VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2020 discussion

Today’s Nonfiction post is on The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask. It is 326 pages long and is published by St. Martin’s Press. The cover is a collection of different city maps with the title in the center. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of cities, address, race, and power. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.

When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.

In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London.

Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t―and why.


Review- This is a fascinating, insightful, and very well written non-fiction book about the history of street addresses. mask shorts with the question of why do we need street addresses and what do they give us. to get these answers she goes around the world, interviews scores of very different people, architects to Doctors Without Borders, and the average person to understand the power an address has. In modern-day non-rural America we do not understand the power of having a street address. An address means that you can be found for good or for bad, but that also means that you can get a loan from a bank, you can vote, and perhaps most importantly you can be found by Emergency Services. And that is something that Mask discovers is missing in the more rural parts of the world that do not have standardized or any kind of street addresses. The people there cannot get the help that they need nor do they have a voice in their government. This book is very well written, with good notes so you can do further research if you want, and is really very interesting. I highly recommend this book in order to understand more what's going on in under-served and under-recognized cultures and communities.


I give this book a five out of five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s Nonfiction post is on The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands by Jon Billman. It is 348 pages long and is published by Grand Central Publishing. The cover is a picture of the trees in the Pacific Northwest. The intended reader is someone who is interested in learning about people who go missing national forests. There is mild foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- For readers of Jon Krakauer and Douglas Preston, the critically acclaimed author and journalist Jon Billman's fascinating, in-depth look at people who vanish in the wilderness without a trace and those eccentric, determined characters who try to find them.

These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors.

Through Jacob Gray's disappearance in Olympic National Park, and his father Randy Gray who left his life to search for him, we will learn about what happens when someone goes missing. Braided around the core will be the stories of the characters who fill the vacuum created by a vanished human being. We'll meet eccentric bloodhound-handler Duff and R.C., his flagship purebred, who began trailing with the family dog after his brother vanished in the San Gabriel Mountains. And there's Michael Neiger North America's foremost backcountry Search & Rescue expert and self-described "bushman" obsessed with missing persons. And top researcher of persons missing on public wildlands Ex-San Jose, California detective David Paulides who is also one of the world's foremost Bigfoot researchers.

It's a tricky thing to write about missing persons because the story is the absence of someone. A void. The person at the heart of the story is thinner than a smoke ring, invisible as someone else's memory. The bones you dig up are most often metaphorical. While much of the book will embrace memory and faulty memory -- history -- The Cold Vanish is at its core a story of now and tomorrow. Someone will vanish in the wild tomorrow. These are the people who will go looking.


Review- an interesting account of different people who go missing and may or may not be found in the national forests in the Pacific Northwest. Billman got interested in the missing when a woman who was a runner, similar to himself, went missing near his home in Colorado. He joined the search for her and eventually became more and more interested in the people who go missing in this area of the world really without a trace. He writes some stories for some magazines on different runners and cyclists that go missing and then gets involved in the search for a young man named Jacob Gray. Over the course of the book we follow Billman and Gray’s father Randy Gray as they search all over the Pacific Northwest for him. Chapters change out between the search for Jacob and stories about other people who went missing in the area. Most of them end in heartbreak. This book is fairly well written, very interesting, and is definitely a cautionary tale about being too confident when setting out on your own in the national parks of America or anywhere really. If you're looking for something that is true crime but not really related to murder or other harsh topics give this one a try.


I have this book a Four out of Five stores. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s post is on MIddlegame by Seanan McGuire. It is 523 pages long and is published by Tor. the cover is a Hand of Glory burning. The intended reader is someone who likes Frankenstein, urban fantasy, and stories told out of order. There is mild foul language, no sex, and violence in this novel. The story is told from third person close of the different characters as the story moves. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.


Review- This is one of the most incredible books I have ever read. To put it simply this is McGuire’s Frankenstein, as she is telling the story of alchemy and made people and magical science. The twins Rodger and Dodger are created to embody the Doctrine of Ethos, which is basically one of them is all language and the other one is all math. Between the two of them they can describe the entire world and control it. Which is what the man who made them wants to, he wants to control the world. Reed is a very good villain, as a mad scientist should be, but he is as Hollow as a made creature. The plot is following Rodger and Dodger as they grow up and manifest into the Doctrine. The story is not told in order, it skips and starts and restarts and as you go through the book you will discover why and that is part of what makes this book work so well. McGuire has won a lot of awards for this book but in my opinion she did not win enough for it. She created something so incredible, she has recreated Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's likeness but has taken it to another level. If you have never read any books by McGuire then I would strongly recommend you try this one. It is absolutely amazing, the writing is incredible, and the story is breathtaking.


I give this book a five out of five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today's post is on The Most Eligible Lord in London by Ella Quinn. It is 361 pages long and is published by Zebra Books. The cover has the two main characters on it. There is mild foul language, sex and sexuality, and very mild violence in this novel. There story is told from third person close of the main characters. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the back of the book- Handsome, rakish, incorrigibly flirtatious—Fredrick, Lord Littleton, is notorious. Lady Adeline Wivenly is resolved to keep him at arm’s length during her first Season—until she overhears another woman’s plot to trick him into marriage. Even a rogue is undeserving of such deception, and Adeline feels obliged to warn him—only to find herself perilously attracted..

