131. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

listened on Libby, borrowed from the library
narrated by Caroline Lee 
Unabridged audio (10:17)
2020
370 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 9/29/20
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 3284 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1840s Britain, on ship from Britain to Tasmania, and Tasmania

First line/s: "By the time the rains came, Mathinna had been hiding in the bush for nearly two days."

What I posted on Goodreads:  4.5 A wonderful, though bleak, historical fiction about three women in the 1840s British penal colony which is now Tasmania in Australia. 

(I felt that the nondisclosure of ending for one of the major characters was a bit disconcerting, thus the erasure of half a point from a full-fledged five.)

Goodreads synopsis:  The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel that captures the hardship, oppression, opportunity and hope of a trio of women’s lives in nineteenth-century Australia.
          Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.
          During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel -- a skilled midwife and herbalist – is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.
          Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
          In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom.           Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

Baked Crab Rangoons

 

8 oz. cream cheese (low-fat)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 green onions, sliced

1/2 T Paprika

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. soy sauce

8 oz. crabmeat

36 - 40 wonton wrappers

• Beat cream cheese and mayo, then add remaining ingredients, folding in the crabmeat.  
• Spoon 2 teaspoons filling into the center of a wonton wrapper.  Cover remaining wrappers with a damp paper towel until ready to use.  
• Moisten wrapper edges with water.  
• Fold opposite sides over filling, pressing centers together to seal.  Repeat with remaining sides, making a four-pointed star.  
• Place on an ungreased baking sheet.  
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 18 min.

Crockpot Beef Stew

1 lb. stew beef cubes

4 carrots, sliced up or baby carrots, your choice

4 potatoes, chunked up

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 bag frozen peas (I use green beans instead, hate peas)

I like to add onions, too....

Spray bottom of crockpot with cooking spray.  Layer the beef, carrots, potatoes.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over top.  Spread evenly.

Cook for 7 - 10 hours.  

Serve with bread.

From Six Sisters.

Crockpot Dump Cake Apple Cobbler

1 20-oz. can apple pie filling (or even another flavor!

1 box yellow cake mix

6 T. melted butter

Dump apple pie filling into the bottom of the slow cooker.  Dump the cake mix, evenly, over the apples. Spoon the butter over the cake mix.  Don't mix!!

Cook on high for 4 hours.

Have the vanilla ice cream ready so that as soon as you spoon it out of the slow cooker the ice cream will melt and you'll have lusciousness ready to fill your taste buds.

From Six Sisters.

8-Can Taco Soup

 

Serves 6

1 15-oz can black beans (drained & rinsed)

1 15-oz can pinto beans (drained & rinsed)

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 15-oz. can corn (drained)

1 12.5 oz. can chicken breast (drained)

1 10.75 oz. can cream of chicken soup

1 10-oz. can green enchilada sauce

1 14-oz. can chicken broth

1 1-oz pkg. taco seasoning

Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

Pour in all ingredients and stir together

Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours.

Serve with sprinkled-on cheese and taco chips.

Notes

To make this a quick and easy freezer meal, pour all ingredients into a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Lay bag flat in the freezer. When ready to use, remove bag from the freezer and place in the fridge and let it thaw for 24 hours. Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Dump all the ingredients from the bag into slow cooker and stir together. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours. Serve with shredded cheese and tortilla chips. Makes 6 servings.

This comes from the Six Sisters site.

127. Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

listened on Audible

2015
352 pgs.
Adult Chick Lit/RomCom
Finished 8/31/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary Wyoming mountain wilderness

My comments: Didn't want this one to end a charming, fun story that you knew would end wonderfully and couldn't wait to see how you got there.  The two protagonists were incredibly lovable and believable and their survival/hiking part of the story was great to listen to.  I've got to read another by this author. A totally feel-good story, not without some sadness, but worth.  Great narrator, she nailed the different voices beautifully.

Goodreads synopsis:   A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Samuel S. Lewis State Park

Friday Field Trip Number One
East York, PA
York County

One letterbox:  "Hooty Hoot" (Una Marlee Sue) found in the state park

85 acres
9-hole frisbee golf course
huge mown field for kite-flying
lots of picnic tables

great view of the Susquenna River between Wrightsville and Columbia, PA

lots of big rocks for the kids to climb

less than an hour from home

114. The Fifth to Die by J. K. Barker

#2 MLK Murders
listened on Audible
narrated by Eduardo Ballerini and Graham Winton
Unabridged audio (15:07)
2018
416 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 8/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  432 - 5744 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Contemporary Chicago, with forays to New Orleans and Sourth Carolina

First line/s:  "Darkness.  It swirled around him deep and thick, eating the light and leaving nothing behind but an inky void."

