Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

One summer afternoon in 1914, three sisters Constance, Norma, and Fleurette Kopp are heading into town in their buggy when they are violently hit by Henry Kaufman and his cronies in his car.  Constance, a very tall woman, makes it quite clear that he will pay for the damages and takes down his license plate and his name and address.  It turns out that Kaufman is the owner of a silk mill and they run things in town.  Their brother Francis wants them to let him fix it and not have anything to do with Kaufman.  He also wants them to sell their farm and come live with him so he can take care of them. Which is a running theme of the book. People keep asking them if they don't have a man to look after them like they can't take care of themselves. 

Constance, however, intends to fix this herself and sends a letter detailing the damages to Kaufman. When she doesn't receive a response she sends another letter requesting the money and also telling him that she will be by to pick it up if he does not send it.  When he doesn't send it she goes to the factory and when he threatens her youngest sister by intimating he would kidnap her and sell her into white slavery she grabs the smaller man and slams him against the wall.  His cronies crowd around her and let her know she isn't safe there so she runs away.

This is just the beginning of the battle between the Kopp sisters and Kaufman.  He will drive by and threaten them and send bricks through the window with messages.  Constance ends up getting help from Sherrif Heath who gives both her and Norma guns, hence the title of the book.  He also provides men to guard the house when things become quite dangerous for them.

There's also the story of Lucy Banks a young mother who had a baby out of wedlock with Kaufman. When the silk factory went on strike last year she was forced to send her small child away to New York City to be seen to by others because she had no food to feed her child.  But her child did not come back after the strike ended and when she went to New York City to try to find him asking after the woman who was taking care of him no one had heard of her.  Constance becomes involved in helping Lucy to look for her child.

When you get to the end of this book you find out in the author's notes that the events in this book, with the exception of the story about Lucy Banks, was all true.  Stewart fictionalized something that really happened in New Jersey in 1914.  She even includes in the book actual pieces from newspapers of the day.  That just makes a really great book that much cooler.  Each sister's personality is so uniquely theirs.  Constance is the protective older sister who is seeking something more from life, Norma is the sensible, curmudgeon middle sister who has kept the family together, and Fleurette is the innocent, fanciful youngest sister who would get into lots of trouble if the other two didn't have her locked up in the middle of nowhere on a farm.  I really loved this book and seeing as Stewart decided to continue the stories of these women as a series I cannot wait to read the next book to find out what trouble the three sisters find themselves in next.

Quotes

Fleurette loves secrets because she enjoys telling people things they aren’t supposed to know. I prefer to tell people the things they are supposed to know.

-Amy Stewart (Girl Waits With Gun p 201)

If I could give something to Fleurette—if I could give her one silent gift from a mother she didn’t know she had—it would be this: the realization that we have to be a part of the world in which we live. We don’t scurry away when we’re in trouble, or when someone else is. We don’t run and hide.

-Amy Stewart (Girl Waits With Gun p 308)

*My book club was lucky enough to talk to Ms. Stewart via Skype during one of our meetings.  She shared with us where she got the idea to write this book.  While researching information on her book The Drunken Botanist which is about making liquor from plants, she learned about Haufman who was a gin runner.  Reading about Haufman uncovered the story of the Kopp sisters.  She had figured out some things about Fleurette on her own but had them confirmed as well as found out some other information from Fleurette's son. I found Ms. Stewart to be quite gracious and patient with my group and its questions. It was a very enjoyable experience.   `

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Waits-Kopp-Sisters-Novel-ebook/dp/B00QPHKR3M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1519824237&sr=8-2&keywords=amy+stewart+books

    

Captain Marvel Earth's Mightiest Hero Vol 3 by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Writer), David Lopez (Artist), Marcio Tahara (Artist), Laura Braga (Artist), Lee Looughridge (Colorist), Nick Filardi (Colorist), and BC's Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

In the last book, Captain Marvel fought against Yon-Rogg the Kree who was behind everything that was happening to her.  She defeats him but loses her memory in the process.  New York City has given her the Statue of Liberty to live in and she does with Marina and her daughter Kit.  A new villain appeared on the scene: Grace Valentine.  She's super smart but Captain Marvel was able to capture her and put her in prison.  Also, the builders an alien race that had the intention of destroying our galaxy was stopped by a coalition of groups that may have been fighting each other but now turned their attention to the real threat.  The builders were defeated at great cost.

In this comic, we find out that Carol has been secretly seeing Rhodey.  He tells her that Tony Stark thinks there should be an Avenger in space touching base with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but looking out for threats to the earth and it should be a pilot.  As much as she will miss her family on earth, Carol needs to get away and figure things out for herself for a while.  So she signs up for the gig.

On earth, they have discovered a pod with a Nowlanian in it. They lost their planet during the battle with the builders and have had to move from one refugee camp to another and now they are on a planet that is poisoning them. The council is trying to get them to evacuate but they refuse to leave without their sick. They're also a bit suspicious about why the council needs them to evacuate so desperately. They want to stay and find a cure for the sickness.

Captain Marvel is charged with getting the pod back to Torfa and on the way there she runs into space pirates called Haffensye.  The Guardians of the Galaxy come by and help her with them.  Star Lord, the son of J'Son who is the ruler of Spartex tells her he cannot go with her to help with the mission since his presence would only exacerbate the situation.  So she goes to Torfa where negotiations have stalled.  When she and some of the natives go out to find what the Haffensye are up to they discover the truth behind everything.  Now they must make a decision: stay and fight for their planet and all of their people or save a few.

