Book: Atomic Anna

 Book: Atomic Anna

Author: Rachel Barenbaum

Pages: 449

This is my 187th read for the year

This is the story of three women.  Anna - a brillian scientist in the early part of the century whose life changes on the day of the Chernobyl explosion.  Her daughter Molly and Molly's daughter, Raisa get intertwined with Anna's life when the explosion throws Anna ahead in time where she sees Molly shot and dying.  Anna goes about trying to figure out how to build the time machine so that she can save Molly and fullfill Molly's request of then saving Raisa.  Throughout the story we go back and forth in time over the course of all three women's lives to see what brought them to this moment and what it would take to change it.

I found this book for $2 at a used bookstore and thought it seemed interesting.  And it was.  I really enjoyed the story and the flow of the book.  I think it is well written with good character development.  I liked most the characters and there was just a hint of mystery as the story went along, but not so much to keep the reader unnecessarily in the dark.  I was surprised when I looked this book up on Amazon that it only had 200 reviews because I think it was great.  Time travel done right!

Stars: 4.5

Book: Daughter of Moloka'i

Book: Daughter of Moloka'i

Author: Alan Brennert

Pages: 336

This is my 186th read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

This tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama, was forced to give up at birth.  This book folows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls to her adoption by a Japanese couple who riase her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Recloation Camp during WWII, and then  - after the war - to the life-altering day when she recevies a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth's birth mother.  It expands on the Ruth and Rachel relationship that was hinted at in book one.

This book was okay.  I loved the first book and was excited when I saw there was a second one written.  But this book was a lot of fluff and not a lot of substance.  It was more like the author was just trying to capitalize on the success of his first novel instead of really developing a good story.  Even at just a bit over 300 pages, it drags.  There is very little discourse (none really) among the characters which was just odd - especially since they were in a Japanese internment camp.  Everyone is wonderful, the children are sweet and endearing to the point of it just not being realistic.  Just too sappy.  Overall - just not high quality story telling or writing.

Stars: 3

 

Book: Remember

 Book: Remember

Author: Lisa Genova

Pages: 272

This is my 185th read for the year

Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist turned author, and she uses this non-fiction book to delve into how memories are made and how we retrieve them.  She describes the distrinction between dementia, alzheimers, and just a "lapse in memory".  She discusses how memory is affected by diet and exercise, sleep and age.  She then gives tips and tricks to help improve your memory and what really works and what is just a myth.

This was a fantastic book.  I like Genova's fictional books and this one was no different.  She is a Harvard trained neuroscientist and she uses clear and understandable language to talk through how memory works.  The conclusion for me is that most lapses in memory are completely normal and there are things you do without even realizing it that makes you feel like you have a bad memory.  Forgot where you parked your car?  You probably never took a second to calculate where the car was in the first time, so when you don't form a memory, of course you cannot remember it.  It was fascinating and enlightening, and I encourage you to read it.  Especially if you are in the second half of your life.

Stars: 5

Book: Poster Girl

 Book: Poster Girl

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 288

This is my 184th read for the year

This is the story of Sonya.  Her family was part of the elite members of a society until the Delegation collapsed.  Now she is a prisoner in the Aperture - a walled off city for the members of the Delegation who survived the uprising and were jailed.  The rest of her family is dead.  And she - the one time Poster face of the Delegation thinks this is where she will die.  However - she is given a chance for freedom and to rejoin society.  The brother of her dead fiance has given her a nearly impossible task to find a missing girl so that she can rejoin her family.  This task leads Sonya on a path through the Delegation's past that she did not know about.  And in the end she needs to decide for herself where her true loyalties lie.

I really liked this book.  I thought it was well written and the story flowed well.  I liked the characters, and there were a few surprises I didn't see coming.  It is a short book, but she was still able to build a sci-fi world that was satisfactory to the reader.  I knocked it a star because the ending was so unsatisfactory.  I was disappointed - I was left wanting more.  It kind of wraps up, but leaves you hanging and the epilogue is only 2 pages.  A bit frustrating.  But overall - glad I read this one.

Stars: 4

Book: Interesting Facts About Space

 Book: Interesting Facts About Space

Author: Emily Austin

Pages: 310

This is my 183rd read for the year

This is a story about Enid.  She is obsessed with space and has a phobia of bald men.  She loves listening to true crime podcasts, and she is trying to forge a relationship with her step sisters now that her dad is gone.  She becomes paranoid when she thinks someone is following her and breaking into her apartment.  

