Review: Call Your Daughter Home

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful debut of a very dramatic and atmospheric Southern fiction drama! Narrated by three different women, but their stories are woven together brilliantly. The plantation wife, Annie, is posh, privileged and horrified when she learns her husband's dark secret. Retta, their African-American cook, is a former slave, but it's 1924, and she sure seems like she's still a slave, thanks to the way it was in South Carolina. Gertrude is the poor white abused woman who needs Rhetta's help and eventually works for the plantation matron.

You'll breeze through this because you'll want to know what happens to these women. Great characterization by Spera--I felt connected to all three women and cared for them.

Triggers for abuse--both domestic and child sexual.

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Review: The Swallows

The Swallows by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Don't mess with teen girls. This is your typical bad rating system happening by stupid prep school boys. The girls find out and all hell breaks loose. I've never been a student or worked at a boarding school, but if teachers really do know about this kind of shit and don't try to squash it, no wonder we need a #metoo movement. Way too many adults knew bad things in this novel, but then the adults are messed up, too.

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Review: The Bride Test

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't read Book #1 of this series, and there was no need. I was instantly swept into Esme's rags-to-riches story, as she is plucked from cleaning a hotel bathroom in Vietnam to America because she seems to the perfect future wife of a restaurant owner's son. Khai is a successful accountant, but also autistic, and the young couple end up hitting it off. But, like in all romances, problems happen, but eventually they end up okay. And in love, which is awesome in arranged marriage.

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Review: Turbulence

Turbulence by David Szalay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Difficult to feel connections to characters when they change every chapter. This would be a difficult book to write, though, since each chapter continues the story with another character who was on a plane with someone else. Worldwide connections to all, indeed.

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Review: Full Throttle

Full Throttle by Joe Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a new favorite Joe Hill! I love suspense but am iffy about horror, but Stephen King's son won me over in the Introduction that he narrates himself.  He tells readers how he tried to NOT be like his dad, but ended up giving into everything he was raised around, like pulpy comics and his dad's writings. 

So funny to read in the comments how we all have different favorites--mine were Throttle, By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain, Thumbprint, and You Are Released. I can't stop talking about the last story and how it just seems so plausible that World War III is right around the corner. I wasn't a huge fan of "Late Returns" about the bookmobile and grief, but I know some librarians and readers will eat that shit up. Hill's narration of the intro and notes make this a kickass audio, too.

And don't quit listening too early--he throws in a bonus story at the end. 

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Review: Big Sky

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't read the first books in this series, so I felt like I was missing some of the backstory. Love the references to good American country, though, especially the female artists like Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert!

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Review: The Moon in the Palace

The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've had this on my kindle for ages and finally got around to reading it because I usually enjoy novels set in ancient China. I honestly don't know how the pheasants lived back then--even the girls in the palace didn't get much food. I've been to Bejing and I couldn't help but picture the Forbidden Palace as I read about young Mei. It's sad because as a child she dreams of living in the palace, but, then, eh, palace life isn't all that great either. The Emperor is a wus (my word, not hers), and every other man is off limits. Life just sucked for women back then. The main character's mom was happier in a Buddhist temple, and I totally understand why!

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Review: The Chain

The Chain by Adrian McKinty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I just can't suspend belief enough to believe things like this could happen in real life. There is no way in hell I would kidnap a kid in order to save my own kid. I'd be FBI-ing with the best of them, thank you. So it's just hard to read something like this.

Especially since if the main characters do the deed--why would they suddenly believe they could beat the chain on their own? Why the change of heart?

Nah.....just too unbelievable.

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Review: Puss in Boots: A Musical

Puss in Boots: A Musical by Neil Fishman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Perfect for the whole family! The music is amazing and there are some modern additions to the fairy tale that will make you chuckle. The amazing Jim Dale is fantastic, of course, but the voice of the princess (she sounds like Elsa!) and Puss really impressed me. Those Hipsterians.... lol

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Review: Sisters Matsumoto

Sisters Matsumoto by Philip Kan Gotanda
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good play about an important time in history. There are a lot of characters so it's difficult to tell the voices apart, and I hated the laughtrack. I know it was recorded before a live audience, but, to me, the laughing felt contrived? Some of the voices sounded like they echoed, too, which wasn't good.

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Review: Boy Swallows Universe

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Difficult to get into, but, when you do, the story sucks you in! For some reason, I kept thinking of Billy Eliot, even though this is Australian. Way too many flashbacks about his excon friend Slim at the beginning of the novel. The plot wraps up a bit too neatly at the end, which is why I ended up taking away a star.

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