Freefall by Jessica Barry

Freefall by Jessica Barry begins with a bang. After Allison survives a plane crash into a Colorado mountain, she can't sit around waiting for rescue. She must run for her life. She scrambles to gather anything from the wreckage that will help her survive, with the plane beginning to burn and every moment in danger that it will explode, then takes off into the woods, wounded but determined.

Maggie hasn't seen her daughter for 2 years and is shocked to find out that she was engaged and looked totally different from how she looked when Maggie last saw her. She was thinner, blonde, movie-star beautiful. From a phone call she learns the magazine she worked for closed long ago. Ally's former roommate has no idea where she's gone. What happened to Allison between the time she left home, as her father lay dying, and the plane crash?

When a single body is found and it's not Allison's, Maggie refuses to believe her daughter is dead. But, her investigation into what happened to Allison may put her own life in danger. As Allison races to escape from a killer, Maggie slowly discovers the answers. Can Ally survive long enough to protect her mother?

Highly recommended - I couldn't put Freefall down. A very gripping story, nicely plotted, with hints dropped slowly enough to keep the pages flying. I had some minor issues with details but nothing worth mentioning. Good suspense and the basis for Allison's survival and the final scene both have a decent backstory that makes them believable.

My thanks to HarperCollins for the ARC of Freefall. Freefall is a January, 2019 release so it should already be available at your local bookstore or library.



©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win by Clara Zetkin, Ed. by Mike Taber and John Riddell

Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win by Clara Zetkin is a series of writings about fascism. Clara Zetkin wrote the main work in this book in 1923. At that point in time, Mussolini had been in power for 4 years and fascism was spreading. Zetkin, a Communist, had a plan. She first described the elements of fascism and the spread of fascism in Italy. Notably, fascism always begins with the frustration of the working class -- exactly what led to the election of Trump, who has been compared by those who study fascism to hisorical fascists (there's a little about this in the introduction). Zetkin pointed out where the fight against fascism in Italy had gone wrong, what the fascists promised and how their promises had not only fallen flat but often rights were taken away, workers' hours made longer and pay reduced, the rich became richer and corporations more corrupt, promises were broken consistently.

Zetkin suggested that people needed to be educated about fascism at all levels and that the masses needed to unite in protest and prepare for violent response by fascists, who were already killing and imprisoning those who spoke out against them. She said ideology and politics were less important than unity -- that it would take a strong, united front to defeat the growing movement.

Unfortunately, the text (and notes) eventually goes on to describe how her platform was adopted and then rejected. The movement splintered and weakened as a result. And, just after her last speech, where Nazis were waiting and wanted to kill her (she was ill and nearly blind), she died. That was 1933. We all know what happened after that point.

Zetkin stressed that it would be easy for most people to just keep their heads down and try to get through fascism but defeating fascists can't work without strength in numbers. And, then she had to watch her predictions come true.

Highly recommended - Important reading during a time of upheaval such as what we're currently going through. Sad from a historical viewpoint but also very informative. I'd like to see this particular book written in more common language, so that people who don't understand words such as "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie" could understand it. Zetkin herself recognized that peasants in Germany and elsewhere would not understand the terminology and one of her suggestions was to print brochures and books that would explain fascism and how to fight it for all levels of education.

It's pretty amazing that Clara Zetkin survived to die of old age. There's a glossary of important characters and organizations in the book and many of the characters described were killed for their activism.

I bought Fighting Fascism from Haymarket Books (along with 3 other titles). I've been so impressed with the 3 I've read, so far, that I'm hoping to buy more from them in the future.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Time is the Longest Distance by Janet Clare

It grew hotter and we soon peeled off our jackets and worked a solid hour until I thought I would just die right here. Why couldn't she have had an affair in Rome? I would have an Italian father who wore beautiful shoes. 

p. 97

Time is the Longest Distance by Janet Clare is about a middle-aged woman who finds out her deceased father was not her biological father. Instead, she was conceived during a brief affair when her mother traveled to Australia. After she calms down, Lilly contacts her biological father, Cameron, and goes to meet him and her half brother in Australia. He is a taciturn man and Lilly isn't sure it was worth the effort to come meet him. But, then he suggests that she accompany him and her new family on the Canning Stock Route, a dangerous track across the outback.

I'm going to defer to the cover description, here:

Like a moon walker far from her life, LIlly becomes entangled in an unlikely love affair and witness to an unsavory death. The hard days and long nights provide time and space for Lilly to recall the years with her ex-husband, Stephen, artist and all-around drunk -- the greatest love and disappointment in her life -- forcing her to examine her own imperfections as she learns, first-hand, about the power and destruction of secrets, sexual taboos, and the thrill of transgression. 

One of the most fascinating things about Time is the Longest Distance is the publisher. Written by an American, the book is published by an Australian press in Melbourne. If nothing else, that tells you how authentic the descriptions of Australia must be. And, I did find that it matched what I've read by Australian authors when describing the desert region, like John Marsden in Tomorrow When the War Began.

Recommended - I had mixed feelings about Time is the Longest Distance. It has a melancholy tone (which I tend to dislike) and deeply flawed characters (which I'm okay with, although it can be uncomfortable) but the writing is solid. I was particularly awed by Clare's use of the senses, which are visceral. You can feel the heat and rain, smell the sweat. Stephen's daughter Jen is the only really likable character but she does keep the others from becoming intolerable and I loved the outdoor adventure/survival aspect of the book. Note: At 209 pages, Time is the Longest Distance is a quick read but you may feel like you've just traversed the desert and need a bit of a lie-down, after.

I received a copy of Time is the Longest Distance from the author. I don't normally accept books from authors for review unless I know them personally so I have no idea what I was thinking, the day I said "yes" (although I was probably swayed by the setting) but I'm glad I accepted it. However, it's a one-off so if you're an author, please don't ask me to review your book directly -- if you'd like a review, I'd prefer to deal with a publicist. Thanks, Janet!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Splinterlands by John Feffer

Splinterlands by John Feffer is set in a dystopian future, where climate change and the splintering of nations has led to a violent, shattered world beset by food shortages and flooded shorelines. A former professor who became famous for his prediction about what would happen narrates. The book is his reflection as he lay dying -- complete with footnotes by an unnamed analyst. He recalls what occurred and how his personal mission to visit his family (using futuristic technology that allows a 3-dimensional avatar to walk around and speak to people as if he's there, while he stays home in bed), also splintered and scattered around the world, unfolds. His prediction, which brought him fame when it largely came true, was written in our time, as Brexit was beginning the downfall of the European Union and inactivity on climate change was causing that change to accelerate.

