All New X-Men Vol. 5: One Down by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen (Penciler), Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Sara Pichelli (Artist), Justin Ponsor (Colorist), Marte Garcia (Colorist), Cory Petit (Letterer)

In the previous book, Jean is being torn between her two loves of Hank and young Scott until Scott leaves to go with his father and Hank had too many demands of her.  Kitty is nursing a broken heart over Colossus. The X-Men face off against the Purifiers who are after a mutant named Laura who is also known as X-23 is the clone of Wolverine.  Young Scott seems to calm her down, but now he's gone.

This comic opens with older Hank talking to the Watchers about how he can't send the X-Men back in time and how he had changed the timeline.  They look at what could be at what Hank doesn't want to happen. There are two short comics inside about the romance between Peter and Kitty and Logan and Jean that are pretty hilarious.

Older Scott has an intimate talk with Jean that she misinterprets and tells him that he is the man she hopes Scott would become. He tells her that they can never happen and that Emma Frost will be training her just like Charles had been training her back in her time. Jean had developed a new power that she needs to learn to use.

Laura leaves only to be attacked by someone that looks like young Scott. She makes it back to the bunker to warn the others. But it's too late the attack is about to begin.  A group from the future has arrived to take out the X-Men in order to change the future.  This book takes the series to a whole new level. The characters from the future are amazing and a total surprise. It's great having Laura around and it's great fun watching Angel chase after her trying to catch her.  I can't tell you how much I loved this comic. I really recommend this book.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/All-New-X-Men-Vol-One-Down-ebook/dp/B00MC2HK8E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535730535&sr=8-1&keywords=all+new+x-men+vol+5

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Set during and in the years after the Civil War, this novel depicts four strong young women who grow up to become productive adults. There is Meg, the oldest who is sixteen and concerned with propriety and hopes to marry a rich husband in order to afford to fine things her family used to have when they were in better circumstances.  Then there is Jo, who is fifteen and a tomboy who is the writer of the family and dreams of becoming a famous author and providing a good life for her family with the money from her writings. Then there is sweet Beth who is fourteen who is the musician of the family and plays the piano and sings beautifully. Then there is Amy who is twelve who is an artist who dreams of becoming famous for her art and wants to belong to high society and marry a rich man one day if her art does not make her rich.

For the first half of the book, the Civil War rages and their father is off acting as a chaplain to the troops.  Their mother, or Marmee, takes care of them with help from the servant Hannah.  Meg has a job as a governess that she hates and Jo spends her time keeping the rich Aunt March company which is a trial in and of itself.  Beth helps out at home and does school work there and Amy for a while goes to school, but can't handle the teasing and eventually after a particular incident of discipline involving the teacher they pull her from school and have her home taught.

Laurie, or as Jo calls him, Teddy, is Mr. Lawerence's grandson and their neighbor.  He is sixteen and very rich and very lonely and soon the five of them become close friends with Jo and Laurie becoming especially close as they have a lot in common.  They have adventures and spats as when Amy burns Jo's book that she is writing when Jo and Meg don't let her go with them and Laurie to a theatre program one day.  Jo refuses to forgive Amy until something drastic happens.

Then they get the telegram that their father is ill and their mother leaves immediately to go to Washington D.C. to be with him to nurse him back to health.  Mr. Brooks, Laurie's tutor goes with her. While there he asks if he can marry Meg when he has enough money to support them and they agree but he has to wait three years and Meg, of course, has to agree.  Meanwhile, Beth has taken ill and is dying and might not make it.

The second half of the book is taken up with Meg's married life and marrying off everyone else. I would be very happy if the book ended in the first half, which is how it originally ended. The second half tends to tick me off as none of it goes the way I think it should. I should add that I hate Amy as a character. She is shallow and vain and cares about what other people think too much.  I'm not too wild about Meg either. She is so concerned with propriety and wants fine things above all else sometimes.  No one could help but love Beth who has a self-esteem problem and is chronically shy but oh so good.  But the character we are supposed to love and which I do is Jo. She is full of life and fun and love.  For those that don't want to be preached at, and be preached at I mean given life lessons, this book does a little bit much of it, but it can be forgiven because the writing is good and the story is good.  Towards the end, I began to skim when they began to moralize the most. Overall I recommend this book because it is a classic and worth reading to make up your own mind about it.  Maybe you'll like the ending that I hate so much.       

Quotes

Talent isn’t genius and no amount of energy can make it so.

