Book Review: The Red Hotel: Moscow, 1941. The Metropol Hotel and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War

The Red Hotel: Moscow, 1941. The Metropol Hotel and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda (Disinformation) War, by Alan Philps (First Pegasus Books, 2023, 451 pp, $29.95), a Washington Post 50 Best Books of 2023. Review by Skye Anderson

Mistitled?

If you read and loved Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow (I tried but couldn't finish it), you will love The Red Hotel. The first is a novel and the second is a long piece of non-fiction (451 pages) but both are centered around the Metropol hotel in Moscow (365 rooms). The red cover with yellow-gold letters is mirrored when you take off the cover and find the book is red with yellow-gold front and back inside pages. Red is the color of communism, after all.

However, like Russian novels with too many characters and too many pages for the uninitiated, The Red Hotel covers too much that is not relevant to the hotel (and thus the title) so the book title is a bit misleading but fortunately the subtitle says it all. It could have so easily been a trilogy or just edited down to incidents at the Metropol (less background of the characters) and those residing and working there during WW2.

If you thought the "Dog and Pony Show," The Five O'Clock Follies during the Vietnam Conflict, was a farce, you haven't read The Red Hotel. Most foreign correspondents and reporters lived in the Metropol with nightly banquets and caviar inside for the foreign journalists, freezing and starving outside for the Russian citizens. . . .

Disenchantment

Few of the reporters were fluent in Russian, so the government supplied them with translators who would read the daily papers to their assigned person (and, since these young women were transcripted into service, they also reported back on their reporters' questions and conversations. Some of them even moved in. Both people were issued ration cards that permitted them to shop for delicacies like sugar that the populace could not obtain. The young translators were idealistic communists but many of them soon lost their enthusiasm for their government's doings and changed sides in their minds. It was so hard for both parties to live 'the life of Riley' in the midst of poverty.

Nightly parties alternated among the reporters' rooms but were always liquid (read: vodka). And the biggest complaint was the fact that the bored reporters were not permitted on the battlefield so they not only had to depend on government 'news' in the official Russian papers, but their stories were sent to the censors before they were permitted to be sent to their home countries' papers. Consequently, little news came out of Russia.

In many of the 29 chapters, we follow the lives of perhaps half a dozen Russians and foreign reporters, with the most interesting chapters being about the women. And the reader will learn that the wife of JBS Haldane, that brilliant geneticist, was one of the very few foreign female journalists!

At the end of the book author Alan Philps brings us up to date on the major players and what happened to them during the 50s and even to this day.

And, as the pages are turned, the reader's interest is piqued by accounts of spying and the gulags.

It would help to have a pretty good knowledge of Russia and the Soviet Union for you will run into Averell Harriman, Shostakovich the composer, Edgar Snow, Margaret Bourke-White, Molotov, . . . .

Book Review: Banyan Moon (three generations of strong women)

Banyan Moon, by Thao Thai (Mariner Books, 2023, 336 pp, $30), a "Read* with Jenna" selection. Reviewed by Skye Anderson. 

A Book Club Read

Banyan Moon is a lovely, lyrical sweet book (yet leaving the reader a bit apprehensive in parts) about three generations of strong women living in Vietnam, Florida, and Michigan, with lives intertwining and repeating, with the youngest being so very brave and the eldest even braver. They attack each other with word weapons and still live together in a big old decrepit house in the country with a huge old banyan tree in the front yard. Both the house and the tree seeming to be major characters. . . .

Our Banyan women survive so much; deaths and relocations and betrayal and inheritance and abuse and objects saved and especially the secrets women withhold from each other but slowly either reveal or destroy as they learn to accept each other a little bit more. We live the three generations along with Ann and Huong and Minh yet also glimpse the grandmother's mother and the granddaughter's child-to-be.

The reader will be surprised by several events but then realize that all the loose ends become tied up nicely with a bow in a lovely package for the reader, that there is only one way the various events can turn out and not in the way the reader may expect.

Mothers and Daughters (reminiscent of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons): Universal

Does a mother ever cease being a mother to her daughter even when she grows up? Can a daughter become mother to her mother? Does understanding and acceptace skip a generation sometimes with grandmother and granddaughter closer to each other than to the one in the middle and vice versa? They may love one another but do they really like one another?

The reader will relive her own childhood and the relationship she has (or had) with her own mother (and daughter). The complexity of the relationships in Banyan are focused on the complexity of the stories with the grandmother narrating from her grave, with chapters alternating among the three narrators, with skipping from place to place and time to time. And yet, the reader does not easily become lost in the stories. 

You will see yourself in one of the women at times. You will see your mother in one of them but not the same one all the way through the book. Men will also see their mothers and their wives and their daughters. If you don't see your family, you will see the family you dream of. I would not be surprised if, after reading Banyan, some relationships are mended.

Writing Style

Author Thao Thai could have written this saga of a family over time and geography, wholely set in America or, instead of using the Vietnamese experience, used the Italian experience or the Irish, or the Scandinavian, or the Jewish or - pick any US city and you would love that story just as much as this one.

Her choice of words to describe everyday things is unique and memorable.

Readers will argue about the characters and the choices they made. Readers will disagree about the paths a character takes but will realize the inevitability of it all. And what about the minor characters, the men? And the significance of the house itself? Where is the study guide for Banyan, the reader's guide for book club discussions?

What would I change? I would add a small glossary to explain some of the Vietnamese pronouns that represent a person's status such as little one, or older "sister," or em, chi, anh, ba, con, co, ong (I don't have access to tone marks or diacritical marks in this font). These pronouns reflect the age, gender, closeness to the speaker or place in the family.

And I wonder about the meaning, if any, behind the choice of Huong's brother's name: Phuoc. . . .

