There’s no reason why I should’ve liked this book, but I did!
I think portal fantasies work well for kids. You know…Narnia. But for adults, it’s hard not to make them cheesy. In this novel (which started as a podcast series) Andrew Klavan owns up to the cheese.
The main character, Austin Lively, gets unaccountably transported from contemporary Los Angeles to a medieval fantasy kingdom. The only thing that connects the two worlds is a mysterious book. I can barely type it without cringing. It sounds so bad. But Klavan miraculously handles it in such a way that it’s not cheesy after all. He writes in first-person, and Austin’s voice is so strong, so crass, so humorous, and so typical of what you’d expect from a Hollywood hack, that the authenticity of it works.
I sped through this novel not because this is my kind of book but because Klavan is a great writer. He writes legitimately good prose. He had me hooked on the unraveling mystery. I cared about the foolish protagonist and wanted him to win despite his many flaws. I became intrigued by the layers of powerful people involved and wondered what it all meant.
Overall, this story is about a young man who is underperforming in every area of life with no incentive to better himself. How do you take someone like that and transform him into a selfless man of stout heart and right belief? From what I know of Klavan, he believes this is an actual problem in society right now. How can men become men again?
This whole book is kind of a content warning. There is a lot of foul language and violence. There are some scary images, but I’m a wuss, and I did fine. There is a fade-to-black sex scene. Women are praised for being traditionally feminine. I have no problem with this because I embrace traditional gender roles, but I can see why modern tastes may find this unpalatable.
“Public policy can help, but there is no government that can fix these problems for us.”
I cannot agree more with J.D. Vance’s statement here. In this memoir, he describes a web of personal, cultural, and spiritual problems that are so interconnected and tangled that there are no easy solutions.
J.D. Vance, our soon-to-be Vice President, grew up with a bunch of lunatic hillbillies and dysfunction upon dysfunction. A snapshot: Substance-abusing mom, revolving door of “dads,” constant uncertainty and conflict in the home, no special talents or intelligence to distinguish him. How did he rise above that to become a U.S. Marine and Yale Law School grad—and eventually the second-in-command of the most powerful nation on earth?
If we can simply take J.D. Vance’s experience and replicate it through government policies and laws, then everyone, no matter their situation, should be able to achieve what he did, right?
Of course not! I love that, instead of writing a political book, Vance decided instead to write a memoir, describing what it was like to grow up the way he did. He says again and again that, while he’s not skeptical of public policy, it wasn’t anything the government did that tipped the scales in his favor. It was the people in his life. He describes in the last chapter of the book how close he came to falling through the cracks. If just one family member, teacher, coach, or friend didn’t intervene for him at a critical point in life, he could’ve easily changed trajectory for the worse.
I believe the problems we face are spiritual at the root.
I have a Rich Mullins CD with one of those hidden tracks at the end. This track is at least an hour long, and it’s filled with snippets of Rich’s commentary during concerts and such. In one of them, he says something like this: You know, the scary thing about God is that he didn’t make a Plan B. He created the church, and he gave us a job, and if we don’t do it, there’s no Plan B. The church is the only thing that can make a real difference in this world. The government can’t do it, so stop trusting in the government. Educational systems can’t do it, so stop trusting in educational systems. God formed the church, and it’s our job.
I’m butchering it, but it resonates now more than ever.
This quick Christmas romance brings second-chance love with You’ve Got Mail vibes
It’s not often you read a holiday rom-com about an estranged wife and husband getting back together, but that’s what happens here. Our protagonist, Fern Gale, is the town recluse. She lives in a gorgeous house in a small town, but ever since her mom died four years ago (and her husband abandoned her) she has been filling it with antiques with vague notions of selling them at some point. Maybe. She’s aimless and alone.
When a pipe freezes and bursts in her historic house, she calls the only person who knows where the water shut-off is buried under the new-fallen snow—her ex. They haven’t spoken in four years. Now what?
This is a simple, sweet book that will make you smile and get you into the holiday spirit. The only thing I wanted to know more about is why Fern’s husband left and stayed MIA for so long. I understand generally why, but I wanted there to be a bigger “last straw” that sent him packing and justified the years-long estrangement.
