THE 'PEYTON PLACE' MURDER by Renee Mallett

When I read Peyton Place in 2015--decades after it stopped being a taboo sensation and somehow worked its way into being an American classic--I had no idea the murder was based on a real case.

I won't spoil anything here (unlike the introduction to the copy of Peyton Place I read) but suffice it to say there is a scandalous family secret in Peyton Place that leads to murder...or was it more like self defense?

Does one crime excuse another one?  What goes on behind closed doors?  Does a community have a responsibility to protect its most vulnerable members or should each family deal with its own problems, no matter how heinous?

These are all questions raised in Peyton Place by Grace Metalious but which were first raised by “The Sheep Pen Murder,” in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.  If you've read Metalious' book, the mention of the sheep pen will be familiar.

Mallett's research into the actual event and subsequent trial is thorough and intensely interesting, even if you haven't read Peyton Place.  Truth is always stranger than fiction and in some cases, like Metalious', artists are forced to tone down the truth in order to even get their work accepted.

Metalious claimed the local scandal had very little influence on her book but after reading Renee Mallett's work it's hard to imagine that is the case.  Metalious plucked the crime from the headlines and used nearly every detail in what would become one of the most popular and controversial books of the 20th century.

I highly recommend it for those interested in Peyton Place, female authors of the past, true crime, and dark Americana.

I received by free advance review copy from BookSirens.

This Is How You Vagina: All About Your Vajayjay and Why You Probably Shouldn't Call It That

This Is How You Vagina: All About Your Vajayjay and Why You Probably Shouldn't Call It That

By Nicole E. Williams

The good things: packed with information but easy to read. Pretty much everything you'd want to know about why your vagina does what it does. 

--There are diagrams and lists.  Dr. Williams (no relation) answers questions ranging from silly to very serious.  You'll learn about the historic origins of some ideas we still have.  Turns out Gwyneth Paltrow and her vagina steaming would have been a big hit in ancient Egypt.  The blending of clinical and popular information is great.

--The author gives easy tips for a happy, healthy vagina.  These include ditching thongs and any cleansers other than gentle soap and water.  Did you know Lysol used to be recommended for women to freshen up their vaginas?  Yep.  Eww.

The bad things: it bothers me when people anthropomorphize vaginas ad nauseum.  Throughout the entire book we are told about what "she" likes and doesn't like.  Who is "she"?  Why, your vagina, of course.  Weird.

--Dr. Williams misuses a few words but nothing outrageous and it's probably not even something most people would notice.

--The one thing that made me stop and question my sanity was her statement that Uncle Tom's Cabin is "a book on the defense of slavery."  And she doesn't mean it contains characters who defend slavery, which is certainly true because the book presents the full spectrum of human feeling on slavery.  She apparently means that Uncle Tom's Cabin--you know, the book many people credit with showing thousands of white Americans the evils of slavery and catalyzing abolition--defends slavery.

So read this book to learn about vaginas but maybe not to learn about literature.  You'll have to read TIHYV to find out why it even came up in the first place.

I got my ebook free from Netgalley.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Have you ever thought, "I'm just too comfortable around children.  I want to feel a healthy dose of fear when a six-year-old grabs my hand or a toddler smiles at me.  What if my instinct was instead to lock them outside and call the police?"  Buddy, have I got a book for you.

If the effect of the twins in The Shining is just starting to wear off, you need to read Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage.  Hanna is of great concern to her mother, Suzette.  Hanna does not talk.  She occasionally growls...or barks...or causes problems so major she gets expelled from school.  But actual conversation, not so much.  Don't worry, Hanna has no problem getting her point across.

Suzette, who has suffered with health problems all her life, wants nothing more than for her daughter to grow up healthy and happy.  But as Hanna's frightening and uncontrollable behavior escalates, Suzette realizes she wants those things less for Hanna's good than for her own sanity.  The gulf between mother and daughter widens as Hanna displays a new facet to her personality--possibly a new personality altogether.

And where is daddy dearest during all this distress?  He's often at work and only sees Hanna at her cheeriest, which is clearly intentional on her part.  She's a daddy's girl and as we find out during Hanna's chapters, her fondest wish is for it to be just the two of them with no pesky mommy to get in the way.  But how can she achieve this end?

