Mad Honey by Picoult & Finney Boylan

A big thank you to Mrs. Suraci, retired WHHS art teacher, for donating this to our Library and putting it on my to-read list for New Title Tuesday!

I hate to say I did not like it.  

The story is told in alternating viewpoints.  First is Olivia.  She is a single mom who fled an abusive marriage with her young son who is now a senior.  She lives in her former childhood home and took over her father's bee/honey business. Her side of the story is in the present going forward.  Second is Lily.  Also a senior, and girlfriend of Olivia's son Ash, her story goes backwards from the day of her murder.  Ash is the primary suspect.  

As we go back and forth between past and present, we see Ash wants to reconcile with his own father and for Lily to reconcile with hers.  He seems to want a "big happy family", which is clearly impossible due to theirs and their mothers trauma.  The novel becomes a court room drama.  

I don't want to spoil too much, since this is a murder mystery, but I did not like how we are actually told the truth before the book is over.  There's too much potato and not enough meat.  And this was definitely written as a cross over appeal between Mom Murder Mystery and YA Romance.  I felt the story was confuzzled about which it really wanted to be.  Could be a L&O SVU episode for sure. I think though what bothered me most, as the Mom of a teenage boy, was that everyone in town assumed Ash's guilt automatically.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.      

Exiles by Jane Harper

This is book #2 of the 18 I've planned through the end of the school year.  I just added it to our collection.

Amazon recommends a lot of varied genres, authors, styles, and topics to me; and I suppose rightfully so.  I read a LOT of different stuff.  Lately though, its AI has decided to list murder mysteries, and that is what this novel is.  In addition, it's another story set in Australia.  I'm going to need to check that before I purchase any more.  Nothing against Australia, but it's really not an interest for me in terms of setting.  Being such a unique place, there are colloquialisms and cultural nuances that I find difficult and often need to supplement my own Googling to understand fully. 

I will say the story held my interest, but I had correct suspicions early on as to whodunit.  Kim Gillespie is happily married to Rohan with an infant, Zoe.  She's stayed on friendly terms with her ex-husband Charlie, who has custody of their teen, Zara.  On the opening night of the local carnival, Kim parks Zoe's stroller at the ferris wheel, escapes out the back exit, and either jumps or falls into the adjacent lake.  Her body isn't recovered, but a shoe with a specific marking is found.  A year later, Zara has not given up the search for her mother.  She insists there is no way Kim would've left her baby sister nor her to kill herself and foul play must be involved.  She claims Sheriff Dwyer is incompetent, using his failure to solve a hit and run that killed a local accountant on a jog the previous year as well as an example.  Zara's uncle Raco and his friend Falk, an Australian equivalent of FBI agent in town for Raco's baby's christening, try to shed new light on Kim's case.

Like I said, I had it figured out pretty early.  I also think this will likely be book #1 in a series with Falk as the lead investigator on other crimes.  But, a good story.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

My next reading challenge for myself is going to be #titletuesday!  Each Tuesday I will start a new book til the end of the school year.  Any books I purchase will be donated to the WHHS Library after I review them here.  If my math is correct, that's 18 new books!

So, this was suggested to me by Amazon.  Guessing because I am a Stephen King fan?  The description indicated ghost story/horror and dry humor.  I'm intrigued.

But. The. Dolls. And. Puppets.

OMG.  I will have nightmares for days after reading this.

I don't scare easily, but this CREEPED ME OUT.  

My great-aunt has a house full of dolls.  I am terrified of them.  This story is exactly why.

This was Annabell, Chucky, and Megan and King's "Battleground" toy army all rolled into one.  

Oh, and an invisible Cujo-like Spider-Dog who ends up saving the humans. 

So, so, so scary.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Once a Wolf by Bryan Sykes

 

Well, I did not meet my goal of 31 books in 31 days.  But, 23 isn't so bad a total!  I saved this one for last so that my new assistant Shyne could pose with the book.  She'd rather eat it.  Wolf indeed.

I have really wanted to update our collection's holdings in math and science.  It's been difficult in that things are moving so quickly, by the time I'm able to get something on our wish list, wait for ordering to roll around in May, for the order to be placed in July, for the shipment to arrive in September, whatever I saw that piqued my interest is probably already obsolete!  So instead I've been looking for non-science and math lead topics that incorporate them.  

Oh, and I love dogs.

So how did two completely opposite species, who at one time were likely fighting over the same food sources, become best friends?  How did the vicious wolf end up watching Animal Planet on human couches?  In what ways has our DNA changed and stayed the same over our evolutionary paths?

This was really amusing and makes the science easy to understand.  I liked it so much I put another of the author's works on our wish list.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo

This is book 22 of Book a Day January.

I read Harjo's 2012 memoir Crazy Brave some years ago, and we have the updated edition in our collection.  This is her new memoir, published in 2021.  Harjo is the first Indigenous Poet Laureate of the United States and is a member of the Muscogee Nation.  She is a poet, musician, activist, and professor.

What I like about this style of memoir, similar to Ordinary Hazards and My Name is Jason, is the intermingling of poetry (both lyrical and free), prose, and art.  There is never boring "and on this day I did this" that sometimes occurs in autobiographical works.  

Poet Warrior details the oral stories Harjo learned as a child, many passed down for generations, and laments the loss of such created by our technology-driven society.  She discusses her influences in the realm of poetry (and they are an eclectic mix of authors) and in life as a wife, mother, woman, and Native American Indian.  And how all of that intersects with our current political climate. 

You can read Harjo's factual background here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Harjo

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Ridgeline by Michael Punke

I have failed miserably at Book a Day January.  This is book 21.  It took me 2.5 days to get through, and I forgot to take my two weekend books home, leaving them on the Circ Desk. It looks like it'll be 23 books in 31 days. Eh.

You may know Punke's famous first novel by its movie adaptation: The Revenant starring Leo.  As we look to improve our holdings by and about the Indigenous peoples of the United States, this was recommended by our book vendor Follett.  Punke grew up in Wyoming near Fort Laramie and currently lives in Montana.   

This is a fictionalized account of the 1866 conflict in Powder Valley, Wyoming between westward expanding Americans and the tribes who have always called these lands home.  Red Cloud, revered leader of the Lakota, seeks a resolution while Crazy Horse, a fierce warrior, wants to drive the settlers back by any means necessary.  The white soldiers deal with internal strife, as the Civil War has left the army fractured.  There are many desertions as men fight the temptation to search for gold instead.  

This was not an easy read.  Besides the bloodshed, there are a LOT of characters.  Punke does his readers a favor with a brief chart at the beginning and more in-depth explanations at the end.  He also explains where and when he took creative license and gives more history to some.  The style is a cross between Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Petry's narrative biography of Harriet Tubman, and Dances With Wolves.  

I'll be adding this to our Indigenous subcollection momentarily.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

We are feeling much better!  That was a NASTY bug!

I know I totally failed at Book a Day January, but this is book 20 for the month.

AND I HATED IT.

This was recommended as an independent reading book for an advanced science course and requested to be put on my most recent district order.  I don't want call my colleague out, but my goodness this was awful.

I think the premise is great, and that's why I wanted to read this.  A young woman studying the nearly extinct Artic tern (bird) wants to follow their migration pattern.  Franny finagles her way onto a fishing vessel and heads south, finding herself on the way.  Sounds good. A little nature, a little conservation, a little female in a male-dominated science. 

Nowhere in the description does this say it's somewhere in the future.  ALL animals are nearly extinct in this dystopian world.  Those who fish and hunt are vilified.  Franny's descriptions of men and those of other skin colors are disparaging.  We learn Franny is a liar who thinks only about herself with little care whom she hurts on her "quest".  

I seriously wanted to throw this by 30 pages in.  

I look forward to proofreading the written examination by the student who chose this as her reading book, but if I know anything about her, she will be brutally honest about this character, novel, and author!

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.