My Library

You may be tempted to put down Tom Reynold's Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulanceafter reading the tragic story in the prologue. Don't. This book based on a compilation of posts from his popular blog Random Acts of Reality, does have its share of tear jerker stories, but balanced by enough humour to help the reader maintain sanity and see how Reynold's maintains his as a member of the London Ambulance Service.

Readers who've been on the net since the mid-90s will likely remember a recording of a 911 call requesting a «bambulance» [NSFW] for the caller who has been bitten on the neck by a deer he hit with his car. Think of that story multiplied times 270 pages and you've got this book in a nutshell.

This book is a light read that you could finish in a couple of hours. I've spent the last week reading it in little doses and letting it set the tone for my day. Dealing with drunks, idiots or the simply ill mannered isn't quite so tough when you've read a humorous anecdote of the trouble they cause for emergency workers. Of course, anyone who's ever worked in a role that involved any level of customer service will quickly see parallels in stories about concerned passersby calling an ambulance for a collapsed drunk and laugh along with «Control» (the ambulance dispatchers) telling kids making prank calls to look up at the security camera in the call box. Anyone who's had to deal with bureaucracy on a regular basis will feel for the author when he is stuck waiting for a tire change, unable to get to emergencies, because he'd be held responsible if he changed the flat tire on the «Fast Response Unit» and something went wrong.

There's plenty of serious stuff in the book to provoke real thought, too. You'll certainly think twice before trying to beat an ambulance across an intersection or calling in an emergency when getting in the car to drive to the hospital is a more viable option. You'll feel for the emergency workers who take care of us when you read about Reynold's brush with HIV-exposure.

Those who think that the US should emulate Britain's National Health Service should definitely read this book. The common assertion recently is that universal health care frees up emergency rooms for real emergencies. Hardly. It just assures that the indigent who don't have GPs (a family physician) use the ambulance service AND the emergency room as their first stop for medical care.

Bottom line: This is a great book, well worth the read. I got it as an early review copy and it was near the bottom of my list of the books I requested. Sometimes things work out for the best, because I loved this book.

Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture and an acclaimed true crime author. In Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes, Whose Grotesque Crimes Shattered Turn-of-the-Century Chicago, Schechter brings readers the tale of one of America's first serial killers. H.H. Holmes, or Herman Mudgett as he was more prosaically named by his parents, operated from a base in Chicago in the time of Jack the Ripper, but his crimes spread from Texas to Toronto and east to Philadelphia.

Holmes was the consummate con man, building a «castle» in Chicago that covered a city block, all while shafting the builders and building material suppliers. Facing financial ruin, Holmes began his career of murder with schemes reminiscent of the «Black Widow» mold of female serial killers - a bigamist and playboy, Holmes killed several wives and mistresses for their money. When that failed and he appears to have met a woman he had no intention of killing, he eventually branched out to killing others in insurance schemes. (He may have been involved in an earlier life insurance scheme as well, though whether that involved murder or merely grave robbing or whether it happened at all are unclear.) At some point, Holmes seems to have acquired a taste for murder, as he purposely chose murder, including the murder of three children, to cover his tracks even when it appears the track covering murders brought more attention than simply leaving well enough alone.

The career of Holmes lacks the titillation of the psychosexual crimes of later serial killers like Ted Bundy and his matter of fact methods are not as gruesome as the likes of Ed Gein. Perhaps the most shocking, frightening aspect of Holmes is that he fooled so many while calmly and methodically murdering first for profit alone and then for profit and sport.

In The Devil Inside, Jenna Black invites the reader into the world of exorcist Morgan Kingsley, a world where demons operate openly, so openly they're regulated and controlled by law. Kingsley's job is to exorcise the demons that break the law and possess the unwilling and she is one of the best at it. These are and aren't the demons we know. The premise is that these supernatural beings are the basis for the demon mythology, but they aren't simply fallen angels. In fact, Black never makes it entirely clear just what a demon is - of course not, this is the first novel in a series.

Morgan comes from a family of demon enthusiasts that belong to the Spirit Society, a group promoting demon possession. Demon hosts have exceptional strength, resilience and immunity. Legal, licensed and registered they take on dangerous jobs like firefighting and police work. Morgan's brother is a willing host to a demon, his own personality trapped somewhere in the back of the demon mind and Morgan definitely doesn't approve. She approves even less when she finds out, early in the novel, that she's an unwilling host herself and one that's starting a civil war among the demons no less. The penalty for the demon is exorcism and exorcism may leave the host's mind completely shattered, a fact she understands from long experience.

Through the course of the story, Morgan mistreats her boyfriend, fantasizes about/with the demon in her head, fights with her brother's demon for herself and as part of the war, exorcises a legal demon gone roque and discovers things about demon society no other human knows. In this milieu exorcists exist in the same shadowy semi-official second class private cop status as private investigators in all the private dick pulp fiction. So, of course, Morgan has a love-hate relationship with a cop, in this case a demon cop, who also has a thing for her and in the style you might expect of a demon his attraction is not satisfied with vanilla courtship. Even aside from the sacrilegious ideas that all demons aren't evil, demon possession might not be all bad and exorcists can be sexy young women, not just old priests, the easily offended will need to stay away because of the sex and the kink. (The worst Amazon review gave the book three stars because it «bogged down in rough erotic content.» The other reviewers didn't complain.)

This novel is suspenseful, sexy and action packed. The world Black builds is intriguing. The demons internal strife, their positive role in human society and the moral complexity of the human and demon characters make for an interesting read.