I had absolutely no idea where this story would take me as Suzette's life spiraled out of control and Hanna's wicked little plans took shape but it was quite a ride.  The ending?  Simultaneously satisfying and anxiety-inducing.

I got a free advance ebook of Baby Teeth from NetGalley for review purposes.

The Nesting by C. J. Cooke

 You had me at *nanny in a remote, creepy house with a mysterious employer*

3/5 stars

The Nesting has some weaknesses of logic and plot, but it thoroughly makes up for it in atmosphere. There are multiple red herrings and I'm not sure how I feel about them.  They might also just be sidelines that fizzled out a bit.

This book is a solid 3 stars for sheer creepiness and entertainment value.  The Norwegian setting is a huge bonus for me because Scandinavia ups the atmospheric score quite a bit.  If I can know without the book even telling me that it is already dark outside at 3pm, I'm all about it.

We get an unreliable narrator, but for most of the book we can't be quite sure if she's imagining some or all of what is happening.  Other characters certainly seem to be having odd experiences too.  Do we have unreliable secondary characters as well?  Or do we have an ancient Norwegian spirit haunting the premises?  Or the ghost of a dead wife?  Lexi finds herself surrounded by people who teem with secrets, some well hidden and others poorly so.  Is a human being responsible for those bumps in the night?  Better read it and find out.

I got my ebook for free from NetGalley for review purposes.

Beachcombing at Miramar or The Narcissist's Lament

2/5 stars simply because there is the occasional sentence that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out.

Maudlin, self-involved whining disguised as wisdom.  Richard Bode apparently spent his time passing judgment on other people's marriages, jobs, beliefs, and hobbies.  Bode comes across as an insufferable man-child who believed anything that cramps his style is evil and he is justified in everything hurtful he does to other people because the only thing that matters is pursuing your own happiness, regardless of the consequences.  Everyone should do whatever they want, no matter the effect on others.  #noragretsnomesayin

UNLESS you're the guy with the surfboard on his car who passed Bode on the road way too aggressively.  Upon that man he quietly wishes death and destruction.  And by quietly, I mean devotes multiple paragraphs to him in a published book.  But surfboard jerk is just living his truth, man!  He's just living out what Bode preaches.  It's all about ME.  I don't want to have to work but I'm so worried about paying my bills.  I'm so lonely, but I gave up my marriage and moved away from my family.  Why am I so unhappy?  I want a woman, but not one who is human in any way.  I just want one who fishes and adores me and doesn't speak until spoken to.  Like Gauguin's girlfriend.

Yes, as if I hadn't already figured out how empty Bode's enlightened philosophies were, I found an astounding passage in chapter 14 about Tehamana*, Gauguin's Tahitian mistress.  Bode praised her to the skies because she was so quiet and asked absolutely nothing of the artist other than to wait upon him.  This is in sharp contrast to Gauguin's wife and the mother of his children, whom he left on another continent.  She was inexplicably bitter towards him.  Gag me with a seashell.

So Bode during the course of the book, goes about passing judgment on all he sees or has seen and pretending this was how he would find himself.  Funny place to look.  He never seemed to realize that criticizing others is perhaps not the way to finding inner peace.  Actual quotation: " I can indulge in endless prattle about my friends and neighbors, dissipating my life's energy a little at a time."  And boy, can he!  Oh wait, he included this in a list of things he doesn't do.  Did this dude even read his own book?

*If Wikipedia is to be believed, Tehamana was 13 when Gauguin "married" her and was one of three temporary wives he had during his idyll, but that's a whole different issue.  Bode's my problem today.

 

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning by PJ Fitzsimmons is stuffed with Holiday goodness and British charm.  From the drunk lolling about in the pub to the local policeman, each character is full of hidden depth and the occasional dark secret, each of which contributes to this festive murder mystery set in snowy dairy country.

Whose footprints are those?  Who is hiding what?  And why did Major Flaps Fleming appear to his friends hours after his murder?  Even more shockingly, why did he pay off his bar tab?

Prepare to be stumped as you watch the ever witty Anty Boisjoly and a couple of familiar faces from The Case of the Canterfell Codicil try to solve the case.  Will our favorite gadabout find the real killer before Anty's dear Aunt Azalea Boisjoly winds up behind bars for a murder she (probably) didn't commit?

