What Are We Reading And Reviewing in March 2020?

Share your reads and reviews with us.

📌 - ★
Carol's Reads for March

📌Too Close To Home - 4★ ( Early Reviewer)
📌The Night Olivia Fell - Christina McDonald - 4★
📌Icebound – Dean Koontz - 4.5★
📌What the Night Knows – Dean Koontz - 4★
📌Darkfall - Dean Koontz - 4★
📌Stone Cold - Jenny Hilbourne - 3★
📌The Collectors David Baldacci – 5★ (group read)
The Devil’s Colony – James Rollins – - ★ (Group Read)
📌The Witch Elm - Tana French - 4★
📌Here to Stay – Mark Edwards - 4.5★ (Pick A Winner Make A Friend)
📌Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky - William Van Meter
3.5★- ★
📌Teacher Man - Frank McCourt - 5 ★
📌Lies Sleeping – Ben Aaronovitch - 2.5★
📌The Breakdown – B.A. Paris - 3★
📌Golden in Death - J.D. Robb - 5★
📌The Dark Corners of The Night- Meg Gardiner - 4.5★
📌The Fisherman - John Langan - 5★
📌The Affair of the Mutilated Mink Coat - James Anderson - 4★
📌The Vendetta Defense - Lisa Scttloline - 3★
📌Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon - Donna Andrews - 2.5★
📌The Haunting of Rookward House - Darcey Coates - 4★
📌The Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz - 5★
📌Salvation Station - Kathryn Schleich - 4.5 ★ -(Early Reviewer)
📌The Good Detective - John McMahon - 4★
📌The Three Weissmanns of Westport – Cathleen Schine - 2.5★

Dusty's TBR for March

SF/Fantasy
Charles Stross - Labyrinth Index ✔
A E Van Vogt - Slan
Ben Aaronovitch - False Value ✔
Gregory Benford - Eater ✔
Edgar Rice Burroughs - Swords of Mars ✔
C J Cherryh - Voyager in Night

from other genres
Miss Read - Village School ✔
Eileen Rendahl - Un-Veiled
Kate Douglas Wiggin - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ✔
Earl Derr Biggers - Behind that Curtain ✔

Stone Cold - Jenny Hilborne
3★

In the competitive world of advertising, Charles Dean is a ruthless boss driven by results. When a scandal threatens to ruin his company, he is determined to identify the culprit and handle it his way. Mara Mann has other ideas, and her own reasons for bringing him down. Then the murders of two senior corporate executives stun the Oxfordshire community. Mara's hatred for Dean leads her into the dangerous and twisted world of Vice President, Reid Dalton, and to the discovery of a forgotten grave. As she uncovers more truths about her boss, and learns the secret he has kept hidden, she is drawn deeper into the mind of a killer and puts her own life at risk.

It wasn't a bad book. It was well written and the author seemed to have put some thought into what was...at least for me...a difficult plot to really grab and hold my interest. I actually found it a little depressing and filled with negativity that you just couldn't get away from. For someone that reads what I usually read...this is saying a lot. The main character is one that you know right from the start that you are either going to really love or really hate. The story also contained some really crazy unbelievable twist that were difficult to follow but were very inventive. I have read other books by this author so I know she is more than capable of turning out a really good story. Maybe this was just one of my off days...so based on previous experiences with her, I'll give her 3 stars.

Too Close To Home - Andrew Grant (Early Reviewer)
Paul McGrath series Book #2
4★

An intelligence agent-turned-courthouse janitor, Paul McGrath notices everything and everyone—but no one notices him. It’s the perfect cover for the justice he seeks for both his father and the people who’ve been wronged by a corrupt system. Now he’s discovered a missing file on Alex Pardew—the man who defrauded and likely murdered McGrath’s father but avoided conviction, thanks in large part to the loss of this very file. And what lies behind its disappearance is even worse than McGrath had feared.
Meanwhile, at the courthouse, he stumbles on the case of Len Hendrie, a small businessman who’s been accused of torching a venture capitalist’s mansion. Though Hendrie admits starting the fire, McGrath learns how the VC has preyed on average Joes to benefit himself—and his extensive wine collection. McGrath can’t resist looking deeper into this financial predator and soon finds himself in a gray area between his avenging moral compass and the limits of the law. Then, just as the Hendrie case is heating up, McGrath receives word of the death of his father’s former housekeeper, sending him back to his family home to confront unfinished business from his past. And he’s about to find some unwelcome truths about the mother he lost as a child—and the father who hid even more secrets than he realized.

“My name’s not important,” McGrath says. “I’m just a janitor. Here to clean up the mess you made...one way or another.” These words set the flavor of the remainder of the book. I have read other books by this author and really enjoyed them. His style of writing is smooth and easy to read and his books are always interesting. The concept of the series is different...interesting...and very inventive... but it's not really much on the reality side. A different setting other than a busy courthouse would have made more sense. The character of McGrath is a extremely complex almost coming across as a modern day Robin Hood. At first, I thought he was a vigilante but soon found that he was so much more. This is the second book in the Paul McGrath series, but the first one I have read. It works perfectly well as a stand-alone book. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know it was a series until I received this book as a part of the Early Reviews program. Andrew Grant became on of my favorite authors several years ago...so I'll be hunting down the first book in this series.

I received an advance copy of this book from Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The opinions are entirely all my own.

Jade Dragon Mountain – Elsa Hart
Book on CD narrated by David Shih
4****

This historical mystery is set in the town of Dayan, on the Chinese / Tibetan border, in 1708. The main character is Li Due, former Imperial Librarian, now in exile and on his way out of the country. When he arrives at Dayan, where his cousin is the magistrate, he is surprised by the bustle of activity. He was unaware that people are flocking to the town for a special visit by the Emperor who has promised to create an eclipse of the sun.

I loved the history in this book. I had been previously unaware of the role of the Jesuits; as astronomers and scientists they gained the trust of the “pagan” lords and subsequently began to convert them to Christianity. But politics, religion and commerce did not always have the same interests and conflicts led to untimely deaths.

I felt that I was a real sense of the time and place from Hart’s descriptions and plot. Li Du is a marvelous detective, and also a skilled politician. He knows when to keep his own counsel and when to divulge key bits of information. There is more than one mystery involved here and more than one villain.

I was completely engaged and interested from beginning to end and did NOT guess the perpetrator(s) before they were revealed.

David Shih did a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. He set a good pace and, for the most part, I was able to tell who was speaking. I did think his accent for the Englishman Nicholas Gray was abysmal, however. Still, it was his characterization of Li Due that carried the story for me.

Golden In Death - J.D. Robb
In Death series (Eve Dallas) Book #50
5★

Pediatrician Kent Abner received the package on a beautiful April morning. Inside was a cheap trinket, a golden egg that could be opened into two halves. When he pried it apart, highly toxic airborne fumes entered his body and killed him. After Eve Dallas calls the hazmat team, and undergoes testing to reassure both her and her husband that she hasn’t been exposed, it’s time to look into Dr. Abner’s past and relationships. Not every victim Eve encounters is an angel, but it seems that Abner came pretty close, though he did ruffle some feathers over the years by taking stands for the weak and defenseless. While the lab tries to identify the deadly toxin, Eve hunts for the sender. But when someone else dies in the same grisly manner, it becomes clear that she’s dealing with either a madman…or someone who has a hidden and elusive connection to both victims.

Wow! 50 books in this series and each one is as good as, or better than the last. I had read that J.D. Robb may have the largest fan base of any living author. Anyone that has read more than one book in this series…spent sometime with Eve & Roark and Galahad, the cat…Peabody and McNabb and all the other regular wonderful characters…can not only agree 100% but can totally understand why this is true. For me…aside from the characters… what I really like is that we…the reader…get to ride along with Eve and Peabody through each and every phase of the investigation. We see how they come to each conclusion and are right there when the bad guy faces justice. I don’t know that there is anything that needs to be improved on to make the stories any better…I just hope that we get to read number 100 sometime in the future.

