October 2020 in Books

Another big month of reading.  I'm still hammering away at the ever growing pile of kids books that the girls are reading trying to keep up and not really succeeding, but enjoying chatting with the girls about the books once I finally get to them.  A lot of really good quick reads this month also and a couple duds.  My favorites this month are probably In Five Years, The Book of Lost Names, and The Devil and the Dark Water, full rundown follows:

Hoot - Carl Hiassen - juvenile fiction - five stars - The girls have gotten into these Carl Hiassen books, so you're going to be seeing more of these.  This one is about a boy named Roy who has just moved to Florida.  He's being bullied on the bus when he sees something odd out the window of the bus, a boy running top speed, on a mission, who he's never seen before.  Intrigued, Roy decides he needs to investigate. This leads to new friends, and a mission to save a whole bunch of really cute burrowing owls.  We all really enjoyed this one.

The Train to Impossible Places (The Train to impossible places, #1) - P.G. Bell - juvenile fiction - three stars - I had originally borrowed this from the library for Ellie.  She had a hard time getting into it, but I thought it was OK.  The Impossible Postal Express is how trolls deliver mail from world to world.  Due to an accident along the line, they've had to re-route it, right through Suzy's living room.  Normally she would sleep right through the event, but there was a mix-up with the prep crew and she didn't get doused with the sleeping powder.  Instead, she hitches a ride on the train and becomes a Deputy Post Master.  She's supposed to deliver a package to Lady Crepuscula, but the package begs her not to, and that sets of a chain of events/adventure.  The idea of the book was good, but in some ways it felt like fleshed out bits and pieces of a storyline with connections that needed more fleshing out.  While I enjoyed it, I'm not sure I'll be reading the rest of the series.

The Ventriloquists - E.R. Ramzipoor - historical fiction - three stars - I really really wanted to love this book.  It's such a great WWII story that takes place in Brussels.  The Nazi propaganda machine has gained control of the print media, including Le Soir, the most popular Belgium newspaper.  The resistance meanwhile has been churning out all sorts of resistance papers, which have attracted the attention of the Nazis.  They capture a number of resistance leaders and blackmail them into releasing a newspaper that is actually Nazi propaganda, but instead the resistance decides to pretend to comply, but instead release a 'faux Soir', a resistance version of Le Soir poking fun at the Nazis.  It's a really wonderful story, but it gets so bogged down in the minutiae, twisting plotlines, etc.  Just really need some good editing. I found myself getting bored and frustrated in the reading. 

In Five Years - Rebecca Serle - fiction - five stars - I really loved Serle's first book The Dinner List, and was excited to read this one.  Dannie Kohan has everything going for her, she nails an interview with her dream firm, her boyfriend proposes, she falls asleep thinkin everything is right with the world.  When she wakes up it's five years later, and she wakes up in a strange apartment with a strange man.  When she wakes up again, she's back in the present, but she can't shake that glimpse at the future.  Eventually she's able to move past it, mostly, but four and a half years later, she meets that strange man again.  It's a really interesting look at how solitary moments don't tell the whole story, and about the choices that you make, and friendship, and love.  I really enjoyed this one.

The Exiles - Christina Baker Kline - historical fiction - five stars - Loved this one, it's about the use of Australia as a penal colony, specifically the island of Tasmania previously known as Van Diemen's Island.  Evangeline, a governess who is found to be pregnant, is dismissed from her position and sentenced to transport to Van Diemen's.  On the ship, a repurposed slave ship, she meets many others, each with their own story as to why they have been exiled.  The story follows the ship's passengers after the reach Van Diemen giving readers a view of life in the penal colony.  A secondary storyline follows the journey of Matthina an orphaned aboriginal girl.  Her family had been relocated by the British when they colonized Australia, and she is then adopted by the Governor of Van Diemen's.  You can see her difficulty in adjusting to life with the British, how she has to change herself and how eventually she doesn't belong anywhere, not with her people, not with the British.  Such a good read.

