This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed but character driven. Bug's father was a getaway driver who disappeared years ago, but Beauregard (Bug) owns a respectable if struggling auto repair shop and has a wife and two kids. He's hardworking and loves his family, and he isn't planning on going anywhere. But competition for his business is pinching his ability to help support his family, and some old, bad-news acquaintances show up with a promising, straightforward job that might offer some financial breathing room--if the others on the job can keep their heads on straight, and that's looking like a big if. Blacktop Wasteland took a little while to get going for me, but just shy of halfway through, the setup is complete and the action starts singing along. This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed but character driven. I'm not inherently interested in the preparation and modification of vehicles or in skillful evasive driving. It seems like it would be difficult to write those descriptions compellingly, but S.A. Cosby wrote it so that I was all in. Bug is a faulted character who when not in crisis takes stock of himself and aims to be a better person. He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the bad guys are truly evil, very powerful, and the stakes couldn't be much higher. The ending is abrupt and a little opaque, but not without hope. I received an advance copy of this book from Flatiron Books and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. What did you think? I love when an author writes in an engrossing way about something I previously had no inherent interest in (here: cars, car chases, etc.). Cosby has other books that look well-received, but I haven't read them yet. This is his newest. This book made my Greedy Reading List of My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads. #mysterysuspense, #southern, #fourstarbookreview

Murderbot is a part-organic robot who continues to be inconveniently and fiercely loyal to certain humans. Oh, Murderbot, how I missed you! In this fourth installment of her Murderbot series, Wells provides another short (176 pages) book in which the main protagonist is a part-organic robot inconveniently and fiercely loyal to certain humans. I knew interpreting the emotional subtext in the speech and appearance of real humans was completely different from interpreting it in shows and serials. (For one thing, the shows and serials were trying to communicate accurately with the viewer. As far as I could tell, real humans usually didn't know what the hell they were doing.) Exit Strategy contains accounts of extensive logistics, hacking, and processing information; Murderbot's ability to identify and address plots, potential motivations, and pitfalls; and a continued obsession with the show "Sanctuary Moon," which makes my heart twinge. It might be a little heavier on the dry details of the machinations of various operations and a little lighter on delightful Murderbot introspection than the previous books, but I'm all in on this series no matter what. What did you think? Have you read this or others in the Murderbot series? Are you as taken with this series as I am? #robots, #series, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview

Joy offers an often dark work of Southern literary fiction through which bubbles of hope emerge. Ray, a gruff, tough, burly, stubborn, but kind man, has outlived his beloved wife in the mountains of North Carolina. He has a precious old girl of a dog, a fascination with (and healthy fear of) coyotes, a love of reading, and a no-nonsense manner that makes clear he doesn't brook fools. He has almost resigned himself to the heartbreaking idea that his addict son is too lost to be saved. There's an undercover cop nearby who's trying to help take down a robust drug ring, and then there's Ray, who uses old-fashioned methods and his knowledge of mountain terrain to address injustices in a straightforward way. An addict who seems likely beyond redemption offers surprising hope in Joy's When These Mountains Burn. Every choice he makes is to further his chances of snatching the next fix. We live through his desperation and sometimes numb forward trudge toward what feels inevitable. Yet he hesitantly tries to begin reconciling his inner self with his body's cravings; he knows he masks his feelings and guilt with drugs, and he feels a persistent sense of duty and an overreaching pull to protect his sister. He isn't a noble figure; he's a junkie and he steals, lies, and runs, but first he does some version of the right thing over and over again. It isn't always easy to read, but it isn't over the top, and Joy's characters are fascinatingly faulted and keep you humming right along. I read this in 24 hours while also wishing I were making it last longer. I received an advance reader's copy of this book from NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons in exchange for an unbiased review. What did you think? David Joy's subject matter and writing style remind me somewhat of Brian Panowich (Hard Cash Valley; Bull Mountain); I love both authors' books and am all in for their others. This book made my Greedy Reading List for My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads. #gothicnoir, #southern, #fourstarbookreview

The women's lifelong friendship felt like the heart of the story and was a fantastic element. Teenage Wren is an only child growing up on top of a modern-day West Virginia mountaintop in a cabin that feels a million miles away from society. She and her family are surrounded by a cast of mountaintop characters intent on avoiding the constraints (and comforts) of town life, including moonshiners. Her mother Ruby is smart and fierce, but somewhere along the way her youthful dreams of creating a path somewhere else--and a life bigger than the drudgery of marriage and motherhood--fizzled. Ruby's best friend Ivy allowed herself to be pulled into a marriage of limited love and to remain in the region with limited life trajectories out of loyalty to Ruby. The grown women's lives aren't what they envisioned, but they remain tightly bound and even (somehow, despite the many chores of their homespun lives) trek up and down the mountain to see each other daily. Wren understands their friendship to be the primary allegiance in each of their lives, and her mother keeps her at a distance although she does love her daughter. Wren's father Briar is a serpent handler who came into leading the area's gas station church after being struck by lightning in his late teens and developing a knack for dramatic retellings of the event (and a milky white eye to which he attributes otherworldly gifts). Wren is beginning to see holes in her father's larger-than-life persona and to doubt that he is exceptional after all. When tragedy strikes and Briar attempts to address the crisis with words and faith rather than emergency medical attention, everything begins to unravel for the family, including long-held secrets that threaten to upend their lives completely. I love an Appalachian-set story. I felt like some of the feelings and reflections in Amy Jo Burns's Shiner were over-the-top dramatic, but the events within the faith-healing, folklore-driven community felt true and moved things along nicely. The women's lifelong friendship felt like the heart of the story and was a fantastic element. What did you think? The community's unfailing allegiance to a personality-over-substance faith leader reminded me of Godshot, although the tone is very different. #dysfunctionalfamily, #faith, #threestarbookreview, #southern

This first book in the Lady Janies trilogy is funny, and smart, with clever asides, wonderful character development, and fantastic banter. Irresistible. I loved it. I'd had My Lady Jane on my to-read list for a couple of years, and the only good news resulting from this inexplicable delay is that now all three of the books in the Lady Janies trilogy (each is a stand-alone, creative retelling of a famous Jane's story) are published, so there will be no impatient waiting for the others in the series. Are you interested in a historical fiction retelling of the story of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary Queen of Scots--with an oddball fantasy element in which the life-and-death conflict is not religion, but the rights and very existence of Eðians (those who shape shift into animal form, including the king)? Yes. Yes, I think you are. This is funny, and smart, with clever asides, wonderful character development, and fantastic banter. Irresistible. I loved it. This book is part of the Greedy Reading List Three Offbeat Series I Just Started and Love. What did you think? I don't always enter willingly into reading a retelling of a well-known story, but this one is bonkers in the best way possible. The tensions of the real-life situation are creatively altered, the facts are toyed with extensively, and Hand and her co-authors get to real-feeling emotions, connections, and character development. #historicalfiction, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview

The Boy on the Bridge offers adventure, twists, turns, love, scientific exploration, betrayal, and an odd twist on hope. Months into their save-the-world mission, the soldiers and scientists on the Rosalind Franklin (a tanklike RV with flamethrowers that's nicknamed Rosie) are close to retrieving all of the samples their predecessors left throughout Scotland during an earlier expedition to try to find a cure for the plague. But it begins to become clear that idealistic Dr. Samrina Khan, the head epidemiologist; single-minded young Stephen the wunderkind; gruff, bighearted Colonel Carlisle; and the others on board may not have been meant to succeed in their grand mission after all. Political machinations meant that some of their party needed to be out of the way for corrupt power plays back home. Against enormous odds, the team may just be finding some of the lifesaving answers they were sent to discover. But bringing back their surprising findings might very well mean the wholesale rounding up and destruction of those affected by the plague. M.R. Carey's The Boy on the Bridge offers adventure, twists, turns, love, scientific exploration, betrayal, and an odd twist on hope. What did you think? There's a character in common between this and Carey's The Girl With All the Gifts; this person appears at the end of The Boy on the Bridge but is a main character in the other book. Both of these books are listed in my Greedy Reading List of Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview

01 A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World And there may be no law left except what you make of it, but if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you. If we’re not loyal to the things we love, what’s the point?... That’s a kind of death, even if you keep breathing. The thief came and shattered what was left of young Griz's life. Now Griz and his dog are making their way through the world. Griz is capable of fury and revenge, but also great love and loyalty, bravery, and creativity. He's a fantastic character I loved. This great book by C.A. Fletcher was tough to read at times because of the frequent reckless, life-and-death, sometimes ill-advised decision-making in a postapocalyptic world. Fletcher somewhat frequently hints at later events in the book in the middle of early scenes, which added to my anxiety. But the main protagonist Griz is tough as nails and determined and wonderful, and things do ultimately improve in satisfying ways. I thought this was wonderful. #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #youngadult, #fourstarbookreview 02 The Grace Year ​ The Grace Year is the type of book I could’ve stayed up all night reading. I was totally hooked by this Lord of the Flies-esque situation of trapped girls devolving into paranoia, mayhem, fury, and destruction, with a wonderfully strong and imperfect heroine trying to upend the situation. I felt as though the later sections glossed over some major issues (consorting with the gruesomely brutal enemy; the prospect of folding back into the world that created the horrific system of oppression, control, torture, and death—even with a promise of potential change; fast emotional movement past the loss of a beloved character), but there’s hope for the slow but significant evolution into a new era. I thought the teen girls’ “magic” and its perception by the girls themselves (and especially by the men and women in the society) was haunting. #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #youngadult, #fourstarbookreview 03 The Girl With All the Gifts ​ Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad. I didn't have a clue what this book was about going in, which worked wonderfully for me. This is listed as an adult title but feels to me like a dark young adult post-apocalyptic novel with several twists. I found this engrossing, really interesting, and also character driven, which feels unusual given one of the aforementioned twists. Some of this is odd, other parts are disturbing, and there are some wonderful implausibly amusing standoffs. And M.R. Carey's story is also hopeful, but not in the way I might have expected. If you like this one, you're going to also want to read Carey's The Boy on the Bridge, which is a standalone book in the same series, is fantastic, and is also on this list. #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview 04 The Dog Stars ​ Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley. Then Hig gets an indication that he is not alone and that there is life out there after all. He must decide if he'll risk a one-way journey to seek out the good, bad, and ugly that may be awaiting him. It's a true life-or-death dilemma for a man with two stark options: safety and loneliness or potential danger and finally making contact with others. And he just might find himself questioning his decisions either way. My initial review of this book was "I loved this book. Nerve-wracking and beautiful, unconventional, real. I love this author. Love." This is one of my all-time favorite books. I'm in for reading anything Peter Heller writes (e.g.,The River and The Painter, both of which I loved, and neither of which is post-apocalyptic). #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #fivestarbookreview 05 The Power ​ It follows that there are two ways for the nature and use of human power to change. One is that an order might issue from the palace, a command unto the people saying “It is thus.” But the other, the more certain, the more inevitable, is that those thousand thousand points of light should each send a new message. When the people change, the palace cannot hold. Naomi Alderman offers a dark and fascinating look at a world where the traditional male-female and old-young power structures are turned on their heads. The Power explores the destructive nature of the greed for power, especially when coupled with the certainty that your side of the issue is infallible and correct. I found this book fascinating. #dystopian, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview 06 The Boy on the Bridge ​ Months into their save-the-world mission, the soldiers and scientists on the Rosalind Franklin (a tanklike RV with flamethrowers that's nicknamed Rosie) are close to retrieving all of the samples their predecessors left throughout Scotland during an earlier expedition to try to find a cure for the plague. But it begins to become clear that idealistic Dr. Samrina Khan, the head epidemiologist; single-minded young Stephen the wunderkind; gruff, bighearted Colonel Carlisle; and the others on board may not have been meant to succeed in their grand mission after all. Political machinations meant that some of their party needed to be out of the way for corrupt power plays back home. Against enormous odds, the team may just be finding some of the lifesaving answers they were sent to discover. But bringing back their surprising findings might very well mean the wholesale rounding up and destruction of those affected by the plague. The Boy on the Bridge offers adventure, twists, turns, love, scientific exploration, betrayal, and an odd twist of hope. This is the second M.R. Carey book on this list, but I couldn't help myself. There's a character in common between the two books; this person appears at the end of The Boy on the Bridge but is a main character in The Girl With All the Gifts. #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview What are your favorite post-apocalyptic or dystopian books? This category also includes the Hunger Games series, the Insurgent series, Station Eleven, The 5th Wave, The Chosen Ones, The Road, and The Handmaid's Tale, among other excellent titles. A New Wilderness, published in August 2020, looks like a great dystopian novel too. Which other books along these lines should I be reading?

01 The Vanishing Half In The Vanishing Half, Bennett follows the history of the fictional Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, as they grow up in a town made up of those who identify as light-skinned black people. As teenagers they run from a prescribed future as maids in the small town, where tragedy in the form of evil white men took their father from them and left their mother scrambling to provide for them. Upon reaching freedom, their paths diverge. One twin secretly passes at work for white, then vanishes into a life based upon this premise. The other twin marries a dark-skinned black man and lives as a black woman. The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false pretenses. For my full review, see The Vanishing Half. #race, #historicalfiction, #siblings, #fourstarbookreview 02 Florence Adler Swims Forever ​ This lovely debut from Rachel Beanland takes place just before World War II in Atlantic City, and its giant hotels, piers, and general hubbub are the backdrop for this story of a few summer months in the life of an extended family. I loved watching the book’s events unfold. Anything that was wrapped up a little too neatly didn’t bother me at all; I was all in and satisfied. Beanland based some of the basic events of her debut novel on her ancestors’ experiences, which I thought was fascinating but didn't realize until the end. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster in exchange for a review. Click here for my full review of Florence Adler Swims Forever. #historicalfiction, #oldnewyork, #WWII, #fourstarbookreview 03 Blacktop Wasteland ​ Bug is a respectable business owner nowadays with a family. But some old acquaintances show up with an idea that might offer some financial breathing room--if the others on the job can keep their heads on straight, and that's looking like a big if. Blacktop Wasteland is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed but character driven. I'm not inherently interested in the preparation and modification of vehicles or in skillful evasive driving, but S.A. Cosby wrote it so that I was all in. Bug is a wonderfully faulted character. The ending is a little abrupt and opaque, but not without hope. I received an advance copy of this book from Flatiron Books and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. See my full review of Blacktop Wasteland here. #mysterysuspense, #southern, #fourstarbookreview 04 Utopia Avenue ​ In Utopia Avenue, Mitchell takes us through the twists and turns of a fictional psychedelic British sixties band on its rocky rise to popularity, particularly through exploring its members' crises, joys, fears, and triumphs. The book contains endless imagined cameos, fictional adventures, and gems of wisdom from real-life musicians like David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, and members of the Rolling Stones--not to mention wild parties, betrayals, leaps of faith, breakups, and tragedy. But Mitchell expertly builds the band members into rich characters you're rooting for through their individual ups and downs as well as through the triumphs and setbacks of the band Utopia Avenue. Mitchell doesn't provide too easy or neat of an ending to this weird and wonderful book, but it felt fitting and left me satisfied. This was a really captivating story that kept me intrigued throughout. I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an unbiased review. For my full review of Utopia Avenue, click here. #historicalfiction, #london, #fourstarbookreview 05 When These Mountains Burn Ray has outlived his beloved wife in the mountains of North Carolina. He has a precious old girl of a dog, a fascination with (and healthy fear of) coyotes, a love of reading, and a no-nonsense manner that makes clear he doesn't brook fools. He has almost resigned himself to the heartbreaking idea that his addict son is too lost to be saved. There's an undercover cop nearby who's trying to help take down a robust drug ring, and then there's Ray, who uses old-fashioned methods and his knowledge of mountain terrain to address injustices in a straightforward way. I read this in 24 hours while wishing I were making it last longer. I received an advance reader's copy of this book from NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons in exchange for an unbiased review. For my full review of When These Mountains Burn, click here. #gothicnoir, #southern, #fourstarbookreview 06 This Is All He Asks of You ​ I just loved this book. Luna stumbles into encounters that shape her life dramatically, in unorthodox and heartbreakingly meaningful ways. I simultaneously wanted to scoop up Luna and take care of her and to follow the lead of this wise-beyond-her-years, intensely spiritual young person. She has a unique and lovely voice and is an irresistibly odd bird of a twelve-year-old girl. I received a copy of this book through John Hunt Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For my full review of This Is All He Asks of You, click here. #comingofage, #heartwarming, #faith, #nordic, #fourstarbookreview What have been your favorite books published this summer, or favorite books you've read this summer? What should I add to my completely unmanageable master Greedy Reading List of books to read?

Bennett explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning. In The Vanishing Half, Bennett follows the history of the fictional Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, as they grow up in a town made up of those who identify as light-skinned black people. As teenagers they run from a prescribed future as maids in the small town, where tragedy in the form of evil white men took their father from them and left their mother scrambling to provide for them. Upon reaching freedom, their paths diverge. One twin secretly passes at work for white, then vanishes into a life based upon this premise. The other twin marries a dark-skinned black man and lives as a black woman. Bennett shows the twins' disparate experiences within their respectively identified races, with the white twin enjoying staggering privilege, an abandonment of her original family, and an exhausted sense of constantly living a lie; she finds it difficult to connect to her daughter and begins to realize she is holding herself at a distance in order to perpetuate her identity. The black twin returns to the girls' hometown and shakes things up by bringing her very dark-skinned daughter to a community that prides itself on its members' pale skin. She makes no apologies and emerges as a fixture of the community. The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false pretenses, fearing how tenuous the foundation of your life and love may be. What did you think? What did you think of Stella's behavior when her new neighbors moved in (and the resulting events)? Bennett also wrote The Mothers, which I had mixed feelings about. This book is also part of the Greedy Reading List My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads. #race, #historicalfiction, #siblings, #fourstarbookreview

01 Ink & Sigil: Ink & Sigil Series In this first book of Kevin Hearne's new Ink & Sigil series, patterns and inks have power; hobgoblins are insufferably mischievous but in rare cases redeemable; all manner of creatures coexist in and visit our world, although humans are generally unaware of this; and someone with power and greed is compromising the sacred old ways. Hearne offers a playful, action-packed, magical, layered modern-day London. Al MacBharrais is a widower who uses unconventional methods to right wrongs, to ferret out those betraying his craft's secrets for nefarious purposes, and to protect those he is loyal to. The book takes a turn into real-life, weighty issues such as human trafficking while the characters' banter and affection for each other keeps you rolling right along. Published August 25, 2020. #mystery, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview 02 My Lady Jane: The Lady Janies Series ​ I'd had My Lady Jane on my to-read list for a couple of years, and the only good news resulting from this inexplicable delay is that now all three of the books in the Lady Janies trilogy (each is a stand-alone creative retelling of the story of a famous Jane) are published, so there will be no impatient waiting for the others in the series. Are you interested in a historical fiction retelling of the story of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary Queen of Scots--with an oddball fantasy element in which the life-and-death conflict is not religion, but the rights and very existence of Eðians (those who shape shift into animal form, including the king)? Yes. Yes, I think you are. This is funny, and smart, with clever asides, wonderful character development, and fantastic banter. Irresistible. I loved it. #historicalfiction, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview 03 Soulless: The Parasol Protectorate Series ​ This series takes place in 1870s London, and the immensely appealing, practical, fearless character of Alexia Tarabotti navigates danger and helps achieve justice by using her smarts, eschewing societal tradition and limits on women, and demonstrating her ability to neutralize the supernatural abilities of werewolves, vampires, and other creatures. In Soulless the gruff Lord Maccon is a mesmerizing werewolf who is aware of Alexia's lack of a soul. They drive each other batty and couldn't be a more unlikely pair--or do opposites attract? I loooved this witty, romantic, action-packed steampunk novel from Gail Carriger. She's written five Parasol Protectorate series books and a short prequel, so if you're up for this one, you've got books and books ready to binge read. #historicalfiction, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview Any new-to-you or longtime favorite oddball series you love? I read these three books during the same span of time and delighted in each of them.