The Invention of Wings / Sue Monk Kidd
4 stars

Hetty is the daughter of a slave woman. When the “missus’” daughter, Sarah, turns 11, Hetty (at one year younger) is given to Sarah to be her own personal slave. Sarah doesn’t want a slave and tries immediately to free Hetty, but that just doesn’t work. The two grow up together, but eventually Sarah leaves for Philadelphia to get away from the culture and the oppressiveness of being a woman who is unable to do what she wants with her life (she always wanted to be a lawyer).

The story is told from both Hetty’s and Sarah’s points of view. What I didn’t know until the author’s note at the end (though close to the end, I started wondering) was that Sarah (and her younger sister, Angelina) were real people. They left South Carolina and became abolitionists who spoke publicly about ending slavery, and they were among the first feminists, also speaking out (and writing) for women’s rights. This was in the 1830s.

This was really good. I liked both women’s stories. I thought the author’s note at the end was very interesting.

The Vendetta Defense - Lisa Scottoline
Rosato and Associates Book #6
3★

Lawyer Judy Carrier takes the case of her career when an elderly pigeon racer named Anthony Lucia is arrested for the murder of his lifelong enemy, Angelo Coluzzi. "Pigeon Tony," as he's known to all his South Philly neighbors, confesses he killed Coluzzi because of a vendetta begun more than fifty years ago, a blood feud that has brought great tragedy to Pigeon Tony's life. Her client's guilt, however, is only the beginning of Judy's problems. The Coluzzi family wants revenge, and they are determined to finish off Pigeon Tony and Judy before the case can go to trial. And if that isn't enough, Judy's got to contend with Tony's magnetic grandson, Frank, a man who makes her think about everything but the law, and her boss, the no-nonsense Bennie Rosato.

I have to give it credit for being a very interesting story but parts of it were just boring and unrealistic and I sometimes found myself getting lost in the sheer number of characters. The thing that I disliked the most was that it went quickly from being a mystery to being mainly a romance. I had to give it a 3 star rating because it was well written and I generally like this author...and...you guessed it... it fit a challenge very well.

The Witch Elm - Lisa Scottoline
4★

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life—he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden—and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

This is a standalone novel and not a part of her Dublin Murder Squad. We met Toby the protagonist who is different than most characters in this type of novel...he is a crime victim rather than the protagonist. Toby has just gotten himself into a bit of a mess at work...but he’s certain that he’ll be able to smooth things over because life is easy for him...that is until two men break into his apartment and beat him nearly to death. Toby emerges from the beating no longer his easy going confident self. his ability to articulate his thoughts and his self esteem and confidence are a thing of the past. Toby and his girlfriend move into his families ancestral home with his uncle and strange things begin to take place. His cousins children discover a human skull at the base of an old elm tree. As the police attempt to solve this crime...Toby begins to doubt everything he ever knew about his family. The pace is slow and the story is more than compelling. The reader will figure things out long before Toby...but that's one of things that makes this one so much fun.

In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown
by Amy Gary
4/5 stars
This is the very interesting biography of the author Margaret Wise Brown. Brown’s life was a whirlwind between writing books, travel and her multiple relationships with men and women. Unfortunately, at the age of 42 she died from a blood clot after having surgery but she has left behind her works which still are being published and loved by readers today.

Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange / Amanda Smyth
3.25 stars

Celia’s mom died just after Celia was born, and she was raised by and lives with one of her aunts (and her twin cousins) in Tobago. Aunt Tassi lives with an awful drunk man whom no one likes. When Celia is a teenager, she runs away to Trinidad and finds work in the home of a doctor, helping with the housework and caring for the two kids. But, Celia can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble.

The book was ok. It was kind of slow-moving, and there weren’t very many characters whom I actually liked (Celia included). There were a couple of interesting “twists” at the end.

The Dark Corners of The Night - Meg Gardiner
UNSUB series Book #3
4.5★

I am the legion of the night … He appears in the darkness like a ghost, made of shadows and fear–the Midnight Man. He comes for the parents but leaves the children alive, tiny witnesses to unspeakable horror. The bedroom communities of Los Angeles are gripped with dread, and the attacks are escalating. Still reeling from her best friend’s close call in a bombing six months ago, FBI behavioral analyst Caitlin Hendrix has come to Los Angeles to assist in the Midnight Man investigation and do what she does best–hunt a serial killer. Her work is what keeps her going, but something about this UNSUB–unknown subject–doesn’t sit right. She soon realizes that this case will test not only her skills but also her dedication, for within the heart of a killer lives a secret that mirrors Caitlin’s own past. Hesitancy is not an option, but will she be able to do what must be done if the time comes?

The story picks up speed from the first chapter never slows down. Meg Gardiner has an impressive knowledge of behavioral analysis and all the technology...ballistics...and forensics that go into aiding the police agencies in catching the bad guy, and she transfers all of them well into her stories. She has written one great nail-biter of a suspense story with this one. Sometimes wishes do come true as I have just read that this novel is to be the focus of an Amazon TV series. If you a fan of thrillers or if you like programs like Criminal Minds…then you will more than likely like these books.

The Affair of The Mutilated Mink Coat
The Missing series Book #2
4★

The Earl of Burford hosts another slightly batty, thoroughly baffling house party....
George Henry Alwyn Saunders, 12th in his line, has taken a fancy to films. He's nearly killed with delight when a movie mogul wants Alderly, the Burfords' 17th century country estate, for the set of a new Rex Ransom epic. The bronzed, handsome star has long thrilled the loopy lord with dazzling deeds on the silver screen. Less than thrilled is the Countess, who's suddenly playing hostess to a Hollywood crowd and a growing guest list that includes a long-lost cousin and a shady second spouse, two suitors for the Burford's willful daughter Lady Geraldine, an eccentric screenwriter protesting the pirating of his work, a sultry, sparky femme fatale, a professional blackmailer.

It’s 1930 England and the Earl of Burford is hosting another house party. His parties are always unusual to say the least and looked forward to by almost everyone….Everyone that is except hais wife, the Countess. The Earl of Burford is very proud of his country holdings… so he is thrilled when he finds out someone wants to film a “talking picture” at his estate starring one of his favorite movie heroes. Not only do the film stars and film crew descend on her but she now has a long-lost cousin who arrives at the same time. Before long the country estate is overflowing with invited and uninvited guests. Then, inevitably, the house party leads to a murder, and Scotland Yard comes to solve the crime. The entire story is populated with bizarre and often funny characters…fiendish plots…red herrings, and surprises. This is a wonderful old time classic detective story that everyone that likes this type of story will be sure to enjoy.

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
Sławomir Rawicz
3.5/5 stars
During WWII, Polish solider Slavomir Rawicz is captured by the Russians and sent to a labor camp in Siberia. Conditions are horrible and Rawicz conspires with six other prisoners to escape to British India. The trek is a long one and several die on the way but when things go bad, they encounter people along the way who help them out even though their lives are also troubled. There have been sources that say that the book is a falsehood but I thought it was a very interesting read. This was also made into a film but unfortunately I have not been able to find a copy of it yet.

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon - Donna Andrews
2.5★

Poor Meg Langslow...somehow her road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair. There's her demanding mother. Then there's the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for her and her biyfriend, Michael to live together. Just one crisis after another. For companionship she has a buzzard with one wing---who she must feed frozen mice thawed in the office microwave---and her boyfriend Michael's mother's nightmare dog. It's all simply loony. Then there's the office practical joker, lying on top of the mail cart pretending to be dead. Meg soon realizes that he's become the victim of someone who wasn't joking at all. He's been murdered for real.

I had never read any of this series before...but hey...it had a buzzard, also known as a vulture, on the cover and I needed something on the cover that started with the letter "V"... that's right...for a challenge. I thought it might be funny...it's been my experience after 28 years in a zoo that vultures were often funny creatures...but unfortunately it was just ridiculous and Meg was just plain annoying. I'm more than likely a minority here but I think I'll skip any more of these.

