Goodnight June, by Sarah Jio

It's hard to think of a world without Goodnight Moon in it. That book, and the great green room, escaped my notice as I emerged from childhood, though I suspect it was probably borrowed from the library a time or two and read to me, but didn't make it into our home collection. I expect it might be because my mother strenuously didn't like Runaway Bunny as I learned when I became a mother, and she wouldn't allow the book in her home. She called it "pathological parenting", but that's another story. What this story, Goodnight June is, is one author's idea of what could have been the story behind that childhood classic. There are two story lines blended together, one told through letters, the other a modern day angle centering on June, a brittle financial type person, who inherits a failing children's bookstore from her aunt.

While the idea was decent enough, there were a couple of things that bothered me in the book -- primarily the correspondence between June's aunt Ruby, and her dear friend, Margaret Wise Brown. The device just didn't ring true to me. I expect that, in part, it might be due to the notion that two friends so completely focused on solving the problems of the other, answering point by point issues brought up in a letter. Having kept lively correspondence with friends for many years, and even into the electronic age, I know how much subjects can slide, even with the best intentions. A letter is not necessarily a written conversation..  The other thing was the caviler manner with which June uses her hypertension medication, popping them when she feels tense or when she thinks she might need them. That kind of stuff drives me nuts, as does misinformation in a TV show or something.

But, even with my dissatisfaction and a somewhat contrived nature, the book was a likable enough diversion for a gray day, even when the plot line became somewhat predictable. I am glad, though, that Ms Jio didn't take an easy out, and have someone rich from Seattle bail out the failing Blue Bird book store, even though there was some name dropping periodically in the story-line.  I found myself periodically whispering the lines to the story which starts, "In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon."

And now this quiet old lady is whispering, "hush".

Tags: : thank-you-charleston-county-library, an-author-i-read, books-about-books, ok-but-not-great , nice cover

Midnight Crossroad (Midnight Texas 1) by Charlaine Harris

I've dipped into a number of series by Charlaine Harris. I find them light and amusing (except when they're not: glares at last couple of the Southern Vampire books) an easy "palate cleanser" for my brain between other books that work the gray matter differently. When I saw the start of a new series, I wondered where the author would go after the phenomenally successful Sookie Stackhouse books, so I picked Midnight Crossroad up to check out.

Midnight, Texas, the town with more supernatural misfits than tumbleweeds. Standard set up: Psychic moves to a new town. Meets his witch-neighbor, local vampire, and a few other characters with unclear motives and possibly shady pasts. There's a bit of a mystery over "what happened to the girlfriend of the antique shop owner" as she upped and disappeared one day. Now, the white supremacist  group from her past is out to find/avenge her, which doesn't bode well for the inhabitants of Midnight. But as I said, there's a witch, a psychic, and a vampire, and some kick-ass others, who will fight to keep the town safe.

My thoughts? An okay start for a series of this sort. It may be telling that my favorite character is Mr Snuggly, a cat. I felt there was a strong effort not to draw on the Sookie elements of vampire-dom, but at the same time, saw references to other series (ie  the Shakespeare one, though it's been a while since I read any of the Lily Bard books or enough of that series,  to pick up more).  I suppose the characters, and their back-stories, will round out and develop. right now, there's just a lot of hints and foreshadow.

I rounded up to 3/5 stars because of Mr Snuggly, who stays true to his catness, even when forced into heroic measures.

Tags: an-author-i-read, fantasy, ok-but-not-great, part-start-of-a-series, read, set-in-the-south, thank-you-charleston-county-library, vampires-ghosts-and-other-creatures

Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan

Quirky and colorful, with an endearing central character -- a boy whose eyes see beyond surface of the small delta town in which he lives, and dips into the magic and mystery  of the imagination. Descriptions of the everyday that will knock your socks off. Stories that will have you smiling one moment, before piercing your heart with poignancy. This was the kind of book that captures the mystery of the swamp's edge and transports you there (minus the miasma and mosquitoes). It gives a glimpse of a recently bygone era through the eyes of a ordinary, sensitive, imaginative child.

I grew up around storytellers, many within my family, so it was a gentle homecoming to fall into the rhythms of the tales Lewis Nordan tells in Music of the Swamp. His central character, Sugar Mecklin, tells stories of his life, which overlap, change, grow, and explode, like that remarkable Pinto, which may or may not have blown up in two or three of tales. There is tragedy; there is hope.  There is so much beautiful writing, that my heart wept, while my eyes smiled. As much as I loved the novel, I think my favorite part of the book was  The Invention of Sugar: An Essay about Life in Fiction -- and Vice Versa, written by the author. The Delta is a magical place, filled with life, death, hope, and thankfully, storytellers such as Lewis Nordan.

Many thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for sending a copy of this book my way.

Tags: idn-t-want-to-put-it-down, early-review-librarything, magic, read, set-in-the-south, southern-author, will-look-for-more-by-this-author

Blood Always Tells, by Hilary Davidson

I have enjoyed Hilary Davidson's series centered on Lily Moore, which are not only mysteries, but, since the main character is a travel writer (as the author is) take me on a journey to a new location, as well. When I heard that a new novel was out, I snagged a copy, not even noting at all what it was about. In this case, the novel is a stand alone, but carries with it the same crafting of a mystery that hooked me with earlier writing.

