The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

 

Shirley J.                     Adult Fiction                         Lifelong Friends, Family, Church Members, Diners,                                                                                       Food, Tears of Sadness and Joy, Love

I love this book.  It has everything.  Humor, Betrayal, Heroes, Villains, Love, Hate, Ghosts, Preachers,  Revivals, Strippers, Fortune Tellers, Family and Friends.   The telling is so lovely it is like enjoying your favorite thing all the way through.  It is beautiful and beautifully told.  It is like relating the happenings of all your best friends with a few frenemies thrown in just to keep things interesting.   There is injustice but there is also justice sometimes time and space helps it all come together.   The ghosts are witty and lively, well dressed and sometimes drunk or high but always delightful.  It is a coming of age story for 3 best friends (dubbed the Supremes), a circle of life and love that will make the reader feel a part of the community.   It is a wonderful, excellent story and it continues in "The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues."  Trust me, you will want to read it, too.  : )   I recommend this one especially to lovers of soul, souls (ghosts), soul food (Earl's diner, home goings, weddings, holidays), and blessed soul music, to baby boomers and to all who remember their youth, their friends, who struggled and overcame adversity in its many guises.  I think adults will appreciate this story in so many ways and teens and young adults will glean a deeper understanding of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.  We were all young once.  ; )

How To Haunt a House

 

Shirley J.                       Juvenile Fiction                   How to Steps to Successfully Haunt a House

How to Haunt a House by Carolyn Crimi      32 pages

Three little ghosts, Moana, Groana and Shrieky,  are in class to learn how to successfully haunt houses/the inhabitants of the houses.  The first house the teacher takes them to is small but man do they scare that family and run them out of the house in fright!   Then they go to a second house.   The house is bigger, the family is a lot braver but with a little work, they terrorize them, too.   The real test comes when their teacher takes them to the third house - a house full of monsters!   Though Moana, Groana and Shrieky do their best to scare the wits out of them, it has no effect.   The monsters continue on as if nothing has occurred.   They ask their teacher what they can do to really scare these folks?    She suggests trying bats, rats and black wild cats.  They do but the mother monster loves the bats and starts feeding them and letting them hang on her arms.   The little girl is so over joyed with the rats she walks around like a mother possum with rats holding on to her arms, shoulder and she even puts one on her head! The little boy monster starts playing with the wild scary looking black cats as the Dad monster looks on and smiles.  What must they do?  Nothing is scaring this monster family!   The teacher tells them they must think outside the box.   They think and think then finally groana comes up with the perfect idea.  Since the monsters aren't afraid of scary things, maybe they are afraid of non-scary things like puppies, kittens, bunnies and butterflies!  They fill the monsters' house with all cuteness!  The throw glitter around and paint butterflies and all things adorable on the walls.   The monsters freak out and dash out of the house without looking back.   Now that is how you haunt a house - every kind of house!    Such a cute book.  For all who love Halloween, scary things and good stories that teach kids to be creative.  ; )   I recommend this one for kids up to 10 years old and all their loving family, babysitters, teachers, who love to share stories with them and everyone who loves juvenile literature.    

The Quiet Place

 Shirley J.                 Juvenile Fiction               Creating your own space out of cardboard boxes

The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart    44 pages

Isabel and her family move from Mexico to Michigan in the United States.   She misses her Aunt Lupita and all the fun they had.  She misses hearing Spanish being spoken, too.  She does learn to find things that make her happy in her new home, like snow and making snow angels and she loves helping her mother prepare cakes and desserts for birthday parties.  She also likes her new teacher, who doesn't speak Spanish but she has a big beautiful smile.   When her family gets a new refrigerator, she keeps the box to play with and makes a wonderful, special place all her own that is quiet and comforting.  It is big enough she brings her books inside it to sit and read.  She decorates it with her toys and she writes letters from inside it to her beloved Aunt Lupita.  Her Dad and her older brother, Chavo help her to decorate it.   It is her special silent place.   One day it rains really hard and her box gets wet and her lovely quiet place has to be thrown away (she forgot and left it outside), but it wasn't long after she was able to rebuild her beautiful quiet place.  She continued to help her mother with the cakes and sweet confections they made for birthday parties and Isabel would ask the people who's homes they went to if she could have one of the empty boxes a present had been in and was now being discarded.   She is delighted when she gets new boxes and soon her Dad and brother helped her join the new boxes together to make a huge villa.  They decorated it with Isabel and when it comes time for Isabel's birthday, she invites the children from the parties and invites them into her quiet place to show them how much fun it is to be inside and look out the windows her brother cut out of the boxes, to sing in the windows and play with toys and do puppet shows.   Her quiet place was not so quiet anymore,  but,  Isabel was happy.  Sweet book.  I recommend this to teachers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and babysitters for kids up to 10 years old and anyone who enjoys children's literature.

