MADreads Reviews

Has there ever been a character that has inspired other writers so much as Sherlock Holmes? The world of the quintessential English detective has expanded and reimagined to include Holmes-like detective on the western frontier, an unlikely apprentice to Holmes, Holmes as a consulting magician and the 

Though my imagination is vivid enough for me to picture myself as the twenty-something heroine of every Sophie Kinsella novel, it’s refreshing to follow the adventures of fictional women born in the same millennium as I was.

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is one of my favorite pick-me-ups. I am linking to the latest, Twisted Twenty-Six, in this review but I've only read to book fifteen, plus four "between the numbers" books. 

Jeannie Gaffigan is a writer and executive producer of The Jim Gaffigan Show.  Both seasons are currently airing on TV Land.  She's also a business partner and wife to comedian Jim Gaffigan. She's a year older than I am and grew up in Milwaukee.  I've long admired how she manages five kids and their appointments, activities, school schedule and gets them all to church.  I know this because I've read Jim Gaffigan's comedy memoirs and watch The Jim Gaffigan Show, which is described as loosely (or exactly?) based on the lives of the Gaffigans.  If it's at all true, Jeannie an

Pottermore has made it possible for the Wisconsin Digital Library to make copies of  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone available for unlimited checkouts with no waiting until April 30th.

Looking for something different to read, to challenge you, then check out the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners, which honor books that address racism and diversity. The 2020 books have been announced "The new books explore human diversity in riveting style, putting the lie to racism and ableism even as reading them knits us closer together in times when we must be apart," said prize manager Karen Long. I have included the ebook link for those available in the Wisconsin Digital Library and at the end the library book.

Looking for something to read or listen to?  There are many titles to choose from in the Wisconsin Digitial Library with your public library card. Since March is Women's History Month, why not check out some nonfiction books about women? Below are a few suggestions. I tried to choose ones that are available now (or at least were when I was writing this post). There are many more if you do a subject search "Women's Studies".

Pity poor Rudolph Valentino. No, not that one. It’s not just the name and the visage that brings to mind the defining heartthrob of the silver screen, Valentino also happens to make his life in the film industry, which means he’s forever correcting people in the industry who take his name at face value. One of the few UCLA film archivists laboring to preserve Hollywood’s silver screen past, Valentino has made film his life.

The Pinney afternoon book group recently read the book Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. Most of us knew before reading it that it was a National Book Award winner and it took place in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. The book was a real look at living in poverty in Mississippi and what it means to be a family. As with many reads, the group had mixed feelings about the book. Some people felt like it was a great book. Others thought that it was too challenging to read and didn’t finish it.

Most area libraries have been closed for a few days now and many of you are social distancing and staying home (and washing your hands, natch). And if you're like me your anxieties and stresses are many, and perhaps among them is 'will I have enough books to read?' Sure, this may seem like a minor consideration in the grander, global scheme of things, but for me right now distraction of any kind helps me in de-stressing. I'm guessing the same may be true for many of you.

Bridie Devine - don't call her Bridget - is quite possibly my new favorite detective. A woman who wears a distinctly unfashionable bonnet and can often be found smoking a colleague's experimental tobacco blends, she is not a typical Victorian lady, nor is she a typical detective. As the ward of a respected doctor, she grew up learning to assist in a laboratory, and has the nerves of steel one might expect from someone who has watched many gruesome surgeries on patients not under anesthesia. She also travels with some unusual companions.

White Bird is a stunning graphic novel about one of the ugliest events in history. Set in France during World War II, White Bird tells the story of Sara and Julien, classmates at a rural school in a Nazi occupied village. Sara doesn't want to get her beautiful red shoes wet when all of the Jewish students are rounded up and marched to the woods one day. She's able to sneak away and hide without understanding what's happening.

Lucy Parker never fails me. When I need a warm hug of a book I know I'll find one in Parker's London Celebrities series. That said, Headliners doesn't start out all warm and cozy. The protagonists (introduced in The Austen Playbook) are rival TV presenters who pretty much loathe each other. And with good reason. 

This book is written as an advice letter from comedian and Hollywood star Ali Wong to her daughters to read one day, presumably after they are grown, because holy smokes, it is explicit. This is described as "unfiltered" in the book blurb. Like I wrote in the title to this review, I grew up listening to George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy (one of Ali Wong's favorite comics and someone she also listened to as a kid). If you don't know who these comedians are and/or think they are old fuddy-duddies, then you are the perfect demographic for Ali Wong.

The Lusitania has recently been sunk. World War I is ongoing and the United States is trying to stay neutral. That is the setting for a new historical mystery set in 1915 New York City. The main character of A Front Page Affair is a privileged young woman journalist who has started working at the New York Sentinel. Capability Weeks, aka Kitty, works for the Ladies page editor as an apprentice. Her first assignment is to cover a society party, the Independence Day gala north of the city. At the party a man she has interviewed has been shot and killed.

Alice Vega is something of an enigma to those who know or have heard of her. But one thing that is known about her is that she's good at her job as an investigator and in particular she is excellent at finding the missing. So though it might be unusual to be hired by a police department to look into the deaths of two unidentified girls and how they relate to other missing girls who are being trafficked, Alice is willing to take on the job. Two Jane Does have been found in San Diego and it's clear that they were sex trafficking victims and killed by the same person.

In 2020, we have boomers vs. millennials, at least according to every other clickbait article and meme on the internet (not to mention my uncle Marv’s neverending Facebook posts). In mid 19th century Russia however, it was liberals vs. nihilists. And so it seems that while philosophies and descriptors vary, the schism between generations remains evergreen, immune to time and place.

Don’t let the mounds of crusty snow or the frigid blasts of winter’s winds fool you: spring is nigh. Much like a cranky groundhog roused from his winter den, the publishing industry is waking up to some of the more anticipated titles of 2020, and a fine crop of them can be found landing on shelves in March. On to the notable offerings:

Veronica Speedwell and Stoker are back and faced with an unwanted assignment, one that will help to shield the monarchy from a massive scandal. And struggle as they may to avoid the task, events (including being kidnapped with a prince) force them to resolve the issue and save the world, again.