arn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It is only meaningful to knitters or perhaps someone who wants to learn. Stephanie recounts knitting disasters and successes. She talks about things like "stash" "organizing stash and patterns" Ravelry, blogging and all things knitterly. Some things made me laugh and others made me glad I wasn't the only one to make such a stupid mistake. It always feels better to know that a master knitter has made the same mistakes I have. There are some tips in the book, but mainly, it is just fun.

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Spilled Milk

Spilled Milk by KL Randis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very compelling story and I could hardly put it down, but it made me so angry. I know this kind of abuse goes on and that children are victimized by their parents, but this child was also victimized by Social Services and her school. How could such agencies promise confidentiality and then do things which put her into further jeopardy? How could a school be so insensitive?

But this is a story of a young girl with enormous courage. At times I was hearing the music from "Rocky" while I was reading. Brooke felt responsible for her siblings and her mother so she tolerated a situation that no child should have to face with the tacit understanding that her father would not sexually abuse her sister. She couldn't protect her family from her father's incredible rage and selfishness, but she could keep it from being any worse.

Brooke's mother, while not abusive, also contributed to her problems. As in so many cases, she was passive and absorbed with her own survival and so she chose to ignore some vital signals. Despite this, Brooke had people in her life who cared about her and recognized that something wasn't right. In the end, they did what they could, and did it well.

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Call Me Cockroach

Call Me Cockroach by Leigh Byrne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is the sequel to Leigh Byrne's Call Me Tuesady. It is her own account of the abuse she suffered from her mother between the ages of 8 to 14 when she finally went to live with her aunt. Only Tuesday was singled out for abuse, and her father, while aware of the about did little to prevent it. He did send her to her grandmother and aunt's for summers, but when contacted by Social Services, he maintained that Tuesday was not being abused. Her brothers, two older and one younger, maintained a distance from Tuesday and were complicit by their silence.

While Tuesday did get away from her mother and had a very loving and supportive relationship with her aunt, the scars of her early life effected her in every way. The book gets its title from the concept that the cockroach, despised and hated, will still be in the world even if civilization is destroyed because they are survivors. It is hard for people who have never been abused to understand the depth of damage done to a child like Tuesday. This book pulls away the curtains and allows us to get inside the damaged psyche of someone who has been told she is a worthless. It wasn't enough that Tuesday was forced to stand with her nose to the wall for hours, locked in her bedroom with only a bucket for her waste and starved; she was sent to school dressed in rags and filthy so that her classmates would continue the abuse at school. When Tuesday attended school at her aunt's, she was clean and dressed in fashionable clothes, but she expected to be rejected and by her classmates. Her early decisions were made from a terrible sense of self worth. The ordinary person would look at someone like Tuesday when she was finally surrounded by love and expect her to suddenly change. This book was an eye-opener.

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The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a great deal from Audible on this book, so I am listening to it again for about the 4th time. Actually, I think I am going to use it for my homeschool unit on Folklore for my granddaughter.

For me, it is a big comfort read, something like Harry Potter. There is just such a wealth of experiences in the book. Why is it so much easier to see through human behavior when we look through the eyes of other creatures?

Essentially, Bilbo Baggins has found himself on an adventure which is something that Hobbits never do...except for the Took side of the family, and that is way back in the genealogy. Gandalf the wizard has sold him as a master burglar to a group of dwarfs and they are on the way to retrieve their ancient treasures stolen by Smaug the dragon. Along the way we meet all sorts of creatures such as trolls, goblins, elves and the like. Bilbo finds himself in a capital adventure and at times he is not sure he likes it, but in every way, he rises to the occasion and finds that he actually does have some skills as a burglar.

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book and it increased my sense of the Victorian culture with regards to crime, the rise of a detective force and the role of the novel and novelist.

Ostensibly the book is about the murder of three year old Saville Kent who was found in an outhouse with his throat slit and the detective who first identified the guilty person. A number of readers, who have previously read about this crime were disappointed because there wasn’t a lot of new information in the book. I think this always happens when a new book is written about famous unsolved crimes like those of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden. We ache to get that one piece of information that will be incontrovertible, and there is such disappointment when it isn’t there.

I found the real value in this book was the description of the detective, Jack Whicher, and the new role of the police detective. I have been reading books about this period lately including books by Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Poe. I also am a fan of Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries. This book described how people felt about the new crime novels and as well as the emergence of a middle class with time to read them. Especially interesting was the role of the detective. People felt that prying into stranger’s business was a vile practice, but they also lived in a complex society where people no longer knew the people surrounding them well. In order for justice to be done, someone needed to find the criminal.

The book does drag in a few places and I thought the character development could have been a bit better, but I also realize that is a problem with books about real people. It is hard to make them seem real when there is little evidence available. I thought the author used the personal writings of some of the characters to let them speak for themselves and not put words into their mouths.


