mandymarie needs to find her ROOTs. Where are they?

Last year was the least amount of books I've read since I learned how to read. I can't believe how disappointed I am with myself. Haven't felt like myself in ages and my lack of reading shows. No finished books since August 2017. This isn't me. Used to finish at least a book every few days. I can't believe it and don't have any idea how many books to pick this year. I thought 25 was incredibly low balling it last year, but couldn't even get to half. Maybe I'll stick to 25 this year. Depression is a b*tch.




Goal - 25 Books
Towards goal - /25
Percentage towards goal - %

1. Houston, Rick - Dale vs. Daytona
2. Winspear, Jacqueline - Mapping of Love and Death
3. Springstubb, Tricia - Cody and the Heart of a Champion
4. Lindsay, Norman - Age of Consent
5. Forler, Nan - Trampoline Boy
6. Preston, Janice - Lady Cecily and the Mysterious Mr. Gray
7. March, Tatiana - The Outlaw and the Runaway
8.

I am very glad to see you back for another year! I, too, have had to drastically lower my goal to avoid it turning into yet another overwhelming thing I couldn't seem to accomplish.

I hope you manage to find the energy to read at least a little - I am looking forward to seeing what you pick up and how you are liking it.

Welcome back, mandymarie! Happy ROOTing. I hope you can battle the depression and feel good about reading again. We will support you! You go girl!

Happy rooting!

Welcome back! I hope the reading mojo comes back soon, and that most importantly the books you read are enjoyable!

Good luck with your goals!

Welcome back! I can sympathise with not being in the right frame of mind for reading, but you mustn't let your ROOTs goal become a rod with which to beat yourself!

I eased back in with audiobooks, maybe that might help? :)

Welcome back and best wishes for getting back your reading mojo!

Good luck with your ROOTing this year.

Good luck for this year, I hope things pick up for you.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I really apprreciate it

1. Houston, Rick - Dale vs Daytona - 5 Stars - Early Reivewer



Finally got my first book under my belt. Really excited. It's an Early Reviewer book, which I am sadly behind on reading. Glad I started with this because a book containing new tidbits about something I thought I knew everything there was to know made the book much more engrossing. You couldn't skip any part of it because there was actually new information in it.

Dale vs Daytona tells the story of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.'s quest to win The Great American Race, the Daytona 500. For NASCAR and race fans, the Daytona 500 is one of the most preeminent races in the world. Legends are made. If you win, you will be remembered forever.

Dale Earnhardt, Sr., a 7-time NASCAR champion. An icon of the sport, there was one thing he could never get - a Daytona 500 trophy. Dale vs Daytona explores his quest to win the trophy he longed for so much.

The book explores his struggles year by year in easy to digest portions. A chapter is a year beginning with a brief rundown of the race followed by many fun stories and behind the scenes antics. Anyone who has followed NASCAR for a while knows about Dale Sr.'s struggle to win the Daytona 500. What isn't so known is all the behind the scenes struggles to finally get the ultimate prize.

What I love about Rick Houston's books is they have so many stories I don't know. The stories that make NASCAR interesting. We can all easily find who won and who lost. What isn't easy to find is how people felt about things, the shenanigans, the interesting ways cars may have not been quite so legal, the true story. If you are into NASCAR stories by someone who was there, this is a definite must read.

I hope Houston has many more stories to tell. I have read this book as well as his previous book NASCAR's Greatest Race and they are both fantastic. Who knows what gems we can read about in the future?

Side note - I appreciate that this book has some sourced material. The only suggestion I had about NASCAR's Greatest Race was it had no sourced material. It solely seemed to be memories. The quotes didn't seem to have a reference. This book has sourced material. As a former librarian, I greatly appreciate that.

Great review! As a non-American - and with no petrolheads in the family - I only have a vague idea of NASCAR and the Daytona 500 but I can see how it attracts a huge fan base and legends are made. :)

>12 mandymarie20: good review! I am going to purchase this book for my son, a NASCAR aficionado for Christmas.

Thanks so much! Hope they enjoy it. It's really good.

