Play Book Tag discussion
Member Challenge Tracking 2021
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Cindy/LibraryCin's 2021 Challenges
12x12 Trim, Trim the TBR (Classic), PBTA Knight in Shining Armor / Jude Deveraux
4 stars
Dougless is on a trip to England with her partner, Robert, and his spoilt-brat daughter, Gloria. When, after a fight, Robert and Gloria drive away and leave Dougless behind at a church without even her purse, she breaks down in tears on top of a tomb – the tomb of 16th century “rake” Nicholas Stafford. When a man appears, she refuses to believe he is from the 16th century – he says he IS Nicholas. She just thinks he’s crazy! Even still, she agrees to help him, as he is obviously confused about everything going on around him (or he’s acting so, anyway). They decide to do some research to find out more about what happened to him (he appeared to Dougless only 3 days before he was scheduled to be executed) – that is, who accused him of the crime he is to be executed for.
I quite enjoyed this. I’m not a big romance fan, but I do like time travel. This one got even better with an unexpected turn of events in the middle of the book. Although, I did find Dougless to be a bit – I can’t think of a good word, but “flakey” maybe? I have no idea what she ever saw in Robert! I do feel like this was a tough one to find a good ending for, but I thought she did a good job with that. There is an afterword in the edition I read, which was apparently slightly rewritten from the original. The author said she tried to make the reader see a bit better why Dougless might have wanted so badly to marry Robert, but I still didn’t get that part of it. Despite that, however, I did love the time travel aspect of the book!
12x12 PBT, PBT, Pursue It, AlphaKIT, GenreCAT, RandomCATFangirl / Rainbow Rowell
3.75 stars
Cath and Wren are twin sisters and going to college. Not only are they leaving their dad, but Wren has insisted they not be roommates so they can meet new people. Which is fine for outgoing, party-girl Wren, but Cath is a shy nerd. A fanfiction writing nerd, obsessed with Simon Snow, the wildly popular fantasy series, and the last book will be coming out soon. Cath’s new roomate Reagan is distant, but Reagan’s boyfriend is far too friendly – with everyone. Mostly Cath leaves him in the hall if Reagan isn’t home (which is most of the time). Cath is excited to start her Creative Fiction course, though – a higher level class she needed permission to get into.
I really enjoyed the main story of Cath and the events surrounding her. For me, there was far too much Simon Snow, though. I skimmed over almost all of the Simon Snow writings in the book. This is what brought my rating down by a quarter star. I did come to quite like Reagan. I loved Luke! There were some serious topics in the book, but it’s still a lighthearted book with humourous bits thrown in.
12x12 PBT, PBTA Spark of Light / Jodi Picoult
3 stars
This starts off with a hostage situation in a women’s reproductive health services clinic. The daughter of one of the police is in there. Along with many others.
It was good, but hard to follow – maybe more-so because I listened to the audio. Lots of characters, and all over the place in time/chronology with all the different characters made it really hard to follow. I don’t even know if the hostage situation was finished or how it finished! If it was finished off somehow, I missed it. I suppose the book wasn’t really about the hostage situation, and there wasn’t really tension with the hostage storyline at all.
There were a couple of interesting twists that I hadn’t expected. Speaking of that, there was another storyline for one of the characters that I’m not quite sure how it ended, either. Actually there was more than one, now that I think of it. I could have done without the abortion descriptions. Good parts: I learned a few things, an interesting author’s note at the end. I was going to rate it “good” at 3.5, but the end (or too many ends that weren’t tied up – or if they were, I missed them all) brought my rating down a bit.
12x12 Reading Through Time, Reading Through TimeMammoth / John Varley
4 stars
Multi-billionaire Howard has a “thing” for elephants and mammoths. When he gets his hands on a frozen excavated mammoth, he hires elephant trainer Susan to help impregnate an elephant to create an elephant-mammoth hybrid. Also with that frozen excavated mammoth was found a Stone Age man – with a wristwatch! And a box. Howard figures the box is a time machine and he hires genius mathematician Matt to figure it out.
I really liked this. It started off fast paced, and there were plenty of other fast-paced events in the book to keep things really going. And a few surprising events. I also really liked the way the book ended. I wasn’t sure how it was going to wrap up, but I thought it was done quite well.
12x12 ARCsThe Sisters Sweet / Elizabeth Weiss
3.5 stars
Harriet and Josie are twins, and when their family falls on hard times, their parents (having both worked in show business in the past) strap them together to make them appear to be conjoined twins and set about getting vaudeville work for them. They grow up doing this kind of entertainment and manage for years before 15-year old Josie simply gets tired of it, and – on stage – breaks out of the harness and runs off! They are ruined.
Josie is the one who always wanted to be a star, anyway… and she becomes one (this is not a spoiler as we know in the first chapter, before we go back in time, that she became famous). Harriet didn’t crave the limelight like Josie did, but it was all she knew. She and her parents go to her mom’s sister and husband for help.
This is told from Harriet’s point of view. I liked it, but I didn’t really find any of the characters particularly likable, including Harriet. The book did a good job of show business and the time period, I think. I definitely did not like the ending – it initially appeared to be going (kind of) where I wanted it to, then suddenly changed course. It is very possible others would like the ending more than I did, however.
12x12 Audio, GenreCAT, AlphaKITThe Husband / Dean Koontz
3.5 stars
Mitch is a gardener… makes less than $40,000/year. What a shock when he gets a phone call from his wife (and her kidnapper) that she is being kidnapped and they expect Mitch to come up with $2 million! And to prove they aren’t kidding around, they shoot the pedestrian walking his dog across the street from where Mitch is on the phone…
This started off really tense. It slowed down in the middle, though there were definitely some surprises thrown in there. Although the end ramped up again somewhat with a race against time, it didn’t pull me back in like I was pulled in at the start, but I’m not sure why that was. I did listen to the audio, and for the most part it kept my attention.