This book was terrible.  I almost didn't finish it, but I was reading it as part of a reading challenge and didn't want to start a new book.  It isn't funny.  It is boring and disjointed and chaotic.  I ddn't like Enid at all.  I felt like I was reading about a middle schooler instead of a grown woman.  Pass.

Stars: 1

Book: The Unclaimed

 Book: The Unclaimed

Author: Pamela Prickett

Pages: 336

This is my 182nd read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters' fields - a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid.  Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies.  Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year.  The author uncovers a hidden social world.  They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducting us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will. 

This book was fine.  I found it a little dry, but I liked the subject.  I found it interesting to learn more about what happens with bodies who don't get claimed.  And I didn't realize that this was happening more and more.  I wonder if I would have read it instead of listened to it, it would have been a better read.  The narrator was fine, but just a little boring.

Stars: 3

Book: The Marriage Act

 Book: The Marriage Act

Author: John Marrs

Pages: 497

This is my 181st read for the year

What Amazon Has to Say:

Britain.  The near future.  A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society's ills - the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.  But four couples are about th doscover just how impossible relationships can be wen the government is supervising every aspect of our personal lives, monitoring every word, every minor disagreement - and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour, and obey.

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it, and it passed the time.  I have read a lot of Marrs books, and I like his dystopian take.  There is a bit of reality mixed in with an alternate universe that doesn't seem all that unlikely.  I think there was overall good character development, and a few twists in the book that I didn't see coming which was nice.  It even wraps up nicely.  I THINK this might be a bit of a sequel to "The One" - which I have not read yet, but it is a netflix show I have watched.

Stars: 4

Book: Sway

 Book: Sway

Author: Matthew Bocchi

Pages: 288

This is my 180th read for the year

This is the story of the author.  Matthew was only 9 years old when his father was killed in the 9/11 attacks.  His father - who worked on the 105th floor was above where the planes hit and knew he would never make it out.  However - Matthew and his three brothers - never could understand why.  At such a young age, they thought their father would walk through the door at any minute.  Once Matthew's father was confirmed dead, Matthew started down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what happened to his father.  He became obsessed with watching videos of jumpers - tryings to see if one was his father.  In the midst of his grief, a family member who he trusted took his innocence and that, along with the death of his father, sent Matthew down a path of personal distruction.  He spent years uner a fog of drugs and alcohol being well into his 20s before he got help.

This is a hard book to review.  Matthew sustained a terrible trauma with the death of his father and the abuse from an uncle that his path didn't surprise me all that much.  His mother was trying to hold herself together and that of his younger brothers (one that was only a few months old when 9/11 happened) that I think Matthew's struggle got easily overlooked.  Matthew was an adult before he told someone about the abuse.  I was happy to hear that he finally got the help he needed and has been in recovery for a few years now.  I hope it takes.  The downside for me of this book was there was just page after page of drug abuse.  It started strong in the beginning of his tale of what happened after 9/11.  But I don't think there is enough substance of this book to make me give it higher than 3 stars because it was just endless drugs.  And while that was obviously his story, it just got to be overwhelming and I was hoping to read more about his family or his brothers.  It could be that they asked not to be a part of it - who knows.

Tragic story.  I hope his path forward continues to improve.

Stars: 3

Book: Full Dark No Stars

Book: Full Dark No Stars

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 384

This is my 179th read this year

This is a book of 4 short-ish stories.  In "1922" a man is upset that his wife wants to sell the family homestead, and when tragedy strikes, he has to decide what to do.  In "Big Driver" - a write is assulted on her way home from a book reading, and as she pieces together what happened to her, she discovers that revenge is the best approach.  In "Fair Extension" a man makes a deal with the devil which then spirals another family out of control.  And in "A Good Marriage" a wife discovers the horrific past of her husband and has to decide what she should do next.

This book was excellent.  Each story was well written, and around 100 pages each.  It was enough for good character development and to have a nice beginning, middle and end.  I read a lot of King's short story books, but most of them have stories that are less than 50 pages - I liked this better.  My favorite story of the group was "1922" - but probably because it was the longest.  Check this one out.

