15. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by MacKenzi Lee - BAILED!!

Montague Siblings #1
read on my iPhone
2017, Katherine Tegen Books
513 pgs. (read 40%, about 205 pgs.)
YA Fantasy
Stopped reading on Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Goodreads rating:  415 - 48,970 ratings
My rating:  2

First line/s:  "On the morning we are to leave for our Grand Tour of the Continent, I wake in bed beside Percy."

My comments:  Bailed at about 40 percent.  Couldn't stand the protagonist, and the bits of humor that were fun were definitely not enough to gloss over my eye-rolling dislike of this dolt ---not worth my time.

Goodreads synopsis:  Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.
          But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.
          Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

14. The Precipice by Paul Doiron

#6 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened to Audio (9:23)  borrowed from TPPL
read by Henry Levya
2015 Minotaur Books
322 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/28/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.01- 1998 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Appalachian Trail area in Northern Maine, September

First line/s:  "There is a sign at the southern entrance to the Hundred Mile Wilderness.  It is made of rust brown wood and painted with white letters, and it sends a stern and unmistakable warning to all who enter:"

My comments:  Excellent mystery, wonderful setting, with all sorts of well-written description. The Appalachian Trail has always fascinated me, and Steve and I used to take many Sunday or weekend drives to the areas near the setting - Monson, Greenville, Dover-Foxcroft.  Love the area.
           I'd forgotten how disconcerted I was last time I listened to one of these, because of the many mispronunciations the reader had.  I can't believe that these aren't corrected/edited - either by a thoughtful editor doing their job, or even the author.  Perhaps he's never listened to his works read aloud?  I think he'd be really annoyed!   Piscataquis, coyote, Bangor, Augusta, and even BOWDITCH are said wrong over and over and over again.  So frustrating for a Mainer to hear, yuck!  But, alas, not the author's fault, so I won't take ratings points off.
          My only criticism about the story itself is that Stacy Stevens is so unlikable to me.  Ordinarily it wouldn't be a problem, but Mike seems to be head over heals in love with her.  Not my favorite part of the story.  She's pushy, egotistical, moody, and not nice enough not only to others, but to Mike, too.  He'll never see it, though.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this riveting new novel from Edgar finalist Paul Doiron, Bowditch joins a desperate search for two missing hikers as Maine wildlife officials deal with a frightening rash of coyote attacks.
          When two young female hikers disappear in the Hundred Mile Wilderness—the most remote stretch along the entire two-thousand mile Appalachian Trail—Maine game warden Mike Bowditch joins the search to find them. The police interview everyone they can find who came in contact with the college students and learn that the women were lovers who had been keeping their relationship secret from their Evangelical parents in Georgia.
          When two corpses are discovered—the bones picked clean by coyotes—rumors spread that the women were stalked and killed by the increasingly aggressive canines. Faced with a statewide panic, Maine’s governor places an emergency bounty on every dead coyote, and wildlife officials are tasked with collecting the carcasses.
          Despite some misgivings, Bowditch does his grisly job. But he finds his complacency challenged by his new girlfriend, the brilliant but volatile biologist Stacey Stevens, who insists coyotes merely scavenged the bodies after the women were murdered. When Stacey herself disappears on the outskirts of the Hundred Mile Wilderness, Bowditch realizes that locating her means he must also discover the truth behind what happened to the two hikers. Were the young women really killed by coyotes or, as Stacey insisted, were they murdered by the most dangerous animal in the North Woods?

First Finished Project of 2019

Lisa's Baby Blanket and Receiving Blankets
YeeHa!  Ready to send to Portland tomorrow!
Link to Ravelry.

13. Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness

listened to Audio - borrowed from CCLS
read by Saskia Maarleveld
unabridged audio:  15:46
2018, Viking
436 pgs.
Adult Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Finished 1/27/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.89 - 12,147 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: (see my notes)

First line/s:  "On her last night as a warmblood, Phoebe Taylor had been a good daughter."

My comments: This story was written so magically and brilliantly that I'm left quite star-struck.  Deborah Harkness has the same kind of storytelling abilities as J. K. Rowling, who frequently leaves me in awe.  Where do these stories and the way they are intertwined come from?  Such a gift!  Flipping back and forth from contemporary France to historical America, Paris, and London of 1770 through the beginning of the 19th century, we follow favorite characters from the Discovery of Witches series, particularly Marcus, Miriam, and Diana and Matthew and their toddler twins.  So much history is detailed, especially the American and French Revolutions. Yes, it was a little slow during the French Revolution, but the details of being "reborn" were a blast!   I learned a lot of American History.  And I was mesmerized.  Such wonderful storytelling!