What I posted on GoodReads:  Flipping back and forth between many pov's, the interesting, though gritty, mystery continues.

My comments:  Talk about ending on a cliffhanger!  I'm so glad I have the next book, the final book, in the trilogy ready and waiting.   Flipping back and forth between three Chicago cops, different girls who have been abducted, an FBI agent, and the diary of Bishop, the story comes at you from all angles.  Anson Bishop, an incredibly smart serial murderer - and a particularly gruesome one at that - is still at it, this time having an accomplice.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the thrilling sequel to The Fourth Monkey, a new serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago, while Detective Porter delves deeper into the dark past of the Four Monkey Killer.
          Detective Porter and the team have been pulled from the hunt for Anson Bishop, the Four Monkey Killer, by the feds. When the body of a young girl is found beneath the frozen waters of Jackson Park Lagoon, she is quickly identified as Ella Reynolds, missing three weeks. But how did she get there? The lagoon froze months earlier. More baffling? She’s found wearing the clothes of another girl, missing less than two days. While the detectives of Chicago Metro try to make sense of the quickly developing case, Porter secretly continues his pursuit of 4MK, knowing the best way to find Bishop is to track down his mother. When the captain finds out about Porter’s activities, he’s suspended, leaving his partners Clair and Nash to continue the search for the new killer alone.
          Obsessed with catching Bishop, Porter follows a single grainy photograph from Chicago to the streets of New Orleans and stumbles into a world darker than he could have possibly imagined, where he quickly realizes that the only place more frightening than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.

112. A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

#4 Ruth Galloway  - British Forensic Archeologist
listened to audio on Audible
narrated by Jane McDowell
Unabridged audio (9:44)
2012
352 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Police Procedural
Finished 8/2/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.91 - 14,325 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s:  "The coffin is definitely a health and safety hazard."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Another interesting mystery including a family museum, a horse farm, a 14th century bishop that turns out to be a female (!) and all sorts of ups and downs with parenting...including by Kate's father and Kate's father's wife, Michelle.....

My comments:  The mystery is about the Smith family, their horse farm, drug dealing, aboriginal bones. and a 14th century bishop(who turns out to be female) in the Smith Museum.  It's also about Harry Nelson getting sick and his wife, Michelle, coming to terms witht he fact that he is Kate's father and needs to be involved in her life (very good of Michelle, i think).  At the end of the book, Ruth and Max are becoming a couple.  Upcoming things to contemplate:  Nelson's sidekick is pregnatn, and although she is married, she has had a fling with Casbad.  A good story, though I wish Griffiths didn't use quite as many poinst-ov fivew as she did.  It all come together well, and was quite interesting to listen to.

Goodreads synopsis:  Combine a splash of Alan Bradley with a pinch of Kathy Reichs and you have a gripping new Ruth Galloway Mystery -- a good-hearted mystery series with a dark edge.
           Set in Norfolk, England, A Room Full of Bones embroils, once again, our brainy heroine in a crime tinged by occult forces. On Halloween night, the Smith Museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event -- the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when forensic archaelogist Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the curator, Neil Topham, dead beside the coffin. Topham's death seems to be related to other uncanny incidents, including the arcane and suspect methods of a group called the Elginists, which aims to repatriate the museum's extensive collection of Aborigine skulls; the untimely demise of the museum's owner, Lord Smith; and the sudden illness of DCI Harry Nelson, who Ruth's friend Cathbad believes is lost in The Dreaming -- a hallucinogenic state central to some Indigenous Australian beliefs. Tensions build as Nelson's life hangs in the balance. Something must be done to set matters right and lift Nelson out of the clutches of death, but will Ruth be able to muster herself out of a state of guilt and foreboding in order to do what she does best?

110. The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park

listened on Chirp
narrated by Kate Rudd & Raymond Lee
Unabridged audio (7:18)
2020
336 pgs.
YA RomCom
Finished 7/28/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.44 - 477 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: contemporary America

First line/s: "I'd recited this blah script more than 50 times."

My comments: A very cute story about a super-intelligent Korean senior and the rich-girl actress senior from another school that meet as employees in a zombie escape room.  Bullies and crappy fathers, cute five-year-old sisters and a yearning for the future all come together in a story for a quick and easy read.  Nothing new, but a fun listen.  

Goodreads synopsis:  Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?

