Book: Fear and Loating in Las Vegas

 Book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Author: Hunter Thompson

Pages: 204

This is my 22nd read for the year

Hunter Thompson - traveling under the pseudonym Raoul Duke - and his Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo travel together to Las Vegas in a supped up car filled with drugs and alcohol.  They are on assignment for a sports magazine, and hope to find the American Dream.  Instead of getting a story and finding that dream, they stumble along in a drug haze causing mischeif every where they go.  

This was a really weird book.  I have heard of it before but never desired to read it.  It was on the Rory Gilmore reading challenge list AND available from the library so thta is how we got here.  Have you ever read a book that made you feel like you needed a shower after reading it?  This was one of those books for me.  There is so much talk of drugs and partying.  The story was random.  The book is very short, so I cannot say I even got where it was going.

I might check out the movie to see if it pulls it together for me any more.

Stars: 2.5

Book: E.R. Nurses

 Book: E.R. Nurses

Author: James Patterson

Pages: 304

This is my 21st read for the year

Patterson gathers several short stories from ER Nurses from all over the country.  Nurses who work all differet shifts, and even started in different career paths tell what it is like for them.  These nurses witness daily the ups and downs - losing patients and saving them, getting abused and getting hugged, and all the inbetween.  

As a nurse myself, I enjoyed this book.  While I have never been an ER Nurse, I have always worked as a pediatric nurse.  The beginning of my career started at Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital where I worked on a transplant floor.  Every patient we watched walk away healthy was a victory.  Ever funeral we attended stuck with us.  I can still picture so many of the kids I took care of over the years - they are never far from my mind.  These nurses are the same - they can recall the toughest and most rewarding cases over their careers.  They all share the compassion for people who are at their worst, or in their last moments, or who return from full recovery.  

Good book

Stars: 4 

Book: A Clockwork Orange

 Book: A Clockwork Orange

Author: Anthony Burgess

Pages: 240

This is my 20th read for the year

This is the story of a teenager named Alex.  In the future, the culture of young people are prone to violence.  Alex and his friends perform a serious of crimes and end up in the home of a man writing 'A Clockwork Orange".  They beat the man's wife and tear up the manuscrip before leaving.  The crimes of Alex and his friends escalate, and one night while robbing a woman, she has a heart attack and dies.  Alex is caught and taken to jail. When young Alex is caught and sentenced to 14 years.  Two years into his sentence, he is offered a chance for behavioral modification therapy so he can be released from prison earlier.  The therapy is terrible and they use classical music - something Alex enjoys - as part of the torture.

After Alex is released, he tries to return to his parent's house, but finds he is not expected or wanted.  As he contemplates what to do next, old friends of his - who are now cops - beat him up and abandon him.  The scholar who wrote "A Clockwork Orange" finds him and takes him back to his house to try and bandage him up.  The man discovers who Alex is and Alex jumps from the window to get away.  In the end - Alex thinks he wants to go back to his old ways, but finds that he wants to less and less and starts contemplating the future where he might have his own family.

This was a strange, but not terrible book.  I don't know how I missed this one years ago when I was reading through some classic dystopian novels.  I listened to this one and it took me a bit to get into the strange language Burgess has built for his world and Alex.  But once you figure out the slang, the book pulls together into an interesting story.  Violent? Yes.  But interesting none the less.  I am glad I finally got to it.

Stars: 4

Book: Day

 Book: Day

Author: Michael Cunningham

Pages: 288

This is my 19th read for the year

This is the story of 3 days in the life of a famiy.  April 19th, 2019, 2020, 2021.  Dan and Isabel have two children - Violet and Nathan.  5 years apart in age, they tryin to balance the needs to both who are at difference stages of childhood.  Robbie - Isabel's brother - lives in the apartment above Dan and Isabel and has recently broken up with his brother.  He is a school teacher that is trying to figure out when he moves out of his sister's apartment where he will go and what he will do.  Garth - Dan's brother is trying to make amends with a woman, Chess, whom he shares parental rights of their baby with.  Chess tries to figure out where Garth fits into their life.  The book weaves together this day over three years and as the family ebbs and flows and hanges through hard times and tragedy.  They keep trying to remember that love is what binds them together.

