Adult books read in 2019

In addition to the previous Children's books, I've read these adult books in 2019

ADULT FICTION

Allingham, Margery.  The Tiger in the Smoke. The 14^th Albert Campion Mystery. NY:

             Doubleday, 1952.  (old fashioned British mystery)

Beverley Jo.  Devilish. NY: Signet/ Penguin, 2000. 

   (I’m re-reading her Malloren series, from last to first.)

    ….     Secrets of the Night. NY: Signet/ Penguin, 1999.

    ….     Something Wicked. NY: Signet/ Penguin, 1997.

    ….     Tempting Fortune. NY: Signet/ Penguin, 1995.

    ….     My Lady Notorious. (The first Malloren book)   NY:  Signet/ Penguin, 1993.

    ….     Winter Fire.  (Malloren)  NY: Signet; New American Library, 2003.

    ….     A most unsuitable man.  (Malloren)  NY: Signet; New American Library, 2005.

    ….     A Lady’s Secret.  (Malloren- three friends)  NY: Signet; New American Library, 2008.

    ….     The Secret Wedding.   (Malloren- three friends)  NY: Signet; New American Library,

             2009.

    ….     The Secret Duke. (Malloren-three friends)  NY: Signet; New American Library, 2010.

    ….     An Unlikely Countess. (a novel of the Malloren World) NY: Signet; New American

             Library, 2011.

    ….     Seduction in Silk (a novel of the Malloren World) NY: Signet; New American Library,

             2013.

(and her Rogues series)

    ….     An Arranged Marriage (Company of Rogues – 1) NY: Zebra/ Kensington, 1991.

                        (The beginning of another series. This time I’m reading them first to last.)

    ….     An Unwilling Bride. (Company of Rogues – 2) NY: Zebra/ Kensington, 1992.

    ….     Christmas Angel. (Company of Rogues – 3) NY: Zebra/ Kensington, 1992.

    ….     Three Heroes.  (Company of Rogues – collection) NY: New American Library, 2004.

            Containing – The Demon’s Mistress

                        The Dragon’s Bride (Company of Rogues – 6)

                        The Devil’s Heiress. (Company of Rogues – 7)

    ….     Forbidden.  (Company of Rogues – 4) NY: Zebra books/ Kensington, 1994.

    ….     Dangerous Joy.  (Company of Rogues – 5) NY: Zebra books/ Kensington, 1995.

    ….     Skylark. (Company of Rogues – 10)  NY: New American Library, 2004.

    ….     To rescue a rogue  (Company of Rogues – 12)  NY: New American Library, 2006.

    ….     Lady Beware (Company of Rogues 13 – sequel to To Rescue a Rogue)  NY: New

             American Library, 2007.

    ….     The Rogue’s Return. (Company of Rogues – 11  NY: New American Library, 2006.

    ….     Hazard. (Company of Rogues – 8 ) NY: New American Library, 2002.

    ….     St. Raven. (Company of Rogues – 9)  NY: Signet; New American Library, 2003.

    ….     A Shocking Delight. (Company of Rogues – 14) NY:  Signet; New American Library,

             2014.

    ….     The Viscount needs a wife. (Company of Rogues – 16)   NY:  Signet; New American

             Library,  2016.

    ….     Merely a Marriage. (Company of Rogues – 17) NY:  Signet; New American Library,

             2017.

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Cordella’s Honor. NY:  Baen, 1996.  (Includes two novels – Shards of

             Honor plus Barrayar -  and one short story,  plus an author’s Afterword which

             describes various versions of the two novels.)  

    ….     Young Miles.  NY:  Baen, 1996.   (Includes two noveles – The Warrior’s apprentice and

             The Vor game. Plus a short story – The Mountains of mourning and an author’s 

            afterward.)

    …     Cetaganda. NY: Baen, 1996.

    ….     Borders of Infinity. Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 1989, 2007.  

            (A collection of three stories published by a Science Fiction group bound 

            together by Miles recollecting them while in a hospital recovering from 

            having his arm bones replaced. Includes The mountains of mourning, Labyrinth, and

             The Borders of Infinity.)

