May Minireviews – Part 1

Oh look, every time I think I’m gong to get caught up – I stop posting for days!!!  Things are legit quieting down at work now, so I’m super excited about my little summer break between greenhouse work and orchard work.  Loads of things to catch up on!!  In the meantime, some random thoughts on some random books!

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan – 3*

//published 2014//

After mostly enjoying A Natural History of Dragons, I decided to give the second book in the series a try.  Like the first book, Tropic is written as though it is a memoir of Lady Trent, who lives in a Victorian-like era in a different world.  My biggest complaint about A Natural History was that setting this story in a different world felt very laborious for the reader, who now has to try and learn loads of new cultures and countries and languages, when all of that would have been mostly unnecessarily if Brennan had simply set her story in AU England, since that’s the vibe the book had anyway.  Well, I had that same complain about Tropic except even more so.  Literal CHAPTERS of Tropic are spent on history and politics, all of which was utterly boring because it was completely made up.  I just couldn’t bring myself to care at all, and that part of the story went on and on and on and ON.  Where are the dragons????  I asked myself repeatedly while dragging my way through this tale.

The other extremely annoying part about this book was Isabella’s attitude towards motherhood.  At the end of the first book (spoiler here), her husband dies (which was a whole other level of aggravating), but Isabella is pregnant.  When Tropic opens, her son is now a toddler, and Isabella basically finds him to be a huge cramp in her style.  She hires someone else to nanny him, noting, “Is the rearing of a child best performed by a woman who has done it before, who has honed her skills over the years and enjoys her work, or by a woman with no skill and scant enjoyment, whose sole qualification is a direct biological connection?”  Well, thank goodness not everyone’s mother feels this way, my gosh.  She further excuses herself by stating that no one would hold a man to the same standards – one of THE most annoying arguments people craft, as though the fact that Group A doesn’t do X means that rather than changing culture’s expectations to demand more of Group A, instead Group B should be allowed to lower themselves to the same expectations!  Throughout the entire story Isabella refuses to acknowledge any true responsibility as a parent, and frequently sighs over the fact that she has a child at all, and between that and the long, drawn out political aspect of the story, I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to bother finishing.

However, the pace did eventually pick up, bringing my rating up to a rather reluctant 3*.  I already own the third book in the series (I got it as as a set on eBay with Tropic), so I probably will read it someday, but my experience with Tropic didn’t really make me feel like reading it right away.

The Big Four by Agatha Christie – 4*

//published 1927//

In this Hercule Poirot book, Poirot becomes a bit obsessed with the concept that there is an organization, comprised of four powerful people, slowly undermining the governments/economies of the world.  Poirot is determined to discover the identities of these individuals and bring them to justice, especially the one who does the dirty work, known as the Destroyer, a master of disguise and duplicity.  This book is comprised of several short stories that are all connected by the theme of the Big Four.  Hastings narrates, at times convinced that Poirot is right and other times convinced that he’s seeing shadows.  All in all, while this is one of Christie’s novels that goes a bit over-the-top on the “secret society is taking over the world” theme, it’s still good fun with several twists.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – 5*

//published 1868//

It’s kind of hard to write any kind of review for a beloved classic that has been in print since 1868.  This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I couldn’t believe how long it had been since I had read it!  This is an old-fashioned story for sure, but still has plenty of thoughts and lessons that are both timeless and timely.  I love the themes of sisterhood and family.  While most people seem to view Jo as the protagonist of the story, there is so much time spent with the other sisters and their life lessons as well – Meg is always my favorite.  All in all, this was one trip down memory lane that did not disappoint.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson – 4*

//published 2020// Bonus – picture of the buffet & shelf Tom built me this spring!! AND Roger Miller’s picture! :-D //

Swanson has become an author whose books I try to read when they come out.  Each one has its own style, and I really like that.  This one is about a guy who owns a bookshop.  At one point, back in the day, he published a blog post about eight perfect murders in fiction – they weren’t necessarily perfect books, but the murders themselves are clever and nearly undetectable.  Now, in the present day, it appears that someone is using his list to kill people.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable mystery with excellent pacing.  The bookshop owner, who is also the narrator, is quite likable, and the way the dominoes fell into place felt realistic.  This book definitely has loads of spoilers for several classic mysteries.  Besides the ones on the list of eight murders, there are a few others, including a few of Christie’s classics.  I definitely recommend looking up the books that are spoiled and making sure none of them are ones that you want to read before reading this book.  However, if you don’t want to read those books, and haven’t read them before, it shouldn’t really reduce your entertainment from this story.  Swanson does a great job of organically explaining the plot of each one in a way that didn’t feel boring or out of place, but meant that I could grasp the way that the classic mystery tied into this one.  I had read a few of the books mentioned, but definitely not all of them, and I never felt lost.  I really appreciated the way that Swanson credited and basically bragged on the classic mysteries he used – the way that he incorporated them felt like it came from a place of genuine admiration and love for those stories, and I liked that a lot.

While I really have enjoyed all the Swanson books I’ve read, this is the first one that I see myself maybe revisiting again someday.  Recommended.

Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome – 5*

//published 1947//

I really don’t know how every book in the Swallows & Amazons series can be just as delightful as the one before it, but here we are!  As always, literally every page is a delight.  This is the sixth book in the series, and I’m not even sure I could pick out a favorite because I have enjoyed each of them so much.  They are simple, funny, and delightful, and I highly recommend them to anyone who has a soft spot for simple stories about children having adventures.

