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Read any good books lately? We want to know about them.

Enter your reading list and/or reviews here. Did you like it? Hate it? Feel lukewarm? Share your thoughts with us.

Happy reading!

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May 1 �� currently reading

TEXT �� The Sound of Glass / Karen White
AUDIO in the car - Deep Down Dark / Héctor Tobar
Portable AUDIO - The Road to Little Dribbling / Bill Bryson

Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
3 stars

I picked this up to satisfy a challenge task--which I never completed but decided to read anyway because it looked like a quick read (which it was) and it was laying here so why not? Just a sweet, easy read which has a very strong, likable, moral character who suffers from the same indecision and lack of confidence that almost every teenage girl suffers from. Claire Boucher is a teenage girl who lives with her family in maple country. She loves everything about helping harvest the sap to make maple syrup, she is fascinated by math, has a very close best friend and more than anything, she loves to skate on the old cow pond as soon as the ice is thick enough to take her weight. At a small local competition, she skates an extraordinary program and is spotted by a scout who is looking for talent to groom for the Olympics. He offers her a scholarship and hardly believing her luck, she accepts. She certainly never expects to have her life turned on its tail--everything has suddenly become so difficult and now she has to make a huge decision that will affect the rest of her life. I certainly learned a lot about figure skating by reading this.

Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore [2005] 458 pages

The Trojan War was almost certainly a historic event; but it is uncertain, to say the least, that it was caused by the abduction of Menelaus' wife, Helen. I'm not sure after reading this book whether the author, a popular British historian, actually believes Homer's story or not; she does at least make it seem less implausible than it appears at first sight, by showing historical parallels from the same time and region where there were diplomatic (though not actually military) crises over royal marriages. At any event, she uses a "biography" of Helen as an organizing principle for a wide-ranging discussion of Mycenaean and Anatolian archaeology and art, focusing on what can be learned or plausibly inferred about the role of women in Mycenaean culture, the Hittite documents which may refer to Troy or to Greece or otherwise have some relevance to the Trojan War, the ancient religious and literary traditions relating to Helen (she was a figure in later cult), and the ways in which Helen has been represented in literature and art from classical Athens through modern times. She presents a mass of material, much of which I was unfamiliar with, some only discovered since I studied the Iliad in my college Greek classes at Columbia in the 1970's. Not everything she says is convincing to me; I think she sometimes blurred the lines between the historical and the mythical or folklore elements. Her interpretations are sometimes rather subjective; she writes from a very feminist perspective, and although I generally agree with her viewpoint she occasionally becomes too rhetorical and repetitious in making her points; and the material especially in the later chapters on the "reception history" of the Helen story is not well-organized, although it may not have been possible to organize such miscellaneous material in any definite way. The writing is generally good, but occasionally too colloquial for a non-fiction book on a serious topic. On the whole, I learned a lot from the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is reading Homer and looking for background material.

One by Sarah Crossan
5 stars

I really loved this book. It was an incredibly easy read but with such a huge impact. It is the story of conjoined twins, Grace and Tippi. They have been home schooled all their lives but are now going to go to be going to classes with other kids their own age. They know it won't be easy because people have been staring at them, taking their picture and asking embarrassing questions for as long as they can remember. The school administration pairs them up with a young girl who has her own problems that set her apart and so she knows how the twins feel and they become friends quickly. But life is certainly not done handing them new problems and the girls will soon have to make a couple of the biggest decisions they've ever been confronted with. This entire book is written in the form of poems, most of them only a page a two long that take us from event to event. It really reads like a regular story and I never felt like there were any gaps that left me questioning what happened. I just thought this was an extraordinary book. Although their particular situation is certainly not common, their thoughts, emotions and dreams are like any "normal" teenagers and I thought the author presented these in a very believable way.

Parnassia by Josha Zwaan

★★★★��

In the Netherlands, May is traditionally a month linked to WWII.
On the 4th, we commemorate all those who died in WW II (and all the wars after that).
On the 5th, we celebrate that The Netherlands were liberated.

Most libraries and bookstores feature books about the war around this time of year. I picked up this book, because it had very good reviews. I haven't finished it yet, but what I have read so far is pretty impressive ...
Meanwhile, I have finished it, and the book makes good its promisses. It's a very impressive read

Parnassia is the story of a 4-year old Jewish girl, Rivka, who, in 1943, is sent in hiding with a reformed vicar and his family. She becomes "Anneke" and the story they tell people about her, is that her parents have died in the bombardement of Rotterdam and that the vicar and his wife have adopted her.
After the war, she doesn't return to her father and brother. She denies her Jewish descent and remains Anneke.
Still, she marries Joost, a Jewish survivor of the camps. Her denial, his trauma and their inability to communicate ruin both their marriage and their family. Their children are placed in foster care.
Only thirty years later, when Anneke learns that Joost has died, she goes to his funeral and sees her children again.
Her daughter Sandra wants to hear her life story. Every week, they meet at a beach pavillion, Parnassia, to talk about the past.
Finally, at age 70, Rivka/Anneke can reconcile with her Jewish background and work through her war trauma's.

Every night, my eldest daughter and I read together. She reads a lot on her own as well, but we always have one book that we are reading together. She gets to decide what we read.

Two years ago, we read the Harry Potter series in a Dutch translation. Now, she wants to try her hand at the original English version. She already knows the story, so that makes it a bit easier for her. Still, it's slow going, but we're getting there.

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens�� London by Judith Flanders
525 pages

★★��

A pretty explanatory title. This book discussed life during the Victorian times in London, England, also throwing in Charles Dickens for good measure. I often find myself fascinated by all things England and I love history so I was ready to delve into this one.

This book took me over 6 weeks to finish, SIX WEEKS! While it might take me longer to read books since have a child, six weeks is even a bit extreme for me. So was the long reading time the book’s fault or mine? Probably both. This is a very detailed book. Coming it at 525 pages (really only 425 as the other 100 are just sources and such), very little is left out. The author tells you about the eating habits, the living habits, the working habits, etc of all people in London, England. It’s interesting…and it’s also quite tedious is places. Then the author also correlates the average lives of Londoners with the Charles Dickens�� life and his writings. So yeah, A LOT of information. It could be interesting but about 40 pages into information on transportation, my brain had about enough. To be fair, I also only got to this book late into the night when I had a good 5 minutes of wake time left before I was just on autopilot, reading but not comprehending half the time. An interesting read but really needed a fluff read after this one.


The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients�� Lives by Theresa Brown, RN
256 pages

★★★★

This is the story about Theresa Brown, a nurse on the oncology ward in a hospital in Pennsylvania. This book spans just one day of her many shifts in the hospital and everything that goes and is expected of the nurses on this particular ward.

I’ve always had a special spot for nurses. I’ve had family that were nurses. I have the most amazing nurse after I gave birth and recovered from the loss of my first son, Calvin. I also had an amazing nurse after I gave birth to my second son, Paul, when I experienced complications and an extended hospital stay. And don’t even get me started on the angels that took care of my son, Paul, in the NICU for his three week stay. And the great nurses that cared for my father in the hospice. The list goes on. But my experience is just my one-on-one with them, not their daily struggles with all their patients and tasks given to them. Here is an inside view of the nursing world and it is…a tiring one. Theresa “only�� has 3-4 patients she is to care for but that is enough to keep her so very busy �� who needs food and bathroom breaks?! Reading her book gave me even more respect for the nursing community, I job I KNOW I could never do. I can only imagine the whirlwind since just reading her typical day made me tired. A well written perspective on the job of an oncology nurse. She is honest and sincere but not at all rude or brutal. I couldn’t stop reading this book and got through it quickly. Well done!

Fate's Edge (The Edge, #3) - Ilona Andrews (5 stars) 5/3/16

The Edge is an area between The Weird (a world of magic) and The Broken (our human world). Outcasts from the Weird live in the Edge and some Edgers can pass back and forth into the Broken. If you remain in the Broken too long all your magic is gone and you can't return. Audrey Callahan's family are con-artists from the Edge, but Audrey has decided to go straight in the Broken. Her Father comes to her with plans for a con, which she agrees to in exchange for no more contact. But the item they steal is deadly if in the wrong hands and soon Audrey is made fully aware of the consequences and is drawn into helping to recover it by Kaldar Mar an agent of the Mirror. There are plots within plots; two teenage stowaways; brutal agents from the other side; powerful cults; and, of course, romance. Lots of action and the reappearance of the 2 couples from the first 2 volumes with significant parts in this volume. Looking forward to the last in the series.

I'm currently reading The Revenant (Punke), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (Backman), Cress (Meyer), and listening to Bone Gap (Ruby).

The Sound of Glass by Karen White �� 2**
This is pretty typical Southern chick lit, with family secrets, damaged psyches, scenes intended to produce tears and an unexpected romance. I certainly understand the popularity of this kind of beach read, but it’s just not my cup of tea. Oh well, it was a quick read.
Full Review HERE

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices & Priorities of a Winning Life
Rating: 3.25

This book takes us through the quiet life of Tony Dungy. Dungy is a humble man and points out many people who helped him along the way to be successful in the NFL. This is a nice story of someone who tried hard, realized they didn't have all the answers and always looked for guidance. Dungy talks of his faith throughout the book, and how it wasn't until he was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers that he really started getting on board. He came from a religious household and it was ingrained in who they were so it wasn't something he had to try to pretend to be.

Dungy discusses his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and how much he truly loved his team and staff. He talks fondly of the owners and how sad he was when they let him go. He talks how when Jim Irsay called him for the Colts job, it was more of a mission statement rather than a recruiting call. That was something that Dungy really liked. Throughout the book, Dungy repeats a mantra that stuck with him over the years. It's not doing anything special it's doing the ordinary things better than anyone else.

Overall you don't learn anything profound from this book, just a quiet guy who sticks to his morals and tries to impact people in a positive way.

Edward Frenkel, Love and Math [2013] 306 pages [Kindle]

I read this amazing book more or less by accident; I was testing the direct download link in the library catalogue and this is the book I happened to download to my Kindle. I started looking through it and the preface convinced me to read it. Frenkel is a mathematician, born in the U.S.S.R. and now at Berkeley, who is working on something called the "Langlands Project". He begins by discussing the fact that otherwise well-educated people who would never brag that they hated literature or art or music seem proud to say they "hate math", and admit they know nothing about it; and he suggests that the reason is the way it is taught. He uses the analogy, suppose you took a course in Art, and instead of showing you the works of Rembrandt and Van Gogh they spent the entire class teaching you to paint -- fences. Would you be interested in pursuing art? But this is the way that math is generally taught -- as a practical collection of tools for doing other (mostly boring) things. The "masterpieces" of math are never mentioned. He also points out that most of the math which is taught in high school and even the early years of college dates from the ancient Greeks or the early modern period -- current work is never mentioned; it's as if a physics course ended with the work of Galileo and Newton, and gave the impression that everything in physics was already discovered and all that was left was to use it for practical engineering. Then he goes on to talk about popular science writers, such as Stephen Hawking or Brian Greene, who present the exciting developments of contemporary work in physics for the layperson, and asks why there are so few if any popularizations of work at the frontiers of contemporary math. He warns of the political dangers of allowing a small elite to monopolize knowledge of mathematics in an age when all our lives depend more than ever before on applications of math, from the Internet to Wall Street; he suggests that a mathematically literate population would not be so easily taken in by the doubletalk of the bankers and politicians.

That is the gap he is trying to fill with this book. The focus is on his own work on the Langlands Project, and like the physics books of Kip Thorne or Leonard Susskind, he includes much of his own experiences. In the first few chapters, he explains how he became interested in math as a high school student; how he was denied entry into the more prestigious schools because he was Jewish, and the official academic world in the era of the final decay of the Soviet bureaucracy was highly anti-Semitic; how he was privately mentored by some of the great Soviet mathematicians, who were opposed to anti-Semitism, including the legendary Israel Gelfand, who was himself Jewish; how he worked in private and more or less secretly on group theory, and sent his first papers abroad; how he was invited to Harvard in the first months of perestroika under Gorbachev, where he became a Visiting Professor before he had even become a grad student; and how he came in contact with the Langlands Project. After that, the book is largely a popular account of the Langlands Project itself.

