#IReadsYou Book Review: STRANGE PLANET

STRANGE PLANET
HARPERCOLLINS/Morrow Gift – @WmMorrowBks and @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR-CARTOONIST: Nathan W. Pyle – @nathanwpyle
ISBN: 978-0-06-297070-1; hardcover; 6.00 in (w) x 6.00 in (h) (November 19, 2019)
E-ISBN: 978-0-06-297069-5 (eBook)
144pp, Color, $14.99 U.S., $18.50 CAN

Strange Planet is a new book of cartoons from author and cartoonist, Nathan W. Pyle.  Pyle is known for his bestselling books of cartoons, NYC Basic Tips and 99 Stories I Could Tell.  Strange Planet is a new hardcover book (6 in x 6 in) that collects cartoons Pyle posted on an Instagram page entitled, “Strange Planet,” beginning in February 2019.

Strange Planet chronicles the lives of the alien inhabitants of a world that is similar to ours.  They resemble the infamous “gray aliens,” except they are blue.  They share a few characteristics with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or “Roger” from the American animated television series, “American Dad!,” but Strange Planet's aliens are soft, cuddly, and fluid.  They look like leaner versions of beloved cartoon character, Casper the Friendly Ghost.

In a world of bright pinks, blues, greens, and purples, the inhabitants of Strange Planet narrate their emotions and act out scenarios that are extremely familiar to humans.  They throw parties.  They believe in the tooth fairy, but call teeth “mouth stones” and the tooth fairy “magical mouth stone being.”  They call their sun a “star,” so they call sunburn “star damage.”  And sweet dreams are referred to as “Imagine Pleasant Nonsense.”  So relax, perhaps in your “rest chamber” (bedroom), and enjoy a cup of “hot leaf liquid” (tea) or jittery liquid (coffee) and enter the the peculiar, but familiar world of Strange Planet.

Nathan W. Pyle has a knack for presenting the ordinary as something worth reexamining.  Strange Planet is a webcomic that exists in “The Twilight Zone” that is situated between beloved newspaper comics like Gary Larson's The Far Side and Scott Adams' Dilbert.  In Strange Planet, everything is familiar, but filtered through a florescent-colored dream-shake made of Nehi grape-infused milk, pink ice cream, orange “Kool-Aid,” and blue food coloring.

Ultimately, however, Strange Planet is sweet, endearing, and funny.  Through these delightful alien inhabitants, we the readers learn to love the mundane and the ordinary, the things that dominate our everyday lives.  Pyle makes us appreciate that we don't have to have amazing, star-studded, lives to enjoy the small, seemingly insignificant moments in our lives.  Even the amazing and the super-stars (as Jameis Winston said) have small, seemingly insignificant moments in which they can find delight – don't they?

With its compact size, Strange Planet is the perfect (and handy) gift book for the holidays.  That's when we'll need these Strange Planet inhabitants to make us laugh at ourselves.

7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Strange Planet Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nathanwpylestrangeplanet/?hl=en
https://www.nathanwpyle.art/strangeplanet
http://www.nathanwpyle.com/
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/nathanwpyle


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.


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Book Review: PIECES OF HER

PIECES OF HER
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Karin Slaughter – @SlaughterKarin
ISBN: 978-0-06-288309-4; paperback; 5.31 in x 8.00 in (May 21, 2019)
494pp, B&W, $16.99 U.S., $21.00 CAN

Pieces of Her is a 2018 novel by author Karin Slaughter.  It was published in hardcover by William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) in August 2018, and the first trade paperback edition was released May 2019.  It is the paperback edition, a review copy of which I received from the publisher, that is the subject of this review, dear readers.  A thriller, Pieces of Her focuses on a young woman forced to grapple with this question:  What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all?

Pieces of Her introduces Andrea “Andy” Eloise, a 31-year-old woman who is adrift in life.  She left New York City and her dreams of being an artist to return to her hometown of Belle Isle, Georgia.  There, she took care for her mother, Laura Oliver, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  A few years later, Andy is still in Belle Isle, now a 911 operator.

On Andy's 31st birthday, Andy and Laura are having lunch at a local diner, “Rise-n-Dine,” located in the Mall of Belle Isle.  During the birthday meal, something unthinkable happens that will forever change Andy's life.  A young man starts shooting people in the diner.  Almost as shocking is the fact that Laura Oliver tries to talk the young man down and stop him from shooting more people, before she violently disposes of him as threat.  WTF, indeed?

Andy thought she knew her mother.  Laura Oliver is the woman who has spent her whole life in a beach-side town.  She is the woman who always wanted to do nothing more than live a quiet life as a pillar of the community... isn't she?  However, video of the mall incident has exposed Laura to her enemies from her past... because before Laura Oliver was Laura Oliver, she was someone else entirely.  Andy even wonders about her stepfather, Gordon Oliver.  What does he know?  Now, on the run, Andy follows a trail of crumbs from her mother's past, and she has to uncover the truth about Laura Oliver's past if her and her mother want to have a future.

I recently read my first Karin Slaughter book, the most excellent police procedural/crime thriller, The Last Widow, which was published just this past August (2019).  Like that book, Pieces of Her is a multi-genre thriller, so it is hard to pin it down to being one kind of novel.

The Library of Congress catalog for Pieces of Her (included on the copyright and indicia page at the front of the book) describes this book using the following categories of fiction: mothers and daughters, violence, identity (psychology), family secrets, mystery and detective, police procedural, women sleuths, and suspense.  Pieces of Her is all of that and more.  It is like a box of chocolates from the mystery genre candy-maker.  There is something for every reader who ever read a story about a character trying to unravel a mystery – whether that character was civilian, amateur, or professional mystery solver and “untangler” of secrets.

Like I was with The Last Widow, I am determined to spoil as little as possible of Pieces of Her.  After she has her character, Laura Oliver, kill the mall shooter, author Karin Slaughter reveals a past for Laura that is so shocking and unexpected that the readers might rightly think that Slaughter is dealing with a character entirely separate from Laura.  Initially, I thought so; then, I was so shocked at what Slaughter slapped in my face that I hoped the past Laura was not the same as the Laura at the beginning of the novel.  If that were not enough, Slaughter sends Andy on a breathtaking, pulse-pounding, and sometimes blood-chilling misadventure in uncovering secrets.

While this novel does have a few dry spots, to describe Pieces of Her as a good read is liking describing a cancer diagnosis as bad news.  Yes, both are true, but they are also enormous understatements.  If you want to read a thriller that beats your imagination into submission, then, read Pieces of Her.

9 out of 10

https://www.karinslaughter.com/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: THE ENVIOUS SIBLINGS and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes

THE ENVIOUS SIBLINGS AND OTHER MORBID NURSERY RHYMES
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @wwnorton

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Landis Blair
ISBN: 978-0-393-65162-1; hardcover – 7.3” x 7.3” (October 8, 2019)
240pp, Color, $20.00 U.S., $27.00 CAN

The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a book collection of nursery rhymes and cartoons from comics artist, cartoonist, and book illustrator, Landis Blair.  A hardcover book (7.3” x 7.3” dimensions/trim size), The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a collection of rhyming vignettes or stories.  Each vignette/story is divided into multiple verses; each verse has its own page featuring a cartoon that illustrates the contents of the verse.

