November Minireviews

So I find that I not-infrequently read books that I just feel rather “meh” about and they don’t seem worth writing an entire post about.  However, since I also use this blog as a sort of book-review diary, I like to at least say something.  So I’ve started a monthly post with minireviews of all those books that just didn’t get more than a few paragraphs of feelings from me.

The Voyage to Magical North and The Journey to Dragon Island by Claire Fayers

//published 2016//

I have to say that I actually really, really enjoyed these books, so the whole “meh” feeling doesn’t really apply here.  I gave them an easy 4/5 and completely enjoyed joining Brine on her unexpected pirate ship adventure.  Fayers did a great job with world-building – as an adult, I still found interesting and engaging, but I think that the target audience (middle school) would still easily be able to follow the simple yet involved rules of Brine’s world.

//published 2017//

Brine herself is a very fun heroine, and I felt like her character was balanced out well by Peter, and later Tom.  All in all, I enjoyed how the characters didn’t really fall into stereotypes, but also didn’t feel like they were trying to not fall into stereotypes.

I would definitely recommend these fun and magical little books, and will be looking out for further adventures of Brine & co. in the future.

Cinchfoot by Thomas Hinkle

//published 1938//

Another Famous Horse Story, I found this one to be a bit boring.  Cinchfoot just sort of meanders about but there isn’t a really strong plot or story that feels like it is pulling things along.  Not a bad read, but not one I see myself returning to again.  3/5.

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater

//published 1979//

While this wasn’t my favorite Pinkwater book ever, it still had some very funny moments.  I also think that Pinkwater’s thoughts/views on the educational system are brilliantly insightful and cutting.  I also loved the way that Lionel realized that if he wasn’t learning things, it was his own fault at some level.  Some of the adventures the boys have are quite ridiculous, but the ridiculous is exactly what Pinkwater writes so well.  3.5/5 and I do recommend it, but only if you’ve read some of Pinkwater’s stronger works first.

The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer

//published 1946//

This was a pretty adorable little Heyer tale.  I did find Carlyon a bit too overbearing at times, but Elinor was just too adorable, as was Carlyon’s younger brother.  I quite enjoyed the way that the love story was secondary to all the ridiculous spy tales.  Fun and frothy; classic Heyer.  4/5.

The Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve

//published 2017//

So I purchased this edition because of the amazing illustrations by MinaLima.  My husband gave me some money for my birthday that he said was specifically for books, and, more specifically, I must purchase at least one book that I’ve been not purchasing because of its unreasonable expense!  This one fit the bill – but it was worth every penny, as the book itself is absolutely gorgeous. The illustrations are amazing – not just the big, fancy, interactive ones, but all the details on every page.

It was also interesting to read the original version of B&B – it’s a great deal more convoluted and involved than the traditional version we see these days, as Beauty has eleven (!!!) siblings, and there are multiple chapters devoted to a complicated backstory with fairy feuds.  It was still a very engaging story, although I can see why it has evolved the way that it has, getting rid of some of the extraneous characters and building more personality among those that are left.

Anyway, this was definitely a worthwhile purchase and read, and I can see myself returning to this gorgeous book many times in the future.

The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner by Ann Larkin Hansen

//published 2017//

This is another Storey book, and another addition to their Backyard Homestead series.  While this book did have some interesting information, and I did like the format where things were laid out by season, it was definitely an outline type of a book.  There wasn’t really a lot of depth about anything, making this more of a starting-point reference rather than an end-all tome.  It makes a nice addition to my collection, but definitely wouldn’t be the book I would choose if I could only have one homesteading manual.  Still, excellent formatting and very nicely put together, as I’ve come to expect from Storey.

The Little Nugget by P.G. Wodehouse

//published 1913//

This was a fun little tale of a very obnoxious little boy who is worth a great deal of money, and so has multiple people attempting to kidnap him for various reasons.  While there were several funny moments and it was overall an enjoyable tale, it wasn’t as developed as most of Wodehouse’s later works, and lacked that sort of bubbly perfection.  It was an easy 3/5 read and one that I do recommend, but not if it is your first foray into the world of Wodehouse.

The Jackaby Quartet // by William Ritter

• Jackaby
• The Map (short story)
• Beastly Bones
• Ghostly Echoes
• The Dire King

//published 2017//

So in August the fourth (and final, as far as I can tell) Jackaby book hit the shelves.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the first three books, I was eager to reread them and then get the grand finale.  So this is mostly going to be a review of The Dire King, with some thoughts about the series as a whole.  The links go back to earlier reviews of the series (not this time around).  When reviewing the final book of a series, it’s virtually impossible to avoid some spoilers, so the brief review is: 3/5 for Dire King and 4/5 for the series as a whole.  I personally didn’t like the way a bunch of things concluded in Dire King, but that’s kind of a matter of personal opinion, as it technically worked.  But in the end I was left with a lot more questions than answers, and felt like the plotting in the final book was rather sloppy, like Ritter was hoping that as long as there was enough action, the readers wouldn’t notice gaping holes in the logic.

