Wednesday, December 29, 2021

They Came to Baghdad

 Fiction by Agatha Christie



This was a fun story of the "intrepid young heroine" variety, like The Man in the Brown Suit.

Victoria Jones heads to Baghdad in search of adventure, and finds it when a young man stumbles into her hotel and dies!


I also read recently by this author: They do it with Mirrors

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

The Driver

 Fiction by Hart Hanson

Ex-soldier Mickey Skelling owns a limo service that employs a couple of wounded veterans and the Afghan interpreter he smuggled into the country. At the beginning of this story, Mickey saves the life of Bismarck Avila, a rich celebrity client. Avila makes Mickey an offer he can't refuse, and Mickey ends up working for Avila exclusively. But Avila's last driver was murdered, and Mickey needs to figure out how to keep that from happening again.

This was an exciting story with interesting characters and some funny dialogue. I really liked it.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Local Woman Missing

 Fiction by Mary Kubica 


Shelby Tebow goes for a run late one evening and never comes home. In the same neighborhood,  Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter vanish two weeks later. Eleven years later, Delilah is found alive. What happened to Shelby and Meredith? Where has Delilah been? 

This story is told in two different time frames, and from several perspectives, keeping the reader intrigued and guessing. The twist at the end was very unexpected!

I also read by this author: Don't You Cry 

Friday, December 17, 2021

The Reckless Oath We Made

 Fiction by Bryn Greenwood


This author can write the craziest and yet most believable characters I've ever seen!

Zhorzha Trego (called Zee for short) is already having a tough night, and to top it all off, she's got to drag her five-year-old nephew on a drug run. Zee's sister LaReigne didn't come back from her volunteer job (as a Wiccan prison minister!) in time to relieve Zee from babysitting duty, and so Zee is stuck taking the poor kid along to haul suitcases full of dope over state lines.

Then Zee finds out that LaReigne didn't come home because she was abducted during a prison breakout. She can't go back to the apartment she and her sister share because the cops are there. She can't stay at their mother's house, because the woman is a hoarder and there is literally no room to even  lie down. What next? How about the fact that Zee has a stalker, an autistic man called Gentry who actually thinks he's a seventeenth century knight?

This is such an amazing book. I loved it!

I also read by this author: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things


Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Discordia

Audible Original Fiction by Max Barry


At the beginning of this story, a guy called Diego is digging a hole on the beach in Malibu. A really big hole. Why? Because some rich guy is paying him to do it. At the same time, cell service and internet connections go down everywhere, and the radio and TV report that the country is under attack. By whom? Nobody knows. Then Diego finds a mysterious box in the hole he's been digging, and his employer wants him to open it. What's inside? You'll never guess...

This was a fun little story that I really enjoyed.


I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Second Skin


Monday, December 13, 2021

Counted With the Stars

 Fiction by Connilyn Cossette

This book is a novelization of the Hebrew people's exodus from Egypt. It is the beginning of a trilogy.

I liked it at the beginning but had trouble staying interested as the story went on; I'm not sure if this is because I knew exactly what would happen (it's in the Bible) or because I didn't like the writing style. Maybe I'm just distracted right now, but I didn't really care what happened to the characters.

In any case, this was an okay book but I didn't love it. I'm not sure if I want to invest in the other two books or not.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Boy Underground

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fourteen-year-old Steven feels like an outcast in his small California farming community; he's not like the other kids, or even like the people in his own family, because he's attracted to boys and not girls. He finally finds a group of non-judgmental boys he feels accepted by and takes a camping trip into the mountains with Nick, Ollie, and Suki.

The thing is, the weekend trip begins on December 6, 1941, and Suki is Japanese. The four boys come back to a world where everything has been changed: there has been an attack on Pearl Harbor and the US has been plunged into war. Steven feels even more oppressed in his tiny hometown now that racism as well as homophobia is a problem. Plus his friends are all in trouble: Suki might be sent to an interment camp, Ollie is almost old enough to be drafted, and Nick is being accused of a crime he didn't commit. 

