The Jaydit Reader

#8.....2012

2012-05-20T12:56:00.003-07:00

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One fine day, when the compasses on all the ships in Boston Harbor went haywire......and a while later, all the glass (on Bank Street) melted.....it became obvious that “something was up”, and not just the sky

it’s 1868...shortly after the Civil War

The first class of THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY is about to graduate....and all Hell breaks loose!!  Fear and Ignorance among the general populace......The Hardy Boys meet Harry Potter (meet The Technologists)....Harum scarum pyrotechnics.....corporate greed.....Creationists.....Richy rich Harvard Boys....and one lone female with the brains to attend MIT, albeit sub rosa (“in the basement”)

I loved this book......for the fact that, while it is Historical in content...and I’m sure the research is/was flawless.....but more so, because it was such a damned “fun” read

I haven’t read anything else by Mr Pearl...though The Dante Club has been lurking hereabouts for quite a while, and i do want to read it, now

Recommended for those who won’t be nitpickers or Grouchy Guses.....who want a good story that also makes one think a bit...about our own attitude toward technology/innovation...and Education/Intellectualism....the more things change, they really do stay the same

4 Stars

**This was a Net Galley**

2012-05-08T14:24:00.003-07:00

#11....2012 Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

...is a tour de force of storytelling!!

Young computer hackers plying their trade in an unnamed Middle Eastern Police State...risking life, limb, and motherboards...all in the name of Freedom. Then....this book appears...an ancient tome that wasn't supposed to exist. The Thousand and One Days (as opposed to The Thousand and One Nights)....full of odd tales...or metaphors. Or, is the book really a complex computer program that recognizes individuals...without the aid of ISPs or code names? I'll never know what else to say about this one...except WOW! Go...get a copy when it's published....you'll be sitting open-mouthed. like I was!! (

***this was a Net Galley***

2012-05-08T14:22:00.001-07:00

#10....2012 Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the one hand...lords and ladies and "palace intrigue"...a beleagured Princess...skeevy schemes...all the stuff of good fairy tales. On the other hand...a "religious order" that trains female assassins..(Sisters of Death!). I know, it sounds Ho-Hum, but...this gal can write! The story (14th century Brittany and the constant war against France) is exceptionally well told and the characters...while "characters"..are all too human. Seek out this gem...read it! (I'll be buying a copy when it's published...that's how much I liked it)

***this was a Net Galley***

2012-04-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

#7.....2012 The Trade by Thomas Kirkwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Young, Eastern European women are promised jobs, and a chance for a better life, only to see those promises crushed when they are auctioned off and sold into sexual slavery...Welcome to the Natasha Trade...a multi-million dollar, world wide business....set up to satisfy the "esoteric" tastes of wealthy men...Asian, American, Arab, Russian.....mostly Westerners, who have the $$$

One Natasha escaped....and built a better life with a husband and child...until her former "master" found her....killed her husband and framed her for the murder.....now, with her daughter's whereabouts unknown...life is pretty much over for Kristyna

After a daring escape from the courthouse, during her sentencing hearing (an escape involving a body-double, no less)...and a series of evasive maneuvers by sea....our Kristyna ends up back in Europe, hell-bound for Slovenia...bent on revenge, and finding her daughter. Hot on her tail are two FBI agents, bent on capturing her and returning her to the USA....after that, the story gets complicated

Did I mention, one of the the Slovenian bad guys seemed to be an reincarnation of the Mad Monk, Rasputin...complete with a "church" and a "doctrine" of Redemption that would creep out anyone. A cold blooded but "smart as a whip" sociopath...

Car chases, role playing, "slave auctions" by the light of oil barrel fires....all the elements of a decent thriller are here..along with pointed social commentary. The story ain't pretty, there is plenty of violence...but the scared little girl is finally reunited with her mother and they live...

Except, the Natasha Trade is still thriving...young women are still desperate..throughout the world

I thought this was a good Thriller..a bit heavy-handed, at times. The FBI agents were a bit much in the "macho" vein...as Tough Guys...but, they spoke in complete sentences and had legitimate gripes about their lame assed Superiors...Ultimately they were brave and saved one woman and her daughter...I recommend this book, it was a pleasant surprise

***this was a Net Galley***

3 Stars

#6 2012

2012-02-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

The Pleasure Dial by Jeremy Edwards

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my lord, what a delight, is this book!

