#38 Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell It is exceptionally difficult to "read" people accurately at first meeting. One can learn to do it better, but no one can do it accurately every time. Malcolm Gladwell takes us through the psychology of trying to "read the minds" of others when the social context is new or out of order. He discusses several cases where an inaccurate reading results in tragedy, and what can be done better. He doesn't present a magic bullet solution for the problem - because there isn't one - but he does make some excellent points about ways to do better.
#39 Death in Winter by Michael Jan Friedman Star Trek: Next Generation. Beverly Crusher undertakes a highly dangerous medical mercy mission and ends up in mortal danger. Jean-Luc Picard must marshal all of his resources, both personal and professional, to attempt a rescue. Spoiler: (not really, though) Beverly's okay! Yay! Friedman is a good writer, and despite my knowing what cannot happen, he maintained a good bit of dramatic tension. It's more WAFFy than science-fiction-y.
#40 By Tank Into Normandy by Stuart Hills Hills was a tank commander in the D-Day invasion of Normandy (British army) and he made it all the way through to the German surrender. That was quite a feat, too, since so many of his comrades did not survive. First-person war memoir told in typical English stiff-upper-lip understatement. Still a good read.
#41 Oona Out Of Order by Margarita Montimore Oona is a seventeen-year-old girl whose mother is a "free spirit" in London's mid-eighties club scene. She's also a budding professional musician who must choose between a European tour with the band or school. But on New Year's Eve, the night before her eighteenth birthday, she blacks out and wakes up on her fifty-first birthday. For reasons never explained (not even a little bit), she lives her life by bouncing from year to year on her birthday and must learn to deal with her changed circumstances. Before long she gets the idea that she can change her future - but apparently she lives in a determinist universe and just makes things worse. Except for her financial situation, of course. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't my cup of tea either. I kept waiting for her to "grow up" and work with her bizarre life instead of against it. She does so at the final stages of the book - sort of - but the end still left me with a melancholy pall. Very WAFFy, though.
#42 Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain A young woman comes of age at Oxford at the very beginning of The Great War (World War 1). Her brother, fiance, good friend, and unrequited admirer all enter the British army and fight in France. None of them survive. The book takes us from her youth to Oxford to her service as a nurse - both at home and in France - and she comes out disappointed with civilization, which is a perfectly reasonable reaction given the horrors she witnessed and the losses she sustained. The story takes us through her pacifist and feminist work after the war up to her marriage in 1925 to a man she names only as "G." The memoir was published in 1933 and is still in print. A movie by the same name came out in 2014 and is available on video or a via number of streaming services. Both book and movie are worth the time, I think.
#43 As Old As Time by Liz Braswell DC, thank you for mentioning this title. I found out that this is a series by several authors which take fairy tales and corkscrew the plot around. In this one, Belle's mother cursed the Beast and his kingdom. Belle must battle with him, against him, and beside him to overcome the terrible fate that pursues them. Very girl power, but the author does not denigrate all men - just the ones who deserve it. Also, the author no longer uses a pseudonym because the assassins who were chasing her are all dead now.
#44 Straight On Till Morning by Liz Braswell Peter Pan loses his shadow in twelve-year-old Wendy's bedroom - and he doesn't get it back. Four years later, Wendy - who continues to write fantasy stories in her notebook at which her very proper parents express extreme disapproval - dodges her parents' plan to send her to Ireland as a governess by offering Peter's shadow to Captain Hook in exchange for passage to Never Land. Another youth fiction girl power story, but still interesting. Wendy screws up royally, but proves to be most ingenious in the end. And there's a very sweet epilogue involving a certain denizen of Never Land.
