Memoirs of a Mongol without a Pony

Finished October 11
Memoirs of a Mongol without a Pony by R. G. Stern

This memoir was dictated to his father by Shane Stern, a man born with Down's Syndrome. Shane tells us his life story from his earliest memories in Florida through moves to Minneapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and most recently Tucson. Shane is a happy person, looking for things that interest him, and game for a try at most activities. His mother is an artist, and his father a doctor, and through them he has been exposed to many wonderful opportunities to meet a range of people. But Shane is also a friendly and outgoing person unafraid of strangers, approaching each of them as a potential friend. From a young age, he was interested in sports, spending hours engaged in physical activity such as basketball, swimming, and gymnastics, giving him an interest in others engaged in the same activities. He analyzes activities and figures out for himself the best way to go about doing them for himself, from bowling to sweeping. He is a particular fan of the Temple basketball team, and has a longstanding superfan notoriety with them. He also is non judgemental, expecting people to behave well, and thus often leading them to behaviour well. However, he is capable of mischief, and has a fondness for swearing, along with a good sense of humour.
He makes friends wherever he goes from inner city schools to sports events to art galleries. He looks for the fun in life and therefore usually finds some. I like his attitude.
His life story, thus far, is filled with wonderful friends, a vast array of experiences others would envy, and love and caring from friends and family.

A Climate of Fear

Finished October 10
A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas, translated by Siân Reynolds

Commissaire Adamsberg is back, and this time the case reaches into the past and outside France. Another police inspector, Commissaire Bourlin, calls Adamsberg to see if one of his officers, Danglard can have a look at a symbol that was left at the scene of an apparent suicide. There are some things about the scene that don't seem right, and a small symbol drawn at the scene may be a clue to what really happened to Alice Gauthier.
She had a visitor shortly before her death and her insistence on venturing out alone to send a letter may be another clue. Adamsberg is intrigued and agrees that things don't look right. When they identify her visitor and go to see him, things get even more worrisome. Alice and her visitor's mother were both part of a group of French people who went to a remote island in Iceland and underwent some sort of harrowing experience when fog trapped them there for two weeks.
Adamsberg begins investigating this trip and the terrible things that happened there, when another death links the victims to a different group of circumstances, one moored in the revolutionary past. As usual, Adamsberg lets his mind direct his case, following his thoughts and the "itch" that keeps him from settling into the case. But not all his team are with him and as the team diverges, he and Danglard grow apart.
We get to see him interact with the different team members in new ways. Veyrenc, Retancourt, Voisenet, Mordent, Justin, and the others all play important roles as does Adamsberg's neighbour Lucio.
I like Adamsberg's thought processes, how he takes his time and lets his thoughts wander, how he uses quiet to bring ideas out of hiding. He is a complex man, imperfect, yet with excellent instincts. A man who observes carefully, and knows his own weaknesses as well as his strengths.

Untethered

Finished October 3
Untethered by Julie Lawson Timmer

This novel begins just after the death of Bradley Hawthorne, husband of Char and father of Allie. Char gave up a fulfilling career as a journalism professor in Washington, D.C. when she met Bradley, moving to small town Michigan. Allie has been living most of the year with Bradley and Char, with brief visits to her mother Lindy in California. Now Char realizes that she has no legal parental rights with Allie, despite being one of her primary parents. Char has always been careful not to tread into Lindy's role as mother, and she doesn't know what to do to keep Allie living with her.
Allie takes seriously a role she herself stepped into as a tutor to a younger, troubled girl, Morgan. She meets Morgan formally once a week for sessions, but also has taken on the role of big sister to the girl. Morgan's parents are also dealing with some health issues for their younger child, Stevie.
As Char and Allie walk carefully into their new roles with each other, they are waiting for Lindy to make a definitive move. With Morgan's problems escalating, a move by Morgan's parents creates a crisis for Allie and Char, once that will have lasting changes to their lives.
This is a story today's complex families, with step parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, and friends and other family members complicating the family dynamic. When things are going well, everyone gets along, but when things aren't going well, power and feelings take on deciding roles that may not always look out for the best interests of all family members.
This is a story of families in all their complexity, with the mixed up feelings that go along with that. We are all human and some of us become stronger with adversity. Char and Allie are ones that become stronger, but it takes them awhile to figure out their new relationship and realize all they have to lose.