If you love Hallmark (or GAF) movies, then you’ll adore this short, sweet book. Blackstock uses dual narrators. We’ve got Finn, the crabby cabby (a cab driver with a bad attitude) and Sydney the stressed-out lawyer who needs to win a no-win case in order to keep her job. No pressure, Syd.
So, fun fact. In her author’s note, Blackstock describes how she was sitting in the waiting room at her actual doctor’s office when a man wheeled in an elderly lady and then headed toward the door. She asked if he was just going to leave her, and he responded: “Lady, I’m just the cab driver.” That was her inspiration for this book.
Finn gets a call to take elderly and disoriented Callie to the doctor. Who hires a cab to take Grammy to her appt?? Well, it turns out that Sydney does—on a day when she must attend an important work meeting or risk getting fired. That gets the ball rolling, and it’s sweet as figgy pudding front to back.
Callie is spicy and determined to get her way, no matter how sick she is. Finn is prickly on the outside and jello on the inside. Sydney looks like a successful attorney, but she’s broke and hanging on by a thread.
Worldview means a LOT to me when I’m reading a light book like this one, especially a romance. Why read a candy book if the author is saying things about life and love that you can’t stand? I can tell that Blackstock and I share a lot of the same beliefs, and it’s great to see those reflected here. I didn’t have to cringe at anything…you might, but I didn’t. There are a few moments that some people will find politically incorrect, but I actually agree with the author on most things, so I, uh, mentally high-fived her when I read those bits.
Blackstock is a Christian author, but this book does a great job of not getting preachy. There is no contrived altar call moment. We see both Finn and Sydney rethink their spiritual lives, going from dormancy to just waking up. They are on the brink of starting something good with Jesus, but the book isn’t about that. It’s a side effect of their interactions with Callie.
This book makes sense when you view it as a modern fable
So, my boys requested this book after watching the movie, and we devoured this cinematic little morsel ASAP. I considered labeling this one “magical realism” but it’s not really. There’s the element of destiny, fate, and cosmic what-have-you, and this is something that I usually dislike. I don’t like vague spiritual messages that confuse kids. But there’s something about Holes that feels different. I decided that I’d approach it like a modern fable or folk tale, and it clicked into place in my mind.
The Yelnats family is cursed with unluckiness. They can’t catch a break. For Stanley Yelnats the fourth, his un-luck lands him at Camp Green Lake, a reformatory for delinquent boys, where they have to dig holes in the hot sun as penance for their crimes. But, Camp Green Lake isn’t what it seems to be, and the boys aren’t digging holes to build character—they’re looking for something.
Two storylines from the past weave into Stanley’s present-day tale. There’s the story of Stanley’s great-great-grandfather, who brought the curse upon his household by breaking a promise to Madame Zeroni, a sharp-witted witch-doctor-y character.
Then, you’ve got the story of Kissin’ Kate Barlow, a famous outlaw who once robbed Stanley’s great-grandfather and left him for dead in the Texas desert. But his grandfather survived somehow—even he’s a bit fuzzy on the details.
I think the intertwining storylines and the no-detail-left-behind nature of how it all comes together hits me right in my literary heart. And it’s what makes the whole thing feel like a folk tale. It couldn’t possibly happen, but tell the story anyway because there’s truth in there.
But, this book isn’t set in a fantasy world. It’s set in modern times, so what is it trying to say? It is, I confess, a tad muddled, but I believe it’s telling kids that if they try to do what’s right, God will work all things together for good. Now, don’t mistake me, God as Creator is not mentioned, even though one of the pivotal locations in the book is named God’s Thumb, and it turns out to be an oasis of saving grace. There are elements of the story that point to a bigger plan than what we can see in a single lifetime. This is interesting.
The book is overflowing with fantastic characters, funny dialogue, and high-drama scenes. We really enjoyed it.
Well, Andrew Klavan co-authors one of my all-time favorite Substacks (The New Jerusalem), and I’ve listened to him on podcasts and interviews, and I knew that he was a novelist. But I wasn’t quite sure where to start with his fiction. Audible helped me by offering this entry point as part of the Plus Catalog.
This is the first in a detective series featuring Cameron Winter, a shadowy man who is both lethal and literary. He has killed people in his earlier days (military? Spy work? We’re not sure), but now he’s a university English prof. Okay, I’m in!
