Review 701: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Much has been said about this classic, and my thoughts won’t add anything. For starters, didn’t like it very much. Generally I do enjoy classics, but not this one. I found most of the characters disagreeable (not that I need to like characters to enjoy a story, but it does help). I did like Nelly Dean, the woman narrating the story, I liked how she comported herself. She is the frame, telling the story to Mr. Lockwood who is a newcomer. He is renting out Thrushcross Grange and wants to hear the story of his landlord and the people residing in Wuthering Heights. Being ill he needs something to occupy himself. Thus this story, told in incredible details so many years later, you must suspend disbelief.

Heathcliff is a horrible person, not a news flash. Not the only one either. Then there are the whiny characters. And this was back when marrying cousins was completely acceptable. So many cringey moments in this book, but the ending was completely satisfactory. Just took a lot to get there and glad I stuck with it.

Review 700: The Secrets of Catspraddle Village

The Secrets of Catspraddle Village by Callie Browning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was so short I almost didn't add it in.

This was a very short book of 5 short stories. The setting is Barbados, where the author is from, but set in a small fictional village called Bajan. They are all light-hearted, bit of humor and somewhat quirky. I found it a nice short break from some of the longer reads I've been working on. The audio book is barely over an hour, so it didn't take long to get through the book. 

Review 697: The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you make it through the first 100 pages, you’re good for the rest. The beginning was purposefully developed to “construct a reader suitable for what comes afterward”. The book was deep into church theology of the era of 1327, while the mystery of why dead monks were turning up took a back seat. Quite a lot going on the book, including a labyrinth library off limits to all but the librarian and assistant.

Have to admit I was disappointed with the ending. But not disappointed with reading the book – a glimpse into the life of monks in the middle ages.

Review 693: The Memory Hunters

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars



I got hooked into this story and had a hard time putting the book down. I kept grabbing for it whenever I could, so despite its page length I read it fairly quickly. However, the last part of the book spoiled some of the story line for me.

The world building was very interesting, loved the concept of people being able to dive into the past and see things that happened before just by using some mushrooms. Our main character, Key, was particularly gifted and had perfect memory.

Kiana Strade, known as Key, came from a famous and rich family. Her grandmother was form head curator and founder of the Institute of Human Memory. Her mother was head resifix (like a priest) for the city of Asheburg and her father a ctiy councillor. Her mother hoped Key would follow her and not her mother. But Key wanted to work for the museum, do field work, and get away from all the demanding public in the city.

All hunters had guardians, and hers was Vale, a fierce stout woman that was quick to anger. Vale came from the south, where the storms were frequent and lived with losing ones home to the waters happened too often. She was poor, her family depended on her to send money home.

The story begins with Key finding something very interesting about the deep past, and perhaps the beginning of the rituals. The memory was also very strong and wouldn’t leave Key’s mind. This could happen to memory hunters, being haunted by a dive. Yet this find of Key’s seemed so important.

This is a start of a series, but I may just leave it there. In any case, I have to wait until the next book, and I'm not too big on series in general.

Review 691: Still Needs Work

Still Needs Work: A Novel by Ellen Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I tend towards books on work, fiction or not, but more towards fiction. This book falls in the fictional category. The book opens with Marianne attending a conference in San Francisco, when she gets a heads up her job, and her entire department is being eliminated. She finished up the conference with this new status and heads back home.

Marriane is living back in Kansas City, her old childhood home, which has now turned into not a great neighborhood. She had been working remotely after her house in California burned down, apparently not long after her husband died.

Now she is trying to find a new job and continue fixing up her house, and now being careful with money. Her neighbors and her dog are prominent in the book. As Marriane tries finding a new job she seems to work well with finding work or business ideas for those around her.

The book is told simply, and on a day to day basis. The book grew on me, despite how often it is brought up what a bad neighborhood, being East of Troost. And yet I still liked the character and the neighbors as portrayed.

After finishing the book I found out there are several books about this character, guess it’s a series, but not labeled as such. In any case this book works as a stand-alone.

Review 689: Five

Five by Ilona Bannister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A different sort of thriller type book. Takes place in the underground tube of London and the reader is told one of these five main characters are going to die with the next train coming into the station in five minutes.

