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October 2024


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Canadian Book Challenge: 2024-2025

Beat the Backlist 2024

Ozathon: 12/2023-01/2025

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Chicken Prints
Paintings and Postcards


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Necromancing the Stone: 10/31/24

Necromancing the Stone

Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride (2012) is the sequel to Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (2010). Sam LaCroix is trying to get on with his life now that Douglas is dead. He has his werewolf girlfriend and a bunch of training to do. And then there's James, the shapeshifting former servant of Douglas.

Like the first book, this one has multiple points of view. It has settled down to having just two points of view. Unfortunately, one of those points of view is a huge ass spoiler which removes any potential for surprise and mystery later in the book.

The other problem this book has is its large cast. There are all of the werewolves who all seem to have a name and personality and their own goals. It's hard to keep track of them all. On the home front, there's all of the gnomes and other other magical creatures that Sam has inherited when he took over Douglas's house. They also all have names and personalities and backstories.

All these characters, all their banter, though, is a means to pad a book that otherwise has no surprises because the author can't resist giving us multiple points of view.

Three stars

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Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth: 10/29/24

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth by Tamar Myers and Caroline Miller (Narrator) (1993) is the first of the Pennsylvania Dutch mystery series. Magdalena Yoder runs the PennDutch Inn with her sister and their current set of guests are trying everyone's patience. And that was before the bodies.

Unfortunately this first book starts off with a plot device that I hate with a fiery passion: starting with the climax, thus forcing the majority of the plot be an extended flashback. To make things worse, as this is the introduction to a long running series, Magdalena is compelled to explain every nuance of her Mennonite life.

The opening lines of the book are Magdalena waxing on about the difference between a body and a corpse and the fact that this particular corpse is wrapped in her mother's Dresden Plate Quilt. The entire plot of the book is essentially laid bare in this first scene, including the murderer's identity, but all that gets buried in the tedium of introductions and explanations.

Every character Magdalena interacts with has to be introduced and expounded upon. She either likes them or doesn't and of course she has to contextualize every person against her own beliefs and what her mother would have believed if she were still alive. A good seventy to eighty percent of this book could be trimmed away if Magdalena just kept her thoughts to herself.

The second book in the series is Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime (1995). If I continue with this series I will switch to ebooks as I can't imagine sitting through another audiobook.

Two stars

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Drama and Destiny: 10/28/24

Drama and Destiny

Drama and Destiny by Claire Kann (2024) is the second Suitehearts book. Hotel Coeur is hosting a magic training summer camp. Cora and Rose are both attending. Rose is being forced towards being Matchmaker Hunter because of her unique abilities and Cora is stuck working with Julien, her nemesis.

Rose besides her unique abilities, is struggling to work with her guidebook. It doesn't come easy for her like it seems to for Cora and everyone else. She's also feeling abandoned by her parents and fears she'll never live up to their expectations.

Cora meanwhile likes working by herself, except for when she's working with Rose. But when it comes to helping Kindlings, she wants to work solo. Having to cooperate with another matchmaker on a Dual-heart desire rubs her completely the wrong way.

The narrative flow of this volume seemed to be all over the place. Often second books are slow ones where the characters have to come to terms with whatever they've learned or experienced in the first book. This time though it seemed like Cora, Rose, and the reader don't have a moment to even breath.

For something written in a lighthearted tone of voice it was a stressful read. There's no down time. There's no room for mistakes. Throughout though the kids are trying to push back and its no wonder. Everyone is under the potential to be tested at any minute with an arbitrary deadline and that's on top of the daily classes and assessments they're facing at this camp. Do magical kids ever get to just be kids in this world?

Four stars

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Oh, Fudge!: 10/27/24

Oh, Fudge!

Oh, Fudge! by Nancy CoCo (2017) is the fifth book in the Candy-Coated mystery series. Allie has an appointment at the Mackinac Butterfly House. She's shocked to find the woman she was there to meet, dead, and even more so to find her cousin standing over her, her hand on the trowel that killed the woman. Allie realizes if she's going to mend things between her and the cousin who had moved to California, she'll have to figure out who really murdered Barbara Smart.

From the opening chapter this volume seemed to be on an improbable but obvious path. These Candy-Coated mysteries always seem to have Nancy finding the body early on in the book — much earlier than most cozies. The body is almost always an elderly person.

Both are true for this book and that's not the problem. Instead there just aren't enough suspects. The obvious murderer with the obvious motive is there from the very beginning and it takes Allie the entire remainder of the book to slowly figure things out.

To make a thin plot last the length of a typical cozy, there's a secondary plot involving kidnapping. Kidnapping plots just make my eyes roll back into my head. But wait, it gets better. There are two kidnappings! And two murders! Oh and smuggling!

