Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Started: 12/25/2022

Finished: 12/28/22

Year: 2022

Pages: 368

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book

Blurb (from Amazon): "Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

"Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

"Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

"Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late."

Opinion: Wasn't expecting the twist at the end. I liked the paranormal aspect included in the plot.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Started: 12/18/2022

Finished: 12/25/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 598

Genre: Fantasy/fiction

Grade: B

Reason for reading: fan of Stephen King, library book

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.

"Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world."

Opinion: like several of King's books, there's a journey. Considering that this was written during the Covid pandemic, interesting take.

The Margo Chronicles by CJ MacKinnon

Started: 12/13/2022

Finished: 12/14/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 199

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "The Margo Chronicles is a playful romp through the first year of retirement for Margo and Michael, suburbanites who have unwittingly dropped themselves into a tiny, rural community in British Columbia. Their dream of escaping the city to pursue a simpler way of life in the country meets the reality of living in Wannatoka Springs, a remote community in the Kootenays.

"CJ has created a delightfully quirky cast of characters seen through the eyes of Margo, a newly retired teacher who finds her identity and her assumptions about retirement challenged at every turn. Tales of unlikely interactions with neighbours and unforeseen predicaments keep the reader chuckling at how this conventional couple handles the curve balls that come their way. Wannatoka Springs is a fictitious village in the Kootenays, but bears a distinct resemblance to the tiny, rural community in the Kootenays where the author and her partner retired. The adventures are based on the author's embellishments of (nearly) true-life experiences."

Opinion: A thorough review is posted on Reader Views

The Daughter of Auschwitz by Tova Friedman and Malcom Brabant

Started: 12/14/2022

Finished: 12/17/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 288

Genre: Memoir, history

Grade: A

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to emerge from Auschwitz. After surviving the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Central Poland where she lived as a toddler, Tova was four when she and her parents were sent to a Nazi labour camp, and almost six when she and her mother were forced into a packed cattle truck and sent to Auschwitz II, also known as the Birkenau extermination camp, while her father was transported to Dachau.

"During six months of incarceration in Birkenau, Tova witnessed atrocities that she could never forget, and experienced numerous escapes from death. She is one of a handful of Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale.

"As Nazi killing squads roamed Birkenau before abandoning the camp in January 1945, Tova and her mother hid among corpses. After being liberated by the Russians they made their way back to their hometown in Poland. Eventually Tova's father tracked them down and the family was reunited.

"In The Daughter of Auschwitz, Tova immortalizes what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive, at a time when it's in danger of fading from memory. She has used those memories that have shaped her life to honour the victims. Written with award-winning former war reporter Malcolm Brabant, this is an extremely important book. Brabant's meticulous research has helped Tova recall her experiences in searing detail. Together they have painstakingly recreated Tova's extraordinary story about the world's worst ever crime."

Opinion: An amazing story of survival. Hard to believe that people don't know about the Holocaust or think that it never happened. I would highly recommend this book.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Started: 12/11/2022

Finished: 12/13/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 373

Genre: Romance

Grade: A

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

"Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

"If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves."

Opinion: A well written romance novel-not full of smut but just enough to get one's imagination going. I can see why so many have enjoyed reading this book.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich

Started: 12/8/2022

Finished: 12/9/2022

Year: 2012

Year: 302

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booklender.com book, continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility, has mysteriously vanished from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy. Now it’s on Stephanie to track him down. Unfortunately, Cubbin has disappeared without a trace, a witness, or his money-hungry wife. Rumors are stirring that he must have had help with the daring escape . . . or that maybe he never made it out of his room alive. Since the hospital staff’s lips seem to be tighter than the security, and it’s hard for Stephanie to blend in to assisted living, Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur goes in undercover. But when a second felon goes missing from the same hospital, Stephanie is forced into working side by side with Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, in order to crack the case.

"The real problem is, no Cubbin also means no way to pay the rent. Desperate for money—or maybe just desperate—Stephanie accepts a secondary job guarding her secretive and mouthwatering mentor Ranger from a deadly Special Forces adversary. While Stephanie is notorious for finding trouble, she may have found a little more than she bargained for this time around. Then again—a little food poisoning, some threatening notes, and a bridesmaid’s dress with an excess of taffeta never killed anyone . . . or did they? If Stephanie Plum wants to bring in a paycheck, she’ll have to remember: No guts, no glory."

Opinion: These are always a fun and quick read. Silly antics mixed with a decent mystery plot

In the Belly of the Bell-Shaped Curve by Michael Carter

Started: 12/6/2022

Finished: DNF

Year: 2020

Pages: 234

Genre: fiction

Grade: F

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Meet Turk, a frustrated claims adjuster who feels like a work monkey spinning his wheels for an insurance company. He desires to throw a monkey wrench in the works and develops a plan to free him from his boring life and make him rich. It might be one of the best fiction novels off the beaten path that looks at the American debt economy in what Kirkus Reviews called “an often-funny satire of the excesses of the free market ethos.” If successful, his plan will liberate a vast majority of human beings from the drudgery and monotony of their own monkey work or what the commoner might refer to as a job. Turk envisions the Primo-Primate Project to create a real work monkey from trained chimpanzees who operate digital sales registers. Suppose you’re looking for a fiction book with philosophical themes that explores the line between madness and spiritual revelation. In that case, you’ll enjoy the tension the author creates in this contemporary satirical novel as the lead character examines his loneliness and isolation amidst others’ perceptions of him. Enjoy the humor as Turk works to free humanity from the mundane and dull and replace it with monkey work that makes money and quite a few laughs too. The acclaimed Kirkus Reviews also said (In the Belly of the Bell-Shaped Curve,) “Carter doesn’t just offer readers a hapless Everyperson in these pages; he gives Turk dimension by making him a self-help disciple with delusions of grandeur.”

Opinion: Just not my cuppa.......very scattered...some chapters just were thrown in. 

The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

Started: 12/1/2022

Finished: 12/6/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 293

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Here's what Iris knows about her identical twin sister, Summer:

"Everything that belongs to Summer is perfect, from her magnificent yacht to her gorgeous husband.

"Summer's life will always be better than Iris's.

"Nobody -- absolutely nobody -- can tell the twins apart. Even with $100 million at stake.

"Against a backdrop of sparkling tropical islands, ocean storms, and outrageous wealth, The Girl in the Mirror explores the terrible consequences of greed, deadly lies, and out-of-control jealousy."

Opinion: Definitely wasn't expecting the plot twist at the end.

The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories Edited by Peter Haining

Started: 11/28/2022

Finished: 12/1/2022

Year: 2007

Pages: 569

Genre: Ghost stories

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "This spine-chilling new anthology of 20th and 21st century tales by big name writers is in the best traditions of literary ghost stories. It is just a little over a hundred years ago that the most famous literary ghost story, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, was published and in the intervening years a great many other distinguished writers have tried their hand at this popular genre - some basing their fictional tales on real supernatural experiences of their own."

Opinion: As with every collection of short stories, there are some really good ones...and then some not so good. These were, for the most part, decent.