12x12 PBT, GenreCAT, Fall Flurries, Travel Across CanadaThe Terror / Dan Simmons
3.25 stars
In 1845, two ships sail from England looking for the Northwest Passage. The Terror and the Erebus later become stuck in ice for three years, as the men manning the ships died not only from starvation, cold, and scurvy, but there is something stalking them. Something… they don’t know what it is but it’s white, and much bigger than the white bears they have seen. It seems to appear out of nowhere to kill, maim, or maul.
This is a mix of survival, historical fiction, and (some) horror. The horror (the “thing” out there), I found was minimal. The focus was on the survival aspect. The book is very long, and I had a hard time getting interested until the last 1/3 of the book – that last 1/3 is what brought my rating up ¼ star. And it would have been nice for the book to be much shorter. The book is told from multiple points of view at different points in time, occasionally jumping back and forth in time. By that last bit of the book where I was more interested, it was chronological.
There were a lot of men on the two ships and, although, I was able to keep what each of them did straight (at least those whose viewpoint we followed), I wasn’t able to keep straight who “belonged’ on which ship. The end was a bit vague in a couple of cases, I thought. Descriptions of the ships and workings of the ships were less interesting to me. A bit horrifying, but more interesting was the description of what happens as someone develops scurvy. Anyone looking for horror, though, this didn’t fit the bill for me at all, unfortunately. It was not scary, in my opinion.
There was a brief author’s note at the end that really just provided citations for his research. It hinted at the fact that this – the “Franklin Expedition” really happened, but I still wasn’t sure, although “Franklin Expedition” did sound familiar to me. Other reviews tell me it did, and I’ve just read a bit on wikipedia about it. That is, the two ships set out to look for the Northwest Passage and disappeared. I guess this partly explains the vagueness of the ending.
12x12 Trim, Trim the TBR (Classic), Pursue It, RandomCATLeaving Lucy Pear / Anna Solomon
3 stars
In 1917, Bea leaves her newborn baby under a pear tree where she knows a family will find the baby. She assumes they will take her in and raise her, and they do. Ten years later, Lucy’s “adopted” mother Emma starts working for Bea, as a nurse to Bea’s uncle.
This was pretty slow. And vague at times as to what exactly was going on. I don’t think I particularly liked any of the characters – oh, I suppose I kind of liked Uncle Ira. I really didn’t care much about the characters, either, maybe because I didn’t like them very much? Initially, I thought I was enjoying the book, but I’m leaning more toward it being ok.
12x12 Read Thru Time, Reading Through TimeQuackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything / Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
4 stars
The subtitle pretty much tells what this book is about. What to know all the health benefits of mercury, radium, arsenic and strychnine? That’s just the start! Of course, there is also a look at bloodletting and leeches, and much much more.
This is told with humour and plenty of fun illustrations from the past. Very interesting stuff. Some of what they look at here were things doctors actually did, but some other things were what the “quacks” were selling. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much I’ll remember. It looks at so many different things in short bursts of information, but was definitely interesting as I read it. The authors are a doctor and a journalist.
12x12 Travel, AlphaKIT, RandomCAT, Trim the TBR (Classic)Lilac Girls / Martha Hall Kelly
3.75 stars
This follows three women during the time of WWII. Kasia was a young girl/woman in Poland who ended up in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp for women where experiments were done on some of those women. Herta was a woman doctor who initially had trouble finding work, but took a job at Ravensbruck, initially not realizing what she was getting into. Caroline was a wealthy woman in the US involved somehow with orphaned children in France, and later with helping women who had survived Ravensbruck.
It took a while for me to get “into” the book. I was listening to the audio, so that may have contributed, but I did like both Kasia’s and Herta’s stories. All the stories skipped forward in time fairly quickly, and I would have liked for it not to skip so much time so fast, as I felt like things got missed.
I could have done without Caroline’s story altogether, and definitely without Paul (her married-to-someone-else French lover). He was creepy (though this may, in part, have been due to the woman’s voice narrating a man’s voice with a French accent – I’ve thought this before with a woman narrating a man’s voice with a French accent). In any case, I did not like Paul at all and found he and Caroline extremely boring. All her pining (and later his) just made me roll my eyes. Ugh! The only time Caroline’s POV was interesting to me was later in the book when she was more involved with Kasia’s story.
I also had never heard the term “rabbits” before when referring to women who had been experimented on. I looked it up part-way into the book (if it was addressed in the book, I missed it), and there is a reason that it referred only to these particular women and experiments. It is also addressed in the author’s note at the end.
Author’s note at the end: Herta and Caroline were real people (though Paul was made up). Kasia and her sister were also fictional but based on real sisters who had been imprisoned at Ravensbruck and who had been experimented on.
12x12 Off the Shelf, HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT, Trim the TBR (Classic), Fly the SkiesThe Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg / Helen Rappaport
3.25 stars
This book really does focus on the last two weeks of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children (4 daughters and 1 son) as they were imprisoned and later murdered. It does back up in time, though, to detail how they got where they were.
There was a lot more politics in the book than I’d expected, so that was not as interesting to me as the parts that did focus on the family itself. I will say, though, that this seemed really well researched, with a lot of primary sources being used, most notably (I think) writings by the last head guard of the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg (Yakov Yurovsky), who was also one of the main murderers. This book may have included the most detailed description of the murders themselves, likely due to the writings of Yurovsky.
12x12 Nonfiction, Trim the TBR (Classic), ScaredyKIT, RandomCAT, PBTWhen Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back / Stephen Singular
4 stars
This is a history of of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) – that is, the polygamous Mormons. It does give an entire history, but focuses on more recent events since Warren Jeffs took over as Prophet. Many women have left the FLDS in the past couple of decades due to all kinds of abuse; as well, many boys have been kicked out. The book was published in 2008, so it ends after Jeffs’ trial for accessory to rape (? something along those lines), with the main witness being Elissa Wall (who wrote “Stolen Innocence” about her life as part of the FLDS). She was the first person to bring charges against Jeffs.