After he visits each of his family members, something sinister happens. They each disappear. The family has broken up for varying reasons and as he meets up with each member of the family individually, they dredge up the past and resume their arguments. Since they argue all over again, it's possible they simply can't tolerate him and have opted to cut off contact deliberately. But, one of his children lives a shady lifestyle. Could the disappearances have something to do with him?

Recommended but not a favorite - I found this book a bit on the dry side. It's written formally, like an academic paper, because the narrator is a former professor. And, of course, it's interrupted by footnotes clarifying the narration. But, it's worth sticking it out for the ending and I think the author did a great job of imagining a future scenario based on current events. He humorously used a hurricane named Donald that destroys Washington, D. C. as one of his defining events.

I bought my copy of Splinterlands from the publisher, Haymarket Books. They occasionally have fantastic sales online. I recommend following them on Twitter, if you happen to tweet.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Gown by Jennifer Robson

In the 1950s, two embroiderers, one of whom survived a Nazi concentration camp, work together on Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown in London. In the near present, a young woman's grandmother dies in Toronto and leaves her some embroidered flowers with beads and seed pearls but no explanation as to their origin. Where did the embroidered flowers come from and why did her grandmother leave them specifically for her? Heather's grandmother never shared how or why she ended up in Toronto. Why did she keep her past a secret? As Heather searches for the answers to the origin of the embroideries, the story of their creation and her grandmother's past unfolds in the historical timeline.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Gown. I thought it would be interesting (I obviously wouldn't have accepted it for review if I hadn't been intrigued by the storyline) but the concept of the historical/contemporary blend has been totally overdone in recent years and I often feel like they are more exhausting than enjoyable. That was not the case at all while reading The Gown. The focus is heavily on the two embroiderers, Miriam and Ann, how they came to work on the wedding gown, what it was like to be an embroiderer living during a time of strict rationing in post-WWII England, and what became of them after the royal wedding. Heather's story in contemporary Canada and England (where she travels in search of answers) is kept to a minimum, which keeps the back-and-forth sensation from becoming as tiresome as it often can be in a novel set in alternating time periods.

Throughout the reading, I occasionally found myself thinking the modern storyline could have been eliminated completely. But, it's not obtrusive and ended up adding a much-needed conclusion to the embroiderers' story, plus a surprisingly uplifting ending to the book. Because of that, I actually thought the book was better than it would have been if it had only focused on the historical.

Highly recommended - Charming characters, clearly well-researched historical setting, and a solid ending make The Gown a lovely, entertaining, and enlightening read. I enjoyed learning about the creation of Princess Elizabeth's gown, loved the vividness of the historical setting (definitely a "you were there" sensation to this book), and really appreciated the fact that the modern storyline ended up adding to the depth of the story rather than giving me the sensation of being repeatedly flung back and forth in time. An excellent read.

My thanks to HarperCollins for the Advance Reader Copy of The Gown.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Alice Faye Duncan and Xia Gordon,
• Mirabel's Missing Valentines by Janet Lawler and Olivia Chin Mueller, and
• Thunder Pug by Kim Norman and Keika Yamaguchi, all from Sterling Children's Books for review

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Howard's End by E. M. Forster
• Kivalina: A Climate Change Story by Christine Shearer
• Thunder Pug by Kim Norman and Keika Yamaguchi
• A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks by Faye Duncan and Xia Gordon
• Mirabel's Missing Valentines by Janet Lawler and Olivia Chin Mueller
• Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War, Ed. by Roy Scranton and Matt Gallagher

I had a great reading week. 

Currently reading:

• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
• The Free Speech Century by Stone and Bollinger
• The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber

By the end of the week I'd only read a handful of pages of Old Baggage (maybe a dozen? 17?) so I decided to just start over from the beginning after I finished Fire and Forget. Now I'm about halfway in and loving it. There is no such thing as a bad book by Lissa Evans; she is absolutely brilliant. I wish I had a brain like hers. The Free Speech Century sat unopened, this week, but I hope to read a couple chapters, tonight. It's a read that requires concentration and will take me a long time to get through but it's worth the effort. 

The Book of Strange New Things is a book my eldest brought with him and insisted that I must read, when he and the granddaughter came for a visit. In fact, he asked me why I didn't add it to my post about the books I plan to challenge myself to read in 2019. I said it's because it doesn't fit into any of the categories of books that I listed, but he's right. It's a book I've planned to read in 2019, so it might as well have gone on the list, along with a book my other son has been begging me to read for probably 5 years, now: Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey: From the OSS to the CIA by Joseph E. Persico. I'll update the post and add a "Books my kids insist I must read" section. 

Posts since last Malarkey:

• Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (book review) I'm embarrassed to have just now noticed that I misspelled Adjei-Brenyah's last name in the subject line. Just updated that. 
• Soon by Andrew Santella (book review)
• Vivian Maier: The Color Work by Colin Westerbeck and Vivian Maier (book review)
• 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do by Amy Morin (book review)
• Fiona Friday: Pretty girl (cat photo) 

I didn't manage to post twice a day but I'm happy that I managed to post every day and one of those days I posted two reviews. Since I had a terrific reading week, obviously it's going to take me even longer to catch up on reviewing but I've been doing a one paragraph review immediately upon finishing at Instagram and have reviewed quite a few of the books I've read at Goodreads, so I shouldn't have any trouble with reviewing, even if it takes me a while. I'll have plenty to jog my memory. Although, having said that, I haven't read anything that I consider easily forgettable. I've had a great reading year, so far.