    ….     Brothers in Arms. NY: Baen Books, 1989.

    ….     Mirror Dance.  NY:  Baen Books, 1994.

Deveraux, Jude. A willing murder, a Medlar mystery. NY: Mira, 2018.

            (although many of her romance books also include a mystery, it looks like she’s now

 writing true mysteries with a touch of romance, but no sex. Nicely done.)  

    ….     A Justified Murder, a Medlar mystery. NY: Mira, 2019.

    ….     Met Her Match.  (Summer Hill) NY:  Mira, 2019.

Kerstan, Lynn. Marry in Haste and Francesca’s Rake. NY: Signet, 2005. (double novel)

Kwan, Kevin.  Crazy Rich Asians, a novel.  NY: Random House, 2013.  (movie made of this)

    ….     China Rich Girlfriend, a novel. (2) NY: Random House, 2016. 

    ….     Rich People Problems, a novel. (3) NY:  Doubleday/Penguin Random House, 2017. 

Lackey, Mercedes.                   

    ….     Beauty and the Werewolf. NY: Luna/ Harlequin, 2011.

    ….     The Bartered Brides.  NY: Daw Books, 2018.

                        Collegium Chronicles list of books

    ….     Foundation, a Novel of Valdemar (book 1).  NY:  Daw Books, 2008.

    ….     Intrigues. Volume 2 of the Collegium Chronicles, a Novel of Valdemar. NY:  

            Daw Books, 2010.

    ….     Changes. Volume 3 of the Collegium Chronicles, a Novel of Valdemar. NY:  

            Daw Books, 2011.

    ….     Redoubt. Volume 4 of the Collegium Chronicles, a Novel of Valdemar. NY:  

            Daw Books, 2012.

    ….     Bastion.  Volume 5 of the Collegium Chronicles, a Novel of Valdemar. NY:  

            Daw Books, 2013.

    ….     Closer to Home. Book 1 of the Herald Spy.  NY:  Daw Books, 2014.

    ….     Closer to the Heart. Book 2 of the Herald Spy.  NY:  Daw Books, 2015.

    ….     Closer to the Chest.  Book 3 of the Herald Spy.  NY:  Daw Books, 2016.

    ….     The Hills Have Spies, Book one of Family Spies, a novel of Valdemar.  NY: Daw

             Books, 2018. 

            (continuation of the adventures of Herald Mags in Valdemar except this series will 

            feature his children.  Book one = Perry.  Too bad the jacket copy talks about an 

            entirely different story with an entirely different child’s name – not one of the three 

            mentioned in this story. Mercedes says, “P.s. if you own a copy with this mistake 

            keep it, it’ll be valuable some day.”) (unfortunately for me- this is a library book)

    ….     Eye Spy. Book two of Family Spies, a novel of Valdemar.  NY: Daw Books, 2019.  

            (Abidela) 

                        (Diana Tregarde books)

    ….     Burning  Water. NY:  Tor Books, 1989.

    ….     Children of the Night.  NY:  Tor Books, 1990.

    ….     Jinx High.  NY:  Tor Books, 1991.

    ….     Sacred Ground.  NY:  Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1994.

Lipman, Laura. Lady in the Lake, a novel. NY: HarperCollins, 2019.  

            (Baltimore author using many Baltimore settings, most of which I remember.)

Novik, Naomi.  Spinning Silver. NY: Del Ray, 2018. 

(Uses multiple folk tale and Greek motifs.)

    ….     Uprooted. NY: Del Ray, 2015.

O’Brian, Patrick.  Master and commander.  NY: WW Norton &Co., 1970.

            (I was disappointed at how poorly it was written.  Kept getting confused as to 

            whose head were were in now.)

Quick, Amanda. The other lady vanishes. NY: Jove/ Berkley/ Penquin Random House, 2018.

                                    Beyond the Bridgerton family stories by Quinn

Quinn, Julia. Just like heaven. NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2011.

    ….     A Night like this.  NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2012.

    ….     The Sum of all kisses. NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2013.

    ….     Because of Miss Bridgerton.  NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2016.

    ….     The girl with the make-believe husband. NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2017.

