Dancing Books: Sometimes you just have to get off the shelf and dance!

Source: http://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/video/the-joy-of-books-the-books-that-danced/11176

The White Cottage Mystery, by Margery Allingham

Imagine being a female author writing police procedural mysteries in the 1920s. Margery Allingham was born in 1904, and she wrote "The White Cottage Mystery" in 1928. She was one the most pre-eminent mystery writers during the "golden age" of detective fiction. Luckily for those of us who love classical mystery novels, Bloomsbury Reader has just reissued this book, and has plans to re-issue more of Allingham's books.

W.T. Challoner is a British detective with the "yard," and he has a young, adult son, Jerry. Jerry has an eye for pretty ladies and offers one, with a blister on her heel, a ride home while driving down a lovely country lane. Shortly after dropping her off, after stopping to put his car's roof up, and chatting with a local policeman, he hears a gun shot and a parlour maid comes running out of house screaming (what else?), "Police! Murder!"

Although constrained by her age to use only acceptable language, and polite terms, Allingham pushes the boundaries set by the British class system and the social mores affecting women. Published in 1928, the plot is actually set five years after the beginning of WW I, which makes several of the plot revelations quite shocking for the time. Allingham also depicts a darker undercurrent, one that is reminiscent of the early Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Whimsey stories, and several of Agatha Christie's novels. Set in England, Paris and the Riveria, the book offers a wonderful window into those places after the Great War. If you appreciate a good mystery, with a calm, polite unfolding of the plot, and no gore, you will love this book. If you have read it before, revisiting Allingham is still a treat. I give the book five stars. (I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

• Print Length: 170 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Reader; 1 edition (October 28, 2011)
• Publication Date: October 28, 2011
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

When We Meet Again, by Kristin Harmel

"When We Meet Again," is much more than romantic novel. I read this book in one sitting because I was captured by Kristen Harmel's profound story telling ability and exquisite use of words. The protagonist in the novel, Emily Emerson, has lost her job as a syndicated relationship columnist at a local newspaper. Daily, she deals with the pain of her father's abandonment of the family when Emily was eleven. Her father also deals with the pain of abandonment, since he never knew his father. His mother, Emily's grandmother, Margaret Emerson, raised him alone. After Emily's mother died when Emily was 16, Margaret also raised Emily.

Now in her mid-thirties, Emily refuses her father's attempt to reestablish a relationship, and her anger at him is palpable. Her anger is mixed with her grief over Margaret's recent death, and her constant pain over giving her baby up for adoption when she was 18.

Out of the blue, a beautiful painting is sent to Emily from an art gallery in Munich. It is of a woman in a red dress in a field of sugar cane. The sky is a gorgeous violet. A note accompanies the painting. It says, "your grandfather never stopped loving her. Margaret was the love of his life." The mystery of this painting sends Emily to the former German POW camps near Lake Okeechobee, Florida, and to her grandmother's hometown in Belle Creek, Florida. There she learns that over 400,000 captured German soldiers were sent to POW camps across the U.S. in order to fill the labor shortage caused by World War II. Unlike the Nazis, the U.S. complied with the Geneva Convention, and treated the POWs well. Near Lake Okeechobee, the POWs harvested the sugar cane fields, and it is there that POW Peter Dahler met Margaret and fell in love. Emily also learns that her grandmother's family disowned her when she became pregnant with Peter's baby. Driven by the need to solve the mystery of the painting and the mystery of the disappeared Peter, Emily accepts her father's help and the pair go to Munich, Savannah, and Atlanta.

Kristen Harmel elegantly creates mysteries within mysteries within mysteries. The ending took my breath away, and I cannot praise this book enough. If you love good, well written books, you will love "When We Meet Again." (I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

The Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald Trump, by Harry Hurt, III

The Lost Tycoon is an exhaustive depiction of Trump's scams, cons and lies. Here are just a few take aways:

- Trump used illegal labor from Poland to tear down the old building on the site where Trump Towers would be built. The laborers slept on the construction site, and many were never paid. (And they destroyed the Art Deco statues and grill work in order to meet the construction deadlines. Trump apparently ordered this destruction, despite promising to preserve the statues, etc.)

-Trump Plaza, in Atlantic City, met its state minority contractor quota by listing Mike Tyson as a minority contractor.

- Trump used Damin Aviation to ferry himself and others back and forth to Atlantic City. Joe Weichselbaum headed it up until he was indicted on illegal drug smuggling (Hurt wonders if there was any truth to the rumor that Weichselbaum procured cocaine for Trump's casino high rollers). Then the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) forced Weichselbaum out. Weichselbaum pled guilty and was sent to prison. A year later, Weichselbaum's girlfriend paid $2.35 million for two apartments in Trump Towers, claiming the money was her own. When Weichselbaum was paroled, he moved into the apartments (now a duplex) and told the parole board he was going to be Trump's helicopter consultant.

