Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson

Chopping Spree is another installment in the Goldy the Caterer series. In this one, she is catering a meal for her college friend Barry Dean, who is subsequently murdered at the event. Among the suspects are Barry's fellow mall employees, his two girlfriends, and unfortunately, Goldy's assistant Julian. The cops think Julian is the killer and he's in jail--Goldy can't believe for a minute her trusted friend is guilty, so she starts snooping to try and figure out the real killer's identity.

Back in the mix are Goldy's best friend, Marla, her cop husband, Tom, and a bunch of obnoxious rich people that Goldy caters for throughout the book.

The mystery was solved in a pretty much out-of-nowhere way, but it made sense, just kind of Agatha Christie like in the "unfairness" to the reader.

I've been reading this series for three or four years now and I usually really enjoy the antics of Goldy. But this particular episode had a major flaw. Goldy's son, Arch, is now a teenager and he is totally disrespectful and rude to his mother. It is well-known to readers of these books that Goldy's ex-husband (Arch's dad) is a violent jerk who savagely beat Goldy before they were divorced. The fact that Goldy's son is so mean to her and has very little respect for her is upsetting. It is well known sociologically that women who have been abused once take abuse other times, it is also known that kids of abusers are bullies at times. But to me, Diane Mott Davidson, who has written so honestly about Goldy's experiences in her marriage and how she bravely got away from the ex, is dropping the ball here. To read about how Goldy lets her son treat her so badly is frustrating. And Goldy's new, sweet as sugar husband Tom is not very good at standing up for Goldy when Arch is nasty to her. Maybe the author is setting the stage for the next novel for the situation to come to a head, but the end indicated to me that maybe she isn't. Arch is sort of nice to Goldy twice near the end, so I'm not sure if the reader is supposed to be satisfied as Goldy was, with his behavior "change."

Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich

Wow, it is taking me longer and longer to read books lately. I keep thinking I'm going to hit a week where I blow through two or three books like the olden, pre-kid days, but then something always comes up--a night when I'm home alone and I plan to read the night away, one of my kids is a big cry baby about going to bed and it takes forever and by the time I'm done dealing with him or her, I'm exhausted and just flop on the couch and watch TV. But I did manage to read this 8th Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum book and it was terrific and fun!

I love her books, the parts about her Grandma Mazur and how she can't keep a car in one piece, it's hysterical. Bawdy and action packed is how I'd describe Plum books and they are a real treat.

In this one, a woman and her child are missing and Steph sets aside her usual bounty hunting to seek them out. As usual, she's helped by her buddies Ranger, the mysterious bounty hunter who is never short on cars, money, gadgets, or sexiness, and Morelli, her on-again-off-again fiance cop. I know it is common for women to like bad boys and go through that "phase" so the Ranger character is there to appeal to that instinct, but I've always been way too practical to like bad-asses, so I just say, I vote for Morelli!

Part of me wants to go check out the other 8 or so Plum books all at once, but I think the way that I space them out is better. I savor them more this way.

Stolen Innocence by Elisa Wall

This was the most incredible story. It is the autobiography of Elisa Wall, the young woman whose testimony put Warren Jeffs in prison. Elisa grew up in the FLDS, Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints--a polygamist cult.









She was forced at 14 to marry a 19 year old first cousin she didn't like and he raped her and abused her for 3 years until she met a young man who treated her right and helped her leave the cult and start a new life.









The story gives a vivid inside look at the community--the way the households with multiple wives function, the jealousies and politics going on in the family environment, the way some kids pit their mothers against each other or manipulate the father. It really is a no brainer that the set up of a family with more than one wife would be utterly chaotic emotionally--the human jealousy instinct has to be so strong, in spite of what any sister wife might tell you.









Elissa had tons of siblings of course, and 3 mothers. Then her mother was arbitrarily told by the prophet that she was no longer the wife of her first husband and sent to a totally different town to be married to a man with over a dozen wives. One of Elisa's sisters was married to Rulon Jeffs, a man in his 80s with 20 or so wives. AT age 18. The way women are treated in the FLDS is shocking and angering. They were told to "keep sweet" and put their troubles on a shelf at all times.









The part of the book outlining Elisa's marriage were particularly sad. She begged and pleaded to be excuses from her marriage at age 14. It was disgusting the way her stepfather, mother, and Warren Jeffs kept using their version of "God" to force her hand. Not to mention that the husband was a 19 year old cousin. Poor Elisa suffered 3 miscarriages and a still birth by age 17. Probably due to the fact that the close cousin relationship would indicate genetic difficulties resulting in the problem.






