Tag: book review

Dear John, by Norma Betz

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Finished 7-18-08, rating 2/5, fiction, pub. 2008

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this free reviewer copy with the understanding that I would review it here.  I agreed because the story sounded interesting.  Susanna must go and take care of her deceased aunt’s estate and in the process learns a lot about herself through the letters she finds written by her ancestor, Abigail Adams.  She is joined on this journey by her best companion, her dog Quincy.  I love dogs and genealogy and thought this book would be right up my alley.  It was not.

I loved the idea of the story, but the execution wasn’t good.  My first problem came early on when I found the first notation to refer to the chapter notes at the end of the book.  There were many and they stopped the story and were totally unnecessary.  I’ve never seen it in fiction and there is a good reason why.  The clunky language was the main problem of the book.  The language was stilted and although the characters were fine, their language made them pretty boring. 

There were a few bright spots.  I loved Quincy and his relationship with Susanna.  Also, if you are interested in Abigail Adams you will probably like this better than I did.  It is filled with Abigail letters that I found myself skimming, but someone else may find very interesting.

This is her first book and she used an alternative publishing source, Authorhouse.  If you are interested in self-publishing your own book and would like me to send you this copy so that you can see the quality, leave and comment and I’ll get it to you.

Fearless Fourteen, by Janet Evanovich

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Cover ImageFinished 7-17-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008

Stephanie Plum is back with her crazy assortment of cohorts.  Ranger needs Stephanie for a bodyguard gig and Morelli needs her for mother duty.  Ranger’s job introduces her to an aging singer way past her prime and the singer’s stalker who follows Stephanie home.  Morelli is stuck with Zook, who may or may not be his son and needs Stephanie’s help until they can find his mother.  Everyone is town thinks that 9 million dollars is buried at Morelli’s house and the town crazies (including Grandma Mazur) show up with a shovel.  Lula proposes to herself and Tank faints, while Morelli might mention marriage to Stephanie.

I have been disappointed with the series for more than a few books now, but this book made me happy to have Stephanie back.  It was good to see some character growth.  Although I missed Ranger and the chemistry between them I thought Stephanie’s relationship with Morelli was sweet and sexy.  And I loved the storyline of Lula and Tank’s engagement, priceless.  This book was the best one in awhile and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Bittersweet Rain, by Sandra Brown

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Cover ImageFinished 7-13-08, rating 3/5, romance, pub. 1984

Caroline grew up as the daughter of the town drunk.  She was the poor girl who would never amount to anything.  Rink was the significantly older, rich son of the town patriarch.  He met Caroline when she was only 15 and fell in love.  They hid their relationship until one day Rink decided to tell his father, regardless of the consequences.

Fast forward 12 years and you’ll find Caroline married to Roscoe, Rink’s dad.  Roscoe is dying and Rink is forced to come home.  Rink and Caroline are forced together by the circumstances, but find their attraction has the same powerful pull it had before. 

As silly as this may sound, and I thought it sounded silly too, it was an enjoyable romance.  There were a few things that I thought would be hard to get over, a college graduate in love with a 15 year old and a woman marrying an old man for the comforts he could provide, but somehow it worked.  It was a good romance and I would recommend it.  Sandra Brown knows how to tell a good story.

You Learn by Living, by Eleanor Roosevelt

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You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling LifeYou Learn by Living:Eleven Keys for a More Fulfulling Life

Finished 7-12-08, rating 4/5, non-fiction, pub. 1960

“It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing.  But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.”                  Chapter 7

“What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading.  It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person.”         Chapter 1

I knew and still, in many ways, know very little about Eleanor Roosevelt.  She wrote this book only a few years before she died and in it she chronicles what the many years of her life taught her.  She covers a variety of topics: learning, fear, using your time, maturity, readjustments, usefulness, individuality, getting the best out of people, responsibility, politics participation, and being a public servant.  This book holds up remarkably well and many of the affairs of the world are eeerily relevant today.

