Month: January 2019

24in48

24in48 Readathon

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

A couple times a year, the good people at 24in48 produce a weekend readathon where participants are challenged to read for 24 hours out of a 48 hour time period. This weekend was the winter version of the event. I was not at my best as I was down with a cold, but I did manage to get in about 16 hours of reading time. Here are the books I read:

lastwomanThe Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets – What would you do if you suspected the person you loved was a sociopath? Not really a question we encounter often in our lives, but Diane Les Becquets does a masterful job of imagining how that might go. She has written a suspenseful and surprising story that starts out with a kick-in-the-gut scene that is every woman’s worst nightmare – when your car breaks down on a lonely road in the middle of the night and you have a bad feeling about the handsome guy who stops to help. I admit, though, that the tense and horrifying prologue set me up to expect that same tension all the way through the book. That didn’t happen in quite the way I expected. It’s a little like the difference between “Criminal Minds” and “Sherlock” – the beginning is raw and physical, while most of the rest of the book is more cerebral. However, all that thinking and worrying and doubting evaporates with a big twist towards the end. Recommended for fans of Lee Child.

Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Published By: Berkley Publishing Group
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

williamThe Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen – Is there anything more fascinating than the Dead Letters Depot? That’s where all the letters and such that go astray in the mail end up, and where our protagonist, the titular William Woolf, works. All those letters to Santa, God, and Elvis Presley. Those heartfelt love letters with the incorrect address. The wedding invitations and birthday cards. All those lost words and feelings, collected and cared for by 30 Letter Detectives. What a smashingly cool job!

I would have liked this book much more if it had focused on telling all those stories waiting to be told. Instead, we are treated to a rather uninteresting marriage on the verge of collapse and one woman’s search for her Great Love. William and his wife Clare are written as though they are middle-aged, but their ages were never clear. At one point, Clare is upset at how her lower body has grown since she turned 30 when she was so “effortlessly slim” in her 20’s. She may be in her 30’s, but she’s having a mid-life crisis.

The “Great Love” plot line is more interesting, but about halfway through I realized it was really just William fantasizing about the perfect woman. And we all know how that ends. You finally connect and (surprise!) the person you have idealized is really just a messy human like the rest of us.

Publication Date: June 4, 2019
Published By: Graydon House
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Daisy Jones daisyand The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – This one is getting major love on Goodreads, with lots of 5 star, essay-length reviews rhapsodizing over the brilliance. It’s been picked up by Amazon for a series and will be produced by Reese Witherspoon, so it’s got all the earmarks of a cultural phenomenon. For me, this is a solid 4 star book. Plenty interesting, especially for those of us who grew up in the 1970’s, but it doesn’t hang together as a novel mostly due to the text being presented as a series of interviews. It felt like a refreshed version of Almost Famous.

Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Published By: Random House/Ballantine
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Children's, Fantasy, Ghosties, Horror, Magical, Micro Reviews

January Micro-Reviews

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

devouringThe Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman – This creepy, eerie, and imaginative story grabbed me by the back of the neck and held on from first to last page. The plot is a refreshing take on the “monster in the woods” trope and features some sassy, kick-ass characters. The premise of four founding families (shades of Hogwarts, anyone?) isn’t new, but the relationship of the families to the monster and to the town they protect is pretty darn original. The author does a good job of making teens sound like teens, although the adults are portrayed as bullies or dopes. The plot flowed easily and kept my attention. It looks like this will be the beginning of a series, which makes me happy. It would also make a helluva TV series in the vein of Riverdale and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Recommended.

Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Published By: Disney-Hyperion
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

prosperThe Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken – How did I miss this book when it first came out? It has everything I love about middle grade fantasy – hip and likable characters, clever humor, a multi-faceted villain, a surprise twist at the end, and a superb story. Here, the likable characters are Prosper and Nell and the villain (one of them!) is Alastor, a fiend who has waited hundreds of years for revenge on the family that bound him. The competing themes of revenge & betrayal and friendship & love can lead to some interesting discussions about relationships. The nods to some of my favorite classic stories (The Crucible and Doctor Faustus) only made this more enjoyable. Bracken successfully delivers what appears to be a prologue to some serious world-building, as she prepares to publish the sequel to this in February. The twist at the end was one of the best I can remember and set up the sequel beautifully.

