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Class Clown, by Dave Barry****-*****

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4.5 stars, rounded upwards.

The first time I read a Dave Barry column, it was 1984, and a friend sent it to me. We had only snail mail back then, but it was so funny that she snipped it out of the airline magazine she’d read on a business trip and mailed it to me. I don’t remember which column it was, but it left me gasping for air, I laughed so hard. This was a difficult time for me, a young mother with two small children, a third on the way, and almost no money, and I floated along on the laughter that article brought me for a solid month. I hung it on the fridge where I could reread it whenever the urge struck me. That is how I became a Dave Barry fan.

Since then, his work has either hit or missed for me; almost all of the time, it has hit and although times are easier for me now, laughter is always a balm. When he misses—which is rare—he misses bigtime. But this time he’s golden, the Dave I remember reading that first time.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

It strikes me again how frequently the funniest humorists, be they journalists, novelists, standup comedians, or comic actors, have tragic backgrounds. Barry has experienced more than his fair share, with a schizophrenic sister who’s been institutionalized, a father that died too young, and a mother that couldn’t recover from his loss, and took her own life. Barry wrote about her when it happened, and he reprints some of it here.

He reprints some other things, too, and I expected that. I don’t think that it cheats the reader when he documents parts of his professional journey by reprinting some of the things he wrote; he’s been writing prolifically for thirty years, and it seems to me that it was probably a lot of work just choosing what to include and what to leave out. It feels strangely like a school reunion, rereading the excerpts from drop dead funny columns that I enjoyed for the first time when they were originally published. Oh, my heart, “Ask Mr. Language Person!” I’m an English teacher, and I’m in stitches all over again.

The thing about an autobiography is that the author is also the subject, and so when he decides what parts of his own life to write about and what to keep private, we readers need to accept that. At the same time, it does seem disingenuous to completely pass over his marriages and divorces. A paragraph for each, maybe? Just give us the benchmarks.

I hadn’t known that he was responsible for Talk Like a Pirate Day, and both I and my middle school students owe him for that one! But the thing that is most striking to me, and that I appreciate most, is his reflection about the political discourse in the U.S., and the way we have become polarized and too often, uncivil. In the past—and he cites the Kennedy/Nixon campaign—arguments between family and friends were “heated, emotional, sometimes angry, but never nasty. At the end of the night everybody hugged everybody, because they were friends, and they understood that they could disagree about politics without believing the other side was evil. Mistaken, maybe. Evil, no.” All I can say about that is thank you, Dave, and amen.

Because I was running late, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons. Barry does his own reading, and it’s even better that way.

There are a lot of hilarious experiences he recounts, but the thing about Barry that binds all of the experiences, the columns, and the books he’s written is his refusal to take himself too seriously, and it is his complete and delightful intolerance toward pretentiousness that keeps me coming back. I cannot imagine Dave Barry snubbing anybody, ever. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if everyone was like that?

Highly recommended.

The Medusa Protocol, by Rob Hart****

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“’I’m Mark, and I haven’t killed anyone in two and a half years,’ I say.    ‘Hi, Mark.’”

                                                                                                            

The Medusa Protocol is author Rob Hart’s second book in his Assassins Anonymous series. Happily for me, I didn’t notice that I was reading the second in a series; I didn’t read the first, and I might have sidestepped it had I realized I was entering mid-series. As it was, I had fun and enjoyed this satirical romp through a sea of professional murderers, sharks, and poisonous vipers.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Putnam Penguin for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Our story commences with a group of recovering assassins meeting in a church basement. Then things start to go sideways; a member who’s expected isn’t there, but sends her personal choice of pizza to let them know she’s in trouble just as enemy assassins crash the meeting.

Huh? What?

From there, we dive down the rabbit hole, seeing the past and present alternately through the eyes of Mark, who is Astrid’s mentor in the program, and Astrid, a recovering killer who has been kidnapped and is being held in a Brazilian prison on an island in shark-infested waters, and which is home to a great many large, venomous vipers. How can her friends rescue her without having to kill anybody?

Just keep whispering the Serenity Prayer to yourselves, guys.

This is a fun read. Although the point of view shifts with every chapter, either between characters or time periods, these are clearly delineated, and I have no trouble keeping them straight. I only had the digital galley, not the audio, but I suspect that, assuming the reader provides the headings at chapter beginnings, it will be fine. The humorous moments when the rescuers worry about the mission threatening their sobriety are meted out exactly as they should be, not so many that it stops being funny, but frequent enough to keep me chuckling. There isn’t a lot of character development, but I don’t expect it from a satirical, action-packed novel like this one; there is some dialogue toward the middle that is overly wordy and should be edited down, but apart from that, it’s smooth as glass.

