Book Review: Midlife Mouse by Wayne Franklin

 

I truly adored this book. The concept is hilarious and brilliantly executed. Mr. Franklin’s dry wit is right on target. I can see how many readers of different genres will love this book.

First let me state that I love Disney. I’m not obsessed with Disney, but I know people like that. My mother took myself and my daughter to Disney World in Orlando to celebrate my daughter’s 5th birthday in December of 2011.

Anyplace has to be interesting when they let you dress your child like this..

Although I had been there before as a teenager, the entire “magic” thing was even better with my own child.
That said, you don’t necessarily need to have been to the parks to like this book. Although it may help. Some of the “Disney Magic” is best explained when you have been there in person.

The plot. Ok, it starts off with a standoff. He is holed up in a room at one of the resorts at Disney with his nine year old daughter and a S.W.A.T team outside. And the rest of the book goes back in forth in time attempting to explain what brought Bill Durmer to that exact moment in time.

As the book goes on, the trip Bill took with his family to Disney World six months prior is rehashed. Apparently some very weird things happened to him while he was there that defy explanation. People seemed to know his name, his family got an upgrade to a suite at the Grand Floridian and he felt he was being watched.

Six months later he is pretty much at the bottom. He just closed his family’s store, a wonderful nautical event that his town celebrates every year is ruined, and he’s turning 40.

And he starts receiving cryptic messages via email. Through the movie Beauty and the Beast (which he watched four times in one night) he believes he should move to Disney World. Not next to it, INTO it.
He leaves in the middle of the night, taking his oldest daughter with him.

“It’s a Small World” plays a pivotal role in the book..

Then things get even weirder. He gets a job as a bus driver, he is kidnapped (by Snow White) and he meets some very interesting individuals. Apparently there is some sort of prophecy and he might fulfill. He hears from multiple (granted, eccentric) individuals “You have a grander purpose, Bill Durmer. It’s time to find it.”

Bill continues to try and put the pieces of the puzzle together. And that’s when the stand-off takes place.
I don’t want to get into more detail because I don’t want to spoil it.

The plot is imaginative and feeds off of real-life Disney lore. I am actually planning on reading the biography of Walt Disney in the near future as a result of reading this book.

Mr. Franklin manages to tie in a very public, very powerful worldwide entertainment company into this book. In fact, the whole concept of “Disney” can be considered a distinct character throughout. And I hope he doesn’t get sued. The fact that Disney tried to recently copyright the term “Dia De Los Muertos” comes to mind.

The characters are rich and very developed. I’m thinking mainly of Bill’s sister Nancy. I know people like her (and am related to some of those people).

Bill himself is very developed, and the reader is privledged to watch him learn about himself and his abilities.

I also love the relationship between Bill and his wife. They truly do love each other, and sometimes in popular literature, more is written about infidelity and dysfunctional families than the ones that truly are making it work. The love that Katherine feels for Bill is palpable. She wants to see him succeed and live his dream, and if that means sneaking off to live at Disney World in the middle of the night, then so be it.

This book is hilarious. The sarcasm and wit reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Rob Kroese (especially in Mercury Falls). I can actually see people saying things like “I will not tolerate: blaspheming the good Lord and speaking ill of the Mouse!”

Overall, this book is a very good, very lighthearted read. I highly recommended to anyone who enjoys an imaginative plot mixed with a study of relationships and middle life.

My favorite pic from the vacation

Book Review: Stalking Sapphire

Stalking Sapphire by Mia Thompson (2013)

cover art

Genre: fiction, mystery, suspense, thriller, chick lit

Sapphire Dubois is not the typical Beverley Hills girl, but to all eyes she appears to be. She surrounds herself with people to fill her life and give her the look of the snobby, rich bitch. She detests having to date a douchebag, attending charity galas, going the the country club, seeing her mother’s infidelity and wearing $400 pajamas….OK, maybe not that last one.