The five characters are a mother with her uncontrollable child, and a man approaching her, who appears to be shady. Later we find out they do know each other very well. The other two characters are an older lady who ends up having a heart attack and a young man who helps her. There are several other characters in the train station, several others that help out of the catastrophe not just of the woman on the ground, as several people end up on the tracks.

Most of the book is the backstory of each of the five main characters, while in-between is the current moment at the tube station where there is quite a lot of action going on. The book poses morality question for the reader, which of these characters do you want to die? All have flaws that may have the reader rooting for one character to not make it.

With the way it was presented and the author breaking the fourth wall too often, I wasn't much of a fan of the style. It was a quick read.

Review 687: Love Can't Feed You

Love Can't Feed You by Cherry Lou Sy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book opens with Queenie immigrating from the Philippines to New York City with her father and younger brother. They reunite with her mother after 5 years of being apart. Mom has changed and her father has difficulty accepting how she is now. She is more independent.

It's a turbulent family life. Which culminates in the father leaving the small apartment and never returning. Now Mom takes up with a young doctor from the hospital she works at. Meanwhile, Queenie turns 18 and wants to go to college, but her mom makes her work first, earning the money she went into debt to bring them over.

Their live moves quickly along, and many different topics are brought up in the book, and this is where the book flounders. It started off strong, but meandered and went into too many directions and fell flat in the end.

Review 685: The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Last year on a whim at a used books store, during a sale I bought several books in this series by Bernard Cornwell. The ancient setting somehow looked appealing. Getting this deep into an author and series unknown to me is not something I typically do. But why not, it helps support a local independent bookstore.

After completing this first book, I am fine with continuing the series, even though I generally don’t read series (although exceptions abound).

Set in the late 9th century Uhtred son of Uhtred is captured by the Danes while trying to avenge the death of his older brother, and his father. Uhtred was still a boy, and Ragnor was amused by this boy’s attempt to attack him. So Ragnor adopted Uhtred.

This first book covers Uhhred’s early life, until being a married man with a young boy of his own. Uhtred became one of those men whose loyalty lies with both the Saxons of Britain and the invading forces of the Danes. He is steeped in the customs of both cultures and religions, as well as languages. It makes for a very interesting story line.

Review 684: Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Memory is always an interesting topic to me since it is ever changing and often two people will remember the same event differently to some extent. But what if you can’t remember much at all. This book is about someone who loses most of her memory entirely. Who are you if you don’t remember what happened yesterday, or last year, or the last twenty years?

Christine has that problem. She wakes up and is confused, shocked by where she is and who is sleeping next to her. Her husband has to tell her his name, they are married, and the other basics of her life.

Now Christine is keeping a journal, writing down what she learns. She doesn’t remember so her doctor calls her early every morning and tells her where to find her journal. For now, the doctor treating her and the journal are secrets from her husband. As Christine is slowly realizing, he lies to her. Something isn’t right.

The book moves fairly quickly, and I was propelled along with it, wanting to know what is going on. I figured some of it out much earlier than the book let on, so the last portion was a bit drawn out for me. Overall, it was a decent read.

Review 682: Upward Bound

Upward Bound by Woody Brown
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars



This is a fictionalized autobiography, but with many viewpoints. The author and main narrator is autistic and has trouble communicating, only his mother understands him by using a letter board. Seeing a clip of Brown and his mother using the board and communicating, it appears that she interprets heavily, so maybe there are actually two authors for this book.

Despite that, the book on it’s own is heart-felt. It shows how people with disabilities can connect even when they have a hard time verbalizing words. One of the characters is so heart-breaking as he tries to communicate with blinking but no one seems to notice.

The book has the point-of-view with several of the people who go to Upward Bound, a day-care facility for adults with disabilities. The book also includes several of the people who work there, and one who does not. This one is a worker at Target, where the Upward Bound group visits every Friday morning.

There isn't a plot, but there is a trajectory of sorts, and through the different voices one can understand what this place is like. And the book while emotional, is not all heavy, there is some bits of humor as well.

