The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

Reviewed by Jeanne

When Miss Mina Holmes, niece of the renowned detective Sherlock, receives a mysterious summons to the British Museum at midnight, she does what any self-respecting Victorian ingénue would do:  she dresses in trousers, takes a Steam-Stream gun for protection, and sets out to see what’s behind the missive.  She finds she is not the only one to receive an invitation:  Evaline Stoker, teenage sister to the would be novelist Bram, is also at the meeting which has been called by none other than Irene Adler.  She tells the girls there is danger afoot: society girls are going missing.  One has turned up dead with a strange mechanical scarab as a clue.  She calls upon the girls to do their patriotic duty to Queen and Country and to solve the mystery before more girls go missing.

As one might guess from the above description, this is a Young Adult novel with an alternate universe setting.  Electricity has been outlawed as dangerous; steam runs everything, including a good number of amazing gadgets from moving Night Illuminators to eyelash curlers.  The book is narrated in turn by Mina and Evaline, who are both self-assured young women who don’t exactly hit it off as friends.  Mina is very much a scientist in the mold of her uncle, but like him and her father Mycroft, she isn’t exactly a social butterfly—and even less since her mother left abruptly.  Orphaned Evaline, on the other hand, cuts quite a fashionable figure and is much more aware of social nuance even if her nocturnal activities aren’t exactly ladylike:  she’s the latest in a line of vampire hunters.   Buffy—er, Evaline—also has superhuman strength but tends to be a bit impulsive in contrast to the more analytical Mina.

A good part of the fun is in the narration and the description of a steam-punk London, which is only enhanced when a strange young man wearing very odd clothing and shoes turns up in the Museum.  He has a lighting device which he claims, quite improbably, is a communication device.  He is also American and seems astounded by all the steam driven devices.  The book is cognizant of various Victorian enthusiasms, such as Egyptology, and observes some of the era’s sensibilities. There are various flirtations with a handsome but infuriating policeman and a handsome but infuriating street-smart young man and the handsome but peculiar and yes, infuriating,  American. References to Sherlock, Bram Stoker, the Royal Family, and much more enliven the narrative. 

 If you’re curious about steampunk, this book is a good introduction to the genre.  This is only my second book with those trappings, and I found it was much smoother read.  The author made the gadgets an easy part of the narrative.  The one book was a bit self-conscious about pointing out the various mechanicals. My biggest complaint was that -- as alluded to earlier-- Evaline owes a great deal to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While this is definitely aimed at the YA crowd, many adults would enjoy it as a good bit of fun. This adult certainly did.

Note: this is the first in the Holmes & Stoker series.

The Moment of Everything by Shelly King

Reviewed by Jeanne

Maggie Dupres and her best friend Dizzy left South Carolina to land fast paced, lucrative jobs in the computer industry. It was a heady time—late nights brainstorming, the adrenaline rush, the comradery.

Then the Silicon bubble burst.

Now Maggie is scraping along, spending her days in the Dragonfly, a used book store, where she reads historical romances and engages in skirmishes with Jason, the store’s sullen employee. Her mother is pressuring her go back, meet a nice boy, get married, and be the sort of wife her mother is—a woman who lives for her husband to come home.  Maggie is desperate to hang on, even as she eats Ramen noodles and struggles to pay her rent.  Dizzy still has a job, but he too yearns for the heady start-up days of yore—and he thinks he may have found a way to do that.

The Silicon Valley Women Executive Association Book Club has two openings for members. Not only a great place to network, but the woman who runs the club is an investor.  All they need to do is show up and make a great impression—which Dizzy thinks he can do simply as being the first guy allowed in the club, and he thinks Maggie’s English major credentials should make her a shoo-in.  They’ll meet people, dazzle them, and get funding to start a new company.  Easy-peasy.

