This was another book sent to my from a friend from Pet Talk who lives in Denmark, and I liked it much better than Everything is Illuminated. I don’t know that this would even make it into stores here, but it’s a small book about a small country, Denmark, at a time when it was still very much ruled by the royal family, but things were beginning to transition to the more modern era. It was the 1760′s the height of the Age of Enlightenment, and men were battling over issues of religion versus science, as well as the usual swap of politics. Add to this the fact that the King of Denmark is mentally unstable, his bride is a young Englishwoman married off to him for typical political reasons, and it makes for an intriguing book. None of the characters are particularly heroic, but several are sympathetic, particularly Catherine Mathilde, who seems to come into her own after a life as pretty much a pawn with little expectations of her other than fecundity. The author does a good job of imagining what might have been going on in the heads of these actual historical figures. It was a dramatic time in Danish history, and while this is a work of fiction, it makes me want to learn a bit more about the actual characters. An enjoyable read, especially if you have an interest in European history around this time, and it draws in Voltaire, Catherine the Great and George III.

I found the book quite interesting, maybe because I know so little about Denmark during that period. And also it makes me wonder how much of this Danish schoolchildren learn, or whether it’s just glossed over with a few sentences … especially as the King was mentally ill, and that never seems to make it in history books much. Unless, that is, it’s the opposing side’s monarchy – like I know of “Mad King George” almost exclusively by that title, as he was the English King at the time of the American Revolution, and was a little bemused to him simply referred to as George III when we were visiting London!

I know we certainly didn’t cover Denmark any detail in my small town American high school classroom, but then, the Social Studies department was not my favorite in the school, either. They had a pretty hard time keeping our attention on the broad generalizations they did cover. But if you have any interest in European history, or Denmark, I do recommend this!

So, I know I said yesterday’s book was a “thriller” but really had more to it than that. Well, this book is a “mystery” that is just the opposite. There are no lingering questions, nothing disturbing, just a simple mystery book, like many others. It’s “A Regan Reilly Mystery,” so I guess it’s just one in a line of them, and it is a pleasant diversion, just a little break from reality. I have a signed copy of this, as I stood in a (very long) line to get a signed book at the BEA from Mary Higgins Clark, the very famous mystery writer, and she was doing a joint signing with her daughter, who while not as famous as her mother, is pretty well known.


A quick aside: I was startled when I got to the front of the line and met them, at the amount of make-up they were both wearing. It was frankly a little scary, and I thought “this is a crowd of book people, no one cares, really, how you’ll photograph, they just like your books. It was just plain odd, and while I don;t know how old either woman is, I thought it was trying to make them look younger but instead aged them a lot. Just odd, have to say, made me a little sad for them.


Anyway, the book is a quick read, and you kind of have it figured out by at least halfway through, but there are a few mildly surprising moments. Many of the characters are predictable, or just cartoonish – “Jimmy” the shell museum man, whose speech and mannerisms are stilted of no discernible reason, “Glenn,” the snarky but always smiling hotel worker, the evil older twins, the newly enageed couple, the man-hungry gal, and even the “best friend who always needs rescuing,” but every ends as it should, and is almost too pat. Read it in a day, a pleasant little diversion, like candy – fun while you’re at it, but pretty formulaic and forgettable afterwards. Set in Hawaii, but that doesn’t seem to matter much, aside from token objects, you get the feeling it could have taken place almost anywhere with a beach. But I’m sure it sold a ton, anyway!

by David Baldacci

I have read his stuff before, and liked it, good modern mystery writer. So I figured I would like this one, but ended up being surprised at how much I liked it. It’s not the normal mystery where you can figure out, halfway through, “who dun it” and just keep reading to see if you are right. There are plenty of potential villains in this apparent ‘serial killer” comes to a small town sort of story, as there are plenty of not-very-likable characters from almost the very start.