Flatshare

 

Shirley J.           Adult Fiction            Two Roommates Working Different Shifts Share One Bed

Flatshare by Beth O'Leary    352 pages

Tiffy is madly in love with her boyfriend so she is blindsided when he tells her he wants to break up because he is in love with someone else he has been seeing.    Looking for another place to live Tiffy cannot believe some of the places, real grotty and some of the people, waaaaaay out there.   Perusing the ads for anything in her price range sans serial killers/insects/mold in that order, she comes across an ad from a bloke named Leon who is a night shift worker and would like to rent his apartment out during the hours he is at work and on weekends.  This is a true blessing for Tiffy price-wise and as she works in an office during the day while Leon would be sleeping, when she gets off work Leon is on his way out the door to go to his job.  Sounds peculiar but it actually works out perfectly for them.   They don't see each other and become penpals writing each other notes regarding such things as whether to leave the toilet seat up or not?  When is trash day?  If there are leftovers in the fridge are they up for grabs?  Etc.   It is a great system.    Then, Tiffy wants to meet Leon.   Hilarity ensues although it has been pretty funny all along, then, a wrench is thrown in, Tiffy's ex's new girlfriend dumps him so he figures he will pick back up with Tiffy, so, he starts stalking her.  Imagine his surprise when he knocks on the door and Leon answers.  So funny.  Really good read.   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up, it is cute and funny, I think most anyone would like it.  

The Bat: Wings in the Night Sky

 Shirley J.                        Juvenile Non-Fiction                         Bats, Various Species, Habitats, Facts, etc.

The Bat: Wings in the Night by M. Brock Fenton   144 pages

One of the sweetest little creatures alive is the bat.   Some look like cuddly little mammals with big round soft eyes and some are tiny with fangs that bring to mind Dram Stoker and Bela Lugosi.  This book tells you many facts about the various varieties, not all use echolocation to "see" many species of bat have excellent vision.  Some have both senses in which case color/heat signatures come into play to interpret their surroundings.  The habitats of many different species is shown and their diets are discussed, yes, there really are such things as vampire bats.   The photography is phenomenal and shows many species up close.   Some have the signature top hornlike/chevron shape/cone, etc. on the heads.  Some have teeth or fangs some don't.  Some eat fruit, others, frogs or insects and some live on the blood of other mammals.   The anatomy of many species is shown and explained why and how it helps them in their specific environments.   A very good book on the topic of a misunderstood creature.  I recommend this to grade schoolers on up.

Product of the System

 

Shirley J.                        Adult Urban Fiction                           Playing Baby Daddies for Money

A Product of the System (Out for Self Series) by Ms. Michel Moore    384 pages

The best laid plans.   When Simone gets pregnant she sees a money making opportunity, she can easily manipulate two of the men she has been messing with.   One of the gangbangers is a good man at heart who wants to take care of her and "his" son.   He provides for her by buying groceries, paying her rent/bills, buying her clothes, furniture, jewelry, whatever she wants.   The other gangbanger she is playing is dangerous.  His temper is easily set off.   She gentles him with pampering and sensual pleasures which keeps him coming around and buying her clothes, jewelry, drinks, but if something sets him off he will beat her down and the baby, too, without a second thought nor any remorse.   Add to all that the two baby daddies are in rival gangs.  How Simeone managed to keep the two men from running into each other in her apartment ... oh wait, she didn't!   It is all about to explode and she and the baby are right in the center of it all!  Good story!  Readers won't be able to put this one down.    I recommend this one to mature teens (for content, language and violence) on up to seniors.   If you like an edge to your stories you will like this one.