Darkfall - Dean Koontz
4★

They found four corpses in four days. Each more hideously disfigured than the last, the bodies punctured with dozens of tiny wounds.At first they thought it was a savage psychopath. Then they thought it was a vicious gangland war. Then they thought packs of demonic rats were escaping through the ventilation system. Then they saw the nightmare itself, in all its mottled, slimy horror, coming after them from every direction, and they realized that the Gates of Hell had been left open.

Dean Koontz has been and remains one of my favorite authors. I gave this one four stars because I didn't feel that it was one of his best books. The storyline was good and the synopsis of the book was very intriguing but I didn't especially like any of the characters. Ten year old Penny was actually the best...and her father, Jack would have been a spot on detective IF anyone had listened to him and given him some credit. His partner was obnoxious and superficial through the entire book. Also more details could have been provided about the things in the dark. With that said, it is still a wonderful suspenseful, thriller, that is a fairly quick read. The author just didn't leave me wanting more like he usually does and even Dean Koontz himself admits in the back of the book that this wasn't his best work.

Would Like To Meet – Rachel Winters
Digital audio performed by Laura Hobson
3***

From the book jacket: Can you fall in love like they do in the movies? It’s Evie Summers’s job to find out. Because if she can’t convince her film agency’s biggest client, Ezra Chester, to write the romantic-comedy screenplay he owes producers, her career will be over. The catch? He thinks rom-coms are unrealistic – and he’ll only put pen to paper if Evie shows him that it’s possible to meet a man in real life the way it happens on the big screen.

My reactions:
As a reader, I’ve been there, done that, and seen the movie multiple times. It’s a cute rom-com of a novel, but totally predictable. I did like the father-daughter team of Ben and Annette, although I’m not sure having Annette be deaf was necessary.

I’m sounding much like a “romance Grinch” here, but that isn’t really what I mean to convey. It’s an enjoyable rom-com, and I liked listening to it. It’s just not anything I’ll remember much more than a day after finishing it.

Now … who will be cast in the movie?

Laura Hobson does a good job performing the audio version. She sets a good pace and kept this listener engaged.

Big Little Lies / Liane Moriarty
4.5 stars

It’s trivia night at the school and the parents have been drinking when there is a ruckus and no one seems to be able to say exactly what happened or how someone was killed.

Six months earlier, it was Amabella’s and Ziggy’s orientation to kindergarten. When Amabella ended the day crying because one of the boys tried to choke her, she pointed to Ziggy as the culprit. At this point, Renata (Amabella’s mother) goes on a tear, keeping Ziggy away from her daughter and ostracizing the little boy and his mother, Jane, who believes Ziggy when he says he didn’t do it. Meanwhile, though Jane and Ziggy have just moved here, Jane has already made friends with Madeleine (whose youngest child has just started kindergarten) and Celeste, whose twin boys have also just started.

The story has a lot of characters and it’s hard to get everyone straight, especially at the start... although even toward the end I had to stop a few times to think about who someone was. There are little snippets of interviews interspersed throughout the story, as well, with still more characters (mostly parents who were at the trivia night). There are a lot of serious topics in this book (including bullying and abuse) as we dig into some of the parents’ (and their families’) stories, but it’s often done in a lighthearted, still entertaining way. I thought this was really good, and it was done well, even with the lightheartedness. And I was certainly kept trying to figure out who the heck died at the start (it was never clear until we got to the end!) and what happened there.

The Night Olivia Fell - Christina McDonald
4★

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: her teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists. When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Who exactly is Olivia? Did her search for her true identity lead to the disaster...or was it just a terrible accident? Abi...Olivia's mother...was a literal basket case. I wondered how long she thought she could keep her secret from Olivia and how soon before Olivia would rebel. So the storyline revolves around the question of did Olivia fall from the bridge or was she pushed. The police were less than enthusiastic in their joke of an investigation and decided to half-heartedly listen to her mother who is certain it was a crime. Meanwhile Olivia remains brain dead...kept alive so her fetus can grow and be born. They are actually going to give Abi another child to raise???? The list of people who could have wanted Olivia dead is longer than Abi ever could have imagined. The known boyfriend??...The secret boyfriend? ?...The ex best friend??... The newly discovered half sister??...Her biological father??...or was it what it appears to be...just a tragic accident?

Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure / Nadja Spiegelman, Sergio Garcia Sanchez
4 stars

Pablo and his family have just moved to New York City. His first day at his new school, he discovers the class has a field trip planned on the subway to the Empire State Building. Although he is paired up with a buddy, Alicia, they get a bit lost when they accidentally get on the wrong train!

This is a graphic novel and it was very good. There is history of the subway and the Empire State Building, along with real historical photos included. I’ve only been to New York once (and I was on the subway, but found it pretty confusing!), but found the information really interesting. The story itself was also about friendship, but really I think the point was the historical information (geared toward younger readers, but still really interesting).

Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky - William Van Meter
3.5★

A shocking investigation into a true crime that tore a town apart—the violent murder of a young coed in Kentucky, the innocent boy who was jailed for the crime, and a small Southern community filled with haunting, unforgettable characters. Katie Autry was a foster child from a tiny village in Kentucky; a little awkward, but always with the biggest smile on her high school cheerleading squad. In September 2002, she matriculated as a freshman at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, majoring in the dental program. She worked days at the smoothie shop, nights at the local strip club, and fell in love with a football player who wouldn’t date her. On the morning of May 4, 2003, Katie Autry was raped, stabbed, sprayed with hairspray, and set on fire in her own dormitory room. In telling the true story of this shocking crime, William Van Meter describes the devastation of not one but three families. Two young men are jailed for the crime: DNA evidence places Stephen Soules, an unemployed, mixed-race high school dropout, at the scene; and Lucas Goodrum, a twenty-one-year-old pot dealer with an ex-wife, a girlfriend still in high school, and a history of domestic abuse, is held by an ever-changing confession. The friends of the suspects and the foster and birth families of the victim form complex and warring social nets that are cast across town. And a small southern community, populated by eccentrics of every socioeconomic class, from dirt-poor to millionaire, responds to the horror.

I Believe that the author did a good job with all things considering. The story itself was interesting...however the characters were just ordinary...but seeing that it was based on actual events that occurred after a frat party...I suppose ordinary is the best description for them. I was very impressed with how this author handled the people that made up his account. William Van Meter tells this story without any condescension or judgement. Life in semi-rural Kentucky might have been filled with cliches in the hands of other writers... but not William Van Meter. He simply shows us the aimless lives of the two boys and the semi-aimless life of the girl and their unimaginatively bad choices along with their almost innocent kindnesses. It's not a perfect story with a neatly tied-up ending..but then life seldom is. In spite of the facts being laid out well...you still come away not really knowing what actually happened in that dorm room. It's a creepy story of sadly wasted lives but still an excellent read.

The Haunting of Rookward House - Darcy Coates
4★

When Guy finds the deeds to a house in his mother's attic, it seems like an incredible stroke of luck. Sure, the building hasn't been inhabited in forty years and vines strangle the age-stained walls, but Guy is convinced he can clean it up and sell it. He'd be crazy to turn down free money. Right? The house is hours from any other habitation, and Guy can't get phone reception in the old building. He decides to camp there while he does repairs. Surely nothing too bad can happen in the space of a week. But there's a reason no one lives in Rookward House, and the dilapidated rooms aren't as empty as they seem... A deranged woman tormented a family in Rookward forty years before. Now her ghost clings to the building like rot. She's bitter, obsessive, and jealous... and once Guy has moved into her house, she has no intention of ever letting him leave.

