#65 The Perfect Look: Jessie Hunt #6 by Blake Pierce Mystery series like this one is always a little predictable, but Pierce does manage a few surprises along the way. Jessie kills escaped serial murderer Bolton Crutchfield and rescues her half-sister Hannah from him. But she's oh-so-hesitant to begin a relationship with the detective she works with nearly every day, and she won't quit risking her life to solve the case (or sometimes other related cases). Well-written for the genre and entertaining.
#66 The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams Some of the 22 stories in this volume are funny, some are kinda scary, some are touching, and some make you think "It could happen!" It was an uneven but fun read.
#67 At Study in Treason by Leonard Goldberg The second tale about the original Watson, his son and namesake, Holmes' daughter who is married to Watson Jr., and their efforts to save England from murder and foreign intervention. Fun for a Holmesian, which I am. There are more in the series, all of which I plan to read.
#68 The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Pointless SF about aliens shaping Earth history to get a spare part to their robot messenger to other civilizations. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. It never did. It was worse than a non-SF person watching 2001 and hoping for some action somewhere. If this is representative of Vonnegut's work, I haven't missed anything by not reading his other tales.
#69 The First Team by John B. Lundstrom A comprehensive retelling of American Naval aviation in the Pacific theater of WW2 from before Pearl Harbor through the battle of Midway and its aftermath. Lots of information on the men and the planes they flew.
#70 Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange The battle for Midway Island was the turning point of the Pacific war for Japan, even though no one could see it at the time. The Japanese lost four full-sized aircraft carriers, more than 330 aircraft, and most of the crews. They could not replace the ships, the planes or especially the experienced aircrews, and the U.S. forces just ground them into the dust over the next three years. Prange is also the author of "At Dawn We Slept" which is a comprehensive account of the Pearl Harbor attack. This book draws from American and Japanese military sources and brings the reader into the middle of the shooting. Long book but a great read.