*Jenna Bush Hager

Book Review: Biscuit's Christmas Storybook Favorites (collection of nine)

Biscuit's Christmas Storybook Favorites, by Alyssa Capucilli (Harper, $13.99 HB, 2000 [books from 1997 onward], ages 2-6, preschool - grade 3, 192 pp) Review by Skye Anderson

Everyone's favorite puppy, Biscuit, stars in a collection of nine (well, at least five) Christmas books, hard cover (built to last), all in one. Biscuit's Christmas Storybook Favorites is sure to become a well-worn favorite of you and yours.

Biscuit is a well-loved golden puppy belonging to a little girl (whose name we never find out). Biscuit only woofs but, nevertheless, the illustrations by Pat Schories depict exactly what is going on and the words are written to be read easily by little ones. We know when Biscuit is afraid, when he has done something wrong, when his tail wags in excitement at seeing Grandma and Grandpa

We all know Biscuit and have loved that little pup for three decades. 

Biscuit's body language is expertly depicted in all its different forms, from "Let's Play!" to getting into trouble as all puppies do. Biscuit's human, the little girl, takes care of him and teaches him all about Christmas in such a loving manner. She also forgives all his little puppy shenanigans like pulling down the tablecloth, falling into the pond and shaking off too close to his little girl, tugging on mittens, snatching a gingerbread cookie or two meant for Santa.

Mom and Dad will remember how much they loved Biscuit and his antics as they read to their little ones about families and helping others.

We all want our own little Biscuit!

Book Review: Together for Christmas: A Holiday Romance Novel (four short stories)(OT)

Together for Christmas: A Holiday Romance Novel (Mira, 2020, 384pp PB, four short romance novels/short stories) Review by Skye Anderson

Who has time in December to read a book, even if it's about Christmas or Hanukah or Kwanza or. . . ? 

Not me. But i do have time to read a short story or two and so I did - four, in fact, by Debbie Macomber, Brenda Novak, Sheila Roberts, and Raeanne Thayne in a book collection titled - what else? - Together for Christmas.

A story within a story is 5-B Poppy Lane, followed by When We Touch and Welcome to Icicle Falls and, finally, but the first one* to read, Starstruck. They all have plenty of characters and if you can't keep the characters straight, perhaps you will remember their towns: Cedar Cove, Washington, and Whiskey Creek, California, Icicle Falls, Washington and, finally, Cold Creek, Idaho. Bodies of water play a starring role, as do small towns and three generations - just in time for Christmas.

Short stories but just long enough for a prologue and an epilogue. 

5-B Poppy Lane: young girl and her boyfriend visit her grandmother and hear her tales of love and daring during World War II

When We Touch: Not every family is a happy family at Christmas time. Read about two sisters who argue often. Will they make up in time for the holidays?

Welcome to Icicle Falls: A stranger comes to town and steals a young girl's heart and then leaves. But before he does, he meets her father who does not approve. A tale of a small town where everyone knows everyone.

Starstruck: Teenage girls are starstruck over the new heartthrob in Hollywood. Fast forward maybe 10 years to find he has settled in their small town. Will he stay?

Four lovely little stories that will steal your heart - and the first one will not soon be forgotten!

*Why read this one first? It is the shortest. Plus, if you like to save the best for last like I do, save Debbie Macomber's for last - read the stories in reverse order for a change.

Book Review: The Red Dress (OT) (COVID and pre-Civil War)

The Red Dress: Old Secrets Brought to Light, by Deobrah* Edmisten (independently published, 2022, 315 pp, $10PB, Young Adult [or historical or romance]) Review by Skye Anderson

Despite such an unusual, unsettling cover, all I can say about The Red Dress is wow!

What a Page Turner!

So glad I started this so late one evening that I didn't really get 'into' it before lights out. However, the next day I finished it in one setting - The Red Dress is the kind of book you just can't put down!

Prolific author Deborah Edmisten successfully alternates short chapters set in contemporary times (during the COVID-19 Pandemic) with incidents before the Civil War when slavery was commonplace. Arabella owns a very very old (c. 1845) house in the Ohio countryside and, out of boredom one day decides to clean out the attic, finding a blood-stained red dress. Later, she finds a mysterious secret room with a bed, a man's suit, a couple of photos, a couple of letters. (But she doesn't find them all at once, thus prolonging the suspense.) 

Being during the Pandemic, Arabella discusses the finds with her next-door neighbors (with six feet of separation, of course) and, over several days, they hypothesize what could explain the items as more data surfaces. Bringing in family and away-friends to help with the genealogy search, Arabella and friends concoct several possibilities, some with dead-ends.

With perhaps too many characters, some violence, and a love story perhaps more for adults than for young adults, along with a not-surprising yet possibly unexpected ending for Arabella, the pre-Civil War secret room involvement will take the reader along for an exciting ride. Readers will know just a bit more than Arabella and friends who sometimes take a wrong turn.

*the author's name may be spelled Deobrah as on Amazon or Deborah as in the book

Book Review: Salmon Survivor (fishing, 12-year-old boy, Alaska)

Salmon Survivor, by Christian Shane (Relevant Publishers, 171pp, $14.99PB, 2022, ages 8-12, grades 5-7) Review by Skye Anderson

Short and sweet. Well, not exactly sweet since it is a coming-of-age book. Young Jack is given a journal in which he writes to his recently deceased father as he grows up one summer on a visit to Alaska to meet his grandfather. Jack is also a fly-tier (like my brother, which I had forgotten) and author Christian Shane, a biology teacher, supplies several 'recipes' in the back part of Salmon Survivor, along with references.

