The One and Only Wolfgang: From Pet Rescue To One Big Happy Family

 

Shirley J.    Juvenile Non-Fiction         12 Older Pets Rescued from Shelters adopted into 1 Family    

The One and Only Wolfgang: From Pet Rescue To One Big Happy Family by Steve Grieg and            Mary Rand Hess     32 pages

Excellent book about older pets who were rescued from shelters and who became one big happy family all living together enjoying their second chances at happiness.   There are 9 dogs, 1 pig, 1 rabbit and 1 chicken.   What a delightful family!    The book hopes to promote the idea of older pet adoption showing that senior pets are just as loveable and fun as their baby counterparts.   I love this book and I highly recommend it as a read-to book for pre-readers through primary grades and a pass around book for the family even a read-to for elderly seniors.  Everyone would enjoy this book, especially animal lovers.  Middle-schoolers and teens would like it too, though, honestly, and they could cover saying it is for their younger siblings or kids they babysit.  (Wink, wink.)

Whatever Happened to Margot?

 Shirley J.      Adult Non-Fiction               Margot Durrell's life after Corfu, Life as a Landlady

What Ever Happened to Margot by Margaret Durrell   259 pages

This is the story of Margo Durrell after the family left Corfu during WWII, after she grew up, travelled extensively, had two sons, got divorced then became the landlady over a boarding house.   Margo shares her adventures with the many characters who rented rooms from her over the years.   Margo is as good a writer as her younger brother, Gerald Durrell and many of the chapters here will have the reader laughing out loud just like his tales of their family's lives in Corfu did.   Margo portrays herself in real life just as Gerald did, open minded, funny, animal lover and often a little ditzy but a beautiful, kind hearted soul with a deep compassion and empathy for her fellow humans and animals.   This is a fun book.  I do so love the Durrell family and there are plenty of tales including the family as well as the wacky eccentricities of her tenants.  Lovely book.   I recommend this to anyone who is as infatuated with the Durrell family as I am and anyone looking for good laughs playing voyeur to Margot's cavalcade and oft times circus of memorable people and situations.  Never a dull moment.   Middle schoolers on up would enjoy this story I think.

Redeeming Love

 

Shirley J.                Adult Fiction                          Sexual Abuse, Prostitution, Forgiveness

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers  512 pages

A young girl, named Sara, is loved dearly by her mother but is unfortunately the lovechild of her mother with a wealthy married man.   The man did not want her and tried to get her mother to abort her.   Sara's mother kept her hoping the girl's father would change his mind and accept her as his child.  He never did and eventually broke off his romance with her mother.  Unable to go back home due to her parents not wanting the social stigma of an illegitimate grandchild, her mother moved out of their fine accommodations to a shack down by the river where she became a prostitute to keep a roof over their heads and meager food to eat.    When her mother died Sara was only 8 years old and the man who her mother had let live with them took over Sara's care, but being a drunk he sold her to a child molester leading to a life of prostitution when Sara gets too old for the molester's tastes, he sells her to a brothel.   The story goes on to talk about her life at the brothel, her clientele and how God sends a Christian man into her life.   Many things happen along the way and Sara is in and out of prostitution, working a farm, forced into a sexual situation she does not want, more back and forth and making friends and trying to find her way as she runs from God's forgiveness.   A tale of a woman beat down by situations out of her control, her tough exterior that hides her low self-esteem and a man of faith who won't give up on her as he heeds God's call on his life.    A good story, that if people would just be honest with each other could have saved them a whole heap of trouble.   I would recommend this one to mature teens on up.

Carolina Moonset

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman 272 pages 

Divorced dad, Joey Green, returns home to the small town of Beaufort, South Carolina, to help his mother look after his father for a while. Marshall Green is suffering from Lewy Body dementia*. His short-term memory has almost disappeared, but his long-term memory is strong. 

Marshall is not violent, except when it comes to the Hammond family. He has unexpected outbursts when the name is mentioned. Marshall has some old unresolved issues that come out when he talks with his old friend, Trip Patterson, who died decades ago, who appears in a hallucination. 

As Marshall’s long-term memories rise, so does the memory of his first love, Delphi, who was murdered because back then, in South Carolina, mixed-race couples were not tolerated. But even those memories are not exactly correct as readers discover. There is another murder and a probable murder after Delphi’s that sets the town on edge. 

In current time, Roy’s brother is murdered, down the street from the Green home. At first, the police are interested in Marshall as he cannot account for his whereabouts that evening.  

