The Yankee Club by Michael Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a wild ride that was! From an assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt to a plot to overthrow the government, thwarted by mystery writer Jake Donovan, and his childhood friends. There were enough "real" people co-mingled with the fictitious characters, I found myself searching the internet to see what was real. FDR, Joseph Kennedy, Cole Porter, Ethel Merman, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman were all likely to rub shoulders with Jake, Frankie, Gino, and Danny from the neighborhood. There were so many plot twists and surprise saves it kept my heart pumping.
I'm looking forward to the next adventure with Jake and Laura.
View all my reviews
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm glad I made it to the end. If it had not been a selection for one of my book clubs, I would have quit somewhere in the middle.
I had no problem with going back and forth through time from present day California, to World War II Italy. The problem was finding a character I could care about. Too many vulgar men making a wreck of their lives, too many women with no self-respect. And the story was going in so many directions, too much repetition. How many times did we have to read about the young actress going to Porto Vergogna by mistake when she probably meant to go to Portovenere. How many times did we read about the writer who went to Italy every year to write a novel that never materialized.
In between there were the tabloid stories of Liz and Dick and their romances while filming Cleopatra, and a movie producer bargaining to stay in business.
The pitch chapters were garbage as far as I'm concerned. Donner! really? And The Rejected First Chapter of Michael Deane's Memoir More repetition. And the big fight scene...PUHLEEZ!! I was begging for somebody to come and get me out of my misery. And the pages and pages of wrapping up the lives of EVERY character in the book, including the guy whose only contribution to the story was getting shot in the foot, and the Germans we never saw hiding out in the bunker.
But I'm a good book club member. I almost ALWAYS read the whole book. And that son-of-a-gun tricked me. My Kindle said I was at 94% complete when the story ended. AHHH Relief! There were more pages of Acknowledgements and Insights, etc. for me to skim...and I do mean skim.
But there was a good part. It was the ending, sweet and beautifully written about the only two people in the book I really cared about. That much was worth the two stars.
View all my reviews
Coming Clean: A Memoir by Kimberly Rae Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
This is a true story written by Kimberly Rae Miller, the daughter of two hoarders. They were hoarders before she was born, so that growing up in squalor was her "normal." She was able to compensate for her parents' mess because she loved them, and they always treated her with love and affection.
It wasn't until she entered the outside world that she came to recognize her parents' mess for what it was. Piles of papers stacked so high and wide, it was difficult to get through the door. Every surface in the house covered with stuff, so there was no place prepare a meal or even sit down to eat. Their meals became fast-food and their eating space was the corner of the bed.
As Kim became smart enough to avoid having friends come inside the house, and even pretended to live a a house around the corner where she could be picked up or dropped off, the fantasy in her head became her survival.
She was smart enough to go away for college where she developed friendships with normal people, and planned for a future away from her parents. But she was never able to get away. Her parents continued living in filth so deep and wide, it was infested with rats, roaches, and other vermin. Every few years they had to move, once because the house burned down, another time when the house was condemned. Each time they moved they had to call on Kim to help clean up and pack them up for the move.
The story is so overwhelming, I even started to dream about the piles of mess they lived in. Kim caved in many times under the pressure of taking care of the parents she never stopped loving them.
It's a powerful story with no happy ending.
View all my reviews
The Sweetest Thing by Deborah Fletcher Mello
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I do like to read books by authors I have met in person, even though I don't often read romance novels. I have enjoyed Deborah Mello's "Stallions" series, but she hits this one out of the ballpark. And she is anything but "mellow;" she is hot and sizzling. The story starts out sweet and lovely and gets more lusty as the book goes further.
I enjoyed the scenes from Memphis and the presence of elderly women in Baton Rouge who gave wise counsel to the young people who came of age in their presence. I'm waiting for the next installment of "Just Desserts."
View all my reviews
I read in somebody's blog that a good way to stir up interest in the next book is to show the cover even before the book is complete. My favorite cover artist, Cynthia Colbert, did this one for me, and I spent $5 on Facebook to promote it. I'm still working on the main short story, Adventures in Blackface. I'll tell you this much about it. It's an out-take from my memoir, Motherless Child - stories from a life, one of those stories that didn't make the cut. I scraped it up from the cutting room floor.
I have ulterior motives behind this collection. It will be my first venture into KDP Select. You know Amazon's exclusive Kindle book offerings that are supposed to make me a ton of money. (HAH!) I thought it would be easier to do it with a new book than to unpublish an old one from all other ebook stores. I promise to have it ready in 2015, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
I have been slack lately in writing movie reviews, but (the operative word) I have been jarred out of my slump. I'm a late-comer when it comes the the X-men series, and I know I have a lot of catching up to do. But (!!) the latest "X-men: Days of Future Past" brings another spin to the series. If there is anyone more ubiquitous than Hugh Jackman on the screen these days, it has to be my girl J-Law. From Katniss Everdeen to Raven/Mystique, Jennifer Lawrence is one busy actor.
Sorry if I nodded off in the dark dark scenes, but I didn't miss much. Halle Berry even had a cameo appearance as Storm. I give it four out of five stars.
