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

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5: The Butcher's Masquerade

 Book: The Butcher's Masquerade

Author: Matt Dinniman

Pages: 720

This is my 144th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

A lush jungle teeming with danger.  Savage dinosaurs seeking blood.  A fallen princess intent on vengeance.  A mysterious, end of floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed "The Butcher's Masquerade".  But that's not all.  Just when Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, think they've seen it all as they compete to survive in the galaxy's most popular game show, the latest dungeon level introduces a terrible new threat.  The 6th floor.  The Hunting Grounds.  As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, outside tourist are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are ready to hunt.  Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.  But her prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.  Welcome, crawlers.  Welcome to the 6th floor of the dungeon.

Another great installment in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.  These books do not get less entertaining.  They are fun, and clever, and the world building is amazing.  In the beginning I really had to take my time to try and figure out the game, but not that I understand it, the books are so enjoyable.  Characters are well developed.  Carl and Donut are so easy to like and root for.  Samantha - introduced in the last book - is even more hilarious in this installment.  If you have not tried this books, I encouage you too.  I know they are tomes, but worth it.

Stars: 5

Book: The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World

 Book: The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World

Author: Matt Kracht

Pages: 192

This is my 143rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Following in the tracks of the 1st uproarious and beloved bird book, this book ventures beyond to identify the stupidest birds around the world.  Featuring birds from all around the world, the authro identifies the dumb birds that mange to live all over the freaking place with snarky yet accurate names and humorous, anger-filled drawings.  Offering a balance of fact and wit, this uproarious profanity-laden handbook will appeal to hardcord birders and casual bird lovers (and haters) alike.  

This book was hilarious.  I read it for a reading challenge where I needed a book about birding, and this did not disappoint.  It has some general facts about the birds he describes, but he mostly sticks to what is annoying about them.  I laughed out loud for almost the whole book.  It is a very fast read and has a lot of really well drawn pictures.  My only complaint is it wasn't longer.  Fun find.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Edge of Darkness

 Book: Edge of Darkness

Author: Kyla Stone

Pages: 352

This is my 142nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Hannah Sheridan has survived years of captivity and civilzation's collapse.  No, heavily pregnant and wounded, with her faithful dog Ghost dying from a bullet wound, she must reach home - a brutal jouney through a frozen wasteland - to the family she was stolen from.  Former Delta operator Liam Coleman's mission is simple: deliver Hannah safely to Fall Creek, then settle his own debts with the past.  But with Ghost critically injured and Pike stalking them through the snow, every mile is a battle.  Every contraction a ticking clock.  In Fall Creek, Noah Sheridan fights to hodl his broken town together after horrific violence shatters their fragile peace.  He'd built a safe place for his son Milo, surviving the cold and chaos.  But as grief turns to fury and neighbors turn against each other, he faces an impossible choice: protect what remains or rish everything to save it all.  In the ashes of the old world, some build communities.  Others build empires.  And some just want to watch it all burn. 

This was another good installment in the Edge of Collapse series.  This books have good bite too them.  They are easy reads, so you can fly through them, but they also have enough intensity to them that you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen.  There are several POVs in these books, and this one was overly so.  That might be my only negative thought - there might have been too many switches this time around.   Overall though, a sollid read.  

Stars: 4

Book: Incidents around the house

 Book: Incidents Around The House

Author: Josh Malerman

Pages: 384

This is my 141st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

To 8 year old Bela, her family is her world.  There's mommy, daddo, and Grandma Ruth.  But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: "Can I go inside your heart"?  When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.  Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder.  Only the bonds of the family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage.  The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.  But Other Mommy needs an answer.

This book was terrible.  I did read Malerman's Bird Box series, and enjoyed those, but this one was so bad.  Story isn't really that scary, and the characters are not great.  Told from a child's perspective.  The ending is really what did it for me - dropped this from a 2 star down to a 1.  What in the world was the author thinking with the big dialogue this mother tells this little kid?  Nonsense.  

Stars: 1

Book: What The Dog Saw

 Book: What the Dog Saw

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Pages: 448

This is my 140th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

What is the difference between choking and panicking?  Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup?  What do football players teach up about how to hire teachers?  What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?  Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzlinginventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz.  Gladwell sits with Ron Popeii, the king of the American kitcen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand.  He explores intelligence tests and ethic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.  

