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Literary Minded People want to know:

Title

Author

# of ★

Synopsis

Review

Did you like it?

Why?

Why not?

Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church by Kenda Creasy Dean 3 stars

Here's my review (or it's also on the 2016 challenge in full).

here

Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn 3 stars

my review

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

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

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

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

I am reading Wild Animal School by Jenny Lynne. It is a good book so far. I am also reading How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends by Don Gabor. It is also a good book it's very interesting.

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

May 15 – currently reading

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

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

I am reading FLIGHT PATTERNS by Karen White and LOVING it.

Psychos Babe Walker

Minus ★

WTF? SERIOUSLY?

Before you judge me.....................

Now let me tell you why I read this at all: I was in Mexico, stuck in an apartment, alone and I was Fkin'g DESPERATE for something to do..... so I had this book from the booksale (now left behind in the Mexico City Airport) and I read it!

This book SUCKS, it is so narcissistic and the characters are an odious lot of empty-headed a$$hats, with no redeeming qualities or saving graces.

The main character "Babe Walker" comes home from rehab, agrees to a small private party @ the Malibu Beach house. Her Fk'd up friends invited everyone & the Lakers......

Runs home.... Goes shopping.... Goes home.....Wakes to find a note from a "stalker" in black lipstick on the bathroom mirror.....

Runs to famous Hollywood hotel.... Goes shopping.... Meets & makes-up w/ ex. They fight... Note from stalker....

Runs to Paris..... Goes shopping Note from stalker

Runs to Greece w/ hot pick-up.... Gets taken for everything..... Goes shopping.....

Runs to Amsterdam...... Blah, blah, blah blah

Chapter after chapter......sos

The author is supposedly a very popular best read "blogger"... I wouldn't know, I don't care

A Bed of Scorpions Judith Flanders

★ ★ ★ ★

The mysterious death of an art gallery owner follows the unearthing of the skeletal remains of the missing collage artist whose work is about to be shown at the Tate. The next discovered body is that of the Gallery's restorer.....

An attempted murder of a publisher/editor who accidentally discovers that the publisher's colophon (logo on the spine of a bookcover) used in one of the collages could not possibly have been from when the artist was alive.....

Very interesting once I got into the story... I liked the characters, I liked the story, I liked the art world & publishing details...

I did take exception to the following: "One area I'd like to explore is the future of reproductions in books. Given the spread of images online, and the cost of printing, the question, why illustrate book s at all, is an obvious one. If the author can say, 'Vermeer's Music Lesson', and the reader can look at it online, spending money printing it, or spending money paying a permission fee to the owner of the picture, is surely becoming pointless. Just what is the future of this kind of publishing?"

Personally, I borrow, peruse, & purchase Art Books for the Color Art Illustrations..... I am not going to bother w/ any type of book that points me to a web page in order to view the illustrations..... Why would I (or for that matter anyone else) want to stop in the middle of what I am reading, put down the book, go to the pc, turn it on, and search images to find what I was reading about?

Eye-Roll!

Ripped From the Pages, Kate Carlisle

★ ★ ★

It would have been better without all the "I's".... I realize it was all a part of introduction to the character, her family, background, but it was too chatty for my taste..... so, minus 1 star.
The story once I skimmed past all of those wasted pages was fine, even interesting....

Excavating for for a new wine cellar on a Northern California commune a hidden room is uncovered. The inside the room is filled with exquisite antiques and a mummified body with a valise. In the valise is a rare book, inside the book is a treasure map that leads to a hidden room beyond the one where the body was found.

As it turns out, the treasure was that of a village in "safe-keeping" of a family that fled France as Nazi occupation began... When the other families arrived from France to settle & claim their valuables, the one with the knowledge had died and there was no hope of recovery.

With the opening of the buried rooms the local families have hope of regaining their heirlooms, but a murderer is terrorizing the commune.

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom – 3***
Grissom’s debut - The Kitchen House - became a best seller; this book follows one of the characters in the first book over several decades. There is a good story idea here, a runaway slave who passes for white and builds a successful life. There are a number of twists and turn in the plot and I was caught up in the story and wanted to know how the characters would fare. However, Grissom uses multiple narrators and the result is that there is less cohesion in the story-telling. In summary, it’s a good story and kept me turning pages, but the writing fell short.
Full Review HERE

Death Comes to Kurland Hall, Catherine Lloyd

★

As I especially did not like one of the main characters, Major Robert Kurland, I will not read another in this series.

The Major & Rector's daughter embark on investigating the murder of a nasty, manipulative, gossiping, blackmailing harridan.... Soon one of the suspects is also found dead from what appears to be an accidental overdose.

It was difficult to keep track of the characters as they were referred to back and forth by either their first name or Mr./Miss.... so it took a bit for me to figure this out...

