Ghost Walkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

I definitely have seasons for different genres of books.  I love to read science fiction/fantasy and paranormal novels when the seasons change from summer to fall;  it starts getting darker out earlier and the cool air makes me think about chili and apple crisp.  It's also the season when all of my favorite ghost shows start new episodes on TV.  When I saw Ghost Talkers on Twitter, I had to check it out. 

Ghost Talkers has a very interesting plot, and I have to give high marks to Mary Robinette Kowal for coming up with this storyline.  The novel is set in World War I Le Havre, a French village occupied by English troops.  Ginger Stuyvesant is a young American heiress working for the English military in an unusual capacity:  she is a medium that communicates with soldiers who have died in battle and can bring news about German troop movements and artillery back to British army headquarters .  There's a secret group of women known as the Spirit Corps who work in a vast warehouse called Potter's Field.   Every day and night, mediums sit in circles with people who ground their spirits while the women work with dead soldiers who have undergone a ritual that will compel their spirit to come back to Potter's Field and give their last report before they go into the light.  England's spiritual secret weapon may turn the war in their favor.  And if the Germans find out about it, it could mean the end of the program and danger for the mediums.  And it seems there may be a traitor to Britain working to expose the Spirit Corps to the Germans...

Ginger is engaged to Captain Ben Harford, a dashing English officer who is working with the Spirit Corps and sending coded letters back to Ginger when he is on the front battle lines.  The relationship between them undergoes some tremendous heartache and growth over the course of this novel.  I can't tell you much more about the plot because it would give it all away!  Needless to say, I was taken aback at the swiftness of major plot points, and they completely changed what I thought the story would be about.  But, I completely enjoyed this novel, even with the very dark and dismal background of World War I.  Ginger and Ben have a great chemistry and rapport, and fellow mediums who have smaller parts in the story add to an overall feeling of a united Britain working to win the war.  

I certainly hope and expect there to be more adventures for the Spirit Corps in future books.  I so want to know what happens next!  This was my first time reading Mary Robinette Kowal, and I'm happy to say her mix of fantasy/paranormal and history is something I like very much.  

Rating:  8/10 for an original plot with two main characters who came to life for me very vividly.  A good mix of history, paranormal, and just darn good writing.  
Available in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook.  I checked it out from my local library.  

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Ghost Walkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean

DNA.  Genes.  What makes us human.  Well, we aren't very different from chimpanzees; only a few genes separate us on the big scale.  It's all very interesting, and a bit hard to follow in the nitty gritty scientific bits, but overall, this was a very enjoyable scientific book for anyone who is interested in genes and the story of humans.

Sam Kean has some pretty good stories in the chapters to demonstrate the wild and wacky ways of nature and the complexity of DNA.  If you're like me, and use the terms DNA and genes interchangeably, well...they are two different things.  Genes are in DNA, and they are inherited from our parents. They determine traits we will receive from each parent.  DNA is basically the giant cloud that holds all the genes.  I could go into chromosomes, but I won't.  Some parts of the DNA/gene science explanations went right over my head.  What I loved were the stories Kean told.

Like the story of Paganini, often lauded as the best violin player ever known to man.  He was pretty brilliant, and could play like no other.  The reason for this was because of his crazy uber-flexible fingers and hands.  He could play parts of the violin that no one else could.  What no one realized was that he suffered from what is now known at Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  People who have this syndrome can't make collagen, which makes their joints hyper-flexible.  It also causes skin to thin and become very sensitive; bowel issues, vision impairment, and a host of other problems.  People thought Paganini sold his soul to the devil in order to play so magnificently.  

Did you know that the liver of a polar bear is toxic to humans?  You may think, "Why would I ever have to worry about this?" and that's a fair question.  But, early explorers of the Arctic Circle found themselves chosing between starvation or feasting on polar bears (who were also feasting on the men).  After eating the liver of a polar bear, an expedition became violently ill; vomiting, dizziness, sensitivity to sunlight, and the most spectacular of all, sloughing off of skin.  It seems the polar bear's liver stores an enormous amount of vitamin A, and through thousands of years of evolution, the polar bear has adapted to eating seals (who produce a lot of vitamin A in order to continually replenish skin cells to stay warm) without becoming ill themselves.  After all, seals were the only food source polar bears had, way up North.  It was either adapt or be starved out of existence.  Pretty cool!

There are loads more stories in The Violinist's Thumb on odd genes and why they do what they do.  I had a hard time at first getting through the scientific bits, but soon became deeply interested in reading all of the stories about people and animals who are living proof that we continue to change, yet stay the same, on a cellular level.  

This is a great book for any high schooler or collegiate who is showing interest in science, biology, or even archaeology and forensics.  There are so many new fields of study popping up because of the interest in genetics that most anyone will find this book fascinating.  

Rating:  7/10 for a scientific book that explains science for the masses, along with pretty cool stories that show our genetic quirks in action.  

Available in paperback, e-book, and audio.

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The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean