Boy From The North Country

We read books for entertainment, for education and for escape. Sometimes a book will surprise you and draw you into the pages, not letting you leave even after you close the back cover.  It stays with you for a while.  

Boy From the North Country is that kind of novel.  Some people have actually described this book as an autobiographical novel. It is based on the author, Sam Sussman's, real life experience with his mother, Fran Sussman.  Writing it as novel gives the author room to explores feelings and emphasize where he would like to and not worry about quotes and exact details.

Sam, or Evan in the book, comes home from studying in England when his mother, June, calls to tell him she has been diagnosed with cancer and is scheduled for surgery.  Evan comes home to the farm in upstate New York where he grew up.  He and his mother will go through the ordeal of chemo treatments and trying to fight the cancer taking over his mother's body.  

June has lived a holistic lifestyle on this north country farm.  She eats all the foods that she has read will help with the reactions to chemo, including extremely rare burgers.  Evan will overcome his aversion to red meat, as a vegetarian, to cook his mother this possible life saving food.  

Evan as a youngster could not wait to get away from this life. As soon as he was eighteen he ran off to college and to England to study.  He has been working on a novel that is never finished.  But now he promises to stay with his mother through her whole sojourn.

June has never really spoken about her life or the past with Evan.  She had divorced Evan's father when he was very young.  Over the years there have been a few men who have played the role of stepfather until the relationships became too toxic and June told them to leave.  But June is still a strong believer in the power of love.  She is still looking for and telling Evan the importance of finding true love.

Now as they sit through long hours of chemo treatments, June shares her story with Evan. Talking about her childhood, her time at college and her adventures in New York City.  She was an actress and took painting classes with Bob Dylan.  Many people over the years as Evan grew up told him he resembles Dylan.  Evan has always wondered if Dylan is really his father.  

With this little mystery running pushing the plot along, June and Evan really come together supporting each other.  Sussman writes beautiful prose as he describes the house, farm and nature.  He explores his feelings about losing a parent, themes of love, loss, grief and healing.  He learns to put into perspective the seduction of money, power, and fame.  As an observer you will have a wonderful journey reading this novel.

The Art of the Lie

 The Art of the Lie is an incredible novel written by the Laura Shepard-Robinson.

Though every mystery novel has some kind of twist the reader should have seen coming which leads to the uncovering of the murderer this novel is even more deceptive than most.

The book opens with Hannah Cole trying to keep her small confectionary, the Punchbowl and Pineapple in business.  Her husband has ben found murdered and there is question that he was involved in something illicit.  When the magistrate freezes her husband, Jonas' estate Hannah is having trouble keeping the business open.  Along comes William Devereux, who seems like a gentleman and offers Hannah the recipe for a new frozen invention, ice cream.  Her business is exploding with customers and success.  

But Hannah and Devereux it turns out are not what they seem.  Each has a secret they are hiding.  As they are working it seems to together, there are dark forces working against them.  They are also working individually, pulling off their own illusions and deceptions. 

This is a story of truth and honesty and how being deceptive can destroy lives. The plot is so well written that the reader is surprised at each stage and the ending is a surprise.

Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime

 Leonie Swann has written book two of the series, Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime,  This time Agnes and her friends are off on an adventure.  They travel to a resort hotel when Edwina wins a trip to the Cornwall seaside resort. 

Charlie agrees to treat everyone else to the vacation so that they can escape the cold winter weather and the fact that the boiler is not working.

Of course there will be trouble wherever this group goes and there seems to be a few murders that Agnes and others may have witnessed.  But with the elderly sometimes they are not to be believed, it could just be their faulty memories.

This is a clever followup to the previous novel.  The plot builds as the friends try to find the murder victims and their killer.  Hettie, the tortoise was left home but Edwina finds a boa constrictor this time that helps with the murder case.  We also learn a little more background on each of the characters which helps the reader relate to the characters.  There are still a few experiences that happen in this novel that are quite not believe even with a good dose of imagination.

