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.