No Good Tea Goes Unpunished: 09/30/23

No Good Tea Goes Unpunished by Bree Baker and Thérèse Plummer (Narrator) (2019) is the second book in the Seaside Café mystery series. Everly Swan is the host of her friend's wedding reception. Before the event is even over, the groom is dead.

This is one of those mysteries where the murderer could and should have left well enough alone. Had they just packed up and gone home, they would have gotten away with the crime.

The only thing keeping Everly involved in the investigation is the behavior of certain people associated with the wedding. Her place is broken into. Someone is stalking her. Her golf cart is vandalized.

If her ice tea shop weren't still so brand new, Everly could have packed up and left town until the initial murder investigation ended and the guests went back to Martha's Vineyard. Instead, though, she's stuck in Charm and forced to investigate because she's tired to being in the middle of all this nonsense.

There's an entertaining side plot involving Everly's aunts who are competing in a best beekeeper contest. It involves making a three minute video to talk about their hives. Of course Everly has tons of video experience from her days running a food blog when she was in culinary school.

There was one scene though where she describes making the backdrop for the video. I had to laugh at her super human abilities there given how little time she had to work on it. Just before reading this book I had done the backdrops for a local high school and they weren't anything as detailed as described here but took two weeks to work on in between everything else I had to do.

The third book is Tide and Punishment (2020).

Four stars

Comments (0)

Teen Titans: Robin: 09/29/23

Teen Titans: Robin by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo (Illustrator) (2023) is the fourth graphic novel in the series. Dick Grayson has caught up with Damian and the others as they hide out and train on an island in Georgia.

Damian as Bruce Wayne's biological son feels oddly jealous of Dick, his adopted son. Dick though absolutely considers himself a brother.

Of course Slade is still after them. The scenes cut between him and the teens. Slade's not the all powerful villain he was in Teen Titans season one but he's still persistent and thorough.

The fifth book is Teen Titans: Starfire which releases in July 2024.

Five stars

Comments (0)

The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl: 09/28/23

The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl by Tomihiko Morimi and Emily Balistrieri (Translator) (2006) is the story of two college students finding and falling in love with each other through a year's worth of odd coincidences and supernatural shenanigans.

The man and the woman first meet at a wedding banquet. He sees her and begins forming his elaborate plan of tempting the red strings of fate through planned meetings and apparent coincidences. She, meanwhile, is more keen on "funsteresting" things. Her first quest involves a night of adult drinking alone away from the demands of being polite amongst friends.

Each chapter involves an adventure in a different season: spring, summer, fall, and, winter. For the woman, the adventures are for the most part for self gratification; for the man, it's doing something to impress the woman.

Like Tatami Galaxy, there is a layering of events and a very small cast of characters. Here, though, time does progress, with the narrative being about the myriad of ways that people interact with each other — sort of butterfly effect meets six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

If you've seen the film, you'll note that the biggest difference is in how much time is covered: one year vs. one night.

Regardless of the timing, the novel is on the Road Narrative Spectrum. The man and woman are ultimately a couple (33). Their destination is the city in and around the university (00). Their route is the labyrinth (99) as represented through a variety of spiraling paths, though ultimately it's a transformative route.

Five stars

Comments (0)

The Wrecking Crew: 09/26/23

The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton (1960) is the second book in the Matt Helm series. Matt, now divorced, is less tied down by domestic obligations, meaning he's open to taking more assignments for the organization he was part of during WWII. This time he's sent to Stockholm to track down a notorious and elusive agent.

In the first book, Death of a Citizen, Matt (aka Eric) was presented as a homebody — and a photographer — who happened to have done extraordinary things fifteen years earlier. Now, though, he seems to have been shoehorned back into being the incredibly skilled agent he might have once been. Sure, some training is mentioned but his transformation seems to be more plot convenience than anything else.

Along with now once again being a super agent, Matt is now full of some odd ideas regarding the women he's working with and against. Among his misogynistic gems: women with unnaturally dyed hair make him feel like raping them; women in pants might make him gay; women should look pretty even when fighting for their lives.