Stripped Bare

Finished September 30
Stripped Bare by Shannon Baker

Kate Fox is immersed in calving season when she answers the phone one evening to a call from a neighbour in distress. The neighbour is her husband's ex-girlfriend and Kate keeps asking questions until she deciphers that a man is dead, and Kate's husband, Ted Conner, is badly injured.  Ted is the sheriff of Grand Country, Nebraska, a job which usually doesn't bring much danger.
Kate is faced with the task of figuring out why Eldon, the owner of the Bar J ranch was shot, how Ted got there so quickly and was also injured, and why Ted is lying about what happened. The case is officially taken on by the sheriff of a neighbouring county, but Kate's niece Carly, who lived with her and Ted, is the granddaughter of Eldon and seems to have gone missing, increasing Kate's urgency to get to the heart of matters.
But as she gradually discovers Ted's secrets, and his betrayal, she also examines her own life and looks to where decisions may take her. When someone endangers Kate, and sends a nasty message at her ranch, she knows she is getting close to the truth.
Kate is an interesting character. A smart woman, with a degree in psychology she's not sure how to use, and a deep love of the land she's grown up in, the Nebraska Sandhills, she is strong and determined. She also has a lot of support with a big family behind her. A middle child of nine, with a quiet, intelligent father, and an artistic observant mother, Kate is no slouch at following the signs once she wakes up to what's at stake.
I can see this book leading to more, and look forward to see more of Kate.

Invisible City

Finished September 29
Invisible City by Julia Dahl, read by Andi Arndt

This novel is the first novel in a series. Here Rebekah Roberts has moved to New York City from Florida to start her career as a journalist after getting her degree. Her perseverance has got her a position as a stringer for the Tribune, covering whatever story she is assigned. But when a story involving the body of a Hasidic woman falls to her, she feels a personal link. Rebekah's mother was Hasidic, from New York City, and rebelled from that life enough to meet Rebekah's father and have her. But she ran back to her Hasidic life when Rebekah was just six months old. Rebekah has always had conflicting feelings about this abandonment. She wants to understand, but she also resents her mother.
When someone that knew her mother offers inside information on the case, Rebekah doesn't stop to think about why she is being offered this information. Her personal feelings cloud her reporter instincts about looking at the motivation and actions of others.
As she follows the information from the scrapyard whether the body of Rivka was found, to the insular Hasidic community in Brooklyn where Rivka lived, to the Coney Island house where Rivka explored her questions about her religion with others, Rebekah learns about the special treatment the community has received from authorities, and the way this insular attitude puts the community itself at risk.
This is a story of Rebekah's personal questions, but also of a community not often visible in the larger world. A very interesting new series.

Behind Closed Doors

Finished September 27
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

For me, this was the best thriller I've read in ages. This debut novel was unputdownable. I stayed up into the wee hours as I just had to finish it. The plot is chilling. The story is told in two timelines. They aren't that far apart and they both move forward, so at some point the "Past" timeline actually intersects with earlier "Present" timelines.
We know something is wrong early, and gradually learn just how wrong the situation is, and what is happening when no one else is around.
The plot here opens up thoughts on how little we know beyond the surface of what we see, and how we infer things from what we see.
This is a book about control and how fear can be used to make us do things we never thought possible.
Before she married, Grace had a successful job and a good life, if sometimes a lonely one. It is that vulnerability that opens her up to being used by a man that has his own agenda. It is a book about power and influence and about how so many take things at face value without looking closer at what is really happening.
Great first novel, and I'll look forward to seeing more from this author.

