Solutions and Other Problems

 Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh    518 pages

It's been 7 years (!!) since Hyperbole and a Half and Allie Brosh is back!  This is a new collection of funny, illustrated autobiographical essays.  And, like her first book, some of the stories are bit more sad than funny, all of them are quirky (and some of them are probably relatable to some of us).  Whether it's about naughty animals, childhood adventures, or introspective essays about loneliness and grief, this collection is filled with honesty (and some very funny illustrations).

Like her first book, I found some of the essays to be really funny (meaning, don't read them in bed before sleep if you're already tired . . . ) and some of them to be kind of sad and thoughtful. Not everything resonated with me, but I enjoyed the book --- and absolutely loved some of the stories. Like, the one about the argument she got into with her ex-husband which culminates in a directive about choosing bananas at the store (or not).  Welcome back, Allie!!

The Spaceship Next Door

The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette   353 pages

"Three years ago, a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts. It never opened its doors, and for all that time, the townspeople have wondered why the ship landed there, and what—or who—could be inside.  Then one day a government operative—posing as a journalist—arrives in town, asking questions. He discovers sixteen-year-old Annie Collins, one of the ship’s closest neighbors and a local fixture known throughout the town, who has some of the answers.  As a matter of fact, Annie Collins might be the most important person on the planet. She just doesn’t know it."  (Goodreads)

This was a book I wouldn't known about, had it not been a book group pick. And, I really liked it! It is a slow starter and at one point, I wondered if anything was going to happen with the plot . . . and then it started to pick up, went in a direction I didn't expect, and then it went in the direction of BIG, interesting ideas.  So, very cool.  Something else I liked about this book is that the characters are very realistically written.  Annie is a smart girl, but she's not pretentious, or precious --- she's believable. And so are the other characters, even the quirky ones. This is the kind of story that you could see yourself in, or believe could happen.  And the science-fiction aspects of it made sense --- it's not hard science fiction, so it's what I call "SciFi Light."  Definitely a story where the ordinary person is a hero.

Radical Candor: Be A Kick-ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity

 Radical Candor:  Be A Kick-ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity  by Kim Malone Scott  246 pages

"From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. While this advice may work for everyday life, it is, as Kim Scott has seen, a disaster when adopted by managers.

Scott earned her stripes as a highly successful manager at Google and then decamped to Apple, where she developed a class on optimal management. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, the “radical candor” method.

Radical candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It’s about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism—delivered to produce better results and help employees achieve."  (Goodreads)

I really liked this book and wound up using page flags to mark some things to share with some other people (and I also put it on my "Want" list in LibraryThing so I remember I want a copy for myself).  While I have studied emotional intelligence, communication styles, management, etc. over the years, I still found some new things to think about in this book.  I also found touchstones for things that I already practice, which was helpful --- always good to know if you're on the correct track.  

Wow, No Thank You

 Wow, No Thank You by Samatha Irby   336 pages

This is a collection of essays about marriage, aging, settling down, and being Black in white, small-town America.  Irby let Chicago and moved into a house with her wife and two stepchildren in a small town in Michigan.  As the book's description says, "This is the bourgeois life of dreams. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "skinny, luminous peoples" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," and hides Entenmann's cookies under her bed and unopened bills under her pillow."

I found some of the essays funnier than others, but what I really loved was reading about Irby's experiences in Chicago. I have gone to some of the same clubs, and really liked how reading this brought back my own memories of living and working in Chicago.  I also liked reading her perspectives on life -- I found some of the same things funny, but she's also nothing like me --- so it was cool to learn more about her.  Fun book!  Also, bonus points for the cute bunny on the cover.

Mama Black Widow

Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim    245 pages

Iceberg Slim knew Otis Tilson, a black homosexual man who's story he tells here.    Otis started out life on a plantation with his parents, his brother and his twin sisters, working hard for the white folks that owned it.   When his mother's cousin Bunny invites them to move to Chicago and offers to help them get an apartment in her building and pay them some for helping care for her (she is older and not in perfect health), Otis' Mama jumps at the chance and so his part-time preacher father went along with it to please his wife.   What they found when they got there was a tenement with a white slum lord landlady who lied and cheated people and was friends with the local beat cops so they would back her dishonest dealings up and never take the world of a black person.   Assaults were frequent, thugs ran the neighborhood, on the streets, drink, drugs and prostitution were rampant.  Crime was every where.and so were freaky molesters who felt no sorrow in abusing the young.   Iceberg Slim tells a sad tale brilliantly.  He takes you into the mind of Otis' mother who hated white people with reason her past will show but her love for money and fine things led her to fatally subject innocent lives to fates they should not have had.   Brilliant book.   Very, very  brutal and sad but so touching sharing the lives of this man and his family if briefly you will be glad you read it.   Excellent job, Iceberg Slim.    I would recommend this book to mature teens because of the adult content and graphic depictions of murder scenes and sexual content.

 - Shirley J.

Who Asked You?