Captain Marvel and Rocket have an adventure when Rocket tells everyone that Captain Marvel's cat is a flerken, a rare egg-laying creature people will pay lots of money for.  He truly believes that her cat is a flerken even though she keeps insisting that it isn't.  Then Grace Valentine escapes from prison using rats with satellites on top of their heads.  They head straight for Carol's home.  A teleporter Carol runs into in space and helps out is carrying some messages for her and those messages tell her of what Valentine is up to.  What will Carol do if anything?

This comic was amazing.  The different stories were all so good. I loved the one with Rocket and the creature that came for the cat flerken.  Rocket and Captain Marvel do not get along and yell at each other a lot in a hilarious fashion.  The art is fabulous. The expressions they capture on her face from absolute rage to uncertainty as to what to do with a crying teenager to a devious smile cause a reaction in you.  I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what volume four has in store.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Marvel-Earths-Mightiest-Hero/dp/1302902687/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1519572459&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=captain+marvel+earths+mightiest+hero+vol+4

Winter Soldier: The Complete Collection by Ed Brubaker (Writer), Butch Guice (Penciler, Inker), Michael Lark (Penciler), Stefano Gaudiano (Inker), Brian Thies (Inker), Tom Palmer (Inker), Bettie Breitweiser (Colorist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist), Mitch Breitweiser (Colorist), and Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

Sin, the daughter of the Red Skull has released a Serpent who has a mystic hammer that empowers Sin transforming her into the herald Skadi.  The Serpent summons his worthy causing seven additional hammers to fall across the earth.  Odin plans on destroying the Earth in order to kill the Serpent, but Thor intervenes.  Tony Stark forges a set of weapons made of enchanted uru metal to help the Avengers and they manage to hold the enemy at bay long enough for Thor to defeat the Serpent and die in Odin's arms.  One of the casualties of the war was Bucky Barnes who was the current Captain America.

The book opens with Bucky being saved by a shot of something from Nick Fury.  But they don't want anyone knowing that he is alive. Only Fury, Black Widow, and Steve Rogers know that he is alive.  They hold a funeral for him with something like a body inside.  Bucky has work that needs to be done in the shadows and it will be better if no one knows he is alive.  Black Widow is going to help him.

Someone has woken up some KGB sleeper agents that Bucky trained years ago for what they are unsure of.  When an attempt on Vicor Von Doom's life is made outside the Embassy of Latveria and Bucky and Natasha battle a gorilla wielding a machine gun they suspect that the Red Ghost a Soviet scientist is part of the plot.  Bucky and Natasha go to the auction house where the sleeper agents activation codes were sold and find out that that wasn't the only thing that the Red Ghost bought. He also bought a Von Doom bot.

Now, who has it in for Latveria?  A crazy woman with cybernetic implants named Lucia Von Bardas. She was placed in control of Latveria after the old crooked ruler was removed and the government was cleaned out.  The problem was she was worse than he was. She was selling old Doom technology to bad guys hoping to keep S.H.E.I.L.D. too busy to notice what she was up to.   They figured it out, however, and took her down. On the way to taking her to a secure location she escaped.  She plans on using the Doom bot to start a World War.

One thing they discover is that one of the sleeper agents, Novokov, woke up twelve years earlier quite violently by an earthquake and likely didn't have his memories when he did.  A few months ago while reading a newspaper he saw the ad calling him in and went in to see his handler who explained things to him and what the new plan was, but he ends up killing him.

And he is just getting started. He realizes that Bucky was around this whole time and could have saved him by waking him up at any time but didn't.  So he wants to make him pay for this.  He kills someone Bucky cares about and then he kidnaps Black Widow and has the doctor who brainwashed her when she was in the Red Room brainwash her into thinking that she is a double agent and that she was working undercover at S.H.I.E.L.D. and he completely erases her memories of her relationship with Bucky.

Can Black Widow be saved?  Will Bucky survive this and capture Novokov?  This book will break your heart. I will not tell you, however, whether or not it will mend it again.  This was truly a fabulous book. I really loved it and cannot say enough good things about it. The art is amazing and drawn in a strict fashion that fits the book.   It is by far at the top of my list of favorite comics.  You really should read this one. 

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Soldier-Ed-Brubaker-Collection/dp/0785190651/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519391692&sr=1-1&keywords=the+winter+soldier+the+complete+collection

The Link Boy by Michael J. Martineck

I received this book as a pre-publication copy from the publisher. This in no way influenced my review. Set about a hundred years into the future, this interesting novel is set against a background where three corporations run things around the world. There are no more nations just these corporations. They decide what you will do with your life when you are thirteen based on your performance in school.  Teachers teach in the morning and at night.  The Catholic Church is another entity in the mix. They are quite powerful and do a lot of mediation work between the corporations.  The priests do not have to take a vow of celibacy, though some do. They have women priests, though it is still run by men. You are forced to exercise every day or face a fine and get in trouble with the corporations.  You also go and get a physical twice a year.  You also wear a link on your wrist that you get when you are born, though you can certainly change them as you grow older.  They provide you with access to the internet, books to read, information on the person you are talking to, and much, much, more.

This book is centered around three people: Detective Edwin McCallum, Father Demiana DeFalco, and teacher Neelesh Fhor.  McCallum gets a call to go to a house that is being invaded one night and interrupts a man who has just murdered a doctor. The mysterious figure fights with precision and uses a wire to cut his achilles tendon and get away.  This puts him off the case and on suspension until he is better. He goes home and paints and draws, something he is really good at, but he is also secretly looking into the case.

