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The entire book contains alternating essays from Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond starting from when they were kids growing up in New York, how they met each other, became friends, and started various bands until they became the Beastie Boys. It has a lot of memories of Adam Yauch who died from cancer a few years ago. I really wish some of these essays were from him since they had to be entertaining. It was so entertaining hearing Adrock and Mike D's spin on stories, so having that third viewpoint would have added to it. I also liked how when one of them would be writing an essay, the other one would butt in with some side notes to help explain something or disagree with how it was being told. I could really hear their voices in each essay. Mike D is more serious when it is his turn, even when he is telling a crazy story. Adrock writes just like he talks. He's super animated and you can tell his love of New York and music. He fawns over things the way I have at some point in my life. When he goes into making mix tapes, we were on the same page. It was infectious to read. I didn't want it to end. The entire book was so fun to read. The pictures were great and I have heard the audio version is excellent. I'm going to download it and listen to it.

This was a fun beach read. It jumped right into the action. The first chapter is a doozy. After that, it jumps back a few months. I had to keep reading to find out how the main character got to that point. I was looking for clues but I didn’t always find them. I did find an unreliable narrator (which I find fascinating as a plot device) and suspected gaslighting. Even though the protagonist was making many bad decisions, I was still rooting for her. I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to all come crashing down. There are many unbelievable parts to this book. Some bad decisions that miraculously don’t lead to the horrible places they should. I wished there had been more explanation at the end of why it all happened but then the protagonist was struggling with that question as well. Entertaining debut novel. I look forward to reading more by Steadman.

I love messy books and this one super messy. I also love it when what appears to be the perfect suburban neighborhood is only a facade with secrets hiding beneath the surface. The Richardson family appears perfect with two successful parents and four kids. Ng does a great job with character development. All of the children have distinct personalities. I think the only one lacking any development was Mr. Richardson. Even before Izzy showed up, the way the other kids talked about her made me think that I would love her. I wished she had been part of the story even more. The book starts off a bit slowly as it builds out that family and their new tenants, Mia and Pearl. Then so much happens to these people. As I said, everything gets really messy and complicated. I loved it when this happened. This book brings up conversations about race, white savior complex, and how we all keep so many secrets.

The action starts almost immediately. I did love the non-stop action of this story. It was a quick read with the difficulties and dangers they faced on this river. Heller also did a great job with the very different but compatible personalities of the two guys on this trip. There was some good character development and all the actions they took made sense to their character. I really liked both of them. There was a lot of description of their gear and some canoeing terms that I am not familiar with. I was fine with this since I would skim over those parts. I am sure it is more interesting to people that have these interests, so I assumed those parts were not for me and moved on. It didn't take away from the story. The main issue I had with it was it was suddenly over. It was building up to a climatic ending and next thing I knew, it was the epilogue chapter. I thought I had missed something. Some of the ending of the actual story was explained in the epilogue but I am not sure why it was saved for it and not part of the actual story. It felt like someone told him that he had reached his deadline and had to turn in the book tomorrow so he wrapped it all up as quickly as possible. So odd!

This book started out slow for me. I struggled with the first half of the book. Even though I was learning about how Elwood grew up, I felt distant from him. I really wanted to get inside his head more to know what he was thinking when he was living with his grandmother but still dealing with segregation in his Florida city while trying to learn from the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then, how he was adapting to life in Nickel Academy. I was confused why his thoughts felt separate, especially when Turner was introduced and I almost felt like I knew what he was thinking more. Halfway through the book, it started to go back and forth between Elwood grown up in New York after he left Nickel and the stories of his last few months at Nickel. I read the last half of the book very quickly because it spent more time with both Elwood and Turner. Also, I felt like I was finally knowing what Elwood was thinking as an adult. I could see how he was more cynical than he was when he first came to Nickel. I could see how the place had changed him. Then, I reached the end, and everything made sense. I knew why Elwood seemed so distant earlier in the book. It was heartbreaking. Finally, I read the acknowledgements and how many quotes and stories came from real boys who had been through those abuses in those "schools". It was devastating.

I have never read a political book before. I never thought I would, but I have become more political since 2016. I started listening to Pod Save America podcast. I never got around to getting Dan Pfeiffer's first book, but have heard good things. There is a lot here that Dan has talked about on the podcast, but there were still some ideas that I hadn't heard before or needed to read more about. The beginning of the book is quite depressing when it talks about the shift in Republicans doing whatever they can to keep the power they have and often choosing party over the country. The rest of the book is more hopeful. Dan has ideas. He has a lot of ideas. Some of it is what those running for office need to do. Some of it is what everyday people can do. He ends each of his chapters (after the first part) with action plans of what all of us can do. This book is also very funny. Most of it is in the footnotes, which I found to be very amusing. They might seem annoying to some, but I liked them. The end of the book has some bonus content, which is pretty much a chapter-long rant about Paul Ryan. Dan isn't a fan. He makes his case why. It's very entertaining.

This was a fun play with a lot of surprises even through I was not surprised by how it ended, I did enjoy all the twists along the way. It is a short play and very quick to read.

This book was ridiculous, but I had the best time reading it! It had so many twists and turns, and was super short. I was almost dizzy with everything that happened in so few pages. I don't want to spoil the story so I'll sum up that this has classic noir archetypes from everyday man that falls for a femme fatale and makes poor life choices. Even with some outrageous stuff in this book, I had such a blast reading it. I want to check out more from James M. Cain since this is the first book I have read by him.

Mr. Nobody shows how Steadman has grown as a writer and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future! I loved that the book kept me guessing. I really had no idea what was going on for most of the book and when the various reveals happened, they were satisfying, at least at the end. At one point in the book, I thought a reveal had happened and I was a bit disappointed. It seemed so lame! I should have trusted Steadman though because what I thought was happening, wasn't really happening. It was much better. I think her writing is going to keep on improving with future novels so I look forward to checking them out. These are decent thrillers that I do find highly entertaining. I think if she keeps improving, her books can be stellar.

This was my second Agatha Christie book and I am hooked! The famous detective Hercule Poirot has retired into a small English village right next to a local doctor (with way too much time on his hands) and his gossipy sister. When the doctor becomes embroiled in a murder investigation, Poirot is brought in to investigate. Christie gets right to the murder while building a large cast of characters, but it never becomes confusing. The plot moves along quickly with almost every chapter left with a little twist that made me want to keep reading. At one point, I thought I knew who the murderer was, but then figured I was wrong so I was surprised by the end of it. This was a really fun story and I can't wait to read more.

The plot of this book was slightly different from the other two Christie books I had read since it wasn't a situation where a group of people were together and someone was killed so you knew the suspect pool. In this case, Poirot was sent letters by the murderer in advance telling him what town someone would be killed and the date. After the second letter and murder, the only pattern seemed to be alphabetical in terms of town names and the names of the people dying. They had no other connections. Poirot was stumped and his suspect pool could be anyone. Even though I hadn't read too many Poirot books leading up to this one, I did like the change of pace in the storytelling. Once again, the chapters are short and move the plot along. There is a twist at the end, just when you think everything is solved, it isn't over yet. I did like the twist and did not expect it even though there were clues throughout. That is the kind of mystery I like when I don't see the end coming, but it does make sense when you look back at what you have read.

I find the Tudors fascinating, but I have not done much research on them. I knew the little bit from high school about how Henry VIII had tons of wives and chopped off their heads (not all of them, but that's how I remembered it). I have also watched the movie The Other Boleyn Girl and watched The Tudors. In those tellings, Queen Katherine was always pushed to the side. Going into this book, I thought she was boring, but she was not. This is my first book by Alison Weir, but I really liked her approach. She researched tons of historical documents, but put it together in a very captivating way. She modernized the language a bit, but it did make it easier to read. The book was long, but it did cover so many years of Katherine's life. There was so many pages spent on the time between Arthur's death and when she was finally married to Henry where the King would stop paying her servants, but not send her back to Spain so she was stuck. It had to be so frustrating to have so few choices in life. I know I was frustrated by reading it. I did feel like these parts dragged on for too long. After reading this book, I ended up with a brand new appreciation of Katherine. She stuck to what she believed in and never gave in to whatever was the most popular thing to do at the time. I never found her boring.

This was my first book by Patricia Highsmith and it really makes me want to read The Talented Mr. Ripley since she did an excellent job writing about a narcissistic psychopath in this book, which was her debut. She has to only improve in writing about those psychopaths later on. I knew the overall plot of this book, but the tension was incredibly high throughout it. When Bruno was harassing Guy, it was making me crazy. I couldn't see a way for Guy to get out from Bruno's clutches. I felt sorry for Bruno, but also hated him. I wished he would go away but also wanted to see what he would do next. Highsmith really digs into what it is like for an alcoholic from having a drink first thing in the morning because he needs to get rid of the shakes to constant blackouts and not sure what he might have said the night before. I didn't exactly expect the ending, but I thought it was a bit of a letdown. I really wanted it to end with Guy and his wife, Anne. I liked when Anne was slowly figuring out what had happened. I thought it would have been more interesting to go that route than where it did go. Still, I was astonished this was a debut novel. Maybe I'll go pour myself a drink or three...

I had no idea that the author of Winnie the Pooh also wrote a mystery novel. I really had a lot of fun reading this one. It was a parody of English mysteries and I found it rather amusing. The main character of Anthony Gillingham is a young man with the means to pick up random jobs here and there, just to see what they are like. He is in between one of his odd jobs, when he stumbles into a murder scene while coming to visit his friend Bill at The Red House. He startles one of the house's residents who has heard a gunshot and is trying to get inside a locked room to find out what happened. After finding out it is a murder, Anthony decides he wants to act like Sherlock Holmes and make Bill his Watson. These two go out investigating the murder while not letting the police investigators or anyone else in the house know what they were up to. It was fun to read about them coming up with theories and also trying to follow up on their theories while sneaking around, especially when they had an idea who they thought might be the murderer. I really wanted to read more about Anthony and Bill going on to solve other crimes, but sadly this seems to be the only mystery that Milne wrote.

This was a reread for me. I first read it as a teenager (many, many years ago). I thought I would remember more of it, but it was like reading it for the first time. I really only remembered The Mist and Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, which makes sense since those might be my two favorite stories in this collection. The entire collection was strong in the first half compared to the second half. Other stories that I really liked were The Jaunt, The Raft, Word Processor of the Gods, and Survivor Type. There were quite a few duds here that made the collection drag on. It could be why Night Shift is my favorite out of the two short story collections I have read.

What a lovely book! I am typically not a reader of contemporary books, but I thought this sounded like a fun, light read. Right away, I was drawn in since Oona was quite the music lover. She is 19 in 1982 and had very similar taste to me with David Bowie and New Wave. It also takes place in New York City, so it was fun to read about her experiences at different points in time like the club scene in the '90s was a hoot. As she jumped to different parts of her life, it goes through how lonely she feels as it is hard to develop relationships with people when you are going to be a different person the next year or you could wake up in a relationship with someone you don't even know who they are. She tries to change events to avoid sadness and pain, but realizes it won't work. Life is filled with both good and bad, and sometimes you can't stop it. Reading through the loneliness, pain, sadness, and well as sweet and heart-warming times, I realized this book was much more than the fun, light book that I thought I was picking up to read. It was so much more and I'm so glad. I did have a ton of fun reading it, but it also crushed me in parts. I loved it!

Long Bright River really tells the story of how extremely poor neighborhoods can so easily fall into opioid addiction. It is about a Philadelphia neighborhood where two sisters, one year apart from one another, grew up with their grandmother because both of their parents died when they were young. Their grandmother believes in tough love because she lost her only daughter to addiction and doesn't want the same to happen to her granddaughters that she did not ask to raise and can barely make ends meet herself. It is not a happy childhood but these two sisters make the best of it until they become estranged. One sister becomes a patrol officer and one becomes addicted herself. The story goes back and forth telling about how they grew up and what led to their estrangement to present times where Mickey, the patrol officer, is really concerned because she always knew where her sister was, even if they weren't talking but now she has been missing for over a month. The hopelessness in this novel is palpable. Their lives are so hard and it isn't easy trying to get out from the situation when they weren't born into privilege. Even though this book is dark, it was a really quick read. The chapters are broken up into really short sections, which really keeps the plot moving along quickly. I became invested in these characters quickly and had to know more about them. It isn't a happy book, but the ending does give a sense of hope.

Going into this book, I wasn't sure if reading about an old Hollywood star that had been married multiple times would hold my interest, but it did. It is about so much more than that. This book covers women being seen first, and sometimes only, for their beauty over skill. It is about having the confidence to go after what you want and being fine with what you are willing to do to get it. It is also about hiding your true self from the public and what a strain that can be on personal relationships. The character of the journalist, Monique, isn't as well developed as Evelyn. She is more of a catalyst to hear Evelyn's story. I wasn't sure what to think of Evelyn Hugo. There were times that I was impressed with her tenacity while other times, I disliked her greatly based on decisions she made. I felt pity for how she had to hide where she came from and who she really was and at the end, I saw her as very lonely, but still in control of her life. The entire book is really a character study and Evelyn Hugo was a fascinating character.

There were parts of it I liked, but overall it was so hard to follow with the stream of consciousness writing style. I had to reread parts when I realized it had switched to following another character's thoughts. It made for really slow reading. That being said, my favorite parts were the character of Septimus who was dealing with mental illness. His story was incredibly sad and moving, but kept me coming back to read more about him more than any other character. Now, I can say that I have read something by Virginia Woolf. Check that off the list!

It's all plot with not much character development, but the plot is quite a doozy that makes you want to keep reading. Some of the science behind it made my head spin, especially the last act twist that I did not expect. Even after it was explained twice, I still didn't fully understand, but went with it anyway. The writing style is very similar to Chuck Palahniuk with very short sentences and paragraphs, but it does help with driving the story along. I loved the idea behind it, which reminded me of the show "Sliders" but then it went off in another direction. At the end of the second act, I was about to give up on it because it was becoming more and more depressing, but it finally gave way to the third act with a crazy twist. I would love to see this as a movie. I hear there is one being made and I think it would be so much fun to watch on the screen.

I loved the idea of this book. The setup was intriguing where the government was experimenting on humans to try to create superpowers. The beginning of the book was exciting since it was essentially a long chase scene. Then the second half slowed to a halt. I almost felt that what was happening in the second half of the book would have gone along more with the setup that could have led to an escape and ended with a chase that took place in the beginning. I liked the character of Charlie. I also liked her relationship with her father, Andy. Most of the government people melded together to me, with the exception of creepy Rainbird and his obsessive "love" towards Charlie. Ick! I felt like there could have been a bit more to the ending. I know where it wanted us to go, but it still left me wanting some questions answered, even though at that point I was getting a bit bored with the story overall. It makes me wonder if this started out as a short story (the first half) and then stretched out into a novel and it would have been better if it focused on the intense, exciting parts.

I love these books! I love the relationship between Robin and Cormoran. It's so complicated. I like that they have an awesome friendship that they won't let become romantic, even though everyone else thinks they should be together. I like that they keep it professional. I am not a fan of her fiance Matthew, so I was thrilled for a good portion of this book and now I don't know what to think after I have finished it. Will she continue working with Cormoran in the next book? I don't know! Their relationship is not the only thing that keeps me reading these books. The crime they are investigating kept me guessing until the end. I can see that there is no way I would have figured out who the killer would have been since Cormoran always figures out the killer but leaves the audience in the dark until the final reveal. I did like trying to guess who it might be throughout the book, even though I did not have all the same clues that Cormoran had. I am bummed that I have to wait until next year to find out what is happening next with Cormoran and Robin!

