Dreams From The Monster Factory

Dreams From The Monster Factory

Sunny Schwartz

5 out of 5

Sunny Schwartz spent 27 years in the California Criminal Justice System. Starting as a lowly law advocate and ending up heading a revolutionary program called RSVP (Resolve to Stop the Violence Project), Sunny takes you though her passion for reform in the jail system.

Sunny is not the typical person that would come to mind when groundbreaking programs are announced. Sunny was always in the remedial programs at school, didn’t go to college, but somehow was accepted into law school.

Through Sunny you see the San Francisco Jails, the monster factories - a place where you learn how to be a better criminal, and the incarcerated that call it home. She has decided that the circle of violence needs to be addressed and that is what she does.
Though most of the book focuses on the rosy picture of cutting the recidivism for violent re-arrests by up to 80 percent the reader begins to doubt the accuracy in those numbers, it isn’t until the end where you see that those that are returned to their environs that they return to their old ways. They may not be rearrested for violent crimes, but they are rearrested for drugs, robbery, etc.

What makes this book so fascinating is Sunny’s passion, her drive to make just one persons life better, it might be her own, or her coworkers, or even a convicted felon, but if you can just make a little bit of difference you can change the life of a person.

Starvation Lake

Starvation Lake

Bryan Gruley

4 out of 5

First of all, anything that involves Hockey and a murder mystery, well, that's my kind of book. The small resort town of Starvation Lake, Michigan has very little going for it, they have hockey and they have.... I'm not sure what else they technically have, but hockey is what brings this town together.

When the beloved hockey coach Jack Blackburn dies in a tragic snowmobile accident the town mourns, but years later when the snowmobile washes up on the wrong shore of the wrong lake local newspaperman Gus Carpenter sets out to investigate. No body really wants to know the truth, not the ex-players, who all seem to have secrets of their own and especially not the corporate owners of the small town newspaper.

Multiple story lines keeps this book flowing – murder mystery, underground tunnels, Blackburn's missing year in Canada, why Gus came back to Starvation Lake in the first place, Gus's near greatness as Starvation's goalie, how little boy's grow up and how some are still stuck in the past.

While the beginning of this books grabs you and the end won't let you go, the middle does drag for a bit. You can see the freight train of an ending coming at you, but you can't put this book down. Starvation Lake is purported to be the beginning of a new series, Gruley does set up fascination in regards to many characters, I just hope he can keep a steady forward flow and not get bogged down in rehashing what has already been said.

Edge of Evil

Edge of Evil

J. A. Jance

4 out of 5

Suddenly finding herself out of a job, 45 year old Allison Reynolds broadcasting days are over. Informed that the station was looking for new a direction, Ali soon realizes that new meant younger so what was she to do. Her husband, a broadcasting executives neglected to tell her tell her of this new agenda in addition to his other extra curricular activities. So with no job and a divorce in the air, Ali is at loose ends. When a call comes in from her parents in Sedona, AZ that a childhood friend is missing, Ali heads home.

Ali knows that Reenie wouldn't have killed herself. She had too much to live for even with a diagnosis that is devastating, Reenie wouldn't leave her young children, not without at least leaving a card for them.

With Ali's investigative broadcasting background she delves in to seek the truth behind Reenie's death. Seeking comfort in her parents Sugarloaf Cafe and a new blog that her son has set up for her; Ali's back in the real world again. Unfortunately, the real world has quite a few wackos and between Rennie's killer and the people that she has attracted with her blog, Ali is in for quite a ride.

I had started this series a little backwards, with book 4, and needed to start over to understand the back story on Ali. I am so glad that I did. This is quite an interesting story and quite an interesting lead character.

Bleeding Heart Square

Bleeding Heart Square

Andrew Taylor

3 out of 5

Lydia Langstone has no other choice, her brute of a husband and just slapped her across the face and this is the last straw. She may have very little money of her own, thanks to this husband, but she does have her self respect. Lydia strikes out on her own with the only place to go being her estranged father, Captain Ingleby Lewis, whom she has not seen since she was a child and now unfortunately he lives in a run down boarding house in Bleeding Heart Square. Since is is the 1930's in London, there are any other choices, so onward she must go.

Thus the story begins and takes on a life of its own. 7 Bleeding Heart Square was previously owned by a spinster names Miss Phillipa Penhow, who no one quite knows what really happed to her. There are rumors that she has moved to the states, but with only one letter in four years, even that is questioned. Once Lydia arrives she become aware of mysterious packages containing animal hearts addressed to the current home owner, a very unscrupulous Mr. Joseph Serridge.

From the beginning of this book I felt that I was constantly playing catch-up. Small parts were periodically revealed and I found myself saying, "oh, now that first part makes sense". There are may characters who I kept needing to remind myself who they were exactly and who they were related to and how they fit into this particular part of the story.


Complex in parts and drab in others, this is definitely a book that you have to pay close attention to. The ending is very good, you just have to be patient to get there.

Susannah's Garden

Susannah's Garden

Debbie Macomber

4 out of 5

Though this is book number three in the knitting book series, you don't really know that it is part of this series until the very end. No repeat characters, not the same location, just a quick mention in the very last chapter of buying a flower shop Blossom Street. This book can be read as a stand alone and you wouldn't miss a thing in the series.

Susannah Nelson has a solid life, but something seems missing. There is no real spark or drive. She is a fifth grade teacher, she has a husband and two teenage children, but something is gone.

When she gets a call and realizes that her mother is no longer able to live on her own since her husbands passing, Susannah decides to go home, to Colville, Washington to try and convince her mother that it’s time to move into an assistant living facility.

Going home brings about it’s own trauma for Susannah, reoccurring dreams of a high school sweetheart, the death of her brother thirty years before and unresolved problems with her deceased father.

Since she is now home, she decides to find Jake, the high school sweetheart, and find out why he suddenly disappeared from her life. Susannah finds so much more then she ever bargained for. A love is lost, but a greater love, the love of family, is found.

Homicide in Hardcover

Homicide in Hardcover

Kate Carlisle

3 out of 5

Brooklyn Wainwright is a restorer of antique books. Taught by Abraham Karastosky on a commune in the Napa region that her parents brought her and her siblings to when she was a young child.

Brooklyn and Abraham had always been close, that was until about six months previous when she had decided to start her own business and Abraham was not too fond of that idea. Brooklyn had hopes of being back on better footing with Abraham so on the night of the Covington Libraries Rare Books Gala she went to seek him out only to find him dying on the floor of his workroom. With a rare Faust book pressed into her hands and Abrahams dying words, Brooklyn is left to finish his last restoration and to find his killer.

Of course Brooklyn and a whole slew of quirky characters are first pinpointed and then released as suspects making this book rather predictable in its search for the murder. I had actually picked the wrong who-done-it person, but then again, there were so many different people thrown at you with their own reasons for wanting him dead that when the end came you could only say “oh, ok”.

I’m sure that this is the first of many more in this series, just can’t picture myself rushing out to buy the next.

Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley

Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley

MC Beaton

4 out of 5

The further this series goes, the more I am enjoying it.

Agatha Raisin has spent the last six months back in London and away from her beloved Cotswold village. No sooner is she home but there is a murder for her to solve. Ever eager to be of any help when there is a mysterious death involved, Agatha and her nosey pushy ways jump right on in.

Posing as husband and wife with her hottie neighbor James Lacey, Agatha sets out to find the murderer of Jessica Tartinck, a local hiker who has angered local landowners by insisting that her walking club has the right to cross through their fields.

Agatha gets to live out a secret wish that might not just be wishful thinking after all. These are quite endearing little books that keep the cozy genre quite cozy. Bundle up and enjoy.