By Golly, Ollie!

  • This is a Five Star Review: The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

    This is a Five Star Review: The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

    5 comments on This is a Five Star Review: The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

    The Carnival At Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

    Released: January 2014
    Publisher: Elephant Rock Productions, Inc.
    Age Group: Young Adult
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    ★★★★★

    Synopsis: It’s 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she’ll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live.

    My Thoughts

    I finished reading the Carnival at Bray by Jessie Anne Foley last week, and I forced myself to not write a review immediately or even think too hard about star ratings because this book, my friends, was teetering on the fence between four stars and five stars. Let me be clear, this almost NEVER happens, so I needed the decision to be organic instead of one fueled by a book high. A week later, I find myself thinking that this book, without a doubt, is a five-star book. However, when I sat down to write the review, I was at a loss for words.

    I can tell you that you should read this book because it takes place in Ireland, and all books that take place in Ireland are instantly on my wish list. I can tell you that this book rocks a pretty great playlist because 90’s alternative music was boss. I can tell you this book tackles some pretty heavy issues like mental illness and divorce and sex and totally uprooting a family and flying it clear across an ocean for a fleeting moment of love. I can tell you that the prose is poetic without slipping into the realm of “purple prose”, that the author made a good choice by writing it in third person because it would probably become too melodramatic otherwise, that the narration seems stoic sometimes understated, which somehow only plays up the gravity of the conflicts Maggie, our main character, faces. I can tell you that every character is wonderfully developed and charming and utterly flawed. And…did I mention it takes place in Ireland?

    But, what I’m truly struggling with is verbalizing all of the abstract feelings I have about this book. I can’t adequately explain the light I felt emanating from me every night Maggie visited Dan Sean, an elderly Irishman, who somehow understood Maggie better than anyone else. Or when Maggie tasted freedom when chasing after Italy or Nirvana tickets or a boy she loved. Nor can I adequately explain how heavy my heart-felt when she was uprooted and transplanted in this foreign country where she was always the outsider. Or every time she was with that skeevy fellow, Paul. Or as she watched her uncle disintegrate. The Carnival at Bray is a fairly short novel at only 230 pages, yet it took me nearly two weeks to read because it was such an emotional novel; it’s like it knocked the wind right out of me every day I read the book.

    I only wish this book was around when I was 17 and not 27. It’s a coming of age novel I would have carried with me always like Stephan Chbosky’s the Perks of Being a Wallflower or Joe Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned or Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love.

    Read this book. Read the Carnival at Bray because it’s real and it’s raw and Maggie’s story matters.

    [On an unrelated matter, I wasn’t really sure how to categorize this book. Is it contemporary fiction? Is it historical fiction? It’s pretty strange to think my childhood happened long enough ago that it could now be considered “historical”.]

  • A Saturday Morning Particular

    A Saturday Morning Particular

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    My library days are turning in to quite a delightful routine. I wake up on Saturdays, shortly before my alarm goes off and usually to the sound of Jon getting ready for work. I always contemplate rolling back over and going to bed, but I manage to talk myself out of it, peel myself from the bed, and brew myself a cup of coffee. On this particular morning, I stood out on the balcony and enjoyed unseasonably crisp, morning air with my Maple-Walnut blend coffee, planning out the chores I needed to do for the day and then promptly tossing the idea away favoring a few hours with the blogosphere and a good book before the library opened instead.

    I usually get to the library shortly after it opens, but the parking lot is already getting full by then. This surprises me for some reason, but it also makes me happy. Today’s patrons were the usual library gamers who gab at each other while mowing down enemies and taking advantage of the library’s wi-fi and mothers with fussy children (who I discover do not annoy me in libraries like they do in restaurants– the children, not their mothers).

    This week, I chose 4 books with nothing in common:

    • Gotham Academy #1: Welcome to Gotham Academy, a graphic novel, by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl
    • New York: the Novel, a historical fiction…tome by Edward Rutherfurd. Seriously, I don’t know what I was thinking when I pulled this one from the stacks.
    • What We Talk About When We Talk About God, a non-fiction book about…you guessed it– God– by Rob Bell.
    • Kissing in America, a contemporary YA novel complete with a road trip (or so says the book cover) by Margo Rabb

    My next stop is the grocery store where I pick up soup, a pre-made chicken salad sandwich (because I think I’ve bought a loaf of bread once while at my new apartment, and all but six slices went to waste), and a bag of bon-bons. Then I return home and relish in good books and good soup.