I have read a lot about the FLDS already, so I’ve heard a lot of this. This one, though, gave me more insight into the behind-the-scenes investigating of Jeffs and investigating the issues with abuse (and money) within the community. As usual, when I end one of these books, I need to look up what is happening with Jeffs at the moment – he is still in jail, but he still has followers.
12x12 Animals, ScaredyKIT, RandomCAT, Trim the TBR (Classic)The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption / Jim Gorant
5 stars
This is (primarily) a look at the rescue and rehabilitation of Michael Vick’s fighting dogs.
It starts off heartbreaking as we get the background of the dogs as they were kept in Vick’s yard. And there is some discussion of the trial, etc, but moreso it follows the investigation into what happened and all the behind-the-scenes stuff as they gathered evidence against Vick and the other men who bred and fought these dogs.
But the bulk of the story follows (some of) the dogs after they are rescued. These dogs, unlike other fighting dogs before them, were not immediately euthanized, There were rescues that came to help with foster homes and sanctuaries to see if they could be rehabilitated and the vast majority of them were. Many found forever homes and some (as of the publishing of the book in 2010) were living in sanctuaries where volunteers continued to work with them. It was hard to read about one of the shelters that took some of them in right away – it’s a rough shelter with not much in the way of amenities.
There are sad parts thrown in as if it’s from one dog’s point of view, as well. Some of the work with the scared dogs reminded me of my volunteering with shy/scared cats, to be honest. The end of the book did a “where are they now?” for both the dogs and the people involved. Of course, “now” was around the time of publication over a decade ago. I realized that none of the dogs are probably living now.
12x12 Audio, Fall Flurries, GenreCAT, AlphaKITNo One Goes Alone / Erik Larson
2 stars
In 1905, a group of people come together to head out to an isolated house on an island where a family disappeared (I think). The people seem to be investigating paranormal activity. Part-way through, I was confused when it sounded like the group of people was shipwrecked, but I think the boat was taken or it disappeared or something, but the original intent for heading out to the island was still the paranormal activity (I think).
This was “published” as an audio book only, as Larson felt that ghost stories are meant to be told aloud. Great idea! Also great title, and (usually) great author. I was more interested in the author’s note at the end (at least it held my attention more) than the story itself.
This one, though, for me, did not hold my interest. It felt like a “classic” – slow, not much happened (I don’t think; what did happen, I missed much of). Probably the male British narrator did not help for me (for whatever reason, just that type of narration/voice will tune me out.) Like some others, it reminded me of The Haunting of Hill House, with a bit of And Then There Were None thrown in (but both of those are better – or maybe it’s because I didn’t listen to the audios of those?).
12x12 Trim, Trim the TBR (Classic), MysteryKITShine / Lauren Myracle
4 stars
When 16-year old Cat’s (former) best friend Patrick is beaten up and left for dead by someone – likely because he’s gay – Cat doesn’t trust that the small town police are trying very hard to find the culprit(s), so she does some digging of her own. Although, everyone knows everyone, for the past three years, Cat has pretty much shunned everyone (including Patrick), except her brother, who was also friends with Patrick, so it’s not that easy to get info out of people. While she learns some new, surprising things about the people she thought she knew, she is trying to come to grips with something that happened to her at the time she began to ignore everyone when she was 13.
I really liked this. As interesting as it was even from the start, it kept building to the end. I also liked the character from out of town who was introduced. There are some nice (mostly repeated, I think) dark illustrations between chapters, and I liked the way the scene was “set” at the start of the book, via what looks like a newspaper clipping, reporting the attack on Patrick.
12x12 Off the Shelf, AlphaKIT, PBTHench/ Natalie Zina Walschots
2.5 stars
Anna works for a temp agency that finds people to work for villains. She doesn’t particularly like “field work”; she prefers to work at a desk, instead. When she decides to branch out and do some field work, instead, she ends up injured and on crutches for months. During this time, she does research and some calculations to figure out that heroes actually do more collateral damage (she figured out the math!) than it’s worth. So, she decides, when she can work again, she will find a way to bring down those heroes.
Ok, I’m not much for superhero stories, anyway. I had hoped to like this one more, but I think it just wasn’t my “thing”. There were parts that were interesting, but mostly I just wasn’t all that interested. I also didn’t quite agree with her hypothesis – yes, there is some collateral damage to innocents, but much of it is to the “bad guys”, anyway. The guys who are intentionally trying to do bad things to innocents! The author’s note at the end was interesting, though.
12x12 Travel, ScaredyKIT, Trim the TBR (Classic)Secrets in the Cellar / John Glatt
4 stars
In 1984 in Austria, Josef Fritzl (who had already been raping his middle daughter, Elisabeth, since she was 11-years old), imprisoned her (now 18) in a dungeon under his house that no one knew existed. He had spent six years building it. He kept her there for 24 years, and fathered seven children with her (he already had seven with his wife – Elisabeth being the middle/4th one).
This book does look at all the abuses toward his daughter that just went on and on. Not only that, but previous to all this, he had a history of sexual crimes, only one of which he was convicted and went to jail for. His wife knew nothing about what had happened to Elisabeth – he told everyone she had run away (which would have been no surprise, as she had run away a couple of times previous) to join a religious cult. He took three of the children upstairs to raise them with his wife as adopted/foster children, so he could get the money for them. So, three of the children were raised in the “real world” upstairs, while three others in the dungeon, never seeing sunlight, and rife with all kinds of health issues (the 7th child only lived a few days before dying when Josef refused to get him medical help).
