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Book Review: Mary Anne Saves the Day

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Mary Anne Saves the Day
The Baby-Sitters Club #4
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.

Mary Anne was the character I most identified with in this series. She’s quiet, shy, and doesn’t like conflict. And she makes a new friend by sort of falling into it, which is about the only way I ever made new friends in school too. Her character grows a lot in this one book, as she confronts not only her fighting friends but also her over-protective dad. The fight between the members of the BSC is unfortunately very realistic for the age they are. Of course, as an adult, I wanted to sit them all down and make them stop being stupid, but I’m sure when I read it originally, I sided with one or another of the characters. Also as an adult, I feel like it’s a bit of an overreaction to take a kid with a fever and no other symptoms to the emergency room unless the kid had some kind of pre-existing medical condition. Overall, though, this was a fun book to re-visit.

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: Murder in Mesopotamia

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Murder in Mesopotamia
Hercule Poirot #14
by Agatha Christie
read by Anna Massey

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Not my favorite of the Poirot stories I’ve listened to so far. A lot of it is personal preference, though, like the jarring change in narrator, which probably wouldn’t have been an issue if I wasn’t listening to the audiobooks and used to male voices. The setting and background situation in the story, an archeological expedition in Iraq (or something like that), could have been interesting, but it was pretty meagerly used. The resolution to this story was a little bizarre and not very believable. And man, did it feel like it took a really long time for Poirot to actually appear in the story (though this isn’t the first one that I felt that way about). Overall, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to my favorites in the series so far.

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Book Review: The Truth About Stacey

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The Truth About Stacey
The Baby-Sitters Club #3
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 3 / 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.

I have to admit that the storyline of Stacey trying to break out from under her over-protective parents didn’t resonate much with me. That’s probably because I’ve never been in the same situation as either a child or a parent. I suppose some would say my mom was overprotective, but it was in a very different way and I didn’t feel particularly bothered by it at the time. The side plot about the competitive agency interested me a little more, especially since I knew that of course the BSC would come out on top. Their reactions may have been a bit immature, but hey, they’re 12-year-olds, after all! Sometimes they talk or act older than that, but it’s nice to have a reminder that they’re still…well, immature.

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: The Boxcar Children

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The Boxcar Children
Book #1
by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Read by Phyllis Newman

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

I know I read at least the first book in this series when I was younger, but I don’t remember much after that. Truth be told, apparently I didn’t remember the first one very well either, because…(spoiler alert, but hey, the book is about a century old) I really thought the kids would live in the boxcar for more than just one book. Clearly my memory is faulty, not that that’s a surprise to me. But I digress…the story is sweet, but boy was this a different time. Nowadays, if there was an older man who set up an event because he liked to watch teenage boys run…he’d probably be arrested. I don’t mean to say that the man in this book had any ill intent, but it’s certainly something no one would include in a book these days.

I liked all the different kinds of ingenuity the kids employed to set up their home and give it some semblance of normalcy, from their dishes to the “refrigerator.” And though at least one adult they meet is heinous, at least other adults are kind and compassionate, so it avoids that trope of “all adults are evil” some kids books have. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Phyllis Newman, and though I don’t know if I can accurately explain what I mean, I felt her voice worked really well for the time period this is set in. It reminded me of a record I listened to as a kid with a woman narrating some story. I could see this book being fun for younger kids nowadays to read or listen to (or have read to them), though they might have some questions about things that are very different from our world today.

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Book Review: The ABC Murders

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The ABC Murders
Hercule Poirot #13
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

The story of the magnanimous serial killer was one of the better Poirot novels I’ve read so far. Christie pulled me in and had me looking exactly where she wanted me looking, which was in the wrong direction. I did start to realize my mistake before the turn came in the book, and I was pretty excited to realize there was more going on. I didn’t guess the culprit or the motives behind the murders, though—my theories were pretty far off—but I still had a lot of fun coming up with them and then learning how wrong I was. It was also nice to see Hastings back. Though several of the Poirot books have been less enjoyable for me, gems like this make my quest to keep listening worthwhile.

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Book Review: Cards on the Table

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Death in the Clouds
Hercule Poirot #15
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Not my favorite in the series, at least part of which is because it seems like a knowledge of the game of bridge would have helped me understand the story, or at least Poirot’s investigation, more. I also felt like I did near the beginning of the series—like the plot was a bit bloated. On the other hand, I enjoyed some of the characters involved, especially those who were working to solve the crime along with Poirot. There are a few twists at the end of this book, and because I’m gullible and these books aren’t exactly cozy mysteries (meaning they don’t necessarily give you the clues you need to solve the murder along with the investigator), I fell for each one of the misdirects. So overall, a decent read, but I still feel like it’s a bit of a let-down from some of the previous ones I enjoyed more.