This was an excellent book.  Cunningham is an amazing writer and he weaves together the mundane days we all have and the little nuances that can quickly become bigger during an epidemic.  Isabel and Robbie are the most central figures in the book as they navigate paths of family, future and their wants and needs.  Even Chess and Garth's minor story unfolds nicely as we find out what they are to each other as they raise their baby.

This book is short, but the writing made me read it in a day and a half.  I didn't want to put it down.

Stars: 5

Book: The Executioner's Song

 Book: The Executioner's Song

Author: Norman Mailer

Pages: 1057

This is my 18th read for the year

This is a non-fiction book about convicted criminal Gary Gilmore.  In the 70s Gary had been released from prison and started out on the straight and narrow.  Soon, though, Gary found himself falling into old ways and it lead to him killing two men.  He is sentenced to death, and asked to be executed by firing squad.  The state did not want to agree to Gary being executed, but Gary insisted.  His fight for the right to die is what made him famous.

Okay - so this book won a Pulizer Prize.  I have mixed feelings about it at best.  For one - it is about 600 pages too long in my opinion.  The story of Gary gets lost in the first 500 pages with the back story of every character that was interviewed, came in contact with, witnessed Gary Gilmore's case.  It just droned on and on with useless information that did not further my interest in Gary Gilmore.  The second half seemed to pull itself together a bit more, but not enough for me to understand why in the world this person got as much attention as he did.  Was it because he WANTED to die and the state kept Staying his execution?  I didn't like a single character in this book.  Even with all the attention to Gary and what he was doing - never cared at all for him in the end.  Well - except for his one relation Vern.  But otherwise, no.  I did not like the writing style.  It read like someone taking notes instead of a novel.  

I am tackling some of the Rory Gilmore reading list this year, and this was on it - if you were wondering why I chose it.  Actually the idea of it sounded right up my alley - true crime.  But it was disappointing

I don't recommend this tomb.  

Stars: 2.5

Book: In Every Generation

 Book: In Every Generation

Author: Kendare Blake

Pages: 400

This is my 17th read for the year

This is the story of Frankie Rosenberg.  She is the daughter of Willow, who was part of the original Buffy and the Scooby gang.  These days - Sunnydale is quiet and reserved.  Frankie wakes up one morning freakishly strong, and is told that there has been a horrible accident at a gathering for all the slayers and she may now be the new slayer.  And the only one left.  As Willow and her friends come to grips with the new reality, Frankie has to be trained to defeat an evil that has come to Sunnydale on the heals of the slayer demise.  She and her friends - which include a warewolf and a demon - are now in charge of the next generation to fight off evil.

This book was not good.  I finished it only because I loved Buffy back in the day and was enjoying the slight nastalgia that was between these pages.  But I should have quit the book.  It is 400 pages of fan fiction.  It is not well written.  It has horrible jokes that are the same over and over.  I was suprirsed to find out that the writer was an adult and not a 17 year old teenager.  The diaglogue was just okay.  The characters were likable enough, but it was written too juvenile for me.

I very rarely DNF books.  I think all authors who put in the work deserve to have their books finished.  But I will not be recommedning this one or reading the next two in the series.

Stars: 2

Book: The Passage

 Book:  The Passage

Author: Justin Cronin

Pages: 785

This is my 16th read for the year

This story revolves around a girl named Amy.  At age 6 she is abandoned at a Convent by her mother who can no longer care for her.  The government comes after her - seeking her for a top secret experiment.  The men who come for her have no idea why they were sent for a little girl and when they find her, they are not sure they can take her to the compound.  The agents and girl are captured and brought to the compound and Agent Wolgast tries to figure out how they are going to get her out of there.  As an experiment goes horribly wrong, Wolgast gets Amy out of there.  But he is not able to stop the collapse of society.

Almost 100 years later, society has been widdled down to a few pods of people that have to sleep with the lights on and behind heavy gated, guarded communities to keep the monsters away.  When Amy reappears - not having hardly aged - humans start to piece together how it all started all those years ago and what they were going to do to end the monsters once and for all.

