What Are We Reading And Reviewing in February 2019?

Come Back Here! You can't start another book until you tell us about the last one!!!

2//19 - ★
Carol’s Reads...Without Commercials... For February

Group Reads
The Merchant’s House by Kate Ellis - 2/12/19 - 5★
The Damage Done by James Oswald - 2//19 - ★

Blind Date With A Book
The Diary of Mattie Spencer by Sandra Dallas - 2/2/19 - 5★

Others
Hangman by Jack Heath - 2/3/19 - 3.5★
Grist Mill Road by Christopher Yates - 2/5/19 - 2.5★
When Shadows Fall by J.T. Ellison - 2/7/19 - 4★
Last Kiss Goodbye by Karen Robrds - 2/8/19 - 3.5★
Boar Island by Nevada Barr - 2/1/19 - 2.5★
Haunted by Randy Wayne White -2/6/19 - 3★
If I Live by Terri Blackstock - 2/10/19 - 4★
IQ by Joe ide - 2/14/19 - 3★
Ice Cold Alice by C.P. Wilson - 2/7/19 - 5★
Stay Hidden by Paul Doiron - 2/15/19 - 3.5★
The Nowhere Child by Christian White - 2/19/19 - 4★
Connections In Death by J.D. Robb - 2/13/19 - 5★
Nothing Stays Buried by P.J. Tracy - 2/19/19 - 4★
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum - 2/21/19 - 4★
Lay Me To Rest by E.A. Clark - 2/17/19 - 5

Dusty's TBR for February
SF/F reads
Connie Willis - All Clear ✔
Ursula K LeGuin - Powers ✔
Charles Stross - The Delirium Brief
Murray Leinster - Med Ship✔
Kevin Hearne - Scourged ✔

from other genres
Michael Innes - Weight of the Evidence ✔
M J Trow - Maxwell's House✔
Genevieve Cogman - The Invisible Library ✔
Charlotte Yue - The Igloo✔
Jayne Castle - Siren's Call✔
Linsey Davis - Pandora's Boy ✔

Lynda and Oliver's February Reading Plan

Mystery

Bitter Season - Tami Hoag
Connections in Death - J. D. Robb
Golden Tresses of the Dead - Alan Bradley
Hide and Seek - M. J. Arlidge
I Am Watching You - Teresa Driscoll
In Deep Voodoo - Stephanie Bond
Righteous - Joe Ide
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rubbernecker - Belinda Bauer
Serpent's Daughter - Suzanne Arruda
Yankee Doodle Dead - Carolyn Hart

Non Mystery

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
Hopeless - Colleen Hoover
Ivy Tree - Mary Stewart
Last Kabbalist of Lisbon - Richard Zimler
Little Shop of Found Things - Paula Brackston
Redshirts - John Scalzi

Boar Island by Nevada Barr
Anna Pigeon series Book #19
2.5★

Anna Pigeon, in her career as a National Park Service Ranger, has had to deal with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors, but cyber-bullying and stalking is a new one. The target is Elizabeth, the adopted teenage daughter of her friend Heath Jarrod. Elizabeth is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. Until, one day, Heath finds her daughter Elizabeth in the midst of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. And then she calls in the cavalry---her aunt Gwen and her friend Anna Pigeon. While they try to deal with the fragile state of affairs---and find the person behind the harassment---the three adults decide the best thing to do is to remove Elizabeth from the situation. Since Anna is about to start her new post as Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, the three will join her and stay at a house on the cliff of a small island near the park, Boar Island. But the move east doesn't solve the problem. The stalker has followed them east. And Heath (a paraplegic) and Elizabeth aren't alone on the otherwise deserted island. At the same time, Anna has barely arrived at Acadia before a brutal murder is committed by a killer uncomfortably close to her.

I intend no pun...well maybe just a small one...when I say Boar Island was..well... boring. Unlike the other books before this one there was very little focus on the Park itself (Acadia in Maine) and almost no involvement of the main character...Anna Pigeon. When she did appear it seemed almost an after thought on the author's part. Many of the characters were drawn from an earlier book and were not very interesting. Nevada Barr has done much, much better and I hope this is just a fluke.

The Diary of Mattie Spencer by Sandra Dallas
5★

No one is more surprised than Mattie Spenser herself when Luke Spenser, considered the great catch of their small Iowa town, asks her to marry him. Less than a month later, they are off in a covered wagon to build a home on the Colorado frontier. Mattie's only company is a slightly mysterious husband and her private journal, where she records the joys and frustrations not just of frontier life, but also of a new marriage to a handsome but distant stranger. As she and Luke make life together on the harsh and beautiful plains, Mattie learns some bitter truths about her husband and the girl he left behind and finds love where she least expects it. Dramatic and suspenseful, this is an unforgettable story of hardship, friendship and survival.

The book gives a first person narrative of what life was like on the frontier from the perspective of a young woman from Iowa. It's 1865 and twenty-two year old Mattie is living with her parents when out of the blue Luke Spenser suddenly proposes to her. Not giving it more than a second thought, Mattie accepts his proposal, and before she knows it, finds herself headed to the Colorado Territory with her new husband. Mattie writes of her life from the time she leaves Iowa until nearly the end of her life. She tells in vivid details their trip by wagon train as well as what happens once she gets there. The diary is found years later by Mattie's 97 year old granddaughter. It's so well written and full of historical facts about the incredible courage and hardships faced by our pioneers.

Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas
Mark Kurlansky
4/5 stars
Kurlansky noted for his non-fiction writing doesn’t disappoint in this book on the history and science of milk. Never boring, he makes the topic of milk extremely interesting from its very beginnings up until today. The studies they did on homogenized milk before allowing the public to drink it were interesting and I learned that the yogurt I thought I was eating is actually a cheese product. There are recipes scattered throughout the book and the older ones are quite shocking, making me feel happy I was not born several centuries ago. Highly recommended!

>6 Carol420: Wait, is this fiction or a real diary?

A little late to the February reading list:

The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (who was I kidding, that I would finish 2 books by GGK in one month??)
Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them by Marjorie Taylor (can I finish it this month?)
The House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmer Bradley (the first book I've read/re-read of hers since her daughter's revelations)
Grass by Sherri S. Tepper (for SFFKit February challenge)

Sweet Valley Confidential / Francine Pascal
3 stars

Beautiful blonde twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are now 27 years old. Something has happened so that Elizabeth is furious with Jessica, and she will not speak to her sister. Elizabeth is now living in New York and working as a writer for a small newspaper, whereas Jess is still in Sweet Valley.

I know the book has had a lot of negative reviews, but I’m still rating it “ok”. It’s been 30+ years since I read about these characters (and even then, I only read some of the original series, Sweet Valley High – I was a bit older and had lost interest by the time the Sweet Valley Twins came out when they were younger and I’m not even sure when Sweet Valley University came out!), and I enjoyed reading about them again and seeing what had happened (even if there was a lot of crap that had happened). I still remembered the majority of the characters.

The story jumps between Elizabeth and Jessica and back and forth in time. This book, I thought was not far off from a lot of chick lit – very soap opera-like. I didn’t like some of the outcomes of the characters I read so much of when I was younger, but I didn’t think the story was really so terrible (again, in comparison to other chick lit). Though some of the characters really didn’t seem to have grown up much, I still found it somewhat entertaining, and it was a fast read.