The Mistletoe Promise

Shirley J.                Adult Fiction Holiday Romance            Christmas Season, Fake Relationships

The Mistletoe Promise (Part of the Mistletoe Series) by Richard Paul Evans    272 pages    

Excellent holiday story about Elise Dutton, who's husband had an affair with her best friend 3 years prior that left her crushed, alone and distrusting men to the point of not wanting another relationship.  It is November and she is eating her lunch alone (as usual) in the mall food court below her office.  She notices a man from her office building also eats there around the same time she does.  She doesn't know him but has seen him around.  One day he approaches her with a unique proposition.   He is a lawyer on one of the upper floors and he, too, is alone for the holidays.    He discusses how social engagements come up and family gatherings and he would like to have someone to attend all the holiday events with to keep people from trying to fix him up with someone and to stop them from all the questions that come up when you aren't part of a couple but without any strings attached and no actual coupling going on.   Elise is intrigued.  She has the same issues and hears him out.  He proposes for the next eight weeks - ending on December 24, that they pretend to be a couple.   He says there will be four rules: 

1.)  No personal questions.

2.)  No drama.

3.)  No telling anyone the truth about their NON-relationship.

4.)  The contract is void on Christmas Day.

At first Elise is floored by his offer, but, still intrigued.   She thinks, why not?   And she goes for it.  To all outside eyes they become an item.   They go to holiday dinners with family, they go to work sponsored holiday events, they attend fund raisers and every day he sends her an expensive present to her office.   Her co-workers are in awe, especially the office floozie who tends to give her a hard time.  At the holiday office party this floozie comes on like gangbusters to the fake boyfriend, who turns out to be a very successful partner in the law firm and the town's most eligible bachelor.  The story is so fun and so real, the reader gets the feeling you are right there with them.  I highly recommend this fun romp through the realities of navigating the holidays with a no-strings companion to keep the nosies off your back.  Such a great story! ; )     I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up to senior citizens.   If you love Christmas stories and Christmas love stories this one is right up your Hallmark alley!  

 

Miracle Creek

 

Shirley J.        Adult Fiction Suspense/Murder Mystery          Autism,  Experimental Treatment, Tragedy    

Miracle Creek: A Novel by Angie Kim      368 pages    

The parent of an autistic child finds an experimental treatment that is said to be a miracle cure for multiple conditions and one of those is autism.    A single mother beside herself dealing with the outbursts of her autistic son (her husband left them because he couldn't deal with it) is introduced to an experimental treatment done in a hyperbaric chamber that claims to be a godsend in calming down the erratic melt downs autistic patients (and by proxy their caretakers) endure.    It is a murder mystery that will have your blood pumping from the suspense.   It is a white knuckle ride with the Mother going through resentment, hating her life and her son for the loss of her marriage.     Omgosh!  And the treatment is actually real and happening in Virginia.  Good story and first novel by Angie Kim.   It is really intense so I recommend this one for mature teens but more likely adults on up.

Pie

Shirley J.                    Adult Fiction                                    Pie baking, a secret recipe,  a rescued cat

Pie by Sarah Weeks     192 pages

A sweet story about Alice, who's Aunt Polly has the most amazing pie crust recipe that everybody in their town of Ipswitch, and world-wide, would do just about anything to get ahold of.   Aunt Polly has been offered loads of money for her recipe but always just laughs it off and continues to keep it a secret because folks coming from all over the world to visit her bakery and purchase her sensational pies.   Aunt Polly lives a simple life making the best pies in town and taking care of the huge (plump), white, cantankerous stray cat she took in and named Lardo, and doting on her niece, Alice.   Aunt Polly goes to bed not feeling well one night and passes away in her sleep.   Come to find out she has a will and has left her world famous secret recipe to Lardo and Lardo to Alice.   Her bakery, she leaves to the town in care of the Mayor for tourist revenue.   The family is fit to be tied!  Whaaaaaatttttttt?    A good story of achieving the greater good even when not everyone agrees.   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up to senior citizens.   Well worth the smiles.

