Finley Public Library

  Book Reviews   | |

October 20, 2014

Today I have on two hats--one for the library (as always!) and one for the Ostervold Bazaar and dinner to be held on Sunday, 11-26-14, from 11-1!  Please come if you haven't planned to do so--good food and lots of wonderful goodies!

Now for the library--we have been having some problems with our book club from which we buy our large print books.  For some reason some of the books that we have ordered including a new John Sandford/Virgil Flowers book (Deadline) and one we ordered by Tracie Peterson have not yet arrived.  We finally did receive on Saturday The Old Blue Line inside the book Remains of Innocence book by J. A. Jance.  This is #'s 15.5 and 16 in the Joanna Brady series.  We also received Miss Julia Stirs up Trouble by Ann B. Ross (Miss Julia series #14) and The River by Beverly Michaels.  These are all LP.  Sorry for the delay.
 
Remember if you are a ghost, goblin, princess or whatever and you are out before the library closes at 5 p.m. on Halloween, come by and get your candy and your picture taken!

Here's a couple reviews:

Prairie Son by Dennis M. Clausen. (PB) (Non-Fiction) (RP)  This book tells the story of a Minnesota boy who was adopted into slavery, really.  The farmer and wife who adopted him had no children of their own and needed a hired hand, so at eight Edward Misong became LLoyd Augustine Clausen.  "Ma" treated him terribly for reasons you will find out as you read--including beatings, being locked in the dark basement and, generally, scorning him.  There was no love  in the family at all.  LLoyd often says that the two farm dogs were better parents to him than his adopted parents.  This treatment not only scarred LLoyd at the time, but scarred him for life, not giving him the experiences he needed to be a good husband or parent to his wife and children.  This aspect is tragic, but the really interesting part (to me) was the daily farm life and living through the depression, the drought and the natural disasters.
 
Where There's a Will by Aaron Elkins
.  (HC/LP) (NDSL books) (Gideon Oliver series #12)  Though his home locale is the Seattle, Washington area, this time main character Oliver is on "vacation" on the big island of Hawaii where he meets the Torkelsson family who are--among other things--cattle ranchers.  He is introduced through his good friend, FBI agent and former cop on the on the islands, John Lau.  The three Torkelsson brothers came from Sweden and settled on the northern edge of Hawaii where the elevation was higher, there was more rain and (therefore) more grass, where they built a cattle kingdom over a few decades.  They brought sister Dagmar over to do the cooking and handle the books.  Now she is the only one left.  One brother died leaving four children who now run everything and have a lot to lose.  Another brother was shot and burned while the third brother fled via their private airplane, never to be heard from again. Events come to pass while Oliver is staying at the ranch that throw a monkey wrench into the inheritances of the folks now making their livings off the land previously owned by their father, uncles and aunts.  Gideon Oliver, a forensic anthropologist could well be the monkey wrench.  This was a good read--I liked the writing style, learning a bit about Hawaii, and the plot kept "thickening."
 
 

 
 
 
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