Some reviewers suggest not reading this one unless one has read the first; I am glad I didn’t see that advice till after I had read this one. I don’t care that this book provides spoilers for the first, because I am not going to read that one anyway. I will, however, cheerfully read the next in the series, whenever it becomes available. Meanwhile, I recommend this nifty little book to you.

What Kind of Paradise, by Janelle Brown*****

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What if the Unabomber had had a daughter? Thriller writer Janelle Brown spins a fascinating, credible, and memorable story based on this idea. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Jane Williams grows up in a remote mountain cabin with her father; her mother died many years ago, so it is just the two of them. Once in a rare while she is allowed to accompany him into town to visit the bookstore, maybe even get an ice cream cone, but otherwise, she is cut off from society. She has no friends, apart from a casual friendship with the bookstore owner’s daughter; she has no play dates, no television, no computer. She is homeschooled. 

But every now and then, her father will wake her from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. They have to go! She grabs her bugout bag and goes through their established routine, escaping via the tunnels he has built beneath their cabin. Her heart pounds, her chest heaves…but hey, it turns out to be only a drill, after all.

Her father is a writer, composing political tracts that he sells in small, independent bookstores that carry zines. And so, for most of each day, he writes, she reads, and when the weather permits, she watches ants build hills, picks wildflowers, and leads the sort of bucolic life he has planned for her. But then, things change.

The story is told from Jane’s point of view; when Jane longs for even a photograph of her dead mother, anything at all to tell her about the other half of her beginnings, I feel it viscerally. Poor kid. But things are not necessarily as they appear, and as she grows to adulthood, Jane finds clues, small tidbits she’s not meant to find, and each morsel leaves her ravenous for more.

The story unfolds in the 1990s with occasional flashes of Jane’s childhood the decade before, so while it’s not historical fiction, it does have a retro vibe, one that Brown provides with absolute accuracy. We see small snatches of the events that took place in the U.S. during that time, but Brown is too good to rely on pop culture, so these are meted out sparingly, only when needed, never as a crutch.

This is a fun read, and it’s unlike anything I have seen written recently. I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

May the Wolf Die, by Elizabeth Heider***-****

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“Sometimes, killing is necessary.”

Elizabeth Heider is a scientist with a long, impressive track record. Now she has published her first mystery, May the Wolf Die, as well, proving that some of us can wear multiple hats very well indeed. My thanks go to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Our protagonist is Nikki Serafino, an investigator living in Italy. She’s out in her boat one day when she finds a man’s corpse, and from there we venture into local organized crime.

The mystery itself wasn’t as engaging as I had anticipated, given the buzz, but there are a few laudatory aspects nonetheless. First, Heider is a scientist, and often when someone is a specialist in some other field, they info-dump so much data into their novel that it loses its sheen. Heider’s restraint here is admirable. The unusual characteristic of the corpse, which I won’t disclose, appeared to be a gimmick that would take over the story, but it wasn’t and didn’t. The ending was solid. But the best and most important feature, the thing that elevates this mystery from three stars to four, is the punchy yet tasteful manner in which Heider deals with sexism and violence against women in the military. There are a couple of stand up and cheer moments that made me sit up and take notice.

This is a debut novel, and a promising start for Heider. I wish her well in her new career.

Far and Away, by Amy Poeppel****-*****

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Amy Poeppel is the queen of intelligent feel-good novels. Her newest work, Far and Away, is about two women that have never met, one in Dallas, one in Berlin, who exchange houses for several months. The deal is done fast, as both of them have a short time to line something up, and soon they will both regret their hasty decisions.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Emily Bestler Books for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

One of the things I love best about Poeppel’s writing is her ability to create a complex plot with a lot of moving pieces, along with believable, sympathetic characters; yet somehow, the whole thing is easily understood, never confusing. Our story starts with Lucy and her family in Dallas, Texas. Her eldest child, Jack, is about to graduate from a private high school, then attend M.I.T. At the last minute, however, he is expelled unceremoniously. He’s done something dumb, and it’s been interpreted as something more sinister. He isn’t even offered a chance to explain or to defend himself. And though there is a lot of other business involving other characters, I enjoy this part most for the message it sends us at a time it’s desperately needed. Before you judge someone, take a moment to listen. Ask some questions before you hurl accusations and seek vengeance. If the behavior is as deplorable as you think it is, there’s still plenty of time to accuse and avenge afterward.  We in the U.S. and also Europeans can benefit from this one tasty nugget. Plenty of others can, too.