Joey, interested in clearing his father, wants to learn what happened to Trip, Delphi and Roy. At the same time, Joey’s mother, Carol, and the next-door neighbors are trying to set Joey up with their also-divorced daughter, Leela. Sparks flair, Joey and Leela turn investigators together. 

This book got off to a slow start for me, but I am glad I hung in there. It turned out to be a true page-turner. Once the new murder happens, the plotline sets off on a can't-put-down thrill ride full of secrets, scandals, lies, memories, romance and racism. “Carolina Moonset” received 4 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

*Lewy Body Dementia is “a progressive dementia that results from protein deposits in nerve cells of brain. It affects movement, thinking skills, mood, memory, and behavior” with frequent bouts of hallucinations. 

 

Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness

 Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness by Sicelo Mbatha with Bridget Pitt 280 pages 

I was attracted to this book because I recently finished Chris Bohjalian’s new novel, “The Heiress. That one take place in Africa’s Serengeti, and I thought that this one could increase my knowledge of a land I know that I will never see first-hand.

The author is a Zulu and lives in South Africa. It’s a world of difference between the Serengeti and the Imfolozi Nature Reserve, where Sicelo volunteered. I’m not sure exactly where this took, other than South Africa.  

I did not get much out of this book. It lacks tension. I was not moved when Sicelo’s cousin was dragged away and eaten by a crocodile. And that disturbed me. The event was told from so far away, that this reader did not feel anything other than a small sadness and a shiver of “Dang! That had to hurt!” 

Another problem that I encountered was the names of animals, trees, flowers, etc. that I had no idea I was and could not figure it out in the context of the narrative. I had no visuals that helped bring the items into focus. 

I was impressed with one fact though. Getting to school was not easy. Sicelo and the other school children had to walk a “daily journey of fourteen kilometres there and fourteen kilometres” home. That’ s roughly 8.69 miles each way and no matter the weather, I can't imagine an American child doing that! 

After a while, I felt like I was just reading words and falling asleep faster than I do when reading a book with which I could connect. I kept hoping for engagement, but it never came. Therefore, “Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

One Italian Summer

   One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle 272 pages 

I’ve spent ten days in Italy back in the summer of 1997. I threw coins in the Trevi Fountain, so hopefully its legend is true, and I’ll go back someday. In the meantime, I must settle for books that take place in the country of my ancestors.  

Author Serle sets her novel along the Amalfi Coast in the town of Positano. Her descriptions of the colorful houses and shops, the beauty of the clear ocean, the steep stairs that rival San Francisco’s hills, the bright sun and the cool breezes lacing through your hair made this reader feel as if she were there.

 

In the novel, Katy and her mother, Carol, had planned a trip to Positano for Carol’s sixtieth birthday. Unfortunately, Carol dies. Katy is devasted by the loss of the mother and best friend. After much persuading from her family and friends, Katy decides to go...alone. Upon her arrival, Katy is sure she has done the right thing; she can feel her mother’s spirit tagging along.  

The hotel is gorgeous, the views are heavenly (no pun intended) and the service is remarkable. Katy has a plan; to do all the things she and Carol had planned to do: visit Capri, shop, eat, drink, sunbath. It was to be the perfect getaway. 

In the hotel’s lobby, Katy meets a woman who looks exactly like her mother. No, it can’t be. She dresses, sounds and acts like Carol. Through some quirk of time travel, the woman is indeed her mother. Only she is thirty years old.  

Over the course of the novel, the two women bond. Katy learns to let go of her grief and realize that her mother’s spirit will always be with her. Learning to let go involves a romance... or two...as well as getting to know Carol in various other ways. 

“One Italian Summer” was a delightful read and a perfect getaway for those of us who won’t be traveling again this year. This book receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.  

The Legend of the Christmas Stocking

 

Shirley J.                  Juvenile Non-Fiction                      How the tradition of hanging one's stocking

for Santa to fill with goodies and toys got started.

The Legend of the Christmas Stocking: An Inspirational Story of a Wish Come True by Rick Osborne  

40 pages

The true story behind the tradition of hanging and filling Christmas stockings.  It was inspired by real life Saint Nicholas and is practiced on his birthday, December 6 by Catholics and/or on Christmas Eve.   A story of it being better to give than receive when Nicholas gave gold coins to 3 young girls who had no dowry.  He wanted to remain anonymous and since Nicholas came from a rich family he slipped in and secretly tossed coins into the home of the girls which finds its way into the girl's stocking hanging up to dry.   (He was spotted so they knew who to attribute the good deed to.)  Great story for young and old.