I really wish that Ritter had stuck with episodic stories for this series.  I still think the first book was the best of the bunch, and it was because it was a self-contained story.  The further into The Grand Scheme that Ritter got, the sloppier the stories got, and the more it felt like he was only really interested in getting us to the final book.  The Grand Scheme got really involved and complicated, while the concept of just writing paranormal mysteries with these characters would have been fantastic.

More thoughts below with mild spoilers…

I really enjoyed reading back through the three earlier books, and actually liked Ghostly Echoes better the second time around when I already had an idea of where things were going.  (Maybe I’ll like The Dire King better if I reread it??)  These books are just plain fun.  The dialogue is hilarious, and Jackaby and Abigail are a brilliant combination of characters.  There’s still a bit too much modern SJW talk, with women’s rights being handled in a very heavy-handed way, and the whole transgender thing in Ghostly Echoes that makes absolutely no sense within the context of the story and is quite obviously being inserted to show us how open-minded Ritter is.  But I’m willing to overlook these types of things as long as the rest of the story holds up, and for the most part it does.

However, the further into the series we go, the more Ritter starts to build what I think of as The Grand Scheme.  Many series – in fact, most – do this, but for me it only works if the small schemes aren’t sacrificed in the process.  Each book should still be able to stand as a solid and engaging story on its own, and while it’s okay to have teasers leading into the next book/The Grand Scheme, it can be frustrating when it feels like I only got part of a story (I’m looking at you, Robin McKinley’s Pegasus).  Ritter doesn’t quite do this, but he’s close, which is probably another reason that I enjoyed Ghostly Echoes more the second time around – it wasn’t as annoying of an ending when I had the final book right in front of me!

The thing is, it just started to feel like Ritter had bitten off more than he could chew with his Grand Scheme.  All of a sudden we’re jumping in and out of fairy land and the land of the dead and we’ve got conflicting kingdoms and factions and all kinds of critters running around and it’s not really clear who is on which side and even if there are sides and there is this whole thing that’s going to apparently blow up the Veil that separates the physical world from the fairy world and there is this guy who can make zombies kinda and this little furry critter that gives cryptic advice and no one knows or really seems to care whose side he is on and then all of a sudden this one character who was kind of a minor character turns out to be the one who betrays everyone except when did she even meet the bad guy??  Like it felt extremely weird and was never explained how she even did what she did or why so her motivation makes literally zero sense and then in the end everyone apparently is just like Oh, okay, and they all go home??!?  And what happened with the zombie guy?  And apparently there was some guy who has been keeping the Veil safe for like hundreds of years and could live that long because he was wearing this magical gem but then he… took it off??  And died?? And the whole Veil started to collapse??  So why did he take it off??

Basically, the whole book made me kind of dizzy.  Things were happening very quickly and strangely without any genuine explanations, and instead of there being this big epilogue that made everything make sense, there was an ending that I found to be VERY STRANGE and did not like AT ALL.  The ending itself dropped the entire book a half star for me, like I could not get behind it at all.

So The Dire King was a bit of a letdown for me.  It had its moments, but just didn’t pull things together the way I had anticipated.  This series could have been a lot more fun and entertaining if Ritter had stuck with smaller stories that tied together instead of attempting to pull of a very complicated and involved Grand Scheme that just didn’t end up making a whole lot of sense.  I still recommend the series as a whole, and definitely will be rereading it sometime in the future – and maybe will enjoy The Dire King more when I have a sense of where it’s headed.  And I’ll be keeping an eye on Ritter to see what he decides to write next.

Heavier Than Heaven // by Charles Cross

//published 2001//

As a general rule of thumb, I don’t really like knowing all that much about the personal lives of artists whose work I enjoy.  Almost invariably, they turn out to be kind of sucky people, which in turn means I don’t actually enjoy their music/writing/artwork as much as I did back when I was ignorant about who they were as people.  There are, of course, exceptions – Agatha Christie’s autobiography was a delight that made me cherish her writing even more, and reading the collection of Wodehouse’s letters/biography was completely fascinating.

But in this case, I felt comfortable picking up this biography of Kurt Cobain because I already knew that Cobain was kind of a dreadful person, plus I’m really not that huge of a fan of Nirvana.  So why even bother, you may ask?  First off, because I am still working on my quest to read all of my own books – this is one that Tom had from before we were married, but it’s on my bookshelves, so it is on the list!  Secondly, even though I’m not a gigantic fan of Nirvana, I can still appreciate the fact that they are a band that changed the course of musical history.  Most of the time, if a certain band never appeared on the scene, we would miss that band’s music – but the course of music itself would be virtually unchanged.  But Nirvana created something that was different and set its own course, and I felt like that piece of history was worth exploring.

There is no doubt that Cobain was Nirvana.  It’s always interesting to me to see how some bands revolve around an individual, while others are comprised of a group.  For instance, Led Zeppelin was four guys – and once one of those guys was no longer in the band, Zeppelin ceased to exist.  They could never be the same band, because each of them contributed his own completely unique piece to the whole.  But other bands, like Nirvana, are really about the one guy.  The others can come and go (and the drummers certainly did), but at the end of the day, as long as the one guy is there, you still have the band.

I really felt like Cross did a great job with this biography.  It can be difficult to write about someone who is a cultural icon to many, especially what that person isn’t actually that awesome.  But Cross manages to present Cobain’s life in a way that was sympathetic, that explained a lot of his actions and attitudes, but didn’t necessarily excuse them.  He didn’t try to gloss over the way that Cobain was a liar, a drug abuser, and pretty arrogant.  Yet he still managed to make me see how people could come under his spell and still love and indulge him despite his difficult personality.

It’s pretty obvious that Cobain had some serious mental health issues.  Someone close to me is bipolar, and there was a dark time in our lives when this person was coming to grips with this and was unwilling to seek/accept treatment.  It’s so hard to know how to handle someone in that situation, whether to give into their whims or to stand up to them, because they are such a loose cannon – they aren’t going to respond like a ‘normal’ person, and you have no idea if telling them ‘no’ is going to make them say, ‘oh, okay,’ or will make them go off and cut themselves or worse.  It’s terrifying.

All that to say, I was in sympathy with a lot of the people in Cobain’s life, and I was also aware of how, someone like that, when the times are good – they’re really good.  During those highs, that person is the funniest, friendliest, most affectionate person you could imagine.  I could totally see how people in Cobain’s life would stay loyal to him even through the times that he treated them like trash.

Anyway, Cross takes Cobain’s life chronologically.  He spent years doing interviews, reading journals, doing research, etc., and this really comes through.  This isn’t a trashy piece of gossip, it’s a thoughtful and insightful piece of literature.  Cross talks a lot about Cobain’s childhood, I think in part because Cobain, in later years, created a sort of mythological/alternative childhood that never actually happened.  He tended to take something that really did happen, and then exaggerate it.  (E.g., left home in late teens and lived out of a car – becomes – had to live under a bridge for months because his parents refused to take care of him.)  Cross carefully presents the reality of these events based on numerous other eyewitnesses.  It’s also another interesting perspective of Cobain’s mental state – because in many of these cases, he himself now believed the alternate reality.  Cross points out multiple times where Cobain would tell a story so often, that it became truth in his mind.  It’s genuinely fascinating to me that sometimes liars don’t even realize/they forget that they are lying.

Cobain was an avid writer who journaled throughout his life.  These are a large part of what give a glimpse into what was a very disturbed mind, as Cobain was always rather obsessed with the crude and dark.  Cross does, at times, quote directly from these sources, and other times paraphrases them.  Among other things, Cobain frequently wrote letters that he never mailed, and liner notes that were never published.  At one point he was writing multiple drafts of a bio for the band when they were sending around their first demo tape.  My personal favorite included the explanation that, “Nirvana is a trio who play heavy rock with punk overtones.  They usually don’t have jobs.  So they can tour anytime.”

One of the great tragedies of Cobain’s life was that he was never really satisfied.  Even when he would attain a dream – his happiness was such a brief blip.  This was definitely due in part to his horrific drug addiction.  One which, even more tragically, he entered purposefully, planning to become addicted.  Addiction is a truly terrifying thing, and to read about how this became the single defining, controlling factor in his life was very sobering.

I was genuinely shocked, however, by reading about how dirty he was!  This seems to be a consistent theme from everyone who knew him – that he would legit just live in filth unless someone else came by to clean it up: unwashed dishes and clothes, not even a basic cleaning, filthy bathroom, pets that were allowed to be loose and left their feces around the house, etc.  ICK  I’m not going to pretend that my house is always ready for a photo shoot for Cottage Living, but at least I don’t leave animal waste sitting on the living room rug for days on end.

Something that really struck me was how Cobain let difficult times in his life win.  The biggest one is the divorce of his parents when he was young – an event that really traumatized Cobain and, in many ways, laid a foundation for all the mental illness to follow.  Cobain never got over this.  He never reached a point of peace with this event.  Instead, he let it control and embitter him for his entire life.  And this was a pattern he followed consistently.  When something difficult would come into his life, he never overcame it – he internalized it and let it eat him from the inside out.  I’m no expert, but I can see this leading to his eventual drug addiction as well – in his mind, the only way to escape the struggles of his life.

