End of year

I can not believe that another year is nearly ended.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that the new year is a good one.  I know it will be a good one for reading. 
But first, let's have a few of the final books for the year. 
Like to eat?  Like to cook?  Like to watch cooking shows?  I collect cook book and have watched cooking shows for years.    Remember the Galloping Gourmet?  The Frugal Gourmet? Fort Wayne's own Marcia Adams with her series on PBS?     Probably some of the favorite shows I watched were hosted by the redoubtable Julia Childs.  She fascinated me.  With her cooking style.  With her personality.  And she definitely had lived a fascinating life.  I have her cookbooks as well as a books of her life.  But this latest book I read featured the correspondence she had with Avis DeVoto, wife of the writer Bernard DeVoto.  It kept me enthralled. 
AS ALWAYS, JULIA, THE LETTERS OF JULIA CHILD & AVIS DEVOTO,edited by Joan Reardon  (Houghton Miflin Harcourt, 978-0-547-417 begins in 1952 71-4), begins in 19352 when Child read an essay by Bernard DeVoto  on American knives and writes him a letter.  Avis is in charge of her  husband's mail, answers her.  And so begins a friendship and letter writing  exchange that provides an intriguing look into the lives of these two couples as well as an accidental  but open look at the cultural and political climate of the times.  The letters chronicle the life Julia is leading in France with her husband and government employee Paul.  She is involved in learning the intricacies of French cuisine and cooking as well as teaching and writing a cook book.  Avis is raising a family, working with her husband and being a busy American women.  I found the book compelling because I recall that era well.  DeVoto and Childs were, if you will, at the end of the era in that they were married and years older than I.  I was at the beginning of the era.  Just out of university with my first job.  Single.  And I was entering the political climate they were discussing.  I did not know Childs or DeVoto, but I was a reader of Harper's Magazine and I  had read some  of Bernard DeVoto's columns and books.  I also was concerned with the era of McCarthy.  When I read this book, it gave me a bittersweet feeling of deja vu.  It was a time of innocence and yet palpable distrust.  At that time we were more interested in TV dinners, I fear, that haute cuisine for all.  But Joan Reardon in her editing of these letters,has brought these two women out of the past and into our present.  We may have read or heard these tales in general before,  But here, the minutiae of the day to day living is fun to read.  It seems like only yesterday that this was occurring,  But it was 5o years ago.. Food availability now is amazing when we look back and see how difficult it was then to acquire foodstuffs that we see at our regular supermarkets as standard now.  They discussed family life,  foods available to purchase,  work.  They also discussed politics,  elections,   writing,  and publishing.  Nothing escaped their discussions.  Even what they read and ate were worthy topics.    These letters are a cultural as well as a culinary look at other times and other lives.    Think about it.  This entire correspondence was done by mail.  Granted, a lot of airmail, but real mail.  Today it would be email, text messages, cell, or a live feed of some sort.  Fifty years makes a difference.  This book will delight fans of Julia Child and be of interest to anyone who remembers that era of time.  It is witty and worldly and filled with allusions to events that may well induce you to find out more by delving into books or checking the Internet,  I highly recommend this to foodies, fans of Child, and people who recall this era as a part of their lives.  Or anyone who likes to read a well done book.  Bon appetit...as Julia always said....and Good reading!..as I say.