While popular physics books try to avoid math, a popular math book of course has to be about math, and I learned much from this book. At the beginning, his explanations are very clear, and make ideas like modulo arithmetic, finite fields, Lie groups and Riemann surfaces understandable (some of the very subjects I had trouble with in reading Penrose's The Road to Reality). Later on, the book becomes more difficult to follow and his explanations of vector spaces and representations were briefer and less clear; by the end he is mentioning things like fiber bundles and automorphic functions without any explanation at all. If we keep in mind the comparison to someone like Brian Greene, though, it is hard to fault this too much; no one expects to actually learn quantum theory or string theory from a popular science book, and we shouldn't expect to learn advanced math from a book like this -- what we want to learn is what in general it is about, what the questions are and what sort of research is going on, and he is very good at that. His observations that sets, functions and numbers have been left behind for categories, sheaves and vector spaces was interesting; something like the way classical physics gave way to quantum theory. Quantum theory and string theory are here, as the "fourth column" of the Langlands Program; the author has collaborated with physicist-mathematicians such as Edward Witten on the connections between the two fields.

So what is the Langlands Program? Essentially, it is a program to discover patterns common to various seemingly unrelated branches of mathematics (and recently physics), in particular to relate group theory and curves over finite fields to subjects like harmonic analysis and Riemann surfaces. If you don't know what these things are -- that's evidence for his thesis.

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

As said above, in May, I often read books with a WW II theme.
This one fits right into that theme, and it has been on my wishlist for a while, so no reason to postpone it any longer!

Monica wrote: "
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

As said above, in May, I often read books with a WW II theme.
This one fits right into that theme, and..."

I just finished it -- let me know what you think :)

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
4 stars

The first book in the Longmire series. I had read the second one in the series for my Mystery Book Club last month and was trying to fill in the first book before I moved forward with the set. Although I got through the second book and enjoyed it without the background from this one, I would recommend reading in order only because this first book gives us quite a bit of background for the constant characters. If you have seen the Longmire TV episodes, then feel free to start where you will because you will already be fairly familiar with most of the characters and feel pretty much at home with them. There are a few differences. In this book, a young girl from the Reservation, who has learning disabilities was gang raped a while back and now it looks like someone is finally taking the revenge that the court was unable to carry out. The story line, along with the interesting tribal beliefs and customs and the intelligent overall character conversations really draw the reader in. I look forward to continuing with the books and the TV series.

Wet Cement by Bob Raczka
4 stars

Reviewed for the Mock Caldecott Awards. Very clever concept but I thought the illustrations were a little boring with the entire book in black and white. The author creates a picture with the letters of a word and then a picture with words in poem format. So on the page where he was illustrating "balloon", he created a picture with the letters (i.e. bal on...then an l with a o on top floating up out of the word) and then a picture with a poem written in the shape of a balloon with a string. The author is trying to encourage youngsters to look at words and letters in a different way.

You Never Heard of Casey Stengel?! by Jonah Winter
3 stars

Reviewed for the Mock Caldecott Awards. Not one of my favorites because I'm not much of a sports fan but I really liked the watercolor and ink drawings although I thought the faces looked a little awkward. The book was well written and presented quite a bit of very readable historical information. I think this would appeal to any youngsters who were particularly interested in sports, especially baseball.

The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Bogart
5 stars

Reviewed for Mock Caldecott Awards. This is a lovely book. It is actually a retelling of an old Irish poem written by a Benedictine Monk who is talking about comparisons between himself and his companion, a white cat. The cat spends his days waiting for a mouse to appear while the monk studies his manuscripts looking for the answers he seeks. I loved this book, it really is just wonderful and I loved the beautiful watercolor and ink illustrations.

When Green Becomes Tomatoes by Julie Fogliano
4 stars

Reviewed for the Mock Caldecott Awards. This is another book of poems. The illustrations are lovely and delicate. The writing is all lower case (i.e. e. e. cummings) It represents watching the 4 seasons pass by through the eyes of a child. My favorite poem from the book: a star is someone else's sun more flicker glow than blinding a speck of light too far for bright and too small to make a morning. I really liked the fact that the book started and ended with the same spring poem, showing the cyclical nature of the seasons.

Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History [2006] 258 pages

Although there are (and ought to be) skeptics, it seems fairly well accepted today that the Trojan War in some sense was a real event (or conflation of real events). The previous book I read, Bettany Hughes' Helen of Troy, I thought went too far in suggesting that the war might actually have been fought over an abducted queen and trying to give her a "biography" -- although that may have been only an organizing principle. This book however (which cites hers in the first paragraph of the "Note on Sources") goes even further -- essentially, it treats Homer's Iliad as a work of history rather than fiction. While the author does admit that there are "exaggerations" , such as the ten-year duration and the numbers involved, and occasional intrusions of Iron Age customs, he basically retells the Iliad episode by episode -- together with some non-Homeric traditions from the other epics of the cycle such as the sacrifice of Iphigeneia and the Trojan Horse -- trying to show that archaeology confirms the traditional account -- reminiscent of the way someone like William Albright claimed that archaeology confirmed the Bible. He does find archaeological and textual parallels to many of the episodes, which shows that, taken individually, any of them could have occurred in the Bronze Age, and that much of the epic definitely reflects Bronze Age and even actual Anatolian customs, rather than the Iron Age Greece in which the epics received their final form. The author is not a crank, but a professor of history at Cornell, and some of the material and explanations of Bronze Age and Anatolian customs, warfare, etc. are very interesting. But there is a big difference between what could have happened and what did happen; to make an analogy, consider a historical novel about World War II or the American Civil War. If it is realistic, it will not have the Nazis or the Confederates win the war; it will mention real figures like Hitler, Roosevelt, Eisenhower or Lincoln, Grant, Stonewall Jackson, and so forth; the wars will be fought with the weapons of those wars and not with bows and arrows or disintegrator rays; and the geography and topography will be reasonably accurate. But this does not make it history, or prove that the characters and detailed events of the novel were real. They just need to be possible, i.e. believable, and in accord with what could have happened at those times. Likewise, "Homer" (or the tradition which probably began in the Mycenaean period and culminated centuries later in Homer) needed to follow the outlines of the real war, describe the customs and warfare of the time, get the geography right, and so forth; but this is just the background for an imaginative recreation. I would suggest that the Bronze Age bards who first told the story of the Trojan War began by taking the war for granted and telling stories about the heroes; later in the tradition, when the war was no longer a recent memory, they would need to provide a reason for it (Helen) and fit the details together. I doubt very much that all the events Homer narrates took place, much less that they took place in a four day period in the last year of the war (much in the first few books seems as though it may originally belong to a description of the beginning of the war) -- he rearranged and combined, expanded and abridged to make a good narrative, because he was a poet, not a historian. In short, this book could better be considered as an archaeologically oriented commentary on the Iliad, showing Homer's knowledge of the Bronze Age, than as a history of the actual events of ca. 1220-1180 BCE. The book does have a very good annotated bibliography.

Deep Down Dark by Hector Tobar �� 4****
Subtitle: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine. What a gripping tale of survival, faith, team work and perseverance. In addition to the harrowing tale of their experiences underground, waiting for a rescue that might or might not happen, the book also relates the difficulties many of the miners had coping with their instant fame, and the aftereffects of the trauma they suffered. Henry Leyva does an excellent job performing the audio book. His pacing is good, and his Spanish pronunciation is excellent.
Full Review HERE

May 7 �� currently reading

TEXT �� The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
AUDIO in the car - Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Portable AUDIO - The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Monica wrote: "
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

As said above, in May, I often read books with a WW II theme.
This one fits right into that theme, and..."

★★★★��

I finished this book in just two days.

I was really drawn into the story of Marie-Laure and Werner; two young people who are very different, and at different "sides" in the war, yet at the same time very similar, with a life disrupted by the war.

The book is written is very short chapters, moving back and forth between Marie-Laure and Werner, but also back and forth in time. Because of this I found it rather fastpaced, and difficult to put down, always wanting to read "just one more chapter".