 Who Asked You?  by Terry McMillan    400 pages

Well, life hits you full-frontal and who asked you if you want to have to deal with it all?  Nobody.   Who asks you if you want to stay and take care of a husband who is mentally slipping further and further away from you because he suffers from Alzheimers and you are his caretaker?  Who asks you if you want to take on two of your grandkids to raise because your daughter is on crack and dropped them off at your house for you to babysit but what you don't know is she decided to abandon them and move to Atlanta with her boyfriend on a whim?   Who asked you to put up with your uppity son who forgot where he came from and is putting on airs?   Who asked you to have to put up with your jailbird son who won't stay out of trouble and never admits to his own wrong doing always blaming someone else or society or the man and expects you to take his collect calls and put money on his books for canteen items in the penitentiary and expects you to send him more money to buy law books so he can become a lawyer when he gets out and so he can defend himself and other black men in the joint who couldn't afford a lawyer and who's public defender told them to plead guilty?   Who asked you if you wanted to put up with one of your sisters who is always telling you your problems come because you don't go to church and aren't religious enough and the other sister who always wants to know all your problems so she can criticize you for not handling things better.    Who asked you if you wanted to give up your dreams to work in a hotel for minimum wages and very occasional tips?   Huh?   Who asked you?    Betty Jean is faced with all this and more.    Another great book by Terry McMillan.   I highly recommend this author's works and the films made from some of her books.

 - Shirley J.

It's Not All Downhill From Here

It's Not All Downhill From Here: A Novel by Terry McMillan      496 pages

This is one of the best books I have ever read.   I love the character Loretha Curry.   She is aging gracefully and with a terrific sense of self and sense of humor.  (She gets it from her mother.)   So many hurdles she has to jump all throughout the book and one hugely devastating burn in your brain event that rocks her to the core.   One of those life changing events that changes the future course of life as you know it.   But, life just keeps happening around her to her friends and family who love her dearly (and how could they not) even if they don't always appear to.   Trust me, you want to read this one.   I even love her dog, B.B.King.   I recommend this book higher than any I have read in the last several years.

  - Shirley J.

Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread

Make Something Up:Stories You Can't Unread by Chuck Palahniuk    336 pages

Stories so wrong they are sometimes funny, but, sometimes just jaw dropping in their lack of  decorum.    If you can't make it through the first story it is not surprising.    I wavered between is this guy trying to alienate everyone on the planet or is he playing gauche?   Hard to say.   There are many offensive things to be found in this tome but also some really funny gallows humor.   Think if Stephen King's and Lisa Lampanellii's brains became fused in some freak accident then reanimated.  Kinda that.   Some of the stuff he comes off with is so off the charts I could not in full conscious recommend this one,  however, having said that, there is a special niche that would find this book amusing.   it has its moments. 

 - Shirley J.

Things in Jars

Things in Jars: A Novel by Jess Kidd     400 pages

Bridie (Bridget) Devine is a corncob pipe smoking Irish female known for her skills at locating people and things.   Having grown up in a life she prefers to forget Bridie was prized for her surgical skills at the age of 7 and her scientific mind that kept her from being squeamish.   Even though she meets a fellow Irshman in a cemetery who happens to be transparent she isn't afraid of him and they actually become friends.  Bridie is brought in on a case of a missing child that is rumored to be monstrously deformed and may have been taken by rabble hoping to sell her to a high society collector of oddities for a huge price.    The story is a good one and Jess Kidd is an excellent writer who draws you in from page one to the end.   I recommend this book to everyone from Middle School on up.

 - Shirley J.

Trick Baby

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim    320 pages

Trick Baby is the true story of Johnny O'Brien, a biracial man that Iceberg Slim met when they were cellies in the joint (prisoners sharing a cell in a prison).    Johnny O'Brien's mother was black and his father white and though his parents were married, after his father left him and his Mom, other parents in the neighborhood referred to him in front of their kids as a "trick baby" insinuating his mother was a prostitute and he was the illegitimate child of one of her customers.  Not so.  Johnny's parents had been in love until his Dad just up and left them because he was too weak to deal with being ostracized by his white family for marrying a black woman.  His Dad's people did not acknowledge Johnny nor his mother and without his father around to take care of them times were hard and money sparse.  Because Johnny had such light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair the other kids in the neighborhood weren't allowed to play with him and started calling him, "trick Baby," the put down they heard from their parents.   Johnny had a hard time until he met an older man called Blue who had style, class and money that he made his living from grifting off the greed of "suckers."   .Blue taught Johnny several "cons" that they would get over on people with and score big money off of.   Enough to keep them in sharp suits and shoes and living the high life.   Johnny's "whiteness" was a valuable tool in conning white and black people as he and Blue could play that he was an unsuspecting white man and it worked like a charm getting over on people.    An excellent book.   I am a fan of Iceberg Slim's books.   Whether he is talking about himself or relating someone else's story that he knew,  his writing is real and honest in relating tales of life as he knew it.    I would recommend this story to anyone who is a fan of urban writing, for fans of events and life in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and early 70s simpler times that were more complex than many people realize.   Great story, like all of Iceberg Slim's books.

