6. Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

listened on Audible

340 pgs.  (9:39)

2026
Adult Mystery
Finished /25/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.98
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Baton Rouge, LA

My comments: 4.5  Very interesting story told in three voices (mostly) that although seems quite unbelievable in places, was an all-encompassing read that did just what a good story does on a blizzardy day in January.  Set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two very different women cross paths in an unusual way and their story keeps intersecting until the book's satisfying ending.

Goodreads synopsis:  Two women. One dead husband. And only one alibi.

Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price.

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth—and she may have found the best way in.

Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek.

Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

15. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Lusbuskes

listened on Audible (purchased)

464 pgs. (13:20)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 3/31/25
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Early 20th century Montana

My comments: Three points of view:  1930s Millie, 1920s Alice, 1910s Colette, all coming together in the end.  The story is set in Montana in various small towns and cities.  It is Alice's vision to have a library in a boxcar that travels from lumber camps to mining sites throughout Montana.  Conditions are super hard for the working men, and "the company" is the royal ruler of all.  Colette's father is a miner and a union man. Alices's father is an extremely rich mayor and supporter of "the company."  Millie is an orphan from Texas who now works in Washington DC and comes to observe the group of people that are writing a travel summary for the government.  Once I began to easily tell the three women's voices apart the story became quite fascinating.

Goodreads synopsis:  Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. 

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

20. Weyward by Emilia Hart

listened on Libby - borrowed from library

416 pgs.
2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Magical Realism

Finished 3/10/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.10
My rating:/
Setting: Cottage in England during three different time periods:  1619, 1942, contemporary

My comments: LOVE the cover!  Told from the point of view of three women in the Weyward family:  Altha, in 1619, on trial for practicing witchcraft, supposedly using a spell to have a farmer's cows trample him to death.  Violet, in 1942, living a hugely restricted life with her brother, being intimidated by a hateful father.  And then there's Kate in 2019, never leaving her flat because of an abusive, controlling husband, until she finally takes matters into her own hands.  Three really interesting stories of three strong women, bonded by blood and history and the huge touch of magic that connects them with the natural world, the birds, the bees, the bugs, and all growing things.  It was hard to put down and beautifully narrated by three different female voices.

Goodreads synopsis:  I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.

69. Going Zero by Anthony McCarten

listened on Libby

copyright 2023
304 pgs.
Adult mystery/thriller
Finished 9/30/2023
Goodreads rating: 3.90
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Washington, DC and the woods of PA

My comments: After completing this book, I am re-enraged about our government's secret agencies, information, and place in the world.  It's so easy to grow complacent, and I can actually understand why so many people get caught up in the idea of conspiracy theories.  I think I ight have rated this book a five, except the bad guy wins...and the chances of him ever losing are unknow as the last word is read.  Boo hoo hoo, I do like an HEA, and this was definitely not that .... but an interesting read.

Goodreads synopsis:  From four-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten comes a breakneck, wickedly entertaining thriller for our times, a twisty, action-packed novel reminiscent of the best Michael Crichton technothrillers, in which a woman must find a way to elude the most powerful forces of government and high tech.

In the name of national security, the CIA in partnership with Silicon Valley wunderkind Cy Baxter have created the ultimate surveillance program known as FUSION. Ahead of its roll out, ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test the groundbreaking system.

At the appointed hour, each of the ten will have two hours to “Go Zero”—to turn their cellphones off, cut ties with friends and family, and use any means possible to disappear. They will then have 30 days to evade detection and elude the highly sophisticated Capture Teams tasked to find them using the most cutting-edge technology. The goal is to see if it is possible to successfully go “off the grid” and escape detection.

The stakes are immense. If FUSION is a success, Cy Baxter will secure a coveted 10-year, $100 billion dollar government contract and access to intelligence resources he truly believes will save lives. For any participant who beats the massive surveillance, it means a $3 million cash prize.