Father DeFalco is being asked to do a mediation, something she has never done before.  The mediation is between the India and Hong Kong corporation who have a problem with a nuclear reactor that belongs to Ambyr Consolidated.  The book is set where New York was which is covered by Ambyr Consolidated.  The reactor is located right on the Erie River and the other two corporations are worried that it will blow and ruin the water.  This argument has been going on for thirty years with no one getting anywhere.  DeFalco insists on going inside the plant and finds something that will surprise her as to what is really going on inside that plant.

Neelesh teaches thirteen-year-olds about the history of corporations.  He's still young enough to care that his kids learn in a fun way, but not too fun because that would go against the corporate policy.  When he tries to help a student he runs into great difficulty with the kid's father.  He has no life but visits his closelipped mother with her very nice job, every day to eat a meal with her.  His doctor pulled some strings and got him his teaching job.  His doctor is the one that was murdered and required him to run a battery of tests every year that his new doctor says are entirely unnecessary as he is healthy.

You will begin to wonder how these three threads of the story will come together, but never fear they do and in a very cool way.  McCallum will be the one to bring the three of them together.  I really loved the characters in this book. McCallum with his tough guy routine that is straight out of a 1930s mystery novel. He even has the trench coat. But he paints these beautiful pictures that he refuses to sell.  Then there's the priest, DeFalco who enjoys going to bars and listening to illegal music and drinking with her friends.  She also tries desperately not to cuss, which is so funny.  She's tough, intelligent, and smart-mouthed, which gets her into all kinds of trouble.  Neelesh is the teacher everyone should want, but no one appreciates.  He promises to himself to not lie to his students and kills himself trying to make a boring class interesting.  His teaching methods get him in trouble with the corporation of course even though he has the highest test scores. He also loves to go to the track and race his Saab.  There's this rebel with a cause streak in him. This book was the second book in the Freeworld series, though I can tell you that it doesn't affect the reading at all. I was not lost, but it does make me curious to read the first book, The Milman.  This was a truly enjoyable book and a look at where we could be headed.  And for those curious about the title like I was while reading the book wondering what it meant, it does get explained at the very end of the book.  I cannot recommend this book enough. 

Quotes

Irony. Demiana had always thought that irony, as opposed to cleanliness, was next to Godliness. God wasn’t exactly clean; he put more dirt in the world than just about anything else.  Irony? He must have made that for himself.

-Michael J. Martineck (The Link Boy p 236)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Link-Boy-Free-World-Novel-ebook/dp/B072BMVP2J/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519220145&sr=8-1&keywords=the+link+boy

From Here To Eternity: Traveling the World To Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

 Caitlin Doughty's first book, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes [http://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2015/06/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-and-other.html] dealt with her first job out of college working at a crematorium.  It seems as though she had found her calling because she went back to school to learn the funeral sciences.  Now she has her own nonprofit funeral home, Undertaking L.A.

In this book, she explores what people do with dead bodies.  For example, villages in the area of Toraja in Indonesia, the families mummify or if they can afford it embalm the bodies of the loved ones of their family and then keep them in the house for an indeterminate amount of time (it could be months or years) until the ceremony ma'nene is held and they get their own resting place. At this ma'nene animals are sacrificed in order that their soul can be released.  This doesn't mean that they don't bring them back out for celebrations and family get-togethers.

 In Japan, the crematory rate is 99.9%.  Until the current Emperor, the Emperors have all chosen a burial.  They do have places where you can place your bones.  In Japan, they see ashes as being unclean and they only keep the bones, which is done by the family at the crematorium by using chopsticks to place them in the urn.  At Ruriden columbarium they have slots for your bones with Buddhas in front that light up.  The entire place changes colors according to the season by the use of lights.

She also encountered a corpse hotel in Japan where different rooms are set up to your different tastes and needs. Some have showers, kitchens, and mats for people to sleep on which if you have out of town family members there for the funeral this would be a place to put them.  You can have the room for up to four days.  They will bring the corpse into the room whenever you want.  At American funerals, you barely get to spend any time with the beloved before they are buried. In Japan, you get to truly say goodbye.

Doughty explores some ways in America that people are trying as means of disposing of your corpse after death.  She also examines practices in Mexico dealing with Dios de los Muertos, in Spain where they keep the corpses behind glass and Bolivia where they have the belief in the natitas, the skulls of the dead who help others with problems they might have.  This book was utterly fascinating and incredibly interesting.  It will even give you ideas about what to do with your own body after its gone.  It did for me. This book was just as good as her last book.  I highly recommend it.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Here-Eternity-Traveling-World-Death/dp/0393249891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519046849&sr=8-1&keywords=from+here+to+eternity+caitlin+doughty&dpID=51dk%252BlELWfL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Spider-Gwen: Vol. 3 Long Distance by Jason Latour (Writer, Artist), Robbi Rodriguez (Artist), Chris Visions (Artist), Rico Renzi (Colorist), VC's Clayton Cowles (Letterer), Travis Lanham (Letterer), Chris Brunner (Artist), Emi Lenox (Artist), Olivia Margraf (Artist), Annapaola Martello (Artist), James Harren (Artist), Michael Walsh (Artist), Javier Rodriguez (Artist), Alvaro Lopez (Artist), Veronica Fish (Artist), Rico Renzi (Colorist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), Jim Campbell (Colorist), John Rauch (Colorist), Veronica Gandini (Colorist), Tom Taylor (Writer), Marcio Takara (Artist), Mat Lopes (Colorist), and VC's Cory Petit (Letterer)

In the last comic, Gwen's powers were stripped from her by Cindy-65 and agent Jesse Drew of SHIELD gave her some isotopes that will give her her powers, but she only has so many.  Frank Castle has figured out who she is and Gwen's father is arrested for aiding and abetting Spider-Gwen.  Pushed into a corner, Gwen takes the offer from the Kingpin of Crime, Matt Murdoch to defend her father and get him out of this mess--for a price.

