Waiting on Wednesday (49)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: The Care and Management of Lies, by Jacqueline Winspear (1 July 2014).

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained - by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea's gift to Kezia is a book on household management - a veiled criticism of the bride's prosaic life to come. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia's responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unraveling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. Even Tom's fellow soldiers in the trenches enter and find solace in the dream world of Kezia's mouth-watering, albeit imaginary meals. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy?

*****

This straight historical novel is a bit of a departure from the author of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series (set after World War I), but I'm a fan of her writing and interested in the period, so I'll gladly give this a try.

Time and Again

by Jack Finney.

Artist Simon Morley is, at worst, only vaguely dissatisfied with his job at an ad agency, drawing bars of soap from every angle, when a total stranger approaches to offer him the chance of a lifetime: to be part of a government project so secret that Si has to say yes or no without even knowing what the project actually does. He says yes, and learns that the mysterious project is investigating the theory that time is not linear, but that all moments exist simultaneously, so that it should be possible for him to walk into the Dakota apartments in New York in the 1970s--and simply walk out in 1882.

Now, I normally try to talk about books without spoilers just in case somebody might want to read one (first rule of book talks for librarians, in fact--one of the things I learned in grad school was how to make a book sound kind of interesting without giving anything vital away). But I have to say something about the ending here, and I think the spoiler statute of limitations on this one ran out long ago.

So here's the thing. I have read a lot of science fiction over the years, and I am also really fond of historical novels, so both sides of this story appealed to me. I have also read a lot of 19th-century novels, so I'm not put off by a leisurely pace. So far, so good; I really enjoyed the story.

But then the author drops a variation of the venerable Grandfather Paradox (TV Tropes link, click with caution) on the very last page, and the narrator just walks away from it without considering the implications at all. Here's the spoiler, if you're interested: he prevents the birth of the scientist who will be in charge of the time travel project in the 1970s, which should have prevented the project and made his own presence in 1882 impossible, and then he just walks away. It drove me nuts, though I couldn't get across to my book club just why I found that so infuriating. 

So maybe it's just me.

Waiting on Wednesday (48)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: The Late Scholar, by Jill Paton Walsh (17 June 2014).

Peter Wimsey is pleased to discover that along with a Dukedom he has inherited the duties of 'visitor' at an Oxford college.When the fellows appeal to him to resolve a dispute, he and Harriet set off happily to spend some time in Oxford. But the dispute turns out to be embittered. The voting is evenly balanced between two passionate parties - evenly balanced, that is, until several of the fellows unexpectedly die.The Warden has a casting vote, but the Warden has disappeared.  And the causes of death of the deceased fellows bear an uncanny resemblance to the murder methods in Peter's past cases - methods that Harriet has used in her published novels.

*****

As fanfic goes, these novels are pretty great. Paton Walsh has a great ear for the period, and makes her characters really seem like they would fit into any of the original novels by Sayers. I've enjoyed all three of her ventures into Wimseyana, and the last most of all; so I'm anxious to get my hands on this one.

Waiting on Wednesday (47)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Blood Red, by Mercedes Lackey (3 June 2014).

Ten years ago, Gretchen Schwarzwald was orphaned by an evil Earth Master who wanted her parents' land and killed them all with the werewolves he created. She was rescued by a Fire Master, a member of the Woodsman's Lodge, and taught how to use her own Fire Powers. Now another werewolf pack is ravaging Exmoor, and she has come from the Schwarzwald--the Black Forest of Germany--to help London's White Lodge eradicate it and find and destroy the Elemental Master behind it.

*****

I always enjoy this series. I generally like them a bit better when I have to work a little to figure out which fairy tale she's riffing on, and here we're told right up front that it's Little Red Riding Hood; but at least it looks like Gretchen is already a competent mage, so this won't be yet another variation on the theme of "young woman finds out she has magic and must learn to use it," the way the last several entries have been.

Waiting on Wednesday (46)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I've been looking forward to for a long time: Skin Game, by Jim Butcher (27 May 2014).

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day. As Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful.

He doesn’t know the half of it…

Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains—led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone—to break into the highest-security vault in town, so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he's dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.

*****

This is Book 15 in a projected 20 or so, to be followed up by what the author promises will be an "apocalyptic trilogy" (because everybody like apocalyptic trilogies, amirite?) to cap off the series. So we're well into the part of the series where things have already gotten pretty bad but are still getting worse, and not yet to the part where we might begin to see some glimmers of a resolution. 

Still, it's always fun (for the reader, anyway) to watch Harry Dresden have a bad day.

Waiting on Wednesday (45)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Fatal Enquiry, by Will Thomas (13 May 2014).

Some years ago, Cyrus Barker matched wits with Sebastian Nightwine, an aristocrat and sociopath, and in exposing his evil, sent Nightwine fleeing to hide from justice somewhere in the far corners of the earth. The last thing Barker ever expected was to encounter Nightwine again - but the British government, believing they need Nightwine's help, has granted him immunity for his past crimes, and brought him back to London. Nightwine, however, has more on his mind than redemption - and as Barker and Llewellyn set out to uncover and thwart Nightwine's real scheme, they find themselves in the gravest danger of their lives.

*****

I really liked all the books in this series, and I was afraid he'd stopped writing them. But after a gap of six years from the last installment, here's a new one! Highly recommended for fans of Sherlock Holmes, especially those like me who feel that most modern stories using Holmes and Watson don't get the characters quite right; these novels avoid that problem by using different characters in a similar setting.

Waiting on Wednesday (44)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I find I'm looking forward to: Ragtime Cowboys, by Loren D. Estleman (6 May 2014.)

Los Angeles, 1921: Ex-Pinkerton Charlie Siringo is living in quiet retirement when Wyatt Earp knocks on his door and asks him to track down his missing horse. What begins as horse thievery turns into a deeper mystery as Siringo and another ex-Pinkerton, the young Dashiell Hammett, follow clues that take them from the streets of Los Angeles to Jack London's farm, until they discover a conspiracy masterminded by the notorious and powerful Joseph P. Kennedy. From beginning to end, these ragtime cowboys chase the truth in this compelling tale of the Old West and early Hollywood.

*****

I'm not usually a big reader of Westerns, though I got through most of Louis L'Amour one summer in college; but I love stories like this, which show the icons of the Wild West living on well into the 20th century. This one seems to have a lot more going on than a missing horse, and sounds like a lot of fun.