See my reviews for them by clicking on each book image.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS by Lewis Carroll
GENRE: Children's Fantasy
SETTING: England
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: Follow the White Rabbit through this classic tale in the magical world of Wonderland. Take tea with the Mad Hatter and March Hare, follow a game of croquet between Alice and the Queen of Hearts, and enjoy an adventure of logic that will entertain mature minds as much as the color illustrations will entertain young ones.
I like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's a cute, imaginative story and I understand why the book has never gone out of print and is liked by both children and adults. I didn't care too much for the sequel because it just wasn't as interesting as the first and it seems like the author was just copying his previous work. The sequel didn't have the spark that the first one did.
I like Alice's personality but she seemed a whole lot older than seven years old, more like a young teen. I loved the humor too.
WHO STOLE HALLOWEEN? by Martha Freeman
GENRE: Fiction/Children's Mystery
SETTING: Pennsylvania
MY GRADE: C
SYNOPSIS: Alex and Yasmeen are back in action, this time on the trail of a serial cat-napper. Halloween is the first cat to go missing, stolen right from her bed on the front porch in the middle of the night. One by one more cats from the neighborhood disappear. It's rumored that the Harvey House Ghost is back and seeking vengeance. Will he strike again? It's up to Alex and Yasmeen to find out before Halloween is gone forever!
MY THOUGHTS: This wasn't good at all. No part was believable, especially the mystery surrounding the stolen cats. Both main characters are ten years old yet talk like teens or adults, especially Yasmeen. If you didn't know their ages and the main characters weren't on the cover, you'd have never guessed their correct ages. And I have no idea which cat that is on the cover. The cat named Halloween belongs to an older kid named Kyle and is an all black female, and main character Alex's cat is orange. We're told three times that Kyle is "pale", like that's a bad thing.
There's a second mystery in this involving a possible ghost and a murder from the late 19th century and it was so unnecessary to put two mysteries into one short book. The kids solved both mysteries on Halloween night. The catnapper mystery is solved Halloween night and the other mystery is solved the next day. There's repeated talk of a bloody crime scene with both main characters trying to figure out who murdered the person over 100 years ago. In actuality children that age wouldn't be involved with subject matter so dark, period, and those parts of the book aren't appropriate for the kids this middle grade book is marketed towards, ages 8-12. The only part I liked is something they did to Alex's cat Luau to help them catch the serial catnapper.
THE COMPLETE BRAMBLY HEDGE by Jill Barklem
GENRE: Children's Fiction
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A+
SYNOPSIS: The mice of Brambly Hedge made their first appearance in 1980 when the four seasonal stories were published. Ever since, readers have loved exploring the miniature world of the hedgerow and meeting the families that live there.
In this collection the mice have many adventures, but they always have time for fun and relaxation too. Whatever the season, and whether they are by the sea, in the hills, or simply at home by the fire, there is always someone ready to lend a helping hand.
Contains all eight stories: Spring Story, Summer Story, Autumn Story, Winter Story, The Secret Staircase, The High Hills, Sea Story, Poppy’s Babies.
I'm going to summarize all eight stories below.
SPRING STORY- This story is about a surprise birthday picnic for Wilfred Toadflax. He lives with his family in a hornbeam tree. He's hanging out with Mr. Apple, who's warden of Store Stump, where all the food for the residents of Brambly Hedge is stored. Mr. Apple knows it's Wilfred's birthday so when he visits his daughter Daisy at her mansion, Old Oak Palace, that's inside a carved out oak tree, they decide to throw him a surprise picnic. The residents help out, they feast of layered hazelnut cake, and a good time is had by all.
You can see images from that story here.
You can watch an animated special here. Some changes were made the the story, like where the picnic was held.
SUMMER STORY- It's very hot so most days the mice hang out by the stream. Poppy and Dusty Dogwood, the miller, get engaged. She sits outside in the shade of tall kingcups embroidering her wedding dress. The wedding and reception is held on a raft.
See images from that story here.
You can watch an animated episode here.
AUTUMN STORY- Primrose is helping everyone gather up nuts and berries. No one can find her. Turns out she fell asleep near the cornfield. When she wakes up she goes exploring and finds a round tree high up. She climbs up and is caught peeking in the window. Two elderly harvest mice invite her in for tea and cake. She leaves, gets lost and while standing under a mushroom, sees a five-mice search party looking for her. She goes home and has acorn coffee.
You can see some images from the story here.
You can watch an animated special here.
WINTER STORY- Everyone rushes home because they can smell snow in the air. It snows, they all dig tunnels to the Store Stump. Mr. Apple declares a Snow Ball will be held in the Ice Hall.
