The Thirteenth Circle

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by MarcyKate Connolly and Kathryn Holmes
First sentence: “There was an alien in Cat Mulvaney’s bedroom.”
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Content: There are some intense moments. It’s in the Middle Grade section of the bookstore.

Dani desperately wants her parents to take her interest in science seriously. Cat desperately wants her father to pay attention to her. And so both need to win the McMurray Youth Science competition and get into ScienceU. The problem: they’re working together and Cat wants to prove that aliens exist, and Dani knows that they don’t. It just so happens that every 13 years crop circles appear in a nearby field, and they’re due to appear this year. And Cat’s figured out when and where. All they have to do is gather evidence… and see whose theory is the solid one.

It’s a mild spoiler to say that this is solidly realistic fiction; there are, in fact, no aliens. But, Dani and Cat do uncover a conspiracy and they do end up realizing that working together is better than working against each other. I liked this one well enough; I liked how Dani and Cat would gather evidence and then work out hypotheses based on the evidence. It was unbelievable how much time these 13-year-olds spent running around the town late at night, but I can forgive that. And the whole conspiracy was a bit over the top, though it fit the story.

Will it be my favorite book this year? No, but it’s a good one.

Slow Dance

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by Rainbow Rowell
First sentence: “The wedding invitation came, and Shiloh said yes, of course she’d be there.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There was swearing, including several f-bombs, as well as on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

In high school, it was always Shiloh-and-Cary-and-Mike. They were always together, and everyone assumed that Shiloh and Cary were together. But they weren’t. They were just friends. And now, 14 years after they last saw each other, after Shiloh has been married and divorced and had two kids, Cary is back in her life. They re-met at Mike’s second marriage, back in Omaha – Shiloh never left, actually – and tried to pick up where they left off. There were some false starts and miscommunication, but in the end, and despite everything else going on in their lives, it was just too good – too right – to be back in each other’s orbit again.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed this. I connected with the characters — it’s set in 2006, when they were 33 (I was 34 that year) — and the situations they found themselves in. I liked Shiloh and Carey, even when they weren’t communicating well, or Shiloh was acting anxious, or just everything. On the other hand, this was very slow and very mundane. There wasn’t a lot of what a reader would expect out of a romance in it. Even a second-chance one. There was no third-act fallout, there was very little conflict or tension. And while I liked the thoughtful, reflective quality of a book, it’s not really what readers have come to expect out of something billed as romance.

Is this a book for everyone? Probably not. But I enjoyed it.

Audiobook: That Prince is Mine

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by Jayci Lee
Read by Olivia Song
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of on-page, somewhat explicit sex as well as swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Emma Yoon only wants two things to be happy: to open her culinary school and to have her godmother, a Korean matchmaker, arrange a marriage for her. She doesn’t believe in love matches – her parents had one that failed spectacularly – and she trusts that her godmother will find someone perfect for her. On the other hand, is Prince Michele Chevalier – the crown prince of some small European country – doesn’t want an arranged marriage, and so he’s in LA as a visiting professor to find someone to fall in love with so he can take her home and live happily ever after.

Of course, they have a meet-cute and of course, they fall in love despite Emma’s misgivings.

It’s a cute enough book, and the narrator does a decent job, but I found it annoying. Mostly because it was so repetitive. Lee lays out at the beginning that Emma doesn’t want a love match, that she needs to use her godmother’s matchmaking services because only Emma can help save her business and that Michele needs to find someone that he’s Compatible with and can Love Forever. That’s all fine and good. The problem is that Lee needs to tell us these facts Every. Single. Chapter. It got really old really fast. And, honestly, while I was entertained by the book, that one issue kind of dampened my enjoyment. I honestly didn’t feel any chemistry between the main characters, and it all just kind of fell flat.

I wanted to enjoy this one a lot more than I actually did, which is too bad.

Operation: Happy

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by Jenni L. Walsh
First sentence: “A dog is at the top of my wish list.”
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Content: There are some intense moments – bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor, and an attempted assault – though it is short and age-appropriate. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Jody is the daughter of a Marine, who is stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1940. If you know history, you know where this is going. The book is divided into two: before the attack, where Jody is enjoying living in Hawaii and having her family around, and then after, when she, her mom, and her sister are evacuated to San Francisco, dealing with the aftermath of the attack.

