Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't help but give this book a 5 star review. I realize that not everyone would agree with me on this but that's ok, we all have different takes on books.

The writing was good, the pace started out a little slow but it picked up pretty quickly. The characters were relatable. Many of them reminded me of people who are in my daily life. This story was very heartwarming, with a lot of quirky one liners, I found myself laughing at and could agree with. There were some flashbacks in the story but not to where it overshadowed the main focus of the book.

The man character, Ove is a man in his late 50's and has dealt with many tragedies in his life; one would understand how that has made him seem a bit bitter. He's like the one neighbor that never smiles, doesn't make conversation with the neighbors over the fence or is the first one to welcome a new family on the block. Instead he's set in his ways, doesn't like technology, a stickler for the rules, and thinks that everyone should be able to fix things around the house and with their own tools. He doesn’t have time to hang out with friends, mainly because he doesn’t have any, and no one drives a Saab, the only true car in Ove’s opinion.

Ove has always been like this his whole life, starting with when his father passes away. The company had paid his father a month’s wages and Ove goes back to return the money that he thinks is due back to the train company his father worked for. He explained to the director his father passed away on the 16th and therefore did not earn the rest of the month’s wages, so it was only logical to return the rest of the money due back to the company. The director explained over and over to Ove it was ok to keep the money, but Ove insisted it was not earned so therefore it needed to be return. Since the director wasn’t getting Ove to understand he came up with another idea, Ove could work the rest of the month for the remaining wages, this was an acceptable agreement to Ove, and he continued working for the company many years after the two weeks of earning the rest of his father’s wages. Until 40 years later, when he was replaced by a computer.

Ove had many happy times in his life. He met his wife, they bought a house, they took trips together, him and his wife, Sonja were planning a family, he was working, his wife was teaching, life was good. Then tragedy strikes Ove again, this time Ove started writing letters to the “White Shirts”—the bureaucrat people. But with no avail, Ove is ignored. Then one day his wife dies, Ove has decided that he will live six months without her, this will give him time to make all the necessary arrangements, get his affairs in order and then he’ll join Sonja where they will continue their life in the after world. But each time he tries to commit suicide someone comes bothering him, they need a ride to the hospital, they need help unsticking a window, he saves a cat.

Little does Ove realize he is still needed on this earth, and he finds out he enjoys his new neighbors a young couple with two girls and a baby on the way. Two young guys become friends with him and help him to understand the way the world is now, and that diversity isn’t a bad thing. Ove doesn’t realize that he’s also loved by these people, they enjoy his company, he’s the one stable thing in their lives and Ove realizes he needs them also.


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Review: Dead Cold Brew

Dead Cold Brew by Cleo Coyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cleo Coyle Does It Again! 5 Star Review.

One of my favorite coffeehouse owners Clare Cosi, is back with another one of her adventures. Only this time Clare is filled with happiness, joy, excitement, over the moon, and busting out at the seams because her favorite man, Mike Quinn has finally presented her with an engagement ring.
While Clare is feeling all this bliss it is short lived due to the fact that Clare is on a new case. Our favorite amateur sleuth is back in action on helping anyway she can to solve a 60 year old mystery.

One thing I love about the Coffehouse Mysteries, isn’t just about the love of all things coffee, but I enjoy visiting with Clare, Matt, Madam, the other baristas, and of course Mike. Every time I pick up one of books in this series to read, it makes me feel like I’m visiting with old friends. The authors gives you plenty of dialogue which sets this book into a fast pace and the suspense, twists, turns, friendships are all there which keeps the reader entertained as well as makes this an enjoyable read. One thing I did enjoy in the book was trying to figure out what was going to happen next, of course part of the time I was right and the other half I was wrong, but it kept me glued to finding out what happened.

If you’ve never read a book in this series, I do suggest you make it a priority to start. These are well worth and quick reads. The other may throw several sub stories in and you might think you’re going to get confused, but know that she doesn’t leave you hanging and all of it works itself out with many aha moments.


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Review: JILL

JILL by N.L. Greene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5 Star Review of the book Jill, by author N. L. Greene’s book.

This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author, and what a book to start with! It captured me by the end of chapter one to where I didn’t want to do anything but sit and read. The characters were just enough to move the story along, they were well developed, believable, depth, and they made you feel like they were real people.

I found this book by looking for a suspense/thriller book to read. When I saw the title I started laughing as it’s my name. After reading the synopsis I started laughing and had my husband read it. The joke between us that it was nice someone wrote a book about me! After starting the book I started to get a little worried because Jill’s best friend is Sami, my daughter’s name is Sami. When I told my husband that he gave me the weirdest look and said he might be getting a little worried for me to read this book. Thank goodness none of our other children or his name was in the book, so it was safe to say this book really wasn’t written about me.

I’m always interested in finding new author to read, and I’m so happy I read this book. There were twist and turns in it and not once did I see it coming. The story stayed on track, gave just enough background that didn’t take up half the chapter which I like. One thing I did like about this book was how the author had Jill deal with a tragedy that happened in her life. When we or someone we know loses someone unexpectedly to death, one never knows how the ones left behind will handle it. The author did a really good job of writing the way Jill dealt with the sudden passing of her father who was shot one night in the line of duty, as a police officer.

The spiral downward Jill starts to descend into after her only parent is killed. She goes into a deep depression, shutting out her best friend, until after she talks to her father’s attorney, although her father left her everything, she decides to sell the house. Once she starts packing up everything she finds a big folder that her dad had kept secret. Inside the folder is proof of a big prostitution ring and several names of the heavy hitters in it, including some of the police officers who worked with her dad. A Jill figure out her dad wasn’t just shot in a random investigation but someone actually murdered him for his knowledge of whom and what was happening.

Jill also finds out these guys were also involved in the murder of her mother. With both parents dead the only people she can truly call family is Tommy and Karen, her dad’s partner for the past 20 years, and her best friend Sami. There’s no way she can tell Tommy about this, she needs to keep him and Karen safe, and there’s no way she can tell Sami. Jill sets in motion a plan to take revenge on the people that did this to her parents, but she’s has to be very careful as not to get caught.

Once Jill starts her plan in motion, the twist and turns become so intriguing, the reader doesn’t want to put the book down, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Once all this starts you can’t help but finish the book.


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Review: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5 Star reviews for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly.

This is a wonderful book that tells the story of three educated black women who had to deal with segregation, having master’s degrees in engineering, mathematics, and known as “human computers” all before the computers came along. They were not only women, but black women in a time that was more about men holding down good paying jobs. This is a true story about how these pioneer women broke all barriers to help the space age to get John Glen, Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong and all the other great astronauts in to space. How these women used their minds, pencils, rulers, adding machines, all by hand and going over and over the figures several times by hand to make sure the calculations were right to not only get the men into space but to also bring them home safely not only to the world to see, but to their families as well.

Many of these African American women were only able to get teaching jobs in segregated public schools; Dorothy Vaughan answered an ad for Langley who needed people who were able to help work on designing planes to help win the war. She was assigned to the West Computer section; here is where she spent many years working on projects for the wars, NASA, and anything else she was told to work on. Here is where she worked her way up the ladder and became a supervisor. She also helped new families who moved to Langley find housing, child care or whatever the family needs. She also took care of her family all the while she was the main bread winner for her family. Dorothy was a very friend, smart, loving mother and wife, who enjoyed her time at Langley. She was just as proud of the other women that worked there and she knew the other women’s strength and weakness’s and knew who would be suited for this job or that job. She was proud of her work, but she stayed true to herself, her beliefs, and values. When she was promoted, had her name on published papers, or won an award, inside she was overjoyed, but in front of others, she didn’t change or act like she was superior over them, she stayed working there until her retirement.

Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson are two other African American women who worked with Dorothy Vaughan. Mary Jackson loses her husband to brain cancer and is left to raise their two daughters on her own. Mary meets John Glen who later comes to depend on Mary’s accuracy of her numbers to bring him back home. Both of these women along with Dorothy Vaughan form an alliance and friendship that not only help them at their jobs, but betters their lives not only for themselves but for their families and for all the women that came after them. But the one thing that unified them was the race to help get the men into space. Each woman played their part to help the country’s future.

I really enjoyed reading this book and felt that the author did a lot of research to bring these unsung women to the forefront. I liked how she also explained some of the things the women had to do and explained it to where someone like me that had no idea how the math would play apart in building a rocket let alone how they were going to put a man into space and all that went into it.
She also focused on what the women went through not only at work while working with men in a time where women usually didn’t work outside the home, to their personal life. She gave you a sense of the era as though you were right there in that exact time period and was witnessing the way the world was.

This was a very interesting and fast paced book. I enjoyed all the characters as well as learning something about how the world dreamed of putting a man into space and making that dream become a reality.


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Review: Terror in Taffeta

Terror in Taffeta by Marla Cooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5 Star Review. This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author, and I’ll be reading more by her. This li’l cozy was a nice fresh of breath air!

Kelsey McKenna is a wedding planner, but just any wedding planner she plans for destination weddings. One thing I liked about the book was it was funny, I liked the character’s I was supposed to like, namely the main character of the book and Brody her friend that sometimes helps out with weddings. Kelsey is a little complex, but not to complex that it takes away from the story or annoys you. She is funny, strong, independent, and pretty smart.

The plot and characters were well thought out and developed. The storyline moved at a very quick pace, with twist, turns and surprises that will keep you guessing until the end. One thing that I felt needed just a little more of was some of the descriptions. I could almost see the places but there was just a little more that could have had me feeling like I was actually there. However I will say that I’m so glad that the author didn’t spend several pages describing every little thing. She had a story to tell and tell she did.

I do feel that this is a really good start to a new cozy series and I’m looking forward to the next book. One of the reasons I like to read is that it relaxes me and I couldn’t wait to come home from work and read this little gem! I can see this series being a hit as long as it doesn’t lose the humor that came with it.

All in all, I do recommend this book. There’s no sex, violence, or gory details, it’s just a story about a wedding designer who tells her story like she’s telling someone about her most recent trip and how she helped out with solving the crime like it’s no big deal.


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Review: Lilac Girls

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5 Stars Review. I usually don’t give out five stars unless the book has really touched me and this one did. This is the first book I’ve read by author Martha Hall Kelly, and I’m so glad I did. The story was well written, the character development was amazing, with each of the characters you got a sense, of hope, devastation, anger, longing, despair, but this was one of the most enthralling, intriguing and insightful. I did learn some things that I never learned in school and that was about Ravensbrück, the only major Nazi concentration camp for women in Germany. The author did a great job of research for this book on the characters, the locations, and the about the concentration camp. I too went online and learned some more about this concentration camp as well as more about two of the characters.

This book starts out in 1939, and focuses on three main characters:

Caroline Ferriday was an actress on Broadway, and when she gave up performing she went to work at the French consulate in NY, and was helping the orphans there by having fundraisers and with the help of many of the wealthy friends she knows to give, she would provide the orphans with clothes, shoes and whatever else she could send to them. One night she meets a fellow French actor, Paul (Sorry I can’t remember his last name) they start being seen together. Even through Paul is married and his wife Rena is still living in Paris, Paul request that she be allowed to come over to the U.S.. Caroline sponsors her so that she would be granted a visa, but before it can be authorized, Paul goes back to France upon hearing that Hitler is going to trying to take France.
Shortly after Paul leaves, Hitler takes Paris. Caroline has been granted a higher clearance in her job. She takes on the part of learning where all the concentration camps are located. She turns her attention on helping the “rabbits”. This is based on the real Caroline Ferriday who actually did work on Broadway and in the French Consulate; she did come from a wealthy from Connecticut. Her humanitarian is such a blessing to read about, especially in this day and age, she gave so much of herself in helping the women from concentration camps that were truly not only survivors but were heroes as well.

The second character is a young polish girl from Lublin. Kasia is a former Girl Guide. When her best friend disappears and the Germans take her dad away because he runs the post office in town, she decides to join the young resistance. Her story in the book is so much about hope, friendship, surviving, dreams and is the character that I was more drawn to. Your heart went out for her and I found myself wanting to get back to her in the book. I won’t go into a lot on her because for those of you wanting to read this book and I do encourage you to do so, I want you to take in her whole story, and at times it will take your breath away.

The last character is Herta, this woman was born in the wrong era. She longs to be a surgeon, but in this time, women doctors were basically only allowed to be dermatologist. To me, she seemed angry, cold, stuck up and just not a nice person in general. But I can understand a little as to why she was the way she was. Living in that era was not easy for a woman to get a great career, or to be taken seriously. Herta has a chance to show her skills when she is called upon to be on a medical team at Ravensbrück, her Hippocratic Oath is immediately compromised: Her eagerness to scrub in quickly overcomes any remaining scruples as Herta conducts grisly surgical “experiments” on inmates, including Kasia. The women, many permanently maimed, who undergo these “studies” become known as the “Rabbits.”


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