A compelling Gothic suspense story with supernatural elements that keeps you guessing. Eeeee! Haunted house alert! I admit to feeling the need to read this suspense novel primarily during daylight, especially as the situation began to unfold in its haunting, slow build. (Eventually I just had to brace myself with reminders that I am a grown woman capable of reading a spooky novel when it is dark outside. Ahem!) Sager has crafted a compelling Gothic suspense story in which we're along for the ride as Maggie, a young interior designer, returns to the childhood home where terrifying events exploded and led to her family's middle-of-the-night fleeing, never to return--until now. Maggie struggles to establish what is and was real and what might be imagined, tries to piece together who knows more than they're admitting about past tragedies and unexplained occurrences, debates whether any of her parents' accounts hold merit, and begins to wonder with horror whether she can trust even her own memories. The structure of Home Before Dark was intriguing--a book within a book within a book. That kind of setup could feel forced, but for me it felt fluid and allowed for valuable layering and points of view. I loved how Sager managed to keep me wondering who/what/when without making me feel manipulated by misleading details or bogged down by red herrings, and that he struck what was for me a perfectly eerie tone. I gleefully questioned whether any character was telling the truth--including, ultimately, whether the main protagonist was herself a reliable narrator. I was kept guessing throughout, yet all the pieces eventually fit (without any eye rolls necessary about aspects unaccounted for at the end). At a few points I did want to yell at Maggie, "Just leave! Who cares about figuring out what happened?" But luckily for the arc of the story, Sager does a good job of providing her with a stubborn grip on what she sees as truth over fantasy and a dismissive disbelief in ghosts that allow her to stick it out. A minor niggling issue: I didn't feel as though the character of Jess in modern day in any way resembled the Jess of the earlier account of events, to the point that the disconnect made me stop a few times with a "Wait, who is this?" confusion. People change, but for me her dramatic change from practical, protective, sometimes put-upon wife, mother , and teacher (although we never see her head to work or hear another word about her career, presumably because events at their new home unfold so quickly?) didn't fit with the present-day fabulously wealthy, globetrotting snob--without a little more explanation, at least. Having Jess gone and unreachable helps the story progress, but still. I really liked Sager's pacing and his smart laying out of the story elements in a not-melodramatic way--allowing me to bring my own dramatic reactions. I received a prepublication copy of this book from Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. What did you think? Have you read any Riley Sager books--or other spooky books lately? Sager has published several other books, none of which I've read yet. I've heard this one compared to The Haunting of Hill House, but I haven't read that one (or watched the TV series). I have self-imposed limits on skeery book reading in order to preserve my peaceful slumber, so I like to choose them carefully. Eerie books are great escapism, though--for example, during a PANDEMIC. #mysterysuspense, #gothicnoir, #booksaboutbooks, #unreliablenarrator, #ghosts, #spooky, #hauntedhouse, #fourstarbookreview

I was frustrated by what felt like disjointed cause and effect and lack of clear motivation on the characters' parts. Power begins by noting a neglectful mother's superstition and obsession with starting regular fires in the run-down apartment she shares with her teenage daughter--not with keeping the fire lit, but prioritizing the act of having lit a candle or other flame. The windows are also shut tight for some reason, even in hot weather. The mother is also intent on controlling every nuance of every conversational exchange, and she is outrageously defensive when her teenage daughter Margot makes a peep--for example, to ask practically what they should make to eat from the mother's oddly random and unhelpful mix of groceries. The mother-daughter dynamic and home situation is possibly intended to be dramatic and mysterious, but it quickly felt exhausting because so many questions went unanswered and the cause and effect regarding even minor matters felt disjointed and jumbled. It's tough to feel sympathy for a seventeen-year-old who is without money, hungry, and desperate to please her impossibly shut-off and unhappy mother, but who wouldn't try to get a job or otherwise shift her family's tenuous financial situation in some way. (Later we find out frustratingly that Margot has been pilfering money and could have bought sustenance after all.) There is extensive wavering. Margot wants to get to the bottom of a big mystery. She seems inclined to help the police, but then almost immediately she inexplicably pulls back and says this is all between her and Gram and her mom. Characters (and real-life people) are certainly capable of contradictions, but there are repeated contradictory elements that aren't clear and that made the book feel disorderly. Other details aren't carried through consistently and began to make things feel careless; Mrs. Miller says she's made pancakes, mentions she doesn't want the pancakes to get cold, then we see a tray of pastries referred to repeatedly but no pancakes. The police threaten Margot with juvie after a break-in if she doesn't help provide answers, then the officer simply takes her home. Maybe the threat held for later, but it wasn't made clear. I was left wondering why I was paying attention to the details of the story to try to unravel elements if I couldn't be sure that the words were written with care to help me get to answers. An enormously important event that takes place in the past feels far from justified when it is explained. There was some unhinged behavior on one character's part, but the damaging of photos and off-kilter comments and a desire to harm don't lead to the key moment in a logical way. And the reveal toward the end of layers of tragedy felt far-fetched; how was the very existence hidden over and over? And the teeth--! I couldn't get my head around that detail in any way, shape, or form. What did you think? I haven't read Power's Wilder Girls, published in 2019. Has anyone read Burn Our Bodies Down? I grew impatient with the details but would love to talk about some of the Big Reveals if anyone else has read it. #youngadult, #fantasyscifi, #dysfunctionalfamily, #twostarbookreview

Wong’s reflections on growing up, the influence of her Asian culture, and starting out and making her way in comedy were the highlights for me. Wong structures her memoir into letters for her daughters without editing out her intimate experiences and frustrations, general insecurities, and her travel adventures. In Dear Girls, she writes affectionately about her family, and those parts resonate. She explores the necessity of being a strong woman in a male-dominated profession. Wong’s reflections on growing up, her Asian culture, and on starting out and making her way in comedy were the highlights for me and the type of thing I had been curious about. Excruciatingly awkward sexual missteps and repeated details about her bodily functions, not so much. What did you think? Sometimes a celebrity memoir just hits the spot. And I do love hearing the stories of women in comedy. Have you read Bossypants by Tina Fey or Yes Please by Amy Poehler? The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer? What others am I missing? #memoir, #threestarbookreview

Vera and Edith are such a complementary WWII partnership, and I loved spending time with these strong young friends. I’m dying to know how closely Abriel’s book traces the inspiring events from her mother’s incredible experiences before, during, and after WWII. Abriel offers a vivid account of the fear and dread—intermixed with sparks of hope—that sustained Vera and Edith in Hungary and Germany during the war; their wonderfully brave, practical, creative routes to survival as single young women in Naples along with jarring adjustments to post-war floods of food, fashion, and joy; a more settled life in Venezuela; the evolutions of their careers; and their attempts to find a second chapter of love, as well as incredible realizations about loved ones who survived the death camps. Then Abriel introduces another enormous shift that shakes things up enormously yet again for both young women before the book’s end. I was completely engrossed. Vera and Edith are such a complementary partnership, and I loved spending time with these strong young women. I received an advance copy of this book through Atria Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? Abriel says that this story is so fully inspired by her grandmother's story that she didn't even change the characters' names. Her grandmother Vera lived with her family when Abriel was growing up, and she grew up hearing tales of Caracas, and Edith, and heartbreak, and hope. #historicalfiction, #WWII, #fourstarbookreview

When her sister Kacey disappears and a string of murders rock the community, Mickey's need to solve the mystery becomes relentless and personal. Set in Philadelphia, centering around two sisters in disparate but linked situations—Mickey is a cop and Kacey is a defiant addict Mickey's keeping an eye on and trying not to scare away. When Kacey disappears and a string of murders rock the community, everyone is suspect and Mickey's desire to solve the mystery becomes relentless and personal. Liz Moore’s writing is thoughtful and the story in Long Bright River is character-driven. Situations aren’t resolved too easily or cleanly, but Moore finds a way to satisfy the reader as well. Things aren’t as they initially seem, yet I didn’t feel manipulated. It's a smart, compelling story that totally had me hooked. Yes to this. I’m in for anything Moore is putting down on paper at this point. What did you think? Moore's books Heft and The Unseen World also look good, but I haven't read them yet. I like a mystery that makes me care about the characters and doesn't foreshadow too much. Just lay it out there, please. I think Moore does this skillfully. #mysterysuspense, #siblings, #dysfunctionalfamily, #fourstarbookreview

