Book: How To Walk Away

 Book: How To Walk Away

Author: Katherine Center

Pages: 368

This is my 159th read for the year

This is the story of Margaret Jacobsen.  Life is going well for her - she has a job prospect that is her dream job, and she is about to get engaged to Chip - the love of her life.  Chip has recently learned to fly and takes Margaret for a plane ride which she assumes will end in a proposal.  Tragedy strikes and everything Margaret had in front of her comes to a halt.  Now in the hospital for weeks, she has to come with terms that things will never be the same.   Chip all but vanishes wallowing in self pity.  Kit, Margaret's sister who has been MIA for 3 years suddenly reappears and wants to make amends.  And then there is Ian - the grouchy physical therapist that isn't going to let Margaret give up.  As Margaret tries to piece her life back together and figure out what will happen once she leaves the hospital, she finds things she never knew she was missing.

This was a pretty good book.  I have read one of Center's other's books (Things You Save In A Fire) and have "Happiness for Beginners" on my TBR list.  The story was fine.  Romance is one of my least favorite genres, but I stuck with it.  I did not really like Margaret for a large part of this book.  She was all over the place - whiny but stating how strong she was.  And of course it was a predictable love story that everyone can see coming.  Some things didn't sit right - Margaret is severely burned yet she is quickly up and out of the hospital before her burns are completely healed doing "therapy" just to move the storyline along with her and Ian.  I mean - she isn't supposed to get the grafts wet for a year yet in a span of a few pages she is in a pool and in a canoe?  Sure.  BUT - honestly - for the most part, it was a fine, quick, easy read.  I liked the Epilogue.  While predictable, I still enjoyed it.

Stars: 3

Book: Worst Case Scenario

Book: Worst Case Scenario

Author: TJ Newman

Pages: 336

This is my 158th read for the year

This is a story of a small town called Waketa.  A pilot has a massive heart attack and dies at the controls of his plane.  The plane nose dives and crashes into a nuclear powerplant in this small town.  Now it is a race against time  - with less than 20 hours - to stop a catastophe happening that not only would be a Chernobyl level event, but might be an extinction event.  The town must pull together to save not only themselves, but possibly everyone.

This was a great book.  I like TJ Newman's books - she knows how to write a thriller.  I have read her other two and I find myself gripping the novel with white knuckles almost beginning to end.  I ran through this one in 2 days because even though I was sure things would work out in the end for the earth as a whole, I know Newman does not wrap all of her characters up in a neat bow.  I commend her for this - she keeps it a little more realistic.  I only knocked it half a star because she does have too many characters and too many things going on for 300 pages.  She was trying to pull in all the people in the town, but it was unnecessary.  Otherwise - great book.  

Stars: 4.5

Book: Somewhere Beyond The Sea

 Book: Somewhere Beyond The Sea

Author: TJ Klune

Pages: 416

This is my 157th read for the year

This is the story of Arthur Parnassus and the magical children he and Linus care for.  Arthur and Linus live with them on an island where they can raise the children away from prying eyes and judgement.  When Arthur is summoned to testify about his past, all eyes are now on him and the children.  Soon a memeber of the government is sent to the island to spend two weeks making sure the children are safe.  Arthur and Linus are sure that the government has an underlying agenda and they will do anything to make sure that the children can stay with them.

This was a pretty good book.  I have read several to Klune's books and I find him a wonderful writer.  I loved the prequel to this book - The House on the Cerulean Sea, and Under the Whisper door.  However - I have noted that each book gets a little more flowery than the next.  While this is not bad - it just isn't for me.  His whole book is agenda, and this is his perrogative and I am glad there are people like him who stand up for those who need it.  It just felt like a lot in this novel.  The kids spoke way above what ages they were supposed to be by the end of the book.  

I know Klune is trying to make a point.  It was just too much of this book that i took away from the characters and the overall story.  Not nearly as good as the first book in this series.

