Book: Sleeping Beauties

 Book: Sleeping Beauties

Author: Stephen King and Owen King

Pages: 720

This is my 154th book for the year

This is the story of a future that women go to sleep and are shrouded in a gauze that acts like a cocoon.  A woman named Eve Black comes on the scene in a small town to confront some men who are treating a young woman badly.  She is arrested and soon it becomes apparent that she can sleep and wake unlike every other woman in the world.  Eve asks to be safe and if it happens, the women will all soon wake and be fine.  But if she dies - they all die.  Some of the men try to disturb the sleeping women, but it is met with violent consequences and then the women just fall back to sleep.  Many women do everything they can to stay awake - not knowing what will happen to them when they fall asleep.  Some men want to keep the women safe.  Others just want to kill Eve.  In a now all male world - violence abounds.

This was a pretty good book.  It is long.  I started to want to get to the end with about 200 pages left.  It started out strong and I was anxious to see where it was going as the women started to fall asleep.  It was an interesting concept - especially with what happened when you woke the women, but it then didn't turn into a "zombie" situation - the women just went back to sleep.  The world of the sleeping women was interesting, but the story of the remaining men became a bit of a slog. I did struggle a bit about Eve's part in all of it - I think it wasn't well explained.  If only the women of this town had fallen asleep - not the entire world - she would have fit better in my opinion.

Stars: 4

Book: Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect

 Book: Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect

Author: Benjamin Stevenson

Pages: 336

This is my 153rd read for the year

Here is what Amazon says about the book (because I am lazy today)

When the Australian Myster Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Dawin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book.  Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other.  Obviously, that didn't pan out.  But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives.  Together, we should know how to solve a crime.  Of course, we should also know how to commit one.  How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?

This was a pretty good book.  I read the author's first book and enjoyed it, so when I found this at a used bookstore I picked it up and glad I did.  It isn't terrific writing, but clever enough.  I love how he starts his book with a lot of "rules" I agree with regarding mysteries. (like not keeping the reader in the dark for no reason).  It gets a little convoluted in the near end, but wraps up nicely.  It is a light little read and I am glad I picked it up.

Stars: 4

Book: Quidditch Through The Ages

 Book: Quidditch Through The Ages

Author: JK Rowling

Pages: 51

This is my 152nd read for the year

From Amazon:

If you have ever asked yourself where the Golden Snitch came from, how the Bludgers came into existence, or why the Wigtown Wanderers have pictures of meat cleavers on their robs, you need Quiddith Through The Ages.  The invaluable volume is consulted by young Quidditch fans on an almost daily basis.

I read this book to fullfill an alphabet challege (needed a Q!).  It short and a bit of a manual, but had a few chuckle parts as you would imagine where Quidditch is concerned.  Took me all of an hour to read it, but it always amazes me of an author's imagination of an enitre world leading to little novelettes.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Within Arm's Reach

 Book: Within Arm's Reach

Author: Ann Napolitano

Pages: 352

This is my 151st read for the year

This is the story of a large Irish American family.  The matriarch has had a small accident and all the family gathers to find out what to do about it.  There are 6 siblings and their various children and significant others who all have an opinion.  Beyond that, we learn about several members of the family - Louis who was first on the scene of the accident and a son-in-law;  His wife Kelly who cannot figure out why Louis has taken to sleeping in the den; Kelly and Louis' two children Lila (a medical student) and Gracie who has found herself pregnant and alone.  As they navigate their lives and care for their mother - they recount the grief from her long life that made her the person she is now.

This book was just eh.  I have readh Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward and was excited to find this novel by Napolitano.  But it just wasn't nearly as good as those two.  I did read the Author's note and so glad I did because this was actually one of her first novels back at the beginning of her career that really didn't take off, and so now it makes more sense.  The writing wasn't good.  I hated every single character.  The matriarch's children are all awful and self centered.  Lily and Gracie are no better.  Neither are any of the cousins that made a debut in this book.  IT is clear that no one likes anyone else and it just went.....nowhere.  And then it ended on a cliff hanger to leave it up to the the reader to decide what came next.  Hard no.

Stars: 2

Book: Thunderstruck

Book: Thunderstruck

Author:  Erik Larson

Pages: 480

This is my 150th read for the year

This is the story of two people in the late 1800s England- Hawley Crippen who is a doctor who may have murdered his wife and Guglielmo Marconi that developed wireless capabilities to communicate.Their lives intersect when Crippen - who seems an unlikely murderer goes on the run and comunication from various ships needs to be quick to find him. 

 This was a pretty good book. I loved Erik Larson's "Devil in the White City". He is no doubt a talented writer and skilled researcher. It was just a bit dry and a bit of a slog compared to the other book. It is overly detailed and I found myself wishing he would just get to the point and the reason he was telling two tales leading to one ending. I would have liked to see these as separate stores. I know why he did it, but two tales might have been better handled.

Stars: 3

Book: Jaws

 Book: Jaws

Author: Peter Benchley

Pages: 368

This is my 149th read for the year

A great white shark is terrorizing the small town of Amity.  In a matter of 24 hours it has attacked and killed three people.  The police chief wants to close the beaches, but for this small island - approaching July 4th is a terrible time to close down a beach town that relies on tourist revenue.  The mayor makes the chief keep the beaches open and another person is killed.  The beaches are forced closed and a shark expert is called in to try and capture this huge shark so the town can reopen.  This proves a daunting task and the shark eludes capture leaving the towns people worried that they may never be able to go into the water again.

This was an okay book.  It started VERY strong and quite scary.  I found myself grasping the book hard as I read the first few chapters as this shark claimed its first victims.  However - the middle of the book is dull.  We veer quite a bit away from hunting the shark (or at least the scary aspect of what I have come to know of Jaws by watching the movie) to the lives of some of the towns people and a small love triangle that I couldn't quite figure out how it fit into the story of a great white shark.  There really aren't any likable characters.  

In this case, sadly I found the movie better.  The book lost its momentum and I found myself not caring what happened in the end.

Stars: 3

Book: Joyland

Book: Joyland

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 288

This is my 148th read for the year

This is the story of Devin Jones.  In 1973 he is a college student who is working an amusement park for the summer.  During the summer he works the rides, spends time as the mascot, and meets a mom and a young dying boy whom he takes under his wing.  He also learns that there was a murder that happened and he wants to figure out who it was that killed a young girl.  Told when Devin was in his 60s and looking back at this year of his life, he recounts how his life was changed.

This was an okay book.  I liked it just fine, but it seemed like too many things were going on in this short novel.  A murder, help for a dying child, and learning the ropes at an amusement park felt like one story line too many.  It was missing the magic of character development and I really didn't feel anything for any of them by the end of the book.  

Stars: 3