My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan

Books, for Caitlin, had never been anything less than a kind of sorcery. As a child she was constantly armed, and even by her late pre-teens she'd become so voracious a reader that the twice-weekly visits to her local library could barely sate her hunger. More than just educating her, books offered release and freedom in every direction. Desert islands and deepest space became as real as the Brooklyn streets; she learned of headless horsemen and river rafting, Victorian-era London and dogs that would trek across continents to find their masters, and she got to know peg-legged pirates, pipe-smoking detectives and cowboys who drank and brawled but who loved their horses more than their women and who prized honor above all else. 

~p. 91 of Advance Reader Copy, My Coney Island Baby (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

You can guess why I chose that particular passage to share with other booklovers. In My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan, Michael and Caitlin have been meeting once a month at Coney Island for decades, sharing their deepest thoughts and intimacy in a way neither can with their respective spouses. But, now things are changing. Will this afternoon in Coney Island be their last or will they finally decide to run away together?

Of course, My Coney Island Baby is not just about that specific afternoon. Instead, as the couple walk to their hotel in the biting winter cold, warm up over coffee, and then climb into bed, their story unfolds. You get to know not only how they met and became lovers but how they met their spouses and the crushing pain that shattered Michael's and his wife's joy, the slow deterioration of warmth in Caitlin's marriage.

I'm not normally a fan of books about marriage or infidelity (or both) and tend to prefer a plot-driven book over one that's character-driven, but Billy O'Callaghan is the friend of a friend and I've wanted to read something by him for a while. I just hadn't gotten around to hunting down anything when My Coney Island Baby became available for review. I didn't enjoy the details of the sex scenes, where they're waxing on about how love makes a freckle on the shoulder special or whatever (not my thing, in general) but I found O'Callaghan's writing poetic and I thought he did an excellent job of balancing the past and present so that by the end of the book I cared about the two people enough to be invested in the decision they had to make about whether or not they'd end up together.

Recommended but not a favorite - Particularly recommended to readers who enjoy a character-driven novel and don't mind a slightly melancholy tone. A story of love and longing, marriage and infidelity, joy and grief, My Coney Island Baby was never going to be a favorite because it has elements I dislike. So, I was surprised at how gripping I found it. It ended up being a 4-star book (out of 5) because of the beauty of the prose, the magnetic pull of the central question, the depth of emotion, the moments of wisdom or acute observation:

In your forties your sense of longing shifts, and pleases itself in comfort rather than thrills. 

I'll definitely be looking for more by Billy O'Callaghan. My thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy.

Oops, forgot to mention the reason Fiona Friday ended up on Thursday! Well, obviously I mixed up the days of the week but I also had to hurriedly post because I knew storms were coming and that line of storms was a doozy. You may have seen an image of two flipped cars on the news (I watched the CBS evening news and saw it), last night. That was from our local Walmart. Because the storms lasted quite a while, once I unplugged the computer I just left it that way and spent my evening reading. Today, it's raining but I can see a wedge of blue sky and I'm very much looking forward to it pushing the latest clouds away. My yard is a lake. Ready to dry out, here. Happy Good Friday to those who celebrate Easter!


©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 - Yes or no to cuddles?

This happens a lot. Isabel flops down next to Fiona because she's a cuddler. Fiona gives her a couple of licks on the head and then jumps up and walks away. If you can click to enlarge, get a load of Fi's expression. She was on the verge of leaving, while Isabel was all blissed out. She always looks stunned when her sister vamooses.

©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 Awakening by Kate Chopin

There were strange, rare odors abroad -- a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near. But the night sat lightly upon the sea and the land. There was no weight of darkness; there were no shadows. The white light of the moon had fallen upon the world like the mystery and the softness of sleep. 

~p. 35 of The Awakening

Edna Pontellier is spending a lazy summer in her family's cottage near the beach at Grand Isle in Louisiana. Her children are mostly watched by an unreliable servant (the term used to describe this woman is archaic and, according to the site where I looked it up, now considered offensive) while Edna spends the bulk of her time hanging out with Robert, a single man who is around her age, talking, taking walks or listening to music, wading into the ocean. She is learning how to swim but is not quite comfortable going far out into the water and has a frightening experience, at one point.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pontellier spends most of his time either at his club or ignoring everyone, especially his wife. He's disinterested in her until and unless she steps out of line.

"Sometimes I am tempted to think that Mrs. Pontellier is capricious," said Madame Lebrun, who was amusing herself immensely and feared that Edna's abrupt departure might put an end to the pleasure. 

"I know she is," assented Mr. Pontellier; "sometimes, not often."

~p. 37

Nobody is bothered by the fact that a married woman is publicly spending her time with a single man. The neighbors all know each other, both through the proximity of their vacation homes and socially, when they're back home in New Orleans. Edna's clearly a daydreamer and Robert is willing to listen to her flights of fancy. She's lightened by his presence.

When she and Robert stepped into Tonie's boat, with the red lateen sail, mostly spirit forms were prowling in the shadows and among the reeds, and upon the water were phantom ships, speeding to cover. 

~p. 51


But, then Robert abruptly decides to go and seek his fortune with some friends when a business opportunity in Mexico arises. After he leaves, Edna is lost. She is in love with Robert, feels penned in by her husband's demands for a certain type of behavior, restless, and probably depressed. When they return to New Orleans, Edna's longing grows more pronounced. A friend is receiving letters from Robert, but he isn't writing to Edna.

When Mr. Pontellier leaves town for an extended business trip, Edna purchases a small house next to her home and moves in. There, Robert eventually comes to visit her. But, when he makes it clear that he's not going to indulge in an affair or attempt to break up her marriage, Edna makes a fatal decision.

Recommended - I am utterly fascinated that, upon finally reading this classic I've heard was considered so scandalous upon its publication, I discovered it to be so mild. It seemed to me less a book about a woman who desired to have an affair and more a novel about a women whose husband was completely immune to her charms to the point of torturous indifference. She was clearly not just capricious and whimsical, although Edna certainly was a woman who danced to her own tune. I think The Awakening is really a story about a woman who is so choked by convention that it leaves her chronically depressed. Would Robert have been able to save her from herself, had he been willing? Hard to say. The ending both shocked me and was expected, though. I felt Edna's pain throughout the reading. Loved Chopin's prose. There were several of Kate Chopin's short stories included with the copy I read. At least one of those had a shocking twist ending, as well, and I closed the book wishing I'd read The Awakening with a buddy or a discussion group.