Stars: 3

Book: Livid

 Book: Livid

Author: Patricia Cornwell

Pages: 368

This is my 156th read for the year

Kay Scarpetta returns as a key witness in a murder trial.  While this is going on, the sister of the judge, Annie - who is also a close friend of Scarpetta - is murdered.  Kay and her team are sent to investigate.  At first it looks like a home invasion, but upon further investigation something sinister seems to have happened to the judge's sister.  Another victim turns up and Kay feels that all of them are in danger if they don't capture this killer soon.

This book was not good.  I used to be a really big Patricia Cornwell fan.  I read all of her books. Scarpetta and Pete Marino were some of my favorite characters over the years.  A few years ago I read a Scarpetta novel and swore it would be my last.  Cornwell has made Scarpetta so out of touch with reality (probably due to Cornwell being so wealthy and famous) that the novels stopped being interesting to me.  However, I found this on for $4 at a used bookstore and figure I would give it a try.  The plot is boring.  She just rambles on and on about details that no one cares about unless you are a forensic pathologist (or really into the study of it) or a medical examiner.  She describes so many things that there was no actual story.  This was a book to nowhere.  I did not care what happened to any of the characters and the ending was a total let down.  I am now done.

Stars: 2

Book: The Family Experiment

 Book: The Family Experiment

Author: John Marrs

Pages: 384

This is my 155th read for the year

This is the story of a group of people who were chosen to raise a child in the Metaverse.  Each participant will help raise a virtual child for 9 months and the child will age from newborn to 18 years of age in that timeframe.  The winner in the end will get a hefty prize and also the chance to start their own family or keep their virtual child.  All other children will be erased.  As secrets of the contestants start to emerge, their lives being front and center 24 hours a day on television starts to take a toll.  The general public is not convinced that any of the contestants deserve to win.

This was a very interesting book.  I could not put it down because I was so interested in where the stories of the contestants were going.  Each chapter is a different couple (and the one single parent), and the book moves ahead in segments with those families as the virtual child ages.  As things unravel for most of the couples, I wanted to see wat the ending was going to be like.  The fault I have with it -and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars - is because it does my most hated thing.  It keeps the reader in the dark way more than necessary.  You get small snippets of each family but you are always left wanting more. I thought the whole idea was very clever.  And I did like the writing EXCEPT for the above mentioned.  He is a good writer otherwise.  The ending wasn't as strong as I was hoping it was going to be.  But I am glad I read it.

Stars: 4

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

 

Book: Sandwich

 Book: Sandwich

Author: Catherine Newman

Pages: 240

This is my 147th read for the year

This is the story of Rocky and her family.  Rocky is a member of the Sandwich generation - her parents are aging and her children are almost grown, and she is in the middle.  She is going through menopause and feels so up and down with her emotions.  Each year she and her family escape to a house on Cape Cod for one week of being together and relaxing.  This book is day by day of their week together with Rocky remembering what it was like when the kids were little and they took this trip.  And how no matter how desperately tired she was when she had little ones to care for, she misses those tiny ones who relied on her for everything.  Her parents join them on the Cape for two days, and when her mom reveals a health issue, Rocky feels the balance of her life start to falter.

This was a great book.  It is very short, but considering I am a woman right like Rocky, I felt it deeply.  I have two 18 year olds and a 21 year old.  I have 75 year old parents.  I am the middle of the seesaw trying to balance all while dealing with the chaos of menopause.  I also had some laugh outloud moments in the book, and quite a few chuckles.  It really hit home.  I knocked it a star because even with it being so short it was a bit rambly, but overal - solid read.

Stars: 4

Book: Dolores Claiborne

 Book: Dolores Caliborne

Author: Stephen King

Pagges: 336

This is my 146th read for the year

This is the story of Dolores.  When the old rich woman she cares for falls and dies, Dolores is brought in for questioning.  She has been at the police station before - 30 years ago when he husband dies.  She is innocent of the woman's fall, but decides it is time to come clean of her husband's death years ago.  She starts her tale at the beginning and recounts her life with her abusive husband, Joe, her children, and her years as a caretaker.  

