The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

If you are seeing this review in an email, please click to follow the link to the blog so you can read the entire review!  Thank you! ~ Rawles


This is what happens when you read a book at the beginning of a long vacation (first flight, DONE!), and then don't review it until two months later.   I am suffering a bit from CRS disease (can't remember, um, stuff), so this one will be short, but important enough to include!

I gave this book four stars on Goodreads.  That means it was pretty good, and it was definitely original.  I definitely connected with Sam, and really admired his mother, who stood up for him when he was bullied at school because of his red eyes.  Loved the long-lasting relationship between Sam and his bff and fellow outcast, Ernie.  And Mickey - well, Mickey is the wild card.  And stays that way!!!!

Very interesting how his physical condition defines and shapes his life and his decisions, and his relationships.  Great story about perseverance and deep friendship, and maybe a bit of redemption.  I personally liked the ending, even if it was a bit wrapped up, but what Sam realizes and how he handles who he meets at the end was sort of cathartic.  For the character and the reader.  Well done.

Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger

Hmmmmm.

So I am giving this four stars, but maybe because I feel I should.  It was my Book of the Month pick and they warned that this book would be....different.  It was.

I wasn't totally enamored of this character or of this story.  I expected more, I think.  Lots of science that was deep (I skimmed it) and not really necessary for what ended up being the main theme of the story.  Some readers have said it WAS necessary as a backdrop to the whole mystery of "where is Charlie in the universe?," but it was too much for me.  I thought maybe there'd be a ghost story here, or something mystical.  The story meandered, and the resolution was very disappointing for me, just so simple.  I agree that there was not really a plot.  It plods along as our main character, Helen, becomes re-engaged in her college roommate's life because she gets a phone call from her - after she dies.  Helen has one child, which seems out of character for this unemotional scientist (not that all scientists are unemotional, just this one), and is obviously a tool for the author as a connector to Charlie's child.  Anyway, this review is about as convoluted as the book as I am not going to try to give you an outline of the story.  I'd just say, skip this one.

The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer

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Ok, first of all, how ironic that the author's name is MORTIMER, when this book is about death???

(ed: cuz it's a pseudonym.  Duh, Rawles. Cute, Ian.)

Or, is it really?  Is it about LIFE??

John and William are brothers trying to survive the Black Plague in 1348 Exeter.  When it becomes obvious that they will not survive, a voice gives them an option:  Stay in 1348 to return home and infect their families, or live the next 6 days free of the disease, but spending one day in the future, jumping 99 years each time.  Can they find a way to save their souls in 6 days in 5 different centuries?  John is very religious and desperate to do a good deed, but they seem to only find trouble wherever/whenever they appear.

I found the main theme here to be this:  in a sweeping review of history, mankind gets closer to each other in transportation, communication and advanced medicine/law, but what happens to relationships and true living?  In almost all the centuries, Exeter is at war.  It seems never ending.  John, the narrator, is overwhelmed by changes in history and to his beloved cathedral, for which he was a sculptor in his time.  Many commentaries about society in each century, about the behaviour of people towards each other, and of course some women's lib thrown in, become the theme of this book at least to me.  And some dang good points are made by the author about societal "growth," religion and how people use it, and about good vs evil.

The vehicle for these points becomes a bit simple, but don't let that stop you.  This is not a deeply written book prose-wise; poor John really stumble with the change in language!  But the message is a thought provoking one indeed. 

What are we doing here?  Can we save ourselves through a good deed if that good deed is done only to save ourselves?  Is the road to hell paved with good intentions?  Or are there lessons on that road that can open the gates of heaven?  And what the heck are those crosses in the sky??  ;-)

Fun for history buffs, complete fantasy - but really a what if scenario, with several what if questions at stake.  I would say this book is probably not for everyone.  Quick read and nothing award winning, but fun and definitely thought provoking!

The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

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As a South Carolina girl, I found this fascinating! Based on a true story and real people, this is a part of my state's history I did not know, and I was a History major!!  Gaahhhh!


Eliza Lucas is 16 and, in the absence of her brothers, is put in charge of her father's estate in SC in 1739 while he goes away to spend all the family's money on his military career.  Desperate to save her family's lands, and to avoid her mother's insistence on marriage, Eliza makes a deal with a female slave to teach the slaves to read if she will share her knowledge of making indigo dyes.  A big risk on many fronts, still Eliza shows amazing courage and determination in the face of huge odds - everyone is against her except just a few supporters, including perhaps a childhood friend.

Simply written, but a great story.  This young girl literally changed the course of history in a time when women were only allowed to decide what to wear.  We've come a long way, baby, in part thanks to Eliza!!   Appropriate read for teens and history buffs alike.

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Stunning. Beautiful. My Book of the Summer (and it is only June).

I found this on my Kindle. I have no idea when or why I bought it.  It is not the usual kind of book that would pique my interest.  (edit - I think it was a free e-book as part of Amazon's World Book Day Celebration in March; if so I hit the jackpot!!)  But I think Simonopio now rivals Owen Meany as my favorite literary character of all time. Well, besides Jamie Fraser, but that's a given. 

This book was translated from Spanish. Usually, lyrical prose does not come through in those cases. This is different. Kudos to Simon Bruni for this spectacular translation; I cannot even imagine what the original version must be like to read. Flowing, almost dreamlike, we are introduced to the Franscico and Beatriz Cortez Morales, who live in the little village of Linares and have a farm, and a family. An extended family that includes a mute old woman, a mysterious boy with a deformity and a hive of bees, and oh so much love to share. Set in and around 1918 and beyond, we learn of the effects of the Spanish Flu, the Mexican Revolution, the effects of music and brotherhood and godparents who are really parents. 

Please please read this book. I even called my new godson-in-law today to let him know that he, an English Professor, will be wanting to teach using this book. So many layers and symbols and relationships and and and. Just, yeah, read it. Sigh. I am sad that I finished. 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

A book about books and a heroine named Cussy Mary???  I am IN.

Based on true stories, this book was fascinating.  Cussy Mary is one of the last of the Kentucky Blues.  That's right - blue skinned people.  It is a real thing and even has a big scientific name now - methemoglobinemia. But back then, they were just colored.

Still, Cussy Mary becomes one of the women who carry books to the mountain people and they await her arrival with high anticipation.  Little children, starving children, come running when the Book Woman comes up on her horse.  It is a rough job plodding through the mountains in all sorts of weather and with mean people about, but she is proud to have it.  Her father has other ideas for her, trying to protect her future by marrying her off.  But no one good wants to marry a Blue.  And she can't keep her job if she marries.  She is the last of her kind on this mountain and she faces discrimination at every turn.  She finds a few friends, and in them, a purpose for life. 

The author does a great job of writing "as it is" - the vernacular here is lyrical and you really feel Cussy's deep sadness about her life, along with her determination to make the best of it all.  She definitely goes through trials - she is abused verbally and otherwise by people who consider her a lesser human.  But Cussy Mary is a survivor.  Plus, ya know, BOOKS.  ;-)  Great book club book and for lovers of historical and regional fiction.

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Memory.  It is a strange thing when people remember things differently.  (Happens to me all the time when I am with my high school and college friends.  Sigh.) And it is especially strange when you can't remember them at all.  This book tackles so many things that I think the author overdid it.  While I liked her assertion at the beginning that Toby was just danged lucky, even if he didn't realize it because he was basically an entitled spoiled white male who always wins, but that theme didn't even really take root.  But the Witch Elm did.  Ha.

So, briefly, Toby has a great job, great girlfriend, two fantastic drinking buddies from childhood, two cousins he still hangs out with because they are all only children, and an uncle living alone in the family mansion in the country.  A random act of violence (or was it??) changes everything and sends Toby out to the mansion to recover.  Of course, his memory is dim after the beating and when stories pop up about the past, mainly in the form of an old skull found out in the garden, he has a hard time reconciling what he thinks happened and what others hint at.  Confusing, yes.  Too long winded?  Definitely.  But I could not put it down.  What I liked is that the ending is....well, I can't say but it was NOT what I expected.  I think the editors could have pared this down greatly though as the red herrings and diversions were frustrating. 

I have not read her Dublin murder series and still would read them, but I understand how this book may have disappointed fans.  It is well written, but the plot is a bit loose. Still, I rate it four stars for a very original premise, even if the resolution is a bit far fetched.  It is fiction, people.  And bonus points for a fabulous cover.