February Doldrums

The season has caught up with me and I have gotten behind in my posting.  I have a ton of more current materials to give you, but I have always been guilty of reading ahead.  And this book is too much fun to hold on til later.  So a couple of months early you get this...When February, 2011 rolls around and you are fed up with winter and your SAD index has gone off the mark, there is hope.  Tim Dorsey   has a new book out.  Dorsey was a reporter and editor in Tampa. Florida (where he lives) and has written several other novels.  There must be something about Florida that turns people in to writers-and often humorous ones at that. THE ELECTRIC BARRACUDA (Morrow, 978-0-06-187689-9) is a drink, maybe a car, and possible a few other things.This is is saga of Serge Storms and his trek across Florida.  It is not just a tour of the resorts.  It is the real time creation of a fugitives tour of Florida as presented on Serge's  website.  Of course it helps that Serge actually is a fugitive and is fleeing the feds, a bounty hunter, (The Doberman and his groupies )and a probably mad detective, (Mahoney), and local police.  You see, Serge is a serial killer.  Of the good kind .If that is possible.  He has a penchant for killing pedophiles, recession causing greedy Wall Street types and other miscellaneous criminal types.  He is also a lady's man, a Florida booster and over caffeinated.  His best friend and cohort, Coleman, is a druggie who may be one bubble short of plumb.  The plot?  Well, Serge is being pursued by the aforementioned motley crew and leads them a merry chase across Florida.  The chase is interspersed with bodies and history lessons that actually are fun, funny, and spot on.  (The author hooked me in when he mentioned Bee Ridge Road and Myaka Park.  Been there.  Seen that.  My parents went to a church on Bee Ridge Road.  And I have seen the alligators and the over size spiders at Myaka.) The group  racket around the state with Serge dispensing justice, wreaking mayhem, blogging the getaway plans,and checking on museums.  He even checks out the ghost orchids.   Talk about the compleat traveler...One surprise is an ex wife showing up and dropping off an alleged son who is a terror and a budding criminal genius. The fugitive tour includes Cedar  Key (another place I love) before it heads off in to the Everglades.  This book is a potpourri of wonderful characters.  Serge, Coleman and Mikey, the dropped off kid.  But the stereotypical gumshoes, bounty hunters, feds, and local constabulary are a hoot.  And I have not even mentioned Serge's friends and associates who he meets on this picaresque journey.  That in itself would make a book.  Do these  characters catch Serge?  Is he brought to justice as seen by the state, not Serge?  But wait, there is more.  The is a back story from the 1920s when Al Capone was in Miami and had a speakeasy in the Everglades  and supposedly left a treasure there somewhere.  (Remember the one Geraldo did NOT find in the vault?)   Well, the map to this treasure is supposed to be in existence and shows where in the Everglades it is hidden..  The tie in is that Serge's father was part of the old gang that was with Capone.  So there are some cool flashbacks to the Capone era.    How does it end?  Well, not with a whimper.  Will Mahoney finally succeed at his long running attempt  to corral Serge?  Will Serge escape to kill again?  Is Serge really the guileless guilt one?  What about Molly?  And the treasure?  And Mikey? Coleman?  You have to read it.  This is a book that starts you out with a smile, then offers a snicker, and graduates to a real for sure  laugh out loud.  It is political..It is bawdy.  It is satirical.  It sometime is almost a parody.  Even a back handed compliment to other writers (Randy Wayne White shows up in it )as well and there are nods to other historical and fictional characters as well..   I can see shades of Elmore, .Hiaasen, and Berry here. But Dorsey has a touch all his own.  I  do have a burning question for the author, however. Has the Captain's Table at Cedar Key really changed its name to Coconuts?  Shades of  the Marx Brothers. I have fond memories of eating there and watching dolphins at play from the deck area. This book is a treasure trove of popular culture history of Florida - I think.  You know, I believe I will re-read this just to check some of things in it and see how real they really are.  In the meantime, readers, mark this book for your February reading pleasure.  Next best thing to visiting Florida? 

