Best Books I Read in 2019:

This year I read 69 books.  These are what I consider the best of the list (in the order I read the books).

1.       Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017) Greenwillow Books

About a group of young people.  There is Virgil, referred to by his family as Turtle, which he hates, the Tanaka sisters; Kaori and Gen, Kaori working as a psychic with only two customers; Virgil and Valencia, who is deaf, but wears hearing aids.  Her family doesn’t get her either.  And then there is Bull, who is a bully and thinks he knows everything, and none of it is necessarily good.

Virgil is in a special education class with Valencia, whom he has a crush on, and Bull calls him retard and calls Valencia deafo.

School is out for the summer, but Virgil feels he has failed – at least at what he wanted to do before he wouldn’t see Valencia for the next three months.  So he sets an appointment with Kaori who tells him to bring five special stones and he sets out across the woods.

Valencia has seen Karoi’s card on the bulletin board at the store and calls and sets her own appointment.

While Virgil is crossing the woods, Bull comes upon him and steals his backpack and throws it down a well – the backpack contains Virgil’s pet guinea pig, Gulliver.  Virgil sees a ladder and tries to climb down to rescue Gulliver but falls from the last rung and cannot reach it to climb out.

Virgil’s lateness worries Kaori and when Valencia gets there, she and her sister figure out that Valencia is who Virgil was wanting to say hello to.  They all go in search of the missing Virgil.

Well written and deserving of the Newbery Medal.

2.       Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman - illustrated by Brett Helquist (2009) HarperCollins 

The story of a boy in the days of the Vikings whose father is away on a raid.  He tries to go to the woods with his father’s axe and cut down a tree.  But the axe is too big for him and when the tree is felled, he cannot get out of the way fast enough and his leg is shattered, rendering him not useful to his neighbors.  His mother is from Scotland and was taken by his father in a raid because she was so beautiful.  He did not even approach her about marriage until he taught her enough of his own language to ask her.  But he died on a later raid, saving a packhorse who had swept overboard.  When he returned, the cold and wet had gone into his lungs and he died.

His mother married another man who did not like his new stepson.  So one day, Odd took a salmon and set out to find his father’s wood cutting hut.  He has to use a staff as a crutch because of his leg, but he makes it to the hut, or just in front of it, where he sees a fox who clearly wants him to follow.  So he does and comes upon a scene with an eagle sitting on top of a tree and a bear stuck between two trees with it’s arm buried in a honeycomb.  Odd takes his axe and cuts down the tree behind the bear to free him, hoping the bear won’t eat him.  Instead, the bear, the fox and the eagle follow him home.

In the night he hears voices in a discussion and gets up and accuses the animals of talking.  They finally let him know that they are really Odin, Thor and Loki and have been banished from Asgard by a Frost Giant.  Odd agrees to go with them to get rid of the Giant.

3.       The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (2008) Macmillan

The story runs from the days of Henry the first to Henry the second and the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett.  It follows the life of two little boys, whose father and mother are killed by soldiers in front of them and rescued by an Abbot, who raises them.  Through their lives as a Prior of a Monastery and a Priest in the service of royalty (a little bit of John Jakes here).  A stone mason, who aspires to build a cathedral becomes the other force to move the story, demonstrating the lofty goals of people who wish the period after Henry I did not devolve into civil war between Stephen (Henry’s nephew) and the Empress Maud (Henry’s daughter) known as the Anarchy.  Follett does an excellent job on the history, getting the players and events correct.  The pivotal event for the story involves a plot to interrupt the succession in hopes for a weak king, the barons conspired to kill his son, William II, at sea.  However, there was a survivor, which they imprisoned to keep him quiet, in fear that he knew enough to bring them to justice.  In Follett’s story, this man is visited in his cell by a woman who lives in the nearby forest.  She is pregnant when they decide to kill him by hanging under a false charge.  A local knight’s son is a ruffian whose family successfully accuses the local Earl of being against King Stephen

4.       Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018) Knopf

A post World War II story, covering the life of an English boy whose parents went to other parts of the world and left their teenage children in the care of strangers.  Even the leave-taking was a lie, the father leaving for Singapore, the mother staying until the children’s year in boarding schools could start.  Almost at once, the Moth, whom she left in charge, starts caring for them more like a father than a renter who agreed to watch over them when home.  Then they discover their mother’s traveling trunk in the basement and know she did not leave to meet-up with their father.  The Moth has a lot of friends over to their house in London and they get to know them by playing hooky and running around with the Darter, one of the friends, and getting jobs to earn money.  The boy even has an affair with a coworker, Agnes, from the restaurant where he works.  Halfway through the book, they are kidnapped, and the Moth is killed and their mother suddenly appears with the friends and sweeps the children off to her own ancestral home.  But even boarding them in far-away places fails to solve any problems and the son returns to live with her, learning nothing about when she was away and the daughter insisting on a school too far away for visiting.  Once the boy graduates college, he is recruited to work for the government, going through files to make sure nothing is left that would be incriminating to England.  There, he discovers traces of his mother as a spy for the government with enemies searching for her or her children.  The Moth, the Darter, others were watching over the children to keep them safe from foreign vengeance.  Finally, he finds the address of the Darter and visits the man, to discover he has married and has a 13 year old daughter.  On his way out, he sees a family photo, with the Darter and Agnes and a small girl and realizes that his kidnapping happened just over 13 years ago.  But he leaves the Darter in peace.

5.       The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2014) Orbit

A post-apocalyptic science fiction story with a well-thought-out explanation of a cause for the zombie-like devastation of the world.  In Carey’s explanation, a spore spreads through the human race that started in the Amazon on the floor, attacking ants, who try to rub it off, but when infected will climb the nearest tree, attach themselves to a leaf and when the filaments of the maturing spore finish devouring their host, explode and spread their spores further along the floor of the rain forest.  In the humans, it travels the nervous system to the brain, replacing the intelligence of the host but controlling the motor functions.  A bite will infect their target.  But what the scientists discovered is that there appear to be children running around without being attacked but are obviously infected.  They capture some of these, take them to an airbase and then educate them. 

This is the story of how one of the little girls, Melanie, learns how the human race will continue.

