The Magistrates of Hell (Barbara Hambly)

This is the fourth (and, so far, the last) in Hambly's James Asher series of vampire novels. I confess that I really like her vampires (and Don Ysidro in particular) - they are powerful, scary, dangerous, and definitely do not sparkle. This version, set in China where strange things even scarier than vampires have been found, is better than the last one, but of course can't meet the standard of the first (Those Who Hunt the Night), which was awesome. James is as resourceful and competent as ever; his lovely intelligent wife as resourceful and gutsy as ever; Don Simon as morally ambiguous and seductive as ever. I love Hambly's writing, which is lush and evocative of exotic locations peopled with exotic but clearly-drawn characters. I will keep reading them if she keeps writing them, but more out of loyalty than real love for the newest ones.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder (Eli Brown)

I enjoyed this rollicking pirate yarn with a twist. The narrator is a chef, employed by a shipping magnate who is murdered by pirates, and the chef himself is kidnapped. The pirate captain is a wild and forceful woman who decides to keep the chef alive if he will provide her with one sumptuous meal per week from the inadequate materials at hand on her ship. Many adventures ensue, punctuated with the unlikely meals he concocts from unpromising supplies. The story is largely predictable, but told with humor and even tenderness, despite the occasionally gruesome violence.

The Forgotten Garden (Kate Morton)

This story sprawls over more than 100 years to unravel the mystery of a 4-year-old girl found abandoned on the docks in Australia in 1913. She could tell no one her name or how she came to be there, and nobody ever came to claim her; all she had was a small suitcase with some clothes and a book of fairy tales. A local family took her in, but she spent most of her life trying to discover her past. The mystery was passed down to her granddaughter, who was finally able to uncover the whole story. It was engrossing, moving, horrifying and touching, all at once. I very much enjoyed it.

Wired for Story (Lisa Cron)

How cognitive psychology applies to the process of reading fiction, and by extension how writers can use this information to write better, more engaging, more successful stories. I didn't learn any new cognitive psychology from this book, but can endorse the accuracy of the science she presents, and I was very interested in what it has to say about writing. I recommend this for anyone who is trying to get a story written and then get it read by others.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Karen Joy Fowler)

This is the story of a very unusual family, told from the point of view of the daughter of a research psychologist. The father works in the field of comparative cognition, looking at how the cognitive processes of humans differ from those of rats and other primates - right up my alley! He winds up involving his family directly in his research, though, with dire consequences for everyone concerned. The narrator moves into adulthood dealing with issues of guilt, anger, and fear as a result of the events of her early childhood. I'm dancing around the central events here, because they're not revealed until several chapters in and I don't want to spoil anything from the few folks who don't go in knowing what was happening. The story is gripping, heartbreaking and heartwarming, and manages to claw its way to as happy an ending as the various characters could have. I enjoyed it a lot.

Salvage and Demolition (Tim Powers)

This novelette is a tangled knot in time, centering an odd manuscript that is found in a box in 2012 linked with odd events in 1957. It is a very brief love story that spanned 55 years. Like most of Powers's stories, it is odd and mystical, but without the length of a novel form the full atmosphere doesn't really have time to coalesce. Enjoyable, but lacking depth because it is so short.

The Round House (Louise Erdrich)

This story begins with one tragedy, and moves inexorably through several greater and lesser tragedies to end with another. Joe is a Native American boy, 13 years old, living on a reservation in South Dakota, when his mother is brutally raped. The search for her attacker is complicated by her unwillingness to talk about what happened and by the uncertainty about whether the attack took place on tribal land, Federal land, private land, or state land. The legal issues are especially important because Joe's father is a tribal judge, determined to make the best justice he can within the arcane and discriminatory laws governing the tenuous relationship between Indians and Whites. Joe's relationship with his parents, his friends, and his self grow and change in that pivotal summer. The book is alternately touching, funny, and devastating. Joe's experiences are drawn with unflinching and tender realism. Highly recommended.

