Book 44: Homicide in Hardcover

Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle is a delightful beginning for her Bibliophile Mystery series.  Book restorer Brooklyn Wainwright accepts an invitation from her mentor Abraham Karastovsky to a celebration of his latest restoration of a collection of books, but the night which starts off with such promise takes a sharp downhill turn when she discovers her mentor dying in his workroom.  He manages to leave her with a cryptic warning to "remember the devil" and hands over a priceless copy of Faust hidden under his jacket.  With British security expert Derek Stone looking over her shoulder, Brooklyn agrees to finish the restoration of the Faust while also conducting her own search for the murderer.  Then the stakes rise as another book binder is murdered and Brooklyn is threatened.

I found the mystery well written and entertaining.  I'll certainly be continuing with the rest of the series.  4 stars.

Book 43: The Power of Habit

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg attempts to explain why habits exist and how we can change old habits or establish new ones.  Every habit can be broken into three parts: a cue, a trigger, and a reward.  To change a previous habit, he recommends four steps (which are most clearly explained in the appendix for some reason).

1. Identify the routine.  (What are you doing that you want to change?)
2.  Determine what reward you are seeking (A sugar rush, more energy, a feeling of accomplishment, socialization, etc.). For this step try changing the routine, then write down the first three things that pop in your mind.  After trying several different routines determine what reward you are seeking.
3.  Isolate the cue.  Keep track of your location, the time, emotional state, other people, and the immediately preceding action.  The consistent one will be the cue.
4.  Have a plan.  Determine what your new routine will be and put it into practice.

To establish a new routine determine the cue, habit, and reward.  In order for the habit to take hold, the reward needs to be something that you will crave.  Having a belief that it is possible to change is also a critical component.

Duhigg looks at different types of habits from individual to corporate to social.  I found the stories interesting and well told.  If anything it was a little light on the how to change or establish a habit.  Much of the information above was found in an appendix at the end of the book.

Book 42: Crystal Clear

43 year old Crystal Goldstein in Crystal Clear by Jane Heller is a hard-working New York accountant on the verge of burning out.  After a higher up implies she is about to be downsized and she discovers her boyfriend hanging out with his ex-wife, her best friend Rona convinces her to take a vacation and cleanse her aura.  Crystal heads to a resort in Sedona, Arizona where she is surprised to discover her ex-husband Terry Hollenbeck, who did finally manage to settle down and apply himself, running the highly successful jeep tour that she just scheduled for the next five days.  The other explorers in the group are a clueless and ditzy heiress named Amanda Wells Reid and her entourage of unhappy staff.  When Amanda disappears and Terry's best friend is accused of murder, the two exes team up to save him and maybe themselves in the process.

The plot was a little slow and the humor sometimes a little too over the top to be funny, but I enjoyed the read nonetheless.  3 stars.

Book 41: A Is for Alibi

Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi marks the debut of Kinsey Millhone a 32 year old, twice divorced, former cop turned private detective living in Santa Teresa, California.  After serving 8 years for the murder of her husband, Nikki Fife is finally free.  Instead of simply moving on with her life, she hires Millhone to find the real murderer of her husband. Researching the case, Kinsey discovers that four days after the death of Laurence Fife, an accountant named Libby who handled his business was also murdered by oleander poisoning.  As she investigates the possible connections between the two murders, one of her prime suspects is murdered and an attempt is made in her own life as well leaving Kinsey in a race to solve the case before she ends up dead as well.

I found the book to be an entertainingly straight forward P. I. story.  Kinsey solves crime with hard work, basic intel gathering, establishing a timeline of events using index cards on a board, and a well developed instinct.  I will definitely be continuing with this series.  5 stars.

Book 40: From the Beast to the Blonde

From the Beast to the Blonde: In Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner was a slog for me.  I found the first half on the "Tellers" to have too many references to art history and too many historical generalizations.  I had hoped for a more factual look at female storytellers and instead plodded through more of a history of how women were perceived.  In part two which was supposed to cover stories, I did enjoy some of the comparisons of different versions of a story, but the constant Freudian psychoanalysis was overabundant and not at all interesting to me.  1 star.

Book 39: One for the Money

Janet Evanovich's One for the Money marks the beginning of her Stephanie Plum series.  Stephanie has been out of work for six months, has sold nearly everything she own, and has no job prospects in the near future.  In desperation she turns to her cousin Vinnie hoping for a filing job.  By the time she arrives the position is filled, but the secretary suggests that she could be one of their bounty hunters instead.  When her cousin tries to refuse because she has zero experience, she blackmails him into hiring her and is given one week to track down and acquire a former cop named Joe Morelli who is wanted for murder.  For starters, the secretary sets her up with one of their best bounty hunters named Ranger for a crash course on what she needs to do.  After two failed attempts (at acquiring not finding) Stephanie and Joe make a deal.  She helps him find the missing witness that can prove his innocence, and he will protect her in the field and allow her to turn him in. Given the crazy boxer that is now stalking her and her complete lack of skills, it's really a no-brainer if she wants to survive.

