Play Book Tag discussion
Member ChallengeTracking 2016-20
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LibraryCin/Cindy's 2018 Challenges
12x12 Audio, Trim the TBRThe Supreme Macaroni Company / Adriana Trigiani
3 stars
In this third book of the series, Valentine is getting married. While on her honeymoon, she discovers something that could be very bad for her shoe-making business and has to figure out what to do about it.
I didn’t like her husband, Gianluca. I actually agreed with most of her thoughts, actions, etc, except I couldn’t understand why they rushed into their marriage and didn’t talk about many of the things that ended up creating conflict beforehand. I’m not sure why I didn’t like Gianluca, but every time he did something nice, I had this foreboding feeling. Overall, the story kept me interested. I was listening to the audio and I think the narrator did a good job with accents and such. Overall, I’m rating it ok. Not as good as the others in the series, though; the first book was definitely the best one.
12x12 PBT, PBTInk and Bone / Rachel Caine
3.5 stars
I’m not even sure how to describe the world, but Jess has been called to become a librarian. Well, he is amongst a group of teens who will be trained and six of them will become librarians. Librarians aren’t quite how we think of them now, though. In this world, they protect the books from even falling into the hands of regular people. There is some kind of war going on.
I was a bit confused by the world itself, which is why I don’t have much of a summary. What I did like about the book was the characters and the friendships/relationships. I don’t even feel like I should rate it as high as I have, given that I didn’t quite understand what-all was going on. But, I liked the characters and given the situations they were in, I was interested to find out if they would make it out ok. Maybe a bit surprisingly, I think I will read the next in the series.
12x12 CAT Challenges, MysteryCAT (May)Strangers on a Train / Patricia Highsmith
3.5 stars
When Guy is on a train from New York to Texas, in order to obtain a divorce from his wife, he meets Bruno. While in conversation, Bruno makes a proposal: if Bruno kills Guy’s wife, Guy should kill Bruno’s father, in return. They don’t really know each other, so neither would be suspected of murder. Guy is rightly horrified with the thought, but Bruno won’t give up that easily.
This was good. Very much a psychological novel, as we are mostly in Guy’s mind as he tries to deal with Bruno, and at the same time, move on with his life. It does switch to a couple of other perspectives, as well, but mostly we follow Guy. Good book. angers on a Train / Patricia Highsmith
3.5 stars
When Guy is on a train from New York to Texas, in order to obtain a divorce from his wife, he meets Bruno. While in conversation, Bruno makes a proposal: if Bruno kills Guy’s wife, Guy should kill Bruno’s father, in return. They don’t really know each other, so neither would be suspected of murder. Guy is rightly horrified with the thought, but Bruno won’t give up that easily.
This was good. Very much a psychological novel, as we are mostly in Guy’s mind as he tries to deal with Bruno, and at the same time, move on with his life. It does switch to a couple of other perspectives, as well, but mostly we follow Guy. Good book.
12x12 AudioSuspect / Robert Crais
3.5 stars
Maggie was a military dog whose handler died and she herself was shot. Scott is a police officer who was shot and his partner murdered. Maggie and Scott are later paired up, and months later, Scott wants to find who killed his partner and shot him.
I listened to the audio and never lost interest. I loved Maggie and the story was good. I thought about upping the rating, just for Maggie, but I kept it to a respectable 3.5 stars (good). There is another in this series that I will plan to read.
12x12 Mystery Subgenre, Mystery Subgenre, PBTImmortal in Death / J.D. Robb
3.5 stars
When Eve’s best friend, Mavis, is charged with murdering a model, Eve has to get to the bottom of it and free Mavis. She knows Mavis would never do such a thing, though it does look bad.
Thought I’d leave any of Eve’s personal details out of the summary, so as not to be spoilery (though this is only the 3rd book in the ridiculously long series, so I suspect most people who are interested have already (probably long since!) bypassed this one). I will say that I didn’t dislike Rourke nearly as much in this one as I did in the previous two books. The book was good. This was probably a similar rating as what I gave the first two books, I think. Decent story, but nothing overly special. I was surprised at the ending. Will I continue the series? I suppose I probably will, at least for now. They are quick to read.
12x12 Series, BingoDOGFollow Follow / Marilyn Singer
4 stars
This is the author’s 2nd book of “reverso” poems. She takes a fairy tale and writes a short poem; the poem is then presented in reverse to give a slightly different angle on the story – maybe another character’s POV, or the same character, but just a slightly different look at the story. The poem, in reverse, might have slightly different capitalization and punctuation, but the words and lines are the same, just in reverse.
Some of the fairy tales she represents in this one include The Princess and the Pea, The Little Mermaid, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Tortoise and the Hare, and more.
It’s really very clever and I loved the first book! This one is also very good, and it amazes me that she can come up with these! It’s presented very nicely in a picture book. The poems themselves are side-by-side – the poem, then its reverse, beside in a different colour. The pictures to go with are presented on the page beside, with two slightly different pictures side-by-side, representing each poem and its reverse.
12x12 Nonfiction, ColourCAT, PBT, Trim the TBRThe Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia's Convict Women / Deborah J. Swiss
4 stars
In the early to mid-1800s, women “criminals” were transported from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to Tasmania (a small island off Australia) to serve their time. Of course, almost none of them came home when they served their time. Not only that, a large number of these criminals were merely stealing food or clothing because they couldn’t afford it.
This book takes a look at a few of these women throughout their lives – how they grew up and what caused them to steal, which caused them to be sent to Tasmania; it followed them into the horrible gaols of the time; and it followed them to Tasmania – their time imprisoned, as well as a short section on how they lived after they were freed. There was also a Quaker woman who, ahead of her time, realized the horrible conditions these women were living in in the jails, and worked hard to make things better for them, as much as she could.
