11. Murder on the Red River by Marcie Rendon

#1 Cash Blackbear

listened on Libby

320 pgs.

2017
Adult Mystery/Historical Fiction 
Finished 2/28/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.7
My rating: 4
Setting: 1970 1970 Fargo/MN state line

My comments: Cash is 19; smart, feisty, Native American, and really close to being an alcoholic, which is hard to watch.  She spends her life driving trucks for the local farms during the day and playing pool each night.  She drinks and smokes hard, has no friends except for the local sheriff who first met her when she was three years old, and lives a pretty solitary, empty life.  Then there's a murder nearby, and she helps the sheriff investigate.  Making it even more interesting, it's set in 1970. At only 6 hours long it was the perfect length, didn't drag on and on, and I enjoyed all the indigenous information.

Goodreads synopsis:  Set in 1970s along Red River Valley, Marcie R. Rendon's gripping new mystery follows the life of a young Ojibwe woman as she struggles to come to terms with the callous murder of a Native American stranger, bringing to life the gritty, dark reality of a flawed foster care system and the oppression of indigenous people.

Renee "Cash" Blackbear, a 19-year-old, tough-as-nails, resilient Ojibwe woman, has lived all her life in Fargo, sister city to Minnesota's Moorhead, just downriver from the Cities. Her life revolves around driving truck for local farmers, drinking beer, playing pool, smoking cigarettes, and solving criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, who's also her guardian and helped her out of the broken foster care system. Together they must work to solve a murder across cultures in a rural Midwest community layered in racism, genocide, and oppression.

38. Second Son - a short story by Lee Child

Jack Reacher #15.5
read by Dick Hill
listened to audio through Audible
2011 Transworld Digital
32 pgs.
Adult mystery
Read on 5/27/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.93
My rating: 3
Setting: Base housing, 1970's Okinawa

My comments: It was interesting to look at Jack Reacher with a family, living in a house in a bedroom of his own....but to truly believe that a 13-year old could think in the way that he did left a little question mark in my head.  Of course Reacher was probably a detecting/investigative prodigy, but this one went a little over the top to be completely believable.  Ah, well.   A short story from Lee Child - fun.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this short story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, available exclusively as an eBook, a young Jack Reacher knows how to finish a fight so it stays finished. He knows how to get the job done so it stays done. And, in one of his earliest challenges, he knows that his analytical brain is just as important as his impressive brawn.
          Okinawa, 1974. Even at thirteen, Jack Reacher knows how to outwit and overpower anyone who stands in his way. And as the new kid in town, that’s pretty much everyone. His family has come to the Pacific with his father, who’s preparing for a top-secret Marine Corps operation. After receiving a rude welcome from the local military brats, Reacher and his older brother, Joe, intend to teach them a lesson they won’t forget. But it’s soon clear that there’s more at stake than pride. When his family’s future appears to come crumbling down, it’s the youngest Reacher who rises to the occasion with all the decisive cunning and bravura that will one day be his deadly trademark..

29. The Sins of the Fathers - Lawrence Block

#1 Matthew Scudder

Audio read by Alan Sklar (I didn't like the way he read this - he did okay with the protagonist, but none of the other voices.)

4 unabridged discs: 5:03)

1976 Text, Audio 2000

186 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 5/19/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.91

My Rating:

2.5/It was okay - I think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd read it myself or if there was a different audio reader

TPPL

1970's New York City

My comments:   This was #1 in the series, written almost 40 years ago. Other than paying 10-cents to use the pay phone, the attitude toward gays, and unmarried men and women living together, I didn't feel that there was much going on that seemed particularly dated. It was interesting, but somewhat slow. I'll try another, but I think I'll get closer to the most recent in the series (#17 I believe)to see if they liven up a bit.  And.....I'm not sure that I like the protagonist very much.  But it truly could have been the way that Sklar "read" him....so I'll have to try READING the next one, I guess.....

Goodreads Summary:  (Note:  the last sentence in this summary from Goodreads is incredibly misleading and...not what I'd consider true.....)  The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer—a minister's son—hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's father has come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

MOVIE - American Hustle

R (2:09)

NY/LA Release 12/13/13; Wide Release 12/20/2013

Viewed 1/2/2014 with Laura in Carlisle

RT Critic: 92  Audience:  81

Cag:  5.5 Really loved it

Directed by David O. Russell

Film Studio

Actors: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence

My comments: No blood & guts, lots (and lots) of tongue-in-cheek humor, and brilliant acting all worked together to completely entertain me.  The story is brilliant, the characters are fun, and the 70s feel is almost always believable.  I wasn't sure throughout the movie that I should be chuckling to myself or if I was supposed to be completely caught up in the "seriousness" of what was going on - I guess I felt guilty being so entertained.  I'm glad I didn't really know about the plot other than what I'd seen in previews, because I was surprised and kept on my toes.  I was never "worried" about the outcome, and I think this made the movie all the more enjoyable.  I really loved it.

Fandango:  A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, American Hustle defies genre, hinging on raw emotion, and life and death stakes.

38. The Silver Star - Jeannette Walls

audio read by the author (it was okay, but I've heard better, no offense Ms. Walls)

2013, Simon & Schuster Audio

7 unabridged cds

288 pgs.