At Thanksgiving time, Aunt Mae lets Gwen know that she knows she is Spider-Gwen and that she supports her. Gwen spends the holiday with Spiderwoman and her husband and child. Later at Christmas, she encounters ninja fighters on the rooftop and must use one of her isotopes. Who sent them and why?

This book also includes two dossiers on Aunt Mae and S.I.L.K., the Spider-Gwen Annual #1 which takes place right when she has gotten her powers and decides to use them in the wrestling ring fighting She-Hulk, a Captain America with Sam, The Watcher, a week in the life of Gwen, and an all-new Wolverine Annual #1.  While it seems jammed packed, the storyline is a little skimpy, but then it only includes issues #14 and #15. I found the art lacking a bit in some of #14 especially with the drawing of Spiderwoman.  But overall the art was good.  I can only half-heartedly recommend this book. It could have been better.  Hopefully, the next book will be an improvement.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Gwen-Vol-Long-Distance-2015-ebook/dp/B0725GZXH4/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1518787815&sr=1-6&keywords=spidergwen

Siren's Call by Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz)

Jayne Castle is the name Krentz uses for her books that take place in the future when a group of humans left earth and landed on the planet Harmony and set up a base there.  But the curtain between the planet and earth would close and these colonists would be stuck with each other, for better or worse.  Aliens had once lived on this planet long ago and left it.  They are believed to have lived underground in the catacombs that are made of some kind of green mineral.  Over the years, the humans began to develop psi abilities which allowed them to use amber to "rez up" things such as cars, microwaves, cell phones, locks, etc... Some would develop particularly strong psi talents, such as tuning amber (it has a unique frequency and if you go into the catacombs without tuned amber you will wander around until you go mad and die), read auras, handle and create "ghosts" (electrical energy that manifests in the form of a ghost) in the catacombs, music talents, botany talents, the ability to find and handle minerals, the ability to use alien technology.  The list is pretty endless. There are also dust bunnies, mysterious creatures with an endless apatite, who come and go as they please, collect the oddest things and form attachments with humans. They have the loyalty of a dog who always knows when you need him and the independent streak and the insistence that you take care of his needs first of a cat. They're adorable.

The founders also insisted on what is called a Covenant Marriage.  If you have one of these, it is nearly impossible to get out of.  You can pay to get out of one, but you will be broke by the end of it. The founders believed that close connections were important if they were going to survive. And these days no one gets out of being nagged by some family member about getting a CM, even the gays.  The founders also set up what is called a Marriage of Convenience, which was basically a classy way of saying you were shacking up with someone.  It could be broken at any time, by either party.

Ella Morgan comes from a very famous musically talented family, but her talent has been kept secret.  She is a siren.  Something that is not supposed to exist.  She has resigned herself to not marrying, as from what she has read, men either fall slavishly and obsessively in love with sirens or head for the hills as fast as they can.  So far all the men she has dated seem to be the runaway type.  Her talent allows her to see people's auras and so she has gone into the dreamwork business, which means that she helps adjust their auras while they dream.  When she goes into business for herself, her first client is a dust bunny.  She borrows a sled to go into the catacombs and follows the bunny to a cave where other dust bunnies are being held in cages and alien technology is lying around.  It appears that the bunnies are going to be used as test subjects. Ella uses her voice to melt the special glass cages and when she is confronted by the owner of the weapons, she is forced to use her voice in self-defense and kills him.

In walks, Rafe Coppersmith who is doing a consulting job for the FBPI (and Hard Joe Harding, himself, whom those who have read her early Harmony books may remember not so fondly as the glory hound who takes all the credit) and he is really not happy to find the man dead.  It has ruined the whole sting operation he had planned.  Rafe recognizes her from a news story a while back where she stopped her friend from marrying a serial killer at the last minute and then was taken hostage by the groom who suddenly had a "stroke" of some sort and ended up in the mental hospital.  He's figured out pretty quick between that story and the melted glass that she must be a siren.  However, a group of mob men are coming to buy the alien artifacts and Rafe quickly takes over the role of seller, but when things go wrong, he grabs the artifacts and touches Ella's shoulder and a blast explodes killing all the men.  Rafe's ability is to handle minerals and alien technology.  He promises to keep her secret if she'll have coffee with him.  But she does not hear back from him.

Soon after this, Lorelei, her first client, and dust bunny companion, brings her a hunk of red crystal that is worth a lot of money and Ella is able to move her business to the best neighborhood, which is good, because, in her business, people will only take you seriously if you have a fancy office to work out of.  Three months later in walks Rafe Coppersmith to ask her for a contract for her services as a music worker. The problem is, he does not look so well. Ella can tell in his aura that he has a psi fever which occurs after a burn-out when you have overloaded your talents to the point that they might never come back, you might develop an uncontrollable new talent, or go mad.  She can quickly tell that he is in control and not about to go off his rocker, but still can't help but still feel a bit peeved that she never heard back from him. She thought she had felt a real connection between them.  Of, course he has never forgotten her and he cannot tell her that his talent is gone and he has no idea what is going on with him.