I really liked this one, but I didn't love it. I read this pretty quickly which would normally make me call it a page-turner, but it wasn't really. I could have easily put the book down and forgotten about it at any point. I think certain parts of the book made me continue to pick it up again while other parts I felt dragged on. I liked the premise of it where it is a survival-type reality show with 12 contestants that are given nicknames instead of real names, which is exactly what I do when I watch The Amazing Race. These people have solo challenges and team challenges while sometimes being followed by cameramen and other times they are told cameras are mounted out of sight so they are aware that even though they are in the middle of the wilderness, they are constantly being filmed. This part of the book I actually liked even though it was written like a reality show recap that also shared behind the scenes of what gets edited out to show the tv audience compared to what actually happened. That part made me want to keep coming back to it. It was alternating with later on in the game where some plague has attacked a good portion of the country and people are dying, but the main character doesn't know this and thinks that she is still playing the game, even though she hasn't seen her cameraman in days. She was told that she might not so she thinks nothing is weird about it. While she moves along in the wilderness by herself and fighting off dangers while later telling herself that it was all fake and part of the game, I wanted to go back to the reality show part where there was more interaction with the characters. It wasn't until halfway through the book that I felt I got a sense of the main character. Maybe that is what didn't draw me in right away in the chapters focusing only on her and why I kept wanting to go back to the beginning of the game when everyone was working together or fighting. There were other parts that dragged on for too long, like I never needed to read in graphic detail on how to skin and gut a deer. Ugh! And then it was described another time for a squirrel and I'm not sure what else. I started skimming as soon as I saw that's what was being described again. Towards the end, I was having The Walking Dead flashbacks minus the zombies. There were so many similarities even though it was different enough that you couldn't guess what would happen. I liked the hint of a happy ending, but I think I would have liked to actually read about it than being left with what could possibly happen.

I wasn't looking forward to reading this one. It sounded boring to me. It started out that way, but then it pulled me in. It's essentially about a man who gets really fed up about things that he can't control going wrong for him in his life and his inability to deal with it in a rational way. The main character isn't really likable but I had no issue with that. I tried to understand his motivation even though other characters in the book were constantly asking him why he was making all the poor choices he was making and he never had a reason for it. It was like he never wanted to admit the real reason to himself so he gave himself one way out, which was a pretty stupid one. I even thought it at one point right before another character voiced the same thought to him. At least we were all on the same page! I think the parts of the book I enjoyed the most was when it veered off into really weird territory with a hitchhiker and a mescaline trip at a party. They really didn't have much to do with the overall story, but they were highly entertaining to read. On a side note, I would not recommend listening to the audio version of this since the voice actor did a horrible job with women's voices. It's the worst I have heard. Every woman sounded shrill, whiny, and naggy. Ugh!

This book was a slow starter for me. It had all these elements (kidnapping, dysfunctional families, psychic abilities) to it that I thought would draw me in from the first page, but it took me a while to get caught up in it. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it while I was reading it since I really liked the changing viewpoints from many different characters in each chapter. I liked learning the backstory of so many different people. I didn't have a great urge to pick it back up after I put it down until I was about 100 pages into it. Then I had to know what was going to happen next. I did love all the clues about the missing girls and the missing girls' families, and how they played out in the overall story line. If you are paying attention, you can pick up on some things not being how you are expecting them to be at the end of the story. It made me wonder if I had read something wrong or read too quickly when I started to get hints that clues were not quite lining up, but then it all revealed itself at the end. Good stuff.

I loved this book! Lo Blacklock is a travel writer able to go on a luxury yacht cruise before it is available for the public to sail on it. She briefly talks with a woman in the cabin next to her, and then wakes up in the middle of the night sure she heard a scream and what sounds like a body being dumped into the ocean. The cabin next to hers is empty. No one on the ship has seen the woman she saw in the cabin earlier and no one is staying in that cabin. I loved how I did not know what to believe while reading it. Lo is a great character who deals with panic attacks and post traumatic stress, while also heavily drinking to get her through what she thinks she experienced, but she is not completely sure. Is she a reliable narrator or is there a bigger conspiracy at work? Whenever I would have a guess of what was really going on, something would throw me for a loop. I never figured out what was really happening until it was revealed, but it made sense. I did like how she was slowly piecing things together, even though no one believed her and she was trapped on a ship. It's a good thing I am not scared about being trapped aboard cruise ships since if I had the slightest bit of fear about it, this book would terrify me.

Liane Moriarty does a great job with characters. There are so many different character viewpoints, but they are all fully developed whenever her focus shifts to them. Some characters are more prominent than others (Clementine and Erika and to a slightly lesser extent, Tiffany) and I wished we had been able to spend some more time with the other characters (Oliver, Vid, and Sam). Even if only a little time was spent with a character like Vid, I still got a good sense of him from his own thoughts and then viewed through the eyes of his wife, Tiffany. That being said, the first half of this book is slow. Something happens at a backyard barbecue that changes everyone in these three families. The book goes back and forth teasing out the day of the barbecue and then to the aftermath two months later. Halfway through the book, you finally find out what happened and fully understand what is going with everyone while they are trying to piece their lives back together. While the first half was slow, I found it interesting seeing how the characters changed slightly from the day of the event to the months after. All their actions still made sense for their characters but I was trying to figure out what could have happened to make them all start acting so differently to one another. Then once I knew what had happened, it made the rest of the novel that more interesting. I have only read one other book by Moriarty (The Husband's Secret) and I have noticed that she pulls you into a story by teasing some secret that will be revealed about halfway through the book, but that's not the main reason to read the book. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions in The Husband's Secret more than finding out the secret. In Truly Madly Guilty, the secret does help explain so much more of what is going on with the characters and that is what I enjoyed the most. It was all so very true to life. I didn't give this five stars though because the first half dragged.

Cujo is a straight up horror story, but without any supernatural elements. There are a few hinted around about the town of Castle Rock and what had happened there previously and possibly a way of explaining bad things that happen there, but it pretty much people dealing with a rabid dog. Even though I hadn't read it before, I knew it was about that but wondered how that could be sustained over an entire book. It does take a while to set up the people in the town and the family that owns Cujo, and even the dog himself. I could see that some people might find all the set up dragging everything out until characters are trapped with a rabid dog trying to bite them, but I liked it. I really liked Donna and Vic Trenton, even though they had their marital problems. I liked Charity Cambers and really wished for a better life for her and her boy, since I really hated her husband. I was rooting, early on, for something horrible to happen to him. The tension in this book was through the roof. So many things had to happen in a certain way to get the characters into the circumstances they were in. Sometimes when I am listening to an audio book, my mind might start to wander and I have to go back to listen to parts of it again. I did not have that happen starting about halfway through the book. I wanted to know so badly what would happen next but also was dreading whatever might be happening next. On a side note, I learned after I was done listening to the book that the narrator is the gypsy lady from Drag Me to Hell. I really liked her. One male character she gave a goofy voice to differentiate him from others, but he was a minor character (Roger) and she sounded just like a little boy when she was giving voice to Vic and Donna's four-year-old son, Tad. I thought she did a really good job.

Oh wow. This book was so good. It was sweet, funny, heartwarming, and sad. There was some good crying that happened while reading this book, but it was well-deserved crying. It's told from the point of view of a girl named Elsa who is almost eight years old. Her grandmother, who really lives by the beat of her own drummer, is her best friend. Elsa has to deal with bullies at school, her parents who have divorced and both remarried, and the other people that live in her building. Throughout the book, Elsa gets to really know everyone in her building and how they all had some kind of relationship with her grandmother. I found it interesting where some people seemed off-putting or annoying when briefly described at the beginning of the book, but as Elsa learned more about them, there was something sympathetic and likable about almost all of them. Elsa also was very smart for her age, which I can see some people might think that she had too much wisdom for that age and it wasn't based in reality, but I disagree. With the way she was raised and her relationships with so many adults compared to not many kids her age, it made her more mature than she might have otherwise been. Also, so much of her perspective was still very much from the point of view of a child and how she would understand what was going on around her that I never felt there were any false notes in how she talked, thought, or reacted to everything. I see that this author has more books out there. I plan on reading them since I enjoyed this one so much.

I found this to be pretty decent, but I also didn't have a great connection to the main character. Ben Richards has had a rough life and tried to make the best of it. His society doesn't sound too much different than the direction the world seems to be headed in so I would think I would have more sympathy for him, but I wasn't feeling it while reading it. I actually was more interested in some of the people he met along the way more so than him. I did not see a good ending for him at all with how the story was set up, but I did enjoy the way it all ended. Parts of it were unexpected while other parts made more sense for his character.