Forgot to post this one last night:

Something Fierce / Carmen Aguirre
3.5 stars

Carmen was raised in Canada, where her parents had arrived as refugees after being exiled from their native Chile because they were revolutionaries. When Carmen was 11, she, her mother, her stepfather, and her sister all moved to Bolivia (beside Chile) so they could help with the revolution from there. The book follows Carmen’s life as she grows up to help in the revolution herself, until it comes to an end in 1989 when she’s in her early 20s.

It was shorter and there wasn’t as much politics in it as I was expecting (which, for me, was a good thing!). There was still some; of course, more when Carmen was older. I was surprised that her parents brought Carmen and her sister with them, as it was very dangerous, though Carmen seemed quite happy to be there, so close to her grandparents, as she and her sister were able to travel across the border to visit (though her mother and stepfather were unable to). Certainly, when Carmen was younger, there is not as much mention of the danger, as Carmen herself was not thinking about it at the time.

Hangman by Jack Heath
Timothy Blake series Book #1
3.5★

A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a disturbing ransom call. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads. Enter Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a sociopath - the FBI's last resort. But this time Blake might have met his match. The kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than anyone he's faced before. And Blake has been assigned a new partner, a woman linked to the past he's so desperate to forget. Timothy Blake has a secret, one so dark he will do anything to keep it hidden. And he also has a price. Every time he saves a life, he takes one

The character of Timothy Blake comes across as being the result of a breeding between James Bond and Dracula. Overall he is brilliant at solving puzzles be they kidnappings and murders or crosswords and Rubik's cubes. Timothy is more than just interesting...he's a puzzle that no matter how hard the reader tries to see a reason for "what he is...it just slips through the mind...which is probably a good thing. I really liked the writing style of this author but you need to be willing and able to suspend your disbelief for some parts of it and just go with the flow. I look forward to meeting Timothy again...just not in a dark alley.

So far February has brought to me:

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn; (5*); CHILDREN'S LIT; Century of Reading; 1993; bk 1
A charming tale of a wee raccoon whose time has come to attend Raccoon School. He doesn't want to go because he is nervous about change and he does not want to leave his mother. So she shows him how he can always have a part of her with him via 'the kissing hand'. She takes his little paw in her large one, spreads his little 'fingers' out into a fan shape and kisses the palm of his 'hand'. She tells him that whenever he gets afraid or misses her while at school......all he need do is touch the palm of that 'hand' to his cheek. He wiill feel the warmth of her kiss run from his cheek to his heart and feel near her again. It will last all day while he is at school.
This satisfied the little raccoon who was now content to attend school.

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter; (4*); Y/A; ROOT; Classics; published 1913; bk 1
This is truly one of the beautiful classics. I have read it aloud to my children, my grandchildren and now to my great grandchilren. They have all enjoyed it, especially the parts about the Glad Game. But my favorite way to read it is to just curl up by myself in a quiet corner and read it for myself. And my favorite parts are the ones with the prisms.
This is a wonderful book no matter what one's age. One can't help feeling 'glad' as one finishes the book. And it is a wonderful feeling when you pick it up again for the next reading. Just like you're meeting old friends again.

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black; (3*); NOIR; Century of Books; 2007; bk 1
Christine Falls is a sad, dark story of lives that are burdened by wrong choices which impact the characters lives forever. I could find no character, primary or otherwise, who enjoys any lasting joy. Moments of happiness are short lived and soon replaced by the effects of poor decisions.
I did have empathy for Quirke and his early life losses but overall I felt a lack of depth in the characters and the storyline. However I find Banville to be an excellent writer and his character, the Dublin pathologist Quirke, is sufficiently noirish that I'll keep reading this series in the hope of finding the depth and dimension I found missing in this book.

23. Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf; (5*); PERSEPHONE; (#55); Century of Books; 1933; ROOT; Historical bio
Flush is a first person fictional narrative about the Cocker Spaniel owned by Elizabeth Barrett/Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The real dog was stolen three times but in the novella it is capsulized into a story of one theft.
Virginia Woolf opens the novel writing as if the book were non-fiction. After a few pages, she slips into the narrative form with the dog describing his life. She explores the dog's relation to the owner and tells us what it is like to be a dog. The dog is very sensitive to the moods of his owner and is protective, even becoming jealous on an occasion or two. One could say that Woolf gives Flush a soul.
"Flush dances through the meadows as a puppy. The cool globes of dew or rain broke in showers of iridescent spray about his nose; the earth, her hard, here soft, here hot, here cold, stung, teased and tickled the soft pads of his feet. Then what a variety of smells interwoven is subtlest combination thrilled his nostrils...".
This story is light hearted and avoids the heavy cloud of despair usually portrayed in books about the Barretts of Wimpole Street, though Wimpole Street is the setting of the first part of the book.
I loved how Woolf described Flush running through the parks, chasing birds & whatnot; lying soaking up the sun, etc. Her descriptiveness of a 'dog's life' is pretty spot on. This story allows Woolf to be more playful than any of the other piece she has written. The mix of fiction and fact allows her to tell a story filled with heroes and villians which make the book quite captivating like an adult fairy tale. By the end I was fully engaged and completely consumed by Flush and his life. I didn't want it to end but sadly it had to. This is a must for any fan of Woolf or even anyone who has a love for animals. The deeper meaning of the narrative is the telling of loyalty and love. We can all take a lesson from that.
I fell in love with this little book and highly recommend it. It boggles my mind just how timeless Virginia Woolf's works are.

Neverwas / Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, Larkin Reed
3 stars

This is the 2nd book in a trilogy. Sarah has moved from Oregon to Maryland with her family to take over her grandmother’s old house (from book 1). It’s been too long since I read book 1 to remember what led to the current “situation”, and I don’t want to give too much away, but Sarah seems to be seeing things. Her best friend since childhood (and a neighbour), Jackson, also sees things, but different things.

Ok, I was confused through parts of it, and kind of lost interest a bit (mostly in the things Sarah was “seeing”, but not as much in her “here and now”), and I’m sure the losing interest helped with the confusion. Ultimately, I decided on an “ok” rating, simply because I’m still interested enough to find out what happens in the last book. This one isn’t nearly as good as the first book, though.

Grist MIll Road by Christopher Yates
2.5★

The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends―Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah―are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again―with even more devastating results.

The story had promise and the opening chapter set the events in motion to present a very interesting story. Several things occurred after that. (1.) It was somewhat difficult to follow as every chapter skipped back and forth from 1982 to 2008. (2.) The "crime" itself had serious consequences but it was something you might expect from 12 year old kids given the right circumstances and it seemed the characters were dealing fairly well with it as adults. (3.) I never understood why Hannah suddenly took offense and said she "learned" that Patrick was there when the 'crime" was committed since she and we, the readers, knew that he was there from the start. (4.) What was with Hannah's unexplained relationship with the NY City cop who is completely bereft of any charm but becomes her self-appointed protector for the remainder of the book.??? There is not one single character that you can truly invest in.

Haunted by Randy Wayne White
Hanna Smith series Book #3
3★

The house is historic, some say haunted. It is also slated to be razed and replaced by condos, unless Hannah Smith can do something about it. She’s been hired by a wealthy Palm Beach widow to prove that the house’s seller didn’t disclose everything he knew about the place when he unloaded it, including its role in a bloody Civil War skirmish in which two of Hannah’s own distant relations had had a part, as well as the suicides—or possibly murders—of two previous owners. Hannah sees it as a win-win opportunity: She can stop the condo project while tracking her family history. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. But some dangers are real. And the most deadly of all may be human obsession.