It’s all a persona, because underneath it all Sapphire is an independent criminal detective. She operates on her own, does her research and leaves the bad guy (or girl, she doesn’t discriminate) in a bind and masks her voice as she calls the local police. She has solved six cases in the last two years that she’s been fighting crime, and semi-regularly visiting and confiding her side-work in a priest, Father O’Riley, at a Catholic church in San Diego.

Sapphire’s snobby friend, Chrissy, drags her to this charity event where she runs into newly promoted and transferred Detective Aston Ridder. He’s got a bum leg and got a demotion via promotion via transfer from downtown LA to picture-perfect Beverly Hills. He does his usual – takes Sapphire home, sleeps with her and then throws her out. Only, she gets the last laugh…

All the while, Sapphire keeps getting the feeling that someone is watching her – and then she knows for sure when a personal memento is stolen from her vehicle – parked right in front of the BHPD. And whoever it is wants Sapphire to pay – in blood.

Mystery Murder Man has Sapphire stumped, and he’s also sending her pieces of a missing girl. Sapphire’s onto Aston that he’s following/stalking her. It’s not clear to Detective Ridder, or even Sapphire, why Mystery Murder Man is sending Sapphire appendages of a certain middle-class girl, Shelly…until she shakes Aston, hotrods to San Diego, breaks into the McCormick house and discovers a brief entry in Shelly’s diary mentioning one Father O’Riley….

She’s also seeing her trainer show some feelings for her. She gets dumped by her boyfriend and she lashes out at Chrissy. Meanwhile, Aston’s having to fend off Sapphire’s mother, Vivienne, who uses men like tissues behind her elderly, disabled, nearly-vegetable husband that she overtly neglects. Talk about a viper! On top of it all, her friend and housekeeper Julia is engaged – which really shows the double sides of Sapphire.

For explicitly stating all she did in the beginning of the book about wanting to be different than all the other Beverly Hills rich women, she sure is acting like one of them with Julia. It’s strange to see such  jealously from a female character in this way, and especially cruel comments made directly to the reader about Julia’s choice…and then she blows up on him, insisting he’s the accomplice the first time she meets him! Needless to say, Sapphire is so bent on catching this serial killer that she’s not firing on all cylinders and is itching to capture him. Rushing leads to sloppiness.

The Mystery Murder Man is indeed only one person – and someone Sapphire knows! But the least-likely person she would suspect….

The book has a few light twists at the ending, but Sapphire showed some character development and is able to let Julia go, peacefully. She also confronts her mother about a question that’s been burning in her heart for her entire life – which was quite a surprise, as it never really came up at any time during the novel. Things are left unresolved between Sapphire and Aston, especially after her big announcement…and another crazy is on the loose – and he’s looking for Sapphire!

Book Review: The Next Thing on My List

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski (2007)

Genre: fiction,

I received a digital copy via Smashwords in return for an honest review.

After a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June Parker finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written: “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday.” The tasks range from inspiring (run a 5K) to daring (go braless) to near-impossible (change someone’s life). 

To assuage her guilt, June races to achieve each goal herself before the deadline, learning more about her own life than she ever bargained for. (Amazon)

I’d only met her the night she died. 

This book has gotten mixed reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. However, I find it quite interesting that reviewers on Amazon didn’t make the same statements (and lower ratings) than those on Goodreads. I think this is due in large part to Amazon being a consumer site for purchasing. Goodreads is straight-up people who enjoy books (and in my opinion, know more about what they’re talking about). I also heard they’ll be turning this into a movie…

This is an incredibly light read, great to take on a trip and a good read for summertime.

First – the promoted reviews of entities (not individuals) doesn’t do this book justice, at all.

June Parker, the main character, is a newbie to a Weight Watchers class – and as she’s leaving fellow classmate Marissa Jones – who just reached her weight goal of losing 100 pounds! – is waiting for the bus. June decides some of Marissa’s luck will rub off on her, and gives her a ride. But it ends in tragedy – Marissa is thrown from the vehicle. June attends the funeral, all bruised and in casts.

The only thing that brought me out of the hole was a soul brave enough to reach in and grab me. 

June is wracked with guilt – mostly, that she lived and Marissa died…and it all stems from a list. Marissa made a list of 20 things she wanted to do before her 25th birthday, and only one item was crossed off. She died before she could cross off “Wear sexy shoes,” June discovered once the items of the scene were returned to her. She gave all of Marissa’s belongings back to her family except for the list, which she doesn’t mention until she bumps into Marissa’s brother, Troy, six months later at her grave.

June admits to keeping the list, and in a panic, spins a heart-felt lie she is then compelled to keep:  complete the items on the list before Marissa’s 25th birthday. In less than six months.

People are living too much or too little, and I wondered if anyone out there is living the right amount.

And completing the list proves for June that she was really quite boring and didn’t have an aspirations or direction in her life. She was literally going through the motions, not speaking up at work when her boss steals her ideas to pass off as her own (until they fail!) and letting her co-workers torment and humiliate her. Hell if she’s telling them what she’s trying to do, when they’re accusing her of killing Marissa!

Through trying to complete items on the list, June…

• establishes better relationships with her coworkers
• enlists the help of her coworkers to accomplish work tasks and list tasks
• finds the “perfect” guy – Marissa’s brother, Troy
• sets out to change some lives – her brother’s and his wife’s, and her Little Sister Deedee
• gets a backbone, takes charge of work tasks, and sells herself to the big boss Lou
• finds a relationship with an unlikely person
• realizes how much Marissa set out to do
• realizes she had no motivation for anything in life
• tries…and fails

Some of June’s plans go wrong, some are quite hair-brained, and some of the items are difficult. Who is Buddy Fitch? She enlists the help of her blind date, coworkers, Troy, family and Little Sister to complete the list. There is a lot of sarcasm and humor in doing it all.

I’d already done the finger-counting thing and realized the most sleep I could hope for was five hours.

As I said, this is a quick and light read. I enjoyed it for the sake of reading, but was left unsatisfied. June is only the completing the items on the list for sake of completing them because she LIED to the dead girl’s brother. Way to start off on a good foot. And the big boss, Lou Bigwood, is notoriously known for “finding” good-looking women (dubbed Charlie’s Angels) at conferences to manage his company… seriously, Bigwood? Big wood? Come on!

Throughout the whole book June makes snarky comments about her parents and her brother, who was obviously the favorite…and yet, she writes a letter “expressing gratitude” to her brother to show how much he means to her. Since rules were set down that actions to complete the items on the list had to be genuine, this one doesn’t count. June failed on that one. She sets out on changing a life by signing up to be a Big Sister – who she parts ways with after a difficult last-minute decision and heartbreak for June’s own brother and his wife.

The thing that made me feel any kind of emotion was an incident between June and Troy. He made it quite clear how he felt about June’s efforts to “change a life” Plan A. And yet, she still crushing on him. NO! If a man can’t deal with a non-life-threatening decision, such as wanting a child on your own terms, kick him six streets down! Troy proves to still be somewhat of a friend, and at times it seems they will reconcile, but June discovers something quite unexpected.

The ending was cheap and bland – I expected much more. The one good thing I liked: June decides it’s time she make her own list.

I knew there was something that I needed even more: the truth. I’d been running from it for a long time, and now it was time to face it. 

Jill is the author of two other novels, Objects of My Affection and Flip-Flopped: A Novel, as well as several how-to origami books.

Readers: if you enjoy bucket lists, check out this excellent blog post. Maybe some of the items on your list will change, maybe some of them will be borrowed or added by others. You never know.

What’s on YOUR list?

Book Review: Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff

 
This is a book reviewed for ireadabookonce.com, and possibly the most widely known author I have reviewed.  I was thrilled to review it.

I am a huge fan of anything that is about World War II and survival under the most trying circumstances.  This book was right up my alley.  Here is the synopsis:

Frozen in Time is a gripping true story of survival, bravery, and honor in the vast Arctic wilderness during World War II, from the author of New York Times bestseller Lost in Shangri-La.

On November 5, 1942, a US cargo plane slammed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, the B-17 assigned to the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on board survived, and the US military launched a daring rescue operation. But after picking up one man, the Grumman Duck amphibious plane flew into a severe storm and vanished.

Frozen in Time tells the story of these crashes and the fate of the survivors, bringing vividly to life their battle to endure 148 days of the brutal Arctic winter, until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen brought them to safety. Mitchell Zuckoff takes the reader deep into the most hostile environment on earth, through hurricane-force winds, vicious blizzards, and subzero temperatures.

Moving forward to today, he recounts the efforts of the Coast Guard and North South Polar Inc. – led by indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza – who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck’s last flight and recover the remains of its crew.

A breathtaking blend of mystery and adventure Mitchell Zuckoff’s Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and a tribute to the everyday heroism of the US Coast Guard.

This book reminded me of Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resiliance and Redemption”.  Much like that book captivated me, this one did as well.

I grew up in the northeast, so I know cold.  But not this type of cold: “Cold in Greenland is almost a living thing, a tormenting force that robs strapping men of strength, denies them rest, and refuses them comfort.  In time, it kills like a python, squeezing life from its victims.”

Mitchell Zuckoff paints such a vivid picture of the landscape.  The ice, the snow, the crevasses.  The day to day torment of living on a glacier with a thin skin of aluminum to block out the wind and cold.

This book is absolutely thrilling.  From the dual stories of the men marooned on this barren wasteland alternating with the push for an expedition to find artifacts, both stories are equally compelling.

I honestly feel that these types of true stories should be required reading in high schools.  The strength and fortitude exhibited by the soldiers in WWII helps to illustrate just how much has been sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy now.

The “greatest generation” is truly that.  I will always read books of this nature, and I look forward to Mr. Zuckoff’s sequel to this story, the one where the ending includes the team bringing the Duck home.

I give this book four stars for the way the information is presented and weaved into the story from today.  Mr. Zuckoff’s writing is impeccable and draws the reader in and keeps them interested throughout.  Although the reader knows that some of the crew survived from the very beginning, the reader just wants to know how, and what their lives were like after.

Highly recommended for those who have an interest in history, aviation, or a tale that takes place in one of the most inhospitable locations on the planet.

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Click here to read the latest addition to “Ask a Book Nerd”

Over at “I Read a Book Once”, the gaggle of book reviews answer question about…what else…books!

Here is the latest question.  Feel free to comment with your response:

Is there a book that you were supposed to like but you didn’t–for instance, a piece of classic literature or a wildly popular best seller?  If so, what was it and why didn’t you fall down on your knees and worship its literary greatness?

Book review: No Alternative by William Dickerson

This is a book I reviewed for I read a book once.com:

William Dickerson presents an interesting commentary on the culture and music of the mid-90s.  From amazon.com:

NO ALTERNATIVE is a coming-of-age drama that drills a hole into the world of suburban American teenagers in the early 90′s.

Thomas Harrison is determined to start his own alternative band, an obsession that blinds him to what’s either the mental collapse, or the eruption of musical genius, of his little sister, Bridget. Bridget boldly rejects her brother’s music, and the music of an entire generation of slackers, by taking on the persona of an X-rated gangsta’ rapper named Bri Da B.

NO ALTERNATIVE probes the lives of rebellious kids who transition into adulthood via the distortion pedals of their lives in an era when the Sex, Drugs & Rock’n'Roll ethos was amended to include Suicide in its phrase.

I picked this book because the time period intrigued me.  I was the tender age of 12 in 1994, the year the action of this book takes place.  Also, I love music and love reading about the influence of current events and culture on the songs of that time period.

Has it really been nearly two decades?

This book slammed me back into the mid-90s. I was half-tempted to find my flannels and baby doll tees.

But underneath all of the nostalgia, there is a deep current of social commentary that shines through from each chapter:  “We want so desperately to be fooled into believing that as long as we build a perfect white picket fence along our property line, everything will be perfect behind it”.

Thomas is a senior at an exclusive all boys Jesuit high school.  His idol, Kurt Cobain, committed suicide six months before the narrative begins.  Thomas, like every other Generation Xer, longs to be in a band and make music.  After his period of mourning, he dusts off his drums and sets out to start a garage band.

His sister, meanwhile, has no love for grunge.  She likes gansta rap, the more offensive the better.  She finds a keyboard one day and starts writing and performing her own music.

Bridget also has mental issues and in the 90s, antidepressants were becoming mainstream, and kids were being put on them at alarming rates.

Their parents are upright pillars of society.  Their father is a judge sitting on the Supreme Court of New York, and their mother is an aging hippie.

The different layers of teenage angst, social commentary, history and music blend together to create the story that alternates from the story of Thomas and Bridget to a dissertation on Generation X.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Thomas’ school.  My husband graduated from Salasianum in 1997 (the alma mater of the Vice-President).  He could be the one telling these stories about what it was like in an all-boys school in this time period.  I frequently had to stop reading and ask him about a passage or quote that I thought would ring true for him.

But the universal truths of adolescence are also prominent: “In high school, much like prison, your reputation means your life.”

Thomas meets a girl.  The girl is the product of very controlling parents.  You can use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

The issues with her, his rejection from his first choice for college, difficulties with his band and probably some genetic disease history combines inside Thomas with tragic results:

“Thomas is cursed with only remembering the lows, remembering the pain, the suffering, the embarrassment and never remembering the highs that often precede or follow the lows.”

This character is so authentic, his emotions and state of mind are so real that you want to hug him.  You want to tell him “it gets better, just wait and see”.

I can say that being in my 30s, but reading this book reminded me of what it is like to be 17.  Especially a teenager with depression.  I could literally look in my journals that I wrote when I was that age and it would sound very similar to this book.

My only criticisms are with the language and flow of the phrases used throughout the book.  This was not an easy read.  Sentence structure is very “clunky” at times, and I found myself having to reread passages several times to understand what actually happened.

I love it when authors make me reach for the dictionary, but if it is occurring every other paragraph, that takes the reader out of the narrative and interrupts the flow.

I also am thankful to the author for writing about the ultimate subject of this book.  It is a difficult subject to write about, but through his characters, you can see how it can occur in any family.

Novelette Review: Chasing Dolphins

Chasing Dolphins by September Lynn Gray (2012)

 

Genre: fiction

This is a novelette by another new-coming author, September Lynn Gray. She has released two novelettes, and is working toward publishing a novel.

When I first charted a deadline for reading Chasing Dolphins and writing a review, I had no idea it wasn’t a full-fledged novel. (Since embarking on this book blog, I try to steer clear of reading the synopsis about a book just on the off-chance that it forms an opinion and expectation in my mind. The worst thing would be for a synopsis to get my hopes up just to have them crash, and having to include that in a review.) When the “book” just ended – The End – I thought it was a joke.

I find Charlene Brown so eerily familiar. Perhaps because she is somewhat of an embodiment of myself: I am a young female, my name is Charlie (short for Charlie), I have a Dottie (my aunt Debbie), and I can relate to the sexuality that Gray exposes of her character.

Charlene is a character who has experienced emotional and physical loss in so many ways. She grew up being disposed of by loved ones, and she tries to hide from the idea that her stepfather killed her ailing mother while swindling her inheritance and chunkin’ a deuce out of town. She was  raised separately by her uncle and grandmother during school years and summers, respectively. Under the care of both she was sexually molested and either thrown out for it or basically called a liar, again proving that she isn’t really loved and she is an option for her loved ones.

She’s 18 and had to figure out her life completely on her own….and she naturally finds the wrong guy to spend forever with. But out of that bad, abusive relationship she earns some professional skills by being the bread winner, knowing she can do it. And she also gets a pretty cool son out of the deal and a friend from work. She finally leaves after finding her supposed best-friend drying her bed sheets with a hair dryer to get rid of the wet remains of her affair with Charlie’s man. So she packs up and moves on.

She moves on, but she doesn’t change much. She frequents bars, hoping that “[i]f [she] sat there long enough, he’d come. Always, the wrong guy [finds her].” She’s lonely, so she’ll go home with strangers in hopes of finding an emotional connection to feel less lonely. She forces herself to
“form a connection with [another] human being, pretending that his touch meant so much more than it did.”

As a woman, I understand this. Halfway through college I decided guys at Texas State were either taken, gay or just all around douchebags. So I turned to online dating, going through two bad relationships just like Charlene’s encounters with strangers that I thought would develop into more. But one day I had to look in the mirror and realize, “Girl, you are nothing to him.” But there was one in between the two bad that gave me hope, which is why I tried again…and ended up with a dud, again. It took me a long time to realize he (the middle one) was just like the first, with just a little more suave. His sweet-talking skills were eventually wasted on me. He should have used them to get a business or law degree – they would have served him better there. In terms of this area of Charlene’s character, I understand and can actually relate. However, I can’t relate to the sexual abuse – I am thankful and grateful that I never had to experience that, but I know some who have, and it’s not pretty.

Her work friend, Dottie, is a native Texan, and is the kinda gal that always seems to find those rich SOBs who blow exuberant amounts of money on the stupidest things and own multiple luxury vehicles. But she’s hung on to Charlene, and it’s not really clear why.

Dottie believes love is expressed through food. She is always trying to feed Charlene, because it’s what Texans do. We may not have a lot, but we show appreciation and love through food. Dottie reminds me starkly of my aunt Debbie, who can feed you breakfast at 8 am and tries to feed you again at 10:30 am, knowing lunch is at noon. That’s just who she is, and that’s how Dottie is. She thinks food will solve some of Charlene’s poverty and employment problems.

After one of these bar run-ins with a local, Charlene finds herself in deadly need of medical attention, and all of a sudden she turns her life around. The end.

Yep, just like that. The end.

In terms of development of the story line, I find it lacking (even for a novelette). All of a sudden, after a LIFETIME of neglect, bad decisions and bad relationships, she makes a 180 turn for the better? I find the ending quite trite, tying up all the loose ends into pretty little bows. Bows don’t go with this story. Charlene is the kind that doesn’t do bows – she rips them out. A lifetime of abandonment, abuse and sexual molestation can’t be packaged up like a gift basket wrapped in cellophane and ribbons. It’s utterly unrealistic, and I must say it disappointed me greatly.

The other thing I found not to my liking was the story behind the title. At a young age, her stepfather promised a trip to Hawaii that would never happen. Despite all his drinking, disappearing, stealing and general philandering, Charlene still believed that she would go to Hawaii and see dolphins, explaining her insatiable need to see them in Corpus. Usually children of that upbringing realize what to expect and what won’t happen. It just doesn’t add up. But, I do understand Charlene’s need to see dolphins. Perhaps it serves as an assurance that her life is on the right track.

But I do sing praises and accolades to Gray in her message to women in these kinds of situations:

Concentrate on finding ways to create your own happiness, rather than rely on men to validate your existence. 

I’ve tried to have that conversation with a friend who was chain-smoking through boyfriends (and she was trying to have the “get out of this bad relationship” talk with me with the middle boy during the same time period) and it ruined a friendship. It’s a hard conversation to have with someone, especially when you love them. But, you do because you love them. Her message is something young women of today need to hear, as so many are relying on men to make their lives fulfilled and meaningful.

I’m not too interested in Gray’s other novelette, Lights and Tunnels (2014) but I am piqued to see what she does with a full-length novel.

-CA