This book introduces us to the classically handsome (and classically read) Cameron, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about who he is and what haunts him from his past. He’s lethal. He’s cool under pressure. But he’s also carrying some serious emotional baggage. He has what he calls “a strange habit of mind” in which he clears his head, opens himself to empathy, and then allows all of the pieces of whatever puzzle he’s trying to solve fall into place, and they just do. This “gift/habit” is mostly a mystery.
An old friend asks Cameron for a favor. Can he help her with a murder case? Ex-military boyfriend kills girlfriend in a jealous rage and then confesses to the crime. Nothing to solve. But the facts don’t add up. Something’s off. So, Cameron starts sniffing around.
This is a short book that does a great job of balancing plot and character. You get a handful of plot twists, but there’s a wide range to the cast, and nobody feels like a cardboard cutout. I’m here for book two!
I can honestly say that I’ve never read a fantasy world quite like this one. The planet of Lyra never experiences day. There is only night, where the moon, called Selene, provides some light, and then Darknight, a pitch-blackness that’s dominated by the Void, an evil blight that is slowly devouring Lyra.
Lyra is a moonlit planet. Think glowing mushrooms. Floating jellyfish. Foxfire dust. Barnett has dreamed up a literal “dream” world that evokes a sense of glittering night, without feeling “dark” as in evil.
Lyrians are trying to heal the Void by harvesting magical threads from human dreams. Nova, our protagonist, is a young harvester, and one day, she meets a boy in a dream who recognizes her. He shouldn’t even see or sense her presence. But he knows her name!
This is the entry point into Thread of Dreams. I will say that there’s a decently steep learning curve when it comes to this fantasy universe, but the author does a great job of sprinkling the world-building throughout the book, helping you along. But there were times when I forgot what a certain thing was…maybe a glossary for the second edition?
I loved the character dynamics. Nova has an older sister, Cally, who has taken care of her since their parents died when they were kids. The bond of sisterhood is strong with this one. There is a core group of young people who must do great deeds to help save Lyra. I don’t want to spoil anything. All I’m trying to say is that there is a nice plot-character balance here.
You’ll love this if you want a YA fantasy that includes adventure and romance but that doesn’t involve graphic violence, sex, or profanity. There IS romance here, and Nova is pretty young, just thirteen when the book starts, but she ages to sixteen (if I’m remembering right) by the end. I feel that this is a nice choice if you have a teen girl who is hankering after romantic books but you don’t want her to read anything icky.
Meet the Author, Emily Barnett Check out the interview I did with Emily over on Library Binding.
Hertz is a screen-addicted kid who must endure a tech detox
THIS BOOK TAKES PLACE IN MY TOWN! The reason this is so incredibly exciting is that I live in a TINY town at the top of a mountain in Arizona. A town that nobody outside of the state knows about, and even inside the state, it’s iffy. When I read the book blurb and saw that this story takes place in Show Low, Arizona, my jaw dropped, and I immediately bought a copy.
This book is so much FUN! It’s a novel in verse, so any middle-grader can get through it in no time flat. Plus, it deals with an issue that most kids struggle with: screen addiction.
Hertz is always on a screen of some kind. He can’t live without a phone and access to his gaming devices. The internet? Required for life. So, when he’s forced to spend the summer with his great-uncle in the tiny town of Show Low, he is devastated to discover that he’s living in a trailer park with no Wi-Fi and not even a TV.
Of course, Hertz learns that there’s more to life than screens and their snazzy, swift distractions. He makes friends (and enemies) and learns how to live an analog existence—and like it.I love the theme, and I enjoyed the free-verse format. Lots of fun play on words and vivid imagery.
Is the book faithful to the real-life location? I thought so! Purvis does a great job of portraying the quirky local businesses that we have. I can see the pancake house as a sort of Darbi’s. The description of the Chamber of Commerce is spot on. And I love Pops. He’s an overly patriotic elder, which we have in spades ’round here—we COVER the mountain in American flags for all the patriotic holidays. If you don’t believe me, just visit on July 4. We have our share of shady pawn shops, too, although they’re far outnumbered by dollar stores. We have more dollar stores and thrift stores per capita than anywhere else I’ve ever been.
On the flip side, our cops are mostly nice, and we don’t host an annual scavenger hunt, even though we totally should.
