gilda_elise | Entries tagged with mount tbr 2024

The survivors of what has come to be known as The Catskill Cataclysm are not out the woods yet. As the last known members of The Hidden, they are marked for extermination. Their allies—Chan and Danni, and the Troika—are hunting them as well, but the Hidden do what they do hide.

Something new surfaces in the South a Manhattan-size iceberg. And embedded within it is a long lost Nazi U-boat. Back in the day, the Third Reich claimed part of Antarctica for its own. Was the sub on an exploratory mission? It carried a strange artifact that it was ferrying home when it was trapped in the ice. The bodies of the crew are perfectly preserved from the subzero temperatures… but they all were murdered.

Could the appearance of the sub have any relationship to the Catskill Cataclysm? Unlikely. But then, there are no coincidences.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed this book as much as its prequel, but I can’t. While there were problems with the first book, they pale in comparison to those in this one. Especially when it came to the characters. While I still liked Chan and Danni, I found Lexie to be totally unlikeable.

How can that be? Probably because precocious children are rarely likable, and Wilson doesn’t seem to do children well. Some of the other characters felt the same way. That never bodes well.

The ending seemed rather rushed, sort of tacked on. So much going on and then that’s it. Because the book is considered part of the “Secret History,” I still held out hope that there were be some sort of connection to the characters from the rest of the books, which a loved. No dice.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-50 )

51. The Upwelling (The Hidden #1) by F. Paul Wilson
52. Xeno by D. F. Jones
53. Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon by Louis L. Picone
54. Wolfsong (Green Creek #1) by T.J. Klune
55. The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis
56. The Last Policeman (Last Policeman #1) by Ben H. Winters
57. Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom
58. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
59. Lexie (The Hidden #2) by F. Paul Wilson

Goodreads 59

Carlota Moreau: A young woman growing up on a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of a researcher who is either a genius or a madman.

Montgomery Laughton: A melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.

The hybrids: The fruits of the doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.

All of them live in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Dr. Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.

For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and, in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey.

Morena-Garcia has become one of my favorite authors, in a large part due to her ability to write women who come into their own, who have a hidden strength brought out by perilous situations. Carlota is such a woman.

Though her secret is likely guess at by any reader who has read The Island of Doctor Moreau, from where this book takes its base, how that secret is brought forward, and how the inhabitants of the estate take that information, is what makes the book so captivating.

There is Montgomery Laughton, who has made the estate his home, and who cares for Carlota, and the other hybrids. Among those hybrids are Lupe and Cachito, who are almost like siblings to Carlota. And there is Dr. Moreau himself, who has blinded himself to the knife edge on which they all live.

Inevitably, the truth must come out and all their lives are changed. The ending is bittersweet, yet there is room for hope.

By BIPOC author
1. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2. Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
3. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood. You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head. . . . I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide . . .

—from Krampus

The author and artist of The Child Thief returns with a modern fabulist tale of Krampus, the Lord of Yule and the dark enemy of Santa Claus

One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus. But the lines between good and evil become blurred as Jesse's new master reveals many dark secrets about the cherry-cheeked Santa Claus, including how half a millennium ago the jolly old saint imprisoned Krampus and usurped his magic.

Now Santa's time is running short, for the Yule Lord is determined to have his retribution and reclaim Yuletide. If Jesse can survive this ancient feud, he might have the chance to redeem himself in his family's eyes, to save his own broken dreams, . . . and to help bring the magic of Yule to the impoverished folk of Boone County.

The story starts slow as we get to know Jesse. He has a lot wrong with his life, much of which he brought on himself. He doesn’t seem too bright, but his heart is in the right place. As he becomes one of Krampus’ minion, he starts to see that maybe his isn’t the worst situation. And as he gets to know Krampus, so does the reader.

I had a vague idea who Krampus was, or, at least a bit of the mythology surrounding him. But Brom uses Norse legend, mixed with early Christianity, to create a full and well rounded persona. His is a tragic tale, which makes it that much easier to root for him. Of course, Santa doesn’t come off all that well.

This is no way near your traditional Christmas story, as it favors Winter Solstice and Yule over Christianity’s borrowing of their traditions. But it’s certainly an interesting one, and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Holiday horror (Christmas, yule, etc.)
1. Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

I think it would take a very unique person to continue in their job, knowing that the end of civilization is just around the corner. And that uniqueness is what makes Hank Palace such an intriguing character. Okay, so the world is ending. But for Hank being a cop is the most important thing.