The setting, Stockholm and areas north of the Arctic circle, combined with a high level of violence mixed with the photography angle, makes me think of Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand (2011). The big difference is one of genre: Hamilton's being a cold war spy thriller and Hand's being horror.

The third book is The Removers (1961)

Three stars

Comments (0)

Nigeria Jones: 09/25/23

Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi (2023) is from the perspective of a teenage girl tasked with caring for her infant brother. She's growing up in her father's Black utopia, meaning she's home schooled and she sharing her home with some of the congregation that haven't found a place of their own. What she wants, though, more than anything is to have her mother back.

The first act is set entirely within the confines of Nigeria's life at home, being the good daughter. It serves to show how stifling her life is. It also gives time to reflect on what life was like when her mother was still present and the problems of living in a commune.

The second act is Nigeria's time in school. Against her father's wishes she choses to go to the private school her mother wanted her to attend. Her world is expanded and she begins to question the last year of her life.

The final act is her emancipation. It's also when she reaches the point where she's able to unpack the emotional trauma of the last year.

I personally found the pacing a little off. The initial act is too long. There's a lot of repetition. Sure, it serves to build tension and to show how stifling her life is being under her father's watchful eye 24/7.

Three stars

Comments (0)

Cold Brew Corpse: 09/24/23

Cold Brew Corpse by Tara Lush and Kae Marie Denino (Narrator) (2021) is the second book in the Coffee Lover's mystery series. Lana Lewis is drawn back into her love of journalism when the woman who runs the yoga studio, Dante's Inferno.

Lana's desire to be a reporter again, despite her devotion to Perkatory, pulls her in numerous directions. Like Lucy Stone, Lana's up against the environment of shrinking budgets for local journalism. She's also lost out to an ass of a photographer, newly returned from Bagdad.

This is one of those mysteries where an observant reader will spot the solution well before Lana or anyone else does. I caught most of what I needed to know but not some key details. So the solution was a bit of surprise for me.

The third book is Live and Let Grind (2022)

Five stars

Comments (0)

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies: 09/20/23

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies by Misha Popp and Tanya Eby (Narrator) (2022) is the first book in the Pies Before Guys "mystery" series. I'm putting mystery in quotes because this volume isn't a mystery, save for being published by Crooked Lane Books.

Daisy Ellery is a witch with a very specific, in grained form of magic. Her magic is expressed through baking pies. While the women before her did exclusively healing magic, she can kill with hers. And that's how the book opens: with her murdering a man with a specially baked pie.

I almost stopped the book right there. I had stumbled into the Moriarty the Patriot of cozy mysteries. The closest Daisy gets to having a mystery to solve is when she has an order to murder three women.

Although she is threatened to with her secret getting out, she never engages fully with her antagonist. She repeatedly hangs up on him, ignores his texts, or even goes completely off the grid despite a looming deadline.

If this were a true cozy, Daisy would have the police after her after someone else was poisoned with a pie made to look like it was one of hers. She wouldn't be so open with explaining her powers or her calling in life; her she ends up telling two people. She wouldn't be such an eager participant in a love triangle (especially one where she's obviously bi).

Once I just accepted that this book was a thriller instead of a cozy, I settled into enjoying it. The second book, though, A Good Day to Pie (2023) appears to be embracing the cozy tropes the first one rejected.

Three stars

Comments (0)

Witch Upon a Star: 09/20/23

Witch Upon a Star by Angela M. Sanders and Francesca Townes (Narrator) (2023) is the fourth book in the Witch Way Librarian mystery series. Josie's sister, Jean, is visiting Wilfred. She's here to take part in a Life Coach workshop but Josie (and her mother) have reservations about this workshop. And then the bodies star appearing: one in the cafe and one at the conference center.

The mystery itself wasn't that difficult to sort out, even with the multiple almost simultaneous murders and the on-going threatening notes that Jean receives over time. It relied on some tricks I've seen in other mysteries. But that doesn't matter. It was still presented in a fun way.

