Tag: book reviews

Both Stephen O’Connor and ancient Ojibwe healer, Henry Meloux, have seen visions of Henry’s death. The vision disturbs Stephen, but Meloux is less concerned about it, trusting in the Great Spirits to take him to the next world at the appropriate time.  At the moment, he is most concerned with trying to help two women escape from the mercenaries looking for one of them. The women include his great niece, Rainy and Dolores Morrisseau, a woman who has come to the north woods seeking Henry’s guidance and wisdom with a personal problem in her marriage.

As Dolores, Rainy and Henry seek to elude the violent men tracking them by hiking ever deeper into the vast expanse of the land of the boundary waters, Rainy’s husband, Cork O’Connor, is trying to identify both the hunters and the reason for their pursuit.

Filled with foreboding and menace, the story is told from multiple viewpoints and builds to a dramatic conclusion.  This was a very satisfying story from one of my very favorite authors.

At the Barbizon Residential Hotel, young women new to New York City, but with ambitions far beyond the small towns they came from, are able to stay in a safe retreat. Beautiful models and secretarial students from the nearby Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School mingle in the hallways and common areas.

When Darby McLaughlin arrives in 1952 to study at the secretarial school, she feels like a plain Jane country hick compared to the sophisticated models. Her only friend, Esme, a maid at the hotel, introduces her to life beyond the shelter of the Barbizon- a life of nightclubs ambition and maybe some romance.

By 2016 the Barbizon has been converted to luxury condominiums. And Rose Lewin, a disgraced journalist, has just been kicked out of her married lover’s condo because he wants to get back with his wife “for the sake of the children.” By this time though, Rose has met a few of “the women,” as they are known- longtime residents from the glory days when the building was still a residential hotel.  Conversations with some of the women has given her an idea for a story. She’s heard rumors of the death of a hotel made back in the 1950s that involves one of the women, Darby, with whom she’s had some minimal conversation.

Rose’s investigation becomes a distraction from her own disintegrating life, her breakup, her current job that she hates, and the failing health of her beloved dad.  But since some of the clues Rose has found while investigating the story may have been found in ethically questionable ways, Rose may be risking everything in pursuit of the story.

This was an interesting book about an iconic New York City landmark.

Margery and Clementine are lunch ladies, though Clementine prefers their actual title which is Education Center Nourishment Consultants.  Their job is to prepare and serve lunch to the students at Summerview Secondary School.

Their peaceful existence is shattered when their manager is found dead in a walk-in freezer.  While the police are convinced that the manager’s death was an accident, Marjorie and Clementine are less sure- especially after the freezer door mysteriously locks behind them after they’ve decided to take a peek at the scene. They managed to escape the freezer, but as they continue to investigate the matter of their manager’s death, it begins to seem that now someone is out to kill them!

This is a fun British cozy mystery and apparently the first of a series.

This non-fiction book came in at just over 500 pages, but I am glad to have read it. This book was a selection by the McLean County Museum of History and Bloomington Public Library for the history book club.

This book focused on the history of the newspaper founded by Robert Abbott in the late 19th century, and the African American history Abbott sought to enlighten and uplift. But one could not escape learning about the history of Chicago, and notable African Americans who impacted both their community and the nation.  I know I didn’t say much about this book, but it is well worth reading. 

Even though it’s spring in the ordinarily tranquil village of Three Pines, there is a strong element of tension and fear present throughout this story.

The book takes us from the present to the past and reveals details about how Inspector Gamache first met Jean Guy Beauvoir, now his second in command and son-in-law. That case involved murder, and two orphaned children who had already witnessed true horror in their young lives.

Now in the present day, those two children are now grown up, and have come to Three Pines.  Fiona is there at Inspector Gamache’s invitation, and her brother, Sam, has come to help her celebrate an achievement of hers.  Meanwhile, in the village a hidden room has been found in one of the local buildings, as well as a letter from many years ago describing the fear felt by the stonemason who had built the barricade to that room. When the room was opened, many curious things were found in that hidden room, some old, and surprisingly, some new.  But was something truly evil freed as well?

This author expertly brings together elements from actual history as well as imagined events into a gripping story that was truly difficult to put down.

Baby boomers like me might have vague memories of a TV show from the 1950s that was rerun in the 1960s involving Rin Tin Tin, a heroic German shepherd dog. I was surprised to learn that Rin Tin Tin was an actual dog who later became a movie and TV star.

