Book Review - The Best Mariachi

Book Review Smith, J.D.The Best Mariachi. McHenry. IL : Raven Tree Press, 2008


Gustavo wants to be a Mariachi. Gustavo wants to be the best Mariachi. He wants to wear a sombrero and a charro and play the guitar, or the trumpet or the violin. He wants everyone to clap when he plays. Unfortunately for Gustavo he can't play the violin or the guitar. He can't play anything. He is not the best mariachi in the world, he is the worst mariachi in the world! He would never get to wear a charro or a sombrero and nobody would every clap for him. One day he gets up early to sing. He can't stop singing, and he is good at singing! Everyone claps for him and he is no longer the worst mariachi in the world, he is the best mariachi in the world!

I tried reading this book to my children since they would be the best judges of whether this was a good book for their age group. I found that the book was a good read aloud book, with nice illustrations and a good moral about not giving up and trying to find your best role in life. Gustavo was an appealing character who you really wish the best for and are happy to find can do something really well. My kids let me know that the story is sticky and that there are parts that small children will remember for a long time. Weeks after reading this book my son (four) remembered that the book was called the “Best Mariachi. This book also introduces children to Mexican culture and teaches them a few Spanish words. To be honest my daughter did not like this book as much as my son did, who kind of “adopted” the book and carries it around with him. But it really seems to be easier to find books that appeal to girls than books that appeal to boys.

I would recommend this book to any children from around 4 to 7, especially little boys.

Book Review - Any Given Doomsday

Book Review: Handeland, Lori Any Given Doomsday. New York: St. Martins Press, 2008.

Word of caution here: I am not a fan of genre fiction, especially thriller fiction,and I was very surprised to hear that I was receiving this book. That being said I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this book - at first. Liz Phoeniz is an ex-cop turned bartender who is also a psychic. She has a “sense” that her former caregiver , Ruthie needs her help. When she gets to Ruthie's house, she finds that Ruthie has been brutally murdered. Even worse, her former lover Jimmy Sanducci is the prime suspect. She soon finds out that Ruthie had special powers that Liz inherits and that she is about to be in the front lines of a battle of good versus evil, loosely based on the biblical book of revelations. Jimmy and others are also involved in this battle.

As I said I enjoyed this book at first. However the more supernatural forces that entered the picture the less I found myself enjoying this book and the more I found my belief suspended. I also found none of the characters likeable, especially not Liz and Jimmy. As I often find with genre fiction, the plot and the characters were somewhat formulaic. (Bitter ex-cops who are products of the foster care system anyone?) but I recognize for many readers that this is an appealing aspect of genre fiction. However what really lost me was the amount of gratutitous violence and later the amount of gratuitous sex. The amount of sex in the book was especially of putting . Was this a paranormal thriller or a romance novel? There was far too much genre mixing for my taste.

Readers who enjoy paranormal thrillers might enjoy this book, but as someone who does not usually read thrillers, this book seemed to be a not particularly well written representative of the genre

Book Review - Sweetsmoke

Book Review: Fuller, David. Sweetsmoke. New York : Hyperion, 2008

Sweetsmoke follows the story of the slave Cassius Howard living on his masters plantation in Virginia during the civil war. When his friend and mentor Emoline Justice is found murdered, Cassius sets out to find her murderer, hardly an easy task for a slave in Civil War Virginia. His ability as a carpenter has kept him in the favor of his Master Hoke Howard, but when he investigates his friends murder he finds out things about his master that strain their relationship.

This was a very difficult review to write as I wasn't sure what to say. I was excited to hear about this book being available. I read a lot of fiction about slaves living in the pre-antibellum south. However, when I read this book I just never connected with it. There is no doubt that this book is very well researched and the story is compelling. Nonetheless I wasn't drawn into any of the characters and I felt that sometimes the narrative jumped around quite a bit. By contrast, the next book I read was Somebody Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill, a book with a lot of similarities in subject matter butt I loved it. I think that Sweetsmoke is very well written and would recommend it to the many readers who enjoy well researched historical fiction and will really enjoy it.