Envy by Sandra Brown

I picked up this audio book because I really enjoyed the last Sandra Brown book I read (Rainwater). This one…

Genre: fiction

Blurb: (from Goodreads) Living on a remote island under an assumed name, novelist Parker Evans guards his secrets well. Fascinated by this reclusive genius, publisher Maris Matherly-Reed decides to pursue him. But this new project threatens an old commitment, a commitment at the very center of her life. 

What I didn’t like: Compared to Rainwater, this wasn’t half the book that was. The plot was a little thin – the main bad guy (Todd, M’s husband) was a bit too stupid for my taste. He kept thinking his villainous plans would work, even after his wife caught him cheating, and he threatened her.  It bothered me that M fell for the crude — character. It’s a bit hard to understand how an educated, savvy business woman would do that, but I guess it could happen. I also thought Brown made him – the supposed good guy in the story – too crude. A bit crude, sure, but not as raunchy as she made him. The other thing that bothered me is the sex in the book, mostly because I wasn’t expecting it. Neither the back audio blurb nor the blurb you read above give you any idea of this. And having read Brown’s Rainwater before this, I wouldn’t have expected it from this author. It seems more like a book about the act of sex with a revenge story as a back drop vs the other way around. Plus when Parker Evans is injured in the ocean as badly as he was injured, he would have bled out and died if the sharks didn’t get to him first (if there are sharks around the Florida Keys). And on a personal note:  as a writer, I don’t like to read books about writing. I use reading as an escape, and reading about writing is not an escape for me.

What I liked: Not a whole lot, as you can see from above. It has good dialogue and flows well even with a thin plot at times, but I was expecting more of a story after reading Rainwater before this one. If you like to read sex scenes, Brown does a good job with those and there is plenty of them throughout the book, but I didn’t pick this book up looking for that. Victor Slezak did the narration for this audio book and he did a fine job. I wonder how he kept his cool through all those sex scenes!

Rating: 2/5

The Plague of Doves by Louise Edrich

I picked this out of a hat. I had never read any of Edrich’s stuff before.

Genre: fiction

Blurb:  (goodreads) The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation.

Part Ojibwe, part white, Evelina Harp is an ambitious young girl prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina’s grandfather, is a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. And Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, who bears witness, understands the weight of historical injustice better than anyone. Through the distinct and winning voices of three unforgettable narrators, the collective stories of two interwoven communities ultimately come together to reveal a final wrenching truth.

What I liked: The writing is wonderful, poetic, inspiring as a writer, and  just lovely. The story is intriguing… in places. The beginning story of the young girl, Evelina and her interesting grandfather, who like many elders, has a story to tell gets you to want to learn more.

What I didn’t like: Unfortunately Erdrich doesn’t stay with that initial story. She brings it back later, but there are confusing things in between. You find out that these other people and stories ultimately mean something but I think the story would have been wonderful if Louise could have made the transitions between the different people’s stories more understandable, more logical. She does bring the stories together at the end, but the end seems anti-climactic. It left me thinking: what was she trying to get across in this story? I listened to this and the narration switched between Peter Francis James and Kathleen McInerney. They both do a good job, I just prefer one narrator or a group of narrators that play a specific character. I get used to hearing one voice and it is startling for me when the switch happens. Oh well.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dead Man’s Chest by Kerry Greenwood

Genre: Murder mystery, a Phryne Fisher mystery (narrated by Stephanie Daniel)

Blurb: (from Goodreads) Phryne Fisher needs a rest. It’s summer. She packs up her family and moves to Queenscliff, a quiet watering place on the coast. Where she meets with smugglers, pirate treasure and some very interesting surrealists, including a parrot called Pussykins. What is the mysterious Madame Selavey hiding? Where are the Johnsons, who were supposed to be in the holiday house?