Cross follows Cobain slow descent into the darkness that would eventually cause him to take his own life.  It was hard to read, honestly – just so completely, unnecessarily tragic.  And, let’s be frank, incredibly selfish.  Even this, his final act on earth, was all about himself.  I will say that this was the only section of the book that didn’t really ring true for me, just because Cross describes in detail exactly the steps Cobain took to kill himself – when most of that time Cobain was completely alone and left no record, so really Cross is just making an educated guess as to what occurred.  My understanding is that everything that went into this book had to be cleared by Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love (who is also kind of a jerk and definitely was not universally liked by everyone else in Cobain’s life), so I’m sure that she preferred to have a detailed, step-by-step explanation of Cobain’s suicide, considering that there are still a lot of conspiracy theories that he was murdered, and that Love was the one who arranged for the murder to occur.  (Cross doesn’t mention this theory even in passing; suicide is presented as unquestionable fact.  I have done virtually zero research into this conspiracy theory and have no idea if it holds even a drop of water or not.  I will say that suicide definitely fits the overall mental attitude of Cobain’s life; I’ll also say that I can totally see Love having him knocked off because she really is a dreadful sort of woman.)

This book didn’t particularly make me want to listen to more Nirvana.  I did listen through Nevermind and In Utero while I was reading it, and maintained my opinion that, overall, this music is just wayyyy to angsty for my tastes, but it was fun to hear the songs while I was learning about their contexts.

While Heavier Than Heaven was not an easy, or particularly fun, read, it was still worthwhile.  This is a biography that is well-researched and thoughtfully written, leaving me with a picture of a man who was not a hero or a god, nor a villain or a devil – just simply a man, haunted by his own decisions and demons.  Whether you think Nirvan’s music is inspired or trash (or, like me, hit and miss), there is no doubt that the man behind the band was complicated and layered.  Setting aside his musical legacy, this biography was still a worthwhile read as an examination of what mental illness and drug addiction can do to a life.  If you love Nirvana and their music really speaks to you and you prefer to think of Cobain as a sort of saint or inspiration, you may not want to read this biography, as it doesn’t hesitate to point out Cobain’s flaws as well as his good points.

The advent of Nirvana was genuinely a musical epoch, a band that set the tone for a generation.  Reading the story behind their creator was quite fascinating and well worth the effort.

‘Love Inspired’ – Part 2

A while back my great-aunt passed away, and somehow my grandpa ended up with two boxes full of books.  Almost all of them are ‘inspirational’ romances published by Harlequin as ‘Love Inspired’.  At one point (not sure if you still can) you could subscribe and have a new book mailed to you every month.  Aunt Darby did just that, and now I’m in possession of somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 or so of these ‘Love Inspired’ titles.  Most of them are pretty cheesy but alright for a one-time fluff read.  I’m sure that I’ll binge through some of them periodically.  They’re perfect to grab out of the crate when I’m just looking for a quick, no-brainer book.  However, most of them will probably end up exiting this house after that one-time read, because they just aren’t worth the shelf space to me.  So if there’s one that sounds especially appealing to you… let me know, and I’ll be quite happy to mail you a gift!  ;-)

Here’s the next round of five for this project – the first five can be found here.

The Pastor Takes a Wife by Anna Schmidt

//published 2010//

This was a pleasant little story where single-mom Megan falls for the new pastor, Jeb.  There was actually a little bit of grit to this story that I liked, but I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry between Megan and Jeb.  I’m always annoyed when a story spends the majority of the time talking about why two people aren’t suited for each other – and then magically, at the end, they are!

Still, overall a nice little tale that was pleasant for a one-off read – 3/5.

A Mother’s Gift by Arlene James and Kathryn Springer

//published 2010//

This is actually two novellas in one volume.  The first, Dreaming of a Family, could have been an alright read, but Dixie was just over-the-top rude to Joel at the beginning.  I found it impossible to believe that an adult woman would say the things she said to a comparative stranger, especially making fun of his physical handicap.  It was just absurd.  2/5.

The second, The Mommy Wish, was better, but Julia of course has this deep, dark secret that if Nick knew about it, it would change his whole perspective of her, and she’s kept herself locked away and never goes out to see people and it’s been years of angst… and then the ‘terrible’ thing just really wasn’t that terrible.  I mean sad, yes, but worth years of agony?  Not remotely.  Still, 3/5 for an otherwise fun story that did have some nice moments.

Triplets Find a Mom by Annie Jones

//published 2012//

This one was so bad that I had to DNF about halfway through.  I just can’t put my finger on what wasn’t working with this story.  It was like chunks of it were missing.  The story wasn’t bad, but the writing was honestly just kind of terrible.  The characters didn’t make a lot of sense, and everyone was just sort of milling around.  The concept was engaging and the setting was nice, but it was just so random and abrupt that I couldn’t get into the story at all.  It was just…  I don’t know.  For instance, Sam is a widower and he has triplet daughters.  Polly meets these girls for literally like 30 seconds.  She sees them the next day, and knows which one is which, despite the fact that they’re identical.  Like, just because Polly herself is a twin didn’t make me buy the concept that she magically can tell these identical girls apart immediately.  Sam has this weird thing about dogs that made zero sense, so when Polly finds a stray, she is determined to find another home for it because she doesn’t want to ‘bother’ the girls…???  It was just stuff like that all the time.  It felt like something was going to happen, and then there is just some weird thing out of nowhere instead.

