The Book Review Club (December 2021)

Welcome to the December 2021 edition of The Book Review Club. It's that time of year when we're rushing around, buying gifts and wrapping gifts and writing cards and baking and, and and! Here's our holiday tip: Books make the best gifts. For everyone on your list. While you're at it, buy one for yourself. Then grab a tea/coffee/hot chocolate, a cookie and some quiet reading time. Below my post are links to more book reviews. Terrific gift suggestions. Enjoy!

TANGLED UP IN LUCK (MG, mystery)

by Merrill Wyatt 

If I had to choose one word to describe this humorous middle-grade mystery, I'd choose "fun."

Much to their chagrin, seventh-graders Sloane Osburn (popular volleyball star) and Amelia Miller-Poe (melodramatic misfit) are partnered up for a class project. Their task? To find the jewels that went missing in their town of Wauseon, Ohio way back in 1887. We're talking graveyards, hidden compartments, family secrets. There is serendipity (great luck) and zemblanity (horrible luck). A mysterious someone is also after the jewels. This someone is following the girls and the centuries-old clues. Who will get there first? Fun! Fun! Fun!

TANGLED UP IN LOVE is a twisty-turny mystery with well-rounded characters (my favorite is Amelia) and a satisfying ending. Secondary characters, such as Sloane's grandmothers, provide great comic relief. A narrator ups the tension with ominous pronouncements. The girls learn about friendship and family and standing up for yourself and standing up against bullies. And they learn that luck isn't really all that important. It's "how you choose to live your life around that luck" that counts.

And hurray! There will be a sequel. Also, I'm not the only one who loved this book. Kirkus gave it a starred review: "Funny, cheering, and narratively fulfilling."

P.S. I will attempt to use the word "zemblanity" in a sentence daily.

(Dear FCC: bought for Kindle)

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MIDDLE GRADE FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Phyllis Wheeler: THE STRANGEWORLDS TRAVEL AGENCY by LD Lapinski (fantasy)                 

ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Jenn Jilks: mysteries by three different female authors (mystery)

Linda McLaughlin: THE LIEUTENANT'S NURSE by Sarah Ackerman (historical)

Lucy Sartain: STATE OF TERROR by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton (thriller) 

Patti Abbott: OH, WILLIAM by Elizabeth Strout (literary)

Ray Potthoff: LIGHTNING STRIKE by William Kent Krueger (mystery)

Sarah Laurence: THE WORLD THAT WE KNEW by Alice Hoffman (historical, magical realism)

NONFICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Lucy Sartain: I'LL TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS NOW by Stephanie Grisham (memoir)

Lucy Sartain:  THE BOYS by Ron and Clint Howard (memoir)

Margy Lutz: FOR JOSHUA: AN OJIBWE FATHER TEACHES HIS SON by Richard Wagamese (memoir)

Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

The Book Review Club (September 2019)

And just like that, summer is over! Welcome to the September 2019 edition of The Book Review Club. We have reviews of a variety of books.  You know our goal: topple your to-be-read pile! Interestingly, there are more reviews of nonfiction books than usual. Enjoy!

THE STRANGERS
(GREYSTONE SECRETS #1) 
by Margaret Peterson Haddix 
(middle grade, sci fi, mystery)

The Strangers is, hands down, one of the best middle-grade mysteries I've read in a while.

The Greystone siblings (Chess--12 yrs, Emma--10 yrs and Finn--8 yrs) all get along and live happily with their mother in Ohio. Until the day they come home from school to find their mother distraught over a news story. Three siblings in Arizona with the same names, ages and birthdates as the Greystone kids have been kidnapped. WEIRD. The next day their mom goes on a business trip,  but leaves behind her cell phone, laptop and a coded letter for her children. WEIRDER. Chess, Emma, Finn and their new friend, Natalie, take a wrong turn in the Greystone basement and find themselves in an alternate universe. WEIRDEST!

