is his ability to control others' emotions, but also where Hari Seldon established the mysterious Second Foundation, which Mis figures was composed of psychologists who might be able to defeat the Mule. But just as he's about to say where it was established . . .

Bayta reveals that she's figured out who the Mule really is. He briefly tells his own story before the novel's end.

40. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Just finished the trilogy--very enjoyable despite the glaring weirdness of Asimov and females! This book has several female characters of note, unlike the first in the series; one is Arkady, a fourteen-year-old, intelligent romantic who drives much of the action, although unwittingly in many cases. She is the daughter of Dr. Toran Darell, the son of the heroic Bayta from the second book, and he's involved in a conspiratorial group seeking to find the Second Foundation, which the group sees as an enemy of the First Foundation. A young man named Pelleas Anthor comes to Arkady's window one night, seeking entrance to the house to meet her father. She eventually lets him in, and he meets with the other conspirators. They decide that what they need to do is send one of their number, Homir Munn, a librarian with an academic interest in the Mule, to the planet of Kalgan to visit the palace the Mule lived in during his brief rule. Perhaps there's a clue to the location of the Second Foundation there?

Arkady stows away on Munn's small ship and the two make their way to Kalgan, where Munn is refused permission to enter the abandoned but protected palace by the current First Citizen, Stettin. But Arkady tells his mistress, Lady Callia, that Munn is there to find evidence that the First Citizen should lead the way to the Second Empire, and when Lady Callia tells her lover, he allows Munn to visit the palace.

Eventually, Stettin decides he should replace his mistress with a proper wife to begin his dynasty, and his attention falls on the teenaged Arkady. He also arrests Munn and holds him, considering him an agent of the Foundation. Lady Callia helps Arkady escape; she finds herself at the spaceport, terrified when soldiers come and shut the terminal down to search for her. Somehow, the kindly elderly couple she's met, a trader (Preem Palver) and his wife, shield her and manage to leave Kalgan and head to Trantor with her. And there she stays during the war that breaks out between Kalgan and the Foundation.

Various theories about the location of the Second Foundation are put forth, including Kalgan and Terminus itself, before a Second Foundationer is discovered among the conspirators, Arkady makes it safely home, and the reader (but not the conspirators) learns of the true location of the Second Foundation. Good fun!

41. Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines. This was a fun one, although a lot of scary mysterious stuff happens. Isaac Vainio works as a librarian, cataloging books, with his companion fire spider, Smudge, next to him. He's attacked one night by several vampires, and helped by the nick-of-time arrival of the dryad Lena. Lena's lover has been kidnapped by vampires. Isaac is a libriomancer, a magician capable of reaching into books and pulling objects out. He specializes in using science fiction/fantasy books, so pulls out healing potions and Excaliber and laser pistols.

Also among the missing in the eruption of violence in this hidden world of magicians and vampires is Johannes Gutenberg, who has been the leader of the libriomancers for the five hundred years since he created them. Isaac wonders at first if Gutenberg is behind the chaos . . .

Despite the fun ideas here, there are some more thoughtful themes explored. The idea that books get their power from many people reading them is interesting, as is the exploration of Lena's nature and her lack of choices--and how she embodies strength despite this. There's also Isaac's penchant for breaking rules and what he discovers about magical possibilities by doing that. I'm kind of curious about further books in this series.

42. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. This was my tenth or twentieth or thirtieth read of this beloved book. The Duc of Avon strolls home one night in Paris and suddenly encounters a peasant boy fleeing his older brother, a tavern keeper who threatens to beat him. Avon looks at the child and purchases him from his brother. The boy follows him home, and Avon makes the child--Leon--his page. It soon transpires that Leon is not really a child, but is nineteen, and not really a boy, but a girl who was forced to live as a boy, as that was easier in her brother's tavern (and with her brother's difficult wife). When Avon puts an end to the charade, Leonie protests, but is taken to England and given into the care of Avon's sister Fanny for a while. She is then taken to Avon's country estate and put in the charge of his cousin, a fluttery widow. Avon leaves the estate for a time, and Leonie makes the acquaintance of his neighbors, Anthony Merivale and his wife Jennifer, whom Avon once tried to elope with (before her marriage).

Avon's scapegrace brother Rupert comes to visit the Merivales and becomes Leonie's friend and companion. One noontime, Leonie is unexpectedly kidnapped by the Comte de Saint-Vire, an enemy of Avon's, and Rupert takes off in pursuit, following them to France. Avon comes home to chaos, but soon hears the tale and figures out what has happened. He also heads to France.

After Leonie escapes the Comte and Rupert is shot by him, they find refuge at an inn and Avon finds them there. Shortly thereafter Saint-Vire appears, but is forced to retreat when he finds Avon there. The group is joined by Lady Fanny and then her husband, and they all proceed to Paris, where Leonie makes her debut in society. She is a great success, being both beautiful and a spirited original who delights in her adventures in society.

What I love about Heyer (and what most of her Regency romance imitators miss) is the humor that infuses her work. She's lighthearted and funny, while at the same time creating unique characters who have real feelings and some depth. Leonie is a combination of spirited innocence and bitter experience, a girl-woman who loves her duke despite--or because of?--his devilish reputation.

Given my age and cynicism, there are some things here that are harder for me to overlook than when I first read the book. The class system categorizes people a bit too neatly--no matter how one is nurtured, Heyer implies, the nature of aristocratic or peasant birth will out. Avon's treating Leonie as his adopted daughter makes a romance between them a bit odd in these enlightened days--I don't know that this bothered me the first time I read it, but it was uncomfortable in some ways. And yet--somehow it's still a thoroughly pleasant read for me. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief long enough to just enjoy the story. And now I want to re-read some other favorite Heyer stories.

43. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer. This is another favorite of mine, so I plunged right into it . . . the book opens with the Darracott family gathering. Living at the family estate are the elderly patriarch, Lord Darracott; his widowed daughter-in-law, Elvira; and her two children, Althea and Richmond. Althea is in her twenties and had one season in London before returning to the family home (alas, unmarried), and Richmond, at seventeen, is his grandfather's favorite, enjoying a high-bred horse and a yacht as gifts--partly to assuage his disappointment at being told he cannot join the army, as he dearly wishes to do.

They are joined by his lordship's remaining son, Matthew, along with his aristocratic wife, Lady Amelia; and their two sons, the sporting but impecunious Vincent and his modish (sometimes ridiculously so) brother Claud.

The family has gathered to greet the unexpected heir, Major Hugo Darracott, the result of a marriage between the eldest son of the lord and a weaver's daughter--so ineligible a match that the son was cast off and never mentioned again. When the Major arrives, he proves to be a very tall, large man, with guileless blue eyes and an air of innocence. It soon becomes clear that his family expects him to be what amounts to a peasant, so the Major promptly begins talking in broad Yorkshire, and talks about living in a hut with no floor (one of the family realizes he's talking about his time in the military during the Napoleonic wars).

His lordship dictates that Claud should improve his cousin's speech and style; he also hits upon the idea of having Althea marry her cousin. Althea is at first very distant and haughty, but she and Hugo are thrown together, and she finds he's a comforting friend to have. He tells her of a longstanding engagement to an entirely mythical girl back home so she'll relax around him; the deceit doesn't last long, but does the trick.