The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes (which I will occasionally shorten to The Envious Siblings) contains eights vignettes/stories.  They are “The Malicious Playground,” “My Suspicious Sister,” “The Envious Siblings,” “The Refinement Tree,” “The Awful Underground,” “Honourable Beasts,” “Grounded,” and “Danse Macabre.”

I am not familiar with Landis Blair's prior work, but it is obvious that he is influenced by Edward Gorey, the American writer and artist whose drawings were macabre and unsettling.  In fact, Blair holds Gorey for special notice in the acknowledgments page at the back of the book.  The contents of The Envious Siblings can also be favorable compared to the work of Roald Dahl (renowned author of children's books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Quentin Blake (children's author best known for illustrating Dahl's books), Charles Addams (legendary cartoonist at The New Yorker and creator of what became known as “The Addams Family”), Shel Silverstein (beloved children's book author and illustrator), and Tim Burton (director and filmmaker known for his 30+ year career making films with macabre sensibilities).  I would also add to that list cartoonist and comic book creator, Richard Sala, who is far lesser known than the aforementioned authors and visual artists, but whose work is also true to the spirit of Edward Gorey.

I have seen the term “pop macabre” used to describe the work of Charles Addams and Tim Burton.  I assume that the term separates Burton and Addams from horror novelists like Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker, “masters of the macabre” who emerged in the last quarter-century of the twentieth century.  The authors' novels were sometimes both macabre and violent, while Addams and Burton's work is macabre, but gentle and humorous.

I would call Landis Blair more “pop gruesome” than “pop macabre,” but the stories and cartoons in The Envious Siblings are both gleefully gruesome and grotesquely macabre.  They have a kind of absurdist horror to them that, to me, redefines the nursery rhyme, the fairy tale, and the folk tale.  Or perhaps what I see as a redefinition is actually a cartoonist and visual artistic voice that is truly unique.  Edward Gorey may have inspired Blair, but Blair has gone on to create his own aesthetic, the way American blues music inspired The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, before Jagger and Richards took those influences and invented their own sound for the Stones.

I want to pick a favorite story in The Envious Siblings, and I actually think a few of the stories here would get Landis Blair jailed in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes.  First, there is the pantomime comic strip (of sorts), “The Awful Underground,” a sort of Brothers Grimm fairy tale-warning about getting lost.  It mixes a bit of Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak and has a blood-chilling ending.  I really don't want to spoil this, so I'll say no more.

Right after that is “Honourable Beasts,” a Satanic Aesop's Fable about talking to strangers.  The ending is ghastly, just not the way you think it would after reading the first 15 pages of this 16-page tale.  And right after that (dear Lord) is “Grounded,” a middle-grade (not nursery) rhyme about an incorrigible child in a test of wills with his exasperated and none-too-bright parents.  About that ending, all I can say is “Wow!”

All the stories here are delightfully macabre, but these three are the little monsters that stand out.  If every music album needs one great song, The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes has three great rhymes/songs and that makes the entire book a great work of the macabre and the gruesome.

If you like Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, and Tim Burton... and Richard Sala, do I have a book of cartoons for you!  The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a must-have, and its author, Landis Blair is a revelation.  Encore! Encore!, you sick and devious new master of the macabre.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://www.landisblair.com/
https://twitter.com/LandisBlair
https://www.instagram.com/landisblair/


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE LAST WIDOW

THE LAST WIDOW
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Karin Slaughter – @SlaughterKarin
ISBN: 978-0-06-285808-2; hardcover (August 20, 2019)
464pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

The Last Widow is a 2019 novel from American crime writer, Karin Slaughter.  She is an international bestselling author who has sold millions of books in a multitude of languages around the world.  The Last Widow stars the lead character from each of Slaughter's two book series.

The first is Will Trent, a special agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the star of the “Will Trent” series.  The second is Sara Linton, a doctor and medical examiner from Slaughter's “Grant County” novels.  The Last Widow finds Will and Sara trying to unravel the mystery of a impending terrorist attack that will take place somewhere in or around Atlanta, Georgia.

The Last Widow opens with three shocking events.  First, on Sunday, July 7, 2019, Michelle Spivey, a scientist, is kidnapped from a shopping center parking lot one night while she is out with her daughter.  On August 4, 2019, two explosions rock the campus of Emory University, a 600+ acre-complex that is the home of two major hospitals and also government agencies and institutes, including the FBI headquarters and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

George Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent and the love of his life, Dr. Sara Linton, head for the scene the explosions in order to help civilians, each in the way he or she has been trained to do.  However, what they first rush into is the scene of a multi-car accident.  Sara immediately finds something peculiar about the accident scene, but by the time Will catches on to the oddities, Sara is in the clutches of a small group of highly-skilled and armed men.

After the assailants abduct Sara, Will throws himself into the case and goes undercover, putting his life on the line to save the woman he loves and to discover the kidnappers' plot, which may endanger the entire nation.  Meanwhile, in the clutches of an extremist group, the Invisible Patriot Army (IPA), Sara meets the mysterious leader, a man known as “Dash,” who plans an attack that will rock the United States.  But Sara can't quite figure out Dash's machinations, and she is running out of time and is hoping that Will can save her.

I have seen Karin Slaughter's name in book club magazines, on bookstore shelves, and in the emails online bookseller send me for more years than I can remember.  The Last Widow is the first book of hers that I have read – thanks to a review galley copy I received from her publisher.  After finishing The Last Widow, I realize that I should have been reading her books years ago.

The Last Widow is a crime thriller the way that Shakespeare's Hamlet is a historical drama – both defy convenient literary labels.  The Last Widow is every post-9/11 nightmare blended into all three NCIS series, flavored with the police procedural, and a sprinkling of books, TV, and films about the FBI (which is practically a genre onto itself).

I am determined not to spoil neither the intricacies of this novel's narrative nor the ultimate diabolical design of Dash and the IPA.  I will say that The Last Widow is pulse-pounding, ass-pounding, and heart-stopping.  Warning!  Reading it may cause sphincters to clinch.  Everything about it – from the tactics of the heroes to the evil of the villains seems so real-life.  Karin Slaughter offers a scenario so plausible that writing The Last Widow should get her put on some kind of FBI watch-list.

For all that makes this novel a potboiler, The Last Widow is filled with sparkling wit and pointed social commentary from a writer who is as witty and as sly as she is versed in the ways of law enforcement.  Religious extremism, racism, and the Confederacy and segregation are among Slaughter's targets.  Also, fans of her “Will Trent” series can take comfort that series regulars like Faith Mitchell and Amanda Wagner are supporting characters in The Last Widow.