©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.

Growing Season by Maryann Cocca-Leffler - Children's Day #6

In Growing Season by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, El and Jo are the best of friends. They're the two smallest children in their class and their names are short, too. They sit together at perfectly-sized desks, help each other reach things that they couldn't reach alone, and pose together for class photos. They play elves together in the Holiday Show and are small enough to share the special reading chair (I assume this chair is in their classroom, as the beginning of the book takes place at school).

Then, suddenly Jo has a tremendous growth spurt in the spring and El is left behind. Jo doesn't need El's help reaching things anymore. She can move to a bigger desk and she's able to reach over El when everyone is told to go get a flower to take home and grow over the summer break. El's the last to get a plant and her little aster is completely devoid of blooms. She feels sad and small but her teacher, Mr. Diaz, assures her that her plant will bloom.

Mr. Diaz leaned in. "El, that's an aster plant. Aster means 'star'."
"It's no star. It's just a little, plain green plant," said El.
"Just you wait! In time, it will grow and have beautiful purple blooms," said Mr. Diaz.
El was not so sure. 

Jo notices El's envious glance between her plant and Jo's and Jo hands El her zinnia, which is covered in blooms, saying she's going to be at her grandma's all summer, anyway. El puts the two plants in her garden, waters them, talks to them, and waits all summer (with her adorable kitty, Maddy -- another book with a cat, yay!) and the girls write to each other while they're apart.

At the end of the summer, both flowers are blooming, Jo comes home, and El realizes something big has happened. She's grown, too!

Aster had finally bloomed . . . and so had EL!

Highly recommended - I absolutely love this sweet story about growing plants, growing bodies, and friendship. At the end of the book, there's a page entitled "Plant life cycles" that describes annual, perennial, and biennial flowers, as well as tender perennials, which I'd never heard of (they may or may not return, depending upon the climate) but have experienced because we're in a climate zone where certain plants I knew as annuals when living farther north come back year after year, here. I'm always especially fond of children's books in which there's some factual information to round out a story. I already enjoyed the tale of the two little girls who grow at different speeds in the same way their plants bloom at a different rate but the extra info just added to what was already a 5-star read.

This is the final review for today's special Children's Day event and not a dud in the bunch. Awesome. Many thanks to Sterling Children's Books for another wonderful pile to read and share with the world!


©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.

Holy Squawkamole! by Susan Wood and Laura Gonzalez - Children's Day #5

Holy Squawkamole! Little Red Hen Makes Guacamole by Susan Wood and Laura Gonzalez is an updated version of the old "Little Red Hen" story in which nobody will help the Little Red Hen gather ingredients and cook. In Holy Squawkamole! she's making guacamole instead of baking bread. She asks Coati, who is up in the trees when she goes to the avocado grove, to help her pick the avocados she needs for her guacamole. Coati says no.

"I'm hanging out. But I'll help eat it when it's done, gallinita roja. Nothing beats a tasty guacamole."

"Then I'll gather the avocados myself," said Little Red Hen. And she did. 

Similarly, she asks the snake to help her pick tomatoes, the armadillo to help her pull onions, and the iguana to help her snip cilantro from the garden. All turn her down and none will help her do the cooking, either. So she does all the work of harvesting and cooking, and at the end she adds a special ingredient. When the guacamole is done, everyone is happy to help her eat it and they all choose a different way to eat it -- in a taco or a burrito, rolled into a tortilla, or straight. But, they get a surprise. The special ingredient she added was a hot pepper and the guacamole is super spicy. 

Suddenly they stopped chewing. 

They huffed and puffed.

They winced and wheezed. 

They sweated and slobbered. 

The Little Red Hen confesses to having added a surprise ingredient, but agrees that nothing beats a tasty guacamole and they all finish it up. 

The story is followed by a two-page spread entitled, "The Story of Guacamole" that tells how guacamole (then known as ahuacamolli, or "avocado sauce") was created in Mexico, in the 1300s, and brought back to Europe by Spaniards in the 1500s. It talks about the fact that guacamole recipes have a regional flair, depending on the country in which the guacamole is made, and about National Guacamole Day in America. I didn't realize there was a National Guacamole Day. I must plan for this. 

There's also a guacamole recipe with helpful hints (how to choose a perfect avocado, how to keep your guacamole from turning brown, ideas for extra ingredients to add). The following three pages contain an illustrated glossary of terms used in the book. "Gallinita" is Spanish for "little hen", for example, and "roja" means red, so when Coati calls the hen "gallinita roja", he's calling her "Little Red Hen". 

Recommended - I didn't give this my highest recommendation because I thought making the guacamole hot but still sharing was a little weaker than the lesson in the original "Little Red Hen" story, in which the other animals are taught that if you're not willing to help out with the work involved in harvesting and cooking, you don't get to share when it's time to eat. But, I love Holy Squawkamole! anyway. I love it for all the extra bits of information. And, I'm crazy about the illustrations. They're both vibrant in color and give the illusion of action. And, it's true that nothing beats a tasty guacamole.

I received a copy of Holy Squawkamole! from Sterling Children's Books for review and it's definitely one of my favorite books of this lot to look at. I adore the illustrations. Many thanks to Sterling!

©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.

Some Days by Karen Kaufman Orloff and Ziyue Chen - Children's Day #4

Some days 

are chocolate pie days.

Kites up in the sky days.

Jumping super high days. [...]

Some days are hurt myself somehow days.

Icky . . . sticky . . . OW! . . . days.

Need my mommy now days. 

Some Days by Karen Kaufman Orloff and Ziyue Chen is a rhyming book that would make an excellent prompt for classroom or home discussion with little ones. Some days, the book shows, you have fun swimming, jumping, getting a puppy, playing dress-up, etc. But, other days are not so good. You can feel lonely, scrape a knee, get in trouble, have to run to catch the bus, or do chores you may or may not like.