I think this book would have worked better without the kidnappings. That time could have been used for Allie and Tori to work things out. There's a lot of baggage between the two. Instead, Tori after her kidnapping realizes she'll be better in California and that she doesn't need a piece of the action on Mackinaw after all. It's all just so convenient.

Because at the end of the book, the obvious murderer has gotten away with it. The police have all but given up. Allie has gone back to making fudge. All the murderer has to do is leave things alone. But no. They're mad at Allie for meddling and they reveal themselves to her for a final confrontation. It's literally my least favorite ending after a string other annoying tropes.

The next book is Forever Fudge (2018).

Three stars

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What's for Lunch, Charley?: 10/26/24

What's for Lunch, Charley?

What's for Lunch, Charley? by Margaret Hodges and Aliki (Illustrator) (1961) is about a boy who spends a lot of his time thinking about lunch. In the process of doing so he learns to appreciate the people around him, the kids in his class and the adults he knows.

Charley lives four blocks from school and on a good day he has plenty of time to get there. On a bad day he has to run there. On a really bad day he's so rushed that he forgets his lunch at home.

Lunchtime at school is eaten at one's desk. Charley happens to sit next to the new girl who brings elaborate lunches involving soup, fried chicken, and chocolate cake. She eats it elegantly and never offers to share, even on the day when Charley forgets his lunch at home. The other kids who have more typical lunches, do, but Charley doesn't want to deprive his classmates of their lunches.

In between home and school is the King Charles Hotel. Charley passes by and occasionally has a reason to go into the hotel. There a stores associated with it, places where Charley sometimes go to run an errand. It's here that he talks to a variety of adults and since he's polite and since his father is a regular patron of the hotel's restaurant, they're kind to Charley.

So it is on the day that Charley is without his lunch that he decides to leave school and eat in the hotel. I'm guessing this book was written at a time when it was still semi-normal for kids to go home for lunch. Going to a fancy restaurant, not so much, but the doorman calls in a favor for Charley.

It's here that Charley tries to replicate the new girl's lunch. He orders what he's seen her bring to school. When everything is easily produced and when he realizes he can't possibly eat everything, he realizes the girl's mother probably works at the hotel. She's eating left overs and that somehow lessens the glamor of her lunches somewhat.

Of course Charley is caught in the act of having lunch off campus. The confrontation isn't a big one. He's not grounded for life. Instead it's a weird intersection of a parent's life outside the home with the child's life outside the home.

Five stars

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Requiem for a Mouse: 10/25/24

Requiem for a Mouse

Requiem for a Mouse by Miranda James and Erin Bennett (Narrator) (2024) is the sixteenth book in the Cat in the Stacks mystery series. Charlie Harris is distracted by the hit and run murder of his antisocial part time library worker, Tara Martin. Before he can even begin to look for motives he has to figure out who she really was and who her next of kin are, if he can.

Charlie and the other regular characters really put me off early on in this book. Tara Martin, as she's introduced in the book for her few short chapters where she's actually alive, is quiet, socially awkward, and prone to some self destructive behaviors. Her outsider status is framed against "Southern propriety" bringing out the worst in passive aggressive and micro-aggressions I've seen from Charlie et al.

Although explanations for her behavior aren't ever satisfactorily given, Tara comes off as autistic and terrified. She's masking to the point of breaking. Her death, too, is treated as a learning experience for Charlie et al and I hate the plot device of the marginalized person being a martyr to teach the privileged main characters and ultimately the reader an important life lesson.

The mystery itself hinges on Tara hiding clues in places that no one would think to look. These involve squirreling things away at her places of work (the rare book archive as well as an off site catering job). These scenes of discovery by Charlie, especially in the rare book room, reminded me a bit of the climax of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) where the boys just have to promise to set the stuff out they need in the future (thanks to time travel) so that they can have them now when they need them. Charlie just needs to ask for a clue to manifest one!

Three stars

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Thirteen: 10/24/24

Thirteen

Thirteen by Remy Charlip and Jerry Joyner (1975) is an avant garde collaboration that was twelve years in the making. The two author/illustrators met in 1963 and had an idea for a book.

But careers and life and just the slow process that unusual projects often take required time. The two met again in 1973 (the year I was born). They worked together on the project in Paris and then finished it in Greece, filling a room with all the spreads hung up across the walls. You can read more about the their collaboration on Publisher's Weekly.

This is a rare book where both contributors are the author and the illustrator. Some of the thirteen pieces each man did by themselves. Some one wrote while the other illustrated. Then there's the this becomes that piece in the middle of each spread. That one they did together as an improve piece.

