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.

Make Me by Lee Child (2015) Delacorte Press

In which Reacher steps off the train in Mother’s Rest, a town in the middle of nowhere, just to find out why it has that name.  He expects to find a museum or a visitor’s center or even a chamber of commerce with a history of the town.  What he finds instead, is a town of suspicious people and a woman who is looking for her partner who called her for backup.  Because of the aggressive behavior of the townspeople, Reacher decides to help her.  And of course, become her lover.  The main problem for the bad guys is that Reacher is better than them at the confrontation level.

LaBrava by Elmore Leonard (1983) Arbor House

An ex-Secret Service agent turned photographer lives in a building where the man who owns it, Maurice. is in his eighties and knows an ex-movie star.

LaBrava runs into the woman at a rehab check-in after she was arrested for throwing a beer bottle at a police officer.  Another man comes to see her, to ‘take her home’ and presents a security company badge trying to impersonate a police officer.  LaBrava puts him down until Maurice can get the star into his car and they leave.

The impersonator continues to come around and bother her, so Maurice gets her to come to his building and use one of the empty rooms.  LaBrava remembers her in movies he saw when he was 12.

But, of course, there is more to the story.  There is a murder plot to bilk her for $600G, which she does not have, but which Maurice will lend her so she can stay safe.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009) Delacorte Press

This starts with a teenager, our hero, trapped in a moving box that he finally discovers is an elevator and he is deposited in a world with other teenage boys who run the maze each day, trying to solve it so they can escape.  A girl appears a week later, not the usual month and she’s the first girl to arrive and has a message that the end is coming.  Once the hero figures-out how to escape only 40% go with him.  And in the end, we discover that everything is a lie and that was only experiment A – now on to B.

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.

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

United as One by Pittacus Lore (2016) HarperCollins

The seventh and final book in the original Lorien Series (There are additional books since, but they seem to be discarded chapters from different points of view).  In this episode, number eight is a prisoner, but number four, John, gets him to participate in a revolt against the Mogodorians, who think they’ve one.  John discovers he can learn any legacy and goes with the others to the mountain headquarters in West Virginia.  Ra has become something more fluid than ever before and his protege, also thinks she is unbeatable.  Both are wrong as Adam tumbles with her into an abyss, taking her from the formula and number four discovers Ra’s weakness is to be healed.

The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore (2015) HarperCollins

The sixth book in the Lorien series.  This volume picks-up from the previous installment with the Mogodorians attacking New York City, going from apartment to apartment, taking prisoners where there is cooperation and killing any resistance or hesitation.  At one apartment, a little girl suddenly discovers that she can levitate and move other objects, like soldiers and kills those who attacked and killed her stepfather.  Nine and Five are killing Mogs and brawling with each other.  John and Sam are leading refugees through the rubble, John healing those he can while they try to find safety.  Six and Seven and Adam have gone inside the Sanctuary and communicated with the entity formerly known as Lorien.  Ella, number ten, is being infused with her grandfather’s genetic mixture in an attempt to control her.

A year later, after his defeat, most of the Lorian have isolated themselves.  Except for number nine, who lost an arm in the final battle, and number ten, Ella, both of whom are teaching the new legacy endowed kids.  John has been fixing the cave that number eight found and creating new pendants.  He visits Adam, who was rescued from the abyss by him chimera, who did not survive.  Adam is in a Mogodorian refugee camp, trying to teach them how to change and live in a world in peace.  Marina, number seven, has found number eight, but will not interact with him as he wastes away.  Number six and Sam are traveling the world.  John leaves invitations for all of them to join him in the chamber he has reconstructed.  He is through with numbers.

When Six, Seven and Adam exit the Sanctuary, they find the skimmers have been disabled by the one Mog who survived the attack.  This means they’re stuck at the Sanctuary in Mexico without word from the others in New York.  Soon, they’re joined by Sarah and Mark and Lexa, the pilot of the second spacecraft that brought Ella from Lorien.

