Mini Book Reviews: My Brilliant Friend, The Golden Compass...

Source

Published: October 19th, 2011 by Europa Editions

Genre: Historical Fiction, In Translation

Format: Audiobook, 12 hours and 38 minutes, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

My Thoughts:

I had forgotten about the prologue by the time I got to the end of the book. Lila goes missing and Lenu begins to tell us a story about her and Lila in Naples. And I'm left wondering who the brilliant friend is... Elena becomes an unreliable narrator and so you never quite know which story to believe or who's the good guy. And that's the point. We're human and we're all unreliable and messy. Such a fantastic story. Did she really disappear? I must keep reading to find out more...

Source

Published: December 6th, 2012 by Courtney Milan

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Format: Kindle, 270 pages, Own

Rating: 3.75 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Sometimes love is an accident.

This time, it’s a strategy.

Miss Minerva Lane is a quiet, bespectacled wallflower, and she wants to keep it that way. After all, the last time she was the center of attention, it ended badly—so badly that she changed her name to escape her scandalous past. Wallflowers may not be the prettiest of blooms, but at least they don't get trampled. So when a handsome duke comes to town, the last thing she wants is his attention.

But that is precisely what she gets.

Because Robert Blaisdell, the Duke of Clermont, is not fooled. When Minnie figures out what he’s up to, he realizes there is more to her than her spectacles and her quiet ways. And he’s determined to lay her every secret bare before she can discover his. But this time, one shy miss may prove to be more than his match...

My Thoughts:

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this one. I'd heard it was a step above some of the usual historical romances available and so I took a chance. While romances aren't my faves, this one was right up my alley with a strong female character and a witty and kind alpha male. I deplore the weak damsel and the alpha male dynamics in romances so this was different and I liked it. The storyline was also great with women's rights and class rights in England.

Source

Published: March 26th, 2019 by One World

Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir, Non-fiction

Format: Hardcover, 400 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

A bold, wry, and intimate graphic memoir about American identity, interracial families, and the realities that divide us, from the acclaimed author of The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing.

“By turns hilarious and heart-rending, it’s exactly the book America needs at this moment.”—Celeste Ng

“Who taught Michael Jackson to dance?”
“Is that how people really walk on the moon?”
“Is it bad to be brown?”
“Are white people afraid of brown people?”

Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob’s half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about everything. At first, they are innocuous enough, but as tensions from the 2016 election spread from the media into his own family, they become much, much more complicated. Trying to answer him honestly, Mira has to think back to where she’s gotten her own answers: her most formative conversations about race, color, sexuality, and, of course, love.

“How brown is too brown?”
“Can Indians be racist?”
“What does real love between really different people look like?”

Written with humor and vulnerability, this deeply relatable graphic memoir is a love letter to the art of conversation—and to the hope that hovers in our most difficult questions. 

My Thoughts:

This is a very powerful memoir in graphic novel form. I truly enjoyed her story. And there's so much to chew on.

Source

Published: August 27th, 2001 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Genre: Memoir, Juvenile, Non-fiction

Format: Paperback, 208 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice. How they sustain their hope, their good-heartedness, and tenacity is revealed in this moving, Pura Belpré Honor-winning sequel to The Circuit. Without bitterness or sentimentality, Francisco Jiménez finishes telling the story of his youth. 

My Thoughts:

I read this one for G's school for the Battle of the Books. I really enjoyed his story. He's a very accessible writer for both adults and kids. It was hard to read about him and his brother surviving without their parents for a year, and all of the discrimination they experienced from other children and their parents. I'm sure he glossed over many of his more terrifying experiences and his utter heartbreaks along the way. But his is a story many white kids will learn from. And especially in our political climate, his story is one we need to hear.

Published: July 9th, 1995 by Scholastic UK

Genre: Young adult, Fantasy

Format: Paperback, 399 pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal—including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.

But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...

A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

My Thoughts:

I read this aloud with G. And oh boy, we had a great time! We both loved Lyra's and Pantalaimon's adventures trying to save the world and her friend Roger from the Gobblers. The thing I love most about this book is how intelligent Pullman is. He adores his readers and he knows how smart they are. He's writing for teens and he treats them with respect.

His world-building is amazing. Nothing is easy. Everyone has different motives and everyone is definitely human. Not all good, not all bad. You can tell Pullman is a student of philosophy and has a smart writing style to weave it all in. We had some great discussions while reading. It's a beautiful and intelligent fantasy novel. And Lyra is a whip-smart character. We have started The Subtle Knife and it's just as good as The Golden Compass.