The Hanna Smith character is interesting but I found that I had mixed feelings about her. Somehow she doesn't really come across as one of Randy Wayne White's characters. I can't seriously believe she is that flaky. The story line is good but there is a lot of unnecessary dialog with a lot of characters doing a lot of different things. However about a third of the way through the book that all becomes tempered with a lot of historical background. That is actually what earned the book 3 stars. This is the first book I have read featuring this character and I will have to think long and hard if I will try another.

When Shadows Fall by J.T. Ellison
Samantha Owens series Book #3
4★

Sam has left Nashville to try to rebuild her life after the death of her husband and her twins. She has moved to Washington, D.C, to teach at George Washington University Medical School. She hopes to start a new life with a new love interest... a handsome former Army Ranger, Xander, and his dog, Thor. A letter arrives from a Virginia man who asks her to investigate his death. Although she knows she should ignore it, she finds herself drawn in when the man's attorney contacts her to tell her she's in the man’s will, along with a cryptic list of other heirs. She,,,Xander and Fletch, a detective friend, set off to solve the puzzle soon running into multiple murders...a cult...and a friend who tries to recruit her for the FBI.

Samantha Owens was one of my favorite characters when she was the coroner in Nashville, Tennessee in the Taylor Jackson series and I always thought she should have a series of her own. Even though she deals with the forensic side of the murder she doesn't seem to have the same role as she did in the Jackson series. Too much romance takes it away from the "thriller" category and puts her series more in the "romance" department. Still a well done, intriguing read.

Little Big Lies
by Liane Moriarty
4/5 stars
A young, single woman with a child comes to a new town to rebuild her life but things go awry from day one. Her child is accused of hurting a girl in class and the school becomes divided with those on her side and those against her. Did he do it? It was compelling till the very end. I had seen the mini-series previous to reading this and thought that they did a great job in staying within the story line of this book.

Ice Cold Alice by C.P. Wilson
5★

They thought that they had all the power, until she took it from them. A killer hunts abusive spouses, blogging about their sins post-kill. Soon the murders and the brazen journalist draws the attention of Police Scotland's CID. This killer works with surgical preparation, precision and skill, using a unique weapon of her own and never leaves a trace of evidence behind. Edinburgh's DI Kathy McGuire, nearing the end of her career, begins the hunt for the murderer as a media frenzy erupts. But McGuire might have met her match. What has led this killer to take the law into her own hands?
Is the woman accountable really a cold-hearted killer or a desperate vigilante?

Alice is a unique killer that you will find yourself cheering for. There are surprises that you would never think of and twists galore. The perpetrator narrates the story and you will soon begin to understand the reasons for her "crimes" and how they are justified. Alice is "Ice Cold" in more ways than one. I am happy to give it 5 big, beautiful stars!

>6 Carol420:
Carol, this may be my favorite of Sandra Dallas's books. Love Mattie Spenser!

>8 threadnsong:
Threadnsong .... this is fiction.

Other Voices, Other Rooms – Truman Capote
3.5***

Capote’s debut novel is a semiautobiographical coming-of-age story. After the death of his mother, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox leaves New Orleans to travel to rural Alabama, and the home of the father who abandoned him at birth. Skully’s Landing is his stepmother Amy’s dilapidated mansion, set far in the woods, and without electricity or indoor plumbing. Among the residents of the estate are a centenarian Negro, Jesus Fever, his granddaughter Missouri (known as Zoo), who keeps house for the family, and the mysterious cousin Randolph. The person who is obviously missing is Joel’s father. Nearby live two sisters, Florabel and Idabel, the latter a tomboy who provides a glimmer of love and approval to the lonely Joel.

This is a classic Southern Gothic novel, full of ghosts, haints, superstitions, secrets and closed off rooms. There are real dangers aplenty as well: poisonous snakes, quicksand, and people with guns. Joel is isolated not only by the remote location, but by the lack of connection with these people. He is confused and cautious, and his loneliness and despair are palpable.

Capote’s writing is wonderfully atmospheric. Here is what Joel sees on his journey to his new home:
Two roads pass over the hinterlands into Noon City; one from the north, another from the south; the latter, known as the Paradise Chapel Highway, is the better of the pair, though both are much the same: desolate miles of swamp and field and forest stretch along either route unbroken except for scattered signs advertising Red Dot 5c Cigars, Dr. Pepper, NEHI, Grove’s Chill Tonic, and 666. Wooden bridges spanning brackish creeks named for long-gone Indian tribes rumble like far-off thunder under a passing wheel; herds of hogs and cows roam the roads at will; now and then a farm-family pauses from work to wave as an auto whizzes by, and watch sadly till it disappears in red dust.

Like Joel, I felt somewhat lost in unfamiliar surroundings. Was Capote trying too hard to be atmospheric? Was he forced by the standards of the day to be so circumspect regarding his message of awakening homosexuality? It makes Cousin Randolph’s statement all the more poignant: ”The brain may take advice, but not the heart, and love, having no geography, knows no boundaries; ... any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person's nature; only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves, emotional illiterates and those of righteous envy, who, in their agitated concern, mistake so frequently the arrow pointing to heaven for the one that leads to hell.”

Carnegie’s Maid – Marie Benedict
Book on CD narrated by Alana Kerr Collins
3***

Irish immigrant Clara Kelly comes to America in hopes of finding employment so that she can send money home to her impoverished family. She winds up as a lady’s maid to Mrs Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie’s mother, in the family’s Pittsburgh mansion. Mrs Carnegie has a reputation for being an exacting mistress, and for showing dissatisfaction by firing her previous lady’s maids nearly on a whim. Clara has to use her wits and education to keep this job in order to save her family from starvation, while trying her best to learn all she can so that she can better herself.

I was intrigued by the story and quickly caught up in the tale of this intelligent, resourceful, determined and diligent young lady. I saw the potential relationship with Andrew Carnegie coming a mile off; no surprise, really as it’s pretty much revealed in the prologue. But watching it unfold was still interesting to me, as was the resolution. The Author’s Note at the end was very interesting as well, giving some clue as to the facts that sparked the idea behind the novel.

On the other hand, I did think it was rather repetitious. How many times must Clara comment on her duty to her family? On her need to “keep this job”? On the lack of support / companionship / friendship between herself and the other house staff?

Alana Kerr Collins does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and I had no difficulty keeping the many characters straight.

The Hamilton Affair – Elizabeth Cobbs
4****

If you don’t already know about Alexander Hamilton’s role as a founding father, then not only did you not pay attention in history class, but you’ve been living under a rock these past few years as the musical H✰milton has swept the Tony awards.

Cobbs is an historian, who also occasionally writes a work of historical fiction. She started researching this novel, got intrigued by the subject, and was told by her publisher that “No one knows about this guy or wants to read about him … Snooze!” But she was convinced that the story was a good one. Several years into the project, a friend told her, “You have to see the You-Tube video of this guy reading a rap poem about Hamilton at the White House!” (It was Lin Manuel Miranda, and this eventually became the hit musical.)

I thought I knew Hamilton’s story, but there were still things in this novel that caught my attention and made me take notice. I was interested and engaged from beginning to end.

Cobbs tells the story in alternating perspectives: Alexander and Eliza each get a turn at relating events. In this way we get some insight into each character’s background, guiding principles, joys, sorrows and desires. I really appreciated how strong a character Cobb’s Eliza is. And while Cobbs’ sympathies were clearly with Hamilton, she did not shy away from pointing out his faults, infidelity being perhaps the least of them.