This was good character story with a lot to think about. I did feel like the author was trying to force a contemporary issue into a historical setting, though. 

I also read recently by this author: Jumpstart the World

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Second Skin

Audible Original Fiction by Christian White

Stan Weir is left alone and devastated after the deaths of his daughter (Lucy) and wife (Joanne) in quick succession. But what Stan doesn't know is that a baby girl called Erin was born the same night that Joanne died, and that one day, eleven years later, Erin will begin to remember things about Joanne that she couldn't possibly have known.

Could Erin be the reincarnated spirit of Joanne Weir? Erin's mother Marcy has to find out!

This was a good story but not great. The characters were very good, but there is some stretching of reality in the final plot twist that can't be accounted for in fantasy terms. A reviewer on audible.com goes so far as to call this a "disservice to the reader." (Don't read the reviews on this one, by the way, unless you want annoying spoilers.) 


I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Dade County Death Cruise

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

The Only Girl in the World

 Nonfiction by Maude Julien

This book is another example of a harrowing-ordeal-childhood story. I've read several of these lately (see Nowhere Girl).

Maude's father had a crazy goal of making a "superior" human being, and he had a detailed plan to make this idea happen. He literally purchased a six-year-old girl to bring up and educate, with the ultimate intention of using her to breed his special superhuman baby. Maude was that child, raised in complete isolation in rural France, and made to endure constant endurance tests along with severe emotional neglect. 

Many of her father's crazy notions seemed based in Nazi ideas. For example, he believed strongly in Aryan superiority, and taught Maude to play several instruments because "musicians always survive concentration camps."

This story was terribly fascinating and I was really rooting for poor Maude to get away from her lunatic father.

Monday, December 6, 2021

The Hush

 Fiction by John Hart. 

This is the sequel to The Last Child, which I read several years ago and have mostly forgotten the plot of. (I mention that to let you know that reading the first book is not necessarily required in order to enjoy this one.)

In this book, Johnny Merriman is a young man living woodsman-hermit-style on a large plot of land his family owns called the Hush. The Hush is a mixture of Carolina swamp and forest, and it is rumored to be haunted by the spirits of hanged slaves from before the Civil War. For Johnny, the Hush is a magical place whose beauty only he understands.

But now there is a billionaire hunting nut who wants the Hush for himself. How far will Johnny go to keep his beloved land? And what secrets does the Hush really hold?

This was a really good story!

Saturday, December 4, 2021

In a Holidaze

 Fiction by Christina Lauren


Mae is 26 years old and feels a little bit stuck; she’s living back at her mom’s and the job that she thought she would enjoy has turned out to be a drag. But she loves the Christmas holidays, when her family gets together with two other families every year in a cabin in Utah, and so she goes into the holiday in December 20th with high hopes. 

But December 26th she comes away feeling let down, and with the turn of a completely unexplained plot device, she finds herself repeating the whole holiday again, and again, Groundhog-Day style. 

This was a fun and lighthearted story, but a little strange. 

I also read by this author: Twice in a Blue Moon

Friday, December 3, 2021

The Girl Behind the Red Rope

 Fiction by Ted and Rachelle Dekker


Grace and her family have spent the last thirteen years as part of a religious cult who believe that the whole world has been corrupted by Satan, and that only they have been spared. Their group lives in isolation in rural Tennessee, behind a red rope that keeps the evil world at bay. They believe they are safe only as long as they remain behind the rope and carefully follow every rule set by the cult leaders, who claim to have received angelic instruction. But Grace's brother Jamie has begun to wonder if it's safe to venture beyond the rope after all...

This was an exciting story, especially at the beginning, but I felt the symbolism got too heavy-handed and made the story less appealing as it went on. Still, I definitely wanted to finish the story and find out what was really going on.