I found this very interesting. I knew that criminals had been sent to Australia, but I had never before read any of their stories. It’s pretty sad how little it took to be charged and sent away.
12x12 TravelThe Child / Fiona Barton
4 stars
When a newborn baby’s skeleton is dug up on a construction site, a reporter, Kate, wants to find out what happened. In her investigation, she comes across Angela, whose newborn baby disappeared in the 70s, and Emma, who as a teenager in the 80s, was living with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend at the location where the skeleton was found.
The book mostly follows the perspective of these three women, though a few other perspectives are thrown in there, as well. This hooked me at the start and it has short chapters, which kept me wanting to read. I guess this is the 2nd book involving reporter Kate, and there were a few mentions of bits of what happened in the other book, so I will be seeking out the other book to read, as well. I caught on to the ending just about as Kate did, I think, but it wasn’t spelled out until a couple of pages later.
12x12 Nonfiction, Listopia, Trim the TBRThe Wright Brothers / David McCullough
3 stars
Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first to build and fly in their “flying machine” in the very early 1900s. They started out building and selling bicycles. This book includes a bit of biography, and a lot of technology and description of their flying experiments. They travelled from their hometown of Dayton, Ohio to North Carolina (Kitty Hawk), then to France. There seemed to be more interest in what they were doing in France than in the US.
It was ok. I listened to the audio, which was narrated by the author, which may not have been the best choice, but it does make it hard to decide if the parts I wasn’t as interested in was due to the subject in those sections of the book or because I just lost interest due to the narration. I’m going to guess a bit of both. I did find the biographical parts much more interesting than all the information about their experimenting. I also liked reading about their sister, Katharine. I did also have a copy of the print book, which was nice, as it includes photos.
12x12 Mystery Subgenre, Mystery Subgenre, ColourCAT, Trim the TBRPretend You Don't See Her / Mary Higgins Clark
3.5 stars
When real estate agent, Lacey, witnesses the murder of a woman she is selling a house for, she is in danger. Not only that, the dying woman tasked Lacey with giving her daughter’s journal to her daughter’s father. Her daughter was killed in a car crash a few months previous. However, the journal is now evidence.
I liked it, but there were a lot of characters that I had a bit of trouble keeping straight. The author jumps to different perspectives, on occasion, and the reader knows who the killer is (as does Lacey) from the start, but how it all ties together is unknown. Overall, it was “good” for me.
12x12 Mystery Subgenre, Mystery Subgenre, AlphaKIT, ScaredyKITEvermore / Alyson Noel
4 stars
16-year old Ever is in a car crash with her family and their dog; she is the only survivor. She has since gone to live with her aunt in California. She can also suddenly see people’s auras and hear people’s thoughts. Not a fun situation. Though she used to be popular and beautiful, she now hides behind a hoodie and plays loud music to drown everything else out; she’s a freak. When a gorgeous guy starts school, she cannot figure out if or why he might be interested in her.
I really liked this. There were shades of Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse, each for various reasons. I liked both the storyline with Damon, the boy at school, and the one with her ghost sister, Riley.
12x12 Oh Canada, PBTThe Third ACT / John Wilson
3.5 stars
In current day, Tone, girlfriend Theresa, and friend/roommate Pike all came from China to go to university in the US. Tone is passionate about physics and has just gotten word that he is receiving a prize for his work/research and will be able to continue that research at MIT. He would like his actress girlfriend to come with him, but she’s just gotten a part that she thinks will open things up for her career in theatre. Pike is only where he is because it’s where his father wants him to be, doing what his father wants him to be doing. His father supports him, so he has money to burn, but he isn’t putting in the work.
Meanwhile, in 1937, Nanjing, China, there is a war going on. The Japanese have captured the city of Nanjing, but there has been a “Safety Zone” set up. Chinese-born, Lily is there, along with the American man she loves, playwright Neil Peterson (though he could go home, he wants to stay), and Hill, who wants to find his older brother, a soldier in the war.
The chapters alternate between the time periods. The play in the current day portion is the third act of a play Peterson never finished, about his time in 1937 China. It took me a bit of time to get interested, but once I did, it was quick to read and quite interesting. There wasn’t as much about the historical portion as I might have liked, though admittedly, I was a bit more interested in the current-day portion, anyway. Our three current-day protagonists are trying to find their way in a new culture, and are feeling like they are losing their own culture in the process. The end was a definite surprise!
12x12 KIT Challenges, Reading Through Time, Trim the TBR, AlphaKITSee You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America / Logan Ward
4 stars
Logan and his wife, Heather, decided to leave their jobs and lives in New York City and take their 2-year old to Virginia to buy and live on a farm. Not only that, they were going to renovate the house to make it so that they would be living in the year 1900. They wanted to live this way for a full year.
I find these so interesting! There was a British tv show (which gave Logan and Heather the idea) called The 1900 House. Not long after, in Canada, there was a tv show called Pioneer Quest that took two couples and did pretty much what Logan and Heather did, except they went back a few years earlier to the 1880s, and they had to build their homes from scratch.
That being said, I found this really interesting. At the same time, considering the tv I’ve seen with similar topics, I wasn’t surprised at how difficult it was, as well as a huge reliance on (unpredictable) Mother Nature. It was nice to see the community and neighbours come together to help them out. The only thing is that I would have liked more in the epilogue – how much of hat they did/learned during that year did they continue with when they returned to the current day?