What I really liked about the prose itself, was the way it differed between the two storylines:
when we are with Marie-Laure, the narrative "compensates" for her blindness, in the description of all things around her: you can almost hear the music, smell the ocean of feel the different shells she collects.
With Werner, we witness his inner struggle; he wants to do what is right, what is expected of him. But what if what is expected isn't right? The prose in his chapters is far darker than in the parts of Marie-Laure.

I greatly enjoyed this book, and found it difficult to put down.
It made a very deep impression on me.

Memory Man by David Baldacci
4 stars

I listened to this production of Memory Man and enjoyed it. It was well done by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy. Amos Decker has an unusual ability. Ever since he suffered a violent blow to the head on his very first play in his first pro game, he has never been able to forget anything. This "photographic" memory was a plus as he decided to become a police officer and then detective. One evening, on his return home, he found the murdered bodies of his brother-in-law, wife and 9 year old daughter. With the memories of that evening indelibly left for him to obsess over, his life went down the tubes and he eventually became a homeless PI. Now, a little over a year later, a man has confessed to the murders and Amos wants nothing more than to talk to this man and find out why the crime was committed. Gaining access to the jailed man, by devious means, soon leads him to believe that solving the murders of his family is not going to be as simple as he hoped. When a mass shooting in the community leads to Amos being asked to help solve this new case, everyone would be surprised at the final outcome. I enjoyed the premise of this book and the constant action. My only complaint was that I thought it became a bit repetitious. There were several times when I thought I had missed changing out the disc because I'd already heard that particular part but no...just repeating again.

The Post-American World
Rating:3.25

America is big, powerful and changes the world. Not everything that America does is great, but the rest of the world is trying to follow and be successful in a western fashion. Zakaria explains how China and India have both started welcoming western ideas in to stimulate their economies. the last quart of the book is dealing mostly with India and how by 2050 if they keep up their current growth they could be as wealthy as America.

A few quotes from the book that stood out to me:

Hyperinflation robs you of what you have now (your savings) Recession robs you of what you could have.

When the government takes everything people do not innovate because there is no reason to acquire wealth if it can be taken.

Car industry
American Health Care Cost add about $6500 per employee for medical and insurance bills, That adds roughly $1,500 per car. But if they move the plant to Canada that has government health care and manufacturers do not have to worry about the cost.

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo, 4****s
A cute book (for Grades 4-7) about three young girls that find each other when they need each other the most.

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, 1*
I wanted to like this book, but just didn't -- at all. It tried to be magical and mysterious, but just felt unfocused, like the author kept searching around for something else to throw in to be exciting or surprising. But it didn't feel cohesive, very jumbled. I couldn't wait to finish it :(

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman, 4****s
Loved it! After the death of her beloved grandmother, Elsa must deliver letters to several people in their apartment building (usually apologies) to try to set things straight. In the process, Elsa learns many things about her grandmother, her mother, the other people that she lives around (the letter receivers), and herself -- which, in hindsight, is Grandmother's plan -- very entertaining, light, and enjoyable. This is the second book by the author of "A Man Called Ove," and his third book "Britt-Marie Was Here" is just out. I very much look forward to reading it (especially since Britt-Marie is a character in book 2 -- even though it is not a sequel.).

The Revenant by Michael Punke, 3***s
An interesting tale, based on a true story, of a man in the early 1800's who was mauled by a grizzly bear, and left to die by two companions. Unbelievably, he lives and decides to get revenge on those two men. Overall, it was an adventuresome time, what with the exploration of the West and fur trapping ventures of the day, which made this a very exciting and dangerous read! :)
And I'm looking forward to watching the movie!

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
295 pages

★★��

People have compared this young adult novel to Fault in Our Stars but except for having a girl with cancer in it, I felt they had totally different feels to them. And honestly? I liked this one a bit more than Fault. I didn’t particularly like the writing style, it sort of grinded on me. But I felt like this one was much more realistic, much more what you’d expect out teenagers dealing with cancer, at least in my opinion. But I’ll admit I’m not much a reading of YA or fiction so maybe I’m not the best one to judge this or those similar. It was a quick read and fairly enjoyable for me.