More importantly, though, Josie seems to have done some emotional growth since the last book, Witch and Famous. She has better control over her emotions and is better at keeping out of things that don't involve her.

I expected trouble in the relationship between the sisters. It's certainly set up that way. Josie is presented as the older sister who has an ongoing promise to protect her baby sister. Jean is presented as naive, vulnerable, and too trusting. The sisters, though, work through those expectations and lay everything on the table. Among the things revealed, is Josie's witchcraft.

The fifth book is Gone with the Witch which releases in 2024.

Five stars

Comments (0)

East Bay Artists 2021: 09/19/23

East Bay Artists 2021 by Jessica Warren (2021) is the second of three books that feature Bay Area artists. The series began during the COVID lockdown as a way of bringing art to the people while everyone was stuck at home.

The book features 97 artists and 96 pieces, with one piece being a two artist collaboration. The pieces are as diverse as the artists included in the book. Contact info is provided below each full color piece.

Although I am a Bay Area artist, this September was my first to hear about these books. I happened across this edition while my youngest was at a salon in Alameda. The art book provided a nice distraction from the long wait I was facing.

For more information on the books and the publisher, check out Art Push.

Five stars

Comments (0)

On Borrowed Time: 09/18/23

On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator) (2014) is the fifth book in the Library Lover's mystery series. Lindsey's brother goes missing from the library and in his place is an unknown and very dead man. Jack's disappearance thrusts Lindsey and her two suiters into the shadier side of the coffee trade.

Organized crime especially when it's tied up in some sort of industry just makes me cringe. To me at least, it's not as interesting or compelling a read as the evils behind small town politics. The coffee trade's seedier side, especially when talking of the growing of the beans and the on-going exploitation of smaller, poorer countries, has been covered well and in great detail as part of the Coffeehouse mysteries by Cleo Coyle. In particular, The Decaffeinated Corpse (2007).

The second disappointment for me is the on-going insistence on a love triangle for Lindsey with Sully and Robbie. Robbie might be in an open marriage but he should respect that Lindsey has no interest in dating a married man. Lindsey should also come to the realization that one can't change another. She has to accept Sully as is or completely break up with him.

That leaves the mystery itself which with being tied up in organized crime is too far afield for Lindsey to realistically investigate. To make up for her obvious distance from the persons of interest there's a lot of filler. Lindsey learns how to do a reverse IP look up. Lindsey spends time with Sully. Sully and Robbie fight over Lindsey. And so forth.

The sixth book is A Likely Story (2015).

Three stars

Comments (0)

We Are Going to Be Pals!: 09/17/23

We Are Going to Be Pals! by Mark Teague (2023) is a book about symbiotic relationships. Specifically it's about an egret and its long winded introduction of itself to the rhinoceros it wants to hang out with.

At a more basic level, it's about those odd couple relationships, the extra-chatty extrovert who insists on glomming onto the quiet introvert. The introvert will take a long time to warm to the thought of having such an outgoing and loud friend. The extravert will have to learn that the their new chosen friend is one of few words but will show their friendship in actions.

Of course the book also features Mark Teague's delightful illustrations. They show the watering hole where the two live. They show the wide range of African savanna animals who also frequent the area. They are humorous but still give a good sense of how these animals actually look and move.

Five stars

Comments (0)

The Marvellers: 09/15/23

The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton and Khadijah Khatib (Illustrator) (2022) is the start of The Conjureverse middle grade fantasy series set in an alternate Earth where magic is real and segregated. Ella Durand is the first conjurer to attend the Arcanum Training Institute. Although she's been welcomed to join, she faces prejudice from nearly everyone at the school. She also finds herself in the middle of a mystery that threatens the school.

First books in a fantasy series can go one of two ways. They can be short and speed run through setting up the character and putting them through their first adventure without worrying about world building beyond the bare minimum needed. Or it can try to incorporate the world building as the main character settles into their new life.

