Book Review: Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee

 Finished August 4, 2020

Book 11 of 20

Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm leaving this one unfinished, about halfway through. A boring repetitive story told from the perspective of an 11 year old that the author tried to make sound smart and precocious, but it fell extremely flat. The story meanders between the girl's imaginative stories (which are not interesting or add meaning to the story), current events (also not interesting), and her own more recent memories (which surprisingly are more interesting). Peeking ahead it seems the book may become more interesting, I just can't get there.

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Summary (from the hardcover edition): Clara first spies him through the crack in the stained-glass window of her church, lighting a string of handmade lanterns in the Adirondack woods. A lone old man, Georg Kominsky moves stealthily among the shadow world of his hanging, glittering creations.

In Alison McGhee's stunning novel Shadow Baby, eleven-year-old Clara is struggling to find the truth about her missing father and grandfather and her twin sister, dead at birth, but her mother steadfastly refuses to talk about these people who are lost to her daughter. When Clara begins interviewing Georg Kominsky for a school biography assignment, she finds that he is equally reticent about his own concealed history. Precocious and imaginative, the girl invents version upon version of Mr. Kominsky's past, just as she invents lives for the people missing from her own shadowy past.

The journey of discovery that these two oddly matched people embark upon is at the heart of this beautiful story about friendship and communion, about discovering what matters most in life, and about the search to find the missing pieces of ourselves. McGhee's prose glistens with shrewd truth and wild imaginings, creating a fine novel that will reverberate in the hearts and minds of readers long after the book is finished.

Dismantled

Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

An uncompleted book. Writing was well done. Characters were a bit flat. The ones that weren't flat were just weird. The intrigue and plot fell short for me.

Summary: Dismantlement = Freedom
Henry, Tess, Winnie, and Suz banded together in college to form a group they called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto—"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart"—these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up.

Nearly a decade later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers, but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past pranks commits suicide—apparently triggered by a mysterious Dismantler-style postcard—it sets off a chain of eerie events that threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old daughter, Emma.

Is there someone who wants to reveal their secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die—or has she somehow found a way back to seek revenge?

Lily of the Nile

Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After almost a month and not breaking the first 100 pages, I'm going to let this one go. I read a book on the same historical figures two years ago that I enjoyed very much. If I hadn't read the other book, I may have enjoyed this one more.



Summary: Heiress of one empire and prisoner of another, it is up to the daughter of Cleopatra to save her brothers and reclaim what is rightfully hers...

To Isis worshippers, Princess Selene and her twin brother Helios embody the divine celestial pair who will bring about a Golden Age. But when Selene's parents are vanquished by Rome, her auspicious birth becomes a curse. Trapped in an empire that reviles her heritage and suspects her faith, the young messianic princess struggles for survival in a Roman court of intrigue. She can't hide the hieroglyphics that carve themselves into her hands, nor can she stop the emperor from using her powers for his own ends. But faced with a new and ruthless Caesar who is obsessed with having a Cleopatra of his very own, Selene is determined to resurrect her mother's dreams. Can she succeed where her mother failed? And what will it cost her in a political game where the only rule is win-or die?

The Map of Time

The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was tough for me. I struggled through the beginning, started to get into the story, and then it changed. Then it changed again. It changed so much I just became bored through it. It didn't really seem to be going anywhere very fast, so I put it down about halfway through and just couldn't pick it back up.

The writing style is a bit stiff, which may be a translation issue as I don't think the book was originally written in English. The characters are amusing in their arrogance. Their best qualities appear to be their downfall. I might have finished this book if it had stopped going on and on. The summary of the book provided is not even close to the story line.



Summary: Characters real and imaginary come vividly to life in this whimsical triple play of intertwined plots, in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence.

What happens if we change history?

Felix J. Palma explores this provocative question, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting; a story full of love and adventure that transports readers from a haunting setting in Victorian London to a magical reality where centuries collide and a writer's mind seems to pull at all the strings.

When in Rome

When in Rome... by Gemma Townley
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I left this book unfinished at 110 pages. It was a painful decision, I'll admit. I wanted a light read - this is. I wanted a well-written book - this is. I wanted great characters - the author has obviously lived with this character for a very long time. But I didn't like her. At all. I found nothing redeeming about her, she was stupid, lazy, and materialistic. Which is sad, I mean I realize people like that exist (and, geesh, I've even been known to have that kind of day) but I don't want them to be the heroine. Sidekicks or protagonist, sure, bring 'em on. This just makes me sad because I really enjoyed the writer's style, the way she moved plot along, I was even entertained when I wasn't busy hating Georgie.

