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Book Review: Beauty in the Least

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Beauty in the Least
McGee and Me! #12
by Bill Myers & Robert West

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian fiction

This was my least favorite book in the series, which is a shame, since it’s also the last, leaving me on a not-so-high note. It just doesn’t have the same feel as the rest of the series. The entire family is so put out by these visiting foreigners, and I’m not really sure anyone learns much of a lesson in the end. The father and son duo provide the only real heart in the story, and it’s overall pretty brief. Considering all of the growing Nicholas has done throughout these books, I just think he should be beyond the petty, immature behavior he displays here—or at least that he should get past it a little more quickly. So sadly, I wouldn’t recommend this book on its own, but the rest of the series is still great. These books may not be easy to find anymore, but if you do have the chance to read any of them or procure them for an 8-10-year-old child, I recommend it.

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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 Alcatraz Escape

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The Alcatraz Escape
Book Scavenger #3
by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

An escape room in Alcatraz? What’s not to love?! Of course, there’s more to the story as Emily, James, and Matthew test their wits against fellow book scavengers and other puzzle lovers. Someone clearly doesn’t want Emily involved, and the man who helped create the story for the escape room is more than a little mysterious. Then Matthew is blamed for several mean-spirited incidents, so Emily has to kick her puzzling into high gear.

As an escape room enthusiast, I often find that books that are billed to be about escape rooms are the worst at being true to the real-life experience. This book was the first that I’ve read with escape rooms mentioned in the synopsis that had a true escape-room feel, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The rest of the plot involving the mysterious game maker and Matthew being suspected as a villain was good as well. I think the inclusion of several of Emily’s classmates may have bloated the character list a little too much, and it was difficult to keep some of them straight. Overall, though, this was a good wrap-up to a series about books and puzzles that I have really enjoyed, and I think that as a kid, I would have loved it all the more. So it’s easy to recommend it to kids aged around 10-14 (my 14-year-old daughter loved it as well) but also for teens and even adults who enjoy books and puzzles.

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Book Review: Dogged Pursuit

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Dogged Pursuit
Andy Carpenter #31
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

In this prequel to the 30-book series, Andy Carpenter is a new defense attorney, making the change from prosecution, against the advice of so many. With his marriage a little uncertain and wanting to make further changes in his life, Andy goes to the shelter to adopt a dog and falls in love with a golden retriever named Tara. He doesn’t want to split her up from the dog she’s been sharing a space with, so he tries to adopt both Tara and Sunny. However, Sunny is mixed up in a criminal case with her owner, who is currently being charged with murder. Soon enough, Andy is mixed up in that criminal case too, as he ends up taking Sunny’s owner on as a client.

I’m never sure what to expect with a prequel, and I’ll admit that I was a little nervous going into this one. At the beginning of the book, there’s a note where Rosenfelt acknowledges that there is a continuity issue with Tara, mostly that he knows a golden retriever wouldn’t actually live as long as she does throughout this series. I wouldn’t have questioned that, but I did question the use of some side characters who, from what I can remember of when they were introduced in some of the earlier books in the main series, didn’t seem to have the history with Andy that this book showed.

Leaving aside continuity questions (which was not difficult for me to do, especially considering that I was sad about the potential loss of Andy’s team, yet several of them are still here), this book was a fun, new take on the series while still having the same cleverness and humor that I love about the series. The formula is mostly intact, even with this being a prequel. I could see this being a good place for someone new to the series to start reading, though it’s definitely more similar in style to the later books than the earlier ones. Either way, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, whether you’ve read any of this series before  or not.

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 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: The Navigator

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The Navigator
Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files #11
by Pittacus Lore

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain spoilers for the main series, starting with I Am Number Four.

Decades before the main series begins, when the Mogodorian attack begins on Lorien, Lexa is conscripted to fly an old-fashioned space ship in an attempt to escape. Once on Earth, she and her companions must try to track down the other Loric that made it off the planet, but more than that, they have to survive in this alien world.

I don’t remember having any particular attachment to Lexa when reading the main series or wondering about her backstory, but this was still an interesting read. I appreciated seeing Lorien before and during the invasion and also getting an idea of the culture and political climate from the perspective of someone who actually lived there. I enjoyed this novella a little more than the previous, which could be due in part to Sarah (my least favorite of the major characters from the main series) not being involved at all. For those who have read and enjoyed the main series and want to revisit the world, you definitely consider reading this as well.

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Book Review: Outfoxed

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Outfoxed
Andy Carpenter #14
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a program to bring dogs into a prison for the prisoners to help train them results in convict Brian Atkins escaping, then Brian’s wife and former partner, whose testimony helped put Brian away, are found murdered, Andy Carpenter finds himself defending another fellow dog lover. But when the case inevitably turns out to be deeper than it looks on the surface, Andy may not be the only target this time.

There were a few new things about this book, enough to keep it fresh and keep me engaged. The basic formula is still intact, though, and in fact, this one seemed to have less of the 3rd-person narration showing us the more in-depth parts of the conspiracy. That’s just fine with me. I always prefer to stay with Andy and his crew anyway. I got a kick out of this technology-heavy case, because Andy is so out of his element, it’s endearing. If I ever go back through this series from the beginning (which I expect to do when I reach the end or catch up with new additions, because it has become a wonderful comfort read/listen for me), I may start keeping a tally of pocket-Marcus plots and Pete distrusting Andy, despite Andy being proven right so many times. I don’t want to make these sound like tired elements, though, because they’re part of what I love about the series. As always, Grover Gardner is the consummate Andy Carpenter, and I recommend this book for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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