Riots, riots and more riots

It almost looks like the world is coming to an end. Riots and fires in London, 3 men dead in Birmingham, more disturbs in Manchester... what's happening to the UK?
It looks like a lot of young people are out of control, and, even if all this started after the police killed a drug dealer in London - wow, what a great reason to start a demonstration - now it seems to have come down to pure greed and old fashioned thieving.

Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King

This book is a little dark jewel. It has 4 stories that explore the concept of "a man inside a man", a darker part of oneself that's capable of doing things you never know you were capable of. Triggered by exceptional circumstances, it shows that every man and woman is capable of doing terrible things.
In the first story, 1922, a farmer kills his wife in isolated Nebraska, aided by his 14 year old son, to prevent her from selling some land and destroying their farm. But the dead have a way to get their payback...
In the second story, Big Driver, a mystery novel writer discovers she's capable of murder after being raped and left for dead in a deserted road.
In the third one, Extensions, a man faced with his own mortality makes a deal with the devil, condemning his hated/best friend to a fate worse than death.
And in the last one, a wife discovers an ugly truth about her husband of 20 years, and decides to take matters in her own hands...
Every protagonist is a regular, ordinary man or woman, who becomes capable of doing unthinkable things due to extraordinary circumstances. I liked this concept very much, and I think King explored it beautifully.

The Duchess, by Bertrice Small

This is my first Bertrice Small book, and I have to admit I had certain expectations.
None of them was met.
I'm sorry to say this is the worst book I've read in a long time. I had to force myself to finish it, that bad was it.
What was bad with it?
1. The plot: it was practically nonexistant. Allegra is the richest heiress in England, but doesn't have blue blood. Her mother ran away with her lover when she was a baby and her brother died with his fiancee in the French revolution, so she despises love and vows never to fall in love. Quinton Hunter is the duke of Sedgwick but as poor as church mice due to his ancester's preference for marrying for love instead of money, and he vows never to make that mistake. He decides to marry Allegra for her money, but being both young and beautiful promptly falls in love with her. He spends half the book trying to disguise his feelings instead of wooing her, but at the end she recognizes she loves him too. There's a small subplot in the last third about rescuing a french noblewoman, and that's the only action you get to see.
2. The writing: it was dreadful, completely childish. The characters have no depth, and the secondary characters are only there to show that the world is populated. A small example: Quinton decides he has to marry, and his 3 best friends decide to marry as well. Why? No reason at all, just behaving like a flock of sheep. The only slightly interesting part, the rescue of the french noblewoman, was told in such a way that it seemed only marginally more dangerous that going on a picnic. All the couples - except for 1 - waltz in and out of Terror France, taking with them a french countess, her 2 sons, and even the maids. Not to mention that pages and pages were dedicated to describe gowns and food. Sometimes it read like a foodie blog. And even the parts where Small writes about buildings or gives facts about Georgian England, it read like a copy paste from a textbook.
Where is the anguish? Where is the smoldering passion? The love that lasts until forever?

Scarlet Nights, by Jude Deveraux

Scarlet Nights is part of the new Edilean saga, in which Jude swapped Montgomerys and Taggerts for McTerns and Armitages.
The plot in a nutshell: Mike Newland is special ops and has been asigned to arrest a notorious con woman and her son, who are suspected of hiding in Edilean, Virginia. They have a lead on the son, but don't know where the mother is, so Mike has to convince the son's fiancee, Sara Shaw, to help him discover the truth.
Sara's about to marry the man of her dreams and is not happy that the whole town seems to despise him. Things seem to fall from bad to worse when her fiancee dissapears 1 week before the wedding and Mike shows up, refusing to move out of her house. Things get complicated when they try to find out what Sara's fiancee really wants.

So, while the plot wasn't so original, the hero for sure is. What other hero has ever been described by the heroine as a half bald midget without a voice? (he has a body that compensates all that, believe me). The heroine was a little like Samantha from "Sweet Liar", an overworked damsel in distress (although she threw away all her work without second thoughts like 4 seconds after meeting Mike). There was a small town feeling (and we all support the home team).
The book was OK and entertaining. No big passion here, but plenty of action and fun. As in many of Jude's novels, the girls save the day, which is always nice.