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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the terrible wars in Africa. It is a story of a 12 year old boy living at the time of a civil war in Sierra Leone. At first Ishmael tells of village life and the kind of thing that normal boys do. He is aware of the war in Sierra Leone, but his village has not been involved at the beginning of the book. However, one day, when he and 4-5 other boys his age are out of the village it is taken over by rebels and most of the people are killed. None of the boys know what happened to his family. The boys hide out in the woods traveling from place to place trying to avoid both the rebels and the government soldiers. Eventually, they are caught by the army and given guns and drugs and turned into soldiers. The book does not go into great detail about all the atrocities the children commit, but the ones that are alluded to are horrifying. The use of drugs and the tactics that engender hatred of the enemy are terrible. One of the strongest things about this book is the ease with which children can be turned into terrorist. Ishmael Beah is able to give us enough of a glimpse into his pre-war life to realize that he is an intelligent and kind boy who was turned into a monster despite his intention to not become a soldier. Eventually, maelIsh makes his way out of Sierra Leone and into the hands of care workers who have set up camps to treat these boy soldiers and convince them that the things they did were not their fault. They have unbelievable patience and commitment to rehabilitate these children. The last part of the book is his reclamation and I was just in awe of the people who do this incredible work. One scene stays with me. The boys are in the reclamation center with other boys who fought on the opposite side, but finally out of danger. Despite the work of the staff, they end up in a fight and boys are killed. The terrible brain-washing that inflames their hatred is so difficult to eradicate that even when they are safe, it is hard to let go of. To all the things that happen, the staff continues to convey to the boys that it is not their fault. That is probably one of the strongest messages...the boys are not at fault. They have been turned into killing machines by adults and used for their own ends. Eventually, Ishmael is chosen to speak before the UN and tell the story of the child soldiers. He stays in New York and goes back to high school which is absolutely incredible when you realize what he has been through. This book is about Sierra Leone, but it is found all around the world. Children raised on hatred to this extent are unable to use the same kind of reasoning as adults and they kill blindly. Their childhood is being stolen from them and turned into something terrible.

Alas, Babylon

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in the 8th grade when the threat of a hydrogen bomb was possible. There were a lot of similar books around, the best known was Hiroshima, but I also remember We Who Survived (the 5th Ice Age).

This book takes place in central Florida around Mt. Dora. It concerns a group of people who band together after a nuclear bomb. The protagonist, Randy, lives in a very large old southern home. His brother who is high up in the SAC warns Randy that war is coming and that he is sending his wife and children back to the family home for their safety. He also warns Randy that the Civil Defensive is woefully inadequate and that they need to prepare for a disaster no one wants to talk about.

Shortly after his brother's family arrives they see a large bright white light in the direction of Miami and then closer ones near all the big cities and military bases in Florida. As soon as they see the first bomb, Randy begins to prepare in earnest. I think one of the things that makes this book so real is the mistakes they make in the beginning. They treat the bomb as they would a hurricane and go to the grocery store to stock up on food. Unfortunately, they buy groceries as if the power was to be off only for several days...not permanently! Every day they find ways in which their future will be drastically different.

One of the most fascinating thing about this genre is that books of this type actually helped to change the political climate. As people began to explore these disaster scenarios it became apparent that no one could win in this kind of war. The authors' skill in creating a post war reality convinced most countries that war of this type would be a disaster for the whole world.

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A Brother's Journey

A Brother's Journey by Richard B. Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the book that David Pelzer's brother, Richard, wrote about his ordeal after David left home. When David was there, Richard functioned as Mother's Nazi." He tattled about every little thing Richard did and often lied to get him in trouble. Several years younger, his mother groomed him from the time he could talk.

After David left, Richard became the outcast and as he became more and more abused, he felt terrible about the part he played in his brother's life. Eventually, he became "The boy," and finally, "It."

What I can't understand is why the Social Services didn't keep tabs on this mother after the terrible abuse David suffered. When he was taken from the home, it seemed ludicrous to not check on the other children. When the same teachers saw Richard begin to come to school in the same filthy old clothes, starving and with bruises all over just like David, why didn't anyone do anything? I realize it was a different climate in the 70's, but it seems bizarre to ignore what was going on.

As adults, these brothers have only met one or two times and there is some antagonism between them. It seems clear that Richard did suffer abuse, but there is some question as to how much. However, it seems to me that the mother spent the biggest portion of her days torturing David and I can't see that stopping after he was removed. She was filled with so much anger and it had to have a target.

Different people have tried to link her with a specific mental illness and seem to lean towards Borderline Personality Disorder. This book tells more about her relationship with her own mother and there seems to have been some abuse there. Whatever the pathology, she was never prosecuted and lived out the rest of her natural life.


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The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family

The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family by Dave Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little easier to read than the first one, but just barely. David went through a number of foster homes, some meant to be temporary and others temporary because of his behavior. It is easy to forget that an abused child comes to a foster home with many behaviors, which, while they enabled him to survive in his original home, were inappropriate in a foster home. David learned to be very wary and to squelch his emotional needs. At home he learned to steal to get enough food to live and to desire to be loved and accepted by his abusing mother and his peers. When prodded by classmates, he shoplifted to show off. He went by his mother’s house which was strictly forbidden. He made contact with his brother and did other things which were inappropriate. Unbelievably, most of these children continue to believe that their abusive parents will somehow change and shower them with love. The picture of David waiting for his father to visit weekend after weekend was heartbreaking.

I worked for a number of years in juvenile corrections and I have seen that behavior on many occasions. Over and over we would tell the boys that they were very lucky to get into a school, foster home or treatment center, and that they had to behave in order to not go to a training school. Even though they were petrified of going to a state school, they so often could not take advantage of the placement found for them. They lacked the ability to follow a few necessary rules and ended up in a state school with far more rules. This is exactly what happened to David. The problem isn’t with correcting their behavior as much as filling up the holes in their hearts so that they become able to behave. The big question is can they fill up the need before the behavior is totally out of hand. In David’s case, he was able to accept the love his foster parents had for him and began to modify his behavior, but not until he had been moved from a number of homes.