The story has its twists and turns; sometimes you think that Hank is on the right track; sometimes you think that he’s totally lost that track. I’m not usually one for mysteries, but here the mystery isn’t the whole story; it isn’t even the most important part of the story. Who Hank is, how he is, is so much more important.

The next book continues on with another mystery as the world careens closer to its end. Should be interesting.

Thanks so much to

severina2001 for recommending the book.

In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. Now, celebrated historian Michael Wallis—beloved for his myth-busting portraits of legendary American figures—continues his life’s work of parsing fact from fiction to tell the true story of one of the most embroidered sagas in Western history.

Wallis begins the story in 1846, a momentous "year of decision" for the nation, when incredible territorial strides were being made in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Against this dramatic backdrop, an unlikely band of travelers appeared, stratified in age, wealth, education and ethnicity. At the forefront were the Donners: brothers George and Jacob, true sons of the soil determined to tame the wild land of California; and the Reeds, headed by adventurous, business-savvy patriarch James. In total, the Donner-Reed group would reach eighty-seven men, women, and children, and though personal motives varied—bachelors thirsting for adventure, parents wanting greater futures for their children—everyone was linked by the same unwavering belief that California was theirs for the taking.

Skeptical of previous accounts of how the group ended up in peril, Wallis has spent years retracing its ill-fated journey, uncovering hundreds of new documents that illuminate how a combination of greed, backbiting, and recklessness led the group to become hopelessly snowbound at the infamous Donner Pass in present-day California. Climaxing with the grim stories of how the party’s paltry rations soon gave way to unimaginable hunger, Wallis not only details the cannibalism that has in perpetuity haunted their legacy but also the heroic rescue parties that managed to reach the stranded, only to discover that just forty-eight had survived the ordeal.

An unflinching and historically invaluable account of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny, The Best Land Under Heaven offers a brilliant, revisionist examination of one of America's most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes.

I’ve read other books about the Donner Party, but none told the lives of the members of the journey as well as this one does. Usually the part of the trip up to their arrival at the foot of the Sierras is glossed over, with most of the story covering their time trapped in the mountains. So much of the reason for their ending up as they did is left out. That they reached the Sierras too late is a given; how that happened is only now fully told.

I was surprised to read that many of the party were doing quite well before they decided to make their way to California. The land still belonged to Mexico, yet that didn’t deter those who believed that it was their right to take it. But the mistakes made along the journey would doom the party.

It’s poignant tale, made more so by the author’s focusing on the different people in the party, their backgrounds, and why they wanted to make the trip to begin with. The reader becomes familiar with them as people, not just historical figures, which makes the story even more tragic.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-40 )

41. Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith
42. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
43. Yankee Privateer (Lyon Family #1) by Andre Norton
44. Say Goodbye for Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde
45. Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
46. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
47. The Zero Stone (Murdoc Jern #1) by Andre Norton
48. Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV by Karleen Koen
49. Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon
50. Caballero: A Historical Novel by Jovita Gonzalez, Eve Raleigh
51. The Upwelling (The Hidden #1) by F. Paul Wilson
52. Xeno by D. F. Jones
53. Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon by Louis L. Picone
54. Wolfsong (Green Creek #1) by T.J. Klune
55. The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis

Goodreads 55

DEC– Snow, Season, Ice, Merry, White, Under, Mistletoe, Inn⁠

The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party In the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis

Let It Snow 2025.jpg

The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack.

Wolfsong is Ox Matheson's story.

Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him a Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then his father left.

Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever. The Bennetts are shapeshifters. They can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty, and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known, but he finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack, and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – charming, handsome, but haunted – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and family.

I’ve loved some of Klune’s books, but some not so much. This is one of the not so much ones. Maybe because the whole idea of loving someone without actually knowing them is usually a basis for things going bad. And I don’t get the idea that Ox and Joe really know each other. Mostly, they just seem hot for each other. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I would have liked to see the relationship grow over time. For them to come to like each other.

About halfway through the book, one of the other characters describes their relationship like this:

Oh my god, Ox, your life is like those shitty sparkly vampire movies. That I’ve never seen and don’t like at all, shut up.

