Feb 18 - 24. 2018

November's Past by A.E.Howe - Larry Macklin seems to be a lackadaisical investigator for the sheriff's dept. but his digging into the facts of a murder of an unknown man suggest otherwise. Yes, it is a problem that his dad is the sheriff and seems to believe in tough love. And his budding romance is cut short because of his job. This was an ok intro to a new to me series, there are 9 books so far. Something for when you don't want to have to think too much.

3 stars
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The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer - 1348, brothers John and William are traveling home and get the bubonic plague. John prays for more time to do a good deed and a voice tells him he can have 6 days. All at once, going home to his wife and children and exposing them to the plague. Or, one at a time, every 99 years. He and his brother opt for the 99 years and the next morning finds them in 1447. Their clothes are wrong, their money is wrong, and even their thinking is wrong. What's still the same is war and oppression of the poor. One day isn't enough to acclimate before they wake 99 years later. And so it goes. Each time is described in detail but John doesn't have enough time to do a good deed before the day is over. An interesting premise that didn't fulfill it's potential for me. And I don't think anyone would have actually been able to understand John and William after a few centuries. Written by a historian.

3 stars
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Winterhouse by Ben Guterson - Elizabeth lives with her hateful uncle and aunt. When they go on a Christmas vacation without her it seems like the last straw. She's sent to a hotel called Winterhouse and she expects the worst. Instead, she finds new friends and people who appreciate her intelligence. And then she finds a mysterious book and becomes obsessed with discovering the secrets of Winterhouse. This is a middle-school book and it really reminded me of a book I read as a child that influenced my love of mysteries. *Magic is portrayed as real and there is evil magic as well as a rather macabre scene. Partly because of warm fuzzies and I really did enjoy it...

5 stars
*RHC - a new book in a series for YA or middle-school
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Cinemaps:An Atlas of 35 Great Movies by Andrew DeGraff/A.D. Jameson - DeGraff is a mapmaker, but not of the real world. He makes maps of the movies. Based on the sets, plots, and his imagination, he painstakingly draws the map and illustrates the character's movements. His maps are accompanied by a short text by Jameson. I got the book for the maps but liked the text better. I felt the book probably doesn't do justice to the maps, the medium he works in didn't seem to work well when photographed. Also, I couldn't follow the lines for each character and had trouble seeing where they started and ended. The text seemed to be more about the philosophy of the movie's maker rather than the maps. The book is coffee-table sized, it may have worked better as dining table sized. Still, I will probably read his book of literature maps, Plotted: A Literary Atlas.

3 stars