Happily Ever After

Shirley J.                    Adult Fiction                     BFFs in Business Together, Wedding Planners

Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts  (Book 4 in the Bride Quartet series)  368 pages

Vows, a wedding planning company owned by best friends, is the ultimate all things wedding business to go to.   They have a fabulous venue to offer brides and grooms as it is a huge mansion with adjoining property including a lagoon, lush gardens, fabulous architecture, gorgeous chandeliers with fantastic window views of the landscape and property that can be transformed into any bride's wish and just so happens to be owned by one of the ladies who is the "face/spokesperson" for the company and the concierge person helping with all details, frantic calls from brides, unruly guests, last minute emergencies (she keeps a sewing kit, tape, etc. on her at all times during the ceremonies).   Another of the friends/partners is a magnificent baker who can make brides' wedding cake dreams a reality, another does the floral arrangements with a skilled eye to match the perfect bouquet, table arrangements and venue decorations for that perfect match of color and design.  Together they offer the ultimate package and are everything any bride could want.  The ladies also have their own romances going on along with engagements and weddings of their own to be planned.   I recommend this book to all who love romance, to all who are thrilled at the thought of weddings and all the various aspects - you will pick up so many ideas here and definitely all fans of Nora Roberts.   I think this would make an excellent film as well.  The imagery here is almost like savoring a piece of the best wedding cake you have ever tasted.  : )   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up to seniors.    

"The London Seance Society" by Sarah Penner

 

The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner  352 pp

The London Seance Society is the story of two sisters.  Once is alive and one is dead.  Lenna has apprenticed herself to medium Vaudeline D'Allaire in hopes of finding out what happened to her sister who she believes was murdered.  Her sister, Evie, believed in ghosts and psychics and had been Vaudeline's apprentice before she died.  Vaudeline is well known among people looking for resolutions to murders that the police cannot solve.  Vaudeline has been sent to Paris for her protection because she believes the group is defrauding people that hire them. Mr. Morley, the vice president of the Department of Spiritualism at the London Seance Society (an all male group) calls her back to try to solve the murder of Mr. Wolckman who died the same night as Lenna's sister Evie.  Lenna comes along in case Vaudeline needs help and finds out that her sister was more embroiled in the mystery than she originally thought.

I enjoyed the story, but it did have a slow start.  I really liked Sarah Penner's previous story The Lost Apothecary.  It may have been easier for me to empathize with a modern person since that story went back and forth between the past and the present.  Both stories involve some nod to modern day feminism by noting the problems women had with being respected in the past.  I want to give this 3.5 stars, but since I cannot.  I will have to err on the side of three.

The Girl Least Likely

 Shirley J.                   Adult Fiction Romance                      Stand-up Comics,  Double-life   

The Girl Least Likely by Katy Loutzenhiser    352 pages     

Highschool student, Gretchen, can't seem to get it right.   She and her best friend and secret crush, Samuel, have been friends for years, so why has Sam never made a pass at her?  Is it the way she dresses?   Should she apply make-up?   Do something with her straw-like hair?   What gives?  Yeah, they are friends but Sam wouldn't mind becoming friends with benefits.  Then, Sam starts hanging out with another girl he meets through his jock teammates.  Devastated, Gretchen confides in her sister and cousin who are her go tos any time it isn't Sam she is going to.   They console her and talk her into going out with them to a comedy club/bar.  Gretchen is a junior in high, her sister is in college and her cousin is her older sister's age.  When Gretchen brings this fact up that she is not 21 and can't get in to the Comedy Club, the two older girls come up with a fake i.d. and away they all go.   Turns out to be amateur night and someone put her name on the roster for new comics to go up and do 5 minutes.   At least it is the name on her fake i.d.  after the terror goes away as the audience cheers "her name" her sister and cousin assure her she has always been funny and is always making the family and her friends laugh.   The adrinaline starts pumping and barring flight she opts for fight and desperately tries to give the audience what they are screaming for.  Turns out she gets a few laughs just by talking about her life and her mad unrequited love for her bestie Samuel.   Gretchen gains confidence.   All of a sudden the girl least likely to do anything cool or go anywhere beyond her own neighborhood is wearing leather pants, makeup with glasses to look more like the fake id.  and is getting such a rush from performing live.   The beast unleashed is not going back into the cage.   She continues coming back on amateur nights to get back on stage.   She meets other comics who think she is Sabrina and 23 like the fake i.d. says.   Her parents don't worry about her because she is a good quiet girl who gets all As in school and has never caused any problems.   Suddenly she is lying to her parents, coming in all hours after the clubs close (her parents go to bed not even thinking she isn't in her room or at whichever school friend's house she told them she was going to.  Such a good girl.  The girl least likely to be a problem.   Good story.  Lots of tips on doing stand-up, too.   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up.   