Maggie isn’t so sure.  And she isn’t interested in reading the book of the month, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which can’t hold a candle to the formula historical bodice-rippers she’s reading.  Hugo, owner of the Dragonfly, helpfully gives Maggie an old copy of the book to get her started.  As she begins slogging through the book, she finds handwritten notes from Henry and Catherine, two people carrying on a passionate correspondence in the pages.  Fascinated, she begins searching the book for more notes, until she falls asleep.  The next thing she knows, it’s almost time for the book club meeting and she hasn’t read the book.  

Expecting the worst, Maggie allows herself to be dragged to the meeting where she hopes to find a nice corner in which to hide while Dizzy works the room.  Maggie watches and listens as one reader after another complains about the book—it’s dry, it’s dated, it doesn’t speak to this generation—and realizes that their hostess is not pleased. Taking a deep breath, Maggie begins to defend the book she hasn’t read by using the comments from Henry and Catherine. 

Maggie makes quite the impression and wins the attention of Avi, the hostess, who wants to know what she’s doing now. Since she can’t really say she’s hanging out in a used bookstore reading trashy romances, Maggie says she’s helping to get the struggling Dragonfly to turn a profit.  Avi is intrigued.  If Maggie can make the book store profitable, there may be a plum job opportunity.

This is a romance book, but it’s more about the romance of books than anything else.  Oh, sure, there’s a cute guy who may or may not be Mr. Right, and there’s the romance of Catherine and Henry, but mostly this is about books and those who love them.  Will Maggie discover what became of Henry and Catherine?  Will the Dragonfly be crushed by the chain bookstore?  Will Maggie be dragged back to South Carolina?  Has Maggie met Mr. Right?  Not all these questions have a firm answer, but the fun is in the reading, especially passages sure to delight those who know the love of real books.  The characters are well done, especially Hugo, but I adored Henry and Catherine too. There are also a few surprises along the way, as Maggie discovers that things are not always as straight-forward as she thought.  I enjoyed it, and if you love books and bookstores, you might too.

Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery

Reviewed by Jeanne

When 1950 dawned, only eight people were known to have walked the entire Appalachian Trail.  By the end of the decade, 14 more people had made the trek. One of these was a grandmother from Ohio who set out with a gunny sack, a plastic shower curtain to keep off the rain, some bouillon cubes and raisins, a small notebook, and a pair of Keds sneakers.  She told her children she was “going to take a walk.”  It was a month before they found out just how long that walk was.

Emma’s infatuation with the trail was born when she read an article in a magazine in a doctor’s office.  The article described the trail as broad and well-marked, ideal for hikers of almost any ability.  The idea took hold, and she became quietly obsessed with the idea of walking the entire trail.  Her first attempt was in 1954, but after only a few days she was forced to go home in defeat. But she wasn’t dissuaded.  Instead, she realized she was going to have to make better plans for the next attempt.  She began by initiating a walking regime to build up her stamina, and carefully planned her route.  By the next year, she was ready. Instead of starting in Maine, she went by bus south to Georgia.

 She was 67 years old.

In many ways, she was uniquely qualified to walk the Trail.  Born in 1887, she had learned her way about the woods.  She lived during hard times, including the Great Depression, and knew about wild foods and wild animals. She knew about setting up camps and how to survive. Most of all, she was strong and resilient, with the will to succeed.  She’d need that strength: far from the broad, well-marked path promised by the article, the Trail was in disrepair.  Sections had been rerouted without being marked (in one notable incident Emma crossed a barbed wire fence and ended up on a military base, much to the surprise of the soldiers), parts were damaged so as to be impassable, and promised shelters so dilapidated that they offered no protection.  Many times she covered herself in leaves or grass to sleep. The weather was another factor:  two major storms hit while she was attempting the trail, causing flooding.  Emma didn’t know how to swim.  

Author Ben Montgomery had heard stories about Emma from his mother, an Ohio native.  He contacted Lucy, one of Emma’s surviving children and discovered that not only had no book been written about her, but that the daughter had a collection which included Emma’s journals of her journeys. Montgomery learned that not only was “Grandma Gatewood” the first solo woman thru hiker, she was also one of the first to walk the trail multiple times and that she had walked other famous trails.  Lucy also told him about a family secret, confirmed by other family members, which gave the book a whole new angle.