Close to Home by Carolyn Aarsen

//published 2009//

Probably my favorite out of the batch (although that isn’t saying much).  Jace and Dodie were a good couple, and I appreciated the way that some sensitive topics were handled well.  However, it took waaaaaaaayyyyyyy too long for Dodie to freaking TALK TO JACE.  Like ONE CONVERSATION is all that needs to happen, and it dragged out way too long before that took place.

I was also a little uncomfortable with the concept that Dodie was ‘wasting her life’ because she hadn’t gone to college or pursued a career.  As someone who did go to college but has not pursued a career, and has worked part time random jobs very contentedly my entire life, I felt vaguely insulted.  Guess what, gang?  A career isn’t the only way to find validation and purpose in life!  Anyway – 3/5.

The Marriage Mission by Pam Andrews

//published 2010//

This was actually a really pleasant, nice little story.  I liked Mac and Jenny a lot and thought they made a great couple.  However, I was so bothered by the message of this book.  I kept reading because I thought it would actually get resolved in the end – but it really didn’t.

Basically, Mac has been working in foreign missions throughout his adult life.  He has come stateside to a small West Virginia town to accept a year-long post at a local church while he recovers from an improperly-set broken ankle.  There is the possibility that the church will call him to stay on permanently, and there is also a possibility that the mission he’s worked for will call him to another foreign post.  Mac falls for Jenny almost immediately, and the feeling is mutual.  But then it turns into this whole angsty thing about Mac feeling like he can’t ‘impose’ on Jenny by dating her when he isn’t sure if he is going to go back overseas, and Jenny feeling like she isn’t ‘worthy’ to go with Mac if he does go back overseas, yadda yadda yadda.  And what bothered me was that neither of them ever acted like, I don’t know, that if they were a couple they would actually be a team and could work through these things together?!  It was also never explained why Jenny couldn’t go with Mac if he did go overseas.  I feel like basically all the missionaries I know are married, and not all of the spouses went to seminary?  It seemed like Jenny’s compassion, hard-working attitude, and general common sense would make her an excellent missionary’s wife.

In the end, it’s all resolved because Mac decides not to go overseas – which didn’t feel like real resolution to me at all.  Mac never had a conversation with Jenny about whether she would be open to going overseas.  The insistence on the either/or scenario meant that so much of the tension in the book felt entirely contrived.  So 2.5/5 for this one.

Rumours and Recklessness // by Nicole Clarkson

Every once in a while those free Kindle books actually turn out to be nice…

//published 2015//

In this retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennett falls from a horse and is in a coma the day after the Netherfield Ball.  When Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy stop by, they are just in time to hear Mr. Collins announce his engagement to Elizabeth – even though he hasn’t consulted her on the subject.  Carried away in the moment, Mr. Darcy jumps in and says this is impossible as Elizabeth is engaged to him.  Although it sounds a bit implausible, Clarkson actually pulls off this scenario quite well.  Throughout the rest of the book, we still deal with all the prejudices of our favorite couple, but now they are in a situation where it is to their best interests to work through their differences together.

I really like variations where, instead of arriving at conclusions apart from each other as they did in the original (after the Hunsford proposal), they actually communicate and talk through things together.  Unequal Affections was another similar scenario, and another of my favorite retellings.  I appreciated that in this version Elizabeth still had plenty of sass, but wasn’t obnoxious.  The other characters stay true to form as well.

This is a clean version, which was also nice – no sneaking off for pre-marital snogging.  While there is tension there, it is presented in a way that didn’t make me embarrassed to read it.

Where the story bogged down a bit was a side strand with Darcy’s cousin Anne.  Lady de Bourgh is a bit over-the-top, and combining her with Caroline seemed a bit strange as well.  While it’s not a terrible way to take the story, it felt a little odd.

Still, all in all this was a pleasant surprise, and one that I recommend to anyone else there who, like myself, is strangely addicted to P&P retellings.

The Great Shelby Holmes // by Elizabeth Eulberg

//published 2016//

This book sounded like it could be super cute and fun.  A kid named John Watson moves into a new apartment building and becomes friends with the girl next door, Shelby Holmes.  Shelby is incredibly observant and considers herself a detective.  Together, they solve a mystery of a missing dog.

I liked the concept of a kiddie version of Sherlock Holmes, in this world where the original Sherlock obviously doesn’t exist.  Young Watson was a pleasant narrator, settling into his new life (which of course involves a divorce, because we aren’t allowed to write about children with two parents any more, unless those parents are either incredibly weird or gay).  He isn’t really sure that he wants to be friends with Shelby, who is kind of strange, but he doesn’t have a lot of other options, and soon finds himself pulled into her adventures.

So, like, I think what Eulberg was trying to do was portray a socially awkward kid (Shelby) and then have Watson kind of show her how to be a friend.  But all that really happens is Shelby is so obnoxious and annoying that I couldn’t hardly stand to read about her.  She is just flat rude, way beyond just being awkward.  Is she supposed to be autistic and I’m supposed to have empathy for her or something?  I have no idea.  I just couldn’t believe what an obnoxious know-it-all jerk she was 100% of the time.