The Operator

 Shirley J.         Adult Fiction         1950s Wooster, Ohio,  telephone operators listening in, small towns

Snoopy telephone operator, Vivian, listens in to the calls she places.   She prides herself on saying to anyone who will listen, "I know people."   ie. She is intuitive or so she says.   The word busybody comes to mind.   She finds out information on the people in town then spreads "truths" people might prefer to keep to themselves.   Of course Bell doesn't allow the operators to listen in to calls.   They actually forbid it, but, when no one is paying attention and the work day has grown long and boring, why not?    And all the operators do it.  Maybe not as frequently as Vivian, but, Vivian sees herself as watching out for her community by keeping an ear on what is going on.   It helps her to "know" people.   Until the one time she hears something shocking.  It had to happen but oh what comes of it makes for juicy reading!   I recommend this one to mature teens on up.    A lovely trip back in time and a vindicating you'll get yours tale.    

V Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars

 Shirley J.                    Adult Fiction Paranormal                 Millenia old virus, vampires, werewolves

V Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars by Jonathan Mayberry     462 pages

Interesting concept.   The story is told by many writers whose stories all come together and overlap one another to make a cohesive total story as told through the chronicles of the times.   The essential story is that a scientific expedition exploring the ice in Antarctica frees a millenia old virus that overtakes its human host modifying the hosts "junk" DNA turning people into creatures everyone assumed were merely myths but suddenly terrifyingly are real and walking among society.   The different writers bring their own takes on what is happening just as different perspectives of witnesses can tell very different details but come back to the main event at hand.   Really well done with a delicious Orson Welles meets "Trueblood" feel.   I recommend this one to all lovers of paranormal storylines, scifiers who like a little monster in the mix now and then, all fans of Charlaine Harris's characters -you will sense a kinship here.  Middle schoolers on up.   This seems like a big thick book, but, the story(ies) will grip you so you won't notice how fast the pages are turning.

One Last Stop

 Shirley J.             Adult Fiction Romance                    Subways, Time warps, punk rock 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston    432 Pages

Whoa!  Interesting story.   A cynical girl moves to New York City sort of looking for all the great things New York City promises but actually not believing a word of it and putting b.s. on her label for New York until...she meets the woman of her dreams she didn't even realize she had on the subway.   The gal is on the same car, same seat every day, funny same time that August rides, even sometimes late at night or early in the morning, even different trains she is always there.   Finally after ogling her for what seemed eons, August starts broaching conversation.  It blossoms into a love story between August and punk-rocker subway rider, Jane.  Funny, her outfit looks so authentic not like wanna be punkers.   So authentic in fact, Jane still listens to cassettes!  Whaaaat???   Must be a vintage things or is it?   The two gals start doing experiments and it turns out no matter where Jane gets off the subway, the next thing you know she is right back on.   What is up with the universe?   A good story with magical twists and turns.  I would recommend this one to middle schoolers on up.

What She Knew

 

Shirley J.                   Adult Fiction                                          Child Abduction        

What She Knew: A Novel by Gilly MacMillan    596 pages

How many times have we walked with a child only for the little one to want to run ahead of us whether we are willing or not?   That happens to the mother in this story.  Out for a day of fun with her 8 year old son.  He, Ben, asks if he can run ahead?   Its a normal Sunday, so, sure.  She lets him, but, when she catches up and is looking for him, she believes him to be hiding from her ready to jump out and scare her when he can.  But, Ben disappears and his Mom, Rachel goes out of her mind when she realizes he really is gone.  The terror too terrible to even think about happens.   Police and search parties look for him.   Days pass, Rachel's newly remarried ex-husband and her "perfect" sister seem to blame her for not watching him better.   When she flubs a media event where she is supposed to read aloud a written script the police have given her to try to appeal to the abductor, Rachel ad libs her own remarks threatening the killer then smiling on camera as she thinks she came off as a strong person but instead looks guilty herself and according to the police may have jeopardized her son's safety.  Things get worse, the public turns against her seeing her as a suspect - she was the last person to see Ben.   Social media starts attacking her as a liar and a murderer though the police and her sister beg her not to go on social media.  Rachel can't help but think some unknown monster has stolen her son from her, but, the longer he is gone, she begins to wonder about everyone she knows.   This is a real nail biter from start to finish and you will see that everyone in the book has the potential to have done the deed.   The plot twist is really well done.   It will make you say, "Wow!"   Again, the sheer emotion involved here I would recommend this one for adults, though, it is a cautionary tale.  Discretion should be used if younger readers want to attempt this one.