Mini Book Reviews: Black Star, Bright Dawn, Furious Hours...

Published: January 1st, 1988 by Fawcett

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Adventure

Format: Paperback, 112 pages, Own

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Bright Dawn was a teenaged Eskimo girl. Black Star was her part-husky, mostly wolf, pet. Together they were about to begin the famous Iditarod dogsled race through the bitter cold of Alaska. Bright Dawn knew they would win, but she didn't count on the cold, blinding whiteout, the belligerent bull moose, or ice that could crack and splinter at any time. And she soon realized that she was not only depending on Black Star for the race, but for her life...

My Thoughts:

I think it was an important story for its time. But I don't think it's a book that still needs to be read by young kids. There are better stories out there actually written by Indigenous authors. I think those stories should be promoted.

I read this for my son's school Battle of the Books. It's a very quick read. I had a hard time remembering Bright Dawn was actually 17 in the book. I kept thinking she was 11 since that's how she's written. This book could have easily been expanded into a full-of-adventure novel. But it's only 112 pages and it's over before it has even begun. But like I said before it was an important book for its time but let us let other better stories be read in schools.

Published: May 7th, 2019 by Knopf Publishing Group

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, True-crime

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted–thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend.

Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who had traveled from New York City to her native Alabama with the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she had helped her friend Truman Capote research seventeen years earlier. Lee spent a year in town reporting, and many more working on her own version of the case.

Now Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South.

My Thoughts:

I had a hard time with this one. It's different. Yes. But was it necessary? And was it a cohesive story? Not so sure about that. Casey Cep takes three different stories and tries to throw them all together. Insurance fraud and the murderous Reverend Maxwell, the murder trial of his killer, and a short biography on Harper Lee. Yes, this crime was something Ms. Lee had been working on and never finished but... I don't know. What was the point? I never felt like I got enough of any one story. I felt a bit cheated. It was a bit interesting and I didn't know much about Harper Lee before this book. And yes my hero has been destroyed. Do NOT meet your heroes... But yeah, I have mixed feelings. 

Source

Published: 1990 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy

Format: Paperback, 208 pages, Library

Rating: 4.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Cimorene is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart - and bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon - and finds the family and excitement she's been looking for.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed Cimorene's story of daring to be herself and kicking ass and saving dragons and kingdoms along the way. I wish I had read her story when I was a tween. Fantastic characters and a wonderful world make this a true classic.

Source

Published: 1998 by HarperCollins

Genre: Juvenile Fiction

Format: Paperback, 144 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

The Dry Creek Middle School drinking fountain has sprung a leak, so principal Walter Russ dashes off a request to Flowing Waters Fountains, Etc.

...We need a new drinking fountain. Please send a catalog.

Designer Flo Waters responds:

"I'd be delighted...but please understand that all of my fountains are custom-made."

Soon the fountain project takes on a life of its own, one chronicled in letters, postcards, memos, transcripts, and official documents. The school board president is up in arms. So is Dee Eel, of the water-supply company. A scandal is brewing, and Mr. Sam N.'s fifth-grade class is turning up a host of hilarious secrets buried deep beneath the fountain.

My Thoughts:

This was a fun story told in letters about solving a mystery, creating a new fountain, and thinking outside of the box. 

Mini Book Reviews: City of Ghosts, Monstress Vol. 3: Haven

I realized I missed three books during October for book reviews so I'm going to make them up here! yikes...

Published: August 28th, 2018 by Scholastic

Genre: Juvenile fiction, Horror

Format: Paperback, 272 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspecters, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.

When The Inspecters head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.

My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this middle-grade novel about a young girl who's best friend is a ghost. I enjoyed visiting Edinburgh through their eyes. And there were some genuinely creepy moments! Overall, a great little haunted series. I look forward to the next book.

Published: September 11th, 2018 by Image Comics

Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy

Format: Paperback, 168 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Maika Halfwolf has begun to unlock the mysteries of her past - but the challenges are only going. In this third volume of MONSTRESS, collecting issues 13-18, Maika's journey takes her to the neutral city of Pontus, where she hopes to find temporary refuge from her pursuers. Unfortunately, Pontus may not be as safe as Maika and her allies had hoped.

As the impending war between humans and Arcanics creeps ever closer, and powerful players fight for the chance to control her future, Maika finds she must work with Zinn, the Monstrum that lives inside her, in order to ensure their mutual survival. But even that alliance might not be enough to prepare Maika for the horrors to come.