Maybe not the most elegant way of describing them, but certainly succinct. I don’t know if Klune was poking fun at himself, or trying to be able to say “oh, no, it’s not at all like that.” But it is. And the sturm und drang never lets up, which makes it hard to like either Ox or Joe.

At this point I’m not sure if I’ll be reading the next book in the series. Part of me wants to, but a big part of me doesn’t.

DEC - "Cover Love" - Read a book with a cover you love!⁠

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

The moving story of Ulysses S. Grant's final battle, and the definitive account of the national memorial honoring him as one of America's most enduring heroes

The final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, the victorious general in the Civil War and the eighteenth president of the United States, is a colossal neoclassical tomb located in the most dynamic city in the country. It is larger than the final resting place of any other president or any other person in America. Since its creation, the popularity and condition of this monument, built to honor the man and what he represented to a grateful nation at the time of his death, a mere twenty years after the end of the Civil War, have reflected not only Grant's legacy in the public mind but also the state of New York City and of the Union.

In this fascinating, deeply researched book, presidential historian Louis L. Picone recounts the full story. He begins with Grant's heroic final battle during the last year of his life, to complete his memoirs in order to secure his family's financial future while contending with painful, incurable cancer. Grant accomplished this just days before his death, and his memoirs, published by Mark Twain, became a bestseller. Accompanying his account with numerous period photographs, Picone narrates the national response to Grant's passing and how his tomb came to the intense competition to be the resting place for Grant's remains, the origins of the memorial and its design, the struggle to finance and build it over the course of twelve years, and the vicissitudes of its afterlife in the history of the nation up to recent times.

I don’t know whether to feel proud of the Americans who wanted to honor the man who saved the Union by building a monument where his body would reside. Or to feel great shame because Americans would then turn around and allow that monument to fall into such drastic disrepair.

In hind site, it would have been better to bury him at West Point, at Arlington National Ceremony, or the Old Soldiers’ Home in Washington, D.C., where the grave would get the respect, and the upkeep, it so richly deserved. But New York was eager for him to be buried in New York City, which also lined up with what the family preferred, as Julia Grant, his wife, wished to be buried next to him when her time came.

The book covers the years from Grant’s death until the present in almost minute detail. In some ways, perhaps too minute, as the story can at times be painful to read. What it does show is how little most Americans know, much less revere, their own history.

It appears that the disrepair has finally been addressed. Lighting has been added, and the tomb taken back from the gangs and homeless who had claimed it. I’ve often wished to visit the monument, but, given how fast things can turn around, am rather afraid at what I might find.

International distress alerts are sent out when planes first seem to disappear, disturbing concepts of space and time and leaving a trail of death and disillusionment. This bizarre series of "cosmic skyjackings" is shrouded in secrecy by a baffled and frightened military. Intense surveillance fails to reveal the cause of a seemingly hostile yet invisible enemy. Aircraft continue to disappear, plucked out of the sky without warning, only to reappear months later, thousands of miles off course.

National and global security is under threat and the ICARUS committee is formed to investigate. Military officials, the government and the FBI work alongside physician Mark Freedman and Soviet scientists to uncover the supernatural mystery that lies behind these unexplainable events. Earth has been found by a horde of creatures that not even the wildest imagination could invent - sinister parasitic creatures that took to their human hosts with deadly speed and bloodthirsty precision.

The terror that unfolds has terrifying consequences for all involved, and the invasion reveals something much more frightening and final than ever suspected.

I thought too much time was spent setting up the situation, so that it dragged, but the rest of the story was rather rushed. No sooner was the enemy understood, than we’re at the end. And not a happy one. Given the ending of the other books I’ve read by Jones, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

The zeno are really creepy, but the people in charge are maybe too creeped out. They do stupid things like watching the creature come forth without any protective gear; fall apart after seeing them. And I thought the “let’s keep this a secret from everyone” a bit overplayed. Especially since, in the end, it was probably their biggest mistake.