Among the contestants is an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day. She’s been chosen as the gimme, the easy target expected to be found first. But Kaitlyn excels at confounding expectations. Her talents at this particular game are far more effective than all the security experts suspect, and her reasons for playing far more personal than anyone can imagine. . . .

3. Postcards from a Stranger by Imogen Clark

listened on Audible
narrated by Henrietta Meire
Unabridged audio (10:11)
2018
348 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/12/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 16,272 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Yorkshire, with flashbacks to 1960s and 1980s

First line/s: 1987 "The post hits the doormat with a thud."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Interesting, although predictable, multi-layered story, told in a number of voices, mostly in 2017, but with short forays to the 1960s and 1980s.

My comments: Interesting, although predictable, multi-layered story, told in a number of voices, though the protagonist is far more prolific than the rest.  Cara, a 30ish single woman in Yorkshire, finds a box of postcards that makes her realize her mother never died when she was two as she's been told.  Now a caretaker for her grumpy father with end-stages of Alzheimers, she embarks on a quest to find answers about her mother.

Goodreads synopsis:  A secret lies buried at the heart of her family—but it can’t stay hidden forever.

          When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew.

          The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? With her father sinking into Alzheimer’s and her brother reluctant to help, it seems Cara will never find the answers to her questions. One thing is clear, though: someone knows more than they’re letting on.

          Torn between loyalty to her family and dread of what she might find, Cara digs into the early years of her parents’ troubled marriage, hunting down long-lost relatives who might help unravel the mystery. But the picture that begins to emerge is not at all the one she’d expected—because as she soon discovers, lies have a habit of multiplying . . .

69. The One by John Marrs

read on my iPhone
2018 Hanover Square Press (2016/2017 in England?)
416 pgs.
Adult CRF/Mystery/tiny hint of Fantasy...
Finished 7/24/18
Goodreads rating:  4.13 - 10,98 ratings
My rating: 5 Stars!
Setting: Contemporary England (with a bit in Australia)

First line/s:  "Mandy stared at the photograph on the computer screen and held her breath."

My comments:  Oh my goodness, what a clever, addicting book! Not the greatest cover, though, right?  I couldn’t put it down. Never a dull moment!! There were so many things I loved about this book: all sorts of twists and turns, following five different people that were easy-to-remember in an uncomplicated way, being left on the edge-of-your-seat short chapter after short chapter, and a premise that made you think, wonder, and rationalize throughout. A real winner. (Told in FIVE distinct, unique voices that were all wonderful.)

Goodreads synopsis:  How far would you go to find The One?
          A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for.
          That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.
          Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…
          A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.

66. Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

listened on Audible
2017
374 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished July 20, 2018
Goodreads rating:  4.33 - 11,799 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting: Contemporary America

First line/s::  "Grace hadn't really thought too much about homecoming."

My comments:  Writing a book is magical, writing a truly good book is mystical.  I have such admiration for an author that can weave together a story like this one.  Getting to know and understand the three protagonists is a slow process and makes the story all the more delicious.  This book is also a reminder that there are more good people than bad in the world and that you don't have to be born into a family to be surrounded by love.

Goodreads synopsis:  A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment.
          Being the middle child has its ups and downs.
          But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
          Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
          And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

59. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

listened to on Audible
2016, Katherine Tegen Books
344 pgs.
YA CRF (older YA)
Finished 11/1/16
Goodreads rating:  4/27 - 1470 ratings
My rating:  4 (As brilliant as it is, somehow I can't quite give it a 5. Not sure why...)

My comments:  To be quite truthful, I'm not exactly sure what to think of this book or how to rate it.  I knew from the beginning it would not have a "good" ending.  It's a book about rape and abuse and discusses sex and sexuality unsparingly.  The story is told in three very distinct, reliable voices.  It's a heartbreaking book.
         These are the words of Emily May, a Goodreads reviewer who I really enjoy (although we don't always agree).  This is exactly what I was thinking, so why put it in my own words?