The project is on the island of Rainshadow, which has a very dangerous forest preserve where people are not supposed to go into (there's a fence for a reason) and now a bizarre place dubbed Wonderland, where the aliens are believed to have first, began their bio/psi experiments with creatures, only they seemed to have failed and put the animals in stasis and their habitat was killed off.  Well, now its a land of crystal and quartz and blue energy and the animals have been awoken and they resemble dinosaurs--who now do not have anything to eat and are making their way out of Wonderland and killing people.  Coppersmith Mining wants to explore the minerals but they need to be protected from the dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs use singing to communicate and to put the put their prey into a trance.  Rafe's idea is that Ella will be able to tune their frequency to amber and provide it to the scientist to use as a repellent to the dinosaurs.

Rafe's job is to get her out of Chrystal City and to Rainshadow Island and into Coppersmith Security hands.  Ella, however, has two conditions. One is that she has to go to an important academic dinner that night that will be important to her career and two that she needs to be back by a certain date because a friend is having a covenant wedding in which she is once again the bridesmaid (it seems to be her permanent role).  Rafe explains that the reason she needs security is that there is an organization called Do Not Disturb that believes in leaving all alien things alone.  They're a bit of a low rent wack job group, but you never know.

After an interesting dinner, they leave only to be snared in what appears to be a kidnapping attempt.  With Ella's ability to melt glass, they escape the limo and hide out in an abandoned building when two more men arrive with an alien bell whose ringing does not affect Ella, but begins to make Rafe want to follow the sound.  When he holds on to Ella's hand while she sings, however, the sound is dimmed and he is able to use his stun gun to knock the two men out. He searches the men and takes all the technology they have on hand and in the process notices that they both have tornado tattoos.  He turns the matter over to the FBPI and he and Ella head out of town.

Rafe's psi burn is causing him to hallucinate again and he is beyond tired, since every time he tries to sleep he doesn't get very far before he has what he calls "waking nightmares".  Ella insists on driving and just like Rafe said, after twenty minutes the nightmare seemed to begin and he started saying a few words including "ghost city" and "sing for me siren". So she began to sing and patched up his aura a bit and he went into a peaceful sleep and stayed there for the next three hours until they got to the airstrip. Rafe cannot believe what has happened; he can finally sleep again. Ella is worried though.  Ghost City is a legendary place where treasure supposedly lies and the few people who are said to have found it has come back mad.  Eventually, Rafe will tell her that he was sent by his father on this expedition right after meeting her and he ended up in a psi storm, which will basically kill you.  To escape, he dove into a crystal pool.  In his dreams, he sees a place, but he does not believe it is real.  He grabs a piece of grey mineral and with that is able to walk right through the storm and back to the team. Ella tells him he is coming into a new power and that the hallucinations are really visions that are a part of his new talent somehow.

Someone on the island takes shots at Ella's window on her first night and a body is discovered.  He is a member of DND.  But there are others on the island and something larger may be going on.  Coppersmith may be compromised.  It appears there are people working for them who are really in the employ of others.

Rafe finally takes Ella into Wonderland with a team to find a dinosaur and see what she can do.  Quickly she is able to find the harmonic of their song and tune it to the amber.  It is given to the scientists who believe that they might even be able to hunt them now.  It's over and now Ella can go, but Rafe realizes he's not ready for her to go. But Ella has a covenant wedding to go to and of course, Rafe will follow her.  Along the way, he will have to figure out how to use his new talent, even if he does think it is stupid and useless.

Ella keeps insisting that men just don't want to make a commitment to someone like her, but as you will realize, she does an awful lot of pushing away.  Rafe, meanwhile, can be the typical man at times: I've lost my talent (manhood) I am not a real man and not worthy of someone like Ella.  But you know they are made for each other if for the only fact that he can listen to her sing and not be affected by it.  His talent makes him immune in some ways.   The twist at the end (there always is one) was unexpected for me. I went one way, the book went another, so I was pleasantly surprised.  I really enjoyed this book. The banter between the two was sharp and witty and the woman rescued herself for a change.  Ella can and does take care of herself, but as the song goes "she gets by with a little help from her friends".  This is a wonderful addition to the Harmony series, which you do not need to read in order, by the way.

Quotes

Men are remarkably oblivious about a lot things, provided the sex is good.

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 45)

Oh, shut up, I’m not upset, I’m stone-cold furious.  There’s a difference.

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 126)

“A music talent who does dream analysis, remember? The reason I’m good at dreamwork is because music energy travels on the currents of dreamlight.”

“I didn’t know that,” Rafe said.

“Not many people, including the researchers, have figured it out. But for me, it’s obvious. I see the connection every day in my work. Think about it—music takes a  direct paranormal path to the senses.  It can give you chills or make you cry or induce a kind of euphoria or a sense of transcendence—all without having to be interpreted by logic and reason. Just like dreams.

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 135-6)

Why couldn’t I just have normal hallucinations like normal, ordinary psychos?

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 224)

“Does it occur to you that all we ever do when we go out is run from bad guys?”

“One of these days we’ll do coffee.  I swear it.”

“Promises, promises.”

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 229)

Carbs and caffeine—two of the basic food groups.

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p250)

Wonderland and the Preserve and the Rainforest are all dangerous places. Heck, the catacombs are dangerous.  Since when has danger ever stopped people from investigating secrets? Humans seem to be on an endless quest.  Probably something in our DNA.