You can see images from the story here.
Watch an animated story here.
THE SECRET STAIRCASE- Primrose and Wilfred are at Old Oak Palace. There's to be a midwinter celebration that night complete with entertainment by all of them so Primrose and Wilfred go to the attic to find costumes to wear. Behind green curtains they find a secret door. It leads into an entryway and a very long and winding staircase with many rooms on both sides of it. Everyone has fun at the celebration and Primrose and Wilfred keep the staircase a secret and plan to go through the door again in the future.
You can see a few images from the story here.
Watch an animated episode here, and part 2 here.
THE HIGH HILLS- It's the end of autumn. Weavers Lily and Flax are making blankets for some vole in the area. Wilfred's reading a book and it says there's gold to be found in the High Hills so he wants to go with them and Mr. Apple. They all go and have a soup dinner with the voles. Lily and Flax head home while Mr. Apple and Wilfred explore the area. They get lost, have to camp out in the cold, get trapped somehow, and Wilfred makes a raft and they travel home in it. He didn't find gold but learns that he's brought back rare lichen.
You can see images from the story here.
Watch part one of an animated episode here, and part 2 here.
SEA STORY- It's summertime. Primrose, Dusty, Poppy, and Wilfred go out on Dusty's boat, Periwinkle. They dock somewhere and see a mouse family sitting outside on the sand, which just happens to be the family of a mouse, Purlane, that Dusty was looking for. They live in a dune and their families have for generations. Dusty tells them they're out of salt at Brambly Hedge so they're given some. They give the mouse family some treats that they brought along. They have dinner with them and hang out at the beach for three days.
You can see images from the story here.
Watch parts 1 and 2 of an animated episode.
POPPY'S BABIES- It's the start of summer. Poppy's babies are Rose, Buttercup, Pipkin. Mr. Apple, with help from a lot of the mice, clean up an unused, large cottage called Mayblossom, as a gift for Poppy and family so they'll have more room.
You can seem images from the story here.
Watch parts 1 and 2 of an episode.
MY THOUGHTS: This hardcover book is fully illustrated in full color. The images from the dust jacket are printed directly onto the book, which is always nice. It contains all of the author's published stories. Almost every single page has illustrations. Each story is 30 pages and some of those pages contain full-page illustrations, some pages contain mostly text and some contain minimal text. The illustrations are beautiful but drab in color and mostly earth tones. You can see a video of someone showing the book here.
The stories are sweet and innocent and are good, clean fun. There aren't any villains in them and everyone gets along. Most are about the Brambly Hedge residents coming together to help one another out when they're needed. I do wish some other animals were involved, like birds and rabbits.
Beginning in 1996 the BBC produced stop-motion animated episodes for each of the eight books.
As of 2015, Jill had been living in an assisted living facility for a year and died in November 2017 of an undisclosed long-term illness(es).
THE INVITATION by Rachel Abbott
GENRE: Fiction/Suspense
SETTING: Cornwall, England
MY GRADE: B-
SYNOPSIS: The first time Jemma and Matt were invited to Polskirrin - the palatial ocean-view home belonging to Matt's old friend Lucas Jarrett - it was for an intimate wedding that ended in tragedy. Jemma will never forget the sight of the girl's pale, doll-like body bobbing listlessly toward the rocky shore.
Now, exactly one year later, Jemma and her husband have reluctantly returned at Lucas's request to honor an anniversary they would do anything to forget.
But what Lucas has in store for his guests is nothing like a candlelight vigil. Someone close remembers more from that night than they'll admit to, and Lucas has devised a little game for them all to make them tell the truth.
At least Jemma knows that she and Matt weren't involved in what happened to that young woman... or were they? Before you play a game with death, make sure you can pay the price...
MY THOUGHTS: This is a rerelease of a book that was first released this April under the title The Murder Game. The synopsis makes this sound so much more interesting and suspenseful than it actually was. I though Lucas was going to dole out punishment to everyone until the culprit was revealed but that didn't happen. It was interesting enough and held my interest the whole way through... until the end. I couldn't wait to find out who was responsible for several things that were going on but the ending was a convoluted disappointment. Too much went on in such a small time frame. The stuff involving Matt and Isobel at the end was beyond ridiculous. I didn't like the twist at the very end either. I've read a couple reviews where people said they saw the ending coming but I didn't predict any of it except I'd guessed the traumatic event that happened in Alex's past.
