Book Reviews

Frank lives a simple life.  He is close to getting his UPS pension after working for over 25 years as a UPS driver.  Prior to this, he was in the military.  He has one daughter and unfortunately, his wife died young.  He knows his life is middle class, ordinary and yes, simple.  

He hasn’t talked to his daughter in a few years.  Maggie is everything to him and with the loss of her mom, Frank tried to be everything to her.  Maggie went to college and is working for some big tech firm in Boston.  

Out of the blue one day, Frank gets a call that Maggie is getting married, wants to bury the hatchet from what happened a few years ago, and is inviting Frank to the wedding.  Frank is thrilled, bewildered, but thrilled.  Maggie is marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of the CEO for the tech firm she works at. 

When Frank meets up with Maggie and her soon to be husband at their fancy high rise in Boston, he is flummoxed.  Maggie has certainly changed and so have her surroundings.  She explains that the wedding is going to be at the Gardner’s estate called Osprey Cove.  

While this fancy lifestyle isn’t what Frank is used to, he is so happy to once again be a part of Maggie’s life and can’t believe how far she has come.  Until oddities start arising.  So many odd things that Frank is questioning the Gardners and also if Maggie is even safe.  Should she really be marrying into this family?  

The book takes you on many twists and turns and is a pretty good read.  Not my favorite, but certainly entertaining and intriguing.  

Posted Feb 28 2025

Okay, this is a first for me.  In all of the years of doing this blog I have never left a negative review.  I see this as a place for people, and my patrons, to find books they may enjoy reading.  However, one of the books I tried, and I really tried, to read was Liane Moriarty’s latest novel Here One Moment and it fell completely flat for me.  And I put a lot of time into reading it.  A lot.  

The book is long, somewhat pointless, and lacks character development, big time.  The premise is that there is an older woman on a flight that predicts each passenger's age and death and cause of death.  There are many characters and many storylines.  

I got about halfway through the book before throwing the proverbial towel in.  To put it into perspective, I was looking for something to actually happen that I actually was hoping that one of the passengers would die, just to have a point and a storyline.  To give some depth to the long and arduous book.  

So with that my recommendation on this one would be to let it go by and look for another read.  That is what I did.  

Posted Jan 10 2025

It is rare that I give a book 5 stars on the goodreads app, but this book is more than deserving of that rating.  It is one of the most well written books I have ever read.  Ariel Lawhon gives great detail, without being long winded.  She writes eloquently without being tedious or bewildering to the reader.  And the story!  She weaves in and out of the intricate lives of the citizens of Hallowell, Maine so expertly.  

This historical fiction story, taking place in the year 1790, is told from the point of view of Martha Ballard, a middle aged midwife.  Martha is married to Ephraim and they have 6 children, some grown and the youngest is 12 years old.  Martha and Ephraim have a marriage for the ages and is built upon true love, but also an intense respect for one another.  In an age where women are pushed down and treated less than, Ephraim builds Martha up and allows her to reach her full potential.  At the very start of their relationship, he teaches her how to read and write, skills unheard of for women in the 1700’s.  

The story begins at the start of winter, when after delivering a baby, Martha is called to town as a body was found in the near frozen Kennebec River.  No one seems to be upset that the man, Joshua Burgess, is dead as he is an alleged rapist.  However, Martha’s compass, just as her husband’s, points true north and she is going to report what she sees and what she sees is a murdered man.  

Earlier that year, Martha tended to the wounds of her friend, Rebecca Foster, after she was beaten and sexually assaulted by the man found in the river, and also Joseph North.  North is not only a war hero in Hallowell, but also the appointed town judge.  The mystery of Burgess’s death in addition to other schemes going on in town and Martha’s own history with Ephraim makes for an enthralling novel.  

There is not only the mysterious death, and ensuing town court cases, but also Martha’s life as midwife, healer and mother.  The time period of post revolutionary war adds a wonderful element with town frolics, courts taking place in the town pub and candle making at the Ballard’s home.  

Between the characters, the scene and the storylines, this is a fantastic book and a highly recommended read.  

Posted Oct 7 2024

Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera is one of the best mysteries I have read in a while.  The main character, and point of view of the story, is Lucy.  Lucy is almost 30 years old and currently striking out on life in L.A.  She lost her job, her boyfriend is about to break up with her and due to that fact she will also lose her apartment, thereby making her homeless.  The cause of this change?  A new podcast about her best friend’s murder 5 years ago.  And why would this ruin Lucy’s sub par life?  She is the primary suspect for the murder.  

As the story unfolds, you realize that it wasn’t just a few people from their small Texas town that think Lucy killed her best friend.  Everyone thinks she did it.  Even her own parents think she did it.  

So to back up 5 years prior, Lucy had just finished college and moved back to her small Texas hometown with her new, successful, rich, charismatic husband, Matt.  Lucy and Matt buy one of the premier houses in the up and coming neighborhood by downton Plumpton and look to live happily ever after.  Lucy also strikes up a friendship with Savvy (who will later be murdered…).  Savvy is sweet, funny and loved by the town.  What went so wrong?  

A true crime podcaster who is famous for solving the unsolvable cases comes across Savvy’s murder and, well, also upends Lucy’s depressing life.  

The story was woven so perfectly with sprinkling in the podcasts in as well as going back in time to the dates leading up to and including the murder and also the present.  Lucy is an intricate character with so many layers that add to the story.  The mystery itself and characters' lives add so many twists and turns you are kept guessing right up until the end.  Just a fun ride of a book to read!  

Posted Nov 8 2024

When Bel was a baby, her mother disappeared and left her in a heated sedan off the side of the road.  Her mother is the now infamous Rachel Price.  As the story gripped the country and the media.  Rachel Price was never found, dead or alive.  

Now Bel is 18 years old and in trying to earn some much needed extra money, her father has been offered to be part of a British documentary about the disappearance of Rachel Price.  Being interviewed and grilled on details that Bel has never had the capability of remembering is bringing all the hurt and confusion about her missing mother back.  

But the documentary takes a very unexpected turn when out of the blue guess who reappears and is actually very much alive…

Posted Sep 26 2024

Beth’s mother is dying of cancer and she is angry.  She is angry that her younger sister and brother have left everything up to her.  And she is angry that she never made more of her life and got out of their small Wisconsin town.  Without her mom to take care of, where does that leave her?  

Beth’s sister Nicole is an addict whose life has not amounted to much.  And then there is the star of the family, her brother Michael who not only got out of the small town, he is also a very successful tech mogul in California.  Nicole’s life took a turn for the worse, and Michael got the nerve to head out of town when their father suddenly disappeared about 10 years ago.  But Where The Bodies Are isn’t a realistic fiction about siblings dealing with the death of their mother…on her deathbed, Laura, their mother tells Beth, “Your father. He didn’t disappear. Don’t trust...”  

Told between the daughter’s perspectives (Beth and Nicole) and then going back in time to Laura’ perspective from her journal we learn that this family had their share of secrets.  One of which being, what happened to their father?  Is he alive?  Why would he abandon his wife and children?  

Not only that, but through Laura’s eyes and words we learn that the town had its share of tragedy and this family was more involved than meets the eye.  Jeneva Rose does it again with this thriller from Wisconsin (my home state!).  

Posted Sep 18 2024

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll is an excellently written novel from two young women’s perspectives during the 1970’s and Ted Bundy’s horrific murders.  We have two very different points of view.  The character we mostly see this story through is Pamela Schumacher.  Pamela is someone who follows the rules, is a born leader and dots all i’s and crosses all of her t’s.  As the sorority house president in Tallahassee, she rarely lets loose and has a plan for her life.  Well, a plan that also involves playing second fiddle to her not-nearly-as-intelligent-as-her boyfriend.   Pamela was home the night of the serial killer’s rampage through her sorority house where her best friend was brutally murdered.  Pamela was the first and only witness who saw the killer with her own eyes.  

The other character we see the story through is Ruth Wachowsky.  Oh, poor Ruth.  Her perspective is from about 5 years prior to the horrific night where Pamela lost her best friend.  Ruth’s story is thousands of miles away in Washington state and the scenery and weather isn’t the only difference between their stories.  Where Pamela has it all put together, Ruth is the opposite.  She is a very young divorcee who is living with her mother after the recent death of her father.  Her mother wants to be a highly respected do-gooder and continuously makes Ruth feel even worse about how her life has thus far turned out.  Life changes around for Ruth when she comes across a women’s group of others dealing with grief.  Against her mother’s wishes, Ruth joins the group and meets Tina Cannon.  With this eventual friendship, her life is changed forever.  Tina is an intelligent, beautiful, wealthy widow who is aspiring to be a counselor or psychologist.  It is hard to put words down to describe the dynamic nature of Tina.  

Tina comes into Pamela’s life as she seems to know something about the identity of who could be the Tallahassee serial killer.  Tina is a feminist and knows women in the 1970’s have much more to offer than society gives them credit for.   She is quick witted, intelligent and wants this serial killer behind bars for good.  

Pamela and Tina, two very unlikely friends, are drawn together after the Tallahassee sorority house murders and are driven by one thing.  Justice.   Justice for their friends.   Justice for the women. 

Posted Sep 10 2024

The First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston is one of the best and entertaining books I have read in quite a while.  Through flashbacks you follow the life of Lucca Marino as she is recruited by “Mr. Smith” to work as a con artist.  Her work consists of blackmailing, stealing and gaining information.  And she is very good at her job.  

In the present day is living and working as Evie Porter in a small southern town.  Her mark is a successful businessman, Ryan, and she has successfully  infiltrated his life as his soon to be live-in girlfriend.  While she knows she has done will in gaining his trust so early, she bothered in that she doesn’t know why Mr. Smith has targeted Ryan.  What information from Ryan does Mr. Smith need?  And what will Lucca need to do to get it?

This book has so many twists and turns that you will not want to put it down.  Who is smart enough to outwit the other?  They all seem to be playing a very dangerous game where no one can ultimately win, or perhaps even survive.  

Posted May 6 2024

Well, I have to begin this post with “I’m baaaaack”!  Unfortunately, I let the busyness of life and my library get the better of me, and gave up book reviewing for a while, but I am going to make a cognizant effort to maintain this site and blog about my favorite things - Books! - again.  

To kick my return off, I am going to review The Women, but Kristin Hannah.  This book has taken the world by storm, not surprising as any new release from Hannah is anxiously awaited.  This is a book of strong women, of war and ultimately perseverance.  

The book begins at the beginning of the Vietnam War.  Frankie, the main character, is very young, just graduated with her nursing degree and is all set to send off her big brother to Vietnam.  Finn comes from a long line of war heroes and is excited to ultimately make it on their father’s wall of honor.  He graduated from Navy school and is excited to see what adventures Vietnam will bring.  I think this is reminiscent of the times.  In 1967 we wanted to “fight the communists” and were amped up for the troops that could win this easy war in this small country.  

Soon after Finn leaves, there are soldiers at Frankie’s parents door with the most tragic news to any family.  Finn’s helicopter was shot down, and while Finn’s picture may make the wall of honor, Finn will never get to see it himself.  Frankie is a grieving mess.  Her only sibling, her idol, her big brother is dead.  She wants to fight for what he was fighting for.  She wants to avenge his death.  She wants to be a hero as well.  So, she signs up for the Army to be an Army nurse.  She is young, she is naive.  She is in for a rude awakening.  

Vietnam is not at all what she thought.  It is survival.  It is dirty.  It smells.  It is hot.  As a nurse she sees it all.  Blood.  Gore.  Screams.  Death.  She grows up very quickly and is one of the best nurses in the Army.  She is a fighter and she is strong.  But she didn’t do it alone.  Her roommates in her “hooch”, or hut where they live, will become her best friends.  Barb, Ethel and Frankie couldn’t be different from each other, but have a bond stronger than the trials life will bring them.  

Frankie is an excellent nurse because she cares about each soldier and tries her best to not only ease their pain, but help them live and die with dignity.  But eventually she does get to go home.  Going home does not turn out to be what she thought it would be.  She is not looked at as a hero.  The war in 1969 is no longer supported, but protested.  She also suffers from PTSD and is flailing.  

Over the course of her acclimating back to the states and finding her way we are with Frankie as she finds love and heartbreak.  We also see firsthand how the war affects her ability to live a “normal” life.  When seeking help Frankie is told, “there weren’t women in Vietnam!”.  Oh, but there were.  

This is a moving, powerful story about a war that vets don’t want to talk about.  That history books try, but fail to get right.  It is not a proud time in our history.  But it happened.  We have many vets still paying the price today.  This book is a great story and a must read.  Kristin Hannah took a difficult period in time and eloquently, and brilliantly, brought Frankie’s story to life.  

**In April of 2021 I was honored to take my father on the Honor Flight for his service in Vietnam from 1968-1969 as an Army medic.  

Posted Apr 16 2024

Wow.  This book is historical fiction at its finest. Taking place in the south during the end of the 19th century, the book delves into women’s suffrage, racism, bigotry, fairness, castes, classes, homelessness, compassion and above all integrity and perseverance.  The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee reminds me of the book The Help that then meets Netflix’s Bridgerton with an Asian twist.  

The main character, Jo Kaun, who is also Miss Sweetie, is just a phenomenal character.  All along in the book you are rooting for her.  She is beyond talented, intelligent, witty and just a wonderful protagonist.  Jo lives in the downstairs of a printing press for a local newspaper.  The name of the paper is Focus and the Bell family owns and operates the paper, living in a house joined to the press.  Jo and Old Gin live in the basement underneath the printing press.  No, the Bells are not aware of the squatters below them.  Old Gin is Jo’s only family, and one of the main links between them is that they are both Chinese, and about the only Chinese people in all of Atlanta, at that.  Jo doesn’t necessarily know where she came from.  As the story goes, she was left as an infant on Old Gin’s doorstep.  She knows not of her mother nor her father.  

Old Gin works for the wealthy Payne family in their horse stables and is somewhat of a horse whisperer.  Through him, Jo also is fond of horses.  As I stated before, Jo is extremely talented.  Not just in working with clothes, making hats and braiding hair.  She is talented with words and looking at the world through her own lens. At seventeen years old she must work, and was not formally educated, but Old Gin wanted her to know her way around the world and so she has always stayed abreast of things by reading the newspapers.    

When she is wrongfully fired from her job of making hats at a milliner, she takes a step back at life and is once again a lady’s maid for the dreadful Carolyn Payne.  She also decides to help out the local Focus newspaper that has unknowingly held a roof over her head by starting a column.  She goes under the pseudonym of Miss Sweetie and creates quite a stirring within Atlanta.  She is not shy about tackling hot topics such as segregation and women’s rights and her words speak to many.  

The book takes place in a time period where women are just starting to fight for equal rights and unfortunately, segregation is gaining traction.  As a Chinese woman in the late 1800’s, she nor Old Gin are even given an opportunity to eventually become American citizens.  They just keep about their business, not knowing where their place is and where they fit in.  This is a phenomenal book with a great storyline from a time period and with voices rarely heard from.  Well done, Stacy Lee!!  Just a great piece of literature.  