Every child in the captured group, lives in a cell by themselves.  An alarm rings in the morning and they get dressed and sit in a wheelchair.  The door opens and two soldiers enter, one with a gun aimed at the child.  The other soldier ties the child into the chair and then wheels them into a classroom.  There, the teachers rotate each day, teaching different subjects.  One day, the base is attacked by Hungries (the zombies) herded by the Junkers (people who are not infected but did not evacuate to the uninfected areas) and the base falls.  Melanie, her favorite teacher, a scientist who was about to extract Melanie’s brain to inspect under the microscope, the Sergeant in charge of the military at the base, and a private escape.  But their way from there is not easy. 

The Junkers pursue them.  They try to hide but find themselves surrounded by the Hungries.  Melanie finds the Hungries do not see her.  They discover an abandoned mobile research vehicle and make their way inside, but it is inoperable.  The Sergeant works on restoring power and Melanie does recon, where she discovers a group of children, but they are operating as a savage tribe looking for protein (people) to eat.  The private becomes their first victim.  The scientist traps one of the kids and starts examining their brain tissue under the electron microscope and leaves the others behind who were looking for the private.  When she comes across a wall of the fungus, she stops and finalizes notes about the difference in the second generation of infected hungries, the kids, and realizes that all is lost.  Melanie tricks her into opening the door and then listens to her as the scientist, knowing she is infected and dying, explains what she has found in the kids.

6.       Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (2018) Nancy Paulson Books

Part of a school year of six students passes in a special class in the fifth grade in a school in Brooklyn.  These students know they have been put into the class because they have learning difficulties.  But it’s not a problem with their intelligence, it’s because they’re all trying to deal with different events in their lives because of a kind of PTSD due to things that happened to members of their family.

The story is narrated by a red-headed, girl whose mother was black and the father is Irish.  They were in a car accident that killed her mother and when the man went to get help, he returned to find the police already there and has been imprisoned because he left the scene.  Another is hyper-active because she lost her father.  Another is depressed because his father, from the Dominican Republic, has been taken by the INS.

The teacher has given them an hour each week in a room by themselves to talk.  This is the story of what they talk about and how that changes their lives.

7.       Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys (2011) Philomel Books

The story of Lithuanians who, like other people from Estonia, Latvia and Finland, were displaced by Stalin because they were educated, writers, or teachers, and sent to Siberia in hopes they would provide slave labor and die.  It is a heartbreaking account from one girl’s perspective of how she lost her mother and father.  Her father was a professor and died in prison for the crime of having an opinion that was counter to the invading Soviets.  Her mother died trying to keep her children safe.  The enduring strength of those who survived was met when they finally were able to return home thirty years later only to find their property and even their names stolen by strangers who threatened to turn them back to the Soviets for further punishment on the charge of seeking the truth.  These stories are only coming to light in the last twenty years as time capsules are found in construction sites.

8.       Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2018) G.P. Putnam’s Sons (7/24)

Southern Fiction at its best.  This is the story of a little girl living in the Marsh of the North Carolina coast.  Her mother, then her siblings and finally, her Father leave here to grow-up on her own.  She attends school for a day but runs away back to her home in the marsh, where she can avoid the truant officers. 

She finally makes a friend with a boy who teaches her how to read.  He provides only textbooks about biology and science.  She also reads the book of poetry that her mother left behind.  He leaves her too, goes away to college and does not return to her.  While he’s gone, the local jock woos her and promises marriage and a new life.  She gives him a shell necklace that she made, and he promises to wear it for the rest of his life.  But she finds he is engaged to marry another girl from the town.  So, she rejects him.  

The college boy comes back and even though she will not trust him, he sees her collections of shells and feathers from the marsh and convinces her to write a book on the subject.  She does and it gets published.  With this money, she pays back taxes on her 300+ acre property inherited from her father.  

The local jock, drunk, reminiscent of her father, traps her in a local lagoon and tries to rape her.  She fights back and escapes but is noticed by some local fishermen.  

She’s invited to go see her publisher at a writer’s conference in Greensboro and takes the bus.  Everyone notices her, because she was dressed a little differently for the time.  While she’s gone, the jock dies, falling off a tower they’ve both been to before.  The mother, retrieving his personal effects, notices the shell necklace is missing.  

The marsh girl is accused of murdering the boy and goes to trial.  But in the end, the jury does not believe there is enough evidence to convict and she is let free.  She never returns to the town where she was shunned and accused of murder.  She does connect with the college boy and they live a life of research and love.  That is not the end of the story.  

9.       The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (2013) Riverhead Books

The telling of John Browns last few years from the point of view of a young negro boy rescued/kidnapped and mistaken for a girl because of his size.  It details the lives of John Browns’ sons and their faith-free following of the man who considered himself following God’s will.  A feather from the Good Lord Bird (an extra-large ivory billed woodpecker) is considered good luck, but the bird does not save Fredrick Brown, who is a little slow, and ends-up dead from another preacher.

10.   Montparnasse by Thierry Sagnier (2019) Apprentice House (11/8)

Life for the artists and expatriates at the end of The Great War, living and loving in Paris.  The next time I visit Paris, I must go to Montparnasse and see if I can drink up half as much atmosphere as abounds in Thierry’s masterful rendition. 

He paints a vivid portrait of how amazing and complex a time it was to be in Paris.  It was a new beginning for the country after the war was over. And it was a terribly sad time, so many people faced terrible losses of life and limb. 

We see this through the eyes of American’s who have chosen to stay; a strong woman who cajoles her husband into staying, resulting in his becoming rich and possibly in each of them finding their own way to live and love, and through the eyes of a serial killer, who lures war widows for their money.  And through the landscape of the artists who lived in Montparnasse at the time.

This novel affects me both as a reader, drinking up the beautiful language and story, and as a writer.  I’m encouraged to follow Thierry’s/M. Renoir’s advice and write every day, even if it to describe a lemon, in its myriad aspects.

Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø (2015) Knopf 

This book introduces Olav Johannsson, a fixer - a killer for hire and a philosopher.  He has dyslexia, so people think he is slow.  He’s not good at math, or being a pimp, or a drug runner.  He’s good at killing.  He paid-off the debt of a woman, Maria, a deaf-mute, forced into prostitution to pay off her lover’s drug debt.  His ‘boss’ has asked him to ‘fix’ his wife who has taken a lover.  Instead, Olav fixes the lover, who turns out to be his boss’s only son.  The writing is lyrical, set-up after set-up being used later in the book to fine advantage of the plot and the quality of the writing.  I’d recommend it as a good read to anyone.

