Tsundoku Book Reviews

Bibliographic Information: First book in the Theodora Series.  ISBN: 978-0786294947.  Originally published in 2001, re-published by Thorndike Press in 2007. Large-print Hardcover: 369 pages. Current price: $5.00 at Amazon. Also available in paperback ($12.13 at Amazon, $9.89 at Barnes and Noble) and e-book ($2.49 on NOOK and Kindle).

Reader’s Annotation: Theodora connects with her Christian faith to face adversities large and small.

Summary: Theodora Llewellyn is approaching thirty years old when she catches the chicken pox; quarantined at home alone for two weeks, she decides to use the opportunity to start a journaling project to track her spiritual growth.  What follows is a fourteen month account in the life of the evangelical office worker through the struggles of life.  Theo throws herself into projects like this, hoping to watch herself change into a better person.  As her friends and family remind her, change doesn't come so quickly.

Events in Theo's life keep piling up, raising her self-doubt.  Her church's inaugural Prayer Partner Program matches her with Charity, a generally content mother of eight that Theo knew in school and could not stand, even then.  She sets increasingly high expectations on her "spiritually degenerate" boyfriend of ten years, Kevin. One of her siblings is getting married, while the other is having her first child.  When the community of Sidcup loses an elderly member of the community and exemplar of the faith, Theo steps up to commemorate her life and extol the congregation to follow that excellent example.   

Strange Practice

Bibliographic Information: First book of the Dr. Greta Helsing Series.  ISBN 9780316434607.  Originally published by Orbit in 2017; audiobook edition recorded by Hachette Audio in 2017.  Audible Audiobook: 9 hours and 23 minutes.  Narration by Susanna Hampton. Current price: $19.95. Also available from Amazon in paperback ($12.50) and e-book ($4.99 on Kindle).

Reader’s Annotation: Doctor goes up against mysterious religious cult attacking both normal and paranormal residents of London.

Summary: Dr. Greta Helsing is a physician in London, and her clientele is very special.  She treats the "differently alive": vampires, mummies, ghouls and other supernatural creatures. Even the undead need health care, and the Helsing family switched professions from monster hunters to monster healers after moving from the continent to England.  With her fellow practitioners Nedesda the witch and Ana the half-river spirit, Greta makes sure that her father's clinic maintains its reputation as a safe and discreet service provider.

However, a murder spree has arisen in London, with monastic individuals allied with the Order of the Holy Sword attacking both the paranormal residents and those who associated with them.  After Greta nearly becomes a victim, she is determined to put a stop to their rampage.  Assisted by a pair of vampires, a former demon, and a curator from the British Museum, Greta descends into the underground to confront the otherworldly power behind the Order, before the desire to purge the "demonic forces" spreads further.      

 Don't Let Go: A Novel, by Harlan Coben

Bibliographic Information: ISBN 978-0525955115. Originally published by Dutton in 2017, audiobook edition recorded by Brilliance Audio in 2017. Audible audiobook: 8 hours and 42 minutes. Narration by Steven Weber. Current price: $17.49. Also available from Amazon in hardcover ($14.50), paperback ($8.74), and e-book ($8.99). 

Reader’s Annotation: New Jersey detective uncovers conspiracy involving his twin's death and girlfriend's disappearance fifteen years earlier.

Summary: Napoleon "Nap" Dumas's life changed forever in senior year.  His twin brother Leo and Diana Styles (the sheriff's daughter) died after being hit by a train.  On the same night, his girlfriend Maura Wells disappeared without a trace.  Now an investigator in Westbridge, New Jersey, Nap is haunted by the 15-year mystery surrounding those events.  With the death of Pennsylvania State Trooper and former classmate Rex Canton, Nap is drawn into a series of events that bring him hope that Maura is alive out there, somewhere.

Nap's investigation leads him to an abandoned military base in the woods by the school-- Leo, Rex and their friends were interested in the reasons why one would stationed in a small town.  But as he discovers, the base personnel were just as interested in the kids, and very intent on keeping their secrets.  Working with his mentor Augie Styles, Nap pursues the murderer in an effort to bring closure to his brother's death.     

 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Bibliographic Information: First book in the Don Tillman series. ISBN 978-1476729084. Originally published by Simon & Schuster in 2013; audiobook edition recorded by Simon & Schuster Audio in 2013.  Audible Audiobook, 7 hours and 32 minutes.  Narration by Dan O'Grady. Current price: $14.69. Also available from Amazon as a hardcover ($21.19), paperback ($10.38), and e-book ($12.99 on Kindle). 

