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Book Review: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

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One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Hercule Poirot #22
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is somewhere in the middle for me, in regards to my favorites and least favorites in the series. The mystery was engaging enough, and I really liked the inclusion of the children’s rhyme as the chapter headers and also used other ways in the book. It was pretty obvious that the shoe buckle was going to be a crucial part of the mystery, though I couldn’t quite guess how. This is one for which I was definitely not going to figure the solution out in advance, but that doesn’t stop me from from trying. Sometimes that’s half the fun; sometimes it’s annoying. It probably depends on how much I’m enjoying the story as a whole. This time, it was fun to try to decipher any clues we might have been given, but I don’t know if we weren’t given enough or if I just didn’t think it through very well. Seriously, I kept coming back to that buckle and what it might mean that I/Poirot hadn’t figured out yet. But alas, it stumped me. Overall, this was a good read—or a good listen, rather, since I listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser, which is as great as ever.

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Book Review: Ferris

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Ferris
by Kate DiCamillo
read by Cherry Jones

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fiction

Ferris’s life is…unusual. Her little sister has decided to be an outlaw. Her uncle has moved into the basement to fulfill his destiny and paint a history of the world. Her best friend incessantly plays only one song on the piano. And her grandmother has recently started to see a ghost that makes an unusual request.

At first, this story felt whimsical, which I’m sure was helped along by the narration of Cherry Jones (I loved her narration of the Little House books). But certain parts of it became repetitive while other parts were just strange. Billy Jackson playing “Mysterious Barricades” over and over makes me think that he’d drive me crazy in real life. Vocabulary words that Ferris and Billy Jackson learned in school are dropped throughout the book at unnatural times and are defined for the reader in ways that felt jarring to me. Uncle Ted clearly needs therapy; the whole thing about painting the history of the world was completely bizarre and inexplicable. And Pinky (the little sister) seemed like a slightly more extreme version of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona, especially in her younger days—she clearly needs some actual discipline in her life.

Then there are the supernatural elements. Aside from Charisse (Ferris’s grandmother, who is referred to by her name by everyone) and her ghost, Ferris is apparently a bit psychic or something, considering that she starts to have out-of-body-type experiences. None of this is explained, either, or given satisfactory resolutions. In the end, I didn’t really understand the purpose of the book, nor was I able to see any real plot. The story has a certain kind of charm, but it isn’t anything I’d really recommend to anyone of any age.

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Book Review: Relative Silence

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Relative Silence
by Carrie Stuart Parks
read by Piper Jones

My rating: 1.5 / 5
Genre: Christian suspense

After surviving a public shooting thanks to the actions of a stranger, Piper Boone’s life starts to get even more complicated as a neighbor goes missing, family secrets are unearthed, and a past tragedy comes back to haunt her. Tucker Landry, the man who saved Piper’s life, is recovering from his own injury during the shooting and can’t help but want to do his own investigating into the shooter, Piper’s past tragedy, and other family secrets that seem to all be connected in some way.

So much of this book fell short for me, left me confused and questioning, or even flat-out bugged me. Some things happened or were mentioned that seemed to be clues to the mystery but turned out to be red herrings; this is fine for a mystery or suspense novel, but some of these red herrings were never given an alternate explanation, even things that were frankly pretty big deals. So while red herrings are common and expected, red herrings that leave major loose ends dangling just smack of lazy writing.

Piper is a character I could not connect with; she’s so naive, even to the point of being obtuse. Tucker’s backstory is compelling, and I appreciated what he brings to the book. I would have liked for the mysterious Clan Firinn he works for to be expanded on, but instead, we get this weird thing about stones that is never explained and literally left me at the end of the book saying (out loud), “Wha? Huh?” A little research tells me that Clan Firinn is involved in other books by Parks, but it appears to be as enigmatic and meagerly used in those books as here. Considering how I felt about this book, this does not lead me to want to read any of those other books to learn more about the organization. I also didn’t care for Piper’s views about God that were never really clarified or corrected.

There are several details from the story that lessened my enjoyment, but I’m not going to list them all. I’ll just end by saying that I do not care for the 1st person/3rd person narration style employed here (1st person for Piper’s POV parts, 3rd person for Tucker’s), as it is always jarring to me. And the audiobook narrator is one of the worst I’ve heard. All of this together makes this a book I really can’t recommend to anyone.

