Don't You Know There's a War On?

By Avi

It's World War II and Howard Crispers is eleven years old and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He and his best friend Denny both have fathers off serving in the war, so naturally the two boys are very caught up in all the drama of that time. They believe their public school principal is a German spy.
One day, Howard is late getting off to school and he sees the principal on the street. Normally, the principal is the first one to arrive at school in the morning and so seeing him sets off all Howard's alarm bells and he follows the man to see where he is going. He ends up eavesdropping on a conversation between the man and an unknown woman. To his consternation, he hears that his very own teacher is slated to be fired, for reasons unknown.
Thus begins Howard's and Denny's campaign to save their teacher from losing her job, against the background of the United States in the depth of World War II.

This was a pretty good story, even though it is intended for children. The end of the story is very much like that of real life endings, bittersweet.

No Time for Sergeants

By Mac Hyman

It's World War II and Will Stockdale hasn't received the four letters sent to him from the draft board and now they are coming to forcibly remove him from his rural home with his father and stick Will in the military.
Will is not reluctant to go but his father puts up a fight, the end result of which is that Will goes but with a reputation for trouble-making, a reputation that will dog him from the very start of his time in the military.
Will is a sort of yokel superman, expert at shooting pool, strong enough to bend steel with his bare hands, and able to drink experienced drinkers under the table. But really he is an amiable guy who just wants to get along with people but whose lack of experience and understanding constantly cause him to get into trouble. But, despite the ill will of his superiors in the military, Will keeps coming out on top.

This was an amusing book. Will is a sort of unbelievable character, with his powers and abilities so much greater than that of his fellow humans. But the fixes he gets himself into and out of are well worth the read.

M.D.

By Neil Ravin

William Ryan has just started his internship at a prestigious New York City hospital. A young man of strong principles, nevertheless he becomes involved with a beautiful, successful but married cardiologist. He also has a series of on again off again romantic entanglements with nurses and a patient being treated for recurring bouts of cancer.
However, his principles do cause him to fall victim to hospital politics and jeopardize his blossoming medical career.
But mainly this book is more about being an intern in a big city hospital and less about Ryan's less-than-satisfying romantic life. It has lots of medical details, some of it quite gruesome. Because, unlike horror stories, the horrors of illness are reality.

This was a pretty interesting story. But if you are  the least bit of a hypochondriac, avoid this book. There are just too many disturbing descriptions of the many ways your body can screw you over.

If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries -- What Am I Doing in the Pits?

By Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck was a humor columnist who wrote about the joys and chores not only of parenthood but of coping with life in general. Her columns appeared in numerous newspapers and were collected into book form, including this one, which was the second of her books.

I suppose her humor can best be appreciated by those in the throes of parenthood, who no doubt will see themselves in her depictions. But even those who are not yet or who may never be parents will still probably enjoy her amusing columns. Though a bit dated by now, she still makes for a diverting read.

Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch

By Haywood Smith

Lin Scott is recovering from her divorce, which left her destitute. She ends up moving back in with her parents, a sorry situation as far as she, a woman in her fifties, is concerned.
Tension is high at home. Her mom is a bit controlling, her dad is fading into senility. Her alcoholic brother also lives there as does her elderly aunt and uncle. The uncle is also senile and off his medication.
Lin was a wife and mother. Her husband was successful and she never had to have a job outside of the home. She has never used a computer, she never graduated from college and she has arthritis, so a job where she has to be on her feet is out. But somehow she has to figure out a way to support herself. Relying on her elderly parents is not fair to them even though they are glad to have her back home.
She lucks into a job when she stops by the local drugstore. One of the clerks has collapsed and been taken to the hospital and won't be fit to return to work for many weeks. Since Lin used to work at this drugstore when she was a high schooler, she steps in to lend a hand and lands a temporary job. She is also going to night school, studying to get a real estate license.
Things are definitely looking up for Lin and the hunky new owner of the drugstore is more than just a little interested in his new employee.

