This book was recommended by some enlightened human on Library Twitter. I tend to love almost any book that falls into the apocalyptic fiction category, so even though the audiobook was THIRTY-TWO hours long, I still downloaded it without hesitation. Let me just say, I was absolutely obsessed with this book. I could not stop reading it.

A lot of people are comparing this book to Stephen King’s, The Stand, and they are correct, the books both feature a plague and a trip to Las Vegas. However, I thought the more important King similarity was the powder keg politics of, Under the Dome. There was also a lot of scientific and technical problem solving that reminded me of Andy Weir’s, The Martian. I am not saying this book is unoriginal or plagiarized in any way! This book is its own fantastic horror show, with some familiar elements found in other exceptional works.

If you enjoyed any of the above titles or anything apocalyptic, you are likely to be as consumed by this book as I was. This is a strong contender for my book of the year. Check back in January to find out what my official selection is!

Check back on Tuesday for a No Spoiler Review of Before We Were Yours.

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Release Date February 11, 2020

Rhys Bowen is one of those prolific authors that pretty much has her own section at the library. While I tend to be wary of authors who publish frequently, I know that Bowen has a devoted following, so I always intended to read one of her books. I was not disappointed.

The main character is incredibly relatable for someone who was supposed to have lived over a hundred years ago. Bella is forced to become a servant after her noble family falls on hard times. As a working-class woman, she struggles with having a career, but also wanting a husband and family. She is faced with many of the same opportunities and limitations faced by women today.

This historical romance set in Queen Victoria’s royal kitchens is deliciously soothing. I don’t have much experience with Cozy Mysteries, but I can now understand the appeal. How does an author manage to maintain a warm comfortable glow in a story filled with accidents, intrigue and murder? That is a special talent. I am looking forward to reading more by Bowen, I know I have a lot to choose from.

Fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs will adore this quick read. Readers of historical fiction and romance, as well as cozy mysteries will also enjoy this title. I am personally recommending this book to my English Aunt Mary. Your Aunt Mary will love it too!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers of this book for allowing me advance access in exchange for this honest review.

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Release date January 14, 2020

I know you are not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but have you seen this cover? It’s gorgeous. Can I get a print for my house? Of course, I did not choose this book based solely on the cover. The summary of the impending environmental catastrophe and the fact that this book is Norwegian were both intriguing. I was excited to read something with a European perspective.

This book is divided into two narratives. There is the older Norwegian environmentalist looking back on her life and the young French father trying to survive in a world without water. One tells us what we have to do, the other tells us what will happen if we don’t. Both will make you feel incredibly guilty for living in modern society.

This author is gifted at writing the beauty of the Fjords, the loneliness of the ocean and the desperation of the drought. The shaming of greed and environmental recklessness is necessary and done well. However, I had a hard time connecting to this story and the characters. I suspect that the author made me feel so guilty, that I subconsciously became guarded against this story.

This book will appeal to adult readers who enjoy speculative, environmental, apocalyptic and survival fiction. Anyone who is interested in climate change and environmentalism will also find this book to be intriguing and relevant.

For a list of small changes, you can make to help the environment, click here.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers of this book for allowing me advance access in exchange for this honest review.

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I liked the movie, Practical Magic, when it came out a thousand years ago. I didn’t know it was based on a book until much later, and even if I had, I would not have read it at that time. When this movie came out, I was still having my reading selected by school teachers. I only recently became interested in this book when the author released the prequel, Rules of Magic. I debated reading the story in chronological versus publication order, and ended up reading Practical Magic first. I’m not sure I made the right choice…

Practical Magic was first published in 1995, which puts it at about 24. This is a long time for a book to stay relevant. Most books do not stay readable for more than five years. The writing is starting to seem cliché, but with a book of this age, you have to wonder if it created the clichés. I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that this will not become a “Classic”, but this book will have value for a particular type of reader. Fans of paranormal romance who were adults in the 70’s and 80’s would likely find this book to be wonderfully nostalgic.

For now, I have kept Rules of Magic on my to-read-list, we’ll see if I’m ever in the mood for it. 
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Check back on Tuesday for a quick Veterans Day post!

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This is book ELEVEN of the Southern Vampire series. This review is more about the series in general than this book. No spoilers I promise!

I know this book has been out for almost a decade and I only just now read it! The thing is, I really enjoy this goofy series, but I need time between each story so I don’t get sick of them. I actually started reading this series sometime around 2008 (when the show came out) and have read about one a year since then. I always get the audio version because the narrator is super sassy.

