We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida **

Only some can locate the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. If you are fortunate, they will prescribe you a cat. When you return with a record of “what the cat consumes and produces,” you might be better. Or not. Does not deliver on its promise.

This is a clever idea, and the book is full of cats, cat behaviors, and people talking about cats. However, I found the story uninteresting and confusing. The idea is inviting, but the execution leaves the reader wanting more. The main character works in a cat rescue. He doesn’t like his job, and I don’t blame him.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cat Press books and book recommendations. 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke *****

 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

 21^st-century Natalie is a #tradwife influencer with millions of followers. 19^th-century Natalie is walking the walk on the same farm, but without electricity, plumbing, internet, or any modern conveniences. Neither is without pluses and minuses.

21^st-century Natalie is married to Caleb Mills, whose father is a US Senator and expected to run for President. They live on Yesteryear Ranch. Her Instagram feed doesn’t show the modern appliances that are hidden behind her 19^th-century kitchen cupboards. Nor does it show Nanny Louise or Nanny Aimee, who care for and homeschool the children, Clementine, Samuel, Stetson, Jessa, Junebug, and the little angel we haven’t named yet. Producer Shannon also works behind the scenes, along with the men from Home Depot her husband hires for farm work. After this house of cards collapses, Natalie’s life bifurcates into 21^st-century Natalie and 19^th-century Natalie.

This book looks at the 21^st-century gender politics, conspiracy theories, survivalists, and back-to-nature movements. No one on the right or the left gets a free pass from the author.

Online Natalie: And who was I? A flawless Christian woman. The manic pixie American dream girl of this nation’s deepest, darkest fantasies. The mother every woman wanted to be, and the wife every man wanted to come home to. Like a nun in a porno, it didn’t make sense, but also, by God: it worked. My name is Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Political morality: America didn’t care one iota about morality when it came to politicians. If anything, we expected them to be a little sleazy. It might improve the odds for my coddled husband in the heartland.

Womenhood: The job of a woman was threefold. Be a mother, be a wife, and keep the household clean. Oh—and don’t forget to smile!

I’d mistaken a man’s wealth for his intellect.

America hates women. What a comfort to remember.

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Lord of the Flies by William Golding *****

 Lord of the Flies by WilliamGolding

“I should have thought that [you] would have been able to put up a better show than that.” I feel like those kids on that island, and we’ll hear this when we’re rescued. Do we have to burn the place down first? #TimelessReads #StillRelevant

Did you read this in high school? Do you remember it? A group of schoolboys is marooned on a tropical island. Ralph is elected chief. Piggy is the deep thinker. Jack leads the choir. They plan to build shelters, keep a signal fire going, organize meals, and keep a roster. Quickly, this organization collapses, and the boys fall into savagery and internecine violence. A classic about the fragility of civilization and the savagery within us all.

The two important objects in the book are the conch and Piggy’s eyeglasses (specs). The conch is blown to call assemblies, and the person holding the conch is allowed to speak uninterrupted. Piggy’s specs are used to start a fire (necessary to signal for rescue and to cook meat, feral pigs). These rules of polite society deteriorate as the story progresses. NOTE: Piggy is nearsighted, and there is NO way his glasses can be used to start a fire. #PlotHole

While the theme of deterioration into savagery might seem relevant to 2026, something else also seems relevant. Many of the unfortunate decisions in Lord of the Flies are predicated on illusory dangers and imagined monsters. The book moves from one crisis to another, all of which are later shown to be blown out of proportion.

One sad postscript… At the end, there is no justice for the murdered children or the other abuses.

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Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson *****

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

Ebby’s family has lived in New England for over 150 years, in the best neighborhoods with generational wealth, a family foundation, philanthropy, and privilege. The horrific subtext is that all of this is not enough if you are black in America.

Ebby's (Ebony Freeman) life is about three tragedies. When she was ten, her older brother was murdered during a home invasion. Eighteen years later, Henry Pepper disappears on the day he was meant to marry Ebby. As traumatic as those two events were, the event that dominates the book is the accident that smashes Old Mo during the home invasion. Old Mo is a clay jar Moses, an enslaved potter, made and that Edward “Willis” Freeman, Ebby’s great-great-great-grandfather, took north on his daring escape to freedom.

Despite the Freeman resources, they are still Black. When the police don’t solve the home invasion and murder, the Freemans wonder if they would have if the victims were not Black. When Henry stands up Ebby on her wedding day, Ebby wonders how much her being Black and him being White has to do with that decision. The different Freeman generations argue about whether they should live in Black neighborhoods or White ones. Many of the small choices the Freemans make reflect their constant concern about their status as Black people in America. While the narrative is about Ebby, this prejudice is a constant, even with the wealth and status the Freemans enjoy.