This is an okay story. It is mainly about Lin finding her way in her new situation, with a little romance thrown in. There is also a political subplot that I found completely boring and uninteresting. Also, a one point early in the story, it is revealed that Lin's parents are having money troubles but that is never dealt with beyond a few mentions. Plus, even knowing this, she still lets her mother pay for the real estate course. Also, Lin dreads moving back in with the parents because they are such a pain to live with. But they don't seem to be that horrible in the story and her judgment of them as difficult is not really illustrated.
I think the story has quite a few gaps and would have been more interesting without the politics story.

Confessions of a Pregnant Father

By Dan Greenburg

As a young man, Dan Greenburg was sure he didn't want to ever be a father. But moving into middle age and gaining a new, young wife changed his mind. And so, at the age of 49, Dan Greenburg became the father of baby Zack. This book is his chronicle of going through the experience of conceiving a child. bearing the child and caring for it for the first months of the child's life, with the help of a nanny.

If you are a parent or are thinking of parenthood, this book is a valuable record of the fears and pleasures of the whole process and probably pretty entertaining.
However, if you are not a parent and you don't really get that worked up over kids and babies, you might find it rather boring. I know I did. The amount of detail gets really old really fast and there are way too many descriptions of baby poop and baby pee.

On a side note, when baby Zack was five years old, he played the role of Lorenzo in the movie, Lorenzo's Oil. As a further side note, Lorenzo's Oil was not a cure, merely a treatment and the real Lorenzo died of his ailment at the age of thirty.

A final side note: Dan and his wife were divorced when Zack was a young teen, after a five year separation. I also know his ex-wife took him to court for back child support of over $30,000. That is something to think about as you read his rapturous descriptions.  Sounds like he got over the thrill of being a father pretty fast.

Miss Julia Throws a Wedding

By Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia's handsome border, Deputy Bates has popped the question and been accepted. But he and Binkie, his betrothed, say they are going to get married in a week at the courthouse. They claim it is the only time they can do it, as they are both busy professionals.
Miss Julia is horrified. She feels that a proper ceremony is required to get a marriage off to a good start. (Never mind that it didn't work for her marriage to her cheating husband who is now, fortunately, deceased.) She talks them into it by promising she will put it all together herself: the preacher, the flowers, the church, the music, the invitations, the food, everything! All in the space of one week!
She plunges into creating a wedding, with the help of her other border, Hazel Marie and Hazel Marie's young son, Little Lloyd, and her cook/housekeeper, Lillian. The church is booked up and so the wedding will be at her house instead.  The preacher requires the young couple to attend counseling sessions and that is when it all starts to fall apart. Something the preacher says has given the bride cold feet and she is backing out.
But Miss Julia is not going to stand for it. She and her helpers have been busting their humps getting this wedding set up and she is determined to talk some sense into Binkie, especially after she learns that Binkie is pregnant. Even if it takes a miracle. Which might not be that hard to achieve, as a "miracle" has appeared at the building site across the street from Miss Julia's house!

This was an enjoyable read, if a bit contrived, plot-wise. Miss Julia can be a tad uncharitable and bit too rigid, but that just keeps her from being too good to be true. A fun, lighthearted read.

Toujours Provence

By Peter Mayle

Mayle continues his love affair with Provence, France. His book is a tour through his daily life. He talks about encounters with the locals, foods enjoyed and beverages consumed. Events attended and weather experienced. He rarely has a critical thing to say about Provence and seems much more accepting of the people than he did in the first book, A Year in Provence. Maybe he has just become used to the locals' way of doing things. He does make it seem very appealing, especially the cuisine. Seems like the only drawbacks are the growing popularity of the area with vacationers and the hot and sometime dry summers.