Chapters are told in alternating voices, which I love. Each sibling has a distinct voice and a distinct take on how to interpret clues and find their mother. It warms the heart to see how these kids work together, appreciating each other's strengths. The Strangers offers twists and turns and switchbacks and red herrings and clues galore. Which I also love. And...the book ends on a cliffhanger. Which I normally don't love, but do appreciate this time. The story is so dense and intense I don't think it could've been tied up properly in one book. Of course, now I'm waiting impatiently for The Deceivers (Greystone Secrets #2), which comes out in about a year!

On a personal note, I had a hard time tying up the middle-grade mystery I'm working on. I may just take a page out of Margaret Peterson Haddix's book (ha, ha!) and leave a couple of loose ends. I'll decide for sure after plowing through this next revision.

(Dear FCC: I borrowed The Strangers from my local library. Then, our very cute goldendoodle puppy, Sadie, developed a taste for the book and chewed up a corner. I ended up buying a new copy for the library and keeping the munched-on version for myself. )  

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

 Jody Feldman: THE ASSASSINATION OF BRANGWAIN SPURGE
                          by MT Anderson & Eugene Yelchin (MG, fantasy)

Phyllis Wheeler: THE BOOK OF THE KING by Jerry B Jenkins & Chris Fabry (MG, fantasy)

Sarah Laurence: ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS by Francesca Zappia (YA, fiction/hybrid graphic)


ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Jenn Jilks of Cottage Country: UNDER COLD STONE by Vicki Delaney (mystery)


NONFICTION REVIEWS

Linda McLaughlin: THE LITTLE BOOK OF TOURISTS IN ICELAND by Alda Sigmundsdottir
                                THE LITTLE BOOK OF ICELANDIC by Alda Sigmundsdottir (travel)

Lucy Sartain of Ranting and Raving:MY FRIEND ANNA by Rachel DeLoache Williams (memoir)

Margy Lutz: OUT OF THE SILENCE by Eduardo Straugh & Mireya Soriano (memoir)

Patti Abbott:  WHAT THE EYES DON'T SEE by Mona Hanna-Attisha

Ray Potthoff: A PASSIONFRUIT COOKBOOK by Patrick Jesse Pons-Worley
                       (cookbook with some history)

Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

The Book Review Club (March 2019)

Welcome to the March 2019 edition of The Book Review Club! There's a lot going on in March (which was the first month of the year until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1572): International Women's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Daylight Savings Time, Vernal/Spring Equinox, International Fanny Pack Day (I'm not kidding!), and more. And, of course, there's our book review club!

MONKEY JUSTICE
by Patricia Abbott  (short stories, mystery, adult)

You know how one day you wake up and think, wow, I'm craving chocolate or doughnuts or whatever your particular poison? For me, it's short stories (and black licorice). A couple of weeks ago, I was reading merrily along when I suddenly realized it'd been too long since I'd dived into a book of short stories. Luckily, this was about the same time I learned our very own Patricia Abbott had Monkey Justice, a book of mystery short stories, coming out on March 20. The rest, as they say, is history.

I knew exactly what I was getting into when I requested an ARC of Monkey Justice. I've read Patti Abbott's two mystery novels: Concrete Angel (nominated for the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award) and Shot in Detroit (nominated for an Anthony Award and an Edgar Award). Her book of short stories, I Bring Sorrow and Other Stories of Transgressions, got starred reviews from Publisher Weekly and Library Journal.

Patricia Abbott is a prolific short story writer, having written over 150 of them! She is a master of this genre.

Monkey Justice is a collection of twenty-three short stories of mystery and suspense that explore the darker, noir side of human life. Each story is very different from the next: After a house robber breaks his leg, he and his wife find a unique way to end their payments to a loan shark. An elderly man tries to protect his new young neighbor from her abusive boyfriend. A 12-year-old boy enlists the help of his best friend to dispose of the body after his mother kills her unwanted boyfriend. That's just a little sampling. The ending always packs a punch. Always. The writing is terrific. The characters are well developed. To give you a sense of what I'm talking about, here's an excerpt from "Like a Hawk Rising": "She was both the deer caught frozen in the headlights and the Ford pickup speeding wildly toward the blinded animal. You never knew which Marsha you'd find on the road. But letting her get the upper hand too often made him the deer."  See what I mean? Terrific!

If you'd like to learn a little more about the author, here is an interview in Kirkus Reviews.

And here is a recent article by Patricia Abbott about her mystery reading habits.


And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Jody Feldman: THE PARKER INHERITANCE by Varian Johnson (MG, mystery)

Phyllis Wheeler: LOUISIANA'S WAY HOME by Kate DiCamilla (MG, contemporary)


ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Patti Abbott:  THE VEILED ONE by Ruth Rendell (mystery)

Sarah Laurence: OUR HOMESICK SONG by Emma Hooper (literary)

Scott Parker: FARADAY: THE IRON HORSE by James Reasoner (western)

Tanya Sutton: THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (psychological thriller)



NONFICTION REVIEWS

Linda McLaughlin: A HOPE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE SEA: ONE REFUGEE'S
                                INCREDIBLE STORY OF LOVE, LOSS, AND SURVIVAL
                                by Melissa Fleming (adult and YA appropriate, biography)

Margy Lutz: 5 ACRES AND A DREAM by Leigh Tate (memoir)

Ray Potthoff: HUNTING TRIPS OF THE RANCHERMAN and WILDERNESS HUNTING
                       by Theodore Roosevelt (memoir)

Stacy of the Cat's Meow: HUNGER by Roxane Gay (memoir)



Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

The Book Review Club (June 2018)

Welcome to the June 2018 edition of The Book Review Club. We'll be taking a two-month summer hiatus to read and play and generally enjoy life. We'll return in September. Today we bring you more reviews of books we've enjoyed in the hopes of adding to your To-Be-Read pile. Please scroll down after my review where you'll find everyone's links. We wish you a terrific summer!

THREE TIMES LUCKY
by Sheila Turnage 
(middle grade, mystery)

I'm a little late to the "Mo and Dale" (the BFF 6th grade detectives in THREE TIMES LUCKY) party. While I was reading my way through my TBR pile, this gem of a mystery was busy becoming a Newbery Honor and a NY Times Bestseller!

From the back cover: Meet Mo LoBeau: natural-born detective. Mo's summer is looking good. But that's before the murder, the kidnapping, the car crash, and the hurricane. If ever there was a time for Mo to put her detective skills to work, this is it. Good thing Mo's always been lucky.
There's lots to ❤️ about this quirky, upbeat, Southern-flavored mystery.  


The characters are odd and interesting and layered. Moses "Mo" LoBeau is outspoken and loyal. Her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson, III, is the best of best friends, a bit of a worrywart and more of a risk taker than Mo. Miss Lana, the only mother Mo has ever known, dons a variety of wigs and outfits and constantly changes the theme of the cafe she runs with the Colonel. The Colonel lost his memory years ago and has a secret past. Then, add in a host of off-the-wall Tupelo Landing residents.

Besides solving the mystery both Mo and Dale deal with personal issues. Eleven years ago, Mo floated into Tupelo Landing during a hurricane. She wants to find her mother and sends messages in bottles up the creek. Dale's dad is an abusive alcoholic.

And, and, and....there's an actual murder. Two, in fact!

If  I still haven't convinced you to pick up THREE TIMES LUCKY for your classroom, your library, your 10+ year-old kids who need to lose themselves in a book this summer...how about this quotation from Newsday:

"An irresistible narrator - a literary descendant of Scout Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird."