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp is the first in the new mystery series authored by Leonie Swann.  In the author picture on the back cover of the book , Leonie looks way too young to be writing about senior citizens solving mysteries.

This is another book in the new genre of senior citizens who are amateur detectives.  In this first book week meet Agnes who is living in her childhood home along with some friends.  They have come to live together to avoid the typical end of life experience of living in assisted living and leaving their end of life to chance.

Now the five member so of the house have signed a pact to help each one end their life when the time comes and they do not feel productive anymore.,  in the meantime they are sharing house hold duties.

When someone ends up dead in the neighborhood Agnes leads the group to help sove the crime. Also living with the group is a tortoise named Hettie who in a way helps solve the crime. An entertaining plot with many twists and turns and quite a number of red herrings along the way.

 There are a few experiences that happen in this novel that are quite not believe even with a good dose of imagination.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year written by Ally Carter kept me entertained while watching te snow come down outside.

This turned out to be a cute entertaining book to read in the snowstorm.  This must be a new genre of mysteries that include a romance while solving the crime.  Mystery Romance.... two mystery authors are invited to a country house for Christmas.  They do not know who invited them, and when they find out the aother has been invited the tension begins.  They start out by always arguing and then of course join forces when the hostess goes missing and murders are being attempted.  Can they solve the crime together and also fall in love under the mistletoe before the ending?  

This book is all about misunderstanding and finding self confidence.   Maggie had a difficult, lonely childhood and she filled the hole in her life with mystery novels written by Eleanor Ashley.  She grows to become a mystery author herself. 

Ethan seems to be the perfect man, handsome, self assured and all the women love him. He is also a writer of mystery novels. When there is a contest for the best author they are in the running against each other and Ethan wins. Maggie hates him. She creates an image of him without really knowing the man. 

Now they are thrown together in this country house during a snowstorm, the roads are closed and then the power goes out.  Someone is trying to kill the host .

Maggie and Ethan join forces and oof course what starts as competition and arguments turns to agreement and working together ... is love in the air?

Julia : A Novel Inspired by the Life of Julia Child

 Julia : A Novel Inspired by the Life of Julia Child written Heather B Moore was a fascinating book.

Having watched Julia Child cooking on Public television during my childhood she was already an icon in my mind.  Reading about her life and road that led her to the television studio was amazing.

This book was well written, taking you into Julia's world and describing her feelings and thoughts as she leaves home starting a new life working for the war effort during turbulent times in our history.  Her path took many twists and turns before she ever even found her way to our living rooms .  Meeting Paul Child is described in such a sweet innocent way.  She was not the forceful woman that came across on the screen.  Her fondness for French food which led her to cooking school.  The friends she made in France who wrote a cookbook and taught cooking classes with her.  These and other experiences are described in the book in great detail.  

The reader really gets to know Julia in an intimate way.

The Carpool Detectives

What an amazing book, The Carpool Detectives written by Chuck Hogan follows four women as they break wide open a cold case in California. 

Four young mothers who are finding their lives a little stale come together to investigate a cold case they saw in a newsreel.  Marissa, Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole meet at a school function and decide to use their varied special strengths to start looking into a car that has turned up at the bottom of steep ravine with two dead bodies. 

The women whose children are becoming more independent, are feeling useless and decide this will be a way to feel productive again.  They start going through old news stories and making phone calls finding out that 10 years ago a couple went missing along with a million dollars and closed up the family business. Then their bodies were found in the crashed car. The two people are now victims instead of thieves.  Then the case went cold and police stopped investigating.

The women with no law enforcement background, interested in journalism, start looking at old newspaper clippings, looking through old police files and meeting with a policeman willing to give them a little information that keeps them moving the investigation further ahead.  At times it gets dangerous but they are determined too find the answers that have alluded the law for so long.

This is a true story that reads like a crime novel.  A fascinating story of some very impressive ladies.