But you could not tell a mother who had raised black children in the sixties and seventies, not even in their prosperous, quiet corner of New England, that her children would always be safe. You could not grow up to be a black man, no matter how successful, without knowing, in some quadrant of your brain, that you were more vulnerable to potential harm than other men. You had to watch your back. You had to teach your son to watch his back.In the end, the Freemans endow a museum exhibit about Old Mo. This is the story of our family, Baz once told her. And their mom, who’d overheard him, said, That’s true, Baz, but not only. Because our history is everyone’s history. Our history is American history. While this is a hopeful statement within the Freeman family, the book leaves the reader wondering whether White America agrees.   

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway *****

Santiago hasn’t caught anything for 84 days. He is salao, unlucky. His apprentice, the boy Manolin, fishes with a lucky boat. Santiago goes out on day 85, too far. He catches an 18-foot marlin. Sharks consume the fish. Only the skeleton remains.

Manolin is loyal to Santiago, from preparing him for his unfortunate voyage to caring for him when he returns. Santiago never gives up, not when the marlin tows him out to sea, nor when the sharks steal all the meat, along with Santiago’s harpoon and his knife. In the end, the skeleton of the record-breaking fish is taken by the tide. During his ordeal, Santiago sees himself as heroic. "A man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated." In the end, his quest is all for nothing. The book starts and ends in the same place.

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Thanksgiving Angels: Historical Cozy Mystery by Alice Duncan *****

 Thanksgiving Angels by AliceDuncan

1920s. Mercy Allcutt moved to Los Angeles to avoid her upper-crust Bostonian parents. Except they bought a home in Pasadena and invited her to Thanksgiving. Worst holiday ever…until Mrs. Winkworth went splat on the parquet floor. Cozy mystery.

Mercedes Louise Allcutt found a job as Ernest Templeton's secretary. Her parents hated this. Her sister, Chloe, is married to Harvey Nash. Monty Mountjoy and Miss Lola de la Monica are stars at Nash Studio. Monty’s mother is Mrs. Pansy Hanratty, and his grandmother is Mrs. Winkworth. Mrs. Winkworth went splat on the parquet floor in Mercy’s parents’ house. The occasion of Mrs. Winkworth’s murder was a séance by Mrs. Desdemona Majesty, who is engaged to the Pasadena Police Detective Sam Rotondo. Is the murder motive about the Nash Studio or the intergenerational conflict?

MATRIARCHS

This book's theme is the relationship between matriarchs and everyone else. No one wants to spend time with Mercy’s mother. Regardless, the murder is at her mother’s house, and most characters end up with a bedroom at the mansion. Mercy’s P.I. boss gets a guest bedroom on the second floor, while the suspects are relegated to spare servants' rooms on the third floor. The murder victim is Monty’s grandmother, and most of the suspects have been abused by her. She likes to dig up dirt on people and use it to torment them. Mercy abandons her mother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner to join Mrs. Majesty’s “happy family,” who play games and sing together.

DOGS

Mercy has a toy poodle named Buttercup. Her friend Daisy’s dog is a dachshund named Spike. “Dachshunds tend to be a little stubborn.” When the author denigrates dachshunds, it is an inside joke because she has dachshunds in real life. Mrs. Hanratty, a dog trainer, recommends English toy spaniels for Chloe, who is pregnant in this book.

SECRETARIES

As Templeton’s secretary, Mercy takes notes of all interviews using Pitman shorthand and transcribes them on a typewriter. Detective Rotondo has a male police assistant to perform the same task. Mrs. Winkworth employs a male secretary, Delbert Mann, to type her correspondence, which she dictates. He passively-aggressively transcribes everything verbatim.

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A Christmas Escape by Anne Perry ****

A Christmas Escape by Anne Perry

Charles Latterly spends Christmas on the volcanic island Stromboli with six other tourists. Someone murders Mr. Walker-Bailey. Teen Candace is innocent. The volcano kills her guardian. That leaves three suspects and the question of motive. Novella.

Aside from Charles Latterly, the six other tourists, and their jovial host Stefano, the other character is Stromboli. Stromboli is a small volcanic island that has been erupting continuously for thousands of years. Other volcanoes that exhibit similar behavior are called “Strombolian.” Stefano personifies the volcano. “I think when there is a lull in the volcano’s anger, we should go up and look. If it is safe, we should make our way down to the sea.” Stromboli spits and grumbles all the time.” The murderer attempts to frame the volcano for Mr. Walker-Bailey’s death and, eventually, metes out justice by executing the murderer.

Candace’s beloved Grandmama has recently died, leaving Roger as her last living relative. When the volcano threatens the group, Roger makes Charles promise to assume the guardian role for fourteen-year-old Candace if anything happens to him. Mrs. Isla Bailey is a genial lady married to the domineering and abusive Mr. Walker-Bailey. Walker-Bailey is disagreeable, always arriving late to meals and complaining that they started without him. Colonel Bretherton is a retired military man who is obviously infatuated with Isla. Finally, Mr. Quinn is a best-selling author who everyone thinks was incapable of writing his acclaimed novel.