Stars: 5

Book: Working Stiff

 Book: Working Stiff

Author: Judy Melinek

Pages: 288

This is my 178th read for the year

This is the story of the author.  As a fellow in forensic pathology, she spent two years in New York City as a medical examiner.  Her tenure started 2 months before 9/11 and carried through the following months that she was involved in the recovery efforts and finally her move to California when she had enough.  Her husband and son by her side, she recounts her day to day work as a medical examiner and then what it was like to work the scene of 9/11.  She gets into the details of what it was like to see bodies in various stages as she learned how to determine cause of death, to speak to families, and to present her findings in court.

This was a great book.  I do have to admit that these kind of books fascinate me, and as a nurse, I am not bothered by the content.  But this book should come with a warning for those who are squeemish.  She gets into the details of bodies as they come to her in the morgue, and especially at the scene of 9/11.  She works the 9/11 scene for 8 months - under harsh conditions where bodies and parts are brought to her as they work to try and identify people.  It will chill you.  

Stars: 4

Book: A Fatal Inheritance

 Book: A Fatal Inheritance

Author: Lawrence Ingrassia

Pages: 320

This is my 177th read for the year

This is the story of two families.  The Ingrassia family - the author's family - and the Kilius family.  Both of these families are riddled with cancer throughout their family tree.  The author lost his mother, two sisters, a brother, and a nephew all to cancer.  He takes us back to the 1960s when scientist Dr Li and Dr. Fraumeni started to delve into familial cancer to trace family trees and find out if it was genetic or environmental that was the root cause.  They discover the P53 gene, also know as Li-Fraumeni syndrome and if a person carried this gene, they would get cancer at some point in their lifetime.  It is extremely rare, but it set the path to find out if they could detect the cancers early enough and screne patients often enough, if they could keep them alive.  Moving on from that, they hoped to then be able to attack the inevitable cancer and cure it.  While the first part has been successful in catching cancers early, they are still trying to stop it before it gets any further.  It is passed on from generation to generation - sometimes without people being aware they even carry it before it is too late.

This is a fantastic book.  And very sad.  One story after another of babies all the way through adults who had the P53 gene and did all get cancer.  Hardly any of them survived - even with early detection.  It would riddle their bodies in a wide variety of places - breast, lung, brain, lymph, pancreas, etc and little could be done to stop it from coming.  It is more rare than the BRCA gene.  It was fascinating to read about the research as it progressed through the decades, and how Crisper (and even LCA) was mentioned near the end as gene therapy takes a forefront in controlling disease.  And beyond that were the stories of these two families and the heartbreak of what it must be like to know that if you have this gene, you will get cancer.  And it will almost always be fatal.  Very interesting read.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Bridge of Sighs

 Book: Bride of Sighs

Author: Richard Russo

Pages: 642

This is my 176th read for the year

What Amazon has to say:

Lucy Lynch is sixty years old and has spent his entire life in Thomaston, NY.  Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he's had plenty of reasons not to be - chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive.  Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that has propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an "empire" of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation.  Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston.  In fact, the exact nature of their friendship is one of the many mysteries Lucy hopes to untangle in the history he's writing of his hometown and family.  And with his story interspersed with that of Noonan, the native son who'd fled so long ago, the destinies building up around both of them are relentless, constantly surprising, and utterly revealing.

This book was a tome.  It was pretty good, but if I had to sum it up in one word it would be "rambley".  It starts when Lucy and Noonan are kids, all the way until grown adults - but moving back and forward in time as the book progresses.  I found myself wishing Russo would just speed it up a bit - he seemed to want to put every mundane detail of their lives into this book.  I loved his "Empire Falls" book, but this one didn't flow for me like that one did.  I did like Lucy and his dad, and I did like Noonan as an adult.  Sarah - didn't love her character and she seemed to really unravel at the end.  It wraps up nicely, but it just took so long to get there.  