Our F2F book group had a spirited discussion, made all the more enjoyable by a Skype visit from the author.

Last Kiss Goodbye by Karen Robards
Dr. Charlotte Stone series Book #2
3.5 ★

Dr. Charlotte “Charlie” Stone has dedicated her career as a psychiatrist to exploring the darkest territory of all: the hearts and minds of serial killers. It’s a job she’s uniquely suited for, thanks to the secret talent that gives her an uncanny edge—Charlie can see dead people, whose tormented spirits cry out to her for the justice only she can provide. This blessing—or curse—gives Charlie the power to hunt down and catch madmen and murderers. It’s also turned her love life upside down by drawing her into a hopelessly passionate relationship with the lingering ghost of charismatic bad boy Michael Garland. But there’s little time for romance with her supernatural suitor when murder comes pounding at Charlie’s door in the form of a terrified young woman fleeing a homicidal maniac. Saving her life places Charlie squarely in the cross-hairs of a sadistic predator nicknamed “the Gingerbread Man,” notorious for manipulating his victims like pawns in a deadly chess game.

Not too sure how I feel about the 'ghost boyfriend" . I love ghost stories but this seems as being a tad unbelievable. Other than that small thing the story is entertaining and the character of Dr, Charlotte Stone is an interesting combination of pathologist and investigator. I just don't quiet get why the dead boyfriend helper. Charlotte appears to be a great detective and a better than average psychologist, but her lack of common sense in her relationship and being pursued by a serial killer is just frustratingly wrong.

All My Sons
Arthur Miller
4/5 stars
Based on a true story, this Miller play relates the tale of a manufacturer of plane parts who knowingly sent defective plane parts to be used in the WWII which resulted in pilots dying, his partner being sent to jail and the effects of that action on his family. Well-written and compelling! Play

A Pug's Tale / Alison Pace
3 stars

Hope works at the Metropolitan Museum with the artwork. She regularly brings her pet pug to work. On a day when there is a pug-themed party for a prominent donor – a donor who loves pugs, herself – a valuable painting is stolen and a fake left in its place. Hope discovers it and lets her boss know. One other employee, who was in charge of the night’s party, also discovers it. Between them, they decide not to go to the police, but to hire a private investigator to see if they can figure out what happened themselves.

The book was ok. Hope’s pug, Max, was cute. I did find pretty much all of Hope’s social interactions a bit awkward, especially with the donor, as they became “friends”. I just didn’t see the friendship. Overall, just an ok read.

Sleeping Beauties / Stephen King, Owen King
3.5 stars

Women all around the world are going to sleep and not waking up. Not only that, once they are asleep, they are then shrouded in some kind of cocoon. The book primarily follows the people in a town called Dooling, a town that also houses a women’s prison. Included in that prison is a woman, who gave her name as Evie, who appeared right around the time women were falling asleep and not waking up. Evie was arrested just after a house blew up and two men were murdered.

I listened to the audio, which I think made things a bit trickier for me to follow. Like most of Stephen King’s book, there was a very large cast of characters and we jumped around between different character’s perspectives, so it was very easy for me to lose track of who was who, and there were some I never did remember right up to the end of the book. Overall, though, it was a good story, and I enjoyed the little addition at the end of the audio book, that included an interview with both Stephen and Owen.

Carrying Albert Home – Homer Hickam
3***

Subtitle: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator

Hickam grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia, where his father, Homer Sr, was foreman at the coal mine. Over the years his mother, Elsie, and father occasionally made reference to a trip they had taken during the Depression, when they were a young married couple but didn’t yet have children; it was to “carry Albert home,” Albert being his mother’s pet alligator. This book recounts some of those stories of the trip and their adventures on the road.

I loved listening to the stories my father, mother, aunts and uncles would tell of “the old days” and adventures they had had. Even just a few years before my father died, I was still surprised to learn things about his youth as he related a story of sheep-shearing in Montana. (My father was raised on a ranch on the Rio Grande in Texas.) So, I was predisposed to like this tale of the author’s parents and a great adventure they embarked upon without any plan other than to “carry Albert home.”

And they DID have adventures. If even half of the episodes are true, they met with famous authors, helped blow up a textile mill, foiled a bank robbery, got kidnapped by bootleggers, learned to run a boarding house, got conscripted into the Coast Guard (and then thrown overboard by smugglers), helped film a Hollywood movie, and survived a hurricane. Most importantly, they found one another on this road trip, and learned what was truly important in their lives.

I found it fun and enjoyable, but gosh, Elsie got on my nerves. I don’t know why Homer didn’t just leave her and Albert somewhere along the way and go find a woman who truly appreciated him.

Winter Solstice – Rosamunde Pilcher
Digital audiobook narrated by Carole Shelley
4****

Five very different people, ranging in age from teen-aged to mid-sixties, converge on a Scottish cottage just before Christmas. Each is facing some difficult changes in his or her life, and together they find a way to navigate the turbulence in their lives.

What a charmingly told story. I grew to love these characters. Elfrida is practical, giving, generous and compassionate. Oscar is reeling from loss, struggling to come to grips with his guilt and grief, and hesitant to take a chance. Sam is trying to find a new path in life and return to his home from years spent abroad. Carrie is stubbornly independent, afraid to open herself to love after having been badly burned, and yet willing to sacrifice to help her young niece. Lucy is feeling lost and abandoned, unsure what she wants but knowing that it is NOT to be a third wheel in her mother’s new romance.

The novel changes perspective with each chapter so the reader gets to know the characters slowly, learning what is important to each as they go about their lives. There are a few coincidences that are just too good to be true, but they add to the joy and the promise of a happy ending.

I’d never read anything by this author previously, and her work reminds me of Maeve Binchy’s. I look forward to reading more of her books.

Carole Shelley does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She has a wide range of voices to handle in this cast of characters and she has to skill to do it well.

If I Live by Terri Blackstock
Book#3 in the If I Run Trilogy
4★

Casey Cox is still on the run after being indicted for murder. The hunt that began with her bloody footprints escalates, and she’s running out of places to hide. Her face is all over the news, and her disguises are no longer enough. It’s only a matter of time before someone recognizes her. Dylan Roberts, the investigator who once hunted her, is now her only hope. Terrifying attempts on Dylan’s life could force Casey out of hiding. The clock is ticking on both their lives, but exposing the real killers is more complicated than they knew. Amassing the evidence to convict their enemies draws Dylan and Casey together, but their relationship has consequences. Will one life have to be sacrificed to protect the other?

This is the last novel in the trilogy and they do need to be read in order. This one takes up immediately from the ending of the last one. The entire book takes place over a matter of days rather than the months or weeks of the previous novels. That makes the pace rather frantic at times. The book is also written in the first person, with several points of view presented. If you are getting your books from your library...be sure they have all three before starting, because you will go crazy waiting for the complete set. If you like a good thriller series then this is just the thing for you.

The trilogy consists of If I'm Found If I Run and If I Live

>29 BookConcierge: This is one of my favorites from a favorite author. You might enjoy The Shell Seekers.

>29 BookConcierge: >31 Darth-Heather: This is one of my favourites by this author too, and I also recommend The Shell Seekers.

