joannneuroth's reviews
93 reviews

The Racketeer by John Grisham

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I picked this up as a brain-rest re-read.  I love the story -- far-fetched things keep falling into place for an amazing plan to unfold.  The narrator is credible, the justice system is predictably dense and cruel, eventually the good guys win.  As Grisham's afterward says, "no research at all was done ... but even a lazy author has to hang his hat on some facts."  I think he had fun doing this -- Hope so; I sure had fun reading it.  
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I re-read this whole series whenever I need an escapist world to live in for a while.  And this launch is a terrific beginning.  Aral and Cordelia are so different and yet they share a shining core.  He describes her near the end of the book when someone asks him what he sees in her as "she pours out honor like a fountain all around her."  So does he ... and they explore together what honor requires of them.  
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The Last Paladin: A Novel by P. T. Deutermann

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adventurous emotional informative tense fast-paced

4.0

I love these Deuterman WWII naval novels.  Don't exactly know why, but the mix of technology, naval information and character development just carries me along.  I learn something about a class of warship and about the hard conditions under which all the "souls aboard" work.  (Maybe it reminds me of the Aubrey/Maturin sailing ship sagas?)  Also learn much about the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war and the forces that prevailed in each.  It's sort of a cheat, since you know he isn't going to kill off his main character, but several times/book it's pretty clear that THEY (and therefore you in the moment) don't know that.  
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Till now I've know William Kent Krueger only from his Cork O'Connor series (which I've loved).  This one frees him from the somewhat formulaic structures and familiar characters and soars toward poetry.  The small town is tangible and complex and interwoven.  At one point I said, "I'm dragging my feet reading because I fear bad things are going to happen to people I've come to love."  A feel of dread permeates most of the book, since it appears that prejudice has prejudged Noah Bluestone without waiting for a trial.  But just when the ominous foreshadowing seems to close it, someone finds a way to stretch their hearts toward compassion or hope or at least patience.  I grew up on a farm outside a town like Jewel, and I recognize these people.  
Lockdown by Laurie R. King

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

It took me a while to get into this book.  King uses a mosaic-style prose to introduce a large number of characters from a California middle school in short segments, returning to each over time.  I almost set it aside because I didn't yet care enough about them to find it worthwhile keeping track of all of them.  Boy, would THAT have been a mistake!  By two-thirds of the way through, I was riveted.  The ending was spectacularly choreographed.  

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I expected a slower slog through informative, but daunting historical/cultural context with the characters and their story perched on top.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that good writing and fascinating cultural phenomena kept me reading eagerly, not just to learn things.  And that the culture itself -- with its cruel dictates and options and pronouncements for women -- actually propelled the plot; they weren't just background.  This "circle of women" was figuring out how to survive 15th century (elite) Chinese life.  They win some; they lose often.  

Fascinating glimpse into the luxuriant, magnificent, decadent decorations, clothing, and jewelry in 15th century China.  Of course, we are dropped into the upper crust life, with occasional panoramas of working class life.  But that there was enough leisure to have developed arts to such a high level struck me again and again.  
James by Percival Everett

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I put this down once at the very first pages of blackface songs and slave dialect, unable to stomach another example, although others rushed to reassure me that if I kept going I'd find that the slaves were code-switching:  speaking dialect in front of their gullible, deluded masters and dropping it to lapse into plain speaking when whites disappeared.  Didn't help.  I just didn't want to read through it.  But upon multiple, repeated raves from people I trust I tried again and with a bit of a running start, I came to be glad I've read it.  James himself is a character study (even though I answered "no" his character flaws aren't a main focus -- but his growth is) worth learning from.  
Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I stumbled onto this tiny gem in the book club section of my local library, and am SO glad I did.  The indigenous Alaskan author tells the story (she admits to adding some of her literary embellishments) as she heard it from her mother.  The mother remembered and told it during a conversation about aging and mortality, and the daughter/author internalized it as reflective advice about how to find internal resources and choose responsibly when and where to invest them.  The whole book takes a couple of hours to read, so I won't spend time summarizing the plot here.  But its simply-told, no-nonsense tone is softened by relationships grown into, lively connections with the harsh, subsistence ecology that is nevertheless teeming with sustainable ways to be comfortable and enjoy pleasure.  

Loved this.