Book reviews of mysteries, historical fiction and graphic novels with a smattering of non-fiction books.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Uniquely Japan
Sunday, February 4, 2024
We Hereby Refuse
The graphic novel format helped to tell this story in an engaging and easy to read way. It immediately drew me into the dilemmas that these three characters faced. Chapters alternated between each of the characters and the illustration style was different for each of them, which helped me to follow the subplots easier.
We Hereby Refuse is essential reading. Each of us should be familiar with this part of American history. 5 out of 5 stars.
Monday, January 15, 2024
Where the Body Was
Monday, October 16, 2023
Supper Club
Nora, Lili, and Iris are seniors at Seaside High. Their differing schedules and mounting extracurriculars inspire the girls to form a secret club where they can hang without sacrificing their future aspirations. Enter Supper Club, the delicious solution to their problems. When life starts to crumble like a cookie under the girls' feet, they rely on comfort food to hold it together. Can Supper Club endure life's most challenging recipes without burning to a crisp?
The characters in this story are believable. They accurately portray how high school seniors behave and the dialogue between them is spot on. Each of them has the usual parental issues to deal with. Some do a better job than others. What the adult reader gets is a trip down memory lane. My own school experiences matched what Nora, Iris and Lili experienced. The comic strip panels were colored with primary colors and I love how the author showed their hair flying in the air when they were frazzled.
I received a free copy of the book by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I am happy to say Supper Club is a fantastic read. 5 out of 5 stars.
Monday, April 3, 2023
Barnstormers
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Book of Evil
Saturday, March 18, 2023
The Black Ghost
Sunday, February 19, 2023
New America
Saturday, February 18, 2023
The Vision
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Beatrix Rose Vigilante
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge
This is a graphic biography of Vann Nath, a Cambodian painter. Nath used his art to fight against the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge. In 1978, the young painter was arrested by the Khmer Rouge, the violent and totalitarian Communist Party of Kampuchea that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Imprisoned in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, better known as S-21, painting became synonymous with survival for him. Ordered, like many Cambodian artists and craftsmen, to put his talent to use to glorify his captors, upon his release he continued painting, this time, to remember and pay tribute to the victims of Pol Pot's regime. The only reason that he survived is because the man running the prison needed someone to paint of portrait of their supreme leader, Pol Pot. Nath became the most celebrated survivor of the prison. He died in 2011.
I learned much from this book. I knew that the Khmer Rouge were brutal but had never read about any specifics from their reign of terror. Vann Nath's graphic depictions of the torture he experienced in S21, which he painted after his release, brought it to life. The story is unsavory but sometimes the truth is brutal. At the back of the book are copies of the paintings Nath painted for the regime during his incarceration. I like his style and wonder what subjects he would have painted if his life had not been so difficult.
If you love history, you should read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.