High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver

First sentence:

"A hermit crab lives in my house."

Description:

"Barbara Kingsolver has entertained and touched the lives of legions of readers with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novels The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Pigs in Heaven.

In these twenty-five newly conceived essays, she returns once again to her favored literary terrain to explore the themes of family, community, and the natural world. With the eyes of a scientist and the vision of a poet, Kingsolver writes about notions as diverse as modern motherhood, the history of private property, and the suspended citizenship of humans in the animal kingdom. Her canny pursuit of meaning from an inscrutable world compels us to find instructions for life in surprising places: a museum of atomic bomb relics, a West African voodoo love charm, an iconographic family of paper dolls, the ethics of a wild pig who persistently invades a garden, a battle of wills with a two-year-old, or a troop of oysters who observe high tide in the middle of Illinois.

In sharing her thoughts about the urgent business of being alive, Kingsolver the essayist employs the same keen eyes, persuasive tongue, and understanding heart that characterize her acclaimed fiction."  -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir. Kingsolver gives the reader a glimpse into her life and the many aspects that inspire her writing. 

Date read: 2/17/2025
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 5*/5

ISBN-10: 0060172916
ISBN-13: 9780060172916
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 1995
# of pages: 270
Binding: Hardcover
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Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

First sentence:

"Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well."

Description:

A recent legacy made Cassandra Palmer heir to the title of Pythia, the world's chief clairvoyant. It's a position that usually comes with years of training, but Cassie's circumstances are a little. . .unusual. And now she's stuck with a whopping amount of power that every vamp, Fey, and mage in town wants to monopolize or eradicate--and that she herself doesn't dare use.

What's more, she's just discovered that a certain arrogant master vampire has put a geis on her--a magical claim that warns off any would-be suitors, and might also explain the rather. . .intense attraction between them. But Cassie's had it with being jerked around, and anyone who tries it from now on is going to find out that she makes a very bad enemy. . .." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this paranormal romantic thriller. Cassandra's journey into the world of the Fey both physically and mentally kept my attention throughout. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Embrace the Night.

Date read: 2/3/2025
Series: Cassandra Palmer, #2
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0451461525
ISBN-13: 9780451461520
Imprint: ROC
Publisher: New American Library
Year: 2007
# of pages: 374
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Postcards by E. Annie Proulx

First sentence:

"Even before he got up he knew he was on his way."

Description:

"Postcards is the story of Loyal Blood, a man who spends a lifetime on the run from a crime so terrible it renders him forever incapable of touching a woman. The odyssey begins on a freezing Vermont hillside in 1944 and propels Blood across the American West for forty years. Denied love and unable to settle, he lives a hundred different lives: mining gold, growing beans, hunting fossils, trapping, prospecting for uranium and ranching. His only contact with his past is through a series of postcards he sends home -- not realising that in his absence disaster had befallen his family, and their deep-rooted connection with the land has been severed with devastating consequences." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

When I first read the description, I wasn't sure I would like this book. By the end, as I found myself wanting to know what happens next, I came to love it. Loyal Blood, and his family, don't have an easy life. While they often make both right and wrong decisions, they live their lives authentically. Proulx's descriptions brought me into the scenes, both beautiful and plain. It's a slow read, but well worth it.

Date read: 1/19/2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5*/5

ISBN-10: 0006546684
ISBN-13: 9780006546689
Imprint: Flamingo Books
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 1994
# of pages: 340
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Murder in the House by Margaret Truman

First sentence:

"'The chaplain will offer the prayer.'"

Description:

"He died beneath the Statue of Freedom, clutching a 9-mm pistol in his hand. But as dawn rose, the politician would die again--in a hail of rumor and character assassination.

Now one man suspects the shattering truth: that the congressman's suicide was a carefully planned murder. In the heart of the free world, a furious struggle begins: to reclaim a man's innocence, expose a woman's lie, and stop a chilling conspiracy of murder that reaches halfway around the world. . . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this mystery set in Washington, DC and Moscow in the mid 1990s. There were lots of events, both criminal and personal as we learn what happened to Representative Paul Latham and why. One criticism was the late explanation of a character's actions and where they have been. I liked learning what happened to this character, but I wished the explanation happened sooner in the plot. 

Date read: 1/9/2025
Book #: 1
Series: Capital Crimes, #14
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0449001725
ISBN-13: 9780449001721
Imprint: Fawcett Crest
Publisher: Ballantine
Year: 1997
# of pages: 344
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Wild Wood by Charles de Lint

 First sentence:

"...like music entangled in a thorny embrace, leaf-sigh, branch-rustle."

Description:

"Back in print for the first time in ten years, this original novel stands among the finest of Charles de Lint's early works. Eithnie is a young painter who is acclaimed by the art world until the critics start noticing that her work has lost the animating passion that had set her apart from the crowd. She returns to her cabin in Canada's remote woods, hoping to find a place where she can seek solitude and focus on her art.

At first, Eithnie's muse remains elusive, but then beautiful and disturbing creatures start slipping into her sketches unbidden. The following days bring strange visitors bearing cryptic messages indicating that Eithnie may be bound by a promise made in a forgotten, magical childhood. The world of Faerie is clearly reaching out to her for help, and her ability to figure out what they need may mark the difference between their survival . . .and their doom." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about different world interacting - the "real" world and the "faerie". Eithnie, an artist, becomes entangled in both as she wrestles with finding her muse and trying to figure out whether the faces she sees in the woods are real or not. I liked de Lint's descriptions of the woods and the sounds Eithnie hears as she moves through them. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Something Rich and Strange by Patricia McKillip.

Date read: 12/31/2024
Series: Brian Froud's Faerielands, #1
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0765302586
ISBN-13: 9780765302588
Publisher: Orb Book, Tom Doherty Associates
Year: 1994
# of pages: 205
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The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

First sentence:

"The thing was carved of ice and rock."

Description:

"Humans call them the Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each description defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful.

And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key for survival for the entire human race." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book in the Academy series. At first, the narrative of the planet archaeological exploration seemed a little slow, but as it continued and as the characters faced obstacles both personal and alien, my interest increased. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Deepsix.

Date read: 12/30/2024
Series: The Academy (Priscilla Hutchins), #1
Genre: SF
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0441002846
ISBN-13: 9780441002849
Publisher: Ace Book
Year: 1994
# of pages: 419
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

 First sentence:

"I know the name of Turkey's leading avant-garde publication."

Description:

Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A. J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. 

To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A. J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced. 

With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and a struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

A book about reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica? Wouldn't it be boring? Well, not this book! Jacobs doesn't just relay the entries from A to Z but adds his comments and thoughts about what he learns both from the volumes and the events and people in his life. Some of my favorite portions include his visiting the Chicago headquarters and learns how entries are created, checked, and indexed as well as his preparation for and participation on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 

Date read: 12/19/2024
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0743250621
ISBN-13: 9780743250627
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Year: 2004
# of pages: 388
Binding: Trade Paperback
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