Eleanor was born to priveledge and the book makes that evident.  Some of the advice, while coming from a good place, seems somewhat elitist.  On the other hand, she is a woman who has seen the people of the world at their best and worst and has come away with a passion for life and making the world a better place.  Her antedotes about some of the important men of the day, her lunch with Calvin Coolidge and conversation with Mr. Krushchev are two that come to mind, make the book that much more interesting.  I found the book enlightening, inspiring, and educational.

She talks a lot about raising children and I think this would be a wonderful gift for a mom-to-be or new mother who has an interest in history or even the empowerment of women.  I think you’ll be better off for having read this book.

The Widow, by Carla Neggers

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Cover ImageFinished 7-5-08, rating 3.5/5, Romantic Suspense, pub. 2007

How would your life change if your husband was murdered four days into your honeymoon?  For Abigail, it changed the course of her career and the obsessed way in which she chose to spend her time.  She became a homicide detective, convinced that she would some day learn enough to find her husband’s killer, but seven years later she was still stuck reliving the past, looking for answers.  Then one day she receives a phone call that sends her back to Maine, where her husband was killed and she still owned a house.

Once in Maine there is a large line-up of potential suspects.  Abigail is familiar with all of them because she has never stopped investigating them.  While fighting for the truth she finds the time to finally heal from her husband’s death and fall in love. 

This was a fun book that will keep you guessing.  Here’s the post on my meeting Carla Neggers https://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/carla-neggers-book-signing/

The Blue Hour, by T. Jefferson Parker

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Cover ImageFinished 7-1-08, rating 3/5, thriller, pub. 2000

“Use the years to live well.”    Chapter 35

Retired detective, Tim Hess, is asked to come back to work as a consultant.  Hess is taking chemo and radiation treatments and will be forced to take orders from a young, brash detective that has just sued her last partner for sexual harassment.   He takes the job and is hoping to pass on his years of wisdom to his partner, Merci.  Merci, for her part, is an ambitious woman who has not yet figured out how to play well with others.  They are tracking a serial killer and using the time to learn what each other has to offer.

I liked Hess, but not Merci.  I thought the mystery was good and moved fast.  I did not really like the last chapter, it didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the book.  I didn’t love it, but it was good.  This is the first in a series just about Merci and I’m curious to see if she softens enough for me to really like her as the series progresses.  We’ll see.

Open House, by Elizabeth Berg

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Cover ImageFinished listening to on 6-27-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2000

“There were just families yelling at their kids not to drown and teenagers walking around like billboards, acting as if their bodies would never change.They’re so oblivious to the fact that they’ll get older.  Sometimes I want to grab them and say, ‘Hey!  I used to look like you!  Ha-ha-HA!!'”

“Yes,” Lydia says.  “That’s what I want to say to you sometimes.”  She sips her tea.

My God.  Of course that must be true.  Of course it must!  What’s a little cellulite next to a face full of deep wrinkles?  What’s a face full of deep wrinkles next to infirmity?  When does the time come when you stand in front of your grown-up woman’s mirror and feel contentment for what you see there?  Ever?—Chapter 12

Sam is a 42 year old mother, daughter, best friend, and soon to be ex-wife.  She has never had to support herself and 12 year old son, Travis, and has decided that the best way to do this is to take in boarders at her large suburban home.  Travis is not crazy about the idea and everybody else just thinks she’s crazy.  First there’s mature Lydia, then sad Lavender, and finally fabulous Edward.

She goes on a shopping spree at Tiffany’s.  She calls Martha Stewart and Martha calls her back.  She makes new friends.  She goes on a date.  And most importantly, she stops crying.

I love the rare simplicity of Elizabeth Berg’s writing and her ability to tell a story with real depth in such a concise and readable way.  Her characters are always recognizable as someone you know or might meet someday.  This story of a woman facing life after divorce is a triumph.  I’ve read quite a few of Berg’s books and by the end I always feel as if I’ve gained some insight. This is no exception.