And I didn’t understand the connection to god. Jones seemed to be under the impression that extraterrestrials means there’s a god, that the USSR will fall apart because there being a god will destroy the premise behind communism. He doesn’t explain how he got from one thing to the other, which makes it even more confusing. The premise of the book is an interesting one, but one undermined by Jones' going off in tangents.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Goodreads 52

Creepy character/object (House, doll, child, etc.)
1. Night Songs by Charles L. Grant
2. Xeno by D. F. Jones

“Oh, Mrs. Sirman, there’s a problem with your husband’s cremation.”“What sort of problem?”“It’s his body.”“What about it?”“It won’t burn.”

And so it begins for Pam Sirman…the first step toward learning that everything she thought she knew about her husband is wrong, perhaps even his humanity. But if he's not human, what is he? Pam is one of three lives that will be drawn together by the apocalypse of the Upwelling.The other two are Chan and Danni, but their worlds are already in chaos. A few weeks ago a fierce storm accompanied by an upwelling from the Atlantic abyssal plain tore into Atlantic City. When it receded, the city and its 25,000 inhabitants were gone without a trace. Chan and Danni remember being in the city that day, but the ten hours during which the Upwelling occurred have been wiped from their memories.They want those memories back. Or do they? Did they witness something so unspeakably ghastly that their minds can’t face it? Or was that ghastly thing something they did? And worst, were they responsible for the Upwelling?

The book shares many of the same plot points as Wilson’s The Adversary series. Both have unseen forces at work, both have humans who are more than human. But while The Upwelling is an interesting read, it doesn’t live up to the previous series. Though the Secret History of the World is noted and the books have been added to the History timeline, there are too many differences for me to see this book as part of that series.

Still, I enjoyed the book, but I think it would have worked better if it had been kept to its own universe. Another slight fault is that the characters aren’t as likable or compelling as those in The Adversary series. I sort of liked Chan and Danni, but found Pam to be too much of a cliché.

Yet, all in all, this combo science fiction/horror kept me interested, and I do look forward to the sequel (though, since it’s part of a series, it could be awhile.)

Jovita Gonzalez and Eve Raleigh's Caballero: A Historical Novel, a milestone in Mexican-American and Texas literature written during the 1930s and 1940s, centers on a mid-nineteenth-century Mexican landowner and his family living in the heart of southern Texas during a time of tumultuous change. After covering the American military occupation of South Texas, the story involves the reader in romances between two young lovers from opposing sides during the military conflict of the U.S.-Mexico War. Caballero's young protagonists fall in love but face struggles with race, class, gender and sexual contradictions. An introduction by Jose E. Limon, epilogue by Maria Cotera, and foreword by Thomas H. Kreneck offer a clear picture of the importance of the work to the study of Mexican-American and Texas history and to the feminist critique of culture. This work, long lost in a collection of private papers and unavailable until now, serves as a literary ethnography of South Texas-Mexican folklore customs and traditions.

The story is told without much of how we tend to see this conflict through today’s lens. Did most of the Mexicans living in the area prefer the rule of the Anglo? According to the story that was the case. The peons would now be paid for their work, the women allowed more freedom. Was that the case? It’s hard to say.

The two Mexican sisters who fall in love with Anglos are part of the ruling class, and, because their family’s bloodline has stayed “pure,” are European, rather than mestizos. That tended to put a different spin on the story, since it was culture, not race, that was the problem. And it was that that causes the friction between those two young women and their domineering father, a man who is holding tight to the hidalgo culture.

But race is shown to be a problem, too, especially with the Texas Rangers, a group whose reputation has been romanticized, changing them from the thugs they were to outstanding heroes. This book does much to erase that notion, as many of the Mexican inhabitants of the stolen land are brutally murdered or chased off from what was their country.

It’s an interesting story given a fresh perspective, though I would have liked to see how the two couples work out over time.

The year is 1964. On a cold spring morning before the sun, Cory Mackenson is accompanying his father on his milk delivery route. Without warning a car appears in the road before them and plunges into a lake some say is bottomless. Cory's father makes a desperate attempt to save the driver, but instead comes face-to-face with a vision that will haunt and torment him: a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel, naked and savagely beaten, a copper wire knotted around his neck. The lake's depths claim the car and the corpse, but the murderer's work is unfinished as, from that moment, both Cory and his father begin searching for the truth.