    ….     The Other Miss Bridgerton. NY: Avon/ HarperCollins, 2018.

Smith, Alexander McCall.  The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  NY:  Random House, 1998.

    ….     Tears of the Giraffe. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.   NY: Random House, 2000.

    ….     Morality for Beautiful Girls. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  NY:  Random House, 

2001.

    ….     The Kalahari typing school for men. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  NY:  Random

 House, 2002.

    ….     The colors of all the cattle. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  NY:  Pantheon Books/

 Penguin Random House, 2018.

Taylor, Jodi.  Just one damned thing after another – the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 1.  

            NY: Night Shade books, 2013.  (Time Travel !) 

    ….     A symphony of echoes - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 2.  NY: Night Shade books,

             2015.  

    ….     A second chance - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 3.  NY: Night Shade books,

             2016.  

    ….     A trail through time - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 4.  NY: Night Shade books,

             2016.  

    ….     No time like the past - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 5.  NY: Night Shade books,

             2017.  

    ….     What could possibly go wrong? - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 6.  NY: Night Shade 

            books, 2017.  

    ….     Lies, damned lies, and History  - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 7.  NY: Night Shade 

            books, 2017.  

   ….      And the rest is history - - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 8.  NY: Night Shade 

            books, 2017.  

    ….     The long and short of it – Stories from the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 8.  

            NY: Night Shade books, 2017.   

            (This one is short stories that fill out and extend the tales in her books.)

    ….     Taylor, Jodi.  An argumentation of historians - the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 9.

.  NY: Night Shade books, 2017.  

Yolen, Jane. How to fracture a fairy tale.  San Francisco: Tachyon, 2018.

            (a collection of previously published tales and poems)

Winspear, Jacqueline. Maisie Dobbs, a novel. NY:  Soho Press, 2003.

            (female detective, ex- WWI nurse, solves mysteries – this one involving injured soldiers.)

ADULT BIOGRAPHY

B Andrews.  Andrews, Julie. (with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton) Home Work, a

             memoir of my Hollywood years.  NY: Hachette books, 2019.

B Buttigieg     Buttigieg, Pete. Shortest way home, one mayor’s challenge and a model for

             America’s Future.  NY:  Liveright publishing/ WW Norton, 2019. 

            (Democratic candidate for president 2019 writes about being a mayor and gay)         

B Field            Field, Sally.  In Pieces, a memoir. NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2018. 

B Idle.              Idle, Eric. Always look on the bright side of life, a sortabiography.  NY: Crown 

            Archetype, 2018.  (In case you don’t recognize him – he’s an important part of the

             Monty Python group who wrote and performed in SpamaLot.)

B Israel           Israel, Lee.  Can you ever forgive me?  Memoirs of a Literary forger.  

            NY: Simon & Schuster, 2008.    

B Key  Leepson, Marc. What so proudly we hailed. NY: Macmillan, 2014. 

B Krosoczka   Krosoczka, Jarrett. Hey Kiddo. NY: Graphix/Scholastic, 2018. (drug addict

             mom/ no father/ raised by grandparents/ developed into an artist)

B Mulgrew     Mulgrew, Kate.  Born with Teeth, a memoir.  NY: Little Brown and Company, 

2015.  (Autobiography of the actress who became my favorite Star Trek character, 

Captain Janeway.)

B Mulgrew     Mulgrew, Kate.  How to forget, a daughter’s memoir.  NY: Wiliam Morrow/

             HarperCollins, 2019.   (both death of father and later mother Alzheimer’s, sad) 

B Noah            Noah, Trevor. Born a crime, stories from a South African childhood.  NY:  

            Spiegel & Grau/ Random House, 2016.  

            (childhood adventures of famous nighttime comedian.)

B Obama         Obama, Michelle.  Becoming.  NY:  Crown, 2018. (FLOTUS)

B Rice             Rice, Susan. Tough Love – My story of the things worth fighting for.   

            NY: Simon and Schuster, 2019.  

            (Ambassador to the UN, Assistant Secretary of State,  and Head of National Security)

ADULT NONFICTION

302.302          McNamee, Roger. Zucked – waking up to the facebook catastrophe. 

            NY: Penguin Press, 2019. (very repetitive. Must be duplicates of various articles)

362.88             De Becker, Gavin. The Gift of Fear – survival signals that protect us from

             violence.  NY:  Little Brown and company, 1997.