- In 1989, three of Trump's top Atlantic City executives were killed in a helicopter crash following a meeting with Trump. Upon hearing of their deaths, Trump told a colleague that he couldn't resist milking the deaths for publicity. He then falsely claimed he was supposed to be on that flight.

- Ivana worked hard at Trump's hotels and casinos, despite his constant attempts to belittle her work (during their famous divorce, he once claimed she stayed home and did the laundry).

- The book reports on Ivana's divorce-deposition testimony where she claimed that Trump violently raped her and tore out chunks of her hair because he believed her plastic surgeon had harmed him by performing a poor scalp reduction surgery. He was in great pain, and he blamed Ivana. Ivana disclaims the rape in a letter inserted in the beginning of the book. In it she claims that her use of the term "rape" only meant that Trump was "not loving" to her.

Story after story about Trump's temperament fill this book. Trump seems to have lurched from one temper tantrum to the next, from one lie to the next, from one con to the next. He claimed his wife and children were important to him, but business and money seem to always have been his true love. As set out in this book, there are two constants with regard to Trump's personality: if the truth doesn't suit Trump, he changes it, and he will not tolerate criticism of any kind. This is an important, highly charged expose of Trump's past. Unfortunately, it only covers Trump's life up until the early 1990's. Nonetheless, this is a book that should be read by voters in this election year.

(Although I read a Kindle Unlimited version of this book, as of the date of this review, this version has been pulled by Amazon.)

Hardcover: 447 pages
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (May 1993)
Language: English

The Life Intended, by Kristin Harmel

Are we living the life we are intended to live, do we construct the life we want to live, or is life a combination of individual will and fate? These are the questions around which Kristin Harmel weaves her story in "The Life Intended."

Kate Waithman, a music therapist who works with children, has been a widow for 12 years. Now at age 40 she is engaged to the "perfect" man. Suddenly she starts having vivid dreams where she is still living with her husband, and they have a 12 year old, hard of hearing daughter. The dreams are so real, Kate begins a course in American Sign Language in order to better communicate with her dream daughter. Through this sign language course, she expands her music therapy to include hard of hearing foster children, and her life takes an unexpected turn.

Although at times Kate comes across as too weak and vulnerable for my taste, I think this weakness is key to demonstrating the growth of her character as Kate regains her willingness to take risks and truly live and love again. In her trademark fashion, Kristin Harmel tells an engrossing story with a heart stopping, wonderful ending.

Print Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books (December 30, 2014)
Publication Date: December 30, 2014
Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc

Toto's Tale and True Chronicle of Oz, by Sylvia Patience

L. Frank Baum wrote 14 novels about the land of Oz before his death in 1919. The books were so popular that sequels continued to be written after his death by many different authors. There have also been stage plays, musicals, an early silent film and, of course, the glorious 1939 film starring Judy Garland. Yet, despite all of the above, no one has written Toto's side of the story. (You remember Toto, the adorable little dog who never left Dorothy's side. Who can ever forget the Wicked Witch of the West cackling "I will get you and your little dog too"?) Until now.

In "Toto's Tale and True Chronicles of Oz," Sylvia Patience gives Toto his voice. This is his story, and it is very charming and endearing. There are no big surprises. We know he loved Dorothy and that she loved him. We also know he fell asleep in the field of poppies, that he barked at everyone and that he was terrified of the winged monkeys, (every child was terrified of them, I still get chills thinking about them). We didn't know, however, that Toto ran away from an abusive farmer as a puppy, and that he was rescued by Dorothy as she stepped off the Orphan Train in Kansas. We also didn't know that he peed on the Wicked Witch's leg and caused her to begin to melt! (Dorothy threw a bucket of water to stop the melting, and we know what happened then-she melted away completely). Some of these "facts" were added by Patience, some are in the original Baum novels, like the fact that Baum named the Tin Man, Nick Chopper, the Scarecrow, Jack Straw and the Cowardly Lion, Leo the Lion. Ms. Patience weaves all of the above, and more, into Toto's Tale, and the end result is a wonderful children's novel that will delight and enchant children and adults alike. (In exchange for an honest review, I was provided with a review copy by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Print Length: 248 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0692542558
Publisher: Sylvia Patience; 1 edition (November 9, 2015)
Publication Date: November 9, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Marvel's Captain America: Sub Rosa, by David McDonald

Swashbuckling Captain America saves the girl and the good guys, while battling forces within and without America who want to destroy freedom. David McDonald does a great job of showing both the sorrowful side of Steve Rogers and his heroic side, although perhaps both sides are the same. Rogers is a man out of time. His era was WWII, big bands, swing music, small town America and fighting enemies who clearly were evil. In 2016, the lines are not so clearly drawn, and, at times, Rogers has a hard time understanding how certain forces within his own government can conduct black ops and cavalierly restrict freedom in the name of the "greater good." Don't expect to only be entertained by this book (and it is entertaining), you may also find yourself siding with Rogers and questioning whether two wrongs actually can ever make a right. (I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