The Hidden Bones / Nicola Ford
3.5 stars

Claire has just lost her husband and is invited by a university friend to come help on an archaeological dig. Claire is an archaeologist and welcomes the chance to get away and try to forget things for a while. They are taking over a site that was excavated in the early 70s, but nothing was written about it; the archaeologist in charge (and the man who owns the land) has just passed away. Initially, Claire and David find that an artifact has gone missing. It’s not long after that that they discover that there also seems to have been a murder somewhere along the way!

It was good, but a bit slow to get started. I guess the author was trying to get all the background information in before bringing in the mystery. I enjoyed the characters and, as this is meant to be the first in a series featuring Claire, I’m interested in continuing.

The Merchant's House by Kate Ellis
Wesley Peterson series Book #1
5★

DS Wesley Peterson, newly arrived in the West Country town of Tradmouth, has his hands full when a child goes missing and a young woman is brutally murdered on a lonely cliff path. Then his old friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, unearths the skeletons of a strangled woman and a new born baby in the cellar of an ancient merchant's house nearby. As the investigation continues, Wesley begins to suspect that these deaths, centuries apart, may be linked by age-old motives of jealousy, a sexual obsession and desperate longing. The pressure is on if he is going to prevent a further tragedy.

The description is a little misleading but those things do happen in the story... they just aren't tied together quite like it reads. That being said...I read a tremendous amount of books in a year so it's not surprising that I don't remember all the details of some. I don't know how I could have forgotten so much of this one. The story is absolutely captivating. It draws the reader in and allows the mind to soar...as one of my reading friends said. You have to like DS Wesley Peterson and his commanding officer DI Heffernan. They are so believable and don't do stupid things. They are extremely competent police officers. We are reading this series as a group read so I am eagerly awaiting book #2.

Connections In Death by J.D. Robb
Eve Dallas (In Death) series Book # 48
5★

Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. They know that the hard life can lead kids toward dangerous crossroads―and with this new project, they hope to nudge a few more of them onto the right path. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering―whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle’s support. Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together, and he’s thrilled to hear about his sister’s new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy. Returning from a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, she finds Lyle dead with a syringe in his lap, and Eve’s investigation confirms that this wasn’t just another OD. After all his work to get clean, Lyle’s been pumped full of poison―and a neighbor with a peephole reports seeing a scruffy, pink-haired girl fleeing the scene. Now Eve and Roarke must venture into the gang territory where Lyle used to run, and the ugly underground world of tattoo parlors and strip joints where everyone has taken a wrong turn somewhere. They both believe in giving people a second chance. Maybe even a third or fourth. But as far as they’re concerned, whoever gave the order on Lyle Pickering’s murder has run out of chances.

I never tire of this series. The characters...even the side characters...are like family and the reader always looks forward to visiting with them. I believe this is the most "consistent" series in print. Are all the storylines 5 star material? No...but very close and the characters always are. I have only found one book out of the current 48 that I just wasn't as interested in. This one... like all the others...I call "comfort reads". A good story...likable, steady characters...a satisfying outcome...and another one to look forward to. If you are a RIO person start with the first one...and know you have 47 more of this wonderful series.

October Sky
Homer Hickam
5/5 stars
This was a wonderful book on the early life of Homer Hickman, living in a coal town along with the stress of that, while he and his friends were being inspired by the space race and wanting to be a part of it. He did eventually become a NASA engineer but not without the help of his friends and the town that supported him.

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents – Julia Álvarez
4****

The García family flees the Dominican Republic for the United States amid political unrest. The four sisters – Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia – find 1960s New York City very different from the upper-middle-class life they knew “back home.” Absent their maids and extended family, the García girls do their best to assimilate into the mainstream; they iron their hair, forget their Spanish, and meet (and date) boys without chaperones.

This is a wonderfully entertaining look at the immigrant experience and at the strong family ties that see these sisters (and their parents) through a tumultuous adolescence and young adulthood. The novel is told in alternating perspectives, focusing on a different sister in each chapter, and also moving back in time, from 1989 to 1956.

When exploring their childhood in the DR, Alvarez allows the innocence of youth to be apparent. Children may sense that something isn’t quite right, but they typically don’t know the realities facing their parents. The family’s sudden departure for the United States is at first a great adventure, but the reality of reduced circumstances and cramped city apartments (instead of a large family compound with gardens and servants) quickly makes the girls homesick. Once assured that there is no going back, they struggle to fit in with their peers at school. They don’t want to stick out due to dress, language, food, or customs. With their assimilation, however, comes a greater clash between the girls and their parents’ “old world” values.

The use of multiple narrators and non-linear time line, however, made for an uneven reading experience. I would be invested in one sister’s story, and then jerked to a different time and place and narrator with little or no warning. Some members of my F2F book club found this so distracting that they lowered their ratings significantly. But for me the “confusion” is indicative of the immigrant experience. Each immigrant ultimately has to choose the extent to which she will adopt the customs, foods, dress of her new environment, and how much of her native customs, foods, dress to keep and share with her new neighbors. The García girls draw comfort from their deep roots in the Dominican Republic while bravely and enthusiastically facing and embracing their future as Americans.

>31 Darth-Heather:
>32 Andrew-theQM:

And she just died last week! Thanks for the recommendation on The Shell Seekers. I've already added all her books to my TBR

>38 BookConcierge: oh damn. I didn't hear that she had passed...

There are several that I think are wonderful, and they stand up quite well to re-reads: The Shell Seekers, Coming Home, September, and Winter Solstice are my favorites. These are mostly larger volumes and I get completely absorbed in her character's lives in the same way I do with Maeve Binchy stories.

I think some of her shorter ones aren't quite as well rounded: Sleeping Tiger, Under The Summer, Snow In April, Under Gemini, and Voices In Summer for examples. Wild Mountain Thyme is ok.

Her son, Robin Pilcher, also writes, but I've only read one of his and didn't think it was anything special. Maybe I will try another someday.

I just learned from her obituary that she had previously written under the name Jane Fraser, so I will probably try to track down some of those. It seems that her later works are more to my taste, so I don't expect much from the earlier ones but will give it a try anyway.

>38 BookConcierge: >39 Darth-Heather: Oh no, I hadn’t heard that she died either! 😢 I think i’ll Read September or Coming Home next month in memory. I read one of Robin’s and loved it, A Matter of Trust

IQ by Joe Ide
3★

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay. This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.

IQ…Isaiah Quintabe…may be LA’s answer to Sherlock Holmes. He’s a discreet, unlicensed investigator who finds missing people… recovers stolen property… and unravels puzzles too delicate or perplexing for the police to handle. He may be considered by most people as a little eccentric since he has a live chicken named Alejandro wandering around his house as well as a receipt for dispatching said chicken. There was a time in his career that IQ took payment for his work in any form presented. The author Joe Ide…a Japanese-American who grew up in the same type of neighborhood as his IQ character…writes with streetwise lingo that… be warned… some readers will absolutely find offensive. However there is local color and empathy interwoven with the offensive language as well as descriptive humor. As previously mentioned not everyone is going to want to proceed past the 2nd chapter. I admit I had my doubts. I stuck it out with “IQ” …met him on his turf…and found he is straight forward and really likable individual. I will say I have never read anything quiet like it.