-Louisa May Alcott (Little Women p 370)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Little-Women-AmazonClassics-Louisa-Alcott-ebook/dp/B073W9TT71/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1535546660&sr=8-2&keywords=little+women+book

Captain America: Home of the Brave by Mark Waid (Writer), Chris Samnee (Writer), Matthew Wilson (Colorist), VC's Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

Captain America goes to Burlington, Nebraska not long after he reawakened and the town is being terrorized by a group called the Ramparts. He quickly dispatches with them and saves the town. Ten years later he is riding through Nebraska and comes across the same town only now its called Captain America. Again the Ramparts try to terrorize the town and Captain America must fight them off, but he has some help from an unexpected source.

While traveling through America looking for a place to live Steve stumbles into a town that recognizes him. He also runs into trouble with the Swordsman who plans to flood the town if Captain America doesn't come and meet him.

Captain America finds himself frozen again and wakes up in a future America wasteland where nuclear weapons have been used on American soil wiping out a large number of people and causing damage to some of those left.  A King Babbington runs things with Rampart and was the one who caused the nuclear attack in the first place. Liang has been fighting back with a group of mostly kids.  Now Captain America wants to take back the country from Babbington and he will have help from two surprising people.

Captain America also goes up against Craven the Hunter and must try to outwit him.  This is an interesting comic that pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle even though you don't realize it at the time.  Captain America is his typical stubborn self and because of this bad things happen which weigh on him mightly.  This book was a basic Captain America book, but I still enjoyed this book because it was written well and drawn excellently and I greatly recommend it.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Captain-America-Waid-Samnee-2017-2018-ebook/dp/B07D51BV5D/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535369927&sr=8-1&keywords=captain+america+home+of+the+brave

Saga Vol 3 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist), Fonagrafiks (Letterering and Design), and Eric Stephenson (Coordinator)

In the previous comic, Alana and Marco land at his parents' house and they are not pleased at first to see Alana, but his father comes to care about her and her mother comes to accept her.  Marco's father dies from an illness he has been hiding and they decide to head off to their favorite author's house on a distant planet.  Meanwhile, Freelancer The Will is trying to gain the freedom of a slave girl and Gwendolyn, Marco's ex-fiancee who has hired the Freelancers for Wreath to find Alana and Marco has arrived to see what is up with The Will and settles the problem with the slave girl and gets them on a spacecraft with his special cat that can tell when people are lying. The slave girl can tell when they are close to Alana and Marco and when they are almost upon them their ship gets attacked and knocked onto a planet.

Alana, Marcus, Izabel, the spirit, Marcus's mother, Klara, and baby Hazel land on Quietus where D. Oswald Heist the author lives and find a broken down drunk who isn't all that interested in seeing them at first until he realizes that they really got his work.  Quietus is anti-Wreath and he quickly gets them inside his lighthouse home.  Heist and Klara bond over being on different sides of a battle and losing loved ones. 

The Will is seeing his dead ex-girlfriend Stalk who is telling him to stay on the planet and convince the others to stay as well. The four are waiting on people from Wreath to come and fix the ship, but until then they are stuck on this weird planet. The Will hits on Gwendolyn and gets slapped down on the ground.  Other odd things begin to happen.

Meanwhile, two reporters are looking into the story of Alana and Marco and the official version of her being kidnapped by him that isn't holding up to them the tabloids.  But it will prove to be pretty dangerous to go forward with this story.  Prince IV is heading toward Quietus and worried about his pregnant wife.  This series just keeps getting better and better. Klara is as pigheaded and annoying as ever and Alana and Marco are as dreamy-eyed yet tough as can be.  Heist turns out to be quite a surprise.  The Will and Gwendolyn continue to change your minds about them.  This is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it.   

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Vol-Brian-K-Vaughan-ebook/dp/B00IX2IDF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535120510&sr=8-1&keywords=saga+vol+3

Star Wars Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel by Daniel Jose Older

This book opens with a time sometime after Return of the Jedi and Lando is back on Cloud City with a droid making company.  He's managed to get the Twi'lek Kaasha Bateen to bring her class there so he can see her.  They are spending a night alone when one of his droids attempts to kill him.  He catches a glimpse of a man in a green cloak running and leaving the planet once he gets away from the droid.  This is Fryzen Gor who has told him to turn over the Phylanx that he got with the Millennium Falcon ten years ago.  Only he didn't have the Falcon then. Han did.  So he goes to Han and Leia's and baby Ben's house and punches Han in the face for his trouble.  Han tells him that ten years ago he was with Chewie and Sana his "ex-wife", but that they have it exactly.