But Elisa's story has a happy ending. She met another young man who grew up in the cult who was also dissatisfied. They ran away together, got married, and have 2 healthy babies. Through the encouragement of older sisters who had already left the cult, Elisa reported her underage marriage and abuse and Warren Jeffs was arrested and convicted. He was sentenced to 2 5-life sentences, guaranteeing at least 10 years in prison, possibly more.



Sadly, Elisa's mother and two younger sisters remain in the FLDS at the time the book was published in 2008. Elisa and her older sisters put out missing persons reports on them, but their cult leaders simply surrounded them, took them to check in at the police station, and the police had to be satisfied with that legally. Elisa has also sued Jeffs, the church, and the UEF "church bank." If she wins the money, she will use it to help her foundation that helps other victimized young girls and women to escape the tyranny of the false prophets of the FLDS and help them be free.

Dr. Death by Jonathan Kellerman

The Alex Delaware mysteries by Jonathan Kellerman are some of my favorites. Alex is a child psychologist who lives with his girlfriend, Robin, who builds guitars and other stringed instruments. Alex's best friend, Milo, is a homicide detective for LAPD so Alex consults on cases with Milo when the criminal is especially mentally disturbed, or children are involved, etc.

In Dr. Death, Alex has a conflict of interest when Milo seeks his help. A doctor who offers people assisted suicide is found brutally murdered. Due to the violent nature of the crime, Milo thinks that Alex should help give a psychological profile of the killer. The suspect list includes the widowed husband of a woman who the doctor supposedly help commit suicide. Alex knows the family because after the mother's death, he treated the woman's daughter.

As Alex explores the family dynamic further, he knows there are darker secrets and the possibility that the murdered doctor didn't even help the mother die. There are three layers of mystery in this book--who killed the doctor, who helped the mother die, and what caused the mother's depression that lead to the suicide.

I thought this book was great, it had lots of twists and turns and the three mystery threads keep every chapter speeding along. The Alex Delaware mysteries are darker than a lot of my "fluff" series that I enjoy, and I like going into Kellerman's mind every so often and read the more grisly and intellectual mysteries.

My Life in France by Julia Child

So after reading Julie and Julia a few months ago, I had to read the other book that inspired the movie I loved, so I read Julia's account of how she got into cooking while living in France with her husband, Paul.

I love food and cooking and I think for some reason the idea of French food has always turned me off. Not in the snails and frog legs kind of turn off, but the idea that hoity toity people like French food and it's considered "classic" and so I didn't want to jump on that snooty bandwagon. But reading Julia's book, while French is a technical cuisine to prepare, it is really just another nationality of rustic, local tradition.

I enjoyed reading the tales of Julia and Paul finding their way in life as Americans stationed abroad in France and later Norway and Germany. It was the late 40s, early 50s, a time when Europe was rebuilding and the Marshall Plan was in place to boost Europe back after the war. Paul was in the diplomatic corps, but (IMO) a more fluffy job area helping with art, culture and basically propoganda projects. He was an artist and it suited him. Julia was bored so she went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. After she started a cooking school with 2 friends and then they tackled the multi-year task of writing Julia's famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cuisine.

The parts about living in foreign countries and finding apartments and trying to make friends and the trips they took were great. So were the parts about cooking school. But writing about writing a cookbook got a touch boring after a point. I understand *why* writing the book took so long but argh, it was just pages and pages about how she had to test lots of recipes many times to figure out how American products would translate in the French cooking.

The book pretty much told the rest of Julia's life, even after she became well known and moved back to America and settled in Boston. There are short parts about the making of her TV show, but even though a TV show creation is more active than writing a cookbook, she goes into far less detail about that production. I wouldn't have minded hearing some of that minutae, since I'm sure the primitive TV production was quite a challenge at times for someone cooking live on camera.

This book is far superior to Julie Powell's, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It makes me want to learn how to make a buerre blanc and crepes.

Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert

I am a junkie for a tell all book about a child star/former celeb. So I was jazzed when I saw that Half-Pint from Little House on the Prairie wrote a book.

LHOTP may have been a wholesome show, but Ms. Gilbert's life was nothing but. She was on drugs, slept around, went through divorce, tumultuous relationships, etc.