12x12 Trim, Trim the TBR, Passport ChallengeThe Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry / Jon Ronson
3 stars
The author is a reporter and, once he got his hands on a test to determine whether or not someone is a psychopath, he tried to figure it out by asking people questions from the test. He looked a little more into psychiatry beyond psychopaths, as well.
Ok, not the greatest summary, but I guess this wasn’t what I thought it would be (should have read summaries closer!). He’s not a psychiatrist, or even a psychologist, so if you want real information on psychopaths/sociopaths, I would recommend “The Sociopath Next Door” as being much better. Some of the history Ronson provided was interesting, though, and particularly a look at current diagnoses of kids today. I listened to the audio, read by the author, and my concentration varied. Overall, I’m rating it ok.
12x12 TravelMata Hari's Last Dance / Michelle Moran
3.5 stars
Mata Hari was a well-known dancer/stripper (very high class, I suppose – she danced naked, anyway) in Europe in the early 20th century. She slept with men who could pay her way in life. She was later arrested, imprisoned, and put to death in France – the country she called home – via firing squad for being a spy for the Germans. This is Moran’s historical version of her life – at least from the time she started dancing, with flashbacks to the rest of her life.
I knew nothing of Mata Hari except for her name – not a thing. I read the book because I like the author, but this one wasn’t nearly as good as her others, I didn’t think. At least now I have an idea of who she was, though I can’t say I particularly liked her. I wonder if I would have been more sympathetic toward her if her life had been told chronologically, rather than in flashbacks? Either way, I’m rating the book good, although I feel a bit like that might be generous.
12x12 KIT Challenges, AlphaKIT, ScaredyKIT, Fall Flurry of HolidaysThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving
Reread on audio this time:
3.75 stars
I’ve read the story a couple of times before, but when I saw someone else post a review for the audio, I thought this would be a good time of year to listen to the audio if my library had one available. Lucky for me, it did! Not only that, the one I borrowed was read by Anthony Heald (Giles from Buffy!). I really enjoyed his narration of the story. I feel like I even caught a few things that I might have missed in reading it. It still has a lot of description and you really do need to pay attention, but I did well with this audio. I think my older reviews kept the story at “good” 3.5 stars, but I’m giving the audio an extra .25 stars.
12x12 Oh Canada, PBT, Travel Across Canada, Trim the TBRThe Anatomy of Edouard Beaupre / Sarah Kathryn York
4 stars
Edouard Beaupre was born in 1881; he was Metis and was the first child born in the small Southern Saskatchwan settlement of Willow Bunch (which happens to be about an hour from where I grew up). He died in 1904 at the age of 23; he was 8’4” and still growing. He spent parts of his adult life as a giant and strongman in travelling sideshows and circuses. Where the story actually starts and ends is with a doctor who is studying his corpse.
I knew of Edouard Beaupre when I was younger, but knew him as the “Willow Bunch Giant”; I don’t remember if I knew his name when I was younger. There is a museum in Willow Bunch that I have been to, once about 15 years ago. I was very interested to find this book about him. I think I initially thought it was a biography, but it’s actually fiction, but it sounds like a lot of research went into it and so it sounds like most of it is probably fairly accurate. I found it very interesting and a little bit sad, for him.
12x12 Oh Canada, Trim the TBR, PBTWhen Everything Feels Like the Movies / Raziel Reid
3.5 stars
Jude is gay, wears makeup, and likes to dress in his mother’s clothes. He isn’t shy about this, even at school. But, of course, he is bullied because of it. He thinks of himself, though, as a movie star, and his life is like a movie; this allows him to deal with the other kids and the bullying. He does have a best friend, Angela, who sleeps around with many of the boys at school.
It was a bit hard to get into at first, a bit hard to follow. Have to admit, I didn’t like either Jude or Angela. As a warning, there is a lot of sex and drugs, or at least talk of it. It probably shouldn’t have, but the end came as a surprise to me. But, it blew me away! Overall, I’m rating it “good”.
12x12 Oh Canada, PBT, Trim the TBR, Travel Across CanadaThe Age of Hope / David Bergen
4 stars
Hope was born in 1930. She was fairly young when she married Roy. They lived in the small Mennonite town of Eden, Manitoba. They had four children, and we follow Hope’s thoughts and feelings throughout her entire adult life, as she marries, becomes a mother to her four children, while Roy is mostly working. She feels lonely and Roy doesn’t understand since she has four kids around. But, Roy loves her; he is a nice man and treats her well. But, sometimes Hope has trouble and needs some help. The story follows Hope through her entire life.
There is not a whole lot to the story, ultimately, and definitely not fast-paced, but it was still really good. The (male!) author does a really good job of bringing us into Hope’s world, I thought.
12x12 Mystery Subgenre, Mystery Subgenre, Trim the TBRWeekend Warriors/ Fern Michaels
3.5 stars
Myra’s daughter is killed in a hit and run by someone with diplomatic immunity. She sinks into a deep depression and only comes out when she sees, on the news, a woman – whose daughter was killed, but the killer gets off on a technicality – shoot the killer. Myra’s rich, so she pays the woman’s bail and helps her disappear. Myra wishes she would have done something like that to her daughter’s killer. She then recruits her adopted daughter’s help – Nikki is a lawyer – to organize a vigilante group of women who never got justice through proper legal channels. As a group, they’ll plan and hand out that justice, instead.
I’m a bit mixed on this one. The story was entertaining, but I sure didn’t like the women, nor did I agree with what they were doing. I also found it difficult to believe that Nikki would put her career on the line like that. I also found that it was too quick and easy that they were able to find the people they wanted revenge on. I also feel like the cover is quite misleading – it’s a pretty white cover with flowers… hmmmmm. This is the first in a series, so they primarily focused on one of the women and her revenge, though they all have different stories. I’m not sure if I’ll continue or not.