     BRUTAL. That's how I would describe this book. It sits there all unassuming with its cute yellow cover and pictures of animals, but underneath it has some serious fangs. Rather like the female of the species, I suppose.
     Quick warning: this book may not be suitable to those sensitive to rape and/or animal cruelty. Make no mistake, it's a nasty book. At times it's absolutely disgustingly awful. But it's a very sharp and effective look at sexual assault and rape culture too. And somehow so fucking funny. Well, maybe if you have a sadistic sense of humour, which it turns out I do.
     I don't even know how to adequately explain it. The Female of the Species is told from the perspective of three different characters - Alex, whose sister was raped and murdered; Jack, the popular guy who desperately wants to get to know Alex; and Peekay, the preacher's kid whose ex-boyfriend ditched her for the beautiful Branley, and who now works at the animal shelter with Alex.

Goodreads synopsis:  Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.
          While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.
         But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her.
         So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for.
         Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

16. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty - Joshilyn Jackson

Audio read by the author (another slam dunk!)

10 unabridged discs

2012, Grand Central Publishing

322 pgs.

Finished 3/12/2014

Adult CRF/Southern Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 3.93

My Rating: 5/Just wonderful - stayed up late to listen

TPPL

Setting:  Small town, rural Mississippi

My comments:  For me, everything that makes a really good read came together in this book.  An exceptionally woven plot.  Characters with personalities that are deeply drawn, real, and believable.  A strong voice - in this case three strong voices.  Three points-of-view that tell this story perfectly.  And to top it off, a reader that hits the absolute bulls-eye.  Joshilyn Jackson once again reads her own book and she's just perfect, including her own wonderful southern lilt.  I'm not a particular fan of southern fiction, but I'd follow Jackson anywhere - this is the third book of hers that I've read/listened to and I consider her an exceptional writer and storyteller. (I love the cover, too - maybe it's the color?)

Goodreads Review:  A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

39. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

2010, Alfred A. Knopf
for:  YA
260 pages
Rating: 4

Setting:  NYC from 12/21 through 12/31
First sentence/s:  "Imagine this:  You're in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelves.  You get to the section where a favorite author's books reside, and there, nestled in comfortably between the incredibly familiar spines, sits a red notebook.  What do you do?"

I loved this book, it was cleverly written from each point of view, Dash’s part by David Levithan and Lily’s part by Rachel Cohn.  They’ve collaborated on other titles, I’ll have to check them out.

45. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan

Penguin, 2010
paper Speak $8.99
310 pgs.
for:  YA
Rating:  5

First line:  "When I was little, my dad used to tell me, 'Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.'"

This is the story of two Will Graysons, written in back & forth chapters, in two  different voices.  That's because each of these two wonderful authors wrote one voice.

I have an eighth grade friend who read this book this summer.  I'm going to ask him to write a brief review of the book for me!  I'll include it soon.

56. The Firefly Letters - Margarita Engle

A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba
Henry Holt & Co. 2010
HC - $16.99
library 813.54 En35f
151 pages, with resources
Rating: 4

Written in verse form - and from four different points-of-view, we learn of Fredrika Bremer, the Swedish socialite that decided, in the mid-1800's, to travel the world and learn about women's rights in those different places. She is in Cuba for this story, staying with a rich family and being accompanied by a young female slave because Cecilia has a head for languages and can translate.

Cecelia is a slave, sold by her father and far from her African homeland, now 15, married, and pregnant. She is a valuable commodity because of her language skills, but she has "lung disease" and we never find out how she and her baby survive.

Elena is the daughter of the rich Cuban landowner, also a slave in a way, for she can never leave her house...having no freedom at all in her own land.

Frederika loves the beauty of Cuba but hates the oppression of slavery and women.

