Speaking From Among the Bones

Flavia de Luce is an eleven-year-old girl with an unusual interest in poisons who is a very good detective.  She lives with her stamp-collecting father, two older sisters, and the resident handyman at their family estate near the village of Bishop's Lacey in England during the 1950s.

Speaking From Among the Bones is the latest book in a series by Alan Bradley.  I have enjoyed this series from the very beginning.  The writing is intelligent, the pacing good, and the characters well-drawn.

This latest book gives some additional information about Flavia's mother, Harriet, who was supposedly killed in a mountain-climbing accident when Flavia was a baby.  Also, there is a maturing in the relationships between Flavia and each of her sisters.

I highly recommend this series.  Previous titles are The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, and I Am Half-Sick of Shadows.

The Accidental Bride

Couples getting married accidentally or begrudgingly  and learning to love another is one of my favorite story lines.  That is why I chose this book to read.

Shay and Travis were going to elope when they were eighteen years old, but Travis backed out, humiliating Shay in the process.  Fourteen years later they find themselves re-enacting a historic wedding with the result that they actually ARE married.  

So much heartache for the characters would be saved if only they could be honest with one another and not assume the worst.  The book would probably only be the length of a short story then.

I feel Denise Hunter is a good writer.  As with Secretly Smitten, which I wrote about yesterday, more development of the other characters in the book would have been welcome.  Also, more detail about the setting, which is Montana.

Secretly Smitten

Secretly Smitten is the second book in a series about the fictional town of Smitten, Vermont.  Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter are the authors, with each one focusing on a particular character in the book.

The authors are all contributors to a blog, Girls Write Out, which I read on a regular basis, so I am somewhat familiar with their personalities.  In the first book in the series, Smitten, each author's personality is reflected in the character she writes.  

It was interesting to compare the different writing styles of the authors, but the book as a whole wasn't really very deep or satisfying.  It was pretty much standard romance fare with a little mystery thrown in.  The peripheral characters didn't seem to be fleshed out.  It would have been nice to have some memory-refreshing about recurring characters from the first book, as well.  It had been so long since I read Smitten, that I could only remember snatches of what had happened previously. 

Of the four authors, I have read mostly Kristin Billerbeck's books and enjoyed them.  Her specialty is chick lit, but she has written outside that genre also.  She has a blog of her own that I also read regularly, www.girlygirl.typepad.com. 

Narrow Escape

Narrow Escape is Camy Tang's fourth Love Inspired Suspense book and, I think, the best of the four in that series.

The heroine of Narrow Escape is Arissa Tiong, a young Filipino flight attendant.  Arissa's deceased brother, Mark, was an LAPD officer who was shot while handing over privileged information to a gang. She and her niece are kidnapped by the gang, but manage to escape and turn to Mark's former partner for help.  Evidently Arissa and/or her niece have something the gang needs. 

I was first introduced to Camy's writing through her Sushi Series books which chronicled the lives of four Asian cousins - Lexi, Trish, Venus, and Jennifer.  As a result of those books, Camy Tang became one of my favorite authors.

Then Camy began writing for the Love Inspired Suspense line.  The stories were okay, but not great.  I had had the same experience with another author - loved her first books, but the Love Inspired ones really disappointed.  

Meanwhile, Camy has started another non-Love Inspired series, which is pretty good, and the flavor of that series has carried over to this latest book.

Gone Girl

While Gillian Flynn can certainly tell a story, I found her prose in this book unnecessarily vulgar.

The Tutor's Daughter

The Tutor's Daughter is the latest book by Julie Klassen, one of my favorite authors.  It tells the story of Emma Smallwood, who assists her widowed (widowered?) father in teaching young men at their academy during the early 1800s.

Mr. Smallwood is invited, along with Emma, to become a live-in tutor for the Weston family, who have a family home on the Cornwall, England coast.  Two of the Weston brothers were former students at Mr. Smallwood's academy.  Emma had an amicable relationship with one brother and an antagonistic relationship with the other.  How will she cope when she discovers both brothers are in residence at the Weston home?  And what other mysteries await?

In previous books Julie Klassen has explored themes of unwed motherhood, pre-marital sex and its consequences in the early 1800s, and fleeing forced marriage.  Plus, there is always some mystery to be solved, secrets to be revealed.

A few other books by Julie Klassen are The Apothecary's Daughter, The Girl in the Gatehouse, and The Maid of Fairbourne Hall.  

The Orphan Report

It is very easy in the United States to become isolated and unaware of what is happening elsewhere in the world.  We are a very self-centered nation, myself included.  We tend to think the rest of the world should live and act and think like us.  Many of us have a bloated standard of living that in some ways we would like the rest of the world to enjoy, too.

Within the past couple of years I have learned that there are orphans and there are Orphans.  The first are children who may have lost one or both parents to death, desertion, or other reasons, but they do have family or others in their communities who are willing to care for them.  The second are true Orphans.  While they may have a parent or family living, for whatever reason no one is able or willing to care for them. When money is given for orphan care around the world, the children in the second group are generally overlooked.

Joe Knittig, CEO of The Global Orphan Project based in Parkville, MO, has written The Orphan Report.  In the book he details the history of orphan care, what children are considered to be orphans, and how to proceed if you care about orphans.

This is a very eye-opening book and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Keep in mind that this is a report, not a novel or the typical non-fiction book, so grammar and editing may be not up to your standards.

If you would like to know more about The Global Orphan Project and the ways you can become involved, visit their website www.goproject.org.  I love to read the reports of the great changes going on, not just in other countries, but in the lives of people here.

The Scent of Rain

Daphne Sweeten is a "nose."  That means she has been trained to distinguish 5,000 different scents.  Her sense of smell is her livelihood.  When she loses that ability after being dumped at the altar, it jeopardizes not only her career, but also her life.

Three locations are mentioned in this book - San Francisco, Paris, and Dayton, OH.  Many of author Kristin Billerbeck's books are set in the San Francisco area and it seems to be the setting she does best and in this book it is Daphne's hometown.  Paris is only mentioned as the place where Daphne trained and worked prior to her ill-fated wedding and where she wants to return.  The main setting is Dayton, which isn't described much and came across to me as a bleak place to live.

Author Kristin Billerbeck has written many books that I have enjoyed.  I would place The Scent of Rain somewhere in the middle if I were to line them up in order of preference.   The story is good, but the pacing seemed hurried at the end.

Books by Kristin Billerbeck that I would recommend are Split Ends, The Spa Girls series, and What a Girl Wants series. 

44 Scotland Street 

Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, wrote in the introduction to 44 Scotland Street that the book was written in a serial format for newspaper publication.  Therefore, the chapters are short and there are plenty of them.  

44 Scotland Street is about the residents who live at that address in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the people with whom they come in contact. 

I have no strong feelings about this book.  The characters were okay, but they weren't very deep.  As this is the first book in a series of eight, I hope the characters will be fleshed out more in future books.  I doubt I will be reading those books, though.  Too many other books in the pipeline.

A knowledge of Scotland and Edinburgh in particular would have enhanced my enjoyment of the book.  Locations and Scottish notables were mentioned which were unfamiliar to me.  If you do read this book, I would recommend a bit of research into Edinburgh to pave the way.

As a side note, if you have not seen the television series based on the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, you are missing a real treat.  Unfortunately, only one season has been made so far, but it is excellent.