On the other side of the world in Berlin, Greta’s husband Otto has been invited to teach for a term at a college in Texas. He’s accepted without even discussing it with Greta; he has to go right away! Where will they even live? Otto suggests a hotel; Greta is having none of it. In her desperate search for last minute housing, she is connected with someone that knows that Lucy has decided, quite suddenly, to relocate for the summer. The accusations against Jack have turned to harassment and vandalism, and she’s ready to get out of Dodge. Her husband is incommunicado, performing a simulation for NASA, a part of which is to be cut off from everyone else. Mason still thinks that Jack graduated, and that M.I.T. is Jack’s next step.

And so it is that Lucy and her brood relocate to Greta’s apartment in Berlin, and Greta and Otto take up residence in the massive experimental home in Dallas owned by Lucy and Mason. Not a lot of details have been exchanged about either place; there hasn’t been time. So, they get on the plane, and everybody gets what they get, to their sometimes consternation.

There are many hilarious moments here; I especially enjoy the foreign language errors made, both English to German, and German to English.

If there were one thing I could change, I’d rework the epilogue. There’s a considerable jump in time, but the chapter heading doesn’t tell us, and so I am taking in details while doing some mental calculations. That’s not so bad when it’s at the start of a book, but at the end, it’s disorienting and breaks the flow. I also feel as if there were too many things tied up with too many bows. A kindergarten teacher told me once that the key to having a kindergartner paint, was to know when to stop them. It may also apply to adults and their writing.

Nevertheless, I loved this book! Part of the magic is due to Poeppel’s understanding of human nature, which is inherently good, and part of it is her hilariously quirky humor that often drops in, seemingly out of nowhere. Highly recommended.

Lady Killer, by Katherine Woods***-****

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Lady Killer marks the debut of novelist Katherine Wood. The suspense begins when Abby flies to Greece at the invitation of her best friend, an heiress named Gia, who is planning a birthday party there. Gia has disappeared, and it is her journal that provides clues as to what may have happened. Suspicion falls on her husband because of things that are indicated in the journal, but he’s gone, too.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

It is clear from the get-go that Wood can write. Her word smithery is smooth and original. However, there is so much sexual content that I can’t enjoy the story or bond with the main characters. Partner swapping; threesomes. I finally gave myself permission to skim the rest. Unlike some other reviewers, I have no difficulty with the ending; it’s getting there that makes me queasy.

For some readers, the steamy segments of this novel will make it more pleasurable, but the only perspective from which I can write is my own.

Recommended to those that like a sexy novel of suspense.

This American Woman, by Zarna Garg*****

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Zarna Garg is an immigrant, born and raised in India. She was rich, except for when she was poor; more on that in a minute. Ultimately, she came here for the same reason many people do: she had to make a break for it.

My thanks go to Random House and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book is available to the public now.

Garg works now as a stand up comic, but she has done many things, and worn many hats. First, of course, she was a runaway bride, more or less, bailing from India before her very wealthy father could marry her off as part of a business arrangement.

“If I hadn’t done that, right now I would be a Mumbai grandma in an arranged marriage to a much older, boring industrialist. I would be draped in brocade silk saris, but I would have a giant padlock on my big mouth.”

Garg’s immigration—fast and sneaky, which was the only possible way–was made easier by her older sister, who was already living in Ohio. Since then, Garg has finished law school and passed the bar, married another Indian immigrant, had three children, and done a number of other impressive things, but it was her own daughter that asked her mother whether she’d ever considered a career in comedy. It takes someone that’s mentally tough to succeed in that realm, but the streets of Mumbai, where she’d lived hand-to-mouth for two years as a runaway teen following her mother’s death, prepared her well, so she was ready for the gritty world she was entering. She explains,   

            “…I had played a show at a club on the Upper East Side and a cockroach fell on my head. The night before that, as I walked to the stage I had to step over a communal puddle of throw up from a bachelorette part who refused to leave. They just kept throwing up and laughing. So far my comedy career had been physically revolting—but it was still my dream! Now here I was in my very first New York City green room that smelled like air…I walked out on stage. Two thousand white ladies politely applauded. Oh my god. What was I doing? Would this audience even understand my humor? For them India is incense and chanting. Were they ready for a foul-mouthed real-life Indian auntie who hated meditation? “

I wondered, after watching some of Garg’s stand up work online, whether the book would be a duplication of her routine, more or less; it’s happened with other comic authors. But although there’s a small smattering of shared content, the memoir is mostly unique, and I never had the sense that I’d already seen this before.

Garg is funny enough that I’ve let her speak for herself here. Anyone that needs to laugh hard, and that enjoys reading about the disorientation and culture shock experienced by those new to America should read this book. Highly recommended!  