After Mr. Walker-Bailey is murdered, the volcano eruption worsens, killing their host, Stefano, and Candace’s guardian, Uncle Roger. Now burdened with the responsibility of Candace, Charles encourages everyone to evacuate the mountainside for the safety of the coast. The small group, Charles, Candace, Quinn, Bretherton, and Isla, sets off with the volcano in deadly pursuit.

In the stress of the escape, all is revealed.

Biographical footnote: With her friend, Anne Perry murdered her friend’s mother at age 15 in New Zealand.

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Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon *****

 Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon

#MMIW Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. A novel about women taking charge and putting their hearts, minds, and bodies on the line to care for and about one another. Nothing can stop Quill, not her husband, not the police, nor the traffickers. #MMIWG

Quill was training for the Boston Marathon. Her two running partners were Gaylyn (lives with her younger sister, abused mother, and meth-taking father), and Punk (green mohawk, piercings, and tattoos). These three women witnessed and rescued women who are abducted and abused. They witnessed victims of domestic violence, women who were drugged, and women who were murdered. They rescued women who were raped and discarded, and women who were being trafficked. When Punk was abducted, Quill freed her and brought her captor to justice. Not for the faint-hearted.

The three women joined others in protest, wearing red ribbon skirts.

Quill did all of this against the wishes of her husband, who only wanted Quill and the children to be safe. Even when he moved out and took the children to his sister, Quill stayed the course. Rescuing Punk came first.

 

Quill learned of the first woman when she was out running, and Quill heard her scream. Quill found her earring and used it to identify the missing woman. But could she locate Mabel Beaulieu and free her from her captors?

Two women were drugged in the casino and taken. One set of abductors was stopped by a security guard when he recognized the drugged woman as his cousin. Quill felt the woman’s neck for a pulse. The woman’s skin was cold and clammy. The edges of her lips were tinted blue. But there was a faint beat. “Get Narcan!” she yelled.  The other woman was only seen in a useless video recording.

Two women were abducted, raped, and discarded at the side of the road in their underwear. One froze to death, but Quill rescued the other.

Many of the abusers worked for pipeline companies. We’ve all heard the stories of the man camps out in the Dakota and Canadian oil fields and the increase in missing women. Apparently, these camps are lawless. Men with no families. And they’re protected by the oil companies’ own security forces. … Did that guy take her out in the woods, rape her, and dump her off? Kill her? Take her back to the camp and pass her around? He doesn’t know. Said the attorney for the oil company, all but laughed and said, ‘Boys will be boys.’ Treated Patrick as if being a tribal cop wasn’t being a real cop.

“We’ve been targets since the [white people] arrived here. First war. Then boarding schools. Then foster homes. And Indian women have been targets all the way back to Pocahontas and Sacajawea. Teenage girls taken and used. Women taken and used.” “Makes me sick. We don’t exist. Or if we do exist, we’re expendable. How many U.S. presidents said, ‘The only good Indian is a dead Indian’?”

Alert pings sounded on both phones, breaking the silence in the car. Fingers scrolled like crazy, trying to keep up with the messages pouring in. Child abducted outside Walmart in Duluth—White van grabs child outside Walmart—Child missing after being pulled into van.

This story was set in Northern Minnesota, near Duluth, in the winter. Quill put Cheerios, water, an apple, and gummy fruit snacks into a bag. Living in northern Minnesota meant you never left home for a drive in the winter without extra food, blankets, and good winter boots.

Quill found one abductor and brought him to the police, but not all of them. IN this way, the novel reflects reality. #MMIW, #MMIWG, #NoMoreStolenSisters, and #MMIWG2S

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Heart the Lover by Lily King ****

 Heart the Lover by Lily King

Presentism: only what exists in the present exists at all. Yash lives in the moment. Eternalism: everything that is, has been, and will be exists right now and forever. Jordon lives in the eternal. An impossible love story, two people bound together.

Yash loves whoever is in front of him with total commitment. When Sam is in crisis, Yash is there, completely and totally. When he is at work, he is fully there, so his boss loves him. Children are drawn to him and bask in his unconditional love. Jordan has never had a lover like Yash. Their time in Paris is magical. Jordan plays the long game. When Yash doesn’t follow the plan, she doesn’t forgive him. When she has a child that doesn’t fit into the plan, she puts that child up for adoption. She marries Silas, and they have two children and a house according to their plan. Yet, when Yash is on his deathbed, Jordan returns to him. The reader is asked to mourn these lovers who could never be together.