This book flips back and forth through time and goes to when Han and Chewie were at Maz's castle and Sana comes up to them with a proposition. She needs a fast ship to get something out of there fast and she can pay a lot of money to do so.  What she doesn't tell them is the number of people that are after what she has or what she is looking for which is the Phylanx.

It also goes back in time to fifteen years ago when Lando was with L3-37 and they chased down something that L3 was after in a far-off section of space.  Imperial ships were after this man and what he had, but L3 wants Lando to get it from him.  For some reason that eludes Lando, this is very important to L3.

In the present day, Lando, Han, Chewie, an Ewok slicer named Peekpa, Kaasha, and Taka a pilot with a prison transport ship that they need for the mission plan to go to a prison colony to get some information on Gor.  When they arrive, the Republic fleet is there going toe to toe with some pirates so they have a little bit of trouble getting docked on the moon but even more trouble leaving the place when their cover is blown while they're inside.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the complex issues it brought up concerning artificial intelligence.  It's also fun to see Han and Lando work together again.  It's also pretty cool to read about Lando and L3 and Han and Sana two very different relationships, yet quite complicated in their own way.  This book is a great read and a real adventure.  I highly recommend this book.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Shot-Star-Wars-Lando-ebook/dp/B079KSMJHG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534940699&sr=8-1&keywords=last+shot+star+wars

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

This book is split up alternating between two people's stories: Avery Stafford in present-day Aiken, South Carolina who left her job as a federal prosecutor in Maryland to help her sick dad with his job as a Senator just in case he needs to step down she can take his place and May Weathers Cranford/Rill Foss who grew up on the Mississippi River in 1939 but was kidnapped with her three sisters and one brother and sent to an orphanage in Memphis while her parents were at the hospital having a difficult birth with twins.

A chance encounter at a party at a senior care center Avery meets May who notices that Avery looks just like Fern, her sister.  May accidentally takes Avery's dragonfly bracelet which had belonged to her grandmother.  Avery's grandmother is suffering from dementia and is in a home herself.  When Avery goes back to get the bracelet she stops to talk to May and finds an old photograph of a couple in her room of a woman that looks just like her grandmother and herself.  But May isn't giving up any of her secrets today.  Avery, however, does snap a picture of the picture.

When she goes and sees her grandmother she asks if she knows May and her grandmother avoids the question.  When she shows her the picture she says the word "Queenie" and becomes a bit panicked and says that they can't know about Arcadia.  So, Avery goes hunting in her grandmother's house inside her old day planners and finds a clue. A notation to call a Trent Turner in Edisto where she has a home that the family use to get away at.

Avery calls the number and tries to get information out of Trent Turner's grandson, Trent, who says that his grandfather left something for her grandmother but her grandmother has to come and pick it up. When an opening comes up in the busy schedule she takes it to go off to visit the house in Edisto where Trent is and convinces him to turn over the envelope which contains a boy's birth certificate.  The two of them decide to investigate further inside his grandfather's outbuilding where he did his finding people side business. While there they find a picture of four women on the beach together wearing dragonfly bracelets and one of them is her grandmother and one of them is May.  They all bear a resemblance to each other.

Trent explains that the work his grandfather did was for certain people like himself who were victims of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. It was run by Georgia Tann and she stole children off of the road or conned poor parents out of signing over their children to her. These children were put into deplorable orphanages and then perhaps adopted to rich couples, such as actresses June Alison and Joan Crawford. Brothers and sisters were separated.  Children were killed or disappeared never to be seen again. Some were molested. She had politicians, police, and social workers in her pocket. She worked from the 1920s to 1950 when she died. That's when everything came out. But the records were sealed until 1995. But kids, when they grew up, hired detectives, like Trent's grandfather to hunt down lost family members.

As Avery is questioning the life that seems mapped out for her including a readily made fiance that she has known since birth, May's story unfolds from her life on the river to live in the orphanage trying to save her brother and sisters and find a way back home to her parents. This is an incredible and powerful book and hard to imagine it happening except that it did. The author based the things that happened to May and her siblings on things recounted by survivors.  I really loved this book. This book is truly a must read. 

*For those that need to know. While the character of Mr. Riggs is a child molester in the book he is referred to as one who messes with kids and that is all. No scenes of molestation are described in this book.