The Secrets She Keeps

 

Shirley J.             Adult Fiction  Murder, Mystery, Suspense             Missing Babies, Abduction, Lies and Mental Illness    

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham    496 pages

Oh my gosh! Yikes!   This story will tear at your heart!  I can't stop saying OMgosh!  Because this story will haunt you, but the writing is such perfection that you will be pulled along without wanting to let it go until the end.   There is mystery, there is suspense, and there is awful murder happening that will literally bring tears to your eyes for the wrongness of it.   So despicable and yet, the murderer bears no guilt, no remorse really other than through the murders the killer simply lost what it wanted to possess.  Michael Robotham is an amazing writer who not only puts words on a page but instills them with the deepest innermost torment and emotion for all involved.   It is the most tragic book I have read in I don't know when but it is also one of the best books I have read in this genre.  Kudos to Michael Robotham for an astoundingly good heart ripping tale.    One character will do anything to have the life she wants even if she has to steal the life of someone else to do it.    You won't want to put this one down it is that good if grim at times.    Due to the nature of what transpires, I recommend this one to adults.  The images it paints in one's mind are startling and unforgettable.   It is a lot to take in.   Let's let the younger set keep gentler thoughts as long as they can.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Shirley J.      Adult Non-Fiction Science      Hawking's take on God, Black Holes, Survival Odds

Stephen Hawking explores big topics with explanations that are easy to understand while based on his understanding of them from a scientist's point of view.   I always enjoy Stephen Hawking's books.  A brilliant man who opened Science and Quantum Physics to the layman.  He explains String Theory, everything you want to know about Black Holes, his search to prove the existence of God, his summation of the likelihood of whether or not a meteor will hit the earth and whether or not humans will continue to survive on earth and/or  should humankind should seek to colonize other planets and if so which ones?   Such a vast accumulation of mighty knowledge to be found here and lofty stuff made totally understandable.   What's not to love?   I recommend this to everyone who seeks answers to what the heck is going on in the universe?   Definitely middle schoolers on up to senior citizens and certainly for science lovers even younger.  

October 2022 Team Totals

 

In October two people read 23 books with a total of 6304 pages.  Shirley read most of them with 17 books and 4846 pages.  Great job reading!

September 2022 Team Totals

 

In September, three people read 27 books with a total of 7835 pages.  Shirley read the most with 21 books and 5691 pages.  Keep on reading!

In a Holidaze

 Shirley J.     Adult Fiction Romance            Old Friends & Family gathering together each Christmas

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren    336 pages

This was such an enjoyable read it really catches you up in the spirit of the holidays, young love and how friends can be family as much as your biological kin.     Friends and lovers from college continue spending every Christmas together even after partners switch up, marry, divorce but remain friends still, have children who grow up, everyone feeling it is the best possible answer to the holidays.  No matter what happens in their lives throughout the years, the camaraderie  never fails.  The adults assume the two youngest kids will grow up and marry, but as Blaise Pascal said, "The heart has reasons that reason doesn't understand."    While one of the two sort of sees that happening, the other doesn't and has eyes only for the "other" "older" sibling.   Quirky, fun story with a few tears along the way.  Christina Lauren knows her stuff and tells an excellent Christmas story with lots of references baby boomers will get and enjoy.  I recommend this one to Middle Schoolers on up.  It is an enjoyable read.

The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act

 Shirley J.         Adult Non-Fiction Biography        Julia Child, French Cooking, her life here and abroad   The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'Homme   336 pages

Wonderful sharing of the life of Julia Child and her life's adventures by her grand-nephew, Alex Prud'homme.   Many stories not heard before about Alex's beloved aunt and also insight into the life of Julia's husband, Paul Child and their friends, families and life in America and abroad.   A rich telling of many details behind the scene on "The French Chef," her "French Sister" and co-author of "Mastering French Cooking," Simone "Simca" Beck who despite a tumultuous friendship remained friends to the end of their lives.   So much information not discussed previously, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I recommend this one to all fans of the woman who had the cojones to be the first woman to attend Le Cordon Bleu in France and who also showed the public it is o.k. to make mistakes when cooking then also taught the public how to fix any mistakes made.   A true warrior and hero in our time.  I recommend this book to all who love the woman behind the legend and all lovers of "cookery" as she termed her skill as well as French culture and cooking.    Excellent book.