While the book is called Thirteen it really could be called 169 as it's 13 pages of 13 stories. Well, one of the thirteen is just a numeric countdown from 13 to 1. Some stories are transformative. Some are repetitive. All of them leave you with a greater sense of the human condition.

I reviewed this book originally in 2012. My kids and I found a copy at the library. Too excited to read a "new to me" Charlip book I completely missed the amount of work that went into it. I didn't appreciate the give and take of both me.

I wasn't thinking of the book as thirteen (or 156, discounting the countdown) complex works of arts. I wasn't thinking of it as a record of artistic collaboration. I was approaching it as a parent and as an excited fan.

I decided to re-read and re-review this book after seeing an Instagram post from Fuse8Kate about the book's elaborate table of contents. As each spread is a collage of mini art pieces that individually tell stories, each of these mini stories are named. And if you count, you'll see there are 14 listed items; just another way this book keeps you on your toes.

Five stars

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The Cookie Crumbles: 10/23/24

The Cookie Crumbles

The Cookie Crumbles by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow (2024) is a middle grade mystery set during a cooking competition. Laila is competing for a scholarship to a prestigious school. Lucy is along for the ride, hoping to get in on the merits of her skills as a reporter.

Laila is competing in a three day baking competition with other kids vying for a spot at the school. At the end of the first day the kids are stuck at the school because of inclement weather and one of the chef judges is dead and some are saying Laila's cookie did him in.

Note to self: I need to stop reading cooking competition mysteries. I am not a fan of cooking shows and the competition aspect just gets in the way of the mystery solving.

These competitions do okay with setting up the murder as it's usually done during the competition. But then there's a mystery to solve and the on-going competition. If more time is spent on competition, time is lost from letting the main character and the reader find clues and solve the mystery. If too much time is spent on the mystery, the competition feels like a dropped plot threat. It's a careful, tricky thing to balance the demands of the two types of story.

Here things are even more implausible given the age of the contestants. Plus the set up seems hokey from the get-go and as soon as the chef falls ill the contest should be called off. That it isn't and that the adults in charge aren't doing everything in their power to contact parents and get the kids home — or at least make plans to do so once the weather the clears — sends up huge red flags. I would think Laila and Lucy, the two outsiders would be quicker to ken to the adults' odd behavior.

Three stars

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The Cracked Spine: 10/21/24

The Cracked Spine

The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton and Carrington MacDuffie (Narrator) (2016) is the first in the Scottish Bookshop mystery series. Delany Nichols has left the United States to take a job at the Cracked Spine, a used bookshop in Edinburgh. Within her first days there her employer's sister is dead and a first folio is missing.

Delany figures she had best solve both mysteries if she wants to stay in Scotland. Delany, like Josie Way (Witch Way Librarian mystery series by Angela M. Sanders), has the ability to talk to books. For Delany she hears the voices of characters in books she's read and these provide advice and guidance to her. It's something she's been able to do since her early childhood. The stress of the move, the murder, and the stolen folio, though, threaten to end her lifelong gift.

The mystery isn't that hard to solve from the point of view of an outsider who is well rested and not at all jet lagged. For Delany, in a new country with a new accent to wrap her ears around as well as the Scots that peppers the English, it's understandable that she would be slow to piece together the clues. I suspect as she acclimatizes the later mysteries are more complex.

That said, the mystery wraps up in a banger of a climax. While I'm often not a fan of a direct confrontation between amateur sleuth and murderer, this one plays out differently. It also allows for others to redeem themselves and render aid without the scene feeling forced or overly melodramatic.

The second book is Of Books and Bagpipes (2017)

Five stars

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Supergirl: Being Super: 10/20/24

Supergirl: Being Super

Supergirl: Being Super by Mariko Tamaki and Joëlle Jones (Illustrator) (2018) collects the four issue comic into a single story about Kara Danvers learning the truth of her powers and trying to come to grips with being a super powered teenager.

Besides scenes of extreme teenage awkwardness, there's also an unexpected earthquake and resulting sink hole that claims the life of one of Kara's friends. Kara is wracked with guilt over not being able to save her despite her best efforts. Of course in all of this there's a lingering big bad and a personal betrayal.

For a short run comic it's a good, tight story. There's not too much left dangling, save for Kara being curious about her origins and her desire to learn more. The book ends with her flying off to confront the other, better known super powered flying hero. The last panel is her saying to Superman, "We need to talk."

I would love to see what they talk about but that story as written by Mariko Tamaki doesn't exist.