I don't know anything about British law enforcement but the two officers in here, Stephanie and Gus, didn't seem professional with the way they handled things. They kind of spoke to the guests like they were their friends rather than suspects. I couldn't have cared less about their love story and have no idea why the author thought we needed that considering all that was going on already.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
EVERY NINE SECONDS by Joseph Brockton (Queer as Folk Tie-In #1 of 3)
GENRE: Contemporary Gay Fiction
SETTING: Pennsylvania, USA
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: Flashback to 1989 with your favorite characters from Queer as Folk in this new line of books based on the record-breaking Showtime series hailed as "wonderful" (Newsweek) and "groundbreaking" (People)!
Before they were grown men working and playing in Pittsburgh, Brian Kinney and Michael Novotny were high-school friends dealing with bullies, secret crushes, and their emerging sexuality. Step back in time with two of Queer as Folk's hottest characters in the first book in this provocative new series.
On the eve of Brian Kinney's eighteenth birthday, he and his best friend, Michael Novotny, celebrate a bond that could link them forever if their future paths don't separate them for good. In a few short weeks Brian, the seductive soccer star, will leave for college, where he'll be free to explore the adult pursuits in which he's only dabbled in high school. Michael is destined for a more sedate life in community college while living at home with his eccentric mom. But before their lives diverge, a hot new club will open, they'll go to the prom "stag" together, and family strife will turn their world upside down. Brian and Michael still have some unforgettable times to share before graduation ushers in the next stages of their lives.
MY THOUGHTS: This was a very fun read. It's the first of three in the series. It starts eight minutes before Brian's 18th birthday and he's spending the night at Michael's, as he does many nights. The story takes place eleven years before the Showtime series starts. The time span is about three weeks, ending the night of or the day after their high school graduation. Brian's off to college on a soccer scholarship in a few days and Michael doesn't know if they'll remain friends since they won't see each other much.
The author captured all the main characters (Michael, Debbie, Brian and both of his parents) personalities and got the dialogue down pat, so true to what they'd have said on the show. The story played out like TV episodes and I loved visualizing Michael and Brian as they spoke. We see, even as teens, Michael's longing for Brian. I didn't like at all that a four-year-old Justin and his mother had a brief part in this. The age for Justin has him two years older than he would have been at the time anyway, as there's a twelve year difference between him and Brian, not fourteen.
This has a few explicit sex scenes, all but one with Michael, with the last one being between Brian and his soccer coach, Gary, who's in his late twenties, who he's been "active" with for some time, and I like that he was in this.
SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE by Sarah Schmidt
GENRE: Historical Fiction/Retelling
SETTING: Massachusetts, USA, 1892
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone has killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful stepmother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence.
As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.
I didn't like the addition of Benjamin, a character not part of the true case, and cohort of her uncle John, or what Uncle John was up to with him. It didn't really make any sense for John to plan what he did, he had nothing to gain by it, and what didn't eventually happen was too coincidental to be believable. I do like how the author made it seem like each character except Emma could have been guilty and presented situations /reasons why they'd want to off them. I wanted to see what she did with Lizzie at the end, make her guilty or innocent, so it was exciting to see where it was leading.
Lizzie was made out to be odd and at times, childlike, and she did some gross things like peeked under the sheets the bodies were under and licked blood of her finger at other times, as did another character. She was made to be excited somewhat by the deaths and I don't think I liked that.
FORTY WHACKS: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden by David Kent
GENRE: Nonfiction/True Crime
AUTHOR PHOTO: link
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: The Fall River, Massachusetts, murders of well-to-do Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, are as fascinating to the audience of today as they were to those who followed the trial of Lizzie Borden -- the daughter accused of the murders.
This vivid account gives a detailed picture of the nightmarish murder scene, the suspects, and the frenzied days when the nation hungered for news of the trial. Combining newly released evidence and extensive court transcripts, the author shows why there was insufficient evidence to prove Lizzie's involvement -- and why her jurors had no choice but to free her.
MY THOUGHTS: I don't have much to say about this. It's a well-written and very thorough account of the circus that was the Lizzie Borden trial in 1893, the year after the murders. It's comprised of a whole lot of trial transcripts, which I appreciate having in book form but I did get bored reading them. There are also newspaper transcripts from the time. Are are ten pages of photos of Lizzie's family, including her birth mother, and the crime scenes. This was published in 1992 and I don't know if all of these photos were available at the time but I'm sure they're all online now.
The author seems appalled that Lizzie was even arrested, let alone tried for two murders for which there's no evidence against her and set out to showcase the lack of evidence. Lack of evidence doesn't mean she's innocent, Mr, Kent! The author died before this could be published. I don't like him saying that Abby Borden was unattractive. It was very unprofessional.