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead's second novel and her first effort in the Young Adult market, opens with Rose, our heroine, and Lissa, her best friend, under attack by what they think are Strigoi, the evil immortal vampires of human legend. Rose is a Dhampir, a human/vampire hybrid, and Lissa is a Moroi, a mortal but pureblooded vampire with powerful magic, and a Princess at that. They've run away from St. Vladimir's Academy, a vampire boarding school in Montana of all places, and the Academy wants them back. [Spoiler of sorts, but nothing you won't find on the book's cover or deduce from the title - they get taken back.] The book manages to combine typical school age gossip and rivalries with royal intrigue and the complexities of Mead's own vampire society. The entire story is set against the related mysteries of why Rose and Lissa ran away from the Academy in the first place and the unusual telepathic bond between the two.

As you'd expect of a Young Adult novel, this is a light, quick read. Even so Mead includes plenty of meat in the story - suspense, mystery, humor and romance that pushes the borders of what's allowable in the genre.

This book is every bit as good as Succubus Blues. Both are must reads for fans of vampires, paranormal and fantasy.

The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine is aimed at people who might be described as multiply interested, the cliched «jack of all trades and master of none.» She calls them «Renaissance Souls» (the modern, PC version of «Renaissance Man».)

She answers questions starting with «Am I a Renaissance Soul?», «What do I say when people ask what I do?» and «How do I make a living without a 'career'?» She provides examples from the lives of Renaissance Souls from Leonardo da Vinci to Benjamin Franklin.

Her chapters on earning an income are good. She emphasizes ideas to get a job that earns an income but also contributes to other interests, when getting the perfect job just isn't possible.

The book is really good and well worth the read for anyone who feels too confined in the idea of following one career for 30-40 years and then retiring to play golf. It was good enough that it contributed to the name for my website network (along with several other occurrences of the Renaissance theme).

There are two downsides to her book, shared with many in the emerging «life design» genre. First, a lot of space is devoted just to convincing the reader that it's ok to be a Renaissance Soul. For some, that may be great. For me, I saw the title, intuitively understood what it meant and that it applied to me. I was already familiar with the life stories of Leonardo, Ben Franklin and Oprah Winfrey. I didn't need to be convinced, I needed a *plan*. The pages devoted to convincing were, for me, mostly filler.

Second, it works from an assumption that the reader is either a well paid professional or a single person with no debts for many of its suggestions. For those with obligations and without substantial savings, all her suggestions may be doable, but they'll require the kind of sacrifice from the Renaissance Family that the family may not want to make. For an attorney to move into a job outside the legal field is relatively easy. For a Renaissance Soul with a family, debts and an interest in law to go the other way - especially for what is likely to be a relatively short legal career that never leads to the perks and income partnership, etc. - is not so simple.

The book still has plenty to recommend it for the Average Renaissance Joe, but it's more tailored to Renaissance Joseph, Esquire. For the reader of average means, additional resources may be more necessary, but the book is still a great starting point. Plus, if you do need some convincing that it's OK to try new things, switch jobs and make a career out of following all your dreams instead of just one, this book should do the trick.

Succubus Blues is Richelle Mead's debut novel and the first in her Georgina Kincaid series. The novels center around a neurotic, conflicted, possibly even moral succubus living in Seattle, Georgina Kincaid. From the cover to the storyline to Miss Kincaid's job, at a bookstore, Mead writes a story in the tradition of the best rock and roll songs - the best rock songs are about being a rock star; this book is about being a book freak. (I think it should be obvious that I mean that in the nicest possible way, being a book freak myself. The politically correct term is bibliophile, but I hate political correctness almost as much as I hate pretentious words. Ironic.)

Anyway... Georgina works as an assistant manager in a bookstore and has a long running obsession with writer Seth Mortensen. When circumstances conspire to bring Seth not only to Seattle but to her bookstore, then back to the coffeeshop in her bookstore every day to do his writing, Georgina spares no time falling in love, even if she doesn't realize it. Of course, it almost goes without saying that Seth stands no chance against her supernatural charms. But I'll say it anyway. Seth stands no chance against her supernatural charms. Of course, with looks like those the hot redhead has plenty of other suitors waiting in the wings...and maybe even a few who have wings. (Oh, that brings me back to the whole rock song formula thing. Take a look at the picture of Richelle Mead on her blog, Even Redheads Get the Blues, by the way. Then take a look at Georgina on the cover (illustration by Chad Michael Ward):

Now, if you're expecting lots of sex, I'd suggest an Anne Rice novel instead. There is one very graphic scene, in Chapter 24 of this 26 Chapter novel and everything else is mostly innuendo.

The only problem I had at all was that the big «Aha!» moment came to early. There was a dead giveaway about 2/3 of the way through the book, which left the last third as wrap-up (including the sex scene). Though there were some red herrings and a couple of surprises past the point, the main «whodunit» mystery was gone. On the other hand, it was a coherent, well crafted story where it wasn't necessary to explain away inconsistencies, which is why it clicked so early. The one seeming inconsistency was well explained and did provide a minor «Aha!» and a bit of delicious, even if not served cold, vengeance for the reader to share.

I'm looking forward to the next in the series, due out in December, Succubus On Top and am even ordering her Young Adult offering published in August, Vampire Academy. I'll be reading more by this new author.

Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs used to be smart. «in high school and college, [he] was actually quite cerebral.» Covering pop culture at Entertainment Weekly, then highbrow pop culture at Esquire drained his brain. He wanted to feel smart again. So, he decided to read the