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Random words, pictures and thoughts of one who always wishes to be on the mind's road to discovery!

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Connecticut River Valley, New England, United States

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Review: The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de ParisThe Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book I've received from BookBrowse to review or discuss by this author. I loved it as much as the first--The Story Collector--which I've also reviewed.

Evie, in both books, has sent the heroine away from home to find herself. In the first, an American woman runs off to Ireland. In this one, an Irish lass of 29, answers an advertisement for an assistant manager of a bakery in Paris. Edith has had little experience with dating or socializing of any sort in her young life since her mother was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and Edie has devoted herself to her mother's care. Having been an only child she wanted to help her Dad and also spend as much time with her mother as possible. Now that her mother has died, she feels a need to get out into the world and decide what her life should be.

Right at the beginning, it appears self-discovery may not be an easy feat. Once in Paris, she discovers that the bakery is not there but rather in a town 40 miles away on a street that if followed, it would seem, leads to Paris. Arriving with jet lag, tired and bedraggled she is met at the train by a truculent teen, who brings her face to face with an equally brusque and non-smiling elderly woman, Mme. Moreau, propietor of the bakery.

Evie Woods just draws the reader in and so I read the book in one sitting on a cold snowy Spring day in Vermont. With no pain au chocolat in sight I made due with hot chocolate, adding a dash of vanilla in salute to Pierre Moreau, who, though dead, has a hand in the proceedings .

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Review: The Husbands: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

The Husbands: A Read with Jenna Pick: A NovelThe Husbands: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel by Holly Gramazio
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received a copy of this book from BookBrowse for discussion. It was okay. Lauren, who has been unlucky in love and about to give up the search, comes home from a party to find a man in her apartment. His name is Micael and he is her husband ! Just one problem, Lauren has never laid eyes on him before. To make a long and somewhat tedious story short, it seems that Lauren's attic is the source of a revolving door of husbands, lovers, one night stands, or one second appearances of men she has never seen before. Some she keeps for awhile, others she sends back to the attic almost before their feet have touched the ground. There are hundreds of them, within the stretch of maybe a week or two. Exhausting, I'm sure--it was exhausting to read. Shallow and superficial. In most cases, the men have already married her--so they have not rejected her, but she sure sends them away.

In the end, she gets tired of the whole scene and settles for one --end of story. Painful reading except for one guy, who is in the same boat, only he's one of the guys who keeps getting sent back by one woman after another, all over the world. I liked him-they should have been the couple to end the book but that would have been too easy, I suppose.

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Monday, February 24, 2025

Review: The Devil's Star

The Devil's StarThe Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Had to read this quickly on the heels of Nemesis since I wanted to see how Inspector Waaler would be caught and punished. It took the length of the book but his capture is brutal and final. Getting to that point, however, entailed a convoluted tale of a serial killer who sets quite a challenge for Harry Hole and his team. Harry's alcoholism is a central character as well as the victims, the investigators, the city of Oslo and the many suspects. The actual killer is a master of code production and symbology that confuse and depress those who seek the solution to the brutal crimes. Let us not forget either, the lovely red diamonds in the shape of a star that is found with each victim or the finger that is removed from them as well.

This one was hard to read, hence the four stars, since the daydreaming and hallucinations of Harry and even the murderer throw the story into the realm of what is real and what is going on--a bit too circuitous for me.

