Booktalk.

I'm currently experiencing my 38th week of pregnancy, thus I have dedicated most of my reading of late to the subject.  I must say that there are many pregnancy books out there. The amount of information contained in these can be a quite daunting especially for first time moms (like me) and may even be out of date. Having read a fair amount on the subject, however, I am able to offer a suggestion of a current, practical book that answered many of my questions about pregnancy in a simple, visual, and easy to follow manner.  Pregnancy Day by Day, developed by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Oregon Health and Science University, is a day by day pregnancy guide that takes the reader on a visual journey of baby from conception to childbirth to two weeks after childbirth.  In addition to the Day by Day picture journey and health tips corresponding to each week of pregnancy, Pregnancy Day by Day also offers lifestyle advice for the pre-conceptual period and details surrounding concerns and complications that often arise during and after pregnancy.  I've checked this book out several times at various stages of my pregnancy for the visual representation of approximately what my baby would look like during my first, second, and third trimester as well as what I should expect generally from week to week. Though moms may need more detailed information on specific concerns related to their individual pregnancies, Pregnancy Day by Day is a great place to begin the pregnancy information quest.

Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey; illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

Here in 2010 it's hard to believe that just over a century ago many women were still treated like hothouse flowers and discouraged from strenuous physical activity.  Annette Kellerman didn't set out to change that view but her championing of swimming as a healthful, artistic and enjoyable activity for women did just that!  As a child in Australia Annette suffered from an ailment that made her legs weak so to strengthen her legs her father taught her to swim.  As she became stronger she developed artistic dives and strokes to turn swimming into "water ballet".  Wishing to spread the word about the wonders of swimming for women she and her father set sail for England.  Over the next few years Annette attempted to swim the English Channel (and almost made it), gave swimming demonstrations all over Europe and was even arrested in the United States for her skimpy bathing costume.  Parents wishing to encourage their children (boys and girls) to take up swimming will relish this factual, readable and brightly illustrated biography.  And to think that without Annette Kellerman we women might still be wearing those horrible, heavy bathing suits! 

Demonkeeper, by Royce Buckingham

Nat is a lonely young man. His mentor has recently died and his only companions are Flappy, Nikolai, and Pernicious, three small entities who help him guard his creaky houseful of smart aleck demons. Nat is unsure of his ability to control his demons and despairs of ever completely mastering the Demon Keeper's Journal; a book written by generations of Keepers and full of the knowledge necessary to keep the world safe. Unfortunately it's written in many more languages than the boy knows and he needs that information now. So nobody can blame Nat when he pushes responsibility aside and accepts a date with Sandy, the bookish junior assistant librarian; a shy young woman determined to learn adventurousness. But Nat's distraction leads to the unthinkable - the most dangerous demon under his keeping gets loose to terrorize Seattle. And even worse, the treacherous Thin Man knows that the Keeper is dead and is set to destroy the apprentice, Nat, and become an evil ruler of demons.

Demonkeeper is a fun adventure that will appeal to boys who like a little supernatural weirdness. The demons created by the author are imaginative, such as Goop, a green slime who likes to hide in his master's nostril, or Wedge, who's a destructive mobile crack in the earth happy to consume whatever, or whoever, his master allows. The author is a Washingtonian, and inserts details about Seattle locations that are fun to spot and add texture to the story.

Royce Buckingham will be appearing at the King County Library System Foundation's 2010 Literary Lions Gala.

People generally think of their dogs as being loyal. We expect them to bark ferociously at intruders, revel in our love and attention, and greet us at the door with a joyously wagging tail. But can loyalty go too far?  Even for the sake of family harmony?

Prince believes in the Labrador Pact, which states that it is all Labradors' sacred duty to protect their families and keep them together. This proves a difficult job for Prince, whose family, the Hunters, is plagued by every home-wrecking issue in the book: infidelity, drugs, suicide, and depression, to name a few.  As Prince desperately tries to hold his family together, he finally makes a decision that will be his own undoing.

Like Sight Hound by Pam Houston, The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig is not a cutesy animal book.  Prince begins his story in the veterinarian's office where he is waiting to be put down, and ends in the same place.  But finding out how he got there, while discovering the unique perspective a dog has on the workings of a family, will keep you reading.

What do you do when the weight of the world is suddenly on your shoulders-- and you're only 12 years old?