I read this book 2 months ago and only gave it 3 stars. If this had been my first Darcey Coates book I would have let it go at that and moved on. However…the story haunted me... (no pun intended)…and I wondered if the rating was a bit unfair…so I have reread the book. While the main character, Guy is still pretty much a winy baby…I have to give him credit for staying to try and get the house ready to sell. Any normal person would have run for their lives the first time they saw this disaster of a house and diffidently the first time the baby monitor with no batteries or electricity “talked”. Not Guy…he stuck it out. The trip to the attic would have been the last straw for most people…and now we see that Guy isn’t thinking of the money at all anymore. I believe the thing that persuaded me to only give it 3 stars the first time was the possibility that there was not an actual haunting like in all the other books by this author. You just can’t take our haunting away from us like that. Ghost story junkies need that extra shiver. In spite of this I enjoyed the book more the second time around. It’s still not 5 star material… but it’s at least a 4 star story. Please don’t do this again Darcey.

Lab Girl – Hope Jahren
5*****

Hope Jahren was always most comfortable in a lab; as a child she played in her father’s lab. She chose to research botany, and this is her memoir.

Jahren structures the book with alternating chapters; in one she will give a botany lesson, detailing, for example, the functioning of a leaf; in the next chapter she’ll relate a personal story of her journey from childhood to her position as a research scientist. And I was frequently able to draw a comparison between the science and the memory. I was fascinated by the science lessons but was completely taken in by her personal story.

Jahren writes with humor and strength as she reveals her personal struggles with bi-polar disorder, with learning to show love having grown up in a reserved Scandinavian culture, and with being a woman in a decidedly male-dominated field. I particularly loved the stories she told of her adventures with her student and eventual lab partner, Bill. This is the kind of guy who will drive you to distraction, but whom you want along on a deserted island. Resourceful is his middle name!

I highly recommend this to all readers – male or female, science geek or amateur gardener. I think just about everyone will find something delightful and relatable in this memoir.

Her Little Majesty / Carolly Erickson
4 stars

When Queen Victoria was a child, she was treated fairly coldly, and mostly “used” by her mother and a friend of her mother’s, knowing that she would likely be on the throne one day. This backfired on them when Victoria did reach the throne just after her 18th birthday. She married a cousin she loved, and once they were married, he did most of the political work, but he died young. Victoria mourned for the rest of her life for Albert. They had 9 children. Victoria varied on whether or not she got along with various elected Prime Ministers over time. She ruled for decades and she lived to be 81 years old.

I really liked this. The book is not that long, so I’m sure there was plenty left out, but I thought it was very readable and almost read like fiction. Despite all her kids, I didn’t have too much trouble following who was who, but maybe the author made sure to remind us? I didn’t notice. I have read a couple of fictional works about her, but this, I think, is the first nonfiction. I liked some of the extras thrown in about things that were happening at various points in time over the course of Victoria’s life, including fashion.

The Thorn Birds / Colleen McCullough
3 stars

This tells the story of three generations of a family based on a ranch in Australia. Fiona (Fi)’s daughter Meggie (short for Megan) falls in love with the local priest when she is only 10 or 11 years old. The priest, Rafe(?), seems to also fall for Meggie as she grows up. Meggie goes on to marry a neglectful husband, Luke, but she misses home too much and leaves him to return, but only after having two kids of her own, Justine and Dane.

I listened to the audio. It was fairly slow all the way through. It did pick up – at least enough so that I didn’t lose focus – particularly after Meggie got married, I thought. I wasn’t as interested in Rafe’s point of view. That was some of when I lost interest, during his parts. (Oh, look – see what happens when you listen to the audio... apparently his name was Ralph! And for a while, I couldn’t tell if it was Rafe or Wraith!) I’m not sure I really liked any of the characters. Looking at some of the other reviews, it seems there was romance? Hmm, really? I didn’t notice. Overall, I’m rating it ok. For a while, I thought about upping that to good, but I’m dropping it back to simply ok. I did like that the audio kept my attention (mostly, especially after Meggie and Luke got married). It was mildly entertaining.

>26 LibraryCin: There was a TV mini-series in Australia, years ago, which appears to be available through Amazon Prime.

What The Night Knows - Dean Koontz
4★

n the late summer of a long ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy. Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating
in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family—his wife and three children—will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer. As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return.

Dean Koontz makes the case that the only thing worse than a serial killer might be his ghost. I have to say that you will either have to be a real ghost story enthusiast or really, really like the early works of Dean Koontz to not become disillusioned with this ghost story. I happen to be both so I probably won't be as critical of the book as others might be and am willing to sacrifice a 4 star rating to it. We have, to begin with, a 14 year old mass murderer who is in the state mental hospital for the slaughter..."killing" or "murder" would be too kind to describe what he did...of his entire family. The reader should be able to work up some compassion for the child killer...Billy, but Billy neither wants nor deserves our compassion. He's not sorry...he has no desire to reform or be cured...whichever the state hopes will happen first. Billy has an invisible friend that is having more fun than he ever had in life. The book goes on and on moving from one time period to another and from Billy and the detective that sees way too much of himself in the young killer. A good ghost story requires the suspension of the reader's disbelief but as much as I like this author...this one is almost more disbelief than is possible to suspend.

The Breakdown - B.A. Paris
3★

If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside - the woman who was killed. She's been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It's a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she'd broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she'd stopped. But since then, she's been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn't have a baby. The only thing she can't forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. Or the silent calls she's receiving, or the feeling that someone's watching her...

I loved B. A. Paris's Behind Closed Doors so was rather surprised at her character of Cass. I didn't know rather to pity her or kill her myself. I know that the author was trying to build the suspense but this woman just kept getting dumber and dumber. Some one is dead...or might be dead in the car you stopped and momentarily observed...so TELL someone!! The fact that she was on the road she wan't suppose to be on pales beside the reality. Overall I found the idea of the story-line interesting...hence the 3 stars... but badly carried through. The main character of Cass was gullible...needy..and stupid. I stopped feeling sorry for her about a third of the way through and gave up on her completely by the half way point.

The Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz
5★

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job. Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

I have yet to be disappointed in this author. This one is a who-done it written reminiscent of Agatha Christie. The story revolves around a manuscript turned into his editor by mystery writer Alan Conway. His editor soon realizes that is one mystery wrapped in another. As readers we get to read Alan's manuscript along with the editor. The fictional case soon plays out beside a real case playing out in the editors life. I found this interesting bit of info about Anthony Horwitz. "Horowitz has spent a long career thinking up suspense stories in the vein of the genre’s greats. In addition to creating the popular British detective shows Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War, he has written screenplays for the Poirot TV series, a James Bond novel commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate. No wonder he is so good. Almost all of these series are favorites of mine. Here we have a murder in an English countryside...a fussy detective...a daft sidekick...a meddling busybody...a peculiar vicar...and a bombastic aristocrat. Most Mystery fans will find something about it to like.

Salvation Station- Kathryn Schleich
4.5★

Malevolence in the Midwest is at the heart of this crime tale. While religion is ever-present throughout, it is the misappropriation of faith and using it for obscenely evil purposes that take readers through a winding trail of deception, depravity, mayhem, and murder.

The story wraps mystery, murder, faith, and uncertain redemption into one whirlwind story. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for Rev. Ray Williams or just shake some sense into him. Those that have seen some television ministers that take advantage of people and prey on the weak will hate him and his new “friend” right off the bat…but don’t give up on Rev. Ray…he has much bigger problems coming down the line. I really liked the police investigator, Linda Turner. She was relentless in her efforts to solve the gruesome murder of another minister and his two young children. I knew about a third of the way into the book what was really going to happen but the story had so many twists and turns that you have to read just one more page to be certain. It says that this is Kathryn Schleich’s first novel but if she produces more like Salvation Station she will make it big in the literary world. A really excellent read.

I received an advance copy of this book from She Writes Press in exchange for an honest review. The opinions are entirely all my own.

The Wife of the Gods – Kewi Quartey
Digital audiobook performed by Simon Prebble.
4****

First in a series featuring Detective Inspector Darko Dawson of Accra, Ghana. Dawson is a dedicated family man with a loving wife and a charming, if medically fragile, young son. He’s also somewhat of a rebel in the police force and frequently at odds with his cantankerous boss. He’s not happy about his new assignment in remote area of Ghana; a young woman – a promising medical student and AIDS worker – has been found dead in a jungle area near the small town of Ketanu. The local police are not equipped to handle an investigation like this, and Dawson, who has relatives in the town, is fluent in the local indigenous language. But what he uncovers brings up many memories of his own mother, who disappeared without a trace after a visit to her sister in Ketnau.