Thanks. I appreciate it. My husband was into it before we married and it was something to do together. I enjoy worldwide racing, but I appreciate NASCAR most because there is a greater variety of winners and the cultural impact in America. A lot of underdog, David and Goliath situations.

Glad you're back with us!

2. Winspear, Jacqueline - Mapping of Love and Death - 3 Stars



I've always wanted to read a Maisie Dobbs mystery. I've heard for years that these are some of the best mysteries written today in a historical setting. I could not have been more disappointed.

'Mapping of Love and Death' is the story of Maisie Dobbs, a former WWI nurse turned detective, who is faced with a case involving the possible murder of a WWI soldier whose land grant in California is in question. The soldier's parents seek the help of Maisie to find out how he died and if she can find the girl he was in love with.

I have always had a big problem with modern books not being accurate when discussing a historical period - putting modern morals into a historical setting. When I bring this up, most people bring up that every book that does this is the exception and it wouldn't be worth reading if it was accurate to the time, but why is every one the exception? It's frustrating and takes me right out of the book. Too much suspension of disbelief. The language as well is too modern. If you read books written during the time this would have taken place, the language is so much richer and the fact that this is supposed to be a British setting, I definitely would have expected more formal language.

Wealthy millionaires, the Clifton's, want to know how their son died in WWI. His body has recently been found (about a decade after the war) and he seemed to be murdered. There was also a set of letters found which mentioned a lady love and they would like to find her. I appreciate women detectives, adore Miss Marple for example, but I have immense difficulty trying to pictures a wealthy American couple seeking out a seemingly middle class female detective in Britain who they have never heard of. They would have to ignore many social conventions of the time and they didn't seem curious about her capabilities at all. That seemed odd to me. The Clifton's also gave the letters of the dead son to her - unread - and seemed to have absolutely no problems with a stranger reading the most personal letters their son would have received. The reason given, they couldn't bare to, was unbelievable. Seems like you'd want a family member or friend to at least peruse them first as to not embarrass their son or bring shame on their family. Not only that, but they would be entrusting something so precious to a complete stranger, so right off the bat I had issues.

I won't go into the mystery so people can read it on their own, but nearly every clue was unbelievable. Many of the conclusions Maisie came to, the book never explained how she got to them - an exceptionally frustrating aspect of this book. And Maisie happened to personally know or knew someone who knew someone who gave her an answer. She never had to do any real detective work. No dead ends. No frustration.

The terrible ending:
1. Not only was the soldier murdered, but he was murdered by a family member in Britain who happened to be his commanding officer. Come on. This was ridiculous.
2. They found the girl, but there was not one girl, there was two. So the whole love interest fairy tale was ruined because the soldier was basically sleeping with everyone under the sun. There was no point and it was confusing which one the author was referring to at different times.
3. One of the girls had given birth to the soldiers son, but she was a wealthy married woman, so Maisie kept the birth a secret. The knowledge of a grandchild - which the soldier's mother felt was out there - was kept from the Clifton's. They would never know their grandchild or give him what should have been his inheritance. Horrible.
4. Maisie becomes a millionaire with estates everywhere just when she was dating an aristocrat whose family had issues with her, so now instead of being just a middle class career woman beneath him, Maisie now has all the resources she needs to overcome the class differences. So ten second problem solved.

This mystery could have been amazing. Many love these books so much that I thought for sure I would love it. I could not have been more wrong. Maybe the others in the series are better. I am clearly in the minority in this opinion because every other review I've read adores it. It's just difficult to ignore the modernity and a mystery needs adversity. When there is no adversity, there is no tension, and no reason to read.

3. Springstubb, Tricia - Cody and the Heart of a Champion - Early Reviewer - 2 stars



Pretty bland chapter book. Not bad, but not good or memorable.

Cody is obsessed with plants and her red jacket which she has grown too small for. She also adores ants in the ground, whom she fed last year and considers her pets. Every day she feeds them until they come out of the ground at the end of the book. I assume the ants and getting a new jacket are supposed to be a metaphor for new life, Cody is also an elementary school girl dealing with new beginnings. Her friend Pearl is into soccer and her other friend Spencer is building a mysterious museum under a neighbor's steps. The friendship issues become a crux of the story.