A first novel by Laurie Gray, Indiana author,

Stories written for teens and middle schoolers can be very satisfying reads.  When I was a librarian in the Young Adults Department at the Allen County Public Library I read most of the new books we were purchasing to understand the material and categorize it for our purposes.  I became hooked on Blume, Zindel, and Ellen Conford, among others.  I still enjoy reading  YA book.  I like the people, the plots, and quite often the characters are really well drawn.  And maybe I have never grown up.  Anyway, when received SUMMER SANCTUARY by Laurie King, (Luminis Books,13-978-935462-34-70) I read it all in one sitting.
Ms. Gray tells her story through the voice of Matthew, a going on thirteen youth who is  wise for his age, smart, and a kid I would like.  He is a preacher's kid and has 3 younger brothers and his mother is expecting another child.   He is studious; his closest brother in age is athletic, taller, better at sports.  But this is a family that gets along well.  The author depicts a family that meshes, is tolerant, and who welcomes intellectual curiosy.  And a family who seems to respect the individual and allow for some personal responsibility,  The boys are all home schooled and the library is one of Matthew's haunts.   Here he meets  Dinah, a somewhat older girl who befriends him.  Or perhaps it is the other way around.  She seems to be at loose ends because her mother is "away" for about 20 more days and she is kid of living on the streets.   Seems her mother's boyfriend is too friendly and she does not stay home. Throught the course of the story we learn what away really means and why. Matthew finds her a place to sleep in his father's church, the sanctuary of the title, if you will.  He goes to great subterfuge to get food to her  and not let his family know about his secret friend. 
What  makes this book stand out is not only the deft writing or the good characterizations.  It is the tone of the story and the attitudes of the people involved.  There is a warm family relationship shown in Matthew's family.  They care about each other  and others and it shows. The depiction of personal relationships is exquisitely done. Matthew's desire to help Dinah seems to spring from lessons he has learned at home.  And the religious aspect of this book is always there, but not so much that the reader feels overwhelmed by thou shalts. and thou shalt nots   This is a book about compassion, caring, and understanding.
There are no drunken orgies or violent acts.  There is some questionable behavior by irresponsible adults, but solutions are offered.  The climax of the story is funny, witty, and moving,  It takes place at the church, involves a parishioner who brings her dog, and a sermon about sanctuary,  It also involved the imminent arrival of the baby in Matthew's family. 
Matthew will learn that it is not easy to hide things from parents and that a loving family can be very supportive when one is learning to be grown up,  There is even a solution for the dilemma facing Dinah and her mother.
I can heartily recommend this book.  And not just for middle schoolers.  It is a breath of fresh air and offers a reaffirmation that not everything has to be sordid  and violent.  Oh, evils are covered well in this book.  drinking and driving,  Sexual predators. Homeless and neglected children.  But not in a sensational manner.  In a way, that makes the presentation all the more compelling.  I really appreciate the fact that Ms.Gray treats her young people as "persons" and never makes them less valuable than adults.
I think I would like to read more about this family and the other children.  I am sure they must be as interesting as Matthew.
The author was graduated from Goshen College and received a law degree from Indiana University.  She also has taught Spanish to high schoolers, worked as an interpreter in Guatemala and is a trial lawyer.  She is a child advocate and is the founder of Socratic Parenting, LLC.

Obsessions

PROUST'S OVERCOAT by Lorenza Foschina, (Eric Karleles, translator)Harper Collins, 978-0-06-196567-8, is so short it is perhaps better described as an over long essay. Yet, it covers its subject with clarity, humor and intelligence as well as grace.  Which is rather extraordinary when the subject is one man's obsession with all things Proust.  The book had its inception when the author was on an interview about a television program and talked to a gentleman who had planned at one time to do a movie on Proust.  He mentioned an interview with a man who was an avid collector of all things Proust.  The collector was Jacques Guerin, a perfume magnate in France.  This is his story as well as that of Proust.  Proust's life was as strange as he.  He was at odds with his brother and sister in law, had strange habits, was always cold. wrote in bed, and always was seen in a black overcoat.  Guerin had Proust';s brother as his surgeon and became even more obsessed with collecting Proust artifacts.  Guerin's bedroom was entirely made up of thins that had belonged to Proust.  He haunted dealers hunting for books and other objects that Proust had used.  Eventually he found the overcoat that Proust had worn all his .  It was sacred to him.  The slim volume is packed with facts about Proust and his eccentric life as well as his family problems.  The book is a gem of a read.  Enjoy.

A picture is worth how many words?