Clayton goes for the second option, taking time to explain how the world works, how conjuring is different than marvelling, how politics and prejudice informs daily life. She also puts in the effort to show a wide range of ethnicities, belief systems, and approaches to magic that are also still divided into marvelling and conjuring.

The world building is a lot to unpack and take in while reading about Ella's first days at her new school. As a younger reader (meaning the intended age range), I would have torn through these long descriptions as I did with Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg (1980).

What put me off was the inclusion of a secret big bad. I know, it's a trope. The big bad hiding a school or having a beef with a school has a long standing tradition. Readers who like that trope will enjoy how Clayton handles it here.

The second book is The Memory Thieves (2023).

Four stars

Comments (0)

Oh Say Can You Fudge: 09/14/23

Oh Say Can You Fudge by Nancy CoCo and Vanessa Johansson (Narrator) (2015) is the third book in the Candy-Coated mystery series. It's nearly Independence Day and Allie McMurphy has hired someone new to run the three fireworks shows. Unfortunately after a couple missed calls, her technician is dead and the fireworks and the warehouse in which they were stored are all up in smoke.

Allie's decision to move the fireworks show on island from their usual barges has coincided with a series of arson set fires around the island. Now after the murder it appears that the arsonist is escalating. Allie has her hands full with trying to replace the fireworks, figure out the perfect fudge recipe for the holiday, figuring out who the arsonist is, and solving the murder.

Allie isn't one to work alone. She thankfully has friends, employees, and family. It's good to see how everyone comes together to make a perfect Independence day and solve the two mysteries.

There's also a side plot about a calico cat taking an interest in Allie and the McMurphy Hotel. Allie is smitten with the cat but she's worried the cat will want to be inside the fudge shop. She figures she can't train a cat like she has her puppy.

On the mystery front, I figure out the arsonist's identity half way through the book. Figuring out how the fires and the murder fit together took longer. The climax was quite the nail-biter!

The fourth book is All You Need is Fudge (2016). Unfortunately there isn't currently an audiobook version, which means I'll be slower at getting to this volume.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Death by Iced Coffee: 09/13/23

Death by Iced Coffee by Alex Erickson and Melissa Moran (Narrator) is the eleventh book in the Bookstore Cafe mystery series. Krissy Hancock takes part in Pine Hills's first ever marathon on a scorcher of a day. As the race is reaching the hills one of the race's organizers is found murdered just off the route.

Although the print and ebook editions released in April, I had to wait until August for the audiobook version. I happened to read it during a hot and muggy set of days, the heat exacerbated by hurricane Hillary to the south east of us. It made Krissy's struggle with the heat all the more palpable.

Krissy's actually faced with two mysteries. The first is, of course, the murder. The other though, involves Rita's boyfriend Johan. He seems to be canoodling with a blond lady. He also seems to be involved in shady stuff that might be tied up in the murder.

I really enjoyed seeing Krissy reach out to people she had in previous books been at odds with. She makes friends beyond her neighbors and her coworkers. She goes to a party. She takes up exercise with another.

As for the mystery itself, I didn't figure it out ahead of Krissy like I have in the past. I was honestly more invested in the Rita side story than the murder itself. That's not to say the main mystery wasn't interesting. It's just that I've gotten far enough into the series to genuinely care about the characters.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Murder on Cape Cod: 09/11/23

Murder on Cape Cod by Maddie Day and Rachel Dulude (Narrator) (2019) is the start of the Cozy Capers Book Group mystery series. While coming home from book club, Mackenzie "Mac" Almeida stumbles over the body of Jake Lacey. He's been stabbed with her brother's knife. To make matters worse, her brother has gone back to drinking after being suspiciously absent right after the murder.

To help clear her brother's name, Mac sets out to investigate Jake Lacey's life before he died. To do this she needs all the help she can get in running her bicycle rental shop. It's the busy summer months and Mac's Bikes is bustling.

Like in her Country Store mystery series, she finds the right balance between describing the main character's day to day responsibilities, especially her business, and her efforts to solve the murder. She flushes Mac's character out with discussions of Cape Cod history and the cape's version of creole.

