Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Blog Has Moved!
This blog has moved! Please read about great books at our new website: https://sclsnj.org/read-listen-view/recommendations/
Friday, October 6, 2017
Artemis by Andy Weir
Jazz doesn’t want much from life. She wants an apartment with a bathroom and a real bed instead of the coffin-like structure she currently sleeps in. She wants to somehow make things right with her dad after the major screw up she made as a stupid teenager. But she needs to make money to make her dreams come true. She has a legitimate job, and her lucrative sideline as a smuggler, but it’s not enough. When a job with an amazing payday comes her way, even though it is dangerous and extremely illegal, she leaps at the opportunity. Now she just has to figure out how to pull this job off without getting caught and deported to Earth. Yes, Earth. Jazz lives on Artemis, the first city on the moon, and she loves her home, she’s never known any other, and she’ll do everything she can to protect it and stay there!
Of course there is a lot of science in this book, just like there was in the author’s bestselling first book The Martian, but there are no potatoes and the heist takes center stage here. It reminded me of the heist movies like The Italian Job but on the moon which lends its own special quirks to the action. It was great to see such a diverse cast of characters and that Artemis is set to Kenyan time with all passenger, goods and tourist transport leaving out of Nairobi.
Jazz is a criminal with a strict moral code and I certainly hope that this book is only the beginning of her story. Place your holds now -- this book comes out November 14th!
Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent
Oliver Ryan writes extremely popular children’s books and his wife Alice illustrates them. They seem to have the perfect relationship until he is arrested for beating her so badly she lies in a coma and the doctors are doubtful she will ever awaken. Oliver had never hurt Alice before. This book is the story of why he suddenly became so horrifically violent.
Told from the perspectives of many characters including Oliver who is as bewildered by his violence as anyone else, the story of Oliver, for it is his story that drives him to this act, is slowly unraveled as each person tells what they know. Altogether a complete picture of the man that no one truly knew is revealed.
This book won the Irish Book Award’s Crime Novel of the Year and it deserved it. I didn’t like Oliver, even when I learned about the awful childhood he endured, but I still felt some sympathy for him when I looked at his life as a whole...but then I didn’t again. I’m sure any reader will go back and forth as they learn more and more of his life. This is a great book on audio since each of the different characters that lend their perspectives to the story has a different reader. And they all have great Irish accents to really put you in the place and immerse you in the story. This one will stay with you for a long while.
Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap by Julie Ann Long
Avalon Harwood is having a really bad day. Rather than deal with life at the moment she flees to her safe place. Home. Her childhood home in Hellcat Canyon, California. She knows she should be managing her startup tech company with her brilliant boyfriend but he can handle the responsibility for a while, especially since he’s the one she can’t deal with at the moment. Soon after she arrives home she finds out that the mansion down the road (next door but still far) is going up for auction the following morning. She was only in that house once and she has mostly fond memories of Mac Coltrane, the boy who spent his summers there until he broke her heart into a million pieces. So, naturally she goes to the auction the next morning and outbids all the competition. She’s thrilled that the property comes with the groundskeeper for the rest of the year until she meets the groundskeeper, who also happens to be the man she outbid: Mac Coltrane.
This is a romance so you know these two are going to get together at the end, but it’s such a fun time. There are always misunderstandings in romances that drive me nuts because most of the time if the two characters just had a conversation the next two hundred pages of hurt feelings wouldn’t be necessary. In this book the misunderstanding happened a decade or so ago when they were teenagers so they are trying to heal old wounds as well as get to know each other once again. The knowledge they have of each other from the past works well to ramp up the banter and practical jokes the two play on each other as Avalon tries to get the house ready to resell and Mac does his best to convince her to sell it to him.
I really enjoyed the chemistry between these two and if you’re looking for a contemporary romance this is a really fun one. This is the third in the series so there is more to like where this one came from!
Thursday, September 28, 2017
The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown
Alice is forced to return to the village of Manningtree after her husband is killed in a work accident in London in the early 17th century. Her mother recently passed but she was once close with her younger brother, Matthew Hopkins, but hasn’t seen him in five years and is a little nervous since she will be reliant on him for her wellbeing. Alice has reason to be concerned. Matthew is now an associate of the powerful and influential in the village and has started writing down interview transcripts and evidence gathered at the homes of unpopular women in the village accused of the murder of livestock and people through witchcraft. Alice is stunned to discover not only her brother’s methods but how far his reach has extended. When she is forced to help him gather evidence Alice knows that even being the witchfinder’s brother is not enough to protect her from the growing madness in the countryside.
Alice is the narrator of the story which works well because she has background on the town and Matthew but is ignorant of his life and his community standing in the past few years. She tries to see the young boy she knew in the man she relies upon, but as the mistreatment and atrocities he condones pile up she finds herself growing more concerned for those she cares about and herself.
Matthew Hopkins was a real person whose interrogations resulted in the jailing and hanging deaths of many, many women. Even though the novel is loosely based on what little we know about Hopkins’s life, the author took some liberties including adding a great gasp right at the end. Anyone who has an interest in the Salem Witch Trials (Hopkins’s methods were used in America as well) or the hardships faced by women dependant on relatives in past centuries will want to read Alice’s story.
