Mr Perfect On Paper

 I have never been a Rom Com fan but once again if you are looking for a light entertaining book to take you on a romantic journey you can not go wrong with the delightful new book by Jean Meltzer, Mr Perfect on Paper.  

Meltzer reached success last year with her debut novel, The Matzah Ball, a Jewish Rom Com about finding true love against the odds.  This time she follows a similar path with a new young woman, with a chronic anxiety disorder who is looking for Mr Right.  All her anxiety seems to be getting in the way of finding her perfect match and  falling in love.  

Ironically she has developed a dating website that scientifically matches you to the mate of your dreams. It is all in the algorithm ... That becomes the premise for the book.  Matchmaker Dara Rabinowitz comes from a long line of matchmakers and has modernized the art as the creator and CEO of the app J-Mate.  She has created the online formula for lasting love.  Her mother before her was a matchmaker along with her grandmother who may have one last match to make, Dara herself.

Chris Steadfast, the national television and charming news anchor of Good News proposes they turn Dara’s search into must-see TV.  He is trying to save his show from cancelation when he realizes that following Dara as she dates to find her perfect mate brings in big ratings.

Of course this is romance at its finest and the best laid plans go awry.  There is cute comedy and romance which just leads to great escape reading.  So fill the bath with bubbles and get the incense and candles ready and slip under the water for a quiet read.

 

Death and the Conjuror

 Death and the Conjuror written by Tom Mead is a new mystery featuring Jospeh Spector, a elderly magician and conjuror.  In what is the beginning  I am sure of a new series he is working on solving a locked room murder with the Scotland Yard detective, George Flint.

This mystery takes place in 1936 in the dreary streets of London.  A prominent psychologist is found murdered in his home office with all the windows locked and the door locked. He is found by his housekeeper, Olive Turner when she goes to let in one of his patients, the actress, Della Cookson, known as patient B.   No one, Olive tells the police later could have come or gone without her knowledge.  She could hear everything and she let the guests in and out over the course of the evening.

Flint is completely  baffled and turns to Spector to help him solve the crime. Spector knows the people in the theatre and the worlds of the other patients involved, Patient A, a musician, and B, an author.  He also as a professional trickster is good at figuring out the various ways a locked room could be accessed to commit murder.

Through out the book as we meet the different suspects and learn their stories and connections, Spector also practices some simple magic tricks then gives the reader the answer to how those tricks are accomplished.  They are each slight of hand and if read carefully help to lead to the thoughts about the crime could have been committed, or they could be just red herrings, like a  slight of hand trick to direct the eye away from what is really happening right in front of the them.

An entertaining and well conceived idea for a new mystery series and an interesting new pairing of detective and assistant.

Nineteen Minutes

 Every time I think I will not read anymore Jodi Piclout novels, I read one and love it.  She really does a great job with every subject  she takes on.  She builds the plot expertly, creates compelling dialog and makes the reader really care about the characters. This story of a school shooting is so well developed that even  if you start the  novel thinking you know how  you feel about guns, shooters and schools..in the end you are rethinking, open to a conversation and caring  about every character on all sides of the argument.  Nor a new book but still relevant... and a banned book.

I read this book for my Banned Book  Book Group.  It is again amazing what books are challenged, when  students are actually living through these horrific experiences  in school and  the drills that all kids have to participate  in  just in case there is a shooter in their school.  Yet parents do not want their children to read about it.  

This book is very well written, showing the point of view of the shooter as he grows up and arrives at the  moment of his unraveling.  It describes the characters of the kids who unknowingly harass kids who are different not realizing how much it hurts them.  

We meet two mothers, and see how their relationships with their children affect the lives they are leading.  Not really seeing their kids for who they are and what they are experiencing at school.

It is a message to parents to stay connected to your teenagers even as they are pulling away from you.  Stay involved in their lives and try to stay in commuication.

The Plot

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a very well written suspenseful mystery thriller.  

What a terrific book...  dare I say a great plot...  this book has an entertaining storyline with a good twisty ending.  When Jake reaches the end of his patience waiting to write the runaway novel of his career, he "borrows" an idea from a deceased student.  His success is a heady experience of travel, author interviews , book readings and sales. When he meets Anne, a fan, they fall in love and the life seems perfect...  until  it is not. 

Jake had one good novel in him that made the bestseller list years ago.   Lately he holds off his publisher, he has writers block and teaches at a third rate MFA writer's program.  After a student comes to class with a good idea for a novel, he watches the book lists for its publication.  When the book never is published he goes back to see what happened to the student and finds out he died without publishing..

Jake decides to make the story his own novel and it is his next big hit.   He takes to heart the quote that author Jean Hanff Korelitz uses at the beginning of the book, "Good writers borrow, great writers steal."  She attributes  the quote  to T. S. Elliot, but possibly stolen from Oscar Wilde.

It is a thriller, but not a scary one, just a fun, tongue in cheek, mystery.

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy

Susan Elia MacNeal's first stand alone novel, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is an unnerving story of life in the United States in 1940.  This is not a mystery or horror novel, but a story that portrays real life as Hitler was taking over Europe and German Americans who supported Hitler and his ideas were trying to influence American citizens to follow the German example of how a country should be run and  join the Bund.

Basing the characters in this historical novel on the real life occurrences of an actual mother, daughter spy team from California during the 1940s.  Their story is built into the plot of Veronica and her mother Violet, who leave New York and move across the country to Santa Monica, California.  Being of German heritage, they are befriended by a group of German Americans as they are starting their new lives in this very unfamiliar environment.  This group is sympathetic to Hitler and the Nazi party.  Violet and Veronica find the beliefs of the Nazi German group abhorrent and feel strongly it's their patriotic duty to do what they can to stop their hateful activities.

They also find a small contingent of like minded friends, that engage them to help the effort to suppress the efforts of the Nazi sympathizers. The Nazi group believes that all minorities are dangerous to American ideals and should be sent away or killed. They are feeding the public propaganda and want to put America first . They are against helping other countries and upholding democracy.

Veronica gets a job as a secretary to the leader of the Bund group in Santa Monica.  She spies on their activities reporting to a spymaster who is in contact with the FBI, helping them to gather the information they need to arrest the German propagandists.  Her mother, Vi looking to meet other women, make friends and keep busy, becomes apart of the local German social group.  She is sewing and embroidering for them listening to the propaganda speakers who come to their social events.  

It happened so long ago, but many of the topics in the book are so similar to what is happening now in this very  country.  Jonah says to Veronica as they finish a mission to turn in some Nazi sympathizers, "I'm absolutely sick at all the ignorant  things people are saying - in private and public.  We cannot dismiss it because under that rage is fear - and below that, pain.  Letting go of the rage means facing the pain and fear. .."

So perfect an explanation of how people are caught up in these movements and willing to listen to and agree with propaganda that makes them feel justified.

So many times history seems to imitate itself.  An interesting and compelling book.