The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore (2014) HarperCollins 

The fifth book in the Lorien Legacies series in which Seven, Marina, has developed a new legacy, the ability to freeze any available moisture.  The cold that comes off of her is palpable.  She and Six and Adam, the true-born Mogodorian son of a general, fly south to a Mayan city and go into a temple that the Lorians altered into a sanctuary to hold the entity known as Lorien.  While they are en-route, John and Sam and Nine go to New York with the FBI to try to alter the outcome of the Secretary of Defense’s assurance to the United Nations that the Mogs are trustworthy allies.

En-route to the sanctuary, Adam bluffs his way past Mog scout ships that intercept him and instead gets an escort to the temple area, which is surrounded by a field that burns any Mog trying to get inside.  Once there, he announces that his father sent him to inspect their setup.  But the leader of the squad knows his father (whom he has killed) in fact, considers him a traitor.  When she drags him to the field to burn him, Number Six and Marina slip behind a gun turret and kill the Mogs, except for the leader, who runs off.  They get to Adam and because he has a legacy, he is able to follow them through the field.

The leader calls Setracus Ra urgently and lets him know the Garde are there and have entered the temple.  He tells her to make sure they don’t leave.  In the meantime, Five attacks Ra and is thrown out of the mother ship while it is still a long ways from the ground.

Four and Nine blast their way through Mog guards to find the Secretary looks like is almost dead.  Four prevents him from committing suicide and heals him.  He wants the Secretary to do the right thing.

Setracus Ra alights in front of the UN building and walks down a ladder with Ten, Ellie, his granddaughter, reluctantly beside him, announcing that they come in peace.  But the Secretary takes the microphone and announces that Ra is a monster intent on the destruction and enslavement of Earth.  Ellie manages to hurt Ra and his concentration make him lose the good looks he had applied to himself and reveal himself as he is.  But the charm he made between them still works and every attempt to hurt Ra reveals itself on Ellie instead.  Five figures this out and knocks first John, then Nine out of the way, but Ellie tells John how she is wounded.  Nine sees Five simply as a traitor and turns to fight him, angry because he prevented Nine from killing Ra (not knowing it would not have worked – only Ellie can hurt him).

Six and Seven and Adam enter the sanctuary, carrying Eight and the charms from their combined chests.  Lorien is awakened and brings Eight back to life for a few minutes so Marina and he can say goodbye.  But the entity is vague in how she can help with the Mogodorians.

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.

The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore (2013) HarperCollins

The fourth book the Lorien Legacy series in which we get a traitor in the midst of the children of Lorien.  We start with Sam being reunited with his father as they break out of a Mogodorian prison with the help of a young Mogodorian named Adam.

The others notice that number five is moving from Jamaica to Florida and burns a huge crop circle in the swamp.  It hits the news and the group go to rescue the new guy before the Mogodorians find him.  He’s smaller than the others and stockier and quieter.  But as soon as they find him, the Mogodorians attack.  They fight their way out of the bind with a last second shot from Malcom, Sam’s father.

Everyone returns to Chicago and they try to figure out a next move.  It is decided that they should return to the Florida swamp because Five left his chest there with its artifacts.  But Ella, number ten, has a screaming nightmare and when John, four, touches her to try healing her, he also is trapped in her nightmare.  The others decide to go to Florida anyway.

Once they get there, it turns out that five is a traitor and in an attempt to kill nine, he accidentally kills eight.  But the anger that causes seven brings on a new aspect of the chill she experiences when healing and she freezes the water around them and drive an icicle into fives foot and another one into his eye.

In the meantime, John sees Ella in the nightmare sitting on a throne next to Setracus Ra, calling for the death of six.  The Mogodorians choose to attack the penthouse at this point with only humans, Malcom, Sam and John’s girlfriend, Sarah, to defend the place and the two sleeping Loriens.  John wakes up, but cannot keep the Mogodorians from taking Ella.=

Ella wakes in an unknown bed and finds herself on the Mogodorian mother ship.  She tries to escape, but no one stops her.  There is nowhere to go.  Setrakus Ra finds her and calls her his granddaughter.

