Book Recommendation – One Puzzling Afternoon

I had this book in my “favorites” on the Hoopla app for a while. The title intrigued me. I “favorite” a book I want to read and when it is time for a new read, I search there. After finishing my prior books I clicked on the book to read it, but it kept giving me an error. After a few weeks, I typed the title back into the search bar and found it again. This time it had a different cover and it loaded without any trouble.

I remember when it loaded thinking, “Well, after all this, I hope it is good!” I am happy to say that it was a good read, but I had some trouble reading it. Before I get into that, here is the Goodreads synopsis:

A mystery she can’t remember. A friend she can’t forget.

I kept your secret Lucy. I’ve kept it for more than sixty years . . .

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother – who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community – she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.

When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .

Then Lucy goes missing.

2018. Edie is eighty-four and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There’s a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .

I enjoyed this book a lot. I mentioned early that I had trouble reading it. This was not because it was difficult to understand or follow. The main character, Edie, is forgetful. She is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia. This is where it got to me, and I suppose it was in a good way.

My grandmother had dementia. In the early stages, she would repeat a lot of things. She would have to stop mid-sentence because she couldn’t come up with the right words. She’d forget ingredients when cooking meals. I can still remember us having dinner at her house one day. She told us she thought she was “getting that Alzheimer’s.” My grandma deteriorated pretty quickly and eventually had to go to a nursing home for care.

The thing about this book was that you are getting the story told by Edie. She acknowledges that she is having trouble remembering thing. She relays the frustration involved in that. She is well aware of those “episodes” where she can’t remember something. She also remembers how it felt to come out of them. She deals with them the best that she can.

When she sees her friend from all those years ago, little things jog her memory. She knows that she went missing. She struggles to put the pieces together to get the whole story. She knows that her memory is fading and she needs to know what happened. Thus begins her quest to find answers.

As I listened to Edie throughout this book, I couldn’t help but compare her to my grandma. I wondered if her thoughts were the same thoughts that Edie was having. The struggle that Edie feels as she tries to remember was painful and sad to hear. It truly made me understand how terrible it must have been for her.

That being said, it was a good read. I wasn’t able to figure out the ending, and Critchley does a good job bringing it all together. My only beef with the story itself was that I wanted to know a bit more about what happened next. But that’s just my opinion.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – Local Girl Missing

This is another book that was suggested to me by my wife. Local Woman Missing was a good read. This is the first book by Mary Kubica I have read. If her others are as good as this, I will have to add them to my list.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

People don’t just disappear without a trace….

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find….

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

This was really one of those books I couldn’t stop reading, well, listening to. The audio book was very well done. It is read from the point of view of four main characters. One of them is one of the missing women.

The book bounces back and forth between the present and the events of 11 years prior. As the two time lines move forward, little by little, things come together. I found myself wondering how some of the characters played into the story . Also, what role they may have played in the disappearances of the woman/women.

The ending is one I should have seen coming, but never did. I loved that it stumped me! Definitely worth a read!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Book Recommendation – We Solve Murders

It seems like it has been awhile since I recommended a book to you. This is not because I stopped reading, it is because I was working on features like Share Your Nostalgia or just didn’t have an open spot to post it. So today is as good as any day to post this, despite the fact that I read the book about three weeks ago.

I really enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, so this one peaked my interest right away. I loved the title. It didn’t disappoint. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve…

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job…

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

As the murders begin to pile up, and they begin to look connected, the investigation begins. As things begin to point toward Amy’s involvement in the murders, she begins to look for clues. This leads to her not only trying to piece things together, but trying to stay one step ahead of the killer who’s trying to pin things on her.

To steal an analogy from Shrek, the story is like an onion. The onion represents the mystery and as each layer is peeled back, we see more and more of what’s going on and how it all ties in together.

I really enjoyed this book. It was one that kept me guessing right up to the end. There were plenty of surprises in it and never felt like it dragged for me. I can really see this book leading to a series with Steve and Amy, but it stands alone as a great story, too.

Each character has their quirks and I think that’s what makes them so believable. They are people who I could see hanging out with. Honestly, I hope there is another book in this series, because I want to hear about the next adventure.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – None of This Is True

All I can say is, “Wow!” I could not put this one down. Lisa Jewell’s None of This is True was a novel that kept me wanting to know more.

