Fallen

 

Shirley J.              Adult Fiction                                                 Murder, Amish life, female police chief

Fallen by Linda Castillo  (Book 13 in the Kate Burkholder series)  384 pages

Excellent story of police drama involving the Amish community.   I was really pleased with how good this story actually is.   The lady chief of police, Kate Burkholder, was born and grew up Amish until a crime happened in her teen years.   It is alluded to but to find out the source the reader will have to engage the series as it isn't spelled out in this book.    Kate Burkholder's story takes place in Ohio outside of Cleveland in a rural Amish community.   You learn many facts about the Amish in this read, the fact that there are various sects of Amish that either adhere more fully to the plain life than other sects, ie. kind of like orthodox Judaism as opposed to Reformed Judaism, there are stricter sects who totally abhor the use of any kind of technology then there are those who will allow things like telephones and refrigerators in their homes.  Who knew?  Not me.  And man is there a lot going on in Amish communities that English (anyone not Amish) have no clue about!  Wow!  This is a teaching series as well as a really well written crime solving series.    There are so many potential murder suspects in this story that you will be figuring this one out all the way to the end.   Excellent who done it.  Props to Linda Castillo.   Mature teens on up will like this one and anyone interested in the Amish community.    

The Drowning Kind

 

Shirley J.                             Adult Fiction                            Magical Springs Elixir, Ghosts

The Drowning King by Jennifer McMahon    368 pages        

The old adage, "Be careful what you wish for," comes true in this book about ghosts haunting  mysterious springs on the property of a hotel then later a home.   Eerily told tale jumping from the family in the current day back to those who owned the property when it was on the grounds of a hotel.   It is rumored the springs can heal and grant wishes however, it always exacts a price for the good done, usually with the taking of a life.    Are the people really experiencing hauntings or are they just paranoid and seeing things that aren't really there, just figments of over fed over active imaginations.   There are certainly no small amount of tales told about the place and it seems a ghost story is always attached.   Is the Springs really capable of claiming people or is it just strange coincidences that claim the lives of so many people?  A good spooky story that will keep you rapt till the end.   I recommend this one to mature teens on up just for the chill factor involved.  

Doris Day's Best Friends

 

Shirley J.             Adult Non-Fiction                       Doris Day, her pets and animals she has worked with

Doris Day's Best Friends by Jim Pierson and Matt Tunia    150 pages

Actress and Singer, Doris Day, shares her deep love for animals in this book, even donating the proceeds to the betterment of animals through her foundation which provides scholarships for students of veterinarian medicine, lobbies for legislation for animal rights and sponsors special programs benefitting 4 legged animals.   The book is a photo gallery with minimal commentary about Doris' career, her abiding love for animals especially dogs, and how she has gone on from making films and singing in Hollywood, to devoting her life to the betterment of animals worldwide.   A true benefactor and patron of the cause for animals to have better lives and she even works with the Humane Society to spay and neuter cats and dogs to help keep down their populations to ease the number of pets with no home to go to.  She champions rescue animal adoptions and even works valiantly on set and off to get her fellow actors and associates to adopt homeless animals.  Good book, Great cause, Wonderful lady.   I recommend this book to young and old, and those too young to read will love the photos.  

For the Wolf (Volume 1 of The Wilderwood Series)

 

Shirley J.                      Adult Fiction                                      Magic, Wolves, Kingdoms

For the Wolf (Volume1 of the Wilderwood Series) by Hannah Whitten   only read 100 pages    

I really wanted to like this series.  It has so many good things going for it, magic, wolves, medieval style kingdoms/realms, but, 100 pages in, I felt like I was going out for steak and ended up with a meat substitute and one that tasted of cardboard.   The book promised to be full of interesting situations and characters, but, to me, the writing was a little wanting.   I found myself daydreaming while I was reading it and had to make myself pay attention to what was on the page, but, then the author lost me and my mind was searching elsewhere for something meaningful because the writing seemed to be missing detail and this book felt like reading somewhere in the middle of the series instead of the very first book.   There just seemed to be a huge chunk of missing substance for me.   Since I was forcing myself to endure what I had really wanted to be an intriguing read, it just was not, so I stopped.  It just feels like more needs to be pumped into it.  Maybe someone else would feel differently.  I stopped reading after I got to page 100 I just couldn't get into it.  I cannot recommend this book because it failed to interest me at all. 