    I intended to finish Bran New Death, a cozy mystery novel about murder and baked goods, which I picked up during my last library visit, but I was distracted by the new and shiny. Instead, I read Gotham Academy, which was fun in a novelty sort of way, and What We Talk about When We Talk About God, which I devoured in one sitting. How much I appreciated that book caught me by surprise.

    For not accomplishing much, this day was well-spent. I just wish I could stretch the afternoon out for 3 or 4 more hours more. On my library days I just feel so…at peace.

  • Five Reasons Why Magical Cats are Awesome (and Five Reasons Why My Non-Magical Cat is Awesome)

    Five Reasons Why Magical Cats are Awesome (and Five Reasons Why My Non-Magical Cat is Awesome)

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    In Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly, amateur sleuth, Kathleen Paulson, has two magical cats, Hercules and Owen; one can turn himself invisible, one can walk through walls and closed doors, and as you can imagine, this makes searching for clues easier. Not to mention, Hercules and Owen are such charismatic kitties, that I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have magical kitties myself

    Five Reasons Why Magical Cats are Awesome

    1. Magical cats can walk through doors and walls (kind of like a ghost), so they could get themselves out of locked up walk-in closets if they sneaked in there while I was getting ready for work. I lost count of how many times Fargo got himself locked up in my closet only to be let out after I got home from work.
    2. Magical cats could help me find important things that I’ve lost like my laundry card, my keys, or my chapstick.
    2. We could solve mysteries together…if I ever picked up sleuthing as a hobby.
    4. They could turn themselves invisible, so I wouldn’t have to pay pet fees at my apartment. Not sure how I would explain the litter box though…
    5. I could communicate with my magical cats. Kathleen swears her cats understand her; then again, she could just be a crazy cat lady.

    Five Reasons Why My Non-Magical Cat is Awesome

    1. He doesn’t have expensive taste. He prefers not to eat the expensive brand of cat food, and he is capable of entertaining himself with an ocassional stray gum wrapper.
    2. He is like a security system because he hates everyone but Jon and I, and he immediately starts growling and hissing when a stranger walks through the door.
    3. He makes me feel good about my cooking because he wants to eat everything I make I’m eating.
    4. He is the antithesis to a lap cat (and he doesn’t like to be pet), which makes the moments he curls up on my knees extra special. Granted, it’s usually in the wintertime, and he’s probably just a little chilled…
    5. He sits like this in the armchair, and I find that extremely amusing:

    Fargo Sitting

  • Getting Cozy with Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly

    Getting Cozy with Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly

    1 comment on Getting Cozy with Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly

    Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly

    Released: September 2011
    Publisher: Penguin Books
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    ★★★☆☆

    Synopsis: Small-town librarian Kathleen Paulson never wanted to be the crazy cat lady. But after Owen and Hercules followed her home, she realized her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her-her cats have magical abilities.When the body of elderly do-gooder Agatha Shepherd is found near Kath’s favorite local café, she knows Owen’s talent for turning invisible and Hercules’s ability to walk through walls will give the felines access to clues Kath couldn’t get without arousing suspicion. Someone is hiding some dark secrets-and it will take a bit of furtive investigating to catch the cold-hearted killer.

    My Thoughts

    I don’t remember who put cozy mystery novels on my radar, but as far as I could tell, they revolved around cats and baked goods and dead people, and since those are a few of my favorite things (with the exception of dead people, of course), I knew I had to read at least one cozy mystery novel. So, when I went to the library two weekends ago, my goal was to check out one cozy mystery novel. Enter Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly. I devoured this book in two sittings, and by the end I was positively charmed and certain I had just discovered a new, favorite genre.

    This is what I loved:

    1. The setting: Mayville Heights. This small town in Minnesota is practically the Stars Hallow of the Midwest– at least, that’s what I imagined. Mayville Heights is the kind of town where it is probable that everyone knows everyone, a sense of community is valued, so there is always an art/food/music festival going on, and once a week (probably more) the main character and her pals meet at Luke’s Diner for amazing food and a cup of coffee. Oops! Did I say Luke’s Diner? I meant to say Eric’s Place.

    2. The friendship between Kathleen Paulson and her two pals, Roma and Maggie. I accidentally started on book 2, so I missed out on Kathleen’s debut in the small town. But, it sounds like the trio solidified their friendship by playing Charlie’s Angels to reveal the killer in book one. But, the friendship in book two is satisfying nonetheless. As I read, I kept wishing that I had friends like Kathleen, Roma, and Maggie in my life. They meet up for brunch a few times a week, they volunteer to plan events in the community, and they exchange lines of witty banter.

    3. The cats. Just because they are freaking cats, and I may or may not be on the verge of crazy cat lady-hood. But, Owen and Hercules are not your ordinary house cats. They came from the abandoned house that the community turned in to a feral cat sanctuary. And…they are magical! They can turn invisible and slink through closed doors, which definitely comes in handy during sleuthing.

    4. The humor. This book made me literally laugh out loud, which is unheard of because I am usually a very stoic reader. (I didn’t even cry during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). But, how could I not chuckle at golden moments like this?

    Kathleen is talking on the phone with her mom:

    “I wasn’t hovering,” were the first words out of her mouth.

    “Okay.”

    “I was lurking,” she continued.

    “What’s the difference?”

    “It’s all in how you hold your upper body.”

    5. It’s “fluffy”, and that’s a good thing. There is nothing wrong with reading a light, feel-good novel. Dare I say it– sometimes, that’s what the mind needs, especially after an intense week at work. I felt so refreshed after reading Sofie Kelly’s Sleight of Paw.

    Things that were just okay:

    Instead of “Things I didn’t like” because there was nothing about this novel that I didn’t like.

    1. The pacing. While I appreciate all of the exposition about the small town and positive friendships and cats (especially cats), I thought the middle was a little slow. The suspense finally started building in the last 100 pages, but I went into reading the novels expecting to be on the edge of my seat the entire time.

    2. I picked out the killer before he was even a suspect. Common’ Kathleen! The motive was so clear! Why didn’t you try looking for the means sooner?

    3. There wasn’t as much magical sleuthing as I expected. According to what I’ve read about the series so far, the cat’s abilities are utilized more in book one compared to book two (which just means I really have to track down book one!) Still, it was fun. BECAUSE CATS.

    By the end of the novel, I felt giddy. Had I found my new favorite genre? I wanted to rush back to the library to check out more cozy mystery novels. Check out Sleight of Paw if you’re looking for a light-hearted mystery, or check it out if you’re a budding crazy cat lady.

    I’ll be checking out another cozy mystery novel during my next library visit. Do you have any recommendations?

  • I Got a Library Card!

    I Got a Library Card!

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    I used to walk into book stores without an agenda, spend hours perusing bookshelves, and walking out happily with $70.00 worth of books. When I walk into book stores now, I am overcome with anxiety. It’s this weird pressure that developed once I entered the book blogosphere, and it makes book shopping an awful experience. Seriously. The new releases offend my pocketbook and I’m still waiting for the hype for last years books to fizzle out and how do I find a book that hasn’t made its rounds on blogs yet anyway? And when I’m spending money, I become reluctant to venture outside my comfort zone because what if I don’t like the book? Most of the time I walk out of the bookstore with empty hands and a heavy heart.

    So on Saturday I decided to go to the library instead.

    I had been meaning to for the past five months, but I kept coming up with excuses for why I couldn’t go. Mostly I was afraid to go there by myself, but this Saturday was perfect library-going weather– chilly and rainy. The library staff wasn’t nearly as warm and welcoming as I expected them to be, but the atmosphere was still delightful. My library is open and spacious, and large windows line the walls letting in plenty of natural light. Perhaps the shelves aren’t stocked to the brim, but there are more than enough books to choose from. The library also has a fireplace, so I already know I will want to spend cold, winter afternoons here. And perhaps, once I pluck up enough courage, I’ll attend the writers group that meets twice a month. We’ll see…

    I spent two hours studying the stacks trying to decide which books to bring home with me. My goal was to bring home books I would never pick out at a book store, books I’ve never heard of, genres I’ve never read. I’d say I was pretty successful, too. I feel like this has rejuvenated my desire to read because as soon as I got home, I brewed myself a cup of coffee, I snuggled in to my armchair, I cracked open Sleight of Paw, and devoured the first half of the book in one sitting.

    Have you experienced a reading slump recently? How did you reignite your passion for books?

About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.