What a monster! Omg, don’t read this if you are at all queasy. I don’t know if I remember this case. She got out with her kids in 2008, only a couple of years after Natasha Kampusch (and I do remember that one). Maybe I don’t remember as much because the entire family ended up changing their names/identities so they could try to get some peace and try to heal. Elisabeth and her children got out of the dungeon in 2008 and the book was published in 2009. The book still managed to get in much of the aftermath, though I did look up more (the trial and to see how Elisabeth and her kids were doing after the end of the book). There is some repetition in the book, but it was well-researched.
12x12 SeriesSquire / Tamora Pierce
3 stars
This is the third in a series. Kel has been studying to be a knight for a while now, but many don’t think a girl should become a knight. However, she is determined. She is chosen as a squire to Lord Raoul – that is, she has now finished her education and is training with a real knight.
I listened to the audio, so I do suspect that had a bearing on my rating. It just didn’t hold my attention at some points, though other parts were good. Fighting is one thing that I just don’t find very interesting, especially on audio; I tend to tune out. That being said, I finished it two days ago and sadly, I have already forgotten most of it, unfortunately. However, there is one more book in the series, and I will plan to finish it.
12x12 Reading Through Time, Reading Through Time, HistoryCAT, KITastrophe, Fall FlurriesOn Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle / Hampton Sides
4 stars
This is about the Korean War. The Marines were ordered to come in to North Korea from the water, then over mountains during the coldest time of the year (in what turned out to be one of the coldest winters). There were a lot of stupid decisions made by two people higher up in the chain of command (sorry, I don’t know the military well enough to remember titles and who outranks whom), though the next in that chain knew they were stupid decisions and he did his best to follow orders, but to find ways to keep damage to a minimum.
I really liked this; it was really interesting. I know very little about the Korean War, and not only did this tell the stories of these Marines and how they (most? some? of them) got out of a bad situation, but I got a bit of insight into how the war started.
12x12 Series, MysteryKIT, Fly the SkiesThe Play of Death / Oliver Potzsch
4 stars
It is 1670. Jakob Kuisl is the hangman in Schongau, Bavaria. His daughter, Magdalena, married an almost-doctor (he didn’t quite finish his study/training), Simon, a while back. Even still, hangmen and their families are the lowest of the low in society. Simon is taking his oldest son, Peter to the next town over, Oberammergau, so he will have a better chance at a good education (which is harder for him to get in Schongau, with the prejudices toward him as the hangman’s grandson). Peter will stay with a former teacher of Simon’s, who will teach Peter at the schoolhouse there.
The morning Simon takes Peter to Oberammergau, however, one of the town’s residents is found crucified on a cross. Oberammergau has been planning and rehearsing for a Passion play, and the young man playing Jesus is the one found on the cross. One of the town’s council members (a rich man – whose son is the one who died) asks Simon to stay a while to help figure out what happened and to help out as a doctor, as Oberammergau is currently without one. In the meantime, back home in Schongau, Magdalena’s younger sister, Barbara, is finding herself in trouble.
I like historical fiction and I like mysteries, but historical mysteries don’t always pull me in. However, I really like this series. I feel like it’s gotten better as it goes along. This is actually a translation and the author discovered he actually has a hangman in his family’s history, so the series is based on that. There actually ends up being a lot more going on in this than my summary suggests. I’m happy to see that the series continues.
12x12 Audio, PBTMurder with Peacocks / Donna Andrews
3 stars
Meg is helping plan three weddings in the same summer. Those of her best friend, her mother, and her brother. All weddings are happening in the same town so many of the people know each other. At one of the pre-wedding gatherings, one of the guests turns up dead. Meg’s father has always been interested in murder investigations, so he takes it upon himself to try to figure out what happened, along with Meg’s help at times. All the while, Meg is still trying to plan three weddings!
I listened to the audio and I’m going to rate it ok. The audio itself was fine, but there was a lot of wedding… and three bridezillas. I found some of the wedding traditions odd. I’m not sure why Meg was in charge of planning three weddings for other people; for a while, I thought maybe she was a wedding planner, but nope. There were some other wedding traditions that were different from what I know – do people actually open gifts ahead of time? (In this case, Meg opened the gifts and made a note of everything because apparently the bride and groom (to-be) were too busy. I couldn’t figure out why it needed to be done ahead of time, anyway.) Overall, it was ok. I won’t be continuing the series, however.
12x12 Series, ScaredyKIT, GenreCATLocke & Key: Heaven and Earth / Joe Hill
3 stars
This graphic novel has a few short stories, mostly surrounding the house that was the centre of the Locke & Key books. Only one of the stories features the children in the main series. The last third of the book is mostly photos of the authors in places that inspired the fictional setting of the series.
I liked the short stories – the first one was the best one, in my opinion. The photos weren’t as interesting, but were ok and the book finished off with full page illustrations of the children in the series with other things in the background (the back of the book tells me these are additional covers). Overall, I’m rating it ok.
12x12 Nonfiction, PBT Trim, Trim the TBR (Classic)The Lost Boy / Dave Pelzer
3.5 stars
This continues Dave Pelzer’s memoirs after “A Child Called ‘It’”. At 12(?) years old, he is finally rescued from his abusive home life (particularly his mother) by a police officer and placed in a foster home. Until he turns 18, he goes through a number of foster homes, though except for the first one, through no fault of his own. None of his foster homes were bad to him.
This was good. The first chapter did back up just a little bit to give the reader a taste of what he’d had to endure previous to being removed from his biological family’s “care”, before moving on to follow him until he no longer needed to be taken care of via foster homes. He has all good things to say about foster care and the love and support he received after coming out of his previously abusive life. He talks more about this in an Afterword, as well as adding notes from one of his foster mothers, a teacher, and other people who helped him during this stage of his life.
12x12 PBT, PBT, MysteryKIT, AlphaKITMurphy's Law / Rhys Bowen
4 stars
It’s 1901. Molly is running from her small town in Ireland after she accidentally killed a man when he tried to rape her. In London, she meets up with a woman planning to take her children to America to meet up with her husband who is already there. Unfortunately, a medical test before they leave finds her too sick to travel. They decide that Molly will pretend to be her (Kathleen) and escort the kids to their father. Unfortunately, as they were detained overnight on Ellis Island, one of the men who had been on the same ship was murdered. Molly happened to see a guard that night in the vicinity of the men’s barracks; she had also been seen slapping the murdered man on the ship.