A beautiful woman wants revenge on her charming but deceitful boyfriend and plots for blackmail. That she's a model, and he's a washed up boxer, married to an heiress, makes the situation more interesting. Then the blackmail plot gets complicated by a kidnapping, but it becomes even more daunting.  What starts off as blackmail ends up looking like murder, with twists and turns along the way. The story is told from three points of view, each character with their own motivations and drives. There was one bit that didn't hold for me, but once I decided not to worry about a character's decision making process, I did fine. Keep writing, Hilary Davidson, and I'll keep reading.

Tags: corresponded-with-author, i-liked-it, not-a-cozy-mystery-more-a-thriller, read, tor, will-look-for-more-by-this-author 

The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith

Apparently, back in October 2013, when I read The Cuckoo's Calling, I decided not to post to my book blog (where I generally only post books that I've either read for review or are new, or I have actual thoughts on.) Much had already been said at the time about Robert Galbraith's debut novel, especially when he turned out to be J K Rowling, and I believe that's the reason I opted out on sharing my somewhat benign thoughts on the book. However, today, one of my favorite sites/strips, Unshelved, shared a synopsis that did the book more justice than I did with my faint praise.  For the record, here's what I wrote back in October over at my book sites (BookCrossing, GoodReads, Librarything): 

Good solid writing, with two lead characters, who, when fleshed out further, will be the sort to draw people back. The mystery wasn't bad either, but for all the hype, I was a little disappointed. Yes, it was good writing, if this was indeed a first time author. For JK Rowling, it was good writing, too, but not exceptional. The back story the leads was the most interesting part for me. The immersion into the world of fashion and celebrity, I found sad. If another in the series comes my way, I'll read it, but I'm loathe to get sucked into another series otherwise.

And here's Unshelved's version (If you need it larger, click the link):

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Dark. Broken. Bent. Depressing. I'm so glad I read this book. Seriously.

I tend to read for comfort and relaxation these days. My reasons for picking The Panopticon were to challenge myself as a reader, and as a reviewer. Jenni Fagan has amassed some pretty serious credits as a writer, enough so to assure me that despite the huge variations in reviews of this book by other readers, that the writing would be stellar. It was. It sustained me through an incredibly bleak story of fifteen year old Anais Hendricks, which begins with her in the back of a police car, blood on her dress, accused of attempted murder of a policewoman now in a coma. Anais is headed for The Panopticon, a home for chronic juvenile offenders.

There's not been much that has been good in Anais's life. The number of foster placements she's  bounced through is is over 3 times her age. Every adult she's known seems to have failed her, and doesn't look like it's going to get better.  But she has carved out some support for herself,  not via social workers and such, but through drugs, sex, and living on the sly. This book had more uses of the word fuck thank any other book I have read. It also makes liberal use of other inventive language, some slang that I had to look up, guess, or ask friends from the UK to help translate. Until I caught the rhythm of speech, it was difficult to get into the book. Then, once I found that, the book was difficult to read because of the gritty nature. It was not something I wanted to read at bedtime. But in the light of day, even with all the references to wanking, boaking, conks, rapes and the liberal sprinkling of language I don't normally use, there were some moments in this book that were fabulous. This girl has a horrendous life, but can still come out with observations like:

They dinnae know this, though: I'd die before I'd pick on someone. I would. You dinnae bully people, ever, 'cause all bullies are cowards and I umnay a fucking coward, I never was. (pg 61) 

The girl has been beaten so often she should be pulp, but she still isn't down; she has her standards and her beliefs, and a kind of scrappy, cynical optimism that kept me reading through some pretty bleak stuff.

So, did I like this book? Not really. Did I like the characters? Yes. Did I like the writing? F--- yes! Would I recommend the read? Only to readers who are willing to take a dark journey.

Many thanks to Blogging for Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I'm giving it 4/5 stars, not because it made me feel good, or that I really liked it, but it sure made me think about aspects of our society, and also made me think about what, to an avid reader, makes a book worth reading.

Tags: at-least-the-writing-was-good, blogging-for-books, made-me-look-something-up, made-me-uncomfortable, read, read-for-review,taught-me-something, uncomfortable-reading-but-good, yikes

Equoid: a Laundry Novella (Laundry Files) by Charles Stross

Downloaded this novella as part of Tor's freebie offerings of all their Hugo nominees for 2014. I knew nothing about the author, or that this was part of a series (referred to as The Laundry, I believe.) I'm not a major HP Lovecraft fan, so that tie-in with this work kind of left me flat. What I did enjoy was the idea that there's a clean-up crew out there for certain sorts of supernatural disasters (sort of like Men in Black, I guess) and that in this case, they're out to clean up unicorns run amok. Nice. Toss out the rainbows, sparkles, and virgins; it's all about life-sucking carnivorous beasties. Seems fair.