 

The Enchantress by Michael Scott (2012) Delacorte Press 

The last volume in the Secrets of Nicolas Flamel, in which everything comes to the ending and the beginning of the circle of time.  The twins, Josh and Sophie find themselves, Virginia Dare and Dr John Dee 10,000 years back in time, while the Flamels and their allies, some unlikely, are in the present and are fighting to keep the Elders from releasing monsters on the city of San Francisco.  The twin's Aunt Agnes turns out to be She Who Watches, the first clay statue brought to life by Prometheus and she is the one who taught Scathatch and her sister Aiofe, to fight.  She is virtually invincible and she goes to help Prometheus

The Warlock by Michael Scott (2011) Delacorte Press

Further adventures of Nicholas Flamel – in this volume there are many of the Elders and Immortals who want to control the Twins of Legend.  10,000 years ago in Danu Talis, Aten is the ruler and Bastet, his mother wants her other son, Anubis to rule all of creation.  To do this, they want to eradicate all humans.  Aten wants humans to be treated as equals, so Anubis declares him a traitor, a warlock, and has him thrown into prison awaiting his trial and to be thrown into a volcano.  In the meantime, the twins find themselves on different sides, but when Dr. John Dee creates a new leygate, both follow and find themselves in that 10,000 year ago time.  And they have company.  Dee grovels and apologizes to his masters, Osiris and Isis, and the twins look at them and say, Mom?  Dad?

The Last Mile by David Baldacci (2016) Grand Central Publishing

Melvin Mars was a Heisman finalist, his world was set, he was a shoo-in as a first round pick in the NFL draft.  Until his parents were killed and he was convicted of their murders.  He got the death penalty and now he’s going to walk the last mile.  Only it’s just a couple hundred feet.  When they come to get him, it’s not to go into the death chamber.  It’s because another prisoner on death row in another State has confessed to the murders of his parents.  Amos Decker has heard about it on the radio while driving to D.C. and wants to investigate what’s going on.  It’s definitely not what it seems.

The Pirate King by Laurie R King (2011) Bantam 

Another Mary Russell novel, this one a farce where Mary is sent on an undercover mission to investigate the theft of goods following a silent filming company on projects.  This project will be called The Pirate King and is about a company of actors doing the Pirates of Penzance as a film while getting kidnapped by real pirates, which the producers/directors have managed to hire as the pirate actors.  The characters are colorful and when they reach Morocco, they are imprisoned in houses and ransoms are set.  Mary manages to navigate the waters between the actors and the pirates, saving the crew and helping set the pirates on a more profitable course.  And land a starring role for herself in an interim film.

Memory Man by David Baldacci (2015) Grand Central Publishing

This has the marks of a mystery in terms of the killer is seen up-front in an early chapter of the book surrounding the explanation of the main character, Amos Decker, explaining his mental condition.  And in the repeated review of what is known so far leading to clues that are doled-out throughout the book – some of which the great detective, Amos, ends-up explaining to others or is revealed in the next chapter.  It is a thriller in that the pace is relentless and the stakes continue to increase the pressure; as more and more people are killed or threatened with their murder.

The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech (2012) Joanna Cotler Books 

Naomi and her best friend, Lizzie, live in the town of Blackbird Tree. They’re both orphans living with people they’re not actually related to.  Naomi lives with Nula and Joe, who are kind-of her grandparents, but not really, and Lizzie lives with foster parents she thinks will adopt her.

Then there’s a boy who falls out of a tree and lands on Naomi.  His name is Finn, as is every fourth boy in Ireland.  But they’re not in Ireland.

Then there’s a woman in Ireland who is setting-up her revenge.  And it involves Nula and Naomi and Lizzie.

The Sorceress by Michael Scott (2009) Ember

Being the third volume of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.  The story of the twins continues with the Sorceress held captive on Alcatraz, guarded by a Sphinx who can drain her magical energy.  But Perrinelle has other talent – she can see and converse with ghosts.  Even though she has spent much of her long life blocking out their entreaties, now she needs them.  The primary candidate for her purposes is the ghost of the Spaniard who discovered the island and returned after his death because the view from the island was so beautiful.  He leads her to a spider goddess who is held behind wards.  Perry and the spider know each other and agree to work together, so Perry frees her from her prison, but decides to carry one of the spears that held her.  The spider helps Perry capture the Morrigan who has come to kill her.  Once the Morrigan is in the spiders’ former cell, Perry bargains and gets the Morrigan’s other personalities to take over and become an ally also.  This is necessary because Billy the Kid and Machiavelli are coming to kill Perry.  In the meantime, the twins are taken to London to see Gilgamesh so he can teach them about the magic of water.  Dr. John Dee failed to capture them in France, but England is his territory.  The twins want to return to America and the place to do that is Stonehenge.

The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded by Jim Ottaviani, Illustrated by Leland Purvis (2016) Abrams ComicArts

Having seen the movie, this graphic novel version was a must read.  Turing’s life has been documented and written about several times, but this version holds no judgement of him and especially about his accomplishments.  It is thoughtful and broad, allowing the input of those who knew him and worked with him.  A satisfying read.

Montparnasse by Thierry Sagnier (2019) Apprentice House

Life for the artists and expatriates at the end of The Great War, living and loving in Paris.  The next time I visit Paris, I must go to Montparnasse and see if I can drink up half as much atmosphere as abounds in Thierry’s masterful rendition. 

He paints a vivid portrait of how amazing and complex a time it was to be in Paris.  It was a new beginning for the country after the war was over. And it was a terribly sad time, so many people faced terrible losses of life and limb. 

We see this through the eyes of American’s who have chosen to stay; a strong woman who cajoles her husband into staying, resulting in his becoming rich and possibly in each of them finding their own way to live and love, and through the eyes of a serial killer, who lures war widows for their money.  And through the landscape of the artists who lived in Montparnasse at the time.

This novel affects me both as a reader, drinking up the beautiful language and story, and as a writer.  I’m encouraged to follow Thierry’s/M. Renoir’s advice and write every day, even if it to describe a lemon, in its myriad aspects.