Quotes

I drop her on the cot and turn away and grab my hair and pull until it hurts. I want to pull all of it out. Every single piece. I want a pain I understand instead of the one I don’t. I want a pain that has a beginning and an end, not one that goes on forever and cuts all the way to the bone.

-Lisa Wingate (Before We Were Yours p 180)

 Life is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene, woven to it in ways we do not understand. No matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we will always be out of step, stumbling around in something that doesn’t suit the moment.

-Lisa Wingate (Before We Were Yours p 315)

A woman’s past need not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. Her own music. To hear the tune, she must only stop talking. To herself, I mean. We’re always trying to persuade ourselves of things.

-Lisa Wingate (Before We Were Yours p 317)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Before-We-Were-Yours-Novel-ebook/dp/B01M14UN1J/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534766361&sr=8-1&keywords=before+we+were+yours

Mr. Confidence by Rahiem Brooks

Set in Philidelphia in 2008, it involves Don Juan Jackson who has just gotten out of prison and is picked up by his best friend Lex.  Lex's mom had been imprisoned when he was very young for killing his father and Lex was taken in by the rich white couple that his mom worked for.  Then when he was in high school his aunt took them to court and he was sent to live with her in the ghetto which is where he met Don Juan.

In 2003 Don Juan was under house arrest and living with his baby momma, Sherry. while at the same time dealing with a pregnant girlfriend, Saleena.  Saleena gets mad one night and decides to go after Sherry who is returning home after a night on the town.  She is not happy about this and blames Don Juan.  When Saleena arrives the two women begin to go at it in the yard, yelling at each other and a crowd has gathered.  Don Juan shoots off his gun in order to get the crowd to back off and stay out of it.  The cops show up and clear everyone off. The next day Saleena called his PO and told him he had shot a gun and the guy locked him up. At the hearing, Saleena told of how she had a miscarriage that was caused when he shot at her.  That was enough to show that he had violated his probation so he went back in for 3-6 years, but because of various things, he wound up staying in for six years.

All Don Juan wants is to take care of his daughter Tiffany and have visitation with her.  When he gets out he cashes his check for $20,000 and gives $3,000 to Sherry for child support and sets up a time to see Tiffany. Sherry has moved on and has a fiance named Rob who doesn't much care for Don Juan being back, but then neither does Sherry.

Lex is telling Don Juan that dope is old news and that white collar crime is the new thing. Stealing identities, fake credit cards, and the like.  He sets up Don Juan in a nice house with a Range Rover and some money to start off with.  Then the two begin the con game with the fake identities and trying to get fake cards to charge stuff with under false names.  Don Juan gets a lot of stuff for Tiffany and some clothes for himself including a briefcase that will be used later for some purpose.  Soon, however, Rob approaches Don Juan and lets him know that he's a cop and that he is interested in getting Pops the local money man and drug procurer. And Don Juan had planned on contacting Pops for some start-up money to buy drugs.  Rob has pictures of Don Juan and Lex and the places they are going into and says he knows what they are up to, but that he'd rather have Pops than them.  So what is their next move?

This is a difficult book to read.  The women seemed to be "whores" or the one Madonna, who is the teacher Lex is trying to date.  She won't go out on a date with him or anything as long as he is still with his fiancee.  Sherry is a very bitter woman who slips into bed with a man she doesn't even know is an undercover cop which is a massive no-no in this world.  But when she finds out she wants to be comforted by Don Juan like she wants to possibly get back together with him.  And he thinks about it for a hot minute. The three of them a family for the sake of Tiffany, but he can't seem to do it. But even Sherry is still a "whore" at heart, going from one man to another as her needs suit her.  When Don Juan gets out of jail, Lex sets him up with two real whores in a limo ride on the way back to Philly.  Saleena has turned into a crack "whore" who has slept with a multitude of men and is now Pops woman.

The storyline is slow to start and seems ludicrous to be honest. But it does drag you in and perhaps surprise you a bit.  You do wonder where it is going to end up and who will be left standing out of prison.  The writing is okay but the characters lack depth.  They seem two-dimensional street criminals trying to make a buck and stay out of jail.  Overall this was a so-so book and I can neither recommend nor not recommend it. I leave it up to you to make up your own mind about it.  I received this book as a pre-published copy and this did not affect my review in any way. 