Five stars

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Death by Cashmere: 10/19/24

Death by Cashmere

Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum and Julie McKay (Narrator) (2008) is the start of the Seaside Knitters Society mystery series. Izzy Chambers's upstairs tenant is murdered and she and her knitting society will work together to figure out who did it. They know it wasn't a drunken accident despite what the police initially say.

This series is set in another small seaside fishing town where lobstering is one of the main incomes. Besides Angie's death, the lobstermen and -women are contending with a poacher. Every night they're losing their catches to someone who manages to slip out to traps unseen. Are the two related or is it just coincidence?

In proper cozy mystery fashion, the skills and understanding of knitting and various yarns plays into solving the murder. It seems unlikely given it's a drowning and the only other clue is the on-going poaching. But it does ultimately play out in a satisfying and organic way.

This mystery has some points in similarity to Steamed Open by Barbara Ross, though with a more dramatic and tragic ending. With the emphasis on knitting and fiber arts, it also will appeal to fans of Monic Ferris's Needlecraft series and the Haunted Yarn Shop series by Molly MacRae.

The next book in the series is Patterns in the Sand (2009)

Five stars

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Astoria: the Land of Better Living: 10/18/24

Astoria: the Land of Better Living

Astoria: the Land of Better Living by the Astoria Chamber of Commerce (1925) is a 52 page invitation to move to the recently revitalized city at the mouth of the Columbia River. A hundred years ago Astoria Oregon had it's second major fire which destroyed most of the commercial center. Astoria rebuilt and then advertised themselves via this booklet.

The book wasn't a cheap mimeographed deal either. Although I read a PDF the descriptions of the book in various catalogs is of a blue cloth bound hardcover or in some cases a leather bound hardcover. The leather bound ones might have been rebounded editions sometime between publication and now.

What caught my attention is how recognizable 1925 Astoria is to 2024 Astoria. First and foremost, the city was then already a tourist destination (and it wasn't because of The Goonies (1985). It was the beaches, the weather, and the golf courses.

Not wanting to burn down again, Astoria dumped a ton of engineering effort into their sewer and water system. Pages are devoted to describing how the streets were redone. The other thing Astoria did that blows my mind is they put all of their electrical lines underground. I live in a place that is prone to wild fires, including devastating ones on similar scale to Astoria's, that still has above ground electrical, telephone, and cable lines.

Although the book is a fascinating look at a city in recovery from a major disaster, it's also a celebration of white supremacy. The Clatsop people are mentioned because they are the reason for the county's name. But they are waved away as "no longer being there." They are still there and even have a website.

Nor is their any appeal to anyone who might not be a WASP. Astoria as of the last census has shrunk in size to 10,200 people approximately and non-white residents number in the hundreds.

Four stars

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French Quarter Fright Night: 10/17/24

French Quarter Fright Night

French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron and Amy Melissa Bentley (Narrator) (2024) is the third book in the Vintage Cookbook mystery series. Halloween is rapidly approaching and all of New Orleans is in a festive mood. But there's murder around the corner.

Bon Vee has been transformed into the Bon Veeevil Festival of Fear! There's a fantastic animatronic body in the tomb they've built outside. Unfortunately on the day they're doing their dry run, there's an actual body where the dummy should be.

This comes on the heels of a contentious month of nuisance complaints by Bon Vee's new next door neighbor. All of these were brought by the person who is now dead in the historic home's yard.

The murder mystery is set against the month long Halloween celebrations. Ricki is trying to balance running her bookshop, investigating the murder (as much an amateur sleuth can), and avoiding run-ins with her celebrity neighbor.

Then there's the on-going mystery of Ricki's heritage. We know she has ties to Bon Vee and the family who owns it. In this book she learns the identity of her great grandfather. It's still a long way from learning about her parents, but it's a step.

Five stars

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The Prince & The Apocalypse: 10/16/24

The Prince & The Apocalypse

The Prince & The Apocalypse by Kara McDowell (2023) is a road trip / romance set during the week leading up to an expected apocalypse. Wren Wheeler missed her plane home on the day that the world learned of a 12 mile comet headed to a Pacific Ocean impact.

A chance meeting at a closed restaurant pairs Wren with Theo, the Prince of Wales. For deeply personal reasons, Theo has decided to flee his family and his guaranteed spot in one of a handful of bunkers. Instead he has promised to get Wren home to Chicago.

Wren has a week to get from London to Chicago via Santorini. She has to contend with a sprained ankle, society falling down around her, and the difficulties of keeping Theo's identity a secret. Fewer trains are running. Fewer planes are flying. No one is renting cars. What is running is crowded, chaotic, and dangerous.

Throughout all of this Wren somehow manages to keep her sanity and her sense of humor. Despite the darkness there's a lightheartedness to this book.