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (2014) Ace

Charles, the Marrock’s son and enforcer, and his new mate, Anna are sent to a meeting of werewolves from around the world to deal with the Marrock’s decision to out the werewolves to the public.  With the Marrock only in charge of the werewolves in the U.S., his announcement will also affect those in other places and not all are enthused with the idea.  His biggest ally is Arthur, someone he doesn’t really like, the Alpha from England who insists that he is the Arthur of legend reincarnated.  His biggest foe, Chastain, is the Alpha from France, who controls, but does not administer, Europe mainland.  He is a beast that kills without rules.  To keep the peace, the Marrock hired a fea, a Grey Lord, one who was the Grand Belled Sans Merci. 

Then, vampires try to kidnap Anna.  Followed by vampires kidnapping and killing Arthur’s mate.  There is a hunt in a controlled environment going on when it happens.  Chastain, in wolf form, having found one of the prizes, presents it to Anna, who wants nothing to do with it or him.  Chastain snaps his jaws close to her neck and Charles reverting to wolf form almost instantly, blindsides him, then grabs his nose, shutting off his air supply and making him pass-out.  The fea announces that Charles drew first blood and has broken the rules.  He runs to pick his own fighting ground, expecting the other wolves to give chase.  But Anna, notes that the hunt was over and she was threatened and therefore Charles is clear.  Once they have reunited, they go to their hotel to rest.  Then Anna wakes-up in the vampire’s van.

The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore (2012) HarperCollins 

The Loric chronicles continue with the introduction of number nine.  He was raised in Chicago in a penthouse taking up two top floors in the John Hancock tower.  He is arrogant, brash and everything number four is not.  But he is also extremely well trained in his legacies.  Number four is still torn over his girlfriend, Sarah, having turned him into the FBI and the Mogodorians and the loss or capture of his friend, Sam.  Number six left to go find the Garde member in Spain and finds two other Garde: numbers seven and ten.  Seven turns out to be able to breathe under water, to be able to see in the dark, and most importantly, to heal the wounded.  Ten is a surprise in more than one way: she escaped Lorian on a second ship, with several chimera, though none are with her, and she can change age.  She can also communicate with some of the others telepathically.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was number eight.  He was in India and he can teleport and morph into animals or anything else he can imagine.  The locals think he is a reincarnation of Vishnu.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (2011) HarperCollins

The saga of the Loric Garde continues.  Those who came to Earth with their Cepans (guardians) in a desperate attempt to develop their Legacy powers, learn to use the tools in their chest (which only opens the hands of both the Garde and their Cepan, unless the Cepan is dead), train and take back their planet – while evading the Mogadorians who have come to Earth to find and kill them.

A ‘charm’ had been in place to keep the Mogadorians from just killing their targets in any order.  They have to find each successive numbered Garde or the attempt will backfire and kill the killer.  But now, Number Six has found Number Four and the charm will no longer work, putting all the Garde in danger.  Number Six and her Cepan were captured by the Mogadorians and held prisoner.  While there, her Cepan is killed in front of her.  Back in her cell, she develops a Legacy power of invisibility and uses that to confuse her guards who rush into her cell and she escapes.  The Mogadorians still have her chest, but she develops additional powers, including the ability to control the elements.  Between them, and Number Four’s friend, Sam, they begin to defeat the Mogadorians each time the catch up to them.  Clues lead them to understand that Sam’s dad was an ally and hid something at their property under a sundial.  This takes them so close to Number Four’s girlfriend

But they are not all-powerful.

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.

I Am Number 4 by Pitticus Lore (2010) HarperCollins

This book follows an alien teenager and his guardian as they try to stay one step ahead of their mortal enemies, the vicious Mogodorians, who destroyed their planet of Lorien.  Now, they’re tracking the nine surviving kids - Garde who are just now are coming into their legacies to Earth, and the Mogardorians intend to kill them.  But they have to kill them in order.  As they manage to do that, each of the other kids get a scar on their left ankle.  Three of them have been killed.  The narrator of the story is number four.  His Cepan, or guardian.

(James Frey and Jobie Hughes collaborate as Pitticus Lore)

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman (2007) Subterranean Press (3/4)

a collection of short stories including:

- The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds in which Jack Horner is approached by Jill Dumpty to look into the murder of her brother Humpty.

- Troll Bridge in which we finally get to understand how the troll came to live under the bridge.

- Don’t Ask Jack in which we learn just why Jack in the Box is so scary to kids.