I feel like I should give you the Goodreads synopsis before I start giving my thoughts, so here it is:

Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

Right from the start, the characters are a bit odd. The podcaster, Alix, seems to be the most normal of them. Josie is a bit creepy, if I am being honest. The more she tells Alix, the more “off” she feels. The things she mentions, the things she says, and the things she does point to a very disturbed person.

With each chapter, you learn more and more about Josie and who she is. The thing is – you know she has done something, but you have no idea what that something is! Little by little and piece by piece the puzzle starts to come together. You get bits and pieces and I found myself wanting to know “what was that about?” “How does that tie in with what is going on?” “Did she really just ask here THAT!?”

The book reminded me of Listen For The Lie, which also revolves around a podcast. But None of This is True was even better, in my opinion. Lisa Jewell really hit it out of the park! It was a suspenseful thrill ride that I absolutely enjoyed.

5 out of 5 stars!

Book Recommendation: The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

I sure enjoyed The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. It was one of those books that I could see it as a movie while reading it. (Spoiler alert: they already made it into a movie).

I listened to the audiobook. The issue with audio books is that you don’t see the words. So I didn’t catch on to what the author was doing at the beginning of each chapter. They would start with an introduction of a book, which was often followed by AJ’s thoughts on them. It didn’t take long to put it together, though. I can easily see myself doing something similar for some special people in my life …

I digress. Let me give you the Goodreads synopsis before I say any more:

On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto “No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World.” A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

This was such a great story! As the synopsis says, the heart of the story is AJ’s “make over.” The people he is trying to avoid in the beginning all are so important to this make over. We see a man who is pretty much done with life being thrown a huge curve ball that steers his life in a new direction. As life often does, that isn’t the last bug curve ball that is thrown his way

“You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Books, and their connection to each character, also play a role in the story. They also tie all the chapters together.

I was only left asking one question when the book was over. Thinking about it now, it really wasn’t something that had to be answered. However, I was left wondering about the future of one character. Perhaps there will be a sequel, but it really wraps up in a way that fits the story.

I will probably find out where the movie is available to stream and see how it compares to the book . The story is one that I could easily find myself rereading.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Book Recommendation – The Last Chance Library

I have always been one of those people who has fought for the local library. I believe that they are extremely important to the community. My brother has worked for a library for almost 30 years. He even wrote a guest blog for me on their importance. You can read that here:

Guest Blog: Libraries Are Important!

I don’t even know how I came upon my latest read. It may have been in a list of books that came up when I searched for a different one. The title, The Last Chance Library, caught my attention. After reading the synopsis, I had to add it to my list.

Here is what Goodreads had to say about it:

June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library. And through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.

Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer’s feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won’t believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.

To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she’s determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.

I could easily see this book being turned into a movie. It had very distinct and likable characters. I found myself relating to many of them on different levels. It’s hard to imagine now, but I was shy and rarely fought for anything when I was young. I was just like the main character, June.

It was also very relatable. In schools, cities, and government in general, they are always worried about the bottom line. In way too many cases, programs, community events, and such are often cut or closed down to “save money.” The decisions to do this never seem to take into account how it will affect the people using them.

That being said, I was rooting for the group of friends as they fought for their little library. It was a heart warming story that I recommend for lovers of libraries and books.

4.5 Stars out of 5

Book Review – The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man

Recently, I read Jonas Jonasson’s The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared. I really enjoyed the book and laughed out loud a lot. So when I stumbled on a sequel, I naturally had to read it.

Perhaps it is a given that most sequels are bad. I suppose I felt that this would be just as good or close to that when I picked it up. Sadly, I was disappointed. It truly lacked so much of what the first book had.

The first book had many flashbacks to the main characters past experiences, while this book was set almost exclusively in the present. The first book contained some political things, but this book has a lot more of it.

I probably should give you the the Goodreads synopsis here:

It all begins with a hot air balloon trip and three bottles of champagne. Allan and Julius are ready for some spectacular views, but they’re not expecting to land in the sea and be rescued by a North Korean ship, and they could never have imagined that the captain of the ship would be harboring a suitcase full of contraband uranium, on a nuclear weapons mission for Kim Jong-un …

Soon Allan and Julius are at the center of a complex diplomatic crisis involving world figures from the Swedish foreign minister to Angela Merkel and President Trump. Things are about to get very complicated …

I listened to the audio book and the narrator was different from the first book. The fact that he voiced the old man in a very “throaty” voice was a bit annoying to me. His vocal interpretations of anyone in the book from the Koreas was very stereotypical sounding, while his Donald Trump was even more over the top than the real Trump.

