Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay

Hello everyone.  I hope you're enjoying your day.

When there is a lot of buzz about a book are you driven to read it or do you refuse, not wanting to follow the crowd. If the book is something I "must" read, look out, that book is coming my way and everyone around me must leave me alone until it is complete.  But sometimes when there is a big buzz around a book I wonder how good it really is and how much is hype and I refuse to read it.  However, when it's rumored to possibly be the hit thriller of the summer (you know how I love thrillers), AND when the identity of the author is a secret and everyone is guessing who it might be.  You cave in, order the novel, read it and every time it gets really good you cuss at the book.  How dare anything with such buzz actually be entertaining!

I recently read Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay.  This is the story of a family who has died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Mexico.  There are two surviving sons, Matt is in college in NY and Dan is in prison for killing his girlfriend.  With the FBI's help it's determined that perhaps the family's death wasn't so simple and could somehow be linked to Dan, despite him being in jail. The writing is fast paced, weaving easily from the past to present day, pushing us to discover what really happened and why.  Often the chapters end on a cliff hanger, which propels the reader forward for answers.  While the story includes government and police corruption, cartels and a boy that won't take no , be assured that these often unpleasant topics are brief and are necessary to the story.   

Okay, I admit it, I really enjoyed this book, I didn't want to but I did. Now I'll go hang my head in shame for following the crowd, at least it was to a book store.

ps.  Who do you think the author really is?

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a nice day.

As a history lover, nothing in the US could be better than Virginia, which is loaded with both revolutionary and civil war sites.  People used to stand on the site of todays Tidewater Community College to watch the clash between the two iron-clad ships, the Monitor and the Merrimac.  The Merrimac becoming an iron-clad in Portsmouth. Virginia is home to lots of native American sites, the famous Pocahontas for starters and is also the site of the real first Thanksgiving, not the pilgrims. There is the historic triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown.  Jamestown the site of the first permanent English settlement, Williamsburg the first colonial capital, and Yorktown where the revolutionary war came to an end. These sites are just a few of those in southeastern Virginia, not the entire state. It is really quite amazing. To get from Williamsburg to the next major town, Richmond, you might take Route 5, which parallels the James River. It was first a native American trail, then a carriage path, now a state route.  This road runs through a small area you've probably never heard about, Charles City County.  The James River Plantations live here, where some of our most famous founding citizens owned farms.  In fact, not only are there several signers of the Declaration of Independence residences but two Presidents who were next door neighbors.  Bet you never heard that before! If you go to Williamsburg or Virginia Beach on vacation, be sure to stop and tour some of these sites.  Sometimes, however, with the sweet comes the sour and with beautiful large plantations that means slaves.  People ripped from their lives, their families, and their homes to be forced to work without pay, often brutally. 

I recently read Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson.  This book follows the life of Pheby Delores Brown, a slave, who lives on a plantation is Charles City County.  The story is well written and grabs you immediately.  The author is very successful where many authors often fail, in making you care and connect with the characters.  No matter your age or race, you will hurt and root for Pheby and all the other people in this tale.  Be warned that this book doesn't sugar coat the slaves' treatment and frankly, I wonder if it got much worse...in fact, I know it did.  Most of all, this book will make you cry for our past and hope for our future.  I am amazed that a black woman could bear to write this but I cannot imagine it being penned by anyone else.  While not a feel good book, I promise you that if you read Yellow Wife, you will not regret it.

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Hello everyone. I hope your day has been a pleasant one.

I wasn't always a housewife, I used to actually work (outside the home). I worked in the credit cards industry for years, doing everything from starting a new card program to seeing it sold off and all aspects in between. Want to know about credit card fraud or merchant services, I'm your girl. For real fun, (read with a sexy whisper) I'll show you how to compute an average daily balance. 

When it became more practical for me to stay home, I wanted to do the housewife job well.  I wanted to clean like a dream (I'm laughing so hard now I might fall out of my chair). I wanted to know all the little tricks from packing the perfect suitcase, to making silver shine.  I wanted to be able to cook like a world class chef, but just for my family.  Let's face it, I wanted to be a Stepford Wife, heck I still do I just start to lose my lunch every time I even think about dusting.

I recently read The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. Now if you are a youngster and have only seen the more recent movie, it's nothing like the book. The original movie, however, sticks much closer to the novel.  We see how the women of the town of Stepford only have time to clean their homes and take care of their husbands and children. The reader witnesses Joanna desperately trying to get the women to do something together that doesn't involve dirt removal.  Like the movie, it doesn't work and she is left without friends except for one, Bobbie. Sadly, one day all Bobbie wants to do is clean her house. As Joanna's dissatisfaction grows, so does the distance between her and her husband, Walter.  Now, she's sure he and others from the town are up to something nefarious.  This fun book is  rapidly read, requiring barely more than an hour as it's just over one hundred pages.  Interesting to note, Ira Levin also wrote several other books including Rosemary's Baby.

Think I'll see if I can get someone to hypnotize me so I love cleaning house and want to do nothing else.....or better yet, hypnotize my husband.  I bet he can dust with the best of them!

The Minders by John Marrs

Hello everyone.  I hope all is well with you. 

Would you like to know all your government's secrets? Not me, I'm chicken, yep blissful ignorance for me. My dad, however, held top secret clearance. He would go on a business trip and not be able to tell anyone where he was going.  He worked for a major computer company that put systems in various types of vehicles for the federal government.  Funny thing is, my dad was the least tech savvy person I've ever seen, if you asked him: windows were to look out of, apples were to eat and a c prompt was the latest laxative in tv commercials. Yet my mild mannered dad helped negotiate to price for selling and installing these systems.  He went to "areas" that, until recently, the government said didn't exist. He only told me about it after it was declassified, probably good thing... my ignorance is comforting and had my mother known she would have had to have been sedated!

