Note: We read this book awhile back. Recently re-discovered it. Thought it rates a revisit. So here ya go:
Sonia Rodriguez is the family work camel. The oldest daughter in a family of nine, the 15 year-old wants to keep her grades up and the first member of her family to graduate from high school.
But the demands of caring for her pregnant-with-twins mother (“Sonia….. Ayudame!”) who spends all day, every day watching Spanish soaps, plus cooking, cleaning and caring for her younger siblings as well as endless trips to the tienda for cervezas for her loutish “drunkle” are overwhelming. “In mi cultura,” Sonia explains – a culture she both loves and hates – “familia es todo.” (Family is everything.)
Riddles? Secret doors? Some faceless evil pulling the strings? A dead sister who may not be dead? Double-crosses? Betrayals? All kinds of techno gizmos and mechanical doodads with minds of their own? What could possibly go wrong?
Kimber: Wait! Wait! The first thing you need to know about this book is that it’s about me! Kimster the Amazing! Kimster the PAWsome! Kimster the marvelous wonder dog and stupendously splendiferous and seriously stunning super hero!
Mom: Dial it back a little, will ya Kimmi?
Kimber:What? Okay, okay. I s’pose we better go on with the book review?
Mom: Not much gets past you, does it?
Kimber: That’s what super heroes do. Nothing gets past us! Unlike that Jim Riven “worst” guy in this new fantasy book. So just remember. I’m the Real Deal, okay?
Since you asked Real Nice, here’s the 4-1-1 on the book:
By George Alexander (Old Monk Publishing. January 2025)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages (print): 284
Via: Author Request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Fegelein pressed the top corner of the panel. It clicked and opened inward, revealing a narrow, dark passage. Hitler took Eva’s hand. “We depart.”
Move over John le Carre, Ken Follett, and Hilary Mantel. There’s a new kid in town. Name’s Alexander. George Alexander. And he’s penned one doozy of an historical fiction tome in Twilight of Evil. Like this:
A faked suicide? Body doubles? Look-alikes and stand-ins? A hidden passage and a staged suicide shrouded in uncertainty? Did Hitler, aka: Evil Mustache Due (EMD), really die at the end of World War II? Or did he escape, leaving a trail of lies and deception in his wake with visions of rebuilding the unthinkable from the ashes of defeat: A Fourth Reich?
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Setting & Stats
Thiscoming–of–agetale is told from the point of view of Sally Osterhoff. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, it opens in summer 1955 and spans 25 years of Sally’s life. The final chapter rings down the curtain on summer 1980. In between we learn that Sally is a math whiz. She plans to be a mathematician, a teacher, and a carpenter. Swim in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. And find a place to call “home.”
Thatbeingsaid, Toots, the first thing ya oughtta know about Downeyoshun is what Downeyoshun (“down-ee-oh-shun”) means. It’s a Maryland thing. A contraction of “down to the ocean” or “down to Ocean City.” Like, “We’re going downeyoshun this summer.” (The other thing ya oughttta know is that we’re writing reviews on a borrowed computer for the time being. Which we like, can’t stand. But Mom’s is in the shop. So deal with it, okay?)
Key
That’skey. (The word meaning. Not the AWOL computer. Well. Maybe the computer, too. But anyway…) Because Sally lives for summers with her aunt and uncle in Ocean City. Or going “Downeyoshun.”
Kimber: I can’t come to the blog right now. I’m off to play with my new best bud, Little Joe.
Mom: The guy from Bonanza?
Kimber: Bo-whatza? Naw.
ThisLittle Joe is a sweet and adventurous little pup. He lives with his hooman Anne and her fam in a farmhouse at the end of a long country road in this delightful new children’s book by Mike Darcy. I’ll let Mom fill ya in:
The 4-1-1
Little Joe is friends with a big green bullfrog named Hopper. The puppy accepts Hopper’s invite to the frog’s home for some “lovely fly soup.” Little Joe’s not too sure about the menu. But he likes to explore. Like another sweet furry face we all know and love. Anyway, the puppy takes Hopper up on his offer.
En route to Hopper’s pad, it starts raining. Hard. Think Noah. The friends decide to shelter in the forest. New places! New smells! New… danger?
Uh-Oh
Well. When Little Joe the not-Bonanza-guy takes off after a deer, the duo winds up lost. And face to fur with a hungry bear.
Kimber: I see those looks. Like when your faces gets all scrunched up and worrified. Not to Fret, Cookie. Our intrepid hero pup also winds up finding friends in unexpected places.
Lithe and lively, Little Joe and the Big Rain is a little Androcles and the Lion. A little Goldilocks. And maybe a bit Narnia. It’s well-written, structurally sound, and ripe for a sequel. The illustrations are adorable. (Kimber: Not as adorable as me, of course. But that’s a mighty high bar.)
Beautifully written with vibrant descriptions and vivacious storytelling, this book grabbed us on page one. It kept us following Little Joe and his adventures until the very end.
So if you or someone you know is looking for an engaging and entertaining read for the little’uns,Little Joe and the Big Rain fills the bill. If you’re looking for a new best bud, kindly get in line. Behind Kimber.
Kimber:Yo, Mom! What’s this ‘week’ stuff? Is that like wanBeef Bourguignon? Limp leg of lamb? Flimsy filet mignon?
Mom: No, Kimster. It’s w-e-e-k. As in, seven days.
Kimber: Great. Got it. What’s ‘seven days’?
Insert Mom eye roll here.
Kimber:Silly Mom. She’s probably ruminating on my beautimous brilliance and munificent magnificence. Or she wants to tell you about a brand new historical fiction thingy we just read. It’s like, Totally Pawsome! You know this is true because I say so. Got that, Cupcake?
Well. The book is Two Weeks Till Sunday. By indie author Caleb Backholm. Take it away, Momster! (That’s not a typo. In case you’re wonderin’, Cookie.)
By Robert James Waller (John M. Hardy Publishing, 2002)
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 181
Via: Library Book Sale
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner…
A professional photographer who’s spent his entire life on the road “chasing good light” all over the world, Robert Kincaid* is reclusive and reserved. But he has his memories. Especially memories of a lonely farm wife he met sixteen years ago at a bridge in Madison County, Iowa.
Fast forward to 1981. Robert Kincaid of Bellingham, Washington is now sixty-eight years old. His best friends are a ’54 Chevy pickup truck named “Harry” and a golden retriever named “Highway.” As the years pile up, memories of four summer days in Iowa that had to last a lifetime begin to swirl. Robert decides to find them.
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Saddle up and get ready to ride into action and adventure in this delightful new fiction tome by Michael Wegner.
The 4-1-1
Dateline: Arkansas 1868.
Dewey Slocum is a young man who just wants to work the fam farm and some day marry the Jager girl who lives nearby. But when his father is beaten and robbed, Dewey’s hot-headed bro Darryl takes out after the gang of gun-slinging desperadoes who done the deed.
Dewey’s Ma wants both boys home. So she sends Dewey to bring Darryl home. While Dewey is searching for Darryl, he meets up with Phyllis Stillwater. She’s part African, part Cherokee former slave. Phyllis is trying to find her Ma Ayita, who was sold to another slave owner before the end of the war.
By Oliver Clements (Leopoldo & Co., an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. , 2012)
Genre: historical fiction
Pages: 399
Via: Library
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
There’s plenty of both in this Double-Oh-Seven type drama set in 16th century England and the court of Queen Elizabeth.
Dr. Dee, an alchemist who doubles as “the original MI6 agent” is assigned a dangerous mission to re-create a weapon from antiquity. But if it falls into the wrong hands, it could threaten the crown and bring down the Empire.
Is this historical fiction thingy all it’s cracked up to be?
‘Hark! Methinks I heareth yon dragon in thy far-off forest.’ (You’ll get that if you read the book.)
Kimber Klue: If She Who Must Be Obeyed (sort of) has to invent ways to avoid finishing or resuming a book, that’s a sign. As in, nothing good. So it was with The Queen’s Men. Here’s the 4-1-1:
By Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason (Forge/Macmillan Publishing, 2019
Genre: Fiction/thriller
Pages: 318
Via: Library
Following a suicide plane crash by an anti-nuke activist into a supposedly hardened nuclear waste site that’s running at way over-capacity, a scheming and conniving Department of Energy Assistant Secretary puts his career aspirations above public safety and common sense in this “high-tech thriller.”
Main Characters:
Adonia Rojas, site manager for Granite Bay nuclear waste storage facility. (Mom: I’m seeing’ Zoe Saldana.)
Senator Pulaski, a pompous, egotistical dimwit who controls the purse strings for just about every DOE and/or nuclear waste facility. (Mom: I’m seeing’ Charles Durning here.)
Dr. Simon Garibaldi, Ex-DOE employee turned-whistleblower. He’s now an environmental activist and head honcho at Sanenergy. (Is George Clooney busy?)
Dr. Stanley Van Dyckman, DOE Assistant Secretary who has a habit of stealing credit from others’ successes and making himself scarce when something goes sideways on his watch. This guy gives pond scum a bad name. (Mom’s seein’ Peewee Hermon. And that ain’t good.)
“Regulation Rob” Harris, a by-the-book military officer and security officer. He’s the Hydra Mountain site manager and Special Access Program supervisor. (Wait. Is that Denzel Washington?)
Air Force Col. Shawn Whalen, military aide to the president and expert on all things nuclear. Also Adonia’s main squeeze. (Paging Chris Hemsworth…)
Victoria Doyle, DOE undersecretary and former Van Dyckman paramour.(No idea.)
The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez
Pages & Paws 