We hear these voices. We see this firefly-laden country, which all three women seem to love. This book gives us some insight into Cuba, and makes us look at slavery, realizing that its oppressive wings spread even more far and wide than we'd like to realize. And it introduces us to a woman that I'd like to learn more about, Fredrika Bremer. However, I kept waiting for the story to grab me, pull me in. For some reason I was never really pulled in. Maybe it was the mood I was in when I read it....for it's short and I read it in one big swallow. If there's more talk about it, and there's been a bit of talk, I'll read it again in another few months.

51. Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Penguin, 2007
HC $16.99
paperback at $9.99 will be out on Oct. 1, 2010
288 pages
for: YA
Rating: 5

This was an extraordinary, powerful book. It was also written in an extremely interesting -- and different -- way.

Two weeks after Hannah Baker commits suicide, Clay Jensen receives an anonymous shoebox in the mail with 13 cassette tapes inside. When he listens to the first tape, he discovers that these are recordings that Hannah made just before her death, and the tapes are being sent to the 13 people who played a part in her decision.

The book is told in two voices, but they are intertwined with each other. The words that Sarah is saying on the tapes are in italics. The words that Clay is thinking or saying, as he listens, are in regular font:

"I slide across the bench to the aisle, then stand up in the moving bus.

The first to drop out was Alex. We were friendly when we saw each other int he halls, but it never went beyond that.
At least, with me it didn't.

Bracing my hands against the backrests, I make my way to the front of the shifting bus.

Now down to the two of us, Jessica and me, the whole thing changed pretty fast. The talks became chitchat and not much more.

"When's the next stop?" I ask. I feel the words leave my throat, but they're barely whispers above Hannah's voice and the engine.
The driver looks at me in the rearview mirror.

Then Jessica stopped going, and though I went to Monet's a few more times hoping one of them might wander in, eventually I stopped going, too.
Until..."

It's a heartbreaking story. I can't imagine a reader not shedding at least one silent tear here or there. But it's a powerful one, and extremely interesting. I started it this afternoon and read nonstop until I was finished. I haven't done that in one heck of a long time. Wow.

53. Whiskey Sour - J. A. Konrath

Audio Read by Susie Breck and Dick Hill
Brilliance Audio, 2004
For: adults
6 CD's/7 hrs.
288 pgs.
Rating: 4

Grizzly murders, humorous female protagonist, overeating side-kick, and the city of Chicago frame this humorous introduction to Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels, a lieutenant of detectives in the Chicago PD.

Jack is in charge of a particularly grizzly murder of a Jane Doe, dumped into a 7-11 trash can, badly brutalized. The next day, at another 7-11, the same thing. The Gingerbread Man is taking lives quickly...brutally....and has become mesmerized by Jack, trying to get to her, too. He is meticulous, thinks through every move, hard-to-track or catch. But Jack is smart, funny, brave and brazen and she figures it all out, much to the sociopath's chagrin. Hair-raising, scary, and quite funny, I'm sure I'll look for the next in this bar-drink titled series.

At the end of the audio the author himself reads the short story from which this book came. Great way to end the book.

51. Talk - Kathe Koja

Frances Foster (FS&G), 2005

Young Adult 940L

134 pgs.

Rating: 4

Told in two voices in alternating chapters, we hear from the two leads in a high school play - Kit, his first time EVER acting, thinking he's been acting his whole life, and Lindsay, drama star and first class b----- ummmm---- mean girl. Kit has a crush on a trumpet player named Pablo and she has a crush on Kit. The play is controversial, the school board shuts it down and the cast and director take it to another venue.

Many issues raised here - being gay and "in the closet", how do you let your parents and friends know, how to you act upon it, how do you live with homophobic slurs, how do you convince a self-centered snob who has a crush on you that she's not what you'd ever be interested in? What does the future hold for these two seniors?

35. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe

For: Adults
Hyperion, 2009
371 pgs.
$25.99
Rating: 4 Liked it a lot
Endpapers: In cursive text, a recipe to end "man's mortal suffering." (understood more after reading the book)

"Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it isn't real." This is a quote in the book that I keep thinking of.