Cat’s People, by Tanya Guerrero****

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Cat’s People marks author Tanya Guerrero’s debut in writing a novel for adults, and she does it beautifully. This heartwarming feel-good story tells the story of five people in Brooklyn that are brought together by a stray cat in the neighborhood. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

When I first received the call to read this book, I was leery. That pink cover with a cat on it; I thought it might be cloyingly sweet. I let the widget sit in my file for a while. However, Goodreads friends—people that are not dimwits—really liked it, and it occurred to me that my own selections were a little on the dark and heavy side, so I went back and retrieved it. It was a good choice. Because I was running a little late with it, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons, and it made a delightful travel companion when I found myself driving across the state line for a semi-emergency within my family. Even Ox, my oversized beagle, seemed to find it soothing. Reader Elena Ray does a wonderful job.

I’m not entirely sure whether the protagonist here is Nuria, the woman that volunteers for a local group that feeds stray cats in the neighborhood, or Cat himself; this would make a nice book club discussion question. Nuria is single and a bit at sea in New York, the city where her mother told her not to move. However, she begins finding post it notes in the area where she feeds Cat; they are from a secret admirer.

The admirer in question is Collin, a successful author who’s also single, lonesome, and very shy. Collin sees Cat outside in the cold, so he builds him a small house with a bed, and he puts it in his courtyard. Others in Cat’s orbit are Omar, the mailman who’s going through a crisis of his own; Bong, the owner of Nuria’s favorite Bodega, who’s grieving the loss of his wife; and Lily, the sprightly newcomer who’s come to the city to find Nuria. All of them are brought together when Cat becomes ill.

I have never said this about a novel for adults before, but this book is adorable! The tone is perfect, balancing the cares and anxieties of the humans with acts of kindness by each that remind us that humankind is inherently good.

Recommended to those that need something a little bit warm, light, and fluffy–even dog people.

Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall*****

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I am late to the party, but it would be a crime not to review Broken Country, the stirring love story by Clare Leslie Hall that can make even the hardest cynic weepy-eyed. My thanks go to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

The story is set in a small village in Britain during the mid-1900s. The setting bounces back and forth between the present day and the past; it’s easy to keep track of, partly because the author takes care to delineate which chapter is which, and partly because there are few characters to keep track of. Our protagonist is Beth, and she and her husband, Frank, are farmers, have lived in the same community for their whole lives. A farm accident claimed the life of their only child, Bobby, a few years before, but they are both still fragile, ragged in their grief.

Then, oh my my, who comes back to town but Beth’s old flame, Gabriel, a man that came from money and went on to make a name for himself as a novelist. Gabriel has inherited the family house and land, and in the wake of his divorce, has brought his son Leo to live here. Here. Right next door to Beth and Frank.  And to complicate old feelings all the more, his son Leo is about the same age as Bobby was when he died.

Is it possible to be in love with two men at the same time? Beth would tell you that it is. Frank can see what is unfolding, and he tries to reason with Beth, but she assures him that everyone is grown up now, the past is the past, and there’s no reason that they and their new old neighbor cannot be friends.

Well.

I seldom reach for novels like this one, wary as I am of schmalz and schlock, but reader, I see none of either one in this story. The writing is disciplined and restrained, yet oh, so intimate. When a formula or trope comes into view, Hall goes the other way instead. And though I may have thought I knew where we would all end up, I was mistaken; the ending is beautifully planned and executed.

Because I had fallen a bit behind, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons; reader Hattie Morahan does a stellar job with the narration.

Highly recommended.

Everybody Says It’s Everything, by Xhenet Aliu**-***

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2.5 stars, rounded upwards.

Xhenet (pronounced similar to “Jeanette”) Aliu is the author of Brass, the award-winning debut novel that was one of my favorites of 2018. When I saw that she had a new book, Everybody Says It’s Everything, I was so excited that I bounced up and down in my desk chair. My thanks go to Random House and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review; sadly, I found this book disappointing. The sophomore slump is real, friends.

Our story centers—to the extent that it has a center—on adopted twins, Drita and Pete, who’ve been leading quintessential American lives. Drita was a star student, and is in the midst of graduate studies when she is called home to care for her mother; Pete—actually Petrit—has been in various sorts of trouble, and now his girlfriend and son have landed with Drita looking for help, since they aren’t getting any from Pete. The story takes us through their native Albanian roots and heritage, through the war in Kosovo, and through Pete’s discouragement, hardship, and addiction.

I have a hard time connecting with any of these characters. The dialogue drags, and the poignant qualities that I found in Brass are nowhere to be found. Both are sad stories, but the protagonist in Brass had my whole heart and my full attention, whereas these characters left me feeling as if I was eavesdropping on one more group of depressed, underserved people, but also edging towards the door. I was just straight up bored, a word I rarely use in reviews. I continued all the way through because I was sure that it would turn brilliant any minute; it never did.

I look forward to seeing what this author writes next, because she has proven that she has the ability to connect with readers in general and me in particular, but I can’t recommend this book to you.