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Confidence-Rahiem-Brooks-ebook/dp/B07491NJBY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534341594&sr=8-2&keywords=mr.+confidence

Hawkeye: Anchor Points by Kelly Thompson (Writer), Leonardo Romero (Artist), Michael Walsh (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), VC's Joe Sabino (Letterer)

Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, is new to Venice Beach, California and to the PI business. She doesn’t even have a PI license, mainly because she can’t afford one. But she takes inspiration from her friend one-time superhero and now PI Jessica Jones. Her first case to find out about Brad gets interrupted by a bank robbery that the police don’t necessarily appreciate her help on.

When Mikka comes into her office worried about online harassment from her blog that she is concerned could turn into real life harassment or worse she takes the case. After sneaking onto the college campus computer room to try to try to trace back where the guy originally transmitted from she runs into Quinn who she “hires” to help her with this task.

She quickly finds the stalker, but it turns out that he isn't the only one and that a mysterious organization that he belongs to call TBC or Take Back Control is involved and may have kidnapped Mikka.  This book also includes her working on the case of Brad with Jessica Jones which leads them in another direction. Hawkeye is an awesome character who's intelligent, just as talented as her older brother Clint, and a real smart aleck.  This was a fabulous comic which is no surprise as the writer has written many Star Wars, Rogue and Gambit, and Captain Marvel comics. I highly recommend this book.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Hawkeye-Bishop-Anchor-Points-2016-2018-ebook/dp/B06ZZZ7PWC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534521983&sr=8-1&keywords=hawkeye+anchor+points

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

In 1833 Dom Prosper brought back to life the Abbey of St. Pierre in Solemes, France and made it his goal in life to change the Gregorian chants from the corrupt and barbaric thing they had become into the pure thing of beauty they had once been originally.  Unfortunately, no one knew what they sounded like all those years ago.  A search was begun to find the earliest sheet music of Gregorian chants. In the ninth century, a nameless monk got the idea to write down not just the words but also the music of the chants. Not knowing how to describe the music he used squiggly lines representing his hand directing the choir indicating how long to hold the note and whether to go up or down.  These are referred to as neumes and became the first written musical notes ever.  The only problem was that no one knew what note to start the chant out on.  They had to guess. The Gregorian chants are called the beautiful mystery because they affect people on a deep level. The monks believe they are singing the words of God and take the singing very seriously.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir have been called out to a remote monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups because a monk has been murdered there. Brother Mathieu was found in the Abbot's private garden with his head bashed in.  The monks are all walled in and the place is only reachable by boat. No one is let into the monastery.  Not long ago the monks recorded themselves singing their Gregorian chants and sold them to family and friends and to the local store. Somehow they got out and they sold millions worldwide.  Eventually, the press found out where they were and people began to flock to their island. The Abbot went on television and explained that their's was a quiet monastery. They took a vow of silence and that no one would be allowed inside and soon people gave up coming for the most part. 

The monks were talking about doing a second album. That seems to have been the problem. The Abbot and Brother Mathieu were the best of friends until the album happened. The money from the album made it possible to fix the roof and install geothermal heating and solar panels on the roof.  Some of the people believed it was God's will to break the vow of silence and make another album and go on tour.  These people sided with Brother Mathieu. Those that sided with the Abbot believed that they should not turn away from their old ways and be tempted by money. That God would provide for anything they needed. The others said he had and that the second album was the how he was providing.  It was a bitter divide. 

Brother Mathieu died with a piece of vellum in his hand that contained sheet music written with neumes on it and Latin words on it.  While Gamache is getting a monk to translate the music and Latin and make a copy of it for him, the Superintendent of the Surete arrives by plane with the coroner's report.  But that's not why he's really there.  He, as always, has an ulterior motive and it's not good for Gamache whom he hates with a passion and wants to destroy.  This is a brilliantly written book that keeps you guessing right up to the end.  And the use of the Superintendent was a masterstroke. I cannot wait to read the next book to see how the fallout from that carries on.  I cannot recommend this book enough.

Quotes

Beauvoir had never liked dark chocolate. It seemed unfriendly.

-Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery p 65)

Beauvoir was Cancer, which always annoyed him. He wanted to be Scorpio, or Leo. Or even that ram thing. Anything other than the crab that, according to the descriptions, was nurturing, nesting, and sensitive.

-Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery p 134)

“We have recorders and violins. Or are they fiddles? I’m never sure what the difference is.”

“One sings, the other dances.”

-Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery p 146)

Beauvoir knew that the root of all evil wasn’t money. No, what created and drove evil was fear. Fear of not having enough money, enough food, enough land, enough power, enough security, enough love. Fear of not getting what you want, or losing what you have.

-Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery p 159)

Just our luck. Every other monastery makes alcohol. Brandy and Benedictine. Champagne. Cognac. Wine. Ours sings obscure songs and breeds near extinct chickens. No wonder they almost went the way of the dodo. 

-Louise Penny (The Beautiful Mystery p 213)

Link to Amazzon: https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mystery-Chief-Inspector-Gamache-ebook/dp/B0071VURHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534162956&sr=8-1&keywords=the+beautiful+mystery+by+louise+penny 

Motor Crush Vol. 2 by Babs Tarr (Creator), Brenden Fletcher (Creator), cameron Stewart (Creator), Heather Danforth (Colorist), Victoria Evans (Colorist), Ellen Alsop (Colorist), Aditya Bidikar (Letterer), and Logo, Publication Design, EGP in-World Captions (Tom Muller)

In the last comic, Domino Swift, an up and coming motorcycle racer who was going up against Decimus Wexler during the day and racing illegal street races at night to win crush, this pink crystal that you put inside your motorcycle to make it run faster.  When Dom loses her bike she turns to her old friend Lola for help and Lola reluctantly lets her use a bike she has and agrees to be her mechanic with Dom's dad. Lola has problems of her own. She owes lots of money to the producers who run things in Nova Honda.  There's a mysterious man in black who knows more about Dom than she does like why she needs her inhaler and he wants to tell her more, but Dom wants nothing to do with him.  When Dom is in an accident and her inhaler is empty she is desperate and decides to try the crush, which would kill a normal person, but with her, it heals her.  Then Dom devises a plan to get them all out of the trouble they're in with the producers on race day but when someone forces a lot of crush down her throat during the race, she jumps up and runs off really fast and ends up far away.

What Dom doesn't realize when she gets to where she is is that two years have passed and everyone believes she is dead.  Decimus Wexler dropped out of that last race on moral grounds leaving a jerk named Clover to win it.  When they came to collect on her wager they took over her dad's garage and turned it into a chop shop. The producers gave them a choice: Lola and her dad could work for them or they could die. Lola has moved on from Dom and has a girlfriend now named Bea who lives with her.  Crush is now more illegal than ever and rigorously hunted down by enforcers who beat down anyone who has it. Dom's father is an enforcer. He blames the crush for his daughter's death.

Dom needs crush desperately so she goes in search of Calex the head of the gang she used to race against for crush.  He knew her as Cricket.  There aren't many left of his gang but they're willing to break into the producer's facility that contains the crush because it will be worth it.  Dom convinces Lola to help her.  There is a surprise waiting inside for Dom.  And the mysterious man in black reveals who he is and insists on having his say and showing her what he needs to whether she wants to know or not.  This is such a fabulous series and the big reveal at the end of this volume will floor you. Dom is such a great character and I love Lola who's brilliant with anything mechanical and tells Dom what she really thinks. Calex is a fun character because he is always providing sarcastic comments.  This book delves deeper into Dom's past and how it effects things today.  I highly recommend this book.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Motor-Crush-Vol-Brenden-Fletcher-ebook/dp/B07B68D7F4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533903878&sr=8-1&keywords=motor+crush+volume+2

The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick

Set right before World War II, this book is technically a sequel to The Lady Vanishes, but you don't have to read that book to read this book.  Though characters from that book do show up in this book, you won't be lost.  Adelaide Blake was being held in a mental hospital against her will. She was put there by a man that may have been her husband. She doesn't remember marrying him.  While in the hospital she was experimented on with a drug called Daydream that was meant to make her suggestible but instead causes violent hallucinations. She was the second patient to be experimented on with the drug. No one knows what happened to the first person.

But Adelaide escapes from the hospital and heads to Burning Cove, California and gets a job at a tea shop as a waitress and tisane maker. The shop gets a variety of clientele including famous celebrities and the famous Madam Zolanda the psychic to the stars who insists she come to her show and offers her two free tickets. Not wanting to anger the customer she agrees.  Mr. Jake Truett a man who has been coming in every day and has already made a bad fumble of an attempt to ask her out on a date that failed miserably insists that he come with her.

Truett's wife committed suicide supposedly and she was a client of Zolanda who pocketed her diary which contained some incriminating items in it. Zolanda has been blackmailing her family over it and they asked Jake to get it back for them.  After predicting a bloody death at her show that night the next day she is discovered by Jake and Adelaide on the ground outside her home as though she had jumped or been pushed off of her roof.  A piece of a blue glass bottle stopper was found at the scene by Adelaide who recognized it from the hospital as from a container that held the drug. Zolanda's partner Thelma Legget took off with all of the blackmail material from multiple clients.