 - Shirley J.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President

 

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb, 303 pages

After reading one funny book I was in the mood for another funny book and wanted to go with something I knew wouldn't disappoint me, so I went with an old favorite. I think this is at least my third time reading this.

What do you do when you're born with limitless intelligence but you still have to get through middle school and high school before you can fully realize your powers? If you're Oliver Watson you play dumb. To his family and classmates Oliver is an unexceptional student and is definitely not in the "cool" crowd. But he doesn't mind because when he's not playing the role of loser kid, he's running multinational companies and enjoying the benefits of his wealth by visiting the underground lair he accesses from his bedroom.

What I love about this book are the unbelievable (but unbelievably funny) situations a 7th grade genius deals with, especially if he's busy sending his least-favorite teacher secret messages, or he's busy subtly getting back at the school bullies, or he's visiting the permanently out of order stall in the boy's bathroom that has actually been redesigned so he can take a snack break. The laughs don't end, but there's more to the story: Oliver actually adores his mother, has a wonderful dog named Lollipop, and has a typical strained relationship with his father. It's to prove his character to his father that Oliver decides to run for class president. But when you're not a typical kid, even though there are so many ways to get short-term revenge, even Oliver has to deal with the consequences of his actions in a delightfully nutty middle school kind of ending. 

This book is a blast and is recommended for teens who will enjoy the sly humor and the ridiculous situations. And if you're an adult like me who needs smart fun on occasion, you'll love it too!

Failure is an Option

Failure is an Option by H. Jon Benjamin; 245 pages

H. Jon Benjamin is best-known as the voice behind the animated series "Archer" and "Bob's Burgers". And yes, in the book he admits he does not make Archer and Bob sound different in any way even though they are two very different characters.

This was light and funny. The premise, as the title suggests, is that failures aren't the worst thing that can happen and that sometimes it's okay to shoot for a failure. In these wacky times, I kind of get it. The chapters were short and funny. I would say that I didn't "learn" much but that wasn't why I picked it up. He told some funny stories from his youth to adulthood and it was a fun, quick read. I was impressed by his writing and his humor and I think Benjamin is a pretty smart guy. I was glad I read this on an e-reader because he used words difficult enough that I had to look them up in the e-reader's dictionary. 

And I did pretty much read the entire book with his Archer/Bob voice narrating it in my head. 

Strong Motion

 Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen, 508 pages

This was Franzen's second novel. Much of novel centers around the Hollands. Louis, his father Bob, his mother Melanie and his sister Eileen.

Louis has moved to Boston for a job at a radio station. Soon after, his grandmother dies from an earthquake and his mom inherits a house and shares in a chemical company named Sweeting-Aldren. Louis discovers that money does strange things to people. His new girlfriend Renee is a seismologist and she finds information that implicates Sweeting-Aldren in causing the earthquake and others. 

The plot also includes a Christian fundamentalist church that is protesting abortion clinics. 

I would say this book is uneven. There are parts of it that are very good but other parts that are lacking. The plot is intriguing and Franzen does an excellent job writing his characters. Much of the novel is about people and what drives them but there is no real exploration of why Melanie is so obsessed with the inheritance. The biggest other shortcoming is that almost all but one of the women are written in a negative light. Despite its shortcomings, I would still recommend this book to fiction readers. 

Would You Kill the Fat Man?

 Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong by David Edmonds, 220 pages

Summary from Goodreads: "A runaway train is racing toward five men who are tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. You are standing on a footbridge looking down on the unfolding disaster. However, a fat man, a stranger, is standing next to you: if you push him off the bridge, he will topple onto the line and, although he will die, his chunky body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man?

The question may seem bizarre. But it's one variation of a puzzle that has baffled moral philosophers for almost half a century and that more recently has come to preoccupy neuroscientists, psychologists, and other thinkers as well. In this book, David Edmonds, coauthor of the best-selling Wittgenstein's Poker, tells the riveting story of why and how philosophers have struggled with this ethical dilemma, sometimes called the trolley problem. In the process, he provides an entertaining and informative tour through the history of moral philosophy. Most people feel it's wrong to kill the fat man. But why? After all, in taking one life you could save five. As Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex--and important--than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong."

This is an excellent book that looks at the question from multiple angles and provides some insights in to why people answer the question (and similar ones) one way or another. The author does a good job of relating the hypothetical question to similar real world scenarios.  I would highly recommend this book.

Amyntas

 Amyntas: A Sylvan Fable by Torquato Tasso, translated by Frederic Whitmore, 72 pages

Amyntas, also known as Aminta, is a short verse play by the author of Jerusalem Delivered, centering on the young shepherd Amyntas and the nymph Sylvia, the object of his unrequited love.

     A simple girl, heedless as she is fair,

     And ignorant how hot are beauty's arms

     To sear, how edged to pierce; whose smiles and tears

     Slay, and slay all un'ware e'en that they wound.

Despite the efforts of the other shepherds and nymphs to convince Sylvia to submit herself to Love, she refuses, until unexpected events finally melt her hardened heart.  But will it be too late?