Summary: When in Rome, do as Audrey Hepburn would do. Failing that, run off with your ex-boyfriend, carry suspicious packages through customs, and lie to the person who loves you. . . .Georgie Beauchamp is totally happy and in love with her wonderful, dependable boyfriend, David. So why does she always daydream about running into her gorgeous ex-boyfriend Mike? It can’t mean she’s still in love with him—especially since the cad dumped her so horribly. As luck would have it, when Georgie’s daydream actually comes true, she is dressed in unglamorous sweats and carrying a curtain rod down the street, while Mike is driving an expensive sports car and looking better than Brad Pitt at the Oscars. She longs to have the glamorous life Mike can offer—and starts to think that he might want her back in his arms.

But when he invites her for a weekend in Rome, Georgie is torn. David has always said he’d take her there for the romantic getaway of a lifetime, but his work keeps him totally tied up. So she must choose: David, all comfort and reliability, or Mike, all flirtation and butterfly-stomachs. The decision isn’t too hard to make, and faster than she can say Vespa, she’s off to Rome with Mike, full of plans to frolic on the Spanish Steps and sip wine in intimate trattorias. But when David shows up unexpectedly, this roman holiday gets a hell of a lot more complicated. . . .

A Bone in the Throat

\Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

couldn't get into it. really wanted to read more "real life" stories by this author. didn't finish.

Synopsis: A wildly funny, irreverent tale of murder, mayhem, and the mob.

When up-and-coming chef Tommy Pagana settles for a less than glamorous stint at his uncle's restaurant in Manhattan's Little Italy, he unwittingly finds himself a partner in big-time crime. And when the mob decides to use the kitchen for a murder, nothing Tommy learned in cooking school has prepared him for what happens next. With the FBI on one side, and his eccentric wise guy superiors on the other, Tommy has to struggle to do right by his conscience, and to avoid getting killed in the meantime.

Letters to Elise

Letters to Elise: A Peter Townsend Novella by Amanda Hocking
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*uncompleted* I didn't realize when I bought this book that it was part of a series (and not even the first). Usually this isn't a problem, but as soon as I picked up this book, I could tell I was missing something. Something about this book just didn't work for me - the few pages that I read were overly dramatic, stylized writing. It just didn't appeal to me.

Wanted: An Interesting Life

Wanted: An Interesting Life by Bev Katz Rosenbaum
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Meh. Another trying-to-be-cutesy romance. I couldn't get into this one - the main heroine wasn't well put together. She did a lot of things that were out of character and despite the author's attempt to rationalize it, I just didn't buy it. The main guy was waaaay too "girly" to be believable. Maybe I'm a romantic pessimist at the moment, but I couldn't get interested in this book at all.

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Pop-Up Dating

Pop-Up Dating by Natale Stenzel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was so "not into" this book, I can't even say what the main characters names were. The story line just wasn't there. I didn't finish this book.

Synopsis: There's nothing trivial about the pursuit of passion. At least not when Cassie Smythe and her friend - who have OD'd on "serious relationships" - decide they're in for a good time, not a long time. Scoping out the terrain, they discover passion is not on tap in sports bars and that cyberromance is as exciting as a loose connection. And trolling? That nets nothing but trolls.

The only thing left is for Cassie to bite the bullet and introduce her friend to her own Mr. Maybe. The one she'd seen such a future with she never dared date him again. After all, she isn't ready to settle and he deserves a good relationship, right?

So why is she so reluctant to give up that number?

Note from Sherry: This is possibly the worst synopsis ever written. Totally not how this book played out (at least the 75% of it that I read) at all. What really happened was more like... main girl almost had a one nighter back in college with this guy. Fast forward 5 or 6 years, she runs into him again and decides to set him up with her broken hearted friend... all the while she wants the guy and the guy wants her and the friend knows all this.

Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was sad that I didn't finish this book, but 2 months to get halfway through the book just seemed like a waste of my time. The story is told from multiple perspectives by way of journals and newspaper articles. The first perspective was that of Jonathan, and introduces us to Count Dracula. This was a quickly moving narrative, detailed and action filled. The next section is told from Mina's (Jonathan's affianced) and her friend Lucy's perspective. This was a slow moving section filled with monotonous details and not much information at all. I left the book just as Van Helsing and Dr. Seward joined the story. At this point the action does pick up quite a bit (a sexist hinting by the author perhaps?) but Van Helsing's monologues are long and often go no where. It was at this point that I gave up.

Synopsis: Count Dracula has inspired countless movies, books, and plays. But few, if any, have been fully faithful to Bram Stoker's original, best-selling novel of mystery and horror, love and death, sin and redemption. Dracula chronicles the vampire's journey from Transylvania to the nighttime streets of London. There, he searches for the blood of strong men and beautiful women while his enemies plot to rid the world of his frightful power.

Stick Shift

Stick Shift by Mary Leo
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Awful. I hate to say that about any book, but really, I was gagging 10 pages into this book. I can't really pinpoint what I didn't like... the writing style, the creepy leacherous hero, the repetitive language... it was just bad. I gave up a few chapters in and won't regret not finishing it at all.

Synopsis: Lucy Mastronardo is heading in the right direction - good job, good apartment, good fiance - until a detour to Naples throws her off the map! Sure, she's just days away from tying the knot, but her next big promotion hits a roadblock and Lucy can't steer away from the last-minute business trip. With reassurances to everyone, including her vanilla-pudding-cup fiane, she vows to return before she has to say, "I do."

Lucy's certain she'll have everything sorted out in no time. But then her drop-dead due dates are laid to waste by wacky staff and the tempting restaurant owner next door. The one who makes her think there's more to life than deadlines and rules.

The Phantom of Pemberley

The Phantom of Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Murder Mystery by Regina Jeffers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

If I hadn't recently read Pride and Prejudice, I might have given this book more of a chance. I loved P&P and when I realized that these books were connected, I was kind of excited. Excited until I started reading the book, that is. Pick something - anything - and that's what was wrong with the book. Bad dialogue, bad characterizations, unrealistic behavior in a period setting... I was about 25% through the book when I quit and I still hadn't figured out what the plot was. Very disappointing.

Synopsis: HAPPILY MARRIED for over a year and more in love than ever, Darcy and Elizabeth can’t imagine anything interrupting their bliss-filled days. Then an intense snowstorm strands a group of travelers at Pemberley, and terrifying accidents and mysterious deaths begin to plague the manor. Everyone seems convinced that it is the work of a phan-tom—a Shadow Man who is haunting the Darcy family’s grand estate.

Darcy and Elizabeth believe the truth is much more menacing and that someone is trying to murder them. But Pem-berley is filled with family guests as well as the unexpected travelers—any one of whom could be the culprit—so unraveling the mystery of the murderer’s identity forces the newlyweds to trust each other’s strengths and work together.

Written in the style of the era and including Austen’s romantic playfulness and sardonic humor, this suspense-packed sequel to Pride and Prejudice recasts Darcy and Elizabeth as a husband-and-wife detective team who must solve the mystery at Pemberley and catch the murderer—before it’s too late.

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
I'm not rating this one as I 1) didn't finish it and b) may come back to finish it at a later date. So first, why didn't I finish it? I couldn't get into the story. It's always that way for Jasper Fforde books - they're complicated and I have to read for quite a bit before I get into the swing of the book. I had trouble remembering what happened in the last book and that the character POV was not the same as the other books in the series made it that much harder for me to fall into it.

Blue Nude

Blue Nude: A Novel by Elizabeth Rosner
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book was too slow-paced for me. I found the story wandered too much between (boring) current events to the past. I felt the lack of detail and symmetry to be a contrived way to build suspense that failed.

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Call Me Irresistible

Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I left this book unfinished thirty five pages into it. I have really mixed feelings about giving up on this book. I wanted to like it because I've heard great things about this author, but this book was really... unrealistic. And confusing. Too many references to details that were never explained (I have a feeling it's a series book and I jumped in the middle) it seemed designed to be a character reunion. The author never seemed to settle on a set POV as it wandered around from a poorly written third person and flashing between different character perspectives. I don't mind if this is done well - like with chapter or sectional breaks, but when it happens three times in the space of four paragraphs, I have a hard time. The characters were okay, way too fake and extremely stereotypical. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

Synopsis: R.S.V.P. to the most riotous wedding of the year!
Lucy Jorik’s the daughter of a former U.S. president.
Meg Koranda’s the offspring of legends.
One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine—the favorite son of Wynette, Texas.
The other is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache.
Meg knows breaking up her best friend’s wedding is the right thing to do, but no one else agrees. Faster than Lucy can say “I don’t,” Meg’s the most hated woman in town—and stuck there with a dead car, an empty wallet, and a very angry bridegroom. Broke, stranded, without her famous parents watching her back, Meg believes she can survive by her own wits. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? She’ll lose her heart to Mr. Irresistible?
Not likely. Not likely at all.

Best of Friends

Best of Friends by Cathy Kelly

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I gave up on this book sixteen pages in. It was clunky and dull. An obvious introduction to a long cast of characters. It's hard to pin down exactly WHAT I don't like about the book, but as soon as I started reading it I knew it wasn't my kind of book.

Synopsis: Abby Barton's TV career is taking off and now she and her husband can have the life they've always dreamed of in a lovely Irish town — at least, in theory! But when your husband takes you for granted and your teenage daughter hates you, an adoring old flame can spell danger to your seemingly perfect life. Fortunately, Abby has her friends to keep her sane. For starters, her best friend, Sally, owns a beauty salon, and Sally and her husband throw fantastic parties, where there are still more friends to be made.

Sally's friend Lizzie makes time for everybody: her gal pals, her grown children, even her ex-husband. But when her ex finds someone new, Lizzie can't help but wonder if she'll ever love again. The women are all thrilled to meet Erin, who has moved home to Ireland from Chicago for her husband's new job. But is she cut out for small-town life, and what of the family she left behind years ago? Together and on their own, these four women are about to face highs and lows they never anticipated. Only from each other can they learn that life is for the living and that they need to grab it with both hands....

Thr3e

Thr3e by Ted Dekker

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I'm struggling writing this book review. I'm struggling with my decision to not finish the book. I wanted so badly to love this book - to even LIKE it, but it failed me. Or I failed it. I'm not sure. The book starts out with a brief and shallow discussion on the nature of evil in mankind. I think this was meant to be a foreshadowing device, but there was nothing profound in the discussion so nothing resonated or stuck with me. Right away we're thrown into some action by immediately being introduced to the bad guy and his twisted little game. The author won points for not wasting time with that. My problem is with all the things the author did waste time with. Analyzing and detailing every.little.thought, motivation and response of each character. The language used in the book... I appreciate the author's attempt to avoid over using profanity, disturbing imagery or sex, but there were a few cases where the absence of it was completely out of character. And speaking of characters, the main character is a seminary student - and he doesn't once pray to God. It was like ... I don't know. The character occupation note was to give him some kind of innocence or good, but the author didn't back it up. I did skip to the end and read the last two chapters just to see how the book played out. I was quite disappointed. I've seen this plot before, it's a movie called Fight Club - watch it and save yourself some time by not picking up this book.



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The Ginger Tree

The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I had great expectations of this book and was let down. Some of the writing was very well done, but there were some parts that were just BORING. It was a great idea for a plot, but not sure the format of journal entries and letters were the way to do it. There was extensive description that I felt wouldn't have been present in a journal or letter.



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The Perfect Love Song

The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story by Patti Callahan Henry

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was very disappointed. I struggled through the first chapter, flipped through the rest of the book to see if the disjointed writing and over dramatic voice continues through the story - it does - so I dropped it. I don't even know how to clearly explain my aversion - maybe it was that the first two pages of the story throw twenty characters at you, and then you're supposed to keep who's who straight. Maybe it was the cheesy, melodramatic writing. Or maybe it was that the story wasn't making any sense at all, and the story had no ability to establish credibility for me. All I know is that I was very very disappointed.

Synopsis: Jimmy Sullivan has been living on the road with his brother, Jack, and his band The Unknown Souls. Without a place to call home, Jimmy and Jack lead a nomadic life filled with music and anonymous cities. When they return to a place Jimmy never wants to see again—their old hometown of Seaboro, South Carolina—he falls in love with Charlotte Carrington.

With his soul now filled with hope, Jimmy writes his first love song. When he performs it at a holiday concert to a standing ovation, the lyrics are dubbed the “Perfect Love Song,” so much so that Jimmy finds himself going on tour with famous country music stars, catapulted into a world where the trappings of fame and fortune reign supreme.

All too soon, the hope that had once inspired Jimmy to write such beautiful, genuine lyrics is overshadowed by what the song can do for him and his career. In his thirst for recognition, he agrees to miss Jack’s wedding in Ireland to sing at a Christmas Eve concert. And his ties to Charlotte seem to be ever so quickly slipping away.

Alone in New York City on Christmas Eve, Jimmy finally sees—with the help of a Christmas miracle or two—that his material gains are nothing compared to love, that he is losing all that really matters in his life. Is it too late to find his way to Ireland, to his brother, and to love?

Recommended Reading:
The Art of Keeping Secrets by Patti Callahan Henry
Losing the Moon by Patti Callahan Henry
Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans
The Storyteller of Marrakesh by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Under Fishbone Clouds by Sam Meekings

The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting Personal

The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting Personal by Cameron Tuttle

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I picked this up a while back expecting some tongue in cheek humor, maybe a little usable insight, but what I got was pure ridiculous. I hope that was how this book was written - for humor and not for anyone to actually follow.



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