Fans of her novels cannot let The Last Widow get past them.  Readers of the genre known as “crime thriller” will want to discover Karin Slaughter and this absolutely fantastic novel.  It may be the most explosive way to finish your summer reading.

9 out of 10

https://www.karinslaughter.com/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You'


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: MY HERO ACADEMIA: School Briefs Volume 2

MY HERO ACADEMIA: SCHOOL BRIEFS, VOL. 2
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Anri Yoshi
ORIGINAL STORY: Kohei Horikoshi
TRANSLATION: Caleb Cook
COVER: Kohei Horikoshi with Shawn Carrico
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8271-9; paperback (July 2, 2019)
238pp, B&W, $10.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Created by Kohei Horikoshi, My Hero Academia is a shonen manga.  It is set on an Earth where 80% of the human population has manifested superpowers called “Quirks.”  If someone wants to be a superhero, he or she enrolls in the Hero Academy.  What would a person do, however, if he were one of the 20% born Quirkless?  Middle school student Izuku Midoriya has no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes.  Then, Midoriya meets the greatest hero of them all, All Might, who gives him a chance to change his destiny…

My Hero Academia: School Briefs is a new series of light novels (Japan's version of a “young adult” or “YA” novel) set in the world of My Hero Academia.  The novels are written by Anri Yoshi, based on a stories by Kohei Horikoshi.  The first novel in the series debuted in Japan in 2016, and the series currently stands at four volumes (as of this writing).

VIZ Media, which publishes the My Hero Academia manga as a graphic novel series in North America, also publishes the light novel series.  VIZ recently released the second School Briefs novel in North America in early July 2019 under the title, My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 2 (subtitled Training Camp: The Inside Story).

My Hero Academia: School Briefs Volume 2– Training Camp: The Inside Story opens at the home of Izuku Midoriya.  All-Might's young protege is in a state of distress.  He is struggling with his math lessons ahead of final exams, and he has to pass.  Qualifying to attend the upcoming training camp is contingent on passing these final exams.  Midoriya isn't the only student stressed out by studies, so study groups abound.

Even if they make it to training camp, the students of U.A. High, “Class 1-A,” will have to share their training camp experiences with the students of “Class 1-B.”  If these aspiring heroes are lucky, they may have an opportunity to get to know each other and to cut loose.

Before I read the first volume of School Briefs this past May, it had been some time since I had last read a light novel.  I have had mixed results with light novels – some good, some mediocre.  Since my VIZ Media press representative started sending me copies of the My Hero Academia light novels, I have had a chance to enjoy even more of this franchise.

My Hero Academia: School Briefs Volume 2 offers a nice surprise.  I almost feel like I am spoiling it for you, dear readers, but, simply put, Vol. 2 is like a summer camp novel, in which readers get to know the students in a new setting.  Yes, this camp is about training and not about summer fun, but the setting allows for some of the youthful indiscretions that can occur at a summer camp.

Training Camp: The Inside Story gives readers the inside story on their favorite young superheroes-in-training.  Although this novel does tease about the trouble ahead, it treats readers to a look at the personalities of numerous characters from the My Hero Academia series, with the exception of Izuku Midoriya.  After all, we already know so much about him, as he is the franchise's star.

So as entries go, My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 2 is not just another entry.  It is a chance to expand readers' knowledge of the young characters that make up the world of My Hero Academia.  You, dear readers, will even get a chance to enter the home of a wealthy student (Momo Yaoyorozu) and to see a horn-dog boy (Minoru Mineta) in action.

7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE CARTOON GUIDE TO BIOLOGY

THE CARTOON GUIDE TO BIOLOGY
HARPCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHORS: Larry Gonick and Dave Wessner
ART: Larry Gonick
ISBN: 978-0-06-239865-9; paperback (July 30, 2019)
320pp, B&W, $19.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN

I first discovered the work of cartoonist Larry Gonick when I found an issue of the comic book series, The Cartoon History of the Universe, which told the history of the universe and of Earth in the medium of cartoons and comics.   The Cartoon History of the Universe was initially published in comic book installments (by Rip Off Press), and ran for nine issues from 1978 to 1982.  I can't remember which issues I bought, but it was several of them – until I could no longer find a store that stocked the series.  The Cartoon History of the Universe was eventually collected in three large-sized trade paperbacks.

Gonick has also adapted the format he used in The Cartoon History of the Universe to produce or co-author a number of “cartoon guide” books.  They include such titles as The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, The Cartoon Guide to Sex, and The Cartoon Guide to the Computer, to name a few.  Gonick's publisher, WilliamMorrow (an imprint of HarperCollins) sent me a review copy of The Cartoon Guide to Algebra a few years ago.

William Morrow also sent me the latest “Cartoon Guide” from Larry Gonick, The Cartoon Guide to Biology, which Gonick co-authors with Dave Wessner, a professor of biology at Davidson College.  The publisher describes The Cartoon Guide to Biology as “a hilarious and informative handbook to the science of life.”  In words and pictures (cartoons), Gonick and Wessner explain the inner workings of the cell, the hows and whys of gene expression, the whatnot of sexual and asexual reproduction, and beyond, with a warning about “Disruption.”

I remember my science text books as being illustrated by photographs.  I suppose that if anyone dared publish a science text book illustrated with cartoons, especially during the 20th century, that publisher would have (1) gone bankrupt; (2) been laughed at; (3) and been unable to get a meeting with the salesmen, middlemen, and assorted gatekeepers within public school text book sales and distribution networks.

Seriously, it is not just the cartoons that make these “Cartoon Guides” work; it is also the sense of engagement.  The text and cartoons are not delivered as dry lecture or as mere explanation; instead they are like storytelling.  From the development of the study of biology to the secrets of cells and then, proteins, sugars, fats, and more, Gonick and Wessner tell a story.

Readers will enjoy the sections on respiration and photosynthesis.  Of course, Chapters 12 and 13's trip through reproduction will also be of interest.  Those chapters are full of sly humor, with a cartoon reference to the X-Men and some mocking of “mansplaining” the “planting of seed.”  The book ends with a warning about climate change, but adds encouragement for the those future biologists.

I won't act like The Cartoon Guide to Biology is perfect; sometimes reading the terminology can end up being a quick trip down the black hole of disinterest.  Still, if only school science books were like The Cartoon Guide to Biology, at least little, maybe science and students would come together and engage more often.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: THE CARTOON GUIDE TO ALGEBRA

THE CARTOON GUIDE TO ALGEBRA
HARPCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR/CARTOONIST: Larry Gonick
ISBN: 978-0-06-220269-7; paperback (January 20, 2015)
240pp, B&W, $18.99 U.S.

I first discovered the work of cartoonist Larry Gonick when I found an issue of The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form.   The Cartoon History of the Universe was initially published in comic book installments (by Rip Off Press), beginning in 1978.  I can't remember which issues I bought, but it was several of them – until I could no longer find a store that stocked the series.  The Cartoon History of the Universe was eventually collected in three large-sized trade paperbacks.

