Book Review: Claudia and Mean Janine

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Claudia and Mean Janine
The Baby-Sitters Club #7
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

The main story in this book revolves around Claudia and her family, both her strained relationship with her sister as the title suggests, but also her grandmother, who has health trouble in this book. There are some really sweet moments on both of these fronts, and though maybe the conclusion to the conflict between Claudia and Janine is predictable, it’s still satisfying. The babysitting actually takes a bit of a backseat in this book, but I think the balance still works well, especially given the depth of the main story.

Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. I wish I had thought to start reading this series to/with my daughter when she was around 8-10, because I think she would have enjoyed it, and we could have discussed the good and the bad of the books.

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Book Review: Bitter Winter

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Bitter Winter
The Ilyon Chronicles #5
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Resistance.

The resistance camp near Landale suffers great tragedy that threatens to continue until the whole camp is dismantled. Can Jace save everyone he loves?

The first 4 books in the series follow the Landale resistance fighters and those that they bring into their ranks along the way as they first must figure out a way to survive the heavy persecution of their religion and then discuss at least the possibility of going on the offensive. With two rightful kings amongst their numbers, there is talk of somehow taking back their thrones and putting and end to the tyranny that begun with Emperor Daican. But first they have to make it through the winter, and that brings the forward momentum of this series to a screeching halt. This book is akin to being an episode or two away from a series finale of a television show and having to deal with a filler episode. Maybe the episode is good in its own right, or maybe not, but you really just want to know how the over-arching plot of the season is going to resolve. That’s what we have here, and it’s just as disappointing.

A couple of disastrous events leaves the camp reeling, and the entire book is spent just trying to recover/fix what happened. I think the author made several unnecessary choices in this book, maybe to make it seem more relevant after all, or maybe to evoke more emotion. Either way, I was not nearly as engaged as I have been through most of the rest of the series, hearkening back to the tedium I felt in the first half of the first book. I’ve noted before that this particular author’s style is to have far too many POV characters, so many minor characters whose perspectives don’t really add much to the story and add instead add more of a burden to try to differentiate between a lot of different voices (which I don’t think she does all that well), and here I realized that she’s also falling into the trope that everyone must have someone. Every side character that has had a POV at some point has either found a mate or is in the process of it during this book. At least one of these characters seems to only even have a POV for the purpose of us seeing him start to have an interest in someone. I like romance, I really do…but I like it to be more subtle, and even though this isn’t a straight-out romance genre series, the romance side of things is starting to feel very unsubtle.

So I didn’t really care for this, the penultimate book in the series. It wasn’t bad, and and I am still enjoying the overall world the author has set up. But I think she could have distilled this story into a side novella or even started the next book at the end of this harsh winter and caught us up on what happened, because…well, not much did. My 16-year-old daughter continues to be a huge fan of this series, and I’m sure I’m in the minority regarding this installment in the series, but I do still recommend it to older teens through adults (it’s not YA, but it’s very clean), fans of fiction with Christian elements, whether you’re really into fantasy or not.

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Book Review: The Shawshank Redemption

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The Shawshank Redemption
Stephen King
Read by Frank Muller

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Fiction

It is always difficult for me to write a review of a book when I know an adaptation of that book already. The strange this is that I’ve only seen the movie based on this book once, though I’ve seen clips, references, and parodies enough to keep it fairly fresh in my mind. That said, I wanted to give Stephen King, but I was a bit intimidated, so this seemed like a good place to start. And it was a good starting point, with a story that really drew me in. I may have known the ending (who doesn’t, at this point?) but I still appreciated the little hints and secrets kept along the way to it. I didn’t remember all of the details and was caught up as the story unfolded. Telling Andy’s story through Red’s eyes was a great move on King’s part, as I think it makes the reader more sympathetic to Andy than if Andy just told us himself what had happened to him, the various ways he was wronged.

What makes it difficult to assign a rating to this book (aside from the difficulty separating the written story from the movie) is that there’s a lot of content that I struggle with or makes me cringe. Of course that’s not surprising in a book about prison life, but that doesn’t make it easier. (It does make me want to avoid going to prison though.) Overall, I’m glad I listened to this book, and it does make me want to dive a little further into other works by King (maybe not any horror yet though). Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, if you’re interested in the book, I do recommend it. I listened to the audio, which is well narrated.

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Book Review: Cress

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Cress
The Lunar Chronicles #3
by Marissa Meyer
read by Rebecca Soler

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Cinder.