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A Child Called "It"

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read this before, but I wanted to read it again before reading a later book. It was still hard to read it even knowing what Dave Pelzer has made of his life. It is almost unbelievable that an adult could treat a child like this and that others in the family, especially Dave's father, could allow it.

Dave's says that his mother was kind and loving during the first 5 years of his life, but suddenly she changed and targeted him for horrific abuse. She treated her other children well but starved Dave and made him work like a slave. Once she stabbed him and frequently locked him in a bathroom with a deadly combination of bleach and ammonia, or made him lay in a tub full of cold water for hours completely submerged except for his nose. David felt that she really wanted him to die, but he managed to survive by sheer will. Along with the daily torture, she starved him. In school he desperately stole from other student’s lunches, but at one point during the summer, he went 10 days without food.

I recently read Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne and she also was the only one her mother abused. It is hard to understand how a mother could target only one of her children for her anger. To me, that indicates that there is a degree of control that makes the abuse seem even more heinous. I can understand how a parent who suffered abuse in childhood would have anger management problems and not have any parenting skills, but Dave’s mother's treatment of her other children demonstrates that she knew what was right.

While this is a hard book to read, it is also very inspiring. Somehow, through fierce determination, young Dave manages to survive. Eventually, his teachers and principal had enough evidence to go to the police and David was removed but the story of how he survived is a tribute to the human spirit.


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A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, #2)

A Giant Problem by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this second book of the series and you have to read the first book first for this one to make sense. That book left with a cliff hanger of the giants waking up. What do the kids do with about 30 giants all waking up at the same time? First, they have to get more help which they do from unexpected sources. Then they have to get rid of the giants. Through a convoluted effort and leaving behind a day of reckoning of major proportions, they attempt to do the impossible.

Middle graders will love this series.

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Rapacia

Rapacia by Dale E. Basye
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the series and I can understand why kids like it so much. I was testing it as a Homeschool free reading book and I'm putting it on my list.

Milton has been returned to earth, but now he wants to go back to get his sister. In the meantime, his sister is doing just fine, in a manner of speaking. She uses skills as a con-artist, thief to work for her in Heck. The theme of this level of Heck is "greed." She is paired with the kind of girl she hated in school: rich, in-crowd, super consumer, haughty, and obnoxious spoiled brat. However, they are no match for her and neither is her nemesis principal, Bea "Elsa" Bubb.

The torment in this level of Heck is the enormous Mallvana, a shopper's paradise where everything is tantalizingly close, but always out of touch.

In the meantime, her brother, Milton, is having his share of problems. It seems like returning from Heck by chicken power has left his soul sort of fractured and subject to some alarming chicken-like moments.

Add to the mix an enormous metal rabbit called the Grabbit and a few new members of the Heck hierarchy, some wonderful puns and literary references and you can please most middle graders.

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A Thread Unbroken

A Thread Unbroken by Kay Bratt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an extremely interesting book. I knew there were problems in China with the tender imbalance in China, but I had no idea that people kidnap girls for marriage.

Chai and Josi, both 14, were kidnapped from their home and taken to a rural fishing village. Chai was intended as a bride for the bullying older son of the family and Josi, crippled from birth, was taken to insure that her best friend, Chai, would come with her.

Chai was a courageous and resilient young girl who was beloved, especially, by her father who never ceased to search for her. Unfortunately the police were not very diligent in searching for kidnapped girls and often were a part of the kidnapping rings. Chai's father, however, would not give up and he pestered to police constantly.

Life on the houseboat was dreadful and Chai and Josi were treated as little more than slaves. They were overworked and underfed, but Chai still remained spunky and was always looking for a way to escape. When their foster mother had a baby girl with a cleft palette, the father demands that the midwife come and take the baby and drown it. Chai learns that other baby girls have been born to the family and they also were disposed of. Chai finds away to get care for the baby in a local mission orphanage.

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A Body in the Backyard

A Body in the Backyard by Elizabeth Spann Craig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a cute, very light read. The sleuth is an ex-teacher who is pushing 90. She lives in a tiny town which has a lot of murders. Her son is the Chief of Police and lives across the road. This time murder lands right in her yard and ironically, the weapon is one of the many plaster gnomes she has there.

The victim turns out to be a disreputable cousin of the next door neighbor who is also her auxillary sleuth. She is not dismayed. How can her son expect her to not get involved when the murderer broke one her her gnomes in the commission of his or her crime? When another body is found a the very same spot, she has even more reason to get involved.

I didn't connect with the main character as well as in similar series,
but this is not the first book in the series and possibly there was more character development in the previous books.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am listening to this book for about the 6th time. I need a story which will carry me along without much effort and yet capture my interest and challenge me to see more than I saw the last time. There are confusing times in my life when this comfort read is exactly what I need and Rowling and Jim Dale, the narrator, always deliver.

In this book, Harry finds a potions book from a former student and when he follows the instruction, he produces extraordinary results. Hermione is deeply troubled by the book and insists that he turn it in. Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

It is hard to review this book without giving the plot away, so I will stick to the generalities. We learn a lot more about Tom Riddle and how he came to be Lord Voldemort. The reader begins to have a little sympathy for him...until he reveals his cold bloodedness at such a young age. It goes way beyond the mind of a schoolboy.