There is no lack of rude, stupid, or ugly characters.... and I didn't give a fig what happened to any of them, including the Rector's daughter, whom is suppose to be the heroine of this series.

Waste of time.....

I am reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am really enjoying it so far.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark – 4****
Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher at conservative girls’ school in 1930s Edinburgh, Scotland. Rather than follow the school curriculum, Miss Brodie prefers to inspire “her girls” with stories of her trips abroad, favorable remarks about Mussolini, comments about sex, and field trips. She is, after all, “in her prime,” and she wants to instill in them passion, independence and ambition. I’ve had this on my tbr since the movie came out in 1969. I have to wonder what my reaction would have been had I read it back then. Nadia May does a fine job performing the audio version. She has good pacing and is able to differentiate the characters, though Spark’s non-linear style is more difficult in audio than on the page.
Full Review HERE

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson – 3***
The Hunt sisters couldn’t be more different. Olivia is a Hollywood producer; Maddies is happily married to her high-school sweetheart and still lives in the small town where they grew up. The novel is comprised of a series of letters, emails, faxes, and telegrams from Olivia to her sister, parents, brother, best friend, ex-boyfriend, and a variety of professionals. I was pretty irritated with Olivia through much of the first half of the novel, but over time I began to admire her spirit, her tireless efforts to rekindle her career, to try to set things right with her friends, parents, siblings, ex-boyfriend, colleagues, etc.
Full Review HERE

Murder at Brightwell, Ashley Weaver

★ ★ ★

1932: Amory broke her engagement to Gil in order to marry the well known playboy, Milo.

Milo has just returned from Monte Carlo, when Gil visits & asks Amory to accompany him to the seaside resort of Brightwell in order to convince his sister Emmaline not to marry her Playboy fiancee Rupert....

Gil is overheard arguing w/ Rupert and the next day Amory finds Rupert dead, pushed over the terrace.

In the mean time Milo shows up, complicating matters; Gil is arrested for Ruperts murder; a wife is drugged & her husband is drown in his bath while Amory & Milo are hiding in his closet; Amory's aspirins are switched w/ sleeping tablets; a gauche femme fatale makes for Milo; and a young woman attempts suicide....

Fast paced, interesting w/ romantic tension and fashion description....

Murder on a Summer's Day, Frances Brody

★ ★ ★

1920: A young Maharajah Prince is visiting a stately country home for grouse season, his soon to be red-headed actress wife (from simple folk) is hidden away in a near by hotel until the astrologer can come up w/ an auspicious date for the nuptials.

After the young Prince goes out & kills the legendary local white doe he disappears and the English politicos send in Kate Shackleton (their secret sleuth) to find him.

While searching for the Prince one of the young men who was his guide is found dead in the river at a point where he would often jump across.... The father of the other guide (a young man of "simple" ways) has a stroke, and Kate finds the Prince in the place where he shot the doe, dead, shot in the chest & covered with branches.

The problem is, the area had already been searched and there was no sign of the Prince anywhere.... The local constable ignores the politicos, shuts Kate out of the inquest and commandeers the extra set of photos & negatives she took of the crime scene and makes sure the Prince's death is seen as a self-inflicted hunting accident..... But what no one wants to acknowledge is that on the day of the Prince's disappearance, rumor has, it that there was another Indian seen about town.

Once it is announced that the Prince's body has been found, his entire family descends upon the town and embroils Kate in more attempted & successful murders; the Prince's fiancee is shunned and famous diamond the Prince had locked in the hotel's safe disappeared.

While the story was interesting w/ twists & turns to the plot, I didn't warm up to Kate,

Brown Bottle by Sheldon Lee Compton – 2.5**
Compton writes a gritty, no-holds-barred tale of a man struggling to do what is right. Best known for his short stories, this is Compton’s first full-length novel. His ability with the short-story format shows. There are several vignettes that would make great short stories, but he fails to adequately weave them together.
Full Review HERE

Dead Wake by Eric Larson – 4****
The subtitle is all the synopsis you need: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Larson uses tidbits found in research materials from a variety of sources to flesh out a narrative tale of a great disaster. Larson shifts perspective from the Lusitania, to the German submarine U-20, to Room 40 (the British Intelligence headquarters). It’s a compelling story, which completely captured my interest despite my knowing how it would turn out. Scott Brick does a good job reading the audiobook. His delivery is rather dry, but this is fine for a work of nonfiction.
Full Review HERE

Towards Zero, Agatha Christie

★ ★ ★ ★

I read this book again, because I didn't remember reading it..... But once I got into the story I remembered I had read it, or something very very similar to it.

The book begins w/ a group of barristers at their club relating stories and Mr. Trewes the senior member speaking about a child that had shot & killed another child w/ a bow and arrow....... It was supposedly an accident, but the one who had killed had been seen practicing w/ a bow & arrow quite some time prior.

