Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall SMith

Blue Shoes and Happiness is the 7th book in the series of mysteries featuring Mma Romatswe, the proprietress of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana. Mma Romatswe has a number of mysteries to solve in this outing.

There is a blackmailer who has endangered the job of one of her clients (by blackmailing the clients supervisor, who blames her), there is a mysterious fear troubling the village of Mokolodi (which is near a game reserve), and there is a doctor behaving strangely about blood pressure medication. In addition to the mysteries, Mma Romatswe is concerned for her second in command, Mma Makutsi.

Mma Makutsi has recently become engaged to a man who owns a furniture store, Phuti Radiphuti. Unfortunately, she has told him she is a feminist, which she fears has frightened him. In order to reassure Phuti, she takes Mma Romatswe's husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni shopping for a new chair at her fiance's furniture store. While they are looking at a chair, Mma Makutsi reassures Phuti that she is not the kind of feminist who thinks men are unimportant.

Many other adventures take place, in the somewhat by-the-way story of the novel. A cobra under Mma Makutsi's desk is dealt with, Mma Romatswe tries dieting, and Mma Romatswe thinks about her wonderful late father, for whom she was truly Precious.

The Lighthouse by P.D. James

The Lighthouse is an Adam Dalgliesh mystery. It takes place on a fictional island off the coast of Cornwall called Combe. Combe has been set up as a trusteeship, with the purpose of giving famous and/or notable people (such as scientists, authors, and politicians) a peaceful place to spend a week or two in solitude. There are a few provisions: visitors are not supposed to talk about Combe, anyone born on Combe may visit, and members of the Holcombe family (the last owners of Combe) may live on the island. There is only one surviving member of the Holcombe family, an elderly woman named Emily Holcombe. There is only one surviving person born on the island, an eminent novelist named Nathan Oliver. There are a number of staff members on Combe who see to the needs of the guests and run the operation. As the novel opens, there has been a murder on Combe, and Adam Dalgliesh has been called upon to take up the case.

The Lighthouse has several features in common with James's previous works. The writing is elegant, the psychological development is subtle and provides depth, and the mystery is well developed.

Dalgliesh is in love, and his thoughts throughout the novel turn to the woman he loves, Emma, particularly since he was called away just before they were to have had a weekend together. Kate Miskin, A.D.'s second in command, has just begun a relationship with a colleague who left for a promotion, Piers Tarrant. The third officer investigating the case is a new colleague, a man named Francis Benton-Smith.

The suspicious death that brings the detectives to Combe is the death of the novelist, Nathan Oliver. He was on the island with his daughter (who serves as his housekeeper) and his copy editor/secretary. The daughter and copy-editor have been having a secret affair. Nathan Oliver is a highly unpleasant and amoral character. He seems to have no inner life and relies on psychological experimentation to write his books. For instance, to write about a seduction he seduces a young woman and to write about alcholism, he plies a sober alcoholic with wine, inducing a bender. Because of his sheer nastiness, nearly everyone on the island has reason to want him dead.

The other suspects (besides the daughter and copy-editor) include Emily Holcombe (who might want him dead, because he has expressed a desire to move to the island and to live in the house where she is living), her manservant, the island's administrator, the island's doctor and his nurse-and-wife, the island's priest/sub-administrator (who is also the alcoholic Nathan Oliver experimented on), the boatman, the cook, and the laundress. There were also two illustrious guests on the island at the time of the murder--Speidel, a German dignitary and Yelland, an English scientist.

During the course of the investigation, Dalgliesh (as well as Speidel) comes down with the flu, and it turns out to be SARS, so the island is quarantined. Kate Miskin takes the lead on the investigation while Dalgliesh is sequestered in the infirmary. During this time, a second murder takes place, and this time the murdered person is beloved rather than reviled.

All mysteries are neatly wound up by the end of the novel, including the relatively mild question as to whether Dalgliesh and Emma will overcome their mutual reticence enough to tell each other that they want to marry. Overall, this was a highly satisfying mystery and novel.

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam

A Fractured Mind is the memoir of a man with multiple personality disorder. Oxnam, who is a noted Sinologist and the former president of The Asia Society. In late middle age, while visiting a psychiatrist to discuss problems that arose from his alcoholism, he discovered that some of his problems (blackouts, strange behavior) were due to his multiple personalities.

Over several years of therapy, Oxnam was able to inegrate most of his multiples, though in many ways he just learned to live with the three strongest. The book is written from the viewpoints of the multiple personalities, which is interesting, but also makes for some fairly simplistic writing. An afterword from Oxnam's therapist rounds things out.