Grab a mug of mulled wine, prop your feet up in front of the fire, and sit back for a good time with Anty and his Aunty, a very mysterious murder, and a surprisingly poignant ending.  What more could you ask for?

Long live Hildy.

I received an advance copy for free from BookSirens and I am reviewing it voluntarily.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

As a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, I am a sucker for things set here.  Most of us are.  We hoot and shout during Wagon Wheel, we at least attempt to tackle Outlander because in like season 37 they come to North Carolina or some bizarre representation thereof, we are flattered (if confused) by Where the Crawdads Sing and its use of our state's geography (who knew quick shopping trips from the beach to Asheville were so common?!), we will fight you over Charles Frazier.

So it's no surprise that when I found out (directly from the author herself) that Therese Anne Fowler was coming out with a book set in a fictionalized version of a local neighborhood, I was very interested.  Therese is always excessively kind in coming to our book club meetings and so we've snagged her again for a Zoom meeting later this year where we'll discuss A Good Neighborhood, the third of her books that we've read.  And we don't just keep reading them because we can have a brush with celebrity afterwards.  We read them because they're freaking good.

Her writing is believable, even when addressing strange topics.  And the characters are complete people with realistic motives and feelings.  It's hard for me to not relate to a book where a character says, "I might could."

A Good Neighborhood does not disappoint.  It hurts and bewilders, and at times frustrates.  But it's a good book with a lot to say and a unique way of saying it.  Like a Greek chorus, a third-person semi-omniscient narrator representing the residents of the neighborhood guides us through this story.  We enter the minds of all the relevant characters and find the sources of misunderstandings and resentments.