We get to see a lot more of the pensive and it begins to reveal the prequel to the stage that is set for Harry when he comes to Hogwarts. I think the pensive is an absolutely brilliant device. I would love to have one myself! Suddenly, Harry is there, seeing the people in the past as they were without being interpreted by flawed memories. I think the memories also reveal the depth of Rowling's talent. She has constructed these books as if she knew from the very beginning just where she was going every step of the way. Tiny bits of information in book 1, come back in book 6 and their importance is revealed. In fact, I think that is why I keep coming back to these books. I make connections that completely eluded me up to that point. I am in awe of the depth of her organization for what is ostensibly juvenile fiction.

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Watership Down

Watership Down by Richard Adams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this ages ago and loved it, so when it came up on Audible, I selected it. Like any good comfort read, it made me smile just to start it. I am at a different stage in my life, so I'm sure I'll see things that I didn't see before.

This book is great on many levels. By using animals, as in Animal Farm, human behavior becomes more clear. When Fiver senses that something terrible is going to happen in his old warren and tries to convince others that they need to leave, very few listen. I look at today's headlines about our national debt and I wonder how people can't see the danger...but no one wants to listen.

Hazel and some other rabbits heed his warning because he has been right so many times in the past and leave the old warren. Along the way they find a warren where everything is provided for the rabbits, but there is a terrible flaw in their system. There are subtle parallels today.

As the book goes on, the rabbits become more and more real and that is also part of the skill of Adams. Years ago, I taught this book in a medium level prison. At first the men weren't very happy reading about rabbits, but they had some faith in me and they went on with the book. At the end of it, many said it was the best book they ever read. Along the way, they were able to see parallels with the prison and society.



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Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale E. Basye
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was reading this to see if I could use it for Homeschool free reading and I still am not sure if it will work. It is the story of a brother and sister who are killed in an accident at a mall. The sister is a particularly "bad" child who loves to do rotten things. She drags along her brother who is exactly the opposite. While shopping she puts some makeup in his bag and so he is technically guilty of stealing. After they die they slide into "Heck" where the bad kids go. In the case of Milton, there has obviously been a mistake. but Bea "Elza" Bubb does not want to admit it. What follows is a kid type adventure that relies on puns and other somewhat clever things.

"Heck" is "Limbo" where bad kids go until they are 18 years old. By that time, they will have improved because of the experience and be ready to enter into the Upper Place, or will have revealed their nature. think I will have to read another books in the series to see if it gets better. Some people have commented in the inconsistencies and I'd like to see if kids pick them up. There are some obvious flaws in the book, but that is a good teaching tool also. So, we shall see....

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To the Grave (A Genealogical Crime Mystery #2)

To the Grave by Steve Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first I thought this book was not going to be as good as the first. After all, it deals with a young girl in WWII England who finds herself pregnant by a soldier and disappears after giving up her baby for adoption. But then the bodies start to appear...not WWII bodies, but real, present day bodies who turn up dead right before Jefferson Tayte can interview them. Why is someone interested in such a commonplace occurrence?

It is probably a good thing that Steve Robinson put the scene in the Prologue. If there is any doubt that this book is not going to live up to the high adventure of his first book, that little scene dispels that nonsense.

The client, 66 year old Eliza Gray, has been sent a little red suitcase anonymously with a note saying that it was from her real mother. It came as a big surprise as Eliza did not know that she was adopted. She hires JT to go to England to find our who her real mother is and why, after all this time, someone has revealed this fact to her. JT, being at loose ends and missing his mentor, Marcus Brown, steels himself to fly again to England to engage in research which doesn't seem to be very interesting. However, he understands what Eliza is feeling because he has suffered from the same lack of knowledge about his own parents and he looks forward to supplying her with information that he has not been able to find for himself.

In short order, he is able to find the name of her mother, but there is no name listed for her father. Thus begins the quest. As with the first book, the action passes between present and past and the reader is able to fill in some of the gaps and the truth of some of JT's conclusions. We know that Mena did have a soldier sweetheart, but there are a number of things that just don't add up. Just about everyone JT needs to contact has recently died or has no information, making the picture even more murky and that is when the bodies start to pile up.




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In the Blood (A Genealogical Crime Mystery #1)

In the Blood by Steve Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was an interesting historical puzzle which seemed to have a bit of James Bond in the genealogy parts. Genealogist usually deal with people who are dead, but not at finding them at their feet! The assignment seems simple enough. A client would like to give a present to his wife and he hired Jefferson Tayte to find the English ancestors of his wife's family. Unfortunately, someone desperately wants to hide that information and is willing to kill to protect it. From the time Tayte sets foot on English soil, someone is following in his footsteps determined that he will not succeed.

I also love genealogy and I've picked up a few hints from JT as I have followed his research. Some aids are my old friends, but a few are new to me. At times I wish I had the money to hire JT myself! This book is a treat and I know I'll be reading the rest of Steve Robinson's books.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this several times and I seem to come back to the HP books because they fill a niche in my life. I have almost all the books in audio version with Jim Dale as the reader, so I put them on when I am doing a big sorting project, or a knit sweater that has a deadline or even when I am having trouble sleeping. Jim Dale's voice is soothing and I almost always find something new.

This is the fourth book in the series and in a way it is the end of Harry's childhood. At the ball, he and Ron act with an early teen's mentality...they don't dance, can't carry on a conversation, and don't know what to think of their friend, Hermoine, who has just blossomed into a young woman.

Even in the trials of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry is a boy who competes against young men and women who are no longer children. Harry has to compete in a tournament where the contestants are all at least 17, but he holds his own bravely. In the end, with one blow, he is no longer a child. Everything changes with this book.