Disclaimer. I don’t actually live in Show Low. I’m in Lakeside. (Not Pinetop either.) If you live here, this is an important distinction, but if you don’t live here, it makes no difference whatsoever.
A group of kids must escape a game-maker’s library in order to win the grand prize
This was our last read-aloud for the school year. I selected it because I hoped it would be a fun, exciting story to start the summer. My boys did enjoy it, but I was a tad underwhelmed.
I must say, though, that the ending made up for what I thought was a snoozy middle.
When I finished reading the last couple of chapters, my boys (7 and 8 years old) were literally jumping and rolling off the couch and around the carpet. All the tension and excitement they were feeling was manifesting in these funny physical gyrations, and it was hilarious to watch.
The story premise is great. An eccentric game-maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has built a state-of-the-art library in his childhood hometown, and he invites twelve 12-year-olds to a lock-in at the library. The next morning, they opt into an epic game to “escape” the library and win fame and fortune as Lemoncello spokes-kids.
The clues and puzzles were excellent. I felt like they were difficult enough to warrant the fanfare surrounding the game event. The only thing, though, was that SO much went over my boys’ heads. As the adult, I caught all the allusions and Easter eggs, and I wanted to explain them to my boys, but I refrained, haha.
I felt like the writing and the characters were on the weaker side. Granted, this is a plot-driven adventure story, but I was expecting a bit more in the character department. That would’ve helped support the middle of the novel, which dragged for me.
There wasn’t much “there” there, even for our hero, Kyle. The most interesting character is Charles because he’s a worthy villain, who tries to weasel and fake his way to the top. It’s good to see him taken down a notch—my boys loved it—but he’s also something of a caricature.
If each character could’ve displayed more internal conflict, our interest would’ve skyrocketed. There’s one point at which Kyle is tempted to play video games instead of help his team look for clues, and after a quick pause, he resists the temptation. Had the characters had grown and changed to a greater degree, the book would’ve had more to offer.
Also, the grand prize (being a Lemoncello spokesperson) seemed a little strange. I would not wish fame on these poor kids!
I love Andrew Clements, but this was not a favorite for me or my boys. The book came with our homeschool curriculum, and it sounded intriguing—”two mysteries in one,” says the cover. I think that skewed my expectations. I was anticipating something heavy on clues, puzzles, twists, and gasps.
But this book was very quiet and unassuming. The drama is small, just like the town of Plattsford, Nebraska, where the story is set. The main character, Ted, is a sixth-grader who stumbles upon a family squatting in an abandoned farmhouse, and he does what he can to help them.
The book has gold-standard values, I will give it that. But, everyone in the book seemed to be on his/her best behavior. It would’ve been interesting to have a mischief-maker or a bad guy in the mix to liven things up. There wasn’t enough conflict for me.
The climax of the story is a huge bust—and it’s supposed to be. This made for some interesting discussion. My boys and I were rooting for a magical ending where everyone cheers and the kids hug and the parents cry while the soundtrack swells to a crescendo. The book deliberately bursts your bubble. Asking “WHY?” is a good exercise for kids.
Overall, though, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who is looking for a page-turner to keep the interest of a reluctant reader. Good but not great.
When a young spy needs to redeem herself in her boss’s eyes, she finds herself tested in twisty ways
I needed something different. I saw that this popular thriller was high on twists and low on sex and violence, so I gave it a try. I’m NOT much for thrillers, but about once a year, I’ll pick one up. I never seem to love them, so take my review with a grain of salt.
Here’s what appealed to me: I knew this was going to be a plot-driven book. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of character arc, and, turns out, there wasn’t much of one. The plot was interesting and did deliver some twists and turns that I enjoyed and didn’t see coming. It was fast-paced and short. A nice palate cleanser.
I could’ve done with MORE character, especially from the lead.
I won’t spoil the end, but…I had issues with the note it ended on. It didn’t have good resonance, even though it is discussable.
Content warnings: The book didn’t rely on graphic scenes for shock and awe. So, no graphic violence or sex. The main character is living with a man. Some deaths occur. There was the usual foul language that you’d expect, but it was moderate—not minimal but not everywhere. Of course, this is a worldly book, so it comes with, well, worldliness.