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Book Review: Death in the Clouds

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Death in the Clouds
Hercule Poirot #12
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this book, partly because I’m getting behind on my reviews due to being so busy right now and partly because this wasn’t a standout installation in the series for me. It was another locked-room-type setting, albeit it an interesting one. Other aspects of the story seemed a little too similar to previous books in the series as well. I did suspect some of the solution, but like normal, I was missing a lot still by the end. There were some slight twists, but overall, I wasn’t super engaged in the story. However, since I’ve started to enjoy the series a lot more than I did early on, I’ll just consider this a bump in the road of my trip through the series. And I still appreciate the narration by Hugh Fraser.

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Book Review: Christy

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Christy
by Catherine Marshall
Read by Kellie Martin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Classic historical fiction

The story of the young, naïve woman who moved to a small town in the Appalachian hills to be a school teacher is one I remember a tiny bit of from watching at least a little of the show when I was younger. Reading it for the first time now, I was drawn pretty quickly into the book, immersed due to the setting, the characters, and Christy’s passion to help. I felt for her as she was up against not just the superstitions and ignorance of the locals but even the resistance of the man who runs the mission she’s part of. I really liked her openness to other viewpoints and how hungry she was to understand God and make Him more personal in her own life.

Though this book is billed as Christian, and it certainly is a heavy element, I’m concerned about some of the theology presented in the book. I don’t think the author was trying to push any kind of religious agenda forward, more like she was simply showing her character’s view of the world. Which means that other characters’ view of the world are also shown, including the pastor who runs the mission where Christy lives, who believes that the Bible can’t be taken as complete truth. It’s because this is not contradicted at any point in the book that I wouldn’t feel comfortable labeling it as Christian fiction. On the other hand, some of Christy’s conversations with ex-Quaker Miss Alice were very interesting to me.

A little past halfway through the book, I decided to switch to the audiobook. One reason for this was due to the length of the book and the fact that I was struggling to have as much time to read at the time. I didn’t want to be reading it for weeks. What clinched it was when I saw that the book was narrated by Kellie Martin (who played Christy in the same-name television show in the 90s). Though she wasn’t as great as a narrator as I hoped, I still enjoyed the book as a whole. It’s full of emotion and heart, triumph and tragedy, and even a little romance. I recommend this book for all who enjoy historical fiction set in America from around this time period (early 1900s).

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Book Review: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

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Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
The Baby-Sitters Club #2
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 4 / 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.

Claudia’s interactions with her sister and grandmother were my favorite parts of this story. I also liked that, though they were irrationally scared, the babysitters came up with protocols to address the potential of someone breaking into the house. They kept telling each other/themselves that they probably didn’t need to be worried about a thief who hadn’t harmed anyone, but at the age of 12, I can easily understand that fear would take over when they’re alone with little kids at night. In fact, I’m sure younger children reading this might be a bit freaked out by some of the night scenes in this book. Though I guessed the outcome of the phantom storyline (not sure if it was a pure guess or something I remembered from reading this when I was young), I’m sure most kids wouldn’t. However, I don’t particularly care for that outcome nor how Kristy responds to it.

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: Jane Eyre

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Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
Read by Nadia May

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic gothic romance

I haven’t been quiet about the fact that I haven’t read many classics in my life and that now that I’m starting to read more of them, I don’t connect with many of them all that much. I’ve watched an adaptation of this book, so I already knew the story (I’d forgotten some of it, but not the main “reveal”). The only reason I finally decided to read the book, though, is because I came across the audiobook narrated by Nadia May, whom I have greatly enjoyed as narrator for other classics. I still liked her narration, but the story itself was not my favorite.

I really appreciated many of the aspects of Jane’s characters. Despite being mistreated through much of her childhood, she’s an independent young woman with a strong moral compass. She holds her own against some forceful personalities (mostly men) who try to bend her to their wills. I can’t fully place myself into Jane’s shoes, partly because I’m far removed from that time period and culture and partly because her upbringing was vastly different from mine, but I would definitely have made some different choices than her. I’ve seen this book hailed as a feminist work, but to me at least, that mostly just comes across in how terrible both of the main men in the book are. Mr. Rochester, with whom Jane has a romance that so many swoon over, is deceptive, manipulative, overbearing, and willing to trick Jane into an immoral (and illegal) situation. St. John is whiny, cold, overbearing, and abusive—seriously, when he tells her that if she turns him down, she’ll be saying no to God, I immediately lost any tiny bit of respect I may have had for him. Yet, Jane consistently sees both of these men as good, noble, righteous, defending St. John by saying how pious he is or whatever…so the strength of character Brontë gave Jane sort of dissolves in the presences of these strong men.

Add to all of that the long descriptions, which are generally lost on me, more detail to Jane’s adolescence than I really feel was necessary, and some underwhelming plot choices, and this book was never destined to rise above “okay” for me. I didn’t hate it, but I really didn’t like it much. I have a feeling that a lot of what one gets out of this book is going to depend on what they bring to the book. I didn’t quite bring the right stuff to it, but others clearly do and if you’re interested in the book, maybe you will too.

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