The original dog was found in a bombed-out dog kennel in France in World War One.  The man who found him was Lee Duncan, who had been raised in an orphanage, and to Duncan, that surviving puppy was a miracle that he wanted to share with the world. It didn’t hurt Duncan’s cause to find out that the dog was smart, athletic and had natural acting talent.  Rin Tin Tin starred in 23 blockbuster silent films that actually saved the Warner Brothers studios from bankruptcy. Over the years, Rinti, as Duncan called him, and his descendants, transitioned from acting in silent films to talkies, from black and white films to color, and from movies to TV shows. The author explores how the relationship between humans and dogs has evolved from a time when dogs were only valued for the work they could do and has morphed to a point where dogs are now valued members of our families.

This was a very interesting and informative book about a dog, Rin Tin Tin, and the people who loved him. It’s also about how Rin Tin Tin, helped create a perception of a dog as a loyal friend, and heroic companion.

This was a Hudson Literary Guild selection. 

The story focuses on Alma Belasco and the various relationships in her life.  As a child, Alma’s beloved brother went away to war, and her parent’s sent her from prewar Poland to live with wealthy relatives in San Francisco.  When we first met her, she has decided to move into Lark House, a senior living facility with various levels of care.  Here Alma meets Irina, whom she hires to help her sort through and dispose of her possessions as Alma prepares for the eventual end of her life. 

As Irina, and Seth, Alma’s grandson who is writing a book about his grandmother’s life, review her belongings, they find the answer to Alma’s mysterious periodic disappearances.  Though Alma never discussed it, Irina learns that Alma had had a lover, Ichimei, the son of the Belasco family’s Japanese gardener.  Ichimei, and his family had been in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, causing him to lose touch with Alma for a long while.  When Lenny, a new resident at Lark House, turns out to be an old friend of Alma’s, that also raises questions about Alma’s relationship with her husband, Nathaniel.  But, Irina has secrets too, that prevent her from allowing Seth the intimacy he craves. 

The story is told in alternating viewpoints, that allow the reader to gradually discover everyone’s secrets. 

Gladwell is always fascinating to read. In this work he considers how so-called little guys like David from the biblical story, can – and often do – succeed against what appear to be much bigger and stronger opponents like Goliath. Gladwell suggests that one of the reasons for this is that the little guys often have advantages like skill, agility, or the ability and determination to try a different/untested approach to resolve a problem.  Gladwell looked at issues as diverse as small class size in schools, basketball defense, medical research, and even affirmative action all the while challenging this readers assumptions about some of those issues.

This was a very interesting and enlightening work.

I picked up this nonfiction book while trying to complete my Hudson Library Book Bingo card.   This book is from the 000 section of the card catalog which refers to Computer Science, Information and General Works.  It is an amusing, sometimes disgusting, sometimes heartwarming collection of anecdotes of library staff interactions with patrons.

Here’s one: a woman came into the library, set a stack of movies on the counter and loudly announced “I have watched all your good movies. Do you have any good books here?”  I’d share more, but though they are quick to read, they are not so quick to relate.

In some respects, this book reminded me of The Library Book by Susan Orlean that the Hudson Literary Guild read a while back.  That book discussed how libraries often act as a Community Center as well as a Center for information. After reading both of these books, I concluded that librarians are probably underrated and likely undervalued for their skills not only in checking out books, filing books, and choosing books, but also for their customer service, computer, and sometimes psychological skills in aiding customers.

This was a quick and easy to read book and although I admit I was looking for something fairly quick to read in the non-fiction it was still an enlightening collection of anecdotes.

I had a Christmas gift card burning a hole in my pocket when I found this at Barnes and Noble.  Needless to say, this book by one of my favorite authors jumped to the top of my reading stack. It’s the latest Harry Bosch/Renee Ballard mystery but could easily be read as a standalone story.

In this book, Ballard has returned to active duty to head a new cold case in the LAPD robbery homicide division. She insists on having retired homicide detective Harry Bosch as part of the team. He agreed to join the team as a volunteer, but one of his conditions for returning to work is that he be allowed to work on one of his old cases that had haunted him for years, the brutal murder and desert burial of a young family of four. Ballard agrees, but the new units first priority must be the decades old case involving the murder of a current LA councilman’s sister, since that Councilman is largely responsible for funding the new unit. When they get a “cold hit,” meaning a DNA match on a similar, still-unsolved crime, tensions run high as the team seeks a serial killer who had gone undetected for years.

This was excellent and I absolutely could not put it down. I thought I had guessed who the serial killer was, but I was wrong.