Leah wrote: "

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
295 pages

★★��


People have compared this young adult novel to Fault in Our Stars but except for..."

I completely agree with you, and I read a lot of YA/fiction. I think you're right, this one is more realistic, but the writing style did grate against me. And that might be the reason I liked Fault more, It was "sweeter" and that's what I tend to like. "Me and Earl" was definitely not sweet!! ;)

The Down Home Zombie Blues - Linnea Sinclair (5 stars) 5/6/16

Homicide detective Sergeant Theo Petrakos gets a case involving a mummified body and a room full of weird technology but when he stops home on his way to taking some of it to headquarters he is attacked by a zombie and rescued by someone claiming to be space alien. Soon he ends up on Jorie's space ship looking at a bleak future. Then everything changes again and he's back on earth helping to maintain her cover while they try to solve the zombie problem. Zombies begin to mutate, an evil space race attempts to control the zombies and Earth seems to be their perfect nesting ground unless Jorie and Theo can figure a way to stop it. Very fast paced, funny and romantic. I love Sinclair's space operas.

Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5) - Gail Carriger (4 stars) 5/8/16

This last in the series ties up all the loose ends and revealed the secrets of Alexia's father. Alexia and Conall's daughter Prudence is now 2 years old and the epitome of the terrible twos, turning vampire or werewolf when she comes in contact with either and making them mortal in exchange until Alexia or sunrise reverses the action. The Alexia and Prudence are summoned to visit the oldest living vampire Queen who lives in Egypt. The family heads off but not before a murder occurs and the Pack has to investigate. The murder, Alexia's father's history, and the Egyptian vampire Queen all begin to tie together with pursuits, kidnappings, betrayals and shifting roles keeping the action going. A good ending to this series. Looking forward to the next series about Prudence.

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales - Margaret Atwood (3 stars) 5/11/16

These tales all have a dark element to them. The first 3 are tied together but the remaining 6 are individual. The tied together stories are populated by characters late in life who are connected by a time when they were young and part of a coffee shop culture in the 60s. Other stories have ambiguous endings reminiscent of Twilight Zone. Not all the characters are very likable and at times you hope they are going to get what is coming to them. Some stories are darkly humorous, such as the Freeze-dried Groom. The last story Toasting the Dusties is scary. Interesting collection.

Blood Daughters by Marcos M Villatoro �� 3***
This is a hard-boiled crime novel with an interesting female lead. It’s number four in the Romilia Chacon series. It’s a gripping mystery, with many twists and turns, a violent sicko serial killer, and a psychologically damaged yet still strong female lead detective. There’s plenty of action to keep the reader turning pages, but I’m left somewhat dissatisfied.
Full Review HERE

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers �� 5
This is a true story of what happened to one family in Post-Katrina New Orleans. I was shocked, stunned, angry, heartbroken, dismayed and completely riveted by the tale. Eggers does a great job putting the reader into the setting �� the peace and quiet of no electronics, the heat and humidity, the stench of rotting vegetation, and the unsettling sight of armed men patrolling (?) your once-peaceful neighborhood. Firdous Bamji does a marvelous job narrating the audio book. He has good pacing and his performance enhances the reader’s impressions of Zeitoun and Kathy.
Full Review HERE

Blink of an Eye - Rexanne Becnel (3 stars) 5/12/16

Jane Falgoust has hit rock bottom. So when Hurricane Katrina heads for New Orleans she determines to use it to end her life. But as she's driving toward the flooding levees, a desperate dog catapults onto her stalling vehicle. Rescuing that dog who doesn't want to die and returning him to his owner is an act that changes her life. And it leads to others: a possible return to her career, a new group of friends made from those remaining in the city and helping others, and a potential new man. But the main focus of the story is Jane's battle against depression, low self-esteem, and alcohol. There is a lot of angst in this story as well as a picture of a city in the throws of a natural disaster and its effects on the people. Good story.

Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz [1982] 261 pages

The volume on Berlioz in the excellent Master Musicians series. There's not much to say reviewing a book like this; it was a brief but solid biography and a short discussion of each of his works. I listened to some of his works while reading it. The next book in my lately much-neglected music project will be the two volume biography by Cairns, probably in a few months.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
4 stars

A Printz Honors Book and well worth the read. I found the characters and setting both compelling and realistic. Based on the historic New London school explosion of 1937 (the worst school disaster in American history) but with a fictional love story between Wash, a young black preacher's son, and Naomi, a young Mexican girl living with her step-father and her white twin siblings. The racial lines are extremely well-drawn in this small Texas town created by the oil drilling business but in spite of everything two hearts in love will not be denied. Not an easy book to read but well written and very believable.

The Promise by Robert Crais
4 stars

I had read one previous book, the first in the series, by Robert Crais in the Elvis Cole series and was disappointed. So, when a friend said that they really enjoyed this, which is the 16th book in this series (and has by this point pulled in some other continuing characters, i.e. Joe Pike, Scott James and Maggie), I wasn't convinced but thought I'd give Mr. Crais a second chance. Turns out, it was a positive experience...I really did enjoy this book much more than the first one. This story starts out as a classic being in the wrong place at the wrong time kind of story line which pulls all of the characters together and then goes on to mostly page turning action. I enjoyed the way various scenes were described by various characters (including Maggie the dog) so that you got the different perspective of each. I enjoyed the readers of this audio (Luke Daniels and Macleod Andrews) much more than the reader of the first book of the series. Looks like I have a lot of catch up reading to do to fill in the gaps!!

May 15 �� currently reading

TEXT �� The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
AUDIO in the car - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Portable AUDIO - Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

The Elusive Mrs Pollifax by Dorothy Gillman �� 3***
In book three of the series, the CIA’s least likely courier is sent on a mission to Bulgaria. I love this series. Mrs Pollifax is charming, smart, resourceful and calm in a crisis. If the situations she finds herself in stretch credulity, who cares? The books are fun to read and pure entertainment.
Full Review HERE

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson �� 3***
Bryson clearly loves this landscape, these people, the lovely views, the crazy laws or regulations, and even the food. There were some aspects not to my liking, but on the whole, it’s an entertaining read. Nathan Osgood does a fine job with the narration on the audio book. He has good pacing and an expressive voice.
Full Review HERE

Book Concierge wrote: " The Elusive Mrs Pollifax by Dorothy Gillman �� 3***
In book three of the series, the CIA’s least likely courier is sent on a mission to Bulgaria. I lov..."

I love this series, but I never can figure out how old she is! She never ages :)

Book Concierge wrote: " The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson �� 3***
Bryson clearly loves this landscape, these people, the lovely views, the crazy laws or regulati..."

Thanks for the review. I've been wanting to read this but wanted to hear more about it first. I'm keepin' it on the list!

Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and entertaining, with some humor thrown in! In this "episode," Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress must stop the wedding of Emperor Kaito to Queen Levana so that they and their band of misfits can "save the world" and the moon! Can't wait to finish the series with "Winter"!

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***s
A cute story about a young Swedish woman (Sara) and an older woman (Amy) from a small town in Iowa who have been pen pals for several years, sharing information and opinions about books. But what happens when Sara comes to Iowa for a visit? A fun, light, entertaining, and sweet read!

Terris wrote: "
Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and entertaining, with some humor thrown in! In this "episode," Cind..."

You are really racing through this series!!! :) When you have finished, be sure to read "Stars Above" which is a number of short stories about the various characters. Kind of like little "bridges" for extra background. I had read a few of them as I found them while still reading the original 4 novels but then they were collected into one volume along with several additional stories I hadn't seen previously.

Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "
Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and entertaining, with some humor thrown in! In this ..."

Yes! I am really enjoying this series -- thanks so much for your recommendation! Each one ends on such a dramatic note that I just have to get to the next one right away!
I saw "Stars Above" listed somewhere but wasn't sure if I needed to read it or not, so now I'll go ahead and put it on my list. I also saw that "Fairest: Levana's Story" just came out in February. But I don't think I really want to know any more about her. Let me know if you happen to read it, but as of now I'm not putting it on my list.