City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

December 7, 2022

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

A group of teens living in an isolated Alaskan town find a boot with a dismembered foot on the shoreline. This is a frequent occurrence and the gruesome find is chalked up to a suicide or someone who fell off a cruise ship. But when an Anchorage detective hears about the discovery, she wonders if it is related to the disappearance of her husband and son a year earlier. She travels to the town, only to be stranded by a snowstorm and avalanche. With nothing else to do, she begins digging into the town and its residents.

This starts out as a nice "locked room" mystery with a limited number of characters who live in the same building in the same tiny town. Everyone is stranded by the snowstorm, unable to leave. There is even a moose named Denny. But about 2/3 of the way in, the author introduces a group of characters from a nearby Native American village (the "Rez Men," who she takes great pains to emphasize are NOT Native American) who are able to move about and come and go as they please. They all sound like their dialog is from a 1950s B-movie. I'm sure the author liked all of her characters and didn't want to make one of them the bad guy so she decided to pin it on someone from outside the town, but I hate it when authors do this. It's a cop-out.

Also, the two detectives are conducting a thorough investigation up until this point, but at the 2/3 mark, they suddenly get stupid. Instead of thoroughly searching the town and surrounding area for two children who go missing, including the nearby abandoned military compound (hint, hint), they decide to hop on snowmobiles and go search the Native American village that is two hours away.

The ending is just two unbelievable. The reader is supposed to believe that the murder victim in a tiny isolated town was somehow involved with the deaths of the detective's husband and son. How unbelievable is that?? Talk about a stretch.

And why does Cara, the female detective, start seeing and talking to ghosts, including her dead husband? I know she is supposed to have PTSD, but ghosts have nothing to do with the story and an editor should have cut out those parts. It pisses me off when authors portray women as weak-minded. The male detective doesn't hear or see anything supernatural.

Yamashita tried to deal with too many big issues: domestic abuse, drugs, poverty, suicide, illegal immigration, PTSD, the plight of many Native Americans. These are all important topics, but pick one (or two, at the most) and work with it.

Disappointing.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Talkeetna, Alaska, where this novel does NOT take place

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

December 10, 2021

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Megs Devonshire is a scholarship student at Oxford, studying maths. The other love of her life is her younger brother George, who is gravely ill and not expected to live much longer. George becomes fascinated with a book called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and when he learns that the author, C. S. Lewis, is an Oxford professor, he begs his sister to go see Lewis and find out where Narnia came from.

Megs manages to meet C. S. Lewis (known as Jack in his family) and his brother Winnie, who are two of the kindest men who ever lived. Rather than tell her outright about Narnia, Jack tells her about growing up with Winnie, and Megs brings the stories home to tell George. 

This was one of the most heartfelt books that I read in 2021. Yes, you'll need a box of tissues. It's sad at times but oh so lovely. Megs is the best sister ever. Highly recommended.

C. S. Lewis

The Kilns, C. S. Lewis' Oxford home

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

August 24, 2021

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

Most of us know the story of the Trojan War from the works of Homer (the Odyssey and the Iliad). But if you read Homer, you'd think there were only two women in all of Greece and Troy: Helen (who caused it all by running off with Paris, prince of Troy, instead of sitting her ass at home with her husband) and Penelope, Odysseus' long-suffering wife. 

This is the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women: the wives, the daughters, the queens, the goddesses. Their lives were altered forever by the long and tragic war. A Thousand Ships re-tells the war, what led up to it and the thoughtless acts of men that affected women forever.

An example: when Agamemnon, ruler of the Greeks, realizes that things aren't going so well, he sends a message to his wife, Clytemnestra, back home. He tells her that he has found a wonderful husband for their youngest daughter, Iphigenia, and that Mom should send the girl with her handmaids and her wedding finery, and that the couple will be married before they land at Troy. He has Iphigenia's women dress her for her wedding. He leads her to an altar where all his men are gathered, and proceeds to slit his sweet, young daughter's throat as a human sacrifice so that the war goes his way. When Agamemnon comes home victorious, his wife or possibly her lover kills him. I would have, too.

Now, when Homer tells this story, he glosses over the human sacrifice of an innocent girl by her asshole father. He focuses on the part where Agamemnon comes home and is relaxing in his bath, and his wife murders him for revenge (and also because he deserves it).

Is it any wonder that women read and write romance novels? Men are so disappointing in real life, that we have to create better men in fantasy and fiction.

Okay, I'm done ranting. This was one of the best books that I read in 2021. My friend Bonnie recommended it. Loved it.

Depiction of Troy and the horse that most people think of

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

July 24, 2021

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is a reluctant member of a desperate last-chance mission to save life on Earth from extinction. After being asleep for a long time (think years), he wakes up to find himself the only surviving crewmember. His crewmates are dead so it's up to Ryland to carry out their mission by himself. The only problem is that it's a suicide mission: his tiny ship doesn't have enough fuel or food for the return trip to Earth.

Things aren't going too well on Earth, either. Ryland loses communication with his contacts, and the only message he picks up from another ship is ominous, to say the least. But thanks to an unexpected friend, he just might not only succeed but also survive.

This is the third novel by the author of The Martian and I loved it just as much. After his dismal second book (Artemis), I was very glad to see that the author returned to his signature witty style and characters. It's little heavy on science at times, which doesn't bother me but may put some readers off. There is enough peril, adventure and disasters to rival The Martian. Like Mark, the main character in The Martian, Ryland gets plenty of chances to exercise his inner MacGyver. 

Although the storylines are exciting, Weir's characters make the book. I loved the friendship between Ryland and Rocky. I have recommended this book to a number of people, and the only complaint has been whether there will be a sequel so that we can find out what happened to everyone on Earth.

A fanciful picture of the solar system from NASA

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

January 8, 2021

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Galadriel Higgins, known as El, is a student at the Scholomance, a special school for gifted magical children. There are no teachers, yet the school itself determines the curriculum for each student.  The school's main purpose seems to be to weed out about 75% of the students before graduation, but it's still safer than the outside world, where the only chance for safety is to belong to a wizarding enclave. The enclave kids at the Scholomance are the only ones who have resources and a chance of getting out alive. 

El is an indie kid - she was raised by her whimsical mother in a magic commune in Wales. They are poor as dirt because her mother gives away her magic for free. El was supposedly born evil and has the potential to become a very powerful sorceress. Although the school seems determined to test or kill the students at every turn, El slowly makes friends (for the first time) and even has a boyfriend of sorts who keeps saving her life against her wishes. She and her friends are determined to find a way for more students to make it out alive and to protect the younger students.

This isn't Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series - the Scholomance is far deadlier. It's a cliche, but the school itself is a character. There is a really creative collection of monsters and supernaturals that inhabit the school. El has a very funny snarky voice, adding sarcasm to typical teenage angst. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

December 12, 2020

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

In the courtyard of a Brooklyn housing project, a middle-aged church deacon shoots one of the local drug dealers at point blank range.  Even though there are at least 16 witnesses, nobody sees nothing.  The balance of the story focuses on what led to this event and the overlapping lives connected to the neighborhood.

Heartfelt and humorous, characters include project residents, church ladies, prostitutes, local cops, drug dealers, mobsters, and even a ghost or two.  There is a mystery, a romance, a treasure hunt and plenty of secrets. The main themes are what makes up a family and a community.  

The plot is really hard to describe - suffice it to say that I loved it. This is one of the best books that I read in 2020.