Gonick has also adapted the format of The Cartoon History of the Universe in order to produce or co-create a number of “cartoon guide” books.  They include such titles as The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, The Cartoon Guide to Sex, and The Cartoon Guide to the Computer, to name a few.

The latest “Cartoon Guide” from Larry Gonick is The Cartoon Guide to Algebra, a comprehensive and also comical illustrated guide to algebra.  On its back cover, The Cartoon Guide to Algebra playfully asks several questions:  “Do you think that a Cartesian plane is a luxury jetliner?  Does the phrase “algebraic expression” leave you with a puzzled look?  Do you believe that the Order of Operations is an Emmy-winning medical drama?”  Well, The Cartoon Guide to Algebra promises to put the reader “on the road to algebraic literacy.”

I am not a fan of algebra, although I once was – for about two minutes in high school.  I would not bother with this book, except that I am a fan of Larry Gonick, obviously because of The Cartoon History of the Universe.  I found this “math book” to be readable, because I remembered some algebra.  I think that high school students that don't like algebra may not have any interest in this book or even if some of them will understand it.

Actually, I see The Cartoon Guide to Algebra as a book aimed at adults that need to learn algebra for some reason.  However, I think that smart young readers and teens, familiar with comics, may also embrace this title.  Truthfully, I would rather learn algebra from Larry Gonick and The Cartoon Guide to Algebra than from an instructor.  He is a good “explainer,” and his books are fun to read.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE GOLDEN WOLF

THE GOLDEN WOLF (The Golden Wolf Saga, Vol. 3)
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Linnea Hartsuyker
ISBN: 978-0-06-256374-3; hardcover (August 13, 2019)
448pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

The Golden Wolf is a 2019 novel from author Linnea Hartsuyker.  It is the direct sequel to The Sea Queen and is also the third volume in “The Golden Wolf Saga” book series.  This book, like the others, is set during the 9th century A.D. and in Norway's “Viking Age,” specifically the time that marks the ascendancy of the first King of Norway, Harald Fairhair (called Harald Halfdansson in this novel).  The Golden Wolf focuses on Ragnvald Eysteinsson, his sister, Svanhild, and their spouses, children, and allies – with King Harald's campaigns as a backdrop.

The Golden Wolf opens with the children of Ragnvald and Svanhild's extended families meeting at sea and making decisions that will change the course of their lives.  There actions will also play a crucial part in King Harald's ongoing campaign to consolidate his power in Norway and abroad.

Ragnvald has long held to his vision of King Harald as a “golden wolf” who will bring peace to Norway as its conqueror.  Ragnvald, however, has also long held to the second part of that vision; for all that he has assisted and will continue to assist his king, Harald’s success will eventually mean Ragnvald's own doom.  Ragnvald is grateful to have his beloved sister, the fierce and independent Svanhild, once more at his side to help keep their kingdom secure.  She is free from Solvi Hunthiofsson, the evil husband who used her, but she is now one of Harald’s many wives.  Soon, Ragnvald will cut Harold's long hair, a sign that the king is ready to put down his sword and to rule Norway, not as a warrior, but as a king.

That, however, must wait.  An old enemy may have kidnapped Ragnvald's niece, Svanhild's daughter, Freydis Solvisdatter, from whom Svanhild is estranged.  Ragnvald's sons:  the gifted Einar, the princely Ivar, and the adventurous Rolli, are no longer children.  Harald's sons are also grown, and now, Ragnvald's sons may have to compete with the king's heirs for land to rule.  This is especially true of Harold's son, Halfdan Haraldsson, who openly plots rebellion against his father and seeks alliances with his father's enemies.  The young seek to begin building their own legacies, and their elders are preparing to enter their twilight years – if they live.  King Harald may be the “golden wolf,” but does he devour friends, like Ragnvald, as easily as he does foes?

In the first book of the “The Golden Wolf Saga,” The Half-Drowned King, Ragnvald is the lead character, although his sister Svanhild is the lead in about a third of the novel.  In the second novel, The Sea Queen, brother and sister are co-leads.

In this final novel, The Golden Wolf, author Linnea Hartsuyker once again expands the scope of her narrative.  There are multiple subplots and settings that range from Norway and Denmark to regions in and around Scotland and Iceland.  The primary expansion, however, is in the characters and in the character drama.  The Golden Wolf is the grand finale in which the characters pay the price for both their ambitions and for the ambitions of those to whom they tie themselves.

I am still having a hard time believing that “The Golden Wolf Trilogy” is comprised of Hartsuyker's first three novels.  By the third novel, we can no longer credit “beginner's luck.”  As a novelist, Hartsuyker is a natural.  In The Golden Wolf, the complexity and depth with which she presents not only character and personality, but also interpersonal relationships, politics, intrigue, and family dynamics are breathtaking.  Honestly, to make readers care deeply about even The Golden Wolf's villains and characters who deserve harsh outcomes (which she often made me do) is the mark of both a good writer and a good storyteller.

To put it simply, The Golden Wolf is a damn fun and fine read.  In singing her praises, I can say that it is Linnea Hartsuyker's fault that I don't want to say goodbye to these characters.  The Golden Wolf is the intimate, heartfelt end that a great trilogy needs to assure that it is indeed great.  Dear readers, add The Golden Wolf to your summer reading lists.

10 out of 10

www.linneahartsuyker.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON

THE CONFESSIONS OF FANNIE LANGTON
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins @HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Sara Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-285189-5; hardcover (May 21, 2019)
384pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is the debut novel of author Sara Collins.  This 2019 historical novel and murder mystery, which is set largely in the 1820s and in Georgian London, focuses on a servant and former slave accused of murdering her employer and his wife.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton opens on April 5, 1826 in London, at “The Old Bailey” (the common name for the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales).  Frances “Frannie” Langton, a mulatto Black woman, is accused of double murder.  London is abuzz with this scandalous case in which renowned scientist, George Benham, and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite “Meg” Benham (the former Marguerite Delacroix), were murdered in their home, Levenhall.  Huge crowds pack the courtroom to hear the tawdry details of two White people brutally, repeated, and savagely stabbed by this mysterious Negress to whom the late couple gave a home and a job after she was turned out by her previous master.

But there is always more... more... more to such stories.  For that, we travel back in time to the period of 1812 to 1825.  Frannie Langton was once a slave on a plantation in Jamaica, called “Paradise.”  Her owner, John Langton, had scientific ambitions, and he was determined to prove his theories about race, particularly about Black people and about Black Africans.

Frannie may claim that she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening of the Benhams' deaths – even if remembering could save her life.  However, she does have a tale to tell, and it begins with her childhood on that Jamaican sugar plantation.  It continues to her apprenticeship under John Langton, cruel master turned debauched scientist, stretching all bounds of ethics.  Then, the story moves into the Benhams’ London home, where Frannie finds a wannabe scientist who may be as bad as Langton and where she also finds a passionate and forbidden relationship.  The newspapers say Frannie is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, and a whore, when she may simply be a Black woman trying to make her own way in a racist world.