Friday, September 22, 2017
The Gargoyle Hunters by John Freeman Gill
It’s 1974 in New York City and the city is falling apart. Really! There are pieces crumbling and falling off of buildings compelling young Griffin Watts, thirteen years old, to start wearing a batting helmet as he walks to and from school. Griffin and his family all lived together in a brownstone until his mom and dad separated. Now he lives with his mom, sister and a bunch of boarders, hard luck cases, that his mom seems to collect. Griffin misses his dad so finds him in his warehouse/loft in TriBeCa, some weird section of the city where the streets make no sense but people swear is coming back. There he learns about his dad’s love (read: obsession) with the architecture of the city, especially its gargoyles. Griffin is thrilled to help his dad and friends on their late night expeditions to save the city’s history before it is demolished even though he’s pretty sure it’s not all totally legal. It is exciting.
Griffin learns a lot about the architecture of the city (which as readers we do too) but also a lot about life. He begins to understand the broken relationship between his parents and all the ways his parents aren’t so great at being parents. He also forms and loses friendships and grows into the man he will become. Over every aspect of his life there is always his relationship with his father.
Since the author is coming to talk about his book at the LVSC fundraiser in October I felt I should read it and took out the book and audiobook. I’m glad this event encouraged me to pick this one up because I really enjoyed it. I was skeptical about the audiobook because it is read by the author which can either be a good thing, or a disaster. In this case it was an extremely pleasant surprise. New York City comes to life through the author’s penned and voiced words. His characters are fully formed people ready to walk off the page and down the street. I felt like the author was Griffin telling me his story and I have a funny feeling the author wrote a lot of himself into young Griffin.
Pick this one up and walk the city in the 70s; it was really fun remembering how awful it was compared to what, for example, Times Square is now!
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
On a stormy night back in 1936 on a shantyboat docked in the Mississippi near Memphis, the five Foss children await the return of their parents. Their mom is pregnant with twins and the midwife urged their father to bring her to the hospital; these births are beyond the midwife’s capabilities to deliver. Soonafter the children are forcibly taken from the boat to the Tennessee Children's Home Society with promises that they will be reunited with their parents soon. It is an awful place where the children suffer abuses at the hands of the adults and fellow residents. It is also where the Foss children are given new names and after some time new families.
In the present day Avery Stafford returns home to South Carolina to help her father, the senator, who is recovering from treatment. She loved her legal job in the capitol but finds herself being groomed for a senate seat she isn’t sure she wants and engaged to a man she isn’t sure she wants either. A chance encounter at a nursing home causes Avery to dig into her family’s past uncovering secrets the well placed Stafford clan may wish to keep silent.
This book will tug at your heartstrings, especially when you realize that the Tennessee Children's Home Society was a real place. Children were taken from their parents, separated from their siblings, and parents who did manage to track their children to the Home were unable to get them back, with dubious legalities as the excuse.
If you enjoyed The Orphan Train where the past met the present you’ll really enjoy this story.
Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
Aviva Grossman was in college when she went to work for Congressman Levin in Southern Florida as an unpaid intern. She had a head for politics and was getting a degree in Spanish Literature as well to help her communicate with her future constituents when she ran for office one day. But a string of bad decisions which resulted in a scandal about her relationship with the married and considerably older Congressman shattered her political aspirations. She became notorious in Florida, as infamous as Monica Lewinsky except on a smaller scale; but when you blog about your congressional internship experience, about everything, once it’s on the internet it is forever. Every prospective employer or voter can call up the past with a simple Google search so Aviva makes some big changes.
Jane Young is a successful event planner in a small town in Maine. She plans events of all types, but most often she is called upon to be a wedding planner. Her and her daughter have a good life, but when Jane is called upon to run for mayor her former life comes back to haunt her.
Told in four sections, most in the present day, by four different characters: Aviva’s mom, Congressman Levin’s wife; Aviva (telling the story of what happened back then; her bad choices are made all the more obvious since it is told in Choose Your Own Adventure format with only one path, the path she chose, available to read) and Ruby, Aviva’s/Jane’s thirteen-year-old daughter. Having different points of view shows the same events from different perspectives as well as filling in the gaps so readers get to know the whole picture.
The novel shows how bad choices early in life can affect your future and how your youthful indiscretions are now accessible by the world if they are recorded online. It’s frightening how permanent the internet is and how damaging; as a teenager or young adult can we understand the ramifications of what we post online? Why is it that the young female involved in these scandals is vilified yet the male, established in whatever profession, seems to always get through the ordeal more or less unscathed? While this novel doesn’t pose any answers it does give a voice to the women behind the questions.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker
Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker
Reviewed by Chris, Business Librarian at Bridgewater
In Cork Dork, Bianca Bosker, an average person with an average person's understanding of wine (that is: barely any), decides to not only educate herself on the subject, but to do so in such a thorough manner as to pass the Certified Sommelier exam.
In the process, Bosker takes it upon herself to learn whether or not wine tasting is an actual skill or just a scam. She tests herself on every wine she comes across and joins exclusive wine-tasting gatherings. She even has her brain scanned to see if it differs from that of a layperson's when tasting wines.
Through it all, Bosker discovers that she is opening her world to flavor. She tastes and smells dozens of other things to prepare her palate for the inescapable comparisons of wines to things like fruits or other food and non-food items, but she also learns to really taste things. Taste and smell are the two least studied senses, and are historically seen as less important than sight, hearing, or touch. The training is not just theoretical -- she also does a few stints at high-end restaurants to learn the art of wine pairing.
Bosker does get in enough practice to eventually take the exam, and I won't spoil the results for you. She learns a lot more about life than just about wine while doing so.
A quick and engaging read. Recommended for those who love wine, food, or want to know what the big deal is about either.
Monday, September 11, 2017
If the Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss
Sadie Blue is seventeen, pregnant and a newlywed of fifteen days bleeding from a head wound on the floor of her trailer thinking she should have never gotten that Roy Tupkin to marry her. She knows if she stays she and her baby are going to die, but she doesn’t know yet what she’s going to do about it.
The book begins with Sadie Blue and ends with her but in the middle are stories told from different residents of Baines Creek, North Carolina all mentioning Sadie in one way or another. We get to know the local preacher, his bitter sister, the new schoolteacher from a fancy private school who feels she finally has found her purpose and the local crone who knows everything about the plants and residents of her corner of the mountains.
In structure the book is reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge but the style is completely different. Fans of spare writing like that of Wiley Cash will enjoy this debut author’s style. It is distinctly southern with the cadence and slang lending to the narrative instead of jarringly detracting from it. A poignant glimpse into Appalachia in the 1970s.
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Alan Conway, a terribly difficult author to work with but the star in the catalog for the small publishing house Susan Ryeland works for, just submitted the manuscript for his ninth Atticus Pünd novel. She adores the novels as much as she dislikes the author, and the author dislikes his character, so she is thrilled to spend her weekend reading the newest installment. But things don’t go as planned. Susan needs to turn her talents from editing mysteries to solving them if she plans on keeping her publishing house in business!
Sorry but I need to keep the plot of this one vague because I want you to be as surprised at the directions this book takes as I was when I read it. I can tell you that you’ll be getting two books for the price of one -- the Atticus Pünd manuscript set in a sleepy village in 1955 very reminiscent of Hercule Poirot and Susan Ryeland’s investigation in the present.
If you are an audiobook listener add this one to your list. Each “mystery” is read by a different reader. A man voices the manuscript while a woman voices the editor’s investigation. It really made the book within a book work even better than it could on the written page; which isn’t saying too much because this is a well plotted mystery in every way.
If the author ever wants to start a series he should turn to writing cozy mysteries like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers because he has the style down perfectly. Mystery fans of any type of mystery will adore this book.
The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter
Forty years ago Frances Ashley wrote Kitty the book that would propel Frances, and eventually her daughter Megan, into the public eye for decades to come. In Kitty a young girl murders her best friend and wrecks havoc on the lives of those around her at the hotel her parents own on a Southern island. Kitty is a cult classic inspiring the Kitty-cult, obsessed fans who visit the real world locations from the novel, since the novel is loosely (we think) based on the truth.
Megan has never felt close to her mother and Frances’s recent actions put even more distance between the two. When the idea to write her own book, what life was like growing up as the daughter of Frances Ashley as well as to research the real story behind Kitty, oddly enough a book Megan has never read, she embraces the idea. Revisiting the island her mother worked at as a hotel maid while writing her breakout novel Megan is a guest of Dorothy Kitchens, the real life inspiration many assume for Kitty. During her stay, digging into the secrets of the past, Megan uncovers information that makes her look at her relationship with her mother, her sense of identity and the long ago murder in a new light. Will Megan finally discover who killed the young girl all those years ago? And will the murderer strike again to keep their secret safe?
At the heart this is a book about identity. What groups we identify with, how we envision our place in the world, who we choose to align ourselves with and why. Megan has lived a sheltered life, and she’s self aware enough to know it, but her investigations into her own life through her mother’s past brings her face to face with herself and how she chooses to identify herself.
Fans of psychological thrillers will find a lot to enjoy here; a great choice both on audio and in print -- I went back and forth between the two to see what would happen next!
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
Three years ago two teenaged sisters disappeared. Dr. Winter was the bureau psychiatrist assigned to the disappearance of Emma and Cass Tanner. The case has haunted Dr. Winter for the past three years, she always thought their mother showed signs of narcissistic personality disorder and was somehow involved, but she could never find any evidence. Then she gets the call that Cass just returned home telling of an island off the coast of Maine where she and a pregnant Emma were taken to and then held at all this time. Emma didn’t escape with Cass because she refused to leave behind her young daughter and now Cass is desperate to find her sister and her niece.
Dr. Winter is shocked by Cass’s return and not completely convinced by her story. As the days go by and the interviews continue Dr. Winter is pretty sure she knows what really happened to Cass over the past three years; but is she right and can she prove it?
Wendy Walker proved she can write great psychological thriller with All is Not Forgotten last year and she has another great story here. It seems a little slow to start, but the stage needs to be set. From the beginning the story seems weird, but there is nothing that can be pointed at as being particularly off, in all the stories Cass tells and the evidence that is found only a few things send up flags to Dr. Winter and we’re right there with her as she figures out what happened to the Tanner sisters. If you like twisty, strange and disturbing psychological thrillers Wendy Walker needs to be on your to read list.
The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal
Nora is the research assistant for a Vancouver PI and is doing her best to keep her head above water. After a horrific incident in her past she fell into the bottle but has been sober for years. She has made a life for herself; she even has a dog. Her life doesn’t seem like much to outsiders or her sister, but Nora is basically content illegally living in the basement of her office building saving up for better times. She’s starting to think she may have enough savings to start looking for an apartment when the distraught parents of a missing teenager contact her to meet with them. They aren’t looking for her boss, they want Nora’s help. Through a paperwork mishap years ago they have always know the name of their daughter’s birth mother, Nora Watts, and they think their daughter may have been searching for the mother who gave her up for adoption when she disappeared.
Nora would like to kid herself that she hasn’t thought about her daughter since she gave birth, but she has (especially since Nora woke up after a six month coma to find herself very pregnant with little memory of the events leading up to the discovery of her battered body by a hiker.) Nora’s really mad because she gave the baby up knowing the child would have a better life than with her and now she finds out the child, a teenager, has run away from home before. What kind of life did she give her daughter when she gave her up? Will Nora be able to find her? What if the mystery surrounding her daughter’s disappearance has bearing on Nora’s past?
This is a dark and gritty novel with a heroine that you at turns empathize with and dislike. She doesn’t always make good decisions, but when her backstory is revealed her attitudes and choices make more sense. As the layers of the mystery are peeled back as a reader you begin to feel the paranoia alongside Nora: who are her friends, who are her enemies and why do they want her daughter?
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
The Breakdown by B. A. Paris
Cass Anderson lives in a beautifully idyllic hamlet in England and is married to a wonderful man. She loves her job teaching, but she is looking forward to her long summer vacation. At least she was. On the last day of school, during a horrific storm, she takes a windy desolate road through the woods to her home. On the side of the road she sees a woman in a car and assumes she is broken down. Cass pulls over but the woman in the other car makes no attempt to ask for help so Cass drives home with the intention to call for help for the other driver when she arrives home, just in case. But Cass forgets to make the call and the next day she hears about a murdered woman on the radio; the woman in the car is dead. Even worse, once the murdered woman’s identity is made public Cass realizes she had lunch with the woman the week before.
Cass feels extremely guilty for forgetting to call, but it seems to be only one in a long string of things she has been forgetting. Her mother died of early onset Alzheimer’s a couple of years before and Cass is afraid she is suffering from the same illness. She is seeing things that aren’t there, things aren’t where she left them and items start arriving at her door she has no memory of ordering. It looks like Cass is headed for a breakdown herself.
Picking up the book you know going in this is a thriller so you are waiting for the shoe to drop. And it comes down with a crash! You really get into Cass’s head and understand why she feels that she is slowly losing her mind. Then again, you know the genre of the book you are holding, so you always have that little bit of doubt.
The book starts slowly but everything builds up to the amazing conclusion that will have you cheering out loud. This is a great book, please do yourself a favor and stick with it. You’ll be thrilled that you did.
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips
Today Joan and her four-year-old son Lincoln decide to visit the zoo. Lincoln enjoys the play areas away from the main section of the zoo so he can play with “his guys” like Thor, Predator and Captain America. It’s a typical fall day. Lincoln doesn’t want to leave and Joan needs to encourage him towards the exit. But what were those popping noises Joan heard before? And why are they continuing? As she nears the exit, sees the people on the ground, and glimpses a man with a gun, she knows that today is not like any other day she has ever experienced. She needs to keep her wits about her and do all she can to keep her son safe. Her tired, hungry son who doesn't really understand the danger they are in.
I typically don’t like when readers act out the voices of children, but this reader really brought Lincoln to life as a four-year-old boy. When he spoke too loudly or started getting grumbly I understood, he’s a little kid! The reader kept that part of the story alive for me. That said, I switched over the print (thankfully I had both) because I was getting really anxious listening, and needed to know what happened next and I can read so much faster.
I’m not a parent so maybe a parent would like the ending more than I did? I understood the direction and message the author wanted to convey, but I didn’t like the execution of the ideas. I really enjoyed the first 90% of the book but the ending fell flat for me. Again, could just be me and the bulk of the book is a really great read.
The Child by Fiona Barton
The skeleton of a newborn is found by a crew at a construction site on the outskirts of London. Reporter Kate Walters finds a small article in a competitor’s newspaper about the discovery and it starts firing questions in her mind, most importantly, who is the child?
The book has four narrators: Kate; a mother whose newborn was stolen from a hospital decades before; and both the mother and daughter who at one time lived at the property where the skeleton was discovered. You know that all four women are tied to the baby in one way or another but it doesn’t become clear until the end.
Each chapter has a different narrator, and therefore a different point of view, and on the audiobook each of the four narrators are voiced by a different actor. This is a character driven thriller, you really get to know these four women and what events in their past have made them the people you meet in the opening pages.
I was able to figure out what was going on very early in the story, but I still wanted to keep reading to find out how it all came about. My one issue is that there is some DNA testing in the book and the science didn’t really make sense which may have been a good thing because I kept doubting that I truly did figure out the plot!
Friday, July 28, 2017
The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne
About fifteen years ago Helena emerged from the marshlands of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan where her family lived in her entire life. It was then that she discovered the truth about the world, and about her father Jacob. Helena’s mom lived in the marsh with her father for over a decade, years she would never get back with her family, years from which she would never recover. Helena’s mom was fourteen when Jacob kidnapped her and brought her to the cabin, only slightly older when she became pregnant. Helena grew up in the marsh never knowing much about the world outside the marsh, her reading materials were National Geographic's from the 1960s, and never knowing that her mother was a prisoner until mother and daughter realized they had to leave. Jacob, nicknamed the Marsh King by the media, was captured after two years on the run and sentenced to a lifetime in prison.
Twelve years after her father entered prison Helena has started over. No one knows who she once was, not her husband or their two young daughters. But then the unthinkable happens. Her father escapes from prison. Helena knows that the only one who can possibly capture the Marsh King is the Marsh King’s Daughter.
The narrative alternates chapters between the life in the cabin and Helena’s present day life. It was a good way to work up to the events that made Helena flee the cabin and the father she adored, while at the same time working up to the present day meeting between Helena and her father. Needless to say you are on the edge of your seat as the book nears its conclusion!
If you are at all interested in wilderness survival this will appeal, even if you know you never want to live off the grid this is a glimpse as to how life would be with limited provisions and no electricity. This is also a fascinating character study of three people living in isolation; and a daughter growing up outside of society and how difficult the transition to the “real world” is for her after she leaves the marsh.
I really enjoyed this book but those that are a little squeamish may want to skip the audiobook and stick to print; you can skim print, you’re listening to every word on audiobook. I’ll admit I was flinching on more than one occasion, but it was such a great story I just kept listening and listening to find out what happened.
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Quincy Carpenter is a Final Girl. She is the sole survivor of the Pine Cottage massacre when all her college friends were brutally murdered by an escaped psychopath. (I did laugh when I found out Pine Cottage is in the Poconos, but having stayed in a cabin there I can picture the scene. Not sure I’ll be staying anywhere near there again though…) Thankfully Quincy can’t remember any details of the night the knife-wielding maniac slaughtered her friends and injured her, but there are a few people that find it curious (and convenient) that she can’t remember anything.
Quincy is one of three Final Girls. Lisa Milner survived a sorority house massacre and has devoted her life to helping women overcome their problems and the horrible things they’ve experienced. Samantha Boyd is the third, surviving a killing spree at a hotel in Florida, but she disappeared years ago out of the public eye. Quincy is shocked to find out that Lisa is dead, apparently by suicide, and soon after Samantha comes out of hiding and shows up on her doorstep because they are the last two Final Girls and need to stick together.
I want to say more, but anything I say will mess up some of the reveals of the book. This psychological thriller takes the typical slasher movie ending of one girl standing and writes the “what happens after the cops come” part of the story. There were a few twists I didn’t see coming and I really liked how the author kept switching my opinion of who was the evil one of the piece. You get to know these Final Girls and how damaged they are after their ordeals, but also how strong they really are.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
Almost twenty years ago Jess Winters disappeared from Sycamore, Arizona. A woman recently relocated to the area is on a walk when she discovers skeletal remains. Everyone assumes that Jess has finally been found but the discovery of the body brings memories of events happening around the time of her disappearance to the forefront of everyone’s minds.
This isn’t a mystery or a thriller. This is a character study of a small town dealing with events, including the disappearance of a teenager, and how these events have a ripple effect across the entire town. I especially liked the construction of the novel; short chapters which could each be a short story telling the underlying story of the town. It was interesting to see how an event that doesn’t even really touch certain people changes their lives in such dramatic ways.
A good choice on audio and in print -- I found myself going between both formats to know what was going to happen next.
The Black Book by James Patterson and David Ellis
What a great thriller! I pick on Jimmy (what I fondly call James Patterson) because he is so darn prolific but I’ll admit I enjoy his thrillers and sometimes he comes up with a GREAT one.
Billy Harney is a homicide detective with Chicago PD. He loves his job and believes in justice. That’s why he’s been working for IA on the sly for a couple of years trying to break a protection racket. When Billy busts a house of ill repute with a LOT of VIPs in attendance he upsets a lot of people and it’s starting to look like he’ll be framed for murder. Then Billy is shot in the head...and lives. With his memory of the week leading up to his shooting gone from his head he’s trying desperately to remember before it’s too late.
I loved this one on audio, so far this is the best audiobook I’ve listened to all year. I loved how the story alternated between the present and the past and with Billy’s memory gaps we’re as in the dark as he is as he puzzles things out. If you need a fun quick read you can’t beat this one.
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
Lydia Smith is content with her life as a bookseller at the eclectic Bright Ideas Bookstore in downtown Denver, until the night she finds one of her favorite patrons, Joey, dead by suicide in a secluded corner of the store. Joey’s death, and his possessions he willed to her, send Lydia on a search for Joey’s family and at the same time Lydia is forced to confront events in her past that she has been running from for the past two decades.
I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but this book wasn’t it. I’m very glad about that though because this was a really good read. It turns into two mysteries in one and one of the mysteries...I’m not going to clue you in about that one. You need to read it, and gasp like I did, to find out.
Another great choice on audiobook!
Monday, July 24, 2017
The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr by Frances Maynard
Elvira’s mother isn’t coming home and Elvira doesn’t know what to do. Mother always told her what to do and when to do it and took care of all the planning since Elvira is useless in society. But now that mother has had a stroke Elvira needs to care for both of them. So she creates the seven social rules to live by since people are the hardest thing for Elvira to understand.
If Don Tillman (The Rosie Project) was a young woman with an overwhelming overbearing mother you can begin to picture Elvira. She believes what people tell her: like all the stories her mother told about her father, that Elvira can’t take care of herself, that she will never be able to learn anything. But Elvira is beginning to think her mother may have been lying. Ellie (she likes her new nickname so much better) can learn computers and through the internet she learns that there are many people like her in the world. And since there are so many of them why do the Normal Typicals (there is actually a name for these people that seem to rule the world) not have to figure out how to interact with her? Why does she have to come up with so many rules to deal with them? Why oh why can’t people not use figures of speech?!
What starts as a story of a woman living a limited and sheltered life becomes a full blown coming of age story for 27-year old Ellie who is finally getting to take charge of who she wants to become. Told from her perspective her frustrations are ours as she shares her reasonings and confusions navigating the everyday which to her is a new adventure. While there is a lot of humor and the overall tone is light there are some serious and not so pleasant parts as well. I would recommend this book to fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time since Elvira is also trying to solve a mystery: the mystery surrounding her father.
Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Single father Odinn is working for the government agency investigating misconduct and abuse at care homes in the past. He is assigned to investigate the Krókur care home for delinquent boys from the 1970s; no abuse has been reported, but it is his job to investigate the home anyway. The case is particularly unnerving because his colleague who originally was looking into the home died suddenly at her desk and he inherited the project. Of particular interest are the deaths of two boys who were residents of the home who passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning. Flashback to the alternating storyline in the past of Aldis, a young woman working at the home, remembering her time there and the events that led up to her wanting very badly to leave.
Of course these two storylines converge, and I’m pretty sure you won’t see how until the author puts it on the page -- at least I didn’t. The whole feeling of the book is creepy and you feel off balance, similarly to Odinn who is not only puzzling out the past of his case but is also trying to do right by his daughter who is now living with him after her mother’s sudden death. The tales of the past and present both feel like ghost stories with nary a ghost in sight; a really interesting trick the author is great at achieving in all the standalones I’ve read by her.
I’ve been to the area of Iceland this fictitious care home is placed, you can’t ask for a more desolate and unforgiving landscape. Even if you haven’t experienced the Reykjanes Peninsula the author does a wonderful job describing the atmosphere and geography. Best of all this is a cold read; very welcome in this sweltering weather!
Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman
The Danes are a band composed of WWII veterans and their sound is becoming really popular in Detroit and the Midwest. All seems on the upswing for the band until the army walks back through their door. An army man will pay each band member $100,000 to find the source of a sound in the Namib desert capable of rendering weapons, including nuclear warheads, impotent. The Danes don’t really have a choice, and it seems like easy money, but what kind of sound is capable of that sort of power?
The one storyline tells the story of the band’s recruitment and journey to find the sound in Africa. The other is the recovery of Philip Tonka, pianist of the band, who is in a military hospital in Iowa waking up after a six month coma. Philip had every bone in his body broken. Every. Single. Bone. Yet soon after waking he’s wiggling his fingers and moving his head. How is that possible? And how was he injured in the first place?
This is a horror book that leaves you with more questions than answers, for example where did the title come from? I never did figure that out, I’m guessing I missed it somewhere. But you really get to know Philip and feel for him and want him to get out of the hospital and away from the army. His story is what keeps you reading (or listening) and the source of the sound, and how is works, is secondary. The end is satisfying despite the unanswered questions, but I like not knowing everything at the end of a book. I know just as much as Philip at the end and that was enough for me.
I was a huge fan of Bird Box and still recommend that book immediately for anyone looking for a scary audiobook. This one was scary, but just wasn’t up to the fright of his first book.
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
What happened in the Borden house back in 1892? Who killed her father and Mrs. Borden? How did the killer get into a locked house? I don’t think many people are aware but Lizzie was acquitted of murder and lived out her life with her sister in a house called Maplecroft after the trial. But did Lizzie actually commit the murders? This book tells the story of what occurred inside the Borden house leading up to and after the murders.
I ran a program years back where all attendees read different accounts of the murders and basically re-tried Lizzie Borden. Based on the evidence we were pretty sure she did it, but weren’t sure we could have convicted her of murder; as happened in history. I was all set to read a great book about what “really” happened and all the rave reviews made me particularly excited to read this novel. I can’t help but be disappointed. Yes, you get insight (some fictionalized of course) of what life was like living with such a strict patriarch. Yes, you get insight into the personalities of the people living in the house (and Lizzie is not even slightly sympathetic, which seems true to life from accounts I have read) but the author never comes right out and says what happened that day. You can make assumptions, but it just seemed odd to me that the author left that key part of the narrative out. I wanted a description of how it all happened! I didn’t need ALL the gory details, but a timeline would have been appreciated.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Nadia and Saeed meet while taking a class together at the local university. Nadia wears a burqa which hides her fiery nature and Saeed loves his life with his family and finds Nadia mysterious, together they make an odd couple but they are falling in love all the same. Unfortunately it is against the backdrop of a civil war breaking out in the country and circumstances worsen forcing them to flee their homeland and become refugees.
I really liked how the author transported his refugees from one location to another. Doors start opening around the world letting people go from one country to another. A door to a pantry in a restaurant in Iraq can lead to the bedroom closet in a seaside resort in Australia; another door in a villa on a Greek island can lead to a door in an upscale highrise in London. Having people move quickly from place to place really let the characters be the focus of the narrative, similar to the Underground Railroad being an actual railroad in Colson Whitehead’s book.
I was hoping for a book that focused on the hardships of the refugee experience and instead this book illustrates what would happen in the flow of people were (for the most part) unhindered from place to place. What that would look like in the beginning as doorways and routes opened up. It was an interesting concept and while at first I was disappointed as time goes by I find myself thinking about the book more and liking what the author created. A what if novel that starts great discussions within yourself.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Nikki dropped out of law school and fell into bartending but she knows something is missing from her life. She needs to do something to make a difference. So she decides to give back to the Sikh community she has distanced herself from since her youth and teach a creative writing course to women. Her first day in the classroom she is surprised that most of the widows in attendance can’t speak much if any English and can’t write in any language and are expecting Nikki to teach them. Completely thrown by the change in the course she leaves the classroom to talk to the administrator and when she returns she hears the women giggling. The one widow who can read English is reading and translating an erotic story from a book Nikki purchased as a joke for her sister and left with the pile of books on her desk. Nikki is horrified yet the widows are thrilled. They would love to tell stories like this -- they can be creative and share their stories and work on their writing all at the same time! But they all know that the traditional Sikh community may frown upon a class of this nature, but how do you keep something that fun quiet?
This book flew under my radar until I was listening to a webinar with the publisher who couldn’t say enough wonderful things about it and members of the audience chimed in about it as well. I loved the glimpse into the culture of these women living in Great Britain yet holding onto their traditions. Women’s rights becomes a focus of the book as does the marginalization of widows; and these widows will not be marginalized any longer! There are very serious themes here and a mystery that ties the story together but overall the tone is light and there is quite a bit of humor. Be forewarned there really are erotic short stories interspersed throughout the text. (And they are quite steamy!)
I found myself with a free rainy evening and read half the book in a single sitting. If you want to learn about a culture, watch women take control of their lives, and just enjoy a good read you’ll want to add this one to your list.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I have a rule to avoid any book Oprah endorses. It’s not that they aren’t good books, it’s that they are usually horribly depressing and make me want to cry. But when your book club picks one it’s hard to say no and overall I’m glad I read this one.
Cora is persuaded to leave the plantation she was born on in Georgia by Caesar. He feels she is good luck because her mother escaped years before and was never caught and returned by the slave catchers. Cora doesn’t want to chance it, she doesn’t feel lucky, but an incident gives her the strength to try to escape. The two find passage on the Underground Railroad to South Carolina and it is there that Cora’s journey to freedom begins.
I loved that the author altered history and made the underground railroad an actual railroad with underground stations, spurs, lines, schedules and locomotives. I remember as I kid thinking that is what it actually was and I’m sure other schoolchildren made the same initial mistake. Whisking Cora from one state to another swiftly on the railroad made the narrative really move and by her moving to so many states the attitudes of each state were able to be brought into the narrative. It was the differences between each state that really made the book riveting for me, the atrocities were awful and very hard to read, but the imagination the author brought to the tolerance of each state was interesting and showed the compassion of the station masters as well as the resourcefulness (and luck) within Cora.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
The Lost Woman by Sara Blaedel
Detective Louise Rick is happy with her life. Her adopted son is doing well at boarding school and her boyfriend, Eik, and his dog, Charlie, have basically moved into her place. The only issue is her boyfriend is also her partner so they know one of them will need to switch divisions and since she’s only been in missing persons a couple of years she knows she’ll be the one to move. But that is a thought for another day, Eik has tickets to a concert for her and friends that night and she’s looking forward to the outing. But then she looks out the window of her shared office. Eik went for cigarettes a long while ago, why is Charlie still tied up outside the convenience store in the frigid Danish winter? Where did Eik go? Is the missing persons detective actually missing?
This is the setup for the book. Eik’s disappearance ties into a missing person case from years ago with direct ties to Eik and it once again consumes his life and in turn Louise’s as well. Usually this series tends to focus on the police procedural part of the narrative, but this time it is more a character driven novel delving into the ethics of assisted suicide which gets tied into the plot early on. The reader gets Louise’s point of view and we can understand the hurt she feels and the frustration as she discovers secrets about Eik’s past and the reasons for his actions in the present. Those that don’t want their mystery to take a backseat may not enjoy this entry in the series as much as past books, but I found a lot to like here.
A good choice on audio, it’s also available on Playaway, especially for the pronunciation of the Danish names and locations!
Monday, June 12, 2017
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
Three women all receive an identical text -- “I need you” -- and they drop everything to reunite at the home of childhood friend who sent the urgent text.
Seventeen years ago these four women, girls at the time, were all residents of a subpar boarding school on England’s southern coast. Kate was, and still is, the local. She could walk home to the mill, with or without permission, to see her half-brother and her father who also taught at the school; often taking her three best friends along. Thea had been thrown out of other boarding schools and Salten House was practically a last resort. Fatima’s parents were going to Pakistan to give back through Doctors Without Borders and felt their daughter should continue her education in England. And the narrator, Isa, is sent away by her father who is overwhelmed with his job and caring for her dying mother. Seventeen years ago these four girls were expelled and sent home (for reasons unknown to the reader) but they created a strong bond of friendship. But something else seems to tie them together as well. In the present a human bone has been discovered and the girls return under the guise of attending a reunion, but really to see what happens next and if it can be tied to them.