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The Bone Chamber (Sydney Fitzpatrick, #2)

The Bone Chamber by Robin Burcell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It had everything! There were corrupt politicians, FBI agents, CIA, Black Ops, archaeologist, bio weapons, tunnels and catacombs under the Roman streets, ancient hidden maps, Knights Templar, Freemasons, car chases, a little romance and bombs. What more could you ask for? Well, I guess you could insist that it was well put together and this book was put together as well. You might have to suspend disbelief a time or two, but, it's a book, not a biography! It was a great book to take you away from a not too exciting life and into a world you could leave behind if it got too bad.

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Bitter Memories: A Memoir of Heartache & Survival

Bitter Memories: A Memoir of Heartache & Survival by Sue Julsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a sad, sad book. It is hard to believe that a father could take a child and submit her to such torture and think that he loved her. Once she goes with him it seems that every male, whatever their age, wants to sexually abuse her. It is just hard to believe that this kind of thing exists.

When I heard on the news about a non-custodial kidnapping rather than a stranger kidnapping it was with some relief. I mistakenly thought that the parent wouldn't hurt the child and I felt the pain of the custodial parent more than the child. After reading this book, I won't feel that way again.

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The Boy In The Suitcase

The Boy In The Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book although it wasn't what I expected. The ending was especially good. Basically, it is a story of a well-meaning woman who does a favor for a friend and picks up a suitcase from a locker. Unfortunately, there is a 3 year old, comatose boy in the suitcase. Very
quickly it becomes apparent that she was not meant to pick up the suitcase and that someone wants it desperately. The rest of the book is a thriller whose characters weave in and out of each other's lives in a high stakes game.

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Dark Deeds: Serial killers, stakers and domestic homicides

Dark Deeds: Serial killers, stakers and domestic homicides by Susan Fleet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is actually stories from a blog and they aren't very long, but they are interesting and well written. The author goes back in history to get some of the stories and they are very interesting.

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Call Me Tuesday

Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tuesday Storm's life is a triple tragedy. First, her older sister, crippled with polio, dies and Tuesday feels at fault because her sister made her give her half of the gum she was chewing and shortly afterwards, Tuesday came down with the flu her brothers have had. A few days later her sister comes down with the flu and dies.

When Tuesday is 9, her loving and caring mother suffers a brain injury in a terrible accident. She recovers, but her personality doesn't. Gone forever is the mother who loved celebrations and made every occasion joyful. Gone are the magical birthday parties. Her physical mother returns, but she is mentally ill and hates Tuesday with a passion.

It was hard to read this book at times. Tuesday was made to suffer incredible abuse and just about everyone she loves let her down. It is hard to imagine that people could live in that household and allow her to be treated that way. Her father tries to get her away from her mother’s abuse by sending her to his mother’s for the summer, but even he betrays her. The fact that Tuesday endures and is able to rise above this horror is absolutely incredible.


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A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases (Crime Files, #3)

A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases by Ann Rule
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ann Rule's books are always good and this was no exception. This is a series of stories loosely grouped around themes. The first story about Morris Blankenbaker is the saddest. A fine young man was killed and so many lives torn apart because of the basest kind of betrayal. All the people involved seem to have led charmed lives and yet that wasn't enough for two of them. When I read about something like this, I remember some of my earlier training in a small Catholic school. The nuns tried to instill in us the knowledge that big evil deeds and evil people hardly ever start out that way. In the beginning, people are usually just bending the rules. They know what they do is wrong, but they do it anyway. Little by little, they lose the ability to see how far they have gone. We were told to not give into temptation over the little things and our characters would be strong enough to withstand the large things that we really wanted to do. This story is such a sad example of this. None of this needed to happen if two people had been satisfied with what they had and not thrown it away for something fleeting and inferior.

The last story, "Mirror Images", especially interested me because I worked in Juvenile Corrections. I was on a team which decided where to place the boys who were "sent away." I read the files of so many boys like the ones mentioned. One of the files I read was on Charles Manson and it was eerily like the file of James Ruzika. In so many cases, the boys were raised in single parent homes with mothers who have a series of relationships and children with multiple fathers. The start with a predictable pattern of theft, school problems, truancy and violence. In many cases, the boys are abused by their mother's partners and they are set up for deviant sexual behavior. Over time, we saw that many of the boys who came to us were becoming more and more emotionally disturbed. This was in the 70's and 80's. I can only guess at what it is like now. I'm afraid that cases like Ruzika and Harp are the tip of the iceberg.

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The Poisoned Pilgrim (The Hangman's Daughter, #4)

The Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the last book in the series as of this writing and in it Magdalena has married Simon Fronswieser, the town medicus, and they have two sons. They have gone to the monastery of Andechs with a group of people from their home village of Schongau to give thanks for the health of their sons, Peter and Paul.

When they get there, they are confronted with a hideous series of murders and Magdalena sends for her father, who arrives with her two young sons whom I hope we will see more of.

As with the rest of the series, the descriptions of places of Bavaria and the lifestyle of the people in this era are fascinating and I always feel like I have added to my store of knowledge as well as been entertained.

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The Beggar King (The Hangman's Daughter, #3)

The Beggar King by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in this series and one of the more exciting. Jakob Kuisl received a letter from his sister in Regensburg asking him to come because she was terribly ill. He arrived only to find her gruesomely murdered. He was then arrested and framed for her murder. While he languished in jail awaiting his own torture by the Regensburg hangman, his daughter, Magdalena, and her friend, Simon come to help him. Fortunately for Jakob, the hangman had pity on him and believed him innocent.

