_Paganini's Ghost_ by Paul Adam. Italian luthier and cop friend get involved in lost compositions, Paganini's eccentric life, and murder. Lovely mystery for folks who love to make music. Adequate mystery for others, I suspect. You know you're getting older when you read a blurb about a book describing the protagonist as an "elderly luthier" and then while reading discover that he's 64 and say to yourself WTF?
_Engines of Logic: Mathematicians and the Origin of the Computer_ by Martin Davis. Survey of the mathematics and logic that went into the creation of general purpose computing. Really nice chain from Leibnitz -> Boole -> Frege -> Cantor -> Hilbert -> Gödel -> Turing (with others along for the ride). As someone who started out towards being a research mathematician and strayed into computing, a perfect read.
_State of the Onion_ by Julie Hyzy. A fun, quick read where our protagonist is a chef in the White House kitchens. She witnesses the murder of someone trying to warn against an assassination attempt and in doing so becomes the sole person who can identify an international killer. Oh, and the White House has a new protocol guy trying to make her professional life a pain, too
_Gutshot Straight_ by Lou Berney. A terrifically fun romp with cast of odd characters doing odd things. Great dialog, great pacing. Very Elmore Leonard-esque, but with perhaps a more visual orientation. Maybe EL joins up with Stephen J Cannell. In any case, it was done much too soon. And I'd love to see further adventures of Shake and Gina.
_The Throne of Fire_ by Rick Riordan. The Kane kids are back wielding Egyptian magic, training a cadre of kids like them, and taking on the most powerful magicians in the world...and here and there a god or twelve. I'm thinking growing up today is definitely not like when I was a kid...
_The Last Kingdom_ by Bernard Cornell. Historical adventure from the fount of readability (in this case, listen-a-bility). Uhtred, a Northumbrian boy, is captured and raised to be a warrior by the Danes in the days of Alfred the Great. 1000 years before Sharpe, 500 before Thomas Hookton, BC once again entertains in British history.
_Prime Obsession_ by John Derbyshire. History and personalities involved in the Riemann Hypothesis, from Bernard himself to the 21st century. Enough mathematics to give a sense of what's going on. Obviously restricting the math to basic calculus or below limited the fullness, but did make it accessible to the likes of me, 30+ years removed from both analysis and number theory.
_Master and Commander_ by Patrick O'Brian. I'm going to take another swing through the series this year, I hope. Last year Hornblower, this year Aubrey. It is interesting to go back to the first one, though, and see how he started setting up his characters from the beginning.
_Hail to the Chef_ by Julie Hyzy. Nice balance between tension and cuisine. Freshly minted (I guess the green kind, not the shiny kind) White House Executive Chef Ollie Paras has to deal with the holiday festivities and prevent mayhem to boot. Piece of cake... It was fun reading the recipes at the end and seeing her recommendation of The Spice House. Karen's latest incarnation of gravlax uses a "lava salt" that The Spice House gave her last week out of a supply of things they decided not to carry.
_The Trade of Queens_ by Charles Stross. The last (for the time being) of the Merchant Prince novels in which the Clan relocates and the US pretty much destroys the intervening world. Brought the threads (mostly) to a stable point, about halfway through what Stross has identified for story in this world. Enjoyed it and look forward to more some day.