As with other books, it is set in Virginia, and has enough local color to feel fairly genuine. It features private detectives Sean King and Michelle Maxwell – both (disgraced) former Secret Service agents, but years apart in age. As well as local flavor, there are plenty of multidimensional characters, some of which are almost – but not quite caricatures and there’s plenty of sex, sexual innuendo and violence, so I’d not really let a kid read it, but for adults who like a good mystery to ponder, go for it!

I was given this book by a friend in Denmark. She’s a member of Pet Talk, and an avid reader, though English is not her native language. I was to read them, and pass them along to another Pet Talker, as she was curious as to what I would think of the two books.


I had heard of this book, and remember it getting some positive buzz, and so looked forward to reading it. Boy, was the “buzz” wrong. I did not find the book at all amusing, instead I found it quite annoying. The premise is that it is composed of letters between a young man in Eastern Europe, and the American author who hired his grandfather to guide him, searching for the small town his ancestors fled from, those who survived the Nazis and WWII. It is annoying because the maybe Ukranian kid does not write English as well as he thinks he does, so in the beginning, his writing is full of misused words, and fractured expressions. The one example that springs immediately to mind is that he uses spleen as a verb, in place of annoy or anger. This ONLY makes sense if you are familiar with the expression “he was venting his spleen,” and that is just not commonly used. I immediately understood why my Danish friend had such trouble – I had a hard time understanding the first few chapters, and I have heard English spoken my whole life.


So once you get over this hurdle, the story is long, somewhat tedious, and at its heart, a very sad, depressing, Holocaust story. Interwoven with that tale is a strange sort of folktale regarding a girl who became, eventually, the American’s ancestor. And her story is sad, twisted, and very dark as well. It seems very Old World in tone, and is very Jewish in flavor, that part didn’t bother me. And at least it is told in a fairly straightforward manner.


I did persevere and finish the book, it got easier to read as it went along, but I would not reccomend it. And after I finished it, I read the comments on the back which called it “humorous” and “delightful,” which I just did NOT agree with. Listen, I do not demand that everything be sweetness and light by any means. But when the single, somewhat redeeming act in a book is a suicide, sorry, I don’t count it as funny. I can see how it was TRYING to be funny, but that doesn’t make it funny for real.


I will pass it along, but at least the next person is forewarned to have low expectations!

One of the things about getting books at the BEA is sometimes you enter a series in the middle. This is obviously not the first book in this series, which is based on the children’s classic, Peter Pan. This is like the “real story” the original might be based on, and has more of an explanation of things like why Peter can fly, and how Tinkerbell – who prefers to be called a ‘bird-person,” not a fairy, came to be. I am just guessing the prior book(s) go over the same ground as the original James Barrie story does, but it’s okay to start here,
enough is covered that you understand the lay of the land.



A good, rollicking story, with plenty of action, pirates, mystery, and science fiction via a substance called “starstuff” and the “Others” who covet it, though it does not feel at all sci-fi. The story moves along at a good clip, and the other boys of Neverneverland get more character development, as they cope with Cap’n Hook and his crew while Peter and Tinkerbell are off to the foggy, grimy streets of Victorian London to save his friend Molly and her family from the Others. It is 541 pages, but moves along at a good, satisfying clip, so don’t let the size fool you. Probably written with boys as the target audience, but enough in it for girls – and grown-ups – too.



And it wasn’t until the end that I realized that it is “that” Dave Barry – the guys from Miami who writes the hysterical, wry newspaper columns – who is one of the authors. And that’s why I have a signed copy, I didn’t know what the book was, but I chuckle aloud at Dave Barry’s columns, so stood in line to get a signed copy. But in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. It is a fun and worthwhile read, no matter your age or gender. And there’s nothing in it that’s too scary for younger kids who are avid readers.

by Sherman Alexie

Okay, so I read a lot of books about teenagers and kids, but hey, I read what I pull out of the box!


This is a fun, funny book, completely with plenty of “drawings by the main character,” actually illustrations by Ellen Forney. But the main character, Junior, likes to draw, and her cartooning style suits his character well. Junior isn’t strong, handsome or buff, he’s a scrawny kid who nonetheless loves basketball, and plays with his best friend, who has all those attributes and a serious anger, too.