I really liked this one. Historical mysteries aren’t always my favourite, but I think the historical aspect of this was really well done: dealing with the hardships of arriving as an immigrant, not really knowing anyone… finding a job, so she can eat and pay for shelter. I did like her relationship with the kids she brought with her, especially the little girl. I would have liked a bit more follow-up with that, but maybe that will come in future books in the series. This might be amongst my favourite cozy mysteries, probably due to the historical setting, but that can’t be the only reason since (many) other historical mysteries don’t pull me in like this one did.
12x12 Series, GenreCAT, AlphaKIT, Trim the TBR (Classic)The Fallout / S. A. Bodeen
3.5 stars
Potential spoilers for book 1: (view spoiler) They don’t even know who they can trust.
I liked this. It did show how hard it would be to fit back in to a regular life, for Eli and the family, in addition to Eddy having to get used to this new world, as well. As I noticed at least one other review mention, the science fiction aspect of the book didn’t come into play until near the end, but that didn’t bother me, as I still thought the rest of the book was good, too. There were a couple of surprises near the end – one I’d guessed (just shortly before it was revealed), but I didn’t guess the other at all.
12x12 Animals, Trim the TBR (Classic), AlphaKIT, RandomCATAsk the Animals: A Vet's-Eye View of Pets and the People They Love / Bruce R. Coston
3.75 stars
This is a memoir by a veterinarian. It focuses more on his life than the animal anecdotes, but those are definitely added in, as well; that is, it the larger focus is on his life in becoming and being a veterinarian (as well as some family life and his own pets).
For the most part I liked it. I found the schooling and the anecdotes interesting. Of his home life, the pets were the best part. I was disappointed, however, to read that at least one of his cats (not sure about the others) was declawed, as was the office cat at his practice.
12x12 Series, AlphaKIT, GenreCAT, KITastrophe, Pursue ItThe Last Star / Rick Yancey
2 stars
This is the last book in a YA sci-fi trilogy where aliens have arrived to take over the planet and to destroy the majority of the humans (on a very broad level).
I should have reread my review for the 2nd book before grabbing the audio from the library. My review for the 2nd one specifically stated that I should NOT do the audio for the last book. Oops! Once again, there was very little to no recap for the previous books (or if there was, I missed it). Most of the characters have two names – their real name and their nickname, so it’s hard to remember who is who sometimes, especially when not fully engaged/interested in what I’m listening to. There were two different narrators, one male and one female, but more than two different viewpoints. Each chapter did say whose viewpoint it was, but because I missed things, I still had trouble knowing between the male or female characters whose POV I was hearing (combined with the multiple names and not really remembering their background because I couldn’t recall who was who…).
12x12 Nonfiction, Trim the TBR (Classic)Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir / Liz Prince
4 stars
This is a graphic novel/memoir by someone who didn’t see herself as a girl, so dressed and acted more like a stereotypical boy. For this, she was bullied and had trouble fitting in, though she mostly managed to find a few friends in her different schools. This graphic novel relives her childhood and teen years in the 1980s and 90s.
I thought this was really good. The reader gets to see some of what she was struggling with as she lived through those years as someone who refused to conform to what girls should look like or do. Though I was never a tomboy, I was certainly also not a “girly girl”, so I could see some things in her that I felt, as well. I really thought this did a good job of showing her struggles.
12x12 ARCsWhat Seems True / James Garrison
3.5 stars
Dan is the company lawyer for a business in Texas. In 1979, when a black supervisor is found murdered, two people – a married couple – are arrested for the murder. Dan had recently become friendly with Sheila, the wife, and can’t believe she would do something like that. Meanwhile, the union is planning a strike.
It was good, but I found the union/company stuff less interesting. The mystery itself didn’t really dig into any racism (I thought it would), though the company complained about affirmative action and having to promote the black workers, even if they weren’t as qualified as the white workers. After the book got past much of the union issues, I found it more interesting, and I thought it had a good ending – a bit of a surprise. It turns out this was based on a real murder in Texas in 1979.
12x12 Travel, MysteryKIT (Dec), PBTThe Thieves of Ostia / Caroline Lawrence
3 stars
It’s ancient Rome and the dog belonging to one of Flavia’s neighbours has been killed and beheaded. Flavia and her friends plan to find out who did it.
This is a mix of children’s lit, historical fiction, and mystery. I listened to the audio, and overall it was ok. I did lose focus (as I seem to with audios more often lately) a few times, but the story was ok. There was a short author’s/historical note at the end, though being a kids’ book, it didn’t go into detail. Even with only an “ok” rating from me, it might still be a fun series to continue.
12x12 Off the Shelf, PBT Trim, Trim the TBR (Classic), HIstoryCAT, AlphaKITSylvia / Bryce Courtenay
3.5 stars
It’s the 13th century in Germany. Sylvia was young when her mother died and her father abused her. When he died, she was driven from her mother’s home and land by the local people. As she travelled, she met up with Reinhardt, who played lovely music on his flute that often caused rats and other animals to follow him; he called himself the Pied Piper of Hamelin. They travelled together and with her angelic voice and his flute, they entertained people (and/or he drove rats away) to get food to eat and shelter. Sylvia had additional (to the singing) gifts of her own, that when combined with the fish birthmark on her back, people tended to believe she was an angel and miracles happened when she was around.
Eventually, Sylvia and Reinhardt met up with a child, Nicholas, who seemed to have a gift for preaching (at least, when he partook of the mushrooms Sylvia showed him how to consume). Nicholas drew other children to him with his preaching and he decided (well, he was told by Jesus) there would be a “Children’s Crusade” from Germany to Jerusalem.
