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Inquiring minds query:

Title

Author

Rating: Number of Stars

Synopsis

Did you like it?

Why/Why not?

Shroud for a Nightingale, P.D. James

2016 Challenge: "A book you put down & didn't finish"

★ ★

Now I remember why I put this book down... The opening was boring and I just didn't care but I needed a book for the challenge.....

Two young nursing students are murdered... They were not particularly well liked and one was a self-righteous petty blackmailer. Called in to investigate Inspector Dagliesh has his work cut out for him..... for there are many other victims besides the two poisoned nurses and many people jousting for positions of power.

I couldn't keep the characters straight as many were on the peripheral and mentioned in passing and for the most part, I didn't care about the rest. They were not nice or likable people and I found Inspector Dagliesh tedious as well.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler – 4****
In general, I’m not a big fan of celebrity memoirs, but this one was getting great reviews from friends whose opinions I value, so I decided to give it a go. I could NOT stop listening. Poehler is funny, engaging, self-deprecating, kind, funny, outrageous, honest, funny, intelligent, dynamic and funny.
Full Review HERE

Rock With Wings, Anne Hillerman

★ ★ ★

I'm trying to still figure this out.....

Jim Chee & Bernadette Manuelito have come back from their "honeymoon", to go out to Monument Valley to help Jim's cousin who is in the process of setting up a guided tour business.

While there, Chee is called in to locate a missing woman from a movie set and ends up w/ a murder and and unexplained many years old mystery.

Bernie stops and arrests a suspicious driver who offers her a bribe... only to find the FBI are very interested in this man....

Bernie's sister is a major piece of work & disappears often, leaving their ailing mother alone...

Lieutenant Leaphorn is recovering from a bullet to the head and learning to communicate via computer (word programs).... he is asked by both Chee & Bernie to help with their respective cases...

It took me quite awhile to finish this book. It did not really hold my interest, too much going on in too many different places with too many people.

Still LIfe by Louise Penny – 3***
This is the first in a series of mysteries featuring Chief Inspector Gamache. I’ve heard much about this series and have several friends who are devoted fans, but I thought it took a very long time to take off. I’ll give the series another try. It wasn’t a bad book, but it didn’t grab me as I expect mysteries to do.
Full Review HERE

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – 2**
I kept hearing about Rainbow Rowell and how much people loved her other books. I should have at least read the book jacket first – totally my own fault. I didn’t believe in the characters and their relationships. I thought the dialogue was tortured and ridiculous. Not to mention the plot elements. On the plus side, Rowell does a pretty good job when writing suspenseful / thriller scenes. Euan Morton does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I give his performance 4****, and raise the entire rating to 2 stars as a result.
Full Review HERE

Claude & Camille – Stephanie Cowell
3***

The subtitle is all the synopsis you need: A Novel of Monet. Cowell gives us a fictionalized look at the early to middle years of Monet’s career, when he met, wooed and married Camille Doncieux … and painted her in many poses and settings.

The novel is told in two time frames, each section being introduced by an early 20th-century Monet, writing from his Givenchy home circa 1908, and then followed by the late 19th-century time period evoked in his memory, starting in 1857 and ending in 1879. The reader learns of his early struggles, his developing relationship with Camille, and with the other young painters who formed the Impressionists movement – Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Bazille, et al.

Cowell does a good job of giving the reader a sense of the time and place, as well as the enthusiasm of youth, the passion of working toward one’s dream, the camaraderie of friends, and the safety of a steadfast love. Not to say that all was easy for Claude and Camille. It wasn’t. Their families didn’t approve, their friends were skeptical, their precarious finances made it almost impossible for them to be together for long stretches of time. But Camille’s devotion to Monet did not waiver.

All in all, it’s a good work of historical fiction, with a true-life romance at its core.

At the end of the book, the author includes some historical notes in which she outlines what is fact, and what is fiction in the novel. She also includes a list of the paintings mentioned in the book, and where the works are currently held.

Chomp, Carl Hiaasen

2016 Challenge: Book I've Been Meaning to Read

★ ★ ★ ★

What an enchanting read.....