This was a pretty good book.  It makes a pretty sudden stop from past to present and then takes about 500 pages to tie in Amy to the whole thing.  But it is well written a long the way with good character developement.  He is an attention to detail type author, and while this can make for a long, drawn out story of needless dialogue, I didn't find that here.  It got me invested in the people he was storytelling about and made me care when something happened to one of them.  There are a multitude of characters in this book with a long family history that is brought up, so you have to be paying attention.

This is the first book in a trilogy, so I will be reading the next two to see where it goes.

Stars: 4

Book: Bel Canto

 Book: Bel Canto

Author: Ann Patchett

Pages: 318

This is my 15th read for the year

During a birthday party for a wealthy business man named Mr. Hosokawa, a ban of terrorist takes the party hostage becasue they are looking for the president of South America.  On discovery that the President is not there - only the vice president, the hostages let some of the women and children go and keep all of the men and a female opera singer who had been brought in to entertain the guest.  Weeks go by with no resolution from the country with the terrorist all while the hostages try to make their day to day as normal as possible.  They even start to sympathize with some of the terrorist - some they come to find out are women.  They work together during a terrible circumstance with the hope that they will be released without harm.

I have read a couple of Patchett's books and always like them okay.  I liked The Dutchhouse the best, but all of them have been on the dry side for me.  She is very wordy with not much to say.  These people are being held hostage, but there is very little emotion that I found that made me care what happened to any of them.  It was about 200 pages too long to get her point across.

I read this book for a challenge, otherwise I probably would not have picked it up knowing how past books by Patchett have sat with me.

Stars: 3

Book: Zane and the Hurricane

 Book: Zane and the Hurricane

Author: Rodman Philbrick

Pages: 192

This is my 14th read for the year

This is the story of 12 year old Zane.  He was sent to New Orleans to visit his dad's family when Katrina hit.  He and his grandmother got on a bus to get out of town, but when Zane's dog decides to make a run for it, Zane gets off the bus to go and find him.  This leads him to be all by himself at his relative's house when the flood waters rise.  Found by an elderly man and a young girl, Zane and his dog try to make it to safety.  Along the way their canoe comes across some unsavory characters before Zane is finally reunited with his mother.

This was a fine book.  It is for middle grade and written so.  I found it lacking depth but otherwise an interesting story.  If you are wondering why I read this children's book -it was for an A-Z challenge and I needed a "Z" book

Stars: 3

Book: Holly

 Book: Holly

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 463

This is my 13th read for the year

This is a continuation of the story of Holly Gibney.  Holly is contacted by a mother whose daughter, Bonnie, is missing.  She hires Holly to find out what happened to her.  Holly is not sure she should take the case.  Her partner has Covid, her mother has just died, and she has a lot on her plate.  But Holly decides she cannot say no and helps this mother find her missing daughter.

Professors Rodney and Emily Harris in the mean time have been busy.  Rodney is convinced that eating humans will rejuvenate he and his wife and keep them young and pain/disease free.  Over the course of the last 9 years they have kidnapped and killed several people but the healing affects of their canabalism are getting shorter.  As Holly hunts for Bonnie she and a few friends start to piece together what happened to her and how she may be tied to the professors.

This was a well written book.  I have always enjoyed the Holly Gibney story line and this one did not disappoint.  The story flowed well - back and forth between Holly and the Harris' and even a minor third story.  In the end all three fit together as the murder mystery comes to its peak.  Holly is a very likeable character - quirky as she may be.  And the Harris' were evil yet interesting in their own right.  

My only complaint, and the one thing that keeps this from 5 star for me, is the overdoneness of Covid.  It is rampant in this book - to the point of distraction.  I am a big proponent for all things related to protecting yourself from Covid (and all illnesses) but even I felt this was exhaustingly too far.  Mr. King - I love you but you are getting crotchety in your old age.  He does explain why he did this in his author's note - admits why he did what he did - but I still think he could have pulled back a bit.

Don't let it stop you from enjoying this book.  I just rolled my eyes and refocused on the true story.  You can too.