My Thoughts:

Another fantastic addition to this amazing fantasy series. While it's sometimes hard to follow, I get the gist and I love the tragic heroine Maika is and how she surrounds herself with people her make her better. The world-building is phenomenal. I'd love an actual book fantasy series to read. It would help fill in some of the gaps.

Published: June13th, 2019 by Celadon Books

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Format: Hardcover, 355 pages, Library

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

In this dark, suspenseful thriller, Alex North weaves a multi-generational tale of a father and son caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town.

After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank.

But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.

Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.

And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...

My Thoughts:

I liked it. But I didn't love it. The characters didn't quite come alive for me, and how it all connects, in the end, was a little over-the-top. But it's still a good, creepy story and I did enjoy the elements of the supernatural in it.

Published: 1991 by Scholastic

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Horror, Short Stories

Format: Paperback, 128 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Storytellers know — just as they have for hundreds and hundreds of years — that everyone enjoys a good, scary story!

Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories 3 joins his other popular collections of scary folklore, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark and More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, to give readers spooky, funny and fantastic tales guaranteed to raise goosebumps.

Who is the Wolf girl? Why is a hearse filled with men with yellow glowing eyes? Can a nightmare become reality? How do you avoid an appointment with Death?

Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozens scary stories — and even a scary song — all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark...

My Thoughts:

Another great collection of folk horror stories. G and I had a great time looking at the creepy drawings and reading all the funny and creepy stories! The best collection and drawings. Then we watched the movie! It was fun to pick out the stories we recognized from the books.

Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco

Source

Published: October 1st, 2019 by Viking

Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction

Format: Hardcover, 360 pages, Library

Rating: 4.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Jeannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare since she was a teenager. She startles awake, saying his name. It is always about him: one of her closest high school friends, a boy named Mark. A boy who raped her.

When her nightmares worsen, Jeannie decides—after fourteen years of silence—to reach out to Mark. He agrees to talk on the record and meet in person. "It's the least I can do," he says.

Jeannie details her friendship with Mark before and after the assault, asking the brave and urgent question: Is it possible for a good person to commit a terrible act? Jeannie interviews Mark, exploring how rape has impacted his life as well as her own. She examines the language surrounding sexual assault and pushes against its confines, contributing to and deepening the #MeToo discussion.

Exacting and courageous, Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl is part memoir, part true-crime record, and part testament to the strength of female friendships—a recounting and reckoning that will inspire us to ask harder questions and interrogate our biases. Jeannie Vanasco examines and dismantles long-held myths of victimhood, discovering grace and power in this genre-bending investigation into the trauma of sexual violence.

My Thoughts:

I literally had to let this one percolate for awhile. It's been over a month since I read this. I wrote down all my thoughts right after so I wouldn't lose that but I just barely looked my notes over. This book was visceral. Vanasco writes in real-time her feelings about "Mark" and her reactions to their conversations. You cry, you yell, you're disgusted, and empathetic towards Mark all at the same time she is.

It tells a story of a larger cultural phenomenon-- we don't take care of our own. Ms. Vanasco was emotionally abused by her boyfriend in high school-- she was 14 and he was 18 when they started dating! She says her dad really liked him and so she figured his abusive nature was normal!

She always had a protective-type relationship with her father since he was 61 when he had her. He was more frail while she grew up and didn't want to cause any problems where he would feel his age and how he couldn't protect like he would want to. So she never felt like she could tell her parents her problems. Like when her high school journalism teacher was sexually harassing her and stalking her and no one cared--not the police, not friends, and she couldn't turn to her parents.

I feel like her story is how everyone in her life who was supposed to protect her and love her, didn't. I don't know if she meant to write about that but that's what I got from it. It's about Mark, her best friend, who raped her when she was drunk, but it's also about everyone else in her life who failed to protect her and support her when needed. That also translates into our culture of rape. Blame the victim, turn a blind eye when it's a loved one doing the abuse or someone in authority, or a beloved sports player, or that pillar of the community.

This is a book about working through trauma, recognizing it, and trying to find a way forward and asking society to look at how we treat our women. It's a punch to the gut and I recommend it for everyone.

Book Review: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

Published: October 4th, 2016 by Viking

Genre: History, Nonfiction

Format: Kindle, 320 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

An intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history, Ghostland takes readers on a road trip through some of the country's most infamously haunted places--and deep into the dark side of our history.

Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes," Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as "the most haunted mansion in America," or "the most haunted prison"; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget. 
    