These books have a classic, timeless, if white trash feel to them. Like if Jane Austen had grown up in a trailer in the Kingdom of Louisiana. This series is bursting with backwoods vampires, werewolves, fairies and other supernatural beings. All of whom vie for the attention of a telepathic blond barmaid. There is always a mystery to be solved, an adventure to be had, and lots of supernatural sex. Like I said, goofy.

These books are great for anyone who enjoyed the show, but never read the series. The show follows a loose outline of the book series with similar characters, setting and sexy mood. However, most of the stories that happen in the books don’t happen in the show and vice versa. It’s like getting twice as much Sookie! Great for fans of vampire fiction, paranormal romance and mystery.    

Check back tomorrow for a review of Practical Magic.
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I love horror and Halloween so it is crazy that I have never read the Haunting of Hill House. This year as I was searching for a spooky book to start the season, I kept seeing this book on all the lists. After about the 100th time that I saw this book I realized that it is not in fact The Hills Have Eyes (yuck) and then I felt like an idiot for ignoring this book. Don’t judge me! We’re all guilty of skimming!

It took my brain a few pages to get used to Shirley Jackson’s superior writing style. I had just finished a popular fiction book that was only okay, so my brain was a little lazy at first. After that, I was completely engaged by the characters and creeped out by the sadistic house. I made the mistake of reading this right before bed several times. I had to consciously remind myself that nothing creepy has ever happened in my house so I could go to sleep.

Don’t assume that because this book is 60 years old that it is a safe quaint Halloween read. Most readers will be spooked by this book, and it has moments of real violence. However, it is not gory or obscene the way that a lot of modern Horror can be. This is the perfect book for anyone looking for a haunted Halloween ghost story. 

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This book is raunchy. I guess this has been a popular genre for a while, the VERY personal memoirs by bloggers? I only discovered this genre for myself this year when I finally read Jenny Lawson’s, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Let’s just say Lawson “turned me on” (pun intended) to a whole new type of book.

The audio of, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, had me laughing in the first minute. I stepped outside to take my morning walk, when the author described herself as “35ish, but I could pass for forty-seven to fifty-two, easily; sixty something if I stay up all night”. This had me. I was barely containing my insane laughter as my neighbor resisted the urge to ask me if I was okay.
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This memoir is full of self-deprecating humor, which is of course hilarious. However, if I’m being honest, the author is too hard on herself. The author continuously comes down on herself for being lazy, but all evidence suggests she is anything but… She works 50 hours a week, writes a blog, dates, and goes out clubbing. The thought of her lifestyle is absolutely exhausting.

I found this book to be entertaining, but I would be hesitant to recommend it to almost anybody. This book should come with a warning label: may cause uncontrollable laughing, flinching, and moments of disgust. May not be suitable for people who are allergic to cats, heterophobic, homophobic, racist, people with bad backs, heart disorders or bad credit scores. 

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The Dalai Lama is one of the most admired people in the world. I certainly find his story and his life to be both interesting and inspiring. He has participated in the creation of several books that could undoubtedly be categorized as “self-help”, including his newest collaboration, The Book of Joy. I read this book in two sittings, not because I didn’t like it or didn’t find it to be interesting, but because I really wanted to be able to get the most out of this book. I felt like reading it all at once would not have allowed me enough time to process the Dalai Lama’s wisdom. This book is very rich in content.  
 
The book was edited by Douglas Carlton Abrams and features a week long interview between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu of South Africa. The book covers three broad topics, the nature of true joy, obstacles of joy and the eight pillars of joy. Each section is narrated by Abrams, he fills in missing back story and creates a sense of place for the book, but the teachings of the Dalai Lama and Archbishop are basically in interview format. You might be tempted to skim this book because of that, but you should plan to read this slowly, allowing time to reflect on the messages.

This is one of those books that you could read again and again and always come away with a new insight. The main philosophy that I gathered from the teachings was that joy comes through service to others. There is a lot more to this book, but the Dalai Lama and Archbishop warn against focusing on yourself and encourage everyone to turn outward not inward. Imagine the world, if we all lived to serve each other. There is definitely wisdom in that philosophy. 

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I judged this book hard when it came out. I just couldn’t understand how a book about abandoning your life to go on vacation for a year could possibly be helpful to anyone. Why did this book resonate with so many people? I just couldn’t figure it out, it didn’t seem like it offered helpful solutions for everyday people. Then again, this book was so popular, it had to have some value, right?

I was inspired to read this book, while I was reading the Book of Joy, I became interested in researching other perspectives on the subject of finding lasting happiness. This became kind of a compare and contrast investigation. Eat, Pray, Love was the most popular book on the subject of happiness that I could think of, so I decided to have an open mind and read this book.

Eat, Pray, Love follows the author on a year long trip to Italy, India and Bali after suffering a devastating divorce. In Italy the author pursues pleasure and basically does whatever she wants for three months, heavy emphasis on eating. In India she moves into an Ashram to pray and meditate, basically full time. In Bali she looks for balance with a medicine man, but this part of the book becomes a little unstructured. She does spend time with a medicine man and a healer, but she also just hangs around with locals and starts dating. I guess real life doesn’t always fall into neat categories.

I think the journey was restorative for the author, but I’m doubtful that it is the path to lasting happiness. I fear that taking a year off to focus on yourself would make it very hard to come back to the incompetent bosses and irate patrons of the real world. I get pouty when I come back from a one-week vacation, what would a year off do to me?

I don’t agree with a lot of this book, but I do respect the author for publishing this work. This is a very personal book and the author is very brave to have written it, knowing that the world is full of unhappy critics. I thoroughly enjoyed the parts that read like a travel guide, there is some very interesting information about the Balinese culture. There is also a lot of information about Yoga and meditation, that I didn’t know or understand. This book does not match my personal philosophy, but I can see how it would appeal to a lot of people.   

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I found this book after I decided to divide The Book of Joy into two readings. The Book of Joy is an interview between the Archbishop Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama and how they think humans can find lasting happiness. The Archbishop talks a lot about Apartheid and South Africa, subjects that I know very little about. So, when I was scrolling Overdrive looking at available ebooks and I saw Born a Crime, I figured it was a happy coincidence and an opportunity for me to learn more about South African history.  

Each chapter of this book presents a prologue about South African history or Apartheid coupled with Trevor Noah’s experiences growing up there. A lot of the stories are about how his life was impacted by the laws and society at the time. This book definitely falls into the category of non-fiction that reads like fiction, I learned a lot about a culture that I knew very little about, in a way that kept me turning pages. I knew that Trevor Noah was from South Africa, but I always thought there was an asterisk there, like he moved to the US when he was three or was one of the “rich kids”. The truth is he graduated High School there and was so poor at one point he was living in a mechanic’s garage and sleeping in cars.

I used to think of Trevor Noah as a mischievous elf or trickster, he’s just so effing cute and funny, but I need to give him much more credit than that. The fact that he made it out of such a terrible situation and has always been able to see the humor in life, makes me respect him as a storyteller and social advocate. I know some people won’t read this because they don’t agree with his politics, but everyone could benefit from the cultural and historical knowledge provided in this book. 

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Austin Kleon just released Keep Going, which is getting a lot of attention and good reviews. Looking over his history, I noticed that Steal Like and Artist was hugely successful, so I decided to start there. I downloaded this book to my iPhone and was surprised to find that it is a teensy, tiny book a little over 100 pages. In addition to being barely long enough to actually get published, the book is mostly quotes, memes, illustrations and small paragraphs with lots of spacing. I read it in one day.

The title of this book is extremely accurate because the entire book is the author expanding on other people’s ideas. There is a quote by a famous, author, scientist, or musician on nearly ever page. Austin Kleon simply expands on each quote and explains how it relates to his creative process. This book is like if someone found all the inspirational creativity memes online and then lengthened them to be three or four sentences each.

I’m not saying this book isn’t helpful, it does have some good ideas and tips, but it doesn’t delve deeply into any subject. This book more skims the surface of creativity. Not bad if you are looking for a quick, easy read with an interesting format about the creative process. It certainly won’t be a waste of your time, as most people could probably read this in one sitting.  

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I got recommended Harlan Coben back when Dan Brown was super popular. I was getting ready to go on vacation and one of the librarians I worked with recommended his books. I don’t remember what the title was, but I liked it and have read probably one Harlan Coben book per year since then, including his young adult novel, Shelter. The funny thing about this recommendation is that the same librarian that introduced me to Harlan Coben later accused me of being “an eighty-year-old man” because I liked him… Oh well, I still like his books!

I don’t read every book that Harlan Coben puts out and I try to stay away from his series. I do not have time for that… When I saw that he was publishing a book about the heroin epidemic, I put it on my to-read list right away. The heroin crisis is so prolific that I feel like just about everyone has been affected by it now. My husband and I were both brought up pretty poor, I had a good childhood, but my husband’s upbringing was rough. Many of the members of his family are still struggling. He and I have tried to set a positive example for his nieces and nephews by showing them what a nice middle-class life looks like. He has four nieces and nephews, one of his nieces was determined to go down and bad path, another one always made good decisions, they are now both addicted to heroin. I know that Run Away is fiction and is not going to solve any of the real-world problems, but it was nice to read about someone, getting out there and trying to save his daughter from this terrible drug.

Harlan Coben, is an easy author to recommend to most adults that are looking for a fun adventure novel. Run Away, is a quick read, like most of Harlan Coben’s books. For the most part, it was pretty predictable, I consider his books to be more adventure than mystery, but there was a great twist at the end that I did not see coming. If you do recommend his books to someone just note that they do tend to have a bit of gore and violence, so just make your patron aware of that before they check out his books.   

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This is the final book of the Magician’s Trilogy, which I have savored over the course of the last few years. I listened to all of these books on audio, narrated by Mark Bramhall, he did a fantastic job with a difficult book to narrate. These books required the narrator to be able to convincingly do accents from all over the world and to speak as gods and monsters would speak. The Magician’s was my favorite book the year that I read it, and the following two books were every bit as great!

This book follows the story of a group of tortured genius magicians on their adventures in this world and others. The characters are seemingly always in personal crisis. They are profoundly self-absorbed and mostly alcoholics, so the books can get pretty dark at times. However, there are times of wonder, awe and selfless sacrifice that creates a good balance for the story. What I really loved about this series is that it is full of sneaky humor, there could be something very tense and tragic happening and somehow the author finds a way to slip in a funny line at the exact right moment. I look forward to Lev Grossman hopefully, writing more fantasy in the future.

A note on the TV series. I watched the first season of this show and then gave up on it. The writers of the show, changed a lot about the book for no reason that I could make sense of. I like the actor that plays Quentin, but I don’t agree with any of the other casting decisions. My biggest problem was with the actress who plays Julia, to be fair the character is so complex and important that I don’t think many actresses could pull off the part. The books generally set a very high bar, so any adaptations were likely to fall short.
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When I say this book “wasn’t bad” that’s a raving review, Mystery is maybe 13th on my list of favorite genres. My problem with Mystery is that, I feel like the author asks you to suspend disbelief so hard that you might as well be reading Fantasy, which I much prefer. I read this book for a community book club that I recently joined, and even though it would not have been my first pick, it was fast paced, engaging and the book club members loved it.

The story revolves around three main questions, is the husband dead or alive, did he do what they said he did, and who else is “in on it”? I went back and forth as to whether the husband was alive, just like the author wanted me to, I would not have been surprised by either ending. There are actually two unsavory things that the husband was thought to have done, I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say, I had this figured out. The question of who else is involved in a mystery is always so convoluted that I just stick with suspecting everyone, right down to the trendy tattooed librarian, that way, I’m always right. The multi-layered questions in this mystery did succeed in making it a page turner and this title was absolutely enjoyed by the book club members.
 
If you are a fan of mystery or are selecting a novel for book club, this is a probably a great option for you.
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I got this book on audio, I always like to be listening to something while I do the dishes or go to the gym. I literally laughed out loud, to myself, in public, like a crazy person, while I was listening to this book.

On the surface this is a funny book that follows a man on his trip around the world as he tries to distract himself from his longtime casual boyfriend’s wedding. This book is full of sly jokes and hilarious, “lost-in-translation” stories. There are also much deeper philosophical elements crafted into the story that contemplate getting older, loss and love. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it reads like a collection of short comedies, each taking place in a new exotic location, where the main character is the victim of continual hilarious misadventures. This book is a fun, quick read that is subtly complex.

I really enjoyed the narrator of this book, he really mastered Less’ “backwards laugh” and was great with all the accents and different character voices.  
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As I transitioned from eating out all the time to learning how to cook, there were early cookbooks that became the foundation for my healthy cooking philosophy. After unsuccessfully trying to be a lazy cook, I discovered cookbooks on the benefits of whole food diets full of colorful and delicious meals. I sometimes wonder what my diet might be like today, if I had come across attractive and convincing books on cutting calories or Vegetarianism first. Instead my cooking journey can be defined by a failed attempt at laziness and a couple of fantastic whole foods cookbooks.

When I first started cooking, I looked for books that required minimum effort, like “One Pot” books. To this day I find this whole “One Pot” genre to be misleading and disappointing. I now understand that “One Pot” just means that the entire meal will be served in one pot, not that you cook everything in one-pot. Since I hate doing dishes, these “One Pot” meals that require three pots to cook make me want to deliver dirty dishes to the author’s doorstep. When you do actually find a one pot meal where everything actually cooks in one pot, the meal usually turns out brown, bland and mushy. Faced with the unsatisfactory reality of “One Pot” cookbooks, I moved on.
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I never really paid attention to this book when it was released, then I saw the movie preview and thought, I better read it before the movie comes out. In the preview I saw, it looks like the daughter goes missing forcing her eccentric parents to go on some sort of adventure scavenger hunt to find her. I either misunderstood, they were purposefully misleading or they really changed the movie, because the mother is the one who goes missing.

I almost gave up on this book twice. The first time was because the main characters are awful, they are intellectual snobs, who seemingly go out of their way to start petty wars with people in their community. Since, I had seen the preview and knew the parents were going to be drawn out of their isolation to find their daughter, I kept going, hoping everyone would be decent people at the end. Then the author started talking about the daughter, Bee’s, health problems. I literally stopped reading and looked up a book synopsis to make sure that the daughter doesn’t die. Sorry, I just don’t like sad books. After reading the summary, I felt pretty confident that they were not going to kill the daughter, so I kept reading.

Of course, the mom was awful for a good reason and everyone grew and changed by the end of the book. This is a fun page turner, with really great imagery of Antarctica, which I now need to visit. Can’t wait for the movie!   
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I avoided reading this book because it was so popular, I felt like it couldn’t be trusted. Everyone was saying how good it was, but the cover made it look so frivolous and it just sounded unoriginal. I was completely not interested in this book. Then it was recommended to me by someone who I just met, but really liked, and I thought, I better read it in case I ever see this person again. So, I read it, and of course I loved it! This is one of those odd books that is impossible to summarize and actually make it sound good, it’s about bullying and domestic violence, but you know, funny? Books like this make these difficult topics more accessible and easier for people to talk about. This is a fun, easy, entertaining book that is also an important book.

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This Young Adult book has been out for a few years, I wasn’t interested in it when it was published, even though it was pretty popular at the time. I ended up adding it to my list out of misguided curiosity. It was mentioned as the book you should read after finishing Harry Potter, in a book I didn’t like, but finished for a friend. I knew I shouldn’t take the advice of an author I didn’t care for, but I read it anyway and was very annoyed when I got to the end of the book. I don’t know why I was expecting anything different…

The premise is interesting enough, a civilization of humans living on a distant planet, where all men can hear each other’s thoughts. ALL OF THEM. ALL THE TIME. Things are bleak and dark, the planet is beautiful, but hard and the men are evil, conniving and murderous. This book is basically a 500-page chase scene with a boy and girl character being chased across a planet by an evil army. The writing is very drawn out and repetitive and the book ends pretty much mid-sentence. I understand the idea of a cliff hanger, but in this case, I felt like I was being held hostage by the story.

I hate giving negative reviews, and I typically just wont finish a book I don’t like. My Goodreads.com account is all books rated three stars or higher, because I don’t finish books, I would rate two stars or below. I would have rated this book three stars, most of it is fine and it is creative, but the complete lack of an ending made me so mad, I’m rating it two stars!
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​My goal is to read at least one book per library check-out period. I usually check-out my books from Overdrive, so my download period is two weeks, that has me reading at least 26 books per year. I don’t stick to a particular genre; I usually look for whatever book on my list is the most different from what I have just finished. So, if I just finished a non-fiction on current social issues, I might follow that up with a funny satirical memoir. My reading list tends to look like a random selection of popular books from the last ten years with the occasional classic mixed in. I will try not to include spoilers. Please join in the conversation!

​This was recommended to me by my amazingly talented and insanely smart hair dresser, or as I call her, my “hair boss”. The premise of this book is so bizarre, that I was instantly intrigued. Apparently, there is a worldwide community of Fly-tiers, that obsessively make salmon fly ties using the feathers of rare, protected and endangered birds. This is the story of how one of those fly-tiers broke into the Tring Museum of Natural History and stole irreplaceable bird skins to sell and support his hobby. This is a very strange tale and it is all true!

Favorite line from this book:

(This is part of the Tring Museum’s history) Lucky visitors caught glimpses of Rothschild astride Rotumah, the 150-year-old Galapagos tortoise he’d sprung loose from an insane asylum in Australia.
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Yep, that happened…

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