This was a great book.  I listened to this one and the narrator is Frances Sternhagen which was perfect.  She made the audio version for sure.  The story is well told, and I found myself wanting to continue to listen to find out where the story was going.  The whole story is a long monologue and it is just very well written.  King can be hit or miss but I found this one a hit.  No rambling.  A good story from beginning to end and I am glad I read this one.

Stars: 5

Book: The Tommy Knockers

 Book: The Tommyknockers

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 558

This is my 145th read for the year

This is the story of Bobbi Anderson.  One day while walking in the woods with her dog, she came upon a gray metal box in the ground.  She feels like it has been buried 1000s of years, and becomes obsessed with digging it out.  As she does, she and the people in the town start to change.  They start to "become".  They start inventing things that they would never have been able to do before.  People start to disappear.  The towns people cannot leave the town and when outsiders come to the town, they get violently ill.  Bobbi's friend Gard comes to twon when Bobbi is deeply involved with digging and tries to get her away.  But the aliens have such a deep hold on she and the town that he isn't sure he can rescue her in time.

This was a pretty good book.  I watched the TV series years ago, but never read the book.  It is well written and I got drawn into the story of what was going on with the town.  The story flows well between Bobbi and the rest of the towns people, and then Gard when he arrives.  The only thing is, or course like most King books, is that he does have verbal diahrrea and rambling issues when he writes.  With this one, I didn't find it too bad, though.  I didn't feel the need to skip passages just to get to the point often which was good.

Stars: 4

Book: This Summer Will Be Different

 Book: This Summer Will Be Different

Author: Carly Fortune

Pages: 368

This is my 144th read for the year

Here is what Amazon has to say:

Lucy is the tourit vacatining at a beach house on Prince Edward Island.  Felix is the local who shows her a very good time.  The only problem: Lucy doesn't know he's her best friend's younger brother.  Lucy and Felix's chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.  It's easier said than done.  Eah year, Lucy escapes to Prince Edward Island for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters, and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget.  Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun.  And every visit Lucy promises herself she won't wind up in Felix's bed.  Again.  When Bridget suddently flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island.  Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she's never been able to.  But Felix's sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy's beginning to wonder how safe her heart truly is.

I wanted to like this book.  I really did.  I usually steer cleer of romance novels, but it is summer and I have a few challenge categories I need books for.  But I really did not like this book.  I did in the beginning.  I liked Lucy and Bridget and I loved the scene painted of Prince Edward Island.  That is one thing that a lot of romance novels get right - they are cozy and draw you into the scenery and wish you were there.  Just like a good Hallmark Christmas movie.  But that is where the good ends.  This quickly became more Fifty Shades of Gray (sex wise) and less rom com and that is just not something I care for in books  It is a personal opinion but the almost constant descriptive sex took away from the story.  They drug Bridget's "secret" out forever to the appoint of annoyance and in the end - that wasn't that big of a deal.  The writing always went downhill as the story continued and I found myself wishing it would just end already.  I could feel no chemistry between Lucy and Felix - just sex.  There was no Romance. The epilogue was a little redeeming, but overall - I did not care for the book.

Stars 2.5

Book: The World We Live In

 Book: The World We Live In

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pages: 256

This is my 143rd read for the year

Here is what Amazon has to say about this book (I am far behind on blogging and don't have time for synopsis)

It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth's climate.  For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists.  Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frzoen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda's father and stepmother arrive with a baby ad three strangers in tow.  One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda's complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship.  Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

Well I am officially done with this book series.  This book was terrible.  The writing has not improved - it is still very immature and shallow.  The love stories are unbelievable and weird.  Miranda is a constant bratty teenager.  There is so much cheesy writing that I was rolling my eyes almost constantly.  There wasn't much growth with this story either.  Same old same old from the other two books.  Now just with 10 people living under one roof instead of 5.  So I am done.