Written for adults, but I think it's almost more YA

Finished 9/9/2013

Genre: HistFiction (1970 America-smalll town CA, but mostly rural VA)

Goodreads Rating: 3.64

My Rating: Liked it (3) 

TPPL

My comments:This is my first Jeannette Walls, and I enjoyed the story. Bean, the 6th grade protagonist, was a feisty, gutsy first person narrator. I'm not sure why this is billed as an adult novel, though, I would definitely consider it a young adult novel.  Sure there are some heavy-ish issues, but minor compared to some of the current YAs out there.  I enjoyed the 1970 spin on things (the mother sure seemed bipolar, but that would not have been the terminology in 1970), though other than the integration issues, it had a very contemporary feel (did anyone homeschool...or call it homeschooling...in 1970?)

Goodreads Review: It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who “found something wrong with every place she ever lived,” takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean soon discovers who her father was, and hears many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Because money is tight, Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town—a big man who bullies his workers, his tenants, his children, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister—inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, nonconformist. But when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz.

53. Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai

Harper, 2011
HC, $15.00
for:  Middle Grades
264 pgs.
Rating:  5

First Line/s   Today is Tet/ the first day/ of the lunar calendar

Every Tet/ we eat sugary lotus seeds/ and glutinous rice cakes./ We all wear new clothes,/ even underneath

Mother warns/ how we act today/ foretells the whole year.

Everyone must smile/ no matter how we feel.

No one can sweep,/ for why swap away hope?/ No one can splash water,/ for why splash away joy?

Movie - Super 8

A modern-day Goonies.  Fun.
Released June 10, 2011
PG-13 (1:52)
Friday 8/26/11 at Crossroads - myself
RT:  82%  cag:  ditto: 82%
Director:  J. J. Abrams
Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard

Five friends (let's say they're maybe in the 13-14 age range) are making a zombie movie.  One is the director, Joe, our protagonist, is the make-up artist, some are actors.  They enlist a cute classmate, Alice, who is too young to drive but who "borrows" her dad's car and drives them to an old railroad stations in the middle of the night to shoot a scene.  They get really excited as they hear a train approach, since it will give reality to their movie.  But what happens when the train gets right in front of them is unforeseen, and really scares them.  It crashes and derails, but there's something really mysterious going on, too.  It's unleashed some sort of mysterious presence that the Air Force is trying to cover up and recover, both.  Joe's father (Chandler) is the sheriff, the mother has been killed in an accident at the local mill.  It is 1979. 

By the end of the film there was a lot of destruction of the small Ohio town where this is set, but most of the storyline is engaging and the cast of young actors is great fun to watch.  I would ALMOST put this as a PG, but there is a lot of destructions, and one murder that makes me hesitate just a little.  It certainly kept me entertained for two hours on a Friday night!

It was filmed in West Virginia, and the soundtrack is great.

Busing Brewster - Richard Michelson

Illustrated by R. G. Roth
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$16.99
24 pgs.
Rating: 5 (Yup, this is a good one)
Endpapers: covered with stick-like figures playing on a school playground (pale, pale sage green)

Set in the 1970's, when schools were segretated and busing students far across town was used to begin to desegrate the schools. Brewster and his slightly-older brother Bryan are not as excited as their mom when they discover that they will be bused to a previously-all-white school, having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go the distance. And when they get there, they are greeted by protestors, rocks being thrown, and nasty white classmates. Before school even begins on the first day, the brothers are put into detention in the library with "freckle-face", a white kid who'd heckled them and precipitated them getting caught arguing.

Well. By the time they leave the library they've made friends with the librarian (who then initiantes Brewster into the wonderful world of books and reading) and also with Freckle-face. When they leave school, however, a friendly wave goodbye to their new friend is ignored, because he's being picked up by his father, who is saying something derogatory about the desegreation - so young readers can see where the bigotry and hatred are coming from, and how it keeps gathering speed.

Great history lesson for kids - my kids - who, luckily, have no clue about the bigotry and racism so prevalent in the 60s and 70s. I only wish I could say it's gone....but it has to be better than it was. The Author's Note at the end gives additional information on the history and background of the story.

The illustrations are great. It's somewhat difficult to describe them. Cut paper. Sponged stencils. Tiny, tiny repetetive patterns. Pale watercolor-brushed lines. I'm only guessing at all this, but I love the mixed media look. The colors are muted, lots of grays and muddied greens, mustards, clays.

Great book. The more I think about it the more I like it. Storytelling in a positive way. Great protagonist. Kids doing real things, especially at the playground. Super illustrations. Yippee!

58. When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead

Ages 9-14, Grades 5-7 Wendy Lamb Books, Random House July, 2009 200 p. Rating: 4 2010 Newbery WINNER 1979 New York City - Miranda's mom is getting ready to be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid. Her best friend, Sal, has stopped being her friend - she knows not why. She's spending her lunch period working a Jimmy's, helping to prepare sandwiches. She avoids the crazy, laughing homeless man who hangs out on her corner. She reads A Wrinkle in Time over and over. And she grapples over tiny notes she's been receiving that truthfully foretell bits of her future. Told in short chapters, this multi-faceted story is interesting and thought-provoking. At the end I spent an hour slipping back to look for foreshadowing and clues. Some of my 4th graders - and even some of my 5th and 6th - will not "get" some of it- but those who can think outside the box and/or love A Wrinkle in Time will certainly enjoy this story.