The Getting Clever Project

Murder on the Hoof by Kathryn O'Sullivan. I enjoyed this book very much. It's one of the better cozies I've read. The heroine has a different job (fire chief) that gives her good reasons to be at crime scenes. She's focused on one relationship. The secondary characters are well-drawn and the plot was interesting. I'll look for more by this author. I thought at first it was a fictionalized version of Chincoteague but the wild horses of Corolla are real.

Indexing by Seanan Grant. The book started as an Amazon Kindle serial but I didn't read it until the stories were compiled. I liked it. It goes back to the days before the Disneyfication of fairy tales. The darkness of fairy tales is an important part of their tradition. As Chesterton said "fairy tales teach children that monsters can be killed." I also liked the way the narrative has power, a different take on a solipsistic existence. Good characters. I'm not crazy about the way the viewpoints shift, but once I knew it had been a serial it made better sense. Though I classed it as science fiction, it's really more urban fantasy.

The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis. A Goodreads friend recommended this author. I think I picked up the wrong volume to start with. It's the fifth in the series. I didn't care for all the teenage angst and I was confused about some of the characters. I know Old Town Alexandria pretty well and the book didn't give the sense of place. It was an interesting plot and I liked the Halloween tips. I'll try the first book in the series.

Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War. A very good short story collection. The stories captured the chilling nature of the Cold War, where spies were around every corner and the double-cross was to be expected. Lots of paranoia among the espionage.

This week's nonfiction book is Leonardo's Foot by Carol Ann Rinzler. She covers the topic of feet in Destiny, Disability, Difference, Diet, and Desire. Standing upright played as much a part in developing humanity as the brain. She went through foot problems, foot fetishism, measurements, everything. Lots of illustrations also helped. My favorite part was when scientists spotted a brain in the Michelangelo painting God and Adam and concluded God was passing intelligence, not the spark of life.