The book does have a happy ending in that NASA succeeds and the comet doesn't destroy most of the Earth. But there's also a downer, one that results in Theo becoming the King of England.

As the book isn't given a specific date nor are there any contemporaneous pop culture references included, the novel takes place sometime in the near to recognizable but possibly far future.

The novel also happens to sit on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Wren and Theo are a couple traveling together (33). Their destination is uhoria (CC) — their uncertain future. Their route is the blue highway (33) as most of their travel is via car on lesser known roads.

Five stars

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The Unwedding: 10/15/24

The Unwedding

The Unwedding by Ally Condie (2024) is a mystery set at a remote luxury resort in Big Sur during a devastating storm. Ellery Wainright has come by herself on what should have been an anniversary trip but she and her husband are now divorced. While there she finds the body of a man who had skipped out on his own wedding. And he's just the first body.

With a remote setting and multiple bodies, one is put in the mindset to expect a modern spin on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (1939). Instead the story unfolds to be a take on Murder on the Orient Express (1934).

Most of the other guests have ties to each other beyond the initial obvious wedding party connection. The storm and resulting mudslides gives Ellery the time she needs to put together the clues just as the snow does for Poirot.

The mystery though has to compete with Ellery's own troubled past. She is still reeling from the swiftness of the divorce as well as how coldly her ex-husband now treats her. She's constantly seeing reminders of two traumatic accidents she was in not to long ago.

While these flashbacks try to build Ellery's character they compete with the current events. The murders are already dramatic enough and the isolation caused by the storm already adds plenty of tension. The flashbacks quickly become filler and since they're almost always rendered in italic text are easy to spot, signaling a section that can either be skimmed or skipped.

Three stars

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The Lost Princess of Oz: 10/13/24

The Lost Princess of Oz

The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (Illustrator) (1917) is the eleventh Oz book. In this volume Dorothy and the other Emerald City elites get to play amateur sleuth after Ozma and the major magical devices of Oz go missing.

This time is my third read through the novel, though my book diary records it as the second one. My first time was in the before times, before I started writing everything down.

I had just seen Return to Oz (1985) in the theater. At the time I had only read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and seen the MGM film a bunch. So I didn't know any of the other characters but I could see in the credits that there were other Baum books — that Oz was a series.

The local library, about a half mile walk uphill from my house, cleverly put out all their Oz books for check out. I recalled how Ozma was "missing" in the movie and spotted The Lost Princess of Oz. It seemed like the logical book to go with. Yup, for my second literary journey to Oz, I picked the eleventh book.

My mind was blown. Dorothy was living in the Emerald City with her aunt and uncle. She was a princess of Oz! Toto could talk (but didn't want to). I tore through the book in one sitting and had to read through the other books. I had know how things got to this point.

After reading the nine books between Wizard of... and Lost Princess of..., I re-read this volume again in 1989. Although I remember loving it, I had basically forgotten everything else about it. Funny, how I remember the circumstances of reading it but not what I'd read.

This book opens with Ozma being late for her appointments. Dorothy goes looking for her and can't find her anywhere. Not only is Ozma missing but so is her Magic Painting and the Wizard's bag of tricks. Cut to Glinda's palace and her Book of Records and her magical tools are also missing!

Given that in the ten years between Ozma of Oz (1907) and this one, Ozma has been firmly established as an extremely powerful magical being. Her going missing is an unfathomable puzzle. The magic picture, book of records, as well as a bunch of other magical items being missing, at the same time, should be impossible. Yet, she and the goods are gone.

Dorothy rounds up her usual group of cohorts and declares she's going to go find Ozma. Despite Dorothy's now 17 year record of getting impossible shit down in Oz, the Wizard has the audacity of suggesting that she, a mere "little girl" won't make a "good detective" and goes along with her posse. So, Baum has inadvertently written a cozy.

Another odd cozy element to The Lost Princess of Oz is the inclusion of a secondary but related mystery. In the land of Yip (far corner of Winkie Land, pressed up against the Desert) Cayke has lost her magical dishpan. She and the Frog Man head out to find it.

While a good chunk of Dorothy's wandering into Winkie Land feels like filler, she does actually get some valuable clues from the encounters.

Also in the fashion of the modern (2020s) cozy mystery, the mystery itself is solved at about the two thirds mark of the book. Everything is explained in a very satisfying manner. That just leaves rescuing Ozma and getting the magical stuff back.

The rescue of Ozma borrows heavily from the legend of Momotaro. It could be coincidence, but Baum was living in Los Angeles by this time and certainly had the opportunity to have heard or read a version of the Japanese story. The fact that Ozma ends up springing fully formed from a peach pit is one of a number of reminders in this volume of her life as Tip.