800     Paul, Ann Whitford.  Writing picture books, a hands-on guide from story creation to

             publication.   IL: Writer’s Digest Books, 2018.

808.3  Cron, Lisa.  Story Genius, how to use brain science to go beyond outlining and write

a riveting novel (before you waste three years writing 327 pages that go nowhere) 

 Berkeley, CA:  Ten Speed Press, 2016. 

818.602.   Guisewite, Cathy. Fifty things that aren’t My Fault, essays from the grown-up years.

              NY: G.P. Putnam & sons, 2019.  (The creator of the CATHY comic strip)

909.825    Hoffman, David. The dead hand – the untold story of the cold war arms race and its

 dangerous legacy.  NY:Doubleday, 2009.  (Biological agents as well as nuclear bombs!)

973.933 Leamer, Laurence. Mar-a-Lago, inside the gates of power at Donald Trump’s 

            presidential palace.  NY:  Flatiron books, 2019. 

            (shows that Trump has always been the awful person he has proven himself to be.)

973.933   Reid, Joy-Ann.  The Man who sold America. NY: William Morrow/HarperCollins,

             2019.   (more info about the criminal who is the president.)

973.933   Reilly, Rick.  Commander in Cheat, how golf explains Trump.  NY: Hachette 

            Books, 2019.  (the guy who cheats at golf, cheats at everything else because it’s all 

            about winning and he must be the winner. & his caddies cheat for him, too.)

973.933  Sims, Cliff.  Team of Vipers, my 500 extraordinary days in the Trump white house. 

 NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2019. (written by a ‘Christian” member of Trump’s first year

 in the White House.  Interesting to see his viewpoint, although he completely

 ignores the appalling things that T said and did that we have video proof of. He 

brags about the speeches and tweets he wrote for T to present and tries to present T as a reasonable person, while admitting that T is NOT reasonable.) 

973.933  Ward, Vicky. Kushner, Inc.  Greed. Ambition. Corruption. – the Extraordinary story of

 Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2019. 

973.933  Wilson, Rick.  Everything Trump touches dies, a Republican strategist gets real

 about the worst president ever.  NY: Free press/ Simon & Schuster, 2018.

(again – it’s a Republican writing about how Trump has failed as a president)

Things you might not know about me

Some things you might not know about me:

1. my age. I've never looked my age. When I turned 21, my family took me out to dinner - and I was CARDED and the restaurant refused to serve me drinks. On the other hand, at this same dinner, my younger sister was served without question! This kept happening to me until I reached my 30s. When I reached the age when everyone younger than me had hair turning white while my hair stayed brown, I decided that maybe this looking younger than I actually am is a GOOD thing. 

2. Mrs. Schroeder, the English teacher in my Junior year of high school was the first person who thought I was a good writer. I only wish I could have shown her my published books, the first of which happened 30 years later. 

3. I often say that I was a 10-year overnight success - between the time I began writing seriously and the publication of my first book. Which proves that you have to be stubborn and keep on writing. This obviously overlooks the fact that I was writing for magazines and the local newspaper during those 10 years.

4. Everyone in my family loves seafood - except me. So who married a guy who lived by the ocean? me. (My parents and my sister did manage to move close to the Gulf later, joining my brother who was stationed there. But my baby sister has always lived in the middle of the country, far from the ocean. Which is probably why she vacations at the ocean. My poor brother, however, now lives in the desert where everything is brown.)

5. I used to sew most of my children's clothes, up until they began school. Couldn't manage to sew jeans, though, so limited myself to tops and swimsuits after that.

6. I have no dining room in my house. The condo I bought only has 2 bedrooms and no extra rooms, so I took over the "dining room" space in the condo and turned it into my writing office.