     In sooth, the laws of Love wherewith he rules

     In lasting sway, are ne'er unjust and hard;

     His works fulfilled with foresight, mystical,

     We blindly do condemn.  What skill is his!

Shadowplay

 

Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor    400 pages

Seems I’m zero-for-two in the last several weeks. Books that I thought were going to be page turners turned out to be total duds. First, Kate Morton’s “The Clockmaker’s Daughter,” then this one.

 Have you ever not given up on a book because you are positive it’s going to get better?  I’ve done this on several occasions, but I must admit that I was too pig-headed to give up on this one.  Turns out, after I turned the last page, I could not tell anyone what this book was about. Oh, there were glimpses of that “it’s gonna turn around here,” but they never came to fruition. Basically the best I can do it a say it is an epistolary novel involving real-life theater folk and literary figures. 

Now if I was in y’all’s shoes, I’d be headed to Amazon to read the synopsis, so I’ll save y’all the trouble:

“…set during the golden age of West End theater in a London shaken by the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

Henry Irving is Victorian London’s most celebrated actor and theater impresario. He has introduced groundbreaking ideas to the theater, bringing to the stage performances that are spectacular, shocking, and always entertaining. When Irving decides to open his own London theater with the goal of making it the greatest playhouse on earth, he hires a young Dublin clerk harboring literary ambitions by the name of Bram Stoker to manage it. As Irving’s theater grows in reputation and financial solvency, he lures to his company of mummers the century’s most beloved actress, the dazzlingly talented leading lady Ellen Terry, who nightly casts a spell not only on her audiences but also on Stoker and Irving both.

Bram Stoker’s extraordinary experiences at the Lyceum Theatre, his early morning walks on the streets of a London terrorized by a serial killer, his long, tempestuous relationship with Irving, and the closeness he finds with Ellen Terry, inspire him to write DRACULA, the most iconic and best-selling supernatural tale ever published.

A magnificent portrait both of lamp-lit London and of lives and loves enacted on the stage, Shadowplay’s rich prose, incomparable storytelling, and vivid characters will linger in readers’ hearts and minds for many years.”

 “Shadowplay” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

The Clockmaker's Daughter

 The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton    496 pages

I love Kate Morton novels. They are nice and thick with a mystery that spans generations.  I love to snuggle down in my favorite reading chair. I waited until October to read her latest, mainly because of the opening sentence: “We came to Birchwood Manor because Edward said it was haunted.”  What a perfect line for late fall with Halloween just weeks away! And one sentence in the dustjacket blurb (“Tensions simmer, and one hot afternoon a gunshot rings out.”). I was ready to stay up all night, expecting to be so engrossed I couldn’t stop reading. 

As I read further into Chapter 1, I was thrilled to discover that one of the narrators was a ghost.  How cool was that!? The ghost was not identified nor was its paragraphs, but those were easily discernible.

The first part of the book took place in 2017, when archivist Elodie Winslow discovered a satchel and sketch pad belonging to 19^th century artist Edward Radcliff. Part One was wonderful.

But then I reached Part 2. The ghost was still there, but new characters appeared. I had no idea what was going on. Yet I read, and read, and read. But to my disappointment, it didn’t make sense. It was like a different story set in the same place.

It took me another week to finish this novel.  It did comeback around, but by then I was so confused about Morton’s plotlines, that I turned the last page in utter disappointment. Well, all writers have one book that is a dud, and this is it for Morton.  Fingers crossed that her next one will live up to her talent.

 “The Clockmaker’s Daughter” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Over the Woodward Wall

 Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker  (Seanan McGuire)  204 pages

"Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt. Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable. They live on the same street.  They live in different worlds. On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures. And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives."

Woot!  Another great story from Seanan McGuire!!  Her writing is beautiful, evocative and so descriptive that you can imagine yourself right there with Avery and Zib. I really like how she writes characters who are children -- they are interesting and sometimes exceptional, but never precious and she never dumbs things down. This book reminded me of the best Neil Gaiman books (back when he wrote stories for adults like Neverwhere and Anansi Boys). 

I enjoy how the author weaves together a story where you cannot trust that everything will be ok. You can't trust that Avery and Zib will meet other characters who will be nice and good, and you also can't assume that those other characters are who they say they are. There's a lovely, unbalanced quality to the story and there's no shying away from things that might be uncomfortable just because Avery and Zib are children. I love that.  More, please!!!

Becoming Finola

 

Becoming Finola by Suzanne Strempek Shea    336 pages

I re-read this book about once a year, just because I like it and want to revisit it -- and it's a nice story. 

Newly unemployed Sophie has kept herself busy by holding together her recently widowed friend, Gina, so when Gina proposes they both go on a much-needed vacation, Sophie is happy to oblige. However, after one day spent in the charming small town in Ireland, Gina is ready to go home. But she implores Sophie to stay, so Sophie does, accepting a job offer on a whim in the village's craft shop: Finola O'Flynn. Sophie soon learns Finola is a bit of a legend in this town and when she takes on her old job in the shop, Sophie also takes on other things: Finola's house, her left-behind wardrobe . . . and then Liam, Finola's discarded boyfriend.  But what happens when Finola suddenly returns?