That's what Brother is faced with in Rosanne Parry's debut novel, Heart of a Shepherd.  The youngest of five boys, he is the only one left on his grandparents' ranch once his father's reserve unit is sent to Iraq.  Although he loves his family's land and their animals, Brother has never felt like much of a rancher.  But he promised his father that he would help his grandparents maintain the ranch until his reserve unit gets back from Iraq, and is determined to see this promise through.  However, Brother soon learns that in life, as in war, there are certain elements that are out of our control.

Heart of a Shepherd is a powerfully written coming-of-age tale. Parry interweaves themes of family, responsibility, faith and community as Brother struggles to negotiate his place on all of these various levels. The carefully constructed character development, setting and plot make this a rich, satisfying read.

Duty to the Dead: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd

As World War I wears on, Bess Crawford does her bit as a nurse. The daughter of an Army colonel who spent much of his career in India, Bess is well versed in the ways of the military. She works on the hospital ship, Britannic, a sister-ship to the Titanic that was drafted into service. It's on that ship that she meets Arthur Graham, a young lieutenant who is not quite a lover, but more than a friend. When he dies, she is haunted by the death-bed promise she made to him, a promise to take one last message to his brother in Kent. She is also haunted by the "what-if"s that she can't quite shut out. She's not willing to admit that she loved him, but not ready to let him go either. Her promise takes on more meaning when she almost dies herself. The Britannic encounters a German mine and sinks, leaving Bess with a broken arm and a new sense of mortality. She returns to Britain, determined to deliver his message.

This leads her to Owlhurst, the Grahams' manor house. She delivers Arthur's last message to his brother, Jonathan, another soldier home on leave. Unfortunately, the message, ("Tell Jonathan I lied. I did it for Mother's sake. But it has to be set right.") means nothing to her and seemingly, nothing to Jonathan. But all is not as it should be with the Grahams. Mrs. Graham seems nervous. Jonathan exudes suppressed violence and Timothy, the youngest brother whose club foot has excluded him from military service, seems sly and resentful. Bess senses that something is wrong, but she can't even begin to guess at the meaning of Arthur's message until the last brother, Peregrine, is brought home with pneumonia. Peregrine lives at the local mental asylum, accused of killing a servant years ago. Bess begins to suspect that this fourteen-year-old murder and Arthur's message are connected.

Bess is an intrepid heroine, much along the lines of Maisie Dobbs or Mary Russell. Her family background and experiences in India color her perceptions of English society and her opinions about the war. She feels the plight of veterans keenly and is a convincingly passionate nurse. The historical setting offers rich opportunities for intriguing background characters and social observations. Diverse elements are at play in the plot, which is part traditional 'cozy' and part psychological mystery. The reader can easily figure out that something fishy is going on, and even accurately guess what motivations are at play, but the final denouement is still satisfying since Todd plants plenty of red herrings to keep the reader (and Bess) from knowing for certain which villain is the real villain. Charles Todd, a mother-son writing team, also writes the WWI era Inspector Rutledge series. Hopefully, we will see more of Bess!

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles

Consider the state of Missouri during the Civil War and you will see the war in a nutshell.  A portion of the population was pro-Southern. Yet Missouri decided to remain in the Union.  But they declared neutrality when the war began. And the residents were beset by bands of Union militia and Confederate renegades who stole, ravaged, and murdered their way through the countryside throughout the course of the war.  Missouri had an additional, dubious distinction: when the Union Army occupied Missouri, it imprisoned many ordinary women if they were suspected of supporting the Confederacy.

This is the backdrop for Enemy Women, an impressive work of historical fiction that depicts a little-known aspect of the Civil War.  The story begins at the Colley farm in the Missouri Ozarks.  A renegade Union militia group takes Justice Colley prisoner, drives his son into hiding, and destroys their farm.  Afraid to remain on the property without their father, 18-year-old Adair and her younger sisters start to walk north toward St. Louis with the hope of finding a safer place to wait out the war.