This peek-a-boo into the world of 1930s radio...when Radio was King...has it all. Frazzled comedy writers, egotistical radio Stars, a nymphomaniacal daughter, pansexuality,and men who wear Fedoras!

Artie Plask leaves New York, after spending too much time looking up a mannequin's skirt, for a lucrative job writing for one Sid Huffy...Radio Star/King of Comedy...Once in the City of Angels, our boy Artie meets a bunch of characters that blow his mind..and other body parts..The lovely Elyse (daughter of Sid) who can't seem to keep her clothes on....Sid, himself...the Star-of-the-day...with a serious flair for comedy (too bad he yearns for Drama)....and Mariel, the true Star of this story...writer extraordinaire...the girl-with-the-feather...the wittiest of them all

And Sex....of which there is a plethora. Lubricious, lively, and louche...Fun sex, not Porn (sex-for-profit)..although these folks profit greatly by all their exertion/exercise. The dialogue improves, and this reader felt the temperature rise..a Good thing

There is a story here...and believable characters. Women who like sex, in all its permutations, but still have a job....and think with their brains (they leave their pussies for pleasure, and know the difference). Men who are more than their "tools"...who care about life, and their job, and women

Old time radio was no different than today's Media...Professional jealousy...Pompous asshole writers...Money issues..This story has all of that, with a touch of Innocence

Recommended to anyone who enjoys sex-on-the-page...in good fun with a touch of innocence...and a decent story, to boot

4 Stars

*** I received this from GoodReads***

#5 2012

2012-02-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four friends form a jazz band in High School, the eponymous Lola Quartet....add one more (the drummer's step sister/trumpet player's girlfriend) and you have the cast of characters playing in this story

You also have a pregnancy-kept-secret, a runaway, a theft of mucho $$$$ from a meth dealer, a ruined journalist, and a cold-blooded murder. Oh my!

Gavin and Anne were High School sweethearts, until Anne became pregnant, and decided to run away with Daniel (because he had a place to run to in Utah)....Anne spends a lot of time in turmoil, wondering if the baby will look half-Japanese, like Gavin, or Cocoa brown, like Daniel...Anna slept around a bit. Once the baby is born all pink and shiny, Daniel splits...and Anna steals over $100,000 from her crazy Meth dealer landlord....so begins her Life on the Lam....Meanwhile, 10 years on, Gavin's successful career as a journalist tanks miserably once he's caught faking stories...he has to return home to Florida to work for his sister, foreclosing properties....Jack the erstwhile Boy Genius is a Vicodin addict who spends his days reading books about jazz arcana...Daniel is an embittered police detective with a trashed marriage, two kids, and no life...Sasha the drummer spends her days hiding from reality..her nights working at a roadside diner..her spare moments devising a plan to save Anna from that hellhound Meth dealer..

The death of High School dreams...the harsh bite of reality...the way people we once thought we knew, can change into monsters...the way we accept all of this as "just life" but still keep an eye peeled over one shoulder...that's what this book is about. It's no "mystery" any more than life itself

While not earth shattering, I thought this was a good story, well told...it made me consider some of my youthful indiscretions...and what the fallout would have been, if i'd stayed in touch with people from college...and if anything would have survived from those friendships, besides regret

Recommended

4 Stars

***This was a Net Galley***

#4 2012

2012-02-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Marian and Ben, young lovers in 1950s Ireland, are on the road to learning some of Life's more difficult lessons. Marian (Catholic) is pregnant, and about to tell Ben (Jewish)...but after a disastrous first meeting with his parents, she hies off to a Catholic "Mother & Baby" home to complete her pregnancy and "give up" the baby for adoption.

Fast forward ten years.....Marian and Ben are married with a daughter, Johanna, and life is good. Things start to unravel when the "other" child makes an appearance, though not directly at first. Seems Adrian was not adopted by a wealthy American couple, but has been languishing in a Catholic Orphanage, within spitting distance (okay, I exaggerate, here) of Marian's happy home. Thus begins the journey through Irish Adoption Law...the quest to "get Adrian back".