Living alone on a satellite for 7 years, Cress is tasked with working for Queen Levana but works against her any way she can. When Cinder, Scarlet, and the rest of their band of outlaws contact Cress looking for help, her life will never be the same.

This book brought back my full enjoyment for the series (not that I didn’t like Scarlet; I just didn’t like it quite as much as Cinder). Scarlet and Wolf taking more of a back seat this time helped a lot, and Cress really was a nice addition to the team. For as much as I enjoyed Thorne in the previous book, he really comes into his own here and has become one of my favorite characters in the series. I was really glad to see some advancement in the main storyline, and there’s a lot of humor throughout. 

Rebecca Soler continues to do a great job with the narration. I’m really enjoying the world Meyer has created here and the overall plot and characters, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the series ends in the next book. Fans of futuristic sci-fi and/or fairy tale retellings, maybe around age 15 and up, should definitely consider checking out this series, starting with the first book (these are not stand-alones).

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Book Review: Holy Chow

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Holy Chow
Andy Carpenter #25
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a woman who adopted an older Chow Chow from Andy Carpenter’s dog rescue foundation calls him and asks him if he’d be willing to take care of Lion in the event of her death and if her step-son can’t, he doesn’t expect to be called upon to fulfill that promise so soon. Tony, the step-son, is willing to take care of Lion, but being arrested for his step-mother’s murder makes that a bit difficult. It’s not long before Andy, a semi-retired defense attorney is caught up in Tony’s case.

This book is a great example of mostly following the series formula but with just enough differences to keep it fresh and fun. Since one of my favorite things about this series has always been the ways Andy’s various peripheral team members are involved, my favorite moment in this book (and what will likely forever be one of my favorite moments in the entire book) involves Marcus and made me cheer out loud while I was listening. Seriously, if you’re a Marcus fan, you cannot miss this book! Andy shines as his usual snarky, witty self, brought to life expertly by Grover Gardner. If it’s not clear, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, as well as the books that precede it in the series. Normally I’d say you can dive right in at any point in the series, but with this book, I have to say that having read at least some of the other books (probably within the last 10 or so) would make the aforementioned Marcus moment more meaningful. But because I love the series, I’d say that if you’re interested, you should just dive right in at the beginning.

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Book Review: Stakeouts and Strollers

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Stakeouts and Strollers
by Rob Phillips

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Mystery

Charlie Shaw is a journalist-turned-private-investigator who, on his first case, ends up getting caught up in a high-stakes mystery involving a teenage girl looking for her estranged dad and a couple of shady bar owners. Meanwhile, he has a six-month-old daughter at home who isn’t sleeping through the night, so he’s running low on sleep too.

I was intrigued by the idea of this new dad trying to balance a new job with his upended home life, and I enjoy a good mystery to boot. However, I realized a little ways into this book that I just wasn’t very engaged. The main character isn’t all that interesting to me, the mystery is lackluster, and the new-baby angle is weirdly both too present and not present enough. The MC does take the baby on a couple of stakeouts with him, which seems like a questionable move, but her irregular sleeping patterns mostly just cause the MC and his wife to yawn at each other randomly. But then conversations about the baby and the MC checking up on her using a monitor app on his phone all just get a bit repetitive. I suppose I’m the wrong audience for a book that focuses this much on what life with a baby is like, because I’m about 16 years removed from that part of life and was never one that wished the helpless-baby phase could have lasted forever.

There were elements of the story that just felt off to me, too. For example, a character that is touted as being super tough and a veteran investigator, etc., lets someone get the jump on him way too easily. And the mystery seemed like it sort of plodded along, until the MC watched his baby do some particular thing and then suddenly was struck with a realization that is kept from us at first, to be revealed later—all of this is a common mystery trope, but the realization he had turned out to be a HUGE leap. Maybe I missed a vital clue, but even when it was explained, it was clear that it was a major guess made by the MC, rather than information he cleaned in passing, experience, or anything like that, coming into play. I kinda think that the target audience for this book is a bit too niche—men who have daughters and enjoy procedural mystery stories. Also, there’s quite a bit of language. I don’t think I could really recommend this book to anyone, but please check out the link below for other reviews if you’re interested.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: The Accomplice

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The Accomplice
Theodore Boone #7
by John Grisham
read by Richard Thomas

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fiction

When Theo’s friend Woody is arrested as an accomplice in an armed robbery, Theo pulls out all the stops in his position as a kid lawyer, which starts with asking his mom to help get Woody out on bail, since the juvenile public defender is too busy to help right away. Woody himself has to figure out the best way to proceed when the finger is pointed at him and the truth comes under attack.

For all the sticky and difficult situations Theo has been in during this series, what happens to his friend Woody here is the scariest. Theo actually takes a major backseat during a lot of this book, as Woody becomes a major POV character. Though I understand it, don’t fault Grisham for the decision, and did enjoy the result, I was a little sad to see so little of Theo in the final book in the series. Still, the insight into the juvenile justice system and the way that various characters step up to help however they can are all great additions to the story.

Overall, I’d say whether or not a teenager or pre-teen will be interested in this book will depend on what kind of fiction they like—if fast-paced action is important, this probably won’t suit them. If they’re interested in realistic fiction about crime and law and trials, this could be fascinating for them. And the audiobook is well-narrated, if that’s your/their speed. I have personally enjoyed this series all the way through and will definitely read/listen to it again at some point in the future. This book can definitely be read as a stand-alone, but I think that, due to Theo being a lot less involved, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book. If you’re interested, definitely start at the beginning.

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Book Review: White

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White
The Circle #3
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Black.

In one reality, Thomas Hunter and the rest of the newly minted Circle try to stay out of the hands of the enemy while also debating whether it’s better to hide and stay safe or try to bring the Great Romance to that enemy. In the other reality, Thomas Hunter is dead and the threat of the virus inches ever closer. 

I think I understand more now why I had such a hard time with this series when I first read it around 20 years ago. The Christian allegory falls apart so much when it becomes more clear that these two realities are connected in some way, possibly some kind of circular time, and the “Christ” character dying and being resurrected in the previous book implies that Christ had to die twice for the sins of humanity. Which makes one not enough. That’s a huge theological issue. Then beyond those implications, when the histories are changed, the forest/desert world doesn’t seem to be affected, so does that mean they’re actually not as connected as it seems? It kind of gives me a headache to consider.

The story itself mostly plays out in a way that continues to be engaging. Though Dekker introduces a super powerful element that just sort of…goes away. I believe it comes into play in other pseudo-related books, but since it’s introduced here, used to incredible effect, and then just hand-waved away, it bugs me. I also dislike the feeling that Dekker killed off Thomas’s wife in the previous book simply to pave the way for a new romance in this book—a romance that I can’t say I cared for all that much. Couldn’t someone else in the Circle have been the romantic lead for this plot line? Maybe it wouldn’t have felt quite so forced to me then. Or maybe it wouldn’t have helped.

In the end, I like the trilogy a lot more this time than I remember like it when I was younger (or maybe this third book just tainted my memory of the first two), and I probably even liked this final book a little more than I did back then. But I feel like there was a lot of build-up for an underwhelming conclusion (though the conclusion on the “our world” side was more satisfying). Then there’s an epilogue that I think went completely over my head, and I’m pretty sure also set up more for Dekker to explore in other books, books that are not officially part of the same series but are still connected in at least tiny ways. I plan to keep going in this broad world, but I really don’t know how far I’ll get. As for this series, if you’re interested in fantastical fiction with a Christian, or at least moral, bent, you might enjoy this series. If you’d be bothered by a Christian allegory that goes pretty far afield, you might want to skip this trilogy.

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Book Review: Humanly Speaking

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Humanly Speaking
by Michael Spencer

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian nonfiction

Michael Spencer’s heart for the unborn is palpable, and this book expands on the brief seminar he gave at my church a few months ago. It addresses what abortion really is and why we should care as much as most of us believe we would if another terrible event like the WWII Holocaust were to take place. He compares it to various times of major human rights violations in history and rightfully so. And all of this he does with an engaging style—often when I’m reading Christian non-fiction books, no matter how interested I may be in the subject, I have a difficult time understanding some of what’s being said due to the inclusion of large, theological words or even unnecessary pretension. This book has an easy style that is important to make the book accessible for more people.

It’s not enough to just be “pro-life” if you don’t act on it. And I say that as someone who has never acted on it, beyond donating money to a few organizations. While I do wish that there might be more suggestions in this book for how those of us who can’t feasibly make this a full-time campaign can still get in on the fight, it certainly inspired me to want to do something, which I’m praying about and brainstorming about. Michael Spencer calls out the church for being too quiet or lazy on the matter of abortion, and I think every Christian needs to read this book.

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