Goodreads synopsis:  From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, a novel about what it takes to become a vampire. 
          On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
          Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor—the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for—is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both—forever.
          A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.

12. Run You Down by Julia Dahl

#2 Rebekah Roberts
read on my iPhone
2015 Minotaur Books
287 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/26/19
Goodreads rating: 3.76 - 1344 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC and Roseville, NY, just north of NYC

First line/s: "Florida was not what I imagined.  There was no ocean where your father lived, that was the first thing."

My comments: (I wonder why, of all the possible titles this could be given, they decided on this?)  I don't remember much of the nitty-gritty of what happened in Invisible City, but I remember I liked it a lot.  Therefore, I read this book almost as a standalone.  There were a number of things that bothered me, but they didn't bother me enough to lower my rating.  The close connection - and I do mean close - between reporter Rebekah and the people of her news story was soooo impossible, but I didn't care.  I didn't mind switching back-and-forth between Rebekah and the mother who had abandoned her 20 years before, other than in a couple of places that information was revealed by Aviva and I attributed that information to Rebekah having known those details, so that was a little confusing until I figured it out.  It was an interesting story, perhaps unbelievable in spots but for some reason I didn't care.  I really enjoyed it, and the peaks into the strict Orthodox Jewish community,

Goodreads synopsis:  Aviva Kagan was a just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida-and then disappeared. Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from is a NYC tabloid reporter named Rebekah Roberts. And Rebekah isn't sure she wants her mother back in her life.
          But when a man from the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Roseville, N.Y. contacts Rebekah about his young wife's mysterious death, she is drawn back into Aviva's world. Pessie Goldin's body was found in her bathtub, and while her parents want to believe it was an accident, her husband is certain she was murdered.
          Once she starts poking around, Rebekah encounters a whole society of people who have wandered "off the path" of ultra-Orthodox Judaism-just like her mother. But some went with dark secrets, and rage at the insular community they left behind.
          In the sequel to her Edgar Award finalist Invisible City, Julia Dahl has created a taut mystery that is both a window into a secretive culture and an exploration of the demons we inherit.

11. Fiance for Hire by Nina Strych

read on my iPhone (Kindle Unlimited)
2016 self published?
183 pgs.
Adult romance
Finished 1/25/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.79 - only 42 ratings so far
My rating: 2.5 (Sizzle factor 3/4)
Setting: Contemporary Washington, DC

First line/s: "Gianna's phone buzzed with the ring-tone that belonged only to her mother."

My comments:  Ha ha - I love that the end of the Goodreads summary it says that these Escort books are "a series of stand-alone contemporary romances, each featuring a new woman and her escort as they take their unique path toward love."  Crack me up!  Unique path towards love!  You've read one, you've read them all...but I keep on reading them, lol, for light, humorous pleasure! (It WAS free, after all...)

Goodreads synopsis:  Gianna’s family has almost driven her to insanity. On her thirtieth birthday, things went too far when her mother wore black and cried over Gianna’s single state. Her career in bustling Washington, D.C. is all she wants to focus on for the moment, so she develops a plan that should stop all the pressure for good. If they want her to marry, she’ll get that fiancé they crave for her...and won’t they be sorry she did.
           As a fake fiancé, Logan is ideal. Handsome, bright, funny, and up for the game. The only problem? He’s too handsome, bright, funny, and a match for every game Gianna can devise. As he quickly escalates from escort to co-conspirator, Gianna finds herself far too eager for every appointment. Whether at dinner with the parents or swimming in the sea, every glance or touch sends her body into overdrive. As the game intensifies, so does the electricity between them…and Logan might be just the live wire she’s been waiting her whole life to touch.

MOVIE - Glass

PG-13 (1:50)

Wide release 1/18/19

Viewed 1/22/19 at Carlisle 8

IMBd: 7/10

RT Critic:  37  Audience:  74

Critic's Consensus:  Glass displays a few glimmers of M. Night Shyamalan at his twisty world-building best, but ultimately disappoints as the conclusion to the writer-director's long-gestating trilogy.