Oh, I am going to like this series! Darko is a principled man, but he has his demons, and he seeks solace in smoking marijuana. He’s also sometimes prone to resorting to his own brand of vigilante justice. But there’s no denying that he’s a talented – and tenacious – detective. The way he ferrets out small clues and pieces the puzzle together is marvelously portrayed. There are plenty of suspects and motives and a compelling subplot to keep the reader off balance and guessing.

I also really appreciated the information on the cultural ideologies and customs of this small corner of Ghana. There’s a significant clash between traditional beliefs and modern-day medicine. And Dawson also needs to tread carefully in the political minefield that is the turf of the areas leaders, who, if not exactly corrupt, are certainly misguided and provincial in their thinking.

Simon Prebble does a marvelous job reading the audiobook. He really brings these characters to life.

The Summer List / Amy Mason Doan
3.75 stars

Laura is 35-years old when she receives an invitation in the mail to come home. It’s from Casey, her high school best friend, though they’ve been estranged since Laura moved away to start college 17 years earlier. Laura decides she’s curious enough to see what’s going on, so she heads home. Turns out Casey didn’t send the invitation, and a scavenger hunt has been set up for them.

I enjoyed this. In addition to following the current scavenger hunt, the book backs up in time to when Laura and Casey were teenagers and the years that led up to the estrangement. There were additional chapters in italics thrown in that I didn’t find as interesting. At first, of course, you don’t know who these chapters are following, but after a bit I thought I figured it out, then a name was provided and I was right. It got a bit more interesting after I knew whose story we were following at that point, but I thought Laura and Casey had the better storylines.

The Woman Who Can't Forget / Jill Price
4 stars

Jill Price can remember everything she did and any major or minor events that took place on any date from the time she was about 11 years old. Before that, she remembers some, starting from when she was 2- or 3-years old. Problem is, the memories bombard her all the time; it just doesn’t turn off. When she was younger, she didn’t know this wasn’t the case for everyone. But, as she got older and tried to explain, people didn’t understand.

Her memories include both the good and the bad, everything. This book explains what’s going on in her head, then goes back to explain how it has affected her at various points throughout her life.

I found this really interesting. I don’t understand the low ratings, though from reading reviews, it seems like some didn’t like the biography/memoir part of the book, but I thought that really illustrated things. Apparently, she was the first person (in the early 2000s?) diagnosed with this: what they called “hyperthymestic syndrome”, but there are others now, as well. Scientists have been studying her (and she seems happy to have them do so to figure out how her brain works), and papers have been written about her, using a pseudonym.

Lies Sleeping - Ben Aaronovitch
Rivers of London series Book #7
2.5★

The Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run. Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring him to justice. But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that the Faceless Man, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan….a plan that has its roots in London's two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees. To save his beloved city Peter's going to need help from his former best friend and colleague--Lesley May--who brutally betrayed him and everything he thought she believed in. And, far worse, he might even have to come to terms with the malevolent supernatural killer and agent of chaos known as Mr Punch.

I have always liked this series even when I didn’t totally understand where the storyline was going. It seems that sometimes a great idea just runs out of steam, and it appears to have been the case with this one. I found that it just rambled on and on with twists that had no logic whatsoever. I was very surprised that this one was like this and actually looked to see if someone else had written it. I guess all authors have off days but I hope Mr. Aaronovitch gets it together for the next one.

The World Of Suzie Wong
Richard Mason
3.5/5 stars
Robert, a young artist moves to Hong Kong to concentrate on his painting career. Looking for a cheap place to live and paint, he ends up in a “brothel” where the all occupants pay by the hour except him. Robert gets to know the “girls” as friends but ends up in an up and down relationship with the beautiful Suzie. Written in 1957, it was made into a film with William Holden and Nancy Kwan.

Icebound - Dean Koontz
4.5★

The Arctic night is endless. The fear is numbing. Screams freeze in the throat. Death arrives in shades of white. And cold-blooded murder seems right at home.

Icebound is departure from Dean Koontz’s usual horror genre…but not by very much. It can easily be called a techno-thriller. The story follows the experiences of a group of Arctic explorers who are on a mission to blast off an iceberg from the ice cap but unfortunately get trapped on ice when a tsunami occurs. Two further problems are that the detonation charges are sealed in the ice and that there is a murderer amongst them. Who that is becomes evident and the yarn just keeps getting more complicated with the addition of a Russian submarine rescue mission. The scientists remain trapped on the iceberg with the charges set to go off at midnight. Dean has given us a group of characters that we don’t want to see blown to smithereens but it’s not looking good. All we can do is keep reading in the slim chance that hope will win over despair. It a tense and unforgettable read.

The Fisherman - John Langan
5★

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

John Langan is a new author for me and one that I will certainly be returning to. The heart and soul of this novel is a fundamental human emotion...grief and the desire to have one last conversation with a deceased loved one in order to say all of the things that never got said when they were alive. If such a thing were possible, what price would you be willing to pay since we all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch? I've always been a huge fan of ghost stories and horror literature...so it is very seldom that I read a book that has the power to transfix and produce such an uneasy after effect as this one did. If you love or even slightly like this type of story find this book and submerge yourself in one dark, frightening but tantalizing tale.

Patsy – Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
Book on CD narrated by Sharon Gordon.
4****

This novel follows Patsy, a young Jamaican mother of a 5-year-old girl, Tru, as she makes her way to America and tries to find a better life for herself. However, in order to find herself and achieve her potential, she must leave her daughter back in Jamaica, in the care of her father, a man Patsy never married, and with whom she’s had little contact. But leaving Tru with Roy is much better than leaving her with Patsy’s mother, Mamma G, a woman who has given all her pension to the Church hoping that Jesus will save her.

This story is in turns heartbreaking and inspiring. I applaud Patsy’s determination, courage, inventiveness and work ethic, but have difficulty forgiving her for leaving her child in Jamaica. Her guilt at this no-win choice is palpable and heart-wrenching. Her inability to deal with the very real results of her decision made me want to shake her. And then, I would feel so sorry for her – for the difficulty she faced when her dream was proved to be just that, a dream with no real basis in reality, for her struggles to survive, to find housing and work, for her misguided attempts to find even a little happiness and a sense of self-worth.

Dennis-Benn alternates points of view giving the reader insight into Tru’s life back in Jamaica. Her inability to understand how her mother could leave her, the sliver of hope a Christmas card conveys, and the defeat she feels when she finally accepts that her mother is not coming back. , My heart breaks over and over for Tru as she grows to her teens and hides her pain and sense of responsibility for her mother’s decisions.

But lest you think this is a depressing story, be aware that I loved these characters, even though I didn’t always like them. Despite all the hardship, all the bad decisions and failures to communicate, ultimately there is some triumph and some sense of hope.

Sharon Gordon does a marvelous job of voicing the audiobook. Dennis-Benn uses a vernacular patois dialogue in much of the book, and I found it difficult to make out the sense in those few sections that I chose to read in text format. Gordon’s performance made it easier for me to absorb and understand those lilting Jamaican accents. She really brought these characters to life for me.

Teacher Man - Frank McCourt
The Frank McCourt Memoirs
5★

Now the Pulitzer Prize-winning author continues his amazing life story in a magnificent new memoir that glimmers with all the wit, charm and irreverence of his previous bestsellers. As he tells the story of his rocky path to "teacherhood", he recalls how he won over a class by eating a student's bologna sandwich, how he turned his students' hilarious excuse notes in an unlikely lesson, how a beautiful young woman broke his hear--and McCourt's passion for storytelling shines through. This is a brilliant look at the coming of age of an unconventional teacher, a gifted storyteller and ultimately a literary superstar

A side note: Frank McCourt (1930-2009) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America in 1949. For thirty years he taught in New York City high schools. His first book, "Angela's Ashes," won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the L.A. Times Book Award. In 2006, he won the prestigious Ellis Island Family Heritage Award for Exemplary Service in the Field of the Arts and the United Federation of Teachers John Dewey Award for Excellence in Education.

