The Wine-Dark Sea

Excellent Aubrey-Maturin adventure, book 16, this time in and around Peru. Stephen's trying to overthrow the government and Jack is suffering setback after setback in His Majesty's hired ship Surprise. This one was a total joy. (Aren't they all?) J has already said that as soon as he's done the series, he'll just start over.

The Magician's Nephew

Yay, C.S. Lewis! The first of the Narnia series, which of course I've read multiple times, except not since the early '80s, so it's delightful to be going back again. His writing is so fresh and charming, and dryly English. The only problem is that while a good friend gave me 6 out of the 7 books of the series, book 2 (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) is missing, so I'm not sure what to do. Skip ahead to book 3? But that feels so wrong, somehow. Stumped, here.

Still Life with Husband

Decidedly mediocre, I only finished it because I was trapped in the house with a horrible cold, and I'd started it, after all. Lauren Fox has create a heroine who is clearly going to cheat on her husband. It's so inevitable, and the plot is so one-note, and the protagonist is so blah, and her husband is so dull, it's just all one can do to care about any of these people. And then there's plot twist at the very end that seems pretty tacked on. I resent the loss of the time I spent reading it.

Labyrinth

By Kate Mosse. Another crusader-era mystery. No reviewer has been able to resist comparing it to the Da Vinci code, with good reason. There's a secret society that's trying to retrieve three books that hold the secret of life, written in heiroglyphics. The modern mystery is ehh, but the half of the book that takes place during the Catholic invasion of the Cathar region (southwest France) in the early 13th century. There's a couple of plucky heroines (Alais, and her modern counterpart, Alice), great medieval atmosphere, some painless history lessons about the church of the time, and a mostly swiftly moving story. But the books a little long. There may have been a superfluous love story or bomb setting.

The Observations

Fabulously escapist, truly un-put-downable. Told in the first person, from the perspective of a Victorian Irish girl with a sordid past, who finds a new life as a kitchen maid for a rather odd mistress. There's secret literary ambition, a possible ghost, a repressive husband, political aspirations, madness -- the whole Victorian shebang. Narrator Bessy is entirely likeable, sharp, sweet and witty. The story of her origins unfolds alongside the present-day action, and the whole is a mysterious, interleaved delight.

Age of Consent

Not my usual, since it's a horror thriller, but very absorbing. By my friend, Howard Mittelmark! If you like teen horror at all, this book does it really well.