- How to Sell the Ponti Bridge where we learn how someone can sell the already owned to the owners.

- October in the Chair where the months take turns in the chair, deciding who can tell their stories.

- Chivalry in which a Mrs. Whittaker buys the Holy Grail from a thrift store and is bothered by Sir Galaad, on a quest for the goblet.

- The Price that a cat pays to keep its benefactors safe from something worse than their nightmares.

- How to Talk to Girls at Parties in which two young men barge into a party, one slick with the girls, the other very bashful.  Only these girls are from around here, meaning Earth.

- Sunbird in which extreme epicureans depart to Egypt to eat the one and only sunbird, which is at once exhilarating and deadly and can be done only once every hundred years.

- The Witch’s Gravestone the precursor to the Graveyard Book – in which Bod, a live boy, is being watched over and educated by the denizens of a graveyard.  He meet the spirit of a witch who was buried in unconsecrated ground (for being a witch) and learns she does not have a gravestone.  He resolves to get her one.

 The Forbidden Door by Dean Koontz (2018) Bantam

Another episode in the Jane Hawk saga.  Jane is now the most wanted fugitive in America and false news is put out there claiming an autopsy shows her husband was murdered, implying Jane did it.  But he was cremated, so an autopsy cannot be performed.  Her in-laws escape their ranch just before the Arcadians can kidnap and enslave them.  In the meantime, Jane is pursued and fights her way to freedom.  She sets in motion a plan to retrieve her son with the help of friends.  Her pursuers must deal with enslaved minions who are going out of control.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (2009) Doubleday

Another in the series of Professor Langdon’s thrillers related to symbology.  In this episode, Langdon is invited to a presentation by one of his former students at the Bilbao museum in Spain.  But before the man can do the final reveal, he is killed by a sniper.  Langdon and the host museum’s leader, who is also the fiancé of the Spanish prince, pursue releasing the information anyway, which the assassin was sent to prevent, so he turns his eye on Langdon and pursues him into a cathedral.

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill (2011) Little Brown Books

A juvenile urban fantasy novel about a boy whose parents are getting divorced and while his brother gets to spend the in-between time until their parents get their new places to live, he has to go stay with an Aunt and Uncle he barely knows.  His mother and father forget him too easily.  He’s not in any family pictures, his mother doesn’t even always remember who he is when she’s talking to him.

As he leaves, his brother surprises him with a gift of his old skateboard, which Jack hides, because he doesn’t want his mother to say he can’t take it with him.

At his eccentric Aunt and Uncle’s home, he finds almost all walls are covered with books.  He makes a friend, a first for him, a girl whose twin brother was taken when he was younger and who came back with horrible scars on one side of his face.  She’s the terror of the bully who is the son of the richest and most powerful man in town – Mr. Avery.

But Mr. Avery wants Jack dead so he can control the magic that lives under the town.

Vanished by James Ponti (2017) Aladdin

A juvenile mystery – in which our hero, Florian Bates and his friend Margaret are assigned by the FBI to be exchange students at another Washington D.C. middle school to find out who is pulling pranks – especially since the President’s daughter attends there.  Someone put glue in the locks of three students including the first daughter, someone set off the fire alarm and someone crashed the schools’ chat server.

There are mysterious organizations, there is a foreign exchange student who is a prodigy, there are stuck-up cliques and there is the first daughter herself.  All of this combined with the Theory Of All Small Things, makes Florian and Margaret the ideal agents to solve the mystery and save the day.

Framed by James Ponti (2016) Aladdin

Florian Bates is your average 13 year-old, except he is very smart and has developed a method of solving puzzles he calls the Theory of All Small Things, or TOAST.  He teaches this method to his new best friend, Margaret.  His parents are a security expert and an art expert who both work at the local art museum.  While practicing toast at the museum, Florian and Margaret notice something suspicious.  A few days later, while visiting again, there is an art heist.  Florian helps find the three paintings before they even leave the premises.  Even though everyone is convinced that the Romanian Mafia is behind the theft.  This results in Florian being hired as a covert asset for the FBI.