In this book, Magdalena, with the help of Simon, is the active partner in the mystery. She becomes involved with an underground bunch of beggars with their own organization in the city. There are a whole lot of other colorful characters who both help and hinder her in finding the truth.

I found that this book had the most interesting characters and the most action. It was a clever plot and I enjoyed it very much.

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Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book very balanced and informative. The author chose 3 very good examples of bullying to study in depth. The children's stories were compelling and Brazlon did not follow the general practice of demonizing the bullies and sanctifying the bullied. She also did not fall into the trap of making the schools the culprit either. In some cases, the school was insensitive, but in general, they were doing the best they could to tackle the problem.

This is a very complex problem and there are not any easy answers. Brazelon did address one part of the problem that I have never seen in print. There is a left over problem from the fuzzy-headed thinking of the past 30 years which sanctifies children..."Let the children teach us." "Listen to the wisdom of the children." "My children are my heroes." Children are essentially selfish when they come into the world and they have to be taught how to care about others. Scores of instructions from my childhood come back to me: "How would you feel if someone did that to you?" "What if everyone did that?" "Just because so and so does that, do you have to?" "Either the girl is your friend and you are loyal to her, or you have to stop hanging out with her until someone better comes around." All those examples are what our parents and teachers tried to teach us, knowing that it does not come naturally to put others needs before our own. Children need to be taught to be empathetic and altruistic. They don't always come by it naturally. It is the job of the parents, but if they don't do it then the schools have to step in. It makes me cringe to add another burden to the schools, but it has to be done.

In the final chapters, Bazelon gives information on several programs which have worked and pages of resources. The book is an excellent resource for anyone who has to deal with children as well as anyone who just wants to understand the problem and be a part of the solution.

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The Dark Monk (The Hangman's Daughter, #2)

The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as well as The Hangman's Daughter. The plot was a little convoluted. A priest is murdered and it appears that he has unearthed clues to a fantastic Templar fortune.  Jakob Kuisel explores the crypt in which the priest was killed and someone drugs him.  That begins the tale of 4 separate groups who are trying to follow the clues and find the treasure.

Simon teams up with the sister of the priest which evokes Magdelena's ire.  She goes to Ausburg to get some herbs and is drawn into the mystery when she is kidnapped by a crazed monk.  Simon and his beautiful partner follow clues which take them to monasteries, libraries and even a tree.  As they travel, it is clear that two groups of people are following them.  In the meantime, Clerk Johan Lechner has sent Jakob, with a group of men, to find the hideout of a group of robbers who have been plundering merchant's wagons and bringing trade to a stand still.  From there the plot weaves in and out until Jakob, Simon and Magdelena all arrive at the same point.

I have ancestors who came from Bavaria and I read this book with great interest.  The naming patterns in the family were the same as many of my ancestors as well as the trades.  In this book I ran into an ancestor with the unusual surname of my grandmother, but, unfortunately, Jakob only mentions that he has been hung as a highway.  I only hope that he was the black sheep of the family!


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The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1)

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book!  The history of Bavaria and the role of the hangman was fascinating.  I have ancestors who came from this region and the names in the book were right out of my genealogy.

The story is about the hangman, Jakob Kuisl, his daughter, Magdalene, the young doctor and the people of Schongau.  The job of hangman was hereditary and the daughter of a hangman would have to marry either another hangman or a butcher.  Both occupations were outcasts and the families of these workers lived outside the gates of the city with the tanners.

This first book is about the deaths of some children which are immediately presumed to have been caused by witchcraft and the Court Court, Johann Lechner, determines that the midwife is guilty.  Neither Jakob or the doctor believe she is guilty and the book is about finding the real criminal before the executioner will have to do his job and kill her.

One of the things that interested me was the brutality of the age and the panic which the threat of witchcraft posed.  There was such a rush to judgement and pressure to hang the witch so that the city could get back to normal.  Even when murders kept occurring after the midwife was in jail most town leaders just attributed the deaths to the power of the witch to command the devil.

The hangman was also a healer and the poorer people of the day came to him for herbal remedies.  The young doctor realizes that doctors away from major cities had as little power as the midwives or healers.  In the case of Jakob Kuisl, who had a number of books on the subject, he might have had more.



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Time of Death

Time of Death by Ellis Vidler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book made me so angry at times I was a hair's breath away from quitting it.  How can such seemingly intelligent people do such stupid things?  Someone has run Alex and Isabel off the bridge to their tiny little island, of which they are the only winter residents.  Then when Alex comes home from the hospital with all sorts of bruises and contusions and awakens from her medication induced sleep to find someone getting ready to rape and kill her while his partner down stairs is lighting a fire to burn down the house, does she, when rescued, grab her jammies and a toothbrush and get out of there?  No, she takes a long, long shower and then takes more pain medication and is just about to lay down for a nap when someone with more sense snatches her up and drives her to safety.

Still, I liked the book and the characters and I will read more of this author.  I just wish she could have come up with some more plausible reasons for being in such danger.  Perhaps Alex could be frantically gathering her things up to leave and she could break a glass.  Then tension could build as she plucks the glass out of a deep gash and then bandages her hand as time is slipping away instead of doing such reckless things and being her own worst enemy.