The Magician by Michael Scott (2008) Delacorte Press

Being the second volume of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.  Once in Paris, the twins and Flamel find themselves in a church.  Because of the modern age and people who like to destroy what is not locked down, there are locks and alarms on the church.  The police arrive along with another immortal, Machiavelli, who is now the head of France’s secret service.  He also supports the Dark Lords and thinks he has trapped the trio.  But Sophie has the ability to use the wind and she creates a fog so thick, the police cannot see her or her brother or Flamel.  They escape, or so they think, to the Compte de San Germain, who it turns out is married to Joan of Arc.  When Dee killed Yggdrasil, he loosed the Nidhogg from its roots.  Machiavelli has called upon the Valkyries, who hate Skathatch because she nearly wiped them all out.  Machiavelli’s personal assistant, chauffer, and bodyguard, Nodthose, also hates Skathatch for a similar reason.  He is the last of his kind.  But Machiavelli holds him back.  What they don’t know is Flamel has returned to his old house in Paris, which still stands, and retrieve Clarent, the twin to Excalibur, and the sword used by Mordred to kill Arthur.  Germain teaches Sophie Fire Magic.  Germain’s house is attacked and the Valkyries loose Nidhogg.  Sophie manages to freeze two of the Valkyries, but Nidhogg captures Skathatch and leaves for the river.  Josh, using Clarent, manages to turn the monster to stone and Skathatch is released just before the monster sinks into the Seine.  But before they all can catch their breath, Nodthose leaps from the river and grabs Skathatch.  Flamel and the twins leave for London.

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott (2007) Delacorte Press 

The first in a series of adventures.  Sophie and Josh, twins find themselves confronted by an unbelievable world of magic and monsters, starting in San Francisco.  Nicholas Flamel, mentioned in Harry Potter, is the main thread through which the stories pass.  He is the Alchemyst.  His wife, Perrenel is a sorceress.  They are immortal because Nicholas discovered the Philosopher’s stone and a codex of changing words that gives them a monthly formula.  They tell the twins that they are the Twins of legend who will save or destroy the world.  Another immortal, Dr. John Dee, is also after them, to use their powers to return the Dark Lords to power over the Earth.  Flamel tells them that their auras are pure gold and silver, and he hasn’t seen a set so powerful.  But their powers need to be awakened.  He connects with a vampire, Skathatch, the Warrior, who has trained heroes through the ages, to protect them and takes them to a shadow realm where Hekate guards Yggdrasil.  She, in her younger form, awakens the Wind magic power in Sophie.  But before she is even able to give rudimentary help to Sophie so she can handle the awakening, the shadow realm is attacked by Dee.  He kills Yggdrasil, which dooms the shadow realm and the two other realms attached to the tree.  Flamel barely gets the twins out to Earth before the realm collapses, stealing Dee’s car on the way.  They drive to Ojai, where they meet the Witch of Endor.  She passes her knowledge, accumulated over ten thousand years to Sophie.  Dee catches up and attacks.  The Witch, using a mirror, sends Flamel and the twins to Paris.

Fifty Fifty by Candice Fox and James Patterson (2018) Little Brown & Company 

The second in the series about Australian Detective Harriet Blue.  She is banished, once again, from being able to visit her brother’s trial, and sent to a small town in the outback.  Harry helps the local law enforcement solve a grisly murder of the retired sheriff.  But she finds herself ‘partnered’ a Federal investigator who is convinced radicalized Muslims must be involved.  The ‘mayor’ wants the case solved quickly, because of its effect on town morale and possible tourist trade.  His daughter thinks its all bullshit.  The locals want to blame a local Muslim kid, just because he’s Muslim and rebellious.  They find a backpack on the side of the road with a diary that includes the plans to kill the sheriff.  Then the Muslim kid is killed in Harry’s vehicle.

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs (2015) Ace 

Anna and Charles visit Joseph, an old friend of his to get Anna a horse.  When they get there, they discover that Joseph is near the end of his life.  He’s known Charles most of his life, but always refused to be turned, in spite of the fact that his son is a werewolf too.  While there, they discover that children have been getting kidnapped when one of the family reports an attempt on one of their children.  Charles smells fay but can’t pin it down.  Such a challenge against the family can’t go unchallenged.

Not a Drill by Lee Child (2014) Transworld Digital

Jack Reacher, hitchhiking up to Maine, catches a ride with a group of hippies who want to hike a specific trail in the woods.  When they get to the hiking trail the hippies want to go on, they’re barred by the army, who won’t let anyone on the trail.  One of the hippies, who doesn’t like to hike, left, going to the other end of the trail to pick them up at the end.  But the hippies disappear.  Reacher is intrigued, even more so when the driver returns, expecting them to be there.  The trail is next to a lake, so they rent two kayaks and go half-way down the length of the trail, crash in and start to back track, hoping to run into the hippies.  Instead, they find a dead body.

When the Women Come Out to Dance - by Elmore Leonard (2002) William Morrow

- Sparks - Joseph Canavan is an insurance investigator.  He’s interviewing Robin, a former rock star whose husband recently passed away and whose house has now burned down as part of local wildfire.  He needs to tell the insurance company if the fire was accidental or providential.  The interview gets relaxed, then intense.  She even offers him money, $100,000 so the 2.5 million claim will go through.  Fraud committers usually offer him half.  He has no proof she set her house on fire, so he’s prepared to let it go.  On his way out, she asks if he can’t stay a while.  If he didn’t stay, he could always come back.

-Hanging Out at the Buena Vista - Natalie and Vincent live in a retirement community.  He’s eighty, she’s eighty-two.  He offers to take her to a Jerry Vale concert.  Then he asks her if she wants to get out, go for a ride.  She counters with an offer for him to move in with her.  He asks, would we sleep together?  She says, Well, not the first night.

- Chickasaw Charlie Hoke - Charlie lives with Vernice, but he doesn’t have a job, so Vernice wants him to move out at the end of the week.  Charlie has a prospect and he’s basing it on the fact that he pitched in the major leagues and even has a world series ring.  He only pitched one inning and gave-up the winning run in the game, but he was there.  A local casino is about to open and he thinks he can get picked-up as a celebrity host.  When he interviews, the owner challenges Charlie to pitch the ball to him, tells Charlie that if he can strike him out, he has the job.  Charlie gets him to 0-2, but then he hits the guy with a ball.  The guy refuses to take the base and insists on one more pitch.  This one he rips to right field.  When he tells Vernice about it, and that he was hired, she’s shocked, Even though you knocked him down? She says.  Charlie says, Honey, it’s part of the game.