Adair is not afraid to speak the truth as she sees it, and often pays heavily for her candor.  On the trail to St. Louis, she offends a woman who retaliates by accusing Adair of aiding the Confederacy.  Adair is imprisoned for this offense, and faces painful consequences when she argues with the prison matron.  When Adair is interrogated by a Union officer, she in turn challenges him to explain his part in the cowardly practice of locking up innocent women. This conversation is the first of many for this unlikely couple.  Their ensuing relationship results in Adair's escape and the officer's transfer to the battlegrounds of the Deep South.  They hope to meet again at the end of the war, but the murderous chaos of the time does not give them much hope for the future.

Last Labor Day weekend, my wife and I spent a long weekend in Portland and during our stay we visited a very large, very amazing bookstore where I felt compelled (as always) to buy some books. Being as I like to get books that are a reflection of the places we visit, I purchased In Search of Ancient Oregon: a Geological and Natural History by Ellen Morris Bishop. I know, I know...it sounds like a dry and dull college text. Not at all. Though the content is indeed meaty, the prose is geared for the general reader and it is supplemented with numerous, beautiful color photographs of landscapes from every corner of the state. In short, In Search of Ancient Oregon is a fascinating and visually stunning exploration of the geological history of our neighbor to the south and, by extension, of our very own state.

The material within this book is chronologically sequenced from the Paleozoic era (248 million years ago and before) through to the Holocene era (or the last 10,000 years). Within each chapter, the author gives detailed information about the geological processes during specific periods, the local life forms that were extant, and the visual evidence of those processes and ancient life forms today (that's where the pictures come in). Thankfully, there is a detailed glossary in the back as well as a lengthy bibliography. But while the glossary came in handy, the prose was presented in a manner that is understandable to even the likes of me. Furthermore, there were unexpected flashes of humor that I found very refreshing; they made me smile but also helped me digest the undeniably weighty material.  

So here are some of the informational nuggets that I found particularly interesting while reading In Search of Ancient Oregon. Oregon's oldest rocks come from the Devonian era (about 400 million years ago) and its newest rocks are on Mount Hood and date from 1781. What was to become Oregon began as two island chains; one became the Blue Mountains in the northeast and the other became the Klamath Mountains in the southwest. They did not become part of mainland North America until about 100 million years ago during the middle of the Cretaceous period (the final period during the age of the dinosaurs). And speaking of dinosaurs: there weren't any in Oregon, though a fossilized hadrosaur did drift north from rock originating in northern California (the first of many Californian immigrants). Most of the landscape that one sees in Oregon today originated during the Miocene period (25 million to 5 million years ago) as prolific volcanic activity buried huge portions of the state (and Washington, too) under thousands of feet of lava. And those beautiful High Cascades are actually relatively new, being less than 1 million years old. 

Speaking personally, I intend to bring this book with me the next time I drive through Oregon. I've always been drawn to the rugged landscape of that beautiful state but now I have a clearer picture of how it came to be. What look like ordinary rocks actually tell an extraordinary story and if you're interested in hearing that story, then by all means do yourself a favor and check out In Search of Ancient Oregon! 

Heart's Blood by Gail Dayton

This is the second book in the Steampunk series by Gail Dayton. She continues to explore a world where magic co-exists uneasily with normal Victorian society.

Master conjurer Grey Carteret is used to doing things his own way. He doesn't want any connections that tie him down and he avoids most responsibilities. But, when he regains consciousness in a London gutter not far from a man killed by magic, he needs help.

When he's arrested for the murder, the street urchin who's been guarding him offers a deal, take him on as an apprentice and he'll get help for Grey. It's a nasty deal for a man who prides himself on remaining unattached to anyone, but he has to accept.

Imagine his surprise to discover his new apprentice is actually a gently reared young woman who has fallen on hard times. Not only that, but Pearl Parkin possesses the gift for sorcery, the greatly feared blood magic only women can use.

Dayton continues to craft this world, with wonderful explanations of the way the different forms of magic -- conjury, sorcery, alchemy and wizardry work. In fact, most of the focus of the book is on magic and there are no goggles, airships or mad scientists to be found. There are dead zones and strange machines that are a continuing premise through this series of books.

There is also a relationship, as Grey discovers he actually enjoys being with his apprentice and Pearl moves from hero worship to a full partnership. Watching this couple discover how well-suited they are for each other is immense fun. The book also features some of the Victorian mores of the time, including some magicians who take issue with women studying magic.

If you're ready to move beyond vampires, werewolves and shape-shifters, this is a nice change of pace for a paranormal book.