Jordan has always had goals: to be a writer, a mother, a lover. She succeeds without finding happiness. Her eldest son has a tumor in his brain, certainly not in the plan. She reconciles with Yash. Absolutely not in the plan. Yash is surrounded by people who love him: family, people from work, acquaintances, Sam from college, but no plan. It is not enough.

This book explores two ways to be in the world. Jordan swims up the river with all her strength and energy. She does not let anything slow her down. When Sam abandons her, she moves to Yash. Without Yash, she puts their child up for adoption and bravely embarks on another path. When eldest son Jack gets a brain tumor, she finds the best doctors. In the end, she has a glimpse of Yash’s way. Yash is selfless, floating with the current, loving the currents that love him in return. When he is on his deathbed, he catches a glimpse of Jordan’s way.

I found this to be a fundamentally sad book.

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Invisible by Carla Buckley ****

 Invisible by Carla Buckley  

16-year-old Peyton called Aunt Dana too late to save her mother, Julie. Dana stayed for the funeral and to find out why Julie died. When Dana was 16, she gave up Peyton and left Black Bear, never to return. Black Bear was a city of too many secrets.

When Dana became pregnant in high school, her older sister, Julie, discovered that she couldn’t have children of her own. Adoption was out of the question because Julie’s fiancé could never love a child that wasn’t his biological child. The two young women found the perfect solution. They went away, and Julie returned with Peyton, whom she told Frank was his daughter. In exchange, Dana left Black Bear forever, without saying goodbye or ever contacting anyone. This was the beginning of secrets, assumptions, and bad feelings. All of this unraveled when Julie needed a kidney donor, and Peyton called Dana, the aunt she’d never met.

Zinc-oxide nanoparticles. Julie soon decides that the kidney failure cases are caused by zinc-oxide nanoparticles used by the Gerkey factory to make suntan lotion. The factory is Black Bear’s economic backbone. Many people support the factory. At Dana’s request, the EPA investigates. Even though they find high levels of nanoparticles, they do not act. Dana wants justice for her sister, and protection for Peyton.

Peyton’s parents. Many people have unresolved issues with Dana. Frank’s mother is in the nursing home with Brian Gerkey’s mother. These two old women appear to know something. Perhaps they know Payton’s true parents. Peyton’s father with 16-year-old Dana is a mystery.

Dana’s implosion. Dana is a demolition engineer. She places dynamite and implodes buildings. After the dust settled on her last job, the police found a dead lady in the rubble. The police are investigating, and any legal problems could be the end of her company and her job.

LT. LT has limited intelligence, wears foil hats, and subscribes to conspiracy theories. He supports Dana. He believes that the factory is killing people.

The book weaves all these plots together until the end, where they are resolved suddenly and without emotional satisfaction. Four stars.

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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker *****

 All the Colors of the Dark byChris Whitaker

Patch rescues a girl from abduction & death. His reward is decades of torment, searching, & incarceration. Good people with strong feelings & attachments despite unimaginable circumstances. “No good deed goes unpunished.” Much Love, no Romance.

Saint is accepted to Dartmouth but becomes an FBI agent. Misty goes to Harvard but doesn’t graduate. Sammy runs the Monta Clare art gallery. Nix is the Monta Clare chief of police. They all love Patch, but his priority is finding Grace and every other missing girl. Eli Aaron is on the lam, and Dr. Tooms is on death row. The lives of all the characters in this novel are intertwined. One might imagine them as a single polycule. This book is possibly the best endorsement for polygamy.

Misty had a child, Charlotte, with Patch. Saint and Sammy raised her. Saint has a child, Theodore, with her husband, Jimmy. Patch murders Jimmy. Unconditional love abounds, with shooting people, bank robbery, murder, jailbreaks, and lying all easily forgiven.

Patch is a painter who searches for families whose daughters have been abducted. He paints portraits of them that seem to bring them back. Sometimes the paintings literally bring the girls back when the girls are recognized and reunited with their families. Patch applies the same skill to the descriptions of buildings and towns.

Plot: At thirteen years old, Patch (a boy with one eye) rescues Misty, but gets abducted himself. While he is imprisoned in a lightless basement, he is visited by Grace, who tells him stories that he later turns into paintings. Saint rescues him, and Grace disappears. People doubt that Grace exists and encourage him to get beyond his trauma. He is obsessed with Grace and searches for her for decades.

In the end, many secrets are revealed, but the love that ties them all together never fails.

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Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra by Amy Noelle Parks ****

 Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra by Amy Noelle Parks

Lia’s grandma sets up a magic contest in Mirror Lake. The winner gets the Starlight Theater. Lia partners with Beckett. All tricks must come from Grandma’s original shows. While preparing, Lia learns the secrets of Grandma’s performances. YA romance.