The Royal Governess - Wendy Holden - historical fiction - four stars - The story of Marion Crawford, who accepts a position as governess for their Highnesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose.  This one was OK, it's probably more of a three and a half that I rounded up.  I thought Crawford's background was interesting, she had actually wanted to teach kids in the slums, and the details of Elizabeth/Margaret's life were interesting too, especially how things changed once George became king.  My problem was that I just didn't really like Crawford that much.  After reading the book I did read a bit more about her and found out that after her time working for the royals, she wrote a book about it, and was ostracized from the royal family because of it.  Reading the facts of her life (from wikipedia) she's a sad figure - she cares for the royal children, doesn't have any of her own, has an unhappy marriage and is ignored by the royal family following publication of her book.  I think this book tried to make her a sympathetic character, but it fell flat for me.

One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid - fiction - four stars - I've really enjoyed Jenkins Reed's books and thought I would try another.  I didn't love this one as much as the others, but it was a good read.  It's about Emma Blair who marries her high school sweetheart Jesse, they live an adventurous life, travel, and move far away from home (California from Massachusetts).  On their first anniversary,  Jesse disappears in a helicopter crash.  Emma's life is shattered, she leaves California and moves home and after a long grieving process finds love again.  She's engaged when Jesse calls, back from the dead.  It's an impossible situation.  The book shows Emma's past, how she and Jesse came to be as well as how she and Sam came to be, and the process of trying to determine how, and with whom, to move on after Jesse's return.  

Codename Zero (The Codename Conspiracy #1) - Chris Rylander - juvenile fiction - five stars - Because we loved Rylander's Fourth Stall series so much, Ellie and I decided to try another of his series.  This is another winner.  The book is about Carson Fender and prone to getting in trouble because he pulls a lot of pranks seventh grader in North Dakota who is thrust into the life of a spy.  He's given a package by a mysterious man and has to deliver it to one of his teachers.  He is not supposed to open it. Of course he does, and ends up working for a shadowy government agency to protect a student at his school in witness protection.  I thought the book was fun and clever and really liked the character of Carson.  This was a big hit with Ellie too, and as you'll see as you continue reading, we ended up finishing the series this month.

The Law of Finders Keepers (Mo & Dale Mysteries, #4) - Sheila Turnage - juvenile fiction - five stars - The final book in the Mo & Dale mysteries.  I really liked how they tied things together.  Mo, Dale, and Harm are on the hunt for Blackbeard's treasure after a treasure hunter comes to town looking for the same thing.  Meanwhile, the Colonel and Miss Lana share with Mo some clues about her past.  This puts her on the hunt for her upstream mother with real clues.  I really enjoyed how this book tied things up, a really good end to the series.  Carina agreed.

The Road to Dawn: Josiah Henson and the Story That Sparked the Civil War - Jared A. Brock - biography - four stars - The title of this book caught my eye first.  Henson was the very loose inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom.  Henson's story is inspiring.  He was born into slavery, saw his father sold into the deep south and was auctioned off with his family after the death of his master.  A hard and conscientious worker, he became a trusted slave who increased the wealth of his masters.  He saw the writing on the wall though, knew he was going to be sold, and escaped with his family to Canada. There he helped found a community called Dawn aimed at educating escaped slaves and teaching them trades.  He was a strong advocate, speaking throughout the U.S. and even traveling to Britain to raise funds for the cause.  Josiah's story about growing up and escaping were fascinating. Less so the second part of the book dealing with the formation of Dawn and all the political struggles, and factions trying to control it, but definitely worth reading.

Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors Behind the Legend - Sam Staggs - biography - two stars - I thought this book would be a lot more interesting than it was.  There were definitely interesting bits, but it was a very dry read and at the end of the day, didn't really make me like the Gabors all that much.  The focus was on Zsa Zsa when I thought Eva was definitely the more interesting and talented of the sisters, and it definitely seemed very surface.  The Gabors tightly controlled their images, so if you're looking for a more intimate look at them, this isn't it.  Skip it.