Florian gets FBI training in self-defense and hostage survival.  He even gets some gadgets; a free for life metro card, which helps the FBI track his movements, and a pair of glasses that record video and even a panic button in the form of an asthma inhaler.

His friend Margaret wants him to use his unique talents to find her birth parents.  Florian is not sure she should get this information, but she’s his best friend and they set out to find what they can.  They visit the fire station where she was left as an infant and the captain remembers.  Only he never met her parents.

The head of the Romanian mafia in the U.S. is seen where Florian is watching his friend play and win the city championship soccer game.  The FBI take no chances and grab Florian and take him home.  And tell him he’s off the case.  But that doesn’t stop Florian and he and Margaret go to an open-to-the public reception at the Romanian embassy to spy of the mafia king-pin.  Only he sees them and they have to be rescued again.

While confined to his house, Florian figures-out that another painting was stolen and tells the FBI.  His mother secrets a chip of paint from the suspect picture and when the FBI analyze the chip, they know it’s a forgery.

But before they can figure out where the real painting is, Florian is kidnapped – by the kingpin.

Violets are Blue by James Patterson (2001) little Brown & Company

Alex Cross's partner is found brutally murdered in her own bed.  But he responds to his friend and handler at the FBI, Kyle Craig, telling him about a violent murder of two military personnel in San Francisco while they were out for a run.  They appear to have been attacked by a large animal and then hung, naked, by their heels.  Their blood has been drained, but too little of it is on the ground.

Alex meets a detective, Jamila Hughes, who is sure this is not the first such murder.  The coroner has called in an animal bite specialist who identifies the bites as being from a tiger.  Only tigers devour their prey, they don’t back off after a few bites.

Further investigation in San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego leave the detectives with the impression that there are people living lives as though they were vampires – even to the extent of having their incisors lengthened.\

A boy, who has killed his parents and is hiding on a ranch with other kids, bites Alex when he is captured.  The bite makes Alex very sick and while confined to home, his finds a pattern on the east coast and possible suspects.  A pair of magicians.

But as they close-in on the pair of killers, they are killed themselves.  The act takes them back to the west coast and they finally track-down the new killers.  This turns out to have been a war to see who would be known as the ‘Sire’ of the vampires.

When Alex gets home, he is attacked by his nemesis, the Mastermind.  But Alex manages to get the upper hand and discovers it is his friend and handler, Kyle Craig.

Wilderness by Dean Koontz (2013) Bantam

A pre-cursor story of a new character.  We never get to see Addison directly, only through the reactions of other people.  When he was born, the midwife wanted to strangle him as a mercy to his mother.  But his mother held a gun on the woman and made her promise to never tell what she saw.  His own mother can only stand him for so long, before she has to insist that he go outside where she won’t see him.

A hunter accidentally comes upon him hiding in a cave and only sees his eye, then pursues him, trying to kill him, until a hiker surprises the man, entering a dilapidated cottage where Addison is hiding under the floorboards.\

Yet not everything fears the sight of him.  Wolves seem to like him and are willing to follow him, warn him of danger, and even play in front of him.

Where will Dean take us on this journey?

The Bat by Jo Nesbo (2014) Thorndike Press

The Bat refers to an Australian Aboriginal depiction of death.  A Norwegian police detective, Harry Holë, pronounced ‘Holy’,  is dispatched to Australia to investigate the murder of a starlet from his country.  This is his first visit down under and he meets new people, including an aboriginal policeman and a bartender from Sweden.  He’s attracted to her and it leads to the romantic interest in the story.  But people tend to have secrets.  His friend the policeman used to be a boxer, and he knows things he won’t tell other people.  His main suspect is a drug dealer, who won’t tell anyone anything useful.  Even the locals are keeping secrets.

Harry has his own secrets that threaten to take him off the rails.  But the real question is whether Harry will find the killer before the killer finds and kills Harry.