What I liked: I liked the narrator of this story, Stephanie Daniel, did a nice job with the large number of characters. I like Greenwood’s characterization, the characters are very real and enjoyable and the main character – Phryne Fisher – is a woman to be admired, more notable because this story was supposed to take place, I’m thinking, in the 1920s but the rest…

What I didn’t like: The rest seemed all over the place. I really had a hard time keeping the characters straight, even the main ones until well into the book. Part of the issue might be that this is book 18 in the Fisher mystery series (I was unaware of this when I picked it up), but maybe it’s also because Greenwood is Australian and maybe the book style of that country is different from mine. I have noticed a difference, at times, reading from someone from the UK so perhaps it is similar with the country down under. And the story was very difficult to follow. Greenwood moved from one scene and set of characters to another with minimal to no transition and at times it was difficult to know what the characters were talking about until a page or so into the scene. I kept reading because I liked the characters, but the story itself was uninteresting and odd at times. Perhaps if I tried an earlier work, it would have been better. Sometimes writers or editors become lazy after so many books in a series.

Rating: 2/5

Meet Jerry Apps and 4 other local Wisconsin Authors

Come to a free event put on by the Monroe Center for the Arts, Thursday, April 18th, 7 p.m.  - 1315 11th St. Monroe, WI in the Gunderson Stiles Concert Hall

Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of more than 30 books, Jerry Apps will moderate this forum of local authors including Matt Figi, Christine Keleny (ME!), Bill Ross, and Olivia Rupprecht. These authors represent different genres of literature from history to mystery.  This forum will explore the writing process and its relation to the various genres of literature.  It promises to be a lively discussion.

Important Anniversary for All Who Love Words

I couldn’t pass up sharing this little tid bit of information. On April 14, 1828: Noah Webster registered the copyright on his American Dictionary of the English Language 185 years ago today. Imagine, just 2,500 copies of the first edition sold, for 20 dollars apiece. Twenty dollars must have been a fortune in 1828. It took him thirty years to compile it. He changed words like the Kings English colour and changed it to color, musik  to music, theatre to theater.  He introduced new “American” words (some based on Native American languages) such as opossum, skunk, and a favorite of yours and mine – Congress. He also wrote his own edition of the Bible. He was also instrumental in creating the first American census.

Noah was a school teacher and he was appalled by his students inability to spell.

I don’t know when Merriam got into the picture, but I couldn’t do without my dictionaries. I have multiple!

(This is also the night that Lincoln was shot (1865) and the Titanic struck an iceberg(1912).)

Join me and three other authors for a free book forum

This next Wednesday, April 17th, at 6:30 at A Room Of Ones Own Bookstore in Madison,  three other Madison authors and I will be offering a free forum on book publishing.

The other authors:

Marty Drapkin, author of Ten Nobodies and Now and at the Hour. He has a master’s degree in English education from the University of Wisconsin. Learn more at the author’s website!

Spike Pedersen, author of the self-published novel At First Light. Follow Spike’s blog!

Sarah White, author of 3 books published the traditional way as well as the self-published Write Your Travel Memoirs. She coaches self-publishing and writing. Find out more about Sarah at her website First Person Productions!

Come join us for a night of inspiration, and become the author you were meant to be.

Location: 

315 W. Gorham St.

Madison, 

Wisconsin

53703-2218

United States

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

I picked this up by chance. I had not heard of Sandra Brown. I needed another audio-book to listen to and the few I have ordered from the library hadn’t arrived yet, so I picked up this one. I’m glad I did.

Genre: historical fiction

Blurb: (from Goodreads) The year is 1934. With the country in the stranglehold of drought and economic depression, Ella Barron runs her Texas boardinghouse with an efficiency that ensures her life will be kept in balance. Between chores of cooking and cleaning for her residents, she cares for her ten-year-old son, Solly, a sweet but challenging child whose misunderstood behavior finds Ella on the receiving end of pity, derision, and suspicion. When David Rainwater arrives at the house looking for lodging, he comes recommended by a trusted friend as “a man of impeccable character.” But Ella senses that admitting Mr. Rainwater will bring about unsettling changes.

