Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

Four-star review for Fortune Falls by Lou Vane

 The first book in a relatively new series begins slowly with a group of older teenagers attending a leadership camp where the instructors are not much older than they are. Friendships form quickly and the lessons prepare them for skills they don’t expect to use often like scaling mountains. Jess, one of the students, connects with Matt and Priya on the bus to the camp and thereafter they spend a lot of time together, but a triangle forms, unnecessarily for me, between Jess, Matt and one of the instructors, Ethan. Their week is over and they’re about to head home when word comes of an epidemic that’s led to quarantines. The action picks up after that with searches for ways to leave and failing that, to survive the coming winter. Of course, there are more people thrown into the mix and a few deaths along the way as the story becomes more dystopian than apocalyptic. This was a quick read and I’m still not sure what Jess’ previous personality was, but I enjoyed it enough to read more of the series. 

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review of West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

I read this for a book group I recently joined. It was an interesting story based on the actual transport of two African giraffes from the harbor in New York City to the San Diego Zoo before World War 2 and at the end of the depression period. The story is told from the viewpoint of a seventeen-year-old dust bowl survivor who drove the truck taking the giraffes cross country but written by him at the age of 105. In fact, my only real quibble is that the boy’s speech pattern doesn’t reflect his lack of education. I learned a lot about conditions in different parts of the country in the late 1930s. The characters and events of the story were all entertaining and engaging.

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Five-star review of Still the Sun by Charlie N. Holmberg

Holmberg is one of my favorite fantasy writers and this latest novel didn’t disappoint. She’s explained that the idea for this story came to her in a dream. However she came up with the plot and world of this book, it was very unusual. I was with Pelnophe all the way through as she tried to understand the machines she was attempting to fix inside a tower a distance from Emgarden, the town where she lived. Were they artefacts of the ancients? Who were the two strange men who’d been living in the tower? There were so many mysteries that were gradually but satisfyingly resolved in this town where the shining sun alternated with an all-encompassing mist. There’s room left for a sequel I hope Holmberg will write.