_The Bearskin Rug_, Jennifer Stevenson (kindle)

#3 in the Jewel Heiss/Chicago series.

In this outing, Heiss and her partner Clay (the guy running the con in _The Brass Bed_, and whose family wackitude is explored in _The Velvet Chair_) are researching several cases which turn out to be related: a scam in which a house is "contaminated" with a "pocket zone" of magic, in an effort to get the owner to sell cheap; a similar trick played on the Kraft building where Heiss' office is; a complaint about an orgy (complete with secretaries being turned into dogs) at a law firm. Along the way, the Consumer Services investigators discover corruption in Inspectional Services, a sex goddess at a porn publisher (who is searching for a new avatar when her attempt to recruit her fated avatar is unsuccessful), and a really big real estate scam revolving around some a new rail line through the city.

Wow. And did I mention the porn? Artistic Publishing has branched out into erotica marketed to women, including film and Randy gets a job there. Surprise. There's a foursome involving Randy (the sex demon), Clay, Jewel and Wilma (the sex goddess). At stake? If Jewel doesn't come, they'll never escape the demon space that Randy jumped to when he jumped off a building and Jewel came along with him.

Lots of weird exploration of Jewel's abandonment/intimacy issues. It's actually a really good book in a lot of ways -- it's just such a surprise to encounter this three books into a series that has such a whacked sense of humor. I'm waiting to find out who the radio shrink is. Surely she's hinky herself, right?

good article about geriatrics/nursing homes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/health/24nursing.html

Well, pretty good. Neat idea, to have geriatrics students go live in a nursing home for a while. If the takeaway is a concern about getting too attached and being devastated by the deaths of the people one has learned to love, I figure the students are doing a great job. I am a _little_ concerned that one of the students was surprised to learn that patients at the skilled nursing facility thought of it as their home, and the staff as a second family. Duh, much?

If we're really serious about making end-of-life a better experience, this is where our focus should be: on making skilled nursing facilities more comfortable _homes_ where people can live with what has made it increasingly impossible for them to live anywhere else. The knowledge that comes from personal experience of these spaces can form the basis of an intelligent compassion that is a large chunk of what we need to get there.