The small town of Zephyr, Alabama, has been an idyllic home for Cory and his friends. But now, the murder of an unknown man who lies in the dark lake, his tortured soul crying out for justice, causes Cory's life to explode into a kaleidoscope of clues and deepening puzzles. His quest to understand the forces of good and evil at work in his hometown leads him through a maze of dangers and fascinations: the vicious Blaycock clan, who defend their nefarious backwoods trades with the barrels of their guns; a secret assembly of men united by racial hatred; a one-hundred-six-year-old black woman named the Lady who conjures snakes and hears voices of the dead; a reptilian thing that swims in the belly of a river; and a bicycle with a golden eye.

As Cory searches for a killer, he learns more about the meaning of both life and death. A single green feather leads him deeper into the mystery, and soon he realizes not only his life, but the sanity of his father may hang in the balance.

I debated giving the book only three stars, but eventually settled on four. Because I did enjoy the book; the writing was smooth and never dragged. I never looked ahead to see what would happen. And, mostly, I enjoyed the characters, They were fully formed and likable when they were supposed to be, and dislikable when they weren’t. especially Cory and his father, who were central to most of what was going on.

Cory and his friends acted like kids, sometimes to their detriment. But I could go along with that, knowing that kids aren’t the greatest of thinkers. Plus, what horror there was in the book usually revolved around Cory and his friends, though I would say there was more magic in the book than horror.

My problem with the book, and in the scheme of things it was rather minor, was all the things that were happening to the same boy, all in the span of less than a year. It tended to push the bounds of probability. And I wondered why his parents didn’t rein him in, though his father had his own difficulties to work through.

But, as I said, I did enjoy the book, and can easily recommend it.

NOV– Spice, Life, Hello, Keep, Truly, Couple, Joy, Young⁠

Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon

NOV - "An Oldie But A Goodie" - Read a Historical Fiction book or a book published before 2000.⁠

Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon (published in 1991.)

”A grand yet intimate look at the Sun King, a tale rich with detail and action."--Library Journal (Starred Review, one of the best historical novels of the year)

Before Versailles transports you to a world of secret passions and plots, a world of duplicity and malice...a world that created one of the best-known monarchs to grace the French throne.

At the most decisive time in the young king's life, Louis XIV can taste the danger. His court teems with greed and corruption, the wrong woman draws him into a wrenching love affair, and a mysterious boy in an iron mask haunts the woods. The untried ruler is coming into his own in 1661, and Louis XIV must face what he is willing to sacrifice for honor and for love.

Meticulously researched and gorgeously brought to life by New York Times bestselling author Karleen Koen, Before Versailles offers up a sumptuous, authentic exploration of a time that forged a man into a king.

I picked up this book because I loved the Tamworth Trilogy, by this same author. Unfortunately, I have to admit to being disappointed.

I don’t know a lot about French history, though I did know a bit about Louis XIV, who would come to be known as the Sun King. This book certainly changed that, though not always in the way I would have liked. Historical figures were fleshed out, but not often deeply enough that the reader came to know their motivation. We learn which side of things a person is on, but not why. I think I’m more used to the novels which cover English history. Or maybe it’s simply because I know more about it.

At the same time, you’re talking about a book that covers only four months of time, yet comes in at almost 400 pages. Often there was too much information that really didn’t tell me anything. There were some interesting parts, enough to pique my interest regarding Louis XIV, but there were a lot of extraneous scenes that caused the book to drag. And then the story ends, rather abruptly I thought.

A gem trader and a feline mutant unite to find the truth behind a mysterious stone rumored to be the key to all the power in the universe.

Apprentice gem trader Murdoc Jern lives on Angkor, a thriving hub of interstellar trade. One day, a furtive visitor brings him a ring discovered on an alien corpse. It’s made of age-pitted metal surrounding a dull and lifeless stone. Yet it exerts a powerful hold on Murdoc. And when his father is killed, Murdoc begins a quest, taking with him his only legacy, the mysterious ring, which he knows is the key to his dad’s death.

Accompanied by Eet, a feline mutant with paranormal powers, Murdoc hurtles through space, where he’s pursued by a religious order called the Green Robes. His journey takes him to distant planets and once-great armies marooned on vanished worlds. In a desperate battle to learn the ultimate meaning of the Zero Stone, Murdoc must bargain for his freedom—and his life—and confront the fate that befalls seekers of knowledge.

Just as the other Norton books I’ve read recently, this story started out slow, but eventually picked up the pace as I was drawn into the story. And while nominally a juvenile book, again, like other Norton books, they can be read and enjoyed by adults.

