19. Mexican Gothic

By Sylvia Moreno-Garcia This is a terrific atmospheric novel about a young woman who goes to her cousin who has married and moved to a mysterious house in the Mexican forest. The house is rundown, her cousin's new family is creepy and controlling, and the whole place is foggy and moldy and falling into ruin. As the story opens, the main character Noemi is a party girl and maybe kind of shallow but as the story develops she is fearless and dogged against dangerous forces. Recommend.

Okay! I am back in writing mode and my reading is probably going to dwindle to almost nothing for awhile. More info to come.

18. The Arctic Fury

By Greer MacAllister (408 pp, ebook)

A friend reviewed this book just as I finished The Terror. This book is also a fictional tale related to the Franklin Expedition. In this story, an all woman expedition has been hired to find out what happened to the men and hopefully rescue them and bring them back. The story is divided between a murder trial for the woman who led the expedition and the story of the expedition and how it unfolded. It's really good. I wished for a little more time on the ice and a little less court room and a little more characterization. But it's a clever alternate history. If you have never read it, check out this short story by Ursula LeGuin, Sur about an all woman expedition to the South Pole. That story was published in 1982 and made a big impression on me as I was first thinking about being a writer.

17. Legends and Lattes

By Travis Baldtree (296 pp, ebook)

I loved this book. An orc from fantasy adventures is tired of battles so she settles down in a city and invents a coffee shop. "Bean water" the characters call it. Coffee exists but is not common in this place. They add frothy milk. They find a friend who has invented cinnamon rolls. A bard comes along who wants to sing and play music. You can't imagine how satisfying this all is. Sure, there are problems, but there's always an old loyal friend or a brand new friend who wants to help. Recommend.

16. The Terror

By Dan Simmons (769 pp, ebook)

I do not know what to say about this book. Anyone who follows these notes will not be surprised that I thought this was long. It's a fictional account of John Franklin's failed expedition to find the NW passage in 1845. The story is already horrific with the endless winter darkness, freezing temperatures, being trapped in the ice, and scurvey, but the author has added an extra horror element. Long as it was, I enjoyed it and found it page-turning. Great characters and great depiction of this unforgiving environment. Until the end. The end turns into one of the white men from the expedition going Native--not even just going Native but turning into some sort of revered spirit-governors--and some cultural appropriation of Inuit stories and I was completely turned off. Although, I admit, I am now watching the TV series.