Okay, if I'm going to keep this going for the whole year, I'm going to have to play catch-up from time to time. This is one of those times. Here are the books I've read this month, so far:
8) Amped by Daniel Wilson - This is the second book by the author and I absolutely loved his first, Robopocalypse, which tells how robots and computers take over the world in the not-so-distant future. That book was enough to make me a little nervous when I read about the cars in California that can drive themselves. Anyway, I had high hopes for this book but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. It's also set a little ways in to the future when humans can receive brain implants to correct physical impairments or injuries. A politician stirs up opposition to the "amped" individuals, arguing that they have an unfair advantage. The main character was amped after a near-fatal accident. He becomes involved in the fight between amps and neuro-typicals. It's an interesting scenario.
9) A Bad Day for Mercy by Sophie Littlefield - The cover of this book caught my eye. It's a woman in a pretty sundress, shown from the shoulders down, smacking a hammer in her hand. The reviews on the cover compared it to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books. I love those, so I decided to give it a try. It was okay but I won't be reading any more in the series. The main character is in her 40s and divorced after getting out of an abusive marriage. Between running her legitimate business and trying to choose between dating the sheriff and a local bar owner, she is a sort of enforcer who hunts down and punishes abusers of women and children, or convinces them to behave. This entry in the series departs from that formula to a little family intrigue, but there are several allusions to her "usual" work, and it was a little too close to torture for me, especially since it was handled so lightly - almost humorously.
10) Attack of the Growling Eyeballs by Lin Oliver - this was one of Alex's books that he read on his own. He says it was about a guy with a tiny brother but he doesn't remember much else. (The cover does show a boy with a "little" brother about an inch high.)
11), 12) and 13) Laurie R. King's Pirate King, Garment of Shadows, and The Art of Detection - I hate it when I find a series that I really love, and then race through them and hit the brick wall at the end. Please, oh, please, Laurie King, write faster! I found this author through an anthology of mystery stories a year or so ago. I've always like the Sherlock Holmes stories and TV series on PBS. In the Mary Russell series by King, she imagines that Sherlock Holmes retired to the English countryside, and took a teen aged female apprentice (quite by accident). There are 10 (I think) of the series and they span at least that many years during which (no spoiler here) Mary becomes Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, though she is never referred to that way. Mary is a very independent woman of the 1920's and an Oxford scholar. Together the couple solve mysteries, help friends and family, and travel the world. In one of the first books, in the author's note, King admitted that her Holmes is modeled on Jeremy Brett's interpretation of the role. I've kind of pictured home like that ever since. I can almost hear his voice speaking her dialogue. I don't know if anyone else would like the books as much as I do, but I think they are good. Just know that I'm fairly deeply involved in British books of the early 20th century at the moment, so I may not be a good judge.
Pirate King is the next-to-last in the series and takes place as a silent film company tries to film a convoluted movie inspired by Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." Mary goes undercover to find out if the producers are criminals as several of their other films hid crimes that were reflected in the movies' plots. It travels from England to Portugal, then Morocco.
Garment of Shadows begins just days after Pirate King ends, still in Morocco. I think it tells how attached I am to the characters to say that I was deeply disturbed for the first section of the book. Mary has amnesia and Sherlock is searching for her with a Moroccan civil war about to erupt. I can't wait to see what happens next, and where they will go from there.
The Art of Detection is not a part of the Mary Russell series. King also writes the Kate Martinelli series and this is one of those books. I picked it up because one of the Mary Russell books mentions that you can find a story about her time in San Francisco in this book. That perplexed me because Kate Martinelli is a current day detective in America. Mary Russell is half American and Locked Rooms takes place in San Francisco as Mary finds out more about her background and family. I couldn't figure out where the two would fit together but it was interesting. Detective Martinelli is assigned a case in which a "Sherlockian" is murdered. It delves into the world of the Baker Street Irregulars and Sherlock Holmes fan clubs. One of the Holmes devotees is murdered and it may have been because of a short story that he unearthed at a book fair. It becomes plain to readers of the Mary Russell series that Holmes solved a case while they were in San Francisco many years before, and wrote an account of it. The case was interesting but I'm going to stick with my favorite series and not jump to this one.
14) The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson - I heard of this book on an episode of the radio show "This American Life." It detailed the Hare Checklist that is used by psychiatrists to determine if someone is a psychopath or not. In the book Ronson meets a man in a mental institution in Britain. He pretended to be insane to avoid prison, and is then unable to prove he is sane. The man spends several more years in the institution than he would have served in prison without the ruse. This sets Ronson off to research what psychopath means, how it is diagnosed and who is to say the diagnosis is right or wrong. I was a bit worried that Ronson was the author who wrote Men Who Stare at Goats (the movie was a bit weird) but I really enjoyed the book. It's now on my list of gift ideas for a couple of people who are more than passingly familiar with the DSM.
These next two books may prove that I will read just about anything to keep from being bored. I got them from the library on my iPhone and read them while I waited for things (mainly Alex).
15) Not Quite a Bride by Kirsten Sawyer - this would make such an unbelievable romantic comedy that no one would go see it. I did have to finish it, though, because it was such a train wreck. A 30ish woman is sick of seeing all of her friends getting married and having babies. The combination of her younger married sister announcing her pregnancy and her best (male) friend announcing his engagement to an incredibly annoying woman sends her over the edge. She decides (and who wouldn't?!) to use a "wedding trust fund" left to her by her grandmother to hire a male escort to be her boyfriend, then fiancee', go through all of the pre-wedding hoopla, then leave her at the altar. She plans on getting to do all the "fun" wedding planning and then just moving on with her life. I will give the author this, she does not allow her to fall in love with the escort. He's gay. She does seem to think that everyone would be okay with her keeping all the shower and wedding gifts, though. I didn't think that was the way wedding etiquette went, but I'm not going to look it up now. Anyway, train wreck, I just had to read to see how it ended. Spoiler: happy ending!
16) Dying to Read by Lorena McCourtney - so-so mystery about a novice private investigator who stumbles upon a maybe-murder while doing a routine background check. I was interested in finding out whodunit, but still was a bit confused by some of the secondary plot points. About midway through I became really worried about where the title came from, then eventually remembered that the murder occurred as several characters gathered for a mystery book club meeting.
This may be all I have for January but I think there are a couple of more lurking around the house that I need to finish and return to the library. So far, so good on this little reading project. At least I'm getting something done!
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