Since magic has declined in popularity, the Mirror Lake magicians have resorted to using their skills to con tourists, sometimes for thousands of dollars. Even when the stakes were lower, the tourists might lose their bus fare and food money. Elliott took revealing pictures of Lia’s sister Emma and released them on social media. Montgomery girls do not get along with the Blackwell boys. This traces back to when Grandma Montgomery was the assistant for Henry Blackwell’s magic act. Fifty years ago. Lia hopes to address all these issues and win the contest.

Romance: As the book opens, Lia's short romance with her latest boyfriend [we’ve spent most weekends together, and I’ve lost a bobby pin or two—although nothing of importance—in the back seat of his car] ends because he wrote a poem to her mother. She’s had a lot of boyfriends, but when she meets Beckett, she doesn’t kiss him…which is unusual. She does kiss his cousin Chase. This upsets Beckett even though he has told her he only wants to be friends. Against Lia's desires, they agree not to kiss until after the contest. Lia finds this difficult, but she sticks with it.

The author is a math teacher and uses math in her books. In a later book, The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss, she explains that she didn’t follow the math rigorously. The compromise was for the purpose of making the book accessible to all readers. She did something similar here, but without an apology. Her De Bruijn sequence trick was only sufficient for 32 cards, not a full deck as suggested. The internet has an easier version of this trick with a 48-card deck. That is easier to perform, but harder to explain.

The book mentions several famous women. Christabel Pankhurst. Matilda Joslyn Gage.

The author’s books deal with kissing and women in STEM.

“Wearing lipstick doesn’t actually interfere with my ability to have a complicated thought.”

“This being-friends-with-someone-you-want-to-kiss thing is still pretty new to me.”

“But I’m tired of this—people believing I don’t have a single brain cell in my head because I’m a cheerleader and I paint my nails and I like music people have actually heard of. I get talked over in calculus and asked if I’m in the right place when I show up at math camps and cross-examined about cheating when I ace physics labs.”

Final note: Frozen custard is pretty much the best thing about living in Wisconsin.

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I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang *****

 I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

Jenna & her cousin Jessica attended a competitive private school. Rich, beautiful Jessica won all the awards, got accepted to Harvard, & was lauded by everyone. Jenna, the proverbial poor relation, wished she could be Jessica. Her wish was granted.

The differences between the cousins were stark. Jessica Chen’s family was rich. They lived in a big house, and Jessica’s mom gave her hundred-dollar bills for lunch money. Jessica had a closet of expensive clothes. Everyone expected her to pair up with future doctor, Aaron Cai, the boy who matched Jessica’s achievements, poise, and good looks. Jenna Chen said, “I look like the dollar-store version of Jessica Chen.”

One fateful day, Jessica was accepted to Harvard, Jenna was rejected, and Aaron returned from a “fancy medical youth program in Paris.” Jessica’s family hosted a big celebration. Everyone was happy except Jenna. Jenna couldn’t avoid these celebrations because Jessica was her cousin, but they depressed her and reminded her of her unlucky fate. That night, Jenna and Jessica saw a shooting star and made wishes. Jenna’s was, “I wish I were Jessica Chen.”

From that wish, the book follows the expected story arc until (not really a spoiler) Jenna sees the error of her wish and returns home.

Regardless of the cliched story arc, the book offers a fresh look at the “there’s no place like home” theme.

Aaron’s mother died when he was young, and his father was an absentee parent. Jenna’s mother stepped into the vacancy. As a result, Jenna and Aaron grew up together. Like The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss by Amy Noelle Parks, this situation produced a strong attraction, an awkwardness from familiarity, and an almost-kiss when puberty and romance approached.

The private school, Havenwood Academy, was divided. “An invisible line runs down the classroom. On one side, you have the legacies, the broad-shouldered boys and sun-kissed girls, the wealthy sons and daughters of law firm owners and university professors and construction magnates. On the other side, you have the Asian kids.”

The book contains a lot of Chinese cuisine and phonetically spelled Chinese with immediate translations.

An easy-to-read YA romance and “there’s no place like home” fable.

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The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss by Amy Noelle Parks *****

 The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss by Amy Noelle Parks

Caleb loved Evie long before he tried to kiss her at 13. He’s been afraid to try again. Evie is super smart and fearful. Now they are seniors at an elite high school. Evie chooses Leo for her first boyfriend. Is there any hope for Caleb and Evie?

Evie reasons that you can’t be open and comfortable with the same boy (space) friend, BSF, as the boyfriend you kiss. You must be careful what you reveal to the kissing boyfriend. Caleb has been her BSF since kindergarten. He will and has done anything for her. He knows about her phobias (spiders, social anxiety) and mental health issues (panic attacks, periods of silence). He has been there for her during her crises. She trusts and depends on Caleb and doesn’t dare risk that important BSF relationship with a kiss. A high school romance with jealousy, anxiety, and confusion.