With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living--how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made--and why those changes are made--Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved. Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we're most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whis

I really enjoyed Dickey's thoughts on why places are "haunted." He makes no claim about the reality of ghosts, one way or another. He only takes us through various places that are considered haunted in America. He talks to local historians. He rummages through old stories and newspaper clippings to get the real scoop on the stories behind the hauntings. He stays in places that are supposedly haunted to get a feel for the place.

He also asks why so many places that are considered haunted have only "white" ghosts? Why in Richmond, Virginia where you'll find the Devil's Acre (where slaves were kept and tortured and sold) are there only stories of haunted saloons and bars? Dickey writes: "We typically think of ghost stories in terms of the remnants of a terrible tragedy, a past we cannot escape, or a justice unavenged. Why, then, in a place that should be so haunted but the legacy of such a terrible injustice, the scene of the countless deaths, should there be nothing but white ghosts?"

Ghost stories are a way to reconcile with the past, to face our fears. But what happens when the storytellers whitewash the past and don't tell the stories that are apart of who we are and how this nation was built? He says: "Does an absence of these ghost stories suggest that there is still, over a century later, a lacuna in the culture's memory, a taboo about its past, a refusal to discuss certain things?" Definitely.

His final thoughts sum up the book perfectly: "Ghost stories are about how we face, or fail to face, the past--how we process information, how we narrate our past, and how we make sense of the gaps in that history."

My only complaint is that he probably took on too much for such a short book. It's a great start to diving into the psychology of haunted places and ghosts and why and how we as humans continue to see or don't see certain types of ghosts. There's a lot more here that could take on volumes. But I loved the start and I loved his approach.

*Part of the R.I.P. XIV and FrightFall Horror Challenge

Mini Book Reviews--The Forgotten Girl

Published: November 15th, 2019 by Scholastic

Genre: Juvenile fiction, Horror

Format: Paperback, 256 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

On a cold winter night, Iris and her best friend, Daniel, sneak into a clearing in the woods to play in the freshly fallen snow. There, Iris carefully makes a perfect snow angel - only to find the crumbling gravestone of a young girl, Avery Moore, right beneath her.

Immediately, strange things start to happen to Iris: She begins having vivid nightmares. She wakes up to find her bedroom window wide open, letting in the snow. She thinks she sees the shadow of a girl lurking in the woods. And she feels the pull of the abandoned grave, calling her back to the clearing...

Obsessed with figuring out what's going on, Iris and Daniel start to research the area for a school project. They discover that Avery's grave is actually part of a neglected and forgotten Black cemetery, dating back to a time when White and Black people were kept separate in life - and in death. As Iris and Daniel learn more about their town's past, they become determined to restore Avery's grave and finally have proper respect paid to Avery and the others buried there.

But they have awakened a jealous and demanding ghost, one that's not satisfied with their plans for getting recognition. One that is searching for a best friend forever - no matter what the cost.

The Forgotten Girl is both a spooky original ghost story and a timely and important storyline about reclaiming an abandoned segregated cemetery.

My Thoughts:

It's a haunting ghost story on how when we forget the past it comes back to haunt us. She introduces kids to a dark past that has connections to the present. 

Published: August 13th, 2019 by SourceBooks

Genre: True crime, Memoir

Format: Hardback, 336 pages, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked? Put together the pieces? Identify the suspect?

Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there.

But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.

You'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara's pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools―and the rules―to help solve murders yourself.

Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before.

My Thoughts:

While I really wanted to love this one, it didn't hit the right tone for me. I enjoyed his story about breaking into true-crime writing and how he met Michelle McNamara and helped her with research. But he's a weaker writer and all the elements didn't quite fit together. But it was interesting to see how regular citizens can come together and help police departments solve crimes. Though, it was horrifying to see how easy it is with the right amount of money to be targeted by ads on Facebook and other social media sites. Yikes.

Published: February 16th, 2016 by Tor.com

Genre: Horror

Format: Kindle, 149 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

My Thoughts:

I always love LaValle's take on old stories. This one is no different. Let it burn and see what happens. Fantastic.

Published: July 5th, 2017 by Image Comics

Genre: Fantasy, Graphic novel

Format: Paperback, 152 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Maika Halfwolf is on the run from a coalition of forces determined to control or destroy the powerful Monstrum that lives beneath her skin. But Maika still has a mission of her own: to discover the secrets of her late mother, Moriko.

