fall reading list

Another short list. I find it hard to believe that at one time I was reading 10 – 12 books every quarter. Who has time to read these days? I'm currently trying to get ahead of the game and get my display fixed up and the pieces priced before I set up on Thursday for the first weekend Open House.

In The Company Of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith - I'm back to this series, number six. Mma Ramotse surprises an intruder in her home, helps a good man just released from prison gain employment, and is faced with her first husband who threatens to tell her secret if she doesn't pay him off. In the meantime Mma Makutsi decides to take dance lessons and is pared with the worst of the men in the class or so it seems, helps Mr. Matekoni discover what his house that he rented out after moving in with Mma Ramotse is being used for, and accepts a proposal.

The Curious Charms Of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick - on the one year anniversary of his wife's death, Arthur discovers a charm bracelet that belonged to his wife of 40 years, a bracelet that he had no knowledge of, and discovers that his wife had quite an adventurous life before they met. He sets out to discover the stories represented by the charms. Each charm he learned about only sent him off into doubting his relationship with his wife and blah blah. That got tiresome as if because she had some excitement in her life prior to their very staid life together it cast doubt on the nature of their love. It was OK but not very well written. The book is less about the stories than Arthur's journey from stagnating grieving widower to a man starting out fresh.

Beasts & Children by Amy Parker – a series of short stories about three families or rather the children of three families...Carline and Cissy Bowman and their cousin Danny who grow up in a family of declining gentry; Jill and Maisie Foster, the neglected children of diplomats stationed in Indonesia; and Manny and Gracie Guzman, immigrants from Colombia though their stories are as much about their parents as the children. They are young when first introduced but each story takes a big leap in time and as they age, their lives intertwine. The stories center around their ability or inability to change their lives. I haven't read a collection of short stories for some time but I enjoyed these. It was nice to be able to sit and finish a story in the short time I have to read these days instead of trying to remember who and what in whatever novel I am currently trying to get through.

Troublemaker by Linda Howard - I read two pages and had to go back and re-read the synopsis on the jacket. I checked this out? "One of the most recognized and lauded names in romantic suspense" Well, OK, but what the hell was I thinking? I don't read romance though I did spend a number of years reading Nora Roberts. Anyway, Morgan, a special OPs team leader is the object of an assassination attempt which very nearly succeeds. His boss sends him in hiding to recuperate with his ex-stepsister while they try to catch the person responsible, or would if they could figure out who was responsible. Bo is the chief of police in this small town of about 3,000 or 4,000 people who is fiercely independent and lives alone with her dog who is a major presence. She takes in the extremely weak Morgan and nurses him back to health and giving him shelter and a cover story to the town and of course they fall in love and have lots of fantastic and orgasmic sex and they figure out the who and why of his assassination attempt and catch the bad guys and they get married, the end.

Ink And Bone by Lisa Unger – a story of psychic gifts, abductions, and a mounting evil. Wolf and Merri and their two kids, Jackson and Abbey, rent a cabin in The Hollows, a small town in NY state. Wolf takes the kids on a hike and because he is distracted by his extra-marital affair girlfriend on the phone he lets the kids get too far ahead. Shots ring out and Wolf and Jackson are hit and Abbey is abducted. Finley 'shines'. She hears thing others can't hear and sees the dead. In an attempt to get hold of her life, she leaves the west coast and goes to live with her grandmother, who also shines, in The Hollows in the hope that she can understand what she is supposed to do with these visions. Her grandmother works with a private detective to help solve cases that have run into dead ends. After over a year, a desperate Merri contacts the detective after learning that others have gone missing in The Hollows and Finley and her grandmother are drawn into the investigation but it is Finley who is having the visions and it is she who is tasked with finding the girl before it's too late. This was a good one and I actually read it in a decent amount of time.