Things in Jars - Jess Kidd - historical fiction/fantasy - five stars - This isn't my usual type of book, but it sounded interesting. Bridie Devine, a female detective in Victorian London is searching for Christabel Berwick, the secret daughter of Sir Edmund Berwick.  She's given very few clues with which to solve the case, and Christabel definitely seems to have unusual qualities.  Meanwhile you see those who've taken Christabel moving about, trying to sell her to the highest bidder as well as glimpses of Bridie's past.  All of these things eventually interest in the end.  While fantasy/science-fiction isn't my favorite genre, this wasn't super fantastical and did a really good job of walking the line between 'reality' and 'fantasy'.  Really enjoyed it.

The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin - juvenile fiction - four stars  - I liked the premise of the book.  Several families are brought together in an apartment building next door to the estate of Samuel Westing a wealthy recluse.  Westing dies and everyone is invited to the reading of his will in which a contest is announced, the group is divided into pairs and given clues, they must determine who killed Westing, whoever figures it out will win his estate.  The book was really interesting, but it kind of fell apart in the middle, just got a little too convoluted, I lost the thread a bit, and while the ending was fine, I feel like it needed tightening up.

The Chain - Adrian McKinty - mystery/thriller - five stars - I don't read that many books in this genre, but this was another book, in which the premise hooked me.  Rachel Klein receives a call after dropping off her daughter for school, her daughter has been kidnapped and the only way to get her back is to kidnap someone else's child.  Once that's been done, and she's paid a ransom, her daughter will be released.  This chain of kidnappings has seemingly gone on for years and there's no way out, those who have tried to buck the system have been disposed of.  Rachel works to get her daughter released, enlisting the help of her ex-brother-in-law.  Even once her daughter is released though, they don't have peace, the events haunt them. Rachel decides she needs to break the chain.  The narrative is interspersed with little scenes depicting how the chain was started.  You have to suspend your belief a little bit, but there is enough of 'what if' in the scenario that it makes for a really compelling read.

Countdown Zero (The Codename Conspiracy, #2) - Chris Rylander - juvenile fiction - five stars - The second book in this series, Carson who was deactivated at the end of the first book is pressed into service again to help rescue one of his teachers/fellow agents who is potentially trapped with a deadly virus in a secret government facility behind Mt. Rushmore.  Luckily, the class is heading to Rushmore for a field trip, and all Carson has to do is sneak away to perform the rescue.  It's another fun book, a couple of good twists and some humor too.  

Stay Interesting: I Don't Always Tell Stories About My Life, but When I Do They're True and Amazing - Jonathan Goldsmith - memoir - three stars - The only thing I know this guy from is the Dos Equis commercials, although he had been an actor for much longer than that.  The book is a seris of short stories/vignettes from his life.  I thought his growing up stories were the most interesting, the kiss and tell stories less so, and there were a fair amount of those.  The acting related stories were OK too, but I kept waiting for him to get to the part that he alludes to at the beginning.  How he had started a large successful company, but it ended up going under, and at the time of his audition for the Dos Equis commercials he was essentially living out of his truck.  Unfortunately that story never got told.  This was interesting, but just OK.

Lifeboat 12 - Susan Hood - juvenile historical fiction - five stars - Based on real events and written in verse, this is a great quick read that both Ellie and I really enjoyed.  It tells the story of the SS City of Benares, a passenger ship used during WWII to evacuate children from Britain to Canada.  It was hit by a torpedo en route and sunk.  Of the 90 children on board, only 13 survived. The boat follow the journey of Ken, telling us of his life before he left, of the fun he had on board the ship, and then of the sinking and survival.  It's a pretty amazing survival story because Lifeboat 12 was overlooked in the initial rescue operation, the rescue ship mistakenly counted one of the lifeboats from the other ships in the formation as from the SS City of Benares.  The lifeboat drifted for eight days before they were found.  Definitely worth the read.

