A GREAT BOOK from MR. Kellerman!

As you know I love Faye Kellerman but I am kinda hit or miss with Jonathan Kellerman.  But Museum of Desire (Alex Delaware #35) was just fantastic.  VERY creative, I think.  Super creepy premise and didn't let up on the tension until the end.  Great stuff.

Good Stuff

Terror's Echo:  Transgressions Novellas 7,8 and 10 was an excellent collection of stories.  I mean, think about it, Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) was the editor?  And one of the stories was a Keller story from Block???  Even though I had read the Keller story a long, long time ago, it was just as good the second time around and how I wish he would write another.
I don't think I had read any John Farris before, but this one was good, good, good.  I am always mixed about Stephen King, of course, but the story in here was excellent.  A great, great, great collection. 

Colors

was a fantastic movie.  The Astonishing Color of After?  Well, it just didn't work for me.  I think it was the writing style, maybe?  Just too descriptive and flowery for my personal taste.  I guess I also didn't get all of the drama there was about Leigh not getting to know her grandparents.  A lot of people don't get to know their grandparents, for a lot of different reasons.  But this seemed to be SUCH a huge point of contention.  Not to say it shouldn't be a point of contention-- everyone would love to have a close family.  Yes, that is ideal.  But for it to be SUCH a big deal...well...
I did appreciate the mention of the good uses of electroconvulsive therapy, which is so often misunderstood.  I have a dear friend who found this to be the only cure for her depression.  And I know it does work for some.  Most times when it is demonized, it is because people get it confused with a lobotomy and think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or they don't realize how different it is now, from when it was first used.  Not to say that others wouldn't like it, but I had a hard time finishing it. 

Too Much Mean to Be Redeemed

Invisible Emmie was just not a good fit for me.   Even the ending could not redeem it for me but I do think it made it a little better.  A little.  I can see why this would be popular, maybe, but I also think it would be off-putting, at least to dorks like me, who were/are the kids that Emmie criticizes endlessly.  I definitely think that David Levithan would like it because there is a lot of subtle fat-shaming!  It might be too subtle for him though...but for me, the thing that bothered me most was the rip on people with a disability.  I know, I know, pain in is pain out.  And no one can measure anyone else's pain and it isn't fair to compare someone's pain to another person's pain.  But wow, I mean, for the amount of pain in that Emmie expresses, she sure does give a lotta pain out! 

Returned this one

I really don't like to return books on audible, even though they say it is okay.  But man, A Line in the Dark just was...wow, for me...bad.  Not to say that others won't like it, but wow, it was just not for me. 

Gentrification

Even though the G word is never used in Harlem Charade, and the larger worry is a proposed amusement park in Harlem, this book gets to the heart of what gentrification can do to a community.  Natasha Tarpley is an author that I really want to explore! I loved the characters and I loved the family dynamics and I loved the writing and the message.  Good stuff! 

That Was Different!

Landscape with Invisible Hand was very different!  But in a good way.  I have to say it was not what I was expecting. I should have probably had an idea, given that it was listed some place as being good for people who enjoyed Grasshopper Jungle.  I did really enjoy GJ.  A lot.  I like LWIH, but not as much as GJ.  I am not sure why.   However, I did love the ending, very, very much so.  Maybe it was my ridiculous sensibility toward bodily functions.  That really turned me off, but I know some people wouldn't be so stuck on that!  It's just a bit of a deal-breaker for me as far as LOVING a book goes!  Still, I could easily recommend this.

Yeah...

Eliza and Her Monsters....this was really, really good.  It had to be, I mean, it isn't out on audio and yet I had an easy time of reading it.  Which is so rare to me.  Fandoms are something of which I have little personal experience, but I know about, and shipping and things like that, but I think that it was all well explained, but for the teen audience, I am sure they all know what those things are, it's just oldsters like me who might not!  I didn't know that there were so many fandoms!  There is a Golden Girls one!  There is even fan fiction written about Judy!
There are many things I loved about this book.  The parents and their humanness and the reality of Eliza's feelings about what she might want to do at the turn in the road and the humanness of Wallace, even though he did make me mad.
Navigating the world of online and "face to face" is hard at any age, and I would think especially for teens.  I thought this was just very real.  I also loved Eliza's brothers.  Again, very real.
It is on my top three, along with The Hate U Give and Bang.

Maybe

It's because I seem to have read a lot of books lately in which the main character is an aspiring writer or painter or musician, but those around the main character think that their art is a waste of time or a good hobby, but won't pay the bills.  Local Girl Swept Away was like that, too.  The main character is an aspiring artist and her family is a very blue-collar fishing family in Provincetown, MA.  What I did really like about it was the way that the mom was portrayed.  That seemed very real to me.  I hate to be critical about books of this type, because I know that is very important, that people do try to pursue their dreams and I know it is common for someone to have a dream about making it in a career that is hard.  I mean, as I think about it, my parents were NOT thrilled when I decided to go to seminary instead of law school.  Any my friend who is a pastor was not too excited when his daughter decided to go into the ministry, knowing the challenges, instead of the sciences, at which she also excelled.  So I get it, I do.  And again, this is just a reflection upon what I feel about the book, not about what others might feel.  So if you or someone you love is finding themselves in a situation like this, you might need this book!  Interestingly though, that is not the main part of the book!  Read the description and you will see that it is much more about deception and friendship and doing what is right, even when you don't really know what the right thing might be.

FINALLY

I really, really did not enjoy Vincent and Theo:  The Van Gogh Brothers.  When it was chosen to be read by the group that follow for possible Printz winners I tried and tried and tried.  And then I gave up.  Then it was chosen by the group I follow for Newbery winners and I knew I had to try again. But man, man, I didn't like this book at all.  I hated that it was written in the present tense.  I just hated it. Thing is, I thought I would love it!  I loved my art history minor is college.  I love post-impressionism.  While Van Gogh is not in my top five favorite artists, he is, for sure, in the top ten.  I love apocryphal stories about him, especially about his time spent living with Gauguin.  Gauguin was a wild dude!  But this book was just one of those that didn't do it for me.  At all.  While I loved Charles and Emma:  the Darwin's Leap of Faith, loved, loved, loved it, this one by Deborah Heiligman just made me struggle.    Interestingly enough I don't remember if CAE was written in the present tense or not!  I am going to see if I can find out...hang on...no, from what I can see from excerpts provided online, the book isn't written in the present tense.  Why was most of this one?  I swear, if I had been written in the past, I would have liked it to a four-star maybe!  I bet I would have. In any case, I am glad I finished it.  The book is REALLY well researched and so it seems to me that Vincent van Gogh was as troubled as many stories show him to be, and even more so.  But man, the tense thing just drove me crazy!  If you don't mind a story mostly written in the present tense, you might really like it though!

It Might Be an Art Thing

And We're Off was a decent book.  I mean there was nothing bad about it, you know?  It just wasn't, I don't know really invested in it.  I wonder if maybe I was super into creating art, had the talent for it, I would have been more invested.

Some Titles

are really, really good.  They intrigue and then, after or during the book you TOTALLY get the meaning!  That happened to me with Fans of the Impossible Life and a little while ago with Symptoms of Being Human.  This is the first book by Kate Scelsa.  And I was hoping there were more, but as I look at her page, I see she is one busy lady!  I will have to check out the podcast she does with her dad.
This book was very different and very real and well worth reading!  Just very, very good, even though it did make me super sad sometimes, but isn't that just like life?

Unfinished Business

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone illustrates the life of someone quite the opposite of my friend's mom who went Home to the Lord a couple of weeks ago.  My friend's mom, Minni Veltri was 90 and before she died she was sitting with her large, loving family in her home.  She closed her eyes and smiled and said, "I'm going now!" and drift off to sleep, to awaken a bit later and look around saying, "I'm still here!" And then the routine would start again, "Okay, I'm going now."  And then, the Lord came to her and she did, indeed, go Home.
Addison Stone was 18 and feel or perhaps jumped to her death.  She was an artist, an up and coming one, and this book really makes you think that she was a real person.  But Addison Stone is fiction and very good fiction, written by Adele Griffin.  I have read some of her books and this is my favorite so far.  I gave it five of five.
Good stuff.

I'll Follow the Sun

is a Beatles song.  I'll Give You the Sun is a book.  A long book.  I read it because of the Printz buzz around it.  I actually bought the MP3 CD because it wasn't available at the time as a download.  The thing is, on a CD you can't speed up the playback... and at first, that was okay!
This is a very engaging book.  It is told from two POVs, twins, a brother and a sister.  Art factors big-time in the book as does sexuality.  I really liked this book, but I feel like the editors did it a disservice by not editing more.  It just went on a bit too long.  Way too long for me, but for the normal person, probably just a bit too long. I don't see this as winning the Printz and I can't see a lot of readers sticking with it.  I had broken up with so many books recently,  that I felt I had to finish it.  But in the end it went on so long that I found myself not caring what happened to the characters, and that is a shame.

Don't Know Much about Buddhism

but I was happy to start Buddha Boy, after my great experience with Kissing the Bee.  This is a bullying story, but not just-another-bullying-story.  I would be interested to see what guys and gals Justin and Jinsen's age would think of this book, because I don't want to presume that Koja gets it right so well, but as far as I can remember back (and that is a LOT of years back) it seems that this book is just spot on in depicting how kids this age really feel.  The story is told from the POV of Justin.  A middle-of-the-road kid, who just goes along to get along.  When he meets Jinsen, he starts thinking about if going along to get along is what he wants to do anymore.  Does he want to put himself out there?  Defend the strange kid who doesn't fight back no matter how much they pick on him.  I think Koja does an excellent job.  I would just love to know if kids that age agree.
The book really isn't about Buddhism.  But it is interesting that Jinsen's interest in Buddhism has worked for him and at the same time, led Justin to ask his father about faith, asking him to take him to church when their visiting time comes and to visit a temple, too. I wonder if teens explore faith this way?  I think it was really cool of the dad to say, "Yes, you can come to church with me!" and also, "Yes, we can visit a Buddhist temple, you want!"  That kind of openness allows for discussion, prayer, meditation and possibility.

Peter and Rina! On the East Coast!

So after I finished the last Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novel by the amazing Faye Kellerman, I wrote to Ms. Kellerman with much worry, that the end of the road had come for PD/RL books.  And she assured me no!  Again, I was so excited that she would take the time to write back to me and then super excited to learn that there were going to be more books!  And this month Murder 101 came out!  I preordered it from audible and jumped right in, very excited to hear that Richard Ferrone was the narrator!  I wrote Ms. Kellerman before I was even done with the book to tell her how much I was enjoying it, and she wrote back again!
I love this new turn that Rina and Peter's life has taken.  I love the setting, the promise that the kids will be still involved and maybe even more so, since they will be close.  I loved, loved, loved all of it.  The only bad thing...gotta wait another year for the next one! But man, these books are worth the wait!

Fish Story

When I was a little girl, I won a goldfish as my elementary school Fun Day. This little dude lasted a really long time! I know I still had him in eighth grade. I know that is weird. But I am sure that he wasn't replaced, like the goldfish in The Fourteenth Goldfish. My parents hated that fish! They couldn't wait for him to die! I'm not sure why, because I did take care of him. I know that my cats enjoyed looking at him, too.

But that is neither here nor there.

The title of The Fourteenth Goldfish refers to the whole goldfish drama that Ellie went through, or didn't have to go through, rather, over goldfish. When Ellie was in preschool she had a rather progressive teacher and at the end of the year she gave all of the students a goldfish. The thing was, goldfish aren't supposed to live very long and their death would teach the children about the circle of life. Ellie's goldfish didn't teach her that though, because her fish never died. Her parents kept replacing it! Very clever.

The Fourteenth Goldfish is written by Jennifer L. Holm who also wrote, Turtle in Paradise, which I absolutely loved.   This book is kind of like the Intergalatic Bed and Breakfast series in that it is science fiction, but it good, meaty, growing-up stuff within its pages as well!  TFG is a growing up story, and a funny one.  Ellie's grandfather is a scientist who has found the Fountain of Youth, in the form of a jellyfish.  Instead of being a guy in his late 70s, he is now a young teen again.  Is that good, or is it bad?  There is a lot to be learned in this book, about growing up and moving on, about being more than you thought you could be.  It's about fathers and daughters and loss and the circle of life.  It's about science and art and the in between.  But it is hilarious and not preachy and not predictable.  I really, really loved this book and will find it very easy to recommend!  I was excited to get this on netgalley and look forward to its release! 

Art and Inspiration

Ah the tortured artist.  I can't understand them, but I can appreciate them.  It is hard to appreciate Aurora's dad though.  She is an artist, like he is.  But he is also a bad husband and a pretty not-so-great dad.  But who is perfect.  Drawing Lessons is a simple and beautiful book will be loved by folks who are artists and even people like me, who couldn't be any less artsy.  A great introspective book about trust and loss and creativity and a quick one-sitting read.  Not because it was simplistic, but because it really captures you and doesn't let go. 

When you really don't like a character.

I am not an artist.  I am not an artist, outsider hero, like the ones allegedly in this book.  That probably has impacted my attitude toward Radiant Days.  If you are an artist, you may love this book.  I am even recommending it to my friends who are artists.  But man, I really didn't like this book.  Half of it anyway.
The book is told from two POVs.  One from the perspective of Arthur Rimbaud.  I loved his parts.  Based on actual accounts of his life.
Merle is the other POV and she is a homosexual artist who really needs to just get a freakin job instead of thinking that her job is to make art.  Grow up and give me a freakin break.  Get a job and make art on your freakin day off.  Oh it was praised up and down and all over the place.  And maybe if you are an artist, you will love it.  I just couldn't stand Merle at all.  What a selfish piece of trash.  Rimbaud's parts are hilarious and powerful.   The book is super well written and I can appreciate the writing...its just that Merle is SO obnoxious and never proves herself to be anything more than a jerk, in my eyes.  She just ruined it for me.

I Don't Know...

I DO know that E.L. Konigsburg is a very well-respected and acclaimed author.  I do not know why The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World is just so...I don't know...disagreeable.  I've tried reading From the Mixed Up Files... and A View from Saturday but I couldn't get very far in either of them, but I know people love them.  I don't know any kids who love them, but a lot of adults do.  I DID love Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth when I was young, and I will read it again to see if I still do because I just don't know what is my deal with Konigsburg.  This book wasn't terrible, I just don't think it was interesting.  And I don't think that a kid would like it.  I don't even want to really write about it because I got so so sick of listening to it that I am just so tired of it.  It's the story of a kid who moves to Florida from NYC and befriends an old lady who is selling her house and the son of the woman who is handling her estate.  There's a lot of very interesting history here as the story weaves its way around and is tied to Sheboygan Wisconsin, the so-called Degenerate Art as proclaimed by Nazi dirtbags, and scumbag former Nazis like Ivan the Terrible and Kurt Waldheim.  So I liked the history, and I liked the adult characters of Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Vanderwal, and I liked Willie, the main character's friend.  But the main character himself, Amedeo, was kind of one dimensional.  It was just a weird book, I thought and I don't know how I could recommend it.