Meanwhile, Conrad Massey, Adelaide's supposed husband is desperate to find her because he needs her money and he's pressuring Dr. Gill the head of the hospital to find her. Dr. Gill knows where she is, but he knows that Adelaide had many friends including a PI friend, Raina, who would go looking for her if she disappeared.  Dr. Paxton, a "doctor" who invented a diet drink is the co-conspirator to Dr. Gill and he is staying in Burning Cove keeping an eye on things and looking for a way to get Adelaide.

When Thelma tries to sell the blackmail material she winds up dead, but was it a blackmailer or someone part of the Daydream drug ring that killed her?  Her and Zolanda were supposed to deliver Adelaide to Dr. Gill.  Jake's interest in her was making that even more difficult. This book is great.  Just when you think you have it all figured out Quick pulls the rug out from under you.  The characters are wonderfully created.  I especially liked Raina and hope to see a book devoted to her in the future.  She's a tough woman who's been through something pretty bad back east and been made better for it.  She's also a very smart and savvy person who can really handle herself and looks after those she cares about.  This book is a well-spun story that could have stepped out off the screen of a noir film but is not written in the noir style.  I really liked this book and I highly recommend it. 

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Other-Lady-Vanishes-Amanda-Quick-ebook/dp/B074S5CT81/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533729999&sr=8-1&keywords=the+other+lady+vanishes+amanda+quick

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This book starts off with the family leaving Wisconsin and heading west where there aren't so many people.  They leave behind grandparents and friends and leave in a covered wagon and cross the frozen Mississippi at the end of winter. The family consists of Charles and Caroline, the parents, and Mary, Laura, and baby Carrie.  They make the dangerous journey across the country to land in Kansas in Indian Territory and find a nice spot near a creek and decide to make a house.

This is where the kinda boring part comes in where if you ever wanted to know how a log cabin was built you will be thrilled to know that this book tells you how.  From laying down the logs with notches in them in order to lay the logs on top of each other to how to pull the logs up on top of each other once they reach a certain height. Also how to build a roof and a fireplace and a stable.

In the midst of this, they have adventures with Native Americans and wolves who surround the house and howl most of the night. The Native Americans come and take food and tobacco from them and scare the daylights out of them. But that won't be the only interactions they'll have with the Native Americans.  They'll also meet neighbors who help out in times of need and trade services like helping to get your well dug if you help to get his well dug. 

I first read this book when I was eight or nine years old. My book club decided to read this book for its selection this month which is why I reread it. It's interesting to go back and reread your childhood favorite books from a different perspective.  I was a little bored at first by the simplistic writing and the how-to-build-a-log-cabin bit, but it picked up and became compelling and exciting to the point that you forgot the writing and got caught up in the story.  There's a reason this book is a classic and read by so many even today.  I recommend this book to people of any age.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Prairie-Ingalls-Wilder-ebook/dp/B01C2LYEOC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533558556&sr=8-3&keywords=little+house+on+the+prairie+books

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 4: Legacy by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Mark Bagley (Penciler), Art Thibert (Inker), David Sharpe (Letterer), and Transparency Digital (Colors)

In this book, Peter is dating Mary Jane Watson who knows his secret identity as Spider-Man. The Green Goblin, aka, Norman Osborn is dead and Harry has just returned from an extended leave of absence where he has forgotten that the Green Goblin is his father.  Gwen Stacy, a new student, has caught the eye of Harry.  Peter has just been grounded by Aunt May for coming home late after being in New Jersey dealing with Doc Oc, but she lifts the grounding when Norman Osborn's assistant comes around asking if Peter can come over for dinner with Norman and Harry and for Peter to make sure he brings his backpack--the one he keeps his spideysuit in. It would seem that Norman is alive after all.

Norman takes him aside and injects himself with the serum to become the Green Goblin for a short while then reverts back and explains to Peter that he will no longer be Spider-Man. That from now on Peter works for him and if he doesn't do as he says he will come after Aunt May and Mary Jane and then kill him slowly.