It’s a slim book to handle all that’s in there, but Walsh handles it quite beautifully. As a reader, you get a sense of the idyllic Hawaiian life before the attacks, how Jody loves spending time with her dog and her family. And then the intensity of the attacks and the spiral afterward, when Jody’s mom becomes overwhelmed and depressed and Jody and her sister have to figure out how to deal with creating a livable life for themselves in San Francisco. And I appreciate that while Walsh didn’t sugarcoat the panic or the fear, she made it age-appropriate.

The only thing I didn’t get was the purpose of the chapters written from the dog’s perspective. While it never veered into speculative, I didn’t feel like they added much to the story. But, aside from that, it’s a charming historical novel that addresses some intense subjects.

Unstuck

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by Barbara Dee
First sentence: “Okay, here we go.”
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Content: There is some friendship drama, anxiety depictions, and mild crushing. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Lyla loves to write. She’s got a whole novel inside her head, and when her ELA class comes to a creative writing unit, she’s super excited. The excitement only intensifies when her teacher mentions a short-story contest that gives actual money prizes. Lyla just knows she can win this. Except, when the time comes, Lyla is paralyzed. She can’t put anything down on paper. And it seems like external pressures – the fight she’s having with her best friend and the secrets she’s keeping for her older sister – are just making her even more anxious.

On the one hand, the fact that this was about something simple – Lyla’s inability to write the story in her head on paper – was quite refreshing. Her parents were loving, if a bit helecopter-y; she was having friend trouble, but it wasn’t all-consuming; her sister was having problems motivating herself to go to college – nothing life-shattering. It all felt very normal and authentic. That said, it was also often very anxiety-inducing. (Which is probably a sign of good writing.) I had to put it down quite a bit because I just couldn’t handle Lyla’s anxiety spirals. But, she does learn coping mechanisms, and she does learn to accept things and communicate her feelings, so in the end, I think the depictions of anxiety were a good thing. They were just hard to read.

I did really like this one, in the end. It’s good for kids who are thinking about being writers, or ones who just like good stories.

Audiobook: Soul of an Octopus

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by Sy Montgomery
Read by the author
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There’s probaby not a lot that’s questionable, content-wise. It’s in the science section of the bookstore.

I’ve seen this book around for years, and have even given it as a gift a couple of times, but have never read it. There was a sale at Libro.fm recently (Independent Bookstore Day, maybe?) and this was on sale, so I picked it up. I figured it might be a good listen while we were on vacation. (The kids nixed that; they said she sounded overly enamored with the octopuses.)

This is Montgomery’s exploration of octopuses. That’s really the best summary. It’s not a history, it’s not a true scientific exploration. No, Montgomery got to know several octopuses at the New England aquarium, and she was interested in knowing more about them. Not just the way they interact with humans, but how they act in the wild and how they process information. It’s kind of a memoir, since it’s her experiences, though she does talk to scientists and gets to know the director of the aquarium. Mostly, though, it’s her Thoughts and Experiences With Octopuses.

And it was interesting. She was a very amenable reader, though once my kids mentioned that she sounded overly enamored with the octopuses, I couldn’t unhear that. She does love the animals, and that comes through. I liked the depictions of interactions she had with the animals, and even though I felt like she anthropomorphized them, maybe they really did have the feelings/emotions/reactions that she attributed to them. I am a little conflicted about the way aquariums get their animals (I don’t know why I didn’t think they were taking them from the wild), but other than that, I enjoyed this one.

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

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by Judi Dench and with Brendan O’Hea
First sentence: “This was never meant to be a book.”
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Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It’s in the Shakespeare section of the bookstore.

First off: Dame Judi has been in a LOT of Shakespeare plays. This book is a play-by-play, role-by-role breakdown of all the plays (many of the plays?) that she has been in in her 60 years of acting. Which is a long time. It’s a conversation between her and Brendan O’Hea, as they go through each role, and talk about motivations, memories, and thoughts about each play.

It’s a fascinating book, but it’s a LOT of book. She’s been in a LOT of plays, and she has Thoughts about them. While I was reading it, I was fascinated by it all. But, I could only read a chapter a day, so it took me a long time to get through the book. I almost would have rather seen this as a documentary, but I did appreciate her thoughts. It’s more acting-focused, because she’s an actor (obviously), but I appreciated her thoughts on the words and the plays. Her memory is remarkable, and she has been around the block several times, so she has some worthwhile things to say.

