This is turning out to be an amazing reading year for me, at least so far as quantity goes. Quality? Well, I confess I've been reading mostly for amusement and not so much to challenge myself. I've been having fun, but I can't say that my brain has exactly been challenged. Perhaps that's because I've been working harder than usual, and doing legal research and writing briefs has given me all the mental exercise I really need. It's hard to do everything at once, especially at the same time I'm trying to solve a chronic pain and depression problem!

Still, we're not even halfway through the year, and I've read more than 60 books. There have been entire years when I haven't read that many books. And I've written far more reviews, both short and long, than in a normal year, too. It's all good. Short reviews are usually for short books, and that's what I've got for you here today -- that and one book that disappointed me despite (or because of?) my high expectations for it, and that, for the life of me, I can't think of much to say about. Onward.

Seven for a Secret by Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean Press, 2009, $25.00). This novella about Bear's vampire (or wampyr, as she calls him) Sebastien, and his court, Abby Irene and Phoebe, picks up years after New Amsterdam ends. It is now 1938, and England is held fast in the grip of the Germans -- or, rather, the Prussians, as they now call themselves. Not happy with their control of Western Europe, they seek to control the East as well, and they are dabbling with dark means of doing so. To that end, they have recruited a school full of seventh daughters whom they are indoctrinating and training to be perfect soldiers -- and something more. Abby Irene, a sorcerer herself, figures out what the Prussians are up to, and Sebastien sets about to foil the Prussians' plans. He finds that perhaps Ruth and Adele, two of the girls who are in love with one another, may not be so wedded to their assigned tasks as they should be. Ruth is a wonderful character, and if you've read New Amsterdam, you already like Sebastien and Abby Irene, so this short book is a lovely treat.

Cairo, written by G. Willow Wilson, art by M.K. Perker (Vertigo/DC Comics, 2007, $17.99). This graphic novel is excellently done on every level. The writing is sharp and the black and white drawings clear, detailed and evocative. The story is of two young Americans who travel to Cairo, both with the notion of making a difference to the troubled Middle East. Kate is a recent college graduate who has studied Arabic, is tired of the falseness of Orange County, California, and wants to save lives. Shaheed, on the other hand, is of Lebanese descent, and has a very different idea of how to make a difference -- one that involves going into Israel and getting on a bus and not getting off alive. Both of them find that reality is very different from what they had imagined, particularly when that reality means dealing with a jinn, the Undernile, demons, flying carpets, and so on. The fantasy in this book is more real than any political science that the two main characters may have had in their heads when they came to Cairo. I enjoyed this book immensely.

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Penguin, 2009, $25.95). This novel sounded so very much up my alley -- a combination of mystery and fantasy, a book based on dreams, one that other readers were comparing to Borges and Kafka. But it just didn't work for me, and I found I had to force myself to finish it. It's not that the writing is bad; it isn't, not at all. But the plot is so convoluted, confusing and slow, the characters so undifferentiated from one another, and Charles Unwin, the viewpoint character, so inherently dull that ultimately there seems to be no reason to keep reading. What should be a fascinating premise -- Unwin awakes one morning to find that he has been promoted from clerk to detective at The Agency, and the detective he had previously worked for, Travis T. Sivart, has gone missing. Unwin wants nothing more than to return to being a clerk, so he sets out to find Sivart, finding in the process that there are many mysteries indeed, including in his own dreams -- and those of others. Sounds like a fascinating premise, doesn't it? Then why isn't the book equally fascinating? The execution just isn't up to the idea.