Posted Jan 6 2022

Told from ‘present day’ in August of 1983, and then flashing back in time to the start of a love story in the 1950’s, Malibu Rising shows us what goes on behind the curtains of a famous Hollywood family.  Nina Rivera is young, beautiful, athletic and rich.  She and her husband own a house on the cliff overlooking gorgeous Malibu beach.  Nina grew up on the beaches of Malibu and is the oldest of four siblings, all surfers.  She isn’t just the big sister, due to tragic events in her family, she is also her younger siblings’ mother figure.  Every year in August she throws an epic end of summer bash, and the present day parts of the book are from Nina’s perspective in addition to her siblings, Jay, Hud and Kit.  

The flashbacks are of the 1950’s love story between Mick Riva and June Costas.  Mick is starting out in life and wants to be a famous singer.  He sees June working at her family’s restaurant in Malibu, Pacific Fish and it is love at first sight.  She is young, and easily falls for Mick’s good looks and charm.  Mick is right, he will be someone someday.  A famous, world renowned singer.  

These flashbacks into Mick & June’s story continue and you see their family grow from their first born Nina, through their youngest child, Kit.  You see many ups and downs in their lives and how their actions and decisions will ultimately affect their children.  

In 1983, on the day of the epic Nina Rivera end of summer party, each sibling is grappling with a major change in their lives.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and seeing their stories unfold.  I found the 1980’s aspect of a Hollywood party in Malibu to be quite entertaining as well.  

Posted Dec 20 2021

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell is a gem and a page turner from the very beginning.  Going back and forth between Ellie 10 years prior and her mother, Laurel, 10 years down the road, the story unfolds showing how Ellie was abducted and how Laurel is somehow fairing at life, missing her middle child.  

Laurel never gave up hope…hoping that someday her Ellie would come back to her.  Her grief ruined her marriage to her children’s father and she has just tried to get by since the moment her daughter disappeared.  Laurel stops at a coffee shop one day and meets Floyd.  This meeting changes her life and she once again feels love and happy moments.  Floyd also has a daughter, Poppy, who is 9 years old.  She is unique and quite delightful.  Laurel and Poppy share a bond and become fast friends.  

On the other side of the story is Ellie, starting around when she disappeared.  Her story is the most difficult to read as she was abducted and so badly wanted her mother’s help and to survive.  

Throughout the storytelling, you as a reader become enraptured in the book.  At times you can feel Ellie’s fear.  You can feel Laurel’s desperation.  A phenomenal book by Lisa Jewell that I would highly recommend.  

Posted Dec 16 2021

One of the strongest aspects to Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley are the characters.  I find learning more about the Native American culture fascinating.  The sense of community and peacefulness is something all humans can and should know.  With how the characters are written I felt Daunis’ connection to her Ojibwe family and friends. She is both zhaaganaash , or white, and Ojibwe.  Daunis was created, brought up and always around “man lies” as she calls them.  Half truths and lies that injure women, families and children.  I truly felt that this is a book that stands up for women and Anishinaabe kwe, or Ojibwe women in particular and for that reason, I loved it.  

Daunis has recently learned to live in a new normal.  This new normal is without her loving Uncle, who really was a father figure to her.  Her Uncle was her Mom’s best friend and the loss is unfathomable.  Not to mention, that the loss has impacted her Grandmother to the point that she had a stroke and is not always ‘there’, with the light on in her head, as Daunis puts it.  In this new normal, Daunis is setting aside her dreams of going to Mainland Michigan for school and wanting to stay closer to home, her Mother and her Ojibwe family.  She decides to switch her college enrollment to the local community college and take classes with her best friend, Lily.  

On her Ojibwe side of the family, Daunis has a half brother that is only 3 months younger than her.  Yes, the story of their conceptions is certainly one of the man lies that plays a part in Daunis’ life.  Levi is a year younger than her in school, and a star on the hockey team that Daunis had previously been a MVP for.  There is a new player to the team in their small, Upper Peninsula town of Sault Ste. Marie.  His name is Jamie and he is the talk of the town.  A great hockey player and easy on the eyes.  Levi pushes Daunis to train with Jamie and soon they become quite close.  

It seems as though life is moving forward in Daunis’ new normal until really bad things start happening in their tight knit community.  Especially within the Ojibwe tribe people.   There are drugs circulating, along with missing people and deaths.  Daunis finds herself wrapped up in it all and is trying to find answers to questions she learns along the way.

The mystery in this novel is encaptivating right along with the Ojibwe culture.  I found this novel to be extremely thought provoking and intriguing.  I have a lake cabin in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, quite a drive yet from Sugar Island, however many of the places mentioned in the book I have either been to or heard of and that part really brought the book home for me.  A truly great read.   

Posted Dec 9 2021

Hannah is a newlywed, and older newlywed at close to 40 years old, but a newlywed nonetheless.  Her new husband, Owen, is a father to a teenage daughter and tragically lost his wife years ago.  While Bailey, Hannah’s stepdaughter, isn’t very open to a relationship or seeing Hannah as a mother figure, things are going pretty well.  Owen and Hannah are in love and starting a life together.  Him as a tech savvy businessman in a new company and Hannah works with wood as a wood turner.  She moved her business across the country to be with Owen and hasn’t the decision regretted once.  

Until one day she gets a note from a random kid in the neighborhood.  Two words.  “Protect Her”.  She immediately knows this must mean Bailey because Owen is a devoted father and his daughter means everything to him.  She can’t reach Owen and has no idea where he is.  When Bailey comes home not only with an odd story about her dad rushing out, but leaving her with a duffle bag full of money, Hannah clearly knows something is not right.  Who did she marry?  

The clues that Hannah can find, send her and Bailey on a search to learn the truth about Owen and also Bailey’s history.  One answer leads to more questions and the book keeps you guessing until the very end.  

Posted Nov 10 2021

This is an extremely powerful book.  This book makes you look at abuse through a new lens.  This review is tough, because I don’t want to give any spoilers away.

Our main character is Lily.  Lily is in her early twenties and an extremely kind person who didn’t have the easiest childhood.  No, she wasn’t wanting for the basics in life, food, shelter and clothing; she wanted to live in a happy household without anger and physical abuse.  Not to her, but her father was abusive to her mother.  Her father was the mayor of their small town and a successful real estate business owner.  Her beautiful mother was a teacher’s assistant.  She just wished that her mother didn’t have to hide bruises.  She wished her mother could stand up for herself, tell someone.  When Lily was 15 she met an intriguing boy, Atlas, and they have a loving friendship, based on true kindness, compassion in the most interesting of circumstances.  In the book, you read about this relationship through journals that Lily kept.  

As an adult, Lily opens up a business and keeps having chance encounters with a neurosurgeon, Ryle.  Ryle isn’t looking for a relationship, but there is something about Lily that keeps reeling Ryle back in.  Eventually they start to date and that is where the story gets quite interesting.  

Lily’s past and present end up in her world together and she must navigate through her life and what her heart and head both want, and need.  Lily’s strength is amazing and there are many powerful points in this book that can speak to many about what true love is and how to care for others.  

Posted Sep 28 2021

In a follow up to The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas writes a spectacular prequel that gives more roots and more background to the Carter family.  The main character in Concrete Rose is Maverick, who down the road we know becomes Starr’s father.  In this novel, Maverick is a teenager just trying to get by and pass high school.  

In the beginning of the book, he finds out that who he thought was his best friend's son, is actually his.  Yikes.  In addition to the pressure of basically becoming a single father, he is being pressured by some to get into the thug life, become a drug dealer and join the gang.  His cousin has his back, though, and keeps Maverick on the up and up.  

His relationship is also a mess.  As we know from THUG, he is married to Lisa who is a very strong woman.  Well, during high school he is also dating someone named Lisa and while she is tiny, she is also a force to be reckoned with.  She stands up for herself, and what is right.  And no, she doesn’t take it too well when she finds out that Maverick is the father to another girl’s baby.  

During the course of the book, we see Maverick handle some pretty big obstacles and life lessons.  He deals with tragedy, love and happiness.  He becomes a man.  And as we know from his daughter Starr’s story, he becomes a pillar in the community and a man that above all protects his family and those he loves.  

Posted Sep 15 2021

Really good young adult mystery/suspense/thrillers can be hard to come by.  Holly Jackson hit it OUT. OF. THE. PARK. with this one.  It is the first in a trilogy and I can’t wait to read the other two.  From the very beginning, this book has you hooked and there are so many twists and turns that you are kept guessing and intrigued until the very last page.  

The main character is Pip (Pippa) and she is a superb student who is using her senior capstone research project to do some digging into a murder from five years ago.  She believes that the person blamed for the murder is innocent and she is driven to prove it.  Along the way she learns quite a bit about the victim and things certainly aren’t always as they seem.

In addition to being a fantastic mystery, the characters in the book are just, well, wonderful.  From the help Pip gets from a certain alleged killer's brother, to her diverse and super fun family to her dynamic friends, the characters help make the book more spectacular.  

Anyone who likes a good mystery will thoroughly enjoy this one.  Just be prepared to shut out all other aspects of life as you will be engrossed in the story.  

Posted Sep 10 2021

Alicia Berenson, an artist, is in love with her husband and has a pretty amazing life.  They are the “it” couple around town.  That is until one evening she is found holding a gun and her husband, Gabriel, has 5 bullet holes in him.  Alicia is found by the police, holding the gun and never utters another word.  Nothing.  No guilty plea, no not guilty plea.  No explanation, no sorrow.  Just absent.  

The only form of communication she has provided since the shooting is a painting.  The title of the painting is Alcestis.  Alcestis is a princess in Greek Mythology known for loving her husband...quite an odd name for a painting after she is charged with killing her husband.  In the painting she is holding a paintbrush dripping in red paint...or it could be blood?  No one knows.  In fact, the essence around the murders and her final painting have put Alexis at the top of artists renowned around the world. 

Alicia has been at a maximum security mental institution for years, having not a word to say in the trial and being mute since.  Theo Faber, a therapist who specializes in psychoanalysis believes he can help her.  He also believes that the painting, Alcestis must be a clue to something about the murder and what Alexis went through that awful night where her husband was murdered.  Did she kill him?  Was she a victim of another murderer that fateful night?  How can Theo help her to live a life worth living?  Will she finally use her words and share her story?

This page turner will keep you guessing until the very end.  It is a thriller that will keep you so involved you will lose sense of your current surroundings while you read, you will just be so engrossed in the book.  It was phenomenal.  

Posted Sep 9 2020

Eliza Schuyler was coming of age during the American Revolution.  She was born into a strong, patriotic, American family. Her father is a general, and a great one at that.  In the book, before the end of the Revolutionary War, he was attacked by other Americans, based on his character and patriotism, but the Shuyler’s know the truth and his name is cleared.  Her family is instrumental in America’s fight and ultimate win for independence.    

One day Eliza is out and meets three men that will change the course of her life, James Monroe, the Marquis de Lafayette (a French General who was instrumental in helping America win its fight for independence) and Alexander Hamilton.  All three are passionate about America’s freedom and revolution. All three play a major part in the birth of our nation, in addition to the foundation of America’s constitution. One of them will steal her heart and Eliza’s world will never be the same.

Eliza Shuyler Hamilton was brave, intelligent and strong.  She was a mother and wife, sister and daughter. This wonderful historical fiction novel by Stephanie Dray is astounding.  She weaves in and out of this historical time with such flawless skill that you are enraptured in the story. Eliza was brave and took on challenges many would not have the courage to do so.  Eliza was intelligent and was instrumental in giving advice to her husband on how to draft our constitution. Eliza was strong because she had to be with the many obstacles life threw at her from war to sickness, to death, to loneliness and more.  

For readers of historical fiction, this is a must read book.  It captivates you from the beginning and you find the need to know the ins and outs of Eliza and her husband, Alexander.  

Posted Jan 14 2020

Thunk, thunk.  Thunk, thunk.  Imagine you are in beautiful Bora Bora with your husband on your honeymoon.  You decide to go diving and see some beautiful areas on a remote island. On your trip back, you come across debris scattered in the ocean.  You stop the boat and here a thunk, thunk.  Thunk, thunk.  Something keeps hitting the boat.  Something substantial. There is something in the water.  

No, thankfully for this newlywed couple, it is not a body.  It is a bag. A heavy bag that has a lock on it. What would you do?  Our newlywed couple, Erin and Mark, try to just return it to the hotel.  However, the bag ends up back in their hotel room. Should they open it? What harm could that cause?  

In the very beginning of the novel, the book flashes forward to Erin burying a body.  She has never before buried a body and and so this is all new to her and she hopes she is doing it correctly, and in accordance to her Google search carried out on the victim’s phone.  How did she get to that place? Why is she burying a body? 

Erin is a documentary filmmaker and Mark is a financier.  They are madly in love and getting married, and clearly they honeymoon in Bora Bora.  This book is written in a timeline form and is enthralling. Many times as I was reading, I thought, “how stupid can they be?”  The bag completely changed the direction of their lives, and forces them to make many decisions to protect themselves. Find out more by reading Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman.  

Posted May 22 2019

So many twists and turns in this one!  The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a gripping thriller from the very beginning.  In the prologue, our first person narrative character is the ‘ex-wife’ and is watching, or stalking, the woman her husband left her for.  Watching, waiting, planning. The last sentence of the prologue is, “She has no idea what will happen to her if she continues like this. None at all.”  

The ex-wife seems lost...she lost her wealthy husband, fancy house, designer clothes and more.  She is struggling to get by, living with her aunt and working as a sales girl in Saks. Things certainly get awkward for her when she must help one of her former friends from her wealthy inner circle find a dress.  Rock bottom, come to mind? 

The novel is written with a chilling, creepy feeling, where you only get part of the story, but you know that there is more to it all.  That a big piece is missing. Or many pieces are missing. As the book unravels, there are many twists and turns that keep you intrigued.  I stayed up late (a rarity for me!) reading this book as I just had to find out what would happen next. 

This is a difficult review to write, because I really don’t want to give any information about the story away.  Just know that things aren’t always as they seem, and if you like thrillers, you will like this book. I guarantee it.  

Posted May 13 2019

I had read one other book by Megan Miranda and absolutely loved it (see my review of All the Missing Girls) and decided to try out another book by her.  I was not disappointed at all. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.  It is a great suspense novel, with so many mysteries layered into the story, that this is a page turner where you just have to find the answers to all the questions raised.  And ultimately, are any of these questions or answers linked together? 

Question #1: A body turns up in this rural town in Pennsylvania.  The woman is still living, but who caused her harm?

Question #2: This woman left to die looks exactly like our main character, Leah Stevens.  Leah fled Boston and is living in rural Pennsylvania because she left on a whim with an old roommate of hers.  Why did she flee? What kind of trouble could she be in back in Boston?

Question #3: Around this time, Leah’s roommate seems to be missing.  Where is she? And after searching around for her, and realizing there is no paper trail associated with this ‘roommate’ more importantly, who is she?

Question #4: For quite some time now, someone has been stalking Leah.  Stopping by her house, calling her and hanging up, breathing into the phone and leaving odd emails.  Who is stalking Leah and why?

Question #5: It seems as though well into Leah’s past, something happened that has caused her a bit of PTSD.  What happened? Who was involved?

Question #6: What are any of these characters really afraid of?

There are many twists and turns in this novel that keep you as a reader guessing at the answers to these questions and many more.  I would highly recommend this novel to any fan of thrillers and mystery novels. 

