Reading Challenged

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Stacking the Shelves: 7/24-7/30

First Reads from Goodreads:

The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell

The Cantaloupe Thief by Deb Richardson-Moore

The Source Labyrinth by Jeffery M. Herman

Friday, July 29, 2016

V4 Vengeance

Title: V4 Vengeance
Author: Nigel Seed
Publisher: Astor + Blue

ISBN: 978-1-68120-058-3

Why Read?: Early Review

Thoughts: This is a military thriller that imagines what if the Germans had hidden some advanced warfare U-boats during WWII and what if a Russian mafia boss discovered them and attacked America. Very creative idea, but the story did not always hold my attention, especially when it left the main character.

Rating: 2 stars

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Best New Paranormal Romance

Title: Best New Paranormal Romance
Author: Paula Guran, ed.
Publisher: Juno

ISBN: 978-0-8095-5653-3

Why Read?: For Fun

Thoughts: "Paranormal" seems to cover a wide-range of speculative fiction in this collection, so which stories you enjoy will depend on which genres you like. My two favorites were "Walpurgis Afternoon" by Delia Sherman and "A Knot of Toads" by Jane Yolen, both of which has a modern fantasy feel.

Rating: 3 stars

Divide and Conquer

Title: Divide and Conquer
Author: Carrie Ryan
Publisher: Scholastic

ISBN: 9780545466295

Why Read?: For Fun

Thoughts: With a lot of the exposition out of the way, this was a deeper story than the first book in the Infinity Ring series. However, it seems there was a short story in between the two that was referenced a few times, making some things rather confusing.

Rating: 3 stars

Monday, July 25, 2016

Welcome to the Show

Welcome to the Show

by Frank Nappi

published by Sky Pony

2016

ISBN 978-1-63450-834-6

Frank Nappi returns with the next installment of his Mickey Tussler series, Welcome to the Show. The pitching prodigy has finally made it to the majors, but finds his autism is still an issue. The rest of the Braves, aside from the other rookie, his friend Lester, do not understand Mickey, and some even resent his prowess. Arthur Murphy, acting as the substitute manager for the season, tries his best to make a family of the team, but some of the star players have other ideas. Further complications arise when Mickey falls in love for the first time.

As always, Nappi does a wonderful job capturing the feel of 1940s baseball while also creating realistic, diverse characters. Sports-lovers will love the detailed play-by-play action in many of the chapters. The only downfall is the amount of head-hopping that happens, especially during games, which makes it hard to keep everyone and everything straight.

Fans of historical sports fiction or of books with main characters on the autism spectrum will enjoy Welcome to the Show. While it does help to have read Frank Nappi’s prior Mickey Tussler novels, this one does almost stand well on its own.

Rating 3/5