Hugo, with his experience as a military commander, soon realizes that Richmond is a young man with plenty of energy and spirit, and wonders how it's possible that he should be kept tamely at home, subservient to his grandfather's dictates. There's a relaxed view among the family to the local tradition of smuggling goods that would otherwise be taxed, and Hugo begins to suspect that Richmond may be involved with the local smugglers, an idea the rest of the family dismisses as absurd.

There are just so many good scenes in this book, especially the conversations between Althea and Hugo. Every character has a chance to shine during the climactic crisis at the end, and Hugo cements his place in the family. And it turns out that the weaver's daughter wasn't quite so bad a match as originally thought!

44. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer. Decided to go for the hat trick of my three favorite Heyers. Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy, a diplomat, visits his sister in London and asks her to host his daughter while he's off to Brazil. She somewhat reluctantly agrees, as she has a large family, an irresponsible husband, and a son who, based on an inheritance from an uncle, more or less runs the household. The eldest daughter still at home is the divinely beautiful Celia, who, despite being pursued by the eligible Lord Charlbury, has been swayed by the devotion of the equally beautiful poet, Augustus Fawnhope--just as Charlbury has had the misfortune to contract the mumps.

Into this household come Sophia Stanton-Lacy, a tall, generously built young woman of considerable fortitude. She has been raised around the world with her father, so has had adventures in Portugal, Spain, and Austria. She brings with her a parrot and a monkey for her younger cousins (they're thrilled); her greyhound dog, Tina; and a beautiful, spirited black horse, Salamanca.

Sophy at once realizes that several of the family are not happy--Celia because she has been forbidden to marry Augustus; Horace because (Sophy eventually learns) he has gambling debts; and the entire family is not entirely happy about Charles's engagement to the somber, joyless Miss Wraxton.

Sophy soon starts to run into people she knows, including the patronesses of Almack's (just after Miss Wraxton was giving her advice on being suitable for a voucher) and a variety of military men, including one she asks to help her buy horses for a carriage. She buys a high-sprung curricle, considered quite unsuitable for a lady, but Sophy is a notable whip and manages it, and the team of matched bays she buys, just fine.

After a while, Sophy's aunt suggests a small party for her niece (ten or twelve couples in the drawing room to dance), and Sophy convinces her to allow Sophy and Celia to arrange the party. Sophy explains to Celia that it's going to be a rather larger party, and five hundred people are invited. At the elegant, popular ball (one of the royal dukes comes, a mark of distinction), Sophy meets Charlbury, recovered from his mumps. She realizes immediately that he is a much better match for Celia than the penniless, moonstruck poet, and determines to help Charlbury gain Celia's affections.

Sophy manages to solve Horace's financial problems (by selling a fine pair of diamond earrings) and rearrange the romantic pairings of Charles, Celia, Miss Wraxton, and herself. Heyer has a number of determined and audacious heroines, but none more than the Grand Sophy.

45. An Azalea Lake Christmas by Susan Schild. Read for work.

46. The Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer. Yet another favorite. Abigail Wendover returns to her home in Bath, where she lives with her older sister Selina and her niece, the beautiful heiress Fanny. During Abby's absence, Fanny (at age 17) has fallen in love with Stacy Calverleigh. Fanny has not even had her first season in London, and Abby is sure she's too young to marry, although she admits that, if the attachment is lasting, perhaps in the future . . .

But she goes to a hotel to leave a note for some friends expected shortly to visit Bath, and hears orders given for Mr. Calverleigh's luggage to be taken up to his rooms. When a man enters the salon where she's writing the note, she confirms that he's Mr. Calverleigh, although she's surprised that the tall, saturnine man, older than herself, is the love of her young niece. She begins to tell him that she won't consent to his suit, not that she's her niece's guardian legally--her brother is. Halfway through the conversation, she discovers that she's talking to Miles Calverleigh, the disgraced uncle of Stacy, who had been sent to India in his early twenties (for, as it develops, trying to elope with the young woman who soon married Abby's brother and became Fanny's mother!).

Abby finds herself attracted to the unconventional Miles; she's much less happy with his nephew, whom she correctly pegs as a fortune hunter. She asks Miles for help, but he disclaims any interest, and points out that he doesn't really know his nephew at all.

Stacy, becoming ever more desperate for money, presses Fanny to elope with him. She initially agrees, but will not leave before a party given by her aunts, and the next day comes down with a severe case of influenza. Stacy is annoyed by this, and providentially meets a rich young widow staying at his hotel. He immediately begins pursuing her.

Abby, despite realizing that she's in love with Miles, refuses his offer of marriage because both Fanny and Selina need her. Miles has a plan to combat this reasoning . . .

I'm now thinking I should read some of the books I don't remember nearly so well. Why not?!

47. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. More fun . . . and I think I want to keep reading Heyer. Makes me happy. In this one, the orphaned Kitty Charing has been cared for by a friend of her father's, Matthew Penicuik, a fairly unpleasant, stingy older man. Kitty lives with him in the country, attended by Miss Fishguard, a poetic spinster. Uncle Matthew summons his single male great-nephews and directs them to make an offer for Kitty, saying that his large fortune will go to her as long as she marries one of them.

Three are gathered at the house: one a married man, drawn there to encourage his brother to make an offer; the Reverend Hugh; and Lord Dolphinton, a simple-minded and impoverished earl, whose mama has ordered him to make Kitty an offer. He does, and she gently refuses; she also refuses Hugh, who describes a future in which he will take pains to educate her further.

Kitty is upset that Jack, the dashing and handsome one of the bunch, has not turned up; she imagines herself in love with him. After her encounter with the men who did come as bid, she decides to run away and manages to make it to a nearby posting house/inn, where she finds Freddy, who has providentially stopped for dinner, knowing meals at his uncle's house will be early and unappetizing. Freddy doesn't know why he's been summoned, but Kitty tells him, and then she comes up with the idea that they should pretend to be engaged so she can have a month's visit to London. Her guardian agrees, and she sets off with Freddy.

Freddy plans to take her to his mother, but measles has attacked his younger siblings, and so Kitty is taken to his married, pregnant sister, whose husband has gone to China on a diplomatic mission. She was dreading having to stay with her mother-in-law, but Kitty's arrival means she can stay home and chaperone her future sister-in-law. Kitty is soon outfitted in stylish new clothing and given a dashing haircut, and embarks on her entrance into society.

There are a number of difficult romances Kitty does her best to help with, from Dolphinton's with a plain-spoken woman who knows just how to manage him--but who is entirely not the sort his mother would approve of, to Kitty's French cousin, a gamester posing as a Chevalier.

Freddy--who is described as neither handsome nor astute, but very well dressed and behaved, turns out to have unexpected talents and depths. Kitty learns how to evaluate both Jack and Freddy during her month in the city.

48. Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer. This one I didn't remember at all, though I must have read it before. Or not? Anyway, Sir Gareth Ludlow, who seven years earlier lost his high-spirited fiancee, decides to propose marriage to Lady Hester, for whom he feels friendship and respect. She is in her late twenties--so on the shelf--and her obnoxious family thinks she's mad to turn down the offer of a handsome, well-liked, wealthy nobleman. Sir Gareth finds himself the unwilling protector of a beautiful young runaway, Amanda (who tells him her last name is Smith). It transpires that she has left the home of her adoring grandfather because he deems her too young to marry Neil, a Brigade-Major on leave from Spain because he's been wounded.

Amanda escapes from Sir Gareth a number of times, but he manages to catch up with her (after she makes one escape in a farm cart and ends up with an adopted kitten). Enlisting a vacationing Cambridge scholar in her schemes, she convinces Hildebrand that Sir Gareth is planning to compromise her for her fortune, so Hildebrand agrees to hold up their coach the next day and rescue her. Completely inadvertently, he shoots Sir Gareth. Amanda staunches the blood and has him conveyed to a small inn, where a doctor is called. Really fearful for his life, Amanda sends Hildebrand to fetch Lady Hester, who comes to look after Sir Gareth.

Meanwhile, both Amanda's grandfather and her beloved Neil are on the hunt for her, and make their way to the inn just as Sir Gareth is feeling better.

Not surprisingly, I liked Lady Hester a good deal more than the impish, headstrong Amanda, and I felt too much of the novel was spent covering her escapades, with Lady Hester sitting at home. But once she was brought back into the story, it was much more enjoyable, with, naturally, a very satisfying conclusion.

49. Gossip by Lori Lyn. Read for work--a light-hearted romantic adventure.

SPOILERS!!

50. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This was a fascinating science fiction story that took me forever to get through (not sure why, other than that there's a lot of science in there). Basically, life on Earth is threatened by a lifeform named Astrophage, which exists on sunlight and is darkening Sol. A high-school science teacher, Ryland Grace, wakes up on a spaceship, alone except for two corpses, with patchy memories. The book goes back to the events on earth leading up to the launch of the Hail Mary--the spaceship he's on--and the plan to save Earth. He's near Tau Ceti, which, alone of the visible nearby stars, does not seem to be overwhelmed by Astrophage. The question is why, and can the same defense protecting Tau Ceti be transferred to Sol?

Grace finds the ship's lab and attempts to get underway with the task ahead--saving humanity--as well as learning his way around the ship and how to control it. About the time he's figured out the basics, he notices another ship near him. The two ships figure out a way to communicate and eventually the alien builds a tunnel between them with a barrier halfway. Grace can fill his half of the tunnel with his atmosphere, which is handy when he finally realizes that the alien lives in an ammonia-scented atmosphere and under much more atmospheric pressure. When he finally sees the alien, it looks sort of like a metallic or rocky spider, and he nicknames his new friend Rocky. They work out a language to communicate, and eventually Rocky comes aboard the Hail Mary. Rocky is the only survivor of his crew, as well, and is an engineer. What Grace needs, Rocky builds. Together they devise experiments and finally identify why Tau Ceti is free of Astrophage--a predator they call Taumoeba. They test it, and find that it doesn't initially survive in Earth's or Eridani's atmosphere (Eridani is the name Grace gives Rocky's home planet).

They force the Taumeoeba to mutate until it will be useful to both, then regretfully say farewell and head toward their separate planets to save them. But after a week or two, Grace realizes that the material holding the Taumoeba isn't, in fact, holding them, and there's a danger they'll eat all the Astophage, which is, coincidentally, also the source of the ship's power. Grace sends four buoys off to Earth with some Taumoeba samples and instructions, and turns back to find Rocky's ship. The question is, can he find Rocky's dead ship and get him home to save his planet? And, by doing so, will Grace sign his own death warrant?

>59 ejj1955: A timely reminder, Elizabeth, to read something by Andy Weir although I only have The Martian currently on the shelves.

51. The Foundling by Georgette Heyer. Always pleasant to have another Heyer to read, especially as I'm now reading ones I don't remember well at all. The young Duke of Sale, known as Gilly, is cossetted by his large staff and his uncle, who has been his guardian since the death of his parents (his father before his birth, and his mother just after it). Now twenty-four, a year shy of his majority, Gilly longs to know what it would be like to be a plain Mr. Rufford, without the constant attention of concerned staff. When his cousin confides in him about a youthful indiscretion involving a lovely foundling, Gilly decides to break free of his staff and go solve his cousin's problem for him.

This involves a great deal more effort than he supposes, as he meets a runaway boy on the road and takes him under his wing. He retrieves his cousin's letters without much trouble, but then finds himself inexplicably burdened by the lovely young thing--the foundling--his cousin had briefly courted. She's as empty-headed as she is stunningly beautiful, and desires only to have a purple dress and a ring. He resolves to take her to Bath and put her in the hands of his fiancee, Lady Harriet, and eventually does so--after being kidnapped and held for ransom, and escaping by burning down the disreputable inn in which he's being held.

Meanwhile, his family and staff have started a frantic search for him, as no one but another cousin (a military man) knows anything about his disappearance, and even Captain Ware doesn't know Gilly's location. He's also being sought by the wealthy middle-class father of Tom, the boy he's been looking after since finding him on the road--no easy task, as Tom is full of daring and mischief, ranging from holding up a stagecoach (with an unloaded gun) to a race (backwards) among a variety of animals.

There are quite a number of different people for Gilly to sort out, and he's finally forced (not without some relief on his part) to resume his true identity. He gratefully accepts his valet back into his life, but he also manages to stand up to his uncle at long last, gaining the approval not only of that gentleman, but of Gilly's two cousins and his delighted fiancee. All good fun!

52. The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. This was a good one, with a very good hero and heroine. Sir Waldo Hawkridge has been left an estate in Yorkshire by a cousin; Sir Waldo is already very wealthy, but some of his relatives are a big indignant that he's been left this estate, too, and are unaware of why it was left to him (basically because he ignored his cousin rather than toadying to him). Off he goes, with his young cousin Lord Julian Lindeth, to see the estate, which turns out to be a very much neglected house with a few elderly retainers left in it. Sir Waldo begins putting it into order, and he and Lord Julian meet the residents of the area, including the family at Staples: Mrs. Underhill, her son Courtenay, and her ravishingly beautiful niece Tiffany Wield, who has a companion/governess, Miss Ancilla Trent.

The locals anticipate Sir Waldo's arrival, as he is known as the Nonesuch, a Corinthian of some fame. He's a sportsman and a superb driver of horses, as well as a boxer. When he arrives, local young men are surprised to find that his dress is not extravagant, but it's soon seen that he can drive his matched bays to an inch.

Lord Julian, in his early twenties, is struck at once by Tiffany's loveliness, and courts her rather ardently until he begins to see her true character--she's as spoiled and selfish as possible, given to tantrums whenever her will is crossed. The real turning point occurs when Patience, the rector's daughter, saves an urchin in the street from being run over by a carriage, while Tiffany is left standing on the street, no longer the center of attention.

Sir Waldo, a bachelor of thirty-five, is drawn to Miss Ancilla Trent, who, despite her subservient position, is from a good (if impoverished) family. She, in her late twenties, had a season in London but never was interested enough in anyone to accept an offer, but find herself unwillingly drawn to the Nonesuch. She tries to convince herself that he's an accomplished flirt and she should not take him seriously, but finds herself head-over-heels in love with him anyway.

Lord Linden reveals to her that Sir Waldo is fixing up Broom Hall for "his brats," and Ancilla is horrified to think that he's led such a profligate life that he has an array of bastard children to provide for. She's puzzled how this is taken so casually by Lord Linden and Sir Waldo, and undergoes days of misery until she discovers that the brats are orphans, and he's already established another estate for fifty or so of them.

When Tiffany realizes that Lord Linden has not only transferred his interest to Patience but actually offered for her, she's mortified and tries to run away to London, necessitating a rescue undertaken by Sir Waldo and Ancilla. The novel ends a bit abruptly, but not before Ancilla's future with Sir Waldo is settled and kisses have been exchanged. Ahhh.

53. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan. This novel is based on real events during WWII, when British women found that clothing restrictions meant it was difficult to get new clothing and nearly impossible to get a white wedding dress--unless it was an existing one that was altered for them. In a small village, the daughter of the manor, Violet Wescott, is determined to find a titled man--just about any titled man--to marry. The daughter of the vicar, Ben, is Grace Carlisle, engaged to an older churchman who is looking forward to having a wife who will support his work. Grace wears frumpy clothes and wears herself out helping her father, who has been a bit quiet since losing his wife.

Into the village comes Cressida, Violet's (and her brother Hugh's) aunt, needing a place to stay after both her home and her fashion business were bombed in London. Determined to stay for a short time until she can get a new office and apartment in London, Cressida is somewhat unwillingly drawn into the sewing circle, formed by the local ladies to repurpose clothing. Grace brings her mother's tattered wedding dress to see if the ladies can make it wearable for her, and when she puts it on, Cressida realizes that Grace can be beautiful and elegant. As they work on the dress, Grace also shows that she has a designer's eye, and Cressida suggests that Grace work with her. Grace is tempted, but knows her fiance will not like the idea at all, and that he'll think it's frivolous of her.

Meanwhile, Violet is called into service and finds that she has a mechanical bent, so is trained and assigned as a driver for an American soldier, Lieutenant McCauley. The two butt heads from the beginning, although eventually she comes to appreciate his sense of humor and consider him a friend.

Grace also rediscovers her friendship with Violet's brother Hugh; she helps him reconnect with the village despite his job in London.

By the end of the novel, the group has collected more than a dozen wedding dresses to repurpose, and each of the three women--Violet, Grace, and Cressida--has found love with the right man for her. Weddings ensue.

It's a bit of a fairytale scenario: despite the war going on, nobody gets killed or injured in the course of the novel, despite some tense times in an air raid shelter. Cressida lost her first love in WWI, but that's mostly a plot device to explain her unmarried status and devotion to her career.

I enjoyed this book, but on some level I didn't find the characters really complex. Cressida has a way of preaching independence to the other two women, who do alter their lives considerably. Violet goes from being self-centered and frivolous to a responsible member of the military, and Grace goes from being a shy, drab clergyman's daughter to a lovely, fashionable woman interested in a fashion career.

Maybe some nonfiction next? Well, and work. Must get work done.

54. The Midwich Cuckoos by Joh Wyndham. I'm not even sure why I went looking for this book, a classic of science fiction. In a small, quiet English village, the narrator, Richard Gayford, lives with his wife Janet. They go up to London to celebrate his birthday, and return to Midwich to find the road blocked off by police, who tell them they can't get into Midwich, though the reason is unknown. They eventually park the car and try to walk in, but at a certain point they simply pass out. A day or two later, everyone wakes up and they are able to get into the town. A mysterious ship (or whatever it was) has left the middle of town.

And that appears to be it until about a month later, when it becomes apparent that every fertile woman in town has become pregnant (even virgins). When the babies are born, there are about sixty, split between identical boys and identical girls, all with golden eyes. It isn't long before it becomes clear that the Children have some special abilities--their so-called mothers are unable to leave town.

The Children grow at about double the rate of human children, so that after less than a decade they appear as teenagers. They seem to share a single consciousness--well, two, one male and one female. Everything taught to one of each gender is known by all. Gradually, one building, the Grange, is turned into both a school and living quarters for the Children, who all want to be together.

A road accident one day causes a local youth to hit one of the Children, and it's clear to onlookers that they make his car crash, killing him. A sham inquest is held, but violence escalates, and the Children make clear that they will fight for their existence. In one evening, villagers marching on the Grange, intending to burn it, instead fight each other, with injuries and deaths resulting.

There are a fair number of philosophical discussions offered by one character, Gordon Zellaby, who lives with his second wife in the local manor house. He speculates about the nature of the Children and what they represent for humans. Ultimately, he's the one who decides what to do about them.

In its way, this is a horror story, although told in such a pleasant British way that it requires some thought to feel horror. But it's an interesting speculation in any event.

55. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Nell is a young woman working for a company that makes fanciful maps as artwork--for example, an ocean with a few sea monsters in it. She's been estranged from her father, an eminent cartographer at the New York Public Library, for seven years, after she had (while also working at the NYPL) discovered an ordinary-seeming folded map of New York state in a junk box in the NYPL's basement. Her desire to investigate this map led to her losing her job in disgrace.

But when Nell is summoned to the library and told her father has died in his office there, she looks in a secret compartment of his desk and finds that same map hidden there. Why? She gets in touch with her former lover, Felix, who lost his job at the NYPL at the same time she did, but who has gone on to work for Haberson Map, a computerized super-atlas.

As Nell delves into the mysterious map, she finds that a group called the Cartographers is seeking the map, although the copy she has seems to be the only one still in existence. Nell learns that her parents and some of their friends, all PhDs in geography from the University of Wisconsin, were the Cartographers. After they received their degrees, the group spent a summer in a large house in the Catskills, planning a map project--to do fanciful maps of real places and detailed, precise maps of fictional places. These plans come to a halt when Tamara (Nell's mother) and her friend Wally buy the map. They discover a bizarre fact: that a small town on the map, which they assume is a "plant" to keep other publishers from stealing the map's data, appears to those who have the map.

It's Agloe, a charming small town with homes, shops, and businesses, with electricity and water, but no people. The friends start spending every day there, mapping the secret town.

Meanwhile, Nell continues to investigate, meeting more of the group and eventually being told the significance of the map (she doesn't believe it at first, but similar experiences with a shop that comes and goes, as well as a secret room in the NYPL itself, convinces her). But when another person dies, it looks as though someone wants the map Nell has very badly. Is her life in danger? can she turn the map over to the library and get on with her life, including a rekindled relationship with Felix? Or will Nell keep going until she, too, visits the lost town of Agloe?

The concept of this book seems at once silly and profound. Even the reader may well ask, "What is a map for?"

56. The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett. This WWII story is set in Egypt, as a British intelligence officer, William Vandam, tries to catch a spy for Germany who has come to Cairo. Alex Wolff combines his German heritage with the adopted culture of his stepfather, an Egyptian. He crosses the desert to enter the city surreptitiously, but is forced to kill a British corporal as soon as he arrives, and becomes a hunted man from then on. Vandam ignores his fairly useless superior and keeps looking for Wolff, convinced he's a danger. Unbeknownst to him, Wolff has found refuge living with Sonja el-Aram, a well-known belly dancer, on her houseboat.

Vandam is a widower with a ten-year-old son, Billy. One day he's called to meet a young woman, Elene Fontana, whose real name is Abigail Asnani. She's a beautiful Egyptian Jew who asks about emigrating to Jerusalem, hoping to escape her life as a mistress to successive men in Cairo. Introduced instead to Vandam, she's convinced to help the war effort by attracting the attention of Wolff. Vandam places her in a small grocery store where Wolff has shopped. The ploy works. What he doesn't realize is that Wolff wants Elene to join both him and Sonja in bed.

And, meanwhile, Vandam starts to fall for the beautiful young woman.

Wolff picks a British officer as his target, arranging for Sonja to seduce the man. While she takes him to bed, Wolff goes through his briefcase, and then is able to send the information he finds by radio to Rommel.

And thus the hunt begins, as Vandam faces sending a woman he's beginning to love into contact with a spy and a killer. Follett is well able to construct an exciting plot and portray the conflict, with even characters such as Rommel and Vandam's son Billy becoming distinct and memorable. It's a good tale.

57. Medea by Euripides. This is short and there is nothing sweet about it. Medea, after helping Jason during his quest for the Golden Fleece, has fallen in love with him and moved with him and their two sons to Corinth. But Jason has decided to forswear his oath to her and marry King Creon's daughter instead. The story begins with Medea weeping and lamenting. When Jason visits, he disclaims any impure motives and says he wanted to give his two sons some royal half-brothers. When he leaves, Medea realizes there's nowhere for her to go, really--she's burned her bridges behind her. So she plots revenge, sending the new bride a poisoned dress and crown, which causes her death and the death of her father, Creon, who embraces his dead daughter and the poisoned dress. Medea then kills her sons, and Jason returns to see her leaving Corinth with their bodies; she refuses to let him touch them or bury them, but says she will do it herself, as she loved them.

So maybe it's my own recent experiences, but I had a lot of empathy with Medea. She was lied to and betrayed--yes, her vengeance was a bit over the top (!!), but I feel her pain and anger quite clearly through the centuries/millennia since this tale was written. So much of it is simply eternal.

Men!

58. The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer. My Jane Austen Society group had a discussion of The Grand Sophy recently, and this was a book one of the other enthusiasts recommended particularly. It has been a very long time since I first read it, so it was fun to reread. It begins with the deathbed of the old lord, Sylvester, who talks his great-nephew Sir Tristram into proposing to Eustacie, his half-French granddaughter. Sir Tristram, once disappointed in love, has few expectations but knows he needs to marry and have an heir, but he finds Eustacie's romanticism silly.

Eustacie decides to run away to London and become a governess, but her night flight is interrupted when she encounters a pair of smugglers, one of whom turns out to be her disgraced cousin Ludovic, the rightful heir to Lord Sylvester, who has been in hiding for two years since suspected of the murder of a man who had won his talisman ring while gambling. Eustacie is eager for adventure, so enjoys the gallop through the dark woods with her handsome cousin. But he's wounded, and the two take refuge in a nearby inn, well known to the smugglers (it has a secret cellar). There, they encounter Miss Thane and her brother Sir Hugh, pausing because Sir Hugh has a cold--one that takes a back seat to his enthusiastic encounters with the goods provided by the smugglers.

Sir Tristram finds them soon enough, and it becomes clear that he is not the real murderer; he joins with the others in their efforts to find the talisman ring in the possession of another cousin, Beau Lavenham, who is staying at the estate's dower house. Beau is next in line after Ludovic, so he has a clear motive for the original murder. The group at the inn are subjected to visits from incompetent Bow Street Runners, break ins, and attacks, with occasional social calls from an increasingly menacing Beau.

Two satisfying romances develop along the way, as Eustacie is completely entranced by Ludovic, while Sir Tristram comes to appreciate Miss Thane's ability to enter into the schemes of Eustacie while gently pointing out flaws (e.g., that neither of them actually know how to fire the pistols Eustacie keeps wishes they had). Sir Tristram is not romantic enough for Eustacie, but his practicality and his punishing right are both very useful in helping to resolve the chaos and danger.

And I've found a site with many of the Regency novels available for me to read, so will undoubtedly continue to read them. Need the comfort as much now as ever.

I do greatly enjoy your reviews and the wide breadth of your reading choices, Elizabeth.

>67 ejj1955: I must read Medea sometime soon - and I am sure that I will sympathise with her too!

59. Remember Me by M. E. Henderson. Read for work.

60. Outside by Lennart P. Fagerberg. Read for work.

I'm reading three or four books that I have to finish up so I can get them on here . . . need to pick up the pace a bit to make 75 this year!

>70 ejj1955: I will be rooting for you to reach the 75!

61. False Colours by Georgette Heyer. Another wonderful Heyer: Christopher (Kit) Fancot returns from his diplomatic post in Vienna late one night and climbs through the window of his twin brother's home in London. His mother hears him, and lets him know that his brother is missing, though due the next day to meet his potential fiancee's family. Unwilling to insult the young lady or put his brother in an embarrassing situation, Kit agrees to masquerade as his brother and meet the Stavely family. He finds Cressida Stavely attractive and her grandmother formidable, and before long he's finding that they've been invited to his (brother's) country seat so that he and Cressida can become better acquainted and she can make up her mind about marrying him (well, his brother).

The country party includes them; his mother; her faithful, fat, and very rich longtime suitor, Sir Bonamy Ripple; and her brother and his wife and son (whose health is jealously guarded by his mother). Cressida and Kit become ever closer, and are in love with each other before she admits to Kit that she knows he's not his brother (Evelyn, Lord Denville). The major issue facing them is that Lady Denville's debts are enormous, and the only way Denville can see to pay them is to marry respectably so that his uncle will wind up the trust and give him access to his fortune.

When Denville comes home and wakes Kit in the middle of the night, he reveals that he was in an accident, breaking his rib and collarbone and arm, but rescued by a kind, respectable country family--with a lovely daughter, Patience. Denville has fallen in love with the shy, quiet Patience, but he knows she won't seem a great match to his uncle. So the brothers are left with the problem of how to rescue their beloved, spendthrift mother from her debts.

Another marriage for Lady Denville appears providential, especially given the vast wealth of her surprised suitor, who has been quite content as a bachelor living in luxury. As he adjusts to the idea of getting what he's claimed he always wanted, the brothers--well, Kit--untangles the rest of the deception, coming up with a story to cover the scandal and save the reputations of all concerned.

Great good fun; I'll be going on with Heyer books for some time. Well, and a few other books I have to read.

62. Frederica by Georgette Heyer. The title character is a young woman, four-and-twenty, who comes to London with the intention of launching her breathtakingly gorgeous sister into society. Charis is a beautiful blonde with great sensibility (tears come very easily) who is serenely indifferent to her own charms. The family includes a brother, Harry, up at Oxford for the first half of the novel, but then sent down for mischief; and two younger brothers, Jessamy, a bookish sixteen-year-old intending to enter the church; and Felix, a redoubtable lad passionately interested in science, steam engines, and balloon ascensions.

Frederica hires a house in a less desirable part of town and makes her way to a distant family connection, the Marquis of Alverstoke, a saturnine and wealthy man who is bedeviled by several greedy sisters, though he generally rebuffs their entreaties. Two of them ask him to give a ball for their daughters to enter society, but he refuses until he meets Frederica and sees the breathtaking Charis. A ball is planned for all three of the girls.

Alverstoke finds himself gradually involved with the family, from the exploits of their dog, who makes chaos at a local park, to Jessamy's traffic accident while riding a device that sounds like a bicycle without pedals and Felix's desire to tour a steam factory. As the youngest child and only male in a family of sisters, he's unwillingly charmed by the exploits of the plucky young men, who also display a refreshing reluctance to allow him to pay for their delights and mistakes. Alverstoke is even more taken with the practical, intelligent Frederica, and soon finds himself wanting little more than to protect her from the cares and chaos confronting her. Among other issues, Charis becomes infatuated with his nephew, Endymion, a large, handsome, rather dull-witted military man. Frederica thinks this is simply another in long line of infatuations of her sister's, although the novel does leave this question rather open at the end--are these two really a good match after all?

Frederica doesn't realize she's falling in love, but more and more, she realizes that she is much happier when Alverstoke is around and helping her with her unruly brood. Felix, in another adventure, becomes injured and seriously ill, and the two of them take turns nursing the boy until he begins to mend.

Marching onward with some other books and more Heyer!

Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day, Elizabeth.

>74 PaulCranswick: You're welcome! you are very kind.

(SPOILERS)

63. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. I may have said this before, but I'll happily follow wherever Becky Chambers leads me. This second book in the Dex/Mosscap series sees the monk and robot emerge from the woods and wilderness; they begin to come across small towns full of humans fascinated by Mosscap. Dex is a bit surprised to realize they have become famous. When Mosscap asks people "What do you need?" they tend to respond--it realizes by the end of the book--with specific tasks ("I need my door hinge repaired") or with philosophical responses, such as freedom or independence.

Along the way, a small part within Mosscap breaks--one that provides it with stability. It's not sure whether it should allow itself to be repaired, but eventually agrees to see about it. The pair of travelers stays briefly with Leroy, who prints parts to do repairs with. Mosscap is troubled by the idea of adding a biologically sourced part to itself, but eventually decides the repair will be okay if Leroy can melt down the defective part and make a new one from that. Leroy agrees after he and Dex have spent a pleasant night together. Mosscap is repaired and the duo is on their way again, eventually stopping for a brief visit at the home of Dex's family, a lively and welcoming farm.

Dex is somewhat less than truthful with their father, and Mosscap asks them about this near the end of the novel. Dex says they don't want their family to worry about them, which they might do if they knew that Dex had headed into the wilderness deliberately. It's a pivotal conversation between the friends, as they divert to a beach and spend a few days there rather than heading into the city--that's seen as a possible end of their travels, and the two realize they are not ready for that. They talk about their purposes and whether Dex is okay with simply being, rather than being of service to others.

It is, as with all of Chambers' works, a lovely, thoughtful, apparently simple but deeply meaningful book. Reading it makes one ask oneself these questions: why am I here? what is my purpose? am I enough as I am?

64. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer. This is one of the non-Regency historical romances, set in the mid-1700s shortly after the failure of Bonnie Prince Charlie's attempt to take the British throne. Two travelers on the road toward London, the son and daughter of a man involved in the Jacobin cause, find themselves in an inn with a young heiress who is resisting the man trying to elope with her. The son is masquerading as a woman, and the daughter is masquerading as a man (she's tall and well-built, he's slight and makes a pretty girl); they rescue the heiress and send her home, then proceed to London and stay with a woman who knows their father well. They are introduced to society.

About halfway through the book, their father appears in the city, claiming to be the missing Viscount of Barnham. He begins to put forward his evidence, but the case is undecided until the end of the book, when he reveals such tidbits as a hidden portrait of his young self and the fact that he's had a family servant with him during his years of wandering. Meanwhile, his son has fallen in love with the heiress they rescued, and his daughter, Prudence, has fallen in love with the large, honorable, brave, and clever Sir Anthony.

Can anyone doubt that all ends happily? This was fairly enjoyable, but there were a few minor issues--one was the way nearly every characters calls half the other characters "child" at some point, when, in fact, none of them are children. Annoying! And the father is, while clever, so incredibly fond of talking about what a genius he is that it's pretty off-putting. Still, it will hardly stop me from reading more Heyer.

(SPOILERS GALORE)

65. Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer. The lady in question is Annis Wychwood, a single beautiful woman of twenty-nine who lives in Bath with an extremely annoying older relative, Maria Farlow, who is an incessant chatterbox and who serves as a chaperone. Returning from her brother's home (her former home) one day, she comes across a broken-down gig, with a young man and young woman stranded. Annis discovers that the young woman--a girl barely out of the schoolroom, Lucilla Carleton--was running away from home after being strongly encouraged to marry a childhood friend, Ninian Elmore. He is the young man with her, having caught up with her and resolved to protect her on her trip to Bath. Annis takes the girl with her, leaving Ninian to deal with the gig and the horse.

Lucilla is an orphan and an heiress; she has been living quite retired and confined with an aunt, and Annis realizes it would be a good idea for her to have a little social enjoyment in Bath before she comes out the next year. Private parties, a play, some rides on horseback, and a pair of sisters who become her friends do much to make Lucilla appreciate this chance and to love Annis, who begins to find the supervision of a young person a bit more than she had bargained for. Lucilla's guardian, her uncle Oliver, comes from London to investigate, and Annis meets a man well-known to be rich, rude, and rakish. Sparks fly, as the two argue and laugh together.

Annis's brother brings his wife and children to Bath, ostensibly because young Tom needs a tooth pulled, but really, as Annis soon realizes, so her beloved sister-in-law can keep an eye on her. Oliver goes to London to take care of some business, and Annis's home is soon full of people with influenza, including, finally, the normally healthy Annis. She's just starting to mend when Oliver returns and sweeps her into his arms; she admits that she loves him and they agree to marry, despite the initial protest of Annis's brother--who finds himself more in agreement with Oliver over the pernicious influence of Maria Farlow than he suspected possible. Oliver makes provision for Lucilla to stay with her good friends, guarded by their mother, for the year until another aunt can (after the wedding of her daughter) bring her out into society.

This is a fairly satisfying romance; the reader can join with Annis in wondering if her marriage will be peaceful, but it seems quite likely to be happy despite--or because of--the friction between her and Oliver.

66. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer. Gervase, the Earl of St Erth, comes home to Stanyon Castle to claim his inheritance, having sold out from his military career after Waterloo and spending an additional year on the continent. He finds there the Dowager Countess, his father's second wife, with her son, Martin, who has been raised as though he were the heir. Also living in the castle is a cousin, Theo Frant, who manages the estate; visiting while her parents are away is Drusilla Morville, a young woman who keeps the Dowager company and makes herself useful.

Before long, the young and handsome Earl encounters the local beauty, Marianne, an heiress. He flirts a bit with her, angering Martin, who believes himself violently in love with her. Before too long, one of the Earl's friends, Lord Ulverston, comes to visit and also becomes enchanted by the lovely Marianne.

The Earl wakes up one night with the suspicion that someone is in his room; he then finds one of Martin's handkerchiefs. A short time later, his horse stumbles and throws him, and he discovers a rope was placed in his path. Drusilla comes across him and helps him, but on another outing, he's shot and becomes quite ill.

There are suspicions, traps, and a former Bow Street runner mixed into the intrigue that follows, but, somehow, all comes out in the end, along with two prospective marriages--because, after all, this is Heyer!

67. April Lady by Georgette Heyer. Nell, just eighteen, is married to Lord Cardross. The story opens when he calls her on the carpet for her debts, demanding all her bills so he can settle them, and scolding her to live within her generous allowance. Nell realizes that part of the problem is that she has lent money to her hellion brother, Dysart, and her husband would not approve of that. But then she is dunned for a very expensive court dress--three hundred pounds--roughly $38,000 today--and she won't tell Cardross. She has to find the money somehow, assuming that Cardross will never believe she married him for love rather than his fortune.