I listened to an audiobook of this and it has a different narrator for each character. Most do not repeat, except for the fictionalized author, he appears for a few chapters.

Later edit: The author is most likely the named author's mother. If interested look up facilitated communication.

Review 681: Dreams and Hypotheticals

Dreams and Hypotheticals by K.E. Wilkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was interested in this book due to something in the description that mentioned “precognitive dreams” (due to some interest in dreams). And yes, this book is about that, and a bit more.

It’s 1990 and the first year in college for Emma in Tallahassee as a music major, playing trumpet. She is a brazen young woman and the book starts with her asking a hypothetical question that people think is surprising and makes her ask others and so it expands way beyond what she would have done on her own. The question is: “This is a hypothetical question not an offer, would you sleep with me?” Turns out Emma is still a virgin, but she used this question to learn something about the people she asks.

Each chapter begins with a quote then a short snippet from her journal. Early on we find out that she’s had a few dreams that end up becoming true, and one that has repeated she expects will also come true frightens her a little. When she meets Robert she feels this is the one from that dream. She feels something with him that confuses her.

As the book goes on it discusses her college life, but goes deeper and deeper into this strange relationship with Robert. It becomes a push and pull with those two. Odd things seem to happen and involve another friend, Owen.

The book is overly long, it could be cut in half and been the same book. It goes over the same type of scenario time and again and it becomes a bit tedious. The ending of the book does nothing to save it either.

Perhaps my rating is a bit generous, but it’s really not bad for a self-published book.

Review 677: The Blackbirds of St. Giles

The Blackbirds of St. Giles by Lila Cain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was taken by this cover and barely read what the book would be about. The book takes place mostly in London in the late 1700s just after the revolutionary war.

Daniel and his sister Pearl are the only ones from his family who escaped enslavement year prior. Daniel made a name for himself serving the British in the revolutionary war. Upon arriving in London all that was promised him was taken away.

Now destitute he finds himself in the worst part of London in St. Giles ruled by a despot the "King of the Rockery" who you must obey. An interesting historical fiction.

Review 676: Nickel and Dime

Nickel and Dime by Gary Soto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This somewhat short book contains three related stories. They take place in Oakland, California in the 1990s.

The first story: We Ain't Asking Much the main character is Roberto Silva, happy to have been let go at Walnut Bank as a security guard. His job was replaced by a security camera. Soon enough though, Roberto finds himself out of money and homeless, trying to sell something in order to eat.

The second story called Literary Life has Silver Mendez as the main character. A poet past his prime and happy to have this reading a small college in central California. Once home he finds his stuff on the lawn and kicked out of his apartment. Mendez at least has a car for shelter and ends up befriending Roberto who’s been homeless for two years now.

In the last story called The Untimely Passing of the Clock Radio we return to Walnut Bank as the other security guard, Gustavo Hernandez, is about to retire. Despite working for the bank for years he doesn’t have much savings. Roberto appears in this story as well, five years after his parting with the bank, and now asking Gus for help.

These are not joyful stories, looking at Hispanic men as they become homeless, or very poor despite loyally working for a company for years. What I didn’t like his how the three men are portrayed as simple, not very intelligent. And yet, there is a wee bit of humor laced into these stories as well.

Review 673: More Than Enough

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 3.25 of 5 stars

Had a hard time connecting with this story in the beginning and considered not continuing, but pushed on and by the end was happy I stuck with it.

The novel is told from a first-person point of view and is almost a stream of consciousness type writing. There are all these people in Polly’s life at first it was hard to keep it all straight who and what was going on, as there are multiple threads.

One main theme is the infertility issues Polly and her perfect husband Mark are going through. A second is the DNA test she recently took that showed a close relative, a niece, but it couldn’t be. Her gay brother didn’t have any children. She obsesses with this while meeting with her book club and friends, visits to her father in a care facility for his dementia. Her mother just couldn’t take care of him any longer, which didn’t help Polly with her somewhat chilly relationship with mom. This is not all that’s going on either.

The book is about life and things that are thrown your way. For the most part it is not a happy story, but there are happy parts and it isn’t written in a depressing way at all, instead very upbeat.


Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 671: Pale Fire

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The format of the book is unusual, not your typical novel. All of it is fiction, where the form is a critical analysis book of a long poem. The long 99 line poem is called Pale Fire, by fictional American author John Shade. The bulk of the book is the commentary by Charles Kinbote, author of the foreword and editor of the poem. The commentary dissects the poem by lines, or sometimes just a word.

Kinbote was the neighbor, and “close friend” of the author in the last months of his life. Shade had just finished the poem when he died. Kinbote expected the poem to be about his country Zembla, where the king was overthrown, but escaped while being held captive.

The details of all this comes out in the commentary, which is not what the poem is about, but Kinbote misinterprets it, or adds all of his own details. It ends up being quite entertaining.

I even read the index entirely since there was humor found in those referenced notes. Nabokov writes so incredibly well. I love all the unique words he uses in his writing, makes for delightful reading.

Review 670: Buckeye

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

A moving fictional account of several people, two families really, over several decades. It starts with Margaret, a baby abandoned at an orphanage and ends with her child Thomas Salt.

The book’s title comes from the nickname of the child - Thomas Aquinas Salt, so perhaps the book is more about him than anyone else, but the book starts with his parents and stays there nearly for the entirety.

A good portion of the book takes place during WWII, but the war is not front and center. We remain mostly stateside, in the small town of Bonhomie, Ohio.

Another long section is later, during the Vietnam war era. Some years are glossed over, described in quick sentences, but with such a long time frame all can't be detailed out. The book is well written, engaging and very moving.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated quite well, with emotion and emphasis that adds a little extra to the story

Review 666: An Extraordinary Union

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm not a romance fan...if you are, this book may work for you. 

Review 660: Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy Barbara Kingsolver’s fiction. Her writing is of quality. This book takes place during one momentous summer in (fictional) Zebulon County, which is located in the Appalachian region. There are three separate stories in this book. One can almost think of them as three independent stories, although they do have a connection, as Zebulon is a small county and everyone knows everyone.

There is a strong focus on the land, with predators and small bugs. One story-line has a middle-aged woman living in a cabin working for the forest service and trying to protect the predators, if possible. Another story is about two older people with differing views on using pesticides. The last is a young widow, newly married too, less than a year. Lusa has studied bugs extensively, but now on the in-law’s family farm she’s trying to figure out how to fit in this family and how to make the farm work.

I’ve had this book for a couple of decades, and not sure why I always passed up reading it until now. Perhaps I thought is was just of short stories, which the book really isn’t. In any case, glad I finally got to reading it.

Review 659: Vigil

Vigil by George Saunders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book reminded me of Saunders surprisingly popular book Lincoln in the Bardo. There are a multitude of voices and most are not of this world, they have passed on.

One reason I liked the earlier book was its novelty, but in a second book with something similar, they style is not new. Yet the story line was more contained and seemed to fit this story somewhat better than the earlier book.

A young woman, Jill Blaine, sits with people as they are dying. She already has passed onto the other side, and once there you can inhabit others. This dying man has several that come to visit him in his last hours, some living and some not.

The story is not all about this man, as Jill has her own journey finding out about her own death and what became of her young husband and the man that killed her. It also poses some philosophical questions about how one acts and effects the world. Also are these actions due one's choice to act or inevitable due to circumstances?

I listened to the audiobook and felt swept along with the story. I’m not so sure I would have liked the book as much if I read this in print. Honestly, the ending was the most interesting part of the book.

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 658: The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: No Rating

Not rating this book since I didn't read it entirely. I actually read very little of it, but quickly realized this book won't work for me. For one, I'm not a fan of the style, the way the book was written. And secondly, not a fan of dramatized war books. Thirdly this is not a short book either, well over 500 pages or 17 hours. I was listening to the audiobook (audible gave it out free, this was years before their plus catalog of free titles).

It looks like a movie is being made, if it comes out I may watch it as 2 hours is easier than 17. But I don't know...

There was a reason this sat unread in my library for over 10 years. I read many reviews and they seem to be polarized on either end, and from them it confirmed my opinion this is one for me to skip.