This story could easily take place in many different places in this country, but I recognized so many of the things that form our character here.  There is the tension of a neighborhood changing from a modest, quiet place to one now sprouting mini-mansions filled with the nouveau riche while still housing the long-established residents.  There is also the tension between races in a world quickly changing but not always keeping up with itself.

~~~

There is one typo I noticed in the ebook.

A Perfect Likeness

 "Love isn't binary. People say you fall out of love like you might fall out of bed. Love is different every day. Like a tree, it can bloom and flourish or it can die over the course of a long winter."

Love makes people do strange, terrible, and wonderful things. And love isn't always directed where we expect it.

This was a refreshing change to my reading lately. A Perfect Likeness is easy to read, mysterious, and pretty well written.

I thought for sure I knew what was going on but I turned out to be wrong, which was nice. Figuring out the solution at the beginning of a thriller is not my idea of a good time.

Definitely check this book out if you want a good weekend read. It kept me guessing page after page.

There are a few plot holes but I can't really hold that against Renee Kira because I thoroughly enjoyed the read. And I'll let the confusion over homonyms slide as well since she is far from the only author to suffer from the problem. Since the book is already out, I guess I can say that specifically the word "bare" is used when it should be "bear" more than once. It's something I can't understand proofreaders not catching before publication but like I said, I see that kind of thing a lot.

I received a free ebook for review through Book Sirens.

Why I Stayed by Gayle Haggard

I was perusing books on the Tyndale Publishing site when I found this one.  There were Reader Reward points burning a hole in my pocket and Why I Stayed by Gayle Haggard caught my eye.  I vaguely remembered the scandal: mega preacher caught in homosexual, drug fueled affair.  Or something like that.

So why did his wife stay with him?  What did she go through and what could she teach us?

Like a lot of people, when I hear that a spiritual leader has "fallen" I dismiss them.  They must have turned their back on their faith.  How else could they have screwed up so badly?  And for some of them that is probably true.  But what I forget when passing those judgments is that people are weak.  People are...human.

Gayle doesn't go into much detail about what Ted actually did and that's not really the point of this book anyway.  She stresses that she knows the full truth and that the stories in the press were exaggerated.

This book and the Haggards' experiences were really eye opening for me.  If the events are true, and I do tend to believe Gayle's representation of what they went through, then this is the story of a church's failure.

Christianity is about love and forgiveness.  And despite the fact that Ted was evidently repentant, apologetic, and willing to make amends as much as possible, the church he founded turned him out.  Not the congregation, necessarily, but definitely the church leadership and their council of "Restorers".  The Restorers were well respected men from various churches who were supposed to guide the Haggards during a time of prayer, therapy, and reflection.  The ultimate goal was to "restore" them to the church.  But there was never any progress.  Ted and Gayle were directed to avoid all contact with their friends from church and had their every move and even their counseling sessions monitored by the Restorers.

New Life Church, their home for so many years, was not accessible to them anymore.  They were even forced to move out of state for a time.  All these stipulations were laid out in contracts they had to sign if they were to have any hope of being allowed back at the church, even just as congregants.

I don't know anything about Gayle other than what I read in this book, but she seems like a very kind woman who went through a terrible experience.  She has survived and found a new strength in her improved marriage and tight knit family.  Her story is heartbreaking at times but her depth of faith and love is impressive.  She (with the help of Angela Hunt) tells her story without pulling any punches regarding the hurt and disappointment experienced at the hands of the former friends who were so heartless or simply unresponsive during the scandal and the aftermath.  But she never once comes across as bitter or judgmental.

Why she stayed is clear early on and the bulk of the book is really the story of what they experienced as a couple during the years following Ted privately renouncing his path of sin and the scandal becoming public.

If you're curious, she stayed because
1) she loves her husband
2) Christianity requires us to forgive those who hurt us and try to help those who are struggling
3) and most importantly, her husband did everything he could to prove to her she could trust him again including apologies, repentance, providing any details she asked for, and attending hours of counseling and therapy to mend their relationship and help him understand why he found himself making such hurtful choices that went against the life he'd chosen.

Not everyone would agree with Gayle's decision to stay but hearing how she navigated the crisis and the myriad experiences she had with family, friends, and complete strangers who retreated or approached her with support during that time is terribly interesting and ultimately uplifting.

Books and Minimalism

I'm tired of stuff.

There is a global battle against clutter and I'm a willing participant.  Over the past couple of years I've donated, thrown away, and given away more things than some people own.  The number probably approaches 10,000.

One thing my younger self couldn't imagine parting with was books.  But we don't live in a house with a library or extra bedrooms.  We live in a cozy 830 square foot house that contains one bookshelf.  And I'm pretty happy about that arrangement.  I have the advantage of indulgent parents who let me keep things in my old bedroom at their house, but I'm even purging things from there.  So the former book hoarder is now ridding herself of books left and right.

If it's a book I don't love or can easily replace I get rid of it once I've read it.  My friends and coworkers are probably tired by this point of me giving them things, but that's their problem.  Every time I finish a book and pass it along it makes a little more space in my life.  And I love that.

The Snow Whale by John Minichillo: The Whiteness of the Whale

The Whiteness of the Whale! One of the biggest symbols in Moby Dick is represented in this modern retelling in more ways than you can shake a harpoon at. We get white houses, white snow, white ice, and most of all, white people.

Our protagonist is John Jacobs, (white guy) who discovers through a DNA test that he is part Inuit. He leads a less than satisfying life with a pretty sucky job and a wife who doesn't get him or even attempt to do so. It's a bit of a damp, drizzly November in his soul. So in an effort to balance his existence, Jacobs sets off for Alaska to join in a whale hunt with his distant cousins. We get some glimpses of Jessica's shallow life at home while Jacobs is off reclaiming his heritage, but for the most part we follow Jacobs, Q, and Akmaaq as they prepare for the upcoming whale hunt.

Q is a black teenager Jacobs picks up along the way who plans to film a documentary in the frozen North and thereby win a bunch of awards. Akmaaq is the cranky and sometimes mysterious Inupiat who leads the motley crew of hunters. As their names imply, Q is a stand in for Queequeg and towards the end, Pip; Akmaaq is a less crazed and dangerous version of Ahab.

I jumped all over the chance to read this book because I loves me some Melville, but the similarities with Moby Dick are so infrequent and so tenuous that they really don't have much in common.

