Mildred Kalish's "Little Heathens"

I like social history. That was actually my major field of study during my college years. While I was growing up everyone thought I would have been best suited to have lived during the wagon train era in the 1840s, or as a member of the "Little House" family.

Mildred Kalish has documented her childhood during the depression years on a farm and in a small town in northeast Iowa. That's an era in American social history that has not been over-explored, and I think it is a pivotal era. The depression shaped the values of those who grew up in that period. I could see so many traits familiar from my mother and her Iowa family roots in so many of the stories that Kalish tells.

Kalish recounts family stories about thrift, using everything without any waste, family closeness, discipline, modesty, the farm work ethic, social life and entertainment, pets that very probably will end up on the dining room table some day, one room school house education, and the list of interesting topics goes on and on.

This is a well written memoir that is devoid of sentimentality and is highly descriptive. When you are done reading you'll hold the Urmy family in admiration and have a much better understanding of the Iowa farm experience in the 1930s.

Liz Nichols

Don Piper's "90 Minutes in Heaven"

This is certainly my most serious read of the summer.

Piper, with the assistance of Cecil Murphey, recounts the story of how he died in a car crash in January 1989 and was brought back to life 90 minutes later through the prayers of a pastor who stopped to see if he could give any assistance at the crash site. For at least the first 90 minutes after the crash there was no indication of a pulse, and it seemed to EMTs unlikely that Piper's body was without serious trauma to the chest and head. At least one arm and one leg were missing their long bones, and there was extreme loss of blood. The EMT's merely awaited a coroner to pronounce Piper dead before they could move him.

And yet, when the minister began to pray and sing with his hand on the shoulder of the apparently departed, all of a sudden the dead man began to sing along. Piper had a strong sensation of someone holding his hand, which would have been a physical impossibility given the position of his body in the mangled car. Piper later attributed that hand to being an angel on the scene.

Piper does not mince words in any aspect of this book. He describes in detail his experience with the greeting party of deceased friends and relatives who met him at the gates of heaven, the sights and sounds that he experienced that were beyond anything he could describe adequately in words. He talks frankly about the excruciating pain experienced in the healing process, which included 11 months in a contraption screwed directly into his leg to help regrow the missing bone. He suffered months of depression, something that subsided only after he was counseled by a colleague to accept the kindnesses and support of the people who came to help him out. He was hard on himself, and he hard on other people, at least until he better understood why God brought him back.

The story has been read by millions of people around the world. I dare say it has converted many into believers. The question it does not answer is, what about similar stories from people who are not believers? Are they false or mis-guided, or are they signs of God's abiding grace and inclusiveness?

I do not know the answer to the question of what experiences non-believers have in comparison to those Piper experienced. I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is some form of after-life. When my mother was close to death with pneumonia she saw a shrouded figure whom she recognized as one of her deceased brothers. He told her that it was not her time to go, and she lived. She now knows that she has a guardian angel and who it is.

Within an hour of my dad's death my brother-in-law in Wisconsin and my cousin in San Francisco, and I had all experienced freak car accidents that in timing and nature would have astronomical odds if they were not all tied to my dad's death. I believe that some heavenly announcer was alerting us, or possibly my dad's soul.

"90 Minutes in Heaven" is necessary reading for all Christian believers, and for anyone looking for answers about the here-after.

Liz Nichols

"Frill Kill" by Laura Childs

Childs is the author of the Tea Shop Mysteries series and the Scrapbooking Mysteries series. This title is the 5th the the latter series.

The setting is New Orleans following Katrina. The heroines are a couple of women entrepreneurs in the French Quarter, Carmela Bertrand and Ava Grieux. Carmela, the about-to-be-ex-wife of a prominent banker, owns a scrapbooking shop, while Ava owns the Juju Voodoo Shop.

Halloween festivities cast into motion the killing of a local model in the alley behind Carmela's shop. I have to admit that I didn't guess the murderer until just before that person is revealed near the end of the book. In the mean time there were several suspects that had to be eliminated.

I felt that the plot was weak and confusing. For such an atmospheric place I did not feel that the author made the most of the setting. I never really identified with the two main characters or particularly cared what happened to them. I found my mind constantly wandering and thinking about things other than the book, so I basically just skimmed the whole thing.

While I plan to go back and read some of the earlier ones in this and the Tea Shop Mysteries, I can't say that this was more than a "ho-hum" read.

Liz Nichols

"Quicksand" by Iris Johansen

I believe Johansen's new novel has set a record as the third fastest 340 page read after the first two in the Harry Potter series. After sampling the first dozen pages yesterday I polished the whole thing off in one sitting today.