I also read by one of these authors: Forbidden

Thursday, December 2, 2021

The Color of Magic

Fiction by Terry Pratchett


This was a strange story about a magical place called Discworld, where wizards and monsters and heroes have adventures. But their fates are decided by giant gods playing a game, and every once and a while they can hear the sound of the dice rolling…

I’m pretty sure the author intended this to be kind of Dungeons and Dragons come to life, which is weird but cool. The story was good but not great; I found it a little over complicated and less character driven than I prefer. 


I also read by this author: A Hat Full of Sky

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Girl Alone

Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


Joss was nine when she discovered that her father had hanged himself in the garage. Now thirteen, angry and defiant, she's been through an aunt and two other foster carers before coming to Cathy Glass. Can Cathy get her in line, or will Joss have to go to a juvenile secure unit?

I also read by this author: Hidden

Monday, November 29, 2021

Hidden

Nonfiction by Cathy Glass


Ten-year-old Tayo is taken into foster care right after Christmas. After several changes of address over the first school term, his mother had ditched him with friends and disappeared for two weeks over the holidays, then retrieved him without so much as a thank-you. Then she turned up drunk for court as a final straw.

As Tayo's mother seems to get more and more irresponsible, it's up to foster carer Cathy Glass to find out what's best for Tayo. But there's a further complication: Tayo was born in another country, and he and his mother seem to have come to Britain illegally.

This was a good story with a surprise ending.


I also read recently by this author: Too Scared to Tell

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Dade County Death Cruise

Audible Original Fiction by Alexander Kane

This book is the sequel to Orlando People, and I absolutely loved it! This story continues the tale of Gretch Wolgast, now 23 years old and a newly-minted agent in a newly-formed branch of the FBI that specializes in crime related to telekinesis. (It's a thing in these stories; read the first book!)

This is a super fun book!


I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Andrea Vernon and the Big Axe Acquisition

Monday, November 22, 2021

Nowhere Girl

Nonfiction by Cheryl Diamond

This was an exciting memoir of the “harrowing ordeal childhood” variety. (See also The Glass Castle, Spilled Milk, and The Sound of Gravel for other great examples of this type of story.)

The author grew up all over the world, changing identities as her family fled from an unknown threat, which might have been Interpol, or it might have been in her father's imagination. 

This was an absorbing story!

Sunday, November 21, 2021

So Long See You Tomorow

 Fiction by William Maxwell


In 1921 Lloyd Wilson is shot and killed outside his barn before he has a chance to milk the cows. This happens on page one of this short novel, and the rest of the book is mostly about why the murder happened.

The story is told in a strange way; the narrator is a boy in town who befriends the son of the murderer. The identity of the killer is never in doubt; this book is in no way a mystery. It's more about a person trying to come to terms with the past and reconcile with his own regrets.

This novel was well written, short but dense. Still, I thought the story could have been told in a less convoluted way and it might have been more easily understood. This is obviously a Smart Person Book,** and the goal with this type of writing is often to make the meaning of the text so difficult that only Smart People can understand. Therefore obfuscation is probably the author's goal, but it makes for less enjoyable reading in my opinion. 

So this book was pretty good but not great.


I also read by this author: They Came Like Swallows

**For explanation of The Smart Person Book, see Imagine Me Gone. In contrast, the last book I read (See Empire Falls) actually won a Pulitzer, but it was much more readable and still had a lot of depth. So we conclude that a Smart Person Book doesn't require these annoying affectations, but the more pretentious of authors just believes that it does.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Empire Falls

 Fiction by Richard Russo


Empire Falls is a town built around a mill that is controlled by one rich and powerful family, the Whitings. But, like many other mill towns around America, by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is almost dead. The mill has long since been closed, the work outsourced to a factory in Mexico, and most of the businesses are shuttered and abandoned.

But the last Mrs. Whiting is still in control. She owns almost every piece of real estate in town and likes to believe she owns all the people too. In particular, she owns the Empire Grill restaurant, and its cook and manager Miles Roby stays at her beck and call, bound by a mixture of guilt and habit to a job he hates and a town he no longer loves.  