I kind of wish I could copy the entire text of this book in this post because it does such a nice job of covering a lot of the types of fun activities and big disappointments that a child may have. The illustration that shows children stuck indoors on a rainy day when they'd rather be playing kickball reminded me that I used to keep a small pile of books on a high shelf in my eldest son's closet when he was little, just for rainy or sad days. That's what one of the things I think this book would be especially good for -- keeping up high to pull out on a grumpy day or a day the little one's stuck indoors and not happy about it.

Highly recommended - Each of the rhyming paragraphs above comprises a two-page spread, so the text is on the light side. Also great for thinking about the fact that there will be bad days, I think Some Days is especially useful for pulling out on a moody day, a sick day, or a stuck-indoors day to remind children that both good and bad things happen and even if you're having a bad day, good days will come.

Yet another wonderful book sent to me by Sterling Children's Books for review! My thanks to Sterling!

©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.

Just Read by Lori Degman and Victoria Tentler-Krylov - Children's Day #3

Just Read by Lori Degman and Victoria Tentler-Krylov is a tale of people of all ages reading anywhere and everywhere. Wildly imaginative illustrations show people reading from paper books and electronic devices (audio books are also mentioned). One child reads braille while another tells a story to a smaller child using sign language. Two children read dots and dashes drawn in the fog on a window (Morse Code, I presume). The places people are shown or described reading are as broad as the types of reading material: in a car or on a train, in a pile of raked leaves, while grocery shopping, on a playground, beneath a tree, in a treehouse (my favorite illustration, by far) -- even in a music store.

Some of the illustrations show places to read, some show what the reader is imagining. In one illustration, a child is reading a book with a person holding an umbrella on the cover. She glances outside, through an airplane window, and "sees" (read: imagines) people floating in the rain with air in their umbrellas like latter-day Mary Poppinses.

Recommended - A great book to encourage future readers or beginning readers. I love the diversity of places shown, types of reading matter, and even the cast of characters created to encourage children of all stripes to read anywhere. A note on the illustrations: I found that the busy-ness of the illustrations overwhelmed me a tiny bit, but once I became accustomed to them, I liked the fact that there was so much to look at. Just Read is a good book, then, for children who enjoy looking at illustrations that have a lot going on, especially before they're old enough to actually read. My children spent a lot of time flopped on their bellies, looking at illustrations and often reciting memorized text before they were old enough to read. They would have loved Just Read.

I received a copy of Just Read from Sterling Children's Books for review. Thank you! More reviews forthcoming!

©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.

A Little Chicken by Tammi Sauer and Dan Taylor - Children's Day #2

Dot is a chicken with anxiety issues. A lot of things scare her: wolves, bears, the occasional lawn ornament. One day, Dot is adding safety features to her chicken coop when she accidentally bumps an egg ("a soon-to-be sibling"). The egg rolls out of the coop and down the hill.

Dot gulped. She knew this wouldn't be over easy. 

This is the moment you realize A Little Chicken is going to be very punny. I like puns. A friend of mine calls them cheap humor but since I'm not as clever as he is, I can enjoy lesser wordplay. And, there's plenty of it in A Little Chicken. Dot is determined to save her little brother or sister, so she chases the egg down the hill (and trips). The egg keeps rolling onward in a way no egg truly can: across a pond where it bounces on a lily pad, flies up into a tree, the limb breaks and the egg rolls onward, deep into the woods.

At the edge of the woods, Dot's tail feathers shake because, of course, there are things she's afraid of in the woods. But, she must save that egg. It's one of her siblings.

Dot fluttered past one stunned wolf, two startled bears, and three very questionable lawn ornaments. 

This made me laugh. The lawn ornaments are gnomes, which I love (I have one hidden in the bushes outside my library window, where I can see it but nobody else can).

Dot eventually saves the egg and a baby sister immediately hatches from it. By this point, she's made it back to the farmyard and she's a hero. The book ends with the thought that it's okay that Dot is still afraid of a lot of things:

Sometimes a big hero . . . is just a little chicken. 

Highly recommended - This is an especially good book for a very wiggly child who is still getting used to being read to, because it has few words, and for the child who loves word play. And, trust me, really young children can understand puns. I've been surprised by both my children and eldest grandchild, in that regard. A great theme -- you may have fears, and that's okay, but there are times even someone who is afraid of things can be courageous. Love it. I adore the illustrations, especially the fact that the lawn ornaments are gnomes and the chicken is more than a little awkward. Note that he looks terrified of a butterfly on the cover! Also, I may be a tiny, tiny bit biased in my love for this book by the fact that I pretty much adore everything Tammi Sauer writes. She's been a favorite children's book author since Chicken Dance, which I reviewed way back in 2009 (it's still an all-time favorite with a special place on the shelves).

I received a copy of A Little Chicken from Sterling Children's Books in return for my review. Many thanks! This is my second review for Children's Day. More to come!

©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.

When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L. B. Deenihan and Lorraine Rocha - Children's Day #1

When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie Deenihan and Lorraine Rocha is the story of a little girl who gets an unexpected gift for her birthday. She has a list of 6 items she wants (mostly electronic, like a drone and a pair of headphones) but when the unnamed little girl is given a lemon tree by her grandmother, the narrator gives her some advice. She should act excited and thank her grandma.

Keep smiling until Grandma leaves (or falls asleep),

and do not harm your lemon tree. 

Don't:

Drop it off a bridge.

Tie it to your birthday balloons.

Play ding dong ditch the lemon tree. 

The narrator tells the little girl to keep her lemon tree warm, wait for it to grow (she is shown repotting it and putting it under a light), and take it back outside when the snow melts. When the tree finally grows lemons and they can be harvested, the little girl makes lemon juice and turns it into lemonade to sell so that she can buy some of the things on her wish list. But, instead of getting something electronic with the money she makes from her lemonade stand, she buys flowers and plants a garden.

Highly recommended - A lovely book about being polite when receiving an unwanted gift, following instructions, exercising patience, and sharing with one's community, all wrapped up in a sweet, colorful story. The book even includes a recipe for lemonade -- perfect! I love the illustrations. Almost every page has a little gray cat (not all, but most), which warms my cat-loving heart. And, there are a lot of smiles on the faces of the characters. When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree is a happy, uplifting, positive book that will encourage little ones to learn how to grown things -- not necessarily just lemon trees.

