Romance at the Royal Menagerie, by Ruth J. Hartman (author), Julie Hinton (narrator)

Clean Reads, October 2018

Francesca Hartwell loves cats of all kinds, including the big cats, all of them, and luckily for her, her father is the caretaker of big cats in the Tower of London's Royal Menagerie. Ever since her mother ran off to become the mistress of an earl, Francesca has pent most of her time with her father at the menagerie,. More to his distress than his pleasure, she has proved to have a real talent for handling the big cats.

They are absolutely dependent on his income from this job, and the Head Keeper would be very displeased to know that she was entering the cages, so she can only do so after hours.

And then one day she meets John Fairgate, an obviously well-born and wealthy man, visiting the menagerie, and he shares her love of big cats.

He apparently is not titled, and that's a good thing because her father is never going to forgive losing his wife to a titled nobleman. But John Fairgate could be the new donor the menagerie needs to care for the animals and keep her father employed, and he doesn't have a title...

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia A. McKillip (author), Dina Pearlman (narrator)

Audible Studios, January 2011 (original publication 1974)

Sybel is the daughter and granddaughter of wizards, and a wizard herself, continuing the family tradition of collecting strange and magical animals. She has not mixed with her neighbors much, or at all, and has no children.

Then a local, lesser lord, Coren, arrives at her gate carrying a baby boy. The baby is Tamlorn, the son of her mother's younger sister, and also of King Drede.

But Drede believes,with some reason it must be said, that Tamlorn is in fact the son of one of Coren's older brother, Norrell. Norrell and Rhianna are dead, killed by Drede. Coren asks her to love, protect, and raise Tamlorn.

The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis (author), Victor Bevine (narrator)

Audible Studios, October 2018

What happens when the people responsible for running our government have no idea how it works--and don't really care?

This is a look at how complex the actual workings of our government really are, what the federal agencies actually do, why it matters, and how completely unprepared and indifferent the Trump team was.

This is not a partisan work. Not at all--unless you count caring about government working properly as "partisan." But in that case, the "parties" you're talking about aren't Democrat and Republican, or liberal and conservative.

Lewis describes the senior staff of the federal departments and agencies preparing for the arrival, right after the election, for the arrival of the "landing teams" of whichever candidate won, to be able to brief them on what their agencies and departments do, to equip them to start the process of taking over.

Lewis also describes the utter silence and absence of anyone from the Trump team that day, that week, for weeks to come.

Dark Secrets (Dark Falls CO #2), by Savannah Kade

October 2018

Grace Lee's brother, Jimmy, has died in Dark Falls, CO, where he has lived happily with his boyfriend for years, and his death has been rule a suicide--by heroin overdose.

But former junkie Jimmy had been clean for just shy of five years, and Grace hadn't seen any of the signs she'd seen around his previous relapses into using. She just does not believe it. And Grace is a forensic scientist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Even the death scene photo is wrong. Very, very wrong.

Nate Ryder is the Dark Falls police detective who closed the case based on the medical examiner's report and verbal confirmation from the medical examiner. At first he's just humoring Grace because, after all, it's her brother who died, but the more they look at the report, the tests that weren't done, the fact that her brother's body has already been cremated...

How Language Began: The Story of Humanitiy's Greatest Invention, by Daniel L. Everett (author), Jonathan Yen (narrator)

Tantor Audio, March

This is such a frustrating book.

Everett has a lot to say, that's of interest, about the history of human language, and makes an interesting, and to me persuasive, case that language goes back to Homo erectus, if not further. One thing he points to, hardly the only one, is the H. erectus population on the the island of Flores. They must at some point have arrived in numbers sufficient to establish a viable population, which would mean a minimum of fifty men, women, and children arriving together or in close succession. This isn't likely with accidental rafting. It suggests more sophisticated skills, to build craft capable of crossing that distance in sufficient numbers intentionally--which would probably require language.

He's also quite, quite certain that language is an invention, not an instinct. If you think otherwise, you are wrong. Completely wrong. Oh, and he really thinks Noam Chomsky is completely wrong, and doesn't seem to concede him any significant contributions on the subject of language at all.