Neville is married to Kay & divorced from Audrey.... Audrey always goes to visit Neville's family in September and this particular year Neville persuades his Aunt to allow him & Kay to visit at the same time as Audrey... hoping the women might become "friends".

Mr. Trewes is a long-time friend of the family and he is invited to dinner.... He then tells the story of the two children, alerting someone to the fact they have been recognized. Later that night upon returning to his hotel, he is forced to climb 3 flights of stairs to his room as the lift is out of order. Mr. Trewes succumbs to exhaustion & dies.

Days later, the Aunt is found bludgeoned to death, and at first all the evidence points to Neville... then later to Neville's first wife Audrey.....

A very good story, w/ a few slurs towards Italians (because of course, Christie loved to add her personal prejudices into her stories) and a bit of romance......

It certainly held my interest......

I'm so far behind on my updates! May reviews:

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, narrated by Derek Jacobi ☊
★★★★.5 rounded to 5

4.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads

Alan Grant is stuck in the hospital after a most inconvenient, and highly embarrassing, fall through a trap door that happened before this book began. He is taken care of by the midget (who was actually a full five foot two and who could lift heavy things as though they were nothing) and the amazon (who was a good sized woman but found it harder to lift things). Somewhat irascible as a result, he is encouraged to solve some historic mystery by one of his friends, who brings him a pile of prints of historic portraits (this was published in 1952, after all), and he's soon off, with the aid of a young American researcher, figuring out whether or not Richard III actually killed his two missing nephews.

Read aloud by Derek Jacobi, I could see why this was voted the fourth best mystery of all time by the Mystery Writers of America ( http://www.bestcrimebooks.com/top-100... see here ). It's not your usual detective novel, naturally, as the detective is bed ridden and the mystery over 400 years old at the time this was written, but it's engaging and even made this part of history quite interesting.


Brown Bottle by Sheldon Lee Compton
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This is a gritty novel revolving chiefly around Wade "Brown Bottle" Taylor and his nephew Nick. Wade earned his nickname as a long time alcoholic, and now he's trying to save teenage Nick from going further and further downhill with drinking and other substance abuse. There is nothing glorified or pretty about the depiction of these issues, but rather a more honest, blunt approach.

It's a book that started rather slowly for me and was hard for me to get into at first, as neither of these people was easy for me to learn to like and/or root for in any way, but it's one of those books that gets better as it goes on. The last third of the book was where I had a hard time putting it down to finish the next day. I have to admit that if I hadn't won this book with the agreement to participate in an author discussion, I probably wouldn't have read very far, and that would have been a shame because Compton can write, and write well. And I do not always give a positive rating to books I win for reviews, because that's not honest.

This is a book by an Indie press, so there are some typos that in no way ruined the story and it's always great to support Indie publishing companies, recording labels, etc.


The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson ☊
★★★★.75 rounded to 5

Hugh Grange, a medical student, has come to visit his Aunt Agatha in East Sussex in the summer of 1914. She asks him to meet the new Latin teacher, Beatrice Nash, at the train. Agatha has vouched for her and pushed to get a woman in, although she doesn't realize how young, pretty and independent Beatrice is. Beatrice has been mourning the death of her father for a year, a miserable year spent with insufferable relatives. She has grown up travelling with her father's work, managing his household finances, negotiating rentals and more, only to now be living on a small trust controlled by those relatives. She just wants to remain single, to teach and to write. As the summer unfolds, Beatrice becomes friend with Agatha, Hugh who seems head over heels in love with Lucy, his poetic cousin, Daniel and other. But naturally the dark clouds of war are looming, and one day it is there.

If there is one thing Helen Simonson can do, it's to write well. While her first novel was an excellent debut, I would have to say that her character development has improved. While there were a few less well developed secondary characters in Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, that isn't the case here. Although the pace is also slow, but well done, this is definitely a different story with different people. I was very glad I was listening to the audiobook so I was able to make it last longer.

Highly recommended.
the rest of my review is here
To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn ★★★

Peanut the elephant and his trainer have vanished, seemingly into thin air, and so Chet and Bernie, who have also been hired on a possible divorce case, are on the trail. But at first there is no trail; not even a scent, and boy, do elephants have a strong scent! Chet knows. When the trainer turns up dead in the desert with nary a sign of Peanut, they are investigating several shady characters which leads them on a wild goose chase, despite the fact that Chet can't see or smell any geese whatsover.

This is another fun installment in this series. While it's not a y/a series, my 15 year old son has been enjoying them thoroughly. Good thing he bought me the seventh one for Christmas and I decided to have him read it. I think he'd give this series a whopping five stars, and he's finally stopped calling shotgun when he and one of his sisters are going to ride with me at the same time. Not that they've stopped vying for the front seat. That sort of tangent is the thing Chet does frequently; after all, he is a dog, and easily--a squirrel!


Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. James ★★★
During the investigation of a local murder, we are introduced to the people who work at Hoggart's Laboratory, a forensic laboratory written and set in the 1970s. Dr. Lorrimer, who will, of course, be murdered (it's in the book description) is not at all likable, and we have been introduced to a slew of people with possible motive, and not one of them particularly endearing. Adam Dalgleish enters the picture in the second part of the book; there is nothing endearing about him, either, although his associate, Massingham (with a name awfully close to one the Hoggart's employees) comes close to being endearing.

During the rest of the novel we continue to read the stories of the various suspects as well as the investigation. I really had high hopes that this would be a four star read, but it's difficult to do that when I am not actually rooting for any of the characters even though I did want the mystery to be solved. No doubt this is likely to be better in a film.

After two PD James novels, I suspect I'm done with her writing. Pity.
my review is here

Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke ★★★

Hannah, happily engaged in this 19th installment in this series, after the end of the previous book (no names in case you’ve never read any and would like to read through to see how it all plays out over the books) is getting ready to be married and to participate in a national cooking contest her younger sister secretly entered her into in a previous installment. Her mother, naturally, wants to plan the wedding to ease her load.

Things get really tense once the head judge, Alain Duquesne, is found stabbed to death in the cooler. Once again, Hannah, along with help from friends and family, is investigating a murder, still competing in the cooking contest and having to fit in things such as wedding dress fittings. There are plenty of recipes, chiefly desserts with far more sugar in them than I ever use. This is a cozy mystery series, and so a three is a good score for me as while I do listen to them (as I did here) or read them from time to time, they are not something I love. I read a book in this series, #11, for a book scavenger once and then #12 and then the last four or five (not all listed on GR for some reason) to find out who she marries! I will say that the writing level is quite consistent from book to book, based on the ones I’ve read, and since there are no children’s voices, the audio was better than usual (the audiobook narrator does well with women and men, but is terrible with children’s voices; thankfully that’s never been a big part of the books I’ve read.) His name is given in the book jacket, so if you have never read these and want to start from book one, don’t read that description now!

The Wood’s Edge by Lori Benton ★★★.5
In 1757 a British officer, Reginal Aubrey. whose wife has just lost another baby at birth, desperate to spare his wife yet another grief, swaps his dead son for the white looking twin born to a European woman who has been raised as an Oneida. During their flight from the fort, he rescues a recently orphaned baby girl he finds just after her parent were slain and takes her as their own. Haunted by the terrible deed he did in taking the little boy, now called William, he berates himself for years to come. His wife loves their son, not knowing what happened as she fell asleep so soon she hadn’t even really looked at the one she bore, but never likes Anna, the girl they rescued, whereas she is the apple of Reginald’s eye.

Lydia is a young girl when she first meets the Major and guiltily in love with him as she grows up, although as a devout Christian she feels badly about it. Good Voice mourns her son, He-Who-was-Taken, loses all of her other babies, but raises William’s twin Two Hawks. Her husband vows vengeance. Their community comes into some confusion when a missionary arrives, who chooses to live simply and to have no more than the Oneida have. The title comes from the friendship that forms between Two Hawks and Anna who see each other at the edge of the woods where she loves to to.

The first part of the novel was not particularly likable and I thought if I finished it, it would be rated two stars, but as the younger generation grew up, I found there was more to like, so am giving it a rating averaged through the book.

Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys ★★★★
This is a compilation of a set of fictional letters based one the real WW II experiences in Joyce’s town. While she and her family are given different names, everyone else in the book is fictional as is the childhood friend they are addressed to. They were printed in a London newspaper throughout the war.

The humour is lovely, the characters endearing and the writing good. Naturally, WW II was a serious time, but there is almost always a time and place for humour to help people cope, and I think this is a good one. This book ends during 1941, and I’m waiting for the second in this two book series to arrive to read the letters from the rest of the war.


The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll ★★★★★
This is a somewhat updated edition with a 31 day devotional at the back, and this is a reread, so I'm not sure if this link it the one showing here or not, but I'll shelve the one I added to GR for the reread since it would only let me switch existing editions since someone has put them altogether, even though that is wrong due to added material, new introduction and updated examples, etc.

This is the best book I've ever read on the sometimes elusive Grace preached in the Bible. So many people want to take that and turn it into a strict set of extra rules (legalism) or use it as a license to do whatever they feel like it, regardless (license to sin). But grace is neither; on the one hand it comes freely and with forgiveness, but on the other it's not to be abused.

Swindoll examines what grace is and how accepting and showing it leads to healthier lives, relationships and impact. Given my very busy week, I have had to read