This is an easygoing read with some humor, and plenty of descriptions to make you want to move to a small town in Ireland and work in a craft shop (at least, it never fails to make me want to do this). It's a bit of a slow start, but I find that sometimes, it's nice to revisit this story that's a bit of endearing escapism.

The Lying Game

 The Lying Game by Ruth Ware    370 pages  

"Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father)." (Goodreads)

I had an odd sense of deja vu when I started this book --- had I already read it?  Actually, no -- but I've read other books by Ruth Ware, and other books with stories about friends keeping secrets. Maybe that was why? 

This story is a slow burner --- it takes a while to develop, so you need to be patient and stick with it to really feel like you're getting somewhere. Once I got to that point, I started reading more quickly because I thought I knew what had happened and wanted to find out. However, the slow pace and slow story development make this a less than ideal read --- because you get partway in and have to figure out if you care enough about the characters to keep going. I admit I wasn't burning with curiosity. Instead, I had a weekend day to sit and read, so I just kept going.  Ok book, not great. 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

 The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune   398 pages

"When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn." (Goodreads)

And . . . I now have one of my favorite books I read this year!  I absolutely loved this book --- it was interesting, charming, funny, made me laugh, made me get choked up . . .  and an overall great story. Whimsy? It's here. Serious thought-provoking stuff? It's here. A variety of different types of characters and a touch of romance? Got it!  For anyone who ever felt like they didn't belong, weren't understood, and just wanted to be accepted and loved ---- this is your story.  And hey, if you never felt like this, this is also your story --- because there's a lot here about learning about others, understanding and being empathetic. 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins  517 pages

"It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes." (Goodreads)

This book really makes the most sense if you're already familiar with The Hunger Games series, although you could read it even without that backstory and knowledge and enjoy it. In this book, Collins gives us Snow, long before he became President Snow, and the story of how the Hunger Games developed.  I really liked this story and found it to be an engaging pageturner. Snow is a character that see as one way at the beginning, and then it seems like he's really going to develop into someone you want him to be . . . and then something happens.  Maybe he couldn't develop because he is who is he is at his very core? Food for thought.  While I felt parts of the story were a bit bloated and it definitely has some odd parts, I enjoyed it.  Probably because I liked the original series so getting some of this backstory was interesting.

A Deadly Education: A Novel

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik  320 pages

This is the first book in Novilk's new series, The Scholomance, about a school of magic. However, this is no friendly Harry Potter world.  Indeed - "There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere."

I had really been looking forward to this book. Reviews made it sound amazing and I really enjoyed Novik's Temerarie series.  Unfortunately, I just didn't like this book. While I don't mind the idea of a school of magic where many things are dangerous, and I don't mind unlikeable character, this story felt exhausting to read after a while.  The main character is unlikeable, relentlessly so --- and while there's some explanation later in the story, and a bit of character growth, I found her to be tiring.  I liked some of the monsters, and I loved the description of the library (of course), but the bits of dark humor in the story weren't enough for me to find it enjoyable. Instead, it's a bit of a slog . . . there's almost never any letup of the monsters, of the danger, of the endless explanations (which aren't always full explanations) of the danger, the horrors that await students, etc etc.  I wanted to like this book more than I did.

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen  276 pages

"While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in Can’t Even, BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the constant pressure to “perform” our lives online. The genesis for the book is Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has amassed over eight million reads since its publication in January 2019." (courtesy of Goodreads)

I thought this was an interesting read, but I sometimes found it frustrating --- lots of pointing out that there are problems, but no proposed solutions. I also felt like there was a lot of generalizing, which was sometimes irritating. As someone who is Generation X, I'm not immune from the pressures the author notes in this book due to how I was raised to think about work. And the way the book comes off, it's as if the author only thinks it's Millennials who get burned out . . . which isn't true at all.

It's an interesting overview of work, workplaces and other things. However, definitely a read that made me alternate between finding it interesting and finding it really annoying.

Theft By Finding: Diaries 1977-2002

Theft By Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris    528 pages

I can't get enough of David Sedaris' writing.   He is so clever and his take on life is so marvelous that it makes me sad to come to the end.   This book is a walk through his life with his take on the every day people and things he comes across and his reaction to the current events happening at the time which really puts his writing into perspective with the backdrop of what was taking place in the world from a historical level as he was writing in his diary.  He and his sister Amy are turned so much alike what one can't come up with the other does then they play off each other with hysterically funny outcomes.   When he relates stories of his Dad he imitates his father's speech so well you can picture the man saying the lines.   I recommend every book written by David Sedaris - he is like chocolate for the mind.  Sometimes a little deep, I would recoomend  these books for mature teenagers on up.

 - Shirley J.