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Frozen Solid

Frozen Solid by James M. Tabor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

l didn't think I was going to like this book st first, but it was very enjoyable.  The female main character was very believable without being incredibly beautiful with long long legs...you get the idea.  She was very intelligent and courageous without being like a character from James Bond.

The situation posed, an organism which can be used as a form of population control, is within reason and probably in the minds of some scientists right now, unfortunately.  I enjoyed learning about life at the South Pole, the underground lakes and the organisms that can live in such an environment.  All together a good read.


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Death of a Cozy Writer (A St. Just Mystery #1)

Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was very enjoyable for a cozy mystery.  It has a plethora of twists and turns, improbable relationships and long forgotten injustices.  At first I couldn't find one character I could champion, they were all thoroughly disgusting, but over time some became were revealed.


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The Relatives Came

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was a child we used to pack up our old Studebaker with a luggage box on the top and drive all day from Virginia to Saltillo, Mississippi. I could almost believe that Cynthia Rylant was writing about us. She has every aspect of our visit in this book...even the "breathing." The visit doesn't include things like visiting Disney World, it is about hugging and fixing things and eating and all the other things that people who love each other and haven't seen each other for a year do. People are sleeping end to end on the floor, eating in shifts, pinching cheeks and just being with each other. The illustrations are superb and the story are perfect. I've bought this book for my cousins and my library. Everyone should have childhood memories like this.

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Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn, #12)

Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another Agatha Christie! If you like her, you will like this.  Another bonus is learning more about New Zealand and hot springs and boiling mud

The story takes place in the hot springs area of New Zealand and surrounds a thoroughly unpleasant man getting murdered by being pushed off the path into boiling mud.  There are a number of suspects and a lot of twists and turns.  The person who seems to be the logical murderer is, of course, the most likable one.

Ngaio Marsh is a master of mystery and this one does not disappoint.



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Eruption (Storm Runners, #3)

Eruption by Roland Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This last book was a little more far fetched than the first two, but a good read for middle graders. The pace is fast and the characters are pretty well drawn. There are a few far fetched incidents, but not enough to spoil the book.

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People of the Wolf (The First North Americans, #1)

People of the Wolf by W. Michael Gear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not sure I am going to read this again. I am remembering a lot of it and the only reason I started it again was because I want to read the whole series and I thought I would be missing something if I didn't reread it.

The book is very good, but a little hard to follow. The various tribes have similar naming patterns and the book constantly changes from one tribe to another so it takes a bit of attention to detail to separate them. It is worth the effort though. The authors give a great picture of theses early people and how they lived.

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The Surge (Storm Runners, #2)

The Surge by Roland Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was also filled with tremendous action and suspense. Chase and his friends have survived Hurricane Emily but now they have to deal with the flood surge. They are on Emily's farm where an elephant from the Rossi Brother's Circus is getting ready to give birth. Of course, they loose power and Chase has to try to brave the residue of the storm and the floodwaters to get fuel for the generator. On top of this, some of the big cats, the most dangerous one, are missing.

This is a great series for young adults and interesting enough for adults.

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Storm Runners

Storm Runners by Roland Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book for Middle School students...and even adults! Chase and his dad are storm chasers, but not the weather people. Chase's father is a builder and he goes to places in the path of natural disasters. Chase's mother and little sister were killed in a car accident. After his dad was electrocuted in a storm and recovered after a 2 day coma, he sold his house and bought a trailer and equipment which he moved from one site to another, helping people rebuild.

As a category 5 hurricane bears down on central Florida, his dad leaves him at the Rossi Brothers' Circus winter quarters while he goes to help people prepare for the storm. Chase is fascinated by the circus animals which include a pregnant elephant due any day and an extremely hostile leopard, and especially young Nicole who is in his grade at school. As the storm approaches, the principle inadvisedly sends the students home on school busses. When the hurricane changes it's forecasted direction Chase, Nicole and Rashawn find themselves struggling through the hurricane on foot after the bus is overturned.

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Death Comes to Pemberley

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I realized after a chapter or two that I had read this, but I couldn't remember the ending and P. D. James is always good, so I listened to it again and enjoyed it as much as the first time.

The book is like a sequel to Pride and Prejudice with a mystery in the plot. Murder is done in the Pemberley woods and George Wickham has been accused of the crime. He is still the reprobate he was in P & P and manages to again threaten Pemberley.

The plot winds in and out and various characters from P & P appear. I think James does a great job of creating a further life for them and staying in the same character that Jane Austen created. The book worth reading especially if you are fan of hers. At the very end, two characters from Emma make a brief appearance which adds an interesting note.

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine, #1)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I started this and then it had to go back to the library. The plot was refreshingly new and is based on the existence of a group of people, most of whom function in a time warp. Some of theme also live in the real world and cross back and forth. The hero of the book doesn't know that he is one of the Peculiar children until his grandfather dies and leaves a confusing task for him to complete. This is obviously the first of a series.

My only complaint about this book is some of the language. It saddens me to see our language deteriorating and at younger and younger ages. Some TV programs have so many bleeps you can't make sense of what is being said. Books designed for kids ought to set a better standard.


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Angel with Two Faces

Angel with Two Faces by Nicola Upson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this , but I felt like it dragged a bit in some parts. I didn't particularly like the lesbian themes because I felt they were outside the plot and didn't add anything to it. I realize that it is part of who Josephine Tey was and, as such, should be included, but not as a side plot. It distracts from the mystery and interrupts the flow.

