5 Stars for The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

After watching the Hulu series, I became obsessed with this story - again. I read the book over seventeen years ago. My daughter was not born yet and this year she will be eighteen. Anyways, I read it so long ago I couldn't remember how it ended. When I picked the book back up, my intention was to skip to the ending, but I was drawn into the writing - again, lots of active verbs, dynamic imagery reminding me of a city of ashes contrasting great big Gatsby parties. Of course, the parties were the past, the protagonist, Offred was absent from.

Another clever tactic, Atwood gets rid of quotation marks. This is particularly clever for me as I read because the writing flows into the somber mood of going on forever like Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Atwood is a fantastic writer, but not everyone loves her style. I've never cared for Henry James and all of his misplaced modifiers, but I recognize good writing when I see it and I can appreciate him. Still, I can see some folks hating the loss of the quotation marks, but when you are a great writer and know the rules - you can change them.

Picasso did with Cubism. Faulkner did with the typical linear format, and Walt Whitman did it with free verse. Many things are possible when a good story is at the heart of the writing. And this is a good dystopian tale. I feel there are a great many people who feel this to be impossible, and on some level they could be correct. However, there is the nugget of truth that makes this plausible and very, very scary. That same nugget was found in 1984 and Animal Farm. And in real life, women are often envious of other women who can have children when they cannot. This green-eyed-monster lurks in every dark corner where freedom is at stake.

Several years ago, my grandmother was at my house and my husband came in and made himself a sandwich with a glass of milk. Grandma said, "He makes his own sandwich." And for sometime she stared at him. In The Handmaid's Tale, Luke, Offred's husband from the past, is cooking and Offred's mother remarks that women have come a long way. I don't think Atwood forgets that in this book even in a story where women lose their rights - there was a time they had them. It is that understanding and contrast that makes this story good. They had so much to lose.

This book has over 66 thousand reviews and some of them are 1 point stars, but what I find interesting about those 1 and 2 stars are the length of the reviews. Five star reviews are great, but if you make a reader write a five page 1 star - that says something about great writing, great stories, and great characters.

Another praise to her was her painting of the men in the book as thin as paper dolls. If a woman in Offred's position saw them as more, then that could make them human. I don't feel the men were thin, but Offred could not afford to see them as human. She could not fall in love. She could not want. She could not hope.

I highly recommend this book!

4 Stars for The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is bizarre. This book is nothing like The Librarian movies. It takes a turn from those with brutal bloody killing and talking animals. Plus, the main character - librarian, Carolyn is way smarter. She knows every language there is to know, and some other stuff that makes living longer possible. At first, her silly, little girl nature made me hate her. I almost put the book down within the first 100 pages. But, then Steve came along and his story was more interesting than Carolyn's. So, Steve kept me hanging in with Hawkin's mad hatter library tale. It did feel a bit like Wonderland and tea time went on forever - thus four stars instead of five. Abut mid-way in the book, Steve became depressing -literally and I started to like Carolyn. Her story  began to unfold, and her courage was unbelievably believable. I enjoy a strong female lead. Carolyn was Lady Macbeth and Juliet all rolled into one, but unlike these notable ladies it was hard to predict her possible tragic or comic/cosmic ending especially when her father might be God, the Old Testament one. The Library at Mount Char is definitely worth the read, excellent if not bizarre story telling that makes you question God's motives, but more importantly your freedom to choose.

5 Stars for Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson

Conspiracies, the third book in the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson just keeps getting better. 

Five reasons to read Conspiracies:

1. The paranormal-paranoid elements of the X-Files fly through the pages in UFO splendor.
2. Repairman Jack starts to become a member of The One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Club.
3. Excellent betrayal, although heartbreaking.
4. More Jack humor as he sinks into the loony bin.
5. The plot-arch of the book series takes a real supernatural turn.
Now, I look forward to All The Rage - book 4.

5 Stars for Legacies by F. Paul Wilson

One of the best ways to spend your time during a pandemic is with Repairman Jack. I figure if he can't fix the problem, he can certainly take my mind off of it. Legacies is the second book I've read in the Repairman Jack series and I was not disappointed. As a matter of fact, I plan to buy all of the books in order and savor each one. To encourage others to read these books, I've decided to review each one and give a top 10 list for reasons to read the series and each book in the series.

Top 10 reasons to read the Repairman Jack Series in order

10. Jack seriously reminds me of Dean from Supernatural. He's a resourceful guy with heart. I'd follow him anywhere.
9. It doesn't matter what genre your into, you'll find it with Jack. He explores conspiracy thriller, paranormal mysteries, medical mysteries - you name it, Jack has fixed it.
8. Dialogue is real and funny with spot on allusions I get.
7. Jack's movie collection steals my heart.
6. Jack has a darkness and he gets scared sometimes. Even though everyone loves Superman, its Batman they find the most interesting. A hero should be flawed for me to follow.
5. F. Paul Wilson gets to the point and doesn't load the reader down in exposition.
4. Plots work weaving details from page one to the last page, so that every question is answered in the end. Yes, there is a semi-certain formula, but like a well-shuffled deck of cards, every game explores chance endings.
3. Love the mystery! I would even compare these to Agatha Christie.
2. Stephen King is the president of the Repairman Jack fan club.
1. The books always fight injustice. In the first book it was Jack's revenge for what happened to a loved one. In the second book it was the injustice of children born with AIDS, and other stuff, but I won't spoil that mystery.