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 309)

“You ready to sleep yet?”

“No. You?”

“No. Still pretty rezzed.”

“Me, too.”

“I can think of one way we could take the edge off.”

“You’re talking about us having sex?”

“The thought did occur to me.”

“To take the edge off.”

“Sex can be very relaxing.”

“You and I have never had relaxing sex.”

“I know. We should probably try it sometime. But tonight I’m fine with our regular sex.”

--Jayne Castle (Siren’s Call p 310)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sirens-Call-Rainshadow-Book-4-ebook/dp/B00QH8324K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518614514&sr=8-1&keywords=sirens+call+jayne+castle

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

This book gets its title from the Martin Luther King Jr. quotation "If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way."  Ruth Jefferson was raised by a mother who worked her ass off as a maid to a very rich family and she raised her daughter to do "small things in a great way".  She pushed her daughter to succeed academically and she got scholarships to go to private schools. Her sister Rachael, not so book smart, went to school in Harlem. Rachel had friends, while Ruth really didn't. Ruth was light skinned and Racheal was dark skinned. Rachael always accused Ruth of trying to fit into the white world and forgetting where she came from.  Ruth would go on to get a degree in nursing from Yale and get a job at Mercy-General Hospital in Vermont.  Ruth is a war widow with a teenage son, Edison who is preparing for college.  She's saving money from her job as a labor and delivery nurse to help pay for it.  

Then one day she goes into the room of a woman, Brit Bauer who had recently delivered a baby boy, to come in and give it an exam and try to get it to start breastfeeding.  She senses some tension in the room and the parents are discussing something angrily when she takes the child over to the table to examine him. When she goes to try to get the child to breastfeed, the father, Turk, explodes and demands to see her supervisor. When her supervisor arrives he tells her he does not want a black person touching his child or wife.  Marie, her supervisor, buckles under the pressure of this man and puts a note in the file that no African Americans are to touch the child. And Ruth happens to be the only African American working on the floor. 

Ruth is highly upset about this, of course. She's their top nurse and has been there for twenty years and to be told she cannot do her job based on her skin color?   Then when Ruth is taking a break during a double shift, the Bauer baby is wheeled into where she is. He has just had his circumcision. Corrine the nurse watching him when suddenly she has to go to do an emergency c-section with Marie in tow leaving Ruth the only person to watch over the Bauer baby.  Suddenly he goes into respiratory failure and Ruth is confronted with a dilemma of whether or not to risk her job and her license by touching the child and going against orders.  She does but stops when Marie comes in and says she was doing nothing so she wouldn't get in trouble. A code is called and Ruth does compressions.  The Bauers hear the code and come into the room to see Ruth touching their child and then see their child die.  

The Bauers would seek to have Ruth charged with first-degree murder and negligent homicide due to her hatred of them and the belief that she did nothing when the baby went into distress.  It is believed that she deliberately compressed down too hard injuring the baby.  Ruth will get a public defender, Kennedy McQuarrie, a white woman whom she must try to learn to trust and somehow get her to understand her world and what it means to be black. Kennedy does not want to play the "race card" in the courtroom because you cannot win that way, but Ruth demands it because she wants to have her say.  Can these two women find a common ground?

This book is told through the eyes of Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk. It's hard reading the Turk parts because some of it is so vile in its racist rants and actions. But you also see the Turk who loves his wife and his dead son whom he is mourning just like any parent.   Kennedy at the beginning suffers from the "white knight" syndrome and thinks she's the least racist person she knows, but she will learn to see race differently as the book progresses.  Ruth learns to accept help from others and perhaps trust others.  

This book will have you examine your own views on racism. It doesn't just come in the obvious packages like Turk Bauer's skinhead.  It comes from the storeowner following you or demanding to see a receipt just because you are a person of color.  It's noticing that there is one person of color in your office but not ever asking why.  This is a powerful book that examines all sides fully and shines a light on something Americans like to avoid talking about: race.

Quotes

I fold my arms and stare down at the newborn. Babies are such blank states.  They don’t come into this world with the assumptions their parents have made, or the promises their church will give, or the ability to sort people into groups they like and don’t like. They don’t come into this world with anything really, except a need for comfort. And they will take it from anyone, without judging the giver.

-Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things p 102)

I pound this stranger into someone who will never be recognized, since it’s the only way to remember who I am.

-Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things p 166)

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Maybe however much you’ve loved someone, that’s how much you can hate. It’s like a pocket turned inside out.

-Jodi Picoult (Small Great Things p 685)

 Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Small-Great-Things-Jodi-Picoult-ebook/dp/B01AQNYZ3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518445906&sr=8-1&keywords=great+small+things+by+jodi+picoult

Black Panther Volumer 4: Avengers of the New World Part One by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Writer), Wilfredo Torres (Penciler, Inker), Chris Sprouse (Penciler), Jacen Burrows (Penciler, Inker), Adam Gorham (Penciler, Inker), Terry Pallot (Inker), Walden Wong (Inker), Karl Story (Inker), Dexter Vines (Inker), Laura Martin (Colorist), Andrew Crossley (Colorist), and VC's Joe Sabino (Letterer)

"In the aftermath that set change against tradition, the nation against their king and even the living against the dead...Wakanda must rebuild."  With the arrest of Tetu, one of the rebellion leaders, the air has been let out of the rebellion.  The entire country is hoping to put this whole thing behind them and move forward as one nation.  T'Challa starts this process by calling together a council of new representatives from each region to write a new constitution and enact a new government.  When he cannot be there in the council meetings his mother, Ramonda acts in his stead.