Posted May 3 2019

Last year a purchased a two book dystopia series and a couple of my students literally devoured the books.  They said they were terrific and I thought, I better try these out and see how good they are. Flawed is the first book in the series and the second book is titled Beautiful.  While some parts were a little bit predicted by me, I thought that they were great sci-fi reads and also page turners that you don’t want to put down.  There is suspense, action, romance and thought about societies and human nature in these books.

The dystopian world they live in is “perfect”.  People look perfect, act perfect and leaders in their society should not make mistakes or bad decisions.  In order to uphold this perfect society, there is a guild created that decides if someone is flawed, or had an error in their judgement.  The guild is very different than the actual law. This guild consists of three judges and they make the decision, and the head judge is Bosco Crevan.  The main character in the books is Celestine and she is dating Art Crevan, Bosco’s son. Celestine is perfect and her life seems perfect. In their society, if someone makes a mistake, they are to go in front of the guild and plead their case.  However, if they are in front of the guild, chances are it is a done deal. If found flawed (which they always are), they are branded with an “F” on either their temple, chest, hand, tongue or foot. Just disgusting. 

Celestine is living her high school life and everything is just great until one moment on the bus.  One of the mistakes you can make in society is that you cannot, must not assist, help or aid a flawed person in any way.  On the bus, here is a designated seat for the flawed persons. Also, one two flawed persons are allowed to be anywhere at one time.  Fear of strength in numbers. On this day, two non flawed women are sitting in the flawed seats and an elderly man comes on the bus, being that the seat he must sit is taken, he stands.  However, he is elderly and suffers a horrible coughing fit. But no one is to aid a flawed. Celestine just thinks this is silly. Why don’t the women move and then the flawed man can sit down and hopefully stop coughing.  So she makes a drastic decision that changes her life forever and intervenes. She asks the women to move and helps the man. Immediately, the whistleblowers (a public force that arrest potential flawed) are there, taking Celestine in.  Will Crevan be able to help her? What is she going to say? She ends up being a poster girl on both sides, those who are working for the flawed cause and those who want a perfect society. What should she do?

The novel has many twists and turns and surprises along the way.  Celestine is honest, and sees things as black and white, right or wrong.  In what world is it wrong to help an elderly man who is clearly in need of help?  How can that be perfect? The issues that these books bring up in regards to compassion and how we treat one another is another great component.  I read both of the books in this series quickly and would recommend them to any readers who like the sci-fi dystopian type books. 

Posted Apr 8 2019

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was one of the top books of 2018 and after reading it, I can certainly see why.  It is phenomenal. Not only is the story riveting, it is written so eloquently. The premise of the novel is that a young girl, Kya, is abandoned in a shack on the marsh in North Carolina at the age of six years old.  This part of the story was heart wrenching for me. Although Kya is grieving the fact that her mother left her, and her father ended up choosing gambling and alcohol over her, and all of her siblings have left her, she is very resourceful and finds a way to eat and survive in that harsh environment.  At a very young age, she is one with the marsh and it is her home, her family, her friends, her livelihood. 

As she grows up, the local town knows her as the ‘marsh girl’ and she is an outcast.  With her upbringing in the wild, she is clearly very different than others in town. One local boy, Tate, also loves the marsh and knows many of the fish, birds, plants and wildlife.  Kya and Tate become friends, Tate is Kya’s only friend. However, Tate eventually goes off to college and she is left alone in the wild again, heartbroken once again. In their small town, there is a popular boy named Chase and he ends up taking a liking to Kya as she is wild, free and beautiful.  This relationship is not the best for Kya and Chase is not a very honorable person. Kya as she has always done must figure things out on her own, for herself. 

Years down the road, there is a mystery involved in that Chase Andrews body is found by the water tower.  The authorities are concerned it could be foul play, rather than an accident. Being that Kya is the outcast, and people know that her and Chase had a relationship, she is the suspect with Chase’s family and some townspeople that have never been very nice to her.  It’s always easiest to single out the outcast. As a reader, your heart just goes out to Kya. She has been dealt a tough hand and now to have to deal with this, just seems very unfair. 

This mystery, romance and dramatic novel is a page turner from the start and was just a terrific book to read.  I have recommended it to many people to read and they have all loved it. 

Posted Mar 18 2019

How prior to the year 2019 have I never read the book, Ready Player One?  I have no answer to that question, other than as a librarian I read many books and some get pushed aside.  This year, I decided I must finally read this book and am extremely glad that I did. It was a complete page turner and so good!  

The novel takes place in the year 2045 and in this futuristic world, a lot has just gone to hell, for lack of a better phrase.  How we live, what we do for entertainment and society as a whole is just kind of icky. The world is not a very nice place, aesthetically and people live in trailer homes stacked on top of eachother.  Yes, it is probably as awful as that sounds. 

Wade, our high school senior main character, lives in one of these trailer homes with his Aunt and her drugged out boyfriend.  So how to people live in this ugly world? They escape it, virtually by going to the OASIS, an online world where you are virtually going and doing anything you can dream of, for the right price, of course.  The OASIS was created by James Halliday, a technology savant who had no one to leave his great fortune to. Halliday was obsessed with 1980’s video games, music and movies. He spent all of his time in these worlds and really had no friends or family.  He had quite a fortune, being that he created the virtual world everyone lives in and therefore, left his fortune and the owning rights to the OASIS in three level scavenger hunt within the OASIS. He called it the Easter Egg and millions of users all over the world are constantly searching for it.  They are called egg hunters, or gunters for short. 

Wade, while having no funds, is a surprise major gunter player.  He is a major gunter player because of all of his knowledge and his gaming skills.  He literally lives the pop culture that Halliday also loved and built his scavenger hunt on.  However, with the world in such disarray, the winner of the Easter Egg will not only gain wealth and OASIS control, they will also be able to help the world out of the extreme poverty that most are living in.  That is, if the winner is a noble person and not a part of some greed loving enterprise. 

This novel has suspense and a lot of action packed in.  I also loved the references to pop culture, like Duran Duran, the show Family Ties, Star Wars and more.  It was a really entertaining book.  There also is a Ready Player One movie out...and per usual the book is much better.  However, if you go into watching the movie with the realistic expectation that it is not going to nearly as good as the book, it is entertaining.  

Posted Feb 18 2019

I watch many sports games with my husband, our favorite being football and the NFL, and clearly know who Joe Buck is.  I know he is on FOX’s ‘A’ team and him an Troy Aikman announce the big games on FOX and mostly the NFC. I also know that he announces premier baseball games and was the announcer for the Brewers this year when they went to the playoffs.  What I did not know, however, was how funny he is and how he was basically born in the announcing booth and (Wisconsin reference) his dad is like the Bob Uecker of the St. Louis Cardinals, which I learned all about in reading his memoir, Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad and the Things I’m Not Allowed to say on TV.  

Joe was the product of his dad’s first marriage breaking up.  His dad, the infamous St. Louis announcer, Jack Buck, had an affair where she became pregnant and Jack left his first wife with six children for his pregnant mistress.  Joe was that baby, hence why the book is called Lucky Bastard.  His father married Joe’s mother and Joe also has a younger sister as well.  From reading the book, I learned he had a great childhood and got to go tag along with his father many places and attend almost all of the Cardinal baseball games.  Quite a lucky guy indeed! Around town, people would talk about their family, I mean a guy leaving his wife for an affair with a much younger, starlit type woman is big gossip.  Joe’s dad’s take? The oftentimes referenced quote from his dad in the book is, “Who cares!”. I think this is a mantra many of us could be helped with in living by. And Jack Buck, at least on the outside, really didn't care.  He had a smart, beautiful wife who he loved and she loved him and he had two beautiful children with her. The complete package, minus all of the alimony he had to pay to his ex-wife. 

As Joe grew up, college wasn’t really for him and with his extensive experience with announcing games and watching his dad, Joe got some great breaks at a very young age.  In his twenties, an even luckier break came his way when FOX bought the rights to an NFL package and was looking for announcers. This was one of Joe’s big opportunities, and he did not disappoint.  

One of the best parts of the book is how real Joe is with his readers.  Real and honest. Honest about his first marriage breaking up and meeting his now wife.  Honest about his hair plugs and how he stupidly almost messed up his voice because of a procedure that went too long.  And honest about his wonderful relationship with his father, Jack Buck. As a sports watcher myself, I found the book to be very entertaining and the inside look at sports was also fascinating.  

Posted Jan 21 2019

In her book, Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover describes her unique childhood and how she overcame many obstacles to achieve her great academic success.  Tara is the youngest of seven children and raised in rural Idaho to very strong, religious parents. They are Mormon and believe that if you are believer and have all faith in God, He will provide and save you.  Tara’s parents go to somewhat of an extremist lifestyle with this mindset and live off the grid, as much as they can. None of the children are sent to school and many of the children don’t even have birth certificates.  

In addition to wanting to be self-sustained, Tara’s father “Gene”, is quite paranoid about the government, the end of the world and being prepared for all emergencies.  They stockpile canned goods, fuel and ammunition to be sure they are ready for whatever might be coming and trust noone. For income, Gene owns a junkyard for scrapping and often, with help from his sons, builds barns or roofs on the side.  When Tara is old enough, she too is expected to help out in the dangerous family businesses of scrapping for metal and fuel.

Many times while reading Tara’s story I thought: how can these people be surviving?  With their belief in the great power of God, many times they would have her mother, “Faye”, treat them for major, serious injuries.  Faye was a healer of sorts with a great knowledge of tinctures and herbs and also apprenticed to become a midwife. Some of the accidents that Faye is expected to heal include severe burns and brain injuries.  Not only is Faye in charge, but even at a young age, Tara also helps with injured family members and these gruesome injuries would definitely leave their mark on a young mind. 

Against all odds, and against her parents’ judgement, Tara works hard at studying when she can and eventually is accepted to BYU.  She doesn’t necessarily lie about her lack of education, she just tries to not mention it and instead says she was homeschooled. When in reality, there was no learning other than the junkyard and religious lessons in her household.  As one can imagine, learning more about the outside world opens up Tara’s mind and she starts to really think back to her upbringing and her background. In addition to the paranoia and dangerous jobs, Tara also dealt with emotional and physical abuse from an older brother she was very close to.  This abuse is ignored by her parents and Tara struggles with the reality of her family. 

Educated is a book about the coming of age of a girl who is confused, sheltered, and because of her lack of education, ignorant.  This girl becomes a scholar and learns more and more about the world in which we all live to eventually work hard enough to earn a PhD.  Tara is an inspiration to all as an example of what we can become, to go against the grain and do what is right for you. 

Posted Jan 15 2019

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is a novel full of many components, and across various genres.  It is a thriller in ways, historical fiction, romance, realistic fiction and adventure.  It is a book full of strong women and shows that even the strongest need others’ help in times of need.  

The main character in the The Great Alone is Leni Allbright.  When the book begins she is a thirteen year old coming of age teenager that is just trying to keep the peace in her family.  Her beautiful, young mother Cora got pregnant and married her father, Ernt right before Vietnam and when Ernt came back he just wasn’t the same.  

In trying to start over with a new life, Ernt is gifted land up in the rustic, rural area of Alaska and decides, however unprepared they may be, to move and settle there with his family.  He thinks the change of scenery will be the best medicine for his demons and his PTSD. 

Alaska in the 1970’s is a wild wilderness.  The winters are spent trying to survive, and the summers are spent preparing for the winters.  One of my favorite components of this book is that Alaska itself is another character in the novel.  Her beauty, her harshness and her sense of community is evident throughout the story. 

As Leni and her mother adapt to the harsh realities of living in the backwoods of Alaska, Ernt while desperately trying to be a helpful, loving father and husband is still battling his demons.  It becomes apparent through the long stretches of darkness during the brutal Alaska winters that Ernt’s problems are not to be solely blamed on his PTSD. There is more to the evilness that within him.  

For Cora and Leni, the situation can become quite dangerous and as Leni becomes an adult it is harder and harder for her forgive her father.  Over the course of the story, Leni also falls in love with her Alaskan soulmate and sees that in time she could find happiness. Eventually Cora and Leni must choose themselves and it is the story of the ultimate survival.  Which is more dangerous the Alaska frontier or the life within the walls of the cabin with her father? 

Posted Sep 24 2018

 What a great young adult mystery book!  Oftentimes this can be a difficult genre to find good books in...they tend to be too obvious, poor character development and so on.  This book had great twists and turns in the mystery in addition to excellent character development.  

The book is written from the four main character’s points of view and switches between them as the story progresses.  Our four characters are very different and all start out with a blatant label.  Bronwyn, our goody two shoes smart kid.  Addy, ‘the beauty’ homecoming princess with the perfect boyfriend.  Nate, the bad kid from the wrong side of the tracks.  And then lastly, Cooper the all American, good looking amazing athlete.  

The story begins with all four of our characters wrongly placed in detention for having their cell phones out in class.  And there is a fifth student in study hall with them, Simon.  Simon’s label is the outcast.  In addition to always being the odd man out, Simon also runs a blog where he spills all of the high school students’ deepest and darkest secrets.  On this fateful day in study hall, Simon oddly has a peanut allergy attack.  A deadly attack.  

There are only four people who witnessed this and tried to save Simon’s life in his final moments.  After careful examination, it looks like foul play was involved.  Could it be that one of the four in the room planned this?  Must it be that one of them had to have done this?  

One of my favorite elements of this book is the aspect of labeling a person.  As I said, the book starts out with strong and definitive labels for each character, but as the story progresses, these labels are expanded or torn down completely.  We also ask and learn the questions of this strange death in detention.  

Who killed Simon?  Why?  Are they still dangerous?  Is someone being framed?  Are they all being framed?  Is one of them framing someone else?  This book is flying off our high school library shelves and was a big hit with our monthly teen book club.  

Posted Feb 21 2018

I read All the Missing Girls this past summer, and I will have to say it was phenomenal.  Especially for a great summer time read (which here in the middle of January with below 0 temps, who isn’t?).  This novel is mysterious, suspenseful and keeps you guessing the whole time.  

The main character, Nic, grew up in the country in a very small town where everyone knows everyone, Cooley Ridge.  She left when she graduated high school and has never looked back.  Or at least has tried very hard not to look back.   To many memories, too much guilt.  It’s now been 10 years, but it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same…

Nic is now engaged to a hot shot in Philadelphia, but is called back to Cooley Ridge to attend to her and her brother’s father and getting his house ready to sell.  With Nic living the big life, her brother has stayed in Cooley Ridge, settled there and usually takes care of things.  

Why did Nic leave and try to not look back?  What did she want to forget so badly?  Well, that last summer in Cooley Ridge 10 years ago, her charismatic best friend, Corinne, disappeared.  No trace, no trail.  Just gone.  All of her friends are still in Cooley Ridge and are affected in some way by what happened to Corinne all those years ago.  Especially Nic’s first love, Tyler.  Tyler and Nic over the years find it hard to let eachother go...and the memories…

When Nic returns, it is deja vu as another young woman goes missing...where to?  Is there a killer amongst them?  A kidnapper?  Did she run away?  Did Corinne run away all those years ago?  

This novel is told backwards starting with today, but then moving to 15 days in the future and working backwards.  It is a page turner that keeps you guessing all along.  I highly recommend this one.  

Posted Jan 5 2018

Scythe, the first novel in Neal Shusterman’s latest series, Arc of a Scythe, sets the stage for a very different world than we live today and brings up questions about humanity that are quite scary.  