The book was so absorbing and so well crafted that I'd get to the end of a chapter, resolve to put it down to do something else, and be too interested in what happened next to put it down. I swear I'm walking around as if my legs won't move now after spending some 8 hours straight at it.

This is an "Eve Duncan Forensic Thriller." Eve Duncan lost her daughter to a serial killer several years before and embarked on a career as a forensic artist partly in an effort to find her own daughter's body and to stop the killer from taking other people's children.

I like the fact that the author delves deeply into the minds of the heroine, her police investigator lover and room mate, Joe Quinn, and the killer himself. I like that the plot is full of action, twists and turns and interesting settings. The scenes take us from rural Atlanta, where Eve and Joe live, to a forest in rural Illinois, to a national forest in Georgia and to the Okefenokee swamp, so there are a variety of richly described settings to take in.

The murders described are horrific, and they are described to some extent from the point of view of the child victims themselves, through the words of a psychic and the words of Eve's dead daughter. In this respect, the book reminds me of "Lovely Bones," but expanded to cover a number of settings and killings.

The plot takes a nice twist at the end and leaves the reader knowing that the next book in this series will contain new and different psychic revelations in the quest to discover how Eve's daughter, Bonnie was killed and where her remains are located. No doubt a new killer suspect will be revealed.

"Why Mermaids Sing" by C.S. Harris

I had not previously read anything by C.S. Harris, but mysteries set in Regency period England are generally my cup of tea, and this one kept my attention throughout. This is Harris' third in her Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery series. The other two are "What Angels Fear" and "When Gods Die." I plan on going back to read those in order to learn more about the Viscount sleuth and his forbidden liaison with a London actress.

The mystery to be solved is who is murdering the sons of several seemingly unrelated members of the nobility and the gentry in and around London and the Kent countryside. The first order of business is to discover a connection in the clues, which turns out to be a poem by John Donne called "Go and Catch a Falling Star." Symbols from that poem end up stuffed in the mouths of the unlucky victims.

The second part of the mystery is to determine the connection between all of the victims. Were the boys all at school together? Is there some connection between the fathers or the mothers? St. Cyr finally solves that part of the puzzle, something I won't reveal here.

The subplot is the romance between St. Cyr and his paramour, Kat Boleyn, an Irish woman who has made her mark on the London stage. Kat is hiding a secret that she fears will ruin her relationship with the Viscount. The Viscount, once he discovers what that secret is, feels that marrying his lover is the only way to keep her safe from a ruthless lynchpin to the royal throne, Lord Jarvis. There are some surprising twists and turns to the romance, just as there are to the murder investigation.

The characters are compelling, the plot absorbing, if on occasion a bit melodramatic, and the historical details interesting.

I give "Why Mermaids Sing" a thumbs up for those who like Regency period mysteries and romances.

Liz Nichols

Janet Evanovich's "Wife for Hire"

When I went in to the Iowa City Public Library for my regular reading fix I discovered that the "New Fiction" shelves included a reprint of a 1990 standby by Janet Evanvich, her romance, "Wife for Hire."

This is much more than the usual lusty busty. Evanovich is careful to finely detail a whole town full of quirky and memorable characters. Maggie Toone accepts a six month "job" as the fake wife of an apple orchard farmer, Hank Mallone, and moves from her town in New Jersey to Skogen, Vermont, to take up her duties. She believes this part time wife role will leave plenty of time to write a book based on the diaries of her Aunt Kitty, a famous New Jersey Madam. Hank's housekeeper, Elsie Hawkins, is constantly adding to hilarity by keeping everyone in line by wit or force.

Maggie, Hank and Elsie find themselves fending off intruders who go after the diaries for some mysterious reason. Meanwhile, Maggie finds herself alternatively fending Hank off and inviting him in.

There are a number of laugh out loud scenes in "Wife for Hire," as is typical in an Evanovich book.

Liz Nichols

Janet Evanovich's "Plum Lucky"

I spent a pleasant afternoon reading Janet Evanovich's zany "Plum Lucky."

This is the shortest of the Stephanie Plum series. A self-styled leprechaun steals a million dollars from a Trenton mobster. The money is subsequently picked up by Stephanie's grandmother, who promptly buys an RV, hires a driver/body guard, and heads for Atlantic City with the leprechaun hot in pursuit.

Rangerman's Diesel is after the fake Irish imp. Since Stephanie has promised her mother that she'll round up Grandma, she goes with Diesel to Atlantic City to find her grandmother, the thief and the money.