I had hoped for a bit more adventure based on the synopsis, and to a degree there was some travel, but there was so much politics that I never really felt that I understood it all. As a matter of fact, when the book was over, I still wondered if that was the conclusion or if I was missing something.

All in all – a disappointing sequel that was best left unwritten. 2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review – Maybe Next Time

You know that I am always up for a good time travel story, and that was what I was hoping for with Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major.

A lot of times, when I see that a book was read by a “book club,” I will make sure to read what is about to see if it peaks my interest. From the cover, I thought it would be some sort of romance book, and in a way it was. However, it was not like those with the muscular guys with their hair blowing in the wind on the cover.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

One Day meets Groundhog Day, in this heartwarming and emotionally poignant novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to spare her husband from an unfortunate fate.

It is an ordinary Monday and harried London literary agent Emma is flying out of the door as usual. Preoccupied with work and her ever growing to-do list, she fails to notice her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. Even the dog seems sad.

She is far too busy, buried deep in her phone; social media alerts pinging; clients messaging with “emergencies”; keeping track of a dozen WhatsApp groups about the kids’ sports, school, playdates, all of it. Her whole day is frantic—what else is new—and as she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out, desolate, dragging their poor dog around the block. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary and she has forgotten, again, she hears the screech of brakes.

Dan is dead.

The next day Emma wakes up… and Dan is alive. And it’s Monday again. And again. And again.

Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up: leaving WhatsApp, telling her boss where to get off, writing to Dan, listening to her kids, reaching out to forgotten friends, getting drunk and buying out Prada. But will Emma have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children, love her husband? Will this be enough to change the fate they seem destined for?

A moving “What if” story of what it is to be a woman in the modern world—never feeling we’re getting it quite right—about learning to slow down and appreciate life that is sure to resonate with women’s fiction fans.

That is not to say that it will only resonate with woman, in my opinion. It could have easily been told from the male point of view as well. That being said, let me give you my thoughts.

This really wasn’t a bad book. However, I found it going on a bit long at some points. It almost seemed like we relived the same day a few times more than was necessary. Eventually, though, Emma begins to see things a bit differently and things move along. When this happens, there are little things that happen with other characters that begin to really add to the story.

No spoilers here, but when you get to the end of the book, it ends in such a way where you stop and think about what is going to happen after that last period in the paragraph. To me, this can be a good thing or a bad thing. Some reviews raved about the ending while others absolutely hated it.

Admittedly, I thought it should have been more. As the book goes on, we get to know more about some of the minor characters in it. The problem I had with it was that I was left with questions about what happened next in their stories. This is where I felt that some of the “replays” of Emma’s Mondays could have been left out, while filling the reader in on what happened to those characters before (or after) Emma’s last scene.

I will let you decide for yourself. Let me know if you wind up reading this.

3 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Edge of Sleep

Normally, I post what I would call a Book Recommendation, but I didn’t feel that this was one I would actually recommend. I will let you decide for yourself.

As many of you know, I work as a Sleep Technologist. When I saw the title of this book, I wondered if it might be something about sleep or dreams. When I saw that it was a novel, I read the synopsis. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

What if the whole world fell asleep…and didn’t wake up again?

Dave Torres, a night watchman in a placid coastal town, knows all about sleep troubles. Since childhood, he’s battled terrors and nightmares. Sometimes those battles leak into his waking life, with disastrous consequences for those he loves. Now Dave lives alone and self-medicates to neutralize his dreams. It’s not much of a life, he knows.

The morning after Independence Day, Santa Mira, California, is so quiet Dave can hear the ocean from miles away. Traffic signals blink from red to green over empty intersections. Storefronts remain locked up tight. Every radio station whispers static.

And all over town, there are bodies, lying right where their owners left them. Dead right where they slept.

Dave―along with his ex-girlfriend, Katie, his best friend, Matteo, and Linda, a nurse he’s just met―struggle to unravel the mystery before sleep overtakes them all.

Except the answer to the mystery might lie in the one place that frightens Dave His twisted, unnerving dreams. Now Dave and his friends must straddle the liminal boundary between life and death as they fight to save everyone they’ve ever loved―and to keep their eyes open.

Because if any of them falls asleep now, it will be the last thing they ever do.