After a shaky period within the bosom of his family, Adrian is returned to the Orphanage while the wheels of Church and State grind slow, his fate in the balance, since he is legally the ward of one Sister Agnes....head "angel" of the Orphanage.. He befriends another orphan, a girl...and all hell breaks loose because they are kids and curious. The girl is shipped off to a madhouse and Adrian is consigned to an Industrial School for Boys, where the loving attention of the priests leaves many marks.

If this story seems to be following a pattern...it is. It did. It is a fierce indictment of the Catholic Orphanage/Industrial School system....of the "homes" for unwed mothers....of the abuse of defencless children by priests and nuns....but it is told more from the side of one family caught up in the system's net. The toll taken on a marriage through guilt, frustration, and anger..Marian spends a lot of time blaming herself for Adrian's situation...and suspecting her husband of countless infidelities....and envying his ties to Judaism and "faith"....Ben goes through life trying to succeed at his job as a Journalist, being thwarted at every turn for his "radical" ideas....trying to understand his wife's mood swings...Johanna goes through life as a kid in a shaky home situation...The Church people go through life with "God's blessings"

I liked this book for its restraint..and respect the author for not turning it into a screed...for developing believable characters caught in a heartbreaking situation, without reverting to a "4 hankie" fest...I came away from this book still angry as hell at the blindness of the Catholic Church and the cruelty meted out in the name of God....but I am glad I saw the human side of this one story..

Recommended to anyone who wants to be pleasantly surprised at the handling of one Hot Button Issue

4 Stars

***this was a Net Galley***

#3 (?) 2012

2012-02-04T14:26:00.001-08:00

The Sausage Maker's Daughters by A.G.S. Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this book would be another take on KING LEAR....likeA Thousand Acres..a literate, "moving" take.....Not so...Shakespearian this is not....in tone or telling

Kip Czermanski was the eternal Black Sheep in her family of Breck Blonde sisters...and the strict Catholicism...Needless to say Kip was short and dark haired...Kip was the trouble maker..the wild child...the Counter Culture rabble rouser who loved to terrorize her family by indulging in such "nonsense" as anti-war activities..Feminist terrorism...never mind that she was blamed for the death of her mother...the "sainted mother" who died from complications of Kip's birth

A fact that older sister Sibely never let's Kip forget

This story starts where Kip is languishing in jail...charged with the murder of her brother-in-law...Sybel's husband...Kip's lover from her college days. The final straw for JJ Czwermanski..The Sausage King's...youngest daughter (herself a bother and,now, an Adulteress to boot)

Talk about family dysfunction.....this book is a Big Ass soap opera

Sisters pointing fingers and pulling their own hair

There is also a whiff of the AFTER SCHOOL SPECIALS....as far as the Counterculture aspect.....a "preachy teachy" tone (which leads me to think the Author didn't live through this era)

I tend to avoid books that deal with the 1960s-early 1970s...because I lived that era...the Anti-War/Feminist Movements...because my issues, within those Movements, were "class" related....I saw that most of the Movement Radicals were Trust Fund babies...dressed as Lumberjacks..driving snazzy sports cars.....kinda made me sour

That BS being said....I thought this book was a "guilty pleasure"....oddly compelling..if only for the fact that the "least" of the Czermanski sisters....ended up a murderess

Recommended to those who enjoy their Family Dramas as "soap opera"....and never really lived through the Counterculture of the 60s-70s

3 Stars

**this was a Net Galley**

View all my reviews

#2 (2012)

2012-01-30T12:01:00.001-08:00

Property by Valerie Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The year is 1828

.....a sugar plantation in Louisiana, where Slavery is in flower for both the slaves and slave owners

The Slave Owners see “slave rebellions” around every corner..as they should, since their entire way of life is dependent on the labor of their “lowly blacks”.....and, our “heroine” Manon Gaudet, is no exception...though she is but the wife of a boorish “Massa”, Manon is not stupid...just crippled by her social status (she is “chattel” to her husband, as much as his slaves) and her relationship to Sarah (her personal slave..and her husband’s mistress..mother to his bastard children)

This is not a pretty story....and Manon’s situation isn’t new (how many women do you know who resent their husband’s cheating...but, merely, seethe...rather than kick the bastard out??)...but I admire Ms Martin’s delivery here..