The Premise

Author Christian Shane in Alaska

Young boy loves to fish with his dad in Pennsylvania but his dad passes away, his book unfinished. His wife, a photographer and writer, decides to finish the book, an Alaskan fishing guide, and brings her son to his grandfather in Alaska as she gathers more information - a grandfather Jack doesn't know, whom he has never met, who has never visited his grandson in Pennsylvania due to a fear of flying.

Who Are the Teachers and Who Are the Students?

Young Jack is sometimes wise beyond his years, but not always. Grandfather teaches him how and where to catch a salmon like the Alaskan guide that he is, how to watch out for bear, and, in turn, learns about family - late, but not too late.

And the Dog

Would you believe the dog Salmo(n) actually saves someone in the end, a foolish someone who is throwing caution to the wind as he tries to be a man before his is ready? 

Delightful Features

We picture Alaska on the palm of our hand and use our fingers to remember the five species of salmon. We also love each chapter beginning's fact about Alaska. This reviewer is from that part of the country and is familiar with the place names but a map would have been helpful.

We learn the prize is in the catching, not the keeping, of the fish. One lesson taught over and over again is to throw back the small ones and any fish caught after the 3-fish daily limit.

Releasing a Fish

All in all, a book to remember!

Book Review: Falling Star (with a cameo by a dog)

Falling Star by Michelle Kwasniewski (Rand-Smith Books, 2023, 306pp, Young Adult, $20PB), Book three in The Rise and Fall of Dani Truhart series. Review by Skye Anderson.

Most series of books can be read in any order but it helps to read the first one first: Falling Star is no exception. I read the third one and it only excited me to read the others - but, nevertheless, I did understand the whole story. I have so much to tell you about Dani Truhart (where on earth did that name come from?)!

To Set The Stage

With a mesmerizing cover, author Michelle Kwasniewski enthralled me with the first paragraph! An exciting believable (or not) inebriated underage accident cover-up! 

Our young heroine, Dani Truhart, the number one pop singer in the world at age 16 whose mother blackmailed her in a previous book (or so it seems) and whose father appears only sporadically, has a legal guardian. Our Dani is more or less mature for her age and vacillates between being wise beyond her years and "just a teenager." With plenty of dialogue (perhaps too much?), the book reads quickly albeit slow in the beginning and bogging down in places.

Dichotomy?

The first half speeds to a crescendo and then drops off a bit to pursue another (but related) plot before merging the two in the final pages, perhaps too abruptly. The author also ends most chapters with a blog by the same person each time who finally plays a larger role in the story, plus there are Facebook posts from members of the Truhart Nation, Dani's fan club, loyal no matter what.

We have the usual crush on an older boy who ignores Dani plus a growing chasm between Dani and her famous best friends and another brush-off from a former high-school boyfriend. And drinking and driving. . . . 

Can people really change? Can Dani really grow up? Can she really trust her mother? 

I am so pumped to read Rising Star now!

Book Two

Book Review, Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Ugly Truth (#5)(middle school boys)(OT)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books, 224 pp, 2010, $13.95HB, ages 8-11, grades 3-7) 5th in a series of 31. Review by Skye Anderson.

Local Author Hits Big!

Jeff Kinney was born and raised in Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland so we can all claim this prolific author (31 Wimpy Kid books) and bask in his spotlight even if he now lives in New England. Not only does he write books but he also illustrates them, too!

Our middle school hero Gregory is looking for another best friend as school starts up again in September. We laugh our way through his shenanigans with older brother Rodrick and younger brother Manny as we remember what our siblings were like at that age. 

Friday Night Lock-In

Kids and adults (even teachers and principals) try to understand and get along with each other but just keep missing as they pass in the night. For example, during the Friday night sleep-in at school to raise money for the music department, each activity had a price-tag along with it but  the activities just bombed for the almost-grown-up kids, having been planned by adults for kids, not by kids for kids. 

When Mom Goes Back To School

Mom goes back to school, resulting in chaos in the household and the necessity to hire a maid who thinks she is being paid to watch TV. She has nothing to do since Mom, like many of us, cleans the house the night before she comes! And the family has to cook, learning the hard way to remember next time to remove the saran wrap before microwaving the burgers.

Families! Extended Families!

And then we have an uncle's third wedding (or is it the fourth?) bringing all the extended family together for another weekend of chaos.

The Ugly Truth

Just what the ugly truth is, the reader will have to find out for himself (or herself since the Wimpy Kid books appeal to middle school girls just as much, if even only to give them more ammunition to compare themselves to the boys who are always getting in trouble).

Author Kinney has an uncanny talent for remembering just what kids are like. Even adults will love this book!

An Unlikely Story

Our author owns a bookstore called An Unlikely Story and I bet he stocks all the Wimpy Kid books including The Third Wheel. 

For more Wimpy Kid books, start with reading this review.

Book Review: Tails: A Backyard Story (a backyard tale told in English by the animals themselves)

Tails, A Backyard Story by Michael Curran (Independently published, $15, 2023, 202pp, first in a trilogy) Review by Skye Anderson

What comes first, tails or fences? Or Tails or Fences? In this case, we read the second book in the trilogy first (Fences) followed by Tails, and though one can easily follow events by reading the books out of order, we would advise reading the first book first and the second book second. The third book in the trilogy is not yet  finished.

Like Fences, Tails begins with several chapters starring one major character each and featured on the cover (but there are more characters in Fences**). We meet Dutch the dog and Chase the dog, Buddy the cat and chief of Indoor Security, Ricky the Mockingbird (who plays a much larger role in the second book), Skip the squirrel, Robin the robin, Miss Lou Lou the field mouse (or, more accurately, the vole) and some bunnies. And the humans* of course - Wendy and Scott and their 9-year-old Cole, who reside at 207 Spruce Street. Our friends the animals also live at 207 Spruce Street but in the backyard, primarily.