In this future, we have mastered mortality, and no longer will die, naturally that is.  Cloud computing has taken many steps further than what it is today and evolved into an artificial intelligence mastermind, named the Thunderhead.  The Thunderhead is all powerful and has created, well, a utopia if you will.  

Being that we are no longer ‘mortal’ and will not, and cannot die - people can’t even kill themselves, but just render themselves ‘deadish’ only to be revived later - humans clearly would age quite a bit.  But don’t worry about that, the Thunderhead understands our vanity and has figured out how we can ‘turn the corner’ as many times as we like.  Feel like you are getting wrinkly, gray hair and feeling old?  Just turn the corner and while you will still technically be 80 years old, you can look 25 years old!  People end up being so ‘real age’ old that they no longer even keep track.  

To some, perhaps, this seems great, but as we all know if it sounds too good to be true, it is.  Now that people are not dying naturally, there is a large overpopulation problem.  And the solution is the only entity that the Thunderhead does not have jurisdiction over, the Scythedom.  Certain people are chosen to be scythes and as scythes, they will glean people as they see fit.  Or as we would call it in mortal times, murder them or kill them.  The scythes live by a very high moral code and we would liken them to religious leaders or monks, however even the purist of institutions has the risk of corruption and evil.  

In this first installment of the Arc of a Scythe series we are introduced to Citra and Rowan, two teenagers taken on as an apprentice of the Honorable Scythe Faraday to become scythes themselves.  Faraday is one of the ‘good ones’ and is trying to make sure the Scythedom remains pure, impartial and fair.  However there are others who see things very differently.  

Scythe takes us on a wild ride learning this new world and how a scythe would train to be a killer, or glean people, fulfilling their quota.  Along the way there are mysteries and very intriguing characters that raise the questions about a computer running our lives as well as what it means to be human, if we are all immortal.  I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the other installments, when they are published.  

Posted May 1 2017

J.D. Vance has written a memoir about how he grew up in Middletown, Ohio and what it really is a like to grow up in and beat the poverty cycle.  The book is titled the Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.  

To understand Middletown and the community and neighborhood he lived in, you first have to somehow understand where his family came from.  J.D. goes into detail how the great migration from Kentucky happened as well as the mindset of hillbillies from Kentucky.  His grandparents were raised and met in Kentucky, in the hills of Kentucky.  They were about has hillbilly as you can get.  They were rough around the edges, extremely tough, but fiercely loyal.  It seemed as though they had their own laws, their own code to live by.  And it worked for them. 

And then they wanted a better life, a better future for their family.  There was great opportunity to the north in places like Indiana and Ohio.  Tough, manufacturing jobs that paid a great deal more than they would make in Kentucky.  So people and families migrated, bringing their hillbilly attitudes with them.  

While life was hard at times, and these Kentuckians had their vices, life was ‘better’ in other ways.  Such as being able to have a car, provide for your family, take a vacation and have modest, yet decent house to live in.  

However, by the time the J.D. was born in the 1980’s a lot had changed in Middletown from the days of the great migration from the hills of Kentucky.  Due to union issues, or supply and demand, or cheaper labor in countries elsewhere...the factories were shutting down or severely limiting their workforce.  The days of the factory taking care of you, of your decent health care and future workers’ pensions was gone.  And now these migratory children and children’s children had to pick up the pieces.  

J.D.’s mother battled addiction and severe mental issues.  She bounced from guy to guy and didn’t have a stable home for her daughter or son, J.D.  In addition, she didn’t provide meals.  J.D. ate McDonald’s, Taco Bell and drank Mountain Dew.  He was overweight, unmotivated and had rotten teeth.  

So how did J.D. not become one of the statistics?  How did he overcome this?  He explains that in a many ways, he owes his success to his hillbilly grandparents.  The forceful positive affirmations and motivation from his grandmother.  The steadiness of his then sober grandfather.  

J.D. ended up serving in the military, graduated from Ohio State University and went on to finish Law School at none other than Yale University.  Quite an accomplishment.   

However, it is important to know he is the exception, not the norm.  The neighborhood his grandparents lived in is in shambles and is poverty stricken.  Many of these people do not know how to find a way out.  His own mother still battles addiction and bouncing from here to there, and he still feels a need to help.  

J.D. has been both a part of poverty and a part of the upper elite and because of this gives a unique perspective to the problems in our country.  I found his story to be riveting and the book to be very interesting. 

Posted Apr 18 2017

In his novel, The Circle, Dave Eggers brings up topics in association with technology and social media.  The book could also be called Google, or Apple or even perhaps Facebook.  The Circle is a company that eloquently solved people's needs by digitizing everything in their lives and also joining all of their online accounts together, in a product called TruYou. Thereby creating a monopoly, but we will get to that later.  

Our main character is Mae Holland.  Mae is a recent college graduate and started working in a boring cubicle in a boring small town for a boring utility company.  Mae wanted more out of her career and lucky for her, her best friend and college roommate has a dream job working for the Circle in upper management, and was able to pull a few strings to help get Mae a job.  Mae is working in customer service, which the Circlers call customer experience - sounds so much jazzier, doesn’t it?   

Not only are Circle employees expected to excel at their jobs - Mae’s goal is 100% customer satisfaction - they also are expected to be very present at Circle social gatherings, both in person and online.  Their campus is not a typical work campus.  You have everything you would ever need, and the very best facilities, right at work.  So, why leave? 

Mae is working at the Circle right as they are on the cusp of something amazing, the three wise men, or founders and executive officers of the company, are on the verge of completion and ‘closing the circle’.  On Mae’s first day Bailey, one of the three wise men, is giving a presentation to all 10,00 Circle employees about a new product, SeeChange.  This new product is a super small, HD camera that takes perfect video anywhere, all the time and is automatically streamed back into your TruYou account and then shared with the world.  And you can put them places where people will not see them.  This is where you realize that the Circle is not only a company, they are shift in society’s way of thinking.  They also are looking for people, particularly our political leaders, to go transparent.  Literally wearing a video camera and not have any private conversations, or privacy at all.  

Here are the new slogans that involve ‘completion’ of the Circle:  

Privacy is Theft

Secrets are Lies

Sharing is Caring

They use these slogans to coerce more people to join their movement, worldwide.  But what about our rights as people, don’t we have the right to disconnect, have privacy and freedom?  

Later in the book someone with more sanity creates “The Rights of Humans in a Digital Age”.  These include:

We must all have the right to anonymity. 

Not every human activity can be measured.

The ceaseless pursuit of data to quantify value of any endeavor is catastrophic to true understanding.

The barrier between public and private must remain unbreachable.

We must all have the right to disappear.  

The big question is, what route does humanity take?  The shiny and gold trinket with the feel good smiles and TruYou ‘zings’?  Or the deep truth in human nature that protects us, as people?  The deep meaning of freedom.  

In our extremely digital age, I found this idea and these questions so critical.  If we don’t post about something or share a picture, did the event really happen?  If we are tied to having to post and share and count likes and smiles, can we really enjoy anything?  And just be happy to be in the moment?  

The ideas and concept brought to light in this thrilling novel are quite intriguing and made me not want to put the second half of the book down.  However, the beginning, plot development and character development were lacking.  While I really liked the ideas and messages in the book, I would not rate it as one of my favorites due to this fact.  The message though is poignant, real and truthfully quite scary.   

Posted Mar 27 2017

I had been wanting to read The Boys in the Boat for quite some time and finally got the chance this month.  I will say that this definitely is a longer book to read and my one drawback is that at times seemed a little long winded and had too much detail.  For instance, one of the experts at rowing is George Pocock, a skilled craftsman at making the rowing shells or boats that the boys row.  At one point in the book, the author goes into great detail of how the boat is made.  I frankly didn’t really care.  I cared about the people and history in the book.  

What is the book about?  It is about nine young American, working class, boys who worked as hard as they could and came together to win the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.  I learned that rowing is extremely hard work.  Hours upon hours of pure endurance.  

In addition to the rowing aspect, the book also details the lives of the nine boys in the boat, and in particular Joe Rantz.  Joe did not have an easy upbringing and clearly being that in the Olympics these boys were all about 20 to 22 years old, they grew up in the darkest of times, the Great Depression.  But these boys had more determination than people had ever seen.   

The book also shows the reader what was really going on in Germany at this time, in the 1930’s.  The reason Germany wanted to host the Olympics was to show the world their great organization and that the ‘rumors’ about their brutality weren’t true.  So, in the weeks leading up to the big event, slogans were torn down, streets were cleaned and they gave an impression of being a wonderfully organized and modern nation.  Even friendly.  After the Olympics, the farce worked and because of this facade, it was even easier for Hitler to march right into Poland and thus begin World War II.  

I would say that this was a very good book.  Not terrific, in my opinion, but very good.  As I said, I just didn’t always appreciate the great details and wanted to get to the human interest aspects of the story.  And what a story it was...those boys were tremendous young men and upheld the true American dream and values.  

Posted Jan 31 2017

When I heard the title, The Serpent King, my immediate thought that this book must be a science fiction thriller, or perhaps a dystopian or fantasy novel.  I had seen it all over YA Lit blogs and postings as many people's ‘favorite book of 2016’ and thought I should check this one out.  Was I ever wrong.  It is not a fantasy/sci-fi novel at all - it is 100% realistic fiction with raw feelings, emotions and very unique and enthralling characters.  

The characters are what make this book so great.  We have three misfit seniors in high school that are maybe nervous and anxious, or perhaps excited about what the future holds for them.  The book is told through their various points of view so we as the reader get to know each of their perspectives and what their thoughts are.  

Our first and main character, is Dillard Early Jr.  Dill has gotten off to a bad start in life, and unfortunately, living in the small southern town that they do, he cannot get away from his family and their shameful past.  He is constantly haunted by his imprisoned father and what he stood for.  Dillard Early Sr. was a preacher who believed deeply in his idea of Christ and thought the only way to see if you are pure is to put you in front a deadly serpent, literally rattlesnakes and copperheads.  Well, the authorities clearly did not think too kindly of this idea of putting innocent people in front of deadly animals, and when they investigated good ole Preacher Early, they also found child pornography on his computer.  Preacher Early is at a Federal Prison, and, out of obligation only, Dill has to endure occasional awkward, self esteem shattering visits with his dear old dad.  Dill and his mom are now working hard to pay off the “family debt” created by Early Sr. and Dill just can’t seem to catch a break.  But Dill does have three things working for him...his friends, his talent for creating and making music and above all, his integrity.  

Dill’s first friend ever, that he made after his dad was sent off, is Travis.  Travis loves reading fantasy novels and works at his dad’s lumber yard.  Travis also is a gentle giant, the largest guy in high school, but wouldn’t hurt a fly.  Travis, like Dill, doesn’t fit in with the quarterback/cheerleader aspirational lifestyle in their town and is kind of an outcast.  This doesn’t sit well with Travis’ father who gets more abusive the more he drinks.  This is something Dill and Travis have in common, their fathers stink.  

And the third friend to round out the trio is Lydia.  Lydia is a fashion blogger and somewhat of a social media fashion celebrity.  While she is very successful and popular in the world beyond their rinky dink town of Forrestville; at home she is also an outcast and misfit like Dill and Travis.  Lydia comes from a great, supportive family and has the opportunity to go the fashion capital of the world and learn real journalism, in New York at, hopefully, NYU.  But before she blows the popstand of her dinky southern town, she wants Travis and Dill to be set on paths that will make them happy and hopefully fulfill their dreams.  

This is a novel about emotions, friendships, relationships and who we really are inside.  What’s really important.  And when we should obey and do what we are told to do, and when we need to stand up for ourselves and do what is right for us.  

Posted Jan 11 2017

Hopeless is a romantic realistic fiction novel by Colleen Hoover that will constantly keep you guessing as you go along for the ride.  Sky is a senior in high school and lives with her adoptive mom.  Sky has been home-schooled and for her last year of high school convinces her mom to let her attend public school.  She is very excited to go to school with her best friend and next door neighbor, Six.  Six and Sky have been friends forever, are extremely close, but also very different.  Sky is more reserved; six is outgoing.  Sky isn’t into boys; boys are all Six thinks about.  You get the picture.   

One day, Sky is out and about in town and sees a dreamy guy...and there seems to be a connection of some kind.  He is drawn to her...she is intrigued by him.  They meet and then soon learn they both are seniors in high school, at the same school.  Dean is back from a stint “away” and Sky attending school for the first time. 

Dean and Sky soon want to see more of each other and have a relationship that is very intense.  And on again, off again...on again, off again.  There just seems to a piece missing from this puzzle.  Will that piece be found?  Are Sky and Dean destined to be together?   

For romance fans, you will love this book.  Along with the romance, there is an extremely intriguing mystery that once solved could answer everyone's questions and deepest regrets.

Posted Nov 22 2016

For quite a while, I had the memoir Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer on my ‘to read’ list and I finally was able to read it last year.  It was terrific.  And thrilling and tragic and infuriating and beautiful.  Just to use a couple adjectives.   

Jon has always been a climber, but never would have even dreamed about climb the end all be all, the epitomy of all climbs, Mount Everest.  He freelanced writing articles for an adventure magazine, Outside, and was approached in 1995 to do a piece for the magazine about climbing the mountain of all mountains, Everest.  Jon said that in order to write an accurate account, he would need to be on the mountain, on a climbing expedition.  Logistics were figured out and the plan was set.  He would climb in the spring of 1996.   

Climbing Mount Everest is not only extremely costly, it also takes months and months, if not years, of planning.  In addition, without the help of the local nepalese, the ‘sherpas’, the climb would not be possible.  The sherpas carry the load.  Literally.  They start carrying what is needed up the mountain well in advance of the ‘paying customers’.  They take tents.  They take equipment.  They take food.  They take ropes...you get the point.  They also take the absolute necessity for a climb to the top: Oxygen.  The only way possible for people that live at usual elevations to make it to the top, is by relying on supplemental oxygen tanks as the air is so thin up on Everest that people would pass out if not for the 02.   

The sherpas are not the only people that help get paying customers up the mountain, there are quite a few teams of guided expeditions that lead people up the dangerous trek of Mount Everest.  In the spring of 1996, the two top guides were Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants and Scott Fisher of Mountain Madness. While they led separate tours, Scott and Rob knew that having trusted colleagues close by was important and helpful, so the two tours made decisions together.  Jon was a member of Adventure Consultants along with three more guides and nine paying clients.    

Heading up the mountain there are treacherous parts all along the way.  This is very dangerous business.  And, whether lucky or unfortunate, in the late 90’s, many expeditions had had great success which led to a feeling of safety.  Perhaps a false sense of safety, the “we got this” mentality.   

This memoir chronicles the people that Jon travels with and also the thrilling adventure of going up Mount Everest.  Jon foreshadows all along that they (meaning the guides, particularly Fisher) have a false sense of safety.  Rob Hall just seems like a great guy and guide.  He also knows that there is one boss on the mountain and it is Everest.   

Clearly, as anyone knows from the movie Everest which is based on these expeditions as well as the story that was published in Outside magazine almost 20 years ago, they run into a late spring storm.  A very large storm.  And in addition to the storm, the guides go beyond their own limits - the false sense of safety.  In the end, they don’t all make it up the mountain and some people, tragically, never make it back down.  

