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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Stuck in Manistique by Dennis Cuesta – Gentle Comedy in a Small Michigan Town

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How could I pass up a novel set in Manistique, a small town along a beautiful stretch of Lake Michigan beach in the Upper Peninsula?  Stuck in Manistique is unusual, a bit of romance with a touch of screwball comedy, and meant-to-be-quirky characters.

Protagonist Mark is a financial planner in suburban Chicago who inherits his aunt’s home in Manistique, not realizing it is a bed & breakfast.  He quickly learns when his first guest, young medical resident Emily shows up, fresh from deciding to walk away from her affair with her mentor doctor.  Emily has nowhere to go because the town’s hotel is full with a bus tour group and she hit a deer on US 2 and the town’s dealership cannot fix her Saab quickly.  Mark allows Emily to stay, followed by elderly George, then weird maybe couple Yvonne and Peter.  In between all this Mark must scatter his aunt’s ashes on Indian Lake with the help of Bear Foot, a local visionary friend of his aunt.

So far so good, we have the screwball elements in place with people coming and going, all while our hapless innkeeper is the victim of his own kindness.  Romance, death, revelation all ensue.

Stuck in Manistique is short; it won’t take more than a couple hours to read.  There isn’t much action beyond eating at the various pubs and pizza joints, running along the shoreline, paddle boating on Indian Lake and driving around the UP and the northern Lower Peninsula.  The main story is the people.

  • What is the connection between Mark and Emily?  They both feel something, but it isn’t romance.
  • Will Mark decide to stay in Manistique?
  • Will Emily finally cut the connection with her adulterous lover/boss?
  • Can Mark get over his fear of bridges?  (Believe me, you do not want to drive over the Mackinaw Bridge if you are afraid of bridges!  It’s huge.)
  • Can Emily come to peace with her guilt over Nicholas?
  • Will George ever catch up with his tour group?
  • Will Peter and Yvonne make it around Lake Michigan in his electric car?

Simple questions.  The author manages to bring these together in a gentle comedy that is engaging, and combines it with beautiful setting and an atmosphere of What Next Can Go Wrong?

There is almost enough meat to the characters to make Stuck in Manistique a winner.  The people tell us about themselves, and while we see Mark being kind in action, that kindness doesn’t quite align with his internal story about dumping his girlfriend when she wanted to get married.

Writing is good although don’t expect a lot of action or snappy dialogue.  The characters are the story here.

3 to 4 Stars

I received this via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

 

Wow! Humor at Its Best – P. G. Wodehouse on Hoopla

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There is no one like P. G. Wodehouse.  No one has his combination of humor, plot, characters and language.  Not to mention the fun of reading about house parties in old castles, valets and butlers, ocean trips across the Atlantic, girls on the make, dressing for dinner, mad coincidences, traveling on the train (leaving just ahead of a wrathful aunt).

Our old library had about 50 Wodehouse novels and I read every one and bought more and read those too.  For years it seemed as if Barnes & Noble or Amazon stocked the same 50 or 60 novels that everyone has – Jeeves and Wooster stories, a few trips to Blandings Castle, Galahad Threepwood and his buddy Uncle Fred – but neglected many of his less well-known stories.

I’m so glad to see Hoopla offers many of these novels that weren’t readily available.  I’m borrowing one a month for now, such a treat.  Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have many more Wodehouse masterpieces now.

The Gem Collector

Jimmy Pitt, once a distinguished safe cracker and jewel thief, now a distinguished rich baronet, is dining alone at the Savoy Hotel when he notices a young man at a nearby table who shows all the signs of not having his wallet.  Jimmy helps the fellow out.  This is how Jimmy meets Spencer Blunt, who just happens to be the son of Lady Jane Blunt, now married to Mr. McEachern, formerly a New York policeman.

Of course Lady Jane and her society don’t know that Mr. McEarchern was a policeman and believe his money came from Wall Street, which is only partially true, as he certainly got some bribes while on that exciting street.  McEarchern and Jimmy know each other (of course) and both know the other had been as crooked as could be, and both want to present reformed faces to the world.

Jimmy goes with Spencer to his mom’s and McEarchern’s home for an extended house party where he again meets Molly, McEarchern’s daughter.  As usual with Wodehouse we have assorted nasty characters, love interests and naturally, Spencer’s obnoxious aunt who owns a pearl collar supposedly worth 40,000 pounds, or $200,000 at the exchange rate of those days.  (This is roughly several million in today’s money.)

If you can see the plot thicken from here, then congratulations, you are a Wodehouse reader.

I thought The Gem Collector was a little more serious than some Wodehouse.  For example, Lady Jane is “drawn to Mr. McEarchern.  Whatever his faults, he had strength; and after her experience of married life with a weak man, Lady Jane had come to the conclusion that strength was the only male quality worth consideration.”  “She suspected no one.  She liked and trusted everybody, which was the reason why she was so popular, and so often taken in.”  McEarchern “had an excellent effect upon him (Spencer) but it had not been pleasant.”

Another character is a card shark who lives from house party to house party and preys on young men.