The Witch’s Boy, by Kelly Barnhill (2014) Algonquin Young Readers

Twin boys, Tam and Ned, sons of a woodsman, the only man in the village brave enough to go into the forest, and a witch, who has real magic that she guards and only uses for good, have an idea to go to the sea.  So they build a raft and push it into the river.  Only it sinks and they end-up fighting the river for their lives.  No one goes into the river, but their father wades out and manages to grab one boy, but the other, the stronger one, Tam, is swept down the river.  The one who is saved is near death and the body of the one who was swept away is found at a bend.  He is brought back to his mother.  She keeps him on a cot next to his twin and when the sun goes down, when souls finally are released by the dead, she traps his soul and sews it with magic to his twin to save his life.  She knows she shouldn’t do such a selfish thing with the magic, but she cannot stand to lose both her boys.

The use of magic always has a cost and this cost Ned his voice.  He cannot read and he cannot speak without stuttering badly.  So he tends to stay quiet and away from other people.  But the queen will visit his village and his mother will not let him stay behind.  In the village, the queen has taken sick and everyone wants Sister Witch to come save the queen, which she does, but also sets off events where a bandit can take advantage, not only of the village, but of the entire nation.  He lives in the forest with his daughter and is the bandit king, but also an agent of another king.

The forest is a magical place with nine magic stones, who have awakened because Ned, in order to keep the bandit king from stealing his mother’s magic, has bound it to himself and escaped into the forest.  And the chase is on, the bandit king wants the magic and to become a real king, Ned wants to keep it from falling into his hands and the stones want it released so they can finally move on.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (2014) Mulholland Books

After solving the Lula Landry case, Cormorant Strike has gotten more clients in his detective business.  His assistant, Robin, wants to become a partner, but her fiancé is against it, thinking only of the higher paying job in Human Resources that she turned-down. 

A woman, looking obviously unable to pay, is waiting in the office as a wealthy and pushy client is demanding Cormorant’s time.   The wealthy client is told where to get off, and the evidently pro-bono client is asked to state her case – she wants her husband to be found and returned home to take care of his disabled daughter.  The husband is a writer of minor celebrity who writes in a scathing and demeaning style.

Cormorant visits the writer’s agent, a chain-smoking, hacking woman whom everyone is afraid to approach.  Then he continues to find all the people who have been in contact with the writer over his career.   Finds out that the writer and agent had a very public row in a pub where she told him his latest manuscript was unpublishable.  Cormorant gets a copy of the manuscript, starts reading it and then finds people mentioned, but not named, in the story.  One of these turns out to be the writer’s mistress, who thinks the writer’s wife has set him on her, but hates the writer, calling him bastard.

Finding out that there a house is jointly owned by the writer and a former friend, that has never been able to be sold, Cormorant insists on going there and discovers the writer has been murdered in a scene from the ending of the manuscript.

The police immediately think it is the wife and gather evidence to arrest her.  But Cormorant thinks she’s been set-up and has to prove she’s innocent and can be returned to her daughter.

With a case of everybody has a motive and an alibi, Cormorant must come-up with actual evidence to find the real killer.

Personal by Lee Child (2014) Delacorte Press

The Army Times is an excellent way for veterans to keep up with what’s going on in the service.  It’s also an excellent way to get in contact with Reacher.  That’s how an old General who won’t retire gets Reacher to call his office.  Reacher owes his primary assistant, also a General now, and makes a call.   Even though he’s on the west coast, all the contact needs to do in confirm the location of the rare pay phone that Reacher is calling from and they can pick him up, which they do.  A quick trip to a local airbase and Reacher is on his way back to the east coast, but not to Washington, to Fort Bragg.

A sniper Reacher put away sixteen years ago has been released from prison and while there, he spent his time doing yoga and keeping in shape.  Now, there’s been an attempt on the French President by a world class sniper and the only thing that saved his life was bullet-proof glass.  No one knows which of the only four snipers in the world who could have made the shot did the shooting.  One of them is Reacher’s arrestee.  Reacher found him once, the General thinks he can do it again.  Only he has an unwanted partner, a CIA operative with no field experience that reminds him of the woman he allowed to go to make as arrest who was killed by the target.