I was engrossed in this book.  I am not a climber, but found learning about the climbing world fascinating.  Especially an endeavor as great as climbing Mount Everest.  I highly recommend this thrilling memoir to all readers.  Jon Krakauer, such a wonderful writer, at his best.   

Posted Nov 16 2016

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon brings to light the issues of trust and also what you would do for love.  Madeline (Maddy) is a modern day “girl in the bubble”.  She has a very rare allergy disease (SCID) and because of this is quarantined in her house.  All of the time.  The few visitors that do come by must go through a vacuum type walkway to ‘decontaminate’.  Maddy is watched 24 hours a day, 7 days week.  Sometimes by her nurse, who is Maddy’s closest confidante, Carla, and other times by Maddy’s mother, who is a doctor.   

Maddy goes to online school and lives life through books and game nights with her mom.  She is happy because she doesn’t really know what she is missing.   

Until new neighbors move in next door.   

Maddy is immediately intrigued when she sees the boy next door, Olly.  He is her age and strikingly handsome.  Olly lives next door with his parents and his chain smoking sister, Kara.  Maddy takes it upon herself to do ‘neighborhood watch’ to learn more about Olly and his family.  Through her window, she sees that they certainly do not have the perfect family life as Olly’s father drinks too much and takes his anger out on their mother.   

One night, Olly sees Maddy through the window and they start communicating through email and immediately have a strong connection.  Both Maddy and Olly have a smart, witty, satirical nature to their personalities that is entertaining and clearly makes them a perfect match.   

For the first time in Maddy’s life, she isn’t content being in the bubble and wants more.  She wants to see Olly and eventually see the world.  But how could this be possible with her illness?  If she leaves the house, her heart could stop...she could faint...she could die.  Is it worth the risk?  Is living life worth it if you are trapped in a cage?  How could her and Olly ever really be together?   

Readers who enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars will gravitate to and thoroughly enjoy this book.  

Posted Nov 8 2016

“In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.” 

Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah was a page turner from the very beginning.  The story takes place in World War II, France.  Both in Paris and the French countryside.  The novel begins in 1939, before the war begins and we get to see what life was like prior to the war, how happy they all were.  

Our two main characters are sisters, Vianne and Isabelle.  They had a sad childhood in that their father was never the same man after what he saw in World War I and their mother tragically died when they were only fourteen and four, respectively.  Vianne is the older sister and is a housewife and mother.  She also teaches at the local school and is one to follow the rules.  She married young and is completely in love with her husband who is extremely loyal and handles all of their affairs.  Isabelle is the opposite.  She is the rebel and since the age of four when her father abandoned them has been seeking happiness and love.  In 1939 she is coming of age and at eighteen years old has had enough of finishing school and rules.  She wants to live life.   

The war brings brutal realities to the sisters lives when the Nazis occupy France and they are forced to make impossible decisions.  Isabelle, being the rebel, has no fear and wants to set things right for her country.  She uses her bravery and beauty to her full advantage and is an integral part of the resistance movement.  Vive la France. 

Vianne is scared.  She misses her husband, who was called to war in 1939, and does not know how to go on now that the Wehrmacht has invaded her small town of Carribeau.  When a German officer billets in her home, she is terrified and is concerned for her daughter's safety.  At this time, Isabelle is staying with Vianne and they constantly are at odds based on their ideology on how to make it through the dreadful war.  Eventually, Isabelle’s resistance work takes her back to Paris and Vianne is left alone with the Nazi and her daughter.   

The novel often also flashes forward to an elderly woman in 1995 who is nearing the end of her life.  In the move from her home, the woman finds the war papers for a woman named Juliette Gervais, this name forces her to remember the horrors of the war and she feels it might finally be time to face the past and tell her son the truth.  

Who is the woman in 1995?  Who survives the war and who does not?  Who is Juliette Gervais?  These questions propelled me to the point that I just could not put this novel down.  I was enthralled with Vianne and Isabelle and had to know what became of them and their loved ones.  Their courage was inspiring and the novel makes us think of our own loved ones and what we could and would do to make it through a war as horrific as World War II.  

Posted Nov 2 2016

Jennifer Donnelly’s most recent novel, a historical fiction mystery, titled These Shallow Graves, was enthralling and a page turner from the start.  The book is set in New York City, in the year 1890.  Our main character is Josephine (Jo) Montfort, an aristocratic coming of age lady who should really just worried about when and who she will marry, to make her family’s stance in the wealthy community even stronger.  Her suitor is none other than Bram Aldridge, the most eligible young bachelor around.   

However, Jo has other ideas, she idealizes a local female journalist, Nellie Bly, who brought forth the truth on what is going on behind the closed doors of mental asylums.  Jo wants to be important and make a difference in the world.  What she doesn’t want to do is sit around parlors with the ladies and discuss fabrics and lace for dresses, and who's going to whose party with whom.   

As she is working on her latest story, the headmaster at her Connecticut boarding school calls for Jo and she learns that her gracious, full of life, father is dead, killed in an accident by his own gun.  Jo immediately goes home to her family’s mansion in Tribeca, NY and learns the details of her father’s death.  He did indeed kill himself by accident cleaning his revolver.  But of course this makes no sense to Jo as this is not something her father would do, as he was always so careful.  It is not in his character.   

Jo finds a bullet casing on the floor of her father’s study, where he was found dead.  She thinks of her father and how oftentimes he would stare out the window of his study and only one world described his look, haunted.  She feels as though the bullet casing is a clue and perhaps her father did not die by accident. 

Nonetheless, Jo carries on with life as her uncle and mother wish.  The family is thrilled with the prospect of her becoming betrothed to Bram and that is her duty.  However, more clues keep coming up and Jo just cannot ignore them, she must find out how and why her father died.  She overhears a news reporter saying that, oh no, the Montfort death was not an accident - that was cover up for the fact that he committed suicide.  This is even more preposterous to Jo than an accident with his own gun.   

At this point, Jo feels she must get answers and solicits the help of the news reporter, Eddie Gallagher to help her.  But the time period is the 1890’s.  Women cannot be out and about, on their own, or with strange men of lower classes.  Jo is taking great risk to her reputation to find the truth, which could risk her future betrothal to Bram.   Along the way, Jo learns of how the other half really lives, in the slums of New York in dreadful conditions.  But she also makes a few new friends along the way.   

The mystery in this novel is gripping and keeps you guessing over and over again.  One answer snowballs into more questions and you learn that this not just about her father’s death, but others are killed and one missing, enigmatic man could be the key to it all.   

One theme that was profound in the novel is that of freedom.  Jo doesn’t have her freedom because she cannot come and go as she pleases and her and her friends must marry the men their families choose.  There is no choice for the girls.  The new friends she meets oftentimes do not have freedom as they are enslaved by pimps and gang leaders, and at their beck and call.  Will Jo find the freedom she so desperately wants?  Will she find the answers she needs and finally get justice for her father and his untimely death?   

Posted Oct 27 2016

Sebastian Rudd is not your typical lawyer.  He doesn’t have an office, barely has a staff and professionally is shunned by almost everyone in the legal field.  But he believe he stands up for what’s right and is trying to achieve justice, and that means that he will defend the indefensible.   

John Grisham’s latest novel, Rogue Lawyer, shows the reader that the law isn’t always cut and dry, the good guys aren’t always good any the bad guys aren’t always bad...or as bad we we think they are.  Sebastian and his driver, named ‘Partner’ travel around in a black cargo van, equipped with a desk, a couch and a refrigerator.  The van is special in that it is bullet-proofed.  Not only to protect his small agency of himself, and Partner from the thugs he has represented, but also cops that he has made extremely angry along the way.   

Some of his cases are ‘they got the wrong guy’, some cases are situations in which the local law enforcement has wronged community members and others are situations where he is the last resort for some criminals.  All in all, the stories lined up in this novel are extremely interesting and show the legal world of judges, lawyers, police officers, detectives, petitions, indictments and juries from a very different point of view.   

This novel also makes you look within yourself for how quickly we not only judge a book by it's cover, but also take facts at their face value and don’t dig in for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  

Posted Oct 24 2016

The first setting for Girl At War by Sara Novic’ is Zagreb, Croatia, 1991.  The second setting for Girl At War is New York, New York, 2001.  The main character, Ana Juric’ lived two completely different lives in these very different places.  

Let’s first talk about Zagreb, circa 1991.  Ana was only 10 years old at that time and enjoyed playing with her best friend, Luka, visiting with family and school.  She loved her mother and father, but had a very special place in her heart for her young baby sister, Rahela.  Her life was ‘normal’ by many standards until the civil war began.  Then her life turned into bomb raids, fear and destruction.  At one point, when the war was still in the early stages, Ana’s family crosses the border into Slovenia to see a doctor to help little, ailing Rahela.  Upon their return to Croatia, the border guard asks, “Are you sure you want to go back over there?”.  Ana’s father responds, “What kind of question is that?  Of course we want to go back. Of course we want to go home.”  This resonated with me because many times we hear of brutalities on far away places and wonder, why don’t they just leave?   The simple answer, because that is their home.  

As the war rages on, Rahela’s health continues to worsen and she must get much higher level care.  Ana’s parents make the extremely difficult decision to not only drive across the battle ridden countryside, but also deliver Rahela to an American doctor that can get Rahela help in the United States where she will be taken care of by an American family.  This is crushing for Ana and her parents.  On the drive back, tragedy due to the war strikes Ana’s family and she will never be the same.  

Fast forward to New York, 2001.  Ana is 20 years old and attending college, living the ‘typical’ American life.  But she still has flashbacks, thoughts and fears that her peers and teachers cannot fathom.  Yet she has learned, that to speak of what she knows just creates confusion, disbelief and alienates her.  Ana has unresolved issues that she needs to come to terms with in order to fully move on with her life.  

This is a novel about war, resiliency, triumph and courage.  We don’t often read about modern wars, especially from a civilian perspective and I thought this a terrific book with a great point of view and message.  

Posted Sep 21 2016

This alternative historical fiction novel by Michael Grant chronicles the stories of WWII through three courageous and very different female soldiers.  Yes, female soldiers.  WWII.  This is what makes Front Lines and alternative historical fiction novel.  Taking a true event from the past and putting a twist on it.  

Our first protagonist is Rio, strong farm girl from California.  Rio has no thoughts at all of entering the war effort...and then her older sister Rachel is killed in action in the south pacific and her whole world changes.  Much to the dismay and fear of her parents, Rio decides to enlist and hopefully gain some revenge against the enemies that took her sister away.

Our second character is an animal lover and future nurse, Frangie.  She grew up very poor in the south and sees entering into the war as not only a way to help her family make ends meet and put food on the table, but also as a way out of the only life she has ever known.  Frangie soon learns that prejudices can be the same in the military as they are with civilians.  

And thirdly, we have, human intelligence officer, Rainy from New York.  Rainy is extremely close with her Marine brother and is hopeful that she can not only use her intellect to help in the war but also keep her brother safe.  

Three very different stories, one similar outcome.  While they may have different ways of getting there and far different training stories, they all end up on the beaches in Europe, fighting for their country and their lives.  

This is the first book in a series by Michael Grant titled, Soldier Girl.  While these strong characters may have gone into the war naive, they soon learn what war really is all about.  The book begins with one of our characters looking back on how it all began while she is waiting to recover at a hospital in Germany, 1945.  The writer does not want us, the reader, to know which person she is in the story.  As she writes, “at night we cry sometimes, and if you think that just applies to the females then you have never been in combat, because everyone cries sooner or later.”

I really liked this first installment in the series and I cannot wait for the second book to come out.  It looks like that one will be titled Silver Stars and will be released in 2017.  I highly recommend this to historical fiction lovers, especially those who like WWII history. 

Posted Sep 13 2016

 Government corruption, secrets, spies, covert operations and many more CIA, National Security type actions we see in movies...but they don’t happen in real life...or do they?  

This nonfiction book, is both a biography of Daniel Ellsberg as well as a historical account of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.  The author, Steve Sheinkin, starts at the very beginning and how after World War II, we supported France in their re-invasion of Vietnam.  From then on we, as a nation, seemed to continue to make the ‘wrong choices’ in regards to any involvement with North and South Vietnam.  

Daniel was in complete support of the United States government and worked at the Pentagon in Washington D.C.  His role?  To help plan attacks on North Vietnam to stop the spread of communism.  Because of who Daniel worked with and for, he had access to many top secret documents.  He knew that the government wasn’t being completely honest with the American people, but he still thought that this was to help us win the war and thereby spread democracy.

In the mid to late 1960’s, Daniel decides that, in order to help the war effort, he needs to see first hand what that war in Vietnam entails.  For two years he works in combat on the front lines in Vietnam.  What he learns if very discouraging.  We are at a stalemate, the same as at the very beginning of the war, and the same as what the war will be in years to come.  No progress.  Only lives lost.  For what?

Upon his return to the US, he learns that the Secretary of State under President Johnson is compiling binders of documents relating to the problems in Vietnam starting in 1945, all the way to the end of Johnson’s term in 1968.  Daniel has access to these documents and begins reading the 7,000 page history of the War in Vietnam.  He is even more discouraged.  

He eventually decides that the American people deserve to know the truth.  His plan is to make copies of these top secret documents and they eventually come to be known as The Pentagon Papers.  In 1968 there is a new president in the Whitehouse, Richard Nixon.  When Daniel’s plan comes to fruition and in the early 1970’s he finds a way to leak the information to the American public, Nixon is not happy.  So much so, that this was the beginning of the end for him in that with Ellsberg as a catalyst, Nixon goes above and beyond the law and eventually tries to cover up Watergate, the break-in that forced his resignation.  

Sheinkin does a terrific job telling this story, factually as it happened.  As I was reading the book, while I knew some of the information, to see it all compiled together and to learn more about how wrong the administrations were, is mind boggling.  Another interesting part of the story was how different our world was with technology.  The work Ellsberg and his team had to go through to copy these 7,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers was very grueling.  Today, they could all fit on a zip drive purchased at Walmart in a matter of minutes or seconds.  How times have changed…

**Side Note: I am 100% behind all of our troops and so very proud for our servicemen who fought in the Vietnam War.  My own father fought in this war from 1969-70.  Words cannot describe my gratitude for the patriotism and heroism our troops in Vietnam portrayed.  This book to me is not anti-military whatsoever, but bringing to light decisions that powerful people in government make and how they impact the world.  

Posted Apr 28 2016

This stunning historical fiction novel by Ruta Sepetys is enthralling, heartbreaking, infuriating and poignant.  I was quite taken with her first historical fiction novel, Between Shades of Gray, that first looked at what was going with Eastern Europe, particularly Lithuania, and wrath of Stalin during World War II.  

Salt to the Sea is a companion novel in that one of the characters has a connection to a character in Between Shades of Gray, but this novel does not talk about work camps and people forced from their homes and taken to Russia, but of four strangers who end up being thrown together as well as the largest maritime tragedy in history.  

At this time in history, all people, German, Prussian or otherwise on the Western side of Germany are evacuating as fast as they can to the ports at the Baltic Sea to flee from the Russians.  Many people are traveling miles and miles by walking in brutally cold January temperatures.  

The novel is told through four very different voices.  First there is Emilia, a now homeless Polish girl, about 14 or 15 years old.  There is a language barrier, so she has a hard time communicating and also must hide from the Germans that she is Polish as all Poles were sent to concentration camps.  Since she was nine years old and Germany first invaded Poland life has been very rough for poor Emilia.  She still finds a way to hope. 

