Story Musing: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

 

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

by Benjamin Stevenson

As usual, I was looking for something on Hoopla that I could listen to on my ride to and from work. (I love how everything on Hoopla is always available, no matter who else has it checked out. It’s a great service my library provides.)

I’ve been enjoying murder mysteries, as I often do, and this title caught my attention – Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

I opened up the description and two things about it tempted me. First, they compared it to the movies Knives Out and Clue, both great recommendations for me. Second, the author is from Australia. I haven’t read too much by Australian authors, but it intrigued me. Different countries have slightly different senses of humor and I enjoy that. Sign me up.

One quick note – this author uses a breaking of the fourth wall where the narrator speaks directly to the reader. Some people hate that. Some people, like me, love that. Not every book is for every reader. As they say, you do you.

There was so much going on in this book that I was never bored. The writer could take us down one thread, skip to another and come back. Transitions felt smooth. There was plenty of humor and great description from the narrator and situations.

Our story starts when Ernest’s brother Michael shows up wanting him to help bury a body. A lot happens in that little chapter and ends with Ernest calling the police.

Fast forward several years. Michael is getting out of jail and the family gathers to welcome him out. For some reason, at a ski resort.

“I am normally resolute in declining any invitation that comes with an Excel spreadsheet attached.”

Perhaps Ernest should have refused this one.

Little mysteries abound. Ernest’s cousin Sofia has been suspended from her surgical practice. Why? What happened when Ernest’s father died? That has more than a few twists. You know there was a third brother. Why is he never discussed? (The resolution to that mystery was, I thought, incredibly sad and poignant.) Who the heck is the man who appears in the snow, dead, at the ski chalet?

I love how the author strung out the information so that you learn things along with the narrator. It keeps you guessing, but at the same time, you are never bored. There’s always something interesting going on, some revelation being made.

I loved the narrator’s voice, like in the section titled “My Wife” with only one sentence in Chapter 9 – “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I really, sincerely, thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to more by the author. If you like mysteries, give this one a chance.

Book Musing: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

 

The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

For October, our thematic book club chose the theme of books with weather as a major element or even a character.

I did a Google search and found several lists. After a little perusing, I chose The Guest List by Lucy Foley. “A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie ….” It sounded intriguing and was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick.

On an island off the coast of Ireland, a wedding is taking place at an old Folly. (A folly is a building that serves no practical purpose, apparently, like a tower or mock-Gothic ruin.) This one is owned by a wedding planner and her husband. The bride and groom are what might be called a power couple – he’s the star of a big survival show and she’s the owner of a zine called The Download.

The format was intriguing. It started with a chapter from the perspective of the wedding planner, Aiofe, then alternates with a few other people including –

• The bride, Jules, 
• The groom, Will,
• The bride’s sister, Olivia,
• The best man, Jonah?
• The wife of the bridesman, Hannah

      I like the idea of getting different perspectives, and they were different. One of my problems was that the only one I really liked was Hannah.

You get, right off, that the groom is a bit of a gorgeous and charming jerk. Nothing new there. It takes a while to find out just how much of a jerk he is though.

Unfortunately, as often happens with this type of book, I was bored by about 25% of the way through. For me, it feels like there’s a whole lot of talk with nothing happening, like episodes of a soap opera I used to watch when I was in my teens. The language is not particularly beautiful and the story is intriguing but not really interesting.

I’m afraid thrillers just aren’t for me. I ended up skimming the last 25% just looking for who got killed and who did it. And maybe I wouldn’t have been so bored if I’d been reading it instead of listening to it, which dramatically slows things down for me.

I would recommend it for anyone who wants a quick reading thriller.

Story Musing: Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story by Carol Burnett

 

Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story

by Carol Burnett

Our book club theme was “Things We Fear” for September. I know the scariest thing for me is always the idea of something happening to my child. There are certain things I can’t even read, but I’ve long intended to read this one.