When HarperCollins offered a galley review copy of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, I jumped at asking for a copy, especially after reading the cover copy.  However, The Confessions of Frannie Langton turned out to be one of the most difficult reads that I have encountered in well over a decade.

The depiction of slavery and of forced servitude in The Confessions of Frannie Langton is so vivid and horrifying.  It's like combining the screenplays for 12 Years of Slave and Birth of a Nation (2016 version, of course) squeezed into one heartbreaking novel.  What Sara Collins offers in The Confessions of Frannie Langton is certainly a brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression.  This novel, however, offers even more; it is a historical thriller and literary indictment with ambitions to be as entertaining as any other literary thriller.

Collins offers wisdom and insight into the way both the oppressors and the oppressed are forced to live their lives.  Such perceptiveness is revealed in lines like “... 'cause you got white hopes. I got Negro expectations.” (as said to Frannie by Sal, her friend and fellow sex worker) or “The very woman who'd spit in your porridge in the morning could be fornicating with your husband at night.”  As if she were a venerable, elderly Black woman storyteller, Collins has uncanny insights into the perilous and fraught lives of Black woman who are property or who are technically not property, but are really property for all intents and purposes.

Perhaps, we love people because we view them through a lens of being people who make us feel a certain way.  Frannie becomes attached to or falls in love with people who view her as being property that makes them feel a certain way.  In order to convey that stark and sometimes subtle difference, a writer needs to be a superior storyteller and also needs to have a command of prose.  With her first novel, Sara Collins' mighty storytelling and command of prose take her to the summit of literary heights.  I would be surprised if The Confessions of Frannie Langton did not become a staple of college literature courses within five years.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an incredible novel with a kind of terrible power.  This is the power needed to convey the horrors experienced by Africans enslaved in the Western Hemisphere and also by those forced to inherit the status of their enslaved parents, grandparents and ancestors.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: INSIDE FAMILY GUY: An Illustrated History

INSIDE FAMILY GUY: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
HARPERCOLLINS/Dey Street Books – @HarperCollins @deystreet

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Frazier Moore
ISBN: 978-0-06-211252-1; hardcover – 11.5” x 9.5” (May 14, 2019)
256pp, Color, $34.99 U.S., $43.50 CAN

Foreword by Seth MacFarlane

“Family Guy” is an American animated television series and situation comedy (sitcom) that is broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX).  Created by Seth MacFarlane, the series centers on the Griffin Family, which consists of parents, wife, Lois, and husband, Peter Griffin and their children:  Meg, Chris, and Stewie.  The sixth member of the family is the anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian (“anthropomorphic” because he walks, talks, and acts like a human). The show is set in and around the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island.

“Family Guy” lampoons (sometimes savagely) American social and political culture and celebrates, but also parodies and mocks American pop culture, entertainment, and media.  The reaction to the official debut of “Family Guy” would foretell the series ability to continually generate controversy.  That debut (the episode “Death Has a Shadow”) was on the night of Sunday, January 31, 1999 after Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII.  [Fox actually aired an early version of “Death Has a Shadow” on December 20, 1998.]

“Family Guy” was briefly canceled after its second season (September 1999 to August 2000), before returning in July 2001 for its third season, but was canceled a second time after that season.  Strong sales of “Family Guy” DVDs and high ratings for its syndicated run as part of Cartoon Network's “Adult Swim” line-up caused Fox to renew the series, which began its fourth season in 2005.  After 320+ episodes, this past February, Fox renewed the show for a eighteenth season (2019-20).

2019 marks the twentieth anniversary of “Family Guy's” official debut on network television.  In celebration comes a new history and art book entitled, Inside Family Guy: An Illustrated History, from Dey Street Books, a HarperCollins imprint.  The book is authored by Family Guy-superfan, Frazier Moore, noted television critic.  This book was also written with the full cooperation of 20th Century Fox Television and Seth MacFarlane's company, Fuzzy Door Productions.

Inside Family Guy: An Illustrated History is a fully illustrated, full-color visual guide honoring “Family Guy's” TV reign.  The art and illustrations include everything from storyboards to character sketches.  There are script excerpts and cast and crew interviews, which includes voice actors such as Seth MacFarlane (Peter Griffin, Brian, and Stewie to name a few), Seth Green (Chris Griffin), Mila Kunis (Meg Griffin), Alex Borstein (Lois Griffin), and Mike Henry (Cleveland Brown).

Inside Family Guy: An Illustrated History is practically a book of highlights, but here are some highlights I want to mention:

“Drawing on the Past”:
-includes an early Stewie concept art drawn by Seth MacFarlane

“An Unlikely Duo”:
-development of the relationship between the baby Stewie and the family dog Brian

“A Family Affair”
-storyboard for the show's opening credits musical number
-Character design pages, each page featuring 30+ versions of one of the following characters: (the main cast) Peter, Louis, Meg, Chris, Brian, and Stewie; Quagmire, Joe, Cleveland, and various characters
-Blueprints of the Griffin family home and full-color images from inside the house

“The Write Start”
Several photographs of Seth MacFarlane and his family.

Chapter Three: “How It's Done”
a look at how an episode of “Family Guy” is created; plus, lots of character and prop designs (space ships, gadgets, mechanical stuff, etc.)

Chapter Four: “Wacky Waving Cutaways, Gags and Musical Numbers”
-includes over a hundred color and black and white still images
-a generously illustrated look at the “Road to...” episodes and at those mean-spirited by oh-so-funny Walt Disney parodies.

Chapter Five: “Making Mischief”
-Killing Brian
-the episode “Partial Terms of Endearment”
-the storyboards for Chris' “Silence of the Lambs” dance in “Stew-Roids”
-art and storyboards for the vomiting in the episode “8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter”

Four-page “Acknowledgments” section in which they acknowledge everyone (?) who has worked on or helped the show

Plus, there are examples of storyboards from various episodes throughout the book (including a generous selection from the “Peter vs. the Giant Chicken” battles), and there are too many to count.  If you like storyboards for animation; this is your book.

Of course, you knew I was going to say, “If you like 'Family Guy,' you have to have...”  Inside Family Guy: An Illustrated History is a comprehensive visual history and visual guide through an animated TV series that has been nominated for 27 Primetime Emmy Awards and has won eight of them.  [In 2009, it became the first animated series to be nominated in the Primetime Emmy category, “Outstanding Comedy Series,” since “The Flintstones” were nominated in 1961.]

Author Frazier Moore gives his Family Guy-loving all to Inside Family Guy.  It is more than just a love letter from Moore to the series; his love is like the Griffin's family dog, Brian, humping Peter Griffin's leg with gusto.  Moore delivers a book that is worth your time to read it, even if you are not the biggest fan of “Family Guy.”