Stars: 4

Book: The Priory of the Orange Tree

 Book: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Author: Samantha Shannon

Pages: 807

This is my 12th book for the year

Sabran's family has ruled Inys for thousands of years.  Each queen bears a daughter who takes over the kingdom when she comes of age.  Sabran knows it is her duty to marry and sire a daughter to continue the tradition.  Ead has been protecting Sabran for many years.  She is an outsider to the kingdom, and no one knows she is a mage and loyal to a secrety society that gets its strength from the Orange Tree.  And across the world is Tane who longs to be a dragon rider but one mistake she made may cost her everything.  These three women's paths cross at a mark in their history that requires everyone to ban together to beat the Nameless One.  If they don't - their whole world could perish.

This book was.....strange.  The number of characters and places named in this book puts Game of Thrones to Shame.  There are so many point of views, and so many side characters and places named in this tome of a book that I could not keep up.  The world building fell flat to me.  It is way too long - definitely could have been about 500 pages.  

I am a huge fantasy and science fiction fan.  I love world building.  But this book just wasn't for me.  The ending left me curious about where she is taking this story, but I don't know if I will tackle her next book which is due out later this year.

Stars: 3

Book: Pronto

 Book: Pronto

Author: Elmore Leonard

Pages: 400

This is my 11th book of the year

This is the story of Raylan Givens.  Raylan is an US Marshall and he is off to Italy to chase a bookie who is hiding from the Miami mob.  Harry - who was planning to retire to Italy some day decides now is the time - has escaped Raylan's grasp once before.  Raylan knows Harry is tricky, but not careful.  Raylan knows he must find Harry before the mob does.

This was a boring book.  I was disappointed because I love Justified.  After watching the newest season, I went on the hunt for the books about Raylan Givens.  What I have discovered is this is not the book that the show is based on.  And that show is loosely based on just one book in the Raylan Givens series.  Wish I would have known that before I listened to this because this was a rambling, boring story that was more like a story you tell in a barber's chair than a crime fiction novel.

I might hunt out the one that is based on the show to see if it is any better.

Stars: 2

Book: Miracle Creek

 Book: Miracle Creek

Author: Angie Kim

Pages: 384

This is my 10th read for the year

This story is about a group of people who use a hyperbaric chamber at a special facility in Virginia.  Moms whose children are autistic as well as a young man who is using it for infertility issues.  During a session, an explosion occurs killing 2 people and injuring others.  One person is on trial for murder but everyone who was there that day has secrets.  What caused the explosion?  Who is to blame?

This was an okay book.  I did figure out before the end who the person responsile for the explosion.  The author spends time with all the characters that were there that day putting doubt in the reader's mind who was really responsible until the very end.  That got a little old.  This book has a ton of characters.  And I didn't really like any of them except the mother of Rosa.  The court room drama was pretty good - sometimes that can be overdone and I didn't find that here.

This is a debut novel and I am late to the party reading this book.  Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either.

Stars: 3

Book: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

 Book: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Author: James McBride

Pages: 400

This is my 9th read for the year

This is the story of a poor town in Pennsylvania in the early 1900s.  Chona and her husband, Moshe,  run a grocery story in Chicken Hill.  They are Jewish people that stayed in a heavily dominated Afrian American community because Chona didn't want to move as other Jewish people headed to different towns.  When Chona takes ill, the small community rallies becaue Chona has always been good to them.  Chona takes in a deaf boy and hides him because authorities think he belongs in an institution.  When tragedy strikes, various members of the community work together to find out what happened.

This was an okay book.  I wanted to like it more than I did - it has been talked and talked about.  It was just a bit cluttered.  There are a ton of characters.  There are too many characters that speak in riddles.  Was this really about the grocery store?  No.  Was it even mostly about Chona?  No.  There were a ton of side stories and characters.  A lot of partial stories and a rushed ending left me feeling disappointed.

Stars: 3

Book: Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe

 Book: Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe

Author: Heather Webber

Pages: 336

This is my 8th read for the year

This is the story of Anna Kate.  Her grandmother has recently passed away and has left her cafe to Anna Kate in her will.  The catch is - Anna Kate must move to Wicklow, Alabama to run the cafe for 2 months before it becomes fully hers and she can then sell it or keep it.  Anna Kate has no plans to stay in Wicklow.  Her mother ran from there years ago and has never returned.  Anna Kate is set to start medical school soon, so she feels she will put in her time, and move on.

