The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten

I read Distant Hours last summer and enjoyed it, so I decided to read another of Morton's novels.

This story starts with Nell, a woman who, as a child, was sent from London to Australia on a ship under mysterious circumstances.  She isn't told this until she is an adult, then she spends much of the rest of her life trying to learn what happened.  Meanwhile, many years later, her granddaughter Cassandra is trying to unravel the same mystery after inheriting a cottage in England upon Nell's death.

It was fun trying to follow the story in three different time periods: Nell's childhood, Nell's adulthood, and Cassandra's adulthood.  The story unfolds seemingly in order to the reader, but the characters in the story are figuring out what happened at different times. One of the other characters is an author of fairy tales, so those are woven in to the story, along with real life fairy-tale elements: wicked stepmothers, poor children sentenced to a life of arduous work, illegitimate children, etc. 

Juicy, indeed.

Voyager by Diana Galbadon

The third book in Galbadon's Outlander series, this book continues the story of Claire (of 20th century England, then the U.S.) and Jamie (of 18th century Scotland), and their love affair.  Like Dragonfly in Amber, this book lacked the initial delight factor of the first book, although there was enough other compelling plot elements to hold my attention. 

In this book, Claire travels back to find Jamie again.  He's living under an assumed name, and somewhat of a criminal.  However, they instantly click again, he finds out that she safely gave birth to and raised their child, and the soon and return to his family's homestead.  Shortly thereafter, however, they embark on a voyage to the Caribbean for a number of reasons, including jewels and a kidnapped nephew. The story of their trip was really fun to follow, as is their continuing love story. 

A few new characters are introduced and developed, and I can guess that I'll see them again in the next book. 

My Life on a Plate by India Knight

I really had a good time reading this book.  Poor India Knight - I probably won't be the only reader who thinks of this book as "as if Bridget Jones grew up, got married, and had kids" but maybe that's just because they're both British and I'm not.  I think of that as a compliment.

The story follows Clara, who is married, mother of two, has consistently been putting on weight as she gets older, and whose mother won't let her forget it.  As she deals with her marriage, her children, and her complex extended family, she survives by eating, drinking, and becoming reasonably impervious to humiliation. 

At some points I laughed out loud, some others I cringed, but each night I couldn't wait to get into bed to see what would happen next.  There is, in particular, an interview Clara conducts with a dancer that I don't think I'll ever forget. 

Thanks to Web's Aunt Christie for stuffing it into my purse last summer.

Fermat's Last Theorem by Amir D. Aczel

After reading Longitude, I decided on another book in the same genre: thin history of science books.  This book, subtitled "Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem" begins with Andrew Wiles' alleged proof of of Fermat's Last Theorem.  FLT is simple to understand but was, for nearly three centuries, impossible to prove. 

The theorem states that equations like a^2 + b^2 = c^2 can't be solved for exponents larger than 2.  Fermat, mathematician in the 1600's, stated this theorem with an innocent note indicating he had proven it but didn't have space in the margin of his notebook to write out the entire proof.  Since then, mathematicians had struggled to find a proof, and in 1993 Wiles was so sure that he had that he presented it at a large conference. 

Wiles' original proof of FLT was erroneous, so the book picks up the story there, ultimately unraveling the politics and characters involved in the lead-up to the proof as well as the correction that Wiles ultimately presented to successfully prove the theorem.  However, to appreciate the entire story, the author uses most of the book to provide a history of the math behind the story, starting long before Fermat, with the Greek mathematicians up through modern times.

I liked the book but I didn't love it.  I guess as a math person I craved better explanations of some of the mathematical concepts.  I wanted to understand the basic layout of the proof, and instead I got a narrative of the people involved as well as this history, but not enough math.  Some sections (like on non-Euclidean geometry) were at a level of detail I was looking for, but once he got into the elliptical math at the basis of the proof, Aczel's descriptions were not complete enough for my taste.