T'Challa is talking with Ororo about something that has him worried. The Wakandian gods, the Orisha, including Bast, the Panther Goddess from which he derives his powers from, seem to be missing.  When the rebellion was going on and they fought the ancestors rose up to fight with them, but the Orisha were mysteriously absent and T'Challa isn't the only one who noticed that.

On top of that, the rains won't stop in Birnin Kashin. There is also a door that has opened there where half snake half man creatures called Simbi, have come out of. Black Panther killed them off, but when he did one of them said that it was useless that the "Originators" were returning.  While the door is open more of these creatures can come through.  Worse, more doors are opening across Wakanda and when the shamans tried to close it by praying to the Orisha, they were struck down dead.

While T'Challa seeks out an ancient sorcerer who might be able to help them, Doctor Faustus, the explorer of minds, is hiding out in the enemy nation of Wakanda, Azania, looking to grab a Wakandian citizen to work on.  And he has just the perfect one picked out.  This comic takes the story of Wakanda into a new and refreshing territory.  The scenes with Storm are incredible to see. They crackle with the vibrancy of her personality in the drawings and colors depicted.  This is a fabulous book and I can't wait for Part II to come out where Coates takes the story to next.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/gp/buy/thankyou/handlers/display.html?ie=UTF8&asins=B06XKJ8BSM&asins=B077R8VKBC&isRefresh=1&orderId=114-0068156-3523432&purchaseId=106-3855976-0529053&viewId=ThankYouCart

All New X-Men: Vol. 2 Here to Stay by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), David Marquez (Artist), Stuart Immonen (Penciler), wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Marte Garcia (Colorist), VC's Cory Petit (Letterer)

In this X-Men's series, Scarlet Witch took away the powers of 99% of all mutants on earth.  The Phoenix decided to get involved and possessed and corrupted Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men who then struck down Professor Xavier. It took all of the Avengers and the X-Men to bring him down.  The Phoenix Force was dispersed across earth creating new mutants. Cyclops, with Emma Frost and Magneto, have joined forces to start recruiting mutants for the new Charles Xavier School for Mutants.  At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Iceman, and Storm are concerned about this as no one has ever trusted Magneto and now they aren't sure about Scott after what happened to the Professor.  They would, of course, rather have these mutants under their roof learning.

It goes without saying that in this world the law and others like them want to lock up mutants. Beast, however, has another plan to try to change things.  He finds a way to go back in time to when he and Scott were just starting out as X-Men in order to bring back the past Scott to see his future self in order to prevent him from becoming that.  Like a Christmas Carol in a weird, yet cool way.  Only it all goes awry when all of the X-Men insists on coming too. Back then Jean didn't have her telepathic abilities yet and more importantly, she's still alive.  Neither side knows what to make of the other when they arrive back in the present.  Jean's psychic powers become suddenly activated and she has to figure out how to use them herself on the fly.

Kitty Pryde helps Jean begin to learn how to use her powers and boy does she. Some would say she might be abusing her powers. Kitty also gets the old X-Men and begins to train them in combat.  Warren Worthington III meets up with Angel, his adult counterpart and goes on a mission with him which leaves him shell-shocked. 

Meanwhile, Scott has left the mansion with Wolverine in pursuit. He comes across Mystique who tells him half-truths and sows dissent into his head in order to try to keep the X-Men busy battling themselves so she, Sabertooth, and Lady Mastermind can do what they need to do in peace.  When Scott gets back to the mansion he feels as though he is not the leader of the team, just like Mystique predicted.

This stunning book ends on a real cliffhanger that will have you asking "who?"  Bendis really comes through with the writing as always and Marquez's art is incredible especially with the hallucination sequences.  Garcia does an amazing job with the color bringing in dark reds for the X-Men and Mystique fight scenes but keeping it light and airy for the scenes with Angel. I really loved this comic even better than the previous one and with that ending, I can't wait to read the next one.   

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/All-New-X-Men-Vol-Here-Stay-ebook/dp/B00EAROYSI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1518009496&sr=8-6&keywords=all+new+xmen

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah, comedian, and host of The Daily Show, has written a powerful book about his life growing up in South Africa as it moved away from Apartheid.  Trevor's father was a white Swiss and his mother was a black Xhosa. Either one could have gone to jail for five years if it was found out that they had had sex with each other and Trevor was proof of that, so he was kept hidden indoors throughout most of his early childhood.  If his mother wanted to go to the park she asked a colored woman to walk beside him while she walked behind them.

Under Apartheid the government separated people into categories: white, black, colored, and Indian.  The colored were a mix of decedents of whites and native slaves.  They were treated as second-class citizens in order to sow discontent amongst the races. It was like they could almost be white, and sometimes you could actually go down to an office and have your race changed to white if you looked white enough. At the same time, you could be colored and have it changed to black just as easily.  Some blacks would be able to get changed to colored or Indian.  Which goes to show how arbitrary the system was.  Now, Trevor wasn't colored. He was mixed race. The coloreds did not accept him. But he found he could fit in with the whites a little bit, but he felt most comfortable with the blacks especially since he knew several different languages that they spoke, even though English was the first language he learned first.

Trevor was always an outsider wherever he went due to the color of his skin and therefore it was hard to make friends.  He was also a troublemaker from the first. He received plenty of hidings from his mother for the things that she knew about but there were plenty of things he did that she didn't know about.  Very intelligent, and out to make a buck, he used his speed to get to the lunch truck at school as an advantage by taking orders for a price. That snowballed into other ventures such as CD pirating when he got his computer and a friend gave him a CD writer when he no longer needed it.  Ever the entrepreneur he and his crew saw ways to capitalize on this and expand out into other venues.