Let me start out by saying that this had so much potential. I really had high hopes for this one. I read it based on the synopsis and the hope that it would be more of a rush to solve the mystery. By the time I got to the end of the book, I was left scratching my head wondering what they heck I had just read.

After I finished, I had to know if I was the only one who felt that way. I was not. The reviews were mixed. People either loved it or hated it. I won’t say that I hated it, I was just really disappointed with the way it ended. It didn’t make any sense to me. It almost had one of those “Tales from the Crypt” or “Creepshow” kind of endings.

I was surprised to find that in describing this book, Goodreads labels it: Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy and Mystery. To a degree, I can see where it might fit into each of those categories. It did have a little of each, but it was almost someone was trying to make a bunch of genre readers happy. It misses the mark, though.

I found out as I prepared for this blog that the book was made into a TV series of the same name. On IMDB it states: This a drama in podcast format. It was announced in April 2021 that popular YouTuber Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier, is set to star in, and executive produce a TV series of the same name based on the podcast created by Chozen writers Jake Emanuel and Willie Block.

I don’t know want to knock the premise stemming from a podcast, because with the right stuff, it could be very entertaining. I don’t know how the show differs from the book, and I’m not sure I want to watch it to find out. If you would like to see for yourself, from what I can tell, the TV show can be watched on YouTube.

2 out of 5 stars from me.

Book Recommendation: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared

Recently, on one of the Facebook “book” groups I am in, someone posted, “Thank you to whoever recommended The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared! I just finished it and loved it. If you love a good story and a few laughs, check this one out!”

The thing that caught my attention was the title of the book. It literally had me wanting to know just what it was all about. Was he kidnapped? Was he on the run for some crime? What makes an elderly man, climb out a window and run away? My curiosity led me to Goodreads to find out just what this story was all about.

The Goodreads synopsis:

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health.

A big celebration is in the works for his 100th birthday, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his alcohol consumption), so he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey.

It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: he has not only witnessed some of the most important events of the 20th century, but actually played a key role in them. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.

Another website offered this synopsis, which peaked my interest even more.

The 100-Year-Old Man centers on a man who, on the night of his 100th birthday, escapes from his nursing home and hits the road, with the ensuing inadvertent adventure involving criminals, a bag of cash and an elephant. But his time on the run reveals that the former explosives expert was involved in some of the defining moments of the 20th century and that he crossed paths with figures such as Joseph Stalin, Sir Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. Before long, past and present are on a collision course.

I listened to the audio version of the book and there were quite a few times that I laughed out loud. One time, in particular, I laughed so much that I had to “rewind” the story because I had missed it while I was laughing.

This book reminded me a bit of the Fredrik Backman books in the way they were written. Jonas Jonasson is a Swedish author, just like Backman. There is a bit of dark humor in the story, and the dialogue really helps to deliver that.

The book starts, naturally, with the old man (Allan) climbing out the window. The adventure then bounces from present to past, filling in some of the many details of his life. Allan has certainly influenced a lot of people and played a role in some historic events. The characters he gets involved with on his present day adventure have their own quirks and when you add them to Allen’s, make for a very fun story.

I will say that if you’re not really into politics/history, there are a few spots where the story may seem slow to you. I love history, so it was neat to hear how they worked Allan into some of those events.

I was made aware that there was a Swedish movie based on the book. I found it on Tubi and watched it. It wasn’t bad, but there was a lot that was edited out to make it fit into a 2 hour film. There were some minor changes to the plot and some characters were deleted (some that were really important in the book), and the movie held its own. The book, however, was better.

On the American movie front, IMDB reports that Will Ferrell is set to star in the US adaptation of the book. There is no word on co-stars and it is apparently still in the works. News of this film version go back to 2017.

The book’s author, Jonas Jonasson is on board with the idea, too. “My character, Allan, knows the art of being funny just by being,” said Jonasson in a statement. “That is something Will Ferrell masters to perfection. Great humor with small measurements. I am happy that Allan is now in his hands.”

The new onscreen adaptation of The 100-Year-Old Man has been described as being akin to the 1994 Tom Hanks classic Forrest Gump, but more darkly comedic. The book has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and the Oscar-nominated local-language feature adaptation became one of the highest-grossing Swedish movies of all time.

While I’d be interested to see the American take on the movie, I don’t think I’d be wrong in assuming that the book is better. They usually are.