Looking for Your Next Book

 I have come to look forward to these Olav Audunssøn books! It is medieval Norway - the 1300's - a time of great upheaval for the country from internal politics to neighboring conflicts with Sweden and Denmark. And what is happening on a country-sized scaled is reflected in the life of Olav Audunssøn, a moderately wealthy land owner racked with guilt over past events and his estrangement from his son, and who wonders what the future holds for someone like himself, now in midlife and looking toward his waning years. Olav accepts an opportunity to be a part of a merchant ship headed to England - though this is clearly more about Olav trying to escape his past than it is about being on a merchant ship or traveling to England. In England Olav meets a woman, at church, who he at first thinks is his beloved Ingunn (though clearly it can't be). The resemblance is so striking to Olav that he imagines this woman with all of Ingunn's traits and when he believes she's inviting him...

One of the signs of a pop culture success is the 'jumping on the band-wagon' to capitalize on that success. I don't mean this to be as negative as it sounds. Take, for instance, a book of essays like this - Beyond the Wall - which has a number of people examining different aspects of the popular book and television series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. This book certainly wouldn't exist if the series weren't extremely popular (where are the books like this on Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber or Louis L'Amour's Sackett series, or Jan Karon's Mitford books? And honestly, they may exist, I can't say I've looked for them, but it's more likely that they haven't seen the pop culture success that Martin's books have seen. The up-side to this is that for those of us who enjoying digging a little deeper into a series, or who appreciate new viewpoints or learning something new, we have that opportunity through books like ...

Book sixteen in the October Daye series - a solid urban fantasy series by one of the top writers in the genre! October Daye is now married (to the King of Cats!) and life is supposed to become much more domestic - which might terrify October somewhat since she's never been prepared for this kind of life. After all, what need is there for domesticity when you are a Hero among the Fae? But trouble can come from family and friends. If your Toby Daye ... especially from family and friends! While some of Toby's family have certainly been a thorn in her side, she has, at least, known where they stand and how much she can or cannot rely on them. But deception from long-time friends might blindside October. In the opening pages of the book, author Seanan McGuire notes that the events that unfold here in book 16 are something that she's planned from the very beginning of the series. This just adds to my already high esteem for McGuire. I mean, sixteen books?  That's a long game...

If you were to combine a sci-fi read like Logan's Run with a concept like Russian nesting dolls, and you might get a book like Justin Cronin's The Ferryman . Prospera is a remote paradise, created by a mystery person known only as The Designer. In Prospera, citizens live long, fulfilling lives, away from the horrors of a crumbling world. Citizens have an embedded chip that measures the quality of their lives - physical and mental - and when that chip registers that the quality of life falls below 10%, it is time for that person to 'retire' - meaning to take the  ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are prepared to start all over. Proctor Bennett has had a good career as a Ferryman - someone who helps guide a retiring citizen through the retiring process (occasionally enforcing it) - until the day he has to shepherd his own father, who does not go quietly and who leaves Proctor wi...

 Zaxony (Zax) Delatree lives an unusual life.  Every time he falls asleep he wakes up in a new world. Every waking day a new adventure - sometimes pleasant, sometimes life-threatening. It had been a lonely existence until he had met Ana - a companion who was one of The Sleepers - a group of travelers also existing between the worlds. But Ana had gotten irretrievably left behind on a world long ago and Zax now has Minna, a new companion who has found a way to travel the worlds with Zax. The good news for the duo is that they are no longer being pursued through the worlds by Lector, a psychotic man who wanted full control of the ability to world hop. The bad news is that there is a cult of travelers who know the method of world-hopping (a parasite in the bloodstream that lives between dimensions and releases a toxin that provides the strange travelling). The cult are servants to The Prisoner - a being trapped between dimensions - and they believe that they only way to free their...