Will Miles break free? Or will he stay, and maybe marry Mrs. Whiting's only daughter? This is a really good story!


I also read by this author: Elsewhere


Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The Best of Friends

 Fiction by Lucinda Berry. 


Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani have been best friends since they were girls in school, and now that they are mothers their friendship is still strong. Their teenage sons are of similar age and are close friends as well; the boys are in the same soccer team and often sleeping over at each others’ houses. But when a sleepover party leaves one boy dead and one hospitalized in a coma, the friendship of the mothers is stretched to the breaking point. 

Only Dani’s son Caleb remains safe at home, and everyone is looking to him for answers as to what happened to his two friends. But Caleb hasn’t spoken since the night of the incident. What really happened between the three boys? And will their families survive this?

This was an exciting story with believable characters, and it also gave me something to think about. 


I also read recently by this author: The Perfect Child


Sunday, November 14, 2021

The Stolen Daughter

 Fiction by ReShonda Tate Billingsley


Jill's problems are piling up at the beginning of this story: her mom has dementia, her husband lost his job, and she has a new baby. When an older man approaches her, thinking she might be his long-lost daughter, will he have the answers to her troubles?

I started listening to this story as an audiobook, and I could not STAND the narrator! I couldn't decide if that was why I disliked the book, though. Then I ordered the book from the library and I liked reading it. So... yeah, it was the narrator...

I also read by this author: The Secret She Kept

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Billy Summers

 Fiction by Stephen King


Billy Summers is an assassin who tells himself he only kills bad people. But being paid by bad people to kill other bad people is beginning to bother his conscience, and so he plans to retire. But then he's offered one last job...

This is kind of a familiar setup, but the way Stephen Kings writes is anything but formulaic. The point of the story is the characters, and this book has some truly believable characters.


I also read recently by this author: Joyland


Wednesday, November 10, 2021

The Midnight Library

 Fiction by Matt Haig


Nora Seed is having a vey bad day, after some very bad months and several very bad years. She decides to kill herself, but then something very strange happens.

Nora goes to a magical (imaginary?) place called the Midnight Library, where she gets a chance to look closely at the many things she regrets in life (in The Book of Regrets, of course) and discover what would have happened if she had made different choices.

This was an interesting story that made you think. It was less in-depth with the different-choices-different-life idea than I would have liked until near the end, although that's a relatively minor complaint.

I also read by this author: How to Stop Time

Sunday, November 7, 2021

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

 Fiction by Bryn Greenwood.


This book is amazingly good, and it's also awful.

I realize that doesn't make sense. Nichole Bowman in my facebook book group wrote a fabulous description:

This author writes real characters that you can identify with and believe, and then the characters do things that you think nobody should do, and you understand why they did it.

That's some good writing right there!

So I loved this book, but I don't think everyone would. Many reviewers truly despised it.

Read at your own risk, I guess?

Thursday, November 4, 2021

Not in the Heart

 Fiction by Chris Fabry


Journalist Truman Wiley and his wife Ellen are separated and estranged, but still bound together emotionally by their children, Abby and Aiden. Aiden is eighteen and suffers from a congenital heart defect; he doesn't have much time left unless he receives a transplant. 

Terelle is a death row inmate set to be executed in thirty days who says he wants to donate his heart to Aiden, because he has found God in prison and wants to make his truncated life meaningful. Although harvesting organs from condemned prisoners is an ethical problem (to say the least), the Wileys know the state governor and feel like he just might be able to make this happen. 

But Terelle, who has always maintained his innocence, wants his story told before he dies, and he wants Truman to write it. What can Truman uncover in thirty days? If Terelle IS actually innocent, what about Aiden's heart transplant?

This story was pretty good but not great. I really disliked Truman's character, and some of the plot was too contrived.

I also read by this author: Borders of the Heart