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Book Review: The Running Man

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The Running Man
by Stephen King
read by Kevin Kenerly

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Dystopian thriller

Ben Richards’s daughter is dying, and he can only think of one way to get the money for her medicine—volunteer for one of the “big money” Games that so often end in death for the players. When he’s selected for the Running Man game, the whole country becomes his game board…and all its citizens his opponents.

I’m still dancing around reading any of Stephen King’s horror novels, though this book has a few horrific moments of its own. Not that I’d expected a book about a man signing up to be hunted to his death to be uplifting, but I was hoping for at least some bit of hopefulness by the end of the story or at least a purpose to it. There’s a side plot about the air pollution that seems like it’s going to end up being important, but it completely fizzles out by the end of the book.

To be fair, I don’t know how I would have felt about the ending if I hadn’t known exactly what was going to happen. Apparently the publishers of this edition of the book figured that it’s old enough that the ending isn’t a secret, so they put an introduction at the beginning of the audiobook in which Stephen King fully spoils the ending. Seriously, if you’re going to be giving big spoilers like that, put it after the book! And since I was listening to the audiobook, I couldn’t even sort of see it coming and look away… But speaking of the ending, it just felt completely pointless to me. Richards may have liked his plan in the moment, but it’s not like what happened was really going to change anything all that much, at least not given the way it happened. It was just fruitless.

Then too, the year is 2025, yet somehow, it feels like 1970. It can be interesting or even amusing to read a book (or watch a movie) decades after the writer dreamed up what he or she thought the future might look like, to be in that future and see the differences. But Stephen King’s idea of the future when he wrote this book in the early 80s doesn’t feel particularly futuristic. There are hover cars (but still “wheeled” cars too) and a few dystopian elements involving heavy air pollution and people’s willingness to root for the death of games contestants, but overall, the worldbuilding just felt meager.

The bright spot of the audiobook experience was the narrator, who I actually really liked, but the narration couldn’t save the narrative flaws. So this is not destined to be my favorite King book. However, plenty of other people have enjoyed it, so if you’re interested, check out other reviews at the link below.

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Book Review: Skyward

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Skyward
Book #1
by Brandon Sanderson
read by Suzy Jackson

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

Humans on Detritus have been attacked by a mysterious alien enemy they call the Krell since the humans crash landed on the planet 70 years ago. They’ve slowly built up enough of a defensive force to fight back, mostly using fighter pilots. Since she was little, Spensa has wanted to be a pilot like her father, but then her father deserts the largest fight in their society’s history and is shot down. When Spensa is old enough to start training to be a pilot, it turns out no one wants the daughter of a coward defending the planet. Spensa might have to find a different way to claim the stars.

Spensa is the kind of character I normally struggle with, being so defiant and prickly, but I really warmed to her by partway through the book. Her personality was necessary to make her someone who would get back up after so many blows. The way she connects with her flight mates in the book helped to endear her to me, too, and I liked her friendship with Rig. I also really enjoyed M-Bot and his obsession with mushrooms, and I just loved Doomslug. The slow unfolding of the plot and answers to questions inhabitants of Detritus have been asking (or avoiding asking) for decades kept me engaged all throughout the story.

I recently read Blightfall, without initially realizing it was in an already-established universe, and it intrigued me enough that I wanted to start at the beginning. That means that I’m going into this series with more knowledge than the reader is meant to have here in the first book, but I really don’t think it harmed the story for me at all. If anything, I’m all the more anxious to see how we get from where the characters are in this first book to where they are in Blightfall. So despite already seeing the future of this world, I’m still super intrigued to see where the story goes from here.

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Book Review: Running Out of Time

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Running Out of Time
Out of Time #1
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Read by Kimberly Schraf

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fiction

Jessie lives a simple life with her parents and siblings in a small town in 1840…or so she thinks. When a diphtheria outbreak threatens the kids in the village, Jessie’s mom sends her on an important mission: leave Clifton and get help. But leaving Clifton means stepping into a completely different world.

I enjoyed this story, which is like a time travel story without any time travel. The little clues dropped early in the book, when Jessie is still living a normal life in pioneer times, provide intrigue that I can see being even more so for kids/teens in the book’s target audience. When Jessie’s mom sends her on her mission, she gives her just enough info to get Jessie close to what she needs to do, and then Jessie has to use her own wits to fill in the gaps. The pressure is real, as the diphtheria outbreak is threatening the lives of several of the kids, and Jessie is constantly worried that she’s being tracked by henchmen of the founder of Clifton. The main thing that detracted from this story for me is that the motive behind everything that’s happening seemed really weak and squeezed in at the end, maybe because the author wanted to emphasize the premise and plot more than the “why” behind it all. Overall, though, I enjoyed my time listening to the audiobook. I think preteens through mid-teens would enjoy the book.

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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: 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: Warm Bodies

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Warm Bodies
by Isaac Marion
Read by Kevin Kenerly

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Fantasy horror (and romance, I guess)

R is a zombie with no memory of his life before he died or even how long he’s been dead. Consuming the brain of a living person allows him and his fellow zombies to experience flashes of memories of the brain’s original owner. During one particular raid on a group of the living, the memories R receives compel him to spare the life of a young woman in the group, disguise her from his fellow zombies, and take her back to the undead society where he lives, all to protect her. R is already a little different from the other zombies, but the more time he spends with Julie, the more he notices further changes.

I had a difficult time focusing my thoughts for this review and deciding how to rate the book. It’s kind of stupid in a lot of ways, and yet I enjoyed it overall. It’s a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet, and not terribly subtle about it, but I can’t really call it romantic. R’s initial connection with Julie comes through the memories he receives from eating the brain of Perry, her long-time lover. I expected a relationship between R and Julie to develop in its own right from there, but really, he just keeps getting more from Perry somehow. I couldn’t really tell you what makes Julie so special, either to Perry or to R, as she’s fairly bland overall. I certainly don’t see why the connection between her and R is the catalyst it is for the rest of the story.

My favorite thing about the book is the worldbuilding regarding the zombies. If you’re a zombie purist and want your zombies completely mindless undead monsters with no capacity for reason or thought beyond survival instincts, caused by some kind of dystopian plague, you might not like this book. The cause for the zombiism is never explicitly stated, but it is implied, and it’s definitely not the normal cliché. Plus, R, at least, in his role as our narrator, has quite a bit of mental capacity. He has thoughts, feelings, wishes, and sentimentality. He lives in a community with other zombies, and they can even talk to each other, though in a very halting, monosyllabic way. Another way this is not your typical zombie story is that it’s far more fantasy than sci-fi. It may be set in a dystopian future, but the progression of R’s mental “interactions” with Perry and then the way the connection between R and Julie affects the rest of zombiekind are more like magic than science.

Ultimately, I was more interested in R himself and the zombie side of things (which is pretty crazy, considering my aversion to zombie fiction) than anything to do with R and Julie. Whether or not others will enjoy this book might depend a lot on their thoughts on zombie traditions and borrowed romance. I personally enjoyed listening to the book narrated by Kevin Kenerly, who did a great job with the halting zombie speech (which sounds like it must have been annoying in the text version).

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Book Review: The Silence of the Lambs

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The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Read by Frank Muller

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Psychological horror classic

I suppose everyone knows the premise of this book by now. An elusive serial killer snatches the daughter of a politician with some pull. Trainee FBI agent Clarice Starling has established a tentative connection with imprisoned Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter, so in the race against time for the politician’s daughter’s life, Clarice is sent to try to get insight from him about the man behind the crimes. I read this book at least 20 years ago; I think I was in high school at the time. I don’t remember details, but it left an impression on me for sure. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the entire movie, though I’ve certainly seen some clips many times over the years.

I’ll start by saying I’m not much of a horror person. Fortunately, most of my aversions to horror are more visually based, so they weren’t really an issue while reading this book. It’s intense and cerebral, and I was really engaged with the story as it unfolded. There were a few parts that I felt dragged a little, but overall, the unfolding of events drew me in. I know that some of what is unveiled along the way lost its punch for me, because I was already aware of, for example, Buffalo Bill’s motivations or how things would play out with Lecter. Still, I enjoyed the suspense and particularly the interactions between Lecter and Clarice. I also appreciated the characterization for more than just the two main characters, including Chilton, who somehow comes across as even more villainous than Lecter. Even the side plot involving Clarice’s boss Jack Crawford could have been seen as dragging down the story, but I felt that it added a much-needed gentler, more human side to this book about serial killers.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Frank Muller, who did a superb job. I’ve read other reviews that the movie is a pretty decent adaptation and that people who have seen and enjoyed the movie find the book to be richer and deeper (which is common in these situations). If you’re considering reading this classic, whether you’ve seen the movie or not, I recommend it.

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