In this second volume of Monstress, collecting issues 7-12, Maika's quest takes her to the pirate-controlled city of Thyria and across the sea to the mysterious Isle of Bones. It is a journey that will force Maika to reevaluate her past, present, and future, and contemplate whether there's anyone, or anything, she can truly trust--including her own body. 

My Thoughts:

Another great volume in Maika's journey. Characters are great. Maika is the anti-heroine. We learn more about the parasite God inhabiting her body, and more about her mother. The cats are great. And Little Fox is a great character to help bring out Maika's humanity.

Published: September 25th, 2018 by Scholastic Inc.

Genre: Horror, Young Adult

Format: Paperback, 272 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and step-dad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast.Nothing seems to work around the place, which doesn't seem too weird to Denise. The unexplained noises are a little more out of the ordinary, but again, nothing too unusual. But when floors collapse, deadly objects rain down, and she hears creepy voices, it's clear to Denise that something more sinister lurks hidden here.Answers may lie in an old comic book Denise finds concealed in the attic: the lost, final project of a famous artist who disappeared in the 1950s. Denise isn't budging from her new home, so she must unravel the mystery-on the pages and off-if she and her family are to survive...

My Thoughts:

I always enjoy a great haunted house story. Priest meshes elements of history from Hurricane Katrina and current events like gentrification in black neighborhoods and all in a fun haunted house story. We also get an old comic book and a mystery to solve.

Published: July 18th, 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Horror

Format: Hardback, 319 pages, Own

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine. Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation–sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site . . . and the terrifying presence that lurks there. 

My Thoughts:

Smith gets full stars for creating a terrifying world. The vine creature that is out to get them is terrifying. I felt claustrophobic at times. You can really imagine yourself stuff out there in those ruins with those vines ...

But his characters ... don't even ask me to remember who is who. They're stereotypes and that's it. Slut girl, prissy girl, Boy Scout, the idiot, and the outsiders. They do dumb stuff that usually only happens in horror movies. But what a ride to the end!

*Horror books read for R.I.P. XIV and FrightFall

Black Water Rising and Pleasantville by Attica Locke

Published: June 9th, 2009 by Amistad

Genre: Crime Fiction, Thriller

Format: Kindle, 427 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary: 

In her debut novel, Attica Locke—a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire—delivers an engrossing, complex, and cinematic thriller about crime and racial justice

Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.

Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning—and opens a Pandora's box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past.

With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.

My Thoughts:

This is the second book I've read of Attica Locke's. This one was just as good. She starts slow and it's a slow burn but one that pays off the last half of the book. Locke has a way of teaching us new things about Houston and its history with race, class, and big oil; and it's all within a fascinating and entertaining story.

Jay is a guy trying to do his best for his family, Bertie, who's pregnant with their first child. She's long-suffering but gives him the space he needs to do his job. He finds help from an old client who's a DIY private investigator and a journalist trying to break open a story.

This is a character-driven and world-driven story. It's slow but it's worth it. I learned a lot about Houston in the early 80s and what big Oil meant for that city and its people.

Published: April 21st, 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers

Genre: Crime Fiction, Thriller

Format: Kindle, 433 pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

In this sophisticated thriller, lawyer Jay Porter, hero of Locke’s bestseller Black Water Rising, returns to fight one last case, only to become embroiled once again in a dangerous game of shadowy politics and a witness to how far those in power are willing to go to win

Fifteen years after the events of Black Water Rising, Jay Porter is struggling to cope with catastrophic changes in his personal life and the disintegration of his environmental law practice. His victory against Cole Oil is still the crown jewel of his career, even if he hasn’t yet seen a dime thanks to appeals. But time has taken its toll. Tired and restless, he's ready to quit.

When a girl goes missing on Election Night, 1996, in the neighborhood of Pleasantville—a hamlet for upwardly-mobile blacks on the north side of Houston—Jay, a single father, is deeply disturbed. He’s been representing Pleasantville in the wake of a chemical fire, and the case is dragging on, raising doubts about his ability.

The missing girl was a volunteer for one of the local mayoral candidates, and her disappearance complicates an already heated campaign. When the nephew of one of the candidates, a Pleasantville local, is arrested, Jay reluctantly finds himself serving as a defense attorney. With a man’s life and his own reputation on the line, Jay is about to try his first murder in a case that will also put an electoral process on trial, exposing the dark side of power and those determined to keep it.

My Thoughts:

Jay Porter returns 15 years later since the first book of Black Water Rising. We're in the mid-90s and we get a lot of history about that time. It's a fun throw-back with Clinton, etc. Locke uses grief in her story with Jay and his children. Bertie has died from cancer the previous year and him and their kids are in free-fall. 

