Book: Sunrise on the Reaping

 Book: Sunrise on the Reaping

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 400

This is my 67th read for the year

What Amazon says:

As the day dawns on the 50th annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem.  This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.  Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathyis trying not to think too hard about his chances.  All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.  When Haymitch's name is called, he can fell all his dreams break.  He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three oher District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.  As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fall.  But there's something in him that wants to fite - and having that fight reverberate far beyond the dealy arena.

This was a good book.  I was so excited to read the next prequel in the Hunger Games world.  This one got an extra star from me purely for nostalgia - Haymitch's back story was one that was a good one to tell.  And a lot of characters from the original Hunger Games books make an appearance.  The story flows pretty well, but there really isn't anything fresh here.  It is a lot of the same old story - bits and pieces from the first Hunger Games books and the first prequel.  It felt a bit rushed meaning that she wanted to churn out another book for her waiting fans without really putting a lot of effort into making a unique tale.  And maybe I am being too harsh - maybe this was her idea all along.  I just kept waiting for something to grab me, but it never did.  I did like the Epilogue.  I won't spoil it, but it was a nice wrap up to the story and made me wonder if she is done with this world.

Stars: 4

Book: The Answer Is No

 Book: The Answer is No

Author: Fredrik Backmann

Pages: 68

This is my 66th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai.  Peanuts are a must.  Other people?  Not so much.  Why complicate things when he's happy alone?  Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell.  And Lucas's solitude takes a startling hike.  They deman to see his frying pan.  Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucs suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party.  But their plan backfires.  Colossally.  This story is a portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won't leave him alone.

This is a great book.  I am a Backman fan and this one did not disappoint.  It was a free short story from Amazon first reads, which was a total score.  It is a funny, clever, goofy, and touching story all rolled into 68 pages.  I liked the characters.  I laughed out loud at a few parts.  I feel Lucas in my soul.  The story is well developed and wraps up nicely.  Check this one out.

Stars:5 

Book: When We Were Friends

 Book: When We Were Friends

Author: Jane Green

Pages: 44

This is my 65th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

By all accounts, Lucy's handled her divorce well. She's finally in the cozy, plant-filled house of her dreams.  And although she doesn't fit in with the other divorcees - all busy looking for their next ex - she's excited to get down to earth and savor the small joys of life.  When Lucy meets Elle, a hip younger woman who shares her same passions, their connection is instant.  Taking a chance on kismet, Lucy forges a friendship that fills her days with meaning.  She and elle are inseparable, from sunup to sundown, enjoying the immediate ease and familiarity of each other's company.  But as Lucy introduces Elle to her circle, a new side of her friend appears.  And try as she might, Lucy can't ignore her misgivings.  Who is Elle really?  And can their all-consuming friendship survive closer inspection?

This book was terrible.  I will say it started out okay.  I liked where it was heading.  Then it just derailed.  It is only 44 pages and it went quickly downhill.  The characters became awful.  The writing was awful.  It was a free Amazon short reads, so I read it, but I would never recommend it.

Stars: 1

Book: The Consuming Fire

 Book: The Consuming Fire

Author: John Scalzi

Pages: 304

This is my 64th read for the year

what Amazon says:

The Interdependency - humanity's interstellar empire - is on the verge of collapse.  The extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible is disappearing, leaving entire systems and human civilizations stranded.  Emperox Grayland II of the Interdependency is ready to take desperate measures to help ensure the survival of billions.  But arrayed before her are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth - or at the very least an opportunity to an ascension to power.  While Grayland prepares for disaster, others are preparing for a civil war.  A war that will take place in the halls of power, the markets of business and the altars of worship as much as it will between spaceships and battlefields.  The Emperox and her allies are smart and resourceful, as are her enemies.  Nothing about this will be easy - and all of humanity will be caught in its consuming fire.

This was a great book.  It is a second book in a trilogy by this author.  I really enjoy his books.  They are not overly complicated, but they are clever and they have a bit of underlying humor that always makes an enjoyable read for me.  This is a nice continuation from the first book.  I like the characters that you are supposed to like.  The story flows nicely and it ends where you could either keep going to see what comes next, or feel satisfied to just stop if you wanted to.  I am looking forward to reading the last book in this series.

Stars: 4

Book: The Change

 Book: The Change

Author: Kirsten Miller

Pages: 480

This is my 63rd read for the year

What Amazon says:

In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment.  After Ness Jame's husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she's left alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean.  In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices.  It doesn't take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead - a gift she's inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.  On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage.  She hasn't left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed.  But Harriett's life is far from over - in fact, she's undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis. Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body.  The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel life the very last straw - until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.  Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach.  The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative.  The investigation into the girl's murder leads to more bodies, and to the town's most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupdenous wealth wher the rules don't apply.  With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands.

This book was fine.  There were a lot of things I liked.  I liked the three main characters.  I liked the magic.  I liked the little bit of humor that appeared every now and then.  And I understood the point.  I know - as a woman how hard it is for women.  Especially as women continually climb higher and higher up the ladder passing their male co-workers for more and more leadership roles.  However - sometimes the vile they write related to men in books like these to pull women higher - I don't get it.  Can men be awful to women?  Of course.  We see that all the time.  But sometimes I feel like it is over the top to make a point.  That would be my only criticisim of the book.  It just felt like too much in my opinion.

STars: 3.5

Book: Black Woods Blue Sky

 Book: Black Woods, Blue Sky

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Pages: 496

This is my 62nd read for the year

What Amazon says:

Birdie's keeping it together; of course she is.  So she's a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tabls at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she'e getting by as a single mother in a tought town.  Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods.  Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she's ever longed for.  She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well.  Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.  It's just the three of them in the vast black woods, for from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared.  At first, it's idyllic and she can picture a happily eve after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it's as if they could touch the bright blue sky.  But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.  

I didn't really like this book that much.  It was okay - not great.  I read The Snow Child earlier this year, and when I saw it was the same author, I should have walked away.  It was fine - the writing is fine, the characters are fine.....it just didn't draw me in.  

Stars: 3

Book: The Truths We Hold

 Book: The Truths We Hold

Author: Kamala Harris

Pages: 368

This is my 61st read for the year

What Amazon says:

The daughter of immigrants and civil rights activits, Vice President Kamala Harris was raised in an Okaland, California, community that cared deeply about social justice.  As she rose to prominence as one of the political leaders of our time, her experiences would become her guiding light as she grappled with an array of complex issues and learned to bring a voice to the voiceless.  She reckons with the big challenges we face together.  Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values as we confront the great work of our day.

This was a great book.  It was written before she became vice president and talks mostly about her childhood and her work as a senator.  It is well written and weaves stories from people she met with her work in public service.  She is well spoken and passionate.  How I wish she was in the White House right now.

Stars: 4