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.