Reading material

Sorry about the delay in posting, folks. The Seward County Fair was this past weekend, and I spent the better part of the last five days out at the fairgrounds. Next major task - putting together the results and photos.

I did have a little bit of time to read while I was waiting for champions to be named, and I finished a couple books. The first, "A Monstrous Regiment of Women," is the second in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. Mary Russell is Sherlock Holmes' partner. I know, I know, Arthur Conan Doyle gave Holmes John Watson, who makes the occasional cameo, but King has chosen to create a young woman who is essentially Holmes' equal. Holmes is retired and in his 60s, while Russell just turned 21 in this book. The two make a formidable team. Both are exceptionally intelligent, and Holmes is teaching Russell how to combine her powers of observation and her knowledge to solve problems.

The second, "Pies and Prejudice," is the first in the Charmed Pie Shoppe series by Ellery Adams. I hadn't heard of Adams before, but the jacket sounded fun so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a pretty quick read. Ella Mae, the protagonist, has returned to her hometown after discovering her husband cheating on her. She wants to open a pie shop and has the opportunity to do so, finding as she learns the ropes that she has a definite gift for baking. And for other things, but I won't give any more away. While parts of the story stretch the boundaries of belief, that's kind of the point of reading a book like this. I thought it was fun enough that I'll probably read the next in the series.

Before finishing those, I completed "The Men Who United the States" by Simon Winchester. This particular book chronicles the way in which the United States went from being a collection of farms and towns to a united country. Winchester does a great job researching his subjects and lays out the information in an easily readable format. I've read other books by him and enjoy the way he sets out history. In "The Men Who United the States," Winchester takes America from Lewis and Clark to the Internet. Some of the people he credits with technological advances are people I'd never heard of, so that was cool.

So, now I have to find another couple books to work my way through as school starts and we get back into a more regular routine.