The story is told in Manon’s “cold” voice...full of anger and frustration... I actually felt sorry for her

Sarah?......had a taste of Freedom....was captured and returned

I find the last pages painfully ironic...where Manon is “dumbfounded” by certain aspects of Sarah’s oh-so-short Freedom

Recommended

4 Stars

View all my reviews

#1 (2012)

2012-01-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

...captures the paranoia endemic to society in Vienna..October 1939

What begins as an investigation into the killing of a neighbor's dog.....leads one Doctor Beer into the darker aspects of the lives of his neighbors. The diversity of social classes living in one apartment complex...surrounding a courtyard..

In this time and place...everyone had secrets..and would kill to keep them

Doctor Beer treats a young woman with sexual issues...a neighbor across the courtyard is caring for a "mentally defective" sister....the little girl, around the way...the humpbacked child...deals with an alcoholic father (and keeps a groundhog as a "pet")....and Doctor Beer has homosexual issues of his own....and the official, Nazi-endorsed "spy" is always On Duty

This is where I stop....if you're curious...seek out this book...it is a Wonder

4 1/2 Stars

***this was a Net Galley***

#25 (2011)

2012-01-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

Pure by Julianna Baggott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After the Apocalypse (here, quaintly termed THE DETONATIONS) society was divided into those inside THE DOME (the "Pures", the perfect ones, the "hope" for the future) and those outside (the wretches, the ailing, the magnificently disfigured)

Pressia and Partridge are two young people trying to escape their Fate...Partridge from inside THE DOME..where everything isn't as "perfect" as it seems..and Pressia from outside...where life is Hell no matter how hard one squints

Given that they both face the same Fate...conscription into the Military, where they will, literally, be turned into Super Soldiers or, failing that, be killed....Flight is the only option

When these two meet (and compare notes) an Apocalypse of another sort ensues..which makes for a great read

No spoilers here...just say that these young people have lived under a dark cloud of lies..regarding Family

This would be a great book for Book Club reads...if only to discuss the whole issue of "purity" as it concerns race and class....and Governmental control of the people...and lies, again

I think this is so much more than a YA title...and recommend it to anyone who favors Dystopian fiction...and doesn't mind being smacked in the face by fine writing...Ms Baggott did a grand job here..and i love her for it

4 Stars...well deserved

**This was a Net Galley**

View all my reviews

#22 (2011)

2012-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thirty years after the volcanic eruption on Heimaey (the only populated island of Iceland's Westman Archipelago) the archeologists excavating the homes that had been buried in ash.....discovered three corpses and a discrete head, in the basement of a house belonging to one Markus Magnusson. Mr Magnusson enlists the help of his attorney, Thora Gudmundsdottir, whose lot in life seems to be the defense of eccentric clients. Markus, already a suspect in the death of a childhood friend, is also a master of the Tall Tale...and the one he spins is full of family secrets and/or outright lies..

Needless to say this story is complex..full of the aforementioned secrets and lies...fear of social stigma...sexual perversion and inadequacy...the whole boiling stew that makes for a good murder story. And it is that...with just enough of Thora's personal life thrown in to make the reader aware her life outside murder, mayhem and the Law...

However, I found the comparison to Steig Larsson's MILLENIUM TRILOGY a little off putting. I saw more of P D James' Adam Dalgliesh, and that series of police procedurals, visible here...Liz Salander is nowhere to be found in this book (though Thora's PA is a bit of a Goth Girl)....and the thrills are kept to a dull roar. Our Thora may no be glamourous, but she's a decent detective/lawyer

Recommended for mystery buffs and those who enjoy their ScandiCrime with more brains than brawn.

