Book Reviews – Page 112 – Carol's Notebook

Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima

April 25, 2018May 2, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

Not Quite Narwhal is a sweet little story. Kelp is born at the bottom of the sea with the narwhals. Now, we know he's a unicorn with a kind of bubble around his head, but he thinks he's a narwal. All the narwhals love and adore him, even if he's not like them. Then one day he sees a unicorn and realizes that he's a unicorn, too. Only he still has bubble around his head on land too. Okay, so the bubble probably bothered me more than it would a kid. All the unicorns accept him and the narwhals greet his announcement that he's a unicorn with well, of course he is, they knew it all along. And they never gave him the chance to meet any other unicorns? The story's about accepting each other, differences and all, and about being yourself. The illustrations are whimsical, soft and lovely. It just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I'm...

Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings

April 23, 2018May 2, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

Codename Villanelle stars two women, a top-level assassin and the former MI6 operative whose job it is to find and eliminate her. Both women are strong and well-drawn. Villanelle is a psychopath, but one who knows she's different and uses the knowledge as a strength. Eve is a tough, but has more connections. she has a husband and subordinates; her choices effect not only her life, but theirs too. This is an action story, full of violence and sex, but happily it never quite tips over into graphic or gratuitous. It's a quick read and I enjoyed it, right up until the end. I guess this a collection of 4 novellas. It felt seamless to me, but then it ended with more or less "to be continued," which always just annoys me. If your series is good enough, I will continue to read it without a middle school book trick. Give me a semi-conclusion and leave it there. I'll know the...

Lost Books and Old Bones by Paige Shelton

April 13, 2018April 12, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

A bookshop, Scotland, and a murder - do I really need to say more? Lost Books and Old Bones is the 3rd in the series, not counting a Christmas novella (which I haven't read yet). I've read all three and definitely enjoy spending time in Edinburgh with Delaney and her crew. I don't often feel like I would actually love to hang out with the characters in books, but I would love to work in the bookshop and drink at the pub across the road, and visit the castle. Lost Books and Old Bones could probably be read as a stand-alone, but I think the first couple of books will give some needed background on Delaney and what makes the bookshop so special. All of the major characters return here, and there is a touch of romance for Delaney, but not enough to take away from the plot. This time around, Mallory, one of Delaney's new friends, is killed in the alley behind...

Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmieri

April 12, 2018April 13, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

First of all, I'm tired of these articles/essays pretending to be books. I picked up the audio of this one for a couple of reasons, but it was only like 2½ hours long. At 190-ish pages, that's really short. I don't know if the pages are an odd size or the print is huge, but it's a bit of a rip off for the price, hardback or audio, in my opinion. Onto the reasons I picked Dear Madam President up. From the blurb, I knew Jennifer Palmieri was the Director of Communications for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign who I did vote for, but it also assured me that it was a not solely about that campaign, that it was a book for all women regardless of politics. The reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are overwhelmingly positive. I read the opening on Margot's blog, Joyfully Retired, last week and it caught my attention. I have to say I was a little disappointed. Palmieri has...

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh

April 7, 2018April 25, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

I do love a good vintage mystery and in Enter a Murderer, Marsh takes us behind the scenes in a theater, which she does so well. In addition to a mystery writer, she was a theater director and knew the habits of everyone from actresses to stage managers to dressers. Our Inspector Alleyn is attending a performance of a play with his friend from the first in the series, Nigel Bathgate. During the play, one of the characters kills another, but this time the gun goes off for real, leaving an actor dead. The play does go on, as they say, but after the curtain closes, Alleyn, is immediately called up and begins his investigation. Once again, Bathgate is Alleyn's Watson. Fox has a bigger part here, I'm glad to see. I'm hoping by the next one he's the permanent sidekick. I like Bathgate, I just like Fox more. Here, Bathgate is kind of stuck between a rock and hard place. He...

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

April 6, 2018April 13, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

"I don't like time travel and I don't read much science fiction." Apparently I'm a liar. Just One Damned Thing After Another is my third science fiction-ish book of the year and deals pretty much solely with time travel and I though it was a blast. Our historian is Madeleine Maxwell (Max) and I have to say I love her. She's smart and funny in that snarky way and she really does seem to be a bit of a disaster magnet. St Mary's is a "secret" organization that specializes in time travel, going back and observing history - not interfering. They take assignments from a university that they are connected with. There aren't very many historians (time-travelers) in part because they end up getting killed on assignments, so the few that there are get to cover all sort of times, not just those they specialize in. You have to suspend disbelief here and just go along for the fun ride. Yeah, probably sending a non-paleontologist...