This was good, but long. A lot of religion in this one, and it seems some of it (but what?) was historically accurate. Unfortunately, the author only included acknowledgments at the end, so the fact that some of this really happened was mentioned but not expanded on, as I was hoping. I assume what really happened was the Children’s Crusade, but I will have to look that up to find out. This is long – almost 500 pages of small font (in the physical book).
12x12 Trim the TBR, Trim the TBR (Classic)Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital / Eric Manheimer
3.5 stars
The author is a doctor and was the head of the Bellevue Hospital in New York City for 14 years, I believe. This book dedicates a chapter each to one patient. One chapter focused on himself and his own bout with cancer.
I thought this was good. He was able to sit down with some of these patients and talk to them and find out more about their backgrounds, so he provides more than the medical information about each one. He talks about their lives, and how they came to be in New York and in the hospital. Some of the patients were immigrants and some were prisoners from the nearby Rikers Prison, and there is more variety in addition.
Given that he also looks at the people’s backgrounds, there is some politics thrown in, as well – some to do with the patients’ countries of origin, some with the way the US handles immigration, and some with public health care in the US and the costs. I have to say the chapter on his own cancer scared me a bit, as he described the treatments and such; what worried me was that I live alone and wonder how I would manage if I need to go through such treatments one day.
12x12 BIPOCThe Castle / Anne Montgomery
4 stars
Maggie has had a tough time the past 10 years or so. In addition to being raped years ago, she more recently lost her son. She is a Park Ranger in Arizona and has just returned to work. Her best friend’s partner, Lily, runs a local rape crisis centre for indigenous women, and she decides to volunteer there despite being unsure if she is hallucinating the boy she has seen climbing the cliff. Unfortunately, it looks like Maggie is about to be victimized again.
This pulled me in right away. The first chapter felt almost like horror with the chills it brought, though I’d tend to classify this more of a thriller. Some chapters do show the POV of the new rapist in town, but we don’t know who it is until the end, though there are a few possibilities. There are stats on rape included (both within the book and as part of an afterword) that I found interesting. I, of course, also loved the found little puppy.
12x12 Nonfiction, Trim the TBRFreedom: My Book of Firsts / Jaycee Dugard
3 stars
This is a follow up to kidnap (and rape) survivor Jaycee Dugard’s first book “My Stolen Life”. She was kidnapped at 11-years old and imprisoned for 18 years and had two daughters when they were found. This book tells of many things she did for the first time after she was free… things like her first plane ride (though she had been on a plane when she was younger), her first shopping trip to a mall, her first horse (she also had a dog and cats – some of the cats came with her from where she’d been imprisoned), and more.
It was good, but she does sound very young, in more ways than one. I did listen to the audio, which she read herself, and her voice sounds young (she must also still look quite young, as she is often mistaken for much younger than she is). But also in the book, she uses a lot of sort of “catch phrases”. I can’t think of the correct term, but young, slang-sounding phrases/sayings.
12x12 Series, AlphaKITWritten in My Own Heart's Blood / Diana Gabaldon
3.5 stars
This is the 8th book in the “Outlander” series. Keeping it broad so as not to spoil anything from the previous book… Jamie and Claire are involved in the American Revolution, while the family is mostly in Philadelphia. Roger and Bree are separated in time as Roger heads back… for a purpose I won’t reveal. He ends up further back in time than expected in 1737, and meets Jamie’s father (and others).
3.5 stars for me is good. The book was good. To give a book 4 stars, it means I “really” liked it, and that’s hard to sustain with a 1000+ page book, but there were parts I really liked. Roger and Bree’s story pulled me in immediately and kept me interested. There were parts that focused on Lord John Grey and his son William – much of which I didn’t find as interesting, though some parts were. Near the start of the book, I didn’t even find Jamie and Claire as intriguing, but their story got better as the book went along, I thought. As always, I do like reading about the medical stuff, though having had a couple of eye surgeries myself, that bit with Claire fixing John’s eye was pretty graphic!
12x12 PBT, PBT, GenreCATThe Library of Lost and Found / Phaedra Patrick
4 stars
When librarian Martha is left a book with an inscription appearing to be from her grandmother - who died three years before that inscription! - she must find out what is going on. Her parents had told her that her grandmother, Zelda (who never got along with Martha’s father, but she and Martha were two peas in a pod) had died. Not only that, the book consists of many stories that Martha herself had written when she younger; Martha hasn’t written since her grandmother died. This leads to the uncovering of many family secrets.
I really enjoyed this. I listened to the audio, and I thought it was done well. I did lose a bit of interest in the stories that Martha had written (but “stories within stories” tend to do that with me… not usually interested, I skim). I did find the rest of it – the family relationships and secrets interesting, though I did guess at one of them, but that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the book.
12x12 Read Thru Time, Reading Through Time, Fall Flurries, RandomCAT, HistoryCAT, GenreCAT, AlphaKIT, Travel Across CanadaFrozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition / Owen Beattie, John Geiger
4 stars
This book first looks at the Franklin Expedition in the mid-1800s to find the Northwest Passage. Franklin and his entire crew of 129 people and two ships disappeared. In the years following, others set out to find them or some clue as to what had happened. In the early 1980s, Owen Beattie, a forensic anthropologist, and a team of others set out to the graves of three of the expedition members on Beatty Island to dig them up to do autopsies to see if that would tell them what had happened.
Surprisingly, I found the second half more interesting than the first. I guess all of it was potentially interesting to me, but I was surprised to be more engrossed in the parts as the modern-day scientists dug up the graves to find extremely well-preserved bodies and to read the details of their testing and what they found. Be warned that there are photos of the bodies that were dug up; of course, there are other interesting photos, as well.
