Review 5 star
Find It on Amazon Polish Dragon P.I. (Midnight Cranes) is a cozy mystery book by Steve Zimcosky. Private investigator Tom Sipowicz has just returned from his last excursion, and is hoping for a short break. But the president of a manufacturing company wants a private investigation into the deaths of two workers at his plant. Sipowicz gets hired at the plant, MaGed Material Handling, as a low-level laborer so he can probe into the situation. Does anyone know anything about these deaths? What about the mysterious defective parts that keep coming from the parent company in Germany every few months? It isn’t long before he finds out there’s a lot of truth to be discovered at this seemingly ordinary place full of cranes, welders, and secrets. A brisk and easy-to-read cozy mystery, Polish Dragon P.I. (Midnight Cranes) is a delight. It has a lot of fascinating details of work in a factory, plus a nice mix of characters as Tom goes about his rounds pretending to be employed at MaGed while really finding some adventure in an engaging action story. Steve Zimcosky has written a great book for readers who enjoy reading plausible and realistic stories. Events are really well foreshadowed—I didn’t guess who the main villains in the plant were when they were introduced, yet afterwards it all made sense with the way they were shown at first—and the gradually building threads of Tom’s dealings, on a tight time deadline, with various investigative agents, a quirky night-owl chemist, a funny female sidekick, and a shady drug dealer known as the Ghost kept me on my toes right until the end. Very entertaining story, with good execution of the mystery elements, unique plotting that hinges on a rare language, and a charming hero. Review 4 star
Find It on Amazon Poems of Life, Love, and the Meaning of Meaning by Wren is a book of poetry about philosophy and ideas. It contains about 400 poems. As the title suggests, it is divided into three sections—the first, “Life,” is about regret for missed opportunities, mistakes that hurt people, and inability to communicate with others. Section 2, “Love,” is about romance and describes intense yearning for a woman who the poet avidly admires. The final section, “The Meaning of Meaning,” is about renewal and discusses self-healing through a transcendent plane of inward growth, advocating that fear and pain are illusions that balance Love, which is God and which resides in the universe and in all people. Wren’s terse, slightly lilting type of verse guides like a focused laser through widely different topics, anchoring them with subtle verbal acrobatics into a pleasant and cohesive unit. Poems of Life, Love, and the Meaning of Meaning is a volume of self-help advice in a poetic format, a unique concept that really delighted me, and I found it to be refreshingly analytical, with a dry and witty take on life that flashed out like lightning in a number of poems. Some of the best and most memorable pieces include “Dorothy Gale” and “Ego on Trial,” innovative breakdowns of familiar ideas with a personification of the Ego as its own individual outside of oneself, as well as the cleverly sarcastic “Dear God,” in which familiar concepts of living well are turned on a dime when it is learned the narrator is dead. A highly individual book that will be enjoyed by minds that like to roam the galaxy in brief poetic installments. Review 5 star
Find It on Amazon Jimmy Crikey’s Adventures in the Sky Islands (and beyond) is a children’s novel by Wallace E. Briggs. Jimmy, also called Commander McGellan, is the son of travelers from a distant planet. He now lives in a fantasy version of Earth filled with different “worlds”—ecosystems with their own natural phenomena and creatures. When a malicious race called Zyrons invade the Sky Islands situated in the remote top of the atmosphere, the powerful Weatherman Lord Oron uses a risky magic spell to banish them. He returns home to find his portable dwelling, the Cloud, has been stolen. And when he tries to find it, he disappears along with the thieves. With no one to control Earth’s weather, Jimmy and his computer friend XRU must team up with the four witches of Earth, blending magic and science into harmony to travel the solar system and find the Weatherman before it’s too late. Jimmy Crikey’s Adventures in the Sky Islands (and beyond) really lives up to its name as a gentle-paced, sprawling adventure tale that takes the characters and any lucky readers into one interesting world after another. There is a leisurely richness to the story and it introduces continually interesting new places as Earth becomes a fantasy land before the reader’s eyes. There is an unpretentious, sincere quality to the building of each invented place on Earth and the effortless combination of science fiction with fantasy and magic was beautifully managed. Wallace. E. Briggs’ book is natural to read and easy to enjoy, and children will find themselves transported into a wholesome storyline in which the qualities of friendship, hope, persistence, and courage are not only brought forward, but fully realized through characters that shine off the page. A real treat and a lot of fun, this book is a quiet delight. |
AuthorThis is the companion for Sarah Scheele's newsletter blog. In it I share reviews for books I'd recommend/are similar to my own. Archives
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