The other female character is Joana, a Lithuanian nurse that has been given refuge by Germany due to her skills.  Joana is carrying guilt with what has happened to her fellow Lithuanians and is desperately hoping to find her mother again.  Just with Emilia and Joana’s stories you see, Germany saved Joana, but wants to destroy Emilia.  Russia wants to destroy Joana, and probably Emilia as well.  There are many times in the book where you get the “this must be the end of the world” feeling.  We all know it was not and thankfully that the war ended.  However, this novel beautifully shows the brutality of war.  

Our other two viewpoints in the novel are Alfred and Florian.  Alfred is a very complicated, fantasy driven young German with grandiose ideas and clearly MANY issues.  He was not selected at first to be a part of the Nazi’s, however due to slim pickings is now a sailor aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff and fancies himself to be quite important, when in reality he is the lowest ranking person on board.  

Florian on the other is a Prussian and is on a mission of his own.  He had been working for the German’s in the Art’s.  Hitler had a real fascination with the arts and once Florian learned his skills were being used to help the Fuhrer steal from other countries, he wanted out.  And is now on a personal mission and a mission to find his sister.  

One boat, two war fronts, four very different stories.  This book was a page turner from the very beginning for me.  I would rate this as one of my favorite books. Ever.  It was phenomenal.  

Posted Apr 18 2016

For fans of I Am Number Four, The 5th Wave and other action, survival, thriller, science fiction books, you will also be enthralled with Illuminae.  The whole title is Illuminae: The Illuminae Files_01.  The key is in the title as this book is not written like a traditional novel.  The story is told through a dossier, and in chronological order, details the events of an attack on a mining colony and the aftermath as the few survivors left, flee and are trying to escape the attackers who are still in pursuit.  The dossier includes only primary documents, files, footage, emails, memos, chat conversations, interviews, etc. from the ship's logs.   

The story takes place in the future, year 2575, where people can travel to various galaxies by using ‘jumps’ and spaceships are plentiful.  The Kerenza planet, where the mining colony is located, was attacked by a biotech company and this was a form of corporate warfare, which is illegal.  Our main characters are Kady, a strong-willed computer hacker and Enza, your ‘All American’ type guy.  

Another main character is AIDAN, the artificial intelligence system on Alexander (the military spaceship and the survivors’ only hope at escaping the Biotech company still chasing them).  While AIDAN is their best chance at survival in that the AI is much smarter than any human could ever be, the AI also was damaged in the Kerenza attack and is making some, well, odd decisions.  

This book is a page turner with action, suspense and mystery at every turn, and even a little romance.  But just a little.  There is also desperation, in that if they don’t survive, who will tell the story of how they were so brutally attacked, and how so many innocent people lost their lives.  For what reason?  Who is really to blame?  Will ‘they’ pay for their crimes?  

Here is a great write up from Entertainment Weekly in an interview with the authors on how the book is so uniquely put together:  EW Article.  

In addition, there will be an Illuminae 2 (Gemina) and an Illuminae 3 (Obsidio) coming out in the months or years to come.  All in all, I think this is a terrific sci-fi thriller that will be very popular with teens and adult readers.  

Posted Jan 19 2016

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is one of the ‘IT’ books of 2015.  As the first installment in the Red Queen series, this book packs all of the young adult literature themed punches in can.  There are a lot of genres encompassing this story, including some fantasy, some dystopian, some science fiction and some romance elements.  

The book starts out in an atmosphere where you feel as though you are a peasant in Roman times, going to the colosseum to see a gladiator show.  However, it is the ‘future’ and you are going to stadium to see two ‘silvers’ battle.  You see the story through the main character, Mare’s, eyes.  Mare is a seventeen year old ‘red’ who, without any extraordinary talent, steals and scrapes by to give her family enough food to eat and power for the lights and refrigerator.  If she does not have a skill or talent by the time she is eighteen, she will be conscripted into the army and forced to fight a war that has gone on for decades.  Three of her brothers are already there, fighting on.  

Back to the ‘silvers’ battle...the silvers are the noble people, or privileged, and are special in that each person born of silver blood has a special gift or power.  Some can read minds, others can fight with fire, others can move metal, some have superhuman strength and so on.  Clearly any normal red blooded person is no match for a silver.  The government has these battles every so often, silver vs. silver, just to show the reds how mighty and powerful they are.  So the reds stay in line, so to speak.

Mare keeps on scraping by, bring home what she can for her meager family. Then, her life changes when her best friend, Kilorn, is conscripted into the army after losing his skilled job as a fisherman.  She must find a way to save him.  It is then that through many twist and turns, she ends up within the castle walls and it is learned that, although she is a lowly red, she also is gifted with a special power.  What is her talent?  What does this mean for their way of living and their system of the reds being lesser people?  

In addition to what Mare is discovering about herself, she also discovers that there are people ready, willing and able to stand up to the silvers.  They call themselves the Scarlet Guard and they want to bring equality to their world.  Mare has choices she must make.  She also does not know who to trust.  Betrayals seem to be around every corner in this corrupt world they live in.  

This is a page turner from the beginning and Mare is a powerful, strong-willed protagonist who wants to do what is right and also finally earn justice where it is due.  

The highly anticipated second book in this series, Glass Sword, is coming out February 9th, 2016.    

Posted Jan 11 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir is honestly one of the best books I have ever read.  And for those of you that follow me on Goodreads or read this blog, that says a lot!  It has all of the components that makes it a terrific novel with excellent characters, a great story and a terrific setting.  

The book starts out with the main character, Mark Watney, an astronaut alone and injured on Mars.  The time is current day, so while this is clearly a science fiction novel it is not futuristic in nature at all.  Watney and his five crewmates were on a routine mission to Mars to collect samples and do basic research.  He has been abandoned by these fellow crewmates in that with the injuries he suffered, and the hole in his astronaut suit, the only conclusion would be that he died within seconds of the accident that happened during their abrupt mission abort due to a severe dust storm.  

However, due to some odd occurrences and luck, Watney lives!  The good news for him, is that he is a botanist and a mechanical engineer.  How will this help him?  Well, he is short on food, very short, being that it will be at least a year before anyone can come to retrieve him.  Therefore, he will have to use his botanist skills to grow food in soil not made to do such tasks.  Secondly, his engineering will come in quite handy as he will have to make use of whatever he has around him to do things they weren’t intended to do to prolong his life and find a way to rescue.  

The book is written both from Watney’s diary as well as third party narration when we learn on Earth how NASA learns of Watney’s survival and how they deal with how to communicate with him and inevitably how to find a way to hopefully bring him home.  

I have said that, to me, this book was a mix of a Dan Brown novel meets Apollo 13 meets a Jim Gaffigan type comedian.  Watney is a very funny guy.  A genius, and hilarious.  Also, there is so much technical information in the book, but it is never boring (I have also learned that all of the facts were checked by NASA).  I also am a NASA nerd in that I find the organization to be incredibly interesting, so these parts I thoroughly enjoyed.  All in all, I clearly would highly recommend this book.  It is just a fantastic read.  I felt like I got to take a vacation whenever I got to read it and was very sad to see it end.  Write another, Andy!  

Posted Oct 7 2015

I was told by another librarian that works at the Children’s Cooperative Book Center at UW-Madison that the House of Purple Cedar by Tim Tingle will “change your life”.  I was intrigued and thought I must read this book.  I can say that indeed it has majorly changed my perspective on a pretty large portion of life itself.  I do not want to give any spoilers away, but the book has an astounding message of forgiveness.  

The story takes place in the late 1800’s in a Choctaw community in the Oklahoma Territory (prior to its statehood).  The main character, Rose, takes us back to this time period of racism and fear that had deeply affected their town and their native american community.  Through many stories and bringing in an assortment of characters, you learn the teachings of their culture.  The book also tackles many issues in our society today such as domestic violence.  

One theme throughout the book is cruelty and evilness.  The Marshal of the nearest town, Spiro, is as evil as they come.  He also clearly battles alcoholism and it is mainly because of him, that fear and racism have a stronghold on the community.   

To combat this darkness in the novel, Tingle interweaves many stories from Rose’s family.  She lives with her mother, father, brother and both of her grandparents.  There is a peacefulness and love that stems from her grandparents that is really special.  As Rose comes of age she faces many obstacles in society and through her grandparents’ lessons she learns how to overcome these challenges. 

Posted Sep 30 2015

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson deservedly won the coveted Printz award in January of 2015.  The premise of the story is two twins and how their actions and one horribly tragic event changed their lives.   Through their own perspectives and two different time periods, the twins tell their coming of age tale.  

Noah’s story is told when he is fourteen years old.  At this time he had wild, unruly hair, was fanatically into drawing and also learning about relationships.  One boy in particular caught his eye.  He fell very hard for a boy visiting from out of town and learned a lot about himself in the process.  

Jude’s story is told when she is sixteen years old.  She no longer speaks with her brother (or he no longer will speak to her…) and her life and whole world is not how she ever would have believed it would be.  Especially compared to her life when she and Noah were fourteen.  

Can Noah and Jude find a way to communicate and heal themselves and eachother?  What went so wrong with them?  

Side Note: Another component to this book is Art.  I felt as though ‘Art’ in various forms, painting, sculpture, drawing...you name it, became a character in and of itself.  There are also some very unique personas in the novel that really round it out to be an enjoyable book to read. 

Posted Sep 22 2015

This exquisitely written novel by Anthony Doerr interweaves two great stories together during World War II in Germany and France.  The main characters in All the Light We Cannot See are Werner and Marie-Laure. The story begins in August of 1944 where Saint-Malo, a beautiful coastline town in France with water on all sides is set to be bombed by the Allied Forces to move the Germans out.  Throughout the novel, Doerr expertly crosses back from ‘present day’ 1944 and into the 1930’s and how Werner and Marie-Laure both ended up in Saint-Malo. 

Werner is an orphan growing up in Germany.  He and his sister, Jutta, are living in a small orphanage together.  They come across a radio one day and for Werner it is love at first sight.  Somehow he just has an ability to put things back together.  Soon there is word around town that if you have a broken device of any kind, find Werner at the orphanage and he can fix it for you.  Over the years, more and more soldiers come into the area and restrictions are getting tighter and tighter.  Jutta learns on the radio that Germany has moved into France.  At this same time, it is announced in Germany that it is illegal for any Germans to listen to foreign broadcasts of any kind.  One evening, a German soldier comes to the orphanage looking for Werner.  He is taken back to a high ranking officer’s occupied home to fix his radio, the fanciest radio Werner has ever seen.  Of course, while this is no small task, it is not difficult for Werner and he easily fixes the device.  The Officer is impressed and refers Werner to a prestigious Hitler Youth Camp so Werner can use his skills working for the Third Reich and serving Hitler.  The Youth Camp is brutal, but Werner makes it through and ends up becoming a soldier for Germany and through many twists and turns ends up in Saint-Malo in 1944.  

Marie-Laure is the daughter of a renowned locksmith for the Museum of Paris.  One of the most precious possessions of the museum is the “Sea of Flames” stone which comes with many fairy tales and stories.  It is Marie-Laure’s father’s responsibility to protect the stone.  He not only makes locks, but also lock boxes.  He uses these skills to make a model of where they live in Paris so that Marie-Laure can learn her way around as she was blind at the age of six.   Their lives are going quite well, until Germany occupies Paris and they are forced to flee the city.  With them, her father carries what could be the “Sea of Flames” stone, as there were three replicas made and all four of the stones then were taken out of the city.  They are able to escape and make it to Saint-Malo where Marie-Laure’s wealthy Great Uncle lives in a beautiful home.  They live there for years trying to survive the war.  

This is a novel interweaved with many other stories.  It is phenomenal.  Probably one of the most well written books I have ever read.  I also love historical fiction, especially about World War II.  But this isn’t your typical World War II novel.  Being that you see characters on both sides of the war, questions are raised such as, ‘who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?’, ‘at what cost are people willing to put themselves or loved ones at risk?’ and ‘is it better to just get by and survive or try to do something to help yours and others’ cause?’   This is a great novel with great storylines and great characters.  

Posted May 29 2015

Imagine sitting in a lecture hall waiting for the professor to begin class as the time is ticking away.  The professor is now 20 minutes late...do you just leave and skip class for the day?  And why do so many of your classmates keep looking at you as if you would be the one to make this decision? 

This is one of the embarrassing events that happened to Alice in the novel Still Alice by Lisa Genova as Alice is dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.  In the novel, Alice IS the professor, she just does not remember this fact.  She is in her late fifties, established in her career as a psychology professor, mother of three children and happily married.  She has a wonderful life, until she starts to get disoriented and forgetful.  Very forgetful.  

This poignant novel is written through Alice’s perspective which makes it very real and very tragic.  Anyone who knows anything about Alzheimer’s knows it is a horrific illness, particularly for the close loved ones of someone grappling with the disease.  Seeing the illness slowly take a hold of Alice and her life and relationships is extremely touching.  This is a novel that I do not believe you can get through without shedding a tear.  I personally could not get through it without shedding a bucketful of tears. 

Posted May 14 2015

The Girl on the Train is so far ‘THE book’ of 2015.  It is the one everyone is reading and I had heard great things about it.  I have to say that I was not disappointed!  It was a great mystery where you are taken on a ride with so many twist and turns that you really don’t know what to expect.  The minute you think you have it all figured out, something new happens and you realize you were all wrong, but then again were you?

The girl that rides the train is Rachel, a thirty-something divorcee who likes to make up stories for a couple who lives in a house that she rides past on her train to work.  She makes up little stories about their jobs, their relationship, anything that distracts her from closely looking at her disaster of a life and how it has turned out.  

One day as she is riding past their home, she notices something odd.  She tries to make up a story in her mind to explain it, but it trouble her, nonetheless.  Then a few days later she finds out that the woman who lives in the home has gone missing.  At this point she feels as though she must come forward to the authorities with what she saw as she was riding on the train.  

However, how reliable of a witness is Rachel?  Is she projecting her own insecurities and life troubles into this case?  Does the odd occurrence she witnessed even have anything to do with the woman’s disappearance?  Without giving anything more away for this thrilling novel, I will just say it is a real page turner.  I highly recommend it for mystery/thriller readers.  

Posted May 7 2015

The opening line of this novel starts out with, “Lydia is dead.  But they still don’t know this yet.”  The premise of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is a murder mystery.  The year is 1977 and the family seems like everything is going quite well in suburban America with this family of five.  The father works as a professor at the local university, the mother is a stay at home mom.  They have three children, Nath is the oldest and he will be attending Harvard in the fall.  Lydia is the middle child and is sixteen years old and then Hannah is the youngest and is only nine years old.  While it seems like Lydia has a great, stable home life both of her parents are harboring deep set issues and resentment that carry over into their parenting.  

Marilyn, her mother, as a lover of science always dreamed of becoming a doctor and being extremely successful and respected.  At Lydia’s age the last thing she wanted was just to be a mother and a wife.  However, things changed back in the late 1950’s when she met her now husband, James Lee.  James grew up in middle America as the only Chinese-American person in school and college.  He found a job teaching in a town in Ohio where this continued.  Because of his lack of confidence, he always wanted to fit in, have friends and be popular and wants the same for his children.  