Danny and Maeve are ejected from their fabled childhood home, and they spend the rest of the book hashing out their bitterness and unsettled feelings. Danny and Maeve are ejected from their fabled childhood home by their stepmother after their father's death, and they spend the rest of the book experiencing and communicating various levels of bitterness and unsettled feelings that they trace back to this fact. I just could not get anywhere near invested or interested in this story of years of unhappiness, relentless rehashing and obsession with the past, tedious details of daily life, lazy decision-making (as with Danny's marriage to Celeste), and petty monetary revenge—to the extent that one character earns and receives a medical degree out of spite and to use up money so others don’t get it. The end 10% or so allowed for some character development and brief emotional complexity not present earlier in the book. I listened to the wonderful Tom Hanks narrate the audiobook. What did you think? I love me some Ann Patchett, but this book was not for me. I think it's fair to say my book club was somewhat split on this one, although most members seemed to think more highly of it than I did. My expectations for Patchett are pretty sky-high, and I wanted more here. #dysfunctionalfamily, #twostarbookreview

I loved the early twentieth century Arizona Territory setting and details, as well as Mary Pearl’s spirit, grit, and determination. I absolutely adored Nancy E. Turner’s book These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (despite the title, which seemed to indicate a specific speech pattern not carried through the book). In Light Changes Everything, I loved the early twentieth century Arizona Territory setting and details, as well as Mary Pearl’s spirit, grit, and determination. But I found the pacing somewhat jarring and uneven. Setting setting setting action action action action talk ACTION (talk extensively about the imminent action while nothing is being done) ACTION. Mary Pearl is home, she’s at school, she’s home, she’s at school, she’s home. I couldn’t settle into the character development or experience the intensity of the exciting events because of feeling yanked back and forth in pacing and in time and place. Also, Aubrey was such an evil git, I admit to having hoped he would meet a more specific and particularly bitter end than was detailed, although I respect Turner for not making things quite that easy. What did you think? Nancy E. Turner has a gift for writing a lush setting, and I adore it. I wanted more of a connection to the characters in this book, though. There are two other books in Turner's Sarah Agnes Prine series that I haven't yet read, but they look very promising. #historicalfiction, #Western, #series, #threestarbookreview

This book was a little darker than the previous two in the series. When the truths are uncovered, they are sinister as well. The mystery isn't over--Truly Devious led to the disappearance of Alice Ellingham decades ago, and now David Easton has disappeared. And the mysterious deaths of people connected to Ellingham Academy aren't over. The final book in Maureen Johnson's young adult Truly Devious trilogy wraps up the story nicely, but I admit that I missed the earlier books’ more extensive banter and connection and conversation between the wonderful, quirky gaggle of friends, especially between Stevie and David. Stevie continues her ill-advised, outlandishly brave decision-making in trying to unravel the tangled web that's been evolving for many years. When a giant storm heads toward the Burlington, Vermont, boarding school do you think Stevie goes along agreeably with the plan to evacuate all students and staff? Spoiler: she does not. I felt like this book was a little darker than the previous two in the series. When the truths are uncovered, they are sinister as well. The Rube Goldberg machine was a minor but wonderful element. What did you think? Have you read this series? What did you think about how Johnson wrapped things up in this final book? Maureen Johnson also wrote the young adults Shades of London series, which is based on Jack the Ripper's crimes. The basis seems more macabre but reportedly isn't gorily detailed. I'd like to give that a go too; the first title is The Name of the Star. #series, #youngadult, #mysterysuspense, #threestarbookreview

A wonderfully twisted tale, with double-crossing, codependence, and dark turns. What a wonderfully twisted little tale this was from Stephanie Wrobel! In Darling Rose Gold, she gives us Münchausen syndrome by proxy, lies, betrayals, and double-crossing, all within a claustrophobic, isolated, and codependent mother-and-daughter relationship. I was totally hooked on this fast read and couldn’t wait to find out who was the better strategist and who was tricking who. Aaaaaah! There are some wonderfully playful dark twists and turns as the plot evolves and characters' layers of plotting become evident. NetGalley and Catapult provided me with an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? I thought Wrobel's tone was masterful; it wasn't clear who was manipulating the situation and who was being played, or if neither or both were in control. One essential element of this reminded me of Everything, Everything by Nicola Moon. #mysterysuspense, #dysfunctionalfamily, #fourstarbookreview

Child's Jack Reacher eschews societal standards of beauty and the judgment that often surrounds addiction. Jack Reacher doesn’t follow the ruuuules! I liked seeing him thinking outside the box here—and especially eschewing societal standards of beauty and the judgment that often surrounds addiction. The story involved a satisfying set of Reacher-figured-out-a-plan moments, along with somewhat of a commentary on the opioid crisis—especially as related to veterans—and some criticisms of the military treatment of health and humanity after grave injury in the line of duty. Also included: a great smattering of loyal and spunky and smart and determined members of the police and military who help Reacher (and therefore Rose) close the doors on some pretty weighty matters and move on. The audiobook was narrated by Dick Hill, who has a voice that sounds very similar to Sam Donaldson in his tone and striking voice patterns. This felt very retro to me, and I admit that I often found myself thinking of the narrator’s voice rather than the book’s content. What did you think? Child has been writing Jack Reacher novels since 1997, so whether you're committed to the series or you only dabble in suspense, mystery, or crime fiction, you've probably gotten Jack Reacher's number by now. I liked how he Handled It in terms of tricky societal situations in this book. #mysterysuspense, #series, #threestarbookreview

Tallulah shifts from resenting her future and her obligations to taking charge of her life and how she intends to live it. In 142 Ostriches, April Davila lays out a setting in the Southern California desert on an ostrich ranch that is richly detailed and wonderfully easy to picture. Her descriptions of the birds and their personalities and habits were really fascinating. This relatively short book explores Tallulah’s shift from resenting her future and her obligations to realizing and actively participating in making choices about her life and how she intends to live it. I admit I was hoping for some more character development—for example, that each of the black sheep in the family (Scott, Mom) would show a little more depth or exhibit some characteristic besides their overreaching disappointing and sometimes aggressive failure at being reliable. Tallulah comes to some late and potentially illuminating conclusions about her grandmother’s parenting, motivations, and feelings (which do help create some measure of sympathy for Scott, who is otherwise difficult to empathize with despite his brokenness and desperation). Tallulah ultimately realizes where she believes her fulfilled future path lies. And although I feel like readers will be mentally way ahead of her on this, I didn’t mind seeing where things were going—mainly because I spent so much of the book worried about her poor choices, lies (and lies of omission), logistical issues preventing necessary jobs from getting done, etc. etc. It was very stressful! NetGalley and Kensington Books provided me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? Sometimes I have trouble watching characters make choices that implode their lives, so I do the reading version of peeking out from between my fingers during a scary movie--read nervously and hope for the best. I wanted to give Tallulah a talking-to at multiple points here. #dysfunctionalfamily, #threestarbookreview

The vivid Indian setting was the star of this book. For me, the vivid Indian setting was the star of this novel. Anappara, a journalist, captures the myriad sights, sounds, smells—and complicated network of politics and power—in an impoverished Indian neighborhood. This is a place that those in higher castes would prefer to pretend does not exist, where residents worry that reporting concerns to the police will result in punishment such as the bulldozing of their homes, where a crush of population means knowing others’ intimate secrets and they yours, where the stench of refuse mixes with the delicious tang of Indian food, which we luckily get to read about frequently. It was difficult for me to get a handle on the tone of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line. Despite the mysterious disappearances of children that are at the heart of the story, this primarily felt young adult and light to me. It is told in young Jai’s point of view and primarily focuses on his outlandish ideas for becoming a detective (which are based on watching police shows), his youthful belief that he and a ragtag group of friends can quickly resolve the mystery, his often illogical and juvenile trains of thought, and his otherwise simple and age-appropriate concerns (Does he seem smart to others? How can he escape grown-up control and go where he wants, when he wants? Can he get away with clowning around in class? What’s the power dynamic between him and his two best friends?) Late in the book, the tone takes what felt to me like an abruptly dark turn, and I felt a little jarred. The author’s note at the end outlines the often ignored life-and-death tragedies that inspired this work of fiction. Random House and NetGalley provided me with a prepublication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? The setting was such a standout here for me, but I felt jarred by the tone shifts. What did you think of this one? #mysterysuspense, #india

This book is Yip-Williams's powerful farewell to her family, but it's also valuable for anyone considering meaning and priorities in their own life. Wow. Julie Yip-Williams is a beautiful writer who is so smart, reflects deeply, and candidly shares the many heartbreaking aspects of facing her own imminent death from metastatic colorectal cancer. This book serves as her powerful farewell to her family but also holds meaning for anyone considering the way they live and how they might choose to face their own mortality. The details of Yip-Williams’s childhood and the obstacles she overcame to simply be alive as an adult to face this terrible reality are incredible. But she is truly amazing in the way she honestly recounts her fury and panic, the excruciating treatments and effects, her exhaustive search for new life-extending options, and her reckoning with the realization that at some point desperate hope for survival must somehow transform into efforts to find grace in dying and to make plans for leaving loved ones behind. I listened to the audiobook, read wonderfully by Emily Woo Zeller, with an afterword by Yip-Williams's husband Joshua Williams. What did you think? I feel like a meditation on dying is a heartbreakingly beautiful way to consider how we live our lives, and a poignant reminder of what makes our one life so special. That said, I have a tough time reading memoirs in which someone is fighting cancer, and I understand that this one may not be everyone's cup of tea. #memoir, #nonfiction, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

Two story lines are separated by decades; I found myself wanting more character development in both. Michele Phoenix's Fragments of Light offers glimpses of D-Day. Cal is an American paratrooper dropped off course who must rely on the kindness of French townspeople for his survival. When the occupying Germans return, he aims to protect the French in turn. In the present day, Ceelie has just finished chemotherapy following a double mastectomy. She rings the bell at the finish of treatment and in the car immediately afterward, Nate, her husband of 24 years, cruelly abandons her. "I'm done," he simply says. Characters flip out in books and people panic in real life, but in this book he hasn't had time to build up our interest or loyalty, so he has simply become the weak, unsympathetic guy causing our girl heartache and trouble. Then he comes back. (Who does this guy think he is?) He doesn't have a lot of answers as to what led to his implosion of their marriage, but he swears he's not really like that, and that Ceelie should trust him again. Honestly, all we've seen Nate do is leave our vulnerable protagonist, and in a way I was hoping for a painful comeuppance for him, but ALAS. Meanwhile Darlene, a friend Ceelie made through breast cancer treatment, is about to enter hospice and has inconveniently decided that she would now like to find the father who abandoned (more abandonment!) her mother and herself when she was an infant after World War II. Ceelie takes on this mission, to the exclusion of her own recovery (she mentions fatigue and incision pain, and she just finished chemotherapy) as well as to the potential detriment of her job (she has not been working lately and had planned to return to her job as a reporter now, but she continues taking leaves of absence and making excuses about postponing her return, insisting on pursuing Darlene's likely wild goose chase). I was desperate for Ceelie to listen to her own needs and take care of herself a little bit throughout much of this. The people Ceelie stumbles across conveniently know the little key information that exists regarding Darlene's father, and Ceelie is able to doggedly get to some answers. They aren't necessarily satisfying, but they offer some closure. There's some essential introspection on Ceelie's part, but I wished for a lot more--as well as a more believable connection between Nate and Ceelie and more showing, less telling in regards to emotions and angst. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. What did you think? This book is generally very well received, so my bossy desire for more character development and motivation, etc., seems to put me in the minority. The combination of the WWII setting and my mixed feelings remind me a little bit of Sarah's Key, which is loved by many but was just not for me. #historicalfiction, #WWII

Cummins offers a fictional Mexican family’s urgent motivation, incredible fortitude, fears, failures, friendships, abuse, and successes during their unforgiving immigrant journey to the United States. Through her American Dirt characters (both sympathetic and unsympathetic), Jeanine Cummins offers one fictional family’s plausible framework of urgent motivation, incredible fortitude, fears, failures, friendships, abuse, and sometimes successes during the unforgiving immigrant journey through Mexico and into the United States. The oddly sympathetic and unlikely renaissance man of a drug lord felt implausible and distracting to me. And Lydia’s naïveté in trusting him (which helps lead to an enormous tragedy) was tough to take without wanting to scream. But her descriptions are vivid and sometimes excruciatingly suspenseful—or hauntingly plodding as so much stays the same but a horrifying underlying fear pervades all. The balance of unlikely joys and brutality puts fictional but plausible faces on an important situation. Many issues have been raised regarding: Cummins's right and ability to tell this story as non-Latinx author; criticisms of some of the publisher's publicity decisions; and the need for more representation of authors of color on bookstore shelves and in our hearts and minds, among others. All of these valid points deserve discussion. Yet for what it's worth, I also think Cummins’s four years of research feel evident, and her respect for the subject matter is clear. What did you think? Swirling controversy has largely overshadowed the many strengths of this book. What do you think of the criticisms? Do you think American Dirt is valuable in terms of bringing light to important issues--whether through Cummins's writing or as a result of some of the surrounding missteps? #race, #fourstarbookreview

Gottlieb offers network of sometimes interconnected and consistently meaningful searches for purpose and peace. This hit the spot for me. I was going to be happy with a light, surface-level look at therapy and the ins and outs of a therapist's providing and receiving therapy. But the book quickly grows into a network of sometimes interconnected and consistently meaningful searches for purpose and peace. Gottlieb says therapy is about asking, "Who am I? What do I want? What's in my way?" And that "Everyone needs to hear that other person's voice saying, 'I believe in you. I can see possibilities that you might not see quite yet. I imagine that something different can happen, in some form or another. ' In therapy we say, 'Let's edit your story.'" I loved that, and this "editing of the story" is apparent in Gottlieb's own therapy experience and in her experiences with her patients. There's beautiful exploration in Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed of dying, death, appreciating the beauty of the impermanence of our lives, planning for loved ones after our death, and living life fully. What did you think? My book club was a little split on this one. I got so much more out of this than I expected, and I was fascinated. Have you read it? #memoir, #fivestarbookreview

I found Sally Field's discussion of her "craft" and how she grew and changed as an actor to be the most compelling aspect of the book. I found Sally Field's discussion of her "craft" and how she grew and changed as an actor to be the most compelling aspect of the book--along with the politics of getting roles and how she finally began listening to her inner voice in all aspects of her life. Her In Pieces account of her relationship with Burt Reynolds reflects a controlling man and a woman without much self esteem. Field was sexually abused and emotionally manipulated as a child, and this informs much of her later patterns in relationships, her connection to her emotions, and her sense of self. Therapy (and her acting as a sort of therapy) eventually allowed Field to come into her fully realized adult self, and this journey is satisfying to watch in In Pieces after living through the page time of her languishing and struggling for so long. I listened to Field narrate this as an audiobook. What did you think? I appreciate when a celebrity provides brutal honesty, but I admit to sometimes becoming impatient with the navel-gazing necessary to create a memoir. I also recognize that this is unfair since I chose to read this person's life story. #memoir, #fourstarbookreview

Foley kept me guessing about the details, although a comeuppance was clearly coming. College friends who have drifted apart somewhat (for some of the characters, more than they realize) come together for their annual getaway, this time at a remote hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands. When they are snowed in, truths begin to come out and uncomfortable confrontations erupt. Lucy Foley's The Hunting Party hit the spot for my reading mood and kept me guessing about the details, although I could predict that a comeuppance was coming. I wasn't sure I believed the betrayal that occurs between two characters. I was intrigued by the explanation for one of the long-term mysteries of the book (the stealing and odd occurrences), but the surprise required the reader to learn all of the details after the fact. The majority of Foley's characters in The Hunting Party are not sympathetic, and the environment is claustrophobic—but all of it is essential to making the story work. I listened to the audiobook. What did you think? Have you read this or The Guest List? I haven't read that one yet, but my book club is passing it around. Do you feel that likable or sympathetic characters are necessary for you to feel invested in a mystery or not? #mysterysuspense, #threestarbookreview

Gideon’s speech is modern and biting, there are darkly funny moments, and the friendships and loyalty resonate in a lovely way. The tone of Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth was unlike any fantasy novel I’ve read—Gideon’s speech is modern and biting, there are darkly funny moments, and the friendships and loyalty that develop seem impossible, yet resonate in a lovely way. It’s really a fascinating book. I read this during Pandemic Times, which slowed me down and also, I believe, made it tougher than it should’ve been for me to differentiate between some of the secondary characters. (They’re also each called by multiple titles and names, which became slightly jumbled in my mind at times.) The settings are so stark and unique and clearly built that I think the general sense of this book is going to haunt me for a long time. And the ending—! What what what?! Book two, please. What did you think? This is the first in Muir's Locked Tomb series, and I'm excited to the second, Harrow the Ninth. #fantasyscifi, #series, #postapocalyptic, #dystopian, #fourstarbookreview

Bea and her friends-like-family NYC network of loved ones, including her therapist Miriam, are endearing and wonderful. I love peeking into Rebecca Stead's mind through her books. The List of Tiings That Will Not Change is a perfect shallow dive into a wonderfully imperfect character, Bea, and her increasingly complicated life after her parents' divorce and the start of her father's new relationship with his boyfriend. Bea has always been a worrier, and as her father's happiness blooms, she worries: that her mother is secretly sad but is too brave to let on; that she's being left out of things; that having two homes will mean she's always missing the other one; and that her own periodic lack of impulse control and rage may have contributed to others' pain. Bea and her friends-like-family NYC network of loved ones, including her therapist Miriam, are endearing and wonderful. Suitable for younger readers but special enough for a grown-up's quick read as well. Thanks to NetGalley and Wendy Lamb Books for providing an uncorrected proof for review. What did you think? Have you read other Rebecca Stead books? I'm reading whatever she's writing at this point. I also adored When You Reach Me, Liar & Spy, First Light, and especially Goodbye Stranger. #youngadult, #LGBTQ, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

Brown kept me happily turning the pages to see who would get what was coming to them. Cross, double-cross! This book really hit the spot. A seasoned and a rookie con artist together set their sights on taking advantage of a spoiled socialite—and one of the cons aims to right some wrongs in two of the characters' shared (but mysterious and complicated) history along the way. Not everyone's motivations are clear or remain constant, which allows for the twists and turns. The characters were largely unsympathetic, yet Janelle Brown kept me happily turning the pages of Pretty Things to see who would get what was coming to them. The resolution was a little neat but also satisfying and made me happy. NetGalley and Random House provided me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? I'm a sucker for a double-cross in a suspense book. Brown offers a great escapist book in Pretty Things. I haven't read any of her other three books. #mysterysuspense, #fourstarbookreview