lastThe Last by Hanna Jameson – This title has been sitting in my To Be Read queue for months and I finally opened it last night out of guilt. Holy smokes! I read it in one sitting, resulting in a foggy day spent at work today! I am not, as a rule, a fan of dystopian fiction which is probably why it took me so long to open this one. However, when dystopian fiction is blended with a tautly plotted, inventive mystery it becomes a book I cannot put down. The author has done everything right here – good dialog, evocative description, memorable characters, and an unusual plot. I’ll be recommending this a lot in the coming months.
Publication Date: April 9, 2019
Published By: Atria Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

arloArlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon by John August – I am late to the Arlo Finch party, having missed the first in the series. However, this second-in-the-series stands pretty sturdily on its own. August explains enough about the Long Woods and the Rangers so a reader new to the series can follow along, although the characters are cool enough that I will definitely go back and read the first in the series. Here, Arlo and his fellow Rangers Wu and Indra, along with other Rangers, find themselves facing some really weird experiences as they head into their two weeks of camp. There are the usual suspects – the trio of friends who overcome great evil, the obligatory bully, the hip adults, and the scary monsters – all stirred up into a stew of steady action and hair-raising adventures. Kids who enjoy imaginative adventures will thoroughly enjoy Arlo Finch, in all his books. Recommended for middle grade readers.

Publication Date: February 5, 2019
Published By: Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

100 Books. 100 Years

Bestsellers in 1919

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

books6In 2010, I started a year-long reading project as part of the Rochester Public Library’s 100th birthday. My goal was to read one book from each decade that the library had existed. I spent some time researching bestsellers and other books published in each decade from 1911-2011, and then spent even more time tracking down copies of the books I selected. I found many print copies in the stacks of the Rundel Building, but also found plenty of e-books that had been digitized through the Google Books project.

As happens on the internet, things you wrote and posted years ago pop to the surface at odd times. That happened today with my very first post about 100 Years, 100 Books – a review of The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum. That made me go back and look at the books I’d identified as published and popular 100 years ago. Below are two lists: one of notable books published in 1919 and one of the bestsellers of the year. 

1. Sherwood Anderson — Winesburg, Ohio
2. Edgar Rice Burroughs — Jungle Tales of Tarzan
3. Joseph Hergesheimer – Linda Condon
4. Hermann Hesse — Demian
5. W. Somerset Maugham — The Moon and Sixpence
6. Baroness Orczy – The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel
7. Mary Augusta Ward – Fields of Victory
8. Virginia Woolf — Night and Day
9. A. A. Milne – The Camberley Triangle
10. H. L. Mencken – The American Language

Publishers Weekly Best Sellers of 1919

1. Vicente Blasco Ibanez – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
2. Joseph Conrad – The Arrow of Gold
3. Zane Grey – The Desert of Wheat
4. Mary Roberts Rinehart – Dangerous Days
5. Ralph Connor – The Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land
6. Harold Bell Wright – The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
7. Eleanor Porter – Dawn
8. Temple Bailey – The Tin Soldier
9. Elizabeth von Arnim – Christopher and Columbus
10. Robert W. Chambers – In Secret

And, finally, my review of the book I read for 1919 – The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

scarletI have fond memories of reading the book to which this one is a sequel – The Scarlet Pimpernel– one hot summer in between high school semesters. I was reading anything I could find about the French Revolution, and a librarian at the Gates Library recommended Baroness Orczy and the Pimpernel, which I devoured.

I had not realized there was a sequel until I started creating the lists for this reading project, and was delighted to find my old friend Percy Blakeney among the choices. In fact, I discovered there are a great many sequels to the original Pimpernel, which I’m sure will lead to much more reading for me!

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel picks up with Sir Percy still rescuing unfortunate maidens and righting wrongs in post Revolution France, albeit in a collection of short stories instead of one longer novel. Each vignette has Percy or another member of The League righting wrongs committed against members the aristocracy or members of their staff. Children are rescued, fortunes restored, and lives set aright, all at the hand of the man with the twinkling blue eyes that can turn to steel in a second.

An entertaining read for fans of the spy genre and historical fiction.

Mystery

Murder at the Palace by Margaret Dumas

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

9781635114638_06b62Murder at the Palace is the first in what promises to be a successful and addicting new mystery series set in San Francisco and featuring Nora Paige, former screenwriter/Hollywood wife/about-to-be-ex-wife/classic movie expert and cast of memorable characters, both alive and dead.

The series set-up has Nora taking over the management of The Palace, a vintage theater owned by her best friend, while she begins recovering from a messy end to her marriage to a high profile Hollywood actor. In the best mystery tradition, Nora finds a body in the basement of the theater on her first day, setting in motion a rollicking good mystery that includes the ghost of an epaulet-wearing usherette who died in the theater 100 years ago, a mysterious and gorgeous Columbian “entrepreneur,” and a whole cast of colorful characters.

Nora shows her deductive chops as she untangles a very complicated mess and ultimately solves two murders while making some friends in her new town. Interspersed throughout are “blog posts” about old movies, which made me want to go watch all of them. The focus on “old Hollywood” and classic movies put me in mind of the old George Baxt books, which I adored, but also stands with the best modern “cozy” mysteries like the Lily Ivory series by Juliet Blackwell. Nora is an appealing, strong, and resourceful protagonist who functions quite well independently of her Hollywood husband. The plot was a little thin at times (I guessed the MacGuffin early on) but the story is well-written and engaging. I’m adding this to my list of must-read series. Recommended.

Publication Date: February 12, 2019
Publisher: Henery Press
Thanks to Edelweiss.plus for the review copy

Reading

READO – Mystery & Suspense Authors

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

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Reading

What the Neighbors Read Last Year

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Social media has been awash the last couple weeks with “Top Ten Reads of 2018” or lists of all the books people read last year. That made me wonder what the people of Monroe County borrowed, read, and watched in 2018. My curiosity was satisfied by three eclectic lists. Here they are, the Top Ten Books, DVDs, and E-books Borrowed from Monroe County Libraries in 2018!

Ten Most Borrowed Print Books

 

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Fallen by David Baldacci
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly
The Midnight Line by Lee Child
The President is Missing by James Patterson & Bill Clinton
Fifty Fifty by James Patterson

Ten Most Borrowed DVDs

Wonder Woman
Wonder
Coco
Dunkirk
Black Panther
Despicable Me 3
The Shape of Water
Hidden Figures
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
Spider-Man Homecoming

Ten Most Borrowed E-Books

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Camino Island by John Grisham
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Midnight Line by Lee Child
Origin by Dan Brown
The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Please note: this content was separated from any personally identifiable information on the borrowers before it was shared with me, in my capacity as Director of the Monroe County Library System.

Reader Profiles

Reader Profile – Cara Rager

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

photo jun 29, 7 27 44 pm

Cara Rager is the Manager of Educational Training and Family Engagement at WXXI in Rochester, NY. In her role, she works to engage, support, and empower Rochester’s families and educators using public media and PBS resources. In case you’re wondering, that’s Cara between D.W. and Buster!

What are you reading now?
I just finished reading The Burning Girl by Claire Messud and now I’m reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I have a pretty hefty “to-read” list.

Are you a fiction or non-fiction reader?
I mostly read fiction – I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers like The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, and The Girls by Emma Cline. Lately, though, I’ve been getting more into biographies. I’m loving reading about the lives of comedians, such as Bossypants by Tina Fey, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, and Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow. But my most favorite recent bio read was Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones. Given my work at WXXI Education and growing up with Sesame Street, The Muppets, and Fraggle Rock, I learned so much about Jim Henson, his creativity, the people he worked with, and all the places and spaces that he impacted.

What book are you recommending that everyone read right now?
Educated by Tara Westover. I couldn’t put the book down and I’m pretty sure I was in shock reading most of the book because I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that it was a true story. I’ve been telling everyone to read it and even bought it as a Christmas gift for my mom to read! Highly recommend.

Is there a book you feel is highly overrated?
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I read it, I think the basic message is there but to me, I felt like a lot of women were left out of her picture. I do think it’s important for women to be empowered to shake up the status quo in places where they feel like they are not being supported or treated equally, such as their workplace. And I also think it’s really important to hear stories from lots of different women who have been able to make serious change. But, given all the praise the book got in the beginning, I wasn’t as impressed when I read it.

What book changed your life, or changed how you view the world? In what way?
I actually have two books that changed my view of the world and specifically my philosophy of education – Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen and The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I read both books when I was in my undergraduate education program at St. John Fisher College. As someone who loved school and learning and was going to school to be a teacher, this was the first moment that I realized that the whole picture was not being taught in school AND that it was my charge as a teacher to make sure my students left with a variety of perspectives of history to build the full picture. I definitely felt cheated when reading these books and learning how much I didn’t know.

Do you read with your children? What are some of their favorite books?
While I don’t have kids of my own yet, I do have 6 nieces and nephews and I love children’s books! I love to read with them when I can, but I especially love choosing books for them. Gifting books is one of my favorite things; I like to collect some information about books/topics/genres they like and then see what treasures I can find. I love that they all have such different reading preferences even being so young. My niece, Ruby, is 2 years old and loves dinosaurs (like her older brother), cooking, and dress-up. For Christmas, I gave her Brontorina by James Howe (from Webster!) about a dinosaur who wants to be a ballerina but is too big and Razzle-Dazzle Ruby by Masha D’yans about a spunky little girl who uses her imagination to go on adventures with her dog. I have another niece, Lila, who is 8 years old and devouring books like crazy right now. She loves comic books (like Garfield!) and graphic novels and she’s really enjoying book series. For her birthday in November I gave her Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea (A Narwhal and Jelly Book #1) by Ben Clanton which is the first book in a super silly series about a friendship between a narwhal and a jellyfish who both love waffles, parties, and adventures. She loved it!

Are you a “finisher” or do stop reading a book if you’re not connecting with it?
My personal philosophy is that reading should be enjoyable – that said, there are times when you must read something – but if I’m reading for pleasure, I’m happy to discard a book if it’s not grabbing me. I think choice is a big part of getting people hooked on reading – especially kids. I love getting lost inside books and then sharing what I’ve read or learned. Not everything is interesting to me and I’m okay leaving a book behind. Perfect example: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

Why do you read?
I read to relax, escape, exercise my brain, and learn.

What is at the top of your To Be Read pile?
Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I’m on the waitlist for the ebook but I might have to just buy it because I’m #138 of 30 copies!

Describe your favorite place to read.
My favorite place to read is on the couch, under a blanket, with a cup of coffee, and in between my two dogs. It’s the best, coziest spot.

Reading

2019 Reading Challenge – READO!

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

For several years, staff in the Monroe County Library System have participated in a year-long reading challenge. This year, we’re using a version of BINGO called READO. The concept is the same – make a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally or get the 4 corners – and win a prize.

We are in the process of creating a number of READO boards, and thought we’d share them here. While only MCLS staff are eligible for monthly drawings, some of you might enjoy playing along. Here are the first three boards: Reading Experiences, World Literature, and Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors.

READO World Lit

READO experiences

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Watch this blog for more boards throughout January.

Enjoy!

Uncategorized

End of the Year Micro-Reviews

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

woman in lakeWoman in the Lake by Nicola Cornick

Cornick is fast becoming my go-to author for suspenseful, fascinating time-slip stories, and she delivers another one with The Woman in the Lake. Moving between present time and the 18th century, Cornick tells the intertwined stories of Isabella, Constance, and Fenella, all bound together by a gorgeous and deadly golden gown. Each woman struggles with her place in the world, complicated by aggressive, violent, and manipulative men who, in turn, cause the women to take drastic measures to survive. The story is well-paced, with lovely description and dialog, and characters who attract and repel the reader equally. My favorite among them is Constance, the insignificant lady’s maid who turns out to have more brains and balls than any of her “betters.” Consider this a one-sitting story – you won’t be able to put it down.

Publication date: February 26, 2019
Publisher: Harlequin-Graydon House
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

loch nessThe Loch Ness Papers by Paige Shelton

I stumbled on Paige Shelton’s first book in the Scottish Bookshop series purely by accident. I was looking for authors like Kate Carlisle and Shelton’s name came up. I was hooked from the first page and have devoured each entry in the series. In book 4, we find main character Delaney working hard to manage her upcoming wedding to Tom, including introducing her Kansas family to her Edinburgh family. While tracking down a reverend to officiate at the wedding, Delaney meets yet another interesting person. This time, it’s Norval Fraser and he draws her deep into a mystery involving the Loch Ness Monster, a missing father, and a murdered nephew. As usual, Delaney and all her Edinburgh friends are charming, the story is fun and engaging, and there are interesting developments in the personal lives of the characters. I’m beginning to think, though, that it’s time to let go of the books talking to Delaney. In the first book, the convention worked well, but here it felt kind of forced. Delaney is interesting enough on her own.

Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

ghost manuscriptThe Ghost Manuscript by Kris Frieswick

Fans of stories about King Arthur will appreciate this interesting treatment of the Arthurian legend and the people obsessed with it, but The Ghost Manuscript will also appeal to readers who just enjoy a good mystery. The characters are appealing and the story is by turns riveting and engrossing, mostly due to the author’s skillful switching between the more cerebral puzzle-solving and the physical activity of dealing with bad guys while actively searching for treasure. The big shocker about Arthur’s origins was somewhat similarly treated in an early Elly Griffith’s “Ruth Galloway” book, but the tribal involvement here makes this wholly original. Plus the female protagonist is a librarian. Kind of.

Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

salt windsOrphan of Salt Winds by Elizabeth Brooks

Oddly enough, it looks like this was published earlier this year as Call of the Curlew, and reviews generally echo my reading experience. Brooks delivers a solid, shivering, atmospheric piece centering on an old tragedy. She uses the common alternating time convention, switching between 1939 and the present day as she tells the story of Virginia and how she came to Salt Winds. The characters are vividly drawn and the story clever and suspenseful. This stands with the best of Kate Morton and M.J. Rose. Well done.

Publication Date: January 15, 2019
Publisher: Tin House Books
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

Fairytales, Fantasy, Folktales, Magical, Mythology

Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

winter of the witchAround the beginning of December, I finally managed to get my hands on an advanced reading copy of Arden’s Winter of the Witch and had hoped to spend the weekend reading this end to the gorgeous Winternight Trilogy. Alas, that didn’t happen….because I finished it in a day.

I’ve written before that Arden’s writing is lyrical, lush, and full of magic and mystery; it will keep you reading well into the night, not only because she skillfully blends fairytale and history, but because she has created complex and fascinating original characters. Truthfully, I haven’t loved a series as much since I first read Harry Potter.

I will honestly say that the Potter series, which I have adored for more than 20 years, has been replaced by Arden’s Winternight Trilogy as my favorite in the fantasy genre. The story takes the fairy tales of my childhood and makes them flesh in a way that left me breathless. With this final entry, Arden has brought the stories begun in The Bear and the Nightingale full circle and created a tale for the ages.

When we left Vasya, Sasha, Olga & Dmitri, Moscow was burning due to Vasya releasing the firebird, a mythical creature contained within a golden horse that had been bridled and controlled by Kaschei the Deathless. Vasya, burned and exhausted, finds brief refuge within the terem of sister Olga, Princess of Serpukhov but is almost immediately confronted with a mob demanding her blood. Led by Brother Konstantin, the mob drags Vasya to the river and attempts to burn her as a witch. She escapes and makes her way into the realm of Midnight, where she recovers and learns more about her family and herself.

In Midnight, Vasya is considered an alternative to The Bear and The Winter King, two gods who control the chaos in the world. The chyerti of Midnight are tired of the feuding between the two and hope Vasya will break the cycle of chaos and cold controlled by these two brothers. Vasya begins to recognize her own power and understands that she can affect the outcome of war in the real world and chaos in the other realm.

There are so many themes to unpack here – the position and power of women (Vasya is different and therefore dangerous); the strength of family; the weakness of men and women when faced with unimaginable temptation; and the power afforded beauty and charisma and the danger when it goes awry. While this trilogy grew out of Russian fairy & folk tales, it is at its heart a story about family and loyalty.

What makes this a stand-out is Arden’s writing. In less imaginative and skillful hands, the story could be just another niche fantasy series; here it becomes history and romance and war as well as magic. I’ve read Arden’s other work (give Small Spaces a try next Halloween!) and found it just as beautifully written. She is a young author to watch. I don’t buy a lot of print books these days, but I have purchased a set of these books and will keep and re-read them for years to come.

Someone please make this a Netflix series!