12x12 Animals, GenreCAT, Trim the TBR (Classic)Murder at Monticello / Rita Mae Brown
2 stars
This is the third book in this series. The pets in the series understand the humans and provide commentary amongst themselves, though the humans are unable to understand the pets. In this one, a skeleton is found, dating back to 1803, and it appears that the person was hit with something on the back of the head and murdered, so the townspeople are digging through history to see if they can figure out what happened. Part-way through the book, one of the current-day characters is also murdered.
I’m surprised I came up with a coherent summary, but I think it’s fairly accurate. That being said, I just wasn’t interested in what was happening in the book; when I lose interest, I skim and miss much of the goings-on. I assume both murders were cleared up at the end, but I couldn’t say for sure. The animals are somewhat cute/amusing, but even then, not always. I will not be continuing the series.
12x12 Off the Shelf, Travel Across Canada, Fly the SkiesCanada / Richard Ford
3 stars
In 1960, 15-year old Dell and his twin sister, Berner, are effectively “orphaned” when their parents are arrested for robbing a bank in North Dakota. Berner runs away and a family friend takes Dell over the Canadian border to a small town in Saskatchewan to live with and work for her brother.
The first paragraph sets things up, telling the reader of the bank robbery and also about murders, still to come. So, it starts with a “bang”, but after that, the book moves pretty slowly. That being said, I grew up in Southern Saskatchewan and thought the descriptions were very well done. It’s also always fun to recognize places, and there were a few really small towns mentioned nearby to where I lived. Overall, I’m considering this one “ok”.
12x12 ARCs, Netgalley, Fall Flurries, RandomCAT, GenreCAT, AlphaKIT, ScaredyKIT, Pursue ItThe Overnight Guest / Heather Gudenkauf
4.5 stars
Current day: Wylie is a true crime writer who has left her son with her ex-husband to head to an isolated rural area where she has rented an old farmhouse to be able to better concentrate on her writing. On a cold, blizzardy, freezing-rain/snow-filled night, she finds a little boy curled up in the snow outside the house. She brings him in to warm him up, but he’s not talking as to how or why he was there.
2020: 12-year olds Josie and Becky are best friends, but tragedy strikes when Becky stays overnight one night. The farmhouse then houses two murdered people and two people have disappeared. Josie is the only one who managed to get away.
Timeline unclear initially: a mother and daughter are kept locked in a basement, with an abusive man/father coming to visit occasionally.
Wow, this pulled me in right away and I wanted to keep reading! Unfortunately, for me, I was reading before bed (twice) and especially the first night, I had a hard time getting to sleep! (Which, really, in a thriller or horror book, is a good thing!). All three storylines were appealing to me, and the author brought them together very well.
12x12 BIPOC, Trim the TBRJust Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption / Bryan Stevenson
4 stars
The author is a lawyer and lives in Alabama. He is dedicated (in part) to helping people on death row, many who didn’t have proper representation to start with, many because they are poor. He focuses on one case throughout the book that he keeps coming back to, while interspersing other cases, along with statistics. The one main case follows Walter McMillan, who was convicted of a murder in the 1980s that it was very obvious he didn’t commit. Yet, here he was on death row.
I found this really interesting, And sad. He (and others) is (are) slowly, so slowly, trying to change things to make them better, but what an uphill battle. I listened to the audio and it was well-done; it held my attention pretty much the entire way through. Initially, I hadn’t realized until looking as I write this review, but the author read it himself.
12x12 Off the Shelf, PBT, Pursue ItThe Library Book / Susan Orlean
3.5 stars
In 1986 there was a big fire at the central public library in Los Angeles. I don’t remember how many books were lost, but I believe over 700,000 were damaged. It was an old building with lots of fire violations and was soon going to be upgraded. Investigators determined the fire was arson and everything seemed to point to compulsive liar Harry Peak. The book flips between the fire and investigation to the overall history of the library and the librarians in charge.
The book is a mix of disaster, biography, and history. It was good. I particularly found the information about arson interesting. It’s not that easy to tell if a fire is arson. There is lots of interesting info about the inner workings of a library and its services, but I’m a librarian, so that wasn’t really new to me. There were some photos included in the book, mostly of the previous librarians (and one of Harry Peak).
12x12 Travel, Trim the TBR (Classic), PBT TrimBeth / Nora Kay
3.75 stars
It’s the early 20th century in Scotland. When Beth is 6-years old, she meets rich girl Caroline, and they become fast friends, even though they are of completely different classes and Caroline often treats Beth as being below her. Caroline’s grandmother does not approve – at all – of this friendship. When Beth’s missionary parents leave the country two years later, Caroline’s father takes Beth in as a companion to Caroline. But tragedy strikes while Beth’s parents are away…
I quite enjoyed this! I’ve had it for years and from the cover, it looks a bit like a romance, so I just never felt like picking it up, but it’s not. Maybe Beth was a bit too “perfect” and things just seemed to often fall into place for her, but I still liked her and I liked the story.
12x12 Oh Canada, Travel Across Canada, Trim the TBR (Classic)How Hard Can it Be? Peter Wiebe - 1915-2010 / Peter Wiebe, Diana Cruchley
3 stars
This is anecdotes of Peter Wiebe’s life, as told by him to his daughter. He was a Mennonite born in Saskatchewan and later lived in British Columbia. There was nothing extraordinary about his life, but his daughter wanted his memories to be written.
Peter Wiebe was a great-uncle of mine. I don’t believe Dad ever met him. The “stories” (more anecdotes, as they range from one paragraph to five or six, mostly) are ok. They are in Peter’s words, exactly; Diana did not edit them. They are not arranged chronologically, but each chapter is a topic. There is info about Canadian Prairie history, Mennonites in Western Canada, and life in general throughout the 20th century. Given that names are often reused in Mennonite families, the names were often familiar to me, even though they they weren’t people I actually know. And I “recognized” some of the situations and stories told, as similar to other situations and stories that I’ve heard in my family. There are photos included, and any info inserted by Diana is included in the captions to the photos, as well as a short introduction.
