Fiction

Background

Published in 2018, Where the Crawdads Sing is the first novel of Delia Owens about an orphaned girl raising herself and the community around her. Known as the “Marsh Girl”, she is used to life on her own but she can’t just go to where the crawdads sing…

My Thoughts

This was a very well written book so I can understand the groundswell of support behind it. My wife was surprised I read it as most of her friends had read it as well. I guess a book with a strong female protagonist isn’t normal husband material.

I wasn’t that surprised by the ending but I didn’t want to believe it. The foreshadowing of the praying mantis tipped the scales on the hint. Again though, I didn’t want to think of her as anything but a pure well doer. It does bring up the uncomfortable truth of all people having to set up boundaries and enforcing them. As she was on her own, it was really left to her to defend herself. As the husband and father, I feel this weight and can understand where she was coming from.

Recommendation

I’m mixed on whether to recommend this or not. If folks are talking about it than sure. If not… Well, I wouldn’t be running out to get it.

Background

Published in 2012, The Innocent is the first of 6 books featuring the hit man “Will Robie”. Will ends up saving a young girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My Thoughts

As with the rest of the David Baldacci novels, I really enjoyed it. Everyone likes a good underdog story and this was a great one.

Recommendation

A good read.

Background

This is the first of many mystery books by Sue Grafton or book 1 of the “The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries”. These book are each titled with a letter from the alphabet. Starting from A through Y at the time of this review.

Kinsey Millhone is a private eye who is hired to help prove a woman who had already been convicted of murder was really innocent.

My Thoughts

This was a fun read. I was refreshed that the book didn’t spend so much time on the sexuality of the main protagonist who is a woman. The book was written in 1982 so I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was concerned it would have been a throw away quasi romance novel or something else. These days I’m sure we would have had to hear a whole diatribe on her sexual preferences…

However, it was just a mystery novel about how a woman private eye went about life and solved her case. I liked it.

Recommendation

A good read if you like mystery novels.

Background

A Man Called Ove was written in 2012 and translated to English in 2013. It quickly made it to the best seller’s list where it stayed for almost a year. It is a story of Ove who was orphaned at 16 and had to make his way through the world. Ove is a hard man of integrity. His life and moral reasoning are only in right or wrong. The story picks up after his wife has passed and he finds most of the world has passed him by as well. He wants to join her but finds himself following his integrity into something else to live for.

My Thoughts

Like all of Fredrik Backman’s books, this one started slow and ended well. I had to plow on for a while but the book was more than worth it in the end. I honestly teared up a time or two.

Integrity isn’t something we see a great deal of these days. Or maybe it just seems that way. I feel for Ove and feel myself becoming more and more like him as time goes by. Perhaps that’s just my self flattery.

Recommendation

Great book. It has some strong language so not for the little kids.

Background

Bear Town is the prequel to Us Against You by Fredrik Backman. It gives the story of a town in the cold North of Sweden and it’s love of hockey.

My Thoughts

I really didn’t like the book that followed this one but I thought I’d give Mr. Backman the opportunity to redeem himself. It wasn’t bad. It was harder to read knowing what was coming and how it would end but it was still worth the read. This book gave me more to think about than the other.

Recommendation

Not his best work but not his worst.