I received a copy of When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree from Sterling Children's Books for review and it's the first of 6 posts I'm going to publish for today's Children's Day. I'm going to try to schedule all the posts about 2 hours apart.


©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):

• Flubby Is Not a Good Pet by J. E. Morris and
• Flubby Will Not Play With That by J. E. Morris - both from Penguin Random House for review
• On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves - purchased 
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - from HarperCollins for review
• Klawde - Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 and #2: Enemies by Marciano, Chenoweth, and Mommaerts - from Penguin Random House for review

Not pictured: 

• Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves - from Penguin Random House for review

If you were hanging around, last week, you know I already reviewed 5 of the arrivals for a National Pet Day book promotion, which was a blast. That leaves On the Island, which I bought after reading The Girl He Used to Know by the same author. I wanted to see what else Tracey Garvis Graves has written and the vast majority of readers seemed to prefer On the Island to any other Graves title, so I ordered a copy. For various reasons, I'm not sure if I'll get to go anywhere at all (vacation-wise), this year, but it sounds like a good vacation read so I'm going to save it either for road or plane, just in case. If it's needed for a mental break I won't hesitate to break into it, though. Good Omens was one of the most exciting books I've received in a while because I'm planning to watch the series and it's not always possible to get a Neil Gaiman book for review. They tend to be in hot demand.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Flubby is Not a Good Pet! by J. E. Morris
• Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris
• Anything But a Duke by Christy Carlyle
• Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves
• Klawde - Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 by Marciano, Chenoweth, and Mommaerts
• Klawde - Evil Alien Warlord Cat #2: Enemies by Marciano, Chenoweth, and Mommaerts

I had so much fun reading all the children's books for the National Pet Day promotion and I'm hoping to review the other children's books waiting to be reviewed, this week. They really brighten one's day. I highly recommend buying a few children's books you love for when you need a mental break or are feeling blue, even if there are no children in your world and you just like kids' books.


Currently reading:

• The Free Speech Century by Stone and Bollinger

I have bookmarks in 2 or 3 other books but after gobbling up the Klawde books (which I absolutely loved), I didn't want to leave that crazy alien cat and his boy Human, so the only thing I could focus on was nonfiction. I hadn't picked up The Free Speech Century in a while and it's been a nice in-between book, this weekend. I'm about halfway through it and ready to get closer to finishing it, so this may not be a big fiction reading week. We shall see.

I'm not sure which of the other books I've started will stick so I'll just skip mentioning them, for now.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (book review)
• Flubby is Not a Good Pet and Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris (book reviews)
• Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves (book review)
• Klawde - Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 and #2: Enemies by Mariano, Chenoweth, and Mommaerts (book reviews)
• Fiona Friday - Thinking about it (cat photo)

In other news:

There's not much other news. We started watching Les Miserables on PBS, last night, and loved the first episode. Otherwise, it's same old, same old. I had a busy week and really only watched one or two episodes of The Royal, plus the aired episodes of NCIS, and Chicago Fire.

The patio work is going well. We now have paving stones on the patio and they'd almost finished paving the stairs when a storm rolled in on Friday. The paving stones are so pretty. Our old town, Vicksburg, was hit by a tornado on Saturday but it looks to have been a mild one -- no deaths, only minor injuries. Vicksburg was still a mess, yesterday, with trees and power lines down all over town but I'm happy that everyone I know is fine. We had some strange circular winds -- we literally stood outside, looked to the left, and the wind was blowing east while to our right it was blowing west -- but nothing dangerous hit, here. It was enough to cancel Paint Night but they're planning to reschedule. Wahoo for that. I love Paint Night.

Oh, and the comment glitch is ongoing. I've attempted to reply to some of your comments 3 or 4 times. I hit post and they disappear. Hopefully, that will resolve, soon. If not, I'll tweet at Blogger, later this week.


©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 - Thinking about it

This may be one of the funniest things I've ever done for the blog. Since my laptop is on the fritz (completely unusable, at the moment), I have no photo editor. I tried to remove a messy spot from the background of this shot using a free online photo editor and instead ended up with a patch of weirdness. Not sure how to fix it and the photo was kind of bland so I'm leaving it, as is. Oddly, I was unable to figure out how to do the same to the opposite side of Fi. Clearly, it's going to take some time to figure out this online photo editor!!! Fi was thinking about jumping up onto the arm of the couch, here.

Quick note: I am currently unable to post replies to comments and assuming this is a Blogger glitch that will be repaired. I'll reply to comments as soon as I'm able! I appreciate your comments!

©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.

Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat and Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Book 2: Enemies by J. Marciano, E. Chenoweth, and R. Mommaerts

Klawde, Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Books 1 and 2 were sent to me together and they're such fun reading that I am toying with pre-ordering the third in the series (which is scheduled for release in October).

The first in the series, Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 tells the story of a vicious warlord cat from another planet. Former High Commander of the planet Lyttyrbox, Wyss-Kuzz is banished from his home planet and sent to a place where carnivorous ogres live: the planet Earth.

Wyss-Kuzz arrives in Oregon in the driving rain and attempts to enter Raj Banerjee's home by pressing a button, which turns out to be a doorbell rather than an electronic portal opener (disappointing -- so primitive, these humans). The brilliant warlord is stuck pretending he's an ordinary cat and is instantly adopted. He's named Klawde by the family. Klawde is not a nice cat at all, which leads to a bit of hilarity, but Raj is excited to have a kitty.

Raj has just moved from Brooklyn, New York, and the last thing he wants to deal with is nature but his mother insists that he must go to a 2-week nature day camp that culminates in Survival Night. In alternating chapters, the story of Raj's time at camp (with evenings at home) and Klawde's hours spent building a transporter to return to his home planet unfolds.

I can't remember the last time a book literally made me laugh out loud like Klawde did. It's been a while. As I was reading this delightful immensely fun outer-space-cat-meets-normal-Earthlings story, I kept thinking about my youngest son (a cat lover, like myself) and how much he would have adored this book as a youngster. Full of dark humor and ridiculous situations, it seems right up his alley. In fact, I mentioned the book to him on the phone and Kiddo admitted that even now, at 27, he would probably enjoy it. Klawde is a mean cat who scratches frequently and, let's face it, he must have been pretty evil to have been banished from his planet. But, in the end he becomes friends with Raj.

