When comes the wind that billows our words' sails?

Palace Walk
by Naguib Mahfouz

This novel is the first in a trilogy that follows the members of the middle class Al Jawad family. Palace Walk is set at the end of WWI. The plot is mostly taken up with everyday family life and the activities of each member of the family. Marriages, births, and deaths occur against the backdrop of the beginnings of Egypt's struggle for independence from the British. Ahmad, the family head, while interesting, was not very likeable or even sympathetic. He rules his home and his family with an iron fist, keeping his wife and two daughters strictly cloistered within the home and maintaining close control of his three sons, despite the fact that all but the youngest child are grown. Ahmad rules by fear and harsh treatment, rarely having a kind or affectionate word for any member of his family. He's a hypocrite of the highest order, however, conducting his life outside the home in an entirely different manner: partying with friends, being witty and convivial, drinking, and pursuing affairs. I sympathized very much with Amina, even as I wished she could have stood up to Ahmad at a couple of points. She was very submissive and obedient to him, but had a strong and loving heart when it came to her children. Ahmad may have ruled the home, but Amina was the true center of the family. Of the three sons, I liked Fahmy best. He was a kind, idealistic, and passionate young man whose principles led him to be the only one to directly defy his father. The oldest son, Yasin, became increasingly like his father over the course of the book. The youngest son, Kamal, seemed pretty immature for his age, and I occasionally found him annoying. I found the relationship between the two daughters, Khadija and Aisha, very compelling with its stew of love, jealousy, affection, and resentment.
The novel started slow, but once I got into it, I found it pretty absorbing and I became quite attached to the characters. Even Ahmad, albeit in a kind of love to hate him way. Mahfouz is really good at depicting people's inner monologues.

Bonds of Justice
by Nalini Singh

This Psy-Changeling romance centers on the relationship between Max Shannon, a cop, and Sophia Russo, a Justice Psy. Her powers allow her to enter the memories of others, an ability which the Psy use to collect evidence in criminal cases. Max and Sophia meet while working on a serial killer case and then end up working together to find out who is murdering members of Psy Councilor Nikita Duncan's inner circle. Max and Sophia are powerfully drawn to each other and start falling in love. However, with two killers to track down and Sophia's mental state deteriorating due to the psychological stress of her job, time is running out.
Bonds of Justice had a lot going on in int, which I think undermined its effectiveness as either a romance or a thriller. I never quite connected with either Max or Sophia, although there was a lot about their relationship I liked. Max is a great example of an alpha-type whose protectiveness is very much about creating a safe and solid foundation for Sophia to live a good life and be who she is, rather than about control. The mystery-thriller plot, while very exciting and interesting, really kind of overwhelmed the romance, though. It didn't leave a lot of room for banter or extended quiet moments.

My Inconvenient Duke
by Loretta Chase

This historical romance is the third in Chase's Difficult Dukes series, and elegantly serves as both prequel and finale. It tells the story of Lady Alice Ancaster and Lord Giles Blackwood. They've known each other since they were both daring and somewhat unruly children. As daring and somewhat unconventional adults, they end up very much attracted to each other. When Alice's wayward brother goes missing, she and Giles find themselves working together to locate him. This leads them into a marriage of convenience that allows their love to blossom, but making their marriage work is a challenge.
I really enjoyed this romance. Alice and Giles are both very smart, very passionate, and very good for each other. Their banter is terrific. I also liked how their marriage crisis wasn't really a third act breakup, but more of them grappling with circumstances that keep driving wedges between them, and they were able to resolve things without unnecessary angst. PLus, they keep getting into various adventures throughout the novel, all of which are terrifically fun and romantic.

Chen Yi
by Leta E. Miller and J. Michele Edwards

This book covers Chen Yi's life and music very well. The focus is on her music rather than biographical details, but given that her work is not examined in isolation from her life, the authors provide a full and rich picture of both. The book's biggest strength is in Miller and Edwards' approach to discussing Chen's music. They avoid descriptive narration and instead concentrate on the compositional processes and materials at play. Musical examples and analytical charts are always clear and well-annotated. I got a very deep and thorough understanding of what Chen does and how she does it. I think my future experiences of Chen's music will be all the better and more meaningful for having read this book.

Proof by Seduction
by Courtney Milan

This historical romance was both fun and heartfelt. Jenny Keeble is a woman of unknown parentage making her living as a fortune teller in London. One day, one of her clients, Ned Carhart, brings his scientific cousin Gareth, Lord Blakely, to see her. Gareth vows to prove she is a fraud, while Jenny vows to outsmart him. However, the seething attraction between them threatens to upend the game.
I very much liked this one. Gareth gets a good redemption arc. He starts out a cold, arrogant man who has let the superiority and responsibilities of his title rule his life. Jenny is very smart and has a deep core of self-respect that will not let her feel inferior to anyone. The development of their passionate relationship melts his iciness and allows him to not only truly love Jenny, but also to have better relationships with his sister and with Ned. Gareth sheds the strictures of Lord Blakely and transforms into himself. Once that happens, he finally deserves Jenny and they get their happily ever after. There's some really good witty banter, as well as lots of excellent character development and self-discovery.