I did come to her writing as a young girl, which may make me a bit prejudiced when it comes to her books, but I don’t think so. I enjoyed the book because of the intriguing plot and the compelling characters. Because, no matter how un-hard sci-fi the story is, it’s easy to fall into the worlds she’s built.

And then there’s Eet, half cat, half, well, we really don’t know at this point what the other half is. But he’s an oddly intriguing character. He isn’t at all the cuddly alien one would think. Perhaps we’ll find out in The Uncharted Stars.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-30 )

31. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
32. Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques
33. Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. Legends by Robert Silverberg (Editor/Contributor)
35. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 1) by Jasper Fforde
36. Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan
37. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
38. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
39. The Hike by Susi Holliday
40. The Opal-Eyed Fan by Andre Norton
41. Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith
42. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
43. Yankee Privateer (Lyon Family #1) by Andre Norton
44. Say Goodbye for Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde
45. Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
46. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
47. The Zero Stone (Murdoc Jern #1) by Andre Norton

Zero Stone, The

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales---and Llewelyn---Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.

The turbulent clashes of two disparate worlds and the destinies of the individuals caught between them spring to life in this magnificent novel of power and passion, loyalty and lies. The book that began the trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

Only her second book (the first being the quintessential Ricardian novel, The Sunne in Splendour,) the reader would be hard pressed to know that. The writing is superb as she brings the characters to life, many of which I knew next to nothing about.

The book covers both Joanna’s and Llewelyn’s lives, from childhood until almost the end. And though it comes in at slightly over 700 pages, the story never drags as the reader is swept into their world of divided loyalties and betrayals. Not once did I feel the need to skip ahead. There isn’t a dull moment.

And while Joanna and Llewelyn take center stage, there are plenty of other characters who become just as real. Joanna’s father, John, especially, is written here as I’ve never read before. While there is a cruel, almost evil, side to the man, he’s also shown to be a loving father, and, usually not noted, a man who had more concern for the people of England than his brother, Richard (the so-called Lionheart,) ever did.

There are also those who were friend, or foe, to the couple, as well as the children they had together and those Llewelyn had with other women. His oldest son, especially, will be a thorn in the couple’s side. While these characters are based on actual people, a few aren’t. But they add so much to the story, that one can understand why they were created. They fill an area left empty by the capriciousness of historical records. One event I was certain the author had made up; she hadn’t.

The book is historical fiction at its finest, and I highly recommend any of Penman’s books. We lost her much too early.

OCT– Vampire, Here, Mist, Death, One, Missing, Bite, Witch⁠

Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

Vampires have always lived in Eastern Europe. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, they began to spread across the continent, then the world, turning whole populations into vampires--or human cattle. Having overrun India, the far East, and the great cities of North and South America, the forces of Night are now spreading into the countryside to consolidate their conquest.

In a town on the New Jersey shore, the vampires have just arrived, along with their human henchmen, the cowboys, who round up human cattle for the overlords in return for the promise of eternal life---later. For the vampires wish only a few of their own kind to rule, and feed. The rest of humanity are to be helpless herds, the source of the blood of life.

Falsely accused of abuse, Father Dan is drunk in a basement waiting for the end. His superior has betrayed the local Catholic congregation and become a vampire. Sister Carolyn has become a formidable killer of cowboys and vampires. Dan's niece, escaped from the conquest of New York, has made her way south to find him. Brought together by Rabbi Zev Wolpin, who is shaken by the vampires' fear of the cross and holy water, they plan their resistance. Against all odds, they discover that there just might be a way for humanity to really fight back. But first they will have to kill the vampire king of New York.

I became a fan of Wilson’s after reading The Keep years ago. There are similarities to this story, but differences, too. This book takes the vampire legend back to its roots, back to the vampires of Stoker and King. There’s nothing romantic about these creatures.

I loved all three protagonists. Father Dan, who reluctantly becomes the local leader in the fight against the vampires. Sister Carolyn, whose loss is what propelled her to take on their foe. And Dan’s niece, Lacey, who has made her way to her uncle’s side. Oh, and I guess the fourth of our intrepid band would be the rabbi, Zev Wolpin, who brings Dan back to his congregation, and who is his conscience.