Cag:    4/Liked it a lot

Directed by M. Night Shyamalen

Universal Pictures

Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson

My comments:  Good move, what I would call a psychological thriller.  James McAvoy was wonderful as the multi-split-personality creepo that he apparently portrayed in the movie Split a year or so back.  Wish I had seen it.  Then I discovered that the Bruce Willis character and the Samuel Jackson characters were in a previous movie together, and this must've been somewhat of a continuation?  It didn't matter because you didn't have to see either one of those to totally get drawn into this one.  I was a little nervous that I was not going to understand, at the end, what we really going on, but they did give enough information to make it completely understandable.  It take place in Philadelphia and was filmed in Philadelphia and Allentown, apparently.   Good entertainment.

RT/ IMDb Summary  From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb's superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.

PICTURE BOOK - Drawn Together by Minh Le

Illustrated by Dan Santat

2018, Disney/Hyperion

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.30 - 2298 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Front:  a drawing of grankid's and bak: a drawing of grandpa's.

Front flap:  Sometimes you don't need words to find common ground."

1^st line/s:  Wordless for many pages, then:  "So...what's new, Grandpa?"

My comments:  lmost, but not quite, wordless.  Grandson and Grandad spend time together, but think they have nothing in common and nothing to talk about until..... Grandson pulls out markers and journal and begins to draw himself as a superhero.  Grandfather excitedly retrieves his sketchbook and calligraphy brush to show his line drawings of dragons and slayers!  Common ground...and a new understanding and appreciation of each other.  COOL! Story and drawings are great.

Goodreads:  When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens-with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words.
          With spare, direct text by Minh Lê and luminous illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat, this stirring picturebook about reaching across barriers will be cherished for years to come.

10. The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

read on my iPhone (borrowed from TPPL)
2018, Knopf
336 pgs.
Adult CRF (could also be YA)
Finished 1/21/19
Goodreads rating:  3.97 - 13,462 ratings
My rating:  4

First line/s:  "On the day I turn seventeen, there is a meeting to decide whether I should have the baby or if sneaking me to a clinic for an abortion is worth the PR risk."

My comments:  This story switched back and forth between three narrators, and it wasn't until I was reflecting back on the story that I realized how important the third pov, that of Liberty Bell, the reporter, was.  Once I started this book I pretty much read right through, it was hard to put down.  There wasn't a whole lot of religious zeal for me to make fun of, and although it was THERE it wasn't highlighted, which added to its appeal for me.  Very interesting story!

Goodreads synopsis:  A debut novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the emotionally stirring, wildly captivating story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.
          Esther Ann Hicks--Essie--is the youngest child on Six for Hicks,a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media--through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell--Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom?

Poetry Picture Book - This Big Sky by Pat Mora

Illustrated by  Steve Jenkins

1998, Scholaswtic Press

currently OOP, but used available cheaply

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Terracotta

Illustrations:    Cut-Paper Collage 

My comments:  14 poems about the southwestern desert!

This Big Sky

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Two ravens burst black

from a pinon tree

into the blare

of blazing sun.

I follow their wide ebony flight

over copper hills,

down canyons shimmering gold

autumn leave.

Two ravens spread their wings, rise

into whispers

of giant pines, over mountains blue

with memories.

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Goodreads Summary:  An evocative collection of fourteen poems that combines Pat Mora's simple, yet stunning words with Steve Jenkins' bright collage images to capture the beauty and mystery of the American Southwest.
          In fourteen lyrical, beautifully spare poems, renowned Latina poet Pat Mora brings the landscape, animals, and people of the Southwest into sharp focus. Steve Jenkins richly textured cut-paper illustrations work with the text to evoke the power of this vast place where every heart has a home, and every dream has a piece of sky.

9. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike #4 (J. K. Rowling pseudonym)
listened to on audio - from TPPL
read by Robert Glenister
2018, Sphere
656 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/20/2019 (Ashley's 17th birthday)
Goodreads rating:  4.30 -- 43,301 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  In and around London, contemporary time

First line/s:  "If only the swans would swim side by side on the dark green lake, this picture might turn out to be the crowning achievement of the wedding photographer's career."

My comments:  I love listening to Robert Glenister read Cormoran Strike.  I can even tell when he uses different accents for different places in England!  This was a l-o-n-g mystery, but quite a bit of it told the story of Robyn's wedding, first anniversary, and all the turmoil and activity surrounding these events, which definitely fit really well into the telling of the story.  We have such an investment in Cormoran and Robyn, and it's always interesting to see where this goes, or might be headed, in each subsequent book.  The mystery is engaging and complicated, very complicated, but it's pretty easy to not get confused.  Every single tiny little detail is examined, discussed, and fits in like a puzzle piece.  A little too long, a few too many minute details repeated, but otherwise a very interesting, thought-provoking mystery.

Goodreads synopsis:  “I seen a kid killed…He strangled it, up by the horse.”
          When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.
          Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.
          And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

8. Toxic by Lydia Kang

read on my iPhone
2018 Entangled Teen
340 pgs.
YA SciFi
Finished 1/19/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.79 - 139 ratings
My rating:  2
Setting:  In the future, on a huge, dying space station called Cyclo, which used to house 1000 people.

First line/s:  "Where is Mother?  Where is she?  Inside my room, my tiny bubble of a room, I pace like the lions in their tiny iron enclosures from Earth's old menageries --- what did the call them in the vids?  Zoological parks?  Mother is never missing at breakfast.  Never."

My comments: This had great potential at its start, but quickly spiraled down into a gobbledygook of scientific terminology and endless boring description,  I absolutely hated 50% of the story and somewhat enjoyed the other 50%.  I thought it would never end, and skimmed a lot of the second half so that I could see how they would (probably) be saved.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Hana isn't supposed to exist. She's grown up hidden by her mother in a secret room of the bioship Cyclo until the day her mother is simple gone - along with the entire crew. Cyclo tells her she was abandoned, but she's certain her mother wouldn't leave her there to die. And Hana isn't ready to die yet. She's never really had a chance to live.
          Fenn is supposed to die. He and a crew of hired mercenaries are there to monitor Cyclo as she expires, and the payment for the suicide mission will mean Fenn's sister is able to live. But when he meets Hana, he's not sure how to save them both.
          As Cyclo grows sicker by the day, they unearth more secrets about the ship and the crew. But the more time they spend together, the more Hana and Fenn realize that falling for each other is what could ultimately kill them both. 

PICTURE BOOK - Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman

Illustrated by  Rick Allen
2011 Newbery Honor
2010. Houghton Mifflin

HC $16.99
32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.97 - 1853 ratings

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  solid royal purple

Illustrations:  Woodprints?

My comments:  Sophisticated poetry about some of the creatures that creep in the woods at night, illustrated with lovely prints by Rick Allen.

Goodreads:

Welcome to the Night

To all of you who crawl and creep,
who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep,
who wake at dusk and throw off sleep;
Welcome to the night.

To you, who make the forest sing,
who dip and dodge on silent wing,
who flutter, hover, clasp, and cling:
Welcome to the night!

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,
come smell your way among the trees,
come touch rough bark and leathered leaves;
Welcome to the night.

The night's a sea of dappled dark,
the night's a feast of sound and spark,
the night's a wild, enchanted park.
Welcome to the night!

PICTURE BOOK - Ocean Meets Sky by the Fan Brothers

Illustrated by the authors

2018, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

HC #17.99

40  pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.23 - 1814 ratings

My rating: 3.5 

Endpapers:  Animal clouds

Illustrations:  Lovely, best part of the book

1^st line/s:  "Finn lived by the sea,
and the sea lived by him.
"It's a good day for sailing,"
his grandfather would have said."

My comments:  Lovely illustrations, story is a tiny bit vague, but also quite lovely.  I get stymied by little things...how can a very young boy have a 90-year old grandfather?  Might this perhaps have been his great-grandfather...but then would they have been so close?  Silly questions like that bogged me down.  So a second reading was needed and enjoyed.  I'm still not sure why I didn't like the book as much as I expected I would...

Goodreads:  Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float.
          Finn’s grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself!
          And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.

MOVIE - Bumblebee

PG-13 (1:54)

Wide release 12/21/18

Viewed 1/15/18 at Carlisle 8 with T

IMBd: 7.3/10

RT Critic:  92  Audience:  79  unbelievable, how can this be?

Critic's Consensus:  Bumblebee proves it's possible to bring fun and a sense of wonder back to a bloated blockbuster franchise -- and sets up its own slate of sequels in the bargain.

Cag:  I'll give it a 2 ... barely....

Directed by Travis Knight

Paramount Pictures

Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena

My comments:  I think of all the mindless crap I've watched with the kids, these Transformers movies are the worst.  And SO violent!

RT/ IMDb Summary  On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.