Both Jimmy and McEearchen are interesting people, as is Spike, Jimmy’s former sidekick now masquerading as his valet.  Will Jimmy restrain his love of fine jewels or will he once more give in and steal the pearls?  Will McEarchern manage to act the gentleman or will he get the horsewhip out for Jimmy?  Will Spike lose his accent?  (I wish.  Spike’s accent was the one negative in the story.)

5 Stars

A Damsel in Distress or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

This is another romantic comedy with plenty of mistaken identities, meddlesome aunts and love triangles.  Our leading man, George Bevan, is an American playwright currently in London for his hit musical.  He meets Maud when she jumps in his taxi and things go sideways from there.

A Damsel in Distress is also a little bit more serious than most of Wodehouse’s books with all three romances a bit out of the ordinary.  Wodehouse shows real feelings with these characters.  People don’t spend the entire novel ducking aunts or getting clever or hiding behind the sofa; instead we see self-sacrifice and men risking social opprobrium to marry the ladies they love.

The story is still Wodehouse funny, but a bit less fluffy than the Jeeves stories.

Amazon offers A Damsel in Distress; currently the Kindle version is free.

4 Stars

Dear County Agent Guy – Dairy Farmer Wisdom and Wit – Jerry Nelson

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Jerry Nelson says he got his start as a humor columnist when he sent a letter to the county agent asking for help removing cattails, ducks and tourists from his flooded field one wet North Dakota spring.  The agent suggested he try writing a column for farm magazines.  Jerry was successful and now with Dear County Agent Guy: Calf Pulling, Husband Training, and Other Curious Dispatches from a Midwestern Dairy Farmer we non farm magazine readers can enjoy the his work too.

Jerry Nelson writes simply and from himself and the result is a series of funny articles that read from the heart, not at all contrived.  His columns range from memories growing up, courting his wife, suggesting his wife’s obstetrician use a calf puller on the slow-to-arrive oldest child and thoughts about raising kids, thrift and farming.  I enjoyed them.

The columns are funny because Nelson finds humor in simple, every day things.  He is not mean nor contemptuous nor snide nor sarcastic.  There is a wide streak of potty humor with a couple stories about changing diapers, handling manure, not bathing and using the side of the barn as a convenient substitute for the indoor bathroom.  Even though I’m not crazy about potty humor the stories were in good fun and a couple of the jokes were pretty funny.

Nelson never preaches or comes across as advising people on how to run their lives, or to save money or to enjoy the outdoors and friends and family.  Nonetheless it’s obvious that these virtues are among the reasons he is happy and if anyone wants to emulate him, well, they got a few good suggestions.

Dear County Agent Guy will appeal to anyone who enjoys the outdoors, not just farmers.  Nelson explains the farming background with minimal detail, enough to clarify what he’s talking about but not so much that we readers feel we need to become dairy farmers to enjoy his work.

I received an advance copy through NetGalley in expectation of an honest review.  The E book could use some copy editing to clean up the format.  The overall writing needs little editing – for one thing these were taken from magazine columns and for another Nelson’s style is good and his sentences, spelling and such are already readable.

Overall I would give this 4 stars.

Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas – Is This Funny?

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Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas was on BookBub and sounded funny so I got it.  It’s one of those books that tries so hard to be funny you lose track of the story until you reach the end and think “Is that all there was?”   The plot is ridiculous.

Bubba Snoddy, grown son of the current Snoddy matriarch, lives at home with his mother in the decrepit Snoddy mansion near a small Texas town.  Bubba’s cousins from Louisiana are visiting with an eye to appropriating anything in the house that may have value.  Bubba wants to date gorgeous sheriff deputy Willodean but lacks courage to ask her out.  Oh, then he finds a corpse dressed in the Santa suit in the city’s Christmas display.

Of course the local police chief assumes Bubba is the murderer, arrests him with a concussion, then spends the rest of the novel chasing around for clues to prove Bubba killed the Santa, the older lady, assaulted the sheriff and is after Bubba’s mother.  Everything ends up tied neatly with a bow at the end except the chief still thinks that if Bubba didn’t commit this murder he’ll surely commit one next week.

The book could have been so much more.  The interplay with the covetous cousins and their 10 year old active, intelligent son Brownie was fun to read and could have been the focus of the story instead of a nonsensical murder rampage.  Bubba reveals a more complicated character during the book than the one-dimensional redneck he seems initially.  Had author C. L. Beville spent more time on the family and less on too-neat murders it could have been a good book.

I noticed the reviewers on Amazon mostly liked the novel with under 10% giving it low marks.  I would give it 2 or 3 stars; it wasn’t good enough that I want to read more Bubba books, but it wasn’t so bad that I stopped midway.  It’s a fast read with some funny scenes interspersed with bad word plays and incredibly stupid-acting police and villains.  I’m not a fan of making fun of people who talk funny or believe and act differently and didn’t enjoy the redneck cliches.

Renovating for Fun and Profit – Bricking It by Nick Spalding

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Have you ever built a house or done a major remodel?  Do you enjoy This Old House and similar house makeover shows?  Do you like a funny book?  Then get a copy of Bricking It by Nick Spalding and get ready to relive your shudders and that horrible feeling as the costs creep ever up.

Danny and Haley Daley inherited a derelict farmhouse deep in the Hampshire countryside from their grandmother.  (Their parents got cash.)  The house had woodworm, critters, critter droppings, mold, sagging walls and floors, an attic floor that’s so rotted Danny falls through, plus the to-be-expected damaged kitchen, bath, subsiding foundations, overgrown shrubbery, and so on.  Neither has any money or any home Do-It-Yourself skills.

But…  Haley found from the local realtor that the house would sell as-is for about 160,000 pounds or – get this – if renovated for about 600,000 pounds.  They could expect to pay about 160,000 pounds for the renovation work (and we who have been through this know that will inevitably increase), but they stand to make over 300,000 pounds when selling the house.  That’s a big amount, enough to make anyone reconsider.

They agree to proceed.  Bricking It is not This Old House or Rehab Addict in written form and it doesn’t cover all the work hammer nail by hammer nail.  Instead it touches on what Danny and Haley do and feel.  Some of the vignettes are pretty funny as when Danny burns a bunch of big green weeds in the back corner and gets high on the marijuana smoke; some are gross as when Danny has an internal emergency while up in the rafters; some are fun as when Haley realizes she is more concerned with her house than with the bomb disposal squad that’s removing the WW2 bomb in the yard.

Overall the book does a reasonable job on characterization, both Danny and Haley grow and manage to get out of nasty personal ruts.  Danny even discovers that a girl’s beautiful outside doesn’t make up for a boring inside!  Spalding does  good job on minor characters like Gerard who is filming this as part of a British home improvement show, Fred the contractor and of course Pat The Cow.

It does not capture the horrible feeling one gets when trapped in a sea of construction debris and debt; instead the characters and episodes are positive and the ending is a bit over the top.  I didn’t care for the coarse language and potty humor – there is plenty of ordinary humor in any building project that Spalding didn’t need a couple of the potty events – but discovering their grandmother had run a brothel for a few years was priceless.

Overall I’d give this 4 stars. Bricking It is easy to read and rather fun.  I didn’t enjoy it enough to look for more by Spalding but this was worth reading if you have a couple spare hours – and are considering whether to remodel or just tear it down and move.

I got a copy of Bricking It for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Something Missing, Contemporary Fun Fiction by Matthew Dicks

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Here’s a book I just loved, Something Missing: A Novel.  No, it’s not science fiction, nor fantasy.  It’s not really a mystery either.  And it’s definitely not one of those “oh I’m so miserable and want to make you miserable too” novels (thank heavens).  It’s fun with a great character, Martin.

An Unusual Occupation

Do you know how many rolls of toilet paper or sticks of butter you have?  How about those towels you got as a gift five years ago?  Still there?  Do you have stuff in the back of your closet you would never miss?  I know I do.

So do Martin’s clients.  You see, Martin makes his living by visiting his clients every week or two and taking just things that he knows no one will miss.  That can of soup, wedding gift china, diamond earrings.  Martin is a thief with a most unusual business model.  For one thing he knows what a business model is and has carefully planned his out.  He knows exactly how to enter a home undetected and how to leave.  He knows how determine which items are safe and plans carefully when to acquire them.  He reads clients’ mail and their diaries, knows their vacation plans and upcoming trips to the dentist.

Martin is OCD in spades.  He has a definite schedule and an acquisition plan for each client.  He takes meticulous care to leave no DNA evidence behind and comes and goes at different times and routes.  He also flosses five times a day and avoids doorknobs.

Besides being OCD and fanatical about hygiene, Martin has a wonderful imagination.  He built an entire persona to sell his acquisitions on eBay.  He dreams that the waitress at his favorite breakfast spot likes him and that her “see you tomorrow” is a date.  He uses this imagination to think through risks and plan his day, but his secret dream is to write.   Martin’s cover story for his friends is that he writes instruction manuals, but he really wants to write novels.

The Plot Thickens….

Martin could continue this way forever except he knocks his client’s electric toothbrush into the toilet.  Appalled at the idea of her using it with residual fecal material, Martin runs to the store, buys a replacement, and almost gets caught returning the replacement.

The plot thickens from here.  Martin took the first step to get involved with his clients and his next step takes him further into their lives.  He saves a surprise birthday party and finds a girl to love.  All well and good, and he can still tell himself that his clients are just that, clients, not people.

Then he discovers one client is being stalked by a rapist.  Now what?  Martin follows his heart and saves the day at considerable cost to him.

Wonderful Characters and Dialogue

Martin is priceless, one of the best characters I’ve come across lately.  The dialogue is outstanding – and realize that most dialogue occurs in Martin’s mind.   It is hard to believe that Something Missing is Matthew Dick’s first novel.  It reads like a polished, complete story, with well-done characters and fast pace.

My thanks to Amy Peveto of Bookzilla for recommending Somethihttp://amzn.to/2HnrtGJng Missing.  It was great, thanks Amy!

4 Stars

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