The G8 is meeting in London, making a target of eight world leaders in just a few days.  Reacher must eliminate the threat of it being the American sniper who pulls the trigger.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (1994) Yearling NBA

Four sisters and their father go on vacation, but the house they usually vacation in has been sold and at the last second, a house in a different place than they've gone before is available.  There, they find a mansion, but it's not what they're renting, it's the cottage in the far back of the property with a full Victorian garden in-between.  The girls, of course, though they're told not to go into the garden, are inextricably drawn when they discover a hidden tunnel in the wall.  There are other discoveries as well, the oldest girl finds herself attracted to the gardener.  The next oldest, the tomboy, finds a boy her age living in the mansion, who is under the thumb of his mother and her terrible boyfriend, who want to send the boy away to a military school, because his grandfather was a general.  The gardener has rabbits which gets the youngest, shyest girl to come every day just to feed the rabbits. Then there is the other girl, who writes stories based on what she sees and imagines around her.

Best Books I Read in 2018:

This year I read 80 books.  These are what I consider the best of the list (in the order I read the books).

1. Maus I a Survivor's Tale - My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (1991) Pantheon Books

The Special Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about his father and his experiences in World War II going from a successful garment salesman, then evading capture and then into Aushwitz

Maus II a Survivor's Tale - And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman  (1991) Pantheon Books

A continuation of the earlier work that tells of his father's life in the camps until he is reunited with his wife after the war.

2. Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard (2002) Mariner Books

All he wants to do is get his melon crop harvested and to market.  But he let his temper get away from him when a local hoodlum tries to drive off his workers and replace them with drunks.  He ends up on a bus with a killer whose crew tries to break him out and now he has to deal with that man.

3. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (2016) Algonquin

Each year, in the Protectorate, a child must be sacrificed to the Witch.  But one year, the witch, who feeds each child starlight and takes them to a better place and finds good parents, accidentally feeds one child from the moon and keeps her because her magic will be too wild for most people to control.

4. Artemis by Andy Weir (2017) Ballantine Books

Mr. Weir is back, this time using the actual name of a NASA project to establish a colony on the moon.  A girl living on the moon in the Artemis colony, saves her city by breaking all the rules 

5. The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke (1987) Henry Holt & Co.

Dave Robicheaux, a Lieutenant in the New Orleans Police department struggles with the death of a young woman in another Parrish that is written-off as a drowning death.  He is sure it was a murder and checking into the case causes a lot of bad guys to come out of the woodwork - even his partner.  When his brother gets shot, he goes after the mobster who was supposed to be his friend.

6. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (2013) Scribner

A ballerina is intentionally injured by a competitor and wreaks her revenge.  Then she is offered a way to keep her mother in their apartment by becoming a spy. She is sent to Sparrow school, where she is trained to seduce foreign diplomats so they can be blackmailed to give up state secrets.

7. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (2014) Scribner

Bill Hodges, a retired detective is contacted by the mass murderer about his last case.  Only now, the killer plans on something much more elaborate and deadly.

8. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (2013) William Morrow

An old man returns to his childhood neighbor's home and remembers that the pond in the back was called the ocean.

Excellent writing from a master storyteller - it includes the mythic triple goddess of the maiden, the mother and the crone.  Gaiman has mixed mythology, fantasy and reflection of the fears of our childhood and the cost of the mistakes in our lives.  It starts with a wonderful epigraph: "I remember my own childhood vividly . . . I knew terrible things.  But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew.  It would scare them."  -Maurice Sendak

9. The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck (2017) William Morrow

Three very different women live through World War II in a castle in Germany.

10. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling (2013) Mulholland Books

Cormorant Strike, a disabled British veteran MP is now a private detective with a ruined love life, enough bills to sink his business and a new temp receptionist.  He’s also the son of a rock star.  A client wants him to find the murderer of their famous model sister, whom has been ruled a suicide.

The Blue Tower by J.B. Simmons (2018) Three Cord Press 

A boy finds himself in the water near a blue tower and then becomes a student who needs to be scoured of the bad in his former life.

Origin by Dan Brown (2017) Doubleday 

A former student of Professor Langford, a futurist, presents arguments to the world via live streaming over the internet, that he expects will greatly hurt religion.  But before he can present the most damaging evidence, he is killed by a sniper.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling (2013) Mulholland Books 

Cormorant Strike, a disabled British veteran MP is now a private detective with a ruined love life, enough bills to sink his business and a new temp receptionist.  He’s also the son of a rock star.  A client wants him to find the murderer of their famous model sister, whom has been ruled a suicide.