I haven't read any other of Ms Sigurdardottir's work, so I don't know how this book compares to her other titles

4 Stars

**This was a Net Galley**

#24 (2011)

2012-01-07T16:02:00.001-08:00

Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Isobel's life starts to unravel after her Mom marries a man she met Online....and continues after "the family" moves to Step Dad's "estate" on some godforskaen island off the coast of Washington state. Add a hunky, but Untouchable step brother..and you have the makings for some serious Teen Angst (with a side of Paranormal, after the dead step sister begins visiting, and raising questions about the deaths of her and her mother)

All of which would be unbearable, and probably unreadable...except for Isobel's edgy sarcasm and native Good Sense...and an honest fear of Mental Illness/Instability. Her natural father , the schizophrenic artist, is both a source of fear and regret...a heavy burden for any seventeen year old to bear..

That being said, I see this as a story, not so much of Isobel unraveling, as the fabric of her life being shredded by forces, and people, beyond her control..That she survives with her sense of humor intact can be chalked up to moxie...and her keen eye for people...who to trust..who to ignore.

The best Coming-of-Age stories don't preach...they let the character live their lives and work things out for themselves...mistakes and all. This is one of the best I've read in quite a while....I hope there are many Isobels out there.

3 Stars

****This was from Simon & Schuster Galley Grab****

#18

2011-12-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Dressmaker: A Novel by Kate Alcott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Tess Collins walked away from a thankless housemaid job in Cherbourg...in 1912....and simultaneously found employment as a maid on the soon-to-be sailing Titanic ocean liner...little did she know that History would become a major part of her life

Given that the hearings, post "sinking", are a major part of this story, the actual trials are secondary to the social aspects....even the newly minted Suffragette Movement is given a back seat to the development of Tess' story, and character (such as it is)

Torn between two "lovers", neither of whose characters are particularly memorable...apprenticed to the wealthy, capricious and egocentric Lady Duff Gordon...couturiere to other wealthy people.....befriended by the sprited journalist, Pinky.....our Tess is on the way to becoming an American Girl...full of hopes, dreams, and ambition, never allowing opportunism to become a "fault"

Of all the characters in the book (and there are many..some who actually existed, like the Unsinkable Molly Brown ....entrepreneur extraordinaire) Pinky rang truest for me...because she had definite goals and aspirations..and opinions to which she gave some thought

Most of the story is window dressing for Tess, the budding Designer, the Dressmaker of the title...and her journey in the New World. I thought it was a pleasant read..the Romance angle was not overwrought, but neither was it all that romantic...the political aspects were toned down to "entertainment" scale...and Tess' relationship to Lady Duff Gordon reminded me of a recent novel/movie along the same lines. Sad to say I have read/seen neither..This is, after all, a "woman's book"....by it's nature it can't afford to be too "deep"

Which is not to say I didn't enjoy the story. I just wish it had had more meat on its bones and less description of the trappings of wealth and luxury, which in the end meant very little as the Titanic slowly sank into those ice cold waters

3stars

*****This was a Net Galley*****

#17

2011-11-29T09:52:00.001-08:00

Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In 1930's Budapest, a young woman dressed as a prostitute, is found dead in an alley. In her purse is a Jewish prayer book

Budapest, in 1936, was no place for a Jew, or an inquisitive newspaper editor, as Zsigmund Gordon soon discovers, once he begins his own investigation of the "non crime"

A knowledge of Hungarian history isn't necessary, to understand the story herein, but it helps.....the narrative itself fills a lot of blanks...but the story itself is pretty basic. A coffee factor's daughter blows the cover of her "Aryan" family, by falling in love with a Rabbinical student...at a time when everyone, in Europe, was falling over to court the Nazis. Said daughter finds herself in the position of a Prostitute and "Artist's Model".....gets herself murdered...and Father does not know "best".

While not a Thriller in the James Ellroy mode....I see this more in Simenon's Inspector Maigret territory...more brains than brawn..though there is violence here..none of it gratuitous. Zsigmund Gordon is just a journalist...doing his job....risking life/limb/family.....It was the times, you know...

I liked this book for it's understated tone....it's "slow burn"...Recommended to those who like their Noir with a European, not Euro Trash, flavour.

4 STARS

*****this was a Net Galley*****

#16

2011-11-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Call Me Princess by Sara Blaedel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A young woman is brutally raped in her own home and Detective Inspector Louise Rick is given the case. Subsequent investigation reveals the fact that the young woman met her assailant at an online dating website.