Stars: 2

Book: Burn

 Book: Burn

Author: Peter Heller

Pages: 304

This is my 142nd read for the year

This is the story of Jess and Storey.  They have spent time in the woods on their annual trip - away from everyone but nature.  They emerge to find all the towns on their route burned to the ground.   Maine has fallen to succession mania - following in the footsteps of other states.  After running out of gas, Jess and Storey are forced to walk and find food to try and get home.  They are finding that leaving the state of Maine is almost impossible.  Their route becomes more complicated when they find a little girl hiding among some rubble of a town and are determined to get her back to her family.  

This book was just strange.  I have read other Heller books and have liked them, but this one I just could not get into.  It was a bit of a slog.  It was way too vague in a lot of ways.  The book is half flashback to Jess and Storey's childhood which I found unnecessary in a short book.  Just when the main story got going, the author would flash back for pages and pages making me lose interest in the whole thing.  The ending was unsatisfatory.  

Stars: 2.5

Book: The Dead And The Gone

 Book: The Dead And The Gone

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pages: 336

This is my 141st read for the year

Here is what Amazon has to saw about this book:

Alex Morales is an average high schooler focused on his after-school job, helping his dad out with building superintendent responsibilities, and getting good grades so he can make it into an Ivy League college.  But when the moon alters its gravitatioal pull and catastrophic events ensue, everything changes.  Now, he has to care for his younger sisters, decide whether it's ethical to rob the dead, and keep the hope alive that their lost parents will return.  The author investigates what it takes to survive when the odds are stacked against you in this captivating story about ssacrifice and humanity.

This book was fine.  I was a little surprised -considering this is a second book in a series - that it was almost a repeat of book 1 just with a different family.  I did look ahead to books 3 and 4, and see that is is going to tie them together.  The writing is still very juvenile - the characters very shallow.  I liked Alex the main character okay - his sister Julie was awful.  I also liked Alex's friends who helped him when his parents didn't return.   It was just a bit of a bummer to read almost a repeat story when I had just finished the first one.  I didn't find enough differences to make it worth it.  I am going to try book 3 but if it is just okay I will stop.

Stars: 3

Book: Life As We Knew It

 Book: Life As We Knew It

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pages: 352

This is my 140th read for the year

This story is told through journal entries of a teenager named Miranda.  A meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer to earth.  This causes catastrophic problems - tsunamis, volcano erruptions, fires, loss of power, change in temperature.  Throughout the course of a year after the meteor hits, Miranda journals the journey her family took to try and stay alive.  From her mom's forward thinking of getting all they could at the beginning of the tragedy, to Miranda's final ditch effort to go and find help when they were as desperate as they could get.  

This is definitely a YA book and I need to judge it as such.  You need to remember when reading this that Miranda is a 16 year old girl with a 16 year old brain.  However - at a few points in the book I did feel that Miranda was written more like a 10-12 year old.  She was a very immature character for a large portion of the book.  The redeeming for me was that I liked the overall idea.  She kept the problems for this family realistic.  Not big floods or earthquakes but chance of starvation or freezing to death or chancing getting sick or hurt without anyone to help.  Not being able to move south because where would you go?  I just didn't overly love the characters.

She wrote 3 more books in this series so I might check out the second one to see where it goes.

Stars: 3

Book: Big Lies in a Small Town

 Book: Big Lies in a Small Town

Author: Diane Chamberlain

Pages: 400

This is my 139th read for the year

This is the story of 2 people.  Morgan - who is 2018 is trying to pick up her life after being in jail for hurting someone in a car accident.  An accident where she wasn't the driver, but she was charged anyway.  She has been asked to restore an old mural.  The owner of the mural has recently passed away and in his will Morgan is named as the only person he wants to restore it to fulfill the will's requirements.  The other player is Anna Dale.  In 1940 she is chosen as part of a contest to pain a mural in a sleepy North Carolina town.  She finds deep prejudice in this town and she as a woman and an outsdier cannot quite fit in or be accepted - even for the short time she is there to commission the work.  When tragedy strikes, Anna finds herself fleeing her work and fighting for her life.

