Review: The Secrets of Life and Death

The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Perfect crossover title for teens. Wonderful paranormal mystery that even includes Countess Bathory, the bather/drinker of blood. I'm a sucker for any book about her!

Chapters alternate between the two scientists/magicians who treated Bathory back in 1585 and Jackdaw, a young lady in England in 2013, who is trying to save the lives of young women who are being murdered for their blood.

Not intellectually deep at all, but it was a quick and exciting read--just what I was in the mood for. I'll take a look at Book #2 in the series, too!

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Review: My Papi Has a Motorcycle

My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Uncorrected proof generously provided by the publisher. To be published in May 2019.

Quintero, author of the AMAZING Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, lovingly describes her town of Corona, California, as readers see it flash by from the back of her dad's motorcycle. Most readers won't know it's Corona or California until the author's note at the end. Loved how she included plenty of Spanish words, but the illustrations help with the translations for the readers who only know English. The occasional poetic sentence is thrown in, which didn't always work for me.

I LOVED the illustrations by Zeke Pena--beige pages with muted colors really drew my eye, although there is one page where a young girl looks like she's running with her knee two inches off the ground. I'm hoping that's just a weird thing going on with where the book page was cut off in this uncorrected proof.

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Review: Hair Love

Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To be published April 30, 2019. Uncorrected Proof generously provided by

Adorable storytime book about an African-American family. Daddy tries to make his daughter's hair special while mommy is away, and, thanks to the internet, he finally gets it right!

Lots of good things here--Mom is away so Dad has to step up, Dad is tired from doing all the work, the internet solves all (lol), and Zuri always feels special about her hair that is beautiful! Loved Harrison's illustrations, too.

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Review: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Beautiful Irish accent in the audiobook, but I feel like this book is marketed incorrectly. It's really more of an Irish history, not true crime. Tons of information about what it was like growing up during the Troubles in the North and readers meet A LOT of people. I felt like some of the details were a bit of a stretch to be included and kept waiting for the story to get back to the mother who was kidnapped--that was the title and blurb, after all.

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Review: Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Better read in print than audio.

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Review: Wolves of Eden

Wolves of Eden by Kevin McCarthy
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I loved the plot of this western, but I just couldn't handle the chapters written from the POV of the Irishman. I have to slow down my reading in order to soak in all those run-on sentences and I just didn't want to have to do that. This would be a better book in audio for me, so I'm going to try to interlibrary loan it in that format sometime.

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Review: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The lives of three sisters go to hell (or maybe they were already in it?) when Althea and her husband Proctor are arrested for stealing from the charities they created to help with local flood victims. The family always had the respect of the local community, but now, community members who used to eat at their restaurant and shop at their attached market are disgusted and angry.

Quite the family drama tale of forgiveness and redemption, told from the POV of quite a few of the characters. I thought it dragged a bit in the middle and end, but was fascinated at the beginning.

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Review: To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel

To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel by Fred Fordham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Students could easily read this graphic novel and complete most classroom activities in American high schools that the teacher assigns. That means it's a good retelling, right? I used to teach this back in the day, and all the "important" quotes are in the graphic version, and there is plenty of symbolism, too. I'm still more of a fan of the novel, of course, but I could really seeing this version being taught along side the novel.

The illustrations were clear and, to me, added more to the text. But, I really had forgotten about how much happens in this book--not just Boo and Tom Robinson. The graphic novel left me wanting more, so I'm glad there is the actual novel floating around. But, actually, kids could totally read this instead of the novel and be just fine. The important pieces are there.

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Review: Barbed Wire Heart

Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here is the perfect example of a book I didn't care for much in audio format, but I had received an ARC of it and set it aside as a future read. I'm so glad I did! The print version ROCKS.

Think of the Netflix show Ozark, but from the POV of the young teen girl who has grown up in her criminal, meth-making, white trash family. Harley McKenna is a trained hardass who has been groomed her whole life to take over her family's business, but she also has been raised to take care of her dead mama's side of things, like running a women's group home for abused women. She's quite the oxymoron--willing to brand a man with a hot knife and sic her dog on someone, yet able to fall in love with a good man and help abused women and children.

Basically, Harley kicks ass. You want to be her friend, but you would hate to ever turn on her, because she will make you disappear in a tarp of acid down at the rock quarry.

This book is brutal and hard-edged and awesome. I read it in two days. Would love to watch this movie or see a TV show based on it. It reads like a screenplay.

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Review: Shout

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This will get some conversation around the Printz award table, I bet! Lots of beautiful poetry in this little book, with several passages that I re-read just for the power of the words. But I did read Speak years ago, so this novel means more to me than those who haven't read any of Anderson's works. And I wonder how teens now will respond to this? All of old librarians enjoyed it, but are we the target audience? Or the initial readers of Speak who are all grown up now? Or the current set of teens?

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Review: A Baby’s Bones

A Baby’s Bones by Rebecca Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Engaging and quick read about a female archaeologist on the Isle of Wright. I enjoyed Sage as an imperfect main character--she is pregnant with a married man's baby, for example. I loved the bits about her Kazakhstani mother, Sage's budding romance, and her obsession with doing her job well while pregnant and stressed. I would call this an old school mystery--readers will suspect several characters along the way as clues are dropped, but it's an engaging ride. I loved how the mystery from the late 1500s was incorporated into the modern day happenings, but I love historical fiction, romance, and modern forensic science. This novel was a great novel for me and I'll look for more by this author!

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Review: The Kingdom of Copper

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whew--I stayed up until 3 am reading this sequel, with the help of springing forward and Daylight Savings Time.

I still got easily confused by all the terms for magical beings and I wish the glossary/cast of characters/tribes of the Djinn were all together so I didn't have to look at all three alphabetical lists to find what I was looking for. Confusing!

I remembered nothing from Book 1, The City of Brass, except that it was an Aladdin-ish, Middle Eastern fantasy. It started to come back to me as I read this title, except I couldn't remember all the feuds and what caused what group of people to hate the other groups of people. Lots of years of fighting in this world! But it's worth it. The three narrators--Nahri, Alie, and Dara--are fascinating beings/people and I wanted to see what happens when all three try to take/keep the magical city of Daevabad. The end of the book (the big battle) is the best part! I couldn't put the book down.

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Review: The Parade

The Parade by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange little story about a contractor who is building a road in an unnamed country that just got out of a war. He's almost on the spectrum--he's so focused on building the road, and doesn't pay attention to the locals and their problems. When his co-worker breaks all the rules (talks to locals, give away their first-world possessions, etc.), the main character is angry and doesn't understand. It's just a weird little book, and I couldn't help but think about all the contractors that were in Afghanistan and Iraq over the years.

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Review: Tony's Wife

Tony's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I should have loved this one, but I think Trigiani tried to do too much, covering the entire lifetime of Tony and ChiChi. Both characters always spoke like they were on TV, which was annoying to read/listen to constantly.

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Review: I, Claudia

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Just not my thing. I stopped on page 86. I didn't like the narrator's voice and wasn't encouraged to read more. I see why Printz gave it some love though--it's an modern retelling that is done well, but I just didn't want to read a mean girls type of book right now.

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Review: Home Before Morning

Home Before Morning by Lynda Van Devanter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So glad a coworker asked me if I had read this memoir when I was talking about how much I liked books about Vietnam. I went through a stage in high school when I read war novels and memoirs that were pretty obscure and pulp paperback-ish (thanks, Waldenbooks war section), and I can't believe I missed this memoir! Lovely memoir about the author's one year in Vietnam as an OR nurse (or, really, a surgeon), and all the crap she had to deal with when she came home. Devanter did a lot for PTSD patients and women veterans after the war, and it was nice to read about all she did in the Afterword of the book. She struggled A LOT, and the crap that she and other vets had to deal with for years is so frustrating. Agent Orange hurt her tremendously--daughter born with defects and some strange disease that she is suffering from, too. I know that Gulf veterans are dealing with the same shit, and it's so frustrating. I respect veterans, but don't much appreciate the politicians who order our people over to fight in wars that are impossible to win. I see this memoir as a must-read for nurses and anyone wanting to go into the military medical field.

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Review: Home Before Morning

Home Before Morning by Lynda Van Devanter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So glad a coworker asked me if I had read this memoir when I was talking about how much I liked books about Vietnam. I went through a stage in high school when I read war novels and memoirs that were pretty obscure and pulp paperback-ish (thanks, Waldenbooks war section), and I can't believe I missed this memoir! Lovely memoir about the author's one year in Vietnam as an OR nurse (or, really, a surgeon), and all the crap she had to deal with when she came home. Devanter did a lot for PTSD patients and women veterans after the war, and it was nice to read about all she did in the Afterword of the book. She struggled A LOT, and the crap that she and other vets had to deal with for years is so frustrating. Agent Orange hurt her tremendously--daughter born with defects and some strange disease that she is suffering from, too. I know that Gulf veterans are dealing with the same shit, and it's so frustrating. I respect veterans, but don't much appreciate the politicians who order our people over to fight in wars that are impossible to win. I see this memoir as a must-read for nurses and anyone wanting to go into the military medical field.

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Review: Ghost Wall

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disturbing novella about a family who is trying to live in England like the Iron Age people did. Obviously, that's hard to do with a gas station down the road, and modern students and professors who just aren't that into living like Iron Age folks. The main character, a young woman, is abused by her father and her mother thinks they all "deserve it" so that's hard to read. The ending wasn't great to me, but I assume that's why this is a novella instead of a fleshed out full length novel.

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