Book obtained from: Library e-book [2000]
Description: This is a middle-grade book. Michael is 10 years old. His family just moved into a dilapidated house that they want to restore. His baby sister is very ill and in the hospital. He sneaks into the abandoned garage and finds an alien.
Plot: Michael finds an alien trying to survive in his dilapidated garage. The only person he trusts with this information is his neighbor Mina. Together they try to keep the alien from dying, while Michael's baby sister is in the hospital.
Characterization: Michael and Mina and the alien [Skellig] are somewhat developed. Would have liked to see a bit more of it tho.
Setting: Not sure. Semi-rural, with dilapidated houses, owls and other wildlife.
Other: This book has a literary feel and tone. Somewhat dark/gothic.
Overall: I enjoyed this story but I would have liked it to have more character development. Maybe because it's a middle grade book?
Grade: B
Book obtained from: Library e-book [2013]
Description: Minerva “Minnie” Hamilton and Eddie, the cat that followed her home one day and wouldn't leave, drive a bookmobile and solve a murder.
Plot: Eddie sneaks aboard the bookmobile on its first day of service, delighting the patrons. At their last stop of the day, he leads Minnie to a body. Unfortunately, Minnie knows the victim, and it appears many of her friends are suspected of killing him. So Minnie “helps” investigate the crime.
Characterization: The characters could have been more developed. I had a sense of who they were, but none of the “jumped out at me”, except for Eddie who was cute and funny and well-done. Sometimes I lost track of who was who, but oddly it didn't seem to matter much. I still enjoyed the story.
Setting: Southwestern Michigan. Nicely described, I was able to picture every scene.
Other: The main character pondered the clues so much, and gave their specific significance, that there were none that the reader could miss.
Overall: This was a cute cozy mystery, very good for readers who don't really want to think too much, they just want a cute story with a well-stated conclusion.
Grade: B
Book obtained from: Library New Books shelf, audio book
Description:
This is book #4 in this series by James Patterson and Marshall Karp.
This specialized unit of the NYPD is an elite task force which
investigates cases involving the rich and famous.
Plot:
A famous actress is murdered at her movie premiere. Zach Jordan and
Kylie MacDonald, the NYPD Red team, must find the killer, without
upsetting other famous people or NY politicians in the process. There
are several subplots, including a series of thefts at hospitals which
must be solved but also kept “quiet” and the personal lives of the two
main characters, all of which are interesting in their own right.
Characterization:
All the characters are reasonably well-developed, and they were
portrayed as real people with real personalities. The point of view
switches between the main characters and is done well.
Setting: New York City. Nicely described.
Other:
This book was narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and he did an excellent
job, definitely added to the characterization and the story.
Overall: Good story. Sub-plots were interesting and I thought they added to the story.
Grade: A-
Book obtained from: Library New Books shelf, audio book
Description: Author Michael Connelly has both of his main characters, Harry Bosch [LAPD detective] and Mickey Haller [criminal defense attorney], together in this book. Most of the chapters are in Bosch's POV but some are in the POV of the “bad guys”. The book starts with the bad guys so the reader knows up front who they are.
Plot: Bosch has retired from the LAPD. His half-brother, Mickey Haller, asks for Bosch's help with investigating a case for his client, a former gang member who has gone straight but is charged with the particularly brutal murder of an assistant city manager. As Bosch gets closer to the truth, the bad guys go after him.
Characterization: There really isn't much character development in this book, possibly because these characters are reasonably well-known to most readers. But if I hadn't read any of the previous books, the characters would have felt kind of flat to me. The personal story line had a good start, but really didn't go anywhere.
Setting: Los Angeles. Nicely described.
Other: This is a very good police procedural, even tho Bosch is no longer an active police detective. The story details his thought processes in the investigation. Michael Connelly is also VERY GOOD at dramatizing an attorney cross-examining a witness at trial. There are two places where this occurs, one at the beginning and one at the end. Both excellent.
Overall: I really enjoyed this story, probably because I know these characters from previous books, and I am an attorney who frequently works in Los Angeles. For new readers tho, there wasn't enough character development. The book is narrated by Titus Welliver who also plays Bosch in the new series from Amazon Studios.
Grade: A-
Book obtained from: Library New Books shelf, audio book
Description: Detective Tracy Crosswhite helps a friend investigate the suspicious suicide of a high school senior 40 years ago.
Plot: Tracy investigates the alleged suicide of a Native American girl. The book has chapters in the present day, and occasionally a chapter set 40 years ago when the incident occurred. The townspeople seemed to accept that this girl killed herself, and didn't want someone stirring the waters 40 years later, because they were unwilling to learn the truth.
Characterization: All the characters are reasonably well-developed. At about the 3/4 mark, there was a scene where I didn't remember who someone was, and it took several paragraphs before I remembered. Otherwise I was able to keep everyone differentiated.
Setting: Klickitat County, Washington. Nicely described, I was able to picture every scene.
Other: The author did a little too much telling and exposition, explaining things instead of dramatizing them. The book was narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith and she did a very nice job.
Overall: The book switched to 1976 and back to 2016 easily. Interesting story.
Grade: B+
Book obtained from: Library, e-book
Description: This is a middle grade memoir in graphic novel format. The author, Cece, lost her hearing at age 4 from meningitis. The book describes her efforts to fit in and find friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid.
Plot: At age 4, Cece has meningitis and loses her hearing. In kindergarten, she attends a school where all the students have hearing loss. Then in first grade, she is mainstreamed into a regular school where she reads lips and uses a bulky but effective hearing aid. She tries to keep up with her studies and make friends.
Characterization: All the characters are drawn as rabbits, which made me think of the series Arthur by Marc Brown. Arthur is an aardvark, but these rabbits were similar. I was somewhat disappointed in that the characters weren't as developed as I would have preferred. I'm not sure whether this is a function of the graphic novel format or not, because this is the only graphic novel I've read. But I did think the plot moved a bit too fast, it didn't give much time for development.
Setting: Roanoke Virginia. Not much description in the text, but it is a graphic novel, so scenes were drawn.
Other: Newbery Honor Book. Gives kids an insight into the thoughts of other children who are living with a disability.
Overall: I enjoyed this story, even tho I'm not the intended demographic.
Grade: B
Book obtained from: Library New Books shelf, audio book
Description: The previous year, a fire at a boarded-up Catholic church killed three firefighters. Now, at the one-year anniversary, a surviving firefighter not satisfied with the official conclusion asks Boston PI Spenser to investigate.
Plot: Spenser investigates the church fire at the same time as a series of arson fires plagues the city. As Spenser gets closer to the truth, the arson fires increase in number and intensity. The author includes several chapters in the villain's POV, so the reader knows the answer, but it is still interesting to learn how Spenser figures it out.
Characterization: This appears to be a book written by an author using the characters and setting created by an original author who is now deceased. Amazon indicates it is book 44 in the series. There were a few places where characters were not well-developed, like the author expected the reader to know who these people were because they had read previous books. I haven't read any previous books in this series, so in those places it took a few pages before I figured out what was going on. Readers who have read the original author's books will presumably know these characters from the previous books.
Setting: Boston. Nicely described.
Other: There was quite a bit of foul language in this book, some of which I don't believe was necessary to the story. The book was narrated by Joe Mantegna and he was really good.
Overall: Good story. It's always interesting when the reader knows who the “bad guys” are, to learn how the main character figures it out.
Grade: B+