What really blew my mind was that she wasn’t just that way with other kids – she’s consistently rude and condescending to every adult she meets, too, including her own parents.  And like – all the adults just go with it?  They let her boss them around and ask rude questions and give in to all her demands.  It was quite strange.  If Shelby had showed up in my life, I would have told her where to get off.  And if I had ever talked to my parents the way she talked to hers, I would have been grounded for weeks.

I realize that the original Sherlock isn’t completely likable.  He is also rather condescending at times and not always polite.  But he’s also an adult, not a nine-year-old.  I basically got to the point where I realized that I wouldn’t recommend this book to any of the younger readers I know, because there is no way I would want them to look at Shelby as a role model.  Even though by the end Shelby is doing slightly  better at ‘being a friend,’ it’s not like she ever actually realizes what a boor she is, or apologizes for being obnoxious.

At one point, Watson and his mom go to Shelby’s house for dinner.  Throughout, Shelby talks back to her parents, makes rude comments under her breath, and is incredibly sulky and annoying.  When told to eat her green beans, she first off refuses, and then shoves them all in her mouth at once and chews with her mouth open.  When she is given a piece of pie, she takes a bite and then spits it out because it’s sugar free.  For some reason, her dad refers to her as ‘Shelly,’ to which Shelby responds, “It’s Shelby, Father.  How many times must I remind you of that, especially since you have given me that designation?”  …So apparently her dad forgets her name regularly…???  Or is Shelly a nickname that she doesn’t like???  Throughout the evening, her rude behavior is met with only mild remonstrance from her parents, who are of course portrayed as rather slow, dense, and ineffective.  And afterwards, does Watson’s mom say, “Wow, there is no way I want this kid to be your primary influence in your new home!” ??  No, of course not.  She’s just like, “Oh, wow, Shelby sure is interesting!  ::nervous laughter:: ”

I also found it really hard to believe that Watson and Shelby were allowed to just meander all over New York City without telling anyone where they were going or when they would be back.  Watson’s mother gives him strict rules about where he can go, but he doesn’t pay any attention to them since he’s just following Shelby around.  On multiple occasions he finds himself places where he is uncomfortable or doesn’t know how to get home.  None of these things seemed like actions I would want a younger reader finding acceptable.  And even when Watson’s mom finds out that he went places he wasn’t supposed to, she just sort of shrugs it off because she’s glad he’s ‘making friends.’

I had trouble deciding whether a 10-year-old would have found the mystery of the book challenging.  I found it almost embarrassingly obvious, to the point that I started to worry that maybe Watson needs some help if he can’t put together the clues that Shelby is handing him.  Again, I know it’s traditional for the sidekick to be a little dense, but seriously.  The culprit actually explains the motive behind the dognapping but Watson doesn’t notice…

As I was reading this book, I found myself thinking a lot about the child-genius-detective that I grew up with, Encyclopedia Brown.  I even pulled out a couple of my old EB books to see if he was more annoying than I remember.  But no, Encyclopedia manages to be unfailingly polite and helpful, has normal friends, does chores without complaining, and is respectful to his parents and other adults.  His dad is the chief of police, and often presents Encyclopedia with the facts of a case so EB can solve them, which he always does in a way that does not imply that his dad is stupid.

All in all, I was completely turned off by Shelby as a character, which meant I didn’t enjoy this book at all, and would never recommend it to any of the younger readers I know.  I would never want them to think that Shelby’s condescending, rude, obnoxious behavior is in any way as acceptable as it was consistently presented.  Shelby is a know-it-all jerk who spends all of her time rolling her eyes, pouting, and being dismissive of other people’s opinions and thoughts.  There wasn’t a single moment of this book where I found her to be sympathetic or likable.  2/5 and not recommended.

Blind Spot // by Dani Pettrey

Chesapeake Valor #3

I received this book from Bethany House, which does not impact my review.

//published 2017//

Back in the spring, I received Still Life from BH and reviewed it; before I read that one I went ahead and read the first book, Cold Shot.  I would definitely recommend reading these books as a series, as I think they would be a bit confusing as standalones.  They focus on the same group of friends, and their relationships build and evolve throughout the series.  I actually went back and reread Still Life before jumping into Blind Spot, just to get myself back up to speed.

Overall, I like these books and am comfortable with the 3.5/5 rating I have given them all, including this one.  They are decent mysteries with an engaging group of characters, but really lack a solid focus within the story.

Throughout the second book, I found myself irritated as the main mystery was actually quite intriguing – but Pettrey kept veering off into this entirely unrelated mystery with these people who were smuggling terrorists.  In Blind Spot, the terrorist plot becomes the main one, but this time she kept flipping to yet another completely unrelated mystery about this guy who gets murdered.  The secondary mystery in both cases comes across as filler/padding/a way to keep other characters busy and involved, and the primary mystery suffers because of it.  Switching to the secondary plot throws off the pacing of the primary, and consistently feels like we are just killing time.  I really, really wish that Pettrey would just focus on the primary mystery, because in both books this could have been filled out and made a lot more intense.