In the second book, Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat #2: Enemies, both Raj and Klawde are faced with new challenges. Raj is doing fine at his new middle school since he shared the fact that his best friend from Brooklyn is the son of the artist who created the popular Americaman comic books. The only problem with this story is that Raj and Cameron are no longer friends. When Cameron shows up in the same small town in Oregon where Raj has moved, his status as a newly popular kid is in jeopardy. And, when Cameron helps his team perfect their project in robotics class and it appears that he may have sabotaged Raj's team's robot, Raj falls sway to Klawde's advice to take revenge.

Meanwhile, Klawde has returned to Earth after being betrayed by his former lackey, Flooffee-Fyr, who closed the wormholes to his home planet. Klawde has trained his humans and one could say he is learning how to behave like a normal pussycat. He no longer scratches the way he used to. But, he's bored waiting for Flooffee-Fyr to fail as the new emperor. Then, he gets a brilliant idea. He'll set up a new school for warriors. After his first attempt (training the neighborhood cats) fails, Klawde decides he must start from the beginning and he brings home three kittens to train. It's going well but then disaster strikes. Klawde's mortal enemy Ffangg has also been banished to Earth. And, he's determined to make sure Klawde is humiliated in every way. Revenge is definitely on the menu for Klawde, as well as Raj.

Oh, my gosh, I love these books. Enemies is every bit as good as the first in the series, clever and funny with such distinctive voices. The contrast between Klawde, an uppity former high emperor cat, and Raj, who is really just a nerdy but nice kid, gives the book a raucous spice:

All day, I stewed in the bilious juices of my fury. I must have my revenge! But how? By what means?

As my massive feline brain analyzed all the possible stratagems, the boy-Human arrived home. I hissed at him to leave me alone, as I needed privacy for my scheming. His pestering, however, was relentless. 

"But Klawde, don't you understand? Our robot won! On Monday I get to show it off to the whole school!" He was practically jumping up and down with excitement. It was most unseemly. 

So much fun.

Both highly recommended - A little sci-fi, some clever plotting, distinctive voices, and loads of humor make this a winning series. And, Raj learns his lesson about revenge being a bad thing (after that last post, you know how important that is to me in a children's book). Really, the only question is whether or not my youngest son will be able to pry these books away from me because I know he'll want to keep them, once he's read the two books.

This is the final post for National Pet Day. My thanks to Penguin Random House for the Klawde books and the other books I had the privilege of reviewing, today.


©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.

Mollly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves

Molly is often called Molly Mischief, and for good reason. She's a troublemaker. In Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves, Molly and her brother go to the zoo with their dad. Her brother likes the warthogs best. Meanwhile, Molly gets in trouble for tickling a penguin, chasing a parrot, waking up a flamingo, and feeding the crocodile. Then, she discovers the hippopotamus and decides she wants a bigger pet than the one at home. She has a mouse named Polka but mice are small. Molly wants a big pet.

Molly starts bringing home zoo animals. First she brings home a hippo, but her mom and dad aren't happy about that. The hippo is muddy. Molly brings home a polar bear but her room is too hot and polar bears don't fit in the refrigerator. So, she tries bringing home a giraffe. He is way too tall. So tall she has to cut a hole in the roof for his head.

You can see where this is headed. Molly keeps bringing home animals, eventually settling on an elephant, but the elephant causes enough chaos (squishing the family car, tearing up the neighbor's garden) that eventually Molly decides maybe a little mouse isn't so bad after all.

Although there are some things that are better when they are bigger . . . 

The story ends with Molly dropping a very large water balloon on her brother's head.

Not a favorite - I noticed the illustrations in Molly Mischief look very much like the British Mr. Men characters and discovered that Adam Hargreaves inherited the Mr. Men franchise from the original artist. Interesting! I always liked Mr. Men books. But, I confess that the detail in some of the animals, with loose lines, didn't feel quite consistent with the tidiness of the human characters, so I'm not massively in love with the illustrations, although I don't actively dislike them. They just seem a little off. My problem with this book was that naughty characters usually learn their lesson in children's books and Molly is really not nice, not just naughty. On the page with the warthog, Molly says:

My brother liked the warthogs best of all. They are nearly as ugly as he is. 

OK, sorry, I just don't like nastiness in children's books and that's mean. So is dropping a very large water balloon on someone's head. I also think it's a bad lesson to show a child teasing animals at the zoo without repercussion. So, Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet didn't work for me, although it had its moments. The high point was definitely the hole in the roof Molly cut for the giraffe. That actually made me laugh. Since it's not a favorite of mine, I recommend that you flip through Molly Mischief before making a decision about purchasing. Fortunately, it's the only one of the 5 books Penguin Random House sent me for National Pet Day that I disliked. The next two are totally fabulous. Stay tuned!

©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.

Flubby is Not a Good Pet and Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris

It's National Pet Day and I've partnered with Penguin Random House to talk about 5 children's books (I'll be doing this in three posts) with pets in them. The two Flubby books shown with my Isabel are about a lazy cat. Both are great for beginning readers, with simple, easy-to-read words that are somewhat repetitive for the sake of ease. Flubby looks a little like Isabel, doesn't he? There is a real-life Flubby, whose photo is inside the cover of the second book, Flubby Will Not Play with That.

Flubby is Not a Good Pet by J. E. Morris tells the story of Kami's pet cat. Flubby is a chunky cat who doesn't do the things his person, Kami, wants him to do. He doesn't sing like her friend's bird, catch like another friend's dog, jump like a frog, or even run inside when it rains.

But, when it thunders and both Flubby and human are frightened, they need each other.

Cat and other pet owners will totally get the theme that what really matters is the affection between pet and human. The simple words for early readers make Flubby is Not a Good Pet a great book either to read to a small child or for new readers to practice beginning reading skills, especially little animal lovers.

In Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris, Flubby's human, Kami, brings him a bag full of toys that she's bought for him but Flubby is not the most energetic cat. He doesn't want to play with the bird or chase the wind-up mouse. He's not interested in the dangling fish and the big mechanical toy terrifies him.