It's another slow burn the first half. We get character development, a run-down of the first novel plot, and the world of Houston in the mid-90s. Nothing exciting happens until Neal is arrested and Jay agrees to be his lawyer. The mystery wasn't as exciting or intriguing this time around. But the way Locke talks about politics and the formation of PACs and the smashing of voting blocs and the beginning of the end of our political system is flawless and is worth the read, if nothing else. I'm floored at the way Locke can teach us using crime fiction. This is crime fiction that's ethical and has something to say.

Read for R.I.P. 14 and FrightFall 

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Published: July 9th, 2019 by Delacorte Press

Genre: Young adult, Sci-fi

Format: Hardcover, 353 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's summary:

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

My Thoughts:

I don't know how to fully articulate my thoughts on this book. I loved it. I know that. It was creepy and weird and gorgeous.

It's a quick read. I whipped through it. Power gives you just enough of her world but not too much. We know that a toxin has spread through the island and has hit Raxter. Over half of the girls have not survived, most of the staff as well. Now that everything's gone to the dogs, a new set of rules and hierarchy has been set up. How long can this new and dangerous social order hold up? Hetty, Byatt, and Reese look out for each other. Now, this is where I adored the book. These relationships right here between these three were beautiful to watch unfold.

I truly don't know how Power folded all of these threads and ideas together and in such a small amount of space, but she does it with aplomb. We've got love, grief, friendship, loyalty, government lies, and environmental collapse all thrown into one gorgeous and freaky book.

*Read for R.I.P. XIVth

The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

Published: May 4th, 2019 by Soho Crime

Genre: Historical Mystery

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur's royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. The state is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur's two maharanis, the dowager queen and her daughter-in-law.

The royal ladies are in a dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer's counsel is required. However, the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, Bombay's only female lawyer. Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince's future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace's deadly curse?

My Thoughts:

This is a fun continuation of the Perveen Mistry series. Once again Perveen must head to a place that will only allow women. She's in luck since she's India's only female lawyer. 

This story was set up a bit differently than The Widows of Malabar Hill. In that one we get flashbacks to Perveen before she became a lawyer and those slowly catch up to her in the present. We get a lot of backstory and history and it was presented well. In The Satapur Moonstone, there are no flashbacks. A lot of the history and backstory to the setting come out a bit clunky. We "hear" a lot of Perveen's thoughts that don't seem really relevant to the story but come at as cultural or religious information. Those thoughts and explanations took me out of the story more often than I liked. I feel like the explanations and historical information could've been presented differently.

Perveen gets a romantic interest in Colin. He's British but he's intelligent and kind-hearted, just what she's looking for...well, she's technically unavailable, but let's hope that gets resolved in a future story!

The mystery was interesting. I liked learning more about the small ruling maharaja kingdoms before Indian independence. It's a slow burn but one that is thoroughly rewarding. Massey's series is character and world-driven. The mystery is more a way to talk about India's rich history and customs. She also does not shy away from the unfair treatment of women, children, and the caste society in India. And she has no problem tackling British colonization and the good and the bad that came out of it. It's a fantastic series and am looking forward to the next installation.

*read as part of the Book Challenge by Erin 11.0

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

Published: September 1st, 2015 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: Historical Mystery

Format: Hardcover, 408 pages, own

Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads' Summary:

A novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation’s first female deputy sheriffs.

Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.  

My Thoughts:

The Kopp sisters live a quiet life until their buggy is hit by an automobile driven by Henry Kaufman, a local factory owner. Things are never the same again after they go after him for charges to repair their buggy. He comes after them with his local gang. Constance, working with the local sheriff, manage to gather the evidence necessary to take him down in the courts. Constance also manages to help a local factory worker Lucy along the way too. 

I loved these sisters; each is different in a very humorous way. I was surprised to learn Constance and her sisters are taken from history as well as the Kaufman case. Stewart pulls in actual articles and headlines to tell their story.

It's a fantastic story that would be fun as fictional but to get a sense of the time and place as actual history was an extra bonus. Times were hard back then to be a woman on your own and to be one as conspicuous and outspoken as Constance was. I look forward to more adventures with the Kopp sisters.

Also, Amy Stewart is a prolific writer of non-fiction so I was surprised to hear about this series. Check out her non-fiction work as well. The Drunken Botanist is a favorite of mine.

*Read for Book Challenge by Erin 11.0