In other news:

Kiddo was home, this weekend, and he chose Cowboys and Aliens for family movie time (which folded over into the next day because he had to go hang with his fiancé). What a bizarre movie. I'm pretty sure the cowboys fired more bullets than reasonably possible, given the time period and the lack of visible reloading, and more cowboys died than were actually in the movie -- at least, it sure looked that way -- but I still enjoyed it, maybe because of the weirdness level. I liked the idea of people facing aliens in a different time than present or future, as we're accustomed to seeing in movies. Otherwise, not a TV week at all. I didn't watch anything else beyond the news.

And, the big news of the day is that it's supposed to snow, tomorrow! Husband's workplace has already decided to shut down for the day. I can tell you that my hair and head are in agreement with the weather prediction. I woke up with super curly hair and a migraine. That means moisture and a change of air pressure are coming. I'm trying not to get excited in advance of snowfall because we're frequently disappointed but my hair is normally better at predicting the weather than the local meteorologists, so I feel pretty confident that something is coming.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Pretty girl

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do by Amy Morin

13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do by Amy Morin is the kind of book I don't usually read. I decided a long time ago that most self-help books just don't work for me. Either the advice doesn't quite fit my needs or it doesn't stick. I've got a few favorites that I reread on occasion (mostly from the "positive thinking" end of the spectrum) but I stopped buying self-help years ago. So, it's kind of surprising that I decided to read 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do. Maybe the backwards nature of the title appealed to me -- instead of 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Should Do, its opposite? I can't say. All I can tell you is that I was seeing the book everywhere and it had already piqued my interest when I got an offer to review the book.

I started reading 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do the day it arrived. I really was that excited about it. Subtitled "Own Your Power, Channel Your Confidence, and Find Your Authentic Voice for a Life of Meaning and Joy," this is actually the third in a series of books about things people who are mentally strong avoid and the first directed specifically at women and their unique challenges. I have not read the others and, in fact, had not heard of them.

A brief note on the challenges that are unique to women: Morin talks about how we're treated as children -- the origin of those challenges that are very specific to women -- impact us. She talks, for example, about research into how teachers respond to boys vs. girls:

[. . . ] teachers were more likely to give boys effort-based feedback when they fail and ability-based feedback when they succeed. So if a boy fails, a teacher may be more likely to say, "You need to study harder next time." But when a boy succeeds, the teacher is more likely to say, "You are smart."

Girls, however, are more likely to receive feedback that their failures stem from their lack of ability while their successes are due to good behavior. So a teacher is more likely to tell a girl, "Math comes hard to you," when she fails and is more likely to say, "You do well on tests because you pay attention in class," when she succeeds.

[p. 62]

The first few chapters of the book went quickly. 13 Things is an easy, breezy read with plenty of examples from the author's work as a clinical psychologist (a talk therapist). She describes each particular thing women don't do if they're mentally healthy, for example: Chapter 1: They Don't Compare Themselves to Other People. In Chapter 1, Morin describes how many women compare their looks to models and wonder, "Why can't I look like Christie Brinkley?" or whoever, and make themselves miserable by feeling too short, too fat, too un-blonde, etc. Morin then will talk about a specific patient and how she was comparing herself to someone else, why it was causing her problems, what the doctor suggested, and how she applied those suggestions or came up with something similar (sometimes, patients do come up with their own ideas after hearing that of the psychologist) to stop the mentally unhealthy behavior.

One thing that's great about this book: You won't just learn what you're doing wrong but what you're doing right. I don't compare myself to anyone else, for example. Instead, if I'm feeling fat or ugly or whatever, I tend to ponder what I can do to change myself to be the best me instead of longing to be something that is, in fact, physically impossible. So, you could say Chapter 1 doesn't apply to me at all. But I still found it an enjoyable and helpful read because it's encouraging to discover and ponder those areas in which you're mentally strong, rather than just reading about the weak areas. And, if you don't feel like you want or need to read about what you're doing right, you can always skim the chapters that don't apply to your needs. Only 2 of the chapters seemed to apply to my specific needs.

But, wow, those two chapters hit me hard. One was about something that I've known to be a challenge my entire adult life. Thinking about how it applied to me was painful. And, I think I'll probably need to reread those two chapters repeatedly in order to really work on not doing those particular things that are harmful to myself. But, I'm definitely glad I own a copy of the book so I can read those two chapters repeatedly.

Highly recommended - While only a couple of the chapters in this book applied to me personally, I found 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do both fascinating and helpful, and it's such an easy read that you can't possibly feel like you're wasting the time reading (or skimming) the chapters that don't apply. That's because those that do really make you evaluate your challenges and how to conquer them while the rest make you feel good about yourself.

I received a copy of 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do from HarperCollins in exchange for an unbiased review. My thanks to HarperCollins!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Vivian Maier: The Color Work by Colin Westerbeck and Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier: The Color Work is a coffee-table sized book of photographs (a "monograph" of Maier's color photography, according to the cover flap) that I wheedled my husband into buying me for Christmas and then wrapped, myself. I've wanted to own a book of her photography since I first read about her and saw examples of her work.

In the text to Vivian Maier: The Color Work, the author talks about what makes Maier's work, as a collection, significant in the photography world. Why are her photos special? He also mentions that her color photography is not as fine-tuned as her black-and-white work. If not for the text, in fact, you might think this is not such a hot collection. It's crucial to read the text because it makes sense of her work -- what she was trying to say through her photography, who her influences may have been, particular details that she clearly found fascinating. I got a lot out of that text.

Highly recommended - Both a wonderful collection and an informative read. Whatever you do, don't skip the text. It makes sense of the photos. One, for example, shows a white person in focus and two African Americans blurred at the edges. I would not have understood the deliberate choice Maier made by framing the photo exactly as she did, had I not read about it. Far better than any other book I read, Vivian Maier: The Color Work helped me to understand why a particular collection of photos has merit (specifically, her photos, but also generally). A pricey book but well worth the cost. I'm so glad I nudged the spouse into buying this for me.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Soon by Andrew Santella

The virtual-world distractions that tempt us at work -- tweeting, online gambling, fantasy sports, online shopping, porn, Pinterest, clips from last night's Conan -- have inspired a neologism: cyberloafing. [...]