In this book, there was also this weird situation where a guy gets murdered while a bunch of the characters on a retreat.  There is a possibility that instead of murder, it’s actually suicide and the dead guy killed other people before killing himself.  Yet despite the fact that all the main characters of the book knew this dead guy really well, and despite the fact that he may be a murderer, they are all allowed to process the crime scene??  This felt completely unrealistic (since they would have a strong motive for contaminating the crime scene to make sure the dead guy doesn’t get blamed for murder), and it’s weird details like that that throw off the overall groove of the story.

Even though I’ve been griping about it, I really did enjoy reading this book.  I like all of the characters and have enjoyed watching them come together.  Throughout the first two books, we find out bits and pieces about another good friend of theirs who disappeared several years earlier.  This whole plot comes back into play in Blind Spot, and left me really intrigued to find out how things are going to wrap up in the end.

I’m looking forward to reading the fourth book when it appears, and still intend to eventually check out some of Pettrey’s other books as well.

The Night Circus // by Erin Morgenstern

Even though I finished The Night Circus two weeks ago, I still am having a lot of feelings, and I doubt that this review will be very comprehensive.  It’s one of those books that is just too magical for reviewing.

//published 2011//

I feel like this book has been on my TBR forever, and when it came in the mail last month, I was quite excited to finally read it!

Recently, I decided to subscribe to receive a monthly book from Mr. B.’s Emporium of Books, because I really do love receiving book boxes, but the truth is that I don’t really read by ‘genre’, and the overwhelming majority of book subscriptions make you choose that way. E.g., I do read a lot of YA, but I don’t usually care for contemporary, angsty YA – I prefer fantasy/sci-fi YA instead.  But subscribing to a YA book box means I end up with contemporary YA, which is alright, but not really something I seek out.  (It’s how I ended up reading that book with the one-armed black skater boy hero a while back.)  All that to say, with Mr. B’s you actually fill out a (lengthy) survey about the books you like (and don’t), and I thought it would be fun to see if they managed to send books I enjoy – and The Night Circus was the first one I received!

This book was… gah, it was just plain magical.  Despite the fact that it involved a lot of ingredients I don’t usually like, I was completely and totally engrossed and did not want to put this book down.  As a general rule, I do not like present-tense narratives and I do not like books that rely on a dated header to tell you where you are in the story (e.g., ‘Associates and Conspirators – London, February 1885’), but this book used both and it only added to the magic.

The descriptions in The Night Circus were amazing.  I absolutely loved hearing about the different displays/acts in the circus.  Morgenstern created a definitive sense of place – the circus became its own character in the story, and it was amazing.  The introduction chapters written in second person should have been annoying, but instead were brilliant.  I was drawn into the story immediately by this method, as I stood waiting in line for the circus to open.

Pacing was excellent – just enough back-and-forth in time to keep the story building in a specific direction without feeling the whiplash of jumping around in time.  I fell in love with all the characters, even the ones I didn’t like.  The story unfolded with the precision of a perfectly-executed song.

For a while, I was nervous about the ending, but I shouldn’t have been, as that was perfect, also.

There were a few annoyances.  A character dies and I didn’t want him to, and Morgenstern has an aggravating tendency to drop French words and phrases throughout without bothering to explain them, even when they are an important part of the story.  But these are minor issues with a book that overall captivated me.

I am quite excited to add this book to my collection, and anticipate rereading it again in the (probably near) future.  All in all, a 5/5 read for me, and one of those few books that possesses genuine magic on every page.

NB – several reviews caused me to add this book to my list, and I’m not sure I have them all but among them – Stephanie’s Book Reviews, The Literary Sisters, Tales of the Marvelous, and The Penniless Bookworm.

Miss Billy trilogy // by Eleanor H. Porter

I’ve had Miss Billy’s Decision on my shelf since 2003, picked up in an antique shop simply because it was written by the author of Pollyanna.  However, I have never gotten around to reading it!  With the help of Goodreads, I discovered that this is actually the second book about Miss Billy, so I was able to purchase the first book, Miss Billy, on eBay inexpensively, and a Kindle version of book three (Miss Billy Married), as hard copies of that one were pushing the $30 range. (!)

All in all, this was was a pleasant collection, but nothing amazing, mostly because Billy wasn’t a super engaging heroine, and Porter did not do a particularly good job with story crafting – the characters just sort of mill around, especially in Miss Billy.

//published 1911//

The story opens with Billy’s aunt dying, leaving her alone in the world.  At age 18, it seemed to me like she should have been able to find a companion and live quietly until her majority at 21 (keeping in mind that these books were published in the early 1900’s), but instead Billy writes to a man she’s never met – a good friend of her father’s, for whom she was named.  William, a widower, lives in a rambling house with his bachelor brothers, Cyril and Bertram.  Each of the brothers has an odd quirk.  Cyril is a monk-like man devoted to his music (specifically piano).  William, since the death of his wife and infant son, focuses on collecting things.  Bertram is an artist famous for painting portraits of young women – ‘The Face of a Girl’.