- When the Women Come Out to Dance - Lourdes becomes Mrs. Mahmood’s personal maid.  Mrs. Mahmood, a redhead, is a former stripper who wishes her husband would die.  They talk and Lourdes reveals she was a mail-order bride who came to Florida from Columbia.  Her husband is dead.  He was covered in a block of cement.  When the police broke the block open they noticed his hands were tied behind his back.  Mrs. Mahmood asks if Lourdes’ friends from Columbia could help her.  There will be a cost, of course, thirty thousand.  The next day, two policemen come to the house and tell Mrs. Mahmood that her husband was killed in a car-jacking.  That night she goes out and does not return until late the next day.  She discovers Lourdes dancing by the pool in one of her swimsuits and two guys sitting there watching.  When Mrs. Mahmood asks what is going on, Lourdes says We having a party for you Ginger, The Columbian guys come to see you dance.

- Fire in the Hole - this is the story the Justified series is based upon.  The story is effectively the first season of the series.  Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens tells a fugitive in Miami that he has 24 hours to leave town.  When that time is up, he confronts the criminal, who draws on him.  Only Raylan is faster.  He finds himself transferred back to the Kentucky town where he grew up.  The local criminal master-mind is a man Raylan dug coal with in the mines.

This was the basis for the television series, Justified.

- Karen Makes Out - Karen Sisco finds herself romantically involved with a man.  Only he turns out to be a bank robber.

- Hurrah for Captain Early - Bo Catlett, a black veteran of the Spanish-American War, comes to town to wait for Captain Bren Early.  Town folk can’t believe a black man would appear in a suit and tie and just walk into hotels or bars and expect to get service.  When the bartender tells some of the locals, that Catlett was in the war and in the battle for San Juan hill, they don’t believe him.  One, especially is offended and tries to call out Catlett to a duel in the street.  Catlett allows how as he is the one being called out, according to the rules for dueling, he gets to pick the weapons.  This confuses the drunk man and when he looks back at Catlett, there is a saber pointed at his throat.  The duel fizzles.  Captain Early arrives and embraces Catlett, then sees the saber and looks closely, realizing it is his own, the one he dropped on the way up the hill when turned around to rally his troops, he was shot in the butt.  Catlett had picked it up and waved it as he and the rest of his men from the tenth colored regiment went up the hill shooting and yelling and singing.  Catlett asks Early why they were fighting the dons.  Early asks, You didn’t know why you went to war?  Catlett says I guess I knew, I just wasn’t sure.

- The Tonto Woman - Rueben Vega, a cattle thief, hears of a woman, marked by the Indians who had captured her, tattoos on her face.  He stops by her place to water his horse.  Then comes back another day to do the same.  She is the wife of a powerful rancher who will not allow her to move back into his house.  Instead she is kept in a shack on the edge of his property.  He finds out that Vega has been visiting her and sends four men to teach him a lesson and drive him off.  Instead, Vega defeats them all.  He brings a wagon and a dress for the Tonto Woman and takes her to town to a hotel restaurant.  There the husband confronts them.  Vega points out that every woman is unique and beautiful in their own way and shames the man.  By the time he leaves, the woman’s self-worth has risen to a point where she will no longer allow herself to be repressed.  Vega leaves with a good conscience to take some of her husband’s cattle.

- Tenkiller - Ben Webster, aka Tenkiller, a former champion bull rider, decides to go home to Okmulgee, Oklahoma, after his girlfriend dies falling off a ladder at their home.  He’d been living in Southern California working as a stunt man in movies.  Once he gets back home, Lydell, the man who had been taking care of his place has dementia and someone took advantage of him.  Those men think they’ve found a way to steal the property.  Ben has local contacts who have become police and they manage to run the men off the property.  When Ben and his new love are confronted by the last of the hijackers, the new love tells him to go away.  Ben asks the woman why she was able to run the hijacker off with simply the threat of killing him, she pulls her Sig Sauer out of her purse and says That man is really stupid isn’t he?  Ben responds with …Nine out of ten criminals have the brain of a chicken.

The Deep Blue Goodbye by John D MacDonald (1964) Fawcett Publications

The first of the Travis McGee novels – where the hero is manipulated into looking into a woman’s stolen inheritance of ill-gotten gains.  Her father died in prison, convicted of killing another soldier, and never told his wife and daughters where he hid his treasure.  But he hinted enough to his cell mate to have the man move-in with his daughters when he got out of prison.  And apparently he finally found the treasure, then disappeared, then reappeared with a lot of money.

The bad guy is an abuser of women and McGee finds his last victim and helps her recover.  Then he goes after the man when he sees him isolating another woman, this time a young college girl and a floozy.

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs (2018) Dutton Books

The fourth novel of Mrs Peregrine’s Peculiar Children – in which Jacob and his friends are now celebrities in Peculiardom.  When Jacob and his friends go to clean Jacob’s grandfather’s (Abe) house, they discover a couple of important things: Abe’s logbook where he was saving Peculiar Children, and a matchbook with a phone number.  Jacob finds himself trying to do what Abe did with a little help from his friends.  Only it all goes wrong once they find the Peculiar they’re trying to help.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (2011) Dragonsteel Entertainment 

Set in the world of Sanderson’s first Alloy series, this takes place about 300 years later.  The hero is from one of the upper families but has been spending his time in the roughs as a lawman.  His uncle and family died in an accident and ‘Wax’ must return to the city to take care of the family business that employees thousands.  The family is almost bankrupt, and a marriage has been arranged with a lower family that is wealthy.  During this, a group of robbers has been attacking trains and taking hostages.  When they take Wax’s fiancé, he must save her.

Skink by Carl Hiaasen (2014) Alfred A. Knopf 

The Governor is back as a driving force in the rescue of the narrator’s cousin.  She’s been online in chat rooms and has fallen for a guy’s line.  So she claims to be heading off early to check out her new boarding school and really leaves with the guy.  Her cousin doesn’t believe her, so he gets on the internet and realizes she’s simply gone.  The school has no early check-in, it’s closed.  While pondering this, he goes to the beach and checks on turtle nests – something he and his cousin did regularly.  When he sees a straw sticking out of one, he pulls it out, only to get startled when a rough looking man bursts out of the sand.  They were doing the same thing, making sure poachers weren’t stealing turtle eggs.  The governor decides to help find his cousin.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (2013) Riverhead Books

The telling of John Browns last few years from the point of view of a young negro boy rescued/kidnapped and mistaken for a girl because of his size.  It details the lives of John Browns’ sons and their faith-free following of the man who considered himself following God’s will.  

A feather from the Good Lord Bird (an extra-large ivory billed woodpecker) is considered good luck, but the bird does not save Fredrick Brown, who is a little slow, and ends-up dead from another preacher.