Roses and Rot

Finished September 25
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

This tale of two sisters drew me in and didn't let go. Imogen is older than Marin by two years. They lived under the influence of a very controlling mother, one who used not only physical punishments, but verbal and emotional ones in an attempt to keep them under her influence and drive a wedge between them. Imogen has always used her writing to escape her reality, and has had some success with it. Marin is a dancer, with natural skill, but also dedication and constant pressure by her mother to succeed.
Imogen managed to get away more that a decade before this story begins, first to boarding school and then to college, but her mother never stopped trying to draw her back into her sphere of control. Marin has heard about an artists' retreat, Melete, in New Hampshire, where artists apply and are chosen for a nine month stay to focus on their work with the assistance of a personal mentor. She urges Imogen to apply at the same time, partly so the sisters can come back together for the first time in years.
The women discover that Melete is both more than and less than they expected. Strange things happen, they see things that don't seem believable, and they begin to understand that this is a place where the human world and the world of Faerie come together and the Faerie world exacts a price for this opportunity.
Howard brings this world to life, the stardust and the darkness, the giving of power and the drawing of energy. The artists that come here will never be the same, and no one who hasn't been will ever truly understand. And, of course, some of them may never return to the lives they imagined for themselves.
I read this book voraciously, not wanting to put it down until I reached the ending. I cared about the characters and their dreams and wanted to see what happened to them as their stay at Melete progressed and came to an end. A great read.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2013

Finished September 24
The Best American Mystery Stories 2013 edited by Lisa Scottoline

I like short stories but somehow don't make the effort to seek them out that often. Each year this series has a different editor. The series editor, Otto Penzler selects works from hundreds of sources including magazines, journals, and websites. The annual guest editor then chooses the best from that, usually around 20 stories. The story writers range from best selling authors to the lesser known, but the stories are all extremely well written.
The authors for this year's stories are: Tom Barlow, Michael Connelly, O'Neil de Noux, Eileen Dreyer, David Edgerley Gates, Clark Howard, Andrew Kocsis, Kevin Leahy, Nick Mamatas, Emily St. John Mandel, Dennis McFadden, Micah Nathan, Joyce Carol Oates, Nancy Pickard, Bill Pronzini, Randall Silvis, Patricia Smith, Ben Stroud, Hannah Tinti, and Maurine Dallas Watkins. I was glad to see a couple of Canadian authors in the mix.
There are a nice mix of stories, most set in the present, some historical. Some are very dark, others surprising. Hard to pick a favourite as I liked most of them, but for different reasons.

Crafting a Colorful Home

Finished September 20
Crafting a Colorful Home: a room-by-room guide to personalizing your space with color by Kristin Nicholas, photographs by Rikki Snyder

The book appealed to the creative side of me when I spotted it at the library, and I found several things in it that appealed to me. As the subtitle indicates, it is organized room by room, with a few techniques and projects spelled out for each room or area. These instructions are very well done, with photos for the different steps and clear wording.
I would have liked more photos and discussion on what she's done in her own rooms as some of the room shots showed interesting things that I would have liked to see closer and learn about how/why she did them.
As the title indicates the rooms here have two themes. One is color, lots of it, mixed with thought but not looking too planned. Vibrant colours played across more subtle ones. She does discuss color palettes and layering of colors in the first chapter to get you familiar with good color design practices. The second theme is crafting. A lot of her home has been done by herself from painting to textiles to useful and decorative objects. Nothing here is too difficult for a beginner which is great. She also provides templates for the projects.
The areas she covers are: studio; garden and entryways; kitchen; living room; dining room; library; and upstairs bedrooms and stairway.
As a librarian, I also liked how she worked books into her rooms. It made it feel very cozy and comfortable to me.
Lots of ideas here, and I'll plan to put some into action.

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Finished September 19
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, read by the author

I always like to try listening to a book read by author when I see that option, and especially so from someone who performs for a living. Amy reading this herself makes it really come alive as she puts the emphasis where she intends and the jokes are hers entirely.
The book covers her life, so I'd consider it a memoir although it is organized by topics rather than in a strict timeline. She covers her family, her childhood and coming of age, her relationship and dating experiences, and she doesn't shy away from difficult topics from health to drinking to sex.
I really enjoyed the book and was laughing aloud on several occasions. But there are serious moments too. Amy is a woman who is from a generation younger than me, not afraid to show her strengths or stand up to those who would deny her rights or opportunities. She won't be judged. I like that a lot.