What I didn’t like: It was a little slow to start but not much.

What I liked: It was a good story overall: good and an uncommon  character in the main character’s son – Solly – who was probably autistic but was considered an “idiot” in the 1930s, (mostly) believable story line, interesting backdrop of the depressive south, nice couple twists at the end. Victor Slezak was the narrator and did a nice job. I will definitely be picking up another one of Sandra’s books.

Rating: 4.5/5

Why Amazon's Purchase of Goodreads Is A Good Thing

Reblogged from David Gaughran:

The doom-mongers have been running wild on Twitter with the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads. Much of that nonsense is typical (hysterical) Amazon bashing, or reflexive defense of the status quo.

I'm not going to deal with the Chicken Little stuff. I have less and less patience with people who claim that Amazon has or is striving for some kind of evil monopoly that will subjugate authors and readers when all the evidence to date is that they will treat authors better than any publisher and provide readers with cheaper books, a bigger selection, and a better customer experience than any other retailer.

Read more… 1,752 more words

I sure hope David is correct. I like Goodreads as an independent voice in the books world and a place for author and readers to connect. I also hate to see Amazon gobble up another book site. Bigger is not always better in my book, though I'm sure Goodreads made a pretty penny selling themselves off. It's hard to begrudge them that. Time will tell, time will tell.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clark

I picked this up because I had read and enjoyed the YA series Mortal Instruments by Ms Clark that is supposed to have followed this series (in book time), and my daughter liked it, so I thought I’d give this prequel a try.

Genre: YA fantasy

Blurb: (goodreads) When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

What I liked: Ms Clark is very good with her characters, most notably her young characters. She is also particularly good at building the love interest tension between the main characters. This works well, since this is a YA novel. It’s perfect for young women (and even older ones, such as myself, who are romantic at heart.) She had done the same in the Mortal Instruments Series. Ms Clark as a good imagination but doesn’t make it so odd that you can’t “believe” what she is telling you. The narrator, Jennifer Ehle, did a wonderful job. I look forward to hearing her in book II in this series.

What I didn’t like: It took me 4 whole CD’s (I had listened to this book) to get interested. This surprised me, since Ms Clark had gotten so good at the other 3 books in the Mortal series that she had written before this one. I had almost given up, but I’m glad I kept going. It was a good story after this.

Rating: 4/5

How was I Supposed to Know by Lorna Lee

Genre: Memoir

Blurb: (from Goodreads) Lorna is like everyone you’ve ever known. She is also like no one you’ll ever meet again. She’s just an ordinary person trying to make the best of the predicament du jour. What makes her different? The answers are revealed in this, her first, book. Here’s a hint: Lorna finds herself in more knotty predicaments than a novice knitter, yet she tells her often grim life story with a grin.
Was Lorna born curious and insecure or did her father’s mysterious disappearance when she was four years old make her that way? Was she really a Good Girl or was she clever enough to be an adept actress? Why did she wait until she was fifty years old to start saying what was really on her mind?

Lorna’s story is one of decisions and their consequences born out of ignorance, or innocence. Information was withheld; secrets were kept. Looking back, she asks, “How was I supposed to know?” And then she laughs, because what else can she do?

This book explores Lorna’s adventure of not knowing what was around the next corner (or why she was even turning a corner) and the sometimes delightful, sometimes shocking, but always enlightening surprises that awaited her

What I liked: Most everything about this novel. I don’t read many memoirs so I don’t have a lot to compare this too, but I really enjoyed this story.   Lee is very good at telling her story. Despite the many sad events that happen to the author in her life, she tells her story in an entertaining and often funny manner. And it’s nice to see how she personally is able to make lemonade out of the many lemons that are thrown her way. The writing is good, and the story moves right along. I like the pictures she includes in each chapter, as well.

What I didn’t like: Over use of capitalization of words that don’t need to be capitalized, but that is just the writer in me.

Rating: 4/5