This was a really good book.  I have read a few of Chamberlain's novels and have enjoyed most of them.  I liked both of the women - Morgan and Anna.  I liked a lot of the supporting characters as well.  It is well written and the flow from one timeline to the next and then the tie of the two together flowed nicely.  The ending was basically satisfactory.  It does end on a bit of a cliff hanger, but one that was soft and of course would not lead to a further story.  It just wasn't going to be a part of the bigger story, so I can understand why the author ended it that way.  There is a love story, and it does get a little cheesy, but not overly so.  Also - there is a trigger warning with this one (rape).

Overall a good read and I am very glad I read it.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Dead Zone

 Book: The Dead Zone

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 528

This s my 138th read for the year

This is the story of Johnny Smith.  He is a young teacher who has a new girlfriend and a new job.  One night after taking his girlfriend to the fair, he is hurt in a car accident and is in a coma for almost 5 years.  When he wakes up, his girlfriend has moved on and his mom has become a really religious person praying everyday for Johnny to wake up.  Johnny wakes up and suddenly has abilities to see people's futures and past - but only if he touches them or they touch him.  He starts to get mounds of mail - fans and hate mail alike - and he wishes everyone would just leave him alone.  He is released from the hospital and has to come to terms that his long ago girlfriend is married with a child, his job is gon, and now he feels cursed with information he wishes he didn't have.  When he finds out the future of a politician running for office, he decides he needs to take action before this politician does something that could hurt the country.  However - he continues to get more and more out of control - not sleeping or eating - as he plans how he is going to stop the politician.

This was a pretty good book.  I loved the idea and the writing overall was very good.  I kept wanting to return to the book to finish it, which I took as a good sign.  Johnny is an interesting character.  There were a lot of interesting characters in the book.  I really didn't like his mom, but she wasn't central to the book.  I didn't really like the section about the politician and Johnny's planning.  It just seemed to drag on.  It was such a slow build that it bordered on rambling.  But overall a good read.

Stars: 4

Book: Oregon Trail Stories

 Book: Oregon Trail Stories

Author: David Klausmeyer

Pages: 160

This is my 137th read for the year

This is a collection of letters written by various people during the great migration in the 1800s.  I liked this book.  It is very short, but I liked reading the letters from various people who traveled looking for a better life.  Told by men and women it speaks of their trials and successes, death and survival.  My favorite story was during what seemed like the worst winter storm in history where they got over 12 feet of snow and so many people perished.  The letters are transcribed on the pages exactly as the people wrote them (misspellings and all).  Good little book.

Stars: 4

Book: Lisey's Story

 Book: Lisey's Story

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 544

This is my 136th read for the year

This is the story of Lisey (Lee-see).  Her husband has been gone for two years and she is still grieving.  Scott - her husband - was an award winning author, and now someone wants his left over papers.  As Lisey sorts through them, she recalls her life with Scott and the time he got shot and almost died.  Also she and her sisters have to try and help their eldest sister, Amanda who has had a mental breakdown and is locked in her own mind.  Amanda and Scott were close and Lisey is going to do everything she can to bring Amanda around so they can fight the person who is trying to hurt Lisey and get Scott's legacy.

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to this one and it was entertaining.  It is an interesting mix of love story, lost love, family tragedy, and ghost story.  I didn't find it overly haunting, but it has a lot of twists and turns due to the back and forth between past and present.  Lisa was a well developed character - you could feel the love she had for her huband through her memories.  I did find that I had to really follow this one - if you are an audiobook listener who tends to wander while listening, then don't listen to this one.  One negative - the strange "pretend swearing" that Lisey does throughout this story was a little off putting.  She had a lot of made up words for swear words and I just found it odd.  Not good or bad - just odd.

