Gone – James Patterson

Rating: 3 stars (3.5 in my head but Goodreads won’t let me do half stars).

Cliff Notes: Sometimes you just need a sure thing.

Full Summary: Sometimes you just need a sure thing. That is when I turn to authors like James Patterson. Some people complain it is cookie cutter and like junk food. BUT I LOVE JUNK FOOD. Junk food never lets me down – it takes me away from nonsense of daily life, keeps a fast pace through its unfolding drama in a setting that I am not very likely to encounter. I think it is always good to try to new authors and genres, but there is a reason that he has written and sold a gillion different books.

Anyway, I liked the story and the pacing. This book was well researched in a way that was interesting, but didn’t get bogged down in details about the weapons or planes and other stuff I didn’t care about. I want to go back to read some of the other books in this series to find out how they ended up with 10 kids.

By |2019-12-12T19:32:42-05:00June 6th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Shine – Jodi Picoult

Rating: 4 stars

Cliff Notes: Jodi Picoult at her best. I am always amazed at the level of research she does for her books.

Full Summary: I think this is an important read for people who think racism is a thing of the past. Yes, the publication date is 2016 but nothing has changed since then – well, gotten worse if anything.

Reader beware – this is SHORT – 42 pages, 1 hour audiobook – 30 MINUTES IF YOU ARE ME LISTENING DOUBLE SPEED. I was sure my phone had messed it up and cut me short.

By |2019-12-12T19:32:52-05:00June 2nd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Casual Vacancy – J.K. Rowling

Rating: n/a

Cliff Notes: It was too dense to wade through with people I hated.

Full Summary: DNF’d after 235 pages (out of 500). I hated all these characters and there were too many to hate them all. Then piling on local politics — BARF. At least with Harry Potter I had Minerva and Hermione to keep me going – I remember being overwhelmed with the amount of people and magical names with HP the first time I read it too.

I wonder how much of my disappointment with Casual Vacancy is that I loved Harry Potter so much. There was just too much hype going into it, maybe? Maybe it just need a basilisk to goose some of these idiots into doing something interesting.

JK Rowling Casual Vacancy

By |2019-12-12T19:33:04-05:00June 1st, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Providence – Caroline Kepnes

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: This was weird. Kind of a blend of sci fi and lost love. Didn’t like it as much as her other book, You (which has been turned into a Netflix series that is GREAT).

Full Summary: Sci fi is just not my jam (unless it is Dark Matter and its 7,495 Jasons, but I digress). I cannot even when it comes to long lost loves that pine for each other through eternity. Puuuhhhleeze. Then you put them TOGETHER?

I was all tucked in and ready for a cozy, weird-boy-kidnapped-by-weirder-dude-then-returns-4-years-later saga. Then it turned into a dumb love story. Blerghhhh. Who has time for that!? And no one every really addressed the fact that there was some science experiment than rando kidnapper did in the basement of the mall. I felt like I was missing several chapters where they explained what the heck happened in that basement. Nope. But it was entertaining enough to keep reading.

Caroline Kepnes Providence
By |2019-12-12T19:33:17-05:00May 31st, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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A Land More Kind Than Home – Wiley Cash

Rating: 4 stars

Cliff Notes: Get past the dry start, and you will not be disappointed.

Full Summary: It took me about 10-15% to get into the story, as it sometimes does with stories told in flashback type of format. But once I got hooked, it was hard to put it down. This local author really captures the people and makes the mountains a character all of its own in the book. I felt how desperate and sad everyone was in this story.

a land more kind than home Wiley Cash
By |2019-12-12T19:08:35-05:00May 29th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Things My Son Needs to Know about the World – Fredrik Backman

Rating: 5 stars!!!

Cliff Notes: Fredrik Backman is my favorite author, and I would read the yellow pages if he wrote it. Pause reading this blog post and go put this on your TBR. I can wait…

Full Summary: OK we are back from your TBR. If you saw this on my Goodreads, it looks like I read the book in a foreign language. Nope, just too impatient to wait for the Goodreads entry in English because THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Backman can make you laugh hysterically through the gut wrenching tears left over from the previous paragraph. And as we all know from Truvy in Steel Magnolias, THAT is the best feeling.

This book is different than Backman’s others in that it is non-fiction and is a collection of essays and anecdotes from his early experience with fatherhood. Might be a good choice for all the parents that have cherubs out of school for the summer. This would be a good book to interval read in between giving the kids 1,593,288 snacks per day (even though they only ate once during the school day) and watching them cannon ball into the pool. You all have my thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

By |2019-12-12T19:33:36-05:00May 25th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Normal People – Sally Rooney

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: Audiobook – excellent with accents!

Full Summary: I wanted to bonk these characters upside the head and drive them to therapy. And the ending! I wanted to throw my phone across the room when I realized it was over because it was SO FRUSTRATING. But alas, that is why it is titled, Normal People. We all do dumb things and are a hot mess in need of therapy.

This easily could have wrapped up with a tidy bow and I applaud the author for not taking that sappy route. I will be back for more from Sally Rooney!

By |2019-12-12T19:33:49-05:00May 24th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Daisy Jones & the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5 stars, go add your name to the wait list at the library!

Cliff Notes: Audiobook, narrated by a cast led by Jennifer Beals. I loved the format and the story was heart wrenching.

Full Summary: The heartbreak of unrequited love, addiction and recovery, the strength of women was what made this book so gut wrenching for me. There were several times where I wanted to highlight what I heard to tell you about it, but I listened on audio. And when I say listened – I had a hard time shutting it off.

I also loved the format of unreliable narrators and alternating point of view. The alternating happened immediately, like you would read in a magazine interview or something of that nature instead of alternating chapters or halves of the book like some other novels do.

I think they are making this into a movie, and after listening to it with Jennifer Beals as Daisy, they MUST cast her in that role.

By |2019-12-12T19:33:59-05:00May 23rd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Odd Interlude – Dean Koontz

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: Little too sci-fi for me to be super interested.

Full Summary: I wanted to be friends with Odd Thomas after reading the first book of the series. So when I saw a bunch of books in the Odd Thomas series at the book sale, I snatched them up. This book is number 4.5 in the series – yes, 4.5.

Apparently Odd Interlude was originally a 3-part digital series that did not get published. Some speculate that Dean Koontz had a wee bit of writer’s block so he noodled around with these ideas while writing other books, which is why it is 4.5. The 3-part digital series appears to be published in 2013.

By |2019-12-12T19:35:07-05:00May 20th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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