Reviews by Jan Z. (Jefferson, SD)

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The Paris Hours
The Paris Hours: A Novel
by Alex George
Paris Hours (2/17/2020)
The things I liked about this book:
1. The WRITING! There wasn't a single word that was too much or too little.
2. The characters - the 3 main male characters were very believable and my empathy and understanding came pretty naturally.
3. The story was good. Not a "page turner" …more
Beirut Hellfire Society
Beirut Hellfire Society
by Rawi Hage
Beirut Hellfire Society (5/29/2019)
This was such a strange book - the 1st I've ever read by Rawi Hage. Reading reviews of his others makes me think all of his books are of the same sort of strangeness. You will probably LOVE them or HATE them...(I'm closer to the hate side.)
The setting was placed in Beirut …more
Me, Myself and Them
Me, Myself and Them
by Dan Mooney
Me, Myself and Them (7/3/2018)
This story was rather confusing for me. I don't know enough about mental illnesses that involve multiple personalities to know if it is actually possible that this could happen. (Can the physical violence the character of Plasterer did to Denis occur? Can a person beat up …more
The Story of Arthur Truluv
The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel
by Elizabeth Berg
Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg (5/31/2017)
This book was just ok in my opinion, and pretty typical of most books by Berg. The potential for a really good story always seems to be there, but that's about as far as it goes. Story of Arthur Truluv had just a bit too much treacle to make it a good book. The characters …more
The Barrowfields
The Barrowfields
by Phillip Lewis
Barrowfields (2/23/2017)
This was really quite an incredible book! I am having a hard time writing a review for it because I don't know where to start. The characters, place, relationships, voice - all were so important to the plot, and they were all handled so well.
I didn't always like what …more
Rise
Rise: How a House Built a Family
by Cara Brookins
Rise: How a House Built a Family by Cara Brookins (10/12/2016)
Cara Brookins's debut memoir "Rise: How a House Built a Family" was at best interesting and heart warming, and at worst rather disjointed and a bit muddled sometimes. She's a good writer! - this story about how she, along with three of her children (she has four kids, but …more
Underground Airlines
Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters
Underground Airlines (8/26/2016)
What a good book! It was also disturbing in a lot of ways - the "alternative history - what if?" aspect, the relevancy of white privileges in the book and currently, prejudices, and the ability of so many people to ignore inhumanity of any size scale going on around us. The …more
The Alaskan Laundry
The Alaskan Laundry
by Brendan Jones
The Alaskan Laundry (2/8/2016)
The author, Brendan Jones, has set up for himself a hard act to follow with this absorbing debut novel when he writes another book! I loved the weird, quirky Alaskan characters, flaws and all. I loved the main character, spunky Tara. And I loved the sensitive and beautiful …more
Maud's Line
Maud's Line
by Margaret Verble
Maud's Line (7/8/2015)
I thought that Maud's Line was a good story. The characters were all authentic (some a little bizarre, which added to the interest of the story rather than detracting from it), and well drawn. The setting was in Oklahoma in the late 1920s on Cherokee Indian allotments, …more
He Wanted the Moon
He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him
by Mimi Baird with Eve Claxton
He Wanted the Moon (2/4/2015)
As the reader, I was never sure as to whether or not I should believe all of Dr. Baird's account of his hospitalizations in two mental institutions 1940's, which was somewhat disconcerting. I liked the book, I gave it a 3, but I was mostly interested in the daughter's …more
Island of a Thousand Mirrors
Island of a Thousand Mirrors
by Nayomi Munaweera
Island of a Thousand Mirrors (4/9/2014)
Set into the gorgous Sri Lankan backdrop, this magnificent debut novel by Nayomi Munaweera follows the unlikely friendship of children, sisters Yasodhara and La, and the Tamil boy Shiva, into adulthood and the horrors of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Initially when the violence …more
The Headmaster's Wife
The Headmaster's Wife
by Thomas Christopher Greene
Headmaster's Wife (12/4/2013)
Was this a love story? A coming of "old age" novel? A story about the results of grief unshared? I felt like it could have been a good story about any of these topics but that the author couldn't really decide which one of them to handle well, so he handled them all …more
How to Be a Good Wife
How to Be a Good Wife
by Emma Chapman
How to Be a Good Wife (8/14/2013)
Sometimes the probability of something happening vs. the possibility of that thing happening can make or break a novel. This debut novel's plot seemed implausible to me, which made it somewhat of a drudgery to read. The saving factor was that it was well written and the …more
The Spy Lover
The Spy Lover
by Kiana Davenport
Spy Lover (12/10/2012)
Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport mostly takes place during the civil war and the brutality and horror of that war almost edges out the other characters of the story: Johnny Tom who fights for the North, his daughter Era who is a spy for the North, and Era's lover, the …more
The Spy Lover
The Spy Lover
by Kiana Davenport
Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport (11/28/2012)
I really don't know what to say about this book. It is a wonderful story, I loved it but I don't know to whom I could recommend it. There is so much brutality in it, and it is filled graphically with the butchery of the Civil War that there were times I had to put it down, …more
Shine Shine Shine
Shine Shine Shine: A Novel
by Lydia Netzer
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer (6/7/2012)
The power of this debut novel Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer comes from, ultimately, the unique and often startling voice of the author.

The story takes place at some point in the future, Maxon the husband (autistic and genius) is on his way to the moon to place a colony …more
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