The mystery itself is very compelling. The plot twists and turns, leaving the reader having to incorporate new information that renders previous conclusions invalid. Loveday is one of the most interesting characters in the book and one I would like to see in future books. At first the reader sees her as simple minded and childlike, but as the plot develops, she reveals her native intelligence and perception. In a book that is, at times, very dark, she is a breath of fresh air.

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Missing, A Short Mystery

Missing, A Short Mystery by Sylvia A. Nash
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is actually a short story and it is a bit light weight, but nice for an easy read. The story centers on a young man,, David Chandler, who is missing after writing a book, Murder by Accident, which is uncannily like the story of Andrew Martin who was Andrew's biological father, although he didn't know it. The story has it roots in the generation before Andrew's and the complicated relationships of the 5 young people who all grew up together.

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Sleeper

Sleeper by Barry Friedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book got a little thin in the middle. The story starts out well with the child present a mysterious illness and the seemingly uncaring mother staying by her side, but talking to no one. Then comes the overbearing father and an aunt and uncle more to create some tension and to give more suspects when it becomes apparent that someone is doing her harm.

Then there is a side plot which involves the child that I find terribly thin. The surgeon is unrealistic to me...at least I hope so. I find it hard to believe this goes on with malpractice hovering over all hospitals.

The ending also is weak. We need some hints throughout the novel in order to make this work and there are some issues which are unresolved.

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Momma Don't Hit Me

Momma Don't Hit Me by shannon bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book and it's sequel, Momma, Stop! I'll be Good! is so sad. A young woman, due to very thin apartment walls, is able to hear the abuse of a young boy called "Kevin." At first, she is not certain if it abuse and she is reluctant to get involved, but as the nights progress, she becomes more and more upset over what she hears. While there is physical abuse, it is the emotional abuse that is worse. She is forced to listen to a character destroying barrage which would emotionally cripple even an adult. The young woman struggles to determine what is the right course to take in view of the fact that she can't see what is going on and doesn't always know what led up to the incidents she hears.

Even when she decides to get involved, the laws of New Hampshire, and its overburdened system leave Kevin suffering for over a year.

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Momma, Stop! I'll Be Good!

Momma, Stop! I'll Be Good! by shannon bowen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this book, Kevin's situation is still dire and the young neighbor who reports is isn't sure if she has helped Kevin or made the problem worse. It is certain that he is being abused, but the overburdened New Hampshire Social Services is limited by the law, not enough funds and, I think worse, very few options that are good for Kevin. It is obvious that they are all between a rock and a hard place.

The book doesn't have a lot of answers, but it does make the plight of children like Kevin, and also the role of a concerned stranger, much clearer. In a perfect world, Kevin would be sent to loving relatives while his mother received the help and care she needed, but that isn't always possible, and when it is not, children like Kevin suffer.

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Cruel Deception

Cruel Deception by Gregg Olsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating book about Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. It is also the story some people who showed incredible tenacity in hunting down the proof that Tanya Reed had smothered her infant daughter, Morgan and was attempting to do the same to her son, Michael. It is hard to believe that a person, usually a mother, would risk her child's life in order to draw attention to herself and to become a "partner" with the doctors and nurses who try to protect the lives of her children.

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Run, Mummy, Run

Run, Mummy, Run by Cathy Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is different from most of Cathy Glass' books. Usually, she writes about foster children which they have had, but this is about an abused woman who thinks she has married the perfect man, but after the marriage, he begins to dictate more and more to her and to isolate her. It doesn't take long before he starts physical abuse.

The author made it easy to get inside the mind of a person who is being abused and understand why they find themselves powerless to fight back. I think that is the hardest thing to understand. Sitting her reading the book, I know exactly what she should do, but the insidious nature of the soul destroying intimidation places a person into a completely different world.

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The Corpse Reader

The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was so refreshingly new. It is set in the thirteenth-century Tsong Dynasty. It is based on the work of a real person, Cí Song, who is considered to be the founding father of forensic science.

The book starts out with Ci Song as a scholar who is supported by his grandfather who is a noted scholar. Unfortunately, the grandfather dies and Song is forced to return home and become subject to his crass and dissipated older brother. When a crime is committed, he is forced to flee and he returns to the city where his talent for "reading corpses" eventually leads him to the Emperor himself.

Even though one misfortune after another dogs his footsteps, his talent is recognized by his mentor at the school he once attended and he is able to continue to study. There is a serial killer who is killing and mutilating within the circle of even the Emperor himself and Song finds himself in a race to find the killer or be executed.

The author is Spanish and I look forward to more of his books.

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Two for Sorrow (Josephine Tey, #3)

Two for Sorrow by Nicola Upson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a little hard to rate. It isn't as much a mystery as a "true crime" story with a more current mystery added on. In 1903, two women were hanged as "baby farmers." That is, women who cared for mothers during the birth of their children, mainly illegitimate children and were supposed to be finding them good homes. In reality, they often killed the babies while they maintained the delusion that the children were in happy homes. This was all mixed up in the extremely contradictory practices and laws of the Victorian era. In so many cases, the women had very little choice and what was done to many of the was criminal.

Josephine Tey, the main character, and also a real person was writing a book about the life of the two women hanged and the author has her involved in a number of coincidences which at times stretch the imagination. The point of the book isn't who committed these crimes, but why.

There is also a section of the book devoted to a lesbian relationship which I found very distracting as it had virtually nothing to do with the book. While somewhat grounded in truth in that Tey was almost certainly a lesbian, this relationship is fictitious and does nothing to contribute.

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