Finished: A Discovery of Witches (Harkness) The first book in the trilogy set in current times, where humans share the world with witches, vampires, and daemons. The story is about a witch, Diana Bishop, who falls in love with a vampire, Matthew Clairmont. Diana is a professor of alchemical history who is doing research at the University of Oxford in England. She is a witch from the famous Bishop family of witches, but has always squashed her own abilities at magic since her parents, both witches, died when she was just seven years old. Devastated by their deaths, but raised by her aunt Sarah and her partner, Emily, also witches, she has always refused to practice any magic, let alone give into the natural, very strong abilities, she possesses due to her powerful lineage. When Diana inadvertently checks out a long lost manuscript that witches, daemons, and vampires have been searching for for centuries, she suddenly becomes very interesting to very many people. When she touches the manuscript, she can tell that it is under a powerful magic spell, so after glancing at just a few pages, she returns it immediately. Enter the charming, but dangerous, biologist and doctor, Matthew Clairmont, the vampire that has been alive since the 1500's, and has been searching for the illusive manuscript for nearly all that time. The vampires, as well as the witches and the daemons, all believe that the manuscript holds the secrets to how they were all initially created, and more importantly, how they could rid the world of each other. Matthew initially makes contact with Diana to gain access to the manuscript, but very quickly falls in love with her and she with him. Unfortunately, the "mixing" of vampires, witches, and daemons is strictly forbidden by the Congregation....a committee headed by three vampires, three witches, and three daemons, all very powerful. The Congregation was created centuries ago when the other-worldly creatures began to get "out of hand" and were starting to be too noticed by humans. Any vampire, witch or daemon caught trying to have a relationship with one of the other "types" could face harsh penalties, even violent death. Add to that everyone looking for the manuscript, Matthew's very frosty vampire mother, Diana's very protective witch aunts, and Diana's complete lack of control of her powers, and you get the adversity needed to throw Matthew and Diana right into each other's arms. They manage to win each other's families over, but they cannot shake the danger they are in. When Matthew is nearly killed trying to protect Diana from, Juliette, a powerful vampire sent by the Congregation, Diana unleashes her powerful witchfire, and burns Juliette to a crisp. She manages to save Matthew's life, with the help of her family, and Matthew's vampire son, Marcus. As a group, they decide that for Diana's own safety, and for the impending battle with the Congregation, she needs to learn how to control and use her powers. Since her genetic markers show she has time-traveling abilities passed on by her father, Matthew and Diana decide to go back in time to when there were supremely powerful witches who can teach her how to use her skills. It also doesn't hurt, Matthew decides, that they'll go back to the time when the manuscript might be floating around before being spellbound. Their destination? England in the 1500's. They journey there at the end of book one, and land there at the beginning of book two, which I have just started reading. An enjoyable series to read so far! :-)

Finished: Alias Grace (Atwood) A fictional story based on the 1843 real-life murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in Canada. Kinnear was a gentleman and Nancy his housekeeper, who he was having an affair with. At the heart of the book is Grace Marks, the servant girl hired by Nancy who arrived at the house to help when she was only fifteen years old. Having had an extremely tough childhood, where she watched her mother die at sea crossing over from Ireland, worked to the bone by her abusive father while caring for her younger siblings, and scarred by the death of the only friend she ever had, Mary, from her previous place of employment, Grace already has three strikes against her. By the time she is sixteen, Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery have been brutally murdered and Grace and the farm hand, James McDermott, have been arrested for their murders. As the story opens, Grace has been in the penitentiary for fifteen years and is set to be interviewed by budding psychiatric doctor, Simon Jordan. It is through this series of interviews, and a series of letters written between characters, that we hear Grace's entire story. She claims to have no memory of the actual murders, but can give vivid detail of everything leading up to the murders and everything within hours afterwords. Is she simply playing the amnesiac? Was this her way of escaping being hung, the fate James McDermott suffered? Grace's story is terribly sad and compelling and depressing, but you come away still never knowing the real truth of whether she's a calculating, bold-blooded murderess. Grace says McDermott did it and threatened her life as well, but she has no memory of the details. McDermott says that Grace promised him she'd bed and marry him if he'd only get rid of Nancy and Thomas. We'll never know the real truth. Sadly, Simon deteriorates a bit in the environment and at times fancies himself in love with Grace, and he also has a sordid affair with his married landlady, which is totally against his character. When he realizes he's in too deep, and has really come away with no answer after weeks of interviewing Grace, he heads for home. Home for him, though, is the U.S., which is about to enter the Civil War. Apparently Simon then fights for the North and suffers a head injury that renders HIM with no memory of his recent past, and all his dealings with Graces. Perhaps that's actually for the best? Eventually, when Grace is 45, she is granted clemency and released from the penitentiary. In the book she marries and settles down to a quiet life with her husband, eerily, a teenage boy (at the time of the murders) who gave testimony that helped put her away. In reality, people lost touch with her and she disappeared from public and the limelight. The book itself took me forever to read, maybe because of the subject material. I was really surprised to find an Atwood book that I didn't tear through!

Finished: The Alchemist (Coelho) First book of 2018! I can't believe I'm starting my seventh year of my reading bender. :-) The Alchemist is the story of Santiago, a shepherd boy from Spain who decides to follow the path that a recurrent dream leads him on to find treasure near the Pyramids in Egypt. Little does he know, as he sells his sheep and sets off on his journey, that he will meet people who have a profound influence on his life...the man who is a king, the crystal shop keeper, an Englishman searching for his own treasure, a gypsy woman, a lovely girl fetching water at the oasis well, and the alchemist, himself. What Santiago learns from all these people, and from his own experiences, is that what he is really searching for is the soul of the world through nature and through the universal language of love. He comes to realize that God created everything, and so all things are equal. He goes through many tribulations, but also has many positive experiences while listening closely to his own heart and the world around him. Eventually he learns that trusting his heart will lead him to the treasure, which does actually exist. Once he finds the actual treasure, he has found so much more in the world around him, and he heads back to the oasis to find his love, the girl who is waiting for him there. It's a good book...a little preachy, and not very complicated...but good. I think as this new year begins, I'm going to make my recaps much shorter. It's more enjoyable for me that way...to read a book and savor it and then just write a little bit about it before moving on. Happy 2018!