Catch as Cat Can, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: Something's rotten in the state of Denamrk city of Crozet, and various people (this series's ameteur detectives as well as the police) are determined to learn the truth. (Um, yeah. So far the only thing that separates this summary from that of any mystery is the location. That narrows it to one of about a dozen books. Maybe more. Lessee if I can come up with a summary that doesn't give away anything important. I suppose first I need to figure out what's important. Do I really need to say anything more? I've told you it's a mystery after all (or at least I will)) 

Reaction: Whee, mystery! I kinda knew who did it thru most of the book, but I had no idea how (and there's ~no way I would've guessed the truth). The solution in this book is similar to the one in the other one of this person's books that I've read, but knowing that doesn't exactly help me any in trying to solve things. And it's a general enough similarity that it can be chalked up to the constraints of a mystery series about a small town. All in all, this book was a reminder of how much I enjoy well-written mystery stories. And, better yet, this book had the feel of any random novel except for the fact that the main action was centered around crimes and trying to solve them. In short, I enjoyed this book immensely and want to read the rest of the series. And maybe it would be better to read them in order so that I wouldn't have to try to figure out little details of what the situation is (who is/isn't married to whom, for example), but it's not that important and I don't think I'd have the patience to do that, so I doubt I'll bother.

The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: The adventure of failed wizard Rincewind and tourist Twoflower in a world where the tourism industry in non-existant.

Thoughts: This book seemed almost like several short stories all of which had a climax and a near-death situation for the protagonists. It was, quite possibly, way too much action for my liking. Also, this being the first book, the author apparently felt he had to try to make sure everyone understood exactly what his universe was like and went out of his way to tell the reader about it. But other than that, it was a pretty good book. Course it ends with an enormous cliff-hanger, but that's another matter entirely.

Naked without a Hat, by Jeanne Willis

Summary: Will moves out of the house on account of not getting along with his mother. This leads to meeting some new people, and it sort of leads to a new job where he meets a girl. ...I can understand why they didn't bother putting a summary on the back of the book: no one wanted to write one and/or it's a large challenge trying to write one without saying anything vital to the plot that one thinks the reader ought to discover for him/herself.

Thoughts:I wasn't sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't this. I only picked up this book because it had the word "hat" in the title and the first paragraph or two didn't look too bad (there was no summary for me to judge it on). It's kinda like Catcher in the Rye only not nearly so lousy (I'm probably only making the comparison because my brother is reading Catcher in the Ryefor summer reading (and complaining about how bad it is), but there are some definate similarities. The lots of talk about sex, for example. And the against-the-norm protagonist). But no matter what happened, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out what happened to the characters and whether they lived happily ever after (I don't think that question was really answered, but the author made me think it was). I'm not sure I'd call it a good book, but it certainly wasn't a bad book. I guess it exists outside of the realm of good/bad. It wasn't the kind of book that makes me extraodinarily happy and wanting to talk about how great the book was, but maybe I'm a better person for having read it. I guess it's mostly just a book with a point to it.

Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: A sorcerer has been born, and under the guidance of his father, very nearly causes the world to end (three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse getting totally plastered and losing their horses, not necessarily in that order, probably also helped). Also, Rincewind, Conina, and Nijel work against the bad stuff going on.

Thoughts: Well, besides getting horribly distracted throughout the last part of the book because I had (and still have) "Hardware Store" running through my head and any time I managed to ignore it, it occured to me that it was lurking and was suddenly stuck in my head again, it was quite a lovely book. As most of them are. Lots of amusing comments, as might be expected. Some real-world stereotypes twisted into something Discworld can include. Um, yeah. That's all I got at the moment.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, by E.L. Konigsburg

Summary: After the City Council declares that her uncles' towers must be demolished due to nitpicky details of the law (really because they're hurting property values, but who's to judge), Margaret is determined to save them. But it sure won't be easy saying as the law is technically against her...

Thoughts: This book as a style of writing that requires one to read it patiently and thouroughly because one couldn't possibly go back and read it again. It just isn't done. And somehow that's an asset, because it takes skill to write a book that makes such demands.

This book reminds me of another, probably by the same author, where people use roughly the same tactic to achieve their end. That's ~all I remember about it, unfortunately.

There's something about the book that's just wonderful: the planning, the way everything comes together in the end, ...whatever it is, it makes me happy. Actually it doesn't; it seems to have made me thoughtful. But close enough. I enjoyed it, in a thoughtful kind of way. Maybe that's the point I was trying to make. And if that doesn't make sense, blame the fact that it's after 2:30 am and words are escaping me with regards to describing my reaction to the book. Why do I bother with this anyway? Because I can? I guess that's as good a reason as any. I guess I should get some sleep at some point, too.

Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Moist von Lipwig is a thief. Not the usual "thief in the night" type. No, Moist is a master of making people think what he wants them to think. And a few slight of hand tricks don't hurt either. After his capture and subsequent execution at the hands of the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch, he is offered a job as Postmaster General. But there might be a slight catch: 40 years worth of backlog and stiff competition from the clacks (a semaphore/telegraph type operation).

Thoughts: Ah, a classic good vs. evil book. Except in this case, good is personified by a criminal working on the right side of the law. Takes some creative thinking to bring down a bad guy, ya? Plus this book is sprinkled with the kinds of random amusing comments that dot all Pratchett books as far as I know (although I'm not sure anything can beat "Better marching had been done. And it had been done by penguins")

I think I've figured out why I've gotten so annoyed around the endings of most of the books: When I get near the end, someone nearby invariably distracts me and I fail to ignore them and return to my book to a sufficient degree to enjoy it. Well, now that I know, maybe I can avoid it, ya?

Hot on the Trail, by Jane Isenberg

Summary: After the death of one of her students, Bel Barrett starts investigating why and comes to a surprising conclusion.

Reaction: Woot, mysterious mystery! I wasn't too interested in some of the stuff related entirely to the personal life of someone ~my mom's age, but other than that, I enjoyed it. The ending was such a surprise I'm still not sure how Bel figured out who the murderer was even knowing all the facts.

I guess mysteries aren't really books one rereads because the whole point is trying to figure out whodunit, and there's no point to that if you already know.

This is an example of a book where the irrelevent personal life stuff fits into it nicely. There's plenty of stuff that serves no purpose in terms of the mystery story, but it doesn't draw attention to itself that way (historical narratives are kept to a page or two and everything fits nicely in the continuing saga of the characters (it seems to be a series, so this is another chapter in the personal lives of the characters in addition to being a self-contained mystery) Hey, that's a good idea for how to deal with my inability to come up with a decent plot for any story I'm trying to write: I can integrate it into a series of mysteries. Except that means I'd have to come up with crimes and clues and try to imagine the mindset of someone, or several someones, who doesn't know who was responsible for whatever crime. Never mind.)