The drive to eliminate such distractions has produced a small industry of software, surveillance technologies, and apps with names like Concentrate! and Think. There is money to be made in protecting ourselves from our impulses. Among the acknowledgments for her novel NW, Zadie Smith thanked the Internet-blocking apps Freedom and SelfControl for helping free her from distraction. 

[p. 160]

Soon: An Overdue History of Procrastination, from Leonardo and Darwin to You and Me by Andrew Santella is just what it sounds like from its lengthy subtitle. It's a history and an entertainment, but also a look at the positive side of procrastination. Santella describes at length, for example, the many years that Charles Darwin spent studying barnacles after his voyage on the Beagle led to the theory of evolution that would later be written about in On the Origin of Species. In fact, there's a full twenty-year span between the publication of The Voyage of the Beagle (which, incidentally, I read about twenty years ago, maybe longer) and On the Origin of Species (which I have not -- although I'm not equating my procrastination with that of Darwin). Could that delay have allowed Darwin time to refine his theory while he took long walks around the private path he built in his yard and examined barnacles? This is the kind of avenue Andrew Santella leads you down.

The one thing Soon is not: a book on how to avoid procrastination and become more productive. In fact, the author goes into the history of productivity and how a single man with a timer ended up being the founder of all that misery-inducing emphasis on doing things faster to increase the bottom line. The author also mentions cases (besides Darwin and his barnacles) in which procrastination may have led to better results in the long run. If anything, it's a paean to the joys of procrastination.

Recommended for those interested in a light read on the history of procrastination - If you're looking for a book on how not to procrastinate, I recommend The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel, PhD, an author and researcher who is casually mentioned in Soon. I reviewed The Procrastination Equation in 2011 and have meant to reread it but I've put it off. Haha. The link through the first mention of the title will take you to my review and it's worth adding that the author took my advice in my review of The Procrastination Equation, so there's now some form of summary card in the book. Soon is written with a lighthearted touch and I enjoyed it mostly for the change of pace. I found myself reading passages aloud to my husband, so that gives you an inkling of how much it interested me. I seldom read aloud from non-fiction books unless I find something either fascinating or entertaining enough to consider it worth sharing (partly because Huzzybuns won't listen if I read passages too often).

There is, in fact, a passage that I think is worth mentioning because I disagree with it so strongly:

For me, and I bet for most procrastinators, the whole point of the to-do list is that it enhances the satisfaction in blowing something off. If you didn't first list the thing you are now putting off, you might not ever realize that you weren't doing that thing. And where is the fun in that?

[p. 75]

Au, contraire, Mr. Santella. I'm an inveterate list writer and I write lists for the purpose of reminding myself what needs doing (because, frankly, I'm an airhead) and for the satisfaction of placing a little checkmark beside each item completed. I cannot even begin to imagine taking joy in writing a list and then blowing off everything on it.

I received a copy of Soon in return for an unbiased review from HarperCollins. Many thanks! A note on the updated mention of ARCs. I have, in the past, felt like there's no need to mention the fact that I receive an ARC from a publisher within the review post because I post photos and sources of every book that arrives on my doorstep in my Monday Malarkey posts and I thought that enough to fulfill the obligation to mention the source of a book for purposes of the FTC requirement (so I will have mentioned receiving an ARC from the publisher before I review it). However, one of the publishers for whom I review has recently sent a letter insisting on such mention within a review post, at risk of being removed from the review list. OK, fine. I'll mention the source of each book I receive from a publisher. I don't know if I'll bother saying, "I checked this one out from the library!" or "This book was a purchase bought because some irresponsible blogger/twitter/Instagram friend told me it was great." If you're interested in knowing the source of every book, let me know and I might mention them all, for fun. We shall see. I've mentioned the reason I blog, in the past, but this seems like a good time to restate that. I started a book blog because I needed a place to spill about the books I'm reading, for better or worse. Whether I love a book or hate it, you'll know how I feel. I'm not paid, although I do receive books from publishers in return for an unbiased review, and I have chosen not to allow any advertisements on my blog because I want it to remain what it was when I started blogging in 2006 -- a place where I can write freely about how books make me feel. It also used to be a place where I shared my photographs and told anecdotes about the kids, but the damn kids grew up and moved away, cutting off my access to some really great material (I loved having kids around, I confess --  Empty Nesting was hard). At any rate, my purpose hasn't changed. I will always need some sort of writing outlet, whether here or elsewhere, and blogging has served that purpose for a dozen years, now. Also of note, the watch I used as a prop in the photo of Soon served two purposes: 1. To reflect the passage of time (as it related to putting off tasks) and 2. To cover the bite marks in the cover because a naughty kitty chewed on the book. Cats. Who gets 'em.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a collection of short stories and, as such, half of the people I know will probably skip right over this review. I'm here to tell you that you need to stop that. Short stories can feel incomplete, true, and less satisfying than novels. But, that's not always the case and you're missing out on a potentially amazing form of writing if you reject them out of hand.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's stories are astonishing. They can be equally quirky and deep at the same time. In one story, for example, the author tackles the rampant, even vicious, consumerism of Black Friday. "Friday Black" is the name of the story, the one from which the book gets its name. In "Friday Black" an employee climbs to a safe spot from which he pulls down jackets with a pole. He's up high to avoid being trampled. The customers have developed their own language and he speaks it, so he understands what they want and is able to quickly retrieve their requested items, making him a top salesperson. During the lulls in business, employees pick up the dead bodies of those who have been crushed by the crowd and move them to a part of the store set aside especially for the dead. It's a strange story and yet you see the truth in it.

The trouble with reviewing a book of short stories is that I almost never think to write down my thoughts about the stories as I'm reading them and when I get to the end of the book, I'll think, "That was great/awful/[insert other generic thought]" but I won't recall the stories themselves because they tend to be so diverse. The stories in Friday Black are unusually memorable, but I think it's interesting what I wrote about the first three -- not a paragraph, but a word or two (or five) about each. I'll write the words I wrote down in my notebook in bold.