I ♥ most all of Hiaasen's work: he's honest, irreverent, funny, and takes a look at real environmental issues.

Wahoo & his father have a wildlife rescue center in their backyard.... His father has recently suffered a concussion from a frozen iguana that fell out of a tree, and now has headaches & sees double.....

They are approached by a reality t.v. show that wants to hire them & their alligator for an Everglades episode.

The star of the t.v. show is a total egotistical fake with ideas of grandeur. While filming w/ Alice the tame alligator, the star decides to hop on Alice's back and ends up going for a wild ride...

Soon all are on their way to an Everglades tour site, with the addition of Tuna, a run-away schoolmate of Wahoo's whose father has blackened her eye.

When her father shows up, even more madcap madness abounds.

Well written, fast paced , and entertaining... a good read for pre-teens.

2016 Book Challenge: recommended by a librarian.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. It is a simple story of an autistic man who has lived most of his life in care facilities, who really wants to live at home again. Of course, "home" is not as he remembers it, as his parents are gone, the house has been renovated and almost all the neighbors he remembers are no longer living there.

What made me love this book was the beautiful prose Gottlieb uses and how he manages to present what the world might look, feel and seem like to an autistic person. For example, Todd, the main character, finds an old purse of his mother's and inhales the leftover scent deeply, to have part of his mom with him again. It was very enlightening and I recommend it.

13½ – Nevada Barr
Audiobook read by Dan John Miller
3.5***

From the book jacket - Nevada Barr has written a taut and terrifying psychological thriller. It carries the reader from the horrifying 1970s murder spree of a child – dubbed “Butcher Boy” – in Rochester, Minnesota, to Polly, the abused daughter of Mississippi “trailer trash,” to post-Katrina New Orleans.

My reactions
I’ve been a fan of Barr’s Anna Pigeon mystery series for a while now, but this is a completely different standalone novel. Much darker and more terrifying than the series most readers know her by.

The dual time frames are at first confusing, but even when the reader realizes the connection between the two different stories, the tension of how it will play out remains. I was captivated from the beginning, and Barr held my attention throughout. I did figure out the twist some time before the characters did, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment. I will warn readers that there is considerable foul language, and some very graphic scenes of violence and mayhem.

Dan John Miller does a fine job of narrating the audiobook, though his voice for the women does seem a bit “forced” - a couple of times I was reminded of my father telling me the story of Red Riding Hood and how he voiced the wolf playing the grandma. The way Barr plots and tells the story is the main reason to read this book.

Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson
★★★.5

Emmaline (Lucia) Lucas is the undisputed queen of Riseholme during the roaring 20’s, and everyone knows it. She and her husband, Peppino, are close, and her next closest friend and ally is Georgie; while some think they flirt, that couldn’t be further from the truth, but he is definitely her go-to friend and confidante. As the neighbourhood becomes wrapped up in an Indian guru after Lucia snags him away from Mrs. Quantock, Georgie’s tall, strapping sisters bicycle in for a month’s stay after sending their dog and things by train, turning poor Georgie into a mess with their dog, whom he is certain is vicious and their rambunctious ways. Just at about the same time, his friend, the opera singer Olga Barcely, married to a different Georgie, but who hasn’t changed her name, comes to town, and then such a commotion as people race to be the first to see her and have her over. When Olga unwittingly offends Lucia, things go far from well, and poor Georgie is caught in the middle, and in the meantime romances begin to blossom among some of the local singles.
This is a delightful novel about the goings on of a small English community and the splash a newcomer makes. Light, fun, humourous with some glimpses into human nature and a wonderfully surprising amount of grace and compassion from someone you might not expect it from (but which of the characters I won’t say). I hadn’t even heard of this series until one of my Shelfari friends said she was rereading it and that I really must try it. I am planning to read the rest of the Lucia novels, but no more than one per month so I can savour and enjoy them without getting tired of them. This wasn’t so stellar I’d give it five stars, and it lost another half star because of a few little things, such as the odd time Georgie and Lucia talk in baby talk (perhaps this was done more among friends in the 1920s, but since that was before my parents’ time, I have no idea.)

