The Rabbit's Paw Book Reviews

  The Supper Club Murders, by Victoria Dowd, is a zany, tongue-in-cheek murder mystery.  Writing comedy is a difficult thing to do, and since this novel is set in England, it is possible that some of the humor washed over my American head. There were some funny moments, though, and a few times I thought that the dialogue might be funnier if it were acted out.  Since I hadn't read the first books, and did not know the Smart women, I had to learn certain things about their characters along the way. Pandora and her daughter Ursula Smart are a couple of women who are so strange, I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to invite them anywhere. However, the rest of the characters at this dinner party were even stranger, some of them downright mean, creepy, insane, or all three. In short, I did not care what happened to any of them. These people don't even enjoy each other. As this dinner party progresses, we meet the joyless villagers, and hear their resentments and bickering. Some o...

  The Book of Magic , Alice Hoffman's conclusion to the Owens family saga, is populated with the family members we know and look forward to meeting again, in another fascinating adventure. We witness Franny and Jet's last day together, which reads like an emotional tribute to their past lives, and all that they've shared. Meanwhile, the lives of Sally and Gillian, the nieces they've raised, are examined and contrasted. Finally, we get a look into the lives of Franny and Jet's granddaughters, Antonia and Kylie. And yes, Vincent makes another appearance. In the early part of this book, Kylie's story is the most prominent, because she is in love--and afraid of the family curse, which her mother Sally will not talk to her about. Actually, Sally has hidden everything to do with magic from her daughter.  It is Kylie's actions that set the main plot moving, and I thought this took a bit too long. When she starts to explore the origins of the curse in England, the a...

  Note: This book has been left out! I read this novel back in February, and forgot to include it in my Netgalley  reviews. So, here it is. This story is set in the late 1970's and is the story of how Cassie Lyman, a graduate student, navigates a critical time in her life. She is developing a research subject for her doctoral thesis in women's history, when she comes across a fascinating amount of information at Smith College about Kate Easton, a woman who founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916. Cassie also discovers that she is actually related to Kate Easton. At this point, Cassie has been living in Minnesota, but she has returned to her childhood stomping grounds for the wedding of her sister. So, in the foreground of this story is Cassie's current family drama surrounding the wedding and-- other later developments. Meanwhile, Cassie is obsessed with reading Kate Easton's journal entries and letters. As time goes on, Cassie finds parallels between ...

  This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to and it was a wonderful discovery. We meet Nives, a Tuscan woman who has just been widowed, but feels an absence of emotion. After the funeral, after her daughter and grandchildren have left, though, she realizes that she is lonely. During her soliloquies, we learn that Nives has a tough exterior, a woman strong in both spirit and limb, one who has helped run a farm, raise a daughter, and run a household. In her loneliness, she becomes attached to one of her hens, the one she has named Giacomina. This hen has a complacent manner, despite struggling with a bad foot, and Nives finds her endearing. Her sudden loneliness has caused Nives to examine her life, and this new habit of spending time in a company of a hen has Nives worried about herself, wondering why this hen is enough company to replace her husband. One evening, when Nives is watching TV with her avian pet beside her, she notices that Giacomina has been put in a tran...

T here is an ancient, mysterious Greek tale, written by Antonius Diogenes. Mysterious, because it was lost, and then some of it has been obliterated with damage and time. Five people, in three different time periods separated by centuries, read and bring their own meanings to this tale. This novel leads us into the lives of Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance, who each have compelling stories of their own. The way the narrative switches back and forth between stories, letting the reader notice the connections, is brilliant and compelling. This ancient tale captures attention and imagination, allowing people to just enjoy it, to live in the moment. The themes that run through these stories are beautiful, too. To need hope, to need other people, is to be human. And we are all in this together, and can't give up. There are so many wonderful details in these stories! Jonathan Doerr writes magically, so that time disappeared while I was reading this. For a time, it was all I ...

  I confess that this is merely my third Elizabeth Strout book, but I will certainly go back and read the rest of them. The lack of knowledge about Lucy Barton did not hamper me, though, since the author included all the information I needed to thoroughly enjoy this story. Stories, really. Elizabeth Strout has a splendidly strong voice. In 𝐎𝐡, 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦!, the narrator is Lucy Barton, a writer who is telling us about her ex-husband, William Gerhardt. Of course, to tell us about William is to tell us about the people in William's life, including herself and especially his mother, Catherine Cole. In the beginning, I did not like William at all. He seemed cold, distant, and self-absorbed. It did make me wonder, at first, why Lucy was still so friendly with him, but then, I thought, they did have two daughters together. However, it's more than that. When a couple of startling things happen to William, and Lucy heeds his call for help, she begins to deeply ponder what it ...

  This is a historical fiction novel which is part family saga, part gangster story, taking place in the early 1960's. The protagonist is Ray Carney, a man who is smart in every sense of the word. He's got common sense, street smarts, and a business degree. He's a man who is struggling to make a life for himself and for his family, and does not want to follow in his father's footsteps. Big Mike, as they called him, was part of Harlem's criminal underworld. And yet, this world has its hooks in Ray. He pays both a cop and a gangster protection money, and this is a dance that many step to, and keeps a part of the city's hierarchy intact. Sure, Ray Carney is a bit crooked. He was raised on ill-gotten money and goods, and the seed money for his furniture business came from his father. And he does some fencing, as in not checking the provenance of certain items that he sells. But, he's keeping a low profile, just staying on the outskirts of all the craziness. Un...