The perils of Online Dating are the focus of this story. The ubiquity of the phenomenon and the supposed anonymity of the participants.

I found this to be a good mystery, story wise....but the entire tone of the book was a bit dry, and bloodless. Something I'll chalk up to it being a translation. I did not find it as compelling as Stieg Larsson's work...to which it's been compared. ScandiCrime has become one of the darlings in publishing, lately....and any work containing potential "thrills" seems to be fair game. a pity, that..since this book is pretty low key. The addition of glimpses into Rick"s rocky personal life was a good touch....lacking sentimentality, they, again, proved that high stress jobs wreck havoc on romance.

There were enough plot twists in the story to keep it moving...some good insights into the feeding frenzy of the "tabloid" publishing mentality....and the fact that every job situation has its pompous dead weight.

I did enjoy this book, and would like to read more of Ms Blaedel's work. Recommended, but don't expect heart-stopping thrills...Louise Rick is no Liz Salander...but she works hard and gets the job done.

(3 Stars)

#19

2011-11-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

The Witch's Ladder by Dana Donovan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you're not already "into" Paranormal Lit....you might want to take a pass on this one..

Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys do Paranormal??? This clueless bunch of psychics could barely organize lunch...never mind the murder of one of their own...who embodies the "soul of all evil" (my quotes..not the author's)

The narrative bounces between snippets of "lectures" on all this paranormal....and trendy, Hip dialogue...a bit disconcerting. All of the stereotypes are here....as well as the funky fogs and spontaneous tornadoes/earthquakes/water spouts. There is grisly murder, complete with evisceration....."tribal" jealousy....a gambling jones....and a stalwart Policeman/convert.

I don't mean to make a complete hash of this book. It is not my genre-of-choice...but I was in the mood for "fluff" and I don't do romance...The plot was strong enough that it held my interest...but, I am a born skeptic. Things that "go bump in the night" probably do so for a very good reason...I like my Mysteries without the "hocus pocus". I will say, reading this book gave my Laugh muscles a workout!

Recommended to the already-converted...others, beware

(2 Stars)

#15

2011-10-09T17:00:00.001-07:00

The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The feral nature of adolescent girls and the vagaries of history...set on the Isle of Guernsey.

The lies told by the Rozier family during the Nazi Occupation in WWII resound down the years to impact on fifteen year old Cat Rozier

Cat the brain, the outcast, becomes fast friends with Nicolette, the new girl in town...The lovely and wild Nicolette. they become inseparable.....partying, drinking, hooking up with the local boys. All the while Nicolette alternates her friendship with taunts and bullying. A personal betrayal ends in murder...and Cat lays the blame on her family's history of lies and betrayal

Interspersed within this tale of "teens gone wrong" is Cat's father's account of the Nazi Occupation and the part played by his older brother as a collaborator.....and the disclosure of other family secrets

Hence, this BOOK OF LIES penned by Cat...History does repeat itself..and adolescent girls, by their nature and hormones, are not innocent.

I liked this book. I read it back-to-back with LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR by Mary McGarry Morris ...another story of a teenage girl in crisis...although that child didn't resort to murder. In this case, the girls were none of them very likable, but the interweaving of family history, secrets and lies...made the whole ghastly, central Act a little more justified....but just a little

Recommended...but only to those who don't see teenage girls as angels...to those who see the blood still on the lip

4 Stars

***This was a Net Galley***

#14

2011-10-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

Light from a Distant Star: A Novel by Mary McGarry Morris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The summer of Nellie Peck's thirteenth year is fraught with peril, and the impending vagaries of adulthood.

The family hardware business is failing, and dad (Benjamin) is busy writing a history of the town, while the family finances go haywire. Mom has to go back to work to pay the bills which leads to stressful family situations. Half-sister Ruth embarks on a search for her birth father, and little brother Henry becomes Nellie's responsibility. In an effort to toughen him up, she resorts to an old WWI hand-to-hand combat manual. Add cantankerous Grandpa, keeper of the town junkyard, and his hired man, Max, the loner.....and the stage is just about set for trouble.

