The Home Front: An Oral History of the War Years in America, 1941-1945 by Archie Satterfield

I cannot recommend this enough. History tends to be very dry and sanitized by the people who write it. Generally the only good, juicy, HUMAN parts that survive are personal stories (journals, private letters).

The entire book is filled with first person accounts of life in the US during WWII. Sure, everyone has seen the Rosie the Riveter poster, but the stories in this book talk about _real life during that time period. People live in tents, they travel for the first time, they have sex, they divorce—My parents were pariahs in the Catholic church for being divorced in the 70s – I had had no clue that there was such a rash of divorces after WWII.

The book is chock full of the kind of information that never makes it to the textbooks, y’know, the parts that actually make it interesting.

And Be a Villain by Rex Stout

(a Nero Wolfe book)

This was my first time reading Stout and a Wolfe book–I’d enjoyed the Wolfe movies on A&E and wanted to try it.  It’s pretty dated in some ways, particularly regarding communication and transportation, since it is set in the 30s.  I found the character of Wolfe, a lot like Sherlock Holmes, to be even less likable in the book that he was on film, but Archie’s wit makes up for it.  Not the best book I’ve ever read, but if any more come my way I’ll read them without a fight.

Dead Wrong by J.A. Jance

(A Sheriff Joanna Brady book)

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

(audiobook)

“Men can be so stupid, but cake is always good.”

That’s a line from Joshilyn Jackson’s Between, Georgia and it is one of the best lines I’ve ever read about/by a Southern woman and I just had to share.

This was soooo much better than Gods in Alabama. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Gods’ was good, but this was infinitely better.  There did seem to be a little character borrowing from one staunch southern aunt to another, but it was enough different that I didn’t mind so much the parts where it wasn’t.

Nonny reminded of Arlene a lot at first, but somewhere in the middle they split and became their own people.  I like Nonny better.

Writing Erotic Fiction and Getting Published by Mike Bailey

Again, a bit of a disappointment, though more practical (or perhaps just less romantic) than the idiot book about writing erotic romance.

Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple

I just enjoyed the heck out of this. It was not what I was expecting at all.

I really, really liked that I didn’t see the ending (pre-epilogue, the epilogue was kind of predictable) coming until it was on top of me.

I’m not a musician, but from the outside it looked as though the musical aspects of the story were written well and intelligently/plausibly.

We’re in This War, Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform

by Judy Barrett Litoff (Editor), David C. Smith (Editor)

Broken Dishes by Earlene Fowler

(a Benni Harper mystery)

Just getting caught up, since I missed this one in the series.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Er*tic Romance by Alison Kent

A bit of a disappointment, truthfully.  Too much general writing tips, not enough genre specific information, and not the nitty-gritty level of detail someone attempting to write this type of thing for the first time might want/need (or at least that’s how it felt to me!)