In the past, Littleton’s charm nearly got him leg-shackled to the wrong woman. Now he’s positive he’s found the right one, for Adeline is everything he wants and needs in a wife. Her sense of justice is so strong she agrees to help him despite her mistrust. But can the ton’s most elusive lord convince the lady he is finally serious about marriage—as long as she will be his bride?


Review- A sweet historical romance between two very likable characters. Lord Littleton is not really a rake at all. He was starting to seriously court a lady in the previous season but discovered that they would not suit. Instead of telling her, he panicked and went home without explaining himself. Now in the new season he meets Lady Adeline and they have much in common but she is friends with the lady he disappointed and wants to be loyal to her friend. The plot is nice, the characters are good, but the villains are the only problem I have with this book. It starts out that the villain is a man who wants to marry Adeline but he is not a good person at all and then the villain shifts to a slaver in England after slavery has been abolished. I am fine with two villains but not with switching villains more than half way through a book. But other than that it was a fine novel and if you like historical romances then you should try this one.


I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s post is on Diamond Doris by Doris Payne and Zelda Lockhart. It is 265 pages long and is published by Amistad publishing. The cover is a picture of Doris. The intended reader is someone who likes memoirs and true crime. There is foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and some mild violence in this memoir. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal- mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the bright and willful Doris Paine dreamed big. Fascinated by the fine clothes, jewels, and lifestyles in magazines such as Town & Country and Harper’s Bazaar, she imagined a world beyond herself, one in which she did not carry the weight of limitations that others imposed on her and where her beloved mother was free from her father’ s abuse.
After the owner of a local store threw her out when a white customer arrived, Doris vowed that neither her race or gender would hold her back. She was going to control her own life and make her own money.
Using her Southern charm and quick wit, she began shoplifting small princess of jewelry from local stores, and over the course of six decades, grew her talents with each heist. As a world-class expert jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies, using nuns and various ruses to help her avoid arrest while her Jewish boyfriend fenced the stolen gems.

A rip-roaringly fun and exciting tale, Diamond Doris is the portrait of a captivating antihero who experienced life to the fullest- on her own terms.


Review- A fascinating memoir from the woman who lived it herself. Doris tells the reader her life story from her earliest memories to near present day. We travel with Doris from the first time she realized that she could use people’s prejudices against them to her living her life free in Atlanta. She tells her story without too much editing herself or what she did or why she did it. I really like Doris and I liked traveling with her around the world stealing jewels. I worried for her when she did a big job and I was relieved every time she made it home. Doris was/is not a good person but she was/is an incredible one.


I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s post is on Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton. It is 411 pages long and is published by Simon & Schuster. The cover has some flappers in swimsuits and a row of hotels on top. There is mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this book.

From the dust jacket- The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization—and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of “progress.” Nowhere was the glitz and froth of the Roaring Twenties more excessive than in Florida. Here was Vegas before there was a Vegas: gambling was condoned and so was drinking, since prohibition was not enforced. Tycoons, crooks, and celebrities arrived en masse to promote or exploit this new and dazzling American frontier in the sunshine. Yet, the import and deep impact of these historical events have never been explored thoroughly until now.

In Bubble in the Sun Christopher Knowlton examines the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and other storied sites, as well as the darker side of the frenzy. For while giant fortunes were being made and lost and the nightlife raged more raucously than anywhere else, the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination and the workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom, endured grievous abuses.

Knowlton breathes dynamic life into the forces that made and wrecked Florida during the decade: the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick, and Addison Mizner, and the once-in-a-century hurricane whose aftermath triggered the stock market crash. This essential account is a revelatory—and riveting—history of an era that still affects our country today.


Review- This is a fascinating story about how small things will led into something bigger and affect the lives of millions of people in the future. Florida had been mostly ignored by the public but for a few rich sport fisherman then some wealthy people bought land and started to build themselves some very nice houses. After that more and more come to live, work, and be free in Florida. There were land developers, good time gals, and more. It is an interesting story with very interesting people who did not understand what they started or how it was going to make them suffer in the end. At times with all the details and people to keep track of, the reader can get over-whelmed but the story is interesting and well worth your time.


I give this book a Four out of FIve stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s Nonfiction post is on Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecelia Watson. It is 213 pages long and is published by Harper Collins Publishing. The cover is blue with three semicolons on it in red, yellow, and blue. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of the semicolon and how it has been viewed over history. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the back of the book- In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples—from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we’d think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.


Review- As fun little read about one my favorite punctuation marks. Watson loves her topic and all that love in the text and I understand how she feels. She covers the semicolons from when it was created, why it was created, and now how people feel about it. Watson is a good writer, she knows her material, and she makes it very engaging. She never over loads the reader with information, just enough to understand and appreciate what she is telling us.