Masterfully done and turned into a movie.

Polar Quest by Alex Archer (2009) Gold Eagle

In which, our heroine, Annja Creed, is picked-up by government agents and sent to Antarctica on a dig for some unexplained artifacts of metal unlike anything else on Earth.  Once there, she’ll be trapped until the weather allows exit from the continent.  But as soon as she lands, someone tries to ambush her.  And walking from the tavern, bundled-up for the weather, someone knocks her over and then tries to run her over with a slow moving vehicle while she’s trapped in her clothing like a turtle on its back.  Then Garin, one of the men who is as old as the sword she inherited from Joan of Arc appears as a Major and someone booby traps her laptop.

The Dry by Jane Harper (2017) Flatiron Books

Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk, a financial forensic detective, goes back to his hometown for the funeral of his best boyhood friend, Luke, who has apparently committed suicide after killing his wife and oldest boy, but not the baby.  The town is in an area going through a drought and everyone is on edge.  Falk was accused, when he was a kid, of killing a friend.  He was fishing at the time, but Luke provided an alibi.  Now everyone in town hates him.  Luke was found in the bed of his pickup along with two unexplained scrapes on the bed.  Finding the real murderer is a twisty tale.

Never Never by Candice Fox & James Patterson (2017) Little Brown & Company

A quick-paced story in Australia starring a woman sex crimes detective, Harriet Blue (Harry) whose brother has just been arrested as a serial rapist and murderer.  Her boss sends her out of town to a mine in the middle of the desert to investigate the disappearance of several miners.  The mine people are convinced the miners just left – and they will do anything to keep from shutting down the mine.  There are local drug dealers who seem to get a pass, protesters who continually try to sabotage the mine and prostitute who hang around the miner’s places.  And there is a soldier who is hunting miners.

Night School by Lee Child (2016) Delacorte Press

Wherein Jack Reacher just got back from a mission where he had to assassinate two evil politicians in Eastern Europe and his reward is to be sent to a school – that’s not a school.  He’s joined by a CIA and an FBI agent who got the same ‘reward’.  What they’re really there for is to find a man who is selling something for 100 million to the Taliban.  It’s a game of narrowing down what they don’t know and matching it with what they can glean by going to Hamburg.  What is worth that much that can be sold by one man?

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs (2015) Ace

The Werewolf family, Charles, the son of the Marrok (over all Werewolves in the U.S. maybe world-wide) takes his mate and wife, Anna, to an old friend’s horse ranch to pick a new horse.  While there, they investigate the disappearance of a little girl who went to school with his friend’s granddaughter.  It turns out that she was replaced by a fey’s fetch changling.  The friend is old and dying and refuses to be turned by his son (the local alpha).  But there is something left for him to do.

The story is the best so far in the series.

Squirm by Carl Hiaasen (2018) Alfred A Knopf (8/8)

This is a story about a boy in Florida who likes snakes. It’s a story about the boy’s mother who likes to watch nesting bald eagles.  It’s about his sister who is tired of moving every time the bald eagles leave their nests.  It’s about finding out where his father lives (Montana) and finding a way to try to visit.  It’s also about the father who likes to make everyone think he works for the government on a secret undercover capacity, when he really is independently wealthy and spends his time tracking-down hunters who are trying to kill endangered animals.  And it’s about the father’s new native American (Flathead) family.  And of course, it’s about growing-up.

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwidtz (2010) Penguin Young Readers

In which the novelist takes on the narrator’s tongue-in-cheek about Hansel and Gretel as the main characters of several Grimm tales;

- Faithful Johannes about the man who under-stood four generations of kings of Grimm and did everything he could to help his kings achieve their goals, even stealing the most beautiful woman in the world to marry – who bore her king twins (Hansel and Gretel) at great cost of his own life, and then great cost of the lives of the twins, even though they were revived, prompting them to run away and embark on their own adventures.

- Hansel and Gretel – the classic tale of the children finding the witch’s chocolate cake home (not gingerbread?) and being taken-in by the baker, who fed them sweets, fattening them up to eat.  Only the tables got turned and she ended up baking in the oven.

- The Seven Swallows – when Hansel and Gretel fled the witch, they asked a farmer to take them in – he always wanted a daughter; he had seven sons, with whom he was disappointed.  He cursed the sons and they turned into swallows.  When the twins found out, they fled with the intent of finding the swallows and freeing them from the curse.  Hansel came upon an old gnome in the forest who told he where the swallows had gone and that he would need a chicken bone to unlock the door.  The Twins climbed the crystal mountain and found the door just like told gnome told them, but Gretel lost the bone, so she cut-off her own finger to use as the key.  When they told the swallows that their parents missed them and loved them, they turned back into humans and went home.

- A Smile as Red as Blood - The twins, lost in a forest, happened upon a beautiful glade and a tree told them they could stay as long as they respected the forest.  But each night, Hansel was overcome by an urge to hunt.  He became more beast than human and eventually he was hunted by the local duke.  But when the beast was paraded at the duke’s court and skinned, Hansel was discovered inside the skin.  The duke had a terrible gambling habit and lost to the Devil – the prize was whatever was in his room in front of the fire.  When they got to the castle, Hansel, recuperating, was warming his hands before the fire – the Devil claimed his due.

- The Three Golden Hairs – the twins were separated and Hansel is in a panic because he has to go to hell.  At this time, Joseph has found Hansel and tells him that if he could get three of the Devil’s golden hairs, the Devil would have no power over him.  On the way to hell, he finds tow different villages with problems caused by the Devil.  Once he’s in hell, he refuses to act like the other tormented souls, so the demons take him to the Devil’s home in hell.  There, he steals the Devil’s glasses and while he is nearsighted, he proceeds to steal the hairs.  On his way back, he favors the people who had been vexed by the Devil.

- Hansel and Gretel and the Broken Kingdom – in which the twins return home to find their country in ruins by a dragon.  They decide to do something about it.  But it’s not easy.

- Hansel and Gretel and the Dragon – the Twins raise a ragtag army to fight the dragon and lose a lot of their soldiers in the fight, but they survive, a first, and they wound the dragon, a first.  When they get back to the castle, their father has a terrible headache and does not come down to see them, but their mother is very proud.

- Hansel and Gretel and their Parents – the twins deduce that their father is the dragon, so they kill him, but like he did for them, they revive their father.  The King and Queen, abdicate their throne to their children and they live -maybe not entirely happy and not ever after, but it’s the end of the story.