This was a very interesting book.  I do like Malcolm Gladwell - this is my second book by him I have read just this year.  He is a good writer and the topics throughout this book give you a lot to think about.  Good insight, good research, and great writing.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: The Tainted Cup

 Book: The Tainted Cup

Author: Robert Bennett

Pages: 432

This is my 139th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In Daretana's greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead - killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body.  Even here at the Empire's brders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it's a death both terrifying and impossible.  Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brillance is matched only by her eccentricities.  Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.  At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana's brillance.  Din is at tuns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior - but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana's mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is indeed, the Empire's greatest detective.  As the 2 close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he's barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra - and wonders how long he'll be able to keep his own secrets from her piercing intellect. 

This was a great book.  When researching books for several challenge categories, this book came up again and again, so I figured I should try it.  It was a good mix of fantasy world, mystery, crazy detective, and humor.  The characters were wonderful and the story intriguing.  Lots of world building.  There are 2 more books in this series, so I will be sure to check them out.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: Metropolis

 Book: Metropolis

Author: BA Shapiro

Pages: 384

This was my 138th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Six people, six secrets, six different backgrounds.  They would never have met if not for their connection to the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, MA.  When someone falls down an elecator shaft at the facility, each of the six becomes caught up in an intensifying chain of events.  We meet Serge, an unstable but brilliant street photographer who lives in his storage unit; Marta, an undocumented immigrant finishing her dissertation and hiding from ICE; Liddy, an abused wife and mother who recreaters her children's bedroom in her unit; Jason, a former corporate lawyer now practi ing in the facility; Rose, the office manager, who takes illegal kickbacks to let renters live in the building; and Zach, an ex-drug dealer and now the building's owner, who scans Serge's photos as he searches for cluesto the accident.  But was it an accident?  A murder attempt"  Suicide? As her characters dip in and out of one another's lives trying to find answers and battling societal forces beyond their control, this book questions the myth of the American dream and builds tensions to an exhilarating climax.

This was a good book.  I loved Shapiro's other book - The Art Forger - so I was anxious to try this one.  It is well written, and I liked all the characters are you supposed to like.  Especially the lawyer.  It moves at a good pace, and there is a satisfying ending.

Stars: 4 

Book: The Other Man

 Book: The Other Man

Author: Farhad Dadyburjor

Pages: 299

This is my 137th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Heir to his father's Mumbai business empire, Ved Mehra has money, looks, and status.  He is also living as a closeted gay man.  Thirty-eight, lonely, still reeling from a breakup, and under pressure from his exasperated mother, Ved agreed to an arranged marriage.  He regrettably now faces a doomed future with the perfectly lovely Disha Kapoor.  Then Ved's world is turned upside down when he meets Carlos Silva, an American on a business trip in India.  As preparations for his wedding get into full swing,Ved finds himself drawn into a relationship he could never have imagined - and ready to take a bold step.  Ved is ready to embrace who he is and declare his true feelings regardless of family expectatios and staunch traditions.  But with his engagement party just days away, and with so much at risk, Ved will have to fight for what he wants - if it's not too late to get it.  

This book was fine.  Amazon free reads.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Ending Writes Itself

 Book: The Ending Writes Itself

Author: Evelyn Clarke

Pages: 352

This is my 136th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Six authors.  One private island.  72 hours to write the ending that will change their lives.  Arthur Fletch, one of the world's bestselling novelists, is a reclusiv genius known for his iconic protagnoists and fiendish twists.  When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead - and his last book is unfinished.  Desperate to publich the novel, Fletch's agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book.  To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter - fora mind-boggling sum - they will alos help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers.  The catch: the writers have just 72 hours to finish Fletch's magnum opus.  It's the perfect plot.  All it needs is a killer ending.

This book was fine.  I was hoping for a more exciting story, but I just could not get invested in it.  These writers are given 72 hours to write and most of the book is about them doing anything but.  And of course getting murdered.  The story and the characters did not really grab me.  It get get better toward the end once some things were revealed and it had a decent epilogue.  I have read better locked room mysteries.