I thoroughly enjoy graphic novels.  I do not have too many that come across my desk, however.  But I have this one my Denise Mina, a writer whose crime novels I ] have enjoyed in the past.  She writes Scottish noir and does dark well.  She has also done comics in HellBlazer.  A SICKNESS IN THE FAMILY, by DC Comics, Vertigo Crime, 978-1-4012-1081-6.  Drawn by Antonio Fuso.  Fuso has drawn such comics as Fear Agent and others.  He lives in Italy.  The book  This is the morbid tale of the family Usher.   They  are renovating the home after a tragedy makes the other half of the house available to them.  The family are a wife and husband, a son and daughter, and the wife's  mother.  There is also the wife's lover and some other mentioned friends.  There is a great deal of animosity shown in their acts and their conversations.  But things turn deadly.  Death and illness attack the family.  Is it the evilness of the house?  Do stories of witchcraft in the early history of the house have anything to do with the events?  Who is trying to kill whom?  Secrets and grudge fed hatreds make for a surprising and rather grotesque ending.  The stark art work lends to the atmosphere of gloom and despair of this noir graphic. It has a well developed plot and storyline. Families can be deadly.

A   few thing have happened since last we spoke.  There was an election.  The weather was warm and the outside was inviting.  But back to the books.  Did you like the TV show Connections that PBS ran?  If you did you will surely enjoy Bill Bryson's latest book, AT HOME A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE, Doubleday 978-0-7679-1938-8. The Victorian parsonage in in England where Bryson and his family reside is the basis for this delight book of arcane and mundane facts about a house, the origin of specific rooms and their names and why they are there.  He takes the ordinary parts of the house and has delightful historical stories to explain their why and wherefore.  The evolution of houses is as fascinating as any well crafted whodunit.  And other factual tidbits he uses as throw aways are wonderful.  Did you know that Henry Cole probably invented the Christmas card to get people using the new penny post of the time? 
Anyway, the telling us about the house involves a discussion of the English clergy and the fact that at one time it was a well paid sinecure for the lesser ranked sons of fine families.  This provided clergy who were less than interested in the parish  than in tinkering with inventions and writing.  Hence England  produced clergy who wrote Trstram Shandy, the Malthusian theory, as well  botanist Adam Buddle who was the inspiration for the butterfly bush, the buddleia.  Some were composers.    We learn that earlier English houses had few windows because of a glass tax.  It was not until a cheaper way to make glass in England evolved that windows with glass became common.    If we think taxes are bad now, we should take note of the time when there seemed to be a tax on everything that could be taxed to pay off the debts of the king and/or country.  The way rooms came by their names and use turns into a study of architecture which leads us to the fact that early builders were not necessarily builders or architects by training.  If there was such a thing.
House layouts wear awkward  and often haphazard.  Houses evolved as transportation evolved.  Trains allowed people to move from crowded cities to the country. As houses grew people needed help.  As modern appliances evolved the help went away and the homeowner became the help. Progress? From the entrance way to the solar, from the kitchen to the living room, from the pantry to the closet, each room has a history and a fascinating evolution through time.  This is a delightful book to read and I guarantee that you will want to read more about some of the events and places and people mentioned.  It is a witty and an intriguing read.

Reminder...

These are all my opinions.  Free and unsponsored.  I doubt others see the world quite as I do.

He's back!

Who is He?  John le Carre.  And he is back with a new tale of suspense and intrigue.OUR KIND OF TRAITOR  (978-0-670-02224-3) is le Carre's debut with a new publisher, Viking.  The tale?   A young British couple  decide to have a very special vacation in the Caribbean.  And then, Perry plans to change is life and do something different.  Little does he now.  Perry was a tutor of literature at an Oxford college and a ranked amateur tennis player.  Gail is rising star as a barrister and the long time girl friend of Perry.  They are looking forard to this dream vacation that may well be the beginning of a nightmare.This is to be a tennis vacation of a life time.  But not in the way they plan.  While at the resort they meet a Russian family  who have many secrets and seems to be deliberately seeking them out.  And not just for tennis.  Le Carre has not had his flair for clever plots diminish over time.  It appears that the Russian  is one Mr. Dima and he and his family are more than they seem.  Dima is a member of a Russian criminal brotherhood and he wants to rat out his fellow cohorts  He also wants to tell how even international financial business is influenced by this criminal brotherhood.  Gail and Perry are sucked into a plot of fear, defection, danger, and actual spying.  They become foils for British intelligence as well a target for both sides.  After reading the  adventure titles mentioned in the previous post, I was delighted to go back to a book by a master.  The plot featured ordinary people who became involved in extraordinary things.  It was timely is its coverage of the Russian and eastern Europe crime lords in many countries.  The characters are well developed with a back story to make them believable. I was fascinated by the extended Russian family and would have loved to have learned more.  The children hold many of the keys and the secrets.  The reader really care about what will happen to the future of Gail and Perry after they have been used and spit out by the government.  The book tackles the morality of getting involved in situations such as this as well as how much pressure can be used by government sources to gain what they want.   And does the end justify the means?  The ending of this book is fascinating and may pose a question instead of an answer.  This is  well worth reading.

