So here is another example of (what my Aunt Susan called) the "harrowing-ordeal" memoir. This one is a girl who survived childhood sexual and emotional abuse, and she grew up to help other kids in that situation. It was an interesting story too.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Spilled Milk
Nonfiction by K.L. Randis
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
So here is another example of (what my Aunt Susan called) the "harrowing-ordeal" memoir. This one is a girl who survived childhood sexual and emotional abuse, and she grew up to help other kids in that situation. It was an interesting story too.
So here is another example of (what my Aunt Susan called) the "harrowing-ordeal" memoir. This one is a girl who survived childhood sexual and emotional abuse, and she grew up to help other kids in that situation. It was an interesting story too.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Duplicate Keys
Fiction by Jane Smiley
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
I couldn't get interested in this story. It was only because I'm stuck at home with a quarantine and I don't know when I'm going to be able to go to the library again that I forced myself to finish the book.
There is a murder in chapter one, so one expects this to be a mystery story, but it's really not. Or, it's not a good mystery story. It's not suspenseful. We do find out who the murderer is at the end, and it's the person I thought it was in chapter one.
Anyways, I don't know why the review quoted above calls it a cliff-hanger. It's more of a cliff-sitter-and-don't-go-anywhere-at-all-er.
I also read recently by this author: Private Lives
I couldn't get interested in this story. It was only because I'm stuck at home with a quarantine and I don't know when I'm going to be able to go to the library again that I forced myself to finish the book.
There is a murder in chapter one, so one expects this to be a mystery story, but it's really not. Or, it's not a good mystery story. It's not suspenseful. We do find out who the murderer is at the end, and it's the person I thought it was in chapter one.
Anyways, I don't know why the review quoted above calls it a cliff-hanger. It's more of a cliff-sitter-and-don't-go-anywhere-at-all-er.
I also read recently by this author: Private Lives
Friday, March 27, 2020
Alone: Orphaned in the Ocean
Nonfiction by Tere Duperrault Fassbender and Richard Logan
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
This is a true story about an eleven-year-old girl who was (almost) the sole survivor of a sailboat that sank in the ocean near the Bahamas. (The ship's captain also survived, but everyone else on board was lost.) It was an amazing survival story, but not quite written as engagingly as I would have liked.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Liar
Fiction by K.L. Slater
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
This story is about a girl called Amber who not very nicely schemes to get a certain man to marry her. I read another book not too long ago about a horrible husband-stealing Amber, (see The Last Mrs. Parrish) and I'm starting to feel prejudiced against this name. If your name is Amber, you'd better stay away from me, and don't speak to my husband! (I'm joking. I'm sure most real Ambers are quite nice.)
Anyways, this was a pretty good story, although I spent a lot of the book with "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look-Syndrome,"** hoping that the characters would recognize Terrible Amber for what she was. It sure took them long enough.
There was a surprise twist at the end though!
(See also Lock Every Door by Riley Sager)
That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.
This story is about a girl called Amber who not very nicely schemes to get a certain man to marry her. I read another book not too long ago about a horrible husband-stealing Amber, (see The Last Mrs. Parrish) and I'm starting to feel prejudiced against this name. If your name is Amber, you'd better stay away from me, and don't speak to my husband! (I'm joking. I'm sure most real Ambers are quite nice.)
Anyways, this was a pretty good story, although I spent a lot of the book with "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look-Syndrome,"** hoping that the characters would recognize Terrible Amber for what she was. It sure took them long enough.
There was a surprise twist at the end though!
I also read recently by this author: The Apartment
**Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome
(See also Lock Every Door by Riley Sager)
That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.
Monday, March 23, 2020
The Stranger Diaries
Fiction by Elly Griffiths
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
Claire is an English teacher at British high school that happens to be housed in an historic house once owned by a famous spooky Victorian author called R.M. Holland. Claire both teaches Holland's short stories (the most famous of which being "The Stranger," which is featured in this book as a story-with-the-story) and is working on a book about the author, so she likes working at a school with a connection to him. But then a fellow teacher turns up murdered!
This was a pretty good book, although it was a little slower moving than I would have preferred. I did like the variance of narrators; the author gives us not only Claire's perspective but that of also the lead detective on the murder case, and Claire's teenaged daughter.
Claire is an English teacher at British high school that happens to be housed in an historic house once owned by a famous spooky Victorian author called R.M. Holland. Claire both teaches Holland's short stories (the most famous of which being "The Stranger," which is featured in this book as a story-with-the-story) and is working on a book about the author, so she likes working at a school with a connection to him. But then a fellow teacher turns up murdered!
This was a pretty good book, although it was a little slower moving than I would have preferred. I did like the variance of narrators; the author gives us not only Claire's perspective but that of also the lead detective on the murder case, and Claire's teenaged daughter.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
You've Been Volunteered
Fiction by Laurie Gelman
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
This book is the sequel to Class Mom, an absolutely hysterical story I read about a year ago. This time our heroine Jen agrees to be class mom again, thinking things will be easier now that the parents in her son's class are used to her irreverent humor. Then she finds out the new PTA president has another great job Jen can be "volun-told" to do: Safety Patrol Mom.
This was another great book!
This book is the sequel to Class Mom, an absolutely hysterical story I read about a year ago. This time our heroine Jen agrees to be class mom again, thinking things will be easier now that the parents in her son's class are used to her irreverent humor. Then she finds out the new PTA president has another great job Jen can be "volun-told" to do: Safety Patrol Mom.
This was another great book!
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Magic Street
Fiction by Orson Scott Card
https://www.barnesandnoble.com
I really like this author; I've read a lot of his books. It turns out that I have also read this one before, but I didn't remember until I was already part of the way through.
This story is about magic in the real world, sort of hiding in plain sight. I really enjoyed it. Again.
I really like this author; I've read a lot of his books. It turns out that I have also read this one before, but I didn't remember until I was already part of the way through.
This story is about magic in the real world, sort of hiding in plain sight. I really enjoyed it. Again.
I also read recently by this author: The First Formic War Trilogy
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