There are so many different kinds of production art in Inside Family Guy (concept designs, stills, cast and crew photos, etc.) that it may be hard for some readers to pick a favorite kind.  I love storyboards, and this book is like crack for admirers of storyboards produced for animation.  On the other hand, I really like all the art for the “Road to...” episodes included in this book.  So everything you wanted to know is here.  If you can't find it, you may need to look again... and again... and again...   Inside Family Guy: An Illustrated History is a must-have for just about any fan of “Family Guy.”

9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: MY HERO ACADEMIA: School Briefs Volume 1

MY HERO ACADEMIA: SCHOOL BRIEFS, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Anri Yoshi; Kohei Horikoshi (original story)
ART: Kohei Horikoshi
TRANSLATION: Caleb Cook
COVER: Kohei Horikoshi and Shawn Carrico
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0486-6; paperback (April 2, 2019); Rated “T” for “Teen”
248pp, B&W, $10.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

My Hero Academia is a shonen manga created by Kohei Horikoshi.  It is set on an Earth where 80% of the human population have manifested superpowers called “Quirks.”  If someone wants to be a superhero, he or she enrolls in the Hero Academy.  What would a person do, however, if he were one of the 20% born Quirkless?  Middle school student Izuku Midoriya has no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes.  Then, Midoriya meets the greatest hero of them all, All Might, who gives him a chance to change his destiny…

My Hero Academia: School Briefs is a new series of light novels (Japan's version of a “young adult” or “YA” novel) set in the world of My Hero Academia.  The first novel in the series debuted in Japan in 2016 and, and the series currently stands at four volumes (as of this writing).  VIZ Media publishes the My Hero Academia manga as a graphic novel series in North America.  VIZ published the first School Briefs novel in North America in early April 2019 under the title, My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 1 (subtitled Parents' Day).

My Hero Academia: School Briefs Volume 1– Parents' Day opens at U.A. High in “Class 1-A,” the homeroom of taciturn teacher, Shota Aizawa.  He informs Izuku Midoriya and the other students that the school is holding a “Parents' Day.”  Not only are the students' parents invited to visit the school, but they will also get to hear their children read the letters of appreciation that they have written for their parents.  It is enough to make the students of Class 1-A cringe, but little do they know that Parents' Day will be a lot more tense than they could ever imagine.

I cannot remember the last light novel published by VIZ Media that I read.  It has been a few years since my VIZ Media rep has sent me one to review.  The My Hero Academia manga is one of the best comics about youngsters dealing with superpowers that I have ever read, so I was looking forward to reading a novel set in that world.

In a note at the end of My Hero Academia: School Briefs Volume 1, Kohei Horikoshi, creator of My Hero Academia, says that this novel gives readers a chance to read about the series' characters going about their everyday lives.  I have to admit that I enjoyed reading about these characters as ordinary teens, although, early in this novel, I wanted more action.

Writer Anri Yoshi is quite good at presenting the U.A. High kids as kids and teens, and Caleb Cook, who translates and adapts the My Hero Academia manga into English for VIZ Media, makes this dialogue-centric prose convey personality.  This book is aimed at an audience that is far younger than I am, but, by my reading, I think My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 1 is a good start to a book series that will hopefully show more of the civilian side of life in the world of My Hero Academia.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE TALE TELLER

THE TALE TELLER – (A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel #5)
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins @HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Anne Hillerman
ISBN: 978-0-06-239195-7; hardcover (April 9, 2019)
304pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

The Tale Teller is the new novel from author Anne Hillerman.  It is the fifth novel in the “Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito” book series, which began with Spider Woman's Daughter (2013).  This series is a continuation of the “Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Series” written by Hillerman's late father, bestselling author, Tony Hillerman (1925-2008).  In The Tale Taller, retired Navajo Tribal policeman, Joe Leaphorn, takes center stage in the case of a missing Navajo artifact.

The Tale Teller opens with the retired Navajo police Lt. Joe Leaphorn, who is now a private investigator.  Mrs. Daisy Pinto, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum, is offering Joe a contract to take a new case.  The museum received a large box containing donations, but these gifts were made anonymously.  The box came with a list of gifts, but if that list is accurate, then, two items that were supposed to be in the box were not found inside once the box was opened.  One of the items is a, “biil,” a dress that was weaved and worn by “Asdza'a Tlogi” (“Weaver Woman”) or Juanita, a legendary figure among the Navajo people.  The “biil,” if it were really sent to the museum, would be, by far, the most precious gift.

Pinto wants Joe to discover the identity of the donor and also find the missing items, if they were sent.  After accepting, Joe soon finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case that also involves the possible homicide of Mrs. Pinto's assistant, a young woman named Tiffany Benally.  Leaphorn even receives an anonymous warning to beware of witchcraft!  Also, a huge rift has developed in Joe's longtime relationship with his live-in companion, Louisa.

Meanwhile, Joe's former colleague, Sgt. Jim Chee, and Chee's wife, Officer Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito, are investigating a rash of burglaries in a few Navajo communities.  The case turns complicated when Bernie finds a body near a popular running trail, which brings the FBI into the investigation, creating a mini turf war between the feds and the Tribal cops.  As Bernie investigates, she finds the case coming close to home.

I have been crazy about Anne Hillerman's work since I first read Spider Woman's Daughter.  I had read two of her late father, Tony Hillerman's novels a long time ago, so I requested a review copy of Spider Woman's Daughter from HarperCollins when it was offered to reviewer back in 2013.  It was a fortuitous decision, as I have come to view the “Manuelito, Chee & Leaphorn” novels as my favorite current literary series.

“Her father blames witchcraft, and I'd agree that evil played a role.  Not the supernatural kind but heartbreaking things people do to each other.”  This is what Joe Leaphorn says to Bernie Manuelito in Chapter 21, after he has discovered the actual motive behind a murder in The Tale Teller.  Those words also define the personal nature of Anne Hillerman's work in this series and in this novel in particular.

The “Manuelito, Chee & Leaphorn” series has yielded some of the most delightful and inventive mystery novels.  Hillerman weaves her novels, page after page of beautiful and evocative prose that brings her Southwest setting to life in living, vivid colors.  However, it is the color she brings to her characters that make this series exceptional.  Hillerman's books don't simply end with a big reveal, but are rather a series of reveals, revelations, and resolutions rooted in the personalities and in the nature of personal relationships of her characters.

So when Joe Leaphorn speaks of the “heartbreaking things people do to each other,” he is essentially describing the nature of The Tale Teller.  What people do to and for others is what drives The Tale Teller.  They are not merely characters in a whodunit; of course, the mystery and the investigation are tied to the characters.  However, their actions and complexities outside the central mystery are what Hillerman uses to create a larger and richer narrative.

Anne Hillerman makes her characters matter.  The Tale Teller, from its connection to an important time in the history of the Diné people to the dinner between four friends that closes this book, finds its telling of the tale in the interplay of the characters.  And it is hard not to love a novel in which a boy gets a dog.