Wrapping up the adventure title...

Where have I been?  The weather took me outside.  Fall is so beautiful with all the colors on the trees.  And the garden is giving up the last of its treasures.  So writing took a back seat to observation. But back to the last three books I mentioned for adventure.  I left them for last for a reason.  They were  interesting,  but not all that great.  THE MULLAH'S STORM is timely and uses the Afghan conflict as a back drop and has a fast moving and gritty plot involving a transport plane that is shot  down in a remote area of Afghanistan during a blizzard.  Three people begin a battle of survival against the enemy as well as the enemy.  These people are the plane's navigator, a woman army interpreter and the prisoner - a high ranking Taliban detainee.   The action is bloody and the people are rather stereotypical. It has its moments.  The author Thomas Young should know of what he writes as he served in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Air National Guard.  THE HOLY THIEF is OK, but I have read better.  It is set in Russia during the early Stalin era and paranoia is rampant.  Religion and politics are in conflict as are political parties vying for supremacy.  Purges are beginning and people are dying all over.  The book portrays a lot of the people as alcoholics as well, so some characters seem stock portrayals.The portrayal of the scene in Moscow in this era is good.  The people I have met many times by other names in other books.  I think the author has promise, but this story  leaves me a bit disappointed.  Lots of blood and gore.Churches are the scene of murders, as well as a lot of other places.  Really a large cast to keep up with.  Actually. some of them I would like to have known better.  For people who like to read about Russia. And for WARLORD?   Not exactly my cup of tea.  A British counterspy ( who makes Bond look like a piker) is called back to stop a killer from assassinating the royal family of Britain.  Fortunately the agent is a personal friend of the Prince, so he has easy access to the family.  From there on it is a lot of one dimensional people with lots of macho derring do.  Reads like a co0mputer game plays.  Fast, furious, bloody and with a high body count.  Enjoy.

I'm back!!

As promised,  I'm back.  The book JUDGMENT AND WRATH reminded me of the Mack Bolan series.    Violence is extremely graphic.  And there is a lot of gratuitous collateral damage.  But it doe not seem to slow people down too much.  This story has a good plot even so. Joe Hunter is a kind of "have gun, will travel"  sort of guy.  He basically is out to right wrongs and his current home is in Florida where it seems there are a lot of wrongs to right.  Of course, his methods are a bit extreme.  He is hired by a seemingly unhappy father who claims his daughter is being abused by her lover she lives with. And father wants Joe to bring her back. Of course, if something happens to the lover Bradley Jorgenson along the way, that would be great.  Being somewhat of a sucker for a damsel in distress and seeing a photo of a bruised Mari he agrees.  He walks into a real mess. Father is not the only one who wants to get rid of Bradley.  A professional hit man is also involved.  Well, from here on out the action is fast, furious, and deadly.  It seems that Jorgenson's money comes from some chemicals that also are of great interest to the government and there is an ongoing family argument as to how they should be used.  The bodies stack up.  Loyalties are divided.  And of course, there is the obligatory run in with the federal agents.  We discover with Joe that Father has not told all of the story and his interest in getting Mari back is not what it seems.     The action is non stop.  Computer gaming comes to mind.  The plot is plausible and timely with its tie in it the Iraqi war. The characters are pretty much cutouts, but you know what?  It still held my attention.

