Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Newell

20Sept. Kindle. Book Club.

Not my sort of thing. At all. Still it kept me reading, if only to see what idiocy and excess this scion of the super-rich could come up with next. This woman, Hugette Clark, operated about as far from the blatant publicity-seeking modus operandi of the Hilton daughters as is imaginable, but the excess is just as excessive.

The author continually catalogues examples of Clark's vast generosity - she gave her nurse millions of dollars - but in the last analysis, it all read to me as attempts to buy loyalty, which, inevitably, produced amazing greed among those same individuals and institutions.

The Sign of the Book by John Dunning

16Sept. Kindle.

Another punny title - I didn't expect it from Dunning. All about ghosts from the past - this time the past of Janeway's sweetie, Erin - who has managed to be around for a couple of books now. A former friend of hers (former because she couldn't keep her hands off Erin's boyfriend) is charged with the murder of said boyfriend, now her husband and the father of their five-year old twins and to their adopted child.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

13Sept. Paper.

Loaned to me by a friend. Not a particularly pleasant piece. A couple with problems of their own has a teenage daughter who is the victim of date rape - or was she? She is tried in the press and gossip networks and since the young man is a top jock at their high school ...

The girl's father has an odd past. His mother (a single mother) was the school teacher for an Alaskan native village. He grew up the lone outsider in the village younger set and was ostracized - on good days. He becomes a graphic artist and the book has pages of "his" artwork which add up to a graphic novel throughout. I believe the graphic novel is intended to parallel the "real" story. Bit of a reach.

To the Hilt by Dick Francis

11Sept. Kindle.

One of his punnier titles. The hilt is an artifact connected with Bonny Prince Charlie which is the focus of a search by the bad guys in the course of which they beat up the hero rather badly. The hero is a painter, specializing in portraits of horses (of course), the despair of his family. He lives in an unmodernized cottage (I know there is a proper Scottish word for structures of this particular type, but I can't think of it at the moment) without electricity or other "mod cons" and plays the bagpipes in his spare time.

Castle in the Air by Diane Wynne Jones

9Sept. Kindle.

This one has a Middle Eastern cast and setting (more or less). Howl and Sophie do appear momentarily at the end, but I found the whole thing just a bit strained - compared to the original book - it is still better than many that I have read. I did like the flying carpet, however, and the squid vendors bad-tempered dog.

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers

8Sept. Kindle.

Sayers has such a way with words! It is only recently that I have discovered that she was a noted educational theorist and theologian as well as an outstanding mystery writer.

Here we have a couple of essays on the subject of the assumed subordinate nature of women in twentieth century society .

Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones

6Sept. Kindle.

I reread this because I just discovered that there are two more books in the series. I enjoyed it as much this time as the first time.