The Man of Maybe Half-a-Dozen Faces (Ray Vukcevich)

This is a standard detective story. The hardboiled detective with relationship issues and an addiction that leads to blackouts, the lovely woman who comes in to beg for his help, the touchy interaction with the cops, the killer who has to be stopped before he kills again -- all there. Only the detective is an individual with multiple personalities, and his addiction is to tap dancing, and the killer - well, I won't reveal too much. This story is several degrees out of kilter, and it is a zany, rollicking ride. I really enjoyed it, though from time to time the roller coaster lost me. I always got back on, and if the ending was a little contrived, still it lived up to the rest of the book (including an email to one character we never actually met, asking what it was like to be a loose end). It wasn't flawless, but the story was so much fun I forgave the problems.

The House at Riverton (Kate Morton)

A sprawling and complex story, mostly told in flashbacks, of a woman's life starting from when she started as a maidservant at a manor house in England in 1914 until her death in 1999. The house is full of interesting people, from the lord of the manor to the lowly scullery maid, and is even more full of secrets. Her mother served there until she got pregnant, and is remembered fondly by the staff and the mistress, so she is able to secure the position for her daughter, who progresses through the ranks to upstairs maid and finally ladies maid, before leaving service all together. We know from the first that there were momentous events, tragedies, at the house during her time there, but we don't actually find out what happened until the very end. A few of the secrets are rather obvious, but mostly I was kept guessing and turning pages rapidly wanting to find out what's next. I especially liked its view of the changes in the English view of class and standing.  The settings and the people were beautifully drawn, and it was interesting to see her life from the inside as she grew from a timid 14-year-old to an elderly woman facing death.

Secrets to Happiness (Sarah Dunn)

I liked this story about a young woman, still shell-shocked by her sudden divorce a year ago, trying to find love and happiness in New York City. She is earnest and open-hearted, and is surrounded by friends, exes, lovers, and co-workers who are quirky and complex.I really felt for her situation and her capacity to pick up and move on even when she was dazed by the blows life handed her. She has a great capacity for love, extending even to a gravely sick dog, that isn't rewarded as it ought to be, but she continues to try to do the right thing in every situation. I've made her sound like a goody-goody stick figure, but she isn't, and the book is a lot of fun,.

The Baker Street Letters (Michael Robertson)

This mystery has a charming premise - that anyone who has a lease at 221B Baker Street in London is required by the lease agreement to receive and respond to letters people send there addressed to Sherlock Holmes. This story is about a young lawyer who has taken such a lease. His brother, a rather flighty ne'er-do-well, is in charge of answering these letters, and he discovers one that makes him concerned. The brother winds up traveling to the US to follow up, leaving behind a murder victim, and the lawyer and his actress girl friend follow him in an attempt to clear him of murder charges. There are other murders, a young woman with a missing father and a large dog, a subway being built under LA where explosions are happening, and it all is tied to that original letter to Holmes. There is a lot here that's charming, but it didn't work for me. I'm not one of those who prides myself on figuring out the mystery before the reveal - I'd rather just enjoy the ride - but several times I got there ahead of the author. The story was slight and the occasional inconsistencies annoyed me (like the English cell phone that doesn't work in the US, except when it does). I don't plan to read the rest of the series.

11/22/63 (Stephen King)

I resisted reading this for a long time,  because I don't like horror and that's what I associate with King. A good friend who knows I don't like horror, and knows I do like SF and time travel novels, kept assuring me I would like this one, so I finally took her up on it, and she was right. You can't read an 842-page book in one gulp, but I tried. The hero gets drawn into a very complex time-travel situation with the aim of preventing the assassination of JFK (on 11/22/63, of course). He has to struggle against many problems, because it turns out the past doesn't want to be changed, and along the way he becomes involved in the lives of many people, some deeply evil and some heartbreakingly good. Is he successful? I will say he is, but not at all in the way he hoped to be. I'm glad I finally gave King a try.