more catch up

These novels could all be classifed as action, adventure, suspense and intrigue.  They could also be catagorized as the good, the bad, and the ugly.  THE RULE OF NINE by Steve Martini, (Morrow,978-0-06-193021-80, THE HOLY THIEF by William Ryan, (Minataur, 978-0-312-38645-40), JUDGEMENT AND WRATH by Matt Hilton,(Morrow,978-0-06-171813-7), THE MULLAH'S STORM by Thomas W. Young,(Putnam,978-0-399-15692-2), WARLORD by Ted Bell, (Morrow, 978-0-06-202059-80.) are included. 
I always enjoy Steve Martini's books that feature Paul Madriani as an attorney who is his own man and marches to his own drum.  This time the case involves a young man who inadvertently helps in an attack on our government 's Supreme Court.  The attack is carried out by an Old Weatherman who wants to destroy what he sees as a right wing conspiracy.  And that is not the only conspiracy available.  And of course no one is as he pretends to be and most lives would best be left uninvestigated. In chasing down this suspect, Madriana also has to deal with a killer from his last case who is involved in this one and deal with a few personal demons.  Suspenseful and has enough feel of the current times to make one say what if to some of the characters.  This is the good of the lead in. 
I'llbe back... talking about another book that, although really violent, has its moments.,

Nobody's perfect...

The bonus book preview on the earlier post, THE JANUS STONE, was authored by Elly Griffiths and will be published by Houghton Miflin Harcourt (ISBN 978-0-547-23744-2) in January 2011.   Bit of a teaser for you.  I think you will enjoy the characters, the history and the  interpersonal relationships.

And for the record,,,,and you will see this statement in many different forms throughout my posts....No one pays me to give- or not to give- my opinions about what I read.  Just so you know. 
I think the next few book looks you will see will be some adventure and suspense and what can loosely be referred to as men's fiction.  Remember the old Mark Bolan series?  Well, some remind me of that.  Talk with you later.

And more...

VERMILLION DRIFT is a look at a timely problem.  Storage of atomic waste.  This time when the government wants to store waste in the mine in Minnesota.  Because of the ensuing demonstration, the mine owners call in Cork O'Connor as a security consultant.  Unfortunately on his first day at the mind he discovers several bodies in an abandoned tunnel.  Five of the bodies aer about fifty years old and one is new.  And they have all been murdered.  This causes O'Connor to look in to the history of the town, when his father was sheriff and when "The Vanishings" occurred.  Oddly enough the same gun was used on the latest victim that was used for a murder earlier.  The investigation opens up old wounds, old secrets, and  makes O'Connor rethink his own past.  Kreuger is a star at creating a sense of place in his books. 
Jance has several series going for her.  QUEEN OF THE NIGHT  takes its name from the plant, the night blooming cereus.  The book brings back the Walker family and focuses on a mu8rder in the desert that is witnessed by a young child.  The folklore of the Tohono Nation is juxtaposed with a few ghosts as well as the customs of the Native Americans.  Dr. Lani Walker, herself Native American, and adopted by the Walkers is central to this story as is the Iraqi war veteran Dan Pardee.  This is another powerful story with a haunting sense of place.
THE JANUS STONE is another in the series featuring the forensic archaeologist,Ruth Galloway.  She is called in to investigate when a headless skeleton of a child is found on the site of an old mansion that was once an orphanage.  The odd think is that some one is trying very hard to frighten her away.  There is also the added fillip of having Galloway having some very personal problems to face. A dark story.

As I was saying...