The book thief, by Markus Zusak

I've finally read this book published in 2005. Like "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas" it also was marketed for a young audience, being everything but a children's book. Like that book, it's also set in Nazi Germany during WWII, the protagonist is a german kid, and there is a special relationship with a Jew.
And it's completely different.
In "the Boy in Stripped Pajamas" you see evil through the imaginative eyes of innocence. In this book you see evil in the face, and you realize the power of words, which can save you or damn you.
The narrator of the story is Death - yes, old non-scythe nor cape wearing Death, who, as you may suppose, was grossly overworked in WWII - who came across the story of a little book thief, by the name of Liesel Meminger.
At the beginning of the story Liesel is a 9 year old girl, whose mother is taking her and her brother to live with foster parents. The reason? Let's just say that in Nazi Germany being a communist was almost as bad as being a Jew. Liesel's father had already been taken away, her mother soon to follow.
In the trip to the foster parent's town, Liesel's brother dies. It's in the cemetery where she commits her first book theft, stealing a manual about gravedigging so she can remember her brother.
Liesel arrives to Himmel Strasse (Heaven Street), which unlike its lofty name is in the worst part of town. There she meets her foster parents: foul mouthed Rosa, and gentle, accordion player Hans Hubermann. She also meets the neighboring children, among whom lemon haired Rudy Steiner stands out. Not only has Rudy a reputation of being crazy (after the "Jesse Owens" episode, named after the olympic african american athlete, in which Rudy painted himself black with charcoal and ran the 100 meters in the night), he also is a ladies man in the making, as he will show time and time again, always begging for a kiss from Liesel.
Between soccer games and the gentleness of Hans, who teaches her to read in the nights after Liesel wakes up from her nightmares, Liesel settles in Himmel Street. Being poor, Liesel soon runs out of reading material, but she seizes her opportunity at a Nazi book burning and rescues a book from the flames.
The mayor's wife sees her, and later invites her to make use of her library. However, both fell apart after her hostess has to dismiss Rosa, who used to do her laundry to earn some extra money, due to the hardships of war. Liesel starts to steal books from the well provided mayor's library, usually with the help of Rudy.
It's in the middle of the war when Max, a jewish fist fighter, comes to Hans for help. His father saved Hans life in the previous war and teached to play the accordion. Hans hides him in his basement, where Max discovers that he and Liesel share a love for words.
Through the bombings, Liesel reads her stolen books, finding and giving comfort with them. Max also writes a couple of short books for Liesel out of the pages of "Mein Kampf", telling her of the power of words that turned Germany into a tyranny.
Of course, nothing can stay the same way, and there's a reason why the narraton visited Himmel Street.
I liked this book. The darkness of the setting is balanced by the story focusing on the children.

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, by Lisa Kleypas

I have to admit I was feeling kind of protective toward Kleypas' newest book after reading a couple of not so positive comments about it on the net.
However, after reading it in a little more than 2 hours, I found out that I liked the book on its own merits. The writing is beautiful, with an economy of words that manage to convey deep feelings without endless whining. As I read the novel I was transported back to the Californian seaside (the nearer I've been to the Washington State shore, where the plot takes place). Kleypas' description of falling in love hit the bullseye once more; as I read Maggie's reaction to Mark, how she's hot & cold and doesn't know how to behave, I was reminded of the times I fell in love too.
The plot is simple, and is driven by the internal conflicts of the characters. Watch out, spoilers ahead!
Mark Nolan is the older of 4 siblings, survivors of their parent's crappy marriage (something along the lines of "The War of the Roses"), which left them all with some degree of emotional scarring. He's not a family man, but when his only sister Victoria dies leaving him in charge of her six year old daughter, he decides to take his responsability seriously and make a home - as well as he can do it - for the little girl, Holly.
Maggie Conroy has always liked children, which is why after her husband dies, she moves to Friday Harbor and opens a toy store, where one day, as she says, the man of her dreams walks in. Maggie and Mark get to know each other thanks to Holly, but the attraction that sparks between them has nothing to do with the child. However, both have issues: Mark thinks that maybe it's time to get serious with his girlfriend so Holly can have some female influence in her life, and Maggie is afraid of commiting herself again after the death of her husband. Their's is not a blietzkrieg kind of romance (you know, the kind when they've only know each other for a couple of days and decide that they're soulmates), but the kind composed of talking, and dates, and actually getting to know each other. Kleypas toned down the sex in this book, but the physical attraction and sexual chemistry is present.
As a rule I don't like romance novels in which children play an important role ( a kid being a matchmaker? Get real!), but Holly was well behaved and she acted like a child most of the time, so I didn't have a trouble with that.
So... this isn't a scorching love story, but it's a sweet romance set in a fantastic landscape that will give you a couple of hours of enjoyment. It's about two regular people falling in love, and making it believable for you.

Update

I haven't written anything in a long time. I usually do that.
I've read a lot of books meanwhile, but I didn't have enough time to post my reviews here (I've been busy reading).
I've also started to watch once more the series of my childhood. You Tube, I bless you every day!
I find oddly comforting to watch the cartoons I used to watch when I was young and arrived home from school. Of course, I'm not watching all of them, only those that were more significant or have a compelling argument.
Right now I'm watching Saint Seiya, and I'm so far as to chapter 40, when they go to the Santuary and have to fight against the 12 gold saints.