(Dear FCC: Bought. And I plan to buy the other books in the series, including THE LAW OF FINDER KEEPERS, which comes out in September. )

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MIDDLE GRADE REVIEWS

Phyllis Wheeler: THE JOLLY REGINA by Kara LaReau 
                            THE UNCANNY EXPRESS by Kara LaReau


ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Jenn Jilks of Cottage Country: EXCESSIVE FORCE by Alok Mukherjee (adult, memoir)

Jenn Jilks of Cottage Country: MADE FOR WALKING by Andy Peake (history of the boot)

Linda McLaughlin: DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James (romance)

Patti Abbott:  THAT KIND OF MOTHER by Rumaan Alam

Ray Potthoff: COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (historical)

Stacy of the Cat's Meow: THE FEMALE PERSUASION by Meg Wolitzer (literary)

ADULT NONFICTION REVIEW

Lucy Sartain of Ranting and Raving: MY PRIDE AND JOY by Adamson (memoir)

Margy Lutz: THE GOLDEN SPRUCE by John Vaillant (biography)

Sarah Laurence: HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY by Roxane Gay (memoir)




Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

The Book Review Club (February 2017)

Welcome to the first 2017 meeting of The Book Review Club. You're in for a fantastic February treat as my critique partner, Kelly Hayes, is in charge of the review on my blog this month. Here's my rule of thumb: If Kelly recommends it, I read it!

THE ICE BENEATH HER 
by Camilla Grebe (psychological thriller, Scandinavian)

I don't know about you, but lately I can't seem to get enough of Scandinavian crime novels. There's just something about the moody atmosphere, not quite Noir, which can oftentimes be too dark, and not the sanitized commerciality of a lot of American crime fiction. There's a low-key authenticity to most Scandinavian crime fiction that juxtaposes nicely with its more fantastic elements, making it feel universal and yet somehow exotic.

THE ICE BENEATH HER by Camilla Grebe is one such crime novel. It takes place in Stockholm, Sweden where a woman's body is found brutally beheaded in the home of Jesper Orre, the controversial CEO of a huge fashion chain. Of course, Orre is the main suspect, but seems to have disappeared into thin air, leaving his cell phone and wallet at home. And then there are the gruesome similarities between this case and an unsolved one from ten years before where a man was beheaded in the same way.

We get the story from three different perspectives: Peter Lindgren, one of the detectives investigating the case, Hanne Lagerlind-Schon, a criminal profiler who has had a past relationship with Peter, and Emma Bohman, a young sales clerk who worked for Jesper Orre's company and had a secret affair with him.

For the first half of the book, the plot kind of takes a backseat to the three main characters, as we live inside their heads and see the story through their eyes. There's Peter with his crippling fear of commitment. Hanne has early onset Alzheimer's which threatens her brilliant work as a profiler. And then there's Emma whose story takes place months before the murder. Her naivete and abusive background make her the ultimate target for a playboy like Jesper.

Emma is the character that really stood out for me. There's something so sadly inevitable about the tragic chain of events in Emma's life and her inability to pull herself out of the mire that got to me emotionally. And kept me turning pages.

But nothing in this book is as it seems. Just when you think you'e figured it out, it changes. And even if you do deduce who did it, it doesn't really matter because there's still plenty more tension to come, and plenty more to discover.

And that, I think, is the key to the success of Scandinavian crime fiction. It doesn't necessarily rely on plot devices to keep you reading. The characters often seem so real, you want to know what happens to them even after then mystery is solved.


(Dear FCC: I forgot to ask Kelly where she got her copy of this book. But if I were a betting woman, I'd bet her local library.)  

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Jody Feldman: COSMIC by Frank Cottrell Boyce (middle grade)
                         This review examines a medley of humorous middle-grade novels.