Shades of To Kill a Mockingbird

Partially written in the voice of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, Tails and Fences are a delight to peruse - quick to read because we  simply love each character, want to learn more about them, laugh a little and follow the plot: in this case, a Little League baseball game final.

*humans are called humies by Michael Curran

**

Book Review: Fences: A Backyard Story (backyard animals)

Fences: A Backyard Story, by Michael Curran (Independently published, $15, 2023, 297pp) Review by Skye Anderson

A sequel to Tails: A Backyard Story, Fences  is a lovely book for young adults - with hidden education to boot. Though fairly long and slow in the beginning in order to carefully and fully introduce the myriad of animal characters, the tale gradually moves quickly and eventually ties all the loose ends together in the end. 

Love the Names

Munk is a chipmunk; Chaser, a dog. Of course!

Other animals have not-so-obvious names like Ricky the Mockingbird, head of Outdoor Security, Madame Monet the skunk (huh?), Buddy the cat who is head of Indoor Security, and Skip the squirrel. 

The scenes take place largely in the backyard of the Brennan house at 207 Spruce Street, home to parents Wendy and Scott, and their boy Cole who is attacked by a murder of crows, thus alarming the backyard animals and resulting in a committee to find the murderer. It is amazing how the various species can communicate with each other - in English.

The Story

Fences starts off with a big bang - a murder of a crow (and later we read about another 'murder' of crows). We learn where crows spend their nights sleeping and how aunt and uncle crows stick around the nuclear family to help raise the next younger generation. And, perhaps as a play on words, we meet a crow named Usher Poe (the author is from Pennsylvania, near Baltimore, home of Edgar Allen Poe, who wrote about ravens, however).

The Gang on Spruce Street

With a lovely lyrical writing style, author Michael Curran makes learning about animal husbandry fun - but that is not the main goal of Fences. Or perhaps that goal shares the spotlight with suspense and also with lessons of cooperation. Several of the first chapters might be read in a different order because each chapter highlights one named animal, as if only one of a species lived in a particular backyard, with the exception of crows and a pair of squirrels.

You can easily picture not only the various characters but also the action. With humor taking us back to our childhood, Curran writes about childhood as only an observant father can (the boy speeding down the stairs skipped the last four steps - who doesn't remember doing that?).

There is a definite demarkation between day animals and night ones: it is dangerous for day animals to be caught away from home when the sun sets (when our murder takes place).

With only a few punctuation errors, Fences is a book to entice the reader to learn more about crows and other highlighted animals. Unfortunately, a great horned owl is the antagonist, much to the dismay of this reviewer who studied owls in graduate school.

Fences will also entice you to read the first book in the series, Tails, whose review follows this one.

Book Review: Schoolhouse Dogs Face Life (young adult fiction)

Schoolhouse Dogs Face Life, by Dawn and Jim Darnell (Independently Published, 2023, 178pp, $14.95PB, $223.95HC, Young Adult)

Adorable Cover!

Authors Dawn and Jim Darnell take lessons about life that kids learn in school and transform those dry lessons into school chapters involving dogs, but not just any dogs - a bevy of breeds and mixes who attend an unusual school. Irish Setter, Mastiff, Husky, and more.

Considerable research has gone into writing Schoolhouse Dogs Face Life including breed characteristics. For example, a Shar Pei has difficulty smelling a trail because his face wrinkles hang down covering his nose and prevent the odors from reaching it, something that I had never thought about! Wrinkles also interfere with his sight. And his name is so descriptive - Crinkle Bear! He is a major character as he tries to win the heart of Lollie Pop, another Shar Pei.

The end of every chapter slides into a lesson for life. Though it may be hard to discern who exactly is speaking, even that mirrors real life when dogs all bark at once. Most chapters include lots of teasing, bullying and misunderstanding which, when cleared up, lead to the lessons learned.

The dogs interact in the schoolyard as they wait for the bell to ring and each day has a different lesson such as jumping, potty training (for the excitable Lab), and smelling.

But the most important lesson is not competing but acceptance of ourselves as the bullying turns into acceptance of others. The authors even give us an acronym: FACE for Forgiveness, Acceptance, Commitment and Encouragement.

Movie Review: K-9 (dog-cop flick with a little bit of K-9 romance thrown in)

 K-9, starring Jim Belushi and Mel Harris (1989, 102 minutes, Netflix) Review by Skye Anderson

Turner and Hooch it isn't!

We came across K-9 recently on Netflix and love love loved it! Not your usual cop-and-dog flick and much of it was highly unbelievable (not to real life) but that somehow did not subtract from our enjoyment one iota!

The human is a renegade cop in trouble with his boss so he is assigned a police dog who is one tough cookie, as evidenced by the frequency of his growls. Of course in real life, cop-and-dog teams train together for quite some time before going out onto the streets to work the bad guys. 

Our canine hero, Jerry Lee, is a grouchy drug-sniffing German Shepherd Dog (GSD) who, in one scene, when he stinks (for some reason), is relegated alone to the car which happens to be a Mustang convertible and the car is sent through the car wash! This wet dog is so cute! But we wondered how the driver's seat dried so quickly that the cop didn't even get his suit wet when he drove away.

Even if you GSDs are not your breed, you will fall in love with Jerry Lee who refuses to sit in the back seat of the convertible - he prefers the front passenger seat.

There are holes in the plot which was too convoluted for me but I was watching as a dog person after all. K-9 is a very enjoyable movie to watch in several sittings, a few scenes at a time - for the dog, after all (plus, girl friend Mel Harris is easy on the eyes and the house they live in must be a city block long!)

Now we are off to find K-911 and K-9:PI and K9000!

Book Review: Gizelle's Silly, Soggy Day (OT)(children's, sheep)

Gizelle's Silly, Soggy Day, by Joy VanDertuin and Michelle Hill (Winning Champion Press, 2021, 53 pp, 3-8 years or ages 3-5, $9.99) Reviewed by Skye Anderson.