7. I am not fond of dogs. Or spiders. (hmmm. people who really know me, already know this last fact.)

8. Although I wrote a book about the celebration and history (and riddles and a party plan) about Groundhog Day, I never managed to get to Punxsutawney to meed Punxsutawney Phill.  Nor did I meet the other famous groundhogs mentioned in that book.  But I did get great pleasure whenever people walked up to me at conventions where I was signing copies of this book who were convinced that I didn't have their groundhog in the book to be able to open the book and show them the page where their special groundhog was mentioned.   Oh, the benefits of doing extensive research when writing a book.

Books Make Great Holiday Gifts

10 Reasons Books Make Great Holiday Gifts

1. Because you want to support your favorite writers
    
2. Because they’re way better than fruitcakes
    
3. Because you want to help your favorite author make the New York Timesbestseller list
    
4. Because you’re tired of reading the same book to your kid every night
    
5. Because you want to support your local indie bookstore
    
6. Because a book is easier to wrap than a hockey stick
    
7. Because if you send an e-book, you won’t have to wrap anything at all
    
8. Because a paperback is cheaper than seeing the new Star Wars movie in IMAX
    
9. Because that bookcase your friends bought for their new apartment is collecting dust
    
10. Because books contain multitudes and enrich the lives of others

What is normal?

Thought for today.

After I retired from being a children's librarian in a public library, I happened to be getting books for my own reading and ran into a child, a 'slow' reader that I had helped for many years find books that he would could read and enjoy  

He wondered where I had been. When I told him that I had retired he looked so sad and said,  "nobody else treats me like I'm normal -- like you do."

Made me feel like I'd been successful with at least one person there.

How Book Publishing Has Changed

Christine Kohler talks compares her adventures getting books published in the "olden days" (my granddaughter's term for most of my own life experiences) versus what happened with her latest book coming out this year.  Click on over to her blog, Read Like a Writer, a Teaching Blog.

My, has the publishing world changed.

Bookcases. Bookaholics can't live without bookcases.

Some years ago I attended Science Fiction Convention, one of many that I attended during that time period.  Late on the last day (it always was held during a 3-day weekend), there was a panel discussion about -- Bookcases.  Being a bibliophile myself, who lived in a house with built in bookcases, plus being a librarian, naturally I was interested.

Bookcases.
Everyone on the panel agreed that you never have enough of them.
(so did everyone in the audience)

We were entertained with the tales of
-- how they managed to squeeze in 'just one more' bookcase into their tiny apartments.
-- how they struggled to transport them when they moved.
-- types of bookcases
-- and so on.

Well,
when I moved to California this past August, I did a horrible thing. I went through the whole collection of books (many left to me from previous generations), boldly making decisions as to what I'd bring and what was going to be left for the booksellers.  (the very HAPPY booksellers, I might add) And I chose which free-standing bookcases to bring.

Weight was a problem. (did you know that movers charge by WEIGHT?) I knew that moving across country was going to be very expensive. (didn't know it would be almost $10,000, though.)
So I chose only two tall bookcases. And one short bookcase for the 12-year old's collection of books.

Now, I can see you shaking your heads. You know already that this is going to end badly, don't you?  It was not enough bookcases. Once I unpacked and loaded one bookcase with nonfiction and the other with fiction, I was left with more boxes of books.

Off to Ikea.  A large bookcase made of cubes made a dandy place for my collection of picture books.  Easy-peezy.
A small, 4-cube bookcase became filled with CDs and DVDs.
Okay.
I decided I was a wiz at putting these together.  Now to put two small 4-cube ones together upstairs. But one wouldn't go together.  I tried and tried, but the middle shelf was a quarter inch too large making the screws in the top shelf unable to find their holes.  They just ground sawdust.

After sitting unfinished in my bedroom for several weeks, I finally gave up and returned the complete, but not yet finished bookcase to Ikea -- and they took it back.  Crossing fingers and toes that the replacement box has shelving the exact size and I get this new one together, so that I can unpack the last of my books.

Hey!  It's Nonfiction Monday and the roundup of interesting nonfiction books   Is being held at Lizann Flatt's blog, The Flatt Perspective.  Click on over and enjoy.
wo

New Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Wonderful news -- Walter Dean Myers is the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, replacing the retiring Katherine Paterson.
Read it here in the New York Times.

And there's a longer article here in School Library Journal.