The second book in the series is Murder at the Taffy Shop (2020).

Five stars

Comments (0)

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade: 09/10/23

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer (2022) is the eighth book in the series. Enola, now reconcilled with her brothers, goes to visit a friend, a young woman she has previous helped in The Case of the Left Handed Lady (2007).

Her friend has returned home to her mother and father has apparently taken ill. Enola, convinced that's not the case, goes to investigate and soon has helped the girl escape and hidden in her safe house.

Unfortunately for Enola, the young woman is mentally ill, driven their by her father's abusive nature. For Enola to truly save her friend, she needs to find a way to stop the father. For this she needs Sherlock's help, among others.

The book was a quick read and relies on the reader being familiar with the second book in the series. Like the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas, this volume is more concerned with gender, women's suffrage, and late Victorian culture, than it is with mystery solving.

The ninth book is Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose (2023).

Four stars

Comments (0)

The Scariest Kitten in the World: 09/07/23

The Scariest Kitten in the World by Kate Messner and MacKenzie Haley (Illustrations) (2023) is a metafiction picture book in the vein of The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone (1971).

The narrator / titular character is a white, blue eyed kitten. They do everything they can to warn the reader away, even suggesting other happier volumes. Of course the reader only has the book in hand and so the kitten's tale continues.

The climax, though, goes off on a weird tangent. A Kitten in a house is an expected thing. A hissy, spitty, side stepping, arched back kitten is expected and humorous. That's where I thought the book was going to go.

Instead the metafiction dialog between kitten narrator and reader pulls back to expand the character roster to a bunch of animals one wouldn't expect in a house — a sloth for example.

The various animals dressed up for bed but also to be vaguely monsterish are cute. But they don't fit in the expectations created by the title and the first few pages.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Saturn Apartments, Volume 2: 09/07/23

Saturn Apartments, Volume 2 by Hisae Iwaoka and Rachel Balzora Thorn (Translator) (2007) continues the tale of Mitsu as he finds his place in life as a window washer.

Mitsu is clumsy and unsure of his tools but he is earnest in his work. He also wants to learn more about his father who apparently fell to Earth. Like his father, as he is learning, he's a rule breaker. He puts people before rules and social structure. This endears him to some and ostracizes him from others.

World building is done this time mostly through Mitsu's time off. There are farms and fields that bring to mind rural Japan but are clearly still part of this space station everyone is living and working on.

I'm curious now to see where the story goes in volume 3.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Witch and Famous: 09/06/23

Witch and Famous by Angela M. Sanders and Francesca Townes (Narrator) (2022) is the third book in the Witch Way Librarian mystery series. Josie Way ends up investigating a pair of murders associated with the arrival of movie star Daphne Morris.

Daphne besides being uberfamous for whatever it is she has acted in, also runs a bookish podcast where she interviews authors about their newest work. She's come to Wilfred to interview Roz about her latest romance novel.

Unfortunately Daphne is a bit of a vamp and the women of Wilfred are soon jealous of her as she seems to enchant every man she interacts with. Josie goes as far as to consider using a love potion to guarantee her would be boyfriend doesn't fall under Daphne's spell.

I think there were many missed opportunities with Daphne and her magnetism. Had this plot been done in the Kitchen Witch series by Lynn Cahoon, Daphne would have also been a witch. Here, though, she seems to just be an unscrupulous actor who hasn't considered how harmful her behavior is.

The other roadblock for me in this volume comes in the form of Daphne's many staff. She brings along so many extra characters that I had trouble keeping them separate in my head.

The fourth book is Witch Upon a Star (2023).

Three stars

Comments (0)

The Family Fortuna: 09/04/23

The Family Fortuna by Lindsay Eagar (2023) is YA fantasy set in the post-frontier days of the South West. Avita is part of the Fortuna Family, owners and performers in a small traveling carnival. She was born with feathers, a beak and black razor sharp teeth. She lives in secret except when she's in her gilded birdcage, performing as one of the monsters on display.