Evie was selected for the prestigious Frontier Prize for high school STEM students last year. She won the opportunity to give one of the five presentations, but she had a panic attack. This year, she is entering with Caleb as her co-author so he can be with her if she is selected to present again. Leo is entering the contest on his own. Caleb contrives to meet Evie online as Milo. Evie is torn between boyfriend Leo, BSF Caleb, and BSF #2 Milo.

Caleb has supportive parents, but is on his own to navigate this teen romance. “I am her best friend. And I love her. And I almost kissed her fourteen times. I keep a mental list of almost-kisses.”

Evie is supported by her therapist, her school friend, Bex, and her mother. Her mother studies insanity in mathematicians, uses the DSM-5 as a parenting manual, and believes medication is the best way to deal with mental health problems. Bex’s father is a conservative pastor who “takes the worst parts of the Bible literally” and made her promise not to date while in high school.

This romance is sprinkled with STEM references and jokes:

“Because you know what they call physicists who fail?” No one takes the bait. “Engineers.”

“Do you remember the fine-tuning problem?” I shake my head, thinking she must mean a warm-up we did in physics. “The constants in our universe—the amount of dark matter and dark energy, the strength of electromagnetic and nuclear forces, even the weight of protons—all have to be almost precisely what they are for conscious life to exist. If any of those things were the tiniest bit different, we wouldn’t be here. And yet, here we are, in a universe perfectly suited for us. It’s entirely improbable.”

“Sure. And I want to talk about the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.” “Like, why math is so good at describing the world?” “Exactly. Doesn’t it seem a little uncanny that mathematicians keep predicting things that experimental physicists find, sometimes decades before they do?”

Sex? This book about contemporary high school romance is anachronistically chaste. While there is a lot of talk of kissing and actually kissing, the word “tongue” never occurs and “lips” only shows up three times. Hand holding also plays a big role. “As we walk home through the campus, [Leo] takes my hand in his, wrapping his fingers around mine instead of lacing them together the way Caleb does. It’s different, but nice.”

This book is a beautiful view of high school romance. I wonder if it is er like or if it every was like this.

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The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova ***

 The Inheritance of Orquídea Divinaby Zoraida Córdova

Orquídea is cursed with incredible luck. After five husbands, she never leaves home. Her children and grandchildren come home for her death, but she doesn’t die, and they are cursed. Lots of fantastical things happen, but I never saw the point.

Two key descendants are granddaughter Marimar and grandson Rey. They are both through her second husband. Marimar’s mother is daughter Pena. Rey’s mother is daughter Parcha. Two others are Tati and her daughter Rhiannon. Tatu’s father is Orquidea’s third husband, Hector. Orquidea’s half-sister Ana Cruz also has a major role in this story, along with the Londoño Spectacular Spectacular, a traveling circus, sideshow, and carnival. The book felt like a bad psychedelic trip.

Some excerpts:

When she left Ecuador for good, she learned how to leave pieces of herself behind. Pieces that her descendants would one day try to collect to put her back together. It took twenty years and two husbands, but Orquídea Divina made it to the United States. Despite having been born on a cosmic convergence of bad luck, Orquídea had discovered a loophole. But that’s to come later in her story. This is about the woman and the house that had never been—until one day, they were undeniably there.

“Tell her to use the phone like normal people,” Marimar shouted at the bird. The kids below looked up and, realizing who it was, tittered and whisper-hissed the words bruja loca.

Rhiannon’s rose never stopped changing, and she never stopped talking to the dragonflies that returned, the birds and deer that trailed after her. Mike’s parents eventually called to check up on their granddaughter, but it was Marimar who adopted her. Marimar, who told her the same stories their mothers grew up hearing. It was Rey who taught her how to paint, how to curse, how to find hidden doors. Enrique, who taught her how to apologize. Caleb Jr. who taught her about the science of plants. Ernesta, how to classify the species of fish that should not exist in their valley, but the Montoyas had a habit of ignoring what should be possible.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cat Press books and book recommendations. 

Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V Reyes *****

Mango, Mambo, and Murder by RaquelV Reyes

Miriam Quiñones, PhD food anthropologist, married to Robert Smith, with a four-year-old son, lives in NYC. When they move to Florida, his mother’s money settles them in the exclusive Coral Shores, where Miriam confronts snobbery, adultery & murder.

Miriam does not fit into Coral Shores, with its fancy women’s club and fitness center. Regardless, her mother-in-law and husband pressure her into attending a luncheon where she is seated next to Sunny Weatherman, who drops dead, face first, into her chicken salad. Soon, her only ally and high school bestie, Alma, is accused of the murder and of dealing drugs. This puts amateur sleuth Miriam on the case.