12x12 Animals, PBT, AlphaKITEscape / Linwood Barclay
4 stars
This is a straight continuation of Barclay’s first YA book, “Chase”. It picks up pretty much where “Chase” left off. I’ll just give the basics of what’s going on so as not to spoil the first book. Chipper is a dog that has been altered by “The Institute” – he is still part-dog, but also part-robot. He escapes and finds 12-year old, Jeff, whose parents passed away not long ago. The Institute is now looking for Chipper, and by extension, Jeff.
I really enjoyed these two books. They really are two parts to the same story, so I’ve rated them the same. It’s fast-paced, but it is meant for younger readers, so it is more simple than his adult books, but he still throws a couple of twists into the story, as well.
12x12 Nonfiction, ListopiaDestiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President / Candice Millard
2.5 stars
I thought this was meant to be a biography of James Garfield, the 20th president of the U.S. He was shot not long after he took office, and eventually died when doctors didn’t really understand how to help him properly.
I listened to the audio. There wasn’t as much biography as I was expecting. Much of it was politics, which I’m not all that interested in, so I tuned out for a good portion of the first ½ to 2/3. I was on my way to giving it only 2 stars. It got much more interesting after he was shot, however. I almost raised my rating to 3 stars (ok), but decided 2.5 was probably more accurate when I took the first ½ into account, as well.
What I found much more interesting was the medicine at the time. The suggestion of germs, something no one could see, was new and many doctors didn’t want to believe it. I also found Alexander Graham Bell and his invention, the “induction balance”, quite interesting. This machine he invented was meant to find the bullet that was still lodged into Garfield’s body. This book has actually made me kind of interested in reading more about Bell!
12x12 Overflow, Fall FlurryThe Fifth Petal / Brunonia Barry
4 stars
On Halloween 1989, in Salem, Mass., three women are murdered… three women who were seen as witches. A fourth woman lived (Rose), but was never the same after; she was also seen as a witch and many thought she was the murderer. Also, a little girl, Callie, lived; her mother was one of the three who was murdered. Callie was sent away to live in an orphanage and in foster homes.
Twenty-five years later, Rose is homeless and talks to trees. She insists a banshee killed the other three women. When she is being bullied by teenage boys, one of the boys is killed and people (once again) point their fingers at Rose as the murderer. Callie returns to Salem to discover that Rose is still alive (she’d been told Rose had been killed, as well). A newer police officer (newer to Salem after 1989), Rafferty, reopens the unsolved case from 1989.
I quite enjoyed this. It definitely started with a “bang”, as Halloween 1989 was the opening of the book. It actually went off in a bunch of directions as the story went on, as the book seemed to show the characters living their lives while any investigations were going on, etc. So, there was much more to the story than the murders and the investigation. There were character relationships, people fighting illness and people trying to help heal, etc. Have to admit, though, the best parts of the story, for me, was the murders and the solving of them. The other parts were, admittedly, a bit slower. The end included a bibliography (on multiple topics touched on in the book) that I will pick a few books off of to add to my tbr.
12x12 Trim, Trim the TBR, RandomCATHeart's Blood / Juliet Marillier
4 stars
18-year old Caitrin has recently lost her father and distant relatives have come to take over the house and to “take care” of Caitrin in her time of grief. Well, Cillian is abusive and Caitrin’s sister has left to marry a travelling musician, and Caitrin can’t take it anymore. She leaves and finds herself in Whistling Tor. The village seems fine, though they aren’t used to outsiders visiting, but she soon heads up the mountain (despite warnings of the odd goings-on there) to see if she can land herself a job as a scribe, which her father was, and which she, herself, trained as. Once there, she is a bit taken aback by the head of the house (and cheiftan of the area, though most don’t see him as a leader). As she gets to know the people there, she soon learns that things are odder, still.
I may have known this (I likely did!) when I added it to my tbr, but it’s been long enough that I didn’t remember (until looking at tags assigned and perusing a few other reviews after I finished reading it) that this was a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”. I didn’t catch it while reading, though I see traces of it, knowing after the fact.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I quite liked the characters. I did – sort of – figure out the twist earlier on. Well, it flitted through my head as a possibility, then disappeared again. But, that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it, at all.
12x12 PBT, PBT, Trim the TBRThe Painted Girls / Cathy Marie Buchanan
3.5 stars
This story follows three sisters, all ballet dancers. Their father has died and their mother, a laundress, neglects them and doesn’t have enough money to take care of them all. The middle sister, Marie, ends up posing for some of Degas’ paintings. The oldest sister, Antoinette, gives up dancing and falls in love with Emile, who is later accused of murder.
The story follows the viewpoints of Marie and Antoinette and alternates between them. I listened to the audio, and though there were two different narrators for each girl, I still found it difficult to follow who was speaking if I missed the intro to the chapter (which did say). I appreciated the author’s note at the end that tells us that the sisters were real and Marie was one of the ballet dancers who posed for Degas. Emile was also real, as was his story, though in reality, he and Antoinette were not involved. I do think both stories are interesting, but I just wonder if I might have liked it better if I wasn’t listening to the audio. I’m still rating it “good”.
12x12 CAT Challenges, ColourCATThe Testament / John Grisham
4 stars
When billionaire Troy Phelan commits suicide just after signing a will, there is a surprise for his dysfunctional family. All of the three ex-wives and six adult children who had gathered for the signing, minutes after they left the room, were cut out with a new handwritten holographic will, given from Troy to his lawyer. The family had just had cameras in the room, and had videotaped three psychologists saying he was in his right mind when he signed the will they thought would make them all enormously rich. They are in for a shock when, one month later (after they’ve gone out and spent the money they thought they were getting), they learn that the will they saw him sign was no longer valid; the new will left his 11 billion to his long-lost illegitimate missionary daughter, Rachel, currently living somewhere in Brazil. Troy’s lawyer, Josh, sends one of the other lawyers in his firm to Brazil to find Rachel.
I thought this was really good. Boy, that family was hateful! We didn’t really get to know Troy, and apparently he wasn’t likeable, either, but you could sure see why he wanted to cut those ungrateful offspring (and ex-wives) out of the will altogether! Much of the novel was Nate trying to find Rachel in Brazil, which was entertaining, which leads me to mention that here were a number of humourous moments in the book, as well, which was kind of fun.
12x12 SeriesDaughter of Moloka'i/ Alan Brennert
4 stars
This is a sequel to “Moloka’i”, to be published early in 2019. This one follows Ruth, the daughter of Rachel and Kenji, both who have Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and were sent to Molokai to live their lives. Rachel is Hawaiian and Kenji, Japanese. Ruth was born in the early 20th century, and was taken away from her parents. At 5 years old, she is adopted by a Japanese couple, so Ruth is raised learning her Japanese culture. They move from Hawaii to California when Ruth is still young to help her uncle on his farm. Things do not go well for Ruth and her family, along with over 100,000 Japanese Americans when Pearl Harbour is bombed in 1941.
I really liked this, though I have to admit, I wasn’t as interested later on in the book when Rachel came back into the picture. Maybe that would have been different if it hadn’t been so long since I’d read the first book, I’m not sure. It was interesting learning about the Japanese culture, as Ruth learned, and later there was some about the Hawaiian culture, as well. The most interesting parts of the book to me was when Ruth and her family were in the internment camps. That wasn’t completely new to me, but it was the best part of the book for me. I do feel like this one could stand-alone without having read the first book.
12x12 CAT Challenges, ColourCAT, Trim the TBRRed Heart Tattoo / Lurlene McDaniel
3.75 stars
Morgan is the class president, and her boyfriend, Trent, is a football star at school. Morgan’s best friend, Kelli, is a cheerleader and her boyfriend is also a football star. Roth was orphaned young, and lived in foster homes until his uncle returned from military service and took him in. His Uncle Max is now married, so it feels like he has a real home with people who love him, even though Max doesn’t really know how to be a parent. Max runs a tattoo shop and Roth is on the edge of being in trouble, but never anything overly serious. Outsider Liza is Roth’s best friend. They are all seniors when someone sets off a bomb at their school. Some die, and some are injured.
I’d give this 4 stars for the story, but 3.5 stars for going through the story so quickly and leaving out a lot more detail. However, it is a YA book, so maybe the 4 stars is still justified. I really liked the story. I sympathized with most of the characters, but it helped that we see the events from many different characters’ viewpoints. Definitely good YA.
12x12 Trim the TBR, Trim the TBRBreaking Out of Bedlam / Leslie Larson
3.5 stars
Cora is upset with her children (one daughter and two sons), because they’ve contrived behind her back to get her into an assisted living home. She doesn’t want to be there; she wants to be at home with her dog Lulu. She was given a notebook, so she starts writing in it. Via this notebook, the reader learns about Cora’s life – both currently, and the life she lived to this point. One positive thing to come out of this, though: in the home, she meets a new man. But, she still wants to go home!
This was good. Cora was feisty and I (mostly) liked her. She sure had some troubles, though. I also felt really bad for her, for multiple reasons, past and present. I loved Marcos, who worked in the home and watched over Cora. He was fun!
12x12 Off the Shelf, BingoDOG, Trim the TBR, Reading Through TimeAuschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account / Miklos Nyiszli
3.5 stars
Miklos Nysizli was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz with his wife and daughter. He was a doctor and was taken on to work in the crematoriums, primarily doing autopsies. Most of the Jews who worked in the crematoriums were killed, but luckily for Nyiszli, he made it through.
I imagine when this book was originally published, in 1960, it was quite shocking. It still is, but I’ve read so much about the Holocaust, that there wasn’t a lot new, though there was some. I feel badly that I’m not rating it higher. I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection (usually) as I thought I might. I’m not sure if it was written in a more detached way; both as a doctor and just trying to force himself to get through it all to survive, I’m sure he had to do his best to try to detach. He did say at the start of the book that he is a doctor, not a writer, so maybe that was part of it, as well (though it was definitely “readable”). Still, a worthwhile read, for sure.
12x12 Nonfiction, Trim the TBR, AlphaKITInto the Storm: Violent Tornadoes, Killer Hurricanes, and Death-Defying Adventures in Extreme Weather / Reed Timmer
4 stars
Reed Timmer is a meteorologist and storm chaser. (Apparently, though I didn’t know this before I picked up the book), he also hosts a tv show on Discovery Channel called “Storm Chasers”. He grew up in Michigan, but being the weather geek he was, he moved to the middle of “Tornado Alley”, Norman, Oklahoma, to go to college to become a meteorologist. While there, he became fixated on chasing storms, mostly tornadoes, but he also went after a couple of big hurricanes (including Katrina).
I really liked this. He does really stupid things, but hey, I’ll live vicariously through his stories! I love watching storms, and though I’m not even close to being a risk-taker, I think it would be fun to do a tornado chasing holiday one day (but with a more conservative chaser, not Reed Timmer)! The book included some photos, and as part of the footer at the bottom of the page, there were small tornado photos, as well; those stayed the same through a small portion of the book before changing to new photos. I just thought that was a nice extra touch.