The issues with this book seem to be the conflict between Cody and her 2 friends Pearl and Spencer. Pearl is newly interested in soccer. She wants to play and is obsessed with Madison. Madison is hard core into soccer and wants to win. Cody doesn't understand or care about soccer, so she joins the team to be near her friend Pearl. Of course, Cody ends up not only making the team, even though she knows nothing about soccer and has never played, but basically becomes the best player. Unbelievable. Never played, yet the best. Nothing to overcome. Doesn't care, but is amazing. And of course, Madison, the girl who is good and actually cares, is considered the evil villain because she takes soccer seriously. It's not a game to her. A lot of people want to do their best and I just found it difficult to empathize with Cody who didn't care about soccer but was still amazing, complaining about someone who worked hard and wanted to win. And of course the "evil" Madison got ill and was not able to play in the big game. Her competitive nature ruined everything for her. In fact, her competitive nature made her sick Horrible message. Don't care - you win. Try, work hard, and be passionate about something - horrible things happen to you.

A friend moving away is a common experience many kids face. This was the perfect opportunity to be authentic. When a friend moves away, it often isn't just a few blocks away. Usually it's a decent amount away where the friend changes school and/or is too difficult to keep up a friendship. Of course that story was not told. Spencer, Cody's friend, starts acting odd. He starts making a museum under the stars of the neighbor's house of things he values. What turns out being wrong with him is his mom is having a baby and they are moving. Except it turns out they are only moving a few blocks away, so what could have been an actual life lesson and be an authentic moment is ruined.

The last subplot concerned Cody's brother. Wyatt. He has a new girlfriend. Because of that new girlfriend, he starts wearing collared shirts and greasing back his hair, ditching his usual t-shirts and natural hair. Throughout the book, Wyatt is miserable. He doesn't act like himself. He doesn't wear what he wants to wear. He doesn't do what he wants to do. All this is because of his 'overbearing' girlfriend. By the end of the story however he goes back to his tees and no gel hair. His girlfriend is loving his natural look. This was an odd subplot. Logically the girlfriend would have seen him before. She then radically changed him, apparently because she doesn't like the look. But when he turns back, she loves the look too. So, what was the whole point then? Made the character inconsistent. Seemed like she never would have wanted the change in the first place or would have been mad after him changing back. And if she was so happy he was back "to himself", why wouldn't she have just said she didn't like the changes and he should go back? Made no sense.

What I found particularly troubling about this book is the messages. As far as I can tell the messages seem to be:
1. Nothing bad ever happens. Even when you think something bad is happening, you just don't have all the information.
2. You are good at everything no matter how little effort you put in. Hard work and caring about things is bad. Don't care. Just show up and you will be amazing.
3. Be yourself no matter what. You should never improve. You are never doing anything wrong. People should never try to help you improve

The most interesting part of the book is the description of the plants in nature that permeate the book about every 10 pages. Other than that, it's an average book at best.

4. Lindsay, Norman - Age of Consent - 3 Stars



Bradly is an artist. He goes to a lonely, sleepy, little beach town in Australia to paint. One day he sees a girl, Cora,who sells random things like oysters in the city. Bradly thinks she's hot, so this landscape painter decides to ask her to model for him. Over the course of a few days, he has her pose in more and more risque poses. Of course this behavior is odd for the town and gets Bradly in trouble with the wicked old crone the lovely Cora lives with.

This is one of those old timey books based on character. It's the perfect example of why I love vintage books. The character, the atmosphere, the language, the way the story is written is all rich and fascinating. Frankly nothing happens in most of the book, but because the characters are so fascinating, you don't mind. I wasn't a huge fan of this particular book itself. It's not that it's not an interesting journey, it's just that it's not something I'd read twice. It's a bohemian life, justifying decadence. It's not really a lifestyle I find interesting.

The elephant in the room is the Bohemian lifestyle and justification for what appears to be love with a minor. A Lolita type situation. There is a grizzly old painter, wandering from town to town, painting landscapes. He sees a pretty young girl, becomes obsessed with her, and starts to have him model for him for paintings. As the days go on, he has her undress more and more. And while he pays her, he ogles her all day. This causes Cora's crone of a guardian, who is always described as an old witch, to flip out. Cora kills her because she can't stand it. And the kicker at the end? Cora throwing herself at Bradly because he helps her dispose of the body off a cliff so she doesn't go to jail for murder. Basically, sex for murder. Oh, the degeneracy.

