Beneath the Shadows, by Sara Foster

Minotaur Books, ISBN 9780312643365, June 2012

This is a really engaging contemporary Gothic, set in Yorkshire, and with characters I truly wanted to spend the time with.

Grace Lockwood's husband Adam inherits a cottage from his grandparents, in a tiny Yorkshire village, and persuades her to move there with him and their new daughter, Millie. Grace isn't enthusiastic at first, but she's settling in and warming to the setting and the close-knit community when, quite abruptly, Adam disappears, leaving Millie in her stroller on the cottage porch. When the ensuing search turns up no trace of Adam, not of accident, or of foul play, or of Adam himself, the police gently suggest that he may have simply chosen to disappear. Grace doesn't believe that, but the alternative isn't any more attractive. It's a devastating loss, and she leaves the village. She's not ready to return to her life in London, but instead spends most of the next year with her parents, in the south of France.

It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism, by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein

Basic Books, ISBN 9780465031337, May 2012

This is a scary book.

First, it needs to be said that Ornstein and Mann are not "liberals" in any sense. They are, at most, center-right conservatives. They are respected and popular pundits "inside the Beltway" and frequent guests on the Sunday political talk shows.

At least, before they published this book.

We're all aware that our politics in recent years have been unusually broken, with gridlock and partisan obstructionism preventing even basic government functions from being carried out properly. Conventional, mainstream media wisdom says that this is equally the fault of both sides, that Democrats and Republicans both have become more extreme in recent years.

Bring on the Blessings, by Beverly Jenkins

Avon, ISBN 0061688401, January 2009

On her fifty-second birthday, Bernadine Brown catches her husband cheating with his secretary. This frees her from a marriage that has become dead, and with the help of a good lawyer, she gets out with $275 million. Free to do anything she wants, she spends some time indulging herself, but also looking for a purpose--because to whom much is given, from them much is expected. In time, she finds one--the town of Henry Adams, an historic all-black town in Kansas, founded by members of the Black Exodus in the 1870s, is broke, and is offering itself for sale.

New York to Dallas (In Death #33), by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)

Putnam Adult, ISBN 9780339157783, September 2011

Eve Dallas' past comes back to bite her in some very painful ways in this book, but this is Dallas, and ant it's always a mistake to bite her.

The first blast from her past is a serial killer she arrested twelve years ago, when she was still a uniformed patrol officer. She stumbled onto the man while looking for possible witnesses in another case, realized there was something hinky, and wound up bagging the killer and rescuing the girls who were his current crop of victims. The killer was locked up, and his victims returned to their families.

Twelve years later, he has escaped from prison, victimized a young couple, and sent Dallas a message.

A Planet of Viruses, by Carl Zimmer

University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226983332, April 2011

This slim volume is an excellent and highly readable introduction to the subject of viruses for the interested layperson. Written as a series of essays for the Science Education Partnership Award, to help support outreach to students, it covers in compact form an amazing array of basic information about what viruses are, how they affect our lives for good and ill, and the important role they have played in the evolution of life.

Viruses are the smallest life form there is, and there is even dispute over whether they technically qualify as "alive," since they cannot reproduce without hijacking the reproductive capacity of fully developed cells.

Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi

Tor Science Fiction, ISBN 9780765328540, March 2012

Half a century ago, H. Beam Piper gave us the wonderful story, Little Fuzzy. Delightful as it still is, in some ways its age shows. John Scalzi, one of the many who loved Piper's Little Fuzzy, rather more recently set himself to writing an updated, 21st century story of the Fuzzies, originally just as a writing exercise for his own edification and pleasure. It couldn't end there, of course, and after book contract negotiations somewhat more complex than average, you can now read Fuzzy Nation.

Betty's (Little Basement) Garden, by Laurel Dewey

The Story Plant, ISBN 97816118, June 2012

Betty Craven is in her late fifties, elegant, classy, a perfectionist, and a gardener with a prize-winning garden. She's the embodiment of Colorado respectability.

She's also a widow with a limited income, an unsaleable house in disrepair, a dead son whom she grieves far more than her late husband, and a steadily worsening pain in her neck. She invested the money from her husband in starting a gourmet chocolate shop--in 2009. It did not survive, and all she has left is her chocolate-making equipment. And because she is driven to maintain the image of perfection and respectability, she doesn't even have anyone to confide in. Betty is even quietly selling off the antiques and artwork she and her husband collected over the course of their marriage, just to pay the bills and do the most basic of repairs to the house.

All of that sounds pretty grim, I know. But that's just the background, and this is a fun book.

Get Fluffy, by Sparkle Abbey

Bell Bridge Books, ISBN 9781611941210, March 2012

This is the second of the "Pampered Pets" mystery series from the "Sparkle Abbey" team of Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. This one features Caro Lamont's cousin, Mel Langston, as the pet-oriented businesswoman who gets caught up in a murder investigation.

Mel is the owner of Bow Wow Boutique, is clashing with one of her customers, Mona Michaels, owner of the canine daytime tv star, Fluffy. Despite their differences, Mona finds it convenient to use Mel's shop as the exchange point when her ex, Craig, has his visitation with Fluffy. So when Mona drops off Fluffy and leaves, Mel assumes that Craig will be along before closing time. He isn't, and when Mel finally closes up, she heads off to Mona's house to return her dog.

She finds the door unlocked, and Mona dead from a blow to the head--with Fluffy's daytime Emmy.

Desperate Housedogs, by Sparkle Abbey

Bell Bridge Books, ISBN 9781611940508, October 2011

"Sparkle Abbey" is the pen name for collaborators Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter, who have joined forces to write a series of mystery novels featuring cousins Caro Lamont (pet therapist) and Mel Langston (pet boutique owner) in Laguna Beach, CA.

In this first entry, it's Caro who has a murder mystery land in her lap. She's been getting a lot of calls from clients in an exclusive, gated-community section of Laguna Beach, where the dogs are suddenly all very nervous and watchful. Shortly after her visit to one of these clients, Kevin Blackstone, and his two German Shepherds, Kevin is murdered.

Alienation (C.H.A.O.S. #2), by Jon S. Lewis

Thomas Nelson, ISBN 9781595547545, January 2012

This is the second volume in a fun little series about teenagers who are The Only Hope for Earth's resistance to alien invasion. No, that doesn't make much sense, but, really, it doesn't have to. Lewis gives us an engaging group of teenage friends, a secret government agency that's supposed to be the main line of defense but may be compromised, secret heroes and villains, and a fast pace with neat stuff happening on nearly every page.

The intended audience is young adult readers, but if you can let go and enjoy the ride, it's entertaining for older readers, too.