This year is the 24th an­niver­sary of the Seattle AIDS Walk. A whole generation has passed since the Northwest AIDS Walk began. AIDS used to be the un­stop­pable disease that killed much of a generation of gay men.

AIDS is still a serious problem, but the de­vel­op­ment of an­ti­retro­vi­ral drugs in the Nineties means that people with HIV are living longer, healthier lives than before. More than 1.5 million Americans are now living with HIV/AIDS: 9,000 of them in King County. 40,000 people are infected every year, and most new infections are among African-Americans. The U.S. is getting off relatively lightly: about one-quarter of the adults in southern Africa have HIV!

The Lifelong AIDS Alliance …continue.

Diana Ladd is the widow of a man believed to have killed an Indian girl seven years ago in the Arizona desert. The girl’s grand­moth­er, Rita Antone, is helping Diana rear her son in a remote house. Now the real killer, Andrew Carlisle, is out of jail, blaming Diana for his being put away for manslaugh­ter.

Jance weaves together several in­ter­est­ing characters, their back­sto­ries, and Indian myths to make a satisfying thriller.

Superspy Devlin, head of the U.S. government’s most secret black ops team, is on the run, apparently having being framed by someone with inside knowledge.

Second-rate ripoff of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy. Ludicrous plot, cliched characters, risible tech­nob­a­b­ble. I gave it longer than I should before abandoning it.

Avoid.

Teenage D&D-playing bookworm responds to a help-wanted ad, steps through a door, and finds himself wandering in a forest where he can do simple magic.

I couldn’t take more than an hour of the clumsy writing in this free ebook.

A German doctor has been training a handful of children for 20 years to develop su­per­pow­ers such as pre­cog­ni­tion and fire starting. They are the Nazis’ secret weapon, swaying the progress of the War. To stop the Germans from crossing the English Channel, the British recruit a handful of warlocks to make a devil’s bargain with ancient evil beings.

Told from the viewpoint of one of the German su­per­be­ings and two of the British agents, we see the terrible costs to each of them, as they lose their honor and …continue.

1812: The Rivers of War is the first novel in an alternate history series that recasts the War of 1812 and later the Trail of Tears. Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, and several Scots-Irish and Indian characters head off in a somewhat different direction than they did in our history.

Flint tells a rousing, en­ter­tain­ing story, with exciting battles and engaging characters. It’s a period of U.S. history that I knew little about, and I enjoyed the book.

Deucalion was once the first of Victor Franken­stein’s creations. In 200 years, the monster has grown wise and ethical. He learns that Victor also still lives—Vic­tor is creating a New Race in New Orleans, a race of su­per­hu­mans loyal to him, who will destroy ordinary humanity. Some of the New Race are not quite as loyal to “Father” as he thinks; some are veering far off their prescribed courses. Victor is the true monster here, the ultimate mad scientist.

The premise is in­ter­est­ing, but I …continue.

Sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Mikael Blomkvist’s Millennium magazine is about to publish an exposé of sex traf­fick­ing in Sweden, when the two re­searchers are gunned down. Lisabeth Salendar’s prints are on the gun and she im­me­di­ate­ly becomes the most wanted woman in Sweden—but it’s not so easy to catch her. We learn a great deal about Salander’s traumatic past by the end of the book.

While the book is en­thralling—I read it in less than a day—it’s not especially well-written. The plot is …continue.

Dr. Sara Linton and her husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, travel to a small Georgia town to find out why Jeffrey’s detective, Lena Adams, has been found beside a burnt-out car with a corpse. They uncover a lot of dirty secrets in Reese, including neo-Nazis and dru­grun­ning.

I found the plot gripping but also unpleasant. Slaughter seems to enjoy torturing her characters.

Badger Jenkins is a shy, unassuming NASCAR driver with chiseled cheekbones and a rabid fanbase. He’s recruited to drive for the first otherwise-all-female team. For several months, we follow Badger and several of the women who work in the crew or behind the scenes, as the team coalesces and the season progresses.

This is an en­ter­tain­ing and well-written look at NASCAR racing from the per­spec­tive of insiders. We learn a great deal about the sport and what it takes to run a NASCAR team. We also get to see Badger from …continue.