Death on the Nile

 

Shirley J.                      Adult Fiction Murder Mystery              Hercule Poirot, murder mysteries

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie   288 pages

The older I get the more I appreciate Dame Agatha's wonderful stories and characters.   Hercule Poirot is excellent.   He is no Sherlock Holmes, but, he is quite observant if more mortal and prone to the occasional misses supposition.   Sherlock Holmes never makes mistakes, Poirot owns up to his.   No rest for the weary, though Poirot is on vacation he gets pulled into a murder investigation.   The story is a delicious one with characters of a 1920s feel.   Wonderful story.   Any one of middle school age on up who enjoys a juicy murder mystery with flamboyant characters will totally enjoy this story.   The dialogue is a treat.   I highly recommend this Agatha Christie title.  Loved it.

Dog Diaries: A Middle School Story (Book 1 of 7)

 

Shirley J.                            Juvenile Fiction                        Stories told by a dog named Rafe

The Dog Diaries: AMiddle School Story (Dog Diaries Book 1 of 7) by James Patterson with Steven Watson    208 pages

This book of stories are told by a dog named Rafe who says all dogs keep diaries, not written ones but collections of smells in their memories which bring up stories involving the scents.   The book is fun, however, my tick with it was, Rafe can say complicated words and decipher some pretty intricate topics with ease, so why can't he say car instead saying moving people box on wheels, and television, too seems beyond his vocabulary, yet, he all but speaks 7 languages, I'm just saying.   Other than the few concepts he does not grasp (uh hmmmm) the stories are fun and I think the younger set would enjoy them, however, forget trying to get over on middle schoolers, they are far too savvy for that.   You are going to have to stay with extremely young readers or passive pre-teens.   It would be a good read-aloud family book (expect heckling from teens).   The stories are good, I spoke my one tick.   James Patterson, I'm shaking my finger at you.  

The Good Luck Girls

 

Shirley J.                  Adult Fiction                                  Magic, Ghosts, Enchanted Tattoos    

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis   352 pages

Set in a country named Arketta, there are mystical elements to the story, historical leanings of the old west type landscapes and people as well as a comparison to the quadroon balls of old New Orleans, yet, set in a fictional location.    Young women are sold to welcome houses (bordellos) where rich white men come and pay high prices for a night with the women who begin their life as prostitutes at the age of 16.  Higher prices are charged to deflower virgins.   The women in the welcome houses are tattooed with flowers and each is called by the particular flower tattooed on their faces (Violet, Clementine, etc.) the flowers are magical in that as the child grows into a woman the flower tattoo grows from a bud into a full blooming version when they come of age for work.   There are ghosts and creatures akin to the dementors of Harry Potter stories.   The women are known as Good Luck Girls by their tattoos so escape is difficult but when a murder occurs several of the women band together and bolt for freedom.  There is a tale of a woman known as Lady Ghost who can remove the tattoos for a dear price.   Their one hope is to find her but with cruel men and inhuman creatures after them they may be caught before they find her.    A good story, it felt like it wasn't sure if it wanted to be Westworld or something new but a good story nonetheless.   I recommend this one for older teens on up.

That's Betty! The Story of Betty White

Shirley J.                    Juvenile Non-Fiction            Biography of Betty White, a class presentation

That's Betty!  The Story of Betty White by Gregory Bonsignore    48 pages

This is the story of a young boy assigned a writing assignment for class and he chooses to do his report on Betty White, who he just loves.   Betty herself was a mystery woman helping him along the way discussing her life and guiding him to further material in the Library, etc. about her career in acting, being the first woman to produce her own show, her community involvement in animal rights, non-bullying campaigns, LGBTQIA+ causes, etc.   The boy is helped along the way by his two Dads and the day of his presentation he dresses up like Betty White to present her story.   It is a fun read full of facts about Betty White.   I enjoyed it.   I think younger kids would get a kick out of the story and I think the adults who read it to them will enjoy it just as much.   A must read for Betty White fans.   I recommend it to all ages.

