BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Panther Gap: A Novel
by James A. McLaughlin

Crime and Ecology (3/23/2023)

This is a big book; not particularly long (about 350 pages) but big in scope. It involves a strange family, living well, off the grid and the bond between a brother and sister, both familial and psychically. The crime involves a long-time feud and then the Mexican drug cartel and a lot of money. It is almost too much to keep straight; but the images of the environs and the animals and nature keep watch over it all and keep the reader involved.

This is not my normal reading choice but I did enjoy it and appreciate receiving the ARC from the publisher (Flatiron Books) and BookBrowse.

The Family Izquierdo: A Novel
by Rubén Degollado

Anguish below the surface (8/21/2022)

On the surface, the Izquierdo family looks like the perfect border-crossing success story. The family has grown and prospered, but the individual stories are filled with tragedy and heartbreak. While not a fun read, the stories are real and compelling and relatable.

Fruiting Bodies: Stories
by Kathryn Harlan

Sad, but short (6/5/2022)

I had a hard time getting into these stories. There is a dream-like malaise to them. The angst of growing up, deciding who one is not a welcome revisit at this time in my life, I guess.

Her Hidden Genius: A Novel
by Marie Benedict

Rosalind Franklin (1/24/2022)

I first became aware of Rosalind Franklin, during college studying for a degree in Biology, with a special interest in genetics. Because of that, I read James Watson's The Double Helix and became incensed with his portrayal of Dr. Franklin. Subsequently, I read Ann Sayre's Rosalind Franklin and DNA.
This current work of fiction is an interesting look at a genius in her field at a time when women were just beginning to have a role, but no respect, in the sciences.

The Lighthouse
by Christopher Parker

Teenage Angst and Ghosts (10/28/2021)

This is really not my kind of book - teenage angst and ghosts - but I have to admit that the story succeeded on some levels. However, I felt that I was reading a young adult fiction, which (at times) I am a big fan; but I don't think this is how 'The Lighthouse' is being marketed. The two young central characters are like mirror images of each other - both have lost their mothers, both have closed-off relations with their fathers and both are not asking for help.

Never Saw Me Coming: A Novel
by Vera Kurian

unsettling (6/25/2021)

A college campus, a program for teenage psychopaths and a serial killer .. a most unsettling melange of characters. Charles is working to understand his disorder, Chloe is letting her freak flag fly and Andre is trying to blend in; but somehow maybe they are all quintessential unreliable narrators. And is the serial killer part of their group? Or just preying on the group? This is a really disturbing, yet fascinating read.

The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman: A Novel
by Julietta Henderson

Absolutely Charming (2/14/2021)

This is the sweetest, funniest and often times saddest book I have read in a long time. I loved every minute I spent with the characters. It may not be great literature, but I felt really good (as I am sure anyone would) when I finished and who can ask for more in a pandemic? I can hardly wait to put it in the hands of a friend.

Ruthie Fear: A Novel
by Maxim Loskutoff

Lyrical Read of Nature and Change (6/5/2020)

This is a hard book to review, because it is so many things. The lyrical writing takes you into the beauty of nature that is the wilds of Montana but is being encroached upon by people, progress and pollution. It has a surreal feel at all times and especially so at the climactic ending. Underneath it all, holding it all together and holding the reader is the love of a father and daughter, all rough and prickly; but in the end authentic.

Miracle Creek
by Angie Kim

Guilt and Lies (4/15/2020)

This is a well-written, but very sad book about the aftermath of an explosion with deaths at a hyperbaric clinic. All of the characters are suffering and dissembling in some form and the reader feels their pain and sympathizes.
While this book deserves more praise than I am giving it, I would not recommend reading it during a shelter-in-place quarantine (as I did) because it is a bit suffocating.

The Sun Down Motel
by Simone St. James

Motel with ghosts and links to murders (11/12/2019)

I really enjoyed this book. It was perfectly creepy and kept me guessing for 300 pages. I liked the premise of not knowing who (or what) people/events really were. Thankfully, the chapter titles helped to remind me if I was in 1982 or 2017, since Carly and her Aunt Viv were so very much alike in their curiosity and bravery.

Creatures
by Crissy Van Meter

A floating timeline (10/18/2019)

I had a hard time, at first, with this book; but settled into it once I realized that the episode with the dead whale (which bookends the story) is a seminal event in the narrator's life, but is in the somewhat distant past. So much of the rest of the book jumps around in the past, in no chronological order, that it is a bit disconcerting; but very much like how most of us think of our lives. The narrator is raised by a substance-abusing, but mostly loving father while an errant, but mostly loving mother flits in and out of her life. And as do so many of the other people in her life, leaving her not trusting them or herself. So I guess this is a book about coming to terms with oneself, separate from those around us, and believing in love, really. It is well-written and one cares about the people, in spite of their failings.

Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson

Perfect summer read (6/12/2019)

This is a little gem. A heart-warming story with likable, quirky characters who grow on each other and on the reader. The book ends on a positive note that leaves a warm, but not flaming smile on everyone.

The Lost Man
by Jane Harper

Even better than her first two books (11/3/2018)

I think this book will end up being one of my year's favorites. It is a complex, tension-filled tale of a family and the Australian Outback. The land is unforgiving and so are the people; both are oppressive. The ranchers live insular lives, far from neighbors, often rarely speaking to other people and when they want do speak, it's as if they don't know how to go about it. The climax and the ending are just about perfect in their surprise and justification.
For fans of her other two books, this is a stand-alone; but an off-handed remark reminds one of the other books.

America for Beginners
by Leah Franqui

A charmer (4/13/2018)

This is a sweet story of a widow coming to America to discover what lured her son there. She is accompanied by a guide and a chaperone and despite (and because of) their differences, they all change and form new bonds and new lives. Only a heartless person would not shed a tear at the conclusion.

Force of Nature: Aaron Falk Mystery #2
by Jane Harper

Five women on a corporate retreat in Australian bush (10/10/2017)

I was given this ARC by the publisher through BookBrowse. However, I had an interest in the author because a friend had raved about Harper's first book, The Dry, and I had meant to put it on my library request list. Now I am even more eager to read that one.

This is the story of five women forced into a corporate retreat/hike into the Australian bush. Five very different, complex personalities and issues. When they do not turn up at the end point, a search ensues and only four are found.
A very intense story and the missing woman, Alice, is a real piece of work and one wonders how she survived as long as she did under the trying situations.

Lots of drama and suspense and personal stories and situations; this is the second book in the series featuring Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk who is recovering from injuries suffered in the first book.

The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel
by Elizabeth Berg

Three lonely people find each other and I re-find Elizabeth Berg (6/16/2017)

I used to read Elizabeth Berg a lot and really loved her but drifted away into mainly mysteries. This charming, wonderful book reminded me of what I have been missing. It is an incredibly sweet story of three lonely, disparate people who find each other and make a family. Readers would have to be so cold-hearted not to love this book and not see themselves in the characters. It is a love story to being weird, being old and being in love.

If We Were Villains
by M. L. Rio

Really didn't think I was going to like this book (3/13/2017)

A third of the way into this book I was still struggling and sure I was never going to finish it and really hate it; but all of a sudden, I was captured.

The story of a group of fourth year Shakespearean actor-in-training students, wearing their art, love, sex, drama, hate and egos on their chests and even talking to each other in dialogue was almost too much. And then I cared about them and why everything happened.

I am sure this will be compared to Donna Tartt's The Secret History but it also bears a stylist resemblance to Liane Moriarty's books, where we are in the present but looking back at what did or did not happen that fateful time.

Reviews by Frances N. (San Francisco, CA)

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