THE CRY OF THE OWL by Patricia Highsmith
GENRE: Fiction/Contemporary Suspense
SETTING: Pennsylvania, USA
WIKI: link
MY GRADE: C
SYNOPSIS: This "extraordinary story" (Julian Symons) begins with an act of naive voyeurism. Robert Forester, a depressed but fundamentally decent man, liked to watch Jenny through her kitchen window, a harmless palliative, as he saw it, to his lonely life and failed marriage. As he is drawn into her life, however, the recriminations of his simple pleasure shatter the deceptive calm of this small Pennsylvania town. With striking clarity and horrible inevitability, Forester is caught up in a series of deaths in which he is the innocent bystander, presumed guilty.
MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: It's a good thing things picked up almost 100 pages in else this would have gotten just two stars. I think most of the main characters are poorly written and just awful because of it. The time span may be five or six months.
Robert is almost thirty. He's passive and pretty bland. He's depressed with a past suicide attempt, from New York but moved to Pennsylvania the year before to work as an industrial engineer. He's separated from his wife, Nickie, but they divorce about a month after the story starts. She's incredibly immature, unstable, and out to make his life miserable for absolutely no reason. She teams up with another bad character later on. She's a character who needed backstory.
Jenny is twenty-three and works as a bank teller. She's got serious mental issues. She breaks up with her boyfriend, Greg, who's five years older, and he turns into a stalker who's out for blood. The story begins to revolve around him for over half the book. It's somewhat interesting finding out what happened to him after getting into a fist fight with Robert but was sort of predictable.
There are too many stupid and unbelievable things happening in this book that cause it to get a C rating from me: Jenny befriends Robert after catching him spying on her in her yard one night. She tells her parents she's seeing a married man. He's not interested in dating her but later does. For no reason that I can see Jenny breaks up with him though she's become obsessed with him. She does something bad after that and again, I don't know why. An idiot neighbor makes someone, at gunpoint, give a gun back to a bad guy. What?!
The ending was very abrupt right after awful things happened and you're left puzzled and to draw your own conclusions.
THE BUTCHER'S HOOK by Janet Ellis
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: England, 1763
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: London, summer 1763. At nineteen, Anne Jaccob is awakened to the possibility of joy when she meets Fub, the butcher's apprentice, and begins to imagine a life of passion with him.
The only daughter of well-to-do parents, Anne lives a sheltered life. Her home is a miserable place. Though her family want for nothing, her father is uncaring, her mother is ailing, and the baby brother who taught her to love is dead. Unfortunately her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub. But Anne is a determined young woman, with an idiosyncratic moral compass. In the matter of pursuing her own happiness, she shows no fear or hesitation. Even if it means getting a little blood on her hands.
MY THOUGHTS: This story took just over 200 pages to get going but boy did it get going. The author took her time, too much so, detailing the boring, mundane life of Anne, starting when she was twelve. The synopsis says she's nineteen but I don't think that was mentioned in the book. Her father doesn't seem to like her much and I don't know why. Her mother is always in bed recovering from some miscarriage or such, and she seems like a decent parent, though absent.
The synopsis says Anne is from a well-to-do family but I never sensed that she was. I don't know why but I imagined her in a typical house that lower middle class people lived in that as isolated from neighbors. The only staff was one cook, Jane, and one housekeeper, Grace, though they are only a family of three so maybe two employees was normal for only three well-off people back then. Nothing in the house was ever described, nor was the outside of the house, so I never felt any opulence. The author was very descriptive about most things, especially gross things, which I appreciated. The atmosphere felt gloomy but not quite Gothic to me, but maybe it was. Like a lot of books, all the action took place right at the end.
Anne meets Fub (Frederick) Warner, who works for the butcher, Titus Levener. He's beneath her station in life and he thinks they can't be together because of it so they have to be secretive in their affair. She's taken with him and will do what she can to have him. We don't know how old he is. I like his character. I like too when he told her twice to bring money with her when they meet to go to the fair. He wanted her to pay for it all.
Every bad thing that happened in the last 70 pages or so involving Anne, and that's how long it took for anything to really happen, I really liked, especially the bell tower incident. That'll teach ya to try blackmailing someone. I didn't realize what was about to happen until right before it did. And the fire scene? Great and dramatic, just like out of a horror movie. I have mixed feelings about the ending, as in the very last page. Where on earth was Anne going? It seems like a possible set-up for a sequel, but I just don't think that was the plan. It just shouldn't have taken over 200 pages of a 340 page book to see Anne's bad deeds in action and I wish incidents had been peppered throughout the story.
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