Through a series of events, when the gentlemen receive Billy’s letter, they do not realize that she is female, and have no real idea how old she is.  They reluctantly agree to take in the waif, since she is, after all, named for William, but when Billy arrives in all her feminine glory, they are cast into disarray!  Of course, it turns out that Billy makes all of their lives brighter and better.  William finds an older female cousin to come live with them and be Billy’s companion/chaperone and everyone is getting along famously until William’s sister Kate (married and in her own house) tells Billy that the brothers used to be super happy until Billy moved in and threw off everyone’s groove.  Devastated, Billy takes Aunt Hannah and moves back to her home town.

The reason that the story was strange was because, first off, Kate is a jerk.  Throughout the next two books, she is the center of all mischief and miscommunications as she is incredibly meddlesome.  Kate’s interference with everything got a bit old after a while, especially since she was absolutely never apologetic, even when she wrecked havoc all around.

Secondly, Billy only lives with the brother for a couple of months.  During that time, her characters comes across more as someone who is 11 or 12, not 18.  She bounds through the house, is boisterous and enthusiastic, and doesn’t really do anything useful.  When she leaves with Aunt Hannah, she doesn’t really explain to the brothers that she isn’t planning to come back, and they spend the rest of the book being incredibly mopey and depressed, and years go by and they only see her a handful of times, as Billy takes off for Europe.  The amount of sadness and loneliness they feel seems incredibly disproportionate to the amount of time Billy actually lived with them.

//published 1912//

The second book is all about Billy deciding which brother to marry, of course.  It’s pretty obvious which one she loves, but Kate comes in with her interfering ways and almost ruins everyone’s lives, and then continues to complain, throughout the rest of that book and well into book 3, that Billy chose the wrong brother and that their marriage will never be successful because Billy didn’t take Kate’s advice and marry the brother Kate thought she suited!  I mean, a bit of sisterly advice is one thing, but Kate’s nagging was ridiculous.

Overall, though, the second book was probably my favorite.  It had the most story and the characters were better developed.

//published 1914//

In book three, Billy starts her married life and is quite happy, until she starts listening to other people/books/articles/etc.  This  book followed a pattern that got old after a while, wherein Billy latches onto some quirky bit of advice and then follows it obsessively.  E.g., she reads an article that says that young wives need to let their husbands basically ‘do their own thing’ and wives should continue to follow their own personal interests as well.  This advice made perfect sense, but Billy takes it to extremes by acting completely indifferent towards her husband (all while internally sighing at how much she misses him) and kind of blowing him off all the time, leaving him confused by a wife who no longer seems interested in spending time with him.  Of course, they always resolve things and are happy again – until the next time someone gives Billy some advice.

Then the baby is born, and the book took a decided turn for the worse.  I genuinely wanted to shake Billy, who became obsessed with the baby, completely ignoring her husband.  Constantly reading books on child-rearing, she insists on doing everything by the book and on the clock, with the baby receiving specifically allotted amounts of time for napping, playing, etc.  It was fine at first, but this dragged on for SO long.  What I really couldn’t believe was that Aunt Hannah didn’t step in and give Billy the talking-to she really needed.

In the end, I still wasn’t completely convinced that Billy had grasped the concept of balance.  While everything seemed to be going well when the story ended, I could definitely see Billy reading some other article and becoming just as annoying as ever.

These were perfectly fine and enjoyable books, with some delightful bits here and there.  But I just never really liked Billy all that well – she never felt like a very real person – and her tendency to obsess over one thing and really agonize over it got old for me.  A 3/5 for this little series, but it probably isn’t one I’ll reread.

Lodestars Anthology: New Zealand

Last year, I subscribed to a readers’ quarterly called Slightly Foxed, which I love.  It’s just so delightful to read about books people love, not necessarily books that are ‘in’ or best sellers.  It’s a very friendly publication, and when they include an advertisement for another publication, Lodestars Anthology, I decided to give it a try.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I knew it was a travelers’ magazine of sorts, with lots of pictures.  But when I received my first issue, I was blown away by the amazing quality of this publication.  It’s half an inch thick, printed on matte (rather than glossy) paper, and it loaded with fantastic photography and artwork, plus tons of well-written and engaging articles.

Each issue focuses on a different country, and this – Issue 8 – stars New Zealand, which happens to be a place I’ve always dreamed of visiting.  And after reading LA, I want to go even more.  The publication does a really fantastic job of exploring all sorts of different aspects of the country – outdoor pursuits, out-of-the-way curiosities, restaurants, and town cultures.  I thoroughly enjoyed every page, and still find myself flipping through it.  It’s like a colorful reference book.

My biggest disappointment is that I can no longer purchase the first two issues, which are now out of stock – England and Scotland.

All in all, I’m quite looking forward to my next issue, and highly recommend checking out this delightful publication.

NB all pictures from LA’s website.