I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s Nonfiction post is on Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens's London by Claire Harman. It is 252 pages long and is published by Alfred A. Knopf. The cover is white with a red book in the center. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and violence in this book. The intended reader is someone interested in true crime, literary history, and where the true cross. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- From the acclaimed biographer--the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: Can a novel kill?

In May 1840, Lord William Russell, well known in London's highest social circles, was found with his throat cut. The brutal murder had the whole city talking. The police suspected Russell's valet, Courvoisier, but the evidence was weak. The missing clue, it turned out, lay in the unlikeliest place: what Courvoisier had been reading. In the years just before the murder, new printing methods had made books cheap and abundant, the novel form was on the rise, and suddenly everyone was reading. The best-selling titles were the most sensational true-crime stories. Even Dickens and Thackeray, both at the beginning of their careers, fell under the spell of these tales--Dickens publicly admiring them, Thackeray rejecting them. One such phenomenon was William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, the story of an unrepentant criminal who escaped the gallows time and again. When Lord William's murderer finally confessed his guilt, he would cite this novel in his defense. Murder By the Book combines this thrilling true-crime story with an illuminating account of the rise of the novel form and the battle for its early soul among the most famous writers of the time. It is superbly researched, vividly written, and captivating from first to last.


Review- A fascinating and well written account of a true crime that may have started the whole blame the media/movie/tv series/book. Lord William Russell was found murdered in his bed and the whole of London was shocked and the nobles were terrified by the thought that their servants coil or would kill them for no reason. Harman does excellent research, the notes are good, and the way she tells the narrative is engaging. The mystery of who did it, why they did, and were they really so strongly influenced by a book, are questions not only posed in the narrative but for the reader themselves to think about. Harmon does handle those questions well but she does the best with ‘Can media make people do things?’ and she covers more than just the supposed book that the man read. She encourages the reader to think about their own actions and how would they engage with this material themselves. She gives basic biographies of the lesser known author and artists that were pulled into this mess. If you like true crime or historical crime, you should give this one a try.


I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s post is on The Missing Season by Gillian French. It is 294 pages long and is published by Harper Teen. The cover is a tree with a title carved on it. There is mild foul language, implied sexuality, and some violence in this novel. The intended reader is someone who likes YA novels, mystery novels, and horror lite novels. The story is told from first person close of the main character, Clara. There Be Spoilers Ahead.


From the dust jacket- There’s something in the marshes outside the town of Pender.
Whenever another kid goes missing in October, the kids in the old factory town of Pender know what is really behind it: a monster out in the marshes that they call the Mumbler.

That's what Clara's new crew tells her when she moves to town. Bree and Sage, who take her under their wing. Spirited Trace, who has taken the lead on this year's Halloween prank war. And magnetic Kincaid, whose devil-may-care attitude and air of mystery are impossible for Clara to resist.

Clara doesn't actually believe in the Mumbler--not like Kinkaid does. But as Halloween gets closer and tensions build in the town, it's hard to shake the feeling that there really is something dark and dangerous in Pender. Lurking in the shadows. Waiting to bring the stories to life.


Review- Clara is the new kid in town and it is the end of September. She is a good student but because her family moves around for her dad’s job, she never has really made friends. Clara wants to be more social and she falls into a group right away. Then she learns about the kids who go missing every year in October and how the adults just think that they are loser teens who ran away or O.D.’ed or whatever but the teens know better than that. There is a romance that is totally unneeded and I would have liked the story better without it. The only real problem I had with the story is the reveal of the villain and their reasons. There are no clues in the story pointing to them, and when they are revealed I had to flip back to the one place earlier in the book that they are in. It is a fine novel but nothing groundbreaking or particularly interesting. Unless you are a huge fan of the author or just really want to read a YA mystery, then I would pass on this one.


I give this volume a Three out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Today’s post is on Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed by Laurie Halse Anderson and Leila del Duca (Illustrator). It is 208 pages long and is published by DC Comics. The cover is a close-up of Diana’s face with waves. The intended reader is someone who likes Wonder Woman. There is no foul language, no sex, and mild violence in this comic. The story is told from third person close of Diana. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Princess Diana believes that her 16th birthday will be one of new beginnings--namely acceptance into the warrior tribe of Amazons. The celebrations are cut short, however, when rafts of refugees break through the Themysciran barrier. Diana tries to help them, but she is swept away by the sea--and from her home--thus becoming a refugee herself.
Now Diana must survive in the world outside of Themyscira for the first time; the world that is filled with danger and injustice. She must redefine what it means to belong, to be an Amazon, and to make a difference.



Review- This is a good origin story for a new arc in Wonder Woman’s story. Diana gets swept away from her home in a storm as she tries to save innocent people. Now Diana is a refugee herself and trying to find her way home but home maybe very different than she thought. The art is great, the story is moving, and Diana grows over the course of the story. DC is trying to market their characters to a new young audience and in this one I think that they have a good way in. Diana cares about the things that the teens in my life cared about and talking about. Wonder Woman herself is timeless and she moves forward with her own strength and values. I had a good time reading this graphic novel and I would recommend it.



I give this comic a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

60 down and I am done with this challenge. I will move on to a bigger one.