The most important rule of the lying game was that they never lied to one another. But it’s beginning to seem like someone has been lying and hiding the truth for a very long time.
Fans of the author’s previous books will find a lot to like here. Having the story told from Isa’s viewpoint the reader gets a lot of the story, but not all of the story, and discovers the truth alongside her. I was a big fan of In a Dark, Dark Wood and I didn’t really like The Woman in Cabin 10. I would place this book on the enjoyment scale firmly between the two.
The Lying Game is released July 25th -- place your holds now!
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
Close Enough to Touch by Colleen OakleyJubilee Jenkins almost died just weeks before her graduation from high school. Since that time she has spent her days locked in her house taking courses online, reading tons of books and never ever leaving the house. One day, ten years later, her mom’s husband calls to let Jubilee know that her mother has passed away and while he’ll be paying off the house and deeding it to Jubilee he will be stopping the monthly checks that were sent while her mother was living. Suddenly Jubilee is faced with the horror of entering the outside world and finding a source of income. But she had a good reason to lock herself away from the world. The reason she almost died ten years ago? Her first kiss. She is highly allergic to human touch. The mere brush of a hand will cause painful welts and hives and oral contact, as was proven in high school, will cause anaphylaxis.
Jubilee gets a job at the local library through an acquaintance, a girl (now a woman, divorcee and a mother) she thought hated her in high school. Jubilee gets to know her co-workers and some of the regular patrons. At the library she meets Eric and his ten-old adoptive son Aja and through interesting circumstances begins spending time with the duo. Jubilee is exactly who Aja needs right now and Eric is beginning to think he needs Jubilee as well. But how does one go about being in love with a woman you can never touch?
This is the story of one scared woman re-entering the world and learning to live among other people, forming friendships and falling in love, but knowing that she must always hold herself apart. The story is told in the alternating perspectives of Eric and Jubilee and while Jubilee is working through a lot of problems they all center around her allergy while Eric’s problems seem to be messier since he came to New Jersey for a temporary job transfer not just for the opportunity but to leave some of his mess behind.
This is a fun book with a serious side which never overwhelms the humor and lightheartedness of the writing style and of the personality of the characters. The best part? The ending. I’m not going to ruin it for you.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child
Jeremy Logan, enigmalogist, is trying to leave his secondary profession behind and work on his monograph on medieval history. He checks into Cloudwater, a retreat for writers and artists in the Adirondacks, to focus and finish writing. But his life as an investigator of mysteries can’t leave him alone.
A Park Ranger, a friend Jeremy went to college with, tracks him down to get the enigmalogist’s opinion on the slain hikers found within the park boundaries in recent months. It looks like the hikers were viciously attacked by a large animal, possibly a bear, all on the nights of the full moon. Jeremy has never found evidence of lycanthropy in his travels or research, but these events are making him rethink the possibility of werewolves.
I really enjoy the Jeremy Logan books, there is always some familiar myth at the center and it’s fun to see if the myth is found to be based on fact or fiction (not going to spoil which way this book goes) and how Jeremy follows the clues to his conclusions. Even though the Adirondacks were portrayed as thick, lush, creepy forests in this book I’m still looking forward to heading up that way this summer. This is more thriller than horror and a really fun discovery of things that bite in the night.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Liv suggests that they skip the traditional Christmas this year. Her cousin, and best friend, Nora recently lost her mother and is not looking forward to the holiday so Liv comes up with the novel solution of a cruise up and down the western coast of North and South America. So both families, each with two kids, book passage for a unique late year getaway.
Liv, Nora and an Argentinean couple are the only parents with children on board the ship so they naturally gravitate towards each other. At a port in Latin America the husbands go to meet one of their friends for a round of golf while the women and kids decide to take a tour ziplining through the jungle. On the way to the zipline course the van breaks down. Knowing that they will never make their trip the guide calls in for another van and takes the three adults and six kids down to a local beach to enjoy the waters. It’s a sheltered area at the mouth of a river so there is no worry of sharks and the guide has inner tubes and other beach toys to make the impromptu trip enjoyable. All seems idyllic. The kids are all having a great time, two mothers doze on the beach and the guide goes to look at birds with Nora. When Nora returns to the beach she sees the two adults asleep and the beach and waters are empty. It seems that the kids were pushed up the river by the incoming tide. When the adults, and the authorities, finally find the abandoned inner tubes on the river bank they also find a freshly dug grave on the nearby roadside inhabited by a dead man with a bullet in his head. The kids were obviously taken by the gravediggers, but where? Are the kids okay? Will their guilt stricken parents ever see them again?
This book could have been written like a thriller, but it is more of a character study. You know what is going on with the children as well as the parents throughout the entire ordeal but that doesn’t mean there isn’t suspense. Awful things happen, very awful things, but as a reader you aren’t left in the dark like the parents of the missing children. What hit home most for me was the utter lack of street smarts the American children possessed. The reactions of these children seemed real; as did those of the parents. My only issue with the book was how well all the American characters came out of this ordeal; you’ll have to read the book to understand what I mean...
Put your holds on this book now, it comes out next week on June 6th!
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