41.
Title: [Daughters of Darkness]
Author: L.J. Smith
Pages: 240
Genre: YA Horror
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: May 20, 2013
Rating: ***1/2

A reread from my childhood, just for good fun.  I'm working on an abstract for an academic volume on werewolves, and was looking for a particular passage that first sparked my interest in the project.

42. 
Title: [The Smoky Corridor]
Author: Chris Grabenstein
Pages: 336
Genre: YA Mystery Horror
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 22, 2013
Rating: ***1/2

Grabenstein's book caught my eye while the monsters and I were browsing the children's section at the library, and it proved to be good fun.  The protagonist is a middle-schooler who (along with his dog Zip) can see ghosts, who lead him to solve mysteries and save the day, with occasional help from his amazing and supportive stepmother. 

43. 
Title: [Citizen Vince]
Author: Jess Walter
Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 24, 2013
Rating: **1/2

A donut-making conman in witness protection, a hooker with a heart of gold, a mob hitman who happens to appear in a small town (leaving a trail of bodies in his wake), and an ex-felon's moral dilemma over which 1980s presidential candidate to vote for.  What's not to like?

Plenty, including the pace, the protagonist, and a parallel plot about an honest cop that does nothing to develop the story.   I'm sure that fans of the genre would be more interested than I, but for me it was a real flop.

I loved the rather strange excerpt included in Housekeeping versus The Dirt, but apparently Hornby's recommendations are not for me.

44. 
Title: [Ever After]
Author: Kim Harrison
Pages: 448
Genre: Urban fantasy
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Pre-order
Date Completed: May 26, 2013
Rating: ***

It really says something about this book that I pre-ordered the book, started reading it, and managed to put it down for several months with no desire to go back. 

So why three stars?  When I finally did get around to finishing it I found the conclusion very satisfying. 

I've had a hard time with this series before, and Harrison at one point "won me back" when I happened to win an ARC that showed the first real progress and character development in the series.  Ever After, satisfying solution aside, is built on angst and vague descriptions of entirely magical fights that are just not engaging.  This book would be successful, in my opinion, if it ends up being the last of the series.  If it's not, it'll likely be the last that I read. 

40. 
Title: [Assassination Vacation]
Author: Sarah Vowell
Pages: 258
Genre: Nonfiction
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 17, 2013
Rating: ***1/2

An excerpt of Assassination Vacation in Housekeeping vs. The Dirt inspired me to pick up Vowell's book; I know shamefully little about presidential history, but the premise of the novel is appealing for anyone with a taste for the macabre or off-beat, so I thought it would be an interesting way to dip my toe into the subject.  And Vowell really seems to know her stuff, from textbook history to asides and anecdotes about the key players that keeps the story interesting and clearly represents the author's slightly quirky voice.

So why just 3.5 stars?  In the middle of the book I turned to my partner and said, "I wish she'd just stop talking.  This book could be so good if she'd just get out of her own way."  Sarah Vowell is a vociferous liberal, which is not wrong by any means, but she's a liberal like some conservatives are Confederate sympathizers: loud and angry with a great sense of superiority that doesn't actually help anything.  I even understand her anger and frustration, because I, too, had to live through the Bush administration and the shameful wars we are still plagued with, but her rhetoric is textbook without any constructive input, rendering the passages as effective as waving a Confederate flag.  Passion is admirable, but passion without action seems sophomoric.  And this is why I chose not to read about politics. 

In a nutshell, Assassination Vacation is a great popular historical text that brings the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley to a (perhaps under-informed) contemporary audience, drawing lines between places and events through the gaze of someone who demonstrates passion for both her history and her future. 

393 
Title: [The Devil in the White City]
Author: Erik Larson
Pages: 447
Genre: Nonfiction
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 14, 2013
Rating: ****

Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, about Chicago's Worlds Fair and serial killer H.H. Holmes is not a book I would have ever found on my own; credit for this read goes to one of my students, who was assigned the book in high school and was shocked that I had never heard of it, given my own reading habits.  A big thank you goes out to her for a fantastic read.

For most of this book I assumed I was reading historical fiction.  In fact, I assumed as much up until my sister-in-law invited me to see a rock opera about "America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes."  Thus is the narrative style of the text, that it allows for such misconception - Larson's books is a story that seems to imitate true crime writing, as opposed to an overly technical nonfiction account.  As such, I'm sure the scholarship of the text may be suspect to someone who knows the Fair or Holmes better than I, but as someone with no prior knowledge or experience I found the book to be engrossing, and the characters fascinating. 

38. 
Title: [The Midwife]
Author: Jennifer Worth
Pages: 352
Genre: Memoir
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 5, 2013
Rating: *****

Jennifer Worth's memoir of her midwifery training in London in the 1950s is fascinating and entertaining.  The narrative device of childbirth and midwifery is used as a great equalizer that allows Worth to examine and describe not just the obstetric practices of post-war England, but housing and class, education, personal relationships, and evolving culture.  The personalities Worth describes are both bigger than life and entirely natural, and more than once I found a character either strangely familiar, or wishing they were.  The conditions of life in the not-too-distant past seem to be from another world, and yet completely sympathetic to a contemporary American reader, as I viewed it through the lens of a mother and supporter of modern midwifery.  The Midwife (also titled Call the Midwife) is a joy, and I am very grateful I found Megan's original review. 

37.
Title: [Housekeeping vs. The Dirt]
Author: Nick Hornby
Pages: 200
Genre: Column Collection
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 1, 2013
Rating: ***1/2

I had never heard of Nick Hornby or his column, but when I saw a passing mention on Richard's thread I was intrigued; I wasn't sure what to expect from a collection of book reviews, but a library book never hurts.  Actually, what I expected was something either terribly snooty or completely commercial.  What I found was a collection of articles written in a tone I found appealing, about a number of books and authors I've never heard of.  While the articles were amusing enough, and I walked away with one or two items for my next library trip, what I appreciated most about Hornby's book was his introduction.  Specifically, his argument for reading, and the tendency to pass judgement on another's reading habits.  Hornby argues for reading in all genres and types, as best fits the reader - and he argues against snide comments on that material, as someone making the effort to read any book is better than the alternative.  His example of choice is The DaVinci Code, although I'd argue Twilight could take its place today; still, the sentiment is the same, and the snoot is something I remember well from my own undergraduate years, before I started thinking about the works I was reading instead of just reading them because they were "classics."  I also like his encouragement to simply put down books that aren't thrilling: life is too short to be bored with reading.