Looking for Your Next Book

 I've really been enjoying Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series (I just recently read and reviewed book #9 in that series) and it's because of those book that when I saw he had a collection of short stories available, I really wanted to read it.  I love the short story format. Because I'm really only familiar with McDevitt through one series, I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy his short stories but as it turns out, I didn't need to be too concerned.  The stories are fantastic.  For no particular reason, I have mentally categorized McDevitt as a 'hard' science fiction author (which typically means [to me] an excess of scientific jargon explaining, or justifying, how life works in these worlds, or at the very least, stories where the science matters) and hard science is not my interest. What a surprise, then, to read a story like "Arcturean Nocturne" - a boy-meets-girl story.  George just wants to go to space but on earth, Stephanie wants to co...

Eben Elliot, the associate curator at the Guggenheim Museum, is planning to bring a Hilma af Klint (not Klimt!) show to New York.  Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is recognized as the artist who first produced abstract paintings despite the recognition typically to men by art historians. In his research, Elliot discovers that Hilma was interested in the occult and, along with some friends, would hold séances in order to bring about spirits that might help them become better artists. Hilma referred to the group as "The Five"  - all women artists who had been mostly forgotten. Until now. This book goes back and forth between Hilma, in her time (early 1900's), and Eben Elliot's work today. This transitioning didn't work quite as well as it was intended. We didn't really need to to be told what Eben discovered and then go back in time to relive that discovery. I did, however, really like getting some background on (to me) a little-known artist. How often have we lea...

 It's hard to imagine anyone in today's society who is in any way active on social media or watches science fiction or fantasy television or movies to not be familiar with 'cosplay'. Cosplay is a big deal and it's been around a lot longer than people might imagine.  What we are mostly familiar with are the fans with incredibly elaborate recreations of their favorite Hollywood characters (often - but not always - superheroes) in full costume and gear walking around a comic convention and spotlighted on the evening news for a closing 'isn't that fun' piece. Given the popularity, I'm only surprised it's taken this long to get a book, this complete, out in the world. Today's cosplayers have resources unparalleled to what those of us, who 'showed up in costume' at small regional conventions back in the 1970's.  The internet itself allows fans to find the people who can help design and make all the pieces necessary for that perfect Capt...

 It has been over a century since the war between the humans and the 'Mutes' (the only other known race of intelligent beings in the universe - they don't speak but communicate through telepathy).  Despite vast exploration, due in part to faster-than-light travel, the universe has turned out to be quite empty, with the Mutes the only other known life form. But when an explorer vessel in the Orion Nebula reports of a village on a small planet, interest is high. Interest is replaced by intrigue when a follow-up mission arrives a few months later and there are no signs of the village. How does a town completely vanish - buildings and all? This is a question that Alex Benedict, archeologist/explorer/antiquities dealer wants to know as well.  And of course, if there is any small artefact left behind, it could bring a good price at auction. Alex and his associate Chase Kolpath and Alex's uncle Gabe head out for the long voyage and will get more than they bargained for. I have...

 The problem with being an ancient god, even a Norse one, is that people stop believing in you are your power.   It is a thousand years after Ragnarok and the magic that the gods once wielded is dying out. Reggin is a young woman with some power but she is enslaved to Asger, a powerful fire demon being.  Her life is rough and she fights just to survive.  Eirik Halvorsen hasn't had things much easier. When his parents died, he and his sister were left in the care of their step-father - an angry, abusive man who now wants to take control of the Halvorsen land. But Eirik fights this, even going to court. In the settlement, he now will have one year to set sail and find a lost land. If he fails his stepfather gets the property. Eirik will meet Reggin on his journey and help her to escape her enslavement and she will head to a land that might still have magic left in it.  Is there any magic that will help Eirik maintain control of the family farm? I am definitel...

 1920's New York City. What a great time to be an active, young woman. But Vivian Kelly has been feeling stuck in a rut. She lives in a tenement building with her sister and she works long hours every day sewing in a dress shop. To escape this dull routine, Vivian enjoys the secret nightlife available in the big city. The Nightingale is an underground dance hall. Liquor flows so freely it would hardly seem to be illegal.  She's made friends with the bartender who will slip her a free glass of champagne now and then and she can dance the Charleston to her hearts content. Until one day when she discovers a body behind the club. Then a surprise raid on the club by the police (a surprise because there had been an agreement between the club owners and the police) and Vivian begins to realize that perhaps the body wasn't just a random vagrant, but someone of importance to people of power in the city. Vivian comes to realize that the people with money have more power than she ever...

We like to think that the scandalous behavior we see in the Netflix series, Bridgerton , is the folly of a writer's imagination (specifically that of Julia Quinn, author of the book series). But fiction so often can't hold a candle to the truth. Author Catherine Curzon does a deep dive in Britain's lascivious history and shares a number titillating tidbits that sometimes make Bridgerton seem quite tame by comparison. Nobility in the Georgian era appeared to have a strong libido - for anyone other than their partners. There were lots of rumors and lots of suspicions of adulterous behavior, but Curzon does a fine job with backing up much of this book with historical documentation. This comes primarily from newspaper accounts and legal trials ... husbands and wives would go to court to 'prove' infidelity (which was often the testimony of maids and servants as to seeing or hearing someone visiting rooms late at night) and the more prominent the persons the more the news...