Tuesday Book Reviews

 

Four-star review of Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott

 

Overall good start to a cozy mystery series with a few characters that bear further development. Addie Greybourne has inherited her great aunt’s mansion in Greybourne Harbour, as well as her father’s and aunt’s book collection, so she opens a bookshop in the small New England town, that, like all those British small towns, has more murders, and murderers, than residents. And, of course, Addie gets involved. Even the deaths of her father and aunt come under suspicion. This was a quick read.

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Four-star review of The Frequency by Amy Quick Parrish

 

This novella, or maybe a very long short story, has a good premise and characters you care about but after a big reveal just ends. There’s every indication that the story will continue, but it seems to be just getting started, that what we have here is a prelude to a more complete story. After her home and her hometown are wiped out by a monster storm and her parents are killed, Emily sets out to find her grandmother and uncovers a conspiracy. So, it’s intriguing and I enjoyed it, as long as it.

Tuesday Book Reviews

 

Four-star review of Maybe by Morris Gleitzman

 

This sixth book in this family of books (the author doesn’t want to call it a series) follows Felix’s eventual journey to Australia at the age of 14. His voice is still enthralling, but the characters of Anya and Gosling aren’t as well developed as Zelda and Gabriek were in the earlier books. Some the situations the kids got into seemed overdone. I didn’t feel tension from the ongoing threat of Zliv until the very end. Still, I read this short book in just three days (between everything else I was doing.) Each time I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down. It comes back to Felix’s voice, the way he tells the story. Maybe it should be four-and-a-half stars.

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review of First Encounter by Jasper Scott

 

This first novel in a new series from one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors has its high points and parts that were uncomfortable for me. Scott created several likeable and dislikeable characters aboard a colony ship from Earth. Their first encounter with alien life leads to unexpected consequences for the officers and colonists, as well as for Earth. How will Clayton and the others get out of the situation they find themselves in at the end? And will they ever successfully set up an Earth colony? Guess I’ll have to read on to find out.

 

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Five-star review of Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

 Time travel as it's never been done before. I enjoyed Station Eleven, in fact it’s one of my favorite books, and this one from the same author is just as good. On the surface, this is a time travel story, speculative fiction at its best, but through the different narrators, time periods, and obvious links among them, Mandel tells a story of the meaning of time and existence. It stimulates the brain and the heart. Some characters stand out more than others, and one or two get lost in the shuffle but all the threads come together at the end. Still, I would have liked more. Despite the complexity of the text, it’s an easy, quick read. After my recommendation, my book club is reading the book for this month. Will it resonate as much with the diverse people in that group? We’ll see. Meanwhile, like Station Eleven, I plan to read it again and again.