Book: Run AwayWhat

 Book: Run Away

Author: Harlan Coben

Pages: 384

This is my 151st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

She' addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend.  And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found.  Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park.  But she's not the girl you remember.  This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.  You don't stop to think.  You approach her, beg her to come home.  She runs.  And you do the only thing a parent can do: follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed.  Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line.  And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on Age Range: Adult.  

I have read quite a few Coben books this year, and find most of them fine -if not just fluff.  But this was one of the better ones I have read.  I liked the mystery.  The characters are well developed.  There are a lot of twists in this one.  It is entertaining.  You try to put yourself in the dad's shoes to see what you would do if you were him.  After I read this book, I watched the show on Netflix and I can highly recommend that as well.

Stars: 4

Book: From a Buick 8

 Book: From a Buick 8

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 480

This is my 150th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Since 1979, the state police of Troop D in rural PA have kept a secret in the shed out behind the barracks.  Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox had answered a strange call just down the road and came back with an abandoned 1953 Buick Road Master.  Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and this one was - jut wrong.  As it turned out, the Buick 8 was worse than dangerous - and the members of Troop D decdied that it would be better if the public never found out about it.  Now, more than 20 years later, Curt's son Ned starts hanging around teh barracks and is allowed into the Troop D family.  And one day he discovers the family secet - a mystery that begins to site once more not only in the minds and hearts of these veteran troopers, but out in the shed as well, for there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle.

This was a decent book.  Still working my way through all the Stephen King novels - getting close to the end now.  I listened to this one and that was a good way to absorb this novel.  It isn't particualarly scary.   This isn't his first creapy car novel.  I did like that it took place in Western PA - that is where I grew up.  It is a leisurely story, but not dull.  It lays out a story and leads to a build up with one of the main characters, but it doesn't quite tip over into horror for me.  Has a good ending.

Stars: 3.5 

Book: Atlantia

 Book: Atlantia

Author: Ally Condie

Pages: 320

This is my 149th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamed of the sand and sky above - of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia.  But in a single moment, all Rio's hopes for the future are shattered when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected choice, stranding Rio Below.  Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio's true self - and the powerful siren voice she has long silenced - she has nothing left to lose.  Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother's death, her own destiny, and the corrupted system constructed to govern the Divide between land and sea.  Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

This was an interesting book.  I really liked Condie's Matched Trilogy that I read years ago.  This one wasn't as good as that trilogy, and I find that she tried to do too many things in a 300 page book.  I think if she would have taken her time like she did with Matched, this book would have been hire rated for me.  It took along time for her to get to the "problem" and then she sped through it.  She tried to build a world and solve a mystery in a very short book.  That is hard to do.  I liked the characters - they were all fine.  The writing wasn't great - it was fine.  It started well, and I was curious enough to see where the author was taking it.  And it had a satisfying ending.  But overall - I was hoping for more.

Stars: 3.5 

Book: The Unmaking of June Farrow

 Book: The Unmaking of June Farrow

Author: Adrienne Young

Pages: 352

This is my 148th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In the small mountain town of Jasper, NC, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her.  The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm - and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line.  The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.  It's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there.  Fair wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere-the signs of what June always knew was coming.  But June is determined to end the curse once and for l, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.  After her grandmother's death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother's decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions.  But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she's been searching for?  The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold.  And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it and it made a good audiobook.  There is decent character development, a mystery, and found family.  Satisfying ending.  This is not chick flick fiction - this has supernatural and paranormal elements to it - which is hard to tell by the cover.  I was left wondering why this "curse" started.  And I wish it was more about the generational circle than about the overall mystery and love story.  There is one other fault that it just a personal one for me, but I will not share it because it would be a spoiler.  (for my blog only - I hate when books travel back in time and not forward and then the characters stays there).

Stars: 4

Book: Sprinting Through No Man's Land

 Book: Sprinting Through No Man's Land

Author: Adin Dobkin

Pages: 316

This is my 147th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

On June 29, 1919, one day after the Treaty of Versailles brought about the end of World War I, nearly 70 cyclists embarked on the 13th Tour de France.  From Paris, the war-weary men rode down the western coast on a race that would trace the country's border, through seaside towns and mountains to the ghostly western front.  Traversing a cratered postwar landscape, the cyclists faced near-impossible odds and the psychological scars of war.  Most of the athletes had arrived straight from the front, where so many fellow countrymen had suffered or died.  The cyclists' perseverance and tolerance for pain would be tested in a grueling, monthlong competition.  An inspiring true story of human endurance, this book explores how the cyclists united a country that had been torn apart by unprecedeted desolation and tragedy.  It shows how devastated countrymen and women can come together to celebrate the adventure of a lifetime and discover reewed fortitude, purpose, and national identity in the streets of their towns.

This was an interesting book.  My dad is a huge Tour fan.  He and my mom actually went one year to follow the tour for several weeks on a tour of their own and watch the race.  It was interesting to read about the Tours beginnings and how it differs from today.  It was a bit dry in spots, and there is just about as much about WWI as the tour, which was a bit odd  I know what the author was trying to do, but I would have liked the book to just focus on the bikers.

Stars: 3

Book: Dispatches From Grief

 Book: Dispatches From Grief

Author: Danielle Crittenden

Pages: 207

This is my 146th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

On a February morning, Danielle Crittenden's world cleaved in two: the life before her daughter Miranda was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment, and the life after.  In this luminous memoir, Crittenden maps the territory of profound loss with the clarity of a foreign correspondent filing reports from a country no parent ever wishes to visit.  With unflinching honesty and unexpected grace, she chronicles not just the shattering impact of a child's death, but the strange afterlife of grief itself - the way it infiltrates grocery stores and social media, transforms old friendships and forges new ones, and ultimately reshapes the mourner as fundamentally as it has reshaped the world. Here is grief in all its terrible specificity: the police call that changes everything, the surreal task of choosing a burial dress, the well-meaning friends who offer advice about "stages" that don't exist.  But here too is love in its most distilled form - a mother's meditation on a daughter who commanded dinner tables at 12 and who transformed from a precocious girl into a sparkling young woman living her dreams in NY.  Crittenden brings a journalist's eye to the landscpae of loss, coining the perfect term for those who try to explain grief to the grieving, finding dark comedy in a hotel clerk's relentless cheerfulness.  It will speak to anyone who has loved deeply, lost profoundly, and wondered how to continue when continuation seems impossible.

This was a heartbreaking book.   It is a short book, and I read it all in one sitting.  Make sure you have your tissues as you read along with a mother's greatest fear and what happens after.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: The Man Who Died Twice

 Book: The Man Who Died Twice

Author: Richard Osman

Pages: 368

This is my 145th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim - the Thursday Murder Club - are still riding high off their recent real-life murder ase and are looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet at Cooper's Chase, their post retirement village.  But they are out of luck.  An unexpected visitor - an old pal of Elizabeth's (or perhaps more than just a pal?) - arrives, desperate for her help.  He has been accused of stealing diamonds worth millions from the wrong men and he's seriously on the lam.  Then, as night follows day, the first body is found.  But not the last.  Elizabet, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are up against a rutless murderer who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians.  Can out 4 friends catch the killer before the killer catches them?  And if they find the diamonds, too?  Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?  You should never put anything beyond the Thursday Murder Club.

This was a pretty good book.  I had read the first one and just thought it was fine, and figured I was done with the series.  However - a reading challenge threw me into the second book, and I am glad I read it.  I did watch the show on TV, and I think that helped.  I now had people to put their the characters in the book and it made this one more enjoyable.  It is clever and fun, and I understand the TV series will continue, so hopefully we will see this one played out soon.

Stars: 4