Book Review: Bark Humbug

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Bark Humbug
Andy Carpenter #34
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

Sometimes pseudo-retired defense attorney Andy Carpenter takes a case willingly, even if reluctantly, and sometimes he’s practically forced or tricked into it. The latter is the case here, as a woman who claims to be doing a magazine story on local celebrities visits Andy and then reveals her true purpose. Her brother is suspected of killing the local mayor, is innocent and prepared to turn himself in, and needs a good lawyer. Andy starts out slow, but the more he digs into the case, the more corruption he uncovers.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I enjoy the formulaic nature of this series, and I love it when the formula is turned on its head. That happens here, and even though I guessed at it way in advance, I still appreciated it and would have felt let down if it had gone a different way. The humor that I have loved all through this series made me chuckle a couple of times in this book, and it’s always great to see the different parts of Andy’s team working together on a case. Even Eddie Dowd, who I specifically mentioned in my review of the previous book seemed like he added little to the stories, was more involved this time.

With this book, I am fully caught up on this series for the first time since I started reading it 2 1/2 years ago. I’ve already started back at the beginning of the series, because I love it so much. More specifically, I love the audiobooks, because Grover Gardner brings Andy to life perfectly. If it’s not clear, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, but if you’re interested, you should definitely consider starting at the beginning.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: October 13, 2026

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Book Review: Life Is Hard. God Is Good. Let’s Dance.

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Life Is Hard. God Is Good. Let’s Dance.
by Brant Hansen

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian living

It’s all right there in the title. Our world is fraught with anxiety, fear, and depression. But God truly is good, and understanding that truth can help us trade in the anxiety for peace and joy. Radio show host Brant Hansen offers insight, suggestions, and examples on this topic. He uses scripture as well as quotes from both Christian and secular writers and thinkers to back up his claims, and he does it all with his signature humor.

I have a lot of respect for Brant Hansen, his take on God and the Bible, and the ways he lives out his faith. He talks a lot about CURE International in this book, as people he’s met through that organization seem to have given him a lot of insight into the subject matter of this book. (I don’t mean this in a bad way, by the way, as CURE is a wonderful program and absolutely worthy of all of the attention he gives it.) Brant’s casual style makes the book easy to read and understand, which I appreciate so much. And because I listened to the audiobook, I got to hear it all in his own voice, which always adds a layer of enjoyment for me. Whichever way you go, I recommend this book, as well all of Brant Hansen’s books, really, to everyone.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Abandoned Mine

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Mandie and the Abandoned Mine
Mandie #8
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. Nostalgia definitely affects my reviews for this series, and I’m okay with that.

This book is one of the best in the season so far. Mandie does disobey once, but not nearly as much or as terribly as she does in other books. The mystery isn’t complex and twisty, but at least it isn’t super obvious this time. Mandie and some combination of her friends do tend to get kidnapped a lot, but this one turns out differently in that regard, at least. And while the “forgive those who trespass against you” aspect of Christianity is pushed to perhaps an unrealistic level in this book, I didn’t mind it too much. There was something kind of nice about the resolution in this book. These books have their ups and downs, but they can still be good for younger people to read, especially if you’re looking for something with Christian content. Though overall, I recommend discussing what’s good and bad in them with your kid(s) after/while they read it.

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Book Review: Boreal Wilderland

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Boreal Wilderland
by Robert Mullen

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Nonfiction, art

Robert Mullen brings together several different artists with paintings, sketches, and photographs of the North American boreal forest in this colorful, informative book. I enjoyed the descriptions of various expeditions into the wilderness and especially encounters with animals during these voyages. Canoeing through little-traveled areas and experiencing what few others experience is something I would loved to have done at some point in my life (it’s definitely not feasible for me anymore), and this book brings that to life. The artwork is breathtaking, and I’d imagine it’s even more so in print version, compared to the ebook I read (though thank goodness I at least have a decent-size tablet to do justice to the full-page spreads).

I’ll admit that I did skim some of the sections about different wildlife, when the information shared was about where they lived or nested and how endangered they were, paying more attention when the author shared personal experiences with certain species. My main issue, though, is with the extensive references to the world being billions of years old, which is pure conjecture but referenced here as fact (and often). It’s nothing I’m not used to and doesn’t keep the book from being beautiful and interesting. I could see this being a great gift for someone interested in the subject matter and is an overall enjoyable book.

I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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Book Review: The Terminal List

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The Terminal List
by Jack Carr
Read by Ray Porter

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Political/military thriller

James Reece, a Navy SEAL lieutenant commander, is on his last combat deployment when most of his team is killed in an ambush. Upon his return home, his wife and daughter are killed in a presumed home invasion. As Reece starts to follow clues, he uncovers a conspiracy that involves a lot of people and reaches into the highest levels of government.

I knew this was a revenge story going in, so I knew it wouldn’t likely be my favorite story ever. I came for Ray Porter, because as much as I love Project Hail Mary, listening to it over and over simply because Ray Porter is an outstanding narrator is a bit implausible. I’ll have to get my fix elsewhere, though, because I will definitely not be continuing this series. The narrator is the only reason I even managed to finish the book.