Until I catch up with all the books I have read this summer, I will continue to batch the books by subject. with fairly short comments.  So many books, so many thoughts to sort through.  So here goes.  It is back to the mysteries again.  This time by well now authors.  We have QUEEN OF THE NIGHT BY J.A.Jance ( Morrow, ISBN 978-0-06-123924-3); VERMILLION DRIFT by William Kent Kreuger (Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-1-4391-5384-0);  HANGMAN  by Faye Kellerman (Morrow, ISBN 978-0-06-1702586-3) and PORTOBELLO by Ruth Rendell , (Scribner, ISBN 978-1-4391-4851-8).
Each time I read a Rendell book I am fascinated by her characters.  This time is no exception.  Eccentricity is the norm here and the characters are as varied as the wares that are available on Portobello Road.  Eugene Wren is the eccentric and neurotic owner of an art gallery.   He discovers an envelop containing quite a sum of money and decides to find the owner himself rather than going though the police.  And this allows us to meet an assortment of characters and their friend.s  There is a reformed crook who is a minister of sorts and his slightly off center young relative, Lance. There are also a few low life bullies to add to the mayhem.  Eugene has a love life to sort out as well as the money to place and a strange addiction to a specific candy to contain..  Lance also has his lady love problems.  All in all  it is a clever and complex study of human behavior with a bit of mystery tossed in.
The Kellerman story is another Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus mystery.  It involves a professional killer, his misguided wife, and a previous death, as well as their seemingly abandoned son as well as another investigation involving a murdered nurse  and some strange goings on with her boy friend and the hospital where they work.  And to add to Decker's problems, he is turning sixty. Lots of suspense as well as some good human interest.

Books, and more books...

Where has the time gone?  I am surrounded by books.  Read and unread.  So I need to do a little less reading and a lot more writing.  Where to to begin, I( wonder.  Always a quandary.  And since a quandary suggests a mystery, I will start there. 
This pot pourri includes historical mysteries,  mysteries in foreign locales, and best selling authors. 
If you enjoy reading books set in the past there is DARK ROAD TO DARJEELING by Deanna Raybourn (Mira ISBN 13-978-0-2820-9) as well THE DEMON'S PARCHMENT (Minotaur Books 978-0-312-62104-9.  The Raybourn book features Lady Julia Grey in another of her investigations with her recently wed husband, Nicholas.  They have been racketing about the Mediterranean on an extended honeymoon and are a bit bored.  While Nicholas is off on business,Lady Julia is confronted by her brother and sister , Brisbane and Portia, who need her to go with them to India to come to the aid of Portia's former lover Jane who is now a pregnant widow.  Sounds a bit complicated doesn't it?  Well it is.  The family of the dead husband has plans of their own and other local elements play roles as well.  The author has provided a lot of amusing and witty conversation for her characters as well as an entertaining and suspenseful plot.  There is also a lot if detail of how life may have been lived in  India  in Victorian time.  There is intrigue, possible murder, sinister plots, family secrets,as well as a good love story.  This is a clever  book
of manners as well as an entertaining read. about a rather unconventional couple.  THE  DEMON'S PARCHMENT (Minotaur Books 978-0-312-6214-9) is a bit darker.  Set it 14th Century London, this tale features Crispin Guest ,  If you have not met him before, he is a disgraced knight who was accused of treason.  He has lost his land, his titles, his standing ,but not his courage, cleverness or some of his friends.  And of course he is really a good guy - just a flawed hero.  He has become famous as the Tracker and solves  problems, mysteries, and what have you for hire.    And of course he has the help of a street urchin and orphan, Jack,  who is clever and wily beyond his years.  This time the investigation involves the murder of young boys throughout London and seems to involve a Jewish doctor and his son who are with the court of the King.  And this even though all Jews were supposed to have been expelled from England at that time.  The murders are gruesome and all is not as it seems in the good doctor's household.  Also some of Crispin's enemies get a bit of a comeuppance as well.   This book is high on atmosphere and sense of place.  It also has a few interesting tidbits of historical lore to add.

The Shelf Stalker

We have moved.  Now that Mitchell is closing its door, the yShelf Stalker is stalking the books at a new address.  We are sad to move, but are looking forward to a new home and a different format.,  I will have a lot of books to talk about soon.  Some new and some semi new.  Some really great and others that I have doubts about,  You may not always agree, but that is what is so great about talking about books.  One
person's classic is another person's reject,
So, as I was saying when I was interrupted....welcome to the new home of Shelf Stalker. I have about twenty or so books to talk about, so I will be back later.