Gizelle, an adorable black-face lamb, lives on a farm with other sheep, other animals, and border collie Gracie. But Gizelle, rather than sticking together with the other sheep often goes off on her own to find sweet grass to eat, so Gracie must keep a close eye on her. 

One day Gizelle wanders too far and gets into trouble during bad weather. Will the other animals who are usually enemies (and either prey or predators) come to her aid? How does Gracie do a 'call to arms'? And what can Gizelle do to thank them all in return?

Fun illustrations make friends of all the animals for the young reader: the tale is full of suspense with a lovely ending.

Most pages have a little circled illustration that can also be found as part of the larger illustration on the facing page, creating a contest to teach little readers to look closely.

We love Gizelle and can't wait to read Gizelle's Whimsical, Wintery Day.

Book Review: Compost (kid's book with stickers, games and science) (OT)

Compost: A Family Guide to Making Soil from Scraps (A Discover Together Guide), by Ben Raskin (Roost Books, 62 pages, 2014, $16.95) Review by Skye Anderson

Composting is Fun!

Replete with four pages of stickers, a ruler you can take out and use to measure worms, a game based on Candyland or Chutes and Ladders (Worms and Ladders), a picture frame, and a punch-out Worm Lover's Society member card, Compost is a book for kids that the whole family can use and take part in the activities therein.

For boys (and girls!), there are plenty of pictures and facts about worms and other creepy crawly things, including different kinds of worms and their genus and species, and also a bit about bacteria and protozoa.  They will learn the difference between humus and hummus (the latter is edible), the difference between hot and cold compost piles, and how you can start composting in your own kitchen! Kids can immediately use the stickers or, reading through the book, can earn the stickers one at a time.

Parents will appreciate the advice on what to do if you run into problems, the instructions to start composting (easy), what to compost and what not to compost, and the science (acidic and alkaline soil) and creativity of composting.

Worms are Great!

Be a Worm Hero!

Rotting is Good!

Book Review: Tails (toddlers, textures)

Tails, by Matthew Van Fleet (Harper Collins Clarion/Dragonfly Design, 2003, $14.99, 1-3 years, 20 pp), a board book for toddlers. Review by Skye Anderson.

Tails for Toddlers, A Touching Tale

Toddlers like yours simply love to touch (after they have put the object in their mouth, of course) so this book about tails is so touching (pun  intended). It starts with the cover, a cut-out with a shiny peacock tail feather, a soft tiger tail (both forming the 'T'), a clingy yet strong pangolin tail (the 'a'), a stringy warthog tail (making the 'i'), an old and bumpy alligator tail ('l'), even a fluffy tail (for the 's') and, of course, a long weasel tail.

Short Tails and Long Tales (Opposites, too)

Tails is a book that teaches counting, starting with the final page, but with an emphasis on common and not-so-common animals - all with tails to touch! 

The animals are cute, even the skunk with a scratch-and-sniff tail. Some tails will wag if you help them - with pull-tabs and fold-outs and flaps to lift.

But, sadly no dog tails. . . .

Tails look different. Tails feel different. Tails even have different functions. Your child will learn and remember 'all about tails'!

Book Review: Serial Killers and Psychopaths: True Life Cases that Shocked the World

Serial Killers and Psychopaths: True Life Cases that Shocked the World, by Charlotte Greig and John Marlowe (Arcturus, 2020, $16.99, 464 pp) Review by Skye Anderson

Really! It's hard to believe, isn't it?

We get books to review from authors, publishers, bookstores, used book stores, as gifts, from libraries - you name it.

Recently on a trip to a 'superbookstore,' we saw a display of about 10 books on the subject of crime, mysteries, etc. - and we wanted them all but finally settled for only Serial Killers and Psychopaths.

Although a long book, at over 400 pages, it is my favorite kind (not my favorite book) - the kind with short chapters so you can take it wherever you go, get interrupted, and not be upset. You can come back to it much later and not miss anything because each chapter stands alone. You can read it in any order.

Organization

Ten sections include a history, Victorian cases, lust murderers, spree murderers, and, of course, serial killers. Many take place in England or Germany, a few in other countries such as Australia, Ukraine and Russia, and a number of them in the US but only a few that you may be familiar with - Ted Bundy*, the Columbine case, Son of Sam, the Beltway Snipers, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and a very few women. Missing is the clock tower shooting in 1966 at the University of Texas-Austin by former Marine Charles Whitman as well as Bonnie and Clyde.

Each story begins with a paragraph summary of the end of the story, then reports on the person's life from its beginning with many details and many names, reminiscent of Russian novels. I suspect the authors tried to recreate the police and newspaper reports into something like fascinating prose but the stories still were based on what happened chronologically and, after reading a few, you know what comes next. One, however, seems to have been truncated. . . . 

The Cure has Occurred

So, I'm cured. I will not be returning to that store for any of the other books in the crime/mystery/killer display. All in all, I was not fascinated with Serial Killers - although some readers will be grossed out by the deeds done, the stories were told matter-of-factly and I was really looking for more depth such as learning why. All we do know is that these people often come from broken families, or abusive families, or that the perpetrators themselves suffered a concussion as a youngster.

However, I will follow up this review with one that is more middle-road, so you, dear reader do not get the wrong idea!

*I am not sure all the facts are correct. I know a lot about Ted Bundy, having attended the same schools, majored in the same subject about the same time, and am a member of the sorority he managed to wreck so much havoc in - and some of the facts related in Serial Killers differ from what I learned over and over again.