Overall good story.  I watched the miniseries on Apple TV and it stuck pretty close to the book. (as far as overall plot)

Stars: 4

Book: Night Shift

 Book: Night Shift

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 368

This is my 135th read for the year

This is a collection of short stories.  There are ones in here that become movies (Lawnmower Man and The Children of the Corn and Night Surf which became the basis of The Stand) and several others.

I never know how to write a description for short stories.  I feel like it would go on too long, and honestly - you can look them up if you so desire.  So I will just stick to review of the book overall.  I liked this one.  This is an older book - written in the 1970s - so most of the stories take place then or before.  It was cool to read the short stories of Lawnmower Man, The Children of the Corn and Night Surf - all movies which I have watched.  The Stand to this day remains my favorite King novel AND miniseries.  I liked most of the stories - I found them well written and engaging even though most were only a few pages.  One or Two were just meh, but overall - a good book.

Stars: 4

Book: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies

 Book: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies

Author: Heather Fawcett

Pages: 336

This is my 134th read for the year

Feeling lazy today so here is what Amazon said about this book:

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things:  She is the moremost expert on the study of faeries.  She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore.  But Emily Wilde is not good at people.  She could never make small talk at a party - or even get invited to one.  And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk.  Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones - the most elusive of all faeries - lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want?  To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all - her own heart.

This book was fine.  I had a hard time getting into it.  It is extremely wordy.  I usually like a good world building book, but this one fell flat to me.  So many things missing.  I really didn't like the Emily character.  The love story went from 0-100 really quickly.  It is a cozy atmospher - some of the description the author did do made me picture a cozy place, which was nice.  But overall - just eh.  I won't be continuing the series.

Stars: 3

Book: If We Were Villains

 Book: If We Were Villains

Author: M.L. Rio

Pages: 368

This is my 133rd read for the year

This is the story of Oliver.  10 years ago he was a senior at Dellcher Classical Conservatory.  During the year, a student named Richard decides to start taking his frustrations out with his classmates onstage.  He started to become overly aggressive and hurting people.  One night after a show, the senior class finds Richard dead and no one knows what happened.  Detectives come to the school to try and figure out what happened.  None of the students are talking, but all of them know this was no accident.

This book was terrible.  I did not like it at all.  I read it to fullfill a challenge question and just finished it to get it overwith.  The characters are awful, the writing is just so-so, and the plot was boring.  There was a slight saving grace that I thought might carry my interest after they arrested Oliver (this is in the first chapter - so not a spoiler) and jump 10 years into the future.  I thought it would play out to find out why Oliver was arrested, but no.  It ended up being a silly reason that he went to jail and the story was not redeemed.

Skip this one

Stars: 2

Book: The Lost World

 Book: The Lost World

Author: Michael Crichton

Pages: 432

This is my 132nd read for the year

6 years since Jurassic Park and rumors have surfaced that not all the dinosaurs perished.  Ian Malcom has revealed that he survived the ordeal on Isla Nubar.  He follows a rumor of dinosaur like animals on the shores of Costa Rica.  He discovers that InGen had a Site B where they were raising dinosaurs - on an island called Isla Soma.  18 months later a man name Levine heads out to find the dinosaurs on Isla Soma before the Costa Rican government can destroy them.  Malcom finds out he went and goes after him.  Malcom finds him, but Levine is not grateful.  A third group has set out intent on stealing eggs for a company called Biosyn (rival to InGen).  Now all of these people need to figure out how to get off the island alive and make sure that the dinsoaurs don't follow them.