However - once she gets to Wicklow and starts to run the cafe and feel its magic pull, she is not so sure she can leave.  The more people she meets, the more she learns about her grandmother and mother's life there.  She even meets her father's family for the first time and tries to figure out where she fits in.  The true magic, however, is the blackbirds who sing everynight at midnight - and usual bird behavior - and the berry pie that is served at the cafe that brings on dreams to guide the person who eats it.  As Anna Kate gets to know Wicklow and the people, she has to decide if she should stay or go.

This was a pretty good book.  Can there be a bad book that involves food, especially pie?  Probably not.  Set up like a Hallmark Christmas movie type town and residents, the book plays out sweetly as we delve into the past of Anna Kate's family and the history of this town with the birds.  The negatives I would have to say would be too much death.  Every character had a complicated, sad story and it was maybe a bit too much.  The other was Seely - Anna Kate's other grandmother.  She was all over the place as a character that it was distracting.

Overall - a good read.  Glad I finally read this one.

Stars: 4

Book: Ragtime

 Book: Ragtime

Author: E.L. Doctorow

Pages: 336

This is my 7th read for the year

This story opens with a wealthy family at the turn of the 20th century.  Harry Houdini wrecks his car outside their house one day, and thus starts a story that involves famous known people, and unknown whose lives all intertwine over the course of the story.  The family becomes intertwined with a young girl and her baby and a man who wants to eventually avenge her death.  That story takes center stage around famous people of the time like Henry Ford, JP Morgan, and Houdini himself.

This was a strange book.  My husband bought it for me as a present because it was the most popular book in 1975 - the year I was born.  The book started slow, but as the story of the young man who is trying to avenge his fiance's death becomes the center theme, it got better.  But it never really gained depth for me.  It wasn't a page turner.  I did not develop feelings for any of the character and the ending was just meh.

Stars: 3

Book: The Will Of The Many

 Book: The Will Of The Many

Author: James Islington

Pages: 640

This is my 6th read of the year

This is the story of Vis.  A teenage orphan who 3 years ago survived a tragic accident in his home.  Vis works at the Sappers where people are sent when they commit a crime.  Here he meets Quintus Telimus and is offered a chance to be adopted and attend the Academy.  It is more than Vis could hope for, but he knows there has to be a catch.  Vis has a deep secret and no one can ever know.  Not his newly adoptive father, not his classmates - no one.  What Vis does make clear is that he will never cede his Will to the empire that executed his whole family.  

This was an excellent book.  It is sci-fi/fantasty and great world building - all things that I love.  The writing is superb, and there are quite a few twists in the book that I did not see coming and really enjoyed.  It is an indepth read that took a lot of concentration because off the complexity of the Heirarchy in the book, but it was so well laid out.  The characters are well developed as well.  There isn't a lot of "corny" scenes even if this does take place in a school or a large part - it is much more adult. 

Highly recommend.

Stars: 5

Book: Don Quixote

 Book: Don Quixote

Author: Miguel de Cervantes

Pages: 424

This is my 5th read for the year

This is the story of Don Quixote.  He and his squire Sancho Panza and Don Quixote's horse - Rocinate - set out on an adventure.  Before he was Don Quixote - he was Alonso Quijano whom, after reading novels about chivalry, he decides to change his name to Don Quixote man of La Mancha and decides he is going revive chivalry and serve his nation.  Don Quixote doesn't always see the world as it is and wants to live as a knight.  On his adventures with Sancho Panza he come to an inn and meets some "ladies" and demands the innkeeper dub him a knight. 

Through his adventures he has ups and downs and in the end retires back to his home where he has to take to his bed with illness.  He turns back into Alonso Quijano and spends the end of his life at home with his niece and housekeeper.

This is a quirky book.  I know most people are familiar with the adventures of Don Quixote - since it has been around since the 1600s.  I have fond memories from childhood with the musical Man of La Mancha - it was one of my favorites.  The book is quick, and witty, and silly - all the things it should be.  I enjoyed it.