This was an enjoyable read, if a bit less interesting than the first book.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

By Bill Bryson

After living in England for a long time, Bryson decided it was time to move back home to the United States with his wife and children. They settled into a college town in New England.
Moving to England had required some adjustments to the English way of doing things. And moving back home also required some adjustments.
This book is some of Bryson's newspaper columns he wrote while living in America. He enjoyed the contrasts between here and there. He also enjoyed pointing out each country's foibles. Even though he is not really a foreigner, he had been gone long enough to see things through a different eye.
His columns are amusing and also thought-provoking. A very nice read.

Escape

By Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer

Carolyn was born into the FLDS church, the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Her family and her ancestors were polygamists. She was raised to believe the teachings of her church and she believed wholeheartedly in its teachings. She was, in fact, proud of her heritage. even as she began to find it rather constricting and stifling as she grew up.
Like most women in her small community, she was not given a choice in who she was to marry. Her parents arranged for her to marry a man who was more than thirty years older than she, Merril Jessop.
Jessop already had three wives and many children, some perhaps as old or older than Carolyn herself. But he was greedy for more. And he continued to acquire wives through the years, selecting younger and younger girls as his brides.
Being a younger wife in a family with three older wives was not an easy position in which to be. Carolyn soon realized that Merril's first wife was the wife of his heart and this woman's word was the law in the family. Carolyn also figured out that the only way to achieve and maintain status in the family was to have lots of children for her husband. A wife's ability to bear children and her sexual attractiveness to her husband were her main badges of status within the family and within the community.
Their religion taught that women were subservient to men, little more than property. A man's wishes were the law and abuse was rampant, both physical and sexual. Women and girls were required to be "sweet" and not question or rebel and to obey and submit. And this is what Carolyn tried to do, through the years, until the rise of Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs began to institute a kind of religious dictatorship. He began to pass all sorts of new rules, restricting the community's access to the outside world. He set up rules for how to dress, how to wear your hair and he told the people to remove their children from public school. Women began to find their already constricted world even more constricted than ever.
But it was only when Jeffs started marrying off younger and younger girls to old men that Carolyn started to think it was time to quit the FLDS and get away before her young daughters were given away into sexual slavery. But Jeffs' and Jessop's influence and reach were wide spread in their part of the world and they were known to be vengeful and remorseless in pursuit. How in the world would Carolyn manage to spirit her eight children away with no money and no help that she could trust? And how would she support her children if she did manage to escape? Not to mention that one of her kids was just an infant and the other very disabled and requiring medical care? Could she count on the states of Utah and Arizona to give her the help and support she so desperately needed? As far as she knew, no woman who had fled the FLDS had managed to retain custody of her children. But she didn't let that stop her and she went on to be the first escaped wife to defy the FLDS and her abusive husband and gain sole custody of her eight children.

This is an amazing and totally engrossing account of one woman's experience in a polygamous society. She starts out totally committed to the precepts of the religion but gradually begins to rebel when she admits to herself that she is tremendously unhappy and that her children are at risk of ending up in similar miserable situations. It was quite a journey, living it with her and sharing her story.

The Wench Is Dead

By Colin Dexter

Inspector Morse is laid up in the hospital with serious stomach problems. To help him pass the time, Sergeant Lewis brings him a book about a murder that took place in the 1800s. Morse finds himself completely caught up in the story of a young woman who was traveling to join her husband and was attacked by the crew of the canal boat on which she was traveling. Two of the men were hanged for the crime and one was "transported" to Australia.
On the face of it, it seems a pretty straight-forward case, a pretty young woman traveling alone on a boat with a crew of men who have been over-indulging in alcohol. But this is an Inspector Morse novel, so of course, things are not as they seem, as Morse dives deep into this old mystery.

This was an OK read. Morse is in the hospital for most of it and all of his investigations are just reading old accounts dating from that time. Not the most action-packed story, for sure.