Stay Hidden by Paul Doiron
Mike Bowditch series Book #9
3.5 ★

A woman has been shot to death by a deer hunter on an island off the coast of Maine. To newly promoted Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, the case seems open and shut. But as soon as he arrives on remote Maquoit Island he discovers mysteries piling up one on top of the other. The hunter now claims he didn’t fire the fatal shot and the evidence proves he’s telling the truth. Bowditch begins to suspect the secretive community might be covering up the identity of whoever killed the woman, known as Ariel Evans. The controversial author was supposedly writing a book about the island's notorious hermit. So why are there no notes in her rented cottage? The biggest blow comes the next day when the weekly ferry arrives and off steps the dead woman herself. Ariel Evans is alive, well, and determined to solve her own “murder” even if it upsets Mike Bowditch’s investigation and makes them both targets of an elusive killer who will do anything to conceal his crimes.

I have read all of the books in the series and found this one to be a little disappointing. I'm not really interested in deer hunting although as a conservation biology I fully understand the need for it. One of the main problems I had with this one was the characters seemed to be off in their interactions with each other. The author used descriptive phases that Mike Bowditch would never have used...but maybe that was because he was constantly thinking of his ex-girlfriend. I'm going to just assume that this was just an off season for Mr. Doiron and move on to the next one in the series.

Delirium / Lauren Oliver
4 stars

Lena’s mom and dad died when she was young, so Lena was raised by her aunt. Lena’s 18th birthday is coming up soon, and it will be such a relief to be able to have the surgery done – the cure! – to prevent the sickness “amor deliria nervosa” (aka love). Everyone gets the cure on their 18th birthday. She’ll be matched with someone to marry and her life will be perfect. But, before her birthday (and the surgery) arrives, she meets Alex…

I really liked this. It seems an odd premise, but I went with it, and quite enjoyed it. I liked Lena’s best friend, Hana, and her young cousin(?), Grace, although a bit more interaction with Grace might have been nice. Maybe one of the upcoming books in the series will have more about her? I will definitely be continuing.

Cover Her Face by P.D. James
Adam Dalgliesh series Book #1
3 ★

Sally Jupp was a sly and sensuous young woman who used her body and her brains to make her way up the social ladder. Now she lies across her bed with dark bruises from a strangler’s fingers forever marring her lily-white throat. Someone has decided that the wages of sin should be death...and it is up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find who that someone is.

Seem the first few books in this series were said to be shorter than the later ones less than 300 pages. Also a great deal of story space was taken up delving into the psychology of each of the characters. As far as I could see this was way too much unnecessary information. As for the story itself...the characters were varied and fairly interesting but I believe Ms. James bore some prejudices and perhaps some very biased views that came through in her writing in spades. However she is obviously a skilled writer that sets up a very complex, worthwhile mystery story.

Lay Me To Rest by E.A. Clark
5 ★

Devastated by the death of her husband, Annie Philips is shocked to discover she is pregnant with his unborn child. Hoping for a fresh start, she travels to a remote stone cottage in Anglesey, amidst the white-capped mountains of North Wales. She settles in quickly, helped by her mysterious new neighbor, Peter. But everything changes when Annie discovers a small wooden box, inlaid with brass and mother-of-pearl. A box she was never supposed to find. Annie soon realizes that she isn’t alone in the cottage. And now she’s trapped. Can she escape the nightmare that she has awoken, or will the dark forces surrounding the house claim her life – and that of her baby?

I came in procession of this in book format thanks to a good friend...so far I have only seen this book in Kindle format at this time...so book only readers may have a difficult time finding it. If you do find it, don't hesitate to read it...if you have Kindle you are all set. It's a mystery...a thriller..and a paranormal story all rolled into one. The lead character...Annie...is in a really dark mood from the very opening. She's suffering from depression...taking antidepressants after the death of her husband...and just learns on top of everything else, she’s pregnant. I really liked the story but I wish Annie had had been a little more "with it". She accepted the concept of the ghost rather quickly and the ghost showed up once in broad daylight which took away some of the scariness. Still a really good story. I believe it is this authors first book and I plan to search for more.

Nothing Stays Buried by P.J. Tracy
Monkeewrench series Book #8
4★

When Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are called to a crime scene in a heavily wooded city park, everything about the setting is all too familiar. And when they discover a playing card on the victim's body, their worst fears are confirmed—there’s a serial killer operating in the city for the first time in years. Across town, Grace MacBride and her unconventional partners at Monkeewrench Software find themselves at both personal and career crossroads. Weary of the darker side of their computer work for law enforcement, they agree to take on a private missing-persons case in a small farming community in southwestern Minnesota. As the violence accelerates in Minneapolis, Magozzi and Gino soon realize their killer is planning to complete the deck, and they enlist Monkeewrench to help stop the rampage. As a baffling tangle of evidence accumulates, the cops and Monkeewrench make the unlikely connections among a farmer’s missing daughter, a serial killer, and a decades-old stabbing that brings them face-to-face with pure evil.

I was so happy to see the daughter continue their work by giving us this addition to the series. The Monkeewrench Software computer geeks are asked to reopen a missing person case which rapidly turns into a case of serial homicide. The only thing I can say that was "off" about this one is if someone new to the series were to read this one first they wouldn't form the same connections to the Monkeewrench investigators and software team that we long-time readers do...because it just didn't seem to be there. However the few chapters that were from the killer’s perspective were excellent and gave us a very dark and twisted view of this individual. Still a great series and the "gang" is certainly worthwhile becoming acquainted with.

They Came to Baghdad – Agatha Christie
4****

Adapted from the book jacket: Baghdad is holding a secret superpower summit, but the word is out, and an underground organization in the Middle East is plotting to sabotage the talks. Into this explosive situation appears Victoria Jones, a young woman with a yearning for love and adventure who gets more than she bargains for when she follows a young man to that city.

My reactions
I love Dame Christie’s works, and am especially fond of the series starring Hercule Poirot. This is one of her better stand-alone novels. There are lots of characters to sort out, and much intrigue (no surprise, given the basic premise). Victoria is plucky, thinks quickly, given to prevarication, and quite resourceful in a pinch. I love that she seizes opportunity; recently let go from her job she meets the charming Edward and decides to follow her heart (and her man) to Baghdad.

Among the people she encounters are a professor of archeology, a junior embassy official, an ebullient hotel owner, a taciturn older man, a jealous office worker, a seasoned spy, and, of course, her young man. Along the way she experiences something of the culture and customs of the Iraqi people, stumbles into the major espionage ring at the core of the novel and learns more than a little about herself.

I identified the culprit fairly early, but it was fun to watch it unfold and to watch Victoria talk her way out of more than one tight spot with her quick wit and talent for spinning a plausible story.

Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer / Barbara Ehrenreich
3.5 stars

The author has a PhD in cellular immunology. In this book she looks at ways humans try to prolong their lives, and whether or not they are or can be effective.

This was interesting, though a few chapters that went a little bit deeper into the biology (chapters that talked more about cells) kind of “lost” me just a little bit. I still got the gist of those chapters, though. There was also a couple of chapters that were a little heavier on philosophy that wasn’t quite as interesting for me (the cells were of more interest). But, most of the other chapters (including on exercise, meditation, medical industry) were good. Thinking back, I probably will remember some of the information on cells when it comes to cancer (do those cells help fight disease, or are they helping the cancer spread!?).