12x12 CAT Challenges, RandomCATThe Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy / Raj Patel
4 stars
This book looks at why things cost what they do. The author, mostly, does a decent job with examples to explain what he’s trying to explain, but much of the actual economics/finance discussion went over my head. He really tried to “dumb it down”, and it’s probably enough for some, but unfortunately, it wasn’t always enough for me. Again, though, his examples were good and made it easier for me to follow. But, economics is just not my interest, so I’m leaving it with an “ok” rating.
12x12 Audio, Trim the TBR, Fall FlurryA Bridge Too Far / Cornelius Ryan
2 stars
This is about Project Market Garden, a battle during WWII in Holland where the Allies were meant to capture some bridges. It didn’t happen.
I feel terrible rating this so low. The only other book I’ve read by this author, I rated 5 stars and have recommended it multiple times (his book on D-Day). I am blaming this on the audio. I think it’s tough subject matter for audio, anyway, so I probably shouldn’t have tried it in this format, but I did. Unfortunately, I found the narrator very monotone, so to be honest, I just missed the majority of what was going on. It didn’t hold my attention, so I wasn’t paying attention. I do not like rating this so low, but given how much of it I “missed”, I just can’t give it a higher rating.
12x12 Animals, Mystery Subgenre, MysteryCATThe Cat Who Could Read Backwards / Lillian Jackson Braun
3 stars
Qwilleran, a reporter, has taken a job writing an art column at a newspaper, though he knows nothing about art. He moves in underneath another art reporter who has a Siamese cat who he says reads the newspaper… backwards. Qwilleran often ends up taking care of the cat, Koko. Some time after Qwilleran has met and interviewed the owner of a local art gallery, that owner is murdered.
Have to admit I was a bit disappointed. I kept wondering where the cat from the title was! He was introduced about 1/3 of the way in to the book. Then, his name (Kao Ko-K-something); sadly, when I want to shorten a long name like that, I tend to use initials – not so good in this instance. The main character, luckily, shortened it to Koko, but every time I saw the name written out entirely, my head went to KKK. Then, the murder didn’t happen until ½ way through the book. By then, I was also questioning whether or not this was actually a mystery of some type! Anyway, I thought it took too long to get going. Once the murder finally happened, it got a bit more interesting, but I’m going to leave it as “ok” and I don’t have current plans to continue the series.
12x12 OverflowThe Clan of the Cave Bear / Jean M. Auel
3.75 stars
Ayla is only 5-years old when an earthquake happens and her mother is swallowed up. She doesn’t know what to do, but when Iza, a medicine woman, and her Clan find a starving and passed out Ayla, Iza knows she must help. Ayla looks very different from the Clan and she does her best to fit in and be accepted. But Broud, the son of the leader, hates her with a passion and will do anything he can to knock her down.
This was really interesting. Not fast-paced, but a time period I’ve not read about before (the Ice Age); I’m actually not sure how much is out there TO read on this time period, to be honest! I had a hard time with the hunting (particularly the pregnant mammoth), but I know they would have had to back then. With the way it ended, I would like to continue with the next book in the series.
12x12 Series, MysteryCAT, Trim the TBRMurder on the Half Shelf / Lorna Barrett
3.5 stars
There’s a new inn in town, just about to open up, and bookstore owner, Tricia, and lunch counter owner and Tricia’s sister, Angelica, win tickets to stay one night at the new inn. Unfortunately, no one gets to stay that night, after one of the people running the inn, Piper Comfort, is murdered. She is, of course, found by Tricia. To Tricia’s surprise, it turns out Piper’s husband is someone Tricia used to date, and everyone thought he was dead!
This was good. I enjoyed it. I listened to the audio, and it was done well. For now, at least, I’ll continue on with the series (although I’m not impressed with Tricia’s newest employee!).
12x12 Off the Shelf, ScaredyKIT, AlphaKIT, ColourCAT, RandomCATH. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil / Adam Selzer
4 stars
H.H. Holmes, born Herman Mudgett, did more than murder women in his “hotel” during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. He was all about money and not shy about committing fraud to gain it. He had a number of alias’s, and he lied all the time. He was “married” to three women, but only legally married to the first, since he never divorced her. He eventually wrote a “confession” with more lies, as he confessed to killing people he couldn’t have. He was only convicted of murdering one person, Ben Pitezel, though it’s fairly certain, he also killed three of Ben’s children. There were a few women who worked for/with him in his “hotel” who were most likely murdered by him.
There is so much misinformation out there. Adam Selzer went to primary sources to write this book. Even many of those are not reliable, but Selzer does his best to sift through all the information and try to come up with the most plausible story of Holmes. It was good, and for enjoyment of/interest in the book, I’d actually give it 3.5 stars (good), but I really want to give it an overall of 4 stars for all the detailed research. I feel like this should be the primary book on Holmes, with all the research that went into it. Selzer also looks at other books/articles written about Holmes and looks deeper into where the information came from for those works to determine how legitimate the information is (including Eric Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”). Well worth the read for anyone interested in learning more about Holmes.
12x12 PBT, PBT, Trim the TBROne of Our Thursdays Is Missing / Jasper Fforde
3.5 stars
This one is told from the point of view of one of the written Thursday Nexts, not the real one. It turns out the real Thursday is missing, and this written Thursday is trying to help find her.
I liked this! I’d been putting this one off, as I don’t remember liking the past couple in the series as much as I started off liking it. I loved how Fforde described the written Thursday when she arrived in the real world, as it was all new to her. Now, I have to admit that sometimes it got a bit confusing trying to follow, but it is a very witty, creative series.