This book wasn't great.  I liked the first one - Jurassic Park - but this one was dry.  IT was so technical and there were so many characters that I had a hard time staying interested.  There was a lot of jargon and not much action.  I KNOW that the movies take that to the extreme here, but come on.  It is an island with dinosaurs!  Too much chatter from the characters.  

Stars: 3

Book: Storm of the Century

 Book: Storm of the Century

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 400

This is my 131st read for the year

This is the story of a small town in Maine.  A big winter storm is coming and the town is deep in preparations.  The news is telling them that this will be the biggest storm for their area in a century and they should prepare for the worst.  A man named Linoge has arrived in town, killing one of its oldest residents.  He let's himself get arrested.  He tells the constable and the other residents that he has come to the island for a reason.  If he gets what he wants, he will go away.  But unspeakable things start to happen before Linoge agrees to tell the town what he wants.  And what will happen to all of them if he doesn't get it.

This was a great book.  This has always been one of my favorite Stephen King mini series, and I understand that came first and then this book.  He wrote it as a screen play, and that is what this book is.  I ended up watching the movie along with my reading and it is almost word for word the same.  It is well written, and a well told story.  It is creepy and a good horror novel.  The characters you are supposed to love, you do.  The ones you are to hate - you do that too.  It has a nice ending with a future look at the towns folk.  I would say for me this takes a close second behind The Stand as far as quality for King's books.

Stars: 5

Book: The Light Pirate

 Book: The Light Pirate

Author: Lily Brooks-Dalton

Pages: 336

This is my 130th read for the year

This is the story of a family in Florida.  Kirby and his wife Frida are preparing for a hurricane.  Frida - who wanted to move away years ago - feels trapped and scared.  She is pregnant, her stepsons don't want anything to do with her, and her husband is always busy helping repair the electricity after each storm.  This storm will be different.  Kirby is unprepared - downplaying the storm until it is too late and tragedy strikes.  

Years pass and his daughter, Wanda, is growing up in a very different world.  Florida continues to be ravaged by storms, and more and more people leave.  But Kirby has always refused.  Wanda knows nothing different and adapts to the landscape around her.  As she goes from childhood to adulthood, she finds her ability to go with the change of Florida to fit her perfectly and she finds purpose in her surroundings.

This book was okay.  It started out pretty good and I didn't want to stop listening to it.  I liked Wanda and her brother and a woman in their town, Phyllis.  Kirby is ridiculous.  The fact that he refused to move away from a dying town and the reasons the author gave for it didn't sit well.  This is just my opinion.  Phyllis was a neat character, but she too always refused to leave.  It was supposed to look heroic, but in the end it really just seemed ridiculous.  Kirby was the worst, though.  The choices his character made almost the entire book were infuriating.  The overall message was good - I can definitely see what happened in this book to happen to Florida in our future.  I just wish the characters were a bit stronger.

Stars: 3.5

Book: The Return of Ellie Black

 Book: The Return of Ellie Black

Author: Emiko Jean

Pages: 316

This is my 129th read for the year

This is the story of Ellie.  2 years ago she was abducted while at a party and her parents feared her dead.  Then one day, she just turns up at the edge of the woods.  Chelsey Calhoun was the detective on the case when Ellie disappeared, and now she wants to find out where Ellie has been.  And if there are any other girls with her.  Chelsey lost her own sister 20 years ago and since then she has been trying to find missing girls.  But Ellie isn't talking.  She is refusing to cooperate with the case.  Chelsey has to find another way to get Ellie to tell her where she is been and who she is protecting.

This was a pretty good book.  It started out really strong and I was having a hard time putting it down.  It slowed a bit in the middle, and as the case was ramping up, I didn't like the direction it was going.  (The detective took a young man with her to capture the kidnappers and that seemed a bit far fetched).  But a twist near the end helped.  I didn't see it coming.  I liked Chelsey, and Ellie was okay.  Her reasoning for not helping with the case ended up making sense which redeemed her character a bit.  Overall a solid read.