The book has plenty of dark, serious issues, but still manages to be fun, and the main character, with all his flaws, and screwed up circumstances in life, manages to keep a bouyancy about himself. He’s a Spokane Indian kid living on “the rez” and dealing with all the normal struggles a teenage boy goes through, but multiplied by about ten.


Dealing with the broken people, alcoholism, the broken hearts and fading dreams of those around him, and trying to make his way in the world outside the Rez, while still trying to stay part of his Rez community makes a story a lot of kids who have felt like an outsider will enjoy. Adults, too. Based on the author’s experiences growing up, it stays funny but has a strong and serious heart. A quick, fun read, but not fluff – read it if you can.

It’s not that I haven’t been reading, life has just been a bit busy to be reviewing books. I finally finished this one recently, it was given to me by a friend, and I’ve had it by my bedside for night time reading when I didn’t have much else. It was just a book that didn’t seem to need to be rushed, there wasn’t much anything urgent about it, so I’d just read a few pages at a time.


It’s a thick book, over 540 pages, and that’s the soft cover version. I had read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse before and enjoyed it, so was looking forward to this one as well. It just seemed to move slowly along, and if you’ve read Labyrinth, it all seems kind of echoey, like “oh, another one of these ‘people haunted by ancestor’s troubles, driven by mysterious urges to solve past mysteries. It’s always a genetically connected individual, again a female main character trying to find out about her own past and stumbling across her ancestor’s troubles, and getting involved with a man from her own time connected to ancestor’s past love as well.


Always a young woman in the past is the hero of her times, and the current-day woman is somewhat adrift, finding her own self.


There’s a good bit of history of the Carsacone region of France, and some Paris history around the time of the French revolution. This one focusses on Tarot cards, and Tarot readings, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t too wrapped up in it, as Tarot (forgive me, true believers) has always seems kinda hokey and made-up to be sinister or believable. So that part didn’t grab my attention, maybe if it interests you, you’ll find the story moving along a bit faster. As it was, it was just okay, and the ending, while pretty darned predictable if you’ve read Labyrinth, was somewhat satisfying. It just wasn’t suspenseful.


If Tarot fascinates you, or French history, or Carsacone France region, maybe you’ll enjoy it more, I just found it a pleasant but not thrilling diversion, worth reading if you don’t have to spend a lot to get it.


I know, damning with faint praise, but it was just okay. Labyrinth was so much better, that this kinda disappointed me.

Really interesting, sweet book from the perspective of an abnormal child. Merilee – who hates her name, by the way, and has heard every “Merrily we roll along” joke ever, thank you – is a little girl growing up in small town Texas, who is well aware that she is different. Through her telling the story, you figure out that she is autistic, in the Asperger’s range of the Autism spectrum. She has a very specific way she would like everything in her life to be. She likes her VOE – Very Ordered Existence.


Merilee has her routines, her place in the world – and everyone else’s place – all figured out. Her parents are strange but she knows they love her and believe in her, even if they don’t understand her. Her sister, Bug – real name Bitsey – is annoying, and is completely annoyingly normal. Bug never stops talking, while Merilee has an amazing vocabulary inside her head, she has trouble getting words out – or the right words out. The story really begins, though, when another misfit – a lonely boy named Biswick with an alcoholic poet of a father moves into town, and against her will, becomes her friend. and an older woman named Veraleen also becomes her family’s cook, and just like that, her Very Ordered Existence begins to fall apart.


How she begins to deal with change, an unlikely friendship, and learning to try to understand other people is all a fascinating and heartwarming story, and makes this “odd child” as Autistic kids are often seen, seem not only human, but like a very good person despite herself.


A wonderful story, and a good book, and while there are some heavy issues, they are handled pretty deftly, and in a pretty kid-safe way.


I heartily recommend this book, it is far more fun than I may have made it seem, and will leave you smiling.