Peter is approached by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. who tells him that Osborn wants Peter to kill him and that they have information on all sorts of things about him but no evidence of any wrongdoing so until he actually goes after Peter or his Aunt or Mary Jane there's nothing they can do, but that they will be watching.  Which is, of course, no help to Peter. What will he do and will Harry get caught in the crossfire?  There's something off about the art. Maybe it's the coloring which was done by a digital company.  The eyes are huge, too, though.  It's kinda odd. But the storyline is interesting, which is no surprise as it was written by Brian Michael Bendis who writes Spider-Man comics, but who also created Jessica Jones, so I am recommending it for that reason only.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Spider-Man-Vol-Legacy-Graphic-ebook/dp/B00AAJR3OW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533299655&sr=8-1&keywords=ultimate+spider-man+vol+4+legacy+book  

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

This book is meant to remind you of the Hitchcock movie Rear Window. As a matter of fact, it brings that movie up several times as the main character is a fan of old suspense movies and is constantly watching them.  Dr. Annie Fox is a child psychiatrist and an agoraphobe who is separated from her husband and her daughter who moved away from their New York City home to a place of their own far away after the incident and she talks to them daily by phone.

The book starts on Sunday, October 24 with the moving in of a new family, the Russells.  The teenage son, Ethan comes over and gives her a lavender candle as a gift from his mom, Jane.  Annie spends her time looking out her window through the lens of her camera spying on her neighbors and observing their lives.

On Halloween, some kids egg her door and when she tries to make an attempt to stop them she falls flat on the ground at her doorstep.  That's when Jane Russell shows up and gets her back inside her house and puts a little bit of brandy inside of her.  She happens to be holding a photo album of her son Ethan and shows her the pictures. Annie's basement dwelling tenet David cleans up the eggs for her when he gets back from one of his jobs.

Annie spends a great deal of time drinking wine that she swallows her meds with which is dangerous.  She also goes online and helps others on a website forum for agoraphobes.  She helps lots of people but she's feeling particularly proud of the work she's doing with GrannyLizzie in Montana who is a good listener and helping her talk about what happened to her to cause her agoraphobia.

Then one night she hears a scream across the street and calls over there to see if everything is all right but Alistair, the cold hard man who seems to bring fear into his son claims nothing is wrong. Earlier when Jane had visited again she said that Alistair could be controlling and looked worried.  Neither one of them wants Annie interfering with Alistair.

Then one night after drinking two bottles of wine and having one of her suspense movies on, Annie looks out her window through her camera and sees Jane arguing with someone across the street and then sees blood on her chest and a silver object sticking out of her chest.  She drops the camera and runs to find her phone and call 911.  After calling them she realizes she must go over there to try to give Jane medical attention and try to save her. So she grabs her umbrella which is the one thing that worked once before to get her to walk a few feet outside by wielding an open umbrella in front of her.

But she doesn't make it all the way across the street. She only makes it halfway and ends up in the park in the middle before collapsing.  The police find her there and take her in once they realize who she is.  She is forced to explain her situation to them and they tell her they searched her home whose door was open since they weren't sure which home was the one being attacked and found the wine bottles and the pills and suspect that she imagined the whole thing.  It gets worse when they take her home and Alistair produces Jane Russell and its a different woman altogether.

 Who is this imposter if the real Jane Russell was murdered?  Or did she imagine the whole thing?  David was over at the Russell home helping to put together bookshelves but he never saw the wife or heard the scream, however, he says he had his headphones on and wouldn't have heard one if there'd been one.  Ethan seems really terrified to speak out against his father and what is going on in the house and he seems to be lying to protect his parents from the police and to Annie.

As the book slowly unfolds you begin to learn what really happened to her to make her an agoraphobe and it's unbelievable. You really want to tell her to cool it with all the wine drinking. I mean she drinks vast amounts of the stuff. It's causing her to lose credibility with others. Not to mention it's bad for her.  This book is a suspenseful as the movies she watches. You can't flip through the pages fast enough to find out what happens next. It's filled with lots of "gotcha" moments and you really don't know where it's going until you get there.  Annie is an interesting character. She is a broken woman who used to be a strong woman who made her living repairing some of the most broken children.  Physician heals thyself does not apply here because she is incapable of doing so.  But in her brokenness, she is a compelling character because she could be any of us. This is a truly remarkable book and one worth reading.  I very highly recommend reading it.   

Quotes

 My dear girl, you cannot keep bumping your head against reality and saying it’s not there.

-Dr. Brulov (Spellbound)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Window-Novel-J-Finn-ebook/dp/B06Y55Z36S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533121644&sr=8-1&keywords=the+woman+in+the+window