A Fractured Mind would probably be of interest to therapists, but was only mildly interesting to me. I picked it up thinking it would be of particular interest, because Oxnam had accomplished so much in his life, it seemed likely he'd have a lot to say. Overall, I found the book somewhat disappointing.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking begins on the evening that her husband, John Gregory Dunne died suddenly of a heart attack while eating supper. Didion describes her reactions to her husband's sudden death, with extensive flashbacks to earlier times in their marriage. She also describes the year she spent grieving, mourning, and sitting with her daughter in hospital critical care facilities.

The Year of Magical Thinking is a brief and moving account. Quintana Roo Dunne Michael died August 26, 2005.

Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

Darwinia is a surprising book. Reading descriptions and reviews did not prepare me for the strangeness of this book. The basic concept is described simply enough--one night in 1912 the world changes radically--the European continent is overnight replaced by a strange new continent of roughly the same contours, but with no sentient beings and wholly strange animals.

Wilson tells the story of Darwinia through the eyes of a group of explorers of the "new continent", particularly a young man who is a photographer on the expedition, Guilford Law. Intercut with the story of the expedition are chapters about Guilford Law's wife and child, left waiting for him in the new London, which is a frontier outpost. Also intercutting the expedition chapters are chapters about a man who exhibits medium-like channeling of a "God".

It was hard for me to get involved in the world of Darwinia. At first the concept was so outlandish as to seem ridiculous--I didn't see how Wilson could carry off the concept as a reasonable science fiction novel, instead of an illogical fantasy. But, Wilson does manage the feat, although I won't say this book is nearly so successful as The Spin, in being both involving and fascinating. Still, Wilson creates in Darwinia a compelling group of characters and lays out a challenging and unusual story.

The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson

The Chronoliths takes place in the near future. Scott Warden, the narrator, is living in Thailand with his wife and young daughter when the first of the Chronoliths "arrives" near where he has been living. Chronoliths are huge and strange monuments of unknown material, that arrive suddenly bearing the likeness of Kuin or a testament to his conquests. Many stories high, they are of some sort of blue glass-like substance that can't be broken (even with atomic weaponry) and that supplants all that is in their place.

Scott Warden follows his wife and daughter to the United States, but too late to save his marriage. He spends the next several years working as a programmer and seeing his daughter Kaitlin on weekends. Eventually, his wife remarriage a prosperous man who seems to be a nice enough guy, if a little pompous.

About five years after Scott's return to the U.S., he is summarily fired from his job, only to be hired by an old college professor Sue Chopra. Sue is a brilliant theoretical mathematician and has been working on the problem of the Chronoliths. She hires Scott to work with her, in part because she believes that a number of coincidences (Scott and a friend being present when the first Chronolith appeared, Scott being a former student of Chopra's, etc.) have meaning, if only the problem could be viewed from additional dimensions.

Another ten years pass and more Chronoliths have appeared throughout the world. People in many regions have become Kuinists, adding to the instability of governments around the world. Young people in Kuinist groups are prone to going on "Haj", by which they mean setting up camp where a Chronolith is expected to appear (by this time scientists can predict the appearance of a Chronolith by preceding radiation.) Scott's daughter Kaitlin has joined a Kuinist youth group, in part because her stepfather belongs to a group for business reasons, and has disappeared.

Scott gathers information about the youth group Kaitlin has become involved in, and goes looking for her in Mexico. In the course of seeking out Kaitlin, he takes up with a woman whose son is also on the Haj, Ashlee. In Portillo, Scott is able to find and rescue Kaitlin, but Ashlee's son is apparently lost.

More years pass, the world grows ever more unstable, and Sue Chopra believes she has found a way to destabilize a Chronolith. It is during the outcome of this attempt that the penultimate action of the novel takes place, with only a few final pages to round things up.

This was an interesting book with an intriguing premise. The characters are mostly believably human, although not so well grounded as the characters in Spin, by contrast. Overall, worth reading.

How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life

by Mameve Medwed

This book is a kind of romance with novelistic intentions. The novel's protagonist, Abby Randolph is a small-time antiques dealer (she deals out of a stall in an antiques "mall"). Her mother has left her a few things and a knack for antiques. Her father has moved to California with his much younger wife. Her boyfriend and fellow antique dealer has recently left her for a better-connected and financed woman. This is the state of affairs as the novel opens.

Then, Abby, at the urging of her kindly antique stall neighbor, takes a chamber pot to the Antiques Road Show, and her life is turned upside down. The chamber pot turns out to be worth a lot of money, her-ex-best-friend and ex-fiancee (a brother and sister) sue her for half of the money, and she takes up with a rakish reporter.

All is neatly sorted out by the end of the story, with Abby happily settled down with the right man and a future that fits.

Pleasant but inconsequential.