Hi Bob!, by Bob Newhart (author), Narrators: Bob Newhart, Marc Maron, Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O'Brien, and Sarah Silverman

Audible Originals, July 2018

Bob Newhart was for decades one of the most popular and consistently likable comics in America. His two tv series might be better remembered now (or not, I could be completely wrong about that), but he also had a long career as a stand-up comic, with some tremendously popular spoken-word albums. When he started out, there were no comedy clubs, and the entire experience of being a professional comedian was very different.

In this audiobook, he talks with fellow comedians, about his stand-up career, their experiences getting started in the business, friendships, challenges, and, somewhat oddly to me, mostly his second major tv success, Newhart, with only secondary mention of his original hit show, The Bob Newhart Show.

The Practice Baby, by L.M. Ardor

Critical Mass/Saint Copy PR, ISBN 9781925579994, October 2018

Dee Flanery is a gp, with three kids, an ex-husband who has remarried and had twins, and a thriving practice whose patients include Tom, the first of her "practice babies," a person who has been her patient since birth, now in his mid-twenties. He's on the autism spectrum, calls himself "an Aspie," and has a tendency to be obsessive in ways that benefit both his career as a computer security expert, and the management of his potentially dangerous asthma.

When Tom doesn't show up for an appointment, it's out of character and very worrying. His mother doesn't always have the best judgment, but is a devoted mother, and when she can't get the police to take her missing persons report seriously, she asks Dee to help.

When they finally get the police to do, what in the US is called a wellness check, though I didn't see that term in this book set in Australia, Tom is dead. A man who was obsessive about managing his asthma has apparently died of an asthma attack.

Exit Strategy Murderbot Diaries #4), by Martha Wells (author), Kevin R. Free (narrator)

Audible Audio, October 2018

Murderbot has successfully escaped the environs of its latest run-in with GrayCris Corporation, with proof of GrayCris' criminal activity. If it can get back to Preservation space and reach Dr. Mensah, its...owner? guardian? friend?, GrayCris can, possibly, be stopped from getting more colonists and scientific expeditions killed in their pursuit of corporate profit.

Unfortunately, GrayCris has kidnapped Dr. Mensah and is demanding an enormous ransom, apparently in hopes of also luring Murderbot in. GrayCris thinks Murderbot still has the evidence in its possession. Murderbot is smarter than that, but Dr. Mensah is still at enormous risk. The sensible thing for a rogue SecUnit that was never programmed to care about anyone is to forget about Mensah, head out beyond the corporate rim, and let the  people it has sent the information to act on it.

Dark Falls (Dark Falls #1), by Lori Ryan

October 2018

John Sevier is a police detective in Dark Falls, CO, and the Major Crimes unit he's a part of of is investigating a string of jewelry store holdups. They started out targeting smaller, lower-end shops that couldn't afford good security, grabbing what they could at closing time, and getting out. Then they start ramping up, their leader in particular becoming violent.

John starts worrying about a woman he hasn't seen since college, when she left early to take care of her father and her sister. Ava McNair joined her father in running their jewelry shop. His heart condition won't let him keep the hours he used to. Her sister Janna's autism keeps her from working with the customers, although she's a far better jeweler than Ava. So Ava is the shop manager, and the one who'll be at most risk if the increasingly violent gang starts striking shops in the business district she's in.

Chasing Ghosts (Dudley Sisters Saga #6), by Madalyn Morgan

Madalyn Morgan, June 2018

This is number six in a series. However, I've read none of the previous books, and did not find it a problem to follow and understand what was going on.

Englishwoman Claire Mitchell and her husband, Canadian Alain "Mitch" Mitchell were SOE operatives during the Second World War, dropped into France to work with the French Resistance. During that time, Mitch was captured and imprisoned by the Germans. What exactly happened is unclear, but he did eventually escape. During the escape he was shot in the leg, but reached a doctor who removed the bullets and successfully saved the leg.

They did not exchange names; it would have been dangerous. You can't reveal what you don't know.

In 1949, they've been reunited for several years, and their daughter, Aimée, is now eight years old. But Mitch has been having problems since the war, and is now diagnosed with shell shock--what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's sent back to Canada to be treated by a specialist, and Claire and Aimée go with him. Three months later, when they are returning home, Mitch disappears before they board the plane.