One subplot is about her suspicions that her husband is having an affair. Back in NYC, Miriam and Robert lived in a small apartment, and he was dedicated to helping the environment. Now they live in a big house. He is working for a developer and buying furniture and cars. She is unhappy with this new life where they have lots of money, but Robert is never home.A second subplot is about her opportunity to have a cooking show on the local Spanish-language station. This is possible because the station has a childcare center. In this book, wherever Miriam goes, there is childcare available. When she takes a class at the fitness center, they have childcare. If organized childcare is unavailable, the staff at the diner or the local police are happy to entertain Manny, and Manny is always happy to meet new people. Manny is left with a large assortment of people and never experiences separation anxiety.

While this book deals with drugs (cocaine), murder, and anorexia, it is a cozy mystery where Miriam, her family, and friends are never in jeopardy. The book also includes recipes and a cute calico cat named Flossie who has kittens. One is gifted to Manny, who names his calico kitten Camo, as in camouflage.

Miriam is raising Manny to be bilingual. She is the Spanish-language parent, and Robert is the English-language parent. The book includes plenty of untranslated Spanish dialogue. I don’t read or speak Spanish, but I did not find this to be a problem.

A fun cozy mystery.

Author bio: Raquel V. Reyes was raised in oppositional cultures. Her early childhood was not unlike an I Love Lucy rerun with a heavy-accented, handsome Cuban father and a red-headed Southern mother whose smile brightened the room. Raquel’s soul food is croquetas with a Jupiña chaser. She lives in Miami.

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To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage *****

 To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage

Born in 1982, Steph Harper is a gay Cherokee Nation citizen. Since childhood, her life goal was to be an astronaut. Steph’s story began at five with the car accident in which her mother took her and her younger sister away from their abusive father.

The book begins when Steph is five years old. Following a car accident, her mother took Steph and her younger sister Kayla from Texas to settle with other Cherokee families in Oklahoma. The two truths in Steph’s life are that she is a lesbian, and she wants to be a NASA astronaut. Often, these are in opposition. It is difficult to have a social life when she is constantly working to have a resume attractive to NASA and to maintain her fitness. Also, NASA regulations conflict with her desire for a lesbian relationship.

Highlights:

Steph's earliest memories were of the car accident that killed her abusive father. Her sister Kayla had no memories of the father or the accident. Steph blamed this experience for her seriousness and Kayla’s carefree attitude. Steph took everything hard, while Kayla just went with the flow.

Steph’s first step to becoming an astronaut was a good education, starting with the exclusive boarding school, Phillips Exeter. She didn’t go there, but she attended Hollis in Connecticut. (I suspect this is a disguised Wesleyan.)

In high school, she played a male in the school play. When she kissed Meredith, the girl playing opposite her, she discovered that she was gay. Meredith was not.

At college, she met Della Owens, her first love. Della was the subject of a Supreme Court case about the Indian Child Welfare Act. Her Cherokee father wanted custody, but the court sided with the adoptive parents. (See Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl). Kayla visited Steph at school and became pregnant at a college party.

When Steph was selected as an astronaut candidate, she was on a NASA exercise in Hawaii, and sister Kayla protested the activity. Meanwhile, during the exercise, Steph has a crush on another astronaut candidate, Nadia.

The book refers to many historical events: after the 2024 election, she protested a travel ban against people from seven Muslim-majority countries, the border wall, the deportation of immigrants, and pulling out of an agreement on climate change mitigation.

Some quotes/excerpts:

We took off our coats at the door of Alpha Omega and tied them together by the arms. When it was time to go it would be easier to find them in the dark, in the massive pile accumulated on a stranger’s bed. And it was safer, Sandra said, because the number one rule of going out together was going home together. In our first week of school, Sandra had stood in the kitchen and demonstrated the arm-tying trick with her coat and April’s coat, saying, “So now if I’m super drunk, like, black-out drunk, and some guy’s trying to take me back to his dorm, I can’t leave without going through the whole rope of coats. And while I’m standing there wrestling with the arm-knots, you people can save me.”

I was the kind of person who destroyed herself over missed data from an X-ray space telescope. Over a supernova, the death of a star.

The crops were planted by a person we enslaved. The treaty was signed for a profit. The seminary taught mostly what we’d need in the coming white world. My great-grandfather left his daughter in a barn, my grandfather locked his daughter out of the house, and my father drove from one life into another. And my great-grandmother stayed, and my grandmother stayed, and my mother stayed, until she didn’t.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cat Press books and book recommendations. 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides *****

 The Silent Patient by AlexMichaelides

Alicia shot her husband five times and hasn’t spoken since. Her only communication is one last painting, The Alcestis, who sacrificed for her husband and didn’t speak again. Psychiatrist Theo takes an interest in Alicia. Nothing is as it seems.