Book Review: Dara Palmer's Major Drama (11-year-old girl, drama and plays, family life, adoptions)(OT)

Dara Palmer's Major Drama, by Emma Shevah (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky Young Readers, $16.99HB, 288pp, 8-12 years, grades 3-7, 2016) Review by Skye Anderson 

Although Dara Palmer is a girl and everything is major drama to her, this book was also loved by adults and even boys: Dara's older brother, a senior in high school, is wise beyond his years.

A bit above the caliber of Dog Diaries, Dara Palmer's Major Drama is written for a bit older child, being longer, at nearly 300 pages, with plots more convoluted and in depth.

We start out with two 11-year-old girls in England who are certain they are and will be major movie stars but, alas, are never selected for school plays. Dara has a cool older brother and a sister with whom she shares a room - Georgia, two years younger and also adopted, but from Russia not Cambodia. Georgia is quiet and studious and looks like the rest of the family - she and Dara hardly speak for most of the two weeks depicted in Major Drama.

About midway through the book, our Dara is faced with a major decision: to take a drama class with a teacher she doesn't think too highly of or to travel to Cambodia with a family who also adopted a girl from that South East Asian country.

Of the 40 chapters, it was not until chapter 17 that I realized the chapter numbers are in Khmer (a language spoken in SEAsia). I felt a bit dumb (OK, quite a bit dumb), because I had read most of the peripherals (introduction, foreward, acknowledgements, etc., but obviously forgot what I read) and had pretty much glossed over the doodling in the margins of each and every page (see cover for example): only when my eyes needed a break, did I look at them to find many were just plain doodles but each page also had one or two meaningful doodles representing where we were in the story.

Author Emma Shevah does not write down to her readers but writes up to them, challenging them to stretch their understanding of words and occasional long convoluted sentences and even made-up words. This would be an excellent book to read in class and to discuss the theme of, or, themes of - one could even argue which of the themes is the theme -  adoption, family jealousy, dreams of becoming famous without working at it, or more. All in all, a great book!

Book Review: Flower Power 2 - Friendship Rules (YA, trials and tribulations of 5th grade friendships)(OT)

Flower Power 2 - Friendship Rules, by Judy Lindquist (Taylor and Seale Publishing, $16.95, 189 pp, 2022) Review by Skye Anderson

Returning friends but fifth-graders now - Lily, Violet and Rose are best buds but also very different. Each has her own special qualities and skills, from running a 5-K (at their Florida school, students can pick one club each year) to organizing food drives to starting a business to writing for the school paper. One is on the school safety patrol, one has toddler sibling quadruplets, and one desperately wants her parents to think she is responsible and no longer a baby who needs a babysitter herself. They encounter a new friend with diabetes, one with a quick temper, and another new friend whose sister is physically abusing her so she takes it out on others by saying mean things to hurt them. What a quandry: should our 'flower girl' tell the school counselor and risk losing this new friend?

Their lives are typical for students about to enter middle school. This book and each character is very real! This reviewer loved it!

Each girl has issues to work through but by page 189 if they haven't solved theirs, they have made new friends and gone a long way toward emotional growth, if not by experiencing situations themselves then by reliving them from afar in others whom they try to help.

The parents, however, are not fully drawn which is just fine - each parent is the ideal parent who helps her daughter eventually choose the right solution to her particular situation: the parents don't interfere but help their girls think through a problem and support their actions which turn out to be the right ones. That is maturity.

Amazing Title Says it All!

Did you notice the three girls all have flower names? Lily. Violet. Rose. They are powerful friends,  together, even though they are assigned different homerooms this year. 

Your young reader will surely identify more with one than the other two - or maybe share one or two traits with all of them. 

Each chapter focuses on one of the flower girls until we reach the end of  the book - the title of the final chapter is Rose,  Lily and Violet. The girls complement each other and stick together through thick and thin, through misunderstandings and quick tempers only to come together again as true friends would.  Friendship is truly powerful.

Wow!

Where has author Judy Lindquist been? This book is so inspiring, so riveting that this reviewer is going to read the first book in the series as soon as possible!

Although it is not yet time to pick the Book of the Year,  Friendship Rules is the only one so far in the running!

Book Review: Dog Diaries: Happy Howlidays! (middle school)

Dog Diaries: Happy Howlidays! by James Patterson with Steven Butler (jimmy patterson [publisher], book 2 of 7, $9.99 HB, 240pp, grades 2-7, ages 8-11, 2019) Review by Skye Anderson 

Who better to write a book about dogs than a dog! 

Junior, our dog in question, will exuberantly grab your attention from the first sentence where he calls you his "furless friend" - and never let go! Boys, especially, are also his 'pet human' and 'person-pal.'

Glossy Glossary

Mom-lady, Grandmoo, picture-box room and rainy poop room, Fangsgiving and Critter-Mess Day, moving people box on wheels, blowing up colorful blobs filled with someone's breath, hot fire box, coldy frosty tall thing, cuddle puddle: Can you guess what the chatty-ear-stick is? If not, there is a cheat sheet in the back of the book.

The Plots (two holidays)

Day by day action and, at times, minute by minute, read how a dog saves Thanksgiving Day via a creepy little human and burnt plastic. As far as Christmas goes, I'll leave that excitement and (mis)understanding up to you, dear reader, to discover that the world has disappeared! It's been erased! And the air is full of tiny white things and there are crunchy, coldy, pointy chew toys outside hanging under the window ledge

Read book 1, to find out how our feckless hero was sprung from pooch-prison, and, after that, book 3, Mission ImPAWsible: A Middle School Story. 

Book Review: Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life (sled dogs)

Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life, by Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain (Ecco Publishing, 144pp, 2021, $17.99, review by Skye Anderson)

Does your dog love to run? Does he love winter? Can you picture him pulling you on a dogsled?