Gabriela Rose is a Recovery Agent.  If you have something lost or missing, then Gabriela is your go-to person to recover it for you. In her first adventure, by popular author Janet Evanovich, Gabriela is working on behalf of her own family. She's in need of money to prevent her family from having their home wiped off the map. And big money means high risk and Gabriela is always willing to take that risk. For this adventure she's in search of the Ring of Solomon. Gabriela has tracked legends and rumors regarding the Ring and she's confident that with the help of a rare map leading to a different archeological site that she believes holds the key to the final resting place of the Ring, she'll be successful. But that map is currently in the hands of her ex-husband, Rafer. Gabriela and Rafer couldn't be more different - where she is driven, he is relaxed - and he insists on traveling with her in her search. But being together only serves to remind Gabriela just why he...

I am, admittedly, a sucker for just about anything related to our National Parks and National Forests system - especially books - so this immediately caught my attention. Author Greg M. Peters offers some insight to various aspects of our (U.S.) National Forests system.  Peters has had a long career with the Forests - though not as a ranger - and he's able to draw on some insider knowledge. There's nothing too scurrilous however - Peters was a faithful employee, not a disgruntled one. The book covers a lot of ground (pun intended) - perhaps a little too much so as we get a little bit of information about a lot of topics in a brief book (under 300 pages and full of photos and illustrations). We get 'the story of Eastern National Forests' and the 'art and science of growing trees' in the first two chapters and the 'restoring America's grasslands' in the third. The fourth chapter, about the 'Native Voices' and the challenge of Indigenous People...

 I'm pretty sure I've never read any Ben Bova before this, unless I've read a short story in an anthology sometime back in the 1970's or so. I'm not exactly sure why this is other than the simple fact that there's too many books and too little time and choices of what to read have to be made. Bova's books always appeared to be more technical, hard science fiction (I suppose I based this on nothing more than book covers that always had rocket ships on them) and I was more interested in reading fantasy like Howard, Zelazny, and Ellison. But this book popped up as a potential ARC (advance reading copy) for me so I requested it (despite having a rocket ship on the cover). I figured it was about time I gave Bova a try and according to reports, this was the last book he was working on when he passed away. Sam Gunn, Jr., as you  might guess, is the son of a gunn ... Sam Gunn.  His mother always told him that Sam Gunn, the famous explorer and entrepreneur, was his f...

I am a big fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure concept and series of books.  This is only slightly unusual because when the series brand was publishing, in the 1980's and early 1990's, I was not doing very much reading. But the idea of a reader getting to dictate the path of a journey is appealing to me (why are all these books targeted to young readers - do adults not want to choose a path?).  When I saw this new Choose Your Own Adventure book, I was eager to get a copy. What I didn't realize was that this was a graphic novel, which, when I opened the book, I thought was going to be distracting. But it's quite the opposite. Adding the art enhances this! It's hard to define the story when the book is actually many stories in one but the general concept, as you might guess from the title, is an undersea adventure. From the natural world of large aquatic animals to the fantasy world of underwater bipeds and their kingdoms, these adventures can take you to many places...

 Oghi is just waking from a coma - the result of a car accident that took his wife's life. Oghi is paralyzed and disfigured and he is left alone in his bed with nothing to do but remember and reflect on his life. He thinks often of his wife and realizes that she was never able to realize any of her goals, except for one - her garden in front of their home. One day Oghi notices that his mother-in-law is in the front yard, digging up his wife's garden and digging larger and larger holes. When Oghi tries to question his mother-in-law about it, she only answers obliquely that that she is finishing what her daughter started. With nothing to do but reflect, Oghi imagines the worst possibilities and terror takes over. I love psychological horror. The mind can often go to darker places than any story and that's what happens both to Oghi and to the reader of this book. Not knowing what is happening is far darker and more terrifying to Oghi. I've seen this book often compared to ...

Becca is a 17-year-old who has spent most of her life taking care of her little brother, Ryland. This is more than a simple sister's oversight - Ryland has 'issues,' not the least of which are the voices he constantly hears in his head. Their father abandoned them when Ryland was very young and their mother has done her best, but she has never understood Ryland the way that Becca does. And despite looking out for Ryland, Becca manages to graduate high school two years early. When representatives from a distant school show up to take Ryland away, Becca has a fit. It takes the very calm, honest demeanor of one of the men, explaining that Ryland has special abilities that he doesn't even know about, along with their promise to let Becca come along until Ryland gets settled The school is much more than Becca imagined and Ryland immediately finds that he fits in - he's not an outcast, and is ready for Becca to leave, which hurts her feelings a bit.  However, Becca has me...