I confess I had never heard of Emma Gatewood before the book Grandma Gatewood’s Walk. By the book’s end, I was eager to recommend the book to others.  Emma Gatewood’s story is compelling and the way that it’s told is a good reflection of Emma herself.  If you’re looking for soul searching, look elsewhere: Emma was a straightforward, no nonsense sort of person. She was certainly literate, and wrote poetry on occasion, but she didn’t need to go to the wilderness to find herself.  Emma Gatewood knew who she was.

The Outsmarting of Criminals by Steven Rigolosi

Reviewed by Jeanne

Miss Felicity Prim enjoys her job working for dear Doctor Poe and enjoys life in New York City right up until the day she is mugged.  She decides that the proper thing to do, after self-defense courses, is to move to a smaller town and embark on a new profession.  She has one in mind:  Criminal Outsmarter.  She’s read any number of detective stories and is fully knowledgeable of the expected accouterments: faithful animal companion, steady sidekick who can serve as comic relief, local constables who are pleased at having a civilian helper, etc.  

She finds a charming little house in Greenfield, Connecticut which should be the perfect setting for her new profession. She plans to start out small, with a missing person or perhaps a lost object and work her way up to more advanced crime solving, but her plans have to be changed when she discovers a dead body in a hidden basement of her new home. 

The Outsmarting of Criminals  by Steven Rigolosi is a delightful book which pokes gentle fun at the cozy genre without ever becoming too precious or without putting down the genre or its readers.  Greenfield is populated by a number of characters, not the least of which is Miss Prim herself—a fact of which she remains blissfully unaware. There’s the bookseller who arranges her books by categories such as “Books by Authors Who Phone It In” or “Books Nobody Ever Reads” and the monosyllabic town cook, Maude.  Maude is, of course, a man.  Miss Prim’s sister, Celia, is considered the femme fatale of the family, and is currently adding to her charm by learning indexing—although she thinks perhaps that indexing is more of an inspired art than a science.  However, she is certain that the ability to index is a most desirable attribute to a mate.  She has a long list of conquests, and believes Maude has joined the list.   Other characters defy simple descriptions.  They just have to be experienced.

For me, much of the fun was in how devoted Miss Prim is to the cozy conventions.  She knows exactly how things usually turn out.  For example, at one point she hears a strange noise and night and has to decide whether or not to investigate. On the one hand, she does feel the need to know what caused the noise; but she has no desire to be one of those none too bright heroines who ends up running from danger while clad only in a nightgown.  

Add Doctor Poe’s unexpected declaration of undying devotion, a family mystery discovered in dear Papa’s journals, a dog being taught reverse Pavlovian principle, and you have a very funny, very witty, cozy mystery.  I admit to laughing out loud at several points.  Rigolosi sends up the genre but does so with deep appreciation, not ridicule.  This is the start of a series and I for one will be in line to read the next installment.

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

Reviewed by Meygan

“No, darling! To die, it’s easy. But you have to struggle to live! Until the last moment we must struggle together! I need you! And you’ll see that together we’ll survive. This always I told to her.”

In his autobiographical book, Maus, Art Spiegelman uses his relationship with his father and his father’s past to create an amazing work.  Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, is a holocaust survivor and that experience has deeply affected his life and that of his son. Vladek is quite the character and the book’s comic relief comes in the form of father and son bickering about everything: when Vladek should take his medicines, how often Art should come to visit his father, Vladek’s new wife, and the list goes on and on.  The book flashes back and forth between past and present but is done smoothly and with perfect timing. Vladek begins by telling Art about how he met Anya, Art’s mother, and how profound their love was. Anya’s parents were extremely wealthy, so Art and Anya were under the impression that they would be well taken care of. However, even the wealthiest people couldn’t escape the Nazi’s clutches. Vladek and Anya both escape the ghetto they were forced to live in, frightened about what their next move will be. They endure starvation, harsh weather conditions, and constantly have to watch their every move so they are not spotted for being Polish Jews. While book one does not end well for Vladek and Anya, book two takes on a more sinister twist. 

So what made me read this? Well, Maus was a required reading when I was an undergraduate student. I read the first one, but not the second.  I admit I was a little surprised with I first picked it up because it was in a graphic novel format. That ended up being one of my favorite parts about the book, the unusual way he uses to tell his father’s story.   He uses different animals to represent races (Jews are mice, Nazi’s are cats, French are frogs, Pollocks are pigs, and gypsies are moths). I was curious as to why Spiegelman did this, assuming that perhaps he used animals so his father’s tale wouldn’t appear as distressing to readers (after all, the book had to sell). But I found a better opinion on Shmoop.com. Spiegelman used mice to represent how Jews were viewed as pests, how cats/Nazis were the predators, and the pigs were used because Nazi’s often referred to Pollocks as pigs. 

Spiegelman does a superb job of establishing the emotional attachment from the reader to the characters. The book can be quite grueling, but there is some humor to make it easier. I appreciate Spiegelman’s honesty about how difficult it is to be a child of a holocaust survivor and how difficult it is to be a father of a child who doesn’t know the first thing about being a holocaust survivor.  The two different aspects complement one another in Maus.  After reading both books, without hesitation I would place Maus in my top 20 of all time. I was disappointed to see that there isn’t a book three because I did have questions that weren’t answered, but perhaps Vladek’s story was better left as is.  

Owlknight by Mercedes Lackey

Reviewed by Holly White

Owlknight is the sequel to Owlflight and Owlsight, and the conclusion of the Darian's Tale Trilogy, part of Mercedes Lackey's ongoing series about the land of Valdemar. 

 At the beginning of Owlknight, Darian has fulfilled his dream of establishing a Valdemaran "Vale," a place similar to where the Hawkbrothers live, but in Valdemar near his home village.  Although the Valdemaran Vale was still a work in progress, it was already beginning to serve its intended purpose of allowing Valdemaran, Hawkbrother, and people of all cultures to meet to discuss disputes, trade, defense against mutual enemies, or anything of mutual interest.

In addition to the establishment of his Vale, Darian has passed his test to become a Master Mage and has been knighted.  While he had diffidently accepted these honors, doubts plagued him. He loved Keisha completely, but her insecurities made her fear that he would find someone else. She held herself aloof from him to protect herself from potential hurt.

Darian longed to search for his parents who were lost during the Mage Storms back when he was a child.  Then he lacked the maturity, the experience, and the autonomy to go looking for them.  Even though it seemed unlikely that they had survived, he wouldn’t be able to rest until he looked for them himself.

One problem was that there were no clues as to what happened to Darian's parents.  The ensuing years had only served to obscure any clues that might have explained what happened.  Darian had concluded that if they were alive, they must have gotten caught in one of the Change-Circles that occurred all over the world during the Mage Storms.  A Change Circle was a circle of ground a few yards in diameter that would get magically whisked off to another land, often far away, usually with completely different flora and fauna.  And the circle where one landed was simultaneously moved to yet another land.  The circles had always rearranged themselves with no rhyme or reason, so there was no way to examine one and determine what had happened with another.

As Darian’s search began, he found only bones.  But then by purest chance, he encountered a clue that not only gave him hope again, but sent him, Keisha, and a party of friends on a journey they would never forget.  They faced foes both natural and unnatural, against whom they were unsure if they could stand.

Will Darian and his party of travelers be able to defeat the incredible odds against them?  Will Darian find his parents, and will they both be living? Will Keisha learn to accept Darian's love and return her own freely?  Find out by reading Owlknight.

I have truly enjoyed this book, and I think you will, too, especially if you love fantasy, good vs. evil stories, or tales of magic.  I will be writing my next review on Brightly Burning, a stand-alone book in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, about a young man with a talent for fire-starting.