I loved Fight Club, both the book and the movie. I had no desire for a sequel but when I heard it would be a graphic novel, I was interested. I am unclear why this was made though since it retreads all the same story lines from the original yet lacks any of the wit and humor. Characters from the first one come back, but they don't add anything to the story or they are a completely different character from the original that they should have been a different character in this one. It makes no sense. Chuck Palahniuk even writes himself in as a character. He shows up at one point and makes a meta joke before it goes back to the story. I thought that would be the only time, but the last chapter is pretty much all about him and the fans and how they will react to what they have read. It's so bizarre. I loved his earlier books, but had to take a break while reading Haunted and haven't gone back to it or read anything he has written after that one. Is this his style of writing now? If so, I'm so disappointed.

This is the first book in the series that covers the very beginnings of Stephen King's The Stand in graphic novel form. This was so much better than I expected. After reading the book (loved it) and watching the tv miniseries (which I found decent but lacking in so many ways), it was refreshing to read this version of the story and it brought back all the details that I had read so long ago in the book that never made it to the television version. It tells so much in a few panels without any major loss of details when I am comparing it to the book version. I love that Randall Flagg looks like I had imagined him in my head. I have been trying to get the goofy, mulleted Jamey Sheridan version out of my mind since there is nothing about that guy that is scary to me. The Randall Flagg that is introduced in this first book comes across as imposing and formidable with real danger radiating off of him. All of the interpretations of the characters that have been introduced so far match so much what I envisioned from the book from Stu Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, Larry Underwood and Nick Andros. I did imagine Lloyd to not be so big but I still feel it works. I can't wait to get into the next book since it reminds me how much I like this story!

This is the second in the graphic novel adaptation of The Stand. While learning what happens with Nick, Stu, Frannie, Lloyd, and Larry, we get introduced to Rita, Harold, and Trashcan Man. Everything that I remember being annoyed about by Rita and Harold comes through in this version. They are wonderfully written characters that I know would drive me crazy in real life and that all comes through in the pages. I understand the frustrations of Larry and Frannie with Rita and Harold, respectively. Trashcan Man is his own creation that I think the introduction spells out why he is a fan favorite, even though he is so very destructive. This book covered the idea of being trapped in many different variations from Stu being stuck in Stovington to Lloyd being stuck in prison to Larry and Rita being stuck in the pitch black darkness of the Lincoln Tunnel. These were all terrifying situations.

Eileen is more about character than plot. The main character, Eileen, has issues. She had horrible parents, had to take care of her dying mother, currently takes care of her drunk father, and works a dead-end job at a juvenile correction center. She has body issues that stem from her horrible parents.She barely weighs 100 pounds, but thinks she is fat and hides under tons of clothes that are much too big for her (and happen to all be from her dead mother's wardrobe). She is prudish in terms of thinking of her own body in a sexual way, yet has really twisted fantasies throughout the book. She has no friends so she is stuck in her mind a lot, making her entire situation worse.Eileen isn't a likable person. She would be hard to be friends with, but I still found myself rooting for her to get out of her sad life and start living since her own life had been put on hold for the past few years. She was only 24 but acting like she was an old spinster. There is something that happens to bring about some change in Eileen's life, but that doesn't begin to happen until halfway through the book. There is a bit of a twist towards the end, but that isn't the main point of the book. It is more a catalyst to get Eileen out of her rut. It all seemed fairly rushed at the end. I think I wanted to see a bit more of her after the catalyst happened.I wanted to like this book more. It had been recommended by David Sedaris and I usually love twisted stories, but this one was more depressing to me than anything twisted. It didn't give me a great urge to keep reading it. Normally I would have read a book of this length in a shorter period of time, but I had to force myself to keep going with it to finish it.

I've only ever watched the show and finally decided to start reading the comics. I am enjoying this so much more than the television show. Things move so much quicker! It's non-stop action. Nothing seems to drag on, which is nice. I felt like I just read through about four seasons of the show while reading this compendium. There are some differences from the show that make it pretty entertaining. I'm confused about why they made Carol in the show so different. They could have given her a different name in the show if they wanted to create a new character. I love Carol in the show, but found her to be really clingy and annoying in the comic. There is also a lot more sex in the comic than on the show. With all the violence on the show, it is pretty prudish about sex. Everyone is always hooking up with someone else or wanting to in the comic.

Even though this is my third time reading it, I only retained the first portion of the story. It was like the rest was new to me. I first read it about 20 years ago and was actually the book that made me quit reading Stephen King since I disliked it so much. I think I was disappointed in the lack of horror in the story. Now that I have moved past those expectations, I was entranced with the mix of western and magical elements. I have also picked up on some things related to The Dark Tower from reading some other Stephen King books that I think it makes a lot more sense this time around. Since I'm reading King's collection in order, it's going to be a bit before I get to the second book in the series, but I am thinking that I'll remember enough about it to be able to continue on. I really want to start the second book now, but I need to wait!

After getting pretty mad at Rick in the first compendium, it was nice to see him actually want to listen to other people and know that he is going through the grieving process. The phone calls were sad! I was surprised they went back to the farm but I'm glad they are on the move again.

This volume was tense! The entire side trip Rick and a few others took had me on the edge of my seat. Rick and Maggie were still dealing with what went down at the prison, but Rick seems to be back to his old self. He isn't making me as mad as he was before. I agreed with most of his decisions, even if Dale didn't. Dale is really annoying me, especially blaming anything bad that happens on Rick. He didn't start the zombie apocalypse, Dale! In the tv show, I always loved Morgan, even if he might not be right in the head. I credit most of that to the actor because I am not feeling the same seeing him again in the comic. I was feeling like others in the group and wary of him. I'm still not used to the twins being there. They surprise me whenever they show up. That scene with the cat...they have really been affected by all that's happened. Eek!

There are some sudden deaths at the beginning of this volume that are haunting and quite effective to make you feel uneasy while reading it. I enjoyed the first half of this volume more than the second half. Rick's group did run into a new group of people that thought they were scarier than anyone else really found them out to be. I was waiting for Rick's group to take control and run them over. I am wondering if they are starting to feel too cocky like they can take on any foe. I guess I could be sad about Andrea and Dale, but I have been waiting for that relationship to be over so we can all move on. I didn't ever buy it as a relationship

The group is approached by Aaron and told about Alexandria. I can understand their hesitation and wariness about this community that seems too good to be true. I can understand Michonne and Carl's frustration with the people in the community blindly ignoring what is going on outside their walls and discussing things that don't matter in the bigger picture. And what is up with Douglas? He seems creepy. Also, does Andrea just give off some vibe that makes the older dudes go crazy for her?

Everyone but Rick seems to trust the people of Alexandria. Rick is asked to be the constable and it seems the power goes right to his head which is odd since it seemed like he was a level-headed cop before. When he thinks someone might be abusive, he doesn't do much before he decides his suspicions are confirmed and punches the guy. That leads to some chaos. I thought Douglas and the community would be more pissed at Rick by how he handled the volatile situation but everyone seems just fine with it. That's not very realistic. Rick has been through some shit. That doesn't make him a good leader though. Everyone has been through some shit. I did like Michonne yelling at him. It was unexpected but it mimicked my feelings. The end of the volume with the idiots trying to threaten their way in was interesting and it seems like this has been more set up for what's to come.

This book was so good! It is my favorite that I have read from Liane Moriarty so far. It was interesting right from the beginning with the lives of the various parents and their children. The secrets kept coming out throughout the book so that made me want to keep reading it. I highly recommend it. Now I need to go watch the HBO series.

For a post-apocalyptic story, the protagonist, Hig, is pretty light-hearted for the dire situation he has found himself in. He does have a pretty sweet set-up with Bangley who has some kind of military training to keep their area they are living in the past nine years safe. Bangley doesn't trust anyone out in the world and assumes everyone is going to want to kill them so he wants to kill them first. Hig doesn't always agree with this, but knows that Bangley has kept him alive for years. When something happens that shakes up Hig's worldview, he decides that he wants to fly farther than he ever has before to possibly see what is left of the world. I did enjoy the relationships in the story, but it did feel like there was a lot of set-up before the main plot got going. The first half of the book felt like set-up and I felt like the last half was almost rushed. I also have problems with the lack of quotes. I had a hard time figuring out who was talking or if it was Hig thinking to himself. It made me reread parts trying to figure it out. I would have read it faster with quotes.