I do enjoy the tone of the book and there were interesting characters, but he morals are not my thing. This is definitely a view into the bohemian life, similar to the hippie lifestyle. So if you enjoy that kind of romp, this is well written. Definitely a prime example of this type of book and the time it was written. If you like Lolita, you'll like this.

5. Forler, Nan and Arbona, Marion - Trampoline Boy - 3 Stars - Early Reviewer



A little boy is obsessed with a trampoline. All he does all day every day is jump on a trampoline. Everyone just goes and watches him jump on a trampoline every day. One day, a girl comes up to him and wants to learn how he does it. They jump on the trampoline to the sky with the birds and planes, loving life.

This is a decent picture book with a decent message about determination and finding beauty. I assume that's what it's about anyway. Otherwise it's just a book about a kid who jumps and a girl who jumps with him Not too much happening, but not a terrible book or objective.

Have to say I'm not a fan of the artwork. While it is not terrible, it's not great or timeless. The cover is not anything I imagine kids would pick out, but parents probably would. I have to say the little girl in the book is creepy looking, a Raggedy Ann doll reject. Definitely not a fan.

While a decent picture book that is a simple story, it's worth reading once. Can't say I've seen many trampoline picture books, so it's definitely worth reading it just because of the rarity of the topic.

Nice reviews, MM. I always like to read them.

Thanks! I appreciate that.

6. Preston, Janice - Lady Cecily and the Mysterious Mr Gray - 3 Stars



After Cecily sees her brothers whom she raised since her mother's death happily married, she starts to think about what life will hold for her. Not wanting to be the relative who lives off everyone's charity, Cecily comes up with a scheme to get married, deciding a family of her own would be the best choice or her future - even though the guy he picks is a bit of a jerk.

Enter the handsome half Romany secret son of a Lord who lives like a Gypsy. Cecily falls in love with him, even though he seems inappropriate for her (or her family thinks so anyway). Turns out the jerk Cecily wants to marry tortured Zachary as well, so naturally he does not want Cecily to marry him.

While interesting, it's always frustrating to find out that the actual problem doesn't actually exist. Of course the 'wrong choice' of guy is actually a rich, wealthy titled person - so not an issue. If this was really the case, I wish this reveal would be saved for the end because the reader knows the entire time that it isn't a problem at all - hence no real conflict.

7. March, Tatiana - The Outlaw and the Runaway - 3 Stars



Celia is ostracized from society because she has a scar on her face. The town calls it a devil's mark, and everything bad that happens is attributed to her scar and by default, her. Celia's dying father, seeing how's' she's treated everywhere, is desperate to find a husband for her so she may have a family when he is gone.

Enter outlaw Roy Hogan, outlaw, who disguises himself as disfigured as well so he isn't recognized when he robs. Drawn to Celia when he sees how poorly she is treated, he takes pity on her and eventually falls in love with her.

Interesting premise, but I always have issues with romances based on disfigurement. They aren't honest. The biggest issue is the reveal from Roy that he is not only an outlaw but not disfigured. Trust is the number 1 issue for those who are disfigured. People hate and pity so much, it's next to impossible to be treated with fairness and honesty. This plot point would have been a major betrayal, yet in this book - nothing. Completely glossed over. This would have been incredibly hurtful and the fact Celia basically thought it was cool, seemed incredibly inauthentic to me.

I appreciate romance novels about people with physical disfigurements since in the real world, there is little. I just wish one of these authors would ask a real disfigured person about their experience and how they really would feel in these situations.

>25 mandymarie20: very insightful comments in your review, I completely agree - it supports the myth that only perfect people are worthy of love, friendship, etc. I suppose the author would counter that the story is only a fantasy and not meant to represent real life, but how much more depth it would have had if it had tackled the subject sympathetically!

Hi there!
I am glad you are getting back to reading and have enjoyed your reviews very much.