I have always enjoyed the Carol Burnett show and I really enjoyed her daughter, Carrie, when she was on the television show Fame. It’s mind blowing to me to realize it was back in 1986-87 when I was all of 12 or 13.

Of course, when you watch Carol Burnett, or other famous performers, you can’t help thinking they’ve got it all and life should be a piece of cake. But life isn’t really like that.

This story has some very happy and inspiring moments, but there are some very raw and painful times as well. Carrie was addicted to drugs in her teen years and Carol talks candidly, reading from her own diary, about those struggles, her fears and confusion about what to do.

Thankfully, Carrie did find a way through with Carol’s help. The family had sent Carrie to a rehab center and thought she was doing great when she returned home. After a year, they celebrated her sobriety but that night they found out how wrong they were. Carrie refused to go back to rehab and left the family home. Carol worried about her terribly.

When Carrie was 17, close to 18, Carol decided she needed to “love her enough to let her hate me.” She conned Carrie into going to see her father who was in rehab and arranged for Carrie to be held there. Luckily, it worked out for the best. Carrie and her father both got better.

A couple decades down the line, Carrie had a number of great acting credits to her name as well as writing. She was living in Colorado. She was just embarking on a new project, taking a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, to research her latest project.

When she got back home, she didn’t recover from the fatigue of traveling though. Her local doctor diagnosed her with one thing and then another, but treatments didn’t work. Carol convinced her to come home and see a specialist.

Carrie never got to finish her project. She died of cancer in 2002. She asked Carol to finish her project but Carol could never quite manage it. It’s included in this book.

It’s a tough read, Carol’s grief is palpable. I listened to it on audio so that may have brought it home even more. But there’s a lot of beauty here too as they really seemed to love each other and corresponded quite a bit, by email and letter.

It’s a wonderful remembrance and I can recommend it to anyone who is interested.

Book Review: How Can I Help You by Laura Sims

 

How Can I Help You

By Laura Sims

This book presents a fascinating cat and mouse game between two intriguing and unlikely protagonists.

Margo is a kind and hearty library assistant. People consider her charming and very helpful. There are a few problems with that. Margo has only been her name for the past couple of years. Before that, she was Jane, a nurse who was present at far more deaths than the average nurse.

Patricia Delmarco (Pa-tree-see-ah) is a new reference librarian, fresh out of grad school. She’s also a writer, or rather, she was. She wrote a novel, edited and polished then sent it out to agents. After numerous rejections, she gave up, stuck it in a drawer, and tried to forget about it. She moved to Carlyle to take the job and get on with her life, but as a librarian, not a writer.

When Patricia meets Margo, she sees what everyone else sees – kind and helpful Margo. She notices they live in the same apartment complex and tries to make friends with her. But there’s something else about Margo, something not quite right.

Then one day, Margo rushes to the aid of a woman in the bathroom who has fallen ill and appears to be dying. But Margo’s idea of helping someone who is dying may not be what anyone else expects.

Patricia starts to wonder.  Using some clues from things Margo has let slip, she figures out who Margo really is. She knows she should tell their boss, or at least the detective who has been nosing around, but she doesn’t want to.

You see, Patricia is inspired and has started writing again.

There’s a very slight mention of how Margo’s mother and stepfather died in a fire when Margo was little. The reader begins to wonder what, exactly, happened? And what Margo might do now, as she becomes more and more unsettled by events, her own actions, and Patricia’s prodding in order to get information and reactions?

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read, rather different in the way it used the dual perspectives and what the reader was allowed to know. It’s definitely a thriller rather than a mystery and very entertaining in a dark but humorous way.

By turns, the author is able to make each of the protagonists human and vulnerable, allowing the reader to feel compassion for their situations, then alternate that with horror at what they think and do.

By the end of the book, I began to wonder just how different Margo and Patricia really are?

I would definitely recommend for a rollicking good read for the fall, very appropriate for the Halloween season, though not supernatural in nature.

Story Musing: Contact by Carl Sagan

 

Contact

by Carl Sagan

Our thematic book club chose books that were on the bestseller list in 1985 as a theme. Somewhat of a narrow window but an interesting challenge.

When looking at the lists, a couple that I haven’t read stood out for me – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Contact by Carl Sagan. I decided to go with Contact and continue my science fiction reading, albeit between healthy doses of murder mystery. I’m also listening to the Miss Marple novels and stories by Agatha Christie, in order.

Contact is a hard science novel about, of course, first contact with an alien species from another world. However, it doesn’t jump to that point of contact the way so many other stories do.

This novel is backstory heavy in a way I don’t think most publishers would allow today. I’ve often heard it said that one could easily cut the first three chapters of any book and not miss them. I think that was exceptionally true here. Perhaps a few bits and pieces would go into the book further on, but I really don’t think we needed the main character’s childhood and teen years then her first job to really appreciate the rest.

The first chapter is in fact very short, just a few pages, and features a few vignettes about Ellie, from her birth and into her childhood, including the death of her father, and her mother remarrying to a man Ellie actively dislikes. The second chapter continues Ellie’s childhood and then to college and on to graduate school and her first jobs.

There’s a great deal of speculation about what first contact might be like, how an alien species might perceive humans. Would we be like ants to them?

Chapter 3 begins with a picture of Ellie in her late thirties entering the Project Argus administration building, “Project Argus was the largest facility in the world dedicated to the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence.” Later, the story shows us Ellie, driving fast into the desert in her Thunderbird during the night to relieve her stress and restlessness. Though we are often exhorted to show and not tell in writing, this all seemed a bit excessive.

Chapter four finally brings the first message from beyond the Earth and sets up for the political machinations that take up a huge part of the rest of the book.

Slowly, ever so slowly, a message takes shape, and they realize it is instructions to build a machine. For what? They don’t know. And so there is widespread disagreement on whether the machine should be built, and even who this message is from.

I actually liked this book – from the characters to some of the political machinations, and the eventual first meeting with the aliens. I just felt it could have been tightened up considerably. The back story in the beginning could have been peppered into the story at appropriate points in a way that would have been much more effective.

The scientists from different countries make an interesting, multicultural cast. The Russian scientist Vaygay is particularly delightful, with his philosophical considerations. The presidents are interesting characters as the novel spans years. I even liked the evangelist Palmer Joss. And though I found the slow movement and extensive backstory annoying at times, perhaps that was part of the point – that first contact could take considerable time instead of someone showing up on our doorstep unexpectedly. It’s certainly a different way of considering the possibility.

The way Sagan went with the ending, and the presentation with the aliens was . . . pleasant. Comfortable. Perhaps a bit too comfortable for modern sensibilities? Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

This book certainly captured the minds and imaginations of people from 1985 onward for a good chunk of time. Just the fact that it is still available in the public library is an accolade in itself.

If you tolerate slow, character driven, stories well, I would definitely recommend this one.

Storymusing on TVA Baby and Other Stories by Terry Bisson

 

TVA Baby and Other Stories 

by Terry Bisson

For the month of June our Thematic Book Club went with the concept of “The Future.” It was no problem choosing a book this month as I have a number of science fiction books sitting on my shelf at home that I’ve requested over the years for gifts.

The author Terry Bisson first caught my attention with a humorous award winning short story, “They’re Made Out of Meat.” It’s told from the perspective of two aliens watching humans. They are grossed out by the fact human bodies are made out of meat. I found it quite hilarious at the time.

I don’t remember when I requested the collection, TVA Baby, but it must have been in a book review magazine I read at work. I put the book on my wish list and it came to me one holiday as a gift.

I picked it up expecting straight up science fiction. It turned out to be what I’ve learned to call more speculative fiction — somewhere between science fiction and tall tales. Some are inspiring, some are kind of depressing, but most are thought provoking in one way or another.

To be honest, the first story in the collection, TVA Baby, left me wondering if I really wanted to read this collection. It seemed like a cross between a macho action story of the John D. MacDonald variety and a singularly ruthless Murdoch from the A-Team.

Private Eye slowed things down and had more of a Philip Marlowe meets the ennui of the future just trying to get by. I found it much more interesting and enjoyable.

Pirates of the Somali Coast again had me wondering if I really wanted to read this book? The young main character dances without reality through a bloody pirate take over of his cruise ship. It seems to ask the question, what if a child really could not tell the difference between video games and reality? A problem I have never seen in a child, to be honest, though I suppose there may be a few out there who really couldn’t tell the difference.

The Stamp was one of the shortest but also one of the more interesting, featuring a boy who had purchased some stamps for his brother’s birthday that showed things which hadn’t happened yet. The identity of the two children makes it all the more interesting.

Catch ‘Em in the Act was intriguing if a bit gritty. A young man gets a hold of a video camera that claims to help the viewer stop crimes, but actually seems to make people do things they wouldn’t otherwise consider until he viewed them through it. A bit Supernatural and rather interesting to see where it led.

The rest of the stories were at different turns sad and lovely, absurd and cringe-worthy, inventive, bland, crude, and thought provoking.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime was one of the most interesting and creative of the stories in this collection. It starts with a homeless man who is being pushed along by the police. The homeless man finds himself transported to the future and realizes the dimes have his face on them. He comes to the conclusion that he must do something in the past worthy of the honor of having his face on the money which brings about the beautiful future and returns to his own time. I do love a good time travel story, and I love any story with a good twist ending, as this one goes on to have.

Overall, I did not enjoy every story, but they were definitely thought provoking and made my brain consider new avenues of thought that helped me start working on one of my own stories again. Venture in at your own risk.

Book Review of Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank

 

Queen Bee

by Dorothea Benton Frank

My thematic book club selected the theme of “Queen” for May. I ran a little late in picking my book so I decided to grab an audio book from our Hoopla catalog that I could listen to on my commute. (Most books run 8 to 14 hours on audio so I can easily listen to it during the course of my weekly commute.) I did a quick search for the term Queen and scrolled down the list looking for something that would catch my interest.

My eyes alighted on Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank. I have adored Frank’s writing since her first published novel, Sullivan’s Island. I have read at least half the novels she wrote but lost track of her at some point.

The atmosphere of the low country, the islands on the coast of South Carolina, the use of language, the characters, which are so real and far from perfect people, and the mystery just made for a perfect read for me.

I downloaded the audio book and started it in the car that night. By the time I got home, I was so hooked that I downloaded the ebook so I could keep reading that weekend.

In Queen Bee, Holly Jensen is a dutiful southern daughter, living with her mother, who she and her sister refer to as the QB (Queen Bee), to help care for her as she has grown into something of a hypochondriac.

Holly occupies her free time with tending her bees, volunteering at the local library, occasional substitute teaching as she tries to get a full-time job teaching at the elementary school, helping the widower and his two small boys next door, and then she gets a job decorating cakes at the local Publix store.

The truth is Holly has a very severe crush on the next door widower, Archie. But even as she is taking care of his two sweet young boys after school and bringing them meals, he goes out on a blind date with someone else. Someone horrible. What to do? Hold on for the roller coaster ride.

Then Holly’s sister, Leslie, returns home in tears when her accountant husband of six years reveals a hidden dream of his own to become a drag queen star in Las Vegas. (This is a fantastic story line that I did not see coming and Frank takes it in totally unexpected and beautiful directions.)

Meanwhile, Holly and Leslie’s mama, the QB, falls out of bed twice and gets taken in for some scans which reveal that she is not quite the hypochondriac the girls assumed. Again, unexpected twists and turns abound as the story unfolds in a beautiful way. Have your tissues ready.

Frank’s books are a truly immersive reading experience, transporting you to a different location. Just sitting here writing this review, I feel like I fell back into the book and traveled miles away.

I’ve already picked out another book by Frank and am listening to that one, All the Single Ladies. Sadly, Dorothea Benton Frank passed away in 2019 but, fortunately, she left us twenty wonderful novels to read and listen to.

One of my treasured possessions is a book of Frank’s that my sister had her sign for me, a copy of Pawley’s Island. In it, she wrote, “Dear Michelle, If I can do this, so can you. Keep writing! Dottie.” So sweet and full of the characteristic style of having her female characters prop each other up.

I was just thinking I might go back and listen to someone read Sullivan’s Island, if I can find a good recording of it.

It’s perfect summer reading.

A Musing Round-up of Stories

 

What I’ve been reading….

Because I read and adored The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin, I was wildly excited to see that they had made a movie of it last year. (Bonus, it stars Kunal Nayyar, best known for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.) I haven’t watched it yet, but I decided to see what else the author had written in the meantime. I found All These Things I’ve Done, a YA novel about a young woman in the future who is the daughter of a Russian American chocolate manufacturer, the Balanchine family. It’s sort of a mob situation as chocolate and coffee are illegal in the U.S.. Her parents are long gone and her older brother suffered a traumatic brain injury sometime ago, while her younger sister is a genius, and her grandmother is dying. Anya is trying to take care of everyone and keep it altogether. It’s intriguing as the situation progresses, if a little melodramatic. Sadly, the performance of the book was a little one note on the audio recording. I might have enjoyed it a lot more if I’d been reading a physical copy. I gave it just 3 stars.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware - This one is worth a solid 4 stars. Fascinating, engaging, kept me guessing a good bit, and very well read by the actors. A thriller and the first book I’ve read by this author, it did not disappoint. Hal is a tarot reader on the Pier. She took over the booth to make ends meet after her mother was killed in a hit and run, but it hasn’t been quite enough and she borrowed money from a loan shark. Things are looking quite dark when a letter arrives about an inheritance. Hal figures it’s a mistake, but the details fit enough that she might be able to claim enough money to get her out of the dangerous hole she’s in. It’s worth a shot, but she doesn’t take into account the emotional toll of suddenly having a long lost family, or what some other people may be willing to do to keep things the way they were.

Paper Cuts: A Secret, Book, and Scone Society Book by Ellery Adams. It’s always a pleasure to pick up the latest in this series. I had pre-ordered it and devoured it in just a few days. I’m a bit sad it’s over. Nora runs a thriving bookstore in Sulphur Springs, a resort town in North Carolina. Her friends are three local women who have had heartaches of their own but come together to support each other and all are thriving. Then a ghost, or two, arrive from Nora’s past. One is the woman who her husband left Nora for years ago. The woman, Kelly, has come to make amends and ask a favor. Nora pushes her away but then regrets. She knows Kelly is sick and dying. She decides to go talk to Kelly but it’s too late. Kelly has been murdered, putting Nora and her boyfriend, Sheriff Grant McCabe, on opposite sides of a line as Nora is the main suspect at first. It’s a great story with wonderful characters and details. I highly recommend this book and the series. 4.5 stars.

I’m still processing Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships by Nedra Tawwab, and reading The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.. The latter is a dense book and I have underlined a LOT. (Don’t worry, this is a personal copy, it doesn’t belong to the library.)

I’ve been enjoying leafing through Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Diane Ladd and Laura Dern, and reading some of their conversations. Though I often don’t care for books about celebrities, I find the ones in their own words can be illuminating and this has a central theme that I was interested in.

For light-hearted fair, I’ve picked up Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, a favorite mystery author of mine. It’s an old book and I may have read it before but if I did, I don’t recall, so it’s a good time to pick up a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery and this is the first in the series.

I’ve also just gotten The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner in audio for my drives. So far, it’s quite intriguing. She wrote the very enjoyable upmarket Lost Apothecary. I’m sure this one will be no less diverting.

Anyone reading anything good? Let us know in the comments.

Book Musing: Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships by Nedra Glover Tawwab

 

Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships

By Nedra Glover Tawwab

I’ve been following Nedra Glover Tawwab on Instagram for well over a year now, on the recommendation of a friend. She has been very enlightening and a wonderfully sane voice.

Tawwab is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Social Work. Her first book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, was a New York Times bestseller. I’ve just picked up a copy and I’m looking forward to it. Honestly, I think most of us could use work on setting and maintaining boundaries in our professional and private lives.

Drama Free is remarkably well laid out and clear. Tawwab clearly defines the terms she is working with, illustrates them with examples, and then gives just a few prompts for exploring how they apply to your own relationships.

Part One is Unlearning Dysfunction, while Part Two moves into Healing, and Part Three moves on to Growing.

Tawwab shares some hallmarks of dysfunctional families, including “forgiving and forgetting with no change in behavior, moving on as if nothing happened, covering up problems for others, denying that a problem exists, keeping secrets that need to be share, pretending to be fine, not expressing your emotions, be around harmful people, and using aggression to get what you want.”

If anything there sounds familiar, this book is for you. Honestly, I don’t know many people who couldn’t benefit from this book. I was glad to see our library has a copy and I’d like to see a copy in our digital catalog as well.

Tawwab assures us that, “It’s often said that we are a product of our environment, but we can also be a product of exposure to healthy relationships outside the home.”

I’ve heard people who grow and achieve in life to say that they had great role models or even that they found a vision of a different way of life on television or in books.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where our reactions come from, the traumas that may have shaped us, but when we’re unaware that leaves us subject to reacting without thinking. It’s therefore important to explore why we do what we do.

 “Awareness is what saves us from repeating patterns. Understanding your story is a process that unfolds over time, and your story is constantly evolving.”

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand themselves a little better and particularly to anyone who wants to make peace with difficult familial relationships in their lives. I’ve heard of so many people cutting others out of their lives these days, but I think it’s worth exploring a different way of understanding and setting boundaries first.

Happy Reading! (And Healing.)

 

The theme for our book club in February was “A Retelling.” They seem to be everywhere, particularly in Young Adult literature. I was able to pull a short collection of stories from my bookshelf at home called Upon a Once Time. Unfortunately, it isn’t one that would be widely available because it came from a Kickstarter by Todd Sanders of the Air and Nothingness Press. http://aanpress.com/ Though this book was a limited run and is sold out, they have quite a catalog of other books.

If you’ve never heard of such a thing, Kickstarters for books and games have become quite common. There’s a Kickstarter page devoted to “Publishing” which says “Explore how writers and publishers are using Kickstarter to bring new literature, periodicals, podcasts, and more to life.” The proposed projects run a fascinating gamut of fiction and non-fiction, including comics, art books, zines, and so much more. You can check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/publishing. I’ve seen both new authors, anthologies of new and established authors, and even well-established authors creating projects through Kickstarter.

I thought the cover art for this book, by Serena Malyon, was incredibly lovely, giving the feel of a fantastical yesteryear very appropriate for fairy tale retellings. Malyon is a Canadian freelance illustrator and artist. Her site calls this piece “Tokens” and says it was worked in watercolour and gouache. Its colors are muted but the picture is detailed. You can view more of her artwork on her web site at https://www.serenamalyon.com/

It’s also nice that it was an anthology, showcasing 21 different authors. I love this way of getting to experience what different authors have to offer. I might like a couple stories, really not care for one at all, then find one that I absolutely loved! It’s a great way to find new authors to follow.

There was a Tom Thumb retelling set in space, Little Tom’s Reality by Rebecca E. Treasure, that caught my attention and the twist of it was particularly poignant to me. Tom is a small child never allowed to leave his living quarters because the winds would whisk him away. His home life is not pleasant though and one night he becomes desperate to see the outside so he sneaks into his mother’s spacesuit. When he opens the airlock, it is nothing like he imagined.

Diamonds, Toads, And… Pumpkins? by Melissa Mead was delightfully humorous and yet wretchedly realistic in how women have to sometimes put up with others deciding what their existence means and what they need. It reminded me a bit of a Sir Terry Pratchett story, whose long running Discworld series borrowed heavily from fairy tales and other fantastical stories. Excellent company to be in.

I always love a good golem story. I don’t know what it is about the idea that appeals to me so much, perhaps the alien-ness of experiencing the world as a clay person, not quite human, and often fumbling. The Rabbi’s Daughter And The Golem by Alex Langer did not disappoint as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. I still have the companion volume to read.

The theme for our book club in March is “Self-improvement” and I’ve been reading ahead. I quickly finished the audio recording of The Life-Changing Magic of NOT GIVING A F*CK: how to stop spending time you don’t have with people you don’t like doing things you don’t want to do by Sarah Knight. It’s a truly practical parody.  I’ve picked up another, more serious, self-improvement book and I’ll have lots to recommend in this area next month.

Book Review: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

 

Guest review by Tarren Young

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence:

An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

by R.F. Kuang

 

Whose job is it to determine who is and who isn’t civilized?

It started with a bestie raving about the reviews. From that alone, I was amped up not with just a monstrous desire, but an unyielding need to read Babel by author R.F. Kuang. This fascinating book delves deep into the underpinnings of academia using an underlying magic, crackling like an unseen electrical current, to discuss colonialism in great detail.

Robin Swift is “saved” by Professor Lovell after his mother dies of cholera in Canton, China. In England, he is raised by Lovell and tutored until he is old enough to attend Oxford, where Lovell works. There, Robin meets his first real friends – Remy, Victoire, and Letty. As they learn the mysterious silver work that underpins the modern conveniences of the world they live in, the gross inequities that their work rests on are revealed and the four must make some hard decisions.

Babel, starting in the mid 1800’s, is at its core a fictional social commentary of the mindsets different classes of people held during that period. A sharp, but often jagged, line that cuts right into humanity itself. One class of people believe this, another believes that. Yet everyone benefits in some form from the academic brains and silver work, the magic that sits at the heart of Oxford, the Tower of Babel.

Even though everyone benefits, what happens at the Tower is like the old Vegas saying, “What happens at Babel, stays at Babel.” What exactly goes on at Babel? Who runs Babel? And as such, who truly benefits from Babel? What social class of people are reaping the benefits from the work at Babel?

Though some of the characters seemed to be a bit one dimensional, I feel they were portrayed that way to attest to the hierarchy hive mind of how specific social classes were viewed. Several characters seem to be more human, and that’s what this book really tries to address. Who is considered human, and who is below that status—in the mindsets of those different social classes.

Another facet of what this novel does — it seeks to understand, and deconstruct our understanding. It is an exploration to challenge preconceived notions of what the reader thinks they already know.

I willingly admit that this has been the most academic novel I have read since the early 2000’s when I was in college. And, if I’m being honest, it felt daunting at times. Some parts of the novel were fascinating, but it did not stop me from wanting to DNF (did not finish) the book at times. The one-dimensional characters fell into that consideration.

I did love learning more about a time and situation I only knew a hairs breadth about. And the later characters showed growth. There was witty and sarcastic banter! (Sarcasm may not be the high class of social acceptance for academia, but I do enjoy good sarcasm.) Despite the spots of tedium, it also seemed accessible. There were some thought-provoking twists one could not see coming that were appreciated as well.

However, in all of this, there is still something I can’t quite put my finger on about the book that made me not rate it a full four stars. (My overall rating on the book was 3.5/5 stars.) I have been wracked with it for a week, and I still have yet to come to a solid conclusion on why.

Even with this still niggling in the back of my brain, I am glad to have read it, to have learned, to challenge myself — to still think on it long into the early depths of the morning.

             

Review: Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries by Amy Boyles

 

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries

by Amy Boyles

Well, shrimp and grits! This is a total fluff but it was just the right kind of fluff I needed to relax while driving during the holiday season. I didn’t have to focus too hard on it, just let the words wash over me.

Apparently there are 26 books in this series but Hoopla only has the first 5 on audio. Those 5 are pretty fun and a good enough series run for me. There isn’t enough depth to warrant reading more than that for me, at least not right now. I do wonder how the series has developed though, and might pick up some further along in the series at some point. I figure no writer is static in their skills and if this was good enough to enjoy now, it could get a lot better later on.

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries are everything you expect in a paranormal cozy mystery. There’s witches and wizards, and as the series progresses there are werewolves, dragons, vampires, etc. Characters are larger than life, laugh out loud funny, and the reading gives them the perfect spin.

Pepper Dun doesn’t even know she’s a witch when the series starts but the author keeps you reading and laughing as the worst day of Pepper’s life unfolds. She loses her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend. (Sounds like a country song but it seems to me she isn’t losing much in any of those situations.) Strangely enough, she doesn’t seem too happy to find out that she’s a witch. I would be!

Then, after a wizard threatens her and a talking cat helps her escape, she sets out on the road to Magnolia Cove, Alabama. In Magnolia Cove she finds her long lost granny and a ready-made family of cousins, plus she finds out she has inherited a pet store.

One thing that confused me was how she was allergic to animals, and particularly cats, with all the big symptoms, trouble breathing, and itching, etc., but she just kind of gets over it. The writer could have at least had her grandmother create Pepper some kind of magical antihistamine. If she did, I missed it.

In book 1, she is accused of murdering the man who wanted to buy her pet store, which is pretty strange seeing as she wanted to sell it to him. She meets a handsome man named Axle and they have an instant attraction, standard stuff.

The series is a bit repetitive. There isn’t a lot of depth here, but it’s silly and fun. In book 2, her grandmother is accused of murder and in book 3 she receives a baby dragon but a magician tries to buy him and she ends up under scrutiny, again, for murder.

There are things that are trite and absolutely overdone in the type of book. It’s almost a reverse Scooby Doo where the main character IS supernatural.

However, I the southern setting and the idea of the witch owning a pet store for familiars. Her ability to read the limited thoughts of animals was a nice touch and useful in the stories.

The author did pick some unusual phrases to repeat for certain characters, like Pepper sort of sliding a shoulder down the wall in book 5. It gave me pause every time she said it. I think the author was trying to give her a character tag to repeat every time she was in a scene, but that one, along with some others at different times over the five books I read, just didn’t quite work.

Some people suggested that she must not be southern but I wouldn’t know it. She clearly loves all things southern as all her books are set there.

It’s a fun series and I’d give what I’ve read a solid 3 stars, maybe 3.5.

Some other cozy mysteries I’ve enjoyed and reviewed - 

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/11/storymusing-chillers-and-thrillers.html

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-merry-month-of-may-multitude-of-book.html

Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-little-bookshop-of-murder.html

Swamp Spook: A Miss Fortune Mystery by Jana DeLeon https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-swamp-spook-miss-fortune.html

The Nina Quinn Mysteries by Heather Webber https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/04/book-review-nine-quinn-mysteries-by.html

Death in Avignon by Serena Kent https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-death-in-avignon-by-serena.html

The Witchcraft Mysteries by Juliet Blackwell https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/05/book-review-witchcraft-mysteries-by.html

Death By Dumpling: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-review-death-by-dumpling-noodle.html

Say Cheese and Murder: A Lemington Cheese Company Mystery by Michelle Pointis Burns https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/12/book-review-say-cheese-and-murder.html

Disappearing Nightly: An Esther Diamond Novel by Laura Resnick https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-disappearing-nightly-esther.html

 

Motherducking Magic by Michelle Fox https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-motherducking-magic-by.html