When the Peck's tenant, Dolly is found dead.....all eyes turn toward Max..it doesn't help that she was a stripper by trade. However, Nellie knows that max is innocent....she even knows the identity of the real killer. Or does she? And how is she going to tell her "truth" and convince everyone when it would mean accusing an upstanding pillar of the community..the very person able to save her family from financial ruin? Oh, the quandary.....oh, the lack of credibility.

I've been a fan of Mary McGarry Morris' work for quite some time....and this, her take on To Kill a Mockingbird is, in my opinion, a success. While her prose is not as elegant as Harper Lee's..the story is set in the present day, where elegance is not a requirement...Nellie Peck is not Scout Finch, but Scout didn't have the media and Pop culture distractions that are part of Nellie's life. Nellie's dilemma is part and parcel of adolescence itself...the lack of credibility we all feel when on the verge of adulthood.

Maybe life was easier in the 1950s...but when Nellie eventually has her say, she does so with heart...even though the outcome is not victorious....most of the characters do survive and live their lives. Not perfectly.

Recommended.....4 Stars

***This was a Net Galley***

Noir.....

2011-09-19T14:12:00.001-07:00

Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A high-speed chase down the Hollywood Hills.....and, you're the girl at the wheel of the car. No brakes? The car has brakes and, neither does this story

B-movie actress Lane Madden is next on the list of THE ACCIDENT PEOPLE.

Have you ever wondered what becomes of screenwriters and film techncians....when their careers are over...or, they've fallen out of favor....Scripted "accidents".....posed "hits"???

Lane is next on The List.....through various nefarious events (exploding gas mains and biotoxic weaponry) our girl does not end up well.....she dies...nuff said

Did i mention Charlie Hardie??? The erstwhile hero of this book...the first of a series???

Charlie.....a former cop living off the guilt of the death of his former partner?

I love Mr Swiercznyski's work....since i read The Blonde.....though i can't spell his name for shit.....the fact that he writes for Marvel Comics makes this particular book a must!

This book is a Quentin Tarantino movie..on paper....a literary Graphic Novel....fast-paced with no apologies

I'm posting this review because I love the author's work.....i loved this book and recommend it to anyone who likes Noir fiction.....i can't wait for the second book

****this was an ER book from Library Thing***

Justice

2011-08-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

Nairobi Heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What could have been a decent, if unexciting murder mystery.....rapidly turned into a well written thriller. Set mainly in Nairobi, Kenya....we find our protagonist Ishmael, a Detective from Madison, Wisconsin (!), on the case of a young white woman...Identity Unknown....whose body was found on the doorstep of a prominent University professor. Not just any professor, though...Joshua Hakizimana being a famous hero of the Rwandan Genocide

Life in Nairobi proves a bit tricky, as Ishmael discovers after being summoned by a mysterious phone call. In the company of the enigmatic O...a local detective-of-sorts, and the sensuous spoken-word performer, Muddy.....Ishmael discovers the corrupt underbelly of Global Humanitarianism....and the lingering aftertaste of Mass Murder...

Ambiguity abounds, here....and for a while, no one is who he seems to be..but Wa Ngugi gives the reader a taste of the Real Africa...an the people surviving in the wake of a national horror.

While this is not a novel of detection, per se..it is a novel about justice...swift and unrelenting...where the Bad Guys do pay....and the Good Guys??? Endure.

This is a review of a Net Galley

4 Stars (****)

Color Online: 2011 YA/MG POC Releases

2011-08-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

I saw this list the other day and thought it was pretty awesome...enjoy!

Color Online: 2011 YA/MG POC Releases

Noirella

2011-07-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Review "on the fly":

A dark "Noirella"....a meditation on personal and professional failure....Marriage gone bust...Career permanently on the rocks (save the twist)

Our nameless hero is homeward bound, reluctantly....after a failed marriage and a career-gone-stagnant...in the company of his bulldog Churchill

Lots of pent up rage, accompanied by a case of Hypergraphia....you know this guy is circling the drain.