Reckless Fortune
by M.M. Crane

This is the sequel to Bold Fortune and is thus another delightful romance set in ultra-rural Alaska. Bowie Fortune runs a bush pilot business from his remote cabin on Lost Lake. In response to a dare from his younger sister, he agrees to participate in a local mail-order bride publicity stunt. Autumn McCall, who has been taking care of her family on their Montana ranch since her mother died, signs up for the Alaskan mail-order bride contest with the intent to win. Despite the fact that the contest is using the mail-order bride aspect strictly as a framing device and no romance or intimacy is implied or intended, Bowie and Autumn are intensely attracted to each other. When an accident leaves them stranded in the wilderness together, the fire of their attraction turns into something deeper.
I loved this romance. It took its time getting started, but once Bowie and Autumn got together, it was wonderful. They were such good characters. Bowie is a little roguish, with a devil-may-care attitude layered over deep love for his home and his family. Autumn is a smart, practical, resilient woman who can handle most anything. They were also great as a couple - they got each other and complemented each other really well. The story also has some really good themes of shedding old roles that no longer fit. Plus a lot of beautifully emotional moments.

Blaze of Memory
by Nalini Singh

This seventh installment in the Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series was surprisingly meh. When Devraj Santos takes in a woman found injured and unconscious on his foundation's doorstep, he is not ready for the powerful connection that will spark between them. Katya was left with deep psychic wounds and some deeply buried instructions and compulsions. She and Dev must work to unravel them before time runs out, all while navigating their passion for each other.
The romance in this book just didn't work for me at all. Because Dev takes Katya into what is essentially a form of protective custody, there is a huge imbalance of power between them that is not resolved or equalized before their relationship begins. That pretty much turned me off from the relationship, even though things never got icky. I did find the intrigue aspects of the story and the advancement of the series meta-plot interesting, though.

A Sultan in Palermo
by Tariq Ali

This novel, fourth in the Islam Quintet, is set in mid 12th century Sicily, at the end of King Roger II's reign. The story follows cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi as he navigates both his personal and public lives in the midst of simmering tensions between the Muslim population and the Norman rulers.
Idrisi is a smart and complex man who is reflective and compassionate. He is largely driven by his personal relationships, where ties of love and respect are his strongest motivators. At his core, he cares deeply about his family and friends and harbors a number of regrets in how he has handled some of his relationships. Idrisi's family was full of great characters - I especially liked the two loves of his life, sister Baklis and Mayya. They are both smart passionate women who deftly navigated their own webs of relationships. Idrisi's family also contains a mingling of Muslims and Christians that mirrors the political situation in Sicily. Ali does a really good job of looking at a man trying to steer himself and his family through a volatile situation.

All Passion Spent
by Vita Sackville-West

This novel concerns the final year of Deborah Holland, Lady Slane. Now a widow after decades as the wife of a high-profile politician and diplomat and raising six children, she decides to finally live life on her own terms. She rejects her childrens' offers to have her live with them, rents a small house in the country, and hangs out with an assortment of other elderly folk.
This is a fairly quiet novel, mostly concerned with Lady Slane's reflections on her life and her insistence on being left to her own devices. Her children are for the most part pompous and officious, convinced that their mother is frail and flighty. Lady Slane herself is an interesting woman who mastered being the ideal politician's wife, but always kept a private self at her core. She has, of course, lived a rich life of comfort and privilege, and I think her dissastisfaction despite all of that is part of the point. Sackville-West is examining the ways societal conventions and roles for women erase their own identities and ambitions, and I think making her main character someone whose erasure brought along with it significant benefits helps to highlight how terrible that erasure is, that it cannot be compensated for with wealth and status.

The Stone Woman
by Tariq Ali

This is the third novel in the Islam Quintet. It is set in 1899 at the seaside summer residence of a wealthy and well-connected yet unconventional family of Iskender Pasha. Over the course of the summer they contemplate the decay of the Ottoman Empire, reveal old and new secrets, and resettle their lives. It is narrated by Nilofer, one of Iskender's two daughters, as she discovers the secrets of her parents' and siblings' lives while transforming her own.
The Stone Woman is a very quiet book focused on the characters and their relationships with each other. It explores the effect secrets have on a family, both in the keeping and the revealing of them. I think there's also a layer of metaphor regarding that part of Middle Eastern history, but I do not know enough about the late Ottoman Empire to have fully picked up on or understood it. The book is nonetheless quite enjoyable as the tale of a family at the twilight of their world.