July Books

JUNKYARD DOGS/Craig Johnson/B+
Enjoyable entry in the Sheriff Walt Longmire series, in which Walt has to deal with a family who has grandpa tied to a car, an illicit affair, his daughter's upcoming wedding, and two crazed junkyard dogs. I love Walt and his friends and hope he goes on for a long time to come.

THE WEDNESDAY WARS/Gary Schmidt/A
Holling Hoodhood is the only kid in his 7th grade class who doesn't go to Hebrew class or catechism on Wednesday afternoons--which means he's left to face his teacher alone. He's convinced his teacher hates him (especially when she assigns him Shakespeare) but it's the 1960s and there are bigger problems looming. A wonderfully warm and unsentimental look at early adolescence as well as an era. Highly recommended.

EXECUTION DOCK/Anne Perry/B
Perry is always good for Victorian atmosphere and she excels in her descriptions of the Thames and its inhabitants in this William Monk novel. The story opens with a criminal going free thanks to Oliver Rathbone's clever defense, but Monk and his wife, Hester, are determined to retrace their steps and catch the bad guy for good. Lots of clever plot twists and interesting characters.

THE KING'S ENGLISH/Betsy Burton/B-
The story of the Salt Lake City independent bookstore told by its creator. The book excelled when Burton focused on the personal element--visiting authors, last-minute attempts to track down promised Harry Potter books, and the always tricky business of keeping an independent afloat both financially and emotionally. I didn't care for the last third, which turned into a social lecture.

THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING/Jeffrey Steingarten/B+
A former New York food critic, Steingarten's book is an essay collection of some of his best writing. Steingarten covers everything from perfecting his own bread-making to playing with Olestra in a lab to how nostalgia affects our dining experiences today. Not as snarky (or as funny) as Jay Rayner's THE MAN WHO ATE THE WORLD.

WINTERGIRLS/Laurie Halse Anderson/A+
If you have any teenage girls in your life . . . read, read, read this book. Today. A brutally honest account of anorexia, perfection, and despair. Hard to read, but absolutely worth it. I may even like this one more than Anderson's most famous book, SPEAK.

THE BROKEN TEAGLASS/Emily Arsenault/C
A lexicographer working for a prestigious dictionary firm discovers a story told in pieces through the historical files. Mildly interesting . . . but not more than mildly. Maybe it was my mood, maybe it was the main character's secret that drew me out of the story, or maybe it was the lack of any real tension. I like my mysteries to have something at stake, and this one didn't do it for me.

IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM/Stefanie Pintoff/B-
In the early 20th-century, Detective Simon Ziele has abandoned New York City for a job in a quiet town upstate. But the quiet is shattered with a brutal murder. And then Ziele receives a call from a psychiatrist in the city, telling him he knows who committed the murder. Again, nothing much wrong with the book, but it just didn't work for me.

INVISIBLE BOY/Cornelia Read/B
I like Maddie Dare and her mysteries set in the 1980s, but this book had too little mystery and too much social commentary for my taste. When Maddie discovers the skeleton of a child in an old slave graveyard, she is pushed to the center of an all too common tale of domestic violence. I did like the characters, especially the female police detective who works the case, but I still have to say that Read's first novel is my favorite.

THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH/Jacqueline Winspear/A
Maisie Dobbs is hired by parents still grieving for their son's death in WWI. His remains have recently been recovered, with evidence that his death may have been personal rather than simply battlefield. The young man was a surveyor and mapmaker and Maisie tracks down his past through his diary and faded letters from a woman. Maisie also has to face personal loss with the illness of her teacher and mentor and she begins a new romance that simply felt right. This was a great entry in the series.

A DARKER DOMAIN/Val McDermid/A
Twenty-five years ago in Scotland, a wealthy heiress was killed in a botched kidnapping ransom and her infant son vanished. Today a young mother reports her father missing--a miner who everyone thought had skipped to the south during a strike. But he hasn't actually been seen since. Detective Karen Pririe of the Cold Case Squad lands in the middle of a huge case, but everyone is keeping secrets. From a journalist who pried in Italy to a reclusive, grieving father who wants things done his way, Karen has to pick through the rubble to find out what really happened twenty-five years ago.

THE WITCH DOCTOR'S WIFE/Tamar Meyers/B+
In 1958, missionary Amanda Brown arrives in the Belgian Congo via a plane crash. Sent to run a guest house, Amanda is immediately brought into local tensions when a large uncut diamond is discovered. I was hoping for something with the feel of THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, but this was a cozy in exotic dress. Not bad, but not my favorite.