The Things We Cannot Say - Kelly Rimmer - historical fiction - five stars - If you like WWII historical fiction, this was a really good one.  Allice's grandmother Hannah is dying and wants her to go to Poland.  She's suffered a stroke, so can't communicate clearly, Alice leaves behind a difficult family situation (strained marriage, child on the spectrum) to go and try and uncover what her grandmother is so desperate for her to know.  The story jumps back and forth between the story of Alina a young girl growing up in Poland engaged to her childhood sweetheart Tomasz in 1942 and the present day.  The stories eventually come together.  While it's a bit predictable, it's very well done and there are surprises along the way.  Definitely worth the read.

The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found (The Vanderbeekers, #4) - Karina Yan Glaser - juvenile fiction - four stars - Ellie and I both really enjoy this series.  The characters are fun and you just grow to love the family.  This episode deals with the decline of Mr. Jeet as well as Orlando's family difficulties.  There were some good lessons in friendship - overstepping bounds, poor communication, etc.  This wasn't my favorite of the books.  The concerns/problems are real, but I feel like the manner in which they were solved was not necessarily the most realistic, but still love the family and the characters.

The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel - historical fiction - five stars - Another really great WWII novel, this one is about Eva Traube, who flees Paris with her mother, ending up in a small town in the free zone.  She puts her artistic skills to work and becomes a forger, creating documents to aid the resistance, but in particular documents for young Jewish children being smuggled across the border to Switzerland.  After the war, Eva has hidden this part of her past away until one day she sees a newspaper article that opens up the past again.  This one is also based on real events, and is a fascinating look at the occupation of forger, how they founds names to use, the documents that were required - not just IDs, but also supporting documents people needed in order for their identities to be deemed authentic.

The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton - historical fiction/mystery - five stars - I so loved Turton's first novel, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and was really excited to see that he had another book out.  This one is very different, telling the story of Sammy Pipps and  his assistant Arent, famed investigators who are returning to Amsterdam from Batavia.  The ship it seems is cursed, with strange happenings, murders, livestock being killed, strange whispers, etc.  Unfortunately, Sammy has been accused of a crime and is being taken back to be tried and so is imprisoned in the belly of the ship.  It's up to Arent, with the help of some other on board, to discover what is happening.  This was one of those books that kept me guessing, I couldn't figure out if we were veering into fantasy, or if something else was at play.  Really loved it!

Chomp - Car Hiaasen - juvenile fiction - four stars - Wahoo's dad is an animal wrangler.  Work isn't necessarily steady, especially when you've had medical issues, so the family is struggling financially.  Enter Expedition Survival! a reality series whose star is not actually particularly good at surviving.  The show wants to tape an episode focused on the Everglades and hires Wahoo and his Dad to help out, they use some of their animals, and then take them on location.  Tuna, a girl from Wahoo's class with a difficult home life comes along to get away from her father for a while.  This one wasn't as successful for me as Hoot was.  It's definitely entertaining and the girls loved it, but it's a little more out there/slapstick.  Still a fun read though.

Crisis Zero (The Codename Conspiracy, #3) - Chris Rylander - juvenile fiction - four stars - The final book in this series.  I enjoyed this one as well, although it was pretty predictable.  This time Carson's school is under attack - someone is trying to dig down through the parking lot and destroy the agency's secret headquarters, and there's a computer program so powerful it could basically take over the world, that needs to be protected.  While it's not like the previous two books were particularly realistic, this one veers off a lot more into the improbable, but it was a pretty good way to end the series.

Currently I'm reading The Last Palace, about the building that now serves as the U.S. embassy in Prague.  Next up are Guernica and Medicine Walk.  I've been reading a ton of kids books lately and also fiction, and I'm thinking I need to balance things out with some more non-fiction.  Would love to know what you guys have been reading!