She enlists Dysart's help; he initially suggests she sell a piece of jewelry, but she rejects this idea. Dysart then holds up the coach she's in with Cardross's sister, Letty; Nell recognizes him despite the mask, so that comes to nothing other than something she has to explain, passing it off as a bet between the siblings. Meanwhile, Letty is an emotional roller coaster, avowing her love for the sober but ineligible Jeremy Allendale, a budding diplomat. Nell tries to reign in Letty's extravagances--financial, emotional, social, and dress-related--with limited success; Letty enjoys shopping, parties, and admiration, but goes into hysterics when her will is thwarted.

Letty takes the Cardross necklace from where it's hidden in Nell's closet and sells it, planning to elope with Allendale (not that he knows about this plan). The jeweler brings the necklace back to Cardross, who initially thinks Nell is the veiled lady who sold it. When he accuses her, she realizes what has happened and goes in search of Letty, enlisting the help of the very correct Felix Hethersett, who happens to live next to Allendale's lodgings. The pair leave the lodgings, convinced that Letty and Allendale have fled to Scotland, but then run into Dysart and his friend Mr. Fancot, both somewhat drunk and determined to take the carriage Hethersett hailed for himself and Nell. All four end up in the carriage and back at Nell and Cardross's home, with the drunk pair playing at dice. Cardross returns and embraces Nell, saying he knows he was wrong to accuse her about the necklace, and she confesses everything to him. Shortly thereafter, Cardross promises to pay for Dysart to join the military and to make sure his parents agree; there's nothing Dysart wants more. And then Allendale brings Letty home, having deceived her--he took her to his mother's home rather than fleeing to Scotland. Cardross is so impressed with this, he agrees to their marriage--figuring that if Allendale's mother has so good an effect on Letty, it's a good plan (although if Letty is in South America with Allendale . . . not sure what good his mother will do?). But, as usual, everything is tied up by the end of the novel.

Heading off to see a modern version of Emma at a theater today. It's a tough life!

68. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I'm not sure what to say about this book. It's sort of a novel and sort of a collection of loosely connected short stories, all set in the same world (well, almost) of Earth having a pandemic. It begins with the discovery of an ancient burial site revealed by the melting glaciers, and the realization that a disease was released when the body was found. Before long it's sweeping the world, and life becomes mostly about death, with new ways of disposing of bodies and marking the deaths. A theme park is created in which parents take their children for a sort of vacation before placing them on a roller coaster that leaves them dead at the end of the ride, seen as a more merciful end than what's facing them from the disease.

At some point a ship is created and launched into space, with people aboard placed in stasis for thousands of years while the ship searches for a habital planet. Well into their journey, they receive news that a cure has been found on Earth for the disease, and human life continues there. The end story reveals an interplanetary traveler who had something to do with creating Earth in the first place and who came to the planet first as a simple organism and then lived multiple lives throughout the millennia, with the body found in the Arctic being that of her daughter, and she the scientist who found it. She continues searching for her first daughter, from her original world, believing that she will come to Earth eventually.

Much of this book was simply depressing beyond belief, but I'm not sure what I'll take away after finishing it, as there's a sort of life goes on and on feeling, too, after all the deaths. Hope, of a sort, perhaps.

SPOILERS, as usual:

69. The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer. This is another of the mid-18th century books, not Regency, but otherwise a romance similar to the books set later. It tells the story of Jack Carstares, the Earl of Wyncham, seven years after an incident of cheating at cards in which he took the blame that should have been his brother Richard's (Dick's). But Dick was in love with the beautiful and expensive Lavinia, sister of the rather sinister Duke of Andover. So Jack is outcast from society and goes to Europe for some years, while Richard marries Lavinia, who frets for the gaiety of London when in the country.

Jack occasionally holds up coaches as a masked highwayman, with his devoted servant Jim taking care of his clothes and his beloved horse, Jenny. One day while riding, Jack comes across a pair of women being accosted by the Duke of Andover, who is smitten by the lovely dark-haired Diana. Jack rescues her and fences with Andover, sustaining a wound to his shoulder when Andover pulls a gun after the fencing match. Diana and her aunt take Jack home with them and nurse him back to health; Jack and Diana fall in love, but he realizes he has nothing to offer her and leaves. He ends up staying with an old friend, Miles O'Hara, who never believed he was guilty of cheating at cards. O'Hara's lovely wife takes to him as well.

Meanwhile, Dick has been tormented by thoughts of his older brother's life since the cheating incident, and he meets a widow who knew Jack in Europe. She describes him as a wonderful man who helped her out (in Vienna), one who has a bit of reserve and perhaps sadness. Dick finally decides to tell the truth about the cheating incident, realizing that his wife might run away with a persistent admirer. Lavinia, though, realizes just how much she loves her husband, although she suspects he's enamored of the widow he's been visiting. They resolve this misunderstanding, though, after a few miserable days.

The Duke kidnaps Diana again, but her father seeks Jack's help; Jack rides Jenny over the countryside, arriving at the Duke's estate just as the Duke and Diana have finished dinner and the Duke is starting to force his attentions on Diana. Jack comes in though a garden window and challenges the Duke to another duel. They fight for some time before one of the Duke's brothers arrives with Dick, who was just dropping him off on his own way home--he's astonished to see his brother again.

Despite all the drama, everyone eventually sits down to a meal and spends the night at the Duke's estate before heading home the next day.

This story is rather more dramatic than many of the Regency novels, but all comes out right in the end (as usual). And Jack is a very appealing hero.

Can I finish six books in twenty-three days? Sure will be trying!

70. Pistols for Two by Georgette Heyer. This is a short-story collection, not really a favorite genre of mine. A number of the stories are romances, and feature somewhat improbable meetings of a day or so that lead to love and proposals, generally from pink-of-the-ton wealthy gentlemen who have been sought for many years to young innocent misses who aren't aware that they are enchanting these worldly men. Still, a happy-ever-after romance is pleasing if one doesn't think too much about it! The book also includes a couple of excerpts from novels, including Venetia and Sylvester, neither of which I remember very well, although I think I've read them both. Will have to go find them!

Onward . . . five to go.

SPOILERS, of course:

71. Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer. This is the second book in the four-book series that begins with These Old Shades. Leonie and the Duke have a son, the Marquis of Vidal, Dominique. He's been chasing a pretty blonde, Sophia, who encourages him even though she (and her mother) know he doesn't intend marriage--they hope to trap him into it. When Vidal asks Sophia to run away with him, she agrees, but the note with the details about where and when to meet him falls into the hands of her older sister, Mary, who is desperate to prevent her sister's ruination. She decides to meet Vidal, wearing a mask and domino to conceal her true identity, and she is thrust into a coach, while Vidal rides horseback by the coach.

She finally finds herself at the waterfront, and in an inn there she reveals herself. Vidal is so infuriated he tells her he'll take her instead of her sister, and he forces her aboard a boat to France. Once there, she defends her honor by pulling out a pistol she's taken from the coach and shooting him in the arm. After a few days of nursing him, they continue to Paris, where Mary hopes to find a post as a governess. Vidal, realizing at this point that she's an honorable lady, vows that she must marry him; he finds his cousin Julianna in Paris (sent there to keep her away from her staid suitor, Comyn, who has followed her to Paris), and Vidal places Mary with Julianna while he seeks an English cleric to marry them.

Meanwhile, Julianna flirts outrageously with her French cousin, quarreling with Comyn, who, believing his engagement with her broken, offers his name to Mary. Reluctantly she agrees and the two depart for Dijon, where Vidal has found an English cleric acting as a tutor to a young Englishman. Comyn leaves a note for Vidal, though, so Vidal and Julianna (who regrets her quarrel with Comyn) are on their heels in no time.