My Family and Other Animals

Shirley J.                  Adult Non-Fiction         English family's adventures living in Corfu, Greece

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell     288 pages

These are the adventures the PBS series, "The Durrells in Corfu," was based on.   If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it and this book.   The Durrells, (mother and 3 sons and a daughter) pulled up stakes in their homeland of England and moved bed, board and baggage to Corfu, Greece.   The adventures they have there acclimating to the new culture, climate and surroundings is fodder for hilarity.   Plus author, Gerald Durrell, the youngest at 11 years of age when they arrived, finds his interests lie in the flora, fauna and animals of the island.  Gerald grows up to be a botanist and zoologist, and herein are the beginnings of that love for creatures great and small even when venomous and bad tempered which could also be said of his oldest brother, Larry.  The people of Corfu are warm, wonderful and welcoming and with that ocean view, it might be worth putting up with the heat and the mosquitoes.  So funny, I hated for the book to end.   Now I have put Gerry's other books on reserve.  You will really take this family into your heart and not want to let go.   I recommend this book to youngsters on up, it is a delightful fun read.

Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo

 

Shirley J.   Adult Non-Fiction      Betty White,  Introduces Readers to some of her animal friends

Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo by Betty White    329 pages

A sweet telling of stories about many of Betty White's animal friends and animal encounters.  She speaks of her parents, who being animal lovers themselves, instilled a deep love and respect for animals into Betty from age 4 on up.   (Her Dad drew the line at snakes.  He was terrified of them - 3 looked like thousands to him.)   Betty had no fear of animals and while mammals and birds were more cuddly, she had no phobias about snakes, alligators, lizards, komodo dragons, toads, etc. and shared her deep abiding love of all creatures great and small with the world every chance she got along with her mission to save endangered animals as much as possible.   She realizes not everyone is fond of animals being kept in zoos, but, she makes a good case for those animals in the wild being poached making zoos seem a safer environment with food, shelter, health care provided.  Betty was no fool, she knows the difference between a good animal sanctuary and bad ones and speaks out about that.  She also championed getting information to people to not purchase exotic animals.    She extolled the dangers and cruelty of releasing exotic animals into domestic environs when people grow tired of them as pets  or they get too big or too hard to handle.    The photos included are so beautiful they practically become 3-D and jump off the page, thanks to the excellent photography skills of Tad Motoyama, official photographer for the Los Angeles Zoo.   Excellent book.   This would be a great read to book for the very young, with the wonderful photos that go along with Betty's many remembrances of her animal friends, and also a great read for any age.   I enjoyed it thoroughly.  It is a wonderful now tribute to a special lady who did her best to help the cause of animals throughout the world.

The Searcher

 

Shirley J.            Adult Fiction             Ireland, Retired American Police Officer, Missing Person

The Searcher by Tana French   464 pages

When a divorced retired American cop from Chicago retires after 25 years on the force, he just wants to get as far away from his current existence to go disappear somewhere.   He ends up in a boonie get away in a wee little countryside area far away from the lights of Dublin.    He moves into a run down shack that he plans on doing his own woodworking on to fix it up.   He is far away from everyone out in the woods and plans to enjoy what life he has left, fishing, hunting, maybe stopping in the pub in town once in a while, and the local dry goods store, other than that staying to himself and being self-sufficient.  The best laid plans.  He starts hearing something out in the woods surrounding his house, then starts noticing tracks  outside by his windows.   The locals seem a little odd and partial to joking around but are they spying on him?   It turns out the cop skills he thought he had put to bed will be pulled out full force again.   The quiet little bit of peace he thought he had found is about to be disrupted.  There are more secrets and dark sides even to this obscure place than he would ever have thought just proving there are no real getaways anymore.   Good story, well told.  It grabs you.   Once you start reading you won't want to put this one down.  I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up.   

Finding ArJay: Memoirs of an Ordinary Man

“Finding ArJay: Memoirs of an Ordinary Man” by Ron Scott 197 pages 

I’ve known Ron Scott for a couple of decades, at least. I don’t remember how we met, probably through a fiction writing class I was teaching somewhere along the way. We were even in the same writing group for a while. I can’t say we were close, but we’ve stayed in touch over the years. I’ve always felt like I knew him thanks to his writings, which have always been wonderful. And I’ve often thought he was pretty cool. 

When he asked me to review this book, I jumped at the chance. Heck, I’ll read anything by Ron. I think he’s a wonderful writer.  And this book is no exception.

His memoir spans his life, from childhood to old age. It gets down to the gritty that illuminates what makes this man tick. Some of it was very difficult to read.  

From his earliest days, it’s been a tough life. His mother married his stepfather when he was four years old. His biological father abandoned him and his mom. He was spent most of his time with his grandparents on an isolated family farm. I did find it hard to keep the players straight; I got confused with all the names. Those early years were fraught with anxiety and a neediness to please. Something that I had not seen in my friend.  But reading his memories, they followed him as silently and as closely as his shadow.  

Some of Ron’s life, I’m almost ashamed to know…like his affairs. Ron? A womanizer? Well, not really, but the opportunities arose. His first wife was Marlene, and his second and current wife is Marilyn. I had a hard time keeping them straight. If this was a novel, I’d tell him to change one of the names. 

Readers get an opportunity to watch Ron seemingly drift from job to job, from preacher to parole officer, teaching college until he landed in private practice as a psychotherapist.  

I found Ron’s story quite revelatory, and it touched me deeply. The anecdotes were well structured without overtelling or trying to explain. His writing explores a lot of the dark issues that man of his fellow readers will understand. He gives voice to feelings that most of us can’t even articulate.  

I do have one beef,  however. There are four stories at the end that are labeled “Short Stories.” Short stories are fiction and those are not. They are more like personal essays the elaborate on some the events that happened in the book. Therefore,  “Finding ArJay: Memoirs of an Ordinary Man” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

Deadly Touch

Shirley J.              Adult Fiction                   Ghosts, Paranormal Communication, Alligators, Florida

Deadly Touch by Heather Graham (Krewes of Hunters Series #31)   336 pages

Raina Hamish is trying on a dress at a store when all of a sudden she has a vision of a woman being murdered.   Turns out the connection is the dress she is trying on - the murdered woman had tried it on, too, and Raina, who was unaware she had any type of psychic ability picked up on it.   That is just the introduction to her psychic talents.   She comes in contact with Special (FBI) agent Axel Tiger who also has psychic perception and who leads an elite team of psychic investigators for the FBI.  Axel has been sent down to Florida to investigate the serial murder case that Raina has now unknowingly stubbled into.   Really interesting concept and well told story.   With the occasional atoning spirit dropping by to lend a hand.  Just goes to show you never really know people and love never dies.   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up.  Anyone who loves a good paranormal mystery will be sure to enjoy this one. 

Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac

 

Shirley J.     Adult Non-Fiction          Fun Explanations of each of the Zodiac signs in explicit detail

Very in-depth profiles of each of the zodiac signs, humorous but true!    It's like Linda Goodman's sun signs 5.0!   This book is so good and so startlingly accurate that you will want a copy to keep as a reference book to refer back to.   It gives you insight to the quirky personalities of every one you come in contact with from family, friends, lovers, co-workers, even your boss!  This book is a must read for anyone astrologically oriented and if you aren't astrologically oriented, you will be after you read this book.   I was hooked from page 1.    This isn't like any book on the zodiac you have read, this speaks to you as if you and your best friend are sizing up a roomfull of strangers at a party and pegging who each person is and who you plan to leave with!  Insight a plenty!  I highly recommend this one.   A little in your face for the younger set, but, mature teens on up will love it.   And adults will want to take notes!  It is that good!