Stars: 3.5

Book: Skeleton Crew

 Book: Skeleton Crew

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 672

This is my 175th read for the year

This is a book of short stories.  I liked almost all of them.  There were some longer ones, and a few that were only a few pages, but overall - I felt they were entertaining and well written.  The Mist is the first short story in this book.  It ended differently than the movie and I know they have parceled it out to its own novel, so I would be interested to read it and see if changes were made.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Yours Truly

 Book: Yours Truly

Author: Abby Jimenez

Pages: 416

This is my 174th read for the year

This is what Amazon says:

Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is seriously flatlining.  Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother's running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants?  Oh, that's propbably going to be a new man-doctor who's already registered eight-friggin-seven on Briana's "pain in my butt" scale.  But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completeyl flips the game - by sending Briana a letter.  And it's a really good letter.  Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn't actually Satan.  Worse, he might be this fantastically funny likeable guy who'se terrible at first impressions.  Because suddently he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her "sob closet", and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses.  But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable - she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor.  Especially when he calls in a favor she can't refuse.

This book started off strong and then about half way through I felt it went downhill.  I started to notice it about a 1/4 into the book that this wasn't going to be for me, but then it truly took a turn.  I am not a big romance genre fan to start with, but I did like another book by this author.  But this "miscommunication" trope - I hate it.  It is worth of Hallmark Christmas movies and really nothing else.  At least not to the level that is in thie book.  The dialogue started to get cheesy - especially with the side characters.  Jacob's anxiety was either off the charts, or barely noticable to fit moving the story along.  I just could not get into it.

Stars: 2

Book: The Bean Trees

 Book: The Bean Trees

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Pages: 272

This is my 173rd read for the year

This is the story of Taylor Greer.  She is running from her old life and in the process of doing so, she is handed a three year old Native American girl to take care of.  She knows nothing of this child or why she was given the child, but she takes her and nicknames her Turtle.  Over the new few months, Taylor settles into a life in Arizona and starts to meet friends.  She moves in with one of her friends, Lou Anne, who recently got a divorce and has a baby of her own.  They support each other and when there is threat that Turtle might be taken away from Taylor, she decides she will do anything she can to stop that from happening.

This was a great book.  I do like most of Kingsolver's novels.  She is a pretty good storyteller.  I listened to this one and the narrator was excellent.  It flows pretty well, and there is good character development.  I really like Taylor and Lou Anne and their support of one another.  The flaws for me of this book was that some conversations did seem to be too drawn out - especially when it was a side character.  And also the ending was a bit unbelievable - but I won't spoil why.  I am happy it turned out the way it did, but it didn't seem believable.

Stars: 4

Book: The Children's Hour

 Book: The Children's Hour

Author: Lillian Hellman

Pages: 72

This is my 172nd read for the year

This is a play where 2 women run a school for girls.  One of the more malicious students starts a rumor about the two women which starts a scandal.  As the truth comes to light it seems to be too late to repair what has been done to these two women and it ends in tragedy.

If you were wondering why I read this - it is because every once in awhile I read a book off the Rory Gilmore list.  This short book rounded off my month of September nicely.  It is a well written play and something you can read in an afternoon.  The horrible girl - Mary - is truly a terrible character and I found myself gripping the book wanting to reach into the pages and get rid of her and shout that what she was saying wasn't true.  I guess this makes a mark of a good story when you want to help out?  Who knows.  I liked it overall and glad I picked it up.

Stars: 4

Book: The Lion Women of Tehran

 Book: The Lion Women of Tehran

Author: Marjan Kamali

Pages: 336

This is my 171st read for the year

What Amazon says:

In 1950s Teran, 7 year old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown.  Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate gil with a brave and irrepressible spriti.  Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa's warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming "lion women". But their happienss is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life.  Now a popular student at the best girls' high school in Iran, Ellie's memoris of Homa beging to fade.  Years later, however, her sudden reapperance in Ellie's privledged world alters the cours of both of their lives.  Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures.  But as the politicl turmoil in Ira builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

This was a great book.  It covers the life of these two women from the 1950s through 2022.  It unfolds nicely as they take different paths, come back together, take different paths again, etc.  They keep finding each other even though their lives are very different.  It isn't a long book, and I did keep turning the pages wanting to see where it would go, what the ending would be like.  I love "long lives" of characters in books to see what becomes of them.  Good epilogues and sagas are top notch in my book.  This is well written and has great character development.  You like just about every character in the book (there are some bad guys of course) and it makes you want to follow their life.  Check this one out.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Persian Pickle Club

 Book: The Persian Pickle Club

Author: Sandra Dallas

Pages: 224

This is my 170th read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

It is the 1930s and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up, and there's not a job to be found.  For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickel Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use.  When a new member of the club stires up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. 