Tricky Business

By Dave Barry

Extravaganza of the Seas is a cruise ship whose main purpose is to deliver drugs to organized crime boss, Lou Tarrant. Its cover is that of a floating casino, taking its passengers out beyond the three mile limit and out of the jurisdiction of the government.
Wally and his band members have a steady job performing on the ship. These guys, all competent musicians, have never hit the big time, to their disappointment. Wally has recently left his wife and moved in with his mom. He feels like his life is going nowhere good.
Fay also works on the ship as a cocktail waitress. Like Wally, she is also struggling and coping with life after marriage. She too has moved in with her mother.
Bobby Kemp is a sleazy businessman who owns the ship, but in name only. He purchased the ship, thinking it was a good investment. But then mobster Lou Tarrant muscled in on Bobby, revealing the true purpose of the trips out to the three mile limit, the transfer of money and drugs. In fact Tarrant muscled in on all Bobby's questionable businesses and this has made Bobby very unhappy. So unhappy that he has come up with a plan, a plan that he will put in force on a night when the Extravaganza of the Seas sails off into a dangerous tropical storm, loaded with its usual complement of devoted gamblers, Wally and the band, Fay the cocktail waitress and two old guys who have escaped from their retirement home. A good time will not be had by all.

This was a very entertaining story, although at one point I put it down when it got a little too gruesome for me. Lots of action, lots of humor, complicated plot and a satisfying ending add up to a very enjoyable read, except for that one really nasty part.
For another review see http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-14924-5.

The Riddle of the Third Mile

By Colin Dexter

A body is found in the water. It is only a torso. The head, hands and legs are missing, obviously a ploy to keep the dead man's identity disguised.
Together Inspector Morse and Lewis will unravel the clues that will lead them to their killer. The complicated path they will travel will take them into the past and through the halls of academe and even into the effects of terminal illness on the human psyche. For Morse, much of this path will be familiar, given his relationship with Oxford University, and the reader will learn a bit more about why Morse became a policeman.

As a non-British person, much of this plot was obscure to me, as it rests upon how students and professors are promoted in their university systems. There is talk of greats and vivas and masters other such stuff. I think if I had at least the tiniest bit of a grasp on that subject that the plot would have made more sense to me. Instead it was like trying to understand the arcane practices of some ancient and obscure culture and it just went over my head.
Also, the victim (SPOILER) turns out to be a man who is, if I remember correctly, only briefly mentioned in the first part of the book. If you were reading too fast, you might have missed it.
And further, Morse comes off as a bit of a fat head with his snotty condescension to his assistant, Lewis, and to other "lower class" people he encounters.
So, all in all, the book was a tiny bit of a disappointment but I did quite enjoy the complicated plot despite the obscurity of the victim. A fascinating  construction, and an enjoyable read even though some parts of it were outside my frame of reference.

For another review, see: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/colin-dexter-4/the-riddle-of-the-third-mile/.

Swan Peak

By James Lee Burke

Dave and his wife and Dave's best friend Clete are staying with a friend of Dave's who owns a ranch in Montana. Dave and Clete have no intentions beyond enjoying some fishing and relaxing in the great outdoors. But of course, that is not what happens.
The neighbors are not friendly and Clete has a run in with them when he accidentally trespasses on their land. These people, the Wellstones, come from Texas oil money and are used to having their own way. So just avoid them, right?
Then two college kids turn up dead near the ranch and before they know it Dave and Clete are up to their necks in trouble. Throw in a long-dead gangster, a beautiful country singer, an escaped convict, a prison guard looking for revenge, a serial killer, PTSD and you have a complicated mess that will challenge even the finely honed skills of Dectective Dave Robicheaux and PI and ex-cop Clete Purcell.

This was an enjoyable story and a nice departure from Robicheaux's usual stomping grounds of Louisiana. The plot was rather complex and I still don't understand [Spoiler] what happened to the real Leslie Wellstone.
For another review, see https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-lee-burke/swan-peak/.