The writing is insightful and the story is pretty interesting, so whether or not you have read the greatest American novel, you may enjoy Minichillo's take on it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

Rating out of 5 stars: 3 1/2

Barbara Ehrenreich: Natural Causes

You should probably not read this book if you are a hypochondriac or get nervous learning unfortunate medical facts. Ehrenreich shares some alarming information in Natural Causes. Information like: at any moment macrophages, a vital part of the intricate and bizarre system within you which is supposed to keep you healthy may instead decide to betray you and actively encourage the growth of cancer.

You may remember Ehrenreich for Nickel and Dimed, a book from several years ago which detailed her reasons why no one can survive on minimum wage.

But back to your body trying to kill you.

The book is full of truly unsettling statistics and pronouncements. We learn that many doctors only give you an annual physical because you would be outraged if they told you such exams are pointless. We learn that some experts believe that current medical technology is so highly sensitive that we are detecting and surgically removing, or treating with dangerous chemicals, growths that are either entirely benign or would have gone away on their own. Fun, right?

Never believe 100% of what someone tells you without checking into it a bit first. And I'm not referring to the medical industry right now, I'm referring to the author. I would have had a lot more faith in her view if she hadn't said right off the bat that despite being a breast cancer survivor, she has now given up mammograms because she would rather not experience the stress of false positives. She is now in her upper 70s and I get it, that's not young. But to say that you are more comfortable with dying from a treatable disease than undergoing uncomfortable and potentially stressful tests every now and then is a bit worrisome. So while a lot of what she has to say is perfectly accurate and definitely food for thought for anyone who wants to keep themselves healthy, don't let her talk you into skipping your checkups without considering what that could mean for you.

In addition to the sometimes questionable view of medicine, the book ends up jumping around to a few different topics. By the end of the book, it's become about the "self" and whether or not humans have a spirit separate from their bodies. One of the things that bothers me the most when reading is to come across someone who has decided they are too smart for religion. Ehrenreich tells us that the Bible never mentions an immortal soul. And sure, she's not the only person to smugly point this out. But if such stubborn literalism is all you can scrape up to say on the matter of Christianity vs. atheism/agnosticism/science/blahblahblah, then you are simply choosing to ignore the entire message of the New Testament. Or are you maybe just not that smart after all? This is like saying Louisa May Alcott didn't care about the rights of women because she never used the word "Feminist" in Little Women. Go ahead, I have a bridge to sell you.

And let's not forget the fact that Ehrenreich thinks there is no reason doctors should be forced to learn how DNA and human cells work. Call me crazy, but that's something I don't really mind my doctor understanding. Otherwise it seems like a slippery slope to him telling me my humors are misaligned and I need a good leech treatment. What next, my mechanic will tell me to get an oil change or else the gnomes that make my engine work will be unhappy?

But at the end of the day, the premise of this book is not wrong. You can eat a vegan diet, exercise 6 days a week, and still drop dead of a heart attack or get cancer or get hit by a bus. And then there are people like George Burns, a man you can't even picture without his famous cigar, who lived to be 100. Guess he had good macrophages.

I received my copy through NetGalley.

Rating out of 5 stars: A surprisingly high 3 1/2

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The official description of this book is meant to be mysterious and intriguing. Instead, it helped me figure out "the big twist" when I was about 2% of the way into the story.

From Goodreads.com:

"When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.

You will assume you are reading about a jealous wife and her obsession with her replacement.

You will assume you are reading about a woman about to enter a new marriage with the man she loves.

You will assume the first wife was a disaster and that the husband was well rid of her.

You will assume you know the motives, the history, the anatomy of the relationships.

Assume nothing."

So I spent the majority of the book nodding to myself as the evidence mounted up that I was, in fact, correct. True, there were a few more twists toward the end, but I was absolutely correct when I guessed what the big secret was.

You would think that this would ruin the book for me, but it didn't. I actually really enjoyed reading it, perhaps partly because I wanted to vindicate my surmise, but also because it was just plain good.

Honestly, I don't know how anyone would NOT figure this out after reading the description, so I think the publisher should have gone with something else. But judging from the reviews I've seen, an awful lot of people didn't figure it out and were thoroughly shocked.

I found myself telling everyone I knew about this book. I gave multiple recommendations to women who had read The Girl on the Train and/or Gone Girl and liked them. Because that's the genre this falls into. I call it The Girl Who genre. You know what I'm talking about. And it's a genre I like a lot, so it was a relief that this book was so good, despite its transparent plot.

Rating out of 5 stars: 4

I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It

This book is great if you are interested in the history of Liverpool shipping, castaways, or (like me) pretty much anything to do with man's interaction with the sea. But I would not necessarily suggest it if you are not already into this kind of thing.

Brian Murphy has written an easily readable, detailed book about the sole survivor of a packet ship's collision with an iceberg, but it is not exactly action-packed or thrilling. I'm afraid that is what some folks would look for when picking up this kind of book. Personally, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

My nautical reading is usually centered around whaling or arctic exploration, so this is the first book I've read that focuses heavily on commercial shipping in the 1800s and I learned quite a bit. I also don't remember running into the prominent Nye family before. But now when that name pops up among a list of well-known captains or citizens in New England, I will recognize some old friends. I also found the information about Irish immigrants coming to America by way of Liverpool quite interesting.

I received this book as an advance copy from NetGalley. As soon as I read the description, I knew this was a book I wanted to read.

Publication date: September 4, 2018

Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets

Luke Dittrich lets us in on the history of neuroscience, the inner workings of our brains, and his own family's interaction with one of the sadder cases of human guinea piggery you will read.

If you are at all interested in any of those subjects, you will likely enjoy this book.  I received an advance copy through NetGalley, so it was not the finished product. That means I can't really speak to what the published book is like, but I hope they fixed a bit of what gave me trouble.  See the spoiler section if you want to hear my complaints.

H.M. was Henry Molaison, a man suffering from severe seizures. In 1953, a surgery performed by the author's grandfather, the brilliant Dr. William Scoville, was intended to alleviate the problem. But it left Henry without the ability to form new long-term memories. This ruined his life, but gave doctors and scientist a remarkable insight into how our minds operate.