This was a good read.  I wanted to like it a little better.  I liked the idea of it: A women's quilting group and gathered together and supported each other as they sewed.  It read more like something out of the 1800s rather than the 1930s - I had a hard time wrapping my head around that there were cars and electricity, etc. because the way the story plays out, it feels like it should have been written in a much earlier time period.  The middle was a trudge.  Even for a short book, I felt that she could have gone a different way and spent more time on the ladies and the quilt group rather than what happened to Queenie and one other member.  Had a hard time really caring about a lot of the characters.  The ending was a little surprising.  

Also - FYI - Persian Pickles is what this group called the Paisely pattern on a quilt.

Stars: 3

Book: The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

 Book: The Life And Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

Author: Bill Bryson

Pages: 270

This is my 169th read for the year

This is the story of the author.  Born in 1951 in Iowa he recounds his childhood.  He grew up in a time when TVs and electronics took off and cigarettes where still good for you.  He recounts his love for his family and things that made his memories.

This was a pretty good book.  I have read one other Bryson book "A Walk In The Woods" and it is a favorite.  This one took a little bit to get into - the begining was a slow start.  But then Bryson's dry humor started to show through and it became a quick read.  It is charming and nostalgic (especially if you are a baby boomer) for what it was like mid 20th century.  Glad I read it for my USA challenge.

Stars: 4

Book: Fight Club

 Book: Fight Club

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Pages: 224

This is my 168th read for the year

Here is what Amazon said (I am really behind on blogging from working so much)

Fight Club's estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars.  There, two men fight as long as they have to.  

This was an interesting book.  I saw the movie years ago and never did read the book.  It is a short book and a quick read.  Since I knew what was going on - the "shock" of the story, I didn't get much out of its reveal.  The main character always seems dirty to me - I hate characters like that.  Just gritty, unwashed, down on their luck characters don't draw me in.  Overall - an interesting read.

Stars: 3

Book: Other Birds

 Book: Other Birds

Author: Sarah Addison Allen

Pages: 352

This is my 167th read for the year

This story begins with Zoey Hennessey.  She has recently graduated from high school and is about to begin college in South Carolina.  She was left a condo by her late mother on Mallow Island - in a complex called the Dellaswip - and she decides to move in before she starts school.  As she gets to know the other people in her complex, she starts to unfold the magic of this unique place.  Frazier -the manager of the complex - gives her the job to clean out an apartment after the tenant dies.  As she starts to go through the boxes looking for mysterious pages that were supposedly left by a legendary writer, she tries to figure out why the tenant kept so much paper.  She enlists the help of neighbor Charlotte whose story starts to unfold as they search.  They meet Mac - a shy chef who brings them comfort food, and they try and track down the son on of the dead woman - Oliver - who vowed to stay away forever.  As their stories entertwine and unfold, Zoey finds the family she had been missing.

This was a fantastic book.  I picked it up at a used bookstore for a few dollars and what a gem.  It is very well written.  Each character is likeable and well developed.  Zoey - being 18 years old is just a sweet, darling young woman (finally a teenage character that isn't self centered and over dramatized) who you cannot help but love.  The stories of how they all fit together came together so neatly that by the time I reached the end I was actually sad.  There are some twists I didn't see coming, but overall this is just a wonderful, sweet, charming story with a little bit of magical realism thrown in to complete the picture.  Don't miss this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Sharp Objects

 Book: Sharp Objects

Author: Gillian Flynn

Pages: 254

This is my 166th read for the year

This is what Amazon says (feeling lazy today)

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.  For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town.  Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young vitims - a bit too strongly.  Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story - and survive this homecoming.

This was just an okay book.  I go back and forth with Flynn's books, but this one was a miss for me.  I figured out what was going on pretty early in the book.  I didn't like a single character.  Camille's sister is 13 but the way it read, it was more like a 19 year old.  It was a bit much.  The "shocker" at the end of the book was poorly executed.  By that time I didn't even care who did it.  Overall it was just disturbing and just a so-so read.