"The Finkelstein 5" - Emmanuel has nightmares about the five children who were murdered in front of the library and the growing backlash in which his friends are being swept up. As he prepares for a job interview, Emmanuel worries about how to present himself. At the same time, an acquaintance shows up on the bus nicely dressed, as if headed for work. But, he's one of the people involved in the violent retribution for the deaths of the Finkelstein 5. 

There are two things that are particularly fascinating about this story. Emmanuel has a mental scale that he uses to adjust his blackness. He knows, for example, that if he wears a hoodie and allows his pants to sag, his blackness level goes up and so does suspicion. He's more likely to be followed by security or employees at the mall, police in the streets, the blacker he appears.

At the same time as Adjei-Brenyah gives you this blackness scale to ponder, he has created a scenario in which a white man claimed to be so frightened of black children that he went to his vehicle to fetch a chain saw and chopped all their heads off. As I recall, he claimed to fear for his own children's lives. In this aspect of the story, you can't help but see the insanity of George Zimmerman's claim because, while the method of killing is different, the reason for fear is not all that far removed. A kid with a bag of Skittles vs. a guy with a gun? Same thing. By the time he gets to the end of the story, you have an understanding of why Emmanuel makes the choice he does. But, it's still shattering.

"Things My Mother Said" - A mother shows her strength, dignity, and good parenting by managing to put a warm meal on the table after the gas, water, and electricity have been turned off. At only two pages, I described this deeply meaningful story as a gut punch and a revelation.

"The Era" - A futuristic tale of a world in which a happy drug is doled out as needed unless you overdo it, I described this one as a phenomenon because of its uniqueness.

Strong reactions, strong stories.

Highly recommended - A spectacular set of short stories with particular focus on racism, poverty, and consumer greed that will knock the breath right out of you. The stories in Friday Black reminded me a bit of William Saunders' writing and coincidentally (or not?), Saunders blurbed the book and is mentioned in the acknowledgments. So, maybe Adjei-Brenyah was his student? There's definitely a similar quirkiness and level of impact and meaning to the writing. I can't wait to read more by this fabulous writer.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (top to bottom):

• Milkman by Anna Burns - purchased
• Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane and
• Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger - from Penguin Random House for review
• Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini - from HarperCollins for review
• So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernieres - purchased

An eclectic selection, as always. Milkman and So Much Life Left Over were on my wish list for a while but I don't recall what possessed me to place an order, although I have an inkling that I may have found Milkman at a good price and decided to go ahead and toss in the de Bernieres while I was at it.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• Time is the Longest Distance by Janet Clare
• Freefall by Jessica Barry

This was a good reading week. I enjoyed all three books I finished, although Time is the Longest Distance has a melancholy tone (not my favorite). The Gown is historical fiction (historical/contemporary blend), Time is the Longest Distance is contemporary literature set mostly in Australia, and Freefall is a suspense/thriller about a woman who survives a plane crash and then must run for her life.


Currently reading:

• Howard's End by E. M. Forster
• The Free Speech Century by Geoffrey Stone and Lee Bollinger
• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

I'm a little over halfway into Howard's End and still loving it. There are times I don't understand the nuances of turn-of-the-20th-Century English society and their dialogue but it's not enough to detract from the most entertaining scenes, and there are plenty of those. The Free Speech Century is going to take me a long time. I've got a paralegal certification under my belt but it's not the easiest thing to read, whether you've experienced reading law or not. It's worth the effort, though. I like what Oliver Wendell Homes and Louis Brandeis had to say about free speech and why it's so important for opposing viewpoints to be heard in a functioning Republic. Old Baggage is a Lissa Evans book, so I already loved what I've read but I'm not far into it. Evans has recently become a favorite author.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• 2019 Reading Goals (just what it sounds like: a list of goals)
• Ten Kisses to Scandal by Vivienne Lorret (book review)
• Tomorrow is Waiting by Kiley Frank and Aaron Meshon and a Fiona Friday pic (book review and cat photo)

I may do 2-a-day book reviews, this week, so I don't fall too much farther behind. I found myself struggling to write about Friday Black on Thursday, so I defaulted to Tomorrow is Waiting and didn't get that written till Friday. Since then, I've found the notebook in which I wrote a few words about each of the first few stories in Friday Black, so that should help. 

In other news:

We were planning to take a quick trip to Memphis, this weekend, but then we changed our plans at the last minute and ended up doing post-holiday tidying, instead, with some reading and a movie for breaks. The movie surprised me. Husband found a movie he wanted me to watch with him on the Hallmark Channel. It was a little hokey but it took place in South Africa, so we were both in it for the scenes with local wildlife.

Like most of the Eastern half of America, we had storms and then a bitter cold front, so part of the reason we stayed home was to avoid driving in stormy weather and make sure the house was prepared for the drop below freezing. So, that was probably it for genuine winter weather, here. I enjoyed a day of wearing fluffy boots and having an excuse to curl up under the blankets and read, when I wasn't cleaning.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Tomorrow is Waiting by Kiley Frank and Aaron Meshon and a Fiona Friday pic

Tonight as you sleep, a new day stirs. 

Each kiss goodnight is a wish for tomorrow. 

That you'll have wings enough to fly as high as you want. 

I'm going to say something unusual and I don't say this lightly: I can already tell Tomorrow is Waiting by Kiley Frank, illustrated by Aaron Meshon, is going to be a favorite children's book in 2019. I love Tomorrow is Waiting so much it brings tears to my eyes (and it's not a sad book).

With absolutely gorgeous, eye-catching, bold illustrations, Tomorrow is Waiting talks about the many things a child has to look forward to and talks of the wishes a parent has for a child. Each spread shows a child exploring the world in some way -- snorkeling, walking through woods, leaping across river rocks, climbing over a wall, jumping into water. The book talks about courage, imagination, kindness, and hope, wishing these and other positive characteristics on the child.

Highly recommended - Colorful, uplifting, hopeful wishes. I can't think of a better way to put a child to bed at night than with such glorious hopes for the future. Here's an interior shot of one of the spreads so you can get a load of that eye-popping color:

I received a copy of Tomorrow is Waiting from Penguin Random House in return for an unbiased review. Many thanks!