The Nowhere Child by Christian White
4★

Kimberly Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six years earlier, Sammy Went, a two-year old girl vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky. An American accountant who contacts Kim is convinced she was that child, kidnapped just after her birthday. She cannot believe the woman who raised her, a loving social worker who died of cancer four years ago, crossed international lines to steal a toddler. On April 3rd, 1990, Jack and Molly Went’s daughter Sammy disappeared from the inside their Kentucky home. Already estranged since the girl’s birth, the couple drifted further apart as time passed. Jack did his best to raise and protect his other daughter and son while Molly found solace in her faith. The Church of the Light Within, a Pentecostal fundamentalist group who handle poisonous snakes as part of their worship, provided that faith. Without Sammy, the Wents eventually fell apart. Now, with proof that she and Sammy are in fact the same person, Kim travels to America to reunite with a family she never knew she had. And to solve the mystery of her abduction―a mystery that will take her deep into the dark heart of religious fanaticism where she must fight for her life against those determined to save her soul.

A very good first novel. The pace was a tad slow to begin with but it soon picked up and the story grabbed my attention...specially when Kimberly went to America to meet the family she hadn't had any contact with in 28 years. It's difficult to say very much about the story without giving away a lot of spoilers...but I will say that I never saw the plot line coming that tied it all together. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes mystery...suspense...and a little crime.

Black Seconds by Karin Fossum
Inspector Sejer series Book #6
4★

Ida Joner gets on her brand-new bike and sets off toward town. A good-natured, happy girl, she is looking forward to her tenth birthday. Thirty-five minutes after Ida should have come home, her mother starts to worry. She phones store owners, Ida’s friends—anyone who could have seen her. But no one has. Suspicion immediately falls on Emil Mork, a local character who lives alone and hasn’t spoken since childhood. His mother insists on cleaning his house weekly—although she’s sometimes afraid of what she might find there. A mother’s worst nightmare in either case—to lose a child or to think a child capable of murder. As Ida’s relatives reach the breaking point and the media frenzy surrounding the case begins, Inspector Konrad Sejer is his usual calm and reassuring self. But he’s puzzled. And disturbed. This is the strangest case he’s seen in years.

I like Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer series but I find that the plots often are very much like all of those that came before them...especially if they involve abductions. If you've read very many of these you will find that you can figure out the "what" and the "who" fairly early on. What the series has going very much in it's favor is a high degree of atmosphere in the stories and a very strong character in Inspector Sejer. This is a good series for anyone that likes a good "who done it."

For Everything a Season – Philip Gulley
4****

Subtitle: Simple Musings on Living Well

This is a collection of essays written by Philip Gulley, a Quaker minister; they are organized according to the Bible verse: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; etc.

I love Gulley’s writings, and particularly like his novels featuring Sam Gardner, pastor of a Quaker meeting house in small town Indiana.

In these essays he waxes poetic on gardening, birth stories, the advantages of front porches and stone patios, a child’s joy in exploring the woods, the pitfalls of gossip, the loyalty of neighbors and the joys of love. There is a nostalgia to his descriptions that recalls my own childhood and just brings a smile to my face (and to my heart). Gulley can get a little preachy at times, but that’s to be expected, as ministry is his life, and his personal reflections on the meaning of that life are bound to come out in his essays. There is still plenty or room for humor, however.

Having just lost a dear friend in the past two weeks, this was the perfect read at this time of my life. Gulley’s writings give me great comfort and a sense of peace.

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules – Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
Digital audiobook read by Patience Tomlinson.
3***

Martha Andersson is 79 years old and lives in a retirement home. But she isn’t happy with the realities of the situation. When new management takes over, corners are cut, and the promised amenities are no longer evident. Martha and her friends – Brains, Rake, Christina and Anna-Greta – are not going to take this lying down. They form the League of Pensioners and decide the best way to improve their circumstances is to engage in some nonviolent crime.

These characters are a hoot! As outlandish and ridiculous as many of their schemes are, I found it great fun to watch them unfold. Of course, things don’t always go as planned (how many times can those paintings be stolen?), but it would be a short book if it all went right the first time. Martha and her “gang” are a resourceful bunch, and who on earth would suspect a little old lady with a walker of being a master criminal? Does make you think twice about discounting the senior citizens in our lives. There may be snow on the roof, but there’s a fire inside.

I did get more than a little tired of Nurse Barbara and her schemes to get her married lover to leave his wife and marry her instead. Enough already. Still, it was an enjoyable adventure.

This is the first in a series. Wonder what the League of Pensioners will get up to next?

Patience Tomlinson does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and manages to give the characters sufficiently unique voices so that I didn’t get confused about who was speaking.

The End Games / T. Michael Martin
3.5 stars

Michael and his little brother, 5-year old Patrick, are playing a “game” where they are fighting the “Bellows”. Michael is only hoping he can get himself and Patrick safely to their mother, and he’s hoping she’s safe, too! Really, Michael IS trying to get to the “Safe Zone” he heard about on the radio, but it’s tough.

At the start of the book, I really wasn’t sure if it was a game or not, but once I realized that it wasn’t, it got more interesting. There were certainly some suspenseful moments and I was kept wanting to read. I do think zombies aren’t my favourite thing to read about. Though there were 4-star portions of the book, the majority of it was 3.5 stars for me (good). For some reason, I thought it was the start of a series, and I was all ready and willing to continue the series, but it seems that it is a stand-alone, after all!

Part of Your World: A Twisted Tale
By Liz Brazwell
4/5 stars
This book was inspired by the Walt Disney animated fairy tale film, The Little Mermaid but with a twist. What if Ursula, the evil sea creature/octopus, defeated Ariel, the mermaid; married Ariel’s love Prince Eric and captured her father? Brazwell explores this idea in this wonderfully written tale of underwater intrigue about how Ariel grows up and reclaims her life. Geared to teens but I think adult fans of the movie would appreciate this too. Fairy Tale

Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them by Marjorie Taylor
2**

Many parents delight in their child's imaginary companion as evidence of a lively imagination and creative mind. At the same time, parents sometimes wonder if the imaginary companion might be a sign that something is wrong. Does having a pretend friend mean that the child is in emotional distress? That he or she has difficulty communicating with other children? In this fascinating book, Marjorie Taylor provides an informed look at current thinking about pretend friends, dispelling many myths about them.

It is a well-researched book that is not written for a general audience. I read it to gain insight into my own childhood family dynamics and it worked. Not all children create imaginary companions, and imaginary companions come in all different styles and species. Sometimes they are part of a family, and sometimes they remain hidden. I was older than the majority of children covered in this book when I created mine, but even that bit of research was fascinating. Taylor also covers children who create imaginary worlds, rather than just imaginary companions and discussed the movie Heavenly Creatures as an example, extreme though it is. She also found research that shows that while most children give up an imaginary companion, not all do and some adults either continue or remember with fondness their childhood imaginary companion.

It's fascinating and well-researched, but it is also written for an audience of either a parent or a child/family therapist. Being neither, the in-depth portions of the chapters were less engaging for me.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
4****

Twenty-seven-year-old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. But she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is "unworthy." The breakup produces in Anne a long-lasting regret. Wentworth, now a rich and successful captain, returns from sea to find Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

A lively, short read that is Jane Austen's final complete work. Anne Elliott is older than the norm for marriage once the novel begins, due to her best friend (her only friend, let's face it) and the person who stands between Anne and her loveless family "persuading" Anne to break off an engagement. So now we are looking at picking up the pieces eight years later when Anne is almost too old for marriage.

Neither party fully recovers and when Sir Elliott finds himself in straitened circumstances and forced to rent out the family estate, Anne finds herself with a larger group of adults in the town of Bath. And who should show up but (now) Captain Wentworth?? A circle of others around her seems to be just what Anne needs for better recuperating from her heartache.

So while manners must be followed and Empire-era protocols must be observed, Anne is able to thwart the intrusive attentions of Mr. Elliott, save her school friend Mrs. Smith, calm her never-quiet sister Mary, and find herself accepted back into Captain Wentworth's heart. While there are some persons whose later mention I had forgotten from earlier in the book, I was much more easily able to grasp the threads of this story than I had with earlier Austen novels.

The House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmer Bradley
3***

Fenton was only a 'tweenman, without body or shadow; his body lay back in the laboratory where Dr. Garnock was experimenting with a new drug. Yet Fenton was in the fairy world of the Alfar, helplessly watching the Faerie Queen of the Alfar attacked and captured by the hideous, goblinlike ironfolk. And he was fading, irresistibly being drawn back to his body.

This is an alright book. Not as engaging as Mists of Avalon but not so dull I wanted to put it down and walk away. This is also the first book of hers I've read/re-read since her daughter's revelations of childhood abuse and I needed to know where Bradley stands for me on the spectrum of my reading list.

The basic story is that Cameron Fenton is a participant in ESP experiments in the (fictional) Department of Parapsychology of Berkley College in California. He finds himself able to travel to a world of Faerie where there are horrible Ironfolk who attack the party of the Queen of the Faerie, Kerridis. In this first adventure the premise is good and the plot is promising.

But the book falls apart in much the same way that Mists becomes a bit much: the repetition of an unchanging theme. In this book, it's that Fenton needs/wants to go back to Faerie and help them, but no one will believe him. And the idea of a House Between Worlds is a good one but the quest of Fenton finding this House becomes frustrating rather than an exciting plot twist.

The premise is good, the characters are pretty well-developed, the world-building is logical, but the constant re-iteration of the same themes brings any excitement down. The action resolves itself in the last few chapters and is enough to bring it up to 3 stars from 2 1/2. And the descriptions of changelings, including one that Fenton falls for in Faerie, are quite well done. I kind of liked at the end how Dungeons and Dragons becomes a playboard for the different worlds; maybe all those hours weren't mis-spent after all??

Grass by Sherri S. Tepper
5***** and a Heart

Generations ago, humans fled to the cosmic anomaly known as Grass. Over time, they evolved a new and intricate society. But before humanity arrived another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It, too, had developed a culture. Now, a deadly plague is spreading across the stars. No world save Grass has been left untouched. Marjorie Westriding Yrarier has been sent from Earth to discover the secret of the planet's immunity. Amid the alien social structure and strange life-forms of Grass, Lady Westriding unravels the planet's mysteries to find a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself.

Where to begin? This is just a fantastic book that operates on so many levels. There is the feminist bent of overpopulation on Terra but abortion is illegal and poverty is rampant that then becomes a theme towards the world of Grass where it's only the women who disappear from the Hunt. There is the futuristic theme of Terra (here called Sanctity) populating other worlds, and the mind-numbingness of overzealous religious authority. And the world of Grass that Tepper has created is brilliant.

The arrival of Rigo Yrarier, an Old Catholic, his wife Marjorie and their two older (in years) children, Stella and Tony, as ambassadors from Sanctity shed a new view on this society. Their mission must remain secret, as Sanctity does not want humanity to know about the plague itself.

They are caught up in the high society of the bons and their Hunt, though the Hippae in no way resemble the horses Marjorie and Rigo have brought with them, and the Hounds are slavering monsters. The foxen are the prey, as on Earth, and the politics of the hunt are as questionable. But there is something more to the Hunt on Grass: a mind-numbing quality among all the men and great disappearance of the young girls.

By about halfway through the explanations end and the action begins, though there are still elements of the world of Grass that need to be explained along with the action. It is a testament to the maturity of a writer who comes to her craft later in life.

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Digital audio performed by Cassandra Campbell
2.5**

In the small North Carolina coastal town of Barkley Cove, everyone knows about the “Marsh Girl.” Kya Clark was abandoned, first by her mother, then by her older siblings, and finally by her father. Left to her own devices since the age of ten, she’s learned to fend for herself and keep away from any authority figures who might want to force her to go to school. But when Chase Andrews, the former football star, is found dead at the base of a tower, the sheriff suspects he’s been murdered, and attention is drawn to Marsh Girl.

I found this intriguing and interesting. I loved Owens’ descriptions of the marsh and the marvels of the natural world. And I appreciated Kya’s and Tate’s reverence for the ecosystem that the marsh provides.

I was invested in Kya’s story from the beginning, and her loneliness was practically tangible. I marveled at her resilience and intelligence; the way she learned to cook and to fend for herself. Yes, she had some help. Loved Jumpin’ - the proprietor of the local gas station / bait shop – and his wife Mabel who stepped in when they noticed the waif being on her own and simply offered her the assistance she so clearly needed. No questions asked and no payment expected. I also really liked the way that Tate slowly gained her trust and confidence, and the way he encouraged and supported her efforts to learn more about the flora and fauna of the marsh, not to mention teaching her to read and providing her with books so she could begin to educate herself.

However, this is where things got a little too unbelievable and soap-opera-ish for me. I kept wondering where everyone else in town was. Okay, Kya hid from the truant officer, but what about the other townspeople? Was there no kind librarian, teacher, minister, doctor, church lady who might recognize her distress and offer help? Seems that everyone knew about “the marsh girl” but no one, save Tate and Jumpin’, stepped in to help her. They simply labeled her and looked down on her as “trash.”

And then we have the whole murder mystery and the trial. After all that drama the ending seeming rather anti-climactic. If I had been reading the text, I may have just thrown it at the wall.

Cassandra Campbell does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She is an accomplished narrator, and I like the way she voiced the many characters. I’d give her 4**** for her performance. I wish she’d had better material to interpret in this case.

Becoming Marie Antoinette / Juliet Grey
4 stars

Marie Antoinette was born and grew up in Austria. When she was 10(ish) years old, it was determined that she would wed Louis Auguste of France, Louis XV’s grandson and heir to the French throne. However, Antonia (as she was called then) had a few hoops to jump through before the deal was sealed. When they did marry, Antonia was sent to France where she had to learn a new culture and at the same time be charming and have people love her, as she was to be the future queen. She continued to be pressured and influenced by her mother (from a distance).

This is the first in a trilogy, so we only get as far into Marie Antoinette’s life as Louis XV dying and she and her husband succeeding to the throne when they are 18-years old. I have read a biography of her, but it was a few years ago, so I don’t recall a lot of what I read then. I did like how she was portrayed in this novel, and I appreciated the author’s note at the end, which explains that the majority of people and events in the book did happen. I am really looking forward to reading the next book.

The Polar Bear Waltz – By the Editors of Outside magazine
Introduction by Hampton Sides
3***

The full title and subtitle is all the synopsis you need: The Polar Bear Waltz and Other Moments of Epic Silliness: Comic Classics from Outside Magazine's "Parting Shots"

I thought this would be interesting to look at, but I was not so intrigued by many of the pictures. Some look obviously staged to me, not the happy coincidence that Sides touts in his introduction. Still, many of these photographs are truly marvelous. I particularly liked the shot “Above Chamonix, France” by Monica Dalmasso of Stone. It took me a few moments to find the “hook” in this photo and it’s a doozy. (Or should I say “dizzy” … because that’s the feeling I got.)

All told, it’s a nice treat and a way to spend a few minutes on a snowy day indoors.