Having spent a year futilely searching for the international criminal Blofield, James Bond is ready to retire (again) when he is given a slim lead, which he the chases down to a resort in the Alps and a twisted plot to destroy England. As well, Bond falls in love with some unexpected results.

In this sentimental Bond story, we finally get some information on his family and early life (in my mind, this novel sets out to soften the image of Bond and make him more human); this also turns out to be a seasonal story, in that some of the major action takes place on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day Bond has Christmas supper at M's house, where they work out Blofield's plot. As far as presenting a well-rounded character, this is my favorite Bond novel so far, and one of my favorite Bond movies as well.

Another collection of mysterious short stories by a female writer (sometimes the library holds deal you two of a kind).

Hand does a fabulous job of setting up mood and expectations and in some cases not really delivering an ending to the story, but ends just before something happens; or doesn't quite describe a needed detail to finish the scene. And in fact, a few stories in this collection might not even count as fantasy or sci/fi (tho one that isn't quite fantasy won the World Fantasy Award) because the stories themselves don't feature strange or unusual things, but rather a different view of the world we live in.

Artemis Fowl, juvenile criminal mastermind, receives a ransom demand from the Russian Mafia that his father may still be alive at the same time he is roped in to helping the LEPrecon fairy police. Mayhem ensues.

(This showed up at the library under my son's name, but he had reserved it for me. He has been hinting I should read more of these Artemis Fowl books, so he took matters in to his own hands.)

Overall, mildly diverting book, about as involving as the James Bond books I've been listening to.

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I read Wizard: The Life and Time of Nicola Tesla by Marc Seifer a year or so back and found it a little depressing. Although he made reasonable money out of his patents for his AC motor and transformer, it paled in comparison to the money collected by Westinghouse, and then he was effectively diddled out of his legacy for his work in radio. The cut-throat nature of giants like JP Morgan and George Westinghouse - and even Thomas Edison - left me feeling sad. And then Tesla in later life was led to making wild pronouncements to try and drum up investment.