Welcome to the Monkey House

 Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works by Kurt Vonnegut   331 pages

I had a completely different impression of the writer I thought Kurt Vonnegut to be.  For some reason I had the idea that he was more of a scientific writer so I was surprised to read his short stories.   Most have the feel and prose of an earlier time, say the 40s or 50s although he did go all Ray Bradbury and do sci-fi futuristic in several of them.    For the most part the stories were o.k., some I didn't care for as much as others, but, some were very entertaining and made me smile.   If you like short stories you will most likely appreciate these, too, however, having said that, honestly, this is not a book I would recommend.   The stories were o.k. but to me only just o.k.    They weren't terrific which I honestly expected Vonnegut's writing to be.    I finished it but nothing really spoke to me much in these stories,  A few good ones but nothing to really shout about.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? : And Other Questions About Dead Bodies

 Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? : And Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty   256 pages

I love this author.   I would be happy to have her for a friend.   Can you imagine the conversations we'd have?  Caitlin Doughty is an author and a mortician.   She owns her own mortuary in Los Angeles.   She often does the speaker circuit and is much in demand for her frank and funny talks about all things dead and to do with the dead.   THis book is no different.   She has taken some of the questions she has received regarding definitions of death, staves of death, what happens inside and outside our bodies after we die.   The questions, while maybe not for the squeamish are certainly entertaining and you will come away knowing more about the process than you ever thought you might.   An excellent book with graveyard humor being the speciality.  Personally, I have never looked at blow flies the same since the first season of American Horror Story on t.v. but Caitlin's book will do the same for you.    If you are at all curious and your comedic tastes run just a little to the macabre side, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.   I did.    I would recommend this to mature teens on up.   Some of the stuff here is pretty tame, but, some of the detail might stir nightmares in the very young.    Another excellent book, Caitlin.   Oh yes, you can catch her answering people's questions on  www.YouTube.com

, too.    

Silver Anniversary Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery)

 Silver Anniversary Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery)  by Leslie Meier   272 pages

In the small town of Tinker's Cove, Maine, where everyone pretty much knows everyone else when one of the elder couples in town decide to renew their vows with a big silver wedding anniversary bash, everyone in town is invited and asked to attend wearing the outfits they were married in.   It promised to be a huge do complete with catering, guests from New York,m etc.   Townsfolk were pulling out and trying on their wedding clothes, some having gotten married in caftans, jeans and other attire of the times, the excitement was building.   Town resident, Lucy Stone likewise got her wedding dress out and it still fit!   She waxed nostalgic over her wedding day and how her best friend, Beth, had been there is so many ways for her that day.  It had been years since Lucvy and Beth talked and Lucy had heard Beth was on her fourth marriage now.   She decided to get in touch and invite Beth home to the shindig.  Unfortunately, Lucy finds out from Beth's grown son that Beth fell to her death from the penthouse terrace of the building she and her husband were living in.   Beth was floored by the news.    Neither she nor any of the other women in town whe had known Beth Gerard could believe she would kill herself.   Lucy goes to the funeral and in her sorrow she determines to try to discover if Beth was really in such a desperate mental place she would take her own life or if someone had murdered her.    The plot unfolds with Lucy doing her own investigation of Beth's current husband and her 3 exes.   A good story, the characters are very realistic and the story is very well written.   A few of the characters are extremely real such as the horrible anal retentive busy body we can all relate to and her much put upon long suffering husband.   I would recommend this story to all murder mystery lovers.   There are so many potential suspects!   

Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble

Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble by Judy Schachner    32 pages

I was intrigued by the title of this book, so, I had to read it.     It seems Skippyjon is a Siamese cat who is friends with a bunch of chihuahuas that like to go on (imaginary play) adventures.   In this particular adventure they go to the underworld of ancient Egypt.   The stories and songs are all told in rhyme and the books come with a CD that Judy Schachner narrates.   Kids will also get a little Spanish taught to them as the chihuahuas speak a mixture of Spanish and English and put Spanish inflection on some of the English words.  (Mummito for Mummy, etc.)   Very cute and very fun.  There is a whole series of Skippyjon Jones books.   Turns out Judy's Siamese cat is named Skippy so its a short jump to where she came up with the star's name.    I would recommend the series to all children and anyone who enjoys reading juvenile literature.  Very cute.

How To Build a Girl

How To Build a Girl: A Novel by Caitlin Moran   368 pages

An excellent book!      WHile it is very much a coming of age book for a 14 year old girl through her 17th birthday year,  the things Johanna Morrigan/Dolly WIlde get up to during those 3 hot years would make Lolita blush.   It is funny and bawdy and I kept thinking how lucky this young girl was she was never in a situation she couldn't talk her way out of because she puts herself out there in so many ways - YIKES!!!  It is a wonderful story, though,  Johanna Morrigan reinvents herself as Dolly WIlde and lives up to name.  She embraces the sexual knowledge she gleans from the library books she reads and puts her learning to good use as a sexual adventurer.   She keeps such a good attitude the whole way through with everything a new learning experience.   I applaud her.   Now I must go check out the film with Jonah Hill's little sister, Beanie Feldstein playing the lead character.   I am not sure I would recommend this one for even mature teens because I wouldn't want their impressionable minds thinking of copying Dolly, who led a charmed life given her circumstances.   This is definitely adult behavior being discussed disguised as a 14 year old.    I do recommend this book, o.k. very mature teens, like 18 year olds  on up.   I think everyone who enjoyed a liberal upbringing will enjoy this book..

