Oh Joe

I do like the Joe Gunther series.  I do.  I just don't like KGB stuff and international spy jazz and that was ALL Disposable Man was! 

Bellows Fall is Falling Down

But it is also building up.  Bellows Falls is number 8 in the series and yes, yes, another great one!  I don't know what it was about those few that didn't 5 star for me, but these last few really have! 

The Ragman

The Ragman's Memory was an excellent book, the seventh in the Joe Gunther series.  The title got me thinking about this poem.  I read it when I was working as a pastor and on a mission trip to DC with the kids and it stuck with me all of these years.
The poem has nothing to do with the book.
Anyway....this book was really, really good!  And so I am on to the 8th!

And Again!

The Dark Root, the sixth installment of the Joe Gunther series was VERY good and another 5 star.  This book dealt with the rise of Asian American gangs and addressed the racial discrimination that went along with it.  Again, I feel like Archer was writing ahead of his time when he addresses issues back in the 90s that, sadly are still issues today (see #5) but are now, at least getting better, more appropriate attention. 

Another One!

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree was VERY 5 star and ahead of it's time, I think.  This made me feel the way that I did about Death Masks in that it gave me a renewed sense of enthusiasm about a series.   There is no corpse in the book, as the author says in his foreword, because the murder that takes place here is rape.  I thought that was a powerful statement about the crime of rape.  And keep in mind, this was published in 1993.  Very, very, very good. 

Order Restored

Scent of Evil is the third in the Joe Gunther series and now I am back in order!  This one was okay, too.  I mean, good but not a four star.  Yet like I felt when I read Skeleton's Knee.  I liked it enough to go on the next! 

Out of Order

But not too much.   Just finished The Skeleton's Knee which I thought was the third book in the Joe Gunther series.  Turns out it is the fourth.  So now I am going to go back and read Scent of Evil.  Because I do enjoy these books and I like the character of Joe.  I mean his character, as in this morals and so forth, but I guess that also means I like the character-character of Joe, too!  While Skeleton's Knee seemed a little tedious for me, I think it was because it dealt with a time similar to The Risen and I was just so over that kind of pretension that I was happy that the characters were bad and died!

Learning More

So much to learn from reading!  Boarderlines is the second in the Joe Gunther series and I learned a lot more about Vermont!  Especially the whole Woodchuck vs. Flatlander deal!  This was good, but I wasn't sucked in that much, but I am for sure going to read the next one.  I like Joe a lot!

Trying It Out

I read Open Season with the hope that I had found a new series to love.  Joe Gunther is the guy and the series is by Archer Mayor.  It is set in Brattleboro which is a real town in Vermont and I don't know much about Vermont so it part was fun, too.
I really, really enjoyed this book so much.  I am trying out the second one, but I am not sucked in-- YET! 

The BIG Read

In 2019, God willing, one of the libraries in which I work will be participating in The Big Read.  The book will be In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.  She wrote Before We Were Free, which was a remarkable book.  I discovered Tia Lola Stories on a library audio app and listed to both books included in this one download:  How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay and How Tia Lola Came Learned to Teach.  Realistic, funny (especially when Tia Lola is practicing her English by saying everything she knows at once) and touching.  Just great!  I wish that the other books in the series were available on audio!

Witness

Witness took a little bit for me to get into, but once I did, I was hooked.  I think that listening to a book with twelve different POVs is hard.  For me anyway, but once I figured out the voices, the story came alive.  Karen Hesse wrote two books that I didn't really like at all, but I liked them well enough not to give up this one and I am so glad that I did.  This is an historical fiction one, set in 1923-24 in a small town in Vermont.  It details what happens to a group of folks when the Klan comes to town.  It is definitely a book that makes one very, very angry.  And angrier still that there is still so much racism and hate today.  The audio book has a great interview with Karen Hesse at the end which is really great as well.

The French Yoda

I don't know...there was just something about Safekeeping that I didn't like.  It does count for Vermont though, so that is cool.  It is probably me.  I didn't like Out of the Dust, either but everyone loves it.  Kids and adults alike.
Radley is a cool character.  I like her a lot.  She is in Haiti, helping in an orphanage when the US elects a giant weenie party, The American Patriot Party, I think it is called.  Once the APP is in power, they become big time oppressive and start controlling the media, arresting protesters.  And then everyone starts protesting and then the President is assassinated (a woman) and there is all kinds of trouble.  Radley comes home to find her house empty and martial law in the US.  She hikes to Canada, hoping to find her parents there.  She meets a friend a long the way.  They meet a wise woman who is Canadian, not French, sorry the title of the post is wrong.  And well, I don't know.  I just didn't do much for me.

When Recommending a Mary Downing Hahn Book

Even though many of her books, like All the Lovely Bad Ones,  are children's fiction, they are scary!  And they deal with really scary stuff.  All the Lovely Bad Ones is all about murder and suicide and child abuse and there's no "oh it was just a joke" or something like that ending.  This book is for kids who really don't mind the scary stuff, ghosts or reality.