I loved this story of how Joanna and Gabe are inextricably drawn to each other and into Ursa's magically imagined world. In Glendy Vanderah's Where the Forest Meets the Stars, Joanna is feeling adrift after her mother's death, and she disappears into the constant attention her ornithology research commands, living in her sparse rental cabin and tuning out the rest of the world. That is, until a young girl appears, battered and bruised, and is resistant to help but clearly in need of it. Ursa says she is from the stars and cannot return until she has witnessed five miracles. Joanna's neighbor Gabe keeps to himself and has his own painful past, but he and Joanna are inextricably drawn to each other and into Ursa's magically imagined world. She feels like the unpredictable spark of joy and wonder Joanna and Gabe needed without realizing it. They find themselves trying to protect her from unknown dangers and find out what has happened, but simultaneously reluctant to discover anything that would require them to let her go. I love love loved this. The characters of Ursa, Jo, Gabe, and Tabby, the ornithology story line, and the makeshift family. Highly recommend! What did you think? The resolution was maybe slightly too easy but I thought this book was lovely and satisfying. It looks as though Vanderah has a second book set for publication in spring 2021, The Light Through the Leaves. #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

“In the end, the courage of women can’t be stamped out, and stories—the big ones, the true ones, can be caught, but never killed.” This is a horrifying and fascinating look at the elaborate schemes undertaken by Harvey Weinstein and associates but also other various media, show business, and political individuals and entities to not only cover up instances but altogether deny an existing culture of male sexual power plays, rape, and various other disturbing abuses of power. Carefully researched and documented, with twists and turns that feel so outlandish as to seem like fiction at times. In Catch and Kill, Farrow also explores the difficulty the long-silenced victims have in bravely deciding to tell their stories, as well as the challenges and fears of those who can corroborate events and the threats to reporters who are trying to help the truth come out. This quote appears toward the end of the book regarding the denials from Noah Oppenheim at NBC, but it feels like a relevant overlay for the many villains outed in the book: “...[there was] an unwillingness not just to take responsibility, but to admit that responsibility might, in some place, in someone’s hands, exist. It was ‘a consensus of the comfort level of the organization moving forward’ that bowed to lawyers’ threats, that hemmed and hawed and parsed and shrugged, that sat on multiple credible allegations of sexual misconduct and disregarded a recorded admission of guilt. That anodyne phrase, that language of indifference without ownership, upheld so much silence in so many places. It was ‘a consensus of the comfort level of the organization moving forward’ that protected Harvey Weinstein and those like him; that yawned and gasped and enveloped law firms, and PR shops, and executive suites, and industries; that swallowed women whole.” I listened to the audiobook, and at first I was so distracted by Farrow’s versions of others’ voices and accents—*especially* the way he voiced women with foreign accents—that I told a friend who had listened to the book that I really wasn’t sure I could go on with it. I ultimately found this entertaining (and there is one moment in which he transforms his voice while realizing an informant is not the gender he had originally thought that was absolutely fantastic). What did you think? Difficult but important to read. But: Is it a good idea to read books that enrage you by shining a light on horrific injustices while you're home during a pandemic? Because I seem to keep doing this. #nonfiction, #politicssocialjustice, #fourstarbookreview

A mostly guileless look at stardom, motherhood, alcohol abuse, and finding herself. JS explores her life, her ups and downs, her drinking-related missteps, and her failed loves (including, interestingly, a lot more page time spent on John Mayer than Nick Lachey—and what ultimately amounts to a take down of Mayer that explores his extensive emotional manipulation, his elaborate interview accounts of his sexual escapades with her and others, and, incredibly, his use of the N-word during an interview). Simpson tracks her scrappy and determined rise to stardom, her religious faith, her reliance on and love for her friends, her deep familial attachments and conflicts, and her path to therapy, sobriety, and a happy marriage and parenthood. What did you think? I'm a sucker for a celebrity memoir, and especially listening to the audiobook as I did here, when I feel like the author is laying it all on the table and going through some self-examination. I've liked JS since Newlyweds, and she takes us back to the show here too. #memoir, #fourstarbookreview

Veronica is a strong and unorthodox main protagonist who finds herself entangled in a dangerous set of circumstances. This fantastic book is the first in Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series. Veronica is a curious young Victorian-era lady with progressive ideas, and I adore how matter-of-factly and innocently she presents her wild-for-the-times views and questions power structures and injustices. Raybourn may allow Veronica to benefit from the author's own modern sensibilities in A Curious Beginning, but Veronica is a strong and unorthodox main protagonist, and for me this aspect of her character works wonderfully. Veronica finds herself entangled in a dangerous set of circumstances, complete with intrigue, a traveling show (!), butterfly expertise, and fascinating references to her past worldwide adventures—all alongside a dark and brooding and heavily tattooed adventurer and naturalist who becomes a loyal friend. I loved it! What did you think? Five books in the series have been published, and a sixth is scheduled for 2021. I love when I find a new-to-me series with multiple books already available for me to binge read. I can’t wait to read the others in this series. #mysterysuspense, #series, #historicalfiction, #london, #fourstarbookreview

Clavin traces the tensions and factors that led the town of Tombstone to live on in infamy in this very thorough look at the history leading up to the crisis point. Tombstone is Tom Clavin's comprehensive account of the lives of the Earp brothers (and also includes some of the story of Doc Holliday), the men’s various strong and often nonconventional female partners, as well as the goings-on in the lives of their enemies immediately preceding and following the big shootout in Tombstone. Tombstone traces the tensions and factors (including Western justice and on-the-fly policing; varied and horrific atrocities committed against Indians; and petty vendettas between families and individuals) building to pivotal events that help Tombstone live on in infamy. This likely goes without saying, but a significant personal interest in Tombstone and the main players is crucial here. At times the retracing of the town's history and the backgrounds of those involved in the climactic ride felt a little dry to me, yet I did enter into reading this knowing Clavin was providing a meaty look at the topic of the town and the many conflicts and stresses building to the men's 1881 shootout. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? Reading this book reinforced the fact that my personal taste leans more toward character-driven historical fiction Western tales, such as Mary Doria Russell's book Doc about Doc Holliday. #nonfiction, #western, #threestarbookreview

The friendship between Dane and Ned was a strong point for me in Panowich's newest book. I really really liked Panowich’s book Bull Mountain, which was practically claustrophobic—and fittingly so—in its close exploration of a family and a community in which everyone (as well as everything dark and everything good) was inextricably linked. In Hard Cash Valley, we spend page time with small-time drug dealers, cockfighting masterminds, Filipino gangsters, and crooked law enforcement. William was a promising character, but we don’t have much time with him. Especially for the first portion of the book, I was jarred by extra explanations on matters I think a reader could grasp pretty readily. Having Dane feel petty about the attention his young nephew received from Dane’s girlfriend felt off, as did repeated situations in which he was so back and forth, he and his point of view were tough to get a read on: “I wished she would do X, but she didn’t; she brought up what I was thinking about—why was she always bringing up what I was thinking about?” The interpersonal interactions sometimes felt false to me. There are a couple of odd point of view shifts to Roselita’s perspective. And I was annoyed by Dane’s giving up on himself and then, late in the book—and possibly too late to change his situation—reconsidering. Misty is a saint. The Dane and Ned friendship was a strong point for me, and I enjoyed learning more about their past and seeing their present-day situation shift and grow. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. What did you think? Have you read any of Brian Panowich's books? This one didn't feel quite as character-driven to me as Bull Mountain, and I missed that element. I also want to read Like Lions. (Also, Panowich commented on my Goodreads review of this book! Eek! And yay?) #mysterysuspense, #southern, #gothicnoir, #threestarbookreview

Sloane is a perfectly imperfect heroine and things aren't entirely what they seem in Roth's first novel for adults. Things aren’t entirely what they seem in Veronica Roth’s version of Earth in Chosen Ones, both in terms of heroes' and villains’ roles as well as these characters’ understanding (and gaps in understanding) the situation at hand. Sloane is a perfectly imperfect heroine. She’s expected to play the games of the media and stick fast to the identity that her fame as a Chosen One has thrust upon her. But she is incapable of BS and full of rage, fear, unquenched revenge fantasies, vulnerability, and the sometimes inconvenient drive to live truthfully and fully. Roth could have potentially pulled back on the messy, complicated, partial resolution among multiple worlds toward the end for a simpler step forward but didn’t take an easier way out. I’m not sure where it leaves us for the second book but I can’t wait to find out. I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? I really liked Roth's Divergent, but the second book in that series fell off for me and I didn't read the third. I thought Roth provided some really interesting situations about perception and reality and identity in this book and am so glad she wrote a novel for adults. #fantasyscifi, #timetravel, #series, #dystopian, #fourstarbookreview

A smart master thief bends time and finds her loyalties divided in turn-of-the-century New York. I appreciated the character of Esta as a smart master thief who can bend time, and I loved the 1901 New York setting, Dolph Saunders as a kindly magical mobster, Viola as a lesbian tough girl (with a heart of gold!) who's a genius with knives, and Harte Darrigan as a stage (and actual) magician whose loyalties are difficult to pin down. Add in the Brink as a method of controlling those with magic, the Book and its unclear powers, and the discriminatory, powerful, and dangerous Order and there's a steady, sinister underlying feel to the story. I don't think it benefited me to listen to The Last Magician, the first in Maxwell's series, as an audiobook, what with the jumps through time; varied points of view; layered disloyalties, misdirections, and motivations; and the extensive double-crossing. It was a little tough to keep track of all of these elements. Candace Thaxton's frequently unexpected speech emphasis pulled me out of the story somewhat as well. Some of the twists at the end felt implausible (not recognizing the Professor for who he really was, without any magical manipulation of his looks or other explanation? Truly?), but others wrapped up frustrating revelations-come-too-late (the identification of her parents; the potential for a future with Harte; and the reestablished loyalty of Jianyu) in satisfying ways. What did you think? The second and third books in this series are published; I seem to often start series and have to wait impatiently for the next installment. Have you read any of these books? #fantasyscifi, #oldnewyork, #magic, #historicalfiction, #timetravel, #threestarbookreview

Lu layers a fantastical alternate fairy world over a framework of the imagined point of view of Wolfgang Mozart’s sister. Lu layers a fantastical alternate fairy world over a framework of the imagined point of view of Wolfgang Mozart’s real but largely unknown composer and musician of a sister. Interestingly, the siblings reportedly really did construct an imagined world and called it the Kingdom of Back, entertaining themselves during weeks and months of carriage travel for performances throughout Europe by creating tales. Lu imagines her own version here. This is a story about the magic of music, but it is also an exploration of gender roles (and tragic female limitations) in mid-eighteenth century Europe; high stakes that can buoy loyalty and threaten betrayal; things not always being what they seem; kernels of truth seen through fever dreams; and a father’s driving desperation and greed. I’m not sure how to feel about the construct of having a young woman’s desire to gain acknowledgment for what should be rightfully hers taking the family dangerously close to destruction. Nannerl, a musical prodigy in her own right, is tempted by attaining fame equal to her brother’s likely future levels—which she also deserved but which were seemingly impossible for a woman at the time. Nannerl enters into mystical dealmaking, which leads her and Wolfgang (and a fairy land) alarmingly toward great destruction. Seeing her ambition and talent at the root of powerful almost-disaster didn’t sit that well with me, although my twenty-first century feminist lens is surely affecting my feelings about it. What did you think? Have you read this, or another of Marie Lu's books? #fantasyscifi, #historicalfiction, #siblings, #youngadult, #comingofage, #threestarbookreview

This is an engaging and quick read, and the old-fashioned mystery stories within the story are intriguing. Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective is appealingly old-fashioned. The murder mystery stories were written decades before the book's present-day events take place and are clever; they feel deliberately, self-consciously constructed. There's a book within a book here, and the fictitious author of the stories has approached the murder mystery genre as a mathematician, exploring every different permutation of the elements of victim/detective/suspect and their overlapping Venn diagram possibilities and combinations. The stories aren't connected by characters or settings, and they vary in their setups. The premises and details are examined at length as the recluse author explores with his new editor the oddities and inconsistencies within each story. Does he recall his intentions? Are the strange components intentional? Are they connections to a real-life murder from the past? And are either the author or editor reliable protagonists, or are they each hiding something while trying to uncover the truth of the other? I was hooked enough that the ending left me wanting to go a little deeper with the implications and realizations at a pivotal moment--or to at least prolong the scene a little bit. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. in exchange for an unbiased review. What did you think? This is an engaging and quick read, and I enjoyed knowing something more was going on while I tried to figure out what it was. The mystery stories within the story are intriguing, and I loved paying attention to their varied structures as well. #mysterysuspense, #booksaboutbooks, #gothicnoir

Things don't all work out too easily, but characters' courage is satisfyingly rewarded. Hendrix explores Patricia's daily life as a housewife in the 1990s Charleston, SC, area, including her repetitive and thankless cycle of tasks. She's underappreciated and likely to apologize too quickly; her husband keeps missing the heart of events and their implications; everyone around her is overly concerned with appearances. She was once a nurse but now feels a little lost in her purpose, drifting along with a daily routine dictated by others' needs. I had imagined that the tone of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires would be campy, but no. Hendrix explores trust, perception as reality, and paralysis and inaction in the face of danger. There's an undercurrent of insidious, creepy, at times horrifying events. (And enough disturbing creature-centered scenes to inspire the stifling of some screams.) The men in this story largely control the women, including their abilities to voice concerns, contact the authorities, or take even small stands. This feels more old-fashioned than the era in which the story is set, but it's handy for the story. The male characters become easy to detest for actions and attitudes that are ineffectual, sometimes lazily destructive, greedy, and chauvinistic. Race is an issue here; a heroic black character is reduced to begging white employers to help focus police and media attention on a terrifying child-focused crisis in the black community. This character is later key to bravely resolving the main and significant conflicts of the story when a mysterious stranger worms his way into the heart of the community and wreaks havoc. Hendrix sets up the push-and-pull of conflicting pressures here: responsibility and risk; following gut feelings over worrying about propriety; the complications of choosing loyalty and action over turning a blind eye. And let's not forget: vampires! The logistics of the vampire feeding and the feeding mechanism inspired open-mouthed horror as I was reading. Not everything ends up working out too easily, but courage is satisfyingly rewarded. A quick and consuming (pun!) read. What did you think? This is mostly a story about feeling stuck, and friendship, and listening to your instincts, with vampires serving mainly as a catalyst for change. Looking forward to reading Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism. #fantasyscifi, #southern, #booksaboutbooks, #fourstarbookreview

Picture-perfect escapism with a sexy center. On the surface, the main players in this book by Abby Jimenez are too outrageously beautiful, obscenely masculine/exquisitely feminine, with inordinately glamorous careers. One of them donated bone marrow to a stranger before becoming a burgeoning rock star. The other is a shockingly talented artist who abandoned the creation of new work after an incredibly painful loss. It's an excellent setup for a romantic comedy of a book with enough heartache that your teeth don't hurt from the sweetness. Sloan is a heavily tattooed yet romantically traditional woman sometimes presented as so broken that her best friend and her beau Jason are her saviors, while there is no corresponding brokenness for Jason. (There is an impulsive vulnerability as well as a single-minded devotion to Sloan; not truly faults by any stretch.) There is a will they/won’t they tension that takes the reader through twists and turns. (And there’s a piling on of elaborately perfect story wrap-ups at the end that made me laugh.) Jiminez provides the drama and angst and romance for picture-perfect escapism with a sexy center. The Happy Ever After Playlist is a perfectly satisfying read with enough ups and downs to make you almost question whether the story will end up the way you predict. The author’s note about her inspiration for the book’s initial setup is heartwarming. I expected Jimenez to simply summarize the sexy parts, but no no no, she did not. Each chapter begins with a song title, and if you like the music, you can listen to the mix on Spotify, which is a fun idea. What did you think? This was perfect escapism reading for Pandemic Times and general trapped-at-home malaise. Have you read Jimenez's other book, The Friend Zone? #heartwarming, #lightfiction

“Where I come from, we’ve learned to silence ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of, dangerous, the ultimate shame.” In A Woman Is No Man, Etaf Rum explores the often powerless and essentially voiceless status of her female characters within their conservative Arab culture, both in Palestine and as immigrants and first-generation Americans in New York. Female characters--as well as their female friends and relatives who appear in retold stories and histories--are forced into arranged marriages and sometimes regularly forced into sex and therefore childbearing and child rearing. Within the world of the book, these women are without freedoms or exposure to the outside world; their education is not valued; and they are largely unable to leave the house, kept inside and cooking. Much of this is dark. It is presented as a relatively unanimous sentiment that it's a burden to raise daughters, and there is a frequently verbalized shame for a mother who births a daughter. Rum also explores the perpetuated cruelty of her female characters against their daughters, daughters-in-law, and other young women in the community—in some cases embracing and adding to their suffering because of what the elder women have themselves suffered. The dark basement where a main character spends most of her time adds to the claustrophobic feel of that story line. Rum, a daughter of Palestinian immigrants, presents an indictment of the devalued role of women in traditional Arabic culture. The story is built around the women's constant pain, with wives being beaten almost universally within the story. In multiple cases the beatings result in death. On the other side of the stifling gender role trap, Rum also somewhat explores the pressures of birth order roles and traditional Arab male roles that are shown to push some characters to their limits (while letting younger sons off the hook) when set with the task of providing for the extended family and scrabbling to secure their future financial stability. Yet there are bright points: some rare friendships emerge, sisters build intense loyalty to each other, girls and women find joy in secret reading and in books, women find strength and demand truth rather than secrecy, and there are occasional breaks to freedom. The details Rum provides as a thread throughout the book of the food, spices, and meals that create much of the structure of the women’s days are wonderful. A minor note: I felt as though there was too much talking and explaining midway through the book when Deya encountered someone with the truth about her parents’ past. This felt a little forced to me. A Woman Is No Man ultimately explores the superhuman drive and bravery required by Rum's female characters--but also many other real-life women--to write a new history, one in which they enjoy freedoms and a voice. What did you think? Did you read this one? What did you think of knowing something bad was going to happen to a main character? Sometimes the trudge toward disaster makes me a very nervous reader. #immigrantlife, #fourstarbookreview