We in the United States are facing a troubling election this year 2016. We have two candidates, a woman who has been unfairly maligned for decades and a man who practices deception, bigotry, racism, and sexism. Burke says something in closing his story that I think applies very well to this election: "A confidence man chooses only one kind of person as his victim -- someone who, of his own volition, invites deception into his life."  Thus the candidacy of Donald Trump and the willingly-deceived who follow him.

The Sheik

By Maggie Davis

Sheik Abdullah al Asmari is the grandson and heir of the ruler of Rahsmani, the Emir. Abdullah is young and unproven and some doubt his ability to step into the role of Emir. His father was insane and died young and it is speculated that Abdullah is also unstable.
Rahsmani is a small wealthy oil country and is about to become even more wealthy upon discovery of new oil reserves. It is also no stranger to civil unrest, as Abdullah well knows after someone shot at him one day when he was out on his motorcycle.
Abdullah is sent on a mission to the U.S. to negotiate with the main oil company that has been responsible for setting Rahsmani up in the oil business. He has many meetings to attend and business on the East and West Coasts. He doesn't travel alone though, he is attended by lots of people. These people are there to see that things go smoothly for him, yet he still manages to get himself in trouble, chasing after women, speaking to the press. And unbeknownst to him, there are people in his group that see his antics as proof of his unfitness to lead his nation. They have a plan to do something about it.

This was an OK read, except  Abdullah is a despicable person who beats his wife and rapes unprotected women. In his defense you could say he is merely a product of a barbaric culture, but that didn't excuse it for me. Frankly, he deserves all the bad stuff that happens to him and worse. So, the story was interesting but the hero is a pig. That spoiled it for me.

The Ex

By Alafair Burke

Olivia is a defense attorney. Back when she was in college, she became engaged to Jack. Jack was everything Olivia wasn't. He was kind, considerate, and emotionally fragile. He came from a close, loving family. All things that didn't apply to Olivia. She often referred to him as St. Jack.
After awhile, Olivia became less enthusiastic about marrying Jack. Instead of telling him, she began to sleep around. Their engagement ended when Jack finally realized what she was doing. He was shattered and turned to his brother for comfort. They got drunk together, that night, and the brother died in a car crash driving home. Jack ended up in a mental hospital after suffering a serious breakdown.
But that was twenty years in the past. Olivia went on to have her career and Jack went on to become a writer. He fell in love, married and they had a child.  Poor Jack, though, tragedy continued to dog him. His wife was killed by a shooter on the train along with several other people.
The shooter, a young, angry, disturbed teen was the son of a wealthy man who had refused to get his child the psychological care he needed. The father was the one who introduced his son to guns and bought guns for him. The son was killed himself at the scene and the families of the victims, including Jack, brought suit against the father but lost.
So now Jack has met a mystery woman and has arranged to meet her at a ball field for a picnic. He shows up with the picnic basket but she doesn't show. Meanwhile the dad of the shooter kid is at the same ball field and he gets shot along with two other people at about the same time as Jack was at the field looking for his date. The cops find video that shows Jack was in the area and they naturally assume he is the killer. So who does Jack turn to for help? His ex-fiancee, Olivia.

This was an okay read. I didn't care for the ending and I often felt while reading that I just wanted it to be finished. Jack turns out not to be a saint and Olivia turns out not to be the bitch she is painted to be, which was no surprise. Unfortunately, if you like justice to be served, then don't read this book. No justice for the murder victims in this story, which is what I mainly disliked about it.
For another review, see http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-239048-6.

Doing It Right

By MaryJanice Davidson

Contains the short novel, Thief of Hearts, and the short story, Wild Hearts. 

