Yoshitaka Amano illustrates passages from The Tale of Genji (11th century Japanese novel of court life and possibly the first novel), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and catalogues of fairies. A short section at the end discusses fairies of the British Isles versus Japanese spirits. You won’t get much of a sense of Genji or Midsummer Night’s if you’re not already familiar with them. Really this book is just a showcase for Amano’s gorgeous art.

Very interesting was reading about space since I watched the Apollo movie so I will be reading a lot of books about it this summer

I love reading classics from my childhood!

Garland compares beliefs about the afterlife, funerary issues like mummification and embalming, and general attitudes to death and dying across the peoples of the ancient world. Unfortunately the ancient world in this book only covers the various ancient societies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome (only the original kingdom, not the full empire), plus the Etruscans, Jewish people, early Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Zoroastrians. That's a lot of course, but look at a map and you see what a very small part of the ancient world. Nothing east of India or west of Italy, north of Italy or south of Egypt. So while it is really interesting, I'm hoping for a volume two covering the Far East, Africa, Australia, and the whole western half of the world.

Absolutely chilling read. I didn’t realize it was a true story until I was halfway through. Made it even more intriguing and disturbing. The authors capabilities on portraying events leaves little to the imagination.

Dowager Queen Ravenna has ruled through subtle and not-so-subtle manipulation of her late husband and now her son. King Roland hated his father and fears his mother. Queen Falaise, alternately bullied and ignored by men, might be a lot than more than anyone realizes. Denzel is Roland’s cousin and closest friend, but where do his loyalties really lie? Kade Carrion, Queen of Air and Darkness and Roland’s illegitimate older sister, returns to court. Is she part of the plot to kill the royals and use the fae to start a war with the neighboring kingdom? Years of distrust separates the family. They might survive if they work together.

Adam Kay recounts some of the highs and lows of his medical career. Six years after leaving medicine to become a writer and script editor, Adam finds the diaries he kept while a junior doctor. He changed the names and dates, so there’s no violation of medical privacy. Most of what he shares has humor, but it’s a dark often gallows humor. And there’s no glimmer of mirth in the final entry that marked the beginning of the end for him in OB-GYN.

Annie Adams is settling into village life after solving her great aunt’s murder. She meet’s eccentric Peony Lane, the woman who predicted Great Aunt Frances’s murder way back in 1967. Peony has another old prediction, one she gave to the wrong person. And this one also leafs to a dead body in Annie’s new home and Annie fitting together pieces from the latest murder with a cold case.

Absolutely loved this book. Will for sure read more by this author. HEA plus hockey romance, what more could you ask for. Lots of spice also!!

Donovan explores board games from ancient Egypt (senet) and Ur (the royal game of Ur) up to the biggies of the 21st century (Pandemic, Catan, and Ticket to Ride). He describes some less than ethical dealings by the big US game companies, but seems to downplay them. Trying to play nice, maybe? His chapter on Monopoly portrays the execs of Parker Brothers as being unfortunately duped instead of deliberately squashing The Landlord Game and its creator, Elizabeth Magie. It’s All a Game even touches on Google’s AlphaGo defeat of a (human) grand master go player, one of the big steps in AI development.