12x12 Off the Shelf, ScaredyKIT, GenreCATThe Homecoming / Andrew Pyper
3.5 stars
Aaron, his mother, and his two sisters, Bridge and Fanny, are brought together at an isolated lodge/acreage(?) to be read the will of their father/husband, who had a fairly secret life, of which neither his kids, nor his wife knew much about. It turns out he was worth millions, but to be able to inherit this fortune, all four must stay at this lodge/acreage for 30 days with no contact with the outside world. They agree, but there are more surprises (and scares) to come.
I was reading this often while distracted. I really feel like I would have “enjoyed” the scary atmosphere of it more, had those distractions not been there. One thing I didn’t like, though, was that not everything was revealed to the reader at the end (unless I was distracted when it was?). Not everything I read needs to be tidied up at the end, but it seemed Aaron knew about it - it just wasn’t revealed to the reader, and I would have liked to have known what that little tidbit was. There were definitely some surprises I would not have guessed at.
12x12 Oh Canada, Travel Across Canada, Pursue It, PBTBachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast / Bill Richardson
3 stars
50-something year old twins, Virgil and Hector, run a bed & breakfast on a small island between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia. There really isn’t much to do there beyond relax and read. Yet, the B&B has plenty of guests and the brothers are kept busy. This book includes anecdotes from both brothers, as well as some of the people who have stayed with them. Also included are a few “top 10” books (and authors) with various themes.
This is a bit of Canadian humour, parts made me smile and a few even made me laugh. I was ready to rate it “good” and I (mostly) did like it, but more so in the first half. The second half felt like it got a bit too philosophical for my liking. I liked that so many of the top 10 lists included Canadian authors.
12x12 Animals, GenreCAT, AlphaKIT, Trim the TBR (Classic)To Fetch a Thief / Spencer Quinn
4 stars
When an elephant and her handler go missing from a circus, it is cancelled to the disappointment of PI Bernie and his son, Charlie. However, since Bernie shows up before he knows about the cancellation, he chats with the police detective who is there to find out more. Later on, Bernie (and his dog Chet, whose POV the book is from) are hired by the handler’s partner (and the circus’s clown) to find out what happened, since the police are treating this as the handler simply having taken the elephant to get away from the circus.
I really liked this one. As always, it’s fun (and sometimes humourous) to read from Chet’s perspective. This one was extra interesting to me with the animal welfare/cruelty angle of circuses.
12x12 TravelOur Darkest Night / Jennifer Robson
3.75 stars
Antonina is a young Jewish woman in Italy. Her mother is not well. When the Nazis enter Italy, her father insists she goes away and hides, even though she must leave her parents behind. She is helped by a Catholic man, Nico, who had originally planned to become a priest. They pose as married, and she goes by Nina instead. They leave for his family’s home in a rural area. Unfortunately, someone Nico knew in his seminary (they didn’t get along) who was kicked out is now helping the Nazis, and he comes to keep watch on Nico.
I listened to the audio and it was done well. I rarely lost interest (which is always a risk with audio for me). I liked this. Like many, I have read plenty of WWII fiction, but in this case, I haven’t read much set in Italy. I am waffling between 3.5 stars (good) and 4 stars (really good). I might be hesitating on the 4 stars simply due to WWII overload. Often if a book makes me cry, that will be a 4 star rating. I almost cried – one or two tears at one point.
12x12 BIPOC, AlphaKITTrue North / Gary Eller
3 stars
The book starts with three young unmarried pregnant girls in a small area in rural North Dakota. The entirety of the book takes place between the 1930s and 1960s. All three girls eventually all end up married and they are “related” in some way. There are feuding neighbours in the mix, and a nearby Indian reservation.
The girls: Fawn was raised by her father, extremely isolated, and had never met any other human until shortly before she became pregnant. Ida Florence – I can’t remember her circumstances at the start of the book. Leah liked a nearby boy (one of the indigenous people, I think), but her father did not. Her father was pushing for an unmarried older man, Harold, to marry Leah after she got pregnant.
There are a lot of characters and I (sometimes) found it difficult to either remember who was who and/or who was related to whom in what way(s). It took a long time for me to figure out that these three pregnant girls were not of the same generation. Similarly, I sometimes found it difficult to remember which characters were indigenous or not. There were very few likable characters. All that being said about the numerous characters, the story itself ended up being ok, but it took a while at the start to get “into” it.
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
Such a Pretty Smile (other topics)True North (other topics)
Our Darkest Night (other topics)
To Fetch a Thief (other topics)
Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast (other topics)
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The Last Runaway / Tracy Chevalier
3.75 stars
In the mid-1800s, Honor, a Quaker, is accompanying her sister Grace across the ocean from England to Ohio, where Grace is to marry Adam, someone they grew up with who had moved to Ohio to help out his brother in his business. Unfortunately, Grace dies along the way. Honor is so seasick on the crossing, she can’t imagine getting back on a ship to cross the ocean again to head home. But it’s a bit odd for her to live with her widowed almost-brother-in-law, and his newly widowed sister-in-law. They manage for a while.
On her way to Ohio, Honor met up with a local slave hunter. Before reaching Adam, Honor stayed a few days in a nearby town, helping Belle in her hat shop, as Honor is an amazing quilter and seamstress. Once she arrives to stay with Adam, though, she finds herself quite out of place, despite being part of a community of Quakers.
This book had a lot going on… that is, the author had to do a lot of research on a lot of different things, including Quakers, quilting, Ohio, and the Underground Railroad. I quite liked it, but I never did figure out the odd attraction she had for one character. I did love Belle! I’m not a quilter or sewer, so I found the Underground Railroad and the Quakers more interesting. It’s odd that I’ve not read much about Quakers before, but both my audio book and this one, being read at the same time included Quakers who are immigrants to the US (though the audio was set in the 17th century and this one in the 19th).