The Western Star

Book title  The Western Star  by  Craig Johnson

This book has a train theme.  It is written about the train the Western Star.  The Wyoming Sheriffs Association held its annual meeting on the Western Star.  As the train travels across Wyoming a man from the train is found murdered and another goes missing.  Who among the sheriffs aboard has committed this crime?  It is a real whodunit the rest of the journey.  The guilty person is revealed at the end with a hook for the next book in the series.

I do not generally read westerns but I tried this one because I had seen many books by this author and thought it should be good.   The element of suspense was present throughout the book.  However, the author would jump from one scene to another seemingly unrelated scene in the middle of a chapter.  The whole thing was tied together in the end but a little confusing as I was reading.

The Way I Heard It

The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe

Mike is an American television host, narrator and former opera star.  In Mike's words, "This is a book of short stories designed specifically for the curious mind plagued with a short attention span."  The book is patterned after the old Paul Harvey radio program, "The Rest of the Story".

The Way I Heard It is an entertaining collection of little anecdotes and facts about famous people and events, with little adventures from Rowe's own life thrown in.

Rowe is a natural story teller with a sense of humor and an awesome voice.  I enjoyed listening to this audiobook and trying to guess who he was talking about.  You can find this audiobook on-line thru Libby.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars

 

Where the Forest Meets the Stars    By Glendy Vanderah

This is a beautiful and sad mystery, with some magical elements sprinkled throughout.  A young girl appears suddenly at the remote cabin of a women who is doing field research on birds.  The young girl is barefoot and appears to have bruises all over. She is very secretive when asked what she is doing there and why she is away from home, telling the college student, Jo, that she has fallen from the stars and comes from an alien planet, also telling her she has inhabited the body of young dead girl, and brings a dog with her.
Jo is not buying this at first, and tries to find out what horrible home life this child has come from and who isn't reporting her missing. She calls local authorities, checks websites, but, she soon becomes too entranced by the little girl, Ursa, to care and slowly stops trying solve her mystery. The child has told Jo she is here to witness 5 miracles then will return back to her home planet.  Jo and her neighbor Gabe soon let Usra into their lives and their hearts, as their own sad histories come up and they watch the miracles unfold. They follow the little girl's story to it's full conclusion no matter what truths they finally find at the end.

I found myself wishing this story was more fantasy and more magical, the reality of  life sometimes is so hard and sad, and it would be much easier to explain away life's struggles with far fetched tales. It was a page turning mystery though, and I was fully invested in the story of the sad little girl and the two adults who are caring for her.  With tones of depression, domestic violence, death, cancer, adultery and many other horrible scenarios, be aware it will trigger some emotion in you. But, the emotion may just be hope, at the end of it all, and believing in something bigger then yourself.