Stars: 3

Book: The Lowland

 Book: The Lowland

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

Pages: 415

This is my 165th read for the year

This is the story mostly of Subhash and his family.  He and his brother Udayan grew up in Calcutta and when it was time for graduate school, Subhash left for the United Staes and settled in Rhode Island to finish his studies.  He plans to return to India someday, but years go by before he is summoned back for a tragic reason.  He tries to pick up the pieces of his family and returns to the US with others in tow.  It changes the path of his life forever and he spends his whole life mourning for what he lost and left in India.

This was a pretty good book.  I am a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri's books, but this one was a little dry.  I found large passages that I felt I could skip and not lose the premise of the story.  It could have been about 300 pages and told the same tale.  I did like that we get to follow the life span of several characters in this story.  Overall it didn't grab me like her others.  She overly describes and I found that this did not help develop the characters well.  I felt a lot of times to "get on with it" instead of enjoying where the story was going.  Ending was just okay.

Stars: 3

Book: City Under One Roof

 Book: City Under One Roof

Author: Iris Yamashita

Pages: 320

This is my 164th read for the year

This is the story of Cara Kennedy.  When a local kid finds a foot and a hand on a shore in Alaska, Cara is called to investigate.  She comes from Anchorage to the small town of Point Mettier and due to an avalanche, gets trapped in the town until it can be cleared.  While she is there she continues to interview the local towns people - many who live in the same high rise building.  She works with local police to get to the bottom of the mystery before a local gang upends everything.

This was a pretty good book.  I am making my way through the Read The USA challenge, and this was a good find for Alaska.  There is good character development - it is told from point of Cara, a young girl named Ann, and a woman named Lonnie who seems mentally disabled.  The book moves along at a good pace and it isn't a hard read.  Ending wrapped things up nicely.  

Stars: 4

Book: Eloise at the Plaza

 Book: Eloise At The Plaza

Author: Kay Thompson

Pages: 26

This is my 163rd read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

Eloise is a very special - and very precocious - six year old girl who lives at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.  She may not be pretty yet, but she's definitely already a real Person.  Join Eloise and experience her fabulous life in the famous Plaza Hotel.

I read this book as part of the Rory Gilmore challenge if you are wondering where this came from.  But what a gem!  I don't think I read Eloise to my kids when they were little - but I might have.  This book was hilarious.  And extremely short.  I listened to it and Bernadette Peters reads it and she was the perfect choice.  If you have little ones - pick these books up.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Poe Graphic Novel

 Book: Poe Graphic Novel 

Author: Gareth Hinds

Pages: 120

This is my 162nd read for the year

This is a collection of Poe's works with graphic illustrations to go along with them.  This was a pretty good book.  I read it in an afternoon.  I had it as part of a reading challenge, and my daughter - who collects graphic novels - had it on her shelf.  I liked the illustrations that went along with the stories and poems to bring them to life.

Stars: 4

Book: The Passenger

 Book: The Passenger

Author: John Marrs

Pages: 352

This is my 161st read for the year

In a near distant future, self driving cars are becoming mandatory.  With propoganda that states that it is safer when the car can make a decision and the cost of insurance almost nothing, people are buying into it.  There is one holdout -Libby- who will never believe that this is the right path.  She is chosen to be on a jury to determine in fatal accidents if it was the car at fault or not, and what she is finding is that  the powers above her never find the car at fault.  One day while she is on her jury, a hacker kidnaps 8 different people and locks them in their cars.  They are told they are traveling to an unknown location and in 2 1/2 hours they may be dead.  The hacker then tells the jury that they are going to be the ones to decide who lives and who dies.

This was a pretty interesting book.  Libby was a pretty good character.  Jack - the head of this whole operation was an awful character, but he was supposed to be.  I have decided to read a few Marrs books because I like his dystopian-esque take on things, but I don't love his "keeping the reader in the dark for no reason" writing.  I try to look past it because overall the stories are great reads, but it does bug me.  Each chapter is another person - one of the passengers or Libby.  We learn more about them as they travel along. The ending was okay.  I did like that it went 6 months and then 2 years into the future so we could see what was happening after the hack.  It drug a bit, but he threw in a surprise or two that helped.

Stars: 3.5

Book: How To Walk Away

 Book: How To Walk Away

Author: Katherine Center

Pages: 368

This is my 160th 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 159th 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 158th 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 157th 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 156th 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 155th 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 154th 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 153rd 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 152nd 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