Harvard grad student Connie Goodwin is looking for her dissertation topic in American colonial studies. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, a prominent historian, is hounding her to get going. But Connie's hippie mother, Grace, has called from Santa Fe to see if Connie will spend the summer cleaning out her dead grandmother, Sophia's, old house in Marblehead so that it can be sold. Abandoned for over twenty years, the ancient place is overgrown, unelectrified, and fascinating. On her first night in the old house, she finds an old key in an ancient family Bible that contains the name Deliverance Dane. Trying to discover some background on this Puritan name, shy Connie meets a like-minded steeplejack named Sam, and together they start hunting for clues.

The story takes place in 1991 and during the time of the Salem witch trials. I think it was set in 1991 because the author wanted our protagonist to really research, hunting through documents, libraries, churches, graveyards, museums, for information instead of sitting down at a computer. It works. It's a great story that I didn't want to put down. Read it on the plane flight back and forth to PA last weekend, and the time flew.

SPOILER: My only tiny negative comment would be about the character development of Manning Chilton. You know right from the beginning what he's all about, and it would be nice to have had this introduced slowly....I like to not guess the ending or the culprit untilt the story advances a little more. Oh well. This was minor.

A wonderful summer read. Especially after The Lace Reader, which also takes place in the Salem area, an area I'm somewhat familiar with, which adds an extra bit of fun. Now I really want to go check out the older parts of Marblehead!

34. Say Goodbye - Lisa Gardner

Audio Read by Ann Marie Lee & Lincoln Hoppe
Published Jul, 2008
11 Unabridged CD's
13 hrs. 12 min.
368 pgs.
Rating: 5

This was a VERY disturbing story, so I hesitated before giving it a five...but it was quite brilliantly written, though grizzly....gory....and unbelievably sad. Spiders. Pregnancy. Relationships. Child pornography and abduction. FBI agents and informants. Throw that all into the mountains of Georgia and you have the basis for this suspenseful thriller. Told in a number of voices, with an epilogue that makes you cheer out loud -- 20 minutes after shedding tears of sadness....well, you get my drift. What a drive I had while listening, down I-5 from San Francisco to Bakersfield, across 40 to Needles, down again to Blythe, then I-10 to Tucson, it literally flew by. FBI Agent Kimberly Quincy is pregnant and on a case with a GBI agent who becomes a good friend, trying to find prostitutes that have been disappearing over a series of months in the Atlanta area. We keep hearing other voices, receiveing tidbits of information here and there that finally all fit together. It's a fantastic puzzle, quite cleverly written. But it's about young boys who are abducted, abused, held hostile physically and emotionally, and it's about how one of those boys behaves after he's grown up. Abducted by the Burger Man (SPOILER HERE) he later becomes the Burger Man. We also learn a great deal about spiders, their habits, their markings, their personalities per se.

Wow.

28. Every Soul a Star - Wendy Mass

For: Middle Grades & Middle School
Published: Oct. 2008
322 pages
Rating: 5

This is the second Wendy Mass book I've read and I've become a fan. She knows how to tell a good story. This one, told in three voices, is wonderful.

Ally's parents moved to the middle of nowhere when she was small. They run an unusual campground, the Moon Shadow. They chose this spot because it's the perfect place to see a total eclipse of the sun, and they've been preparing for it for years. Ally has been homeschooled, loves where she lives, and is an expert on the skies: comets, asteroids, stars, you name it. However, she knows very little about the world outside her domain.

Bree is a self-centered A-clique pretty girl who just happens to be the daughter of two scientific-geek parents. She has her summer...and her life...all planned out when her parents drop the bomb-shell that they are going to take over the Moon Shadow Campground, in the middle of nowhere, for three years. Bree and her younger sister will be homeschooled there.

Jack is a self-proclaimed loser. Pudgy, clumsy, and lacking any self-confidence at all, he has failed science and must attend summer school. When his science teacher propositions him to attend a two-week Eclipse tour to the Moon Shadow Campground as his assistant, he goes, but with great trepidation.