But I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity. When the rescue party have found Ozma they pull Button-Bright out of the hole. There follows a long argument over whether or not Ozma is with him and ends with the suggestion that he is Ozma. To which Button-Bright in an uncharacteristic snark replies, "If I were Ozma, do you think I'd have tumbled into that hole?" That reply isn't something he would normally say but it's definitely something Ozma would.

So in my alternate mental version of this book, Ozma was never captured. Instead, maybe Button-Bright was or maybe it was an illusion of her. Then she dressed up like Button-Bright and decided to have a lark of an adventure incognito while rescuing herself. The pink cloud that comes out of the peach pit was another illusion or it was Button-Bright being rescued.

Like the other books in the Oz series, this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Dorothy, et al, by this time are well established as the elite of Oz, making them privileged travelers (00). Their destination is a rural one far removed from most of Oz civilization (33). Their route there is through the cornfield as evidenced by the numerous discussion of crops at various (FF) stopping points.

The next book is The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)

Five stars

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A Controversial Cover: 10/12/24

A Controversial Cover

A Controversial Cover by Lorna Barrett and Cassandra Campbell (Narrator) (2024) is the eighteenth book in the Booktown mystery series. A famous children's author is murdered in her car after a less than stellar appearance at the public library. Tricia and her boyfriend, David, find her body.

Tricia's only compulsion to solve this particular murder is to make sure her boyfriend isn't fired from his library job. Given how scarce library jobs are he's damn lucky to have it, especially considering he hasn't even finished his MLIS.

Instead of focusing on Lauren Barker's death it seems much of this volume is instead preoccupied with family drama. Mostly Tricia's sister seems to be dictating her life more and more. She's also rather chilly to David, partially because she doesn't want to share her big secret (being half of Nigela Riseta Associates). More broadly, Angela has just gotten used to always having her way and Tricia never pushes back.

For every new project NRA tackles, Tricia seems to lose more of her agency. By now she must be in her early to mid fifties. Even with her awful childhood she should it would be nice to see her stand up to Angela like she did in the earlier books.

The mystery itself was mostly red herrings and one blatant but mostly overlooked suspect. Maybe it's my current career path that made the solution to obvious to me.

Four stars

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A Distant Soil, Volume 1: The Gathering: 10/11/24

A Distant Soil, Volume 1: The Gathering

A Distant Soil, Volume 1: The Gathering by Colleen Doran (1997) is the first book in a four volume graphic novel space opera. A pair of siblings find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic religious battle that threatens the Earth.

From reviews I've read the author apparently started this series when she was twelve and initially self published it in the 1980s before getting it republished in 1997. It definitely has a 1980s vibe, although from the author's age (she's ten years older than I am), the comic would have started in 1975.

The artwork is in the style of comics from the 1970s. The men are all generically well muscled and vaguely Ken doll-ish. The women are all rather like escapies from Jem and Holigrams. Then of course there are a few long haired sparkling male characters who are borrowed from anime.

There's a lot of info dumping and a lot of long text bubbles. The flow through the pages isn't as smooth as it could be, making an already dull read difficult.

The second book in the series is A Distant Soil, Vol. 2: The Ascendant. I, though, am not planning on reading the remainders.

Two stars

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Steamed Open: 10/09/24

Steamed Open

Steamed Open by Barbara Ross and Dara Rosenberg (Narrator) (2018) is the seventh book in the Maine Clambake mystery series. Summer has come again to Busman's Harbor but Snowden Family Clambake is having a supply problem with its steamers. The beach where the local clamming is done is now fenced off by the new heir to the Herrickson House. Then to complicate things further, that new heir is murdered leaving the future of the house and the nearby beach at loose ends.

An on-going theme in this series is the interaction of modern day life in Busman's Harbor with the town's historic architecture. Some homes are pristine. Some are well loved but run down. Some, like the Snowden house, are all but destroyed. All of them, though, have histories and continue to be an influence on the townsfolk.

This mystery has a cold case like structure in that Julia needs to find any surviving heirs to the Herrickson House. What she needs to do and how she does it is similar to Iced Under (2016). The difference here is that there's no direct tie between the Herrickson House mystery and the Snowden family. Julia's concerns here are strictly centered on access for clamming and keeping the house from development if at all possible.

The side plot with Chris and his family drama continues. He finally reveals why he's been so cagey with sharing his family history. It's skirts the edge of becoming melodramatic but Barbara Ross keeps the story subdued enough.

The next book in the series is Sealed Off (2019)

Five stars

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Monster Hands: 10/08/24

Monster Hands

Monster Hands by Karen Kane, Jonaz McMillan and Dion MBD (Illustrator) (2024) is a tale of friends helping each other out when there's the threat of a monster under the bed. While the cover art might look like it's a book about shadow play, it's actually an ASL solution.

Milo loves to read but the last book he's read has him worried about monsters under the bed. Since his BFF lives across the way he decides to ask her for help. In the typical set up, asking for help would require walkie talkies, tin can string phone, or maybe texting in this modern age. Milo and his friend though have a cooler, lower tech way: sign language.

With suggestions from Mel, Milo tries a bunch of different words to scare away the monster under the bed. The illustrations show how to make the signs and includes the illustrator's interpretation of how the words could look monstrous.

It's a fun book about facing your fears that includes sign language without the signing feeling tacked on. I think the book would be equally entertaining to Deaf and hearing readers and would work well during a group story time.

Five stars

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If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O: 10/07/24

If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O

If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O by Sharyn McCrumb (1990) is the start of the Ballad series. Each one of these stories are stand-alones, sharing the theme of a classic ballad as the core of the mystery.

Sheriff Spencer Arrowood lives in a quiet Tennessee town. He's dealing with his own demons, being estranged from his family. The favorite son died in Vietnam and his ghost has strained every aspect of Arrowood's life.

A folksinger, popular in the 1960s, has come to town hoping to restart her stagnant career. Shortly after moving in she receives a note in the form of lyrics from an old ballad. She takes it as a threat and has to convince the sheriff that she's in danger.

I didn't manage to finish this book. It's very much a mystery for boomers by a boomer. It falls into the usual boomer tropes. First there's the continued specter of Vietnam. There's the bad seed feeling guilty about surviving. The men are manly and the women are annoyed. And cis het white society is perpetually sexually frustrated.

Instead of bothering with setting up the mystery plot McCrumb spends her time making sure the reader knows that she knows whatever the theme du livre is. Sure, I enjoyed the chitchat about Ian and Sylvia and their breakup but damn it, I also wanted the mystery to get started.

The second book is The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1992). I don't currently have any plans to continue with the series.

One star

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Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places: 10/06/24

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann (2024) is another ghostless haunted house story. Imagine The Haunting of Hill House as a romance.

Lucky Hart has been hired as the caretaker of Hennessee House and the star of a ghost hunting show also known as The Caretaker. The previous caretakers all quit by the third day. Lucky, though, is convinced she'll last.

Although Lucky is asexual she has an immediate affinity for the show runner, Maverick, and his plucky tween daughter, Rebel. Her friendship with them is the in she needs for understanding Hennessee House and succeeding at her new job.

Lucky can read people and get to their core truths. She only gets one read per person. If she reads too many people in a row she ends up physically ill. It's that same skill that she'll ultimately use to "read" the house.

Hennessee House is another of a long list of "sentient house" stories I've read in recent months. The house is by far the most interesting character in this novel and I wish more time had been spent in it and learning about it.

But this novel is less focused than Kann's previous works. The reason for that is explained in the afterword. I'm sorry she went through what she did and I appreciate the effort it takes to be creative after illness or disaster, but this is where professional editing comes into play. Her editor and publisher did her a disservice.

In the middle of the sentient house story there is a tangential plot where Lucky and the others go to a "historic amusement park" that is said to be haunted. The idea is to give Rebel a safe place to do what her father does. In all honesty, though, Hennessee House was the safer location.

Amusement parks date back to the 1920s and there are absolutely ones still in good working order that date back that far. Here's a point where the author's editorial team could have pointed out that fact and had her change the age of the place. The other problem is that this road trip takes the reader right out of the plot as things are getting interesting.

Claire Kann's book always include an asexual main character. I think by the seventh book, one can take it for granted that the main character is asexual. Although there's chemistry between Lucky and Maverick, there isn't any need for an actual romance between them. The sex talk that's included in the book feels shoehorned in. I feels cut and pasted from previous books. Why is it even in here?

Four stars

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Deep Fried Death: 10/05/24

Deep Fried Death

Deep Fried Death by Maddie Day and Laural Merlington (Narrator) (2023) is the twelfth book in the Country Store mystery series. Robbie Jordan finds another body, this time, the woman who had been bad-mouthing Pans and Pancakes as she set up her rival restaurant. Now her body has fallen out of Pan and Pancake's racing outhouse — part of the annual Outhouse Race.

Robbie has to contend with a new detective, one who gets under her skin. She's also feeling more cautious in her amateur sleuthing because she's pregnant. Who wanted to kill her? And was the placement of her body an attempt to frame Robbie?