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Sunday, February 16, 2025

Review: The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

BookBrowse provided an ebook for me to review. Female Endurance, Rom-Com, Mystery, History and The Importance of Books ( and the Usefulness of Iron Frying Pans) Chanel Cleeton provides them all in this book. She has chosen to reveal them all through the revolving chapters among three women, Eva a Cuban teacher living in Cuba at the turn of the 20th Century, Pilar, a librarian, also Cuban who leaves for Florida during Fidel's rule, and Margo, a Brit in modern London who is a finder for a fee of lost or stolen items for rich clients. Needless to say the lives of Eva and Pilar and their friends and family describe the history of Cuba from its overthrow of Spanish dominian, through the short-lived influence of the United States, to the revolution that brought Fidel Castro into power and reduced the country to one of submission and fear. It is during these chapters that we learn of Eva's experience as a member of a group of teachers who came to Harvard to learn about American educational practices and to show Cuban life and culture to their nearest neighbor now that they were free of Spanish rule and could establish themselves as an independent nation, Here, too, we are privy to the short romance between Eva and an American, James Webber. A romance that lead to heartbreak for her, not a real surprise. It also resulted in her penning of a novel she wrote about the experience called A Time for Forgetting. This book becomes the real star of Cleeton's book! And its writing is the first of Cleeton's demonstration of the importance of books--here to the writer-- allowing her to express her sorrow and grief and alleviate the pain somewhat. Also Pilar's story takes place under Fidel's rule. Her husband has been taken by his troops. She has no idea where he is of if alive. But, in an effort to defy the regime in some small way, Pilar has taken to rescuing books of families who are fleeing Cuba and cannot take them. Some are very valuable and should be turned over to the soldiers but she hides them and as the time goes on this activity brings her into danger. Once she uses the frying pan she too must flee Cuba. But, one of the books in her care is Eva's novel and she searches for Eva and returns the book to her. Once she lells Eva of how important the book became to her in her loneliness and then grief at the loss of her husband, Cleeton's second belief that some books are meant for some people and give them the strength or hope needed to live. And finally, we have Margo and her ex-husband Luke, in London looking for Eva's novel. No one seems to know what happened to it and they must learn its story and whereabouts without Cleeton giving them the information we, the readers, have. And this is the rom-com, mystery piece. Several people seem to be looking for the book. Margo has a client as does Luke both interested in finding it. Why? My first thought was the secret of a child in the book--an effort to keep it a secret. Then, still related to the child, I thought it was for money. Either blackmail or a claim to an inheritance. Well, money is involved--isn't it always? Along with the mystery, Margo and Luke analyze their failed marriage and look, they are getting together again--easy to see it coming. But, here is the last point of importance of books--can give someone a place in the world, a knowledge of one's heritage and its importance. An easy read, that covers all these aspects surprisingly well with good integration. Some of it is obvious in its conclusions but the parts pursuing Eva's novel is complex enough to keep it interesting..

Monday, February 10, 2025

Review: Nemesis

Nemesis Nemesis by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry is staying sober! Harry loves Rackel and Oleg and is anxious for their return from Russia. Harry is worried--he went, despite misgivings, to have dinner with a former girlfriend, Anna. Harry seems to have a hangover as he arrives at work, but he does not remember drinking or getting home. Harry discovers that Anna is dead--suicide, it would seem--but, though he tells no one, he is worried because Harry was there on the night she died!

But, it's okay--the department is accepting the death as a suicide and is focusing on the apprehension of bank robbers who seem to be becoming serial robbers. What is worse, in the most recent robbery the leader has killed the woman who they entrusted to keep time as they carried out the heist. She was a bank employee but was she an inside connection that had to be eliminated or just a poor unfortunate at the right place but at the wrong time?

As usual, Jo Nesbo does not make Harry or the reader's life easy, although I figured out who killed Anna and why and who wanted the poor bank lady dead. Pretty soon in the 400+ pages of the book, maybe a quarter of the way through. I didn't know how everything connected at all nor who the other players were in the cases. For example, who was trying to frame Harry and why or how Waaler fit into it all.

Speaking of whom, somebody has got to take care of Waaler--looks like the next book is going to address the issue. So, though I usually read books in between books in a series so as not to become too tired of characters, especially when each book is a tome, I'm going right into the next Harry Hole!

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Review: Let's Call Her Barbie

Let's Call Her Barbie Let's Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received this book from Book Browse to discuss. While the beginning of the book was interesting, dealing as it did with the original doll, a German toy for grown men, and its inspiration for Ruth, the wife of the owner of Matel, it soon devolved into a soap opera of petty jealousy, idle gossip and commercial wheeling and dealing that resulted in litigation.

Once the problems of getting the doll manufactured in a small factory in Japan and the descriptions of how vogue-like costumes were designed, I'm afraid I lost interest. Hence the poor rating overall. While realizing the book is called a nover, the author makes every effort to convince the reader that everything in it is actually quite true. There is, in the back of the book, an admission that one of the main characters is in actuality fictional despite the fact she is presented as a classmate and eventual friend of Bob Mackie's. Tedious and not sure why I finished it, other than I felt a responsibility to Book Browse

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Review: The Last Agent

The Last Agent (Charles Jenkins, #2)The Last Agent by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the moment Charles Jenkins steps into the bank in Moscow to unfreeze an account containing $4 million by making an additional deposit, the FSB become aware that he is back in Russia and so begins their chase. Charles has returned to release Paulina Ponomayova from prison and bring her safely to the States. Paulina helped him escape Russia on his last mission and it was assumed that she had died in the process, but CIA has heard rumbles that she is alive.

From the first moment the FSB goes on the hunt, Charles has to seek the help of the FSB agent.Federov, who hunted him last time but who allowed his escape. Throughout this mission, Charles is not sure of Federov's allegiance. Can he be trusted since he will receive $14 million if he helps or is his loyalty to the FSB and Mother Russia greater than his avarice?

Even with misgivings, Charles and Federov join forces to free Paulina from the jail and then make sure she and Charles get out of Russia safely. It takes a team from one place to another with transports over rough terrain and through inclement weather to bring the rescued and rescuer out of danger. End of seat suspense and excitement throughout. Looking forward to Jenkins next mission,

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