The three, of course, meet. They bond, along with two younger 10 year-old siblings and another male "camper" named Ryan, share astronomy adventures, and change, all for the better, of course. And readers learn a lot about astronomy along the way. It's a feel good book. I'm not sure how realistic it is, but I do feel that relationships like the ones formed in the book DO happen. There's even a wise old lady that always wears sweatsuts to get attached to. Lots going on. I did, indeed, enjoy reading this tale.

FIRST LINE: "In Iceland, fairies live inside of rocks. Seriously. They have houses in there and schools and amusement parks and everything."

I've done a little research on Wendy Mass. I like both 11 Birthdays and Every Soul a StarI'm going to read more of her this summer.

52. When It Happens - Susan Colasanti

For: Young Adults (for sure)
Published: 2006
Setting: New Jersey
310 pgs.
Rating: 3.5 for fun
Read: Oct. 10, 2008
Read in one long sitting

This was a very satisfying, predictable, high school romance with a happy ending. Just what everyone wants and needs once in awhile, no matter how much they say they don't.....

The Washington Post says: "When It Happens is sort of like high school itself: The outcome may be predictable, but what's really important is what happens along the way." It is, indeed, a "fun romance", as it quotes on the back cover.

The story is told alternately between the two protagonists, both high school seniors, Sara, a very bright, hard-working young lady, and Tobey, a very bright self-proclaimed slacker who is a music afficionado. We go through Sara's crush on Dave, a really good-looking, popular jock who she discovers, very shortly after they begin dating, has nothing remotely in common with her, and at the same time we observe Tobey's yearnings for Sara. Tobey is a really sweet, sensitive, sexy too-good-to-be-true-or-bellieved young man that every mom wants to think is just like her own son.

Sara has two best friends with whom she shares all, Tobey has two best friends with whom he shares most, the popular crowd are typically mean and self-centered...there are no surprises here, but no frustrations, either....just an enjoyable read with a satisfying ending.... and doesn't everyone needs that kind of fix once in awhile, especailly on a Friday night before an extra long weekend?

42. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl - Tanya Lee Stone

For: Young Adult
Pub: 2006
230 pgs.
Rating: 4/5
Finished: Aug. 30, 2008

After I'd read the first third of this book, I realized I'd read it before. So I looked it up and I had - when it first came out. I'd given it a 2.5 rating. It's written in verse, and I've read a lot of verse novels since then. And I've read a lot of books recently about teenage girls that can't figure out boys, so they're anxous fragility is still in my mind. But I do wonder why I apparently like this book so much better now than I did when I first read it.

Written in three sections by Josie, then Nicolette, and finally Aviva, the girls talk about a good-looking, sexy, too-good-to-be true senior that has swept them all of their feet, gotten away with as many "favors" as he can, then broken their hearts. Josie finds Judy Blume's FOREVER in the school library and writes a warning to other Beach High Girls. It comes to light that he has done the same thing to many, many of the girls in this high school in his four years there.

He is never named. I like that. There is nothing to admire in him, it seems to make him a lesser person, which he is. And this book, and the previous two that I just read (The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book), remind me of the thoughts and feelings and anxiety that teenage girls go through. Since I work with them every day, this reminder is a very good thing. I had sort-of forgotten. Hard to believe since it was only yesterday I was that anxiety-ridden teenage girl....

Addendum 9/3, A review I read that will help me remember the book:
"WOW - I devoured this book. The title is so appropriate yet misleading: the story of one guy and the girls he uses, one after another. Each girl tells her own story, leading the reader through the intense passion of a crush, the decisions to call, to kiss, to love, to leave. Written in verse, the language is packed with sensory imagery. Judy Blume's Forever plays an integral role as girls' notes to one another in the back of that old library book comfort and console. High school (and even mature middle school girls) need to read this book before they find themselves in similar situations; this would be a good companion novel to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak."