Author: Lisa Fieder
Genre: Young Adult / Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2019
Pages: 304
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: In 1965 seventeen-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways - the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus, where among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life.
Fifty years later, Victoria's sixteen-year-old granddaughter Callie is thriving. A gifted and focused tightrope walker dreams of being a VanDrexel high wire legend just like her grandmother, Callie can't imagine herself anywhere but the circus. But when Callie's mother accepts her dream job at an animal sanctuary in Florida just months after Victoria's death, Callie is forced to leave her lifelong home behind.
Feeling unmoored and out of her element, Callie pores over memorabilia from her family's days on the road, including a box that belonged to Victoria when she was Callie's age. In the box, Callie finds notes that Victoria wrote to herself with tips and tricks for navigating her new world. Inspired by this piece of her grandmother's life, Callie decides to use Victoria's circus prowess to navigate the uncharted waters of public high school.
Across generations, Victoria and Callie embrace the challenges of starting over, letting go, and finding new families in unexpected places.
Review: Language and alluded sex make this young adult; but the writing and story would be appropriate for the middle grades. I don't know who this would appeal to as a result.
This is yet another novel written in alternating past and present timelines. Not surprising I was more into the 1965 timeline, rather than present day, and I'd love to read an adult version of that story by itself.
Author: Lois P. Frankel
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2010
Pages: 268
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: If you work nonstop without a break...worry about offending others and back down too easily...explain too much when asked for information...or "poll" your friends and colleagues before making a decision, chances are you have been bypassed for promotions and ignored when you expressed your ideas. Although you may not be aware of it, girlish behaviors such as these are sabotaging your career!
Dr. Lois Frankel reveals why some women roar ahead in their careers while others stagnate. She's spotted a unique set of behaviors - 101 in all - that women learn in girlhood that sabotage them as adults. Now, in this groundbreaking guide, she helps you eliminate these unconscious mistakes that could be holding you back - and offers invaluable coaching tips you can easily incorporate into your social and business skills. If you recognize the behaviors that say "girl" not "woman," the results with pay off in career opportunities you never thought possible - and in an image that identifies you as someone with the power and know-how to occupy the corner office.
Review: My supervisor brought this book up in one of my 1:1 reviews with her. I took it as a not-so-subtle sign that I should read this. It's a quick read, and while I think I'm on the right track in many ways, there a few roadblocks. I took notes where I thought my "weaknesses" are. The author calls out each way women sabotage their career, but also provides coaching tips.
Author: Daniel Stashower
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2014
Pages: 368
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: In February of 1861, just days before he assumed the presidency, Abraham Lincoln faced a "clear and fully-matured" threat of assassination as he traveled by train from Springfield to Washington for this inauguration. Over a period of thirteen days the legendary detective Allan Pinkerton worked feverishly to detect and thwart the plot, assisted by a captivating young widow named Kate Warne, America's first female private eye.
As Lincoln's train rolled inexorably toward "the seat of danger," Pinkerton struggled to unravel the ever-changing details of the murder plot, even as he contended wit the intractability of Lincoln and his advisers, who refused to believe threat the danger was real. With time running out Pinkerton took a desperate gamble, staking Lincoln's life - and the future of the nation - on a "perilous feint" that seemed to offer the only chance that Lincoln would survive to become president. Shrouded in secrecy - and, later mired in controversy - the story of the "Baltimore Plot" is one of the great untold stales of the Civil War era, the Stashower has crafted this spellbinding historical narrative with the pace and urgency of a race-against-the-clock thriller.
Review: The Baltimore Plot may have been riveting, but this book was not. There was so much filler information about Allan Pinkerton, the key players in the supposed plot, and insignificant details. Experts can't even be sure there was a plot to assassinate Lincoln prior to his assuming the presidency, although it's not implausible.
The most interesting part of the novel was the epilogue in which "what happened next," the United State and key players, post 1861 were discussed. I'm just glad it's over.
The author interview at the end of the audio book was interesting. I enjoyed that piece.
Author: Heidi Perks
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: It all started at the school fair.
Charlotte was supposed to be looking after the children, and she swears she was. She only took her eyes off of them for one second. But when her three kids are all safe and sound at the school fair, and Alice, her best friend Harriet's daughter, is nowhere to be found, Charlotte panics. Frantically searching everywhere, Charlotte knows she must find the courage to tell Harriet that her beloved only child is missing. And admit that she has only herself to blame.
Harriet, devastated by this unthinkable, unbearable loss, can no longer bring herself to speak to Charlotte again, much less trust her. Now more isolated than ever and struggling to keep her marriage afloat, Harriet believes nothing and no one. But as the police bear down on both women trying to piece together the puzzle of what happened to this little girl, dark secrets being to surface - and Harriet discovers that confiding in Charlotte may be the only thing that will reunite her with her daughter.
Review: If I would have been able to carve out a chunk of a few hours this weekend, this would have been a one-day read, but alas, life took over - soccer, swim classes, typical "mom" stuff. When I wasn't reading, these characters were on my mind.
I took a break from thrillers for a bit, but this was a great one to welcome me back into that genre. It was emotionally draining and a nail biter, but worth it, of course.
Author: Ben Folds
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as "Brick," "You Don't Know Me," "Rockin' the Suburbs," and "The Luckiest," and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he's an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with wry observations of a natural storyteller.
In the title chapter, "A Dream about Lightning Bugs," Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream - and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In "Measure Twice, Cut Once," he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In "Hall Pass" he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in "Cheap Lessons" he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way - but luckily didn't kill him.
In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you've got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds.
Review: So, I had no idea who Ben Folds was (is) when I picked up this book, but what a fun read. Loved it. Some parts were laugh out loud funny. Thoroughly enjoyable, and quick reading too.
Author: Laura Frantz
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 416
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: Though Magnus MacLeish and Lark MacDougall grew up on the same castle grounds, Magnus is now laird of the great house and Isle of Kerrera. Lark is but the keeper of his bees and the woman he is hoping will provide a tincture that might help his ailing wife conceive and bear him an heir. But when his wife dies suddenly, Magnus and Lark find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of accusations, expelled from their beloved island, and sold as indentured servants across the Atlantic. Yet even when all hope seems dashed against the rocky coastline of the Virginia colony, it may be that in this New World the two of them could make a new beginning - together.
Review: I've read all of Laura Frantz's novels, and some I liked better than others. This is not one of my favorites.
The first 100 pages were exceedingly slow, and I just wasn't getting caught up in the story. Quitting was not an option though. I hung in there, and was rewarded with a story I ultimately enjoyed.
These were the weak points I found:
- Too much time in Scotland with a story going nowhere. I realize Frantz has Scottish roots and wanted to bring some of her own family history to the novel, but it didn't add value to the story. The strongest parts of the novel were set in Colonial America, a time and place she is comfortable writing about.
- Lark never says a proper goodbye to her grandmother, to whom she is very close. No letters are exchanged, and she never find out if Granny has passed away or is still alive. Maybe that is true to life, but in a novel it felt lazy and unfinished,
- Indentured servitude never really comes to pass. Right away Lark is drawn into high society. Unrealistic.
- Also unrealistic is Larkin's acceptance as a child that someone handed over to Lark. Given his resemblance, by chance, to Lark, she would have been shunned and people skeptical of her story.
- A "relationship" with someone in Williamsburg is never resolved. He makes it clear he wants to court her and obtains permission to marry her as well. He also loves Lark's "son," but at one point, the reader just never hears from him again.
Synopsis: In 1965 seventeen-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways - the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus, where among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life.
