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 Earth, 1975 ... but with a different history than the one we currently know.  It's been 25 years since man first walked on the moon, and 18 years since a space fleet stopped an alien invasion.   Enter Brooklyn Lamontagne. A 20-something unskilled dude floundering through life. To avoid a prison sentence for a stupid crime of 8-track tape theft that went wrong and left one man dead, Brooklyn agrees to join the EOF (Extra-Orbital Forces) for a ten year stint. Little does he know what he's in for. From bootcamp in Texas to special training in the Arctic, to the moon for computer work, to deep space on a ship where the entire crew are gay men, to being a pin-cushion for a mad-scientist doctor experimenting on expendable men, to being shot and presumed and left for dead in space, to being prisoner and sent to work in a camp on Mercury. It is there, on Mercury, that Brooklyn learns about the aliens who invaded decades earlier and, more importantly, of potential plans...

 Carson Stone has had a rough life. He's a wanted man, a former thief, but what he really wants in life is to build his own ranch house and live a peaceful life. To help him earn his stake for a piece of land, he heads west to claim the bounty on a claim-jumper. Carson gets an old pal, Colby Tate, to join him on this honest escapade and along the way, they help a family defend themselves from some dishonest claim-jumpers.  Carson discovers a list on one of the now-dead criminals - that list is a series of names of good, honest, upstanding citizens who are being targeted for death because of a part they played in the capture of a criminal gang. Carson knows he can't just leave this good people to die at the hands of criminals, so he'll do whatever it takes to protect them ... even putting on a badge. There's also a man buying up property around the town, at a very low price so that he can turn around and sell that land to the railroad for a healthy profit.  That man has ...

 Welcome to Liberty. An independent state, free from all the politics and machinations of the United States' government. However, its citizens recognize that it's simply a matter f swapping one government for another and here paranoia runs high - and for good reason. Eleanor navigates her free state while exploring her newly discovered (or newly defined) magical powers. She's invited to join the local witch coven, who will help her understand and use her powers. But there's a testing period where the coven needs to get to know Eleanor and she them. Eleanor is given a task by the coven leader to help another coven search for a missing witch, Daria. Daria may be linked to the water shortage that Liberty is currently experiencing. Eleanor wouldn't mind this mission, but she's stuck with Stan, a beer-drinking, talking cat. Stan used to be Eleanor's co-worked until she transformed him into his current form after an unpleasant incident. This book is one of the wil...

I am late to the Enola Holmes bandwagon, but having recently seen the first Netflix movie, which I quite enjoyed, I was thrilled to read a book or two.  This is the eighth book in the series, but my first journey into the series (other than the film). Enola Holmes is the (much) younger sister of the noted detective, Sherlock Holmes. While their mother raised Enola to be every bit as observant and deductive as Sherlock, living in Victorian England doesn't provide opportunities for a women to use these skills. In fact, Enola isn't even allowed to be her own person. Since their mother died, Sherlock is technically responsible for his sister until she legally becomes an adult (and presumably will marry). Fortunately he recognizes her abilities (even if he doesn't always admit it) and gives her some leeway.  Enola's friend, Lady Cecily Alastair, has often needed Enola's skills to rescue her from some of her father's plans for her and with the start of this book, Enol...

 There's a corporate structure to working in Hell, and Peyote Trip knows this better than most.  He is a dealmaker, currently working on the fifth level where the basic utilities don't work and haven't for centuries and the only thing to drink is Jägermeister. Another dealmaker is Cal. They share some of their work and frustrations, but since they both want to move up they keeps their tips and tricks to themselves. Fortunately, Peyote sees a way to move up the corporate ladder and there couldn't be a better time for that chance. Peyote needs one more member of the Harrison family to sell their soul, which should have been easier than it's been. But with their heading off to their lake house, with Ruth, the best friend of the daughter Mickey, going along, the family dysfunction will be at its peak - a great time for making a deal with the devil! All is not fair on earth or in hell and things are not always as they seem on the surface. This is such a promising story. ...

 Copper is a fifteen year old boy coming to understand how much his life is changing (or will need to change) after the recent death of his father. Copper's uncle provides the moral lessons and life guidance for Copper, generally through writings in a notebook. This is a very simple book and, as many other reviewers on Goodreads have noted, it is possibly overly didactic. The uncle's notebook entries (which are more like letters) are full of "this is how a good person behaves" kinds of lessons and almost as directly as that. A modern reader will likely roll their eyes at the directness of this. But ... 1) This isn't so much for the adult reader, interested because of either Neil Gaiman's name on the cover (he wrote the foreword) or because it is named as the favorite childhood book of a noted anime master.  This is for very young readers. And ... 2) Is there anything actually wrong with getting these messages across to young readers? Yes, it's didactic to ...