This book could have used some more editing. I really enjoyed the first part where it goes into what happened with Claire and Jamie over the past 20 years and how she gets back to him. Meeting Lord John Grey was interesting. I became very angry at the entire plot involving Geneva. It could have been written in a slightly different way and keep the intention and lose the raping part of it. Then came the long voyage to the Caribbean and everything came to a screeching halt. I felt like we were meant to feel as readers that we had lost our sense of time like those making a long voyage. Everything was drawn out. I felt like one chapter could have been spent on getting to the Caribbean instead of a good portion of the book. I almost gave up reading multiple times but stuck with it. When they finally arrive, there is suddenly a story again! So much is happening and I tore through the end of it as quickly as I could. The book would have been so much stronger without so much time spent at sea doing nothing.

I wanted to like this book more. I had seen the movie and loved it, even though I thought the movie was a little rushed at the end. It starts with Cheryl's mother getting sick and dying and her own marriage failing. She's at a loss of what to do with her life and decides to hike the PCT to find herself again or become the person she was meant to be. Even though I was reading about all these sad experiences she had in her life, I felt disconnected from her. It took me until about halfway through the book to figure out why. When she was relaying experiences, I rarely felt in the moment with her. At one point, she was talking about a recurring nightmare involving a sasquatch and mentioned it frightened her. I felt she could have delved into the description of the nightmare and how it made her feel, but her writing is so distant. It does seem like she has built a wall around herself most of her life to protect herself and that seems to also come through in her writing. I did enjoy the hardships and successes she got out of hiking on her own. I loved the points when what she was doing would lead to some memory of her past life. I got a kick out of the last part of the book that took place in Oregon since I knew the places she was talking about. In only a couple of instances did I really feel in the moment with her when she was talking about an experience with other hikers or what was happening on the trail (hanging with that guy in Ashland and sitting on the couch with the Three Bucks in the ranger's cabin). I wish there were more instances like those.

Would I have read this novel if I hadn't known it was written by J.K. Rowling? Probably not since I usually do not read detective novels, but I am glad I picked up this one since it was such a fun read! The novel jumps into the action almost immediately while the backstories between the detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin are slowly introduced over time as the plot moves along. The character development between the two leads is great and unexpected. I thought the main character would be an archetype and then most of the story would focus on the actual case to be solved, so I was pleasantly surprised by having an interesting case to read about while also caring about the people solving it. I found the entire novel to be very fun to read and would recommend it. My only problem with it was the reveal at the end was presented in a way with Cormoran telling everyone his brilliant theory, but I found it hard for the reader to come to that conclusion without hearing some facts that were left out until that final reveal. I would have loved to have them inserted at some point so the reader could play along being a home detective.

The Martian almost lost me while reading it. I know there are raves that it is scientifically accurate, but it still has to be entertaining. I was bored reading about how Mark Watney was figuring out how to make his food last. His situation was not boring, but I felt like I was reading a textbook. Then I finally reached chapter six and everything changed. The structure of the novel shifted. It had slowly been going in one direction, but finally something else was happening. I had also warmed up to Watney and his sense of humor. At first, I found his humor too corny and was rolling my eyes when he claimed to be the best botanist on the planet. As I came to know the character, I liked his sense of humor more. It was needed since he was in a seriously dire situation throughout the entire book and without that sense of humor, I don’t know if he would have survived. Even when he has plans, things go wrong or some crazy wind storm comes through. I did find myself holding my breath through certain parts of the book and raced to finish it. I’m glad I finally did finish. Overall, it isn’t a very long book, but I did struggle with those first few chapters. I’m glad I pushed through to see what all the fuss was about since I really enjoyed it.

I never would have picked a book about WWII on my own but I'm glad my book club selected it. It follows two separate children over the years on opposite sides of the war. There was not a lot of plot too move the story along. Little things happened and time passed. What kept me coming back was the way it was written from stunning visual descriptions of Nazi-occupied Paris burning to children of Hitler's Youth frightened by what they are being told to do to fight for their side. This won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and I can see why.

I found the premise of this book intriguing. Nuclear war has taken place on Earth and a colony of people have lived in spaceships orbiting Earth for 300 years while waiting for the radiation to calm down so they can repopulate. After some tests, scientists believe that the planet is safe, but who is willing to actually go test it out? The government decides to send 100 prisoners that were sentenced to die with bracelets attached to them that sends data back to the ship. If they can survive, then the rest of the population will follow. For reasons that are not explained very well, most of the ship’s prisoners are young adults. If anyone slips up past the age of 18, they are sentenced to prison and more often than not, death. It seems odd that a ship with limited resources would keep killing all the young people instead of possibly the old and sick. Maybe that is explained in more details in future novels, but not in this one and that is the main problem. This is a young adult novel that follows in the recent trend of writing everything in a trilogy format. The way this very slim book was written, I sense that it was a normal-length novel that was cut up into three of them to sell more copies. It feels incomplete, especially since the entire book is explaining some of the backstory and getting the kids down to Earth. Barely anything happens though and then the book ends on a cliffhanger. While I have no problems with books ending on a cliffhanger, there still has to be some semblance of a story. I appreciate a middle, beginning and end. This is all beginning with a hint at a middle coming up. In other trilogies or even book series with more than three novels, something still happens in each book. They can stand on their own. This book cannot stand on its own because there is no main plot. I might have forgiven some of this but the writing was very poor. Each chapter concentrates on one of four main characters, none who are fully developed as characters, but instead are archetypes. Each chapter covers a tiny bit about what is happening in the present before it goes to some flashback in the past. I love when books tell the history of what has happened to characters, but when a book spends so much time in flashbacks and no time in the present, I feel like it could have been arranged in a better manner. The way it is organized doesn’t work. If there is a point where you might be interested in what is happening in the past or present, it doesn’t last long before the chapter ends and it is time to move on. The chapters are extremely short and so much more could have been expanded on that wasn’t, which leads me back to the poor writing. I have defended some popular young adult novels that are extremely well written, but this is not one of them. I would not recommend this book, and I know it was written in a way that would make you want to continue reading the series to wrap up the cliffhanger, but I was completely annoyed by nothing happening the entire time. I will not be reading any more.

I found this book a quick read and highly entertaining. I think it would be for anyone that grew up in the 1980s and loves everything pop culture from that decade including the music, movies, video games, D&D, arcade games, and more. It will also appeal to anyone that is really into gaming from roleplaying games to online games to anything close to virtual reality. I am guessing the only people that will not find anything entertaining about this book are people that don’t fall into one of those categories. This book does not offer you anything. It isn’t the best written book. The characters are not the most well written, but this is a book about moving the plot forward and it does that very well. It does not stop and ponder too hard on anything because there is another puzzle to solve! It is also the first book by Ernest Cline so I can only imagine his writing can improve, but I do appreciate his adoration for the 1980s. It is like a love letter to that decade and it’s a really fun one.

I have read the Harry Potter series and enjoyed it greatly. It has been years since I read them so I don’t remember Rowling’s writing style to compare it her style in The Casual Vacancy. I know this book disappointed many people, but did not read any reviews beforehand. I really enjoyed it while I read it, but I am wondering if the problem people had with it was this was not a plot-driven book. It is really about the characters in the town. Some small things happen and it doesn’t have the happiest of endings, but it was really a book about the characters, class disparity, and hypocrisy. It is a slow build and a long novel. There are a lot of characters, but I thought it was well done going through the nice, peaceful village that is dealing with a council member dying and having to fill his seat on the council. Each family, including most parents and some teenagers, is introduced with all their problems. It seems no one is happy, even though some try to hide it. The big plot point involves a community building that sits on the edge of village where poorer people live. They use that building for a variety of reasons, but most of the village people would rather not look or deal with any of the poorer people. The village people want to turn that building into something that the poorer people would not use so they can give them no reason to come into the village. I found it fascinating that everyone had secrets. People had serious problems, like drug use. Some were trying to be good, but failing. There were petty fights and serious arguments. I found it to be very realistic, including the ending where you really wish it would wrap up one way, but since real life does not always go the way you wish it would, it made sense in a way. I really liked that it was realistic and I do love it when novels dig into the fake life that people make for themselves in the suburbs of America or in the quaint villages of England. One character in the book is obsessed with people being “authentic” and many do have that problem.