At first, I would have called this a Stephen King type Road Novel....given his penchant for exposing the Hell that writers endure to serve their craft...on second thought..the only Horror here, is our protagonist's dilemma, being so out of touch with what is generally perceived as Reality...yet being so in touch with his own pain and frustration (if that makes any sense) that his vision is blurred, to say the least....

After a corner beat-down, he acquires a gun...Homeless and raging...he's homeward bound to a brother who probably doesn't want him around any way

If this seems depressing...it's nothing compared to the short sharp ending....which i won't give up...let's just say "suicide or the highway"

This book packs a wallop in 175 pages...not for the fain if heart...

The only other book i have read by Mr Piccirilli...is A Choir of Ill Children...which was more of a Southern Gothic...and a lot creepier

I give this book 4 Stars...because it smacked me upside the head with its wit, heart, violence,and craft

This was a Net Galley....

Electric

2011-07-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More NOTES, as it were:

Lightning streaks in the sky, running parallel until they finally converge, in the distance/future

Two lives.....Becca Burke and Buckley Pitank...two kids trying to grow up with dysfunctional families and the odd lightning strike

Becca: with a love-struck alcoholic mother and a philandering father...still very much a Daddy’s girl...struck by lightning, the first time at age 8. Of course, no one believed her, because she wasn’t dead

Buckley: with an overweight, loving mother...a hard-hearted Grandma...and, later, an abusive stepfather...the Preacher Man-of-God.....after his mother takes them both away from all that, he still thinks he’s unworthy of love and takes his own mental beatings...Mom is killed by a lightning strike...Buckley pens an eponymous Handbook

Becca reads the book, they meet but don’t fall in love. Young adulthood is a bitch...Buckley finally gets his own Lightning Strike and all ends well, more or less, in hospital

Life is messy and painful, with occasional flashes of bliss.....clear and sharp as lightning bolts and just as fatal

I know i’ve given up a bit of the story here, but that isn’t what carried me....in this case it was the prose...the words. For a first novel this one is a joy...takes a while to get started but is worth the effort. Ms Young-Stone is, in fact, a lightning strike survivor...i’d like to think that “bolt” contributed to her talent.....the fluidity of these words...

Highly recommended

4 Stars (****)

*This was from Net Galley*

Conundrum or Dilemma?

2011-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hester: A Novel by Paula Reed

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A woman returns to London, after a sojourn in The Colonies, with her precocious, and wealthy, 8-year-old daughter. After settling in with old friends, she finds herself in the midst of the political machinations of Oliver Cromwell's England.....due to a certain "gift" of "seeing into the hearts of men".....her ability to spot lies and treason, while retaining her womanly propriety..While employed as such a Judge, she meets a hunky Sir John, who is playing both ends against the middle, politically. He's also pretty much of a libertine...Life continues...Cromwell "falls" and dies. The precocious daughter matures into a "boy crazy" drama queen, ultimately landing an "impossible" match.....marriage-wise. she hies of to Germany, pregnant but "in love"....satisfied to be a "kept woman" all her life..Mother returns to The Colonies....the site of her own past "sins"

This would be a pretty good Historical Romance, for those who fancy such, if not for the overt reference to The Scarlet Letter and the character of HESTER PRYNNE.

For one thing, any woman in possession of such a 'gift", as mentioned above, would more than likely have been condemned as a Witch and dispatched without qualms, or a trial. She would never have been given a seat in Oliver's STAR CHAMBER.

The back alley skulking betwixt her and Sir John probably did occur, but people made an art of Discretion in those days.....being Puritans and all

The intrusion of modern attitudes towards boys/men and sex were pretty un-subtle and annoying

I had a difficult time making a connection between Ms Reed's Hester, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's original...though I haven't read the original SCARLET LETTER in years, I seem to recall that Hester as being more of a slow burn.

With all of the historical detail present in this book, I am surprised at the anomalies I have mentioned. I found them to be rather jarring.....and a distraction from the story Ms Reed was trying to tell..Maybe that's my fault....but if the book had just been titled HESTER without the reference..i think it would have "gone down" easier

My rating:
4 stars for the story
3 stars for the delivery
3 1/2 stars total

* I got this book through the Library Thing EARLY REVIEWERS program*