Thankfully Robbie's pregnancy isn't an excuse for extra melodrama. Although she's put in danger a couple of times, it's not any situation that puts her pregnancy at risk. What the pregnancy does is force Robbie to approach danger at a more cautious angle. It makes for an interesting change in pace for the series.

The next book is Scone Cold Dead which releases April 1, 2025.

Five stars

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Picture book of Kansas: 10/04/24

Picture book of Kansas

Picture Book of Kansas by Bernadine Bailey (1954) is an illustrated history of white settlement in Kansas. Although Native American groups are mentioned and credited for the state's name, the history starts with the Spanish and goes on through modern industry — modern being contemporaneous with the book's release.

Compared to more recent history books aimed at upper elementary school readers, Picture Book of Kansas is long winded. Each page is jam packed with long paragraphs, though with a vocabulary that's still approachable for the targeted age range.

Although the author was a known travel writer, photographer and filmmaker, the illustrations are done by Kurt Wiese. He was the illustrator of the Freddy the Pig series of books, among others.

Three stars

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Strawberried Alive: 10/02/24

Strawberried Alive

Strawberried Alive by Jenn McKinlay and Susan Boyce (Narrator) (2022) is the fourteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery mystery series. It involves guns, serial shootings, and nice people being murdered.

I'll be upfront and say the first chapter had me prepared to rate this one at only two or three stars. It has a dramatic opening with Mel being shot at in the alleyway behind the bakery. Of course Angie's brothers and Mel's uncle jump to various conclusions. Given previous books' inclusion of organized crime and revenge plots, I was fully expecting the men to be correct.

Thankfully they are not. Instead, the mystery settles into an unexpected turn of events that is by far more compelling than any organized crime plot. It's personal, it's driven by financial panic and smaller but just as dangerous crime syndicate.

There are also some unexpected but welcome plot twists. The twists plus the novel's awareness of previous plots and a careful and decided avoidance of repetition is what earned this volume a full five stars.

The next book is Sugar Plum Poisoned (2023).

Five stars

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September 2024 Sources: 10/02/24

Previous month's book sources

September started with us in Canada having helped Kay move into her dorm. The end of the month was focused on getting ready for my solo show and all the other things I hadn't done since I was traveling.

ROOB Score for the last three years

In September I read 13 TBR books, down from the previous month's 14 TBR. Two books were published in September. Five books were for research. None were reviews. One was from the library. My ROOB score for September was -3.33, up slightly from the previous month's -3.90. It was an average September.

ROOB score mapped year after year to compare trends

I predicted a -4.4 and was off by more than 1. For October, I'm going with -3.8.

ROOB monthly averages

My average for September improved slightly from -2.95 to -2.97.

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"The Common Day": 10/01/24

The Common Day

"The Common Day" by John Cheever (1947) was a short story in the August 2 edition of the New Yorker. It's an examination of class in New England as seen over events of summer visit of Jim Brown and his family to his mother-in-law's.

Jim notes how various parts of the house are off limits to him but not to his four-year-old daughter, Carlotta. She is allowed in the kitchen and in the other private spaces used by Mrs. Garrison. He waffles between bemusement and resentment at his daughter's privilege.

He is also at odds with Nils, the groundskeeper. As a privileged man from the big city, Jim hasn't had to learn how to do the work to maintain a home. He doesn't garden. He can't change a fuse. He can't do, nor has any awareness really, of the work Nils does.

Feeling insulted at Nils's blunt observations on class and on Jim in particular, he decides to take care of the raccoon who is damaging the garden. It's violent, nasty work and well beyond anything Jim as ever had to do.

Jim reminds me Ramsay, the young laird in The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan (2019). Both have legacy help. Neither house has the full staff needed to efficiently run. Neither house can afford to have a full staff and the aging staff is paying the price of being the last ones with their health.

While Ramsay is willing to adapt to the changing times, it's implied that Jim isn't. More precisely, Jim is too far removed from the lives of his mother-in-law's staff to even begin to comprehend what needs to change.

As with the other John Cheever stories I've covered, this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Jim and his family are traveling together (33). The destination is uhoria, both the past in the way things used to be at the home and in its uncertain future (CC). The route there is the cornfield (FF) represented throughout the story by the corn the raccoon is taking.

Three stars

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September 2024 Summary: 10/01/24

Reading report

September was the end of our Canada trip and the last month for me to get my paintings ready for October's solo show. I might not have a "back to school" schedule but I'm still oddly busy.

I read the same number of books in September, 21. Of my read books, 12 were diverse and two were queer. I reviewed 21 books, two fewer than the previous month. On the reviews front, 13 were diverse and three were queer.

I have 2 books from August and 18 from September of the 198 book I've read this year to review.

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