What made the book so readable for me is that the pace is just the right speed; no dragging out of fights, yet the reader is given time to learn about the people, both those fighting against the vampires, and those working for them.

My only quibble would be the ending. It was satisfying, but I would have loved to know what happened next.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
29. The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner
30. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes
31. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
32. Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques
33. Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. Legends by Robert Silverberg (Editor/Contributor)
35. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 1) by Jasper Fforde
36. Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan
37. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
38. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
39. The Hike by Susi Holliday
40. The Opal-Eyed Fan by Andre Norton
41. Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith
42. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
43. Yankee Privateer (Lyon Family #1) by Andre Norton
44. Say Goodbye for Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde
45. Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson

Goodreads 45

OCT - "Wicked Good Reads" - An ode to Girlxoxo's annual WGR event. Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Creeptastic or Magical books.

Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson

On an isolated Texas ranch, Dr. Lucy cares for abandoned animals. The solitude allows her to avoid the people and places that remind her of the past. Not that any of the townsfolk care. In 1959, no one is interested in a woman doctor. Nor are they welcoming Calvin and Justin Bell, a newly arrived African American father and son.

When Pete Solomon, a neglected twelve-year-old boy, and Justin bring a wounded wolf-dog hybrid to Dr. Lucy, the outcasts soon find refuge in one another. Lucy never thought she’d make connections again, never mind fall in love. Pete never imagined he’d find friends as loyal as Justin and the dog. But these four people aren’t allowed to be friends, much less a family, when the whole town turns violently against them.

With heavy hearts, Dr. Lucy and Pete say goodbye to Calvin and Justin. But through the years they keep hope alive…waiting for the world to catch up with them.

You can’t help but root for someone who cares for abandoned animals. Or for the boy who goes out of his way to help a wounded dog. But there’s so much more to Dr. Lucy and Pete. They’re truly good people, so it’s not a stretch to believe that they would be the ones to befriend Justin and his father.

But what I liked is that it isn’t all hearts and flowers. Especially Dr. Lucy and Pete are carrying some baggage. Both have had trauma in their lives. Yet their relationship with each other, and with the Bells, is realistically portrayed. What appears to be a simple tale has complexity to it.

I do wish there had been more of the story, that it hadn’t ended where it did, because I’d love to know what happened next. Where did their lives go from there? It seems that this author doesn’t do sequels, so I guess I’ll have to just imagine it myself.

Andre Norton, one of America's best loved and ever popular writers of adventure tales, presents another exciting story of men and deed on the high seas - a thrilling chapter in America's fierce struggle for independence, when boldness and courage reaped bounties for the Yankee privateers and wreaked havoc for the British.
Here is the story of a young nation, filled with the pride of freedom, bringing its war to the very shores of the mother country. This is also the story of Fitzhugh Lyon, young American scion of a powerful English family, who finds himself shanghaied aboard the Retaliation, and is suddenly thrust into the exciting life of a privateeersman; of Captain Crofts, dauntless, courageous master of his ship, sailing fearlessly into the lion’s mouth; of Watts, the ship's surgeon, a man of wit and culture among a rough-and-tumble crew; of Lieutenant Ninnes, whose bitter hatred of Fitz make them deadly enemies.
How they crossed the wartime sea, fought for their lives, were captured by the British, and finally engineered a bold and clever escape from Plymouth's notorious Old Mill Prison make for topflight entertainment.

Every so often Norton would step away from science fiction and dip her toe into historical drama. But while I prefer the former, she never disappoints when it comes to the latter.

Fitzhugh Lyon, the protagonist of the book, is a well-rounded character, a likable young man who you can’t help but be drawn into his story. I wasn’t sure I would be, but like The Opal-Eyed Fan, the story got better as you went along.

The same can be said of those who share his adventures. All have their faults, but they all are worthy companions, and add greatly to the book.

I think the book is supposed to be an YA, but I found it enjoyable enough, and deep enough, for an adult.

SEP - "Story of Survival" - Read a book where the character stays strong and survives something. ⁠Surviving high school, surviving a family road trip, surviving a natural disaster, etc.

Yankee Privateer by Andre Norton (survives being shanghaid, prison, sea battles)

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

It’s rather disturbing when a book written in 1996 is discussing problems that are very much problems today. Inadequate education for many, the denigration of science and the rise of pseudoscience, the lack of critical thinking, are things we’ve been grappling with for over thirty years and seem to be no closer to a solution.