12x12 Oh CanadaThe Blue Girl / Charles de Lint
4 stars
Imogene ran with a bad crowd in her last school, but when she, her mother, and her brother move to Newford, she meets a girl, Maxine, who gets picked on and they become best friends. Imogene decides she’ll try to be straight and narrow. At the same time, she is no stranger to standing up for herself against the school bullies – in this case the head cheerleader and her football-playing boyfriend. When Adrian sees this from a distance, he falls for Imogene. But, Adrian is a ghost… with friends who are fairies. When he actually meets Imogene, he manages to get her into something dangerous. In the meantime, Imogene’s childhood imaginary friend, Pelly, shows up, but there’s something different about him.
I don’t believe any of my summary is a spoiler. It’s all on the blurb on the back of the book, and it’s all revealed very early on in the book. I really liked this! I do love the references to other characters in some of de Lint’s other Newford books, as well. The viewpoint changes between Imogene, Maxine, and Adrian, and a bit of back and forth in time, but you are told at the beginning of each chapter whose POV you are following and when, so I didn’t find it too tricky to follow. I would love to read more from Newford, but always hard to choose which one next!
12x12 CAT Challenges, ColourCATTomorrow There Will Be Apricots / Jessica Soffer
3.25 stars
Lorca is a teenager. Her parents are divorced and she cuts herself. She has been suspended from school and is now waiting to attend a boarding school. In the meantime, she is trying to find a recipe, her mother’s favourite, to cook for her. Victoria is an elderly lady who has just lost her husband to cancer. She is hoodwinked into giving cooking lessons, and Lorca joins in.
I’m waffling between ok and good on this one. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, and it was better than I expected, actually. I felt really badly for Lorca, as no matter what she did, she never seemed to be able to please her mom. Have to admit, I thought the guy helping her was a bit unrealistic. There were a few “twists” at the end, only one that was more of a surprise to me. The book is told mostly from points of view alternating between Lorca and Victoria, but there are a couple of chapters thrown in from Joseph’s (Victoria’s husband) POV from years earlier. For those who like that sort of thing, there are a few recipes thrown in.
12x12 PBT, PBTAttachments / Rainbow Rowell
4 stars
Lincoln is 28-years old and lives at home with his mom; he sometimes plays D&D on Saturdays with a group of friends. He took an IT job that he doesn’t like, and there’s really not much to do. He works the night shift (till midnight) and his main purpose is to read emails that have been flagged as going against company policy. It’s 1999 and the company (a newspaper) was late bringing email to the workplace. As Jennifer’s and Beth’s emails back and forth are constantly being flagged, Lincoln develops an interest in their conversations and neglects to bother warning them. He then falls for Beth…
I really enjoyed this! Almost all the characters were likable. I’m glad it ended the way it did. I’m more of an 80’s child, but many of the 90s references were fun, too! The only thing was that it seemed more like chatting or texting (with how short some of the emails were) rather than emails, but that’s a little thing.
12x12 AudioThe Red Chamber / Pauline A. Chen
3.5 stars
This is a retelling of a Chinese classic book, but pared down. Chen took out some of the characters and storylines and cut down the text substantially (from, I think, over 1000 pages).
It’s the early 18th century. Daiyu is left an orphan and must travel to live with the rest of her family. Her grandmother never forgave Daiyu’s mother for leaving. Daiyu meets her cousins and it doesn’t take long to fall in love with one of them, Baoyu, but she doesn’t have a hope of becoming betrothed to him, although he has also fallen for her. She becomes good friends with Baochai. In other storylines, there is someone getting out of a murder charge; there are concubines and affairs.
I thought this was good, although it took some time to try to sort out all the characters, with the Chinese names, and I was listening to the audio, so I couldn’t really check back for clarification. So, that took some time. Not that I can really compare it to the original (apparently, the ending was lost), but I thought Chen did a really good job of telling the story that she did. I also like the way she ended it.
12x12 Off the Shelf, RandomCAT, Trim the TBRLooking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen / Susan Gregg Gilmore
3.5 stars
Catherine Grace is the preacher’s daughter in a small town in Georgia in the 1960s and 70s. Her mother died when she was only six, so there’s just her, her sister, Martha Ann, and their father, the town preacher. All her life she’s known she wants out of the town; unlike many others, she does not want to stay and be a farmer’s wife. She plans to leave as soon as she turns 18.
I enjoyed this. There was more God in it than I expected. Growing up in a small town (unless it’s different in the South), I didn’t find that much talk of “the Lord” in casual conversation as there was in this book/town. I have mixed feelings about the ending. Some of it, I liked, but some of it seemed to tie up a bit too nicely in a bow. Overall, though, it was fairly enjoyable.
12x12 CAT Challenges, MysteryCATDelia's Shadow / Jaime Lee Moyer
4.25 stars
Delia has been in New York for three years, but has returned to San Francisco, along with a ghost (her “shadow” of the title) who prodded her to return. But, Delia can’t figure out what exactly the ghost wants. Delia returns to her best friend, Sophie (who is almost like a sister, as Sophie and her mother took Delia in after her parents died (either in an earthquake or a fire, both are often referred to, but I can’t recall which killed her parents) in the early 20th century).
Sophie is engaged to police officer Jack, who works with Gabe. They are working on a serial killer case that seems to have links to a 30 year old case that Gabe’s father worked on when he was a police officer. Unfortunately, Gabe and Jack get the sense that their loved ones are also in danger…
I really liked this! There was some supernatural (the ghosts), some horror, some mystery, some romance, and all set in 1915, so a historical setting. What’s not to like!? As I was reading, I kept thinking – oh, I hope there a sequel, I’d love to read more about these characters, so I was happy to find out, when I finished, that there are currently two more books in the series.