 It's a little hard to believe, but at one time I was a reluctant reader. In my younger years I really didn't care to read and while my parents brought me a barrage of books from the local library, nothing seemed interesting to me.  This is likely why I have never read a Hardy Boys novel until now. Dover Publications has reissued this first book in the Hardy Boys series, The Tower Treasure, and because it's Dover, we know that they won't re-edit or cut anything to try to be more P.C.  This is the book just as it was in the 1927 original edition (in part this is because the 1927 edition has just entered the public domain [in the U.S.] in 1923). The home of one of the town's wealthier citizen's is robbed and their caretaker, Henry Robinson, is accused of committing the crime - all circumstantial evidence points to him.  But brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, sons of the well-known detective Fenton Hardy, don't believe Henry would do such a thing.  They are friends ...

 Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is not a member of the magical elite. Nor is he an Auditor, after being kicked out of the training program for being "not Department material." Still, he's convinced he's got skills and he hasn't given up hope that he'll still be able to prove himself. But it soon won't be a case of 'hoping' to prove himself, but a necessity. Grimshaw's mentor, sometimes known as the most dangerous witch alive, is murdered, just down the street from where Grimshaw works and now the Auditors have put Grimshaw as their number one suspect. With Auditors on his tail, supposedly the best of the best, Grimsby forms an alliance with 'the Huntsman' aka Mayflower - a retired legend - and a creature from 'Elsewhere' named Wudge and he'll need to step up his own game to stay ahead of the Auditors and try to find the one who actually killed his mentor. I knew, going in to this book, that this wasn't a Jim Butcher (author o...

 Two stories in one ...  The Environmental Rescue Team is an old organization dedicated to preventing the collapse of ecosystems. Destry is an analyst with the E.R.T. currently working on the planet Sask-E to terraform an earth-like world. Her companion is a moose named, Whistle. But Destry discovers an ancient city on this supposedly barren world, hidden inside an old volcano. She knows what the E.R.T. wants her to do, but Destry is the one on the planet and she'll need to make a decision, which will have repercussions one way or the other, depending on her decision. Jump ahead 700 years and Misha, Destry's protege, is now building a planet-wide transit system, working with Sulfur - an engineer from Volcano City. The two discover a secret about the corporation that has been buying up massive amounts of land around the planet. The information is too valuable and important not to share, but too dangerous to do anything other than keep it quiet. What will they do? This book has ...

 The nineteenth century ... a boring time for civilization, right? Literature was dry and unimaginative. Entertainment was stodgy theatre or the comics in the newspapers. This is how we generally look back a little more than a century, isn't it? Historian and essayist Joachim Kalka looks at the 19th Century through a series of essays and compares and contrasts our 21st Century interests in music, film, literature, and art with that of our ancestors in the 19th Century. Our interests are not so different and the way in which we manage to enjoy these interests is not really as different as we might think. Kalka has a clear interest in this subject and digs into the past with professorial vigor. Our interests and the manner in which we seek to entertain ourselves are not so different. Only the means by which our entertainment is produced has truly changed, is what these essays boil down to. But rather than say so, directly, Kalka expounds with what is too often an essayists flair...

 I'm not sure what possessed to request this graphic novel - I haven't been reading a lot of graphic novels lately, and I'm not a fan of the manga style of art, but there was something in the description that caught my attention, and I'm so glad it did! Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection is a graphic 'novel' collection of short stories by Junji Ito.  The author/artist's name means nothing to me but might to dedicated graphic novel or manga readers. What I found, though, were nine wonderfully dark, often creepy, always twisted, stories. We start with the titular story, "Tombs," which really sets the tone for the book, letting the reader know that things are going to be a bit weird as we enter a town where tombstone markers are everywhere - even in the middle of the streets. The tombs grow where people died. The stories all have this dark, Twilight Zone vibe. Some are incredibly dark, bloody, and creepy, like "The Strange Tale of the Tunnel...

 It's 1963, the Cold War, and the KGB have a plan for Russia to come out on top ... they are recruiting young people who are able to read minds for a secret, psychic espionage program they've developed.  Recruitment is a gentle word - it is not safe for anyone who shows signs of mind reading to be present in the Soviet Union.  Premier Nikita Khrushchev insists on protecting  the Soviet Space Program and will use any means possible, including harnessing the powers of the country's youth. Yulia is a a tough, lone young adult who refuses to allow the government to control her and her future. She's never told anyone about her abilities, she's even kept it a secret from her family, but somehow the government is on to her and one day she returns home to find her mother and brother missing and a KGB agent waiting for her. For the sake of her family, Yulia is 'recruited' - like so many others - to use her powers for the good of the country and she's trained alon...