Our narrator is Theo Faber, a psychiatrist who transfers from Broadmoor (prison) to The Grove (mental hospital) to work with Alicia Berenson. Since Alicia won’t speak, he investigates through witnesses. Christian West is another psychiatrist whom Theo discovers has a long-hidden relationship with Alicia. Jean-Felix Martin owns the gallery that shows Alicia’s work. Max Berenson is Alicia’s brother-in-law, who has a problematic relationship with her. Theo is interested in Alicia because they share childhoods in dysfunctional families. They also share difficult marriages. Theo’s wife, Kathy, is having a passionate affair. Theo uses his experience and empathy, together with his research, to inform his therapeutic approach to Alicia.

The book is best read as a mystery. Alicia is the murderer, and Theo is the detective. As Theo interviews people in Alicia’s life, he uncovers clues and makes revelations about Alicia. Many people benefit from Alicia’s continued silence. Theo presses his investigation forward despite making these people uncomfortable and angry. Alicia’s stepmother, Lydia Rose, never liked Alicia. Gallery owner Jean-Felix benefits from her notoriety. Her brother-in-law and former therapist could be embarrassed if Alicia speaks. The book builds to a final surprise ending.

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Weighted Choices by Emma Jane *****

 Weighted Choices by Emma Jane

Food and body image are problems for high school senior Albany Davis. This powerful book shows the full spectrum of her life. Anorexia is serious, but it isn’t her entire life. Too often, people are reduced to their mental health issues. Read this book to get beyond the labels.

Author Emma Jane doesn’t sugarcoat anything. This book confronts anorexia, single parents, financial stress, rape, Down syndrome, math anxiety, bullying, consent, and situationships. How does Albany address a world with numerous challenges?  Many people support her. Cheerleader Cheyenne has been her friend since elementary school. Her single mother. The high school counselor provides a safe space on difficult days. The math teacher offers lunchtime tutoring. The non-judgmental therapist. The friendly Mechanical Engineering nerd. The nurses in the hospital. The good boyfriend. There are no cartoon superheroes, but a realistic army of carers doing their small, but critical, parts.

Albany isn’t the only one with challenges. Fighting got Dylan Wynne kicked out of his high school. His sixteen-year-old brother Riley has Down syndrome. Like Albany, Riley doesn’t let his challenges define his life. Just as this book shows Albany to be more than her anorexia, Riley is more than his Down syndrome. Riley is another team member who guides Albany towards recovery.

In addition to offering hope to people with eating disorders, this book also confronts math anxiety. Albany’s struggles in her precalculus class. Sexual predator Luke uses this to victimize Albany. First, he is the tutor, and then he is a rapist. Rape, math anxiety, anorexia… Albany learns that none of these can be dealt with in isolation.

High school is more than first dates, gossiping, and prom, but those are also part of it. This book is a fast read and a wonderful insight into the reality of recovery.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cat Press books and book recommendations. 

After Dark (Ghost Hunters, Book 1) (Harmony) Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz) ****

 After Dark by Jayne Castle

Lydia Smith discovered her friend dead in a sarcophagus. Emmett London’s nephew has disappeared along with a valuable family heirloom. How are these events connected? Will their physical attraction prevent them from working together? Steamy romance.

This paranormal romance takes place in the city of Old Cadence on the colony planet of Harmony. The curtain has closed, and contact with Earth is impossible. Lydia has the psychic ability to untangle illusion traps. Emmett has the psychic ability to dissipate ghosts. Both these talents are mediated through amber, which all psychics wear. To safely enter the catacombs, the team must include a tangler and a ghost hunter. Fortunately, Lydia and Emmett are the best. They work together to solve the mysteries of murder and corruption on Harmony.

In addition to the murder of Chester Brady, a disreputable ruin rat who occasionally discovers valuable artifacts, and the disappearance of Quinn, there is the discovery of a jar made of dreamstone, something thought to be impossible. “Dreamstone was well named. Small deposits of it were occasionally found, usually embedded in clear quartz. Not only was it extremely rare, but it had thus far defied any attempt to extract it from the protective quartz. It shattered at the slightest touch, simultaneously appearing to melt and fracture into microscopic shards.”

The politics of Old Cadence is bifurcated into the police, the university, and the respectable members of society (the Restoration Ball and the Society Para-archaeologists) on one side and the Guild (an organization that is only one step above an underworld mob) on the other. Lydia has been fired from her position at the university, and Emmett is from another settlement entirely. Neither is part of the establishment. None of that helps their investigation.

This is a fast-moving thriller with a lot of moving parts and surprise twists.

Lydia has a pet dust bunny. An animal with calm daylight eyes and fierce nighttime hunting eyes. “As long as all you can see are his daylight eyes, there’s nothing to be concerned about. The only time you have to worry about a dust bunny is when he stops looking like a wad of dryer lint.” Emmett raised his brows. “They say that by the time you see the teeth, it’s too late.”

This is an open-door/steamy romance.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cat Press books and book recommendations.