I loved Alex and Henry and really all of the characters, the banter, and especially the politics lite. I loved Alex and Henry and really all of the characters, the banter, and especially the politics lite. I loved the love. The excerpted real-life love letters were gorgeous. And it’s probably unfair to take any issue with the sometimes overwrought (to me) romance and extensive talking about every aspect of it since this is categorized as Romance. I was happy to suspend my disbelief but still felt jarred by Alex’s headfirst and wholehearted leap into an intense homosexual relationship as a college-aged man--only because he shared that although he analyzed political data as a hobby and talked endlessly with June and Nora about almost everything about families and love and life, he had never recognized having had any romantic feelings about other men before. I found it surprising that this self-actualized character who seemed to be so open to life and experiences, idolized an openly gay senator, and who (along with his president of a mother) actively and passionately supported LGBTQ rights, never recognized that interest or curiosity or impulse—and I also didn’t think it was necessary to have that be a discovery rather than allowing the full love story to grow without the first-time element. What did you think? I love a romantic setup with a sassy political backdrop. Have you read this one yet? #politics, #lightfiction, #LGBTQ, #threestarbookreview

[It's] my viney-hivey elfworld, as you say, versus your techy-mechy dystopia. This premise was intriguing. In This is How You Lose the Time War, authors El-Mohtar and Gladstone present rival elite agents, Red and Blue, who exist on opposite sides of an immense futuristic war. The battle spans threads of time over centuries and various branching strands of reality. One warring creature comes from a technologically based world; the other is from a world of gardens and earthiness. Red and Blue each appear to be the other's antithesis. They are inevitably set against each other. But grudging respect and intrigue lead Red and Blue to begin corresponding in clever, increasingly showy and intricate ways through space and time, at times focusing more on the exceptionally elaborate crafting of messages to each other (hidden in the rings of trees over many years; within enchanted tea leaves; magically inscribed along goose feathers, and many others) than on their assigned missions. Each becomes fascinated with the other's perspective, forming a unique bond only they can truly understand. This is How You Lose the Time War is only about 200 pages, and there are some clever twists toward the end (which also resolved my minor but growing annoyance with the unexplained Seeker who appears at the end of each action scene to ingest the remains of the outlandish modes of communication). The premise was completely up my alley. But I had a hard time locking onto the ethereal, sometimes abstract, often poetically beautiful text and the shallow dive into a far-flung set of locations, missions, and realizations occurring within multiple time strands, points in space, and realities. It was exceptionally romantic, yet I couldn’t get grounded within it or feel anything in particular about it. I could appreciate many elements here, but this one just wasn’t for me. What did you think? Gladstone wrote the sections of the book that are in Red's point of view, and El-Mohtar wrote those from Blue--but it didn't feel to me like two authors had contributed to the fluid style. If you read it, what did you think? #timetravel, #robots, #epistolary, #fantasyscifi, #LGBTQ

The title of the book feels like an important assertion from Lucy; she is finally owning who she is as well as her story, her choices, and her very essence. At one point in this book Lucy reflects that "I like writers who are trying to tell you something truthful." I do too, and it feels like Elizabeth Strout is telling us something that is real here. She retraces many of Lucy's life moments that loom large for her; explores tragedies that are significant but sometimes diminished by those who lived through them; and shows Lucy's hard-fought analysis of who she is and the truths she eventually realizes about herself and her life. Lucy reflects in the present day upon her difficult childhood of extreme poverty in rural Illinois, some of her family members’ odd and sometimes dark impulses, her constant hunger and cold, and her status as an outcast—as well as her parents’ past and current denial of any of these issues or problems. Her father seems to have had post-war PTSD, which manifests itself in bursts of anger, a difficulty holding down jobs repairing farm machinery, and bizarre and disturbing behavior Lucy doesn’t detail (she does later seem to allude to what it is) but that she calls The Thing. Lucy has brief but (for her) pivotal encounters with strangers, acquaintances, and medical professionals who she often says she “loves” or who seem able to affect her life in shockingly meaningful ways. Yet it makes sense that this thoughtful woman would be eager and starving for connection after her painful childhood. Much of the page time in Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton is spent in the hospital during a mysterious illness Lucy experienced many years ago in the 1980s, when her children were small. Her oddball mother (who Lucy desperately adores but who requires careful avoidance of certain topics or realities, and who she hadn’t seen in years and had hardly spoken to more often than that), arrives and stays in the room around the clock, catnapping, gleefully gossiping about the many marriages in their community that have imploded and the circumstances in which that occurred, and denying anything negative about their past or their lives. She eschews any talk of Lucy’s children, marriage, real life, saying “I love you,” or of memories that hold any uncomfortable truths. There are a lot of off-limits topics, and Lucy assiduously attempts to navigate the conversational minefield her mother insists upon for her to be present. An excellent student, as a high schooler, Lucy was offered a scholarship to college and escaped her town and family. Later she became a published author. The enormity of her leap from her past claustrophobic circumstances to her present freedom (the months-long hospital stay notwithstanding) is staggering, except that Lucy often still feels like the little girl trying to make herself small, no trouble, and possibly not even real. Her mother notes—with what seems like wonder and some resentment—that Lucy "ruthlessly" just went and did what she intended to do with her life. In response to her mother's comment, Lucy says: But really, the ruthlessness, I think, comes in grabbing onto myself, in saying: This is me, and I will not go where I can't bear to go--to Amgash, Illinois--and I will not stay in a marriage when I don't want to, and I will grab myself and hurl onward through life, blind as a bat, but on I go! This is the ruthlessness, I think. The book's title is interesting—Lucy recounts a passing (but consequential for her) encounter with an author in New York City years earlier when she notes that because the woman is so timid and without confidence about her significance (similar to Lucy's own feelings about herself), she could barely say her own name. The title of the book, along with Lucy’s restating “My name is Lucy Barton” at the end, feels like an important assertion from Lucy; she is now owning who she is as well as her story, her choices, and her very essence. I listened to the audiobook, and I really liked the narrator Kimberly Farr. What did you think? My favorite Elizabeth Strout books are Anything Is Possible and Olive, Again. But I'll read anything written by her. Her character studies are fascinating to me. I was intrigued by Lucy's hard-fought evolution and realizations, and I was intrigued by her haltingly told story and reflections in a way that I was not, for example, with regard to Ann Patchett's characters and the memories and life stories they recounted at length in The Dutch House. #dysfunctionalfamily, #threestarbookreview

The most fascinating parts for me were the late-in-life reflections from those who had been involved in the IRA's brutal and unrelenting violence. Patrick Radden Keefe, a journalist with an Irish name but without a dog in the fight, fantastically shapes the endless trails and tales from the Irish Troubles into a narrative, and he lays out the web of motivations and passionate beliefs behind the conflicts so that an outsider can begin to comprehend what occurred and why. Toward the end of the book, says, in an accurate reflection of his book: “...I saw an opportunity to tell a story about how people become radicalized in their uncompromising devotion to a cause, and about how individuals—and a whole society—make sense of political violence once they have passed through the crucible and finally have time to reflect.” The most fascinating parts of this book for me were the late-in-life reflections and in some cases regrets from those who had been involved in brutal and unrelenting violence. Many began as steadfast and unrelenting IRA paramilitary members but ended up emotionally and sometimes physically broken after time in prison, hunger strikes, and feeling haunted by the deaths they were responsible for. It was incredible to read how former IRA top man Gerry Adams managed to create his own fact-defying narrative, practically erasing his history of violence and masterminding, essentially by sheer will. The disturbing facts were ignored (by everyone besides the disgruntled but powerless former IRA members who had once surrounded him and who had done his often murderous bidding) and his violent associations of the past shed so successfully that he could become a respected and effective politician. What did you think? For me, this was nonfiction that was so compelling it read like fiction. It was the human interest story behind the politics of the many events I remember from the news when I was young, and I thought it was fascinating. #politics, #nonfiction, #fourstarbookreview

This was creepy and smart and kept me hooked, wondering if the characters were who they said they were. Libby Jones was adopted as an infant and she has long wondered at the true story of her parents. She's twenty-five and working in an art gallery when she is given an envelope she hopes will contain answers. Instead, she realizes she has inherited a giant, decrepit mansion. The letter inspires varied and complicated questions about the possibly disturbing events that transpired around the time of her birth, leaves her wondering whether her parents were part of a cult, and forces her to try to discover who the people are, exactly, who are determined to control her access to the truth. In The Family Upstairs, Jewell provides sinister goings-on, incredible cruelties, desperate self-preservation, mysteries revealed, and an unlikely love forged. There's a satisfying wrap-up and a series of denouements and moments of redemption—yet Jewell also leaves you wondering if a main character’s accidental role in various tragedies were so unintentional after all. In the final lines (where the idea of travel and of unraveling the final threads of the story are introduced), potential darkness seems to loom on the horizon. Eeeee! I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was read wonderfully by Tamaryn Payne. What did you think? This was creepy and smart and kept me hooked, wondering if the characters were who they said they were. Jewell has published numerous other books; have you read them? Are they as good as this one? #mysterysuspense, #dysfunctionalfamily, #threestarbookreview

I loved the grumpy, jaded dragon of a main protagonist but had trouble with the purely evil bad guy. Vern! What I love love loved about this book were the grumpy, jaded dragon, the unlikely and endearing friendships, the dragon-life details, and the vivid bayou setting. I had a really tough time with the purely evil bad guy who showed no possible redemption or depth of character but stooped to increasingly horrifying depths of depravity, torture, and intensely dark impulses. It was difficult to spend so much page time with such a character and in his thoughts. I have a little bit of a thing for dragon books, especially gruff talking dragons who reluctantly reveal their hearts of gold. I thought the ending of this book was nicely open-ended and satisfying without being too easy. I was provided with an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers in exchange for an honest review. What did you think? This is by the author of the Artemis Fowl series, but Highfire is decidedly for adults. My favorite dragon books are the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik; His Majesty's Dragon is the first. #dragons, #fantasyscifi, #threestarbookreview