The Traitor's Wife

This is the first historical fiction I've read in a while, and I really enjoyed it. Set in the reigns of England's Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III, the story centers on the granddaughter of Edward I married to the son of a courtier who rises under the reign of the second Edward only to overreach himself and later fall. All the characters male and female alike are well rounded, and the period of history is one I'm less familiar with, but enjoyed, especially having been to Scotland and learning more about Robert the Bruce. I'm not sure I want to continue on with the sequel, but maybe I'll come back to it later. The fact that these characters were all real and that the author did lots of research for setting her story made me enjoy the book all the more.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

April's Book Club selection. What a great book. This is a great melding of a human interest story with a science story with morality and ethics and economics mixed in. Science is not my thing, but I loved this story of Henrietta, her cells and her family. Well researched and well-written. Definitely a book I'll recommend and look forward to discussing.

Dracula

I'm not sure why this is written in the form of letters and journal entries, but it's a really, really good read, if a little long. I especially liked the first part at Dracula's castle. There's a reason this has endured all these years.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I hated this book. Treacly, predictable. Is it supposed to be simplistic because the dog tells the story? If so, there's a reason dogs aren't authors. The "hero" Denny is an unsympathetic ninny who can't run his own life much less the life of a daughter and dog. Yuck!

Billy Boyle:A World War II Mystery

Another free Amazon book. It started a little slow mainly because I found the main character a Southie Boston cop who has benefitted from nepotism hard to relate to. But the secondary characters were very enjoyable and the twists and turns of the mystery on top of the history of WWII England pre D-Day made the pace I wanted to read at speed up. I don't know that I'll read any more of these, but it is a unique setting for a mystery series.

Waverley

Scott's first Scottish novel, credited with saving the old ways in Scotland after their culture had been essentially banned after the battle of Culloden Waverley was a very enjoying read. Scott's characters are very well rounded; character definitely dominates plot. And of course since we all know going in what will happen to the biggest character I guess that makes the sense. It makes me want to go back to Scotland.

The Justice Game

Another Kindle find. A very good, fast-paced legal thriller set around issues of gun control. Engaging lawyers, both sympathetic and villainous clients, shadow juries and their minders, pasts that haunt. Definitely a fun read.

The Murder Room

This is our second book club pick. I hope it doesn't kill the club.

This is the true story of a group of professionals from the ranks of profilers, forensic experts, and basic police work dedicated to looking into cold cases in the hopes of achieving justice for forgotten victims and their families. In a way it's CSI in written form bebopping from case to case and mostly focused on the three men who are the "founders" of the group. It was hard to get through the first part of this book which introduced us to our three protagonists pre-group. The writing was inconsistent, often gruesome, repetitive and about 200 pages too long.

I guess if I needed help solving a murder I would consider seeking out these people, but other than that I don't want to spend any more time with them.

England, England

The basic premise of this novel, putting everything tourists would want to see in England in one convenient location seemed to me to have a lot of promise. Unfortunately that promise went awry in my opinion. The problem was the people executing this premise. For some reason the main character was a woman whose dad had left when she was young and therefore had a stunted love life. Huh? Exactly. I would not recommend the book, and I especially hated the Kindle version because it was full of typos and lacked proper spacing. I finished this a month ago and am just now blogging it. That pretty much says it all.

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi

A strange novel set first in Venice in the heat of a Bienneale week where the "hero" lives life in the most hectic way possible segueing into a trip to Varanasi in India where the pace of life changes dramatically. I enjoyed the book because I love all things Venice. And the India parts were strangely affecting as well, particularly given that as was reading it as one year died and another began.

The Black Book

The next Rebus. Good as always. Not much more to say except I wish John could find a woman that would understand him and his work. I guess it leads to the question, can certain people ever be happy?

To The Power of Three

Another wonderful read by Laura Lippman. Despite the fact that it was Christmas week I flew through this novel. A great stand alone book despite a couple of characters that played a minor role in a previous book. I can't wait to read more Laura Lippman. I'm dreading catching up to her current publishing schedule.

Phineas Finn

The second Palliser novel, Trollope returns to London and the Houses of Parliament tracing the successes of young Mr. Finn of Ireland and his exploits in that esteemed body. It does make me wonder if our government would improve if we didn't pay our legislators a salary. I only regret that the novel failed to give me more of the characters introduced in Can You Forgive Her, but I look forward to revisiting Phineas in Book 4.

Soul Identity

I got this book free from Amazon. It was pleasant enough, but not so much that I think I'll seek out the follow-up novel. Despite the ancient almost Dan Brown-like mysteries/conspiracies the characters and plotting in the book didn't hook my interest enough to return to see what happens to this Templar-light organization.

Wolf Hall

I don't understand how this book won a prize, but it certainly does not recommend any of the runners up. This read like the scripts from the first two seasons of Showtime's The Tudors, but much more dull. And why the book is named after a place that never figures into the story is a mystery to me still, but not one I intend to waste any more time on trying to figure out. This book was yuck!

The Big 5-Oh!

I got this book for free on the Kindle and you get what you pay for. This book was so predictable, so diabetes inducing sweet it was torture finishing it. And it committed major crime in my book by completely failing to understand how hurricanes and hurricane season works. You dumb author there are no hurricanes on the west coast of Florida in the winter; if there is it's name isn't Millicent, and if there is they don't show up without any warning, nor does the power company manage to restore power in under 24 hours only with the storm planning to hit again. This level of lack of attention to detail just about sent me over the edge. Maybe I'm just terribly cynical, but this is not my type of book and for this type of book this was terrible.

Killer View

The second Walt Fleming Sun Valley mystery. This was even better than the first novel, and best of all ended without petering out like the first one did. The fleshing out of Sherif Walt was needed and appreciated. The main story was interesting and peppered with enough twists and turns to keep the story moving. While I won't run out and read Killer Summer right away, I do look forward to it.

Ape House

Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants was a great read. Ape House was not. They are very different novels, Elephants being essentially historical fiction and Ape being satire. With Ape House I just didn't care much about the characters, most of which were caricatures rather than actual characters, and the action continually devolved from the potentially serious to the ridiculous. Ultimately harmless, but not meaty and satisfying the way Elephants was.

Strip Jack

The 4th Rebus novel returns to Edinburgh and introduces us to The Pack, a very interesting and entertaining group of school friends from Fife and their foibles. Rankin does a great job of giving us just enough personal information about Rebus and those he works with and the mystery of the week. Another enjoyable read, and I look forward to the next.

Service Included

As a devoted viewer of Top Chef and a lover of good meals, this insider's guide the opening and reviewing of Thomas Keller's New York restaurant Per Se was an enjoyable read. The only downside to the book was that the author herself and her non-Per Se time was not that relatable or interesting. I would have preferred to spend even more time in the restaurant than the book did. I cannot imagine a 17-course meal, but now I have at least a jumping off point to imagine one.