Both Marilyn and James have big dreams for Lydia - to be smart, get good grades, be involved at school, have many friends, be popular.  So much so that at dinner, the conversation usually revolves around Lydia, which can anger Nath and make Hannah feel invisible.  

But the big question of the book is, what happened to Lydia?  Who murdered her?  How and why did they do this?  This novel is full of deeply flawed characters that have made some major mistakes.  It is written in a haunting way that really makes you feel scared for Lydia, scared for all of the Lee’s.  There are times when you love each member of the Lee family and times when you are disappointed and angry at each person in the Lee family.  All in all, a very well written and poignant novel.

Posted Apr 30 2015

Many other reviews of this book have stated that All the Bright Places is a cross between The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor and Park. I think that this assessment is fitting, but All the Bright Places certainly has its own niche. 

I have to admit, at the start of the book I wasn't really a fan. Particularly because I didn't really like or relate to the male main character, Theodore Finch. However, as I got to know him in the book, I could not help but fall in love with him.  He makes the ordinary person and the ordinary life seem boring. He brings in color when there is none and he sees things about people and the world that most of us don't. As much as the 'norm' wants to make fun of Finch to make themselves feel better, they are just jealous that he is so free.  Or is it that he just seems free?  What is really going on inside of Finch?  

I also really like the female main character, Violet, the typical teenager who is not so typical at all.  She is recovering from the loss of her sister, her best friend.   Violet is also realizing through Finch’s guidance, what this life she has left to live is all about. 

The book starts out on the top of a bell tower by school where both Finch and Violet are up there, contemplating jumping and taking their own lives.  They each end up saving each other that day and because of the severe ramifications of what could have been, they end up starting a friendship.  As you learn more and more about Violet and Finch, along with their backgrounds piece by piece it all starts to make sense, meaning the choices they have made and are making in life.  I thought all in all this was a very good book.   I would highly recommend it to reader’s of realistic fiction.  

Posted Apr 23 2015

Some say that The Selection is a Hunger Games-esq dystopian novel with a ‘Bachelor’ show twist.  I would tend to agree with this statement.  The setting is in the future where there is a monarchy and a royal family for our government.  Then within each of the 35 states or provinces, there are castes.  A ‘one’ caste is royalty, ‘two’s’ are very affluent (celebrities), ‘three’s’ are wealthy and so on all the way to the lowest caste of ‘eights’ which are people who cannot work due to ailments or homeless people.  

America Singer, the main character, is a five and from their town, she is in love with a six, Aspen.  This is not something typically done, marry ‘down’ and America’s family would rather her marry ‘up’.  As fives they live alright, but sometimes food can be scarce and they don’t have any ‘extras’, meaning they live meagerly.  

Every couple of decades or so, the royal family is looking for a prince or princess for the next ruler.  This year, Prince Maxon is of the right age and is looking for a wife.  Just to humor her mother, America sends in a letter as her application.  And she is somehow chosen to represent her province!  Most girls are thrilled beyond belief at this opportunity, but America will desperately miss Aspen and is not interested in anyone else.

America and 34 other women are brought to the castle where they will ‘compete’ for Prince Maxon’s love and affection.  In the end, he will choose his bride.  In this instance, caste is irrelevant.   Being that America goes into this spectacle in love with someone else, she is very nonchalant and this actually draws Maxon to her.  

Will her feelings for Aspen fade?  Does she start to fall for Maxon?  How will this impact their society as a whole and the caste system they are accustomed to?  Is this the fairest way to live?

This page turning love story and dystopian novel is great for fans of the Hunger Games, Matched, Divergent or Deliruim.  There is adventure, but also romance.  This is also the first in a series of novels.  The other books include: The Elite, The One, The Prince, The Guard, The Queen, The Heir and Happily Ever After.

Posted Apr 16 2015

In his memoir titled, No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of Hell’s Angels, Jay Dobyns gives great detail in both the world of working undercover as a law enforcer as well as the world of the Hell’s Angels.  The Hell’s Angel’s group that they are trying to bring down are in the desert of Arizona.  In order to gain ‘credit’ they infiltrate through the Mexican Chapter, using past criminals that owe the cops favors.

The story starts out with Jay’s history of being a somewhat all American boy.   He becomes a police officer and after getting shot realizes that he feeds off of adrenaline and undercover work is where he belongs.  In his real life, Jay has a wife and two children.  They live in a nice home and Jay is still expected to take care of normal things like the lawn, the cars etc.  

In Jay’s undercover world he goes all in, using his undercover name, Bird.  When I say that I mean that he really becomes the person he is portraying to be.  His goal of bringing down the big names in the Arizona sector of Hell’s Angels really puts him through the ultimate test and in all facets, from his demeanor to his appearance, Bird becomes a Hell’s Angel.  So much so that in a way he loses himself and puts him family in second place.  Not only that, but with all the lying required to keep the operation going, he is forgetting what is really the truth.  When does Bird ‘clock out’ and Jay return?

This memoir is totally engrossing.  I really enjoyed learning about worlds I had very little knowledge of.  The world of undercover police work is extremely interesting.  And then learning about how the Hell’s Angels ‘organization’ operates and what Jay must do in order to gain their trust was enthralling.  I would highly recommend this book.  

Posted Apr 8 2015

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult is one of the best books I have read in a long time and one of my favorites of all time, which says a lot!  I really just loved this book, for so many reasons.  While the premise of the story is the mystery surrounding a woman’s disappearance on fateful evening; there is a ‘non-fiction’ element in that you learn many tidbits and information about elephants (who you will learn are incredible animals).  

The main characters in the story are: Jenna, a thirteen year old girl looking for her mother, and the mother, Alice.  Alice was an elephant scientist, first in Africa and then later at her and husband’s elephant sanctuary in New Hampshire.  After an accident where a caretaker was trampled to death 10 years earlier, Alice disappeared in the middle of the night.  Jenna has been trying to find her and find out what happened for as long as she can remember.  Her words of "one thing I know for certain and that is that my mother would never leave me" was so haunting to me and really Jenna’s driving force in trying to piece together the few bits of information she has.  

The story has so many twists and turns that you are really kept on your toes.  Picoult is so good at allowing you as the reader to really get to know the characters and fall in love with them and their stories.  In this unique novel you also get to know certain elephants and their personalities.  It is really a touching element to the novel.  I would highly recommend this book as I really could not put it down; from the very first chapter, I was hooked.  

Posted Mar 26 2015

Let me preface this book review by stating that Feed by M.T. Anderson has a horrible cover.  While I found this science fiction story to be very interesting and has a poignant message, it is hard for some to gravitate to the horrendous cover that the publisher chose.  The novel starts out with Titus, the main character, heading up to the moon to celebrate spring break with his friends.  Clearly, the book takes place sometime in the future.  But is it really that far into the future?

Not only in this futuristic world do people travel to exotic places such as the moon, people also live with feeds embedded into their brains.  It would be similar to your smartphone being attached somehow to your brain.  Through these feeds, society communicates, shops, posts messages, watches TV...basically all activities that are currently done on computers or personal devices.  The big question is: are the feeds good for us or not so good?  This is a question that we can even ask ourselves today.  Everyone has that person in their life that just cannot put their phone down.  They constantly are checking for messages, updates etc.  Personally, I love to be ‘unplugged’.  When I go on a camping trip with my family, I turn my phone off and only check it periodically (once a day) to check on the weather and for any emergency calls.  It is a wonderful feeling.  With feeds in everyone’s brains, they can never get away.  Not only are they always available for communication, the feed is embedded into your likes/dislikes (similar to ‘cookies’ when you surf the internet).  So constantly advertisements will pop into your brain.  But this is just how the world is in the novel Feed and people are accustomed to it.  

Until someone rebels during their trip to the moon.   This someone is a ‘hippy’ rebelling against the feeds and Titus and his friends for the first time lose their feeds and feel silence.  They are taken to the hospital and it is there that Titus meets Violet.  Violet comes from a different background than his friends and he learns a lot through her, eventually even forms feelings for her.  But is Titus willing to really open up?  He is ready to dig into who he really is and not just what his feed tells him?

I have to admit, I am usually not a fan of science fiction novels like this however this was a really great book.  In addition, it is so timely with how each month and year we are becoming more and more ‘addicted’ to the feeds we have access to.  This has already changed our world.  In some ways very positively and in some ways negatively.  Feed brings some of these questions to light and I think it is a wonderful book that I would highly recommend.  

Posted Mar 19 2015

If you like one of Ellen Hopkins’ books, you will like all of them.  As a fan of Hopkins, I personally think Tilt is one of her best.  One her strengths as an author, is Hopkins’ ability to create great characters and let us readers get to know them inside and out.  And this book does not disappoint at all on that front.  As a companion novel to her adult novel, Triangles, Tilt is from the viewpoint of three teenagers that are connected, but not very closely.  First we have Mikayla, a 17 year old who is sure she has found the love of her life in her high school sweatheart.  She gives him everything, but what happiness is he offering her?  Then there is newly ‘out’ Shane who also finds love, but his sadness in life comes from his extremely ill young sister.  His parents are completely engrossed in her care so much so, that he feels left to his own devices as he also is coping with having a sister who can’t speak, walk or talk.  It is heartbreaking.  Lastly, the third main character is Harley, a younger teen wanting to grow up too fast and learning that life as a ‘grown-up’ comes with more decisions and questions she has answers for.  

In addition to this dynamic novel switching between the three main characters, after each section she writes a page from one of the supporting characters points of view.  For instance, Mikayla’s boyfriend, or Shane’s sister, or Harley’s new drug dealer love interest.  

In typical Hopkins fashion, Tilt deals with edgy and controversial teen issues such as relationships, sexuality and drug usage.  This novel not only deals with the teens’ problems but also how their parents are coping (or not coping) with their own problems.  There are themes of love, abuse and family all wrapped up in this page turner that I would highly recommend to anyone that likes reading realistic fiction.  

Posted Mar 12 2015

 This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki is a graphic novel showing one girl’s trials and tribulations during a summer as she was coming of age.  The main character, Rose, has been going to the same cabin in Awago Beach for the summer break since she can remember.  She is an only child, but spends most of her time with another girl whose family summers at Awago Beach, Windy.  They have been hanging out for years, but this summer you notice that their age difference of only 1 or 2 years really makes a difference as Rose is becoming a teen and Windy still has a lot of childlike tendencies.  

While there are talking bubbles and a few narrative parts to the book, much of the story is told through the very detailed drawings.  The artwork is incredible and no detail is missing.  You can almost hear them walking on the gravel to the beach, or the rain hitting the windows of their cabin.  

The storylines that occur for Rose and her family mainly stem from her mother’s depression as well as Rose’s typical pre-teen feelings of a crush on an older boy and trying to figure life out from beyond a child’s lense and perspective.  

This One Summer has gotten rave reviews and won many awards.  I really wanted to like it, however some of the storylines just fell flat with me.  Perhaps the characters I didn’t like were ones I wasn’t supposed to like, or perhaps I just didn’t get enough of the backstory through the images.  On the whole it was a pretty good book, just not one of my favorites.  One aspect I really liked about the book was how ‘real’ the scene felt.  When reading it, you really felt like you also were at Awago Beach as a tourist or customer just like Rose.

Ratings:

Scene: ***** 5 out of 5 stars

Characters: *** 3 out of 5 stars

Plot: ** 2 out of 5 stars 

Posted Mar 6 2015

If you have enjoyed any of Khaled Hosseini’s other books, I highly recommend his newest novel, And The Mountains Echoed.  The basic premise of the story is sibling relationships as well as sacrifice.  Like his other novels, the main characters are Afghan, however in this story some of them are born and raised in Afghanistan; others are of Afghan origin, but live in Paris or America and have never been to their native country.  While there are many characters in the evolving storylines, each is developed so expertly that you get to know each of them very in deeply.  

In And the Mountains Echoed, there are certain mysteries where you wonder how things ended for the characters and what transpired in their future.  Also, how are these people connected?  In typical Hosseini fashion you also learn a lot about Afghan traditions, culture and history.  

This is a terrific novel that I would highly recommend for many, many reasons.  Hosseini is an excellent storyteller and this is an excellent story. 

Posted Feb 26 2015

 This novel by Ann Brashares was intriguing to me because its premise is based on a disease plague changing the world much later in this century  and then certain people are chosen to time travel to an earlier time (today’s time)  to not only survive, but also kill the disease before it can even spread.  

While The Here and Now is basically a science fiction novel being that it has to do with a disease and time travel, there are also romance perspectives with a hint a dystopian twist in that the people who came from the  future are very closely watched with very few liberties by their ‘leaders’.  

The main character in this novel is Prenna and when she is about twelve years old, she and her mother are some of the select few that are sent back in time to survive the plague and hopefully find a way to stop it before it even starts.  The present time in the book takes place when Prenna is sixteen.  As a ‘community’ the people from the future meet once a year and the leaders go over the rules that they must abide by.  One of the most important ones is not fraternizing with the present day people.  This is somewhat hard for Prenna in that she has a ‘friend’ Ethan in her classes and they clearly have a huge crush on one another.  As the book progresses, you realize the leaders in Prenna’s community have total control over the people from the future.  And while they say they are trying to stop the plague from starting, you start to question this and wonder if they really just wanted to save themselves.  

There is a homeless man, Ben Konobi, that Ethan befriends and through this man both Prenna and Ethan learn more than they ever could imagine about the time travel, the plague and what the community’s goals are.  Prenna and Ethan take it upon themselves to carry on the man’s wishes.  What will be the price Prenna pays to the community for going against them?  Will Ethan and Prenna be successful in their endeavors?  What secrets does Ben Konobi teach them?

Posted Nov 3 2014

The setting for We Were Liars by E. Lockhart takes place on the east coast and on a private island named Beechwood off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.  The main character, Cadence (Cady) Sinclair comes from a very wealthy family that owns Beechwood and keeps fours houses there that the family occupies every summer.  Cadence is the oldest of all of the cousins.  The family also includes her mother, her two aunts and her grandparents.  Her grandfather as the patriarch created an empire and his three daughters, because of failed marriages, are supporting their own families off of their trust funds.  

When Cadence was younger, her and her cousins Mirren and Johnny were very close.  One year when they were about 8 years old Johnny also brought his friend Gat.  The four of them did everything together every summer, all summer long.  

Then when they were 15 years old, summer begins like normal, however at some point in the summer something happens to Cadence.  She has an accident where she is found in the ocean with a major head trauma and because of this has amnesia regarding that particular summer.  She is taken back home and the next summer, still suffering from amnesia and migraines, her father takes her on a trip to Europe rather than return to Beechwood.  Cadence is so upset at not being able to see Mirren, Johnny and Gat but also too confused about the accident and in pain to do anything about it. 

The spring is then upon them for the summer of when Cadence would be 17 years old and after a visit from her grandfather, her mother lets her return to Beechwood for the summer and Cadence can’t wait to see her family and friend, Gat.  Once she arrives, she tries to piece together the puzzle of how her accident happened.  How did she end up in the water?  Where did she hit her head?  What caused it?  Memories are coming back to her and she is remembering things from the summer that show that it was not the usual summer at Beechwood.  

As I was reading this novel, it is very easy to get engrossed into the Sinclair’s life and I too was dying to know what the accident was - who was at fault, how she ended up in the ocean and if she can ever heal from her wounds.  By the midway point in this book it is a real page turner that you cannot put down.  