Eager's novels tend to be slow to unfold and so far they have been worth the effort and patience. This time, though, I didn't connect with Avita. As her life is spent within the confines of the carnival, there's not much for her to do beyond what she's allowed to do.

Her life is full of routine and monotony and that carries through to the book. The opening chapters try to be evocative with descriptions of beheading chickens, of her unusual looks, of her sister's participation in the Kootchie tent, and Fernando's lust for men. None of that, though, ends up being all that interesting or compelling.

There are also small, throw away details that would pull me out of the story — in those rare moments where the story actually had me. For example, there's a description of decorations that include helium balloons. Helium didn't become the gas of choice for balloons until 1922 because of a change in the law.

If I'm spending more time obsessing over the minor details than being absorbed in the narrative, that's a major red flag for me. I'll admit that I ended up reading other reviews to confirm I wasn't the only one struggling with The Family Fortuna. Curious, I skipped to the end. My final thought on the book is that at it's most basic roots, it's a YA retelling of Dumbo with a bird girl instead of an elephant.

Despite it's flaws, the novel does sit on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Avita is a scarecrow/minotaur traveler (99). Her journey takes her to rural locations (33). Her route being planned by the itinerary of the carnival is the railroad/interstate (00).

Two stars

Comments (0)

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Volume 4: 09/03/23

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Volume 4 by Sumito Oowara and Kumar Sivasubramanian (Translator) covers the events that inspire Midori Asakusa on the next creative endeavor for Eizouken.

Midori and  Sayaka travel to the countryside where they learn of local legends involving tanuki, ninjas, and treasure. Midori, inspired the learn the truth and to find the treasure spends a transformative night in the forest with the tanuki. Once morning comes she's no longer interested in the actual treasure because she knows the next story she needs to tell.

Each volume is a meditation on the creative process with some nuts and bolts details to explain how a particular story might be told. This current one is rather philosophical and urgent — being a message about man's ongoing destruction of the environment, as well as man's inhumanity to man.

Early in the process, Midori has a moment where she describes the compromises artists must take when their ideas are too big for what they are physically capable of doing based on limitations of time, skill, etc. As an artist, this scene hits hard.

Five stars

Comments (0)

August 2023 Sources: 09/02/23

August was hot and wet. Regular school is back in session.

In August I read 15 TBR books, down six from the previous month. One book was published in August. Four books were for research and there were no review copies. One was from the library. My ROOB score for August is -3.95, up from -4.91. It is my second best August in fourteen years of tracking.

The current year's data is represented by a triangle on the graph below.

I predicted a -4.5 for August. My actual score was so high because I had so many research books and read that one newly published picture book. For September, I'm sticking with a -4.5 prediction as I have a lot of older books I'm interested in getting through.

My average for August improved, going from -2.96 to -3.03.

Comments  (0)

A Season of Gifts: 09/01/23

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (2009) is the final book in the Long Way from Chicago trilogy. It's now 1958 and a preacher's family has moved in next door to Grandma Dowdel. Over the next few months they end up befriending her.

This volume is rather episodic. It starts with ten year old Bob Barnhart being nearly drowned in a nearby pond and then hung naked in Granda Dowdel's privy. The lead bully is twice his age. And that's how the Barnharts and Mrs. Dowdel meet.

What follows is a bunch of vignettes throughout the remaining months of the year. They're promised as both heartwarming and entertaining from the blurb. I found neither to be true. They are odd at best. They have a similar vibe to The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs (1973) but without the supernatural aspect, the overall tone is off-putting.

Two stars

Comments (0)

August 2023 Summary: 09/01/23

August was back to school for my youngest. It meant a visit from my oldest and big birthdays for both of us. She turned 21 and I turned 50. We even had some rain thanks to Hurricane Hillary.

I read one fewer book in August as July, 21, down from 22. Of my read books, 14 were diverse and four were queer. I reviewed 21 books, down by four from the previous month. On the reviews front, 15 were diverse and five were queer.

I have 23 books left to review of of the 197 I've read.

Comments  (0)

Previous month | Next month