Vidal's mother, Leonie, travels to find her son, accompanied by her brother-in-law, Lord Rupert. Despite his protests, they arrive at Dijon, and Mary overhears Leonie declare that her son should not marry her--Leonie assumes she is like her sister and mother, whom she had met in London. But Vidal tells his mother he loves Mary, before finding that she has fled the inn by stagecoach.

Mary's means are so limited she stops for the night at an inn along the way, and the landlord was in the midst of denying her a room (no luggage! no abigail!) when an elderly Englishman rescues her, ordering the groveling landlord to give her a room and inviting her to dinner. She accepts gratefully, particularly when he says he knows her grandfather, and over dinner tells him her story. It's not until Vidal bursts in on them that she realizes who she has been dining with--his father, the Duke of Avon. Avon arranges matters for the couple, and the book ends with the men all concerned with getting cases of burgundy and port back to England (Rupert has found them, but convinces Avon to pay for them).

I have the vaguest memory of the next book in the series, but I'm not sure that Vidal and Mary actually are "happy ever after"--will read it again soon and see what happens. But I have to read a book for the sci fi/fantasy book club first! It's Thursday evening . . .

72. Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer. I'm still trying to figure out why this is billed as the third book of the "Alistair-Audley tetralogy" on the website where I've read it--it appears to have no connection to the two previous books (about the Alistairs). Perhaps the fourth book will make all clear?

Judith Tavener and her brother Peregrine travel to London, finding themselves in a village where a boxing match is being held. Peregrine manages to hire a rackety cart to get him to the match, but when testing it the previous day, he and Judith encounter a well-dressed pink of the Ton on the road and are rather embarrassed by the encounter. When they get to London, they are appalled to learn that the man is their guardian, Lord Worth, whose father died shortly before theirs did (theirs thought he was appointing the father). Judith finds him unbearably high-handed with them, but at least has the comfort of her cousin Bernard, a constant squire.

Judith is a considerable heiress, besides being a gorgeous blonde, and she has the good fortune to attract the approval of Mr. Brummell. On his advice, she buys a high-perch phaeton and drives herself in the park, cutting a dash. She's besieged with suitors, given her fortune, but Lord Worth says that he won't allow either her or Peregrine to marry while he's their guardian. Peregrine falls for a lovely, shy young woman, Harriet, who everyone seems to approve of, and they do become engaged.

But Peregrine keeps narrowly avoiding death--first a duel is forced on him but stopped by the law, then he's shot at while on the road traveling (saved by his groom), and then he is briefly poisoned by some snuff given to him at Christmastime without a name attached to the gift. Lord Worth, who has a hobby of blending snuff, discovers this problem and substitutes a similar blend (but without poison). There's some suggestion that he could be the one behind these attempts, but it is another of Judith's suitors who wants her to have her brother's fortune as well as her own.

At the end of the book, Judith's twenty-first birthday occurs and Worth's guardianship is at an end, a circumstance he welcomes enthusiastically. And Perry, having been briefly kidnapped by Worth for his own safety, came back from a week sailing on Worth's yacht speaking seafaring slang and longing for a yacht of his own. Worth sends him off to Southampton to buy one as he sweeps Judith into his arms . . .

Three more books in the next two weeks. I am confident!

Easy peasy! Your reviews make me want to read/reread Heyer.

73. An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer. Okay, now it's clear why this is a tetralogy. In Brussels, Judith and Worth are living with Colonel Charles Audley, Worth's brother; Audley is on Wellington's staff. At one of the many balls given during the wait for Napoleon to leave France (attempting to retake his empire), Audley sees the beautiful and charismatic but reckless Lady Barbara (Bab) Alastair Childe, a twenty-five-year-old widow, and he falls immediately under her spell. (She is the granddaughter of Vidal and Mary, the couple from the second book of this series.) She has several brothers, including Lord Vidal, who is married, as well as George and Harry.

Lady Barbara does such shocking things as painting her toenails and flirting outrageously, disappearing with one roguish cavalier for an hour in the woods during a horseback ride. But Charles captivates her, too, and they become engaged. It's only when she is offended by Lady Harriet, Sir Peregrine's wife, that she flirts with Sir Peregrine, who is also entranced (it's a crush, basically). After much unhappiness on Lady Harriet's part, and weeping on her sister-in-law's (Judith's) shoulders, Charles goes to Sir Peregrine and convinces him to take his wife back to England immediately. He then quarrels with Lady Barbara over her flirtation, and the two break their engagement.

The book offers a detailed look at the plans made by Wellington and then the battle itself, giving troop movements and orders being carried around the area. It was a bit shocking to read, in the afterward, that the Allies lost approximately one man in four, while the French lost about one man in three--a terrible, bloody battle. Within the fictional story, Audley is wounded several times, and loses his left arm. Worth goes out to get him from among the field hospitals, and brings him back to the house, eventually having him seen by three different doctors (one provided by Wellington). Thus the threat of losing a leg is averted; Bab, who has been staying with Lord and Lady Worth, reunites with the man she loves, and her grandparents show up in time to learn of her re-engagement and the death of one of her brothers, Harry. (George has made a secret marriage to a young heiress, and that is found out, too.)

At a certain point, I simply started skimming the paragraphs about the battle--it just didn't matter to me that a troop moved here or there and fought (however bravely). There was one point at which an aide came up to Wellington and noted that Napoleon and his advisors were in sight and could be fired upon, and Wellington refuses indignantly. I'll admit that I didn't understand this reasoning--don't you cut the head off a snake and expect it to be quiet after that? but one explanation I read was that Wellington believed he had to defeat the French force itself rather than simply the man. And I'll admit that it's hard for me to appreciate the tale of men--and boys--killing each other; the idea that this is happening in Ukraine now is as horrifying as the tale of more than 200 years ago. Will humans ever be better than this?

74. Come Out to Play by Karen Janowsky. Read for work; a romance between a Georgian cellist and a northern boy who hasn't quite figured out his future.

One more to go and nine days to get it done! I think I've got this . . .

You can do it!

You bet I can!

75. Fools' Experiments by Edward M. Lerner. This is all about the dangers of creating artificial life. The entity begins by solving maze puzzles, but eventually things go horribly wrong. People use VR headsets to interact with the entity, but what they "see" as the entity varies, and it kills some of them. When it's finally defeated, an earlier copy is kept in an isolated lab and slowly taught to behave. But it has learned too well, and manipulates the humans to see it as less and less threatening . . . and eventually it gets out, too. Probably the main character is Doug, a man who, years ago, was in a car accident that claimed the life of his fiancee and one of his arms, which has been replaced by an advanced prosthetic. He builds a company to improve the prosthetic. Ultimately, the characters aren't really distinctive enough to stand out from each other, and the AI is (or AIs are?) probably the most individual of them all.

I've started four other books--so can I finish one or two of them before midnight tomorrow? We'll see!

Congrats on reaching 75!

Congrats on hitting the goal!

>89 ejj1955: Congratulations on reaching 75, Elizabeth!

Thank you all so much!

Didn't finish another one yet (later today, most likely), but it's time to close this year out and start the next--with, of course, the same goal. It'll be a challenge--a couple of long books are in the queue now. But it's just the beginning . . .