12x12 KIT Challenges, AlphaKIT, Reading Through Time, Trim the TBRAnd the Band Played On: The Titanic Violinist & the Glovemaker: A True Story of Love, Loss & Betrayal / Christopher Ward
4 stars
Jock Hume was a young violinist, playing in the band on the Titanic – the band that famously played bravely on, as the ship sank. Jock, along with the rest of the band, died that night. The author of the book is a descendant of Jock and is looking not only at the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, but is looking closely at Jock’s life and volatile relationship with his musician/violinist and violin-maker father. Ward also looks at, in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, the woman that Jock left pregnant, Mary, whom he intended to marry. The baby that resulted, Johnann (later called Jackie), is the author’s mother.
I really liked this. The first half of the book was more focused on both Jock and the aftermath of the Titanic. There was also some look (I think for comparison purposes) at millionaire John Jacob Astor and his subsequent recovery and his body’s trip home. The second half really did focus on Jock’s family; his father did not like Mary and there were “squabbles” (to put it mildly) and legal battles. I love reading more about the Titanic and I also love biographies, so this worked really well for me. There are plenty of nice photos included, as well. I read the paperback, which had a few updates that didn’t get into the hardcover edition.
12x12 SeriesAre You My Mother? / Alison Bechdel
2.5 stars
Alison Bechdel’s first graphic novel, “Fun Home”, looked at her growing up and her relationship with her dad. This one was meant to look at her relationship with her mom.
This was not only an analysis of the author’s relationship with her mother, but an analysis of her therapy. Or, that’s what it felt like, anyway. There were plenty of references to Virginia Wolff and a psychoanalyist, Donald Winnicott, as well as quotes. In fact, most of the book felt more like that than looking back at her relationship with her mother, though there was some of that. For that reason, I wasn’t a fan, though I remember really liking her “Fun Home”, so I was disappointed in this one.
12x12 Audio, AlphaKITWe Were Liars / E. Lockhart
3.5 stars
Cadence and her (mostly rich) friends spend every summer on an island owned by Cadence’s grandfather. When Cadence is 15, something happened that she can’t remember. She and her mother skip going to the island the following summer, but when they return the next year, she tries so hard to remember, and her friends have been told that it’s better if she remembers on her own.
I didn’t like any of the characters, and didn’t feel badly for them. (Possible, though vague, I think) (view spoiler) I did feel badly for the dogs, though. The story itself was good, and it’s one where, after the twist, it is tempting to start over again to see if you can pick out any of the clues. I listened to the audio, and it was fine.
12x12 TravelThe Light Over London / Julia Kelly
4 stars
There are two parallel stories in this one. Cara works for an antiques dealer and, while looking through someone’s estate, she discovers an old diary hidden away; she is given permission to take it and try to find out to whom it belonged. It attracted her attention because there was a photo of a young woman in an RAF uniform, and Cara’s grandmother had also been part of the Royal Air Force during the war. In fact, Cara’s grandmother won’t talk about the war, and Cara desperately wants to hear about it.
In the diary, Louise lives in a small town and her mother expects her to marry a nice boy, Gary, who has gone to war. When she meets the charming Paul at a dance, she falls hard for him, but due to a fallout at home, she leaves and joins the army, where she ends up being one of the very few “Ack-Ack Girls” or “Gunner Girls”, helping with anti-aircraft guns.
I really liked this. Initially, I liked both stories equally well, but as it continued, I did prefer Louise’s story. There were some twists at the end, though I did figure out one of Cara’s Gran’s twists. The Ack-Ack Girls were a part of WWII that I didn’t know anything about, so it was interesting to read about.
12x12 KIT Challenges, ScaredyKIT, AlphaKIT, Trim the TBRWatching Edie / Camilla Way
4 stars
Heather and Edie were friends when they were 16, but there was some kind of falling out. They are now in their 30s. Edie long-since moved away and is now pregnant and on her own. After Edie has her baby, she is unable to function, and Heather shows up to take care of them. But once Edie comes to her senses, she can’t get past what happened when they were younger and asks Heather to leave. But Heather doesn’t want to go…
The story is told in alternating chapters between Edie in her 30s and Heather at 16, so the reader hears the story from both characters’ perspectives and as things happen at each age. I thought this was very suspenseful; it kept me wanting to read to find out what had happened when they were 16, plus what was going on in “current” day and how things were going to turn out. I did prefer Edie’s viewpoint, but I think it really made a difference for the suspense to get into Heather’s head, as well. I was almost going to “up” my rating just a touch near the end, but the end, itself, was a little too open-ended for me. Some things were tied up, but not everything.
Play Book Tag
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Everything Is Illuminated / Jonathan Safran Foer.
1.5 stars
I don’t even have a summary. There was a Ukrainian translator with horrible English. There was an author visiting Ukraine, who met up with the translator and they, along with the translator’s grandfather were looking for a village that didn’t seem to exist, so it seemed. And, throughout the book, some chapters backed up in time to Jewish people starting in the 1700s, but I never quite figured out what was going on there, as the time jumped forward in other chapters; at some point it was during WWII. Apparently, these were ancestors of the author (the author character, not the actual author)?
This was weird. It is going to be my lowest rated book of the year (I think this is only the 2nd book, ever, I’ve rated less than 2 stars). I couldn’t figure out how the translator could even be a translator with his awful English; the author had the same name as the actual author of the book, Jonathan Safran Foer, so that simply confused me for ages. There were other odd parts written like a play or written like Bible verses. Weird. Not good. At all. It’s too bad – I think the only other book I’ve read by this author (nonfiction) made it on my favourites list for that year.