The Bone Collector, by Jeffrey Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 6-23-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 1997

 I remember seeing the movie with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, but the only thing I really recall with any detail is Denzel as a quadriplegic.  The book is not as easily forgettable. 

 Lincoln Rhyme was a brilliant criminologist for the NYPD until he was injured in the line of duty.  Now he is paralyzed and desperately wants to die.  Patrolwoman Amelia Sachs has just found her first dead body and is about to be whisked into a high profile, politically charged case without her consent.  The two become unlikely partners in tracking a serial killer who is leaving as many living victims as dead ones.

The fast-paced action is balanced with two totally unique characters.  Rhyme and Sachs are complicated and their interaction and growth made me want to start reading the next Lincoln Rhyme book immediately.  And that rarely happens.  There is lots of violence.  Two scenes in particular were disturbing (rats and a mouthful of carotid artery) and were the only reason I didn’t rate this book a little higher. 

My only other issue is that I have a copy of the book with Denzel on the front, so that’s how I’m picturing Rhyme, but it is clear in the book that Rhyme is not black.  I think Sachs said at one point that he looked like Robert DeNiro.  I like picturing Rhyme as Denzel (who wouldn’t?),  but when repeated references were made to his white skin it threw my mental picture off. 

It’s a great thriller and I highly recommend it.

Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr

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Cover ImageFinished 6-19-08, rating 4.5/5, memoir, pub. 2007

Subtitle-On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

“Too much beauty, too much input; if you’re not careful you can overdose.”  (Winter)

“It is a Metropolitan Museum of Art the size of Manhattan, no roof, no display cases, and half a million combustion engines rumbling in the hallways.”  (Winter)

Doerr won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and was awarded a year in Rome with a home, an office, and a paycheck.   This memoir is his love letter to Rome, his wife, and his two young boys. 

Anthony, his wife, Shauna, and their six-month-old twins, Owen & Henry, arrive in Rome in the fall.  His first perceptions of Rome took me back to our own trip to Italy in April.  The discussion of the toilets, the crazy traffic, the confusion on how to order and pay, the absence of fat people, and the absolute awe of the history, all made me smile in agreement and remembrance.  Moving into winter there is the visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and watching the Pope being carried by, the five minutes alone in the Sistene Chapel, and seeing the Pantheon for the first time.  The game of bus golf sounds wonderfully fun and just up my alley.  Take a bus (or train) and randomly get off at stops and see what’s there before doing it again.  In the spring the Pope dies and a new one is chosen right in their backyard.  Shauna is hospitalized.  The heat of summer overwhelms them and they take weekly trips out of Rome to Umbria.

My copy is marked with lines and exclamation points that make it easy for me to go back and read my favorite passages (there are many).  I have already gone back and read many of the passages and pages I loved most and I just finished the book yesterday.  He has passages on Rome, on parenting, and on the splendor of life that will stick with you.  I highly recommend this memoir- especially if you love Italy or have had twins.

Phantom Prey, by John Sandford

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Cover ImageFinished 6-16-08, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 2008

Cop turned investigator, Lucas Davenport, is back in his 18th novel.  This time he’s investigating the Goth scene after a wealthy young woman who fancies herself Goth goes missing.  The mother of the missing girl is friends with Weather, Lucas’s wife, and she leans on Lucas to find her daughter. 

Almost as soon as Lucas begins, three more Goths are killed with little time between.  And when Lucas is shot, he knows that he is onto something big.  There was also a secondary investigation involving a bad man named Siggy and his pregnant girlfriend, Heather.  It was this secondary story that I liked the most.

I’m a big fan of this series, but this one was not one of my favorites.  It was good, but it didn’t draw me in as quickly as it usually does.  And there a distracting amount of colons used in the book.  I know that seems weird, but if you read it let me know if you saw it too.  And the story with Del and Cheryl was a little predictable.  I highly recommend the series and I always think it’s better if you start a series at the beginning (which would be Rules of Prey).