Doctor Jared had a close encounter with Kara, the cat burgler and one-woman wrecking crew, who puts a big thug down right before Jared eyes. The thug, a minor crime boss, was trying to kill Kara, who is a potential witness against him if the police ever manage to nab her.
Kara is now worried that the thug will be coming after Doctor Jared and she appoints herself his body guard. Probably not motivated by the young doctor's devastating good looks. And Jared happily accepts her presence in his life since she is as beautiful as her nickname, AA, or Avenging Angel.
Kara has a lot of baggage in her background and she is unwilling or unable to accept that Jared has fallen hard for her. Even though they are soon having sex, she secretly believes he will turn his back on her, if he ever learns the truth. Namely that she is a thief (of the Robin Hood variety, if you substitute the rich for rich criminals) and a foster child who bounced from home to home, never finding a safe place to land. She has never had the love and the advantages that Jared himself enjoyed and she fears he will hold that against her.
Eventually she decides to go after the thug and a sacrifice herself to save Jared and to save herself from his inevitable rejection, as she believes.

This was an OK read. The thing is, it is described on the cover as "wickedly funny." But I would say, mildly amusing at best. I was conned by the "wickedly funny" and ended up reading a book that was just your basic explicit romance novel. Some of the sex scenes in the book are four to five pages long. I mostly skipped those, being a bit of a skeptic. I was wanting to read a funny romance story. Instead I got mildly amusing porn. Eh, OK if you like that sort of thing. I mostly don't care for graphic and improbable descriptions of sex acts. The book was not what I was looking for, so I was disappointed. Not really the book's fault, though. And not the first time I have been fooled and disappointed by blurbs on a book cover.

The Mermaid Chair

By Sue Monk Kidd

Jessie has a good life. She has a loving, successful husband, a part-time job as an artist, a daughter who has recently gone off to college for the first time. But Jessie is discontented. She doesn't really know why. She sort of blames her husband, Hugh, who sometimes can be a bit dismissive.
Jessie grew up on an island off the coast of South Carolina. He dad was a boatman who died when Jessie was just a kid. Jessie grew up thinking she was partially responsible for this death. His boat exploded from a spark from the pipe Jessie had given him. So she has carried that guilt for thirty years.
After her father died, the joy went out of her mother, Nelle. Nelle was always religious, but after the death of her husband, she become even more religious.
Jessie gets a phone call that Nelle has deliberately cut off one of her fingers. Jessie returns to the island and finds her mother burying the finger next to a statue of St. Senara.
Nelle's house is next door to the abbey of St. Senara and she works in the kitchen as their cook. St. Senara is a mermaid who used to seduce Christians but was later converted. The abbey has a chair called the Mermaid Chair which is carved with a mermaid or mermaids and carried in a yearly procession.
The abbey is home to several elderly monks and one young monk who has yet to take his final vows. Thomas became a monk after his pregnant wife died in a car crash. He has been at the abbey for about five years and is expected to soon take his final vows. But when he and Jessie meet for the first time, it is instant chemistry. In Jessie, Thomas rediscovers the sexual passion that has been absent from his life since becoming a monk. And Jessie rediscovers the thrill of falling love and the romance that she has been missing from her own marriage.
But then Hugh unexpectly shows up, and being an intelligent man, soon understands that his wife is involved with another man.  Now Jessie and Thomas need to make some serious choices and Nelle has cut off another of her fingers.

There is so much I didn't like about this story. Jessie's infatuation with Thomas. Nelle's dealing with the past by mutilating herself. Jessie's casual dismissal of her wedding vows. Jessie committing adultery and declaring the holiness of it. Jessie only coming into her artistic self by running away from her marriage and getting involved with a monk.
We are led to believe there is some mystery in Nelle's past that is driving her to cut off her fingers, but it takes forever for the story to reveal what Nelle's problem is. I was less interested in Jessie and her poor decision-making and more about concerned with what was bothering Nelle, but the author takes forever to return to the story of Nelle's mystery. I just got bored.
To me, Jessie is a fool and I just didn't like her. Kind of ruined the story for me.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