I recently read The Minders by John Marrs. I'm not a fan of fantasy or science fiction but Marrs has just a hint of them in his books but in general they are intense thrillers, which I love. The Minders is about the stealing of government secrets and how to prevent it from happening. The United Kingdom has tried many things which haven't worked so now they are implanting all their secrets into the brain of five people, these are the Minders.  This book is about what happens to these people while trying to protect these secrets and what happens when those people have secrets of their own.  This story is exactly the kind of pace I like, where the author doesn't let you catch your breath with twist after shocking twist.  The book references two of his earlier books The Passengers and The One but they are absolutely not necessary to completely understand and enjoy this book but fans of Marrs will find it amusing. If you love fast paced thrillers, this is for you!

My husband always jokes about my dad going to buy a new car, a normal, everyday customer and the poor salesman who had no idea what Dad did for a living. 

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Hello everyone. Hope your day is going well.

Have you ever gone to the beach off season?  Maybe you like Myrtle Beach in the winter to play golf or the Outer Banks to watch the wild horses.  I live near two beach resort areas and can tell you that many people prefer to go after labor day. Rates drop, kids are back to school, the pace of life slows down.  Of course, some people like the winter. There are fewer restaurants open and less excitement in the air, obviously no swimming or sun bathing...still it is a special time.  There is a sort of melancholy, at least on the NC beaches, that envelops you.  Not a sad state exactly, but a peaceful, thoughtful one. You can walk beaches normally packed with tourists and not see another person for miles. If you've always wanted a picture of your favorite knobby sweater with your hair tousled and the ocean behind you for your social media, maybe you should consider a winter trip.

I recently read The Survivors by Jane Harper, my first by this author.  This mystery is FULL of atmosphere and perfectly describes a beach resort town off season.  You will feel exactly what it's like to be a resident.  The imagery is flawless, without the author running through endless pages of description, she gives you just enough to lead you in the right direction. The book is full of characters, the residents of this small beach community.  The author reveals each person and their traits in a natural way, not bogging down the story with specific introductions.  

The story begins with the death of a young girl. As the reader slowly discovers who might be responsible, an older tragedy is revealed.  What did this earlier natural occurrence do to this quaint seaside town and who has it haunted for years?  Unlike the thrillers I adore, this story is told slowly, allowing us to ponder what is actually happening and feel like a real part of the town.  The mystery is interesting and the writing wonderful, but the star here is the way the story is told, how we can smell the salt air and feel the sand under our feet. While this is my first Jane Harper, I will be purchasing the back list. I wonder what other worlds she has created.

Don't blame me if you suddenly want clams and salt water taffy.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Hello everyone. I hope you're having a great day.

In the past I've told you about the neighborhood I grew up in, how people would call it "peanut butter hill" because once you purchased a house there all you could afford to eat was peanut butter.  Of course, those price standards have long passed. I think my parents paid under $30,000 to have their house built, including a large lot. Let's face it, thirty grand barely gets you a car these days. It was a nice place to grow up, the neighborhood and the town.

I recently read Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan.  I really don't know what to tell you about this book.  It is about the dynamics of a specific neighborhood, one woman dislikes the family next door.  She convinces the residents of other houses on the street to feel negatively towards this family as well.  A sinkhole opens up in the park across the street, complicating matters.  As the story unfolds we learn more about each character, their past and present.  The book is interesting and hard to put down, in an odd way.  This story is dark, very dark and has a shocking ending. When I finished I put the book down feeling bewildered.  I wasn't sure if I liked it or actually hated it.  It has been a week since I finished Good Neighbors and I still don't know how I feel about it.  I guess my advice would be that it's interesting but be very aware it is seriously dark.

So glad we had no sinkholes in my neighborhood, I had enough trauma playing in the sandbox with three younger sisters.

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Hello everyone.  Hope you are well.

Do you have kids?  We don't.  I was afraid to go through that whole, grow someone inside you, process. In addition, we were young, money was tight and paying to raise a child seemed utterly impossible.  I often wonder what our life would have been like as parents. How would children change the dynamics between us as a couple?  What kind of parents would we have been? I can answer part of that already, my husband would have been a great parent.  He recognizes things from his childhood he didn't like and instead of repeating those issues he learned from them. And he's a gigantic goof ball.  He looks for any excuse to make up some weird voice or invent some joke that he thinks is ground breaking (truly Tonight Show WITH Johnny Carson worthy) but isn't.  He'd be the worlds best dad, next to my own, of course.  As for me being a mother, I would probably be terrible. I'd insist some kid eat their green beans for the nine thousand, six hundred and fifty-third time and the child would smother me in my sleep. Hey, don't give me that look, green beans are good for you. Eat some!

I recently read The Push by Ashley Audrain.  This is the story of a couple, Blythe and Fox, who welcome their first child, Violet into the world.  While happy, Blythe wonders if she is as bonded to her new daughter as she should be.  Despite a few issues they remain generally happy, eventually adding baby Sam to their tribe. Violet seems to love Sam, but odd things begin happening, often in front of mom, Blythe, only. This leaves the dad to think of his daughter much more affectionately than mom.  

If you read the book Baby Teeth, the thriller that was big about three years ago, this story has similar vibes.  Perhaps it's because I've just read The Push and Baby Teeth was a while ago but The Push seems much more diabolical.  Still, if you've had your fill of bad kid stories, skip this.  If you want something that is a fast read, will hold your interest and has a satisfying ending, check this one out.

Just to be safe, maybe you should put this book where your kids can't find it.  Wouldn't want to give them any ideas.

ps. While checking the spelling hubby walked by reading this post. He said laughing, he has no idea where I got that "goof ball thing". Told ya.