The House with a Clock in the Wall by John Bellars (1973) Puffin Books

An intriguing gothic mystery set around a little boy, Lewis, who is orphaned and taken-in by his Uncle Jonathan.  Jonathan is a warlock and lives in a mansion that was once owned by his friend, then enemy, before that man’s death.  Mrs. Zimmerman, who lives next door to Jonathan, has a degree in magic from a university.  The most disturbing thing about the new house is that it is full of clocks.  Sometimes at night, Jonathan goes around and silences all of them.  But the ticking remains in the walls of the house.

Lewis, who never seems to have any friends because he is overweight, is befriended by the local school hero, because his arm is broken and therefore he can’t participate in any of his favorite sports.  He teaches Lewis to throw a ball, to hit the ball with a bat.  Lewis tells him about magic and takes him home to prove it.  But the boy does not believe Lewis.  So upon finding a ritual in Jonathan’s library about raising the dead, Lewis and his friend go to the graveyard to raise a fearsome witch from the dead.

In the movie, there are more dramatic changes and the man in the passageway is the man who owned the mansion.  He plays a significantly more prominent role, but the outcome is the same.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2018) G.P. Putnam’s Sons (7/24)

Southern Fiction at its best.  This is the story of a little girl living in the Marsh of the North Carolina coast.  Her mother, then her siblings and finally, her Father leave here to grow-up on her own.  She attends school for a day but runs away back to her home in the marsh, where she can avoid the truant officers. 

She finally makes a friend with a boy who teaches her how to read.  He provides only textbooks about biology and science.  She also reads the book of poetry that her mother left behind.  He leaves her too, goes away to college and does not return to her.  While he’s gone, the local jock woos her and promises marriage and a new life.  She gives him a shell necklace that she made, and he promises to wear it for the rest of his life.  But she finds he is engaged to marry another girl from the town.  So, she rejects him.  

The college boy comes back and even though she will not trust him, he sees her collections of shells and feathers from the marsh and convinces her to write a book on the subject.  She does and it gets published.  With this money, she pays back taxes on her 300+ acre property inherited from her father.  

The local jock, drunk, reminiscent of her father, traps her in a local lagoon and tries to rape her.  She fights back and escapes but is noticed by some local fishermen.  

She’s invited to go see her publisher at a writer’s conference in Greensboro and takes the bus.  Everyone notices her, because she was dressed a little differently for the time.  While she’s gone, the jock dies, falling off a tower they’ve both been to before.  The mother, retrieving his personal effects, notices the shell necklace is missing.  

The marsh girl is accused of murdering the boy and goes to trial.  But in the end, the jury does not believe there is enough evidence to convict and she is let free.  She never returns to the town where she was shunned and accused of murder.  She does connect with the college boy and they live a life of research and love.  That is not the end of the story.  

Lost Souls by Dean Koontz (2010) Bantam

The fourth volume of his Frankenstein series reveals that Victor Frankenstein's clone, released when he died, has found its way to a small town in Montana - just like Erica five and Jocko on a separate path.

Carson and Michael have moved to San Francisco, married and had a child, whom they named Scout, after the character in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Deucalion (the monster who is much more of a protector) visits them and recruits them to help find Victor.  This incarnation of Frankenstein has revised a new race plan and created something he calls Builders, which can replicate themselves by devouring humans.

Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys (2011) Philomel Books

The story of Lithuanians who, like other people from Estonia, Latvia and Finland, were displaced by Stalin because they were educated, writers, or teachers, and sent to Siberia in hopes they would provide slave labor and die.  It is a heartbreaking account from one girl’s perspective of how she lost her mother and father.  Her father was a professor and died in prison for the crime of having an opinion that was counter to the invading Soviets.  Her mother died trying to keep her children safe.  The enduring strength of those who survived was met when they finally were able to return home thirty years later only to find their property and even their names stolen by strangers who threatened to turn them back to the Soviets for further punishment on the charge of seeking the truth.  These stories are only coming to light in the last twenty years as time capsules are found in construction sites.

 A Coyote’s in the House by Elmore Leonard (2004) HarperCollins

This is a different kind of book by a master storyteller.  In this tale, the Coyote is the main character and he runs with a gang of coyotes in the Hollywood hills.  He becomes friends with a German Shepard who was in the movies and is now essentially retired.  The German Shepard leads him into his master’s house and introduces him to a Standard Poodle who is a show dog.  The German Shepard wants to join the Coyote’s pack. Hence ensues fun and mayhem.

Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1963) Del Rey Books (7/3)

A soldier comes home from the Civil War to farm with his father.  When the horse runs away with his father and causes his death, the man calmly buries his father, then goes out to the field where the horse is still in its braces and kills the animal. Later a traveler comes by and asks for a drink of water, then recruits the soldier to be the attendant of an inter-galactic way station in his home.

Over time the man meets many different types of people coming through the way station.  He never seems to age because time is suspended in the station.  After 150 years, people have noticed there’s something different about him, but the local culture is to keep to yourself and not mess in other people’s business.  He takes walks into the local woods to watch the sunset or just to look in the sky.  There is a girl, considered by most to be retarded and a witch, since she is able to heal broken things.  Her father is afraid of her and beats her mercilessly.  One day she comes to the station and lets the soldier see her back.  He takes her into the station to apply first aid.  While there she manages to turn on a trinket left by one of the travelers, one the soldier was never able to work.

The soldier’s recruiter visits and reveals a political upheaval in the galaxy due to a missing spiritual token.  It may mean the end of the station.

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson (2018) Nancy Paulson Books (6/28)

Part of a school year of six students passes in a special class in the fifth grade in a school in Brooklyn.  These students know they have been put into the class because they have learning difficulties.  But it’s not a problem with their intelligence, it’s because they’re all trying to deal with different events in their lives because of a kind of PTSD due to things that happened to members of their family.

The story is narrated by a red-headed, girl whose mother was black and the father is Irish.  They were in a car accident that killed her mother and when the man went to get help, he returned to find the police already there and has been imprisoned because he left the scene.  Another is hyper-active because she lost her father.  Another is depressed because his father, from the Dominican Republic, has been taken by the INS.

The teacher has given them an hour each week in a room by themselves to talk.  This is the story of what they talk about and how that changes their lives.

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (2015) Mulholland Books

The third C.B. Strike mystery.  Having solved two highly publicized crimes, Cormoran’s detective business is doing well, until someone sends a woman’s severed leg to his secretary/partner.  She was expecting it was flowers sent by her fiancé. 

