MADreads Reviews

I started out reading this book in the hardcover edition the year it was published but kept thinking how great it would be to actually hear the Boss tell his story in his own words and own voice.  So, when I discovered it was available as a downloadable audio, I decided to get it and then wait for a long car trip to listen to the book. I am glad I did it that way, because if ever a book was meant to be listened to, this was the one.

Based on a little known plot by secessionists to ambush and kill Abraham Lincoln on his way to Washington D.C. before he could be sworn in as president. This fantastically illustrated picture book tells the story of Allen Pinkerton, one of America’s greatest detectives. From humble beginnings to forming Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency (whose eyeball logo inspired the term “private eye.”) This book takes us on a historical journey using a graphic novel style.

Imagine an Iron Age reenactment that takes place in a boggy northern England wood as part of a university archaeology experience course. Now imagine that you are a teenager attending this field experience with your father and mother and you are there as the Iron Age workers, not the students. The students sleep in waterproof tents, are sneaking off to the pub, eating candy, skinny dipping, etc. while you are up with the sun, gathering roots and nuts, hunting rabbits, and tending to the fire at all times. The immersion week culminates with a simulated sacrificial ceremony.

From the Firefly ‘verse -- the show that was cancelled after only one season, but has a cult following that just won’t quit --comes Big Damn Hero.

Arfy really wants his “fur-ever” home. He invites himself politely via mail to every resident on Butternut Street. Each invitee declines Arfy’s offer of being their dog.  Just when Arfy thinks he’s stuck in the leaky cardboard box at the end of the alley forever, he receives a letter. The mail carrier on Butternut Street is in need of a friend. Would Arfy be interested in having her as his person? Joy ensues as Arfy jubilantly accepts. The illustrations are the real treat of this story. They are large, bright and full of emotion. Kids will cheer with Arfy as his dream comes true.

It’s not often that the best and worst day in your life is one and the same, but for Margaret Jacobsen the protagonist and narrator in this remarkable novel it is. To achieve your dream job and a proposal by the man you adore, makes her believe that a wonderful picture-perfect life is just around the corner. But in one moment all of that is shattered as she finds herself at the beginning of a very different reality.  All of which starts when Margaret wakes up in a hospital and slowly learns how much has changed.

"London’s soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise.

Anna McDonald has no idea of the double whammy that's about to hit her as she starts her day in the normal fashion; getting the kids lunches and clothing ready for school while starting a new true crime podcast. The first blow comes as she listens to the opening segment of the podcast and realizes that the true crime that's being narrated features a former friend who she is now learning is dead and may have taken his family with him on a sunken yacht in the Mediterranean.

It's 1946 and a young widow named Grace Healey stumbles upon a suitcase left under a bench in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. At the same moment, a former British special agent named Eleanor Trigg is hit by a car outside the station and killed instantly. What follows next is a tangled web of intrigue, espionage, heartbreak and heroism.

I tend to read a lot of pop psychology or conduct of life books and when I saw that Dave Barry's new book was about life lessons from his geriatric dog, of course I was going to read it and love it.

I am an urbanite to the bone, I like the bustle, noise and plethora of activities available. I do not hike, camp, fish, backpack, etc. because for one insects (one and all) appear to think I am the best buffet they have ever come across. I am allergic to wool (that natural fabric so often used in outdoor life); at best it gives me a rash—at its worst if there are loose fibers floating around, I have come close to not breathing.

--It’s a very good month to be a Wisconsin author. This May sees the release of three titles with ties to the Badger State. Longtime local favorite Jennifer Chiaverini continues to explore the lives of real women through a historical fiction lens with Resistance Women. Her central character, Mildred Fish-Harnack, was raised in Milwaukee before moving to Germany where she worked as a spy against the Nazis. It’s on shelves mid-month. Madison-based author Kelly Harms scored recent hits with The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay and The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane.

A co-worker recommended Rachel Bach's trilogy to me since she knows I enjoy military SF. And I thank her right now for the suggestion. Fortune's Pawn introduces mercenary soldier Deviana Morris. Devi's ultimate goal is to join the elite special forces of her planetary kingdom, but to do so she can either spend years in the military slogging her way up the ranks, or go mercenary and get the needed bad-ass experience that way. A friend suggests she get a job on The Glorious Fool, a ship that has seen a lot of action.

• A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder by Victoria Hamilton [2/9]
  character: spinster Emmeline St. Germaine 
  setting: Regency London 

This book is full of close-ups of a variety of baby/parent experiences – with babies and parents playing, singing, cuddling, holding, reading and more.  The text is so simple, yet it reveals so much about quality time with baby and how to help baby develop language skills and learn about what’s known as the “serve and return” of conversation. “I love you, and you love me. I talk to you, and you talk to me.”  This is definitely a highly recommended choice.

Very interesting look at the life of Kathleen Kennedy. I knew her name but that was about all before I started reading this biography on the recommendation of a friend. Kick and her brother Joe Jr. had a lot in common as favorites of their father Joseph Kennedy, they both had in many ways a silver spoon existence with a lot given to them materially and in status. But along with that came the pressure to live up to their father’s expectations, and yet somehow also establish themselves as individuals. And World War II gave them both the chance to do so.

Christina Lauren's book is a hilarious story of two enemies who are forced to share a honeymoon package together in Hawaii. Olive Torres is her twin's exact opposite: Ami wins lots of paid contests, including several funding her entire wedding and honeymoon, while Olive is more likely to have disastrously bad luck. When some bad seafood sends practically the entire wedding to the hospital, Olive reluctantly agrees to use Ami's honeymoon package so as not to waste a nice vacation.

Little Women was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 making the classic 150 years old this year.

We're winding down on National Poetry Month so this will be my last entry for this year of new poetry titles.