The main reason I disliked this book (but not the only reason, more on that later) is the sheer brutality of the revenge killings. It starts somewhat basic, maybe even cliche, but man does it go downhill quickly from there. In the book’s foreword, the Carr explains that he hoped the audience would connect with, like, and forgive James Reece. And I guess some people are able to, but if he really wanted that, maybe he shouldn’t have had his protagonist take such pleasure in some of the terrible, ridiculous ways that he tortured and killed people.

If this were the only thing about the book that bothered me, I still wouldn’t be continuing the series, but I would have rated it higher. However, Carr’s tendency to give a several-paragraph backstory to every single character when they’re first introduced or their point of view is shown made the book a bit tedious for me. I don’t need to know why conspiracy participant/victim #4 got into the public relations business or what his wife thinks about his job (just for example). Does Carr somehow think it’s better for the reader to get to know the guy that’s about to be brutally murdered? Or does he just want to pad the book?

Beyond all of that, there’s little mystery or suspense here. The conspiracy, its participants, plans to try and stop Reece, and the motivations behind it all are fed to us along the way. There is one attempt at a twist near the end of the book, which I’ll admit I didn’t specifically guess in advance. Still, it didn’t make me feel anything other than apathy, because I was already so numbed to the lack of thrills and abundance of gratuitous violence and gore in this book. I’m sure it’s clear that I don’t recommend this book to anyone, but it does have a high average rating. If you’re interested in the story and don’t mind what bothered me, please check out other reviews at the link below.

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Book Review: Never Fade

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Never Fade
The Darkest Minds #2
by Alexandra Bracken

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the previous book in the series, The Darkest Minds.

Ruby isn’t happy to be a tool of the Children’s League, though she has to admit that the training they’ve given her has been useful. When she learns about some vital information that needs to be recovered, she embarks on a mission for the League with ulterior motives. Her quest will take her across dangerous lands, into the paths of villains of all different flavors, and, ultimately, back home again.

Given the way the previous book ended, I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go or how much I would enjoy it. But I was just as engaged as I was with the first book, maybe even more so. Through 500 pages, I was caught up, surprised by revelations or small surprises, and hard-pressed to put the book down, especially in the last 1/4 or so. There are some new characters introduced here that I ended up loving, some returning characters that had new and different roles in this book, and then there’s Ruby herself. She could easily have become a character that annoyed me, continually beating herself up for the way she’s evolving, but it never got to a point of bothering me.

This is the kind of book where I find myself uncertain about who to trust, and I’m not even sure if it’s intentional or if I just wasn’t following certain aspects of the story. I also found a particular plot point (which would be a spoiler to mention) pretty unbelievable, as it relates to the previous book in the series. Overall, though, none of this was enough to make me want to lower the star rating by more than half, and I’m really looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.

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Book Review: Empire and Frontier

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Empire and Frontier
by Samuel Marquis

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: History

Empire and Frontier follows Colonel Peter Schuyler in New York during King William’s War (1689–1701), showcasing alliances and conflicts with various Native American groups, the French, and other colonists. The language in the synopsis led me to think this might be a fictionalized story of this time in history, but it’s actually nonfiction. While that’s fine, it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Weirdly, though, there are moments where it becomes more subjective than I’d expect a history book to be, with the author attributing feelings and reflections to various people in the book—details I find difficult to believe are described to that degree in letters or journals. The author also seems to include some bias for or against some of the historical figures in the book, religions involved, things like that.

There’s a pretty in-depth list of all historical figures involved at the front of the book, which I mostly read through, but that turned out to be unnecessary, because the same details given there are also given each time one of those people is first introduced in the book. That and other repetitive sections caused me to start skimming the book in parts. The book would zoom out and cover several months quickly, and then zoom in and focus on a battle in detail, which made the flow a little hard to follow. I will say, though, that the battle descriptions were some of the most interesting parts in the book. I could have done without explanation of some of the ways people were “slow tortured” by their enemy though.

It’s not that I didn’t find anything of interest in the book, and I can definitely see it being fascinating to history buffs. If you’re looking for historical fiction, this isn’t that, but if you enjoy reading about history, are interested in this time period in American history, and are okay with some subjectivity by the author, then you may be the right audience for this book.

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August in Review

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I read 17 books last month, another month above my average from the past few years. I guess it’s within range of my average for this year though, thanks to how much more time I have for audiobooks lately. Still a lot of re-reads, which means less reviews I have to write.

Here are the books I read in August:

Rise of the Elgen by Richard Paul Evans (4 / 5)
Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko (5 / 5)
Thornbird by Elle Kennedy (2 / 5)
Mandie and the Charleston Phantom by Lois Gladys Leppard (3 / 5)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (3 / 5)
Living Unoffended by Brant Hansen (4 / 5)
Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (5 / 5)
Asylum Murders by Michael G. Colburn (2.5 / 5)
Four Windows, One Jesus by Chad Colter (3 / 5)
The Land Beneath Us by Sarah Sundin (5 / 5)
So You Want to Be an Architect by Linda Soules (5 / 5)
The Ginghams by T.C. Kemper (2.5 / 5)
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (4.5 / 5)
Scythe by Neal Shusterman (5 / 5)
Masterminds by Gordon Korman (5 / 5)
The Order of Time by Scott P. Southall (2 / 5)
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (4 / 5)

This list includes 4 ARCs and 6 re-reads. My favorite book from August (that wasn’t a re-read) was Scythe. I started 3 series, continued 3 series, and finished 1 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.