The First Year by Nora Roberts (2017) St. Martin’s Press 

A virus kills off over 80% of the world's population and magic blooms in some of the survivors to balance the event.  Some of it is light and some is the darkest evil.  A witch bears a child who may become the savior of the world.

The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper (2018) Little Brown & Co 

An ex-army professor is appointed to serve-out the term of a murdered congressman.  But he soon finds himself in over his head with a conspiracy that may have started in the time of Ben Franklin.

L'Amerique by Thierry Sagnier (2018) Apprentice House 

A memoir of the author’s life growing up in France, after the war, then in the U.S. where his father was employed, and his mother struggled to adapt.

The Kremlin's Candidate by Jason Matthews (2018) Scribner 

Our heroine, the red sparrow, has become the head of the SVR, the spy ring for Russia and has found herself on the inside of Putin's closest advisers.  But her immediate boss suspects there is a mole at the highest levels.  Meanwhile, he has positioned a Navy Rear Admiral, whom he has used for a decade, to become the head of the CIA.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2015) Del Rey 

A young woman, Agneiszka,  is of an age to be among those selected once every ten years by a local wizard.  Everyone expects her best friend, the prettiest girl in the valley to be selected, but instead it is her, the homeliest, most disaster-prone girl in the valley.  When she questions why he selected her, in his tower, he tells her she is a witch.  She turns out not to be any witch, but one with Baba Jaga's capabilities.  And between them they rescue the Queen, who has been a captive of the Wood for the last twenty years and deal with all the disasters that come to Agneiszka so naturally.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck (2017) William Morrow 

Three very different women live through World War II in a castle in Germany.

Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard (1991) Delacorte Press 

Bob is a judge, and not a nice one.  While he hands down maximum sentences for the least perceived slight in the courtroom, he is always trying to bed any woman he comes across, in spite of the fact that he is married.  

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs (2008) Ace 

A side series to Mercy Thompson featuring Anna, an Omega, and Charles, her mate and the Marrock’s son and enforcer.  The Moor is a  very old werewolf and now he and the pack are threatened by an old enemy.

Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz (2009) Del Rey Books

The third volume in the Frankenstein Epic - our two intrepid New Orleans cops get on the move and find they have to protect their household - Deucalian helps move a child to Tibet through a doorway and the new humans in the dump are changed and no longer feel the need to kill humans - all due to a unique creature who can reach into their minds and change their programming.  The whole point of the novel is to isolate and kill Victor Frankenstein, destroy his work and free the world from the threat of dominance.  But he is always a step ahead.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (2013) William Morrow 

An old man returns to his childhood neighbor's home and remembers that the pond in the back was called the ocean.

Excellent writing from a master storyteller - it includes the mythic triple goddess of the maiden, the mother and the crone.  Gaiman has mixed mythology, fantasy and reflection of the fears of our childhood and the cost of the mistakes in our lives.  It starts with a wonderful epigraph: "I remember my own childhood vividly . . . I knew terrible things.  But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew.  It would scare them."  -Maurice Sendak

City of Night by Dean Koontz (2005) Random House 

The second volume in the Frankenstein Epic - our two intrepid New Orleans cops find themselves the target of Victor Helios' clones.

The Golden Elephant by Alex Archer (92008) Gold Eagle 

In which Annja Creed is commissioned to find and extract an ancient artifact - in competition with a tomb robber.

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (2008) Tor Books 

In which Vin and her husband, the Emperor Elend, try to save the world from Ruin.

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (2007) Tor Books 

In which Vin, who has killed the Lord Ruler God, and her betrothed, Elend find the Well and are deceived into releasing Ruin.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (2006) Tor Books 

\In which a street urchin, Vin, is mistborn and becomes the apprentice of Kelsier, who wants to overthrow the final empire.

Cerulean Sins by Laurell K Hamilton (2003) Berkley 

Our vampire executioner, Anita Blake, now a leopard shapeshifter, finds herself in the midst of a power play by vampires. Her friend, the master vampire of St. Louis is under threat from his oldest ancestor, sending one of her most powerful underlings to take over his territory.