England, England by Julian Barnes
★

****note that I am not a fan of satire as a rule, even though I understand it, so this greatly affects my rating and dislike of this novel***

England, England contains a novel within a novel. Enclosed within the story of Martha Cochrane, is the satirical story of the development of England, England, a historical theme park thought of and spearheaded by Sir Jack Pitman. Throughout this book play with the idea of memory and history, what it is and isn’t, how people perceive it, and of course there is plenty of humour; some of it I even laughed at, particularly earlier on.

However, even if I liked satire, some of this—and note that my use of this term is not a judgement on people who like this book, since my parents and extended family will read and enjoy books like this—I found parts of this book was rather crass. Bear in mind that I cover my eyes for violence, etc on screen, too, much to the amusement of my teens and husband.

This is my first read by Julian Barnes, and if satire and/or the use of certain words I prefer not to read in print (lest they come out of my mouth in heated moments, which has been known to happen from time to time), then I suspect he’s not the author for me. However, if you are not bothered by these things, like satire and/or Julian Barnes, by all means try this novel; it is evident he knows how to write.

Winter by Marissa Meyer
★★★.5

Winter is still slowly going mad from not using her glamour, Scarlet imprisoned as a pet, Cinder, Cress, Kai, Wolf, Thorne and Iko on the ship they escaped in when Winter opens. But Levana is still plotting, and after glimpsing just how loved Winter is, devises a plan to take care of Winter once and for all. As we all know will eventually happen, they all end up on Luna, endeavouring to overthrow Levana and end her nefarious reign to save Lunars and Earthens alike.

This is the longest of the three books, and while the writing level remains consistent, it is not only over twice the length of Cinder, it is more than 260 pages longer in hardback than the next longest book, Cress. I really didn’t think everything in that extra length (in various parts of the book) was necessary for a great end to this tale, and in between times of really enjoying this story again, I got bored or distracted, which is why it’s 3.5 stars, not 4.

Room by Emma Donaghue started ☊ finished in print
★★★★

Jack is turning five in Room, where he lives with Ma. Room is his entire world, although he sees things that exist only in TV. Through his birthday and the next few days, we learn, although Jack, the narrator, doesn't realize it, Room is a prison where he and Ma are kept. Ma is sometimes visited in the night by someone Jack has dubbed Old Nick, although Ma only refers to Old Nick as him. During these times, Jack is supposed to be asleep in Wardrobe. But slowly Ma reveals that Room isn't really the whole world, and Jack is about to find out just how big that world is when they plan their great escape.

Poignant, laced with the humour of viewing the world through a five year old's eyes, we see this story unfold. It is well told and gripping, so I am giving it four stars. It's hard not to empathize with Jack and Ma.

I Heard You Paint Houses – Charles Brandt
3.5***

Subtitle: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran & the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, & the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa

Well, that pretty much covers it. Brandt, a former prosecutor, managed to get Frank Sheeran to tell the true story of what happened. This virtual death-bed confession is sometimes fascinating, but I could not reconcile the violent behavior of this man (and that of his “friends”). He may have made a full confession and gotten absolution from a priest, but to me Sheeran was a thug and sociopath who was making excuses for his behavior.

Still, the story of how Hoffa came to power and succumbed to his own ego is fascinating.

The Women – T C Boyle
Audiobook read by Grover Gardner
3***

Boyle tells the story of Frank Lloyd Wright through the eyes of the women who loved him: first wife Kitty, mistress Mamah, second wife Miriam, and third wife Olgivanna.