          Luck comes in the form of Kate Anderson, Nate’s colleague at the zombie-themed escape room where he works. She approaches Nate with a plan: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize. It could solve all of Nate’s problems, and Kate needs the money too.
          If the two of them team up, Nate has a true shot at winning the grand prize. But the real challenge? Making through the weekend with his heart intact…

109. Thin Air by Lisa Gray

#1 Jessica Shaw, wandering PI
listened on Audible - have on Kindle, too
narrated by Amy Landon, who was excellent
Unabridged audio (8:44)
2019 Thomas & Mercer
288 pgs.
Adult Mystery, Series
Finished 7/25/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.87 - 39,273 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary Los Angles area, CA

First line/s: "I park the car four streets away, and walk the rest of the way."

My comments: Jessica discovers herself as a stolen child  when she was three years old.  We start with her discovery of that information.  She had had absolutely no idea.  Her mother had been murdered, herself as a baby gone. Raised in NY, she is now on the road in California, just a year or two after her much-loved father's death.  Of course she jumps into the case, which proves very interesting.  She's pretty smart and tracks down many clues, of course solving it.  She likes to drink and hit the road for the unknown....and that's how the book ends, with her hitting the road for parts unknown.  Sort of a female Jack Reacher, but without all his physical skills (and brilliance, lol).  I'm going to definitely check out other books to come in this series.  Next one is called Bad Memory, with number three coming out in November 2020.

Goodreads synopsis:  She investigates missing persons—now she is one.
           Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.
          Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she was abducted, Jessica’s determined to solve a case the police have forgotten. Meanwhile, veteran LAPD detective Jason Pryce is in the midst of a gruesome investigation into a murdered college student moonlighting as a prostitute. A chance encounter leads to them crossing paths, but Jessica soon realizes that Pryce is hiding something about her father’s checkered history and her mother’s death.
           To solve her mother’s murder and her own disappearance, Jessica must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But the air gets thinner as she crawls closer to the truth, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.

108. We're Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey

listened on Libby

narrated by Dani Martineck

Unabridged audio (6:56)
2019
256 pgs.
Middle Grade SciFi
Finished 7/23/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.05 - 1362 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: planet Choom, relocated from Earth

First line/s: "The first time I heard anything about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year."

My comments: Told from the point-of-view of a middle schooler, one of about 1,000 that are in another galaxy trying to be accepted on the planet of Choom after Earth was destroyed.  The planet is currently inhabited by three species, huge mosquito-like beings, enormous marshmallow-like beings, and smaller, also bug-like beings.  Emotions are heralded by smells.  A swarm mentality seems to be easily transferred from being to being.  The humans have to figure out a way to get past the fake news and anger that it manifests to a place where they are accepted and trusted.  Half of the book is angry fighting, which I really didn't enjoy.  The premise of the story was thoughtful, and I always enjoy a good scifi.

Goodreads synopsis:  Imagine being forced to move to a new planet where YOU are the alien! From the creator of the Tapper Twins, New York Times bestselling author Geoff Rodkey delivers a topical, sci-fi middle-grade novel that proves friendship and laughter can transcend even a galaxy of differences.

          The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. But life on the Mars station was grim, and since Earth was no longer an option (we may have blown it up), it was time to find a new home.
          That's how we ended up on Choom with the Zhuri. They're very smart. They also look like giant mosquitos. But that's not why it's so hard to live here. There's a lot that the Zhuri don't like: singing (just ask my sister, Ila), comedy (one joke got me sent to the principal's office), or any kind of emotion. The biggest problem, though? The Zhuri don't like us. And if humankind is going to survive, it's up to my family to change their minds. No pressure

107. Find Me by Ann Frasier

#1 Inland Empire

listened on Audible
narrated by Erin Bennett

Unabridged audio (9:16)
2020
282 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 7/21/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.14 - 21,189 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Palm Springs/Joshua Tree/29 Palms/High  Desert of southern California

First line/s:  "It was dark by the time Cathy Baker took off along the Southern California trail just outside the town of Redlands."

My comments: Anne Frasier is becoming one of my favorite authors in the mystery/murder mystery genre.  Always plenty to anticipate, never a dull moment; believable characters, and lots of twists and turns.  Psychopaths and sociopaths -- imagine being born into a family with these characteristices...and imagine living your whole life knowing that, as a kid, your much-adored father uses you as bait to reel in innocent young women to their deaths.  How do you live with that?  Anne Frasier takes you into the minds of her characters to allow you to hear their thoughts and feel their pain.  Couldn't put it down  Looks like there might be more in the series, too, yippee!

