What Are You Reading / Reviews - November 2016

[Beverly]

Candy Corn Murder by Leslie Meier
3 stars

Back in the day when I started this series, they were some of my favorites. I'm not sure if my feelings about this particular offering have been affected by the increased exposure I've had to other writings or if this tale was just not as good. It was cute and there were some funny parts, as usual, but I had a difficult time keeping my concentration on the story. The murder in this book strikes close to home since Lucy's husband, Bill, is the prime suspect. The story around all this is interwoven with Lucy and her husband enjoying a visit from Patrick, their young grandson and getting ready for the town's big Halloween celebration. I loved the idea of underwater pumpkin carving, which I've never heard of, being one of the events. This audio was read by Lisa Larson who did a great job.

[Book Concierge]

Signs and Wonders – Philip Gulley – 3***
Book three in the Harmony series looks at a year in the life of the Quaker community’s residents. I just love this series. Each book gives us a glimpse of all the good – and not so good – in human nature, but with the hope that the good will outweigh the bad. They are a perfect break from the stresses of life, and a reminder that there is much good in this world.
LINK to my review

[Terris]

Beverly wrote: "
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
4 stars

I had a difficult time understanding this book as I was reading it but when I was finished and able to thi..."

So you'd recommend it, I guess? It is on my TBR list. I trust your 4 stars :)

[James]

Leonard Cohen, The Spice-Box of Earth [1961] 83 pages

Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems 1956-1968 [1968] 245 pages

Leonard Cohen died earlier this month; which reminded me that he had, like Bob Dylan whom I've been reading since he won the Nobel Prize, been one of my favorite singers when I was in high school back in the 1960's. I can still remember fifty years later the night I first heard "Suzanne" on the album station from Hartford and was totally blown away. By good luck, I discovered these two books while unpacking my book boxes in my garage this week (I'm still looking for his novel Beautiful Losers which I know is in one of the yet to be unpacked boxes).

Like Dylan, Cohen is best known for his surrealistic song lyrics, but unlike Dylan, he was an accomplished poet before taking up music and much of his poetry was not intended to be sung. The Selected Poems contains selections from his first four books of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), The Spice-Box of Earth (1961), Flowers for Hitler (1964), and Parasites of Heaven (1966), as well as a few previously uncollected poems from the years 1966-1968. Since I read the whole of The Spice-Box of Earth, there was a certain amount of overlap. There is a good deal of religious imagery (mainly Jewish at this point -- he later passed through Christianity and Scientology, and became a Buddhist monk), and some political poems, but the majority of the poetry is love and relationship poetry (again much like Dylan, except that the religion is less dogmatic and the break-ups less vicious.) I'd say the two middle collections are the best; the final book is mostly "prose poems" and more obscure.

[James]

John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold [1929] 198 pages

This was Steinbeck's first novel. It is a historical adventure romance about the pirate Henry Morgan. It's the kind of novel that becomes a best-seller (although this one didn't) and then is forgotten and goes out of print after fifteen or twenty years (as I'm sure this would have if it weren't by Steinbeck). There is a certain style in the writing, but the book is nothing out of the ordinary; the dialogue, whether spoken by Welsh peasants, pirates or whatever other character it may be all sounds like a somewhat mystically inclined modern novelist, i.e. like Steinbeck. The characters were not particularly convincing, and he is obviously trying to make something profound out of the story, which isn't convincing either.

I read this because I read some Steinbeck novels for a Goodreads group last month and his last book is the reading for a live book discussion in January, so I am making a project out of reading his shorter works chronologically. This one wasn't very good, and doesn't even hint that he might later become an important writer.

[Book Concierge]

Homemade Sin – Kathy Hogan Trochek
Book on CD read by Hillary Huber.
3***

From the book jacket - Some people might call Callahan Garrity nosy, but she prefers to think of her tendency toward snooping as a healthy interest in the truth. So when news of her cousin’s murder reaches her, Callahan shakes off her House Mouse cleaning uniform to don her detective’s cap. It’s not that she doesn’t have confidence in the Atlanta police – she used to be among their ranks – it’s just that the crime seems too incongruous with Patti’s suburban life to be an accident.

My Reactions
This is a pretty good series. I like the premise of the House Mouse cleaning service for these cozy mysteries; their work provides them access to a wide variety of venues. Trochek gives the reader a nice cast of colorful supporting characters who work for the heroine. Callahan, herself, is a strong, intelligent, resourceful woman. Her background in the police force results in a certain toughness, though she does seem to take some unreasonable chances. Not to worry, though, she generally manages to get out of any scrapes on her own.

My main complaint with this work, however, was the rather abrupt ending, and then “neat” epilogue to wrap up all the loose ends. Just seemed rushed to me, as if Trochek couldn’t quite figure out how to end it.

Nevertheless, it’s a speedy read, the action is fast-paced, and I like the characters. I’ll read more of the series.

Hillary Huber does a fine job voicing the audio version of the book. She has good pacing, and I was never confused about who was speaking.

[Beverly]

Fall, A Collection of Short Stories by Almond Press
3 stars

This was an interesting short story collection which I just happened to have on my Kindle and filled the last spot in a challenge. The stories were all winners of the Almond Press Short Story Contest held in 2012 and each author selected had written a story about a "fall". Obviously there were many different interpretations of the subject--the actual season of fall, a physical fall, falling in love, etc. I enjoyed all of the stories although some were a little more difficult for me to interpret. My favorite was the title story at the very end of the book written by Elizabeth Richards. With a theme of reincarnation, we follow a soul from his being as a slug to his final form.

[James]

Made my page goal for the year! Still 7 books behind schedule for my number goal; I must have been reading longer books this year.


John Steinbeck, The Pastures of Heaven [1932] 182 pages

Steinbeck's second book, this is more realistic than Cup of Gold because he is writing (as in nearly all his later novels) about his own place and time, Salinas County, California; although he still seems to think that to be interesting, the characters all have to be unusual in some way, insane or obsessed. It's not really a novel so much as a group of short stories with interacting characters, perhaps a "novel in stories. An interesting and entertaining book, but not really anything more.

[Book Concierge]

Redwall – Brian Jacques – 5*****
What a wonderful story; I was engaged from beginning to end. Every mouse of Redwall Abbey has taken a solemn oath to never harm another living creature, unless it is an enemy seeking to harm the Order by violence. I love this message of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. The mice are willing to live-and-let-live, but they will defend to the death against those who seek to overtake their peaceable kingdom. Jacques filled the book with detailed descriptions which serve to really put the reader right into Mossflower County. It’s entertaining, scary, exciting, and inspiring. I think I’ll read more of this middle-grade series for the sheer joy of it.
LINK to my review

[Book Concierge]

James wrote: "
Made my page goal for the year! Still 7 books behind schedule for my number goal; I must have been reading longer books this year.
..."

WTG, James!

[Beverly]

Embers by Sandor Marai
4 stars

What an interesting read. Two men who grew up as friends, as close as brothers, but haven't seen each other for 41 years. Now they will spend a final night together in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains, hashing out what really happened all those years ago. A third party, someone important to both of them, is no longer able to participate or add anything to the discussion. A multilayered story of "love, friendship, and fidelity, about betrayal, pride, and true nobility".

[Beverly]

Envy by Sandra Brown
3 stars

This was a pretty good listen. I thought that Victor Slezak did a great job with the reading on the audio. A publisher, Maris Reed, is anonymously presented with a very small portion of a manuscript. She is intrigued and pursues trying to determine who submitted it. She discovers the source, attempts calling and then travels to meet the author to convince him to complete a novel. At first he is bordering on rude, claiming that he should have never sent the beginning of the story in but eventually he concedes and begins working on the rest of the novel. In the meantime, back home, Maris' husband is attempting to take over their publishing company, leaving Maris and her dad completely out of the loop. As the book continues the reader discovers just how close life and fiction can be. Probably the only reason I gave this book a 3 rather than a 4 was because of the sex. The flow of the story would have been just as good, or for me better, without the descriptive sexual scenes.

[Terris]

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 4****s
Such a cute little book of Sara Crewe, whose father, stationed in India, sends her to boarding school in England. When she starts there she has lots of income which satisfies the insecure, jealous matron of the school. However, when things go downhill for Sara's father and his fortune, Sara's daily life takes a landslide downward. However, she is a very mature child and tries to act like she thinks a princess would act, with a fortune or without. And therein lays the story of her reaction to her situation and her encouragement of others. There is also an ongoing search for a mystery child which culminates at the end of the book. I enjoyed this children's book very much, and think it would be a wonderful book to read along with a child and discuss how he/she might react in a similar situation. I highly recommend this book :)

[Book Concierge]

Black Beauty – Anna Sewell – 4****
I had a copy of this book when I was a child, but for some reason I never read it, even during my “horse crazy” phase. I’m so glad I finally got to it. It’s a timeless tale with a simple message: Be kind to everyone (and everything). Sewell manages to convey this through Beauty’s experiences, both good and bad. The hardcover text edition I got from the library was also beautifully illustrated by Lucy Kemp-Welch.
LINK to my review

[Book Concierge]

Terris wrote: "A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 4****s
Such a cute little book of Sara Crewe, whose father, stationed in India, sends her to boarding sc..."

Absolutely agree!

[James]

John Steinbeck, To a God Unknown [1933] 181 pages

Steinbeck's fourth work, To a God Unknown comes chronologically between The Red Pony (which I read in school and remember I didn't like -- maybe just because it was required reading) and Tortilla Flat (which I read earlier this year). It is the story of a young man named Joseph Wayne, who settles in California with his three brothers to farm. The novel is somewhat too mystical for my taste; I said in my review of another work that Steinbeck was a Christian author, but that's not exactly true: although there are Christian elements in nearly all his writings, it's more a Christian-influenced pantheism, which is in evidence in this short novel. According to one critical article I read, he wrote this book under the influence of Joseph Campbell. There are considerable parallels between the protagonist and the patriarch Joseph from the Old Testament, although it's not a Biblical allegory by any means. I enjoyed the writing more than the plot.

[Book Concierge]

People of the Deer – Farley Mowatt – 4****
Farley Mowatt examines the various factors that led to the demise of The People of the Deer in this fascinating book. He went into the vast Barren Plains of North central Canada to study the caribou, and the Ihalmiut people who depended on “the deer” for their very existence, living among them in the late 1940s, when their tribe had dwindled from several thousand in about 1900 to less than 50 individuals in 1947.
LINK to my review

[Book Concierge]

The Ex-Debutante – Linda Francis Lee – ZERO stars
Where to start? Cardboard characters. Tortured dialogue. Ridiculous plot. “Clever” writing devices that aren’t. This is just a disaster.
LINK to my review