Teenage Jacob finds his grandfather dying on the ground, suffering terrible wounds. Before the man dies, he tells Jacob something strange and confusing.
As a youngster, Jacob had listened to his grandfather's tall tales without really believing any of them. But the grandfather's dying words seem to indicate there was some truth behind the stories.
Finding his grandfather dying and getting a glimpse of some sort of horrible creature sends Jacob into a tail spin and he ends up in counseling.
Some of the stories centered on the grandfather's time spent in an orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales. Jacob's counselor advises his parents to take Jacob to the island to help him deal with his trauma and reconcile reality with the fantastic tales told him by his grandfather.
But after arriving on the island, it soon becomes clear to Jacob that the stories were not fantasy. Jacob finds the orphanage, which is an abandoned wreck, having been bombed in World War II.
Further poking around and some encounters with rather peculiar kids reveals a secret world, accessed by a tunnel into the past. Here is where the peculiar kids live, stuck in the day before the orphanage was bombed, and lead by their headmistress, Miss Peregine. All of them have extraordinary talents, including Miss Peregrine, who is a shapeshifter, able to take on the form of her name, a peregrine falcon.
Jacob learns that other such outposts exist, hiding in different locations and times, designed to protect their dwellers from the hollowgasts, vicious humanoids who prey upon the special children and their guardians. Jacob also learns that regular people can't see the hollowgasts. And because Jacob can see them, he, like his grandfather, is also a "peculiar." And also, like his grandfather, he is in danger from the hollowgasts and also a danger to the hollowgasts. Turns out the other peculiars can't see hollowgasts either, only Jacob can.
The hollowgast that attacked his grandfather followed Jacob to the island and it is are intent on destroying the children and capturing Miss Peregrine for reasons of its own. Jacob has brought this doom upon the orphanage and now he has to make a terrible choice: stay in the past and leave his home and family to protect the peculiars or return to the present and leave the peculiars to the doom he inadvertently brought upon them.

This was an OK read. The action doesn't really pick up until toward the end of the book. Seem like a lot to slog through to get to the good stuff. Probably more appealing to younger readers than to an oldster like me.
Also, I had a quibble with the story. The kids have been stuck in the past, reliving one day over and over. They are aware that it is the same day, though. So, from Jacob's time, they have been doing this since 1940, almost eighty years. But Miss Peregine still treats them like kids even though they have eighty plus years of living behind them. Also, they still attend classes every day. Eighty years of middle school, imagine that. The mind boggles. I think I'd rather be killed by the hollowgasts than spend eighty years in middle school. Wouldn't you think, after eighty years, they would pretty much know all they needed to know and tell their Miss Peregrine to get stuffed?

This book is the first in the peculiar children series by Riggs.

Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes

By Lewis Grizzard

Lewis starts off this book with a dedication that reads, "Even I'm smart enough to know you don't go dedicating a book about sex to anybody." So right away you know you are reading a humorous book about sex.
The author starts out listing the reasons why he decided to write a book about sex:

1. Dr. Ruth talks funny and he can't make out what she is saying half the time. His book will be "clear, concise and in plain English, in order to take up any slack left by Dr. Ruth."
2. Sex, he claims, will kill you. Also he warns the reader that he will be making the occasional joke or telling a story with sexual overtones.
3. He was considering ideas for a book and someone suggested he do one on sex.
4. The year 1987, when he was writing the book, was, "a banner year for sex." And he lists Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker and Jessica Hahn; Gary Hart and Donna Rice and the Monkey Business; "Oral Roberts and His Twin Brother, Anal"; Oliver North and Fawn Hall; Vanna White posing in Playboy;  and Pat Robertson had premarital sex with his future wife.
5. Sex books sell well.

He concludes the first chapter thus:

This book will  not attempt to condone nor vilify any sexual activity. If it's no bother to you and gives joy to others, then do as you wish...What about oral and anal? Well, Oral's still out there in Tulsa begging for money, and his twin brother Anal is a well-respected faith-healing proctologist in Skokie, Illinois

 And it just gets better and funnier from there. A really amusing read, I enjoyed it a lot and read some of the silly jokes to my husband.