I am a huge fan of the LHOTP books, but I think the show is garbage in terms of faithfulness to the Ingalls novels. So I've never really liked the show as anything but mindless cheese. I think it is very interesting to read about the making of the show and how Michael Landon had a vicious temper and in spite of being famous for family TV shows and playing saintly characters on them, he was quick to scream at employees on set and left his wife and several children to be with his on -the-side girlfriend.

I thought the book was interesting as a life story goes. I wasn't a huge fan of Gilbert and her show to start with, so I wasn't let down by her tell-all book. What I mean is, I didn't have dislike for her before or after, but I didn't think she or the series or Landon were awesome, so hearing their flaws didn't bug me too much.

I think the biggest lesson from reading yet another child star Hollywood book is that they all have the same journey in a lot of ways--stage parents, drugs, too many lovers, and then they usually grow up, go to rehab, and find a good spouse. (Those of course are the happy endings.) I think sometimes kids in America think being a celebrity or an actor/performer is the be-all end all and something to strive for, but reading these types of autobiographies always makes me so glad I'm obscure.

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

I began reading the Maisie Dobbs series about 4 years ago. When I began, all I knew was that it was about a young woman detective in the 20's and 30's. With a name like Maisie, I had an impression before reading them, that it was going to be kind of a light, historical Nancy Drew-ish series.

Wow, was I in for a surprise. The Maisie Dobbs books are exquisite. They are mysteries, but they have many other layers that help them rise above that genre into the plain of simply great novels.

Maisie is not a fluffy blonde sleuth as I might have thought originally, but a brilliant psychologist and detective, a former nurse, and a woman who has suffered greatly in her life and risen above adversity in a way that is rare in her time period.

She is the daughter of "below stairs" types in England, a father who is a horse groom and a mother who was a maid. But the wealthy Lady that employed her parents saw a spark in the girl and sent her to a good school after Maisie's mother died. This lead Maisie to make friends in the upper echelons of society, as well as become more refined than her station might have allowed without the patronage of the wealthy friend.

After school, WWI broke out and Maisie served as a nurse in France. The horrors of war came too close at one point, nearly killing Maisie and her fiance, a doctor in the field hospital. Her fiance was left a shell of a man, unable to speak or take care of himself. He eventually passed away in a sanitarium in one of the volumes of the series.

So Maisie, trained by a Sherlock Holmes-like figure, a psychological detective Maurice Blanche. She worked as his apprentice and then began her own business when he retired.

Now that I've given a long background on this character, I am now brought to this newest installment in the series, Among the Mad. Maisie is called in on an important case, a man has threatened the government of England if money and assistance is not given to the WWI vets who are injured in mind and body and cannot find work. Working with Scotland Yard, Maisie follows all manner of leads to track down the madman who wants to unleash nerve gas on London if his demands are not met.

In addition to the general mystery story of finding the bad guy before it is too late, this book explores several interesting aspects of the era in London. Taking place in 1932 and into the New Year holiday of 1933, the Depression and issue of war vets with 'shell shock' are deeply examined. Maisie's psychology and nursing backgrounds lead her to several mental hospitals where former colleagues give her information about the mental injuries suffered by the WWI vets and how the horrors of the war affected them and continue to cause them problems over a decade later.

WWI is often the less written about war, because WWII had a much larger scope, a longer US involvement, and more tragic stories to tell. But WWI caused WWII and the war time trench conditions were very terrifying and horrid for the men who fought there for four long years. In the US, our men were only there about one year, and so we didn't have as many vets, or as many shell shocked victims as in England. The issues of WWI vets are a prevalent theme in the Dobbs series and I find it fascinating that it doesn't really matter what war it is, the horror of it is overall the same no matter what time period, or country of origin for the soldier.

There is also a plot thread in this book about Billy Beale, Maisie's loyal assistant. In a previous book, Billy's toddler daughter died of a childhood disease and in this book, Billy's wife, Doreen, still cannot cope with her grief. She finally becomes a danger to herself and must be put in an asylum. The first place she is sent is the stuff of horror stories, with medieval "treatments" that do more harm than good. Maisie is able to help Doreen get into a more modern facility, where talk therapy and more conventional methods are employed. But this plot adds a richness to the historical setting, showing how the 1930s were very much a time of transition in the field of mental health.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as I always enjoy a Dobbs story, and I look forward to the next installment, hopefully soon!