Kami apologizes to Flubby when the bag is empty. There are no more toys for Flubby to try. But when Kami runs out of options and leaves the room, Flubby discovers the empty toy bag is very fun, diving into it head-first.

Another easy-to-read and adorable Flubby book, perfect for little cat lovers. The simple illustrations and Flubby's expressive face are cute without distracting from the text.

I loved both books and I confess I'm probably biased because I'm a cat lover. I've met cats like Flubby. Mine are both energetic and enjoy their toys but some cats are seriously picky and even the two I'm owned by aren't interested in the same things. Bags, of course, are always tempting (like boxes).

My thanks to Penguin Random House for the two Flubby books, which I hope to share with my grandchildren. My eldest granddaughter is definitely a pet lover (she and Fiona kitty became friends during a recent visit) and is already beginning to read at 4 years of age. I wish she was closer so we could read these books together, right away!!!


©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.

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

I feel like this review needs a disclaimer. When What Happened came out, I had no interest in reading what I presumed would be a rehash of what happened in the 2016 election to make it go wrong for Hillary Clinton. But, then seemingly every old, white male in America (or, at least, those with access to Twitter) and everyone on Fox simultaneously appeared to tell Hillary Clinton to "sit down and shut up", "take up knitting", or simply said her days in politics were over and she should be ignored. I ordered a copy of What Happened, then, in defiance of the narrative that told the candidate who got the most votes in the 2016 election that she shouldn't be heard. But, again, it wasn't a book I was all that interested in reading so it went on the stacks and sat there for about a year. I picked it up to read when I realized March was Women's History Month. As a long-time public servant and the first female presidential nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton has certainly made history for women.

What Happened is not just about the election or the election season as a whole. In the book, former Secretary Clinton reflects on her many years of public service, her beliefs and their roots (including how her beliefs as a Methodist influenced her decision to go into public service), her mother's influence, and her own experience as a mother, wife, and female. Here, for example, is a quote in which she reminds readers of the real meaning of the word "feminism", which has recently become badly distorted:

While we're defining things, let's take a moment for feminism: "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes." Not domination. Not oppression. Equality. Or as the English writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft put it 225 years ago, "I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves."

~p. 132

And, here's a quote that I thought described how the other candidate managed to dodge scandal while Clinton was buried in a controversy (also described in detail -- how and why Clinton chose to use a home server and why her choice to use a personal phone was not unusual at the time).

Most of the press was too busy chasing ratings and scandals, and Trump was too slippery to be pinned down. He understood the needs and impulses of the political press well enough that if he gave them a new rabbit every day, they'd never catch any of them. So his reckoning never came. 

~p. 232

I was surprised how much I learned from the reading of What Happened. There were a lot of subjects from which I'd skimmed the surface but Hillary Clinton, having been a First Lady, a senator, and a Secretary of State, knows the dangers of Putin intimately, for example. She knows his history, his methods, and has interacted with him on many occasions. She understands his motivation. I knew enough to say, "Uh-oh," when I heard that the Republican platform had changed in a way that benefitted Putin, and I knew much of Trump's history with the Russians but my knowledge lacked depth. I also had a vague understanding of the connection between what she calls "Christian morality and white nationalist purity and power" and Putin, and had connected the dots with the help of some people I follow (to what Trump is doing: suppressing LGBTQ and women's rights) but she clarified it nicely.

And, finally, there were plenty of stories that were reported so badly that I always wondered what on earth the reporters and my right-wing friends were going on about -- she explained these well. For example, I had friends who said that Hillary Clinton planned to put coal miners out of business and that she was evil for taking away jobs. I'd seen the clip but was never able to find the context of what was said. She repeats the entire paragraph from which her comment -- making it sound like she was happy to be putting people out of work -- was taken, so that you can see how the context was about her understanding that a move to clean energy would put people in the coal industry out of work, so it was important (in her viewpoint) to make sure those people were taken care of with transitional help and job training in order to make sure they were able to continue to survive. This particular story certainly shows how poorly the press covered Hillary Clinton. I couldn't even locate the full transcript online, at the time when friends were talking about Hillary "gleefully" putting people out of work. I presumed the full story wasn't being told but reading her book was the first chance I had to truly understand what she was attempting to get across to viewers.

I've seen similarly misleading stories happening in my own world in real time. When the Mississippi River was flooding, a few years ago, we went to downtown Vicksburg to see how far the water had gone. Vicksburg used to have the nickname "The San Francisco of the South" because of its steep hills and while there are still homes in various flood zones (at least one entire subdivision, away from the river, was bought out because it flooded so frequently), most of the city and surrounding area sits well above the flood plain. So, what did you, the viewer, see on the national news during this historic flood? The cameras were positioned on a hill, where tons of people were happily walking around, looking down upon a former train station (now a museum) that floods every single time the Mississippi leaves its banks. It was incredibly misleading but dramatic. This is the way Hillary Clinton says her email "scandal" was portrayed. You didn't get the full story, ever. It was nice to read the full story.

Highly recommended - Written with grace and humility, Hillary Clinton's memoir of the election, with reminiscences of her life in public service, is both nicely written and informative. I was surprised how much I learned and how much I enjoyed her voice. I have only two small complaints. It appears that the book was rushed to press. There are a few errors. Most are not major; they just jumped out at me for their inaccuracy. She said, for example, that Narcan "can save lives by helping prevent overdoses". Narcan actually reverses the effect of narcotics on the system (often painfully so, depending on how skillfully it's administered) but it doesn't prevent overdose. I hope this misstatement has been changed in subsequent printings. The other complaint is that I thought she hammered James Comey's influence on the election a little too hard. I agree with her that he made some mistakes and they likely swung the election but two mentions would have been enough. I counted four. Otherwise, I found What Happened so interesting that I may reread it, at some point.


©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

Today's stack photobombed by Fiona.