The Ripper's Shadow

The Ripper's Shadow by Laura Joh Rowland    384 pages  

The Whitechapell Murders revisited.   Photographer Sarah Bain, to make rent money starts taking provocative photos of several of the local ladies of the evening.   Seems lewd photographs was a booming business back then, the ladies were willing to make the extra money for posing although if caught it would be jail time for both the model and the photographer.  Sarah notices an odd coincidence, the murder victims turn out to be the ladies who posed for her photographs!  Sarah begins her own sleuthing to try to save the remaining live women from the killer or killers being joined by a small group of friends introduced throughout the story.   The police think it is of interest that Sarah seems to turn up no matter what the hour in the vivinity of the murders.   Which begins to make her look like a suspect.   Well told story, great take on the case with a bit of a Libba Bray flair for bringing unlikely characters together.   Well done, Laura Joh rowland   Yes, I recommend this to middle schoolers on up.   

- Shirley J.

The Accidental Alchemist

The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian; 350 pages

Zoe Faust is hundreds of years old, having somehow (I'm still a little murky on the details) sort of accidentally used the Elixir of Life for herself rather than someone else she had tried to save. She has Guilt. So she's moved around quite a bit and has landed in Portland, Oregon because she's decided to get back in the business of being an alchemist. Again, I'm not exactly sure why. I'm not trying to be too snarky about this because there were some fun parts to this book, particularly the character of Dorian Robert-Houdin, a gargoyle who has come to life and who is relying on Zoe to save him (he's turning back into stone), due to her past skills as an alchemist. She tries to study more about what could have happened to Dorian in between slugging gallons of different types of reviving teas along with restorative smoothies and then going to a tea shop to drink even more tea. I don't know. It was hard to follow, I'm not going to lie. And she also befriends a 14 year old boy with a neglectful mother who discovers that Dorian is a living gargoyle. And she's also caught up in (and is possibly a suspect for) a couple of murders and she has a major crush on the detective working the case for reasons unknown because there isn't much to his character.

My favorite things about this book really were the scenes with Dorian. His character was delightful. But Zoe's actions and choices were strange. In one scene she bolts from a place in paralyzing but difficult to explain terror, but never bothers to check back on the people in the place who were in some sort of supernatural danger, and just goes about the day, probably after making herself a calming smoothie or cup of tea or both. In a couple of scenes she gives compromised people a concoction of her own making because she evidently knows more than the doctors treating the people and never worries about what her concoctions might do to the person, just worries about getting caught. It was a trial to finish this and I won't continue the series. But hey, you gotta try something new once in a while! And just because I didn't like it doesn't mean there aren't redeeming qualities. It just wasn't my cup of herbal tea. 

X-Tinction Agenda

 X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda by Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove, John Caponigro, Jim Lee, Rick Leonardi, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Guang Yap, and others, 316 pages

The X-Men are not dead.  This seemingly unremarkable fact comes as a considerable surprise to some of their closest friends, including their old teammates in X-Factor and their former charges in the New Mutants, who, along with the rest of the world, believed they had been killed battling the Adversary in Dallas.  Life means they must continue to evolve - their leader, Storm, is trapped in the body of a child, the Cajun thief Gambit has joined the team, and the New Mutants are now led by the mysterious man known only as Cable.  

They will not have the leisure to work these issues out.  The apartheid state of Genosha, where mutants are genetically indoctrinated into becoming servants of the human population, launches an audacious raid against the X-Mansion, kidnapping a handful of young mutants.  As the American government and the international community consider their responses to this attack on US soil, the X-Men make their own assault on the island nation, little suspecting that the Genoshan forces are led by a brainwashed Havok, Cyclops' younger brother.  Worse, the entire crisis is being orchestrated by Cameron Hodge, Angel's former friend and business manager, who used the Worthington fortune to bankroll an anti-mutant militia and was ultimately responsible for the amputation of Angel's wings.  Now equipped with a monstrous cyborg body as hideous as his twisted soul, Hodge has manipulated the Genoshan government into open war with the X-Men, a war only one side can survive...

Despite being a crossover "event", X-Tinction Agenda feels much less like an interruption of ongoing storylines than most of the species, and this may, in fact, be part of the reason it is not as well-remembered as it deserves to be.  The strong continuity is no doubt largely due to the strength of the storytelling partnership between Claremont and Simonson.  Unfortunately, the art is a different story.  Lee's work is consistently excellent, but Bogdanove's is uneven and Liefeld proves here that his much-maligned later work was actually an improvement.  The trade paperback also includes the three issue arc which introduced Genosha, a serviceable story centered on Rogue with little hint of the many transformations the fictional nation would undergo in the ensuing decades.

That Old Dead Magic

That Old Dead Magic (#12 in the Rat Pack Mystery Series) by Robert J. Randisi    360 pages

I look forward to the release of each new Rat Pack Mystery Series. It’s a lot of fun to journey back to the 1960s when Las Vegas was not a place for the kiddos and all the lights hid more than they showed.