Print Length: 240 pages
Publisher: Joe Books Ltd. (July 13, 2016)
Publication Date: July 13, 2016
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers

The Misadventure of Sherlock Holmes, by Giles Chanot

Arthur Conan Doyle would be honored by this latest addition to the world of Sherlock Holmes literature. Full of the Edwardian era details we have come to associate with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Chanot's book was hard to put down. A great gift for true Sherlock fans. (In return for an honest review, I was provided a review copy by the publisher via Net Galley.)

Print Length: 232 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publication Date: January 4, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, by Mike Johnson, Ryan Parrott & Derek Charm

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" (yes, Star Trek!) is an enjoyable foray into the academic life of some favorite Star Trek characters, including Kirk and Spock. Nyota Uhura and T'Laan lead the way as the young students deal with romance, studies, time travel and competition. The art work surpasses the plot and dialogue in vibrancy and color. I give this book four stars. (In exchange for an honest review, I was provided a review copy by the publisher via NetGalley.

Series: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing (August 16, 2016)

Valley of the Moon: A Novel, by Melanie Gideon

On a sunny day in April, the ground shook and a thick grey fog encircled Greengage farm, a communal enclave near Sonoma, California. It was 1906, and the great San Francisco earthquake had just struck. Joseph, the British founder of Greengage, soon realizes that the fog kills anyone who tries to go through it. Four months later, the now isolated community still has not found a way to break through this fog. Then Lux, an unwed mother, struggling to make ends meet in San Francisco while caring for a young son and working in a bar, stumbles through the fog. Lux, however, is from 1975. Apparently the only person able to travel through the fog unharmed, Lux discovers that time flows differently in Greengage; while the community has experienced a passage of time of only four months since the earthquake, close to 70 years have passed on the outside.

Weaving a delicate tapestry composed of her own unique story, combined with hints of Brigadoon, C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, and non-Orwellian futurism, Gideon gifts us with a compelling novel of familial and romantic love trapped and then freed by time and circumstances.

Valley of the Moon is a fascinating book that spans more than two centuries, I could not put it down. (I was provided a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

Print Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (July 26, 2016)
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Sold by: Random House LLC

The Titanic Murders, by Max Allan Collins

The Titanic Murders, by Max Allan Collins, all in all is an excellent book. I have read several of Collins' other historical mysteries and I continue to be impressed by his mastery of historical detail. Although Jaques Futrelle, the lead character and the author of the Professor Van Dusen detective stories, was one of the Titanic's victims over 100 years ago, Collins brings him to life and makes his death a recent tragedy.

Collins also gives the reader a front row seat to the Titanic's staterooms, cabins, restaurants, and lounges. For the first time, I learned that the Titanic's steerage passengers enjoyed the most luxurious accommodations ever provided to steerage class travelers. The floors and walls were sparkling, the beds comfortable, each cabin had washing facilities, and the meals were both tasty and abundant. The second class accommodations were the equivalent of first class on other ships, and the first class staterooms were unsurpassed in their luxury. Each of the characters that Collins introduces to us, lives, laughs, conspires, and, some even love. Too many, however, lose their lives when the great ship sinks. That is history's fault, not Collins'. Nonetheless, I am grateful that Collins did not devote many pages to describing the tragic sinking. I also am grateful that Collins avoided the cliche of allocating blame for the tragedy. He tells a truthful story with some whimsical attributes, and he solves a mystery. If you enjoy mystery novels that make you smarter, you will enjoy this book.

Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Berkley; 1st edition (April 1, 1999)
Language: English

The Girl Who Could Read Hearts

Six year old Katie loves her plastic angel doll named Etta Ebella. With Etta's magical help, Katie sees the light, vibrant colors and love in her family's hearts. She also sees the darkness and snakes in some other hearts outside her family. Born with red hair, just like her beloved "Grammy Mer," Katie is gifted with unexplainable talents. Although religious belief plays a role in the book, Maysonave approaches faith from Katie's inclusionary standpoint: there is "Jesus-man," who is all things to every religion, and there is the Great Angel Mother who is the feminine side of God. Prejudice, the " pre-judging" of others, is taboo. Those that practice "churchianity" instead of Christianity are called out for being small-minded hypocrites, who are at times dangerous and evil. "The Girl Who Could Read Hearts" is a delightful, inspiring novel. In a world that seems to be getting darker, Maysonave creates a little child to help us focus on the beauty of our planet, and to help us let the light in. (In exchange for an honest review, I was provided a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Publisher: Balboa Press (April 26, 2016)
Publication Date: April 26, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC