Minnesota Setting!

As soon as I see Minnesota, I am IN, you betcha!  I randomly came across Nils Shaprio and read the first three.  I hope there are more to come!  Matt Goldman is quite the writer! 

Number 11

In the Virgil Flowers series is one of the best ever!  I loved Holy Ghost!  I couldn't wait for it so I bought it on audible!  Yes, another reason to love October is the coming of a new book about that F@(@# Flowers!

Set in Minnesota

any book set in Minnesota is going to get you 4 stars right there, it seems.  And then any book with Virgil where he contemplates his God?  Yeah.  5 stars for sure.  That F%9king Flowers.  Deep Freeze, 5 stars it is.  Yet another reason to love October.  A new Virgil Flowers book to devour. 

A Real Horror Story

As I have mentioned, Minnesota is my favorite state.  And Duluth is a beautiful city.  I love driving across this bridge and entering my favorite state!
The setting is just one of the reasons why I love the Johnathan Stride books.  Another reason is that Brian Freeman is just a darn great author.  Darn great.  Darn great.
I love the character of Stride.  How he and his wife, Serena, have shown such grace toward one another during their sometimes rocky relationship.  They are both human.  And I love how they love and accept one another's humanness.
One of the best lines in this book, which I can't remember totally because I bought the audio, is from Stride, talking to an FBI agent who has made a serious and deadly mistake, but an honest one.  He says something like, "Does being a part of the FBI mean you have to perfect" or something like that!  Jonathan is just such a good man.
The really scary thing about this book is that it shows the reality that hate breeds hate and violence breeds violence and technology (in this case, social media) can really be used in thoughtless and also malicious ways that can lead to horrible, horrible hate and violence.
Like the Boston bombing, someone has set a bomb off at the end of the Duluth Marathon, which I guess doesn't really exist, but is a combo marathon with Superior, WI.
The aftermath is just a horrible snowball of hate rolling and destroying lives.  And this can happen and it does happen.  And that is what made this book a horror story, but so sadly, one that really happens.  A cautionary tale, but not preachy.  With an ending that will take your breath away. Fantastic on so many levels.

Virgie

There are some people who call Virgil, Virgie, I am pretty sure.  I think his girl friend does.  Yes, Virgil has a girl friend now!  Frankie.  Escape Clause is the ninth book in the series and Virgil is wonderful.  I just kinda realized the significance of the title, too!  Very clever!
This one is about tigers.  Amur tigers stolen from the Minnesota Zoo.  Great, great, just great stuff.  I also liked the ending.  I had gotten used to books ending kind of in the same way, and this one ends differently and I really liked it!

Metaphors

Breadcrumbs was a book I saw around for a long time, but the cover looked boring. Then I read about it and discovered it was one of those fairy tale change-up books and I decided to give it a try!
I am really glad I did and it was a terrific audio listen, but I do wish I would have read it, because there is a lot in here with regard to some of those non-Disneyfied fairy tales, like the Little Match Girl that show up here in this story.
While most of us won't meet White Witches and wear red shoes that make us dance and dance and dance, we probably have all had an experience like Hazel, finding that a loved childhood friend is slipping away, that maybe you are outgrowing one another.
Beautifully written, I think. And for me to notice, because I am not an educated "smart reader" who notices that kind of thing, you know for sure that it is beautifully written.
Hazel is the main character but I do think dudes would enjoy this story if they gave it a chance. Even if they just started it, because they are all intriguing characters and Jack is a main focus. I am glad I read this finally! Anne Ursu is from Minnesota and remember, only great things and people come from Minnesota!   There is a neat interview with the author here, as she answers some questions that kids ask her.

Another!

When I was writing about Crenshaw, I found out about Home of the Brave.  In March I went to Denver and I got my Denver Public Library card, where I found the audio book!  And I listened to it and it was great!  So many thanks to Katherine Applegate, goodreads.com and Denver Public Library for making this all possible!
Kek is from Sudan and because of all of the war in Darfur. Minneapolis, Minnesota. First he is in a refuge camp and then he is sent to live with his aunt and his cousin, who is in eleventh grade.  Kek is in fifth.
This was Applegate's first book after the Animorphs.
I found it to be so so so good...there were times when I laughed and times when my heart cried.
I wonder how this matches up to the actual experiences of Sudanese refugees.  I am trying to find something written about the research that Applegate did to write this and/or the reaction of the Sudanese refugee community.  I so want this to be an authentic kind of story, because it is just so very, very good.  There are a lot of really good African proverbs in this book as well.
OH MY GOSH!
I just realized, though I think I knew this before, but I am not sure, but I just realized that Applegate also wrote the Roscoe Riley Rules series, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE and recommend to everyone in the world!

Davenport in the Spring and Flowers in the Fall

It seems that way, anyway.  Parker, Woods and Sandford all seem to come out with a book around the same time.  Well, not Parker, but the folks who are carrying on the Parker Legend.
Gathering Prey was good, good, good.  Everything you expect in from Lucas Davenport.  Virgil even showed up for a bit.
I have seen the word Juggalo on bathroom walls over time and it was nice to find out what the word means!
Good stuff.

Fear Not!

When I read the last Virgil Flowers book I was a little worried.  It just didn't seem like Virgil.  But Deadline as brought Virgil back and silenced my worries!
Great, great, great book and it reminded me all over again why I fell in love with That F*&king Flowers in the first place.

Lucas and the Heads

Virgil Flowers might like a band with a name like that.  I had been a little hesitant to read Field of Prey because I was worried, to be honest.  Storm Front, well, it just didn't seem like Virgil to me.  There was not much spirituality.  It was still a great, great book!  And I am still looking forward with as much expectation to the next Flowers installment, but I was worried that when I read Field of Prey, I would find it to be a little less awesome or something.  And so I was worried!  But there was no reason to worry.  This was the best Prey book yet! 
This was just awesome.  A great mystery that kept me guessing the whole time.  Loved it.  Still love Lucas. 

Maggie, I Wish Stride'd Never Seen Your Face

Okay.  That is a terrible post title.  A real groaner.  But man...EVERY TIME Maggie opens her mouth it results in a groan.  She is such a miserable woman.  MISERABLE.  The Cold Nowhere was one of the best books I have read this year.  How I LOVE Jonathan Stride.  And that is why I wish that Maggie would just. go. away. 
I also think that Maggie was probably a PTS and also that she could be best friends with Jen, the other evil woman who is out to hurt another man I love, Jesse Stone! 
I waited and waited so long for this book and it was worth the wait.  I read in a review somewhere that it seems like Freeman is unable to write a bad sentence and I couldn't agree more.  Even though there is love in the book, it didn't bother me at all.  I am pretty excited about seeing Duluth again, when I travel to Minnesota in June. 

Another Winner from Minnesota

Yeah, love Brian Freeman and I am always excited to read whatever he puts out.  Spilled Blood was not a Jonathan Stride book, but it was just as excellent.  The new Jonathan Stride comes out in the US in April and I can't wait!  Spilled Blood begins with the murder of a young teenager in a ghost town in western Minnesota.  Another young teenage girl is charged with her murder, which is seen as the most violent crime yet in a war between two small towns.  There's a lot going on here.  The accused girl's dad is a lawyer, divorced from his wife, who lives in Minneapolis, but comes to the aid of his daughter, the accused.  Great story and I didn't see the end coming at all.  I almost was upset because there is a Lutheran Church in the book and there is a a crucifix in the church.  Instantly I was upset, but then I held off.  I did a little research and I found out that many Lutheran Churches do, in fact, have crucifixes!  So I was not upset!  And I learned something!

100 Happy Days 3/100

Jessica Lange is a Minnesotan, an incredible actress and the star of one of my most favorite shows, American Horror Story:  Coven.   100 Happy Days!

Lucas and Politics

Every Lucas Davenport book is a five-star for me.  That's just the way it is.  Sandford is one of my most favorites.  Silken Prey was loaded with political drama though, so with a different writer, I don't think I would have liked it.  With a different hero, no way.  But Silken Prey was awesome, political intrigue aside. 

Dead Dogs

At first when I started My Life in Dog Years I thought it was going to be one sad story after another, ending with the death of a dog in Gary Paulsen's life. It was not to be though! So that was good. And aside from the sad ending to the first short story, the whole book was full of many laughs and smiles and many tales I told to my mom, who also can't handle a dead pet story. It is impossible for me not to love and admire Paulsen as a writer and as a human being. This is one good book and one great guy.

Jonathan Stride!

Set in Duluth, of course I love the Stride books by Brian Freeman.  There hasn't been one in a while!  But then I found this little story on iTunes and it made me so happy!  This is a grim and creepy tale with a great name, The Spitting Devil, about a woman who suspects that her husband is the killer of three women in the city.  Great and I didn't guess the ending.  I love Stride!

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad River

Virgil Flowers is maturing and I am falling even deeper in love with him.  Mad River was a terrific book and I love the way the Flowers sticks up for the rights of human beings, for the way he thinks about God every night.  He's a truly good guy.  There was a chance that I wouldn't like Mad River, because the criminals are teenagers and they are comparable to (even the book mentions this) the folks in the movie Natural Born Killers.  But Sandford gets into the heads of the killers and you can see that they aren't like the NBK folks.  I really can't stand that movie.  It has ruined everything that Woody Harrelson has been in for me.  I just can't stand that movie!  I am sure that Woody Harrelson is a great guy and a great actor, but that movie...ugh.  I just felt so sick after I saw it. And this from the person who has seen Henry:  Portrait of a Serial Killer more than once!  So yeah, this one is about three older teenagers who go on a killing spree in a bunch of small towns in Minnesota.  And Virgil is off and running, trying to stop them.

No suprise

Just finished listening to Stolen Prey and of course, it was awesome.  Lately I have been listening to the Virgil Flowers books, so it has been awhile since I hung with Lucas.  Virgil had a bit part in this book as well.  And I love Lettie so much!  She has a big role in this one!  Well, maybe not BIG but important.  Great book.  Great series.  Great author.

Here's the Thing...

I read the other reviews of Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights, and a coupe are not positive.  These are the ones from folks who had to read it for summer reading for school.  I have to say I agree with them, if that is why they had to read it.  I loved this book.  I did.  But I look for certain things in a book, I am very picky reader.  I love Minnesota.  I love a book that takes me to another place, shows me another way of living.  That's what this book does.  Set during WW2, Corey is sent from Minneapolis to live with his uncle and his family in a small town in the north woods, I think it is Northome, but I am not positive as an alternative to reform school.  Life is like night and day and Corey changes during his stay there.  It is beautiful, short, coming of age story and I just loved it.  But I can see why kids might not.  Unless they are in the same situation as Corey or live in and love Minnesota.

I want to marry him. Yeah...I know, I'd be wife number four...

but still.  There are so many reasons to love That F*&king Flowers.  Bad Blood has about 5 new reasons.  He's such a hero!  The crimes in this novel are disgusting and horrible, foster "parent"-like.  It was hard to listen at times.  But a great book with whit and charm and justice.