I chose this book off of Overdrive because it claimed to be humorous, the plot sounded intriguing, and there are plenty of books in the series available through Overdrive at my library.  Stephanie was completely clueless at the beginning of the book, and her survival is close to miraculous but oddly still believable.  I was glad to see that she finally took the dangers of her job seriously enough to start jogging, spend time at the firing range learning to shoot properly, and consider martial arts training once she had sufficient money.  It gives me hope that her competence will slowly improve over time.  Grandma was hilarious, and her crazy comments and actions were probably my favorite part of the book.  Overall an entertaining enough read for me to continue in the series.  3 stars.

Book 38: Murder With Peacocks

Murder With Peacocks is the first book in Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series.  Meg Langslow is a practical, organized blacksmith who is taking the summer off to be the maid of honor for not one but three weddings in the small town where she grew up.  The three brides (her best friend, her brother's fiancee, and her mom) have dumped all of the planning for the big events into her lap.  Luckily for Meg, Michael Waterston, the son of the local dressmaker, is managing his mother's shop for the summer an appears time after time to assist her with all sorts of craziness.  If balancing three weddings and dealing with her crazy family wasn't enough, the sister-in-law of her mom's fiancee is found murdered.  Then accident after accident designed to kill either Meg or her father follows, and Meg has to balance three weddings and a murder investigation while trying to survive.

This delightful mystery is well written, packed with humor, and sprinkled with a bit of romance.  I look for to enjoying more books by this author.  4 stars

Book 37: The Invisible Library

Genevieve Cogman's The Invisible Library is the first book in a new series of the same title.  The Library exists in a neutral zone between alternate worlds employing librarians that retrieve books deemed important (although the actual criteria used is not well explained) and function as a force for order.  Sometimes the retrieval simply involves buying the book in question, sometimes it must be stolen, and then of course there is the occasional mission where everything goes wrong. Naturally this book involves the latter.

Irene, a young librarian, is sent to an alternate Victorian London where chaos has contaminated the world resulting in all sorts of supernatural beings including fae, vampires, and werewolves.  The world also has a strong presence of technology  with all manner of mechanical creations (I liked the giant centipede and wished Irene had a better vantage point of the fight).  The mission is to retrieve a rare copy of Grimm fairytales; but when Irene arrives with her dragon assistant Kai, the book has been stolen and its previous owner murdered.  Enlisting the aid of a renowned detective named Vale, the duo must race to find the missing book before it falls in the hands of the fae (beings of chaos) or even worse those of the Library's greatest enemy, Alberich.

I thought the world building was quite well done although I still have a lot of questions about the Library and Alberich which I imagine will be answered eventually as the series continues.  The action was well paced, but the characters could definitely use a bit more development.  Overall an entertaining read.  4 stars.

Book 36: Silence Fallen

Silence Fallen is the tenth book in Patricia Briggs' popular Mercy Thompson series.  Mercy makes a quick run for eggs and chocolate chips and gets kidnapped by the Lord of Night.  The book alternates narrator between Mercy and Adam as Mercy escapes and tries to survive while Adam, Marsilia, and others try to negotiate with the Lord of Night in order to ensure the long-term safety of the supernatural of the Tri-Cities.  As usual vampires as the villains results in a lot of overly complex vampire drama, but the addition of the golum with Mercy in Prague was intriguing twist.

Like all Mercy Thompson books, this one contains plenty of back and forth witty character dialogue, a now solid relationship between Adam and Mercy that provides each with the strength to handle their portion of the plot, and enough actions to keep the reader's interest from beginning to end.  5 stars.

Book 35: The Big Four

The Big Four by Agatha Christie is the fifth book in her Hercule Poirot series.  Poirot's friend Hastings has come from South America for a surprise visit.  Shortly after his arrival, a man climbs through Poirot's window and collapses.  The man briefly awakes and tells them about the Big Four:  number one, a Chinese man named Li Chang Yen (the mastermind); number two, a rich American (the money man); number three, a Frenchwoman (the scientist), and number four, the destroyer.  The claims seem strange until the man, who turns out to be secret service, is murdered.  Another murder related to the name the Big Four soon follows.  Event follows event as Poirot slowly determined the identities of numbers two through four and tries to reason out their master plan while keeping himself and Hastings alive.

A departure from the previous books, this one has several crimes solved quickly by Poirot that then together and lead up to the final showdown.  I didn't like this one as much because the shadow conspiracy seemed a bit far fetched, but it still made for an enjoyable afternoon of reading.  4 stars.

Book 34: The Obesity Code

Dr. Jason Fung's The Obesity Code  is the first book I've seen that acknowledges the complexity of obesity.  Fung asserts that obesity is 70% controlled by hereditary factors and 30% by our choices.  He begins by pointing out the problems with the assumptions underlying the calorie reduction error.