Recent arrivals (top to bottom):

• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt - purchased
• You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon and
• The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon - sent by author
• The Son of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning - from HarperCollins for review 

This was a much more normal set of arrivals than that huge stack that arrived the last two weeks. How Democracies Die is a book I read about somewhere, but I don't recall where. Siobhan Fallon kindly sent me You Know When the Men Are Gone after reading my comment that I regret giving away very few of the books that I pass on to friends but I've been wanting to reread You Know When the Men Are Gone for ages. And, then she threw in her latest! Obviously, Siobhan is my new super-secret best friend. I'll have to tell her about it, some time. ;) So, only one ARC, this week. One is a good number. My May ARC pile is huge! I meant to request fewer books, this year, so I'll have to work on that a little harder.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan
• The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves

Both were so good. Billy O'Callaghan's prose is pure poetry, enough to overcome my distaste for the fact that My Coney Island Baby is a story of infidelity. It's not often that I'm so completely besotted with a writing style that I don't even really care that the story makes me squirm a little. And, the characters in The Girl He Used to Know are the kind you really care about -- to the point that I couldn't bear to put the book down until I finished it.


Currently reading:

• Anything But a Duke (Duke's Den #2) by Christy Carlyle

I loved The Girl He Used to Know so much that I had a terrible time starting a new book. In fact, the first night after I finished it, I flipped through books and read a page here, a page there without anything at all succeeding at pulling me in. The next day, I tried Anything But a Duke and there was my remedy. I just needed to find something . . . fluffy? Lighthearted, at least. Romance is definitely good for recovery of any kind.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Applehans (book review)
• The Binding by Bridget Collins (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)

I didn't post anything on Thursday because I was too busy to write on Wednesday, then on Thursday we had storms, so I stayed off the computer.


In other news:

We're still watching episodes of The Royal (first season) when we have time and while Husband was away on business I watched most of the third season of Our Girl, also on BritBox. One episode to go. It turns out Kiddo likes The Royal. I never know what he'll like, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Speaking of Kiddo, he chose a movie that was so terrible it was fun, this weekend: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Wow, was it bad.

And, at home, the construction on the patio replacement for our former deck (have I mentioned that?) has been going on for a month, now, but rain put a stop to it in the middle of the week and with the grass torn up, this weekend's rain has left our backyard a muddy, puddly mess. So, it will probably be a day or two before they return. Someday our new patio will be done. We're already enjoying it. In spite of the fact that there are no paving stones, yet, there's gravel and the dirt below it is well packed, so we've dragged chairs out onto the gravel surface, several times, (usually in the evening, after the construction crew leaves) and one day I sat on the steps to read.

As of this morning, I'm having some keyboard trouble with my ancient MacBook Pro, so I hope my blogging plans for the week won't be foiled. I'm scheduled to review some children's books on Thursday and planned to make this a children's week but I'm it looks like I may have a short in the keypad. It's not stuck keys but I'm typing along and letters are not showing up. I just had to hit the letter "i" 7 times before it appeared, and there are random spaces and extra letters showing up. If I disappear for a few days, it will be to deal with that.

Happy Monday!


©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

Begging face. I get to see a lot of this.

©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 Binding by Bridget Collins

In the world of The Binding by Bridget Collins, bookbinding is a magical art that one is born with. A binder is a person who takes someone's memories, puts them in book form, and wipes those memories away. If done badly, binding can turn someone into a bit of a zombie. There are also fictional books but the real books in The Binding (those that are filled with memories) are considered bad by most as they're about the terrible memories that people want to forget, often horrific things like being raped.

Taking away bad memories doesn't sound inherently bad, so when I read the book description for The Binding, I was intrigued and hoped to find it a story filled with magic and hope. Instead, the book really focuses on an LGBTQ romance (not what I was expecting, in other words). The magical binding process is actually secondary and there's really nothing positive about it. Instead of learning to live with memories, stopping bad people from doing bad things, and making the world a better place, binding is primarily used to abuse people in this story, particularly to allow one very bad man to continue abusing the girls in his employ.

I was feeling reading-slumpish and nothing at all was grabbing me when I went roaming around the house, grazing on various books to see if anything would hold my attention. The Binding was the only book that really managed to hang onto me and I appreciate it for that. It broke a dark spell. But, while I loved the beginning and the idea of the story, I found that the farther I got into it, the more I was dismayed by the fact that it was filled with darkness without light, terrible people (so many truly awful characters), and pure melodrama. Someone was constantly being hit by waves of nausea or dizziness, vomiting, blacking out. At the beginning, when the main character was recovering from a fever, it made sense to me. But, I really did grow weary of the melodrama, particularly the vomiting. Ew.

I also was irritated by the profusion of incomplete sentences in dialogue. People often do start a sentence and then stop, interrupting themselves or others in mid-thought. But, again, it was a conceit that was overdone to the point that I started to snarl at the characters to finish their %@*$! sentences. Similarly, the binder Emmett is sent to apprentice with, Seredith, is a character I expected to train him in the art of bookbinding. Instead, she gives Emmett busy work and keeps saying she'll get to the real teaching, later. The incomplete sentences in dialogue and the fact that Seredith keeps putting off the training gave the book a fragmented feel that I found annoyed me.

Neither recommended nor not recommended - Disappointing. More an LGBTQ romance than a fantasy and I believe the book requires trigger warnings for rape, abuse, and suicide. I peeked at Goodreads to see what the average rating is because I was curious how other people felt. It has a 4-star rating, so there are clearly plenty of people who enjoyed this book. Since I've found that Goodreads reviews are generally lacking in spoilers, I recommend flipping through a few reviews before making a decision whether or not to read The Binding. While I gave the book a low rating and found myself thinking I probably should have abandoned it, I will say that the ending was absolutely perfect and just what I'd hoped for. So, I'm glad I held out for the ending, even if the book didn't work for me, in general.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of The Binding from HarperCollins for review. Many thanks!


©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 Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project - Lenore Applehans

In TropeTown, Riley is the only Manic Pixie Dream Boy and he's been sent to therapy for going off script. Riley wants to be in control of his own destiny rather than sticking to the same old roles. But rebellion could mean the end for Riley, literally. When the council threatens to retire the trope entirely, Riley and the Manic Pixie Dream Girls must prove their creativity and diversity make them relevant.

OK, let's back up a bit. When I read the description of The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Applehans, I thought, "Um, what?" But, I pre-ordered it because Lenore is one of us, a blogger friend from way back.  As it turns out, the world building is pretty straightforward and not difficult to follow at all. It is, as you may have surmised, a unique world peopled with various types of characters who enjoy a range of activities (including therapy, if necessary). At any time, a Manic Pixie can be called to work in an author's book. There, the Manic Pixie Dream Boy or Girl must play a role in which they will never be one of the primary characters. Being secondary is a drag and it's tempting to go off script. That's what the therapy is intended to stop. When not working in a book, the Manic Pixies and other characters have rich lives with hopes, dreams, love, and worries like anyone else, real or fictional.

I don't want to give away anything else because The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project is a very plotty book with lots of surprises and plenty of questions. What will happen when the council of TropeTown threatens to retire the Manic Pixie Dream trope? Will some of the Manic Pixies choose to plant themselves permanently into a single book and live that life forever? Or, will they band together and find a way to prove their relevance? What happens to tropes who board the train? Do they disappear from existence or do they go off-page forever and become part of what we know as the "real world", the world of readers?

Highly recommended - I was truly worried when I read the first chapter of The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project because I thought it was likely to become so clever it bent itself into pretzels of cute. But, it was clever without being either predictable or unbearable, although it's imperative to put up with the combination of giggles, quirkiness, and moments of thoughtfulness that go with the trope. Full of unexpected wisdom and so many surprises. I loved the experience, loved the denouement, and loved the strength and creativity the Manic Pixies showed when they were threatened. And, I think I can safely say there's no other book I've encountered that's quite like it.

©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

Back from a week off and feeling refreshed!

Recent arrivals (top to bottom):

• Anything But a Duke by Christy Carlyle - from Avon Books for review
• 21st-Century Yokel by Tom Cox,
• Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sekegawa, and
• The True Believer by Eric Hoffer - all purchased
• Finding Orion by John David Anderson - from Walden Pond Press for review
• Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami - purchased
• The Great Pretenders by Laura Kalpakian - from Berkley for review
• In Pain by Travis Rieder - from HarperCollins for review
• Last Day by Domenica Ruta - from Spiegel and Grau for review
• A Little Chicken by Sauer and Taylor, 
• Some Days by Orloff and Chen,
• Just Read! by Degman and Tentler-Krylov,
• When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Deenihan and Rocha, and
• Holy Squawkamole! by Wood and Gonzalez - all 5 from Sterling Children's Books for review

Not pictured: 

• Growing Season by Maryann Cocca-Leffler - from Sterling Children's Books for review

Holy Toledo, that's a lot of arrivals! Even for two weeks, it's pretty startling. While one of my purchases, 21st Century Yokel, was pre-ordered eons ago, Sweet Bean Paste is a book I ordered after reading a review on Instagram that piqued my interest, The True Believer is a book I read about in another book, and Strange Weather in Tokyo is one I'd been thinking about buying for a while. The review I read was not overly positive but it just sounds like a book I'd enjoy.

The rest of the arrivals are for review. I'm not sure whether or not I requested Anything But a Duke but I read the first in the series and loved it so I'm definitely happy to have it and will read it (probably very soon). Finding Orion is a YA that I think I got via Shelf Awareness. The Great Pretenders is historical fiction. In Pain is about the opioid epidemic, and Last Day . . . I'm not sure how to describe it. Sounds like it has a Groundhog Day vibe, with a day repeating itself. All those children's books will get Children's Day treatment. I love it when I get a nice pile of picture books.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Applehans
• When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Deenihan and Rocha
• A Little Chicken by Sauer and Taylor
• Just Read! by Degman and Tentler-Krylov
• Holy Squawkamole! by Wood and Gonzalez
• Some Days by Orloff and Chen
• The Binding by Bridget Collins
• The Growing Season by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin

So . . . not a bad couple of reading weeks. I was literally caught up when I decided to take a week off. Talk about a way to throw yourself behind on the reviews, but it was worth it. The news was stressing me out and I was reading it obsessively via social media and watching the nightly news, plus whatever news is on at the gym when I go there. When I start feeling obsessive, I know it's time for a break. I occasionally flipped through Instagram posts but was otherwise well-behaved and I do feel better. However, I feel refreshed enough that I've pretty much decided to continue avoiding most social media, apart from dropping in to post links to my reviews. We'll see how that goes. I'm stuck watching the news at the gym, though.


Currently reading:

• My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan

I just finished The Awakening (which included some of Kate Chopin's short stories), last night, and started My Coney Island Baby right after. So far, so good.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• Beast Rider by Tony Johnston and M. E. Fontanot de Rhoads (book review)
• The Threat by Andrew G. McCabe (book review)
• The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo) 

Several people asked me about the reading bunnies posed in front of my book shelves in the post I put up as a placeholder while I was taking a break. They came from a local garden center and I assume are made from plastic or resin. They're lightweight and were very inexpensive. I'd planned to put them in the little garden strip we thought our contractor was putting into the patio but he opted not to do that (which is fine by us) so the bunnies may end up in another part of the yard. I guess we'll find out. 

In other news:

We've had noisy construction workers at our house, off and on, for 3 weeks now. Some days, they haven't been able to work because of rain or a delay in supplies. But, at this point we're nearing the end. A delay in the arrival of the paving stones meant no workers on Friday, the weekend, and today. The cats and I were relieved because Thursday was by far the noisiest day of construction with digger, blower, and compactor all rattling away. There have been some changes made to the original plan -- some good, some irritating -- but overall we've been impresssed. We've always been "Do It Yourself" people, except when an expert is necessary so this is our first experience with hiring someone to complete a job from start to finish and it's been pretty fun to watch it come together.

TV-wise, we've started watching The Royal on Brit Box. It's a series set in the 1960s about a hospital in Yorkshire. Fans of Foyle's War will recognize the fellow on the cover as the actor who played Foyle's son, Julian Ovenden. He played a young doctor who arrived on a chaotic day in the first episode but the series doesn't focus on him. It's nicely balanced between the various doctors, patients, and a couple of janitorial staff who are always up to something. It's a fun show and Huzzybuns says there are three seasons to watch, so we've still got plenty to look forward to.

We also watched Mrs. Wilson on PBS, last night, a couple Hallmark movies (one good, one that I kept thinking I should probably turn off), and NCIS. That's about the extent of our TV watching. What have you been up to?


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