There are teacher and then there are the kind of teacher that Frank McCourt was. Here he tells of his 30-year career teaching English in New York City high schools. He was scared to death on his first day…and who wouldn’t be, facing a room of 16-year-olds at McKee Vocational and Technical High School on Staten Island, where his job was to teach five English classes per day to teenagers who were never expected to go any higher than 12th grade…if that. The year was 1958 and Frank McCourt was 27 years old and just out of New York University himself. One doesn’t have to be a teacher to appreciate his account of how reading the students’ obviously self-authored absence excuses inspired him to create a composition assignment they couldn’t resist: write a note of excuse from Adam to God. I would have loved to have tacked that one. At 38, he left for a doctoral program at Dublin’s Trinity College, returning two years later without a degree. That is a story for another book. He relates two of his most memorable teaching experiences… a vocabulary lesson involving a picnic in the park with ethnic foods brought by students in his creative-writing class, and a recipe-as-poetry class in which students read recipes aloud to the accompaniment of assorted musical instruments. As I said there are teachers and then there are teachers like Frank McCourt. If you read his memoirs’ you’ll be more than just entertained…you’ll be enlightened.

The Sundial
Shirley Jackson
4/5 stars
The Hallorans’ live in an expensive mansion with an odd assortment of relatives and guests. When Aunt Fanny wanders off, she experiences a vision. Her dead father tells her of an impending disaster in which everyone but her family will be destroyed. Shirley Jackson doesn’t fail with this eerie family tale.

The Brief History of the Dead / Kevin Brockmeier
3 stars

When someone dies, there is a place – a city – they go until the last person who remembers them dies. Then they disappear from the city. In alternating chapters, this book is in that place, alternating with Laura, who is stuck in Antarctica. She is by herself, as the two others she was there doing research with went for help when they could no longer radio home. But, they didn’t come back, either. What Laura doesn’t know is that an epidemic has hit the rest of the world.

I was ready to rate this 3.5 stars (good), but I dropped it right at the end. I mostly preferred following Laura’s story in Antarctica to the chapters following the various people in the “dead” city. But, the last chapter following Laura was just... weird, I thought.

Here To Stay - Mark Edwards
4.5

A beautiful home. A loving wife. And in-laws to die for. Gemma Robinson comes into Elliot’s life like a whirlwind, and they marry and settle into his home. When she asks him if her parents can come to stay for a couple of weeks, he is keen to oblige – he just doesn’t quite know what he’s signing up for. The Robinsons arrive with Gemma’s sister, Chloe, a mysterious young woman who refuses to speak or leave her room. Elliot starts to suspect that the Robinsons are hiding a dark secret. And then there are the scars on his wife’s body that she won’t talk about . . .As Elliot’s in-laws become more comfortable in his home, encroaching on all aspects of his life, it becomes clear that they have no intention of moving out. To protect Gemma, and their marriage, Elliot delves into the Robinsons’ past. But is he prepared for the truth?

Mark Edwards is one of my favorite authors so I was very excited to find something new by him. This story is based on such a simple premise…the guests that come to visit and then just won’t leave. In Elliott’s case the matter is made worse as these unwelcome guests are his new in-laws…and they may well not be at all what they seem…and not in a good way either. The thing that kept the book from receiving my other “half-star” was the character of Elliott himself. Although his character was well developed… a lot of his behavior made no sense and didn’t fit his personality…he came across as way too submissive. I genuinely could not imagine any person acting like this. It’s an interesting, and not-too commonly done take on the thriller genre. With so many thrillers out there, this one is a fresh… although slightly disturbing… read. Like all the other books by Mark Edwards, the biggest and best is saved for the end. He seems to consistently produce an unexpected surprise in the end.

A Cat Abroad / Peter Gethers
3.5 stars

This is Gethers’ second book about his travels with his Scottish Fold cat, Norton. In this one, Gethers, his girlfriend Janis, and Norton head to France for a year in the countryside. The author would just like to relax at the house (castle?) they are renting for the year, but Janis wants to see as much as she can. Of course, Norton joins them on all their travels.

These are enjoyable stories. A little bit of humour thrown in. A lot of food on this trip (they are in France, after all). It looks like I rated the first book slightly higher at 4 stars. There is one more and I will plan to read it.

Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen
5*****

Note: This book was on my February 3-x-3 challenge, and I finished it earlier this month so I figured I'd post the review here.

Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her--seemingly a perfect husband.

It's five stars for a couple of reasons: the fleshing out of characters based on contemporary accounts is masterful; and once again, Lynn Cullen manages to bring an otherwise unknown woman to life. And yet, for the subject matter, it is a sad and tragic life.

Juana of Castile was an older sister to Catherine of Aragon, and the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. She was raised to be a princess and is willing to marry he-whom-her-parents-wanted, which she does with great enthusiasm when that time comes. The prince she marries is Philippe the Good, Duc of Burgundy who starts as a caring, lustful husband and later becomes her jailer.

While the term "gas lighting" has only recently come into vogue, that is exactly what Philippe does to her, and does to her subjects. Juana becomes Queen of parts of Spain due to older siblings' deaths, but Philippe's machinations, along with those of her great aunt-in-law, the Dowager Margeret of England, create an environment where she turns over these titles to him. Whether she meant to, whether she wanted to, is one of the puzzles that this book delves into. Also explained are several instances that Philippe uses to cast doubt about her sanity to her subjects and to her father; Ferdinand also has a hand in seizing her titles.

The worst part about reading this book is where it ends up: Juana spends more than 50 years imprisoned by her husband, father, and eldest son. For no crime other than just being. It gives her story a poignancy that is hard to resolve when reading the masterful characterization of this bright, beautiful young girl who, like Marie Antoinette, never inherited the spine? strength of character? that her mother wielded against her enemies.

Ferocious Irish Women by Edmund Lenihan
2**

"Ferocious Irish Women" tells the story of five Irish women who were unusual in a variety of ways -- mostly because of their ruthlessness, political cunning or merely because they rebelled violently against the repressive mores of their times. In our time when attention is being paid to more aspects of women as individuals and to their role in society than heretofore, it may be appropriate to pause a moment and question the generally-held view that women in previous ages were voiceless, subservient creatures, merely part of that silent anonymous mass of humanity that has had precious few chroniclers.

Oh. My. The only reason that I did not give this book one star is because it is probably one of the first books written in Ireland about Irish women. These were five women I had never read about; Biddy Early is the woman most histories cover. Otherwise, stories abound of fictional Irish women in relation to their Irishmen, but few accounts exist of individual women in Ireland.

But this coverage of 5 women's stories is shameful. The stories are written with more detail about the men in the stories (the exception being "Lady Betty") than about the women, and the pictures! Good St. Patrick and Brigid and all the Saints!! If you cannot include any drawings but those by a child, where all the women's faces are those of monsters, just leave the pictures out!

I don't know much about the pulling together of these stories: how difficult it was, what sources Lenihan used, why he chose these stories. They could have been good in the hands of a good storyteller. And there are several books that he cites at the end for children, but if this book was intended for children I would be appalled at the quality of the others.

However, for all the authors of Irish historical fiction out there: please grab a story from this book and turn it into something decent. These women lived troubled and sometimes desperate lives, and they certainly need something better than this book.

Daughter of Ireland by Juilene Osborne-McKnight
3***

Aislinn ni Sorar, druid priestess of ancient Ireland, is a visionary. Raised according to the ancient ways, she seeks to use her gifts to keep the old magic strong But Aislinn's own past is shrouded in mystery and her quest to discover that past will bring her some painful discoveries . . . and true love.

This is a decently good book set during the reign of Cormac Mac Art, the Irish King credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. It is told from the point of view of an orphaned young woman raised in the Druid tradition and her role during these transitional years.

She rescues a young girl who was taken as "booty" during a cattle raid out of her abusive situation, and while she battles the girl's captor she meets another traveller who is the ollamh, the master poet of the King. He also happens to be someone from her past and a trained Fenian warrior.

Aislinn brings the girl to safety with the help of this Fenian and poet, Eoghan, who for mysterious reasons does not take his father's name as his surname. And when she is safely with the Deisi tribe, they will not tell her the truth of her own parentage. These mysteries grow and cause problems between Aislinn and her beloved, which are all brought to light in the court of Cormac Mac Art at the height of the Court of Tara.

There were some elements of this book I did not like: Aislinn alternates between wishy-washy and a ferocious Irish woman in a way that seems more necessary to move the plot forward than one that serves good characterization. In addition, the triumph of one religion over another within a few years is always problematic, and I definitely did not like the portrayal of the Druids once Cormac mac Art took up the mantle of Christianity.

Still, it presents the introduction of writing into Ireland and other historical turning points in its history to the general public, as well as the way of life of the peoples of Ireland in this time.

>45 threadnsong: I quite liked this when I read it, as well... sometime last year, I think.

The Good Detective – John McMahon
Detective P.T. Marsh series Book #1
4★

Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia--until his wife and young son died in an accident. Since that night, he's lost the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. Such as when he agrees to help out a woman by confronting her abusive boyfriend. When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of the very man he beat up the night before. He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure? What's certain is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene. The trouble is only beginning. When the dead body of a black teenager is found in a burned-out field with a portion of a blackened rope around his neck, P.T. realizes he might have killed the number-one suspect of this horrific crime. Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the boy's murder--a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War. Risking everything to unravel the puzzle even as he fights his own personal demons, P.T. races headlong toward an incendiary and life-altering showdown.

I think I’m going to like this series. Marsh is a likable character…but he’s going to die from exhaustion if John McMahon puts this much on his plate in every book. It made me tired just trying to put his cases in a normal work day. He has to solve Rowe's murder… exonerate himself;… rehabilitate himself and his reputation on the force… and expose and then fight the local backwoods cabal. Wow! Is there that many hours in a day? It’s a great start to a promising series but lets save something for future books. Great dog…by the way!

The Three Weissmanns of Westport – Cathleen Schine
2.5★

Betty Weissmann has just been dumped by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled from her elegant New York apartment by her husband's mistress, she and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. The impulsive sister is Miranda, a literary agent entangled in a series of scandals, and the more pragmatic sister is Annie, a library director, who feels compelled to move in and watch over her capricious mother and sister. Schine's witty, wonderful novel The Three Weissmanns of Westport "is simply full of pleasure: the pleasure of reading, the pleasure of Austen, and the pleasure that the characters so rightly and humorously pursue….An absolute triumph"

This is a play on Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” I never cared for Jane Austen…put the rocks down folks… but then I'm the only living human in the world that doesn't like Agatha Christie either...but have to admit that this was slightly more tolerable than either. The two daughters followed their mother to Uncle Lou’s cottage in Westport. CT. It wasn’t the Ritz by any stretch of the imagination but the three women started to try to put their lives back together. Annie…the librarian…tries to help the women sort things out. Miranda…the literary agent is under siege because the "memoirists" that she has taken on have turned out to be frauds and she must figure out what to do with her life now. Needless to say this may turn out to be a bigger worry than her mother having been abandoned since she has had a tendency in the past to make some very foolish choices. As they search to rediscover who they are…they are surprised at what they find. The three women processed all the flaws and strengths of real people… and at the end, were some surprises. I believe you could call this a “beach read”. Good enough story…but I found I quickly tired of it.

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
Agatha Christie
4/5 stars
Agatha Christie proves herself again as a master mystery writer in this story of Mrs. McGuillicuddy, a woman on a train who witnesses a murder of a woman on a train passing hers. The authorities dismiss her claim as they can find no other witnesses or the body. Mrs. McGuillicuddy, a friend of Mrs. Marple, tells her the strange story of what she witnessed and if she could help. Mrs. Marple, then engages a smart, young woman, Lucy Eyelesbarrow to search the area where the body could have possibly been thrown off the train. Lucy ends up working for the Crackenthorpes who live near the tracks so she can search more for the body, not knowing that the body is hidden on their property. Very enjoyable!

After Visiting Friends / Michael Hainey
3 stars

Michael Hainey’s father, a “newspaperman”, died when he was only 35, and Michael only 6. As an adult, Michael took a look at the obituaries, but they didn’t really “line up”. There was something odd, and he wanted to find out how his father died. He and his family (mother and brother) had only been told he’d died on the street, after visiting friends.

It was ok. It was a somewhat interesting search for the author to find out what had happened, but I didn’t like the writing style. He wrote in very short choppy non-sentences (well, some were sentences!). It also jumped around in time quite a bit, maybe more in the first half (that, or I got used to it and didn’t notice as much in the second half). The short sentences and short chapters made it quick to read.

The Collectors - David Baldacci
The Camel Club series Book #2
5★

The assassination of the speaker of the House has rocked the nation. And the Camel Club has found a chilling connection with another death: that of the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books and Special Collections Division. The club's unofficial leader, a man who calls himself Oliver Stone, discovers that someone is selling America to its enemies one secret at a time. Then Annabelle Conroy, the greatest con artist of her generation, comes to town and joins forces with the Camel Club for her own reasons. And Stone will need all the help she can give, because the two murders are hurtling the Camel Club into a world of espionage that is bringing America to its knees.

I was wondering how these two story lines...Annabelle and the big Atlantic City heist...and a dead librarian in the Library of Congress rare books section...was ever going to connect. I should never have questioned the "master storyteller"...David Baldacci. Come together they did...with a BANG!)...or was that a shot fired by Seagraves, the government assassin adding to his "collection"? Annabelle with her perfect...though maybe questionable, skills...was a fantastic asset to the Camel Club boys. It isn't a perfect book by any stretch...and some readers won't like the two different story lines or that the story of Annabelle will continue into the next book... but it is Baldacci...it's entertaining and ensures that we, the fans of this author will be picking up the next in the series.

Lakeside Cottage - Susan Wiggs
3★

If you trust your heart, you’ll always know who you are.... Each summer, Kate Livingston returns to her family’s lakeside cottage, a place of simple living and happy times - a place where she now hopes her shy son can blossom. But her quiet life gets a bit more interesting with the arrival of an intriguing new neighbor, JD Harris. Although she is a confirmed single mother, Kate is soon drawn into the sweetness of a summer romance and discovers the passion of a lifetime. JD is hardly able to remember who he was before the media frenzy of becoming an overnight hero back in Washington, D.C....until he escapes to this lovely, remote part of the Northwest. Now Kate Livingston and her son have rekindled the joy of small pleasures and peace… But how long will his blissful anonymity last before reality comes banging at his door?

I'm not a fan of romance novels but it was an okay read. The book starts out dramatically and mysteriously...so I thought maybe this romance would be okay but it didn't take long the story began to deteriorate. The characters were good but it was just too "sappy" for me.

Dear Mrs Bird – A J Pearce
Digital audio performed by Anna Popplewell
3***

From the book jacket: London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

My reactions:
This had more substance than I originally thought based on the book jacket. Mrs Bird has some strict guidelines for the letters she’ll tackle – NOTHING unpleasant! No mention of sexual relations (in or – heaven forbid! – out of marriage), nothing about divorce, or complaints about the hardships endured during wartime, and she doesn’t want any letters that should belong to the food columnist, either! It seems that Emmy’s task is to toss just about every letter into the bin. But her heart breaks for the predicaments some writers convey, and when they give an address and ask for a personal response, well, Emmy just can’t help but respond.

Of course, there’s the personal drama of a young woman during wartime - a fiancé who is fighting in France, and a best friend who is trying to plan a wedding amidst the continuous bombing of London during the Blitz. Emmy is torn trying to be all things to all people and gets caught in a web of deceit that seems so innocent at the beginning.