Goodreads synopsis:   A bone-chilling family history is unearthed in a heart-stopping thriller by New York Times bestselling author Anne Frasier.

          Convicted serial killer Benjamin Fisher has finally offered to lead San Bernardino detective Daniel Ellis to the isolated graves of his victims. One catch: he’ll only do it if FBI profiler Reni Fisher, his estranged daughter, accompanies them. As hard as it is to exhume her traumatic childhood, Reni can’t say no. She still feels complicit in her father’s crimes.

          Perfect to play a lost little girl, Reni was the bait to lure unsuspecting women to their deaths. It’s time for closure. For her. For the families. And for Daniel. He shares Reni’s obsession with the past. Ever since he was a boy, he’s been convinced that his mother was one of Fisher’s victims.

A five-hundred-mile road trip lies ahead. Thirty years of bad memories are flooding back. A master manipulator has gained their trust. For Reni and Daniel, this isn’t the end of a nightmare. It’s only the beginning

TV Series: Ray Donovan

Premiered: June, 2013
7 Seasons: 2013 - 2020
Number of Episodes: 12 per season
Length of Episode: 55ish minutes
IMBd: 8.3
RT Audience Score: 72/86
cag: Loved it so much!  6
Showtime

Characters:
Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber)
Mickey Donovan (his father) Jon Voight
Abby Donovan (wife)
Bridget Donovan (daughter)
Conner Donovan (son)
Terry Donovan (brother: boxer, club owner, Parkinson's)
Bunchy/Brendan Donovan (brother: still recovering from being abused by a priest when he was a kid)
Daryl (half-brother, Black)
Lena & Avi wholehearted employees

My comments:  Violent, full of boxing (which I hate) and frustration at a horrible father....you'd think I'd hate this.  But Liev Schreiber NAILS this role.  Exquisitely.  Wonderful actors and for the most part great stories.  (I wasn't so crazy about season 4 as the others) Immediate addiction! Loved it.

 

Storyline from IMBd:
          Ray Donovan, a professional "fixer" for the rich and famous in Los Angeles, can make anyone's problems disappear except those created by his own family.
           Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, Ray Donovan does the dirty work for LA's top power players. The one-hour series stars Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award nominee Liev Schreiber in his first lead television role as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city's celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear.
     Ray Donovan is a man of many faces. He's a cool, sophisticated Hollywood player but also a ruthless south Boston thug. He's a devoted family man who has trouble resisting come-ons from attractive clients, and a consummate professional who is also easily pushed to violence. His job as a problem fixer for the Hollywood elite has helped lift him out of the working class to within reach of the wealthy and powerful. But no amount of designer suits, sports cars or gold watches can completely mask his shady line of work, or his humble, blue collar roots. With his brothers always calling for help, his criminal father out of prison and causing trouble, and the FBI watching him like a hawk, Ray might be unable to shake his past.

95. One Last Lie by Paul Doiron

#11 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden

listened on Audible
narrated by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (9:33) 
2020 Minotaur Books
310 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 7/19/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.18 - 1139 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Fort Kent area, Maine

First line/s: "Before I left for Florida my old friend and mentor Charley Stevens gave me a puzzling piece of advice." 

My comments: Charley Stevens has disappeared, on his own, and Mike Bowditch is out hunting for him, following the breadcrumbs that he has left as a trail.  The story is a bit convoluted and involves a lot of people, and it seems to get a little bit disjointed at times.  Perhaps because it didn't hold my interest as much as the Bowditch stories usually do.  And I think he's going to get back with Stacy Stevens, I don't know what the attractions is with her, but his current girlfriend, Danny, doesn't want kids and he really does so that's probably the direction that Doiron want to take him.  He's 31 now, and ready to settle down, I think.  Well, it'll be another year before we discover the next episode.  I wish I'd liked this one a little bit better than I did.

Goodreads synopsis:  A sudden disappearance reveals a startling connection to a 15-year-old cold case in the new thriller from bestselling Edgar Award finalist Paul Doiron.

          “Never trust a man without secrets.” These are the last words retired game warden Charley Stevens speaks to his surrogate son, Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, before the old man vanishes without explanation into a thousand miles of forest along the Canadian border. Mike suspects his friend’s sudden disappearance has to do with an antique badge found at a flea market — a badge that belonged to a warden who was presumed dead fifteen years ago but whose body was never recovered. On a mission to find Charley before he meets a similarly dark fate, Mike must reopen a cold case that powerful people, including his fellow wardens — one of whom might be a killer — will do anything to keep closed.