The second in his trilogy—the first, Advent, was reviewed in Agenda’s last issue—Anarchy opens in British Columbia Canada, where strange things are happening.

For starters, Alexander McQueen created ‘savage beauty’ in every way he chose for having taken couture beyond fashion to high art. We saw it for many years on the runway and then we saw it again collected at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2011. Pure talent let him push all our boundaries much harder than most artists could do. And he did.

Five young men meet in college, become fast friends, and remain so long after graduation, having now become established in their careers. They make an annual trip to Las Vegas, and in this tenth year for the first time one of the friends is missing.

The Philosopher’s Kiss, a work of historical fiction by Peter Prange, was set in France in the 18th Century in Paris during the height of the Age of Enlightenment when all print was under the scrutiny and censorship of the Catholic Church. Denis Diderot, the title character, was a famous philosopher and writer whose idea it was to compile all knowledge under what became the Encyclopedia.

Throughout this first book I kept thinking to myself that books and movies like this are contributing to the increasing violence of our young people. In fact, I was nearing the end of Book I when at 11:00 p.m. I inserted my bookmark, closed the book, and turned on the TV to the news. There I learned of the Colorado massacre.

Through her memories, ninety-eight-year-old Grace Reeves Bradley tells the riveting, touching, and tense love story of her life and the lives of the aristocrats who employ her. The novel is set in England, primarily between World War I and World War II.

This is a coming-of-age story, told through the eyes of 13-year-old Hob (Robert), who by the end has matured into the young man Molly and her granddaughter knew he would become when on their travels eighteen months before they met him in the monastery where he, an orphan, had been raised and tutored by Father Athelstan.

THE DISTANT HOURS by Kate Morton is historical fiction in true gothic style, replete with all of the elements of the genre: setting, plot, characters. The primary setting is Milderhurst Castle in Milderhurst Village, not far from London in England, between 1939 and 1992; a ruined castle complete with a moat that has been filled in, whispering walls, stormy nights; principal characters who are isolated from the rest of the outside world.

In Agenda’s November issue I briefly told you about Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, seven books published between 1991 and 2009, with the eighth and final in the series due out sometime in 2013. Since I started this series in September of last year, 2011, having been introduced to it when visiting my sister, I have not been able to put it down.

Jodi Picoult’s 2011 bestseller, explores the question of same sex parenting. As always, her themes are about issues that can negatively impact the family structure. In this case, Picoult deals with the issue of in vitro fertilization, same sex marriage and adoption, religion, teen suicide, and others.