I’m way past this stage in my own life and didn’t really relate to the characters. Oh, I recognized myself and my friends at that age, but “been there, done that” and I don’t really need to read about it again. The person I liked best was Emmy’s boss. Still, it was an entertaining, fast read, and I can see why it might be marketed for book groups.

Anna Popplewell does a fine job performing the audio version. I loved her interpretation of Mrs Bird! She set a good pace and I was never confused about who was speaking.

>48 LibraryCin: Yes, I read your review after I posted mine!

Giant George / Dave Nasser
3.5 stars

George was the runt of his litter, a Great Dane who came home with Dave and Christie when he was only 7 weeks old. By the time he was fully grown, though, he was almost 250 lbs! (Almost 100 lbs larger than the average adult Great Dane!) He was also very friendly and loved people. George eventually made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest dog.

This was a good story. He’s a sweet dog. There are photos included, as well.

Started reading The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History. So interesting!!

The Other Child / Joanne Fluke
4 stars

It’s 1972. Karen and Mike have only been married a few years. Karen had a daughter before Mike; Leslie is now 10 years old. They want to move out of the city and fall in love with an old fixer-upper out in a nearby small town. But things change after they move... and not for the better. Karen was an interior designer before she married Mike, so she takes on the renovation project for the house. Leslie has a hard time fitting in with the local kids, but she makes a friend in the resident ghost, Christopher. Although Mike is still working his photography job for a magazine, he falls back into some old bad habits.

So, this is an older book of this author’s, published in 1983, I think before she started writing cozies. The writing seemed a bit odd at times, and Leslie (at times) seemed much older than she was, but overall, I liked the story. Not only that, I really liked what she did with the ending. Creepy... (Interesting - some didn’t like the ending, yet it increased the star rating for me.)

The Turn Of the Key – Ruth Ware
3.5***

From the book jacket: When Rowan Caine stumbles across the ad, … it seems like too good an opportunity to miss – a live-in nanny post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten – by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. When she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare.

My reactions:
Well, I didn’t read the book jacket before I read the book (which I won through Bookreporter.com). My niece loves Ware’s thrillers, so I thought I’d give the author a go.

Written in an epistolary style, the book opens with the main character in prison and her desperate letter to a solicitor asking for help – because “I didn’t kill that child.” Her letter continues outlining all that happened – how she stumbled upon the job opening, submitted her resume, went for the interview, and began the position. And how quickly things began going wrong. There are twists and turns and unexplained happenings. References to ghosts and previous “bad history” of the house. A “poison” garden behind a tall wall and locked gate. A mysterious housekeeper who clearly doesn’t like Rowan. A handsome gardener/handyman who seems too good to be true – and could he be the person causing all this havoc? In no time at all, Rowan is a sleep-deprived mess, who shows very poor judgment.

I will say this for Ware, she kept me turning pages and second-guessing, even if I didn’t quite empathize with Rowan or believe the way the kids or their parents behaved. Her final reasoning seemed really off to me, as if Ware just had to find one more twist to include. And then that final letter just completely caught me off guard.

As a suspense thriller it was better than most. I can certainly see why my niece is such a fan.

Finding Dorothy
Elizabeth Letts
4/5 stars
Lett’s historical fiction novel relates the life of Maud Baum, wife of Frank L. Baum who wrote The Wizard of Oz books. The novel goes back and forth between Maud’s childhood and her marriage to Frank and then years later to her relationship with the young Judy Garland who is playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I especially enjoyed reading about the life of Maud and her life with Frank. This makes me want to learn more about their real life relationship. At the end there is an afterword by the author which goes over what was true and what was made up. Interestingly, it was a picture of Maud Baum and Judy Garland on the movie set that inspired Letts to write this book.

The Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton - 258 pages - ★ ★ ★

This one really made me question why I still read this series. (OK - there's only one more to go and then I'll be done with the series.)

Agatha Raisin goes to the village of Thirk Magna, renowned for their church's bell ringers. One of the bell ringers winds up dead, as does a reporter working the news. And Agatha suspects that both the bishop and the dean are hiding things.

Huge cast of characters, not much of a mystery, and a lot of Agatha pining over a man.

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology... / Jenna Miscavige Hill
4 stars

Jenna is the niece of the head of the Church of Scientology. From a young age – 6 years old, I think – her family was very high up in the Scientology world, and this kept her mostly separated from her parents as she and her older brother were indoctrinated into the Church. It seems their lives were very different from what they call “public Scientologists”, who mostly live normal lives, but are part of the Church. They really didn’t get to be kids.

I really knew nothing about Scientology before reading this. Wow, crazy – the manipulation – of kids, no less! I guess you brainwash from a young age... There is a lot of terminology (and acronyms) that she has to define, and much of it I forgot, even as I read the words (or acronyms) later, but mostly had the gist of them (but there is also a glossary at the back). Of course, I would like to read more now. I think I have one celebrity biography on the tbr, so hopefully I can get to that one sooner rather than later.

Oops ... wrong month

Irish Folk Tales edited by Henry Glassnie
4****

This is an amazing collection of folk and fairy tales, featuring everything from historical figures and bog men to ghosts and the fae folk. There are sections for "Faith" ("Saints" and "The Priest and His People"), "Wit" ("The Wise and the Foolish," "Wits and Poets") and "Mystery" ("Death and Tokens," "Ghosts," "Away").

Each tale has been well-documented both as the teller, what County, and who collected it. Many of the collectors are well-known Irish folklorists, including Lady Gregory and Henry Glassie, and the tales range from the 1830's to the 1970's. I found it especially poignant to read the earliest ones or the ones recorded just in the early years of the Famine.

Another thing that kept me drawn into these tales is the dialect that is recorded, or at least the way of speaking. An example is from "Daniel Crowley and the Ghosts" from 1892 in Kerry:

"There lived a man in Cork whose name was Daniel Crowley. He was a coffinmaker by trade and had a deal of coffins laid by, so that his apprentice might sell them when himself was not at home."

There was also a Cinderella-like tale towards the end called "Fair, Brown, and Trembling" that features two older sisters who consign the youngest (and most beautiful) to be a scullery maid. They are the daughters of the King Aedh Curucha. When Trembling is aided by the henwife, she goes to the door of the church three different Sundays wearing three different gowns and riding three different horses. But the similarities are quite striking between the two tales.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4 1/2 ****

Foundation begins a new chapter in the story of man's future life. The Old Empire was crumbling into ancient barbarism throughout the million worlds of the galaxy. Hari Seldon and his band of psychologists must create a new life, the Foundation, dedicated to art, science, and technology as the beginnings of a new empire.

It is a classic which still, despite its emphasis on atomic power and almost no women in key roles, provides insights into humanity that still hold true.

The premise is that the Galactic Empire and its home planet of Trantor are going to fall after twelve thousand years of interstellar rule, and millennia of chaos will ensue. Thirty thousand years, per Hari Seldon's psychohistory calculations. However, Dr. Seldon has devised a plan through his Encyclopedia Galactica project that will result in only a thousand years of anarchy.

And brilliantly, Asimov shows key points in the start of that thousand years, individual short histories that have bearing on one another only because each key person in those histories realizes that they are coming to a Seldon-anticipated moment: there seems to be no way out of their particular galactic situation except for one, and that would be what Seldon predicted.

I read this book in my early 20's, liked it well enough, but remember being jarred by the decades and centuries between the stories. Now, I read it with a lot more understanding of human interaction, and some measure of cynicism, which helps Asimov's originality shine through.

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt
4.5/5 stars
This is the amazing true story of the women animators that worked at the Disney studios and who influenced and participated in the filmmaking process of the animated films. They came from all backgrounds and did jobs that the men got paid more for doing but they persevered and were able to make an impact on the films they worked on. Interesting fact -I never knew that the book Bambi: A Life in the Woods was banned in Germany because it dealt with German antisemitism and of course it was written by a Jewish author. Highly recommended!