Stars: 3

Book: Reaper Man

 Book: Reaper Man

Author: Terry Pratchett

Pages: 336

This is my 137th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

They say there are only two things you can count on: death and taxes.  But that was before Death started pondering the existential.  Now Death is facing his own demise, fired by the Auditores of REality for developing a personality.  Sentenced to live like everyone else, the entity formerly known as the Grim Reaper takes a new name and becomes a farmhand.  He's an expert with a scythe, after all.  Frolicking in greener pastures, Death is having the time of his life.  For humanity though, Death's loss leads to chaos, the kind that always arises when an important public service is cut.  But what happens if Death doesn't come for you? What do you do when your time is supposed to be up?  The undead can't be left wandering about like lost souls - there's no telling what might happen.  Particularly when they discover that life really is only for the living.

This book was all kinds of fun.  I listened to it and the narrators were great.  I have read a few Prachett books and I enjoy his books that mix comedy with good story.  This book had me laughing out loud a few times along the way.  Characters are great and the Grim Reaper becomes basically human.  Glad I read this one.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: Read Between The Lies

 Book: Read Between The Lies

Author: Jesse Sutanto

Pages: 287

This is my 135th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Fern's dream of becoming a published author is finally coming true.  After years of rejection, her debut novel has sold, and she's ready to join the supportive online comunity of fellow debuts.  But when she discovers her high school buyy, Haven, has landed a majorbook deal and will be debuting alongside her, old wounds reopen.  As the pandemic forces everyone online, tensions escalate in their writing community.  While Have seems to succeed effortlessly, Fern watches her own career crumble.  Yet beneath their polished personas lies a darker truth about their shared past - one involving a lost friend, Dani, and secrets neither wants revealed.  Fern isn't the same person Haven bullied all those years ago.  She's learned that the best revenge stories aren't written - they're lived.  And she's been plotting this one for years.  What begins as online rivalry escalates into dangerous obsession.  Because neither woman is telling the whole truth about what really happened to Danie - or about who's the real victim in this story.

This book was terrible.  It was an Amazon free read, and fit a reading challeng category, but it was not well written.  The characters were awful.  The written was not good.  The author just seemed to be writing a book about something she was hoping to obtain - a big book deal.  Even the connection between the bully and the main character story was blah.  Such childish behavior for someone who is almost 30 years old.  

Stars: 1 

Book: Quicksilver

 Book: Quicksilver

Author: Callie Hart

Pages: 624

This is my 134th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Do not touch the sword.  Do not turn the key.  Do not open the gate.  24 year old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets.  No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.  In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.  But a secret is like a knot.  Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.  When Saeris comes face to face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow.  The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legent, of nightmares - but it turns out they're real, and Aseris has landed right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.  The first of her kind to treat the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over 1000 years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfiser, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own.  He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him - or her.  Death has a name.  It is Kingfist of the Ajun Gate.  His past is murky.  His attitude stinks.  And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.  Be careful of the deals you make, dear child.  The devil is in the details.

This book was not for me.  I read it for a reading challenge where there was a category that was proving especially difficult to fill with my usual books.  My 23 year old daughter recommended this one, and I went into it with an open mind, but this is YA and I am just past it.  Which I know I keep saying.  I need to mean it.  This was a lot like Iron Flame - enemies to lovers, dragons, magic, speaking through their minds - not enough originality.  At least it wasn't in a school - so bravo.  Too much sex in my opinion.  These romantasy books are all the rage amount various age groups right now, and I do love a good fantasy novel.  But this was almost too vulgar in spots.

Stars: 3

Book: Transcendent Kingdom

 Book: Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Pages: 288

This is my 133rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Gifty is a 6th year PhD Candidate in neuroscience at the Standford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction.  Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin.  Her suicidal mother is living in her bed.  Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.  But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evengelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.  This is a portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grif - a novel about faith, science, religion, love.

This was an interesting book.  I really liked her book, Homegoing, and glad I found this one.  It has a lot of relgious aspects to it - where a scientist is incorporating her religion into her everyday life and trying to find the balance.  The story was a bit all over the place, but the underlying theme was a good one.  It is a very sad read.

Stars: 4