Top 10 reasons to read Legacies with spicy glimpses under the cover - that don't spoil.
10. Santa saves the day.
9. Female power.
8. Questions paranoid Jack.
7. Jack fixes several problems.
6. Jack gets the girl.
5. Complicated interesting villains.
4. Different viewpoints.
3. Jack's claustrophobia.
2. Someone with an S in their name dies.
1. Where Jack spends Christmas.

Go out and buy these now. They leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling that all is now right with the world. I wish Netflix would pick this series up. They would have some serious viewers. I can see Jack Reynor playing Jack.

5 Stars for Shadowland by Peter Straub

Shadowland by Peter Straub is hard to begin. The setup is initially boring, but once you muddle through it is well worth the wait. If a book makes me loose sleep to read, then I'm giving it a five. This is definitely one of the creepiest books I've ever read warping fairy tales into nightmares and forcing youth into a fast adulthood. The main characters, Tom and Del are forced into challenges that only an adult should face and not even then. Straub is a story teller first. The characterization of Del and Tom simply fell in line with the story he wanted to tell. It did not matter if you liked them or not, but their story was so incredibly interesting - you had to follow. Betrayal wove through as an underlying theme forcing your compassion to flee for both Del and Tom. Both boys were driven intrinsically by curiosity, love or jealousy. In the end they were boys trying to experience magic even though all that remained was ugly and dark leaving a wolf rather than the girl in the red hood open to love. Shadowland wasn't just one story, but a creative mix of so many fairy tales heard before. Musically it was an overture of classic 80's stemming from an old Doors album lighting fires with baby. I found it totally bitchin' and copacetic all at once. I highly recommend it and hope to see it as a Netflix series staring Timothée Chalamet as Tom and Max Charles as Del.

5 Stars for Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler deserved the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. Any writer who can make boring everyday life absolutely meaningful gets my vote. Reviews that rank this book lower than four stars seem to base their score on this story not being thriller content. Real people are not interesting all the time, and a trip to a funeral isn't high on the list of exciting things to do; however, in the midst of commonality - I kept discovering little pockets of truth parallel to my own life and people around me.

For example, Ira, the husband's need to play solitaire all of the time while keeping a cool distance from emotional drama sounded much like my husband and my father-in-law. I loved Ira from the beginning, because I knew beneath his carefully carved out unobtrusive personality was a guy with deep emotional ties to the people he loved dearly. Ira's wife, Maggie, was quite a busybody, but no matter how annoying she became - Ira loved still loved her.

Maggie wasn't my favorite character, but reflecting upon my own flaws I certainly didn't wish for her death in the story, rather I tried to understand the loneliness she felt. Maggie's children has recently left home. Maggie wanted to desperately hold on to them.

Maggie's character needed a dynamic change from something she had been to something she could be with her husband and as a person on her own. This change couldn't happen unless she changed her way of thinking.

She couldn't see what worked in her life. For example, Maggie couldn't accept Ira and his flaws without losing the idealism she held in the things she could not control. Her journey is not unlike my own as a mother, and like my mother. All moms have a tough time letting go of their kids. I can't dislike Maggie for holding onto her children a little longer.

I highly recommend this book to every married couple and all mothers. For Maggie, a day trip to a friend's funeral changed her way of thinking, but for me it was watching the love between my mother and father-in-law, and appreciating my husband a little more every day. Thank you, Anne Tyler.

5 Stars for Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Everyone should read this. Neil Gaiman certainly did not inhale the fumes of Odin's odious fart. This is a spoiler I will not spoil.  He was certainly blessed with the gift of retelling a story and reinventing his own. I loved his retelling of Norse Mythology. His voice carried the harsh tempos of the tragic moments, but also humor in the more flute-like places. I began this book with Marvel knowledge and came away feeling a bit like a mythology historian. Neil Gaiman can do that for a person. I also began this book as a respect towards my dad, who found a hero in Thor, also Conan the Barbarian, but that's another story. For me, Loki is certainly my favorite, and I was happy to discover his tale did not disappoint. Gaiman should seriously think about a story that involves both Othello's Iago and Loki in a modern world setting. They could pour poison into the ear of great leaders turning the world into what it is not. And who to save the world but a child not yet born, one of a new birth out of the death of the old one. Everyone should read this! Seriously, I might listen to it again.