  

Be Careful What You Pray For

 

Shirley J.                  Urban Fiction                            Philanderers, Preachers, Ambition

Be Careful What You Pray For by Kimberla Lawson Roby     288 pages

Another good book in the Reverend Curtis Black series.   This book deals with his oldest daughter, Alicia, and her second marriage to another preacher, only this time, she snagged a philanderer, not a two-timer but a 3 or 4 timer as he juggles his second wife (there is gossip as to his role in his first wife's death), Alicia, his much older married mistress - a member of the church married to a very rich man whose money she plays fast and loose with, a former prostitute who this reverend who used to pimp in his days before he put on the collar had in his stable and now wants to erase, and a new woman he happened to meet in an airport.   How he keeps them all straight while his ambition grows for a bigger, better lifestyle and all the accompanying power, prestige and bling is wild.   I recommend this book to all fans of Urban Fiction, stories about families, friends. the people behind the facades they put on, mixed with greed, temptation/affairs, life stripped down to reality.  Given many of the issues dealt with in the story, I recommend this one for adults.

Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge

Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge  304 pp

Tabitha is good with her hands and as a Rosie the Riveter back home in Detroit, Michigan.  After the war ended, she found herself at loose ends after she had to give up her job to the returning men.  After her Grandmother dies, she breaks up with her fiance and goes to Paris to stay with her Grandfather and her "Oncle" Rafe.  One of her  neighbors is none other than Julia Child who is having a crisis because her mayonnaise recipe is not working!  When Julia and Tabitha return from the market one day, Julia's maid is screaming because she found a body when she went to take out the trash.  Tabitha recognizes the body and Julia encourages her to find out more information, but the police detective discourages her.  Tabitha continues her snooping and finds herself in peril.  First when a car almost runs her down on her bicycle and in the end at the theatre where she is filling in for the dead coat check girl. In the end, she solves the mystery.

The story was creative and did not overuse Julia Child as a character.  Despite not being a good cook, Tabitha is an entertaining character.  I enjoyed the story, but didn't care for the espionage element.  I have already recommended the book to a fellow mystery lover.

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

 Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones  464 pp

"Don't Fear the Reaper" continues the story of Jennifer "Jade" Daniels who readers met in "My Heart is a Chainsaw," four years later. She reunites with her friend Letha who is now married to a deputy sheriff (Banner) and has a small child that she named after final girls in horror films.  In fact, in the past four years, Letha has become just as much of an expert on slasher films as Jade/Jennifer is.  A blizzard is happening, a real serial killer is on the loose, and several high school students are dead with a new "final girl" (Cinnamon).  The knowledge of slasher films becomes imperative for survival from all involved in the confrontations that ensue.  Most chapters in the book are the names of horror films.  

I enjoyed the book because I like horror films and really loved slasher films when I was growing up.  It is definitely for a specific audience because there are a lot of pop culture references that might not hold up for someone reading this in the future. I look forward to the conclusion of the trilogy.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

 How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix  400 pp.

Louise does not get along with her brother.  She feels like he is given everything despite not trying while she has had to work for everything.  When he calls her to tell her that their parents have died in an automobile crash, she has to leave her 5 year old daughter and go back home to Charleston to help take care of things. When she arrives at her parents' home, she finds that the attic drop down door has been boarded up.  While in the house, weird things start to happen: the TV turns itself back on again, dolls from her mother's collection change position, and strange noises begin.  When her brother turns up after a man who claims he is there to clean out the house, she is very angry that he didn't wait for her to take care of anything before she got back.  He also says he had their parents cremated and plans to scatter their ashes on the beach.  Louise doesn't think this is right.  She send the man who wants to clean out the house away and takes the papers about the arrangements he's made and takes off.  She goes to see other family who live in the area who empathize with her.  Eventually, the siblings wind up back at the house to find that everything is not quite right (or ready to go on the market).  In the meantime, Louise's child Poppy is having mental health and health issues while she is staying with her father's family.  In the end, everything comes to a crazy conclusion.

The book is set up with the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief as section headings which frame the story appropriately to it's parts.  I personally enjoyed the story. Grady Hendrix did an excellent job of framing everything well and gave a little humor to his horror as always. I know that it is not for everyone and if you have a fear of puppets or dolls, this is not the story for you.