He frames the story by having the story told – as a sort of biography – by Tadashi Sato, one of Wright’s apprentices in the 1930s. Sato has an introduction/prologue to each of the three parts of the novel, as well as interjecting footnotes throughout. The chronology is moves back and forth, beginning with Wright’s last love, Olgivanna – their meeting, love affair, and marriage – then moving to focus on Miriam, and finally in part three giving the tragic story of Mamah. First wife, Kitty, is evident in parts two and three

I’m struggling with what to say about this book because the story arc was so fractured. Boyle definitely gives the reader a sense of each different woman – except for Kitty, who gets very little time on the page. I found myself wondering why any of them put up with Wright, and why Wright put up with Miriam! But what really struck me is that, despite the title and the organization of the book, the women come off as secondary to the man. Frank Lloyd Wright is a bigger-than-life presence here, and I grew tired of him.

Grover Gardner does a reasonably good job narrating the audio book. He has good pacing, and I really grew to like the way he voiced Miriam!

Morning Glory by Sarah Jio
★★★★.5

Penny is a newlywed in the 1950s, married to the famous artist Dexter Wentworth living in a houseboat in Washington State; Ada is a young widow grieving her husband and daughter about 50 years later who moves from New York City to that same houseboat to help move on with her life away from the pitiful, caring looks of those she knew. As she begins to find that life can still hold some happiness for her, Ada finds an old chest of Penny’s, and learns that there are secrets kept by the longtime residents of Boat Street.

Both Penny and Ada were characters I cared about and hoped the best for. The writing is strong and the two tales are woven together well and with good pacing. The book kept me up past my bedtime. While these are all strong signs, I didn’t love it so much that it was a five star read.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Audiobook read by Eric Idle
3***

Who doesn’t already know the story of the Golden Tickets hidden in select candy bars, and the tour of the Wonka Chocolate Factory? Me, that’s who. Or at least not before I read this book. Yes, my secret is out; I’ve been living under a rock for the last 50 years.

I never read Dahl as a child, and never saw the movie - or should I say movieS, plural, since I’ve now become aware there was more than one film adaptation. Anyway, I can now safely come out from under my rock and join the world.

I like how Dahl gives us a glimpse of bad behavior and consequences, balanced by the quiet, unassuming Charlie and his devoted family. I loved the Oompa-Loopmas and their clever songs. I liked that good behavior was rewarded – big time! – in the end.

I did think the adults and children who behaved badly were pretty over-the-top, and I never connected to Willy Wonka nor understood the reasons behind his ultimate decision. But, this is a children’s book and I can see the great appeal that this kind of “fairy tale” holds for children.

Eric Idle does a marvelous job of narrating the audio book. All his skill as a voice artist is put to good use creating unique characters. I’d give him 4 stars for his narration. Of course, if you listen you’ll miss the delightful illustrations; I’m glad I had a text copy handy to enjoy those.

The Love Queen of the Amazon – Cecile Pineda
4***

I can’t begin to describe the plot so will quote this from the Kirkus Review: In Malyerba – like Macondo, a mythic town that ``progress had yet to visit'' – a house is taken over by bees, a woman is crystallized into honey, a mummy-like mother-in-law floats toward Heaven, and protagonist Ana Magdalena is expelled from convent school for stripping naked while saving a classmate from drowning.

This is a wonderful send-up of magical realism, with a decidedly feminist bent. I laughed out loud at the ridiculous antics and over-the-top descriptions. Pineda is a wonderful writer, with beautiful phrasing, interesting characters, deliciously wicked scenes of passion, and a perfect sense of timing. I was engaged and pulled into the story from page one, and when I finished, I wanted to start from the beginning and read it again.

Book Concierge wrote: "

The Love Queen of the Amazon
– Cecile Pineda
4***

I can’t begin to describe the plot so will quote this from the Kirkus Review: In Malyerba – ..."

Is this new? The Library doesn't own it....

Karin wrote: "Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson
★★★.5

Emmaline (Lucia) Lucas is the undisputed queen of Riseholme during the roaring 20’s, and everyone knows it. She and her husband, Peppino, are close, and her next c..."

Dang, the library doesn't own this....

Kimberly wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "

The Love Queen of the Amazon
– Cecile Pineda
4***

I can’t begin to describe the plot so will quote this from the Kirkus ..."

Not new ... first published 1992. I got a copy through inter-library loan.