Reader’s Annotation: Socially-challenged geneticist searching for the perfect partner falls for incompatible bartender looking for father. 

Summary: Don Tillman wants to find the most perfectly compatible woman in the world to settle down with.  Being a geneticist with unsatisfying experiences in the dating sphere, he determines the best course of action is to construct and send out a sixteen-page questionnaire to weed out unsuitable candidates, in the name of efficiency.  The Goal of "The Wife Project" is to find and connect with a woman who will not disrupt his strictly organized schedule and routines.

Enter Rosie Jarmon.  Grad student by day, bartender in a gay bar by night, she curses, smokes and enjoys her alcohol. She is even (gasp!) a vegetarian (with the exception of sustainably caught seafood).  However, she is also supportive of Don and wants to introduce spontaneity into his life.  Rosie meets Don in an attempt to use his knowledge of genetics to help her find her birth father.  Don takes on "The Father Project", but over the course of an investigation that includes an all-night bar-tending gig at an alumni party and a trip to New York City, Don comes to realize that he needs to engage in a even more fulfilling venture: "The Rosie Project".       

 The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal

Bibliographic Information: Book 1 of the Lady Astronaut series.  ISBN 978-0765378385. Published by Tor in 2018.  Paperback: 431 pages.  Current price: $14.31 at Amazon and $17.09 at Barnes and Noble.  Also available in Audible audiobook ($17.47), e-book ($9.99 for NOOK and Kindle), and audio CD ($16.68).  

Reader’s Annotation: After meteor strike, female mathematician struggles to enter space exploration program in the 1950's.  

Summary: On March 3, 1952, a meteorite lands off of the coast of Maryland, wiping out Washington D.C. instantly. The East Coast of the United States and other coastal areas around the world flood, causing massive loss of life and rendering the survivors homeless.  Mathematician and pilot Elma York and her husband, rocket scientist Nathaniel, were among those who witnessed the strike, five hundred miles away in Pennsylvania.  As the country struggles to support the refugees from the East Coast, the Yorks come to understand a terrible truth--the Meteor's perils were not just from the immediate Impact.  Because the Meteor landed in and superheated Chesapeake Bay, water vapor in the atmosphere would continue to collect, bringing an age of global warming that would eventually boil the oceans. 

There is only one solution, as the Yorks see it-- accelerate the space program and leave the Earth for colonies elsewhere.  With the government's backing and worldwide co-operation, the International Aerospace Coalition is created. Elma works as a computer, but dreams of going into space as an astronaut.  She faces fierce objection from people such as Stetson Parker, a fellow pilot from World War II with a grudge against her, as well as those unconvinced about a woman's fitness to join the space corps.  But with her loving husband's support, and the encouragement of her friends, Elma sets out to become a Lady Astronaut.              

Bibliographic Information: ISBN 978-1501188770. Published by Gallery/Scout Press in 2019. Hardcover: 339 pages.  Current price: $18.29 at Amazon, 25.19 at Barnes and Noble. Also available as paperback ($15.29 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble), Audible audiobook ($19.59), e-book ($12.99 for NOOK and Kindle), large-print ($38.99) and audio CD ($31.48).

Reader’s Annotation: Nanny haunted by smart house in the Scottish Highlands.

Summary: Rowan Caine was not in the best headspace when she first sees the Heatherbrae ad.  As she relates to the reader, she'd been passed over for promotion at the nursery where she works, and she'd been sad and alone in her apartment since her roommate left the country.  So when a live-in job as a nanny for four children between two and fourteen years old with a cushy salary appeared online, it didn't take much for her to apply. But when she passed the interview and got the position, the trouble began.

Designed as a "smart" house, Heatherbrae is controlled by digital application.  Rowan finds herself struggling with the arcane control schemes and the threat of constant surveillance.  The children are more used to the technology, but after cycling through four nannies in two years, they bear little goodwill towards Rowan's efforts to integrate into their lives. The isolation of the remote estate, paired with the malfunctioning and vaguely threatening technology, wears on Rowan mentally.  Now accused of the murder of one of the children, Rowan struggles to make sense of the circumstances before her time runs out.