~~~~~SPOILER ALERT~~~~~
If you don't want to find out any of the "secrets" of the book, please scroll down past the random picture of someone holding a brain.

Alright, now that it's just us chickens, I will tell you that I was shocked by what I viewed as a huge oversight in the composition of this book.  Up through the middle of the book, we hear a lot about how the author's grandmother had "issues".  When her children were young, she did odd, inappropriate things and seemed to be deteriorating, becoming more erratic.  But when the author knew her in his youth, she always seemed placid, but a bit detached.  Now, this woman's husband was a brain surgeon, one who specialized in LOBOTOMIZING people who had issues very similar to his wife's.  Often his patients had problems less severe than his wife's.

So I just assumed that gramps performed said surgery on his own wife in order to alleviate her strange behavior and that the author had even mentioned this somewhere along the way.  Imagine my surprise and confusion when we are finally told toward the end of the book that hey, MAYYYYYBE Scoville lobotomized his own wife?!  Well, duh.  This was not a man overly concerned with the ill effects of his procedures, and anyone who has read the book up to that point would have no problem believing he would do such a thing.

This means that I was really shocked on two fronts. 1) Did Dittrich honestly not think that his readers wouldn't see the inevitable coming when he described his grandfather's controlling streak and the vastly changed behavior his grandmother exhibited over the years? 2) Did it honestly surprise Dittrich that this spouse-on-spouse lobotomy was a possibility?

Dittrich admits that despite searching for records of such a procedure, he was not able to find any.  But for a man of Scoville's clout, it would not have been difficult to cut into his wife's skull off the books, even if he used the operating room where he normally worked and had multiple witnesses.

And if you do plan to read the book, I don't think that the spoiler section above will ruin it for you.  In fact, maybe it would save you from the same confusion I felt.

Genre: Non-fiction
Rating out of 5 stars: 4

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

For a rich girl, Maddie's had it pretty rough. Her upbringing was less than ideal and now she's married to a man who seems like a good choice, but quickly turns out to be a jerk at the very least. His main interaction with her is telling her what to wear.

Maddie's husband, Ellis Hyde, was sadly rejected from service in WWII because he's colorblind. This has lead to lots of drinking and disapproval from his wealthy parents. What's the solution for this? Well, in Ellis' opinion, it's finding the Loch Ness Monster! This is a task at which his own imperious father failed and which will bring everlasting glory to the Hyde name.

So Ellis, Maddie, and Ellis' handsome BFF, Hank, pack up and head for Scotland. Once there, the boys promptly dump Maddie in an inn filled with enigmatic Scotsmen and sassy women. While the menfolk spend hours on the frigid Loch with a camera, she desperately attempts to fill her empty days and get to know some of these new acquaintances. For instance, Angus, the innkeeper.  But Angus, it turns out, has a secret!  And so does the Loch! So really, no surprises there. A fairly predictable plot ensues with a few unexpected turns.