 Hallstein Thordsson returns to his home in Iceland having spent seven years in exile . On his return he finds that all is not well and that his past still hovers over his family. He discovers that his stepmother has a suitor and she's not interested but the man will not leave her alone. Hallstein's return threatens the suitor's power and all of Iceland may suffer with the weight of the Exile's return. I ... I really don't know what to make of this short graphic novel. I have such mixed feelings about this. The story is quite compelling - it's not an action/adventure story as one might think, given the title and the cover, but rather a human interest story. And I liked it.  But ...  It grew dull. The pacing of the story is slow and methodical all the way through. And the art does not help this. Imagine going to a movie and every single scene began the same way - with a long shot, slowly pulling in to a cottage on a shore, birds flying over the water.  Every scen...

 Jian has spent his entire life living in luxury. It was prophesied that he would become the hero who would ultimately defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom. That prophecy makes him a hero before he even does anything and he's treated like a hero just for being born. He is also treated to many, many different teachers to help him train in multiple forms of combat. But when Jian and his entourage are visited by an old woman, Taishi - the only person to have faced Khan in combat and live (although she lost an arm in the conflict) - who is stunned to find that the prophesied hero is nothing more than a pampered baby. When he spars with soldiers for his training, it is clear to Taishi that the soldiers (generally old, slow men whose best days are behind them) are holding back to make Jian look and feel powerful. The one-armed, old woman inserts herself in the session to show Jian, and his teachers, that the prophecy might just be in trouble. The ...

 We're in the 29th book in the Stephanie Plum series and Ms. Plum is just as energized and confused (romantically) as ever. Monday's aren't the best of days on a good week, but when Stephanie shows up for work at Vinnie's Bail Bonds and Connie, the office manager isn't there, the day gets worse. Connie's as regular and dependable as a fine Swiss watch. A bit later Stephanie receives a phone call confirming that the day just gets worse and worse.  Connie has been kidnapped and the kidnappers want Stephanie to turn over a special coin. Said coin was left in the office as collateral for a man who was released on bond and then murdered. Stephanie has no problem turning over a coin for Connie's life - but the coin isn't anywhere in the office. Stephanie and her 'team' - which include her grandmother, her friend Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and her other boyfriend Ranger - have to track down the strange coin, learn its value, and make the exchange for ...

Who isn't fascinated by the ancient Egyptian culture? Ever since the grade school days, when I wrapped my G.I. Joe in gauze and made a sarcophagus around him out of clay, detail painted like the King Tut photos we studied in school, I've never turned down an opportunity to visit an Egyptian exhibit. And yet I fully admit that I know very little about the era beyond what I've learned in school and on exhibit information panels. Husband and wife Egyptologist team, John and Colleen Darnell not only share some insight from their research but offer up a narrative of what life might have been like for the royals and 'gods on earth.' This is the second time in my recent memory that I've encountered a non-fiction book which includes a fiction narrative based on the research ( The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown, reviewed May 2021). I'm not sure if this has been going on for awhile or if this is a new fad. When done well, it can be quite effective. But to be done...

There have been changes in the jazz music scene and Edgar Pool (nicknamed "The Horn" by the young cats) has straddled a couple of the big changes, all the while staying true to his own sound. But jazz is more than just a sound - it's a way of life. The music, the booze, the drugs, and of course the women ... Edgar pushed the limits on all of these. For a man out of time (or perhaps ahead of his time), life is lonely. This book is an exceptional example of capturing a mood. There's a story here and it's a depressing story, and the tone of the book hovers throughout. It starts with the opening sentence and never lets up. Consider that it was four o’clock of a Monday afternoon, and under the dishwater-gray window shade—just the sort of shade one sees pulled down over the windows of cheap hotels fronting the sooty elevateds of American cities where the baffled and the derelict loiter and shift their feet—under this one shade, in the window of a building off Fifty-thir...