Stars: 4

Book: Nightmares and Dreamscapes

 Book: Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 816

This is my 128th read for the year

This three volume collection of short stories all in one book.

There are too many stories in this book for me to write snippets.  I would say I enjoyed about 50% of the stories in this book.  About 20% I thought were pretty good.  And about 30% that were so-so. There are some really excellent ones that pull you in, even though they are short.  Then there are some that I just couldn't get into.  I have read a few of King's short stories novels, (and short storie novels in general) and this always seems to be the case for me.  His more current "Just After Sunset" volume of short stories was better, but this one is older. (written in 1992 I believe).  I listened to it and the cast he got to read the stories were star studed and that made it fun.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Apt Pupil

 Book: Apt Pupil

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 224

This is my 127th read for the year

This is the story of Todd Bowden and Mr. Dussander.  Todd knocks on Mr. Dussander's door one day and tells him he knows his secret.  Todd is an excellent student - an apt pupil - and wants to learn all he can about Mr. Dussander's past.  Mr. dussander wants to keep that buried but agrees to tell Todd about it.  As Todd becomes more and more ingrained in Dussander's life, his grades slip and he becomes seduced to evil ways.  In the end it might be hard for Todd to separate who he was with who he is becoming due to his releationship with Mr. Dussander.

This book was pretty good  It is quite short, so I finished it in 1 1/2 days.  It is well written, but bizaare.  Not that this should be shocking with a King book.  I liked the concept of the book. I didn't like Todd at all. I wish the ending would have wrapped up his story a bit more.  There are scenes of human and animal abuse - the human abuse made the most sense (due to Dussander's past) and needed to be told.  The animal abuse bothered me.  Just a warning.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Malorie

 Book: Malorie

Author: Josh Malerman

Pages: 296

This is my 126th read for the year

This is the story of Malorie.  Is starts 6 years after the world changed when creatures arrived.  If you look. these creatures will make you go mad and hurt yourself or others.  Malorie and her two children, Tom and Olympia, have been living at a School for the Blind in relative safely.  But when that ends, she and her children find themselves back out in the world looking for somewhere safe to call home.  10 years pass where Malorie, Tom and Olympia stay hidding on a campgrounds.  One day a man comes to the door and says he is doing a census to see who is still out there.  He leaves a copy at the camp, and Malorie discovers there are people alive that she must find.  She and her children decide to risk it all to find out if it is true.

This was a pretty good book.  It is a ast read, and a good follow up to Bird Box.  It starts right where the last book (and movie) left off.  I loved that it jumped 10 more years into the future and now Tom and Olympia are 16 years old.  The writing is decent, and I was interested where the story was going.  There is a bit of a twist in the end with Olympia, which was pretty neat.  Characters are well developed. Glad I read this one.  

Stars: 4

Book: Ressurection Walk

 Book: Ressurection Walk

Author: Michael Connelly

Pages: 416

This is my 125th read for the year

This is the story of Mickey Haller - an attorney known as the Lincoln Lawyer.  He is well known for taking longshot cases and winning.  His half brother, Harry Bosch, is a retired LAPD officer who helps him find the tough cases to defend.  He finds a woman who has been in prison for 5 years for killing her husband.  She says she is innocent.  Her husband was a sherriff's deputy.  The first lawyer got her what he believed was a good deal and she plead guilty.  Now she wants to prove her innocent.  Mickey agrees to take the case.  But defending someone who is convicted of killing a cop has its own problems.  The Haller-Bosch team are up against someone who will do anything to stop them from finding the truth.

This was an okay novel.  I really didn't like Mickey Haller.  He is a cocky lawyer who enjoyed grandstanding in the court room to the point of obnoxious.  It was overdone.  I have not read any of the other Lincoln Lawyer novels to know if this is typically how he is portrayed.  I did like Bosch.  I enjoyed the story line for the most part, just not the main character.  Writing overall is fine.

Stars: 3