And, now I must squeeze in a Fiona Friday pic because I was away from the computer, yesterday. Look what happens when you fold up a blanket and put it on your coffee table! It attracts cats! Granted, this is a super soft blanket. I might like to curl up on the coffee table, myself.

Also of note: A cat opened that cabinet door behind Isabel. Little rapscallions have been into everything, lately.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Ten Kisses to Scandal by Vivienne Lorret (Misadventures in Matchmaking #2)

Ten Kisses to Scandal by Vivienne Lorret, the second book in the Misadventures in Matchmaking series, is the story of the youngest sister in a family of matchmakers. Briar's elder sisters are in charge of interviewing potential clients, investigating their lives to discover their characteristics in order to find their perfect match, and doing all the important paperwork. Meanwhile, Briar is relegated to serving their clients tea.

Determined to become a matchmaker herself, Briar sets out to try to meet up with a potential client -- one who is unaware that the spontaneous and imaginative youngest Bourne sister sees him that way. On her way to see this potential client, Briar ends up viewing an infamous rake ravishing a woman (well . . . kissing her passionately and such) as he sends her off in a carriage. Briar is both scandalized and fascinated.

The rake, Nicholas, is surprised by this enchanting and naive young woman, her wild imagination, and her infatuation with chocolate. When she is later challenged to find him a bride, Briar makes a deal with Nicholas. If he will teach her about what attracts males and females to each other, how to read their body language, etc., she will pay him for each lesson with a single kiss. She'll be able to observe him and find the right matchmate while she learns. But, as each kiss becomes more passionate, will Nicholas drop his guard and fall in love?

Highly recommended to romance lovers - I'll mention the negative first (there's only one): there was something done in one of the two sex scenes that totally grossed me out. As anyone who reads my blog regularly knows, I'm not into graphic sex scenes, anyway, so I'll just skim those in the next installment. It wasn't enough to turn me away from this delightful series, by any means, but it certainly surprised me. What makes Ten Kisses to Scandal shine is the author's sense of humor. In Briar, she has created a truly adorable and entertaining character. Often, romance authors will describe a character as enchanting or clever without showing them to be so through dialogue. Briar's imagination and charm are well described and shown. She really is a delight. And, while Nicholas is a rake, Lorret also beautifully shows his soft side and makes the pairing believable. I loved Ten Kisses to Scandal and can't wait for the third book in the Misadventures in Matchmaking series.

Note: I received a copy of Ten Kisses to Scandal from Avon Romance in return for an unbiased review.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

2019 Reading Goals

I spent some time in December thinking about my 2019 Reading Goals when I probably ought to have been working on a Year in Review report. Ah, well. I like thinking ahead.

Reading Goals for 2019:

1.  Recently Dead Guys Personal Challenge - I bought 3 books by authors who then promptly died in 2018. I can't find one of them but I just bought another and 3 seems like a nice challenge number, so I'll stick with the 3 unless I find the 4th and decide I'm in a hurry to read it. The challenge books:

• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Cruising Paradise by Sam Shepard
• A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz

2. Perfect Little Gems Personal Challenge - After reading News of the World by Paulette Jiles a second time, last year, I spent a lot of time thinking about books that are short but perfect little gems -- which News of the World definitely is, in my humble opinion. When I took a writing workshop taught by Simon Van Booy, he mentioned the fact that it's not necessary to write a 300-page book when you're starting out (and I've been away from fiction writing long enough to feel like I'm starting all over again, although I've written several novels). Instead, he said, focus on reading really well-written short books and trying to write a shorter work.

I've been literally pondering that advice for years without doing a thing but the longer I think about it, the more I miss writing fiction and want to return to it. So, I want to spend some time looking for and reading shorter works of excellence in 2019. I have a few titles that were recommended to me and a list that contains a few more I'll eventually buy. The challenge books, so far:

• Articles of War by Nick Arvin
• The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih
• The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (I've misplaced this one but will be searching for it)

I've got quite a few shorter novels shelved around my house and some have come highly recommended (pretty much everything by Italo Calvino, for example) so I will probably add one of Calvino's shorter works like Under the Jaguar Sun to that list and see what other books I've got that get high ratings and happen to be short.


3. Books I bought in hardback because I was sooo anxious to read them and then didn't get around to reading them -- another Personal Challenge:

• Transcription by Kate Atkins
• Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
• In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne
• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
• Savage Country by Robert Olmstead
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (admittedly purchased mostly because so many men were telling her she should sit down and shut up)

I'm still equally excited about these titles. The thrill of having them ahead of me on the TBR piles has not worn off. 

4. Personal Classics Challenge - I plan to return to the usual 1 per month challenge that I've kept to in recent years except while reading one particular title. In 2018, I set a goal to read two really long books: Don Quixote and Gone With the Wind. Don Quixote was so memorable that I often set it aside for weeks before returning to it for a while (with no trouble recalling where I was in the story), then I'd set it aside again. The result was a full 6 months of reading the same classic. When I finished, I was both elated and drained. I thought I'd wait a month or two and then start Gone With the Wind. I never got to it, so I'm folding Gone With the Wind into my 2019 Classics Challenge and it's the one title I'll let drag on a couple months, if necessary. I'd like to read no fewer than 9 classics in 2019.

5. Fewer ARCs/upcoming releases in 2019 (exception: children's books) - I'm going to try my darndest to read more off my shelves and request fewer ARCs, although I already have a substantial number of ARCs for January alone. Wish me luck. This one is hard. I've been blogging a long time and I receive a lot of requests to review. I have no problem fitting in the children's books because so many of those that I review are middle grade or picture books -- very quick reads. Plus, I'm crazy about children's books and would be happy to review even more. But, I'm not going to go out looking for them. I'll just stick with the publishers with whom I already have a relationship.

6. Spend less time on social media and more time reading - If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you've probably seen the article that says you can likely bump the number of books you read in a year up significantly (they say 200 books but I don't know if that's possible for me) if you give up social media. I've been trying to work on that, already, in spite of the fact that I actually started up an Instagram account, a couple months ago (I'm @Bookfoolery on Instagram, if you're interested in following me there). I like the fact that Instagram is something I don't want to spend a lot of time on and adds a little fun because it makes me think about visuals -- posing books instead of just posting cover images.