10 out of 10

http://annehillerman.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE AMERICAN AGENT

THE AMERICAN AGENT – (A Maisie Dobbs Novel #15)
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins
@HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Winspear
ISBN: 978-0-06-243666-5; hardcover (March 26, 2019)
384pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

The American Agent is the new novel from author Jacqueline Winspear.  It is the 15th novel in the series starring “psychologist and investigator,” Maisie Dobbs, a former British nurse whose adventures begin during World War I and continue into the decades that follow.  The American Agent finds Maisie investigating the mysterious murder of an American war correspondent in London during the beginning of the Bltiz.

The American Agent opens on September 10, 1940.  It is the time of the “Blitz,” when Nazi Germany unleashes the full terror of its blitzkrieg upon the British Isles.  During this period of intense bombing, German bombers and the Luftwaffe rain death and destruction from the skies on London and other British cities.

Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe and on the Blitz from London, is found murdered in her London apartment.  News of her death is concealed by British authorities, because of the sensitivity of Ms. Saxon's work and because of her position as the daughter of an influential and powerful United States senator.  Robert MacFarlane, who is acting as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the American Secret Service, asks Maisie Dobbs to investigate the murder of Catherine.  MacFarlane also asks Maisie to work with Mark Scott, an agent from the U.S. Department of Justice.  Scott is also “the American agent” who helped Maisie escape from Hitler’s Germany in 1938 (as seen in the 2016 novel, Journey to Munich).

In addition to this case, Maisie is a volunteer with the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service with her dear friend, Priscilla Partridge, helping to rescue people after the German bombs have done their damage.  With all this going on, Maisie must also protect Anna Mason, the young evacuee girl she has grown to love and wants to adopt.  Soon, Maisie must go before the Ministry of Health and seek its approval for her to adopt the six-year-old girl, but Maisie worries that she will not be approved to be the child's mother.  Maisie also faces losing her dearest friend.  She finds herself entangled in a murder investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and to American political intrigue.  And now, Maisie, a widow, must also face the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

The American Agent is the fourth Maisie Dobbs novel that I have read.  It is also the third novel in the series that is set during Great Britain's involvement in World War II, going back to 2017's In This Grave Hour, which introduced Anna Mason, the girl Maisie wants to adopt.

I thought 2018's To Die But Once was the most personal Maisie Dobbs novel I had read.  By “personal,” I mean that of the Maisie novels I had read up to that time, it seemed the most linked to Maisie's connection to her family, to her in-laws, and to her dear fiend, Priscilla Partridge, and her husband and three sons, who are practically Maisie's family, also.

The American Agent is also deeply personal, but I find that in this novel, Jacqueline Winspear focuses on the character of Maisie Dobbs.  The case of the murder of Catherine Saxon, including the late young woman's history, career, ambitions, and her complicated family relationships bring out Maisie Dobbs ethical approach to investigation, which includes her desire to heal many of the people involved in a case.  In turn, Winspear uses the case to reveal the internal workings of Maisie as she deals with the life-threatening injury to a friend and comes to understand how her life and that of Anna's will change with the decision on whether Maisie can adopt the child or not.  And we get to see the process of Maisie falling in love in spite of herself.

Jacqueline Winspear makes The American Agent a riveting character study of a wonderful character whom readers cannot help but love.  As always, Winspear authors a novel that ends in a way that has us eagerly awaiting the next installment.  Thus, The American Agent is a winning novel, and it turns out to be a perfect starting point for new readers.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE GIRL IN THE GLASS BOX

THE GIRL IN THE GLASS BOX
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins @HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: James Grippando – @James_Grippando
ISBN: 978-0-06-265783-1; hardcover (February 5, 2019)
368pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

The Girl in the Glass Box is a 2019 legal thriller from author and attorney James Grippando.  It is Grippando's 27th novel and also the 15th novel starring Grippando’s Miami-based, criminal defense attorney, Jack Swyteck.  Grippando was the 2017 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction (for 2016's Gone Again – Jack Swyteck #12).  In The Girl in the Glass Box, Swyteck lands right in the middle of the contentious immigration debate when he takes the case of woman who fled the violence of Central America with her young daughter.

The Girl in the Glass Box finds attorney Jack Swyteck on a shopping trip/Cuban culture lesson with his grandmother, his “Abuela.”  By the time, the visit is over, Jack is representing Julia Rodriguez.  Julia and her teenage daughter, Beatriz, escaped bloodthirsty gangs, random violence, and Julia's abusive husband, Jorge Rodriguez, back in El Salvador and now, live in Miami.  After Julia rebuffs her American boss' unwanted sexual advances, he sicks ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on her.

Stuck in detention, Julia must rely on the talented and versatile attorney Jack Swyteck, to free her from and to keep her out of ICE detention.  However, not only is Jorge in Miami, but also Hugo Martinez, another complication in her life.  The bodies are piling up, and danger is even closer to Julia and Beatriz than either realizes.  Can Jack and Theo Knight, Jack's best friend and former client, really help mother and daughter?  To do so, they will have to put their own lives in danger.

I read my first Jack Swyteck novel, Blood Money, back in 2013 when it was first published.  Now, I expect the first quarter of every year to bring me a new Swyteck thriller.  Although James Grippando does publish a book annually, sometimes he delivers a book that is not about Swyteck or does not center on him.

I thought last year's A Death in Live Oak was probably Grippando's most daring and thrilling Swyteck novel to date.  While it may remain so, The Girl in the Glass Box is now Grippando's most thrilling.  It moves fast and is like the prose equivalent of an action movie car chase.  The last 120 pages (Chapters 48 to 77) are pure pot-boiler, except the pot isn't sitting on a stove; it's being heated by a flamethrower.  I read these chapters as if my life depended on it.  I just couldn't stop, and I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish The Girl in the Glass Box, one of the most effectively thrilling legal thrillers that I have ever read.  Holla!

Grippando always accounts well for his lead character, Jack, and his close family and friends, but with The Girl in the Glass Box, Grippando focuses in on what are essentially the guest stars in this novel:  Julia, Beatriz, and Cecilia (Julia's sister), especially.  This mother-daughter-sister-auntie dynamic is a kind of a love triangle, and Grippando delves into the complications that are natural to such a relationship.  The author also depicts the reality that these women are recovering from a traumatic past.

I wondered where James Grippando would take this series after the complicated and poignant ending of A Death in Live Oak.  The Girl in the Glass Box shows that both the author and his star are just hitting their strides.

10 out of 10

www.jamesgrippando.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You'


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BUBBA AND THE COSMIC BLOODSUCKERS

BUBBA AND THE COSMIC BLOODSUCKERS
BOOKVOICE PUBLISHING – @mybookvoice

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Joe R. Lansdale – @joelansdale
ISBN: 978-1-949381-09-2; paperback (February 12, 2019)
259pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S.

Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is a novel written by author Joe R. Lansdale.  It was originally published in 2017 by Subterranean Press in two limited editions – a “signed limited edition” and a “signed lettered edition.”  This past February (2019), BookVoice Publishing released a “mass market” paperback version of the novel.

Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is a prequel to Lansdale's 1994 novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep,” an “alternate history” story that was first published in the Elvis Presley-themed anthology, The King is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem.  The story pits an aged Elvis Presley and an old African-American man named “Jack” (who claims to be the real President John F. Kennedy) against a senior citizen-killing mummy that Elvis names “Bubba Ho-Tep.”  Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers is set decades before the novella and focuses on a (1970s-era) Elvis who is part of a monster-fighting unit.

Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers opens with an unfortunate drunk who believes that he has made a delightful discovery –  a place to call home in a seemingly abandoned junkyard.  What he finds instead is a life-death as a living ball of food for vampire-like creatures from another dimension.

Enter Elvis Presley.  The King of Rock 'n' Roll turns out to moonlight as a hunter of monsters, (also known as “the Weirdlings”).  Presley is an agent of the “Hidden Agenda,” which deals with supernatural threats to Earth and which is apparently controlled by the President of the United States.  At the time of this story, the commander-in-chief is Richard M. Nixon.  Presley's immediate superior is his “The Colonel” (based on the real-world Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker), who holds something over Presley to keep him serving the Hidden Agenda.

Presley is part of a team of eccentrics.  Their is the clairvoyant, the “Blind Man,” who is a white-haired albino.  Jack, of Asian extraction, is the “master planner.”  John Henry is the hammer-swinging Black dude of the outfit, and he has an edgy humorous attitude.  Jenny Jo Dallas is the newest member, and she is an up-and-coming singer and recording star known to the public as “Raven.”  Oh, there is Johnny Smack, Elvis' right-hand man, sidekick, and bodyguard (who narrates portions of this story).  Elvis and this strange band are back together, but they don't know that they are about to face their most difficult opponent in “Big Mama” and her cosmic bloodsuckers.  They are about to get woke.

It may be true that there are no more original ideas.  However, author Joe R. Lansdale is such an original voice in American fiction that he must be from another dimension, one where there are still original ideas.  Perhaps, his writer's voice is the secret.  Lansdale can turn a phrase and pound out prose that is evocative.  He can get a laugh, and in his readers' imaginations, he can evoke a fear of monsters and things that go bump – supernatural and otherwise.

There is an excellent comic book adaptation of Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers that is entitled Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers (IDW Publishing).  This five-issue comic book miniseries is written by Joshua Jabcuga; drawn by Tadd Galusha and Horacio Domingues; colored by Ryan Hill; and lettered by Tom B. Long.

One element that the novel emphasizes that the comic book series only touches upon is a sense of melancholy and loneliness that hangs over the Elvis and company.  The characters seem to be striving for connections, if not outright relationships, but they do not seem to be sure of what exactly they want.  It is as if they want another life, but fear of the unknown hampers moving on.  After all, they don't know what their new lives might be like, but the lives they know well, as monster hunters, is one they really don't want to live.

This internal conflict, a kind of existential crises, is what makes Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers something more than a straight-forward horror novel.  Yes, this is an excellent horror novel, and yes, it is told in a gleefully vulgar voice.  But these characters seem larger than one story, and their yearnings and desires extend beyond each Weirdlings fight.  I guess that they are just the kind of people who can fight Cosmic Bloodsuckers.

So I heartily recommend Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers.  As for the title, I assume that “Bubba” and “Bubba Ho-Tep” are used to denote Joe R. Lansdale's version of Elvis Presley, who first came to readers in the novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep.”  As Elvis or as Bubba, this king is still cool, and this novel is indeed cosmic.

8.5 out of 10

[This edition of Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers includes a reprint of the original novella, “Bubba Ho-Tep.]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: DEATH IN PROVENCE

DEATH IN PROVENCE (Penelope Kite Volume #1)
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins
@HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Serena Kent – @SerenaKentBooks
ISBN: 978-0-06-286985-2; hardcover (February 19, 2019)
352pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

Death in Provence is a 2019 mystery novel from author Serena Kent, which is the pen name of husband and wife writing team, Deborah Lawrenson and Robert Rees.  Death in Provence is Serena Kent's debut novel and is also the first novel in the “Penelope Kite” series.  The novel focuses on an retired Englishwoman and young-at-heart divorcee with a knack for stumbling across dead bodies.

Death in Provence introduces Penelope Kite, a 50-something Englishwoman.  For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband, David, and her ungrateful stepchildren, Justin and Lena, first.  She has also been an unpaid babysitter and chauffeur for her grandchildren.  Now, Penelope has taken early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office in London.  Deciding to do something for herself, Penelope buys an old stone farmhouse in the Luberon valley of Provence, a region in southeastern France.

Located in the (fictional) village of St. Merlot, the farmhouse, named “Le Chant d’Eau” (The Song of Water), is an impulse buy because it needs major renovations, although it does have a garden, a swimming pool, and sweeping mountain vistas.  Penelope moves in and starts her new adventure, but she did not think her new life would begin with her finding a corpse in her swimming pool.

Now, Penelope must navigate colorful French locals, like her realtor Mme. Clémence Valencourt; dashing Mayor Laurent Millais; disdainful Chief of Police Georges Reyssens and Inspector Paul Gamelin; and mysterious neighbor, the farmer Pierre Louchard, to name a few.  Thankfully, Penelope's oldest friend, Frances Turner-Blake a.k.a. Frankie, is just a flight away.  She will need Frankie.  The answers to this crime are buried in the unique culture and shadowy history of both the village of St. Merlot and in Penelope's beloved, but troubled new home, “Le Chant d’Eau,”

Readers who enjoy mystery novels in the tradition of Agatha Christie will like Death in Provence.  It reminds me of those Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (HMM) made-for-television mystery movies that feature intrepid professional women who play sleuth and amateur detective on the side.  Regular HMM viewers are familiar with such television movie series as the “Garage Sale Mysteries” and the “Morning Show Mysteries,” so I think that this new Serena Kent novel will also seem familiar to HMM viewers.

Death in Provence could also be an installment of the classic cozy mystery series, “Murder, She Wrote.”  In fact, when I think about it, Serena Kent may be offering a modern, British update of Jessica Fletcher, the star of “Murder, She Wrote,” an American character played by Angela Lansbury, the London-born actress who also has American citizenship.

I like Penelope Kent.  No, she is not Sara Paretsky's rough-and-tumble V.I. Warshawski, but Penelope does her thing.  Her resourcefulness, even when she is flustered, helps to make Death in Provence a delightful read, imbued with the color of Provence, the character of its eccentric citizens, and the flavor of its foods and wines (which puts Penelope at war with her weight).  Readers should not be fooled, as Death in Provence can be surprisingly edgy in spots.  This is a story of murder most foul, after all.

So the Penelope Kite series is off to a good start, and I think the series will find an identity as we see Penelope Kite take on more killers and more colorful characters.  For now, Death in Provence demands that you find a cozy corner and delight your mystery lover's imagination.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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