Quick Review: The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

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On a recent trip to Target, I noticed that Mary Higgins Clark had a new book out that had escaped my attention. It wasn’t very lengthy, so I grabbed it on sale.

“The Lost Years” deals with an ancient letter, supposedly written by Jesus Christ to Joseph of Arimathea, that was hidden away centuries ago by a monk and surfaces in the possession of a professor who then promptly gets murdered. His wife, who has Alzheimer’s, is a witness to the crime. His daughter Mariah – who has been a bit estranged from him since he has openly been having an affair with a colleague – is determined to figure out where the parchment is and who the murderer is. There is no paucity of suspects: her father’s four closest friends and colleagues, along with his mistress, are the prime ones. Additionally there is a thief who, while robbing the house next door, conveniently gets a good look at someone running from the house the night of the murder. There’s also a family friend who is a priest. And good old Alvirah and Willy are there to help solve the mystery.

Bottom line: it’s a quick beach read and fun and easy. Is it “classic MHC”? I’d say no. I miss the thrilling novels of the past – the ones that kept me up at night reading. In fact, MHC’s first novel “Where Are the Children?” might just be her best, in my opinion. I’ve been a bit disappointed in Mary’s work as of late. However, considering she has written over 30 books, I’ll cut her some slack. 🙂 Also – just me – as a Catholic, the whole “his wife has Alzheimer’s so he’s having an affair and as soon as she’s in a nursing home he’ll divorce her and marry that younger gal” plotline bothered me. Mary’s characters, more often than not, are Catholic. And this family actively attends church in the book and has a parish priest as a friend. It just seemed kind of unsettling that this guy brought his paramour home for dinners at his house with his wife and friends. But anyways…

If you’ve read this book, let me know what you think. And if you’ve read all of MHC’s books, like I have, tell me if you think it’s up to her old standards.

Re-release of Jane Langton’s Homer Kelly mysteries…

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Have you read Jane Langton’s books? I’ve loved Ms. Langton’s books since I was a little girl, especially  her Hall Family children’s books. Jane’s “Homer Kelly” cozy mysteries follow the exploits of a mild-mannered Harvard professor who stumbles upon and solves mysteries, often in the New England countryside. While I was in Hawaii I received an email from an editor at Open Road Media to say that Ms. Langton’s mysteries were being re-released with new e-book covers. You can check out this link with video for more info; it focuses on how Ms. Langton does her own illustrations. Check it out!

http://www.openroadmedia.com/authors/jane-langton.aspx

Thanks, Open Road Media, for letting me know and having me pass the word along! And if you have never read Ms. Langton, and you enjoy mysteries and New England, you are in for a real treat. 🙂

Review: She Can Run by Melinda Leigh

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         For my beach reading, I downloaded (on Amazon Prime’s read-for-free) “She Can Run”. (Just a note- it looks like this book is currently $1.99 on Kindle). This novel is a thriller of romantic suspense, telling the story of Beth Baker and her two young children as she is running and hiding from her pretty much insane congressman husband (another note- she is formerly widowed and the children are from her first happy marriage). Beth comes to work on a friend of her uncle’s horse farm; however, the friend has died unexpectedly and the farm is now the property of his attractive, young nephew, Jack (who is on leave from the police force after an injury). What follows is a lot of suspense and romance as Beth tries to get her life together and stay alive while her estranged husband seeks her out and a serial killer takes an interest in her.

     I enjoyed this light read and found it perfect beach reading in Hawaii! I always like a character that shares my name, though the book’s Beth was far more svelte/attractive/in danger than I am! 🙂

    

Quick Review: Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

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Coming out this week, I received this book, the first of the “Grantchester Mysteries” from Net Galley. I just loved the character of Sidney Chambers, a man of the cloth who lives simply yet solves murder and mysteries in his small English town in the 1950’s. These are cozy-type mysteries, similar to Agatha Christie tales, but they are short and there are several different vignettes in this book. I really enjoyed reading them and loved the character of Sidney: attractive and young, yet a bit set in his bachelor ways. There is certainly a lot of directions that this series could take, and I look forward to reading more of it!