• Calories in and calories out are not independent of one another
• Basal metabolic rate is not stable.
• Hunger and satiety are regulated by hormones not simply by conscious control.
• Fat stores are also hormonally regulated.
• Not every calorie is created the same.

This means that simply reducing calories fails when the body reacts by lowering metabolism and increasing hunger signals causing the cycles of weight loss followed by weight gain as the body tries to maintain its set weight.  Similarly, while exercising is important for many health reasons, trying to lose weight just by exercising also has its limits.  Increasing exercise also increases the hunger signals from the body.  The problem then is that the hormonal systems of the body sets the body weight and amount of fat too high, so long term weight close and control require that we reset the point.

The primary hormones that effect weight are insulin and cortisol.  In order to lose weight, insulin levels must be lowered.  To do this, he recommends no more than three meals a day (no snacks) and periods of intermittent fasting. Diet steps include:

1. Reduce the consumption of added sugar.  (Artificial sweeteners are also out because they raise insulin even more than sugar.) 
2. Reduce the consumption of refined grains.
3. Moderate protein intake.
4. Increase consumption of natural fats.
5. Increase consumption of fiber and vinegar both of which decrease insulin spikes.

While he mentions a few diet plans, he does not choose one over the other as long as they fit with his basic framework.  The importance of intermittent fasting is to lower insulin levels to reduce insulin resistance and reset the body's set point.  The appendix includes to sample one so fasting plans as we were to common concerns regarding fasting.  He also as a very brief section on the importance of reducing stress through regular exercise, meditation, and sufficient sleep.

Overall I thought the book was clear and we'll reasoned.  An excellent read for those wanting to lose weight. 5 stars.

Book 33: Etched in Bone

The final installment of the Others series telling the story arc centered on the Lakeside Courtyard, Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop is an amazing finale to the five book series. Everything seems to have settled down at Lakeside after the actions of the Elders in response to the bloodshed by the HFL movement in Thasia and the invasion of the CelRomano forces into the surrounding Wild lands across the ocean.  Then Montgomery's trouble-making brother turns up looking for free handouts and an easy score. Because the two Elders visiting the courtyard wish to study the troublesome human, Simon must allow him to stay in the apartment complex the Others purchased across the street despite the fact that no one wants him there.  When his first schemes fail, Jimmy sets his sights on Meg as his means to easy street. But he has no idea how to care for a blood prophet, and Meg is determined to once again follow her prophecy to freedom.

Of course anyone who has read the previous books in the series knows that the summary above leaves out the best parts of the book.  Like previous books, this one is packed with day to day humor based on slight misunderstandings between species: Kowalski accidentally accepting the role of prey in a chase game with the wolf pack who found his bike irresistible and Meg calling the Elders bad puppies for demanding cookies without saying please because she misunderstands who is leaving her notes are my two favorites.  The relationship between Simon and Meg continues to grow into a very satisfying ending.  Similarly being able to look back and see the growth of the individual characters over the course of five books makes me appreciate what an amazing job the author has done with her character development.  This series definitely ranks along one of my all time favorites.  Five stars.

Book 32: The Hidden Oracle

Continuing in his world of Greek mythology, The Hidden Oracle marks the first book in Riordan's new series "The Trials of Apollo".  The blame for all the Gaea related troubles and the near war between the Greek and Roman demigods falls to Apollo at the end of the previous series. Six months pass and finally Apollo turns up on earth as a human with no memory of what has happened during the lapsed time.  He quickly becomes a servant of Meg, a demigod daughter of Demeter, until such time as he performs tasks sufficient to hopefully earn his place in Olympus once again.  Step one, get Meg and himself safely to Camp Half Blood without his powers.  Happily Percy Jackson is willing to provide a ride, and Meg is surprisingly effective in a fight.

Once there, Apollo learns that the source of prophecy is still blocked creating a catch 88. (All quests need a prophecy to begin.)  In addition, campers are disappearing, communications are down, and all the funding for the weapons and goods used against the camp in the previous two series has been traced back to a shadow corporation run by a group of three men whose identities are unknown, although one seems to go by the nickname of the Beast.  With his memory shaky and his abilities hit or miss, Apollo must overcome his ego, his fears of mortality, and unknown opponents to restore and save the oldest source of prophecy, the Grove of Dodona, if the Olympians are to have any chance against their new foes.

Apollo is whiny, easily distracted, extremely frustrated with his current limitations, and frequently downright annoying at the start of the book.  Thankfully his character does quite a bit of growing during the course of  events, or I might have given up on him.  Packed with plenty of action, mixed with humor, interspersed with appearances of multiple characters from previous books, and topped with a few surprising plot twists, I give this book a solid 4 stars as look forward to the next installment.