Stars: 4

Book: The Art of War

 Book: The Art Of War

Author: Sun Tzu

Pages: 70

This is my 4th read for the year

This is a renowned Chinese military book written by a military strategist and philosopher.  It was composed around the 5th century BC.  The book is a manual for warfare - including strategies, planning, and emplying tactics for victory.

This book is everywhere.  I see it everywhere when looking for unique classic books, so I decided to try it out.  I had no idea it was so short.  The 13 chapters in this book are just a manual on winning a war, but honestly - it was very well written.  It wasn't boring.  How could 68 pages be boring?  It was intelligent, and interesting, and even though it took me no longer than an hour to get through it, I am glad I finally read it.

Stars: 4

Book: Seed

 Book: Seed

Author: Ania Ahlborn

Pages: 246

This is my 3rd read for the year

This is the story about Jack.  When he was a little boy, he ran away from home.  He ran away from something dark but he does not remember the details.  Now, years later he has a wife and two little girls that depend on him.  One night - the entire family is in a car accident.  While not physically hurt, Jack's youngest daughter, Charlie, starts to act strange.  Her behavior becomes almost evil.  Charlie is only 6 years old, but Jack recognizes something in Charlie - something he knows about himself when he was her age.  And he feels powerless to stop what is coming.

This was an okay book.  It has its fair amount of scary bits - things that make you look over you shoulder say, if you are listening to this book while walking alone in the woods with your dogs.  But I didn't really care for any of the characters.  Jack was okay, but the wife and girls - no.  And I also hate when author's consistently make it so people "can't answer".  or "words get stuck in their throat".  It was overdone in this book where characters made no explanations for their actions for no reason.  Plus Jack never did ANYTING.  He was always frozen.  Or unwilling to say something.  It got ridiculous. The ending was gruesome, but also predictable.  

She is no Stephen King.

Stars: 2.5

Book: Yellowface

 Book: Yellowface

Author: R.F. Kuang

Pages: 336

This is my 2nd book for the year

This is the story of June Hayward.  She is a floundering writer who wishes she could be more like her Yale classmate Athena Liu.  She and Athena have been writers since they graduated, but Athena has risen to fame.  When Athena dies in a freak accident, June sees this as her possible chance to become a better writer.  She steals Athena's latest book she was working on and crafts it to be her own.  Finally she will become famous.

However - eventually things start to unravel for June and she finds it harder and harder to keep up the lie.  The internet is on to her, and no matter how much she publically states this was her own book, she is finding more and more doubters out there.  June needs to decide how far she will go to get what she feels she deserves.

So - this book had major mixed reviews and I see why.  The main character is horrible.  I think the writer wanted her to be horrible, to make sure the reader disliked her, but I felt she went too far.  The book really rambled.  Her behavior gets old quickly.  June's obsession with social media was exhausting.  I should have stopped reading it, but I was hoping that it would redeem itself.

I have another Kuang book on my list for this year, but I may rethink it.

Stars: 2

Book: My Murder

 Book: My Murder   

Author: Katie Williams

Pages: 304

This is my 1st read for the year

This is the story of Lou.  A mother and wife who was recently murdered and brought back to life by a regeneration program.  Lou has no memory of her murder or the last few days before she died - regeneration cannot bring back short term memory.  She is now part of a support group with the other 4 women who were all murdered by the same man.  These women are why Lou was regenerated - the public called for these 5 women to be brought back after the serial killer was caught.

Lou is trying to find where she fits in.  She is trying to move on with her life - even though the life that was hers belonged to her other self.  The woman who was murdered.  She is trying to stay connected to her husband and her baby but deep down she needs to know what happened to her.  As Lou delves further into the mystery behind her death, she discovers something she never thought possible.  And she wonders if it will change everything.

This was a pretty good book.  It is a mix of futuristic, mystery, and thriller.   The writing was good, and the characters likable. Although the main character had an odd job that I never really quite understood. I was surprised with the first twist in the book, but not so much with the second.  The ending was okay - I would have liked a look a little further into the future.  

Overall it was a good read.  Check it out.

Stars: 4