The Way of the Wise: Simple Truths for Living Well

 Shirley J.                          Adult Non-Fiction                               Motivational, Spiritual Teachings               The Way of the Wise:Simple Truths for Living Well by Dr. Kevin Leman   160 pages

Dr. Leman mixes psychology with Biblical principals and teachings to motivate readers to live better more joy filled lives.  He tells relatable tales of his own life and choices he made and also other people's stories relevant to the concept he is sharing and he use the teachings of King Solomon of the Bible to explain and guide the reader to their best self.  I would recommend this book to middle schoolers on up.   There are so many good examples of life changing wisdom from the King said to be the wisest of all humans.   The book explores where you are in life and who you see yourself as helping you see who you can strive to be.  He helps sort out what it is we love ie. where your heart is.   He discusses God and helps the reader to challenge their belief/non belief - addressing the whys and wherefores and expressing his own thoughts.  He introduces 10 life changing principles to the reader in his witty style.   He takes the reader from where you are right now to where you could find yourself with the right motivation.   I would recommend this book to older teens on up.

Regretting You

 

Shirley J.                               Adult Fiction                                          Betrayal, Deception, Death

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover   365 pages

What do you do when you world is turned around one day when a traffic accident takes the one you love from you forever?    What do you think when your sibling and your spouse are killed in the same car when they are both supposed to be at work?   How do you feel when everything you thought you knew turns out that nothing is how you thought it was and no one no matter how dear to you they are can be trusted?   These questions and more come to light in this novel by Colleen Hoover.   The story is a good one, with believable storylines, well developed characters and realistic situations and mindsets.   The story introduces you to the lead characters as young adults so you are given plenty of set up for what happens.  This is a good book and I would recommend it to middle schoolers on up, though probably older teens will get into the story more.   You might want to bip two of the characters in the head for not coming out and being honest about what is going on, but, that is because you will get invested in the story.  

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

The Many Daughters of Afong May by Jamie Ford 384 pages 

Like millions of other readers, I fell in love with Jamie Ford’s writing with his first novel, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” What a wonderful story. Now Ford has written his most complex novel yet; one that I am not sure that I understand. 

At the root of this novel is a burgeoning science, epigenetics. It is “the transfer of the memories of trauma through generations, or inherited trauma.” I’m not sure that I fully understand it epigenetics, and therefore did not fully understand the novel. I read this book about two months ago and have been thinking about it ever since. I try to understand that if some of my trauma’s haven been handed down; but I’m not sure. 

Anyway, Daughters is told via seven narrators, all descendants of Afong Moy, who is a historical figure. She was the first known Chinese woman to step foot on American soil back in 1834. She traveled across the country as an oddity and was part of P. T. Barnum’s circus for a while.  

In real-life, it is not known of Afong had any descendants, but Ford gives us six. Each of his characters can trace a direct lineage to Afong. The timeframes for those six characters are 1942, 2045, 2014, 1927, 1892 and 2086. 

The most dominate narrators is Dorothy in 2045. She lives in Seattle with her husband, Louis, and daughter. Annabel. She is Washington State’s poet laureate. A tropical storm is battering the West Coast, and Seattle is in its eye. The winds are so strong, that she can feel her apartment building sway. Annabel is a creepy little girl, and I think she is the one suffering most from the inherited traumas of her ancestors. 

Plus, and I’m not sure if this is correct, Dorothy can time travel. It is she who goes back to those other times and sees/participates in the events. I think; I’m not sure. 

Thankfully, Ford only delved into the science once. It was rather dull. However, the transitions between narrators are seamless. I did enjoy the different characters’ plotlines. If I am ever asked if I recommend “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy,” I would say that it “is complicated, but I enjoyed it.” Therefore, “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy,” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

The Maid

The Maid by Nita Prose  304 pages

 "The Maid" by Nita Prose is the story of Molly who works as a maid at a fancy hotel.  She takes pride in her work (unlike her supervisor).  She stumbles upon a body in one of her regular rooms.  She has gone back to clean the bathroom since there was still someone in the room when she was tidying the first time.  She attempts to awaken the man, but finds that he is dead.  She calls to the front desk to get help, but because people frequently don't listen to her, it takes two calls to get someone to call an ambulance.  When the police arrive, Molly is placed in the hotel manager's office to await further instructions.  She is questioned at the police station, but doesn't tell all she knows because she is loyal to the wife of the man found dead.  Because of her personality and different abilities, people take advantage of her and she later winds up arrested for the man's murder.  

Despite Molly being such a different character, the reader will find it easy to like and root for her.  There are a few twists since the book is told from Molly's perspective and she doesn't know everything or suspect that anyone would take advantage of her despite this happening in the past.  Mystery lovers may find the end a bit of a cheat.