Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Finished on 5/24

I thought I had read this many, many years ago. High school age years ago. Wrong. The book I have thought for many years was this one is something else altogether - now I have to find it.

Clarke really could put it out there. This vision of the future of humanity is chilling - and not at all like the vision of the book I thought this was, which was equally chilling in its own way.

First, there was the arrival of the Overlords, who coincidentally turn out (after many years of hiding their physical selves) to strongly resemble traditional representations of the devil. But the Overlords are not the end of the story - they are scarcely even the beginning.

I've always considered Clarke the master of the logical. He was, after all, an engineer. I thought he got "visionary" after his retreat to Sri Lanka. Wrong, again. This is his third published novel. By the way, I think the book I was thinking of is The City and the Stars. I'll have to check it out. On the other hand - of that logical thing - my favorite of his short works is a story called "The Nine Billion Names of God." Now there was a chiller - I guess he was always strongly mystical, in spite of the Rama books and any number of others.

It may be time to put him on my list of people to reread or to read for the first time in some cases.

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

Finished on 5/23

For a change of pace, this time it is faeries not vampires. Someone has killed the knight of the summer court as opposed to (surprise!) the winter court (the one headed by Titania and the other by Mab, but I can't remember which is which at the moment) and a marker with Harry's name on it is called in to settle the matter.

He starts or at least is involved in (it has been a couple of months - and I have mentioned my ability to forget details) a war between the two courts which is resolved somewhere out on the waterfront in Chicago. All the Chicago stuff would probably have more charm if I actually knew the city, but I managed to avoid that in my five years in the neighborhood.

He also enlists the assistance of his pack of neighborhood werewolves - that bunch is definitely one of the delightful bits of this series.

An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer

Finished on 5/22

I suppose even the best writers produce a dud every now and then - and goodness knows, Heyer produced enough to allow at least one. In my estimation, this is it. On the other hand, I think my sister really liked it.

Heyer abandons at least a couple of her basic principles here. For one, this is the third in a series. I could be mistaken, but I believe that all the rest are stand-alone. It is by generation, the character in this one is the grandchild of the couple of the first of the three books - not a continuing story of the same characters, although both previous couples appear - understandably - after all, they are the parents and grandparents ---

I'm thinking that it's ok for a writer to like his/her characters - but it is unwise to carry them on beyond their use-by date. Another "problem" with this one is that the "bad man" who is reformed in the end is not a man but the daughter/granddaughter of aforementioned characters from earlier novels. Not a Heyer strength.

All that aside, the real problem (for me) with this one is that it is an historical novel, not a period piece, but set in genuine history - centered around the Battle of Waterloo, no less. That may be what made this one of my sister's favorites, but it totally did not work for me. The shift between drawing room/ballroom dramatics and battlefield drama was extremely unsettling. And did the battle actually continue for weeks and weeks and weeks? or did it just seem like it. I guess if you are determined to "tell" an extremely complex piece of military whatever from the point of view of each of a couple dozen characters, it can become rather protracted. I was quite relieved when I checked the end of the book and found that the last thirty or so pages were a list of research sources - not more narrative.

Besides - wouldn't it have been just as satisfactory without blowing up the good guy?

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons

Finished on 5/20

This was our book club book for June. I have since missed the meeting where it was the book under discussion. There were legitimate reasons for missing - it was moved to Tuesday and that is a day when the car is unavailable to me at that hour, but I suppose I could have called around and gotten a ride, but I hate calling people for favors - like my mother in that, I guess. The real reason was probably that I didn't like the book all that much - and it was selected by a very good friend - and we usually agree on such matters.

It is all about a man who wants to be something that he is not - an Englishman. He and his wife are Jews who escaped from Nazi Germany and resettled in England.

Building a successful business is not enough for him, he wants to be more British than the Brits. His obsession eventually takes the form of ruining his business to build a golf course (a game he has never played) and carrying on an extensive and completely one-sided correspondence with Bobby Jones.

In a series of total improbabilities, he sort of succeeds and Bobby Jones graces his Coronation Day Tournament - and even more improbably he wins the acceptance and affection of a small village.

Possibly what made me the most uncomfortable with the whole business was the spectacle of a man making himself ridiculous to no positive end.

Women's Minyan by Naomi Ragen

Finished on 5/19

Something different for me - this is a play and I don't often read plays, but it looked interesting, it was very inexpensive, and there you have it. It reads very well and I'm sure it was most impressive on stage. It premiered in Israel in 2002 and in the US in 2005.

It is the story of one woman's situation - and is based on actual events in the ultra-orthodox community. Chana has left her husband - and her twelve children - and although the rabbinical courts have granted her the right to see her children, her husband and his family have prevented it.

When she comes to the house to see her children, she is confronted by her two oldest daughters and the women of the neighborhood, including her own mother and her mother-in-law.

She calls on the women to sit in judgment, agreeing to abide by their decision - if they find against her, she will not attempt to see her children again.

The title is a summary of the situation, because under the law, women cannot form part of a minyan, let alone form one entirely, because they have no standing as members of the community.

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

Finished on 5/18

Reichs does not disappoint. Here the title is key to the story. As survivors of high school biology should remember, the human body has 206 bones. For once, Tempe finds all of those bones at a gravesite - and is properly amazed. But someone steals some of the bones - then others are substituted and the identity of the deceased is called into question.

Gradually it develops that someone is out to get Tempe by discrediting her professionally as not just this one, but several of her cases are called into question. Of course, it is obvious from page one that someone is out to get her because chapters are headed with italicized passages about Tempe's attempts to get out of the tomb in which she has been buried alive. The two narrative lines do eventually close with each other and the careful reader is satisfied but not surprised by the identity of the conspirators.

A Function of Murder by Ada Madison

Finished on 5/17

I have not found Madison's plots particularly memorable. The books are fun to read, but now (a month plus later) I had to go look up the book to see what it was about. Of course, one of the factors in play is that I seldom remember whodunnit - which means that I get to reread mysteries periodically. Another factor, however, is that the title presents no clue. I can look at the next book on this list - and the title reminds me of the crux of the mystery - and in this case, even who the murderer was - well, one of the murderers. In the present case, I remember the murder itself, after reading the synopsis on Amazon, but who and why - no clue.

That said, it was a decent read. The murder victim this time is the second string commencement speaker, the mayor of their little burg. Not only that he is stabbed to death with a letter opener with the university crest - one of which is presented to every graduate and visiting dignitary - leaving us with no shortage of suspects.