Sarah Laurence: THE LOOSE ENDS LIST by Carrie Firestone (contemporary YA)

Stacy Nyikos: SPARE AND FOUND PARTS by Sarah Maria Griffin (horror YA)

Stacy of the Cat's Meow: MOSQUITOLAND by David Arnold (contemporary YA)



ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Alyssa Goodnight: AGATHA RAISIN AND THE QUICHE OF DEATH by M.C. Beaton 
                               (cozy mystery)

Ellen Booraem: HOMEGOING by Yaa Gyasi (historical, literary)

Jenn Jilks of Cottage Country: NEW PLANET, NEW WORLD by Ian Prattis (futuristic, time travel)

Linda McLaughlin: IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE by Sinclair Lewis (Classic Fiction)

Patti Abbott:  TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis (western)

Tanya Sutton: SECURITY by Gina Wohlsdorf (horror, thriller)


NONFICTION REVIEW

Jenn Jilks: WOMAN INCOGNITO: TRANSGENDER WITHOUT TRANSITION
                   by Transcender Lee (autobiography)

Lucy Sartain of Ranting and Raving: THE BIOGRAPHY OF NATALIE WOOD by Suzanne Finstad

Ray Potthoff: I COULD TELL YOU STORIES: SOJOURNS IN THE LAND OF MEMORY
                       by Patricia Hampl (memoir)

Scott Parker: THE PULP JUNGLE by Frank Gruber (autobiography)

Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

The Book Review Club (June 2015)

We're meeting late this month. I was off galavanting in Canada, hanging out with fun family and friends, attending my high school reunion and various The Disappearance of Emily H.-related activities. But I'm back home and settled and ready to talk books. We have reviews of quite a variety of books today. All to get you ready for summer. And, before I forget, we're taking July and August off. The Book Review Club will resume September 2. 

KETCHUP CLOUDS 
by Annabel Pitcher (mystery, young adult)

Many people have sung the praises of Ketchup Clouds. It got starred reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. It won the 2013 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick and won the 2014 Edgar Allen Poe Award. It may well have been nominated for and won other awards, but those are the ones I know about.

Listen to this brilliant premise: A fifteen-old-year British girl named Zoe (fake name) committed murder and writes to Stuart Harris, a Texan inmate on death row for killing his wife. Zoe wants someone to know her story. Someone who can relate. Brilliant, right?

The novel is epistolary in style. One sided. Zoe goes out to the family shed at night and writes her letters. The letters span a little over a year, detailing the events leading up to Zoe's crime as well as chronicling her daily life. We learn of her romance triangle with two brothers, her relationship with her sisters, one of whom is deaf, her best friend, her parents' financial difficulties after her dad is made redundant.

And, through it all, we fall in love with Zoe and her guilt and her angst and her sharp wit and her observations on life.

In case I haven't done Ketchup Clouds justice, here's The Beginning of the Book: Dear Mr. S. Harris, Ignore the blob of red in the top right corner.  It's jam, not blood, though I don't think I need to tell you the difference. It wasn't your wife's jam the police found on your shoe.

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!

MDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Ellen Booraem: ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams Garcia (MG)

Lucy Sartain: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF EMILY H. by Barrie Summy (MG, mystery)

Stacy Nyikos: ALWAYS OCTOBER by Bruce Coleville (MG)

Beth Bonini of TRAC: ME BEING ME IS EXACTLY AS INSANE AS YOU BEING YOU
                                      by Todd Hasak-Lowy (YA)

ADULT FICTION BOOK REVIEWS

Alyssa Goodnight: ARTIFACT by Gigi Pandian (mystery)

Lucy Sartain: QUEEN OF THE TRAILER PARK by Alice Quinn (A Rosie Maldonne mystery)

Patti Abbott:  NOVEMBER by Georges Simenon

Ray Potthoff: THE DREAM LOVER by Elizabeth Berg (historical)

**Scott Parker: CONCRETE ANGEL by OUR VERY OWN Patricia Abbott (domestic suspense)**

NONFICTION REVIEW

Linda McLaughlin: THE MONUMENTS MEN: ALLIED HEROES, NAZI THIEVES, AND THE GREATEST TREASURE HUNT IN HISTORY by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter (adult)

Rob Costello: SO YOU'VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED by Jon Ronson (adult)

Sarah Laurence: I WILL ALWAYS WRITE BACK by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
                           with Liz Welch (young adult)


Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!

Dear FCC: Oh, you are so nosy. I bought this book. Nothing tricky going on here.