Half Moon Bay, by Jerry Crow

I went on vacation and found a bookstore and bought about a book about the place where we stayed. Doesn't everyone do that? :-)

Nice history of the area. Probably should've read this BEFORE we went, but who does that??

An Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon (on CD)

Holy COW, Diana! Is there ANY research that you've done that you have NOT included in the book?? So this covers less than two years (1776-1778) three countries (U.S., Scotland, and France), and 40 CDs!!!

I had to stop a couple of times and 'clear my palate' for a day or two, but I had to get back and finish the story...
...which left me hanging as far as Jemmy's fate, not to mention Claire, who is now a bigamist, and the whole Ian mess.

13 Rue Thérèse, by Elena Mauli Shapiro

Odd little book. The author owns a collection of artifacts from a woman named Marie Brunet who lived in her apartment building 80 years ago. From those artifacts, she has created a story-inside-a-story of an American academic in Paris to do research who is gifted this box of artifacts by his charming and beautiful secretary. He becomes a bit mad about recreating the life of Marie Brunet, eventually becoming part of her life (i.e., going back in time). Interesting, charming--like the secretary--and offbeat.

At Home : a Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson

While I wasn't thrilled with the author's reading of the book, the writing itself was the usual in-depth research combined with wry humor. I may have to find this book and read it (with my eyes) as so many of the names he mentions didn't stick because I didn't see them.

In any case, following the floor plan of his home in England, Bryson explains why and how our houses work the way they do today, and what has changed over the course of history, specifically in the last 150 years or so.

A River In The Sky, by Elizabeth Peters

A bit slapdash, and in Israel. Sort of a prequel to the WWI books. Not her best.

U is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton

Another of the series, which is now up to 1988. This one is about a murder that took place in 1967, so it's REALLY confusing to have two historical periods to keep track of, plus Grafton tells this story from four different points of view. It's mildly confusing, but she did a very good job differentiating all the people, both by description and by name, so it wasn't horrible to follow. More difficult was the story itself; some really unpleasant scenes in the book which have nothing to do with murder but are icky in the extreme.

I loved her detailed description of the Polk and Haines directories. I forget that 90% of the general population doesn't have a clue, but they are such basic tools to me that it was a bit odd to read two LONG paragraphs explaining how they work.

Good book.

Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (on CD)

Great book. Seriously: if you want to know how it felt to live under Stalin--at both ends of his 'career' in power--Smith does a great job in creating the claustrophobic fear and paranoia of the era.

Yes, it's a bit of a rip-off of a couple of real-life characters, and it's impossibly unrealistic in a couple of suspense scenes (the train one is especially egregious), and the plot is unnecessarily convoluted in a couple of respects, but I loved listening to it.

Will have to see if he's written any other books....

When Madeline Was Young, by Jane Hamilton (on CD)

I really do like the way Jane Hamilton writes. This story is about the most untraditional family you could probably come up with, a family that is also as loving as a family could be. The MacIvers are a fairly traditional family in the late 1950s except for the fact that Aaron's MacIver's first wife, Madeline, lives with them. She was in an accident months after her wedding and sustained a brain injury that has left her with the capacity of a young girl.

But yes. It's a surprisingly happy book about the importance and love a family brings to us.