Whenever I thought I would stop and take a break from reading, I decided to just read one more chapter. Next thing I knew, I had read more than half the book in one sitting. I only stopped since it was the middle of the night and I really needed to get some sleep. The next time I picked up the book a couple days later, I finished it. I did the same thing with Gillian Flynn’s first book, Sharp Objects. I read it really quickly. I purchased this book as soon as it came out, but didn’t get around to reading it until after I tore through Flynn’s third book Gone Girl. Flynn writes really twisted, dark stories that I have a hard time putting down once I start reading them. I enjoyed Sharp Objects, but could tell where it was going about halfway through the book. Gone Girl threw me for a total loop and I did not completely expect that was heading where it went while reading it. I can see with this book, which was her second one written that her writing was improving. I did enjoy Gone Girl best out of the three I have read by Flynn, but really enjoyed Dark Places. When I started reading this book, I had to know what happened with the murders so I was more interested in the chapters that were either from Patty or Ben’s point of view since it was what was going on with either of them the day before all the murders took place. The present day chapters were a bit sad because Libby had not adjusted well to adult life after living through that horrifying event and losing her entire family. Later on though, I found it really interesting that Libby started to doubt her own memories when she was faced with bits of evidence or heard conflicting stories from people she was talking to from her past. That’s when I reached a point of no return with this book and I couldn’t stop. I could not completely tell where this story was heading. Even when I had a vague idea, there were still a lot of surprises. It was frustratingly realistic about how the entire town would feed into gossip and rumors about what they thought happened with the family and how it affected the trial and Libby’s life after the murders. Also, the murders and the family affected so many people still living besides just Libby. That’s why the current day part of the book became more interesting as it went on, even though what I guessed had happened with the actual murders still surprised me, which is great. I love it when I can’t guess what is going on, but still having enough clues to try to figure it out while I read anyway.

It’s hard to talk about this novel without giving too much away since a major piece of information is held back in the first part of the story. It does start in the middle, since Rosemary, a 22-year-old young woman, was told by her parents when she was younger to skip the beginning and start in the middle. She used to talk non-stop, until her sister, that she was so close to she considered her a twin sister, left. Not too long after that, her brother left. She hasn’t seen either one in many years. Around that time, she also quit talking so much because it was easier to get through life when people did not know much about her and couldn’t judge her. I had to keep reading to find what had happened to her sister and brother. I also had to know why she quit talking so much. I enjoyed this book very much. It could be said that Rosemary is an unreliable narrator because she would explain what happened to her as a child, she wasn’t sure if it really happened how she remembered it or if she had filled in some gaps over the years with what she thought happened. I did not mind this because that is what memory is like. Is what you remember now, really how it happened? How can two or three people that were present remember what happened in different ways? It isn’t only perceptions that are different, but what we choose to remember and what we forget over the years and end up making up parts of the story to fill in those memory gaps. I also really enjoyed that the narrator was in college in the early to mid-1990s, which is when I was in college so it was fun to read all the cultural references. It put me back into the headspace I was in when I was that age and then as the story moves along to current times to see how she matures and reaches the same age as I am while reading it. It isn’t often that happens while reading a book so it was a nice touch. I do recommend that if you want to read this book then try not to read the back of the book flap like I did. It does give away some information about Rosemary’s sister. There is still much that is learned while reading it like why her sister went away and where she went, but I think it would be fun to actually learn the surprise in the second act of the book. The way the book ends is heartbreaking. It is a really good ending. Many questions are answered and people are healed from anger they have felt over the years when they finally start talking to each other again. It ends on the only realistic note it could, but it is still quite sad.

I mostly wanted to read this story to learn about the secret. I had to know. As I went along in the book, it became less important about the actual secret. I wanted to know how the three main women and how all the people in their lives would deal with the news of the secret. I was surprised I hadn’t been spoiled about the secret before I had a chance to read the book, but I think the reason was that isn’t the main point of the book. It is really about how this secret has shaped the lives of these people and how learning about it affects other people. It really shatters reality for some people and reading about how they deal with it is what kept me reading.

I’ve had a good friend talk about this book for years. Romance isn’t really a genre that I read. She had mentioned it had to do with time travel (briefly) and there was a lot of action and adventure in the Scottish Highlands. I still stayed away since romance isn’t a genre that I’m all that interested in. I don’t mind if romance is part of a bigger story, but I have never been into those bodice-ripping books that I used to see my mom read growing up. I used to go for the Edgar Allan Poe books that were on the bookshelf instead. What got me to finally read a romance? It was a genre that my Twitter book club (#1book140) decided to read. I'm glad I read it though since it changed my mind. Not so much about romances, but at least about this series. The novel starts out in 1945 where a former combat nurse, Claire, is slowly getting to know her husband on their second honeymoon since they were separated for many years due to the war right after they were married. While wandering in Scotland on their vacation, she touches a rock that sends her back in time by 200 years to the Scottish Highlands. Since it is unclear for some time what has happened to her, when she does realize it, she is far away from that rock and has no way to get back to her own time, if that is even the way to get back to where she belongs. She pretty much stuck living in a much different time. What I enjoyed about the book was that Claire was already very independent woman in 1945 and does not care if she is not acting the way people think women should act in the past. She is very stubborn though and at times, selfish. It’s those stubborn, selfish acts that end up hurting some people, but she does eventually realize what she’s done. The action scenes were really well written. For a long book, I read it fairly quickly since there was always some crazy mess Claire got herself into. I had to know what was happening next. For a good portion of the book, I wouldn’t have even classified it as a romance except that there is tons of sex in this book. It takes place all the time. These parts of the book were my least favorite, mostly because they could have been better written. I rolled my eyes at some of the descriptions, but then I’ve read better sex scenes in Clive Barker novels. Some scenes were quite sweet and I thought those were better. There was one scene between Claire and Jamie that I had issues with when I read it. Jamie was very violent towards Claire and it almost had a misogynistic tone, but not quite. I could see the reasons why it happened (and to get into them would give too much away for those that haven’t read it), but did love that she fought back and was pissed about it for a long time. Then in one scene, she proclaimed she loved him and seemed to forget all about what had just happened to her. That’s when I had a big issue with it since it seemed like she played into the battered wife role who forgives the abusive husband because he really loves her. Later on, I was pleasantly surprised when she brought it up again since she obviously still had issues with it. They verbally fought and then talked it out before finally moving on with both sides understanding each other more. That’s when I could finally move on too. The book is a violent one, especially what happens with Jamie towards the end of it. It is pretty gruesome for a romance book. I would almost forget it was supposed to be a romance first and foremost until one of those sex scenes popped up again. Even though I still am not really interested in the romance genre as a whole, I am interested enough in this book series to want to continue reading more of it.

Set in 1865-1866 in New Zealand during the gold rush, 13 men try to solve a bunch of local mysteries, involving a opium-addicted whore, a missing prospector, a recently deceased man with a wife that no one knew about and a scarred man that no one likes. This is a long book, but it is necessary to cover all the story taking place between those men and all those other people. I had no idea New Zealand had a gold rush so that was educational. This book is written like a Victorian-era book with each chapter giving a teaser about what it will be about. It is a bit like Charles Dickens without all the annoying Dickens bits (no unnecessary words!). It seemed to have a bit of a slow start but once one of the men started sharing his part of the tale to a guy, it picks up and doesn't stop. Hearing people telling their versions of stories and piecing it all together into a much larger story was fun. There was some astrological stuff that didn't make much sense to me and wasn't really explained so I skipped over that. I still enjoyed the overall story. When some of the backstory was pieced together by the men, the story shifts to real time where you learn even more about what happened from the other players. After that, the story wraps up with parts that the men never knew. It was a nice summary of the entire story, even though I still had a few unanswered questions at the end. Did I miss the answers in this 800+ book or were that not answered? Hard to tell.

I had no intention to read a Hunger Games knock-off. I kept hearing it was good and when I read what it was about, it did intrigue me, even though the factions seemed arbitrary. It is easy to compare it to Hunger Games with the dystopian future and kids being trained to fight and kill each other. The fighting and violence in Divergent was much more realistic than Hunger Games. The action scenes are really well written. While I viewed the Hunger Games as a parable about where we as human beings are as a society today, the society in Divergent doesn’t seem realistic in comparison. The factions were as arbitrary as I feared. It was as if people only had a portion of their personality, skills and attributes instead of being more well-rounded which is how I view people. Also there was really no explanation of why the world was set up that way, what happened to make it that way, and what was behind the fences that they alluded to in this first book. Since there are two more books, I feel like that will all come out in the next two books so I’ll give it the benefit of doubt. Even with those drawbacks, this book was a fast read. I really wanted to know what would happen next. It was highly entertaining and I know I’ll be reading the next two. I think it achieved its goal.

It is not the book’s fault that it took me almost a year to read it. It is long but I did start reading it when I started watching the third season of Game of Thrones. I wanted to be surprised in the show so I stopped reading the book until it was over. Then I struggled since I knew overall what happened for half of it. I do enjoy the book as much as the show. It is different in a good way. I love knowing the back story more in the books. I feel like I know the motivations for some of the characters better. Once I got past the Red Wedding part in the book, I debated stopping until I watched season 4 of Game of Thrones but then I had to know what happened next. The last part went very fast for me. So much happens. It is so good. I can’t wait to see it on screen. I enjoyed this book overall compared to the first two. The first book set up many characters before moving on to the scandal and action. The second book seemed to recover from all the shocking ends to the first book and set up all the action for the last third of the book. It really dragged in the middle. This book did not drag at all. Things had been set up. We just had to watch it all play out. It was better than I expected. Many times, I yelled out, “No way!” when I read a certain part. This is what epic novels should be like.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I picked up this graphic novel at the comic book store. It came in a huge box. It had 14 different pieces to it. They ranged from small books to newspapers to pamphlets. They all told stories of occupants of a Chicago building. There was no beginning or end. You could read each of the pieces in whatever order to learn a bit more about the occupants’ lives. I really enjoyed this reading style. Not having a definite beginning reminded me of when you meet someone. You meet so many people at one point in their life, and over time, you learn bits of their history and are with them as they go into the future. Most of the stories revolved around a thirtysomething woman who lived in the building when she was single and later was conflicted about moving to the suburbs after getting married and having a daughter. I began with the stories of her time in the suburbs with hints of what her life had been like before. I finished by reading about her time before her marriage and it really came full circle. I never felt lost when I was reading. I was just given hints of her life at one point in time and learned more as I picked up a different part of the story. There were other stories involving an unhappy couple, an elderly lady and even a bee. None of these stories were particularly happy. There were bits of happiness, but a lot of regret and sadness. I didn’t find it depressing to read though. I really wanted to keep reading about each person’s self doubts and feelings of hopelessness that kept entering into their minds. Once again, I didn’t find it challenging to read, even with the somber tones. I really connected with the characters and wanted to go back and reread different parts as soon as I was finished. The only flaw I found with it was the parts with the bee. I am guessing it was there as some sort of comic relief with all the other storylines, but it was still a sad story, and was pretty disconnected with the other stories. There was some connection but it could have easily been left out. I think the time spent on the bee could have been spent developing the storylines of the couple and elderly lady. I wanted more on them that I didn’t get.

I was interested in this book since it was about a country that I don’t know much about, North Korea. Unfortunately, the author tried but doesn’t know as much as he wishes he did and that comes through. I couldn’t trust what I was reading most of the time since what he was describing could have been rumors instead of based on stories told from defectors. I think this story would have been more useful if it wasn’t set in an actual country, but a fictional one that readers could understand was like North Korea. My main problem with the book was the lack of believable characters. The main character is never really fleshed out. He just has things happen to him, but his thought process isn’t really shared with the reader. The same thing happens with some other characters in the book. Actually, I felt like I did get to know an interrogator that appears halfway through the book in how he relates to his family. I found it odd that I felt more for one of the minor characters compared to the main one in the story. I also found it silly to have Kim Jong Il as a character in the story. The characters seemed to be there just to drive the plot, which gets more and more outlandish. It starts off with the main character living in an orphanage, describing the horrors of what happens to the orphans. Then it skips to him being already trained as a kidnapper. I thought that would have been interesting to read about, but instead I got to spend many pages reading about him transcribing on a boat. It was the long boring passages like that where I wanted to give up, but forced myself to continue. Halfway through, the story changes. I had hope! I actually enjoyed the propaganda chapters about what the citizens would hear on the loudspeakers. It was all so ridiculous and gave more insight into North Korea than anything else that I read, especially when compared to what was actually happening in the plot. Still, the second half of the book lost me with boredom again. As it went forward and backward in time, telling us the end of the story or hinting at it enough that by the time we read how it actually happened, it seemed repetitive. I kept waiting for some big reveal at the end to make it worth my effort of finishing it, but there was none.

Epic novel weaving three generations of men and women with cracking code, WWII and encryption of data. This wasn't a quick read. There were so many details, and the explanations so intricate, that I didn't want to skim over it and miss something. The story jumps around from the WWII era to present times, and covers the stories of many different people. With such an epic story, it needs to be read slowly and absorbed so you can remember some little detail later on in the book. It is also one monster of a book. I was intimidated by it when I started it, and became increasingly intimidated by it as I moved toward the middle of the book because I was reading it so slowly. I don't read books slowly unless I am not enjoying them. I was enjoying it though. In the beginning, the story concentrated on three main characters: Bobby Shaftoe, a U.S. Marine in WWII; Lawrence Waterhouse, a mathematician who works for the military during WWII; and Randy Waterhouse, grandson of Lawrence who is also building a crypt of data in order to make tons of money for his company. I loved Shaftoe. He was blunt and hilarious. I loved that when he ran into Waterhouse, he hated him with all his talking. He was a man of action, not of words. I was always entertained when the story was focusing on him. I loved it when he unsuccessfully tried to drown himself because he thought he was about to be caught by Nazis. The parts with Lawrence Waterhouse were a bit dry at times. They were the parts that I had to slow down to understand what he was talking about with all the encryption. I enjoyed that an actual historical person, Alan Turning, was a character in the book that Waterhouse interacted with in college. While it was a struggle to get through some of the encryption parts, since that is not a major interest of mine, the rest of the storyline involving him kept my interest. I knew the encryption parts were a major part of the story, so I didn't want to skim, but understand what was going on. I laughed at the parts where he was building the first computer, especially since he made RAM with tubes. Randy Waterhouse was starting a company with some friends to make tons of money by creating electronic money and a crypt of data. This leads him to the Philippines and meeting America Shaftoe, the granddaughter of Sgt. Shaftoe. These two are hilarious when they decide they are attracted to one another, yet can't have normal conversations with one another. While Goto Dengo is only superficially introduced in the beginning, his story comes in somewhere towards the middle. I loved his storyline, especially the areas of him trekking through the jungle, hiding from cannibals, being sneaky while digging tunnels, and other adventures. I enjoyed the last half of the book more since all the various storylines start coming together, people from all generations and areas interact with one another, and it finally comes to the big conclusion. I was actually waiting for it continue, even after it was done, and so very long. It was that good that I could have kept reading about the various adventures of everyone involved.

It?s a story of a tattoo-artist that finds a manuscript from a blind old man, who just died, talking about a non-existent documentary about a house that is bigger on the inside than on the outside. It is freaky with crossed out passages and footnotes that can go for pages. The footnotes are also sometimes upside, backwards and sideways. Then there are the pages with only a paragraph, sentence or word on them. It?s quite an adventure to read. The author is the brother of the singer Poe and the remix of her song Hey Pretty has her brother reciting from one of the tattoo-artist?s footnotes in the book. I enjoyed this book. They keep talking about a film that documents the crazy house that is bigger on the inside than the outside and talking about real life people?s opinions on it. There are times that you forget it is fiction and wonder if you can go find the film or the article that is mentioned in the footnotes. Then you remember this is all just craziness that is in the book. I liked both parts of the book: (1) the decription of the documentary of the house and all the crazy parts involved there and (2) the tattoo artist guy telling his story in the footnotes about what going through the book is doing to him and his life. I recommend it. It?s quite insane and crazy! Everyone should read a book that makes you turn it upside and sideways. It?s the thing to do.

This book was awesome. It is extremely funny in a sick and twisted sort of way. It?s gross and explicit. The main character isn?t someone that you would necessarily like if you met him in person, but he?s entertaining to read about. I?d recommend this but only if you like sick and twisted books. If you don?t then, you?d probably hate this. Also if you didn?t like Fight Club, you don?t like sick and twisted stuff. ;)

Five women?s lives become interconnected in a hotel somewhere in England. One of the women just happens to be a ghost of a women who died in the hotel?s dumb waiter. It is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that takes some getting used to, but if you can get past that, you can enjoy it since it is just like you would think if you wrote down your own thoughts. The book is dumb and boring. It starts off great though. The first chapter is the ghost of the girl that just died in the dumb waiter. Her memory is fading along with her senses. She is forgetting what it is like to taste and smell as those go away. She is trying to remember who she is and how she died and why. It was very interesting and the book should have stuck with that. Then the next chapter talks about a homeless girl that sits right outside the hotel everyday. It barely goes into who she is before the next chapter which is slightly more interesting about a girl that works at the front counter of the hotel. The stories start interconnecting there and I had more hope for the book. The fourth chapter was okay and more of the characters start talking to each other. It was about a hotel guest but then it starts veering off somewhere not interesting. The fifth chapter is the sister of the dead girl and the entire chapter is all one sentence. Page and pages of a big run-on with & symbols separating the thoughts?kinda. It is so hard to follow and when I was following it, it wasn?t interesting. I thought maybe the last chapter would bring it all together. I had already lost interest. It was lame last chapter that didn?t talk about any of the characters anymore, but a bunch of stuff about people being connected to one another and blah blah blah. I don?t recommend this book. It starts off great and then goes pbbbbbbbbt.

After a series of instances that make the main character think he is having lapses in memory, he starts to wonder if someone isn?t messing with him instead. Then murders start happening and he isn?t completely convinced that he didn?t commit them. I thought this book started off well, but the ending left you hanging. I mean you could figure out what was going on about halfway through the book, but everything became more and more vague as it went on. I guess it is good when the story doesn?t spell everything out for you and actually make you think about what could have happened in reality and what happened in this guy?s mind, but maybe a little epilogue would have been nice. Maybe I?ve been watching too many movies that explain things to me. :)

Richard Mayhew life is turned upside down after he finds a bleeding girl on the street. He is dragged from his normal, everyday life in the London Above to the world he didnt know existed in the London Below filled with rat talkers, angels, demons and people who have fallen through the cracks. It reminded me very much of Weaveworld by Clive Barker. It isn?t the same story but it has the same tone and I really enjoyed the fantasy world that was right under everyone?s noses without them realize it. The main guy kept wanting to get back to his normal life, but after seeing his ?normal? life, I just wanted him to stay where he was. It was much more interesting. I highly recommend this book for anyone that likes books that describe fantasy worlds that are just out of touch from the reality we currently live in.

The fourth in the Vampire Chronicles. This time it focuses on Lestat and his wish to be mortal again, even if it is for just a short period of time. He finds a mortal to switch bodies with for two days while he experiences mortal joys like orange juice and horrors such as getting a cold. Will the mortal be willing to give up his supernatural powers and immortality like he promised? Oh, this book could have been shorter. It dragged the first 100 pages or so with some talk about God and the Devil. It was just so boring. Lestat is talking to his friend David, who refuses to be turned into a vampire after years and years of Lestat asking, and they talk about good and evil and blah blah blah. Once they get past that, they actually get to the plot of the story. I really didn?t think any of that furthered the main plot of the story at all. It also made me want to stop reading it. After we get to the actual introduction of the body thief, which seriously doesn?t happen until after 100 pages. Then it is very interesting with Lestat being in a human body and then trying to get his body back. I just think the book would have been better with almost the first 100 pages gone. The very beginning should be there, leave all the good/evil talk out, and then move on! Due to the blabbing, this would have been my least favorite out of the vampire chronicles.

A middle-aged newspaper reporter is doing a series of stories on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome when he comes across the realization that a certain poem book is found at all the scenes. Do one of the poems have the power to kill? After not-so-unintentionally killing a few people that annoy him, he teams up with a real estate agent to do something about the powerful poem. This book isn?t as laugh-out-loud funny as Choke was, nor is it nearly as graphic in its accounts of everything, but it is still twisted and good read. Palahnuik loves to have an antogonist that you don?t necessarily like, but you still read to find out what happens to him laughing at all the good and bad things that come his way. The ending is too funny.

What happens to gods when the world forgets about them? This is an epic novel about a man named Shadow getting released from prison and having his world turned upside down on him. You slowly learn more about Shadow?s life as the novel goes on and he becomes Mr. Wednesday?s right-hand man while they travel around the U.S. and prepare for a war brewing between the old world gods and the new world gods. I liked the description of middle America from someone outside the United States describing it from the perspective of gods. I also liked the little history lessons of folklore from different cultures.

True story behind the 1893 Chicago World?s Fair with the focus on two very different men during that time. One is the architect Daniel H. Burnham who designed and supervised the construction of the World?s Fair. The other is H.H. Holmes, the first U.S. serial killer who posed as a doctor and murdered mostly young women in his World?s Fair Hotel. It took me quite a while to read this book. It was a fairly quick read when I was reading it, but it wasn?t a ?can?t put down? book. It was well written in the way I felt like I was reading fiction and then I would remind myself that I was reading a true story. It helped explain why there were gaps in some of the serial killer story. It didn?t go into gruesome details since they really couldn?t get inside the killer?s head. He lied until the day he died. At the beginning of the story, I was always sad when the focused switched from the serial killer to the fair since the beginning of the planning for the World?s Fair was sometimes boring. The writing was as exciting as describing someone organizing and designing a World Fair can be, so it could have been a lot worse. Then more than half way through the story, the Fair became more interesting. It was cool to read about the Fair opening, people attending, all the new things that people saw, etc. The serial killer story became more erratic. The narrative didn?t flow as well as it did in the beginning, but that could have been due to the lack of information of what actually happened. Then when the Fair came to a close, it seemed like a natural end to that part of the story. The serial killer part seemed to wrap up a little too suddenly after moving at a certain pace the rest of the story.

When a fashion model who thinks she has everything is disfigured in an ?accident?, she realizes how little she had and sets out to reinvent herself with her new friend. It is completely insane and fun. It is like reading a soap opera. If you have read anything from Palahniuk before, then you?ll recognize the way he writes. He does have a distinct style. I thought it dragged slightly in the middle, just before I figured out what was going on. It didn?t drag long since the book itself isn?t that long. I figured out what was really going on, right before you are informed of what is going on in the story. Then I started guessing other things weren?t as they seemed. After that, everything became crazier and crazier. That?s when it really turned into a soap opera that I didn?t want to end. I was sad when the book was finished since I wanted to know more of the crazy shenanigans of the characters. They are all such loons! I would recommend this book as a quick summer read. It almost borders on fluff, but it is extremely twisted fluff.

It covers people in the early thirties in suburbia who have become trapped by their lives and come to find they don?t know the people they are married to. While the affair storyline isn?t really anything new, it was completely interesting to read. I could not put this book down once I started. I became antsy when it moved to another character that wasn?t Tom or Sarah, but then once I started reading about that person and how they related the bigger picture, I was caught back in it again. All the secondary characters are well-written and ones that you might hate at first, you sympathize with later on