In this book Sagan describes in detail the root of many of those problems, and, perhaps, a way to deal with them. But time has shown that we haven’t dealt with them, and so the tragedy within its writing is plain to see. Indeed, it seems to have gotten worse.

There is a great deal to digest in this book, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. But it’s well worth reading. Sagan had a lot to say, and was the best at making what he had to say understandable.

I wish he would have lived longer. I wish we would have listened to him.

SEP– Twice, World, Man, Quiet, Sweet, Hold, Shallow, Invisible⁠

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan

From the award-winning author of A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, and The King's Grace comes another masterful historical novel—the story of Cecily of York, mother of two kings and the heroine of one of history's greatest love stories.

Anne Easter Smith's novels are beloved by readers for their ability "to grab you, sweep you along with the story, and make you fall in love with the characters." In Cecily Neville, duchess of York and ancestor of every English monarch to the present day, she has found her most engrossing character yet.

History remembers Cecily of York standing on the steps of the Market Cross at Ludlow, facing an attacking army while holding the hands of her two young sons. Queen by Right reveals how she came to step into her destiny, beginning with her marriage to Richard, duke of York, whom she meets when she is nine and he is thirteen. Raised together in her father's household, they become a true love match and together face personal tragedies, pivotal events of history, and deadly political intrigue. All of England knows that Richard has a clear claim to the throne, and when King Henry VI becomes unfit to rule, Cecily must put aside her hopes and fears and help her husband decide what is right for their family and their country. Queen by Right marks Anne Easter Smith's greatest achievement, a book that every fan of sweeping, exquisitely detailed historical fiction will devour.

From everything I had read about Cecily, she appeared to be a strong woman. I guess she’d have to have been, considering the tragedies in her life. So, yes, strong, intelligent, loyal. But did she have to be right all the time?

Smith’s Cecily sometimes comes across as a woman of the 21st century, not the 15th. Cecily and her husband were in France during the time of Joan of Arc . But here Cecily is the only English woman to take Joan’s side. Her sentiments fly in the face of what her fellow countrymen are trying to accomplish. And, again, when Richard decides to try to take the crown, she is set against it, though being the loving wife, she doesn’t pushed her argument very hard. So she has the best of both worlds; she can be an exceptional wife, but also be right. And it constantly being brought up as to how beautiful she was got a bit old, too.

It’s a large book, and these things did sometimes get in the way of my truly enjoying it. There were also a couple of glaring mistakes. There’s a mention of harvesting a corn crop in 1450 (duh, America!) Also, Cecily’s son, Richard, was born at Fotheringhay, not Ludlow.

The book ends soon after her husband’s death, leaving much of Cecily’s life untold. I suppose if the book is read more as a romance it works better. But I found it to be somewhat disappointing.

Lost Lady Key, off the Florida coast, had a long history of violence. Not only the ghost of a Spanish lady victimized by pirates, but the much more ancient and terrifying customs of a vanished Indian race seemed to haunt the remote little island.

Was it a random storm or destiny's mischief that shipwrecked lovely Persis Rooke on Lost Lady Key? Persis couldn't be sure. Rescued by the handsome Captain Crewe Leverett and marooned on the darkly mysterious island with his strange sister and her beau, she was aware only of the oppressive superstitions of the natives who feared a strange curse--the curse of the opal-eyed fan.

Somehow she knew she had to learn the unspoken secret of the island and the truth about the fabulous Spanish lady who, years before, had left the infamous Satin-shirt Jack dead and then disappeared forever. But Persis was not aware of the evil that awaited her, nor of the romance that would endanger her until it was too late. . . .

Slow to start, I eventually was drawn into the mystery faced by Persia Rooke. As things begin to go wrong, she doesn’t know who to trust, or who to turn to. But when a new danger appears, Persis draws on strength she didn’t know she had in order to rescue her new ally.

Though I prefer Norton’s science fiction novels, she doesn’t disappoint with her historical stories, though this one has a bit of the supernatural thrown in. And while ostensibly a romance novel, the romance is barely touched on and left to the reader to decide where it will go. That’s classic Norton, as most of her novels don’t go there.

A lovely story well worth reading.