Mini-Reviews: Fall Releases

My summer reading winds down with two books that couldn't be more dissimilar. The first comes out Tuesday, September 30, and the other is scheduled to arrive on the scene a few days later on October 7. I'm not sure if the cognitive dissonance of reading them together influenced my reactions, but I'd suggest you follow the almost archer sisters with KERPLUNK! rather than reading them in reverse order, as I did.

KERPLUNK! ISBN: 9780743280501 by Patrick F. McManus is a refreshing change of pace from the high tension wire act of duck duck wally, though both tickled the funny bone. Well, wally more like hit the funny bone at first, but then it tickled. On the gentler side, KERPLUNK! continues the low-key, folksy humor McManus is known and loved for. The stories in this trade paperback collection all first appeared in Outdoor Life magazine. He also wrote for Field and Stream. I remember enjoying his columns when those were the only reading material available in dentists' and doctors' offices, and I really didn't care about fly fishing. McManus' funny stories about hunting and fishing have an endearing appeal for all. They aren't actually sports tales, but rather reveal the foibles of humankind and what he thinks he learned from his adventures with Ma Nature.


THE ALMOST ARCHER SISTERS ISBN:9780743255868 by Lisa Gabriele is about two chicks, but most definitely not chick-lit. They happen to be half-sisters and opposites in most every way except for two devastating shared experiences. If dichotomies are the stuff of great stories and irony made for good reading, perhaps the downers in this novel could be overlooked. No, too integral. Maybe forgiven. Let's try more cliches: telling it like it is, that one fits. It is gloomy and depressing. If you'd like a reality check on what your life might have been like, if only you'd stayed back in Ohio/left home for the big city, THE ALMOST ARCHER SISTERS offers insight.