This gets just as highly publicized and most of their clients call and cancel their contracts, leaving only two.  Cormoran can think of three possible suspects, including two he put away and the man who was accused of killing his mother.  But the police think they have nothing to do with it and ignore all three.

Cormoran, with the help of his assistant/partner, start trading off surveillance on the two people they still have contracts for and Strike’s suspect list.  This leads to Strike trying to keep her out of hard by giving her surveillance he thinks is harmless – of course, it’s anything but.

The writing is gritty and the plot leads inexorably to the murderer, though hints are placed so innocuously that the reader is surprised at the reveal while in agreement that the clues were there all along.

Innocence by Dean Koontz (2013) Bantam (6/15)

The story of Addison Goodheart, who because of his appearance, must hide from man so as to not cause them to attack him.  He was born in the woods in a cottage and birthed with the help of a midwife, who wanted to kill him as soon as he came out from his mother.  Even she, the woman who bore him could only stand to look at him for moments at a time.  Over the first 8 years of his life, she tried to kill him six times, but in the end could not bring herself to do the deed.  After his eighth birthday, she gave him a backpack and insisted he leave – since he had mostly raised himself in the woods, this was not a problem, but the night she sent him away, she took her own life.

He hopped into the back of a heavy-hauler truck and hid beneath a tarp and rode to the city.  There he met a man who was like him and who then raised him and became his father.  But even that came to an end a decade later when two policemen came upon them in a snowstorm and insisted on identification.  When his father removed his ski mask, the police shot him to death and then beat him.  Addison was able to hide away until they left.  Then he disposed of the corpse as he’d been instructed to do.

Another eight years passed with him living in a subterranean room and venturing out only when he was sure he would not be seen.  Then one night, in his favorite place, the city library, he saw a girl being chased by a man.  The girl, Gwyneth, dresses and uses makeup to appear like a marionette.

The story goes from there, showing man’s fear of innocence and how the world ends and is renewed.

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts (2018) St. Martin’s Press

The story continues from Year One with the child who was born to be The One turning thirteen and having grown up with a step father and three younger brothers, she goes with Mallick the Sorcerer to be trained and to get ready for the battle against evil.

She meets elves and changelings, and goes on three quests and finds a white owl, who guards a treasure and will not give it to anyone who climbs its tree, a white wolf who likewise has a treasure to guard and a white horse, whom everyone fears, who turns out to be a combination unicorn and Pegasus.  She eventually reaches into the well of life where she takes up a flaming sword and a shield.  Having accomplished all this, she returns to her mother and family, then begins training them.

When she is ready to go to the town of New Hope, her family goes with her.

Once there she has a battle with three evil witches, a mother, father and girl.  She manages to kill the father, but the others get away.

Obviously there will be a third volume.

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs (2012) Ace

We follow the werewolf enforcer and his wife as they work on the mysterious deaths of three werewolves.  When they get to Boston, there is a currently missing fae, the half-human daughter of one of the ruling lords of the fae.  Our werewolves find her, but she has been hurt badly and will never be able to dance again.  The people responsible are brought to trial, but are declared not guilty by a jury.  The fae lord, declares that the fae are no longer at peace with the U.S. and decapitates the guilty party.

God of the Hive by Laurie R King (2010) Bantam

Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes try to rescue his son, Damien.  Reverend Brothers has survived the incident on Orkney Island, but when he checks-in with his benefactor, he is killed.  Holmes and Russell do not know this.  Russell, with Damien’s daughter connect with a pilot (who took her north in the previous volume) and attempt to fly back to London but are shot at on the way and crash in a forest.  A man who seems like the Green Man, rescues them and gives them shelter.  Holmes older brother Mycroft has been abducted and has his life threatened.  A group of men invade the green man’s home but are stranded when the green man leads Russell and party to their car.  The green man turns out to be a war hero with a tainted past and son of a Lord.  Russell discovers a key in Mycroft’s home and tracks it to a woman who says the key hasn’t been used in ages and in fact the lock was changed years ago.  She also discovers that Mycroft’s secretary has been receiving large sums of money from an unknown source, especially just after Mycroft’s disappearance and then mysteriously disappeared himself.  Holmes has his some secreted away in Holland but returns to London to solve the mystery.  The story culminates with all parties coming together.

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2014) Orbit

A post-apocalyptic science fiction story with a well-thought-out explanation of a cause for the zombie-like devastation of the world.  In Carey’s explanation, a spore spreads through the human race that started in the Amazon on the floor, attacking ants, who try to rub it off, but when infected will climb the nearest tree, attach themselves to a leaf and when the filaments of the maturing spore finish devouring their host, explode and spread their spores further along the floor of the rain forest.  In the humans, it travels the nervous system to the brain, replacing the intelligence of the host but controlling the motor functions.  A bite will infect their target.  But what the scientists discovered is that there appear to be children running around without being attacked but are obviously infected.  They capture some of these, take them to an airbase and then educate them. 

This is the story of how one of the little girls, Melanie, learns how the human race will continue.

Every child in the captured group, lives in a cell by themselves.  An alarm rings in the morning and they get dressed and sit in a wheelchair.  The door opens and two soldiers enter, one with a gun aimed at the child.  The other soldier ties the child into the chair and then wheels them into a classroom.  There, the teachers rotate each day, teaching different subjects.  One day, the base is attacked by Hungries (the zombies) herded by the Junkers (people who are not infected but did not evacuate to the uninfected areas) and the base falls.  Melanie, her favorite teacher, a scientist who was about to extract Melanie’s brain to inspect under the microscope, the Sergeant in charge of the military at the base, and a private escape.  But their way from there is not easy. 

The Junkers pursue them.  They try to hide but find themselves surrounded by the Hungries.  Melanie finds the Hungries do not see her.  They discover an abandoned mobile research vehicle and make their way inside, but it is inoperable.  The Sergeant works on restoring power and Melanie does recon, where she discovers a group of children, but they are operating as a savage tribe looking for protein (people) to eat.  The private becomes their first victim.  The scientist traps one of the kids and starts examining their brain tissue under the electron microscope and leaves the others behind who were looking for the private.  When she comes across a wall of the fungus, she stops and finalizes notes about the difference in the second generation of infected hungries, the kids, and realizes that all is lost.  Melanie tricks her into opening the door and then listens to her as the scientist, knowing she is infected and dying, explains what she has found in the kids.