April Minireviews (in May) – Part 2

I’m back, with more exciting minireviews!

The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg – 3.5*

//published 2017//

This was a book I read as part of the traveling book club on Litsy (#LMPBC).  It’s the kind of sappy historical fiction that I wouldn’t normally read on my own.  In the present, Doris is super old and weak and struggling to live on her own in………… wow, I’ve blanked.  Sweden, I think.  In the meantime, she’s writing a letter to her niece (Doris doesn’t have any children of her own) telling the story of her life.  The pacing was good, and while I’m not always a fan of the dual timeline, it worked decently here.  I also liked that the story was about Doris while she was still alive, rather than her niece discovering everything after Doris had already died.  It allowed for some actual resolution of some of the things that were happening in the past timeline.

HOWEVER (and there are going to be spoilers in this paragraph) I did NOT buy the true love/star-crossed lovers bit between Doris and Allan.  Allan went on to get married not just once, but TWICE – not exactly the actions of someone whose heart has been broken beyond repair.  Doris dropped everything in her life, abandoning people who actually loved and needed her, on multiple occasions to be with Allan (despite it not working out before).  I especially didn’t understand why she felt like her niece, as a little girl, really needed her, yet never moved back to the US permanently.  It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Part of it is probably just that I have a completely different personality type than Doris.  I wouldn’t have made basically any of the decisions that she made, so I found her tedious after a while.  Still, this wasn’t a bad story.  For me, a bit too sappy/plot twists just for the sake of screwing with your emotions, but some people like that kind of thing.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – 4*

//published 2013//

I’ve been meaning to read this series for quite some time.  Set in Victorian-ish times except not in our world, Isabella is an aristocrat who yearns to break free of society’s constraints so that she can devote her life to science and the study of dragons.  This book is written as though Isabella is publishing her memoirs at a much later date, which worked for the most part, although she has an aggravating habit of referring readers to other works that, of course, don’t actually exist.  This one started slow with a lot about Isabella’s childhood and whatnot.  Luckily, she has a father who cares about her, so when it’s time for her to find a husband, he gathers together a list of eligible young men who he thinks will allow Isabella to at least somewhat continue her studies.  She manages to marry one of these guys and FINALLY the action begins when she convinces her husband to allow her to travel with him as a group heads to a foreign country to study dragons.

There was a lot to like here, which is why I ended up with a 4* rating.  The overall concept is fantastic and the writing is fairly good.  Once Isabella finally makes it to where the dragons live, the pace picks up a lot, with just enough mystery to keep things rolling.  To me, the biggest negative (besides the absurdly unnecessary death of a beloved character at the end – still mad about that) was that this book needed to be set in an alternate universe of our world.  It’s obvious that Brennan is using large parts of England and Europe as a basis for her world’s geography – why not just USE THEM and then everything would make more sense.  Then there wouldn’t have to be so much time spent on boring backgrounds of politics and government (which got significantly worse int he second book).  It would be obvious how far apart things are, giving a sense of distance and time.  Languages would make sense.  EVERYTHING would make more sense.  Creating a completely different world that is basically just the same as ours except with a bunch of different countries and names just made this story unnecessarily confusing.  Overall a pick, but a somewhat aggravated one.

His Good Opinion by Nancy Kelley – 4*

//published 2011//

This is a super straight Pride & Prejudice variation – it’s literally just Darcy’s perspective of the whole book.  It’s done really well and is a nice companion piece, but it lacks Austen’s sparkle.  Part of it is Darcy himself – he’s kind of the straight guy, so to speak, so his inner dialogue isn’t exactly full of jokes, but I always get the impression that Darcy has a lot of snark under his stiff exterior, and that wasn’t in this book at all.  The other big thing this book lacked was any kind of background about Darcy – the author had a great opportunity to show us how Darcy became the man that he is, even if it’s through flashbacks or something, but no – this book starts with Darcy discovering Georgianna’s almost-elopement in Ramsgate and goes from there.  While I’m sticking with my 4* rating for solid writing, this book had a lot of potential that it just didn’t capitalize on.

Washington Wolves Series by Karla Sorensen

• The Bombshell Effect (4*)
• The Ex Effect (3.5*)
• The Marriage Effect (4.5*)

Let me just preface this one by saying these books are kind of trashy.  There’s a decent amount of sex in them and they’re overall pure brain candy.  But sometimes I NEED some pure brain candy, and although these were sexier than I prefer, I really enjoyed the characters and stories, and liked the way the trilogy came together as a whole.

The stories focus on a (fictional) professional football team, the Washington Wolves.  In the first book, the owner of the team dies and his daughter ends up inheriting it.  Of course, some of the team members are nervous about having a random woman in control of their livelihood, especially the star quarterback.  For anyone who reads romance, it’s not going to be a surprise that the quarterback falls for the new owner, but Sorensen does a great job of writing this enemies-to-loves trope and I totally enjoyed it.

The second book was my least favorite of the three, mainly because the main character was my least favorite of three and tended to make what I considered to be dumb decisions, but it was still a good time.

The third book was my favorite, possibly because it employed my all-time favorite trope, marriage of convenience.  It’s done super well here, and there was actually a decent amount of depth concerning the children involved and trying to make things work together.

There’s also going to be a spin-off series from this one. So far only one book has been published (Focused), which I of course also read and enjoyed.

Like I said, these aren’t stellar, thought-provoking reads, but if you’re looking for plain old zone-out relaxation, and don’t mind the sexy times, these were pretty fun.