“Unwillingly to Earth” ©1992 by Pauline Ashwell

A mostly fun sci-fi story of a young woman who was raised on an inhospitable mining planet.  When her father is in an accident and is flown to the hospital in the city, Lizzie follows.  She gets a job at a bar and finds that she is good at helping people resolve their differences.  When she steps on a grad student’s toes during his field training, his superior offers Lizzie a scholarship to a university on Earth for Cultural Engineering.

(That concept of Cultural Engineering is interesting.  Can/do we culturally engineer events? Society?)

After some persuading from her father, Lizzie travels to Earth.  She struggles a bit with life on Earth and school demands, but then figures it out and does well.

For the final project, she and her classmates are sent on a field project on another planet to help divert a war.

Not too bad!

“Pax” ©2016 by Sarah Pennypacker. Illustrated by Jon Klassen

This is a sweet junior fiction novel.  Peter, a boy, and Pax, his pet fox, are separated by Peter’s father due to a war.

Pax is left alone in the forest. He is confused, but soon meets some other foxes who help him a bit. Pax and his new fox friends run into the war, or the war runs into them, with some scary results.

Peter is left at his grandfather’s house 300 miles away. He decides to find Pax and sets out on his own.

Along the way, Peter has a few adventures, meets some different people and grows up a little.

When Peter and Pax do re-unite, while they are both so happy to see each other, they also both realize that their lives need to continue in different directions.

The illustrations are so fitting to the story.  Such a lovely book.

“Whose Body?” ©1923 by Dorothy L. Sayers

This is the first book of the series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.

Lord Peter Wimsey and his detective friend, Mr. Parker both have new cases to solve.

Lord Peter’s is an unidentified man in a bathtub that is not his own.  Who is he, how did he get there, and why?

Mr. Parker’s is a missing gentleman of some importance in the financial world.

Are they related?

Lord Peter and Mr. Parker switch cases to see if viewing the problem from a new perspective might help.

So many little twists and turns, what fun!

I have read part of this series before and remembered really enjoying the writing and the mysteries.  I am not disappointed!

“The Knights Templar: The History and Myths of the Legendary Military Order” ©2004 by Sean Martin

This is an interesting and brief history of the origins and history of the religious military order, the Knights Templar.

The Knights templar were in existence from 1070 AD to 1571 AD (500 years). They were a military religious order who helped guard and protect the Holy Land. They grew and spread and established orders around Europe.  They also organized a banking system that is still in use today.

After losing the Holy Land to the Muslims, the Knights Templar were out of favor with nearly everybody.  They were black-listed and lost the support of the Pope and Church. They were arrested on several different crimes against the Church and many Knights were burnt at the stake.

So many legends, stories and movies depict the crusades and the Knights Templar. Those hundreds of years of crusading and occupying the Holy Land were fascinating, violent and religious. It was interesting how the author wrote what facts there are available through letters and documents and also what some of the legends are through oral histories and traditions.

“In the Midst of Winter” ©2017 by Isabel Allende

An interesting story of three people.

An American professor living and teaching in Brooklyn. His friend and fellow professor and also tenant, Lucia, from Chile.  And Evelyn, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who is a maid in Brooklyn.

The story takes us into each character’s past and brings us to the present.

When Richard skids into Evelynn’s vehicle during a snowstorm, he does not realize that he set a chain of events in motion.  The next day Evelynn shows up at his house asking for help.  Her boss’s body is in the trunk of the car!

The three of them end up traveling to dispose of the car, gun and body.  The reasoning for such craziness seems logical, but it is definitely flawed at times.  Along the way they each grow as people.

I liked the history parts of the story more than the plot of the story.