At the Water's Edge is a pleasant read with well drawn characters. Other reviews refer to them as shallow, but what's happening here is that some of the characters are shallow people, not shallowly depicted. Maddie starts out as one of the shallowest, but we learn alongside her that there is more to the world than it seems. A happy ending for most includes a brush with a mysterious force.

I obtained my copy for free through NetGalley.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

We'll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down

We'll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger's Daughter

This is the kind of title that gets my attention. The funeral industry is a passion of mine. My grandparents owned and lived in a funeral home until I was about 12 and so visiting them meant hanging out a few dozen yards from a room full of casket samples and a body prep room. When I tell people this, a light of understanding shines in their eye. Ah, so that's why you're like this.

Rachael Hanel's memoir is nothing unusual. We hear about her family tragedy and vivid memories of growing up in a small Minnesota town. We hear about family stories from before she was born. Stories that are sometimes remarkable, but not so different in theme and outcome from stories most of us have. (And yes, her father was a gravedigger. Hanel spent many of her early years in cemeteries as her father went about his work.)

It is the tone of this book that has stayed with me for years. It is truthful and touching without breaking your heart. The story of a family as told by someone who can see the story for what it is: sad and happy and frustrating and hopeful. Hanel understands that our pasts make us who we are and perhaps even more than that; our family's past shapes us in ways we can never fully grasp and never, never escape.

I received a digital copy for review through NetGalley.

Neil Gaiman and Other Haunting Questions

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has this question.

How do you pronounce Gaiman?

It's common enough that it is the very first question under his FAQs. I'm reading Norse Mythology and enjoying it thoroughly, but this is my first venture into the Gaimanverse and the sight of his last name on the book spine nagged at me until I had to search for it through my trusty Swagbucks and satisfy my curiosity. I've heard people say it before, but better to get it from the horse's mouth.

I'm not going to answer the question for you; you'll have to check for yourself. Although it turns out I had it right, of course.

On a side note, Marvel has been completely misleading us about how the Norse pantheon works. What else have they been hiding?

Just One Damned Thing After Another

Title: Just One Damned Thing After Another
Author: Jodi Taylor
Genre: Wacky, intelligent fiction
Format in which consumed: Kindle ebook
Rating out of 5 stars: 3.75

This book is smart, funny, and interesting. But for some reason it took me forever to read. There was just no urgency for me to find out what was going to happen.

Max, the main character, is witty and well-educated with some kind of vaguely tragic backstory. And I don't know quite how to put this, but she was made all the more relatable because it's easy to forget she's a woman. I imagine it would be easy for a male reader to put himself in her shoes because she's neither very feminine nor masculine. She just sort of goes about her life, pursuing the bizarre occupation of time-traveling historian and eventually falling in love with a man, thereby providing some of the few reminders that somewhere under those dusty coveralls, there beats the heart of a girl. But other than her awkward love life, there is nothing much to set her or any other female apart from their co-workers other than their education and titles at St. Mary's (hotbed of secret historical research via never-explained time travel pods).

And maybe that's not a good thing. Because I honestly couldn't keep the characters straight, even Max's love interest. Other than Max it was just a blur of snarky, subversive people who were constantly popping out of hallways and making off-kilter statements.

I know that isn't a ringing endorsement, but if you enjoy smart books about history and adventure with a little bit of sci-fi flavor, you will probably love it.

The Christian and the Vampire

Happy Halloween! Are you looking for a creepy tale of evil and darkness? Well this isn't it!

This is a story of redemption, of good overcoming bad.  There's great characterization, especially of Taz, the main character.  Taz uses his humor, wits, and knowledge of the Bible to try to convert an unlikely subject.  You guessed it, a vampire.

This is a quick read with lots of scripture to back up the message. I recommend it if you're interested in Christian fiction, vampires, or the idea that ANYONE can be saved. It approaches the subject of the undead and salvation in a way I've never seen. Unlike in the works of Anne Rice, the vampires don't get to bypass all the rules.

Look for this short story by Vikki Kestell on Amazon.