Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz & David Hayward

Lisa Lutz is one of my favorite writers. She's written a series of books about the Spellman family who are dysfunctional private investigators. (They're great investigators but a crazy family.) This is her first book without the Spellmans. I was reading it to tide me over to her next one.


Her co-writer is a former boyfriend who is also a poet and editor. They alternate chapters throughout. The book is good, and it's funny, but sometimes a little wildly confusing. Sort of like the game you played as kids where one person starts a story, then it goes around the circle with everyone adding on to it. Within the chapters the alternate co-writer leaves footnotes and at the end of each chapter you get to see the notes that they wrote each other on what just happened or what should happen next. The notes get more acrimonious as the book wears on. It all comes together in the end, but you wonder if they were speaking. Apparently, so, because they've done an interview on NPR and are now on a book tour.

The Scent of Rain & Lightning by Nancy Pickard

I can honestly say I had no idea "whodunit" until the author revealed everything near the end. I like that in a book. Partly set in the present day but mostly involving events 23 years earlier, you and the main character try to figure out what happened to her parents when she was a toddler. Her father was killed during a violent storm in a town on the Kansas plains. Her mother (or her body) was never found. When the presumed killer is released from prison after the governor commutes his sentence, their daughter tries to find out what really went on that night. In her small town where everyone knows everything about her it seems as if they all want to protect her, or keep her from digging too deep in the past. It was fascinating. And with all the vivid storm descriptions in the book, I felt like it was raining outside while I read it.

The Guynd by Belinda Rathbone

This book is by an American writer who marries a Scotsman and goes to live with him on his country estate. She vividly describes what a mixed blessing/curse it is to have the land and big house but not the money and servants that it was designed for, and needs to run. My only disappointment with it was that there were no photos. And, I had to go online afterwards to look at that and find out a little more about what happened in the author's personal life. Not only was the house a difficult proposition, the husband was, too. It was like Art's pack-rat-edness multiplied exponentially. Oh, and the title (and house) is pronounced so that it rhymes with "wind."

Billy & Milly: Short & Silly by Eve Feldman

Very exciting! This is the first library book that Alex can read all the way through by himself. Hurray! It has about a dozen or so three or four word stories in the book. (Example of a story about a pinata: pack, whack, crack, snack.) He's proud of himself and I am too!

Helen Lester

A month or two ago Alex came home from school with loads of penguin knowledge. His class studied them for a week. One of the books they read during that time was "Tacky the Penguin." I got to read it one day when I volunteered in his class. It was pretty funny. Tacky lives up to his name - he's just not as polished or well-behaved as his debonair iceberg-mates. Luckily (at least for some members of the household) the author has written many Tacky books: "Tacky and the Emperor," "Tacky in Trouble," "Tacky and the Winter Games," "Tackylocks and the Three Bears," "Tacky Goes to Camp," etc. If anyone in your house likes penguins and silliness, Tacky may be for you. As the end of most of the books goes, he's an odd bird but a nice bird to have around.

Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress

I've never read anything by this author, but I definitely have to get his other books now. (He also wrote Crazy in Alabama, which could also serve as a good description of this plot, too.) The title character's family name was Butts until her grandmother changed it to Bottoms because it sounded nicer. They live in a tiny southern Alabama town that only has a half-size Belk's. To say her life is "interesting" wouldn't do it justice by half. Georgia has a regular "date" with different prominent (and married) men each night of the week. Except for Mondays which are just for her. She does all of these in strict secrecy from most of the town all while appearing, to most people anyway, to be an upper class modern Southern belle. The book covers her mid to late 30s and what happens when all the secrets come undone. I highly recommend it!

Clara and Mr. Tiffany - Susan Vreeland

I like history, so I like historical fiction. Okay, so maybe that doesn't always follow. I don't think Art likes historical fiction at all. Or fiction, much, for that matter. Anyway, this book is about the time of the design and manufacture of Tiffany lampshades. I had no idea that they employed a department of women to do the lampshades, stained glass windows, desk sets, etc. The women were considered to have smaller hands and more delicate movements for the very delicate work. Only single women were allowed to work in the department in this pre-voting rights, pre-equal rights, pretty much pre-any-kind-of-rights for women. The female workers also had to fight the prejudice of the male workers who thought they should be at home and leave the work to them, even though they worked on a totally different sort of work. The descriptions of what they made were wonderful. You could almost see them.

The one drawback to the book: it tackles every major social issue in the 10 years or so that it covers. It felt a little like Forrest Gump. Every new chapter brought something new to confront: women's rights, labor unions, poverty, racism, homosexuality, etc. It was a bit much sometimes. A busy book but still good.