Sunday, May 25, 2014

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere
by Julie Lamana

Genre: Juvenile Fiction

Synopsis:  Armani Curtis can think about only one thing: her tenth birthday.  All her friends are coming to her party, her mama is making a big cake, and she has a good feeling about a certain wrapped box.  Turning ten is a big deal to Armani.  It means she's older, wiser, more responsible.  But when Hurricane Katrina hits the Lower Nines of New Orleans, Armani realizes that being ten means being brave, watching loved ones die, and mustering all her strength to help her family weather the storm.  A powerful story of courage and survival, Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere celebrates the miraculous power of hope and love in the face of the unthinkable.
From the ebook summary

Review:  This was a new subject matter for me.  I haven't read any books about Hurricane Katrina before.  My heart broke several times while reading this book.  This book was emotional and well written.  At first it was a little slow as the book started before the storm arrived and we learned about the family dynamics.  But once the storm hit, the drama started and I couldn't put this book down.  Decisions that were made by family members in this book really tore at my heart and occasionally made me upset-especially decisions that the mother made.  It was hard for me to understand her choices but I have never been in such a tragic situation.  I don't know exactly what age I would recommend this book.for.  There were heavy topics beyond the hurricane-child abuse, alcoholism, and more so before allowing your child to read the book or doing it as a read aloud, read it yourself first.

Rating: 4 stars

Saturday, May 24, 2014

The One

The One
by Kiera Cass

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  The Time has come for one winner to be crowned.

When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, American never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown-or to Prince Maxon's heart.  But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grown more and more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose-and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.
From the book jacket

Review:  Luckily this book was much better than the second book in the trilogy.  America and Maxon were not whiny characters and they seemed to have grown up by this book.  Thank goodness!  I am quite pleased and satisfied with how this trilogy ended.  I didn't want the fairy tale to end.  I did feel that some of the secondary characters changed in this book and I didn't believe their transformations.  They seemed a little contrived to me.  Some of the storyline seemed contrived as well.  But overall it was a good, light, fast read that successfully ends the trilogy.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

To read Marcie's review of The Selection, click here.
To read my review of The Elite, click here.

Monday, May 19, 2014

The Aviator's Wife

The Aviator's Wife
by Melanie Benjamin

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.
From GoodReads

Review: This book was a deep look into the lives of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh.  It is hard for me to figure out what to rate this book because Charles was portrayed as a not very nice man and Anne was quite timid, meek and fairly weak at the beginning of the book.  I didn't really care for either Charles nor Anne and that always makes me like books less when characters aren't likable.  Anne did eventually learn to stand up to Charles some but not enough for my taste.  I did have to remember that women in that time weren't like women today and that husbands had much more power and control.  The story was captivating enough and flowed well between the time of Charles' death and the beginning of their story and lives together.  I felt heartbroken for Anne at times, especially during the kidnapping of her first son.  You also have to remember while reading that this book is based on Anne's and Charles' lives but it is fiction and that was hard to do at times.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Little Girl Lost

Little Girl Lost
by Brian McGilloway

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis:  Midwinter. A child is found wandering in an ancient woodland, her hands covered in blood. But it is not her own.

Unwilling, or unable, to speak, the only person she seems to trust is the young officer who rescued her, Detective Sergeant Lucy Black. Soon afterwards, DS Black is baffled to find herself suddenly moved from a high-profile case involving the kidnapping of another girl, a prominent businessman's teenage daughter. 

Black's problems are not only professional: she's caring for her increasingly unstable father, and trying to avoid conflict with her frosty mother - who also happens to be the Assistant Chief Constable. As she struggles to identify the unclaimed child, Black begins to realise that her case and the kidnapping may be linked by events that occurred during the grimmest days of the country's recent history - events that also defined her own troubled childhood.

Little Girl Lost is a devastating crime thriller about corruption, greed and vengeance, and a father's love for his daughter.
From GoodReads

Review:  At first this book drove me nuts with the choice of words.  The book is in English but at times it didn't seem like I was reading English!  There were quite a few words that I don't use and that didn't seem to be right "kerb" for curb, "tyre" for tire, "woodland" instead of forest, "windscreen" instead of windshield, "float" instead of truck.  It was very distracting and didn't allow me to read fluently as I had to stop to try to figure out what the words mean.  I also had no idea what the departments in the police where and the author didn't explain the acronyms. As the action picked up, I noticed the vocabulary less and less (I think it also wasn't as prevalent either).  This book was a typical police mystery with a strong heroine.  It was a fast read but somewhat predictable.  I had expected more of a thriller but it was much more a mystery.

Rating:  3 stars

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Runner

Runner
Patrick Lee

Runner

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads):  Sam Dryden, retired special forces, lives a quiet life in a small town on the coast of Southern California. While out on a run in the middle of the night, a young girl runs into him on the seaside boardwalk. Barefoot and terrified, she’s running from a group of heavily armed men with one clear goal—to kill the fleeing child. After Dryden helps her evade her pursuers, he learns that the eleven year old, for as long as she can remember, has been kept in a secret prison by forces within the government. But she doesn’t know much beyond her own name, Rachel. She only remembers the past two months of her life—and that she has a skill that makes her very dangerous to these men and the hidden men in charge.

Dryden, who lost his wife and young daughter in an accident five years ago, agrees to help her try to unravel her own past and make sense of it, to protect her from the people who are moving heaven and earth to find them both. Although Dryden is only one man, he’s a man with the extraordinary skills and experience—as a Ranger, a Delta, and five years doing off-the-book black ops with an elite team. But, as he slowly begins to discover, the highly trained paramilitary forces on their heels is the only part of the danger they must face. Will Rachel’s own unremembered past be the most deadly of them all?


