Finished DARKEST JOURNEY

 

As usual, helpful ghosts are, well, helpful, but the crime is solved in the climax when life is in danger.  I love the Missippi river boats, so I just enjoyed the ambiance of the story.  More suspects than usual, several of whom were shocked that they were suspects.  I enjoy these books.

 

Then I read another 50 pages in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  Back from Europe, Jonathan spends the first part of the section trying to cure the king of his insanity, then turns to learning to navigate between mirrors, much to the consternation of his wife.

I have now started Appetite For Life, the biography of Julia Child.  I have not yet decided if I will finish it.  The first part is deadly dull, reading like a term paper or a thesis.  I'll give it a bit more of a chance, though.

Finished A TIN TRAIN CHRISTMAS

 

A pleasant little story, though predictable.  All of the books I have read by this author have been sweet and this was a good follow-up to James Rollins preceded by Bone Walker.  Sometimes I just need a break from all the excitement, and I can't think of much better for the purpose than Lageschulte.

I am now about to start another Heather Graham, Krewe of Hunters book, Darkest Journey.  Once again, this book will take me to to Southern Lousianna and the Mississippi, but now aboard a paddle-wheeler.  Fun.  A reminder of Fever Dream by George R.R. Martin.

Finished THE LAST ODYSSEY

 

 

Of course there will be critics that hate this because it is not true science fiction and goes too far overboard, but who cares if you can't label James Rollins' work as science fiction or fantasy (I like science, historical fantasy myself).  I think he did Homer proud and maybe ran him one better.  It was an adventure for sure.

After two very long books I turn to a short story by the author of the Growing Season books that I have been enjoying.  We met Horace Schermann at the beginning of the first book in the series at which time he was 90.  Now we go back in time to the depression when Horace is 6 and his brother Wilbur is 8.  Both boys really want a tin train they have seen in a window, but...it is the depression.

Finished BONE WALKER

 

This was the third in a trilogy and I loved the entire story (Anasazi Mystery).  Of course there are all kinds of theories as to what happened to the Anasazi and probably most are correct.  This speculative story includes many of them.  I love the side by side stories, one among the Anasazi trying to survive and the other set in the present with the archeologists gradually figuring out part of the answer and then the climax tying both together.  Well worth the time spent reading it.  I am kicking myself for never visiting Chaco Canyon while I could still walk.  And I was close...  Just didn't know enough to stop.

I have now started The Last Odyssey by James Rollins (a part of his Sigma Force series.)  Recent archeological finds have discovered the city of Troy (Homer's The Illiad) and have plotted the probably location of ancient Ithaca (the two cities figure as starting and ending points in Homer's Odyssey).  Prior to this scholars have thought of the two books as purely fiction, but, if the cities were real, could more of the stories be real?  That "what if.." leads Rollins (and now me) into another great adventure.

Finished THE ANASTASIA SYNDROME AND OTHER STORIES

 

Marry Higgins Clark at her best.  Unexpected twists.  All of the stories were suspenseful.  And not always a happy ending.

I have now started Bone Walker, the third of the Anasazi Mystery Trilogy by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear.  The plot becomes more and more complicated as the powerful witchery from the Anasazi past enters the present with a beloved archeologist being found dead by ancient means.  The title is the name given to the granddaughter of and by a powerfully incestuous witch from the past.

Finished A LONGER FALL

 

Some of the things I read are very difficult to classify.  This is basically a western about a female gunslinger and a lot of other gunslingers and a lot of magicians and a reactionary South called Dixie that is set after an apocalyptic war.  So there you are...  This is the second I have read in the series and I am looking forward to the next.  Charlaine Harris scores again!

I have now started The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories.  The first story is the title story and is basically what happens when a psychoanalyst regresses a patient so far into the past that a historical figure is both encountered and takes over the personality of the patient.  The doctor in question has done this only once before and his patient came out of it thinking she was Princess Anastasia of Russia.

Finished TO THE LAND OF LONG LOST FRIENDS

 

Mma. Ramotswe has not only run into a friend she went to school with but has learned of another friend who has had some misfortune.  Neither of these friends has asked for help, but our heroine cannot help but try to do something.  But, can she help either without losing these newly re-found old friends?  Perhaps other friends can help?  And Charlie is now seen in a better light...he is growing up.  I enjoy revisiting these old friends...  Do you believe this is the twentieth book in this series and I have enjoyed these gentle characters in every one?

I have now started the second of Charlaine Harris' Gunnie Rose series.  She nearly died in the first book.  How can this possibly be A Longer Fall?  She starts out with a new crew guarding a crate on it's way to Dixie...  All is boring the first day and a half. Then the train they are riding in blows up.