Frank, Dean, Sammy, Joe and Peter had lit up the Strip when their Summit came to town to appear at the Sands Hotel.  The crowds loved and adored the guys’ act. But now it is 1965, and the Summit is losing its audience. The guys, and the Sands’ management, believe that people are getting tired of the same old act. Frank and Dean are even performing at other hotels.

But the Sands pit boss, Eddie G is still the man to know; the man who can get things done.  So when Sammy Davis, Jr., asks for help because he thinks legendary comic Jerry Lewis is going to kill somebody, Eddie G comes to the rescue.  Eddie G never cared much for Jerry’s comedy; he didn’t get it, but when one of the guys asks, he does what he can to help.

Jerry isn’t the loveable goofball he comes across as on stage. He’s a very, very serious fellow who scowls more than he smiles. And his temper is almost as legendary as his comic ability.

While Jerry stews at the Sands about blackmail and kidnapping, Eddie G is also helping out his PI buddy, Danny Bardini, who is working on a sex-trafficking case. He even agrees to let Danny use one of the Sands waitresses as bait.

To round the picture out, a Rat Pack Mystery wouldn’t be complete without Big Jerry Epstein, a Brooklyn-man with an appetite as big as his body. Jerry E will do whatever it takes to protect Mr. G, Danny, and the guys.

As Randisi writes more and more of these mysteries, the guys seem to drift further and further into the background.  Still, the stories are a lot of fun: the heyday of the Strip, the mob, the girls, the money, and the booze light up the casinos as they don’t seem to be able to do these days. As the bodies piled up, I sank further and further into 1965 until I did not want to come back to 2020.

It may not be high literature, but it is high stakes fun. “That Old Dead Magic” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Complete Poems

 The Complete Poems by Guido Cavalcanti, translated by Marc Cirigliano, 69 pages

Guido Cavalcanti attained immortality not through his own work, but as a friend of Dante, who finds him in the Inferno among the gluttons.  Cavalcanti, however, has also earned his own small group of discerning admirers.

     you see me - one who goes crying

     an example to all of Love's judgment

     and i don't find a pitying heart

     sigh even once looking at me

It is notoriously difficult to transfer the rhythm and rhyme of Romance languages into Germanic languages such as English - still, there must be a superior approach to this translation of the Sweet New Style into stale modernism.

     look at him and see his heart

     carried by Death's hand - carved into a cross.

Orkneyinga Saga

 Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, 224 pages

The Orkneyinga Saga is a prose history of the jarls who ruled Orkney between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries.  It was probably written in Iceland in the 13th century, but is largely based on older, poetic accounts of the doings of the notable men and women of the islands.  In many places the anonymous compiler incorporates bits of these into his history.

     Ships grappled

     together; gore, as foes fell,

     bathed stiff iron, black

     with Scots' blood;

     singing the bows spilt

     blood, steel bit; bright

     though the quick points quaked,

     no quenching Thorfinn.

This is all the more effective given the highly repetitive narrative, a seemingly unending series of feuds, with aggrieved parties seeking aid from Scotland and Norway, normally ending in bloodshed but occasionally in reconciliation, the bloodshed often leading to more bloodshed and the reconciliations also often leading to more bloodshed.  That is not to say that there is nothing of interest - to the contrary, there's the story of how Rognvald, hiding from his enemies, was betrayed by his own lapdog, and of the time Svein three times politely asked Arni to settle a debt before driving an ax into his skull, and of Uni's cleverness in sabotaging his enemies' watchfires, among many other memorable incidents.  It is the poetry, though, that truly enchants.

     I fear my fate

     turns my face from Ermingerd;

     many a man

     would match her if he might.

     Her brow's such a beauty -

     I'd bed her gladly, even

     once would be worth it,

     a wish come true.

Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War

Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War

 Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne, 

395 pages

The fourth and final year of the American Civil War is covered here by an excellent writer, who kept the pages turning with well-conceived chapters and intriguing descriptions of the people and times. I enjoy Civil War history, but I often find books detailing every moment and movement of battles tedious and dense. This one told the story of the battles the way I like to read them: who planned their strategy well, who didn't, who won, who lost. 

But what I really appreciated about this book was that its focus was not entirely on the battles: I learned more about Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield" in this book than I have anywhere else. And I'd never heard of African-American Civil War correspondent Thomas Morris Chester, whose newspaper reporting covered the stories in ways his colleagues never could, until I read this book. Likewise, reading about the importance of the 1864 election was timely to current events, and it was interesting to learn that even Abraham Lincoln felt his chances for a loss were high and that his own party was in the process of disassociating themselves with him.

The book did cover the important people and dates, but in a way that was accessible and readable. Each person was well-described so that they were distinguishable from others, and the impact of decisions and the heartbreaking aftermath of battles, while not enjoyable to read, was well-written. The author was good at debunking myths while still telling stories I hadn't read before. I would recommend this for anyone interested in the Civil War and American history.