His relationship with his mother is a close one and she is a no-nonsense woman who applied for a job as a secretary when companies were just starting to hire blacks for such positions as token jobs while Apartheid was ending.  She also lived in a white neighborhood at a time when you just didn't do that.  A very religious woman she made Trevor go to three churches on Sunday: the mixed church, the white church, and the black church.  Then there was prayer meeting during the week. He only got Friday and Saturday off. If a special prayer was needed to be said at prayer meeting they asked Trevor to say it since he spoke English and was considered white by the blacks of the prayer groups and they believed that God would really listen to the prayers spoken in the language the bible came to South Africa in and that since Jesus was white.

Trevor's mom would eventually marry a mechanic named Abel who would drink too much and become mean. The thing was he would only hit them every year or so so the abuse was enough for you to fear it will happen again, but not enough to actually leave.  She went to the cops about the abuse but they refused to press charges.  Abel had ideas about how a woman should be, mainly subservient.  Trevor's free-spirited independent mother did not fit that bill no matter how hard he tried to beat her into that cage she refused to go into it.  She would have two sons by him, Andrew and Isaac and they would keep her from leaving him for a long time.

This was an amazing book and a real eye-opener to life in South Africa during the time period when Apartheid was ending.  It's also a look at race and race relations that holds some truths that can be found in America too.  Trevor Noah has lived an incredible life and this well-written book is a testament to his sense of ingenuity and survival instincts and the love a mother for her son and a son for his mother.  This book is a must-read.   

Quotes

And it [black church] lasted forever, three or four hours at least, which confused me because white church was only like an hour—in and out, thanks for coming.  But at black church I would sit there for what felt like an eternity, trying to figure out why time moved so slowly. Is it possible for time to actually stop?  If so, why does it stop at black church and not at white church? I eventually decided black people needed more time with Jesus because we suffered more.

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p 8)

“Wathint’Abafazi wathint’imbokodo!” was the chant they would rally to during the freedom struggle. “When you strike a woman you strike a rock.”

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p39)

Learn from your past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don’t hold on to it. Don’t be bitter.

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p66)

A dog is a great thing for a kid to have. It’s like a bicycle but with emotions.

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p97)

The way my mother always explained it, the traditional man wants a woman to be subservient, but he never falls in love with subservient women. He’s attracted to independent women. “He’s like an exotic bird collector,” she said. “He only wants a woman who is free because his dream is to put her in a cage.”

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p253)

In Germany, no child finishes high school without learning about the Holocaust. Not just the facts of it but the how and the why and the gravity of it—what it means.  As a result, Germans grow up appropriately aware and apologetic. British schools treat colonialism the same way, to an extent. Their children are taught the history of the Empire with a kind of disclaimer hanging over the whole thing. “Well, that was shameful, now wasn’t it?”  In South Africa, the atrocities of apartheid have never been taught that way.  We aren’t taught judgment or shame.  We were taught history the way it’s taught in America. In America, the history of racism is taught like this: “There was slavery and then there was Jim Crow and then there was Martin Luther King Jr. and now it’s done.” It was the same for us. “Apartheid was bad. Nelson Mandela was freed. Let’s move on.” Facts, but not many, and never the emotional or moral dimension. It was as if the teachers, many of whom were white, had been given a mandate, “Whatever you do, don’t make the kids angry.”

-Trevor Noah (Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood p183)

Link to Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Born-Crime-Stories-African-Childhood/dp/0399588175/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517836321&sr=8-1&keywords=born+a+crime

Wonder Woman The New 52!: Vol. 3 Iron by Brian Azzarello (Writer), Cliff Chiang (Artist), Tony Akins (Artist), Dan Green (Artist), Goran Sudzuka (Artist), Amilcar Pinna (Artist), Rick Burchett (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist), Nick Filardi (Colorist), and Jared K. Fletcher (Letterer)

In the last books, Hermes has taken off with Zola's baby, the one everyone believes will take Zeus's place and kill one of the gods for the prophecy says that a child of Zeus will do just that.  The other gods are looking to stop Wonder Woman because they believe she may be the one the prophecy pertains to.  Hera has lost her powers and her place in Olympus and has found a place with Wonder Woman and Lennox, her brother.

Lennox decides that they need help from other children of Zeus like themselves to help in their fight to find Zola's baby.  One such child is Siracca, the wind, who hears everything and might be able to hear Hermes speak and find out where he is hiding. But she isn't too fond of Wonder Woman right now and the two must work something out if she is to get the information from her that she needs.

Siracca isn't the only child of Zeus that they consult. When they consult the other one they meet an unusual man.  Meanwhile, in Antarctica, a man has been unearthed by scientists from the ice and he is not happy that seven thousand years had passed since he last walked the earth.  War is also up to something and can't be trusted.  The colors of the ice dragons' blood are quite vivid and the scene with Siracca is incredibly done in such a windswept way.  As usual, the scenes with the gods are tinged with red, to perhaps indicating their bloodlust?  I really enjoyed this volume of the series and it stands up well against the other two.  I can't wait to see what's in store for the next one.

 Link to Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Woman-Vol-3-Iron/dp/1401246079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517584583&sr=8-1&keywords=wonder+woman+new+52+vol+3&dpID=61gKhWd7SxL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch