Reading: PEACH AND THE ISLE OF MONSTERS - Franco (author), Agnes Garbowska (illustrator)

1st Line: " 'It's not funny!' "

Review: Peach is a brave little girl living in a village that's seen multiple attacks and plundering from monsters - but when she wants to go and fight with warriors chosen from each faction of her village to seek out Monster Isle, she's seen as just a weak girl who could get hurt or killed. But Peach is determined, brave, and a fighter; her plans to help save her village won't be thwarted as she heads off from home to fight the monsters and make a few friends (and enemies) along the way. A full-color graphic novel, wonderfully illustrated by Agnes Garbowska, that actually contains a couple stories of Peach's coming into her own; a nice, fun, at time humorous read, if not necessarily a standout book that will have you rushing back for more. Probably a bigger rush for kids, with a terrific "girl power" message, but definitely worth any adult's time for a quick read, too! (Available March 22)  3/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Reading: THE MAGNOLIA PALACE - Fiona Davis

1st Line: "Lillian Carter stood half naked, one arm held up like a ballet dancer, the other hanging lightly down at her side, and calculated how long she could avoid paying rent while her landlord was in jail."

Prose (Story): Set in alternating timelines, Fiona Davis's latest work of historical fiction takes us to 1919 New York City ... where the young artists' model and muse Angelica, whose face and figure can be found all over New York and the world, finds herself -- mere months after her mother's death from the Spanish flu - embroiled in a murderous scandal that sends her running, despite her innocence, until she accidentally lands a job as a private secretary to the eccentric and demanding Helen Frick, daughter of world-famous (and infamous) industrialist art collector Henry Clay Frick, where she immediately becomes entrenched in the family's world and drama ... while, in 1966, a young model from the UK, Veronica, lands her first big gig via an NYC photo shoot for Vogue magazine - at the world-renowned Frick Museum, no less - where she and a handsome intern named Joshua work to solve a mysterious scavenger hunt that Veronica stumbles across; one that may end a whole lot of pain and scandal, as well as solve a decades-old murder.

Don's (Review): I believe I currently have all of Fiona Davis's novels on my Kindle, but this is only my second read of hers, after enjoying Chelsea Girls a few years ago. My love for New York City, combined with Davis's amazing way of weaving hisorical fact and fiction to the point where you don't know which is which, to tell a compelling story - normally centered around a well-known NYC institution - makes for especially compelling reading here, as Angelica (now using her real name, Lillian, to avoid the police and scandal) shows us, through her eyes, both the brilliance of the Frick family home - already designated as an art museum to be donated to the city - as well as the eccentricities of its occupants, much of it brought on by the family's own dark past ... while in 1966 things don't go much better for the naive Veronica and the photo shoot, even before a giant blizzard traps her and Joshua in the Frick Museum, where the scavenger hunt clues lead Veronica to a tough decision of her own. The plotting here is expert, effortlessly switching between timelines and characters as tension builds in both, and even while secondary characters are really well-drawn, it's clearly Lillian and Veronica's show from page one (though wow, does Helen Frick often leap - full of piss and vinegar - off the page, as well), each young woman trying to bounce back from a difficult past to find her fulfilling future. I was grateful for the only slight parlays into romance; for me, some of the best moments of the book were grabbing up my phone to look up image after image of a statue or painting from the Frick, as it came up in the narrative, and I also loved how the book kept the mystery plots strong in both eras ... right up until it connected them, bringing us full circle to a genuinely suspenseful, ties-up-all-loose threads ending that left this reader satisfied. Author Davis's Afterward, discussing what was real and what was fiction and how she brought them all together for the novel, was easily as entertaining as the book itself - as was the online tour I took of the Frick's treasures, currently in a temporary home nearby while the mansion undergoes renovation, after closing the book. As an adult, I have grown to appreciate history - a subject I loathed (and was horrible at) in school; had Ms. Davis been writing back then, it might have been an entirely different story for me.  4/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Reading: FEARBOOK CLUB - Richard Ashley Hamilton (author), Marco Matrone (illustrator), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

1st Line: " 'DUUUNCAAAN!' "

Prose (Story): Whit Garcia has just started 6th grade in a new school, and it's not going well. Shy and sleight in stature, the camera-toting kid finds himself almost immediately the target of a smart-mouthed bully, while his over-protective mother seems ready to teeter over the edge of panic whenever her son is out of her sight. Add to this an abandoned, dilapidated old part of his school, in which Whit's camera uncovers some very ghostly residents, and soon Whit has no choice but to join forces with his fellow Yearbook Club misfits to find out just what the heck is going on.

Don's (Review): I wanted to read this because the cover gave me such strong paranormal Scooby-Doo vibes, but wow was I surprised by just how much I loved this graphic novel! Whit and his fellow Yearbook Club members are all social pariahs at school - kids who don't really fit in - and between author Richard Ashley Hamilton's story and Marco Matrone's art I was immediately transported back to my own days of feeling both alone and lonely at that age, when you fit in nowhere and feel like you're not going anywhere. Whit is an exceptionally likeable kid - as are twins Hillary and Hester, and even former bully Press, the other kids forced to join Yearbook Club - and even as the gang learn that the ghostly threats at hand are all too real, we also have asides in which we learn more about Whit's story, and why his mother is as rattled as she is. The ghost story itself is the treasure though, further touching on the themes of fitting in and always having friends you can count on behind you, and Matrone's illustrations add the perfect level of spookiness to the story as more of what's going on is revealed.Very Scooby-Doo, but it also gave me the thrilling vibes I remember having while reading Hardy Boys books as a kid - again, all with a supernatural element expertly thrown in. Well - well - into adulthood now, from the start this well-written, perfectly-drawn graphic novel mystery, to me, felt like going home again to my childhood; simpler, happier times, where nothing mattered but the book I held in my hands under the covers, reading by flashlight late into the night to learn the solution of the mystery ... and to make sure these characters, now my new friends, came through it okay. I loved it.  4.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

December Wrap-Up: I Have NO Idea What Happened!

December was a blur about three days into 2022; other than a loss of income, meant a letdown on what I was able to do for those I love for the holday (I get so much pleasure out of giving gifts over gettng them) - then to find out two of my closest family members both came down with Covid ... well, seven books read and five films watched is better than goose-egging on either (click on any image to enlarge)!

That said, the books were a mixed bag - or, at least, as vanilla as the holiday: another Christmas cozy that ended up a disappointment (not a bad book, just not ... a standout among the cozy pack), and a YA mystery/thriller from a favorite author that, while good and a genuine page-turner, felt a bit of the same as her other books. Graphic novels about werewolfs and weredogs and Abraham Linoln helped, and a flying superhero pig - along with a near-wordless love story told with beautiful, watercolor-like artwork - certanly ended 2021 on a high note, at least!'

Film-wise: made my 50! My goal each year is to watch at least 50 new (to me) films, and I hit 60 on New Year's Eve with the original Disney telling of Peter Pan (correct - I had never seen the film, in its entirety, before). Three of the five films I watched in December were animated, actually, with a Wimpy Kid adaptation a bit wimpier than I would have liked ... and the charming Luka a wonderful watch, even if (once again( it didn't feel like it had much to it that made it stand out from the pack Add a truly disappointing horror movie, and fairly recent Woody Allen film that was not bad but very uneven ... and, well, my December for movies very much mirrored my 2021 of movies: some good, some bad, many just meh.

So out with the old, and bring it on, 2022! Have too, TOO many of my favorite authors with new books coming out next year; for those alone, cannot wait!

Reading: TOP 10 BOOKS 0F 2021!

Not a bad reading year, 2021. No major slumps, some brilliant writers and stories, even some surprises - including a few highly-anticipated reads/authors I fully expected to be on this list, but for one reason or another fell short. 

There may be books I read in 2021 that I gave higher star ratings to than a few listed here, but I've come to realize that, by end of year, what makes my Top 10 Reads list are those books that have stuck with me. Stories and characters I still think about weeks (or even months, in some cases) late; books that have left a permanent mark like a visceral punch to the gut. These are those ten. To put it in maybe an even clearer way: I don't own many books, because I tend to give away all but the best reads as soon as I finish them, wanting to pass on a good book to someone else. With these ten, all of which were read via Kindle (money being what it is), I can honestly say I wish I owned a copy of each, to keep in my library forever.

Ranking isn't my thing, but usually I try to choose a #1 of the year. This year, there was at least a three-way tie for first place that I couldn't work through, so the books are listed in the order I read them, from earliest in 2021 to most recent. No ranking because all of them were ... well, the best of the best, at least to me.

1: GREASE: THE DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK by Randal Kleiser. Kleiser's personal diaries about the making of the iconic musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John; a shot-by-shot recounting of the film that includes never-before-seen images, deleted script scenes and dialogue, interviews with some of the cast, and Kleiser's own memories of his cast and the filming of a film that, today, remains as popular as it was 40+ years ago. A must-read for any fan of the film.

2. SNAPDRAGON by Kat Leyh. I read about a half-dozen fantastic graphic novels this year, but Snapdragon - read early on in 2021 - still rose to the top. A young girl named Snapdragon - Snap for short - learns a great deal about life and humanity when she makes an agreement to help out an old lady in town named Jacks, who may or may not be a witch.  Poignant, touching, lyrical. A beautiful story with a quirky, incredibly likeable heroine.

3. THE BURNING GIRLS by C. J. Tudor. To say the remote English village of Chapel Croft has a dark past would be an understatement, but even Reverend Jack Frost - recently relocated there as the new vicar - isn't quite prepared for the chilly arrival and haunting stories of the Protestant martyrs burned alive there five hundred years ago. Jack's teenaged daughter Flo, meanwhile, has her own issues trying to adjust from city life to a creepy wasteland steeped in its horrific past, finding some solace in a young, sickly boy her own age who is also a loner. But when Jack learns the truth of what happened to the previous vicar, and Flo actually has a vision of young girls set on fire, Chapel Croft's newest residents find themselves in real danger - and The Burning Girls goes bat-sh*t crazy, with reveals I never saw coming resulting in a book that had me holding my breath for its second half ... and a book my mind kept going back to, weeks after reading it. In a lesser year, could have easily been my #1.

4. THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner. Told in two timelines; in modern-day London, history buff Caroline Parcewell has just checked into a well-to-do hotel to celebrate her tenth wedding anniversary. Problem is, just before leaving the States, Caroline learned her husband was cheating on her, so she's come to London alone and determined to both enjoy the trip and take some time away from him, to figure out what to do. But a chance enounter with some amateur treasure finders leads her to discover a small bottle in the Thames, which starts her on a journey to discover the truth behind a series of murders from a hundred years ago ... where the second timeline takes over, depicting the life of a young woman named Nella running a London apothecary shop who, behind the scenes, dispenses poisons to women with no other course in escaping the abusive men who've taken over their lives. A slow burn at first, I was nevertheless immeditely sucked into both stories - especially Nella's - becoming more intrigued, as the pages turned, to learn how the lives of these women a century apart would somehow come together. Author Srah Penner knows how to build both tension and characters, and for a debut especially this is a winner.

5. ACE OF SPADES by Faridah Abike-Iyimide. Niveus Private Academy is as exclusive a school as it sounds. It's senior year for the school's only two Black students, Chiamaka and Devon, both of whom are already given the honor of being named prefects on the first day of term, and the future seems bright for two of the school's best students ... until someone calling themselves Aces begins to start sending blanket anonymous texts to the entire student body, revealing secrets about Devon and Chiamaka that start off embarrassing and upsetting, but soon grow in size to potentially damage both students' reputations and educational trajectories. When things finally start getting downright threatening, Chiamaka and Devon - who really didn't know or associate much with each other, prior to Aces - must combine forces to find out who is targeting the only Black students in the school, uncovering something far more sinister than either anticipated. Though the ending felt a bit rushed for me, this was another sure-footed debut with a pair of main characters so real on the page, once I hit the halfway point every time I had to put down the book, it absolutely irritated me until I could pick it - and the story - up again. And if that isn't a freaking great book, I don't know what is. 

6. DIAL A FOR AUNTIES by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Another novel that could easily have been my #1 of the year in any other year (and easily the book that made me laugh the most in 2021), this insane little caper starts when a young woman named Meddelin "Meddy" Chan accidentally kills a man who tried very hard to force himself on her sexually ... only to be rescued by her mother and three eccentric aunts, who help her hide the body on the eve of a huge wedding event catered by the auntie's popular catering company. When the corpse accidentally ends up attending the nuptials, and Meddy's life is further complicated when the one man she let get away shows up in her life again - at the wedding, no less - the ever-increasing lunacy proves nothing more than Sutanto's incredible skills at chraracters and plotting and depicting the culture of the family, because even as you shake your head with laughter at how outrageous the shenanigans get ... at the same time the characters are so real and hilarious and engaging, OMG I can't even express how much I loved this book - nor how badly I await the sequel in March!

7. MURDER IN A TEACUP by Vicki Delany. If I remember right, the first book in this series made my Top 10 last year, and here Delany continues the trend. Tearoom owner Lily Roberts is gearing up for her grandmother Rose's company at the B&B, even after  the McHenry family turns out to be a bickering mess of angry people with hidden agendas and bigger secrets - but when one of the family literally drops dead in Lily's tearoom, poisoned, the amateur sleuth has a tangled knots of alibis and backstories to unravel to find the killer. Delany is a joy to read, the mystery laced with lighthearted bits of humor and wonderful characters. Here, though, what kind of blew me away was the revelation of the killer, and how the book's finale plays out afterward. SO well-done, and well-plotted, but also a pretty riveting read, for a cozy especially when so many cozies I've read lately have come off very "vanilla". Really, really love this series, and am wondering if book three might be out in time to make 2022's list?

8. VELVET WAS THE NIGHT by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Another author on my Top 10 list for the second year in a  row (I will love Mexican Gothic to my dying day), one of the remarkable things about this book is how wildy, incredibly different in style and tone it is from that previous gothic-horror novel - but wow, did I adore this, another of my tied contenders I couldn't decide betwen for the #1 position of the year. Here, the reader is set up in 1970's Mexico City, where a rather bland office drone named Maite leads a humdrum life that's about to get a lot less humdrum. See, Maite's much more beautiful, glamorous neighbor, Leonora, enlists Maite's aid in cat-sitting for the weekend ... and then promptly disappears, really irritating the snot out of Maite who was only doing it for the money (well, and to also be able to poke around the girl's apartment unchecked). Even when Leonora finally gets in touch, asking Maite to grab the cat and a few other things and meet her at a strange address, Leonora doesn't show, further irritating Maite who needs the cash. Meanwhile, our second POV character, a small-time thug named Elvis, has his own issues that tie into Leonora - and as the book's violent and mysterious events continue, we see Maite and Elvis geting closer and closer to having their paths cross, in a tumultuous era of Mexico's history that leaves anything up for grabs. I don't know how many writers can bring people to life on a page like Moreno-Garcia; with both this novel and Mexican Gothic, literally from page one her characters are just so all-consuming to me; I am intrigued by them on this weird, deep level, and whether I like them or not I can't help but follow their journey. And it's quite a journey here, leading to one of the most satisfying endings I read in a book in 2021, if not ever, and has made Moreno-Garcia a go-to author whose backlist I need to catch up on, asap. 

9. THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS by Yukito Ayatsuji (translated by Hong-Li Wong). I had an opportunity to read an ARC of part one of the manga version of this celebrated Japanese novel, finally translated into English, and when I coudn't get to part two fast enough (thanks to that part one cliffhanger!), I went straight to the source and read the novel. An homage toAgatha Christie's And Then There Were None, this is the story of a group of college students in Japan - all part of a school group of detective fiction fans, and each one nicknamed with a the name of a famous mysery writer - who journey by boat to the remote Tsunojima Island, the site of some grisly murders one year ago. They will be staying in the infamous Decagon House, a one-story, ten-sided structure built by the eccentric architect presumed guilty of killing his wife and servants the year before, prior to setting their manor home on fire and killing himself as well, and from the start even the smaller Decagon House comes complete with no electricity and a sense of creepiness that feels etched into the walls. Nevertheless, even without wi-fi service, the students are all mostly excited to spend the week investigating and studying the crimes that occurred on the island ... until they learn they've all been invited there for a reason, desolate and cut of from the world or any help. And then, one by one, they start to die. I loved this book from the beginning, it was atmospheric and creepy and kept me turning the pages - and even though I guessed the killer within maybe ten pages of the reveal, it was still a gasp-inducing surprise and spoiled nothing, thanks to the shocking way the finale played out. And while I thought it a great mystery - and homage to Christie - with maybe the occasional clunker as far as style (due, perhaps, to the translation), what I didn't foresee was that this book would absolutely haunt me for weeks to come, after finishing it. I simply couldn't get it out of my head; not the reveal, the ending, even how just the last page plays out. Another tie for #1 I couldn't break on, though in any other year this could have been #1 just because - to this day - it won't fully leave me alone.

10. CHRISTMAS DINNER OF SOULS by Ross Montgomery. Lewis is an 11-year-old boy in England, caught damaging the ancient, scary Soul's College on the hill. As punishment and to pay for the damage, his mother agrees to send Lewis over on Christmas Eve night to help serve at a huge dinner being held for the holiday, but upon arrival Lewis finds both the meal and chef distasteful, even gross - but then the dinner guests, the staff of the college, show up and Lewis realizes he is in the presence of a room full of genuine psychopaths, murderers, and monsters, all of whom can now, on Christmas Eve, show their true, noxious colors. Then the Dean arrives, and Lewis learns he's witnessing a yearly ritual designed to destroy children, happiness ... and kill off Christmas for good; a ritual in which a handful of guests are chosen to each tell his or her most disgusting, repulsive story of all time, the winner of this competition then moving on to try and find the one thing in the catacombs downstairs that will destroy Christmas for good  An ingenious, original, and actually at ttimes fairly unsettling middle-grade novel that kept me riveted from cover to cover. Not your average Christmas read, but quite possibly my favorite one, now.