Author Blair Braverman dreamed all these things growing up and made sure her dreams came true: in grad school, she met her husband, following him to northern Wisconsin. As a writer, she was able to research and live the sled dog life and has written a lovely book full of short bites of information, divided into chapters like Summer, Autumn, Winter and Mud!

Dogs on the Trail highlights some of their dogs - their likes and dislikes, their personalities and positions on the team, even how they got their name. Did you know that often a litter has a theme with all the pups' names reflecting that theme? For example, if the litter is Beans, some of the pups may be named Refried, Garbanzo, Fava and Hari (short for haricots verts).

Dogs also is a picture book with lovely tributes to dogs and winter scenes, not all of which are captioned. You will learn about mushing, about huskies, cranberry bogs, the dog bus, booties, trail mail, wild animals, retirement, and see plenty of puppy pictures.

Sub-chapter pages will fascinate you with information about feeding frozen slabs of deer and bear and pork and chicken and even the occasional beaver - the huge amounts a sled dog eats when racing for several days -about sled dog retirement and the book ends with puppies, carrying on the legacy.

What would we change about Dogs? Not much, except some of the print across photos is hard to read - plus we would appreciate a slightly larger font. Other than that, this is a lovely, educational coffee table book that we will give to our nephews to nourish their fascination about dogs.

Book Review: Beth's Story, Portraits of Little Women (short book about Beth)

Beth's Story, Portraits of Little Women, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Delacorte Books, 112pp, ages 8-12, grades 4-6, $8.95HB, 1997) Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Review by Skye Anderson. (OT)

A short book to re-familiarize yourself with the classic four little women - or to introduce your daughter to the family and girls everyone loves. You will fall in love all over again with Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Author Susan Beth Pfeffer has captured the personalities of the girls marvelously - so well, in fact, that you will wonder if this episode is actually one of the original by Louisa May Alcott - but just one that you have forgotten.

The Story, Beth's Story

Pfeffer has written four books,

one featuring each of the March sisters at age ten so young readers can compare (and contrast) their personalities and relive their sisterhood and adventures, from another place and time.

Beth travels to New York City for a few days with their parents. She sightsees and takes in the cultural opportunities and actually meets someone famous who is running for President who then comes to their Massachusetts town. He remembers meeting Beth and her request, which you will have to read to find out but suffice it to say that Beth is ahead of her time!

PS - the hardcover version comes with an attached ribbon book mark! You will want to read all four.

Book Review: Small Vices (murder mystery, Boston)

Small Vices by Robert B. Parker (No Exit Press, 24th in a series of 51, 1998, 382 pages, $6.99PB)

It took until the final page to figure out the title, Small Vices, and even then I wasn't sure. But generally when we read a book, we pay attention to the title until we start  page one (then we become engrossed in the story), and then perhaps when we lay the book down to do something else and again when we pick it up to resume reading. But sometimes we don't give the title a second. But sometimes we do and often we don't think we would have titled the book as the author did - or rather, the publisher, almighty.

So, we would recommend reading Small Vices quickly so you don't forget the characters. And yes, there is a dog - the wonder dog, Pearl. We think Pearl is an all-gray American Staffordshire Terrier like this one,

except all gray. But we don't know for sure. And the photo of the author with a dog leads us to believe perhaps Pearl is a Doberman Pinscher.

What's it All About?

Getting to the point of this review, author Robert Parker has done it again - written a fast read that keeps your attention even though you have probably guessed the murderer from the beginning. Just how Parker manages to keep you riveted through hundreds of pages even if you know the ending is a wonder.

A college coed is murdered. A black guy with a background is fingered for it and ends up in prison. Enter Spenser, private detective, hired by a prestigious law firm to review the case because a new attorney with their firm defended the black guy in her first trail out of law school and admits she wasn't experienced enough to do a good job, and it burns her to this day.

Enter Spenser and Company

Spenser is not perhaps someone we would especially like to be but we do like him as a person. We also like his significant other, Susan, a psychologist with a PhD from an Ivy League school (after all, this is Boston) and we like Hawk, even understanding his unique way of speaking, for his loyalty and skill in dealing with guys from the other side - physically as well as conversationally,

Parker writes in short sentences like we speak: he also writes mainly conversation, so the story races along plus he intersperses the action with descriptions of the scene and what the women are wearing but also what the men are wearing. In other words, he describes life.

I can't wait to read another Spenser book.

Book Review: Losing Jon (OT)(small town America, high school athlete - suicide or murder?)

Losing Jon: A Teen's Tragic Death, A Police Cover-Up, A Community's Fight for Justice, by David Parrish (Citadel Press, $16.95 pb, 256 pp, 2020) Available at the Howard County, MD, Public libraries. Review by Skye Anderson.

Riveting! A 24-Hour Book

Ah, I finally got my hands on Losing Jon and I'm so glad I did! Taking place in the town we have lived in for more than 30* years, this book (and the Laura Lippman book, Wilde Lake** were ones I couldn't wait to read. Of course, like any book set in your city, some place names will be familiar as well as some people, even if it's fiction (Lippman), but some won't. The cover itself is striking enough to grab your attention and not let go.

Not Fiction

Losing Jon is not fiction. Rather, it is the account of a young person's short life and the ensuing search for the truth surrounding his death, written by a close family friend, David Parrish. Jon was a twin, a former high school athlete: the author was his baseball coach of several years, so Parrish knew Jon well and cared enough about him and his family to attempt for several years to ferret out the truth. Was Jon's death really a suicide as the county police were so quick to label it, or was it a cover-up by corrupt police officers in small-town America?

A Planned Community

The narrative takes place in an affluent neighborhood (Stevens Forest) in an affluent village (Oakland Mills) in an affluent town (Columbia) in an affluent county (Howard) in America - but that didn't stop bad things from happening. Who the bad guys actually were, if any, however, is still up for grabs.

It started with a motel party that became too raucous. Police were called and ended up physically subduing some of the kids, arresting them for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. After a night in jail and in the ensuing three months, some of the young men thought they were being followed by one particular officer, along with other strange and unsettling incidents.

Then, early one weekday morning (May 4, 1990), joggers found a boy's body hanging from the backstop at a local high school. The police were quick to label it a suicide but that didn't sit well with the family or friends of Jon Bowie. And, to add insult to injury, there were too many things the police could not or  would not explain, even after calling in the FBI, but only temporarily.

Follow the amateur investigation that kept coming back to certain county police officers and then perhaps you can figure it out. The author couldn't. And the reviewer couldn't, either.

Reviews

Reviews comment on the abruptness of the book's ending in an unsatisfactory manner, but isn't that true for many things in life that gradually or quickly fade away with no satisfactory explanation? Other reviewers dislike the incredible number of characters, both named and unnamed, but that can be explained by remembering that this is not fiction in which the author can control the number of characters. In addition, the wise author chose to identify only the most important  people by name so as to not confuse the reader even more with irrelevant information. 

And other reviewers mention that David Parrish brought himself into the narrative too much, but keep in mind that he played an active part in the investigation at the request of the family whom he knew well. 

We are fortunate to have the book written by a technical writer, who actually spent several pages explaining just what a backstop is, for readers who are not baseball fans.

Final Recommendation

Read this book! You will remember it for a long time. After all, that is the mark of a good book!

------------------------------------------- 

*We moved to Columbia, Maryland, less than a month after Jon's death but our lives centered around a nearby military installation and jobs in Washington, DC. Columbia is a bedroom community of more than 100,000 people, about midway between Baltimore and Washington. Without a newspaper, TV or radio station, few residents not personally involved remembered this incident (though it did happen more than 30 years ago).

**

Book Review: One Hundred Ways for a Dog to Train its Human

One Hundred Ways for a Dog to Train its Human, by Simon Whaley (Hodder & Stoughton, 2013, 100 pp [of course], PB and Kindle, $1.99) Review by Skye Anderson

With typical British humor and vocabulary, author Simon Whaley (also with a typical British name) has translated into British English what dogs think about from puppy advice to shedding (moulting) to vacations (holidays) to family. Even chapters on Barking Orders and Hounding Your Human.

My favorite is on page 38: "On days out to the beach, always be the first of the family to get out of the car, on to the beach, and into the water. Always be the last of the family to get out of the water, on to the beach, and into the car. Remember to shake excess sea water from your fur once you are inside the car."

Then you can graduate on to One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Train its Human followed by 100 Ways for a Chicken to Train its Human.

Book Review: Dogs in the Dead of Night (a Magic Treehouse book)

Dogs in the Dead of Night by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, 2013, 144 pp, $12.99 HB, ages 6-8, grades 2-5, book 18 of 27 in the Magic Treehouse series, the Merlin Mission)

Ah! Any book about a dog is worth reading and who hasn't read at least one Magic Treehouse book, adults included?

This time, Jack and Annie must successfully complete the second of four missions: they are tasked to find a white and yellow flower* - but, in the Alps? in winter? But they must save their friend, so off they go, and before school in the morning to boot!

It is circa World War II and Annie offers to "train"** a St. Bernard puppy for the monks at the monastery, only to have her student escape!

And then, and then, and then - Avalanche! Can one untrained puppy save someone caught in an avalanche? Will there be enough time for the novice pup to find him and dig him out? Stay tuned for this exciting development and to see if the kids can find the flower before school.

*Ranunculus glacialis, the glacial buttercup

**Train is in quotes in the review above since Annie uses old-fashioned, force-based methods of dog training. To teach the puppy to lie down, she tells Jack to "gently pull Barry's head down while I press between his shoulder blades." (p. 57) And when that doesn't work, on the following page, she says to "pull on his front legs. Pull them out in front of him." 

Nowadays, using positive reinforcement methods, we would put the dog into a sitting position, and lure his nose down to the floor to get a Down.

Book Review: Howliday Inn (dog, cat, boarding kennel mystery - children's book)

Howliday Inn, by James Howe (Scholastic Books,  Book 2 of 7 Bunnicula* books, 2006, $7.99PB, 244 pp, ages 8-10, grades 3-7) Review by Skye Anderson

Chester the cat and Harold the (shaggy) dog narrator return in Howliday Inn, when their family, the Monroes, goes on vacation without them. They are dropped off at Chateau Bow-Wow where the cages the nine cats and dogs inhabit are referred to as bungalows. Dr. Greenbrier, owner of the kennel, is taking the weekend off, leaving his charges in the hands of that bickering duo, Jill, a veterinary student, and Harrison, a non-college aged human.

Chester is a typical cat, smart and a preener while Harold is a typical dog, rather rambunctious and whose brain would probably not win any races. Harold's narration is hilarious at times and discombobulated at others. It takes the reader nearly to the end of 244 pages to learn what actually happened. In the meantime, perhaps Chester was poisoned, perhaps a dog escapes, perhaps there are werewolves, perhaps . . . . 

Writing Style**

Typical of books for this age, Howliday Inn has a host of characters, bordering on that of a long, convoluted Russian epic novel - too many for this adult to keep straight as to who is dog, who is cat, who is human - but readers between 8 and 10 will have no problem. Likewise, the uncertainty of what actually happened does not bother young readers as much as it does their grandmother.

*more than 3 million Bunnicula books are in print since 1979 including The Celery Stalks at Midnight, Rabit-cadabra,  Nighty Nightmare, and Dew Drop Inn

**Chapter 6, The Cat Who Knew Too Much, might be thought of as a tribute to the Lilian Jackson Braun cat mystery series, The Cat Who. . . ,  first penned in 1966.