Review: What I love about this book is that the action is non-stop, yet the characters are well-developed and compelling.  And on top of that, it's really well written - at least for a thriller.  Sam makes an ideal hero; he's strong, clever, and talented, yet he relates well to Rachel and obviously cares for her.  And I couldn't help liking Rachel; she's a 12 year old victim of some kind of conspiracy, but she's plucky and clever herself.  All in all, a fantastic read - I now have a new favorite thriller author!

Rating: 5 stars

The Chase

The Chase
Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

The Chase (O'Hare and Fox, #2)

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads):  Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, New York Times bestselling authors of The Heist, return in this action-packed, exciting adventure featuring master con artist Nicolas Fox and die-hard FBI agent Kate O’Hare. And this time around, things go from hot to nuclear when government secrets are on the line. Internationally renowned thief and con artist Nicolas Fox is famous for running elaborate and daring scams. His greatest con of all: convincing the FBI to team him up with the only person who has ever caught him, and the only woman to ever capture his attention, Special Agent Kate O’Hare. Together they’ll go undercover to swindle and catch the world’s most wanted—and untouchable—criminals. Their newest target is Carter Grove, a former White House chief of staff and the ruthless leader of a private security agency. Grove has stolen a rare Chinese artifact from the Smithsonian, a crime that will torpedo U.S. relations with China if it ever becomes public. Nick and Kate must work under the radar—and against the clock—to devise a plan to steal the piece back. Confronting Grove’s elite assassins, Nick and Kate rely on the skills f their ragtag crew, including a flamboyant actor, a Geek Squad techie, and a band of AARP-card-carrying mercenaries led by none other than Kate’s dad. A daring heist and a deadly chase lead Nick and Kate from Washington, D.C., to Shanghai, from the highlands of Scotland to the underbelly of Montreal. But it’ll take more than death threats, trained henchmen, sleepless nights, and the fate of a dynasty’s priceless heirloom to outsmart Fox and O’Hare.

Review: This was a cute, quick beach read type of book, and I did really enjoy it.  I like tv shows about cons, and this series reads like it was written to be made into a tv show, so why didn't I rate it higher?  Well, because I wanted more depth in Kate and Nick's characters and their relationship and less emphasis on designer labels.  I was actually more interested in the secondary characters, like Boyd and Kate's dad, than I was in the main characters.  I'll definitely look for the third book when it comes out.

Rating: 3 stars

The Spellman Files

The Spellman Files
Lisa Lutz

The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1)

Genre: Mystery, Chick Lit

Summary (from Goodreads):  Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.

Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hilarious new series featuring the Spellman family in all its lovable chaos.


Review: Izzy Spellman's family is even crazier than Stephanie Plum's!  This book reminded me of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series in so many ways - a quirky yet lovable heroine, her wacky family, boyfriend troubles, and a mystery to solve.  It was easy to read, hard to put down, and laugh out loud funny in parts.  I downgraded it to four stars primarily because of the confusion in the timeline; as I read further, I figured out that the bulk of the story is told as a flashback, which did help build suspense for the major drama in the story, but I found it awkward.  The mystery in this book is secondary to the character development, but I didn't mind that because I thought Izzy and her family were delightful - weird, undoubtedly, and with questionable morals, but really fun to read about.  I reserved the next two books in the series from my library as soon as I finished reading this one.

Rating: 4 stars

The Death Cure

The Death Cure
by James Dashner


Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  Thomas knows that WICKED can't be trusted.  They stole his memories and locked him inside the Maze.  They forced him to the brink of death by dropping him in the wilds of the Scorch.  And they took the Gladers, his only friends, from him.

Now WICKED says that the time for lies is over.  That they've collected all the data they can from the Trials and will rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission: to complete the blueprint for the cure for the Flare.  But Thomas must undergo one final test.

What WICKED doesn't know, however, is that Thomas has already remembered far more than they think.  And it's enough to prove that he can't believe a word of what WICKED says.

The time for lies is over.  And the truth is more dangerous that Thomas could ever have imagined.
From the book jacket

Review:  This was a satisfying final to The Maze Runner trilogy.  It just wasn't as exciting or action packed as the first two books.  This one answered all the questions that I still had after reading the first two and I feel that the series ended realistically.  The pace of this book was quite slow and there wasn't too much of a story.  Clearly there needed to be another book after The Scorch Trials to answer questions and to wrap the story up but I would really like to have seem more meat to this book.

Rating: 3 stars

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
Rhoda Janzen

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Genre: Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): A hilarious and moving memoir—in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron—about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn’t just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda’s good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin—he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.

Written with wry humor and huge personality—and tackling faith, love, family, and aging—Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.


Review: I picked this book up off the Staff Picks shelf at the library, and I started reading it thinking that it was fiction and thinking that it just wasn't making any sense.  When I realized it was a memoir, I began to enjoy it a lot more.  So that's a lesson to me - figure out what type of book I'm reading before I start it.

I am of two minds about this book - it was laugh out loud funny, and I couldn't put it down.  But the anecdotes jumped all over the place, and I was a little uncomfortable with the degree to which she mocked her family.  It was very well written (as well it should be, since the author has a PhD in English) but she used such a prodigious vocabulary that it seemed like she was either trying too hard to sound quirky or trying to show off.  If you are looking for a book to help you learn about the Mennonites, this is NOT it.  But if you are looking for a funny memoir, definitely give this a try.  It might be a good book for a bookclub; there's a set of discussion questions at the end.

Rating: 3.5 stars