I'm Talking As Fast As I Can

 

Shirley J.     Adult Non-Fiction Biography         Her life, acting/gigs, Gilmore Girls 9 years later reboot

I'm Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham  224 pages

Lauren Graham has a down-to-earth girl next door way of speaking and her stories are full of humor.  Her book is almost a stand-up comedy routine in print.   She talks about her life, getting into acting, different gigs she has had along the way, her time on Parenthood and her time on Gilmore Girls and the reboot(s) 9 years after the 7 season running show.   She talks about her co-stars and other celebrities she has met and worked with.   She talks about meeting her husband at an awards show where they were teamed up to present an award.   He asked if they should hold hands walking out on stage so they did, he later asked for her number but after she gave it to him, he didn't call her for 3 months.   When he finally called she was ready to tell him off, but, didn't and went out with him.  They later married.   She talks about her love for her cast mates and how families are formed on set and off.   A good book, I enjoyed it.   It will be of particular interest to Gilmore Girl fans but I think teens on up will enjoy it.  I think Middle Schoolers and younger wouldn't find it as interesting.

All the Walls of Belfast

 

Shirley J.      Young Adult Fiction          Belfast Northern Ireland, Past & Present Attitudes and Skirmishes

All the Walls of Belfast by Sarah Carlson    272 pages

Good story about an Irish-American girl named Fionna, who was born in Belfast but whose mother absconded with when she was 2 years old to move to the United States.  It is now 14 years later and after little or no communication her father writes to say he wants very much to be in Fionna's life (be careful what you wish for, Pop).   Fionna planned to work all summer to save up for a field study she would love to take that would make her a shoo in for her dream to go to M.I.T.   Long story short, Fionna ends up going to see her Da and her two step-brothers none of whom she remembers.  Her family life is sort of a mystery.   She is 16 now and it has always been her Ma and her without much chatter about what went before, till now that is.   Now all of a sudden she finds out she has step brothers and why is there so little conversation about her Da?   She decides to take a short visit, then come home, still work toward that field study then M.I.T. here she comes.   The best laid plans.   Northern Ireland still seems to be fighting the fight and holding grudges and that peace wall designed to separate the Irish Catholics from the Protestants who consider themselves British citizens only seems to spur more skirmishes with signs, slogans, posters, etc. for each sides point of view posted on their side of the wall.  There are things tossed over the wall, teenagers sneaking over and urinating and/or wreaking general destruction and desecration of the other sides' ideals.   Fionna finds this a bit of a culture shock but thinks it could be sorted out with tolerance.  She comes in to her father's house on the Catholic side of the wall,  with total attitude and disrespects him every chance she gets.   She is a hateful thing and needs to be put in her place but her father carries her like a princess and gives in to her all along the way.   He does his best to be kind, loving and fatherly to her but she comes and goes like anything he says doesn't matter and she is boss.   He never corrects her just keeps trying to win her affection while she treats him like dirt.  She meets a Protestant boy named Danny who is constantly abused by beatings from his Da.   Danny's dream is to join the British Army and become a nurse to help people.   His mother had been killed when he was small by the IRA so there is no love there for the Irish Catholics and he too picks on "taigs."   Fiona and Danny fall for each other, though, Fionna has just learned her father went to prison for murder for his part with the IRA which after learning that she considers her father a murderer and calls him so and wants to go home.   The story is a good one and tells a lot of what went down during the "troubles" and aftermath.   I recommend this story to middle schoolers on up.

SLPL February totals

This month two people read 28 titles with a total of 6779 pages.  Shirley wins again with 22 books and 4984 pages.

 

Stalin's War

Stalin's War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin, 666 pages

Sean McMeekin's provocative thesis in Stalin's War is that it is Stalin, not Hitler, who should be regarded as the central figure of World War II.  In proposing it, he is defying decades of Western historiography which has centered the war on Hitler's showdown with the French and British empires, as well as the Russian perspective in which the USSR is portrayed as the victim of Western perfidy and German aggression.  In McMeekin's persuasive retelling, neither the European nor the Pacific wars would have happened absent Stalin's active encouragement, and even Barbarossa was just as much a consequence of Stalin's ambitions in Central Europe as Hitler's.  Even more importantly, Stalin received from the war more than he could ever have hoped for, not only a mostly free hand in Central Europe and East Asia, but immense subsidies from US taxpayers to help build the Soviet military-industrial base.

The book is necessarily long and repetitive, yet McMeekin writes in a way that saves it from becoming ponderous.  Some may find the seemingly endless catalogues of lend-lease material supplied to an ungrateful mass murderer tiresome, but this is more than compensated for by the foregrounding of information which will be new even to those generally well-informed about the Second World War.