 Tesla Crane is a social media icon. An inventor and heiress, it is nearly impossible for her to go anywhere without people recognizing her and posting photos of her. This makes for an awkward honeymoon, which is what Tesla is currently trying to enjoy on a cruise liner between the moon and Mars (along with her husband, Shalmaneser "Shal" Steward, and their dog Gimlet). Tesla is trying to keep a low profile, and staying in the suite for the honeymoon helps, but when someone on the ship is found murdered and Shal is the prime suspect, it will be hard to stay in the shadows.  It's especially difficult when the ship's security team won't look beyond their prime suspect. Fortunately Tesla and Shal can afford a high-profile, high-priced, highly-efficient attorney who gets them some freedom while aboard ship so that they can do their own investigation - which is clearly necessary given the ineptness of the cruise-liner security! I haven't read a lot of Mary Robinett...

 I'm a latecomer to the Joe Pickett series of books, but that's okay - you really don't have to know much about the characters in this book. Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is called to ranch to investigate what might be an animal carcass out by a distant fence.  It turns out to be the burned body of a neighbor - a loner who worked as a fishing guide. Shortly before the call, Marybeth Pickett, Joe's wife - the head librarian in town - discovers an unusual parcel outside the library door.  It turns out to be the photo album of a Nazi from World War II. While Joe tries to uncover more information about what appears to be the murder of the local guide, Marybeth pages through the album. She's curious as to who dropped it off, why, and what, if any, significance there is to the figures in the album. About the time they learn that the deceased man was the son of a WWII soldier who was part of a group of soldiers who fought to The Eagles Nest - Hitler's retreat in the ...

 It seems like, as people get older, they typically fit into two categories ... the cranky and the reflective.  Here, actor/author/singer/songwriter William Shatner gets reflective.  Philosophically reflective. And why not? Shatner has had a good, long life to look back on. There's not much about William Shatner that we don't already know.  A star from the classic, much-loved 1960's television show, Star Trek , trekkies and trekkers (fans of the show) often know more about the stars and their work and lives than the stars themselves (as Shatner mentions at one point in this book). But while there might be hundreds (or thousands?) of people following every moment of Shatner's life, the one thing we can't possibly know is: what is Shatner thinking? Shatner, now in his 90's with a 70 year career on stage and screen, can look back and reflect on what has been, but perhaps more interestingly, what is yet to come. He waxes philosophic on his early life as an actor, bu...

 It is the 1970's and perhaps there has never been an era where the generation gap has been so pronounced or more obvious. It may have been in the 60's when Jack Weinberg declared "Don't trust anyone over 30," but it was the decade that followed that took this to heart. The conflict in the generation gap perhaps shows itself most strongly when two people in different generations are forced to work together - such as in a police force. In Carolyn Weston's murder mystery, Poor Poor Ophelia, homicide detective Al Krug is newly partnered with Detective Casey Kellog - a college-educated former surfer. Kellog is the youngest detective on the Santa Monica police force. To say that Krug and Kellog go about their work in vastly different ways is an understatement. The pair are called upon to solve a gruesome murder - a woman is found floating in the nearby bay. Around her neck is a plastic bag containing a law firm member's business card. Soling this should be stra...

Jes has amazing gravity-controlling powers.  He has been raised in an institution that has been studying his abilities.  But the institution has not been kind to him and when he finally sees an opportunity to get away from the institute and off planet, he takes it, not caring where it brings him as long as it is 'away.' He finds himself alone and moneyless on a pleasure moon. Making inquiries as to where he might find work, Jes finds himself talking to people at a local circus when there is an accident and some riggers fall from a great height.  Jes 'reaches out' to control the gravity around them and brings them down safely.  He is hired immediately and his talents are used in a variety of ways, including artistically - letting acrobats perform seemingly in mid-air. Jes enjoys the work and makes very good friends among the performers and crew at the circus. But the circus folks aren't the only ones who know of Jes' abilities. A local politician/crime-lord boss ...