I haven't gone beyond a paragraph when I posted about a finished book on Instagram, so far, and I like that. I've even considered eventually giving up the blog and just posting at Instagram someday. But, I'm not there, yet. It's an option for the future if I seriously get back to regular fiction writing, but until then . . . I need to write so I'll keep the blog going until and unless I am doing some other kind of writing that satisfies that particular primal need.

7. I've set my annual Goodreads reading goal at 100, again, although I read 131 books in 2018 and my unstated goal is shifting constantly. At this point, I'm really hoping to reach 150. But, I like keeping the Goodreads goal lower because I don't want it to be something that stresses me out.

8. A late addition: Books my kids insist I must read. There are only two, at the moment:

The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber
Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey: from the OSS to the CIA by Joseph E. Persico

One recommended by each son.

That's it! I've given myself a lot more reading goals than I did in 2018 and I'm not going to kick myself around the block if I decide I need to ease up on some of them. But, for now, it's January and I'm jazzed and looking forward to a fresh, new reading year!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals (left to right):

• Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein - from Crown Publishing, for review
• Cruising Paradise (short stories) by Sam Shepard - purchased
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - from local Little Free Library

Wunderland is a title I signed up to review via Shelf Awareness. And then I squeezed my eyes, held my breath, and crossed my fingers that I'd receive a copy so there may have been squealing when I opened the manila envelope. I read The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Epstein and can still remember scenes from it, years later, so Wunderland was way up there on my list of 2019 titles to look forward to. Getting to read it pre-publication is just icing on the cake. I don't have to wait for its release! Woot!

The Sam Shepard title, Cruising Paradise, was chosen at random for one of my 2019 reading goals. In 2018, I bought several titles by people who died shortly after their purchases. Shepard is already gone, of course, but I'd planned to read the titles I purchased in 2018 for a Recently Dead Guys personal reading challenge and I've wanted to read something by Sam Shepard. So, I went ahead and chose a book at random, mostly based on reviews, to add to the challenge pile. I'll probably read Cruising Paradise right away because I've been trying to keep a collection of short stories going at all times, in the past couple of months. I love short stories.

The Interestings is a beat-up mess, so I had to move the camera a bit to the left to avoid showing the curled-up cover, but it was a lucky find at our local Little Free Library. The city posted a photo on their Facebook page saying the Little Free Library box was full, complete with photo, and I saw a title by an author I love. The photo must have been old. None of the titles in that photo were in the LFL. But, The Interestings was in there and I've wanted to read that for a while. I'll return it and add a couple other titles (whatever will fit -- our LFL is pretty much always filled to overflowing), when I've read the book.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Splinterlands by John Feffer
• Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win by Clara Zetkin, ed. by M. Taber and J. Riddell
• Soon: What Science, Philosophy, Religion, and History Teach Us about the Surprising Power of Procrastination by Andrew Santella
• 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do by Amy Morin

As usual, January has been a Read Till Your Eyes Cross kind of month. I almost always read more books in January than any other month of the year. Then, I burn out a bit and slow down. But, I can't help it. After the reading desert that is the holiday season, I'm always ready to dive in and not come up for air for a month. I am really enjoying myself. 

Currently reading:

• The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson
• Howard's End by E. M. Forster
• The Free Speech Century by Lee Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The Gown and enjoying it immensely. Howard's End will be my first classic of 2019. I'll mention my reading goals for 2019, tomorrow, but I'm hoping to get back to reading a classic per month, most months. I've only read one other Forster: A Passage to India. I loved it, so I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get back to him. So far, Howard's End is a delight. I've really only just begun to read it (and I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea what I was getting into). I've also just begun to read The Free Speech Century, which is both a celebration of 100 years of free speech and an analysis of the meaning of free speech, what's been argued about it in the courts, and how the potential limits of free speech are being tested by social media. I'm also not far into this one but so far, so good.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• Everything I didn't review in 2018, Part 1 (Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 by Lauren Tarshis, and Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Ghosts by Katie and Kevin Tsang) - mini book reviews
• Everything I didn't review in 2018, Part 2 (The Truth Pixie by Matt Haig, Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans, and Down in Mississippi by Downing and Zecca ) - mini book reviews
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn - book review
• Books Read in 2018 - one year's reads, with links to reviews and/or brief descriptions of each book
• Fiona Friday: Smashface - cat photo

I'm done with 2018 (apart from *maybe, possibly* a wrap-up post of 2018, but I haven't worked on that, yet, so I can't say if it'll happen), so next up will be a post about my plans for 2019 and then I'll start diving into reviews of books I've read in 2019. I've read a lot, this year, but everything has been pretty memorable, so far, so I don't feel intimidated by the fact that I've got 8 reviews to write -- and that number will turn to 9 if I finish The Gown, tonight. 

In other news:

Hmm, I don't think there's much other news. apart from the fact that Saturday evening was Paint Night -- always a joy. Everyone who was here for Christmas is now back at work, home, or school. It's a bit of a shock, but I tend to like my alone time so I've decided today can be a day of adjustment (Kiddo just left yesterday, so this is really the first time I've been completely on my own for an entire day in 3 or 4 weeks). Tomorrow, I'll make myself get back into my normal routine (updated for 2019). Hope the start of your year has been a terrific one, so far.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Smashface

Somebody's comfy.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Books Read in 2018

Everything I read in 2018, with links to either a review, mini reviews, or a month-in-review in which I wrote about the book. 