The Wish

 Shirley J.           Adult Fiction                   Stage 4 Cancer, Teen Age Pregnancy, Okracoke Island, N.C. 

The Wish by Nicholas Sparks   416 pages

Excellent book.     Nicholas Sparks has still got it.    The man can put magic on a page.  This is a beautiful story told by a woman who has Stage 4 Cancer.   She is telling an employee about a very emotional time in her life when she was 16 and pregnant.  Her parents send her away to stay with her aunt in North Carolina until the baby is born.   Her parents are Catholic and do not condone abortion but they convince (insist) she put the baby up for adoption.  This is her story and it is as brilliant as a shiny bauble on a Christmas tree.  I loved it.  I would recommend this book to middle schoolers on up.   

Eighty Days

 

Shirley J.       Adult Non-Fiction             Women newspaper reporters taking the Jules Verne challenge on

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World                         by Matthew Goodman      496 pages

Female newspaper reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's World newspaper in New York, Nellie Bly pitched a story idea to her editor, that she would take on Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days adventure and that she would do it in less than 80 days!  At first the idea floundered but then the powers that be in the World's offices decided what a great advertisement for the paper it would be.  Why they would increase circulation following her adventures as she wrote about them and submitted ongoing articles along the way.  The idea proved so successful that the Cosmopolitan magazine decided to launch its own adventurous female to sensationalize the trip and increase sales magazines by racing against Nellie Bly to try to beat her to go around the world the fastest.  The reporter for the Cosmopolitan was coerced into doing it.   The reporter was refined Elizabeth Bisland, a daughter of southern wealth who had no desire to make the trip nor compete but was eventually persuaded to do so.  Nellie Bly loved the idea of sensational journalism, a girl who had come up in Pennsylvania's coal country, scrappy and competitive with enough guts to go up against the male dominated field of newspaper reporting and willing to do whatever it took to come up with great investigative reports.  (ie. she went undercover and disguised every chance she got to expose political corruption and ill treatment of the poor.)  Two very different ladies each going in opposite directions, one going west the other east to become the first woman to travel completely around the world and do it in less time than it took the fiction character Phileas Fogg in the book "Around the World in 80 Days" by French author, Jules Verne.   An excellent fast paced true historical adventure that will please most any reader I think.   I would recommend this book to middle schoolers on up.   Well written an enjoyable read.

White Mischief

White Mischief by James Fox, 288 pages

January 1941.  While German bombs fell on England, a very different act of violence took place in the British colony of Kenya.  Josslyn Hay, the Earl of Erroll, was found murdered in his car on the road leading away from the home shared by his lover and her husband.  Said husband was swiftly arrested, but eventually acquitted of the crime, which came symbolically to mark the end of a wild, hedonistic era in the colony's history.  The question of who had actually killed Erroll, and why, remained unanswered for decades despite widespread curiosity and an in-depth investigation by the journalist and critic Cyril Connolly.

James Fox worked closely with Connolly during that investigation.  His account of the goings on amongst the British colonists may not have much in the way of literary merit, but it is fine journalism.

Nostos

Nostos by John Moriarty, 698 pages

"Nostos", I am told, means "homecoming", in particular referring to the homecomings of the heroes of the Trojan War.  In John Moriarty's poetic memoir, his particular home is an impoverished farm in the Irish countryside, a shadowy place of earth and blood, far from the seemingly well-ordered certainties of modernity.  He is exiled from this place by Darwin and his companions, whose arrival was as fatal to the old European mythos as that of Cortes was to the Aztecs.  His restless wanderings take him first to England, then to Greece, and finally to the New World, through myths both ancient and modern, before he is allowed to return at last to that still point he left in his beginning.

It is natural to compare Nostos to Finnegan's Wake, not only because the authors are both Irish, or because both delight in wordplay and allusion and repetition, or because the Liffey features in both works, or even because Moriarty explicitly references Joyce repeatedly.  Both attempt to describe something that eludes description, to discover or recover something mysterious yet fundamental, although Moriarty's commodius vicus of recirculation begins and ends upriver of Howth Castle and environs, and even beyond Eve and Adam.  Nostos is a unique and unforgettable work, full of beauty and wonder and (best of all) hope.