I used the form a month or so again and have completely forgotten my selections, although I remember that I had to fiddle with them a bit because my first choices had no matches. Proof that I'm weird, I suppose. But finally the all-knowing computer spat out Strange Blood: A Crime Novel (Forensic Psychologist Megan Rhys Crime Novels)
by Lindsay Jayne Ashford, so I spoke to my libraries computer and had it sent over.
by Lindsay Jayne Ashford, so I spoke to my libraries computer and had it sent over.
Strange Blood is the second book about Dr Megan Rhys, a Welsh forensic psychologist called in by the police during violent murders. Ashford moves around a bit, putting her spotlight on various people, and each time getting intimately inside the character's viewpoint so that I quickly felt I knew them, even as they made mistakes. The crime fighters have lives outside their jobs; Rhys worries about her new boyfriend, both about his loyalty and whether her family and colleagues will approve; her sister is as important to her as the case, and when those two worries start to collide she reacts instantly. Occasionally we dip into the killer's mind too, so we know that more badness is coming.
I liked the sense of the detectives and reporters as people, but I found some of the suspense manipulative. There conflict with the boyfriend seems forced, and I found myself unsympathetic with Rhys's reaction. Although I liked the individual scenes and found hte characterization skillful, I'm not enough of a crime fan to want to continue, despite the enjoyable loose ends left by the author (I dislike books that magically tie everything up). Also, the main motivation of the bad guy was that he was crazy, which is a bit weak.
, Josh Whedon's first graphic novel. I have no idea of the chronology of the other comic books with his name on it, so I'm not sure if this one came first or was just the first one that he dreamed up on his own, but I had a lot of fun reading it.
, goes to second oldest Skye, who reluctantly assumes the job of responsible older sister so Rosalind can have a relaxing vacation with a friend while their parents trot off on a delayed honeymoon. A kindly aunt takes the remaining three and their friend Jeffrey to a small cottage in Maine (new state! Yay!) where they make new friends, collect golf balls, and react to one of the giant coincidences that can only happen in children's books of this genre.
features a hard-boiled bar owner who cradles her grief for her brother close to her heart. She's tough as nails and pounds that home over and over again. This is standard urban fantasy, especially when the sexy and conflicted demon shows up to tempt her. Not that she's inclined towards temptation, being tough as nails and all that, but it can't hurt to listen, can it?
is like an onion. Maybe one of the sweet Walla Walla Onions that are the state vegetable of Washington (there's a fact we like to get into every conversation. Now I just have to work in the state grass). The framing device is the thin story of Montana's school governor contemplating shutting down the one-room schools so that the danger of Sputnik can be fought with hours of school bus riding towards large comprehensive buildings. This reminds the narrator of his one-room school house, not during the years of poor teaching but during the year class was taught by the unusual brother of his housekeeper.
with new and adult perspectives. My more recent memory comes from the excerpt in my son's third grade reader; I was astonished that it included her stitching a new skirt rather than battling an amphibious giant octopus across the beach (my most vivid memory, from my elementary school reader). Rereading the entire book, I see why the sewing chapter is also important; not only does it show her ingenuity but it also depicts her coming to terms with her solitude; she still wants to look pretty even when there is no audience for her charms.
. I frequently found myself laughing out loud at a blunt declaration of the fashion designer/sorceress, or the dual interests of the Fire Queen, who studied couture with the same dedication as her understanding of dragon fighting.
uses the conceit of a conversation with dim neighbor Daryl to talk over various philosopher's theories of life, death, afterlife, and self, interposed with jokes and comments from more palatable experts such as Woody Allen. I've seen most of the short quotes before, and didn't learn anything from the rather shallow discussions of Heidegger, Plato, or other big names brought in to impress.
a re-read for X and me but a new book for P and probably one of the first books he's read from the adult side of the library. Everyone enjoyed it, so it satisfied our first rule of family book club, and it was interesting talking about it.
was bittersweet since it is the last. Although set in the same world, all the characters are new, although they mention people involved in the other books. It's on a bit of a smaller scale; the story stays with the boat sailing up the river, concentrating on Eliss, the orphan finding her place in the society on the boat. Eliss learns to see clearly, first because of her role as river observer, trained to identify any snags under the water, but she also looks at Krelan, another new hire with a dubious background, at the captain, who is certainly more than he looks like, and with effort, at her younger brother, whose needs and home may be different from her own.
, follows the standard Dimity path of setting up a farcical situation, having Lori notice the sinister implications of the new characters' actions, and then having a nice resolution instead of the malicious motives Lori projected. It's an interesting twist on the usual practice of having dead bodies show up all over the small village where the cosy mystery protagonist lives, but after all this niceness the sight of the occasional (fictional) mass murderer seems almost welcome. C- 
doesn't do that, and in fact gives out the criminals early, which is a good thing because it's annoying when Eve is the last one to figure stuff out. The suspense is all about how to convict the baddies who don't seem to leave much evidence lying about.
lightly skims over a volcano. It's not that the book is frothy; the characters are as angsty and fraught as expected in a junior high school book. The stakes are quite high -- a school bully has poached Kirsten's best friend, and Kirsten's mother urges her to quickly conform and get in the popular crowd before her social loser status is set in stone. Walker has received a scholarship to their posh school, and it's a bit hard for him to fit in socially.
from the library because I'm a big Tanya Huff (Canadian) fan and I really like her stories about Henry Fitzpatrick, vampire and romance writer. Her story was the last one in this set, and it was fine, although it was about some of his friends, not him. But the book is a collection of Canadian authors, so it felt very exotic and mysterious to me. Most stories were very short, so even the dull ones didn't drag too much, and either had a fun twist or a good world-building idea. And of course, I got to play an old childhood game with exuberance -- "BOTH" I'd chortle when I spotted the vampire in each selection.
, was a fun read,but I think I'll enjoy even more the next time I read it. Obviously it is time for a complete reread of the Vlad books, probably accompanied by Jo Walton's reviews at
on a later trip to the library.
, her foray in YA fiction, builds on her dabbling with magic in her regency romance period. It's an alternate history that inserts its new ideas without changing anything else, which makes no sense if you think about it but does simplifies the setting. Magic is real, but the gentry in regency England regard it as crass, and any well-born child (such as Tory, our heroine) who displays talent gets shipped off to a strict boarding school that promises to stamp out such low-class tendencies. Meanwhile Napoleon rambles about in France, making some of the kids wonder if magic might help protect England from invasion. Suddenly Tory stumbles into a time portal, and finds herself in a pre-Dunkirk coastal village. Suddenly the idea of using magic to save one's country is no longer theoretical.
for one of my final books. It dragged a bit at the end, which made it rather a poor choice, but was also easy to read as kids popped in and out while mowing the lawn or trying to fix art equipment or wanted to know where I hid the frozen pizzas (in the freezer).
. Bear is a very poor choice for reading in dribs and drabs, because she writes for an intelligent reader and doesn't signpost every detail, but Hammered never grabbed my throat and clawed its way out of the nightstand pile. It's about honor and loyalty and patriotism when your country is going to the dogs (the country in this case being Canada), and the family that you love and the family that tries to kill you. Even dipping into it in twenty five page chunks was immersive, and I'm glad I finished up the last hundred pages in a gulp.
by 
was written before her current popular Mercy Thomson series; it's fantasy, not urban fantasy. It shows Briggs strengths of interesting characters and competent world building, but also her weaknesses of idealized boyfriends for her women. It's been a fun book to dip my toes in for the past few months, and a perfect book to read at the park to get some benefit out of the wonderful weather that showed up just in time for this book challenge.