As usual, there are a number of hilarious, if highly improbable, scenarios as the group figure out how to earn enough money to pay off the ransom for grandma and a horse (don't ask...)

For the umptyninth time Stephanie's car is destroyed during a shoot-out with the bad guys. That seems to be a signature piece of every Stephanie Plum book.

It is refreshing, in a way, that this time Stephanie is paired with Diesel, who seems to offer little attraction to Stephanie. We get to concentrate on pure action and hyjinx rather than on Stephanie's angst over whether Morelli or Ranger will be her main squeeze.

Liz Nichols

Carolyn Hart's "Death Walked In"

This is 18th in Carolyn G. Hart's "Death on Demand" series featuring Annie and Max Darling of Broward's Island, SC.

In this thriller, Max and Annie find moving into the island's historic Franklin House a bit more nerve-wracking than a move might ordinarily imply. Their newly restored antebellum mansion is said to be the location where a local resident buried a treasure-trove of double-eagle coins. That resident met an untimely death at the hands of the person who actually stole the coins.

The plot revolves around discovering which of several murder suspects actually committed the crime, and hair-raising attempts to keep the house safe from break-ins from those who are either guilty of the murder or just treasure-hunting. A hired hand helps with the guard duties, and a neighbor family is suspected of an inside job in the coin theft.

Perhaps because this crime-fighting couple have been around several years, Hart does not spend a lot of time finely honing the personalities of her main characters. The friends and family members who usually liven up the Death on Demand books are on a cruise and, for the most part, out of the picture. Hart does bring the setting to life fairly well. Broward's Island comes across with the usual sultry charm of a low country setting filled with antebellum houses, shady country lanes, and close-knit, closed-mouthed communities.

This is not my favorite Carolyn Hart offering, but on a sultry summer afternoon, it makes a quick, satisfying read.

Liz Nichols

Diane Mott Davidson's "Dark Tort"

I rarely read a mystery twice. What's the point? You already know "who done it?"

There are a few mystery authors whom I read for the pure joy of the fluid way they write, or because the characters are absorbing.

Diane Mott Davidson's series about caterer, Goldy Schultz is such a series. Goldy has become an old friend. It's as if she were a friend from college or high school I get together with a couple times a year. It is easy to pick up the conversation, just as if we talked just the day before. That's how I define a lifetime friend-- someone with whom the conversation never stops even when you don't see them but once or twice a year.

I care about Goldy, her family and friends. They could be my family and friends. Davidson's books are written in first person and everything is seen through Goldy's eyes. The plots are so thick and the characters so numerous that it would be easy to get lost or forget exactly how she resolves a given mystery. That's why rereading Davidson's novels are just as enjoyable the second time around.

The second helping of "Dark Tort" was no exception. This time I watched the interplay between the characters a little more-- the various partners and staff of the H & J law firm and their wives; the interplay between the Claggetts and the Ellises, the relationship between Nora Ellis and her father, Uriah Southerland, the things that the victim, Dusty Routt, had to say in her journal about various members of the firm, her former boyfriend, the famous artist and chef, Charlie Baker, and the mysterious "Other Mr. O."

I didn't do any better at guessing the killer the second time than the first, but I did enjoy paying attention to the details more the second time.

Anything by Diane Mott Davidson comes highly recommended to any mystery reader, and especially to fans of women sleuths.

Liz Nichols

James Patterson's "3rd Degree"

I'm catching up on some mysteries I've had on my bookshelf for a few years.

The latest read was James Patterson's "3rd Degree," one of the books in the Women's Murder Club series. I got mildly interested in this series when a version appeared on TV this past year. The TV show, as usual, does not do the book justice. The characters are far more complex and interesting when explored in book form because there is so much more time to go over details in a book than in a television script.

In this particular title Lieutenant Lindsey Boxer of the San Francisco PD Homicide Squad literally runs into a bombing while on her Sunday jog around the neighborhood and uncovers a terrorist plot that is over 40 years in the making. She partners with a charming executive from Homeland Security, solves the serial killings with him and begins a long distance romance.

In addition to domestic terrorism we explore domestic abuse and the importance of developing strong friendship bonds to maintaining a satisfying life.

Patterson's books are particularly good for the ADD reader, and the reader who can only slip a few minutes of reading into the day. Each chapter covers one short scene or train of thought and is only two or three pages long. This way one can read for 5 minutes at a time and still feel as if something is accomplished.

Patterson is not my favorite mystery writer by a long stretch, but he does get the job done in an entertaining way that leaves one glued to the book. There are twists and turns that keep the plot from being predictable. Recommended

Liz Nichols