So: worthwhile, but take it in small chunks.

Audiobook The Unwedding

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by Ally Condie
Read by Christine Lakin
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some mild swearing and mention of murders. It’s in the mystery section of the bookstore.

The life Ellory thought she had has completely fallen apart. Her husband filed for divorce after almost 20 years of marriage, and nothing has been right since. They had planned on going to a resort in Big Sur for their anniversary, but it’s non-refundable, so Ellory finds herself there alone. There’s a wedding scheduled for the weekend, and when Ellory finds the groom dead in the resort pool, things turn dark. Add to that, a rainstorm and a mudslide trapping all the guests there, and then another guest is murdered, things become desperate. The question is whether they can figure out who the murderer is before they strike again.

I wanted to like this one so much more than I actually did. My biggest problem? Ellory was so sad. So much sad. All the sad. Every chance she got she was “I miss my husband” and “I miss my kids” and “oh noes, my life is worthless now”. All of which I get: her divorce came out of the blue and she is mourning it, but in what has been billed as a thriller, it’s very distracting. Which, also: this really isn’t a thriller. I never felt like anyone’s life was truly in jeopardy, and while Ellory was trying to figure the mystery out, she didn’t actually solve it (but she also kind of did?). I was also hoping for a grand sense of place – we didn’t get to Big Sur on our recent California vaction, but I wanted to feel like I was there. But, no. I finished this one because I kept hoping it would get better (it didn’t) and the narrator kept me engaged (she was quite excellent).

I’m sure Condie still has some good stories left in her, but this one wasn’t it. Disappointing.

Painting the Game

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by Patricia MacLachlan
First sentence: “I am young, four years old, when it first happens.”
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Content: It’s a slim book with lots of white space. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but I could see it going younger.

Lucy’s dad is a minor league baseball pitcher, hoping to be called up to the majors. She’s always been into baseball, but never had enough courage to pitch in her after-school games. But she has been practicing in the mornings, and maybe she’ll be able to pitch a game. And then, maybe she’ll be able to perfect her father’s specialty: the knuckleball.

There’s a couple of side plots with her parents: her mother opens up an art show, and her dad comes back from where he lives while he’s playing, but mostly it’s about Lucy’s determination to become a pitcher.

I don’t mind a low-stakes middle grade book. There’s not much to this one, either with plot or with words, but that’s okay. Lucy has a goal, she works toward it, and she succeeds at pitching a game as well as pitching a knuckleball. It’s nice. But that’s really all it is. Nice. The thing about nice books is that they really don’t have means to soar. There’s no real conflict so that the resolution doesn’t feel earned. But that’s okay: there’s some girl out there who wants to be a baseball player and she will find this book, and it will make her happy.

And that’s all that really matters.

Brightly Shining

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by Ingvild Rishøi (Author,  Caroline Waight (Translator)
First sentence: “Sometimes I think about Toyen.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: November 19, 2024
Content: There are four instances of the f-bomb, and some very bad parenting. It will be in the Christmas section of the bookstore.

Melissa and Ronja’s father can’t seem to hold a job. When he’s sober, things are going well, but all too often, he falls off the wagon and into the bottle again. This time, after he gets a job at a Christmas tree lot and ends up drinking again, Melissa decides to take matters into her own hands. She bargains with the miserly lot owner to take on her father’s job for him (and work off the big advance he took). That leaves Ronja alone, but she’s unhappy that way. So, she joins Melissa at the lot. Everything goes well… until it doesn’t.

Much like the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Little Match Girl”, this one is hopelessly sad. It’s a reminder that not everyone gets magical Christmases and that there are those for whom the holiday is not wonderful. (And that some of those people are children.) There are brief moments of hope, and Ronja narrating the book helps, but it’s really just… sad.

The writing is gorgeous, though, and Rishoi knows how to be evocative. But, mostly, this was a bleak Christmas tale. Maybe it’s a reminder to be thankful you’re not spending your Christmas Eve under a tree in a tree lot, in the middle of a storm, with a drunk father who doesn’t even bother to come and find you.

So very sad.