Posted Oct 17 2014

This is a heartwarming and heart wrenching story of a young boy entering school for the first time at the age of 10.  August, “Auggie”, was born with a severe deformity.  Because of this, he has undergone extensive surgeries and was homeschooled up until the 5th grade.  However, now that his surgery schedule is much more flexible and he is growing up, his parents decide it is time for Auggie to enter the ‘real world’ and attend school.  

You cannot read this book and not fall in love with Auggie.  He is just a tremendous person.  The story chronicles his first year of school, but not only through Auggies perspective, also his sister, his friend, someone he thought was his friend and a few others.  

Seeing Auggies story through others perspective is incredibly eye opening.  In addition, what makes this story so wonderful is how real it is.  The author really gets the raw emotion of how we really treat each other in life.  Both the love and the hate that people display and feel.  This is a quick read that is truly a story everyone should read.  

Posted Oct 9 2014

Sycamore Row, by John Grisham, is a dramatic legal story taking place in the late 1980’s.  The main lawyer and main character, Jake Brigance, is still recovering from a very large trial that occurred a couple months earlier where an african american male was acquitted for murder charges in Mississippi (story from A Time to Kill).  Jake is struggling to make ends meet due to problems in his previous case, but is happy and settled in the small Mississippi town of Chancery, Mississippi.  

Jake’s life certainly changes when Seth Hubbard, who had been battling terminal cancer, decides to hang himself.  While a couple of years earlier Seth had hired a different set of lawyers and created a will for his substantial estate, he decides in the final hours of his life to change that all and write up his own will.  He then meticulously and deliberately leaves his children, with whom he has no relationship, and his grandchildren who he is a stranger to, completely out of the will.  In other words he decides to leave them nothing.  The question is who is the heir to the fortune?  He chose his housekeeper that has worked for him the last couple of years.  While he trusted her and she was his caretaker as well, this is a surprise as much to her as everyone else in town, that is when this information is divulged.  

How does Jake get involved in the case?  Seth Hubbard has his new handwritten will mailed with a letter further explaining his detailed wishes to Jake Brigance the day after his death.  Immediately Jake knows this is going to be an interesting case and as illustrated in the letter, will be a fight in the end.  

There are many twists and turns in this novel and one of my favorite aspects was the number of interesting characters.  There is also clearly a mystery here in that in order to have the second will hold up in the court of law, they must find a motive.  I thought the book was well written and really enjoyed the story, especially learning all of the behind the scenes legalities.  A very interesting read.  

Posted Oct 2 2014

If you are a fan of Ellen Hopkins, edgy, realistic fiction novels in verse, you will love Identical.  In this stand alone novel (this is one of her few books that is not in a series), two main characters, Kaeleigh and Raeanne are twins struggling with overcoming grief from a childhood accident as well as very distant parents.  These two sisters could not be more opposite.  Kaeleigh wants to get good grades, be active in school and is a perfectionist.  Raeanne takes out her frustrations by abusing substances and hanging with the wrong crowd.  

Their father has misplaced love for one of the daughters and is also rarely around as his job as a judge takes precedence.  While their mother cares for them, as a politician she is constantly on the road traveling and really does not have a clue about what is going on her house much less what her daughters are involved with in school or outside of the home.  Kaeleigh and Raeanne are doing the best they can to get by with what life has thrown at them.  And as the novel progresses they both have issues and secrets that seem to be spiraling out of control.  

This novel deals with many issues and also has a major twist that will really captivate you as a reader.  Although this novel can be dark at times, it is one of my favorites of all time. 

Posted Sep 25 2014

Candor by Pam Borcharz is a dystopian-ish novel (without any futuristic components) that deals with the large issues of privacy and freedom.  The setting for this novel is a huge component.  The novel takes place in a gated community in Candor, Florida.  Oscar’s father is the founder of the community and is in charge.  Oscar’s parents are divorced and he lost an older brother to a tragic drowning accident years ago.

One word to describe Oscar’s father would be ‘controlling’.  And when I say controlling...you have no idea. He has created a community where, through music, he controls everyone.  Not the parents as much but ALL of the teens and children.  He controls when you eat, how much you eat, when you do your homework, chores, behaviors...the list goes on and on.  Basically, through the speakers and music in the community, the parents, with Oscar’s dad’s help, are creating minions that do not think for themselves anymore and only do as told.  These speakers play subliminal messages that correct ‘bad behaviors’ and enforce what they deem as ‘good behaviors’.  

What this creates is a ‘pleasantville’ atmosphere and people with unruly teens are on waiting lists to be accepted into Candor to live what they think is a stress free life.  But there is one foil in Oscar’s father’s plan and that is Oscar himself.  Since Oscar was there at the start and is a smart kid, he learned at the beginning how to create counter messages so that you will not just succumb to the speakers in the community.  He burns his own messages onto CD’s and not only listens to them himself but also sells them to new teens arriving from the outside.  

Everything is going great for Oscar, he has his dad and everyone fooled, is making a little (or a lot) of cash on the side selling his CD’s and he is as happy as he can be in this warped town in Florida.  Until Nia comes to town.  Nia is a new ‘problem teen’ whose family has just relocated to Candor and Oscar is immediately drawn to her.  She doesn’t understand the ‘rules’ of the community and against his better judgement, Oscar follows her in some of her defiance.  This creates controversies for Oscar and in the end brings him to a very big and very risky decision for him and Nia.  

This book raises really intriguing question about parental authority, how far people will go for their ‘utopia’ as well as at what point are you taking away someone’s being and soul in controlling their every move and decision? 

Posted Sep 18 2014

The Inferno is Dan Brown’s latest installment in his Robert Langdon series of books..  Of course, it all began in Europe with Angel’s & Demons then The Da Vinci Code as well as returning to America with The Lost Symbol.  If you are looking for a book with suspense, mystery, a thrilling story and maybe even a little romance thrown in, these books are for you.  Not only do they keep you on the edge of your seat with anticipation of what is going to happen next and trying to figure out who the villain is, one of my favorite aspects of these books are the historical, architectural and artistic explanations.  

This latest novel, Inferno, delves into the idea of a pandemic disease and how the World Health Organization (WHO) either is a part of it or can help cure and stop this disease from spreading or ever hitting the world.  The villain in the novel is a man that is deeply worried about the serious issue of overpopulation in our world.  He believes that hundreds of years ago, the ‘Black Death’ in Europe was natures way of solving an overpopulation problem at that time.  And he would like to take it upon himself to cure us of any overpopulation problems by disseminating a new ‘Black Death’ upon the world.  

In doing so, the villain has used parts of Dante’s Inferno interweaved in his plan to explain his reasoning along with where and when this disease will be brought forth.  Robert Langdon ends up getting involved in the hunt to find the man and the disease to in essence, save the world.  

There are so many twists and turns in this novel that Dan Brown always keeps you guessing and wanting to turn the next page.  I also really enjoyed learning about the history of Dante’s Inferno along with Black Death.  

Posted Sep 11 2014

Grave Mercy combines both historical fiction and the supernatural into a terrific novel.  Ismae is the main character.  She is seventeen during medieval times and from a very poor family.  She was born with a large scar down her back that has her ‘marked’.  Her father sells her to a horrible man to basically get rid of her.  She is in utter despair, when some mysterious people come to rescue her and take her to a convent in the country.  But this is not just an ordinary convent.  They serve St. Mortain, the God of Death and the mark Ismae has always carried gives her special, deathly powers.  

She quickly learns the ways of the convent and how she will bestow death upon the people that St. Mortain wishes.  Things change for Ismae when the convent learns of great betrayal and corruption going on at the court of their Queen.  The sister in charge of the convent needs someone on the inside so that she knows the ins and outs of who is scheming what.  However, the man that the sisters want her to keep her closest eye on Ismae cannot help but feel drawn to.  

During her tumultuous stay in court, Ismae learns much about politics, corruption, scheming and most of all who to trust.  She also is learning about love and what it means to truly care for another person.  If you like historical fiction taking place in medieval times, this is a very well written and intriguing novel.   

Posted May 2 2014

In his raw memoir, Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, Nic Sheff details his last couple of benders on crystal meth, heroin, crack and many other dangerous drugs before being admitted to rehab, once again.  Nic is honest and edgy with his writing and you cannot read this memoir without becoming completely engrossed in Nic’s story and his journey through his  intense disease of addiction.  

The story begins with him in his car (one of his only possessions) and a couple thousand dollars he had saved from his most recent job.  He has what he thinks is a great plan but once the drugs start flowing, so does his money.  He ends up completely broke, going into detox, desperate and reaches out to his sponsor.  Life is good for a while, but then an older, celebrity ex-girlfriend who is bad news comes back around he falls deeper and deeper into his addiction.  Even trying drugs he has never had, which for him says a lot.  

Throughout the book, you want to pull for Nic because frankly you like him even with his narcissistic tendencies, but you also see so many bad decisions he is making, along with how deeply he is hurting his family.  As a reader, you just want him to get the help he needs and deserves.  The story is gripping from beginning to end and if you want to read more from Nic, you can read his follow up to Tweak, We All Fall Down.  In addition, Nic’s father has written a memoir of his own, Beautiful Boy which details his perspective as having a son battling addiction issues for  years.  

Posted Feb 27 2014

Red Scarf Girl is the memoir of a very brave girl in China coming of age during the beginnings of China’s cultural revolution.  At the start of the story, Ji-Li is excited about Chairman Mao and his grand ideas for the Communist China society.  Mao wanted the society to discard any ‘bourgeois’ elements.  These items were anything of value, ancestral or monetary.  He wanted everyone to be equals, and if some people had ‘luxuries’ then they were seen as going against what ‘new’ China stood for.  

While Ji-Li’s family pre-Communism owned land as her grandfather had been a landlord, they now live a meager life and have very few luxuries.  Even so, as the Cultural Revolution takes hold and mobs of people create hostile situations, Ji-Li learns more and more about her family and it is a very scary time.  Not only their family heirlooms and clothes are taken, but also their everyday freedoms.

It is obvious that her parents and her grandmother are scared - speaking in hushed voices in the bathroom.  However, Ji-Li doesn’t know what is right or wrong.  In school she learns one thing, then she sees her parents actions along with her own thoughts as she is growing up and it is a very confusing time.  

The story starts out with a talk of correspondence between Chinese-Americans and their family still living in China.  They would communicate on the conditions in a secret way like so: if things were fine, then he would send a picture of himself standing up.  If things were very bad, he would send a picture of himself sitting down.  In the end what he actually did was send a picture of himself laying down.  That is how bad things got.

I thought the story was very well written and it was so interesting to read a first hand account of what was happening during this very tumultuous time in China.  It is a book that makes you want to learn more about Chinese history and how this could happen to a society.  

Posted Feb 17 2014

This historical fiction novel, taking place during World War II, is one of my favorite novels as there are so many components: mystery, suspense, adventure, historical and very strong characters.  The two main characters are ‘Verity’ and Maddie.  Verity is a Scot and is helping out Great Britain with the war effort first by intelligence with  the Air Force and then eventually a very good spy.  Maddie, a Britain, has always been interested in aviation and although there are not many, if any, female pilots she learns how to fly and goes on many crucial midnight missions into France.  

The novel is written in first person in that Verity is writing memoirs of their story and how they ended up going to enemy occupied France on a mission that went very wrong.  Verity is literally writing for her life in that she has been taken as a prisoner of war and in exchange for intense interrogation strategies used by the Germans, has agreed to write out all of the details they want of her experiences.  She feels like a coward and says so as she begins her story.  In order to handle the horrible ordeal she is in, she tells the story through Maddie’s eyes.  

Then later on we get more of a glimpse as to Maddie’s life and what lies ahead for Verity and if Maddie survived the plane crash that ended them both up on enemy territory with no way out.  All along we are pulling for Verity and hoping that somehow she can escape the ‘House of Butchers’.  This is a great book and also is the selection for Port Washington-Saukville’s One Book, One Community program for 2014.  

Posted Jan 30 2014

The 5th Wave, is a science fiction thriller taking place in today’s world where aliens are trying to rid the earth of humanity.  It started with a mothership - a HUGE mothership - that appeared in the earth’s sky.  Not knowing if they came in peace or not, humans just waited around to see what would happen.  As Cassie, the main character, explains the ‘others’ (aka aliens) are smarter than ‘us’ (aka humans).  The ‘others’ used various means to try and destroy humans.  The 1st wave was a block on all power devices and machines, the 2nd wave was a giant Tsunami, the 3rd wave was a red plague disease and the 4th wave was other infiltration into humans.  Not knowing what the 5th wave entails, of the 300,000 or so people left on earth, the only thought is to trust noone. 

So Cassie is on her own just trying to survive; her and her bff, the M-16, of course.  As the story unfolds, she has to learn not only how to survive but how she can somehow try to save her little brother who was taken.  I could not put this book down once I was midway through because I had to find out who was who, who I could trust as a reader, and if Cassie could survive.  

Another reason why I liked this book was that there are so many post-apocalyptic books out there, and this one IS the apocalypse as it is happening.  And seeing humanity try to survive against insurmountable odds was inspiring. I highly recommend this book, particularly to anyone who likes science fiction or thrillers.

Posted Jan 22 2014

Eleanor & Park is one of the best books I have read in a while.  It is the story of a teenage boy and girl’s first love, but it is most definitely not sappy or over the top.  Eleanor comes from a broken household with an abusive step-father and lives in a very poor household where food is hard to come by for her and her younger brothers and sister, much less new clothes that fit.  Park is one of the few Asian Americans living in their neighborhood in Omaha Nebraska and his Korean mother and ‘Magnum PI’ looking father have a stable, happy, traditional middle-class American household.  

The story takes place in 1986 and the retro aspects are just terrific.  From real phones with cords to punk rock to walkmans and making mixed tapes, this was a component I really enjoyed.  

When Eleanor and Park first meet on the bus, they want nothing to do with each other as they both feel like misfits and try to keep to themselves.  Everyday they sit on the bus together and then gradually they open up communication through music and comic books and it turns into a great ‘first’ relationship.  

There are other, heavy issues in the book such as Eleanor’s step-father being an abusive alcoholic, bullying and poverty however it is never too dark or cumbersome.  The story is beautifully written and a page turner from the start.  Eleanor & Park is being talked about for winning the Printz for 2014 and I think it is very well deserving. 

Posted Jan 14 2014

I absolutely loved The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and that is the book that put him on the map, so to speak, in regards to authors works you don’t want to miss.  His 2nd book since the phenomenal Silent Patient is The Fury and, in short, it does not measure up.  

It is unique, and witty but for a lack of better words, it wasn’t my jam.  The murderous story is told through a narrator, Elliot Chase, who is a friend of the lovely Lana Farrar.  Our narrator is arrogant and quite unlikeable.  But perhaps that is the point.  We are not supposed to like Elliot, and for that, Michaelides did very well.  I loathed him.  

Lana is an actress that relishes in the fine things in life and shares them with her friends and small family.  After meeting Elliot he, like everyone, is drawn to Lana.  She is a wonderful, charismatic person, and in this odd, tragic story ends up dead.  

Who killed her?  And why?  Who really is this Elliot character and how did such a non-glamourous, average joe of a person end up in the tight knit, fabulous circle of the one and only Lana Farrar?  

Posted Oct 4 2024