Thank you Net Galley and Bloomsbury USA for my copy!

Quick YA Review- Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh

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From Net Galley I received this teen romance/page-turner, telling the story of several teens on board the Titanic for its ill-fated voyage. Elizabeth is a bored, wealthy teen, who seeks to rebel against the conventions of her family and her class (including an impending engagement). Max, another teen, is also in first-class, but has been living the bohemian life as an itinerant artist in Europe (Elizabeth finds him irresistible). Katie has travelled from Ireland with two brother friends: Patrick and Brian (a bit of a love triangle ensues). More characters are met on board as the ship sails toward that fateful night and disaster.

I really enjoyed this read! I found it quick and easy and with accurate details of the disaster.

Thank you Open Road and Net Galley for my download!

Where Has Beth Been?

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Hello, Readers — I’ve been a bit out of touch lately due to illness and vacation. Right now I’m writing from sunny Hawaii!! I’ve started several books and bagged on finishing three of them. But – most terrifying – I cannot get my Kindle to get internet reception here! I have lots of things to download but I can’t. Fortunately, I had a book already downloaded and I brought a few traditional paper books along (and about six New Yorkers).
In time I’ll have some reviews for you. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the sun (now that I’m well) and next week we are headed back to the States and to Disney!
Happy Reading!!

What Age Should Read “The Hunger Games”? And my thoughts on book #3: “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

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If you read me regularly, you know I’ve recently read The Hunger Games trilogy because: 1) I was possibly the only blogger who hadn’t, and 2) countless friends who hadn’t read it were asking me if they should let their children read it. With the movie opening last weekend, this series is EVERYWHERE right now. Full Disclosure: I haven’t seen the movie yet due to my odd personal need to avoid crowded movie theaters. I like to wait until the crowds have petered out, or watch at home. However, I heard on NPR that the movie was not graphically violent so that it could garner a PG-13 rating as opposed to R, which supposedly it would have been if it had been filmed as written. So parents, keep that in mind.

Here’s my opinion – and PLEASE know this is MY OPINION, your own may vary. The bottom line is: YOU, the parent, are the expert on your own child (and believe me – it really is okay to say “no” or “not yet” to reading it, even if everyone else is saying “yes”).

EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT. Ask yourself: is my child less than 13? Are they troubled by things they see on the news? Do they have nightmare easily? Then waiting to read these books is suggested. Believe me, they are not going anywhere. On the other hand, a parent friend asked me about her son reading them: 6th grader, interest in military history and military maneuvers, not easily scared or troubled, very “grounded” and mature, a good reader. I suggested she go ahead – and optimally read it with him (or at the same time as him) so that they could discuss it. Several of my friends have told me that if they had the times to read the Hunger Games themself, then they wouldn’t be asking me. If this is your situation, then may I suggest you read the very short (less than 4,000 word) story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson as a starter and ask yourself if your child could handle the themes and implications of it. Read it free online at:

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

This piece is conceptually similar to The Hunger Games, but Hunger Games is obviously longer, futuristic, and has graphic violence.

One of my points here is that reading Hunger Games, or any book for that matter, is more than a matter of reading level. It is more than getting through the pages. It is understanding the concepts behind the novel and being able to reflect on them. A well-written book can change the way you think about life. If your child reads this book at ten years old, will they glean as much from it as they would if they were fourteen or fifteen?

As for my thoughts on “Mockingjay”, while I found it sad and disturbing (similar to “Deathly Hallows”), it was very good and I enjoyed it. The story is continued and concluded with the rebels fighting the government with Katniss as their mockingjay. Peeta is recovered to them, but has been mentally “hijacked”. Katniss continues to fight for her family, while trying to decide just who it is she loves. It was a very satisfying conclusion to the series.

I got my copy from the Amazon Prime borrow-for-free program.

Review: “Simplicity Parenting” by Kim John Payne, M.Ed. and Lisa M. Ross

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The other day I was listening to an interesting piece on NPR about marketing aimed at children, and a caller recommended this book. I found it at my local library (surprisingly, since it seemed to be out with holds everywhere in the system). I enjoy reading parenting books and wanted to see what this one was about. I just loved this book! This is a book that pretty much puts down on paper so many of the things my husband and I hold to be true about parenting – and it has a whole lot of ideas to add to our repertoire!

First off, let’s consider the subtitle: “Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids”. When I first read that I gave a bit of a guffaw. What?? Basically, one of the main tenets in this book is that there is too much “stuff” in kids’ worlds these days: toys, electronics, lessons, activities, etc. etc. etc., and we’d be well-served to get rid of a lot of it. Payne, who is an educator-counselor (Waldorf Schools) and family therapist, espouses that too much “stuff” and not enough quiet and rhythm/ritual is overwhelming kids and basically driving families crazy. Yes, yes, yes! I completely agree. He suggests taking all your children’s toys and removing (donating/tossing/storing) half of them (great idea that I will have to try). That you clear out clutter (on my to-do list every year but I never do it). That kids don’t need to have ten different lessons/activities each week (one of our rules around here is ONE weekly after school activity at a time – and I’m deemed weird by other parents). Kids don’t need to experience EVERYTHING before the age of ten (I agree – though most people think we’re getting the kids a “late start” on stuff). And kids should be doing things because they want to, not just because the parents want them to or think they have a future expert in that area. Payne writes about the importance of rhythm and ritual, such as in the family dinner (yes!), previewing the day with your child in advance to set expectations (something I’ve always done), keeping a consistent schedule (another thing my friends deem “weird”), and keeping a “Sabbath” day that may or may not be religious in nature, where the family relaxes together and there are no scheduled activities, etc., and everyone shares dinner together (something we try to do, though sometimes things creep in on Sunday afternoons).

All throughout this book I read about great ideas that basically allayed my sense of guilt: if you are not giving you kids EVERYTHING, it really is okay. You are not a slacker parent. In fact, it can be the simpler things that really are the most meaningful.

A highly recommended read, especially if you are parenting children at this time!


Quick Review: The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell

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I found this great book on the new release shelf of the library a few weeks ago. It tells the story of five different people seeing the funeral train carrying RFK’s body as it travelled through the countryside, headed to Washington, DC. The stories are loosely interwoven, with some reaching completion but most left without complete resolution. I really enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading each character’s piece in it – from the young train porter who is on his first day on the job and just discovered his girlfriend is pregnant, to the young girl and her mother who try to see the train without her father knowing, to the young Vietnam veteran who is still healing. I like the concept of several stories in one, and enjoyed Rowell’s writing style. This is his first novel.

Review: Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

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Trolling through Net Galley, I found this great read (its been out since 2010). “Yellow Crocus” is the story of a young girl, Lisbeth Wainwright, and her beloved childhood nurse, the slave Mattie. Lisbeth is given to Mattie shortly after birth for nursing (Mattie is taken from her own little son, Samuel) and she grows to love Mattie more than her own mother. Mattie loves Lisbeth in turn, and struggles to seek freedom for her family. In time, Mattie is sent back to the slave quarters and Lisbeth tries to become the young woman that her family and Antebellum Southern society demands of her. In time she must make a life-changing decision – a decision that will affect her family’s life going forward.

I just loved this book! I love reading about this period in history, and I wished the book had continued to and through the Civil War as I was hoping to see Mattie’s character develop through adulthood and into old age. At times in the beginning of the book it felt a little bogged down with totally accurate but minute details of breast-feeding – it pulled me from the flow of the story a bit. Overall, though, I loved the characters, the writing, and the storyline.

Thanks, Net Galley and Flaming Chalice Press for my copy!