E-Books at the Library

I took a class at the library last week to familiarize myself with borrowing books electronically.  A great librarian showed a group of about 15 how to access via the Overdrive app, and you won't be surprised to see what I checked out first! 

Out of loyalty to the independent bookstores I used to represent (not to mention B&N, where I have so many friends), I did not buy a Kindle, but I did succumb to the lure of an iPad Mini, using my tax refund.

Boarding School (Book Review)

Title: Boarding School
Author: Regina Woody  Illustrator: Janet Kimball
Publication Information: Houghton Mifflin Company, hardcover, 1949
Genre: Juvenile Fiction/School Story

Plot: Having grown up in Europe, Abby Hawes is now ready for high school and has enrolled in the boarding school her mother once attended, Waban Hall Academy in Maine.

A Share in Death (Book Review)

Title: A Share in Death: a Mystery Introducing Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James
Author: Deborah Crombie
Publication Information: Scribner’s, Hardcover, 1993; Sound Library Audio CD, 2004.
Genre: Mystery

Plot: In the first of a now prolific series, Scotland Yard detective Duncan Kincaid goes on holiday to a time share in Yorkshire where the discovery of first one body and then a second lands him in the middle of a murder investigation.* Despite not wanting to offend the local police force, his proximity to the crimes makes him a witness and his inquiries annoy both the residents and Detective Chief Inspector Bill Nash. He begins with discreet questions but needs to summon his determined sergeant, single mother Gemma James, to help him investigate the guests – a clever variation on the closed circle of suspects of a traditional house party mystery (I love those English classics from the Golden Age of mysteries).

The Passing Bells (Book Review)

Title: The Passing Bells
Author: Phillip Rock
Publication Information: Seaview Books, Hardcover, 1978; reprinted by HarperCollins, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction, Book 1 in a trilogy

Plot: Abingdon Pryory is the home of the Greville family, and, like others of his time, the ninth earl, Anthony Greville, married an American heiress to ensure that the estate would survive financially into the 20th century. The marriage was successful, and they have three children: Charles, his heir; William, still at Eton; and Alexandra, a spoiled and shallow teen. Naturally, the Pryory has its fair share of servants, from Ivy, the new and very inexperienced parlor maid, and Jaimie Ross, the chauffeur with an amazing mechanical sense, to stock characters such as the butler and housekeeper. The cast of characters is expanded by the Countess’ nephew from Chicago; a handsome but impoverished military officer, Fenton Wood-Lacy, who needs an heiress of his own; and Lydia Foxe, the Grevilles’ beautiful neighbor whose birth makes her ineligible for her target, Charles. This book opens just before World War I and follows the characters as their leisurely lives end and they face the stresses and sorrows of conflict in England and at war in Europe.

What I liked: Long before Downton Abbey I loved stories about aristocratic English families and those who served them, as well as other historical fiction set in and around that era.

Swoon (Book Review and Giveaway)

Title: Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them
Author: Betsy Prioleau
Publication Information: Hardcover, 2013, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., isbn 9780393068375
Genre: Nonfiction/Relationships/Cultural History

Description: Swoon is a glittering pageant of charismatic ladies’ men from Casanova to Lord Byron to Albert Camus to Ashton Kutcher. It challenges every preconceived idea about great lovers and answers one of history’s most vexing questions: What do women want?

Contrary to popular myth and dogma, the men who consistently beguile women belie the familiar stereotypes: satanic rake, alpha stud, slick player, Mr. Nice, or big-money mogul. As Prioleau, the author of Seductress, points out in this surprising, insightful study, legendary ladies’ men are a different, complex special altogether, often without looks or money. They fit no known template and possess a cache of powerful exotic secrets.

The Turncoat (Book Review)

Title: The Turncoat; Book One, Renegades of the Revolution
Author: Donna Thorland
Publication Information: NAL Trade Paperback, 2013
Genre: Historical Fiction, first in a series

Plot: 1977. Modest Kate Grey, a New Jersey Quaker who lives with her father and favors the Patriot cause, is confronted with the realities of war when her father joins General Washington and, hours later, Peter Tremayne, a British officer, and Redcoat soldiers invade her home. Kate is so mesmerized by the handsome stranger she is ready to throw virtue to the winds and while she bandies words with Peter, a mysterious widow, who turns out to be an accomplished spy, steals his papers (he is later court-martialed as a result). Peter and his men then flee from Rebel troops; the widow flees from his retribution to Washington, dragging Kate with her. When Kate, knowledgeable about military strategy from long talks with her father, realizes that Washington needs information about the British from General Howe, she offers to infiltrate Philadelphia Tory society and send secret reports back to help win the war. She does not expect to encounter Major Tremayne again, now that they are emphatically on opposing sides, but you won't be surprised to hear that he has survived his disgrace...

(I am afraid the Quakers are shaking their heads over the Grey family: the father is fighting with the Colonists and Kate gains a scandalous if mostly undeserved reputation.)

The Heritage (Book Review)

Title: The Heritage

Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounced to rhyme with size)

Publication Information: Hardcover, McGraw-Hill, 1968

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: 1882. Peter Bradford, an indulged member of a prominent Irish-American Boston family, is traveling to Ireland to visit his great-uncle, James O’Toole, the Earl of Cloneen, whose heir he is. On the train en route, he meets a beautiful young woman, falls instantly in love, and they spend the night together. Desperate attempts to find her the next morning are unsuccessful. When Peter reaches Ireland, he has two shocks: his uncle has just died, and his uncle’s much-younger widow is Anne, the woman with whom he just spent the night. Deeply ashamed of her infidelity, Anne will barely speak to Peter, but there is an added complication: if she is pregnant with a son, their child will displace his own father as the new earl!

What I liked: I remembered this book while watching Downton Abbey because of the issue about the heir, and wanted to reread it right away.

With the Secretary of State

At Harvard Commencement several years ago - he was there for his daughter's graduation from Harvard Medical School and I was at my reunion.  I reminded him I had been a supporter since I was 11, and he was appreciative although I am afraid it made him feel a bit aged.