January:

1. Saving Tarboo Creek - Scott Freeman and Susan Leopold Freeman
2. Forty Autumns - Nina Willner
3. The Bones of Grace - Tahmima Anam
4. Braving the Wilderness - Brené Brown
5. The Dry - Jane Harper
6. Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur
7. If This Isn't Nice, What Is? - Kurt Vonnegut
8. A Nest for Celeste - Henry Cole
9. Another Quest for Celeste - Henry Cole
10. Bagel in Love - Natasha Wing and Helen Dardik
11. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
12. The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
13. The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
14. Nature's Lullaby Fills the Night - Dee Leone and Bali Engel
15. A Couch for Llama - Leah Gilbert
16. Artemis - Andy Weir
17. Force of Nature - Jane Harper

February:

18. Down and Across - Arvin Ahmadi
19. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate - Al Franken
20. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
21. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
22. Only Killers and Thieves - Paul Howarth
23. I Am the Boss of this Chair - Carolyn Crimi and Marisa Morea
24. The Statue and the Fury - Jim Dees
25. Our Native Bees - Paige Embry

March:

26. The Brontë Sisters - Catherine Reef
27. Black Fortunes - Shomari Wills
28. Nothing Left to Burn - Heather Ezell
29. The Broken Girls - Simone St. James
30. Orphan Monster Spy - Matt Killeen
31. The Saboteur - Paul Nix
32. The Woman Next Door - Yewande Omotoso
33. Supergifted - Gordon Korman
34. Good Behavior - Blake Crouch
35. Bus! Stop! - James Yang
36. Up in the Leaves - Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph
37. Gloria's Voice - Aura Lewis

April:

38. Princesses Behaving Badly - Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
39. The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody - Matthew Landis
40. Look for Her - Emily Winslow
41. Rocket Men - Robert Kurson
42. If You Come Softly - Jacqueline Woodson
43. Sleep Train - Jonathan London and Lauren Eldridge
44. But the Bear Came Back - Tammi Sauer and Dan Taylor
45. Albie Newton - Josh Funk and Ester Garay
46. How to Forget a Duke - Vivienne Lorret
47. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
48. Isosceles' Day - Kevin Meehan
49. Tin Man - Sarah Winman
50. Warren the 13th and The Whispering Woods - Tania del Rio and Will Staehle
51. The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) - Adrienne Kress
52. Daddies Do - Lezlie Evans and Elisa Ferro
53. Boots on the Ground - Elizabeth Partridge

May:

54. Mad Boy - Nick Arvin
55. The Endless Beach - Jenny Colgan
56. Obscura - Joe Hart
57. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
58. Out of Left Field - Ellen Klages
59. Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor - Yossi Klein Halevi
60. The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik - David Arnold
61. The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses) - Terri-Lynne DeFino

June:

62. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman
63. Hollywood Beach Beauties - David Wills
64. Goodbye, Sweet Girl - Kelly Sundberg
65. Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue - Jeff Seymour
66. As You Wish - Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
67. Siracusa - Delia Ephron
68. Abridged Classics - John Atkinson
69. Wed Wabbit - Lissa Evans

July:

70. The Lost Family - Jenna Blum
71. Between You and Me - Susan Wiggs
72. Who Was George Washington Carver? - Jim Gigliotti
73. Bring Me Back - B. A. Paris
74. Who Was Genghis Khan? - Nico Medina
75. All Are Welcome - Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman
76. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah*
77. The Space Between Us - Thrity Umrigar*
78. Nightbooks - J. A. White
79. The Secrets Between Us - Thrity Umrigar
80. The War that Saved My Life - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

August:

81. Under a Dark Sky - Lori Rader-Day
82. Allie All Along - Sarah Lynne Reul
83. No Frogs in School - A. La Faye and E. Ceulemans
84. If You Go to a March - M. Freeman and V. Kim
85. How to Feed Your Parents - R. Miller and H. Aly
86. Never Satisfied: The Story of the Stonecutter - D. Horowitz
87. Unpunished Murder - Lawrence Goldstone
88. How to Be a T. Rex - Ryan North and Mike Lowery
89. Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees - Sarah F. Wakefield
90. I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 - Lauren Tarshis
91. The Muse - Jessie Burton
92. The Day You Begin - Jacqueline Woodson
93. Harbor Me - Jacqueline Woodson
94. From the Corner of the Oval - Beck Dorey-Stein
95. Saving Winslow - Sharon Creech
96. Death of the Snake Catcher - Ak Welsapar
97. Homespun - Ed. by Lorilee Craker

September

98. Mission Defrostable (Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast #3) - J. Funk and B. Kearney
99. Business Pig - Andrea Zuill
100. Look at Me!: Wild Animal Show-Offs - Jim Arnosky
101. I Know You Know - Gilly Macmillan
102. Never Too Young - Aileen Weintraub and Laura Horton
103. When Elephants Fly - Nancy Richardson Fischer
104. Mac B., Kid Spy: Mac Undercover - Mac Barnett, illus. by Mike Lowery
105. The Birds of Opulence - Crystal Wilkinson
106. Hot Winter Nights - Jill Shalvis
107. The Sadness of Beautiful Things° - Simon Van Booy
108. Sons and Soldiers - Bruce Henderson

October

109. A Brown Man in Russia - Vijay Menon
110. The Kennedy Debutante - Kerri Maher
111. Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Ghosts - Katie and Kevin Tsang
112. News of Our Loved Ones - Abigail DeWitt
113. The Last Ballad - Wiley Cash
114. The Sadness of Beautiful Things* - Simon Van Booy
115. News of the World*^- Paulette Jiles
116. Hey, Kiddo - Jarrett J. Krosoczka
117. Seven Days of Us - Francesca Hornak
118. The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel
119. To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel - Harper Lee and Fred Fordham (adaptor/illustrator)
120. Polar Bear Island - Lindsay Bonilla and Cinta Villalobos
121. Monstrous Devices - Damien Love

November

122. Marilla of Green Gables - Sarah McCoy
123. The Truth Pixie - Matt Haig
124. The Third Level - Jack Finney
125. Cupidity - Patricia Wood
126. Unsheltered - Barbara Kingsolver

December

127. Owls Are Good at Keeping Secrets - Sara O'Leary and Jacob Grant
128. A Duke Changes Everything - Christy Carlyle
129. Their Finest Hour and a Half - Lissa Evans
130. Down in Mississippi - Johnette Downing and Katherine Zecca
131. The Huntress - Kate Quinn


* reread
° e-book
^ mentioned but not reviewed


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.