Yrsa Sigurdardottir Any good trip deserves a good book, and on my trip to New Haven I took My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the Tony Hillerman of Iceland. It's the second in a series about Thora Gudmundsdottir, the first being Last Rituals, which I am going to go buy.

Thora is a lawyer, divorced with two kids, and her 16-year-old son has just gotten his girlfriend pregnant. See, now you've got me right there. I have to see how all this comes out.

On top of that she recently won a big case, but she used all the money (and more besides that she borrowed) to buy a camper to take family vacations and that didn't work out, so she's kicking herself about that.

And then there's a murder at this New Age hotel owned by a client of hers, and there's ghosts and Nazis and everything. I haven't finished it yet. I'll let you know how she wraps it all up. Right now I'm guessing it's the Japanese stockbroker who says he sprained his ankle.

Sigurdardottir is like Tony Hillerman because she introduces the reader to a culture they're probably not familiar with and creates really engaging characters, and you just have to find out how things turn out for them.  ¶ 8:54 PM