Review: Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Starts out as a multi-romance summer read, light and breezy, more about place than characters. But the people develop into actual people and suddenly, it's a lot more complicated than you expected (just like life!). There's a bit of real-person-fiction with Richard Burton, some WWII historical fiction, Hollywood business insider stuff, and several getaways to a part of Italy that I'm now longing to visit. And oh yes, the Donner Party! All balanced so well by the end that it makes for a very good read.



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Review: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Fascinating information about a bit of American history that I didn't know enough about. The book begs for a better editor, someone who would have had the author arrange the book in a less repetitive way, maybe even cutting out a few of the narratives of the people who lived through the dark (literally) times. Even with the clunky writing, I'm giving this four stars because it did what nonfiction is supposed to do - inform.



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Review: Outlaw

Outlaw by Angus Donald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Robin Hood is the supporting character in this story, but it's obvious he is not a supporting character in Alan Dale's life (and heart, although the book never acknowledges that in the way I would have liked). It's Donald's portrayal of a flesh and blood and less than perfect Robin and his band of outlaws that makes this a very good take on the classic tale. Alan's sudden transformation from child cutpurse to one of Robin's closest associates is a little hard to believe, given Robin's very understandable distrust of almost everyone outside his brother, Little John and Tuck, requiring a giant leap of faith on that necessary part of the story arc. The settings and historical trappings are well researched and provide a background that strengthens but never overshadows a dark, violent and very readable plot.



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Review: The Expats: A Novel

The Expats: A Novel by Chris Pavone

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



One fourth of the way in, I guessed what was going to happen. Flipped to the last quarter, and yep, "mystery" solved. The jumping from location and time exists only to hide a very obvious, silly plot. Flat, stereotypical characters can't hide behind the author's plentiful knowledge of location because the descriptive passages read like info dumps. I can't believe this book is getting so much buzz.



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Review: The Columbus Affair

The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



There's multiple plot lines woven together to make a rich and fascinating story, and then there's multiple plot lines knotted and twisted in a snarl that frustrates the reader as they try to follow along. This book is definitely the latter. A book that brings the mystery of Columbus's legacy in Jamaica into contemporary politics and religion is a great concept, and Berry knows all of his settings quite well. Unfortunately, getting interested in even one of the characters or their part of this story is almost impossible if you like to immerse yourself in a story, because just when it gets interesting, we jump to one of the other locations. Honestly, if felt like I was watching a made for television movie, complete with scene cuts for many, many commercials. A clue to how much Berry tries to pack into this story is all the genres he covers. And two would have made a great story, and he still would have been able to use all the characters, with more time for each one.



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Review: Second Star

Second Star by Dana Stabenow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Stabenow builds a very interesting world where this planet has reached its sell by date and off earth stations are being built for colonization. The resources come from the Moon and asteroid belts, the projects are expected to pay back their start up costs with interest, and no one is expecting Utopia, just a place they can safely call home. Where the book falls very short is that there's way too much telling in the first half - literal telling of characters explaining things to each other that they certainly would have already known, but the reader needs to know to get on with the story. The worst offense of this is a brand new security chief who apparently took the job knowing nothing about living off Terra. Then there's a very obvious bias against military leadership that we're supposed to accept without any proof that the military's ends won't justify its means. And finally, every body lies. Without lies, the story couldn't have happened, couldn't have had its big action scene, and worst of all, couldn't have a happy ending. A brave new world built on lies is not a brave world at all.



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Review: The Coldest Night

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have mixed feelings about this book, probably because I couldn't get past that the author seemed to be deliberately writing in the very clipped and brusque style of Cormac McCarthy. I'm willing to admit that could be entirely my impression and not at all what the author set out to do, but when a reader is thinking more about the style of the writing rather than the actual story telling, that's not a good thing. On the plus side, the characters are unique and the setting is intriguing (there really aren't a lot of stories set in the Korean War, are there?). The story sticks to it's dark beginning, never promising a happy ending and never delivering one either.



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Review: The Wolf Gift

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



50% of the way through and I have no curiosity about what happens next because so little has happened so far. The "man wolf" is an interesting idea, but when an author uses the characters very dull internal monologue as plot, all my interest is crushed. Also, having the character do the same research that the author probably did as a part of your story? That's padding AND lazy writing.



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Review: Carry the One

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beautiful writing that almost masks a go-nowhere story. There's so much opportunity for something to happen to any of the characters who are present for a life shattering moment, but one day after finishing this I realized that not one of them went in a direction different than the one they were headed in before it happened. Maybe that's Anshaw's point, that life doesn't turn on a dime. But if that's true, what was the point of dragging the reader through all that well written angst?



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Review: Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first third or so of this book is not Moore's best work by any means. It time jumps so gracelessly that he has to rely on chapter titles to tell the reader where they are and his stabs at bawdy humor are just that - blunt force stabs that inflict as much pain as humor. However, when the story starts to pull together and the characters begin moving the story rather than being moved by it, this becomes a slightly more adult and intelligent Christopher Moore Real Person Fiction. I was thrilled by the reveal of Bleu's real identity that I did not see coming but made perfect sense, and was very happy to read about a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was quite happy with his lot in life. Add in the use of a few well known Impressionist paintings with Moore's choice captions and as always in a Christopher Moore book, the best written Author's Notes that you will find in Historical Fiction, and the sins of the beginning are washed away by the glory of the ending.



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