What's not to love? Archeology, history, mysticism, mystery, suspense. A likable female lead character, the promise of a series, and a pleasing, low-key humor. Easy read, but with enough meat to be interesting. Thumbs up!

I enjoyed this. "Shoot the Lawyer Twice" is a funny whodunnit, with lots of plot twists and turns. I would have preferred a little more in the way of character development, but this was a fun read anyway. It's not great literature, but much better than the average airplane or beach novel, particularly if you like mysteries and can laugh at the excesses of academia.

Stealing Athena does a great job of bringing to life the fascinating story of the controversial acquisition of ancient Greek marbles by Lord Elgin, the ambassador to Turkey, and his beautiful and vivacious wife, Mary. The story is interwoven with a parallel tale of Perikles and his lover, Aspasia, who presided over the marbles' construction.

Both tales make exciting the stranger-than-fiction realities of these events, with rich detail providing an in-depth glimpse into eras and societies far removed from our own. Not only are these stories inherently interesting, the book is written in a way that makes for a fun read. In addition, it is interesting how both women must cope with their powerless status as women in their societies, leading the reader to question how some of these cultural assumptions about women have persisted into our own time and culture, and how women continue to deal with them today. I enjoyed this book a lot - it was unique, informative, and enjoyable, and it will stay with me for a long while.

In The Invention of Everything Else, Samantha Hunt skillfully evokes the world of New York city in the beginning of 1943. She captures the feel of an era where nothing seems impossible; the miraculous inventions which transformed American culture almost overnight gave rise to a collective suspension of disbelief, as exemplified by the national response to the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds." The discoveries of electricity, magnetism, and radio play directly into to the lives of Louisa, a maid at the Hotel New Yorker, and her widowed father.

As the characters struggle with loss and love, their paths circle around the figure of Nikola Tesla, living out his last years in the hotel where Louisa works. His part of the story is written in first person, while he is consumed by memories of his past as well as by his constant pursuit of knowledge and invention. The parts of the story which incorporate the true details of his life are riveting, but the individual stories of each character are held together more by abstract ideas than by the plot itself. In the end, one is left with a palpable sense of the era, where (heartbreakingly) the possibilities of science seem endless, and how that plays into the inner lives of the people of the time.